Hasta La Gadget!

Mobile VoIP service Viber has decided to put down roots on the desktop, with the launch of OS X and Windows versions that turn the messaging system into a legitimate Skype alternative. The new Viber Desktop apps – which come alongside updates to its mobile software – support the majority of the features smartphone users are familiar with, but also benefit from intelligent message and call routing which means not every device will bleep whenever a new alert comes through.

Instead, after the first alert is made across all devices logged into the same account, Viber will only then notify the user on the device they initially check. So, if you’re at your desktop, and you use Viber on your PC or Mac, you won’t also have your phone vibrating gleefully to itself by the keyboard every time somebody IMs you.

The per-device awareness also allows Viber to do call-transferring, handing over ongoing VoIP calls to different devices as with a multi-extension system. There’s also contact and message sync, meaning all devices have the same call records.

Viber for Mac:

Both HD-voice quality audio calls and video calling is supported, and there’s text and photo messaging too; Viber also supports group conversations of up to 40 people. As for the mobile apps, there’s now support for stickers and emoticons in messages, the ability to send locations as messages, and the ability to use your phone’s sounds rather than the default Viber alerts.

Viber Desktop for Mac and Windows hits as Skype gets competition is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Facebook’s been giving its Messenger app quite a few facelifts lately, with the arrival of Chat Heads and VoIP calling among the highlights. Today, an app update was released for iOS that lets users add stylized critter stickers to messages, freeing them from the crippling visual limitations of emoticons in textual communications — largely identical to the recent Android update. The upgrade also enables a swipe to delete feature to remove conversations from inboxes for good, saving users precious fingertips from an extra tap or two in the process. If your iPhone hasn’t already told you about version 2.4, you’ll find the fresh download at the source below.

Filed under: Software, Facebook

Comments

Via: The Next Web

Source: App Store

Google has updated its Gmail app for iOS with a feature that many users most likely have been begging for. The app now redirects links to other Google apps, such as YouTube, Google Maps, and Chrome. Any links that appear in an email in the Gmail app will automatically go to one of these three apps if installed on your iOS device.

iOS isn’t too friendly on letting users choose what app that links open in — iOS simply defaults to Safari and other default apps, which a lot of users don’t like particularly. However, Google seems to be taking matters into their own hands by adding the ability to choose whether or not links in emails in the Gmail app open up using one of Google’s other iOS apps.

You can choose these settings in the app by individually choosing whether or not you want a certain app to be used when opening up links. Previously, you want have to find a jailbreak tweak that could let you choose what app you wanted the link to open up in, and you still have to do that for some apps, but at least Google users can now have deeper integration in iOS.

This update comes after Apple cut ties with Google by removing the default YouTube app and Maps app from iOS 5 and replaced it with their own solution. Google eventually released native apps, like YouTube, Google Apps, and Chrome, all of which can be integrated with Gmail in this new update.

Gmail for iOS update links Google apps directly is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Back in January, XBMC for Android trotted out what it called the first End User Friendly build of its mobile media center — a release designed with compatibility in mind. Half a million downloads later, the team is ready for the custom build’s first major update, releasing XBMC for Android’s first stable End User Friendly version today. “This is the first and only truly End User Friendly release of XBMC available on the internet,” writes the team on its official blog. “We’re hoping that it will in time bring XBMC to a whole new mainstream level.” For the uninitiated, the release page gives new users a brief rundown of what XBMC is, explaining how the software snags streaming content from all over the web and serves it to the user in a single, easy to access place. Installation is a little more complicated than simply hitting up Google Play, but folks who tried the team’s last release should be familiar with the process: sideload two APKs, and jump in. Check out the release for yourself at the source.

Comments

Source: XBMC for Android

Officially, Google Glass apps – Glassware, that is – are developed using the Mirror API, and there are a fair number of them available now with more sure to come in the future. On the other hand, there are sideloaded apps, which are installed as APKs and aren’t supported by Google. As far as sideloaded apps go, accessing them once they’re installed isn’t the easiest thing in the world. That’s where Launchy will come in.

Launchy is a project “in the pipeline” by Mike DiGiovanni, who developed Bulletproof and Winky, two sideloaded apps that have garnered a fair bit of attention. The first, Bulletproof, gives the user’s Glass a lock screen not unlike the one you use on your smartphone. And the second, Winky, does what its name suggests – enables winking as a way to inconspicuously take a photograph.

On his Google+ account today, DiGiovanni announced a new sideloaded app he is working on, this one that aims to make all other sideloaded apps easier to use – Launchy, an app launcher. This would be Google Glass’s first app launcher, and will bring a much-needed ability to the device, simplifying the use of sideloaded apps and, perhaps, taking the non-supported software side of Glass to the next level.

Says DiGiovanni about his project: “The big problem for most Native app development with Glass, is that once you install an app, there is no way for you to launch that app easily. Launchy is going to fix that. I figured out a way to get Launchy running from GlassHome without affecting general usability too much.” He goes on to state that the launcher is Glassy-looking.

[via Self Screens]

Google Glass to get sideloaded app launcher is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.