Microsoft simplifies video editing on Windows Phone with Video Tuner

Want to tweak your recorded mobile videos but don’t have the know-how? Microsoft has just released its own Video Tuner app to help you with that. The app lets you apply filters and corrective adjustments (including speed tweaks), as well as add music (of the non-DRM-protected variety that is). The finished product can be shared to various social sites except for Vine. But you can’t directly share from the app at the moment. Video Tuner also supports MP4 files and it needs a Lumia device running Windows Phone 8.1. If you want to try it out for yourself, you can just download it here.

Source: Engadget

Google Maps for iOS gets improved search capabilities, shows appointments

Google Maps for iOS is slowly catching up with its Android counterpart with this latest update. The app now shows your search results along with descriptions as well as the location of the appointments you have (if you are a Gmail user, that is).  And in case you want to find out what’s happening in your area, the Explore view now shows you what’s nearby. If you would like to try out these new features, you can download Google Maps here.

Source: Engadget

Yahoo to boost online mobile video streaming with RayV acquisition

Yahoo is serious about getting more people to watch content on its portal with its recent acquisition. Online video streaming company RayV will help boost Yahoo’s tech infrastructure when it comes to video distribution, particularly with mobile devices. The move is intended to attract more people to use Yahoo’s Screen portal, which houses videos ranging from original news to content provided by partners such as BuzzFeed, Comedy Central, and Saturday Night Live. Most of the company’s employees will join Yahoo’s R&D center in Tel Aviv, Israel. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

The Apple Beat: 6 years on, the App Store remains the standard in curated ecosystems

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

It's hard to believe that the original iPhone didn't ship with any 'real' apps and that it took over a year for Apple to consider opening its device to developers and third-party applications. Six years on, the App Store has evolved into the best example of a tightly curated app ecosystem.

Apple's success with the iOS App Store owes a lot to Apple's experience with iTunes although apps and music and movies are fundamentally different, the way these were presented was familiar enough to users who were buying apps to enhance their mobile devices. The App Store was a quick success, it inspired the Mac App store and made it possible to buy applications directly from a Mac and, even better, application updates are now handled automatically in the background.

More importantly, the App Store has become a storefront for thousands of developers and their mobile apps. It is by far the most profitable platform for mobile developers. 75 billion app downloads have been made in the past six years. 

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