One thing that Apple did right when they copied Android’s excellent notifications drawer feature was its ability to work even with full-screen apps such as games, video players and alternative browsers. By default, Android doesn’t give you this option. If you’re inside a full-screen app and wish to see the time or the latest notifications, you are forced to exit the app and then pull the notification drawer from the homescreen. It’s inelegant, ugly and simply makes for an inconsistent user-experience.
The official iOS App Store from Apple changed the way consumers think about and purchase software in a similar fashion to how the launch of the iTunes music store revolutionized the online music industry. The App Store was born in 2008 and has grown at a rapid rate over the last few years as millions of users tap into it on a daily basis to download and install apps spanning across multiple genres. Only recently Apple announced that the App Store had served up over 25 billion downloads since its inception, bringing proof if anyone needed it of the phenomenal success of the store.
One of the most favored update to be implemented into a new build of iOS has to be Apple's iMessaging system that came bundled with iOS 5 back in October 2011. The iMessage service is Apple's messaging experience on iOS devices, working across the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and soon to be officially supported by the Messages app as part of the new OS X Mountain Lion operating system coming this summer. The service allows all iOS 5 users to send unlimited messages over a data or Wi-Fi connection to other iMessage users and is bundled as part of the native Messages app.
One of the more significant additions to Windows 8 (on the latest Consumer Preview build) - which is critical for the platform to succeed in the tablet space - is the Windows Store, essentially an app store where you can purchase applications for Windows, particularly Metro-style ones. Thus, in terms of functionality, it's pretty much like a combination of the iOS and Mac App Stores. But, in usability and design, it does have its differences.
According to new figures released by an iOS app developer, iOS 5.1 has seen huge growth amongst owners of iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, bringing a large percentage of devices up to the latest version of iOS within just two weeks.
iH8sn0w, the well known iOS developer and researcher who is responsible for the production of Sn0wbreeze, iFaith, iReb and f0recast has been hard at work again trying to resolve an issue that has been tainting the experience of owners of the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. The said two Apple devices are powered by the A5 processor, and as any jailbreak fan will know, it hasn't previously been possible to perform firmware downgrades on those two units. When Apple releases a new version of iOS, they promptly stop signing the older firmware, meaning that any official restores result in the user installing the latest official iOS version onto their device.
There are a bunch of image-only social apps out in the wild just now, but none seem to have captured the imagination quite like Instagram for iPhone.
Download managers are one of the most popular software on desktop computers. Their working consists of two-parts: to efficiently manage all downloads from the internet and to ensure that the files get downloaded at the fastest speeds possible. These managers use “download acceleration” technology to speed up downloads in which the file you’re downloading is split up into many parts and then all parts are downloaded simultaneously. This is done to circumvent connection limitations related to bandwidth given per connection.
With so much power packed into these little devices, I say it’s a shame if you don’t make full use of all of it. Whether it’s getting out of Apple’s nicely-maintained walled-garden or Android device manufacturer’s locked, stock ROM, rooting your smartphone/tablet is something I recommend all tech-savvy people to go ahead with. There’s an entire world of apps, tweaks and ROMs just waiting to be played around with.
If internet users actually took a few minutes to sit back and take stock of the amount of information they extract from the world wide web on a daily basis I think they might actually be a little taken aback. The majority of individuals use the internet to learn and acquire information as well as seeking out and watching videos of cute puppies on YouTube. With sites like YouTube and Vimeo, search engine giants such as Google and free information hubs like Wikipedia; the internet really does have something for everyone and it is a very rare instance that you can't find an answer to something you are looking for.
