Review: Surface RT, Microsoft's bid for a 'thing' of its own

Microsoft desperately needs a "thing"—a big thing that transcends the nerdy world of consumer electronics and achieves hero status among mobile-hardware wonks and civilians alike. The iPad is a thing. The Kindle Fire is a thing. Each tablet is a shared cultural experience that's practically effervescent in mainstream consumer appeal.

And now, with its Surface RT tablet, Microsoft is trying to create a thing of its own.

Surface RT must fulfill Microsoft's bid for relevance in a world gone hopelessly mobile. Surface RT must demonstrate that Microsoft can compete with Apple, Amazon, and Google in marrying hardware to software to credit card numbers in perfectly stacked ecosystems. And Surface RT must validate a splendiferous marketing spend,estimated by Forbes in excess of $1.5 billion, every dollar dedicated to making people really, really excited about, oh my God, have you seen this, it's Surface RT!

When Surface RT was unveiled in June, hands-on reports were unanimous in their praise of the tablet's hardware innovations. With a magnesium chassis, an integrated kickstand, and clever keyboard accessories, Surface RT flouts the standard rules of tablet design and defiantly declares, "There's a better way to build these things. The other guys have it all wrong. We have made things right."

The unveiling was four months ago. Today, Surface RT must prove itself against a barrage of new questions: Just how difficult are the Windows touch gestures? Just how competent is Windows RT, the feature-limited version of Windows 8 that gives Surface its name? And what about the $499 price tag of the entry-level Surface RT offering? Is it low enough to compete with the iPad, let alone other Windows tablets?

I've been using Surface RT every day for the past week, and I can testify that it's a fresh, fun reinterpretation of the basic tablet experience. But does Surface RT have enough, and do enough, to reach "thing" transcendence? Let's dig in deep to find out.

Industrial design

Most tablets are simple slabs of glass and aluminum devoid of moving parts. But not Surface RT, which dares to explore its own physicality in a very showy, public way.

IMAGE: ROBERT CARDIN

Surface RT's integrated kickstand looks great. It even sounds great. But it's not adjustable. And notice how the Touch Cover lacks actual keys.

The integrated rear kickstand props up the tablet at 22 degrees. That's just the right angle for some viewing positions, but the kickstand is not adjustable, and I often found myself drifting out of the angle’s sweet spot depending on my table height. Made of the same injection-molded magnesium that's employed throughout the Surface chassis (Microsoft calls the material "VaporMg"), the kickstand opens with a faint metallic ting and closes with a confident click. Both audio cues are satisfying—and they better be, considering that Microsoft specifically engineered the kickstand to not just work but also sound good.

The point of the kickstand, of course, is to turn Surface RT into an effective productivity machine, and to varying degrees that promise is fulfilled via the system's Touch Cover and Type Cover keyboard accessories. Regrettably, neither cover is included in the tablet's entry-level package, but all Surface RT versions are preloaded with a soph-frosh version of Microsoft Office that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, helping users realize the tablet's productivity promise.

At 3mm thick, the Touch Cover lacks physical keys, and instead uses pressure-sensitive touch pads to record keystrokes. The Type Cover features real keys with actual key travel, but extends the thickness to 5.5mm. Can the Touch Cover possibly offer rewarding typing? I answer that question in the section titled "Surface RT as a workstation" below. For now, I can share that the tablet's keyboard docking system is as sweet as Microsoft wants everyone to believe.

You never need to worry about aligning finicky connection points. In fact, you don't even need to look at the tablet and keyboard when snapping them together. Just move them toward each other, and magnetic attraction will attach the two sides—perfectly, every time. The connection interface also provides the data link between tablet and keyboard, and just like the kickstand, it comes with its own mechanical soundtrackthat Microsoft expressly designed to push emotional buttons.

IMAGE: ROBERT CARDIN

You must carefully finagle the proprietary power connector into the side of the beveled chassis.

The build quality throughout Surface RT is sturdy and confident, and exudes the same kind of austere precision we find in German performance cars. VaporMg is silky to the touch, yet inflexible when torqued. And at 0.37 inch thick and 1.5 pounds, Surface RT is essentially identical to the iPad in thickness and weight—this despite the fact that it supports a slightly larger, 10.6-inch, widescreen display.

