Articles about Mobile App

First Amazon and now Google. The holidays begin earlier every year. Amazon got things kicked off by first rolling out the traditional Black Friday Store and then, more recently, the new Santa App. Now Google has decided to step into the fray with its own holiday season release to aid customers in lightening their wallets.

Today Google rolled out version 3.0 of its Shopper app for Android and iOS devices and packs some enhancements to get you through your holiday season shopping and relieve you of a bit of money, albeit at a discount mind you.

Continue reading →

Second in a series. Welcome to this week's installment of the new "best Windows 8 apps" series here on BetaNews. The first post went live on Sunday but we decided to move the series to Friday instead, which means that there are only five days between posts this time. All posts of this series will be posted on Friday from now on.

The links point to Microsoft's Windows Store, which offers detailed information about each app. To get an application, open the Windows Store on your computer and type the name as listed on the store front to find the program and install it on the system.

Continue reading →

Going native on iOS has its perks as Facebook recently demonstrated with a faster app for iOS devices. Popular social networking and blogging platform Tumblr released an updated app today for iPhone and iPad that sports native code.

Available for iOS 5 and above, Tumblr 3.2 touts major improvements under the hood that are attributed to going "completely native." The latest version delivers an overhauled Dashboard that now comes with a more responsive interface, bigger photos and speed improvements when loading posts. There are also new notification previews that sport a different look and allow users to see liked, reblogged and replied posts. The revised blog screens deliver descriptions and blog portraits, and the app now makes better use of gestures.

Continue reading →

Thanksgiving may still be a couple of weeks away, but web retailing giant Amazon is already in the holiday spirit. Last week the retailer introduced its Black Friday store and now trots out the Amazon Santa app. Yes, Kris Kringel has finally moved into the digital age with his very own app. Now you don't have to worry if that old fashioned hand-written letter will arrive at the North Pole in time, just send the old man a digital wishlist.

These days our kids are very tech-savvy and snail mail is becoming somewhat of a memory. So why not set little Johnny or Jane up with a way to convey gift wishes in a manner that is understood by their generation? That's where Amazon steps in to fill the void. Amazon Santa will let you sign into your account, then you can allow your children to start browsing the store and creating their wish lists. While they think their lists will be forwarded safely into Santa's hands, you can browse for gift ideas and even share with family members who are wondering what to purchase.

Continue reading →

I simply can't stop laughing about the newest mobile Office rumors. This is better than stand-up comedy because the punchline is just so unbelievable there are seconds of silence before the bellowing roar. Microsoft's idea of a -- imagine my forefingers raised to make mock quotation marks -- mobile Office app is essentially a document viewer. Oh yeah, like I really need one of those, or you.

Yet the rumors make sense, because the approach is oh-so-predictable Microsoft and absolutely what executives should plan. Real Office on either platform is a bad idea. Yeah, just go ahead, make full-blown Office for Android and iOS and feed yourself to the post-PC dogs, leaving behind some mindless, decaying creature from The Walking Dead or your favorite Resident Evil game (or movie). The company's objective is bigger, and actually quite believable: Establish a beachhead for Microsoft account-linked cloud services on competing platforms.

Continue reading →

First in a series. Welcome to this new series here on BetaNews where I'll take a weekly look at some of the exciting new apps released for Windows 8. The overview does not include games and will be limited to around 10 apps per week to keep things manageable.

Microsoft launched Windows 8 on October 26, introducing the new Modern UI. To get supporting apps, you need go no further than the built-in Windows Store, which also is the only place you can get them. To start off the series, here are 10 apps that were recently published to the Windows Store.

Continue reading →

Thursday, question and answer site Answers launched its new Windows 8 application in the Windows Store.

The application is designed in the Windows 8 style, gives users the basic functionality of asking, answering and editing questions, as well as exploring over 8,000 categories and browsing featured content based on interests. The app utilizes the Windows 8 system-wide search functionality, and users can pin Q&A categories as live tiles on the start screen.

Continue reading →

Skitch, the sister product to the highly popular note-taking app Evernote, is now available in version 2.0 on Google Play. What does the annotation app have in store with the new version?

The most noticeable feature in Skitch 2.0 is an entirely overhauled interface. There is a new sync functionality that can be used by logging in using the Evernote account. If it's activated, sketches from the annotation app appear in the latter, and can also be pulled back into Skitch for further editing as. New tools such as Pixelate and Highlighter are added on top of the previously available options.

