Yahoo!

By Rene Ritchie, Saturday, Dec 10, 2011 | Have a loved one on your holiday shopping list who’s going to take their iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad on a special trip? Not sure exactly what to gift them? Not a problem, TiPb has you covered! From the traveler off to fun in the sun, to the family going home for the holidays, to the couple going out on the town, here are some of our favorite device, accessory, and app picks for the business user in your life! Don’t need anything for a travel? Check out the recommendations anyway, something great might still catch your eye. If not, no worries, check out one of our other 2011 holiday gift guides! The perfect gift can make for the perfect trip. traveling can be stressful enough, but if your traveler has the right stuff, it can make not only the destination that much more enjoyable, but the journey as well. An iPad to plan and book their excursions from the couch, and iPhone to manage their lists and flights on the go, iPod touches to keep the kids busy in the backseat, an Apple TV to hook up at the cabin, an iPod nano to rock out on the slopes. No matter where you’re going or what you’re going to do, there’s an iOS device that can make it more fun and more enjoyable for your traveler. Not sure which one you should get? Not a problem! Start here: While there are more places to charge up and top off than ever, from coffee shops to airports, the truth is your traveler will be busy, stressed, and the last thing they need is to run out of power when they need it most. Whether it’s the kids in the carseats or spouses on the plane, every trip is better with a spare charger. No matter where they’re going or what they’re doing there’s no such things as too much protection for their iPhone or iPad. While wrapping paper is nice, nothing is faster to buy or easier to ship than software. Whether you load it up for them on their brand new device, or send it half way across the world, it’ll always get there on time and ready to use. Uno is the classic Italian card game all dressed up for the iPhone. You can play on your own, with your family Read More

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Nov 23, 2011 | Did you or someone you know just get a brand new iPhone or iPod touch, and are wondering which are the top 10 very best, most must-have apps and games you absolutely need to jump into the App Store and download now, now, now? Well, you’re in luck — whether you want to show off the beautiful Retina display, test the power of the dual-core Apple A5 processor, need to get things done, or just want to have some fun, TiPb’s top 10 have got your back! As part of our ongoing iPhone new users guide, here are our top 10 favorite, most highly recommended iPhone apps to get you started! Note: App prices are current as of the time of this writing but can and do change frequently over time, including going up, down, and going on sale. Some free apps also sell additional content via in-app-purchase, or require a subscription. Always read app descriptions thoroughly before purchasing or downloading. Facebook is one of the most popular sites on the web, and not surprisingly, it’s also one of the most popular apps on iPhone. While Facebook for iPhone has a well earned reputation for general bugginess, it’s also been steadily improving as of late. Sure, you can visit Facebook.com on Safari, but the app gives you much, much more functionality, not the least of which is photo uploads. You also get Places, Messages, Chat, and many of your other favorite Facebook features. Also check out: Angry Birds is like the Mario or Sonic of iPhone and iPod touch gaming — so synonymous with iOS that even though it’s not made by Apple, even though it’s on other platforms now, it’s still the most famous, and still one of the most fun games ever to grace the App Store. While the idea of slingshotting variously powered birds at the variously fashioned fortifications and popping variously evil green pigs might seem thin at first, excellent gameplay and a constant stream of updates keep it fresh — and continuously at or near the top of the charts. Give it a fling… and prepare to lose many an hour chasing those elusive three star ratings. Also check out: The iPhone is a phone, so it makes voice calls, it has FaceTime so it makes video calls, and it has iMessage, so it can do IM. What Read More

In our continuing tradition of rounding up new mobile application releases we found interesting and/or exciting over the past month, we present you with this new list of apps for August 2011. Last month there were some interesting iOS apps and updates along with some dynamic Android apps. The list, as always, is a bit subjective so please let us know in the comments if we missed an app or you have found one that you cannot live without. Madden 2012 ($6.99 iOS, $6.99 Android) The popular NFL game is back this year for both Android and the iPad. Sports games may be better suited for console users, but for those that want the Madden experience without forking over the $70 for the console game, the mobile version can get you a quick football fix. Yahoo Fantasy Football '11 (Free iTunes, Android) Since the NFL just started its season and the fantasy football season is booming, might as well add one the app for one of the more popular fantasy platforms. How do you think your team will do this year? Facebook Messenger (Free Facebook iOS, Android) The world's largest social network is entering the mobile messaging space to take on BlackBerry Messenger and Google Talk for Android. Zeppelin Air (Free -- iPhone & iPad) Zeppelin Air builds a wireless bridge between iOS devices using Airplay so as to create a community playlist that you can share with your friends. Flat Stanley (Free -- iPhone) The world travelling children's favorite comes to mobile as Flat Stanley makes his way to the iPhone. Since 1995 the Flat Stanley Project has been used by educators around the world to help children learn about travel, while discovering different cultures to develop a love for reading. This application makes it easier and safer for teachers, children and parents that want to create, travel and share their Flat Stanleys. Gootip (Free -- iPhone) Gootip is trying to position itself as the Quora for local question and answers. As with anything local these days, mobile is key to success. Gootip's iPhone app wants you to ask local questions when you are travelling, such as "Is the Los Angeles subway busy right now?" FBI Child ID (Free -- iPhone) The FBI provides a free place to electronically store photos and vital information on your children should the unthinkable happen and they go missing. You can show the pictures Read More

