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Features

• Location-based services: Are they there yet?

  By Brian Proffitt | 03 May, 2012 23:28

  Mobile users are more connected to the Internet than ever. As of December 2011, ComScore estimated that there are 97.9 million smartphone users in the US - nearly a third of the total population.

• The future of the $200 tablet

  By JR Raphael | 26 April, 2012 21:18

  Spending $150 to $200 on a tablet won't get you much these days: In most cases, you're looking at an off-brand Android product with a single-core processor, barely any RAM and a low-resolution, low-quality display. Depending on the device, you might not even have access to Google's app market or other basic services -- and while that approach may work with retailer-backed, limited-use products like Amazon's Kindle Fire, when it comes to more traditional Androidtablets, it doesn't usually lead to the best user experience.

• Catching the eye of Google

  By Sarah Putt | 17 April, 2012 03:33

  Google's man in charge of acquisitions - vice-president of corporate development David Lawee - was in Auckland recently, but he was keeping quiet on whether any Kiwi businesses were on his radar.

• Guide: How to be ready for Big Data

  By Thor Olavsrud | 21 March, 2012 01:30

  Big Data is all the rage these days, and more than a few organizations are at least wondering what sort of business intelligence they could derive from all the information at their disposal.

• Expert to IT pros: Adopt IPv6 soon or be sorry later

  By Carolyn Duffy Marsan | 18 January, 2012 08:36

  A dozen of the world's largest Internet companies - including Facebook, Google and Comcast - have committed to June 6, as the start date for their production deployments of IPv6, an upgrade to the Internet's main communications protocol.

• 10 must-have tools for Cloud power users

  By JR Raphael | 08 December, 2011 03:06

  For many of us, the Cloud has changed the way we work and play. Thanks to well-known services like Gmail, Dropbox, Facebook and Instapaper, practically our whole lives - photos, documents, contacts and more - are online. So isn't it time to take control?

• Google's Ice Cream Sandwich - a new era for Android

  By JR Raphael | 23 November, 2011 03:18

  Google's Android 4.0 operating system is more than just another upgrade.

• What smartphones will be like in 2012

  By Jared Newman | 12 November, 2011 01:31

  Since the advent of the first modern smartphone--arguably the original Apple iPhone in 2007--the power of these mobile computing devices that also happen to make phone calls has advanced by leaps and bounds.

• How to prepare your business for Google+

  By Angela West | 24 September, 2011 23:59

  Google+ just opened its doors to the world by enabling open signups and moving to the beta, testing phase. The nascent social network is still thin on features and ways for businesses to properly use it, but its minimalist approach has gained Google+ millions of users in a very short period.

• Patent madness! A timeline of the Android patent wars

  By Brad Reed | 21 September, 2011 06:26

  History may look at Android as the tech industry's Helen of Troy: The OS that launched a thousand suits.

• Video chatting for newbies

  By Sarah Jacobsson Purewal | 07 August, 2011 10:45

  Video chat is all the rage these days, thanks to new services such as Google+ Hangouts and Skype/Facebook integrated video chat. Video chatting is a great way to stay in touch with family and friends--seeing loved ones' faces on a computer screen is almost like actually being there.

• 5 features iOS needs, in order to sway me from Android

  By Jared Newman | 30 March, 2011 07:54

  With Apple preparing to talk about the future of iOS at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and the rumor mill churning, it's time for an old tradition: the iPhone feature wish list.

• Amazon's Android app store: Steve Jobs doesn't get it

  By JR Raphael | 18 March, 2011 09:27

  Roll out the welcome wagon, Android fans: It looks like you'll soon have a new place to shop.

• Android vs. iOS vs. Windows Phone

  By Preston Gralla | 18 March, 2011 05:43

  The past year has been a remarkable one for smartphones, with the meteoric rise of Google's Android OS, the restart of Microsoft's mobile strategy with its much-ballyhooed release of Windows Phone 7 and the continuing success of Apple's iPhone, buoyed by its new availability to Verizon subscribers. Never has there been so much choice in the smartphone market. As a result, hype and overstatement have been the order of the day.

• Android Honeycomb: Powerful, but not perfect

  By JR Raphael | 05 March, 2011 06:26

  Honeycomb is a whole different beast from the Android we've come to know. While previous versions of Google's mobile operating system were built for smartphones, Honeycomb -- also known as Android 3.0 -- is the first to be designed specifically for tablet-size devices. And seeing it in action, it certainly shows.