Globe to launch GCash mobile app for iPhone, BlackBerry

Starting March, Philippine telecommunications provider Globe Telecom will make its GCASH micropayment service available to users of smartphones and devices running Apple's iOS and Research In Motion's BlackBerry platforms.   The GCASH iPhone app will be available for download at the iTunes App Store for free, Globe said in a news release.   “The new GCASH Mobile App for iPhones will make our customers enjoy doing their GCASH transactions. We are setting a new standard for customer experience in the field of financial services,” said Paolo Baltao, President of G-Xchange, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Globe and operator of GCASH. Apple iPhone   Globe said the new GCASH iPhone app makes it more convenient for users to do their GCASH transactions like sending money,...

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GSMA Announces New Initiative Addressing Mobile App Privacy

Publishes a set of global Privacy Design Guidelines for Mobile Application Development BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile World Congress -- The GSMA, with the support of leading mobile operators in Europe and following consultation across the wider mobile ecosystem, has published a set of global Privacy Design Guidelines for Mobile Application Development. The guidelines aim to provide users with better transparency, choice and control over how apps use their personal information. Mobile operators in Europe will implement the guidelines for their own branded applications. "Mobile has become an incredibly important and influential tool for people around the world, regardless of age or geography," said Anne Bouverot, Director General, GSMA. "However, with this...

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Online Privacy Agreement Targets Mobile Apps

Although it applies only to apps used by California residents, the state's plan is expected to have national and possibly international impact.California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced in San Francisco that she has determined that a state online privacy law covers the hundreds of thousands of mobile applications used by Californians and that she is taking steps to enforce it. Harris said she has reached an agreement with six leading Internet platform operators, including Google, Apple and Microsoft, on principles for making mobile app developers aware of the law and requiring them to observe it. If the app developers don't obey the law, Harris said, "We can sue and we will sue.""We have forged an agreement to strengthen privacy protection for millions of mobile app users...

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Victoria's Songspin Launches Mobile App for its Free Internet Radio

Victoria-based Songspin has launched its first mobile app. The internet radio startup has brought its web-based radio platform to the iPhone and iPad, allowing users to discover new music on the go. Its ad- and interruption-free and there are no disc jockeys blabbing between tracks. Like on the website version, Songspin's mobile app enables users to filter tracks by a variety of genres. Listeners can then share choice tracks through social media and craft their own personal playlists, all for free. Do note, though, that each song will run you about three to four megabytes of data—so make sure you monitor your usage when not on wifi. "With the release of this free iPhone app, we're moving one step closer to our plan of...

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Twitter updates mobile apps, goes to Kindle Fire

The updates create a more optimized user experience, fix a few glitches here and there, and take advantage of touchscreen functionality such as swiping gestures to reply or tag your friends' tweets. Twitter has just rolled out updates to its official mobile apps, and as part of the process has released a Kindle Fire-optimized version of its Android app. It has also joined Facebook and a growing crowd of app developers in creating a special Android app that is designed specifically to be optimized on the Kindle Fire, the #1 Android tablet on the market right now. But let's get serious; there's one major reason why Twitter needed to update its mobile application - privacy. It came to light recently that the microblogging site's mobile...

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Mobile Meets SMB: How Mobile Apps can Help Small Businesses Compete

  When was the last time you used a mobile app at work?  I would guess you’ve already used at least one mobile app today.  According to a study by the Small Business and Entrepreneur Council, small businesses that use mobile apps to manage their operations save more than 370 million business hours and more than 725 million employee hours annually.  That’s a huge amount of time saved which is so important for any company – after all, time is fleeting and needs to be invested wisely.  The study, which surveyed firms with 20 or fewer employees, found that 31% of companies saved an average of 5.6 hours per week because of mobile apps.  So what are the best apps for saving your company time and money? ...

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Antenna service supports full lifecycle of mobile app

Businesses can use the new AMPchroma hosted service to design, publish, manage and analyze mobile appsAntenna Software on Tuesday plans to launch a hosted service that will let businesses design, build, publish, manage and analyze mobile apps that are geared toward employees or customers. AMPchroma, the new suite of services, is based on the Antenna Mobility Platform, which Antenna has been using to develop, manage and host apps for customers. It is now opening up the platform so that customers can access it to build and manage their own apps. An IT administrator at a business using AMPchroma can set permissions so that individual workers can log into the service and only access certain functions. For example, a product developer, who might have scant software development skills,...

