Although much faster than their 3G competitors, 4G LTE phones have suffered from notoriously short battery life. How short? Try less than four hours in some cases. Fortunately, Motorola’s new Droid RAZR Maxx is set to change the LTE’s power-gulping reputation, as the Android handset lasted a full 8 hours and 25 minutes on the LAPTOP Battery Test. This test involves continuous surfing over 4G with the phone set to 40 percent brightness.

As you can see from the above chart, this is the longest endurance we’ve seen on any Verizon LTE phone, a full 3 hours and 40 minutes longer than the original Droid RAZR (4:45) and 1 hour and 43 minutes longer than the previous LTE leader, the Samsung Droid Charge. In fact, the RAZR Maxx is the longest-lasting 4G phone that we’ve tested on any network, including AT&T LTE (5:43, Samsung Skyrocket), and AT&T’s (6:51, Motorola Atrix 2) and T-Mobile’s (7:38, Samsung Galaxy S II)HSPA+ networks, and Sprint’s WiMAX (5:51, HTC EVO Shift 4G).

None of the phones on the AT&T’s 4G LTE network came close. The Samsung Skyrocket S II’ Skyrocket’s 5-hour and 42-minute time was the longest we saw on a network where the HTC Vivid (4:21), LG Nitro HD (3:53), and Pantech Burst (4:10) all lasted less than 4.5 hours.

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AllThingsD just reported that Jon Rubinstein, ex-Apple executive and former Palm CEO, has left HP. The move isn’t entirely unexpected, given that Rubinstein left HP’s Palm unit last summer to take on a more minor role at HP’s Personal Systems Group.

Rubinstein’s departure comes after a 24-month commitment to stay at the company after it acquired Palm. HP spokeswoman Mylene Mangalidan has reportedly said, “Jon has fulfilled his commitment and we wish him well.”

When he was still at Apple, Rubinstein spearheaded the development of the iconic iPod music player.

via AllThingsD

• HP Envy 17 (2012): Full Review
• HP-Palm webOS Tablets Said to Include Gobs of Cloud Storage, Tap-to-Share Feature with Phones
• Report: HP-Palm webOS Tablets Coming in 7- and 9-inch Flavors, Not Hitting Shelves Until September

Looking for a business laptop with some serious punch? The Dell Vostro 3750, today’s deal of the day, should fit the bill. The 17.3-inch computer has plenty of screen real estate, and its 2.2-GHz Intel 2nd Gen Core i7 Quad-core processor and 4GB of RAM ensure that you’ll never be lacking for power. What’s more, you can store all of your files and more on its massive 750GB hard drive. The Dell Vostro 3750 is available now for $874 through a deal at LogicBUY. 

If you’re in the mood for a little gaming, the Vostro has you covered there as well — the laptop features an Nvidia GeForce GT 525M GPU with 1GB of VRAM. Other standout features include USB 3.0 ports for speedy file transfers, a fingerprint reader, and a 6-cell battery. Business users who frequently travel at night will appreciate the backlit keyboard as well. The Vostro 3750 comes loaded with Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Base specs: 2.2-GHz Intel 2nd Gen Core i7-2670QM Quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce GT525M GPU with 1GB of VRAM, 750GB HDD, 17.3-inch Display, USB 3.0 ports, Fingerprint reader, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Dell Vostro 3750 with an Intel 2nd Gen Core i7 processor and 750GB HDD for $874 through LogicBUY.

In a carefully worded blog post yesterday, Twitter announced a new capability to censor tweets by country. The goal, it said, is to conform to laws in some countries — such as the prohibition of pro-Nazi content in Germany — by removing content for only users in those areas without having to remove it globally.

Titled “Tweets Still Must Flow,” it referenced a post from almost exactly a year ago that spelled out a more courageous-sounding policy on censorship.

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Let’s start with some disappointment: You have not won any Valentine’s Day jewelry or flowers or chocolates, despite what that email you just got says. You also didn’t win new perfume, and, sorry again, you haven’t been automatically entered into a sweepstakes for $50,000 worth of prizes. If you can come to terms with this in the run-up to Feb. 14, your computer and bank account will be much better off.

Symantec researchers have spotted phishing emails already spreading around the Web promising women enticing, romantic gifts like berries, bouquets and bracelets, as well as less-alluring but sure-to-sell items like weight-loss pills — all at unbelievable, discount prices.

Unbelievable is the key word; every year scammers cast a wide net in the weeks before Valentine’s Day in the hopes of snagging susceptible victims, in this case, most often women hungering for an Edible Arrangement or a Cartier Love bracelet, or any number of gifts.

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Data Privacy Day (Jan. 28) arrives at a tricky time for Google and Facebook. Both of the Web giants recently revised their often-disputed privacy policies, and in the process drew stinging criticism from lawmakers and security experts.

Google announced on Tuesday that it was unifying the privacy policies of its 60 or so online properties in order to, as Google said, make a “simpler, more intuitive Google experience.” The announcement came days before Data Privacy Day, an event coordinated by the nonprofit National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) which is “designed to promote awareness about privacy and education about best privacy practices.”

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Strategy Analytics raised a lot of eyebrows earlier today with a report that said Android tablets accounted for 39 percent market share in Q4 2011, up from 29 percent a year ago. The iPad’s share dropped from 68.2 percent to 57.6 percent. So is Android really “narrowing the gap” as many have suggested? No, but you could say Amazon and Barnes & Noble are.

We asked the author of the study, Peter King, to estimate what percentage of Android’s tablet share is comprised of the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, and he told us it’s about 40 percent of that 39 percent number. Strategy Analytics hasn’t yet released its Q4 tablet sales estimates broken down by vendor and region but will do so in about a week.

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In case you hadn’t noticed, Microsoft is really pushing to make Windows Phones a hit. The new 7.5 operating system certainly helps—with such cool features as Groups for messaging and Local Scout for nearby recommendations. But consumers really care about apps, and Microsoft has made pretty good progress in the last year. The Windows Phone Marketplace hit 50,000 apps in December, and it continues to grow.

Whether you just bought a Windows Phone or are thinking of getting one, these are the top 25 apps to get.

Next

Accuweather.com

Why waste time using apps from third-party weather services when you can get forecast info from the source? Accuweather’s application relies on a clean interface (with minimal ads) to display current weather conditions, 10-day forecasts, and severe weather alerts for your area. You can swipe through up to seven different locations, plus view animated radar and satellite maps.
Free

Is the tablet really killing the notebook or just becoming one? It’s no coincidence that Lenovo debuted two hybrids at CES. There was the head-turning IdeaPad Yoga, which doubles as a Windows 8 Ultrabook and tablet, and the Android-powered IdeaPad S2 10, which will come with an optional dock like ASUS’ Transformer Prime. According to Peter Hortensius, senior vice president of Lenovo’s product group, hybrids such as this one will “become a very meaningful segment in the market, and it’s an area where we intend to lead”.

In fact, Hortensius argues that the plain slate form factor may have already “reached its pinnacle” and that “you’re just seeing people now just iterate on the innovation.” (We think he means Apple.) In our in-depth interview, Hortensius also shares his thoughts on Windows 8 versus Android, the place for pen input on tablets, and why open ecosystems will triumph over closed ones.

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