Saturday, June 22, 2013

Windows.com compared to the recent redesign of blogging website, WordPress.

Despite 'dismal sales' of Windows 8, their is no shortage of websites adopting its minimalistic design of matte colours, thin text and clean lines. The design Windows calls "Metro" has spread like wildfire, not only appearing in many popular websites across the inter-webs but in operating systems like the new iOS 7. "Metro" first appeared in Microsoft's digital encyclopaedia, "Encarta" back in 1995, before the program was discontinued in 2009. It was then spotted on Microsoft's short lived "Zune" portable media players and Windows Media Player. The user interface was perfected over the years and drew inspiration from 'International typography design' or 'Swiss design,' a design that has existed in magazines for centuries often substituting images for text.

Look familiar? International Typography Design is the common factor.

The 1980's West Berlin train sign depicted above is similar to various elements of Windows phone, a 1950's book cover of International Typography Design which depicts the famous 'grid principle' has a striking resemblance Window's "live tiles" and the introduction to popular designer, Josef Albert's work shows to be much like the menus found in Windows phone. International Typography Design originated in Switzerland in 1920 and by the 1960's the design escaped from the swiss borders, becoming an international phenomenon. Its principles are simple; clean, structured and vibrant. 

A complete design overhaul saw the highly anticipated Windows operating system dramatically shift and adopt swiss design. Its unveiling in late 2011 caused much uproar in the PC community, who wondered why Microsoft would 'complicate' an already great user interface. Windows 8 was met with luke warm sales but was complimented by designers. Along with the overhaul, Microsoft redesigned their website to match Windows 8 and its mobile counterpart, windows phone. It wasn't until early 2012, when websites too started altering their designs, adapting to a simpler more metro-like appearance. Now lookalikes can be spotted in many email clients, operating systems and websites, but really how can we blame them?

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

i0S 7 Lockscreen
Lockscreen
i0S 7 Safari
Safari & Chrome
i0S 7 Camera
Camera interface

The much anticipated, Apple Worldwide Developers Conference went underway today at the Moscone West convention centre in San Francisco, California; seeing many rumours like iRadio and Mac OSX Mavericks become reality. But the true star of the event was the unveiling of iOS 7. Met with eager applaud, the mobile operating system confirmed that it was going to be simplistic, that it was going to be bold, that is was going to look like every other mobile OS out there; Windows phone, Android and Web OS

Last Year's developers conference saw Apple doing the same thing, introducing the notification centre that ripped off Google's Android blind, jumping on the cloud service bandwagon after Google and Amazon had rolled out their's and releasing iMessage that mimicked Blackberry message. At the D11 conference, Tim Cook was asked if Apple can keep up the pace of product innovation, review the comparisons above and below, to make up your own decision.

Has Apple Copied its Competitors?


i0S 7 Multitasking
Multitasking
i0S 7 Messages
Messaging
iOS 7 Mailbox
Mailbox
iOS 7 Incoming Call
Incoming call

Friday, June 7, 2013

From throwing a shoe at the president to propositioning Facebook friends for casual sex, we run through the top 10 most controversial iPhone Apps.


"I Am Rich" Released in the App Store in August of 2009, this $1,000 dollar app, which merely displayed a picture of a diamond, created much controversy when two customers unintentionally bought the app thinking it was 'just a joke'. Both complained to Apple who quickly yanked the app from their store and refunded their money. Developer, Armin Heinrich hasn't seen a penny of the $6,000 that were spent by the other six customers who intentionally purchased the application, leaving us to suspect that Apple took much more than their 30% cut. The app has since been reposted and can now be purchased for $10.



"Sweatshop" As the picture above would suggest, this new controversial app is about exploiting child workers in a bid to create 'Le Shoe'. Apple ironically pulled the game from their App Store shortly after contacting the developer, saying "it was uncomfortable selling a game based around the theme of running a sweatshops." The quote is more laughable than its gameplay, where the user is asked to block fire exits and increase work hours in a bid to create as many shoes as you can to earn a gold medal. In the 'About' section in the flash version of the game, creator, Littleloud wrote that they and Channel 4 worked with experts on sweatshops to integrate some of these realities into the game design to spread awareness. 



