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PayPal for iPhone redesigned, adds ability to pay at local shops

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRdRwyFceJY

Today, PayPal has announced a significant update to its iPhone app. Ahead of iOS 7, the application has been completely redesigned with a simpler, flatter user-interface.

Feature-wise, the app update focuses around mobile payments. With a new “Shop” tab, users of the new PayPal app can find restaurants, shops, and venues that support paying with PayPal. On top of that, some of these shops even support purchasing and paying for food or another item before walking into the store.

As explained to TechCrunch, some of these shops even support coupons. Ordering ahead includes the nice benefit of skipping the line. Another feature that goes nice with the “Shop” feature is the ability to pay a restaurant bill via the app.

A bill-me-later option has also been added. The new update for iPhone is expected to arrive on the App Store today.


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EA confirms ‘Frostbite Go’ engine for mobile games will come to iOS & Android

Logo_of_Frostbite_3As noted over at NeoGAF, EA has recently updated its website for the popular Frostbite engine to list details regarding a new version of the development platform for mobile devices dubbed “Frostbite Go”. While there aren’t many details, the page confirms that EA has plans to bring the engine to both iOS and Android, something that was previously rumored based off job listings for Frostbite.

One of our most exciting current projects is called Frostbite Go, a mobile division empowering EA game developers with Frostbite’s proven excellent workflows and features to bring true Frostbite experiences to all major mobile platforms.

Runtime in Frostbite supports a highly scalable model in order to appeal to the diverse array of platforms available on today’s market. Efficiency in both our runtime memory and runtime performance are both key factors to enabling code and data systems to deploy content to diverse targets from XBOX360 and PlayStation 4 to iOS and Android.

The Frostbite engine is best known for powering EA’s Battlefield and Need for Speed series, and back in January a job listing hinted that EA has plans to bring the engine to Mac OS X as well.

EA is currently developing Frostbite 3, which is expected to ship first with the much anticipated Battlefield 4.

FedEx Mobile iOS app gets ‘Delivery Manager’ with customized delivery options, lets users sign for packages

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsDjJQzAhi4

FedEx has updated its iOS app today providing users with access to sign up and use a new FedEx Delivery Manager feature to customize delivery options and even sign for packages directly from within the app.

Once users have signed up for Delivery Manager, they will be able to schedule deliveries, provide instructions for pending deliveries, and even sign for packages using the universal app for iPhone and iPad. Other delivery options that users can customize include: Deliver to another address, Schedule a vacation hold, and Hold your package at a FedEx location.

Get convenience and flexibility for deliveries to your home. You can view upcoming deliveries to your home address, get status updates, or request to schedule a delivery by choosing your preferred date, time, or date and time combination. Or you can request FedEx to deliver to another address — in your neighborhood or across the U.S. — or select from free options such as Hold at FedEx Location.

The new Delivery Manager feature is initially only available for residential deliveries within the US. Users interested in signing up or learning more about the new feature can do so at fedex.com/delivery.

The updated FedEx mobile app is available on the App Store now.

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Facebook launches SDK 3.5, Share Dialog, over 80% of top iOS apps/games include Facebook integration

via redmondpie.com

via redmondpie.com

Facebook announced updates regarding mobile today at its Mobile Developer Conference in New York City continuing its effort to transition to a mobile-first platform.

Changes include an improved experience with Facebook Login, easier implementation of Open Graph on mobile, a new Object API and Object Browser, a native Share Dialog and Facebook SDK 3.5 for iOS.

The new Share Dialog allows users in non-Facebook apps to share directly to Facebook without leaving the app.

Facebook says its permissions dialog is 20% faster now.

The social network is encouraging mobile developers to integrate Facebook into their apps as it announced that 81% of the top grossing 100 iOS apps already integrate with Facebook.

(Source: Facebook)

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Nexus 10 is no iPad-killer, says strategy analyst

nexus10Strategy analyst Benedict Evans (via Daring Fireball) has done some admittedly rough-and-ready number-crunching on Nexus sales based on Google development data to come up with a figure of just 680,000 Nexus 10 tablets in use.

Given that Apple sold 36.9m iPads sold in the second half of 2012 alone, we’re guessing they’re not too concerned about the competition. Even the Microsoft Surface tablet is believed to have beaten the Nexus 10 numbers, with a rumored 1.5m sales.

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Google adds expandable sitelinks, quick view to mobile search

Screen Shot 2013-04-17 at 3.35.54 PM

Google has rolled out two new features to mobile search that allow users to find results faster.

Users will notice expandable sitelinks that present popular links from certain websites directly from the search page rather than having to look for those important links from the website’s page.

Expandale sitelinks
Expandale sitelinks

Quick links will also begin appearing next to certain results, which offers users a faster way to preview a site before leaving the search page, much like how Google Images handles photo previews.

