High-flying arcade racing done right

The good: Asphalt 8: Airborne delivers on the fast-paced, high-flying action that makes arcade racing games fun. There are tons of cars to unlock, and fun tracks to explore.

The bad: The main menu screen is confusing and needs to be clearer for newcomers to the game. Car upgrades get expensive too quickly, nudging you toward in-app purchases.

The bottom line: Asphalt 8: Airborne is probably the best arcade racing game I've seen yet, with tons of light-hearted racing fun, but you'll have to fight the urge to spend your money.

Asphalt 8: Airborne  is the latest sequel in Gameloft's superpopular arcade racing franchise, but this one has a new element that lets you get big air to perform tricks. The new jumping mechanic is fairly well executed and adds to the excitement, but it becomes old hat pretty quickly.
It's important to note that arcade racers like this one differ from simulations like the Real Racing franchise, so don't expect real-world physics and controls. This type of racer is meant to be much more fast-paced and entertaining than the sims, so racing purists might want to look elsewhere. With that said, Asphalt 8 is still a lot of fun.

Familiar controls
The default control system has you tilt to steer with the throttle always on, and you can touch the right side of the screen to get a nitro boost. The brakes are on the left side of the screen, and while you won't need to slow down much in this arcade racer, a tap of the brakes puts you into drift mode, which comes in handy for sharp turns and generating nitro. You also will find pickups around the track for nitro, so don't worry too much about overusing your speed boost as you race.
One thing to note about the controls is that I found the steering to be pretty unresponsive and muddy through the first couple of races. But all it took was a trip to the game settings to add more sensitivity to the steering. The game defaults to 50 out of 100, and I found that 75 was just about perfect for me. If you find the same thing, play with the settings before you give up, because it made the game much better for me.

Speed around the track with five other cars as you try to battle your way to first place.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker)

 

Cars and gameplay
Like the other games in the franchise, Asphalt 8: Airborne comes with all the bells and whistles you'd expect from an arcade racer. For starters there are 47 cars, including luxury racers like the Bugatti Veyron and the Lamborghini Veneno, each of which you'll eventually unlock as you earn money by racing. Getting the top-tier cars will definitely take some time, but like many games these days, Asphalt 8 lets you spend real cash to buy car packs if you want to get ahead quickly. Fortunately, even the beginning cars are pretty appealing, so you won't have to pay your dues racing some subcompact tin can like you do in other games if you don't want to spend the money.
There are only nine different racing locations, but you'll race each track in reverse as you progress and there are numerous routes to take on each track for plenty of variation. To mix it up further, there are a few different race types, starting with a standard race, then adding some variation with elimination, head-to-head, and an Infected game mode, where you infect other racers with a deadly virus that makes their cars explode. There are eight seasons you can race through, and each is a mix of all the different race types so you don't have to worry about doing the same old thing every time.

Tap to drift around corners so you can fill up your nitro bar for speed boosts.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker)

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Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch to clock in Sept. 4

The device won't come with a flexible display, according to a Samsung executive, but that could eventually change.

Will this Sony smartwatch soon have to compete against Samsung's Galaxy Gear?

(Credit: Aloysius Low) 

Apple's long-rumored iWatch might be beaten to the market by a Samsung alternative, according to one Samsung executive.
Speaking to Korea Times in an interview published on Tuesday, Samsung's executive vice president of mobile Lee Young-hee said that the company plans to unveil a smartwatch on September 4, to be known as "Galaxy Gear."
According to Lee, Gear will be a "concept device." It's not clear whether that means it won't launch soon or if Samsung is using the "concept" moniker as a marketing ploy.

Speaking to Korea Times, Lee said that the Gear will have a "non-flexible display," but declined to provide further details.
Samsung has been rumored to be working on a smartwatch for quite some time. The company had not confirmed that until today. Samsung plans to hold a special press event on September 4 in Berlin, just a couple of days before this year's IFA confab. In addition to unveiling the Galaxy Gear, Lee said that Samsung will be showing off the new Galaxy Note 3 at IFA. Lee again declined to provide details on that device.
Smartwatch shipments are expected to grow in leaps and bounds in the coming years. According to recent data from Juniper Research, app-enabled smartwatch shipments will hit a little over 1 million this year. By 2018, however, that figure will jump to 36 million.

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Facebook prompts users to create shared photo albums

Up to 50 Facebookers can now collaborate on one single photo album -- from a wedding, vacation, or other event -- with a new feature called "Shared Albums."

What a shared album on Facebook looks like.

(Credit: Facebook) 

 

Facebook has created its own rendition of the friend and family slideshow. The social network unveiled a new feature on Monday that lets a number of users contribute photographs to one single album.
Aptly called "shared albums," this feature is especially helpful to those who want to show photos from a recent family vacation, group camping trip, wedding, or another people-filled event. Before today, Facebook users could only upload photos to albums they created on their own profiles.
To get started on shared albums, a central user can create an album and then add Facebook friends as contributors. These friends can then add, view, and edit photos in the album. However, the contributors can only edit or delete photos they themselves upload.

"Right now, if you were at a party and there were three different albums created, you might not be able to see all the photos [based on privacy settings], which is kind of confusing and frustrating," Facebook software engineer Bob Baldwin told Mashable. The new shared albums have three possible viewing settings: contributors only, friends of contributors, and public. According to Mashable, album creators can invite as many as 50 friends to join the album and each person can add up to 200 photos.
"I think one thing that's really fun about creating products at Facebook is that you're never quite sure how people will use the product in the end," Baldwin told Mashable. "We're really excited for launch because we think people will use [shared albums] in ways that we're not even thinking of."
The shared album feature began rolling out to a small group of users in English-language countries on Monday. According to Mashable, the feature will eventually expand to all users.
Via Mashable.

