While there were smartphones before the iPhone, none had quite managed to garner the same success as the iconic Apple handset. Gone are the days where phones are just there to make and receive calls, and the iPhone is the prime example of the handheld device that encroaches on other areas of our lives. If you've ever looked at the accessories that take iPhones and turn them into other things that would normally be a whole separate device, then you'll know what we mean.
Now that WWDC is just around the corner, all eyes are very much on what Apple will be announcing when Tim Cook and his band of merry men take to the stage. While we're all supremely confident that iOS 8 and Mac OS X 10.10 will be revealed at the event thanks to new banners being erected over the last day or two, other details are largely unknown. Rumors leading up to this point had suggested we might see a new product category appear, but that's now looking unlikely.
Clearly not dissuaded after the monumental flop that was Google TV, the company behind Android is once again set to enter the set-top fox fray, this time using the power of its smartphone and tablet operating system as a basis for its new kit.
Moving files around on smartphones is the kind of thing we've been arguing over for years. There are two schools of thought; one group of people think that seeing as our smartphones are basically little computers, we should treat them as such. That means file systems, directory structures and a file manager just like our computers. The other group of people thinks that we should take the opportunity to dump all that nonsense, hiding the whole thing.
Gesture-based interaction is on the rise, and as well as the more common, touch screen-based gestures, engineers have long since been looking at other ways for us to communicate with our digital devices using swipes, taps, and other such movements. Kinect is a prime example of this advancement in action at end user level, and now, a group of individuals from Sweden have come up with something equally cool for iPhone. The Fuffr case - yes, that's its actual name - utilizes the space around the iPhone when the device is laid flat, and with the potential to move all of an app or game's controls away from the screen, could revolutionize the way we use our mobile devices in general. Think of it as Leap Motion, except for iPhone!
A short while ago, we brought to you a video highlighting a bunch of reasons why Apple's iPhone 5s is perceivably better than the Galaxy S5. In order to keep things fair, here's a further clip outlining some of the features of the S5 that, it could be argued, renders Samsung's flagship the more appealing option than its Apple-made counterpart.
Even though the tiled nature of Windows Phone serves as a quirk, it's also a hindrance to those who like their traditional wallpapers. Recognizing this, Microsoft has come through with a compromise in Windows Phone 8.1, allowing wallpapers to be spread across tiles in a neat, mosaic fashion. But there is still a conflict of interests between tiles and wallpapers thanks to fixed-color tiles, and with everything appearing a little too busy and cluttered, one developer has decided to create an app that renders these stubborn tiles completely transparent.
As you'll almost certainly be aware of by now, Apple's WWDC 2014 is set to begin on Monday, and all of this week, preparations have been made within the Moscone Center venue in San Francisco. A traditional location for WWDC and numerous other Apple events, the interiors of the exhibition hall have been decorated to welcome the siege of developers embarking upon next week's event, and now, we're catching our first glimpse of some iOS 8-related signage.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 and Apple's iPhone 5s may be of slightly different generations, but thanks to the bitter rivalry between the two companies that make them, are constantly compared with one another. The Galaxy S vs. iPhone war has been waged time and again over the past few years, and an interesting new video offers a series of reasons as to why the iPhone 5s is better than the Galaxy S5.
One of the continued criticisms of the Apple iPad is that there's no support for multiple users. Unlike the iPhone and iPod touch, which are predominantly personal devices used by one owner, iPads are often utilized by an entire family or group of friends. Thus, it would be ideal if each individual user could have their own login through which to tailor their own settings, apps, and general experience, and that's exactly what a couple of concept makers have tried to achieve with this neat iOS 8 design.
