Square Enix has previously been guilty of teasing mobile gamers by announcing that the much anticipated Final Fantasy VI would be coming to mobile sometime "this winter". Developers and publishers are often understandably reluctant to commit to concrete launch dates for fear of having a spanner thrown in the works and subsequently having to renege on that promise. The winter is now well and truly upon us, and although we haven't yet been blessed with an actual release date, Square Enix has used the annual Jump Festa expo to release two official screenshots of the visuals that gamers can expect on iOS and Android when the title launches.
Early benchmark results are often a good way of discovering whether a new device is being tested out, and with talk currently rife regarding Samsung's next batch of flagship smartphones, benchmarks found over at GFXBench could already show the full list of specs of the Galaxy S5. The S4 only arrived in the late spring, but with sales having not reached expectations, the Korean company is said to be working doubly hard on its eventual successor. According to the GFXBench results, the device will boast the latest and greatest Android 4.4 KitKat, a Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.5 GHz as well as a potentially jaw-dropping 2560 x 1440 resolution, or 2K HD display.
The Android versus iOS debate is fiercely contested among experts, commentators and users alike, with both sides putting forth strong arguments as to why one is superior to the other. But while it often seems to appear as though everybody is a partisan fan of one or the other, a study by InfoScout into Black Friday spending habits has revealed that many of those who rushed out to grab the Apple iPad were in fact Android users.
VSCO Cam has long since been regarded among the best photo editing apps for those on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and today, it makes its long-awaited debut over at the Google Play Store. As you'd expect, most of the iOS app's powerful features are present on the Android iteration, and provided your device is running 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or newer, you can now enjoy one of the most powerful photo utilities on the mobile market.
Google Glass may be generating an increasing amount of interest within tech circles, but before everybody gets carried away with what remains an exciting development, it's worth pointing out that Google is not the only company trying to make an impression in the smart glasses market. Vuzix has already completed the development process on the M100, its own forthcoming effort to get us wearing tech on our faces, and not only is the product ready to ship from Tuesday, but at $1000, it's a great deal cheaper than the current Explorer Edition of Google Glass.
CyanogenMod 10.2 final based on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean has been released. This marks the end of CM based on Jelly Bean and work on CM 11 Android 4.4 KitKat has been started.
Google's Project Glass is perhaps the most exciting thing to manifest from the search giant since the original Nexus 7 made waves last year, and even then, it's difficult to justify including a small, cheap tablet in the same sentence as a product that could prove to be game-changing. The Explorer Edition has gone down well with creative types, and in the past month or so, we've seen Google expand the beta testing to bring more interested parties into the fold. Now, it has been made known that Glass Explorers can purchase a second pair of the geeky spectacles, and with the refreshed model of Glass having only been released in October, the development process appears to be moving through the gears.
By the exceedingly high standards Samsung sets itself, the release of the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3 this year haven't quite lived up to standards for some people. Both devices remain two of Android's most celebrated handsets, but with competitors stepping their games up and the Korean giant seeming to coast in the eyes of many, we've already heard some big promises of next year's marquee Sammy handsets pushing the envelope. Following on from some recent nuggets of info, it looks as though there could be a vastly improved 20-megapixel camera on the way with the forthcoming Galaxy smartphones, and although the number of megapixels is just a footnote in the story of a camera, Samsung's desire to impress would suggest it's more than just bluster.
The emergence of social networks and sharing services like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flickr has only accelerated the popularity of mobile photography and means we can share our creations with a few taps. But what about those who want to go beyond the native capabilities of mobile cameras with an added accessory? Well, the extremely popular Easy-Macro is one of the more popular options, and it just got even better.
There's nothing more personal than a private conversation between family members, loved ones or close friends. If you suspect that that privacy is being abused by a friend, college roommate or a work colleague then it's time to either keep a closer eye on where you leave your smartphone, or pick up the PeeperPeeper app from the Play Store and catch them red-handed. The latter seems a lot more fun.
