Articles (page 2 of 50)
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Hydro Flask Flip Straw
Remember that Hydro Flask water bottle I told ya'll about yesterday? It's got a nice drink cap on it, but I prefer the straw with a nice finger loop. Do I like it? This is that…
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Durable, Insulated Water Bottle
I recently cut soda and caffeine out of my life and needed something to drink in its place. The obvious answer was water. Soda and energy drinks brought convenience with them -…
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Best Mouse to Stop Wrist Pain
I'm a webmaster by trade. As you can imagine, that requires a lot of typing and a lot of mouse clicking. I use an ergonomic keyboard to clack away, but not long ago I started…
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Layton City Police arrest victim of car accident after she calls for help
Dear Mayor Stevenson and City Council Members, I grew up in Layton, Utah. I went to elementary school, junior high, high school, and even some university classes there. I spent…
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You shouldn’t need five chat apps
When the Internet was coming into its own back in the ’90’s, we were migrating from “classic” uses (Archie, Finger, Ping, Usenet, FTP, Email, web browsing, etc.), to a more…
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SB54 Causing Problems (and Silencing Voices) in Races across Utah
State Rep. Rich Cunningham voted against SB54 two years ago, indicating that he "disliked" the legislation which would allow candidates to "get around" the traditional Caucus and…
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The Strike
Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone. - Page 3
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3rd Time's the Charm? Super Dell Runs for Governor - Again
"Super" Dell Schanze isn't done trying to become the Commander In Chief - of Utah at least: SUPERDELL is running for Governor - again. On Monday, March 14th 2016, Schanze filed a…
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Pocketnow Smart Home: the pros and cons of Nest
In recent years, our phones have evolved into the “universal remote control” – not for our televisions, but for our homes. That’s where the Pocketnow Smart Home series comes in!…
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Pocketnow Smart Home: automation with rules and scenes
In recent years, our phones have evolved into the “universal remote control” – not for our televisions, but for our homes. That’s where the Pocketnow Smart Home series comes in!…
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Is there any excuse for apps that refuse to rotate?
A long time ago, the screens on our phones were square – and they didn’t rotate when you turned them. These days our screens are notably more rectangular – most mimicking the…
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Is it too late for a Nokia Android phone?
If I had to pick just one company that revolutionized mobile communications, it wouldn’t be Apple – it would be Nokia. Back in the 1990’s, when cellphones were just starting to…
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WiFi is evolving: What you need to know about 802.11 ad, ah, and HaLow af
It started out way back in the nineties – Internet without wires. No longer did people have to tie up their phone line while their modem dialed away, beeped, booped, squeaked,…
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The Pros and Cons of BlackBerry going Android-exclusive
Back in the early days of handheld mobile technology we packed around things called “PDAs”. Apple made one, which it called “Newton”. Palm made one, which it called “Pilot”.…
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Do we really need 6GB of RAM on our smartphones? (Poll)
“640K (RAM) ought to be enough for anybody.” – attributed to (but denied by) Bill Gates Alrighty, before we talk about how many jigga-bytes we can cram into a smartphone, let’s…
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Did the Android 6.0.1 update kill your battery life?
Just imagine how rested you would feel if you had to wake up a hundred times an hour — all night long! One of the most exciting new features of Android 6.0 Marshmallow goes by the…
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How Android can really do split-screen multitasking right
Some of you are too young to remember the early days of computing. Back in the 1980’s most of us ran MS-DOS. In this environment your user interface was a black screen with a…
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How many Bluetooth devices do you have paired to your smartphone?
Bluetooth was invented and initially marketed with the intent to replace our wires with miniature radios. What’s more, the technology was touted as a way to create a “personal…
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Adoptable Storage: Android Marshmallow’s hidden feature that your phone probably can’t use
“Now that microsd cards of 200GB are available, let’s make sure our devices don’t have slots for them.” – Google Despite dropping sdcard slots from its Nexus lineup years ago,…
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Google Now just got answering machine-like functionality – here’s how to use it
“‘OK Google’ is the magical key-phrase that unlocks all the wondrous potential of your Android-powered device – and drives you nuts when someone on a podcast says it and all your…
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An anthem for our day: Disturbed covers The Sound Of Silence
I enjoy a lot of diverse types of music. Until today, Disturbed wasn't included in my list of "likes". Sure, they have some catchy tunes and big beats, but I don't like profanity…
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Life with the Lenovo 100S Chromebook: pros and cons
“Welcome to Pocketnow, your one-stop-shop for smartphones, phablets, tablets, and wearables – and Chromebooks? I’m going to have to find some bigger pockets.” – Joe Levi,…
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What is LiFi and why you should care: the next generation light-based WiFi
Over the years, WiFi has become an integral part of our lives. It saves us from data overages and often provides us with data where cellular signals don’t reach. Currently WiFi is…
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The future of Bluetooth: what to expect and why you should care
Back in 1994, Ericsson (who would later merge with Sony) “invented” Bluetooth. Back then out devices were connected by one of a few technologies: RS-232 “COM Ports”, Parallel…
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What is Factory Reset Protection and why is Android Marshmallow forcing OEMs to include it in their devices
There used to be a time when, if you lost your phone, that was it – it was gone. You’d get in touch with your carrier and report it lost or stolen so any calls or texts wouldn’t…
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Android Launcher: Lightning Launcher
If you want to customize the look and feel of your phone or tablet, Android is the platform for you! Since the very early days of the OS, users have been able to replace their…
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The Pros and Cons of 5GHz WiFi 802.11ac
Back in 1999 we got our first real taste of our wireless future: WiFi. The first variant was called 802.11a and operated in the 5GHz spectrum (later on, 3.7GHz support was added).…
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Is Android Pay safe?
