Facebook plans suite of standalone mobile apps for 2014. Angry Birds Go! is Now Available. 11 December '13, 09:19am Follow If you’re into mobile games you’ll be interested to know that Angry Birds Go! – Rovio’s bird-filled take on Mario Kart — just landed. The title has gone live in the Windows Phone Store, App Store, Google Play Store, and BlackBerry World today, as planned. As you might expect with all things Rovio, much of the game mechanics requires in-app purchases or building up a collection of virtual money (by winning races and challenges) to unlock new challenges, features and cars.
. ➤ Angry Birds Go: iOS | Android | Windows Phone | BlackBerry 10. Dropbox Unveils Sync API For Mobile Developers, Allows Apps To Work With Cloud-Based Files As If They Were Local. Dropbox is unveiling a brand new API for developers today that should give mobile app makers an excellent new tool to work with. The Dropbox Sync API allows apps for iOS and Android to treat files stored on a user’s Dropbox account as if they were local, managing syncing, caching, offline access and tracking changes easily so that developers only have to worry about building an app, and not the storage and management of the files users create with said software.
I spoke to Dropbox Product Manager Sean Lynch about the new API and what it can offer developers. Essentially, Lynch said this is yet another attempt by Dropbox to simplify the lives of developers when it comes to creating apps that can work seamlessly across platforms with remotely stored files, just like the Dropbox Chooser the company unveiled back in November 2012. “Dropbox’s mission is really to let users access their data wherever they are, and that’s not necessarily geographically speaking,” he said. Path CEO Dave Morin speaks on design and bringing the future to the world. Dave Morin, the chief executive of the private mobile social network app Path, was onstage at MobileBeat 2012 this morning with Michael Copeland, the senior editor of Wired. And Morin, true to form, was full of great one-liners. Morin zinger #1: “The first version of Path was 70 percent a failure.” Initially, the team built off their core strengths: web design.
Path 1.0 had too much user interface for mobile, Morin said: tabs, an explore feature, a friends button, a separate profile screen, and more. Path 2.0 was simplified; the team spent 20 iterations or more on the home view, trying to figure out how to fit everything in without cluttering it. Morin zinger #2: “True simplicity takes a lot of time. Morin told the thousand or so attendees that the biggest lesson they learned over a year spent redeveloping Path from 1.0 to 2.0 was that people really only use one screen. Morin zinger #3: “The way you should think about mobile is that your first version’s probably going to fail,” Morin says. With Square in Its Sights, PayPal Debuts Mobile-Payment Hardware | Epicenter.
David Marcus, VP of PayPal mobile, shows off the 'Here' dongle at an event on Thursday. Photo: Kim White/PayPal SAN FRANCISCO — E-payments service PayPal unveiled new hardware for its payments system on Thursday, signaling in no uncertain terms the company’s intent to fight Square — Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s up-and-coming mobile payments company — for the hearts of customers and retailers everywhere. The new hardware, dubbed PayPal Here, is a triangle-shaped dongle that attaches to the smartphone through the microphone jack and reads credit cards. If you’re familiar with Square’s similar device for mobile phones and tablets, PayPal Here essentially performs the same function, and attaches to the device in the same way. “This product is better,” said EBay CEO John Donahoe. To date, those 100 million customers have been almost entirely online.
As far as mobile apps go, however, Square’s reach extends a bit further at the moment. Netflix Deal Reveals Apple's Secret Sauce: iTunes Pay Channel. As announced this week, the new Apple TV brings a new UI, better internal specs, and full HD capability to the table. But there's the business equivalent of an Easter egg hidden in it for Netflix subscribers: From now on, if you want to join Netflix you can do it through your Apple TV, and Apple handles the payments via its iTunes back channel. Essentially it works like this: The Apple TV functionality hinges on your iTunes user account, the same kind that's powered 25 billion app downloads to date. You give Apple your credit card details then click "okay, charge it" when you buy an app, rent a movie, or download a song from iTunes.
