Posts by Rob LeFebvre

If you’re gonna flirt with technology, make sure you’re safe doing so.

Location-based dating. Spooky, right? It’s a lot like leaving personal information on little sticky notes attached to your coat; any random scary internet guy or gal can pick one off you at any moment and get in your face. Yikes!

SinglesAroundMe aims to solve that problem with a new app, available for free on both the Google Play and the iTunes App Store.

SinglesAroundMe uses geographical mapping to plot your location as well as that of other users in your area, anywhere in the world. The killer feature here is “Approximate Location,” a way in which the app will allow singles to flirt and flag their availability in-app, without revealing their specific location. In fact, you get to choose to keep your location hidden, exact, or approximate, which displaces your actual location by about one to two miles.

As Google pushes more and more into the smartphone and tablet market with its Android operating system, it’s a no brainer to figure out that the company previously mostly known for its search business will come into conflict with the other gorilla in the mobile operating space, Apple. The media frenzy that results from these expected differences can be deafening in its fervor at times.

The press, however, has it all wrong, said Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt, speaking to the Wall Street Journal. His take? That businesses must be run more like countries, with diplomatic meetings and the like. He said that “the adult way to run a business is to run it more like a country. They have disputes, yet they’ve actually been able to have huge trade with each other. They’re not sending bombs at each other.”

Redbox Instant by Verizon, the Netflix competitor by, well, Verizon, just became a bit more real today, as details released onto the web.

According to GigaOm, the streaming video service will charge customers as little as $6 per month, have apps for Android, iOS, and Xbox 360, and will go live as early as December 17.

Winning?

Android tablets have grabbed 14 percent of tablet market share, according to new research. While Apple’s iPad is still king, with up to 55 percent of third-quarter tablet shipments, tablets running the Google Android system are gaining ground, and fast.

ABI Research found data that shows the iPad losing more of its dominant position to Android competitors, as reported on CNET today. The iPad is showing a decline of 14 percent, the lowest its been since the iPad was introduced two years ago. Samsung, Amazon, and Asus tablets were among the tablet manufacturers that account for that Android increase, with the Google operating system powering over 44 percent of all tablets shipped.

The sequel to Shadowgun, one of the better looking third person shooters on smartphones, is out today in the form of a sequel, Shadowgun: DeadZone. This is console-quality multiplayer action brought to your Android phone, and it got to Google Play before the iOS App Store (but not by much).

The game lets you hop into tactical combat with up to 12 players at a time, letting you battle online across a ton of maps with 10 different playable characters.

Next Page »