Microsoft's Kinect peripheral, which allowed the kind of interactivity with its Xbox 360 console only previously seen in the Nintendo Wii, went down a storm with consumers, becoming the fastest-selling gadget of all time when it launched back in 2010. Like all good new tech releases, it's hard to believe the Kinect motion sensor hasn't even reached the two year mark yet, and talk of its successor has been fairly prevalent for the past couple of months now.
Wireless charging has constantly been spoken of in the past as a technology the consumer market will eventually adopt with natural progression, and according to a report over at DigiTimes, Intel could be launching a new system that'll allow wireless charging of smartphones powered by its processors. The technology has been approved by the Wireless Power Consortium as the Qi standard, and is another leap in the quest of hardware manufacturers to minimize the cables and wires - something we definitely agree with.
Translation apps are very popular among travelling enthusiasts because of, well, their ability to near instantly translate snippets of foreign languages into your language of choice with a good amount of accuracy. Apps available on smartphones and tablets reflect this, with them being among the top apps under Lifestyle / Utilities.
So far, we’ve seen leaks of just about every major component of the next and sixth generation iPhone. We’ve seen its home button, slightly larger front with a 4” display, a metal back, and an all-new MagSafe-like dock connector to name a few things.
There has been a lot of talk recently about the specifications of the new iPhone that is expected to be announced during a media event next month. Although we haven’t had any official confirmation from Apple as of yet, those who appear to be in the know are staying true to the September 12th announcement date. We are obviously all keen to officially feast our eyes on the sixth-generation device, but the most talked about and contested amendment to the device has to be the inclusion of a taller display.
The invention dawn of the App Store meant that many thousands of developers were able to get their apps and creations seen by millions of people all over the world, and in some instances the apps turned over a very nice and welcome financial profit. One of the most successful and immediately recognizable apps, as well as being one that has left the developers in an extremely handsome financial position has to be Instagram, which has notched up millions of regular active members.
It always manages to delight us when large companies and corporations release their applications onto devices like the iPhone and iPad which allow us to watch digital content such as movies and TV shows by streaming it through their app onto our devices. That's all well and good and presents itself as perfect situation in most cases, but what if we want to take advantages of AirPlay and want to wirelessly send that content to our high definition televisions? Not in this life. Certain providers believe that shouldn't be allowed and have removed this feature from their software.
With the release of the next-generation iPhone just around the corner, we could be forgiven for thinking we already have a pretty accurate idea of what Apple is going to introduce to the world next month. Over the last few months, we have been treated to regular viewings of leaked images of individual components, as well as a few documents that claim to show the new iPhone assembled in all of its beautiful glory. Of course, the fully assembled images could all be part of an elaborate ruse to throw us off the scent, or may even just be a shell prototype that is distributed to official equipment manufacturers to design and build their wares, but they have succeeded in making us anticipate the release.
As I'm sitting here writing this with my iPhone 4S sitting by my side, it's hard to get my head around the fact that in approximately four weeks time we will be welcoming the sixth-generation iPhone into the world. As somebody who has owned every iPhone since the original one which came out in 2007, it really doesn't seem like it has been over five years since Apple introduced their first smartphone that would ultimately end up revolutionizing an entire industry and make way for the introduction of another game changer, the iPad.
In early June, Samsung announced that they had sold over 7 million units of the Galaxy Note. It is perhaps the first huge smartphone / small tablet - which some like to call a phablet - to see reasonably good sales in the international market. Now, almost a year after its announcement and release, Samsung is all set to announce the next Galaxy Note which will have, from what we’ve heard, the innards of a Galaxy S III, and a slightly larger display.
