NXP Unveils Cheap Cortex-MO MCU for 8/16-bit Apps

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NXP has unveiled its latest ARM Cortex-MO based LPC1100 micro controller family. NXP claims that the new microcontroller is the cheapest solution on the market for a 32-bit MCU. The MCI promises 45 DMIPS of performance compared to the sub-DMIP performance of typical 8-bit MCUs and 3-5 DMIPS for 16-bit MCUs.

The device also uses less energy with the promised performance delivered at 50MHz and the MCU needs under 10mA of power to operate. NXP also claims that the new MCU needs 40 to 50% less code for most common microcontroller tasks. Read more

Posted on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

It's Official: 100,000 Apps in the App Store

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Alright, so this isn't that exciting. The unofficial app count has been above 100,000 for a while. That was only the count of total apps submitted to the store, though. Today, Apple has approved their 100,000th app and sent out yet another press release to celebrate. We're all very impressed Apple, but no one likes a braggart.

Posted on Wed, 4 Nov 2009 08:57:51 CST | by Robert Evans

Texas Instruments Demos World's First Coin Cell for Bluetooth Low Energy Apps

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Texas Instruments has announced that it has demonstrated the world's first coin cell demo for the new Bluetooth low energy open standard based on its upcoming CC2540 single-mode, system-on-chip. Bluetooth low energy applications like sports and fitness equipment, mobile accessories, and home and office devices use coin cell and energy harvesting solutions to run for more than a year on a single tiny button cell battery.

The TI application supports both dual-mode and single-mode solutions and are optimized for low-power and low-cost applications. TI says that its device is packaged on a 6mm x 6mm unit including the controller, host, and application. Read more

Posted on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Two New iPhone AR Apps Hit

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Augmented reality is probably the hottest current trend in the app world. AR is the natural expansion of smartphone technology. It isn't enough that we be able to connect to the Internet whenever we wish. We want the ability to tap into the vast information reserves of the net in order to keep ourselves informed of whatever is going on around us. AR gives us that, through the lens of a smartphone camera.

Two new AR apps (ReadWriteWeb) have hit the iPhone within the last few days. Cyclopedia, a pure Wikipedia-based AR app, and Wikitude, which was first available for Android smartphones. Cyclopedia uses the iPhone's internal compass to layer Wiki information over noteworthy sites in the area. It costs $2 and has a great UI. Cyclopedia's one failing is that it only dredges content from Wikipedia.

Posted on Sat, 3 Oct 2009 14:05:59 CDT | by Robert Evans

New Zune HD Apps Have Ads

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If you've got a Zune HD, you should know that Microsoft has made a whole bunch of new apps and games available for you. Ars Technica states that a total of nine apps are available;

Sudoku, Calculator, Weather, Texas hold 'em, Shell Game, Space Battle 3, Of the Future, Hexic, Goo Splat, and Chess. Just swing over to the Marketplace on your Zune HD and click on the new apps menu to locate your new programs.

Posted on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:47:48 CDT | by Robert Evans

Zune HD: Apps, Movies, and Games En Route

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Microsoft doesn't want to be Apple, but they want oh-so-badly to beat them in a few key areas. One of those areas is consumer media player technology. Apple has the edge (and 2/3rds of the market) with the iPod line. While the Zune HD is a solid piece of gadgetry, it doesn't come close to having the name recognition or market share of the iPod.

That's why Microsoft decided to look very closely at the business model for the iPod touch before getting to work on their Zune HD. Boy Genius reports that Redmond has admitted they have a big slew of games and apps on the horizon for the HD. New apps coming down the pipe include Twitter and Facebook for Zune, while new games include Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition, Vans Sk8: Pool Service, and Audiosurf Tilt.

Posted on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:53:54 CDT | by Robert Evans

Top iPhone Apps

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I love my iPhone most days, though I am not particularly fond of the AT&T network of late with all the dropped calls and other issues that go along with it. Still, the iPhone is a wonderful piece of hardware and one of my favorite things about the device is the wealth of apps that are available. Today I am going to run down my favorite iPhone apps for your perusal. I particularly like the iPhone as a gaming platform, so more than a few games are on the list, read on for all the details. Read more

Posted on Wed, 9 Sep 2009 06:30:26 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Android Market: 10,000+ Apps And Counting

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Apple is the unquestioned king of the App Store. Their 70,000+ applications and (possibly) billions of dollars in annual app-generated revenue are head and shoulders above the competition. That said, Google's Android App Market may be closer behind than anyone would have guessed. Until recently, we've had no way to find out just how many Apps the Android Market supported.

