Taylor Martin

Contributing Editor
From Concord, NC

Taylor Martin is a Contributing Editor for PhoneDog and has over six years of experience with BlackBerry and two or more years of hands-on experience with mobile platforms like Android, webOS, and iOS. When he isn't writing into the wee hours of the morning, Taylor is hacking, tweaking, and modding one of his phones or tablets to do his laundry and cook his breakfast. Away from cell phones and other gadgets, Taylor spends his time with friends and family and enjoys playing video games, eating sushi, tweeting, and watching anything of worth on Netflix – especially documentaries. If you have any Netflix recommendations or tech-related questions, follow him on Twitter. Just remember to keep it under 140 characters, folks.

Taylor's latest articles, videos, reviews and more...

ExclusiveIt is unacceptable for Motorola to not update the DROID 3 and DROID X2 to Android 4.0

Android While software updates have always been a low point for the Android platform, Google has continually been working to improve its problem areas with each and every update. Last year, they teamed up with their partner manufacturers and created the...

ExclusiveCan the sender of a text message be liable for a texting while driving accident?

Lifestyle The point has been made a million times and will likely be made a million more. Texting while driving is dangerous. Studies show it, fatal crashes prove it and state laws (at least in 19 states) ban it; yet drivers continue to put themselves and...

ExclusiveChameleon is what Android tablet interfaces should have looked like all along

Android When Google decided to officially support tablets with its Android operating system, they also decided to temporarily fork the platform to support both phones and tablets separately. The idea behind this was to create an optimized interface and...

Reader reactionsMy mobile gaming habits have almost completely stopped

Android Just two months ago, I was a mobile gaming fiend. At any given time, you probably could have found me tucked away in the back corner at a local Starbucks squeezing in some hardcore mobile gaming between articles. Google had been running a promotion...

ExclusiveWould you consider switching to pre-paid to save money?

4g A few of my recent articles have been about the overall increase in the cost of owning a smartphone. The pocket-sized computers themselves are perpetually being improved, yielding a higher average price tag; new networks are continually being built...

ExclusiveWould you still own an iDevice if you couldn't jailbreak it?

Iphone 5 Much like rooting, loading custom ROMs and kernels and hacking devices is increasingly popular in the Android development community, jailbreaking is the way of iDevice owners who aim to get a little added functionality out of their device....

Reader reactionsAre you willing to pay more to get the plan and device you want?

4g As interest in the smartphone industry grows, owning one and paying for the service is becoming more and more expensive. New, data-optimized wireless networks are rapidly being built and expanded to accommodate for the millions of new data users;...

UpdatedSome features I would like to see in the Jelly Bean update

Android Another year, another Android version. In mid-2010, Android godfather Andy Rubin told us that software updates would be coming once per year, slowing things down a bit from the breakneck pace updates were being churned out before. Neither carriers...

ExclusiveDoes the multitasking 'issue' on the One X bother you?

Android HTC's One devices have been recipients of a lot of love from consumers and reviewers alike since we first saw them in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress. I reviewed the HTC One X from AT&T yesterday and had mostly great things to say about it. Aside...

ExclusiveGoogle, please let there be multiple Nexus devices for Jelly Bean

Android Typically, when we tech people think of the term "Nexus", we think of a single device and a single manufacturer for each major iteration of Android. The first Nexus, the Nexus One, was an in-between device for Eclair (2.0 and 2.1) and Froyo (2.2)....

Reader reactionsWhat will you do once you lose unlimited data forever?

4g For six or seven years now, my family and I have had multiple smartphones with unlimited data plans. We originally switched to smartphones during the days of Alltel and were unexpectedly and reluctantly scooped up by Verizon Wireless in the...

Reader reactionsHTC One X Written Review by Taylor

Android After a week and a half of using the HTC One X as my primary device, I am confident in saying it is the most refined Android phone we here at PhoneDog have come across to date. HTC promised to bring quality over quantity in 2012 and they have...

PopularVerizon needs a One, not another DROID

Android Three of the nation's four largest wireless providers either already offer or will soon offer a version of HTC’s new One series. AT&T launched the One X last Sunday; T-Mobile now sells the One S; and beginning Friday, Sprint will offer the HTC EVO...

UpdatedShould walking and texting be illegal?

Lifestyle Walking while texting is dangerous. At least that's what an ABC News implies the law enforcement in Fort Lee, New Jersey would have its citizens believe. “It’s a big distraction. Pedestrians aren’t watching where they are going and they are not...

