Hasta La Gadget!

Many see Apple and Volkswagen as two peas in a pod given their similar marketing, even if previous talk of collaborations amounted to little more than speculation. That purported dream team will soon become real through the iBeetle, an adaptation of the modern VW Bug designed with a little help from Apple. Don’t get your hopes up for a tie-in on the level of VW’s iPad-friendly Bulli concept, however. The integration mostly amounts to an iPhone dock as well as a car-optimized iOS app that can play music, read messages aloud, take photos and augment the instrument cluster. It’s a solid idea, especially when a large number of us already use our smartphones this way, but it isn’t very adventurous — the iPhone won’t coordinate extensively with the center stack, unlike smartphone-aware infotainment platforms such as GM’s MyLink or Ford Sync. We’d still take a close look at the iBeetle when coupe and convertible models reach US dealerships in early 2014, but it may be best for those already bent on getting some fahrvergnügen from their next ride.

Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation, Apple

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Via: Autoblog

Source: Volkswagen

Apple’s App Store certainly doesn’t suffer from any shortages in the social apps department, but that’s not stopping the newly launched Just.me from attempting to work itself into the daily lives of iOS users. After about two years of being in the development stage, Just.me has finally matured and is now readily available on Cupertino’s platform, giving the iDevice crowd a messaging service that’s reminiscent of Facebook’s own chatty offering.

What makes Just.me slightly different, however, are many of the other built-in tidbits, such as a cloud storage feature that lets folks save conversations they’d rather keep private, as well as the ability to message just about anyone in your contacts list from within the application — even if they aren’t account holders. So, if you think you have the time to keep track of one more thing, Just.me is just a free download away.

Filed under: Software

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Via: Reuters

Source: App Store

Android may be powering 70% of the entire smartphone market, iOS still has the lead in U.S. That’s not all, when it comes to mobile ad revenue no other platform is matching Apple’s lead. Opera Mediaworks released its State of Mobile Advertising report for the first quarter of 2013. The report is based on data collected by Opera Mediaworks from its advertising subsidiaries which account for more than 50 billion ad impressions each month, that reach over 300 million users around the world. Their data indicates that iOS ads generate the most amount of traffic as opposed to any other platform.

iOS accounts for 44.53% of mobile ad traffic which results in it holding 49.23% of all ad revenue. Coming in at second place is Android which gets 31.26% of mobile traffic and holds 26.72% of all ad revenues. This report also reveals that the volume of ad impressions in U.S. dropped 9.3% this quarter as opposed to the previous one. This is due to the rapid growth of other regions, such as Europe where ad requests have gone up by 7.04%. Competition is certainly tight between the two rival platforms, will Apple be able to maintain its lead?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Griffin’s Crayola Light Marker For The iPad Lets Your Kids “Paint” With Light, Mobiplex Unveils ProView App And SwingTIP Bluetooth Accessory To Help Improve Your Golf Swing,

Today it’s been announced that those working with a Jailbroken iPhone out there in the wild may soon be able to work with the still limited-to-Android Facebook Home feature Chat Heads. While the newest version of Facebook for iOS does include an in-app iteration of the Chat Heads feature for messaging, the build announced today (by unofficial sources, of course), will allow Chat Heads to appear universally, just as it is with Android.

If you’ll take a peek at our review of Facebook Home as it exists inside Android, you’ll find that the “appear anywhere” feature included in what Facebook calls “Chat Heads” might just be the most universally user-friendly feature of the bunch. While Facebook Home exists as a full home screen replacement app, Facebook Messenger allows you to see messages while you’re inside (or outside) any given app, even if it’s not Facebook.

Have a peek at Facebook’s Chat Heads push to iOS for your iPhone and you’ll find slightly less all-inclusive engagement. Unfortunately this iOS version will still not have the SMS integration available in the Android iteration. Speaking with The Verge, the creator of this particular hack, Adam Bell, confirmed that the process itself isn’t very power-hungry. Bell noted that only when you’re actually literally interacting with the head does it drain power in any notable way – good news!

You’ll be able to access the build that’s making this Chat Heads freedom possible through Adam Bell’s connection to GitHub over the next few days – can’t wait! Meanwhile have a peek in SlashGear’s jailbreak tag hub for more goodies for your hacked-up iPhone. Let us know what you’re into!

Facebook Home hitting Jailbroken iPhones: Chat Heads first is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Facebook‘s looking to ramp up its mobile efforts on iOS by unveiling a new SDK for iOS app developers at today’s Mobile DevCon. The new SDK is aimed to make it easier for app developers to create better social applications that integrate with Facebook. The new SDK comes with Open Graph support, as well as improved login functionality.

Developers have been able to use Facebook’s Open Graph for mobile app development in the past, but the creation of an Object API simplifies the process of taking advantage of Open Graph, and it removes the tedious need to host a website with specific Open Graph tagging. This should certainly take some weight off the shoulders of app developers.

If you’re not familiar with Facebook’s new Open Graph, it essentially lets developers integrate their own applications deeply into the Facebook experience. This in turn, is said to increase engagement with various things that users post on their walls and such. Basically, it makes it easy for third-party apps to integrate with Facebook.

As for other features with this new SDK, a new and improved login system has also been revealed. Essentially, the improved login options for logging into third-party apps using your Facebook credentials is much more streamlined, and the social network says it’s about 20% faster than before. As for when we’ll see these kinds of improvements come to Android, Facebook says it’s working on it “very quickly.”

Facebook announces new SDK for iOS with Open Graph and improved login is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.