The free internet messenger and calls service Viber has been shut down in Saudi Arabia as it has failed to comply with local regulations. The Communications and Information Technology Commission in the country has also issued a warning it’ll do the same to other applications and services that don’t comply with the regulations.

Quarts reports that Viber. Skype and WhatsApp have received a warning from the Saudi telecommunications regulator back in March. The shutdown could be a result of a failure of Viber to provide the CITC a local server to monitor user activity. Read more »

According to a report by AllThingsD Apple has sealed а deal with Sony and, having secured deals with Warner and Universal, could be all but ready to launch its rumored iRadio service at the WWDC event starting on June 10.

iRadio (or whatever it will be called) is touted as Apple’s answer for services like Spotify and Pandora (and not to mention major rivals in the face of Amazon and Google) and will bring music streaming with the option for purchasing songs (see picture above). Read more »

Evernote is one of the (if not the) best and most complex ways of storing and organizing notes and all sorts of content. It’s latest update for Android finally brings one of the most often requested featured – reminders.

Version 5.1 adds the ability to make just about every note into a reminder and set a day and time for Evernote to remind you about it. Read more »

When BlackBeery announced that its Messenger service (BBM) was coming to iOS and Android many people, including me, got very excited, but unfortunately, the company wasn’t ready to announce a release date back then.

Now, almost a month after the Blackberry Live 2013 conference, the company has announced that its BBM service will hit Android and iOS as a standalone app on June 27. Read more »

Google updated its Calendar app for devices running Android Jelly Bean 4.1 and above and those of us that are heavy Calendar users can now enjoy a variety of colors for events. There’s also the option to set a default calendar (if you have more than one) as well as a nifty new date and time picker interface.

The most notable improvement are the color options, which have finally arrived to Google Calendar and are probably the best way of organizing events – for instance birthdays purple, work stuff in red, personal errands in green, etc. Read more »

Google Maps has extended the coverage of its directions for cyclists to cover several more European countries, including Germany, France, Poland, Ireland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.

If you live in any of those areas, you can now get Google Maps to give you directions for bicycle friendly roads, trails, and streets with bike lanes. Read more »

Nokia has introduced its Nokia Xpress Now app, which is an enhanced version of its Xpress Browser that offers efficient ways to browse the internet on a mobile phone.

Nokia Xpress Now is designed exclusively for Nokia Asha devices and the app delivers a real-time, personalized content based on your preference and those who use the browser. Read more »

As hinted several times, Google’s popular voice-operated search is making its way to the Chrome browser and Chrome operating system.

The new feature comes with support for Google’s Knowledge Graph for four additional languages, bringing the total up to 13. Read more »

Google has just announced at its annual I/O conference the Play Store app installs have crossed the 48 billion mark.

More than 2.5 billion installs were made just the last month, so we can expect the 50 billion mark to follow soon. Read more »

Microsoft has commenced a global rollout of full resolution video and photo uploads to its SkyDrive cloud storage service.

This feature was until now available only in some areas, with Microsoft stressing that the global rollout took so long due to the large bandwidth requirements. Read more »

After the launch of Google Now for iOS (check out our full review), Google’s charge on Apple’s mobile platform continues with the little, but important piece of code that allows developers to open links from their apps in Chrome instead of Safari.

The new feature is dubbed iOS links and iOS developers can utilize it to open links in Chrome; something that Google has been doing with its YouTube, Maps and Gmail apps for quite a while now. Read more »

Amazon continues to expand the availability of its own Android Appstore. The company announced the launch of the service in the Chinese market today, offering a large variety of both free and paid apps.

Interestingly enough, the Google Play store in China still doesn’t offer paid apps, making Amazon the first major player to offer those in the Far Eastern country. Rumors have it that the announcement will be followed by the release of the Kindle tablet lineup in the Chinese market, but we are yet to hear a timeframe for that. Read more »

Google Now is now available on iOS as a free update for the popular Google Search app. The iOS app recognizes voice and actually looks hotter than its Android peer (the cards have a nice CoverFlow-like view), but can’t quite match the functionality of the Google OS version.

For example you can’t interact with the iOS – you can’t invoke a call or a navigation route, you can’t setup an alarm, do a text a message or a note, etc. Also, Google Now on iOS doesn’t speak. Read more »

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a few surprises in store for those upgrading from the Galaxy S III. It uses a new NFC chipset, which doesn’t support the company’s older NFC tags, dubbed TecTiles. So if you’ve set up those around your crib keep in mind your new Galaxy S4 won’t be able to communicate with them.

Samsung has issued a statement that its new NFC tags, TecTiles 2, will be available in the coming weeks and will be compatible with older NFC-enabled devices. Read more »

Samsung is extending the standard 24-month warranty with an additional clause for accidental damage in certain markets at no extra cost. The accidental damage covers broken displays and boards damaged by liquids.

The new warranty will apply over 15 African countries and comes with a few limitations. Read more »