Tag: iPhone

Now iPhone Users Can Search Google By Taking Pictures

Late last year, Google launched Google Goggles, an experimental Android app that lets you simply take a picture with your phone’s camera to conduct a search – no query entering necessary. Today, Google announced that Goggles is available for the iPhone via the Google Mobile app.

Google Goggles is a very cool concept, but it needs a lot of work, hence its experimental status. I have little doubt, however, that Google will improve its functionality tremendously over time.

"Computer vision is a hard problem and Google Goggles is still a Labs product. It works well for things such as landmarks, logos and the covers of books, DVDs and games," says Google software engineer Milan Broum. "However, it doesn’t yet work for some things you might want to try like animals, plants or food."

Notice, Broum said yet. It remains a mystery just what kind of resources the company is putting into Google Goggles, but I suspect it’s a substantial amount, because this is some innovative search stuff. Google is all about speeding up the search process, and what could be faster taking a picture to enter a query? That’s even faster than speaking a command (a technology that has revolutionized search in itself, and can also use some improvement, I might add).

In April, Google acquired Plink, a visual search company, specifically to have its team work on Google Goggles. Plink made a mobile app called PlinkArt, which let users identify paintings and artworks.

In May, Google introduced the ability to use Goggles to search for words in different languages and get translations. That’s a powerful function to have in your pocket (when it works properly), particularly when traveling.

Simply getting Goggles on the iPhone will be a big step for its exposure. SEO is going to be really fun in the future.

Here are some tips for getting the most out of Google Goggles.

October 5, 2010
Rand McNally Launches iPhone App

Rand McNally has launched a free new iPhone app called “Explore America” that offers snippets of travel content, photos and videos, destination information and a daily quiz.

Explore America users will receive a “daily adventure,” which includes a description of an interesting place in North America, a locator map, and up to five photos showing the location and information about the area.

Users can also Rand McNally editorial content, share ratings, photos and content on social networks including Facebook and Twitter.

“This is just the first of many mobile applications to come,” said John T. Peters, Rand McNally’s VP/GM of Digital Strategy & Travel.

“Whether you are just looking for a daily virtual escape or planning a real trip, Explore America is a free, entertaining iPhone app anyone will enjoy.”

September 29, 2010
The New Foursquare Emerges for iPhone

Foursquare announced version 2.0 of its iPhone app, as well as a new way to connect it to the web. There are three main features that Foursquare is emphasizing with today’s announcement.

The first feature is the splitting up of tips and to-dos. "Our thinking is that by making it easier to access your To-Do list, foursquare will be better at helping you remember all the interesting things you want to experience nearby," says the Foursquare team. "We’re already finding that this simple change turns foursquare into more than than just a tool for keeping track of where you’ve been, but into something that keeps track of all the places you want to go and the things you want to experience."

The second feature is that they’ve sprinkled tips and to-dos throughout the app. If you come across a place, you can go to Foursquare and add it to the to-do list for later. Tips will also be highlighted on the venue in the app. To-do’s will be dog-eared anytime they turn up in places lists.

Finally, there’s the "add to My Foursquare" button. Places can put the button on their sites, so users can click them to add the places to their Fousquare To-Do lists. This has to be the most significant new feature. It’s not exactly Facebook’s "like" button, but it could go a long way for branding and encouraging users to keep using Foursquare, as competition in this space grows.

While the changes only apply to the iPhone version today, Foursquare says updates are coming for Android and BlackBerry.

September 20, 2010
AT&T and NCAA Launch College Football iPhone App

AT&T and the NCAA have launched a new iPhone/iPod Touch app. With a big day of college football coming tomorrow, its as good a day as any for such an app.

The app is free and combines social functionality with real-time NCAA football news. Fans of Division 1 teams will be able to chat with one another (as well as fans of opposing teams, so that should cater to a fair amount of trash talk).

"The NCAA Football Fan Zone App Powered by AT&T gives college football fans an ‘always open’ venue to do what they do best – talk about college football," says AT&T. "To get started, users simply download the app and choose a team or teams they want to track. Users can chat with all other group members – making predictions, cheering and ranting during the game, uploading photos or partaking in a round of post-game analysis."

