Yes, Microsoft seems to have given Google the hump lately with their new update for the YouTube app on Windows Phones. The problem is that users of this app can now save videos on their phone and play them as much as they want offline, oh no! In fairness, it is clearly stated in YouTube’s terms and conditions that granting users the ability to store videos is prohibited. I’d like to bring forward the fact that this app isn’t the first of its kind; in fact there are loads of ways to lift YouTube content. On your PC, there are ample extensions available, along with dedicated websites where you can download…

Ten million down. Ninety million to go. That’s the news out of Samsung as their mobile chief announced today that they were nearing the 10 million unit mark in sales and believe that they may be on pace to break 9-digits with their current flagship before all is said and done. “We are confident that we will pass more than 10 million sales of the S4 next week,” said co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun at a press event in Seoul yesterday. “It is selling much faster than the previous model S3.” The device has been on sale for less than a month, launching in Korea on April 26th and expanding to much of the rest of the world…

The blogosphere is normally abuzz with stories about Facebook that demonstrate negative sentiment towards their activities. Most of their moves are scrutinized and the company is often targeted for its activities, failures, and missteps. Facebook Home, the app that was supposed to be the “next version of Facebook” according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has been so underwhelming with its numbers that most bloggers started ignoring it shortly after its launch. This could all change once it’s allowed to be released to a wider audience. Currently, it’s only available on the HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung…

Developing smartphone apps is a tough business to break into. Seventy-five percent of apps earn the developer less than 500 dollars per month. Because app markets are saturated, very few apps are able to accumulate many downloads. In fact, only one in six smartphone apps exceed 500 total downloads. Every once in a while, an app is able to break out and find success, gaining high numbers of downloads in a matter of days. For the most successful apps, user numbers lie in the millions and gameplay takes billions of hours from users. What is it that makes these apps, such as Blood Brothers, Minecraft,…

Some are already chiseling RIP on a tombstone for consoles, but in reality mobile devices aren’t yet ready to seriously compete with consoles. Here’s why.   There’s no physical controller for mobile games Sure, touchscreens are fine for catapulting mad birds into incredibly mean pigs, but when you try a first person shooter game on a mobile device, the experience is markedly lackluster in comparison to consoles.   Small screens are limiting Obviously, playing games on your smartphone can never replace the experience of conquering Middle Earth or annihilating zombies on a 52-inch…

Microsoft has had its shares of difficulties in two big arenas of late – selling phones powered by their operating system and posting advertising videos that aren’t hated by the masses. They may have come up with a decent video that helps on both fronts by separating themselves from the fighting of the competition. The ad, slated to hit national television soon, pits the two sides of a wedding party against each other. On the bride’s side are people carrying the various Samsung mobile devices, while the groom’s family favors iPhone. Insults bounce back and forth and eventually lead to a melee. In…

Picture this: you go to a supermarket and you’re strolling down the frozen food section. You stop and take a moment to look at the pizza. Mmm – pizza. Just as you’re about to pop your selection in your cart, someone next to you pipes up. They tell you just how terrible that brand is, urging you not to buy it, saying it’s too salty, the cheese isn’t organic, and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Recently, it seems like Facebook Home has become the Internet equivalent of that frozen pizza supermarket debacle. Facebook Home has been attracting a lot of discussion these days. The new ‘apperating…

Earlier this week, NASA launched three smartphone satellites, called “PhoneSats”, into orbit. They rode into space aboard the maiden flight of Orbital Science Corp.’s Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia. They were sent into orbit as a part of test to determine whether a consumer-grade smartphone can be used as the main flight avionics of a working, low-cost satellite, and it certainly can. The three PhoneStats, which may end up being the lowest-cost satellites ever flown into space, have been transmitting signals and sending photos down to earth. Several…

The world of apps and Smartphone’s primarily started off with Apple’s iPhone in June 2007, with Google soon following up with the Android OS. At that time, the South Asian market was full of old school mobile phones, and the co-called Symbian Smartphone’s. For the common user, colored screens and polyphonic ringtones were the best that our market had to offer. However, it’s a different story today. These days we can get our hands on the touch-based Smartphone’s by spending almost the same amount that bought us a colored-screen polyphonic ringtone phone back in the day. There are thousands…

As of April 30th, several of Yahoo’s products will be shuttered as part of their initiative to consolidate focus and resources around their core services. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you’re probably not using any of them. You probably didn’t even know some of them existed. Here’s the list that they announced today: Upcoming Yahoo! Deals Yahoo! SMS Alerts Yahoo! Kids (formerly known as Yahooligans) Yahoo! Mail and Messenger Feature Phone Apps It’s not exactly as earth shattering as Google’s announcement that they were killing off their feed reader. Included in the announcement…