Android Pay isn’t the first time Google has gotten into the mobile payments business. Google demonstrated Google Wallet way back in 2011, and released it in these United States…
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Verizon DROID Maxx 2 Review: MAXX is the proper word to describe it
“It is obvious that this contest cannot be decided by our knowledge of the Force… but by our skills with a lightsaber.” –Count Dooku One of the best things Verizon Wireless ever…
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Bendgate Redux: Nexus 6P bending is a non-issue
People just aren’t happy unless there’s some kind of controversy running amok. Any sufficiently worthy conspiracy theory, especially those that could be shrouded in an actual or…
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Here’s how Google and OEMs can fix Android OTA updates
Anyone who has ever owned an Android-powered smartphone will probably tell you how frustrating it is to get OTA updates. Whether it’s security patches, bug fixes, or the…
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5 cool things you can do with Google’s low-end Nexus
When other sites review a phone, many simply unbox it and fiddle around with it for a few hours before pulling out the laptop and penning a review. When we review a new…
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This was the best Nexus of all time
In 1968, novelist Philip K. Dick asked Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? In his book (which was the inspiration for Blade Runner), after war had devastated Earth, a bounty…
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Do Not Disturb Mode: Android Marshmallow finally got it right
Android has gone through a few iterations of “shut up and leave me alone” “Do Not Disturb” mode, but hasn’t gotten it right – until Android 6.0 Marshmallow. At 2am my wife isn’t…
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Google Chromecast and Chromecast Audio Review: the future is now
In June of 2012 at Google I/O, Google’s developer conference, the company announced an all new product category designed to be conduit between your smartphone or tablet and your…
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Nexus Quick Charging explained
Just when we thought we had this whole “quick charging” thing all figured out and knew which car- and wall-chargers to get, Google went and confused everyone all over again. Yes,…
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Battle of the Beasts: Nexus 6P vs Nexus 5X vs Nexus 6
Until recently, Google has only released one Nexus-labeled smartphone per cycle. Last year the popular Nexus 5 was followed-up by the Nexus 6 – Google’s first phablet. Some were…
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A liquid cooled smartphone: an inevitable, and very smart move
Every processor on the planet creates heat. More precisely, computer chips convert electrical energy into thermal energy. Even the most simple circuit has some amount of…
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LG is doing with a second screen what Motorola and Nokia did with the main screens
It wasn’t all that long ago when people wore a watch everywhere they went. When cell phones started arriving, the necessity of that timepiece on your wrist became less necessary –…
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Speaker of the House Boehner Resigns
The "coincidences" just keep piling up. Today, September 25th, 2015 , John A. Boehner announced that he will resign one of the most powerful positions in the world - Speaker of…
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Wake me up when September ends
Some years ago a song by Green Day was popular - "Wake me up when September ends". It was a somber song. Summer has come and passed The innocent can never last Wake me up when…
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Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
You’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who would turn down a phone with a bigger battery than a smaller one, all things being equal. Unfortunately, phones with bigger capacities…
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Ditto: a wearable unlike any you’ve seen before
I’ve worn a smartwatch ever since my LG G Watch arrived (which I’ve subsequently replaced with a 1st gen Moto 360). Both of these wearables, and wearables in general, have solved…
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Android Marshmallow should be embracing the Dark Theme, not getting rid of it
Android Marshmallow 6.0 is getting close to being released, and we’re starting to see what the final version will – and will not – include once it starts being distributed to…
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Five ways to keep your cellular data usage under control
Today’s smartphones and tablets are significantly more useful than phones and laptops of yesteryear. Most of that centers around the availability of today’s devices to access the…
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Making money writing apps isn’t as easy as you think
It’s a fair bet that the majority of those of you reading these articles use apps – but don’t write them. There are no such things as “free” apps. Sure, there are apps that don’t…
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Force Touch? Android has had that for years
Force Touch is the “new” pressure-sensitive user interface technique that was pioneered by Apple with its Apple Watch – or was it? Before we jump into that, let’s talk about ways…
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What Windows 10 Phone needs to do to woo Android users back
Back when the only competition was from Palm, I was a Newton guy. Sometime later (and way before the iPhone), Steve Jobs killed the Newton. I sold my MessagePad 2000U and switched…
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What’s the most disappointing smartphone you’ve owned?
Now that IFA is in full-swing and much of the Pocketnow staff is in Berlin busy finding out what the latest and greatest new devices are going to be for the upcoming year, some of…
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HTC Desire 626 Review: affordable, but it falls short of awesome
What do you do when you want to build a phone that has the perfect blend of price, design, and specs? If you’re HTC, you create a Desire phone. We’ve been fairly pleased with how…