Good news appears to be filtering down to the email inboxes of those who have been waiting patiently for the Wi-Fi + Cellular version of the fantastic new 7.9-inch iPad mini. When Apple announced the device at the California Theatre last month, it would have been painful to a lot of customers to learn that the release was being staggered with the initial launch of the Wi-Fi model only. Those US based technology fans that bit the bullet and pre-ordered the Wi-Fi + Cellular variant should hopefully be seeing their mini tablet landing within the next five business days according to official Apple email correspondence.
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.
The world of eSports is continually growing, with Starcraft possibly the biggest of the lot. Activision has always wanted the Call of Duty games to be part of the eSports movement, but with its proliferation of run and gun gamers, the gameplay and level of competition has always just fallen short. With Call of Duty: Black Ops II however, Activision is hoping to change all that.
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.
Back in August, Parallels Desktop 8 was released, and many vented their frustration at the company's decision to only offer support the Retina display to those who'd bought the previous version of Parallels after Apple released Mountain Lion OS X. Today, Parallel's 8 has been updated once again, and steering clear of controversy, actually brings a bunch of useful new features.
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!
It's understandable that consumers will always have mixed emotions about any company from which they’re buying products, and for the large part, big companies like Apple, Google and Samsung are always going to do something that draws a negative reaction from some. With that said, one thing that Apple in particular can't be accused of is resting on their laurels and remaining stagnant in the marketplace. Although the Cupertino company has recently announced and launched their revamped EarPods headphones alongside the iPhone 5, a new patent suggests that they are still working on further advances in that area.
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.
Samsung's flagship Galaxy S III may have displaced the iPhone 4S to become the best-selling smartphone in the world for Q3 2012, but if you combine sales of the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4S together, the Cupertino's iconic device just comes out on top.
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.
