Although floating apps are an integral part of the desktop computing experience, their presence on mobile devices is a relatively new phenomenon. Still, an app commanding only a fraction of the total display, and which can be moved around at will, is infinitely more useful, and while the likes of Samsung and Sony have both shown signs of implementing floating apps to mobile space, XDA-Developers member pidio1 has swopped the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2’s native browser with a resizable, floating one.
Before any new iOS release makes its way to your treasured iPhone, iPad or iPod touch device, it goes through a series of dev-only betas, and although the current latest release is either 6.0.1 or 6.0.2 depending on the age of your device, the release of iOS 6.1 has been looming for months. Now, it would appear as though Apple at internal testing stage of a new iOS 6.1 beta, which looks as though it'll serve as the Golden Master build. The Golden Master, or GM build, presents the software in its complete, end-user state (barring any significant bugs), and suggests the public release of iOS 6.1 may not be too far away now.
Apple's decision to refresh its iPad range twice last year was met with a mixed response, and while some naturally welcomed the decision of Apple to introduce the iPad 4 a mere seven months following the emergence of the iPad 3, owners of the latter were naturally disgruntled. Alongside the iPad 4 came the iPad mini, and once again, the general response was mixed, with many pointing to the lack of a Retina display and high cost as fundamental flaws. Now, it has emerged that Apple plans to bring yet another upgrade as early as March, and while the larger iPad should be a little less, well, large, the mini is widely-presumed to be getting a Retina display.
Apps for the iPhone and iPad are launched onto the App Store every day of the week, but every now and then, one comes along that causes a spike in excitement for one reason or another. It could come from a big developer, it could be an innovative new way of interacting with an interface, or it could just be an extremely well marketed app that has drummed up a lot of pre-release interest. In the case of the newly release podDJ iPad app, the excitement and anticipating has been created purely because it is the first official App Store release from jailbreak legend Pod2G, oh yeah, and it's pretty fantastic for aspiring music mixers.
A couple of days back, we reported on the news that a dev by the name of "clrokr" had discovered a jailbreak, which allowed the Windows RT operating system to run unsigned, ARM-based desktop apps. No more than a few hours later, the Redmond company responded to assure owners of RT tablets that there was no imminent security threat, and that a patch would be available within a couple of days. To add an interesting twist to proceedings, though, another developer has chimed in with a tool making the jailbreaking process one of automated ease, and as is nearly always the case with Windows Phone / Android modding breakthroughs, this one arrives courtesy of XDA-Developers.
Mobile smartphones and tablets are often thought of as living in their own protected bubble in the consumer electronics world, with users believing that those devices exist in their own class. Whilst there isn't isn't anything fundamentally wrong with that thought process, it is also extremely important to treat our mobile hardware as a portable computer and therefore protecting them and locking them down as such. Android smartphone users can now drastically enhance the protection afforded to their devices by using the relatively new SecDroid app.
It’s true that Apple made tablets – portable computers with a slate design – a mainstream gadget with their iPad, even though there existed a lot of similar devices before that. Not only did they make it more accessible by selling the iPad at a price point that was agreeable to the masses, but the support from the Cupertino giant’s iTunes App Store with its massive number of iPad specific apps also helped the device’s popularity. Even though competitive manufacturers jumped onto the bandwagon with their similar Android based offerings, even today, the iOS App Store sports a much larger number of tablet-optimized apps in comparison to Google Play Store.
Earlier this week, a report surfaced suggesting that Apple might be working on a lower-end, lower-cost iPhone in order to increase its share of a market that is becoming increasingly crowded with low-cost smartphones. In a rare one-to-one interview with a Chinese newspaper, Apple Marketing SVP Phil Schiller flat-out denied the rumor.
If you happen to be the type of iOS device user who loves nothing more than adorning your outgoing digital messages with smiley faces and little Emoji characters, then this little accessibility nugget in the operating system is definitely set to bring some amusing times.
Security firm Bitdefender preyed on the privacy-conscious tendencies of the smartphone user when it released its Clueful app last July, with its aim to snitch on apps which may be using your private data, UDID, or other such sensitive info they've often no business snooping through. Rather than allowing iOS users to continue believing in the fallacy that every app developed follows stringent ethical practice, Bitdefender sought to expose and in turn, inform users of exactly how apps may use your data without your knowing.