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PC gaming in a semiportable package

The good: Dell's new Alienware 14 offers great performance, competitive prices, and quirky features such as a backlit touch pad.

The bad: The new design still feels dated, and it's as thick as a few slim laptops stacked together. The fan is insanely loud.

The bottom line: Dell has revamped its gaming line, including the new Alienware 14. The design changes don't go nearly far enough, but no complaints about the performance.

Some laptops have loud fans that kick in when performing high-end tasks that drive the CPU or GPU. Other laptops, such as the new Alienware 14, have fans so distractingly loud that you practically have to put on headphones (and crank them up) to escape it. That's a shame, because this is an otherwise excellent semiportable gaming laptop, and probably the biggest shift in Alienware's design direction in a few years.
Of course, this is Alienware. So even a significant shift, in this case, a new case design and a stripped-down name (the Alienware M14X, for example, becomes simply the Alienware 14), still looks and feels very Alienware-like, which is to say that it pretty much ignores any trends in laptop design over the past several years.
This is a thick, heavy laptop, with automotive-inspired grilles and all sorts of user-programmable hokey lights (although the backlit touch pad is cool). It's literally as thick as two midsize laptops stacked on top of each other, and I can't think of a 14-inch laptop this year (or last) that has come close to its size.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

 

But the Alienware brand still has some magic left, and this may be the best system we've seen out of that shop since the late, lamented Alienware M11X. That's partly because, despite first impressions, it is actually smaller and lighter than previous same-screen-size Alienware laptops, and the construction quality, with an emphasis on magnesium alloy and aluminum, feels great.
But mostly it's because the Alienware 14 offers the wide variety of components and options that PC gamers want, and even at the higher levels of customization, the total price is well in line with the competition. Our $1,799 configuration includes a new fourth-generation Core i7 CPU, Nvidia's also-new GeForce 765M GPU, and a combination of a 256GB SSD and 750GB HDD for storage. It's not a bargain, but for $1,799 I'm very comfortable with that configuration. By default, it ships with Windows 7 Home Premium, with Windows 7 Pro and Windows 8 Pro available as options.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

The base-price model, at $1,199 is still decent, with a slower Core i7, a GeForce 750M GPU, and no SSD, but if those are the specs you're looking for, you're probably not in the market for an Alienware in the first place. Razer's 14-inch Blade manages to include roughly similar performance (with lower-voltage parts) into a much slimmer body, but also shoots itself in the foot with a sub-par display.
In truth, no one has really nailed the idea of a next-generation gaming laptop yet. The new Alienware 14 is a great, not-quite-portable system that has one foot stuck in the past, but if you can live with the size and weight (and the light show), it's one of the few ways to get gamer-level performance without sacrificing your entire desk.

	Alienware 14	Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch w/Retina Display (June 2012)	Toshiba Qosmio X75-A9278	Razor Blade 14
Price	$1,799	$2,199	$1,748	$1,799
Display size/resolution	14-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 screen	15.4 -inch, 2,880 x 1,800 screen	17.3-inch 1,920 x 1,080 screen	14-inch, 1,600 x 900 screen
PC CPU	2.4GHz Intel Core i7 4700MQ	2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3610QM	2.4GHz Intel Core i7 4700MQ	2.2GHz Intel Core i7 4702HQ
PC Memory	16GB 1,600MHZ DDR3 SDRAM	8GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM	16GB 1,600MHZ DDR3 SDRAM	8GB 1,600MHZ DDR3 SDRAM
Graphics	2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M	1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M	3GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 770	2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M
Storage	256GB SSD + 750GB	256GB SSD	256GB SSD + 1TB 7,200rpm hard drive	128GB SSD
Optical drive	BD-ROM	None	Blu-ray\DVD writer	None
Networking	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)	OS X Lion 10.7.4	Windows 8 (64-bit)	Windows 8 (64-bit)

 
Design and features
Dell's Alienware team has made much of the new look of its laptop lineup, calling it a "revolutionary new industrial design." It's certainly an evolution over the past few generations of Alienware systems, but not so radically different that you're going to change your opinion about the company one way or the other. This is still a thick, heavy, black laptop with running lights and an alien head logo on the back of the lid. We used to call it dorm room chic, but I suspect most dorm rooms have MacBooks these days.
More important are the actual materials, with an anodized aluminium lid, magnesium alloy base, and a steel plate under the keyboard for stability, plus copper heat sinks and pipes inside for better cooling. All that allows the new Alienware 14 to be a bit thinner and lighter than older 14-inch models, but you'd have to eyeball them side by side to really appreciate the difference.
Even though I'm being a bit snarky about the aesthetics, the system feels very high-end in the hand, with rock-solid construction and a soft-touch finish on the palm rest that won't bother you after spending hours with your hand hovering over the WASD keys.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

As is expected from Alienware, the chassis lights up in all sorts of interesting ways, with a backlit keyboard, Alienware logo, running lights along the side, a light-up alien head on the back of the lid, and a few more zones. All of these can be controlled from the Alien FX control panel, a software app that allows you to choose from preset themes or create your own, with different colors for each backlit zone (and four under the keyboard). The most interesting part is the new backlit touch pad. It can glow in any of a couple of dozen colors, and lights up when touched for a few seconds. It's a pretty nifty party trick, and the same Alienware app can also control power settings, touch pad settings, and create macros for executing a series of actions -- for example, changing VOIP, lighting, and power settings when launching a specific game or app.
The keyboard is a vital component for gaming laptops, unless you plan to output to an external monitor and use an external keyboard all the time. In this case, the large keys are tapered slightly at the top to avoid accidental keystrokes (you don't want to accidentally drop a live grenade at your feet, right?). They have a satisfying depth and the large Shift, Control, and other keys often used in PC gaming are well-placed for in-game use.
The backlit touch pad is a good size, and keeps separate physical left and right mouse buttons, rather than using a newer clickpad-style surface. But for gamers, it's probably a moot point, as you're likely to use an external mouse for all your serious gaming.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

