Periscope was launched by Twitter on iOS back in March, and today it’s finally become available for Android too. The app can already be downloaded from the Google Play Store, in fact. It should work on Android 4.4 KitKat or newer versions of the OS.

Periscope arrives on Android almost a month after its chief competitor, Meerkat (which was also iOS-only for a long while). Read more »

Opera’s headlining trick – compressing the web – is evolving in the time of high-powered smartphones. Opera Max enables a Turbo-like compression for any and all apps on your phone, not just the browser. And now not just mobile data either, Max can now handle your Wi-Fi usage.

“Why?” you may be asking. Simple – public Wi-Fi hotspots often suck worse than mobile data. Also, this allows Opera Max to improve your battery life too. Read more »

Microsoft has rolled its sleeves and branching out its apps as well as other services to rival platforms. Today, the company officially announced it will release its Cortana companion app for the iOS and Android platforms.

Cortana will not be a full-blown native app that it is on the Windows platform but Microsoft promises to work actively to include at least the notifications support. Read more »

We have been hearing rumors of the Photos app in Android for a while now but Android Police finally has some solid information on it, including lots of screenshots.

As you may know, the current Photos app in Android is part of the Google+ app, and you need a Google account to use it. However, Google has been working on separating it from Google+ and making it a standalone gallery app (and service). Read more »

Here are the best apps and games that came out this week.

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An update to Dropbox for Android gave the application a much deserved makeover. Version 2.6 brings the Android 5.0 Lollipop’s Material Design language to the cloud storage app.

The tabbed browsing interface of old has been replaced – users looking for files in photos and favorites will find them in the side menu. Read more »

Looks like Snapchat is planning to enter into e-commerce business as the company has invested in Spring, a shopping app that was launched just last year, according to a Recode report. There is, however, no information on the size of the investment as well as whether or not it has closed.

Spring raised $25 million in funding last month, but that did not include Snapchat. However, Jello Labs – the company behind Spring – has an option to raise another $5.7 million in a fresh round, which is where the messaging app company might step in, the report notes. Read more »

Over a month after there were reports that Nokia is contemplating a sale of its HERE maps business, CEO Rajeev Suri has said that the company is in no hurry to unload the division. He made the comment in an interview with trade magazine European Communications.

“Let’s give it more time…We may not end up selling it if we don’t get the right value. It has to be a good competitive deal for Nokia and our shareholders,” Suri said, while revealing that the division has managed to attract significant interest as the Finnish company is receiving high quality bids from potential buyers. Read more »

HTC released the official Sense Mail app in the Google Play store. The application functions like any other modern email app – one can read and compose emails, create folders, and manage multiple email accounts using it.

Designed using its own Sense UI language, the HTC Mail app offers useful customizations such as changing the font and its color, highlighting text, and more. Read more »

The lack of public transit directions in Apple Maps may be baffling, but it looks like the company is finally going to take care of this glaring omission soon. According to a new rumor, transit directions will be added to the Apple Maps app that will be part of iOS 9.

Apple’s next version of its mobile operating system should be demoed in June at the company’s annual developer-focused conference (WWDC). As in previous years, we expect iOS 9 to be released around the time the new iPhones ship, so probably in the fall. Read more »

BlackBerry has released a new version (v2.9.0.6) of its BBM beta app for iOS that brings along some new features as well as several bug fixes.

The update includes a new Timed Message feature that allows you to control how long messages and pictures you share with contacts can be viewed within BBM. It also adds support for the Message Retract feature that lets you remove your message from your BBM chat before or after it has been read by the recipient. Read more »

Google Maps just got a little bit smarter. It is a fact that the immensely popular maps and GPS navigation app already has at its disposal a large quantity of useful data, like traffic flow information, access to Google’s immense database of points of interest and numerous other things that all add up to an industry-leading experience.

Some of this data, however useful, often remain hidden away to most users. In an effort to remedy this and make contextual data available at precisely the right moment, Google Maps now features live traffic alerts and alternate route suggestions. If you have ever used an app like Waze, you are pretty much familiar with the concept. Read more »

The photo collage editor Layout by Instagram is now available for Android devices. The application was a available only for iOS since its launch in late March.

Layout for Android has the same design as its iOS counterpart and lets you combine multiple photos into a single image. Read more »

MixRadio is a streaming music service that started life as Nokia Music. It then got renamed to MixRadio, picked up by Microsoft as part of its Nokia acquisition, and subsequently sold to Japan’s Line Corp., which operates the messaging app with the same name. From the moment the music service got out of Microsoft’s hands, everyone was expecting it to become available for platforms other than Windows.

And today marks that much-anticipated event. MixRadio is now out for iOS and Android, in addition to Windows Phone. You can download its mobile apps from the iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store. Interestingly, though, it will continue to be preloaded on Microsoft’s Lumia devices. Read more »

Microsoft has been running an Office for Android preview for certain tablets since last fall, with it reaching the Play Store this January. And starting today, you can also use the Office preview apps for Android on a phone.

Microsoft is clearly taking its time while developing these apps, so don’t expect the ‘preview’ tag to be dropped anytime soon. Read more »