Cut The Rope is your archetypal addictive mobile title. Basic physics + tricky challenges seems to invariably equate to a large-scale casual gaming frenzy, and of all the titles popularized by iOS and Android, Cut The Rope is most certainly up there.
Angry Birds has become the biggest success of mobile gaming to date, and in five short years, it has become a billion dollar franchise, rendering the game just a chapter of the entire story. As well as the four titles for iOS, Android, Chrome, Facebook, Mac, Windows etc., we've seen all manner of Angry Birds products from the weird to the wonderful, and now reports suggest that Rovio is looking to launch a credit card in Russia.
Taking a seat at the All Things Digital conference, Tim Cook touched on a number of topics without revealing anything too delicious - including questions about an Apple TV, his role at the company now during the post-Jobs era, and Facebook, among some other things - but he also revealed a little tidbit about the beloved iPhone 4S. It's true; as some may have guessed, the 'S' in 4S definitely stands for Siri. On top of confirming this, he also did take the time to acknowledge that, in its current state at least, Siri does still have its bugs. When it works, it's an excellent product, but it often doesn't.
If there are two things that Android has over its iOS competition, they are both personified by the app we are about to tell you about. It is an app that would never see the light of day in Apple's App Store, and shows just how useful having a wide open app development playing field can be.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 has received yet another shot in the arm, with a new player coming online in the instant content streaming portion of the console's developing world. Having already outed a PlayStation 3 app, Amazon has now seen fit to bring Xbox 360 owners under its wing, allowing those with both an Xbox LIVE Gold account as well as an Amazon Prime subscription to stream movies and TV shows instantly.
While the MacBook Air has garnered a strong following for its ultra-sleek design and form factor, the MacBook Pro remains a beautiful marriage of craftsmanship and high-end hardware. Recently, there's been talk - since quashed - of the Pro following the motif of the Air in bringing a sloped shell, but despite not expecting such a design from Apple any time soon, that hasn't stopped designer Guilherme Schasiepen from spreading his wings and teasing a truly marvelous-looking MacBook Pro concept.
The good news just keeps on coming for those jailbroken Apple device owners who are running iOS 5.1.1. After an initial period of waiting, the party began last Friday with the release of Absinthe 2.0 by the Chronic Dev Team which provided an untether on iOS 5.1.1 for a wide array of iOS devices. That tool has since been updated to provide additional support for the latest GSM iPhone 4 firmware build.
The next iPhone, which has unofficially been dubbed the "iPhone 5," is expected to arrive some time later on this year. From reports, rumors and leaks gathered hitherto, it will remain the same width and of a similar depth to the current iPhone 4S, but the screen - and subsequently the device itself - will become longer, adding more pixels while keeping the same pixel density of the Retina display seen in Apple's flagship device of today.
Today's tech news will be largely dominated by Android, and given the successor to the biggest selling Android device to date is launching across much of Europe and the Middle East, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. In conjunction with the big launch of the Samsung Galaxy S III, the Korean LCD specialist is also (re)introducing its Music Hub app, which has been massively revamped in order to be taken seriously as a competitor to the popular services like iTunes and Spotify.
After the announcement by Samsung of its eagerly-awaited Galaxy S III back on the fifth of this month, consumers have had to remain content with video reviews and hands on previews in order to catch a glimpse of the device. The wait for the release is finally over, though, and the grand launch is today taking place across 28 different countries.
