Sony revealed the Playstation 4 at their event last week with cell phones and games as the centerpiece. Microsoft and Nintendo have been pushing the mobile aspect of gaming lately, Microsoft more than Nintendo. With Nintendo’s WiiU using their tablet controller to play your full games anywhere in the house, and the Xbox’s Microsoft Smartglass enabling you to control the system on your cell phone, the key word here is integration. Sony, of course, didn’t ignore this ongoing trend and are pushing their own version of integration, but does it go far enough and what does it really mean for a consumer?
Dec 11
The year is almost over, which is typically the time one reflects on the past 365 days. So looking back today we take a closer glance at some of 2012′s biggest mistakes, flops and screw-ups. We’ll go through all the usual software, technology and even PR stunts that caused more harm than good to a company attempting something new… Or worse, doing something horribly wrong that they used to do well all the time!
Dec 16
It’s finally here, though a bit awkward to start up. You may have not even noticed right away as you have to go to facebook’s timeline website to even sign up. But Facebook timeline is here and boy… is it an OCD nightmare. I took about 20 minutes of my morning reviewing it and seeing what possible improvements it may have, not to mention integration into mobile devices, and found myself getting lost over and over again. But is this an improvement over it’s old design? Or is this the last hurrah of a cluttered dying mess?
Nov 28
Facebook has dipped its toes into the cellphone world already, but most people actually don’t know it. A while back Facebook claimed it was working on its very own phone, dedicated to phone calls and, well, Facebook. These plans seemed to have fallen through as no word of such a phone has come out of the woodwork since then. But now it seems Facebook has chosen HTC to make their Facebook phone for them. So… what does this mean exactly and what should we expect from such a phone?
Oct 03
So it seems some department stores are already hanging up their Christmas decorations, and you know what that means! That’s right, new gadgets being announced and released rapid fire for the next couple months. We here at TheBlueDot.net are passionate about all things electronic, so we wanted to show off the few new goodies we are keeping our eyes on.
Kindle Fire
The iPad has been dominating the tablet market even though there are dozens of other cheaper tablets to choose from. The problem was there wasn’t a big marketable name slapped on to the other tablets to compete with such a powerful brand. This is where Amazon and the Kindle Fire comes in. Touting the Android OS, the Kindle Fire (priced at a comfortable $199) may actually shake things up a bit in the tablet world. It has the Kindle brand behind it, and the price point is two fifths the price of the iPad. Why spend $500 on a tablet you may or may not use when you can get one for $200 that may do the exact same thing. It only boasts 8GB of storage, but with the ability to sync your data online it may not matter. We here at TheBlueDot can’t wait to get our hands on it and give it a whirl.
iPhone 5
Of course Apple has something around the corner, they always do. Apple has yet to announce the iPhone 5, or even release many details on their new phone. But everyone has been making guesses on what it may have, and what it probably will have. A better camera, better screen, Near Communication Technology and much much more. We don’t have much information on this up coming phone, like everyone else. But we will be keeping a close eye on the official announcement. Before the announcement, and after, you cantrade in your old iPhones to TheBlueDot to help with your new iPhone purchase.
Microsoft updates
though these are separate things, they are both much needed updates. The Kinect has been a hot buy for the XBox 360, even though it lacks a library. The biggest fault though is in it’s lack of interface with the 360 dashboard. The Kinect Dashboard is incredibly limited, leaving almost no reason to wave at your device and use it over a controller. But that may soon change within the next few months. Massive updates to the software will add more menu options and , hopefully, better video control.
The other update coming out of Microsoft is Mango for the Windows phones. That’s right, there is another smart phone OS choice out there, just not one that has made any waves, until now. The Mango update has an alleged 500 feature additions, which is just too many to list here. The biggest change is to it’s better social media integration, which is a must have in the smart phone world. Reviews are already starting to spill out, so give them a look and consider the Windows OS phones when looking for a new phone.
Ice Cream Sandwich
No, not the dessert, the OS update for Android. Well, not all Androids. All Androids released this past year (and a few beyond) will be getting the much anticipated update by Google. Ice Cream Sandwich hasn’t been released yet, but leaks have made their way to the general public. Most f the updates seem to be superficial, but there are a few menu updates and multitasking updates that many will be happy to see. We’ll wait for a bit more information, but so far none of the Google updates have let us down.
We’ll try to keep you all updated as more and more news trickles out on all these devices and updates.
