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."
What would you do if you had Glass? This is the question that Google is putting to every tech enthusiast who is hoping to get their hands on pre-production editions of Google Glass, as the company is looking to ship some prototypes to creative individuals.
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.
Microsoft has been preparing its Windows Blue updates for quite a while now, and screenshots of some of the latest developments have begun to emerge via several sites dedicated to the Redmond company's flagship operating system. The screenies reveal two different builds of what is referred to internally as Windows Blue, and although build numbers are unconfirmed, TheVerge has learned that Microsoft recently pushed its NT kernel up to 6.3.
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.
Evasi0n 1.4 has just been released to jailbreak iOS 6.1.2 untethered on iPhone 5, 4S, 4, 3GS, iPod touches, and all other devices. You can download the latest version of Evasi0n from here, and jailbreak using the instructions illustrated below.
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.
Today, I headed over to the official launch of the HTC One down in London's Oxford Street, and got a hands-on look at the Taiwanese company's latest and greatest smartphone device. There's no debating that, on paper, the device is a monster, but what's it like to hold? Is the build quality up to scratch? And does the "Boom" factor in the speaker or the "UltraPixel" element of the camera make any notable difference, or is it marketing jargon? I'll be answering all of these questions, and offering my initial reaction to the device after the break.
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.
As per a report, a MacBook Air with Retina display is currently in the works, with a projected release bracket of Q3 2013. In recent times, the only rumors we've heard pertaining to the MacBook Air was that it would be getting a refresh around June, with no notable changes from the previous generations, but this report throws everything up into the air once more.
