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.
With many products from various manufacturers already said to be arriving in what's shaping up to be an explosive next few months, Samsung has voluntarily added itself to the fray by notifying the guys over at TheVerge of a significant Galaxy announcement on August 15th.
Sparrow, the creator of those very popular iOS and OS X applications, has just been acquired by Google, in a move which will certainly raise more than a few eyebrows. Sparrow has dedicated its existence on making some altogether great apps for Apple's platforms, but it is the Big G that has decided to swoop for the start-up, and Sparrow will now join the Gmail team to "accomplish a bigger vision."
If you heard some murmurings earlier this month about the future release of yet another mobile operating system and wondered if you had been living in some kind of Total Recall fantasy then don't worry, you can rest assured that reality is firmly in your grips. Mozilla announced that they are planning on entering the mobile market next year with their Firefox OS, with the intention being to allow Alcatel and ZTE to ship some bottom of the market type devices powered by the operating system.
Some smartphones just outright refuse to die. The HTC HD2, released in late 2009, is the most recent example of this. It was the first smartphone with a 4.3” display*, powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, a 5-megapixel camera. The HD2 was the last smartphone that was based on Windows Mobile 6.5, but later, thanks to vibrant community support, the device was able to run Windows Phone 7, and Android all the way from 2.2 to the recently released 4.1 Jelly Bean.
With the final chapter in the trilogy of Christian Bale's Batman - Dark Knight Rises - having launched worldwide yesterday, the iOS title also made its way over to the App Store to supplement its box office release. Now, casually late as usual, the Android iteration is available to download over at the Google Play Store at the cost of $6.99.
We’ve already discussed everything you need to know about Jelly Bean in one of our previous post, but if you’re not in the mood to read the lengthy post itself, you should know that Android 4.1 brings vastly smoother user interface, more powerful notifications, better keyboard with next word prediction and offline typing, and lastly, the amazing Google Now.
Although it has been recently reported that current Apple CEO Tim Cook has been meeting with Samsung executives to discuss the ongoing patent battles which are becoming laborious to both sides, it seems that it hasn't stopped the disputes from hitting the courts once again. In a United States appeals court, Samsung again had to experience defeat as a judge has seen no reason to overturn a sales ban relating to their Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.
As well as making any tech fan shudder, the drop tests of our much loved gadgets serve an educational purpose, because despite most consumers getting carried away with nice displays, sharp cameras and other great hardware features, few actually take into consideration how quickly it can all be lost with one spillage or drop on the floor.
Apart from having a sense of glee and excitement every time we unlock the device, one thing all iOS device owners have in common is the fact that we have to contend with the environmental elements on a daily basis. Once upon a time, we used to gauge the weather based on the time of year and what season we were in, but those days are long gone with mother nature becoming increasingly erratic over what weather conditions she dishes out.