"To add a little fun to the conversation, groups for opposing teams are merged before, during and after each game allowing all posts made during that time to be visible to both teams," the company adds. "To ensure smack talking remains family-friendly, groups are systematically monitored and users can report abuse at any time."

The app also includes a live scoreboard, team schedules, discussion groups for weekly rankings and breaking news.

The app is available in Apple’s App Store.

September 17, 2010
Print from the iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch with Apple’s Airprint

Apple announced that its releasing a beta version of Airprint wireless printing for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch as part of the iOS Develope Program. The service will be included in the iOS 4.2 software update in November.

What AirPrint does, is automatically find printers on local networks and print text, photos and graphics to them wirelessly over Wi-Fi. There is no need to install drivers or download software.

HP’s existing and upcoming ePrint enabled printers will be the first to support Airprint. Compatible printers include: the HP Photosmart, Officejet, Officejet Pro and LaserJet Pro series ePrint enabled printers.

"AirPrint is Apple’s powerful new printing architecture that matches the simplicity of iOS—no set up, no configuration, no printer drivers and no software to download," said Philip Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing. "iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users can simply tap to print their documents or photos wirelessly to an HP ePrint printer or to a printer shared on a Mac or PC."

"We’re pleased to work with Apple to bring Apple’s AirPrint to our fall lineup of ePrint printers in time for the holiday shopping season," said Vyomesh Joshi, HP executive VP, Imaging and Printing Group. "Making it easy for our customers to print anytime, anywhere, is a key priority for HP. iPad, iPhone and iPod touch customers are going to love how easy it is to print using our new range of ePrint printers, creating high-quality printed pages in an instant."

Apple says Airprint will support a wide range of inkjet and laser printers. iOS 4.2 devices can print to printers shared through Macs or PCs.

AirPrint will work with iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (second generation and later).

Google has a similar offering called CloudPrint, but it’s not yet available. It will be supported by web apps, Android apps, iPhone apps, Chrome OS, etc. – "any type of application" Google says.

September 15, 2010
iPod and Blackberry Listed as Most Prized Possession
Only 1% of people regard their wedding ring as their most valued asset, accroding to a survey carried out on Facebook in August on behalf of insurance firm Protect Your Bubble, with 12% of the 500 respondents voting for their iPods as their most prized possession, just outdoing the Blackberry, which received 11.5% of the votes.

Meanwhile, cars were the favourites of only 4% of people on the social network. Dogs got 9% of the vote and cats received 5%.

The first iPod launched in 2001 and the devices are still hugely popular despite the massive surge in purchases of smartphones in the last 12 months, with new versions of the iPod nano and iPod touch recently hitting the shelves alongside the iPod shuffle and the iPod classic.

Stephen Ebbett, spokesperson for http://www.protectyourbubble.com stated, “As online insurers it is particularly interesting for us to see what people regard as their most prized possession and with the iPod evolving so much since its release it has clearly won a place in our hearts. The popularity of the device over laptops and smartphones is quite revealing and we offer competitively priced policies to cover the entire range of gadgets.”

“Perhaps some of the results show more about the demographics and preferences of Facebook users, with wedding rings and cars so far down the scale, but the iPod definitely seems to still rule as the gadget of choice.”

Survey results in full:
- iPod 12%
- Blackberry 11.5%
- iPhone 10%
- Laptop 9%
- Dog 9%
- Games console 8%
- Macbook 7%
- iPad 6%
- Cat 5%
- Camera 5%
- Television 4.5%
- Car 4%
- Video camera 4%
- Other jewellery 4%
- Wedding ring 1%
Comments
September 15, 2010
Apple to Publish App Store Review Guidelines

Apple released a statement today regarding its App Store Review Guidelines. The company says:

The App Store has revolutionized the way mobile applications are developed and distributed. With over 250,000 apps and 6.5 billion downloads, the App Store has become the world’s largest mobile application platform and App Store developers have earned over one billion dollars from the sales of their apps.

