When Steve Jobs announced the original iPhone way back in 2007, he made a real point of explaining why having an on-screen software keyboard was superior to using a hardware alternative. These days it seems obvious that having software keyboards means that we can customize that experience to the Nth degree, but six years ago it was a novelty. How times have changed.
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.
Samsung's Galaxy S5 is very much at the center of attention right now, with leaks and speculation rife. We were recently shown a teaser for Samsung's Unpacked 2014 event which featured some rather fetching, distinctly flat icons, leading many to suggest that this may be a nod towards a newly redesigned TouchWiz interface for Samsung's Android line of smartphones. Those playing devil's advocate suggested that it may instead be based on icons from Tizen, but now it seems clear that it is in fact a teaser of what we may all be looking at when using a Galaxy S5.
It seems we can't go longer than an hour without Flappy Bird making its way into the news, and the latest headline to feature the game that everyone is talking about comes courtesy of unlikely happenings. Following news that Flappy Bird's developer has pulled the popular game from both the App Store and Google Play Store, it seems those wanting to get their flappy fix might be in for some good news.
It's been a big couple of weeks for Flappy Bird gamers. Almost from nowhere, Flappy Bird popped up at the top of the App Store and Play Store free app charts and since then it's been a real rollercoaster ride. First we had the discussion about just how much the free game is raking in through in-game ads, with some claiming the figure to be around the $50,000 mark per day. Then we were treated to the drama that followed news that the game's developer actually disliked the attention his work was receiving.
They may have slipped quietly under most people's radar, but Sony's odd little QX lens cameras for smartphones and tablets have received a firmware update that promises to bring some nice new features to the table. The cameras may not be as good as a traditional point-and-shoot solution, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve firmware updates!
While Apple is still very much trying to stabilize iOS 7 into a platform on which it can build, attention is already turning towards what could be part of the iOS 8 experience that is due to land later this year. With the iOS 7 redesign being somewhat on the radical side, all eyes are one where Apple takes its mobile operating system during the next few months.
Now that the hectic release period is over, and the holiday push is just a memory, all attention has now turned to what 2014 may or may not have in store for Microsoft's Xbox One. With gamers already desperate for new titles to play and with some Xbox services still to go live for the new console, every morsel of information is being greeted with both excitement and skepticism in equal measure.
It’s news that seems to have come completely out of the blue. Google is selling Motorola’s mobile division to Lenovo for just $2.91 billion less than three years after picking it up.
As much as some of us really enjoy using iOS, those amongst us that are realists surely have to admit that it has its little foibles. Apple has gradually ironed some of them out over the years and, unfortunately, baked new ones into subsequent versions of iOS as well. You don't build something as complicated as a mobile operating system without having quirks.
Backward compatibility is a big deal in the gaming world, and when Sony announced its PS4 console, much of the talk was about the lack of any ability to play those back catalogues of games that everyone had spent the last few years accumulating. Sony has since sought to rectify that by announcing PlayStation Now, the game streaming service that will see PS3 games streamed over the Internet, but there is no local support being added to consoles.
