Tag Archives: iOS app

Google+ app comes to iPhone

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When Google pushed out their new social service Google+ they simultaneously gave Android users a way to access their accounts on their phones in a handy dandy app. Up until now, iPhone users have been forced to login and check their accounts inside the Safari browser. Today, thankfully, Google has pushed out a native Google+ app for iPhone users. The app’s homescreen includes Stream, Huddle, Photos, Profile, Circles, and a Notifications tray. In Stream you can view new posts from your Circle mates, those that are Nearby (if you allow the app to tag your location), and Incoming posts; you can also check-in at places and obviously send out posts and attach pictures to them. In Photos you can view pictures that have been uploaded by your Circle mates, photos of you, from your albums, and from your phone. In Profile you can view (but cannot edit) your About page, your Posts and Photos. In Circles, you can see all of your Circle mates, tap them to view their profiles, and from there you can move and/or remove them from Circles; you can also create new Circles. And lastly there’s Huddle, the one feature that has been exclusive to Android users until now. With Huddle you can initiate a group messaging experience that gathers together selected friends or circles so you can chat together in one space; users can be searched by name, email, and circle.

And that about covers the Google+ app for iPhone. Download it today for free from the App Store. Note that it is only compatible with iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 3G; Google has not specified when (or if) the app will make its way to other iOS devices (i.e. the iPad and iPod touch).

Evernote Peek makes flashcards obsolete

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It’s mid-June which means it’s finals time for students in middle and high school. It’s proven that making flashcards is a great way to study for a test. If you use this method and happen to own an iPad, you’ll want to learn more about Evernote Peek. The folks at Evernote have designed a new app around the iPad 2’s smart cover accessory. So you know how the smart cover works, right? When you attach the accessory to the iPad, it automatically aligns to the screen (magnets). The cover instantly wakes up and puts to sleep the iPad when it’s applied and removed thanks to the built-in ambient light sensor. Evernote figured out a way to take advantage of this simple yet intriguing behavior.

You have a vocabulary test coming up. Goodbye flashcards, hello iPad. Lift up the smart cover flap to peek at a definition. Close it and think about what the word might be. Lift the cover again and you’ll be presented with the correct answer. The app will track which definitions you remember; the ones you get wrong will be saved so you can study them again later. Designing your own study guides using Evernote Peek is easy. All you have to do is create a free Evernote account and connect it to the app. Text and visual clues can be used to help you study. See it in action in the video above.

All in all Peek gives students yet another way to study for tests, albeit one that brings them one tap closer to accessing distractions like Facebook and Angry Birds. But it’s not like flashcard studying doesn’t take place in front of the computer screen. Download Evernote Peek for free in the App Store today.

[Via Gizmodo]

3D head-tracking comes to iOS

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i3D is now available in the App Store! But what is it? It’s a simple app that takes advantage of the Head-Coupled Perspective, or HCP, to track the face of a user in real time. The app makes your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch’s front-facing camera lock into your face and updates the perspective of a 3D scene accordingly. The app relies solely on head-tracking; the built-in accelerometer and gyroscope are not utilized. The developers note that HCP “does not create a stereoscopic display. It provides a kind of monocular 3D display: the same picture is seen by both eyes. In the future, it might be combined with a stereoscopic display for a better 3D effect.” The app comes preloaded with several 3D scenes for you to experiment with. It’s free, so there’s no reason not to try it out. Sure, i3D is a glorified demo of sorts but hopefully such experimentation will one day lead to full-fledged games that take advantage of the 3D illusion.

