Apps

Could the new iPod touch be the latest threat to point-and-shoot cameras?

First the iPhone turned the concept of mobile phones on its head, offering consumers apps as well as a dialtone. Soon, handsets became the go-to devices for taking snapshots. Now the iPod touch -- a master at upending the market for music -- is set to become your favorite point-and-shoot camera.

The new iPod Touch gains a 5-megapixel camera that also includes high-def images and Panoramic views. Now experts say the Touch has all the makings of a rival of the grab-and-go digital point-and-shoot camera. "I think this new Touch will appeal to many people both young and old, who are looking for a point and shoot camera that does more than just take photos," writes Glyn Evans at the iPhoneography blog.

Shazam gets ability to tag any TV show on any U.S. channel

Shazam, a popular music identification service, announced today a major update and milestone to its mobile apps. Shazam now commands an astounding user base of 250 million, with more than two million users added each week. The London, England-headquartered startup was founded in 1999 by Chris Barton, Philip Inghelbrecht, Dhiraj Mukherjee and Avery Wang.

Since their inception, Shazam mobile apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other platforms have remained amongst the top ten most downloaded apps of all time. Shazam updated these apps today with new features, including ability to tag any television show on any channel in the United States in order to find out what music is playing, who the actors are and more...

Fieldrunners 2 HD now available for the iPad

Amidst all of the iPhone 5 excitement around here, we almost forgot to mention that Subatomic Studios released Fieldrunners 2 HD for the iPad last night.

The long-awaited sequel to the popular tower defense game hit the iPhone back in July, and now it's available for Apple's tablet with Retina graphics in tow...

Zuckerberg talks about Facebook app mistakes, rumored smartphone and more

Taking a break from all the iPhone hubbub, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently sat down with tech journalist Michael Arrington for an interview at Tech Crunch's Disrupt event.

Over the course of the conversation, Zuckerberg admitted that HTML5 was a bad way to go for Facebook's original iOS app, discussed the possibility of a Facebook-branded smartphone and much more...

Native YouTube app now available in the App Store

Remember back in August when it was discovered that the stock YouTube app was not going to be included in iOS 6? Apple said that its license to include the app in iOS had ended, and Google was working on a standalone app to replace it.

Well, that app just went live in the App Store...

Amazon releases new Local deals app for iOS

Amazon already has a number of apps on iOS. There's Kindle, Cloud Player and Price Check to name a few. And over this past week, the company added another one to the list: Amazon Local.

As the name suggests, Amazon Local is a new iOS app that helps you find things based on your location. In this case, those things are deals for restaurants, concerts and other events...

Google Drive updated with native docs, collaborative editing

Google today pushed an update to its cloud-storage app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad that leaked last week in a prematurely published blog post.

With Google Drive 1.1, you can finally create new documents on your device, move your cloud files between the folders and edit documents on the go.

Native editing doesn't feel buttery-smooth as in Apple's Pages app and you cannot paste Camera roll images into your docs, but overall it's a far less clumsy experience than having to edit your files in the Safari browser...

Report: Malware targeting Russian smartphones 40 times more than US

All smartphones are not created equal -- at least in the eyes of malware authors. A smartphone in Russia is 40 times as likely to be infected by malware than the same iPhone or Android handset in the U.S., according to security researchers.

Product manager Derek Halliday of mobile security expert Lookout tells All Things Digital the 40-to-1 difference represents "a pretty massive gulf."

Gmail for iOS now opens links in Chrome, what’s next?

Gmail for iOS received a minor update today, bringing the app to version 1.3.1. The email client now runs a bit more smoothly, and more importantly, it can now open links in the Chrome browser.

This is now the third app that Google has updated with this feature, behind Google+ and Sparrow, and it could be a preview of Google's future plans for the iOS platform and its iOS applications...

Adobe Photoshop Touch goes Retina, gets 12-megapixel canvas

Adobe today issued Photoshop Touch for iPad version 1.3, a major update that finally brings the much-needed Retina graphics to do away with fuzzy user interface elements on the third-generation iPad. Also new in Photoshop Touch 1.3 are two additional image effects called Shred and Colorize and a new pixel nudging mode for precise movements.

It now supports Apple's Photo Stream, an iCloud feature that keeps up to a thousand most recent photos in sync across your devices. Most importantly, Photoshop Touch 1.3 finally supports bigger canvas and up to twelve-megapixel images on the iPad 3 (ten-megapixel on the iPad 2).

As is the norm with software release, the app also sports various bug fixes and minor improvements, including a snappier interface and faster animations...

Google Drive iOS app to gain native editing capabilities

Google earlier today accidentally (or intentionally, perhaps?) published a post meant to accompany an upcoming update to its Drive cloud storage client for iOS and Android devices. The new version, which should go live in just a few days, brings with it the ability to edit documents right inside the app, making the app much more useful, especially to avid Google Docs users who keep their presentations, spreadsheets and documents in the Google cloud.

Previously, there was no way to natively edit your Google documents in-app. You can always edit your documents online via the Safari browser, but that experience is not satisfactory due to sluggishness and the clumsy interface that lacks full capabilities of its desktop counterpart.

The updated iOS client should also let you view Google presentations on the device. Full changelog, courtesy of the Google cache, is right after the break...

Bubblin floats to iPhone for soapy fun [sponsored]

I am a big fan of pick-up-and-play iOS games. If gaming is done on my iDevice, I am not interested in building up my character or going through training levels. Most popular iOS apps are simple, intuitive, and intriguing enough to keep users coming back for more. Bubblin fulfills all of those criteria.

Since downloading it a few days ago, I have forced family members to watch me play or try their hand at the fun themselves. I really cannot argue with a fun and free addicting app for iPhone...