Since our first look at PanoPerfect for the iPhone, it has become more widely accepted as a great way to share only panoramic photographs. I am a big fan of the ability to take panoramic photos with my iPhone and it only makes sense that HalfPeeled provides a great new way to view and share them. As featured in the App Store's "New and Noteworthy" section, PanoPerfect lands for the iPad and boasts a new web browsing feature...
Facebook has just updated its Messenger iOS app with a few new features and "other improvements and bug fixes." The new Facebook Messenger version 2.3 is all about enhancements to group conversations, says the social networking behemoth. It contains one feature I've been yearning for ever since the program's debut on the iPhone: you can finally name a group by tapping on the top of your active conversation.
And just like Facebook's main iOS client (and a growing number of other third-party apps for the Apple platform, for that matter), you can now get to your active group conversations by swipe left, which reveals them in your sidebar. I've included a few screenies along with other nice tweaks right after the break...
After discontinuing its mobile TweetDeck apps for iPhone and Android in favor of the web client, the micro-blogging service Twitter today refreshed its iOS client with better search, refined layouts, support for traditional Chinese and other perks.
Unfortunately, this update also kills off support for external video services like Mobypicture, Vodpod and Posterous as the company supposedly is building a rumored video uploading service of its own.
Note that Posterous, a micro-blogging platform Twitter bought a year ago, is shutting down for good on April 30. Twitter also recently acquired Vine and launched a corresponding brand new app for recording and sharing short 6-second clips that can be easily tweeted out and viewed in-line on Twitter. With this update, TwitVid and yFrog are now your only video uploading choices in Twitter’s iOS app...
Is Apple operating a monopoly? That's the question before an Oakland, California judge. Tuesday, the iPhone and iPad maker urged the court to dismiss a lawsuit filed in 2011, alleging the company runs a monopoly by offering apps for the smartphone only on the App Store. Apple underscores it doesn't set prices for third-party software and argues charging developers 30 percent to distribute items for iPhones, iPods and iPads on its App Store does not violate antitrust laws...
Google Tuesday morning pushed a new version of its native Google Maps application for the iPhone and iPod touch. It's the first update since the Internet giant released a standalone Maps software for Apple's platform in December 2012, racketing up ten million downloads in just two days and becoming the App Store's top free iPhone app in no time. New features in Google Maps version 1.1 for iOS include integration with Google Contacts, local search icons that make finding places of interest faster and easier and more...
Google on Monday announced a new version of Chrome for the iPhone and iPad containing two new features. In addition to the obligatory stability and security improvements and bug fixes, Chrome build 25.0.1364.86 has brought out the ability to re-visit previously visited web pages by long-taping the back button.
This invokes a drop-down menu listing a history of the web pages you visited in the current session. The feature is also available on the desktop version of Chrome as well as on desktop and mobile version of Apple's Safari browser. Another nice-to-have enhances Chrome's Sharing menu with a new option for sending a web page via Messages...
In the never-ending quest to handicap the iOS vs Android horse race comes a new flash analysis for 2013 forecasting Android will dominate smartphone apps, while Apple remains the clear leader with tablets. According to ABI Research, Google's mobile operating system will control 58 percent of smartphone app downloads.
On the other hand, just 33 percent of apps will be for Apple's iOS. But with only two months into year, the research firm's findings are being questioned...
Speaking to the UK's The Guardian newspaper at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Shazam's marketing boss revealed that last month twenty percent of iPhones in the United States used its media discovery and recommendation software. It gets better as even more fans overseas in countries like France and UK used Shazam on their Apple handset, as much as forty percent of them.
And with iPads growing stronger and the next iPhone looming around the corner, any increase in the installed iPhone base is bound to reflect positively on Shazam's numbers. On Monday, Shazam announced it passed 300 million active users globally, 90 million in the United States alone.
The company also launched an update to its iOS client with a revamped iPad interface, a much faster tagging and more streamlined sharing features...
Apple is once again in U.S. District Court, attempting to derail a lawsuit claiming apps for the iPhone and iPad collected location data and other personal information without explicit permission from users. Responding Thursday to an effort by plaintiffs' attorneys to classify the lawsuit a class action, Apple's legal team argued no harm was suffered and suggested the call for class action status is a "desperate attempt" to collect legal fees...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bjO2sLw2AU
One of the biggest iOS drawbacks (or blessings, depending on your view) compared to other mobile operating systems is that users cannot mess with the file system directly. That Apple doesn't provide an app to pull all your documents together in one place doesn't help either. Enter Files, a new app German developer Sonico Mobile created with the very specific purpose of tackling this issue.
It's available now at a special introductory price of 99 cents, optimized for all your iThings, including the original iPad. I've been playing with the software for the past couple of days and will be posting a thorough review over the weekend. In the meantime, here's how Files makes your mobile computing easier...
Google last updated its official YouTube iOS client on December 4, adding native iPad and iPhone 5 support, the ability to beam clips to your Apple TV via AirPlay, a brand spanking new icon and other under-the-hood goodies.
Today, the Internet giant has issued a new version which improves streaming over slow Wi-Fi connection and packs in overall stability improvements. In addition to a pair of these tidbits, two major changes stand out.
First, you can now use the new YouTube app version 1.2.1 to pair with YouTube on your Xbox or PlayStation 3 console and control playback from your iOS device. This also works with Google TV devices and Android users got the 'send to TV' feature in November 2012. Also, the program finally lets you record and upload video clips via YouTube Capture, a standalone app Google released on December 17, 2012...
Just to make it clear: iDB does not condone piracy. Quite the opposite, we strongly condemn it. While no accurate data exist on how widespread the App Store piracy issue is, by all accounts it's anything but neglectable, especially when certain dudes jailbreak their devices with the sole purpose of using pirated apps. Tapbots, the people behind the popular Twitter client called Tweetbot, has found a novel way to identify users who are pirating the app.
It gets even better: these folks actually have been exposing themselves on - oh the irony - Twitter. Regardless, I doubt public exposure is going to shame them, let alone persuade them to pay for Tweetbot...