If you’re dreaming of the day that you can order and pay for your Starbucks beverage with no human interaction whatsoever, you’re apparently not alone. Customers have been asking for the ability to order in advance from the mobile app for as long as Starbucks has had a mobile payment app, and the test is expanding from just one city to two states. Starbucks says that it should go national later this year. [More]
mobile apps
PayPal Discontinues Mobile Check Capture As Of, Um, Yesterday
By 6.16.14
Justin uses Paypal’s mobile check deposit feature, because that’s a service that his credit union doesn’t offer. He wasn’t happy when he received an e-mail from the company yesterday saying that they would be discontinuing the service. Then he saw the end date: Sunday. They were yanking the service with no warning. [More]
Most Apps Mobile Users Purchase Are Free
By 3.24.14
This piece of news will surprise absolutely no one: most smartphone and tablet applications that consumers purchase are free to download. Not free to use, necessarily, thanks to in-app purchases and upgrades, but free to download. Analysis by Statista for the Wall Street Journal shows that the consumers who spend the most on apps are iPad users, who shell out an average of fifty cents each for apps.
What’s The NSA Using To Spy On You Now? Angry Birds.
By 1.28.14
The revelations about just how embedded into every facet of modern, technological life the NSA is just keep coming. The spy agency isn’t just collecting calling records and tracking electronics; they’re in your iPhone games, too. [More]
![[I Don't Want Your F***ing App]](../../../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/tumblr_mm2vg8oomh1spd2y3o1_500.png?w=300&h=225&crop=1)
If I Wanted Your Bleeping App, I Would Have Bleeping Downloaded It
By 5.13.13
Part of the appeal of having a proper smartphone is that you can point my mobile browser at a website and look at it. You can even look at sites that aren’t designed for mobile phones…well, as long as they aren’t Flash-based. One annoyance of browsing the interweb with a smartphone is that every site and its cousin has its own proprietary mobile app, and they want you to download it. One person finally became annoyed enough with getting nagged to install unwanted apps that they began cataloging screenshots. [More]
FTC: Mobile Apps Made For Kids Are Secretly Collecting Info On Minors, Sharing It
By 12.10.12
The Federal Trade Commission has been doing some digging around to make sure kids on the Internet are protected and has subsequently come up with some shocking news. Most of the mobile apps the agency checked out by way of the Google Play and the Apple App store are not only gathering info from kids without parents’ knowledge or their permission, they’re also sharing it. [More]
California Attorney General Warning App Developers They Can’t Mess With Consumer Privacy
By 10.31.12
Watch out, mobile app developers — California has your number and it’s not going to let you get away with violating consumer privacy. The state’s attorney general issued letters this week to the makers of 100 mobile apps that they must have a written privacy policy posted on their products to explain to customers which information the apps gather and share. [More]
Why Do App Developers Release iPhone Versions First?
By 5.2.12
Even though there are still significantly more smartphones running some version of the Android operating system, it’s not uncommon to see developers come out with an app for iPhone users weeks or months before they release anything for Android. What’s up with that? [More]
Most People Click On Mobile Ads In Apps Accidentally
By 1.31.11
No one likes their game of Bedazzle Blast or whatever it may be interrupted by an annoying, floating mobile add popping up on the screen. So it’s really not surprising to hear that most of the clicks those ads get from consumers are accidental. [More]
