Well, to be honest, it’s easy to understand why it happens. Tapping on a link in the Facebook for Android app means watching Facebook slide into the background, and then waiting patiently (or not) while your browser laboriously loads the articled you tapped on.

OK, so the process may only take about five to 10 seconds, but hey—that’s five or 10 seconds that could’ve been spent on Facebook, right?

Tap a link in an app like Facebook, and Link Bubble will start loading the page (or pages) in a spinning bubble on the side of the screen.

Enter Link Bubble, a clever Android app that takes some of the pain out of tapping those gotta-tap links you’ll find in social apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Here’s how it works: Once installed (the process only took a few seconds on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus), Link Bubble waits quietly in the background while you flick through, say, your Facebook news feed.

Now, see a link you want to tap? Tap it—and instead of being yanked from Facebook so your Android browser can load the page, Link Bubble will start loading the web link in a spinning bubble on the side of the screen.

While Link Bubble is loading a web page, you can keep doing whatever you’re doing—meaning, for example, you can keep scrolling down your Facebook feed, or swiping through Pinterest pins.

One a page has finished loading, Link Bubble can open it right on top of whatever you’re doing, no app switching required.

You can even tap additional links, which Link Bubble will dutifully begin to load. If Link Bubble is loading, say, two pages at once, a little “2” will appear on the edge of the spinning bubble.

Once the bubble(s) stops spinning, just tap it to open the page right on top of whatever you’re doing, no app switching required.

You can also tap, hold, and swipe the bubble down to close any opened links, or swipe it to the side for sharing and saving options.

Nice, but there’s a catch: Link Bubble costs a cool $5, or at least so does the unlimited “pro” version. A free trial lets you load a single page at a time within one app.

Download: Link Bubble

Note: I paid for a copy of Link Bubble to review; the makers of the app haven’t compensated me in any way.

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Android Device Manager does a great job of zeroing in on a missing Android phone or tablet, but until recently, it only worked in a desktop web browser—meaning that if your Android tablet disappeared in (say) a hotel lobby or in the back of a cab, you couldn’t track it down until you got access to a PC or a laptop.

Well, good news: it looks like the phone- and tablet-tracking Android Device Manager just went mobile, perfect for using one Android device to find another while you’re out and about.

Read on for the details, start with…

What it’s called:
Android Device Manager (Download from Google Play)

With the mobile version of Android Device Manager, you don’t need a PC or a laptop to ring, lock, or even erase a missing Android phone or tablet.

What it costs:
Free

What it does:
Displays the whereabouts of an Android phone or tablet that’s lost, stolen, or otherwise gone AWOL.

How you use it:
Just install the app, sign in with your Google account credentials, and boom—the locations of any Android devices registered with your Google ID will appear on a map, all thanks to the magic of GPS (and provided your various handsets have Location Services turned on).

Top features:
Can sound the ringer of a lost phone, remotely lock a missing device, or wipe the memory of a phone/tablet that appears to be gone for good. Just select your missing device and tap Ring, Lock, or Erase.

Who it’s for:
Anyone who wants to track their (multiple) Android devices while they’re on the go.

Who it’s not for:
If you only have one Android handset, you’re better off sticking with the web-based Android Device Manager—after all, if you lose your phone, you won’t have access to the Device Manager mobile app.

Looking for more Android tips? Click here!

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That’s the promise behind Vudu’s new “disc-to-digital” service, which scans DVD and Blu-ray discs from your home collection and adds digital copies of your movies—well, some of your movies, anyway—to a cloud-based digital locker.

Once stored in your “My Vudu” locker, your movies are accessible from your PC, Mac, iPhone & iPad, and Android tablets, as well as such devices as Vudu-enabled HDTVs and Blu-ray players, the Roku set-top box, and game consoles like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. (Nope, no Apple TV, or at least not yet.)

Even better, you can opt to convert selected DVD movies to 1080p “HDX” video quality—not quite the same level of sharpness as Blu-ray, but pretty darn close.

Sounds interesting, right?

You can add your old DVD discs to your “My Vudu” digital locker, and even upgrade them to HD—for a price.

Naturally, though, there’s a catch—several of them, actually, starting with the fact that Vudu’s “disc-to-digital” service isn’t free.

First, let’s go over the basics.

For starters, you’ll need to sign up for a free Vudu account (Vudu, by the way, is the maker of one of the first streaming TV set-top boxes, and it’s now owned by Wal-Mart), and you’ll also need to register with Ultraviolet, a video-streaming “standard” established by five of the biggest Hollywood movie studios.

Once you’re all signed up, you’ll be prompted to download Vudu’s disc-to-digital utility, versions of which are available for both PC and Mac. I downloaded the Mac version, and the installation process took only a few minutes.

