Apple would be closing a purchase by Spotsetter

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We all know the "incident" with Apple Maps, and we know that has since been receiving small updates, you certainly have done better compared with that we met at the beginning, still we take to be considered a real option when searching for an address or guiding us through the city without errors.

In fact, Apple Maps were one of the forgotten by not receiving any news in the last presentation of the WWDC. And today, knowing that Apple would be closing a purchase by Spotsetter application, we understand why.

Spotsetter was an application with little more than a year to live, but noted for having a loyal fan base, in part because of its appeal based on a mapping interface design where we could meet the recommendations of places thanks to reviews friends, social networks and other sites.

Spotsetter began as a startup founded by two Google ex-employees who got an initial investment of $ 1.3 million for its development. The operation was based on connecting and draw on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare, and over 30 recommendations sites like Yelp, Zagat and TripAdvisor. So we had our friends information, comments, critics and experts in one place. Not bad right? Now imagine all this moved to Apple Maps, things gets better.

Still no confirmation that Spotsetter will be added to the Apple Maps or a standalone application, but Spotsetter could have entry into the Maps without any doubt and thus provide a powerful tool recommendations within the same application.

John Harper, the creator of Core Animation signed by Facebook

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The entry and exit of personnel in any company is normal. Sure some movements are more important than others, by position held by or for their contributions. The contribution of John Harper was important although many may be a complete stranger. He was responsible for the design and implementation of Core Animation on the iPhone debut in 2007

Google snatches Apple the title of most valuable brand

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100 Top BrandZ is a rating system of marks used a methodology based on the financial results and contributions of the brand innovation that generate interest and appreciation for the said brand. In this list Apple took 3 consecutive years as the first, but Google has snatched the first place this year. 

Notifyr allows us to see iOS notifications on your Mac

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Notifications of applications are a feature of any smartphone for most of us feel a kind of love-hate. On the one hand warn us what we want but at the other end can be a complicated ordeal becoming controlling. Yet there are applications that allow us to optimize them, one of them is Notifyr.

Videohance: videos Instagram style

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Instagram included the ability to add videos fifteen seconds to your social network to share photos with effects and filters for a while now, but maybe for some fans that's not enough. What if we want more video editing options or longer and / or higher quality? Videohance is your iPhone app.

Facebook removed Poke and camera apps for iOS

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Last Friday we met the withdrawal by his two Facebook apps for iOS. These two applications have gone unnoticed by the App Store. Poke First of all, similar to instant messaging SnapChat has not earned thrill. The other was the Camera app with many effects to our iPhone.

Know? Not much? Well, I think that has been one of the reasons that have disappeared from the App Store. Both were created by the creative team of Facebook, but were not paid much attention, nor were conveniently updated.

Poke was an application that was never important, the number of users that managed to attract was very small and even Zuckerberg acknowledged how little used. Camera was born shortly after the purchase of Instagram by Facebook and we all know who was the queen of photographic applications.

The business model of Facebook

In recent years we have witnessed a series of moves by Facebook which suggest that the company is guided by a team of hysterical chimpanzees, shopping without much sense, phones with Android software layer directed exclusively to use of social network... 

The explanation is simple... Facebook looking for a business model and even if we think we do, is not yet entirely clear. Obviously the potential is there and the network is undeniable, but it is not clear yet how to take real economic return.

More than one billion people are real potential and it shows the number of commercial brands that have a presence in the social network. A perfect channel to live and stay in touch with your customers canal. 

But still have a long way to go, as happened to Google. We have recently seen shopping companies, which then sell for not getting desired results. 

Steve Jobs, the most influential business leader of the past 25 years according to CNBC

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Steve Jobs continues to receive posthumous tributes from several institutions: this time the U.S. network CNBC who has named Apple co-founder the most influential business leader of the past quarter century, leading a list of 25 influential executives. 

