There are some case manufacturers that have made a name for themselves with their high-quality merchandise. Providers such as Gear4, Cygnett and Otter are well-known for their branded cases, which are of a much higher standard than conventional, generic case covers, in terms of both design and protection. So any iPhone 5 users out there should be very happy, because our new range of iPhone cases are provided by just such a manufacturer – say hello to our incredible new catalogue of Case Mate products! Founded in 2006, Case Mate has always had one goal in mind: providing the trendiest and most fashionable phone cases around. They aim for absolute satisfaction from all their consumers, and in the six years since their inception they’ve become one of the most lucrative and best-known brands in the world. Multimillion dollar partnerships with retailers and designers alike have led to some of the most recognisable and stylish cases in the whole world – any true Smartphone connoisseur would be proud to own one of these amazing cases, and today we’re going to be showcasing the first four in what will one day be a grand collection!
First up, the Barely There case - so called because it is manufactured from silicone, a lightweight and synthetic material. That means that while it will provide a great level of protection from damage such as scratches, dents, chips and scrapes, it remains sleek, slim-line and unobtrusive, adding no excess bulk to the chic profile of your new iPhone! Its smooth exterior provides a glossy surface which is both attractive and convenient, as it significantly reduces the chances of drops due to the good grip it provides. Even if drops do occur, a padded lining in the interior of the Barely There case will cushion your iPhone, reducing damage. With handy cut-outs to enable you to use features such as the headphone jack, charger port and camera, this case provides protection, style and an unparalleled degree of convenience – ideal for the average iPhone user, who expects all three from their flagship device!
Second up is the clear transparent ‘naked’ case. As you might be able to guess from its name, this case cover is see-through; unlike other protective cases (which can affect the style of your iPhone), this one enables you to maintain the iconic Apple design that you’ve come to know and love. It’s laser-cut from acrylic resin, which ensures a durable and long-lasting case that is guaranteed to mitigate scratches and dents – and like the Barely There case, a padded lining cushions your iPhone from the force of impacts, reducing drop damage, too! Crystal-clear clarity is yours for the taking with the Case Mate clear naked case in hand!
Next up, part of Case Mate’s ‘Creatures’ range – the Bubbles the monkey case! Manufactured from flexible silicone, the monkey case has a textured and tactile design that’s amazingly comfortable to hold, ensuring a user experience that’s both fun and intuitive! Its streamlined and lay-flat design reduces excess bulk, while the slightly upraised bezel ensures additional shielding for the touchscreen of your iPhone. But the main draw of the Bubbles case is its sterling protective qualities: it provides superior shielding from day-to-day damage like scratches, dents and casing chips, preserving the integrity of your iPhone’s body and enabling it to continue looking newer for longer! With an accompanying banana-shaped charm for cheeky aesthetic appeal, you’ll never have to monkey around with this case cover!
Last – but certainly not least – is the Tough Xtreme case. It’s by far the sturdiest and most durable cover in our collection, featuring three interlocking layers of protection which are expertly calculated to provide the maximum amount of protection for your iPhone. The outer layer is comprised of impact-resistant polycore, a material which is guaranteed to prevent everything from simple scratches to the most extreme drops. The inner portion of the case, meanwhile, is padded with duoflex silicone fibres, a shock-absorbing substance which ensures that your iPhone will remain securely cushioned at all times, while simultaneously providing increased stability for the operation of your device. The final layer is a built-in screen protector, which keeps the 4-inch touchscreen of your iPhone safely cloistered from dirt, dust, sand, rain and all other natural wear-and-tear. You’ll never have to worry about the legibility of your screen with this protector in place – you retain crystal-clear clarity at all times. But despite its military-spec durability, the Xtreme case remains simple and intuitive to fit, adding a bare minimum of bulk to the sleek profile of your iPhone! If you own an iPhone 5 of your own, you’re uniquely positioned to take advantage of our new range of Case Mate products. Though we stock many high-quality case covers for Apple’s flagship phone, we have to confess that we’ve never seen finer than these! If you want to purchase one of these superb products for yourself, simply click on one of the above images to instantly be taken to your product page of choice – convenient! And the convenience continues on into our service, with ultra-competitive prices and some of the fastest delivery times around. There’s really no way you can go wrong! As always, any questions, concerns or suggestions you happen to have can be posed in the comments section below; with your help, we aim to become the premier provider of phone cases, covers and accessories in the UK, so don’t hold back! Thanks for reading!
View/Leave Comments
Surprisingly given the great complexity of the case, the nine juror-strong contingency took a mere three days to reach a decision; and that decision was simple – that Samsung had infringed upon six of the seven Apple patents that were in dispute, with five of the six constituting wilful infringement. Though the South Korean conglomerate counter-sued, asserting that Apple had wilfully infringed upon five of its patents (which largely pertained to wireless internet access standards, in lieu of the more subjective design patents levied by Apple), the jury ruled against these assertions, allowing Apple to escape the legal tussle unscathed. This stands in stark opposition to the Seoul ruling a mere week ago, in which the judge ruled that Apple had infringed upon Samsung’s wireless patents, and that the mitigating factor of prior art (design precedent set within the industry) was enough to say that the similarity in appearance between Samsung’s Smartphone and tablet ranges and Apple’s iPhone/iPad was coincidental – or at least coincided with the shift in design across the entire industry.
However, as a professor based in Singapore correctly pointed out, the South Korean standards of intellectual property are significantly less strict than in the US; there’s a long tradition of ‘borrowing’ ideas, and given Samsung’s history of manufacturing their designs in bulk as swiftly as possible (a tradition which has allowed them to supersede Apple in overall global sales, if not profit), it’s likely the South Korean chaebol was not able to vet their designs as comprehensively as an American company like Apple. Statements like this represent the sense of resignation that people now have regarding these Smartphone patent struggles; while Samsung has vowed to appeal the decision, and while the disputed devices have yet to be banned (a court case is set in December for this particular detail), a precedent has now been set, and it doesn’t bode well for Android manufacturers of any stripe, whether it be Sony or HTC.
Apple has long insisted that the Android operating system is a spit in the face of their longstanding Smartphone iOS, and Steve Jobs’ famous declaration to “go thermonuclear” on Google, its godfather, has become a virtual holy war for the Cupertino-based company. While the design patents levied against Samsung (and concurrent court cases with companies such as HTC and Motorola) may have validity, most people versed in the topic now accept that Apple is waging a proxy-war – going for the appendages of the hydra before they tackle the beast itself, in the form of Google Inc. And with this precedent now set, Apple has a much greater chance of succeeding in a legal tussle with the search and software giant. But what does this mean for Samsung? Well, it may not mean that much, to be honest – while a $1 billion payout may have crippled many lesser Android manufacturers, Samsung are currently ranked as the top manufacturer globally, and even with a significant stock hit from the decision (7.5%, or over $12 billion) they’re unlikely to be going anywhere anytime soon, considering their vast diversification into fields such as chipset, TV and tablet manufacturing. Their flagship device, the Samsung Galaxy S3, was exempt from the case, and its features are generally regarded to be distinct enough from Apple’s iPhone to not warrant any kind of sanction – a few tweaks here and there, a little time to cleanse the palate of the consumer, and Samsung should be back to doing what they’ve always done.
But the significance of Apple’s victory shouldn’t be underestimated, nevertheless. Now that they have proven their mettle in court against their biggest manufacturing foe, they possess the tools needed to go head-to-head with their foe in the arena of software. We here at Mobile Madhouse confidently expect a dramatic showdown between Apple and Google to occur within the next year or so, an impression bolstered by Google’s recent decision to attack Apple in the form of subsidiary company Motorola Mobility. And rest assured, we’ll keep you up-to-date with all aspects of this trial, should it indeed break out!
The Seoul court reached the conclusion on Friday that Samsung did not infringe upon the designs of the iPhone or iPad, with the judge stating that “these similarities had been documented in previous products”, which constitutes a tactic confirmation of Samsung’s ‘prior art’ defence. The judge went on to note that it would be difficult for consumers to mistake the products, as Apple had claimed, owing to the branded company logos and the significant differences in operating systems, applications, prices and contract services between the two, which also jibes well with Samsung’s defence of consumer intelligence (with a Samsung attorney in the flagship U.S court case protesting that “consumers demand more choice, not less”). Nevertheless, Samsung were fined 25 million Won (approximately £12,000) for infringing upon Apple’s “bounce-back” function in regards to scrolling, and face a ban of ten products, including the Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy SII.
Apple, meanwhile, were found guilty of infringing upon two of Samsung’s wireless technology patents, and face a fine of 40 million won (approximately £22,500), as well as an embargo of four of their products – including the iPad 2 and iPhone 4. Fines of this size are peanuts to the two companies, who regularly boast revenue above 10 billion USD per year, but even given the modest size of the market in South Korea, those sales bans are bound to sting a little, even if they don’t eat into the profit margins significantly. However, it’s a bad omen for both companies: the much-touted U.S patent trial reached the point of deliberation on Wednesday, with nine jurors currently discussing the high-stakes patent battle between the two. Apple is demanding a staggering $2.5 billion in damages, along with a ruling that Samsung’s ‘infringing’ products face a permanent ban; Samsung, meanwhile, demands $422 million, claiming that Apple have violated several of its wireless technology-related patents.
While both companies face significant loss of face depending on which way the pendulum swings in the US trial, the results could be far worse for North American consumers; if Apple win, Samsung may be forced to pay them significant royalties on every Smartphone they ship, which may result in rising costs (in addition to the distinct possibility that several products – including some of the flagship Galaxy range – are banned). If Samsung wins, Apple may face a similar royalty rate; but far more importantly for the company that prides itself upon ingenuity and originality would be the loss of face incurred through such a ruling. Such a ruling may tarnish their reputation in their coveted North American marketplace, and result in a significant loss of sales from the traditional Apple faithful. And if a similar conclusion to that of the Seoul trial is reached, everyone loses – except the lawyers and expert witnesses, who will pocket a pretty penny for their involvement in what’s fast becoming the technology trial of the century.
For our part, we echo Judge Lucy Koh’s optimism, and hope that both companies manage to reach an understanding in the future. When companies like Samsung and Apple cease focusing on their superb products in lieu of focusing upon litigation, everybody loses – whether that loss is in money or dignity remains to be seen.
Our Samsung Galaxy S3 mesh hard cases consist of a hard plastic underlay, with a silicone gel mesh back. While the plastic innards provide stability and durability, the soft outer portion provides a sturdy surface for grip, with the fringe benefit of making your new SIII look even more attractive. If you thought you were the envy of your friends when you purchased Samsung’s flagship mobile, you’ll see raw lust in their eyes when they gaze upon your pick of the Samsung Galaxy S3 mesh hard cases selection! But it’s not just a fashion accessory – whichever colour mesh case you choose to opt for, you’ll gain a superior degree of protection from the daily wear-and-tear faced by any Smartphone, whether it is scratches, dents, casing chips or even drop damage.
Our Samsung Galaxy S3 mesh hard cases are convenient and easy to use: simply slot your Galaxy SIII into the interior portion of the mesh case, ensure it’s firmly in place, and you’re good to go. With cut-outs around all of the salient ports and jacks of your Galaxy S 3, the mesh hard case never has to be removed in order to access any of the features of your device, meaning it will possess shielding from harm even when you’re charging or listening to music! You’d probably expect to be facing a pretty hefty price tag for a case with as many features as this, but you’d be mistaken – all of our Samsung Galaxy S3 mesh hard cases are priced ultra-competitively, and completely at odds with their wide range of features, ensuring that the consumer has no reason not to opt for this superb new range of case covers!
They reported a loss of £1.1 billion in the second quarter of this year, a huge amount by any reckoning. With the latest round of announced cuts, they’ve slashed more than 40,000 jobs since 2010. And Standard & Poor’s, the European credit rating company, has recently downgraded their rating from BB+ to BB-, reflecting the lack of faith that many of Nokia’s consumers and investors now have in the once-giant of industry. Even in terms of volume, Nokia have fallen behind; while once the chief provider of devices, if not profits, they’ve recently been usurped by the South Korean giant of commerce Samsung in terms of devices shifted. The huge amount of cheap feature phones and Smartphones offered by Samsung has effectively sidetracked Nokia’s main source of commerce – that is, providing low-end devices to emerging markets such as India and China. And the future looks no brighter for Nokia; they project estimated costs of £600 million for their restructuring plans in 2012, and a further £550+ million in 2013.
It’s a shame that the Smartphone market has so comprehensively altered the way consumers view companies such as Nokia. They still provide some excellent devices; as a company that deals in phone cases and accessories, we’ve had in-depth experience with Nokia’s flagship Lumia range, and they never fail to provide a sleek and polished experience. Similarly, the Windows OS of Smartphones such as the Lumia 900 is both attractive and utilitarian – it just has the bad luck to be competing in a market saturated by ultra-customizable Android devices and the omnipresent iOS, which has reached near-mimetic status to today’s consumers. The issue is not with Nokia’s devices, nor even, necessarily, with their market plans – it is the way that customers perceive Nokia, and the pressure that investors are piling upon Nokia to deliver fast results, that is giving the company so much trouble.
