Galaxy S III named Best Smartphone of 2012 at Mobile World Congress

By Cody Lee on Feb 28, 2013

The world of smartphones can essentially be divided into two camps: iPhone and Android. Sure there are some BlackBerry and Windows Phone users out there, but Apple and Google handsets make up most of the market.

And as in any situation where there are two dominant players, each platform has their own army of loyal fans. And I’m sure both sides have plenty to say about Samsung’s Galaxy S III being named the Best Smartphone of 2012… Read More

 

Meet Apple TV’s newest competitor, the Samsung HomeSync

By Cody Lee on Feb 25, 2013

As you’ve probably noticed by now, we’re huge fans of the Apple TV here at iDB. Apple’s set-top box is inexpensive, easy-to-use, and it integrates perfectly with our iOS devices. Plus, older versions of it can be jailbroken.

The device has been doing remarkably well for Apple, despite the fact that it has several competitors. But we’ll see if that hot streak can continue now that Samsung’s throwing its hat in the ring with its new HomeSync… Read More

 

Passing 300M users, Shazam announces revamped iPad app

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 25, 2013

The media discovery and recommendation engine Shazam at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain on Monday said it surpassed 300 million users and announced updates to its app for iPad and Android tablets in the coming weeks. Some of the newly added capabilities include a much faster tagging with automatic resubmissions (handy during poor network reception), better Shazam Friends interactions and a new streamlined way to share your finds via Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and email.

Also on tap for iPad and Android tablets: a revamped home screen with updated layouts for tagged results from TV and music and a brand new interactive mapping feature letting you see what people aroun the world are discovering and sharing using Shazam mobile apps. What’s best, Shazam is now providing the two premium features – fast (and unlimited) tagging in as little as one second and full-screen LyricPlay lyrics – as part of the free tablet experience… Read More

 

HP tries the tablet thing again: cheap iPad mini rival, Slate 7, coming in April

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 24, 2013

Remember the ill-fated Slate, a Hewlett-Packard tablet Steve Ballmer demoed at CES 2010 as a sign of things to come from the PC camp? It failed miserably, leaving HP to linger out there and admit defeat of its webOS/TouchPad strategy.

But as the world’s top computer vendor has witnessed shoppers increasingly picking up iPads and Android tablets, it felt compelled to reboot its mobile strategy by announcing today at Mobile World Congress in Spain, Barcelona a brand new seven-inch tablet for entertainment and media consumption.

It’s called the Slate 7, runs Android and is set to launch this April. And honoring the tradition (the $99 TouchPad fire sale), HP is pricing this thing really aggressively at just $169.99, or nearly half as much as Apple’s $329 iPad mini… Read More

 

Samsung to take on Apple with mini Galaxy Note

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 17, 2013

Samsung of South Korea will later this month take another crack at dethroning the tablet leader Apple by going after the Cupertino firm’s iPad mini, a 7.9-inch mini tablet computer released on November 2, 2012 and starting at $320 for the Wi-Fi only version with sixteen gigabytes of storage.

The new Note reportedly has a 720p (1,280-by-800) Super Clear LCD screen measuring eight inches diagonally and comes with Samsung’s trademark S-Pen. Hardware specifications allegedly aren’t that special as Samsung is possibly using cheaper components in order to undercut the iPad mini on price… Read More