It's certainly no secret that Microsoft is hard at work developing a successor to its Xbox 360 games console. With Sony's PlayStation 3 still in the middle of its life cycle and Nintendo already having announced its upcoming Wii-U, Microsoft is planning its next move deep in a bunker in Redmond.
Microsoft have flicked the switch and released their latest iPad application today, which comes hot on the heels of the first Xbox LIVE application which was released in December 2011. The latest release by the Redmond-based company is not related to the previous app, but instead presents the exclusive content found on the MSN UK website in a format designed for the iPad.
With the world’s love of photography and photo sharing, it is hardly surprising that some of the most popular mobile applications reside in the photo and video category of the various app stores and marketplaces. One of the most well known, and the most popular one is Instagram, which is a free of charge photo sharing application.
It's an old argument that has been doing the rounds online for as long as I can remember, and the chances are it will be doing the rounds long after we have all given up hope of declaring a real winner. The argument is, of course, about who is the king: PC, or Mac.
Whenever we sit at our desktops at the start of a new day, we usually open a bunch of the same applications – what we would call our staple diet in terms of computing.
So here we are, day three of my look into what the biggest players in the smartphone world will, or possibly should do in 2012.
Perhaps one of the most innovative, and highly received gadgets of the last few years is the Microsoft Kinect device for the Xbox 360. Functioning as a motion sensing input device, the Kinect builds on, and improves, the functionality that the Nintendo Wii brought to the gaming world. Released in November 2010, the Kinect allows users to feel as if they are a part of the game they are playing on an Xbox 360 by sensing motion and voice commands to control scenes.
In a move that came a little out of the blue for us, OnLive has announced that it will be launching a new app for the iPad which will allow users to stream an entire Windows 7 desktop experience to their tablet.
Many of us – in fact the majority of the developed world – depend on computers for a large portion of our day-to-day tasks. From word processing to video editing, there’s always a task for which we are indebted to our desktops in helping us complete.
Ultrabooks are something of a new breed, with Apple's MacBook Air their forefather. While we have had netbooks for a few years now, they've historically been underpowered, cheap and not always cheerful machines that were only there to fill a purpose until the tablets came along.

