Mihăiță Bamburic

Little more than three months since the last build, breaking away from the previous Sunday release schedule, the team behind Android Open Kang Project (AOKP) unveiled Jelly Bean MR1 Build 1. The latest build represents the first official release based on Android 4.2, sporting most of the custom distribution's traditional features.

The work on Android 4.2-based builds started from scratch after Google released the latest green droid operating system, a "tough decision" according to the team behind AOKP. At the moment, Jelly Bean MR1 Build 1 delivers most of the previously known features such as widely customizable navigation bar, including buttons, color or widgets to name a few, custom vibrations, LED Control, lockscreen targets, Quiet Hours and advanced sound settings, among others. However, there are some new features included as well.

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Life as an early adopter is sprinkled with moments of joy and regret after first trying out a product up until another shiny toy takes its place. The burning desire to pursue something new often backfires in my endeavors, with personal expectations rarely fulfilled by cutting-edge software or hardware. My experience running Windows 8 is no different, as Microsoft's latest entry into consumer operating systems seldom ticks all the right boxes. But I plow through, even though what I really want is to go back to Windows 7. (Oh my, my colleague Alan Buckingham disagrees.)

I started using Windows 8 in mid-August and throughout all my time with it not once did I ever feel comfortable enough to say: "This is a keeper". Fact is what I love about Windows 8 I almost never use, and what I loathe I do have to deal with every single time -- it's a self-destructive relationship I simply do not want to be in anymore. On the other hand, at the opposite end lies Windows 7, which fits me like a tailored suit -- no extra "in your face" functionality that I rarely take advantage of. Simply put -- less is more.

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Gingerbread, your reigning days are numbered as Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean aim to take your crown! For the first time in recent months the two year-old operating system drops under 50 percent in the Android distribution charts, based on the number of devices accessing Google Play during the 14 days ending January 3.

On November 13, Google released its latest treat in the candy jar, Android 4.2. Little under two months later, the second Jelly Bean iteration claims a distribution level of 1.2 percent of all green droid devices, a number 50 percent higher compared to the previous figures released in early December. The significant growth can be attributed to sales and software upgrades for Nexus-branded devices such as the Nexus 4, Nexus 10, and Nexus 7, respectively.

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What's the first thing that springs to mind when you think of Windows 8? "Confusing", "difficult to use", "efficient", "tiles" or "US Department of Defense" might be among the possible answers. Whoa, what? Yes, the Department of Defense (DOD) has announced that, as part of a $617 million licensing deal, it will begin using the newest versions of Microsoft products, including the controversial operating system. Now think of all the possible jokes...

The announcement does not disclose the entire number of products that will be used, and only mentions Office 2013 (which the DOD says offers "enhanced security and content management tools"), SharePoint 2013, and Windows 8. The Department of Defense says that the beneficiaries of the deal will be the US Air Force, Army and DISA (Defence Information Systems Agency), and that the purchased package is already customized to meet its specific needs, with an ongoing focus towards mobile computing.

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"How hard can it be?" is a question that I have hopelessly asked myself too many times down the road. The answer is almost never "Give me five minutes and I'm done" because for me there's no such thing as an easy task to undertake. Case in point is my latest hobby, if it can be named as such, building Android 4.2 Jelly Bean from the Android Open Source Project. Do you still remember the question?

The idea is to get a working Android 4.2 Jelly Bean-based build with only minor alterations, that I apparently cannot find anywhere else combined in an already available custom distribution. My requirements are fairly simple at first glance, as I only want a center clock, blacked-out Settings menu, to remove a few tiles and add new ones and, maybe, add some Linaro optimizations to the build. Straightforward, right?

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For those used to cutting the rope or drawing "something", Microsoft Surface Pro is not going to be the tablet for you. Microsoft’s latest attempt to conquer the business end of the tablet market has left many puzzled as to why the software giant has priced a basically untested product right at the $900 mark, when the latest generation iPad starts at $499. They assume, perhaps understandably, that Surface Pro competes with Apple's pride and joy, yet they are wrong. Surface Pro is actually a miniaturized laptop trapped inside a tablet's shell.

For professionals and power users it doesn’t take long to realize that Surface Pro is as far away as possible from a basic consumer-oriented tablet. The dead giveaway is the processor and graphics card combination -- a third generation Core i5 CPU paired with an HD Graphics 4000 GPU, both made by Intel. Together they really shout from the top of their silicons: "We really come from PC technology!" The naysayers should therefore understand where Microsoft is actually going with Surface Pro -- towards professionals and power users, not the Cut The Rope or Draw Something crowd (although it can be used for that too).

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If there's one word that best describes my personal tech use for 2012, change is definitely it. For the most part of the year I "cheated" one platform with another, with no particular personal favorite to get me through (almost) 365 days. Each piece of software and hardware is used for a particular scenario, something that I find rather soothing for my personal early adopter endeavors as well as my sanity. I just can't stand tinkering with the same bit of tech for longer periods of time, although there still is a dear old friend in my life...

My colleagues Alan Buckingham and Wayne Williams already wrote about their personal tech choices in 2012, and now it's my turn. Without further ado here is what I used most throughout the year, starting with my trusty dear old friend.

