Whenever a new device is released to market, the benchmark tests begin almost instantaneously. Today, the iPad mini with Retina display made its long-awaited debut, and although it still appears in very short supply, it has already been put through its paces and compared with some of the other marquee devices in the iOS product line. As it transpires, it's almost identical to the iPhone 5s in terms of speed, although both the iPad mini 2 with Retina display and the Touch ID-enabled handset fall slightly behind the iPad Air, which is faster than both.
CyanogenMod is undoubtedly the biggest name in custom firmware when it comes to Android these days, and with good reason. With support spanning all the handsets that hackers and enthusiasts are likely to ever want, CyanogenMod is very likely to be available in some shape or form for the device that's currently sat in your pocket.
As any Windows Phone user will know, apps tend to take an age before they finally make the jump from iOS / Android, and the ongoing saga with the lack of an official Instagram app is a testament to that fact. Still, following an official announcement of Instagram for Windows Phone a few days back, major rival Vine has come through with an app for Windows Phone, allowing those on Microsoft's mobile OS to take and share short clips with the world right from their smartphones. The app is now officially available over at the Windows Phone Store, and you can check out the details after the break!
The Xbox One will be hitting stores late next week, and although we've been dealt a deluge of information from both official and unofficial channels already, new revelations are being made on an almost hourly basis. In the latest, the guys over at NeoGAF have been looking into game install size and discovered that some titles will command up to 43GB of storage space, which is a colossal amount of real estate by anybody's standards.
It emerged earlier on today that the launch of the iPad mini 2 with Retina display had begun, shortly after news began to spread, it became apparent that the device was, at least in the United States, only available for Personal Pickup. Now, a press release from the Cupertino company has confirmed this to be the case, and with such short supply of the second-gen iPad mini, it's likely to be a while before this begins to change.
The Xbox One will hit shelves next week, and Microsoft is diligently planning in advance to ensure all of the associated services have been primed and are ready for the big release. SkyDrive, the Redmond outfit's fledgling cloud service, is one such entity, and today, Microsoft has delivered a fairly detailed blog post regarding the video and photo streaming element of the stock dedicated SkyDrive app for Xbox One will play out.
After a lengthy period of rumor and speculation, the Google Nexus 5 smartphone, along with Android 4.4 KitKat, is now upon us. The handset itself has been the subject of rave reviews, and while the updated software includes a hatful of useful enhancements, there remains, as ever, one or two nagging issues. Notably, the battery percentage option is still non-existent in stock Android, and although there's now a less-than-perfect workaround for those looking to dig out this almost essential feature hidden within KitKat's chocolatey exterior, we do hope Google plans to properly implement it in the near future.
Apple has shown an increased desire over the last 12 months to highlight the fact that a lot more of their design and manufacturing processes is taking place in the United States. The company's "Designed by Apple in California" slogan is playing an increasingly important role during media events, with Tim Cook and his executive team keen to drill home that products like the new Mac Pro will be manufactured in the US. If today's reports regarding the future of the iPhone and iPad processors turn out to be true then it could mean that upstate New York could be the production home of Apple's chips in the very near future.
It has long since been the case that users switch from Android smartphones to iPhones in larger proportions, but more so than ever, the trend is increasing. According to a study by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, more Android users made the jump to Apple's iPhone this year than ever before, and although many of those picking up the new iPhone 5s / 5c were previously owners of an older iPhone, the Cupertino firm will surely be encouraged to see more and more consumers ditching Google's OS for its own ecosystem.
Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto 5 has been the biggest-selling console title of this year, breaking several early sales records since its release in September. Many millions of gamers had been waiting years on its arrival, and barring a few technical glitches with GTA Online and whatnot, most have deemed the latest in the popular free-for-all classic series to have been worth the lengthy delay. To supplement the title, iFruit for iOS (and rather belatedly), Android, have given those running either of the two main mobile OSes an even richer experience, and although Windows Phone, as ever, remains bereft of any official support, a new third-party app for Microsoft's platform could serve as the perfect accompaniment to GTA 5.
