Plenty more Taylor Martin articles, videos, reviews

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Microsoft, notifications should have been a primary focus for Windows Phone 8

Lifestyle When Nokia announced the 808 PureView at Mobile World Congress earlier this year, the Finnish firm spoke straight to my heart. While the 808 itself was about 90 percent camera and 10 percent phone, it was the proof of concept that had me...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 13

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Does your smartphone usage vary by day?

Android "How do you use your smartphone?" That's a question I have asked, answered and been asked countless times now. In fact, just last month, I explained some of the many ways I use my phone to kill time when I'm waiting in a doctor's office,...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 6

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How Samsung is outclassing the competition with the Galaxy Note II

Android Many of you know I was (im)patiently waiting for the successor to the original Samsung Galaxy Note. After some internal debate and seeing hundreds of Samsung PR agents toting the phablet around at CES in January, I just had to get my hands...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 15

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What is LTE worth to you?

4g LTE is a relatively new feature in our smartphones and, likewise, a fairly new service offered by wireless providers around the world. It's an emerging wireless technology around the world and it's leaving millions upon millions of fans in...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 29

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Will the increasing price of smartphones impact your holiday shopping?

Android For the past five years or so, smartphones have been an increasingly common holiday present. In fact, I remember being green with envy when my sister was given a cell phone for Christmas when she was 13 (I was 11 at the time). A few years...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 5

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Which holiday smartphone are you most excited for? (Poll)

Android There's no question, this holiday season is shaping up to be one of the more intense and device-packed seasons in recent history. In the last two months alone, over one dozen mobile devices have been made official. First was Nokia in...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 65

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The keyboards of Android are leaving Windows Phone and iOS in the dust

Android To this day, one of my favorite features of the Android platform is the ability to replace the native keyboard with a third-party QWERTY of my choosing. Until recently the stock Android keyboard was lacking many of the great features the...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 26

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I'm strongly considering an HSPA+ Nexus 7

Android I've been off and on with the Nexus 7. I've been wishy washy about it since day one for more reasons than one. While I've welcomed one back into my arsenal, 7-inch tablets are still unwieldy at times, particularly when running about....

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 16

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Samsung Galaxy Note II Written Review by Taylor

Android We come across devices of all sizes here at PhoneDog, and the Samsung Galaxy Note II is easily the largest smartphone to come around to date. It is also one of the most well-rounded and refined products to launch in recent years. Inside,...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 25

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How inspired is your home screen setup?

Android More so than just a form of mobile communication, utility and entertainment, phones have become, more or less, an extension of our bodies. The blinking and buzzing phone on the night stand is the first thing many of us reach for in the...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 55 33 Reactions

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Do you ever exceed your data cap?

Android Cellular data is worth its weight in gold these days. With the exception of Sprint and T-Mobile here in the States, carriers are clamping down on usage, charging arguably outrageous prices for limited amounts of data. With either a hard or...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 97 57 Reactions

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Samsung Galaxy Note II for Verizon Hands-On

Android Taylor gets some hands-on time with the Samsung Galaxy Note II for Verizon at the launch event in New York. Following-up the original phone-tablet hybrid, the Galaxy Note, Samsung refined nearly every aspect to create the Galaxy Note II....

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 13

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I'll keep my Nexus 7 over the iPad mini

Android Yesterday afternoon, Apple laid one of the hottest rumors of late to rest once and for all. CEO Tim Cook, along with several colleagues, took the stage in San Jose and made the new 13.3-inch Retina MacBook Pro, a new iMac, a new Mac Mini...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 65

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Verizon Motorola DROID RAZR M Written Review by Taylor

Android The Motorola DROID RAZR M for Verizon Wireless is a perfect segue into the next generation of smartphones, ones that trade unnecessary bezel for more display space, and it's actually one of the finer devices to pass through our hands here...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 7

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Do you have trouble deciding on a single device?

Android The holiday shopping season will soon begin to pick up, which means new products are beginning to flow in rather steadily. In September alone the Motorola DROID RAZR M, DROID RAZR HD, DROID RAZR MAXX HD, Apple iPhone 5, Amazon Kindle Fire...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 31

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Should every flagship phone come with a MAXX-like variant?

