Android Makes Up Nearly 80% of Global Smartphone Shipments

There is no end in sight to the Android versus iPhone debate, but while we can all argue over the pros and cons of each, the numbers don't lie: Android is still the most popular operating system in the world.

According to data from market intelligence firm IDC, Android's dominance in the mobile market is still growing. In 2013, Android devices comprised 78.6% of global smartphone unit shipments — up from 69% in 2012. Compare that to iOS, which made up only 15.2% of smartphone shipments in 2013 (down from 18.7% in 2012).

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Pinterest Brings Place Pins to iPad, GIFs to Mobile

Pinterest updated both its mobile and iPad apps on Friday, offering some of its most recent product updates to mobile users.

Updates to the iOS and Android apps now support GIFs, a feature that Pinterest unveiled in late January. Pinterest said at the time that there are "tens of millions" of GIFs on the platform, and those will now be playable on mobile devices.

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The 20 Best Apps for a Big Night Out

Instead of standing in line to get into bars, clubs or restaurants, there's a whole range of apps that help pave the way for a stress-free and interesting night out. We've rounded up 20 of the best apps to give you one of the best nights of your life (and many more).

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Introducing Layar Creator 2.0: Unlock Layar’s Interactive Print Expertise

Unfortunately, with Layar's new updates come with an increase in price. Hopefully for Layar, customers will find the functionality of the product worth the extra dollars.

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Update of Layar Creator Takes Print to A New Level

Updates to Layar have made it "the most user-friendly, easiest and professional Interactive Print publication platform in the industry because of its features,” as described by Rags Vadali, the Layar VP of Product.

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iBO Live Launches Interactive AR Book for Children

iBO Live is trying to bring kids back to print books by creating interactive children's books. The interactivity includes jigsaw puzzles and treasure hunts where scanning illustrations opens up new clues. Their hope is that the youngest generation's digital skills will help make their print reading more exciting.

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Betting on Olympics Buzz to Push Mobile Commerce

Mobile commerce app Pounce has successfully teamed up with apparel stores Lord & Taylor and Hudson's Bay to promote mobile shopping via print-to-mobile tech. Hudson's Bay, the official apparel sponsor of the Canadian Olympic teams, is proudly advertising Pounce technology in print ads to encourage users to easily shop online for their patriotic apparel.

Pounce is a free app available to download for consumers. Print media, circulars, and ads by Lord & Taylor and Hudson's Bay feature a Pounce icon and instructions on how it works. These pages are activated on the backend so that users who open the app on the phone and scan the printed page can easily purchase the product on their tablet or smartphone. The item image is linked directly to a retailer’s inventory and pricing information, so that information can be updated directly through the retailer. Once a user has entered their billing and shipping information, shopping is an easy one-tap transaction.

To support the launch of this collaboration, the app is being featured in ads on bus stations and around Toronto for Hudson's Bay's Sochi 2014 Olympic apparel. The partnership includes special marketing integration, such as the call-to-action icons across ads as well as online campaigns. By using their huge Olympic marketing push to introduce the Pounce technology, the company is showing great confidence in the technology and the wide appeal to customers. 

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Brands using Snapchat

In December of 2013, Seventeen became the first major magazine to join the app Snapchat. Aware of its young and predominantly female audience, the magazine uses the app to send out images from shoots, celebrity cameos, and more. The hope is to create a connection with the readers and send them reminders about the personality behind the brand. Other brands on snapchat include GrubHub, Karmaloop, and Taco Bell.

Like Instagram, Snapchat is a free tool to promote their brand. The time sensitive structure of the app challenges users to get creative about their brand promotion. There is also the constraint that snapchat can’t upload from a photo library, the picture must actually be taken with the app (unless you’re taking a picture of a picture). Some uses so far have been to announce contests, freebies, and discounts, but being a very young company, the uses are sure to develop and change.

New York Police Department is beta-testing Google Glass

Google Glass may soon become a favored tool for law enforcement agencies in the United States.

The New York City Police Department’s massive and controversial intelligence and analytics unit is evaluating whether Google Glass is a decent fit for investigating terrorists and helping cops lock up bad guys, VentureBeat has learned. The department recently received several pairs of the modernist-looking specs to test out.

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Moda Operandi launches app for New York Fashion Week eager shoppers

Taking advantage of the hype and happenings of New York Fashion Week, Moda Operandi, an online retailer, launched an app that allows fashion enthusiasts to preview, preorder, and buy items from the runway shows.

Moda Operandi allows customers to peruse shows and “like” and “dislike” looks, revealing which high-powered fashion reviewers have also “liked” the look. After “liking” a look, the shopper is notified when the item is available for sale.
 
This app targets a very specific section of the general population: those who both have a passion for fashion and the bank to back up their desires.  In the Luxury Daily article, Sarah Jones explains the app's faith in the "emotional purchases", tapping into "affluent consumers’ need to own new apparel and accessories before anyone else."
 
“What the Moda Operandi app did well, though, was streamlining the checkout, which included mobile-optimized forms and automatic storage of personal information to ensure quick mobile commerce transactions,”
 
Moda Operandi is not the only app allowing shoppers to preorder fashion collections, Bonfaire launched in the summer of 2013 and presents offers for “Exclusive First Access to Order Designer Accessories.” Moda Operandi, however, has been praised for its simplicity in design and its ability to save the customer’s credit card number, making the shopping experience even faster and easier.

