Every year, EA Sports rolls out the new FIFA Football (Soccer) title like clockwork, and when it comes to World Cup season, we're usually treated to a special release to accompany the sport's most coveted event. Every World Cup gets its own official FIFA title, but although this trend will continue for the summer's show piece in Brazil, FIFA World Cup 2014 Brazil will not be heading to either the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4.
Apple executives don't often sound off or even hint at future products until they've been announced, but on Thursday, CEO Tim Cook went on record to state that his company is currently working on some "really great stuff" in the category of new products. Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, he didn't go into any specifics, but with 2014 having already been outlined as a significant year in the company's growth by the head honcho, the interest of the tech world has been well and truly piqued.
Only two days ago, Google officially released one of their most not-so-secret products in recent months, a red Nexus 5. Unlike most releases from Google, this one didn't come as much of a surprise. The red Nexus 5 had been leaked so much that it almost felt like Google were purely putting us out of our misery by officially announcing it. But announce it they did, and order it I did. I've personally held off from purchasing the Nexus 5 up until this point because it just wasn't popping enough for me. The introduction of this color certainly fixes that.
Yesterday, it emerged that Samsung, a partner of the 2014 Moscow Winter Olympics, was giving away free Galaxy Note 3 handsets in goody bags handed to each and every participating athlete. Only, instead of being a genuine gift with the hope of a little ad coverage if the Olympian was snapped using the device, it was also reported that the Korean company was trying to exercise some kind of jurisdiction over what the athlete could then use (or indeed, not use) with regards to rivaling devices during the opening ceremony. However, official correspondence from the IOC (via MacRumors) has refuted the claim, so while it did make for an entertaining (and strangely plausible) story, Samsung's give away looks a genuine, no-strings gift to the stars after all.
Apple's iOS has, since its inception back in 2007, helped to turn smartphone and tablet gaming into a viable business, and over the past seven years, we've seen some greatly successful new franchises develop while older ones, such as GTA, Final Fantasy and the like, have continued to flourish. The one thing that purists long pined for, however, was support for official gaming controllers, and with iOS 7, Apple finally built the infrastructure for MFi (Made for iPhone) peripherals, but since it's still all fairly new, finding games made for MFi isn't all that easy. Luckily, such is the culture of the digital industry today, there's an app for that, and it's called Phonejoy.
Firefox is widely recognized as one of the best browsers in the game. Despite the incredible rise of Google's Chrome over the past few years, the Mozilla team has continued to push the updates to ensure that Firefox enjoys a decent market share. More recently, we've seen the Firefox creator attempt to branch out with the development of its very own mobile operating system, and while that particular project remains in the works, Mozilla has now gone ahead and built a home launcher for Android.
Although Microsoft has a nice, intuitive mobile OS and a decent selection of handsets on which to run it, Windows Phone is missing one major component - customers. As such, we've seen a number of promotional, trade-in offers over the past couple of weeks, including a free Lumia 520 / 521 for those willing to pay $100 for an Xbox Music pass. But if you're in the market for something a little more high-end, the latest offer from the software maker, which will net you a free Lumia 1020 or Lumia 1520 (albeit on contract) in exchange for an old Galaxy S2 / iPhone 4/4s, may just prove too tempting.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak may no longer work at Apple, but he has acquired something of a reputation for scrutinizing products released by the company he helped to build - and not always in a good way. But while the Cupertino outfit can usually take on board the musings of the Woz with an element of seriousness, his latest suggestion will perhaps go down as the most bizarre idea Apple has ever heard. For Wozniak believes that Apple could benefit from creating a smartphone running on - wait for it - Google's very own Android OS, and while Woz's position as a co-founder means that whatever he says re Apple is going to make the headlines, it's quite staggering that he would make such a suggestion.
Google Glass has been a hot topic in the blogosphere for the best part of a year now, and although not deemed ready for consumers just yet, it's worth remembering that the product is being developed with more than just the end-user market in mind. In fact, as per a report over at VentureBeat, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) is currently assessing ways in which the face computer could be used in the ongoing effort to combat crime, and if this is indeed the case, one can envisage law enforcement agencies across the world following suit as Glass becomes more popular.
Square Enix's Final Fantasy VI for mobile devices was teased all the way through December, and having hit the Google Play Store back in January, has just become available to those on Apple's iOS. Full details can be seen after the break.