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ATandT Launches Mobile Health Developer Portal

With Developer Center ForHealth, AT&T looks to enable the development of health care applications that can connect to clinical data. #ArticleWidgets { font-family: Arial,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-decoration: none; margin-bottom: 0px; }#ArticleWidgets { color: rgb(0, 51, 153); text-decoration: none; line-height: 16px; }#ArticleWidgets.a, articlewidgets.a:hover { color: rgb(0, 51, 153); text-decoration: underline; line-height: 16px; }#position { padding: 5px 0px 5px 5px; }#spacer { height: 5px; line-height: 5px; }.add2head_new { font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; width: 200px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; display: block; float: right; }.ArticleWidgetsHeadline { font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; } ...

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WML emulator brings classic Windows Mobile apps to Windows Phone 7

Microsoft may have given up on the Windows Mobile operating system, opting to start over from scratch with Windows Phone 7. But some users haven’t given up on Windows Mobile, and the thousands of games and other apps designed to run on the aging mobile operating system. The folks at the Dark Forces Team are working on a new project called WML which allows you to load Windows Mobile in an emulator window on a Windows Phone 7 device. That means you can run classic Windows Mobile apps such as the TCPMP media player or games like Worms World Party. DFT hasn’t released WML to the public yet, but the team has published a video showing the emulator running Windows Mobile 6.1 on an HTC HD7 smartphone. Windows Mobile 6.5 is also supported,...

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Mozilla Eyes Windows 8 Compatibility, Firefox Mobile App Store

Mozilla Eyes Windows 8 Compatibility, Firefox Mobile App Store Internet application developer Mozilla unveiled its revamped 2012 Strategy & Roadmap this week, demonstrating a desire to move Firefox, the company’s popular Web browser, further into the field of mobile technology. New versions of the browser, and its improved functionality, also appear aimed at making Firefox more competitive with the likes of Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) browser, Chrome, released in late 2008. A product of open-source software development, Firefox will be getting overhauled to better suit the much-anticipated Windows Phone 8 operating system from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Windows 8 will include both “Classic” and “Metro” styles, with the latter referring to the simplified touchscreen-oriented interface...

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Google Translate – A Mobile App We Have All Been Waiting For

Are you struggling to learn Turkish and find you are misunderstood even when making the simplest of sentences? Well Google have an App that could be the answer to many a confused conversation. A few years ago as an April Fool spoof we wrote about a gadget that would translate the spoken word into another language so we could hold a conversation with someone. Well the day when that gadget may become reality has taken a step further thanks to Google. Google continue to develop amazingly useful things to help us with our daily lives. From their excellent mapping services to the very reliable Gmail they seem to have their finger on the pulse of what we need. Their latest and, in our opinion, greatest development has to be their translation...

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How does mobile device management (MDM) work?

Enterprise IT and security teams are stretched thin by the growing number of mobile device types invading the enterprise -- many owned by employees -- the variety of OSs and the sheer volume of mobile apps users are requesting. Questions abound. This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach. Enterprise IT and security teams are stretched thin by the growing number of mobile device types invading the enterprise -- many owned by employees -- the variety of OSs and the sheer volume of mobile apps users are requesting. Questions abound. How, for example, will IT ensure corporate intellectual property remains intact? Who has responsibility for updating, distributing...

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Vonage Introduces New Mobile App for iPhone, Android

Vonage has introduced a new app for iPhone and Android platforms called Vonage Mobile that allows users to make free high-definition calls and send free texts to all users of the app worldwide. The Vonage Mobile app, which puts the company in direct competition with VoIP giant Skype, offers free app-to-app texting and calling and works over Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G wireless data networks. “Vonage Mobile consolidates the best features of our prior applications, while adding important functionality, better value and improved ease of use. It combines the best of free high-def voice and messaging along with incredible value for traditional international calls, all while using the existing mobile number and address book for unsurpassed...

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Mobile apps need clear copy, not a privacy summit

It's great that mobile app makers are waking up to the trouble of "sharing" everything in opt-out fashion. But a few words would make all the difference. If you haven’t heard about Path, it’s probably because none of your friends uploaded your name, email address, and phone number to their servers yet. Path is a mobile app for iPhone and Android that acts as a valet service for all your social network transactions. From one stylish, flowing app, you can share a photo, a thought, or a link through Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, or Instagram, or you can share it to only your close friends you’ve connected with through Path itself. Like most social-minded apps, Path can scan your address book and find connected friends. Unlike most...