After that, you fire up the Vudu app, click the “Disc to Digital” tab, click the “Add Disc” button, then insert a DVD or Blu-ray disc into your system’s optical disc drive. (Yes, your PC will need a Blu-ray drive to scan Blu-ray discs—and no, Macs don’t come with Blu-ray drives, at least not built-in.)

It takes less than a minute for Vudu to scan and identify a DVD, but prepare to pay up before adding the movie to your digital locker.

It takes less than a minute for Vudu’s software to scan and identify a disc—and if it finds a match in its massive database of digital movies, you’ll get the chance to instantly add the movie to your “My Vudu” archive.

And here’s comes the first catch: Vudu charges $2 for every DVD you add to your digital locker, and that’s if you choose the SD (“standard definition”) version of the movie.

Want to pony up for the HDX (high-definition) version of a DVD? That’ll be $5, please.

Meanwhile, adding a Blu-ray disc to your Vudu lockers costs $2 for the digital HDX version.

(For a limited time, Vudu is offering a $2 credit toward your first disc conversion, and it’s also offering 50% off if you convert 10 discs at once.)

You can watch your Vudu disc-to-digital movies on an iPhone, iPad or Android tablet, but only in SD.

Once you’ve added some movies to your Vudu locker, you can watch them on your PC or Mac using the same “disc-to-digital” program you just downloaded.

Vudu also offers streaming video apps for iPhone/iPad and Android tablets (which can only play the SD versions of your Vudu-converted movies, by the way), as well as apps for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and Roku.

Apple TV still isn’t supported, although you can try streaming your Vudu movies (in SD, mind you) from your iPad to Apple TV via AirPlay.

Now, here’s another catch: there’s a good chance that only some (and perhaps even just a fraction) of your DVDs and Blu-rays can be added to your Vudu locker.

Why’s that? Well, to begin with, only five of the six big Hollywood studios—Sony, Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros., and Fox—offer movies through the service, with Disney being the lone but notable holdout. In other words, don’t count on converting any of your “Pirates of the Caribbean” DVDs to your digital Vudu locker anytime soon.

Many of my DVDs—including “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” and “Jaws”—were “not eligible” for transfer to my Vudu movie locker.

And even if you are trying to add a movie made by one of the other five studios, a given film must still have been “legally cleared” for streaming via Vudu.

Example? Well, I had no problem adding my “American Graffiti” DVD (from Universal) to my Vudu locker, but when I tried adding “Star Wars” (Fox), I was curtly informed that the movie was “not eligible” for conversion—and I got the same answer for such high-profile titles as “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (Paramount), “Jurassic Park,” (Universal), and “Jaws” (ditto).

Still, several other DVDs worked fine, like “Star Trek II” (Paramount), “The Maltese Falcon” (Warners), and “North by Northwest” (also Warners).

I should also mention that my new HDX version of that classic Hitchcock thriller looks splendid—far better my old standard-definition DVD version, in fact.

Got any questions about Vudu’s “disc-to-digital” plan? Let me know in the comments below.

Bonus tip

You can search Vudu’s library of available disc-to-digital movies right here before going to the trouble of downloading the software.

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Of course, without an actual Start menu, I usually end up click the Internet Explorer shortcut that’s sitting in its place, meaning I have to sit back and wait as my PC laboriously launches an unneeded browser window.

You can set the “style” of the Classic Shell Start menu to mimic Windows “Classic,” XP, Vista, or Windows 7.

Well, good news, fellow Windows 8 users: you can now revive the Start menu (or something close to it, anyway) with a minimum of fuss thanks to Classic Shell, a handy (and free) software download.

Update: You can now get the Start button back on your desktop thanks to Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 update, but the old Start menu is still missing in action.

You can download Classic Shell right here, and once you install the program, you’ll get to choose the style for your Start menu: Windows “Classic” (think Windows 95-era PCs), Windows PC, or Windows Vista/7.

Just make your selection, click OK, and voilà—you should have a new Start menu waiting in the bottom corner of the Windows 8 desktop.

You can customize the Classic Shell Start menu by right-clicking the Start button and selecting Settings. An almost bewildering number of options is available, from changing the look of the Start button itself to tweaking the look and feel of the Start menu columns.

Just drag and drop a program shortcut to add it to the Classic Shell Start menu.

Here’s a few more tips to help you get started…

• No, you can’t add program icons to the Classic Shell Start menu with a right-click; instead, try dragging and dropping a program shortcut into the Start button or into the Start menu itself.
• You can change the behavior of the Windows key (which opens the Start menu in previous versions of Windows or the Start screen in Windows 8) in the Settings menu. Select the Basic Settings tab (or the Controls tab if the “All Settings” radio button is enabled) and pick an option under the “Windows Key opens” section—anything from “Nothing” to “Start Menu in Desktop and Start Screen in Metro.”
• By default, Classic Shell deactivates the “hot corner” for the Windows 8 Start screen (which usually sits in the same corner of the screen as the old Start menu). To turn the Start screen hot corner back on, click the “Windows 8 Settings” tab in the Settings menu and select “None” under “Disable active corners.”
• Had enough of Classic Shell? You can turn it off temporarily by right-clicking the Start button and selecting Exit (just relaunch Classic Shell to get the Start menu back), or permanently by opening the Control Panel, clicking “Remove a program,” and then selecting Classic Shell.

