The iPad is a great product, but like all great products, it doesn't come without its fair share of flaws. Despite single-handedly helming the tablet market for the past two-and-a-half years, we could all pick out issues we'd like to see resolved, and one of the most obvious is the relatively poor speaker design. With the iPhone, the speakers are positioned along the bottom, meaning whichever way you lay it down, the audio - albeit slightly tinny - can always be heard. The iPad's speakers are located on the back of the device, and even though Apple has improved the sound quality through generations of its flagship slate, pushing sound out in the opposite direction doesn't cut it for a device of the iPad's caliber.
Whilst the idea of controlling all elements within the home from one device is a concept with futuristic overtones, it's not as though the tech isn't already in place, and one can easily find an app for a smartphone or tablet to open curtains, unlock doors, or more recently, control colorful lighting. With this in mind, Savan Kotecha - music producer for the X Factor, has laden his home in gadgets and contraptions that play nicely with his favorite iOS device - the iPad. He's spent a sum total of $80,000 (and counting) to turn his Hollywood pad into what looks like a geek's dream, and a great deal of his electrical compliances are now controlled from the comfort of his iPad.
The Droid DNA is a monster of a phone that successfully raises the bar for manufacturers looking to release a new flagship device. When it comes to sheer horsepower, the mighty Android from HTC simply blows away a lot of competition – all the way from its mind blowing high-res screen, to the CPU that it employs, to the sensors and ergonomics that it carries.
The Samsung Galaxy S III may only have released in the middle of this year, but it's certainly been out long enough for us to justify turning our attentions to its eventual successor. Naturally, it's presumed to be called the Galaxy S IV, and accompanying a stash of recent rumors, comes the apparent insight into the S VI's hardware thanks to leaked benchmark results.
Apple has just seeded the first beta build of OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion to developers. As is always the case with beta software from Apple, the initial build is only available to those who are enrolled on the official OS X developer program and can be downloaded directly from the Mac Dev Center immediately.
In light of the recently-released fourth-gen iPad, which succeeded the iPad 3 after just seven months as Apple's flagship slate, it's certainly refreshing to hear that the Surface tablet - created, of course, by rival Microsoft - will be getting an incredible four-and-a-half year shelf life, with support and updates for the product eventually scheduled to end on April 11th, 2017.
As we know, patents are a significant part of the consumer electronics game - particularly in the mobile industry, and when it comes to intellectual property, few are more diligent in securing it over at the USPTO than Cupertino-based Apple. But while we're used to seeing the company file lawsuits against the likes of Apple and Google, it was Apple - the creator tor of all things innovative - that had to acquire a trademark from another company to bring the likes of the iPhone 5 and iPad mini to market.
The Black Friday shopping extravaganza has been and gone, and while a number of high profile retailers were offering significant price savings across a wide range of products it was ultimately the consumer electronics industry that consumers were looking to for those Thanksgiving bargains. Microsoft and Apple are two companies that find themselves sitting at the top of that particular food chain, and while we have already seen reports showing that certain Apple Stores saw a lot more customers than their Microsoft counterparts in the same area, we are now seeing some statistics to back up that claim.
Those who regularly keep abreast of what is going on in the smartphone industry will be more than aware that Samsung and Apple are constantly battling it out for sales supremacy, with Samsung managing to come out on top thanks to their array of extremely popular Android powered devices. Samsung have relied on their Galaxy S II and S III smartphones to bring in the big sales numbers, but it was only the start of this month that they announced the Galaxy Note II had been received extremely well with three million units sold. Less than four weeks later, the statistics are back with Samsung announcing that an additional two million second-generation Notes have flown off the shelves in November.
If you’re into shopping at all, and online version of it in particular, Black Friday and Cyber Monday would be nothing unfamiliar or new to you. Every year, retailers, brand manufacturers, stores and supermarket chains, wireless carriers, and almost everyone else, goes on a sale spree for the shopping frenzy that both these days are. Cyber Monday, in particular, caters to the digital crowd, and aside from the sales on goods that it brings, the app crowd can also rejoice, for this year’s no exception – both the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store – the conveyors of world’s biggest share of smartphone apps – are seeing massive sales on apps that have gone on pricing diets to mark the celebration weekend. We brought you a compilation of all the greatest iOS apps that went free for Black Friday a couple of days back, and now it’s time for its Android counterpart, the Google Play Store.
