Apps

Shazam stats: One in five US iPhones run the app, 10M songs tagged per day

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

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 opposes iPhone tracking class-action bid as ‘desperate’

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 15, 2024

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...

Files hits iOS: manage all your files in one app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 19, 2018

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...

Amazon launches Cloud Player on iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 27, 2013

If you keep your music in the Amazon cloud, you were able to stream it to your iPhone and iPod touch through Amazon's free Cloud Player app. Today, the online retailer has pushed a major update which finally runs natively on iPads. It has an updated look on both the iPhone and iPad and new settings to manage caches and more. Cloud Player originally debuted on the iPhone eight months ago and the new version arrives just as Spotify has revamped its iOS client and Apple rolled out iTunes in the Cloud support in a dozen European markets...

Traktor DJ makes the leap from desktop to iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 21, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScjJiGYawuM

German developer Native Instruments has long been regarded as the maker of some of the finest music and DJing software on the market and today they released Traktor DJ, a pro music mixing $19.99 iPad app that complements the desktop Traktor Pro software with bi-directional content synchronization and a host of other feature.

Unlike virtually all the other DJ apps that tap virtual turntables, Traktor DJ sports touchable waveforms and has two virtual decks, each with dedicated three-band equalizer and filter sections, including eight Traktor effects.

The app relies heavily on multitouch gestures: you can grab audio waveforms with two fingers to set a loop, perform scratches, mark cue points for live re-editing, and scrub, browse or navigate through tracks. Go past the break for additional tidbits and a hands-on video...

Apple and Google app stores are nearing saturation point

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Making it big in mobile apps is getting tougher. That's the finding from a company which researched how many new developers reach the top level at either Apple's iOS App Store or Android's Google Play. In fact, just two percent of first-time App Store developers enter the top 250 list of publishers while only slightly more - three percent - reach that level at Google Play.

As a result, three times as many "newcomers" to the app game publish for Google Play than the iOS App Store. According to analytics firm Distimo on average six Android apps are published for every two Apple titles. And the news doesn't get much better for newbie app developers hoping to cash-in at either app store...

Spotify and record labels in talks over free streaming on mobile devices

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 20, 2013

I get literally 90+ percent of my digital music through Spotify. Just ten bucks a month buys me unlimited, high-quality, ad-free streaming. Apple's à la carte iTunes downloads just don't stand a chance. But Spotify isn't the juggernaut of Apple's calibre so no wonder record labels have limited free streaming to computers and notebooks. That could change now as the Swedish startup is reportedly in talks with content owners over extending free streaming to smartphones and tablets like iPads and iPhones...

Audible launches iPad app

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 20, 2013

In the speeded up world I'm increasingly finding myself listening to audiobooks because I just don't have the time for long reads. Besides, reading is rarely a background activity.

That's what I love about spoken word: it saves time. I can enjoy my audiobooks while jogging, cooking, commuting and what not. Heck, I sometimes even listen to audiobooks while I simultaneously blog about technology.

Amazon-owned Audible sells some awesome digital audiobooks, radio and TV programs and today they've finally launched an iPad app. And let me tell you, it's been a worthwhile wait.

Of course, the Newark-based company has had an iPhone app in the App Store since July 2010. That piece of software, too, has received a major refresh today, bringing out a revamped interface, quick sign ups / sign ins and other tidbits...

Apple’s iPad in vogue with fashion industry

Ed Sutherland ∙ February 18, 2013

Apple has always produced fashionable devices, its sleek iMacs making multiple television appearances, for instance. Now comes word iDevices such as the iPhone and iPad are revolutionizing the fashion industry itself, altering how designers, publications and catwalk producers operate.

According to fashionistas, the iPad and iPhone screen are rapidly replacing the desktop computer display as how fashion is viewed. Additionally, iPad apps are all the rage for fashion designers and editors of industry publications...

Opera buys Skyfire browser that brought Flash video to iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 10, 2018

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg7oUtydk3Q

Back in March 2011, when Adobe's proprietary Flash plug-in was still predominantly used for web video, a new paid-for iPhone browser, Skyfire, made headlines. It helped alleviate the situation by detecting Flash-encoded clips on web pages and then tapping a cloud computing platform to translate Flash video into an iPad-friendly format, on the fly.

Since then, Skyfire has seen over 20 million downloads across iOS and Android devices and developers claim it now converts over 200,000 web sites with Flash video into an iOS-friendly format. While most of web video is delivered via HTML5 these days, the Skyfire iOS app has seen several major updates that over time brought social features, even built-in extensions, to the table.

In a surprising move, Norway-based Opera Software, which makes the multi-platform Opera browser, Friday said it acquired the Skyfire team, hoping to broaden its solutions "beyond the browser"...

Dropbox refreshed with all-new PDF viewer, push alerts for shared folders

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Dropbox on Monday rolled out a shiny new admin console for enterprise users and last week released a new Sync API to make it much easier for programmers to write software which treats cloud Dropbox files as if they were local.

Today, the hot cloud storage startup gave its iOS client some love by pushing out an update containing three useful enhancements.

First up, the Dropbox app sports an all-new PDF viewer with search and nice thumbnail view. Second, you will now receive a push notification when a folder has been shared with you. And third, Dropbox now lets you sort your files by date modified (finally!). The free update is available now from the App Store...

Kindle app gains multicolor highlights, book end actions and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 14, 2013

Amazon's Kindle iOS app has been updated with three useful additions. First up, now you can pick between four color choices to highlight passages of text. Second, Amazon says that the brightness setting will now be saved across device sleeps. And last but not the least, the app now supports something Amazon refers to as Book End Actions, which is basically "sharing the accomplishment with friends on Facebook and Twitter".