Bonus tip

Ever wish you could skip the Start screen when booting Windows 8 and jump directly to the desktop? Open Classic Shell’s settings again, click the “Windows 8 Settings” tab, and check the box next to “Skip Metro screen.”

Looking for more Windows 8 tips? Click here!

Note: In case you’re wondering, my opinions on Classic Shell are my own, and the makers of the program haven’t compensated me in any way.

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That’s the good news, anyway. The bad news? Well, read on.

Pinterest, the wildly popular social site that lets you “pin” your favorite products, fashions, and other must-have wares to your online “pinboards,” has finally converted its formerly iPhone-only app into a “universal” version that’s compatible with the iPad.

Related: 5 essential tips for Pinterest newbies

The sleek new app lets you check out the latest pins from fellow Pinterest users, browse pins by category (anything from “Animals” to “Women’s Fashions”) or popularity, and search for pins, Pinterest boards, and people.

Pinning from the web

You can (finally!) pin items from the web using Pinterest for iPad, but a key feature is missing: bookmarks.

Best of all (and, notably, unlike the Pinterest iPhone app), Pinterest for the iPad actually lets you “pin” items on the web to your various Pinterest boards.

Now, that’s great news for anyone who’s balked at the prospect of installing a “Pin It” button on the iPad’s Safari web browser—a cumbersome process under the best of circumstances.

But here’s the thing: the new Pinterest iPad app doesn’t actually let you “pin” items using Safari on the iPad. Instead, the app comes with its own, built-in—and somewhat limited—web browser.

To start pinning, you tap a menu button in the top-left corner of the app and select “Browse the Web.”

Once you do, a web address bar slides open; type in a URL (like, say, “amazon.com”) and tap “Enter” to start browsing. See anything you like? If so, just tap the prominent “Pin it” button to compose a pin.

You can also browse other pinned items from the site you’re browsing by tapping an icon right next to the “Pin it” button.

Missing in action: bookmarks

Unfortunately, the Pinterest for iPad app is missing a crucial feature from the iPad’s Safari browser: bookmarks.

That means you won’t be able to set up shortcuts for all your favorite shopping sites, nor will you be able to import your existing bookmarks from Safari.

The Pinterest for iPad app also lets you browse popular pins, or pins culled from more than a dozen categories.

Yes, you can always copy and paste web addresses from Safari to the Pinterest app, but that could get tedious quickly—as would typing in the same URLs over and over again.

Pinterest for iPad also lacks traditional browser tabs, which are great for switching back and forth between multiple websites.

Instead, the Pinterest app has “sheets” for the different boards and websites you’re browsing.

Your various sheets sit one on top of the other, and you can swipe the top sheet away to jump to a sheet beneath.

Nice, but once you swipe a “sheet” away, there’s no way to get it back. Ugh.

So, are the missing bookmarks and browser tabs on the Pinterest iPad app deal-breakers? Well, not necessarily.

After all, URLs like “amazon.com” and “etsy.com” are fairly easy to remember, and you don’t have to have a series of browser tabs open to get a lot of pinning done.

And let’s not forget that the Pinterest iPad app is, of course, free.

That said, I’d recommend giving the Pinterest iPad app a thorough test drive before deleting the “Pin It” button that you painstakingly installed on the iPad’s Safari browser.

Looking for more articles about Pinterest? Click here!

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First launched back in January, OnLive Desktop is a free service that gives you access to a full-on Windows 7 desktop—well, remote access, anyway.

As I described in my initial hands-on with OnLive Desktop, the system works by sending a live video stream of a Windows desktop that’s running in far-flung server warehouse. When you tap, say, the Windows Start menu on your iPad, your command is streamed instantly (or almost instantly; there is a slight but noticeable lag) to one of OnLive’s remote PCs.

The free version of OnLive Desktop is fairly limited; you only get access to the core Microsoft Office apps (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), along with Windows Media Player, some system utilities, and 2 GB of storage.

Earlier this week, however, OnLive unveiled OnLive Desktop Plus, a new version of the service that adds full web browsing via Internet Explorer—including support for Flash, a feature that’s sorely missing on the iPhone and iPad.

OnLive Desktop's web browser isn't just for Flash; indeed, it's often faster than the iPad's Safari browser at loading big web pages.

I gave OnLive Desktop Plus a quick test drive, and came away fairly impressed. Yes, there’s still a slight delay between the time you tap a button on the OnLive-powered Internet Explorer browser and when something actually happens; that said, even the most Flash-happy sites I tried loaded smoothly and quickly, while the Flash videos I played on the desktop version of YouTube looked impressively sharp. Even a 1080p-quality movie trailer on YouTube (which can’t be fully rendered on the iPad’s not-quite-HD display, by the way) played with only a few slight hiccups.

