Preview: Loop lets you pay with your smartphone on existing credit card readers

Paying for goods at retail stores with our phones has been talked about for years, but mobile payment startup Loop is close to making it a reality. Its upcoming offerings, the $39 Loop Fob attachment and $99 Loop ChargeCase, will still be external to your phone when they arrive in late April, but the firm is working with manufacturers to include its technology in smartphones for as little as $1 per device. Loop works by using a transmitter to generate a small magnetic loop that can be used on traditional point-of-sale systems in lieu of swiping a credit card. To...



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LinkedIn sends cease and desist to Sell Hack, which lets you see anyone’s email address on the service

A new tool called Sell Hack claims it allows anyone to see the email address of a LinkedIn user. We contacted LinkedIn about it this morning and the company responded in the evening to say the company’s legal team is delivering a cease and desist letter to Sell Hack “as a result of several violations.” “LinkedIn members who downloaded Sell Hack should uninstall it immediately and contact Sell Hack requesting that their data be deleted.” Krista Canfield, LinkedIn’s Senior Manager of Corporate Communications, told TNW in a statement. “We advise LinkedIn members to protect themselves and to use caution before...



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Roundup: All of Google’s jokes for April Fools’ Day 2014

Every year, Google tries to outdo itself for April Fools’ Day. The company’s various divisions pull together more jokes than any other tech firm we know, and it gets difficult to keep track of them all. As a result, like last year we’ve put together a roundup. Google Magic Hand First up, Google Japan has introduced the Magic Hand, a new input method for smartphones. In short, you no longer have to operate your own mobile device: the magic hand does all the hard work. The nonexistent device weighs just 800g and can be attached to any keyboard. There are...



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Google+ pages updated with total profile, post and photo views

In an effort to shrug off its “ghost town” reputation, Google today updated Google+ with total content views for profiles and pages. On any page, you’ll notice the new figure underneath the user’s profile photo, just next to where their follower count is displayed. It includes the total number of views for their posts, photos and profile page. Clearly, this is a move to prove once and for all what the level of user engagement is like on Google+. Of course, that number will fluctuate depending on how many followers you have, how often you publish and the popularity of...



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Changing your startup’s name: A tale of crowdsourcing 843 domain names

Sandi Lin is the CEO and co-founder of Skilljar, which provides online course software for businesses. Every entrepreneur has faced the nearly impossible task of naming their startup. Branding sounds like a fun activity until you realize: There are virtually no decent .com domains available. Negotiations are very time-consuming and potentially fruitless, especially on a lean startup budget. Having a great name is important to your success, perhaps critically so. It’s a pain to change your name later, yet it’s very possible your company will pivot. Your team is wasting precious hours/days/weeks. In the meantime, you have no brand to...



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Square now lets sellers accept Bitcoin on their own storefronts

Square today announced it has added support for paying with Bitcoin. As a result, buyers can now use the digital currency to purchase goods and services on Square Market, which allows sellers to create an online storefront with online payment processing. The mobile payment company promises the experience won’t feel any different for sellers and they “don’t have to change a thing, except potentially expecting new trailblazing customers and more sales.” In other words, Square wants them to be able to offer Bitcoin as a payment option without any headaches. While Square says it “focused on making the experience smooth...



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Amazon Student lands in the UK with discounted deliveries for six months and 50% off Prime thereafter

Amazon today launched its Student-focused program in the UK, giving aspiring academics discounted delivery prices and Kindle tablets for a limited period. You’ll need to offer an ac.uk e-mail address, as well as your expected graduation date, academic level and chosen course to qualify. Once you’ve been accepted, Amazon will give you free one-day delivery for over 7 million items on its site, as well as discounted rates for Express and evening deliveries. From now until May 15, Amazon Student will entitle you to 20 percent off all Kindle Fire hardware in the UK, including the Fire HD and HDX....



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Twitter increases its focus on social TV by buying analytics firms Mesagraph and SecondSync

Twitter wants its social network to be the definitive place for advertisers and broadcasters to promote their shows, and to that end it’s just gobbled up TV analytics specialists Mesagraph and SecondSync. Mesagraph runs a web-based platform called Meaningly, which gives users the ability to pull “meaningful insights” around specific topics based on what’s being tweeted about in near real-time. The Mesagraph TV API then builds on that by offering custom streams and analytics based around live TV shows. That expertise could come in handy for Twitter, but it’ll also be eyeing up the partnerships Mesagraph already has with French...



