Tag: mobile apps

Read More

Thanks, Tidal

Concurrent with the Consumer Electronics Show 2019 kick-off and other Day 0 announcements, music streaming service Tidal updated its Android app (hehe, sorry iOS users) to support Masters. Oh, yeah, baby. Gimme, gimme. Tidal unveiled Masters, in licensing partnership with MQA, two years ago during the same tech gala.

Abandoning Apple for Google products during summer 2018 meant my giving up Tidal Masters, which until today were only available on the macOS and Windows desktop apps. Because Chrome OS supports Android apps, I can now listen to Masters on my laptop, not just smartphone. You can, too (if not an Apple device user).

Read More

Say Goodbye to Nature, iPad

One of the main reasons I own an iPad is the NatureJournals app. Subscription to the fantastic, scientific publication is about $35 per year—versus $200 in print—and the presentation and convenience are outstanding. But the end is nye. Yesterday an alert flashed across the home screen about Nature Publishing suspending development, so I emailed for clarification.

Response arrived today from an account rep: “Unfortunately continued development and technical support for the NatureJournals app has become fiscally unviable and we have therefore made a decision to retire the app”. Bwaaaah! I’m not exactly shocked. How many people read scientific journals in apps? Surely I’m an oddball, and how many others like me can there be? Sigh, the subscription deal was too good to last.

Read More

‘The Most Diabolical Version of Solitaire Ever Devised’

What does it say about America’s grand cultural decline when big political forget-me-nots want to develop applications, just like their grandkids do? Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 83, has developed a mobile app. Honest to God! It’s all over the interwebs. What are the chances there could be another Donald Rumsfeld, who is younger and develops apps for a living, thus making bloggers and Facebook Fraappers wrong? Nah.

Churchill Solitaire is available right now, for iOS, if you’re lucky enough to use iPhone, as does the former Secretary. The non-Android smartphone makes him feel safe because Apple CEO Tim Cook gave the “no-encryption-backdoor-for-you” middle finger to the U.S. government and Mr. Rumsfeld’s former employer.  The app is described as “the most diabolical version of solitaire ever devised”,  And the former Secretary of Defense is responsible? Boo hoo, Waterloo! 

Read More

Microsoft’s Hollywood-style Redemption Story

Satya Nadella is a man with a formidable challenge. Microsoft CEO’s predecessor, Steve Ballmer, squandered the company’s mobile fortunes. From smartphone platform leader a decade ago, the software-and-services giant is a category also-ran in 2015. Microsoft has no independent mobile platform future. The war is over. There remains this: Making alliances with old enemies to preserve existing territory, while using the foothold to reach into new frontiers.

Made available August 5th, Outlook for Apple Watch is a very smart move and metaphor for what went wrong on Microsoft mobile platforms and what has to go right to preserve and extend the legacy applications stack. While Windows 10 makes its way to Lumia devices, the future is Android and iOS and how the company supports them with contextually meaningful cloud-connected apps and services. 

Read More

RT News is Punchy, Aggressive, and Provocative

For the summer I’m doing this “Microsoft All-In“, which makes Windows Phone my mobile platform. The app ecosystem improves, but the gaps range from disappointing to perplexing. Choices often aren’t as good as Android or iOS. Windows Phone is the third world of operating systems. You live in envy and make do with less.

There are ridiculous gems, some of which I look and wonder: “Why is that one available?” There are no official BBC or NPR apps, but RT.com—known during another era as Russia Today—is there. The app is pretty good, too. But given Windows Phone’s low global sales share, I wonder why the news service would even bother. Not that I mind.

Read More

Ovi Store Squeaks at App Store Giant

My initial reaction to Nokia’s Ovi Store is “Huh, this is it?” Today, the mobile application marketplace opened for business in nine countries—Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. I really expected more, as in content. Where are those supposedly tens of thousands of applications already available for Symbian OS variants S40 and S60?