Apple isn’t making it a requirement, but it’s something every developer should do anyway: because when you put an iOS 6-designed app next to an iOS 7-ready one, the difference will be incredibly stark — and not in a good way. Read more »
Did you know that you can lose points, virtual weapons, virtual currencies and other items you’ve bought in an app or game if you buy a new iPhone or even back up and restore your device? Read more »
A recent survey found that 76 percent of respondents store their digital photos on multiple devices using multiple services.That means ample opportunity exists for companies offering solutions that tackle this “dispersed photo problem.” This report analyzes the aforementioned survey’s results, and also measures 18 different vendors against what respondents value most when it comes to photo-organizing solutions. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
In an interesting public-private partnership, children’s reading app Ruckus is teaming up with Connecticut Public Television to offer a CPTV-branded kids’ iOS app. Read more at paidContent »
Researchers have developed a new app and hardware module that will help you find the direction of gunfire. Read more »
A model that combines thumb movements with English-language tweets created a new keyboard layout to optimize thumb typing on tablets. Typing with KALQ was 34 percent faster than on QWERTY. A free Android app will be released in May. Read more »
Twitter wants to get on the good side of third-party app developers with some new features for its expanded-tweet Cards, but the main focus of these new features is still to cement Twitter’s control over its ecosystem. Read more »
The FT launched a new version of its iPad offering, a move that reinforced the publication’s contrarian web-only mobile strategy, and an FT executive predicts that the problem of collecting mobile payments outside of app stores will soon be solved. Read more at paidContent »
A long-running debate over apps has taken a new turn with the rise of the mobile web and the proliferation of tablets. At paidContent Live on April 17, leading publishers will share their thoughts on whether the industry should embrace or abandon them. Read more at paidContent »
John Arrow is the 26-year-old CEO of a four year old mobile application company that has 375 employees. Here’s how he managed to grow his business while growing as a leader at Mutual Mobile. Read more »
The smart TV market will grow from 67 million units shipped in 2012 to 134 million shipped in 2015. As it expands, a simultaneous transition to higher-speed Wi-Fi connections based on a new standard — 802.11ac — will translate to fast growth for the new wireless technology in the TV space. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A group of data protection officials from across Europe has published its opinion on smartphone apps. It makes for ugly reading, as the fragmentation of the mobile ecosystem renders compliance near-impossible. Read more »
Facebook announced some tweaks and updates to its Timeline on Wednesday, simplifying the layout and emphasizing content recommendations only a week after the updated news feed design made similar advances. Read more »
If you have room on your schedule, there’s another iOS calendar app to check out. This one’s from the same developers as PDF Expert and Scanner Pro. It’s free and simply called Calendars. Read more »
PayPal acknowledges that its developer program hasn’t exactly wowed web developers and app makers in the past. But the company plans to make amends at SXSW. Read more »
When you look at the ownership trends among tablets, and particularly iPads, it starts to become rather puzzling that there aren’t as many photo apps made specifically for the iPad. Read more »
Twitter announced that it’s shutting down its Tweetdeck apps for iPhone and Android, encouraging users to take advantage of the Tweetdeck web app instead. Read more »
Craigslist has never released a mobile app, but Mokriya, a company that has worked on apps for Hipster and Sidecar, has licensed the classified site’s data for its new app, Mokriya Craigslist. Read more »
There are many things I like better about my Android phone compared to my old iPhone, but one of the big ones is something that is missing: namely, all those irritating real-time notifications Read more »
It’s no secret that mobile, big data and cloud computing are transforming IT. Sanjay Poonen, president of SAP’s mobile division, says companies need a single unified strategy to tackle them, not three separate ones. Read more »
This is no Farmville. FarmLogs’ software-as-a-service tells you when the rows need tilling, when the fields need watering and when the crops are ready for harvest. Read more »
GigaOM Research analysts Jo Maitland and George Gilbert discuss the cloud in 2013: what to know, who to watch, and crazy predictions for the coming months. Read more »
By creating a bevy of new iOS apps, what Google has been up to is becoming more obvious. It’s made it its mission to not just compete with Apple with the Android platform and Nexus mobile devices, but battle Apple on its own platform. Read more »
Fewer publishers are treating apps as a make-or-break business decision. Instead, a shift in the economics of app making means publishers can choose from a wider variety of app options that are tailored to the type of content they produce. Read more at paidContent »
Many of the biggest stories in the connected consumer space occurred mostly offstage in 2012, from Apple’s new media services to policymakers in Washington. Overall, the past 12 months have laid important groundwork for significant advances in the connected consumer space. The year 2013 should be eventful. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The commission instituted new rules that state app makers have to get parental consent when it comes to sharing the personal information, like photos and location. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple and Google lobbied heavily to get an app store exemption into the rules. Read more »
Keynote, Numbers and Pages, Apple’s house-made apps for presentations, spreadsheet work and word processing, should share documents better with the update thanks to increased compatibility included in a new update released Tuesday. Read more »
Your mobile phone or tablet can’t cook your Thanksgiving meal for you, but they can definitely get you out a jam if you cook yourself into a corner. Here are three apps that will make the ordeal of Thanksgiving dinner easier. Read more »
Financial giant Bloomberg has opened an app store in which it wil take 30 percent of revenue. The move is significant because it is the first time the tightly-controlled company is opening up its rich pools of data to outside developers. Read more at paidContent »
Pickie, a recent graduate of TechStars New York, announced Monday that it has raised $1 million in seed funding from a range of investors, including DFJ Gotham, Betaworks and Liberty City Ventures. The startup uses social data regarding products to generate personalized iPad-based magazines for shopping. Read more »
The one big omission in Apple’s reimagined Podcasts app is the ability to organize and create playlists for your podcasts. If this feature is still important to you, you may want to consider one of these third-party alternatives. Read more »
And things are even tougher for developers of advertising-supported apps. Read more »
Both iOS and Android use is growing, but app developers are adopting Android at a faster rate, according to a recent GigaOM Pro survey. See our chart for more details. Read more »
Soon, your phone will know more about your health history and fitness goals than your doctor does. And according RunKeeper founder Jason Jacobs, when this plays out at scale, it will change the dynamic between you, your doctor and the traditional healthcare system. Read more »
App developers are the cornerstones of the multibillion-dollar app market, but the overall community remains largely unknown. As app downloads increase, organizations that can bring tools, resources, and a collective voice to this group will be an important factor in the evolution of mobile-app development. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Google Play is now up to 25 billion app downloads, a little behind the pace of Apple’s App Store which hit that mark in March of this year. Google Play also has 675,000 apps overall compared to 700,000 for the App Store. Read more »
Duck Duck Moose, a San Mateo, Calif.-based company that makes educational smartphone apps for kids, has raised $7 million in Series A funding from Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Stanford University. Read more »
For a long time iOS app monetization was far and away better than on Android. But as monetization strategies change in the app world, the statistics are changing. Android is no longer as far behind. Read more »
Whether it’s the iPhone 5, the importance of LTE, or BYOD trends disrupting the enterprise, there are always technologies, trends, and companies changing the way we define mobile. Here are some noteworthy segments to watch in the coming months, from location-based shopping to apps to wireless networks. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
These are the companies, startups and giants alike, that are changing or could potentially change the mobile landscape in the most profound ways. Read more »
