Tablets

Samsung mobile head confirms 8-inch Galaxy Note

An 8-inch Samsung Galaxy Note no longer exists solely in the realm of unicorns and Apple TVs. A Korean news site is reporting that Samsung mobile honcho JK Shin has confirmed plans to release a midsize version of the tablet.

Samsung's game plan of late seems to be to cover all bases, with a wide array of smartphones and tablets that come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and price points. An 8-inch Galaxy Note to continue the trend could debut at February's Mobile World Congress.… Read more

NFC: Not just for mobile payments anymore

Move over, mobile payments. NFC is finding other ways to make itself useful.

In fact, paying for items with one's phone seems to be the least common use for the close-range connectivity technology right now, at least based on gadgets unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show. Rather, essentially all products using NFC shown at the recent confab employed the technology in one of two ways: To set up a sort of digital handshake between a mobile device and another gadget or as a way to share information between products with just a tap.

"NFC really simplifies things," … Read more

Rumor Has It: Bringing back souvenirs from CES 2013

We come at you live from CES 2013, where we saw so many TVs our eyes started bleeding. Kind of.

The week was a blur, but through the rubble we recall images of giant televisions, curved screens, a fork that vibrates, an awesome gaming tablet that Karyne wishes she owned 100 of, and blackjack tables. So many blackjack tables.

Thanks for watching!

Heard a tech rumor you think we should cover? Leave a comment below; ; send us a tweet (@EmilyDreyfuss, @karynelevy, and @CNETRumorShow); or call and leave us a voice mail at 1-800-750-CNET. … Read more

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and Tab 2 tablets get Android 4.1 update, new features

Today Samsung announced that its Galaxy Tab 2 tablets and Galaxy Note 10.1 would receive Android 4.1 Jelly Bean updates. Samsung, rather than including only cosmetic or back-end changes that you'll never actually see, has added a number of useful-sounding (that's a Youtube video link if you'd rather not read any further) features.

Most of the new features, like improved S Pen support, look to only be compatible with the Note 10.1, not the Tab 2 tablets. This update is so far only available for the Wi-Fi versions of the tablets.

A Samsung rep … Read more

Sprint to expand 4G LTE to 28 more cities in coming months

Sprint Nextel announced plans to expand its 4G LTE network to 28 new cities in the coming months, continuing its push to blanket its entire network with the high-speed wireless access.

The Overland Park, Kan., company listed Paris, Texas; Branson, Mo.; Oxford, Miss.; and other smaller cities in its latest update. It didn't specify what "coming months" means, but as CNET has reported, that could be as much as six months.

Sprint has been playing catch-up in terms of 4G LTE, lagging far behind rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T. It earlier made a bet on … Read more

iPhone, iPod Touch users can now buy music from Amazon

iPhone users now have another option for downloading songs from their device.

Amazon today launched its MP3 store for iPhone and iPod Touch users, allowing them to buy digital music from Amazon's 22-million song catalog. There's one catch, though. The purchases have to be made via the Safari Web browser, not through any of Amazon's apps. That means the process isn't quite as seamless as buying music through iTunes.

Amazon noted that music purchases are automatically saved to the customer's Cloud Player library and can be downloaded or streamed instantly from an iPhone, iPod Touch, … Read more

iPad sales may be lower than expected, says analyst

The iPad may have missed out on a healthy chunk of sales last quarter due to limited supply, says J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz.

In an investors note out today, Moskowitz said he believes unit sales of the iPad and iPad Mini combined will be lighter than expected for the final quarter of 2012, which marks Apple's first fiscal quarter of 2013. He's now predicting unit sales of 18.4 million, down from his prior forecast of 20.1 million.

"Our research indicates that near-term supply constraints impacted iPad sell-in activity during the seasonally-stronger holiday season,&… Read more

T-Mobile expands Nexus 4, Nexus 7 sales

Better late than never. T-Mobile is increasing the number of ways you can buy Google's Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus 4 smartphone on its network.

Yesterday, the carrier started selling the LG-made Nexus 4 in more of its brick-and-mortar stores. Moreover, T-Mobile will carry the high-end smartphone in all stores nationwide in the coming weeks. On January 23, T-Mobile also plans to sell it online.

Beginning today, you'll be able to buy Google's 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet, complete with a T-Mobile SIM card, through Google Play.

T-Mobile is the only U.S. carrier to sell the Nexus … Read more

Archos 10-inch 101 Titanium tablet to sell for $199

Archos' Titanium line in its Elements series of tablets got a bit bigger with the introduction of a 10-inch model, the 101 Titanium. The tablets shares many common specs with the other Titanium tablets and will be available in March for $199.99.

Like the 7-, 8-, and 9-inch Titanium tablets, the 101 Titanium runs Android 4.1 and houses a 1.6GHz dual-core processor and quad-core graphics processor with 1GB of RAM. The Titanium series tablets also come with 8GB of internal storage, a microSD expansion slot, and micro USB and mini HDMI ports. 

Cameras featured … Read more