But given the amount of resources they've piled into downsizing their company – and their utter dedication to Windows Phone – it’s unlikely that Nokia plans on changing horse’s mid-race. Nevertheless, we remain confident that even if Nokia doesn't return to its glory days, it's always going to remain a contender in the feature and Smartphone market. Devices as polished as the Lumia 900, and a long and storied history of providing superb products, means that even if their downsizing is as significant as it appears to be, Nokia will always have dedicated consumers who desire their superb devices. And we proudly count ourselves amongst them!
We’re personally very excited by the OUYA console. Not only is it a superb-looking piece of hardware, echoing the very best designs of Apple with its sleek and sinuous profile, it’s incredibly cheap, with pre-orders for the console and a single controller a mere $99 (or around £65). But the goal behind the console is even more exciting – the notion of bringing Android gaming to the mass-market, by hooking the OUYA console up to your home television and playing touchscreen games with pinpoint accuracy via a controller, is an idea that may seem simple in theory… but stands to gain the company an incredible amount of money, and a place in the console hierarchy normally reserved for giants like Microsoft and Sony. After all, with the potentialities of Smartphone gaming increasing apace - courtesy of superb games like Shadowgun and Dead Trigger, which can realistically compete on equal footing with high-quality console shooters – it would provide an incredible boon to the Android ecosystem to have a foothold in the homes of users, as well as their pockets!
The ecosystem that OUYA intends to launch is one that’s much more open than the one presently offered by the console market: while Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all have their pre-eminent developers, OUYA is confidently opening itself up not only to third-party developers of all stripes, but also hackers and jail-breakers, who can mod and alter both the hardware and software of OUYA to tailor the user experience. It’s much the same idea as that behind the Android OS itself – keeping the experience as open-source and fluid as possible, permitting customization for the hard-core fringe while retaining ease of usability for the more casual user. And, of course, it doesn’t hurt OUYA’s cause that the console is going to be cheaper than even Nintendo’s Wii, the benchmark for the lower-end of console gaming! All in all, we really can’t see how OUYA can go wrong – with all the ingredients for success in place, and a heady pool of cash to draw from; we confidently expect them to be a household name by this time next year. We’ve took the liberty of placing links to their commercial site below – remember, pre-orders for the device are already open, with shipping expected for April of 2013!
Only recently, concerns were raised over Google Now – a voice search function pre-packaged with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean – and its capacity to ‘learn’ information about the user in order to tailor results more accurately to their specifications. In fact, we wrote a blog post about the very topic! The chief concern of Google Now is that Google will retain the information culled through it, effectively building up in-depth dossiers about individuals customers habits in a way heretofore unknown: not only learning their preferences, but also personal information such as where they live and how they travel. This would, theoretically, permit Google to tailor their advertising with pinpoint accuracy – and while this would in theory provide a boon to the average Google consumer, it’s still treading a dangerous line between trust and anti-trust, a fact some customers are vociferously aware of.
Instances such as that pale in comparison to some of Google’s other lapses, however. From 2006 to 2010, Google Streetview cars culled around 600GB of data from unencrypted public and private Wi-Fi networks in over 30 countries. No disclosure was given to any of the affected parties, nor to the owners of the Wi-Fi stations in question; in fact, until further investigation was made, Google sat on the information. Once it was brought to light, Google categorically asserted that not only was this information not used in their search functions or other services, they were unaware that it had even been collated… however, they also stated that they would not delete the data in question until permitted by regulators. A representative from Consumer Watchdog replied to the imbroglio by releasing a statement to the effect that Google “[gathered] whatever data they [could] until their fingers [were] caught in the cookie jar”, strongly suggesting that this was not an isolated issue. And given that Privacy International currently ranks Google as “hostile to privacy” on one of their reports (a rating shared by no other major corporation), it’s certainly food for thought.
Google has faced even more criticism recently – and a record $22.5 million fine from the Federal Trade Commission – for allegedly breaking the terms of their own privacy policy. According to the FTC, Google used tracking cookies to monitor the browsing habits of millions of users of Apple’s Safari internet browser, in order to more effectively direct advertising, while assuring users that they were not. According to the FTC, Google placed an advertising tracking cookie on Safari users who visited sites within Google’s DoubleClick advertising network, despite earlier categorical statements that the default settings of Safari automatically opt users out of such methods of tracking. Though Google claims that they have done nothing wrong, they submitted to the fine (which constitutes a tiny minority of their yearly revenue stream: their reported revenue earnings for Q2 of 2012 was $12.21 billion), and agreed to stop placing tracking cookies on Safari users in future, though they still retain the capability to track them through ‘legitimate’ means (such as logging in through Google Mail, Google Plus and YouTube).
What does this mean for consumers? It’s certainly true that by collating dossiers on their users, Google is able to customize search results and advertising to better cater to you – but is that worth compromising your privacy to the extent that Google now expects? A $22.5 million fine may seem like a hefty penalty, but given their gross revenue per annum, it scarcely constitutes a slap on the wrist for the search giant; and without proportionate penalties for misconduct, there’s no impetus for Google to halt their campaign. It all comes down to your personal preferences: if you put stock in Google’s unofficial motto of “don’t be evil”, you probably believe that your information will only be used to enhance your internet experience - and given Google’s track record of providing quality products at the expense of advertisers, instead of consumers, there may be a grain of truth in that. But if you disagree, you’ll simply have to follow Eric Schmidt’s advice, and avoid any online activity you don’t want others to see, because Google’s ubiquity in the realms of search and advertising means that there’s no escaping them for now.
The other lawsuits occurring around the world are less clear-cut, however. The Federal court in Australia is currently mediating between the two disparate parties, over a lawsuit first launched in July 2011 regarding alleged infringement of the iPad by the Galaxy Tab. Samsung launched a countersuit, claiming that Apple had infringed upon three of the 3G patents that Samsung owns, which Samsung states are infringed upon in the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPad 2. The case has faced significant delays, however, since Apple have so far refused to disclose the technical specifications of their devices: Steven Burley, of Apple’s legal counsel, actually stated that the onus is on Samsung to prove the infringement case, and that Apple has no impetus to help them. Apple has also been poring over a number of legal affidavits, which were provided by legal experts to help the trial along, which suggests that they’re attempting to stall the trial until they have an exhaustive enough command of information to counterpoint any argument.
The high-profile U.S trial, on the other hand, is a veritable circus of publicity. The back-and-forth barbs are reaching farcical levels. For example, one ruling was obtained by Apple to suppress details of pre-iPhone devices made by Samsung; angered by this, and firmly stating that the pre-iPhone designs would provide conclusive proof that there was no infringement to be found, Samsung sent out information about the devices to a number of reporters, along with a catty paragraph suggesting that jurors should know “all the facts” before reaching a decision. When an angry, presiding Judge Koh summoned one of Samsung’s lawyers for a dressing-down over this publicity stunt, one of Apple’s attorneys promptly suggested the trial be ruled in Apple’s favour immediately as a consequence. In short, both companies have shown that they’re willing to fight dirty in order to protect their interests. But is that really a good thing?
After all, no matter who wins in these bitter legal wrangles, it’s the consumer who’s going to bear the brunt of the impact. If Samsung manage to obtain the level of royalties they seek for the alleged 3G patent infringements, Apple have to make up the lost income somehow – and it’ll undoubtedly be recouped through increased prices. If Apple manage to prove that Samsung have infringed upon their patented touchscreen technology, it’ll necessitate a rewrite of the software of devices like the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy SIII, which will cause significant delays for other software improvements as they scramble to fulfil the changes in time. Worse, it will set a precedent that will allow Apple to pursue lawsuits with other Android Smartphone manufacturers: the best-case scenario for Apple is a foot in the door which allows them to go for the jugular of Google itself, fulfilling the late Steve Jobs’ promise that Apple would “go thermonuclear” on their biggest rival in the Smartphone arena. In short, no matter who wins, it’s the consumers who lose. So we can’t help but wonder how the two manufacturing giants are going to deal with the fallout of their multi-billion dollar lawsuits; not in terms of legal wrangles, but in terms of the goodwill which they are, increasingly, squandering.
For those unaware, the Raspberry Pi is a system-on-a-chip computer sold at the ultra-competitive price of $35 (or around £27). It’s not designed for the casual user: it’s only a computer in the most basic sense of the word, consisting of a circuit board with all of the basics (256MB of SDRAM, a 700 MHz ARM-brand CPU and a Broadcom VideoCore GPU). You must hook the Raspberry Pi up to a TV and keyboard in order to use it, and upon boot-up it defaults to a DOS-style command system, requiring Linux commands in order to function. But it also provides an unparalleled degree of customization, allowing you to tinker with its settings and tailor the user experience to your own exacting specifications. For the dedicated user, the Raspberry Pi is really a dream come true, and given all the software and firmware updates it’s received recently (including an increasingly polished Debian-based OS dubbed “Raspbian”), the day could come when the more casual user could also jump aboard. So it’s a real feather in the Pi’s cap that its developers are working on a full version of Android 4.0, the Ice Cream Sandwich OS, to utilize on the device. And it’s also a real boon to Google, to have their open-source OS available on what is, for all intents and purposes, a miniature desktop computer.
Sadly, there’s no set release date for the OS just yet – but based on the progress videos eked out by the Raspberry Pi development team, it’s not unreasonable to expect the ICS compatibility update to roll out within the next month or so. In fact, at this junction it’s unclear why the Pi development team didn’t opt for a release of Jelly Bean, Google’s upcoming Android 4.1 OS, considering that it was released to developers in July to pave the way for third party development (such as HTC’s Sense UI). But it’s possible that the Raspberry Pi development team was already hard at work on an Ice Cream Sandwich port prior to the announcement of Jelly Bean, and opted to roll out a release before working on the later version. Nevertheless, we here at Mobile Madhouse confidently expect ICS to make its desktop debut on the Raspberry Pi very shortly – and in a case of mutual symbiosis, it will help boost both parties’ reputations.
So how did Google respond to the detractors? With the typical showmanship we’ve come to expect from the search and mobile giant, they’ve decided to delay the Nexus Q in order to add more features. But instead of just closing sales of the Nexus Q, they refunded the cost of purchase to all consumers, and announced that everyone who pre-ordered the device prior to this announcement will still receive their pre-adjustment Nexus Q free of charge. It’s a savvy move that’s fostered some real goodwill towards the company; the pain of having to wait longer for the home-streaming device has been offset by the fact that it’s now likely to feature much greater cross-platform compatibility with applications like Netflix and Hulu, permitting a diverse range of uses for the device, and their act of charity towards existing consumers gives them some breathing space to avoid criticism.
We have to wonder why Google didn’t consider this in the first place, however. As a home-streaming device created by Google, the Nexus Q is naturally positioned as a rival to Apple TV, since the Cupertino-based corporation is by far Google’s biggest rival already in the Smartphone and tablet markets. Did Google really expect a device priced $200 more expensively than their competitor, with a reduced range of applications, to compete on equal footing? Some have argued that the Nexus Q was always intended to be a device appealing to the hard-core, bleeding edge Google enthusiasts: hackers have already succeeded in jury-rigging the device to perform a number of functions, including playing games and launching applications like Netflix to stream home movies. But no matter how loyal Google’s fanatical core of customers may be, the average user simply isn’t prepared to crack open their $299 device in order to tinker with it, and you can’t sustain a product by appealing solely to a minority.
With that said, Google have certainly been making measures to amend their initial error, and the future looks bright for the Nexus Q. The price tag may still be a stumbling block for many, but if they manage to increase the ease with which the average user can utilize a broad range of apps, they stand to make a tidy little profit on their investment. In the end, it’s not even about the money with the Nexus Q: the plucky little sphere is a statement that Google can go toe-to-toe with Apple, not just in terms of software and marketing, but also in terms of hardware manufacturing and design. It’s no coincidence that the brains behind the Nexus Q were two former Apple employees – there’s more than a little of the Cupertino-based company in its sleek, streamlined and minimalistic design. Whether the Nexus Q falls or rises, Google have thrown their chips on the table: for better or worse, they’re now looking to compete on equal terms with Apple, across every spectrum. Only time will tell whether or not they manage to succeed.
With the Toilet Map application, those worries (and that flush of embarrassment… get it?) will be removed. It’s incredibly simple to use: once you open the application, it culls information from Google Maps to automatically pinpoint every known toilet in the surrounding area. As if that wasn’t handy enough for the tourist-on-the-go, clicking on one of the floating toilet icons brings up a chart with relevant information about the toilet: the name of the shop it is in (if any), the hours it is accessible, any attendant price, whether it’s male or female only, or available to both, and even the type of shop it is located in (for example, it might say ‘Café’, just in case you want to get a bite to eat after you micturate)! Utilitarian in the extreme, you won’t find yourself fiddling around with Toilet Map like you would with one of the tie-in Olympic game apps, but we guarantee you’ll still be sighing with relief that you bought it!
