Apps

Facebook Home finally hits 1M download mark

A month after its release, Facebook Home has reached 1 million downloads, according to download numbers at Google Play.

It hit the milestone just days after Facebook's director of mobile engineering told reporters that Home had been downloaded "just about" 1 million times. The app's page was updated Sunday morning to indicate that its download numbers now fall in the 1 million to 5 million range.

While the social network's software suite for Android achieved its first 500,000 downloads in its first 10 days out in the wild, Facebook Home took twice as long … Read more

Manage to-dos with these four Android apps

For a long time, Astrid was considered a go-to task management app for Android users. But with its recent acquisition by Yahoo and the news that it will soon be going away, fans of the app will soon be looking for alternatives. With that in mind, I've put together a list of four of my favorite to-do managers for Android. In some ways they may even outdo the popular Astrid, but feel free to tell us in the comments how you think they stack up.

Wunderlist (free) The beauty of Wunderlist lies in its simplicity. It easily syncs across … Read more

Get Automatic Lifelogging with Saga for Android

Meet Saga, the "Automatic Lifelogging" app. This is the app you've never known you needed. Remember what you were doing last Thursday? Saga remembers. OK, I guess that sounds a bit creepy. But really, here's what the app does...

Instead of forcing you to write a journal each day to talk about everything you did, in perhaps an overlong narrative, Saga keeps everything in a neat list for you. Checked in at the grocery store on Foursquare last Monday? Saga recorded it. Tweeted about an upcoming movie you want to see? Yep, Saga got that, too. … Read more

Google Maps for iOS auto-dimming is driving users crazy

The latest version of Google's Maps software for Apple's iOS includes an undocumented feature that dims the screen between navigation instructions in order to save the battery, but instead it's driving users batty.

The feature was designed to save battery life between navigation directions, something that can be very useful during long trips when an iPhone is not plugged into a power source. In fact, Google quietly added the feature inside of an update nine weeks ago after users complained that the initial version of the software was slurping up too much juice on road trips.

Users … Read more

Facebook reportedly in talks to buy Waze for $1 billion

Facebook may be aiming to spend anywhere from $800 million to $1 billion to acquire Waze, an Israel-based company that offers a socially informed GPS app for drivers.

Talks reportedly kicked off six months ago, according to Israeli business-news site Calcalist, which says that due diligence is currently under way. This would mean that the two companies are checking each other out before signing on the dotted line. The two also have signed a term sheet, or an agreement in principle on the sale, according to Calcalist.

An agreement sounds like it could be close. However, sources close to Waze … Read more

Use Mokriya Craigslist app on Android for Craigslist alerts

This app currently offers the fastest and easiest way to browse Craigslist from your mobile device. The primary advantage to using an app over the mobile Web site is the ability to set alerts. Instead of setting a reminder to look through listings for the items you want to buy or sell, an alert will do the work for you.

If you don't have the Mokriya Craigslist app, install a copy on your Android smartphone or tablet. The icon for the app will just say "Craigslist."

Upon opening the app, you'll see a single … Read more

Evomail for iPad: An evolved e-mail client?

The race is on to build a better e-mail client for iOS, with apps like Incredimail and Mailbox all vying to deliver a better experience than Apple's own Mail.

The latest entrant: Evomail, which promises a better Gmail experience than Google's own Gmail app. But does it deliver?

Yes and no. Evomail closely resembles the latest Gmail app, which is to say it's attractive and smartly designed, with a simple expanding-panel layout that's admirably easy to navigate.

Evomail brings a couple of neat tricks to the table, including color-coded labels, a gesture-based reply option (just swipe … Read more

Ford cars now sync with Amazon Cloud Player on iOS

Amazon's Cloud Player for iOS is now available in Ford Sync AppLink-equipped cars, a few months after the Android version hit the market, the Internet giant said Wednesday.

Ford owners can wirelessly connect the Amazon MP3 app on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to the Sync connectivity system to access their entire music library using voice commands or dashboard controls.

Android users have been able to use the app in Ford cars since February.

Carmakers have pushed infotainment as one way to attract new buyers, and it allows app makers to reach consumers in more locations. Ford earlier … Read more

Google delivers 'return to sender' code for iOS

Code is king at Google, and a Google-made software module for iOS released on Tuesday allows you to go from third-party app to Chrome for iOS and back again with a simple tap.

The module, called OpenInChromeController class with x-callback, is the second end-run around core Apple restrictions in as many days. On Monday, Google updated Gmail for iOS with the ability to open links from Gmail in Google's other iOS apps. Once developers incorporate the new software module, it will open links from the app in Google Chrome, provided that the user has Chrome for iOS installed.

Both … Read more