In its latest update to Play Books, Google added some enhancements to speed and smoothness but by far the most important gain is the option to upload from your Android device.

Now instead of using the Play website to add books to your account you can do it straight from your smartphone. Play Books supports ePub and PDF files and you can upload to Google Play books from any Android file manager. Read more »

After waiting what seemed like decades before producing its first Windows tablet Nokia went with the 10.1″ Lumia 2520, but that still left a compact tablet-sized hole to fill.

Turns out that Nokia is working on just such a device and, according to import documents from India, a device codenamed RX-115 has an 8.3″ FullHD IPS touchscreen, nanoSIM slot and is already undergoing testing. Read more »

Yesterday we brought you comScore’s breakdown of the smartphone OS distribution in the US and today we’re bringing you the mobile app and mobile browsing usage.

According to the firm’s research users in the US are mostly accessing on Google and Facebook through their smartphones. Google takes the top spot with a huge 88.0%, while Facebook is close in second with 84.4%. Read more »

“The busier you are the smarter you have to be” – that’s what Robert Thicke believes in. And Samsung would like you to believe that utilizing its Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear smartwatch is all it takes for you to become smart enough to have no trouble handling your busy life.

#Design Your Life is the headline of two Samsung ads starring Robin Thicke – the first one featuring him rocking the Samsung gear on a motorcycle and this new one, #Design Your Life Easily shows him using ChatOn to connect with a whole bunch of hotties on their Galaxy Note 3s. Read more »

The latest version of CyanogenMod – 11 – is based on Android KitKat (or 4.4) and has now been released for the Nexus family of devices (sans the Galaxy Nexus) in its M1 form.

The M (milestone) releases in CM are the ones before the Release Candidate ROMs and are considered stable for daily drivers. That means that all variations of the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 are a flash (read ROM flash) away from enjoying beefed up stock Android. Read more »

“Beats Music is real. We’re in an internal, private beta with people who know and love music…” What those words by Ian Rogers, chief executive, mean is that Beats Music is coming to the US (for starters, we hope) in January next year to drop a music-streaming service to the masses.

A product of Beats Electronics (by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine), Beats Music now allows you to claim your name so that when the service becomes a reality your desired username will be there and waiting for activation. Read more »

Google has updated its Calendar service with a couple of new features that can really help you get more organized. First off Google Maps lends a helping hand and you will now receive auto-complete location results when filling the location of events.

Once the event has been created the users you’ve invited will have a click on the map option, which will show them exactly where the event will be held instead of wondering where to go. Read more »

In the hottest-selling weekend of the year (between Black Friday and Cyber Monday) Amazon has, once again, sold a record number of Kindle talbets.

What’s the number – well, Amazon doesn’t say. Can we compare it with last year’s record number – no, Amazon didn’t say then either. All we know is the Kindle Fire HDX 7″ and Fire HD were the best-sellers in the Kindle family. Read more »

We all remember when the man behind Android stepped down to focus on other duties inside the company. His Android duties were then taken over by Sundar Pichai who is now the face of the OS.

We’re naturally talking about ex-Apple employee and current Google one – Andy Rubin. What was then disclosed by Larry Page, Google co-founder, is that Rubin will be starting “a new chapter at Google” but up until now the name of said chapter wasn’t disclosed. Read more »

Windows Phone is growing fast, but still lacks some features users might want. That’s why Microsoft has set up a feature suggestion program in which anyone is free to participate.

One such reader has submitted a request for a native file manager in Windows Phone 8.1 and got a reply from the Windows Phone team that the request has been completed, meaning we might see the feature in the next update to the OS. Read more »

If Black Friday has been too much of a hassle for you but you still need a good deal on a tablet, Amazon’s got you covered. It’s now selling its 7″ Kindle Fire HDX and Kindle Fire HD slates at a discounted prices until quantities last.

Both slates have seen a $50 discount – the Fire HD’s 16 GB version is now $119, while the Fire HDX has $50 on all its storage options, the cheapest being $179 for the 16 gig. Read more »

The N1 proved to be a worthy phablet in Oppo’s premium market segment’s lineup and it’s now time to dig into the battery life breakdown.

The Oppo N1 opts for a big, bright and high-res 5.9″ screen but also brings a monstrous 3610 mAh battery to compensate. That, to put it in perspective, is more than the 3200 mAh of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the HTC One Max’s 3300 mAh, the Nokia Lumia 1520′s 3400 mAh and the Sony Xperia Z Ultra’s 3050 mAh. Let’s see how it did. Read more »

Android is the undisputed leader in smartphones but has seen criticism when it comes to tablets as many of the apps for those are nothing more than a blown up phone versions.

With its new update to the Play store Google tries to remedy that somewhat by making the Designed for Tablets view the default one – it lists apps that should be tablet-optimized. Read more »

Toshiba’s latest Dynabook KIRA V654 has, at a glance, good but not spectacular specs. It rocks a 13-inch display of the generic 1366 x 768 resolution, no touch included, Haswell chip and a very low 1.12 kg weight. The battery life expectancy of 22 hours warrants a WOW, though.

If 14 hours will do it for you then you can opt for the V654 version with a 2560 x 1440 display, 8 gigs of RAM, 128 GB SSD and Haswell chip. Finally there’s the V834 model with a touch-enabled 2560 x 1440 screen and otherwise the same innards. Read more »

Verizon is preparing for Black Friday, which is just in 10 days, on November 29, Friday. The biggest US carrier has a number of deals in line. For starters the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 have been slashed on that day from $149.99 to $99.99 on a two-year deal.

Tablets and Motorola DROIDs are also on the menu but as you might expect Verizon is requiring a contract with almost everything. Check inside for the full list. Read more »