We've seen plenty of photo based applications on the App Store as well as a boatload of social networking variants, some of which are worldwide successes like Instagram and Facebook while others are more niche and used by only a select few. The Blurtopia iPhone and iPod touch app that recently landed in the App Store seems to be an amalgamation of a few genres but prefers to differentiate itself by being the application that can help us answer life's questions with the help of an active and engaged community.
JoinedDecember 18, 2011
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A technology enthusiast, former software developer, and current Head of Quality and Testing at a leading SaaS company. A developer of multiple apps. A lover of pleasing people and a believer in being your authentic self.
The original HTCLock tweak has been on the Cydia store for quite some time and has managed to rake up thousands of downloads from those who wanted to tweak the iOS lock screen to have a little bit more of the HTC Android flavor in it. Implementing the highly regarded HTC design on the iPhone and iPod touch obviously proved popular as it changed the default behavior and added the option to invoke a number of apps without having to unlock the device first. The same developer has now continued on with that tweak and released the HTClock Pro version that bundles in additional features and enhancements.
Although there has been a great deal of speculation surrounding the specifications and possible launch date of the purported iPad Mini, we are still waiting on official confirmation from Apple itself related to the device. With that said, we are pretty sure that Apple will remain on track to officially introduce us to the new baby iPad this month, and it is being reported that the very media event that will be held for the iPad Mini could also focus heavily on the company's iBooks platform as part of the presentation.
Photography based apps are ten-a-penny on the App Store with new creations seeming to pop up everyday that pretty much offer the same point and shoot then add filters functionality. Some of them differentiate themselves through the user interface or offering variable social sharing channels but it generally boils down to being the same app with the same feature set just wrapped in a different skin. The Mirrorgram app for iPhone and iPod touch stays true to that feature set but then also adds a unique little twist of its own that acts as the apps core functionality.
When it comes to mobile apps, we are used to large companies being way behind the game and playing by their own rules in terms of releasing updates and software to support new firmware, platforms and device specifications. You can forgive the lax attitude from indie developers who may not have as many resources to throw into development as large organizations have, but you would kind of expect the bigger companies to update their apps ahead of time. We definitely can't put Netflix in that bracket as they have already launched their Windows 8 compatible app ahead of time.
Apple took it upon themselves to improve certain aspects of the camera hardware with the release of the new iPhone 5 but those changes obviously don't affect those who are using an older generation device like the iPhone 4S. Thankfully, Apple have pushed a rather notable change to the Camera application with iOS 6 that allows users to capture rather engaging panorama photographs with their existing hardware.
When iOS 5 was launched with the iPhone 4S during the last quarter of 2012; one of the most notable and popular feature was Siri, the virtual digital assistant. Siri was extremely well-received but also spun some arguments as to why Apple only bundled the software on the iPhone 4S and not on older iOS devices. Step forward the jailbreak scene with a number of Siri GUI ports as well as the setting up of proxy servers that allowed older generation devices to connect to Siri.
It doesn't take a genius to work out that the iPhone 5 has been received with great enthusiasm from consumers. Apple is already struggling to stock out their inventories in order to fulfill backlogged orders and a large number of official Retail Stores still don't have any to offer to consumers three weeks down the line.
Apple's sixth iteration of iOS has been out in the wild for over two weeks now and although it offers a number of new and impressive features and improvements for users, it appears that it also brings with it a new way for Apple to track users and their activity levels on the device. We should all remember the uproar that was caused last year when it became common knowledge that hidden files were stored on iOS devices that contained user location data, so this latest activity monitoring is sure to ruffle some feathers.
Microsoft has taken the opportunity to announce that the development phase of Office 2013 is complete and the engineering teams involved have signed off the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build of the suite. Now that the coding, design and development phases of the process are complete; the main focus of the Redmond company is to now concentrate on releasing the new build of Office to consumer and business customers via selected channels.