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Recipes for nature lovers, city slickers, & constant travellers

New Recipe collections hand-picked by our team for you to try. April aims to be a very, very exciting month — no April fools joke here. We're working hard on some not so secret things that we know you'll enjoy. ;) —The IFTTT Team Share on Facebook  |   Share on Twitter  |   Share on Pinterest This newsletter was automatically sent to bloggggg1111.aaaa@blogger.com because you signed up for IFTTT with that address. To disable this communication, you can manage your email settings or unsubscribe from the IFTTT Newsletter.   IFTTT · 923 Market Street #400 · San Francisco, CA 94103

Microsoft’s Bing expands Snapshot feature to surface doctors, dentists, lawyers, and real estate listings

Microsoft today updated its Bing search engine to show more information via the Snapshot feature, which pulls together connections between people, places, and the “things you care about” based on its understanding of the real world. Today’s release encompasses doctors, dentists, lawyers, and individual real estate properties. Bing already tracks billions of entities, as well as the billions of relationships between them, to show users relevant data while they search. Over the last few months, Microsoft has added an additional 150 million entities. The addition means that when you search for a medical professional, Bing now returns their Snapshot, which...



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Rdio gets Chromecast support to let you stream music directly to your TV

Rdio today announced it has added support for Google’s Chromecast dongle, letting you stream music directly to your TV. The feature is supported across Android tablets and smartphones, iPhones, iPads, Chrome for Mac, and Chrome for Windows. To use the feature, make sure Chromecast is set up, and then just press the cast icon in Rdio’s Android, iOS, or Web apps. Rdio promises the feature is straightforward to use and keeps the same controls you’re already used to: “You won’t have to learn anything new.” You can cast songs, albums, stations, and playlists. The integration also supports controlling playback from...



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Google+ and LinkedIn drive few, but more engaged social referrals compared to Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest

Social discovery and sharing platform Shareaholic today released its first report examining engaged social referrals. Since many of us spend an egregious amount of time using social media, the company was interested in answering the question “What is our behavior post-click, when we actually interact with a link one of our friends shared socially?” As such, it was necessary to examine the average visit duration, pages per visit, and bounce rate for each of the top eight social media platforms. Here’s the breakdown (data is from September 2013 to February 2014) from Shareholic, which tracks 250 million users visiting its...



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Jelly for iOS now lets you ask and answer questions with a location

Jelly, the app that helps people from around the world answer each other’s questions, today updated its iOS app with new tools for posing and explaining problems. In version 1.1, you can now create a new question using a map and a specific location. When you tap the compose icon in the top-right hand corner, you’ll see a new mapping option alongside the existing camera tool. Here, you can choose your current location, search for a specific place, or swipe around the Google Maps interface and drop a pin in the center of the screen. As before, you can then...



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Frontback revamps its profile pages so you can see everyone’s followers and following lists

Frontback is a fantastic iOS app when you want to capture what’s happening on both sides of your iPhone. Sharing photos to social networks such as Twitter and Instagram is a breeze, but as a self-contained community it’s been light on features so far. Today’s update adds a new top-level screen to profile pages, with a circular photo, account handle, full name and biography. It’s not the best use of space, but it maintains the half-and-half design language that makes Frontback unique. You can then swipe to view their uploaded photos, as before. The profile headers also show two tabs...



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Offline over the weekend? Read all the tech news you missed right here

Weekends are better than weekdays. Everyone knows that. Sometimes though, one of the downsides of weekends is that it can be hard to keep up with all the comings and goings in the tech world. Never fear though, that’s why we’re here. So, take a few minutes, make yourself a coffee and point your eyes below for all the best tech news and features from The Next Web and beyond over the last two days. News from The Next Web over the weekend: Coursera Launches Android App Innovative Photo Hardware-app Combos Shake Up Macworld/iWorld ReKoMe for iPhone Will Recognize Pictures...



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Catch up on a month of tech news from Eastern Europe: March

Even if you’ve been watching the tech scene of Eastern Europe closely, there’s still a chance you’ve missed something important as the news from that part of the world is relentless at the moment. Check out the headlines from March to get an impression of what’s been happening; the past month can be characterized by an unusual amount of news stories from Russia, while tech scene in other countries was much less active. If you think I have missed something, or would like to draw my attention to an important story, feel free to ping me in Twitter (@shlema) or...



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5 things every beginning Android app developer should know

Gil Dudkiewicz is the CEO of StartApp, a mobile advertising platform. The world has entered a mobile age, and the app industry is booming as a result. Worth $53 billion in 2012, the global app economy is expected to grow to $143 billion by 2016. Everyone wants a piece of the digital pie, but few mobile app developers are armed with the facts. Every app is just one drop in the vast ocean of the app store. If you want to stand out and have a chance of building a profitable user base, there are a few things you should...



