Free cross-platform messengers for smartphones

Sending text messages, sharing multimedia and staying connected with friends who use a different operating system from your own is easily done with the apps we've picked.

Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones have become quite popular in India in recent months. While the dispute between RIM and the Government of India persists, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) has become a popular application that keeps the majority of BlackBerry owners busy, texting their contacts, friends and relatives.

The primary reason for BBM's popularity is that it is integrated with the BlackBerry operating system and is a light-weight app that is economical in its consumption of resources. Users can send and receive text, photos, audio and video, and can receive real-time delivery confirmations. BBM's chief purpose is that it enables people to converse with their contacts live at minimal cost.

Forget Angry Birds; try 'The Heist'

The game challenges its players with a variety of puzzles, at the end of which users can open a vault to get the prize.

The Heist, a puzzle game, has now beaten Angry Birds as the top paid and top grossing mobile game in the UK and the USA.

The mobile game, which was developed by MacHeist and tap tap tap, has now broken Angry Birds' record of 275 days in the top spot. According to a report, 25,233 copies of the game sold on Wednesday itself in about half a day.

Happy to have iPhone 4: Paoli Dam

Paoli Dam, Bengali actress who was recently in the news for flaunting a skimpy bikini and hot, revealing costumes, was quite excited about getting the latest Apple device — the iPhone 4 — on Friday from Airtel.

Paoli Dam, a Bengali actress who was recently in the news for flaunting herself in a skimpy bikini and hot, revealing costumes, was quite excited about getting the latest Apple device — the iPhone 4 — on Friday. The device was presented to her during the launch of the product in West Bengal by P D Sharma, chief executive officer of mobile services in Kolkata, West Bengal and Odisha at Bharti Airtel.

Nokia to support Symbian till 2016

The users who are more concerned about third party apps will face some difficulties since app developers would be more interested in developing apps for those platforms which have longer term potential.

Finnish handset maker, Nokia will support Symbian based devices till 2016, two years more than its previous deadline.

Chief executive officer of Nokia, Stephen Elop said in an official blog, "Even as we go through a transition towards our primary smartphone platform, Windows Phone, you will see that continued investment, software updates to Symbian devices are expected until at least 2016." 

TouchPad will be better than the No 1 tablet: HP

HP has tasted immense success in the personal computer market and wants to emulate the same in the mobile devices market as well.

Hewlett-Packard's TouchPad will be better than the number one tablet computer, the company's European head Eric Cador has said. 

While speaking at press conference in Cannes, Cador said that there are ample opportunities for HP to get the top spot and that the company would call its position "number one plus". 

HP has tasted immense success in the personal computer market and wants to emulate the same in the mobile devices market as well. 

Angry Birds coming to Windows Phone

The game has three versions: Angry Birds - the Classic Game, Angry Birds Seasons, and Angry Birds Rio. Recently, Rovio has come out with an update of Angry Birds Rio, called as Angry Birds Rio Beach Volley.

The Angry Birds, considered as the most popular mobile game at the time being, will soon be available for smartphones based on Windows Phone 7 operating system. Rovio Mobile, the creator of the game, said that the users will be able to download and install this application in their smartphones from the Windows Phone application store from June 29. 

Google search app for iOS improved

Google has upgraded its recently launched search application for iOS devices, making it faster and easier to operate.

Google has announced an update to its recently launched search application for iOS devices. The new update promises to fix issues related to search speed and accuracy while adding a brand new interface, which will make the search process a lot easier.

The company had introduced voice-based search in the previous version of this application along with the 'Just Talk' feature, which enabled iOS users to perform voice search by directly speaking into the microphone without having to press any buttons for the operation.

The 'Just Talk' feature, which used to get turned on automatically, resulted in large numbers of false searches while the user was performing another search.

Android finds a way to curb piracy

Android has introduced Market License Server which gets pinged by both genuine and pirated apps so the developers can find out and remotely deactivate the app or charge the users.

To counter the scourge of piracy of applications, Android has come up with a way, called Market License Server, through which the app developers can actually verify whether the app running on a smartphone is a legitimate one or not. 

If used, this facility let the apps, even pirated copies, to ping the servers of developers which will in turn find out whether it is a pirated one or not. 

Mango update to bring Facebook Chat to WP7

Besides, it will bring Windows Live Messenger, AOL IM, Office 365 support, group messaging, artist-on lock screen, Wifi hotspot support, and visual voicemail.

The first update of Windows Phone 7 (WP7) will bring a host of features to the operating system including Windows Live Messenger, Facebook Chat, AOL IM, Office 365 support, group messaging, artist-on lock screen, Wifi hotspot support, and visual voicemail.

