PayWizard offers more ways to pay for content on Samsung smart TVs

PayWizard's "multi-screen" TV payment platform has been available for some time in the UK, but the company's now taking advantage of CES to attempt a big push into the US market. That multi-screen bit comes from the ability to manage your account and purchase content on multiple devices (including smartphones and PCs, in addition to smart TVs), and the company is also touting a new voucher system that can be used for gifting and promotions from content providers. While it remains to be seen how widely it will be used, the company has already gotten off to a decent start by announcing an application for Samsung's smart TVs, which will let folks refill their balance and manage their accounts.

All News Reviews Reviews Live from Intel's CES 2012 press event

Intel has already held one epic event filled with sweet, gadget fun at this year's Consumer Electronics Show -- but the party isn't over yet. Now it's time for the company's top dog, Paul Otellini, to take the stage and deliver his 2012 keynote. Presumably we'll be getting a healthy dose of Medfield and a heaping-helping of Ivy Bridge. So what does the future of laptops, desktops and tablets hold? And what does Intel envision for our computing future? Follow along with us to find out.

Samsung outs compact BD-ES6000 Blu-ray player, less compact ES6500, get down with UltraViolet

We've reached a point where Blu-ray players can't really add a whole lot more functionality. Size, then, is the next frontier, and Samsung's showing another player with a "slightly larger-than-a-disc" form-factor. It's the BD-ES6000, a decidedly petite player with a slot-loading mechanism and a boot time of just one second. There's also the slightly less svelte yet still "slim and stylish" BD-E6500, with dual HDMI inputs to help out with those sets that are a bit limited in the input department. More important, though, is added support for UltraViolet Disc to Digital support on all the company's 2012 lineup. Your media just got a little more portable.

Intel's first Medfield smartphone is Lenovo's K800, coming first to China Unicom in Q2 with Android 4.0

Intel's been promising a smartphone of its own for about as long as men have been walking the ground of Earth, but it looks as if its May 2011 claims of "early next year" are finally getting close to being "accurate." Here at the company's CES 2012 keynote, the Medfield-based Lenovo K800 was revealed as the first Intel-powered smartphone (boasting Android 4.0, no less), with Lenovo's home turf being pegged as getting first dibs. There's a 4.5-inch 720p display and rear camera with dual-LED flash but outside of a tip that it'll be shipping to China Unicom in Q2 of this year, everything else surrounding it remains a mystery.

First off, it's downright amazing to hear Intel finally give us a date to mark down, but it remains to be seen how many phone manufacturers will drop their existing adoration for Qualcomm and NVIDIA in order to given Intel's (historically power-sucking) mobile chips a go.

T-Mobile announces the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, available 'later this year'

Hot on the heels of the Galaxy S II's success, T-Mobile's getting another Samsung 4G device brewed up. The new smartphone, called the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, isn't set to be available until later this year, which unfortunately means we're getting very little details at the moment. According to the press release, the Blaze will have a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 42Mbps HSPA+ and a "brilliant Super AMOLED touch screen." Again, this is all we have been given at the moment, and we're confused by the fact that the display doesn't have an HD in front nor a Plus in back, as well as the phone's use of "Galaxy S" in the title. As always, it's our hope that this CES announcement will be shortly followed up with an opportunity to get some hands-on time and more details, and we'll keep you posted with any updates as they come in.

Update: At tonight's T-Mobile event, we heard a slightly narrower timeframe for launch: sometime in the first half of the year.

Moboplay: allegedly the world's smallest 1080p media player... allegedly

At only 60mm by 64mm the Moboplay from HSTi is impressively tiny. Even more impressive is that this diminutive package is able to playback full 1080p video, in a variety of formats, on your TV via HDMI. There's a USB port and an SD card slot up front for loading media from, but you can also plug in the company's Wireless Media Stick for streaming videos straight from your phone, tablet, NAS or other connected device.

Did You Get a New Android Phone? Do These 5 Things Immediately

If you got a new Android smartphone for the holidays, here are some things you want to do right away!

1. Don’t Skip the Google Account Setup

When you set up your Android for the first time, you’re asked to provide your Google account credentials. Doing so is the fastest way to set up your email, calendar, and contacts (core PIM functionality), but it’s optional, some people don’t have Google account, or for whatever reason they decide to skip the step. If you skipped it, go back and complete it, even if you’re using someone other than Google for your basic PIM functions.

