If there is one thing which we love the most apart from an official launch of a new smartphone from manufacturers like Apple or Samsung is when concept developers throw their hat into the ring and produce some seriously gorgeous looking renders of entirely fictional devices. It isn't uncommon to see designers producing images of what they believe new Apple devices will look like, but this time, it’s the turn of Google to get the treatment as Dorian Lust has knocked up what he believes a possible Google Nexus device could look like.
Google paints its Wallet services as the future of shopping transactions, and using the power of NFC, or Near Field Communication, it has certainly shown much promise. The lack of a few important features is largely attributable to its infant state, but today, the Big G has given Wallet a pretty big update, offering support for all major credit and debit cards.
The smartphone industry is one of the most fiercely contested in tech space, and although Windows Phone 8 will bring Microsoft well and truly into the fold, the battle is currently fought between Google's Android and Apple's iOS platforms.
In terms of technology, we're heavily reliant on insider information and the typically "unspecified" sources in order to gather intel, but often, indications of new features are right under our noses. When a new software feature arrives in Android or iOS, the foundations are usually laid long before that, and it's down to us to do the digging and uncover them.
Android Jelly Bean (4.1) seems to have gone down a treat among those using it, and it certainly seems as though Project Butter - a movement to make Android a lot sleeker and lag-free - has done the trick. With any new operating system, the temptation for many is to simply mod and tweak in order to decipher just what it's capable of, and for those having done a little - maybe too much - modding on their Nexus device, you'll be pleased to know you can grab a fresh, stock copy of your mobile OS.
The tablet market is one which is arguably already sewn up. It's already done. Dead. Finished. It's already Apple's. Or is it? With Apple undoubtedly heading the charts in and around the $500 price bracket, there is plenty of room for manufacturers to play below that mark. As the netbook market showed years ago, if you can make something cheap, people will buy it, regardless of whether it's any good or not.
Apple's iPad has dominated a market it is credited with creating back in 2010, when the very first iPad slate was unveiled to a very mixed response. Some lauded it as the next best thing, while the skeptics brushed it off as merely a large iPhone, but nobody can argue it has been a huge success, one most Android vendors have tried - and failed - to emulate.
Ever since Google pushed Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), we’ve seen a bevy of quickly put together ROMs for popular devices. Smartphones like the Galaxy S III, One X and tablets like the original ASUS Transformer and Kindle Fire all have one or more Android 4.1 Jelly Bean based custom ROMs available for those who want to get a taste of the confectionery.
The Nexus 7 tablet has been an almost permanent fixture in tech news of late, and with sales currently through the roof, Google has finally given its cheap-yet-powerful tablet its very first advertisement.
Sparrow, the creator of those very popular iOS and OS X applications, has just been acquired by Google, in a move which will certainly raise more than a few eyebrows. Sparrow has dedicated its existence on making some altogether great apps for Apple's platforms, but it is the Big G that has decided to swoop for the start-up, and Sparrow will now join the Gmail team to "accomplish a bigger vision."
