As you may remember, last year Apple bought Beat and has been pushing it as its premium audio provider ever since. Beats’ own music streaming service, Beats Music, was part of that deal and there was a lot of controversy surrounding the service and its future after in came into Apple’s possession.

The app is mostly unchanged, running on both iOS and Android, but Apple has recently revealed its plans to reformat the service and make it an integral part of iOS. With the Cupertino’s upcoming “Spring Forward” set for March 9, naturally hype has been growing as to whether the new service will be showcased, alongside the eagerly-anticipated Apple Watch, which is said to be the star of the show. Read more »

One of Apple’s numerous patent applications has been granted a green light today and unlike most other vague texts, this one is quite interesting, particularly in its implications. The Cupertino tech giant now has the sole legal right to produce a “Navigation system acquisition and use of cellular coverage map data”.

What this entails is a system, which is able to model SatNav routing options, based on cell signal strength. The idea is that you cell phone is pretty aware of the signal strength at any given time and thanks to anonymous data reporting, Apple has that information at hand. This can then be aggregated on a map and used to suggest routes that avoid areas with shady cell strength or even, perhaps, too congested places. Read more »

Most of you have surely used Imgur’s services for instant and easy image sharing. The platform has come a long way since it was lunched, back in 2009. Today, Imgur is so popular that it is no longer merely an image hosting solution, it is now more or less representative of image sharing trends online.

Imgur has been capitalizing on that and it’s growing into a social network, rather than a simple image hosting website. A very logical step to further aid this development is to target the ever-growing mobile community in a proper matter and Alan Schaaf, the company’s founder and CEO, feels they might have finally achieved that with their new iOS application. Read more »

Today Google has released the latest version of Gmail for iOS. Gmail 4.0 comes with a few new features, chief among which is the support for quick actions in notifications. So now when you get a notification about an email, you can archive or reply straight from the notification.

As this functionality is made possible by iOS 8, it will only be available to you if you’re on that version of Apple’s mobile operating system (or its later updates, of course). Read more »

According to a report in Bloomberg, Apple’s previously rumored 12.9” iPad won’t enter production until September. Past reports suggested that the full-size slate will launch as early as Q2 this year.

The Cupertino giant allegedly planned to begin manufacturing the tablet during this quarter. Read more »

Slingshot, Facebook’s answer to the very popular Snapchat, has today added a couple of new features. On both its iOS and Android apps, you now have a brand new Explore view.

This surfaces “funny, inspiring and creative people from across the globe”. It’s basically a list of popular people who are active on Slingshot. And you can immediately follow those who you consider to be interesting. Read more »

iOS 8 adoption got off to a slow start – it took three weeks to achieve 40% share. iOS 6 and 7 before took only a week to hit 50%. Now, close to half a year after iOS 8 was unleashed to the public, it has clawed its way up to 75%, Apple says.

Version 8 has already had one minor update (v8.1) with the next one (v8.2) expected in about a week and the one after that (v8.3) already seeding to developers. Read more »

Sources claim that Google is working on iOS support for its Android Wear smartwatch platform, which couldn’t come sooner with the Apple Watch launch.

In the meantime several developers have created their own solutions. Read more »

A new rumor out of France claims Google is currently working on releasing the Android Wear app for Apple’s mobile platform. As you might have imagined, this would enable smartwatches running Android Wear to work with iPhones and iPads.

As this is nothing but an unconfirmed rumor at this point, the usual pinch of salt is advised. The new app for iOS could be launched during Google’s I/O developer conference in May, but it might get officially teased even sooner – so as to make (at least some) people think twice about buying an Apple Watch. Read more »

Warner Bros Interactive announced that it will launch Mortal Kombat X for mobile devices. The latest installment of the legendary fighting game will land on iOS and Android in April.

Developed by NetherRealm Studios, the mobile version of Mortal Kombat X will mix fighting with card collecting. Read more »

There is little doubt about the fact that iPhone have had some of the best mobile phone cameras for a while now, and that the iPhone 6 is easily the best camera Apple ever put on a phone. The iPhone camera is also one of the most popular, being the number one camera on Flickr (and this includes phones and proper cameras) for several years now.

The company has now made a dedicated gallery of images on its website showcasing some of the pictures people around the world have taken with the iPhone 6. Each photo is followed by a description of what’s going on in the photo, along with the name of the app(s) used to create the image. Read more »

Blackberry has announced that a new version of their popular messenger app is coming for both Android and iOS shortly. The new build will bring a lot of interesting features and make for an improved experience, tailored to use product-specific features, such as Apple’s Touch Id and the Android Wear platform.

Some of the more interesting additions to the app include a new Custom PIN feature. Users will be able to purchase a custom 6-8 character alpha-numeric pin form the BBM store for $1.99 a month. Another new opt-in payment option is the removal of advertisements from the messenger feed, which will set you back an additional $0.99 a month. This all sound way too price, but Blackberry does need all the income it can get right now. Read more »

Today Google has released the latest version of its Maps application for iOS. Google Maps 4.3.0 is already up for grabs from the iTunes App Store, for both iPhone and iPad (running iOS 6.0 or later). The update brings with it a few new features.

For starters, you now see nearby businesses when you look up an address. Additionally, you get quick facts on popular points of interest, and you can add transit directions to your calendar. Read more »

The Swiss are famous for their watches, but have been very shy about smartwatches so far. Mondaine (makers of the iconic Swiss railway clocks), Frederique Constant and Alpina (an FC subsidiary) have all introduced smartwatches at Baselworld, a key watch and jewellery industry showcase event.

The Mondaine Helvetica No. 1 (with labels in the namesake font) is based on the regular watch model of the same name but sprinkles some smart functionality. Read more »

Apple has added nine new cities to the list of locations that are covered under the 3D Flyover feature offered by its iOS and OS X Maps applications. The new cities include Baton Rouge, LA; Boise, ID; Edinburgh, Scotland; Cáceres, Spain; Guadalajara, Mexico; Ponce, Puerto Rico; Venice, Italy; Linz, Austria; and Rennes, France.

If you aren’t already aware, the Flyover feature, which first debuted in iOS 6 and OS X Yosemite, lets you take a high-resolution 3-dimensional tour of locations, allowing you to zoom in on important buildings, landmarks, and other areas of interest. Read more »