News & Reviews:   iOS

Combining everything you could need as a Muslim, Muslim Pro is an Android and iOS app designed to keep you in touch with Islam and your faith through your smartphone. With more than 5 million downloads in various Muslim countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, United Emirates, Turkey and Morocco the app offers many features in one app. These features include:

• Accurate prayer times based on user location
• Worldwide Qibla directions
• Foursquare integration to find Halal restaurants or Mosques
• Built-in Full Audio Quran with translations
• Islamic Hijiri calendar
• and many more...

As promised when it was announced recently, the Apple iOS 7 beta 2 is now available to download for developers. Aside from the features announced previously, the new beta enables support for the Apple iPad and iPad mini along with Siri's decidedly better voices and other enhancements. Apart from this not much more has changed except for perhaps a combined iTunes and App Store settings menu, working Voicemail and better UI enhancements. The full version is expected to be released along with the next generation of iOS devices (Apple iPhone 5S, iPad 5, etc.) which may be due in Q3 of 2013.

Smartphone game maker Klab, Inc has made a deal with Microsoft that may soon allow us to play Xbox and Windows PC games (under the Microsoft banner) to be ported over to iOS and Android devices. According to rumours, these games may soon be available for iOS and Android later in 2013. So far the first game scheduled to come from this deal is rumoured to be "Age of Empires" and it is expected to be free to play (or perhaps just the first few levels).

While Windows Phone does have access to Xbox games in general, the selection of titles for the Windows Phone platform is relatviely limited. If this deal does go through well, and there are a whole bunch of things which can go wrong (too difficult to port over, bad port, too much like an emulator etc.) then we can expect even more games from other platforms or brands perhaps making their way to iOS and Android devices in the not so far future. Stay tuned, we'll keep you posted.

While every other major tech manufacturer (Sony, Google, Microsoft, Intel) seem to be gearing up for their own versions of smartwatches, the Pebble smartwatch alone has led the way in terms of functionality and design. Following in their crowd-funded footsteps is the Agent smartwatch, created in collaboration between Secret Labs and The House of Horology which provides a host of features that sound simply awesome. These features include:

• 120MHz ARM Cortex-M4 processor with secondary AVR co-processor
• 1.28-inch Memory Display (128 x 128) with intelligent backlighting
• Anti-glare glass lens
• Bluetooth 4.0 BD/EDR + LE
• 3-axis accelerometer
• Ambient light sensor
• Vibration motor
• 7 days battery life (typical) / 30 days in watchface-only mode
• Qi wireless charging
• Water resistant (ATMs: TBD)
• Easy SDK development (AGENT OS 1.0 including .NET Micro Framework 4.3)
• RoHS, Pb-free
• Designed for repair and recycling including replaceable battery
• Compatible with Android, iOS and Windows Phone
• six colours (orange, black, green, red, blue and white)

Apple has always been more about their optimized software or operating system than other smartphone or device makers, so it comes as no surprise that the main reveal of WWDC 2013 was iOS 7. Coming with many new features, the new operating system will be available in Q3 (probably around August), for Apple iPhone 5 users. Developers and those with access can download the beta through the developer portal.

Rumours about what Apple is going to do extend even to their upcoming iOS 7 operating system, with many wondering what Apple have up their sleeves this time. With the impending Worldwide Developer Conference this 10 June 2013, we may not have to wait that long, but rumours about iOS 7, the next big version of Apple's mobile operating system are practically buzzing. While quite a few rumours indicate that iOS7 is going for a flatter look, a new bit of information is that the user interface or UI may be going for more black and white elements.

Transcend Reveal New Wi-Fi Memory Card:

Transcend has released a new Wi-Fi SD memory card that allows for wireless transfer of images from your SDHC-compatible digital camera. Trancend's memory card works in either a direct share mode to a mobile device or in Internet mode using a free app for iOS or Android devices.