A couple of weeks ago, CNET’s Rick Broida invited readers to name their favorite freeware and 400 of them did. He says he’s still checking out some of those suggestions, but in the meantime he decided to share five of his own tried-and-true favorite free downloads for Windows. READ MORE
Erply is taking on Square, Intuit and VeriFone with a new mobile credit card reader for iOS devices, reports Leena Rao for TechCrunch. READ MORE
Malware for mobile devices is striking more frequently, and Android devices are the prime targets, according to a report released by Internet security company McAfee. READ MORE
It looks like the upcoming iPhone 5 will be a single phone that supports both CDMA (such as the one used by Verizon or Sprint in the United States) as well as GSM (which is used by AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S.), reports Robin Wauters for TechCrunch. READ MORE
Apple is introducing a special earthquake early-warning widget in the Japanese version of its iOS. The notification system is new to Apple devices, but not to Japanese citizens. The country introduced an earthquake notification system in 2007. The system proved its worth by notifying Japanese after the country was struck by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake in March. READ MORE
Another school year is right around the corner, which usually means there’s plenty of back-to-school shopping to be had. However, rather than buy notebooks, pencils, highlighters, and calculators, students can replace all of their school needs with a slew of instrumental, easy-to-use apps for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. READ MORE
Citing a Japanese tech news site with a history of accurate Apple predictions, CNET reports that the company is expected to unveil the next generation iPhone 5 on Sept. 7 along with a new lineup of iPods. Most interestingly though, CNET points to a different report that claims Apple also will be launching a free cloud-based iPhone alongside the full iPhone 5. READ MORE
Walmart and Amazon have figured out how to bypass Apple’s mandatory 30 percent cut for apps distributed through the iTunes store, reports The San Francisco Chronicle. Walmart has launched an iPad version of its Vudu online video streaming service using a desktop shortcut that lets customers click an “Add to Home Screen” button on Vudu.com to install an app-style icon on the iPad desktop. Likewise, Amazon unveiled the Kindle Cloud Reader which lets customers read Kindle e-books on the iPad even without an Internet connection. Both services use the HTML5 Web browser protocol and follow on the heels of The Financial Times of London which in June launched a Web-based version for smart phones and tablets to avoid Apple’s fee. “The flexibility of HTML5 allows us to build one application that automatically adapts to the platform you’re using – from Chrome to iOS,” said Dorothy Nicholls, director of Amazon’s Kindle division, in a statement. Amazon made its Kindle Cloud Reader compatible with Safari on the iPad as well as Google’s Chrome browser, and plans to add Internet Explorer, Firefox and the BlackBerry PlayBook browsers in coming months. Read more at The San Francisco Chronicle.
Facebook’s 750 million users may have yet another reason to cheer—or at the very least, smile broadly. The company has launched Messenger, a standalone app for iOS and Android that lets users send messages to Facebook friends as well as non-FB users (via SMS). This is the first time the company has launched a standalone mobile app (rather than a branded “Facebook” feature). READ MORE
It depends how you look at it. There’s no arguing with the fact that the iPad is one of the most successful products the world has ever seen, and that Apple is literally selling them as fast as it can get them off the assembly line. READ MORE