HBO finally gets it, brings HBO Go service to iOS, Android

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HBO first unveiled the HBO Go service in February 2010, promising subscribers access to their favorite premium TV shows and movies inside their browser. It never really caught on. Today HBO revealed its plan to bring the on-demand service to the mobile front, and I’ve got a feeling this will get the motors revving. Come May 2, HBO subscribers will have instant and unlimited access to every episode of every season available through HBO on their mobile devices. Featured content includes “HBO original series, blockbuster hits, sports, specials and more.” The company has specified it’ll be coming to iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad as well as Android-powered ones. The service is free for (paying) HBO subscribers and it’ll work over WiFi and 3G. The interface mimics the one they’ve been using inside the browser and it’s pretty slick; check it out in the video above.

[Via Engadget]

News Corp. unveils ‘The Daily’, the first iPad-driven news publication

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“New times require new journalism. Our challenge was to take the best of traditional journalism, competitive shoe-leather reporting, good editing, a skeptical eye, and combine it with the best of contemporary technology.” That’s how News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch opened up the launch event for his company’s brand new digital newspaper The Daily. It’s being described as “the industry’s first national daily news publication created from the ground up for iPad.” News Corp. and Apple worked together to come up with a news source tailor-made for the tablet community. The Daily will push out new content every day and publish up to 100 pages focused on these specific areas: news, sports, gossip and celebrity, opinion, arts and life, and apps and games. It takes advantage of the iPad’s multitouch display by providing interactive methods of implementation.  For example, the home screen of the app provides readers with a carousel view of the day’s news, and you can easily swipe through them and tap on the ones that interest you most. Also, you can use your fingers to take a 360 degree view of a photograph. In addition to photos, the paper will highlight news using text, embedded videos, audio, information graphics, and real-time data and social feeds. For example, inside the gossip and celebrity section you might find a Twitter feed of a celeb who is making headlines and discover what she is up to that way. In short, The Daily allows its editors to deliver stories to their readers in new and exciting ways that simply are not possible in the realm of TV, radio, and traditional papers.

The Daily also includes… A selection of articles can be read aloud to you by actual people (read: no GPS-like robotic voices); the paper can be customized with your preferences (think: weather, sports teams); the apps and games section provides reviews and ratings for select iPad applications and will link you directly to the App Store if you decide to purchase an app; Sudoku and crossword puzzles are available to play within the app; readers can leave comments on Daily stories in either written or audio form; said stories can be bookmarked and saved for reading later; stories can be shared with others via Facebook, Twitter, and email (those who receive shared stories can read Web-friendly versions of the articles even if they’re not subscribers).

Readers are promised a new Daily to be automatically downloaded to their iPad straight from the either 365 days a year with new content everyday. If a day happens to be packed with breaking news, the editors can jump into the paper at any time and provide readers with the latest news (they can even change the cover story if they like). All of this comes at a price; since The Daily is an iPad-driven news source News Corp. does not have to worry about paper, factory, and delivery costs and the savings trickle down to the subscriber. It’s priced at $.99 per week or $39.99 annually, not bad at all. The first two weeks of use are free, thanks Verizon Wireless. It’s first application made available on the App Store featuring a subscription model; subscriber fees are billed directly to an iTunes account. The Daily app is available to download today right here.

The Daily promises a new voice for a new technologically-advanced era. I’m excited that a powerfully influential force in Murdoch’s News Corp. is behind the first digital paper made from the ground up for the iPad, and I’m equally curious to see how newspaper readers respond to it. It’s easy to assume that the young crowd of 20-somethings will take the charge in signing up for subscriptions, but what I’m most interested in seeing is whether or not those people who are used to reading traditional (read: physical) papers will take a liking to The Daily and transition over to it. At the get-go it certainly takes advantage of Apple’s tablet in terms of browsing and visually immersive experiences, so we’ll have to see if the editorial team can keep things up all throughout the year. If they continually pump out new content and update the app appropriately with readability improvements, I envision a bright future for the newspaper readers of tomorrow.

Look after the break a visual tour of The Daily and official PR.

