Articles about Mobile App

Sixty-nine in a series. The last six weeks have not seen any movement in regards to the total number of applications available in the US Windows Store.

Six weeks ago, 105,216 apps were listed in the store, which is about 150 less than this week's 105,379 application count.

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Seventh in a series. There was no round-up of iOS apps last week, not because there weren’t any worthy releases -- this is iOS, there are always great apps to cover -- but because I was away. I’m back now though, and so normal service is resumed.

This week there were some great new apps and games released, including a stunning adventure set inside a pop-up book, a 3D tour through some of nature's wonders, and a game that aims to improve your listening skills (something my wife says I need to do -- or at least I think that's what she says).

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Publishing its Application Vulnerability Trends Report, Cenzic states that virtually all of the applications it tested had at least one security vulnerability. A staggering 96 percent of apps exhibited security issues, and it looks as though things are on a downward spiral.

In a similar report published last year, it was found that the median number of flaws was 13; this year it has increased to 14. So it appears as though things are getting worse... but is this the full story?

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That is the message Finnish maker Nokia tries to convey with its new Treasure Tag accessory. It is designed to be used in conjunction with the accompanying mobile app that is exclusively available for the company's Windows Phone 8 lineup, running the Lumia Black firmware which started to roll out earlier this year worldwide.

Nokia Treasure Tag is a small device, that comes in at 30 x 30 x 10 mm and 13 grams, which leverages Bluetooth and NFC (Near Field Communication) to communicate the position of the item it is linked to (attached) to a compatible Lumia smartphone. A common use for the nifty accessory will likely be attachment to the car and house keys (as shown in the marketing pic displayed in this post).

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While Android itself is a free, open-source operating system that can be used by any company and individual commercially, the Google apps and services we see bundled on popular devices do not share the same philosophy. Handsets have to be approved by the search giant in order to use the bread and butter of the Android world, which, among other things, includes access to the coveted Play store, and the Gmail and YouTube apps.

Because Google apps and services are not part of Android, we see lots of devices that are sold across the globe without them. Those come from lesser-known vendors, and may be available in anywhere from supermarkets to retail stores in emerging markets. To give those vendors a fighting chance against more popular rivals and increase its reach, Russian tech giant Yandex has announced Yandex.Kit, an Android suite that offers the company's own apps and services as a viable substitute for Google's own offerings on the platform.

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No one could argue very convincingly that mobile isn’t one of the most disruptive, transformational factors in business -- and in life -- today. Consumers are armed 24/7 with ever more powerful smartphones and tablets. But most aren’t dying to download the app you paid handsomely to develop.

Most consumers are using their mobile devices to access the web while away from home and from the couch. They’re using them to read your opt-in emails, clicking on your links and forwarding your offers to friends. They’re comparison-shopping, pitting brick-and-mortars with online stores, and reading reviews as part of their decision-making process. They’re relating their experiences with ratings and photos in real time with their social networks.

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Audible notifications coming from mobile devices can be annoying in some situations, as they can distract us and bother others. Being informed of a new message on Facebook or a reminder to start playing a game again are some things we can postpone knowing about in the middle of the night or an important business meeting. Some companies offer a feature on their devices that allows users to mute sounds during a certain period of time.

Apple offers this under the name Do Not Disturb on its devices, while some Android vendors and Microsoft refer to it as Quiet Hours. Even though Windows 8.1 offers such a feature, Windows Phone has yet to see a similar implementation. But, fret not, as quiet hours can be brought to the tiled smartphone operating system via third-party apps.

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Microsoft is expanding its collection of Bing apps on Windows Phone with the addition of Bing Health & Fitness. The offering, that debuted on Windows 8.1 last year, is meant for "Microsoft testing purposes only", but is available to download for other users as well, provided they want to eat healthy and stay in shape.

"The Bing Health & Fitness app helps you stay on top of health and fitness trends and provides the tools you need to support a healthy lifestyle. Designed for Windows Phone, the Health & Fitness app brings together great fitness, nutrition and health content, along with trackers, tools and other features", says the app's description. Now let's take a look at its features.

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The world of VoIP services is one packed with various names bustling for attention. One of the biggest names in the game is Viber, which started small but grew impressively as it spread across platforms -- now it has grown to the point that it is deemed worthy of handing over $900 million. At least that is the view of Rakuten, the Japanese firm behind Play.com and the Kobo eReader that agreed to part with this not insubstantial sum of money for an outright purchase of Viber Media Ltd.

With around 280 million registered users, Viber could be quite a money-maker for Rakuten who explained that the service has a "rapidly growing numbers of users, especially in emerging countries". With its fingers already in various online pies -- ebooks, shopping and streaming media through Wuaki.tv -- Viber represents yet another string to Rakuten's bow as the company "aims to be the global number one internet services" provider.

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Sixty-eight in a series. Welcome to this week's edition of the Best Windows 8 apps series.

After last week's negative growth we are seeing a slight increase in apps this week. It is nothing to brag about though, as the total number of apps increased by 50 only, but still better than negative growth.

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Smartphones make it very easy to capture documents or notes -- just point your camera, and tap -- but the results aren’t always good, and may require some work later.

CyberLink YouSnap - Camera Scan to PDF is an Android app which can take photos of documents, screens, whiteboard presentations and more, automatically squaring them up, optimizing image quality, and saving the results as a JPEG or PDF.

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BlackBerry is struggling in the smartphone market, but the Canadian company is seeing better results with its BBM service, which grew by 20 million users in just one week after it arrived on rival platforms Android and iOS in late-2013. It is no wonder then that BlackBerry is focusing on making BBM even better, especially for those who are not using its branded smartphones.

Today, BlackBerry announced the release of BBM 2.0, for Android and iOS, and BBM 10.3 for BlackBerry OS. The latest version adds many new features to the available apps, with BBM Voice and Channels finally arriving on rival platforms as well, allowing its Android and iOS users to make free calls via Wi-Fi and cellular networks, and take advantage of the built-in networking options.

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Sonico GmbH has released iTranslate Voice 2.1, a complete remake of its language translation app for iPad and iPhone. The app -- which now requires iOS 7 or later -- takes full advantage of several iOS 7 improvements, and sports a new user interface optimized for the latest version of Apple’s mobile OS.

iTranslate Voice 2.1 launches with a 50 per cent price reduction on the previous version, and comes with support for translating while offline, as well as the promise of improved voice recognition.

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The spread of BYOD means that employees increasingly expect a seamless experience, accessing content on the device of their choice.

With the launch of its new HP Access Catalog, HP lets enterprises create a secure app store so employees can instantly download applications and digital content across both mobile and desktop devices.

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There's a lot to like about cloud backup and sync -- security, for one, and the convenience of being able to access your files remotely for another. But cloud storage can be an expensive option, which is where Tonido comes in.

It provides a trio of tools -- Tonido Desktop and Tonido Sync for desktop, Tonido Mobile for mobile -- that lets you turn your home storage into a personal cloud. So long as your backup needs are catered elsewhere, you can access, share, stream and -- to a limited degree -- sync data without paying a single cent.

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