4 – BBC Olympics
One of the official applications distributed by the BBC, BBC Olympics is the only application that streams live feed from the Olympic Games 24 hours a day. After all, though you may be attending the games, you can’t watch every single event at the games – so when Usain Bolt is performing his trademark leg stretches and you’re bored to tears waiting for him to actually start running, you can pull out your Smartphone and take a look at the concurrent swimming event, instead!
BBC Olympics is really easy to use. All of the most recent and high-profile events are organized in a Facebook-esque “top stories” section, allowing you to instantly access the most up-to-date information right as you open the application. Events stream live, and are saved for later perusal, which means you won’t miss a single moment unless you really just don’t want to see it. BBC journalists update the application with a live text feed as events occur; so if you happen to blink and miss a crucial moment, you’ll instantly know about it from their reaction - and as if that wasn’t enough, there are handy bios for each athlete performing in an event, allowing the less sports-savvy amongst you to garner a bit of context! And the capper? – This is a free application. You can have the whole of the Olympics at your fingertips for no cost at all! If you have even a passing interest in the games – even if you’re not attending – you owe it to yourself to install this application post-haste!
3 – London 2012 – Official Game
Something a little bit different, this time – not an application that will aid you in your trek around London or that will help you gather context on the Games, but rather a fun little diversion for you to plink away at in your hotel room at night. (Or in the stands during the pole vault event, for that matter!) Licensed as the official game for the London 2012 Olympics, the aptly-named London 2012 – Official Game is free to download and an awful lot of fun to play. It features a plethora of Olympic events – whether you want to see your little electronic avatar sprint the 100m dash, swim the 100m butterfly or leap their way into the stratosphere with the triple jump, there’s bound to be at least a game or two that you’ll enjoy.
In terms of graphics, it’s reminiscent of Wii Sports: stylized and cartoony, with deliberately disproportionate characters for added cuteness. You can buy new outfits for your character and outfit them to make them stand out in the multiplayer challenge mode. But don’t worry about power expenditure: if you have an up-to-date Smartphone, it runs incredibly smoothly, with bold, swooping camera angles that really put you in the thick of the action and add a sense of drama to proceedings. The only real complaint we had was with the controls, which can be sloppy from time to time.
There’s nothing more frustrating than coming in second place because the game decided to bring your avatar to a dead halt for no discernible reason. Multitouch support is all well and good, but if you’re going to rely on it so heavily, it needs to be more polished and less mushy than this. Nevertheless, the game was fun enough that we managed to muscle through and have a great time with it anyway. So if you find yourself with a free moment during the 2012 games pull out your Smartphone and give it a go!
2 – Travel+ London
In our overview of Toilet Map, we mentioned the two things that can never be found in London: rubbish bins and toilets. Well, we’re appending that list with a third addition: public transport that isn’t crammed with a veritable throng of people. At the best of times, London is one of the largest and busiest cities in the world, and the vast majority of people commute to their workplace via public transportation; during the Olympic Games, we can comprehensively state that it’ll be worse than ever before, courtesy of tourists flocking from all corners of the globe to catch a bit of the Olympic action. You really need to plan your journeys out in advance to ensure that you don’t get left out in the cold, unable to catch a train or hop aboard a bus thanks to a whole horde of tourists – and when it comes to forward planning (and on-the-fly amendments), nobody does it better than Travel+ London.
In their own words, they “[aggregate] live TFL feeds across Underground, Bus, Train, DLC, Tram and River networks, [allowing] users to find, plan and select the most efficient and direct route to their destination of choice”. In layman’s words, Travel+ London is constantly updating their store of information to take into account things like delays or crashes, ensuring that you’re always kept aware of mitigating circumstances that could affect your journey. A route planning feature means you can enter your destination and instantly have Travel+ plot the fastest way from A to B, utilizing whichever public transport you want, and a superb online map (parsed from Google Maps itself) ensures that even on foot, you know exactly where you are and exactly where you need to be going.
As if all this wasn’t enough, Travel+ London also saves your search history and previous journeys – so if you want to make the same trip twice, you simply have to open up your previous entry and check it out! For real convenience, it’s hard to find a better journey planning tool than this… and though you may find it unbelievable, Travel+ London is still in Beta. Imagine the plethora of features they’ll manage to pack in when they finally issue a full release!
1 – Hotel Tonight
Transportation is important, and games are a lot of fun to noodle about with in your spare time, but the most important factor in your 2012 Olympic experience should be where you’re staying. Most London hotels – most London hostels, in fact – are booked solid, and have been for months. It’s incredibly difficult to just “wing it” and check in somewhere – but if you’re stuck with nowhere to stay, there’s no better way to try than with the superb Hotel Tonight application!
They say the best ideas are the ones you think of and wonder “why has nobody else done this yet?!”, and we certainly felt that way about Hotel Tonight. The concept is simple: they are connected and in contact with a huge number of hotel chains, motels and hostels in major cities (including London, of course), and are notified when bookings fall through. They then update their application with the information. Everybody wins: Hotel Tonight receive money for filling the spare room with a warm body, the hotel chain receives money they wouldn’t otherwise have attained, and you – naturally – get a room for the night at a heavily discounted rate! There are few other circumstances where you could reasonably expect to stay in a hotel at a 70% discount on a same-day booking, but with Hotel Tonight it’s just a run-of-the-mill experience. It’s intuitive, it’s easy to use - but above it, it’s unbelievably convenient. And – incredibly – it’s free to download. If you ever plan on entering London, let alone attending the Olympic Games, you owe it to yourself to download this amazing application as soon as possible!
First up, the HTC One X. This device is the perfect high water-mark for testing the game; not only is it one of the strongest Smartphones currently on the market, it also contains the much-touted Tegra 3 chipset. For those who didn’t peruse our review of the game, Dead Trigger was designed with the Tegra 3 in mind: those fortunate enough to own a Tegra 3 device are privy to a special “ultra-high” graphical option which substantially improves the game’s graphics. Predictably, of the three devices we tested, the HTC One X came out on top.
The game ran extremely smoothly, but that was no surprise. What really amazed us was the quality of the effects. The colours were vibrant, the bloom effects were polished and miscellaneous effects such as water droplets, steam coming from pipes, and of course the muzzle flashes from your weapon were incredibly realistic. Loading times between missions were minimal, and movement was predictably smooth. In fact, the only issue we found was unrelated to the game itself: as a by-product of running the game on the coveted “ultra-high” graphical setting, we found that the HTC One X became very warm, and ran out of battery power much more swiftly than otherwise. However, battery power is a notorious issue with the One X, and the warmth of the device appeared to have no adverse effects, and swiftly faded.
Next, we tested Dead Trigger on the Samsung Galaxy S3. Despite being arguably the strongest Smartphone currently on the market (at least in terms of raw specs), the S3 is only comparable to the One X in terms of graphical capacity. Samsung do not outsource chip production to Nvidia, as HTC do; they produce their own graphical chips in-house. The Galaxy S3 runs a quad-core ARM chipset dubbed Exynos 4, which is a competitive SOC but doesn’t yet have the same range of support as the Tegra 3. Consequently, there is no option to opt into the “ultra-high” mode for the Galaxy S3. But as we saw with the overheating and battery consumption of the One X, “ultra-high” essentially constitutes overclocking: ramping up the game’s graphics at the expense of much more power. So is that necessarily a bad thing?
Well… yes, frankly. The highest normal graphical setting is certainly impressive by the standards of a Smartphone, but it fails to match up to the HD next-gen graphics set by ultra-high. It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination: the water effects in particular retain their sheen, right down to the droplets which spatter the camera when you walk under a leaking pipe. But when compared side-by-side to the One X version, the lighting is somewhat more muted, movement is slightly more jerky and loading times are noticeably longer. However, this is solely because it lacks the ultra-high setting; Samsung’s chipsets are generally on-par with Nvidia’s in other respects, so it seems obvious that the S3 has the capacity to run as well as its competitor, it just isn’t being allowed to. We’re sure that once Madfinger Games gets around to it, the S3 can expect similar integration to that enjoyed by the One X.
Finally, we tested Dead Trigger on a Motorola Xoom tablet. To be honest, we weren’t expecting much from the tablet, as the game was designed with Smartphones in mind, but we were pleasantly surprised. It suffers a definite loss in quality; the colours are significantly grainier, loading times were longer, and – crucially – there’s a time lag between touching the screen and seeing it transfer to an on-screen result, which means you’ll often find yourself missing targets through shooting too late. On the other hand, the larger screen made things a lot easier to see, and the controls were easier to use, courtesy of the broader buttons. And in some respects, the muted colour palette actually added to the attraction – Dead Trigger, after all, has faced a lot of criticism for its overly-colourful design, with many One X users reporting headaches after prolonged use. Overall, though, the tablet experience was significantly different enough from the One X and S3 to almost qualify as a new game entirely! We definitely had a few Resident Evil 4 flashbacks while playing it.
In summary, we’d recommend that you stick with a Smartphone, though – the majority of users aren’t going to be impressed by easier controls, if the trade-off is noticeable lag. Both the One X and the S3 versions are fun to play, and if the coveted ultra-high setting makes its debut on the S3 before too much longer, they’d be virtually identical anyway!
The plot is typical zombie fare: a dystopian vision of society, where the common man rose up against the ruling classes – and the corrupt politicians release a virus to turn people into bloodthirsty monsters en-masse to make good their own escape. You play a generic grizzly-voiced survivor, who stumbles into a haven of other survivors (imaginatively dubbed ‘Safe Haven’) and becomes their primary protector, roving around the city and using a selection of guns to help out his new friends. But the plot is almost immaterial; the short missions (rarely lasting more than a few minutes) and broad-strokes storyline lend itself to a burst style of play, putting Dead Trigger in the curious position of being a lunchtime game with next-gen graphics. We approve of this pick-up-and-play style of gaming, but it might have made the game more engrossing if there was an ongoing story – unfortunately, most of the ‘plot’ consists of text-only info-dump at the start of story missions, and it’s easily overlooked by casual gamers, who click “skip” to get to the zombie jamboree as swiftly as possible.
On the plus side, there are a large variety of missions. Some of them charge you with merely surviving until the timer runs out, and generally place you within an enclosed area to make the task more difficult. Others force you to protect escape routes to let your fellow survivors make good their escape. However, with a fairly small handful of enemies to shoot in the face, and repetitious map design, it can become tiring doing the same thing over and over. Fortunately, the wide range of different guns – everything from pistols to machine guns to a freakin’ mini-gun – and a prompt to change your equipped weapon/s at the beginning to each level (along with a ‘Recommended Gun’) means that you’ll at least have a healthy arsenal of weapons in your war against the undead. The game has faced some flak for only allowing the best weapons to be unlocked by spending real-life cash, but given the price of Dead Trigger itself (currently retailing at £0.75 on the Android app store), it’s difficult to find fault with Madfinger’s strategy. They have to recoup money somewhere, after all.
In terms of graphics, it stands head-and-shoulders above its competitors. (It’s certainly a far cry from, say, Temple Run!) In particular, the Tegra 3 version of the game automatically pre-packages an “ultra high” graphics setting, which dramatically boosts the quality of such niceties as water effects and the muzzle-flash on your gun; but if you’re fortunate enough to own a Tegra 3 chipset device (such as the HTC One X), you’re going to notice a sizeable decrease in your amount of battery time when running ultra-high. The lower settings still permit a respectable experience - particularly when compared to competitor games, or even Madfinger’s previous offering, Shadowgun – but if you’ve purchased Dead Trigger, you’ll probably want to set your graphical settings as high as possible. Unfortunately, on older compatible devices, this can cause frame-drop issues which seriously interfere with the experience.
Speaking of issues, there are several to be found with the controls. Dead Trigger opts for a similar input to Shadowgun: the left-hand side of the screen permits movement, the right permits aiming, and a small targeting reticle allows you to shoot. (There’s also an option to zoom in, via another button located close to said reticle.) But the touchscreen controls aren’t always the most responsive. Sometimes in the heat of the moment, a careless sideward swipe can cause your character to spin around, allowing a zombie to bite at your back before you have a chance of recovering. More serious is the indistinct overlap between the left and right hand sides of the screen: occasionally you’ll attempt to alter your aim, only to find you’ve began running towards the enemy, instead. And as a veteran FPS player, I found the zoom-in function slightly lacking: often, the targeting did not accurately map to the location I was shooting, and reloading causes you to exit the zoom-in function entirely (unlike many comparable console shooters, which zoom out for the reload animation and instantly zoom back in, permitting seamless fire). We’d recommend anyone playing Dead Trigger on Android to opt for a gamepad, which Madfinger (wisely) support for use in their game, as this makes the experience vastly less frustrating.
Overall, Dead Trigger is an excellent game that suffers few problems. These problems are restricted mainly to its polish and presentation; with just a little more pre-testing, the annoying issues with aiming and controls could have easily been averted. The repetitious level design is a little harder to remedy, but given the majestic, baroque environments of Shadowgun, we’re sure Madfinger had more in them than a succession of dreary car parks. Nevertheless, Mobile Madhouse heartily endorses Dead Trigger, and recommends you purchase it – because despite its issues, it’s just fun to play. It might not devour your brains, but it’ll sure eat up your lunchtimes!
