An Android device is hardly any good without modifications. Don’t get me wrong; they have powerful hardware with capable software to accompany the former, but in most cases, the manufacturer’s additions and modifications to the stock Android Open Source Project (AOSP) makes the environment a little restricted, to say the least. That’s perhaps one reason behind why we see every new high end and mid-range device getting root, custom recovery and whatnot as soon as they’re released (even sooner than the actual release in some cases). While the casual user might not pay attention to all of these a lot, power users feel suffocated when they cannot mod their smartphones and tablets.
Samsung Electronics have today announced they will be offering consumers a chance to get their hands on a new smartphone that should be immediately recognizable to those who keep up to speed with the industry. The Galaxy S II Plus was originally leaked back in August of last year, with South Korean based Samsung now officially introducing us to the device that is essentially an upgraded version of the extremely popular Galaxy S II.
Amid the constant inroads made in the smartphone and tablet industries, there would appear to be a growing requirement among consumers for so-called smartwatches. Tech fiends have taken the preemptive steps of conceptualizing such products in the image of Apple and Google's respective ranges, with the former said to be teaming up with none other than Intel to bring such a product to market. As we continue to dream of the day when one of the biggest names in the business comes through with an exciting new product, one decidedly smaller firm is ahead of the game. Unless you've been living under a rock - or in this case, a pebble - you'll have caught some of the hype surrounding Pebble's Smartwatch device as it smashed records over at Kickstarter, and it has now been revealed that the device will begin shipping on 23rd of this month.
Smartphones these days are not mere communication devices, and I’ve said so many times before as well. What they’ve turned into is an all-in-one solution for portable media playback, internet surfing, managing personal information, manipulating documents, spreadsheets, presentations on the go, and so much more. Not to miss out on one of the key uses that a capable smartphone is put through, is photography. The powerful camera units being mounted atop these devices nowadays have practically redefined the whole digital photography frontier, and spawned an entirely new breed of photographers who have a reasonable quality capturing unit for every moment, right there in their pockets.
Windows Phone 8 is on the up these days accompanied by fantastic devices like the Lumia 920, but it seems to be the emerging Firefox OS that is gathering interest as a newcomer to the scene. Although extremely early builds of the operating system have been released for those daring enough to try it out, not many people have witnessed it in the flesh, that is until it appeared on a mysterious smartphone during a CES event.
Before Apple introduced the world to the iPad as a mainstream, usable-for-everyone gadget, no one really believed that tablet computers would every become a mass usage item for a majority of technophiles the world over. Slate-based PCs existed long before that, but neither they were as powerful in their specifications, nor did they have an ecosystem as strong as iOS to back them up with a plethora or apps. Then, they were really overpriced, too, making it harder for average Joe to consider buying one.
In the world of Android, and modern smartphones in general, apps are what define how useful the device is going to be. The popular phrase, “there’s an app for that”, might’ve been notorious for Apple’s iOS platform, but it holds pretty true for the rapidly-growing Android operating system as well. No matter what the hardware capabilities of your device are, unless you supplement them with the right apps, it’s going to be pretty much useless. Android, as a mobile OS, has matured a lot over the years, adding features and useful gimmicks to the AOSP as the versions have evolved. One particular thing, however, that remained pretty much unchanged, was the way how you launch apps on your Android smartphone or tablet. Other than introducing the recent apps list in the newer iterations, Google hasn’t really changed app-launching method, and hence, you have to usually hit the Home button and start a new app from the launcher itself.
For a long time, Facebook was always thought of as a web-based company that didn't put a lot of importance on users who prefer to access their services through mobile devices. The official Facebook app was built around cross-platform technologies making it notoriously slow, unpredictable and unstable, and their mobile website didn't really make things much better. That focus started to shift with the acquisition of Instagram, followed by the updating of their mobile apps into native languages as well as the release of standalone apps such as Messenger and Camera. For the first time, we can now actually get an insight into Facebook's mobile users and devices and firmware that they actually use, thanks to some meticulous data collection from Benedict Evans of Enders Analysis.
Google offers a bunch of fantastic apps at stock level for Android users, and Calendar certainly falls into that category. However, it's far from perfect, and a third-party offering by the name of Agenda rather novelly helps you keep track of everything at a glance - presenting both your weekly and daily to-dos in the same convenient pane. Having been knocking about for iOS for a long while now, Agenda finally arrives for Android, and where a year or so ago, a port from iOS to Android or vice versa would result in a second-grade product, the version made for those on Google software is just as good.
Whether you avoid Windows Phone or if Microsoft is not quite your cup of tea, you might have felt at least some interest whenever you see your friends walking in with a new Windows Phone device. Maybe you’re quite a fan of Windows 8 and are looking for a way to bring the same look-and-feel to your Android phone. Tile Launcher Beta might just be the perfect solution to let you do that.
