app

Buycott app lets you vote with your wallet in the supermarket

Supermarkets are labyrinthine behemoths laid out in a convenient linear fashion. So where's the maze? On the supermarket shelves, of course. Food products galore stare back at us, silently appealing to our penchants for sugar, salt, and fat. We pick and choose, knowing full well what we are getting into. But it's the hidden components that are increasingly becoming a salient issue.

If supermarket shelves are overwhelming due to the sheer diversity of items, imagine the corporate structure behind the packaging. Or don't; just let your phone do it. Scan any bar code (UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN8, EAN13...) with your phone and the free Buycott app (for iOS; a previously available Android version is now "Coming soon") will display the product's corporate family tree on the screen. The app takes knowing where your food comes from further, telling you not only what brand belongs to what company, but what that company does with your dollars.… Read more

Apple's App Store downloads hit 50 billion

Apple's App Store on Wednesday passed another major benchmark, topping 50 billion app downloads.

That's according to the countdown timer on Apple's Web site and in iTunes. Apple also confirmed the benchmark on Twitter:

We just hit 50 billion app downloads. Thank you. It couldn't have happened without you. #50BillionApps tw.appstore.com/hgE

— App Store(@AppStore) May 15, 2013

The person who downloaded the 50 billionth app will get a $10,000 App Store gift card from Apple, and the 50 people who downloaded apps right after that each will receive a $500 gift card. … Read more

BlackBerry's developer guru on its Android apps: Users hate them

ORLANDO, Fla. -- BlackBerry's advice for getting love from "CrackBerry" nation: build a native app.

In an effort to augment its library, BlackBerry allowed developers to port over existing Android apps to run on BlackBerry 10 devices. While most of them work, they can't access major features on the device. BlackBerry users notice the difference.

"From a commercial perspective, users hate them," said Alec Saunders, head of developer relations at BlackBerry. "Our partners who have ported apps get dinged for them."

There's some momentum behind app development for BlackBerry 10, Saunders … Read more

Watch ABC app arrives with live TV for iOS, Web

ABC's new live TV video service Watch ABC has arrived on smartphones, tablets, and the Web, though its availability is highly limited for now.

Disney/ABC on Tuesday announced the availability of the live programming feature in its mobile app in New York City as well as Philadelphia though local respective networks WABC-TV and WPVI. The update adds a "live" button to ABC's newly renamed Watch ABC software for iOS devices that lets users in those markets watch live streams of those two stations, just like they would on a TV.

News of the feature came over the weekend … Read more

Fit Radio streams up-tempo tunes to motivate your workout

The more I run, the more I realize my regular playlist isn't cutting it. Even with some 150 hand-picked songs, I get bored hearing the same ones over and over. And although they're among my favorite power-pop tunes, they're quite diverse when it comes to tempo. I need songs of at least 128 beats per minute (bpm) to keep me running strong.

Enter Fit Radio, a free app (Android|iOS|Web) that streams up-tempo playlists designed to amp up your workout. It's like Songza for sprinters, or maybe Pandora for bike peddlers.

The app is divided … Read more

Easily import Astrid tasks to Any.Do on Android, iOS

The most important feature your to-do list needs is accessibility. A written grocery list you forgot on your kitchen counter doesn't help you much at the store. For this reason, among others, many people use a to-do list manager on their mobile device. But what happens when the app you're using shuts down their service? That's the thought on many users' minds following Yahoo's recent acquisition of Astrid

Fortunately, some of the other to-do list apps are stepping up to help you migrate your data. Such is the case with Any.Do, which released … Read more

Microsoft touts Office 365 buyers that dumped Google Apps

There are a lot of businesses that pay for office suites, but two days before the Google I/O show, Microsoft spotlighted three that picked its Office 365 after trying Google Apps.

Google got a head start with Google Apps, the online service that includes Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. But Microsoft has a massive customer base using its old-school Office products who are natural candidates for moving to Microsoft's online suite.

Three customers -- Sensia Halsovard, Sepco III, and Arysta LifeScience -- all picked Office 365 "after having deployed or piloted Google Apps," Microsoft touted Monday. … Read more

Review: Manage your files and transfers with ZipApp Free

The iPad and iPhone are perfect for file transfers. They are portable, have remote connections to the Internet and allow you to access the files and view them on the go, something that a flash drive cannot do. However, file sharing is very limited as it is and requires a third-party app, so there are tools like ZipApp that allow you to quickly and easily move files from your computer to your device.

The concept is similar to other iOS file sharing tools--open the app and click on the upload or share button. Now go to a computer and open … Read more

Manage to-dos with these four Android apps

For a long time, Astrid was considered a go-to task management app for Android users. But with its recent acquisition by Yahoo and the news that it will soon be going away, fans of the app will soon be looking for alternatives. With that in mind, I've put together a list of four of my favorite to-do managers for Android. In some ways they may even outdo the popular Astrid, but feel free to tell us in the comments how you think they stack up.

Wunderlist (free) The beauty of Wunderlist lies in its simplicity. It easily syncs across … Read more

Eight features that a 5-star GPS navigator should have

There was a time when all that a GPS device needed to do was get you from point A to point B -- preferably alive and in one piece. Over time, we began to expect so much more. We wanted hands-free calling, syncing of contacts, large databases of local destinations, and traffic data. The bar for what counted as a good GPS device had to be raised.

That bar is still rising, faster yet and higher than ever now that GPS navigators must compete with smartphones and tablets. Simply getting from point A to point B isn't enough when … Read more