"Slasher" Released in the midst of a huge wave of stabbings in the UK back in 2008, this simple app, depicting a picture of a knife and playing a psychotic tune of knife slashes and screams when you wave your iDevice, caused controversy throughout Britain. After much outrage, Apple quickly took the application off their App Store. The app was reposted four years later in 2012.



"My Shoe" The application is just one out of a pool of political apps that Apple has rejected to avoid controversy and anger from their users. The game, like many online games and videos at the time, parodied the incident of when an Iranian journalist threw a shoe at American president, George W. Bush. The game is much like Backflip Studios' Paper Toss, where you would hold your iDevice in your hand and swing your harm, in an attempt to hit the cartoon president with a shoe overcoming wind and other obstacles.



"SnapChat" The following application allows users to send pictures to their friends that can only be viewed by their friend for 10 seconds before it is deleted stored on the developer's servers. Despite this, users are using the application to send nude photos of themselves to other people, these are the same people who are unaware that you're able to hold the home and power button together and take a screenshot. Don't get me wrong, I'm not stopping you from being a moron but if you're below the age of 18, you could technically face 15 years in prison. 




"Bang With Friends" Created by Colin Hodge, the popular app promising to make it easier for people [especially women] to ask for casual sex to their Facebook friends was cut short after it was banished from the App store for being too 'vulgar' for Apple's liking. The service, which only notifies both parties when their is a match, has one million users, with users logging over 70,000 times a day. The app, although banned from the App store, is of course still available on the Google Play store. 



"Boyfriend Trainer"
Originating as a flash game developed by Games2win, the iOS app allowed users to abuse a virtual boyfriend in a bid to "train him to be the ideal man." In the game the user controls a virtual girlfriend, who must physically abuse a boyfriend character through various levels or "lessons," like slapping him when he looks at other women or strangling him when he drives too fast. While the game attempted to spread female empowerment with a comedic twist, it ended up becoming criticised for the comedic portrayal of domestic violence.



"iBoobs" Unfortunately, despite its name, Apple wasn't behind this saucy application, but was behind its death in 2008, branding it "objectionable content" for its 'kid-friendly' app store. The game, which allowed users to control the movement of set of tits through the iphone's accelerometer has since been reincarnated on the Google Play store with the addition of achievements like "monster shake," and is available for $2.44.


"Door of Hope" Created by the morons of "Setting Captives Free,"the mobile application is just one of a wave of 'gay cure' apps, allowing 'homosexuals to be cured 'on-the-go' in only 60 days'. Following waves of negative press and public outrage, Apple quickly yanked the app from the App store in just a few days. The app, however, is still available on the Play store for free, its page bombarded with negative reviews has been rated "one star" by 800 users.


"Lulu" Created by Luluvise, the mobile app allows women link their ex-boyfriend's Facebook account  and categorise them through hash-tags like #bigfeet, #6foot or #opensdoors to inform or warn their fellow 'girlfriends' of the guy they are dating. The idea, which sounds innocent enough, has garned negative reviews from pissed off boyfriends, demanding their profile to be deleted from the site, stating the app is a "sexist double standard."

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Below, we run through the top 10 iPhone/ iPod Touch games of 2013 (so far).
[WAIT 5 SECONDS TO LOAD]



"The Walking Dead: The Game" Released in Early August last year, this zombie episodic adventure game has been met with critical acclaim with reviewers applauding its clever storyline influenced by the player's decisions. 

The game centres around convicted murderer, Lee Everet and his bid to endure through the zombie apocalypse that has hit Georgia. In the story, he rescues and cares for a young girl named Clemintine and meets many other survivors, where he makes friends as well as enemies.

Prepare to be amazed as you follow Lee through five, 2-hour episodes, where you'll discover what it means to survive and the lengths of which people go to do so. All five episodes of The Walking Dead: The Game are available on the iOS App Store. As of writing this article, the first episode is currently free, episodes two to five can purchased individually for $4.99 or the entire season can be purchased for $14.99 (25% off). For now only iPad 2 and iPhone 4 devices or newer are supported.






"Temple Run 2" Welcome to the new and improved Temple Run. The original game offered a simple yet infamous concept, 'the endless running man', avoid death by swiping. However the new temple run offers more than a few rocks in your way and gives the player a fresh gaming experience with stunning retina graphics.