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Samsung Galaxy S5 review: Incremental is the new cool

Apple is under siege. Samsung is moving from strength to strength with every new version of its flagship Galaxy phones and this year is likely to be no exception, with the S5 on the horizon. What started out as a poor alternative to the iPhone is quickly becoming a powerful adversary; Samsung is quickly matching or outpacing features on the iPhone, desperate to keep up in the race, to make sure that it can always be directly compared to Apple’s flagship. Not only does Samsung directly target Apple, it’s also got the most popular Android based handset and most of...



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5 lessons I learned about leadership as a sergeant in the Israeli army

Dan Schoenbaum is the CEO of Redbooth. I grew up in the United States, but volunteered to spend two and a half years in one of Israel’s toughest military units. Joining the military was never a thought that had crossed my mind, until – during college – I came across a review of a book called “A Purity of Arms.” Something about the book resonated with me and I found myself passionate about the opportunity to join the Army and try to be a part of a small, elite group. I was curiously drawn to the seemingly impossible challenges described...



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Meet the Millennials: The consumers to change the marketing landscape

Jamie Gailewicz oversees the Bailey Brand Consulting Client Services team, where he is involved in the ongoing management of clients, delivering sound strategies and inventive solutions. To sell to any audience, you have to understand it. Discovering how its members think, act, and purchase is only the first step to finding new opportunities to engage with them. This is especially true of the Millennial generation, the newest target audience for many brands. As their purchasing power increases and the Millennials continue to drive consumer demand, it’s necessary to reevaluate this generation and develop strategies for engaging them. Each generation has...



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The rise of the API economy and consumer-led ecosystems

Adam DuVander speaks fluent “developer” while serving as Developer Communications Director. Previously, Adam wrote for Wired, Webmonkey and edited ProgrammableWeb, the leading resource for APIs. Just a few years ago, application programming interfaces (APIs) were largely viewed as an easy, functional way to make applications work together, a digital adhesive of sorts. Today, the value of the API has evolved into much more than a simple bridging mechanism. For many developers, APIs have become the foundational architecture that allows them to manifest their vision. Consider the Pareto Principle, which states that 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent...



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Microsoft pulls fake Google apps from the Windows Phone Store, but doesn’t fix larger approval process problem

Microsoft today pulled six fake Google apps from the Windows Phone Store, after we contacted the company about the issue. The apps in question were: “Hangouts,” “Google Voice,” “Google Search,” “Google+,” “Google Maps,” and “Gmail – email from Google.” All of these are published by a “Google, Inc” (instead of “Google Inc.”) and priced at $1.99 each. The only app that Google offers for Windows Phone is its search app, and the publisher is “Google Inc.” The apps in question were first spotted by WinBeta this morning, after being originally published yesterday. We got in touch with Microsoft to ask...



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Think like a designer: How non-creatives can find artistic inspiration

This post originally appeared on the Coworks blog and has been republished with permission. You don’t have to be a designer to utilize creative thinking. Separate from analytical reasoning, learning to think outside the box can be a huge asset to your canon of skills. Whether you’re a creator in another discipline like interiors or writing, or you’re part of a marketing or business team, you can take cues from designers to open up your own mind to new ideas. Here’s how they plan, plot and execute. 1. Live in the moment Learning to think like a designer is all...



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Microsoft says it won’t scan email accounts over stolen property anymore, will refer cases to law enforcement

Microsoft today announced a change to its email privacy policies that states the company will no longer scan email accounts over stolen property. Instead, Microsoft will refer all such cases to law enforcement so they can handle it. Here’s the company’s statement: Effective immediately, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property from Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer’s private content ourselves. Instead, we will refer the matter to law enforcement if further action is required. News blew up last week over a case some two years ago...



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Oculus VR hires former Valve developer Michael Abrash as chief scientist

Just days after its acquisition by Facebook, Oculus VR has hired former Valve developer Michael Abrash as its chief scientist. Abrash was involved in Valve’s own virtual reality projects, but is also known for his work on the game Quake and Microsoft’s Natural Language Group. In a blog post, Abrash supported Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus VR. He said virtual reality was a catch-22, in that it required a large level of investment to prove its potential – but to attract that sort of funding, someone needed to show what was possible. Facebook is solving that problem by giving Oculus VR...



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Pay-by-bundle: Curing subscription fatigue

It’s the perennial problem faced by companies across the media spectrum, from music-streaming platforms to eons-old newspapers. How do you make money in an age where so many people have become accustomed to consuming content for free? Advertising is the obvious conduit to monetizing digital content, but a more ideal situation is to have people willing to put their hands in their own pockets to pay for services. Yes, we’re talking about subscriptions, folks. At the FT’s Digital Media 2014 event in London this week, this dilemma made it to the top of the agenda for a panel that included...



