Microsoft announced Sunday evening that it was going to be launching its new streaming music service, Xbox Music, in the coming weeks. The move will pit Microsoft directly against Spotify, RDIO, and even iTunes.
Xbox Music will debut on — what else — the Xbox, and then roll out to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devices as they become available later this month. Microsoft says it's also working on iOS and Android clients...
While the jury is still out on whether or not Apple will approve Google's rumored standalone Maps app, it seems clear now that the company doesn't want any copycats in the App Store.
Reports started surfacing this morning that Apple has pulled ClassicMap, a Google-powered mapping application that looks a lot like the Google Maps app Apple replaced in iOS 6...
Google chairman Eric Schmidt sat down with The Wall Street Journal tech columnists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher last night to talk Maps, Apple and Android. “Apple should have kept our maps”, he remarked. “Apple decided a long time ago to do their own maps", he revealed, suggesting Google very well knew way in advance that the iPhone maker would nuke Google Maps from orbit on iOS devices.
He also talks about the epic iOS versus Android fight and comments what it would take to persuade him to become an Apple CEO. A couple more highlights and a nice video right after the break...
Google today finally updated its slick Google+ mobile client with some much-needed support for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5's four-inch display, so people don't experience the ugly letterboxing. More importantly, the program has received a couple new features that finally make it easy to edit posts on the go. And if you have your own page on the Google+ social network, you can now view, post and comment as your Google+ page...
I was a little surprised realizing the blogosphere today reported on a nice little nugget I discovered nearly a month ago, but here it goes. If you visit the iTunes Preview page on the web for Google's Gmail iOS app and check out the screenshots, you will notice a nice tribute to Apple's late CEO Steve Jobs in two screenies. The images depict an email message with the subject line “Your favorite Steve Jobs quotes” and contain the following text in the message body...
"The Bad Piggies don’t just have a new game", Finnish developer Rovio writes in release notes for the freshly updated Angry Birds. "Now they’ve taken over Angry Birds with 15 of the piggest levels ever". Angry Birds, the game that started the whole birds vs. piggies craze, was updated on the iPhone and iPod touch with 30 new levels, 15 of which are pig-themed in an obvious mash up with Bad Piggies, Rovio's most recent game release that has turned the familiar flinging formula upside down...
When Google announced last month it was acquiring Nik Software, the brains behind Snapseed, a popular Photoshop alternative on the iOS platform, Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra made a promise on Google+ that "we’re going to continue offering and improving Nik’s high-end tools and plug-ins". The search giant has kept its word as it pushed an update to Snapseed for the iPhone and iPad on the App Store, bringing long-awaited iOS 6 and iPhone 5 compatibility...
We've been receiving vague hints that Microsoft, which is currently busy for the big Windows 8 launch scheduled for October 26, is also working on bringing the Office suite to the iPad. Today, a new report quotes a Microsoft executive as confirming that the software giant is in fact hard at work developing a native Microsoft Office suite for both iOS and Android. The software should hit the two mobile platforms "sometime after March 2013"...
The best part of all everlasting iOS games is quick, addicting fun. In addition, easy controls and a lovable list of protagonists are always part of the equation. The Doodle Jumps and Cut the Ropes of the world all have a quick learning curve and endless fun with a little bit of complication.
The newest edition to the clan was launched around a year ago, but was updated earlier this month and has yet to hit primetime. Perhaps, let me be the first to introduce you to SuperRope, the hot new game, that isn't quite new, or hot. Yet...
BBC has previously made available its fine (I'd dare say, the finest) television programming, documentaries and news channels on the iPhone and today the London, United Kingdom-headquartered public service broadcasting corporation revealed a new radio streaming app.
The BBC iPlayer Radio app allows you to stream live shows and download already-broadcast shows. It sports a nice dial interface akin to Apple's Podcast app, letting one quickly scan available shows and enjoy BBC's radio programmes on the go, even if it's limited only to UK residents (there's a way to bypass that)...
It's been widely reported that Apple dropped stock YouTube and Google Maps app in iOS 6. I'm not really sure how nobody noticed this before, but it's been reported that Apple did kill another handy feature: the ability to gift apps.
The removal of the gifting capability affects mobile App Store storefronts running on iPhones, iPads and iPod touches as users can still gift apps using desktop iTunes on a Mac or PC. Apple itself confirmed the change and it's unknown when (or if, for that matter) the feature will return to iOS 6...
Taptaptap's Camera+ and SmugMug's Camera Awesome are like the two most important photography and image editing apps in my arsenal. Both have been refreshed this morning, but don't let a minor version update fool you as each app enables major enhancements that add help add flair to iPhone photography.
Following in the footsteps of Taptaptap, SmugMug's Camera Awesome has been updated with native iPad support. At the same time, Taptaptap (which recently released CAmera+ for iPad and gave the iPhone version iCloud sync and other new features) has updated Camera+ for iPhone with the cool low-light boost mode Apple debuted on the iPhone 5...