Quibbles? I frequently worried that the kickstand would scratch wooden tables, and I found the proprietary power connector difficult to insert. But overall I became a quick fan of Microsoft's take on industrial design. The magnesium chassis really does feel like something special, and it's a welcome change from the standard combinations of aluminum and plastic we see throughout the tablet competition. Surface RT is a manifestly tactile device, from its generous (if initially confusing) catalog of touch gestures to its actual moving parts.

Display

I won't mince words: Surface RT's 10.6-inch, 1366-by-768-pixel display doesn't match the clarity and beauty of the iPad's so-called Retina display. Microsoft has provided excruciatingly detailed data that explains why a great tablet display doesn't need a resolution of 2048 by 1536, but my eyes don't lie.

IMAGE: ROBERT CARDIN

Surface RT's image clarity can't match that of the iPad, but you'll appreciate its widescreen aspect ratio when you're running two apps side by side.

In side-by-side comparisons, the Surface RT suffers from a tangible degree of pixel blur, whereas the iPad makes all content look like a continuous-tone photographic print. The difference in resolution is particularly noticeable in text rendering, despite Microsoft's use of ClearType (a technology that enlists a display's subpixels to smooth out character edges) and optical bonding (a manufacturing process that provides for greater visual clarity and reduces screen reflection).

That said, within the context of the greater tablet market, the Surface RT's display is actually quite nice. With a 16:9 aspect ratio, the 10.6-inch screen provides an HD video window that's 42 percent larger than what you'll see on the iPad's 4:3, 9.7-inch display. The Surface's widescreen proportions also accommodate Windows' new "snap screen" multitasking feature, which lets you run two apps side by side.

As for color reproduction, the Surface RT screen doesn't quite have the richness and accuracy of the iPad, but this drawback is noticeable only during A/B comparisons, and I don't think it's a big problem for Microsoft. The company is positioning Surface RT as a consumer-grade tablet that's great for the more pedestrian aspects of productivity: writing long email messages, setting up monthly calendars, creating documents in Word and Excel, that sort of thing. I would never use Surface RT for serious image editing, and that's just fine since the tablet currently doesn't support any apps for serious image editing (though that's a problem in and of itself).

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Smart TV hack highlights risk of 'The Internet of Everything'

A smart TV is only as smart as the person controlling it. So if the person in control is a hacker, the owner could have a problem. Researchers at security consultancy ReVuln say some smart TVs are vulnerable to hacking.

It is another example of what experts say is the ever-expanding attack surface of devices that traditionally never faced the Internet, but are now "smart."

The researchers at the Malta-based company said they found a vulnerability in a number of smart TVs made by Samsung Electronics that gave them root access to the TV and any attached USB drives.

They posted a video titled "The TV is Watching You," which appears on a number of security vendor websites, including Kasperky Lab's Threatpost. While there is no voiceover, the video shows the researchers accessing the TV settings and channel lists, SecureStorage accounts, widgets and their configurations, the history of USB movies, the ID, firmware, whole partitions and any attached USB drives.

They were also able to retrieve the drive image, mount it locally and check for information like usernames, passwords, financial documents, or any other type of material on USB drives.

Luigi Auriemma of ReVuln told the IDG News Service that hackers could even use the integrated webcam and microphone to watch the victim. And he said the vulnerability is not confined to the single model that ReVuln tested.

What is affected

"The vulnerability affects multiple models and generations of the devices produced by this vendor, so not just a specific model as tested in our lab at ReVuln," the report said.

Samsung did not respond to a request for comment, but ReVuln emailed a statement saying there is no firmware update yet, "as the details regarding this vulnerability have not been shared with the vendor."

The statement added that ReVuln has only tested Samsung, but said: "We think that other brands of TV may be affected by similar issues."

James Arlen, senior security consultant with Leviathan Security Group and a hacking expert, said the TV is just one example of the "Internet of Things" and other non-computer resources in homes that amount to "a huge new attack surface."

"I recently counted the number of IP addresses in my house and came up with all kinds of new things that require Internet access - not just the computers, game systems, tablets and music players, but also the bathroom scale, the thermostat and more," he said. "Televisions are one of many, but also the most likely to have lots of interconnection possibilities."

He said the problem is not new, noting that, "printers got smarter and became a threat," and that the number of smart devices continues to expand.

Dan Frye, general manager of services at MAD Security, agrees. "A common way to get into enterprise networks is through printers attached to the corporate network. A TV on the corporate net is really the same thing," he said. "In essence, you've got a computer inside some device, whether it be a printer, a TV, a toaster, the Coke machine, etc., and that computer is just as vulnerable to attacks as a normal computer would be."