We are continually trying to make the App Store even better. We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart. Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program license in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 to relax some restrictions we put in place earlier this year.

In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.

In addition to these changes, Apple will publish its App Store Review Guidelines so that developers can see what all is taken into consideration before submitting their apps. Apple says it hopes this will make it more transparent.

Apple has had a reputation for being pretty stingy with app acceptance. In fact, the company has caused a lot of controversy in this area, particularly around apps that it deemed to be adult-oriented, while still allowing other apps from bigger brands that appeared to be more adult-oriented than some of the ones rejected. More on that here.

September 9, 2010
Facebook in the Car, Turning an iPod into an iPhone

CrunchGear has an unconfirmed report that OnStar will begin including the ability to update your Facebook status. This would make sense, considering the recent launch of Facebook Places, which allows you to check in.

Google introduced its Google Instant feature today, which provides search results as Google users type their queries. Some search marketers are concerned about how they might be affected. More on this topic here.

TechCrunch reports that a company called Kno has raised $55 million, and will create what investor Marc Andreessen says will be "the most powerful tablet anyone has ever made." That should be interesting.

MG Siegler points to a humorous Twitter account from his personal blog, Parislemon. The account "translates" the tweets of rapper 50 cent into English, providing retweets of 50’s original post for context.

Jorgen Sundberg has an interesting post about how to make Google love your Twitter profile. I haven’t tested his tips, so I can’t vouch for the accuracy of his post, but it’s worth checking out.

Greg Sterling points to a speech from Eric Schmidt this week in which he says, "One in three queries from smartphones is about where I am."

MacDailyNews reports that Notre Dame has launched paperless iPad courses:

Geek.com reports that the Yosion Apple Peel 520, which lets you turn an iPod Touch into a smartphone that can send and receive calls and texts, is coming to the U.S. It’s apparently coming now that jailbreaking is legal.

According to comScore numbers, Gawker Media and the Huffington Post both get more monthly unique visitors than any major newspaper site, except for the New York times. That’s more than USAToday, The Washington Post, The LA Times, or the Wall Street Journal. More at The Awl.

MobileCrunch looks at the release of Yahoo’s open-source User Interface library,

According to Asymoco, app downloads on iTunes are on pace to surpass song downloads this year. On a related note, Cnet reports that Apple doesn’t have all of the licenses it needs to expand the length of iTunes song samples.

According to Gizmodo, Justin Bieber takes up 3% of Twitter resources at any moment, and Bieber (along with other big users) have dedicated Twitter servers.

The EFF weighed in on the topic of Craigslist censoring, talking specifically about what it means for free speech. Meanwhile, the Huffington Post has an article called "Thoughts From a Former Craigslist Sex Worker".

Bing launched a new site today called Redu, which was built "to help people come and get informed, involved, and connected to challenges, opportunities, and activities focused on improving education" in the U.S.

Microsoft Advertising announced that it is launching third-party ad serving for mobile in the U.S. "Our solution enables agencies and advertisers to use trusted third party ad servers such as Microsoft Atlas and Google’s DART to serve mobile display ads on all of our premium Microsoft Mobile Media properties including MSN Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Windows Live Hotmail and Messenger, MSNBC, FOX Sports, CNBC and Wonderwall," says Microsoft’s Raj Kapoor. "Advertisers and agencies will now be able to centrally manage their ad campaigns and reporting using trusted and proven third-party systems."

MySpace has introduced a new way to experience video in the stream. Users can watch videos instantly from their stream.

September 8, 2010
Piper Jaffray Forecasts 50% Market Share For Android

Piper Jaffray, an investment banking firm that earned $7.4 million in net income last quarter, is betting on Android in a big way. Today, Piper Jaffray predicted that Android’s market share will pass the 50 percent mark in the next five years.

Don’t look for the rise to the halfway mark to happen all at once. The report explained, "We estimate Google will control 14.9% of the smartphone market through Android in 2010, growing to 23.2% in 2012."

Meanwhile, Apple’s market share is also supposed to increase, hitting 17.6 percent in 2012.