Just as "Temple Run" starts getting stale, Imangi Studios releases its new and improved sequel. Whats lost are the chunky rough graphics and quite limited obstacles, replaced with smooth, crisp gameplay and exciting new obstacles and power-ups.

In place is a new leveling system, used to unlock power-ups and abilities. And more importantly, the addition of 'green gems' which can be collected when running and exchanged to give you a second life if the three monkeys, (now replaced with one giant money) catches up with you.

While some may argue that the new Temple Run is too complicated, no one can argue that the addition of power-ups and green gems have made the newest Temple Run one of the best games of 2013.





"Toca Hair Salon 2" I know what your thinking, "A hairdressing game? I would rather poke my eyes out with sticks", but you would be wrong to do so. The second installment of the popular hair salon game is nothing more than fantastic. Shaving half a person's hair off, giving them an afro or transforming them into a character of your favourite TV Show, makes this one of the best apps of 2013. 


It may not as exciting as fighting a Zombie Apocalypse, but never the less "Toca Hair Salon" is definitely a game to pass the time. With the addition of hair colouring, straighteners, curlers and shavers, you're able to transform you're character into anyone you see fit. Thankfully if you get too carried away with the electric sheers you're able to regrow the hair with the G.R.O.W potion.

Along with new tools, the app's mediocre graphics have been updated to take advantage of the retina displays on the new iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. "Toca Hair Salon 2" isn't challenging but what it can guarantee is keeping you entertained on the bus or in a que.






"The Room Pocket" A mysterious story involving dark secrets kept locked away in an intricate security system. You're presented with a what seems to be an ordinary safe, but the safe is nothing but ordinary. 


This puzzle app is much like 'Escape the Room' online games, where you are locked into a room and need to find items scattered across the room to build gizmo's and make your escape. However in this case the room is replaced with a safe and instead of getting out, your job is to get in.

"The Room Pocket' can get frustrating at times, but with the addition of a clever storyline, (slowly revealed as you progress through the stages), as well as intricate contraptions to unlock, you never tire of this puzzle app; even when your on the same level for an hour.

The Room can downloaded for free on the i0S App Store, but only includes the starter level. You will need to pay $1.99 to play the other stages. Due to its demanding graphics it's only compatible with the iPhone 4S and iPod Touch 5 or newer.





"Pudding Monsters" From the people that gave you "Cut the Rope", comes a charming new strategy game. Starring mutated pudding cups that have weirdly grown an eye, as they fight to be one. No seriously, thats the aim of the game. 


You'll be moving pudding pieces around a slippery floor, using the brick walls, objects and other monsters given to help you. Sliding a pudding piece with nothing impeding in its path results in it flying off the edge and the restart of the puzzle. The goal for each puzzle is to join every blob on the board together, to get all three stars you will need to gather the blobs in the highlighted position.

Its quirky charm and simple concept make "Pudding Monsters" my favourite game of the year and drew me to finish all 75 levels. It deserves all the success that ZeptoLab's other hit game, "Cut the Rope" came across.







"Earn to Die" or as it should be called, "Die to Earn", is a zombie game (yeah another one), however instead of a sophisticated storyline or character building, you just run over zombies over with your upgraded truck. 


This zombie apocalypse game originated in life as an online flash game. After a staggering 150 million plays it has just recently been released to the i0S App Store.

The game is simple; you drive zombies over with cars. The more zombies you run over and the most ground you cover will be calculated and you will be given money to buy new upgrades and cars. Upgrades include a bigger fuel tank, faster engines to snipers and spinning blades attached to the roof and bonnet of your car.

Packed with more tracks, more cars and more upgrades than the online version, this severely addicting game will have you driving over zombies into the hours of the night.






"The Act" Taking a whopping 9 years to create, this hand drawn app (set out as a movie), tells the story of Edgar, a window washer who falls in love with a nurse he sees inside the window. 

He daydreams of meeting her at a bar, where you control his level of flirting by swiping your finger to the left or right of the screen. Swipe too much to the left and she'll just walk away, swipe to much to the right and she'll run away. These simple left and right controls appear in every 'mission', where a perfect balance is needed to pass.

The i0S game involved dozens of former Disney animators that had worked on films like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Over the course of 9 years they had created over 230,000 individual drawings for the game.

"The Act" is currently available on the i0S App Store for 99 cents but expect it to return to its original, yet deserving price of $2.99.





