Yes, ties are making a comeback, but what dad really wants for Father’s Day are gadgets. Lots and lots of gadgets. Whether it’s a shiny new keyboard for typing faster on his iPad or a wireless speaker that fits in their pocket, it’s easy to find tech toys that will make them happy–without blowing your budget. Our 8 great handpicked gifts are sure to satisfy.

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Nokia Lumia 900

So your pops needs a phone and you want to get him something that's fast but also easy to use. Check out Nokia's Lumia 900. For $99 you get the best Windows Phone on the market with 4G LTE speeds that will let him sneak sports scores anywhere with the exclusive ESPN app. And with its sleek, bright blue design and unique Metro-style UI, your old man will be the hippest guy in the office.

Read Our Nokia Lumia 900 Review

RIM kicked off its three-day BlackBerry World event with the new debut of its new NFC-enabled BlackBerry Music Gateway. We spent some hands on time with the device at RIM’s pre-show reception and were fairly impressed with its ease of use and wallet-friendly price. BlackBerry Music Gateway allows you to stream music from your NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphone or PlayBook directly to any compatible stereo system. Read the rest of this entry »

Samsung released a couple of new devices to add to their Samsung Galaxy series.  One of the new features that we were excited about in the new tablets was the integration of the IR blaster and the smart Peel app. You can operate your DVR without having to know what’s on which channel.

The Galaxy Player 3.6 comes with some useful apps that adds some great mobile phone-like functions like voice calls and SMS to your music device. The Galaxy Player 4.2 comes pre-loaded with some pretty great games like Angry Birds. 

Here’s a roundup of our coverage of the devices.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is a sleek Android tablet that offers snappy performance, Ice Cream Sandwich, and the ability to control your TV at a competitive price.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Review

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Samsung’s Galaxy Player line of personal media players hasn’t enjoyed much success against Apple’s iPod Touch, but the South Korea-based company is looking to change that with two new devices, the $149 Galaxy Player 3.6, on sale now, and $199 Galaxy Player 4.2, which hits stores on May 13. Both Android-powered Players offer the features and app selection of a Samsung smartphone, without the voice and data bills. Read the rest of this entry »

A Korean-only Samsung Galaxy Player wasn’t the only gadget we got to preview this week. We also got a sneak peak at the Galaxy Player 3.6, which has launched in Korea and is on its way to Europe and the U.S. (no exact timing details now). The Android Gingerbread-powered PMP sports a (surprise) 3.6-inch display with a 800 x 480 resolution and runs a 1-GHz processor under the hood.

As far as other specs go, the Galaxy Player 3.6 doesn’t stand out much from other members of Samsung’s media-device line-up; there’s a 3-megapixel shooter in back and a VGA cam up front, and storage sizes are 8GB or 16GB. But it looks like you’ll be able to make calls via Bluetooth. (Google Talk is also available “with a software update.”)

Samsung boosts the device’s entertainment cred with Smart View, which turns the player into a remote for your TV. There’s also Kies Air and All Share for sharing locally saved files with devices paired via Wi-Fi or DLNA, respectively. The entry-level 8GB version is priced around $175, though as we said before there’s no clear timeline for the Player 3.6 hitting our shores. Read the rest of this entry »

Aside from Apple, Samsung seems to be the only company with the entertainment and design chops to keep the devoted media player alive. Exhibit A at Mobile Congress is the Galaxy S WiFi 4.2, an Ice Cream Sandwich-based device with–you’ve guessed it–Wi-Fi access rather than the full phone and data experience.

This device is all about a quality multimedia experience, from playing EA Games titles on the 4.2-inch WVGA (800 x 400) display to listening to music through the Galaxy S WiFi 4.2′s huge front speaker and enjoying other apps via the Android Market. Memory-wise, you get either 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage. Read the rest of this entry »

We all know the feeling. You’re sitting on the bus, in a work meeting, or at your least favorite cousin’s wedding and the movie you’re trying to stream on your smartphone won’t stop stuttering. Without video, you’re now forced to interact with the world outside of the 4-inch screen clutched tightly in your hand.

Well fear not dear mobile user, researches at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications Heinrich-Hertz-Institut in Berlin say they have created a new wireless streaming standard that could eliminate video stuttering forever.

According to the researchers, the new standard, known as Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, or DASH, is capable of recognizing when users are attempting to stream media over their wireless connection and adjust the video quality accordingly.

Modern cellular networks, use what are known as Radio Resource Managers to determine how much data a user is using and how much bandwidth the transmission requires. But with so many people using wireless networks, the Radio Resource Managers become overwhelmed resulting in a reduction in bandwidth to users, which cause streaming videos to stutter. Read the rest of this entry »

The 2012 Consumer Electronics Show is over, but so many tech news stories, product showcases and software announcements came from the convention that you’re almost guaranteed to have missed something. If you take a look at our wrap up guides, you just might catch up on something you overlooked. Here’s everything we saw — and loved — at CES 2012.

CES 2012: Best in Show

The Annual Best of CES Awards
Here are the show’s standout products in 13 categories including the best smartphone, laptop, tablet, auto technology and accessory to surface in an unending swell of new gadgets.

