Features

Ten apps for your brand new iPad 2 : Christmas 2011

Chris Burns, Dec 25th 2011 Discuss [27]

Should you receive or if you’ve already received a brand new iPad or iPad 2 for the holidays here at the tail end of 2011, the first thing you’ll want to do is download a few fabulous and essential apps. What follows is a list your humble narrator has put together for you, the informed reader, detailing what a set of 10 may well be for your instantly impressive apps collection. Everything from high-powered music software to pinball and back down to news reading apps. You’ll be set by the end of this post!

Read The Full Story

Featured

Ten Android apps for your new smartphone or tablet: Christmas 2011

Chris Burns, Dec 25th 2011 Discuss [8]

So it’s Christmas day (or something similar here at the tail end of 2011) and you’ve just received a fine Android tablet or smartphone to get you started on your way to smart device heaven: what do you do? You first take a look at the apps you’ve already got, realize there’s not just one whole heck of a lot of fun stuff there, then head to the Android Market. Your device likely has a little white bag icon with an Android head on it in green titled “Market” – this is where you want to go to get the goods. In this post you’ll find a find handfull of apps I suggest to you to pick up immediately.

Read The Full Story

Featured

Happy Holidays from SlashGear

Chris Burns, Dec 25th 2011 Discuss [1]

Today and tomorrow you’ll hear just a little bit less from the team here at SlashGear than you normally would because we’re out having a fabulous time celebrating Christmas (or something like it) at each of our various family abodes. What you will find is a couple of guides on what to do with your gifts, specifically if they come from the Apple or Android families, and some surprise posts as well. We’re hoping you find this holiday set of days as relaxing as we are, taking a break from everything, including news about the ever-expanding future of gadgetry.

Read The Full Story

Featured

Spend your holiday cash on a Galaxy S II: a hands-on video rundown

Chris Burns, Dec 23rd 2011 Discuss [12]

With all attention turned to the Galaxy Nexus in these last weeks of the year, one should not fail to consider that there is an alternative for those of you out there in No Verizon Land, and it goes by the name of Galaxy S II. This device is a suite of devices, for those of you that haven’t heard of it, and we’ve reviewed every single one of them (or pretty darn near) here on SlashGear. What you’re about to dive into is an exploration of this family of devices courtesy of hands-on videos from our review team, everything from the original to the one with the longest name in Android history to the time Chris Davies did a video in a rally car. This is no ordinary phone, and your money is best spent here.

Read The Full Story

Columns

The Future of Retail: Apple’s Grand Central Station Store

Avi Greengart, Dec 23rd 2011 Discuss [6]

Earlier this month, Apple opened a new store inside New York City’s Grand Central Station. This is not Apple’s only store in Manhattan and does not make a dramatic architectural statement like its Cube on Fifth Avenue. Much of its retail model has been seen before in other Apple stores. Yet when I visited it just before it opened it felt radically different than any other retail environment – even different from other Apple stores – and serves as an object lesson for how to sell and support digital products at retail in an increasingly online world. Even if you dislike Apple’s products (or just some of its more enthusiastic fans), if you’re in Manhattan, Apple’s store is worth a visit. Apple claims that it sells more per square foot than any other major retailer in the world, and while some of that is due to products that sell well on their own, Apple’s retail store processes, compensation structure, and architecture all play roles worth investigating.

Read The Full Story

Featured

Motorola DROID XYBOARD hands-on rundown, complete with accessories

Chris Burns, Dec 23rd 2011 Discuss [1]

This month we bore witness to Motorola’s newest wave of Android tablets, that being both the DROID XYBOARD 10.1 and the DROID XYBOARD 8.2, both of them great candidates for replacing your now-aging XOOM tablet if you bought in to the Android tablet game earlier this year, and fabulous places for those new to Android to jump in on this game for a high quality experience – now have a look at all of our hands-on videos here in one post, as well as our final judgement on whether or not you should pick one up. We’ve got hands-on videos of both models of what’s also known as the XOOM 2 here as well as glances at the accessories you can pick up from Verizon as well. Let them be judged!

Read The Full Story

Columns

Why Netflix Is 2011′s Biggest Loser

Don Reisinger, Dec 22nd 2011 Discuss [11]

The year is just about over. And now, it’s time to take a step back to look at some of the winners and losers this year.

But rather than waste time thinking about some of the winners, why not just get right to the biggest loser of 2011: Netflix.

Read The Full Story

Featured

Verizon Galaxy Nexus Gaming Demo with Riptide GP and ShadowGun

Chris Burns, Dec 20th 2011 Discuss [3]

There are a couple of games out there right now that show off the graphics finesse of whatever platform you play them on quite well, and in quite an easily comparable sense when it comes down to it, those being Riptide GP, a jet-ski racing game, and ShadowGun, a 3rd person shooter – today we’ve got these games being demonstrated on Verizon’s LTE version of the Galaxy Nexus. This device is the first to work natively with Google’s mobile OS by the name of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and runs a Texas Instruments OMAP4 1.2GHz dual-core processor. Is it enough to compete with such gaming titans as the ultra-powerful NIVIDA Tegra 3 quad-core processor toting ASUS Transformer Prime, or perhaps the iPad 2 for good measure?

Read The Full Story

Featured

Hands-on with Verizon Galaxy Nexus Camera and Movie Studio

Chris Burns, Dec 19th 2011 Discuss [4]

Inside the Galaxy Nexus you’ll find Google’s newest mobile OS: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and with it in combination with the advanced lens setup on this devices’ 5-megapixel camera, you’ll find a set of abilities that no Android has had before. This plus the Movie Studio app introduced first for Android 3.0 Honeycomb, you’ve now got the ability to make the video you’re about to see, filmed and produced with the Galaxy Nexus controlled by none other than your humble narrator. You’ll see facial recognition gone wild and a set of effects that, though basic, make for a video editing environment thats perfectly powerful for a smartphone.

Read The Full Story

Featured

Nokia Lumia 800 Giveaway!

Chris Davies, Dec 19th 2011 Discuss [173]

The holidays are coming, and what better way to feel festive than winning a Nokia Lumia 800 courtesy of Three UK. The carrier has given us one of Nokia’s flagship Windows Phones, running Mango on a 3.7-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display and clad in a seamless polymer chassis, to hand over to one lucky SlashGear winner in the UK.

Read The Full Story

Columns

The Next Apple-Samsung Battle: TVs

Don Reisinger, Dec 18th 2011 Discuss [65]

If you’ve been paying attention to the mobile market over the last several months, you know that Apple and Samsung are at each other’s throats over alleged patent infringement. And with lawsuits flying worldwide, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the war between the firms will spill over into next year.

Read The Full Story

Columns

Avi Greengart’s Last Minute Non-Obvious Holiday Gift Guide 2011

Avi Greengart, Dec 17th 2011 Discuss [3]

Every year SlashGear puts together a gift guide that covers all the usual big ticket gadgets that people want for the holidays. It’s a great guide. However, what if you you’re looking for something a bit different or trying to find something for someone a bit harder to shop for? That’s what this guide is for.