PEDES3ANTECH

Apple has been known for its simple, intuitive and beautiful hardware design and today that philosophy has been applied to its software component. This expectation was driven mainly by the fact that Jony Ive (Apple chief of industrial design) took the lead in re-designing the much anticipated iOS7 and the world was given a first hand look of the updates today during the WWDC 2013 keynote address. The weeks leading up to the event was full of supposed leaks about how the new iOS 7 was going to be "flat" and "simple". People gave these rumors a lot a credit because that has always been the over-arching principle behind Apple's hardware designs since the beginning. So the idea of it being applied to its software component was a no-brainer especially with Ive at the helm. The immediate reaction from the tech-world was "mixed" to put it mildly. Some people felt like the new iOS does not offer anything new to the table and that a lot of the design im...

Apple has reached a major milestone, its app store has reached 50 Billion Downloads. To put that into perspective, there is about 6 Billion people in the world w/c means there is almost 10 apps downloaded for each living soul on the planet. To put it on even better perspective, Apple has sold 500 Million iOS devices according to most recent numbers ( source here ). That means on average each iOS device sold has 100 apps installed/downloaded to it.  If you think this milestone is important only from a business standpoint, you are missing half the story. Here is why: How the iPhone changed the mobile market When the first iPhone came out, the Apple App store was not in existence yet and no one had any idea how big a role apps will play in our lives. The first iPhone unveiled on January 9, 2007 and went on sale on June 29, 2007. At launch, the 1st Generation iPhone was able to do basic Smartphone functions (ie. web-browsing, email, calendar, etc.) and it was heralded as ...

Battle of the screen size. Mobile devices seem to be getting bigger in every iteration. Manufacturers have been obsessed with making their phones bigger, faster and more battery efficient. The consumers also seem to be accepting this change with open arms and pockets. A lot of the major product announcements lately have showcased phones with displays between 4.5-5 inches. These sizes were considered ridiculous just 5 years ago when phones seemed to get smaller. The advancements in graphic interface, touch screen technology and our growing need to be connected, people have seen the benefits- albeit- need of having more screen real-estate. This combination of processing power and the need to be productive where ever and when ever has fuelled the growth of what we now fondly call "phablets". Gone were the days when our phones were only meant for calling and texting- now our devices can truly be called smart-phones and to me the demand we exert on the devices has lead to it...

This week, Barcelona Spain is the centre of the Mobile universe. The Mobile World Congress is in full swing and manufacturers, developers and the media are in for a beautiful showcase of this years biggest innovations in mobile technology.  Although the trend recently has been for manufacturers to launch major product iterations with their own media events (Apple, Samsung, Blackberry, Windows etc), the Mobile World Congress is still expected to showcase some major advancements in mobile. Samsung will still be making an appearance and has shown the new Galaxy Note 8.0 to compete directly with the iPad mini and Kindle Fire HD. Other than this announcement, nobody is expecting anything else major from Samsung. Apple will never launch anything outside it uber hyped media events. Microsoft has decided to bask in its perceived success with Surface Pro and Windows 8, and Blackberry has decided- wrongly- that it did enough with its Z10 announcement last month.  ...

At the beginning of the new year, I posted a blog about my 2013 to do/try list (see post here ). Today I am proud to say that I am able to check off one item in the list- Try an Android Smartphone.  I have been using the Samsung Galaxy Note II for the last couple of weeks now after giving up my iPhone 4S. I did not post a blog about it right away to make sure my assessment is not biased. I had to make sure I gave myself enough time to learn and understand the OS. I had used an iPhone for over 3 years before getting the Note 2 so I had to make sure I get rid of any expectations based on what I was used to getting with iOS. It was not easy but after around 3 weeks I am fairly confident I gave Android a fair chance so here is my assessment.  Hardware Design and Feel. The Galaxy Note II is huge but highly functional even for someone with small hands like myself. The feel of the material however still has a plasticky feel w/c to me diminishes its high-end value ...

The jailbreak community has been given new life today with the release of Evasi0n, a new jailbreak software for iOS devices running 6.x. It has been a long time coming since the last major untethered jailbreak release for the masses.  Recently the jailbreak community was hit with a big change when Hackulous decided to shut-down, leading a lot of people to proclaim that the jailbreak community was going to die a slow death. ( read my take on the Hackulous shut-down in this post ). True to this diagnosis of dying slow- evasi0n was reportedly downloaded 270,000 times after less than 8 hours from its release.  The new jailbreak software was developed by a new group of hackers who call themselves @evad3rs mostly composed of veteran Jailbreakers @pod2g @planetbeing @pimskeks @MuscleNerd. This group had announced an exploit they found on the iOS 6.x releases but decided to wait it out until 6.1 was released to the masses to make sure Apple was not able to patch the exploit they us...