Rooting has almost always been a necessary concept with Android devices, and if you’ve ever used one while being interested in unleashing the full potential of your smartphone or tablet, you would have rooted it at some point. There are many benefits to gain out of gaining superuser (root) access on an Android device, the biggest of them being able to run custom ROMs – homebaked firmware that unlocks those areas of your device that the manufacturer deemed potentially dangerous to play around with. One thing that all rooting techniques, in general, have in common, is the fact that they all require the use of a computer. Whether you’re flashing a rooted kernel on a Samsung device using Odin, or firing up a command prompt to key-in the commands yourself, or even using a one-click method like CF-root, you will always find that you need a computer to accomplish that. Well, not anymore, now that Root Transmission is here.
Apple's current CEO Tim Cook may have only been sitting at the top of the corporate food chain for little over 12 months, but it's evident that he has taken to running the world's most valuable company like a duck on water. After taking over the reigns from the late Steve Jobs in August of 2011, Cook had to have a strong resolve and leadership mentality to guide Apple through a number of challenging incidents, legal battles and internal restructuring, all of which he has discussed in his first official television interview that aired on NBC's Rock Center last night.
Apple's iOS 6 may have enjoyed record levels of adoption in its first couple of months in existence, but one area of the new mobile software sticks in everybody's mind - that dreadful Maps app. Tim Cook apologized for it, iOS SVP Scott Forstall was ousted due (in part) to its shortcomings, and other mapping apps have benefitted greatly as a result. But whilst Cook assures us that his company is doing everything they can to rectify the issue, we perhaps underestimated just how dedicated the Cupertino are to have the best mapping app around. Rather than fix the inaccurate street names and landmark locations within the app, staff have been spotted attempting to change the world's geographical traits to fall in line with iOS Maps!
Everyone loves a good update to an app that is regularly used and highly thought of, and that is exactly what has happened with Google Now for compatible devices running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and up. The official Android blog took great delight in introducing the latest update to the intelligent personal assistant software that was first introduced to the Android world with the release of Jelly Bean back in July of this year and should be an extremely welcome update for those travel conscious Android owners out there.
It's coming up to that time of year again, and to spread a little festive cheer, Apple has updated its 12 Days of Christmas app internationally for 2012. The app, which works on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, will kick into action from December 26th, delivering a new gift every day until the twelfth day - January 8th.
It may not have happened to you personally, but everybody has seen the what happens when a mobile device meets gravity. Such is the toughness of displays today, that many survive an accidental drop without so much as a crack, but when they do succumb and shatter, they become a hazard unto their owner, with shards and slivers aplenty. Recognizing this, rumor has it that Samsung is planning to release an "unbreakable" screen with the upcoming Galaxy S III smartphone.
Snapseed has been a revelation in the increasingly-popular image editing game, but since Google acquired Nik Software - the firm behind the iconic app - last September, there have been few recent murmurings touting the demise of Snapseed. Those have been well and truly put to rest today, though, with the release of Snapseed for Android; and in more good news, it's also absolutely free of charge.
As a company, Apple is extremely well-known for creating the fantastic OS X powered Mac, the iPhone, iPad and a number of other extremely popular mobile devices. Although those products have been, and will continue to be, extremely successful around the globe, there has been intense speculation over the last twelve months that Apple will breach their comfort zone and extend their portfolio by manufacturing an actual physical television set. Although there hasn't been any concrete evidence or nods of approval from Apple itself, a recent NBC News interview with Tim Cook could be the source of the biggest hint to date.
One of the biggest hindrances with buying a top-of-the-line smartphone, is the premium price that you have to pay for it. There are usually two ways of how high-end phones are sold; either you pay the full price to the manufacturer and get an unlocked device, whereby getting the freedom to go with whatever network fancies you. Or, you may opt to buy the phone through a wireless carrier, where you pay a much subsidized rate for a big trade-off: getting stuck with that carrier for the term of your contract. In the latter case, the carrier pays the full price to the manufacturer but sells you the device at a much lower rate, and in turn, locks down the smartphone to their network, so you cannot use a SIM card from another network just like that. That’s a generally agreeable rule for most users.
Call Of Duty may hold the crown when it comes to those war-themed first-person shooters on the consoles, but on mobile devices, there are several contenders vying for that spot as the go-to warfare battle title. Modern Combat has established itself as a fine example of how one can enjoy precision combat without a physical controller, and today, Gameloft's eagerly-awaited Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour has released over at the iTunes Store.
