Smartphone News From This Week's MWC (Mobile World Congress)

For this week's Appy Friday, we are breaking down all the news from Mobile World Congress (MWC) and just letting you know the most important new releases

Samsung

Samsung announced the new S9 and S9+ although we all had a pretty good idea that this was going to be the case. The new S9 and S9+ biggest change from the S8 is that it now has a variable aperture which allows the camera to take in much more light when it’s dark. This means you can now take great pictures even when it’s dark. Another way that the camera allows you to take high-quality photos in the dark, is that it now takes 12 images per shot to combine them all together to reduce noise in images. Samsung predicts that the new camera will cut out background fuzz by 30%. Other than the updated camera not much else has changed, the screen is the same size as the S8’s as well as the battery life. A couple of other changes that don’t revolve around the camera are that the speaker is said to be 40% louder than on previous models, and the fingerprint sensor has been moved to just beneath the camera bump. Another announcement from Samsung is the Bixby smart-speaker, which is set to compete with the Apple HomePod and will be released in the second half of 2018.

Nokia

Nokia is recreating the Nokia 8110 which was originally released in 1996. However, this new model has a curvy design with a sliding bottom section. As well as announcing this reboot, Nokia also announced the new Nokia 8 Sirocco. This is completely at the other end of the spectrum to the 8110. This high-end phone has face unlocking, and a 2K 5.5 inch P-OLED screen with a 6GB of RAM. Another Nokia release from the MWC is the new Nokia 7 Plus. This device has a 6-inch HD screen and has a rear camera with dual sensors to improve photography in low lighting and zoomed images. Nokia also announced an updated Nokia 6 with a new battery that can go from 0%-50% charge in just 30 minutes. Finally, the last thing Nokia announced was the Nokia 1. This is on the lower end of the all the new releases from them as it is expected to cost around £79 in the UK. It has a smallish 4.5 inch 720p screen with a plastic back.

Huawei

At this MWC Huawei did not announce a new smartphones but did announce the MateBook X Pro and a few new tablets. Their new laptop MateBook X Pro is a 14-inch notebook which has a 3k screen, the camera in the notebook is hidden away in the top of the keyboard which can be shown by the press of a key. The MateBook X Pro also has an Intel Core i7 processor with up to 16GB of RAM. When it comes to the three tablets Huawei have announced, two of which are versions of the MediaPad M5, which has both an 8.4-inch version and a 10.8-inch version. The third tablet being the MediaPad M5 Pro which only comes in the 10.8-inch version. All these new devices have eight core processors which run Android 8, the larger options of these devices have four built-in speakers for the surround sound feel. Also to go with the M5 Pro, they announced the M-Pen with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.

Lenovo

The Lenovo Chromebooks have been made to be more durable and able to cope with those accidental drops and spills. One of the Lenovo Chromebooks lets you take notes using a regular pencil on the screen, and the other Chromebook has a lag-free stylus. The most expensive of the Chromebooks is only around £253 and is, therefore, a cheap alternative to a traditional laptop.

Sony

Sony announced the updated versions of the previous Xperia XZ1 and Xperia XZ1 compact. Imaginatively called the Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact. Both of these updates come with a whole new design. The blocky shape has been replaced with curved edges, and the XZ2 has a new all-glass back on top of a metallic colour. The XZ2 compact has a matte finish in a variety of colours. The new devices have the same 19-megapixel rear camera, however, the XZ2 has a 5.7-inch HD screen and the compact has a 5-inch screen.

So, there are our more important announcements from MWC 2018. There are so many exciting releases on their way this year to get ready for. Let us know what your favourite product from MWC was and which things you’ll be buying!

The Birds Are In Full Song - Twitter #music

We’re not on about a real bird in this instance, we are on about social networking website, Twitter, who has launched its new music app.

Twitter has exploded in popularity over the last seven years and has now turned an ear to music by creating a ‘music-discovery’ app. This app is called ‘Twitter #music’, which is a fairly ordinary name but there is not much ordinary about its intentions.

