Another step for Adobe in its bid to become the go-to place in the cloud for those working in design and other creative industries: it is acquiring Thumb Labs, a bootstrapped, New York-based mobile app design agency. Jared Verdi, one of the co-founders of Thumb Labs along with Rich Kern, tells TechCrunch that financial terms of the Thumb Labs acquisition are not being disclosed. The news follows on from Adobe’s acquisition of another New York-based design startup, Behance, a platform for designers and others in the creative industries to share their work, which Adobe picked up in December 2012 reportedly for around $ 150 million. Earlier this month, Adobe put the Behance acquisition into context when it announced a massive push on its Creative Cloud strategy, with social/community features powered by Behance. Verdi tells TechCrunch that Thumb Labs will see out existing contracts it has with other clients, but as of May 31, it will focus its efforts exclusively on making mobile apps for Behance. That’s a position it knows well. Thumb Labs, which officially launched as a business in 2011, created the first mobile app for Behance, and as it points out in a note announcing the deal on its site, “We have been working closely with their talented team ever since.” That’s included a new version of the Behance app, and its Creative Portfolio app. There are around 10 people working for Thumb Labs right now, Verdi says, and all of them are joining Adobe, based out of New York. Thumb Labs’ other clients have included a roster of startups, such as TechStars alum Bondsy (a platform to trade goods with friends); CanDoBaby (an app to make baby books); and ReadyForZero (a debt management app). The main part of Thumb Labs’ work will now be focused both on maintaining Behance’s existing apps, as well as developing new ones. This will include “definitely some tablet work”, including an iPad app, as well as apps for more platforms beyond Apple’s, and in general making Behance’s main site design responsive so that it’s more mobile-web friendly. Over time, there will be more focus on other Creative Cloud initiatives, which makes sense considering how linked the rise in cloud services has been with the boom in smartphone and tablet use. “We’ll also be working with other teams at Adobe for integration into the Creative Cloud. Mobile is a big part of that,” Verdi
TechCrunch
Tag Archives: apps
Adobe Acqui-hires Thumb Labs To Make Mobile Apps For Behance And Its New Creative Cloud
Salesforce.com aims its customer service, social monitoring apps at governments
Salesforce.com is hoping to set the standard for how government bodies deliver online services to citizens using mobile devices.
Computerworld News
Alteryx Raises $12M For Data Analytics Platform That Shapes Data Into Apps
Alteryx has raised $ 12 million for its business intelligence service designed for data analysts to build tools out of their own internal data and that from third parties.
The investment comes from SAP Ventures and Toba Capital, a new firm founded by former Quest Founder and CEO Vinny Smith.
TechCrunch
Pinterest Launches Pins With More Info And A New Button For Mobile Apps
Pinterest announced two new features today that will help make the Web site more attractive to potential advertisers. The first is pins embedded with additional information about products, recipes and movies. The second is a Pin It button that is now available on nine mobile apps.
TechCrunch
Even without big Apps news at I/O, small changes matter
Apps, Google's flagship product for enterprise IT, had a minor presence at this week's I/O developer conference, but some announcements at the show and in prior weeks deserve attention from customers of the cloud email and collaboration suite.
Computerworld News
The Impending Headache of Google Glass Apps
Glass apps will require people to create new content filters. Maybe that’s just a losing battle.
Would you want your daily horoscope beamed to your right eye? That’s the vision of the future I saw when I tried out the fashion magazine Elle’s app for Google Glass yesterday, one of several apps announced at the extravagant software developer love-fest the internet company puts on every year.
No big-bang Apps news at I/O, but some announcements merit attention
Apps, Google's flagship product for enterprise IT, had a minor presence at this week's I/O developer conference, but some announcements at the show and in prior weeks deserve attention from customers of the cloud email and collaboration suite.
Computerworld News
Google Glass getting apps for Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, CNN and more
Google has just announced a slew of new apps that are coming to Google Glass. In an effort to expand Glass’s abilities, a handful of different apps will become available to users, including Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, CNN, Tumblr, and Elle. Previously, only Path and The New York Times were available as apps on Google Glass.
