mobile apps

Flash is still banished from Apple's iPhone, but a mobile browser is opening the door--at least partially--to the technology.

After its recent approval by Apple, Skyfire, a mobile Web browser that converts Flash videos to HTML5, hit the App Store today at 2 p.m. PT.

Selling for $2.99, the app has been awaiting Apple's thumbs-up since it was submitted for approval more than two months ago.

Skyfire uses a trick to coax Flash videos to run on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Those devices don't support Flash due to Apple's ban of the Adobe … Read more

Nokia is making Qt its sole application development framework and is supporting HTML5--both of which the company says are designed to benefit mobile app developers and customers.

The mobile phone maker said today its Qt decision means that mobile apps will be compatible with future versions of Symbian and MeeGo. Previously, developers could write directly for Symbian or MeeGo, each with its own specific development tools and environment.

With Qt, developers can create apps that runs on both smartphone platforms.

Though Nokia will be switching to the MeeGo platform for its N series of smartphones, the company has said it … Read more

Apple really is making good on its promise to ease the restrictions that previously plagued developers such as PlayOn. The service initially had to rely on Safari power to bring its video-streaming goodness to iPhone and iPod Touch owners, but now there's an official, approved PlayOn Mobile app.

As someone who loves TV, we really wanted to like it. But PlayOn Mobile suffers from the same irksome (and in some cases inexplicable) limitations as its browser-based counterpart.

In case you're not familiar with it, PlayOn is an Internet-TV service that slings shows from your Windows PC to your … Read more

Financial software might not be the type of thing to make your knees go weak, but a good program is a control freak's dream come true. Such is the case with Intuit's latest offering in the form of Quicken 2011, which launched last week in a choice of three versions: Starter Edition, Deluxe, and Premier. No matter which one you choose, you'll benefit from a streamlined setup process and handy improvements to the user interface.

Also cycling through the update process is popular VoIP service Skype, which revved to version 5 last week. This edition features a … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--PacketVideo, creator of an interconnected multimedia streaming suite dubbed TwonkyMedia, will officially push out its mobile complement at the end CTIA's Fall 2010 conference on Friday, but that didn't stop the company from showing off the app at a swanky cocktail party in a SOMA loft a bit ahead of schedule.

Twonky Mobile is rather aptly described by the diagram at right, which we swiped off the Twonky Web site. In layman's terms, the app turns any Android phone into a really fancy universal remote for just about any networked media device on the market today, … Read more

As has been stated a thousand times over, there's an app for practically any purpose you could dream of. Some in particular suffer from a glut of apps, and shopping is one of those. With such a wide array to choose from, sorting out which ones are truly useful can be a special kind of challenge. This is why we've taken a rather picky stance in our CTIA wanderings, but a neat little app called Aisle411 managed to catch my eye.

Aisle411 is a feature-packed and user-friendly app aimed at helping you navigate large retail locations, such as … Read more

Voice search is improving all the time, and Google brings the best we've seen to date. Its stellar iPhone app uses the accelerometer to activate search. When you hear a beep after lifting the phone to your ear, start speaking your search term. The accuracy of the listening software combined with the MyLocation feature brings (mostly) spot-on search results that are localized to your whereabouts. As with versions of the Google Mobile App on other mobile platforms, this one also includes a tab of shortcuts to other Google services, including Talk, Reader, News, and Photos (Picasa Web).

While the … Read more

It's been almost a year since Google released a beta of its Goggles visual search app for Android phones, and now it's time for a new milestone in the product's life cycle: Google Goggles for iPhone. Google Goggles (spell that 10 times fast) creates a visual search out of what the smartphone's camera sees through its lens. In other words, the app will scan your image when you focus on a landmark, a sign, a label, and so on, and search for matches in its database. Google refers to the Goggles search method as "computer … Read more

Over the past week, desktop software took a back seat as CNET attended the CTIA Fall 2010 trade show, where editors got up close and personal with every variety of mobile app under the sun. The highlights included the innovative and supremely useful shopping app Aisle411; a new twist on the universal remote from Twonky; and an all-new, all-free texting service from HeyWire. In addition, Vlingo announced its new InCar feature, aimed at making texting while driving safer (a popular theme this season).

We also got to check out a nifty software solution from memory-maker SanDisk. The company announced Media Manager … Read more