Articles by Patrick Nelson

PrinterShare Mobile Print Premium Key, an app fromMobile Dynamix, is available for US$12.95 at the Android Market.We all know that the 20th century predictions of a paperless office were a pipe dream, maybe never to happen now. Digital media appear to have created more paper swirling around us, rather than less....

If you think of some of the more recent significant developments in television viewing, you'll probably come up with a list that includes the digital video recorder (DVR), which provides easy time-shifting without lossy tape; the flat-screen, high-definition television, which provides high-quality images as well as space-saving and eco-advantages over the bulky old cathode ray tube; and rampant cord-cutting, wherein viewers ditch traditional cable in favor of programming that's now delivered a la carte through the Internet...

If you've followed the advice in my article, "How to Improve Your Video-Streaming Clarity," and can't use a Cat 5e or greater specification wired-solution for your network, you may be running into straightforward environmental limitations. The microwave just isn't getting from point A to point B and back again WiFi at 2.4 and 5 GHz consists of shor...

Droid Scan Pro PDF, an app from Trans-code Design, is available for US$4.99 at theAndroid Market.Has anyone else noticed that you rarely receive a copy of hotel room-service receipts? Why is that? It hadn't really bothered me that much over the years -- despite a niggling feeling it should -- until an incident recently where the dollar amount I ha...

Factory-supplied satellite navigation and entertainment systems can add thousands to the cost of a new vehicle. Plus, the speed at which consumer electronics come to market is significantly faster than a car's development cycle, so your in-vehicle equipment is outdated before the car leaves the new car lot Even an aftermarket OEM kit is in the thou...

Twilio's cloud-based communications platform allows anyone with rudimentary Web-development knowledge to build a voice and SMS text application. An API, client, and various XML and other helper code is available that lets you build in PHP, C# and more ...

Vignette, an app from ...

Slingbox lets you watch your television remotely. The Slingbox hardware device captures the source image and audio at your home and squirts it into the Internet. Proprietary software is used to replicate a television-like experience on laptops or other devices like smartphones. Hardware-based infrared transmitters create remote control commands an...

The stumbling-block to using a phone as an all-in-one solution for photography is basically that the lenses aren't as good as those on any dedicated camera. While you would expect a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera to sport a better lens, even the most basic, sub-hundred-dollar point-and-shoots have higher quality glass than the best phones.

Quickoffice Pro (Office and PDF), an app from ...

Remember this: The phone or tablet you purchased is yours. It does not belong to the carrier that you bought it from despite the fact that the device is emblazoned with its corporate identity, logo or splash screen. This outright ownership you have in the device means that you can do whatever you like with it once you've walked out of the store, a...

AVG Anti-Virus Pro, an app from ...

If you live or work in an area with marginal cell service and want to use your Android smartphone to make and receive voice calls, you can. The key is to piggyback on an Internet connection at your location using the Internet bandwidth there to carry your voice traffic. This method of calling works using Voice over Internet Protocol technology (Vo...

This story was originally published on Aug. 18, 2011, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. As a Sprint corporate customer I'm referred to as "preferred," which basically translates to "preferred because I give them increasing amounts of money." Anyway, it gets me a phone upgrade annually, rather than the non-preferre...

Are we about to see the demise of the game console? It's hard to believe the days of Sony's ubiquitous PlayStation system, introduced in 1994 -- or even those of the Xbox -- may be numbered. But with changing delivery systems, the spreading cloud, and processor advances, those PlayStations and Wiis may be going the way of the Walkman....

Facebook's recent acquisition of location-tracker heavyweight Gowalla is an indicator of the potential strategic importance of location-tracking technology in the social network arena. Players in this marketplace include Gowalla, which lets users share favorite places with fellow Facebook and Twitter friends and then be rewarded with deals from lo...

One of the most-used leisure-oriented apps on my Android smartphones has been Google's free My Tracks ...

Norton Anti-Theft Plugin is available at the Android Market as a free add-on to Norton Security products or at a subscription price of US$29.95 per year. Believe it or not, antivirus software makers are now pitching solutions for our smartphones. Do you believe the hype? Statistics floating around the sea of press releases from antivirus merchants...

Think of the devices that have been made redundant by smartphones: landline phone, laptop computer, global positioning system (GPS) receiver, map, compass, flashlight, still camera, video camera, gaming console, calculator, wristwatch, electronic photo frame, newspaper, magazine, book, radio, weather radio, police scanner, MP3 player, television, home entertainment system remote control, main street bank, tape measure, bubble level, and coming up, your wallet...

TextFree, an app from Pinger, is available for free at theAndroid Market....