iOS 8 vs. Android Lollipop: Same features, yet more distinct than ever

Mashable - In the mobile war between Android and iOS, something interesting has happened over the last six months.

In the past, the two operating systems were largely distinguished by features and polish. Android traditionally had more features and customization than iOS, but iOS retained a higher level of finish.

See also: How Google's 'Material' will reshape Android as we know it

That all changed with iOS 8 and Android 5.0 "Lollipop." With these releases, iOS 8 now has almost as many features as Android. Just as notable, Lollipop's new Material Design ethos has an almost iOS-level of fit polish and finish.

It would be easy to extrapolate that iOS and Android are now more alike than ever before — and on the surface, this is true. But in practice, what is most interesting about the current state of the two operating systems is how different the overall experience has become.    Read More

Samsung Galaxy S III Teardown Reveals Some Interesting Secrets

 
[Credit: iFixit] 


PCWorld - We're immensely jealous of our friends over at iFixit and Chipworks who got their hands on the hotly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S III. Doing what they do best--tearing things apart to show you how to fix them yourself--the two teams give us a look inside Samsung's monstrous new phone. While I'm not going to cover every single thing that iFixit and Chipworks found inside of the phone--you can see that for yourself on their website--here are some of the highlights.

The Galaxy S III has a 2100mAh battery which, while not as big as the 3300mAh battery in the Droid RAZR Maxx, is still bigger than the 1750mAH battery that comes with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The battery also contains the phone's NFC chip, and humorously asks that users consult the phone's manual before use.           More

Church Leaders Give Blessing to Gadgets in the Pews

Mass Appeal From an October 2011 service in Poland. DrabikPany 

via Flickr

PCMag.Com - Church pews nationwide were lit up this Easter weekend, and not just by the glow of so many churchgoers making their once-a-year appearances — iPads and smartphones were on plenty of parishioners’ laps, helping people follow along with the ceremonies. Congregants are feeling increasingly comfortable with using gadgets in church, and priests and ministers are condoning it.

In Chicagoland, many congregations encourage the use of gadgets during church, as the Chicago Tribune reports. Worshippers are using Bible apps and web searches to find greater context behind the sermons they hear, and the preachers themselves are using the technology to get their messages out. As long as people are listening, maybe Googling Romans 6:8 and not playing Angry Birds, congregation leaders are glad to encourage the use of technology in the pews — a few even offer WiFi connections. Some churchgoers have even taken to Twitter during services to share the conversation.            More

Review: Motorola Droid Razr

CNET - The Razr is back, and it’s better than ever. Motorola has done the smartest thing it’s done in years with the Droid Razr, which combines sheer Droid brawn with the legacy of Razr design.

We had the opportunity to get a hands-on look at the phone, and we can’t deny that the Droid Razr’s ultralight design is an immediate wow factor. We picked it up and were stunned at how skinny it was–it’s 7.1mm (0.28 inch) thin, to be exact, which makes it the thinnest smartphone so far, according to Motorola. It’s also correspondingly lightweight, at only 127 grams (4.5 ounces).

But that doesn’t mean the phone is a fragile thing to be coddled. The Droid Razr feels surprisingly solid, and Motorola says that’s because of the sculpted glass, the Kevlar backing, and the stainless steel chassis that holds it all together. There’s even a nanotechnology coating that makes the phone splash resistant. It stops short of being waterproof, though, so we wouldn’t go swimming with it. The Kevlar backing is soft to the touch, which is a departure from the usual rough texture associated with Kevlar. The thin display is made out of sculpted Corning Gorilla Glass, which claims to be scratch resistant as well.

Motorola Droid Razr hands-on (photos)

 

And what a display it is. The 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced display is really gorgeous in person. With its qHD resolution, images and graphics are both colorful and crisp. The Droid Razr also claims to be the first smartphone to be able to stream HD content from Netflix.

Powering all of this is a dual-core 1.2GHz TI processor and 1GB of RAM. The result is a seamless navigation experience. We flipped through screens with speed, with no transition lag at all. We didn’t notice any sluggishness when launching and multitasking between several apps as well. The Droid Razr ships with Android 2.3.5 with a MotoBlur skin. It’s not the prettiest skin we’ve ever seen, but it’s not nearly as intrusive as it used to be.          More

Where can you get 4G?

Editors’ note: This chart was originally published on Dec. 2, 2010. It has been updated with new information.

With AT&T finally announcing its first LTE markets, 4G (or some form of it) has finally made it to all of America’s major carriers. But just as is the case with regular cell phone coverage, the scope and scale of each carrier’s 4G network vary widely. Some cover a lot of ground and some cover barely any at all. As a result, it can take a lot of effort to determine where in the country you can find high-speed data access and how the different carrier networks contrast and overlap.

To save you time, we’ve compiled a handy chart that details 4G coverage for Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, MetroPCS, and AT&T. Verizon has been the most aggressive with its rollout, but in most major cities, and many medium-size and smaller markets, you can get 4G from at least two wireless providers. Almost all 50 states are covered, with just five–Alaska, Wyoming,

Montana, Maine, and Vermont–left out (a corner of southeastern New Hampshire gets coverage from the Boston market).

Now, we know what you’re saying about T-Mobile: though it can be just as fast as WiMax, its HSPA+ technology isn’t really 4G. That’s certainly true, but if you want to get technical, neither are LTE and WiMax as they currently exist. And regardless of definitions, we included T-Mobile’s network because it is the carrier’s fastest network at the time of this writing.

Now before you move on to the chart, there are a couple of other things you should know. For most metro areas, you can assume that neighboring cities and immediate suburbs are covered as well, even if we don’t list them separately. So, for example, even though T-Mobile lists Bethesda, Md., and Alexandria, Va., as distinct HSPA+ markets, we included them under Washington, D.C. Similarly, Oakland and San Jose, Calif., are listed under the San Francisco Bay Area. We also grouped together cities with common associations like Dallas/Ft. Worth and Minneapolis/St. Paul. Please let us know if we missed a carrier’s 4G presence in your area or if we missed your town entirely.              See the coverage chart