Why? There are a few reasons. Not only will your contacts be synchronized with your Google account, they’ll also be synced with any Android’s you get in the future (if your current phone is lost, stolen, damaged, or in a year or so when you decide to upgrade). Additionally, you’ll need it for the Android Market.

While it’s probably true that you don’t need the Android Market to install apps on your phone, there is one case in particular where you’d want to: if your phone is lost. To the best of my knowledge, the Android Market is the only app store for Android that allows for remote installation of apps. Simply log into the Market using a desktop browser, then find an app called Plan B and install it (remotely) to your phone. Within minutes you’ll have an email telling you exactly where your phone is! Of course there are other apps that let you do similar things, but most have to be installed and configured before you lose your phone. The appropriately named Plan B app takes care of all of that for you, all you have to have done is set up your Google Account.

2. Get a Car Kit

It’s becoming illegal in more places — and is generally frowned upon everywhere — to use your phone in your car. Take that as an opportunity to trick out your ride for Android!

Two things you’ll want to get are a Bluetooth headset and a USB car charger, but if your phone has a car dock built specifically for it, you’ll probably want to consider that option first.

A car dock usually attaches to your windshield or dash and holds your phone where you can see it. Many have a charging solution built in (some will plug into your phone’s USB charging port, others, like the dock for Nexus One charge using three gold dots to carry the power — the dock for the Galaxy Nexus isn’t readily availableyet). Some also connect to your phone’s audio, which not only lets you listen to music on your car’s sound system, they also do double-duty as a speaker phone.

Whether or not you opt for a car dock with these features built-in or opt for a USB charger and Bluetooth headset, you’ll appreciate having a fully-charged phone when you start your day at school or the office, and will be much safer keeping your phone out of your hands while driving.

3. Turn on Your WiFi
There are three reasons why you’ll want to turn on your WiFi right away.

WiFi is probably faster than your phone’s 3G or 4G data connection, so when you’re under a WiFi bubble, your phone will be faster!

WiFi uses less power than traditional cellular data, so your battery will last longer when using WiFi rather than cellular data.

With almost all carriers throttling or limiting your data once you hit their data threshold, using WiFi whenever possible could save you quite a bit of money and frustration, which lets you save your cellular data for when you need it.

4. Set Your Data-Hungry Apps to Update Less Often

If you’re like me, you’ve got at least a couple social networking apps, a couple news and RSS apps, and maybe even a couple weather apps installed. These apps try to connect to various data services to keep the information on your phone up-to-date. This makes their apps feel faster because the information is already on your phone, before you ask for it. Unfortunately that means the app is going out on the Internet frequently to get updates — updates that you may never see.

To help keep data usage down and battery life from magically disappearing, you should open each type of app that I mentioned above and check its settings for “Update Frequency”. Some social apps are come set top update every 15 minutes. I set mine to update every 4 hours, or “only when charging”. Some apps even have an option to only sync when connected to WiFi. Keep in mind that some of the smarter apps use something called “push notifications” which only update when the server “pushes” a notice to them that there is something to update.

Check your apps and set them to something that’s more in-line with how often you actually use the apps.

5. Log in to Google Talk
Google Talk is the chat app that comes built-in to your Android, and it’s terribly under-used. You can use Google Talk not only to instant message people with other Android smartphones, but also those who use Gmail on their desktop and laptop computers.

What’s really cool is that many of those computer users have microphones and speakers, and with the right plugin can audio chat with you. This is essentially a free way to make voice calls to anyone in the world with a Gmail account — and it’s built in to every Android out there.

What’s more, if your Android Smartphone has a front-facing camera, you can also use Google Talk to make and receive video calls! You can video call with other Android users, or computer users that have a webcam. This comes in particularly useful during the holidays when friends and family may not be able to come together. Unlike other video chatting solutions, Google Talk should work just fine over 3G, 4G, or WiFi.

What Next?

There’s so much more that you can (and should) do with your Android-powered smartphone, but those are the pocketnow top five things you’ll want to do right away!

What about you? What five things did you do after getting your new Android?

