Driving Mode and screen orientation changes coming
The next update to Windows Phone 8 - known commonly as GDR3 - will incorporate a host of new features, including the ability to close apps within the multi-tasking view, it has been revealed.
The word comes from a WPCentral message board user who claims to have purchased a device from Craigslist running the as-yet-unreleased update that's scheduled to land later this year.
The heavily-requested multitasking boost will make it easier for Windows Phone users to manage open apps on their device.
Also part of the update, there'll also be a new Driving Mode, which will mute calls and texts when paired with a bluetooth headset, either automatically, or manually through the phone's options.
Textual orientation
More tidbits from GDR3 (General Distribution Release 3) include the option to control screen orientation, as well as create custom alerts for emails, messages, social networking notifications etc.
The update will also enable backups to be restored to phones over Wi-Fi, rather than USB, during the phone's initial set-up.
Is this what Apple fans will be holding aloft later this month? (credit: CTech)
The new iPhone won't be revealed for another 48 hours or so, but if you need a fix in the meantime, here are some alleged pictures of the retail box it'll arrive in.
Chinese site C Tech posted the photos this weekend, sent by an unnamed tipster, claiming to showing the iPhone 5S name and the device in all its glory, running the new iOS 7 software.
If the pics are real - and we have our doubts - it would confirm the expected iPhone 5S as the naming convention for the new handset.
However, perhaps more interesting is the depiction of a silver ring around the iPhone's classic Home button, which has been rumoured in recent weeks.
Integral
It has long been speculated that the iPhone 5S' Home button will have an integrated fingerprint sensor, allowing users to unlock the device by placing a digit on the button rather than using a passcode.
Previous reports have suggested the silver ring is simply there to distinguish those iPhones with the security tech and those without.
However, an AppleInsider report this weekend speculated that the ring's addition is integral to the workings of the fingerprint sensor rather than an aesthetic choice.
All will be revealed at the iPhone 5S launch event on Tuesday at Apple's Cupertino campus. In the meantime, do you reckon those photos are legit? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
The carefully laid SEO plans of thousands of tech sites were shredded by Google and Nestle this week, as the Android creator and the chocolate company formed an unlikely alliance to change the name of the next version of Android from 'Key Lime Pie' to 'KitKat'.
When it was announced, amazement turned into... more amazement. Feelings then stayed as amazement. Everyone is still amazed. It's amazing. It's also completely ludicrous, as Google has now turned its world-beating mobile OS and covert advert delivery mechanism into one huge, very obvious ad for an admittedly quite nice chocolate bar.
Apparently no money changed hands, although both will be expecting some serious returns thanks to the vast amount of marketing cash that'll be blown on promoting the name change, the competitions, the future phone updates and more.
But did the internet give the shock Android name change one big chunky thumbs up, or did the commenters of the world hold up some slightly smaller fingers in response?
Class action
Opinion has not been mixed on the matter. Virtually everyone is aghast. Google may as well have announced that the 'S' iteration of Android will be known as Sarin. Even on AdWeek, a site devoted to the marketing world, commenters were baffled. Michael Barnathan echoed the thoughts of many, saying: "I kept refreshing the page expecting the date to change to April 1."
But it remains September. We've just, for the tenth time, refreshed it to make sure. And if you're planning on criticising the plan, make sure you keep the confectionery experts out there happy as well as the phone nerds, as Al Shaw on AdWeek complains that the site's report was an: "Awful bit of US centric reporting given that Kit-Kat is owned by Nestle and only produced under license in the US by Hershey. Do your research!" And you do yours as well, Al, as you have incorrectly hyphenated KitKat there.
Wave the finger
Over on Wired, which rather led its readers down a certain path by having "WTF?" in its own headline, reader The Gnome wasn't happy with the new corporate dream team either, saying: "Good to see Google innovating on things like... er... more stupid Android names and even more fragmentation. I guess the fat chocolate eating nerds that buy their phones will eat this up though."
A comment which was rightfully pulled up as being a bit dumb by ElyasM, who responded with: "As opposed to the gullible, elitist hipsters that buy iPhones? I'm not sure which stereotype is worse..."
Eh? to Z
It also didn't take more than 30 seconds after the announcement for the history of Nestle to be called into question, a company which, alongside its joyous range of sugary snacks and convenience foods, has battled complaints about darker ethical dilemmas faced by some of its practises.
But for fear of lawyers, they won't be repeated here. But there was on of the more baffling comment made by TechCrunch reader ElleryFamili who complained thusly: "I hate Google's decision to formally name their Android OS versions. How am I supposed to remember if eclair came before cupcake when dealing with QA issues."
You'd think a QA person would be a bit more on the ball than that, as user KunalBhat politely and gently pointed out that: "It's alphabetical... 'e' comes after 'c'."
Totally broken
Some people found it funny, though. In the minefield of YouTube comments, where no opinion is left unhad no matter how wrong or embarrassing, user Michael Atia revealed he enjoyed it and totally got the references in KitKat's satirical video, saying: "LOL... this is like the Apple keynote when the English guy (John Ive) is talking, similar music too!" to which Eric Santos responded with the classic "Thank you, Captain Obvious."
Inflame is TechRadar's weekly look at the web's wierdest and wonderful comments. If you want more, check out what the internet said about the Hyperloop, Steve Ballmer's retirement and the PS4 and Xbox One.
