We are all involved in a modern world that is connected through social media and made smaller by gadgets like the iPhone and iPad which allow us all to remain in constant contact with each other. Apple has provided us with the technology to stay connected, but the development community also has a responsibility to provide us with apps that want us to connect to one another and share our interactions.
Anyone who is an avid user of the top of the range smartphone or tablet such as the iPhone 4S, iPad or the new Google Nexus 7 tablet will appreciate the difference that a beautiful looking app can bring. Functional apps are all well and good, after all, we expect a purchase or download to fulfill its purpose but an app that does what it says on the tin while looking beautiful pushes the user-experience to a new level.
Of all the features that arrived when iOS 5 reached the end-user back in October of last year, iMessage has been arguably the most significant, and by now allowing messages to be sent and received in a faster, more secure manner across a variety of platforms, it has to go down as one of the best in the business. Granted, it has its occasional downtime, but it's not bad as is, and with the service also arriving to the Mac with OS X Mountain Lion, it will almost certainly become the sole mode of quick communication to many Apple enthusiasts.
Considering that the Cydia store is packed to the rafters with tweaks and packages that span across multiple aspects of Apple's mobile operating system, it is always a nice treat to see an offering land in the repositories that offers something slightly different and exists solely to enhance a part of the operating system that has often been overlooked in the past. The CallTap tweak, may not be feature packed but it does offer some useful functions.
Apart from having a sense of glee and excitement every time we unlock the device, one thing all iOS device owners have in common is the fact that we have to contend with the environmental elements on a daily basis. Once upon a time, we used to gauge the weather based on the time of year and what season we were in, but those days are long gone with mother nature becoming increasingly erratic over what weather conditions she dishes out.
The 2012 Olympic Games are nearly upon us, and although it's a great festival and celebration of the human form pushed to its physical limits, there's also the small matter of the medals. As all countries involved look forward to what will undoubtedly be a great spectacle, many will be hoping their nation manages to not only do well, but bring some medals home in the process.
Personally speaking, I have been a user of iOS since the launch of the first iPhone back in 2007 and during that time I have always let Mobile Safari take care of my web browsing requirements. There has always been the temptation of fraternizing with some of the third-party browsers available on the App Store such as Apollo or SkyFire, but it always felt a little like cheating to move away from Apple's own offering.
As well as filling the many shortcomings of Apple's iOS, Cydia, and the jailbreak community, offer quite a few useful tweaks which, despite not necessarily being needed, wind up being great little additions nonetheless. Today's tweak certainly falls under this category, and although when I first installed it, I had very little optimism, it's one I've very quickly become accustomed to.
I must confess, when it comes to my iOS devices, I'm a bit of an app fiend, and with 64GB of storage space on my iPhone and iPad, I see no reason to delete anything - even if I don't regularly use an app. As such, I have a few hundred different apps and games on each, and although I have a rough idea of which I utilize the most, there's no way of keeping an accurate record of which I use, and for how long.
Last month, we notified you of the soon-to-drop Dark Night Rises game, a supplementary offering to the final edition of Christian Bale's Batman trilogy. The title will release for both Android and iOS, both of which are expected to arrive next Friday, 20th July - a day after the movie hits the cinemas worldwide.
