Triplicate Thoughts

Image: Forbes Apple announced the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus earlier this month, and as far as I can recall, there hasn't been a messier launch by Apple than this. First off, the live stream was a disaster , and why Apple still chooses to stream its events in-house rather than on YouTube remains a mystery. Secondly, Apple had to pull all HealthKit apps from the App Store  just as iOS 8 was rolling out due to a critical bug with the service. Thirdly, many "new" features that Apple added to iOS 8 such as third-party keyboards and sharing app data via Extensibility   didn't work as intended , in addition to the usual complaints of high battery drain and poor WiFi strength . iOS 8 had so many severe bugs, Apple had to release iOS 8.0.1 just one week after iOS 8 went public. As if that wasn't bad enough, iOS 8.0.1 was even worse , killing cellular reception and Touch ID. Apple straight up removed it from their servers. All this bad press, coming hot off the heels ...

The new Moto's. Image: Ars Technica If there was one word I would use to describe Motorola, it would be "different". The Motorola we know today is not the same Motorola we knew before the acquisition by Google. In the sea of Android OEMs all competing to be top dog, Motorola do things differently from others. And Motorola's approach in making mobile devices too, is different from the others. Last year, I like many other Android enthusiasts were amazed at this different approach that Motorola took, both with their Moto X and Moto G. There was a lot that I felt other OEMs could learn from Motorola , and I even considered Motorola as my best OEM of 2013 . The Moto X introduced a renewed focus on the software and user experience, while other OEMs focused more on numbers on the specs sheet. And the Moto G was probably the first decently priced mid-range Android phone which was actually good, which is why it became Motorola's best selling smartphone of all time . W...

The Note 4 and its sibling, the Note Edge. Image: Tabtec While Sony had a very good lineup on display at IFA 2014, there's no doubt that all eyes were on Samsung. The fourth generation Galaxy Note was teased immensely leading up to the event, and rumours were swirling about a phone with a curved display making an appearance. That rumour turned out to be accurate, as we also got the Galaxy Note Edge to accompany the more traditional Note. What started out as an experiment back in 2011, the Galaxy Note line has thrived. At first, the 5.3" Note was considered to be ridiculously huge, but people have adapted, and Samsung has continuously improved the device year after year. More tellingly, Samsung's gamble with the Note line has seen the ultimate sign of acceptance when its largest competitor, Apple, released a 5.5" iPhone 6 Plus (I'll be writing about this too in the future). Samsung thoroughly deserved the Twitter attack on Apple that came afterwards. Known f...

Image: The Verge It's been a very busy week for tech heads, especially Android enthusiasts. IFA kicked off in Berlin earlier in the month, and we've been bombarded with countless new smartphones, tablets, and of course, smartwatches. Sony unveiled their new Z3 lineup, a trio of devices including the Z3 flagship, successor to the Z2 which was announced just half a year ago at MWC, the Z3 Compact, successor to the Z1 Compact, and the Z3 Tablet Compact, their first small tablet in the Z series. I'm not much of a tablet person, so I won't be touching on the Z3 Tablet Compact. Instead I'll just be sharing some initial thoughts on the Z3 and the Z3 Compact. Now for those of you who haven't read any of my previous initial impression posts , you should know that my thoughts are merely from watching videos and reading articles from tech journalists, I don't have any hands on time with any of the products. In other words, my thoughts are those of the average cons...

I've been on Google+ for quite a while now, and it's common to see people asking for advice before they purchase a new smartphone. When the question is asking about choosing between two or more smartphones that are already on the market, it makes the task of answering that question much easier. But when people ask about choosing between a phone currently on the market, and a phone that's coming soon, that's a bit more of a challenge. Not knowing for a fact what that unannounced smartphone will bring to the market makes comparing the devices pretty much pointless. Sure we have rumours, but nothing is confirmed until it's confirmed. Remember how the Nexus 5 was rumoured to have a 3000 mAh battery ? Or how everyone was convinced that the next version of android after JB was going to be Key Lime Pie ? Rumours no matter the source are just that, rumours. So what do you do when someone asks "Should I get the Nexus 5, or wait for the next Nexus?" , which has st...

Image: Android Central Google I/O. When every Google fan and Android enthusiast geek-out over anything and everything Google announce. I gotta admit, I geeked-out pretty hard during the keynote (you can tell by all the posts I shared during the event). Even though a lot of what was announced had already been leaked before the event, there were still plenty of surprise announcements during the keynote which kept me wide awake (the event started at midnight here) until the end, almost . There were announcements regarding Android, Android Wear, Android Auto, Android TV (yes, a lot of Android), ChromeOS, Google Drive and many more. Now, this won't be a summary of the best announcements made during the keynote, there are plenty of those already out there written by journalists who attended the event. This will just be some of my personal favourite announcements from the keynote. It was difficult to narrow it down to just five, because there were so many awesome announcements. So I...

Image: Mac Daily News If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Google's Android team must be feeling mighty peachy right about now. At WWDC, Apple unveiled a bevy of new features for iOS that might have seemed vaguely familiar to the engineers of the Android team, and even Android users in general. iOS users will no doubt love the new features in iOS 8. And why wouldn't they? Android users have been enjoying them for several years now. But for Android users and fans of mobile tech in general, iOS 8 doesn't really bring anything new to the industry. But I don't want to write about all the things that Apple took from Android and added to iOS. You can read about that here , here , or even here . What I want to write about has less to do with the details of iOS per se, and more to do with Apple. Looking at what the company announced, and what was said on stage, I think this year's WWDC was a very public sign of intent of how Apple really wants to take the fi...