Even before Microsoft announced that it was buying Nokia's phone business, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was a favourite to replace Ballmer, at least on the betting sites. For many people that's because of his bold approach at Nokia, from his "burning platform" memo to mocking Samsung at the Lumia 920 announcement for announcing a phone they couldn't even demonstrate.
He can be outspoken: back in 2009 he called the idea of putting everything in the cloud instead of using software on a device "hogwash." But his record on predicting trends is generally better than that statement suggests: at the same time he talked about consumer technology and social networks arriving inside companies, and both are commonplace now.
He's certainly pragmatic. Faced with operator complaints about Skype undermining call revenue, he cleverly turned it into a way of working with the networks: "Instead of them just complaining about Skype, we can have a conversation. Some operators are looking at bundling Lumia, Skype and their own services with higher-bandwidth allotments to actually charge the consumer more and generate more revenue."
But he also managed to turn around Nokia's culture, which ranged from paranoid (a Nokia developer once told me the company couldn't open source its LifeBlog software because people hated Nokia and wouldn't participate) to stodgy.
In 2011, Elop described Nokia as "reliable, durable, trustworthy. We comb our hair neatly each morning, we pick you up after school when we say we will, we always send you a birthday card." He managed to get the reserved Finns to speak up in meetings and to make firm commitments, and there's a new excitement among even long-time Nokia employees.
Credit must go to Stephen Elop for the success of Windows Phone 8
Nokia has lost the massive market share it used to have; that was a trend that started long before he arrived there, and while selling the phone business to Microsoft can't have been what the Nokia board originally hoped for, you have to give Elop and Nokia credit for most of the success for Windows Phone 8 (since over 80% of all Windows Phones sold are from Nokia).
When Nokia head-hunted him in September 2010, he was running Microsoft's Business division; that included Office and unified communications – Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project and Dynamics, as well as the Office applications. He was running Office when Office 2010 and the Office Web apps launched, and Office 365 was still in development.
The Office Web apps weren't an immediate hit, but they were an important step in putting Office tools on more platforms than just Windows and Mac. At the time, Elop said the danger for Microsoft wasn't competition from free tools like Google Docs but resting on its laurels and not innovating enough. "We have to be out innovating the competition; at the end of the day if we provide more value we'll win."
Elop's team has gone on to success
Other products were definitely successful. SharePoint 2010 was one of the key milestones for the product and Exchange 2010 was also a significant launch, especially as it was followed by both Google and Apple (and indeed Nokia) licensing the Exchange ActiveSync protocol. At that point, the Exchange team was run by someone who's worked with Elop a lot since then: former Windows Phone head Terry Myerson, who is now in charge of all operating system development at Microsoft.
In fact, a number of people who worked for Elop in the Business division have gone on to senior positions inside Microsoft.
Kirill Tatarinov now runs Dynamics, Microsoft's software for running businesses (that's what Delta is using to power the Lumia handsets that cabin crew now use for all on-board sales). Antoine Leblonde is a Corporate Vice President in the Windows division (looking after the development of Windows) and Amy Hood recently took over from Peter Klein as Microsoft CFO. It's not clear how much of a mentor he could have been in a little under two years, but it certainly emphasizes how important the Microsoft Business division has been as a place for key Microsoft leaders to prove themselves.
Stephen 'The General' Elop
Microsoft recruited Elop from network hardware vendor Juniper; he only stayed there for a year as Chief Operating Officer, but it was good enterprise experience. Before that he ran Adobe's sales, support and marketing groups, a job he took after successfully negotiating the merger of his company Macromedia with Adobe (he had spent seven years working his way up to CEO, earning the nickname 'The General' for his no-nonsense approach).
Macromedia brought Adobe both the Flash player that made them ubiquitous (which Elop had pushed macromedia to develop for early mobile phones) and the expertise in web development tools that will allow Adobe to replace Flash with HTML5. Before that he had a tastier job; CIO at Boston Chicken and Einstein Brothers Bagels (now the US fast food chain Boston Market).
Despite the way he killed off projects like Meego that many at Nokia had pinned the company's hopes on, Elop has few detractors. Perhaps it's his down-to-earth attitude and the way he's seen as a steady pair of hands. Tributes to him are usually along the lines of 'very smart' or 'very hardworking'; when Elop left Microsoft, Ballmer called him "a good steward of the [Office] brand." Or perhaps it's the way he tends to roll up his sleeves and join in; at university he helped lay 22km of Ethernet cable to create one of Canada's first Internet-connected networks.
With Windows Phone a solid number three in the phone market and Surface sales languishing, he's going to have to roll up his sleeves and get down to work again now he's back at Microsoft.
BlackBerry has revealed its new Messenger app for iPhone was submitted for Apple's approval two weeks ago, indicating the app could arrive at any time.
The news comes from the Twitter account of BlackBerry's Alex Kinsella who, on Friday afternoon, admitted the company was now playing the waiting game as Apple takes a peek at the completed app.
He wrote: "Just in case we forgot to mention, BBM for iPhone was submitted for review 2 weeks ago. #waiting #BBM4ALL"
An online app tracker from Shiny Development claims the average review time for iOS apps is currently only four days, so perhaps Apple is making its old rival sweat before offering a thumbs up.
Before September ends
BBM, which helped BlackBerry handsets stay popular long after the decline set in at Waterloo, is coming to Android and iOS as part of an effort to make the app a universal tool for for all.
The company announced the expansion plans at its BlackBerry World event back in May and all indications suggest the app will drop on both platforms by the end of September. In the case of the iPhone app, maybe sooner.
