According to news coming out of the Black Hat security conference this week, researchers have figured out a way to use the Square mobile payments system to access stolen credit card data. The ingenious thing about the hack demonstrated is that criminals would not even need to have the original stolen card present in order to use Square for fraud…
Retailer Lets Online Shoppers Virtually Try on Clothes Using Augmented Reality
Have you been waiting for more practical implementations of augmented reality (AR) technology outside of gaming and marketing initiatives? So have we. That’s what makes the technology Zugara is launching now so interesting. It has teamed up with U.K.-based online clothing retailer Banana Flame to offer a virtual dressing room of sorts which lets…
New Apps for iPhone & Android, July 2011
In our continuing tradition of rounding up new mobile application releases we found interesting and/or exciting over the past month, we present you with this new list of apps for July 2011. This month, we found a lot of great new iPhone apps, some Android and tablet apps, and a bunch of “notable” application updates.
As always, share your…
AppMobi’s New XDK Lets You Build HTML5 Apps, for Web or Mobile
AppMobi has launched a new “XDK,” which allows developers to build HTML5-optimized applications for the Web or for mobile platforms. The resulting code can be used to deliver great HTML5 applications, like those found in Chrome’s Web app store, but it can also be used in hybrid apps submitted to Apple’s App Store or the Android Market.
The XDK…
Demand for Local Deals Up, Sharing Increased Over Last Quarter
Location-based media company JiWire reports seeing increases in the sharing of and the demand for local deals, like those offered by Groupon, LivingSocial and others, since last quarter. According to data from a recent survey, sharing of deals has increased by 21% and demand is up 20% from Q1 2011.
In addition, only 8% never buy local deals, up…
GroupMe Tries its Hand at Mobile Q&A
Group messaging app GroupMe launched version 3.0 today, adding a number of new features and updates, including full Web access, International support, a redesigned interface, direct messaging and more. But the most notable of the new features is a “Q&A” option called “Questions,” which encourages users to start conversations.
iSpeech Offers Free Speech Recognition SDK for Mobile Developers
A company called iSpeech has launched a free voice recognition and text-to-speech SDK for mobile developers building apps for iOS, Android and BlackBerry. During its pre-launch phase, iSpeech saw over 3,000 developers sign up for its service and powered 1 billion conversions in the cloud. Incidentally, 3,000 developers is the same number that…
AOL Editions Offers a New Take on the iPad Newspaper
AOL is launching its entry into the increasingly crowded iPad magazine space with the new application AOL Editions. The app is somewhat similar to other high-profile efforts like The Daily, Flipboard, Plus and Zite, but attempts to find its niche by offering a personalized, social, once-daily experience which is also publisher-friendly.
But most…
Layar Extends its AR Platform with Computer Vision Capabilities
Layar, maker of the Layar augmented reality platform for mobile, has today announced Layar Vision, a platform extension that enables phones to “see” and recognize real-world objects, including posters, magazines and newspapers. With Layar Vision, the goal is to provide brands and print media publishers’ with new ways to engage their audience…
Ansca Mobile Releases LaunchPad: New Marketing & Analytics Services for App Developers
Ansca Mobile, in partnership with InMobi and PapayaMobile, has today announced LaunchPad, a suite of marketing and analytics services targeted towards mobile application developers using Ansca Mobile’s Corona SDK. The services will allow developers to better market their apps, increase distribution, improve monetization and better understand…
Toshiba Thrive Has Ports, Apps, but Still No iPad Killer
I don’t hate the Toshiba Thrive Android tablet, which is probably the nicest thing I can say about it. Although heavy, it has a lot of ports. And it feels less heavy than it looks, I found. It runs a newer and more stable version of Android Honeycomb than some of its competitors do, too, so there are handful of geeky new features to enjoy. Overall…
Mobile Developers See More Promise in Google Plus than iCloud
Mobile application developers believe that Google’s new social network Google Plus will have more impact on mobile growth and adoption than Apple’s iCloud, or even iOS 5’s Twitter integration. This is just one of the fascinating findings related to Google Plus revealed within the results of a new developer survey led by mobile cloud platform…
HTML5 Shows Promise, While Android Tablets Confuse, Developer Survey Finds
Appcelerator & IDC’s new mobile developer survey is out now, with details on a wide range of development trends including platform choice, developers’ future plans and mobile industry challenges. Notably, the companies have now added HTML5 as a new option to rank among mobile development platforms, and its middle-of-road showing indicates…
Slight Increase in Paid Android App Downloads Seen Again, Says Chomp
Mobile application search and discovery service Chomp has released its June 2011 report on app search trends and found that, for the second consecutive month, paid app downloads on Android have increased. The increases are small; paid Android app downloads increased just 2% from April to May and only 1% from May to June.
And in total, only 6% of…
Farewell Flash? Adobe Launches HTML5 Web Animations Tool “Adobe Edge”
Today, Adobe is launching a new tool called Adobe Edge which will allow creative professionals to design animated Web content using Web standards like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. Not Flash.
Aimed to coexist with Adobe Flash, not replace it, the Web design software is Adobe’s big bet on how it will continue to solidify its position as a top player in…
American Express’ Serve Digital Payments Platform Gets 2nd Carrier Deal with Verizon
American Express’ new digital payments platform Serve has just announced its second operator partnership here in the U.S. will be with Verizon Wireless. This news follows last month’s report that Sprint would also integrate the Serve platform into select Android phones on its network.
According to Verizon, its customers will be able to sign up…
Poll: Do Use HTML as an App Platform?
With today’s launch of PhoneGap 1.0, a framework that allows developers to build mobile apps using Web standards, it seemed like a good time to put up a poll about HTML as an app platform. HTML, and in particular, HTML5, has come a long way to addressing the needs of cross-platform development by delivering a platform where apps can run on any…
PhoneGap 1.0 Launches Today
PhoneGap, the open source mobile developement framework that allows mobile developers build apps using Web standards, is launching today into version 1.0. This is a milestone release for the platform, which now adds additional APIs, features and improvements in its newly updated product.
The launch is being celebrated in Portland, at an event…
Missed Out on Google Music? More Invites Arrived Today
Did you miss out on the initial round of invites to Google’s newest cloud locker service, Google Music? Well, today’s the day to hit up your Google Music-loving friends for an invite. Existing users have been awarded just two invites each, which they can give out to anyone they choose. However, the service is still U.S.-only, so you may want to…
Citibank Heads into Mint’s Territory with New iPad App
This week, Citibank released a new banking application for iPad, designed to give customers access to common banking tasks (balance checks, bill pay, transfers, etc.) as well as financial analysis tools. While we don’t (and can’t) cover all mobile application launches individually, the new Citibank iPad is an interesting case study that shows how a…