It sometimes really doesn't matter how hard companies like Apple and Google try to make their devices and operating systems the best and most powerful on the market, users just occasionally want to try something a little different. As you would expect, devices running the Android operating system always ship with a built-in native music player app which allows playback of any track that is imported to the device. Unfortunately, native apps don't always offer a one-size-fits-all solution, meaning people are often forced to look elsewhere.
We are all involved in a modern world that is connected through social media and made smaller by gadgets like the iPhone and iPad which allow us all to remain in constant contact with each other. Apple has provided us with the technology to stay connected, but the development community also has a responsibility to provide us with apps that want us to connect to one another and share our interactions.
As a Windows user (and as an ex Ubuntu user), I like to keep my Windows experience as pure as possible. What I mean by “pure” is that I try to stay away from installing things like themes, transformation packs and UI features from other operating systems. Windows 7 on my two year old computer looks a lot like a freshly installed copy of Windows 7.
For those amongst us are who registered members of the Twitter micro-blogging service and also happen to own an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch will know that when it comes to choosing a Twitter app, it is a difficult choice. Out of the multiple Twitter apps available on the App Store, they all pretty much offer the same experience packaged into a different user-interface, that was until Tweetbot came along and raised the bar with an entirely custom UI mixed with great gestures and user interactions.
Of all the features that arrived when iOS 5 reached the end-user back in October of last year, iMessage has been arguably the most significant, and by now allowing messages to be sent and received in a faster, more secure manner across a variety of platforms, it has to go down as one of the best in the business. Granted, it has its occasional downtime, but it's not bad as is, and with the service also arriving to the Mac with OS X Mountain Lion, it will almost certainly become the sole mode of quick communication to many Apple enthusiasts.
Touch is a now the dominant method of input for mobile devices. Although touchscreen based devices have existed for a long time, they were popularized and made user friendly with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and iPad in 2010. In his original iPhone keynote, Steve Jobs categorically stated that if the device requires a stylus, you’re doing something wrong. And we tend to agree with him to some extent, emphasis on extent.
VLC Media Player from VideoLAN has long stood out as the media player of choice among consumers. Famed for handling just about any media format you could care to throw at it, it’s certainly the best in the business, and although the VLC Media Player app was tossed from the App Store by Apple, VideoLAN as bounced back, offering an iteration for Google’s Android platform.
Although Android is quite a distance ahead of the competition in terms of reach and overall user numbers, it does have its caveats, and one glaring issue prominent from the beginning has been that of audio latency. Android Jelly Bean (4.1) has just released to a number of devices, and although it is a significant improvement on previous iterations (ICS saw playback latency of around 88ms), the audio lag issue still exists.
With the on-going development of iOS 6, the production of the next generation iPhone and the rumored smaller iPad, as well as the imminent release of OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has been really scrutinized lately be a Russian researcher who found a way to bypass the in-app purchase process in apps available via the official App Store. The bypass procedure, involving an intermediary server and two iPhone certificates undoubtedly caused an internal headache at Apple and prompted almost immediate action.
As primarily an iOS user (with quite a bit of time for Android, mind), I have had very little experience with Microsoft's Windows Phone platform. In fact, apart from toying around with a Lumia 800 (which, by the way, I did rather enjoy), I have to confess to being a bit of a noob when it comes to the platform, but nevertheless, I am as excited as any with the prospect of Windows Phone 8.
