On Gear Live: Google announces Samsung Galaxy S 4 with stock Android Jelly Bean, drops June 26th for $649

Latest Gear Live Videos

Skype Updated to version 4.6 for iOS

Skype, the popular video and VoIP calling service, has updated its iOS apps for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad to version 4.6. It includes a revamped user interface and improved calling experience. Here's the rundown of the changes:

What's New in Version 4.6

  • Beautiful new calling experience
  • Mark all your recent chats as read with just a few taps.
  • General fixes and improvements

Advertisement

iOS iWork Updated

Apple has updated its iOS iWork apps with stability improvements and the usual bug eliminating maintenance for Keynote, Pages, and Numbers. You can grab the updates now, or if you don't own them, each app is $9.99 in the App Store.


Fantastical 1.1 for iOS

Fantastical 1.1 has hit the App Store, and with it, our favorite iOS calendar app brings a bunch of great new features. The new version includes things like time zone support, the ability to set multiple alerts for calendar entries, event invitations, and  you can even have the app badge itself with the current date or to show how many more calendar events the users has left for the rest of the day. It's a big update, one that Flexibits co-founder Michael Simmons wanted to show users that the company was paying attention to all the feature requests out there. If you aren't a Fantastical user, we urge you to give it a try--it's on sale for 20% off, so you can get Fantastical 1.1 for $3.99.

Read More | Fantastical for iOS

Google Maps for iPhone 1.1

Google has released an update for Google Maps for iPhone, adding new search icons to make it easier and faster to find points of interest, as well as integration with your Google Contacts, which makes it easier to find friends. The search icons include things like restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and other typical POIs. The way the contacts work is, if you have your friends address saved, then you can search for their name and have their address pop up on the map--it isn't meant to find your friends by location in real-time. You can download Google Maps for iPhone 1.1 now in the App Store.

Read More | Google Maps for iPhone

Spotify ios 0.6.0

Spotify for iOS has just received a massive overhaul, bringing the UI in line with the look that Android's been sporting for a while. iOS users now get access to features like the swiping method for accessing different areas of the Spotify app (similar to what you can do in the Facebook iOS app.) The "Now Playing" area shows you the artist and track name no matter where you are navigating in the app, right above the play controls. You can swipe here to go to the next or previous track with ease. You also get bug fixes and overall improvements to stability, as well as the Ford SYNC AppLink Spotify feature that we mentioned yesterday. You can grab the update now from the App Store, and peep the full changelog after the break.

Click to continue reading Spotify for iPhone gets visual redesign

Read More | Spotify

Ronda Rousey Headphones Monster Inspiration giveaway

Three nights ago, Ronda Rousey used her signature armbar to become the first UFC Women's Champion--but did you notice her headphones? The Ronda Rousey headphones were mentioned time and again on Twitter and other social media channels, and if you've paid any attention to Gear Live and our CES coverage, you probably can guess what they were. In fact, if you can, you may just walk away with a pair of your own...and we've made it super-easy, as you can tell.

Here's a hint: They're Monster branded, and Rousey's win was truly INSPIRATIONal. We can't make it easier than that.

That's right! All you need to do is let us know the brand and model of the headphones. If you get it right, you are entered to win one of three pairs that we are giving away! Here's how you enter--simply use the widget below to keep track of your entries! We've got a lot of ways for you to enter, but don't check off any that you don't actually perform. If you do, you'll be eliminated. If you choose to tweet, include the headphone brand and name. If you choose to follow us on YouTube, leave a comment there with the same. Or leave a comment right here on this Gear Live post. Or do all of the above. You get multiple entries. On to the widget:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Facebook free voice calls

Facebook 5.5 for iOS has just been released, and with it comes free voice calling for North American users over Wi-Fi and cellular networks. The feature came to Facebook's separate messaging app a couple of weeks ago, and is now baked in to the full-fledged Facebook iOS experience for users across the US and Canada. After updating, simply open your chat pane by tapping the icon on the upper-right, select a friend, and then select "Free Call." As you'd expect, the person on the other end also needs to be located in North America, and also needs to have the latest Facebook app installed. It's a nice way to make voice calls without tapping into your voice minutes--just make sure to keep an eye on your data plan when you're away from Wi-Fi, no need to try to save on voice minutes, only to rack up massive data usage fees, you feel me?


Kickstarter for iPhone

We've often wondered by a site like Kickstarter lacked an official iOS app, but that ends today with the release of Kickstarter for iPhone. The crowdsourcing site's new app allows you to view campaigns, watch the pitch videos that go along with them, and pledge your cash towards one of the reward levels offered. If you've created a campaign, you can track your progress in the app as well. The app is not yet iPad-native, but it does support iPhone 3GS and later, including support for the iPhone 5 4-inch display. Grab Kickstarter for iPhone for free.

Read More | Kickstarter for iPhone

Tempo calendar app

We gave up on the native iOS calendar app in favor of Fantastical months ago, but Tempo Smart Calendar is here to challenge for the throne. What makes Tempo so special? Well, it's made by SRI, the same group that invented Siri…yep, the same Siri that Apple later acquired. What Tempo does is pull in information from your calendar, contact list, email, and services like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Foursquare. Using all of that data, it's able to pull in and give contextual data on all your calendar entries, including things like nearby parking, and the ability to send everyone else a message that you'll be late, right from within the app. Wanna wish your Facebook friends a "happy birthday" automatically? Tempo can handle that, too. Check the video out after the break, it does a great job of explaining it all.

You can download Tempo for free, right now, but you may have a challenge logging in once you have it. Tempo servers are being crushed under heavy load right now (a massive fail) and thousands are being left out in the cold currently.

Click to continue reading Tempo Smart Calendar app adds life context to your appointments

Read More | Tempo Smart Calendar

Skitch iOS 2.0.3

Skitch for iOS was recently updated to version 2.0.3. The 2.0.3 version brings a new text editor, allowing users to add and resize image annotations more simply and effectively. There are also several unspecified improvements to the app to fix reported bugs and increase the overall functionality and speed of Skitch for iOS.

Skitch is an Evernote designed app (through acquisition) that is used for adding annotations, shapes and sketches to graphics. Download it from the App Store for your iOS device.

Read More | Skitch

Advertisement