If you’re without a credit card and need to buy apps from Google Play, you’re pretty much out of luck. The lack of gift cards on Google Play forces many young teenagers to adopt alternative methods of getting their paid apps, if you know what I mean. It’s terrible for developers, especially when people want to pay for apps but just can’t.
Of the major mobile operating systems, Android is undoubtedly the most customizable, and as such, there's a large collective of individuals creating apps and showing others how to modify certain aspects of a device. XDA Developers is a great place where the most knowledgeable Android folk gather to share ideas and brainstorm, and some of the most useful apps for Google's mobile operating system have emerged courtesy of the site.
According to a report over at the Wall Street Journal, Cupertino, Calif. based outfit Apple is currently in talks with cable television networks in an attempt to utilize its Apple TV device as a proper set-top-box. Although once described by CEO Tim Cook as a "hobby" of Apple's, the gizmo has slowly but surely evolved into a decent product - one which now uses an A5 processor to pump out 1080p media to HDTVs.
As a person who has recently purchased his first ever Android device, one of the main issues I have experienced is finding the limitations of the native apps that ship with Android and then finding alternative solutions through the Play Store that combat those limitations. As an experienced iOS user, I know exactly what I need from my iPhone and iPad and can always pull the right apps from the App Store that perfectly compliment my usage patterns and plug the gaps which Apple have missed.
In the current smartphone climate, it seems that everyone is talking about devices like the iPhone and Samsung's extremely popular Galaxy S III, or mostly devices that are built around iOS or Android. In all honesty, it is a bit of a short-sighted position to take, and although companies like Nokia have been cast into the wilderness in recent years, they have always been known for producing premium quality hardware. And now thanks to their partnership with Microsoft, we could hopefully see a re-emergence of the Finnish company.
Windows 8's October 26th release date has been confirmed, and in the meantime, Redmond-based Microsoft has been preparing all the associated bits and pieces usually associated with a major OS release, including Visual Studio 2012 and .NET Framework 4.5 which have both been released to MSDN and TechNet today.
Although Cydia is packed full of great tweaks and packages, developers are still managing to find ways to innovate and produce tweaks which offer small but extremely useful functionality to jailbroken iOS users. With so many areas of iOS already having been amended and certain functionality already introduced through existing packages, the window for change is becoming smaller. But the Turn 2 Hangup package is bringing a very handy and useful little feature set to jailbroken iPhone users.
The next moves of Microsoft and the Windows Phone 8 platform are extremely critical in mobile space. Currently dominated by iOS and Android, no other platform has the potential to compete with the two titans quite like Windows Phone 8, and although some details are still scarce, the evolved mobile ecosystem will cater to more powerful devices than ever before.
In development since 2009, announced officially at CES in early 2011, went through three different previews (Developer, Consumer and Release) and recently announced to be code complete, the final, code-complete, release to manufacturing version of Windows 8 is finally available to TechNet and MSDN subscribers. Check out the details after the jump.
If a new tablet is on your shopping list for the very near future and you have already ruled out joining the crowd in getting a 9.7-inch iPad or the highly rated Google Nexus 7, then Samsung may have exactly what you are looking for. Although legal representatives for the company are locked in a Californian court room attempting to settle various patent infringement disputes, it hasn't stopped the Korean electronic giants from handling their business and having another attempt at ending Apple's dominance with the insanely popular iPad.