Telefonica Adds Samsung As A Carrier Billing OEM For Apps, Games, Music And More
Telefonica is today announcing a deal with Samsung that will see it make an even bigger move into the area of carrier billing: Samsung will integrate the carrier’s billing back-end directly into its own mobile services, meaning that consumers who are customers of Telefonica’s (it has 316 million worldwide) who use the Samsung Hub and Samsung Apps portals on Samsung smartphones will be able to buy apps, music, videos, books, games and more and charge them directly on to their phone bills.
Google Wants to Help Apps Track You
BlackBerry Live by the numbers: 120,000 apps available
BlackBerry touts 120,000 apps in its app store and it tries to impress the developer community. [Read more]
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With Personal Data, Predictive Apps Stay a Step Ahead
Apps that proactively help people with their lives represent a significant departure from earlier approaches to software.
A new type of mobile app is departing from a long-standing practice in computing. Typically, computers have just dumbly waited for their human operators to ask for help. But now applications based on machine learning software can speak up with timely information even without being directly asked for it. They might automatically pull up a boarding pass for your flight just as you arrive at the airport, or tell you that current traffic conditions require you to leave for your next meeting within 10 minutes.
Mobile Messaging Apps: A Primer
The global mobile messaging app space is the new social battleground. Startups that would have had little chance of unseating Facebook’s dominance on the web are attacking Zuckerberg’s empire by refocusing social networking around the mobile phone contacts book. Enter your phone number, and these apps already know who all your friends are. No need to go laboriously recreating your social graph.
TechCrunch
Manage to-dos with these four Android apps
With the popular Astrid app soon going away, many users will be scrambling to find a new way to track their tasks. Here are four of my favorite to-do list apps for Android. [Read more]
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Mozilla offers developers phones to write Firefox OS apps
The open-source browser maker is trying to coax programmers into writing software for the Firefox Marketplace by offering them free phones. [Read more]
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Boston Replacing Microsoft Exchange With Google Apps
netbuzz writes “The city of Boston, which employs 20,000 people, has become the latest large organization to switch from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps. The city estimates that the move will save it $ 280,000 a year. Microsoft’s reaction? ‘We believe the citizens of Boston deserve cloud productivity tools that protect their security and privacy. Google’s investments in these areas are inadequate, and they lack the proper protections most organizations require.’ More and more customers aren’t buying that FUD.” Hopefully they’ll be more satisfied than Los Angeles was (PDF).
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Mozilla trading Firefox OS phones for HTML5 apps
Firefox OS Developer Preview handsets have been available on a limited basis up until this point. Most notably, retailer Geeksphone had quickly run through some inventory back in April. As of today however, it looks like Mozilla is going to be giving some away for free. Or more to the point, Mozilla has launched the
Wix: Come for our site builder, stay for Google Apps
Web site building tool Wix — 33 million users strong — teams up with Google to deliver Gmail and other apps to small businesses with a two-click install. [Read more]
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Google revamps admin console for Apps and other enterprise products
Google is rolling out a new IT administration console for its Apps email and collaboration cloud suite and for other enterprise products such as Maps Coordinate and Chrome OS devices.
Computerworld News
Soccer Apps Get Hot As FTBpro Secures $5.8M To Go Global While The Football App Inks €10M From Earlybird
There’s something about Soccer (and as a Brit, by that I mean Football, pulease…) that seems to have captured investors’ imagination of late. A case in point: FTBpro, a large fan-generated content platform has now secured $ 5.8 million from Battery Ventures and Gemini Israel Ventures to fund global expansion. The site currently has 20 million monthly page views, over 1,000 contributing fan writers, covering all major leagues worldwide and publishes content and tools in a variety of languages. And they are not the only one. The move comes just after ‘The Football App‘ raised its first institutional funding with a €10m Series A from a syndicate led by Earlybird Venture Capital in Berlin. The Football App has become a pretty dominant mobile football app amongst European fans.
TechCrunch
Microsoft to boost Office Web Apps features
Microsoft plans to accelerate improvements in Office Web Apps, the browser-based version of the Office suite, adding features like real-time co-authoring of documents and the ability to run in Android tablets via mobile Chrome browser support.
