Following last month's preview of a major new update to its BBM for iPhone messaging software, BlackBerry today released BBM 2.6.1.31 featuring an improved support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus alongside additional iOS 8 compatibility updates and other enhancements.
There's a new timer option and you'll also notice certain improvements for the message retraction feature and refinements to timed pictures and messages.
The FCC negotiated settlements with both T-Mobile and AT&T over mobile "cramming", an act carriers know all too well by sneaking recurring monthly charges onto your bill through ringtones, trivia, horoscopes and more.
Episode 62: We highlight the best apps of 2014, including the best Photo, News, Weather, Music, Health & Fitness, Games, Touch ID, Notification Center Widgets, and more...
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Mobile analytics firm Flurry is out with its December Christmas week research, like it does every year, and one thing is extremely evident - Santa loves Apple. The iPhone accounted for 51 percent of new device activations from December 19th to December 25th, putting a pretty good beating on Samsung, who only accounted for 18 percent.
Flurry found that for every one Samsung device that was activated, Apple activated 2.9 devices. For every Microsoft Lumia device activated, Apple activated 8.8 devices. We'll have to wait until Apple's earnings call probably sometime in January for more of a per-device breakdown, but it looks like the iPhone 6 far outweighed any other version of the iPhone.
Oil giant Chevron is working alongside Apple to develop solutions to integrate Apple Pay directly with its gas pumps in 2015, to allow customers to pay with their phone directly at the pump, the company revealed in a tweet on Monday.
Microsoft is tired of the old-nature feel of Internet Explorer, and is building a new browser for Windows 10 that will look and feel more like Chrome and Firefox, according to ZDNet.
Apple’s newest desktop and mobile operating systems have supercharged productivity in a big way. We’re not just talking about complex task lists, but new ways to create, save, and share documents and files, better access to important information, and syncing across devices better than anything in the past. This year, we submitted our favorite productivity apps to launch in 2014 and voted on them. Below is a list of the winner, the runner-ups, and our all-time best productivity app.
Apple typically handles refunds of digital purchases on a case-by-case basis and with an “All Sales Final” provision. But now, Apple's reportedly switched to a 14-day return policy for movies, TV shows, music, books and apps in most European markets, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and France, German blog iFun.de [Google Translate] reported Monday.
Apple's updated policy in these countries states that customers can now cancel their digital purchase within fourteen days from when they received their receipt “without giving any reason,” with the exception of iTunes Match, Season Pass, Multi-Pass and iTunes Gift Cards and Allowances that can't be refunded once you have redeemed the code or activated the service.
Admittedly, Touch ID has popularized and mainstreamed biometric security on mobile devices using an impression made on a surface by the inner part of the top joint of a finger.
Having debuted on the iPhone 5s, Apple's in-house sensor built into the Home button is based on a sophisticated technology by Israeli smart sensor maker AuthenTec, which the Cupertino firm snapped up in July of 2012 for a reported $356 million.
However, existing fingerprint-based security solutions could be easily bypassed by generating a fingerprint image from a series of photos of someone's finger, no physical print necessary whatsoever, according to claims by Chaos Computer Club, Europe’s largest association of hackers.
As relayed by VentureBeat, the hackers have now successfully demonstrated a proof-of-concept by copying the thumbprint of German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen.
They used a close-up photograph of von der Leyen’s thumb, obtained during a news conference in October, along with photographs taken from different angles, said Jan Krissler aka “Starbug” at the 31st annual Chaos Computer Club convention in Hamburg, Germany.
Apple's promotion that makes hand-picked apps and games available at no cost for a week typically falls on Thursday.
Given the holiday iTunes freeze, which ended on Sunday, Apple's editors couldn't make changes to the App Store so they haven't gotten around cherry-picking another Free App of the Week until yesterday evening.
A cool adventure platformer called Icycle: On Thin Ice by UK-based published Chillingo, now a division of Electronic Arts, is available at no cost until next Thursday, normally a $2.99 value. Regardless of the fact that it includes optional In-App Purchases, Icycle scored some rather favorable reviews and it fits the holiday theme perfectly so you should give it a whirl.
Just like last year, Apple's iPhone and iPad again dominated online shopping traffic and online mobile sales during Christmas Day, according to an IBM survey first shared by VentureBeat.
Based on data from IBM's real-time Digital Analytics Benchmark, which tracked approximately 800 retail websites in the United States, iOS devices were responsible for an average of $97.28 per order spent online versus $67.40 for Android users, a difference of 44.3 percent.
In other words, a commanding 57.1 percent of online shopping via mobile during Christmas Day was carried out using an iPhone or iPad, an increase of 8.3 percent versus the previous year.
Choice of Games is an up-and-coming app developing company that I’m definitely keeping my eyes on. You may recall that my last weekend app list included “Creatures Such as We” as one to look out for. This week, the company launched another choose-your-own-adventure book and this one is filled with giant, toothy, scaly creatures.
The Last Monster Master is a text-based multiple-choice game book that puts the reader into the character of a Monster Master, which is a telepathic person with the ability to communicate with the beasts of the underworld. As a Master, you are charged with training monsters, as well as making sure they don’t turn on humanity and destroy everything.