Twitter #music claims to ‘change the way that people find their music’. Although this may seem like a very bold statement on the outset, they may have just done exactly that. The app, unlike many other music streaming websites, has narrowed their focus in order to create a simple and accessible platform.

The app allows the user to collect music from nowhere other than Twitter, which means that there are lists for more ‘Popular’ music as well as ‘Emerging Tracks’. This is not all; Twitter #music also allows you to see what other people are listening to with the #NowPlaying chart of songs that get tweeted by the user. And just like the normal platform of Twitter, where it suggests friends you might know, it also suggests artists that you may enjoy too.

The reason this app is destined for success is because Twitter acquired a company called We Are Hunted, who are known for their helping hands in other music sites like MySpace Music and, more recently, Spotify. So it has a good pedigree!

This means that this app was not just quickly thrown together over a couple of months, instead they have built a team of people that know exactly what they are doing and have created something quite exciting.

App’s are extremely convenient and this app is no different. By simply clicking on an artists’ profile you can easily follow them as well as be able to see exactly who they are following too, which means it has a great exploration aspect too.

Although, it may be worth knowing that as it has only recently been released, it is only available in selected countries. Thankfully, the UK, US, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand are all part of this list.

The NHS now has an App Store

The NHS has recently released their own App store of apps that are safe and trusted which aim to help people with any problems they have.

http://apps.nhs.uk/

The purpose of this App store is to make it more convenient for the general public to find health and care apps that will answer any questions they may have. The apps in this store aims to cover certain criteria in order to cater for the public and their problems.

This criteria of apps includes:

Informational – This is an app that will provide any general information about a particular topic. This will not be a personalised description though.

Monitoring – This type of app collects any information that is related to the health and care of the individual. These include things like weight, exercise and any data collected by near-patient devices.

Decision Support – This app provides personal information and guidance that has been accumulated by any data entered by the individual. This app will then create an automatic calculation or decision on what data has been entered to inform you of any problems.

Transactional – This type of app includes things like booking an appointment or requesting a prescription.

Appware are also proud to announce that the NHS has included an app created by ourselves in this store. This app is one of the first apps within the store and has been created to make the mundane task of cleaning teeth a lot more entertaining.

www.brushdj.com

The main feature of this app, named Brush DJ, has an inbuilt timer that will play two minutes of music, randomly selected from the user’s device, throughout the duration of you brushing your teeth. Not only does this make brushing teeth much more fun but it also makes sure that you brush your teeth for the correct amount of time.

Other features include a reminder that can be set to make sure that the user brushes their teeth at least two times a day, how often to change their toothbrush and when to visit the dentist.

If you think that you could do with an app similar to this then you can go and check the NHS App store and download any app that you feel can benefit you and your health.

The Mobile Phone: 40 Years On

It has been forty years since some clever so and so made sure that we never lose contact or be out of touch with the people we need to speak to.

That clever inventor was Martin Cooper, who brought us the Motorola DynaTac in 1973, when the first ever call on a mobile phone was made. Although this piece of technology was extremely ahead of the times and paved the way for all of our handsets today, it is now considered a ‘brick’.

That is because the original DynaTac was in fact 10 inches in length and weighed around 2.5 pounds. If we compare that to the slim and slender models of mobile phones we have today, which weighs between four and size ounces, we can see how far our handsets have come. It definitely makes a difference to our pockets!

The DynaTac contained 30 circuit boards, boasted a talk time of up to 35 minutes and took about ten hours to charge up fully. The size, weight and limitations of this device are classed as ‘laughable’ by today’s society but we can’t deny that it made history. When the DynaTac was first introduced, there were only a few people that used it. If we compare this again to today, mobile phones are everywhere, with around 6 billion people owning a handset. As technology continues to advance, this figure is only going to increase.

A decade later and games were beginning to be added to the handsets with an influx of Nokia’s introducing the phenomenon which was called ‘Snake’. This game required the player to control the snake around the screen collecting food and if the snake touched the wall, the game was over.

Forty years after the first phone call was made, we have phones with touchscreens, Bluetooth, Internet browsing, cameras and apps with HTC, Blackberry and the iPhone being just some of the main brands of mobile technology. Mobile phones of today also boast hours and hours of talk time, take only an hour or so to charge and definitely do not have 30 circuit boards.