Don’t forget, though, that the OnLive version of Internet Explorer is a full-fledged web browser, and a speedy one at that. Despite the tiny lag when typing a URL into the address bar or clicking a link, you’ll see web pages—even big ones, like the New York Times home page—load in a flash (no pun intended), often faster than they would on the iPad’s mobile Safari browser.

Nice, but there’s a catch: OnLive Desktop Plus will set you back five bucks a month.

That’s a fairly hefty price to pay just to watch Flash videos—especially considering how many Flash-heavy sites now boast mobile-optimized versions that work just fine on the iPad. Then again, you’re also getting Windows 7 and Microsoft Office in the bargain.

There is a cheaper alternative to OnLive Desktop: Skyfire, a third-party web browser for iPhone and iPad that’s also capable of playing Flash videos. Skyfire costs just $5 with no monthly fee, a bargain compared to what you’ll pay for, say, a year’s worth of OnLive Desktop Plus.

That said, the experience of watching Flash videos on Skyfire is somewhat clunkier than it is through OnLive. Instead of streaming just like they would on a desktop browser, Flash videos on Skyfire must load in a separate window, and you’ll often find yourself waiting for a half-minute or so for videos to begin playing. Again, though, we’re talking just $5, with no monthly subscription.

So, would you pay $5 a month for Windows 7 and Flash video on your iPad?

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Now, don’t get me wrong: I’ve got nothing against slicing and dicing watermelons in “Fruit Ninja” or getting triple-word scores in “Words With Friends” on my iPhone 4, especially while I’m stuck in a crowded subway car.

But sometimes, I want a real gaming experience—that is, a deep game with cutting-edge graphics, hours of complex gameplay, and precision controls, something that even the best iPhone and iPad games can’t quite offer.

Up until now, I’ve gotten my gaming fix from the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 in my living room (yes, I have both—for work, I tell you!), but here’s the thing: in about a month, my wife and I will be the proud parents of a baby girl, and something tells me that blasting away bad guys on my 46-inch HDTV, mere inches from the crib, isn’t going to fly anymore.

And that’s why I couldn’t be happier the PlayStation Vita is sitting in my hot little hands.

A handheld gaming powerhouse

Slated to make its official debut February 22 (a “first edition” bundle went on sale on the 15th), the Vita ($250 for the Wi-Fi version, or $300 for the 3G/Wi-Fi model) easily ranks as the most powerful portable gaming system ever released.

Armed with an eye-popping five-inch touchscreen, a roomy rear trackpad, front- and rear-facing cameras (intended more for “augmented reality” games than for taking photos), a series of motion sensors, and a souped-up, quad-core processor (think four processors on a single chip), the Vita is capable of churning out graphics approaching those of the current crop of home gaming consoles.

More importantly, the Vita comes equipped with an arsenal of physical buttons and triggers, plus a pair of joysticks similar to those on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 controllers.

Thanks to the twin joysticks—as opposed to, say, the sloppy, slippery “virtual” joysticks you’ll find on too many iPhone and iPad games—gaming on the Vita feels awfully close to playing on a full-size console.

Sure, you can also use the Vita’s touchpads and motion controls, just like you would on an iPhone; frankly, though, I mostly stuck with the old-school thumbsticks.

Stylish and substantial

Unfortunately, all those controls plus the jumbo five-inch screen adds up to a device that won’t slip into your pocket like an iPhone. Weighing in at about nine ounces and measuring a relatively bulky 7.2 by 3.3 by 0.7 inches, the Vita demands a tote bag, a purse, or even knapsack; good luck cramming it into a jeans pocket.

So yes, it’s big—compared to a smartphone, anyway—but the Vita also boasts a stylish, substantial feel that’s matched by its sleek, friendly home screen, complete with a matrix of bubble-shaped icons and even a soothing, Muzak-style soundtrack. (Some gamers say the Vita’s home-screen music is driving them nuts; my wife, on the other hand, thinks the soundtrack is lovely—and the more she likes the Vita, the more I get to use it. Besides, you can always muzzle the tunes via the Vita’s settings menu.)

Navigating the Vita’s menus is a simple matter of tapping and swiping, just like on an iPhone or Android phone. To launch an app or a game, you first pull up its “LiveArea” page, which includes help and update information, alerts about any “trophies” you’ve earned for a given game, and a “Start” button. To close a LiveArea, you just peel it off the screen with a swipe of your finger. Nice.

Speaking of apps, the Vita boasts a music player for tunes, a media player for renting movies, a custom version of Google Maps, and “Near,” a social app that lets you find and compare scores with other nearby Vita gamers. Near also keeps track of your daily travels and even lets you trade “game goods” with your fellow players—pretty neat, although you can also keep your identity and location hidden if you’re feeling shy.

