The last few weeks have been dominated by the announcement of new hardware from Apple and Nokia in the form of the iPhone 5 and the rather gorgeous looking Lumia 920, respectively. Media events held by Nokia and Apple concentrated on introducing the world to the two new pieces of kit and have succeeded in raising excitement levels for the future of the industry. Apple's new iPhone and the Lumia 920 are sure to be extremely successful in their own right, but it's also worth paying some attention to what the world's largest smartphone vendor - Samsung - has in store for us.
If the old saying bigger is always better is actually true, then it looks like HTC could be onto a winner with one of their latest pieces of hardware. We've been expecting HTC to announce something big (literally) for a while now and have even caught the odd glimpse of some prototype images that have been doing the rounds on the web for the last few weeks. As we brace ourselves for public release of the iPhone 5 at the end of this week, we can also get our hopes up about a great new HTC smartphone, possibly carrying the One X 5 moniker.
Fans of innovative products and mobile gaming will probably be familiar with the original iControlPad hardware that connected to mobile phones, allowing the user to control their favorite games without having to fiddle with on-screen controls. The initial bit of kit connected to smartphones through Bluetooth and brought an extra fun element to mobile based gaming, but things have been taking a little step further with the company's second iteration of the product that they are trying to get funding for via the Kickstarter platform.
We definitely live in a world where we all value the benefit of receiving something for nothing, which is why a lot of the most popular mobile apps are ones that are entirely free of charge to download and don't cost anything to use. Consumers may not immediately see the value in developers building software that isn't monetized, but a lot of times, the work is supported by investors or finances that come from advertisers meaning that savings can be passed onto the consumer. The AireTalk app is a great example of a free of charge piece of kit, but it also has a ton of functionality as well.
Regardless of what side of the fence you happen to sit on when it comes down to the old and rather tiresome Android vs. iOS debate, the fact remains that each of the mobile operating systems has definite benefits over the other. The flip side is also true that each of the firmware comes with a definitive set of issues that can, on occasions, deter users from purchasing a device that runs them. One of the oldest myths that still seems to get airtime is that iOS is security tight, but we have seen that disproven on multiple occasions. However, even though Apple still has a little work to do with iOS, the latest reports suggest that Android users are definitely at risk.
S Voice for Galaxy S III may look and work a lot like Siri for iPhone 4S, but it has been shown in multiple tests that both voice-based services are, in most ways, inferior to Google Now that comes built-in with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
Battery retention is a massive issue with our electronic devices, and the smaller, thinner, and lighter they've become, the harder vendors have had to strive to keep the battery retention at optimum level. The companies behind our notebooks, smartphones and tablets tend to quote a battery life seldom reachable for the majority, and more often than not, the onus is on the consumer to take battery-conserving steps in avoiding that fateful warning popup or dreaded low battery logo in the corner.
One of the main issues with Samsung devices that run Android - or any device that is powered by that particular operating system in fact - is the huge fragmentation issue that accompanies it. More often than not, powerful and high-end devices are often running outdated versions of Android, meaning that consumers are often missing out on features that have been integrated into new builds. This issue is something that we will likely see in the future as we continue to move forward and won't go away anytime soon.
Samsung is the number one smartphone manufacturer in the world right now, and having yielded huge success with the Galaxy S and Galaxy S II, few could have foreseen the impact of the Galaxy Note, which although seeming to look far too large for most pockets, actually sold in impressive numbers.
Google and ASUS had to cut a few corners to sell their Nexus 7 at $199. The tablet has no rear camera, support for cellular data, or expansion via microSD card slot, and comes with an SD front facing camera. Despite all these things, the tablet is still being sold at a loss to gain traction.
