Hasta La Gadget!

Ping wasn’t the only Apple service to go offline at the tail end of September. Chomp, an app search engine purchased by Cook and Co. earlier this year, also closed up shop. In the spring, the service discontinued support for Android apps, and now its entire website and iOS application have been shuttered. Folks who still have the app installed are greeted with the bad news upon launching it: “Chomp has been discontinued as of September 30. Thanks for being a loyal user.” If you’re mourning the loss, we hear Yahoo would be delighted to make your acquaintance.

Filed under: Software

Apple’s app search engine goes dark, Chomp joins Ping in obsolescence originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 13:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T’s already working on an app to keep folks from texting while driving, but earlier this month it gave folks at a Los Angeles hackathon the chance to develop their own solution. David Grau, a creative director and designer at an interactive agency, and 11-year-old Victoria Walker were awarded $20,000 by Big Blue to bring their smartphone application to the public. Dubbed Rode Dog, the prize-winning software allows friends and family to organize themselves into “packs” and monitor their text messaging habits. Watchful users can spot when a fellow group member is texting and initiate a barking noise on the offender’s phone. Much like squawking seat belt systems, the app is designed to remind drivers of their wrongdoing and doesn’t stop the ruckus until they acknowledge it. If you’d rather have a chicken or other animal grab your attention, the duo crafted an in-app shop that offers other wildlife sound sound effects. Rode Dog isn’t expected to hit iOS, Android and Windows Phone until its fully polished, but you can sign up to receive word of its launch at the second source link below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation, Mobile

11-year-old wins $20,000 at AT&T hackathon for creating app that discourages texting while driving originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Sep 2012 05:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In case you didn’t notice, Microsoft and Nokia are holding a pretty major press event right now, and while we’ve mainly been waiting for some shiny new hardware, a few fresh apps never hurt either. Nokia just made a joint announcement with AOL, unveiling an entertainment hub called Entrance, which will be available only on Nokia’s Windows Phone devices. AOL (which happens to be Engadget’s parent company) naturally used the app as a way to highlight its various properties, including Moviefone, AOL Music and Huffington Post Entertainment. So, for example, you might watch trailers or buy tickets on Moviefone, or read news from HuffPo. Like its various Android apps, it includes Shoutcast Radio integration with streaming from over 55,000 radio stations worldwide. Perhaps the most compelling bit, though, is an augmented reality feature with overlays for movie posters and show times. The app’s free and available for download at the source link below, and we’ve also got some screenshots to help give you a sense for the look and feel.

Continue reading Nokia and AOL announce Entrance, an entertainment app for Nokia’s Windows Phone devices

Filed under: Software, Mobile

Nokia and AOL announce Entrance, an entertainment app for Nokia’s Windows Phone devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 10:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Until self-driving cars become mainstream, it’s best to keep eyes on roads and hands off phones. With this in mind, Samsung’s debuting Drive Link, an app that balances in-car essentials with driver safety, complete with approval from the no-nonsense Japanese Automotive Manufacturers Association. It’s all about the bare essentials — navigation, hands-free calling and audiotainment from your phone-based files or TuneIn. Destinations can be pulled from S Calendar appointments or texts without trouble, and the text-to-speech feature means you won’t miss a message, email or social media update. The best bit is that via MirrorLink, all these goodies can be fed through compatible dash screens and speaker systems. Drive Link is available now through Sammy’s app store for Europeans sporting an international Galaxy S III, and will be coming to other ICS handsets “in the near future.”

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Transportation, Mobile

Samsung announces Drive Link, a car-friendly app with MirrorLink integration originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 05:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The federal government has continued its crack down on piracy, with the Department of Justice announcing that three different sites which market pirated Android apps have been shut down. The websites in question – applanet.net, appbucket.net and snappzmarket.com – are now all under the government’s control, and all three display the same copyright notice that has graced Megaupload for the better part of the year. The DoJ says that this is the first time any websites relating to pirated mobile apps have been shut down.

Officially, these three websites that were seized are “suspected of distributing copies of apps without permission from the software developers who would otherwise sell copies of the apps on legitimate online markets for a fee.” During its investigation, the FBI downloaded thousands of apps from these websites, which charged users for the pirated apps. When it came time to execute the search warrants, the DoJ and the FBI teamed up with Dutch and French law enforcement officials to bring the servers down, since the servers were hosted in other countries.

In a DoJ statement, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer said that mobile apps have become a priority in the government’s anti-piracy efforts. “Cracking down on piracy of copyrighted works – including popular apps – is a top priority of the Criminal Division,” Breuer said, adding that the Justice Department’s Criminal Division is committed to working with law enforcement to protect those who develop apps for mobile devices. U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates expanded on that by saying the government will continue to seize websites involved with marketing pirated apps.

Interestingly, blapkmarket.com is down at the time of this writing, but it doesn’t appear to have been seized, showing a “service temporarily down” message instead of the copyright banner that currently graces the three sites mentioned above. By far the most high-profile shut down has been that of Megaupload, which was seized by the government back in January and remains down today. The owners of Megaupload are facing some hefty fines and significant jail time, so it wouldn’t surprise us if these latest seizures have other sites shutting down as a preemptive measure. Stay tuned for more information, because it sounds like the Department of Justice and the FBI are just getting warmed up.

Department of Justice, FBI seize three Android pirate sites is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
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