Samsung's flagship line of Galaxy S phones is getting closer and closer to churning out its fifth iteration, and as would be expected of any huge product launch that's months away, we're already starting to see details leak out of what the Galaxy S5 may feature. We say 'may' simply because at this point, anything could change. With the product not expected to enter mass production for at least another couple of months, we wouldn't want to put our houses on anything staying the way the rumors have things at the moment. That said, on to the rumors!
Although Apple has caved on a few products we never thought would see the light of day from Cupertino - the iPad mini, for instance - the Californian company has never been one to jump aboard the bandwagon. Features such as the larger display and LTE took a while to manifest, while other widely-implemented smartphone attributes such as NFC still have yet to hit the Apple smartphone. Wireless charging, popular with premium Windows Phone and Android devices, is just another feature that some iPhone users have sought for while now, and tired of waiting for Apple to get its backside into gear, one start-up IndieGoGo project has taken matters into its own hands with a neat, low-cost solution.
The technology world never stops turning, and the smartphone portion is more fluid than most, which means it's no surprise to anyone that Samsung is hard at work making the Galaxy Gear 2 so soon after the first version hit stores alongside the third generation Galaxy Note.
Tweetbot 3.1 for iPhone was released earlier this month that introduced a number of new features. The ability to view a list as a timeline, resize text basked on dynamic controls and using swipe gestures to quickly initiate a reply all made an appearance in the first major update of Tweetbot 3. Two weeks later, and after a number of teaser shots doing the rounds on the Internet, version 3.2 is now available in the App Store, bringing with it a number of impressive enhancements that should secure Tweetbot's place as the must-have Twitter app for iOS for the foreseeable future.
Suspicion, speculation and good old fashioned controversy is never far away in the smartphone industry. Companies like Samsung, HTC and Apple are always keen to let the public know how well their hardware performs in areas that matter most to the consumer. One of the accepted methods of documenting and listing that performance is by running the hardware through a well-known benchmarking text. Futuremark - the Finnish development team behind 3DMark for Android - has announced that it suspects Samsung and HTC of cheating the benchmark tests to produce favorable results, and as such has delisted the offending handsets.
We've all seen Star Trek, and some of us are a little too keen on the universe created by Gene Roddenberry. But whether you're a fan of Star Trek or not, you can't argue against the fact that the various different iterations on the original series as well as the subsequent movies had a knack of predicting some of the technology that we all take for granted today. Star Trek has its characters using tablets before the iPad (or even Tablet PCs, too) and voice recognition was being used on our TV screens before Siri and Google Now were even close to being announced. Skype didn't exist, but those on the bridge of a Star Trek ship could talk to people on giant screens, just like we can today.
If you like your news to be of the anecdotal variety then you're in for a treat, because that's exactly what we've got. If you're also a bit keen on the iPhone 5c, then you might want to sit down, because this one's going make you weak at the knees. According to, yes, anecdotal reports in India, Apple's somewhat underwhelming iPhone 5c might be outselling the Samsung's flagship Galaxy S4 device.
The movie 'Jobs,' which stars Ashton Kutcher as the late, great Apple co-founder, released back in August to mixed reviews, and due to some quite blatant oversights and misrepresentations of the truth, seemed not even to live up to expectation, which was modest at best. Still, today, the very Hollywood take on the life and times of Mr. Jobs is now available for all to see on DVD, Blu-ray as well as digitally through none other than Apple's own iTunes.
If you've got an iPhone, iPod touch or an iPad that has Siri built-in and happen to own the right Honda or Acura car, then you can now drive into a dealer and have Siri Eyes Free installed after Honda announced its immediate availability via a press release.
Google is constantly working to improve and update its Android ecosystem, and with photography now quite a big deal in mobile space, it looks as though shot-taking ability is about to be stepped up a gear or two. According to Google spokeswoman Gina Scigliano, the Android team is working on a new photo API that will allow wannabe photographers to shoot RAW uncompressed images. On top of that, Scigliano, who was speaking with CNET, also added that the revamped API will offer native burst mode, helping to push smartphone point-and-shoot towards the territory of pro photography.
