If you hate the iOS 7 power-off screen then you're going to love BetterPowerDown. When Apple finally released iOS 7 to the public last year, it's fair to say that it wasn't met with complete acceptance. Some of the design changes that Jony Ive brought to the iPhone and iPad had some people not just shaking their heads, but also longing for the more familiar look and feel of the versions of iOS that they were so used to.
Even though, as time goes on, it's difficult to see exactly where Google Glass will fit into the consumer side of the market, part of us is still glad that the project is in development. Cool and uncool in equal measure, it would seem, it has proven a polarizing topic of debate that every tech fan has, at some point, discussed with their peers. Every so often, an eye-opening development is made in relation to Glass bordering on the bizarre, serving to remind us that we're dealing with a technology that could significantly alter the way we interact with each other and the world around us, and Emotient has certainly done that with its new Sentiment Analysis app.
The infamous Apple Maps that the fruit company unveiled with iOS 6 has been under heavy fire during the time it has existed in the tech world, mainly for the wonderfully misleading directions that several users have reported over the course of their usage. However, are the elusive Maps going to redeem their misfortunate reputation by proving the existence of the Loch Ness Monster? Maybe so, if the images that two people discovered whilst using Apple Maps are to be believed, which show a mysterious shape in the water at the famous Loch that could be Nessie!
When Microsoft detailed what would be part of its Windows Phone 8.1 update, one of the features that caught our eye was the introduction of 'Project My Screen.' Having the ability to display a smartphone's screen output on a computer may not seem too exciting at first, but if you throw a touch-screen monitor into the equation, things start to get interesting. Unfortunately though, the PC aspect of the whole thing wasn't quite ready, leaving eager tweakers to sit on their hands and wait.
So, wireless charging. Plenty of smartphone makers have taken a stab at killing off the charging cable over the years, with Nokia in particular doing its best to make wireless charging into something that's less of a novelty and more of a real feature. While the likes of Apple have so far refused to bring wireless charging to iPhones and iPads, there's no doubt that there's something inherently cool about charging something just by putting it onto a plate.
Apple's iOS is commonly referred to as a "walled garden," a label used to described the subtle limitations attached to a closed source piece of software. But every now and then, we're reminded that Apple's mobile operating system isn't a completely fusty old stick-in-the-mud, and that actually, there are means of customizing the experience without having to resort to a jailbreak. AnyFont, an app that lets you install custom TrueType and OpenType fonts, is a prime example, and for $1.99 over at the App Store, is well worth checking out.
We've had some pretty decent insight into iOS 8 of late, and with this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2014) kicking off in early June, it has also been reported that internal testing is being ramped up in anticipation for the beta roll-out. Now, images of an iPhone 5s supposedly running the forthcoming software have leaked into the wild, and although there's no way of telling whether or not we're looking at the real deal or a nifty bit of fakery, the pixelated nature of the snaps suggest the latter.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 has been on sale for exactly one week, and the Korean company's famed advertising machine has, for the duration, been in full flow. In a move to help owners accustom themselves to the Galaxy S5 - as well as to try and convince fence-sitters that its latest and greatest handset is the one for them - Samsung has detailed a list of ten 'hidden' features of its latest and greatest smartphone.
Facebook has just released version 1.1 of its Paper app for iPhone. The magazine-style alternative to the official Facebook app brings many traditional features to the table, including the ability to check birthdays and events, post photos as comments, view group updates and follow the latest coverage from the 9 new article covers.
Along with Project Ara, Project Glass, and all of the other exciting innovations that Google has going right now, the company's Advanced Technologies and Projects (ATAP) team also took the wraps off Project Tango back in February. The aim of Project Tango's mapping technology is to allow common devices such as smartphones to perceive space, objects and movements in the manner that humans do, and in order to really test the resolve of its emerging invention, the Mountain View-based company has teamed up with NASA for some zero-gravity testing.