Computerworld News
Hidden sensors in Google Glass could enable AR apps
One of the bigger digs against Glass so far, has been its rather limited feature set. In particular, there seemed to be no way to build full augmented reality applications for the wearable. (And it’s not like Google has exactly been forthcoming about many of its specs.) But all hope is not lost. Programmer Lance Nanek was digging around in debug mode and managed to push an Android app to the head-mounted display that spit out a list of available sensors. Looks like Glass does in fact have all of the necessary components for full-fledged AR — the official API just hasn’t exposed those capabilities yet. Currently third-party Glass apps are limited to updating your location once every 10 minutes, but with a little bit of hacking, we’re sure that limitation could be overcome and the full suite of orientation sensors exposed to developers. Perhaps it wont be long before someone ports Yelp Monocle to Glass. Of course, it’s probably only a matter of time before Google opens those features up to devs. For the full list of sensors and location providers head on after the break.
Filed under: Wearables, Software, Google
Source: NeatoCode Techniques
Starz, Encore and Movieplex Play apps arrive on Android
Starz Play has had a home on iOS since October, but now it’s made the jump to Android, and it’s brought Encore Play and Movieplex Play along with it. By wielding the apps, users can stream video from the TV network over WiFi and 3G — provided they have a cable subscription with AT&T U-verse, Cox, DirecTV or Verizon. Comcast customers aren’t entirely left out in the cold, however, as they can already catch content licensed from the television channel through the Xfinity website and apps. If you’re ready to get your fill of Starz flicks, hit the bordering source links for the downloads.
[Thanks, Artem]
Via: Android Police
Source: Google Play (1), (2), (3)
Samsung Has Acquired MOVL To Build Out Better Multiscreen Mobile And TV Apps
Over the last few years, Samsung has been working hard on building technology to improve the communication between its connected TVs and mobile devices, whether they be iOS or Android phones or tablets. Well, the company has acquired MOVL, a startup that should provide even more help in that category.
TechCrunch
Sequoia’s Aaref Hilaly Says Messaging Apps Are A New Kind Of Social Network
Investor Chamath Palihapitiya’s skeptical comments about the current wave of tech startups (comments that included a not-too-veiled dig at Snapchat), ended up fueling plenty of discussion at our Disrupt NY conference earlier this week. In fact, when I interviewed Sequoia Capital partner Aaref Hilaly backstage, Palihapitiya’s remarks provided a springboard for Hilaly’s take on messaging apps, including Sequoia-backed WhatsApp:
TechCrunch
10 must-have smartphone apps
Google bares Chrome’s Trojan strategy with native-style packaged apps
Google’s move this week to make it easier for Chrome browser users to find “packaged apps” is part of a strategy to turn any Internet-capable device into a Chromebook wannabe loyal to the company’s ecosystem, an analyst said today.
Computerworld News
Google Glass apps start to hit. Wink! Wink!
Now that developers have Google Glass in hand, the first apps are starting to come out.
Computerworld News
Twitter updates iOS and Android apps, lets users see what’s trending around the world
Twitter’s developers are a busy bunch, (allegedly) working on an app for Glass and updating code for Macs in the last week. Today, they released yet another round of new software for iOS and Android, bringing some new functionality along with the requisite bug fixes and unnamed “improvements.” After updating, both sets of users will be able to see trends from around the world, as opposed to just those happening in the immediate area.
Additionally, iOS users can now invite friends to join Twitter from within the app — in case anyone still knows an unfortunate soul who’s not already pecking out 140-character missives — and both author and retweeter names will be included in replies to RT’s. Meanwhile, Android users also received easier access to swap between accounts and change settings using the menu button. If you haven’t grabbed the update already, well, you know the drill, your download awaits.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Apple, Google
Via: Phonescoop
Source: App Store, Google Play
Apps for Finding New Tunes, with a Little Help from Your Friends
Twitter #music, EQuala, and Piki help you share and discover new music with friends, but they’re not all winners.
I’ve been stuck in a music rut for a long time, listening to the same bands and songs over and over without adding many newcomers to the mix. It’s not that I don’t want new tunes; I’m just bad at discovering them.
Over the top: Internet chat via apps will double text messages sent in 2013
In 2013, the number of messages sent via chat app will hit 41 billion per day, more than double the number of text messages sent globally, according to data from Informa.
