Apps

LinkedIn's Mobile Strategy Gets a Pulse
April 12, 2013

LinkedIn on Thursday announced the $90 million acquisition of newsreader app Pulse, as the professional social networking site looks to add to its content and mobile strategies. Pulse, launched in 2010 by two Stanford University students, allows users to browse multiple media sources, including social networks, to choose the content they want to read.

Good Earth, Good Apps
April 12, 2013

When Leslie Sturgeon wanted to identify some brown spots on cucumber leaves in her greenhouse, she pulled out her phone and consulted the app she herself developed, iVeggieGarden. Before long, she'd identified the culprit -- angular leaf spot -- and could begin treating it. "We use it ourselves as a reference," said Sturgeon, owner of Moorit Software and Little Rest Farm in Brimfield, Mass.

Tripit Trips Up at the First Sign of Anything Tricky
April 12, 2013

Tripit is a frequent flier travel organizer. It claims to sculpt your mishmash of itineraries, dinner arrangements and meetings into a functioning, unified whole -- all accessible through your mobile device. The idea is that you email your airline, and other itineraries to it, and it then "does the rest." That's a big claim, and in my experience big claims in new technology concepts often don't deliver.

Remote Airplane Hijack Threat Demoed: Simon Says 'Crash!'
April 11, 2013

Airplanes can be hijacked using an Android smartphone, security consultant and trained commercial pilot Hugo Teso told an audience at a conference in Germany on Wednesday. Teso, who works for N.runs, created an exploit framework he calls "SIMON," and crafted an Android app he named "PlaneSploit" that delivers attack messages to an aircraft's flight management system.

Google Gives Play a Spring Cleaning
April 10, 2013

Google has revamped its Google Play Android app with designs on making it easier to use and better for discovering content. The search giant is also thinning its app catalog by removing what it considers to be low quality offerings. In what has become the rage in digital design circles, text will take a back seat to images at the new Google Play.

New Mobile Marketplace Blends Apps, Ads and Analytics
April 10, 2013

Mobile app measurement provider Flurry on Tuesday opened its mobile Flurry Marketplace advertising platform, a real time bidding offering that will help publishers adjust their ad prices by backing inventory with analytics data. Advertisers will be able to use the data to target ads in smartphone and tablet apps by segments such as device, location or even interests.

All Things Appy: 5 Best Firefox Education Add-ons
April 10, 2013

Nothing beats the raw power of laptop and browser for academia and research. Firefox plays well in this combo with numerous academic apps that it calls "Add-ons." This week TechNewsWorld takes a look at the top five must-have education and academia tools within the Firefox environment. They include translation, article clipping, research management, old-school highlighting and power toolbars.

Mali Kicks Off Internet Domain Giveaway
April 09, 2013

It was time to try something new. The western Africa nation of Mali, whose .ml domain current has fewer than 50 active websites, will let people around the world register .ml sites for free. Less than half of Mali has mobile phone coverage, and just 4 percent of the population is online. Nevertheless, it will give away its domain starting in July.

Facebook Home Will Roll Out the Welcome Mat for Ads
April 05, 2013

Facebook fans will get the chance to have the social network take over their lock and home screens on certain Android phones as of April 12, thanks to the introduction of the company's Home apps. That prime mobile phone real estate will also serve as comfortable surroundings for advertisements when ads start cycling through Home's Cover Feed.

News360: Getting to Know You at a Snail's Pace
April 05, 2013

News360, a learning news aggregator for Android, has recently been updated. I decided to take a look. Uniquely, this app uses a thumbs-up button style of interaction in combination with collected statistics to provide stories that are supposed to be customized for you.

DEA Can't Get Around iMessage Encryption Roadblocks
April 05, 2013

Agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency aren't happy with Apple. They're complaining about not being able to decipher text messages sent through the company's iMessage app because of encryption, according to a published report. A DEA document noted that it's impossible to intercept messages from the app even if the agency could obtain a court order to do so.

All Things Appy: Top 5 iOS Video Camera Apps
April 03, 2013

Video cameras have been one of the killer hardware features in the smartphone revolution, and Apple's iOS platform for iPads and iPhones has made an important contribution to the video camera app market. Twitter's Vine lets you create arty 6-second looping videos for distribution on social networks including Facebook, Twitter and the Vine network.

Yahoo and Summly: CliffsNotes for the Mobile Era?
April 02, 2013

The IT industry is no stranger to youth worship, but Yahoo's multimillion-dollar deal for Summly pushes that notion into cradle-robbing -- well, high school-robbing, anyway -- territory. That's because the punchline beneath the headlines is the age of Summly founder. Nick D'Aloisio, 17, appears to have qualified as the world's youngest VC-backed entrepreneur.

Grabbing the Mobile App Brass Ring
March 30, 2013

By the end of 2012, 60 percent of U.S. broadband households owned at least one app-enabled consumer electronic device. With connected device ownership at mainstream levels, there is a solid foundation for app development and rapid growth in app economies. Of the primary devices used to access apps, smartphones have the highest penetration rates.

Relax and Sleep: Whatever Floats Your Dream Boat
March 29, 2013

Relax and Sleep Plus lets you choose and play ambient sounds that might help you sleep. I tried this app during a grueling jet-lagged visit to London. The UK has a seven-hour time difference from Los Angeles, which is my home base, so my day started there just as I normally would be going to sleep. For me, the net result of the time change was sleeplessness in the dead of local night.

How to Run Android Apps on Your Windows or Mac Machine
March 28, 2013

Have you got some favorite smartphone apps? Not convinced by Microsoft's new Windows app selection? Itching to see some Android action on your MacBook Pro? Don't worry, just install an Android emulator on your Windows or Mac machine and run all of the Android apps that you've grown to love. A version is even available for Windows 8 Surface tablets.

All Things Appy: 5 Best Android News Apps
March 27, 2013

With the unexpected news that Google's RSS feed reader, Google Reader, is being put out to pasture, many users are scrambling to find new tools for news consumption. There are still plenty of excellent free news apps out there, and here's a look at the top five available for the Android platform. Google Currents is a pretty, magazine-like aggregator with a true offline solution that works well in airplane mode.

Google+ App Updates Focus on Photos, Tweak Text
March 26, 2013

Google has made another bid in its attempt to take on Facebook for social media supremacy with the launch of iOS and Android updates for Google+. The revamped apps have improvements in four areas -- photos, posts, profiles and communities. "Everybody wants to share whatever they're doing whenever they're doing it, and mobile is the place to be," said Andrew Eisner, director of community and content at Retrevo.

Travel Industry Grapples With Mobile App Challenges
March 26, 2013

Consumers give hotels, airlines and car rental companies high marks in customer satisfaction for the mobile experience they provide, according to the "ForeSee Mobile Satisfaction Index: Travel Edition." Online travel agencies, however -- not so much. Specifically, of the measured travel categories, hotel mobile sites and apps had an average score of 78.

Salesforce.com's New Mobile Chatter Expands the Conversation
March 22, 2013

Salesforce.com has rolled out the latest iteration of its Chatter app designed specifically for the mobile environment. "With this version, we are taking [it] to a new level, allowing users to really drill down into accounts and take many different types of actions while in the field," said Michael Peachy, senior director of solutions marketing at Salesforce.