Of course, a gaming console is only as good as its games. I’ve only played a handful of the Vita’s 20-odd launch titles so far—but what I’ve played, I’ve liked.

Bring on the games

Take “Uncharted: Golden Abyss,” a tongue-in-cheek adventure game that cheerfully plunders “Raiders of the Lost Art” and “Tomb Raider.” A Vita-ized version of the popular PlayStation 3 franchise, “Uncharted” plunges you into a lush, detailed jungle complete with roaring waterfalls, swinging vines, treacherous rope bridges, and dozens of armed baddies—and I have to say, it looks great.

Yes, the graphics look a bit “jaggy” compared to the smooth graphics in the PS3 editions of “Uncharted,” but “Golden Abyss” still manages to create an engrossing, immersive world, with characters that look, act, and react realistically, acres of jungle to explore and a slew of puzzles to solve. You can also tap the screen to leap across a ravine or shimmy up a vine by swiping the rear touchpad—but if you’d rather just use the buttons and joysticks to control Nathan Drake, the hero of “Golden Abyss,” you’re perfectly free to do so.

Then there’s “Wipeout 2048,” a thrilling, futuristic racing game that puts you in the driver’s seat of a souped-up hovercraft. Hurtling around a racetrack that looks like something from a “Star Wars” prequel, you’ll face off against computer-controlled and online opponents, and it’s an exhilarating ride. As with “Uncharted,” the graphics aren’t quite as smooth and detailed as those in the PS3 versions of “Wipeout,” but they’re awful close.

The most impressive Vita game for me so far is one I’d least expected: “Virtua Tennis 4,” a tennis simulation that lets you match rackets with the likes of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova, and Serena Williams. “Virtua Tennis” comes with quick “arcade” modes as well as full-on tournaments in stadiums from Flushing Meadows to the All England Lawn Tennis Club, and it looks amazing: we’re talking silky smooth graphics, from realistic models of famous faces from the game to the scuff marks on the court. I know how I’m spending my weekend.

There are plenty more Vita games to explore, from big-name titles such as “Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3” (a fighting game starring Spider-Man, Captain America, and Doctor Strange) and small but intriguing games like “Escape Plan” (an atmospheric black-and-white adventure that makes clever use of the Vita’s touch controls). Keep in mind, though, that the Vita’s catalog of games is only in its earliest days; indeed, it can take years for a given console to rack up a deep, satisfying collection of titles.

The Vita’s hidden cost: memory cards

What are the biggest complaints about the Vita—besides its $250-and-up price tag, that is? As I described in an earlier post, there’s a hidden cost to the Vita: its proprietary memory cards, which are required for saving game data and cost anywhere from $20 for a 4GB card to a whopping $100 for a 32GB card. A garden-variety 32GB memory card for a digital camera, on the other hand, only goes for about $40.

Then there’s battery life—just four to five hours, depending on the game you’re playing. That’s fine for a quick gaming fix while the baby naps, but not ideal if you’re taking the Vita on a trans-Atlantic flight.

And then there’s the games themselves, which run anywhere from $10 to $50 a pop—far more than most iPhone and Android games, which rarely sell for more than $10 each.

Is the Vita right for you?

So, should you get the Vita? Well, for me, it’s a no-brainer. The Vita promises console-quality gaming in the palm of my hand, whether I’m on call with the baby or cooling my heels at an airport terminal.

The Vita is pricey, no question, and its full potential probably won’t be realized for a few years while we wait for a deeper slate of games. But as a soon-to-be-parent who’s about to see his Xbox 360 and PS3 use seriously curtailed, the Vita couldn’t have come at a better moment.

But what if you’re a more casual gamer who’s happy with “Angry Birds” and “Cut the Rope”? In that case, there’s no need to drop $250 on yet another device—or at least, not until the perfect Vita game for you comes along.

Have questions about the Vita, or any impressions of your own you’d like to share? Post ’em in the comments below!

Note: The PlayStation Vita that I reviewed is, in fact, my own. Specifically, I purchased the $350 “First Edition” bundle.

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Slated to go on sale February 19 through AT&T, the Galaxy Note ($299 with a two-year contract) ups the ante to an almost absurd degree in terms of smartphone screen size.

Measuring 5.3 inches diagonally, the Note’s eye-popping “Super OLED” screen is about an inch larger than many of the biggest Android phones on the market, and it makes the iPhone’s 3.5-inch display look positively puny in comparison.

Indeed, the Galaxy Note’s display is so massive that it comes with its own stylus, which slides into a sheath molded into the Note’s 0.4-inch-thick shell.

And in case you’re wondering, yes: the relatively svelte Note will fit in a jeans pocket, though only just.

