conferences

Last night, Yahoo announced the update for the Yahoo Messenger app to work with the iPad, adding voice and video calling for iPad 2 owners, a sleek new iPad-optimized interface, and improved spam management that lets you block one or all add requests from a single view.

Yahoo Messenger (Universal) had already been available on the iPhone and iPod Touch since April 2009. But with this Universal update, iPad users will no longer have to use the unoptimized iPhone client on their larger iPad screens.

No longer just for instant messages, Yahoo Messenger lets you share photos and videos, make … Read more

Intuit wants to give its customers a glimpse of the future of mobile payments through an adaptation of its GoPayment service that eliminates the need for credit cards.

Tapping into the growing field of NFC (near-field communication) technology, Intuit's reimagined GoPayment service would let consumers wirelessly pay for items on the go through just a touch of an NFC-enabled cell phone.

With the necessary NFC hardware and credit card information stored on a mobile phone, consumers could leave their money and credit cards at home and use their phones to buy items and services at stores, restaurants, and other … Read more

Will Verizon iPhone users finally be able to update their devices wirelessly without the need for iTunes?

Multiple sources have told Apple news site 9to5Mac that Apple and Verizon Wireless will soon offer over-the-air updates to the iPhone following this fall's expected release of iOS 5. Although iOS 5 itself won't be available wirelessly, 9to5Mac reports that any future updates to the OS will come over the air. With such a change, people would no longer need a PC and iTunes to act as the middlemen to keep their smartphones current.

If the reports are true, Apple would join rival Google, which already offers Android users the ability to update their devices sans computer. Apple reportedly also has the technology to update its devices over the air already, but the company has apparently been cautious about opening it up everywhere. However, Apple has been chatting with Verizon about unleashing this technology since early this year, said 9to5Mac.

The sources didn't say whether wireless updates would also be available on AT&T or international carriers of the iPhone. No specific mention was made to the iPad or iPod Touch, but the same technology logically should extend to all of Apple's iOS devices.

Though over-the-air updates would provide a convenient, mobile way to keep the iPhone updated, there are a couple of potential pitfalls.… Read more

With more and more smartphones and tablets getting front-facing cameras these days, video chatting is on the forefront. VoIP company Fring, like rival OoVoo, is making group calling its next step.

The latest beta update to Fring, available today, will let you chat with up to four participants who also use Fring on an Android phone or iPhone.

On the preview we got ahead of the launch, the app was rough around the edges at this beta stage. For instance, the version we played with works in portrait mode, not landscape. We'd also like to see a more polished … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--The Web 2.0 Expo this week was missing something. It might've been Tim O'Reilly, the founder of conference co-producer O'Reilly Media and a well-regarded, if slightly granola-inclined, industry sage. He was out of town; gone from the program was his traditional opening keynote, a quick but poignant take on the state of the industry.

Or it might have been the hype missing from the rather quiet halls of the Moscone Convention Center. A few years ago, it was a must-attend event for industry insiders and a launch pad for new start-ups looking to get onto … Read more

Mac OS developers who want their application to be in the running for an Apple Design Award now face an extra hurdle in that process: making sure the app is on the Mac App Store.

As part of this morning's dating and detailing of its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple quietly announced that only apps published to one of its two App Stores would be eligible for consideration as part of its annual design awards ceremony.

Developers who don't have their applications in Apple's nearly four-month-old distribution marketplace, either by choice or because their app did … Read more

Apple has released the latest update to iOS 4, and TechCrunch reports that iOS 5 will be pushed back to the fall.

Launched on Friday, iOS 4.3.1 mostly fixes a few bugs here and there in the operating system for the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Apple TV, according to Apple. The update resolves connectivity issues when joining certain cellular networks and authenticating with some enterprise Web services. It also takes care of a couple of graphics-related glitches--one affecting the 4G iPod Touch and another between Apple's Digital AV adapter and certain TVs.

iOS 4.3.1 … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--The first time Steve Jang came to the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (historically known as SXSWi), it was 2006. He had come to the then-tiny geek-culture fest to help launch a music social-networking service called Imeem. Though SXSWi was known as a wacky gathering of party-friendly dot-commers and digital futurists, making a splash as a start-up was a pretty routine procedure.

"Back then, it was a very concerted thing," Jang told CNET. "You got a booth, you put together a team, and everyone wore the t-shirts, and you hired a PR firm, and you really … Read more