As well as taking a great photo or video, today's smartphone devices can also - thanks to a sleuth of accommodating apps - take 360 degree (or panoramic) shots, enabling entire rooms or landscapes to be covered.
Using our smartphones to connect to a computer and controlling things like music playback, video playback, starting and stopping podcasts is nothing new, after all, Apple offers the extremely polished 'Remote' app for iOS which features all of these functions plus more. For those Windows Phone users out there who may not know of its existence, the Zemote app offers similar functionality for controlling media on a PC via a Windows Phone smartphone.
While the blogosphere remains preoccupied with iOS and Android - the two titans of the mobile device industry at this point in time, Windows Phone is looking more and more like it has the potential to be something of a dark horse. For those already won over by Microsoft's ecosystem, you'll no doubt be pleased to learn the official Facebook app has now been updated to version 2.5.
While we don't officially know what Microsoft will be introducing to the major Windows Phone 8 Apollo update that the company plans to drop later this year, people are as usual making mockups of what the future OS could look like. Now normally, I dismiss concepts as they are usually either impractical, ridiculous, or both, but this one is actually a pretty simple idea that can help boost the consistency between Microsoft's desktop and mobile OSes.
Those playing games on mobile devices are invariably referred to as "casual gamers", despite the quality of gameplay and graphics knocking on the door of the hardcore titles we know and love from the consoles. If research gathered by mobile game developer MocoSpace is anything to go by, casual is certainly an apt description of today's mobile gamers, with a third playing titles while they ought to be working hard in class!
Nokia was once the untouchably dominant force within the mobile industry, but its Symbian OS was gradually eclipsed by iOS and Android, leaving the Finnish outfit with no choice but to hop on the back of Redmond-based Microsoft and its fledgling Windows Phone OS. In all fairness to Nokia, it has gone pretty gung-ho hitherto, putting much effort into the flagship Lumia series which has in turn yielded an army of fans – most notably Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak.
In what can only be described as a highly comical turn of events, Apple's much lauded Siri has offered Nokia something of a shot in the arm by decreeing its latest Windows Phone 7 smartphone to be the best available.
With Samsung having only just announced the juicy details of its Samsung Galaxy S III, it arguably takes pride of place as the poster child of Android (sorry, HTC One X), thus instantly drawing comparisons with the flagship devices of the two other major mobile ecosystems.
Like the introduction of iPhone OS back in 2007, the early versions of Windows Phone are strangely bereft of folders. Although iOS 4 finally allowed iDevice users to file their apps away in an orderly fashion, there doesn't appear to be such implementation in sight from the Redmond-based software maker, leaving those WP users who can find enough apps to file away in the first place, without the capacity to keep things organized.
Although Windows Phone received a much-welcome boost from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, it's fair to say, in terms of smartphone news, Microsoft's mobile platform doesn't really get in amongst the exciting end of the scale. In a refreshing turn up for the books, however, one particular Windows Phone enthusiast has modded his Nokia Lumia 800 to enable wireless charging.
