Nate Allen

Nate is a corporate attorney, gadget-geek, and now a contributor to PhoneDog.com. Nate's columns provide honest feedback about the smartphones and apps that he actually uses on a daily basis.

Author's latest articles, videos, reviews and more...

Nate's Apple TV review

For the first few days after the Apple TV (2nd generation) started shipping to consumers that had pre-ordered, I faithfully called my local Apple store to check their stock. They finally received a...

14 years 5 months ago

Nate's Straight Talk Express: Week one back on BlackBerry

This has been my first full week back on BlackBerry (the Tour 9630) after having spent the last nine months with the Android-powered HTC Droid Eris. I figured I’d break out some of my impressions...

14 years 7 months ago

Nate's Straight Talk Express: My life with a smartphone may never be the same

Data security is a good thing, right? A noble thing. The right thing. Data security is something I’ve taken for granted for a long time. I’ve never had to worry about what would happen to the...

14 years 8 months ago

Verizon, Google, and Net Neutrality: How it impacts wireless data

Yesterday, Google and Verizon held a press call in which Google’s Eric Schmidt and Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg announced a joint policy proposal containing a set of general principals which they say...

14 years 8 months ago

Android App Review: Epicurious

Overview What’s Good: Thousands of recipes, photos, reviews, and shopping lists; Recipes are separated by event type to find applicable recipes more quickly. What’s Bad: Many recipes contain...

14 years 8 months ago

Nate's Straight Talk Express: Droid X Likes & Gripes

I’ve been using the Droid X for about a week and a half now so I’ve really had a chance to dig in and figure out what I like and dislike about the device. That being said, I’ll cut to the chase....

14 years 8 months ago

Nate's First Impressions: Motorola DROID X (Verizon)

To my delight, FedEx delivered the Droid X yesterday and I’ve enjoyed every minute of using it since. By now, I’m sure you've all read about its specs, but if you’ve been living under a rock, I’ll...

14 years 8 months ago

Android App Review: In Case of Emergency (ICE)

Overview What’s Good: Provides a single location for important information about a phone owner in case of emergency; free app ($0.00).What’s Bad: It is unclear to me how anyone would know to look...

14 years 8 months ago

Nate's Straight Talk Express: Highs and lows of the LG Ally

I just spent a couple of weeks with the LG Ally from Verizon Wireless. Full disclosure, I did not use the Ally as my personal device during this period because the phone’s number had obviously been...

14 years 8 months ago

Android App Review: Big Brother 12

Overview What’s Good: Spoilers (for those who want to know what’s going on in the house all the time); quick access to both general and cast member specific tweets with the hashtag #BB12; breaking...

14 years 8 months ago

Nate's Straight Talk Express: Google, please educate consumers about Android

I was going to write about something else this week, but then I read Noah’s article about the fact that the average consumer doesn’t know what “Android” means and really doesn’t care. It’s “Droids...

14 years 8 months ago

Android App Review: TwitPlus

Overview What’s Good: Fairly seamlessly adds photo previews to your favorite Android Twitter app; free to download and use. What’s Bad: The sharing functionality would not work, but that wasn’t a...

14 years 9 months ago

Nate's Straight Talk Express: Android in the Enterprise - Part 1

Android has built a solid reputation as a consumer oriented OS, largely leaving Research in Motion and Microsoft to slug it out for market share the enterprise. I think this phenomenon is likely to...

14 years 9 months ago

Android App Review: Toss It

Overview The Good: Toss It is a challenging game that combines simple goals with the user’s practiced skill; low, low cost of $0.00 (that means FREE, people). The Bad: How could a simple time waster...

14 years 9 months ago

Android App Review: Kindle For Android

Overview The Good: Whispersync provides instant access to books previously downloaded to a user’s Amazon.com account, as well as synchronization of the last page read, bookmarks and other...

14 years 9 months ago