Which would you choose, Samsung Galaxy Note 2 or the Google Nexus 4?

Samsung Galaxy Note 2, the smartphone-tablet hybrid from Samsung Group, which was launched in September, is said reached the impressive 5 million sales in 2 months, The Korean technology giant said in a statement (Google Translate) on November 26. Although the Note 2's sales are far behind that sells of the Galaxy S3, which Samsung sold 20 million of its flagship smartphone in the first 100 days after its launch, but it indicate that the high-end smartphone with top-of-the-line features is in great demand. Can it outsell the LG Nexus 4 which offers better operating system, price tag and often sold out in a short time?

Today, we take a look at the Nexus 4 versus the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 in terms of features, price and more to help you decide which one to buy.

Addition: One of the unique features of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is the device’s S-Pen, a stylus that benefits from some unique software that Samsung has included on the Galaxy Note 2. With the new S-Pen, Some of those applications include Air View which allows users to hover over things like e-mail, calendar or an image to get a preview of the content before actually having to open it, a feature called Easy Clip which lets users crop content on screen including images to save for later use, and finally, the ability to use the S-Pen to draw out Quick Commands for tasks like email. So you will feel so convenient to use the phone even it has a large screen.

So which phone do you like more?

Best 5 Christmas Apps for Android for Christmas 2012

Several days ago, I have introduced Best 5 Christmas Live Wallpaper Apps for Android, and today I will continue to introduce best 5 Christmas Apps for Android in 2012 special for you. If you're looking for some simple, fun apps of Christmas this holiday season, you've come to the right place. These list apps will put you in the Christmas spirit and give you a few ideas for activities, gifts for your demand.

These 5 Best Christmas Free Apps for Android in 2012 cover everything from holiday music to greeting cards, like Apps of RingTones, Santa, Wallpaper, Countdown and others.

Christmas Live Wallpaper Lite
As the winter night of Christmas Eve is approaching us with every passing moment, what is better than having a live wallpaper installed on your phone that continuously reminds you of the time left for the Christmas.

This 3D Christmas Live Wallpaper has a Christmas Scene with a Christmas Countdown in a snowfall of lights. You can see a Christmas tree with lights and an awesome flashing lights program (only in full)!

Christmas Ringtones
This app features 45 high qualities and popular Christmas ringtones  and sounds.
With this App, you can customize your phone with Christmas spirit and enjoy the Merry Christmas Season on your phone by:

• set the ringtone to a specific contact
• set your default ringtone
• set your alarm sound
• set your notification (text and email) sound

3D Christmas Live Wallpaper Free
"3D Christmas Live Wallpaper Free" is a stunning 3D live wallpaper featuring a sparkling Christmas Tree of Light, plus an exciting Countdown to Christmas and the New Year. Both scenes in the free version can be enjoyed as a live wallpaper background, or as a fully interactive foreground app where you can look around freely, and quickly customise your settings.

Talking Santa Free
Talking Santa is packed with countless hours of holiday fun for the entire family! Speak into your microphone and listen to Santa repeat your special holiday message aloud.

Swipe, poke, or tickle Talking Santa to your hearts content or tap on his famous red Christmas sack to reveal if Talking Santa’s got you on his naughty or nice list!

Be nice to Santa by offering up some milk & cookies, or be naughty by slapping Santa or sending a giant snowball his way!
PLEASE NOTE: When running the app for the first time you will be required to download additional 4-26 MB to get the best graphics quality for your device.

Christmas Pho.to Frames
Creating holiday e-cards with ‘Christmas Pho.to Frames’ is as simple as ABC:

1. Choose a template from the huge collection
2. Select photo(s) from your Gallery or Camera
3. Add a text of your own and share the result!

It is not a new app, but find out that is still consider as a good apps if you are using to customize some photo for Christmas effect. Try it ~

More Apps will update here once I find more better Christmas App. Hope you get a little extra Christmas joy from these apps.

