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Microsoft closing in on 'write once, run anywhere,' says CFO

For years, write once, run anywhere has been the dream of many developers and -- whether or not they knew it -- customers who have wanted to share the same apps across different screens.

Microsoft is getting closer to making that dream a reality, Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein told attendees of the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference during a Q&A session on February 13.

Klein was asked about Microsoft's plans to address the tablet and phone market with device form factors ranging from 4 inches to 13 inches and beyond.

"We've done a … Read more

PayAnywhere is like Square, but more so

NEW ORLEANS--If a new player in mobile payment has its way, PayAnywhere will soon be everywhere.

If you've heard of Square, then you pretty much already know everything you need to about PayAnywhere's point-of-sale product for mobile devices, which I saw for the first time at CTIA. The service consists of three parts: a credit card reader you can attach to a mobile device, a mobile app interface for customers and for merchants to manage, and a processing platform to tie it all together and offer analytics.… Read more

New Webroot kicks off with micro-installer

When a security suite vendor tells you that they've "overhauled" their programs, often the changes are somewhere between a new coat of paint and an oil change.

In rebranding its products under the name Webroot SecureAnywhere, Webroot has also rewritten its software from the ground up. Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus (download), Webroot SecureAnywhere Essentials (download) and Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete (download) come with the tiniest, fastest installers in the security suite scene, new cloud-based protection, and free mobile apps as part of an effort to protect users across multiple machines and devices. Android (download) and iOS (download) versions are … Read more

Dual monitor access to menus

MenuEverywhere helps power users--and anyone else with multiple monitors, or just a very large monitor--get quick access to an application's menu bar, from any window or any screen.

MenuEverywhere works in the background, with a slim CPU footprint and an extensive set of preferences to control its appearance and behavior. You can set MenuEverywhere to put a complete menu bar on the top of every window associated with an app (for example, the Photoshop menu bar on every Photoshop window, no matter which monitor the window appears in), or you can have it just place a single "Menu&… Read more

App turns Google Nexus phone into payment tool

Owners of Google's Nexus S smartphones can soon use the device to process mobile payments via near-field communications tech, via software from a company called Charge Anywhere.

Charge Anywhere's existing mobile payments application has already allowed owners of iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices to process credit card payments with their phones and a dedicated reader to swipe the cards.

But the latest version to the software, announced at yesterday's CTIA trade show, turns the Nexus S phone into a full mobile payment terminal. This means that owners can process MasterCard PayPass and Visa Blink payments remotely using … Read more

Can the Kindle help you lose weight?

Amazon has spent a lot of time marketing the Kindle's bookish attributes, so you probably wouldn't immediately associate it with being an exercise tool. But along with an increasing number of games that continue to hit the Kindle Store, other types of interactive e-ink titles, including Anywhere Abs, "a workout partner on Kindle," are showing up.

Nickel Buddy, the developer of the tool, says Anywhere Abs will "guide you step by step through an exercise routine to strengthen your core. The exercises don't require any special equipment and can be performed anywhere there is … Read more

MP3Tunes adds uploads from Android

Music locker service MP3Tunes lets you make your music collection available on any Internet-connected device, but first you have to upload your music to MP3Tunes Web servers. This is no problem if all your music is on your computer--just use the free MP3Tunes LockerSync app. But what about songs that you bought on your phone? Until now, you've had to find a way to get those songs back to your PC, then upload them from there.

Not anymore, as long as you're using an Android phone. On Monday, MP3Tunes updated its free Android client so that you can … Read more

Dropbox gets a mobile API and a trio of apps

Dropbox is getting more serious about its efforts to bring its cloud storage solution to mobile devices. On Tuesday the company is announcing a mobile API for developers to build ties to Dropbox's servers into their own apps, as well as formally launching first-party applications for the iPad and Android and BlackBerry devices.

The new mobile API is something Dropbox is calling "Dropbox Anywhere." The company has worked with a number of developers to integrate their apps into the new data pipeline. These include Fuze's FuzeMeeting app, Dictamus, Air Sharing, GoodReader, QuickOffice and Sprite Mobile's … Read more

Twitter to developers: Make those apps better

SAN FRANCISCO--Twitter platform lead Ryan Sarver said to an audience of developers at the company's Chirp developer conference on Wednesday that Twitter's team wants to "support you and kind of push you--challenge you to think bigger." Bigger than just another Twitter client, that is.

"We're really excited to be here to support you not just to think big, but to build big," Sarver said. "If developers are so critical to our success, we need to work really hard to help support you, help fulfill you, and make sure that you have all the tools you need to build businesses and build meaningful products."

It's a particularly touchy time for Twitter developers because of new fears that have recently bubbled to the surface: Twitter announced last week that it is collaborating with BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion to build an official app for the handsets, and that it has acquired Atebits, manufacturer of iPhone app Tweetie. There are, obviously, lots of Twitter clients out there, and one Twitter investor referred to these apps as fundamentally "filling holes" that Twitter should have in its own service.

Sarver assured developers that the company has not declared war on them, saying that "our success is intrinsically linked together" and that developer-created applications are responsible for 75 percent of Twitter activity and 60 percent of the 55 million tweets posted every day.

Sarver announced several forthcoming updates to Twitter's developer application program interface (API): annotations, which will let developers add arbitrary metadata to anything in the system; "places," the company's geotagged directory; user streams, which will give developers access to Facebook-like activity items like one Twitter user following another and a user adding a tweet as a "favorite" in real-time; and dev.twitter.com, a central hub for developer activity. The end result of this is that he hopes the greater resources for developers will give them the ability to make deeper, higher-quality apps.

He said Twitter's team wants to work directly with developers on "how can we make bigger apps, how can we change the world, how can we help people in different corners of the world communicate."… Read more