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Voice-powered virtual assistant WonderVoice now has Pocket and Glympse integration

Remember WonderVoice, the app that wants to be Siri for Facebook? Well, it’s recently been given a bit of a spit-shine in the App Store. To recap, WonderVoice lets you ‘speak’ a command to like a post, listen to comments, save for later and more. And it’s not just Facebook it works with, you can also ask the app to tell you the best parking spots in your locale, and send messages by saying, for example, “Send message to Billy”. With the latest release, it not only sports a brand-spanking new design, but also integration with Glympse (previous coverage), meaning...



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Apple’s first retail store in Turkey will open in Istanbul on April 5

Fifteen months after it launched iTunes in Turkey, Apple has finally revealed a date for its bricks-and-mortar retail store in the country. While we’ve known it was coming for a while, Webrazzi reports that the outlet will be opening on April 5, in the garden of Zorlu Centre, Istanbul. Apple’s Istanbul Store ©Webrazzi Apple launched its first retail store in Brazil back in February, and given the timing of its simultaneous job postings for these countries back in 2012, it’s not surprising to see Turkey follow so soon after. ➤ Apple announces the opening date of its first Apple Store...



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Cut the Rope 2 arrives on Android, as franchise downloads top 500 million

A few months after its App Store debut, developer ZeptoLab has released Cut the Rope 2 on Android. It’s a free download in the Google Play store and will be landing in the Amazon Appstore on March 30. The non-existent price tag is notable, given that it shipped for $0.99 on iOS last year. That’s likely representative of the higher number of app purchases in the App Store, and it’ll be interesting to see whether the new Android version includes any microtransactions to compensate. To cap off today’s Android release, ZeptoLab announced that the Cut the Rope franchise has passed...



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Tech5: Meet the UK’s fastest growing tech companies

Ladies and gentlemen, the results are in. Well, sort of. Here at The Next Web, we meet and write about a lot of young and promising startups. But this year, we’ve been thinking about the companies that are no longer just ‘promising’, companies that are making money, growing and proving over a number of years that they have much more than a good idea. They have a business. Given the exposure already meted out to US startups and, more specifically, Silicon Valley, we teamed up with Adyen to eke out the top five fastest growing tech startups across Europe. Last...



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Google Naps: a parody of Google Maps that helps you find the best places for a snooze

Google Maps helps you find your way, but Google Naps — a parody based on the popular mapping service — is helping you discover the best places for a snooze. A group of Dutch users created Google Naps to uncover “the world’s coziest and coolest places to take a well-deserved nap.” These napping spots, which include Portugal, China, Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil and all four corners of the US, are shared by fellow users. To avoid being called out for the blatant ripoff of Google Maps, the Dutch founders have left a message on the Naps tool for Googlers: Hello,...



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DataWind’s $38 and $80 Ubislate tablets are a great deal, but they’re probably not for you

You can approach budget tablets and smartphones from two different ways. When compared against the history of computing, these devices offer remarkable functionality at unprecedented pricing, opening up Internet access to new groups of previously unconnected people. However, when matched up against existing “premium” offerings, budget devices can feel clunky, under-powered and even hostile to the user. DataWind’s $38 Ubislate 7Ci tablet and its $80 7C+ cellular-connected counterpart are tricky devices to review. While I can try to imagine its target users and emulate their actions on the device, the fact remains that these tablets are designed for a new...



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Facebook’s Connectivity Lab is building drones, satellites and lasers to deliver Internet access

While Google is experimenting with helium balloons for Internet access, Facebook is working on drones, satellites and lasers. The company today unveiled the Connectivity Lab, which has evolved as part of its Internet.org initiative. In a short video, the company explained the costs and shortcomings of the current system used for Internet distribution. Facebook’s Yael Maguire then explained some of its plans for satellites in low density environments, which included a combination of low earth orbital satellite systems and geosynchronous satellite systems. Multiple satellites would need to be in orbit to provide adequate coverage, so Facebook is also hoping to...



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Office for iPhone and Android phones is now free: Office 365 subscription no longer required for editing

In addition to releasing Office for iPad, Microsoft today also updated Office Mobile for iPhone and Office Mobile for Android with a major change: both are now completely free for home use. You can download the new versions now directly from Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Microsoft says the decision was made in order to align Office Mobile for Windows Phone with its iOS and Android counterparts. As a result, Office Mobile now lets smartphone users view, as well as edit, content on the go for free. An Office 365 subscription is no longer required for editing. No new...



