Google is, quite literally, looking to change the way we view our digital world with the innovation Project Glass, and although we've seen a few glimpses of life through the company's digitized lens, the Mountain View-based search giant has today released a video outlining how users may one day interact with the UI. Following on from the news of prototypes being issued to select individuals, the video shows how the wearer uses the phrase "OK Glass" to kick the spectacles into action, prompting them to record video, take photos, send messages, start Google+ Hangouts, and more. It's arguably the most exciting insight we have been given into Glass thus far, and we have the full two-minute clip of the prototype in action after the break.
As smartphones have gotten better and more powerful, this has naturally had a knock-on effect with regards to battery life. The designers of the high-end handsets have had to think long and hard about how to keep the increasingly demanding feature set as juiced-up as possible, and although there have been some improvements from the early days of iOS and Android, devices seldom hold up beyond a day of moderate to high use. Chip maker Qualcomm, which develops processors for a fleet of Android and Windows Phone devices, has developed an app by the name of BatteryGuru which, it claims, will extend battery performance. As well as better battery retention, the app, which is still in beta, also purports to "improve overall user experience by intelligently making changes that optimize Snapdragon device functionality."
SwiftKey has, for quite a while now, been making the process of typing on an Android a great deal easier, and with the self-proclaimed "best selling Android app of 2012" continuing to be adopted by millions of users of Google's mobile OS worldwide, the developer has just pushed version 4 out to the Play Store after keeping it in beta for a while.
According to research collated by numbers firm Strategy Analytics, Apple's iPhone 5 was the smartphone boasting the highest number of sales in the final quarter of 2012. The device, which launched in September alongside iOS 6, was the biggest-selling by some margin, while its predecessor - the iPhone 4S - took second spot.
Over the last few months, Ubuntu has branched out to smartphones and TVs, maintaining the underlying operating system while incorporating especially-designed user interfaces for each device. Today, Ubuntu has gone after a form factor that has received much press lately: tablets.
The long-awaited release of iTunes 11 ran fairly smoothly for Apple towards the close of last year, and although the completely overhauled UI does take a bit of getting used to, it would seem as though the vast majority of users have now managed to adapt. Following on from the hurried release of iTunes 11.0.1 to alleviate a bunch of teething issues back in December, Apple has just released iTunes 11.0.2 which, among a bunch of bug fixes, also adds a new Composer view, and improves playlist responses.
Apple produces some of the best keyboards on the market. It's something I have discussed at length with others whom spend much of their lives typing, and in terms of key spacing and layout, pressure of keys, adjustable backlight, and general efficiency, even hardcore PC evangelists have conceded that the keyboard is something the Cupertino company has worked down to a fine art. It would stand to reason, then, that we'd want to utilize this keyboard wherever possible, and software developer Eyal Weiner has clearly taken this on board with the development of 1Keyboard, which allows you to use your Mac's keyboard (and mouse / trackpad) with any Bluetooth device.
The release of iOS 6.1.2 may have fixed the Exchange calendar bug that was eating batteries like tapeworm, but it looks as though it still hasn't prevented the Evasi0n tool from offering an untethered jailbreak. Seasoned jailbreak guru and Evad3rs member Planetbeing has tweeted the good news that his iPhone 5 is jailbreakable on iOS 6.1.2, and although he has yet to test other devices, it's unlikely they'll throw up any nasty surprises. This means that, pending a little more investigation of course, you can update to iOS 6.1.2 and re-jailbreak to enjoy the perks of an untethered jailbreak on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Not too long ago, Apple released iOS 6.1 to the public, yet this one was plagued with issues ranging from a lock screen exploit to numerous connectivity problems affecting Microsoft Exchange users. While the recently released iOS 6.1.1 update for the iPhone 4S, which Apple rushed quickly, addressed the critical connectivity issue which stopped many business users from upgrading, this new 6.1.2 release fixes many other small problems that were still left.
Mozilla has just released Firefox 19 for users of the Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems, and among a plethora of new features comes an in-built PDF viewer. Since increasing its release schedule, Mozilla has stuck almost religiously to its six-week cycles, and although it's rare - in software terms - to see a whole number update pertaining to only a few minor changes, it helps Mozilla keep up with Google's rampant Chrome browser.
