How To

The stumbling-block to using a phone as an all-in-one solution for photography is basically that the lenses aren't as good as those on any dedicated camera. While you would expect a DSLR camera to sport a better lens, even the most basic, sub-hundred-dollar point-and-shoots have higher quality glass...

Remember this: The phone or tablet you purchased is yours. It does not belong to the carrier that you bought it from despite the fact that the device is emblazoned with its corporate identity, logo or splash screen. This outright ownership you have in the device means that you can do whatever you li...

If you live or work in an area with marginal cell service and want to use your Android smartphone to make and receive voice calls, you can. The key is to piggyback on an Internet connection at your location using the Internet bandwidth there to carry your voice traffic. This method of calling works ...

Are we about to see the demise of the game console? It's hard to believe the days of Sony's ubiquitous PlayStation system, introduced in 1994 -- or even those of the Xbox -- may be numbered. But with changing delivery systems, the spreading cloud, and processor advances, those PlayStations and Wiis...

Facebook's recent acquisition of location-tracker heavyweight Gowalla is an indicator of the potential strategic importance of location-tracking technology in the social network arena. Players in this marketplace include Gowalla, which lets users share favorite places with fellow Facebook and Twitte...

One of the most-used leisure-oriented apps on my Android smartphones has been Google's free My Tracks. The app brilliantly measures data related to hikes and bike rides via the GPS radio. It tracks distance, speed, time, elevation, grade and so on. Pressing "Start" when setting off, and remembering ...

Think of the devices that have been made redundant by smartphones: landline phone, laptop computer, global positioning system receiver, map, compass, flashlight, still camera, video camera, gaming console, calculator, wristwatch, electronic photo frame, newspaper, magazine, book, radio, weather radi...

Losing a laptop may be less painful now than it used to be because the cost of replacing the physical device has trickled downward recently. You can now pick up a decent workhorse for three or four hundred dollars at a big-box retailer. Big deal if you lose it. What hasn't become less valuable, thou...

Unless you're driving a tricked-out late-model BMW or Mini, you're unlikely to have Internet-based media streaming options built into your vehicle. However, there are ways to replicate that Internet media experience -- just without the integrated controls. The basic premise is to use your smartphone...

Open publishing platform Lulu is known for making a global print-on-demand, disc manufacturing, and distribution and fulfillment network available to independent authors, filmmakers and other individuals. For several years, creators have been able to make everything from hard-cover and paperback boo...

The convenience of using your smartphone to store, stream and curate your music collection -- or simply stream music from online, personalized radio stations like Pandora -- doesn't mean you need to sacrifice your home stereo system for the dubious quality earbuds that came with the phone. The inves...

The stuttering and freezing that can occur when you're streaming video are indicative of issues related to bandwidth. Commercial hosted solutions like Netflix and Hulu can suffer from degraded performance. Rather than simply calling your ISP and requesting a faster, more expensive pipe, there are so...

Amazon's $199 tablet will be one of the first sub-$300 tablets with a decent specification. However, if you can't wait until November, don't necessarily want a book vendor's skin on your device, and haven't ponied up for an iPad yet, you can get a solid base-Android tablet for around $250 today -- o...

One antidote to escalating household budgets is to cut utility services. However, dropping trash pickup and dumping your garbage in neighbors' receptacles in the middle of the night probably wouldn't go down too well in the community. Likewise, terminating your electricity supply won't play too well...

Travel tools for the road include some of the killer apps that have driven the smartphone market, like mapping. However, the ball and chain is the cost of getting that data outside of your home market. For example, U.S. carrier Sprint currently charges a whopping $19.45 per megabyte to use its GSM d...

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