Thanks to TechCrunch and AndroLib, we now know. AndroLib is a website that allows you to browse through the full Android app catalog on your computer. TechCrunch did some poking around and concluded that the Market consists of at least 10,000 apps.

Posted on Mon, 7 Sep 2009 13:00:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

OpenCL Is Here Now In Snow Leopard, Where Are The Apps?

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If you love your Mac, you have upgraded to Snow Leopard OS X 10.6 by now. One of the new most exciting features is the support for OpenCL. Apple says: "OpenCL in Snow Leopard is a technology that makes it possible for developers to tap the vast gigaflops of computing power currently in the graphics processor and use it for any application."
Let's tap that fine power! But where are the OpenCL enabled Applications? One of the obstacles to ramp up OpenCL parallel computing apps is that NVIDIA still hypes CUDA and AMD also has their ATI Stream technology. Read more

Posted on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:36:48 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

A New Guide To The Best iPhone Apps

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Our friends over at Digital Trends take a new look at the best iPhone Apps. With 65,000 Apps to choose from it is getting more and more difficult to find all must have iPhone apps.

Quote from the Guide: "It's now been over a year since we first gazed upon the well-stocked shelves of the iTunes App Store. While our Top iPhone Apps were tough to choose the first time around, the task was even tougher a year later, with over 65,000 apps now cluttering up the marketplace. Read more

Posted on Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Apple's Apps a $2.5 Billion Business?

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The iPhone App Store is, without a doubt, the most successful app market for any smartphone. They've got thousands and thousands of different apps, and hundreds of millions of app downloads. It's not surprising to hear that the App Store is making a lot of money for Apple. What is surprising, is just how profitable the App Store really is.

MacRumors.com reports on a Mobile Metrics report from AdMob that estimates App Store annual revenue at almost $2.5 billion per year. That becomes even more impressive when compared to the Android Market's $60 million/year estimated sales. If these numbers are accurate, than the App Store becomes a much more significant part of Apple's annual revenue than previously thought.

Posted on Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:50:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

Zune HD: Mysterious 'Apps'+SDK?

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This weekend saw the first (limited) unveilings of the Zune HD media player. In addition to getting a bunch of photos and videos of this hot new filly in action, some clever consumers managed to ferret out a few interesting pieces of info. Engadget reports that someone named Mathew Arkin on Qik got a photo of the 'apps' section of this new gadget. There were no apps available as of yet, but Microsoft's choice of wording has raised a lot of questions.

As far as has been officially stated, those 'apps' are meant to be a variety of downloadable games for the Zune HD. Microsoft wants this new player to be able to compete with the iPod Touch in terms of gaming ability. If that section were just for games, though, why would it be titled 'apps'?

Posted on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:47:30 CDT | by Robert Evans

Microsoft Office Web Apps Going Mobile

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Every now and then, Microsoft does something that reminds us why they've been the top dog for so very long. Microsoft and Nokia announced their global alliance earlier this month, and today we're finally learning just what that alliance will mean. Boy Genius states that Microsoft has confirmed that their free Online Office applications will be available on mobile devices as well.

This means that if, for example, you use MS Word, you'll be able to upload your documents online (like with Google docs) and access them with your mobile phone. From your smartphone you'll be able to edit or add to the document at your will. The same will be true with Excel, or any other Office Web applications. This will be a godsend for businesses looking for comprehensive computing solutions, which is exactly why Microsoft is doing it.

Posted on Sat, 22 Aug 2009 12:25:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

Google: Apps Are Obsolete, Browsers Are The Future

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Apparently Google is not impressed by Apple's 1.5 billion app sales. They've got no plans of instituting an App Store of their own (the Android market hardly counts), and it's not because they're intimidated by Apple's success. Google doesn't believe that apps are going to be a part of the future of the smartphone market. They're popular now, sure, but that's just because the Next Big Thing hasn't come along yet.

