Of all the modern smartphone operating systems, Android is particularly known for being more heavily targeted by malware. It’s not a surprise, really, considering it’s a more open platform where malicious apps can make their way to your smartphone not just by installing things from unofficial sources, but also from the Google Play Store*.
Even before the well-documented IPO a few months back, Facebook had been placing increasing emphasis on improving its mobile prowess, and the purchase of Instagram for a cool billion dollars outlined this desire even further. Despite acquiring the most formidable social image app on the planet, Zuck and his team has continued without relent to improve its range of apps, while also bringing forth some new ones at the same time.
As Apple and Samsung's legal teams gear themselves up for another hard day in court, we sit patiently to see what little gems of information are next on the agenda to be released into the public domain. We have already seen Apple reveal prototype design information about the design iterations they went through in the early iPhone and iPad development stages, as well as a testimony from Phil Schiller and Scott Fortstall about how the company actually decided to design and build the two mobile devices.
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has been something of a revelation among those using Google's mobile operating system, since it's the first time Android has seemed as though it can compete with Windows Phone and iOS in terms of smoothness. Ice Cream Sandwich was a vast improvement on Gingerbread / Honeycomb, but even with some devices packing in quad-core processors, Android smartphones and slates were still susceptible to more than their fair share of lag.
Theming is a popular hobby on smartphones like iOS and Android because of two basic reasons. Firstly, it takes less of a toll on system performance than some of the skin packs on desktop operating systems (at least in my personal experience) and, secondly, it’s much more easier, module-based and can result in a significantly different user experience.
Although both Apple and Samsung legal representatives are spending most of their working days locked in a Californian court room battling out their difficulties, it hasn't stopped the two companies putting plans in place to make an assault on the smartphone industry. After all, business is business, and although the two largest smartphone vendors in the world clearly have issues. With Apple planning to entice users over to the fruity side with the announcement and release of the next-generation iPhone sometime next month, it seems that Samsung have their own plans for market domination.
Voice recognition wasn't a new invention when Apple introduced Siri towards the end of last year, but it certainly caused a stir within the mobile industry. Packaged in iOS 5 for those lucky enough to own the Cupertino company's iPhone 4S, much was made about a technology scarcely touched upon in an industry seemingly apt for it.
One of the most popular features of any connected device, regardless of whether it is a desktop machine, mobile smartphone or a games console, is being able to get onto the internet and see what marvels are available. To be able to achieve this the device in question obviously needs to have some kind of web browser application that acts as the medium between the device and the user. With Google only recently releasing their Chrome browser onto the iOS App Store, mobile web browsing has been a recent topic of discussion, especially the performance issues that surround browsing.
Whenever large companies like Google, Apple or Microsoft take the opportunity to make major revisions to their mobile operating systems, they always implement a number of headline grabbing features that show the update is worthy of a new name or version number. In most circumstances, the announced improvements are generally on the feature side, and although they add a whole host of behind-the-scenes additions, this isn't really what the end-user wants to read about. Regardless of new features, mobile device security is something that is extremely important to all users regardless of whether it is their first priority or not.
If you pulled together a focus group of average smartphone users and gathered their thoughts on the platforms which they believe are most relevant at the current time, then it is unlikely that BlackBerry and RIM would get a significant mention. There was a time when RIM were on top of the world and riding on the crest of a wave, but the emergence of iOS and Android as well as some killer underlying hardware from Apple and other manufacturers has seemingly put an end to that.
