Author: Robyn

Mobile World Congress 2013 Brings Us Mobile OS, Canes and Coffee Machines Tizen OS Mobile Operating Systems continue to be the news of the day. Firefox announced its mobile OS, Firefox OS on Sunday and today the Tizen Association revealed their mobile OS as well. The Tizen OS is reportedly very similar to Andriod OS. The OS was previewed at MWC on a demo device although it is rumored that Samsung, Fujitsu, and Huawei will all make Tizen phones in the future. Nano-SIM Cards Made from Paper Beijing Big Ben produces nano-SIM cards almost entirely out of paper. The actual card…

I am a motion picture fan-girl and I love entertainment apps. Growing up in a production family, it’s hard not to be. I have a lot of entertainment apps in my collection – everything from IMDB down to IntoNow. That’s why I was excited to try the newest version of Fanhattan. Fanhattan is supposed to wrap all the entertainment apps in one place for your ease of use in searching for movies or TV shows. For the most part, it succeeds, but in one place it falls very short – video playback. I did not attempt any of the ‘pay…

Today marked the first day of the GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2013. The MWC combines the world’s largest exhibition and a conference of the mobile industry. The conference had its first meeting 1987 and is held annually in Barcelona. This week, MacSources.com will review each day of the event with a daily review of a few top headlines. Samsung Unveils Latest Galaxy Note Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8.0 features an 8-inch screen, a reading mode that displays ebooks with an optimized resolution. It is powered by Android with a 1.6GHz quad-core processor and HSPA connectivity. It is slated to be available…

Looking for a way to find song lyrics quickly? Download Instalyrics for Mac. It’s available for free in the app store. Originally released in October 2012, Instalyrics is a menu utility that searches online for lyrics to the songs playing on your Mac. Instalyrics will find lyrics for music playing through iTunes, Spotify, Rdio, Radium and Sonora. It will also pick up lyrics to music playing through YouTube and Last.FM. Instalyrics also has versions for iPhone and iPad that will wirelessly detect what’s playing your Mac and deliver the lyrics to your device. That version is sold separately, of course,…

Firefox OS Mozilla is joining mobile operating systems with Firefox OS. The Internet browser company previewed the first commercial build of the new mobile OS at Mobile World Congress. The first phones to receive access to the new OS are all powered by Qualcomm processors to be released later this year. HP Slate 7 Announced Also announced as a part of Mobile World Congress is HP’s first Android-based device, the HP Slate 7. The device weights 13 ounces and is 7-inches in size. The price point for the HP Slate 7 is aggressive at $169.99 in the US. Happy Birthday,…

Originally released on Feb 13, 2013, 4 Pics 1 Word is an simple, but very addictive word game. The user is given four pictures, which have something in common with each other. That ‘thing’ they have in common is the word you are trying to guess from the letter provided. As I stated, it is a highly addictive game. I installed for review purposes and thought, “I’ll play for a few minutes to get a feel for it.” I look up and it’s been 20 minutes since I installed it. Highly addictive. I think what makes it so possible to…

In addition to writing reviews and news blogs for MacSources.com, I also work as a Marketing Professional for a local sports/entertainment venue. It is something I truly enjoy and am passionate about, but it can lend itself to long days with few breaks. That can make it hard for me to stay up-to-date with news and events happening throughout the day. During my lunch breaks, I usually give myself a few minutes to peruse through my Facebook and Twitter feeds, but I rarely get through the entirety of the daily blurbs. Luckily, I just discovered Winston, the lovable, polite app that…

Google announced today the addition of Pixel, the newest Chromebook. The hardware of it seems to be solid, but the OS is based simply off of Chrome OS, the web-only operating system. Pixel comes complete with a built-in high-resolution touchscreen display and 1TB of Google Drive cloud storage for three years. Being that it is a web-based operating system, there are two version of Pixel set to be released – Wi-Fi and LTE. The Wi-Fi model will ship today, but the LTE model is scheduled to be available in 6-7 weeks. Pixel Chromebook is said to be ‘heavy’ competition for…

Sony announced the arrival of the PS4 on Wednesday. Along with the announcement of the new console and its innovations, came the announcement of the PlayStation App. This app will enable iOS devices – iPhone, iPad and Android devices to become second screens for the PlayStation games. The app will also allow users to download games to their consoles when they are away from home and watch other gamers playing their games. The only other previously released app was for iOS, but it was only available in Europe and Australia and only allowed users to check gaming achievements. The app…