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Office for iPad first look: Echoing the desktop with a touch-based twist

If you know Microsoft Office for the desktop, you already know Office for iPad. There are so many similarities between the two, that making the transition will be a seamless experience. Microsoft Office for iPad has that signature Microsoft look—Blue for Word, Green for Excel, and Orange for Powerpoint. The colors are the first, but certainly not the only visual cue. A nice, clean tabbed format is common to all of the apps. And all proved quick and responsive to traditional Apple touch gestures. We took the new suite for s spin directly after the presentation and are impressed with...



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Brain freeze: The science of procrastination and our ‘smart’ brains

Denis Duvauchelle is CEO and co-founder of team collaboration tool Twoodo. How many times have you read that procrastination is just a characteristic of a lazy person? That people try to be “busy” rather than “productive”? That only happy-go-lucky hippies get to take a brain break from life? For a few people, this may be true. But if we look a little deeper into why it happens, we can begin to see that it is actually our “smart” brains that make it happen. And once you understand the true nature of the problem, you can make sense of all the...



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Staff at Mozilla call for new CEO Brendan Eich to ‘step down’

Mozilla employees are calling for new CEO Brendan Eich to step down over his support for the Proposition 8 campaign that opposed same-sex marriage in California. As Ars Technica reports, Chris McAvoy, project lead for Open Badges at the Mozilla Foundation, tweeted his disapproval of the appointment earlier today. It triggered a number of similar responses from other staff at Mozilla, perhaps planned, asking for Eich to resign from his new position. Have waited too long to say this. I’m an employee of @mozilla and I’m asking @brendaneich to step down as CEO. https://t.co/K3OqeImUnU — iamjessklein (@iamjessklein) March 27, 2014...



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5 content distribution channels you might be overlooking

Marketers are making significant investments in content marketing, and rightfully so. According to Rishi Dave, chief marketing officer at Dun & Bradstreet, today’s consumers are entirely self-directed in their buying journeys. Content helps empower these audiences to make educated and informed decisions. The challenge with content marketing, however, is exactly what makes it awesome. The competition for eyeballs is fierce. Not to mention, human attention spans are getting shorter. According to one Web use study, the average attention span in 2012 was eight seconds. Even goldfish are easier to engage. Their attention spans? Nine seconds. Content marketing programs need more...



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Microsoft unveils Office for iPad

At an event in San Francisco today, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella unveiled Microsoft Office for iPad. The app will go live in the App Store at 11:00 AM PDT. The highly-anticipated app has been a long-time coming. While Microsoft offers OneNote for iPad, all other apps in its productivity suite have yet to grace Apple’s tablets, until now. Microsoft also offers Office 365 for iOS, but that requires a subscription and is only available for the iPhone. The company launched the app in June 2013, but wouldn’t discuss when and iPad version would be available. More to follow.



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It’s official! Klout has been acquired by Lithium Technologies

As Recode foretold back in February, Klout is being acquired by the social marketing company Lithium Technologies. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, although yesterday Fortune reported the price was around $200 million. It’s official! So proud of the Klout team and excited to be joining @LithiumTech. http://t.co/sVtd4BIAez — Joe Fernandez (@JoeFernandez) March 27, 2014 In a blog post, Klout co-founder Joe Fernandez said Lithium was the right partner for its influence-focused platform. “I want you to know that our mission has not changed — Lithium shares our passion for empowering every person to understand and maximize their...



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Yahoo received 21,425 government requests for data impacting 32,493 accounts in the second half of 2013

Yahoo today updated its Transparency Report, revealing it received 21,425 data requests from various law enforcement agencies around the world during the second half of 2013. Those requests impacted a potential 32,493 accounts, according to the company. Since Yahoo only released its first Transparency Report in September 2013, we can’t compare to see how these results compare to previous years. We can, however, compare against the first half of 2013, as well as get a total for the full year. The numbers for the second half of last year are slightly lower than those for the first half (29,470 requests...



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Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Twitter launch WebScaleSQL, a custom version of MySQL for massive databases

Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Twitter today announced WebScaleSQL, a collaborative project bringing the engineers from these companies together to solve challenges working with massive databases. As its name suggests, WebScaleSQL is a custom version of MySQL designed for large scale Web companies. The four companies will share a common set of changes to the upstream MySQL branch, available via open source. The project will include contributions from MySQL engineering teams at all four companies, and since it will be open, others who have the scale and resources to customize MySQL will be able to join in the efforts and provide...



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Google received 27,477 government requests for data impacting 42,648 accounts in the second half of 2013

Google today updated its Transparency Report, revealing it received 27,477 data requests from various law enforcement agencies around the world during the second half of 2013. Those requests impacted a potential 42,648 accounts, according to the company. The new numbers for the second half of last year are slightly higher than those for the first half (25,879 requests affecting 42,500 accounts). With both halves of 2013, we can now compare the full year to all of 2012. Google previously revealed it received 42,327 requests in all of 2012 that impacted a potential 68,249 accounts. Basic addition tells us Microsoft received...