Thursday is Social Media Day, so in honor of that, I’d like to offer a few tips about making your iPhone a more social device. It’d be easy to just say “register as a developer and install iOS 5,” since that brings Twitter integration, but here are some options that don’t cost $99 and involve using pre-release software on your primary device. This is actually a tip for your Mac, but it makes it much easier to share photos to Facebook and Flickr if you set up Events in iPhoto ’11 that you can dump content to in bulk. Using uploading apps on the iPhone itself usually works best if you’re only doing one photo at a time, and if you’re on vacation, that can get annoying very fast. Connecting your social accounts in iPhoto will make it much easier to create organized albums on Facebook and Flicker with only a couple of clicks. To set up your services, just go to iPhoto’s Preferences and click on Accounts: Soon you’ll be able to tweet right from within Safari using the native iOS share button, but for now, tweeting links while browsing on a mobile device can be a frustrating procedure if you’re using a standard copy/paste method. Instead, you can use bookmarklets (which are basically bookmarks that perform a function) in mobile Safari to share on Twitter, or on Facebook and Tumblr, too. Check out those, and many other useful bookmarklets, complete with full instructions, over at Digital Inspiration. The iPhone is well-represented when it comes to social network apps. The Facebook app just got a small update to fix bugs and improve performance, and the Tumblr app was updated earlier this week, and now has a completely redesigned interface that’s perfect for mobile sharing. Twitter on the iPhone is a solid client, but there are many third-party options available, too, like the uniquely designed Tweetbot. There’s also a Flickr app , and of course Instagram, which is quickly becoming the default network for sharing pictures on an iPhone. You’d be surprised at how much more likely you are to use these services just by having their native apps on your device. Want so see some content reading and viewing selections from your Facebook friends without ever leaving your browser? The Recommend browser extension (really a bookmarklet like those described above) by Bob Hitching will let you call up a window that Read More

In this continuing series here on ReadWriteWeb, we round up some of our favorite new applications for smartphones each month, specifically for iPhone and Android devices. This spring edition includes some major new launches on Android, like Netflix and Google Music, as well as some incredible technology leaps on iPhone, like the app which identifies trees by their leaves! As a bonus for this month, we've added a section with notable app updates and another featuring new tablet apps. New Apps for iPhone LeafSnap: Possibly the most ground-breaking app released in recent days, LeafSnap lets you identify trees by taking a picture of their leaves. Created by researchers at Columbia University, University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Institute, the app is like something you would see on TV, roll your eyes at and scoff, "as if that exists!" Well, technology moves fast - it exists! And, according to the app's description, this is only the first in a series of field guides the researchers are developing. (Free, iTunes) Seamless: This app lets you start playing a song on your Mac then "seamlessly" transition to listening to it on your iPhone/iPod Touch, or vice versa. Both devices have to be on the same Wi-Fi network. ($1.99, iTunes) FavFriends: A new way to keep up with your favorite Facebook friends, using a combination of a customized friend list and push notifications. Our coverage. ($0.99, iTunes) Hype Machine Radio: A new app from MP3 blog aggregator Hype Machine lets you find new music from undiscovered, indie artists and stream to your mobile device. Our coverage. ($2.99, iTunes) Voice Brief - Lite: Get briefed on your schedule, news, Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, stocks and more, with this virtual assistant app that reads aloud to you. (Free, iTunes) Yahoo Messenger: This new IM app for iPhone and iPad can do video and voice calls, text chat, presence, SMS and photo-sharing. Our coverage. (Free, iTunes) Trover: A great local discovery app that offers photo-sharing, social networking and more. (Free, iTunes) DOL - Timesheet: From the Dept. of Labor, this app lets employees track the hours they work and calculate the amount owed by the employer to verify they're being paid what they're due. (Free, iTunes) i3D: This concept application tracks a user's head movement using the iPhone or iPad and updates a 3D scene on the device accordingly. A cool technology demo. (Free, iTunes; image credit AppAdvice) Read More

