sense

My Verizon Galaxy Nexus is getting long in the tooth, as they say. Old. Sluggish. I bought it soon after it launched with Verizon in December 2011 because I wanted a "pure" Android experience on a network I felt had the best speed and coverage. Now I'm ready to replace it, but there's no alternative in sight.

Sure, Verizon has other Android phones I could buy. But those don't have a pure or "stock" experience, where the Android operating system hasn't had modifications made to it by the handset maker.

Pure Android … Read more

Don't talk on your smartphone much, don't like the idea of a contract, and don't want to pay a lot of money per month yet still have plenty of data? T-Mobile has the plan for you, if you know where to find it.

For only $30 per month, T-Mobile has a plan that offers 5GB of 4G data, unlimited texts, and 100 minutes of talk time. It's the cheapest prepaid plan I've seen from any of the major U.S. carriers.

Verizon's pay-as-you-go plans start at $60 for only 500MB of data; $… Read more

Last week, Google gave everyone 15GB of space to store their photos. This week, Yahoo takes that to 1 terabyte. You know what? I don't need more space for my photos. I need these tech giants to get smarter about organizing them for me.

I have an entire column I've been meaning to write about my personal journey in trying to organize my pictures. I haven't gotten to it, because like my photos, I haven't sorted it out. It's a nightmare -- and I'm a pretty organized person.

Trusting myself more than software Perhaps … Read more

commentary I suppose it was inevitable. The debate about Google Glass has extended into the bathroom. For those who've never experienced the joys of a men's restroom -- generally the women of the world -- here's how Glass might change our glorious experience.

Nick Bilton of The New York Times penned a great piece about how "the future came crashing down" on him as he stood at a urinal next to a Google Glass wearer at the Google I/O conference. I immediately identified, having had a similar close encounter at Google I/O.

In … Read more

Editing and adjusting images manually can be quite time-consuming. But what if you could process multiple images automatically? Photo Sense for Mac offers powerful yet easy-to-use tools for effective, automated, and fast photo editing. However, there's a steep price to pay for such a basic application.

Photo Sense for Mac comes with a free demo version, which is limited in features and adds a watermark to saved images. The full version costs $33.99. The app, itself, is very light, and the installation is quick and easy with the usual drag and drop. Upon running the app, a quick … Read more

My series on living with four different activity trackers returns to the Fitbit because there's a new Fitbit in town, the Fitbit Flex. The new wristband version of the Fitbit corrects some of the deficiencies I found with the Fitbit One, such as tracking my standup paddleboarding better and making me feel more motivated to hit my daily activity goal.

The Flex sells for $100, just like its clip-on sibling, the One. It weighs about half-an-ounce, and never felt heavy or uncomfortable around my wrist. But getting the clasp to close takes a little practice. Like Brian Bennett in … Read more

Next in my series on living with four different activity trackers, the Jawbone Up.

It gains high-marks from me for having an attractive design, a great app, and fun social integration. But it surprised me in not tracking one of my "non-step" activities as well as I expected.

The Up sells for $130, comes in eight colors and is worn around your wrist. It's available in three sizes and weighs just under 1 oz. I've never found it uncomfortable or heavy to have on. It's also water-resistant, like the Nike FuelBand, so there's no … Read more

There will be times when you want to resize and crop a batch of photos, such as after a vacation. Manually doing it yourself is both tedious and time-consuming, but Resize Sense for Mac provides an easy fix. With some simple settings you can set up this app to automatically go through each and every photo and perform a resize and crop.

The app is free to try, but it saves each image with a watermark. Once you purchase and register the product for $13.99, you will have full access to all features and there will be no watermark. … Read more

For the HTC One, HTC designed a news feed widget called BlinkFeed that pulls in top stories from around the Web, as well as social feeds, such as Twitter and Facebook. It's a good-looking piece of software, and for better or worse, HTC makes it your default home screen on the HTC One.

But if you're less than thrilled by BlinkFeed, I'll show you how to better customize the stories that it pulls in, or even remove it from your home screen.

First off, tap the home button to make sure you're at the top of … Read more