Right before the holidays, mobswitch set up a remote controllable Xmas tree in Dresden, Germany. Users can download the Switch-a-tree app for Android, to remote control the tree's light. A webcam takes a photo and everybody may have look how their Xmas tree looks like. Read More
Developed with the Arab uprising and the Occupy Movement in mind, the Protest4 app has, not surprisingly at all, seen a huge volume of activity in Egypt, among other countries. TheNextWeb reported in November via @aym. Protest4 users have come up with creative ways to use the app most notably in Egypt with about 2,000 users participating in an online discussion campaigning for the release of Egyptian blogger and activist, Alaa Abd El-Fattah who has spent over 2 weeks in prison. In Pakistan, 15,000 Imran Khan supporters are using the app, while 1,000 anti-Berlusconi activists took to the app calling for the former Italian Prime Ministers resignation. About 800 users have joined the free West Papua movement, calling for its secession from Indonesia. Related: apps for activists and related articles: -- Read More
TED has just lanched an iPhone app. Adapted from their award-winning iPad app, the new TED iPhone app allows users to browse and watch TEDTalks, videos ranging from 3 minutes to 18 minutes in length. TEDTalks feature great ideas from speakers on everything from genetics and geopolitics to sculpture and creativity. Read More
Private banks, which have been slow to embrace mobile technologies over concerns about security and a general impression that private banking clients did not want that kind of relationship with their bankers are changing their minds and offering social media and smartphone apps. The New York Times reports. Read More
Go app for iPhone lets people stream media and post in real-time. Users can also locate tagged posts on a map aided by GPS. Forbes reports. Other useful apps for activitsts: -- Read More
Everybody has heard horror stories of the Facebook past of job applicants coming back to haunt them. In fact, a large proportion of final year students will now be trying to figure out how to expunge the unsuitable-for-work comments, photos and updates they have accumulated on their profiles and walls of friends. It is no easy task. The Wall Street Journal reports. Devines Android app, called Exfoliate, allows you to delete batches of posts based on how long theyve been up. For instance, you can have it remove posts that are older than three months and various time periods up to three years. You can clean just your wall, or also remove posts from friends walls. And the kind of content you can select for removal includes your posts, comments and likes As it is, CNET warns, the app is a bandwidth hog which takes several hours on a Wi-Fi network. Its actions are also permanent. Exfoliate costs the equivalent of $2.99 from the Android Market and an iPhone version is expected in a few weeks, writes The Wall Street Journal. Read More
The Android Market has lots of Siri-like voice-activated assistant apps (most of them free) that use Googles excellent voice recognition system. Theyre not as slick as Apples virtual executive secretary, but some are worth trying. Check out PCWorl'd review of Speaktoit Assistant, Voice Actions, Vlingo, Jeannie, Eva Intern. Read More
Skype has launched an app called Skype WiFi that allows users to pay for wi-fi internet at over 1 million locations, using credit on their Skype account. stuff reports. Read More
VentureBeat reports that McAfee, one of the leaders in PC antivirus software, is launching a consumer-focused anti-theft app for the iPhone today. Read More
The FBI has created an app to make data quickly available on children in case he or she goes missing, reports MobileBloom. The FBI Child ID app comes with a tab that will quickly and easily send an email to the authorities. All it will take is a few clicks and the process can be started. The minutes immediately after a child goes missing are some of the most crucial and the app can get the ball rolling to find him or her in a flash. Other things the app does is give lessons on keeping children safe. The FBI app also gives supervision on what to do in the first few important hours when a child turns up lost. Read More
