Gadgets

Editors' note: This article was originally published on July 26, 2012, and updated August 10 with more details.

When we first heard of Motorola's upcoming Motorola Photon Q, we thought that the keyboarded Android smartphone would serve as a nice lifeline for disillusioned and disenfranchised BlackBerry refugees fleeing the sinking ship.

Running Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich and driven by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, the Motorola Photon Q will certainly surpass Motorola's Droid 4.

While the Droid 4 proved that a QWERTY slider could indeed pack in a swift 4G LTE radio, nimble components, and an excellent physical keyboard, it also suffers from a few shortcomings. First, at half an inch thick and weighing a hefty 6.31 ounces, the phone is big and heavy. Second, the Droid 4 still lives in a time warp, mired by the outdated Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS.

Thankfully, the Motorola Photon Q boasts fresher features.… Read more

Motorola pull the wraps off of its mystery smartphone Facebook tease-fest today and it's...the Atrix HD, not exactly what many wished for. Android fans, me included, yearned for the fabled Razr HD, which is rumored to feature the superduper 3,300mAH battery of the Droid Razr Maxx in a trim chassis, plus a 13-megapixel camera.

Now that would be a whole lot of phone, especially if the Razr HD comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to complement its Verizon 4G LTE data connection. Sadly we'll have to sit tight and hope official word of Moto's … Read more

The lovely Mrs. Cheapskate has a smartphone, but her minivan lacks a stereo input jack. Thus, there's no easy way for her to listen to her playlists, podcasts, Pandora stations, and the like.

A new breed of FM transmitters promises to solve that problem. Like this one: Today only, 1SaleADay has the Livio LVC02A Bluetooth Internet Radio Car Kit for $29.99, plus $4.99 for shipping. It's new, not refurbished, and it sells elsewhere (like on Amazon) for at least $76.

Update: Sadly, but unsurprisingly, this is now sold out.

Update No. 2: Back in stock!

The … Read more

Yesterday was your last chance to get in on the Kickstarter fundraising for Boxer8's Ouya. After 30 days and more than 63,000 backers, the Android-powered home gaming console pulled in a total of $8,596,475 ($99 of those from your correspondent).

As my colleague Michelle Starr reports from Australia, you can now visit the Ouya Web site to place a preorder for the console. The price is now $109, and it's due to ship in March 2013.

Regardless of your thoughts on Ouya's merits, the little console that seems like it maybe could has captured … Read more

YouTube will no longer come standard on the iPhone and iPad, and the Internet is jumping to conclusions as usual.

The next version of Apple's mobile OS -- iOS 6 -- will be missing the familiar YouTube app from its home screen. Instead, users will have to download a new YouTube app from the App Store. Apple claims it's simply because its five-year deal with Google has expired, while Google isn't even talking about the circumstances of YouTube's departure from Apple's devices.

Apple and Google don't exactly like each other, and Apple has been … Read more

Perhaps killing virtual zombies will tempt you to buy a new Sony Android handset. The company just announced that the game Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies is now available for download on its Xperia S and Xperia Ion smartphones.

As part of an exclusive deal with Activision, the $6.99 title will be listed in the Google Play store for 30 days only for these new Sony devices plus the older Xperia Play phone. The game features 50 levels of zombie-killing action and is a port of the popular console software.

According to Sony, users can play in single-player … Read more

It's widely expected that Apple will release a 7-to-8-inch tablet next month. Will it be the "iPad Mini" as many have been calling it? Or will it be a larger iPod Touch, as has been debated?

My experience using Google's Nexus 7 Android tablet suggests to me that it might not matter.

The rumored Apple tablet got renewed attention last week, after court documents in the Apple-Samsung patent dispute revealed that even after Steve Jobs famously dismissed 7-inch tablets in October 2010, Apple was still internally discussing the idea.

How have we gone from Jobs seeming … Read more

The best tech we reviewed this week is just that: the best. But these devices aren't without a few contradictions.

For example, Wayne Cunningham reviewed one of the most lovely-looking cars on the outside, the 2012 BMW 335i, which comes with a top-notch stereo and pleasing dashboard tech but a shockingly bland interior. Then Jessica Dolcourt took a hard look at T-Mobile's version of the Samsung Galaxy Note, which arrived at the carrier last Monday. The Note, we note (yeah, see what I did there? I'm sorry. Couldn't help it.), is a polarizing paradox of a … Read more

Kids like sweets. Parents like apples. Luckily, the forces that be figured out a long time ago how to resolve any potential issues surrounding these basic truisms: simply combine the two. How and when the first caramel apple came to be is probably lost to time, but it is a good bet that a parent had something to do with it (or an apple farmer). However, getting your soon-to-be-sticky hands on one isn't exactly as easy as picking up a fun meal at the fast-food place down the street.

While caramel and apples may be abundant, some user interaction … Read more