Android introduced a very different kind of entry protection in 2008. Named Pattern Lock, it allowed users to swipe in a specific way across 9 dots to unlock their smartphone. It is arguably easier to input and technically much more secure than a 4 digit PIN code. But, as time goes by, people found ways to bypass it. The first method I’ve heard of is actually pretty simple: if your fingers are the least bit oily, they will be leave smudges in line with pattern you use to unlock. If an intruder, then, observes the smudges, they may be able to gain access to your phone. The second method is to just go by trial and error as, in my own personal experience, I’ve noticed a lot of people use letters of the alphabet (such as V, D, U, O, etc. alphabets that can be easily recreated in the pattern lock).
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.
In the gaming world, Assassin's Creed is kind of a big deal, and if you like your stealth/action adventure titles, then it's more than likely you're a fan of the series. Sure, it doesn't manage to garner the same kind of following as your Halos and Call of Duty(s) of the world, but it's certainly not far off, and naturally, Assassin's Creed III is one of the most hotly anticipated future titles on the horizon.
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.
Microsoft is now offering a 90-day trial of Windows 8 Enterprise edition for development and evaluation purposes. Earlier today, Microsoft released the final bits of Windows 8 RTM to MSDN and TechNet subscribers.
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.
Let me get this out of the way first: the Nexus 7 is not a smartphone, nor is it a tablet designed for incoming / outgoing calls like the original Galaxy Tab from Samsung. The Nexus 7 is a very basic tablet that is meant for doing tasks like surfing the web, socializing on Facebook, Twitter, sending / receiving email, play games, video chat via Skype or Google Talk etc. i.e. nothing to do with phone calls.
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.
Adobe's Flash has come under a lot of scrutiny over the past few years, notably from Apple, whose then-CEO Steve Jobs wrote an open letter outlining his reasons for not implementing it on any of his company's iOS devices. Things have gone downhill from there, and with HTML5 becoming more and more widely-utilized, Flash is most certainly being phased out from our devices.
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.
