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 the undisputed champion of mapping solutions today. MapQuest, Nokia, Bing, Waze and all these other map services are good, but only in limited regions; Google Maps covers more area and in greater detail.
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."
Fans of Android who have been patiently waiting for Google to announce some hard details on their next Nexus smartphone could be in for some good news, as the latest speculation is suggesting that we could be seeing some moves from the company during the month of October. The chatter doesn't extend as far as specifying whether or not Google will treat us to an announcement of the purported device, or go one step ahead and actually launch the product the next month, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.
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 it may have, regrettably, lost its place among Apple's native iOS apps, Google has been working tirelessly in updating and improving its Maps service, which is one of the strongest and most polished services available. Since announcing a bunch of improvements back in June, including dramatic enhancements to the quality of 3D images, much work and development has been going on behind the scenes, and the next large update looks finally ready to roll out to consumers.
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.
It shouldn't really come as a great shock to anyone by now that any device running iOS 6 no longer comes with Google Maps installed as the default mapping platform. In fact, it doesn't come as part of iOS 6 in any shape or form. The removal of the tried and tested Maps app as well as Apple's decision to roll their own vector-based mapping solution has been the discussion of the week so far due to the fact that users have managed to find some rather large inadequacies with Apple's own creation.
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.
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.
