It may have a busy few months for new gadgets, social media and app releases, but the technology world is showing no signs of slowing down. November issued some more exciting developments as we got to see what a Nokia tablet looks like, Xbox One changed their sales strategy and YouTube delivered the key to a new music streaming service!
1. XBox One outsells Playstation 4 in the US
Back in June, we wrote about the sales battle between Sony and Nintendo, explaining how Sony had finally outsold their rival. Unfortunately it has only been a six month victory as now Xbox has swooped in and led game consoles sales for the past two weeks.
Since Microsoft decided to decrease their pricing in the US, their sales have increased dramatically, with the Xbox vice president claiming that within one week sales have tripled.
Consequently this price drop has put some pressure on the PS4, and we doubt anyone would complain if they decided to try the same tactics!
2. Twitter introduces user-friendly features
In a drive to make Twitter more user-friendly the social media channel has implemented new features for us to explore.
First Twitter has made the decision to index every public tweet since 2006, which means that we will be able to search for specific tweets a lot more efficiently, and in 2015 there could be a native video feature as an alternative to Vine and YouTube. Twitter has also tried to improve our direct messaging experience by making it easier to copy and paste tweets into direct messages.
Although these might not be life changing features it is good to see that Twitter is focused on improving the user’s experience.
3. Nokia jumps on the tablet bandwagon
In a surprising turn of events Nokia have decided to unveil the N1 Android tablet, proving that it isn’t time to say goodbye to the brand just yet.
The tablet, which has a HD 7.9inch screen and aluminium design looks like the iPad mini but actually weighs slightly less. It also stands up against the competition with an impressive specification, including a 2.4GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and 8 megapixel camera.
Before we get too excited though, the tablet will be released in China first and the UK release date is still unknown. Maybe it can make its way onto our Christmas list next year!?
4. YouTube releases a competitor to Spotify
YouTube Music Key is the newest service to help you listen to music on smartphones and tablets. As a “premium service” Music Key has ad-free music, offline play and you can have a six-month free trial in the UK!
After the trial it will cost £9.99 a month and subscribers will get access to Google’s Play Music library which will help to increase anyone’s music collection.
Yes it does sound oddly familiar, so of course its main competitor is Spotify, the service which currently has 50 million users. It also doesn’t help matters that Music Key hasn’t solved the issues that Spotify is having with artists and music labels. Speaking of which…
5. We all said goodbye to Taylor Swift at HQ
Are they really never ever getting back together?
This month Taylor Swift decided to end her relationship with music streaming service Spotify because she felt it was hurting her music sales. Now, we would be lying if we said we didn’t enjoy listening to Taylor at HQ, so when we heard the news we couldn’t shake off our disappointment.
Here’s hoping Taylor stops seeing Spotify as trouble and they can sort out their differences soon!