Armed with a “dual-core” processor (meaning two processors on a single chip, for speedier multitasking and more efficient power usage), dual cameras (one in front for video chat, another in back capable of HD-quality video recording), and 16GB of memory (expandable to a total of 48GB with an optional microSD memory card), the 6.3-ounce Note ranks right up there with other state-of-the-art Android phones.

The Note also supports AT&T’s just-launched 4G LTE network for ultra-fast cellular data—again, on a par with other leading Android phones. And while the Note’s version of the Android OS—2.3 “Gingerbread”—is a bit behind the times, Samsung is promising an update to the latest version of Android, 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich,” in the near future.

Which brings us back to the Note’s main claim to fame: its massive display, coupled with a stylus (or “S-Pen,” as Samsung calls it) that might spark memories of the old, pre-iPhone Palm Treo.

First, let’s cover the positives, stating with the gorgeous display itself. Thanks to a technology called OLED (which employs light-emitting pixels rather than the backlighting used in a standard LCD), the Note’s display looks startlingly vivid, with colors that pop off the screen. And with a resolution of 1280 by 800, the Note’s razor-sharp display qualifies as true HD quality.

In short, the Note’s screen is a sight to behold—and indeed, I was shocked by how puny my iPhone 4’s “retina” display started to look as I switched back and forth.

Nice, but what does the Note’s huge display mean in practical terms? Well, for one thing, text on web pages is far easier to read, and you’ll certainly one-up your friends when it’s time to swipe through your respective family photos. Videos look amazing (yes, you can watch an entire Netflix movie without having to squint) and typing on the Note’s roomy keypad is a cinch.

Then there’s the S-Pen: a slender stylus that lets you swipe and tap anywhere on the Note’s expansive display. Basically a smaller version of those Wacom pens used by digital designers, the S-Pen is entirely optional; you don’t ever have to touch it if you don’t want to. (A replacement S-Pen goes for $29, incidentally.)

You can, however, use the stylus to swipe through your home pages, tap on apps, draw little doodles using Samsung’s custom S-Note app (the lines you trace will get thicker or thinner depending how hard you press), or scrawl notes in the margins of web pages and send them back to the office. There are even a handful of apps that have been specifically optimized for the S-Pen, including Fruit Ninja (the popular fruit-slashing game) and Polaris Office.

All very impressive—and hey, were “bigger” always “better,” the Galaxy Note would, hands-down, be the best smartphone on the market.

But in stretching the Note’s display to a full 5.3 inches, Samsung may have poked a hole or two in the screen-size envelope.

Consider using the Note palmed in one hand while tapping with a thumb, a maneuver I perform regularly when I’m out and about with a smartphone. On the Note, just trying to tap the Contacts icon on the far side of the screen with my thumb is something of a stretch. But as far as the tabs at the top of the main Contacts screen go, forget it; my thumb simply can’t reach, or not unless I scoot the whole handset down on my palm.

Making phone calls on the Note is also an odd experience, akin to holding a salad plate against my cheek—although it must be said, call quality on the Note was pretty good, especially compared to my unreliable iPhone 4 on AT&T.

Then there’s the S-Pen, which lets you touch, tap, and swipe anywhere on the screen—well, anywhere except for the four main Android buttons (Menu, Home, Back, and Search) below the display.

If you want to go Home Back with the stylus, you’ll need to press a small button on the S-Pen’s shaft while swiping down or across. That’s the theory, anyway. In practice, I found that the S-Pen’s “Home” and “Back” gestures were somewhat hit-and-miss. I finally gave up and stowed the S-Pen in favor of my fingertip for navigating around the Note’s screens and menus. (It’s worth noting that a garden-variety tablet stylus worked just fine on both the Note’s screen and its Android buttons, although you don’t get the benefit of pressure sensitivity while you’re sketching.)

And while the Note’s screen is simply massive for a smartphone, it’s also a little too small (or at least, too small for me) to qualify as a tablet, or even a mini-tablet. Samsung’s superb Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, for example, is just two inches bigger (measured diagonally) than the Note, yet its screen feels much roomier—and yes, more like a real tablet.

In other words, if you were hoping the Note might double as both a smartphone and a tablet, well … not so much.

Now, if you are looking for a phone with a screen that’s bigger than the iPhone’s, I’d consider an Android phone with a four or 4.3-inch display—like, say, Samsung’s own Galaxy Nexus, one of Motorola Droid phones, or any number of other jumbo-screened Android handsets. Personally, I think a four-inch smartphone hits the sweet spot in terms of size and convenience, which is why I’m hoping the next iPhone stretches its screen by a half-inch.

Of course, it’s always possible that the Note’s size and stylus may perfectly suit your specific needs; for example, if you’re a phone-savvy sketch artist who wants a roomy, stylus-packing handset that fits in a pocket. If that’s the case, by all means—give the Note a try.

