The constant scrutiny of each and every corporate decision Apple makes may provide us a little insight into the day-to-day activities of Tim Cook's company, but what it doesn't do is provide us with a rationale behind some of the decisions made. And Apple's decision to attempt to block the use of unauthorized Lighting cables within iOS 7 is one of those decisions that some consumers would like some more information on.
The iPhone 5s may have been on the market for less than three months, but as we've come to expect with twelve month release cycles, talk of its eventual successor is already more than under way. We've heard a bunch of stories through the grapevine hitherto, including talk of at least one model with a larger display, and today, CTech has posted what it claims to be the frame of such a device.
The festive season may be over for most, but in celebration of the new calendar year, there seems to be no-end of promotional offers on apps for mobile users. With Sephora throwing out promo codes for iOS apps like confetti, Android users are certainly not being left out, and Agent - a 5-in-1 smart assistant for those running Google's mobile operating system - has just gone free. Check the details after the break!
Nokia, once the market leader in the mobile industry, placed its faith heavily in the Windows Phone ecosystem - a decision that, at the moment, doesn't appear to have paid dividends. The Finnish company has long since created decent smartphones, but with WP struggling, the likes of Apple, Samsung and HTC have continued to dominate. Microsoft's purchase of Nokia's products and services dept. back in September seemed to indicate that Nokia and WP would continue to collaborate as an exclusive unit, however the much-rumored Nokia Android smartphone has just been leaked from a reputable source.
Since Apple announced support for official MFi (Made for iPhone) gaming controllers with iOS 7, the major peripheral makers have been quick to announce and release some of their creations. However, those we've seen hitherto have shared one common trait - they're all tailored specifically to the iPhone. With cases that clip perfectly onto the form factor of the Apple smartphone, those on the iPad and iPod touch have been largely cast aside, but now, in the RP One, avid mobile gaming fans have an Xbox-esque controller to truly enhance the general user experience.
With the news that digital music sales have fallen for the first time ever recently, music streaming services like Spotify and Rdio are becoming increasingly popular. Microsoft's Xbox Music is a similar proposition to what those aforementioned services offer, with Google also throwing its hat into the music screaming arena via Google Play Music.
The popular BiteSMS app has just been updated with full support for iPhone 5s. The BiteSMS team have been pushing out builds thick and fast over the festive season. In the last eleven days there has been a total of six releases to the BiteSMS test repository, with each one completing a small part of the puzzle that will ultimately involve a release of stable version of BiteSMS that supports the latest firmware as well as modern iPhones with 64-bit processors.
So here we are again. Another Tuesday, and another iOS beta release has winged its way out of Apple's developer program and onto iPhones, iPads and iPod touches the world over. One of those iPhones is in my possession, and I've been using iOS 7.1 beta 3 for a few hours now. The verdict? Well, it's iOS 7, but even though the big point-o release of September saw changes on a grand scale, somehow Apple is still finding design tweaks to make, and buttons to fiddle with. In the third beta release of iOS 7.1, someone in Cupertino's been at the interface design once again.
We're currently well into the opening lap of the renewed console battle between Sony and Microsoft, and with the latter having stepped out and claimed a haul of 3 million Xbox One units pushed before the turn of the new year, its Japanese adversary has well and truly trumped it with the revelation that 4.2 million units were sold as of December 28th.
It's fair to say that as a company, Apple tends to do things rather differently compared with its rivals, and while this can sometimes be of infinite benefit to the consumer market, at other times, it just ends up costing more money.
