After being forced to ditch its SkyDrive name following a dispute with the telecommunication and TV giant BSkyB, Microsoft has today begun the rebranding process that will see SkyDrive become OneDrive. Existing users won't notice a great deal other than the new name, but Microsoft is now also offering people who use its service the ability to increase their free storage capacity via referrals a la Dropbox, with the potential to earn an extra 5GB of space.
In its ten year existence, Facebook has already shown us that it is prepared to make changes and amendments that it feels will benefit its member base. Some of those changes have manifested themselves as part of a radical functionality or interface overhaul, while others have been a lot more subtle and have focused on individual settings that are accessible by registered members. In a move that is aimed at affording Facebook members the right to express their true identity, the social network is now offering a custom gender option as part of the process that involves selecting a sex.
The developer of the immensely popular Flappy Bird took the decision to remove the title from both the App Store and Google Play Store over the weekend in a move that left many stunned and confused. With over 50 million downloads and banner ads generating a reported $50,000 per day, it was the kind of overnight success story that many developers dream of, but developer Dong Nguyen didn't see things that way. After a few says of silence, Nguyen has finally stepped out and explained his motives behind removing Flappy Bird, details of which you can find after the break.
As with anything that becomes part of popular culture, recently-pulled Flappy Bird game has already spawned one or two copycat / spin-off titles. Doge, for those unfamiliar, is an Internet meme depicted by a Shiba Inus dog, and since said meme is predominantly used to invoke humor, one particularly funny guy has come up with the idea of 'Flappy Doge,' a Web-based browser game that essentially replaces some of Flappy Bird's graphics with those relating to Doge. But hey, if you just want your old game back, there's also a HTML5-based clone edition of Flappy Bird, too!
With Apple having recently thrown together a video clip to celebrate the 30th birthday of the Mac a couple of weeks back, Facebook has done likewise after hitting a landmark of its own. For yes, despite the fact that it feels like the social network has been around since the Internet began, Facebook is now ten years old, and naturally, there's a nostalgic clip for every single member providing a scrapbook-like take on their lives from signup to present day.
Spotify is an immensely popular audio streaming service, boasting a mammoth 20 million songs with more being added all the time. But while some artists have amassed millions of plays apiece, around one-fifth of the extensive library has never been heard - at least, not through Spotify. This equates to, as those with solid math skills will have already established, around four million tracks collecting dust, and it is at this point that Forgotify, a service that has collected all of these unheard tracks, steps in. The site, which doesn't appear affiliated with Spotify, lets you sign in and listen to some of these forgotten 'gems,' and whether you want to discover new artists or simply help with the initiative, you can log right in now and get listening!
Google has teamed up with Lego in its latest Chrome experiment, which allows users to create their own buildings using virtual Lego bricks. Yes, it is quite a flagrant copycat of Minecraft et al, but Lego is something that most of us share in common to varying degrees, and this WebGL-based environment makes construction as fun as when we were five years old. Not only can you let your imagination run wild and build castles, mansions and so on, but you can also select the plot of land you wish to build upon using the Google Maps utility. Luckily, though, there's no planning permission involved, enabling you to get straight to work!
Just yesterday it was leaked that both the NSA and GCHQ were able to scrape information from smartphone apps, with demographics and more able to be pulled from the most mundane of apps thanks to their reliance on third-party advertising agencies. Rovio's hugely popular Angry Birds games were mentioned in particular by the report, which was based heavily on leaked information coming out of the now infamous Edward Snowden.
The world may still be getting used to the idea of having high-speed 4G wireless data at its collective fingertips, and many are still stuck with good-ol' 3G, but that doesn't mean that companies and governments the world over aren't clamoring to try and get ahead of the game. 5G is where it's going to be at in the next five or so years, and South Korea hopes to lead the way.
Market research in the mobile industry offers some fascinating insight into how we use our beloved smartphones and tablets. Research firm JDSU has been analyzing the data usage habits of mobile device owners, and rather interestingly, has discovered that those wielding the latest and greatest Apple handset - the iPhone 5s - consume more data than those in ownership of any other smartphone or slab currently on the market.
