Starbucks app update lets you tip your barista
Starting next week iPhone owners will not only be able to buy your triple-venti-extra-hot-no-foam latte using Starbucks’ mobile app, you’ll be able to tip your barista for making it as well. The king of coffee is updating its app March 19th to add digital tipping for the first time and make the app easier to navigate. If you’re not paying attention in line, a new “Shake to Pay” feature instantly loads your Starbucks card up from anywhere in the app. After you pay, you’ll get a push notification encouraging you to drop between 50 cents and two bucks in the store’s virtual tip jar. Tips can be adjusted for up to two hours after you leave (in case that macchiato really makes your day), and every purchase is saved in the form of a digital receipt you can access later on.
Mobile is a big business for Starbucks. Chief Digital Officer Adam Brotman tells us currently over 11 percent of Starbucks transactions are done using its mobile app. That adds up to a whopping 5 million transactions every week. With over 10 million active app users, next week’s iPhone update (which is set to come to Android soon) will hopefully make the coffee experience better for the customers as well as that guy making your Caramel Frappuccino.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
Skrillex debuts noisy new album as a mobile game easter egg
When is a game not really a game? When it’s a Trojan horse for new music from Skrillex. Play the seemingly humdrum shooter Alien Ride on Android or iOS and you’ll find that it’s actually a preview for the dubstep(-ish) artist’s first full album, Recess — you can listen to the whole LP ahead of its March 18th debut. You’ll still have to rely on other music services to get your wubwubwubs a more traditional way, but the app easily beats other run-of-the-mill attempts at building up hype. Just be prepared to endure an audio assault alongside the alien kind — we doubt that the game will sway your opinion of Skrillex if you weren’t already a fan.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Mobile
Source: App Store, Google Play, Skrillex
Jawbone UP24 lifestyle tracker now works for Android devices
Jawbone have today announced that their lifestyle tracker UP24 and the accompanying App are now available for Android. Tracking data to help you understand how you sleep, move, and eat, the UP24 wristband can now connect to the Android-compataible App to receieve data in real-time.
In addition, the accompanying App from Jawbone on Android provides personalised feedback and live notifications to help achieve your set goals with the help of Bluetooth 4.0. The UP24 can be wirelessly synced with your Android device through the UP App via Bluetooth Smart in order to store the data collected from the lifestyle tracker.
As for the Jawbone UP24 wristband itself, it features a smooth hypoallergenic, medical-grade rubber exterior that features a new, textural design which Jawbone say is comfortable enough to wear around the clock. The battery lasts 7 days, and the band can be charged with a USB power adapter via the included 2.5mm USB cable.
The UP by Jawbone 3.0 App for Android is available today in 12 languages as a free download on the Google Play Store.
[Jawbone]
The post Jawbone UP24 lifestyle tracker now works for Android devices appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Jawbone updates its Android app with wireless syncing and push notifications (updated)
If you own a Jawbone fitness tracker, you may have read last week that the company made some changes to its app. Unfortunately for some of us, the updates were all for iOS only — in fact, the company didn’t even bother to mention Android that day. Turns out, Jawbone had a good reason: it was planning an update for the Android app that brings it more in line with its iOS counterpart. In particular, it now fully supports the wireless Up24 band, which is to say it syncs wirelessly and sends out push notifications (e.g., you’re about to hit your daily step goal). In addition, the app includes most of the new features that were introduced on iOS last week — things like sunrise/sunset times in the sleep graph and “Insight Reports,” which establish a connection between things like how much sleep you got and what foods you’re likely to crave the next day. So, even if you own an older Up band you’ll want to head over to Google Play straight away.
Update: An earlier version of this story reported that the Android app would be missing the new features that were just introduced on the iOS version last week. A Jawbone rep later said that the Android app would, in fact, include most of these features, with the exception of custom reminders.
The Pebble App Challenge will reward developers with Pebble Steels and a cash prize
With the recent release of the Pebble App Store on Android, Pebble is celebrating by rewarding the best app developers with some pretty nice prizes
The top 16 developers receive their very own Pebble Steel, and the grand prize winner receives $5,000. The apps that are eligible for entrance can be new or existing apps, and is open to watchapps, watchfaces, and companion apps.
Here’s how it works:
- Submit your Pebble app from now until March 23rd, 5pm PST.
- From March 24-27th, everyone can vote for their favorite app.
- The top 16 are selected to be finalists, and automatically claim themselves a Pebble Steel.
- In April, voting is sectioned off to Pebble users alone.
- Each app will go head-to-head once a day, and the one with the most votes, wins.
- Matches will take place on the homepage of the App Store.
- The winner takes home a Pebble Steel and a $5,000 grand prize!
Good luck to anyone who joins the competition!
The post The Pebble App Challenge will reward developers with Pebble Steels and a cash prize appeared first on AndroidGuys.
