Android 4.1 Jelly Bean was announced to much fanfare at Google I/O 2012. It introduced a nice variety of features like vastly smoother user interface with Project Butter, more powerful notifications system, Google Now, offline voice typing and more.
The Nexus Q is one heck of a weird gadget. The "social streaming" thingamajig has the heart of a Android smartphone with it's dual core processor, powerful graphics 16GB flash storage and 1GB RAM, but the features of a severely crippled Apple TV. It is somewhat similar to the Apple TV in that it can stream content using an Android smartphone or tablet as a remote (Apple TV does this with mobile iOS device or a Mountain Lion based Mac), but the problem is that it costs nearly thrice as much, streams content only from Google Play’s limited library and YouTube and can't even be used without an Android device. The gadget has received mixed reviews so far.
Although many of the large consumer electronics companies outsource their work to China, the number of legitimate products produced within the world's most populous country is eclipsed by the number of fakes lurking about. Apple is the usual target of the fakery, and although none of us would consider purchasing the grossly inferior rip-offs, it's certainly entertaining to look at them - particularly when placed alongside the real deal.
Using Twitter, perhaps more so than any other social platform, seems perfectly matched to the mobile market. Everything said is within the 140 character limit - fending off those who like to broadcast an unabridged version of their life story, and it has overtaken the RSS reader in allowing users to keep up with the news feeds they really want to follow.
Google's I/O conference brought little in the way of surprise, but still presented aficionados of the Big G with plenty to get excited about. As well as the Nexus 7 tablet, which has seen an uprising in talk of a smaller iPad (a device which, as yet, hasn't been proved to be in development), Google also announced Android Jelly Bean (4.1), the successor to the rather tasty Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) operating system.
The tirade of Android malware continues to appear, and although it's been a quiet month of July for those who like to wreak havoc on our devices, a new outbreak is never too far away. The latest case in the continual Android malware debacle actually buys applications for you, and while that should be a positive thing, you're the one footing the bill when the waiter arrives.
If you've seen one of Samsung's ads over the last year or so then you'll probably already know that the Korean firm has not been too shy about poking fun at Apple. In fact, Samsung has even seen Apple's customers as fair game when putting its ads together, making fun of the people who line up outside an Apple store for a new iPhone, for example.
Google released Android Jelly Bean, or at least announced it, at Google I/O recently. Since then, Android enthusiasts the world over have been clamoring to get their hands on the latest version of the mobile operating system to come out of the search giant's Googleplex campus. If you're the owner of a Galaxy Nexus then you're one short flash away from having the Jelly Bean experience installed on your very own device. If not though, you face a wait of indeterminable time.
Fans of the Samsung S III are receiving an update to the handset they love so much, with the smartphone maker pushing a new version of software out. Only available for the international version of the hugely popular device, the update weighs in at around 73MB and does not offer any additions that will blow your socks off. According to the literature though, users will be in for an increase in stability, which is always welcome.
Yes, yes, I know; we're featuring yet another image editing app. But when a developer goes above and beyond the call of duty to offer a seemingly endless inventory of manipulation options and effects, it's only right we give it a mention.
