iPad - Blog about Gadgets and News

Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 – 2025 review

August 18, 2017 Richard Gomez 0

On the heels of Apple's new, lighter iPad, Amazon has come out with a full-size tablet that weighs even less yet sports a sharper display and a lower price tag. Although Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 hasn't received as much attention as the iPad Air, it is emerging as the strongest challenger yet to Apple's device.
The new Kindle shares many of the features found in a smaller version that came out Oct. 18.
A row of tabs at the top of the screen gives you quick access to Amazon services such as e-books, music, video and shopping. Recently used apps and content appear in the middle so you can return to them quickly. The bottom row has icons for frequently used apps such as email and the camera.
Need help? Just hit the “Mayday” button. You'll be connected within seconds to a live customer-service representative, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You see the representatives in a video box, but they can only hear you and see what's on your screen. They can also..

HTC Flyer 2025 Review

March 16, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Introduction
Introduced at the Mobile World Congress in February HTC took a different approach towards tablet design. The Flyer was unique amongst its Android brethren from the moment of inception, featuring a 7-Inch display, Android Gingerbread instead of Honeycomb, and a stylus.
The question is, do these make the Flyer a better tablet device in comparison to the competition?
Packaging and Content
Device presentation has always been HTC's forte and with their flagship tablet HTC pulls all stops. Normally, tablets are pricey and don't come with a decent amount of usable accessories. But HTC provides a suave leather case for the device, lined with felt-like micro-fibers, headphones, the HTC Magic Pen, the USB cable, the charger and the Flyer itself.
Hardware and Styling
The Flyer features a uni-body design,which is immensely classy. If you happen to miss the large HTC logo on the rear, you could easily mistake it for an Apple product. The back is covered by a layer of aluminum..

Zync Quad 9.7 2025

July 10, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

While the market is flooded with 7-inch tablets, there's still some space for good quality 10-inchers. The Zync Quad 9.7 tablet promises to bring a high resolution 'Retina' display to the Android world at an unbelievable price. But does it deliver on performance and usability? We try to find out.
Design/ Build
From the front, the Zync Quad 9.7 looks roughly similar to the Apple iPad except that there's no hardware button. The front features a 9.7-inch screen surrounded by a black bezel. Interestingly, the iPad also features a 9.7-inch screen. The placement of the front facing camera is a little unconventional – it's located at the top right corner (looking at the tablet in landscape mode).
The tablet has rounded corners and there's a white plastic frame between the front and the back of the tablet. The back of the tablet has a brushed aluminium finish and while we're not sure of the material that it's made of, it does exude a feeling of durabilit..

Review: HP TouchPad makes a mediocre tablet

March 9, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

A year after Hewlett-Packard Co. purchased flailing Palm, the technology behemoth is rolling out the first tablet that uses Palm's webOS operating system.
The July 1 release should be a triumph for HP, showcasing its ability to compete in the increasingly crowded tablet market. Yet while the TouchPad's software is beautiful and intuitive, overall the tablet is more of a “meh-sterpiece” than a masterpiece.
The TouchPad looks a lot like its peers: It's black and shiny with just a few buttons dotting its frame. The screen, 9.7 inches at the diagonal, is the same size and resolution as Apple's iPad.
At $500 for a model with 16 gigabytes of storage or $600 for one with 32 GB, the price is essentially the same, too. The device I tested used Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet; HP says a version will work on AT&T Inc.'s wireless network later this summer.
At 0.54 inches thick, the TouchPad is fatter than the iPad. It's heavier, too, at 1.6 pounds. With its rounded ..

Google Nexus 10 review 2025

February 22, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

When I first turned on Google's new tablet computer, I immediately thought of it as a mere conduit to Google services.
Besides giving you quick access to Gmail and YouTube, the Nexus 10 steers you to digital movies, books and other content available for sale through Google's online Play store.
Because of that, I wasn't thinking of the Nexus 10 as an alternative to Apple's general-purpose iPad – even with a price tag that's $100 cheaper, starting at $399. It took more thought and time with the Nexus to change that perception. After all, apps available for Android smartphones work on the tablet as well.
Still, the Nexus really shines when it comes to media – especially content bought through Google.
For the past year, Google has been trying to challenge Apple and Amazon by selling digital content.
The Play store is Google's version of iTunes for Apple devices. There, you can get a variety of apps, some free and some for a small fee. You can buy or rent movie..

Review: Motorola Xooms in with Honeycomb

March 5, 2016 Richard Gomez 1

Introduction
Launched at the Consumer Electronics Show 2011, in Las Vegas, the Motorola Xoom wowed the world with its slick new operating system 'Google Honeycomb' and its class leading specifications. Besides being the flagship Honeycomb tablet, it was the first one to feature dual cameras and a dual-core processor, even before the iPad 2 was launched.
Hardware and Styling
On the face of it, you are welcomed by the large 10.1-inch display, which has a resolution of 1280×800, making it compatible with high definition content at 720p. The device has no buttons on the front of the device. The only thing other than the screen is a 2-megapixel front facing camera for video chats. There are no hardware Android buttons as the Honeycomb OS houses these inside the operating system user interface.
At 12.9 mm and 730 grams, it will not give the iPad 2 any jitters when it comes down to sheer volume, but the Xoom does pack a few punches of its own. For starters, the bottom end of the dev..