DoubleTwist’s new app lets you save iTunes Radio tracks to your PC
The folks at DoubleTwist are at it again. Over the past three months they’ve crafted Android and OS X apps to help penny-pinching users save the music they hear on iTunes Radio, and now they’ve gone and done the unthinkable: they made a version for Windows PCs, too.
Setting up the app is as simple as always. Once it’s installed, it essentially fools iTunes into thinking it’s just another AirPlay-ready gewgaw tucked away in your home theater setup. Just pop into iTunes, select the DoubleTwist app from the AirPlay menu, and fire up your iTunes Radio station of choice. The only caveat? Since the app records the audio as it plays, you’ll have to sit through an entire song before it gets saved in your coffers for good. Sure, we could think of better ways to spend our time too, but if you close your eyes and imagine the good ol’ days of reel-to-reel music sharing, the wait won’t seem so bad.
Source: DoubleTwist
Livr is my most fav app 4va LOL im drunk
If you’ve heard one too many gripes about your boozy postings, don’t fret — there’ll soon be a like-minded social app for you. It’s called “Livr,” and you won’t even be able to log in without a smartphone breathalyzer confirming you’ve tippled enough. In fact, the higher your BAC, the more app features are unlocked. Those include a crowdsourced “truth or dare” game and hotspot map that shows the location and sobriety of other users. You’ll even be able to drunk-dial random Livr folks, simulating the types of encounters you’d normally have at a bar (sans the possibility of getting punched). After a questionable evening, whatever happens on Livr can stay on Livr, thanks to the “Blackout” button that deletes all evidence of your misdeeds. We’re not sure if this is one of the best or worst ideas in recent memory, but in any case, prepare your actual liver — the app will arrive to Android and iOS sometime in the spring.
Filed under: Software
Via: TNW
Source: Livr
Forget trivia night at the local bar, QuizUp’s now on Android
Android users looking for something to fill the hole that Flappy Birds once occupied now have a less trivial time sink in the form of QuizUp. As you’d expect from a trivia app worth its salt, it comes loaded with tons of topics (over 400) to choose from, including lifestyle, TV and literature. And, since it’s a social game, you can test your expertise in any of those subjects against friends and strangers. If the name QuizUp sounds familiar, it’s because the app was released for iOS four months ago and became its creators’ first smash hit — it did for Icelandic studio Plain Vanilla what Angry Birds did for Rovio and Draw Something for Omgpop.
QuizUp has already been downloaded over 10 million times on iOS, but (while it’s still getting 50,000 downloads a day) Recode says the number of new users has declined in the past month. Plain Vanilla CEO Thor Fridriksson believes, however, that an Android launch will reignite interest in the game. We’ve yet to see how the Android app will affect the iOS version, but it isn’t doing too shabby thus far: it’s been installed more than 10,000 times since it became available. So, don’t be surprised if a friend would rather hole up this weekend rather than go out and play actual bar trivia.
Via: Re/code
Source: Google Play
No porn for you: Vine changes TOS
If you tend to visit more unconventional sources for your pornographic needs, you might want to sit down for this. Vine has just announced that they are officially banning sexually explicit posts.
They have previously taken action in making sexual content more difficult to find, but the company is finally calling it quits on pornographic posts.
For more than 99 percent of our users, this doesn’t really change anything. For the rest: we don’t have a problem with explicit sexual content on the Internet –– we just prefer not to be the source of it.
They are, however, allowing posts that pertain to ”primarily documentary, educational or artistic in nature”.
If you have any questions regarding what you can and cannot post, here are the new Terms of Service. It explains everything you need to know about content blocking and what exactly they allow on their social network.
Also, as you may remember, Twitter owns Vine. Twitter created Vine. Will Twitter be the next social network to dump pornography? Who knows.
Via: The Verge
Source: Vine
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Apple Releases Revamped iTunes Festival App Ahead of SXSW, iOS 7.1 Not Required
Apple today updated its iTunes Festival app to version 5.0, ahead of next week’s SXSW iTunes Festival, which kicks off on Tuesday, March 11. The iTunes Festival app [App Store Link] shows up in the iTunes Store with a revamped icon and is listed as having a “refreshed design” and support for SXSW, but the app isn’t available for download in the U.S. just yet.
Clicking on the download link results in an error message that asks users to try again later, but it will presumably be downloadable shortly. Users in other countries have been able to download the app with iOS 7.0.6, suggesting SXSW streaming does not require iOS 7.1 as was reported earlier this week.
Apple’s SXSW iTunes Festival is the first it has hosted in the United States, with previous iTunes Festivals occurring annually in London. The festival will offer five free nights of music, beginning on March 11 at Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. Featured artists include Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Kendrick Lamar, Soundgarden, Pitbull, Keith Urban, and more.
All of Apple’s iTunes Festival concerts are presented for free, with tickets available via a lottery system. Live and on-demand streams of the shows will be available through the revamped iTunes Festival app and via the Apple TV.
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