Articles about Mobile App

On June 30, the day after my most recent one-year contract expires with AT&T U-verse, I will cancel the service and cut the cord. Last night, while I watched some last-minute Prime Time before it's gone, Apple commercial "Our Signature" aired. The ad is a concise, tweet-like mission statement that encapsulates all of what the company's product design is about. The spot sums up all anyone need know about the fruit-logo company in 60 seconds.

"This is what matters. The experience of a product. How it makes someone feel. Will it make life better", the commercial begins. Yes. Yes. Yes. This is what I have written about Apple for a decade -- that the company's products and marketing are aspirational. That the design goal simply is to make people feel good, to inspire life will be better for choosing the Apple way.

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Despite the fact that both operating systems support Near Field Communication (also known as NFC), users cannot transfer files between Android and Windows Phone devices. The implementation is different on the two platforms, with manufacturers complicating things further by employing branded software to handle any interaction. I've learned this the hard way after trying to move files between the Google Galaxy Nexus and the HTC Windows Phone 8X.

Android and Windows Phone device maker Samsung wants to bridge the NFC gap between the two platforms with ATIV Beam, a new app launched on the tiled smartphone operating system. The software allows ATIV Odyssey and ATIV S users to share files with Android-based Galaxy devices.

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There's more to the rapidly-approaching Google Reader shutdown than the demise of a popular RSS feed aggregator. The service is used by numerous mobile apps on all major platforms, which will soon be unable to deliver the latest news to insatiable users unless developers embrace an alternative (that, hopefully, will not burst into flames due to a growing following).

For Nextgen Reader -- one of the most popular RSS feed delivery apps on Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 and Windows RT -- the alternative is Feedly. Its maker, Next Matters, announced the move in early-June, and, yesterday, launched an update that adds support for the service in the Windows Phone 8 app.

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Microsoft steps in once again to beef up the Windows Phone 8 ecosystem. The software giant just released Network Speed Test, an app which allows users of the tiled mobile operating system to verify cellular data and Wi-Fi connection speeds.

Network Speed Test is one of the most striking to look at apps available on Windows Phone 8. The app features an elegant and minimal design, using only a couple of colors throughout the interface. From a personal point of view, it portrays how other platform offerings should look. Let's go through the features.

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Thirty-fourth in a series.  The total apps growth this week jumped over the 3,000 new apps mark again after having hit that threshold for the first time two weeks ago.

The total app count in the US Windows 8 Store rose to 63,756 free and paid apps up 3,034 apps from 60,722 the week before.

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If I were a realist I would assume you use BitTorrent to download Game of Thrones episodes and other illegal media, but I am a trusting soul, and so I expect you use the protocol as a way of getting your hands on legitimate content -- and there's honestly plenty of it available. Heck, every Friday the company makes legal media available to users, such as these free concerts.

Now the developer announces that 25 million users are getting their torrents through the mobile app versions of BitTorrent and µTorrent.

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Owning a tablet is a given nowadays; it seems like almost everyone either has one or wants one. However, deciding which tablet to buy is problematic -- how can a consumer choose which tablet operating system is best? Between iOS, Android and Windows 8 you really can’t go wrong -- all three tablet-friendly operating systems are mature and stable. However, Samsung is aiming to make your decision much easier. The electronics giant announces the ATIV Q which combines Android and true Windows 8 (not RT) on the same device. To quote R. Kelly and Jay-Z, "welcome to the best of both worlds".

According to Samsung, it is "addressing consumers' desire to access Android apps on a Windows-based PC, the ATIV Q allows users to experience both Windows 8 and Android (Jelly Bean 4.2.2) on the same device. Users will not only get access to Android apps via Google Play but also be able to transfer files, to share folders and files from Windows 8 to Android, truly marrying the mobile and PC experiences".

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My favorite mobile camera app adds a new feature, but it has nothing to do with your actual image quality. This time around the company plans to head in a completely different direction, with a unique new addition to its popular Camera360 app.

The company claims that "Camera360 has been the focus of much success lately, including being named as the No.2 Best Startup at the 2013 Fortune Global Forum and achieving a user base of over 120 million people from across the globe". Now the app maker heads into the audio world.

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Instagrammers can now rest easier knowing that, earlier today, the popular social network introduced the ability to share filtered videos. The feature, called Video on Instagram, is available through the new Android and iOS apps.

"Over the past two and a half years, Instagram has become a community where you can capture and share the world's moments simply and beautifully. Some moments, however, need more than a static image to come to life", says Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom. "Today, we're thrilled to introduce Video on Instagram and bring you another way to share your stories".

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Microsoft just released the second major iteration of its Blink Windows Phone 8 app which now introduces GIF (the pronunciation is still open for debate) support, new features and improved functionality.

The app, which is built by Microsoft Research (the software giant's research arm), allows users to take advantage of its burst shot feature to combine multiple pictures (the number is user-selectable) into a GIF image. The GIF can be viewed directly after creating it and can be shared via email and three social networks -- Facebook, Microsoft's Socl and Twitter. (It's time to test this with the help of your pet and post the results, for posterity's sake of course.)

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Am I naive in thinking that Freemium-based games should blow your socks off with an amazing gameplay experience during your first taste of the free game period?

This certainly doesn’t seem to be the case given nearly all the titles I'm seeing so far. What I’m invariably experiencing is a title that’s unremarkable, often tedious and bland by all measures, with the expectation for you to pay money to make it slightly more bearable.

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Adobe caused a fair amount of controversy over forcing users into subscription services, while Microsoft Office continues to provide an option to its customers. Now Adobe rolls out its latest Creative Cloud model, in the form of Windows 8 apps -- yes, you still need to pay a subscription fee.

The new rollout comes with several options, including the flagship Premiere Pro CC, which packs in new features for video editors, such as enhanced GPU support, redesigned timeline with new shortcuts and new selective paste attributes, new closed captioning capabilities and additional codec options.

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A couple of days ago, Microsoft quietly launched Office for iPhone. To the ire of many, it requires an Office 365 subscription. The internet is abuzz with chatter that this is simply a way to gain 365 subscriptions. While I do agree this is a way to increase subscriber numbers, it is not the full picture -- it is also the best way to fight piracy. This is the future of mobile app purchasing.

I applaud Microsoft for taking this approach. On iOS, piracy is far too convenient on a jailbroken device, thanks to apps that help the user download them. On Android, a phone does not even need root to install pirated .apk files. And so, how could Microsoft release its flagship software potentially for free for jailbroken iOS users and all Android users? Microsoft Office is too important to show up as an .apk for free in a Google (or Bing) search.

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Yesterday, despite "credible" rumors suggesting a full-on iOS approach, Microsoft released Office for iPhone but left iPad users stranded. The company also planted a little trojan horse -- the app is free but it is not free to use, requiring an Office 365 subscription, which runs for $99.99 per year, to take advantage of Excel, PowerPoint and Word.

But, based on my own experience with Office on Windows Phone, the suite is not really in its own element on a small display. iPhone users are most likely to run the app just to perform quick edits and (in the most-optimistic scenario) create very short and basic documents, presentations or spreadsheets. Office would really shine on bigger screens, however Microsoft doesn't want iPad users to actually use it. I've asked the software giant to explain the iPhone-only design and here is the company's response.

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Your iPhone/Android is cool -- this we know. But, they wouldn’t be half as cool without apps. Apps are the icing on a smartphone -- minus the calories -- and we have a ravenous appetite for them. But cool apps aren’t isolated to just phones any more, as we’ve seen with new tech products like Google Glass.

Glass already has the usual suspects of apps, but what Glass really needs is to go nuts with apps that sound too good to be true.

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