So what is the Next Big Thing? According to Google, the future of the mobile marketplace lies in browser-based applications. There are too many different smartphone operating systems and too many different app markets to work in the long-term. The current state of affairs is bad for developers, who have to build multiple versions of the same app, and bad for customers, who have less choice as a result of the divided market.

Posted on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:05:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

Google Apps Grow Up

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Gmail has had that little beta tag attached to it for so long that I don't even notice it anymore. It's been clear for a while now that Google has a different definition of 'beta' from the rest of the world. All of the Google Apps have been in beta since their release, despite being used by over 1.75 million companies from around the world. Folks have wondered for years now when Google's apps were going to come out of beta.

Apparently, the answer is today. Google just announced that they are taking off the proverbial training wheels and removing the beta tag from all of their apps.

Posted on Tue, 7 Jul 2009 14:00:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

Blackberry Location Aware Apps Much More Costly than iPhone Apps

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Since Apple's App Store has proven to be such a successful place for third party developers to sell applications for the iPhone most other smartphone makers have come out with their own stores for selling applications. According to a new report from Skyhook Wireless, there is a significant difference in the cost of applications across the App Store, Blackberry App World, and the Android Marketplace.

The report looked at the cost of location aware application in the three stores and found that location aware apps in the Blackberry store were at least four times more expensive than similar apps in the other stores. Read more

Posted on Thu, 21 May 2009 10:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

New iPhone 2009 may support real Background Apps

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So far Apple has only announced push notification support in the upcoming iPhone 3.0 OS to support building apps that at least can listen for messages in the background. Now Silicon Alley Insider kicked off a slew of new rumors (see also Daring Fireball and TechCrunch ) by saying that Apple is trying to get real background app support for 3rd party iPhone applications on the iPhone.
Read more

Posted on Sat, 16 May 2009 09:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Soundview Releases iPhone Apps for Busy Businessmen.

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It's a hectic time in America. The economy is bad and businesses are scrambling to cut costs and improve profits. With everything that's going on in the world today, businessmen have less time than ever for things like reading. Enter Soundview Executive Book Summaries, a company whose entire purpose is to summarize big business books for busy executives.

Right now you can find a bunch of Soundview's summaries at the Apple app store. Each of their apps contains three summaries in both audio and text, formatted for the iPhone and the iPod touch. Each app costs $9.99.

Posted on Mon, 11 May 2009 12:00:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

New iPhone Apps need to comply with iPhone OS 3.0

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According to MacRumors Apple informed iPhone developers that from now on Apple is testing new iPhone App submissions against iPhone OS 3.0.
If an App is found not compatible with the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 it is not approved. Existing iPhone Apps that prove to be incompatible with iPhone 3.0 OS might be removed.

Apple is doing the right thing here. You do not want to make the iPhone App purchase/install process more complicated by having to select versions. Read more

Posted on Fri, 8 May 2009 10:33:49 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

The Biggest Apps On Earth.

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AT&T today released a list of the top 10 highest-selling applications in Q1 of this year. Mobile phone apps make up a huge and growing portion of industry revenue, and AT&T obviously expects this trend to continue. They're putting a lot of money into app development and marketing, and the fact that they're seeing a year-over-year growth of 39% is proof that their strategy is paying off.

And now, without further ado, the apps;

Posted on Mon, 4 May 2009 16:00:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

Apple Reveals Most Popular iPhone Apps

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To commemorate the pending 1 billion iPhone applications downloaded milestone, Apple revealed via iTunes the top 20 most popular paid and unpaid apps to date.

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D and Facebook took top honors in the paid and unpaid categories respectively. Koi Pond and Enigmo rounded out the top three paid apps, while Google Earth and Pandora Radio rounded out the freebies.

The Washington Post points out some discrepancies between Apple’s top 20 and a recent comScore report. comScore claimed the free Tap Tap Revenge is the most downloaded app overall, while Apple has it ranked fourth in that category. Though, comScore was limited to PC downloads.

Posted on Sun, 12 Apr 2009 20:45:00 CDT | by James Douglas