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Twitter teams up with Billboard to launch Real-Time Charts, just days after killing #Music app

Twitter and Billboard are set to launch a new chart that will rank which music is being shared and tweeted about the most in real-time. It will be called the ‘Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts’ and be available on Billboard.com. The leaderboard will rank the most popular tracks being talked about at any one time, as well as those that have remained popular over a longer period. Billboard and Twitter also want to use the chart to highlight “the most talked about and shared songs by new and upcoming acts”. Billboard said the new music charts are part of an exclusive,...



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UpTo Calendar for iOS fully redesigned to include layers and per-event sharing with friends

UpTo, the social calendar app for iOS has been fully redesigned and relaunched today to include a layered calendar view and more granular sharing options. While we previously called out the potential of this calendar app back in 2012, it seems the company wasn’t quite happy with the overall look and feel as time progressed. As a result, today’s update (version 3.0) puts a far sleeker, minimal design front-and-center, but keeps the social elements in the background for when you need them. Currently available only for iOS devices, the app includes an overview of a user’s own meetings as the...



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Music streaming app Bloom.fm hits 1M registered users in the UK, will launch a Web player next month

Bloom.fm now has one million people registered for its music streaming service in the UK. After launching on iOS in January 2013, followed by Android last September, the company has doubled its user base in the last four months. While Bloom.fm is only available in the UK at the moment, it offers a fresh take on the highly competitive music streaming space. A Pandora-style radio service is free of charge, while on-demand streaming similar to Spotify, Rdio and Beats Music is priced at 13.99 per month (£10 if you sign up on the Web). In between are two separate tiers,...



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Runtastic overhauls its GPS fitness-tracking app, and now tells you how much water to drink

App developer Runtastic has carved a sizable ‘niche’ for itself in the digital fitness realm in recent years, notching up north of seventy million downloads since its foundation in 2009. This figure includes all platforms and its myriad of apps – which covers ones for homebodies and others specifically for those wishing to get a six-pack. But the app with which Runtastic is perhaps best known for is the one called – funnily enough – Runtastic, a GPS fitness tracker that lets you monitor, analyze and record your every movement on the tracks or on the roads. Today, Runtastic for...



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Instagram now has more mobile users in the US than Twitter, according to a new report

In a new report that will make painful reading for those at Twitter, E-Marketer claims that Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo app, now has more smartphone-based users in the US than Twitter. According to the figures — reported by the Financial Times — Instagram has 35 million US mobile users, while Twitter has 30.8 million. More generally, Twitter claims 240 million active users worldwide each month — across both desktop and mobile devices — which keeps it ahead of Instagram, which counts 200 million, for now at least. The research comes at an interesting time for Twitter. The company is pushing...



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ClassDojo’s mobile app now lets parents and teachers message each other to keep kids in line

ClassDojo, the behavior management platform for teachers, is rolling out a new messaging feature designed to give parents and teachers an easier way to converse. Launching out of beta way back in 2012, ClassDojo lets teachers add pupils’ names and customize the behaviors they want to encourage. During class, positive behavior is reinforced by dishing out feedback points, using any computer, tablet or smartphone; these feedback points are displayed in real-time in the classroom with audio-visual cues. It also compiles this data into reports, letting teachers monitor progress, trends and share information with parents. Two million teachers have signed up...



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Twitter is experimenting with replacing its sacred retweet button with a ‘share’ button

Twitter has been busy making Facebook-like changes today — adding multiple photo upload and tagging, and experimenting with a profile change on iOS — but it isn’t stopping there. Some users are reporting that the retweet button inside their iOS app has become a ‘share’ button — yes, the sacred retweet button! CNBC’s Eli Langer first noticed tweets from users affected by the changes, who are seeing a undeniably Facebook-like experience when they try to retweet content. The actual process of sharing a tweet remains unchanged, but those affected are being asked whether they want to ‘share’ or add comment...



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Flashback for iOS rewinds your still photos into HD movies

You want to meld both photos and videos together into an exciting montage that signifies the essence of a memorable event—a wedding, a birthday, or just a nice day at the beach. Flashback, an iOS app that automatically shoots stills and HD video simultaneously, lets you combine those elements into a finished movie. Developer Bramber demoed Flashback 2, an updated version of its recently released iOS app, at Macworld/iWorld. The new version, which got a design overhaul as well as the ability to import existing photos into the app, is expected to appear on the app store shortly. You launch...



