Ever since smartphones began earning their stripes as very adept and convenient Wi-Fi hotspots, companies and carriers have been looking for ways to halt the trend - or at the very least, charge more.
When Apple launched the iPhone 4S in October of 2011, one of the most talked about and probably its headline feature was the inclusion of the Siri intelligent assistant software which attempted to make life easier by being able to accomplish tasks given to it through a simple voice command. When invoked by the user, Siri is ready and able to take spoken orders which can range from setting meetings up in the calendar, checking the location of friends and family or even pulling up a weather forecast for most locations in the world.
When anyone mentions a touchscreen device, or to be more specific; a touchscreen tablet device, you instinctively think about Apple and the iPad. Ever since the creation of the ground breaking iPhone in 2007, and the subsequent release of the iPad in 2010, touchscreen devices seem to be synonymous with the company. Apple obviously weren't the first technology company to come up with the idea of controlling a mobile device through a touch based interface, but when they entered that segment of the market, they managed to totally reinvent it and almost assume ownership.
The Apple and gadget loving world is going crazy about the new iPad, set to launch in seven days time around the world, but while it is great that we are going to have a beautiful, Retina ready iPad to play with, we need to spare some time to think about the iOS software that powers Apple's amazing devices. A relatively small part of the Apple media event in San Francisco was dedicated to the news that the company were set to release the latest 5.1 update to iOS. Tim Cook spent a few minutes discussing some small additions and paid most attention to the fact that it would being Siri to the Japanese market, but straight after the event device owners all over the world started seeing iOS 5.1 as an available update.
Sometimes limitations are good. Digitally speaking, if a carrier limits download speeds to prevent excess costs, we're grateful. But if a hardware or software vendor imposes limits we cannot change, this can be of extreme annoyance.
Microsoft has reportedly revealed to partners that its next-generation Xbox - unofficially dubbed the "Xbox 720" - will not feature an optical drive, and that games and other content will only be accessible through downloads or an "interchangeable solid-state card storage".
Every now and then, an event comes along which stands out from the rest and makes its name due to the fact that it is either the first of its kind, or, does something which has already been done but in an entirely different way. Toward the back end of 2011, we were proud to be involved as media partners for the MyGreatFest event, which took part in the heart of London, featuring some of the most prominent names that are associated with the jailbreak community on one way or the other.
Of all the popular titles to have forged a significant following on mobile devices over the last couple of years, Angry Birds is far and away the leader.
Whether you have been experiencing battery woes, or you are just pining for an untethered jailbreak, there are a variety of reason as to why you may wish to downgrade your device from iOS 5.1 back to iOS 5.0.1 or 4.x.
Even though iOS and OS X are both very easy on the eye, that doesn't mean some users wouldn't like to make changes here and there.
