Back in May, the Wall Street Journal reported that multiple Nexus devices from Google and its hardware partners were coming this fall. Now that the leaves are changing color, new rumors suggest that the Nexus invasion might be …
Gadgets
Lytro’s Light-Field Camera Gets Manual Settings
When Lytro released its namesake digital camera last spring, it wasn’t immediately clear what sort of person would want to buy it. On one hand, it was a genuine technological breakthrough: As the first consumer light-field …
With Webtop Dead, It’s Time to Rethink Modular Computing
When Motorola announced Webtop in January 2011, I fell for the hype, hard.
Webtop was an accessory that turned Motorola’s Atrix 4G phone into a simple laptop, with a keyboard, trackpad and a full version of Mozilla’s Firefox …
Why Some 7-inch Tablets Will Eventually Be Given Away Free
About 18 months ago, I was one of the first to write about what I thought Amazon’s business model would be for its tablet that launched last fall. I had heard from my sources in Taiwan that Amazon was looking at selling the …
FreedomPop’s Free Mobile Data Plans: What You Need to Know
A new company called FreedomPop is offering something that seems too good to be true: 500 MB of free mobile data per month through your choice of a wireless hotspot or USB stick.
The service, which was announced last December, …
Who Cares About Neil Young’s Ultra-High Quality Music Standard?
Neil Young claims he’s going to change the way we listen to digital music by pairing a new iPod-competitive Pono music player (I see “Ponyo” — how about you?) with an audiophile-caliber music download service. The claims are …
I Chose the iPhone, You Chose an Android Phone — So What?
Readers, let’s have a conversation. First, some basics: I am an industry and market analyst who studies personal technology. I am not a journalist. I write an opinion column here for TIME’s Techland section. I am not a paid …
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Review: The Screen Makes It the Best E-Reader Yet
We live in the era of gadgets that want to do it all. The typical smartphone of 2012, for instance, isn’t content to just be a phone. It also wishes to be a PC, a still camera, a camcorder, a music player, a gaming console, a …
Needed for Google’s Next Nexus 7 Tablet: More Storage
Now that Amazon and Barnes & Noble have announced their latest cheap tablets, it’s become clear that Google’s own offering, the Nexus 7, has a storage problem.
The $200 Nexus 7, which launched in July, comes with just 8 GB of …
Why PC Companies Fear Amazon
Bajarin is the president of Creative Strategies Inc., a technology industry analysis and market-intelligence firm in Silicon Valley. He contributes to Big Picture, an opinion column that appears every Monday on Techland.
Last …
HTC’s Windows Phones Knock the Wind Out of Nokia
Nokia is in trouble. That was my first thought when HTC announced the Windows Phone 8X and Windows Phone 8S on Wednesday.
The phones, which launch in November, look good, particularly the flagship 8X. It has an outer casing …
Apple’s Secrets Aren’t So Secret Anymore, and That’s O.K.
Surprises about different products are nice, but they aren’t the ultimate goal if the idea is to sell lots and lots of gadgets