Since acquiring Skype, Microsoft has been implementing the VoIP software and technology into every product possible. So far, so good, and as well as a slew of new apps for various different platforms, the promotions have also been rolled out at a rate of knots. In the latest, regular Skype users can make free calls for a month not only to other Skype users, but to mobiles and landlines.
Although preceded by Windows Phone 7.x, the perception is that Windows Phone 8 is Microsoft's first real stab at today's mobile market. The experimental phase has now passed, and the Redmond company is all set to launch its assault on Android and iOS with its new improved ecosystem and to begin with, the Surface. Naturally, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has stepped out and criticized his two main rivals, and while he calls the Android ecosystem "wild" and "uncontrolled," he also states Apple's iOS is is as highly-priced as it is controlled.
My friends believe I am not an easy person to get along with, because I often get confused about what I want. Perhaps they’re right. Let me give you an example. I love widgets – those flashy bits of useful information that you often see Android home screens adored with. Have you ever checked out HTC Sense’s clock & weather widget? It’s downright gorgeous! And those weather animations when unlocking screens, make it all the more desirable. But, widgets keep running in the background, consuming RAM, draining precious battery faster than what I’d like. So, widgets are bad, eh? But I want to stay abreast of my location’s forecast! Maybe I should use a weather app – but wait, I don’t want to fire up an app every time I want to check out the current temperature; that’s too primitive, I like information that’s readily available… You getting my point?
If someone thinks smartphones are merely devices for telephonic communication, chances are that they’ve either never used a smartphone, or they’ve actually been living under a rock. Today’s smartphones are nothing short of an electronic Swiss knife – they offer portable multimedia players, news readers, internet communication, handheld gaming, digital cameras, all packaged into one. With powerful quad-core microprocessors, adequate RAM chips and more than sufficient storage capacities, these devices are actually computers that you carry around in your pocket all day long.
Aside from the issue with Maps not quite living up to the high standards of consumers, the iOS 6 has been fairly incident-free thus far, but while it may have been adopted in record numbers, a major bug has been discovered with the new Apple mobile software. Although it is said to have been amended in iOS 6.0.1, those on 6.0 could be susceptible to a bug in the AV Framework which causes podcasts and audio streams to download more than once, potentially leading to significant data overages for those downloading over a cellular connection.
The release of the iPhone 5 has, by and large, gone without major incident. The Antennagate scandal of two years ago with the iPhone 4 was regarded as the biggest tech fail of that particular year, and while the battery issue plagued a few iPhone 4S handsets back in October 2011, the software-related Maps app has been the only real issue this time around. With that said, not everybody has had such a great first two months with their shiny new device, and while a couple of complaints have arisen with regards to scratching of the anodized aluminum, some have had to contend with the altogether more pressing issue of poor Wi-Fi performance.
Although the fourth-gen iPad has been on sale for a couple of weeks now, the Wi-Fi + Cellular model has yet to surface. As is often the case, the fruit company has readied the Wi-Fi model and already sold countless units of the iPad 4, but the 3G / 4G LTE version has been slightly delayed. If you've been waiting on the cellular iteration, you'll be pleased to learn that some Apple Stores have just started stocking up, and although nothing has been officially uttered with regards to when they'll be available for purchase, they could feasibly go on sale at any point as of now.
Steve Wozniak, known to most simply as "Woz" was part of the original Apple team alongside Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne, and although the Cupertino co-founder prefers to spend his days enjoying all forms of technology, giving seminars and following philanthropic ventures, it was always written that he'd return to the Apple fold in one way or another. While he won't, of course, be chipping in on how to move forward with iOS, or mulling over the hardware implementations of the next MacBook, he will be gracing the App Store next week as a character in a shoot-'em-up title for the iPhone. Sound interesting? More after the jump!
Need For Speed is one of those all-action, adrenaline packed racing titles. If you've ever played a Need For Speed title or indeed seen any of the films, you'll be more than familiar with the format, and with Need For Speed: Most Wanted having just released on various platforms, those looking to try before they buy can now do so on the Xbox 360. As per a tweet by Larry Hryb - better known in gaming circles as Major Nelson, the demo of Need For Speed: Most Wanted is now available on Xbox LIVE.
Apple has led the way in removing optical drives from notebooks - a pattern followed by Windows OEMs with the ultrabook - and with the latest iMac refresh also eradicating the optical media slot, it's fair to say its days are numbered. With improved connections, most music, movies, and software can be downloaded and shared in a much more convenient fashion via the Web, but it's fair to say optical media isn't the only piece of once-essential hardware leaving our computers and notebooks in an apparent hurry. Improved online services have seen native storage space become less and less relevant, and with many consumers now relying heavily on Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud and SkyDrive, are we going to see an increase in Chromebook-esque devices which all-but omit the hard drive / flash storage?