Transistor for iOS Review: As Good as It’s on the PC

February 18, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Transistor – made by Bastion creators Supergiant Games – first released in May 2014 for the PlayStation 4 and Windows, followed by Linux and OS X versions in October. Following in Bastion's footsteps, the game was released for iOS devices earlier this month.
We'd played the PC version last year and loved it, so purchasing Transistor on day-one was an obvious choice. But how has it fared in the journey to mobile devices, and should you buy this game for your iPhone or iPad, especially if you haven't played the PC or PS4 version?
Before talking about the porting of Transistor, it's important to get a measure of what this game is, in the first place. If you're already familiar with the game, and just want to know about how it handles on mobile devices, you could just skip the next section of this article. On the other hand, if you're a newcomer to the game, the introduction will help you understand what Transistor is all about, and why you might want to pla..

Review: HTC Flyer tablet mates with slippery pen

March 4, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Is it better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all? That's the question posed by a new tablet computer that takes aim at one of the deficiencies of the iPad: that it's difficult to write on it with a stylus or pen.
The HTC Flyer is a $500 tablet with a 7-inch screen. At a glance, it's not much different from the other tablets that are scrambling to compete with Apple Inc.'s iPad.
The iPad and all its copycats are designed to sense the touch of a finger. The screen layer that does this looks for big, blunt, electrically conductive objects such as fingers. It doesn't sense small, sharp ones like pens.
That's why third-party styluses for the iPad are blunt rubbery sticks. They're essentially imitation fingers. They're not very good for drawing, but some people find them better than nothing.
The Flyer has the same finger-sensing screen layer. But it backs this up with a second one, which looks for the movement of a specially designe..

iPad mini 2025 review

February 13, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

I bet the iPad mini is going to be on a lot of wish lists this holiday season. I also bet that for a lot of people, it's not going to be the best choice. It's beautiful and light, but Apple made a big compromise in the design, one that means that buyers should look closely at the competition before deciding.
Starting at $329, the iPad mini is the cheapest iPad. The screen is a third smaller than the regular iPads, and it sits in an exquisitely machined aluminum body. It weighs just 11 ounces half as much as a full-size iPad making it easier to hold in one hand. It's just under 8 inches long and less than a third of an inch thick, so it fits easily into a handbag.
The issue is the screen quality. Apple has been on the forefront of a move toward sharper, more colorful screens. It calls them “Retina” displays because the pixels the little light-emitting squares that make up the screen are so small that they blend together almost seamlessly in our eyes, removing the impressi..

Review: Acer ICONIA A500: The Honeycomb Debutant

March 3, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

Introduction
Until the arrival of Honeycomb, most tablets were playing catch-up with Apple's all conquering iPad and it's smartphone OSs. Now, in its second generation, the iPad 2 is likely to face some serious competition from the likes of Motorola, Acer, Samsung, HTC, Dell and other manufacturers who are embracing Google's tablet specific Honeycomb OS.
One such might be the Acer ICONIA A500, the first Honeycomb tablet to hit India. Can it take a bite out of the big Apple?
Hardware
The 10-inch A500 seems extremely thick at 13.3 mm versus the sub-10mm frame of the iPad 2. It is interesting to note that the original iPad was 13.4 mm thick. So the competition is still trying to emulate the original iPad even the next version has set new benchmarks for sheer form factor.
Quite naturally, when compared to the iPad 2, the device is bulky and feels heavy. It is quite a challenge to use while reading books. You will also find yourself setting the device down very often, because..

Microsoft Surface tablet 2025

February 13, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

I've been conditioned just like any other consumer to expect certain things from certain companies. When it comes to tablets, I expect Apple's to look and feel amazing, Google's to seamlessly blend online services such as Gmail and search, and Amazon's to have easy access to its online store.
So when Microsoft came out with its first tablet computer, the Surface, I wanted and expected a machine that is good for work. After all, its Windows operating system runs most of the world's computers, particularly in corporate environments.
The Surface is Microsoft's first attempt at a general-purpose computer. In the past, it made the software and left it to other companies to make the machines. But to catch the tablet wave led by Apple's iPad, Microsoft felt it needed to make its own device.
The Surface's price tag starts at $499, the same as the latest full-screen iPad, but if you are going to buy one, you'll want to spend the extra $100 or more fo..

Review: Asus Eee Pad tablet transforms into laptop

March 1, 2016 Richard Gomez 0

The tablet computers that compete with the iPad have mostly been uninspiring. The Eee Pad Transformer stands out with a design that isn't just copied from the iPad: It's a tablet that turns into a laptop.
For $399, $100 less than the cheapest iPad, you get a tablet computer with a 10-inch screen and hardware that doesn't cut corners. It's fully usable on its own. For another $149, you can buy a keyboard that connects to the tablet. Together, they look and open like a small laptop.
The Transformer is made by Asustek Computer Inc., the Taiwanese company that started the brief “netbook” craze a few years ago by selling small, inexpensive laptops. With the keyboard attached, the Transformer is nearly indistinguishable from a netbook.
But before you get too excited about the prospect of a laptop-tablet hybrid that combines the best of both worlds, I have to tell you that you're not getting a Windows laptop in the bargain. The Transformer runs Google Inc.'s Andr..