In another move in Google’s continued bid to dominate the entire internet — albeit with useful and occasionally innovative services — the search giant has officially launched Latitude for the iPhone.
Latitude allows users to locate and track each other, via their cell phones. Since its original launch back in February this year, it’s been rolled [...]
As you may already know, one of the improvements that came along with iPhone 3.0 was mobile Safari’s ability to access the iPhone and iPod touch’s geolocation services. Geolocation is quickly becoming a feature that more and more web developers are looking at implementing, especially given that the recently released Firefox 3.5 and Chrome 2.0 [...]
So there’s a new OS that’s based on the web, relies primarily on a web browser, and whose native apps are web apps. Old news, you say? We already know about Palm’s WebOS. No, I don’t mean that one. This one will primarily target netbooks. Still old news, you say, because we know a modified [...]
Late yesterday evening, the folks at Google made official what many have suspected for months, or even years: They’re working on an operating system. The new OS, dubbed Chrome OS after Google’s recent entry into the ongoing browser wars, will have speed and Internet connectivity as its two top priorities, and be based on a [...]
Due to hefty 3G roaming rates, Apple’s Maps app just won’t cut it when you’re out of the country. The oMap app lets you download maps for offline viewing — dodging a shocking bill post-vacation.
The iPhone is an almost perfect companion for travels to distant lands. With a bit of foresight and time set aside [...]
Sometimes really useful software comes in small packages. Just about six months ago, I stumbled upon the developer preview of Google Quick Search Box (QSB) for the Mac, and I’ve been using it ever since. Google should be proud, because generally speaking, I shy away from desktop search applications, including their own Google Desktop for [...]
Since Apple doesn’t provide detailed release notes with each of their beta installments, it’s understandable that details about less obvious features and changes would only come to light gradually, as people poked around and tried different (and sometimes unusual) things with their devices. Computerworld’s Seth Weintraub was fooling around with the Mobile Safari browser included [...]
I admit I was surprisingly impressed with Yahoo for iPhone when it first came out, and an update within the last week brought even more improvements, but I’m not sure the app is so spectacular that Yahoo should pour all its effort into it at the expense of other platforms. But that’s what it’s thinking, [...]
MobileMe, Apple’s online personal information management (PIM) solution, has withstood quite the controversy. While some of the more fortunate subscribers, like myself, have had only positive experiences, others had to wait several months before syncing worked without reporting cryptic errors or silently failing.
My only gripe was the buggy MobileMe web site. Problems were numerous, such [...]
No one can deny they’ve been chummy. Google and Apple skip about Silicon Valley, hand-in-hand, developing new tech together that is perfectly suited for the Apple hardware it makes its way onto, despite having competing smartphone OS platforms.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided to step in on the little dance going on between the [...]
Don’t you wish there were an easier way to quickly view upcoming appointments and your task list? If you’re a fan of Google products, then follow these steps for an easy-to-use solution. In the end you will have two new items in your menu bar: one for Google Calendar and one for Google Tasks.
What You [...]
Yesterday, Google dropped a number of updates and improvements for their web-based Gmail and Calendar apps for the iPhone. A lot of the changes made are on the backend, so while you may not see a huge difference right away, you will likely notice snappier and more consistent performance in both apps, though I found [...]
With all the attention in the arena of iPhone applications being fixed squarely on Skype for the past few days, it almost escaped my view that Yahoo has finally released their free Yahoo Mobile app, which we reported on in February. The app’s release coincides with a revamp of their entire Yahoo Mobile web portal, [...]
The hoopla around Google’s Android mobile OS, and the resulting apps in the Android Market, is pretty strong. It’s laid on thick and fast. You know the drill; it’s “open” so it’ll be free from all the constraints imposed by The Man, etc.
Oops, maybe not. I’m not sure why people believed the steaming pile of [...]
The iPhone, despite aggressive attempts to block such efforts by AT&T (with Apple’s help), did occasionally offer some apps that actually managed to save users some money in one way or another. For instance, for a while, people could tether their phones to their computers in order to share the data connection without having to [...]
Microsoft has already experienced the power the netbook has to open up operating system options for PC consumers, since it saw Linux distributions being included as the default operating system on consumer-oriented machines for the first time with the advent of the small, affordable, feature-light machines. They’ve since managed to gain a foothold in the [...]
Mark Sigal at GigaOM wrote a nice article that questions if, essentially, “open” is all it’s cracked up to be.
I’ve written about this before, and agree with Sigal’s take. He sums up one aspect of it especially well when he says:
The reality is that openness is just an attribute -– it’s not an outcome, [...]
The weekend seems to have rolled up super-fast, so welcome one and all to the Weekly App Store Picks.
Before we jump in to this week’s apps, let’s take a gander at recent happenings in the world of Apple.
First up, as a frequent tweeter, I was pleased to learn about desktop tweeting without a client app earlier [...]
The search engine that had a strong claim on the web long before upstart Google came along may be down, but they aren’t out. They’re planning a massive undertaking, a cross-platform release of a mobile suite of applications that, at least according to them, could revolutionize the way you use the web from your mobile [...]
Jealous of MobileMe users but not willing to part with $100 and/or wary of its seemingly persistent problems? Have no fear, Google’s here.
Google Sync Beta, that is, which is now available for the iPhone (and Windows Mobile, but c’mon, honestly). With it, you can sync your Google Calendar and your Gmail Contacts over the air, [...]