The alaTest Blog

Every year, Las Vegas plays host to one of the biggest technology-related trade shows there is: the Consumer Electronics Show, more amicably known as CES. Even though CES is only half way through, we’ve already seen some pretty spectacular stuff – things like super thin OLED TVs and custom molded earphones – but it seems that this year, the spotlight is on mobile computing with smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Read the rest of this entry »

As it would seem, the most popular devices of 2011’s holiday season weren’t tablets or laptops or even Rokus, but in fact, smartphones. On Christmas day, a staggering 6.8 million smartphones were activated, more than double last year’s 2.8 million unit figure. So just which smartphones deserve the spot light here? Read the rest of this entry »

Halloween is upon us, but the parties and the trick-or-treating doesn’t start until the evening. What better way to kill the time than killing some zombies in the process (not to mention keeping track of your young ones as well as staying safe). Here are some of our favorite Halloween apps for Android and iOS. Read the rest of this entry »

At a joint event in Hong Kong hosted by Samsung and Google, the Galaxy Nexus was just announced. On the heels of the iPhone 4S announcement, the Galaxy Nexus has some big shoes to fill, but just like the 4S announcement, the Galaxy Nexus was met with mixed reviews. Read the rest of this entry »

Back in 2007 when the original iPhone was released, its 3.5-inch display was considered fairly monstrous for a phone. At the time, most smartphone displays were well under 3 inches, and only a few spanned the entire face of the phone, the rest opting for a BlackBerry half screen/half button approach. But larger screens caught on, and today the 3.5-inch display of the iPhone seems relatively small, compared to 4.3 and even 5-inch phones. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re in the market for your first smartphone, or even upgrading from an old one, you’ll notice that there are a lot of choices on the market these days. Rather than blindly choosing your next smartphone based on a 3 minute test run at your carrier’s store, let alaTest help you decide which platform best suits your needs – Android, iPhone, Windows Phone 7, or BlackBerry. Read the rest of this entry »

Windows Mobile was always a very popular smartphone operating system, from its beginnings as Pocket PC 2000, back in the year 2000, up until version 6.5 running late into 2009. When it was created, smartphone users were a very select crowd, comprised almost entirely of enterprise users, so it was no surprise that Windows Mobile focused almost entirely on enterprise solutions. It wasn’t until smartphones started becoming popular amongst general users (coinciding with the success of the Apple iPhone) that Windows Mobile started losing ground. Over the last few years of its life, Windows Mobile lost a hefty portion of its market share, leading to a complete system overhaul and introduction of Windows Phone 7. Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to smartphones, Android is by far and away the leader of the pack, with 38 percent of the world’s market share (Apple’s iOS is in second place at just 26 percent). Yet despite its popularity, there is still a lot of confusion around the Android name. Is Android a phone? Is it a lot of phones? Is it the “Google Phone?” Read the rest of this entry »