For the rest of us, though, the novelty of the Note’s massive screen may quickly wear thin, leaving us with an Android phone that’s somehow both too big and (as tablet wanna-be) too small.

Have any questions about the Samsung Galaxy Note? Post ’em in the comments below.

Note: Samsung and AT&T provided me with a loaner Galaxy Note to review, and I’ll be returning it once I’m finished testing.

The post Hands-on review: Samsung Galaxy Note for AT&T appeared first on here's the thing.

Available now in the App Store, OnLive Desktop requires little more than a free OnLive account. Just launch the app, sign in, and presto—it’s Windows 7, right there on your iPad. (Versions of OnLive Desktop for Android devices, the iPhone, PC and Mac desktops, and even Net-connected TVs are coming soon, OnLive says.)

What’s going on here? If you guessed that it’s something to do with the “cloud,” you’re right.

You can run the full version of Microsoft Word with OnLive Desktop for iPad, but you'll need steady fingers to tap those tiny buttons.

Think of OnLive Desktop as a touch-sensitive remote control that’s connected to a far-flung Windows-powered system in one of OnLive’s many server warehouses. That means when you tap on “your” desktop using the OnLive Desktop app, you’re actually sending commands to a high-powered computer that’s hundreds (or even thousands) of miles away.

Of course, using OnLive Desktop on your iPad presents a couple of key challenges.

For one thing, the OnLive Desktop app itself is speedy, all right, but not instantaneous—that is, there’s a split second between the time you, say, tap an icon on your desktop and the icon actually lights up. It’s only a slight delay, but it’s noticeable.

A second, somewhat bigger challenge is using Windows with your fingertips rather than a mouse and keyboard. Tapping a desktop icon is easy enough, and you can right-click by tapping and holding. But homing in on the tiny “undo” button in Microsoft Word requires a steady finger, while selecting a passage of text entails calling up the Windows on-screen keypad, tapping the shift key, and then carefully tracing the text you want to highlight. And trying to actually type something is, well, not much fun.

Then again, consider this. Using OnLive Desktop would mean never again having to worry about dealing with Windows updates or security patches ever again; instead, OnLive’s staff would take care of all those updates, seamlessly and painlessly in the background. OnLive could even conceivably upgrade your account to Windows 8 when the time comes, with no work required on your part.

The free version of OnLive Desktop gives you access to a basic Office suite and Windows Media Player, but you'll have to pay up for web browsing.

And despite the tiny lag between tapping a command and seeing a response, OnLive’s remote Windows systems are blazingly fast; I’ve rarely seen Microsoft Word launch as quickly as it did through OnLive Desktop.

One more thing: while trying to use Windows on an iPad may sound a little nuts, OnLive Desktop could get a lot more interesting once versions for PC and Mac desktops arrive.

So, what exactly do you get with your free Windows Desktop account? Basically, we’re talking the core Microsoft Office apps—Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—plus Windows Media Player, a kit of basic utilities (like Paint and Calculator), and 2 GB of “secure” storage. There’s also a website where you can upload and download files in your Documents folder.

What about Internet Explorer, or downloading and installing new programs? For that, you’ll need to upgrade to OnLive’s upcoming, $10-a-month “Desktop Pro” plan, which ups the storage ante to 50 GB. And if you’re really ambitious, you’ll eventually be able to deploy OnLive Desktop to an entire company through OnLive’s Enterprise service.

The possibilities are enticing, no question; for now, though, OnLive Desktop for iPad is more of a curiosity than a practical alternative to a true Windows desktop.

But what a curiosity it is—and hey, the price is right.

The post Hands-on: OnLive Desktop brings Windows 7 to your iPad appeared first on here's the thing.

Slim body, huge screen
First things first: let’s talk about the Galaxy Nexus’ gorgeous display, which measures a whopping 4.65 inches from one corner to the other, versus just 3.5 inches for the iPhone. Even better, the screen itself is one of the few on a smartphone to quality as true HD quality, with a pixel resolution of 1280 by 720—the same as on many big-screen HDTV sets. Impressive.

Despite (and perhaps because of) its overall size, the 5.1-ounce, 0.37-inch-thick Nexus feels surprisingly thin and light. Strangely enough, it feels lighter than the smaller iPhone 4, which is actually slightly thinner and lighter than the new Nexus. Go figure.

It’s the first “Ice Cream Sandwich” phone
OK, so what does ice cream have to do with smartphones? Well, “Ice Cream Sandwich” is Google’s code name for the latest version of Android—version 4.0, to be exact.

You can read my rundown of the 10 most important things about Ice Cream Sandwich right here, but suffice to say that the revamped OS brings several features of the latest Android tablets to the smaller screen of a smartphone, along with a clever “face unlock” feature (which lets you unlock your phone with your face) and the ability to set a “hard” usage limit for mobile data.

Nope, no physical "Home" key here.

