While only a very tiny fraction of Android smartphones are running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, rumors and reports of the next version of Google’s popular mobile platform are starting to emerge online.
With the Galaxy Nexus being over a year old now, rumors for the next device in the Nexus series of Android Experience smartphones are getting stronger and stronger by the day. Back in August, details regarding the specifications of the next Galaxy Nexus smartphone emerged online. Last month, we heard more news about the next Galaxy Nexus’ specifications and then, after a week, we saw an alleged photo taken using a Galaxy Nexus II.
Google is expected to drop a handful of Nexus series devices this fall, and according to an alleged mobile retailer database listing, the Samsung-manufactured Nexus 2 will be one of those handsets, along with a 32GB iteration of the ASUS-made Nexus 7 tablet.
To many of us tech-orientated folk, there's something really fascinating about a wristwatch which, to some degree, manages to offer the features we've become accustomed to with our various other mobile gadgets. Much has been made over Apple's purported "iWatch" over the past couple of years, and although the fruit company hasn't even so much as hinted such a device would be on the way, various patents filed have been more than suggestive. Now, Mountain View-based Google looks as though it might get in on the act, filing a patent of its own for what looks to be a so-called "smartwatch."
iOS 6 Maps has received its fair share of criticism from the customers and the press, prompting Apple to publish an apologetic letter on their official website’s landing page, and even suggesting users to use third-party alternatives until iOS 6 Maps improve.
One of the biggest recent controversies in the smartphone industry is that of Apple replacing Google Maps with their own Maps solution in iOS 6. A small book can be written on the topic, but the tl;dr of it is that, after nearing the end of their Maps deal with Google, Apple had no choice but to include their own Maps in iOS 6, and the decision has garnered considerable criticism from customers.
Although Apple's iPad has dominated the tablet market consistently since first launching in 2010, Google threw down the gauntlet to its Cupertino-based rival by launching the Nexus 7. Prior to the 7-inch slate, which was manufactured by ASUS, the only non-Apple tablet to create any sort of hype was Amazon's Kindle Fire, and although it - similarly to the Nexus 7 - was priced at an incredibly low price compared to the rest of the market, it didn't quite pack the performance we'd come to expect, and essentially felt like a cheap alternative.
Google will be bringing Street View to its mobile web app within two weeks, according to The New York Times’ David Pogue. The note was plucked from a report in which Pogue spoke of Apple's problematic new Maps offering, and although the mobile web app hasn't been such a hot topic in the past (mainly because the two main mobile ecosystems had native apps), Apple's poor first attempt in the Maps game has left Apple scrambling to remedy the problem.
Google's Play Store has just reached an incredible 25 billion downloads, and in order to share the celebratory mood with its hundreds of millions of users, Google has teamed up with some of the biggest app houses to offer a selection of titles for just a quarter.
Although some users are reporting a few issues with Apple's new iPhone 5 smartphone, the first weekend sales figures seem to indicate that users have taken the device to their hearts, with Apple looking likely to have yet another commercially successful piece of kit on their hands. The official press release also made it known that users have snapped up the opportunity to download and install iOS 6 more than one hundred million times, since it went officially live last week.