Reader’s Choice Award 
The Best of CES Awards spotlights our editors’ top picks from the annual convention, but this year our readers had a decidedly different take on the single hottest piece of new tech.  

CES 2012: The Hottest Products

Best Laptops of CES 2012
Seven of these 8 clamshells fell short of a Best of CES Award, but they certainly garnered their fair share of time in the spotlight. Check out the laptops we eagerly look forward to reviewing this year.  

Best Smart Phones of CES 2012
The show’s smartphone announcements include a big step forward for Windows Phone, larger-than-ever screen sizes and phone cameras with the best specs we’ve encountered.

Best Tablets of CES 2012
This year’s tablets will offer longer battery life, lower prices and clearer screen resolutions.

CES 2012: The Biggest News Stories, Our Commentary and Live Video Coverage

Top 10 Videos of CES 2012
Some tech you have to see for yourself, like the Tobii Gaze Interface which, someday, will take hands-free to a whole new level by allowing you to navigate a computer screen just by looking at it. 

CES 2012: Biggest News Stories
CES doubles as a town hall for the world’s most successful tech companies to make huge announcements. This year, Microsoft embarked on its last CES keynote address and Intel announced partnerships to build smart phones with Lenova and Motorola.

SpoonFed: Top 5 Things I Learned at CES 2012
CES is too big to leave without thoughts on the long-view of tech. LAPTOP Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer learned that despite Ultrabooks’  lionshare of limelight at the show, hybrid Android tablets that connect to keyboard docks could be a bigger trend. 

CES 2012: How Our Staff’s Mobile Gear Performed
We armed ourselves with some of the best gadgets of 2011 and tested them in the fast-paced halls of North American’s largest tech show. Check above to see how the MacBook Air 13, ASUS Zenbook UX31 Ultrabook, Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone and other favorite gadgets performed in action. 

LAS VEGAS — Do you think that the 3.5-inch, 960 x 540 display of your iPhone 4S fails to do justice to the graphical marvel that is Infinity Blade? Wish you could watch Iron Man on a screen larger than your iPad’s 9.7-inch display while traveling? Wish no more, as Mobile Monitor Technologies unveiled the first portable monitor compatible with mobile devices at CES 2012.

Building upon the first Monitor2Go — unveiled by Mobile Monitor Technologies at last year’s CES as the first portable monitor for computers — the new Monitor2Go  is not only compatible with USB-enabled notebooks and PCs but can also connect to Apple mobile devices such as the iPad and iPhone, as well as any HDMI-compatible smartphone or tablet. The 15.6-inch LCD LED display boasts an HD resolution of 1600 x 900.

Read the rest of this entry »

Las Vegas — Purchasing headphones can be a gamble — especially earbuds. Since you can’t try on the buds in the store, you can never going to be sure they’ll fit which can drastically effect the sound. Sonomax Technologies has created a way to deliver great audio with a comfortable fit without breaking the bank.

In order to get the best sound, the buds have to form a tight seal in your ears which means the buds need to have a near perfect fit. That usually means paying a trip to the audiologist, getting a mold of your ears, and paying a headphone company to create a custom set of buds. After all the work and labor, you get a sweet pair of earbuds and a large bill. Sonomax cuts out a lot of the expensive by putting the custom-fitting in your hands.  After choosing either the $199 Sonomax eers SD150s or the $299 Sonomax eers SD250s, music listeners can create their own custom headphones in a matter of minutes.

The SD150 earbuds have a single driver in each ear while the SD250s have dual drivers. Both sets of  buds have enhanced bass.

Unboxing either set of in-ear headphones reveals the buds affixed in Sonomax’s unique fitting system, a small bottle of vitamin E gel, and a case for the finished headphones. A small amount of silicon contained within the fitting system flows into the buds expanding them creating the tight seal needed to shut out ambient noise while enhancing music.

For our hands on, we used the eers SD150 in-ear headphones.  The Sonomax rep coated each of the earbuds in vitamin E gel that’s included in the packaging. The gel allowed the buds to easily slip into our ears and settle in for a comfortable fit. From there, our rep hit the activation switches on both sides of the system. We immediately felt a small amount of pressure and outside noise quickly became muted.

Before all the sound was shut out, we were instructed to stay still and calm for five minutes as the silicon set inside the buds. In order for the fitting system to create the most accurate fit, it was imperative that we remained still. Talking or sudden facial movements causes facial bone movement which could disrupt the mold. 

After approximately five minutes, our new earbuds were complete. Our rep snapped on the faceplate, wiped off the gel and handed them to us. We put the buds in and played a number of different tracks including Alanis Morrisette’s “Head Over Feet,”  Anita Baker’s “I Apologize,” and Redman’s “I’ll Be Dat.” The SD150s delivered clear, crisp, audio across genres. Aside from the audio and the custom fit, we really liked the look of the SD150s. The faceplates and ear wraps are a glossy black while the cord and eers logo are done in a bold tangerine. 

Sonomax’s innovative system gives music lovers an affordable, comfortable way to listen to their music with headphones as unique as they are. 

• CES 2012: Full Coverage
• Top 10 Outrageously Themed Headphones of the Future
• How to Buy Headphones as a Gift