Facebook is finally launching an App Store of its own. The store is currently in beta testing, but the idea is for something similar to the Apple or Google app stores. It will provide a place to promote and discover new social apps and is due to go live in the coming weeks.
Significantly as well as helping us all find new Facebook apps it will also allow developers to charge users for downloading apps for the first time. Read More
Facebook is reported to have been working on a secret Facebook phone project, that it has codenamed Buffy.
AllThingsD is reporting that Facebook has teamed up with HTC to be build a modified Android to create a fully integrated Facebook experience and obviously slay rivals in the process. Read More
Since the launch of the G1 in 2008, it looked like the mobile device industry was a two horse race with iOS and Android, uh-humm, streaking ahead of everyone else. This all changed with two big industry announcements: Google buying Motorola’s mobility division and Amazon launching the Kindle Fire. In two foul drops of a press release, my dreams of a world where all devices worked together seamlessly regardless of the operating system or manufacturer were shattered as I was reminded that there is no section covering ‘playing nicely together’ in the capitalist’s handbook. Read More
Earlier this year Google launched an update to Google Translate for Android with an experimental feature called Conversation Mode that enabled Android users to speak into their phone and have their words translated from English into Spanish.
Now it has expanded that to 14 languages, adding Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish. Read More
The updated Linked in iPhone app
For obvious reasons Google has long-trumpeted the notion that brands should create a mobile optimised site first before developing a costly iPhone app.
While Google now offers a free way of doing so with its recently launched Mobilize tool, brands are looking to create more sophisticated mobile sites as they start to realise that the only way isn’t necessarily Apple. Read More
Here’s some research that throws up a dilemma: consumers are more likely to be interested in brands that have good apps. But it’s really hard for app makers to make their apps ‘discoverable’.
GetJar: infographic
The research was carried out by an app store called GetJar, so is suitably pro-app and pro-Android app, to boot.
In a leaked memo sent to staff at Nokia, CEO Stephen Elop has said that after two years it is “unbelievable” that the once leader in the mobile phone market does not have an answer to Apple’s iPhone.
The memo is being dubbed the “burning man” memo as it equate Nokia with a man standing on a burning platform with multiple sources of heat. He says Nokia has to change its behaviour. Read More
Apple’s iPad is getting all the attention. With Richard Branson’s Virgin launching its iPad only magazine this week, Project, the BBC is also busy planning the global launch of the iPlayer.
According to a report in the FT, the BBC is to launch a paid for international version of its video-on-demand service as an application for Apple’s iPad with the US to be one of the first markets. Read More
Acer took the wraps off an interesting addition to the tablet computer market yesterday the Acer Iconia, a 14” dual touch-screen device as it also announced two 10′ tablet computers as well. Read More
A single online e-magazine shop is a step closer to reality, but only for people who own Android devices, according to reports.
Samsung Galaxy Tab: Android devices will be first
All Things Digital says that the Next Issue Media ‘digital storefront’ is going to arrive early in 2011, but at the moment, it won’t be available to iPad owners at first. Next Issue Media’s CEO Morgan Guenther told the blog that it wasn’t because of technical problems, but because “Android is a very important tablet platform”. Read More
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