Mobile apps store no doubt is a multi-million business and the growth still doesn’t seem to stop yet. Apple with it’s App Store and Google with it’s Android Market are two of the leaders on this market. While others including Microsoft are still continuing to grow as more apps coming to their store. And many efforts have been taken in order to leverage the number of apps in their markets.

For example BlackBerry, instead of encouraging developers to build new apps for BlackBerry products, they built some kind of tools or system which enable Android Apps to run on BlackBerry PlayBook Tablets. At the other side, Microsoft released a new iPhone/iOS to Windows Phone 7 API mapping tools along with complete guides. So, if you’re an iPhone developers but don’t have expertise in developing apps for Windows Phone 7, you can still expand your apps by using these tools and guides.

You can find all these stuffs at http://windowsphone.interoperabilitybridges.com/

There are couple of things available on this package:

A New iPhone/iOS to Windows Phone 7 API mapping tool – with this tool, you as a developer can grab your apps, pick out the iOS API calls, and quickly lookup the equivalent classes, methods and notification events in WP7. This also comes with C# sample codes and API documentation for both platforms.

Window Phone 7 Guide for iPhone Application Developers – this white paper consists of 90+ pages guides organized in 8 chapters and likely to be growing later on.

A Series of “developer stories” – here you can see developers sharing their experience porting iPhone applications to Windows Phone and the story behind that.

A compilation of the key resources you need to get started.

So, if you’re an iPhone developers doesn’t matter your apps are free or paid, popular or not, i guess these tools and resources are worth to try and who knows the Windows Phone 7 version of your apps would be better than the iPhone version.

[via: WindowsPhone Blog]

Apple to release iOS 4.3.3 soon in order to fix the location tracking bug which has become a controversy in the last couple of days. A source at BGR reported that this software update is expected to be available within the next two weeks or possibly sooner although an exact time-frame is not known at the moment.

This software update is said to address the following issues:

• The update will no longer back up the location database to iTunes.
• The size of the location database will be reduced.
• The location database will be deleted entirely when Location Services are turned off.
• Battery life improvements.
• iPod bug fixes.

As you probably know, Apple acknowledge several bugs in the iOS that have led to more data than originally intended being stored on devices and caused to be stored even when Location Services are disabled. Many people for sure will not notice this issue easily. However, it’s the responsibility of Apple to fix this bug and make the problem clear to it’s customers.

[via:BGR]

Along with the BlackBerry Bold 9900 / 9930, RIM also brings great news to PlayBook users by announcing two new applications: new Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook and Video Chat Application for PlayBook Tablet. These applications will be showcased this week at BlackBerry World 2011.

Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook offers users a highly engaging experience by integrating popular features and functionality of Facebook including;

New Facebook App for BlackBerry PlayBoook

From the Facebook App for BlackBerry PlayBook press release, this app will come with the following features and functionality:

• View and add Friends – Users can interact with friends quickly and easily: find friends by scanning the new grid view of their profile pictures; search for and add new friends and manage new friend requests; browse their profiles, photos and videos; view and interact with wall posts; view key information on profiles and pages; and view, comment and ‘like’ photos on profiles and pages.
• Enjoy seamless photo and video viewing – Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook makes it easy to upload photos from the BlackBerry PlayBook Picture Library, tag friends in photos, view comments, tags and likes.  The BlackBerry PlayBook can also be connected to an HD TV to display photos and videos at a whole new level in full 1080p HD.
• Connect with friends using Facebook Chat – On the BlackBerry PlayBook screen, users can enjoy side-by-side viewing of online contacts and active conversations. Notifications of new Chat messages are displayed on the Notifications Bar, so users can quickly and easily read and respond to new Chat messages while browsing friends’ profiles, viewing their pictures or reading their status updates.
• View and interact with the News Feed – Users will be able to browse highlights such as photo uploads and status updates and seamlessly view links in the BlackBerry PlayBook browser.  They will also be able to “Comment” and “Like” to discuss and show appreciation for friends’ content, as well as publish a status update or upload a photo from the status publisher accessible from their Profile or from within the News Feed.

This app is expected to be available on BlackBerry App World in May.

New Video Chat Application for BlackBerry PlayBook

From the Video Chat Application for BlackBerry PlayBook press release, this app will come with the following features and functionality:

One-Click Video and Voice over Wi-Fi Calls – with just one click users can make a call from their Video Chat contact list, log of recent calls or simply by entering the BBID email address of the person they want to call.
• Incoming Call Notifications – users will receive a notification pop-up when a new video call comes in, allowing them to accept the call as either a video or voice call, or decline the call. For those quiet moments – such as when while watching a movie or playing a game -users will also have the ability to simply set the “Do Not Disturb” option and the BlackBerry PlayBook will automatically ignore all incoming calls.
• Powerful In-Call Functions – by using the picture-in-picture function users can easily preview their own video image prior to placing the call in order to see what will be displayed on the other end. They can also easily switch cameras from front to rear so their friends can see what they are seeing, and for private moments users can mute/unmute audio or make or take calls using voice only.
• Friends List – BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat comes complete with a Friends List for maintaining your favorite contacts. A picture can easily be added to a contact to personalize the entry and a Call Log makes it simple to keep track of received and missed calls.

This app is expected to be available on May 3 and will be distributed to existing BlackBerry PlayBook customers through an over-the-air software update and also BlackBerry App World.

Along with the press release of the new BlackBerry Bold 9900 / 9930, RIM also officially announced the latest version of it’s OS BlackBerry 7 which previously known as BlackBerry 6.1. This BlackBerry 7 OS brings significant performance improvements to the web browser including a new JIT (just in time) JavaScript engine and support for HTML5 elements. Moreover, the new BlackBerry 7 OS also integrates BlackBerry Balance, voice-activated searches.

