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SwiftKey for Android is one of our favourite third-party keyboard replacements, and its natural language technology has been licensed by Samsung for use in its newest smartphones. Today, the company is coming out with version 4.1, a bug fix release with a few relevant additions. For starters, SwiftKey 4.1, there are three new themes – Regal (purple), Pitch (black, good for AMOLED screens) and Dusk (dark blue) — for those who are tired of the status quo. Of the three, Pitch is the nicest, but I’m not partial to too much colour on my keyboard.

Most of the other changes are bug fixes — improvements to the punctuation slider; better functionality in Opera browser — but SwiftKey promises more big features, too.

The app is also on sale for $1.99 for a limited time, so if you haven’t convinced every Android owner you know to pick it up, now is your chance.

Download SwiftKey for Android.

Via: SwiftKey Blog

When BlackBerry announced its popular messaging platform, BBM, would be snaking its way on to iOS and Android handsets this summer, the reaction was understandably mixed.

Many users decried its lateness –- where was it two, even four years ago? – tacitly acknowledging its declining importance in the hugely popular and potentially lucrative messaging ecosystem. So what if BBM users send 10 billion messages daily; who cares about 60 million users? WhatsApp boasts 20 billion daily discourses and 200 million active users, an enviable number for any service.

More importantly, though BBM’s siloed nature worked in its favour during the height of BlackBerry mania, it has since been supplanted by companies willing to develop for multiple operating systems. Again WhatsApp comes to mind, but Waterloo’s own Kik is making remarkable strides in net users on just two platforms, BlackBerry not being one of them.

Indeed, the two most important places to be on mobile these days are iOS and Android, and by building for them BlackBerry is saying two things. First, it is admitting its place in the hierarchy; even if BB10 finds success it will likely never unseat Android and iOS for market share. Second, it is attempting to eke value from one of two remaining consumer brand images that still engender loyalty, the other being the company’s iconic QWERTY keyboard. BlackBerry 10, responsive and feature-filled as it is, doesn’t tower over the competition for features or performance, and while its security promises afford it a level of trustworthiness and reliability, the average consumer either feels adequately safe loading apps and sending emails on iOS and Android or he doesn’t care either way.

BlackBerry still has an edge in the enterprise market, but as we’ve seen from the Pentagon’s recent policy changes, that star may not shine as brightly a year from now, either.

Another milestone has happened. Apple has successfully crossed over the 50 billion app download mark. The number was reached around 4:55pm and Apple will give a $10,000 gift card to the person who downloaded the 50 billionth app (still waiting to see who that is).

The Apple App Store was officially launched on July 10th, 2008 and reached 1 billion downloads in 9 months (April 23rd, 2009), then passed over the 5 billion download mark on June 23rd, 2010. The 10 billion app downloads occurred 6 months later on January 22nd, 2011. The massive 25 billion app download milestone was achieved on March 3rd, 2012.

Update: The 50 billionth app was Say the Same Thing, which was downloaded by Brandon Ashmore from Mentor, Ohio.

Source: Apple, (2)

Google announced a replacement to its Talk platform today called Hangouts. The unified cross-platform messaging tool brings text, photo and live video hangouts to mobile and the web, and it is now available on iOS and Android, as well as the web through a Chrome extension.

Hangouts stay in sync across devices, and with the newly-announced Google Cloud Messaging APIs, so do the notifications. It’s a great tool that we’ll look at more in-depth in the coming days.

Download Hangouts for Android and iOS.

Via: Gmail Blog

Last, but certainly not least, is Mobilicity with their launch of the Galaxy S4. Even though they’re a couple weeks behind other carriers, they’ve come to market with the lowest price at $649.99.

However, finding one might be initially difficult as they noted on Twitter that “A limited number of the new Samsung Galaxy S4 phones are now available at select locations. Contact your local store for availability!” We’ve reached out to Mobilicity for specific locations and will update you when we hear back – but if you know a location that has one, please leave it in the comments below.

Also, if you’re considering the GS4 make sure you check out our in-depth hands-on here.

Source: Mobilicity

Google I/O has always been a source to gain deeper insight into how much impact Android is having. New Android Chief Sundar Pichai said “the momentum has been breathtaking.” Back in 2011 the number of Android activations hit the 100 million milestone. The following year the number quadrupled to 400 million in 2012. This year, the company has significantly to a mind blowing 900 million Android activations. Humbly, Pichai stated “It’s a big number but we have to remember there are over 7 billion people on the planet — we have a long way to go.”

In addition, Hugo Barra, Android Product Management at Google, declared that Google Play has over 48 billion app downloads, with 2.5 billion installs in the last month. “Even better than that, in the last four months we’ve already paid out more money from Play than in all of last year. Revenue per uses is 2.5 times what it was a year ago, globally.”

Make sure you check out our live blog here for all Google I/O details.

Hey everyone! Welcome to the Google I/O 2013 live blog. We’ll have all the updates, announcements and general hilarity that comes from a Google I/O keynote right here, so stay tuned! It starts at 9am PT/12pm ET.

Google I/O is minutes away from starting, but miraculously the small details are unfolding before hand. Two confirmations have surfaced, first that we’ll see Google update the Android to version 4.3 (probably still named Jelly Bean), but the specifics of what’s packed into the update is still unclear. In addition, as revealed on the weekend, Google Play Games – which is similar to Apple’s Game Center – also made an appearance.

We’ll bring you more details from our Google I/O live blog.

Source: The Verge
Via: Engadget

If the numbers are correct, then WIND Mobile added 11,281 subscribers in Q1. Parent-company Orascom Telecom released their Q1 2013 results today and noted that WIND Mobile Canada now has a total of 601,719 wireless subscribers (up 44.9% from 2012). In addition, APRU (Average Revenue Per User) hit $27.60, up 1.1% year-over-year. The slight increase in subs was reportedly from “its ‘Value Plus’ strategy,” plus the launch of several flagship devices, such as the Google Nexus 4 and the BlackBerry Z10.

Source: Orascom (PDF)

BlackBerry Live 2013 is in full gear and there’s more news coming at you today. Apart from the new QWERTY/Touch Q5, BBM for Android and iOS, 120,000 available apps, BlackBerry has announced that adoption for BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 has gained momentum. Unfortunately, there’s no new stats, only that “the growing number of organizations testing, adopting or reaffirming commitment” to BlackBerry.

BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 gives IT admins the ability to securely manage their organizations devices, including BlackBerry, iOS, and Android. We previously heard that Canadian Tire deployed “thousands” of BB10 devices (Z10 and Q10), but today’s press release noted a few more Canadian companies have embraced BB10, namely BMO Financial Group, Torys LLP, and the Canadian Diabetes Association. In addition, the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DOITT) and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have backed the platform.

BMO “endorsed BlackBerry 10 as their platform of choice” and Claudette McGowan, VP of Digital Workspace Services at BMO, said “We are placing BlackBerry 10 orders with our North American carriers. BlackBerry remains our enterprise standard and we’ve begun deploying within our environment.”

BlackBerry has over 76 million subscribers and yesterday it was announced that there’s over 60 million BBM users. During their Q4 2012 earning, BlackBerry declared that 1 million Z10s have been shipped, but this number should dramatically increase as more countries have recently released the Z10 and Q10.

Source: MarketWire, CNW