Back in July a few people spotted an odd new Buy button next to certain product-related tweets in their Twitter timelines. Starting today this feature is officially in testing, the social network has announced.

For now, you’ll only see Buy buttons next to some tweets if you’re in the US. Even if you are, you might not get the new feature, as it will first be available for just “a small percentage” of users. Read more »

In a somewhat unexpected revelation from digital analytics leader comScore, two out of every three US smartphone users don’t download any new apps for their smartphones.

The study, which examines US smartphone trends, shows that under 35% of smartphone users install at least one app per month, and of those less than 11% install more than 3 apps per month. Read more »

Popular mobile messaging service WhatsApp crossed another major milestone recently. The company CEO announced on Twitter that WhatsApp is now service over 600 million monthly active users.

The CEO was quick to point out that it’s active users, that is, people actually using the service everyday, and not just registered users, which would be a bigger number but a lot of those people won’t actually be using the service. Read more »

LG today has taken a step forward in home audio optimization with the introduction of its new LG Music Flow system.

By combining its new Music Flow Player app and a wide range of new speaker units, Music Flow is set to help you easily create a robust multi-room home audio system, sans any wires. Read more »

Google’s Voice Search has come a long way since its inception, and the latest feature allows you to add multiple language support to your search queries.

Not only does this help multi-lingual users by adding up to five supported languages, but even has the ability to differentiate between them in the middle of your query. This means that you can start in English, then throw in a word here and there in another language and Google Voice will recognize it. Read more »

So AT&T won’t be the first to introduce mobile LTE mediacast streaming, that honor belongs to Verizon, but the carrier doesn’t plan on leaving its customers out in the cold.

The streaming will roll out in stages, with the more robust LTE coverage areas enjoying the mediacasts first. Read more »

We talked about the Bolt service a few days back. The app is now officially available on iOS and Android, but only in New Zealand, Singapore, and South Africa for now.

Bolt lets you have a group of close friends that you can instantly send photos or videos to. Just tap on their contact name and it takes a photo and sends it. You can press and hold on the contact name to send a video. Just like with Snapchat, the photos and videos are not sent and are removed from your device when you swipe them away. Read more »

Starting next year Hilton will allow iPhone users to use their phones as hotel room keys. That means that you’ll be able to bypass the front desk of the hotel completely.

Currently as is iPhone users do have the Hilton app but upon walking into a hotel they’d still need to get a physical key with the app handling online check-in, reservations and such – Android users have the same deal going on but there’s no word on using your droid to unlock Hilton doors, although it should happen as well. Read more »

Microsoft has a new ad out and it pits Windows Phone 8.1′s virtual assistant Cortana against Apple’s own Siri in a fight to prove which is the best.

The assistants battle on the grounds of a Lumia 635 and iPhone 5s. Microsoft naturally picks its strong suits asking Cortana for things it knows it can do like set up a reminder for the next time a contact calls. Read more »

Snapchat’s incredible popularity has its competitors scrambling to come up with an equivalent service to engage the masses. Despite several attempts, no one has really managed to match Snapchat’s success.

After failing to acquire Snapchat, Facebook came up with the godawful Slingshot app, which I’m sure even Facebook employees aren’t using at this point, leave alone the average users. But Facebook has an ace up its sleeve in the form of Instagram, and so now they are using Instagram’s popularity to take on Snapchat. Read more »

Microsoft’s OneNote team has made its own ad, spoofing LMFAO’s Sexy and I Know It and transforming it into Click it an I Note it.

The video is not professionally made but it’s still fun to watch and does a good job of getting the attention the OneNote app wants. Underneath it all, the ad celebrates the fact that OneNote now has integration with the Microsoft Surface Pro 3. Read more »

If you have Facebook installed on your phone, then you’ve been harassed, at least once, to install the Facebook messenger application.

After you’ve caved in and gotten used to the intrusive chat heads feature, prepare for Facebook’s eventual monetizing of its popular app. Read more »

Google is currently updating its Maps app on Android devices to version 8.2. Upon release we saw the changelog and it had biking elevation info, voice actions in navigation, better My Places menu but Google didn’t say anything about the Explore Nearby page.

Explore Nearby has been sighted by a couple of users and it manifests via a shortcut right next to the GPS button in the Maps interface. When you select it you’re taken to a separate menu that gives you information on where you are, what’s the weather and lists points of interests, broken down by the time of day. Read more »

Amazon has made a new service official today. It’s called Kindle Unlimited and it provides all-you-can-read access to 600,000 books in the retailer’s portfolio, and it also lets you listen to thousands of audiobooks.

All of this costs $9.99 per month, hence why many people are calling it a ‘Netflix for books’. Read more »

Snapchat has added a new filter setting in the app called geofilters.

Now when you take a picture, just slide right and you will see a bunch of text filters that correspond to your location. You’ll only see filters for your location and it’s mostly just colorful text in fancy fonts and some images overlaid on your photos. If that’s something you’re into, then you have that option now. Read more »