One of the best things you can get out of technology is making your life easier by digitizing a huge chunk of your daily routine. Thanks to the smart devices that our phones have become today, we have gotten rid of a lot of stuff, like paper grocery lists, address books, pocket diaries and the like, replacing them with one intelligent device. However, there’s no limit to what you can imagine, right? So imagine if your phone was smart enough to perform various tasks for you on its own, without requiring you to perform actions like, say, triggering the text-to-speech engine through the device’s settings so that emails and messages can be read out load when you need your hands free. Having a smartphone that’s actually this smart would be cool, won’t it?
Facebook has today shared its financial stats for the fourth quarter of last year, and in doing so, has dropped yet another installment of its ever-impressive user statistics. As has been the case consistently over the past few years, Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook has exceeded quite a few milestones, and the world's most popular social network of all time has has now passed the 1.06 billion monthly active user (MAU) mark.
If there’s one thing that iOS hasn’t changed at all since its very inception, starting with version 1.0 and now to 6.1, it’s the look and feel of the interface. Granted, there have been various feature enhancements, and with iOS 6, there were some visual uplifts as well, such as the color-sensitive status bar and others, the overall feel of the operating system has remained the same. To be honest, this wasn’t a feel that was very catchy, either, so it’s not like Apple deserves any praise here either.
The power of voice recognition technology is being utilized by many companies across the globe, as it has been for quite some time. Siri (along with similar implementations of other platforms) has helped bring such technology to the forefront, and although the initial hype surrounding Apple's voice assistant has petered out somewhat, Honda has just announced its intention to bring Siri support to a fleet of its automobiles in the coming months.
Earlier this month, Activision announced that a 'Revolution' DLC pack would be arriving for those on Xbox 360, and, as promised, the pack is now available for 1200 Microsoft Points. Announced via the blog of Larry Hryb - better known as Microsoft's very own Major Nelson - Revolution offers four new multiplayer maps, a new weapon in the Peacekeeper hybrid SMG-Assault Rifle, and the eagerly-awaited Zombies Co-op Map - Die Rise - which puts the player in the role of Zombie rather than the traditional position as Zombie slayer.
If you're the kind of person hoarding thousands of contacts in your smartphone's address book, you will be more than aware of how difficult it can be to keep up with them. Not only that, but when someone you've spoken to only once or twice rings up after a prolonged amount of time, you could be forgiven for completely forgetting who they are.
A new app from the audio/visual geniuses at THX promises to help budding home cinema enthusiasts to make the most out of the kit they've got, potentially taking their movie watching experiences to new heights in the process.
If you cast your minds back a couple of weeks, you may remember my tentative pledge to take on the challenge of using a Windows Phone 8 device for an entire two weeks, in place of my beloved iPhone. This, on its own, is not much to shout about, but considering I had never previously acquainted myself with Windows Phone in any way, shape or form, I suspected my fortnight with the Nokia Lumia 820 would be one of trials and tribulations.
Redmond-based Microsoft is today launching its Office 2013 and new Office 365 subscriptions, bringing an end to the speculation of exactly when the new Office was going to land. Having taken to Twitter yesterday to tease an event in Bryant Park, NYC occurring today, a banner plastered across the Office website, which read: "Coming January 29th. More time to do the things you want," left us in no doubt. The big launch is a significant date in the Windows maker's calendar, especially with the Surface Pro just around the corner, it also spells the beginning of the end of the preview grace period, which will expire 60 days from now.
Google's Nexus 7, built in collaboration with consumer electronics giant ASUS, has been a great success, having almost reached six million units sold since its release last Summer. Citing the usual sources familiar with upstream supply chains, the famously hit-and-miss Digitimes seems to think Google will team up with the very same manufacturing partner to bring a second-generation iteration of the popular slate, complete with a thinner bezel, full HD 1080p display, along with the Jelly Bean operating system.