Now Apple's made joining Netflix just as frictionless through Apple TV, eliminating the need to retype your credit card info into the Netflix app. But the iTunes customer database is now composed of hundreds upon hundreds of millions of users, with a secure verification system and credit card number attached to each account. Why Twitter Bought Posterous: Talent And Apple. 9 Coolest Smartphones At Mobile World Congress -- InformationWeek. From the HTC One to the Samsung Galaxy Beam, check out some of the most interesting smartphones from Mobile World Congress 2012. 1 of 11 Mobile World Congress is paradise for the gadget-obsessed. There was no shortage of shiny new smartphones at this year's show in Barcelona, and some manufacturers went above and beyond what many people thought was possible (or even useful.) A 41-megapixel camera phone?
In terms of design and form factor, slim and understated reigns supreme. As we all continue to push our smartphones harder, it's not a surprise that serious processor power has emerged as a recurring theme for new phones. Large, striking displays are critical, some with Corning Gorilla Glass. . [ See our complete Mobile World Congress 2012 coverage, live from the mobile industry's hottest event. ] In terms of operating systems, Android dominated MWC, with most Android devices featuring the newest version: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. More Insights. Jenkins: Obama and the Smartphone Wars. Live Stream: The Launch Of The Apple iPhone 4S From NYC’s Flagship Apple Store.
It’s early. Too early. And I’m standing outside, pointing a cell phone camera at the faces of strangers and asking them to speak to me. This can only mean one thing: it’s time for another iPhone launch, and intrepid TechCrunch reporter Jason Kincaid (that would be me) is live streaming the festivities taking place in front of an Apple store. If history is any guide, there will be free coffee, donuts, and sleep-deprived Apple zealots abound. For those that missed it, I’ve moved across the country, so today’s launch will feature the 5th Ave. Apple Store in New York City (it’s the one with the amazing glass cube sitting on top of it).
Mary Meeker's Latest Awesome Web 2.0 Presentation About The State Of The Web. No RIM Turnaround Before 2012, New BlackBerry Phones Fall Short - Great Speculations - Buys, holds, and hopes. Le browsing sur mobile est déjà une réalité - Site mobile. Nielsen: 32 Percent Of New Smartphone Owners Choose Android Phones. According to August data from The Nielsen Company, Android has passed the iPhone and BlackBerry to become the popular operating system for people who bought a smartphone in the past six months.
Over the past six months, 32 percent of new smartphone owners chose an phone with an Android operating system, while 25 percent chose the iPhone OS and 26 percent chose RIM’s Blackberry smartphones. The data, which covers a period that includes a full-month of iPhone 4 availability, also shows that Blackberry still holds largest share of the smartphone market with 31 percent of the market. Twenty-eight percent of smartphone owners have Apple iPhones, compared to 19 percent who have Android devices. While consumers may have a peaked interest in Android phone, Apple’s iPhone marketshare remained steady from Nielsen’s June findings. Pinger Now Turns Your iPod Touch Into A Free Cell Phone. Earlier this month we took a look at Pinger, the company behind Textfree, a massively popular application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that gives users free, unlimited text messaging.
Since launching in March 2009, users have sent over 4 billion text messages with the app, which has been downloaded 8 million times (these numbers effectively put Pinger in the top ten US carriers, volume-wise). And today at TechCrunch Disrupt, the company is announcing that it’s venturing into new territory: voice calls. Textfree will soon include a true SIP-based VOIP client that works over both 3G and Wifi. The feature is enabled by the fact that Pinger gives all of its users free, unique, real phone numbers (it distributed 1.7 million phone numbers last quarter; AT&T gave out 1.6 million in the same time span). Calling works as you’d expect: hit the call button, and you’ll see a dialpad — you’ll be able to place calls whenever you have a data connection.
Pinger says this is only the beginning. Forget The Facebook Phone, Here’s Mozilla Seabird — An Open Web Concept Phone. Much as been made of the so-called Facebook Phone. While Facebook is still being vague about their ideas for this (but at least they’re no longer denying it), it seems likely that anything they do will be based on Google’s Android platform. And INQ may offer the first of these starting next year. But Facebook isn’t the only web company thinking about phones and Android. Mozilla is as well. Or at least, their community is. Today on the Mozilla Labs blog, they’ve unveiled Seabird, an Android-based concept phone built around the ideals of the Open Web.
