Tag: HANDHELDS

Let's be honest. The PSP Go was a bit of a letdown as a follow-up to the original PSP. And, while most of the attention has been focused on the upcoming "PlayStation" phone (which has yet to appear with any PlayStation branding on it), Sony has been quietly working on a proper sequel to the PlayStation Portable. Codenamed NGP, the next-gen PSP packs an impressive array of hardware that would make ...

By Terrence O'Brien and Leila Brillson What Samsung got right is exciting: thin, beautifully designed bodies and bright, vibrant screens. The new Notebook 9 Series weighs in at under three pounds and is a half-inch deep, and the CES audience gasped when Tim Baxter, president of Samsung America, removed the black frame from around his "smart TVs", the D8000 and D7000. The Galaxy player, ...

Networks, bandwidth and capabilities are varied enough within any given country (as will be confirmed by anyone who's tried to get an iPhone on Verizon), but they're an entirely new mess when you start crossing borders. So, if you plan on staying connected without bankrupting yourself, you might want to see if your phone can handle the trip -- and make sure you aren't signing away your first-born ...

Once you're across the seas, you'll start snapping photos, turning up your MP3 player, and blogging your adventures -- that is, until you run out of juice. Buying converters in the airport is always über-expensive, and being stuck without one when you need it is hair-pulling. Not sure if you should make the investment? Remember that voltage varies in different continents, and, if you have an ...

Your tickets are booked. Your bags are packed. Your passport's been dusted off. It's finally time to take off for that exotic vacation you so sorely deserve, and to totally disconnect from the rest of the world... sort of. Sure, you probably won't want to spend too much time trolling through e-mails instead of strolling across the Île Saint-Louis. If you're like us, though, you'll still ...

Video game insiders continue to anoint online, mobile gaming as the future of the industry. Carving a niche in the increasingly crowded handheld marketplace, though, presents a formidable challenge for manufacturers. Nintendo's enormously popular DS continues to outsell home consoles (while having a 3-D model on the way), and Sony's PSP remains a highly profitable item. While major ...

It was really a matter of when, not if, RIM would throw its hat into the tablet arena with a BlackBerry branded device. Now the fun and games iPad has an appropriate foil in the all business BlackBerry PlayBook. The 7-inch device runs an "amplified" (to use RIM's marketing speak) version of BlackBerry OS with multi-tasking, a WebOS-like app switcher and a brand new WebKit browser with support for ...

If you've ever sat in nosebleed seats at an NFL game, you'll agree that the view from your living room -- which probably includes HDTV and cheap snacks -- is much better. But Fanvision, a new handheld device offered at 12 NFL stadiums and one college, could enhance live football games by using the same technology that keeps some folks at home. The handheld, which only works inside the stadium, ...

Earlier this week, we reported that Amazon was upping its game with even cheaper versions of the Kindle, but it has also updated the Kindle app on the iPad/iPhone/iPod touch, adding a couple of unremarkable yet needed features. The Kindle app now has a search function, which was inexplicably absent before. It's also able to look up words and phrases through Wikipedia and Google, but not within ...

Do people read e-books more slowly than printed ones? A small survey by Nielsen Norman Group alleges that we may process digital words at a lazier pace than we do those on the page, but, when further analyzed, the results of the survey raise questions about the participants themselves. A group of 24 volunteers "who like reading and frequently read books" were asked to read Hemingway short ...

Readers, we should've been prepared for disappointment. After expectations for the iPad had run so high that there was veritable anger from the tech world when the limitations of the device were announced, we should've known that we ought to lower the bar for Condé Nast's digital editions. The iPad version of Vanity Fair just debuted, and we spent a little hands-on time with the app, trying ...

What President Obama calls a "distraction," British artist David Hockney considers his new canvas. Those unfamiliar with Hockney's work may know that he was an early, vocal supporter of the iPhone, simply for the reason that he could use the touchscreen interface to make drawings on the go. (Hockney is no stranger to computer-generated art, as he has been creating larger works with drawing ...

We've seen a slew of medical apps hit the mobile market lately, and the proliferation of those apps has raised concerns among some that there is not enough oversight with this newly available tech. There are over 1,500 apps available for health care professionals; Manhattan Research estimates that, by 2012, 81-percent of doctors will have smartphones, potentially with medical apps installed. As ...

Readers, we have a confession to make. This past weekend, we went out, like the giant nerds that we are, and got ourselves an iPad. And, after spending some time with it, we had a chance to write down both our good words and gripes with the device. But we're starting to rethink the way we ought to critique this "magical and revolutionary" product. Yes, we've had netbooks and tablet PCs and ...

With Google's recent announcement that it will be hopping into the e-book market, the door's been flung wide open for e-readers that might not have otherwise had a chance against Amazon's dominant Kindle. Among those contenders is a forthcoming device developed by Plastic Logic. Set to debut at January's CES, the Que was briefly detailed in a statement released today by Plastic Logic. Aimed ...