Ebook readers aren’t quite the hot item they used to be ever since the 7-inch tablet market dropped prices to the sub-$200 range, but they still have great advantages. Text you can read in direct sunlight, outrageous battery life, and at a significantly cheaper price than a more versatile, all-in-one device. Amazon’s most basic Kindle, […]
Archive | Hardware
Review: Samsung Galaxy S4 Refines A Winning Formula
There’s really no denying that Samsung is the biggest name in Android phones. The Korean giant’s most recent flagship, the Galaxy S4, sold 10 million units in the first month. Considering that the S III (the difference in use of Arabic and Roman numbers between phone versions is on Samsung’s part) took almost two months […]
Faraday Cages In Your Kitchen
Paranoiacs rejoice! Last week, Heather Murphy of the New York Times explained that Edward Snowden had lawyers place their cell phones in a refrigerator to block the signals, using the fridge as a makeshift Faraday cage. Murphy quoted Adam Harvey, a countersurveillance products designer, who said that a martini shaker is a foolproof Faraday cage that can […]
On The Cheap: Have An iPhone 4 Or 4S? Get A Free iPhone 5
Let’s not kid ourselves. The next generation iPhone is coming soon. Apple’s handset product cycle is simple, after all: Come out with a phone, come out with another a year later that is a slight improvement, and then come out with an even better one a year after that that is totally worth upgrading for. […]
Former TigerDirect President Charged With Fraud
Former President of TigerDirect (and parent company Systemax, Inc.) Carl Fiorentino finds himself accused of mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering for redirecting $230 million to manufacturers and suppliers who paid him kickbacks or bribes. Prosecutors claim Fiorentino was responsible for the company’s purchasing decisions but rather than going with the low bidder, he […]
Hands On: Apple iOS 7 For A Day
As everyone knows, Apple released iOS 7 to developers after the WWDC keynote. As an Apple purist, I was certainly excited about the prospect of what I considered a great restart to the phone OS that started it all. A few stats: I installed iOS 7 on my AT&T iPhone 4S as a “new phone,” […]
Microsoft Office Sort-Of Comes To iOS For Sort-Of Free
A long-stranding rumor has become reality with the fairly silent launch of Microsoft Office for iOS. If you already have an Office 365 account, the app is free. Don’t have one? Get one, wait for iWork in the Cloud, or use Google Drive like the rest of mankind. In a moment of WTF, the app is scaled […]
MetroPCS Joins The BYOD Party
The idea of bringing your own device to a mobile carrier is one that many love. Just the other day, I was remarking about how awesome it is that Verizon sells certain phones unlocked (like the iPhone 5). That means that after you’re out of contract, you can hold on to your existing phone instead […]
Samsung And HTC Put Minis On For Summer
Spring saw two exciting flagship phone launches with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S IV and HTC One. For those who wanted something with a little less flash, both companies are adding mini versions. The Galaxy S4 Mini will sport a dual-core chip behind a 4.3″ screen and smells an awful lot like rebranding […]
What’s Inside The Can — A Closer Look At The New Mac Pro
As the Mac faithful are aware by now, Apple finally made it official at this week’s World Wide Developers’ Convention (WWDC) that a new Mac Pro workstation is on the way. With a release date no more specific than “this fall” and no estimated pricing released yet, there are plenty of unknowns about the next […]