This March we were teased by the new iPhone 6, Twitter turned eight and the internet celebrated 25 years of being awesome.
But the techy world changes quicker than we can say ‘Spindogs’, so we have created a handy list of the news you might have missed during the past month!
1. Google Glass Will Receive A Ray-Ban Style Makeover
Google have decided to team up with The Luxottica Group, the people that own brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley, to work on Google Glass. Google have hired Luxottica to not just improve the design of Glass but develop and distribute future versions. The company controls a number of eyewear shops, meaning that Google can use their retail knowledge to make Glass a lot more accessible.
So next time you pop into town to buy a new pair of sunglasses you might come home with Google Glass!
2. Facebook Bought Oculus VR And Felt The Wrath Of Gamers
Having spent $19bn on WhatsApp last month Facebook has now announced their plan to buy company Oculus VR for $2bn.
Oculus’s start-up product is Oculus Rift, a headset which is supposed to change the way you experience video gaming. In essence it makes video games an immersive experience. So why did this interest Facebook?
Well, Mark Zuckerberg believes that these new technologies will not just change gaming but everything; how we work, play and communicate. Unfortunately gamers were not thrilled at Zuckerberg’s involvement, complaining that this made Oculus a “sellout”. Ouch.
What Spindogs Say!
David Morgan (Technical Director): “Oculus Rift looked like being one of the most exciting gaming technologies for many years with exciting partnerships with companies like Valve. Now that Oculus has been purchased by Facebook gamers are worried that they will shift the focus away from gaming!”
Gareth Gwyther (Web Developer): “The Oculus Rift is an incredible piece of technology, the chief scientist behind the project actually believes it’s the first steps towards a Metaverse. A Metaverse is the idea of the internet becoming a graphical 3D world where you are a walking and talking as an avatar. This is what Oculus ultimately wants to achieve with Facebook so the future of social media is exciting!”
3. Samsung Reveals A Camera Made Specifically For “Selfies”
The prize for the most used word this March is undoubtedly “selfie”. So it comes as no surprise that Samsung has jumped on the bandwagon and created a camera purely for perfecting your smile.
The NX Mini is just 0.89 inches thick, has an LCD screen that flips 180 degrees, weighs the same as a large smartphone and automatically takes a photo if you wink at the camera.
Gimmicks aside this is a high spec camera from Samsung and one that we can’t wait to try when it is released in April!
4. Android Triumphs Over Apple’s iOS With More Users
This month Android was celebrating as it was revealed that they had become the number one operating system for tablets, in terms of number of users. A recent survey explained that Android now claims 62 per cent of the market compared with Apple’s 36 per cent.
In 2013 Android managed to sell 121 million tablets worldwide proving that their quality, lower cost product was a winning formula. Our eyes are now on Apple to see what they are going to do in response to this competition.
5. And We Discovered That We Might All Have “Phantom Vibration Syndrome!”
Do you sometimes hear your mobile phone ringing only to discover it’s on silent?
Well, before you start panicking, you are not the only one! The technical term is ‘phantom vibration syndrome’ and according to a study published by Computers and Human Behaviour, 89% of 290 undergraduates imagined their phones vibrated when they didn’t.
This is more an annoyance than a psychological problem, but it reminded us that we might love our mobile phones a little too much!