Where’s the home key?
The Galaxy Nexus marks the first in what’s sure to be many more “Ice Cream Sandwich”-powered Android phones to arrive without any hardware keys at all—well, besides the power and volume buttons, anyway.

Instead, you only get three on-screen navigational keys—Back, Home, and a third for pulling up a list of running applications—at the bottom of the screen, and even those virtual keys may disappear in some circumstances.

The Nexus’ missing home key is a bit disconcerting at first, until you realize that you can always make them appear again by tapping on the bottom of the screen.

So, is losing the physical “Home” key a good thing or a bad thing? That depends on your point of view, of course. If you like the idea of twirling your smartphone this way and that without worrying which way is “up,” you probably won’t miss the plastic Home key at all. But if you like having at least one “real” button you could press, the missing Home key might leave you feeling a bit unsettled.

It’s a great “cloud” phone
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Android phones are a cinch to set up for Gmail users, and the Galaxy Nexus is no exception. Just sign in with your Google account, and bam—your email, contacts, and calendars are synced automatically. And if you use Google’s Picasa and (especially) the new Google Music service, your online photos and tunes will be instantly synced, too. I love it.

Just tap a thumbnail to switch to a different application.

Multitasking made easy
Among many other features borrowed from the latest Android tablets, the Galaxy Nexus (as well as other forthcoming “Ice Cream Sandwich” phones) boasts a handy multitasking bar.

Just tap the on-screen button right next to the virtual “Home” key, and a column of running apps will appear, complete with a thumbnail of the app “frozen” in the background. Just flick and tap to switch to another app. Nice.

It’s peppy
Under its hood, the Galaxy Nexus is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, which means it has two processor cores soldered onto a single chip; in other words, it’s a “two heads are better than one”-type situation. Thanks to all that horsepower, the Galaxy Nexus is one peppy phone—pages load quickly, screen animations are smooth, and rarely did I catch an app chugging or stalling.

Nifty, but here’s the thing: in the not too distant future (probably within the next year or so), expect to start seeing smartphones with four-core processors instead of just two. In other words, it won’t be long before the Galaxy Nexus’ hefty engine (not to mention the processors in many other current, cutting-edge Android phones) looks like yesterday’s news.

So-so picture quality
The Galaxy Nexus comes armed with a five-megapixel camera that shoots 1080p-quality video—not bad, but not quite up to snuff with the eight-megapixel cameras in recent state-of-the-art smartphones. Indeed, my test shots and videos on the Galaxy Nexus were marred by a fair amount of noise and muddiness, especially in low-light conditions—par for the course for most handsets, but well shy of the image quality you’ll see from the best smartphone cameras.

The Galaxy Nexus' picture quality: good, not great.

Back on the plus side, though, photos are snapped the moment you tap the shutter release, and you can take 360-degree shots using the build-in “panorama” mode. There’s also a front-facing camera for video chat using Skype or another video-messaging app.

Wrestling with the battery
Reports are already pouring in about the Galaxy Nexus’ iffy battery life, particularly when the phone is connected to Verizon’s speedy but power-draining 4G data network. After testing the new Nexus for the past several days, I found that the handset’s battery held up fine under normal use—say, a few phone calls here and there, some light web surfing and email checking, a video or two. That said, expect the battery meter to dip quickly if you’re streaming video, uploading snapshots, or using the Nexus as a 4G hotspot.

The good news, though, is that the Nexus has a replaceable battery—meaning that in a pinch, you could swap out a dead battery with a fresh one.

Thanks to Ice Cream Sandwich, it's easy to find out which apps are hogging the most power.

Also, Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich software comes with a control panel that shows you which applications are hogging the most power, along with the option to quickly shut down any app before it sucks the battery dry.

No slot for memory cards
One of the biggest advantages that many Android phones have over the iPhone is that they come with slots for teeny, tiny microSD flash-memory cards, perfect for expanding your handset’s memory capacity or quickly moving large media files from your PC to your phone.

The Galaxy Nexus, however, doesn’t have a microSD memory slot; its 32 GB of internal storage is all you get.

It’s pricey
At $299 with a two-year Verizon contract, the 32 GB Galaxy Nexus is the same price as the equivalent 32 GB iPhone 4S—fair enough, right? The only problem is that there isn’t a cheaper 16 GB version of the new Nexus as there is for the iPhone, which starts at $199 for the 16 GB model.

And the verdict is…
No question, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is an impressive phone by virtue of its “Ice Cream Sandwich” software and glorious 4.65-inch display. Given the fast pace of Android phones, though, it won’t be long before this latest Nexus is eclipsed by an Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Droid or Evo handset, particularly in the camera department—and that’ll be a bitter pill for anyone who’s just put $299 on the barrelhead.

My advice: Unless you’re a die-hard Android fanatic who must have the first Ice Cream Sandwich phone right now, I’d wait until the Galaxy Nexus gets a price cut—or until the next Ice Cream Sandwich-equipped superphone comes along.

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