In a market dominated by the likes of the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy devices, it's difficult enough for alternative OEMs - let alone those of different ecosystems - to get any kind of look in. But Nokia has defied odds by managing to sell an incredible 4.4 million Lumia devices in the last quarter. If you were surprised by the figures, the Finnish company is, itself, pleasantly taken aback, noting of how the vast quantities have "exceeded expectation".
The battle for music selling supremacy has never been tougher at the top with a number of large profile outlets all vying against one another to capture the hearts, and of course the wallets, of consumers. It wasn’t that long ago when we all happily amassed huge collections of music on physical storage mediums like CDs, but times have changed a lot, thanks to the introduction of digital downloads. In an attempt to gain some interest and boost their own music sales; Amazon has introduced a new service known as AutoRip that is an amalgamation of the physical and digital.
An Android device is hardly any good without modifications. Don’t get me wrong; they have powerful hardware with capable software to accompany the former, but in most cases, the manufacturer’s additions and modifications to the stock Android Open Source Project (AOSP) makes the environment a little restricted, to say the least. That’s perhaps one reason behind why we see every new high end and mid-range device getting root, custom recovery and whatnot as soon as they’re released (even sooner than the actual release in some cases). While the casual user might not pay attention to all of these a lot, power users feel suffocated when they cannot mod their smartphones and tablets.
Anyone who uses their iPhone to frequently capture video or sound snippets will be more than aware of the limitations of the device. The iPhone 5 has had its fair share of haters due to the controversy surrounding the alleged purple haze appearing on photographs, but it’s also very hard to deny that video recording on the device is nothing short of stunning. Improving captured sound quality is definitely on the agenda for some people and the Zoom iQ5 audio attachment could certainly help with that.
Personalizing your mobile device to your liking is still one popular idea, and a lot of people spend quite a good amount of time setting their phones up with the right wallpapers, themes, graphics and audio effects. Of course, as the smartphones have evolved, so have the customization means, but that still doesn’t mean that the old things have lost their touch. I remember back in the day of Nokia devices when monochord ringtones were the rage, and being able to compose your own ringtone was the height of customization that you could’ve gotten on your phone (along side the funky carrier logo on the monochrome screen of the Nokia 3310).
Windows Phone 8 is definitely picking up pace as a worthy alternative mobile operating system for those who have grown tired of iOS and Android, or who want to stay away from the mainstream offering. The firmware's cause is definitely helped by the growing number of quality apps that are appearing on the Windows Phone Store, some from large development houses and some from third-party indie developers. The platform may not have an official Instagram presence yet, but the innovative Instagram Lockscreen app that is now available could at least give Windows Phone 8 users a taste of what they are missing out on.
Amid the constant inroads made in the smartphone and tablet industries, there would appear to be a growing requirement among consumers for so-called smartwatches. Tech fiends have taken the preemptive steps of conceptualizing such products in the image of Apple and Google's respective ranges, with the former said to be teaming up with none other than Intel to bring such a product to market. As we continue to dream of the day when one of the biggest names in the business comes through with an exciting new product, one decidedly smaller firm is ahead of the game. Unless you've been living under a rock - or in this case, a pebble - you'll have caught some of the hype surrounding Pebble's Smartwatch device as it smashed records over at Kickstarter, and it has now been revealed that the device will begin shipping on 23rd of this month.
There is nothing more frustrating to owners of consumer electronics, such as phones and tablets, than a smashed screen. For this effect, American glass manufacturer Corning introduced its super-tough Gorilla Glass, hard-to-break glass designed with consumer devices in mind.
For those who love using their iPhone and iPod touch to capture photos when they are out and about, then the chances are that scouring the App Store for photography based apps is a regular occurrence. Apps like Instagram have the sharing segment locked down, but if you prefer to step away from the default filters included in it then you could always take a look at the Bezel Photo app that not only offers a number of filters to enhance images, but also introduces fun shapes and a flat interface.
Smartphones these days are not mere communication devices, and I’ve said so many times before as well. What they’ve turned into is an all-in-one solution for portable media playback, internet surfing, managing personal information, manipulating documents, spreadsheets, presentations on the go, and so much more. Not to miss out on one of the key uses that a capable smartphone is put through, is photography. The powerful camera units being mounted atop these devices nowadays have practically redefined the whole digital photography frontier, and spawned an entirely new breed of photographers who have a reasonable quality capturing unit for every moment, right there in their pockets.
