While not exactly part of Siri, it is her voice that speaks to you. Spoken notifications come in handy for hands-free situations where you can’t pick up your phone, like driving, riding a bicycle or working out at the gym. Read more »
Task management app Any.DO surprised many by launching first on Google’s Android platform and finding success. An iOS version followed and it’s proving popular too. Now the Any.DO team has $3.5M in seed funding to keep expanding. Read more »
Something Amazon is really good at and something Apple is not: the cloud. Amazon hones in on its competitors’ cloud-based photo territory on Apple’s own platform with a new app. Read more »
Boingo is the latest company to take advantage of in-app payments on iOS devices. An update to the Boingo Wi-Finder app lets you sign up for a $7.99 monthly Wi-Fi plan simply by typing your iTunes password. Read more »
Even as Apple has decoupled its iPhone partnership with Google for everything except search, the web company has still found a way to reach its users who have iPhones and iPads. Read more »
Should Apple roll out a version of iOS with a new and fresher design language this fall, third-party iOS app makers will very likely follow suit. Read more »
Canonical Founder Mark Shuttleworth has really big, plans to put Ubuntu on your smartphone, on your tablet and (via OpenStack). What he doesn’t offer is details on revenue. Read more »
Leap2 has a new mobile search app that’s pretty useful as well as a $1.6 million first round of funding. The Kansas City, Mo. startup combines web searching and social in a compelling package. Read more »
The feature is available as an update to the iOS Google Search app. It leverages user information in Google mobile apps and desktop services and its knowledge graph, aims to give users relevant answers to questions before they’ve even asked them. Read more »
The team-oriented version of the Wunderlist task manager has finally arrived for the iPhone, iPad, OS X and the web. Android and Windows versions will follow in a week’s time. Read more »
Drippler arrives on iOS after racking up 5 million downloads on Android. The goal is to automatically curate content relevant to an iPhone user based on their device model, carrier, software version and app preferences. Read more »
Nokia’s latest Series 40 handset represents a welcome boost for WhatsApp in emerging markets, and a useful reminder of how Nokia continues to eke relevance out of its ageing platform. Read more »
Presenting a clear comparison of multiple local and long-distance transport options by price and duration is no mean feat. But Waymate has even greater ambitions, allowing trip booking from within its service. Read more »
MoPub’s report says the share of ad buying on Apple phones increase 12 percent between January and March. Android tablets saw less than 1 percent of money spent on ads for the quarter. Read more »
Facebook’s CTO said Tuesday the update should arrive in the App Store this week. Read more »
While I may be wishing upon a star here, I’m hopeful that Apple beginning support for a third-party audio interface is a sign of change from Cupertino regarding features they may add to iOS. Read more »
Not satisfied with targeting Google over its search practices, Microsoft and its allies have complained to EU competition authorities over the way Google services are bundled with Android. Read more »
Its a unicorn. No it’s a phone. Actually it is Facebook Home, for now; Apple’s China Syndrome is making it think different; The Bit coin boom (& bust); Chrome & WebKit go to war and did Vdio really kill the Rdio star? Read more »
Energy management startup People Power is back with a new remote monitoring app designed to reuse old iOS devices as security cameras. It’s a nice app and People Power’s gateway drug to the internet of things. Read more »
A new mobile engineering effort out of Palo Alto, Calif. appears to be all about client-side development, but it’s likely that AWS will get into the Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS) market too. Read more »
Improvements to the app are long overdue since the Podcasts feature was broken out from iTunes as a standalone app last fall. Read more »
At the Google Big Tent Summit in India, Eric Schmidt wouldn’t give a straight answer about whether his company’s well-received contextual search app for Android would be coming to iOS soon. Read more »
By connecting its smartphone app with real-time ticket inventory, MLB will let baseball fans in four cities (at first) find better seats after arriving at a game. 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 »
Philips announces its new developer outreach effort and hints at future features for the Hue lighting system. Read more »
Even though it fell 1.3 percent between October and December to 52.3 percent share, Android still is the most popular smartphone operating system in the U.S. Apple’s share grew 3.5 percent to 37.8 percent. Read more »
On this week’s audio call-in podcast, we kick things off with news on the cell phone unlocking front. After that, we take your questions about Android switchers, Samsung’s influence, the Pebble watch and OTT services. Read more »
The latest update to the app also includes quicker nearby search options and English language versions of the app and a choice of kilometers or miles in seven Middle Eastern countries. Read more »
955 Dreams, known for its successful music curation app, tries its hand at event-finding and ticketing. Like Band of the Day, the design is a standout. Read more »
When it comes to apps for mobile phones and tablets, Android owns one market while iOS owns the other. Yet few top-tier titles come to Android first. ABI research suggests that changes this year. Here’s why I don’t see that happening. Read more »
Both Bloomberg and The Verge say it could debut in 2013. Plus, other details emerge about potential battery life and feature set. Read more »
The newest version of Photoshop Touch for iOS runs well on the iPhone 5. But powerful photo-editing tools on small-screen devices still seem an odd pairing. Read more »
iPad users can now beam YouTube videos straight to their Google TV device, thanks to a new AirPlay-like feature added to the latest app update. Read more »
Users who downloaded the Tuesday update say their books were erased from their devices and all their saved settings and bookmarks were reset. Amazon said Wednesday it was a known bug. Read more »
Six months after debuting on the iPhone and iPod touch, Amazon’s streaming music and storage service has been modified for Apple’s tablets. Read more »
Android fans that want something akin to Apple’s Passbook wallet features will get their wish as Samsung has the solution. Here’s why that’s good and bad. Read more »
If a certain number of Waze users report the same closing, the app will automatically start re-routing all users around reported road closures. Read more »
A batch of rejections from Apple’s App Store had some reports wondering if Apple has begun forcing developers to use a new for tracking mobile app users. It hasn’t, according to our sources. Read more »
Using an iPhone or iPad’s camera, PointGrab is opening up its new SDK at MWC this week that will let developers bring motion-control to their iOS apps. Read more »
This year’s mobile app for iOS and Android app can be used on both platforms and has a new deal bundling GameDay Audio subscriptions for free. Read more »
