Times are a-changin’ in Mobile Town. There’s
a new order cornin’. Ian McGurren peeks out from behind a barrel
Like some upstanding old fella in a
western, Nokia has long been the sheriff in the unruly town that is the mobile
phone world. Seeing off challenges in the 90s from fellow Nords Ericsson,
Motorola in the early 2000s, the big guy has finally had to hand his badge
over. What's most surprising is that it isn't to those varmints from
California, it's to Samsung.
Times are a-changin’ in Mobile Town
Of course, it can be said that Samsung's
sheer range of handsets dwarfs that of Apple's mere three, though there's
evidence to show that the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S have sold more than the Galaxy
S 2, but the 88.2 million handsets shipped is arguably worse news for Nokia
than the 93.5 million handsets shipped is good news for Samsung. Though Nokia
still has a hold on the low-end non-smartphones, especially in developing
nations, this is beginning to fade too, and with its patents on the iPhone
making more money for it than its Lumia devices, and its investment rating
being cut to a junk status, things are still looking bleak for this one time
giant.
Driving To The Cloud
Google
Drive: iCloud, Dropbox, SkyDrive and Box comparison
Another of those piling on the pain to
Nokia, Google has now launched its much vaunted Google Drive service, a rival
to other cloud storage options such as iCIoud, Dropbox, Box and Skydrive.
Offering 5GB out of the gate, matching iCIoud and Box, beating Dropbox (2GB)
and just losing out to Skydrive (7GB), it integrates very well with Android
handsets and Google's online office suite, Google Docs, as well as having easy
desktop clients in the same vein as Dropbox.
In fact, apart from its overall Google
integration, it's not far from Dropbox. Quite how that will change in the
future with later versions of Android isn't yet clear, but until then it's free
to try, though you will need a Google account. Go to drive.google.com
for more information.
Hot Quad
The
Galaxy S III S5E4412 Processor
Recently, details have begun to emerge of
Samsung's S5E4412 processor. "Wow," you're saying, "I love
miscellaneous chip stats!" Yes, not too exciting on it's own, granted, but
the S5E4412 is better known as the Exynos 4412! No? Okay, how about it's the
chip powering the Galaxy S3? Now that is interesting! Not surprisingly the 4412
is a beefy little thing, a Cortex A9 with four cores, now with 128-bit
processing internally, double the 64-bit of the S2. As the 4412 is likely to
not only live in the S3 but Samsung's next generation of tablets, its ability
to USB host and take up to four SD cards means it's also going to power some
impressive kit to come.
Self Build Browser
Android
phones
Finally, one of the best things about
Android is its never-ending ability to be customised just how you want it to
look, with Android phones being much more of a reflection of their owners than
the barely customisable iOS, BlackBerry or Windows Phone handsets. Now though
you can take it one step further and build your own customised browser, and
best of all it's as simple as uploading a few images. Based on Maxthon, it's a
fully featured tabbed browser, so pop over to custom. maxthon.com to give it a
try.
