I’ll be honest. I wasn’t crazy about the Galaxy Note when I first saw it a few weeks ago at Samsung’s big show-and-tell in Jakarta. The 5.3-inch screen makes it bigger than most phones (the Galaxy S II has a 4.3-inch screen), yet is smaller than the most petite tablet, like the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab.

Samsung’s new gizmo also uses a stylus in addition to the usual finger gestures that you can use to interact with the Android 2.3.5 OS (upgradable next year to Android 4.0). Now, where have we seen a stylus before? Yes, in the HTC Flyer, a slightly larger tablet, which didn’t do fantastically well.

Then there are other “middle of the road” devices like Dell’s Streak, which was well-made but didn’t win over enough fans, some of whom must have been confused by its “hybrid” nature.

And now, here we are with the Galaxy Note, which is cosmetically, a larger version of the popular Galaxy S II. What I think is crucial to its popularity in recent weeks, as I’ve heard from sources, is that it has come at a time when the screen sizes of phones have themselves increased from the iPhone’s 3.5 inches to 4.7 inches on the HTC Sensation XL, for example. …

Despite being one of the first with an Android phone when it released the Droid and Milestone about two years ago, Motorola has not had a top-end phone that stood toe to toe with offerings from rivals such as Samsung, HTC and even Sony Ericsson of late.

That changes now with the new Razr, which brings the Android pioneer up to the speed with not just the latest hardware but also a surprisingly nifty software experience. …

If you’ve ever thought of running Android apps on a PC, there’s now an easy way to do it.

Bluestacks, a company headed by former McAfee executives, has developed a virtualisation software that offers a full Android environment on other computing platforms. The technology is similar to that of Parallels Desktop for Mac, which lets you run the Windows on a Mac computer. …

After months of the usual hoopla from fan boys in the media and supposedly leaked images of a next great iPhone to take back the lead from Android gizmos, Apple yesterday unveiled a new model that can be best described in a word: underwhelming.

The iPhone 4S comes with improvements like a dual-core chip, a better 8-meg camera, improved notifications with the new iOS5 software and a claimed 200 new features. But an iPhone 5 this is not, and to take back market share from the Android OS is a task it is clearly not up to.

Essentially, this is an iPhone that shows that Apple has become a follower for features that have already been in the market months, even years, ago. …

Singaporeans are a cellphone-crazy lot. Even while on vacation, most will remain tethered to their smartphones, checking in from obscure locations to earn bragging rights and lapping up tips left behind by others. In this week’s app round-up, we review our favourite travel apps that will let you tap into all kind of information on the road. …

Gym rats and music lovers now have two new Sony Ericsson smartphones to choose from. Making its debut yesterday is Xperia Active, a ruggedized model that sports a dust proof and water resistant shell. While sweating it out, you can continue to swipe on the screen, which SE says works perfectly even when the screen, or your finger, is smeared with water and sweat. But before you take to the pool, be warned that the Xperia Active is only water-resistant, not water-proof, so the usual precautions apply. …

I’d bet the most common question that any Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 owner would have gotten is,“How does it compare with the iPad 2?”.

So having spent more than two weeks with mine (a 16GB Wifi Galaxy Tab 10.1), here’s my take on it.

If you only have half a minute, my quick answer is it’s better than the iPad2 ONLY if you’re a power user, but you’ll be better off with an iPad 2 if simplicity is what you’re looking for.

And if you have a little more time, here’s why. …

Salesforce has unveiled a slew of new tools and services to lure developers to its cloud-based platform.

Leading the pack is Database.com, a cloud database that can power apps built for Android and iOS-based devices. These apps can be hosted on Salesforce’s own Force.com or other cloud-based platforms including Amazon Web Services and Windows Azure.

Database.com can also be used to run social media applications using a social data model that holds and manages data for social feeds, user profiles and status updates. Developers can specify followers for database records or request data feeds to display real-time data updates through social APIs. …

Starting this week, we’ll be featuring quick and dirty reviews of must-have smartphone apps for Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7 devices.

In our first weekly round-up: a Rock Band-style Glee app for the iPhone, Summon Auntie to help you look out for carpark attendants and more! …

After several unconfirmed reports yesterday, Samsung has come out to say that it has indeed sold a cool five million Galaxy SII phones in just 85 days – a figure that will surely make Apple sit up as it prepares the next iteration of the iPhone in the coming months.

The Korean firm’s good start is achieved before it has even started selling the newfangled smartphone in the United States, one of its key markets. And things don’t seem to be slowing down – in the first 55 days, three million Galaxy SIIs were sold in places like Asia and Europe; the next 30 days saw another two million phones added to the chart. …