Facebook's first foray into the Android modding world, Facebook Home for Android, has caused something of a stir in the smartphone world. It has led some people to rave about an otherwise mediocre handset in the HTC First, and it has even caused one jailbreak tweak to be launched that brings Home-liked Chat Heads to iOS.
After a bit of a rollercoaster ride last year with the constant developments in the Apple vs. Samsung cases, the fire looks to be reigniting just in time for the summer. Although the two tech titans are at loggerheads in several different cases being fought across the world, the main battle is being contested near Apple's home turf in San Jose, California, and in accusing Google of improperly withholding potentially incriminating information, the Cupertino-based company has requested that Judge Paul S. Grewal forces the Big G to hand over source code information pertaining its flagship mobile OS.
It's no secret that Apple and Samsung are far from the best of friends. In fact, it's fair to say that they don't like each other at all, one bit, which is probably why Samsung's entire advertising campaign for any new smartphone seems to revolve around bashing the iPhone more than bigging up the latest and greatest from South Korea, see the latest Galaxy S4 TV ads, for example.
Nokia has sought to address the shortcomings and limitations of the Windows Phone platform by packing immensely good cameras into its high-end devices, and the fact that the Lumia 920's snapper is still widely considered the best in the business is a testament to that fact. Nokia's so-called 'PureView' technology with OIS is back for another round in the upcoming Lumia 928 handset, which looks a modest refresh on the current flagship, and to show you just how good the 928's shooter is, Nokia has put together a little comparison video pitting the camera against that of the Samsung Galaxy S III and Apple's iPhone 5 in low lighting conditions.
The Galaxy S4 may have only just been released by Samsung, but already, the Korean outfit appears to be planning a whole host of spin-off versions of its flagship handset. As with last year's release of the S III, which eventually spawned a multitude of different variants, Samsung is looking to widen the appeal of the Galaxy S4 with a sparse line-up. Following in the footsteps of the already-speculated Galaxy S4 Mini and a further, waterproof / dustproof model, SamMobile reports that the company is preparing a Galaxy S4 Zoom, complete with a 16-megapixel camera.
I've been using an iPhone as my daily runner since the iPhone 3G, which I bought brand-new. Suffice to say, I am about as confirmed an iPhone user as you're likely to find. But despite having had few issues over the past four or so years, I have felt compelled to jump ship to Android with the HTC One, and here's why.
Many of those looking to grab the new Samsung Galaxy S4 in the U.S. will have picked up the 16GB model, but if you have been waiting on the retail of the 32GB variant, you won't have to be waiting for much longer. The 32GB Galaxy S4 will go on sale from Friday, May 10th in the States as an AT&T exclusive, and will set you back $249.99 on a two-year contract. More details after the break.
The ability to schedule messages is made possible on my iPhone thanks to the wonderful BiteSMS app, but since I'll be making the transition from iOS to Android this week having picked up the HTC One, I just had to go out and find an Android app offering this vitally important functionality. I perhaps got more than I bargained for in my discovery of Schemes, an app which not only facilitates the sending of SMS messages at predisposed times, but also emails, Facebook updates and Tweets.
Samsung does pretty well to pack in some impressive specs into its handsets, in particular those of its flagship Galaxy S range, but even though the 2012-released Galaxy S III packs in a very workable 1GB of RAM, sometimes, it doesn't seem to stretch far enough. Now, I wouldn't count myself as a Galaxy S III "user" as such, for I have never used one as my daily runner, but I do interact with the device several times a week, and one thing I've noticed is that even though there is a gig of RAM, it does seem to get used up rather quickly, and naturally, this brings about the rather unwanted issue of lag. If you feel your device also uses up a lot of RAM but you're uncertain of where it's all going, we have sensitive information which could well result in the successful recapture of some of that precious random-access memory; details after the leap!
Android 4.2 is the most advanced version of Google's mobile OS to date, and despite its "buttery" smooth billing rendering it more than decent right off the bat, it stands to reason that many of you will probably want to mod / hack it as much as possible. Scarcely is this achievable without USB Debugging enabled, which in turn relies upon Developer Mode being activated. Since Google has rather kindly made it trickier for developers and wannabe developers to find Developer Options as time has gone on, we're going to quickly show you how to bring about Developer Options on Android 4.2.
