When iOS 5 was launched with the iPhone 4S during the last quarter of 2012; one of the most notable and popular feature was Siri, the virtual digital assistant. Siri was extremely well-received but also spun some arguments as to why Apple only bundled the software on the iPhone 4S and not on older iOS devices. Step forward the jailbreak scene with a number of Siri GUI ports as well as the setting up of proxy servers that allowed older generation devices to connect to Siri.
It doesn't take a genius to work out that the iPhone 5 has been received with great enthusiasm from consumers. Apple is already struggling to stock out their inventories in order to fulfill backlogged orders and a large number of official Retail Stores still don't have any to offer to consumers three weeks down the line.
Apple's sixth iteration of iOS has been out in the wild for over two weeks now and although it offers a number of new and impressive features and improvements for users, it appears that it also brings with it a new way for Apple to track users and their activity levels on the device. We should all remember the uproar that was caused last year when it became common knowledge that hidden files were stored on iOS devices that contained user location data, so this latest activity monitoring is sure to ruffle some feathers.
Whenever a friend asks me to recommend them a smartphone, one of the first questions I ask is if they’re a fan and a regular user of Google’s services and products – Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome etc. If they are, I point them towards an Android smartphone like the Galaxy S III or Galaxy Nexus. This is because the apps for these services work best on Android.
Microsoft has taken the opportunity to announce that the development phase of Office 2013 is complete and the engineering teams involved have signed off the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build of the suite. Now that the coding, design and development phases of the process are complete; the main focus of the Redmond company is to now concentrate on releasing the new build of Office to consumer and business customers via selected channels.
If you are the type of person who aspires to be a finely toned elite athlete and have an Xbox 360 with Kinect, then the fact that the Nike+ Kinect Training demo is now available to download via Xbox LIVE might interest you. The demo obviously doesn't provide downloaders the full functioning Nike+ Kinect Training experience, but it does provide an insight into what users can expect after purchasing the full title.
You are all familiar with Microsoft's Zune Music Pass, right? No? Well actually, you aren't the only one who may not be that au fait with the Redmond offering, but that shouldn't really cause you much concern as the subscription service that allows unlimited music streaming/downloading is being cast into the wilderness - at least in some regions. The time of Zune has been and gone and with the Xbox Music service on the horizon, it seems a little strange that the Zune Music Pass is arriving in some new territories as we speak.
It may not have been on the radar that much in the last few weeks due to everything that has been going on with both companies, but the differences that exist between Apple and Samsung relating to various infringements on held patents is still well and truly going on. Although, Apple has largely had the upper-hand in the dispute, a United States Court of Appeals has overturned the preliminary injunction that had earlier been placed on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone.
When it was introduced last year, the Galaxy Note created a big divide among the general online community of technology enthusiasts because of its polarizing display size. At 5.3-inch, it was too big to be a smartphone and too small to be a tablet*. Reviews from popular publications reflected this, with some calling it an awesome, category-defining device, while others felt it was the worst mix of smartphone and tablet features.
We begin to look forward to the traditional iFixit device teardown that always seem to happen like clockwork whenever Apple pushes out a new device to the market. We are very rarely let down by the quality of the analysis and images that are associated with the experiment, with this time being no exception as the team got their hands on the new fifth-generation iPod touch to see just what Apple have managed to pack in that tiny little slim frame.
