Tag: ANDROID

Federal prosecutors in New Jersey have called for a grand jury investigation to determine whether or not smartphone apps have been illegally gathering and spreading users' personal information. According to the Wall Street Journal, federal authorities are looking into whether or not app manufacturers properly disclosed the kinds of personal information their apps collect from users, and whether ...

There were some who speculated that the arrival of the iPhone 4 on the Verizon network would spell not just certain death for AT&T, but put an end to Android's reign atop the smartphone heap at Big Red. So far, though, neither of those predictions has come to pass. AT&T has not suffered a mass exodus and, according to at least one analyst, the HTC Thunderbolt (Verizon's first LTE phone) is ...

Android users should be on the lookout for a malicious little app that's circulating around some file-sharing sites. The app, called 'Walk and Text,' advertises itself as a legitimate app of the same name, which uses a smartphone's camera to help guide texters as they walk. Unlike the real 'Walk and Text,' though, the fake app is available for free, and offers version 1.3.7 (which doesn't ...

Grab some popcorn and pull up a chair because this is gonna be good. Amazon just edged ever closer to world domination by offering a free cloud service that lets customers access their music from a range of devices. It's basically a huge eff-you to the record labels, with whom Amazon is still in negotiation over streaming rights. One anonymous executive put it to Reuters this way: "[It's] ...

We know that Google is planning a streaming music service for Android devices, and rumors of Apple offering a similar product have been circulating for years. Late last night, though, Amazon stole their thunder. With little to no fanfare, Amazon unveiled 'Amazon Cloud Player,' a service that comes bundled with 5GB of free Cloud Drive storage for uploading your music and other files, too. The ...

The new social photo-sharing app 'Color,' which shares photos with and from everyone within a 150-foot radius, landed last week, and immediately garnered some raised eyebrows from those concerned with silly things like privacy. But sharing your photos with anyone and everyone who might walk down the same block as you seems like a trivial complaint, now that security researcher and Veracode chief ...

There's probably never going to be a tablet that unseats the iPad, just as there never was an iPhone killer or a serious iPod competitor. But that doesn't mean that some companies won't make great products and fantastic business decisions. Case in point is RIM, which yesterday announced that the forthcoming BlackBerry PlayBook will support Android apps. There are some caveats, of course. For ...

Lala founder Bill Nguyen's new 'Color' app is keeping the app hype machine rolling by raising $41 million... before launch. The Lala founder's app arrived today at Color.com (the domain having been purchased for a cool $350,000) with commentators claiming that it will "transform the way people communicate with each other." Nguyen has been given huge media exposure by everyone from the New York ...

Amazon launched its own Android app store today, despite facing legal challenges from Apple. The Amazon Appstore will provide a new way for Android users to purchase apps for their mobile and tablet devices, while offering a few features unique to Amazon. Because the online retailer already enjoys a strong consumer base, Amazon will be able to integrate its own marketing and recommendation ...

After over a year of planning, the New York Times has finally unveiled its new paywall system, and one of the major beneficiaries may wind up being Apple. In addition to selling website subscriptions directly to readers, the Times will offer plans through the Apple App Store. That means that, in compliance with Apple's new subscription policy, the paper will hand over 30-percent of the revenue ...

Rovio, the game company that introduced us all to the joys of ornithological warfare, has announced that the upcoming 'Angry Birds Rio' will launch exclusively on the Amazon Appstore. The game, available for Android users, is designed as a companion to the animated movie 'Rio,' slated to hit theaters on April 15. Android gamers will also be able to download ad-free versions of the original ...

Foursquare has released an update for Android and iOS, bringing search functionality and a new Explore feature to the location-based service. Released just in time for SXSW 2011, Foursquare 3.0 offers recommendations to users via the new Explore menu. The suggestions are based on a variety of information, including places where they and their friends have checked in, locations that are popular ...

Since your writer is an Apple fangirl, there is nothing she enjoys more than a bit of corporate schadenfreude whenever tech manufacturers grit their collective teeth at Apple's latest release of yet another much-hyped device. Poor Samsung, the maker of the Android-based Galaxy Tab, has decided to reconsider its tablet's pricing, and, according to Executive VP Lee Don-Joo, "improve the parts that ...

Despite being tech bloggers, we're all about unplugging for a while, and setting aside time to be tech-free. Reboot, a Jewish non-profit organization, also wants you to find time to unplug, specifically in honor of the sabbath. The group has created both a mobile app and Web app called 'Sabbath Manifesto,' which helps to remind you to disconnect, and allows you to tell others about your plans ...

There are plenty of options out there for tracking your phone if you lose it, such as the free and cross-platform Prey. But Plan B, from the mobile security firm Lookout, has a unique feature; you don't have to install it before you lose your phone. Thanks to Android's new ability to install apps over the Web, you can simply point your browser to the Android Market site, and install Plan B -- ...