Articles by Patrick Nelson

If you've ever had to give PowerPoint presentations away from home base, you'll knowthere's a certain amount of gear-related anxiety involved: Is the equipment going to be there? Is it going to work with my memory stick or version of PowerPoint? One way to take control is to use an iPad or certain Android tablets in lieu of the event-services suppl...

SwitchPro Widget, an app from Droid Shogun, is available for US$0.99 at Google Play.If you're a regular reader of this column, you may remember that I recently took a lookat Cloud TV's HD Widgets, an app for creating your own elegant, translucent widgets toreplace ugly stock widgets that appear to permeate today's Android phones -- Motorola,I'm re...

Wiring your home for multimedia? Dreaming about it? Even if you're using an electrician to pull the CAT 5e cable, it's worth getting involved in the design of the termination -- the rack. The rack is the centralized point within the home where the wiring meets switches, router and so on. ...

For years, satellite communications devices like satphones and data terminals have been out of reach of the average consumer. Access to voice calls and Internet in remote locales, where mobile phone networks are unavailable, have only been possible for military, media, mining, government and other deep-pocketed sectors....

WeatherBug Elite, an app from Earth, is available for US$1.99 at Google Play....

I've written about gadget battery technologies and how to calculate basic battery needs in previous articles like "Juicing Up Your Gadget Battery Power." I've also covered some of the ways to keep yourself charged up on the road with extended battery packs for smaller devices Continuing this theme of maximizing battery life on your devices, this ar...

BackCountry Navigator Pro GPS, an app from CritterMap Software, is available for US$9.99 at Google Play.With ubiquitous Google Maps installed as standard on smartphone OS market leader Android'sdevices, why anyone would need anything else?...

Significant advances in Light Emitting Diodes (LED) technology mean it's now possible to create light approaching that of a car headlamp with just a handheld device If you're in the market for one of these advanced flashlights, you're going to see one word continually appear in the product descriptions. That word is "Cree."

IP Cam Viewer Pro, an app from Robert Chou, is available for US$3.99 at Google Play.IP Cam Viewer Pro lets you view and control an Internet protocol (IP) camera throughAndroid OS on a phone or tablet....

As these dog days ramp up for hurricane season in the east, and wildfire season in the west, it's worth taking a look at ways to gather information that can help you decide when to evacuate, keep tabs on what's going on back at home, and find out when it's safe to return Half a dozen camera-spouting news helicopters in the air, in the case of a w...

The tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 highlighted two phenomena common in disasters: Network communications tower sites were destroyed, and network traffic overwhelmed systems -- two distinct issues causing failure in both public safety, and consumer-oriented communications. Power failures cut off the Internet, and in...

Instapaper, an app from Mobelux, is available for US$2.99 at Google Play.Instapaper is finally available on the Android platform. If you're unfamiliar with theiPhone-originating app, it's an offline reader with a difference....

I've written about keeping your devices powered while on the road before, and lookedat techniques to reduce draw -- like reducing screen brightness and switching off phoneradios. I also took a broad-brush look at different technologies, like battery packs andsolar, in the same piece Now I'm going to explain how to choose the right rechargeable batt...

TuneIn Radio Pro, an app from TuneIn, Inc., is available for 99 US cents at Google Play.It wasn't too long ago that you'd have to pore over shortwave radio schedule listings,cross referencing time of day, with frequency in kilohertz, in order to listen to long range,overseas broadcasts -- picking out the words from the spooky radio harmonics....

A cruel fact of life is that mobile operators have a vested interest in building out theirnetworks in areas where there are customers, not where there aren't any. Those towersare expensive, and they want a return Unfortunately, that means those of us who enjoy puttering around the vast openspaces that make up most of the United States can't get a s...

Scam Detector, an app from Scam Detector, is available for free at Google Play."My esteemed colleague, it is with much reverence that I am humbly, yet secretly,contacting you to tell you of great fortune that has come my way. My most honorablerelative has kindly left me, in his will, eighty gold bars. Unfortunately, due tocircumstances, I have to ...

I've never taken that much notice of my privacy, or lack of, as I've been surfing theWeb. However, after recent, obviously targeted advertising directed at me, where the adsblatantly reflected some product research I had just performed, I decided to investigate Innocuous focused advertising, which can be informative, can simply feel like aviolation...

Hotels.com, an app from Hotels.com, is available for free at Google Play.Here's a likely familiar summer scenario for many Americans: You've been drivingall day, and it's getting late. You're tired. You're ready for a hotel bed in an unknown towncoming up ahead....

Microsoft is involved in a project geared toward self-programming and extending the functionality of the Android smartphone environment. That's surprising, because Microsoft has got its own phone OS that competes However, on{X} (pronounced "on-ex") in beta is bringing some unique JavaScript APIs tothe table that let you program your phone remotely....

ROM Manager Premium, an app from ClockworkMod, is available for US$5.99 at Google Play.If you've been getting into flashing ROMs on your devices, you're familiar with thepalava that goes with it: booting to recovery, swapping cards, adb, fastboot, renaming zipfiles, and the rest of it....