Look at the statistics: though Amazon’s recent Kindle Fire dominates the smaller, 7” tablet market, its sales are grossly outmatched by Apple’s ubiquitous 10” iPad. Despite being more than twice as expensive - the Kindle Fire retails at $199; iPad prices start at $400, and rise to $800+ for superior models – Apple regularly boast sales which leave Amazon in the dust. While Amazon confidently expects to sell 17 million Kindle Fire’s this year, Apple is equally sanguine about the possibility of selling 70 million iPad’s. Apple dominates over 60% of the tablet market, in fact – and it’s entirely possible that the Kindle Fire only lays claim to its humble piece of the pie because of its comparative cheapness. What are they going to do when Google’s Nexus 7 retails at $199 for the basic model, with superior spec and hardware to the Kindle Fire?
It’s a similar story in the Smartphone market. Google’s Android OS currently lays claim to over 51% of the US market, with Apple’s iOS close on its tail with around 30%. The rest of the market is divided up between smaller operating systems, such as Windows Phone, Symbian, Tizen and others. The same applies to the consumer side of things; Samsung and Apple together dominate over 50% of Smartphone sales, and – owing to their high-end devices such as the Galaxy S3 and iPhone 4S – over 90% of Smartphone profits. So in essence, the operating system war is a two-horse race between Google and Apple, and the sales war is a two-horse race between Samsung and Apple. How much of a dent can a new contender possibly make, when long-going mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia and RIM have already been edged out of the running by the current industry leads?
There’s a more pressing problem, as well – patents. As anyone with a passion for Smartphones will be aware, litigation is rife amongst Smartphone manufacturers. Apple is leading the fray, with simultaneous lawsuits against companies as diverse as HTC, Samsung, Motorola and Google, courtesy of their enormous legal department and impressive cash reserves. But even Nokia have been getting in on the act recently, launching a patent suit against Google for allegedly infringing upon one of Nokia’s Wi-Fi patents with their new Nexus 7 tablet. Most of these companies have spent years building up solid patent portfolios; Apple is well-known for registering enormous amounts, and Google has a reputation for buying out companies in order to acquire their patents: they recently bought out Motorola for $12.5 billion, obtaining more than 17,000 patents in the process. Amazon, by contrast, recent balked at the possibility of spending $400 million to outbid chipset manufacturer Intel on a number of Smartphone-related patents, despite the obvious impact this would have on their plans to diversify.
So how committed are Amazon to their new Smartphone? And how do they expect to gain substantial profits in a market already saturated with Smartphones of every stripe? Only time will tell.
For the uninitiated, Windows RT is a stripped-down version of Windows 8 designed to run on devices using ARM-based processors, such as tablets. The OS is sold only to developers, for the express purpose of preloading onto their devices; it is not intended as a standalone product for consumers. So why have Samsung opted to follow Microsoft’s lead, and release a new tablet to coincide with the release of Windows 8, when they’ve traditionally been associated with Android? Surely it would make more sense for the South Korean chaebol to utilize Google’s upcoming Android 4.1, Jelly Bean – or even wait for their much-anticipated Chrome OS, which is ultimately expected to homogenize the Google user experience and act as a bridge between laptops, tablets and Smartphones.
There are a number of explanations. The most obvious is the notion that Samsung have already established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the Android market: they’re exceeded only by Apple as the premier provider of Smartphones (at least in terms of profits). It would make sense to try and diversify their market with a tablet utilizing a new OS, rather than stick to the same, tired iterations of Android. More ominously, this could signal a sea-shift in Samsung’s attitudes towards Google. Many have hypothesized that Samsung are attempting to distance themselves from Google, recently - though Google make a show of support for all adopters of their Android OS, Samsung has recently made the decision to utilize the Tizen operating system on their lower-spec Smartphones, despite the surfeit of older versions of Android (such as Froyo and Gingerbread) that are perfectly suited for this task. Samsung clearly want a little more autonomy in terms of software; or perhaps they’re just uncomfortable with putting all of their eggs in Google’s basket.
Whatever the case may be – whether diversifying their market share, or radically shifting dimensions into a new one entirely – Samsung’s tablet is slated for release in October, which will coincide with the release of both Windows 8 and Microsoft’s Surface tablet. They’ll have a lot of work ahead of them; with both a new OS to tinker with, and a hardy market opponent in the form of the Surface, diversifying into the Windows tablet market will be an uphill struggle. But assuming they can overshadow their Microsoft competition, Samsung stand to gain substantial profits from this move!
HTC are hopeful, however, that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. A recent ruling means that HTC is free to sell its wares in America while the courts mull over the patent war, the judge correctly noting that a long delay in deliberation could cripple HTC financially if the allegations turn out to be unfounded. And though HTC faces fierce competition in its established market of high-end Smartphones (the recently-released Samsung Galaxy S3 is touted as a direct competitor to the HTC One X), it’s competition that HTC can face head-on, in the market arena where they are comfortable - rather than in an American courtroom.
But, as is customary when a company steps on Apple’s toes, rumours are flying about Apple’s upcoming “7 inch tablet”, a supposed reaction against both the Nexus 7 and Amazon’s new version of the Kindle Fire, slated for delivery in early August. If the traditional “industry insiders” are to be believed, this hypothetical product is slated for an October release date (around the same time Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 5), and will lack the retina display of its larger brethren. The specs are expected to include an underclocked A5 processor and about 512MB of RAM, along with the same 8GB / 16GB storage options currently provided by the Nexus 7 itself. However, the Chinese site “MyDrivers” which ‘leaked’ the specifications also reported a $249 to $299 price-tag for the 8GB model – significantly more than the Nexus 7’s 8GB version, which is currently priced for pre-order at $199. This begs the question of what, if anything, a device with similar specifications to the Nexus 7 would be able to offer to warrant such a bump in price.
The answer is comparatively little. The Amazon Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7 are priced so competitively because they stand to gain little, if any, profit through direct sales; the devices are sold for scarcely more than they cost to manufacture. Profit margins are recouped through digital media sales (and in the case of Google, advertising). The larger iPad is priced higher because of its greater range of features: the option for much larger storage, the high-powered processor and – of course – the much larger screen all ensure that customers seeking a luxury purchase will opt for the iPad in lieu of cheaper tablets. The shallow end of the tablet market does not benefit from a ‘luxury’ mini iPad – so (assuming these rumours have any basis in fact) Apple would have to radically alter their traditional marketing strategy if they wanted to make a dent in a market dominated by the Kindle Fire (and set to be shook up significantly by the arrival of the Nexus 7).
But just as Nokia is struggling to compete in the Android and iOS dominated market of the modern clime, things haven’t stayed so rosy for RIM, either. In 2011, they reported a revenue drop for the first time in nine years, and their stock swiftly followed suit, dropping to its lowest level since 2006. In the years 2008 – 2011, RIM’s shareholders suffered staggering losses; around 82%, as RIM’s market capitalization dropped from $83 billion to $13.6 billion, the largest recorded decline for a telecommunications equipment provider. And things have only gone from bad to worse. The statistics speak for themselves: their shares are currently worth less than $8, from an all-time high of $140 in 2008. RIM’s fall from King of the feature phone market to its biggest loser has been dramatic indeed – but why did it happen?
The answer is simple: Smartphones. In 2007, the release of the iPhone changed the entire face of the feature phone market, in much the same way the initial release of the Blackberry (with its miscellaneous services such as internet access) changed the face of the early mobile market. Companies like Google and Samsung managed to stand up the challenge via diversification (today, Google’s Android OS and Samsung’s range of top-end Galaxy Smartphones stand toe-to-toe with Apple), but Blackberry misidentified their market position, and thought that they could maintain their niche in the feature phone market: devices superior to bare-bones mobile devices, but significantly weaker than their Smartphone counterparts. The modern user, however, proved Blackberry wrong – nowadays, even the least tech-savvy consumer uses their mobile devices for a plethora of tasks, with phones and texts buried under the ability to browse the internet on the go, play games from the app store, or connect to their friends via social networking sites. The modern user is simply not interested in stripped-down devices, when convenience is readily available.
RIM’s future is uncertain. Doom-sayers are already claiming that the company is in its final throes: they predict mass desertion from consumers, followed by a mercifully swift death. But that’s not necessarily the case; RIM still has a faithful consumer base amongst corporate businessmen, who value Blackberry devices for their security features and easy, intuitive usage of e-mail. They undoubtedly made a mistake in attempting to diversify into a radically different market, one they didn’t understand the implications of, and they have suffered accordingly – but with the BB10 OS slated for release by 2013, RIM could hang on until the first quarter and recoup losses… as long as they’re willing to tighten their belts and accept that things may get worse before they get better.
The original Firefox was a revelation on release: the first internet browser to truly offer an alternative to the then-ubiquitous Internet Explorer, it attained success through a combination of superior features and a conspicuous lack of any serious competition. Mozilla managed to build up some serious goodwill amongst its users (courtesy of its non-profit, open-source nature and extensive add-ons) and briefly emerged as the premier internet browser of the time, before Google released Chrome and usurped their crown. Now Mozilla is planning on penetrating the Smartphone market too; but this time, it seems, the positions are reversed. Now it’s Google that has the early lead with the Android OS, and Mozilla that is planning on stealing first place. But it’s not that simple, because a very different situation has arisen in the Smartphone market.
Mozilla is no longer competing with Microsoft, a company well-noted (and well-criticized) for a decade-long decline in both hardware and software manufacturing; Mozilla are not up against an antiquated foe in a strictly two-horse race. The Smartphone market is dominated by Android on one side and the iOS on the other. The battle lines have already been drawn: Apple have approximately 30% of the Smartphone market, while Google dominate over 50%. Apple have established a closed-circuit system, manufacturing both hardware and software in-house for a cohesive user experience - while Google are lauded for their open-source approach, freely distributing the Android OS to developers to create a broad spectrum of devices. The two major players have been going from strength to strength, gradually inching out competitors such as RIM and Symbian, while effortlessly steam-rolling emergent operating systems such as Tizen… so what can Firefox bring to the market?
Mozilla claim that they’re aiming for the lower end of the Smartphone market, but the large number of older Android operating systems like Gingerbread and Honeycomb – coupled with simpler operating systems like Windows Phone and Bada – means that there’s no real gap in the market. The higher end is dominated by the more powerful iterations of Android and, of course, Apple’s iOS. As if Mozilla’s position were not tenuous enough, they’re currently being paid $300 million a year by Google, to ensure that Google remains the default search engine option in the Firefox browser. So how will the information supergiant react when Mozilla attempts to muscle in on their Smartphone market with a new OS? It could cause serious financial issues for Mozilla if Google decide the upstarts are more trouble than they’re worth, and simply opt to not renew their agreement in 2013.
We have to wonder if Mozilla have a trump card up their sleeve (or simply think they do), because this endeavour seems to have the odds stacked against it. Even if they were to succeed in harvesting a piece of the pie of the low-end Smartphone market, it wouldn’t be an especially notable victory; profit margins in the shallow end of the pool tend to be unspectacular, compared to the kind of annual profits seen by the likes of Apple. And even if Mozilla succeeds in offering a superior experience to its competitors, will anyone notice or care to adopt a new OS in a market where most customers have already developed entrenched brand loyalty? In the opinion of Mobile Madhouse, Mozilla should have struck to the arena of browsers, where it’s guaranteed a profit instead of just a pipe dream!
But here at Mobile Madhouse, we disagree with the doubters – Beats Audio makes a demonstrable difference to the quality of your music. And it’s not just specialized to complement pop or hip-hop music, as many of its detractors claim; we had one of our members of staff listen to a classic rock album by his favourite artist (Morrison Hotel by the Doors) on the HTC One X, to discern whether a nuanced musical experience which the listener was very familiar with could be palpably improved by Beats Audio. To verify our testing, we had a tablet computer without Beats Audio on stand-by for comparative purposes (thereby bypassing the common claim that HTC deliberately stunt the ordinary audio settings on their Smartphones to make Beats sound more impressive by comparison).
The result was a startling difference in audio quality, in favour of the One X. Without Beats, the album sounded much as you’d expect from something recorded in the early 70s: slightly fuzzy, with some of the instruments (particularly the bass) sounding somewhat indistinct. With Beats Audio enabled, the audio was remarkable, virtually lossless – you can imagine it sounding the same in the studio. The instrumentation was incredibly distinct; whereas before the bass was muffled and overshadowed by the heavier guitar and drums, afterwards every note of the bassline was completely audible, and equalized in line with the other instruments. The main difference between Beats and unmodified audio, though, seems to be the mixing level for the highest and lowest levels of audio; the emphasis on the two extremes is much higher, leading to a style that can only be described as “concert-esque” – that feeling of immediacy you generally only receive from listening to live music.
It’s not like this feeling is psychosomatic, either; we persuaded other members of staff to listen to a sampling of Beats Audio music comparative to untouched audio, and all reported a noticeable difference in sound quality, with one remarking “it sounds like a remixed version of the song”. To us, it seems as if the doubters are a little jealous of HTC’s music monopoly – Beats Audio is superb software and we for one hope it’s here to stay!