"Any new piece of technology that connects to the Internet is a probable attack surface," said Matt Johansen, WhiteHat Security threat research manager. "Look at the recent research by Barnaby Jack about insulin pumps and pacemakers."

"Who would have thought these devices would ever be susceptible to hackers?" Johansen said. "But if a hacker gets their hands on any device long enough, they'll figure out a way to break it. It was hotel door locks, slot machines in the past and it will be the smart toasters and refrigerators in the future."

Gary McGraw, CTO of Cigital, said most people don't think of their TV or other household devices as computers, but they are. "Your TV is just a computer with a monitor," he said. "And it knows a lot about you—what you've watched, whether you were home at the time."

There is some disagreement over how much of a priority security is for devices that have only recently begun to face the Internet. "Focus on delivering the product to market means that the 'Ship It' award is more important than 'Is it Hackable?'" Arlen said.

Frye agrees that security standards for such devices are "immature." But he said vulnerabilities are found "everywhere, all the time, in products that certainly take security into account. Microsoft, Google, and Apple are all great examples."

McGraw said while the vulnerability discovered by ReVuln is real, he doesn't think Samsung is necessarily lax on security. "They make the most popular Android phone out there," he said. "So they are in the [security] wars."

To deal with the ongoing threats, both consumers and enterprises need to "control your exit path," Arlen said. "Most consumers are unaware of what traffic passes in or out of their primary systems, so they're going to be even more unaware of the traffic to and from devices that are 'furniture' rather than computers."

"More manufacturers across lots of industries need to employ or engage with the "hacker-ish" community to solve the problems prior to the shipping of the product," he added.

Frye said that once products are released, manufacturers need to treat them like computers, and "have a way for people to report vulnerabilities and a way for patches to be deployed out to their consumers."

Samsung's bug bounty

Samsung has begun treating smart devices like computers. "Samsung has actually taken a step in a great direction with a TV bug bounty program for researchers to submit bugs to receive a reward ($1,000), which has been useful for the likes of Google, Facebook, Mozilla, and even PayPal," Johansen said.

However, every computing device is potentially vulnerable, and with "The Internet of Everything" there will be more of them all the time. "This problem will only get worse as we integrate more things into our home networks," Frye said. "It's the TV now, but smart devices, smart meters for our power, the toaster, thermostat—they're all at risk in the same way."

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Review: Mailbox for iPhone belongs in your dock

Mailbox, the free iPhone app that makes managing your email a delight, is now available in the App Store. With any luck, you already made a reservation to gain access to the app, which the developers are rolling out slowly to avoid overloading their servers.

If you didn’t already reserve a spot in line for access, go download Mailbox now; you can get on the list from right within the app.

Right now, Mailbox works exclusively with Gmail accounts, though the developers say support for other IMAP accounts will come. Once you’ve connected one or more Gmail accounts to the app, you can start managing your email in a new and enjoyable way.

A better inbox

Swipe a message to the right to archive it. Pull a little further and it turns red to show you're going to delete the message instead.

Like Mail, Mailbox offers an optional unified view of your inboxes, though you can choose to dive into individual accounts instead, if that’s your preference. What sets Mailbox apart is its approach to managing the contents of your inbox.

As you navigate your inbox, you can unsurprisingly tap on a message to view it. But if, even before you open a message, you can see that it’s one you no longer need, you can file it away without ever leaving your list of messages. Swipe right on a message and it will turn green to show you’re archiving it. Pull a little further, and it turns red, to show you’re deleting the message instead.

You can, of course, perform those same actions from the message screen as well: Tap the checkmark to archive a message, or the X to delete it. It’s all intuitive, easy to master, and honestly kind of fun.

You snooze, you win

Snooze messages to bring them back to your inbox—and your attention—later.

But the easy archiving and deleting just scratch the surface of what Mailbox offers. Swipe left on a message—or tap the clock icon in message view—and you can essentially press the snooze button on it. You get a grid of options for choosing when you’d like that message to reappear atop your inbox: later today, this evening, tomorrow, this weekend, next week, in a month, or “someday.” You define that last one in the app’s settings in terms of months, with the default option being to remind you in one month. There’s also a date selector, where you can choose the exact date and time the message should pop back up.

