Hasta La Gadget!

Someone on the Kindle team was undoubtedly a bit broken-hearted when Goodreads integration failed to roll out in time for both the new Paperwhite and Kindle HDX launches. The acquisition certainly made a good deal of sense when it was announced back in March. After all, the service is well-positioned to bring recommendations and a sense of community currently lacking in the Kindle ecosystem. For users, it means more engagement and better tailored recommendations. For Amazon, it means the potential to sell more content – which, let’s face it, is kind of the whole bottom line for the company here. The feature finally arrived today for HD and HDX users, as part of a larger upgrade to Fire OS, which also brings along the Second Screen video feature and added enterprise support. It’ll be coming over-the-air soon enough, but if you want to jump the line, you can download it from Amazon right now.

To get started (once you’re all finished downloading, dragging and dropping Fire OS 3.1), you’ll need to open up the Goodreads app. We were a bit surprised Amazon didn’t make integration feel more baked into the experience, given the time it took to roll out the product. Instead, the offering feels a bit siloed, not unlike the FreeTime parental monitoring available on the tablet at launch. Once fired up, you’ll be asked to create a Goodreads account or login with a current one, tying it to your Amazon account. I had one already, which has long since been dormant, but the official integration with the Kindle ecosystem seems as good an excuse as any to blow a little bit of dust off the old virtual bookshelves.

Filed under: Tablets, Software, Amazon

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Many streaming-savvy DVRs either lean heavily on cloud services or are linked to traditional TV — neither of which is ideal for cord cutters trying to lower their long-term costs. Nuvyyo is promising what could be a more affordable option with its upcoming Tablo DVR. The upcoming, partly crowdfunded set-top box streams both live and locally recorded over-the-air broadcasts to seemingly any internet-capable platform, including Android, iOS, Roku players and web browsers. In theory, it’s as cheap and convenient as internet-only video while delivering the wider content selection of traditional TV. We’ve had hands-on time with a Tablo prototype that suggests the company has at least latched on to a good (if imperfect) idea — read on to see what we mean. %Gallery-slideshow122001%

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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Source: Indiegogo, Tablo

Today Motorola unveiled its Moto G smartphone, which is related to the Moto X in many ways, but very different in others. I had the chance to try out the Moto G in person at Motorola’s Canadian HQ in Toronto, and in many ways, it’s a very impressive device. In others, however, it still reveals its cost consciousness.

One of the first things I noticed was that the phone feels a little chubby. It’s relatively thick compared to premium smartphones like the Moto X or the Nexus 5, but that’s to be expected considering the screen it’s packing and the price. Display tech costs a lot when you’re trying to reduce thickness, less so when you’re unconcerned on that score.

The size is not offensive, however; it’s a comfortable phone in the hand, and the 4.5-inch screen is much more my speed when compared to some of the gargantuan displays out there. Resolution is crisp, too, with 329 ppi screen density that’s roughly on par with the iPhone’s own Retina display. Motorola still tends to favor high contrast, exaggerated saturation on their screens, though it’s much less pronounced than on devices Motorola made before the Moto X.

Performance on the Moto G really is quite impressive for a phone that costs less than $200. Animations and transitions are all smooth, and the only time you encounter any kind of stutter is on image-heavy websites, where you’ll get a little bit of stickiness with scrolling. That’s still an issue with some high-end Android smartphones and tablets, however, so it’s not really a major complaint. Motorola talked up the speed with which it loads things like the dialer and browser, and side-by-side with a Nexus 5, speed did indeed at least on par, which is astounding considering the difference.

The matte back has a nice feel, and there are textured plastic back accessories that you can swap in and out, including one that features a cover flap for the front. This is one area where some users might encounter some frustration, as removing the back plate is actually quite tricky. A number of us gadget bloggers had some trouble until a Moto rep showed us that you pull from the Micro USB port, and pull quite hard (harder than you might assume will be safe). It does offer a lot of customization options, however, including one type of case that includes a shock absorbent bumper.

The bottom line is that while you can nitpick at the Moto G from the perspective of someone who regularly uses various $600 smartphones, this is a remarkable device that has the potential to blow up the mid-tier market. If Motorola continues to innovate in this direction, I wouldn’t be surprised by a seismic shift in what Android OEM owns the developing market.

Sony’s Music Video Recorder may well be the camera sleeper hit of the holidays. Think of it as the ill-fated Flip Video – or, indeed, Sony’s own Bloggie alternative – given a pro-audio upgrade, ostensibly targeted at bands and recording artists looking to make music videos and recordings simultaneously but, as we discovered when we […]

There’ve never been so many ways to keep track of your extreme sports lifestyle, but Sony is hoping its latest Action Cam will lure away potential GoPro users thanks to a mixture of WiFi, GPS, Full HD quality, and a broad range of accessories. Offering a choice of 1080p or slow-motion 720p recording, the Action […]