Hasta La Gadget!

Before the iPhone, the iPod, and iTunes, there was Napster. The original gangster of digital music distribution has undergone many changes since its heyday as a pirate’s Shangri-La, though this latest one seems to be the most fitting. A new app for the aforementioned iOS devices as well as the iPad has been launched, giving you the full Napster experience in a more portable form factor. That means that for $10 a month you can stream and cache music from a library of 10 million songs — yes, offline listening is available too — essentially turning your iDevice into the Apple equivalent of a Zune Pass-equipped music station. Good times ahead, eh sailor?

[Thanks, Louis Choi]

Napster app arrives on iOS, completes the circle of life originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 03:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Coming this holiday season to a Windows Phone 7 phone near you: Twitter, Netflix, Flixster, OpenTable, and Travelocity apps. The adroit coders behind those slices of software have managed to put together enough eye candy for Microsoft to highlight them as part of its announcement that the WP7 developer tools have been finalized. It doesn’t sound like anything dramatic has changed from the beta — which seems fitting given how close to the actual launch we now are — but a new Bing Maps Control SDK has been issued, allowing access to a cornucopia of map-related coding opportunities. We’re sure you’re just over the moon about that. Go past the break for a couple of Microsoft’s demo vids as well as a little Seesmic teaser or click the source for more.

Continue reading Microsoft demoes Twitter and Netflix apps for Windows Phone 7, releases final dev tools

Microsoft demoes Twitter and Netflix apps for Windows Phone 7, releases final dev tools originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nike’s dalliances with technology should be familiar to our readers by now, with the crowning jewel of course being the Nike+ run-tracking software that pairs a shoe-mounted sensor with your iPhone or iPod. Well, it was. The gargantuan sportswear company is moving with the times and throwing the hardware away with the introduction of its all-new Nike+ GPS application. No longer restricting our running shoe choice is groovy, but the app itself has the even loftier aim of simultaneously acting as your fitness guru, motivator and record keeper. And all it asks in return is access to the accelerometer and GPS modules inside your iOS 4-equipped iPhone or iPod touch (the latter’s lack of GPS means it loses out on route mapping, but all other features are retained). So, let’s see how this baby runs, shall we?

Continue reading App review: Nike+ GPS

App review: Nike+ GPS originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, that was snappy. Just 24 hours after Android Police published a piece describing how easy it was to circumvent Google’s new Android licensing server, the Big G is hitting back with a brief response that it promises to elaborate on in the future. In order to address any doubts that developers may have, Google has noted that its new service is still “very young,” and “the first release shipped with the simplest, most transparent imaginable sample implementation, which was written to be easy to understand and modify, rather than security-focused.” Interestingly, the outfit doesn’t hesitate to pass some of the blame, saying that some devs “are using the sample as-is, which makes their applications easier to attack.” For those who’d like to better obfuscate their code, Google will be publishing detailed instructions on how to do so in the near future. We also appreciate the honesty in this quote in particular: “100 percent piracy protection is never possible in any system that runs third-party code.” As stated, the bullet points listed in the source link should be fleshed out in due time, but at least you hard working developers can rest easy knowing that Google isn’t standing by and letting pirates run amok.

Google responds to Android DRM breach, promises how-to on obfuscating code originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You don’t need us to tell you that apps have grown to become a core part of modern smartphone ecosystems. Android and iOS, the two major app-centric OS environments are growing in leaps and bounds, while a substantial part of Windows Phone 7‘s eventual success is expected to hinge on exactly how it matches (or betters) those guys on the app front. So, what better excuse than that to check out this concept golf scoring app from Redmond? Designed using Microsoft’s favored Metro aesthetic, it really streamlines the user experience by employing “multiple touch targets [that] are spread out from one another” and distilling content down to large, easily readable data. We’ve got to say, it’s hitting the right note with us, but do follow along after the break to learn about a few of the WP7 design quirks — such as the drop-down system tray and the reason why rounded app icon corners are undesirable.

Continue reading Microsoft previews Windows Phone 7 app design process with a golfing scorekeeper (video)

Microsoft previews Windows Phone 7 app design process with a golfing scorekeeper (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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