Software Reviews, Tech News, Tips & Tricks, Giveaways
Apple has changed their Mac Developer license to make it more far more affordable than before. At only $99, this new pricing it sure to get a lot of new developers into becoming licensed Mac Developers. The previous license was far too expensive for small time developers to get in on the action. So if Apple is opening the gate much wider than before, is it just because they want more Mac Developers and nothing else? Or is it part of something larger?
Apple has brought a series of patent infringement allegations against HTC, saying that the mobile manufacturing company has infringed as many as 20 patents that belong to Apple. HTC of course is not the actual target here because the patents are mostly related to UI and other software features that some HTC phones use. And by some HTC phones I mean the ones that use the Android Mobile OS.
Continue reading ‘Apple Sues HTC For Multiple Patent Infringements, Google Too Big To Sue?’
HootSuite already had their own app on the iPhone App Store and now they are bringing HootSuite to Android mobile phone users. HootSuite is an extremely popular Web Client for the Twitter micro blogging service. It has features that will mostly appeal to power users who need to keep track of not only multiple accounts but also in many cases several keywords and their performance. As you might know or guess — this is one Twitter client that is heavily used by businesses and marketers.
Continue reading ‘HootSuite Releases Apps For Android, Updates iPhone App’
Google has acquired Picnik — the popular online photo editor that has been steadily gaining the attention of the masses. Google’s reason for this acquisition is as obvious as ever. They are slowly building up their arsenal of online services and web apps as they inch closed to their Chrome OS launch. Even without the OS, they are constantly trying out new ways to do traditional computing works via the browser.
Alex Payne, Engineer at Twitter, caused some worry third-party developers and generally teased everyone about some new features that twitter was testing out. In a tweet to his followers (the one that you can see above) he said that if normal users had the users had the same features that the Twitter employees have, they (his followers) might never go back to desktop clients again. Of course, those are not the kind of words that third-party developers for Twitter want to listen to.
Opera’s latest beta version for Mac users adds to the already crowded browser market for the Mac OS. This is of course not a new addition to the browser wars on Mac, it is just an update. And what an update it is. With 10.50, Opera turns into a native Cocoa app, much like the Camino browser I sometimes use. It is still using the Presto rendering engine as opposed to other popular options like Webkit. But the highlight of the release? It is speed! This thing is super fast.
Continue reading ‘Opera Releases 10.50 Beta Of Their Browser For Mac, It Be Fast’
If there’s one thing that you have to love about iPhone apps, it is the creativity that some of them exude. You have really well-made interfaces to really well-made apps that really work the platform. However, there are some apps that work really great when it comes to doing certain basic things in our digital lives. Some organize your finances and some organize your music. Moodagent doesn’t necessarily organize anything and neither does it give you information. Instead, it builds playlists based on your mood and it does it really well.
Continue reading ‘Moodagent App Works With Your Mood, Builds Awesome Playlists’
Scribd has been working on their bringing their services to mobile platforms like smartphones and e-readers. Scribd has already come a long way from being a mere host of user generated content like YouTube to being a platform for selling books. Of course, where larger companies are focussing all their energies on building relationships with the publishing industry bigwigs, Scribd is looking at the other demographic of content producers. These are people who cannot afford to publish their works the traditional ways. This is essentially ‘Etsy for writers’. You make ‘em and you sell ‘em yourself.
Continue reading ‘Scribd Brings Its Sharing Service To Mobile Platforms’
Apple has been continuously banning apps with partial nudity or with content that is sexual in nature. Over the past few days, they have been busy purging the App Store of all of these apps, much to the dismay of their developers. And when you do something like this en mass, you are bound to be the target of many pointed questions. Apple usually issues extremely concise statements that basically give a vague reason followed by what can essentially be summed up as “….because we can and we want to.” This time however, Phil Schiller has attempted at explaining things. He has also failed at doing so in a satisfactory manner.
Continue reading ‘Apple Bans Racy Apps, Phil Schiller Attempts At An Explanation, Fails’
Just like it happened with Google, Microsoft is now being rumored as working on their own phone. And this time too, by ‘their own phone’ all I mean is that Microsoft’s branding will be all over the phone and the hardware partner will be reduced to an OEM state. If the rumors are true and Asus is indeed that hardware partner, then it should be nothing new for Asus. Both HTC and Asus started out as OEM’s and then moved into making their own lines of hardware. The OEM company Pegatron is behind the Asus brand name.
MWC 2010 came and went and all we heard from Microsoft’s mobile division is their new mobile OS — Windows Phone 7 Series. What we did not hear anything about is the mysterious Project Pink. It is supposed to be Microsoft’s long term project to develop the next generation smartphone. Now that Apple has beaten them to the punch and Google has added to that injury, it is about time Microsoft did something about its flagging mobile OS presence.
Windows Phone 7 Series will surely change things for the better for Microsoft and it is surely off to a great start, judging by the glowing reviews it has been getting (including mine, I must add). So why would Microsoft want to make their own phone? Same reason Google did it — ultimate control over the end product. Ideally, the phone would be a showcase of everything that Windows Phone 7 is. It should be the perfect Microsoft experience. However, a cursory glance at the Nexus One will remind us that the ideal state of affairs does not exist.
Software companies are not adept at hardware design and development for obvious reasons. They lack both experience and the expertise required. Controlling a good hardware company is thus no guarantee that the results will be palatable. Google at least chose a knowledgeable partner. Microsoft in my opinion is making a blunder by choosing Asus — Pegatron does not make mobile phones. They have very little experience in it and Asus’s first phone has more or less bombed.
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