The BlackBerry Balance will separate personal content from corporate content on the smartphone and giving users the freedom and flexibility to use the handsets for personal purpose.

Unfortunately, the latest info said that upgrade to BlackBerry 7 OS will not be available for devices currently in-market.

The Store basically provides both free and paid applications for various mobile platform including Android, BlackBerry, Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile. The store also provides apps for Java based mobile phones which means older and lower-end mobile devices. But unfortunately and as usual, it doesn’t support apps for iOS devices which probably simply because Apple doesn’t let it. In addition, it also has support for various kind of devices from various manufacturers.

Along with the Opera Mobile Store, Opera also launched Opera Publisher Portal which provides developers with an easy way to get their applications into the Opera Mobile Store. Well, it’s still a long way for Opera to get establish in this business considering almost all Operating System makers also already have their own respective apps store which of course provide a better way to access to the store from the mobile devices.

The Twitter support for Hotpot rating is basically intended to give you more chances to share your recommendations even broadly when visiting interesting spot from Google Places by posting it directly to Twitter from your Android device.

While with the new “ping” Latitude friends feature, you can now use “ping” instead of having to text or call your nearby Latitude friends. They will receive an Android notification and when they check it using your request, you’ll get a notification right back.

[via: GoogleMobile]

For those of you who own Android or iOS devices but have huge number of friends using BlackBerry, this is really a great news for you. The sources on BGR recently told that RIM is planning to bring the famous BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) app and service to Android and iOS. It means you will be able to communicate with almost anyone who use smartphone by using BBM. It’s not clear about the timing or pricing yet but the app it self will be available for free to all users.

Currently there are couple of third-party apps offering similar concept like WhatApp and Kik. But seems like RIM wants to have it’s own too. However, it’s likely that RIM would charge the users either a one-time fee or a recurring basis to access it’s BBM service in this case. But personally i think that would be a good deal considering the number of people that you would be able to connect to and i’m sure this is one of the service that many people are expected.

Anyway, the sources also told that this Android and iOS version of BBM will not offer the full experience of BBM as the BlackBerry has. It means that no photo sharing, location or videos. But i think it’s still worth to have this kind of service.

Last but not least, RIM is said being working on the Android version and will launch it some  time this year. But surely the iOS version will come eventually after that.

[via: BGR]

This update includes the following new features:

• Photos – this features now includes a camera button in the toolbar and also improvement on the image preview makes uploading photos is easier than ever. You can now choose photo from your library or take a new picture quickly.
• Follow your friends – this feature enables you to find which of your friend on Twitter that have chosen to be discoverable through the contacts on your phone.
• Local trends – see trends based on your location
• Shorten links – the app now includes an automatic shorten links feature which will automatically shorten the link you want to share.
• Tweet box design – The “New Tweet” screen is redesigned which cleaner and simpler.
• Autocomplete – this feature enables you to better type the Twitter username which will auto-complete @username and hash-tags when you type it.
• Direct messages – The new Direct Message conversation views will helps you better keep track of messages.

This update is only available for iPhone and iPad at the moment. And there’s even one new feature specific for iPhone called the Quick Bar that lets you quickly see trends at the top of your timeline which you can swipe to the left or right to see additional trends.

[iTunes Link]

Image credit: www.wisebread.com

This kind of apps offers various features starting from the very basic one where you can just record your income and expenses to the complex apps which you can customize many things based on what you need. But among those many features, there are top 5 of them that are my favorite.

1. Multi Accounts with Multi Currency

A basic app probably only let to record your incomes and expenses without giving you an option to chose the accounts you use for the payment. But i prefer an app that enables you to manage multiple accounts so you can differentiate between your savings, cash, credit cards, etc. Moreover, i also prefer an apps that let you use multi currencies which are convertible between each other using specific rates.

2. Customizable Budgets

Indeed budget is probably one of the main feature that people want from a personal finance app. But as for me, i like an app that offers a customizable budgets. It means you can choose from a monthly budgets, weekly budgets or set a specific period of date.

3. Customizable Reports

Using a report on a personal finance app is the best way to analyze your financial situation. However, it could be a nightmare if you can’t customize the kind of report you want to see. So, besides the nice charting and diagrams, i also prefer a customizable report where you can choose to see a report from a specific date, category, etc.

4. Easy Backup and Sync

The info you entered to these apps are very important. So, i would suggest to have a proper backup and sync mechanism. But more important is, this backup and sync process supposed to be easy so you wouldn’t have problems when you need to restore it.

5. Customizable Icons

It probably doesn’t affect the record of your financial data on the app. But as for me, i found it would be fun to have such features so you can set your own icons and enjoy using the apps.

Well once again, this kind of apps probably doesn’t give you a comprehensive solution such as getting advice about your financial situation or  finding low interest rates but for sure it would help you to have a better control of them.

Pleas find the new features in this version 1.2.0 below.

• Lots of love to go around
• 15 truly lovely new levels
• The most romantic new seasonal theme
• Oh new achievements, will you be my valentine?
• Affirm your affection for Angry Birds for three more levels
• Roses are red, violets are blue, golden eggs is golden, and so are you

Just want to remind you, the previous updates (1.0.0 and 1.1.0) included these new features below.

New features in version 1.0.0:

• Hundreds of pigs, pumpkins and plump, pulverizing birds!
• 45 daunting levels of pig and pumpkin-smashing action!
• A fearsome tale of a golden egg..of terror!

New features in version 1.1.0:

• 25 days of Angry birds
• A new seasonal theme
• A fun wintery element
• New achievements
• Game center support
• A very merry golden egg