When I shifted to the iPhone from a Samsung Galaxy S II, one of the things I liked instantly was its iMessage service. As a matter of fact, much of communication between the people working at Redmond Pie takes place through iMessage. We like it for its instantaneousness and security.
XBMC, the free, open source cross-platform media player extraordinaire, will soon be arriving at the Google Play Store, the company has confirmed in a blog post on its site. Although mobile iterations of software tend to be considerably watered-down, XBMC is said to be a fully-fledged, feature-rich port, and will be available for Android tablets, smartphones, or set-top boxes.
Google has been branching out beyond its famed Maps app for the past couple of years in order to offer its customers a more well-rounded and feature-rich navigation experience. With Apple ousting Google Maps from iOS - a large source of the Web company's revenue - the work Google has put into enhancing its own services has been evident.
Social network usage has rised exponentially over the past few years. Most of us actively use 2-3 social networks every day - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram for example. It is, then, a little strange that iOS' Contacts app hasn't evolved much, if at all since 2007. Contacts apps on Android and Windows Phone 7 are particularly powerful when you compare them with Apple's offering. Contacts on WP7 are deeply integrated with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You can open up a contact in the app and see all their latest updates and uploaded personal information, contact them via these networks without ever having to launch dedicated apps. Now, you can enjoy the same level of integration on iOS, albeit in the form of a third-party app. Check it out after the jump.
About a week ago, we reported on that FCC filing that surfaced which suggested that a new PlayStation 3 model - perhaps the last to be released before the next-generation PlayStation debuts - is in the works. Now, a more revealing leak has surfaced, again from another filing; Tecnoblog discovered several alleged images of the device itself that were included in a filing with the Brazilian Agency of Telecommunications (Anatal).
Apple has been without relent in its pursuit of Google and Samsung, claiming patent infringements on a grand scale. Judge Lucy Koh last week dished out a ban on Galaxy Nexus sales to the Big G, and the web company duly obliged, removing the device from its Play Store. Earlier this week, the device returned, packing in Android Jelly Bean 4.1, a move which is said to amend any issues with regards to the claims Apple made in court, but having followed this Apple vs. Anybody debacle for quite a great deal of time, it should be of no surprise that the Cupertino company has not quite finished yet.
The Ouya games console, which paints itself as something of a dream machine to modders and developers, has become the fastest-grossing Kickstarter campaign in just a few short days, and at the time of writing, has just passed the $4.5 million mark with over 35,000 backers. Not bad going really, considering the initial target was a comparatively-meager $950,000, and with the device, which is pronounced "ooh-yah", taking up a great deal of column inches right now, the future looks bright for the $99 console.
Smartive Hotels is a new free Android app which hopes to make the finding and booking of hotel rooms as easy as possible, right from the comfort of your own smartphone. Travelling is one of life's little luxuries that comes with an annoying down side. While the fun of travelling the world, or even your own country is undoubtable, actually setting the trip up can actually leave you ready for a holiday even more! There's the travel, which is often no picnic, and then there's the ever stressful job of finding the right hotel for you.
Facebook, although the world's number one social network, has failed to capitalize fully on the mobile market, and its apps for each of the respective three big mobile operating systems have left a lot to be desired. Mark Zuckerberg's company is always releasing updates for each platform, and despite usually amending bugs from the previous iterations, always seem to have a multitude of new, prominent performance issues.
The British Broadcasting Service, or BBC, is renowned worldwide for its eloquent, objective news publications, and with this year's Olympic Games being held in London, it was only right the BBC, often referred to as the Beeb, would deliver its own app designed especially for the games.
