One the more fun gadgets I've tested lately is Gear4's PocketLoops. With the portable keyboard and free companion app, users can create and remix loops. Gear4 is known for its variety of idevice accessories including cases, speakers and its UnityRemote universal remote.  

Once you slip an iPhone or iPad touch into the dock of the keyboard and launch the free PocketLoops app you have a MIDI device capable of creating and recording music.

Exploring PocketLoops is fairly intuitive. An onscreen tutorial does a good job of guiding you through the features. The PocketLoops app has a 4x4 grid available for creating drum loops or melodies.

The keyboard keys that trigger percussion are marked with corresponding icons.

When you are ready to lay down a track, you can record it as an m4a file and share it via email.

The updated software worked flawlessly with iOS 5 and iOS 4 devices.

PocketLoops should be a fun device for anyone. Serious musicians will want more, but may find it useful. Maybe Gear4 can expand upmarket? For the rest of us though, it is a fun gadget to create music and we're looking at how to bring the fun to you maybe in the form of a meetup or a PocketLoops throwdown so stay tuned.

The steamy results of a recent survey from Match.com has created a stir among smartphone fans. What does your choice of smartphone say about your social life?

Android, BlackBerry and iPhone users in Canada were polled.

According to the report, Android users were more likely to engage in sexual activity on the first date, and more likely to have a one-night-stand.

The results found that BlackBerry users are most likely to drink on a first date, and 62 percent say they have experienced love at first sight.

iPhone users were more prone to office romances, but were quicker to follow up on a date.

So does your experience back or debunk the survey results? Are our neighbors to the north that different?

An aspiring actor from Goldsboro could have an audience of 250 million people on Super Bowl Sunday. But he needs your help.

Jason Walston (right), a 2007 Elon University graduate, is featured in one of the top five commercials – out of more than 6,000 consumer-submitted entries – for Doritos’ sixth annual “Crash the Super Bowl” contest. The top two vote-getters will be aired during the Feb. 5’s Super Bowl broadcast on NBC. Those are determined by online voting.

The commercial, called “Hot Wild Girls,” was produced by Brad Scott and Nate Watkin of Denver. In the ad, an actor shows off the power of his smartphone by asking for things like Doritos, which suddenly appear (our Tech Junkie blog has video). Walston’s character then asks for “three hot wild girls,” but the phone misinterprets his request and hilarity ensues.

Exciting news (for me, anyway): Time Warner Cable intoduced its iPhone app today.

The app is essentially the same as the TWC app that has already been available for the iPad, it's just that now it works on the phone.

Just install the app -- TWC TV -- from the App Store, and if you've already created an online TWC account (to pay bills or access online content or DVR management), sign in and you're ready to go.

I just took it for a spin and it works pretty well. It certainly looks nice. As with the iPad app, you have to be at home on your home network to watch live television content. But you can look at a television guide and manage the programs on your DVR, including setting new programs to record, from anywhere.

Apple's current iPad 2 and iPhone 4S have been praised for their performance, but the next generation of iOS devices may offer a huge leap in capability.

AppleInsider picked up on an announcement from Imagination Technologies about its next-generation PowerVR Series6 GPU core family Tuesday. Imagination Technologies' chips have been used by Apple before in the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and the Apple TV.

The Series6 GPU is said to deliver 20 times the performance of current processors, but five times more efficient.

It has been widely rumored that the next iPad could ship as early as March.
 

Borrowing a trick from the Motorola Droid Razr's SmartActions, this app for jailbroken iOS devices allows location based reminders. MapReminders is available for .99 through Cydia.

Via YouTube
 

In a market dominated by Android and Apple's iOS, why should smartphone buyers consider a Microsoft Windows Phone ?

From a sample of 100,000 iPhone users worldwide over 90 days, software company Onava has a compiled a list of apps used most on the iPhone, and analyzed how much monthly data each consumes on average.

Now we know what iPhone's Siri does when you're not asking her all your questions. She likes sports. Specifically, she likes the Tar Heels.

The interactive question-and-answer system on Apple's new iPhone 4S has enthralled its fans, who spend lots of time asking Siri random and profane questions.

But try this, early adopters: Say "Tar." Siri will respond "Heels!!!" Here's visual proof from UNC basketball blog The Rafters.

Siri wasn't as helpful with voice prompts for Carolina's competitors. Saying "wolf," "Duke" or "blue" did not produce the desired response.

This news might beg the question: Will Apple release a Carolina blue iPhone any time soon?

Photo credit: A shopper tests the new iPhone 4S at Northlake Mall Friday morning, Oct. 14, 2011. Charlotte Observer photo by Todd Sumlin - tsumlin@charlotteobserver.com

The iPhone 4S has enjoyed a strong launch, but with some hiccups. Though not to the scale of "antennagate" that Apple had with the iPhone 4. Some users report drastic battery drain on the new iPhone 4S.

Some of the accounts I've read are some very tech savvy users and Apple's response is acknowledgement that there are some bugs munching battery here and there. Thankfully mine has been well mannered.

How well does the iPhone 4S battery hold up?

PCWorld wanted to know too. The 4S actually landed third on their list of nine smartphones. Consumer Reports noted the iPhone 4S had very good battery life.

So the few battery leaching gremlins aside, the new iPhone is respectable if not stellar.  It is a little more impressive when you consider its slighter dimensions.

The rapid evolution of smartphone hardware are is challenging current battery technology. No matter how long they last it never seems to be enough.