Apps

Rdio today launched a revamp of its Mac app, giving it the same minimalist user-interface as the iOS version, with album art taking center stage …
Expand
Expanding
Close

Analog Camera for iPhone and iPod touch

As promised, Analog Camera for iPhone and iPod touch has hit the App Store to fulfill your filtered photo taking needs. I had a chance to spend some time with the app over the Memorial Day weekend and quickly decided it’s a keeper.

Analog Camera is a seriously fun and fast camera app with personality, as we would expect from the makers of Clear for iPhone and Mac (and soon iPad), that features eight different photo filters and all the social network sharing you could ever need.

Analog Camera’s easy sharing features allow you to open photos you shoot or edit within the app in other apps including Instagram. This feature is especially cool if you’re feeling spunky and want to experiment with double filters or blurring features offered with Instagram.

Capture and process an image in Analog Camera, then jump right over to Instagram or similar apps to share.

Expand
Expanding
Close

iPhone owners spend 50 percent more time using their phones than Android owners, according to new data from Experian, which sampled 12,770 American smartphone owners.

iPhone users spend an hour and fifteen minutes using their phones per day, a full 26 minutes more than the typical Android phone owner. Additionally, iPhone and Android smartphone owners use their phones in markedly different ways. For instance, 28% of the time that Android users spend using their phones is dedicated to talking, whereas iPhone users spend only 22% of their smartphone time talking on the device. Android owners also devote a greater share of time visiting websites on their phone than iPhone owners. On the other hand, iPhone owners spend a disproportionately greater share of smartphone time than Android owners texting, emailing, using the camera and social networking … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Tim Cook noted during his interview at the D11 conference tonight that “Apple has no religious issue porting an iOS app to Android,” but was careful to point out that they would only do so “if it made sense.”

When asked about Facebook’s Android home screen replacement and whether such access would ever be available to developers on Apple’s platform, Cook noted that there are plans to allow deeper access to iOS, but such changes will only be allowed if they don’t impact the customer’s experience. Kara Swisher specifically asked about the possibility of Chat Heads becoming part of iOS, but Cook was quick to shoot the idea down:
Expand
Expanding
Close

After showing off some new Google+ features earlier this month at I/O that ended up in the Google+ Android app last week, Google today is bringing Auto Enhance, related hashtags and much more to its Google+ apps for iOS.

Version 4.4.0 of Google+ for iPhone and iPad now includes new Auto Enhance photo editing features thanks to some technology from Snapseed, the new intelligent related hashtags feature to get more information related to photos in your stream, and the ability to “Share short animations, panoramas, and more.”

Other new features include interactive Google Offer posts, options to upload a cover photo and edit additional profile fields, and control the frequency of What’s Hot posts in your stream. Google is also reminding us that the Hangouts service has moved to its own standalone app: 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Bloomberg reports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is launching a first of its kind inquiry into medical diagnosis apps starting with the ‘uChek’ urine analysis app from Biosense Technologies. The free app, which is currently still on the App Store, requires users to purchase a kit containing urine test strips that can be visually analyzed with the iPhone’s camera. The problem, according to a letter sent to Biosense from the FDA, is the fact that the test strips have only been cleared for “direct visual reading” and not automated analysis from an application:

Please note that though the types of urinalysis dipsticks you reference for use with your application are cleared, they are only cleared when interpreted by direct visual reading.  Since your app allows a mobile phone to analyze the dipsticks, the phone and device as a whole functions as an automated strip reader.  When these dipsticks are read by an automated strip reader, the dipsticks require new clearance as part of the test system.  Therefore, any company intending to promote their device for use in analyzing, reading, and/or interpreting these dipsticks need to obtain clearance for the entire urinalysis test system (i.e., the strip reader and the test strips, as used together).

While Biosense plans to work with the FDA to resolve the issue, Bloomberg notes that this is only the start of a broader crack down on apps that claim to diagnose medical conditions:
Expand
Expanding
Close

[tweet https://twitter.com/FabulousButEvil/status/337737589702418432 align=”center”]

UPDATE: Some users are reporting that their accounts have been restored following the deletion earlier this evening. We’re still waiting on an official response from Instagram.

UPDATE 2: Instagram has responded with the following comment.

A small percentage of users could not access their accounts for a few
hours as a result of a temporary glitch. We have restored access for these
users, and no pictures or data were lost.

It seems many Instagram were caught off-guard today when the free photo-sharing app suddenly deleted a significant number of accounts, citing “terms of service violations” as the reason despite many affected users having no such content on their profiles.

Expand
Expanding
Close

When Google unveiled its brand new $9.99/month “All Access” Google Play music streaming service earlier this month at its I/O keynote, we quickly learned that the service would not be coming to iOS initially. Google didn’t get into why, but today developers of the popular gMusic iOS app has unofficially brought support for the service to iPhone and iPad.

The app previously acted as client for songs stored in your Google Music library, but with an update to version 6.0 today the All Access subscription service is now officially available to iOS users. The changelog on iTunes also lists the ability to “Create/play Radio Stations” and “Search, listen, and add music to your library from inside the app.”

As for why Google didn’t make it’s own All Access app for iOS, we’ve heard from sources close to the situation that Google wants to submit an app but is currently in a holding pattern with Apple regarding what they will accept.

gMusic: Google Music Player is available on the App Store now for $1.99. The updated app will require users to have a Google Play All Access subscription to access the new features. 
Expand
Expanding
Close

After announcing that it would be rolling out a new Verizon Cloud service to iOS and Android users back in April, the carrier provided an update today informing us that the service is now available to iOS devices and additional Android users. The app, available for free on the App Store here, will allow users to securely back up and access their content in the cloud.

Verizon Cloud is now available for iOS devices and additional Android devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the DROID DNA by HTC… Whether customers are looking to save text messages, call logs, contacts, music, multimedia or other files, Verizon Cloud allows for up to 125 GB of storage.

The service will also allow for users to transfer some content from the cloud to multiple devices, including the ability to sync photos and videos, stream music, and access documents. You’ll also be able to backup your computer via a desktop app for Verizon Cloud. 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Optical illusions? The iPad screen on the left is actually bigger

Earlier today Microsoft unleashed its second ad in what appears to be a new campaign focusing on directly comparing iPad to Windows 8 tablets side-by-side– not unlike Apple’s own very successful ‘Get a Mac’ campaign. However, it appears that some of Microsoft’s claims are turning out to be quite inaccurate.

To go along with the two videos posted to its YouTube channel and currently running on TV, curi.us (Via DaringFireball) points us to a comparison Microsoft has posted on its website pitting iPad against the ASUS VivoTab Smart Windows tablet. In the ad, Microsoft claims that the Windows tablet “has a bigger touchscreen,” but Elliot Temple from curi.us breaks down why it just isn’t true:

The iPad screen is 7.76 by 5.82 inches. The ASUS screen is 8.8 by 4.95 inches. ASUS is larger in one direction but smaller in the other direction, and has 3.55% less area than the iPad, not 36% more as Microsoft depicts. 

How can the screen with a larger diagonal measurement be smaller? Because it’s a different shape. Long and thin gets you a bigger diagonal but a smaller screen, for the same diagonal inches.

While Microsoft might not have all its facts straight on display size, it using the fact it still hasn’t delivered an Office app for iOS as major part of its new campaign…
Expand
Expanding
Close

Evernote, the highly popular cross-platform information management app, has at last added what the company described as one of its most-requested features: reminders …
Expand
Expanding
Close