Cola, the App that Simplifies Text, Now in Beta
Text chains are a drag. A simple question like “when do you want to meet up?” or “What do we need to get done today?” quickly turns into an unwieldy 40-message chain of “what abouts…” and “I dunnos…” — not to mention the long pauses. For better or worse, this is 2015, so simply calling […]
500 Startups Batch 15 Targets Unique Markets
Startup watchers and mobile app developers will notice two themes running strong in this years 500 Startups batch. First, the group is highly international, featuring startups from Hong Kong, Argentina, Vietnam, Japan, Denmark, and Italy alongside stateside San Francisco mobile app developers, just to name a few. (the startups selected also showed a refreshing gender […]
Shots Continues to Find Traction with Millennial Users
Shots, a mobile app centered around the sole function of allowing users to share selfies with one another, has found itself subject to quite a bit of media negativity in recent weeks. Celebrity partnership with the likes of Justin Bieber has done little to alleviate the problem. Regardless, Shots has continued to grow; current active […]
Flywheel Aims to Replace Taxi Meters With TaxiOS Platform
While all the buzz in transportation apps and the sharing economy focus on big-picture services like Uber, the mobile app developers at startup Flywheel have quietly launched a smart new platform targeting a more humble issue: the old-school taxi meter. According to company sources over 80 percent of San Francisco taxis are already working with […]
Postmates Launches 15-Minute Delivery Service
Popular delivery service Postmates has launched a new service specifically for users in the South of Market Street (SoMa) area of San Francisco that promises to deliver lunch items within a blazing-fast 15 minutes. Users interact with the new service, called “Pop,” via a branded icon within the regular Postmates app, choosing from selections of items pre-stocked […]
“Been Choice” brings Ad Blocking to Native Apps and iTunes
Ad blockers rejoiced while advertisers cringed last week with the release of Been Choice, the first ad blocking app targeting native iPhone apps. The controversial tool uses a combination of Safari content blocking and VPN service, allowing users to filter out advertisements in both web applications and native apps including Facebook, Pinterest, and Yahoo. While […]
Security Remains Primary Concern Effecting Widespread Adoption of IoT Devices
Security has been a focus for Internet of Things app developers throughout the growth of the trend, and particularly now as industrial and medical applications become more prevalent. The effects of a hacker on your smart vacuum cleaner or cloud-connected thermostat may be negligible or annoying, but the situation obviously becomes more serious when considering […]
Facebook Using Drones to Blanket the World in Internet Connectivity
Facebook recently unveiled the specifics of the company’s plans to launch a series of solar-powered drones that will broadcast wireless Internet signals to remote areas. The laser-connected drones are expected to bring Internet access to people who live too far from existing wireless infrastructure to get a wireless signal. Estimates suggest that approximately 10 percent […]
Ad-Blocking Software: A Threat and an Opportunity for Mobile App Developers
Apple ruffled some feathers at the 2015 Developers’ Conference when the company unveiled an upcoming “content blocking” feature aimed at blacking out unwanted ads. The conference schedule used the following wording to introduce the session: “Safari in iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan delivers new ways for your app to extend Safari’s behavior. […]
Dedicated App Developers Are Now Sleeping Where They Work
WeWork, a startup with a multibillion-dollar valuation, is set to cash in on the emerging trend of co-living work spaces in the tech industry. The company is spearheading the development of what it calls “WeLive spaces” in San Francisco and Washington DC, where dedicated app development professionals can literally live where they work. The Washington […]