Because of the app’s collection of settings, you actually get pretty fine-grained control over all the preset snooze durations, too: You specify what qualifies as mornings on weekdays and weekends, and you define the “later today” interval, too.

In practice, snoozing works beautifully. I used to rely on leaving messages unread in my inbox, so that I’d know that I still needed to act on them—anathema to folks who think about the best ways to manage your email. As you probably know, what happens next is those “marked unread” messages stack up, and you ignore them for an increasingly long time. Mailbox fixes that. Messages pop back up—with notifications on your iPhone, but also by moving up in your other email clients, too. It’s remarkable.

You can also tap and hold on messages in your list to reorder them by dragging. I’m trying to keep my inboxes as empty as possible with Mailbox’s help, but reordering the handful of messages I have in there feels magical.

Mailbox includes push notifications, too. In practice, I got new email alerts from Mailbox before the built-in Mail app on iOS noted the arrival of those messages.

Lots of polish

Mailbox makes navigating your inboxes and folders a breeze.

The whole app feels beautifully polished, with impressive, discoverable depth: You can mark a message as unread again by tapping on its timestamp. Conversations thread with earlier messages collapsed, but quickly expandable if you tap on them. You can choose whether you receive push notifications for new messages, snoozed messages, or both. You can choose whether the app gets a numeric badge icon, and what the icon represents—the existence of new messages indicated by a 1, or the actual number of conversations in your inbox.

Composing messages is simple, and bests Apple’s Mail app again. You tap the camera icon as you write your email to choose an existing photo—or snap a new one. Apple’s app requires that you first tap an empty spot in your message, then tap the Insert button, and then select an existing photo. Mailbox offers more, and the feature is accessible more efficiently.

So what’s missing? Not much. I’d like per-account signatures, instead of the current one-signature-fits-all approach. I reported a bug relating to Mailbox’s failure to show the email attachments my VoIP provider sends with voicemails in .wav format; the developers are investigating that one. And I can’t come up with a way to get Gmail’s "Send As" feature to work with the app—I’d prefer my "From" addresses to be aliases of the addresses I use to log into my accounts, so that I send email from, say, “macworld.com” even though I log in using “pcworld.com.”

Mostly, though, my primary complaint about Mailbox is that I want to use it on all my devices, including my Mac and my iPad.

Bottom line

Mailbox is excellent. It replaced Mail in my iPhone’s dock, and it’s my favorite way to plow through my inbox. The app is simply a joy to use, and makes managing email as painless as possible.

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Vizio CT15-A4 Review: Performance and elegance in one slick package

It's not often that I'm taken with a laptop before even touching it, but I was with the $899 Vizio CT15-A4. Then again, I'm a sucker for minimalist design and that's the CT15-A4 in a nutshell: streamlined and elegant. It's also one of the thinner 15.6-inch laptops you'll run across. There are some imperfections, but when all is said and done, I wish I could keep it. 

Appearance and Ergonomics

I've already tipped my hand about my appreciation for the CT15-A4's streamlined appearance, but let's get specific: the logo is cool, the beveled edges on both the bottom and top halves of the unit look nifty, and the pewter color makes the laptop look classy. I even like the fact that the bezel surrounding the 15.6-inch, 1920 by 1080 display is matte black rather than shiny. Nothing about this laptop shouts at you or demands your attention; it's very cool. I do have a minor nit to pick with the slim design: if you have short fingernails it is a bit difficult to open the unit. The indent on the lower half could be a bit deeper to ameliorate that condition.

It took me a while to get used to the placement of the CT15-A4's keyboard. There's a rather broad expanse of deck between the front lip and the keyboard, but it was easy enough to adjust once I realized I needed to cozy up a bit closer to the laptop than normal. The keyboard itself has short throw with a rather light feel. You will never mistake it for a Lenovo, but it's funcrional. The rocking touchpad has a better feel, with a nice median sensitivity to tapping.

The CT15-A4's display delivers crisp, sharp text, and 1080p movies look magnificent on it. Sound is about average for today's laptops: great through headphones, loud but not so great through the speakers at the top of the keyboard deck. The 1.3MP Webcam is top-notch and color fidelity is better than with most I've used.

The 14.9-inch wide, 9.9-inch deep, 0.7-inch thick CT15-A4 is a bit heavy for something billed as thin and light. The laptop itself weighs 3.9 pounds and the power adapter brings that up to 4.8 pounds. That may seem light, but in practice the laptop feels heavy during travel. On the other hand, the heft reassures you that the aluminum body won't flex too much and allow damage to the components.