Reader reactionsThe Top 5 changes I hope to see in the next iPhone

Iphone 5 Apple Is believed to be releasing their next version of the iPhone sometime in the next five months. (Some rumors are pointing to a June-July release, but a fall release is more believable considering the iPhone 4S was released just last October.)...

UpdatedDevelopers, ads do not belong outside your app

Android I love helping developers. They’re the ones that make our smartphones useful and entertaining. They're the ones who make applications like Pocket, Spotify, Plume, Camera+ and the other various apps that I love possible. Developers deserve just as...

Reader reactionsHow far do you go to extend your phone's battery life?

Android Battery life has been an issue with nearly every phone I have owned since jumping the BlackBerry ship. Larger touchscreen displays, faster, more power-consuming processors and GPUs and faster wireless connectivity have turned smartphones into...

UpdatedHTC, please make your integrated batteries larger

Android I have been using the HTC One X since just before noon on Sunday. For the time being (and for the foreseeable future), it has replaced the gigantic Galaxy Note as my primary device and is easily one of the best and most well-rounded mobile devices I...

ExclusiveWhat is your 'read later' app of choice?

Android Every day, I constantly stumble across awesome headlines, videos, pictures and other various Web content. But it isn't alway possible or convenient for me to drop everything I'm doing to read an 11,000 scoop on scams or watch a 30-minute video about...

ExclusiveA few must-have Instagram applications

Android No matter how you look at it, and whether or not you love or hate retro flitered pictures, Instagram is one of the most popular ways to share those pic-worthy moments via mobile. Just snap a picture, choose from one of the 18 equally abhorrent,...

PopularShould you spend your money on an Android tablet or an iPad?

Android Love or hate them, tablets are here to stay. In just two (very) short years, they have come to be a popular household item, one that both children and parents are fighting over. They've stolen a chunk of market share and potential buyers from the PC...

UpdatedDon't expect a better mobile Facebook experience anytime soon

Android Any given day, I can peruse my Facebook News Feed and find more than a few friends complaining about their Facebook experience via mobile. "Facebook for iPhone sucks! You would think a company as large as Facebook could afford a decent iOS...

PopularSense 4 is the first non-stock interface that I actually like

Android For as long as I can remember, I’ve been an Android purist. I've used all the different custom interfaces – Sense UI, MOTOBLUR, TouchWiz, Motorola Applications Platform, LG's 4.0 interface (read: TouchWiz rip-off), etc. Whether it’s the dip in...

ExclusiveWill you trade unlimited for shared family data?

4g ”Data demand will outpace capacity by 2014 if we don't make more spectrum available.” Those are the words that came out of Verizon Wireless President and CEO Dan Mead’s mouth during the CTIA roundtable. And it's The exact same picture that AT&T and...

PopularI am officially done with HD Super AMOLED displays

Android My last two devices were Samsung devices. I used (and loved) the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and only retired it when I discovered I could get the AT&T Galaxy Note to work on T-Mobile’s 3G and HSPA+ networks with a little hackery. There were specific...

ExclusiveGoogle needs to lead by example with its Android apps

Android The first thing you will notice about some of the newest Android devices is that they no longer sport the four capacitive buttons (Back, Home, Menu and Search) below the display like their legacy counterparts. Instead, they only have three hardware...

ExclusiveIf you could, how would you change iOS in the next update?

Iphone 5 Apple announced the iPhone and its respective operating system in January of 2007. Since then, it has undergone four major updates and countless smaller ones. While the latest iteration, iOS 5, boasted hundreds of new features, the overall look and...

Reader reactionsWhy are there so few high-end smartphones under 4-inches?

Android Bigger is better. Or so the cell phone makers want us to believe. Three years ago, smartphones larger than 4-inches were a rarity. By comparison, they were quite large in respect to the average-sized phones, which were anywhere between 3.2-inches...

UpdatedThe HTC One X camera and ImageSense are actually very impressive

Android I'm a sucker for a smartphone with a nice camera. It isn't an absolute necessity – I did own the Galaxy Nexus for four months, after all – because I generally carry an iPhone as a secondary, and it gets the job done quite well. But having a primary...

Reader reactionsWill CTIA Wireless 2012 be an uneventful show?

Android Upon entering 2012, many people had this year pegged as an exciting year chock-full of various improvements to smartphones and countless, high-profile devices. We're almost a week into the fifth month of 2012 and we've been introduced to a plethora...