The iPhone Finds Its Voice

The iPhone 4S is one of Apple’s less dramatic updates, but, when combined with the Siri, iOS 5 and iCloud features, it presents an attractive new offering to smartphone users, writes Walt.

Until the Self-Driving Car for All, What Is Tech Doing Now to Drive Us to Non-Distraction?

Before we get autonomous cars, apps like voice news readers and context-dependent personal assistants might help drivers be a little more safe.
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News Byte

YPlan Raises $12M for Last-Minute VIP Tickets App

The “spontaneous going out app” YPlan has raised an awful lot of money based on some early traction in London. Invested in a $12 million Series A fund areĀ General Catalyst Partners, Wellington Partners, Octopus Investments, A-Grade, SLOW Ventures Fund and Shakil Khan. The company’s app, which helps secure tickets to sold-out events, has been downloaded 200,000 times, which it estimates amounts to 10 percent of iPhones in London. It will launch in New York next.

Could Pinterest Be the Last Big Web-First Internet Company?

Evan Sharp has an interesting theory about Pinterest and mobile.
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News Byte

Triaged Email at Tablet Scale: Mailbox App Comes to iPad

Mailbox, the iPhone email app that some folks really love — and that Dropbox loves so much it paid many millions for — is now available for the iPad. The swipe-to-triage service still only works with Gmail, but it has been modified with panels to fit the larger screen. No Android yet.

What Do We Need? Cheap Smartphones. When Do We Need Them? Now, Says Movile’s Bloisi. (Video)

Movile founder and CEO Fabricio Bloisi Rocha has some insights into the Latin American mobile market for y’all.
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Google Now Arrives on iPhone and iPad, in Mostly Complete Form

A loud-and-clear demonstration of Google’s and Apple’s differing mobile strategies.
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Donna Humanizes the Smart Personal Assistant App

Donna is a nicely designed — though narrowly useful — app that manages a busy person’s day.
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News Byte

HopStop Now Navigates Transit With the Wisdom of Crowds

Mobile transit app HopStop has redesigned its iPhone app to incorporate real-time updates about delays and other information reported by its users, from within the app. Though other services like Moovit have tried to create the equivalent of Waze for public transportation, HopStop points out that it has the benefit of two million monthly active users (a good number of whom joined last year after Apple’s default mapping app came out without transit directions of its own).

Location App Quadstreaker Turns the World Into a Game Board

“We’re going streaking through the quad!”
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Now Here’s Something You Don’t Hear Every Day: Tumblr Expects to Be Profitable This Year

For Tumblr, it might not be all about the eyeballs anymore. That is, if it makes huge gains in 2013.
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And for Their Next Trick, Smartphones Will Analyze Your Urine

Seesaw Decision-Making App Helps Ask Friends for Opinions

GoBank: It’s a Real Bank, and It’s Made by Real Internet People

Automakers Open Their In-Car Platforms: First Up, Ford, and Soon, GM

Microsoft: Google Is (Still) Blocking Us From Building YouTube for Windows Phone

Flywheel, the Taxi-Hailing App Formerly Known as Cabulous, Sidesteps Controversy

Google CEO Larry Page: Can’t We All Say Kumbaya?

News Start-Up Wavii Revamps Around Mobile

Fast-Growing Photo-Messaging App Snapchat Launches on Android

Under Its Original Owners, Webshots Reincarnates as Smile (Video)

Lift Launches Incredibly Simple Personal Motivation App

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