I remember the golden days of mobile phone devices when functionality was limited to making telephone calls and sending/receiving text messages. The first mobile device I ever owned didn't even have the ability to send multimedia messages, although it could handle an array of amazing polyphonic ringtones which at the time was cutting edge stuff.
JoinedDecember 18, 2011
Articles10,343
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.
With the March Apple media event now over, and the iOS loving world fully aware of what is in store for them when it comes to the latest iOS and Apple TV devices, attention is being turned to the release of iOS 5.1 which is starting to appear as an OTA and iTunes update to many users. For those users who enjoy their A4 iOS devices with a little bit of additional freedom and choice, you will no doubt be chomping at the bit to press the update button and get that warm Cydia feeling back on the device’s Springboard.
We currently find ourselves at that time of the year which brings both delight and pain to members of the Apple product loving world. On one hand, the Cupertino company has just released the brand new and improved iPad which will be hitting the shelves in less than a week. They have also released a point upgrade to iOS 5, taking us to version 5.1 as well as a revamped Apple TV unit. On the other hand, those amongst us who love to jailbreak their devices, and perform a software based carrier unlocks on their iPhone find themselves in turmoil.
Although I am relatively still youthful and full of vitality and zest, I am old enough to remember the good old days of yester-year when technology was nowhere near as advanced or feature packed as it is now, but we were still blown away by being able to play block based games on the latest Motorola flip phone or set polyphonic ringtones on our Nokia. I will always remember bounding through the school gates on a Monday morning with my Nokia 3310 in hand, excited about showing classmates the 'Snake' game which came built in with it, feeling a sense of pride that I was one of the few to have a mobile telephone at school.
Every time when it looks as though the jailbreak development community is about to hit a saturation point, someone seems to come up with a new and inventive tweak which hasn't been done before, bringing some pretty unique functionality to jailbroken devices. Once upon a time the stock repositories which provide the content on Cydia were updated at least a couple of times a week with excellent and innovative tweaks and extensions which dramatically improved the user experience of an iOS device. However, with Apple including new features in every update of iOS, and the community pretty much exhausting the tweak options, we have become used to seeing mediocre offerings appearing in Cydia with a gem appearing every so often.
Some of the most useful applications on the Mac and iOS devices are ones that seem to be simplistic in form, but ultimately end up offering a service or solution to users which can be used time and time again. A lot of people purchase or download an application which offers a one time solution to a problem and then delete it from their machine or device, but the apps which offer a consistent feature set are generally the ones that are used repetitively.
With the public release of the the new iPad drawing ever closer, the gadget and Apple loving population are rightly becoming more excited as the days countdown until they can get their hands on the brand new tablet. Email inboxes around the globe are also starting to receive notifications that Apple have already sent their new shiny iPad out for shipping, prompting speculation that in some case it may even arrive before the March 16th official release date. I received my email this morning saying my two new iPads had been shipped, so fingers crossed that they get here promptly.
For those among us that are hardcore fans of not only Apple products, but also the software and mobile applications that they make, I am pretty sure you paid close attention to the announcements made during the recent media event in San Francisco. The public and media focus centered predominately around the fact that Apple were launching a new and improved Apple TV as well as the all new iPad, both of which are set for public release a week from today.
How To Enable Hidden iOS Debug Settings For FaceTime, iMessage And Bluetooth [No Jailbreak Required]
Smartphones that are powered by various different operating systems are fast becoming a necessity in our everyday lives. Once upon a time, when mobile telephones were first becoming accessible to the masses, they were as a big as a house brick and had functionality that was limited to making telephone calls and storing contacts. As with most things, as time progressed, so did the underlying technology of mobile devices allowing manufacturers to make them smaller, pack in more features and gradually become the mobile powerhouses that we all seem to carry around with us today.
When anyone mentions a touchscreen device, or to be more specific; a touchscreen tablet device, you instinctively think about Apple and the iPad. Ever since the creation of the ground breaking iPhone in 2007, and the subsequent release of the iPad in 2010, touchscreen devices seem to be synonymous with the company. Apple obviously weren't the first technology company to come up with the idea of controlling a mobile device through a touch based interface, but when they entered that segment of the market, they managed to totally reinvent it and almost assume ownership.

