The hacking community has certainly been on its game of late, and following on from the news that eBay had been hit by a breach that prompted users of the auction site to change their passwords en masse, it now appears that music streaming service Spotify has also been hit. Unlike the eBay fiasco, it would seem that the Spotify incident is small-scale and only affects those on Android, but nonetheless, the fiasco has been noted, acknowledged, and a remedial update is apparently en route to the Google Play Store.
Korean outfit LG has just taken the wraps off its new flagship G3 smartphone at a launch event in London, and as the build-up correctly touted, this thing is an absolute beast. Below, we've got the specs, pricing, release date and everything else of importance, so if you've been waiting for the low-down on what comes next following last year's acclaimed G2, join us after the fold.
As of early last week, Samsung has taken over London Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 in a typically over-the-top ad campaign that has seen the entrance renamed "Terminal Samsung Galaxy S5." On top of that, the place is awash with billboards advertising the Korean company's most celebrated handset, and this exhibition is set to continue for another week yet. Before Samsung's takeover, though, Nokia - now Microsoft - had quite a sizeable advertising stake in Terminal 5, and given the mobile industry rival, it's no surprise that the Windows Phone giant has begun trolling Sammy's efforts with a little campaign of its own.
It's a familiar story, unfortunately, but once again we're here to warn Android users that their smartphones and tablets could theoretically be recording video and taking pictures without them knowing, with the output then being uploaded to a remote server without any indication whatsoever.
With the smartphone market now fully fleshed out, companies like Apple and Google are now looking to try and find the next big growth market, which means both firms are now throwing as much at the metaphorical wall as possible, just to see what, if anything, sticks. Apple has already made a play for the car, while Google's push in wearables is easy to see in its Android Wear and Google Glass product.
In a world where we carry around smartphones and tablets as a matter of routine, it's true that an unfortunate outcome of that is that we seem to be constantly charging things. if we're not charging our smartphones, then we're charging that tablet that we've been playing that hot new game on. In our houses here at least, there's always something on-charge.
Google Glass is currently being trialed in a multitude of different fields. From Virgin Airline check-ins at Heathrow Airport to the Dubai Police and New York Police in the ongoing fight against crime, the empowering nature of having a head mounted camera and ready-made apps is really starting to show, and now, surgeons appear to be getting in on the act as well.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 may have given us a fairly exciting start to 2014's major smartphone release schedule, but there's still a great deal more to come, and in a follow up to last year's impressive G2, LG Electronics looks to be pulling out all of the stops to impress consumers with its successor. From what we've heard up until now, it's going to be a real humdinger, and according to the latest report on the handset, it might even be the first smartphone to pack laser autofocus.
Touch-screen phones are great, but sometimes there is just no substitute for a good old hardware solution. Being able to have a button that's always available, and always does the same thing is not something that should be overlooked, and that's why there are more than a few Kickstarter projects aiming to bring a little more physicality to our touch-based world.
When it comes to mobile data plans, most of us are tethered to some kind of contract, and if you want a half-decent smartphone thrown into the bargain, these monthly agreements can prove costly. FreedomPop has long since sought to shake the market up by offering basic smartphones for a one-off fee, and continued monthly minutes, texts and data for free. More recently, the company has opened its doors to the more lucrative iPhone range, and now, last year's flagship Galaxy S4 from Samsung has also been added to the ever-growing roster.
