If you own an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch device, you'll be more than aware that storage space can often be at a premium. Apple makes up to $100 per size upgrade on the iDevice range, which means many opt for the model with the least space in order to save those precious few dollars. While many manage just fine with 8 or 16GB of real-estate for music, videos, ringtones and whatnot, it often becomes a bit of a squeeze, and quite a few end up having to delete files just to get by.
Need for Speed is one of the most exciting driving titles on the market. If you like tooling around in super cars, injecting them with subhuman doses of nitrous before bursting corners and markers at light-speed, then you've more than likely played at least one iteration of Need for Speed, and the next in line - Need for Speed: Most Wanted - won't be breaking from that mold for anybody. In fact, it's one of those enthralling motor-based gaming series where very little braking is actually done at all, and although it can be quite repetitive in terms of gameplay, the missions and achievements always keep drivers coming back for more.
With everything that is currently going on in the technology industry, it sometimes gets quite difficult to keep all of the announcements in memory and remember what hardware or software is going to be introduced to the marketplace. With the iPhone and iOS 6, the Nexus 7, the chatter surrounding Windows 8 and more recently; the imminent launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note II, I had actually totally forgotten about the impromptu media event where Microsoft introduced us to their Surface tablet. When Apple announces an iPad, it is pretty much available immediately. When Google announced the Nexus 7, it was available for immediate pre-order and was dispatched a couple of weeks later. Microsoft announced the Surface and then, well, nothing happened.
Windows RT - based on Windows 8 - is the first desktop operating from Microsoft that has been developed from the ground up for touch-screen devices i.e. tablets. It replaces the traditional desktop interface in favor of a Windows Phone-like start screen, made for touch-input apps, a Windows Store for downloading them, multi-touch gestures and more! With Windows RT and OEMs like Samsung, ASUS, Lenovo, HP etc., Microsoft aims to directly compete with Apple’s iPad in the tablet market.
Such is the manner in which technology moves nowadays, no sooner is one major release out of the way, do consumers, analysts and enthusiasts in general begin nattering about what's up next. Windows 8 has been in our faces for the entire year, after Microsoft dropped the Developer Preview to the public in an unprecedented move, but despite not releasing for another two-and-a-half months, the successor to Windows 8 has already got chins wagging.
Although Apple themselves have been the center of attention for most of the last few weeks due to the imminent announcement and launch of the new iPhone, there has been an organization that has dared to try and steal Apple's thunder in the last week. Those guys are the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and have taken it upon themselves to thwart the hype around the new iPhone by blasting the Curiosity Rover onto the red planet to send images back to earth that document its findings.
I was never one of those iOS device owners who got caught up in the Angry Birds phenomenon, but judging by the staggering sales and usage figures which Rovio has reported in the past, it seems that the majority of the iOS device owning world have gotten onboard with the ornithological mayhem at one stage or another. The original Angry Birds game saw a huge shift in the mobile gaming world with Rovio's success with what is essentially quite a simple idea, proving that there is definitely a market for serious game developers within the mobile ecosphere.
Microsoft opened up registrations for the BUILD 2012 conference, and with tickets selling like lemon-topped hotcakes, it’s rather surprising to see that the whole conference sold out in a matter of few minutes, at the time of writing.
Windows 8 has always been highlighted as the point when Microsoft's main products would unite as one, with desktop, tablet, smartphone and gaming all intertwined in one way or another by the new operating system. With that in mind, it should be of no surprise that Microsoft has based the structure of gaming on Windows 8 around the flagship Xbox platform, and the built-in games within the upcoming version of the Redmond company's operating system will be branded as "Xbox Windows."
The Microsoft Surface is the company's first delve into the increasingly popular tablet market, and it's fair to say the Redmond outfit has a fair bit of catching up to do. The iPad has been retailing for two-and-a-half years, and although Android tablets haven't managed to make as much of an impression on consumers, the companies behind them are now seeming to push forth some genuine contenders to the Cupertino company's dominant slate.
