As well as being a great smartphone, many apps allow the iPhone to be used as a peripheral. From a remote to a mouse, a keyboard to a speaker, a little software nous can easily save you money and time. Thanks to the updated My Xbox LIVE app for iOS, you can now use your iPhone as a remote control for your Xbox, which is not only very handy, but a layabout's dream.
Research In Motion's once-mighty BlackBerry brand is fast losing all relevance in the market. Stifled out by the likes of iOS and Android, it seems to have plummeted down to a level from which even BlackBerry Messenger cannot dredge it from. But just when you might have thought that was it, one particular developer has created a mod which allows iOS apps to run on the almost-forgotten PlayBook tablet.
When Apple released their iTunes integrated Ping service back in September 2010, it kind of looked to me like as they had just come out of some corporate buzz meeting where social networks were the topic of discussion. Not wanting to be left out of the social circle, I get the impression that Apple threw a couple of engineers into a room and told them to make iTunes a more socially capable beast, eventually giving birth to what we know as iTunes Ping.
Well, it appears that it is once again time to pen a comparison post, this time following up with the one published in October of last year - about 8 months ago - that compares a few of the important factors between the three important mobile platforms of our time. With iOS 6 freshly unveiled, along with a few developments that have transpired over the past 8 months, there are a few changes to make.
We all had a day or so to absorb all of the information which Apple felt they needed to give to us during the opening keynote presentation at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. The announcement surrounding the new line of notebooks as well as the included features of OS X Mountain Lion was great, but the real excitement came from getting that early insight into what they have in store for us with iOS 6, the next major release of their mobile operating system.
The world wide web has been rife with speculation over the last few weeks as Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference drew closer, leaving us all wondering just what Tim Cook and his team would introduce to the world. While the opening keynote presentation has been and gone, we are still left in a state of awe as we try and digest the marvels that were announced on stage at the Moscone.
Having spent a significant amount of time updating its website to begin selling the refreshed line of MacBooks, as well as the brand-new Retina MacBook Pro, Apple has also slipped out a new smart cover for its iPad. Unlike the previous official smart covers, which only protected the screen, the new one protects the backplate as well, and retails for a reasonable $49.
While Apple's annual event may be dubbed as Worldwide Developers Conference and will be mainly focused around development workshops for iOS and OS X developers, the company likes to cater to all tastes and always has a number of announcements and releases to keep all Apple loving tech fans happy. The yearly event is regarded so highly amongst Apple aficionados that the $1600 tickets regularly sell out in minutes, with attendees queuing outside the Moscone Center hours before the doors open for the keynote.
Apple has delivered in the hardware stakes at today's WWDC, and after running through many new little quirks of iOS 6, iOS chief Scott Forstall has shown off a brand-new feature/app called Passbook, which looks to be the fruit of the rumored Organize app.
As anticipated, Apple has announced its very own, completely rethought Maps app to replace the long-serving Google offering, and as equally foreseen, it's got the hallmarks of a truly great new feature. The days of relying on a city's A-Z are long gone in this digital age, and although it has taken a few more years than Apple would perhaps have liked in order to develop, iOS Maps is now well and truly in the pipeline.
