Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook's iPad app is available today. Image: TechCrunch

It seemed like it would never arrive, but at long last, Facebook has released its iPad app.

One of the key features of the iPad-specific app is its integration with other iOS apps: The Facebook app will send you straight to other apps when you navigate to them from a friend’s news post or status update. For example, if a friend posted a link from The Daily, clicking the link would take you to The Daily app itself. The app also supports high-res photos that you can flip through like a photo album, as well as the ability to see where friends are located via with the Nearby mapping feature.

Facebook’s iPad app was rumored to debut last week at Apple’s iPhone event, but was a no-show. Earlier this summer, the app was discovered hidden inside the iPhone app. By tweaking a setting when running it on your iPad, you could access the iPad version — until the hack was disabled.

We’ll soon have a hands-on with the new app to let you know how it works, but in the meantime, you can get the app yourself from the App Store.

Last week, Myriad outed its plans to unveil Alien Dalvik 2.0 — which works on iOS — at CTIA, which starts today. But, knowing our readers would be champing at the bit to see it in action a little early, we got an exclusive sneak preview of the software for you right now. As a quick refresher, Alien Dalvik’s a custom bit of code that lets you run unaltered Android apps on a non-Android OS, like Maemo or MeeGo. This new version brings that same black magic to iDevices (and just about anything else), so head on past the break for more about Myriad bringing Apple and Android together in app harmony.

Continue reading Hands-on with Myriad’s Alien Dalvik 2.0 on an iPad (video)

Hands-on with Myriad’s Alien Dalvik 2.0 on an iPad (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apps, books or music? Looks like we just can’t get enough apps these days. Image: Asymco

Our appetite for downloading apps is tremendous, and just seems to keep on growing, and yet our need to download other forms of digital entertainment isn’t nearly as staggering.

Market intelligence blog Asymco found that the rate we’re downloading iOS apps at these days absolutely dwarfs iTunes music downloads, and crushes iBooks downloads. Only in recent months though have total app downloads exceeded mp3 downloads.

We’re downloading approximately 34 million iOS apps each day, weighing in somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 billion app downloads per month. Mp3 downloads, however, are relatively modest in comparison: We’re downloading 8.3 million songs every day. Up until around 2010, the rate of iTunes song downloads increased steadily, but has leveled off over the past year. In comparison, iOS users’ year-over-year appetite for apps is practically exponential.

Unlike music and literature, apps are relatively versatile. They’re a source of entertainment, they’re a way to discover new information, they’re a way to keep your life organized. While important, music and books are primarily consumption-based forms of entertainment and enrichment — wonderful cultural objects, though not immediately practical.

There’s another factor potentially affecting the number of songs we’re downloading from iTunes: The rise of streaming music services. There are a host of competing alternatives including Google Music Beta, Turntable.fm, Rdio and Spotify. Many of these are also available in app form, negating the need to download a bunch of songs onto your mobile device.

Before smartphones came into wide use, we were all obsessed with loading up our iPods and mp3 players with music. Now, smartphones are replacing the need for a dedicated mp3 player.

Similarly, we just don’t accumulate books the way we consume apps or music. They’re generally a more expensive purchase (in 2010, the average iBooks purchase was $12.31). Compare that to the App Store, where around 80 percent of the content is free, while the average paid apps price is around $1.44. iTunes song downloads generally hover around a buck.

With iOS and Android neck and neck in the mobile race, it’ll be interesting to see how these patterns play out over the next few years. Will we continue to download apps at increasingly astounding rates, or will we eventually hit critical mass and slow down a bit? Guess we’ll have to see.

via GigaOM

A funny thing happened to the folks at Android Police, the same group responsible for leaking some of the first screenshots of Ice Cream Sandwich. They’ve since come across a few apps from Google’s upcoming release — purportedly straight from a Nexus Prime. The first is Google Music 4.0.1 — a marked upgrade from the current 3.0.1 found in the Market today — which sports refined tabs, a contextual dialog and new player controls. For reference, the latest version is shown on the right, which is most likely installed onto a Gingerbread device. Best yet, the APK is currently up for download (which you’re able to grab for yourself from the source). There’s also a sneak peek of the upcoming Google+ 2.0, which suggests Messenger (formerly Huddle) and Conversations will be renamed to… get this… Chords. Feel free to take a peek after the break, or check out the full gallery at the second source link below.

Continue reading Ice Cream Sandwich leak outs Music 4.0.1 for download, previews Google+ 2.0

Ice Cream Sandwich leak outs Music 4.0.1 for download, previews Google+ 2.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Japanese mobile users have long had all manner of health apps and functions on their phones. From pedometers to services tracking their sleeping patterns, diet, calories and more, the keitai has been a trusted and personal device for analyzing and counseling on wellness anxieties. It is natural to build up a personal relationship with your phone, and you end up inputting hygiene and personal care data and information that you would be too embarrassed to tell anyone else outside the medical profession.

It’s big business too; even in 2007 the health market generated 80 billion yen through mobile phone services, and it can only go up and up as the population ages and devices proliferate. With smartphones we’re also seeing a logical shift from services provided by the network (iMode et al), to lots of single, individual apps that the user picks and chooses.

It is often said they’ve got an app for that but surely some things just aren’t possible? Take constipation. Hardly seems there could be much scope digitally. We all know there is medication available but perhaps only in Japan would someone come up with such an inventive way to promote pharmaceuticals through an interactive app.

Targeting young working women in their twenties and thirties, Yoru Suru (Do it at night!) is part virtual dating app, part personal care assistant. The free app is meant to help you remember to take anti-constipation drug Surulacs-S, made by SSP.

Three so-called “ikemen” (hot guys) talk to you and make sure you are taking a dose at the right time. You can choose which man you want — each has his own profile and personality — and then record when you, ahem, manage to relieve yourself. The app then acts as a health management tool, with your virtual boyfriend reminding you to take Surulacs-S at the set time. You can use Yoru Suru as an alarm clock too, and touching and stroking the ikemen character will elicit playful audio responses. Flirting with a constipation medicine marketing app? Yes, they’ve got an app for that.

This is a very Japanese attitude towards wellness and it is reflected in the tongue-in-cheek tone of the health products, even — or perhaps more so — in digital versions. In the recent past we’ve seen similarly colorful and lighthearted apps, assisting consumers with their health problems, but in a way that is very approachable and helping to take away the potential shame.

For example, there was a whole online campaign getting men to talk about their baldness and directing them to clinics, fronted by a popular comedy duo. And there are also funny apps for if you’re a young, stressed student desperate to find a toilet. (As way of a simple contrast, here’s a rather dour and unappealing American app for people with digestive issues.)

I’m now eagerly waiting on an app for itchy groins?

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