On top of the slew of recent alleged leaks of the next-generation iPhone, another tidbit has surfaced claiming that the infamous earbuds that come with the iPhone will be redesigned. Many have criticized the existing Apple headphones for being ill-fitted and underperforming, especially considering their standalone price of roughly $30. Clearly aware of the criticisms present, Apple is rumored to be addressing these issues with the release of the new headphones.
JoinedFebruary 17, 2012
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Microsoft columnist at Redmond Pie.
Windows 8 has just been released to manufacturing, as expected; Microsoft recently revealed that this would happen at the beginning of August. What does this mean? Well, the OS has been finalized, and the final build is being sent out to OEMs/partners as we speak.
Throughout the constant back and forth legal bickering between Apple and Samsung lately, some interesting, formerly confidential tidbits have leaked out giving us a glimpse at some early internal iPhone prototypes. TheVerge spotted a few of them after scouring through various documents, and they're actually rather interesting. One interesting concept in particular draws a hefty deal of inspiration from one of Sony's designs, and Samsung plans to bring it up to basically tell the court that Apple, with all of their accusations, aren't holy angels in the situation either.
Seeing that we've been able to gather a few years of experience with touchscreen keyboards, they've become relatively easy to use for most, especially for simple and short search queries. However, if you want to add a more creative and personal touch to your input, you will be able to take advantage of Handwrite, which Google just announced. It's a new feature of Google's mobile search website that's actually built into the search webpage itself, so you'll be able to try this out on any touch-enabled smartphone (or tablet, for that matter.)
Following the news surrounding Apple's proposed nano-SIM format - which is essentially a mico-SIM stripped of all unnecessary "bevel" plastic - it appears that European mobile carriers are preparing for the launch of the next-generation iPhone by stockpiling on nano-SIMs. Given that the standard was proposed by Apple (while they aren't named exactly, it's evident that the approved design is at least heavily based on their proposal) - and subsequently approved by ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute) - it's fairly safe to assume that they will be using it in their next-generation iPhone.
The smartphone sales war is definitely heating up. While Apple set the tone of the modern smartphone market when they released the iPhone - which was essentially the first "modern" smartphone - back in 2007, Google were quick to release Android, which would eventually overtake the iPhone in market share. Speaking of overtaking, should a Reuters poll prove to be accurate, it would appear that premier Android OEM Samsung may have overtaken Apple in smartphone sales in Q2 of this year.
The popular cross-platform IM app Nimbuzz is now available on the Windows Phone, for the surprisingly low cost of nothing. It's been in existence since the Windows Mobile days, and is available on a wide sleuth of platforms: Android, iOS, Symbian, Blackberry, Java, PC, Mac, and of course, Windows Phone. The app allows you to chat with other Nimbuzz users, as well as friends on Facebook, Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger, and WLM for free. Some form of Twitter integration is also baked into the app.
Three months after the phone's debut as the device to end the "smartphone beta test", Nokia has just sliced the price of the Lumia 900 in half on AT&T in the United States. Now, you can pick it up at the low cost of $49.99 when paired with a two year contract with the carrier. The announcement of this pricing change coincides with the announcement of a pink Lumia 900, which joins the existing white, black, and cyan color schemes that the device also comes in.
Seeing that Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean last week during its Google I/O conference - where it also announced its home entertainment device, the Nexus Q, among a few other things - Android users are surly antsy to get the latest version of the OS onto their devices. Well, Nexus S and Nexus S 4G owners are in luck; two guys from the XDA forums - DeXmax and CooLoserTech - have ported Jelly Bean 4.1 to the Nexus S and Nexus S 4G, respectively.
While the cool thing to do is typically compare S Voice or Google Now with Apple's own personal assistant, Siri, Clayton Ljungberg of AndroidAuthority has decided to pit the two brotherly voice assistant services to see which one is the best.