The long anticipated announcement from Sony is finally a reality. The PlayStation 4 launches this coming holiday season. The announcement came as a part of a 2-hour long live video stream conference from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. “Today marks a moment of truth and a bold step forward for PlayStation as a company,” Andrew House, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment said as he took the stage. “Today we will give you a glimpse into the future of play.” Unfortunately, I was unable to catch the entire conference live, but was excited to see the innovations…

As anticipated, the HTC One was announced on Tuesday as the new flagship smart phone for the Taiwanese manufacturer. Verizon will not be a carrier for the HTC One and although prices for the device are not yet available, HTC will have the phone available in March. Here are the specs and a couple of photos. Display 4.7 inch, Full HD 1080P, 468PPI Weight: 143g Size: 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3 mm CPU Speed: Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, quad-core, 1.7GHz Platform: Android with HTC Sense, HTC Blink Feed Sim Card: microSim Storage Capacity: 32GB/64GB RAM: 2GB DDR2 Network: GSM/GPRS/EDGE, LTE available…

Unless you have no digital footprint or have been living under a rock for the past 4 years, you have heard of Kickstarter.com. Kickstarter.com is creative project funding platform that connects creators with investors. Films, games, music, art, design, technology…everything creative under the sun can be funded. The only catch is, it must be a project. Since its launch in April of 2009, over $450 million has been pledged by more than 3 million people. These funds have gone to more than 35,000 creative projects. Kickstarter’s success has yielded a new product – the iPhone app. On Thursday, February 14th, the…

Looking for a newspaper app that learns from you? Give Thirst a try. Thirst is available for iPhone and iPad. It’s a newspaper app that takes the latest headlines, groups them around topics and creates a quick, easy way for users to find out what’s going on in the world. Thirst Labs, the developer of Thirst, designed this app so that the more you use it, “the better the newspaper gets as it learns from and adapts to your interests.” I installed this app for the purpose of reviewing it, but I plan on keeping it. The layout is similar…

HTC teased their announcement set for today at 10:00 a.m. EST yesterday on their Facebook page. The picture had the caption of “Ready to be unwrapped.” The announcement is widely assumed to be for HTC’s next flagship smart phone. Some of the rumors suggest the following specs will be included: 1080P DisplayQuad-Core Snapdragon S4 CPURevolutionary CameraAndroid Jelly Bean OSNew Version of HTC Sense Stay tuned to MacSources for additional details.

For quite some time, I have seen rumors about Apple’s next big innovation being a wrist watch. This rumor seems to have become more a reality recently with speculations of Apple’s ‘next big thing’ have the name iWatch. There is the key – the only information we really know for sure is that the device Apple is developing has the nickname “iWatch”. Bloggers and news theorists alike have made the assumption that this means a watch that tells time. The report is that Apple has 100 employees working on the secret device and that the company is not commenting on…

HTC’s Next Launch HTC is counting down to its next handset launch on February 19th. The Taiwanese manufacturer started a countdown clock on their website to tease the event. It’s generally believed that this announcement will be for their next flagship in their One series of products. While HTC was a leader in Android based smart phones, it has lost some footing over the last year when Samsung took the lead with their Galaxy series. Stay tuned to MacSources.com for details on their announcement on Tuesday. Apple iPads Re-imagined? Based off of Apple’s history of product announcements in March/April, investment research firm…

Mosaic is an app and a gift in one package. There are many services now that allow you to create albums from photos on your computer, but Mosaic let’s you order an album from photos on your with a customized photo mosaic cover. How does it work? First, you install the app on your iPhone. When you open it, you are instructed to choose 20 photos from photos on your camera or photo streams. Then you are shown your album cover featuring the chosen photos. From here, you can shuffle the photos featured on the cover. At this point, you…

The developers of Bump have made it easier to transfer files between your iPhone/Android and your computer by introducing a new version of their web client. Bump has been around for a couple of years, but in case you are unaware, files are able to be shared between two phones that have Bump installed on them. The action of bumping the phones together physically. Now, you can bump your phone with your computer’s space bar and receive the same connection. Simply visit bu.mp and open Bump on your phone. I remember when Bump first hit the app scene. The concept intrigued…

Apple dropped prices on the MacBook Pro laptops today – and boosted processor speeds at the same time. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina now starts at $1499 with the processor speed boosted to 2.6 GHz. The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display now has a 2.4 GHz with the higher-end version at 2.7 GHz quad-core processor. It also has a RAM boost to 16 GB. While the MacBook Pros with Retina displays had a price drop, the original MacBook Pro still starts at $1,199 for the 13-inch model, which is still significantly less than the Retina display MBP. The…

