apps

Fisher Price has been accused of producing misleading advertisements for 'educational' applications aimed at children. The allegations come from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC). It has filed formal complaints with the Federal ... Trade Commission (FTC) against Fisher Price and Open Solutions. The CCFC says Fisher Price claims its 'Laugh and Learn' range of apps can help young children advance their math and language skills. Open Solutions makes similar claims about apps featuring reading and spelling challenges. According to the CCFC, "neither company offers any evidence to ... (view more)

A new report says Microsoft's own digital distribution center, the Windows Store, contains roughly half of the world's most popular applications. It's more bad news for Microsoft, which continues its struggle to lure mobile consumers away from the ... iOS and Android platforms. The study was conducted by Nick Landry, a product manager and Microsoft expert at New Jersey development firm Infragistics. Landry, whose company builds user interface development tools, based his "must-have" list on the top 100 iOS apps. He then went to the Google Play and Windows Store digital outlets to see how many of ... (view more)

PC manufacturer Asus appears to be moving away from plans to build devices running Microsoft's Windows RT operating system, a slimmed-down version of Windows 8. According to Asus Chairman Jonney Shih, the firm is focusing on building tablet ... computers employing the Windows 8.1 platform. In discussing consumers' reaction to Windows RT tablet PCs, Shih noted that "the result is not very promising." Asus is only the most recent PC manufacturer to back away from Windows RT . Lenovo has also decided to cancel all plans for future Windows RT tablets, and that has meant abandoning the firm's IdeaPad ... (view more)

According to security firm Symantec, the Google Play store is home to many potentially dangerous applications. The firm says it found approximately 1,200 suspicious apps on the store over a seven-month period. Google Play is Google's digital ... distribution center, and it's where most Android users turn for downloads (in effect, it's Google's version of Apple's App Store). More than 700,000 apps can be found on the Google Play store, which has played a central role in Android's rapid growth in the mobile market. Between February and April 2013 sales of Android devices accounted for more than ... (view more)

Microsoft is hoping to increase consumers' trust in its new Windows Store by unveiling a strict policy for uploaded apps. According to the firm, it will remove any applications that it finds may be vulnerable to hackers. Specifically, Microsoft says ... that any apps with critical security vulnerabilities will be placed on probation for 180 days (though Microsoft admits that this window could be extended in special cases). If the app's maker has not fixed the problem within that time period, Microsoft says it will remove the app from the Windows Store. (Source: windowsitpro.com ) In ... (view more)

It's been five years since Apple launched its popular App Store. To celebrate its fifth anniversary, the Cupertino, California-based firm is giving away free applications and games. Apple's App Store originally launched in 2008 (shortly after the ... release of the iPhone) with roughly five hundred different applications. Today, the App Store is approaching one million apps. Earlier this week Apple unveiled a new section of its App Store displaying five free apps and five free games for the iPhone and the iPad tablet computer. (Source: latimes.com ) Typically each of these apps / games costs a ... (view more)

We've known for some time that Microsoft is planning to update its newest operating system, Windows 8, with Windows Blue (otherwise known as Windows 8.1). Now, the firm has revealed the changes Windows Blue will bring. For one, the long-missed Start ... button is making a return. The bad news: the Start menu isn't coming with it. According to reports, clicking the Start button will bring users to Windows 8's new Start screen. That means they won't gain access to the list of recent and popular applications that popped up when someone clicked the Start button in Windows 7. Boot Directly to the ... (view more)