Angry Birds, a title which started out on iOS, is one of the simplest physics-based puzzlers around, yet has transcended into a billion dollar franchise available on pretty much any platform. As well as selling the title to pretty much every consumer in some way, shape or form, makers Rovio have sold a plethora of Angry Birds branded merchandise, including plush toys, smartphone and tablet covers, and other such peripherals, and it's by far the biggest success story to emerge from any mobile platform.
Microsoft's Windows 8 marks a significant change in direction for the Redmond company's landmark operating system, and although the software maker had previously offered a release bracket, Steven Sinosfky has put minds and speculation to rest by announcing it will begin retailing on Friday 26th October.
Jonny Ive's lair within Apple's Cupertino headquarters has an air of mystery around it, and with it being the very location most of Apple's modern products were dreamed up, it has garnered something of a cult following.
Apple and Samsung have been through the courts numerous times, and although proceedings do often descend into farce with playground-like slander aimed in both directions, a UK judge has really sent Apple back to school. With the Cupertino company having dragged Samsung's name through the mud with claims the Korean company copied the iPad design for its tablets, the British Judge has ruled Apple must publicly state that Samsung did not plagiarize the design.
The iPhone 5, as with every annual iPhone release, has generated quite a bit of hype among tech enthusiasts, and although the device was reported to be in production, BGR cites a "trusted source" in contradicting that notion.
Announced as part of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at Google I/O 2012, Google Now is a powerful, never before seen personalized search app. It gathers data about your preferences, interests, daily routine and location to provide you related data in the form of cards. This feature has left many reviewers floored with just how good it is, and now, thanks to Android’s development community, you get to enjoy it on your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. There is one thing you should know though: the voice to text technology used in this project is not the one used in Jelly Bean. This means your voice searches may not be as accurate or fast.
CyanogenMod is the most popular aftermarket custom firmware (AKA custom ROM) on Android for one very important reason: it receives constant support from the community, enabling owners of old smartphones to try out the latest versions of Android and allowing owners of the latest smartphones to ditch their smartphone manufacturer’s custom skin for a more vanilla Android experience.
With Windows 8 well and truly on the way, app makers will now be thinking about how their apps will fit around the new infrastructure. Microsoft has the obvious advantage of having built Windows 8 from the ground up, and has offered a preview of its famous OneNote app, called OneNote MX. OneNote only recently made its debut on the iPad, and although perhaps not regarded as important as the likes of PowerPoint, Word, or Excel, still plays an important role in Microsoft's wide variety of productivity-aimed apps.
Although Android certainly trumps Apple's iOS when it comes to reach, versatility, and number of devices available, one area in which Google's mobile operating system has always struggled is security. Malware on the platform has been steadily increasing over the past year, and with security one of the main concerns of consumers, it's essential the Web company does its level best to combat the problem.
Mozilla's Firefox has been around for quite a while now, and despite Google continually pushing updates of its fast-growing Chrome browser, Firefox has continued to remain resilient, altering its own release schedule in a bid to stay relevant. Hence, here we are at Firefox 14, and just six weeks after Firefox 13 was seeded on Mozilla's servers, and the fourteenth iteration still manages to offer a bunch of useful changes.