Computerworld News
New archaeology apps may make you an armchair Indiana Jones
DirecTV adding voice search to its iOS and Android phone apps, beta coming this summer
Now that it’s finally got an Android tablet app to speak of, DirecTV is returning its attention to phones: the company announced today that both its iOS and Android applications will be receiving voice search starting this summer. As the company describes it, the app is meant to address the age-old problem of there being “nothing on TV.” (And also, the fact that searching for things on your television is damn tedious.) In particular, you can use the app to search by person, title, channel show time or genre, using commands such as “find comedy movies,” etc. Like other voice-control services, too, you can give follow-up instructions like, “with Bill Hader” and it’ll know to narrow down your results instead of starting a new search. Considering DirecTV whipped up its own search algorithm from scratch, it seems to work intuitively. Still, the fact that the landing page is filled with sample queries suggests there’s very much a right and wrong way to ask for what you want.
If you’re using the app away from home, you can set your DVR to record different shows. When you’re on your home network, though, you can have the search results show up on your television, at which point your phone transforms into a remote you can use to scroll through menus and the like. With the TV, too, you can wade through various programs, as well as search for sports content or ask the app to switch to a certain channel (saying either the channel name or number will work). You can even tell the app to go back through menus, but you can’t use your voice to access features like the settings menu. No word on when the beta will roll out, except that it’ll happen sometime this summer.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Software, HD
Infor launches version 10x, plans IBM SmartCloud launch for its apps
Infor is hoping a new social collaboration tool, updated middleware and user interfaces, as well as options for cloud-based deployments, will help cement its place as one of the industry's largest ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendors after SAP and Oracle.
Computerworld News
Yahoo axing seven more apps and services as part of streamlining effort
Get ready to say goodbye to another another batch of Yahoo products at the end of this month. As the company continues to streamline and focus its services, March 31st will be the last day of stand-alone existence for Upcoming, Yahoo Deals, Yahoo Kids, Yahoo SMS Alerts, Yahoo Mail and Messages for feature phones. Noting an aim to slim down to roughly 15 offerings from 75, as The Register points out, this follows a few weeks after the company nixed other services like its BlackBerry app. Additionally, if you’ve been hanging onto the old version of Yahoo! mail, you’ll have no choice but to switch to the new version by June 3rd. Yahoo! There’s not word on what we can expect next, although EVP of Platforms Jay Rossiter notes that cuts like these are needed so it can focus on the likes of its new Mail and Weather apps. You’ll find the details for each cut at the source link.
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Register
Source: Yahoo
Former Googlers Launch Synergyse, An Interactive In-App Training Service For Google Apps
Today, over five million businesses are now using Google Apps to help their employees collaborate and connect via the cloud. In just a few years, the adoption of Google’s productivity suite has skyrocketed and, while small businesses have long been its core customer, adoption up the chain is increasing as well. At the same time, as the Google Apps ecosystem continues to expand and evolve, with new services emerging around Chromebooks, Vault, Drive and Android, it can be tough for businesses to keep up with all the new tools, tweaks and iterations.
TechCrunch
Google Apps, Gmail services disrupted this morning
Google Apps, including Gmail and Google Documents, suffered a disruption this morning.
Computerworld News
Gmail, Drive, other Google apps down for some
Vital Google services down for you? Well, you’re not alone. Tips have been pouring in this AM that many of Mountain View’s apps are down, including Gmail and Drive. We were able to independently confirm the partial outage and Google’s App Status Dashboard has been updated to reflect the “service disruption.” The down time isn’t affecting everyone, however. Most of those hanging around the Engadget compound are still able to check their hate mail and Caskers notifications. Are you having trouble getting through to Google’s servers? Let us know in the comments.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Source: Google Apps Status Dashboard
Facebook brings ‘chat heads’ feature to its iPhone, iPad apps in update
Facebook has updated its iPhone and iPad applications to let people keep using its chat feature even when they are doing other things, such as reading friends’ updates.
