Apple debuts new, more detailed status page for iCloud and other services

As those affected by recent iMessage outages no doubt noticed, Apple's status page for its various services hasn't exactly been the most detailed around. That's changed a bit today, however, with the company rolling out a new page that promise to offer a better look at what's working and what's not across iCloud, iTunes and Apple's other services. As you can see above, that includes a grid that provides a quick look at any outages currently occurring, below which is a more detailed timeline that lets you look back at any past outages and how long they lasted.

[Source: Engadget]

Adobe Lightroom 4.3 now available, brings support for Retina displays and more

It's been but a mere few days since Adobe added some much-welcomed Retina support to its Photoshop and Illustrator CS6 apps, but that's not stopping the outfit from coming back with more updates today. This time out, however, it's the creative software giant's Lightroom, which leaves its 4.3 beta stages behind and is now available in full, bringing with it compatibility with high-res screens while developing / viewing pics, RAW image support for about 20 new cameras and a number of bug fixes that should solve issues with the application being unfriendly with some lenses. The new version of Lightroom is up for download now, and you can grab it by checking for updates from within the app or via Adobe's own site.

[Source: Engadget]

BBC promises iPlayer and Media Player for Android will get better... soon

The BBC's Android efforts have, for several reasons, trailed its iOS offerings. Most notably iPlayer and Media Player have been stuck with low-quality, non-adaptive streams and a stripped down feature set. The national broadcaster is promising to fix that in the near future, however. The changes wont be happening all at once, but iPlayer head David Price promises that big improvements are coming to its Android offerings. One major upgrade will be to the playback experience by offering not just higher-resolution streams, but various levels of video clarity based on device capabilities, screen size and data speeds.

[Source: Engadget]

Facebook for Android 2.0 arrives with much faster load times, in-feed photo browsing

Facebook users running Android have been clamoring for speed updates, and it looks like they'll at least get some of what they desire today. A version 2.0 revamp moves partly to native code and is purportedly twice as fast at loading the Timeline and photos, on top of simply being faster to start. The upgrade also lets us quickly flip through photos without having to shift attention away from the news feed. Google Play isn't yet carrying Facebook 2.0 as of this writing, but it's promised within hours -- check the source link at the right time and you may get a speed kick that many have been craving for months.

[Source: Engadget]

Microsoft updates Bing Desktop app for Windows XP and higher

Previously only enjoyed by Windows 7 users, Microsoft has updated its Bing Desktop app to play nice with all modern versions of Windows going all the way back to XP. The OS' latest iteration already packs a slew of Bing-powered applications, but none of them replicate the app's headlining trick: syncing desktop backgrounds with Bing's daily wallpaper. Windows 8 (and XP, Vista and server) users who adopt the 1.1 update can set the app to change their background daily, or manually set it to any background from the past nine days. News aficionados can peek at trending headlines and popular images underneath the search field, which itself can be docked at the top of the screen for easy access. Microsoft has also added French, German, Chinese and Japanese language support to the app. If this piques your interest, go ahead and download it at the source -- that is, if you haven't Google-fied your Start Screen just yet.

[Source: Engadget]

Facebook app update on iPhone gets reconstructed timelines, promises faster reminiscing

Right on the heels of an Android update, Facebook's also gave its iOS iteration a similar refresh. According to the short iTunes listing, version 5.3 gives a speed boost to your news feed, with the primary social news page now loading updates quicker. We just updated the app on the iPhone 5 and there's certainly an improvement on news refresh speeds and when scrolling down to grab older updates. The new app also lets you designate which album photos are uploaded to -- a convenient addition if you haven't already automated that whole upload-to-Facebook thing.

[Source: Engadget]

Amazon Instant Video streaming app now available for iPhone and iPod touch

iPad owners have had access since early August, and at long last, iPod touch and iPhone users can say "Us too." The second major reason to crack open the App Store today has just surfaced, with Amazon confirming that its Instant Video app is now available for two of Apple's more bantam iOS products. Much like the iPad version, this one provides access to over 30,000 titles from Prime Instant Video available to Prime members for no extra cost, while the roaming public at large can tap into some 140,000 titles at various price points. To watch movies or TV episodes from Amazon Instant Video on iPhone and iPod touch, customers can simply search for the content they've already rented or purchased from Amazon Instant Video, and the company's also throwing in "Your Watchlist" and "Your Video Library" features, too.

