Mobile

Owe your friend $20? There's no need to go to an ATM. Just bump him the money.

Starting today, sending money can be easier than ever with the launch of Bump Pay, a new iPhone app from the makers of the popular contact and photo sharing service Bump.

If you've used Bump, you already know how to send money with the new app: you simply tap your iPhone against your friend's, and the cash gets sent (see video below).

For Bump Pay to work, both you and your friend need to have the app and a PayPal … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- The army of startups -- some 65 in all -- pitching a packed room of investors at Y Combinator's Demo Day today all begin the same way: Explaining what problem they're trying to solve.

Some resonate more quickly than others. That was the case with Sonalight. Its basic pitch is that it makes a better way to text and drive. This startup isn't even bothering with the idea that texting and driving might be a bad thing; it's taking as its starting point that people do just that.

Founder Curtis Liu, a … Read more

If you ask a friend where to eat or for their favorite dish at a specific restaurant, you'll probably give their suggestion a lot more weight than an automatically generated one, especially if that friend knows your tastes in food.

That's the basic premise behind Jybe, a brand-new iPhone app that launched today. Built by a small team led by three longtime search industry veterans, the app is designed to give users highly relevant suggestions for restaurants--including specific dishes--as well as movies, books, and other things.

These days, there's plenty of ways to get recommendations and reviews … Read more

Apple CEO Tim Cook has made it abundantly clear how important China is to his company's future. And he might soon prove that point yet again with Baidu integration in iOS.

Chinese news site Sina Tech is reporting today, citing sources, that Apple plans to integrate Baidu search into iOS in April. The move could be a blow to Google, which is currently the default search engine on Chinese iPhones, and trying desperately to catch up to Baidu.

Catching up might be a tall order. Baidu is dominant in the Chinese market and integrated into the vast majority of … Read more

In the past week, two high-profile mobile apps were effectively shut down and acquired -- Hipster by Aol and Oink by Google. Both had big PR buildups, rave reviews from the tech press, and strong usage from the digerati.

What they did not get was traction beyond that, and the teams went on to be acqui-hired. Even apps that seemed to define new categories, such as GroupMe for group chat and Foursquare for check-in, have failed to gain popularity with the general public. GroupMe sold to Skype and Foursquare is shifting from the check-in model to the reviews/discovery space … Read more

Amazon Appstore users can enjoy birthday discounts this week on such apps as Plants vs. Zombies, Fruit Ninja, Wolfram Alpha, and Splashtop Remote Desktop.

Starting today, users can grab a 67 percent discount off Plants vs. Zombies. Normally selling for $2.99, the popular game can be had for just 99 cents today. Tomorrow, two more deals will debut, followed by three new deals on the third day, and so on into next week, Amazon said today.

"Customers have used the Amazon Appstore to test drive and buy millions of apps and games for their Kindle Fire and other … Read more

The location-based craze is moving indoors--fast.

A startup called Wifarer today announced that Boston's Prudential Center is now fully outfitted with indoor positioning software so that the many stores within the complex can pinpoint your location within 4 to 5 feet.

But don't freak out.

Unlike a startup called Euclid, which tracks your every step so long as your carrying a Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone, Wifarer only works after you've downloaded the app. No app, you're invisible, so the choice really is yours.

A number of companies (from biggies like Cisco Systems and Google to fast-growing upstarts like … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--These days, smartphones seem like they're everywhere. And with their wide array of built-in sensors, those devices--iPhone, Androids, Windows Phones, and others--can provide us with more and more data about where we are and what's around us than ever before.

And yet, the devices sometimes still seem like they're caught in a very 1.0 era--they can tell us where we are, but that information may not be useful in any way beyond helping us get to where we're going.

But what if your iPhone could automatically give you your shopping list when you arrive … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--When Chris Connolly sat down in his seat on the "Nerd Bird," the nonstop flight here from Oakland, Calif., to get to the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, he had no idea that a new social discovery app was about to play a role in boosting his business prospects.

Connolly, the head of design at Foodspotting, had recently signed up for Highlight, a tool that helps identify potential new social matches by virtue of proximity and shared Facebook friends and interests. And now, as he settled in for the four-hour flight, his seatmate leaned over and said, &… Read more