Panomo panoramic camera

Throw the Panomo camera ball into the air to take incredible 360 degree photographs from all angles. Possibly don't throw it too hard though

Polaroid Socialmatic camera

Originally floated as a concept back in 2012, the Android-based Socialmatic could revive the beloved Polaroid as we know it. An inkless printing system enables users to print stickers of their sepia-tinted images, and customise them using the 4.5 inch touchscreen. Slated for release by the end of 2014, it may be hipster, but it's also incredibly cool

Beats Music review

There's no shortage of music subscription services that offer unlimited streaming for a monthly fee. The conceit of the latest offering, Beats Music, is that its playlists and other recommendations are curated by warm-blooded humans, not robots.

As CEO Ian Rogers proclaims, "Algorithms can do 'sounds like.' They can't do 'feels like.'"

Beats Music comes from Beats Electronics, the headphone-maker backed by hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre and former music executive Jimmy Iovine.

Sony 'Background defocus' app for Xperia now available on Google Play

Sony Mobile Communications has released its 'Background defocus' app as a free download on Google Play, enabling Xperia smartphone users to click more professional-looking images with a 'bokeh' effect.

The Background defocus app from Sony is a mobile imaging tool that changes the depth of field in an image, which can be used to blur/defocus the background or foreground, according to user choice. The change in depth of field becomes possible as the app clicks two images simultaneously with different focus settings.

Phonejoy review

Our phones are getting more and more powerful, and looking at games like Bastion and XCOM running on your iPhone shows just how far things we've come since the days of playing Snake on a Nokia phone. The catch is that games like Angry Birds or Threes are a lot more fun than playing most typical genres on a phone because while a full touchscreen is great to look at, virtual buttons and virtual thumbsticks are a nightmare to actually use.

Half the screen gets obscured by your fingers and you spend more time repositioning your thumbs than actually playing leading to a highly compromised experience. Some games, like Epoch or Infinity Blade can find a middle ground between the high action games that we're used to on consoles, and finger friendly controls that will work on a mobile phone or tablet, but they're a compromise that falls short on the innovation that is possible with mobile phones, and the twitchy control that come with a real gamepad.

iPhone 6 tipped to feature curved chassis design; alleged case showcased

f a new report is to be believed, the next generation iPhone will come with curved edges accompanied by curved display glass. If true, this would be a major departure from the company's current industrial design on existing iPhone models.

Japanese blog Mac Otakara citing some sources has claimed that the iPhone 6 will sport a design reminiscent to Squair's cases. Squair is a Japanese iPhone case manufacturer, which makes metallic iPhone cases out of Duralumin material. Notably, the Squair-made iPhone cases sport rounded edges that protrude from the iPhone's chassis (see above)

How to make your passwords more secure

If the Heartbleed security threat teaches us anything, it's that passwords don't offer total protection.

Browsers are supposed to keep passwords and other sensitive data safe, but a technical flaw in a widely used padlock security technology allows hackers to grab the information anyway. Even without this latest discovery, there have been countless disclosures of hackers breaking in to grab usernames and passwords, plus credit card numbers and more.

That's why many security experts recommend a second layer of authentication: typically in the form of a numeric code sent as a text message. If you're logging in to a website from your laptop, for example, you enter your password first. Then you type in the code you receive via text to verify that it's really you and not a hacker.

SmartMove can turn any shoe into a fitness tracker

Every week, we're going to be checking out what's new on Kickstarter to find the most innovative and interesting new projects on the crowdfunding website. That's because in the last couple of years, some of the most exciting developments in technology have come, not from the established players but from small teams with big dreams, like the Pebble smartwatch and the Oculus Rift. We're watching out for what comes next. Something like the SmartMove smart insole, for example.

How to improve battery life on iOS 7.1

If you've upgraded to iOS 7, you might be experiencing reduced battery life. According to multiple posts across the Web, including Apple's own tech support forum, battery life is impacted to different extents for different people. For those who are struggling to make it through a day on a single charge, here are a few tips:

Turn off all non-essentials
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are the most obvious candidates when it comes to battery depletion. If you aren't turning them off altogether when not needed, make sure your iPhone or iPad isn't unnecessarily connecting to Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth accessories by deleting them from the lists of previously paired devices.

Turning off cellular data would mean that you won't receive email notifications, Whatsapp messages or any other app alerts, but it will also vastly improve your battery life expectancy. To do this, go toSettings > Cellular and move the Cellular Data slider to the left, switching it off.

For a less drastic approach, you can decide which individual apps are allowed to send and receive data when your phone is idle. Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh to selectively choose which apps are allowed to refresh themselves using your Internet connections.

Apple's mobile OS also uses background data transfers for things like syncing iTunes purchases, iCloud backups, and Photo Stream. Turn these off if you don't need them - of course iCloud is pretty handy, so don't kill this unless you really need to.

App notifications also require Internet access, so turning some of these off will help you manage power consumption. Go to Settings > Notification Center and disable spam magnets such as games and commercial apps.