"Need for Speed™ Most Wanted" Electronic Arts has once again proved to be the best producer for Racing games on i0S, with their latest title running rings around the newest releases from Gameloft and Firemint. 

With crisp retina graphics, you won't be able to pull your eyes away from the screen as you race through the stunning city that is Fairhaven. Racing alongside rivals, invading police; competing to become the "most wanted". The wide-range of vehicles, makes up for the no car customisations, but struggles to make up for the fact that you will need to spend actual money to buy any of the good cars.

So their are a few downsides, but that isn't enough to drag the game off the 'Top 10 Games of 2013' list. With its stunning visuals, great music and its huge selection of cars, 'Need for Speed™ Most Wanted' may not be the best in the series, but its definitely a close second.






"Wake the Cat" Make the cat's dreams come true by directing a piece of yarn through slides, teleporting slippers, trains and fans, to wake up the sleeping cat with the yarn it desires.

Created by Chillingo, the same people who brought you "Cut the Rope" and "The Act" comes a cute physics driven game. Using the equipment given to you, you must wake your cat from a deep slumber by directing a ball of yarn in his way.

The first few levels of the game are quite easy. But as you progress through the many stages, its starts to become difficult, as the yarn is placed farther away from the cat. Just like many other of Chillingo's games if you complete the level in an excellent fashion you will receive all three stars.

With its dreamy animation and pleasant music score, this physics based game will pull the heart strings of any user playing. If you dislike cats as I do, I can assure you its still a really fun game.





"Banzai Blade" Created by the "Cartoon Network", this ninja app takes the elements from endless running games and HalfBrick Studios' Fruit Ninja, fusing them together to create an action-backed i0S game.


A powerful demon threatens to spread evil across the land of Nihon; it's your destiny to destroy his army and defeat Eternal Oni. To do so, you must use your advanced ninja skills and razor-sharp sword to cut the demon army into shreds and kill the demons that have taken over the temples.

Swipe the screen to slice enemies like fruit and deflect incoming fireballs. Collect blossoms to upgrade your weapons, armor and charms. Then unleash your power on evil goblins, dragons and demons.

With the addition of upgrades and one-on-one battles, you'll forget that its a rip-off, and enjoy the game as much as you would if you were playing 'Temple Run' or 'Fruit Ninja'.


ALSO CHECK OUT:
Top 10 Most Controversial iPhone Apps

Friday, February 1, 2013

Due to my lack of patience, not many applications on my mac are actually up to date. Eventually I clicked the update button and finally got the new, revamped iTunes 11, and was shocked to find out that Apple has once again copied Google! 

iTunes 11 (released 29 November 2012)
New Google Images interface (released 25 January 2013)

After further investigation, (I googled it) it seems that the popular search engine is the culprit. The new google images interface was rolled out 2 months after iTunes 11 was released. Thats 5 months after Samsung was ordered to pay 1 billion dollars to Apple after they were found infringing on several of their patents. 

Friday, January 11, 2013




If you are surscribed to CNET's YouTube Channel you will probably be familiar with their "How-to contributer", Jason Cipriani. Cipriani has been with CNET for the past few years, showing mentally challenged smart phone users how to.... "Change iOS device name in iTunes" or my personal favourite, "How to Unfollow a Facebook post after leaving a comment", guess what you press the 'unfollow' button people! Their has been many complaints from many Youtube users, and CNET subscribers, with many unsubscribing, unable to cope with the contributor. While some have resorted to throwing themselves off a building. I am just one of the few that have survived. 



You've heard through Popup windows, News Websites, Junk Mail of people making thousands of dollars through the internet by writing ebooks to filling out surveys. Well is it true? Can you really make that much money online? 


The newest "making money on the internet" craze is buying and trading stocks. On the left is a list of videos that came up when I googled "How to make money on the internet," all videos shown promised to help me earn '$1500 an hour' with just a few clicks, claiming that every minute I could be getting a 75% return. All videos were posted by a users who had only one video or had multiple videos about making money on the internet with the same website, the same trading site, "Cedar Finance'. The people posting these videos are not 'making thousands of dollars per month by trading stocks', most of these users are affiliate marketers, hired by the company and paid a percentage of every purchase they bring to the company. In fact, if your interested in doing the same you can sign up to Clickbank and persuade (or scam) people to invest in the new "Make money on the internet by doing nothing" website or the new Mediterranean Detox diet ebook.

