AOL

Verizon announces buying AOL for $4.4 billion

Verizon Communications, an American broadband and telecommunications company and the largest U.S. wireless communications service provider, announced Tuesday that it is buying New York City based AOL, previously known as America Online, for $50 per share in a transaction valued approximately at $4.4 billion.

The deal is believed to reinforce Verizon's desire to enter the mobile video and advertising business, while giving them access to technology AOL has developed for selling ads and delivering high-quality web video.

MapQuest gains enhanced navigation, picks up a host of other improvements

AOL today refreshed its MapQuest mapping and GPS navigation app for iOS with several new features that elevate the experience, including in-route navigation improvements, tighter integration with Yelp data, the ability to buy tickets and send feedback in the app and more.

A clearer on-map directive will give you a heads-up on your next turn while the improved list view for your route now automatically scrolls turn-by-turn statements with your progress “so the next maneuver is always easy to see.”

AOL releases brand new iPad app for mail, weather, news and video

It's not just Yahoo: in a bid to regain its relevancy, AOL is doubling down on software. First, it jumped on the Google Reader bandwagon with its own AOL Reader.

But AOL is just warming up: today, the beleaguered firm has launched an iOS app that lets you access its popular properties like News, Weather, Video and Mail. If  I wanted to be cynical, I'd say AOL has been lingering on the brink of relevancy for quite some time now.

The firm's customer base had been reduced to 10.1 million subscribers by November 2007, just narrowly ahead of Comcast and AT&T Yahoo. If you count yourself as an AOL fan, go past the fold for the full breakdown...

AOL joins RSS race, announces its own Google Reader replacement

Wow, it's never been a more exciting time to be in the RSS space. And who would have thought it would have taken the Internet giant announcing its popular Reader service is heading to the graveyard of technology?

And with the impending July 1 Google Reader shut down all but upon us, the market for RSS readers is bursting with activity like never before. Of course, RSS isn't going anywhere as there are a few dozen quality apps out there.

In addition, the likes of Digg, Flipboard, Feedly and many others are stepping in to fill the void with their own Google Reader replacement services. And now, you can put AOL on your list of upcoming Google Reader alternatives. You remember AOL, right?

AOL Launches PLAY Music App for the iPhone

AOL, the very company that owns popular tech sites like Engadget and TUAW, has launched a new music app for the iPhone, called "PLAY." This app is described as, "an application that lets you share musical moments with friends," and it can best be seen as AOL's attempt at Apple's own social network, "Ping."

With other services, like Spotify, offering paid music streaming in the US, PLAY offers a free catalog of popular music for playback at any time on the iPhone.