 

You can have all the high-end components and flashing lights in the world, but gaming and multimedia laptops sometimes fall down at the last step between your content and your eyeballs -- the screen. The previously mentioned Razer Blade did just that with a low-resolution, poor quality screen on an otherwise excellent machine. In this case, the 14.0-inch screen has a full 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution (the least expensive configuration has a 1,366x768-pixel screen that should be avoided at all costs). Even better, this is a glare-free matte screen, not the overly glossy type of screen found on nearly every other consumer laptop. You lose maybe a tiny bit of pop in the colors and black levels, but the overall experience is much better.
Audio is excellent for a midsize laptop, thanks no doubt to the thickness of the system, allowing for bigger speakers to move more air, as well as a subwoofer.

	Alienware 14
Video	HDMI and mini-DisplayPort
Audio	Stereo speakers plus subwoofer, headphone/microphone jacks, plus combo audio in/out jack
Data	3 USB 3.0, SD card reader
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Optical drive	DVD recorder/Blu-ray player

 
Connections, performance, and battery
It's especially important for a laptop such as this to have good ports and connections because you're likely to want to hook it up to an external monitor at least some of the time. A 14-inch display isn't prime for gaming, and these components can easily power a 23-inch or 27-inch experience. In this case, you get both HDMI and mini-DisplayPort, plus multiple audio outputs that can handle 5.1 audio. There are only three USB ports, so a gaming keyboard, mouse, and maybe an Xbox 360 game pad will eat those up quickly.

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Hold that precisely engineered sandwich in place on the go

The Unikia Compleat FoodSkin is a flexible lunchbox. One side is an elastic silicone skin, so it molds to the shape of its contents.

Yes, you'll see your lunch's contours with the Unikia Compleat FoodSkin.

(Credit: Unikia) 

Preparing a meal in your very own home kitchen is an everyday process that combines familiarity and comfort with the end result being deliciousness. But just because a meal is made in the kitchen, doesn't necessarily mean one gets to enjoy it at home. Sometimes, food just has to be taken to go. Naturally, the more portable the better.
Storage containers of every shape and size imaginable have for years dotted kitchen supply store shelves and virtual aisles and for good reason -- food is such a personal endeavor that it only makes sense that there be numerous methods for transporting it. Despite the abundance of options, there are still solutions waiting to be made. Take for example, the sandwich-inclined and their endless battle with plastic wrap.
The Unikia Compleat FoodSkin is a flexible food transportation container that is clever in its simplicity. The flexible lunchbox is made of a rigid base that is covered by an elastic silicone skin. Place your food to go on the base and fold to close. The elastic skin molds to the shape of the contents. The stylish accessory costs about 25 euros (they ship globally), which seems worth it if only to never have to have a fight with plastic wrap again. Sandwich lovers, rejoice.
Via Book of Joe

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Superthin phone flattened by its Verizon rivals

The good: The superthin Motorola Droid Ultra has a lovely, large screen and takes pleasing pictures. The phone also has long battery life and offers slick tricks such as advanced voice commands and screen-based notifications.

The bad: The Motorola Droid Ultra’s chassis feels slippery, collects prints and smudges easily, and isn’t comfortable to hold. The phone has just 16GB of internal storage and no SD card slot.

The bottom line: Unless you want the thinnest smartphone on the block, the more powerful HTC One and Droid Maxx are better buys.

The Droid Ultra's $199.99 price and even its very existence baffles me. Standing smack dab in between the affordable $99.99 Droid Mini and pricey $299.99 Droid Maxx, the only reason to choose the Ultra is either because you value trimness above all else, or don't care to spend $100 more for the Maxx's massive battery and 32GB of storage. The Ultra's limited 16GB of internal memory also makes it less enticing than other superphones such as the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.
 
Design
Up until the Droid Ultra landed on my desk, my most recent mobile companion was the compact Moto X. And since I've become accustomed to its petite build, when I first picked up the Ultra I was immediately struck by its large, wide frame.
Measuring 2.8 inches wide by 5.4 inches tall, the phone seemed positively gargantuan. By comparison the Moto X is a narrower 2.6 inches wide and a shorter 5.1 inches tall.

The Droid Ultra is certainly a handful.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

 

That said, while the curved edges of the X begin at a very thin 0.22 inch, at its thickest point the pint-size phone swells to 0.4 inch thick. That's a lot fatter than the Droid Ultra's flat chassis, which is a uniform 0.28 inch in thickness. At 4.8 ounces, the Droid Ultra is also relatively light considering its size.

The Ultra is under a third of an inch thick.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

 

Of course being superthin doesn't automatically make a phone ergonomically superior. As I've learned from handling the smoothly tapered backs of the HTC One and Moto X, what matters most is how a handset fits in the palm.
Both devices may be thicker and heavier (4.6 and 5 ounces, respectively) but are a joy to hold. That's because they possess a solid feel and natural shape that's extremely comfortable to grip. Just imagine a river rock honed by millennia of flowing water and you get the idea.
Compared with these gadgets, the Droid Ultra is another story altogether. It is so trim is almost feels two-dimensional, and comes close to being too wide to hold in one hand. Like the Samsung Galaxy S4, the Ultra does sport smooth, rounded edges and corners, a tactic other wafer-thin devices would do well to adopt. Case in point: the Sony Xperia Z, which has a classy all-glass chassis but also painfully sharp corners and straight right angles.
Like Sony's latest flagship, the Droid Ultra's glossy surfaces make it a fingerprint magnet. Just a few minutes were enough for me to cover the Ultra's screen and back panel in slimy streaks and prints.
Another design detractor is that the phone feels downright slippery, almost like a bar of wet soap -- not exactly a quality I seek in a smartphone. Motorola does claim that the Ultra uses Kevlar unibody construction for greater strength so hopefully it'll survive If you drop the device by accident.