First up, the tablet we all knew was on the way, the Nexus 7. The specifications were exactly the same as were leaked in a training document earlier this week: a 7” screen, which gives the device its name; a front-facing 1.2MP camera, but no dedicated back-facing one; a 1280x800 IPS display; 1GB of RAM; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth availability; and a Nvidia Tegra 3 chip, enabling the quad-core processor which is, increasingly, becoming standard in top-end tablet and Smartphones. As you might expect from the size, the Nexus 7 is intended to counterpoint Amazon and their Kindle / Kindle Fire devices, which currently dominate the cheaper end of the tablet market – a clever marketing decision by Google, as it doesn’t tread on Apple’s feet by challenging the high-end tablet supremacy of the iPad. Nexus 7 is reportedly going to ship with Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, pre-installed: which brings us neatly to Google’s next announcement!
The Jelly Bean OS was officially announced as an incremental improvement to Android’s current OS, Ice Cream Sandwich. The largest new feature introduced is codenamed ‘Project Butter’, and is essentially software intended to improve Android hardware performance. Project Butter produces smoother animations, and improves touchscreen input recognition, as well as cutting down the speed on load times significantly. Google also managed to streamline their proprietary search interface by introducing a new search interface, which they call ‘cards’. Cards are intended to split up information into digestible and attractive snippets; for example, if you entered a number of appointments for July 25th and then searched for July 25th on your Smartphone, all of your appointments might be segregated by time. Or if you searched for a weather forecast, the display could be segregated into multiple cards displaying temperature, whether or not it is raining, barometric pressure, etc.
Google have introduced this card featured alongside a polished-up version of their voice interface software, Google Assistant. Though it doesn't yet have the sheen of Siri, Google Assistant is fast approaching the time when it will be competitive with Apple software – and the combination of clean card interface/vocal interaction offers an intuitive user interface light-years ahead of anything possible with Ice Cream Sandwich. The remainder of Jelly Bean’s innovations were largely incremental; changes like a polished-up home-screen, a superior camera application, Google Beam software to Bluetooth photographs and other media back and forth, and several other interesting utilities.
Finally, the Nexus Q. Though the Nexus Q was unveiled as Project Tungsten at I/O 2011 - and preliminarily linked to Android@Home, Google’s controversial plan to interconnect home appliances like cars, TVs and lights and have your Android Smartphone act as a ‘universal remote’ controlling them all – it was largely forgotten in the wake of other Google successes, or overshadowed completely by rumours of the Nexus 7. It was a real surprise for the Mobile Madhouse team when this spherical device was pulled out on stage. Essentially, the Nexus Q is a home media device: a black sphere with a built-in amplifier, which can wirelessly access music and play both music and video when hooked up to different devices. It’s intended to act as a gateway to Google Play, their online content distribution service, and streams music direct from the Cloud. When we predicted Cloud storage potential in Google’s future, we didn't quite have this in mind!
Streaming hubs have existed before, however. The main innovation of the Nexus Q lies in its manufacture – it is officially the first piece of hardware to be manufactured in-house by Google’s own design team. Though Google have always excelled at creating software (their open-source Android is adopted by companies as disparate as Motorola, Samsung and HTC), their true test has always been matching competitors like Microsoft, Amazon and Apple in the hardware stakes. But if the sleek and stylish sheik of the Nexus Q sphere is anything to go by, Google have nothing to worry about – they’ve passed the design test with flying colours, creating a product that Apple themselves would be proud to call their own. Though, with a price tag of $300 ($200 more than Apple TV, Apple’s version of a media streaming hub), it remains to be seen how many consumers will adopt the Nexus Q in the long-run.
So that’s Google’s I/O Conference in a nutshell – for now, at least. Its unlikely Google will be revealing any new hardware or software over the next two days, but it’s eminently possible that they’ll lay out their plans for the future, or spend their available time convincing developers of the boons of creating applications for the Android OS. We here at Mobile Madhouse can’t wait to see what they come up with next!
This is just the latest imbroglio in Apple’s crusade against Samsung (and, indeed, Android Smartphones as a whole). Following Steve Job’s famous pledge to “go thermonuclear” on Android devices – which he claimed massively infringed upon Apple’s intellectual copyright – Apple have launched attack after attack on companies ranging from Google to Motorola. But some of their most famous clashes have been with Samsung, and for good reason, as the South Korean conglomerate is currently their biggest rival in the Smartphone market: together, Apple and Samsung account for over 50% of Smartphone sales, and over 90% of Smartphone profits.
However, the importance of banning sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is largely symbolic. The newer iteration of the device – the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 – is still on the marketplace; in fact, the Tab 2 was created specifically in order to circumvent a similar ban faced by the original Tab in the German marketplace. The scope of Apple’s design patent is fairly narrow, meaning by differentiating the Tab 2 just enough from the iPad, Samsung barely had to alter the specifications of the new device. So the banning of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 amounts largely to petulance on behalf of Apple; the real battle to retain Samsung’s Smartphone supremacy begins on July 30th.
Unlike Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which is more about spectacle, showmanship, and the unveiling of new products, Google’s I/O (which stands for both input/output and “Innovation in the Open”, the I/O motto) is focused more on the technical side of things: it is designed primarily to appeal to developers. It features in-depth sessions and seminars, with the central aim of expanding Google’s internet and mobile phone market applications. Past I/O events have run the whole gamut of themes: from OpenSocial and the App Engine in 2008 to an onus on Google TV in 2010, Google have a habit of fixing their sights on a target and doggedly pursuing it, using the I/O as a platform to define their intent. But Google has two products that are always just in the background, defining and propping up Google themselves: their mobile phone OS, Android, and their proprietary Chrome OS, an operating system designed to run on only specific hardware from Google and its manufacturing partners (such as Asus). Given the way things have been going this year, we can make some educated guesses as to which way the wind is blowing!
First up is the Google Nexus 7 tablet. This is a definite showpiece: after an internal training document leaked online recently, revealing the design and specifications of the device, Google will really have to pull out the stops to ramp up some excitement for this long-anticipated tablet. Dubbed the Nexus 7 because of its 7” screen, this smaller tablet offering is designed to compete directly against Amazon’s Kindle in the budget tablet market, eschewing the more expensive tablet marketplace (currently dominated by Google’s chief competitor, Apple, and their ubiquitous iPad).
Secondly, the new version of the Android OS, dubbed Android 4.1, or “Jelly Bean”, if we’re following Google’s alphabetical/sweets naming scheme. Judging by the fact it’s Android 4.1 instead of Android 5.0, Jelly Bean will be an incremental update over the current Ice Cream Sandwich OS, providing a more polished experience and greater utility, but no real overhaul. Common consensus is that alterations will include Chrome becoming the default browser, a refurbished GUI, and the debut of Google’s long-rumoured voice interface program, currently codenamed ‘Majel’ after the wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Such a program could provide the edge that Google needs against Apple’s much-touted Siri system.
Finally, we can probably expect to see some expansion in Google’s Cloud-based storage systems. Out of all the “big three” developers (Google, Microsoft and Apple), Google are the company to embrace the potentialities of Cloud-based storage and computing the most fervently. It wouldn’t surprise us if an expansion to their Cloud storage services was imminent – though this news would be of little importance to the casual user, as the ability to rent out virtual servers to provide extra power for applications is something only the hardcore user (or developer) would be interested in pursuing. But for budding online businesses, such an expansion could be a real boon – and it would make sense to compete with Elastic Compute Cloud, Amazon’s Cloud storage service, since Google are already going for Amazon’s tablet jugular with the Nexus 7.
But this is all speculation for now – we’ll have to wait until tomorrow for any real details. And just like a child at Christmas, we can’t wait to see what Google pull out of their sleeve!
Whatever the case may be, the design looks to be completely in tune with what we predicted in one of our previous blog posts – the 7 inch screen from which the device derives its name is capable of 1280x800 IPS display, as well as the requisite 1080p HD which consumers have come to expect from their tablets. The Nexus 7 will be running a 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor, which – along with its round 1GB of RAM – is likely to provide all the processing power that the casual user could desire. It should also ship with Android 4.1, the Jelly Bean OS which has caused so much hype and speculation recently. Though a dedicated camera is absent, a 1.2 MP front-facing camera is present; it’s probable that the more powerful back-facing camera was cut off during production to help keep the costs low.
The reason for that is obvious, of course – to stay competitive with the Amazon Kindle Fire (the chief competitor in the smaller tablet market), the Nexus 7 will need to be a ‘budget’ device, with a price tag lower than that of the Kindle Fire. The leaked document attached to the image of the Nexus 7 suggests that pricing will start at $199 (for an 8GB tablet) and run up to $249 (for the more muscular 16GB); and frankly, it’s likely you’ll need the extra storage, because there’s no microSD card slot present. On the flipside, the device has all the usual suspects in terms of connectivity, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3, meaning you’ll be able to hook yourself up to the internet at a moments notice to download films and TV shows at your leisure – just don’t expect to store too many of them at a time.
On the whole, then, the device is as we expected and predicted. Will it be a ground-breaking addition to the tablet marketplace? It’s unlikely. But will it be a classy (check out that chassis!), understated affair, shipping with all the specs the dedicated tablet consumer could want, making it a worthy opponent to Amazon and their ubiquitous Kindle? We here at Mobile Madhouse suspect it will. So check our site regularly if you’re planning on purchasing a Nexus 7 – we’re sure we’ll be first on the front line with a plethora of competitively priced Google Nexus 7 cases, covers and accessories!
But despite their comparative lack of experience, Microsoft have made a clever decision in deciding to take full control of their tablet computer; one similar to Apple’s recent decision to launch their own mapping system, rather than rely on Google Maps, or Samsung’s recent decision to utilize Bada instead of the Android OS on their entry level Smartphones – essentially, it’s not a great idea to rely on companies you’re in competition with in other areas. Both Apple and Samsung have a healthy mistrust of Google (proprietor of both Google Maps and the open source Android OS) because it has an impetus to harvest their customer’s data for advertising purposes: ergo, they are trying to become more self-sufficient, and cut Google off at the source (or at least stymie their efforts). Similarly, Microsoft could have outsourced hardware production to a company like Intel or Samsung, but by doing so they are essentially ‘sleeping with the enemy’. Additionally, by overseeing all aspects of both design and programming, Microsoft ensure that the Surface Tablet really is their device, custom made from the ground up and thus guaranteed to contain all of the features they desire.
And what are those features, you may be wondering? Well, sadly, Microsoft hasn’t released all of the specifications for their device yet, but the ones they have are fairly promising. They pledge to create two versions of the Surface Tablet: a smaller and weaker variant (weighing 676g at 9.3mm thick, designed with Windows RT and low-power processors in mind), and the Pro version (weighing 903g at 13.5mm thick, running the standard Windows 8 OS and designed for standard Intel chipsets). Both, however, possess 10.6” HD screens, a case incorporating a thin (and optional) keyboard peripheral, and a kickstand so users can watch the screen without straining their hands. While the Pro tablet has a maximum of 128GB memory, the RT version has a peak of only half that (and its standard version is a mere quarter, at 32GB). The Microsoft press release that accompanied the unveiling states that the Surface Tablet has a full sized USB port, a 16:9 aspect ratio and 22 degrees angled edges, meaning that even the weaker RT version should have no issue with running full 1080p HD video.
So far, reaction to the device has been mixed. Most pundits are impressed by the design of the Surface Tablet: one stalwart Apple blogger even grudgingly conceded that Microsoft could make substantial money by simply revamping the Surface Tablet case for the iPad, since it is so innovative and attractive. But the prevailing opinion is that there are not enough details about the specifications to make an informed judgement about the Surface Tablet yet. And almost everybody feels that Microsoft may be jeopardizing its relationships with other companies (such as Samsung, manufacturer of a previous Microsoft tablet computer) – analyst Michael Gartenberg speculated that “Microsoft felt they could not rely on others to deliver on their vision for Windows 8 in mobile computing”. Will Microsoft’s former partners resent their decision to stand on their own two feet, and withdraw support? And if they did, would Microsoft be capable of producing their own hardware in the long term? And – most seriously of all – is the fledgling Surface capable of going head-to-head with the ubiquitous iPad and coming out on top?
Only time can tell if Microsoft’s decision to diversify will be a good one.
This isn’t a particularly substantial rift in the two company’s fortunes. While Bada has the potential to steal some of Android’s thunder (and thus risk diluting the essential two horse race between the iOS and Android), the fact it’s designed with budget Smartphones in mind means that it will essentially act as a ‘gateway’ OS to draw in new customers, who may not be attracted to expensive, high end tour de forces like Samsung’s Galaxy S3. Samsung are also considering combining the base Bada system with the open-source Tizen OS; as another system which is not intended to upset the balance between Android and iOS (and as one which attracts third party developers courtesy of its freely-distributed nature), Tizen should add the muscle which Bada has so far sadly lacked.
