Several years back, the BlackBerry was the dominant smartphone platform among consumers and business users, until the iPhone revolutionized the space 6 years ago. One of the main aspects that made the iPhone so relevant was a then-revolutionary and user-friendly touch-based user interface, which has been left largely unchanged till today. According to BlackBerry chief Thorsten Heins, the current iPhone user interface is in dire need for a revamp.
GApps for Android provides a solid base of highly functional apps for the many millions on the company’s mobile ecosystem, and with Android 4.2 bringing a deluge of new features to the table, it’s only natural those floundering in wait of an OTA update would wish to get their hands on GApps 4.2.
Most of you will, by now, have seen the prime time release of the Samsung Galaxy S4 on Thursday, and while the early opinions are flying about at will, it's pretty hard to gauge just how the device fares against some of its rivals. The handset is overflowing with high-end features, and trumps pretty much everything else in the specs department, but in a face-to-face, real world comparison, how does Samsung's latest outlet compare with its long-standing adversary, the iPhone? Several publications managed to get their hands on the Galaxy S4, and as well as offering in-depth, hands-on coverage, also briefly considered the presence of the iPhone 5.
Following on from the earlier report which supposedly revealed Galaxy S IV pricing and release details for Italy and much of the EU, retailer Unlocked Mobiles has just confirmed the price point of the SIM-free version in the United Kingdom. For a brand-new Samsung Galaxy S4 without any strings attached, UK consumers should be looking to pay around £529.98 including VAT, and while this is quite a high price to pay for a smartphone, it's around the same as you might pay for the HTC One, or iPhone 5.
We've seen in the past that jailbroken iOS device users tend to think that the simplest tweaks are often the best ones. When developers attempt to go over the top with their creations, things tend to invariably go wrong, which is a situation we would all be keen to avoid if possible. The newly released DefaultSBPage package on Cydia can definitely be thought of as a simplistic implementation, but definitely one of that many users will benefit from.
Apple is regularly found to be adding new features to its mobile operating system that runs on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices. Each iteration of the firmware brings with it a number of changes that are designed to not only dramatically enhance the power that the software offers, but also improves the user experience that we obtain from using the hardware. Judging by the amount of tweaks that we are seeing land on Cydia over the last few weeks, it would definitely seem that the iOS 6’s Do Not Disturb feature is definitely a hit with developers and users alike.
Animated wallpapers are something many people enjoy as a backdrop to their desktop experience, and Stardock has long since facilitated this preference with its popular DeskScapes app for Windows. With Microsoft having dropped Windows 8 at the tail end of last year, it has taken a while for Stardock to come through with an update to render DeskScapes compatible with the new operating system, but recently, said update arrived in the form of DeskScapes 8.
If you take a second to launch the iOS App Store and check out the top paid and free charts, it becomes immediately apparent how successful mobile based gaming has become on Apple's range of iOS devices. We've seen time and time again that some of the biggest app launches that attract the most attention come from established and independent game developers and have managed to thrust mobile based gaming directly into the limelight.
I’ve expressed my likelihood for Windows 8 from time to time, and it’s very true that I believe Microsoft’s latest desktop operating system is one of the best that has ever come out of the Redmond software giant. The aesthetics are remarkable, the feature set has been greatly improved, and the overall user experience is fantastic, to say the least. Microsoft has also taken care of most of the stability issues as well, and generally, the idea of making the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 available to public has really paid off well in favor of the world’s largest software maker. However, that doesn’t imply that Windows 8 is without its grievances and qualms, one of them being the inability to prevent the system from automatically restarting after installing an update via Windows Update.
Despite being a paid service, Microsoft's Xbox LIVE service is considerably more popular than the free alternative of the PlayStation Network. Whilst I have no personal preference, I always found the Xbox LIVE Dashboard to be a very polished experience, and it's a product Microsoft takes great pride in developing and maintaining. Each user is represented by a highly customizable avatar, and as well as various items of clothing available, there are also plenty of props. If you're a soccer fan, for example, you can exchange some of your Microsoft currency for a soccer ball to sit alongside your avatar, and if you're crazy about the Redmond company's Surface tablet, you can now grab the free prop just added to the Marketplace.