As we sit here and celebrate the forty years of the mobile phone, we ask you … what was your first ever handset?

Angry Birds For Free

One of the most profitable games in the world has become free for its users.

The original version, which was created four years ago, has just released 15 new levels, all of which are free for iOS devices. The game has been part of the top 80 highest grossing apps but has recently fallen out of this, which is the first time in three years.

The game originally cost downloaders $0.99 for the iPhone version and $2.99 for the iPad version. The previous free downloads of this game only included a few levels which you could complete before you were prompted to buy the full version. These free versions have since been removed from the app store all together.

Many people had spent hours playing this clever strategy game, but may have neglected it after completing it. Now is time to rekindle that flame and download the game again with 15 new adventures all at your fingertips.

Angry Birds was first released to iPhone and four years down the line has been downloaded around 500 million times. Being downloaded half a billion times most people will know this game well, for those that don’t the game involves using wingless birds and a slingshot in an attempt to destroy pigs and any structures to gain points per level.

The Angry Birds game was the leader of apps and began the revolution to all of the millions of apps available to us today. Although this game began life as an app it has now become a brand with merchandise being available to buy as well as a movie being released.

Rovio, the creators of this addictive app, have not officially come out and said that the app will be free for a certain amount of time, but my suggestion would be that if you haven’t already downloaded it, then get downloading it now whilst its free.

If the user base is boosted whilst the game is free then it is more than likely that the creators will put back up the paywall.

Have we all become App addicts?

A recent survey carried out on mobile App behaviour of members of the public showed that 82% of App users could not go without their Apps for a day.

You may be sitting there thinking, “wow, that’s a high percentage” but there are a such a large number of Apps that are available to us, that we rely on them. One of those Apps is an alarm clock. Every time we get woken up by our clever phone, we are using an App.

Emails and social networking are also common Apps that many of us use on a daily basis. Even one browse of your news feed and you have used your app for that day. Still not convinced that 82% of us use an app on a day-to-day basis? Well, here are some statistics that might change your mind:

• 53% of drivers that took part in the survey admitted to browsing an app whilst behind the wheel of their vehicle.
• 20% of people said they would not be able to find their way into work without the use of an app.
• 23% of those surveyed said they wouldn’t be able to feel happy unless they had used Apps for a day.
• 19% said that they would not even be able to maintain a relationship if it were not for their Apps.

The study also showed that Spain were the highest ranked country who were the most reliant on their Apps with a huge 93% of people saying they could not go a complete 24 hours without using one.

Convinced yet? These statistics show just how reliant we have become on our smartphone and more importantly our Apps. So, we have been woken up in the morning, set the route to work on our phone and have checked our Facebook timeline whilst driving all before 9 o’clock, which means we have already become a part of three of the previous statistics.

It is so easy to become a member of the 82% that used Apps every day without even realising. So my question to you is … Do you have an app addiction?

Using Apps To Market Your Business

There are many ways to market your business but have you ever thought of promoting it through an app?

We live in a very technology-savvy society so marketing through an app seems like a no brainer. Here are some reasons why:

• They can make your job easier. By being conveniently located on your phone or the mobile device of a customer, you or they can access the app whenever and wherever they want.
• Word of mouth spreads. If you create an app that people enjoy, word will get out and more and more people will download your app. With the more people using the app, browsers will turn into buyers.
• Be creative. The app can be completely different to your website but still possess the same useful information, making it a better way of engaging customers. This can be a useful way of improving your audience or a way to target a new demographic completely.
• Credibility. When users or customers see that you have an app with positive reviews and a large number of people downloading it, you and your business gain credibility.
• Keep on top of statistics. When someone downloads an app, you know about it. When they give it a review, you know about it. This is a great way to know exactly how many people are interacting with your app and how well the marketing is doing.

Apps are everywhere. They are no longer restricted to just an iPhone and are easily accessible on Android, other mobile devices and tablets. There is such a large market to target, so promoting your business or product through an app is both innovative and beneficial.

