There is a little bit of a voice command battle going on at the moment in the mobile space, with Apple's digital Siri assistant and Google's Voice Search offering duking it out against one another for the affections of users. Both come with their own set of pros and cons and will only get better as we move forward into the future, but it seems that Microsoft's Research and Development teams have been working on something voice based of their own behind the scenes that could change the way humans interact with one another.
With the holiday shopping season fast approaching, it's inevitable that retailers and service providers will be falling over themselves to conjure up some seasonal deals that will entice the customers in. Yesterday, we brought information regarding Walmart's proposed Black Friday deals that will begin on Thanksgiving, and today is the turn of AT&T to get into the spirit with their tablet deals that will see the company offering a $100 discount on any purchased tablet as long as a specific criteria is met.
Here at Redmond Pie, we of course love our tech news. But as much as we enjoy following Apple versus Samsung, Facebook's latest changes, or Windows Phone 8, what we really look forward to is that rare, ingenuous geeky product or concept that comes along only every once in a while. As much as it entertains us to see a new implementation to iOS 6 or a great Android mod, nothing in the regular flow of tech coverage could really compete with, say, a smartphone which also made toast. While we're probably a way off a crispy, golden-brown breakfast accompaniment, one intuitive soul at a London university has created to type using a keyboard made out of paper. Sounds interesting? Read more after the break.
The "iWatch" concept is one that has never properly left our thoughts. In fact, ever since Apple began making iPods, iPhones, and iProducts in general, a denomination of consumers (mainly of the "geek" variety) have dreamed that the Cupertino may one day create a product offering innovative features, which could double up - or function entirely - as a watch. The iPod nano of yesteryear showed promise in this particular field, but Apple went the other way with its revamped, much larger nano this year, so it's back to square one.
Version 5.0 of Evernote has just been released to the App Store for those toting an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, and if you're anxious to hear the full round up of new features, you can catch all of the details after the jump!
The holiday shopping season is definitely fast approaching, and that can mean only one thing for keen-eyed technology fans out there who are partial to the odd bargain or two - price reductions galore. Like a number of other large retailers in the United States, Walmart will be starting their Black Friday price reductions at 8 PM on Thanksgiving Day; which is Thursday November 22nd for those who didn't already know when to look out for the bargains.
Twitter for Windows Phone has just been updated with support for Windows Phone 8, and although it appears only to be bug fixes at best, it's good to see Twitter attempting to keep on top of its official application for the new platform. Twitter - like Facebook - has struggled to deliver the goods on both Android and iOS in recent times, with performance levels looking sketchy at the best of times, but with Windows Phone 8 comes a new start, so don't be surprised to see many more meager updates at frequent intervals from the social networking site.
The 5th-gen iPod touch complete with the iPhone5-esque 4-inch display may finally have been released, but if you're looking for an iOS experience for a dirt-cheap price, you may want to consider the slightly older - but no less exciting - iPod touch 4G. Right now at Apple, you can grab yourself an iPod touch 8GB refurbished for a mere $129, and with an A4 processor and Retina display, it's one of the best deals on the interwebs right now.
We are always interested in new apps that are released onto different mobile platforms, specifically those that aren't just carbon copies of other creations and actually offer something a little different. The Sayonara app - released only yesterday - may not be the most feature packed app on the iOS App Store but it does offer a rather handy little notification system that alerts users when a Twitter follower has the audacity to hit that Unfollow button.
When Clear for iOS was released earlier this year, it not only managed to bring about a wave of clones, but it totally changed the way that developers and users thought about user-interfaces and interacting with on-screen elements. The extremely clean and clinical interface required the user to navigate through it using swipes, pinches and various other gestures that revealed differing menu structures. The developers behind that extremely popular app have fulfilled their promise of platform expansion by releasing Clear for Mac OS X.
