Much of the animosity between Apple and Samsung / Google stems from two-way accusations of plagiarism regarding not only aesthetic design, but also aspects of each party's respective operating system.
Apps such as Tasker and Llama are enthusiast-favorites when it comes to automating tasks, but because of their relatively difficult to use user-interfaces, it’s a little hard to get into setting them up.
With Ice Cream Sandwich being introduced to the world during the Google I/O event in may 2011, then officially launched in October, it seems like we really haven't had enough time to get to know the 4.0 version of the OS. Although Android 4.0 has officially been available for over five months, statistics show that not even two percent of Android devices in existence are running Ice Cream Sandwich. The latest data released by Google shows that a meager 1.6% of devices have ICS installed, with those users becoming fragmented due to the varying point releases of version 4.0 they are running.
Smartphones of today are the ultimate example of the convergence of technology. These devices act as a camera, music player, video player, internet communications device, a phone and, in relation to this post, a powerful torch.
Angry Birds has been to iOS and Android what Call Of Duty has been to consoles over the the last few years. Those crazy, unstoppable birds have flown as far as PC, Mac, Facebook and Google Chrome in their never-ending quest to defend the nest.
The Android OS is obviously one of the most advanced mobile platforms out there, available across a broad range of devices from various manufacturers with the option of choosing from hundreds of thousands of additional apps from third-party developers. The standard features that ship with Android - especially with the current offering which is Ice Cream Sandwich - are more than enough to entice even the most demanding of users to move across to Android, but when those features are combined with additional applications and widgets; the whole experience becomes even more attractive to consumers.
Have I mentioned how Android is really good with context-sensitive apps? Just a few days ago we covered Timeriffic which allowed users to set custom WiFi/data, ringtone and notification, media/system volume settings based on the time of the day. One area where Timeriffic lacked was in its inability to set profiles based in other contexts.
It seems that now the new iPad has been officially launched and available for almost a week, it is Samsung’s turn to be subjected to the never-ending rumor mill. In particular, attention is being paid to the Korean giant’s up and coming Samsung Galaxy S III device which will take over from the extremely successful S II model, with Samsung hoping it will fly the flag for the company in the twelve months after launch. We were originally all set to see a preview of the S III at the Mobile World Congress last month, but Samsung chose to delay that in favor of unifying the global launch of the device later in the year.
While the iPhone 4S has, hands down, the best camera on a smartphone today, HTC’s last flagship device - the HTC Sensation - is no slouch. It takes sharp 8MP stills and Full HD 1080p videos.
Part of the joy of owning an Android device is its open source-ness - allowing customization of almost any aspect. As such, a plethora of different launchers, ROMS and features are ported and shared on a daily basis.