There are more to apps than just flicking some birds into some pigs and with the right idea and some creativity, you’ll be onto a winner.

Is Blackberry BB10 a contender?

With Apple and Android storming ahead of any other mobile platforms, it was only a matter of time before Blackberry decided to pull their finger out.

The genius’ behind Blackberry are finally releasing new operating software that they believe will compete with other smartphone super giants. This new BB10 software has been created with multitasking and content sharing firmly at the top of their agenda.

Blackberry Hop is a way for users to well, hop, from one app to the next effortlessly with the swipe of a finger. Blackberry Hub is the social brain and collects all of your emails and social networking updates and comprises them all into one place instead of having to change from each application. Blackberry Remember is your phones memory. If you need to bookmark a page, flag an email, remember a to-do list or save a document, this is the tool to do just that.

It is clear to see that Blackberry’s idea is to seamlessly switch from app to app instead of relying on a home button or opening and closing. The emphasis on having a phone that flows continuously by having layers of applications open at one time is more than apparent.

As well as introducing these new features, Blackberry has some new models to let loose on the public too. These come in the form of the sleek Z10 which comes complimented with a 4.2-inch display and the Q10, which is one of the remaining few that retain a physical keyboard. These two new members, along with the BB10 software, represent a new culture change at Blackberry and one that was definitely needed.

When they were asked to provide something to compete with Apple and Android, they may have just done it. Blackberry may have multitasked their way to brilliance with these new arrivals.

5 Top Tips for your App Website

A website for your App is pretty much essential these days so here are our 5 top tips on how to make it work best for you and your App.

1. First Impressions
If your website isn't up to scratch then what will that say about your App? If you've developed a fantastic App and then thought about your website at the last minute it will show. Don't quickly have something thrown together or even worse do a DIY job when you don't have the skills as this is often how people will find, and of course judge the App. Just as much care should go into the App website as the App itself. It goes without saying that all the branding and general look and feel should match the App too.

2. What does your App do?
It seems really obvious to state exactly what your App does but you'd be surprised at how many App websites fail to do this in a quick and easy manner. Your homepage should be able to sum up in a single sentence exactly what your App does and how it can help the user. Even though most Apps are feature packed and take more explanation for every single thing, you need to get across in a few seconds what the App actually does.

3. Use Video
An excellent way of letting people know what your App does and just how great it is in by using video. These often work well on your homepage and grab peoples attention straight away. Keep this short (less than a minute) and punchy rather than a full on 10 minute video demo going through every screen and function with a boring commentary.

4. Encourage people to spread the word
Once you've got someone interested in your App because they'll find it useful or maybe just because it has that "cool factor" then help them spread the word. As well as the links to the App in the Appstore then also include your social media channels too to encourage engagement. Consider using a sharing widget on your website as these are easy to implement. This means that with a single click a user can share your content on Twitter, Facebook, by email, and plenty of other platforms.

5. Is it mobile friendly?
More often than not people will come across your App website when using their mobile, especially if they are casually searching. Have you either got a mobile specific website for the App and if not how does the website look and is it usable? In the past I've seen App websites that were built in Flash so wouldn't even be visible on an iPhone never mind be usable! Do make sure you've considered this as some of our stats point to nearly 50% of total App website traffic being from a mobile.

Apps As A Travel Companion

If you have a smart phone or tablet then you now have someone new to take on holiday with you, a new travel companion to help you choose where to go, what to see and how to get there. Your new travel companion is called "Apps". You can get some really great Apps to help you book and plan your holiday, here we look into some of the Apps on offer;

Planning Your Holiday
When planning your holiday it is often hard to decide which country and city to go to and when that is decided you then have to think about the best hotel, hostel, B and B or campsite to stay out. This is where your Apps can help. You can pop onto Skyscanner, Tripadvisor or similar and look for real peoples reviews of countries, cities and accommodation and even book it in the same place too at value for money prices.

What To Do
Maybe you like to plan in advance what to do, or perhaps you would prefer to get there and see what is around. Either way it is highly recommended to download a city guide App, this will tell you the best places to go and you will be able to see what people thought of them and how far they are away from where you will be staying. City Guide Apps are a really good way of getting out and about on your holiday and seeing what the area has to offer.

