Features

Technology and Gadgets top 5 posts of 2011 rundown

Chris Burns, Jan 3rd 2012 Discuss [5]

What we’re about to experience is a closer look at the top five posts purely by popularity here on SlashGear inside the year 2011. That’s twelve months of the mobile explosion, the Apple vs Google war, and the launch of some pretty fantastic products and strange stories. What you’ll notice right out of the gate is that Apple held just as strong a hold on the web as it did on the market, with the top two stories being some undeniably surprising shots out of the dark. Are you ready for the winners?

Read The Full Story

Featured

CES 2012 Preview: handfulls of leaks

Chris Burns, Jan 3rd 2012 Discuss [1]

It’s less than a week before we’re diving face-first into the most gigantic gadget show of the whole year the Consumer Electronics Show 2012: and it’s time to take a look at everything that’s been teased and leaked thus far. There’s official previews, invites, unofficial photos and bits let loose by people whose goal in life it is to bring you in on the good stuff before its masters reveal in ernest, and a real schedule so you can see where we’ll be the whole time. Our team will be spread out like the fingers of a hand, and when we bring them together we will CRUSH the news each day for you!

Read The Full Story

Featured

iPad 2 : an Apple 2011 Retrospective

Chris Burns, Jan 2nd 2012 Discuss [15]

The past 365 days have been, without a doubt, the Year of the iPad 2, and as you’re about to see, this includes more than just great sales and undeniable attention from both consumers and developers the same. It all started in March as the Apple iPad 2 went on sale. Of course we pre-struck with an early What should I get guide and a few reviews of the device itself by our head writers. We had rather interesting (and telling) results in a poll from March asking if people would be buying an iPad 2, and an article also all the way back in March foretold much on how it’s so hard to compete with the iPad. Then the new year brought fourth an event of giant proportions. Behold the 2011 year in the most omnipotent tablet on the market.

Read The Full Story

Featured

Tablets: an Android 2011 Retrospective

Chris Burns, Jan 2nd 2012 Discuss [18]

When the year 2011 is looked back upon by the Google historians, they’ll mark it as the first time they officially made an effort to bring the Android platform to devices with displays larger than handheld smartphones – what we saw, as a result, was everything from the XOOM to the ASUS Transformer Prime. The folks at Google created a version of their mobile operating system Android titled Honeycomb and numbered version 3.0. This operating system began its life in the wild on the Motorola XOOM, a 10.1-inch tablet that by the end of the year would be replaced by the XYBOARD, a tablet which physically in weight and thickness to the iPad 2 – the dominant force in the tablet space throughout the vast majority of this past year.

Read The Full Story

Featured

Happy New Year’s from SlashGear!

Chris Burns, Jan 1st 2012 Discuss [6]

It’s the first of the year here in the western world, and we’re gearing up for another tech-filled 365 days of magic! What we’re getting ready at the moment is no less than another action packed year of gadgets galore, including but not limited to the two biggest events of the year right out of the gate: CES 2012 and MWC 2012! Join us the whole year but especially these first two months as we hang out in two of the most fabulous places for events on earth: Las Vegas, Nevada, and Barcelona, Spain!

Read The Full Story

Columns

New Year’s Meta-Tech Resolutions

Philip Berne, Jan 1st 2012 Discuss [2]

It’s been a year since I issued my “Anti-Tech Resolutions,” and now it’s time for a new batch. But this won’t be the same Anti-Tech spiel that I ran last year. I learned a lot from those resolutions, both the ones I kept and decided to abandon. But I learned more about how to keep and follow a New Year’s resolution itself. So, here’s what I have learned about making New Year’s resolutions, including my newest set of technological directives for the coming year.

Read The Full Story

Featured

HP ENVY 15 Hands on and unboxing

Michael Crider, Dec 30th 2011 Discuss [26]

The ENVY series of laptops has defined HP’s high end for the last few years, and the trend continues with the newly remodeled ENVY 15. The high-powered series has become popular in the PC crowd thanks to lower and lower prices for some very respectable hardware. The last time we took a look at the ENVY series was the ENVY 17 3D nearly a year ago, and it left us quite impressed. HP sent over the ENVY 15 for us to check out, and initial observations are promising.

Read The Full Story

Columns

Why A 32- to 37-inch Apple TV Isn’t Worth Buying

Don Reisinger, Dec 29th 2011 Discuss [73]

If you’ve been following the latest rumors surrounding Apple’s television plans, you know that a new report claims the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is only planning to offer 32- and 37-inch options starting next summer.

Read The Full Story

Featured

Intel 32nm Medfield SoC Reference Tablet spotted in the wild

Chris Burns, Dec 28th 2011 Discuss [1]

Earlier this week we were treated to some basic numbers on what it means to own a device with the upcoming Intel 32nm Medfield chip on it, and today we’ve got our own source stepping forward with a few images and a hands-on account of the Intel reference tablet that’ll be showing off the SoC in the near future to developers. What our source has here is a lovely tester tablet he’s picked up from either a very foolish Intel worker or someone who found it and had no idea what it was worth because a mere $50 USD brought this tablet to our new buddy’s hands. What you’ll see here is a few slightly blurry photos (taken with a Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, mind you) of the tablet in all its glory along with a few words on its quality.

Read The Full Story

Featured

Developers: an Android 2011 Retrospective

Chris Burns, Dec 28th 2011 Discuss [4]

When we look back at this year, we’ll think of it as the year of the birth of the dual-core mobile super chip, the double CPU processor becoming the status quo for a smartphone or tablet running Android, this the single most important thing to those who use the devices as tiny computers while the term “4G” dominates the memories of the masses, but it’s developers that mattered most. There’s no thinking about Android this year without recognizing that it’s still running alongside Apple’s iOS, the iPhone, and the iPad 2 as its primary competitors, and as its own user interface changes drastically, its competitors instead tweak functionality inside their already set-in-stone aesthetic. Then there’s the battles between manufacturers, carriers, and Android versions too, but none of this existed outside the underground of hackers, developers, and tweakers galore!

Read The Full Story

Columns

Why Video Games Topped My Holiday Wish List

Don Reisinger, Dec 27th 2011 Discuss [6]

What did you get this holiday season? Was it a brand new iPad? How about a shiny new Android smartphone? Maybe you were really lucky and got your hands on a new HDTV.

As for me? Well, my holiday wish list was dominated by one entertainment option: video games.

Read The Full Story

Featured

Crappy Android tablet : a Christmas Guide

Chris Burns, Dec 26th 2011 Discuss [53]

When the going gets tough, and you first-world gift receivers are crying because ALL YOU GOT was an Android tablet that wasn’t quite the iPad 2 or the Transformer Prime you were hoping for, listen to this: I’m not going to punch you in the face for being ungrateful more than one time, and here’s a list of things you can do with this non-returnable hunk of technology trash. You’ve got a tablet running some form of Android and a processor that’s not the worst in the world, but certainly isn’t as nice as even the most basic high-end smartphone out there: what do you do? You fill it up to the brim with music, news, and simple games with low requirements for high amounts of fun.