Having already given the NuCharge iPhone 5 battery case from London-based iKit the once-over, we’ve yet another exciting product with a similar aim – to offer your Apple-designed smartphone an extension on the quoted battery life. As previously explored in that NuCharge review, we smartphone users can never have too much battery, and although the 1,440 mAh offered by Apple is adequate for many, having a backup to call upon is always mindful practice. Thus, here we are again, mulling over another battery pack by popular manufacturer PowerSkin.
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With Google's Project Glass commanding quit a few column inches in the digital world, many spectators had wondered if the wearable tech ran on Android or whether Google had come up with a new ecosystem through which to build software for the headgear. In terms of practicality and future integration, it would make a great deal of sense for Glass to run on Android, and today, the Mountain View company's CEO Larry Page had stepped out and confirmed this to be the case.
The introduction of iMessage along with iOS 5 back in 2011 may have ensured Apple's Messages app didn't remain completely ignored, but despite the popularity of the powerful, versatile, cross-device featurette, there are still plenty of shortcomings therein. Jailbreak apps like BiteSMS always ensure the native offering pales by comparison, but even the powerful pink icon-bearing app misses a trick or two in its quest to bring a sense of completion to iOS Messages. For example, if you receive an attachment but don't deal with it instantly, it can quickly find itself hidden away among pages and pages of back-and-forth chit-chat. This can be rather annoying, particularly if you deal with attachments on a frequent basis; but leave it up to jailbreak dev DrComputerIT to come up with the remedy in the form of MediaExport.
Having been around for a relatively short amount of time against the rivaling App Store, Google Play has done a remarkable job in offering users a very comparable experience for the most part. As well as now boasting much of the content also available to those on iOS, Android Police's teardown of the new MyGlass companion app for Android suggests a supplementary Game Center-like hub for gamers could well be forthcoming. With such a vast number of gaming fans now enjoying some of the biggest titles around on Android, it was perhaps only a matter of time before we saw this kind of feature added to the repertoire, and thanks to the tenacity of the Android Police, we may just have our first clues.
Facebook's Home launcher may only have catered to a small number of Android devices, but by ensuring Chat Heads, one of the marquee features of Home, made its way to the rest of the Android community via the Messenger app, the Menlo Park company made sure the remaining Droidsters got at least a taste of the new features. In what was seen as something of a surprise, this was then followed by an update to Facebook for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, which saw a rather limited Chat Heads effort manifest itself on Apple's iOS. As well as not being able to work across the system (a situation currently being looked into by one jailbreak developer), the limit to the number of Chat Heads at any one point renders the feature pretty restricted; but thanks once again to the great work of the jailbreak scene, you can now enjoy more of those little bubble Chat Heads at any one time.
The fith-gen iPad rumor mill has gathered significant pace over the past couple of weeks, and with a report a couple of days back suggesting that the iPad 5 release date could be upon us as early as June, the increased attention may well be warranted. Today, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who tends only to speak out with reliable information, has chimed into the debate once more, and although his August-September release bracket refutes those earlier presumptions, he does believe the next Apple tablet will be dramatically thinner and lighter than the rather bloated fourth-generation offering.
Yahoo! drifted into relative anonymity for a considerable period during the 2010s, sitting on the sidelines as Google almost single-handedly dominated with its assortment of powerful Web-based apps. However, the company has been busy reinventing its image of late, and as part of that movement, the Sunnyvale outfit has just introduced a couple of new apps for iPhone, iPad and Android tablets. As well as Yahoo! Weather for iPhone, there's a new Mail app catering to the larger displays of the iPad and Android-running tablets.
The rumor that Twitter's eagerly anticipated music service would be dropping late last week may have turned out to be false, but today, Twitter #music is finally upon us. With many hundreds of millions of active users on its network, a concentrated music discovery service would seem the natural next step, and although still in the early stages, it will help users source new artist recommendations based on their Twitter activity. An iOS app also accompanies the launch, and although there isn't a corresponding Android version just yet, it should hit the Google Play Store before long. Full details can be found right after the break!
The Galaxy S4 is just a week or two away depending on which carrier you associate yourself with and whereabouts you reside, and the excitement is certainly increasing as the launch dates draw ever nearer. To give prospective owners an idea of what accessories will be available from the get-go, maker Samsung has drawn up a detailed list of all the device's launch accessories and peripherals, including the Flip Cover, Spare Battery Charging System, and Smart Dock.
We love a good concept idea here at Redmond Pie, and with all this incessant talk of an "iPhone 5S" hitting the scene at some point in the near future, the designers have been out in force putting forth their own takes on what kind of form factor the device may eventually employ. But while many are getting understandably carried away with the supposedly imminent seventh-gen handset, the guys over at Aatma Studio have been busy creating an iPhone concept of a different kind.