How To Get Around
So now you’re on holiday and you know where you want to go but how are you going to get there? There are some fantastic apps on the market that offer maps and navigation so you can see which way to go to get to the attraction you want to see or you could even check tram routes, train routes or even see if it is better to get a taxi. Having a navigational app gives you the freedom to go wherever you want. See one of our previous blogs about an App called Waze.

However, it is very important to check with your internet supplier what your data roaming charges are and if the charges are high then you need to ensure you do not use your smartphone or tablet abroad as this could become expensive. It may be wise to see if you can purchase a data roaming package in advance as this can cost around £3 a day.

Taking your new travel companion "Apps" on holiday can make such a difference to your holiday and it will help you make sure you don’t miss out on a thing.

What does "Second Screen" mean?

Imagine your regular night in front of the TV, your wife wants to catch up on the soaps but you want to know what’s going on in the football as you placed a bet on the score, you’re not a big fan and you don’t need to watch every second of the match but it would be good to know, as the match takes place, just how much you are in with a chance of winning. Your wife has kindly allowed you to channel hop during the breaks of her soap, but this is not a guarantee you will see the goals as (oddly enough) the footballers don’t wait until soap advert breaks to score, so you may or may not see the up to date scores.

This is where a second screen could help – you can fire up your iPad, iPhone or any other tablet or smartphone (or even laptop). You can then use dedicated sites or apps that will show lists of football matches with up to date results and scores and chances for you to see re-runs of the goals that may have won you lots of money with your bet!

The real power of second screens is to allow you to be interactive with the TV Program you are watching, there are very few programs that do not have their Twitter name or hashtag showing during the opening credits. This means that you, as a viewer, can discuss what is going on in the show, if you agree with something, if you are shocked by something or if you have something to share with other viewers of this program.

You will also find with some programs that you can go to their website and learn more about the characters in the program or more about the topic they have touched on, this can all be done on your second screen without you having to miss out on the program itself.

Basically a second screen is any device you can use to complement rather than replace your viewing – so pretty much any smartphone, laptop or tablet. A second screen not only allows you to interact with the TV programs you love, but it allows you to engage with this TV program and personalise your entire experience.

The Shift From Paid Apps to Freemium

For the last year then there has been a big shift away from paid apps to Freemium Apps in the App Stores. What does Freemium mean I hear you say! Freemium basically means that the App is free to initially download and use but that you then upgrade using in-app purchase. The best example of this is downloading a Freemium game that has 3 free levels and then you pay within the App to get the other 50. This has the big advantage for users as they are getting quality Apps for free and if the App proves itself to be decent it's only at that point that they part with any cash.

This model seems to really work commercially too as if you look in the Apple App store then most of the top grossing Apps now use this business model. Of the top 20 top grossing Apps today (25th January 2013) then 17 of them are Freemium Apps. That's a whopping 85%!

So if the end user is getting a great deal and only paying for Apps they try before they buy, and the developer is earning more money, then surely everyone wins? Well yes but with one caveat; there are Apps out there where a couple of in-App purchases just aren't enough. The best example of these are the strategy type games where you need to buy power ups to be successful or virtual currency. These things get used up within the game and then you need to buy more. There are cases where children have racked up huge bills on their parents phones on these kind of games by simply buying more and more within the App.

Our advice is to know exactly what you're downloading and if children are involved then make sure your phone settings are set to require a passcode to make any in-App purchase. Instructions on how to do so are below:

To turn off in-app purchasing, do the following:

1. From your home screen, tap on the Settings app
2. Tap on General
3. Scroll about halfway down the page and tap on Restrictions
4. Tap the Enable Restrictions button
5. You'll be asked to Set a Passcode. The Passcode is a password that locks certain functions of the iOS device.
6. Once the passcode is set, scroll down to the Allowed Content section. Slide the In-App Purchases slider to Off. This will prevent anyone who doesn't know your passcode from making in-app purchases.

