While the day has been coming for a long time, last month was the first time that mobile overtook desktop in total worldwide Internet usage, says analytics company StatCounter.
After launching Skype for Web worldwide back in June, today the previously chat-only web app is adding support for making phone calls and other new features.
Yahoo today announced that it’s revamping the way it aggregates news content and in the process launching redesigned commenting, news discovery, and notification features to users on Android, iOS, and through its Yahoo homepage on the web.
One of the many things Facebook does well is make it nearly impossible to miss when one of your friends turns another year older. On the web, birthday reminders are placed prominently near the top right with links to easily wish your pal a happy birthday, and on mobile Facebook has experimented with alerts and other ways to help you not forget someone’s big day.
Now Facebook appears to be testing an even more personal way to make your birthday wish stand out: video messages. The Next Web reports that some mobile users have seen a new ‘birthday video’ option appear under Facebook’s Birthdays section (although don’t worry if you don’t see it yet, I don’t have it either).
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Kamcord, a popular platform that lets game developers add gameplay recording features to their mobile apps, is today taking its first step into live streaming. The move is a notable one as competitors such as live game streaming service Twitch, now owned by Amazon, move into the mobile space and live streaming apps like Periscope and Meerkat begin to gain traction among users.
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2fC7yrj984]
Google announced today that it’s releasing mobile apps for its Google Classroom service for both Android and iOS devices. The company officially launched Classroom to its Apps for Education customers in the US during the summer offering them a web-based platform for planning lessons, handing out assignments, and working alongside students. Teachers and students will now be able to access those features from mobile devices through the new apps and Google is also adding a could of new features to the platform.
In addition to a new teacher assignments page and archiving functions for Classroom, Google notes that the mobile apps will let users snap a photo to share or attach to assignments, share content from other apps, and access content cached for offline viewing.
Snap a photo: Right from the assignment page in the mobile app, students can snap a photo and attach it to their assignment — whether it’s the experiment they just did for a science class, or a drawing they made of their family tree. And if they’ve forgotten their homework, they can ask someone at home to snap a photo, text it and then turn it in with the app. Of course, if the dog has actually eaten it, Classroom can’t help you.
The new Google Classroom apps are available on Google Play and the App Store now as well as on the Google Play for Education store.
While an increasing number of retailers are adopting smartphones and tablets as mobile payment terminals, the deployment process can often prove to be expensive and time consuming as the sizes and form factors of devices continue to change. Leading NFC terminal maker Verifone aims to solve that problem, announcing today a new mPOS terminal that supports all mobile payment platforms and devices.
Verifone’s upcoming PAYware Mobile e355 should be an extremely valuable option for retailers looking to deploy a mobile POS system without being locked into a single ecosystem. PAYware Mobile e355 is designed to work with multiple device sizes and form factors, meaning that retailers won’t have to constantly upgrade their hardware when next-generation iPhones or Android-based smartphones are released.
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HP’s annual two-day Mobile Pwn2Own competition came to a close this afternoon, with a group of veteran security researchers and other competitors able to compromise several flagship smartphones across the top-three mobile operating systems: Android, iOS and Windows Phone. The devices that were exploited include the iPhone 5s, Samsung Galaxy S5, Nexus 5, Amazon Fire Phone and Nokia Lumia 1520.
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A modified version of the Facebook Messenger has revealed that person-to-person payment interfaces and other elements are already integrated into the app. The discovery was made by iOS developer Andre Aude.
Just like sending a message or sending a photo, Facebook’s payments implementation is integrated into the chat window. The idea being, that if you talk to a friend about getting coffee, you can pay your half of the bill in the same place. A history of payments appears in the settings pages.
Facebook has not confirmed that the feature is coming any time soon. Zuckerberg has floated the idea of Facebook tying mobile payments before, but warned it was a long way off.
While we seem to know all about the features in the new iPhone and the new design, something still left up in the Air are the names of the new phones. While some have long-referred to the new devices as the “iPhone 6” or the “iPhone Air,” no outright claims have been made about the names until a new report today. According to Macotakara, the 4.7-inch model will be known as “iPhone 6” while the 5.5-inch version will be called the “iPhone 6 Plus.” Apple has not used the “Plus” suffix for a product since the “Mac Plus“, so that would be a first for an iOS device. iLounge first presented the Plus name as a possibility in January 2013. This naming convention does not seem incredibly likely, but Macotakara did indeed accurately predict the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c names last fall. Leaning toward iPhone 6 being at least one of the two names is that the camera data shared by the “reviewer” of leaked 4.7-inch iPhone 6 hardware refers to the device as the iPhone 6.
Since launching its new ABC News channel on Apple TV a month ago, ABC today reached out with some stats on how people have been using the app and also announced the addition of new local stations.
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Both NowhereElse.fr and Apple.club.tw have published images of a myriad of alleged iPhone 6 components. This includes pictures of home buttons, ribbon cables and other elements of the device. Yet another photo of the iPhone 6 design is also included, this time shown off in the gold styling. The hole for the Apple logo is also visible, as discussed a few days ago.
