For all of their technological genius and massive resources, Google sure doesn’t know how to make hardware. It’s a problem that has plagued them for years but it seems to be best highlighted with the Chromebook Pixel. Over at CNET, they were focused on one of the major bugs with the laptop – the challenge the device has with connecting to cameras. There’s good and bad that comes with having an operating system that is designed to be light and shareable. One of the bad parts is that you often miss some of the common accepted notions that other operating systems (and their users) take for granted. Because…

It isn’t easy for anyone, even law enforcement agencies like the ATF, to break into an encrypted iPhone. They are often forced to look for help from Apple itself. The rise in requests from law enforcement agencies has compelled the Cupertino company to create a waiting list to get to the data of alleged bad guys. Currently, that means 7 weeks or more before requests can be fulfilled. According to CNET: An agent at the ATF, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “contacted Apple to obtain assistance in unlocking the device,” U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell wrote in a…

If there’s one way to make adults feel like they’re behind on the times, it’s by taking college students and having them ridicule their elders over the technology they’re using. That’s the theory, at least, in the latest ad from Samsung promoting it’s new Galaxy S4. While many of the features on the S4 are nifty, the ad does not deliver a “must have” appeal that Samsung was hoping to spread. Being able to wave over your phone to answer it while you have barbecue sauce on your hands is cute, but the response from the parent was unrealistic when he asked, “Oh wow. That’s how you answer it?” The biggest mistake…

Many major companies are going flat. No, it’s not just the economy or consumer sentiment, but rather in design. Flat is in and it’s sweeping across the internet, but how long will this trend last? Facebook made headlines last week with their move to a flat logo. Apple is rumored to be flattening their interface on iOS 7. Sabina Idler at Usabilla asked the question of whether this was a trend or a revolution. We’re going to go with trend. Flat design has many advantages including speed of design, simplicity of usability, and the sheer vintage trendiness of it all, but there’s something about stunning…

iOS 7 is rumored to be doing many things. First, it’s rumored to be launched in June. It’s rumored to be flatter much like the Windows Phone interface. It’s rumored to be able to predict earthquakes up to a day ahead of time. Okay, so we made the last one up, but it’s not far off from the types of rumors that seem to surround everything that comes out of Cupertino, even something fairly insignificant like the iOS 7 release. The thing that makes it so important, perhaps more important than previous releases, is that they’re coming off an embarrassment with their last operating system release due to the…

Microsoft has had its shares of difficulties in two big arenas of late – selling phones powered by their operating system and posting advertising videos that aren’t hated by the masses. They may have come up with a decent video that helps on both fronts by separating themselves from the fighting of the competition. The ad, slated to hit national television soon, pits the two sides of a wedding party against each other. On the bride’s side are people carrying the various Samsung mobile devices, while the groom’s family favors iPhone. Insults bounce back and forth and eventually lead to a melee. In…

The world of apps and Smartphone’s primarily started off with Apple’s iPhone in June 2007, with Google soon following up with the Android OS. At that time, the South Asian market was full of old school mobile phones, and the co-called Symbian Smartphone’s. For the common user, colored screens and polyphonic ringtones were the best that our market had to offer. However, it’s a different story today. These days we can get our hands on the touch-based Smartphone’s by spending almost the same amount that bought us a colored-screen polyphonic ringtone phone back in the day. There are thousands…

The iPhone has been blazing trails in the smartphone industry for 5 years now. It’s domination has been threatened lately by the rise of Android devices, particularly those of their arch-enemy, Samsung. Hacks are good and every phone has them. These are the tricks that got lost in the shuffle or were intentionally left in the small print of the instruction manuals that few people actually read, so they don’t get used as much. The three highlighted by Hack College are ones that are brand new… to you, at least. Okay, so you may have known one or two of them, but unless you’re a major iPhone geek or guru,…

Rumor has it that Microsoft is working on touch-enabled smartwatch. They’ve apparently just entered the prototype phase after having worked on the device for about a year. Microsoft already released smartwatches back in 2004 under the Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT) brand, though they discontinued them in 2008 when smartphones started becoming popular. There isn’t very much information on the device as of yet. What we know so far is that it’s supposed to have a 1.5-inch touchscreen as well as a removable band. One of the test designed supposedly had a magnetic connector, similar…

We thought that the nonsense was behind us when we stopped SOPA. The only thing we really did was teach Washington and the supporters in the technology world that if they want to destroy our privacy, they have to ease into it with more subtlety. Thus, CISPA was born. We will go into much more detail about it in the very near future, but for now it’s important to note that companies that did not support SOPA (at least openly) have quietly thrown their support over to CISPA. According to RT: A lobbying organization that counts Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple and other tech giants among its clients has lent…