Today’s smartphones are, admittedly, one of the smartest commercially-available gadgets: they come with great computing power, loads of memory, advanced optics and a handful of sensors all powered by some of the most advanced operating systems which, together, offer a better experience than your regular phone.
JoinedSeptember 6, 2010
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Passionate writer at Redmond Pie, casual photographer, sharer of amusing links and an amalgam of all things geeky. Follow me on Twitter: @waisybabu
It is not very often that a live wallpaper gets covered here at Redmond Pie. These moving wallpapers are mostly one-trick ponies that add nothing of functional value to your device, so that is why we prefer covering apps with real features rather than purely cosmetic ones.
It’s established: there is no dearth of good launchers on Android. In fact there are so many launchers out there that it is virtually impossible not to find one that fits perfectly with your exact needs. Whether it is performance-conscious or customization-friendly or both, Google Play has got you covered!
Despite being an open mobile operating system which offers more freedom than competing platforms, Android comes with a bunch of small but nonetheless frustrating limitations. One such limitation is Gmail’s limited support for different file formats; it plays well with things like PDFs, DOCs and AVIs, but when it comes to ZIP files and other, lesser known formats such as 7z, the popular email client simply denies the user from downloading it. Further, Gmail doesn’t let you save attachments to specified locations on your device’s internal memory or SD card.
My default ringtone/vibration intensity is set so I can just barely detect them. I‘ve set them like this because, this way, I easily get notified of incoming calls/texts/emails without drawing attention to myself in quiet environments like the classroom or the library.
Siri was introduced as one of the three major features of the iPhone 4S back when it was announced in late 2011. As we all know well by now, it is a voice-based personal assistant that lives inside the iPhone 4S which serves all sorts of commands given by the user. Voice commands involving things like setting a reminder/timer, going through latest text messages, firing off an email/text message, getting weather updates etc. etc.
The smartphone of today has become the ultimate example of convergent technology. These devices take razor-sharp photographs, record Full HD 1080p video, play video games, read books, play music, besides taking the occasional phone call and sending/receiving a text message.
Sony’s Xperia line of smartphones is, in my humble opinion, one of the more underrated Android smartphones. Sony’s custom Timeline user-experience on top of Android 2.3 Gingerbread is one of the best in the business and the company offers great support to the development community in the form of giving them unlocked bootloaders and kernel sources.
While there are plenty of others, there is one feature that Android has that iOS doesn’t: the ability of Android apps to interact with another. On iOS, each app has its own room of sorts from where they can interact with the operating system; on Android, there’s a large apartment in which every app lives and each app can communicate with the other.
Despite all the criticism regarding its one-size-fits-none form factor, Samsung has sold over 5 million units of the phone-plus-tablet Galaxy Note. Almost everything about the device has controversy surrounding it, whether it’s the huge 5.3” 720p Super AMOLED HD display or the inclusion of a capacitive stylus; it’s really a love it or hate it kind of thing.