The concept, created by Billy May, looks amazing. Would any of this actually work? As for Mozilla actually making such a device, in a FAQ below, this is addressed: Does Mozilla have plans to produce a mobile phone? You can also view it on YouTube in 3D here! Nokia World: “Nokia is back”, claims handset maker with three new devices but MeeGo is M.I.A. With the company in-between CEOs, it was left to Niklas Savander, Executive Vice President, Markets, to deliver the opening keynote at today’s Nokia World in London.
And strangely but perhaps appropriately, he was later joined by Anssi Vanjoki, EVP Mobile Solutions and effectively Nokia’s no. 2, who just yesterday handed in his notice. Admirably, Savander did his best to rally the troops – all 3,000 attendees, apparently – telling the audience that the message is: “Nokia is back”, a direct reference to the Finnish handset maker’s loss of the high end smartphone crown, even if in terms of raw numbers it still dominates the market world wide, depending on how you define smartphone, of course. But we’ll save that debate for another day. To put some meat on the bone, Vanjoki then took to the stage to unveil three new Nokia devices – the C6, C7 and E7 – all of which run Symbian^3.
The C6 is the more low-budget of the four Symbian^3 powered devices. Mobile Password Authentication System - One Time Passwords | FireID. Mobile Authentication Technology Company FireID Raises $6.4 Million. It’s not every day we get to post about venture capital flowing to a Southern African company with global ambitions, but here goes: FireID, a provider of security applications for mobile authentication, has secured 5 million euros (roughly $6.4 million) from Jersey-based early-stage investment firm 4Di Capital. The funding will be used to expand worldwide distribution of the company’s mobile password authentication solution into key verticals, FireID says. With FireID, users generate a one-time password via their mobile phone, even when offline, to access online banking, e-commerce websites, cloud-based applications and VPNs. The core idea is that this eliminates the need for end-users to remember multiple passwords, to receive passwords via SMS or to carry any other authentication hardware e.g. tokens issued by banks for one-time-passwords.
Founded in 2006, FireID is located in Cape Town, South Africa, with offices in the US and UK. Smartphone App Market Reached More Than $2.2 Billion In The First Half Of 2010. Research2guidance, a Berlin-based research organization specialized in all things mobile, recently forecasted the worldwide smartphone application market to reach $15 billion by 2013. In an update, the firm says the global smartphone app market has in fact already reached $2.2 billion in the first six months of this year. Also according to research2guidance’s findings, mobile application download numbers reached a total of 3.8 billion in the first semester of this year, compared to 3.1 billion in 2009 (full year, to be clear). The firm attributes the strong growth numbers to the success of Apple’s App Store, Android Market and other mobile app stores like Ovi Store and Blackberry’s App World.
In the future, they expect growth to also come from niche stores for verticals such as business or health. The research organization’s projections are fairly conservative compared to others. Research2guidance | The mobile research specialists. RIM’s Flickering Torch Should Signal Defeat For The “Consumer-Grade” Blackberry. In Zork, when your torch goes out you’re eaten by a grue. In real life, when your Torch phone is a flop – about 150,000 sold opening weekend and not many more sold over the week it’s been out – you could be eaten by your competitors. As I said before, the hard-core Blackberry audience cares about the much-ballyhooed features of the Torch – namely social media connectivity and add-on functions already available on other phones – about as much as they care about Arcade Fire.
The Blackberry is a business tool and each time RIM has tried to push it into hipster and soccer mom territory, they’ve failed. The perception is that Blackberry is the go-to phone for email. If you need anything else, there are plenty of other phones out there much more competitive. Why should we write the Torch’s obituary right now? Again, the RIM knows what they’re doing when it comes to fleet distribution of hardware. Engadget Mobile. MobileCrunch. Engadget Mobile. JkOnTheRun. Mobile Stories.