Glossy surfaces act as a print magnet.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

 

The Droid Ultra doesn't have many physical buttons, just a power key and volume rocker on the device's right edge. There are three capacitive buttons below the screen to control basic Android functions. Above the display is the earpiece and 2MP camera for vanity shots and self portraits.
Around back you'll find the Droid Ultra's main 10-megapixel camera lens and LED flash. Ringing this imaging array is a sizable rectangular speaker grille. It belts out a surprising amount of volume, even more than the HTC One with its vaunted BoomSound -- quite a feat for a handset so thin.

Capacitive buttons sit under the screen.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

 

Display
Undoubtedly the Droid Ultra's star attraction is its big, bright 5-inch HD OLED screen. With a 720p resolution (1,280x720 pixels) it may not boast the same amount of pixels as its competition, namely the HTC One (4.7-inch, 1080p LCD) and Samsung Galaxy S4 (5-inch, 1080p OLED). Even so, the Ultra's high-contrast display produces vibrant colors that pop and deep, dark black levels.
I honestly didn't notice any absent detail in photos, Web sites, or text-heavy documents. I also enjoyed viewing my typical choices for mobile entertainment on the device, a copious amount of Netflix movies sprinkled with the odd HD YouTube trailer. By the way, that new "Riddick" flick looks mighty tempting.

Movie trailers are fun to watch on the Ultra's big screen.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

 

Core components
In terms of internal electronics, Motorola has made a very unconventional move with its 2013 smartphone lineup. Instead of engaging in the brutal processor arms race like practically every other handset maker, the company decided to sidestep the issue completely. All the new Droids, including the Droid Ultra, are powered by a homegrown processing solution Motorola calls the X8 Mobile Computing System.
The same silicon engine pushing the new Motorola flagship along (the Moto X) at its heart, the X8 is a dual-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU. It doesn't have the raw horsepower of the true quad-core processors ticking inside the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 (Snapdragon 600).
What the X8 lacks in brawn, it makes up for by being efficient. The main dual-core application CPU is backed by muscular quad-core Adreno graphics, plus two additional "cores": a natural language processor and one for contextual computing.
Aiding this hardware is a healthy 2GB allotment of RAM. Internal memory, though, is the Droid Ultra's weakness. As with the Moto X and Galaxy S4, the Ultra comes with just 16GB of storage space. There's no SD card slot for upping your storage options, either, which is huge bummer. Keep in mind that the Ultra's big brother, the Droid Maxx, features a full 32GB of internal storage.

Software and interface
Motorola took a similarly light-handed approach with the Droid Ultra's software as it did with the Moto X. Running the same Android operating system (version 4.2.2), the Ultra's OS is essentially stock Jelly Bean. That's understandable given Motorola's recent acquisition by Google, the technology wizards behind Android.
You slide a padlock icon outside of a virtual ring on the phone's screen to unlock the device. With that accomplished you're greeted to the central home screen plus four other panels to populate with app shortcuts and widgets as you see fit.

The Circles widget finds new life in the Ultra.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

 

Motorola managed to hold on to the Circles settings widget, placed at the center of the main home screen, a leftover from the company's previous Droid Razr handsets. Aside from offering quick access to time, weather, and system settings, the tool flaunts a few new tricks.

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Staples supplies bad news on PC sales

Office supply retailer lays out some hard numbers for shrinking PC sales. Tablets are where the action is.

 

Second-generation Nexus 7: tablets are the future, said Staple's CEO.

(Credit: Google) 

While analysts are typically the bearer of bad news for the shrinking PC market, Staples delivered some sobering news of its own today.
Ronald Sargent, chairman and CEO of the office supply retailer, offered his assessment of where the market is going during the company's earnings conference call Wednesday (via Seeking Alpha):

You just look at computers being replaced by mobile devices, whether it's phones or tablets, and it used to be computers were 95% and tablets were 5%. Now it's about -- it looks like about 60% computers and about 40% tablets. So that kind of gives you a sense of where that market is moving, and tablets are going to be, not replacing, but certainly bigger than computers are soon.

The operative phrase here is, "tablets are going to be....bigger than computers are now."
For Staples, this is a critical data that it uses to decide what it puts on the floor and sells to customers so it can turn a profit.
Demos Parneros, president of North American Stores and Online, said this.

The game is how quickly can we reduce space in our stores in these unproductive categories...to eliminate or reduce space in these sort of, let's call them, dying categories or weak categories and then replacing that with things like mobile phones, where we're going to 1,000 stores.

Staples reported today that net income in the second quarter sank to $102.5 million, or 16 cents a share, from $120.4 million, or 18 cents a share in the same period last year.
Analysts had been expecting a profit of 18 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.
And speaking of analysts, IDC and Gartner supplied some grim second-quarter number for PCs. IDC said the PC market shrank 11.4 percent while Gartner said 10.9 percent.

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Tips and tricks for speeding up your Android device

Android smartphones and tablets can become slow and sluggish over time. These easy-to-follow tips will help make your device run like new. 

