If you open up any glossy magazine in recent times, you will be more than familiar with designers and artists’ ability to magically transform the aesthetics of a person or object to make it look glamorous. I think the industry term for this is ‘airbrushed’ and seems to be used frequently on scantily clad models.
Ever since Apple bought Siri and released it as part of the iPhone 4S, folks from the Android and Windows Phone camp have been looking to replicate its never-before-seen ease of use and tight integration with system apps. We’ve seen some nice alternatives like Dragon Go! and Speaktoit, but they just aren’t at the same level as Siri. Dragon Go! integrates with dozens of online services, but forgets system apps. Speaktoit is very flexible and does work with some system apps but has a unpolished look to it and require touch input (so it isn’t good for hands-free use).
Android’s amazing flexibility lets enthusiasts replace just about every facet of their device’s software. You can flash a completely different version of Android (custom ROMs) for a completely new experience, or fine-tune things by installing your own launcher, keyboard, dialer, contacts etc. to ensure that your device looks absolutely unique and works the way you want it to work.
Of all the various flavors of Linux available to those looking for an open-source platform from which to compute, Ubuntu is by far the simplest to install - allowing even the most hapless noob to download and enjoy.
If you cast your minds back to last year, you may remember Google's well-documented purchase of Motorola Mobility for just over $12 billion; it was, after all, quite a big deal. In a year in which software rival Microsoft also made a rather large telecommunications acquisition ($8.5 billion for Skype), the Big G reckoned the buy-out would supercharge its already-successful Android platform. With 700,000 daily activations over the festive period of last year alone, Android has grown to be come a focal point of the web company's business.
Gaining root access on an Android smartphone is one of the first things enthusiasts do when they get their device. The reason is simple: every Android device comes with restrictions (of varying severity) that limit the privileges apps can get on the operating system.
The fundamental difference between how Apple sells its products and how other computer manufacturers sell theirs lies in the sheer product variety within the same general form factor. Apple believes in putting all its resources into making one unbelievably amazing product and updating it once a year while manufacturers like HTC, Samsung, Motorola believe in putting their resources into making a wide variety of amazing products which, naturally, end up looking and feeling pretty similar to one another.
There is no denying that the exchange of small written messages between users through the use of mobile phones is one of the main and most used features on any device. In fact, text messaging is so popular globally that recent reports estimated that a staggering 6.1 trillion text messages are sent annually which equates to a monumental 200,000 messages sent every second.
Photo-editing and sharing apps are a dime-a-dozen on mobile platforms these days. Only a handful of them are original ideas while the rest are mostly half-baked copies that just don’t offer the same experience; apps like Instagram and Paper Camera with their unique ideas go on to reach millions of active users and stay consistently on top of their respective platform’s app market. Today, we came across a new photo-editing and sharing that looks to be “heavily inspired” by Paper Camera, but offers a couple of cool, unique features. Check it out after the jump!
The ongoing spat between Apple and Samsung shows no signs of letting up, with Apple having just filed a motion for preliminary injunction against the Korean LCD specialist's Galaxy Nexus in the US.