How to play YouTube videos directly in VLC Media Player

Well there is no doubt that YouTube is the best place to find any kind of videos you want. Many of us like to download the videos in order to enjoy on mobile device, while others like watching them directly online by going to YouTube website. But have you tried to play YouTube videos in VLC Media Player, the world’s favorite video player that supports nearly every video format? How to do that?

In fact VLC Player can also play YouTube videos on your desktop without requiring the web browser or the Adobe Flash player and there are lots of benefits to watching YouTube videos in VLC.

The Benefits of Watching YouTube Videos with VLC

• First, You can skip any ads that might play before videos without needing to use a browser extension.
• Second, You can change the playback speed of videos, make it run slower or faster than the normal speed, which can help if you're trying to learn something new, like a dance.
• Third, You can watch the video in a smaller window while still doing other things on your computer. And finally, you can capture snapshots from the video easily through VLC's interface.

So if you are the one who like watch YouTube videos online while doing other things, why not try to play the youtube videos in VLC Player.

Follow the Tutorials to get started:
1. Launched the VLC player, press Ctrl+N to open the Network URL dialog.Or Click the Media menu in VLC, and then choose Open Network Stream.

2. Paste any YouTube video URL in the input box and click Play at the bottom!

Then, that’s all right. Now you can enjoy your favorite videos.

Attention: In addition to YouTube, VLC Player can also play DailyMotion videos outside the browser.

Related article:

• How to privately stream video with VLC for Windows
• Best Free Ways to download 2012 Olympic YouTube videos to smartphone

Gift guide to full-size tablets for 2012 Christmas

Apart from Smartphone, Tablets are at the top of many wish lists this holiday season. But what to get now becomes a problem. The choice used to be pretty limited, with the iPad dominating in the tablets market. But this year, the field is more even, as tablets from Apple's competitors have matured.  In addition, Google, Amazon and Microsoft now providing us more choice by designed their own tablets, Just like Nexus 7, Surface and Kinder Fire HD.

The first step in buying tablets is to decide on the size of tablets you want to buy. They fall into two rough categories: the full-sized tablet, pioneered by the iPad, and the half-size tablet, epitomized by the Kindle Fire.

Full-sized tablets, which generally have screens measuring about 10 inches on the diagonal, are better for surfing websites designed for PCs, and far better when it comes to displaying magazines and documents. Overall, they go further toward replacing a laptop. They cost $400 and up.

Half-sized tablets, which have screens measuring roughly 7 inches on the diagonal, are cheaper and lighter, but just as good as full-sized tablets for e-book reading. It's an excellent first computing device for a kid, or a gentle nudge into the digital world for an older adult with little computing experience. This year's crop costs $199 and up, but last year's models are available for less.

If you've settled on a large tablet, here are some top choices for you.

• Apple iPad 4(starts at $499)

Apple’s iPad 4 features a new A6X chip, faster processor than before and the new "Lightning" connection and charging port, replacing the wide port inherited from the iPod. Like the third-generation iPad, it has an ultra-high-resolution "Retina" screen. The model's resolution of 2,048 by 1,536 pixels is only surpassed by the Google Nexus 10. Apple Claim that it’s the best mobile display ever.

While other tablets are starting to approach it in terms of hardware, the iPad still enjoys the best support by far from third parties, both in terms of quality applications and accessories like cases. Now Over 275,000 apps are designed specifically for iPad.

One caveat: the base model of the iPad has only 16 gigabytes of storage, which fills up fast these days. The thoughtful giver goes for at least a 32-gigabyte model, for $100 more.

• Google Nexus 10 (starts at $399)

This is Google's first full-size tablet and the only tablet from any manufacturer that beats the screen resolution of the iPad. It boasts 2,560 by 1,600 pixels, a third more than the fourth-generation iPad. With this Tablets,You can enjoy almost all Google Service on it and get the new features of Android 4.2 including NFC (Android Beam), Photo Sphere, Multi-user support and more. Most importantly,It starts only at $399 which is $100 cheaper than iPad 4.

