When mobile devices were first introduced with touch capable displays, it was quite an interesting shift in the way we went about completing certain on-device tasks such as creating text messages and composing emails. We had all previously been used to banging on physical keypads and getting that familiar and comforting mechanical feedback that reassured us that everything is working as intended, but now that we are a few years down the line, it's difficult to imagine using anything other than the touch sensitive virtual keyboards that we have seen on most new smartphones.
I imagine there is a large subset of our readers who have decided that they want some technology-orientated news today and are planning to read this post on a gorgeous iPad. Out of those visitors who are actually using an iPad for their viewing pleasure, I would hazard a guess that a small portion of that audience at one stage in their lives have used an old-school typewriter for either serious correspondence production or just for the sake of messing around.
One of the great things about Apple's mobile operating system is the almost seamless and perfectly crafted animations that take place when users invoke a certain task, like switching between home screens, opening up a folder containing a number of apps icons or when pressing and holding on an icon to put the device into edit mode. The biggest compliment I can pay to the iOS engineers is that everything just works, exactly as it should, pretty much all of the time.
A new 9GAG iPhone app gives fans of the popular funny photo site a way to keep up to date on all the comical goings on when away from their computer. Available now from the iTunes App Store, 9GAG's official offering is free.
Before Wi-Fi and 3G became the norm, do you remember how much hassle it was updating your mobile device? There was none of this over-the-air (or OTA) business, and in order to get those essential new features, you had to connect your device to your computer, and often wait several hours for it to work its "magic."
With a slew of great new smartphones, tablets and even a new operating system in the form of Jelly Bean (4.1), Android has received plenty of good press over the past couple of months. In fact, there's been such a buzz about Google's mobile OS, that it's easy to forget just how many reported malware outbreaks threaten to jeopardize everything the Web company is attempting to build.
Back in July, it was reported and later confirmed that the Verizon variant of the Galaxy S III would come with a locked bootloader due to the company’s concerns over it “preventing Verizon Wireless from providing the same level of customer experience and support” as they have apparently established before.
When the Samsung Galaxy Note first arrived last year, quite a few people didn't really know what to make of it. I mean, it looked a great deal like a smartphone, and operated as such, but the sheer size of the device categorized it as something different. The unofficially dubbed "phablet" device has, despite lacking conformity, been a rousing success, and consumers are now looking forward to its successor, set to be announced later this month at Samsung's IFA conference.
There were plenty of question marks raised when Samsung first announced its eagerly-awaited Galaxy S III device, the most puzzling being the lack of a black version. Invariably, the black version of a smartphone is the standard, with colors like white and, as Samsung calls it, "pebble blue," being options for those looking for something a little edgier.
The introduction of app markets like the iOS App Store and Google's Play Store have undoubtedly been a fantastic addition to the mobile space and have allowed developers to have their software housed and showcased with minimal effort. One of the underlying issues of having so many apps in one place is the visibility, or lack of it, of certain products, meaning it can be extremely difficult for users to find what they are looking for in some cases even though the store is broken down into a set of categories.