Here’s the key thing, though: according to Larry Dignan, Piper Jaffray stated, "Ultimately, we believe Android is likely to control over half of the smartphone market in the next five years. . . . and we believe ultimately Apple’s smartphone market share tops out between 20-30% . . ."

That’s a strong endorsement of what Google’s doing in the mobile space. It could be a sign that Apple’s in trouble, too, since the company’s surely tried to convince analysts of a brighter outlook.

Apple beat Google in one sense today, anyway, since its stock dropped just 0.37 percent while Google’s fell 1.25 percent.

September 7, 2010
Apple Announces New iOS, iPods, iTunes, Ping Social Network, Apple TV

Apple held its big event today, and showed off several things. At the event, Steve Jobs said that Apple now has 300 retail stores, and will soon open one in Spain making it 11 countries. He said that Apple has shipped 120 million iOS devices, and that there are 230,000 new iOS activations per day. He also said they’ve had 6.5 billion app downloads and get 200 app downloads every second.

The New iOS

Jobs introduced iOS 4.1, which features bug fixes, High Dynamic Range photos, HD video upload over WiFi, TV show rentals, and Game Center.

With HDR photos, it takes 3 photos in rapid succession, and combines them to make a better picture.

Game Center includes features for multi-player games, challenging friends, auto matching, comparing scores and discovering new games. There is an API, which is its own app on the phone.

iOS 4.1 will be available next week in iTunes for the iPhone and iPod Touch. 4.2 will come in November for the iPad. This will include multitasking, Game Center, HDR photos, and wireless printing, and something called AirPlay.

AirPlay is the new name of AirTunes, and extends the service from music-only to all kinds of media. You can stream audio, video, and photos over Wi-Fi.

The New iPods

Jobs said the company has sold 275 million iPods. He then announced what he says is the biggest change to the iPod lineup "ever". The new version of the Shuffle comes with buttons, VoiceOver, playlists, and "Genius mixes." It holds 15 hours of music, comes in five colors, and costs $49.

The new version of the Nano eliminates the click wheel and adds multi-touch. It also now has a clip. It’s 46% smaller and 42% lighter than the last version. It has hard volume buttons, VoiceOver, FM Radio, Nike+, pedometer, and comes in 29 languages. The screen can be rotated. It costs $149 for the 8GB version and $179 for the 16GB version.

Jobs says they’ve had 1.5 billion game and entertainment downloads. He says the iPod Touch is the most popular portable game player in the world with over 50% market share worldwide.

The new version is thinner, and comes with retina display, the A4 chip, 3-axis Gyro, iOS 4.1 with Game Center, FaceTime with a front camera, and a rear camera with HD video recording. It costs $229 for the 8GB version, $299 for the 32GB version, and $399 for the 64GB version.

The iPods are all available starting next week, and are available for pre-order.

The New iTunes and Social Network

Jobs says iTunes has 11.7 billion songs, 450 million TV episodes, 100 million movies, 35 million books, and 160 million accounts with credit cards and 1-click shopping in 23 countries.

He then announced the launch of iTunes 10, with a new logo (without a CD, noting that iTunes is about to bypass CDs in sales). The new version has a hybrid view with five or more songs from the same list view and album artwork. There is also a new "ping" feature, which is a social network based on music. Jobs says its like Twitter and Facebook meets iTunes. This is for users and artists.

Ping comes with privacy settings, social music discovery, follow features, a circle of friends feature, the ability to post thoughts/opinions, custom song/album charts, concert listings, and 160 million iTunes users. Ping will be an app store app.

The New Apple TV

Jobs says in four years they’ve sold a lot of Apple TVs but the product hasn’t been "a huge hit". He introduced the second generation, and it comes in the form of a device that fits in the palm of your hand. It has a built-n power supply, one HDMI connector, built-in ethernet, and built-in WiFi.

