Following the announcement of their new cloud-based music service, Google today unveiled the latest version of their Android mobile operating system.
Code-named Ice Cream Sandwich, the next update is mostly dedicated to converging Android’s diverging smartphone and tablet code branches into a single united trunk.
If that sounds familiar, it should: it’s exactly what Apple had to do when it forked the iOS code for the original iPad’s release. At the time, the iPhone and iPod Touch were on version 3.1.3, while the iPad shipped with version 3.2.
Who wants to sift through all this text crap when you could just watch a video? If your answer to that question sounds something along the lines of “not me,” you should probably download Showyou onto your iDevice during your next coffee break — just don’t blame us if your boss fires you because you spend the next five hours watching clips on it.
The app elegantly aggregates all the videos that your contacts on Facebook or Twitter have posted, and also from its own Showyou network that can be joined via the app. Sharing clips looks just as elegant and effortless.
Showyou looks good on the iPhone, but gets drool-worthy on an iPad with videos from feeds laid out in a seamlessly swipeable checkerboard. Bonus: It plays nice with an Apple TV.
The Sun, that last bastion of journalistic excellence, reports that Queen Elizabeth II has shuttled off one of her liveried manservants to the Regent Street Apple Store to buy her an iPad 2. Explanation, please!
Apple has invested a considerable amount of time and money on iOS, the mobile version of Mac OS X, that powers the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple TV. So it just makes sense that Apple would re-invest iOS technology into the Mac version of OS X. Steve Jobs has pretty much said so himself and we’ll start to see this happen with the release of Mac OS X 10.7 bearing the code name Lion.
First of all it is no secret that Apple plans on bringing a number of features to the Mac from iOS. These features include the following:
Resuming Applications
Mac OS X will allow applications to remember open windows, etc. similar to resuming apps when launched on iOS. Automatically saving application documents will also be an integrated feature similar to what happens on iOS when you suspend or quit an app.
In the history of technology, most successful formats go from a nascent birth phase to market popularity with the assistance of a Killer App. A major program, activity or use for a new technology that drives rapid adoption of the medium.
The Apple II had VisiCalc. The IBM PC had Lotus 1-2-3. With the Macintosh came PageMaker and desktop publishing. Arcade Games had Space Invaders. Xbox had Halo. VHS had porn.
Many technologies have benefited from porn, actually. It’s a pre-internet fad.
But there is no one Killer App for the iPad. There are dozens of categories of uses, thousands of apps. The iPad started out popular, then became a phenomenon. But nobody can agree on what it’s best used for.
At the top of this week’s list of must-have iOS apps is the awesome comic creation tool that previously came bundled with Intel Macs. Comic Life from plasq allows you to use the photos in your iPad’s camera roll to create your own comic masterpieces.
Notificant is a brilliant new productivity app that makes is fast and simple to create reminders for the things you’d usually forget. Choose to have notifications alert you on your iPhone, as well as any of your other iOS or Mac devices.
Exploring your music collection has never been as stunning as it is with Planetary – a free iPad app that has climbed rapidly to the top of the free app charts. Fly through a 3D universe dynamically created by information about the recording artists you love.
Find out more about the applications above and check out the rest of this week’s must-haves – including Cadence.fm and 4oD Catch Up – after the break!
Last night, the iPhone-Dev Team updated redsn0w, PwnageTool, and ultrasn0w to take advantage of iOS 4.3.3. Fortunately, Apple didn’t patch i0nic’s exploits, so he just needed to update his untether exploit to work with iOS 4.3.3 on the usual set of devices. More information and IPSW download links below.
Sporting Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors, powerful new graphics cards and Thunderbolt ports that can support two external monitors, the new iMac is the undisputed champion of all-in-one machines. Plus, it’s the only one out there that’s not butt ugly.
As well as being the most attractive desktop computer available, it offers just about everything modern computer users might need in a self-contained package, from a HD webcam to a gesture-sensitive trackpad.
I’ve been testing a 27-inch model with a 3.1Ghz Core i5 chip (the biggest, fastest stock model currently available at the Apple Store), and it may sound silly, but it’s almost too much machine for my needs. The screen is so big, I have to sit back lest I get motion sickness. And the i5 chip has power to spare for someone like me, who doesn’t do high-end video or graphics work.
Still, I’ll take it. If the chip is too powerful now, it sure won’t be in a couple of years.
Apple is reportedly working closely with Verizon Wireless to introduce over-the-air software updates to the iPhone with its iOS 5 firmware. Starting this fall, iPhone users will be able to update their iOS software wirelessly, without having to plug the device into iTunes, or involve a computer altogether. It’s a luxury Google Android and Palm webOS users have been enjoying for some time, and Apple’s finally bringing it to iOS.
Multiple sources for 9to5Machave revealed the feature will debut with iOS 5 and will support subsequent iOS releases. Apparently, Apple already has the technology, but doesn’t want to release it to the masses all at once. It will therefore be available only to Verizon customers initially.
Chalk up another victory for cord cutters: two TV-centric apps won best entertainment apps for the tablet category in this year’s Webby awards.
The free app for network PBS was named the 2011 Webby Award Winner in the entertainment category and science TV program Mythbusters was awarded the People’s Voice Winner.