When Apple debuted the iPhone 4 with a front-facing camera it toted along a killer app that had been unavailable on mobile devices until then - FaceTime. Now users could do video chat from mobile devices and Apple was the only player in the game with that capability. Everybody else has been playing catch up. Skype quickly moved to add video chat, one of its staple products, and then added Qik Video Connect earlier this year. Now, Yahoo has gotten into the game with its new Yahoo Messenger app for iOS. The new Yahoo Messenger for iOS has been optimized for iPad and can do video and voice calls, text chat, presence, send SMS and share photos in real-time. Importantly, iPad 2 users can video chat to talk with PCs. As a communications app, it is a strong entry from forgotten source of innovation. The functionality of the Yahoo Messenger app is excellent. Video calling works seamlessly and is optimized for the front-facing camera on the iPad 2. As a video calling app, it challenges both Skype and FaceTime for ease of use and picture quality. One of the first problems I have had with Yahoo Messenger is that it did not import all of my Yahoo email contacts. As such, I started the service with zero contacts in my queue at all. Yahoo has been throwing Messenger at users for several years but, unlike Google Chat (and now Google Talk), it has not reached critical mass of adopters in the U.S. who actually use it. If an app falls makes a video call in a forest and there is no one on the other end, does the app even exist? To be fair, Yahoo Messenger is well used internationally. Yet, so is Skype. For this reason, Yahoo has smartly tied its contacts in with the ability to import contacts from Windows Live MSN Messenger. The theory is that, of the two services, users will have a deep contact list on at least one of them. Windows Live is widely used on PCs and in the enterprise and in terms of pure volume has more users than either Google Talk or Yahoo Messenger. Speaking of Google Talk, it is curious that Yahoo Messenger was able to beat Google to the punch with a video calling app that functions with iOS. Yahoo has focused less in recent years on creating and maintaining Read More

Yahoo! rolled out a new Messenger app for iOS that includes support for the iPad 2. The tablet-optimized app will let you make voice and video calls using the front-facing camera. Yahoo! Messenger has a wide install base, and you will be able to make video calls to any device with a camera and a compatible version of the messaging app. Besides video calling, Yahoo! Messenger will also send SMS messages for free. The SMS feature is a quick way to message to a friend, but you have to remember these messages come from your Yahoo! account, not your mobile phone number. Read More

By Leanna Lofte, Thursday, May 19, 2011 | Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you! Soonr – Workplace: Securely store, share, access, search, edit and sync files from any device, online or offline. On your iPad, you can edit them using the world’s first integrated editor. [Free, with subscription - iTunes link] Delivery.com: Place orders for delivery or pickup from local merchants, wherever you are! [Free - iTunes link] iBaby Feed Timer: Designed by and for breastfeeding mothers who want to track when and for how long their baby feeds, whether from breast, bottle or expressed milk. Including a useful reminder for which breast to start on each time. [$0.99, on sale - iTunes link] IntelliVocab for SAT: This app personalizes the English vocabulary learning for competitive exams like SAT and is built by students of MIT based on the latest research from MIT Computer Science and Web Semantics Lab. [Free - iTunes link] Yahoo! Messenger: Now with an iPad optimized layout, voice & video calling for iPad 2, and improved spam management. [Free - iTunes link] Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think! Read More

Biggs is the editor of TechCrunch Gadgets. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at john@techcrunch.com. → Learn More If you’ve been trying to convince your parents to buy a Mac but they refuse on religious grounds, this may be the solution you’re looking for. The new Yahoo Messenger now supports cross-platform video chatting and regular text chats on the iPad 2 to any other device, including the iPhone. The app is free and available now. Sponsored Ads Sponsored Ads Sponsored Ads Read More

Yahoo! launched an iPad-optimized version of its iOS application. Presuming you already use Yahoo! Messenger on your iPad, no longer will you be looking at the scaled-up version of the iPhone app. The new universal iOS application is made to fully take advantage of the big screen Apple’s tablet rock. In addition to chatting with your buddies, Yahoo! Messenger also supports voice and video calls, as well as low-cost international calls to landlines or mobile phones with a Yahoo! Voice Phone Out account. Moreover, free SMS is also included and so is the ability to share photos and videos in real-time with other Yahoo! Messenger users. Finally, there’s the Windows Live Messenger support, allowing you to keep up with friends relying on Microsoft’s IM client (rather than Yahoo! Messenger). So what do you way – are you going to grab Yahoo! Messenger for your iPad or you prefer using a single solution that spans across multiple IM networks? Yahoo! Messenger (FREE) [iTunes link] Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis. Read More