It features HD content, with no purchases. There is no storage because everything is by rental. You can also stream from your computer. You can view movies, TV shows, and music. TV shows are 99 cents (in HD). You can rent first-run HD movies for $4.99 the day the come out on DVD. They have deals with ABC and FOX, abut think the other studios ill get onboard. It comes with Netflix access (for subscribers) as expected, and supports YouTube, Flickr, and MobileMe. You can stream content from an iOS device to an Apple TV. It costs $99 as expected. It will be available in four weeks with pre-orders today.

Update: We received the following statement from Disney/ABC: “When we put our shows on iTunes five years ago, it was revolutionary,” said Anne Sweeney, co-chair Disney Media Networks and president, Disney-ABC Television Group. “Since then, we’ve continued to provide viewers with innovative new ways to access our programming, and today we’re proud to team with Apple on a rental option for fans of our shows.”

(Hat tip to GdGt for its live coverage)

September 1, 2010
Music Still Leads In iTunes Purchases

Almost all iPhone or iPod touch users have downloaded a free app, but 82 percent have actually made a music purchase from iTunes, according to a new survey from NPD.

More than half (56%) of iTunes buyers purchase music exclusively, and majority of iTunes user search time is focused on looking for music.

“Sales growth in digital music has been slowing, and some of that decline might be related to the distraction from apps; however, iTunes shoppers are still completely engaged with music, whether it’s about listening, discovering or buying,” said Russ Crupnick, vice president and senior entertainment analyst for The NPD Group.

“Apps and video certainly do compete for consumer dollars, but they can also be used to promote music and re-energize digital music and video download sales.”

The report also looked at the question if apps are valuable to users or mostly frivolous. Two out of three iPhone and iPod touch owners who have downloaded apps report using them regularly, instead of just using them briefly. In addition, nine out of 10 have downloaded a free app, which Crupnick says, “points to a major up-selling opportunity to paid versions of the same app.” Plus 69 percent of iPhone and iPod Touch owners who have not yet paid for an app told NPD they are interested in possibly doing so in the future.

August 31, 2010
Vevo iPhone App Launches with a Bang – Over a Million Downloads in a Week

Last week, Vevo launched its mobile app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Today, the company announced that the app has already been downloaded over a million times.

"Our new app for iPhone and iPod touch is a huge success! Since we debuted VEVO Mobile last week, it has ranked #1 among Free Apps and Music Apps in the iTunes store and was named iTunes App of the Week! We’ve also delivered 1 million App downloads – proving fans want to watch their favorite music videos wherever, whenever," Vevo says in a blog post.

The App lets users access over 20,000 videos from over 7,000 artists, and lets them create and save custom playlists for on demand playback, view what videos are being watched in their area, and share videos with friends through Twitter, Facebook and email.

Vevo is giving away a $100 iTunes gift certificate for one person that retweets its announcement.

Upon launch, Vevo said it was also working on an Android app and an iPad app, as well as apps for other mobile platforms. The iPhone/iPod Touch app is currently available in the U.S. and Canada, but will launch in other countries, pending rights agreements.

August 27, 2010
Netflix Launches App For iPhone And iPod Touch

Netflix has launched its free app for iPhone and iPod touch, allowing members to instantly watch TV episodes and movies streamed to their devices.

The Netflix App for iPhone and iPod touch is available on Wi-Fi and 3G networks. Content is organized based on a members’ personal preference, popular genres, new arrivals and individual instant queues.

Users have the option of fast-forwarding and rewinding the video stream, and stopping at any time. When users want to start watching again, the video stream starts where it was stopped, even on a different device that can stream content from Netflix.

"Apple has changed the game for mobile devices," said Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and chief executive officer.

"We’re excited that our members can now carry Netflix around in their pockets and instantly watch movies and TV shows streamed from Netflix right to their iPhone or iPod touch."

The Netflix App supports any iPhone or iPod touch device running iOS version 3.13 or later.

August 26, 2010
Google Launches Google Finance Android and iPhone Editions

Google has launched a new mobile version of Google Finance for Android and iPhone. This offers nearly all the same features and functionality as the desktop version.

