Because of its relatively open nature, Android apps tend to be much more flexible and powerful than iOS apps. I’m not talking about games like Angry Birds or social networking apps like TweetDeck or Facebook, I’m talking about apps like DroidSheep, Faceniff, WiFiKill and Network Spoofer that can wreak havoc through advanced attacks on other, unsuspecting Android smartphone users.
Apple maintains a tight grip on the smartphone, tablet and premium notebook market with the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air/Pro. They make their own software for these gadgets; controlling the whole “widget” as Steve Jobs used to say. Yet, there are markets where Apple is hardly relevant. One such market is online social networking. Microsoft has investments in Facebook, Google of course has their own Google+ while Apple has nothing at all.
The legal issues between Apple and Samsung show no sign of letting up, and whilst we're growing a little tired of the entire debacle, we're also learning more and more about two of technology's most influential companies.
OS X Mountain Lion, Apple's most recent operating system for the Mac, has sold in excess of two million copies in just two days - on par with the release of OS X Lion last year, which shifted 1 million copies in its first 24 hours. The new operating system includes many new features - some of which have been borrowed from the company's iOS mobile ecosystem. Things like Reminders, iMessage and Notification Center made a name for themselves on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, but now take pride of place on the desktop.
Final Fantasy is one of the longest-serving and most popular role-playing titles on any gaming platform, and having been given a warm welcome on Apple's iOS, the title has just been made available for those running Google's Android.
UK fans of Samsung's Galaxy S III now have two more handsets to choose from, with the popular handset available in two new limited edition guises that take advantage of the company's London 2012 Olympic sponsorship.
With just days left ahead of Microsoft’s promised release window for Windows 8 RTM*, the company is going through the very final steps of the software development cycle - involving things like checks and verifications. We’ve received news from TheVerge that the final build of Windows 8 will be 9200.16384.WIN8_RTM.120725-1247 (or just 9200) and not 8888 as it was previously being reported. TheVerge cites their own sources as well as Win8China for the story.
As well as taking Apple's crown as the king of the smartphone market, Samsung seems to be selling mobile phones in record numbers, having shifted an impressive 50.5 million during Q2 of 2012. This is in spite of industry analysts suggesting smartphone sales in general had hit something of a plateau - seeing its slowest growth rate for three years, and the Korean consumer electronics giant marched through to sell an incredible 566,000 smartphones per day during the last 90 days.
In keeping with the recent trend of user-experience and thanks to some minimalistic and beautiful weather apps, it is quite fitting that MinimalWeather has come into the public eye recently thanks to the power of the Twitter micro-blogging platform. Gone are the days of the overloaded mobile interface which brought stacks of information and text to read. Long live the minimalistic approach to mobile user interface design.
The iPhone 5, the New iPhone, the next-generation iPhone, Apple's latest iPhone. It doesn't matter what you are personally calling it or what you think the actual official name will be when the eventual time comes for release, the bottom line is we all want to see it and find out what they have in store for us. It has become part-and-parcel of the release build up for any iOS device that we see leaked parts and speculated technical specifications galore, and it has certainly been no different this time around. But could this new leaked image actually be of the official next-generation iPhone?
