Google Maps was updated with a refreshed UI as announced at Google I/O 2013 and the update had dropped the offline map support, which wasn’t particularly well received.

Fortunately, Google engineering team has heard the pleas and has brought back the offline caching in its new Maps app. A large “Make this map area available offline” button has been added below the search box. Read more »

Google has updated the Android version of the Chrome browser with some useful new features. Chrome now has a fullscreen mode on tablets, which means the toolbar on top hides when you scroll down, a feature that was present on smartphones before and is now on tablets as well.

Another useful addition is the translate feature that was present on the desktop version of Chrome. Now if you open a page that is in a different language from your system language, the browser will offer to translate it for you. Read more »

Foursquare has expanded its reach, by launching its mobile app for Nokia S40 phones, which means the Asha lineup will finally get to taste it.

Foursquare for Series 40 app will give 35 million of people around the globe, who still use the S40 phones, to have access to the service. Read more »

Opera for Android, one of most popular third-party browsers for the Google OS has been updated. The latest version of the browser now runs on Chromium 28, which is a lot faster than ever before.

Opera for Android now has an improved start-up time along with improved tab-UI animations. The update also brings a new “open in private tab” context menu and has updated the overall translations. Read more »

Google has started rolling out an update to the Maps application on Android, which brings it to version 7.0.0. The biggest change in this update is a refreshed UI, which was first displayed back at the Google I/O 2013 event.

The updated UI brings the Android version of the app in line with the iOS version, along with the new beta of the web version. There is a new, always visible floating search bar on top, which isn’t really any quicker to use but has slightly more functionality built-in, namely the ability to quickly set a navigation route and look up contact details. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S4 mini was announced a month after the Galaxy S4 flagship hit the shelves worldwide. The mini version is powered by a less capable dual-core Snapdragon 400 chipset but still runs on the latest Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean skinned with Samsung’s own TouchWiz and promises the same solid smartphone experience as the flagship.

We did an extended preview at the announcement day, but now we get finally to meet with the final unit and do a complete review. Read more »

If you’re of the small demographic who own Windows Phone 8 devices devices not made by Nokia (which is now under 20% of WP users), you’d be glad to hear that Nokia is making its HERE Drive+ navigation service available to all WP8 smartphone.

Until now, HERE Drive+ and its global, offline turn-by-turn navigation was exclusive to high-end Lumias, and one of the key advantages to owning a Lumia over other WP8 devices. Read more »

Anyone who uses Twitter regularly knows how annoying it is to receive a direct message (or DM, as they are commonly known) on one of your Twitter apps and read it, only to find it still being marked as unread on all the other apps. Thankfully, the latest update fixes this issue, at least on the official first party Twitter apps.

In a co-ordinated update to its iPhone, iPad, Android, OS X apps, as well as TweetDeck, Twitter Web and Twitter Mobile, Twitter now syncs your read DMs, which means reading them on one device automatically marks them as read on other official apps. Read more »

We already know that quite a few Samsung smartphones and slates will get to taste Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean eventually. The previously leaked list includes both single and dual SIM models of the Galaxy Grand.

What we didn’t know though is when to expect those updates to launch. Well, it seems the new firmware for the ample-screened Samsung Galaxy is just around the corner,. Read more »

It’s not everyday that the world’s most popular application store turns five years old so it’s natural that some celebrations are in order. Although it hasn’t quite reached that milestone just yet, some of the developers have decided to go ahead and start the festivities anyway.

Starting today and for a limited time, these apps and games are free on the App Store. For now, the list includes titles like Infinity Blade II, Badland, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Tiny Wings, Traktor DJ, Barefoot World Atlas, etc. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Camera, the Android based point and shoot camera comes with a specially designed camera app, which offers some cool features for advanced photographers.

But you no longer need to get the Galaxy Camera to enjoy those as the app has been successfully ported to work on Samsung Galaxy S4, courtesy of an XDA developer. Read more »

Kim Dotcom’s file hosting service MEGA now has an official app for Android called, well, MEGA. The app isn’t new per se – MEGA just acquired one of the top third party apps, which is a wise move instead of developing your own app.

The MEGA app should be familiar to those who have used apps for other file hosting services before. You can manage your account, create folders, upload and download files, move, rename or delete them, search for them or even share them. There is also a camera sync feature that automatically uploads your camera images to your MEGA account. Read more »

Google has published the Beautiful Design Summer 2013 collection on Google Play and the heap includes 11 beautiful apps with well-crafted design details.

Google has set a very high standard for this category and these applications pay attention to detail, which makes an app truly beautiful, transitions are fast and clear, layout and typography are crisp and meaningful. Read more »

A vulnerability in Android that exists from Android 1.6 Donut, allows you modify any signed application into a Trojan program and steal data or take control of the OS, according to mobile security firm Bluebox.

The San Francisco-based company has found out the security glitch present in Android affects 99% of the devices and the company claims to have informed the Google developers about the flaw in the OS. Read more »

Vine has updated the iOS version of its app with several new features. First of all, there are some new camera tools such as grid mode, focus and ghost. Focus allows you to tap on the screen to focus at a particular point (usually tapping on the screen starts the recording). Ghost places a translucent overlay of your last shot on the viewfinder to make composition easier.

The other new feature is channels. There are now 15 channels that you can upload your videos to, such as comedy, music, art, cats, dogs, etc. and you can also choose to view Vines from a particular channel. Read more »