Well, that was quite a week wasn’t it? The meteorological anomaly that was a bank holiday not tainted by a torrent of rain was enjoyed by all, everyone’s favourite theoretical physicist and vocoder fan Stephen Hawking joined the academic boycott of Israel, and perhaps the greatest football manager since this guy decided to hang up his stopwatch after 27 years at the helm of Manchester United. But that all pales into insignificance (for those of a technological bent at least) for the past seven days has seen all kinds of developments emerging in the world of mobi-tech. Worried you’ve missed something? Then read on because the best bits are all packaged up here in our infinitely useful and informative Pick Of The Week feature.
Parts unknown
Yes, it’s that time of year again. The snooker has finished, the football season is drawing to a close and the meaty waft of barbecues fills the air as the nights get longer and the sun remembers it exists. And that can mean only one thing – BURGERS! Well, BURGERS! and the creeping realisation that Apple’s WWDC shindig is nearly upon us and that a new iPhone will more than likely follow shortly after. People who work for techy websites know this, as do those who spend too much time on the internet, which is why the worldwide super web-net is awash with iPhonery at present. The latest titbit is that parts for the iPhone 5S have shown up in warehouses belonging to Apple’s production partners, suggesting that those parts will begin being assembled post haste. Will the next iPhone be with us soon? Gawd knows, but you can bet a load more rumours will be in the coming weeks.
I/O, I/O…It’s off to work we go
Never one to be outshone by its rivals in the mahoosive techno-megacorp wars, Google is having a little get together of its own in the not too distant future. Google I/O is scheduled to kick off on 15 May, but that’s not the story here. The headline we’d be writing on one of those ‘A’ boards you see outside newsagents had we got one would be ‘IMPROBABLY LENGTHY KEYNOTE PRESENTATION SET FOR GOOGLE BASH’. You see, whilst there’s all kind of talk about Android Key Lime Pie, Google Glass and X Phones and stuff, it’s mainly just web waffle at present. Not for long though, as this year’s Google-organised developer event is set to have a keynote address with a duration of around three hours. Now, our maths ain’t the greatest but we reckon that an hour a piece for those things mentioned kinda goes…
Nokia throws a bit of light on things (sort of)
Judging by the last two entries into this round-up it looks like launch even season is in full swing. Even more so when we tell you that Nokia is in on the act too with an event scheduled for 14 May. What form this shindig will take, nobody is quite sure (we’ll take it that our invite is in the post), but there’s a good chance that some lovely, lovely hardware will rock up. Not that surprising really given the levels of Nok-based conjecture swirling around of late, however, with there being all sorts of confusion about Nokia Lumia 925s and Catwalks and EOSs, the Finns decided to shove out a little video demonstrating the recording prowess of its next device. A video that has the phone down as the Lumia 928. One schizophrenic device or three separate ones to make a bow? Tell us Nokia, tell us. Our heads hurt.
Mappy days
Google Maps eh…what would we do without it? We’ve all been there – bimbling round an unfamiliar city looking for the place where our friends said to meet up/our job interview is at/where that person you’ve been stalking via social networks regularly frequents, only to get completely lost and resorting to pulling out our smartphones to consult the all-knowing oracle that is the Big G. Of course, depending on which city that is, you’ll be forever be looking over your shoulder, wary of the hooded oiks ogling your shiny, expensive bit of mobile tech, and be in a rush to deposit back into the safe haven of your pocket or handbag. Google knows this, which is why it is apparently working on an update to its Maps service that streamlines the whole ‘trying to get local area information’ thing. Expect full screen maps, clean cut design and social networking integration. Less time spent going into menus = less time your phone is out to be yoinked away from you.
Jungle is massive
Pedlars of discount books and DVDs Amazon has come a long way since offering drastically reduced copies of whatever literary drek cheb-model Katie Price happens to have out at the time. First the retailer muscled its way into the tech game with the Amazon Kindle, then it upped its game with the tablet-tastic Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD, and now its getting in on the smartphone act with a much-talked about mobile device. This news in itself is not exactly new – in fact, it seems to have been being talked about since Alexander Graham Bell nicked the idea of the telephone off some German dude – but further conjecture has now surface. Apparently, the thing will have 3D chops and, get this, ‘the thing’ will actually be two things! We can’t wait until this one is fully launched as it promises to be massive (although we’ll have to as Amazon will be delivering it…and we all know how long they can take).
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is that. This burst of tech-tinged irreverence is over for another week – we’re all off to take stock of what’s gone on and recharge in a number of ways, namely watching our team more than likely fall at the hands of their bitter rivals in the Championship Play-Off semi-finals, preparing our band for a forthcoming appearance at a MASSIVE FESTIVAL, and waxing our extravagant facial hair in the manner of an esteemed Victorian gentlemen. This particular scribe won’t be back next week (or indeed ever again) as sundown on the empire is called, but fear not, because one denizen of the editorial department at P4u Towers will return in but seven days time to ease this kind of stuff into your expectant mush yet again. It’s been emotional.