Quick view
Quick view

Google says quick links will initially be limited to pages from Wikipedia, although the company expects to expand the feature to include more sites in the future.

(Source: Google)

Report claims Microsoft roadmap has iOS/Android support scheduled for fall 2014

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office-for-ipad-the-daily-exclusive

Since we first heard rumors that Microsoft was working on Office for iOS as far back as 2011 and got a look at alleged leaked images of an iPad app that Microsoft later denied were real, every couple of months we’ve seen reports that say the app is coming soon. First it was November 2012, then early 2013, and others claimed “sometime after” March 2013. The latest rumor: Microsoft has Office for iPhone and Android is scheduled for fall 2014.

ZDNet claims to have got its hands on Microsoft roadmap for next year and says on it is “iOS/Android support for Office”:
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Apple patent allows you to buy music even when offline

offline

An Apple patent granted on Tuesday would allow you to buy some music and other iTunes content even when offline.

It appears that iTunes would proactively download locked versions of new recommendations (and perhaps more generally new releases) which you could later unlock by using credit stored on the device. So if you are both very impatient and without wireless data access, Apple may one day have you covered.

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Safari’s mobile browser market share lead increases past 61 percent in March

Mobile-Browser-Market-Share-Safari-March-2013

According to the latest data from Net Applications for the month of March, Apple is steadily increasing its lead for mobile browser share over Android and many other platforms with Safari capturing 61.79-percent of mobile browser web traffic during the month. That’s a nice jump up from the 55.41-percent it had in February, while the stock Android browser lost market share by dropping from 22.82-percent in February to 21.86-percent in last month.

Opera Mini maintains its third position while dropping from 12.72-percent in February to 8.40-percent in March, with Chrome slowly closing the gap jumping from 1.96-percent in February to 2.43-percent in March.

(via AllThingsD)

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Verizon and AT&T rumored to consider acquiring Vodafone assets, valuing the entity at quarter trilllion dollars

vodafone-Logo

AT&T and Verizon could soon jointly bid to acquire Vodafone.

Vodafone is second only to China Mobile for the world’s largest mobile telecommunications companies due to 439 million subscribers and high revenues in December 2011.

CNET reported the deal would value Vodafone at $245 billion, if signed. For reference purposes: Verizon’s market cap is now at $142.09 billion, and AT&T sits at 205.88 billion.

The deal would also allow Verizon to acquire Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in U.S. operations. AT&T would then acquire the remaining business outside of the U.S.

The Financial Times, which cited “usually reliable people,” noted both U.S. carriers feel comfortable sharing the risk associated with such a huge deal and further believe it will pass any regulatory obstacles.


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Nuance launches ‘Voice Ads’ platform to bring a Siri-like experience to mobile advertising

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kusQK7PCXTM

If Nuance gets its way with the just announced ‘Voice Ads’ mobile advertising platform, soon every mobile ad could include Siri-like functionality that lets you communicate with and ask questions about the product being advertised.

Nuance, the company behind the voice recognition module now used in Apple’s Siri, today announced a new project to bring its voice recognition technology to the mobile advertising world. The basic concept of the new platform, which Nuance made available through an SDK for advertising companies, is to bring a two-way, interactive conversation to mobile ads. As highlighted by Nuance in the video above, ads that implement the Voice Ads platform will allow users to engage in a Siri-like conversation with an advertisement:

Nuance Voice Ads gives mobile advertisers and creative agencies an opportunity to go beyond the limitations of the four-inch mobile device screen and create a conversation with consumers through the power of voice recognition. Voice Ads finally creates an opportunity for brands to deepen the relationship with their consumers, with targeted interactive ads that deeply engage their core audience – much in the way that the world’s most popular mobile personal assistants have deepened consumers’ relationship with their mobile phones.

In the demo above, Nuance shows an advertisement for a fictional deodorant brand that uses a magic 8-ball theme to answer any question that users might have. The ad of course ends in a pitch for the product in question, as you might expect. Other ads could allow users to ask specific questions about a product’s release date or specs…

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LinkedIn introduces updated iPhone and Android apps, releases HTML 5 mobile site

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[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-VARh15ZJE&feature=player_embedded”]

LinkedIn has announced a new HTML 5 optimized page for mobile browsers and updated iPhone and Android apps with 2-10X speed increases.

The new app is now focused around four key areas: Updates, Inbox, You, and Groups & More.

The Inbox will allow you to view your messages and invitations in one centralized location. The You area presents your profile, connections, and to share updates. Lastly, LinkedIn is now introducing their most requested feature Groups, into the app.

Interestingly, LinkedIn also announced their mobile platform is growing 400 percent year-over-year. Check it out in your mobile browser, or hit the download links below:

Download iPhone Download Android
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