Apps

Apple's Q2: By the numbers

Wall Street will have to make up its mind about Apple's downbeat forecast for the next quarter. But the company came in ahead of estimates during its first second quarter. Here's how Apple fared in the quarter compared:<>uct:

iPhones: 37.4 million iPhones compared to 35.1 million year-over-year iPads: 19.5 million compared to 11.8 million year-over-year Macs: 3.95 million, compared to 4 million year-over-year iPods: 5.7 million compared to 7.7 million year-over-year iTunes revenue up 28% App Store now in 155 countries and 350,000 apps 91 million visitors … Read more

Intel loses key TV business engineer

Intel's fledgling TV business has lost one of its lead engineers, the company confirmed, potentially dealing a blow to its efforts to get the business off the ground.

Jim Baldwin, who served as vice president and general manager of engineering for Intel Media, has left the company to pursue other opportunities, an Intel spokesman said. Baldwin's LinkedIn profile, meanwhile, said he has retired from the company.

Baldwin couldn't immediately be reached for comment. The Intel spokesman said that the company has "a deep engineering leadership bench" and has taken steps internally to address the transition. &… Read more

CBS invests in TV-streaming tech provider Syncbak

CBS has made an investment in Syncbak, the company said today, giving it a minority stake in the television-streaming technology provider as it continues its focus on mobile.

Syncbak, a privately held company founded in 2009, makes location-based authentication technology that allows local television stations to stream their signals to in-market customers. Essentially, Syncbak "localizes the Internet" for broadcasters, networks, and TV studios, allowing retransmission of live television over the Web in much the same way it works over cable and satellite. The company's app is available for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, but it doesn'… Read more

Yahoo brings Summly to iPhone app

Yahoo has wasted no time turning its Summly acquisition into a lure for mobile users.

The Internet company Monday introduced a new app for iPhones and iPod Touch devices that features quick story summaries delivered by Summly's natural-language algorithms and machine learning. It's available to users in the United States.

Yahoo made a splash when it acquired Summly -- reportedly for a hefty $30 million -- from teenager Nick D'Aloisio just a month ago.

D'Aloisio developed the technology behind Summly when he was just 15 and, for his schoolwork, needed a way to quickly sort scads … Read more

Feet-on with Zombies, Run! 2 jogging game

Out of steam? Can't bring yourself to finish that last mile? Maybe a zombie horde breathing down your neck will give you the adrenaline boost you need.

That's the idea behind Zombies, Run! 2 (Android|iOS), which bills itself as an "immersive running game and audio adventure" for your smartphone.

It works like this: Before you start your run, you load the app, choose a mission, put in your earbuds, and then hit the road. Along the way, you're treated to audio segments that gradually reveal the story of Abel Township and the zombie apocalypse … Read more

Apple hangs onto your Siri data for two years

All those curse words and other commands you yell at Siri hang around a bit longer than you may think.

In response to a Wired story expressing concern about Siri's privacy policy, Apple has revealed exactly what happens to your Siri chats. Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told Wired on Thursday that Apple may keep your Siri data for up to two years, albeit in an untraceable state.

Here's how the process works, according to Wired.

Whenever you talk to Siri, your commands are uploaded to Apple for analysis. Apple then assigns you a random number, which it associates … Read more

Facebook launches new tools for mobile, including Open Graph

Facebook on Thursday announced three new products, including Open Graph for mobile, to boost its presence in the fast-growing smartphone and tablet markets.

The company said in a blog post and at its mobile developer conference in New York that along with making it easier to implement Open Graph on mobile, Facebook also is improving Facebook Login and is releasing a new SDK 3.5 for iOS.

In addition, Facebook also announced a new partner program to help developers integrate Facebook on a variety of mobile platforms. Some early partners include C# SDK for Windows 8 by Microsoft, Corona SDK … Read more

Yahoo launches Mail app for iPad, Android tablets

Yahoo on Thursday released a Mail app for iOS and Android tablet users and a Weather app for iPhone owners.

A Yahoo Mail app has already been in play for the iPhone and Android smartphones, but the new version takes advantage of the larger screen size of tablets. A full-screen reading mode lets you flip through your e-mail messages as if you were reading a magazine.

Flipping through messages this way feels so much more natural than having to tap on each e-mail in the inbox to read it, especially on a tablet. It's an innovative and welcome approach, … Read more

Finally, Twitter Music is available to all

You don't have to be the host of "American Idol" to use Twitter Music anymore.

A little more than a month after CNET broke the news that Twitter was working on a stand-alone music discovery app and a week after that app was rolled out to an invite-only group of celebrities and others -- including Ryan Seacrest -- the general public can now get its hands on the music discovery app.

Twitter officially unveiled #music on Thursday during "Good Morning America." The company later provided more details about the service in a blog post, saying … Read more