Smartphones have great range of uses - a range which is increasing all the time, but occasionally, an unexpected use crops up, and Metal Sniffer - a utility allowing you to locate scraps of metal using just your Android device - certainly falls under that umbrella.
It still seems like madness that in some cases, brand new Android powered smartphones and tablets don't get shipped with Google's latest version of the Android operating system installed upon them. If I was rushing to the store to purchase myself some of the latest hardware, I would expect it to ship with the latest and greatest software available in the market.
Sony has announced today that it plans to partner with Activison to introduce yet another gaming bundle to the market, this time based off of the highly popular - practically a household name - first-person shooter, Modern Warfare 3. The bundle will include a 320GB PS3, and of course, a copy of MW3 for the decent cost of $299.
For those iOS device owning social networking fans out there, the time has come to head on over to the App Store and see for yourself the direction which Google has decided to take with their iOS version of the Google+ app. After already going through a number of updates since initial launch, Google haven't really wowed anyone with their Google+ mobile app, but version 2.0 of the said app will definitely up the game a bit.
For those Mac users who are running OS X Lion, version 10.7.3 or earlier, the time has come to fire up the Software Update app and download the Lion goodness which Apple has pushed out today. The Cupertino company have seen it fit to release OS X Lion 10.7.4, an update that features a number of important security fixes, some general improvements, as well as an update to the Safari browser.
The cat and mouse game between Apple's security team and the many hackers of the jailbreak scene is never more obvious when a new iteration of iOS is released. Only hours ago did the fruit company seed iOS 5.1.1 to the end-user, and already the various dev teams are bringing updates to their respective unlock and JB utilities.
Gaming on mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad is fast becoming a huge business for both Apple and the video game developers, and when talking about publishing houses, the one which is on the top shelf is Gameloft. In the recent rise in popularity of mobile gaming, there has been a number of games that have rose to prominence, with Gameloft's N.O.V.A. being right up there at the top.
Over the course of the last six months or so, active developers in the jailbreak scene have paid particular attention to modifying, extending and enhancing the way notifications are handled on an iOS device. This focus has generally come from the fact that Apple added things like Notification Center in iOS 5, and changed the way notifications are displayed to the end user by adding a non-intrusive banner alert system.
We should all be used to the fact that whenever a large scale sporting event happens somewhere in the world, a string of companies strike deals with the organizers to to be able to call themselves 'official sponsors' of the event, or name one of their products as the official drink or chewing gum.
The research and development teams over at Microsoft Labs can pride themselves on being the people who managed to come up with the fantastic Kinect motion-sensing hardware, a handy piece of kit that uses a built-in camera to detect and interpret motion. Since release, the Kinect has been super successful, both with owners of the Xbox gaming console and those technology enthusiasts who have sought to produce open-source software for the hardware.