It’s a savvy business decision from Samsung; they won’t be upsetting the proverbial apple cart, but simultaneously they’ll be setting the groundwork for a day when their own operating system is poised to take a chunk of the market. And with Tizen’s developers on board (along with the developers who helped develop the MeeGo system, swathes of which were appropriated for Tizen), Samsung are guaranteed at least some success in the arena of third party development, ensuring a healthy library of applications on launch. We’re fairly confident that Samsung will be launching at least one Bada/Tizen Smartphone this year; though the cost of developing software like this may be prohibitive under normal circumstances, Samsung’s healthy financial future means that it’s impossible to rule it out entirely!
But even a strategic partnership with Microsoft hasn’t turned Nokia’s fortunes around, and they recently announced a number of dramatic cuts. 10,000 Nokia employees will be losing their jobs during this cull, which Nokia claim is the only way to preserve their struggling company. In addition, an unspecified number of manufacturing plants are to be shut down, there are to be numerous changes in personnel, and Nokia’s luxury phone brand Vertu - whose devices are made of ultra-expensive materials like gold, diamond and carbon fibre – is to be sold off to a third party. Nokia’s forecast for the future remains grim, however: they have predicted continued financial hardship for the remainder of the year, to “[a] somewhat greater extent than previously expected”. And we’re regretfully forced to concur, because cuts of this magnitude can often be devastating to a company: particularly a company like Nokia, intent on reclaiming their lost resources. By trimming the fat to such an extreme, Nokia may well have lost the capacity to compete on equal footing with their Android/Apple competitors, and doomed themselves to a slow degeneracy as a result.
The numbers speak for themselves. While Samsung and Apple have gone from strength to strength (Samsung have sold 44.5 million in the Smartphone market this quarter, while Apple have sold 35 million), Nokia are increasingly falling behind (with sales of 12 million in the first quarter). Their stock value is at its lowest level since 1996, putting it at a sixteen year low. An August 2011 statement by Nokia’s US subsidiary head, Chris Weber, sums up their issue: “the reality is that if we’re not successful with Windows Phone, it really doesn’t matter what we do”. And as our 
For example, the company was busy developing three separate designs for the Galaxy S3 at any one point, to throw sleuths off the trail. That doesn’t mean there were two dummy designs and a real one, with only the real one facing upgrades – all three designs faced the same periodic updates, ensuring that even the engineers working on them couldn’t differentiate the truth from the lies! These prototypes were locked in secure cases even when carried to an adjacent developer’s room, guaranteeing that passers-by couldn’t get a glimpse of the device. And such transportation was a necessity, because reproducing images of the S3 prototypes were strictly forbidden. Engineers couldn’t snap a photograph or even take a sketch of the components, and were instead forced to describe the nuances of the design out loud when requesting items from Samsung’s procurement department, to avoid even the grainiest photograph or the roughest sketch from leaking into the public domain.
And of course, that’s not mentioning the usual security measures established in a situation like this – a team of elite engineers and developers who are the only ones permitted to view the device; a separate working area from the rest of the development staff; sophisticated security technology like retinal scanners, fingerprint identifiers, etc to avoid drop-ins… as staff have acknowledged, the security measures were often incredibly tedious, and were described by one engineer as “tiring and frustrating”. They were forced to lie to even close family members in order to ensure that no “loose lips sink ships” scenarios came to the fore. One engineer denied his involvement with the Galaxy S3 to his precocious young son, who had (correctly) guessed that his prior work on the Galaxy S and S2 would lead to a similar position on the S3’s design committee. Others had to repudiate allegations from curious wives and parents, bound to a non-disclosure agreement that was valid until the 3rd of May (the eve of Samsung’s gala event in London, at which the S3 was introduced to the public).
Ultimately, all of their preparation paid off: despite a few grainy photographs managing to leak online, the disparity between the three “prototypes” reduced their veracity, and nobody managed to view the complete design prior to its grand unveiling. The engineers deserve a lot of credit for their efforts; not only on the development of the device, but the incredible lengths they went to in order to keep it under wraps. The lack of publicity meant that the introduction of the S3 was that much more special – and could certainly account for a portion of their record-breaking 9 million pre-orders!
She can hardly be blamed; nowadays, Apple seems to communicate mainly via lawsuits and summonses instead of marketing communiqués. Their closed-source software policy appears to have spread to their public service department, which has remained clammed up about their legal tussles with companies ranging from Samsung, to HTC, to chief rival Google. And their publicity is suffering accordingly – many Android stalwarts are up in arms about their tactics, accusing them of bullying rivals and attempting to monopolize the Smartphone industry via legal harangues, instead of the quality of their products. Even many of Apple’s fans are beginning to turn against them: type in “Apple lawsuit videolog” into YouTube and you can peruse a selection of rants from disgruntled ex-customers, many of whom turned to Android devices to spite Apple, rather than any legitimate desire to own a One S or Galaxy S2. Apple’s traditional strategy of high emotional engagement with their established audience, at the expense of non-users (thus building a brand sourced on perceived elitism, allowing its users to feel elevated against ‘outsiders’), is beginning to work against it; they are alienating potential customers with their high-handed tactics.
All of which might be acceptable if there was any basis for these lawsuits, but many of the concepts Apple claims they have patented are absurdly broad. They claim, for example, the Samsung Galaxy S3 has breached the patent for Apple’s Siri software because it contains a voice input system. They claim similar things about the S3’s unlocking mechanism, because you have to slide your finger across the screen ala the iPhone. It’s hard to empathize with Apple on this; it wouldn’t really have made a difference if the S3 was unlocked via touchscreen tap, or a dedicated button – how does the S3 possessing a slide unlock damage Apple’s potential sales? Is it truly possible to patent the concept of voice activation input, particularly on a system developed completely separately from Siri? Were patents ever really intended to be “gamed” like this, used as weapons for the purpose of defeating competitors, rather than protecting original intellectual copyright? But their legal tussles with Samsung could just be the beginning of a slippery slope; similar lawsuits with HTC and Google risk making Apple a target for exclusion by all of their competitors. There may be a pre-existing flimsy alliance between Google and many Smartphone manufacturers (courtesy of its Android OS, which they utilize), but can you imagine the damage they could do to Apple if they put aside their differences and formed a full-on alliance to crush the technological giant that is fast becoming their common foe?
Currently, this is all hypothetical – Apple have yet to alienate their market to that extent, and they still possess substantial advantages over their competitors, such as a more unified operating system and a stronger, more cohesively marketed brand than Android. But the longer they persist in doggedly suing competitors rather than creating the groundbreaking products that made their name, the more and more distrust they will engender. It’s not hard to see a bruised and demoralized Apple overtaken by Android in the year 2014 or 2015. So here’s hoping that Mr Cook can rein in his legal lapdogs and focus on his R&D division before it’s too late!
The Tipo’s appeal is simple: it possesses two SIM cards, and has a dedicated hardware key allowing you to switch between them at will (in addition to software settings which permit you to automatically switch between SIM cards during conditions which you can pre-set, such as time of day). It bolsters its usefulness by being a fairly good low-end Smartphone, to boot, with a 3.2 Megapixel camera, just under 3GB of storage (expandable via SD card) and connectivity features such as 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as the prerequisite scratch resistant glass. Essentially, it’s intended to bridge the gap between a cheaper feature phone and the low end of the Smartphone market, and act as a jumping-off point for new consumers. Unusually for such a device, though, it’s running the most recent version of Android (the Ice Cream Sandwich OS) despite having only a single-core processor with a mere 800MHz – the Sony Xperia Play pulls down 1GHz and is still apparently unable to handle ICS. Running the latest version of Android should certainly sweeten the deal for the casual user, on what could otherwise appear to be a fairly lacklustre and gimmicky device.
But accusations of gimmickry aside, Sony are still learning a trick that many of their competitors have yet to master – diversification. In much the same way that the Xperia Acro S and the Xperia Go were intended to appeal to mobile phone user’s on-the-go, the Tipo Dual is intended to appeal to casual users and individuals who’d like to utilize two mobile phone networks simultaneously. Sony’s recent devices may lack the power of HTC’s One range, but they’re succeeding with their goal of appealing to very different types of users, and by doing so they're broadening their market reach accordingly. And, if rumours of the upcoming 
There are obvious merits to a system like Android; parent company Google’s policy of allowing disparate companies to adapt the OS as they see fit means that massively more Android Smartphones are being activated every day – some estimates place it at over 900,000, or roughly 10 per second. But with so many Android handsets out there, it’s a strain for developers to create applications that are capable of running on multiple devices. For example, when Instagram – a popular application that made its name on the iPhone – initially launched on Android systems, it lacked compatibility with HTC’s flagship One X device; arguably the most powerful Android Smartphone on the market at that time. That would be equivalent to Instagram lacking compatibility with the iPhone 4S on release; it would curtail a massive amount of potential users.
Apple, by contrast, utilizes their proprietary, homebrewed iOS on their Smartphones. The numbers speak for themselves: while only 7% of Android users are utilizing Android’s most recent version, 5.0 (the Ice Cream Sandwich OS), more than 80% of Apple consumers use the iOS 5 (and are consequently poised to immediately upgrade to the iOS 6 upon release with no issue). For the majority of users, this isn’t exactly a deal-breaker; only the hardcore fringe of customers cares about having the most up-to-date operating system sheerly for the sake of it. What is a deal-breaker, however, is being unable to use the most recent and popular applications because your phone was left out of some anonymous developer’s calculations. And it’s impossible to deny that the risk of that happening is far greater for an Android device than an Apple device.
That’s the biggest difference between the two opposing operating systems – unity. While Android may have a vibrant audience (and unquestionably broader, in terms of market appeal, than Apple’s), their sturdy opponent has a much greater ability to shepherd their users towards the most recent versions of their device. But, as in all things, there is a trade off for this - at the top echelons of development, the iPhone becomes inferior to devices like the Samsung Galaxy S3 or HTC One X. While a much more consistent OS than Android, leaving the iOS in the hands of one company has made it less adapatable and spontaneous overall. So while Apple may snicker at the "nerds" who tinker with their devices to maximize performance, or the applications which make such software alterations possible, they're still able to milk much less out of their Smartphones than the dedicated Android user.
Cook opened by revealing the updated line-up of notebook computers. Centrepiece of the selection was the all-new MacBook Air, repackaged in a slimmer body and replete with an improved Intel Ivy Bridge processor. This repurposed Air model offers up to a maximum of 512GB flash storage, ensuring faster access to programs and more disc space on the device. Next up, Cook unveiled the MacBook Pro, the luxury option for notebook consumers, boasting features including a 768GB hard drive, an SD card slot, and two high-speed ports, in addition to luxury fringe features like Retina display technology and a backlit keyboard. But for a notebook whose prices start at $2199, you’d expect such fringe features to be fairly routine by now.
For their second trick, Apple unveiled the latest and greatest version of their timeless Mac OS X, the long-anticipated Mountain Lion OS. Like the Pro and Air, many of the upgrades were more like tweaks, optimizing existing technology instead of radically moving forwards; but there were a few diamond-in-the-rough standouts to be found. The capacity to find all of your notifications (such as e-mail data, Facebook updates, and even information about the weather) in one easy-to-use location, for example, is now available via Mountain Lion, and your Mac now has the capability to synchronize itself with that same functionality on your iPhone. An increased ability to synchronize with iCloud storage also ensures that Mac’s are able interact fluidly with iPhone and iPad, allowing you to transfer documents rapidly between devices without unnecessary hardware interaction.
But as a company intimately connected with the Smartphone market, our main concern was the possible genesis of the iOS 6, and Apple did not disappoint; the grand unveiling of the sixth iteration of their proprietary operating system was our real centrepiece of the show. First on the agenda were the updates to Siri, Apple’s voice-activated personal assistant. Siri is now capable of launching applications on command, ensuring that a cluttered library of apps is no longer an impediment to swiftly finding Angry Birds on the go. Siri’s ability to find information online has also been improved, and its library of voice diction commands expanded. The biggest news of all, though, was the knowledge that Siri will be brought to Apple’s new iPad, the iPad 3, when the device upgrades to the iOS 6. Though the iPad has long had voice input functionality, this is its first brush with Apple’s proprietary Siri software, and has left many tablet users extremely excited.
As for the theoretical iPhone 5 – the device that spurred a positive frenzy of speculation – well, we haven’t heard hide or hair from Cook about it so far. But given that the release of the iPhone 4S was in autumn, it’s no surprise that Apple have modified their customary summer release announcement cycle; we should probably expect a September/October release for the new iPhone, whether it’s dubbed the iPhone 5, the iPhone 6, or something entirely different. But we’re confident that before 2012 is over, there’ll be a new flagship device to complement Apple’s newly-minted iOS 6!
According to Micha Benoliel, CEO of Open Garden, “as long as the devices are in proximity they [can] recognize themselves seamlessly. If once device in the mesh has access to the Internet, then the other device can benefit from it.” This is a revolutionary method of connectivity: as long as someone nearby has the Open Garden app, and available Wi-Fi connectivity, any other user in the area with the application can “piggyback” from their connection. When there’s no available internet connection, the application can access the internet via links through other devices, such as laptops. And there’s no need to worry about the stability of your connection; if the connector device leaves the network, the connection is automatically routed through the next-best available device.
