Have you ever wanted to invite a friend out for a McRib, but aren’t sure where they’re available? This is probably an extremely rare problem, but McDonald’s has solved it nevertheless with a new app. The bad news: it’s only available for iPhone so far, and it’s not especially useful. [More]
apps
Instagram Adds Mentions, Links, And Boomerang Tool To Stories Feature
By 11.10.16
Well, well, well, what do we have here? A photo-sharing app adding features that Snapchat doesn’t have? Yes, that’s actually happening: Instagram is updating its Stories feature to allow users to tag their friends, add links, and apply its Boomerang effect to photos. [More]
Ride-Hailing Services Are Legal And Regulated In Philadelphia: Now What?
By 11.4.16
Ride-hailing apps, or transportation network companies (TNCs), have been in sort of a legal gray area in Philadelphia, but as of today, hailing a ride will be completely legal. Earlier today, the governor of Pennsylvania signed legislation that regulates the services. Like all laws, it’s imperfect, and stakeholders including taxi drivers and people with disabilities have complaints about it. [More]
Kohl’s Joins Store-Specific Payment App Party
By 10.5.16
If you thought that it was confusing to carry around a stack of store charge cards, how about installing a stack of store-specific payment apps on your phone? Now joining Walmart, Cumberland Farms, and other QR code-happy retailers is Kohl’s Pay, a new module inside the store app that many customers already have installed. [More]
Google Play Will Let Shoppers Try Video Games For 10 Minutes Before Buying
By 10.4.16
Sometimes, a video game might have gotten great reviews and heck, it might look really fun, but for whatever reason, you’re just not loving it, and regret having spent money on it. In an effort to ward off buyer’s remorse, Google Play will now let customers play some video game titles for 10 minutes before they decide whether or not to buy them. [More]
Google Debuts Personalized Travel Planner Dubbed “Google Trips”
By 9.19.16
As anyone who’s ever found themselves standing around a police station in Spain at 3 a.m. calling mom back in the U.S. for their own hotel info can attest, it can be really tough when you’re lost in a foreign country or city without an Internet-connected device. Google wants to make those kinds of experiences easier and help travelers coordinate their activities with a new travel planning app called “Google Trips.” [More]
More Restaurants Push Order-Ahead Apps, But Customers Worry About Cold Food
By 9.13.16
From Domino’s emoji ordering, to Starbucks’ cut-the-line-order-ahead app, fast food restaurants around the country are jumping at the chance to get customers to place orders on their phones. For the restaurants it all comes down to sales, but persuading customers to use those apps is harder than one might think, despite the obvious draws: no line, no wait, food ready and waiting. [More]
Revised FCC Set-Top Box Proposal Inches Closer To Reality
By 9.6.16
Early this year, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler put forth a proposal: how about doing away with those set-top boxes you’re required to rent, for lots of money, in order to watch pay-TV? After all, it’s 2016, surely we can do better? Naturally, the suggestion became an instant political football. But after seven months of working it out, the rumor mill says a compromise is on its way. [More]
Report: Apple Working On Video Editing, Sharing App In A Push Towards Social
By 8.25.16
Instead of just making the hardware that allows folks to use social media, Apple is reportedly working on a video sharing and editing application of its own, and testing out new features for it on its iOS. This way, it can be/ the social tool instead of just the means to an end. [More]
Traveler Hacks His Way Into Fancy Airport Lounges
By 8.5.16
Is it possible to hack your way into a lounge? Of course it is, when access to an airline’s elite frequent-flyer lounges is controlled via barcode. One traveler couldn’t get into the lounge when he had gold status, and wondered whether he could encode a barcode with fake information that would gain him access that he didn’t deserve. [More]
Banks, Retailers, And Phone Makers Each Have Mobile Payment Apps, Maybe Overwhelming Consumers
By 7.15.16
Is it possible to confuse consumers with too many apps for making in-store payments wtih their mobile phones? Retailers and stores hope not, since they’re all trying to capture part of a market that promises growth and loyal customers to merchants, and simplicity and convenience to consumers. Is that the case, or are all of these products simply different forms of backup for when people forget their wallets? [More]
Is Pokémon Go Partnering With McDonald’s?
By 7.13.16
With Pokémon Go coming out of nowhere to become an overnight obsession, it makes sense that the game’s maker, Niantic, is looking to cash in with brand-name partnerships. Who will be the first to pay up to be associated with the wildly popular game? [More]
ABC Relaunches Online Streaming Service With Mobile-Friendly Short-Format Shows
By 7.13.16
For years now, TV networks have used their online presence to promote their series with extra digital content, like deleted clips, and behind-the-scenes glimpses. ABC is now expanding on that tactic by creating seven original shows that will only be available on its website or one of its mobile or connected TV apps. [More]
How To Avoid Shady Third-Party Apps Piggybacking On Popularity Of Pokémon Go
By 7.12.16
Amid the crowds of roving Pokémon Go players out there following virtual monsters around with their phones, there are likely some who might be interested in downloading third-party or ancillary apps to help you in your quest. But like with any popular tech phenomenon, there could be dark forces lurking out there, shady apps that you should avoid. [More]
Walmart Taking Its Proprietary Mobile Payment App Nationwide
By 7.6.16
Two months ago, Walmart took its mobile payment app, the logically named Walmart Pay, live in 590 stores in its home state of Arkansas and in the neighboring state of Texas. The test apparently went well: the retailer is bringing the app to customers in the rest of the country as of today. [More]
Apple May Be Buying Tidal, Blocking Spotify Update
By 7.1.16
Apple is having a busy week, according to recent reports: Jay-Z’s streaming music service Tidal could be joining Tim Cook and friends in the near future, while another rival service claims the tech company is blocking update to its apps to push people into the arms of Apple Music. [More]
CVS Will End Yard-Long Receipts (For Rewards Program Members)
By 5.23.16
Five years ago, a CVS representative explained that the reason why the pharmacy chain keeps printing such long receipts for customers is that customers like it. Maybe the public’s preferences have changed since 2011, since the chain officially announced today that it’s getting rid of the lengthy coupon-filled receipt streamers, and pre-loading coupons to customers’ rewards program cards instead. [More]
Turns Out It’s Easy To Pinpoint A Grindr User’s Location, Even With Privacy Settings Enabled
By 5.23.16
Usually when you think of “privacy,” that comprises ideas like, say, other people not knowing who you are, or being able to locate you down to the nearest meter. And yet that last bit seems to have been grossly overlooked by the developers of certain dating and hookup apps, which, it turns out, leak your exact location even if you have location-based services turned off. [More]