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After almost three weeks since Samsung announced the Premium Suite upgrade for the Galaxy S III, the South Korean manufacturer officially revealed that the older Galaxy Note is set to receive the same software treatment alongside the coveted Android 4.1 Jelly Bean upgrade.

The previously available leaked ROMs gave away Samsung's plans to introduce Premium Suite functionality as well the first Jelly Bean iteration for the original Galaxy Note, however details were scarce at the time. Users can now expect to take advantage of a number of new features including Multi Window, which allows to view two apps concomitantly or Popup Browser, Note and Video to display a web page, create notes and watch a video while running other apps.

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Almost two months ago Verizon Wireless announced the HTC Windows Phone 8X, in Blue, Black and Red, for $199.99. The US carrier slashed the price of the smartphone down to a more competitive $99.99 on new two-year contracts, bringing the handset more in line with the other Windows Phone 8 device available right now at the big red, the Lumia 822.

However, the move to halve the price may add even more confusion for prospective customers looking to purchase a new Windows Phone 8 handset. At the $99.99 price point Verizon now offers two similar handsets, the Lumia 822 and the Windows Phone 8x, neither of which sets itself clearly apart from the other in the software or the hardware department.

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For early adopters that prefer to live on the bleeding edge of technology, popular cloud storage service Dropbox unveiled a new preview release. The most noteworthy feature for keen beta users is the ability to receive updates to future early and final releases.

The current preview build also introduces the option to share multiple pictures at once. The functionality is enabled by a long tap on a photo and selecting the remaining ones afterwards. In a similar manner users can also organize pictures into albums, the latter of which can also be shared, and delete multiple photos.

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Apple's newest iPad and mainstream Android tablets couldn't be more different in the display department -- the former embraces a more conservative 4:3 format while the latter prefer the multimedia-oriented widescreen panels. However, French consumer electronics company Archos deviates from the norm with the 97 Titanium HD, an Android tablet with an iPad 4-like display.

The 97 Titanium HD tablet features a 9.7-inch IPS display with 10 point multitouch and a resolution of up to 2048 x 1536. Power comes from a 1.6GHz dual-core processor based on the A9 architecture, a quad-core Mali 400 MP4 graphics card and 1GB of RAM, a combination similar to the one found in the original Samsung Galaxy Note. The tablet also sports 8GB of internal memory, alongside a microSD card slot that can extend the storage capacity by a further 64GB. What about the software?

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On Friday, Microsoft unveiled a host of new features for the company's cloud platform, Windows Azure. The latest update beefs up the software corporation's offering by expanding the availability of Windows Azure Store into more regions as well as adding support for Mobile Services in Northern Europe.

Microsoft states that the company also plans to extend support for Mobile Services to "all Windows Azure regions world-wide", but did not provide any specific details as to when that will happen. The Redmond, Wash.-based corporation touts a number of other changes in the last Windows Azure update to Mobile Services, Web Sites, Media Services, SQL databases, Virtual Network improvements as well as Subscription Filtering support.

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When Verizon Wireless introduced the Samsung Galaxy Note II, the handset shipped with a fairly restrictive modding setup. It could not be rooted early on and there was also the problem of a tightly locked bootloader, both of which are now sorted out. But after the major obstacles are gone the big red Galaxy Note II Developer Edition surfaces with, you guessed it, an unlocked bootloader. But is it worth it?

The Galaxy Note II Developer Edition comes with the same impressive specifications as the standard version. The smartphone features a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display, 1.6GHz quad-core processor backed by 2GB of RAM and a whopping 3,100 mAh battery. The 16GB of internal storage as well as the microSD card slot are carried over, just like Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz running on top. Fairly straightfoward, except the unlocked bootloader.

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Instagram sure knows how to feed the frenzy. Shortly after the photo-sharing social network revised the rights policy, interpreted by many people as a sign of major changes regarding handling of user content and ownership, the company issued a response to the numerous complaints, blaming legal speak for the misunderstanding.

"Many users are confused and upset", so Instagram's co-founder, Kevin Systrom, took it upon himself, on behalf of the Facebook-owned social network, to inform concerned Instagrammers that everyone got it wrong. Systrom states: "Legal documents are easy to misinterpret", which basically implies that the problem is with reading the rights policy in the appropriate manner and not with the rights policy in itself. That's not overly reassuring, however, considering that what is basically a major change in philosophy can be so easily subject to interpretation.

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Almost a week ago, part of Google's "Winter cleaning" involved dropping support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync on January 30, 2013. It appears Microsoft is far from happy with the controversial decision, and the company promptly retaliated by advising Gmail users to switch to Outlook for "the best email experience" across all devices.

As was the case with removing the free version of Google Apps for Business, Google's recent move is subject to criticism. But why does it matter? Google dropped the ball in Microsoft's court, as the latter uses EAS in a number of software products including Windows Phone and Windows 8/RT. The protocol allows syncing of calendars and contacts and uses push email functionality. "Killing" it leaves Microsoft customers without those features when accessing Google services.

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