Continue reading →

Windows Phone 8 made its big, splashy debut yesterday, bringing compelling new features to those people buying new handsets (the software isn't available for any devices running version 7.x or earlier). Ahead of the launch, Nokia and HTC announced devices, as well as Samsung providing an ATIV S glimpse. But now we finally have all of the details about the operating systems' features.

During yesterday's event, Joe Belfiore, Windows Phone general manager, and Terry Myerson, corporate veep, touted the new software's many benefits, marching through a rather lengthy list of all of the new features that they hope will make Windows Phone 8 a serious competitor to both Android and iOS. The devices have previously ranked very high in user satisfaction and, famously, the "all-knowing" Siri app for iPhone even called the Nokia Lumia 900 the best smartphone available. However, enough about all of that. Let's get to some of what Microsoft offers in this new platform.

Continue reading →

Microsoft released Windows Phone 8 yesterday. It features a new version of Mobile Office, which the company highlighted shorty after the event.

The new smartphone operating system places a great deal of importance on being connected, and the new office suite is no different. Windows Phone 8 allows access to Office content whether it's on SkyDrive or Office 365. Featuring Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word, the Office Hub has a new design that touts fluidity and ease of use. It can also display attachments opened in Outlook Mobile and can use "Tap + Send" to share documents with NFC-capable and compatible devices.

Continue reading →

Yesterday, when reporting about Nexus 7 32GB showing up on Office Depot shelves, I asked: "Why wait?" Google may have cancelled today's Android event because of Hurricane Sandy, but there are many good reasons to announce anyway -- and stealing thunder from Windows Phone 8's launch is one of them.

Google went ahead, today announcing the long rumored Nexus 4 smartphone, Nexus 10 tablet and Android 4.2. It's no Key Lime Pie but more Jelly Bean. Make no mistake, despite the point-one update and nomenclature, this is a big upgrade.

Continue reading →

Hours ahead of Windows Phone 8's big launch, Microsoft released an app to the Windows Store.

So what does it actually do? Like the name suggests Windows Phone is designed to sync music, photos, videos as well as other types of files between computers running Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 smartphones. Through the app users can also access programs available on the Windows Phone Store. But there's a problem, which has been signaled by a great number of users.

Continue reading →

In the old days people worried less about storm preparations because they generally didn’t know what was coming and had no electricity anyway. How times have changed. These days we have the advantage of things like The Weather Channel and weather.com warn us, or perhaps scare us with sensationalistic reporting.  We also have a power grid we rely on for everyday life and computers and mobile devices that keep us connected.  So, what do you do when all of this technology suddenly fails, as it is likely to do in the coming hours and days for people in the mid-Atlantic region?

The easy answer is to buy a generator, but those aren’t cheap and, if you live in the path of oncoming Hurricane Sandy, as I do, you will find that stores are already sold out of generators, not to mention batteries, flashlights, milk, eggs and bottled water. However, there are other, cheaper solutions.

Continue reading →

Rovio, the Finnish mobile gaming company, has been on a roll lately with Bad Piggies rocketing to the number one spot in app stores and the teaser videos for the upcoming Angry Birds Star Wars game getting widespread attention. Now the company has quietly pushed out an October holiday update for the "Seasons" franchise that is aptly named "Haunted Hogs".

The update, which began rolling out this morning for Android users, is a rather major update as opposed to the usual simple addition of a new level or two. This one actually not only changes the game icon, but reworks many of the insides of the game as well. Aside from the icon, you will immediately notice that the years (2011, 2012, etc.) have been replaced by Season 1, Season 2 and Season 3.

Continue reading →

Great ideas usually take time to germinate into a model that is truly feasible. People are notoriously slow in grasping new paradigms, preferring to flirt with a comfortable present that is more often than not, entirely worthy and sufficient. This consumer mindset is an issue that faces aspiring and radical technology entrepreneurs, it is not sufficient to simply have the chops to think and execute the new ideas, but the right timing is nearly as crucial. To possess the patience and sense to release a radical idea into the wild only when the market is ripe is a factor that can determine make or break.

People discovery is a concept that has floated around the mobile app industry for quite some time. Apps like Badoo, which was founded in 2006 by a Russian entrepreneur and currently has a user base upwards of 150 million, operates around a fundamentally location-based model, by allowing users to see and interact with like-minded people around their specific region. Scores of other location-based apps, such as Banjo and Sonar, have managed to find relative success in their respective niches as location tag aggregators over various social networks and as friend-finding systems.

Continue reading →