Everything Apple

Thursday, 28 April 2016

The League launches a rebuilt, event-centric dating app

love-apps1 The League, the dating startup that’s maybe-maybe-not elitist, is launching version 2.0 in a new city — Los Angeles. Founder and CEO Amanda Bradford said The League has already rolled out the updated app to users in its existing markets, New York and San Francisco, without much fanfare. Today, however, marks the official launch, as well as the addition of its first city in nearly… Read More

Twitter aims to boost its visibility by switching from ‘Social Networking’ to ‘News’ on the App Store

shutterstock_329646476 Following yet another quarter of sluggish user growth, social networking company Twitter has made a change as to how its flagship mobile application is categorized on Apple’s iTunes App Store. Instead of competing against Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Pinterest, and others in the crowded “Social networking” category, where Twitter had previously ranked in the… Read More

Google Play is now labelling which apps contain ads

google-play-ad Google has just made a change to its mobile application storefront, Google Play, which will help customers make better decisions about the apps they want to download: it’s now displaying if an app contains advertisements. This label will now appear alongside the existing designation which indicates if an app offers in-app purchases, the company has confirmed to TechCrunch. The change… Read More

Plug the Fathom Neural Compute Stick into any USB device to make it smarter

Fathom Movidius has incorporated their Myriad 2 processor into a new USB device called the Fathom Neural Compute Stick. You can plug the Fathom into any USB-capable device and that device can begin to react cognitively and make its own decisions based on its programming. The key point is it can do this all natively—right on the stick. No call to the cloud is necessary. Read More

Samsung backs Mast Mobile, the startup that helps you manage multiple numbers on one phone

IMG_0537 Communication startup Mast Mobile is launching on Android — specifically the Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. The news is part of a broader partnership with Samsung, which has made a minority investment of undisclosed size in the company. In addition, Mast said it’s launching the first commercial integration with the Samsung Knox Cloud SDK, which… Read More

Global smartphone market shrinks, year over year

Shrinking smartphone market Worldwide sales of smartphones declined year over year, from Q1 2015 to Q1 2016, according to figures from analyst Strategy Analytics, which it says is the first time in the history of what it dubs the “modern smartphone market” that this has occurred. Read More

Wednesday, 27 April 2016

Users average 50 minutes per day on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram

Facebook Addiction Facebook’s “family of apps” strategy is a wild success. While some might have expected it to roll Instagram into Facebook and leave chat in its main app, keeping Instagram independent and splitting off Messenger into a companion app has helped it solidify itself as more than just a ubiquitous utility, but as a downright addiction. Today on the Q1 2016 earnings call, Mark… Read More

Facebook swells to 1.65B users and beats Q1 estimates with $5.38B revenue

Screen Shot 2016-04-27 at 1.13.46 PM Facebook continued its winning streak as other tech companies floundered, reaching 1.65 billion monthly users and surpassing estimates in its Q1 2016 earnings report with $5.38 billion in revenue and $0.77 earnings per share. Facebook’s share price climbed over 8% in the moments after earnings were announced, reaching over $117 in after-hours trading. Revenue was up 52% year over year,… Read More

DeWalt – yes, the drill maker – gets into the mobile business with rugged MD501 smartphone

feature_dewalt DeWalt, a name familiar to anyone who loves power tools (and who doesn’t?), is jumping into the mobile market with the rugged MD501. It’s waterproof, has a good variety of high-end features, and looks like you could use it to pound nails. Read More

Court holds Amazon liable for years of unauthorized in-app purchases made by kids

scaled.FireHD6-Kids-Edition In an entirely unsurprising ruling, a federal judge has sided with the FTC in the agency’s lawsuit against Amazon, which had said that the company did not do enough to safeguard customers against unauthorized in-app purchases made by children. According to the FTC’s original complaint, Amazon billed its customers millions of dollars in these charges. The problem came about… Read More

Google Calendar for Android makes scheduling meetings on the go easier

calendar_icon Despite the fact that numerous companies have tried to solve this problem, scheduling meetings is still a hassle. If you use Google for Work or Edu on the desktop, you are probably familiar with how Google lets you find meeting times across your organization already (though the feature is a bit hidden). Today, Google is bringing this same “find a time” tool to Android, too. Similar… Read More

Whitepages spins out its caller-ID business as Hiya to take on TrueCaller

Updated-WPHiya Some changes underway at Whitepages.com, the company that compiles public record databases on people and businesses: it is spinning out its caller ID operations and app as a new business called Hiya. Its free app, which helps users ID who is behind the numbers calling them, will compete against the likes of TrueCaller, but Hiya will also continue on the business track it has already been… Read More