Even with Google Glass suffering something of a PR crisis over the last few months, there's little doubt that the technology is still some of the coolest around. While we have to admit to not being sure where the idea of wearable technology will take us in the coming years, Google should be given credit for being at the forefront of what is possible today.
JoinedJanuary 21, 2011
Articles20,137
Oliver Haslam has written about technology for over a decade. His work has been published in print at Macworld and online pretty much everywhere else. If it plugs in or has a battery, it's fair game.
With the way things are going, it's debatable whether Apple will need to announce the iPhone 6 officially at all, with all the important bits of information already beginning to circulate around the internet, and with months to go before Apple's execs take to the stage to announce what we all expect to be the iPhone 6, we're already starting to form quite the picture about what they will be there to show to the world.
With the iPhone 6 just around the corner - well, almost - people could be forgiven for forgetting that the current iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c are still very much available to buy. Even though the pair are now coming up on their one year anniversary, the iPhone 5s in particular can still hold its own in the current smartphone market, and if you can't wait for its successor you could do much worse than pick one up. If you've got an old iPhone to trade in too, now's the time to get yourself down to an Apple Store.
Ever since its introduction in 2007, Apple's iPhone has had one feature that has changed very little over the last seven years. The 'slide to unlock' method of unlocking the iPhone has been the subject of lawsuits as well as being copied or adapted by all manner of smartphone makers, but that doesn't mean that everyone thinks that it's the best way to go about getting past a lock screen. A cursory flick through the Cydia jailbreak store will prove just that.
When Apple quietly refreshed its MacBook Air lineup last week it not only increased the speed of its low-end model's processor from 1.3GHz to 1.4GHz. While no doubt an improvement - we're always happy to get more horsepower in our machines - possibly the most important change is the fact that the model now also comes with a price tag that's $100 lower than it was previously. If you were on the fence about picking up a MacBook Air then there's never been a better time to do just that.
We're already getting a little overly giddy at the idea of Apple finally bringing a larger iPhone to market, and the increasing number of leaks that appear to corroborate that notion isn't making it any easier for us. While it's very true that the iPhone 5 was indeed larger than all the iPhones that came before it, there's no arguing against the fact that most would gladly buy a phone from Apple that narrowed the size gap between Apple's smartphone and all those Android phones we see everyone lugging around.
Whether you use a Mac or a PC is obviously a matter of preference, but it's not unheard of for some people to want to use one platform but have the interface look like the other. Skinning Windows to look more like a Mac is something that has been done for years, and with each new version of both OS X and Windows, these tools have had to adapt.
Since its inception and initial enthusiasm, Google Glass has suffered something of a damaged reputation amongst those who don't own it. Becoming, for some, an example of all that is wrong with modern technology and even being used as a symbol of gentrification in San Francisco and surrounding areas that is being placed squarely at Google's feet, Google Glass is currently in the midst of a P.R. crisis.
App Store pricing is often referred to as a race to the bottom, but that doesn't mean that every app has to be free. Some developers, usually the ones with quality apps, dare to charge a fair price for their wares, and that's the way it should be. That being said, there's no better way to get some attention for your paid-for app than to make it free for a limited time. Free downloads count towards an app's App Store chart ranking even when it moves back into the 'Paid' chart, which should in turn mean more sales. It's genius really, when you think about it.
Apple is no stranger to hardware problems with its iPhone lineup. Even ignoring the infamous Antennagate fiasco, the iPhone has been plagued by perceived hardware issues across just about all of its iterations. The iPhone 5 already had fingers pointed at its inability to keep its anodized color for any longer than the time it took to take it out of the box, and now the model is the subject of a recall of sorts.
