A few days ago some people spotted a new feature in Google Maps for Android – Explore Nearby. And now the search giant has made it official, though it also works on iOS.

Explore Nearby lets you discover stuff that’s close to you with the tap of one button (which is located in the bottom right corner of the map). 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 »

The OnePlus One is getting a tasty treat today, as the company launches an Android 4.4.4 KitKat stock ROM as an alternative to the phone’s custom CyanogenMod 11S ROM.

Thanks to the new piece of software, OnePlus One owners can have a 100% vanilla Android feel on their phones, that’s officially developed by OnePlus. Read more »

If you’re a foodie or just someone who has difficulty on deciding where to eat, then you’ve probably heard of Yelp.

You’ve probably heard of Foursquare as well, the restaurant application that was primarily used for checking into places to let your friends know where you’ve eaten. However, Foursquare wants to change that. 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 »

If you are an Amazon Prime member, you might’ve been let down by the announcement of Amazon Prime music as it’s track list was a bit lackluster.

Well the online retailing giant is backing its mobile music streaming service heartily by adding a whole new slew of tracks to its library. Read more »

If you’ve been using Uber, and consequently, annoying Taxi drivers, while using your Windows Phone, you might be happy to hear that you’ll no longer have to use the mobile version of the car service site to book rides.

The Uber application has returned to Windows Phone, but you might not be completely satisfied with the app’s feature set. Read more »

One thing that has so far differentiated Skype from other messaging services such as WhatsApp or Viber is the latter two’s focus on using your phone number as an identifier. That, though, is about to change.

Microsoft has just announced that the next version of Skype for Android will be able to add people from your phone’s address book. Read more »

Google has started rolling out an update for the Play Store application on Android that updates the UI with Material Design elements. This is the same update we heard about before back when it had leaked.

Those expecting a complete UI overhaul might be a bit disappointed, however, as this can only be called a semi-Material Design update. The only thing changed here are the product pages for the apps, games, movies, music, magazines and books. The actual homepage (which is terrible, by the way) and the category lists still look the same as before. Read more »

eBay’s barcode scanning software, RedLaser, is now branching out from just Android and iOS.

It’ll now be available for Google Glass as well, so you’ll be able to take a look at products in the store and see if you can find them cheaper on eBay, just at a glance. Read more »

In the battle of the mobile personal assistants, Google Now seems to have the edge compared to Apple’s Siri. At least that’s what a study conducted by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has found.

Google’s service has become slightly more accurate than Apple’s, despite the situation being the opposite last December. Read more »

Amazon has silently released a new app for Android, which is already available in both the Play Store as well as the retailer’s own Appstore. It’s called Amazon Wallet, but despite the name it doesn’t let you make mobile payments, nor can it store your credit and debit cards.

For now, what it does do is act like a storage space for your various gift and loyalty cards from different stores, with options to organize those as you see fit. The app is still in beta, though, so more functionality is expected to come in the future. Read more »

Microsoft is shutting down Nokia’s Android program, but this can’t stop the determined Finns from bragging their custom launcher on the Nokia X2.

Despite that all future Nokia X designs and devices will be immediately transferred to Windows Phone, Nokia has launched a promo video of the enhanced Fastlane feature on the X2, which is now smoother and offers more information with a quick glance. 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 »

AppAnnie is a mobile application statistics aggregation company and it has published a report on how Android and iOS apps have been doing in Q2 of this year. Both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store did great for the quarter, besting their results in Q1 by 60% and 45%, respectively.

That gave the Google Play Store, nearly 50% more downloads compared to the iOS App Store. It terms of revenue, however, it’s the Apple repository that still comes ahead. Read more »