Google, Mobile App | featured news

After last years' talk of Facebook wanting to acquire WhatsApp, a new report states that Google is interested in buying the popular messenger service. According to DigitalTrends, which is quoting inside sources, WhatsApp is in the negotiating phase over prices with Google. The report states that the deal started four or five weeks ago and adds that WhatsApp is “playing hardball” and jockeying for a higher acquisition price, which currently is “close to” $1 billion right now.

Introducing the note pad Google Keep, a combination Web site and app for Android phones. Wait, that sounds like Evernote.

It looks like one of the iPhone's signature default applicaitons is about to dissapear, with Apple telling the press Monday that its "license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended," after developers found the video app had vanished from the beta version of Apple's latest mobile operating system. [...]

Since clinching the Republican nomination two months ago, Romney advisers have significantly stepped up their digital campaign, hoping to catch up with President Obama in an arena he dominated in 2008. Romney has hired data analysts and mobile-app developers from places including Google and Apple, unwilling to concede the traditionally liberal-leaning Silicon Valley talent pool.

Google has launched Google Now, a new search interface which improves the search results based on the time and location of the search. It is available as part of Android Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of its mobile OS, and works by using the time, search history and location data to provide better search results.

On most days, Twitter is now generating the majority of its revenue from ads shown to its users on mobile gadgets, rather than from ads on Twitter.com, company executives said. One key reason: People who see a Twitter ad on their phones are more likely to click or interact with it in some way, which is how Twitter gets paid for advertisements.

Microsoft, struggling to dent the dominance of Apple and Google in the smartphone market, is aggressively courting app developers for its Windows Phone.

Google has beefed up security on its Android mobile-device software to better prevent "malicious" software from residing in its app store.

More than 10 billion apps have been downloaded from Google's Android Market store, says the search giant.

In a recent study conducted by Xyologic, results show that in 2012 Apple will no longer have the advantage when it comes to app downloads, the Cupertino-based company will be surpassed by Android.