It still seems very strange to be talking about the success of devices like the iPad and Nexus 7 and the different levels of market share that Google and Apple hold in the tablet industry considering that this particular market didn't really exist until Apple forged it with the release of the initial iPad back in 2010. We may have recently seen the fourth-generation iPad released but it has only really been thirty-two months that companies have been competing in this space. With that said, recent figures are showing that the dominant iPad is losing some market share to Android powered tablets in the run up to the holiday shopping season.
The Samsung Galaxy Note was something of a revelation when it first released last year, and with a ludicrously large display pushing on the kind of diameters we'd only seen with tablet devices, the term "phablet" was subsequently phrased. The surprisingly successful niche product has since evolved into the Galaxy Note II, and as with all of the Korean company's Note products, it has been marketed as a device for the creative mind. Some took the S-Pen stylus and drew some of the most fantastic drawings and sketches ever seen on a mobile device, but others - such as the artists and designers at Steak Studio - have put their heads together and come up with something truly spectacular.
It may be almost seven years old, but Microsoft's Xbox 360 shows no sign of being ready for the scrap heap. With plenty of huge titles released recently like Halo 4 and Black Ops II, the console is still going strong. So strongly, in fact, that it seems we just can't get enough of Microsoft's PlayStation competitor.
General Motors seems particularly keen, dare I say, Sirious about implementing voice-recognition technology into automobiles, and to outline this intention, will be implementing Apple's Siri personal assistant to a couple of its Chevrolet car models early next year.
After months of rumor and speculation, the iPhone 5 finally hit the retail market at the end of September, but while the device itself launched without so much as a hiccup (save those well-documented yield and production issues), its accompanying firmware was not so fortunate. iOS 6 had also generated a fair amount of coverage during the course of the year, and although Apple's decision to press ahead with its own in-house Maps offering in place of the old faithful Google iteration was initially seen as brave, the move quickly emerged as a strong candidate for tech fail of the year.
Samsung has brought an interesting product to the table in the Samsung Galaxy Camera, but unfortunately, its walkthrough video of the new product makes 13 minutes seem like 30, which doesn't bode well for consumer excitement in the device itself. The clip runs through some of the camera's many great features, and it will be intriguing to see just how many units this thing manages to shift.
A large number of Android users have been plagued by a rather annoying bug in Android 4.2 that caused the month of December to go missing from the native date picker in certain apps. Thankfully, it looks like Google has stepped up just in time to save the day with an update to Jelly Bean, taking it up to version 4.2.1.
It seems like an eternity ago when Apple took to the stage to introduce us to the iPad mini as well as a number of other products including the new revamped range of iMacs. After seeing Apple introduce the iPad mini, the fourth-generation iPad and a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, it was music to the ears of desktop lovers when the restyled 21.5 and 27-inch iMac models were introduced, featuring a new slim design as well as a number of hugely important and impressive internal specification changes. Apple has now officially announced that the 21.5-inch variant of the new iMac will be available to purchase this coming Friday.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office find themselves extremely busy most of the year receiving, reviewing and awarding patents to various applicants, but it seems that they have been sitting on a number of Apple related submissions that have officially been awarded to the Cupertino based company today.
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.