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Car insurance firms revving up mobile app features

Progressive's new mobile app allows anyone with a smartphone to get car insurance quotes by taking a photo of their driver's license. Called "Image Capture," the app is free and works with most mobile devices, including iPhones and smartphones that run on the Android operating system. Once downloaded and installed (it can be found at Progressive's mobile hub), policy-seekers take a snapshot of their driver's license, their auto's vehicle identification number (VIN) or existing insurance ID card. The app scans the image for necessary information such as name and address. Once the details are confirmed by the user, Progressive sends a quote "in minutes," according to a company statement. "The new technology, only available from Progressive, simplifies the insurance quoting and buying...

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Secure Coding Practices Out The Window With Mobile Apps

Developers not applying secure development life cycle practices in mobile app production With every business from the tiniest SMB to the largest enterprise looking to plant its flag in the ground with regard to mobile applications, the mobile app development boom is on in a very big way. Amid this blind rush to beat the competition to the market, mobile developers are feeling their way around in the dark -- and with a development environment still in its infancy and no real standards to lead the way, it's an adventure for all parties involved. Particularly scary to many security professionals is the fact that the speedy mobile development cycle and this lack of experience in the platforms is causing coders to throw all of those secure development principles the industry has fought...

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Mobile apps need clear copy, not a privacy summit

It's great that mobile app makers are waking up to the trouble of "sharing" everything in opt-out fashion. But a few words would make all the difference.If you haven’t heard about Path, it’s probably because none of your friends uploaded your name, email address, and phone number to their servers yet. Path is a mobile app for iPhone and Android that acts as a valet service for all your social network transactions. From one stylish, flowing app, you can share a photo, a thought, or a link through Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, or Instagram, or you can share it to only your close friends you’ve connected with through Path itself. Like most social-minded apps, Path can scan your address book and find connected friends. Unlike most apps, or at least the way most apps claim to work,...

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Secure Coding Practices Out The Window With Mobile Apps

With every business from the tiniest SMB to the largest enterprise looking to plant its flag in the ground with regard to mobile applications, the mobile app development boom is on in a very big way. Amid this blind rush to beat the competition to the market, mobile developers are feeling their way around in the dark -- with a development environment still in its infancy and no real standards to lead the way, it's an adventure for all parties involved. Particularly scary to many security professionals is the fact that the speedy mobile development cycle and this lack of experience in the platforms is causing coders to throw all of those secure development principles the industry has fought for over the past five years right out the window when it comes to mobile apps. "Rapid...

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Ease of use drives Ryder’s mobile app

Consumers can find Ryder truck rental, maintenance and fueling locations.Whether driving a Ryder Systems Inc. rental truck for a short stint or a longer period as part of a commercial fleet, sometimes a driver needs a quick and easy way to find the closest Ryder location. Ryder hopes its new app, dubbed Ryder Locator, fulfills that need. The app relies on a smartphone’s built-in GPS capability to find the nearest Ryder rental, maintenance and fueling locations. Users tap the Nearby Locations link on the home screen to automatically generate a map view of the closest Ryder facilities. They also can search by city and state and ZIP code. There’s also a Roadside Assistance button to tap to quickly connect to that service. Ryder chose...

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Vonage dials up new mobile apps

Vonage on Wednesday rolled out Vonage Mobile, new iPhone and Android apps, that allow for texts and calls while undercutting Skype rates. It remains to be seen whether Vonage can make much traction against Skype’s installed base. Vonage’s international calling rates are 30 percent less than Skype's. But that’s only part of the story. The larger tale here goes well beyond a mobile app. Just a few years ago, Vonage was on financial death watch. The company has rebuilt a balance sheet that looked like it wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. Mark Lefar, CEO of Vonage, talked last month about how the company refinanced its debt twice in the last 13 months, cut those liabilities in half and trimmed interest rates in the 20 percent range to less than 4 percent. In other words, Vonage...

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Microsoft to Roll out Wave of Native Mobile Apps for Its CRM Software

Microsoft is gearing up to release a phalanx of native mobile applications for its CRM software, with clients aimed at BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, iOS, and Android 2.2 and higher devices, the company announced Monday. The release, which is scheduled for the second quarter as part of Microsoft's regular CRM (customer relationship management) service update, will also build on existing browser support with Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Safari, running on Macs, iPads and Windows PCs. In the future the native mobile applications will be updated at the same time, but features and functions may vary depending on the relative capabilities available on each platform, said Craig Dewar, director, Dynamics CRM. "We're doing as much...

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