 

(Credit: Josh Miller) 

 

You may have noticed over the past few months that your once-speedy Android device has slowed down considerably. Simple tasks such as switching between apps or returning home are proving more troublesome than before, and you are now experiencing lag in all the wrong places. Things don't have to be this way, however.
These simple tips and tricks can help speed up your device and make it perform like new:

1. Uninstall or disable unused apps

(Credit: Screenshot by Dan Graziano) 

 

Your device has a limited amount of internal storage and the less free space it has the slower it will perform. If you have filled your device with photos, music, or apps, it is recommended to free up space by either uninstalling unused apps or moving files to cloud storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive.

Uninstalling apps can be done by going to Settings, opening the Apps menu, and selecting the app you wish to uninstall. Preloaded applications from carriers or manufacturers that cannot be uninstalled, known as bloatware, can at least be disabled and hidden from the app drawer using this method.
On smartphones and tablets that include expandable storage you can also move apps to the microSD card. To do this, enter Settings, go to the Apps menu, click the app you wish to move, and select the "Move to SD card" option.

Too many widgets can affect battery life and performance.

(Credit: Screenshot by Dan Graziano)

2. Clear app caches
Cached data can build up over time in your applications and affect the performance of your device. Deleting individual caches can be done in the Apps menu, but a number of free programs are available through the Google Play store that can automate the process. Some of the most popular ones include App Cache Cleaner and Clean Master, both of which are available for free.

3. Limit widgets and live wallpapers
Many people would argue that widgets are one of the benefits of using an Android device. They can be helpful for finding information quickly without having to open an app, but at the same time they can eat away at battery life and slow your device.
Reducing the number of widgets, especially data-intensive ones like Facebook, will help your smartphone or tablet run more smoothly and last longer. You can remove widgets from the home screen by long-pressing the one you wish to delete and dragging it to the top of the screen.
Another cool Android feature is the option to use a live wallpaper as your background. Like widgets, however, live wallpapers can slow down your device and drain the battery. You can also change your wallpaper with a long press on the home screen.

4. Disable animations
A hidden settings option in Android will give you access to commands you may have never known existed. Go to Settings, About Phone, scroll down to Build number, and tap it seven times. You will now have access to developer options. These special settings allow you to do a variety of things, but they are meant for advanced users and shouldn't be changed unless you know what you are doing.
One tweak that could speed up your device is disabling animations within the operating system. To do this, open Settings, go to Developer options, and scroll down to the Drawing option. Next, turn off the Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale. This will disable animations that occur when you open, close, and switch between apps. Although the interface will look less polished, there should be less lag in performance.

(Credit: Screenshot by Dan Graziano) 

 

5. Get software updates
Manufacturers and carriers are continually pushing out new software updates to their devices. It is imperative that you be on the latest firmware as these updates usually include security and bug fixes, among other things that will improve the overall stability of your device. To check to see if there is an update available, go to Settings, select About Phone, and choose the "System updates" option.

6. Rooting, ROMing, and more
Risk takers and advanced users can also root their device, which will open the door to new features and even greater performance boosts. Rooting gives you the ability to overclock the device's processor, install a custom ROM, and other things; however it also voids your warranty and could cause irreversible damage to the device.

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Here's a list of games you can buy for the PS4 in 2013

Sony's PlayStation 4 launches on November 15 in the US. Here be its gaming options for the rest of the year.

Soon (ish)...

(Credit: Josh Miller) 

Sony's Playstation 4 will hit US stores on November 15 and November 29 in Europe.
Unless you're planning to exclusively use the new console as a Netflix streaming box and media hub -- BTW, perfectly legitimate albeit expensive and kind of foolhardy reasons to buy one -- you'll likely want to play some games on it. As fun as it is to stream movies and TV shows, you don't need to pay $400 to do so.
Here's where this list games comes in. Aside from Skylanders Swap Force, all PS4 games coming in 2013 will be available to purchase digitally. I've broken the list into two sections: available on disc and digital only. As of today all games listed here are slated for release before the year's up.
Also, be sure to check in on how the competition's launch compares.

PS4 games available on disc in 2013

• NBA 2K14
• Call of Duty: Ghosts
• Skylanders Swap Force
• Need for Speed: Rivals
• Battlefield 4
• Madden 25
• FIFA 14
• NBA Live
• Killzone: Shadow Fall
• #DRIVECLUB
• Knack
• Assassins Creed Black Flag
• Watch Dogs
• Just Dance 2014
• Lego Marvel Superheroes

Digital download-only PS4 games coming in 2013

• Basement Crawl
• Pool Nation Extreme
• Contrast
• Warframe
• Pinball Arcade
• War Thunder
• N++
• Minecraft
• DC Universe
• Planetside 2
• Counterspy
• ResoGun
• Flower
• Doki-Doki Universe
• Hohokum
• Tiny Brains
• Super Motherload
• Blacklight

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Microsoft reveals Xbox One launch titles

Microsoft announced the titles, which will be available in November 2013 for the launch of the Xbox One console.

• 4Com
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Call of Duty: Ghosts is one of 23 titles available at the launch of the Xbox One

(Credit: Activision)

At Gamescom, in Cologne, Germany, Microsoft announced 23 launch titles for the Xbox One,which will be available in November 2013.

The Microsoft Xbox One, which will include a bundled Kinect 2 for $499, will ship at the same time as the Sony PlayStation 4, which is $100 cheaper.

The titles include highly anticipated games like Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4, as well as casual games like Peggle 2 and Just Dance 2014.

Sadly, some games that received a lot of attention at E3 -- like Titanfall and the next Halo -- won't be available till after launch.

Check out the photo gallery below for more information on the 23 titles.

Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag (Ubisoft, Ubisoft)The full list of Xbox One launch titles is as follows.