Specs and Performance

The CT15-A4 we reviewed inludes an Intel Core i5-3317U processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, and a Toshiba 128GB SSD for storage. Good basic specs, and there's also an $1199, CT15-A5 model available with a faster Intel Core i7-3517U CPU and a larger 256GB SSD. Ports on both models consist of one USB 3.0 port on each side of the unit, accompanied by a headset jack on the left and an HDMI port on the right. Vizio doesn't offer an Ethernet jack or card reader on either model, so you'll need to rely on the USB equivalents.

Performance-wise, the CT15-A4 is no slouch. Its 76 on WorldBench 8 is the highest we've seen so far (in what is, to be fair, a relatively limited group of notebooks), and startup time is a mere 8.6 seconds. Gaming framerates are exactly what you'd expect from an integrated Intel HD 4000 GPU: playable at lower resolutions (1366 by 768 is as high as you'll want to go with low detail), but not workable at higher resolutions, including the 1920 by 1080 that's native for the CT15-A4. The battery life in our rundown tests was about 4 hours, 30 minutes. Not the best we've seen, but not bad for a thin and light laptop with a high resolution display and a Core i5.

Software

Aside from the Windows 8 operating system, Vizio doesn't throw in a lot of software. This laptop comes with Skype and...well, that's about it. In my book that is a very good thing; the CT15-A4 is truly one of the most junk-free computers I've ever tested.

Bottom Line

For a relative newcomer, Vizio has done an outstanding job with the CT15-A4. It's an extremely nice thin and light laptop with great style and performance. Sure, at almost five pounds I could find fault with the "light" part, but I don't want to. I want to keep it. 

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Review: Android Injector makes APK as easy as ABC

It's easy to get intimidated by Android, as a lot of its apps and services are designed more for hard-core geeks than the everyday user. And, initially, I was intimidated by Android Injector, a desktop application that allows you to install APK files (Android apps) on your Android device— until I used it, and realized just how easy it really is.

To use Android Injector, you need an Android device connected to your PC via USB. You must have USB Debugging mode enabled, and the proper drivers installed. If all of this sounds like Greek to you, don't worry: it's actually quite simple. You can enable USB Debugging in the settings menu of your Android phone, and your phone likely will install the necessary drivers when you connect it to your PC. If you're using an older Android device, you may need to search for the drivers online; the Android developer site is a good resource.

If you'd like a little more hand-holding, help is available for you, too. The developer of Android Injector pointed me to a desktop application called PDANet, which walks you through the process of enabling the right settings and downloading the drivers, painlessly.

Android Injector's interface is surprisingly sleek, resembling that of a real Android phone.

With this type of setup required, I expected Android Injector to have an interface that only geeks could love. But I was wrong: the application surprised me with its sleek design. It appears on your desktop in the shape of— and about the same size as—an Android handset. It even has four buttons underneath its virtual screen, just like a real Android phone. These buttons allow you to locate APK files on your PC and transfer them to you phone, as well as offer access to the app's settings menu and give you more information about it.

To use Android Injector, you'll need to download those APK files on your own, from whatever source. APK files are Android applications; you'd use Android Injector to install them if you can't access them via Google Play. This might be because the developer doesn't have them in the store, or because your device is older and the store thinks it's not compatible with the apps available there.

Android Injector lets you browse to APK files on your PC from within the app; alternatively, you can locate them yourself in Windows Explorer and right click to add them to Android Injector. Once you've located them, the name of the file will appear on Android Injector's virtual screen. You then click the green arrow icon and the file is automatically transferred to your connected Android phone. It's that easy.

Despite its geeky undertones, Android Injector is actually very user friendly. If you're looking for an easy way to get APK files on your phone, it's worth a look.

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How to get best game experience in Android

Android gaming is starting to make gamers look like overly amorous honeybees in a halvah factory: The prospects are so sweet that they might put your teeth at risk. With the advent of dedicated Android gaming devices such as the Ouya and Project Shield, Android is quickly gaining respect as a serious gaming platform alongside consoles and PCs. And with powerful phones rapidly becoming ubiquitous, Android is beating the pants off of iOS as a gaming platform for enthusiasts and nongamers alike. In this article, we’ll help you stay on top of evolving Android hardware, and use it to its maximum high-scoring, social-browbeating, multicore-rendering potential.