"Here on the Google Finance team, we’re always looking for new ways to help you access the finance data, charts, and reports that you need in the blink of an eye," says product manager Brian Shih. "But all the data in the world won’t help if you can’t access it when you need it most. Since many of us are on the run throughout the day and don’t always have our computers in front of us, it came as no surprise that one of users’ most frequently requested features was a fast, easy-to-use mobile website for Google Finance."

"Now no matter where you are, you can keep up with your portfolio, the latest market news, and the sectors you care about, with real time quotes and data — all at a glance," says Shih.

Google Finance can be accessed from mobile when you do a Google search for a stock ticker or company name, or tap the "finance" tab on the Google Mobile homepage.

There is also an app for Android users available in the Android Market.

August 25, 2010
Can Bing Win More Search Market Share Through iPhone and Android?

I’ve written several times about Bing’s chances of increasing search market share through various avenues. While nobody expects Bing to overthrow King Google anytime soon, those chances are pretty good.

One of the keys I’ve repeatedly referred to, is the launch of Windows Phone 7, which will make Bing the default search option. If these devices take off, they could help push Bing’s share tremendously (not to mention the company’s deals with Yahoo and Facebook).

Bing wants to get to you through other mobile devices too though. Currently, Microsoft is really pushing Bing use on the iPhone, as Nick Wingfield with the Wall Street Journal points out. According to his article, at one point, there were 7 apps bearing the Bing name in the top 26 most frequently downloaded iPhone apps. While some of these were third-party apps and just gave users access to free music, Microsoft has still seen this as a chance to capitalize on the Bing brand in iPhone users’ hands.

WSJ quotes Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn as saying, "It turns out if you have more than one of these apps at the upper-end of the store, you see decent lift across all of them. It’s an innovative way that we can introduce ourselves to users of the iPhone platform, encourage downloads of our search app and do it in way that’s fun and engaging."

According to the WSJ, Bing will have an Android app out within months – Google’s territory. With Google’s Android Market being much more open to apps, there is not only room for more Bing apps, but for more third-party Bing-related apps. That could bode well for this strategy of Microsoft’s. However, they may still have a hard time trumping those search hard keys on Android devices that take users directly to Google.

August 24, 2010
Google Updates iPhone App with Notifications

Google announced today that it has updated its Google Mobile iPhone app to push notifications from users’ Google accounts to their phones. Now, an icon badge will show when you’ve got new mail in Gmail or when a reminder for a Google Calendar event comes up.

The badge will appear right on the home screen.

"We’ve also added spiffy features to get you information faster — when looking for flight info, weather, stock quotes or currency conversion you’ll see answers before you even hit ‘Search’," says Google engineering manager David Singleton.

Google launched an updated version of Google Mobile for the iPhone in December, with a redesigned search results display that showed more results at once. It also opens web pages from the results within the app, a change from the previous version. It also came with Voice Search and My Location.

Today’s release builds on these features integrating more of the overall Google experience with the device. This could prove to be key once Google reveals its plans for the rumored "Google Me".

The app is available in the App Store.

August 23, 2010
LinkedIn Updates iPhone App

LinkedIn has announced the launch of LinkedIn for iPhone version 3.2, which the company says makes it easier to stay up to date and find important changes happening in your professional network.

The app comes with some changes to how LinkedIn displays profile updates from connections. You can see more info about what changed from All Updates or Profiles.

You can also tap on your connection’s name from a profile update to go to the top of their profile, or tap a section to jump to it. The app will also now inform you when your connections add a Twitter account, change their address or phone number, or add their birthday.

"One of the most commonly used features in our current iPhone app is viewing who you have in common with another LinkedIn member," says LinkedIn’s Chad Whitney. "It’s a great way to build out your own network, and it’s also useful when you’re meeting someone new and need to know more about them to help start the conversation."

"You can now see how many people you have in common right from the main profile screen," says Whitney. "We’ve also created a single view that lets you quickly switch between viewing who you have in common and viewing their full connections list."

Finally, the app is optimized for the iPhone’s Retina Display, featuring new icons and images.

Whitney says LinkedIn will have some "great things" coming in October and November that the company is excited about.

August 21, 2010
StumbleUpon Comes to the iPhone and Android

StumbleUpon has finally released its mobile apps for the iPhone and Android.