In the details of this tribute, CNBC detailed that Jobs has chosen as the first of the list because while Bill Gates redefined the way in which millions of people worked, Steve redefined the style in which these people live and uploaded the level integrating technology in everyday life.

More than any other member of our extraordinary list of executives and entrepreneurs (all outstanding leaders). Steve's vision has led to changes beyond their industry and has put his undeniable stamp on the culture.


On this list are Bill Gates (second position), Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the creators of Google Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and the owner of Inditex Amancio Ortega. Apple already has another reason to keep reminding the creator of all them philosophy.

POP, the animation engine that uses Paper is Now Open Source

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Paper is possibly one of the best, or the best application published by Facebook. As we saw in our testing, the application is amazing in all its aspects and the interface and animations are at a high level. Now, POP, the animation engine used by Paper is published as Open Source.

On the website of Facebook code can read more about this engine that essentially, enables new options for animation versus Core Animation. So thanks to spring, decay and custom, the three new animations that offer POP, developers can improve the animation of their apps. 

If you start working with it we would like to know how you aprovecháis. So, to write code!

Update Facebook Messenger for iPhone. Improvements for sharing photos and videos

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Messenger, the mobile messaging client Facebook for our iPhone, has been updated to version 5 by solving one of its biggest problems: the interface to attach content to the message. Now, Facebook has placed much easier carrying gallery photos, stickers and even the camera to the same area of writing messages.

The new interface for attaching photos and videos saves us navigate many menus and panels

Another novelty is that we can now send videos that are stored on our reel, and also improved the contact tab to search our list of friends.

The interface of the talks remains the same, by Facebook's plans to wean your messaging completely from your main application. I do not know if this strategy is the right one, but I have to say that Facebook Messenger has become one of my favorite messaging client for my iPhone.

Who said WhatsApp was finished? WhatsApp reaches 500 million users

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No matter how many competitors appear: WhatsApp use continues to rise apace and now those responsible held to have reached 500 million users worldwide. An enviable figure reinforces its position as a leading mobile messaging service.

All these users share 700 million pictures and 100 million videos daily in major markets located in Mexico, India, Russia and Brazil. To celebrate, the CEO Jan Koum said that "bring together all the engineers and solve a lot of mistakes."

In fact Jan efforts has insisted that some competitors have done just in countries like Spain, where in the end have not achieved much:

Not enough money and famous around the world to convince people to use a bad product. People are very cautious today, and expect a good user experience.

With this number of people using WhatsApp, the promise of VoIP calls integrated into the service becomes even more interesting. Too bad not yet know when they will arrive. 

This is as serious: Apple looking to hire responsible for future payments platform

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With both the iWatch rumor and future iPhone, news of a payment platform from Apple had gone into the background. But now from Re/Code, we heard of an active search for product managers and business for a division of mobile payments. What would be coordinating Jennifer Bailey, who takes time directing the e-commerce section of Apple.

According to reports, Apple's ambition in this regard is "very, very serious" and further on the agenda that the talks they had with PayPal. The possibility of buying that rondo Square earlier this month is also a sign that Cupertino have decided to go further with this.

The nearly 600 million iTunes accounts linked to credit cards with funds (and used to make simple purchases of applications and songs) that Apple would have an excellent base to start own shopping system, which linked to TouchID and future devices wearables could make our way to buy change forever. We look forward to the signings that may occur during the year.

Facebook "Paper" updates

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Birthdays, events, group updates, photo comments and much more. These are the updates that Facebook has uploaded in it app Paper. Filling in the app with features from the "main" Facebook app that users have requested since its debut:

"Thanks again for your feedback on Paper. We've been working to build features you've asked for, and we're excited to share version 1.1. Here's the scoop:  

- Birthdays and events: Never miss a chance to celebrate! Just tap the notifications globe and scroll down to see important dates ahead.  

- Photo comments: When words aren't enough, now you can add photos to comments to show how you feel.  

- Group updates: Don't miss posts from your favorite groups. Swipe down to open the Main Menu. Tap the More Options icon to the right of the Search box. When you see your groups, check the new unread counts to catch up on the posts you've missed. 

