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Kelly spent the last four years covering mobile technology at places like BGR, Gizmodo and The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Before writing, she spent a few years working with and teaching others how to use Adobe Flash and Macromedia Director. Even earlier than that, she spent several years as a Ph.D student in Microbiology. When she's not writing, she can be found fishing the lakes and hiking the mountains of Western Maine with her husband and tribe of children. You can follow her on Twitter @kellyhodgkins.

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Posts by Kelly Hodgkins

Samsung Galaxy S4 now Consumer Reports top pick

Consumer Reports took a look at the latest smartphones on the market and selected the Galaxy S4 from Samsung as its number one phone. it replaces the LG Optimus G, which occupied the top spot for a few months earlier this year. The reviewers point to the 1080P display, the gesture and sensor-based tools, and the IR blaster as standout features on the device. The consumer products review company also saw the split-screen multi-tasking support as useful and unique. You can check out the highlights in the blog post on Read more

Kelly Hodgkins

Yahoo announces its acquisition of Tumblr for $1.1 billion

Yahoo! announced today that the company is acquiring blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash. According to the announcement by Tumblr, the company isn’t “turning purple” and will remain independent, with the same team and the same headquarters. Tumblr, though, will now have access to the resources available from Yahoo!, and its investors will get a big pile of cash. Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer promises in Yahoo’s announcement not to “screw it up” and adds, “On many levels, Tumblr and Yahoo couldn’t be more different, but, at the same time, Read more

Kelly Hodgkins

Samsung launches TecTiles 2, now compatible with the Galaxy S4

Samsung announced today that it is updating TecTiles, its programmable NFC tags, to version 2. The latest version of the TecTiles will work with the Galaxy S 4, as well as older NFC-equipped Samsung phones. TecTile stickers have a small NFC receiver that sends a signal to your smartphone. This signal then triggers an action on your phone such as opening an app, adjusting phone settings, or updating a status on Facebook or Google+. You can buy TecTiles 2 from Samsung.com today and from retailers in June. Each pack costs Read more

Kelly Hodgkins

Samsung Galaxy S4 sales top 10 million

The Galaxy S4 launched in late April and has become the fastest selling smartphone in Samsung’s history. Samsung co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun told the Korea Times that the manufacturer is close to selling over 10M Galaxy S4 units in less than a month. This outpaces the Galaxy S3, which hit the 10 million mark in 50 days. Samsung is the leader in the Android world, scooping up an estimated 95 percent of Android handset profit in the open quarter this year, says market research company Strategy Analytics. With handsets like the Read more

Kelly Hodgkins

Google I/O 2013: Google improves photo handling in Google+

Google realizes that photos are one of the most popular items shared on social networks. To improve the photo-sharing experience, Google has introduced a series of new tools that’ll let you use Google as your digital darkroom. The new photo service will help you better manage your photos by backing up your photos (15GB of full-size photos, unlimited for scaled versions) and auto-highlighting those that are most important to you. Google also added a new auto-enhance feature that’ll automatically improve your photos on the fly by adjusting brightness, contrast and Read more

Kelly Hodgkins

Google I/O 2013: Google updates Google+ with related hash tags, new Hangout apps, more

Google is updating its Google+ social network with more than 42 new features. Most of the features are designed to improve the overall user experience and include: new hangout applications that let you save each conversation as a history and sync notifications across devices so you can dismiss a notification on one device and have it disappear on another. Available on web, iOS and Android today Improved photo sharing and processing that automatically enhances your images on the fly newly designed news stream that features a completely overhauled desktop UI Read more

Kelly Hodgkins

Google I/O 2013: Google unveils developer edition of Samsung Galaxy S4, available in June for $649

The Samsung Galaxy S4  is Android’s flagship phone, but some people balk at Samsung’s TouchWiz interface. Purists that enjoy the pure flavor of Android will appreciate the newly announced developer edition of the Galaxy S4. Unveiled at Google I/O 2013, the new S4 will run the latest version of Android and will receive updates through Google. This means owners will get the latest and greatest version of Android right away and won’t have to wait for Samsung to customize TouchWiz. It’ll have an unlocked bootloader and support both T-Mobile and AT&T frequencies. The Read more

Kelly Hodgkins

Google I/O 2013: Google unveils beta testing and staged rollout for apps

Google not only introduced Android Studio, a new development suite to make coding easier, it also added some improvement to its Google Play developer console that’ll make it easier for developers to rollout and monetize their apps. One of the biggest enhancements is the support for beta testing and staged rollouts from within the Google Play framework. These features will let developers beta test their app without having to sign up for a third-party service like Hockey App. They can issue betas and control them from within Google Play. When Read more

Kelly Hodgkins

Google I/O 2013: Google unveils new Android Studio for developers

Google I/O is for developers, and the company didn’t pull out any stops to help improve the developer environment. One major addition is a new development tool, Android Studio, that’ll help streamline the app creation process for Android developers. The new Android Studio is based on IntelliJ and is designed to make development faster and more productive. It’ll automate the process of adding support for services like Google Cloud messaging and will be a big area that Google will focus on in the future. Look for improvements in the development Read more

Kelly Hodgkins

New Google Maps web page goes live for a few moments, leaks information

Google is ready to overhaul its desktop version of Google Maps and will likely show off its updated web app at I/O later today. A sign-up page for the new Google Maps went live last night for a few moments, and Droid-Life scoured all that they could find before Google took the page down. According to Droid Life, the new Google Maps will generate a “tailored map for every search and click you make.” This could be a custom or intelligent map generator that shows relevant information based on your Read more

Kelly Hodgkins

BlackBerry announces new social “Channels” for brands, celebrities and groups using BlackBerry Messenger

BlackBerry used its Live 2013 conference to announce a new Channels feature that is coming to BlackBerry Messenger. Channels is designed for any type of brand, whether it be a business, an artist, a celebrity, a businesses or a community,  that wants to collectively  reach out to its users on the BlackBerry platform. Within the channels feature, users can create their own channel or subscribe to a channel that was created by their friend, favorite team or others. They can subscribe to a channel by typing in a PIN or QR code. Read more

Kelly Hodgkins