While this kind of peer-to-peer networking is nothing new on desktop computers, there are few precedents of this variety of software being utilized successfully on mobile devices. The application is particularly useful as it works on devices of different calibres: you can utilize a laptop to connect via an iPhone, or an iPhone to connect via an Android device, ensuring cross-platform use. There are even plans to tailor the amount of memory and data that users can allocate to the application, as well as the capacity to connect to different social networks in order to designate the desired network sharers. While all this stands to be very useful for consumers, some mobile networks have criticised Open Garden’s plans, foreseeing loss of revenue: Benoliel, for his part, claims that Open Garden will help to decongest crowded networks, as Wi-Fi offers more capacity. Whether Open Garden will have a profound effect on the future of 3G and 4G, however, remains to be seen.
In terms of expanding their market, though, the 2012 WWDC is expected to mark an even greater upswing in Apple’s fortunes. There are a number of announcements that industry insiders expect Cook to debut at the annual keynote (the central event, and the one which always garners the most media attention). Virtually the entire range of Macs are expected to receive upgrades: the MacBook Air, Pro, and iMac are all slated for update. In addition, we can virtually guarantee the debut of the iOS 6; and a grand unveiling of the most recent OS X upgrade, named Mountain Lion, is practically guaranteed, if you look at the plethora of advertisements that have arisen in the interim. Speculated features are largely expected to counterpoint similar ones in Google Android, including “Mail VIPs” (counterpart to Gmail’s “priority inbox”, which marks e-mails from specifically determined ‘important’ people) and “iCloud Tabs”, which will show which Safari tabs you have simultaneously opened across multiple devices, like your MacBook and iPad.
However, despite the customary buzz, there’s no guarantee that WWDC 2012 will mark the grand unveiling of Apple’s most highly-anticipated device, the new iPhone. While it would fall into line with Apple’s ordinary market release cycle, the iPhone 4S bucked the trend when it was released in autumn – it wouldn’t surprise us if that marked Apple’s new release schedule, meaning we could be waiting months for an announcement in that area. Besides, Apple certainly has enough on its plate with the new iOS and OS X announcements: it would be packing in an awful lot of information (even by Apple standards) to reveal the speculated iPhone 5, too. Keep in mind, though, that all of this information is pure speculation, based on Apple’s customary track record at events of this calibre, and our observations of their market expansion – we could be entirely off-base. Like you, we’ll just have to wait and see what Tim Cook pulls out of the bag today!
One of the interesting things behind this newly-formed partnership is the way they’re pooling their resources. They’ve already made the decision to neatly split the country in half, in terms of coverage: O2 is set to manage the eastern half (along with north London, Northern Ireland and Scotland), while Vodafone prepares to manage the western half (along with south London and Wales). While the spokespeople for both companies are remaining tight-lipped at the moment, it’s estimated that this kind of sharing of fiscal responsibilities could save both companies hundreds of millions of pounds in the long run.
With that said, both companies have stressed that this is not a full partnership, and that the two companies will remain in competition with each other: they won’t share spectrum, and their customer data will only be handled by the service provider the customer proscribes to. But the most exciting detail for most customers is the notion that this combined network will have the capacity to reach 4G – something that even primary service provider antagonist, EverythingEverywhere, has yet to achieve. Pushing for 4G earlier than their competitors could be the key that allows Vodafone and O2 to succeed – but only time will tell how successful this merger can be.
Though it seems like a dramatic schism, in practical terms the decision wouldn’t make much of a difference to Google. They’d stand to lose very little revenue; they might even gain, if Apple permits them to release a polished-up version of Google Maps via the Apple store. It’s an important decision, however, in terms of psychology, because it represents Apple throwing down the gauntlet to Google. Apple’s philosophy has always been a laissez-faire one; their closed-source iOS, their tight code and proprietary technology, all represent a company with the ultimate goal of standing on their own two feet, without having to rely on the software or hardware of any potential competitors (discounting the application store, which gains them a substantial revenue stream). They’ve had no issue with utilizing Google’s technology in the past - but now that they possess the capacity to take them on, and stymie Google at yet another turn, they have no qualms in doing so.
Google doesn’t appear to be worried, though, judging by their response – a glitzy media event in San Francisco on June 6th, at which they previewed some of the upcoming features of Google Maps. Their platform looks to be expanding rapidly, judging by some of their goals for the future: they’ve commissioned a whole team of planes to take 45 degree aerial photographs, ensuring the capacity to offer full 3D, fully scalable aerial map models of towns and cities in the future. Almost as impressive, though, was a portable, satchel-like device which permits people on the street to become vectors for the software, allowing Google to map narrow locations a car could not fit – in the future, they may even be able to offer full floor plans for buildings, based on this technology!
Of course, the language of business is a language of subtlety – neither Google nor Apple has made a public show of their burgeoning rivalry, despite it simmering under the surface for quite some time. (Some of the late Steve Jobs’ criticisms of Android in his biography go beyond scathing and straight into the realm of incendiary, however.) Google program manager Peter Birch even stressed the importance of the struggling partnership between the two companies, stating “I can’t really speculate on what the rumours may be” and “… we’ve been on Apple devices since 2008” when questioned on the possibility of a split. But actions speak louder than words, and we’re eagerly awaiting the outcome of this latest spat between the two Smartphone giants; will Apple’s map system be able to measure up to Google’s multi-million dollar counterpart? Or is this just the latest example of Apple’s dogged – and sometimes insane – determination to rely on nobody but themselves, no matter what the financial consequences? Only time will tell.
That means that if certain conditions are met, the profiles will kick in and perform their set function. For example, you could overclock your processor up until it reaches a certain temperature; and at that point, automatically cause it to return to default factory settings (or even reduce CPU speed further, to allow swifter cool-down). Or you could set your mobile to automatically enter sleep mode during a certain time of the day, ensuring that you don’t compromise your battery by forgetting to turn your phone off after bedtime, or during work hours. It’s far from the most exciting application out there, but if you’re looking to have total control over the technical aspects of your device, there are few better applications out there.
9 – FlightTrack
If you’re in a line of work which necessitates repeated plane travel, FlightTrack will be literally indispensable to you. It does exactly what you’d expect, based on the title: tracking over 16,000 airports worldwide and covering more than 1400 airlines, FlightTrack gives you real-time, constantly updating information about all the minutiae of any flight you’re embarking upon: departure times, gate statuses, and even direct links to alternate flights. In the event that yours is cancelled, you can find a replacement in a mere tap!
In addition to this basic utility, FlightTrack has a number of other features; including the ability to share the status of your flight via social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, the capacity to view your seat in relation to the rest of the plane, and even fully imaged tracker maps, which will detail the type of weather your flight can be expected to encounter on-route. It’s refreshing to see an application with such a clear-cut use include so many fringe features like this, to make the experience that much more user-friendly.
There are only two real disadvantages to be found with FlightTrack, in fact – first, the fact that charter flights are not supported via the application; secondly, the fact that its many features means that it’s a real drain on the battery power of your Smartphone. Perusing it for any kind of extended period can be devastating. With that said, FlightTrack has anticipated even this failing, by incorporating a simple homescreen widget, to allow you to track your flight of choice even when the application is closed. For the constant traveller, there’s no better companion to be found than FlightTrack.
8 – Nova Launcher Prime
Nova Launcher Prime is, essentially, a homescreen replacement compatible with Android 4.0+ Smartphones, for those who want a more performance-driven UI than the default Ice Cream Sandwich. With that said, the amount of features Nova possesses marks it apart from other, lesser overlays. For a start, it’s very intuitive; there are a number of default gestures that you can perform to swiftly (in some cases, automatically) launch applications on the homescreen, such as pinching, swiping, or two-finger tapping, which cuts down on the clumsy touch-screen fumblings that some overlays encourage.
In addition to its intuitive interface, Nova Launcher’s smart features perform automatic tasks like hiding little-used applications on the desktop, ensuring that there’s less clutter to be found, and features an automatic count of any missed messages, ensuring that you’ll never lose important information from your Gmail or SMS. There is the capacity for unlimited custom tabs, and apps can be organized into individual tabs or custom folders. It’s a much cleaner and more utilitarian option than the messier ICS default screen, and for that, it has the Mobile Madhouse recommendation!
7 – SketchBook Mobile
While desktop computers possess far greater power when it comes to drawing/editing applications such as Photoshop, most of the artists I know prefer to perform on a tablet computer. That’s because it’s a far more intuitive and personal experience, and probably also because it’s more evocative of classical art: it’s almost like an electronic sketchpad. So I’m always excited to see a mobile and tablet-oriented piece of drawing/editing software, especially when it’s of such a high-quality standard as SketchBook Mobile.
It possesses most of the same features an illustrator would expect of Photoshop: the capacity for multiple layers, many different brush types, a full spectrum of colours to choose from and even some fairly basic editing software. It has an attractive UI, a negligible price tag and is very responsive to pen strokes: everything, in short, that you would require from your editing software.
The only common complaint I’ve heard about SketchBook relates to its “pen pressure support” feature; theoretically, the application should be able to detect how hard you’re pressing down with the pen, and adjust the resultant illustration accordingly in terms of line thickness/depth of shading. But many customers claim this functionality is stunted or completely absent on their device. While I can’t say that’s a crippling loss for a casual sketcher like myself, it may well be a deal-breaker for a desktop-user, accustomed to fine-tuned detail and unwilling to compromise on perfection. With that said, the price of SketchBook Mobile, coupled with its plethora of features, means that it’s hard to get angry about even its failings. At it's core, it remains a very competent and very fun app.
6 – SoundHound
Following in the footsteps of applications like Shazam, SoundHound is specifically designed to circumvent one of life’s major irritations – having a song lyric or tune stuck in your head, without remembering the song name or artist. Unlike Shazam, however (whose major draw was the capacity to hold your device up to a radio, and have information about the song rapidly show up on screen), SoundHound also possesses the incredible ability to recognise songs when sung or hummed by you, making it far more useful on-the-go.
In addition to its primary function of swiftly recognising different songs, SoundHound has a number of fringe features, too; links to the social networking sites of identified artists, links to YouTube to watch song videos, optional auto-sharing so your friends can see the songs you’ve listened to, and even the capacity to buy songs in several different formats, once they’ve been identified. For ease of use, there’s a homescreen widget which permits you to identify music without having to launch the application. And for the purposes of nostalgia, the application can even remember the location you first discovered a song, in case you want to get a little teary-eyed over that Rod Stewart ballad. So if you have a bad memory, and a passion for music, you should make SoundHound your first priority.
5 – Star Chart
Some of the applications we reviewed were utilitarian to the extreme, focusing only on bare-bones utility; of them all, only Star Chart surpassed its base usage to transcend into something of gorgeous aesthetic appeal. All you have to do is point your Android device up at the sky, and hey presto – Star Chart will identify the star (or planet) you’re looking at. Utilizing state-of-the-art GPS technology and 3D imaging techniques, Star Chart also calculates the positions of every other star and planet in the sky based on your initial image, permitting you to know precisely what’s going on in the sky – even in broad daylight!
But, of course, that isn’t all. The constellations are rendered as beautiful pieces of artwork (inspired by the art of a 15th century astronomer), lending an elegant and classy air to the application. It also permits you to explore the night sky through finger-tapping, allowing you to play at being an armchair astronomer yourself – and with accurate, photorealistic depictions of the 5000+ different stars visible from Earth, you may even be caught up in the illusion yourself! Additionally, you can find out more information about any celestial body of your choice by simply clicking on it - allowing you to find out its diameter, distance from the sun, and more!
Fully configurable to your exacting specifications, Star Chart allows you to ignore any object you’re not interested in. If you just want to view the constellations responsible for star signs, you can; if you only want to see planets, and no stars, you can do that too. You can even manually enter a location to discover what the night sky looks like from a different continent. The crowning achievement for me, though, is the capacity to point your Android device at the ground during daytime, and see the opposite hemisphere’s star system. Even if you have no interest in astronomy or the solar system at large, you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t give Star Chart a look; you won’t find a cheaper way to blow apart your mind and your expectations!
4 – Titanium Backup PRO
No frills, no fancy widgets, no overlays – the Titanium Backup PRO is usable and useful, a no-nonsense application with a clear-cut mission statement and a dedication to fulfilling it. Its primary function, obviously, is to back up your files: its utilitarian interface allows you to quickly and easily set up a backup system. Whether you want to individually back up your save game files and applications, or have them automatically backed up en-masse at preset intervals, Titanium Backup has the capacity to cater to your exacting specifications.
It also possesses a number of auxiliary functions, such as the capacity to freeze apps, encrypt your files to ensure they are secure, sync itself to cloud-based storage systems such as Dropbox... it can even backup your applications without closing them down - ensuring total system security even when you’re, say, playing Angry Birds on the sly. The developers are constantly adding new functionality as and when appropriate; the capacity to sync to Google Drive was enabled less than three days after its initial debut! With constant free updates, you can’t really say no – so if you don’t want to lose any vital information on your Android mobile, make sure to invest in Titanium Backup.