Cedarfinance.com allows users (once they have deposited a minium of $250), to gamble their money by investing in high risk, high return digital/binary options. All the videos promised that it would be 'easy' and 'simple' to earn hundreds of dollars. However according to various complaints on ScamBook, claiming the website had taken hundreds of dollars from their account, after they were not refunded their money.

Despite the several complaints that it has to its name on ScamBook and the hundreds of misleading youtube videos, I do not believe that CedarFinance is a scam. Just a gambling site that's no different from the likes of online poker. But before you create an account, their are many more ways to making money on the internet that are much safer to invest in.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

After reportedly spending $100 million on their first lawsuit against HTC, it isn't hard to imagine that Apple hasn't spent over $1 billion on their bid to destroy many of their android competitors.

2012 didn't start too smoothly for Apple, A Dutch court this week denied Apple's request to ban the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the Netherlands, Kodak has filed a lawsuit against Apple and the corporation has lost the iPad trademark in China. On top of the embarrassment of losing many court battles and boosting Galaxy Tab sales, Apple still seems to be in the "suing mood"; alleging that Samsung has violated their "Slide to Unlock" patient.

I thought that the lawsuits against Samsung and Apple were coming to an end, I guess not.

Sunday, January 15, 2012


The italian designed watch promises to be "The First Real Smartwatch", but what it really promises is an iPod nano-look-a-like with phone capabilities and a wristband.

Looking at the two devices side by side their are distinct similarities, the most obvious being the icons. In August last year it was reported that Apple had sued Samsung over the icons they had used in their "TouchWiz" overlay of Android, stating that they were too similar to those found in i0S. Looking at the icons found on the I'm Watch, I am stunned how the designers were able to disregard Apple's famously elaborate patients and completely rip off the design and feel of the iPod Nano. The I'm watch also adopts the volume buttons and sleep button from the Nano, as well as adopting a similar 2X2 icon layout.

Does Apple have a Right to Sue the Manufacturers of the I'm Watch?

Saturday, January 7, 2012

It has been reportered by the Telegraph that Apple is growing tired of suing other phone companies and have moved on to Toy Makers.

Inicons has created a realistic 12-inch figurine of the late steve jobs, equipped with blue jeans, a black jumper, pair of black socks, glasses, a belt, a bar stool and a "One More Thing" backdrop. Due to its sudden interest, Apple has threatened to take legal action against the chinese company if one more unit is created. Another batch of the figurines are expected to go on sale in February for $99, while figurines are available on eBay to buy for up to $200.

UPDATE: The company has stopped selling the figurine after receiving "immense pressure from Apple's lawyers and Steve Jobs' family". A few figurines are still available to buy on eBay, but you'll have to fork out a whopping $1,500 to get your hands on one.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

A few days after the head of Samsung's mobile division told The Sydney Morning Herald that Apple's attempts to ban the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia has made the tablet a "household name", Samsung unveiled numerous Galaxy smartphone commercials that poked fun at Apple fanatics.

From that, it is quite clear that the Korean manufacturer will be celebrating over their recent victory over Apple; and what better way to do so than posting advertisements displaying Apple as 'unethical' on one of the most popular newspapers in the country!
"At the end of the day the media awareness certainly made the Galaxy Tab 10.1 a household name compared to probably what it would've been based on the investment that we would've put into it from a marketing perspective," said Typer McGee, Samsung Australia vice president of telecommunications.
Right you are! Thousands of articles have been written this year about the Samsung/Apple lawsuit(s), and the press coverage has definitely boosted sales. This year, it was reported by Lenovo that Samsung had only sold 20,000 of its Galaxy Tabs between its release in September last year to the end of 2010, thats about 5,000 sold every month. According to IDC Samsung had sold just over 1 million units between July to the end of September, thats about 336,000 sold every month. In that same time period Google shows that the rate of news about the Apple/Samsung lawsuit(s) was at its peak.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011


After suing nearly every popular android smartphone manufacturer, Apple is currently getting a taste of its own medicine.

U.S. company, Cequint claims that Apple is infringing two patents for caller- identification technology. Cequint has presented the following patents, 7,200,212 and 6,353,664 that "identifies a calling party's telephone number, household name, and city and/or state location".

