Blinkbox now offers offline TV and movie viewing on iPad
The online streaming service Blinkbox now allows customers to download films and TV shows to watch offline.
Currently, the service is only available to iPad owners running iOS 6 or later, but it is expected to come to Android devices at a later date.
Best Windows 8 apps this week
One-hundred and eight in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows 8 in the last seven days.
Microsoft revealed its Black Friday deals earlier this week. Starting November 27 customers from the US and Canada will be able to save up to $150 on a Surface Pro 3 or a Surface 2 purchase with deals available on Microsoft's official store, Microsoft retail stores and participating stores such as Best Buy.
skobbler’s 'Scout' app takes on TomTom
Telenav subsidiary skobbler has announced the release of GPS Navigation & Maps -- Scout, a powerful -- and now free -- travel app for iOS and Android.
As with the previous skobbler app, you get online and offline maps (via OpenStreetMap), and voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation for cars, cyclists and pedestrians.
Facebook continues to show it 'gets' mobile with new Groups app
If you use Facebook on mobile, you will be familiar with Messenger, Facebook's separate app dedicated for messaging. While some people hated having to download another app, others enjoyed it -- including myself. Mobile is a world meant for apps that do one thing well. With a relatively small screen size, optimized apps have the best experience -- not ones that cram in all the functionality they can. Facebook is continuing to follow this philosophy with its new dedicated app for Facebook Groups.
The official Facebook app includes everything, however, the only thing it does well is allow you to browse your newsfeed. To view your Groups on the mobile app requires going into the 'more' tab and scrolling down to select a Group. With a new dedicated app, all you have to do is open the app and you have all your Groups laid out in a grid waiting for you. Also, I find using the Groups app a much more pleasant experience. There are nice animations, and easy access to notification and privacy settings, among various other small features.
87 percent of the top 100 paid iOS apps available as hacked versions
According to the third annual State of Mobile App Security report from application protection company Arxan Technologies, 87 percent of the top 100 paid iOS apps have been hacked.
Don’t feel smug if you're an Android user though as the report reveals 97 percent of the top 100 paid Android apps have been too. But whilst the Android figure is in line with previous years, the iOS percentage represents a jump from 2013 when 56 percent were found to have been hacked.
Best Windows 8 apps this week
One-hundred and seven in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows 8 in the last seven days.
Microsoft released a new Windows 10 preview build this week. With it comes an option to remove the Task View and Search buttons from the taskbar, new gestures, native MKV support and more. Check out Wayne's post on what is new and changed here. App of the week is Halo Channel, a new information app for all things Halo. It features video clips, movies, live streams, and lots of information about the Halo universe.
Wiper makes conversations more secure, offers on-demand chat deletion
Today, there is a messaging service for just about anything and anyone. The core features are pretty much the same across the board, however. Where they differ is mostly in the way those features are implemented. For instance, you can chat with others using any messaging app, but not all offer encrypted conversations or delete your messages after they're received. The devil is in the details, as always.
Despite all the different options available today, there is still room for new messaging services to make their mark. Wiper is among the new up and coming players, with its main highlights being the option to delete conversations everywhere, on-demand, and provide secure HD video chats.
Best Windows 8 apps this week
One-hundred and six in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows 8 in the last seven days.
Good news for Windows RT users who are eagerly awaiting the release of VLC Media Player for their devices. According to Thomas Nigro, VLC developer for Windows 8 and Windows Phone, it is already in the testing phase
Streaming video service Hang w/ shares its profits with users -- others take note!
As a web user it's very easy to feel like just another cog in the financial machine. Visit just about any website and you'll encounter ads. These generate revenue that's needed to pay for developers, writers, servers and so on, but the likes of YouTube, which rely on user-generated content, can quickly generate large profits thanks to the costs to revenue margins. Now video streaming service Hang w/ is bucking the trend and sharing profits with its users.
The platform exists as an iOS and Android app, and enables users to broadcast to users around the world as well as conducting video chats. It has managed to earn itself celebrity endorsement from the likes of Cheech and Chong (oh, yes), 50 Cent, Soulja Boy, Timbaland, and Ultimate Poker, and has helped to drive 22 million downloads for major shareholder MEDL Mobile. Recognizing the fact that it is users creating content, Hang w/ now shares 25 percent of its advertising revenue with users.
Office apps for iOS now iPhone-friendly, editing is free
Microsoft has released major updates for its iOS apps, Word 1.2, Excel 1.2 and PowerPoint 1.2.
All three have been redesigned for smaller screens, and run on your iPhone and iPod as well as the iPad.
Dub Music Player + Equalizer is a great looking Android audio player
There are a huge number of Android music players around, most of them competing for your attention with their vast and ever-extending lists of features. That’s great news if you’ll use all their functionality, but otherwise it may just get in your way.
Dub Music Player + Equalizer seems relatively simple by comparison, but it delivers the core basics most people need, and comes wrapped in a great looking, easy-to-use interface.
Opera Mini 9 for iPad and iPhone reveals Video Boost mode, designed to reduce stutter and bandwidth usage
Norwegian browser developer Opera has unveiled Opera Mini 9.0, a major new version of its speed-optimized browser for iPhone and iPad.
Version 9’s headline new feature is 'Video Boost', a tool Opera says that allows users to watch videos on their mobile without eating so excessively into their data plan.
BBC iPlayer for Android promises ban on buffering, adds Audio Described category
Fans of the Beeb will be pleased to hear that the BBC has unveiled a significant new update to its catch-up app for Android users with the release of BBC iPlayer 4.4 for Android. The app adds a new Audio Described category and expands the current Most Popular category too.
Other changes see the promise of better streaming performance and a number of minor bug fixes.
Best Windows 8 apps this week (Halloween Edition)
One-hundred and five in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows 8 in the last seven days.
If you have browsed the new app and games listing this week you may have stumbled upon several irregularities again.
Skills gap still the biggest challenge in mobile app delivery
Finding skilled mobile developers is one of the top challenges when it comes to the timely delivery of new apps.
This is among the findings of the 2014 Mobile Trends report from enterprise mobile platform provider Appcelerator. The company along with IDC surveyed over 8,000 mobile developers and 121 IT decision makers to get their take on trends that affect the way businesses use mobile in the workplace.
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