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‘Yelpulus Rift’ augmented augmented reality? Shut up and take my money.

Yelp just took its Monocle augmented reality feature to the next level with this silly “Yelpulus Rift” parody video. It looks like this was made last year during a Hackathon and only now posted in order to have some fun with Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus VR. If you want to build this for yourself, it looks like all you’ll need is a couple iPads, a bike helmet, some duct tape, a desk lamp, and four cans of Coke. (h/t Slate)



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Wikimedia tests Hovercards feature to let readers preview articles without leaving the page

Wikimedia today added a new beta feature to its various wiki sites, including Wikipedia, called Hovercards. As its name suggests, the new option lets readers hover over a link to another article to see a short summary and a relevant image. And, as of today, the feature is live for testing as a Beta Feature on all Wikimedia wikis. The organization said it got the idea from its Navigation Popups (NavPopups) gadget used by many of its editors, and decided to bring it to casual readers. To try it out, you’ll have to login, click the “Beta” link at the...



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Twitter for Android and iOS get photo tagging for up to 10 people and ability to add up to 4 photos in a tweet

Twitter today announced two new mobile features for its Android and iOS apps: photo tagging and multiple photos in a tweet. You can download the new version now directly from Google Play and Apple’s App Store (the updates are rolling out gradually, so you’ll have to be patient). Twitter says both these features will display in embedded tweets. Clearly the company is very interested in boosting photo use on its social network. The first feature allows you to tag up to 10 people in a photo. Best of all, tagging doesn’t affect character count in the tweet: regardless of how...



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Microsoft and Dell sign patent licensing agreement covering Android, Chrome OS, and Xbox

Microsoft and Dell today announced a patent licensing agreement that will allow the companies to share technology and “build on each other’s innovations.” While the duo didn’t reveal too many details, three product lines were mentioned: Android, Chrome OS, and Xbox. Microsoft and Dell say they have agreed to license each other’s applicable intellectual property related to Android and Chrome OS devices as well as Xbox gaming consoles. The terms state Dell will pay Microsoft royalties for Dell’s products running either Android or Chrome OS, and Microsoft will be “on consideration to Dell for a license for Xbox gaming consoles.”...



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Google I/O 2014 site launches: Registration open April 8 to April 10, attendees will be chosen randomly

Google today launched the website for its Google I/O 2014 developer conference over at google.com/io. The company also revealed that registration will be open between April 8 at 5:00am PDT and April 10 at 5:00pm PDT. If you can’t attend, Google will also have a livestream of the keynote and sessions as well as local I/O Extended events. As Google revealed last month, Google I/O 2014 will be held on June 25 and June 26 at Moscone West in San Francisco. This year, to stop the event selling out too quickly, the company will be randomly selecting from the list...



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Twitter is testing a profile redesign for its iOS app, just like on the Web

After testing a radical profile redesign on the Web, Twitter is doing the same on mobile. A fairly ambiguous update for its iOS app was released today and TNW’s social media director Matt Navarra spotted the change after tapping the ‘Me’ tab at the bottom of the screen. Whereas before the profile photo was displayed in the center, it’s now been shifted to the left-hand side. The cover photo is still visible, but it’s been pushed upward to make room for the user’s bio. Before, this information would only be visible once the user swiped horizontally – now it’s front...



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Google Play Music now lets you drag and drop to upload songs, but only in Chrome

Google today announced Google Play Music now lets you upload your own library by simply dragging and dropping files in the browser. Unfortunately, the feature is only available as a Chrome app, and it’s still a lab, meaning you have to manually enable it. In addition to being able to upload music (you can also queue a long list by clicking “Add Music” in the top right), the new lab offers a mini-player (click the arrow in the bottom right corner) that shows what’s playing and lets you skip songs from any tab. Last but not least, the experimental app...



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Last.fm will close its subscription-based radio streaming service on April 28

Last.fm will abandon its subscription radio streaming service on April 28. The company has been slowly withdrawing from this space for some time, killing off its homegrown player last year in most markets and prioritizing its ability to record, or “scrobble” the tracks its users are listening to through other apps. Radio was still available in the US, UK and Germany; free and ad-supported on the Web, or ad-free with a subscription. This feature was also offered in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Brazil, but only for Last.fm subscribers. As of next month though, subscriber radio will no longer...



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Candy Crush Saga developer King begins trading at $20.50 per share

Candy Crush Saga developer King Digital Entertainment today became a public company, after it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at $20.50 per share. According to the Wall Street Journal, King had originally priced its initial public offering at $22.50 per share, valuing its business at around $7 billion. Much of King’s success can be attributed to Candy Crush Saga, which remains a popular and high grossing game on iOS and Android. Much like fellow developers Rovio and Supercell, it now needs to prove that it can deliver successive games that are just as popular; only once...