• Battlefield 4 (DICE, Electronic Arts)
• Call of Duty: Ghosts (Infinity Ward, Activision)
• Crimson Dragon (Grounding/Land Ho!, Microsoft Studios)
• Dead Rising 3 (Capcom Vancouver, Microsoft)
• FIFA 14 (EA Sports, Electronic Arts)
• Fighter Within (AMA Ltd., Ubisoft)
• Forza Motorsport 5 (Turn 10 Studios, Microsoft Studios)
• Just Dance 2014 (Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft)
• Killer Instinct (Double Helix, Microsoft Studios)
• Lego Marvel Super Heroes (TT Games, Warner Bros. Interactive)
• Lococycle (Twisted Pixel, Microsoft Studios)
• Madden NFL 25 (EA Sports, Electronic Arts)
• NBA 2K14 (Visual Concepts, 2K Sports)
• NBA LIVE 14 (EA Sports, Electronic Arts)
• Need for Speed: Rivals (Ghost Games, Electronic Arts)
• Peggle 2 (Popcap, Electronic Arts)
• Powerstar Golf (Zoe Mode, Microsoft Studios)
• Ryse: Son of Rome (Crytek, Microsoft Studios)
• Skylanders: Swap Force (Vicarious Visions, Activision)
• Watch Dogs (Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft)
• Zoo Tycoon (Frontier Developments Ltd., Microsoft Studios)
• Zumba Fitness: World Party (Zoe Mode, Majesco)

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PS4 launch date confirmed for November 15

Today Sony announced the official launch date of the new PlayStation 4 game console as November 15 in North America and November 29 in Europe.

• omments

(Credit: Josh Miller)

At the Gamescom conference in Cologne, Germany, today, Sony announced that its PlayStation 4 game console would be arriving November 15 in North America, followed by a European launch date of November 29.

The company said the console would launch in 32 countries overall in time for the holiday season, but didn't specify any other dates worldwide. Sony also mentioned that 1,000,000 preorders have been placed already.

As previously revealed, the PS4 will cost $399. Check out our hands-on PS4 first take for more information on the console.

Microsoft's competing Xbox One console first arrives in November for $499.99.

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Create Partition on your SD Card

 

Using MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition 

Simplest way is to use "MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition"
This tool is compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista & Windows 7 

Requirements: USB SD Card reader.
Pull SD card from phone, insert into USB SD Card reader. Windows should report new drive and content of the drive should be visible.

• step 1: delete old partitions on SD card

Note: this partition manager QUEUES the operations. So nothing is deleted and changed UNTIL you click "APPLY" and then confirm by clicking "OK".
WARNING!
Make sure you are deleting partition on SD card! (not your hard drive for example)
This step deletes everything on SD card, so backup files first!
Dont be afraid, just read everything and think twice before selecting correct drive.
Do you see three gray icons on the bottom? Under each of them the capacity of each drive is listed, and SD CARD has slightly different icon.
Hard drives on the screenshot have 465.8GB and 74.5GB, and on the bottom, the SD card, with 3.8GB capacity. 

• step 2: create FAT or FAT32 partition

         select "Create As": PRIMARY

 
Select "File System:" FAT when you have 2GB or smaller card.
Select "File System:" FAT32 when you have 4GB or greater card.

• step 3: create ext2 or ext3 or swap partition*

select "Create As": PRIMARY

Select "File System:" ext2 - for App2SD
OR
Select "File System:" swap to make swap :)

If you want to create both: do not assign all the space for the first one :) this way you will have space for creating second one. 

• step 4: finish

finally, click "apply" button on top left corner.
partitions will be created and card will be formatted.

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Finally, an SSD that has almost everything

The good: The Samsung 840 Evo solid-state drive offers overall excellent performance, top storage space, and useful bundled software, at low cost.

The bad: The three-year warranty is relatively short, and the drive's sequential read speed could be a tad better.

The bottom line: If you're looking for a fast SSD that offers top capacity at low cost, look no further than the Samsung 840 Evo.

There are three important things you should keep in mind when buying a solid-state drive: capacity, performance, and pricing. And the new Samsung 840 Evo makes things easy by offering them all, and more.
The new drive is a replacement for Samsung's previous entry-level 840 Series drive, but the only thing entry-level about it is the pricing. Its performance is among the best I've seen, and the drive is also the first consumer-grade SSD to hit the 1TB mark in storage space. In addition, the 840 Evo is bundled with valuable software that further boosts its performance.
At the current price of well under $1 per gigabyte -- the 1TB capacity costs just $650, or about 65 cents per gigabyte -- the Samsung 840 Evo is the best deal on the market now, ranking at the top of the current best SSD list. If you're looking for an SSD to upgrade your computer's hard drive with or want to upgrade your existing SSD to a larger-capacity drive, the 840 Evo is as good as it gets.

The new Samsung 840 Evo shares the same design and standard as previous generations, but now comes in gray.

(Credit: Dong Ngo)

Design
The Samsung 840 Evo looks the same as the older 840 Series, but now comes in dark gray. The drive supports the popular 7-millimeter, 2.5-inch design and features the latest SATA 3 (6Gbps) standard. It also works with previous versions of the SATA standard.

Drive type	7mm-thick, 2.5-inch standard internal drive
Connector type	SATA 6Gbps (compatible with SATA 3Gbps and SATA 1.5Gbps)
Capacities	120GB, 250GB, 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB
Review capacity	750GB
Controller	Samsung MEX controller
NAND flash memory	1x nm Samsung Toggle DDR 2.0
Sequential read:	Up to 540MBps
Sequential write:	Up to 520MBps (250GB/500GB/750GB/1TB), and up to 410MBps (120GB)
4KB Random read (QD1):	Up to 10,000 IOPS
4KB Random write (QD1):	Up to 33,000 IOPS
4KB Random read (QD32):	Up to 98,000 IOPS (500GB/750GB/1TB); up to 97,000 IOPS; (250GB); up to 94,000 IOPS (120GB)
4KB Random write (QD32):	Up to 90,000 IOPS (500GB/750GB/1TB); up to 66,000 IOPS (250GB); up to 35,000 IOPS (120GB)
Encryption	AES 256-bit Full Disk Encryption (FDE)
Weight	1.9 ounces
Reliability	MTBF: 1.5 million hours
Warranty	3 years limited

The drive is available in five capacities, 120GB, 250GB, 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB, all of which come with the Samsung Data Migration Tool and Samsung Magician Software included. The former is an advanced cloning program that helps you move data from one drive to another without having to reinstall the operating system or software; and the latter is a set of powerful tools for customizing the drive.