[Source: Engadget]

Google adds confirmation click to mobile ads to combat accidental activation

Smartphone owners have learned to cope with the extra power drain in-app advertising can cause, but accidentally launching a web browser? That's a frustration that lasts forever. Google's hoping to mitigate the pitfalls of clumsy thumbs, however, by introducing two-step click-through for mobile ads. Text banners served through AdMob will now display a humble blue arrow on their starboard side -- clicking here takes the reader directly to the advertiser's preferred destination; touching anywhere else expands widens the blue square to coax users into giving the ad a confirmation click, just in case they fumbled the advertisement by mistake. The team's preliminary tests show that confirmed ad clicks sport a notably higher conversion rate, indicating that folks who clicked through the ad actually meant to. Google says solving what it calls the "fat finger problem" will be beneficial to the ecosystem as a whole. We prefer to think of our fingers as grand.

[Source: Engadget]

EE's 4G network to be available in 35 locations by the end of March 2013

Potential 4G adopters in the UK not only need to consider the price of EE's plans, but also the thin coverage currently available. This is slowly being fattened up, however, and today the company has announced that by March 2013, it plans to extend its high-speed network to an additional 17 areas (to make a grand total of 35). Those 17 towns and cities don't include last week's stealthy activations inDerby, Newcastle and Nottingham, or the planned switch-flipping in Belfast, Hull, Maidenhead and Slough before the end of the year. As well as gracing new locations with 4G and bolstering network density, EE is also upgrading its 3G network to support dual-channel HSPA+ (DC-HSPA+ for short). This is expected to be available across 40 percent of EE's network by year's end, and will also be enjoyed by customers signed up with Orange or T-Mobile. So, enough of the suspense -- head past the break for the full list of locales getting 4G early next year.

Areas receiving 4G in Q1 2013:

• Bradford
• Chelmsford
• Coventry
• Doncaster
• Dudley
• Leicester
• Luton
• Newport
• Reading
• Rotherham
• St. Albans
• Sunderland
• Sutton Coldfield
• Walsall
• Watford
• West Bromwich
• Wolverhampton

[Source: Engadget]

London buses now accept NFC contactless payments, if you have the magic logo

Transport for London has emailed customers to announce the activation of NFC contactless payments on the city's fleet of 8,500 buses, despite any hiccups on the tube. From today, anyone who swipes a debit, credit, or charge card with the logo shown after the break should theoretically be allowed onboard for the same single fare as a traditional Oyster Card user. That's £1.35 instead of the £2.30 cash fare. The logo can also be found on Orange's Quick Tap-enabled Galaxy S III, but the official email makes no explicit mention of any smartphones being compatible. If you have the guts to swipe your GS III over the reader and test it, please let us know if it works (and it's probably better to try it discreetly, in case it doesn't). Customers are also being advised to avoid swiping wallets which contain two potential payment methods -- such as an NFC card and an RFID-based Oyster Card -- so they can control which card gets billed.

[Source: Engadget]

Google updates Currents app, adds breaking news, quick Edition browsing and more

No matter where you fall on the print vs digital divide, there's no contesting the appeal of an easy-to-read magazine-like layout. Which is why Google's Currentsapp has plenty of charm for publishers looking for an auto-formatting solution.Released a little over a year ago and updated to version 2.0 just today (Android-only), the platform now features a bevy of improvements, now adding in an Edition sidebar for quick browsing access based on genres, the ability to swipe vertically for in-Edition scrolling and horizontally to navigate to other "titles," a custom filter for highlighting sections of interest, a starring system for saving news of note, a Google News-curated breaking news section and, lastly, a new catalog design. If you're tiring of Flipboard or just feel you need a change from contentious redesigns, go ahead and download it at the source below.

[Source: Engadget]

TweetDeck for the web and Chrome gains ability to embed tweets, not much else

TweetDeck today announced a new feature that may not nab it any design or productivity awards, but, still, it'll surely be appreciated by some power users of the Twitter-owned client. And while the ability to embed tweets isn't exactly novel at this point (Twitter's had it for many months), it's still nice to now have the option present on both the web and Chrome versions of the application -- which, in turn, should make it easier to insert select snippets from the Blue Bird social network into your personal website or blog. Besides the "Embed this Tweet," TweetDeck didn't make any other additions, though the service did make it clear that it spends "a lot of time improving TweetDeck for a large consumption of Tweets, as this is one of the core uses of the product." Onto the next one then.

[Source: Engadget]