[Via The Daily] Continue reading News Corp. unveils ‘The Daily’, the first iPad-driven news publication →

IntoNow app is Shazam for your TV

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Shazam is to music as IntoNow is to television.  Get it?  Simply hold your compatible device up to your TV and the app will scan the program’s audio to determine what you’re watching.  The app can even recognize a show even if it’s airing live for the first time.  You’re thinking, how does it work?  The embedded “fingerprinting” tech is dubbed SoundPrint and it runs a series of algorithms that can quickly identify a show based on the audio from that program.  SoundPrint’s index covers over 140 million minutes of previously aired shows, or 266 years of video.  Over 2.6 million airings have been indexed over the past five years and that number is constantly growing.

So the app can tell you what you’re watching, big whoop!  The social aspect of IntoNow is what makes it most interesting.  In addition to displaying the program being watched, the app will provide all kinds of relevant data about the program including episode and cast information.  In turn, this can be shared with your friends over social networks such as Facebook and Twitter (i.e. “Larry is watching “House” can be shared with your friends across networks).  What’s more you can create and manage an in-app friends list, see what your friends are watching, receive notifications when your friends are watching the same episode or show as you, and comment on their statuses. The feature list goes on…you also have one-click access to Netflix from the app, so you can add your favorites shows to your Instant Queue right then and there before you forget.

IntoNow is available in the App Store today, it’s free, and it’s compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

[Via Engadget; IntoNow]

Skype brings video calling to the iPhone

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Today Skype updated its official iPhone app and version 3.0 brings with it video calling over WiFi and 3G.  Two-way Skype-to-Skype video calling can take place between two phones and between phones and computers (Windows, Mac, or Linux) at no charge.  In addition to the iPhone 4, the app is also compatible with the iPhone 3GS, the newest iPod touch, the third gen iPod touch, and the iPad all running iOS 4.0 or higher.  Since the latter two devices do not feature back and front-facing cameras they are restricted to only receiving video.  And note that since the 3GS does not pack a front-facing camera it will only broadcast video from the back-facing camera.

I gave the app a test drive and it worked flawlessly…over WiFi, that is.  With that stable connection I was able to successfully connect to a desktop Skype client and video chatting worked as advertised.  With the iPhone 4 you have the option to broadcast video from the front-facing camera and switch it to the back one on the fly, as well as options to mute the conversation and switch between portrait and landscape modes.  When I disabled WiFi and attempted an iPhone 4-to-desktop video chat the video appeared noticeably more pixelated and laggy until it decided to cut out completely and drop the call.  But that’s 3G for you; heck, at least it works.

The free Skype update is available to download now at the App Store.  Apple might have had a leg up on the video conferencing competition with FaceTime since iPhone 4’s introduction, but with Mac and Windows support–plus 3G support–plus a giant user base in the millions–Skype is enabling the futuristic functionality for a significantly larger community of iOS users.  Press release and (creepy) introductory demonstration video after the break.

[Via Engadget] Continue reading Skype brings video calling to the iPhone →

Twitter intros push notifications for @mentions

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This week Twitter introduced a neat new feature for mobile users: push notifications for @mentions.  Whenever you are mentioned in the Twittersphere you can make it so that you receive a text message or push notification from the Twitter app so that you’re instantly notified about it.  The push notification part only works with the latest version of Twitter for iPhone, for now.  Twitter is also bringing push notifications for Messages to Twitter for iPhone, a feature that Blackberry users have already been privy to.  To enable these new notifications, tweak your settings at twitter.com/devices.  Twitter says they’re working on bringing these new slate of features to Android and Windows Phone 7 users soon.

[Via TwitterBlog]

This week in Google news: Hotpot, Boutiques, and mobile updates for Docs & Voice

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This week proved to be a busy one for the G-Men who’ve been hard at work making new and exciting things for us to play with on our desktops and mobile devices.  There’s much to discuss, so let’s dive right in.

