Personal Tech

I review a lot of Android apps: Many of them are junk, some are so-so, and a small number are great, providing functionality that should be included in every Android device. DroidWall (for rooted devices only) is among the elite few. Why? Because DroidWall allows you to specify which apps can access the Internet--giving you more control over your phone and enabling you to protect yourself against unauthorized data connections.

Walking the line between "phablet" and phone, the HTC Titan 2 ($199 with a new two-year AT&T contract as of April 18, 2012) is a monster-sized Windows Phone handset. We first encountered the Titan 2 at this year's CES, and back then we liked its 16-megapixel camera and LTE connectivity. The Titan 2 is certainly an impressive phone, but it has a few quirks that you should take into consideration before you buy.

At the risk of sounding like a late night "slow PC" TV commercial, I take a look at the latest release of a utility intended to keep your Windows machine running lean and mean.

The new Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) tablet is a good tablet at an excellent price, but how much better is it than Samsung's previous models?

Sprint might not have an LTE network yet, but that isn't stopping the carrier from releasing new LTE phones. At an event Wednesday evening, HTC and Sprint pulled back the curtains on the HTC Evo 4G LTE. I got the chance to check out this dual-core Android 4.0 phone during a quick demo. Overall, I'm not blown away by the design, but the camera is impressive.

When I first saw the Nokia Lumia 900 ($100 with a two-year AT&T contract, price as of April 3, 2012) at CES 2012, I proclaimed that it was the Windows Phone I'd been waiting for: Offering a premium design, a high-end camera, a gorgeous display, and LTE data speeds, the Lumia 900 seemed to be giving Windows Phone the hardware it deserves.

In a world where smartphone displays are getting more and more gargantuan, the 3.97-inch display on the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G is refreshingly compact. Not everybody needs a 5.3-inch display on their phone (Galaxy Note, I'm looking at you!), and it's nice to see a more pocketable phone for those consumers. In addition, the Galaxy S Blaze 4G ($150 with a two-year contract on T-Mobile; price as of March 20, 2012) has fast data speeds (thanks to T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 network) and smooth performance powered by a dual-core processor. But regrettably, the phone is riddled with carrier and manufacturer bloatware that you can't easily remove.

Hard to distinguish at first glance from an iPad 2, the new iPad's changes are welcome but subtle for business users

The Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G may not be the latest and greatest Android phone, but, with a 3.97-inch display, it might just be the antidote we need for increasingly larger screen sizes.

Motorola's laptop dock for Android smartphones has terrible hardware -- and faces a new generation of post-PC competition

With its slide-out QWERTY keyboard and latest version of Android, the original Motorola Droid stood for everything the iPhone wasn't. However, Motorola's interest in QWERTY Android phones has been downplayed with each new model. The Motorola Droid 4 ($200 with a new 2-year contract on Verizon; price as of 2/13/2012) is the latest in the keyboard toting Android phones. Unfortunately, the Droid 4 lacks the same excitement the original Droid sparked-- the excellent keyboard and zippy processor is overshadowed by a blurry screen and poor camera.