News

Cellphones

Caterpillar Aims to Make Splash With Rugged, Waterproof Android Phone

in Mobile on May 20 at 3:00 pm PT

The $349 phone is designed to be able to withstand a six-foot drop onto concrete or a 30-minute dip in a pool, all without adding too much heft to a standard Android phone.
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Applications

Email Money to Friends With Square Cash (But Only if You Work for Twitter, Pinterest or Box)

in Commerce on May 20 at 2:58 pm PT

A new kind of cash — via email — from the micro-payments company.
Square_Cash

Mobile Apps

New Hangouts App Conflicts With Google Voice Feature; Fix Coming

in News on May 20 at 9:42 am PT

Tough luck for Google Voice loyalists, as the new Hangouts messaging product denigrates a key function of Voice. Change is coming, but it could be a while.
google_hangouts_icon

Hardware

Meta Wants to Become the Next Augmented-Reality Glasses Phenom

in Product News on May 17 at 9:00 am PT

Meta wearers can interact with virtual games, architectural renderings and other 3-D objects by using their hands.
meta headset front on

News Byte

Nintendo Says 3DS-Exclusive Games Are Selling Better Than They Were Last Year

in News on May 16 at 4:25 pm PT

One P.S. to that IDC/App Annie report from this morning: Mobile games may be pulling in more money than those on “gaming-optimized handhelds,” but Nintendo doesn’t want you to count it out yet. The company said in a press release that games made exclusively for its most recent handheld device, 2011’s Nintendo 3DS, sold twice as well in the first four months of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012. It took 18 weeks to sell two million units of “first-party software” for the 3DS, vs. 30 weeks last year, according to the press release.

Google Demos Linux Running on Hacked Glass

in Mobile on May 16 at 3:07 pm PT

In a session at Google I/O, the company shows how to hack its Glasses, voiding the warranty but opening up new possibilities.
google_glass_penguin

Mobile

Support for Facebook, Twitter and Video Streaming Coming to Google Glass, With New Tools on the Way

in Mobile on May 16 at 10:24 am PT

In addition to the new partners, Google says a broader set of developer tools are coming.
google_glass

Gaming

Meet the Dudes Behind Dots, the iPhone Game of the Moment

in Product News on May 16 at 8:16 am PT

You might be surprised by their Dots scores.
Dots1

Mobile

Now Fully Kickstartered, Pebble Raises $15M in Venture Capital From CRV

in Mobile on May 16 at 8:00 am PT

Charles River Ventures backs the Kickstarter darling.
Pebblefactory

News Byte

King Touts Latest Gaming Numbers: 70 Million Daily Players, 21 Billion Games Played Per Month

in News on May 16 at 6:30 am PT

On the back of its hit Facebook/mobile game Candy Crush Saga, casual game studio King said in a press release that it has crossed the 70 million mark in daily active players across all platforms. That puts it within striking distance of Zynga’s all-time quarterly peak of 72 million daily active users (achieved in Q2 2012), and well beyond that competitor’s latest quarterly total of 52 million DAU, as reported last month. The company also said that its cross-platform games are now being played more than 21 billion times per month.

News Byte

Apple’s iTunes App Store Passes 50 Billion Downloads

in Mobile on May 16 at 12:01 am PT

Apple couldn’t have timed its countdown to 50 billion app downloads more perfectly. Just hours after Google revealed during its I/O conference keynote that app installs from its Google Play store had hit 48 billion, the iTunes App Store countdown clock rolled over to 50 billion, passing another major milestone and surpassing the achievement its rival had announced earlier in the day. The 50-billionth app? Say the Same Thing. Brandon Ashmore from Mentor, Ohio, will receive a $10,000 App Store gift card for downloading it.

Mobile Apps

Microsoft’s Anti-Google Campaign Gets a Boost, From Google

in Media on May 15 at 9:37 pm PT

Google tells Microsoft to turn off a home-grown YouTube app. Microsoft couldn’t be happier.
The_Trap_FilmPoster

Mobile Apps

Google’s Upcoming Maps App Includes Smarter Venue Search, Waze-Like Rerouting

in Product News on May 15 at 11:50 am PT

Google jabs at Apple, touting the accuracy of its own Maps app at Google I/O today.
Google Maps

Mobile

Google Gives Search a Deeper Voice and Adds Reminders and More to Google Now

in News on May 15 at 11:03 am PT

Conversational search, the knowledge graph and other improvements will fundamentally change the future of search, says longtime engineer Amit Singhal.
google_search_slide

Messaging

With Revamped Hangouts, Google Aims to Unify Messaging

in News on May 15 at 10:41 am PT

Google’s new take on messaging is finally here.
google_hangouts_icon

Websites

Google+ Gets a Bit More Pinteresting

in Social on May 15 at 10:40 am PT

Pinnnnnnnnnnteresting.
NewGooglePlus

Applications

Google Chrome: 750 Million Active Users, Synchronized Web and Mobile Browsing

in Product News on May 15 at 10:20 am PT

Not surprisingly, users of the Google Chrome Web browser are increasingly coming from mobile devices.
google_game_multidevice

Cellphones

Coming Soon From Google: A $649 Samsung Galaxy S4 Running Stock Android

in Mobile on May 15 at 9:58 am PT

The unlocked phone will cost $649, and will go on sale June 26.
samsung_galaxy_s4

Music

With Sights Set on Spotify (And Pandora), Google Launches a Music Subscription Service

in Media on May 15 at 9:56 am PT

It’s here. Will you use it?
google_music1

Hardware

With Square Stand, Jack Dorsey Brings High Design to the Point of Sale

in Commerce on May 14 at 9:05 am PT

A sleek piece of new hardware for Square-using small businesses.
square_stand1

Education

One Robot Per Child? Former Googler, Apple Engineer Tackle Educational Bots.

in Product News on May 14 at 9:00 am PT

A Bay Area-based startup is working on $100 robots that will help kids learn to code.
Kids' Robots

Mobile Apps

BlackBerry Messenger on iPhone and Android: A Big Move Made Too Late?

in Mobile on May 14 at 8:15 am PT

At long last, BlackBerry is taking its popular messaging service cross-platform.
bbm_cross_platform

Cellphones

New BlackBerry Q5 Targets Emerging Markets

in Mobile on May 14 at 6:47 am PT

Launching this summer.
blackberry_Q5_orange

News Byte

BlackBerry Ships BlackBerry 10.1 for Z10

in Mobile on May 14 at 6:35 am PT

BlackBerry 10.1, the first point release update to BlackBerry’s new operating system, has already shipped for the company’s Q10 handset. This week it begins rolling out to the touchscreen Z10, as well. Speaking at the company’s BlackBerry Live conference, CEO Thorsten Heins announced broad availability of BB 10.1 — which features enhancements like personalized notifications and support for Skype. “By the end of this week, the vast majority of our international carriers will offer this update,” Heins said. “Carriers in the United States will offer it by the end of the month.”

Gaming

Nvidia Details Shield, Its $349 Android Game Console

in Mobile on May 14 at 6:00 am PT

The Tegra 4-powered game console will ship in June, packing a five-inch Retina display and the ability to play Android games and stream games from a PC.
Nvidia Shield-feature