Tablets & Smartphones
The demise of all-you-can-eat data might not be all bad news. Shared data plans could be money savers by letting families draw from one data pool, and by letting power users connect several devices without buying a separate plan for each one. But some big questions still linger.
If a powerful smartphone can make you feel superhuman, one splash of water on that phone can feel like kryptonite. Fortunately, future smartphones may not be so vulnerable to water damage, thanks to several waterproof and water-repellent technologies working their way into phone makers’ manufacturing lines.
RIM’s BlackBerry 10 tease is a fine first step. It got tech enthusiasts listening. But there’s still a lot more work that RIM must do.
This Sunday, consumers will see another Kindle Fire challenger hit the market. What’s so special about this one?
Can traditional toy makers capitalize on the rise of smartphones and tablets? Wowwee Toys thinks it can. Next week, the company behind Paper Jamz and Lite Sprites is releasing its first toys in the AppGear line, which combine physical toys with companion smartphone and tablet apps.
With $25, an iPad and a bit of curiosity, you can try Windows 8 on a tablet right now.
Nokia’s Lumia 900 has the makings of the ultimate tech comeback story: A once-proud mobile phone maker makes a desperate pact with Microsoft, which despite its own juggernaut status in the PC market is similarly downtrodden when it comes to smartphones. The pair find a willing wireless carrier in AT&T, and together, they spend a fortune–$100 million, by one estimate–to market what is supposed to be the first Windows Phone in the United States worth caring about.
I think Siri has great potential. Its ability to interpret meaning from natural language puts it a cut above the voice commands of Android and Windows Phone, hinting at a future where we talk to computers as we would to other people. But to get there, Siri must evolve.
Inevitably, some people were disappointed by Apple’s new iPad, which comes out this Friday, and that’s partly because we’ve reached a turning point in the life of smartphones and tablets: Hardware improvements just aren’t that impressive anymore
A strange thing happened during the announcement of Apple’s new iPad on Wednesday: For a moment, CEO Tim Cook stopped talking about his company’s products, and started dissing Google’s Android operating system.
The Android-powered WIMM One watch tries to do more than tell time. Flicking a finger across the watch’s 1.4-inch touch screen lets you glance at the weather, look up calendar appointments and set up alarms. When paired by Bluetooth to an Android phone, the WIMM One can alert you to incoming calls and text messages. Last month, WIMM took another step forward with the beta launch of the Micro App Store, a place to download more clock faces and apps made by third-party software makers.
