When asked about search engines, most of us have a rather natural tendency to think about Google or Bing, perhaps even Yahoo as primary examples of how we tend to navigate the vast online resources. But what we often tend to forget is that other aspects of our digital life rely heavily on advanced categorization and search mechanisms as well. For, example, all the apps you installed on your smartphone came from somewhere and you probably wouldn’t be in the know about at least a few of them were it not for context-aware searches and recommendations.

Providing users with just the right content, precisely when they need it is becoming increasingly important, not to mention lucrative and this is precisely what Apple is focusing on with the latest improvement to its App Store search. Searching for apps now yields a lot more relevant results thanks to Cupertino’s new raking system, which is now based on a mix of contextual keywords, along with the traditional title and developer searches. In this way, users are presented with more competitor app’s that are relevant to their query.

A perfect illustration of the real-file improvement is that searching for “Twitter” now brings up relevant third-party apps like Tweetbot and Twitterrific in the top results, which are likely to be more useful in the given context then let’s say Instagram, which used to be on the list.

I just searched Twitter on the App Store and Instagram is gone, Tweetbot is #4, Twitterrific #5, and more relevant results overall.— David Barnard (@drbarnard) November 12, 2015

Up until now, the App Store conducted searches in a rather old-school, traditional manner, by going through the title and dedicated keyword fields of each app. Mixing in contextual keywords from the description and other present texts is a considerably more semantic approach that can easily be compared to one of Google’s main ways of rating content relevancy – Page Rank.

Although the search giant’s system is immensely more complicated (just ask any SEO specialist), the parallel is quite obvious and could hint that Apple is trying its hand ant developing its own version of PageRank in the future.

Cupertino is yet to comment on the noticeable search algorithm changes, which were rather quietly rolled to the public. In any case, it is definitely a move in the right direction.

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Google has announced that calls made to France over Hangouts are free of cost temporarily. This includes calls made to local landline or mobile numbers, which normally incur a fee.

This move is due to the recent terrorist attacks that took place in Paris yesterday, involving multiple shootings and explosions as well as a hostage situation. The situation is now under control but the events have resulted in unrest among the citizens, as the attack is said to be the worst to have happened in France since the second World War.

Understandably, a lot of people are trying to get in touch with the people over in France right now. As such, this is a welcome move from…

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UK’s O2 is planning to start offering the BQ Aquaris X5 this December and it turns out this might very well be the first Cyanogen OS phone that you can buy on contract in the country, perhaps even the EU. And while the phone itself isn’t really spectacular in any way, we do hope it catches some attention as it could potentially set the tone for a future broadening of carrier device portfolios.

It is no secret that most people tent to buy on-contract devices, as it is generally cheaper, not to mention immensely more convenient for not so “tech-savvy” users. This is definitely not a bad trend in itself, but it is also no secret that most carrier are naturally going to stack up on devices that are going to sale, which currently boils down to a large quantity of entry-level, often even custom branded models and just as many trusted name-brand mid-rangers, like Samsung, Sony or Lumia. Last, but not least, a select few of the very best flagships the market has to offer.

This “safe” portfolio does limit variety and leaves out most of the really tantalizing offers, but also limits most users stuck to only a basic three-way choice of OS – iOS, Android or Windows (yes, yes, we know, there is the occasional BlackBerry too).

But what about all the platform we nerds get to enjoy, like Cyanogen? Why can’t my dad get it as well? The OS has come a long way since its expert-oriented roots and now has features like the integrated Privacy Guard and Truecaller dialer with spam protection, that hold a universal appeal. Well, hopefully the BQ Aquaris X5 is the first step to breaking the status quo.

As already mentioned, the Spanish handset is one of the select few to run on Cyanogen OS out of the box, just like the OnePlus One did before it moved on to its own Oxygen OS. As already mentioned, its specs sheet doesn’t exactly spell out power. It offers a 5.0 inch 720p display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 412 processor, clocked at 1.4GHz, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and a camera setup, featuring a 13MP rear shooter and a 5MP one on the front. Running the show is a 2900mAh battery. There is also dual SIM support and 4G connectivity.

It might not be breaking benchmarks any time soon, but the handset still offers more than enough power to breeze through everyday tasks with the added bonus of full control over said hardware, courtesy of Cyanogen. The BQ Aquaris X5 will be available on O2’s Refresh scheme, with plans starting at £19.50 a month (plus a £9.99 upfront cost) for 500 minutes and 500 megabytes of 4G data along with unlimited…

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