iOS is getting boring. Yes, it's simplistic. Yes, the design is clean. Almost anyone can pick up an iPhone or iPad and immediately know how to use it. Therein lies the largest strength -- and the most notable weakness in Apple's mobile operating system. Android, on the other hand, comes in almost limitless packages with a different look and feel from every manufacturer -- and if you don't like it you can swap out that look for another as easily as installing an app. That flexibility, however, comes with a significant learning curve whenever you switch devices, or are asked to use someone ...

Apple's next iPad has found itself the subject of a growing number of leaks over the past couple weeks, revealing both a possible front panel for the iPad 5, showing off a shrunken-down bezel, as well as a potential case design, confirming a narrower build. Today we've got a new leak to gawk at, and while it's a bit hard to appreciate all by its lonesome, it's still something new, appearing to show the new iPad's rear panel. Without a sense of scale or an older component in the shot to compare against, it's a little more difficult to appreciate this image than, say, the look at the old and ...

It's always fun to discover new music, and one of the best ways to do that is through the people you know, either online or in real life. And since many of us spend a great deal of our online time on social media, various networks have become hotbeds for music discovery. Facebook, for example, teamed-up with Spotify to stream what you're listening to on Spotify to your Facebook News Feed in real time. Today, Twitter officially launched its social music discovery app, #music. (Yes, the name has a hashtag in it.) The service is only currently available on iOS and via desktop browser at ...

Rumors of Apple finally adding some variety to its iPhone lineup and introducing a more affordable alternative to its flagship model have been following the company for months. We've heard plenty of theories about just when such a model might be released, as well as speculation as to the steps Apple would take to minimize cost. A lot of that talk has focused on the idea of the heavy use of plastic for the handset's materials. Now we get the chance to see what Apple's design could actually look like, upon the release of a picture supposedly depicting this budget iPhone's rear casing. Even ...

Yesterday saw the release of Facebook 6.0 for iOS devices, introducing the Chat Heads feature previously launched with the Android release of Facebook Home and the latest Facebook Messenger. The iOS implementation doesn't sound quite so compelling as the Android Chat Heads, but it's still something we know a lot of you are interested in checking out. While Facebook said that the feature would slowly be rolled-out to users over the next couple weeks, there's a way to jump to the head of the line and start using Chat Heads today. First, you'll need a way to access your iOS device's file ...

I was having one of my rare introspective moments the other day when I suddenly realized something. This is something that has been building for quite some time. It has also been expressed by a number of technology folk I interact with. It’s an uncomfortable feeling, not exactly boredom, but it's definitely a feeling of discontent with the mobile industry. Everywhere you look in the mobile industry in 2013 there is nothing but compromise. Every phone has some sort of trade-off. You can have this, but not this. You can have that, but not that. Pretty much every phone out there has some ...

We've had a lot of reasons so far to think that Apple might be planning to seriously revamp the design of its iconic tablet for the release of the iPad 5, chopping away at the previously big bezel to end up with a face that more closely resembles the iPad mini than any earlier full-size iPads. Indeed, last week we got to check out a leaked image purporting to show just such an iPad 5 bezel. Today we get a little more support for this change, upon some images showing off a new case shape to accommodate the new design. Early third-party case designs for Apple products can be a little ...

Today may have ushered-in the intriguing Facebook Home, as well as brought us the HTC First on AT&T, but for another carrier there was a different big reason to be excited, upon the arrival of a long-overdue guest; at T-Mobile, today marked the first time the carrier was able to offer the iPhone completely above board, with Apple's approval and full support for the T-Mobile cell network. Sure, T-Mobile is seriously late to the party here, but will its tardiness dampen the phone's sales outlook? Initial reports suggest that couldn't be farther from the truth. T-Mobile's CMO describes ...