If the last seven years have been the age of the smartphone, then it's quite possible that the next few years at least will be the age of the wearable computer. Far from strapping an oversized smartphone to yourself, smartwatches and fitness trackers are already becoming the must-have items for any technology fiend, and when Google Glass starts to become more readily affordable as well as easier to get hold of, we suspect that too will see quite the uptake in usage. Wearable technology is undoubtedly the next big thing, and now LG is getting in on the act.
JoinedJanuary 21, 2011
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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.
When it comes to success stories, they don't come much bigger than Rovio and its Angry Birds franchise. Since its initial release back in 2009, the world has gone Angry Birds crazy, with merchandise ranging from lunch boxes to food and beyond. It's fair to say that Rovio has done OK for itself, and as a result it's found itself confident enough to branch out from the tried and tested formula of flinging birds at pigs. Relatively hot on the heals of Angry Birds Go, a kart racer, Rovio earlier this month teased Angry Birds Epic, and now it's ready for prime time. At least, partly.
Apple's AirPlay is one of the more prominent examples of Apple's 'it just works' ecosystem and is arguably the best reason to own an Apple TV. Being able to take audio and video from an iOS device and throw it over to a big-screen TV or audio system is the thing of dreams, and the fact it works so well just adds to the mystique.
It's not the first time that it has happened, but that doesn't make it any less humorous when a celebrity's smartphone endorsement backfires. After all, we all like it when giants fall, do we not?
The beauty of Kickstarter is that it makes it possible for people to launch products that would normally never see the light of day. In the technology arena especially, we've seen all kinds of awesome and not-so-awesome things come out of the crowd-sourcing funding machine that is Kickstarter. We're not really sure which side of that fence we're going to put the SlatePro desk just yet, but it sure looks nice.
Living in a world where our smartphones are the center of our lives may not be too far away, but being able to place it on a table and have it start doing all kinds of magical things wasn't on our list of wants for that utopian future. At least, it wasn't until Pizza Hut got in on the act.
Apple's 'iOS in the Car' initiative has been one of Apple's least publicized in a long while. First announced last year and then almost forgotten about immediately, it probably wouldn't be unfair to put it in the same category as the likes of Ping for monumental failures. That doesn't mean that Apple's car integration angle for iOS is a bad idea, it just means that it's taken considerably longer than we expected to see anything come to fruition.
It seems that Google may have just fallen foul of one of the pitfalls of having engineers running the company rather than people that are more adept at giving a politician's answer to some tough questions. Google's head honcho of Android, Sundar Pichai, has been in attendance at this week's Mobile World Congress, and it seems he's given a very interesting answer to a mildly interesting question.
So after all the talk, all the leaks and a healthy dose of speculation, it's finally been announced. The leaks might have left us with less of a surprise than Samsung would have liked, but the Galaxy S5 is now official, and everyone's talking about it.
Even in the midst of Mobile World Congress, Apple has managed to end up grabbing headlines after an analyst claimed that the company's iPhone 6 will be available sooner than expected. In fact, according to Mizuho Securities analyst Abhey Lamba, the highly anticipated new iPhone could be on stores as early as July, months before the usual September release timeframe that Apple has used in the past.
