Yahoo

Yahoo Mail now lets you block images, web UI gains improved Folders, compose and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Yahoo keeps on meticulously improving both its Mail service on the web and companion mobile apps. Today, the firm has bumped Yahoo Mail for iPhone to version 2.0.6 which comes with your usual dose of bug fixes and performance improvements, in addition to one new feature: the ability to block images.

Now available in the App Store, a new setting lets you tell the app to skip loading images in HTML-styled email.

Security-minded users will love this feature given that spammers and attackers typically use embedded images to tell whether you have opened the message, sometimes even using images to leverage security exploits.

Yahoo's web interface has also received its fair share of enhancements, including improved handling of folders, new shortcuts, an improved multitasking chat and more...

Yahoo News Digest in its first major update adds Weather and Statistics atoms

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

Following its January introduction, Yahoo's free News Digest app for the iPhone has quickly become part of my daily news routine. There's just too many news-reading apps out there with lots of longform content and too little time to be able to consume it all on a daily basis. That's where summarization comes into play. A hot new buzzword, summarization technology in News Digest basically uses improved algorithms from Nick D'Aloisio's Summly app that Yahoo bought for the reported $30 million.

In its first major update, News Digest version 1.1 brings two new "atoms" (digests of news stories) that cover Yahoo's popular daily habits, Weather and Statistics. There are a few other features and improvements, listed below the fold...

Yahoo Mail app updated with better support for Apple’s VoiceOver feature

Cody Lee ∙ February 11, 2014

Yahoo has posted a small but significant update for its iOS Mail client this afternoon, bringing the app to version 2.0.5. Aside from the usual bug fixes and performance improvements, the update brings about deeper VoiceOver support.

This is more of a PSA than an update alert—a lot of folks depend on Apple's VoiceOver feature in iOS to help them navigate about apps, input and read text, and perform other actions. And now they can utilize the feature in Yahoo Mail...

Yahoo refreshes Sports app with 2014 Sochi Games coverage, snappier navigation

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 30, 2014

With the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia peeking at us from around the corner - opening ceremony is on February 7 - Yahoo has updated its Sports iOS app with related 2014 Games content and a couple other improvements.

Among other changes: Yahoo Sports 5.0.2, now available free in the App Store, adds a new settings option to hide Top Loop on game details and features an improved news feed and article navigation. People with disabilities will appreciate accessibility improvements and everyone should dig snappier loading and just all-around smoother navigation.

Yahoo buys Donna virtual assistant maker Incredible Labs, will shut down app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

Yahoo's shopping spree continues as the company announced Thursday its newest acqui-hire: San Francisco based Incredible Labs, the team behind a rather compelling virtual assistant app named Donna.

Incredible launched Donna on iOS last summer. Named after Donna Moss, the popular assistant from the TV show The West Wing, the software is basically a cross between Google Now and Siri.

The application strives to manage your day with features like smart notifications, an anticipatory calendar and in-app directions, to mention but a few. Donna would proactively tell you about upcoming appointments, dial into conference calls for you, let others know when to expect you by analyzing traffic conditions and your frequent locations - even taking into account the little things like the current parking situation.

In November, Donna got updated with Lock screen calling, smarter meeting scheduling and other features. Nothing indicated at the time that Incredible would slow the pace of Donna development, let alone sell out to Yahoo.

Unfortunately, there is some bad news for Donna fans out there: the Internet giant will be shutting down the application following the acquisition...

How to remove Yahoo branding from Notification Center

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

NC Cleaner is a brand new jailbreak tweak that does one thing, and one thing only: It allows you to remove the Yahoo branding that appears in the bottom of Notification Center's Today view in iOS 7.

If you have a special hatred for the Yahoo branding, then this is one of the tweaks that you can use to get rid of it. We've got a before and after comparison video inside for you to check out.

Yahoo launches News Digest iOS app, new Food and Tech website hubs for normals

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

Today at its CES 2014 keynote in Las Vegas, the Internet giant Yahoo announced new Tech and Food hubs and introduced a new iOS application, News Digest. The free iPhone and iPad download utilizes a technology from Yahoo's March 2013 acquisition of mobile news startup Summly that distills information down to small gists.

The company has since rolled out Summly to some of its existing iOS apps, but this is the first time Yahoo's iPhone app tapped the summarization tech to the full extent to "get you in the know in no time".

It's quite ingenious - all of the hallmarks of great iOS 7 design are present: it's clean, elegant, self explanatory and updates you cleverly on the biggest news stories twice a day, once in the morning at 8am and once in the evening at 6pm EST.

Does the world need another news app? Existing App Store offerings more often than not overwhelm with information you may not necessarily care about. If all you need are key headlines of the day and quick gists presented in a finite and visual manner, then by all means give News Digest a whirl, you won't regret it...

Yahoo revamps Sports app for iOS 7, adds GIF creation tool and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 3, 2014

In time for the Playoff,s Yahoo's free Sports app for the iPhone and iPad has been updated this morning with some nicely flattened iOS 7 visuals along with refreshed stats and new features such as a GIF creation tool, personalized navigation menus, updated pages for the football scores, teams and players and lots more.

Read on for the full breakdown...

Yahoo Screen gains watch-later queue, channel personalization and search suggestions

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 1, 2018

Yahoo's Screen for iPhone and iPad app debuted in September as your one-stop shop for an endless world of web video, as well a Yahoo's own premium and licensed video library. It's a nice app which puts not only the world of kitten videos, but also such TV shows as Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report - along with Yahoo Originals featuring Jack Black, Ed Helms, Zachary Levi, Cheryl Hines, Rachael Harris and more - under your fingertips.

The struggling Internet giant on Monday gave Screen for iOS a nice little update with new features like the handy ability to personalize your channels, save videos for later viewing, as-you-type search suggestions and other goodies...

Yahoo Weather app updated with iPad support and more

Cody Lee ∙ December 16, 2013

Yahoo posted a significant update for its weather app this weekend, bringing the software to version 1.5. The update includes the ability to share the weather via Mail, Messages and social media, as well as iPad support.

That's right. Folks who really like the beautiful design, layout, and interactions of the iPhone Yahoo Weather app—things that made it one of the most popular weather apps of 2013—can now experience it on their tablet...

Yahoo buys video startup QuikIO

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2018

In the past year or so, Yahoo's been bolstering up its video and rich content expertise by acquiring smaller startups left and right. The company kicked off the acquisition spree by buying the mobile news startup Summly for $30 million and the #2 blogging platform Tumblr for north of $1 billion. Soon after, Yahoo paid $50 million for the cool iPhone video app, Qwiki.

In the ensuing months, Yahoo snapped up the DreamWorks-funded video-sharing app Ptch and announced that the New York Times technology columnist David Pogue and American television journalist Katie Couric are joining its A-team of premium content producers.

Today, it was reported that Yahoo in another acqui-hire move bought the cross-platform video startup called QuikIO...

iPhone tops Yahoo UK’s 2013 tech searches

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 29, 2013

Rivals often point to Apple's sub-20 percent share of the global smartphone market as a proof of sorts that the iPhone has run its course. In reality, the device remains the most sought-after item in technology which people searched for most on the web throughout the year, at least among the British.

According to Yahoo UK's annual roundup of trends and stories gleaned from the billions of online searches throughout the year 2013, the iPhone was the most searched-for technology item this year. After the Apple handset, Yahoo's UK users were most interested in Amazon's second-ranked Kindle e-reader and Samsung's third-placed Galaxy brand.

Apple's iPad and Sony's new PlayStation 4 round up the top five most searched-for tech items on Yahoo UK (the Xbox One ranked sixth)...