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Twitter files for lawsuits in Turkish courts to get ongoing ban of its service lifted

Twitter is fighting to have the ban on its social network lifted in Turkey. Today, the company filed petitions for lawsuits in multiple Turkish courts, demanding that the current ban be lifted. “We’ve been engaged in discussion with Turkish authorities to hear their concerns, inform them about how our platform and policies work, and try and bring this situation to a resolution,” Vijaya Gadde, General Counsel for Twitter said. “But still, the millions of people in Turkey who turn to Twitter to make their voices heard are being kept from doing just that.” Twitter said the Turkish government is leaning...



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Microsoft Azure now generally available in China, operated by data Internet services provider 21Vianet

Microsoft today announced Azure is now generally available in China. The cloud computing platform is operated by data Internet services provider 21Vianet. 21Vianet, a Chinese company, last year claimed to be the “largest carrier-neutral Internet data center services provider” in the country. It has 81 data centers in 42 cities in China, although that number is likely growing. The duo calls the news a “significant milestone” because it means Microsoft is the first global company to make onshore public cloud services available to customers in China. Here is what the company has to say about its partner: To ensure a...



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Fitbit sprints past 1M Android app downloads, is now compatible with 44 Android and iOS devices

Nike, Jawbone, Withings, Samsung and Apple. All of these companies – and many more besides – are building hardware to track your health. While that puts an ever-increasing amount of pressure on Fitbit, the fitness tracking startup said today that it had passed one million app downloads on the Google Play store. The Android app was released in March 2012, but until now, Fitbit has only supported a select number of smartphones. As of January, syncing only worked with 26 Android and iOS devices, which no doubt limited its growth . To coincide with the one million milestone, Fitbit today...



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Facebook VP: The only limit with Oculus is our imaginations

At the FT’s Digital Media 2014 event in London today, Nicola Mendelsohn, Vice President of Facebook, EMEA, took to the stage to discuss all things, well, Facebook. Mendelsohn’s appearance was less than 24-hours after Facebook announced its intention to acquire Oculus VR for $2 billion, so naturally this was always going to be high on the conversation agenda. “The reason we’re very excited about it [Oculus], is the fact that gaming is a huge part of the Facebook business, and what it allows developers to do is to really get inside and create whole new worlds for people to enjoy...



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The New York Times announces new low-cost curated subscription and Premium plan

The New York Times is adding two new subscription strings to its proverbial bow, one of which includes a new curated ‘budget’ app geared specifically towards mobile users. The New York Times is often held aloft as the poster child of successful media paywalls, adopting a metered model to try and tempt more readers from around the world on board. And kicking off on April 2, the Times will be introducing NYT Now for iPads and iPhones, which will include a lot of free content. Not only will it publish articles from The Times, but it will also include content...



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Dots, the addictive mobile game, now lets you compete head-to-head with friends

Dots has been out a while and, though it is a fantastically addictive game — we rate it highly — the nature of mobile gaming dictates that titles get less interesting over time. That’s probably why Betaworks is breathing new life into Dots by adding a challenge mode. The new game format lets you play against friends using Facebook or email. Rather than merely plodding along on your own against the clock, players go head-to-head for 60 seconds. If, like me, you were a fan of the game but found your interest waning as other titles came out, then this...



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Original iPhone engineer offers behind-the-scenes look at Apple’s secretive development process

The Wall Street Journal has a rare inside look at Apple’s internal workings through its interview with original iPhone software engineer Greg Christie. According to the newspaper, it’s the first time that Christie has opened up about the project. While Apple is normally highly secretive about its product teams, it approved the interview in hopes of bolstering an upcoming case against Samsung by sharing how it came up with the iPhone’s many innovations: Mr. Christie’s team pored over details like the perfect speed for scrolling lists on the phone and the natural feel of bouncing back when arriving at the...



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UK operator EE unveils new 4G plans from £13.99 and Huawei-made, own-brand £99 ‘Kestrel’ handset

UK mobile operator EE has introduced a new range of tariffs and a low-cost, own-brand 4G LTE-equipped handset for more price-sensitive consumers. Announced today, the new plans start from £13.99 per month and are available with a two year commitment. The operator also introduced new options available for users on 4G Extra and Business plans. At the entry-level, there’s now a £13.99 package which includes unlimited texts, 500 minutes of calls and 500MB of 4G data. Increasing that to £18.99 doubles the data and number of inclusive calling minutes, and bumping it up to £23.99 or £29.99 per month will...



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