In its early stages, Android wasn't a great platform. It's main problem was lag, but in the past twelve months, Google's mobile operating system has become a much smoother, much more streamlined experience. Of course, Project Butter isn't the only positive enhancement presented to Android recently, and the introduction of many new features and apps - particularly Google Now - have been defining factors.
The Apple iPad is so popular right now, that the word "iPad" is often used synonymously with the word "tablet." Although tablets already existed in various forms prior to the 2010 release of the first-generation iPad, Apple really forged a competitive market, and nearly three years and four generations later, the iPad is still by far the most popular slate of them all.
There’s no shortage of unofficial CyanogenMod versions for various Android devices, and sometimes, those even get merged in the mainline, providing better, more official support. However, it’s almost always more exciting to find out that a device is getting official ROMs from the get go. In that regard, the Nexus line up of devices has always received special love from the original CM team. It makes sense, too, since these devices are Google’s flagships, and whenever a new Android version is out, they’re the first ones to official receive it, even before the source code goes live on AOSP. The best should get treated by the best, don’t you agree?
Google's Nexus brand of smartphones had been a huge success in the run-up to the Nexus 7 slate released earlier this year, and the 7-inch device proved to be a huge hit with consumers. Not only was it powerful, but it ran on the buttery smooth Android 4.1, and priced a great deal more economically than others out there, has since sold in the millions. Things might be about to get even more interesting, though, because the $99 Nexus 7 we've been hearing about has shown up on benchmarks, and although these things can be faked, shows as packing a microSD slot, as well as 8GB of standard memory.
Android 4.2.1 Update is barely out the door, bringing with it all the bug fixes and patches, along with the much-needed and missing “December” from the People app. A new version of Android always means one thing in particular – wait time for a new root method or package for the latest update. Well, thanks to the wonderful developer community that we have all come to trust and love, wait is over, or rather, got over long before you knew it, because Android 4.2.1 is also rootable on all the devices – Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10 and Galaxy Nexus – just like its predecessor was. The method has no bells and whistles attached to it, either, and involves flashing a custom recovery and pushing the SU binaries to your device. We’ll guide you how just past the jump.
It hasn’t been very long since the world saw Android 4.2 Jelly Bean come to light, with all its fancy new feature enhancements, some of which have been welcomed across the globe with great enthusiasm. Whether you’ve tried the latest Android flavor on your device yet or not depends solely on what smartphone or tablet you are carrying, or if you’re using a custom ROM or prefer stock ones, but Google is on a roll already, having let out Android 4.2.1 just a while back, carrying, among various others, a bug fix that’s more obvious than all the others – the missing “December” in the original 4.2 release, which rendered people with birthdays and anniversaries in the last month of the year, well, without a reminder of sorts.
Apple's iPhone always manages to sell in high numbers when the holiday season approaches, and history has repeated itself once again this year. Thanks to strong sales of the brand new iPhone 5, iOS has peaked at the top of the smartphone market share in the United States, according to data collated by research outfit Kantar Worldpanel Comtech.
A large number of Android users have been plagued by a rather annoying bug in Android 4.2 that caused the month of December to go missing from the native date picker in certain apps. Thankfully, it looks like Google has stepped up just in time to save the day with an update to Jelly Bean, taking it up to version 4.2.1.
When the Nexus 4 was announced as next Android flagship, there was no mention of any 4G/LTE support. Then, when the phone came out mid-November, there was, again, no LTE support again – not very surprisingly, though, since supporting 4G would have essentially meant manufacturing multiple versions of the device to make it agreeable for all the different 4G bands around the globe – an approach that Apple had to adopt with the iPhone 5. LG, however, decided to avoid going down that road, and hence, Nexus 4 stuck to the plain old 3G bands.
With Thanksgiving day, followed by Black Friday, and inevitably, Christmas, the consumer electronics market will be abuzz with savings, as each vendor and retailer looks to attract additional custom at this most lucrative time of year.
