apps

According to a new report by researchers in Australia, stress tests have revealed that the "infrastructure-on-demand services offered by Amazon, Google and Microsoft suffer from regular performance and availability issues."

The seven-month study of Amazon's EC2, Google's App Engine, and Microsoft's Azure cloud computing services simulated 2,000 concurrent users connecting to services from each of the three providers, with researchers measuring response times and other performance indicators.

The results were at best mixed, and at worst, severely dysfunctional. For example, I'd never heard that when using Google App Engine, none of your data-processing tasks can last longer than 30 seconds, lest the service throw an exception back at you.

Researchers found that the three platforms "delivered wildly variable performance results as Amazon, Google and Microsoft trialled, added and dropped new features." … Read more

Google officially rolled out its Apps Script functionality for enterprise users Wednesday, following a limited pilot release earlier this year.

Google Apps Script works mainly within the Spreadsheets app to automate various processes. For example, users can automate the sending of e-mails based on data held in a spreadsheet, or create scripts that communicate with other Web services.

"Back in May we announced a pilot release of Google Apps Script, and after thousands of hours of use, and lots of valuable feedback, we're excited to launch Google Apps Script to all Google Apps Premier and Education Edition customers … Read more

What are the best Android apps and games? That's not an easy question, but the Android community recently organized the Android Network Awards to determine the best that Android has to offer. After a week of voting, the community has spoken.

The idea started when a small group of blogs from the United States decided to organize and find the best Android software. Their goal was to nominate the best apps and games in several specific categories and let the community vote on the winners. More than 30 Android fan sites from around the world joined in to help … Read more

Updated at 4:30 p.m. PDT following Yahoo's removal of the blog post and subsequent clarification of the situation. See below for details.

Yahoo appears to be a little miffed that Apple's App Store reviewers are still sitting on an update to the Yahoo Messenger for iPhone application.

In a post titled "And so we wait...on Apple," Yahoo's Sarah Bacon calls out Apple for "the somewhat unpredictable process for getting apps approved and released" on the App Store. Yahoo said it submitted an update for the Yahoo Messenger app (iTunes link) … Read more

DS DoubleSys, a Nintendo DS lookalike application, has disappeared from the iTunes App Store.

When I followed the app's unique iTunes URL Tuesday, iTunes returned a message saying it is "not currently available in the U.S. store." When I tried searching for the app, no listing was displayed in the results. Last week, a search for "DS Double" returned the app's listing in those same results.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the DS DoubleSys app was removed from the App Store. It seemed to me that it was just a … Read more

No matter how much you enjoy perusing BlackBerry apps with your device in-hand, it's a likely bet you'd rather browse on the big screen when you're sitting in front of your computer. RIM, following Apple's iTunes App Store model, has created an online "Web store" for its applications.

Launched on Tuesday, the online version of RIM's BlackBerry App World mirrors the software catalog found in the mobile app, plus a few extras.

There's a spotlight on featured items, a search bar, and the ability to browse by category. You see pricing information … Read more

In preparation for a mid-September launch of the Palm App Catalog e-commerce beta program, Palm announced on Tuesday that it is now accepting applications from developers who want to charge a one-time fee for their WebOS apps.

Developers can actually submit both free and paid applications via e-mail and if accepted into the beta program, they will have the opportunity to have their apps featured in the Palm App Catalog ahead of the next round of releases (speaking of which, when will the next round be, hmm, Palm?) and be among the first to be paid for downloaded apps.

Apps … Read more

Google has linked its online applications suite with its Groups service, making it possible to share documents, sites, and calendars among defined groups of people.

Before the new functionality was launched Monday, Google Apps users wanting to share items had either to make them entirely public, or share them on a person-by-person basis.

The change means that, for example, a spreadsheet shared with a Google Group will be accessible immediately to anyone joining that group, or rendered inaccessible to those leaving the group.

"In my work, being able to communicate and collaborate with many groups of people is crucial … Read more

I recently did a road test of both the Navigon MobileNavigator and iGo My Way GPS navigation app for the iPhone and found the Navigion a slightly better product for its ability to pull addresses from the phone's contact. It now has just gotten even better.

Navigon just provided Friday a free update for its iPhone GPS application. The version 1.1.0 update adds the much-needed ability to dial up a point of interest (POI) phone number just by tapping on it. This is important because you can call to make sure that the POI is open or … Read more