News By Russell Holly Apr. 17, 2014 4:46 pm
Welcome back to the Geekout! This week we’re talking about all the fun, new, and downright strange things happening in the smartphone world.
Now that Microsoft has rolled out the Deverloper Preview to Windows 8.1, it’s time to take a look at all the changes*coming to the platform. While the most interesting change by far is the addition of Cortana, a powerful new virtual assistant that gives Google Now and Siri a run for their money even while still in beta, there’s plenty of other things going on to get excited about. We gave the new OS a spin to see what’t going on with all the new features, as well as a quite tour through the silly Easter Eggs found across Cortana. Ultimately it’s a huge step forward for Microsoft, but probably not enough to get existing users to consider making the switch.
Google’s first Project Ara conference happened this week, and while the team is still very much moving forward with plans to show off a $50 modular phone in January, it’s still very early days for the platform. The demonstrations this week were more about the underlying magnetic connectors, the 3D printing options for personalization, and their plans for the future. There’s still quite a lot of work to do even before the first “Grey Phone” hits shelves, but that isn’t stopping Google from placing a large sum of money out there for anyone who wants to try and develop exciting new modules for the platform.
Our Galaxy S5 review and video user guides are up and ready for your consumption. Samsung has clearly worked hard to make a phone that is a cut above the Galaxy S4, and they have hit that mark in several very big ways. The UI feels a lot less chaotic, the hardware feels nicer in the hand, and the camera is downright stunning. There’s still plenty of fun to be had with this phone as we explore the deep power saving modes and all of the other features contained within, but so far the phone is clearly going to be a hit.
Two big apps you should check out this week are Google’s new Camera app and Carousel from Dropbox. Google has completely redesigned their camera UI and included some fun new features, as well as made the app freely available to anything running Android 4.4 or higher. Carousel, on the other hand, lets you push all of your existing photos to Dropbox so you can enjoy them in this beautifully designed app. It’s the perfect thing to pull out when you want to show off photos of the kids, and as long as you don’t have a massive collection of photos on your phone, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to put lots of photos on Dropbox for free.
If you have a topic you’d like us to discuss on our Geekout, or questions for us during a live broadcast, leave us a message here or on the Google+ page.
More...
Now that Microsoft has rolled out the Deverloper Preview to Windows 8.1, it’s time to take a look at all the changes*coming to the platform. While the most interesting change by far is the addition of Cortana, a powerful new virtual assistant that gives Google Now and Siri a run for their money even while still in beta, there’s plenty of other things going on to get excited about. We gave the new OS a spin to see what’t going on with all the new features, as well as a quite tour through the silly Easter Eggs found across Cortana. Ultimately it’s a huge step forward for Microsoft, but probably not enough to get existing users to consider making the switch.
Google’s first Project Ara conference happened this week, and while the team is still very much moving forward with plans to show off a $50 modular phone in January, it’s still very early days for the platform. The demonstrations this week were more about the underlying magnetic connectors, the 3D printing options for personalization, and their plans for the future. There’s still quite a lot of work to do even before the first “Grey Phone” hits shelves, but that isn’t stopping Google from placing a large sum of money out there for anyone who wants to try and develop exciting new modules for the platform.
Our Galaxy S5 review and video user guides are up and ready for your consumption. Samsung has clearly worked hard to make a phone that is a cut above the Galaxy S4, and they have hit that mark in several very big ways. The UI feels a lot less chaotic, the hardware feels nicer in the hand, and the camera is downright stunning. There’s still plenty of fun to be had with this phone as we explore the deep power saving modes and all of the other features contained within, but so far the phone is clearly going to be a hit.
Two big apps you should check out this week are Google’s new Camera app and Carousel from Dropbox. Google has completely redesigned their camera UI and included some fun new features, as well as made the app freely available to anything running Android 4.4 or higher. Carousel, on the other hand, lets you push all of your existing photos to Dropbox so you can enjoy them in this beautifully designed app. It’s the perfect thing to pull out when you want to show off photos of the kids, and as long as you don’t have a massive collection of photos on your phone, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to put lots of photos on Dropbox for free.
If you have a topic you’d like us to discuss on our Geekout, or questions for us during a live broadcast, leave us a message here or on the Google+ page.
More...