The two home buttons, pictured above, differ slightly different in their construction, clearly meant for two different form factors of device — if any more evidence for both 4.7 inch and 5.5 inch phones was needed.
These disparate photos don’t reveal anything particularly outstanding about the upcoming phones, but it’s just the last bit of a very long timeline of leaks. With the phones entering production, these leaks will only continue.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aiRboM4fok]
AMC announced today that it will release a new mobile game for The Walking Dead early next year alongside season 5 of the hit TV show. The TV network is teaming up with Next Games to develop the title and today shared the first trailer for the game that it plans to show off at Comic Con International later this month.
The game, titled The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land, will allow players to experience the world of the iconic show through gameplay exclusively developed for smartphones and tablet devices. Developed by Next Games in close collaboration with AMC, the game will feature themes familiar to the TV series, where characters fight for survival in a post-apocalyptic, walker-infested world. A recurring theme of choosing the right survival strategy and making the most human choices possible is at the heart of the first-of-its-kind game.
Telltale games already publishes a game based on universe of The Walking Dead comic book series, but this is AMC’s first official game based on its TV show version of the franchise. It isn’t, however, sharing many details on what we can expect from gameplay other than the description above or specifics on platforms.
The Walking Dead Season 5 is coming this October and the game, The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land, will hit smartphones and tablets early next year when the mid-season premiere of Season 5 airs.
In Brixton, South West London, hundreds of businesses will soon integrate iBeacons as part of one of the first real-world networks for mobile payments using Apple’s Bluetooth LE iBeacon tech.
In Brixton, businesses introduced a local currency in 2009 that eventually switched from paper into mobile payments by text. Around 250 businesses in the area accept the currency, which is meant to keep the money in the community and support smaller independent local businesses. By the starting of next month, the currency will have its own mobile app called Brixton Pound, and iBeacons will make it easy to automatically prompt users for payments. The Brixton Pound organization teamed up with Dingo for the payment solution and kontakt.io for the iBeacon hardware and integration:
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Chase updated its iPhone app today with a new design for iOS 7—nearly a year after the operating system was first shown to the public—and a few new features. The update also includes the ability to see and reply to secure messages from the bank, as well as the ability to view limits on your mobile desposits.
Other updates to the app include Spanish localization, improved accessibility features, and a revised frequently asked questions page about the app’s security.
You can grab the updated Chase app for free on the iOS App Store.
What’s New in Version 2.331
•User interface optimized for iOS7
•See & reply to secure messages
•See current Chase QuickDepositSM limits
•Spanish version available when you change your phone’s language setting to Spanish
•Improved accessibility for visually-impaired users
•Updated FAQs for mobile security
Our take? We’re in full agreement with the below:
https://twitter.com/chronic/status/457505589342392321
Twitterrific for iOS gets a welcomed update today that notably brings the ability to edit tweets with a simple tap of the “more actions” icon. Of course, in order to get around the fact that Twitter doesn’t actually allow editing of tweets, what the function is really doing is quickly deleting the tweet and opening the compose window with original tweet’s text. From there you can quickly edit and share it as fast as possible.
The app also gets a number of other bug fixes and improvements in the version 5.7.2 update available on the App Store now.
In other Twitter news, Twitter announced today on its blog that it’s launching a new mobile app promotion suite that will allow advertisers to promote mobile app installs both on and off of Twitter.
We have developed a full suite of targeting, creative and measurement tools to enable Twitter advertisers to effectively promote their mobile apps. These are being tested in a private beta, and you may have already seen some examples of these app promotions on Twitter. For marketers, this means a rich, native ad unit that combines the best of Twitter Cards and Promoted Tweets. Users can easily install and engage with apps, directly from the Twitter timeline.
While the Twitter Publisher Network will let mobile app devs run campaigns on Twitter with promoted tweets, Twitter is also teaming up with MoPub Marketplace for ads outside of its service. Twitter says MoPub is one of the biggest mobile ad exchanges in the world reaching over a 1 billion unique devices and serving “more than 130 billion ad requests inside Android and iOS applications every 30 days.”
Twitter has already been testing the new mobile app advertising suite with partners such as Spotify, HotelTonight, Kabam, and Deezer that you might have already seen in your Twitter timeline, but today it’s letting all U.S. advertisers sign up to the private beta through ads.twitter.com.
A&E Networks has just updated iOS apps for two of its most popular TV channels, A&E and History, with the ability to watch live TV on both iPhone and iPad. The apps, which previously provided full episodes and clips on-demand to users in the US, will now provide a live stream of what’s playing on the TV channels. The live TV feature, however, will require a cable subscription.
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In case you missed it, Microsoft finally released its suite of Office apps for iPad today with the introduction of standalone Word, PowerPoint, & Excel apps in the App Store. The Office app for iPhone remains the same apart from dropping the requirement of a 365 subscription (it’s now free for all!), but the new iPad versions of the Office apps WILL require an Office 365 subscription to create or edit documents. So, if you plan on using the Office apps on your iPad in the future, you’ll want to take advantage of a big discount on 365 subscriptions currently on Amazon.