FOX News
Six iOS apps you’ll thank me for (you’re welcome)
This collection of apps are the ones I’m using most right now on my iOS devices. This post will be updated regularly with new, hot apps. [Read more]
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Facebook’s Android App Can Now Retrieve Data About What Apps You Use
An anonymous reader writes “Facebook on Friday released its Android launcher called Home. The company also updated its Facebook app, adding in new permissions to allow it to collect data about the apps you are running. Facebook has set up Home to interface with the main Facebook app on Android to do all the work. In fact, the main Facebook app features all the required permissions letting the Home app meekly state: ‘THIS APPLICATION REQUIRES NO SPECIAL PERMISSIONS TO RUN.’ As such, it’s the Facebook app that’s doing all the information collecting. It’s unclear, however, if it will do so even if Facebook Home is not installed. Facebook may simply be declaring all the permissions the Home launcher requires, meaning the app only starts collecting data if Home asks it to.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
AirBeats / AirHarp creator demos his forthcoming Leap Motion music apps
When it comes to developing music apps, Leap Motion’s naturalistic interface seems like a no-brainer. Sure it doesn’t offer the sort of tactile feedback you get from an actual instrument, but it certainly beats the heck out of, say, a keyboard and mouse. Adam Somers is among the early developers looking to bring a little bit of music magic to the tiny peripheral, and he gave us a sneak peak of what he’s working on at a Smule event in San Francisco earlier this week.
The simpler of the two apps is AirHarp. Still in early developer preview mode, the program is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a virtual harp. Hold your hand out and strings light up — tap down and you can pluck them. Reach in a bit and you can strum with one or several fingers. More impressive is AirBeats, a virtual machine with two pads and a slew of sounds that lets you record tracks. Somers is hoping to have at least one of the apps out in time for Leap Motion’s upcoming launch. You can check out demos after the break.
Source: Stanford
Intel sets up joint lab with China's Baidu for mobile apps
Intel is hoping to get more Chinese developers to back its products by forming a new joint innovation lab with the nation's largest search engine Baidu.
Computerworld News
Review: In making Facebook easier to use, Home makes other apps and tasks harder to reach
Tint Gives Businesses An Easy Way To Bring Social Media Feeds To Their Websites, Apps And Facebook Pages
Last year, Tim Sae Koo, Nikhil Aitharaju, Eunice Noh and Ryo Chiba launched HypeMarks to give people a less hectic way to consume social media. The startup aggregated tweets, articles, links and more shared by influencers and celebrities on social media accounts and, by grouping those by topic, aimed to give people a snapshot of an industry through the eyes of the people who know it best.
TechCrunch
Mobile phone apps view private data more than necessary, says French study
Mobile phone apps are accessing users' private data and transmitting it to remote servers far more than appears strictly necessary, while users have inadequate tools to monitor or control such access, according to a new study by two French government agencies.
Computerworld News
Silverline puts iPhones, apps in seniors’ hands
An Indiegogo social enterprise project from Singapore aims to equipping the elderly with an iPhone 3GS preloaded with essential apps. [Read more]
CNET News
Virality Is The X-Factor Of Mobile-First Business Apps
Editor’s Note: Joe Floyd is a VC investor at Emergence Capital Partners.
Away from the fickle eyes of consumers, deep in the basement of app stores, enterprise mobile apps are fighting each other for the attention of business users. Given the restrictions of their target audience, business app developers simply cannot utilize the same techniques that consumer app companies leverage.
TechCrunch
Jolla Adds Sailfish SDK Installers For Windows, OS X, Linux To Push More Developers To Build Native Apps For Its MeeGo Platform
Jolla, the Finnish startup that carried the MeeGo torch out of Nokia in order to light a fire under its own smartphone OS: Sailfish, has taken the next step in its platform play, launching SDK installers to encourage developers to get building native Sailfish apps. It’s offering graphical installers for Windows, OS X and Linux (in 32 bit and 64 bit flavours).
TechCrunch
Twitter Cards for apps, products and photo galleries unveiled
Twitter just wrapped up a developer shindig at its San Francisco HQ and trotted out three new content preview cards. When a user links to a page with Twitter-specific markup, a tweet will feature an application’s name, icon, description, rating and price within the freshly unveiled App Card and link to its Google Play or App Store page, to boot. Product Cards on the other hand, highlight merchandise with an image, price and even ratings. When tweets link to a photo gallery on the web, the social network will use a Gallery Card to display a collection of four photos, indicating that it points to an image set, and not just a lone picture. The firm rounded off the updates with “mobile app deep-linking,” which means that tweets can sport a download link for the app which was used to publish them. Flickr, Foursquare, Path, Vine and others will make use of the new features when they launch, which should be tomorrow according to word from the coder get-together.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Twitter Dev Blog
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