All respectable soccer fans will have heard of, and played many of the annual FIFA Football (soccer, futbol, or whatever you call it locally) releases over the past couple of decades, and now, the sport's governing body has come through with an official news app. Dedicated to keeping fans in the loop regarding all of the goings on the world of football, it's a free download for those on both iOS and Android, and you can catch all of the relevant details after the jump as well as the direct download links.
Samsung already has a reputation for launching smartphones in a variety of different colors, and it's certainly not shy about milking its handsets for all its worth be re-launching them with new paint jobs after their initial release. That's why we're not surprised in the least to see Samsung's Argentinian arm announce two new colors for the Galaxy Note 3 smartphone.
Crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter are a great way for individuals and groups to take an idea to the masses, and in the past few years, we've seen some truly weird, wonderful and genuinely innovative products and services grow from a simple video and description to items used by millions. As impressed as we've been, a new iPhone/Android-controlled paper Airplane proves once again that we can be surprised and inspired all at one, and when you've seen the clip of it in action, you'll see why it has already smashed its funding goal several times over with over eight weeks still to run.
The Pebble smartwatch is probably the most famous smartwatch of them all, and while some may argue that it's not as smart as it could be, there's little justification for saying that it's not been the start of a whole new push into wearable technology. Alongside Google Glass, Pebble is rightly thought of as a pioneer in the wearable tech space that has since seen Samsung and Sony make an entrance. With Apple presumably also readying its own smartwatch, the arena is only going to get more interesting too.
The CyanogenMod team is one of the most active and dedicated in the Android community, but today has been dealt something of a blow by the Google Play Store support team after it asked the newly-formed company to remove its CyanogenMod Installer app from the Play Store. The reasoning behind the decision was cited as a "violation of Google Play’s developer terms," and the Cyanogen team was subsequently told to either remove the app, or it would be removed for them.
Dual-SIM smartphones seldom see the light of day in the western world, but the newly-updated HTC One includes two SIM card slots - ideal for frequent travellers, business and pleasure separators or those leading double lives. It's about to hit the UK market for £494.99, which is just a fraction more than the standard edition, and for those who've been waiting for a decent dual-SIM handset to hit the scene, the highly revered HTC One is probably your guy.
The technology world never stops turning, and the smartphone portion is more fluid than most, which means it's no surprise to anyone that Samsung is hard at work making the Galaxy Gear 2 so soon after the first version hit stores alongside the third generation Galaxy Note.
Suspicion, speculation and good old fashioned controversy is never far away in the smartphone industry. Companies like Samsung, HTC and Apple are always keen to let the public know how well their hardware performs in areas that matter most to the consumer. One of the accepted methods of documenting and listing that performance is by running the hardware through a well-known benchmarking text. Futuremark - the Finnish development team behind 3DMark for Android - has announced that it suspects Samsung and HTC of cheating the benchmark tests to produce favorable results, and as such has delisted the offending handsets.
If you like your news to be of the anecdotal variety then you're in for a treat, because that's exactly what we've got. If you're also a bit keen on the iPhone 5c, then you might want to sit down, because this one's going make you weak at the knees. According to, yes, anecdotal reports in India, Apple's somewhat underwhelming iPhone 5c might be outselling the Samsung's flagship Galaxy S4 device.
Google is constantly working to improve and update its Android ecosystem, and with photography now quite a big deal in mobile space, it looks as though shot-taking ability is about to be stepped up a gear or two. According to Google spokeswoman Gina Scigliano, the Android team is working on a new photo API that will allow wannabe photographers to shoot RAW uncompressed images. On top of that, Scigliano, who was speaking with CNET, also added that the revamped API will offer native burst mode, helping to push smartphone point-and-shoot towards the territory of pro photography.