Android Battery life has always been a fairly major concern for us power users, particularly with the current and last-generation smartphones. The days of BlackBerry were great, at least in terms of battery life. But not long after that, battery...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 21

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How much does display quality matter to you?

Android Mobile displays have advanced faster than I think any of us imagined possible. Just three years ago, it wasn't uncommon for devices to come fitted with displays smaller than 3.5-inches. Now it's uncommon for a phone to have a display much...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 135 73 Reactions

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If you could have any phone in any color, what would it be?

Android The supply of smartphones is never-ending. Hundreds of new phones are announced and released every year. On top of that, some get mid-cycle refreshes that may come in the form of a slight specification bump, a fix for any outstanding...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 29

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A $99 tablet could tarnish Google's Nexus brand

Android With millions of units selling each quarter, it's safe to say tablets are no longer questioned as serious products. The initial skepticism stemmed from the questionable pricing Apple brought to the table with the original iPad. Yet there...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 14

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Will you switch carriers to get the phone you want?

Android Samsung generally catches a lot of flack for shadowing a lot of the things Apple does. In the past, Samsung has taken many design cues from the Cupertino-based firm, mimicked many of the iOS interface elements in its customized Android...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 99 80 Reactions

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The J Butterfly isn't the HTC phablet I was hoping for

Android This year, I've made it sufficiently clear that I love phablets. I may not have been a fan of behemoth phones when the original 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note was but a mere rumor, or even after the global version first hit shelves. But...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 69

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Quick Settings in the stock Android notification shade is long overdue

Android Ever since Google picked up design guru Matias Duarte, Android's stock interface and user experience has done a complete 180° turn. Before it was rugged, heavily engineered and, to be frank, quite ugly. From top to bottom, front to back,...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 8

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ASUS should definitely make one of the Nexus phones this year

Android In the mobile space, ASUS has really only made a name for itself in the tablet sector. It's bread and butter is its PC lineup, namely the recent ZenBooks. But the Transformer tablets (and more recently dubbed Transformer Pads) have done...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 53 36 Reactions

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I'm a minimal, pull-tab pouch kind of guy

Android I make no bones about it, I am an accessory junkie. Whenever I get a new device, be it a new phone, tablet or even a camera, I search the Web high and low for any sort of case, attachment and add-on I can get for it. And when Amazon has a...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 79 50 Reactions

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Mobile gaming is quickly closing in on console-like quality

Android Let the naysayers say what they will, but mobile gaming is really starting to come around. I can think back to a time where mobile gaming was nothing more than taking some generic PC card games – Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Hearts, etc. –...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 31

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Why I'm wary of switching to Windows Phone 8

Windows Phone 8 I've said at least 100 times before that Windows Phone shows great promise. Windows Phone 8 is just a few short weeks ahead, and I'm getting quite excited for what it has in store and what Nokia and Microsoft have come together to produce....

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 82 46 Reactions

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Do you still handwrite notes?

Android It's no grand secret that our mobile devices can do more than ever before. As I've expressed in every way I know how, high powered processors, endless lists of third-party applications and large, crystal clear displays come together to...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 19

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Wireless charging on Nokia's upcoming Lumias isn't going to come cheap

Business And Money Back at the beginning of September, when Nokia took the stage in New York to unveil its latest work, the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, we all were in awe. The Lumia 920 is arguably the best Windows Phone 8 device we've seen yet. It hosts...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 7

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What's so hard about making smaller high-end phones, OEMs?

Android Back in July, I asked readers what their idea of the perfect smartphone size is. With just shy of 250 responses, the answers varied from 3.5-inches to phablet extremes beyond 5-inches. Just skimming through the horde of comments, it's not...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 37

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Are Apple Maps in iOS 6 sufficient for your needs?

Iphone 5 Unless you were suffering an Internet outage for the last two weeks in September, chances are you at least heard about the unprecedented scrutiny Apple faced over scrapping Google Maps for the default Maps app in iOS 6 for their own. To...

from 2012 by Taylor Martin 27