Google has just announced it’s launching an update for the Play Store for phones and tablets. The major feature of the new release is the refreshed user interface.

In the official Android blog, Google states that the main focus on the Play Store redesign is to allow users to find content more easily. To do so, there are now bigger images, new recommendations and faster checkout. Read more »

Facebook announced its SNS-centric Home launcher and related software (like a new Messenger that also handles SMS) last week and will be releasing them to the Play Store on April 12. The most impatient Facebook addicts don’t have to wait that long though, as they can have a go at the new software today using leaked APKs that were ripped from an HTC First ROM.

For that you’ll need a phone that fits several requirements – a screen with no more than 1280 x 768 pixel resolution and no Facebook app installed. If Facebook is installed as part of your ROM, you’ll need to get rid of it for the APKs to work. Read more »

We got a peek at the upcoming Play Store 4.0 update a while back when the APK for the application got leaked out. Back then, however, while category and content pages were viewable, the home page for the app was unavailable.

Now thanks to this little leak by a YouTube employee, we can finally get a good look at this upcoming update for our Android devices. Read more »

Nokia has released a new desktop application for their Nokia Music service on Windows 8, which can be downloaded from the Windows Store and takes advantage of the new Modern UI.

The Nokia Music app, as you might know, let you stream music from Nokia’s vast library and even download them to play them offline. Nokia also offers features such as curated mixes, which are essentially ready-made playlists spanning across different genres and artists, and provides suggestions based on the music you listen to. Read more »

Twitter has updated the Android and iOS version of its mobile application, along with the mobile version of their website. The biggest changes are in the Android version, which gets a brand new UI that follows the new Holo UI guidelines (for most parts).

The new Twitter for Android now lets you swipe horizontally on the screen to move between the tabs on the top. This means that you can no longer swipe on an individual tweet to get quick access to tweet options. Moving between hierarchies is now accompanies by slick sliding animations where the next screen is stacked above the previous one, similar to the animation in the stock Android app drawer. Read more »

If you’re between 6 and 70 years old then you probably have or are still using Skype’s services for connecting with others on a daily basis. Well Skype is thanking all of you today with a special infographic because the service has reached 2 billion minutes a day milestone.

To put things in perspective (sort of) that means more than 3805 years or around 38 centuries of being connected on Skype, or enough time to walk around the Earth more than 845 times! Read more »

3DMark is one of the oldest and most used benchmark for testing computer graphics but has so far been available only on the Windows platform. Futuremark has now released an Android version of the popular benchmark, with an iOS and Windows RT version arriving shortly.

The mobile version of 3DMark borrows the Ice Storm benchmark from the full Windows 3DMark suite. While on Windows this benchmark runs on DirectX 11, on iOS and Android it will use OpenGL ES 2.0. The beauty of this benchmark is that it will let you compare scores not just on multiple devices of the same platform but also between Android, iOS and Windows devices, which few benchmarks can do right now. Read more »

SoundHound has updated the Android version of their popular music recognition app. The biggest change in this update is a new UI for Android tablet users. Although the previous UI was somewhat optimized for tablets, it still looked like the smartphone app was being stretched across the screen in landscape mode.

In the updated version, the app will now show you large thumbnail for the tracks on the side, instead of a simple, stretched out list in the previous version. Read more »

The Gmail app for iOS has received another update, which brings it to v2.1. One of the key new features in this update is that you can now move between mails simply by swiping horizontally on the screen. This functionality has existed in the Android version of the apps for a while now but only now has it made an appearance on iOS. The feature is only available on the iPhone, as on the iPad you can simply tap on the mail list on the side.

Another change in 2.1 is that you can now mark multiple mails in the inbox and then take a bulk action on them, including archive, delete or more from the action bar. This feature is available on the iPhone as well as the iPad. Read more »

Google Translate is a great tool for bridging the gap between languages – the Android app was pretty awesome but it let you down when you needed it most, in a foreign country with no data connection. That’s no longer an issue, as the latest version of Translate for Android (requires 2.3 and above) can download offline language packs for 50 languages.

All the popular languages are available and even less common languages are included, like Haitian Creole, Maltese and Esperanto. Read more »

Flipboard has updated the iOS version of their app, just when the service reached 50 million users. The new update brings with it some minor UI changes, but the major new feature is the ability to create and share custom magazines.

The new custom magazine feature lets you create a magazine of all your favorite articles on Flipboard. You can create a magazine of, say, a certain type of articles and then add all the related favorite articles of yours in it. Read more »

Nokia Transit is a great app for those relying on public transportation, but so far it was exclusive to Lumia phones. Well, not for long – a beta version of the app can be installed on the full touch Nokia Asha 3xx phones.

In case you’re unfamiliar with Transit, here’s what it does – it finds nearby stations (or you can search for stations by address), tells you about departure times and can plan a route to your destination, even across several lines and modes of transportation. There are detailed instructions for each route and favorite routes can be saved for offline usage. Read more »

Google has updated the mobile app for Android and iOS and introduced some new UI changes along with added features. One of the first major updates is the introduction of new image filters. Yes, Google+ now joins the ranks of countless social networking apps that let you add gaudy filters to your images before posting them.

The image filter option is thanks to the recent acquisition of photo editing application Snapseed. Although the editing options in the Google+ aren’t as comprehensive as in the Snapseed app there are a ton of filters for you to choose from. Interestingly, the photo filters are only available in the iOS version of the Google+ app. Read more »

Back in February, Facebook launched free calling through its Messenger for iOS app in the US and Canada.

Today, the company is expanding its VOIP service to the United Kingdom, as well. Read more »

Apple has acquired the indoor navigation company WifiSLAM. The Cupertino giant paid $20 million for the two-year old Silicon Valley startup.

WifiSLAM, as its name mildly suggests, has developed an indoor location method based on Wi-Fi signals coming from routers in the building. Read more »