Normally $99/year or $10/month, you can grab a 1 year Office 365 Home Premium subscription for $67.15 with free shipping. That’s a savings of $32.84 (33%) and gets to an access code for 5 Macs or PCs with access to all Office 365 app and services. That includes 20GB OneDrive storage for each for up to 4 household member, 60 minutes of Skype calls per month and all the apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access.
1 year Office 365 Home Premium subscription for $67.15
Word, PowerPoint, and Excel are now available on the App Store.
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Unlike its developer program and vast ecosystem of apps on iOS and Mac, there’s not much we know about Apple’s strategy for content on the Apple TV. There’s been a lot of talk that a much rumored refreshed Apple TV set top box— or perhaps even the rumored full-fledged TV set— might also come alongside a more open developer platform with app distribution.
For now, however, Apple is slowly and quietly behind closed doors making deals with select content partners that are building apps for the platform. How is Apple working with developers to build and approve these apps? Does it have an Apple TV SDK that could in theory be released to all developers? With Bloomberg TV today becoming the latest app to launch on the platform, we’ve talked with the people that built the app to get some insight into the Apple TV development process.
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Following Apple’s steady release of new content and features for its existing Apple TV platform in recent months, this week it adds yet another as Bloomberg becomes the first channel to live stream business news 24/7 to Apple TV customers. We spoke with Bloomberg’s head of mobile Oke Okaro who told us all about the new Apple TV app.
The majority of the content you’ll find in the new app is the same Bloomberg TV content you’ll find on its website and in its mobile apps but specifically optimized for the larger screen. That includes a live stream of business news, on-demand content with a mix of full TV show episodes and clips, and a special live stream that will appear only for events and breaking news. While there is similar news programming already on the Apple TV through apps like The Wall Street Journal and SkyNews, Bloomberg will be the first to have a 24/7 live stream of business news. That’s compared to the WSJ app which often only live streams content on certain hours throughout the day. It’s also going beyond the other news apps by offering all of its content for free in full-length form in addition to integration with its iOS apps coming in a future update.
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iOS users looking to accept payments on their mobile devices now have another option. Flint has just been updated to version 2.0. The app adds several new and useful features for small businesses, such as the ability to create invoices right in the app.
The app also introduces support for Passbook coupons. Merchants can create their own coupons and issue them to customers as Passbook passes. The Flint app can then scan these coupons and apply them directly to a transaction.
The 2.0 update also allows merchants to create orders with multiple items, and scan credit and debit cards using the camera on their iOS device. Cash and check sales can also be tracked within the new app and customers can get receipts for their transactions.
Opera MediaWorks is out today with its latest report on the state of mobile platforms for Q3 2013. The report, which gathers data from billions of ad impressions each month, notes that iOS continues the lead for mobile advertising, with around 44.4% of all ad requests and 50% of revenue on its platform. That’s compared to 31.32% for Android, but the lead for Apple is mostly thanks to gains from iPad.
Remove tablets from the equation and ad impressions on iPhone and Android smartphones fall to just 31% vs. 30.3%:
Facebook announced today that its beginning to test auto-playing videos in News Feed for its mobile apps. Videos in the News Feed will automatically begin playing as users scroll, but they’ll be silent until users tap to switch to a full-screen view with sound:
Today we’re starting to test an easier way to watch videos on Facebook. Now when you see a video in News Feed, it comes to life and starts playing. Videos initially play silently, and if you want you can tap to play with sound in full screen. Scroll past if you don’t want to watch.
It didn’t mention specific platforms, but did post the image of its iOS app above. Facebook’s Instagram app, which implemented new Vine-like video features back in June, already auto-plays videos by default as users scroll.
The company’s blog post notes that the silent, auto-playing videos in Facebook will include videos posted by individuals, musicians, and bands initially, but it does have plans to “explore how to bring this to marketers in the future.”
The new feature will be rolling out as a limited test in the coming weeks through its mobile apps and “continue to roll out over time.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iCH9ReoH_I
Opera has just launched Coast for iPad, a full-screen web browser for tablets. When looking at a web page, there is no onscreen chrome except for a single, thin bar that runs along the bottom of the screen. One button opens tabs (which are metaphorically represented in the UI as pages, similar to Safari on the iPhone) and the other button takes you “home”. Gestures control page navigation, with edge swipes standing in for a traditional back button.
A screenshot of Coast in action, viewing a 9to5mac article.
In fact, as shown in the above screenshot, Coast opts not to show the URL bar at all. All focus is given to the current web page. The home screen of Coast is similarly barebones, with a discreet URL bar at the top of the screen and app-like buttons below representing the users’ bookmarks.
Coast employs some very nice animations throughout, making the app feel very playful. In particular, the tab closing animation (where the page is ‘eaten’ by the top lip of the app’s background) is stunning to see in motion. In fact, in contrast to the minimalist UI, Coast’s animations are flamboyant, arguably to an unnecessary extreme.
Interestingly, unlike Opera’s other attempts at mobile browsers, Coast relies on iOS’ native WebKit engine to display pages. This is purely an experiment for Opera to improve upon current mobile browsing UI with a chrome-less approach, not the underlying rendering technologies.
