Android

The new Kindle Fire HD may not stir you to pass along your old iPad as a hand-me-down. But if you own an earlier small tablet running on Android or another operating system, or even last year's original Kindle Fire, you'll want to take a close look. The Fire HD isn't for everyone. Like its predecessor, it still draws potshots for seeming, as one critic put it, "like a shop window onto the world's biggest content department store. " Yet Amazon has refined an already impressive $199 device, while foreshadowing what it promises before Thanksgiving: an 8.9-inch Fire HD, including a 4G wireless version, that will compete more directly with Apple's 9.7-inch iPad.

Some applications actually help kids do their homework rather than avoid it. Here are a few that put the   smart in a smartphone: Math , from YourTeacher.com, is free for the first five lessons on an iPhone. To keep going, though, it requires a one-time $9.99 payment. The company makes instructional apps for Apple and Android. From the opening screen in Math, type a keyword, such as " equations," to see a list of lessons that include word problems and real-world uses for the knowledge, such as figuring sales taxes, discounts, and interest.

Some applications actually help kids do their homework rather than avoid it. Here are a few that put the smart in a smartphone. Math , from YourTeacher.com, is free for the first five lessons on an iPhone. To keep going, though, it requires a one-time $9.99 payment. The company makes instructional apps for Apple and Android. From the opening screen in Math, type a keyword, such as "equations," to see a list of lessons that include word problems and real-world uses for the knowledge, such as figuring sales taxes, discounts, and interest.

Now that it's baseball season, smartphone applications are making it easy to check scores during important meetings and dinner dates. Just keep nodding. ESPN ScoreCenter , free for Android and iOS from ESPN Inc., lets you check any score, anytime, for virtually any sport. To set up the app for your favorite sports and teams, you'll need to log in with a Facebook account or register at http://espn.go.com . Then log in from the app and start selecting. While following a live baseball game, you can see who's at bat, check stats, tap on "game feed" to read about each pitch, tap "social" for a Twitter feed, or comment in an area called "Section 140," where you are warned that your posts "may be used on TV and other ESPN media platforms.

Peter Beik, 16, has noticed an ad campaign from Samsung for its Galaxy S III smartphone, but the iPhone user doubts that it will dent Apple's dominance of the industry. "Samsung's ad campaign for the GS III, it's not so much saying, 'Look at how cool our product is,' but rather, 'Hey guys, we make phones, too,' " said Beik, a junior at Masterman High School. Like many consumers, he believes that Apple will continue to dominate the global information technology race, with other companies playing catch-up.

Don't use your smartphone as a shovel, but take it to the garden this spring anyway, and you'll find it's a handy tool. Gardening Toolkit, an app from Applied Objects, is $1.99 for the iPhone and $3.99 for the iPad version. The application has a subtitle, "The easy way to garden!" When you start it up, there's a prompt for your zip code that will establish your plant-hardiness zone. Then go straight to the advice section, where there's general guidance for what garden chores you should be about this month.

Bring on the potholes. The freeze and thaw of winter inevitably results in a rash of suspension-rattling, tire-popping, bone-jarring craters. But now you can fight back with one more tool - your smartphone. Pothole Alert , from Cab Match L.L.C., is a free application for iPhones and Android devices that is ridiculously simple to use for reporting potholes to local authorities and a website that logs and maps pothole locations. Launched last year in Washington, the app's coverage is now available in parts of 30 states, including some of North Jersey; on state roads throughout Pennsylvania; city streets in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; and county-maintained roads in Montgomery County.

Allergy and asthma sufferers are often on the lookout for the triggers that may turn a good day into a bad one. Here are some smartphone apps for early warnings on airborne and food allergens, and for tracking symptoms. AllergyAlert is a free iPhone and Android app that displays Pollen.com's allergy and pollen forecast for your zip code. You'll either enter a zip manually or allow the app to access your location. Additional indexes show risks for those suffering from asthma, the relative danger of ultraviolet exposure, and the prevalence of cold and flu symptoms.

THESE kids today! All they want to do is play with your iPhone or iPad. So why stop them? If you're smart about it, you can safely start educating the little ones in their strollers with one of those smarty devices or a dedicated children's tablet. M-Edge Supershell cases for the iPhone 4 & 4S, iPod Touch and iPad 2 (and newer) tablets offer an ultraprotective foam surround that absorbs shocks. "Go ahead drop it on the concrete, repeatedly," dared a demonstrator. Priced from $25 to $35, Supershells come in lots of bright colors.

ALTHOUGH they both aim to give Philadelphians a quick, mobile way to send reports of neighborhood problems to the city department that can best address them, the Nutter administration's Philly 311 mobile app and City Councilman Bobby Henon's CityHall App aren't the same animal. Like the blue-collar, plain-speaking councilman himself, Henon's CityHall App is the one you'd most like to have a beer with. It's a simple, user-friendly way to take a photo, write a comment, send it off and get a quick response.