Stories by James A. Martin

In Pictures: Holiday 2012 tablet buying guide - top picks

The tablet market is awash with iOS, Android and Windows 8 models that come in different sizes and with different features, specs and prices. How do you decide? Start with our Holiday 2012 Tablet Buying Guide, which highlights the top picks in 13 categories.

In Pictures: Top 10 Android tablet apps

Android tablets often get overshadowed by Apple's mighty iPad and have to fight for market share - and attention from developers. But there are some great Android apps optimized for tablets out there. Here areour picks for the top 10.

In Pictures: Top 25 iPhone and iPad apps for business

Apple's iPhone and iPad may have been built for consumers, but the folks in Cupertino correctly guessed that what's good for consumers is good for businesses. The only stumbling block may be the growing volume of apps available: more 140,000 natively for the iPad and over 500,000 that work on the iPhone and iPad. Here are 25 go-to iOS apps for business users, from travel planning to document editing using Microsoft Office tools to time tracking to getting a good night's sleep.

Should you move your small business to the cloud?

Cloud computing. For some, the term is wildly nebulous. Not long ago, even Oracle's Larry Ellison publicly asked what the heck people meant by "the cloud."

Get real business results from social media

Can you tell which of the following tweets is from a small but rapidly growing company?

Do we love our smartphones too much?

If it hadn't been so crazy expensive to use Google Maps on my Apple iPhone 3GS while I was in the UK, I might never have met Elizabeth. I probably wouldn't have made it to that charming inn/pub high up on the hill, either. And my trip would have been a bit less rewarding as a result.

Google Voice for iPhone: Missing in action

Big Brother is a little late in arriving, having been expected by 1984 at the latest. But he has shown his face twice recently in the world of mobile technology: First, in the mass removal from Amazon Kindles of George Orwell's 1984 (oh, sweet irony) and Animal Farm e-books. Second, when Apple banished all Google Voice-related apps from its App Store--including one excellent app, GV Mobile, which Apple had approved and which had been available in the iTunes store since early May.

Mobile social networking tips

In the past few months, I've reconnected with friends from kindergarten through college and beyond. I've discovered thought-provoking online articles and videos I probably wouldn't have found on my own. I've also read meaningless updates from friends, such as "I'm getting in the hot tub," or "just received a special gift from a special friend."

Netbook or ultraportable for the job?

Netbooks are starting to look like ultraportable laptops, while some ultraportables are beginning to resemble netbooks. In a tight economy, the question arises: Should you keep costs low by buying an inexpensive netbook, or spend a few hundred dollars more to get a full-featured lightweight laptop?

Three iPhone apps you can't live without

Today I read about a free iPhone app called Email 'n Walk. There are tons of iPhone apps out there, of course, many of them for free or super cheap. But this one caught my eye, in an oh-no-they-didn't kind of way. The app's goal is to make it possible for you to see the ground you're walking on (via the iPhone's camera) as you type an e-mail on your iPhone and walk at the same time.

Hackintosh netbook, anyone?

It seems unlikely that Apple will enter the netbook market, though Mac OS netbook rumors continue to circulate. Apple COO Tim Cook dissed the hot product category and suggested those wanting a Mac netbook should just buy an iPhone or iPod Touch instead.

Online cops showcase worst of the Web

The art of the online swindle is now on (limited) display at The Fraud Museum.

Mind Your E-Mail Manners

Let's begin our e-mail etiquette course with a pop quiz: Your coworker Hank has such terrible breath that it's become a subject of office gossip. Should you send an anonymous e-mail to warn Hank, tactfully, of the problem?

Get Even by E-Mail

You're so stupid, you could strangle yourself with a cordless phone. You're so ugly, the doctor should have slapped your mother when you were born. And you're so trashy, you give trash a bad name.

Oddities on the Auction Block

A limbless Barbie doll, a macramé beer-can hat, a pregnant key chain: Disturbing Auctions is not your mother's EBay (Inc.).