There is a lot of speculation about an Apple event next month where the next generation of iPhone or iPhones is likely to be unveiled, along with the public launch of the next iteration of its mobile operating system iOS7. While most online Apple fan clubs seem to agree that the company is preparing the next iPhone — the iPhone 5S — there is a lot of speculation too about a series of budget iPhones making a debut, tentatively called the iPhone C. This has led to some ribbing within Apple versus Android fan clubs, with people saying that ‘C’ might denote ‘cheap’.
The possibility of a budget iPhone cannot be ruled out because last year Apple introduced the iPad Mini to counter the emergence of the 7-inch Android tablets, notably the Nexus series brought out by the Google-Asus partnership. Apple fanatics are also hoping for the next iteration of the iPad Mini featuring the Retina Display (Apple defines it as the optimum pixel density in a display wherein the human retina is unable to differentiate pixels at a comfortable viewing distance.)
YouTube App back on Windows Phone
Microsoft has re-introduced its official YouTube App for Windows mobile devices after its original App was pulled out following a request from Google. Google had negotiated some new terms with regard to the App, which according to some blogs include running its own advertisements over the videos; hence, the initial pull-out of the Windows App store and now, its re-entry for Windows 7.x and Windows 8 devices.
The new App has pretty much all the features of the previous App. In addition it has a feature which allows movies to be uploaded to one’s channel directly from the video’s folder.
Tip of the week
Soft reset your smartphone. Most of us panic when our smartphones suddenly freeze. Often the lock button or the home button does not work. Before you decide to take the phone to your geeky friend or your service centre, here is one thing you can attempt. It is called ‘soft reset’ meant to temporarily wipe out your current processes on the phone and restart it. (This is not a ‘factory reset’ or ‘hard reset’ solution that wipes out all personal data.)
For the iPhone, the soft reset is done by pressing the lock key (on the top) and the home button for a prolonged period of time, say ten seconds. The phone usually resets itself at this point of time. For the Windows 8 and Windows 7.x phones, one needs to press the volume down button and the power button simultaneously for some duration.
This solution is specially helpful for smartphones that don’t have removable batteries. In the case of Android phones, most have removable batteries, so the easiest thing to do is detach the battery and put it back to ensure a ‘soft reset’. In case of internal batteries, most Android phones too have a ‘soft reset’ feature combining two of its hard keys. Since there are too many models, it won’t be possible to mention all of them in this space.
