Apps
Earlier last week, Google announced that it was rolling out an update to its Maps app for Android smartphones and tablets. After testing the update, it's clear that the new Maps app is not just an update, but a whole new fluid interface for finding things around you.
Google recently updated its Google Glass Explorer Edition, and some new feautres look to be in the works for the wearable computing glasses, including a "Boutique" app store, a Google lock screen, and a media player.
Yahoo on Tuesday continued its quest for relevance in mobile internet with the acquisition of Qwiki, an iPhone app that automatically makes story-telling videos out of pictures and videos shot with Apple's smartphone. The investment is just the latest in Yahoo's business moves to come to the foreground of internet services, especially for mobile.
Digg has been working on a reader ever since Google announced the imminent shutdown of its prominent Google Reader. Now it appears that Digg is close to finishing the first phase of the project, releasing a beta version of Digg's desktop reader earlier this week and then adding the reader to Digg's iOS app.
With Google about to dump Reader in about 10 days, Feedly has really stepped up to replace the Mountain View giant's RSS service, most recently launching new apps and a cloud-based reader on Wednesday. All of the homeless Google Reader users have a fully functioning place to go now - Now please don't you ever abandon us Feedly!
Dolphin celebrated the 80 millionth install of their third party web browser for Android and iOS by releasing Dolphin Browser, version 10, for Android. And, adding even more features to an already feature-rich mobile web browser, what a celebration it is. But the greatest of these is speed - so fast it may change your entire relationship with your old smartphone. Seriously.
At the Facebook even on June 20, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom introduced their challenger to Vine, an enhanced feature of the photo-sharing app that allows users to take 15-second videos and share them over social networks. The new Instagram comes with filters, but also includes a brand-new feature that Systrom says "will change video forever."
A new computer algorithm out of the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) School of Computer and Communications Sciences can create a hyper-localized 3-D map simply by measuring echoes much like a bat or dolphin does.
After many rumors and much anticipation, Microsoft is finally bringing Office to iOS. Well, that is, to the iPhone - there's still no native iPad app - and it's only available if you have an Office 365 subscription.
BlueStacks is providing Kickstarter-favorite Ouya quite a challenge with its own mobile-to-TV gaming console GamePop, which just announced that, in addition to bringing Android games to your living room, it will be supporting iOS and iPad apps too, all in one box.
On Thursday, Google continued its ongoing release of Nexus products for any Android phone by offering up its keyboard on the Google Play store. Before only available for Google's Nexus lineup, the well-liked Google keyboard is available for free on any Android device that runs Android 4.0 and above.
Pandora is looking to fill your living room with music - Pandora's music, specifically - with their latest release. Pandora announced Wednesday that they had created a web-based app that will play Pandora on your Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. Dubbed "tv.pandora.com," the app is flexible enough to make its way into other devices that have an HTML5-capable browser.
Over the past few months, a lot of aspects of Google Glass have creeped people out, mostly inadvertently, though sometimes by the very nature of the smart eyewear device. Of the creepier features of Google Glass, the possibility of facial recognition was paramount. On Monday, Google updated its developers policy for Google Glass, and the biggest news was that it would not allow facial recognition apps. But there was another ban in place, which almost everyone overlooked: No sexually explicit material.
Rumors have been circulating this week that Apple is going to unveil a new streaming music "radio" service, which people have been dubbing iRadio. The rumors aren't backed by nothing - a report from the Wall Street Journal says that Apple is trying to acquire licensing agreements with major record labels and has been successful getting the rights to stream Warner Music Group's catalogue.
With one week left before Apple’s annual developers’ conference, the Cupertino-based company released the WWDC app.