Verizon Kills $2 Fee Plan Amid Consumer Outrage

The public has spoken and they don’t want to pay fees. Verizon is the most recent company to announce a fee, in this case a $2 fee to pay your bills online, and back-out less than a week after it was reported.

The public has proven that if a strong consumer backlash is instigated, companies will respond. The interwebs got word of the fee on Thursday. Soon after, many on Twitter were tweeting their outrage about the proposed “convenience fee.”

Then, to make matters more sticky for Verizon, the FCC got involved. FCC officials would not comment on the exact nature of their investigation but did say in an email shortly before Verizon backed out of the fee plan, “On behalf of American consumers, we’re concerned about Verizon’s actions and are looking into the matter.”

A Verizon spokesperson soon thereafter issued a statement on their website saying they were not going forward with the fee.

Samsung Shipped 1 Million Galaxy Note Devices in Two Months

Just two months after Samsung released its Galaxy Note tablet-phone, the company announced it has shipped more than one million units of the device worldwide and that it’s coming to the U.S. in the near future.

In October, Samsung unveiled its 5.3-inch, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) smartphone, which doubles as a tablet. It also comes with a stylus pen for drawing and note taking.

It’s expected to receive an upgrade to Android 4 or Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012.

Samsung noted in a press release that sales of Galaxy Note are on the rise in Europe and Asia, particularly in France, Germany, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

“The rapid global sales of Galaxy Note are notable since it is creating a new market for something betweensmartphone and tablet PC,” the company said. “The speed of the global sales is expected to accelerate further next year when it will be available in the US.”

We should note, however, that Samsung has shipped 1 million devices to retailers and other partners. Samsung has not revealed actual sales numbers.

“One million global shipping of Galaxy Note means it has well positioned itself as a market creator,” Samsung said. “Samsung will continuously strengthen its leadership in the global smartphone market as well as create new markets with innovative devices.”

Still Confused About iTunes Match? Apple Explains it in Detail

Although Apple’s music matching service has already launched for most regions, most people don’t fully understand how it works. Because of the outcry of users who don’t understand it, Apple recently added aniTunes Match how-to section to its site. This section lays out exactly how to set iTunes Match up and also includes a FAQ to help answer your questions about the music service.

CUPP's PunkThis graduates to tablets, earns a degree in security

Remember CUPP Computing's PunkThis board we played with at Computex 2011? It's now left the confines of its 2.5-inch hard drive form-factor and jumped ship from a standard Asus netbook to a Core i5-equipped Eee Slate EP121, taking residence alongside the tablet's battery. As a refresher, PunkThis puts a complete ARM-based system into an x86 computer by replacing the SATA HDD with a single core 1GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 3730 processor, 512MB RAM and WiFi, along with a mini-PCIe socket for SSD storage, plus connectors for the host's video, audio and USB interfaces. While CUPP computing is still working hard to make PunkThis commercially available for tech-savvy individuals, it acquired Israeli security company Yoggie last July and built this demo machine to attract another kind of customer.

The tablet we tested was running Windows 7 Home Premium and Android 2.3.4 simultaneously, and was equipped with an additional button for switching between x86 and ARM modes. Since the Asus EP121 already uses a mini-PCIe SSD instead of 2.5-inch SATA storage, a prototype PunkThis board was designed to fit alongside a modified battery. Gingerbread didn't break a sweat supporting both the 1280x800-pixel capacitive touchscreen and pen-based Wacom digitizer thanks to some additional hardware and software tweaks. Beyond the ability to switch between Windows for heavy lifting and Android for improved battery life, it's possible to use both x86 and ARM side-by-side. Imagine antivirus and firewall software running on the PunkThis board in mission-critical security applications for enterprise, and it's easy to see where CUPP Computing is going with this

PS Vita gets second firmware update, nixes software bugs

There's not many things worse than when your new imported tech toy is hobbled by teething issues. Just over a week since its launch and Sony's great portable hope has been gifted its second firmware update. Version 1.51 can be grabbed through your PC, PS3 or the Vita itself and promises to fix issues with "game progress" -- mentioning launch title Dynasty Warriors: Next in particular. However, gamers have already figured out that playing through the title offline side-steps the software hiccups that this patch hopes to remedy. Early adopters can hit up the system update option to ensure their machines remain in peak condition or hit up the source for the PC link