3 – Paper Camera
Another stylish novelty application, Paper Camera is one of a plethora of applications that allows you to set a filter, which will subsequently be applied to any photograph you take with your phone’s camera. Though a fairly simple proposition, the sheer number of filters available (including sketches, neon, and film noir style) ensures that you have a huge amount of choice when it comes to your photography. Additionally, it differs from many other applications that utilize such filters, in that the filter is pre-set prior to taking the photograph, rather than acting as a post-effect (which can compromise on the quality of the photographs).
The watchword of Paper Camera appears to be “convenience”, because the whole experience is streamlined and stripped down. Once a photograph is taken, it is automatically placed into your gallery; there’s no need to save it, or introduce a file name. The interface is practically idiot-proof; without any complex editing options to trip up the casual user, there’s virtually no learning curve whatsoever – once you’ve enabled your effect of choice, you just snap, snap, snap to your heart’s content. That’s what really makes Paper Camera so special, compared to competition which is often more polished and professional; while it’s a little rough around the edges, it has heart to fall back on.
2 – Smart Tools
Smart Tools is, essentially, a portmanteau application: a combination of five separate applications, released (for free) individually under the aegis of the titular Smart Tools Co: Smart Ruler Pro, Smart Measure Pro, Smart Compass Pro, Smart Meter Pro and Smart Light Pro. As you might be able to guess, Ruler was designed to measure things like length and angle; Measure was designed to measure height and distance; Sound Meter is a sound-level meter with a vibrometer attached; Compass is (of course) a compass, with a GPS and metal detector also attached; and Light is an application which simulates a flashlight.
Individually, these applications were all useful pieces of utility, but together they constitute the software equivalent of a Swiss penknife: multi-purpose and innately adaptable. If you ever find yourself wondering how long your pen is, or how far exactly you are from the nearest toilet, you now have the capability to satisfy even the most meandering supposition! Smart Tools may not be nearly as glamorous as an application like Paper Camera, but of all the applications we downloaded in preparation for this list, Smart Tools assuredly saw the most use.
1 – SwiftKey X Keyboard
You might be a little underwhelmed by the notion of a digital touchscreen keyboard taking precedence over flashier (and, let’s be honest, more groundbreaking) applications like SoundHound in our estimation, but anybody who has used the SwiftKey X Keyboard will attest to how incredibly useful it is. It possesses much more sophisticated technology than other digital keyboards; while many keyboards have the capacity to “learn” words, ensuring that they become more synchronized with your idiom and vocabulary as time goes on, SwiftKey X – as the name implies – is much faster at synonymising itself with you.
In addition to this swift learning capacity, the SwiftKey X can also predict the structure of your sentences, meaning it will offer suggestions on words you’re likely to use next. After building up a bit of a rapport with your keyboard, it’s even possible to construct sentences “mad-libs” style, by just allowing the keyboard to predict the words you want. It also has a spellchecker of unparalleled sophistication; even the sloppiest typographical errors are magically transformed into cohesive sentences. As if all that wasn’t enough, the keyboard can be resized at will, meaning that an individual with smaller or larger hands won’t suffer unduly while typing – all they have to do is alter the settings of the application!
With thirty five different language keyboards to choose from, and more on the way, SwiftKey X Keyboard truly deserves its lofty position in the top five rankings of Android’s (paid) application store. At less than £2, it’s one of the best bargains available there, too – you really stand to lose nothing by giving it a try. It comes highly recommended, and is, by common consensus, the favourite utility application of the Mobile Madhouse team!
Essentially, the notion behind the Galaxy Pocket (so named for its miniature frame) is that it provides the features of an entry-level Android Smartphone without being excessively expensive. As an entry-level Smartphone, it is designed as the next rung on the ladder for feature-phone users to climb: powerful (or at least powerful compared to its lesser kin), but much more competitively priced than something like the S3. Things like this have been attempted before – Samsung themselves have made a stab at it prior to now, with the Galaxy Mini 2. But the envelope has never been pushed further than it has with the Samsung Galaxy Pocket. Its hardware features are startlingly austere for a Smartphone: a 2.8 inch screen pulling in 143 ppi; a 2 Megapixel camera; a 1200 mAh battery; 3GB of internal storage; Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity; and, promisingly, an extraordinarily light weight of 97g. You can expect an ultra-competitive price-tag when the device debuts in the UK – though we haven’t been given a date yet, it’s a fairly safe bet that the Galaxy Pocket will put you back less than £150, considering its modest specifications.
But, of course, there are some drawbacks for a competitively priced mobile that attempts to run Android competently. First off, the capacitive touchscreen input. While it’s comfortable and user-friendly on mobiles with larger screens (the HTC One X is a particularly excellent example of touchscreens done right), anyone with larger-than-average fingers is going to struggle to input on the Samsung Galaxy Pocket with any degree of speed or accuracy. Additionally, the smaller screen can make browsing a pain, which isn’t a very attractive notion for a Smartphone that boasts Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity as some of its flagship features. Any kind of lengthy browsing session could result in a headache and eyestrain.
The modest CPU (a processor running less than 840MHz) and low resolution mean that you will get noticeable time-lag when running anything even remotely graphically intensive, making the Galaxy Pocket’s compatibility with Android’s app store seem like a hollow proposition when even a simple game like Angry Birds can slow your device to the very brink of unplayability. Without the capacity to run Android’s current OS (Ice Cream Sandwich), the Galaxy Pocket is also restricted to a re-skinned version of the earlier Gingerbread OS - which, to its credit, remains a competent operating system with many useful fringe features (albeit with significantly less utility than its bigger brother).
With all of that said, however, the Galaxy Pocket was never an exercise in creating a specification-mad monster; the Galaxy S3 fulfils that particular niche in Samsung’s catalogue of devices. While Smartphone enthusiasts will find little to love here, it’s always a noble sight to see a company genuinely interested in expanding their market by appealing to the younger and less experienced consumer. The Samsung Galaxy Pocket is guaranteed to make less than one tenth of the money of the leviathanic S3, but the good-will it will engender in first-time Smartphone customers is sure to make it all worthwhile in the long term.
Released in October, the iPhone 4S swiftly became renowned as Apple’s most inventive and versatile Smartphone yet. Its prime directive is fluidity: the user interface is designed to be as intuitive and functional as possible. It’s a smart way of doing things; by ensuring that different hand motions such as swiping, tapping and pinching the screen become inextricably linked with the concept of iPhone interaction, Apple have, in essence, created a brand based on the users own synergistic experience with the device – a brand which has been expanded by identical touchscreen interaction with the iPad. In terms of raw specifications, the 4S utilizes the iOS 5.1.1, Apple’s most recent variant on their proprietary operating system. It’s capable of acting as an internet hotspot, diversifying its internet connection over WiFi, Bluetooth and USB and permitting access to Apple’s famed app store while on-the-move.
Its most unique and talked-about feature is probably Siri, however. An automated voice control system, Siri is unique among such software in that it permits near-total control over every aspect of the device, from weather reports to appointments. This means it’s much easier for somebody busy with a different task – such as exercising in the gym, or driving a car – to check things on their phone without compromising their own safety. It recognises three languages on launch – English, French and German – with plans for more languages to be added as the system matures. Because the 4S is a slate-style touchscreen (eschewing excessive buttons in favour of a streamlined design), its keyboard is virtual, meaning greater functionality for inputting in a range of different languages across the board – ensuring a broad market saturation.
Apple, then, are clever marketers - that much is obvious to anybody who has paid a modicum of attention to their advertising campaigns. But for a raw comparison of the respective specifications of the iPhone 4S and the Samsung S3, you need only check out the table below.
But when you get right down to it, that’s not what this fight is about. Apple has never claimed to put out the strongest products on the marketplace: their claim to fame has always been sleek functionality combined with relentless, saturation marketing. For Samsung to stand a chance of beating out Apple in the long run, they’re going to need to spend a lot of money building up an aesthetic brand as recognisable as the classy, minimalistic sheik of the iPhone. The Samsung S3 may well be the Smartphone that drives the iPhone 4S off its precarious position as most-touted Smartphone, but will its follow-up be able to go toe-to-toe with the iPhone 5, or will it stand to become just another flash-in-the-pan contender for Apple’s crown?
Only time will tell.
If you’re not fortunate enough to own this sublime piece of hardware, you’ll be forgiven for not knowing why it’s such an excellent mobile. Undoubtedly, part of the reason is psychosomatic: HTC recorded a degree of profit loss prior to the release of the One X, and it’s clear they threw their heart and soul into its production as a way of proving their worth to their detractors. The subsequent success of the device has made it something of a golden boy in the eyes of Smartphone enthusiasts, and definitely revived HTC’s flagging fortunes, fanning the fire of their financial success.
But, of course, that’s not the only reason why this phone is so popular. The HTC One X is powerful. Secreted in its lightweight, slimline 8.9mm frame lays a quad-core processor, Nvidia’s Tegra 3, which provides some genuine oomph in terms of CPU speed. Its screen is 4.7 inches, which would be a formidable enough size on a phone with less features (HTC have, in fact, marketed entire advertising campaigns around screen size before – just look at the HTC Titan), but seems to be just business as usual with the powerhouse One X. This gargantuan display is capable of 720p HD, utilizing LCD technology (in lieu of the AMOLED display favoured by rival Samsung) to offer an incredible visual experience, with less blurring and more exacting colour accuracy than nearly all competitors. This is carried through by the sleek and minimalistic design of the One X, eschewing excessive button input in favour of a slate-inspired modus that is far more elegant and intuitive.
In terms of its software, the One X ships with Android 4.0, the Ice Cream Sandwich OS that most Smartphone enthusiasts have come to know and respect. As per usual for HTC devices, it’s overlaid with the HTC Sense GUI, transforming the OS into one of the sleekest, most professional and eye-catching browsing experiences around. It comes prepackaged with Beats Audio, ensuring lossless, studio-quality performance, irrespective of the music you prefer. There’s 32GB of onboard storage; which is fairly good, but possibly a little lacklustre when you consider the dearth of superb HD movies that would look sublime on the screen of the One X, but would never fit simultaneously in its memory. Additionally, without a card slot to subsidize this (comparative) deficit, hardcore Smartphone enthusiasts may find their available space diminishing rapidly. This shouldn’t be a problem for the average user, however - and the HTC One X does possess a lot of average users, compared to its competitors.
And, in a roundabout way, that’s what makes the HTC One X such a special phone – the fact it crosses the normally clear-cut boundary that separates usability (exemplified by the iPhone 4S) and raw power (exemplified by devices like the newly-unveiled Samsung S3), to create a user experience that can appeal to both sides of the Smartphone market. Yes, there’s the traditional plethora of fringe features for hardcore enthusiasts, like simultaneous HD video recording and picture taking, face detection lock (ensuring other people cannot utilize your unique device), and an autofocus 8 Megapixel camera (with response times which average about a third of a second)… but it’s all so easy to use that you never feel intimidated by its potentialities. Rather, the HTC One X feels like an adventure of discovery; you feel compelled to utilize all of its disparate features, rather than put off by them. I’ve no doubt that, in the future, many once-inexperienced phone-users will cite the HTC One X as the mobile phone that got them truly interested in the industry. That’s what makes it such a special device, and the current high water mark of the Smartphone industry.
With the schedule Apple has set for releasing new products that means we shouldn’t expect an announcement about the hypothetical iPhone 5 for at least another month, with their June 11th – 15th WWDC (worldwide developer’s conference) slated to be the platform from which the iOS 6 is unveiled. At this point, even the name “iPhone 5” is just speculation. After all, as the upcoming sixth release in the cycle, it could just as easily be dubbed the iPhone 6!
It’s to be expected, though. As an incredibly popular company, Apple products produce a disproportionate amount of buzz. Tickets for the WWDC sold out in a mere two hours, denying some U.S developers a chance to even attend. While previous WWDC outings were well-anticipated (the previous year had tickets selling out in just twelve hours), the fevered excitement for this new iPhone can easily be singled out as the culprit for this years ticket-snatching mania.
But is it truly warranted? After all, Apple produces many more products than the iPhone; their computer operating system, the Mac OS X, undergoes developmental upheavals just as regularly as the iOS, and the OS X is certainly going to have at least a few sessions and seminars devoted to it. Isn’t it equally likely that this year’s WWDC will focus on the computing, or the music and multimedia side of their business? Isn’t it even possible that Apple themselves have leaked the tantalizing hints of the iPhone 5, to drum up interest over a prolonged period of time? It's certainly true that they've finally got around to registering the iPhone5.com domain name.
We’d like to hear your thoughts on Apple, the WWDC, and the iPhone 5 (or perhaps “The New iPhone”, following in the footsteps of the iPad) via the comment system. Do you think it’s all meaningless hysteria, or just savvy marketing technique? Do you expect an announcement over the summer WWDC, or perhaps an autumn announcement, more in line with Apple’s traditional routine?
Whichever it may be, rest assured - when the product is unveiled, we’ll be first on the market with a fine selection of iPhone 5 cases!