Like me, you have probably have never heard of Cequint, but their Enhanced Caller ID can be found in U.S. Cellular's City ID and T-Mobile’s Name ID. Also Cequint's partners (listed on its website) are AT&T, Alltel, U.S. Cellular, Qualcomm, Casio, LG, Huawei, RIM, Sony, Casio, HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Google, and Samsung.

According to Bloomberg, The case will be held in the U.S. District Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

This is the forth case concerning Apple's Caller ID, just a few months ago Classco had sued Apple, HTC, RIM, HP and Samsung over caller ID patent infringements and back in 2008, and Romek Figa sued Nokia with the Finnish manufacturer winning the case and receiving royalties.

Buried several levels deep within the Terms and conditions of your Angry Birds or Cut the Rope app may be a column that states that the app is able to send text messages resulting in premium SMS toll rates.

While in the app, users are unaware that the app is actually sending dozens of premium SMS messages, costing them $5 each! The person behind all of this mayhem is an Italian developer going under the name of, "Lagostrod", who within a space of a day had made $6,500, from the "SMS Trojan".

The Trojan targeted users in Europe, specifically from Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Czech Republic, Poland, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Estonia as well as Great Britain, Italy, Israel, France, Great Britain, and Germany.

After dozens of complaints from users, Google has finally pulled all 18 of Lagostod's malicious applications from the Android Market. Hours after Lagostod's account was suspended, a developer named “Miriada Production” released many of the same Trojanized apps, it has since been removed. Next time when your downloading a popular application make sure to take a glance over the terms or conditions or at least look to see if the developer is in fact Rovio!

Sources:

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Apple has lost a court battle over the trademark of the word 'iPad' in China.

The company has been part of an ongoing legal battle with Hong Kong-based manufacturer, Proview since 2006, over claims by Proview that Apple had unwittingly purchased their trademark. Proview has owned the trademark since the start of 2000, but Apple had indeed purchased the $54,000 trademark but didn't buy the rights to the Chinese trademark in the agreement, just in the Taiwanese region. It is reportered that Proview will claim $1.6 billion in compensation from Apple for copyright infringement.

In 2001 LG introduced a linux-based tablet called the iPad in Korea! Several articles from numerous websites covered it from the 2001 CeBIT. Once again we find ourselves saying, "Why isn't LG suing". Although this isn't the first time that Apple has used other people's trademarks without their permission. In 1998, Cicsco Sytems introduced the iPhone, a phone using voiP technology, nine years later Apple came out with their first phone, iPhone (stylized the same).

Sources:
The Digital iPAD, a Linux-based Web pad - Linux Devices
LG Unveils Linux-Based Tablet PC - PC World
Apple loses 'iPad' name battle in China - ITN Uk
Proview to claim compensation after Apple trademark suit dismissed - Want China Times

Sunday, December 4, 2011

The lawsuit between smartphone rivals, Samsung and Apple started earlier this year and finally its starting to draw to a close. Apple claims that the design on various Samsung phones infringed about half a dozen of their patents, but Samsung insists that Apple is trying to remove all of its competitors of the market.
In order to disprove Samsung’s claim, Apple needed to provide alternate design options to prove that Samsung had "blatantly copied the iPhone's design". Some samples from these suggestions include:
  • Front surface that isn't black.
  • Overall shape that isn't rectangular, or doesn't have rounded corners.
  • Display screens that aren't centered on the front face and have substantial lateral borders.
  • Non-horizontal speaker slots.
  • Front surfaces with substantial adornment.
  • No front bezel at all.
This along with the doctored comparisons between the iPhone 3Gs and the Samsung Galaxy SII and Apple's hypercritical claim that Motorola [Mobility] had been using its patents to "Eliminate competing alternative technologies"; has made the most valuable company look very foolish.
If Samsung were to comply with Apple's alternative design options we would get something like this:

Thursday, December 1, 2011

After Samsung had failed to uplift the band in the Netherlands, I wasn't hopeful that the Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 would be available in Australia any time soon. Although an Australia federal court on Wednesday uplifted the ban, and the tab will be available to purchase Next Friday. The Galaxy Tab was banned in Australia due to its multi-touch features being too similar to Apple's, while in the Netherlands the tablet was banned due to its design, where Apple showed Doctored Comparisons between the Galaxy Tab and the iPad.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

A majority of our technology is from China, it may say "Designed in America" or "Packaged in Britain" but most likely it has been made in Asia. Where employees work almost 12 hours a day, (including over-time) and are paid a mere $1 per hour. They are subjected to a high rate of workplace injuries, mass layoffs of older staff, lack of benefits and abusive treatment by bosses.