- New story buttons: To keep up with the latest stories in a section in fullscreen view, or to catch the newest stories in the next section, tap the new story arrows when they appear.  

- More article covers: 9 new article covers join our collection, making easier to spot your favorite sources on Paper. Keep an eye out for Fox News, Bloomberg News, Mashable, FT, kottke, Popular Science, The Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair and Hacker News.  

- Basic accessibility: All of your sections now support basic accessibility features, and we're working to extend accessibility throughout the app."

The Paper director, Michael Reckhow told to The Verge, that despite plans to remove its native messaging app, to spread other independent app. Paper will maintain its messaging features because Paper and Facebook have different strategies.

Facebook and Paper has been working on updates for, as the company yesterday announced a new feature. "Nearvy Friends", that is similar to Apple's utility "Find My Friends" and will allow to see if your freiends are near and you can meet up.

iOS could integrate Shazam among its services

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Rumors have risen around iTunes, Siri and iOS 8: Is Apple preparing to integrate a similar service Shazam on your operating system? So say sources close to the project and have decided to remain anonymous.

Until recently talked about Siri is lagging behind in terms of performance, Apple is not willing to let this happen easily. According to the latest rumors (Bloomerang) the company would be willing to add some kind of service similar to Shazam on iOS, and it could be announced at WWDC 2014.

They claim in the publication, several sources related to the project (do not want to be identified) have discussed the existence of this function in development. This would of application being developed with the help of Shazam Entertainment's own, who is collaborating with technology stored in his company, to meet an interesting trade agreement between the two.

The function, as mentioned, could be presented at the next WWDC. The data suggest that this would come in Shazam on iOS iOS 8 and will not be available before. The integration of this function would be very similar to other services such as Twitter or Facebook, to maximize your comfort.

We know that Apple is one of the companies that invest more money in the music industry, not only in the development of platforms as powerful as iTunes but throughout the technology behind the algorithms of identification and labeling songs. This measure could serve as an additional feature and very interesting to Siri.

Windows 8.1 trae soporte para Passbook de iOs

Passbook, Apple Inc

Microsoft ha añadido soporte para Passbook de Apple en Windows Phone 8.1 , que fue lanzado el pasado 14 de Abril como una demo para desarrolladores. Microsoft anunció la actualización de Windows Phone  principios de este mes donde destaca el asistente Cortana, para igualar a sus competidores Siri y Google Now.

Según Tom Warren de The Verge y comunicador por iMore, Microsoft ha creado un método que toma los datos de un archivo passbook y la convierte en una tarjeta que se importa a Microsoft Wallet.

Microsoft Wallet recoge los datos emitidos por Passbook de Apple, ya que los archivos se transfieren con código HTML, CSS, JavaScript y datos que componen una página web. Parece ser que WIndows Phone 8.1 toma esos datos y los lleva a su propia aplicación Windows Wallet.

No se sabe si el sistema de Microsoft está operando de forma independiente Apple o si la compañía de Redmond tiene un acuerdo para convertir los datos en su propia cartera. El servicio no soporta funciones específicas de iOS como las notificaciones y actualizaciones de Passbook, pero la importación de los datos es aparentemente correcta.

Passbook se estrenó en 2012 y fue una de las nuevas aplicaciones impulsadas en iOS 6. Passbook almacena datos como tus tarjetas de embarque, entradas de cine y tarjetas regalo en un mismo lugar, permitiéndote escanear tu iPhone o iPod touch para acceder a un vuelo, entrar al cine, canjear un cupón y mucho más.

Queda demostrado el interés de las compañías en la nueva carrera por la compra a través de sus ecosistemas. Apple con TouchID ha dado un paso de gigante hacia este sector que está apunto de convertirse en un filón. Facebook esá planeando lanzar un servicio de transferencia de dinero.

¿Debería temer los bancos a los gigantes teconológicos "Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazón..."?