Nokia lobbies for Instagram on Windows Phone with new social app

07.03.2013, 8:44

How badly does Nokia want Instagram on its Windows Phone handsets? Apparently enough to create an app whose sole purpose is to spread the word by aping the very product they hope to bring on board.

Windows Phone Central reported Tuesday that Nokia has released #2InstaWithLove, a Windows Phone app for sharing Instagram-style photos to users’ social networks.

But there’s a little more to it: Images processed with the app automatically add a #2InstaWithLove hashtag as part of a campaign to get Instagram’s attention.

Instagram is the wildly popular social network dedicated to photo sharing first made popular on the iPhone, and more recently on Android devices as well.

While there are several apps already available on Windows Phone for adding Polaroid-style filters to photos, none come with the pedigree of Instagram.

“Many of you have asked when Instagram will be coming to Windows Phone, and the #2InstaWithLove app was created as a way for you to have your voice heard,” Nokia’s app description reads.

“It’s all about showing Instagram just how passionate the Windows Phone community is – so be creative, have fun and be sure to share your favorite photos with us using a social network of your choice.”

It remains to be seen if Nokia’s clever campaign will finally spark the interest of Instagram, which now boasts 100 million active users each month – not a single one of whom are using Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.

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Apple updates iBooks and iBooks Author at iPad mini launch

24.10.2012, 9:40

Apple has released a new version of the iBooks application and store, and has enhanced the iBooks Author tool for the creation of digital textbooks.

The updates were revealed by CEO Tim Cook during the iPad mini launch Tuesday and are already available to download from the App Store.

The revamped iBooks 3 app features a new "continuous rolling" reading option, which means if users flick the screen with their fingers, words will progress as they do when scrolling up and down a web page.

iBooks is now better integrated with iCloud, Cook explained, meaning every title customers have purchased now resides on their bookshelf.

Users can download titles by tapping the cover as they already can with previously purchased apps, music and movies.

New sharing options were also introduced, allowing users to post passages from books to Facebook and Twitter, while the app now supports over 40 languages, including vertical text in Chinese.

"The pages move from left to right just as you'd expect... if you're Japanese," quipped Cook during the unveiling.

The company said it now has 1.5 million books available to download from the store, while 400 million titles have now been downloaded by users in just over two years since the launch.

The iBooks Author refresh makes it easier for publishers to create multi-touch digital textbooks, bringing new templates, custom fonts and rendered mathematical expressions and formulas.

Better still, publishers can now push textbook updates directly to the user without the need to re-download the title, which is great for continually changing school curriculums.

The iBooks Author update is also available now and remains free to download.

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Google IO 2012 rumor: search giant to reveal new cloud service

25.06.2012, 8:30

According to published reports, Google is rumored to launch an expansion to its cloud offerings with a business-focused virtual serving client at Google IO 2012.

The news comes from “multiple sources who are familiar with Google’s plans” who reportedly confirmed that Google’s push into the cloud would expand on the existing services offered by the company’s App Engine.

However, the sources did not say how the new service would differ from the existing one, which allows businesses to host websites and run a limited suite of applications on virtual servers across Google’s data centers.

A push into business-grade cloud services for Google could change the way that its customers approach web design and hosting, and could boost participation in other Google Apps programs like Gmail, Docs, and Drive.

Opening up the infrastructure of the App Engine to open-source API’s and other web languages (currently just Python, Java, and Go) would put Google in direct competition with Amazon’s successful Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).

It would also preemptively square off the Mountain View-based web behemoth against Microsoft who is rumored to also be working on a more robust cloud computing solution than it’s current Windows Azure framework.

All three of these services currently perform at least three basic functions for businesses: storage, hosting, and application serving.

Amazon EC2 customers simply have more options for compatible applications than in Google’s App Engine.

Amazon managed to become the top dog in virtualized cloud service by running its 450,000 Linux server data center with as much open-source compatibility as possible.

If Google launches a revamped App Engine with a wider base and fuller functionality, it could become the new leader for web-based business software.

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Android Market adds auto app update feature

03.11.2011, 13:55

Google has been a touch busy this week refreshing its app for the Android Market, adding an ‘auto-update apps’ feature.

This small but rather significant change means that in future any app that needs updating can be done automatically without having to go into every single individual app to tweak this setting.

Another add-on is the ability to only update your apps when you have a Wi-Fi signal, which should alleviate any worries that auto updating will put you over any data usage limit you may have for your smartphone.

This little Android went to Market

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Considering the first few versions of the Android Market for phones and tablets sucked harder than a Dyson tackling a golf ball it’s nice to see Google giving more love to the app.

Google hasn’t had much luck with its apps recently, given that it had to pull its Gmail app for iOS, so let’s hope this update fares a little better.

The new Android Market update is version 3.3.11. Cherish it as it may well be the last time you actually have to manually update the service.

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