All shapes and sizes

Ouya

First of all, let’s review those dedicated gaming devices. Last summer’s Kickstarter darling, Ouya, starts shipping this spring, with Nvidia’s Project Shield and others expected to reach market soon afterward. These stand-alone game consoles are likely to set the tone for the next generation of gaming on Android phones. I say “next generation” because, for all the fancy new tech that rolls out every month, the first truly mature group of Android devices (from 2010 or so onward) can still run almost any game on Google Play.

Of course, a device's ability to run a game at all doesn't mean much to a gamer who wants to play at full speed and top quality; and owners of two-year-old phones may find themselves resorting to games’ low-spec options more often, resulting in games that may look as though they came straight out of the early 1990s. Still, aside from graphics-intensive titles like Horn and Dead Trigger, you won’t have much trouble with the current crop of games on a single-core, first-generation Snapdragon processor (just ask my old HTC G2). Accessibility is a good thing; PC-quality visuals are even better. So how do you keep up, in a market that encourages people to throw something new in their pocket every two years and hope for the best?

A safe bet would be to skew as close to dedicated gaming devices as possible, knowing that the high-end games of 2013 and 2014 will look and perform as well on your phone or tablet as they would on your HDTV. That means insisting on Qualcomm’s quad-core S4 Pro hardware—which in turn means springing for one of the current top-of-the-top smartphone models: the LG Optimus G, the HTC Droid DNA (which also has Beats audio), or the Samsung Galaxy Note II.

Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 4 processor ships on Project Shield and will be included in select 2013 smartphones and tablets.

Having said that, however, I advise you not to get stressed about the CPU. As long as your phone is less than two years old, you should be fine. The three phones I just mentioned represent each major manufacturer’s current flagship device—so your phone won't feel outdated 12 seconds after you buy it—and there’s no reason to expect that all Android developers will start making games that require a four-core beast. Scooch down to the HTC One S (also with Beats audio) or the Samsung Galaxy S3, both of which run on a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, and you can still play most games that are available in the Play Store without much trouble. Cheapening my own advice? Maybe—but now you know!

Among the other hardware features to consider, a high-resolution display is especially important. HTC's Super LCD 2 technology is responsible for some of the nicest screens around, followed closely by LG (with IPS) and Samsung (with Super AMOLED). Audio quality follows a similar path, with HTC's phones equipped with Beats Audio providing a much better overall listening experience when compared to the competition.

Other Peripherals

Who needs an Ouya when your phone can  output 1080p video to your TV? The only extra you’ll have to supply is an MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) adapter dongle. As usual, there are OEM versions and super-cheap no-name brands that may or may not work; always search with the name of your device in mind, and keep in mind that theGalaxy S3 MHL adapter is strictly proprietary (you’ll need to buy their official product). Wikipedia has posted a short list of phones that support MHL; you’ll generally have good luck with high-end phones from late 2011 onward.

With an MHL adapter, you can play your games and other media on a bigger screen.

If your HDMI display doesn’t already have audio onboard (because, for example, it’s a monitor rather than an HDTV), rather than adding additional cabling, try attaching a pair of wireless speakers. I can vouch for the quality of Logitech’s Z515 Bluetooth speakers, which come with a USB dongle for connecting to a PC. If you’d rather work with a wireless headset, make sure that you get something that was made in the last four years or that supports the A2DP Bluetooth protocol, which guarantees that you’ll have full stereo sound.

MHL adapters let you use your phone as a controller and focus your eyes on an external display; you can also get something like MOGA to use as an external controller, so that your phone becomes a dedicated screen. As you might expect, not all touchscreen games are configured to work with a traditional game controller, but MOGA is stands out among competing mobile gamepads because it allows you to play any game by using the analog sticks in lieu of touch input (with imperfect yet interesting results). If you happen to have a PlayStation 3 controller lying around, you can go a little cheaper and invest in a GameKlip (which lets you mount your phone to the controller), instead.

The GameKlip can connect a controller to (in this case) a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone.

The Games

As for games, we recently ran an article highlighting some of the most polished and accessible titles on Android. If you’re looking for more-involving, higher-end games, and you have one of the phones mentioned in this article, try searching on Google Play for “THD” or “Tegra HD” to find candidates such as Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Galaxy on Fire 2 that are designed to work only with high-end graphics hardware. Good luck, and happy gaming!

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