As I’ve noted before, iTunes does a nice job of breaking out categories of apps. The newest category is Awards Season. Within Awards Season there are 13 apps: Live From the Red Carpet OTRC: On the Red Carpet Fashion Police IMDb Buzz iTunes Movie Trailers PEOPLE CelebWatch IMDb Movies & TV ExtraTV E! Online CNN App for iPhone ABC News NowThis News Frequency – Tune in, Watch All of these apps are free to download and are good companions to the award shows for 2013. Keep in mind, the Golden Globes and Grammy Awards have already taken place, but any…

It’s been a turbulent month for Blackberry and it doesn’t look like things are going to look up any time soon. The company’s shares dropped 4.6 percent on Monday after corporation, Home Depot, made the switch from Blackberry to iPhone for its corporate phone of choice. 10,000 employees of Home Depot will be receiving the Apple devices replacing the current base of Blackberrys. Also in smart phone news, Blackberry’s new touchscreen phone, the Z10, will be available for $999 in the US contract-free. Solavei, a newly established mobile carrier, is offering the new Blackberry product before the official launch in…

It’s a tradition that has spanned more than 220 years – the State of the Union Address. For those not familiar with the purpose of the SOTU, the President of the United States presents a report on the condition of the nation to a joint session of the United States Congress. Second term President, Barack Obama, spoke tonight on the state of affairs of the U.S. urging Congress to make changes that would improve lives in our country. Some of the changes included – raising the minimum wage to $9/hour, creating immigration reform, creating new learning environments for early childhood…

Strength and Courage in a Compact Package – the Scottish Terrier. This week marks the 127th year of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. It is the second longest-running sporting event (the first is the Kentucky Derby) in America and now it even has an app.

Apple released iOS 6.1.1 Monday, but only for iPhone 4S users. Not long after iOS 6.1 was released, users began reporting connectivity issues, especially in the United Kingdom and Austria. Even though many iPhone 5 users reported a shorter battery life after the latest release, the focus of 6.1.1 appears to be only addressing the connectivity issue of 4S users. There is no word yet about when the rest of the iOS users will see an update.

Apple’s Next Big Thing Might Fit on Your Wrist Although it’s been a rumor for quite some time, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have both reported that an anonymous tip loosely confirmed that Apple is exploring large product categories beyond the smart phone and tablet. Apparently, these sources reported that such a device has been discussed with Hon Hai Precision Industry, a major manufacturing partner of Apple. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, was Against Apple Lawsuit The now famous Apple vs. Samsung lawsuit was apparently against going to war with the competitor. His reasoning was because of the…

Millions of Internet users were surprised on Thursday when they attempted to visit sites such as CNN, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, the Gawker Network (including Gizmodo) and NBC News. They were instead transported immediately to a Facebook error page. Embedded widgets on Facebook that have been fixed were blamed for the mistake and even though specifics of the error were not disclosed, Facebook released the following statement to NBC News: For a short period of time, there was a bug that redirected people from third party sites with Facebook Login to Facebook.com. The issue was quickly resolved. The disturbance lasted…

Timbre – n. The character or quality of a musical sound or voice as distinct from its pitch and intensity. This very unique app gives you not only the opportunity to purchase concert tickets, but also gives you the chance to sample the music of the group before making a decision. Here’s how the app works. You open the app for the first time and are given the option to either type in your location, or allow Timbre to access your location through Location Services. Once your location is established, Timbre displays a timeline-type list of musical acts coming to your…

Apple’s iTunes Store has been in business nearly 10 years (April 2003) and now they can celebrate their 25 billionth song sale. German student, Phillip Luepke, won a gift card worth $13,500 (USD) when he downloaded the song, “Monkey Drums.” Apple averages 15,000 song downloads each minute.

Apple has released a new section within the Apple iBookstore – Breakout Books. Breakout Books features authors who have self-published through iBooks. Self-publishing authors are on the rise in digital book sales. Amazon is still the most popular self-publishing tool with their Kindle Direct Publishing. But, Apple will soon be on its heals with Breakout Books. Self-publishers have been using iBooks for some time, but this category features emerging authors more prominently. I would suggest that you check out Breakout Books for the next big thing. There are a lot of titles that are offered for free.

The second IMDb app to hit the scene is IMDb Buzz. IMDb Buzz consists of all the celebrity gossip and news that IMDb features on their site – and then some. The first screen you see when you open the app is the Top News feed. There is also a tab for recent celebrity photos, actors/actresses you would like to keep up with, a search function and a “More” tab, which features STARMeter, MOVIEMeter, Born Today, Popular TV, News Sources and About the app. I thought that the “Following” feature was particularly unique for this type of app. It gives…