TV on the Go

As TV and media channels become increasingly on-line many of us can claim we have not sat and watched the TV for months, when in fact we have watched TV programs but just on our laptops or mobiles. It is now possible for us to watch TV on the go, whether we are waiting for a bus, on a lunch break at work or tucked up in bed. It is now loads easier to stay entertained while you’re on the go.

There are mobile catch up services such as BBC iPlayer, Hulu and Xfinity TV that have Apps available for your iPhone so you can watch what you missed while you were at the pub with your mates. Then there are other services that can cost a couple of pounds a month and you get unlimited access to your favourite TV programs, past and present.

You can also stream live TV from your home signal to your mobile phone, wherever you can get signal. You can watch exactly the same thing on the train journey home that your wife is watching on TV while curled up on the sofa.

It’s not something you’d want to do all the time as it can become costly, but you can buy your favourite programs through iTunes. You can then watch them whenever you have an Apple device to hand. It’s similar to the idea behind a Kindle, but you’re building up a library of films, instead of books.

It seems that Digital Video Broadcasts are soon to come to our phones, the theory being that you will be able to pick up ‘real’ TV broadcasts on your phone by using a built in antenna. Sadly Nokia are the only company to have introduced Digital TV Receivers into their handsets, but we are sure the rest are to follow.

TV is definitely now a lot easier to watch on the go!

Leave your wallet, just use your phone!

Do you remember years ago when a mobile phone was invented so you could phone people on the go, so you could be mobile but still keep in touch? Then you could text people as well, so you didn’t have to call them if you were in a rush. Then you could take photos on your phone, play games on it and surf the internet – now you can make payments for real items on your phone too.

You can now do your banking on the move, check your bank balance on the internet; you can download apps to buy things through your smartphone you can text to donate to your chosen charity, or, most excitingly, you can make contactless payments on your mobile phone.

There are now around nineteen million contactless bank cards in the form of credit cards and debit cards, these allow the phone owner to pay for products in the UK up to the value of £15 by simply holding the card over the reader, no pin or signature is required to authorise the payment.

The technology that has made this possible is called NFC (Near Field Communication) and it is now being incorporated into the latest smartphones.

Having the Near Field Communication in your mobile phone means that you do not need to have your actual credit or debit card, you just hold the phone over the reader in the shop and the payment is automatically taken from your account – as easy as that!

Currently it is just Orange and Barclay Card that are offering this technology and it’s only available on one phone, but experts have predicted that many more companies will be offering it over the next few years meaning that you never have the embarrassment of leaving your bank card at home and having no cash in your wallet.

The contactless security is built on exactly the same secure technology as Chip and Pin was. For the phone owners own security you are only able to make a certain number of contactless transactions before the phone owner is requested to enter their Pin Number at the terminal.

If your phone was to become stolen, as with your bank card, you would have legal protection from your bank. Exactly the same legal protection would be offered on your phone being stolen and payments being made, as to your credit card being stolen and payments being made.

Over 1.7 Billion Apps Downloaded Over Christmas

Mobile analytics firm Flurry have just published some stats from the week between Christmas and New Year's. It was the largest week for new device activations and app downloads in iOS and Android history!

Analyzing more than 260,000 apps running on the majority of iOS and Android devices, Flurry said that approximately 17.4 million iOS and Android devices were activated and 328 million apps were downloaded on Christmas Day alone. During the Christmas week, more than 50 million gadgets were activated and and 1.76 billion apps were downloaded, the firm estimated.

Last year people downloaded 1.2 billion iOS and Android apps in that same week so a 40% increase over last year shows just how much the market is still growing.

Flurry expects that in 2013, it will become the norm to see more than 1 billion App downloads per week, maybe even hitting 2 million by the fourth quarter of the year.

"Following a year where Google and Apple drove unprecedented adoption of mobile devices, Facebook declared itself a 'mobile' company, and Amazon and Microsoft both made significant investments into mobile computing, we look forward to continued record-breaking adoption of smart devices and applications," Peter Farago, VP of Flurry said.

The 12 Apps Of Christmas - Number 1 - Waze

The 12 Apps Of Christmas - Number 1
Our countdown from 12 to 1 of our favourite Apps of 2012.