The Desktop Kit includes all you need to upgrade your computer's existing drive to a new 840 Evo.

(Credit: Dong Ngo)

To help make life even easier for upgraders, the drive is also available in a Desktop Kit version for the 120GB and 250GB capacities, and a Laptop Kit version for the 250GB and 500GB capacities, respectively costing $15 more and $10 more than if you buy just the SSD itself. The Desktop Kit includes a drive bay converter caddy, a 2.5mm spacer to bring the thickness of the drive to the 9.5mm standard, a CD of software, and a USB 3.0-to-SATA adapter. The Laptop Kit consists of just the software, the spacer, and the USB 3.0-to-SATA adapter.
With either of these kits, folks can quickly clone their computer's existing hard drive to an 840 Evo, without having to get extra equipment. The software CD contains the above-mentioned Samsung Data Migration Tool and Samsung Magician Software, which can also be downloaded from Samsung's Web site.

Useful software, flexible configuration
Like previous Samsung SSDs, the 840 Evo doesn't come with overprovisioning out of the box. Instead you can turn this feature on and off using the Samsung Magician Software. Overprovisioning is a feature that uses part of an SSD's storage space to enhance the drive's performance. Thanks to this, the 840 Evo offers the flexibility to choose between maximum speed or capacity.
Using the Samsung Magician Software, you can also check the SSD's health status and securely erase its data, or tune up the operating system settings to maximize the drive's speed and endurance.

The new Samsung Magician Software comprises a lot of useful tools and makes the 840 Evo the most flexible SSD on the market.

(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo)

Modern and performance-oriented software and hardware features
There are a couple of things that help make the 840 Evo so fast.
Firstly, Samsung Magician now offers a new function, introduced in the 840 Evo, called Rapid mode, which can be turned on or off with a click. When on, Rapid automatically uses part of the host computer's system memory (RAM) as cache to further boost the drive's performance. Depending on the available RAM, Rapid uses between 500MB and 2GB for this purpose. In my test, Rapid indeed significantly improved the drive's performance.
Secondly, in the area of hardware, the new drive uses a new and improved Samsung MEX controller, which is based on the three-core MDX controller used in the 840 Pro, and its fast Toggle DDR 2.0 NAND flash memory. The drive also has improved firmware to deliver significantly faster performance than the 840 Series.

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Jelly Bean takes 40 percent share of Android devices in July

Jelly Bean 4.1 alone now has a larger share than Gingerbread, according to Google's latest figures. 

 

 

The Moto X runs Android 4.2.2

(Credit: Sarah Tew) 

 

Jelly Bean is on the rise -- while Gingerbread continues its steady, slow decline.
Jelly Bean is now on 40.5 percent of all active Android devices, according to Google's Android developer dashboard page, which shows July numbers.
That compares with 37.9 percent in June.
Gingerbread, which has stubbornly maintained share since its introduction in December of 2010, had a 33.1 percent share, down from 34.1 percent in June.

As Phandroid points out, these percentages aren't representative of every Android device, particularly in markets like China where older versions of Android have been popular. The figures track devices that have recently pinged the Google Play Store.
And note that even Google -- via its introduction Thursday of the Moto X -- is not even debuting all of its new devices on the latest version of Android. The Moto X runs 4.2.2.

(Credit: Google)

[Via Phandroid ]

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Samsung Series 9 with a name change

The good: The Samsung Ativ Book 9 is still one of the smallest and best-built Windows 8 ultrabooks around, and has a crisp 1080p display.

The bad: It lacks a touch screen, and battery life is disappointing for such an expensive laptop.

The bottom line: Formerly the Samsung Series 9, the rebranded Ativ Book 9 got little more than a change in name; the laptop feels dated, as it lacks a touch screen and the benefits of newer Intel processors.

Windows 8 laptops with touch are everywhere, but don't tell the Samsung Ativ Book 9. This laptop doesn't seem to have gotten the memo. In fact, it seems almost exactly the same as the 2012 Samsung Series 9. That's because it is almost the same.
Samsung has new laptops and tablets coming soon, including a Book 9 Pro and Book 9 Lite, but this particular Book 9 is really just a rebranding effort. Gone are the "Series" naming conventions for Samsung laptops, which were admittedly getting wonky (there was a separate Series 7 and a completely different Series 7 Gamer, as well as a Series 5 and Series 5 Chromebook, but don't get us started). Now Ativ has become a catch-all for the Windows PC world of Samsung.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

 

The Series 9 was one of our very favorite thin, compact 13-inch ultrabooks: it had a great build, a sharp screen, and great battery life. And the Book 9 hasn't changed much. It does have an excellent 1080p matte display, but much like Apple's MacBook Air, its design has stayed the same while the rest of the world is moving forward. And unlike the latest MacBook Air, the Book 9 didn't get a next-gen processor. But truthfully, Intel's latest processors don't offer any really big gains in speed: they're really all about the accompanying great improvement in battery life, and a boost in onboard integrated graphics.
A year later, can the same look and feel still work for Samsung, the way it does for Apple?

