Although floating apps are an integral part of the desktop computing experience, their presence on mobile devices is a relatively new phenomenon. Still, an app commanding only a fraction of the total display, and which can be moved around at will, is infinitely more useful, and while the likes of Samsung and Sony have both shown signs of implementing floating apps to mobile space, XDA-Developers member pidio1 has swopped the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2’s native browser with a resizable, floating one.
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Before any new iOS release makes its way to your treasured iPhone, iPad or iPod touch device, it goes through a series of dev-only betas, and although the current latest release is either 6.0.1 or 6.0.2 depending on the age of your device, the release of iOS 6.1 has been looming for months. Now, it would appear as though Apple at internal testing stage of a new iOS 6.1 beta, which looks as though it'll serve as the Golden Master build. The Golden Master, or GM build, presents the software in its complete, end-user state (barring any significant bugs), and suggests the public release of iOS 6.1 may not be too far away now.
Apple's decision to refresh its iPad range twice last year was met with a mixed response, and while some naturally welcomed the decision of Apple to introduce the iPad 4 a mere seven months following the emergence of the iPad 3, owners of the latter were naturally disgruntled. Alongside the iPad 4 came the iPad mini, and once again, the general response was mixed, with many pointing to the lack of a Retina display and high cost as fundamental flaws. Now, it has emerged that Apple plans to bring yet another upgrade as early as March, and while the larger iPad should be a little less, well, large, the mini is widely-presumed to be getting a Retina display.
A couple of days back, we reported on the news that a dev by the name of "clrokr" had discovered a jailbreak, which allowed the Windows RT operating system to run unsigned, ARM-based desktop apps. No more than a few hours later, the Redmond company responded to assure owners of RT tablets that there was no imminent security threat, and that a patch would be available within a couple of days. To add an interesting twist to proceedings, though, another developer has chimed in with a tool making the jailbreaking process one of automated ease, and as is nearly always the case with Windows Phone / Android modding breakthroughs, this one arrives courtesy of XDA-Developers.
If you're constrained by a data plan, or just plain curious about how much traffic you're running through, you may find Network Traffic Monitor for Android to be of use. As it name quite openly entails, it allows you to keep a close eye on the amount data use in real-time, ensuring you don't use excessive amounts of data, and helping you source the main points of your network use.
In a market dominated by the likes of the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy devices, it's difficult enough for alternative OEMs - let alone those of different ecosystems - to get any kind of look in. But Nokia has defied odds by managing to sell an incredible 4.4 million Lumia devices in the last quarter. If you were surprised by the figures, the Finnish company is, itself, pleasantly taken aback, noting of how the vast quantities have "exceeded expectation".
Amid the constant inroads made in the smartphone and tablet industries, there would appear to be a growing requirement among consumers for so-called smartwatches. Tech fiends have taken the preemptive steps of conceptualizing such products in the image of Apple and Google's respective ranges, with the former said to be teaming up with none other than Intel to bring such a product to market. As we continue to dream of the day when one of the biggest names in the business comes through with an exciting new product, one decidedly smaller firm is ahead of the game. Unless you've been living under a rock - or in this case, a pebble - you'll have caught some of the hype surrounding Pebble's Smartwatch device as it smashed records over at Kickstarter, and it has now been revealed that the device will begin shipping on 23rd of this month.
The world of tablets is certainly evolving at an unprecedented rate, and what better place to catch a glimpse of the future of the tablet market, than the Consumer Electronics Show? Panasonic has wowed onlookers by unveiling a stunning 4K Windows 8 tablet at CES 2013, and the guys over at TheVerge have had the privilege of a little hands-on. Packing a 20-inch display, it's said to be aimed primarily at photography aficionados, while an included optical stylus permits the user to smoothly operate Windows 8 and make precise alterations to photos.
Mozilla has delivered the latest of its ongoing, sixth-weekly updates to Firefox, pushing the browser up to version 18.0. As you may expect, the company has packed in a whole bunch of new features, and while most concern the overall running and general performance of the app (read: under the hood housekeeping), there are one or two which many will notice from the get-go. Details, and info on where you can grab the new Firefox, are available after the break!
Windows Phone is Microsoft’s fledgling response to the overshadowing forces of iOS and Android in the smartphone industry, and having partnered up with Nokia to bring a very slick user experience on WP7.x, the two companies are a collaborative force once more, and at the forefront of the big Windows Phone 8 push.