"Think about all those times when your’e riding the bus, sitting at the airport gate, or waiting for friends, playing with the same mobile apps again and again," says StumbleUpon’s mobile apps team. "Now you can have the perfect boredom-buster: with StumbleUpon for the iPhone and Android, the best of the web is, literally, at your fingertips."

"Following the success of our iPad app, we’re excited to extend the stumbling experience to iPhone and Android device users, letting people explore the best of the web at any time no matter where they are," said Garrett Camp, founder and CEO. "Downloading the app is easy and once logged-in, users can discover great online content that’s tailored to their preferences."

Users can thumb-up or thumb-down sites from the phone, just like from the desktop. You can also narrow down the "stumbling" to a particular category or site such as or YouTube.

You can also use the app to share content with other users through Facebook, Twitter, or email.

August 20, 2010
PayPal Adds Donation Feature to iPhone, iPad App

PayPal has launched an update to its mobile app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. It now has a donation feature that lets users donate to over 23,000 charities in the U.S., UK. and Canada.

"We hope the new application will simplify the donation process and help charities reach more donors," says PayPal Mobile Senior Director Laura Chambers. "We know most people want to contribute to causes near and dear to their heart, but many times the ins and outs associated with donating can get in the way of peoples’ good nature. I think Bill Gates said it best recently: The barrier to giving is not too little caring, it’s that giving is too complex. Today, we are a step closer to solving that barrier."

"As adoption of smartphones increases, donating via the mobile is also becoming more popular," she adds. "According to a study by Pew Research Center in July 2010, 11 percent of Americans have made a charitable donation via text. By adding donations to PayPal’s iPhone app, we’re hoping to increase that percentage even more. With great new features like searching for nearby charities and the ability to post your donation to Facebook, we think it’s going to be a great boon to both local and international charities."

Sharing donations on Facebook could certainly help for spreading the word, creating a viral effect for donations. That’s great for charities.

Among the charities the app supports are: the American Cancer Society, Autism Speaks, Save the Children, UNICEF, BBC Children in Need, Cancer Research UK, and Canadian Red Cross.

PayPal says it submitted the app to the Apple App Store today, and expects to see it become available in the next few days.

August 18, 2010
Vevo Launches iPhone And iPod Touch App

Music video site Vevo has launched a free app for iPhone and iPod touch users.

The Vevo App offers access to 20,000 videos from more than 7,000 artists. Users have the ability to create and save custom playlists for on demand playback, view what videos are being watched in their area using location services/GPS and share videos with friends via Twitter, Facebook and email.

In addition to the mobile app, Vevo has also launched an original series called "Ask:Reply!" which features artists answering questions from fans submitted via Vevo on Twitter and Facebook. The first segment of Ask:Reply! features Ke$ha and is available exclusively in the new app.

Vevo said it is also working on launching an app for iPad, Android and other mobile platforms to be released soon. The Vevo App is currently available only in the U.S. and Canada but the company is working on launching in other countries pending rights agreements.

August 18, 2010
Vimeo Launches Player For iPhone And iPad

Video sharing site Vimeo, a division of IAC, said today it will release a universal player that allows people to watch embedded videos on mobile devices such as the iPhone or iPad using HTML5.

"With the latest generation of browsers and devices, we’ve had huge demand for an embeddable player that works with HTML5 and on devices like iPad and iPhone," said Andrew Pile, Vice President of Product and Development for Vimeo.

The embeddable player works by the detecting the capabilities of the browser and will offer a player version (Flash, HTML5, or native) with the corresponding video definition (HD, SD, mobile).

"The new embeddable code is highly scalable and allows us to continue to add support as new browsers and devices are released, for example serving HTML5 to IE9 and our Flash mobile player to Android phones running Flash 10.1," said Pile.

Vimeo has also added a watch later feature into all versions of its players that allows users to mark a video for later viewing. People can access their watch later videos by going to the watch later album on Vimeo, the Vimeo channel on their Roku box or the Vimeo mobile site.

August 17, 2010