Royal Bank of Canada launches NFC payments in the cloud

Royal Bank of Canada has introduced an NFC mobile payments service that stores customers' card details in the cloud. The new RBC Wallet is available to customers with a Samsung Galaxy S III or Samsung Galaxy S4 on the Bell Mobility network, with support for other devices coming this spring.

RBC Wallet users can use the service to make payments at any location in Canada equipped with a Visa PayWave or Interac Flash contactless point-of-sale terminal.

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Valuette QR: Fighting commercial fraud in Italy

The QR code is being used as an identity card of the product, scannable only once so it cannot be forged, and ensuring the quality of the product. Each customer will use their smartphone to verify on the spot whether the product they purchased was actually manufactured by the vendor in question.

These QR codes tell rescuers how to safely pluck you from your wrecked Mercedes

Modern cars might be safe, but boy are they complicated. Rescue crews can be faced with an ordeal trying to figure out how to remove victims from crashes. Fortunately, Mercedes has an innovative solution to this problem: QR Codes.

You have probably run into these codes in your life, you scan them with your smartphone and they take you to a website. What Mercedes has done is created QR codes that take rescuers to information about the car.

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The Flappy Bird app's discontinuation gives iPhones that still have the app relic status

Flappy Bird is flapping its wings no more. The popular game for mobile devices was removed from online stores on Sunday by its Vietnamese creator, who said its fame "ruins my simple life".

Dong Nguyen, who created the game in just two to three days, was making as much as $50,000 (£30,482) a day from the game's advertising revenue.

In several Twitter posts, he said the game's removal was not due to legal issues and that he may make a sequel.

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Introducing Paper

Explore and share stories from friends and the world in immersive designs and fullscreen, distraction-free layouts. Paper includes your Facebook News Feed and sections about your favorite topics.

· Browse stories from your Facebook News Feed in beautiful new layouts.
· Customize your Paper with sections about your favorite themes and interests.
· Unfold beautifully designed article covers for news and stories from trusted sources.
· Tilt the screen to explore vivid high-resolution photos and see details up close.
· Watch fullscreen videos that come to life and fill the screen.
· Use simple, natural movements to thumb through Paper uninterrupted.
· Craft your own stories and see exactly what your posts will look like before you share them.

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New Processor to Bring High-End Features to Cheap Smartphones

The smartphone you buy this fall is going to be way better than the one in your pocket now — and it might even be cheaper, too. ARM, the company behind the chip technology in virtually every smartphone and tablet today, is launching a new kind of processor that brings today's high-end features to more affordable devices.

The new ARM Cortex-A17 design is kind of the 2014 version of the Cortex-A9 that's in chips like Nvidia's Tegra 3 (which powers devices such as the original Nexus 7 and Microsoft Surface) and Apple's A5 (which was in the iPhone 4S). ARM said the A17 is 60% more energy-efficient than the A9, meaning manufacturers who use it will be able to coax more features out of chips based on the A17 design.

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Virgin Atlantic Staffers Can Now Check You In With Google Glass

Business class passengers flying Virgin Atlantic from London Heathrow airport will be greeted by staffers wearing Google Glass or a Sony SmartWatch 2.

As a part of a new pilot program at Heathrow, Virgin Atlantic staff at the upper class wing — which is for business class passengers — will be wearing Google Glass or Sony's smartwatch to start the check-in process. They will also be able to update passengers on flight information, weather, translate foreign languages or inform them about local events happening at their destination.

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Times Square Valentine Heart Sculpture

It’s that time of year again, when all things turn red and heart-shaped in honor of St Valentine. Times Square is no exception. Now in its sixth year since the revitalization of Father Duffy Square, Times Square Arts held their annual Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition for a heart- and love-themed interactive sculpture to be placed across the square from the TKTS booth steps. This year’s winning design is Young Projects’ Match-Maker that will cosmically connect people, guided by their zodiac signs. Peering through bright red, interwoven periscopes – which, from certain angles, appears as an iconic heart, while from others a more abstract tangled object – visitors are offered glimpses of their four most suited astrological mates.

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Mobile Marketer's Mobile Women to Watch 2014

Please click here to download Mobile Marketer's Mobile Women to Watch in 2014.

Mobile Marketer’s Mobile Women to Watch 2014 list honors smart women executives who are set to make a difference in mobile advertising, marketing, media and commerce in 2014.

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Digital Driven Innovation Set to Adapt How Business, Consumers, Governments and Charities Connect with each other

Wearable fundraising, smart bras, e-Government and ambient Bluetooth consumer messaging all set to trend in 2014 according to Mindshare.

Digital technology will continue to provide new connections, revenue streams and communications channels for brands, consumers, charities and businesses according to leading global media agency network, Mindshare.

Wearable technology and particularly health-related devices, have finally become affordable, accurate and accessible, but that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the internet of things. Sony has filed a patent for the ‘smart wig' which will be able to process data and communicate wirelessly with other external devices while Microsoft has developed a ‘smart bra' with sensors that monitor heart and skin activity to provide an indication of mood levels. Next year is set to be the year of the ‘internet of ‘weird' things'.

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