Waze
Web address: http://www.waze.com/
Platforms: iOS and Android

In a nutshell
Sat Nav with live traffic info

Description
Waze is a fun, community-based traffic & navigation app, 30 million strong. Join forces with other drivers nearby to outsmart traffic, save time & gas money, and improve everyone's daily commute.

With community-generated real-time traffic, you'll always get the best route to your destination. By simply driving around with Waze open, you're already contributing tons real-time traffic & road info to your local driving community. You can also actively report accidents, hazards, police and other events you see on the road, and get road alerts coming up on your route too. Find the cheapest gas station along your route with community-shared gas prices.

Now Waze makes it fun and simple to meet up and coordinate with friends on the road. Easily meet up, pick up friends, share your drive and ETA, and see who's headed to your destination too!

It's all about contributing to, and benefiting from, the 'common good' out there on the road, so hop on board, and get involved in your local driving community today!

✓ Live routing based on community-generated real-time traffic and road info
✓ Community-contributed road alerts including accidents, hazards, police traps, and more.
✓ Complete voice-guided navigation.
✓ Automatic re-routing as conditions on the road change.
✓ Learns your frequent destinations, commuting hours and preferred routes.
✓ Find the cheapest gas station on your route.
✓ Meet-up! Pick up friends, share your drive on a live map, see friends also on the way to your destination.
✓ Join or create groups to share info about your commute.
✓ Earn points and move up the ranks in your community as you contribute road info.
✓ Live maps, constantly updated by Waze community map editors.

Drive safe! Waze is hands-free and voice-operated.

The 12 Apps Of Christmas - Number 2 - Dropbox

The 12 Apps Of Christmas - Number 2
Our countdown from 12 to 1 of our favourite Apps of 2012.

Dropbox
Web address: http://www.dropbox.com/mobile
Platforms: iOS, Android, and Blackberry

In a nutshell
Your life's work, wherever you are

Description
Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, phones and even the Dropbox website. Dropbox also makes it super easy to share with others, whether you're a student or professional, parent or grandparent. Even if you accidentally spill a latte on your laptop, have no fear! You can relax knowing that Dropbox always has you covered, and none of your stuff will ever be lost.

The 12 Apps Of Christmas - Number 3 - Evernote

The 12 Apps Of Christmas - Number 3
Our countdown from 12 to 1 of our favourite Apps of 2012.

Evernote
Web address: http://evernote.com/evernote/
Platforms: Just about everything!

In a nutshell
Remember everything

Description
Capture anything; Save your ideas, things you like, things you hear, and things you see. Access anywhere; Evernote works with nearly every computer, phone and mobile device out there. Find things fast; Search by keyword, tag or even printed and handwritten text inside images.

The 12 Apps Of Christmas - Number 4 - Skype

The 12 Apps Of Christmas - Number 4
Our countdown from 12 to 1 of our favourite Apps of 2012.

Skype
Web address: http://skype.com/mobile
Platforms: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone

In a nutshell
Calling, seeing, messaging and sharing with others – wherever they are.

Description
Experience Skype in the palm of your hand. Here’s just a few of the great things you can do with the Skype App:

Free face to face video calls and instant messaging over a 3G or WiFi connection.

Low cost calls and text messages to mobiles and landlines.

Smooth video calling with anti-shake technology.

Take Skype with you today.

The 12 Apps Of Christmas - Number 5 - Find My iPhone

The 12 Apps Of Christmas - Number 5
Our countdown from 12 to 1 of our favourite Apps of 2012.

Find My iPhone
Web address: http://www.apple.com/iphone/icloud/#find
Platforms: iOS

In a nutshell
Find your iPhone wherever it is

Description
Don’t panic. If one of your Apple devices goes missing, iCloud can help you figure out where you left it. Just sign in at iCloud.com or use the Find My iPhone app to see your missing Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch on a map. And iOS 6 and iCloud offer Lost Mode — making it even easier to find and protect a missing iOS device. With Lost Mode, you can immediately lock your device and send it a message with a contact number. Then whoever finds it can call you from the Lock screen without accessing the rest of the information on your device.