Around 1,000 Chinese workers at Jingmo Electronics, a plant that manufacturers components for Apple, as-well as IBM dropped their tools this week to protest against enforced over-time and work conditions.

The workers had been urged to sign a "anti-suicide" pledge promising that they won't kill themselves and to "Treasure their lives", after a series of employee deaths the year prior.

"The China Labour Watch (CLW) calls upon Apple, IBM and the other clients of this factory to assume responsibility for these workers’ dissatisfaction and work with the factory to improve the working conditions in the factory" - China Labour Watch (CLW)

Earlier this year it was reported that 17 factory workers from another plant (Foxconn), had taken their lives, jumping off the plants roof. One of those jumpers left a note explaining that he committed suicide to provide for his family, the program of remuneration for the families of jumpers was then immediately canceled. After the 11th suicide Foxconn decided to skirt every building with nets.
Foxconn's and its close business partner, Apple defended the factory conditions but failed to explain the 17 deaths. Apple confirmed that workers were working approximately 8.6 hours everyday and claimed that their were “no instances of forced overtime”.

No one really cares where their technology comes from, they just want it. I trust the giant organisations that are Apple and IBM to sweep all of this mayhem in China under the carpet and pretend like it never happened.

Just clarify, 17 out of 400,000 people is much lower than the national average of roughly 88 out of 400,000 people per year, but 17 people in one workplace is huge.

Sources:

Tuesday, November 22, 2011


A recent Samsung Galaxy S II advertisement has been given a substantial amount of press coverage, due to its mocking of [Apple] Fanatics who wait infront of the store for hours to get their hands on a new piece of technology.

The Samsung advertisement portrays a huge cue infront of an unknown store, (the cue of people having iPhones), and a white poster that is titled, "It's Coming", plastered on the side of a unknown store. The people in the cue start to notice a person with a new Samsung phone, and start commenting on its capabilities compared to the iPhones. At the end of the commercial people in the cue are then questioning their purchase, "This thing is huge" , "Its got 4G speed".

The advertisement is receiving hate from people saying its "unprofessional" and "undignified" for making fun out of other companies, probably the same people who stand overnight infront of the Apple store. The same people who probably haven't watched Apple's "Hi I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" commercials.

According to Mashable, the commercial will be broadcasted on TV on Thanksgiving.

Source(s):

Sunday, November 20, 2011


When the Windows phone 7 was released last year and I must admit I didn't think highly of the new Windows phone. It didn't have many features that most phones on the market could do, (multitasking, copy and paste, etc). But after an update was announced that brought the phone up to date with its Android and i0S competitors, I started to realize that it could be a worthwhile competitor.

I want to begin at the range of applications that are available for a Windows phone 7 device, as this is the selling point for most phones. The Windows phone market was only released a year ago, so to be fair I couldn't compare it to the Android store or Apple App Store, which were released 3 years ago. But I can say that the Windows phone 7 is already 40,000 applications high and apps are being added at a rate of 165 items per day. At this rate it could reach 50,000 items before the end of the year.

LG, Samsung, Asus, HTC, Dell, ZTE and recently Nokia have released a touchscreen phones that are running the new mobile platform. Now thanks to recent low-budget Windows phones from Samsung and Nokia, its now more affordable to get one. Windows phone 7 devices start outright at $500 to about $800.

Do I recommend Windows Phone 7? At the moment no I don't, but just wait next year when cheaper Windows phones have been promised to come out and by then there will be a wider range of Apps available on the market.

Source(s):
Windows Phone Marketplace passes 40,000 apps - All About Windows Phone (AAWP)

Friday, November 18, 2011

According to Garna, Samsung is now the No. 1 smartphone manufacturer world-wide, from its very successful, wide-range, Galaxy line-up. Along with the great success from other Android manufactures such as: LG, HTC, ZTE, Motorola and Sony have given Android a 53% Smartphone market share and increased the Smartphone Sales by nearly 42%.

Source(s):
Technology NewsThe owner of this website is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon properties including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com.