Tablets

Getting started with iPad app Tayasui Sketches

If you like Paper and want another sketch app for the iPad that looks and acts like Paper but with a slightly different set of tools, check out Tayasui Sketches. The app offers an impressive assortment of drawing tools for free, and the in-app Pro Mode upgrade, at a reasonable $1.99, is cheaper than any of the upgrades Paper offers.

Launch Tayasui Sketches and you'll be greeted with a blank canvas and nine drawing tools, plus an eraser and a color strip for selecting a color for your brush or pen. Like Paper, Tayasui Sketches is not cluttered … Read more

Disable autoplaying for videos in Instagram

No matter how you feel about Instagram adding video, I think we can all agree that being greeted with a random sound every time you launch the app and a video starts playing without you doing a thing is very annoying.

As previously touched on when video capabilities in Instagram first launched, you can disable the "feature" (more like curse) of autoplay with just a few quick taps. I have to hand it to the Instagram team for even putting the option in the app.

Launch Instagram and navigate to your profile page. From there, tap on the … Read more

Samsung scores another win versus Apple, this time in Japan

Score one for Samsung in the company's long-running patent battles with Apple.

A Japanese high court upheld a lower court ruling that Samsung did not infringe on an Apple patent related to synchronizing music and video on Galaxy smartphones and tablets with servers, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The Intellectual Property High Court in Tokyo backed an August decision by Tokyo District Court that Samsung's mobile devices don't infringe on Apple technology. Following that ruling, Apple filed paperwork in October to appeal the decision.

Samsung gave us the following statement:

We welcome the court's decision, … Read more

Barnes & Noble bails out on Nook tablet biz

Barnes & Noble is taking its losses and running.

In a statement released Tuesday, the retailer revealed that it's pulling out of its Nook tablet manufacturing business in the face of ongoing losses:

The company plans to significantly reduce losses in the Nook segment by limiting risks associated with manufacturing. Going forward, the company intends to continue to design eReading devices and reading platforms, while creating a partnership model for manufacturing in the competitive color tablet market. Thus, the widely popular lines of Simple Touch and Glowlight products will continue to be developed in house, and the company's … Read more

Samsung denies report it will exit desktop PC business

Samsung desktop PCs may soon be a thing of the past.

The Korean electronics giant plans to close its desktop business in order to focus on tablets and all-in-one laptops, according to a report from the Korea Times that cited unnamed officials at the company.

"Tablets, all-in-one and hybrid PCs are Samsung's current focus. Samsung is speeding up its restructuring of its PC business via product realignment toward profitable variants," one Samsung official told the Korea Times.

However, Samsung denied the report as "groundless" in a statement to The Next Web.

The rumor that Samsung … Read more

Smartphone use may make you wussy, says Harvard study

Your reputation as a tough, hard-nosed business go-getter may take a hit if you spend a lot of time using your little smartphone. A study conducted by researchers at Harvard Business School suggests that using devices with small screens can cause people to behave less assertively than those using larger screens.

"Grounded in research showing that adopting expansive body postures increases psychological power, we hypothesized that working on larger devices, which forces people to physically expand, causes users to behave more assertively," reads the abstract of the paper, titled "iPosture: The Size of Electronic Consumer Devices Affects Our Behavior."… Read more

Apple's patent win over Mirror Worlds stays intact

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Mirror Worlds' appeal of an Apple victory in a patent case, putting to rest the long-running dispute.

The nation's highest court said on its site that it has denied Mirror World's request that it consider the case related to software patents for features such as Apple's Cover Flow.

Mirror Worlds was founded by Yale University computer-science Professor David Gelernter. In a 2008 lawsuit, the company accused Apple of infringing on its patents with its Mac OS X operating systems going back to 10.4 "Tiger," … Read more

Three Galaxy Tab 3 tablets coming in early July

On July 7, Samsung will release no less than three new Galaxy Tab 3 tablets in 7-, 8-, and 10.1-inch screen sizes.

The 7-incher ships with a $199 price tag and 8GB of internal storage. While both the 8-inch and 10.1-inch versions include 16GB of storage with prices at $299 and $399, respectively.

Each tablet includes a (now expected) Samsung IR blaster, microSD storage slot, 50GB of free Dropbox storage for two years, and three free months of Hulu Plus.

Look for full reviews at around the time of release and check out our first takes (dutifully linked … Read more

Lenovo Yoga 11S convertible laptop now available

Consumers eyeing Lenovo's Yoga 11S hybrid laptop/tablet now no longer have to wait to get one.

Lenovo kicked off preorders for the new Yoga on May 16, promising that the convertible would be available for shipping and on store shelves starting June 23. Buyers can now pick one up directly at Lenovo's online store, which estimates a June 27 ship date based on an order date of June 24.

The 11S is also available through Best Buy, both online and at the company's retail outlets.

At this point, the new convertible is available in the U.… Read more