This has been revealed by a website called Windows Phone Dev Podcastshows.

Microsoft is going to update its Windows Phone 7 in the coming months. After the Mango update, the platform will likely be renamed WP7.5 or WP8.

WebMD app reaches Android

WebMD is a health app which helps users make informed decision about their health through specialized tools such as Symptom Checker, Drugs & Treatments, First Aid Information and Local Health Listings.

WebMD Health Corp has announced the launch of its health application for the consumers who use Android platform handsets. The app is already available for iPad and iPhone. 

The WebMD app has a varied of tools such as Symptom Checker, Drugs and Treatments, First Aid Information and Local Health Listings. The Android app also has a new voice search functionality in which users can enter their query by speaking into the microphone. 

"WebMD for Android is the next significant step for expanding our multi-screen market presence," said Wayne Gattinella, president and chief executive officer, WebMD. "We are proud to be selected by Google to showcase the new WebMD for Android App at their annual developer conference today."

WebMD is already a popular health information website. Unlike other apps, which provide entertainment to the users, the WebMD apps on iPhone, iPad and Android phones specialises in providing comprehensive healthcare information to its users so they can make informed decisions.

Make apps on what you like and share with your friends

Appsbar allows users to make applications with ultimate freedom and also keeps it totally free right from making the application till the distribution.

Making an application is a tough task and getting it published on the related app store is even tougher right? Wrong! Now anyone and everyone over the age of 13 years can make applications with the use of their own creativity and imaginations with Appsbar. 

Appsbar is possibly world's first ever website that offers functionality of making applications for mobile platforms like iPhone and Android. 

Appsbar is not charging anything from the developer in the form of fees or anything. Besides, the developer can download the app from the application stores for free. The revenue mode of Appsbar is simple: they earn from 'in app advertisements', which might annoy some users. 

The Appsbar gives the developer full functionality on the development of the application. The user can choose test location and customise the application according to his needs. The copyrights of the application are also being given to the developers who just need some knowledge of computer to fill in details and functionality to the app. 

Too many operating systems? Innovation can come anytime

The mobile market is bursting with new operating systems, but like in any other business, the best ones will float while the ones that don't become popular will have no option but to go down.

There was a time when people used to perform simple functions such as making calls and sending SMSes with their mobile phones. Now people want their mobile phones to work like computers. They want to see and share photos with it, send email, browse the internet and more. That's why they need phones to have full fledged operating systems (just like computers do).

The arrival of smartphone operating systems started a long time ago. It was in 1996 that Palm OS was launched, and Pocket PC (Microsoft) arrived in 2000. 

Windows Mobile 5 and BlackBerry OS 4.1 came in 2005. Android was acquired by Google in the same year and iPhone was released in 2007. Android 1.0, BlackBerry OS 4.5, iPhone OS 2.0 and Windows Mobile 6.1—all came in 2008. Samsung bada was announced in 2009.

Despite the surfeit of smartphone operating systems, the market for them didn't really take off as Java based phones were popular at that time, and operating system-based phones barely had any applications, which meant that users had to manage with the apps their handset manufacturers gave them. If developers wanted to sell an app, they had to strike a deal directly with the manufacturer of the phone, which was very difficult.

BlackBerry in a hurry to re-establish itself

The BlackBerry's problems have been obscured by sales figures so far. But with the iOS and Android onslaught, it needs apps fast.

The shift towards the perception that BlackBerry makers Research In Motion are in trouble due to the onslaught of Android and iOS phones is natural, but premature. Only some time ago, BlackBerry made a serious effort to take younger users into its fold as well, and the campaign seems to have hit it off in the UK, in India, South Africa and in some other countries (that don't include the USA).

In these countries, the new trend started with younger people getting their BlackBerrys through their seniors or parents who were buying new devices and handed their old BlackBerrys to the kids. These youth found BlackBerry messenger to be very useful and the fact that it was free was an added bonus. Despite the new-found popularity among younger users and, of course, the enterprise segment, Research In Motion is definitely having some problems due to the increasing popularity of iPhone and Android phones.

However, the growth rate of handset sales has obscured some of the company's problems so far. The operating system is all important when it comes to smartphones, because where hardware is concerned there are only touchscreen devices and those that have Qwerty keyboards.

The BlackBerry operating system looks good but dated, and that's why the company has come out with BlackBerry OS 7. 

Research In Motion recently made a slew of announcements at the BlackBerry World event, and in addition to that, BlackBerry Messenger is its hidden social network, which has a community in everywhere, including in India, and the members of this community are not likely to trade their messengers for anything else.