In the last ten years, Apple have pulled themselves from the brink of obscurity into being worth an estimated half a trillion dollars. They have revolutionized the digital download industry spanning across music and video. They have released one of the most important consumer electronics devices of all time in the iPad which is changing the way we use think of technology and helping to reshape educational institutes.
Originally released on November 22nd, 2005, the Xbox 360 has been around for just over six years now. Sure, there have been multiple variations of the 360 that have been launched during that six year period - such as the Elite, Arcade, and the sleek, thinner S - but there is yet to be a major revision to its hardware. That being said, Microsoft's huge focus as of late with the Xbox 360 has been software. At E3 of last year, several major updates to the 360's software were announced and subsequently released, such as Live TV, a redesigned, Metro-inspired dashboard, voice commands, and improvements pertaining to the Kinect.
Most of us can recall that iconic "I’m a Mac" ad campaign by Apple some years ago, which saw Justin Long represent the Mac brand as a trendy, young, modern guy whilst John Hodgman was a comparatively old, middle-aged man carrying the flag for PC.
It was only yesterday morning that the Microsoft team held an event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and announced that the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, essentially a prerelease version of Windows 8, would be made available immediately for public download. Windows 8 was described by Microsoft was "Windows reimagined", which sounds awfully familiar to the "Inspired by iPad, reimagined for Mac" tagline that Apple are muttering with their Mountain Lion OS.
Before a product is announced, the actual name of it is always a speculative, educated guessing game. The last couple have months have been dominated by talk of the "iPad 3", but, with the Retina display all-but a certainty, some sources now suggest the Cupertino's third tablet installment will be called iPad HD.
The guys over at OnLive Inc. have been a busy bunch of individuals, bringing us the iPad launch of their OnLive Desktop application a few days ago, and today releasing the Android version of the software which is now available in the Android Market. A lot of you may hear OnLive and relate it to the ability to stream video games without the need for a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox 360, and you'd be right. The company are also responsible for that gaming platform but have also extended their cloud services further in recent months.
We can all sit back comfortably knowing that in the next few days the Apple rumor train, which has been rife recently, will soon descend back into the station, at least until we start nearing another product launch. In the last few days we were treated to reports which surrounded a leaked photograph of what was believed to be the front glass and digitizer for the soon to be announced third generation iPad. If the images found on the Sina Weibo, the Chinese Twitter equivalent, do represent the front panel for the new Apple tablet then it would appear that not a great deal has changed aesthetically other than the connection ribbon.
E-reading has become a hugely popular pastime over the last few years - largely attributable to the release of devices such as Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPad tablet.
The majority of iOS device owners who choose to go down the root of jailbreaking, do so because of the functionality enhancements that it can provide. By installing Cydia as a byproduct of the jailbreak process, users are presented with a near endless supply of tweaks and modifications which can dramatically improve the already excellent user experience of an iPhone or iPad. One such tweak that can provide this enhanced experience is the one that we are pretty sure most community members have heard of, comes from developer Grant Paul (chpwn)and goes by the name of 'Zephyr'.
Last year, company by the name of CutYourSim caused a mixture of excitement, confusion, and subsequent disappointment and cynicism when it released a permanent unlock procedure - only for the service to be abruptly halted once Apple caught wind of what was occurring.