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

 

	Samsung Ativ Book 9	MacBook Air 13-inch (June 2013)	Sony Vaio Pro 13
Price	$1,499	$1,099	$2,200
Display size/resolution	13.3-inch, 1,920x1,080 touch screen	13.3-inch, 1,440x900 screen	13.3-inch, 1,920x1,080 touch screen
PC CPU	2GHz Intel Core i7-3537U	1.3GHz Intel Core i5-4250U	1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U
PC memory	4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz	4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz	4,096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz
Graphics	32MB Intel HD Graphics 4000	1,024MB Intel HD Graphics 5000	1,659MB Intel HD Graphics 4400
Storage	256GB SSD	128GB SSD	128GB SSD
Optical drive	None	None	None
Networking	802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	802.11a/c wireless, Bluetooth 4.0	802.11b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system	Windows 8 Pro (64-bit)	OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.4	Windows 8 (64-bit)

Design, display, keyboard, and touch pad
I have no qualms about the Ativ Book 9's overall design. It remains one of the sleekest, best-built ultrabooks I've ever seen. Even next to the latest efforts from Asus, Sony, Toshiba, and others it holds its own, and that's a testament to how much Samsung got right about the design.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

 

At 2.6 pounds and 0.5 inch thick, it's still one of the lightest 13-inch laptops around. It also has one of the smallest footprints, and slides easily into a bag. I even found a way to improbably cram it into an STM iPad shoulder bag.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

 

A deep gunmetal-type blue on the back lid and inner deck almost looks like charcoal from certain angles. The smooth, matte surfaces do pick up smudges and prints, but the laptop feels absolutely solid, carved into a blade, like the MacBook Air does but in its own way.
One nice extra touch: the lid opens up to an extra-wide angle. Not 180 degrees, but farther than most.
A backlit keyboard features keys that feel a little shallower than the MacBook Air's, but are equally excellent for typing. A large multitouch clickpad beneath works commendably well for everyday Windows usage, and its ever-so-slightly recessed edges make it still effective enough for the off-edge swipe gestures that Windows 8 uses for Charms and the like.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

 

But, it's not an adequate touch-screen replacement. For all the great qualities of this last-year's design, the Ativ Book 9 lacks a touch screen, a big negative in a laptop that costs $1,399.
Windows laptops have entered a phase change in design because of Windows 8. You don't have to have your laptop bend into a pretzel, but I'd strongly advise that it at least have a touch screen -- you don't have to use a touch screen, but it's certainly nice to have. Apple can get away with a same-as-2012 design philosophy because Macs don't make use of touch yet. Samsung's decision not to add a touch screen-free just makes the laptop feel like an old holdover.
It's a shame because the 13.3-inch display is otherwise excellent. It has a matte surface rather than the more common glossy coating, and a razor-sharp 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution. Other laptops have even higher pixel counts, but this is plenty. The screen is bright, and boasts excellent viewing angles.
I do have a gripe about the Ativ Book 9 speakers: like the Series 9's, they're very quiet and don't carry well, even at maximum volume.
Samsung's intriguing Side Sync technology makes it possible to mirror a Samsung phone or tablet on the Ativ Book 9's display, or for that tablet or phone to double as an extra display. Both devices can be controlled with your Book 9 keyboard and mouse. It's a clever trick for travel and cramped desks, but requires buying into the Samsung hardware ecosystem for your PC and mobile device.

(Credit: Sarah Tew)

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Apple buys another chipmaker

The iPhone maker has picked up Passif Semiconductor, a small California company that makes low-power communications chips.

 

(Credit: James Martin) 

 

Apple has acquired another chipmaker.
The iPhone, iPad, and Mac maker recently bought Passif Semiconductor, reports blogger Jessica Lessin. The Oakland, Calif.-based company makes low-power wireless hardware, as well as networking software.
Apple picked it up "in recent months," Lessin reports, though it's unclear for how much.
Apple did not comment on the acquisition, beyond noting it "buys small technology companies from time to time."
The chipmaker is the latest to be acquired by the tech giant. It purchased Intrinsity in early 2010, as well as P.A. Semi, in 2008. Those acquisitions have been notable given Apple's increased interest in creating its own custom processors for its portable devices. This latest purchase suggests Apple could be expanding that into wireless and communication technologies -- things for which Apple has relied on companies like Qualcomm and Broadcom.
Earlier this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that Apple has been buying a company every month or two. It recently snapped up two mapping/location companies: HopStop and Locationary, presumably to bolster its own mapping software, which had a rough launch last year.
"We are always looking, and if anything, we will do more of that in the future," Cook said at the All Things Digital Conference in May.

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Firefox OS phones arrive in Latin America

Colombia and Venezuela are first on the list for handsets running Mozilla's operating system as its expansion takes it beyond Europe for the first time. 

 

The Alcatel OneTouch Fire is the first phone that runs Mozilla's Firefox OS, a new operating system for budget phones.

(Credit: Rich Trenholm) 

After launching in Europe earlier this year, Firefox OS has now landed in Latin America.
Telefonica's local brands in Colombia and Venezuela started selling two Firefox OS phones on Thursday: the Alcatel OneTouch Fire and ZTE Open.
In Colombia, the devices cost 199,900 pesos ($105) on prepay or 99,900 pesos on a 12-month contract at 39,900 pesos per month. In Venezuela, the Fire is priced at VEF Bs 1,739 ($275) and the ZTE Open at Bs 1,159.
Thursday's launch sees the number of countries where Firefox OS devices are available rising to four, following the arrival of the handsets in Spain in early July and the Fire in Poland later that month. Germany and Greece will be the next European countries to get the handsets, and Mozilla said Thursday that Telefonica expects to launch Firefox OS devices in Brazil in the fourth quarter.

The menu uses a grid of round icons.

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