A few years ago, Sony walked back its marketing claims that the Xperia line of devices were so waterproof, they could be used to take photos underwater. The company is now agreeing to settle a class action complaint that resulted from those waterproof claims by issuing refunds to anyone whose phone or tablet was damaged by water. [More]
tablets
How Panera Sped Up Ordering And Dispersed Its ‘Mosh Pit’
By 6.2.17
It’s not a good sign when you’re a fast-casual restaurant, and your company’s own chairman wonders whether he should just have just stayed home and had leftovers for lunch instead of driving there. Panera Bread Co.’s Ron Shaich realized that other people would ask themselves the same question, and made changes to the ordering process that are finally paying off. [More]
Appeals Court Rules For Apple In One Of Its Patent Infringement Fights With Samsung
By 10.7.16
Apple just won the latest round in one of its fights with Samsung over patent infringement, with a federal appeals court ruling that reinstates a $119.6 million patent-infringement verdict it scored. [More]
Amazon Giving Away Free Tablets If You Sign Up For Comcast Through Cable Site
By 6.8.16
Are you in the market for an Amazon Fire tablet, and a new cable provider? If so, you’re in luck, because the Everything Store is offering free tablets in its Cable Store along with new Xfinity Internet and TV packages from Comcast. Maybe they’d offer tablets with packages from other providers, too, but Comcast is the only vendor in their Cable Store for now. [More]
Tablets Control The Rooms At Las Vegas’ Aria Hotel
By 1.20.16
We often joke that electronics run our lives. Well, for one hotel in Las Vegas, they certainly run the rooms. The Aria hotel in Sin City has installed tablets in all 4,004 guest rooms, allowing guests to control just about every aspect of the room – locking doors, turning on lights, drawing curtains, and ordering room service, with a few tabs on the screen. The tablets were installed by British company Crave Interactive in what is thought to be the largest guest-tech project in the U.S. [The Los Angeles Times] [More]
NYC Taxi Commission Approves Pilot Program That Would Use GPS, Tablets To Calculate Fares
By 10.16.15
The taxi you hop in on your next trip around New York City may function a lot more like Uber and other ride-hailing services: the commission tasked with regulating the city’s taxis approved a pilot program that would replace traditional fare meters with those powered by GPS location. [More]
AT&T, Uber Team Up To Stream College Football Games On Your Next Ride Across Town
By 10.16.15
The next time you have to trek across down during the big game, you might not have to worry about missing any extraordinary plays: Uber and AT&T have struck a deal to stream college football games in some of the vehicles operated through the ride-hailing service. [More]
Kids These Days Would Rather Play Video Games On Mobile Devices Than On PCs, Consoles
By 9.24.15
Are the days of fighting over the best video game controller over? Perhaps, says a new report: though consoles and computers used to be the most popular for gaming, smartphones and tablets now rule the roost among the younger set. [More]
Amazon Selling New 7″ Fire Tablets In A $250 Six-Pack
By 9.17.15
Would you pay $50 for a 7″ Amazon Fire? If not, Amazon thinks you might be down to pay $41 for one if its new tablets — if you’ve got six people you want to give one to. The company is announcing a new lineup of Fire tablets today, including six-packs of the 7″ tablets — which usually go for $49.99 each — for $250. Just to compare, that’s six tablets for half the price of a 32GB iPad mini. [More]
More Google Searches Are Done On Mobile Devices Than PCs For First Time
By 5.5.15
In the beginning, a person with a question that needed to be answered would shout, “To the Google!” and that would most often mean sitting in front of a desktop computer or opening a laptop. Not so, anymore: For the first time, U.S. Googlers are Googling more on mobile devices than personal computers. [More]
Olive Garden Adding Tablets For Ordering And Paying At All U.S. Restaurants
By 4.14.15
Because we’re all constantly staring at one screen or another, Olive Garden is giving customers the chance to skip talking to a real person when ordering and paying by adding new tablets added to all its restaurants’ tables. [More]
Nintendo Announces Plans To Make Games For Mobile Devices
By 3.17.15
Have a hankering to play Super Mario at the bus stop but don’t have the portable gaming console to satisfy that urge? Soon video games from Nintendo will make the move from consoles to mobile devices, as the company announces a partnership with an online gaming firm to develop and operate new apps. [More]
iPad Mini Screen Protector Conjures Up Tactile Keyboard From Thin Air
By 2.12.15
In spite of the near-ubiquity of virtual keyboards on flat smartphone and tablet screens, some people really long for the haptic feedback provided by actual keys. That’s why some companies — like the legally besieged Typo slip-on keyboards — have tried to bring that sensation back to consumers who want it. Now there’s a new iPad screen protector/case that claims to be able to conjure up something keyboard like out of thin air. [More]
How The Heck Do I Decide Whether The New iPads Are What I Want?
October 22, 2013
While the smartphone market has become much more diverse in recent years, Apple’s iPad still dominates the tablet business in the U.S. Today, the company announced the latest iteration of the full-sized iPad — the iPad Air — along with an improved iPad Mini, hoping to continue this dominance. But many consumers aren’t fully informed of how these devices compare to already available Android and Windows tablets. [More]
Amazon Debuts New Kindle Fire HDX Tablets With Live Pop-Up Video Help
By 9.25.13
There was a show on VH1 wherein music videos would play (yes, on TV, kids!) and little bubbles of information about the artist or the video would pop up so you could learn while you listened. Maybe someone at Amazon was a fan of that show too, because the company’s new Kindle Fire HDX tablets have a sort of pop-up help feature on the desktop. But instead of just words, a tech-support rep appears. [More]
Barnes & Noble Will Quit Manufacturing Nook Color Tablets
By 6.25.13
Tablets are growing in popularity worldwide and cutting into PC sales, but Barnes & Noble has decided to get out of the crowded tablet biz. Their Nook comes in single-purpose e-reader and full-color Android tablet varieties, They’re still going to design and sell e-readers, but future color tablets will be “co-branded” with existing tablet manufacturers that you’ve probably already heard of. [More]
U.S Homes Now Have More Than Half A Billion Devices Hooked Up To The Internet
By 3.19.13
We’ve barely dipped our toes into the tablet pool and already it seems like they could combine with smartphones to start that robot revolution everyone is secretly dreading. A new report from a research firm says there are now more than half a billion home-based devices connected to the Internet in the U.S. [More]
There’s Finally A Tablet Made Just For Women Because Those iThingies Are So Darn Confusing
By 3.13.13
Now that womenfolk have gotten a handle on that whole “writing with pretty pens” thing, it’s time we catch up with technology! But those iThingies, screen books and Galactic whaddyacallits are so confusing. Thank goodness the makers of the ePad Femme are here to save the day with a gender-specific tablet. Can you plug your sparkly pink ethernet cord into it, though? [More]