• Microsoft Surface (starts at $499)

It is Microsoft's first tablet which runs Windows RT, a version of Windows 8 adapted for tablets. It comes with a version of Microsoft's Office suite and the ability to connect to wireless printers and some other peripherals, like USB drives. The covers for it have functional keyboard printed on the inside.

The Surface includes 32GB and 64GB version and The screen resolution is 1,366 by 768 pixels. Not so badly. So If you want to experience the Windows RT or like the office service, you can try this one.

• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (starts at $499)

It's the only tablet in our roundup that comes with a "pen" that can be used to write and draw on the screen. You can Draw, write, edit photos and share with the intuitive S Pen.

The Note 10.1 runs Google's Android software, giving it access to a wide array of apps originally written for smartphones. The selection is not on par with the iPad's but better than other alternatives.

But The Note's screen falls into the low-resolution category, sporting 1,280 by 800 pixels, not as well as iPad or the Nook HD+. Like the Nook, the Note 10.1's storage memory can be expanded with cards.

• Barnes & Noble c (starts at $269)

For a book store, Barnes & Noble makes some amazing tablets. The HD+ is its first model that approaches the iPad in size, with a screen that's 9 inches on the diagonal. That makes it slightly smaller than the iPad, and the resolution is lower as well, but still very respectable. At 1,920 by 1,280 pixels, it can show more detail than a living-room HDTV.

Like the basic iPad, the basic Nook HD+ comes with just 16 gigabytes of storage memory, but it can be expanded with a microSD memory card. That means another 32 gigabytes will cost you just $25 — a good deal.

But the Nook is the least versatile tablet in our roundup. The number of apps available is small, and it's focused on Barnes & Noble content like e-books, magazines and movies. It doesn't have any cameras, while the competitors have two each. It's best for someone who's likely to stick to media consumption, and doesn't need the latest apps and games.

• Asus Vivo Tab RT (starts at $599 with a dock)

The tablet part is smaller and thinner than the Surface. Together with the keyboard, it makes for a familiar little setup: a tiny laptop running Windows. Like the Surface, it has a memory card slot and a USB port. The screen resolution is the same.
The Vivo Tab is a good tool for those who want to get some work done on the commute or plane, or those who can't decide if they want a laptop or a tablet.

So, have you got your favorite one ?

Tips:

• Is the Nexus 4, 7 or 10 available yet? You can check with this nifty tool
• Top 5 high-end smartphones worth buying for the 2012 holiday season

Skype 3.0 for Android: It’s better than before, but still needs work

Microsoft-owned Skype has being keeping busy with its mobile apps, with the firm having just released upgrades for both Android and Windows 8.

The good: Skype for Android has fantastic audio quality and impressive video call quality. The newest version have a new user interface design for tablets.

The bad: No group video chats. Video quality can sometimes be choppy and pixelated.

The bottom line: If you're an active Skype member, then Skype for Android is absolutely a must-download. If you're not, then it's still great for making one-to-one video calls and even voice calls to landlines and mobile numbers (for a charge).

Here I will check everything about the new Skype 3.0 in details.

The good: New features, Tips
Skype, now owned by Microsoft, has released a large update for its Android App on Tuesday, boasting improved audio quality thanks to Skype’s own SILK codec and impressive video call quality. The new software version also boasting a new user interface design for tablets which makes use of the additional screen estate, and now work better on the larger screens of Android tablets. That is to say, “Now you can share the moment, a photo or a smile on the most popular Android tablets including the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, the Google Nexus 7, Acer Iconia, Asus Transformer Prime, Motorola Xoom and Sony S,” Skype writes in a blog.

As before, the app also comes with built-in SMS capabilities, instant messaging for chatting with your Skype connections, and file transfers between users. Managing your contacts within the app is easy as Skype integrates with your Android address book.

Skype 3.0 for Android devices also allows users to sign in and merge their Skype account with their Microsoft account.