We’ve seen a number of Android-based consoles crop up, but why buy a separate device when you already have a beefy chipset in your phone? Sony has added DUALSHOCK 3 support (that’s the PlaStation 3 controller) to several of its Xperia devices to enable a more console-like gaming experience.

Playing with the DUALSHOCK 3 controller frees up the screen of the device to just render the graphics of the game, which is great if you’re using the Xperia Tablet Z or you can use an Xperia phone hooked up to a TV. Read more »

The revamped Nokia Camera app has made its way to the Windows Phone Marketplace. The refreshed photography application made its debut during the Nokia Lumia 1520 announcement in Abu Dhabi.

Nokia Camera brings the Smart Cam and Pro Cam apps under the same roof. Read more »

Today’s Apple keynote marked the announcement of the release of the free Mac OS X Maverics, the release of the updated and now free iWorks and iLife application packages, the announcement of the hardware updates to the MacBook Pro lineup and the availability and specs info about the Mac Pro. Last but not least, we saw the announcement of the iPad Air and the Retina update to the iPad mini.

All this fit into less than an hour and a half so you can be sure the pace was hectic. But you don’t have to take my word for it. If you missed the live streaming of the event, now is your chance to watch a replay. Read more »

Today at the Nokia World 2013 held in Abu Dhabi, Nokia announced their new Refocus camera app for the Lumia 1520. Refocus promises users the freedom to selectively change the area of the photo, which is in focus.

The Nokia Refocus is a separate camera app for Lumia phones (unlike what we first heard). The camera app aims to reproduce the shallow depth of field that pro cameras have and it does that in a really high-quality way. Details about how it works are scarce at the moment so we are not quite sure whether it snaps a series of images and stacks them into an image, where you can dynamically manipulate the active focus point or if it maps out the depth of the image and subsequently creates the lens blur purely artificially but in a nice looking way. Read more »

Nokia World is in full swing and while it’s mostly about Nokia’s products, some important app announcements were made, including a quick visit from WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum. Mr. Koum announced that the highly popular instant messenger has now reached 350 million monthly active users.

In mid-April this year the CEO announced that WhatsApp is bigger than Twitter with 200 million monthly active users and that number was 300 million in August. Read more »

At the stage of the Nokia World event, Stephen Elop has just announced that Instagram is finally coming to Windows Phone 8 devices.

With over 130 million users on tap, Instagram is one of the most popular photo sharing social networks. Nokia Lumia users will finally be able to the cool filter effects that they can apply to their photos before they share them. Read more »

Exactly a month after initially releasing the app, BlackBerry resumed the rollout of the popular BBM app for iOS and Android. In order to avoid the hiccups from last month which caused BlackBerry to pause the rollout, the company has implemented a line-up system to manage the high demand.

The reservation system is based on the user entering his or her email after installing the app on his or her compatible device. Read more »

Nokia has released three new videos advertising its HERE products. They all feature HERE’s employee Alex Osaki and made in the style of the James Bond movies.

Nokia will soon become a service-focused company after selling its device business to Microsoft next year. HERE is one of Nokia’s key weapons on Windows Phone and one of the features that keep the mobile OS alive and attractive to users. HERE will continue to live after the changes at Nokia and those ads confirm company’s dedication to it. Read more »

Google has issued an update for its Hangouts app on iOS. The latest version of the popular messaging service allows you to place free voice calls as long as you live in the US and Canada.

The app uses your Google Voice number for both outgoing and incoming calls. Calls outside the two countries work too, albeit for a fee. Read more »

You may have heard of the mobile payment company Square. Co-founded by the co-founder of Twitter – Jack Dorsey – the company came up with the revolutionary Square Reader for the iPhone for swiping credit cards directly on your phone.

Their newest venture, called Square Cash, lets you send money to anyone for free using just an email without any signup or registration. Read more »

Microsoft announced the Windows Phone 8 GDR3 update yesterday and many got excited over the news for the addition of a third column of Live Tiles on the Start screen. As it turns out, however, the third column will only be available for Windows Phone devices packing a display of full HD resolution.

As a result, all current WP8 smartphones, including the Lumia 1020 flagship, will be limited to a two-column Start menu only. Devices with lower resolution also follow suit. Read more »

Steve Kondik, Mr. Cyanogen himself, has posted a screenshot of the new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 running the popular third party ROM CyanogenMod.

While he did not provide an estimated time of when we’ll expect to see a test build ready for the public, seeing the ROM up and running on the device undoubtedly indicates that it will be sooner rather than later. Read more »

Samsung is proud of choosing the AMOLED technology for the screens of it flagship devices. So much so that the company has made an app dubbed OLED World which has a sole purpose to showcase the superiority of OLED displays.

It does this by displaying beautiful photos taken by renowned photofraphers such as Ashley Vincent, Hougaard Malan, Kwon O Chul and Satoshi Kuribayashi. Read more »

The Google Search mobile app is a powerful tool and now the company has made it even better by adding a tip calculator to its laundry list of features.

The tip calculator can be initiated by either a voice command or typing for example “What’s the tip for X dollars” and a special interface will pop up prompting you to fill in the details of the order. In order for Google to return you the exact tip amount, you’ll have to input the total bill, adjust the tip percentage and split the check among the people you’re out with. Read more »

The Google Maps app on Android OS has got a pretty decent update. It includes new notifications that now utilize the expandable interface. Now you can see your next turn, estimated time of arrival, and remaining distance to destination without having to open the app itself.

There are a few more new things in this update such as smaller navigation cards and smoother scrolling. Read more »