As we progress deeper into the mobile age we are seeing large game publishers invest more time and resources into exploring the mobile landscape, an exploration which has seen the likes of Activision bringing Call of Duty: Strike Team to Apple's iOS platform. The initial version of the first-person and third-person game landed on iOS in September of this year and has just benefited from an update that offers in-depth support for new iOS 7 features.
Getting photos off of our iOS devices is the kind of thing that can be a deadly serious subject for many of us. If you've got kids, being able to ensure that your photos are safe and secure in the event of a lost or stolen phone can be the most important thing in the world at times. Apple's Photo Stream and iCloud backups go some way towards filling the hole for some people, but there are other ways of getting images and videos off of iPhones and iPads. Those options now include Microsoft's SkyDrive.
Samsung's extremely popular Galaxy S4 smartphone has been slightly relegated to the back of our minds in recent times. There's no denying that the South Korean company produced yet another premium piece of kit when the S4 was launched, however, subsequent iPhone 5s and Nexus 5 releases have not only overshadowed Samsung's flagship device but also made it look somewhat dated. With rumors already starting to circulate regarding next year's Galaxy S5 release, it was only a matter of time until something like this gorgeous next-generation Galaxy concept materialized.
Any good console game that's worth its place at the top of the gaming charts will invariably have an accompany mobile app to compliment it. It seems to be commonplace for game publishers to bolster the launch of their title by offering a mobile app on the likes of iOS and Android that comes with varying functionality. Electronic Arts is undoubtedly one of the biggest players in the video gaming world, and as such have become the latest development house to launch an app to accompany their hugely popular Battlefield 4 console game.
Taking part in an impromptu FaceTime call is becoming an increasingly popular event during musical events. First we had Beyoncé taking an iPhone out of a fan’s hand and talking to her friend through FaceTime during one of her performances. Now we have the news that Nine Inch Nails’ frontman Trent Reznor invoked a FaceTime call with one of his friends during a show in Las Vegas. Although FaceTime itself is an extremely emotive way to communicate, the feeling was further heightened by the fact that the friend in question is currently suffering from terminal colon cancer.
As consumers continue to snap up the extremely well-received iPhone 5s, we are already hearing speculation suggesting that Apple isin the process of field testing the next generation iPhone. It was only a matter of time before the iPhone 6 rumors began to circulate, with this particular Far East based website going into a fair amount of detail about Apple's current plans and testing schedule for next year's model.
We've already spoken about our high hopes for what Apple's iBeacon may turn into and we've made no bones about the fact that it may be the best kept secret of iOS 7, considering it got little to no press when the mobile operating system launched a couple of months ago. It seems that some people were paying attention though, and hot on the heels of Major League Baseball's decision to trial iBeacon at ball parks, department store Macy's is also putting Apple's location aware technology through its paces at some of its own stores.
NFC might have been lurking around mobile space for a while now, but the widespread use of payment systems using handsets equipped with this technology remains somewhat rare. This did, however, look set to change with the introduction of Google Wallet, but the market for digital payments remains very much behind the times, and as such, Google Wallet has yet to make the desired impression. Despite the shortcomings and lack of general interest in Google Wallet, the Big G remains defiant in its quest to reshape the way we process our transactions, and now, the physical Google Wallet Card can be pre-ordered by interested parties, with around a two week waiting period for shipping.
Microsoft's "Scroogled" campaign, a series of ads that takes on Google's products and services regarding policies and privacy, has been running for around a year now, and today, the company has taken things up a notch or two by making Scroogled memorabilia available over at the the Microsoft Store. Ranging from mugs to items of clothing bearing the Scroogled mantra, it seems that the software maker's smear campaign is far from over, and if you happen to be an advocate of the movement, now you can even have yourself a (lousy) t-shirt.
If you were around the Internet back in the late 90s or early 2000s then Winamp will no doubt be a name that you're very familiar with. Once the go-to media player of the early generations of MP3 users, Winamp grew big enough and quickly enough to get the attentions of AOL, who paid a not inconsiderably $80 million for it back in 1999.