Hotpot: Google calls Hotpot “a local recommendation engine powered by you and your friends.”  It’s essentially Google’s version of Yelp.  You can search the over 50 million places Google has data about and rate the places you’ve visited using a five-star system.  When you give a location a positive review, Hotpot will recommend other places to you that are similar to place you visited.  For example, if you give a seafood restaurant a five-star rating, Hotpot will show you other similarly themed restaurants in your city that you’ll likely enjoy.  You can also share your places rating with friends and see the places they’ve recommended using Hotpot.  Using a Google account you can access the Hotpot rating app to get started.  You can rate places, invite friends to the service, and view their recommendation on the desktop in Google Maps using that app, and you can rate on-the-go using the Maps app on Android devices.

Boutiques: The team at Like.com are now Google employees, and together with the search giant they have created Boutiques.com, “a personalized shopping experience that lets you find and discover fashion goods.”  An odd niche website for Google to invent but hey–they’re Google and they can do what they want.  Though the algorithms behind the site are likely complex, the way it works is pretty simple.  You can build your own personalized boutique and get recommendations of products that match your taste, or you can browse through curated boutiques and take style cues from celebrities, stylists, designers, and fashion bloggers.  The site layout is fresh and simplistic, and advanced search filters are present to help you sort though everything from shoes to clothes and handbags.  There’s even iPad app available to access Boutiques in tablet form.  Ladies, have at it.

Docs: You’ve been able to access Google Docs on various mobile platforms for some time now, but today Google announced that users will have the ability to edit their documents on a mobile device.  Head over to docs.google.com on a supported phone (these include Android with Froyo (2.2) and iOS devices with v3.0 or higher, including the iPad) to begin a mobile edit session.  You’ll notice a new “edit” button in the top right corner. Edits appear in “near realtime” between mobile devices and the desktop.  And if you’ve got an Android-powered phone, you can enter text using your voice.  Google’s rolling out this new feature to English-language users “in the next few days” so look out for it!  Video demo here.

Voice: A native Google Voice app is finally available for iPhone users.  In addition to all the GV features you already know about, the new app brings push notifications (the app will alert you instantly when you receive a new voicemail or text message) and speedy phone call connections.  If you’ve got an iPhone running iOS 3.1 or later, click here to download the app.  For now, this is a U.S.-only offering.

[Via GoogleBlog, here, here, here & here]

Flash comes to iPhone in Skyfire browser [Update: sold out?; Update 2: it’s back]

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Somehow, someway Skyfire has managed to clear its mobile Skyfire browser–Flash support and all–through the Apple gates and into the App Store.  As detailed in early September, Skyfire does not actually run Flash video; instead it trancodes the content using Skyfire’s servers from Flash to HTML5.  So if you’ve been looking for a Flash fix on your iOS device here’s your $3 solution.

Note: The Webkit-based browser will not support all Internet Flash content; for example, Flash games and apps are not supported, and Hulu content is blocked.  Skyfire promises that “scores of other premium sites are supported”, so stay hopeful!  Look after the break for an updated video demonstration.

Update: An app can’t be “sold out”, can it?  According to Skyfire: “The user experience was performing well for the first few hours, but as the surge continued, the peak load on our servers and bandwidth caused the video experience to degrade.  Thus we are effectively ‘sold out’ and will temporarily not accept new purchases from the App Store.  We are working really hard to increase capacity and will be accepting new purchases from the App Store as soon as we can support it.”  Ah, that explains it.  Keep tabs on their Facebook and Twitter accounts for updates on the matter.

Update 2 (11/5): In a short blog post Skyfire CEO Jeff Glueck assures iOS users that “we’re working around the clock to add capacity for more users.”  And here are the specifics: “We are going to open batches of downloads for new users over the coming days. The first batch will be in a few minutes on the Apple App Store. It will be first come, first serve.”  The first batches are coming to the US only, “with additional country support to follow shortly.”

[Via Engadget] Continue reading Flash comes to iPhone in Skyfire browser [Update: sold out?; Update 2: it’s back] →