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5 can’t-miss apps: ‘Big Hero 6 Bot Fight,’ MojiMe and more

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Between Amazon's voice-enabled Bluetooth speaker assistant and Microsoft making its Office suite free for mobile users, you may have overlooked some of this week's best new apps.

Luckily, each weekend, we round up our favorite new and updated apps, so you won't miss out.

This week's list includes a game based on Disney's Big Hero 6, an emoji app just for WeChat, an update to Adobe Voice and an app to help guard against Uber's hated surge pricing.

Check out the gallery, below, to see all the apps that made our list. If you're looking for more, read ...

More about Tech, Android Apps, Ios Apps, Apps Software, and Weekly App Roundup

By |November 9th, 2014|Apps and Software|0 Comments
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9 Spotify tools for hardcore music fans

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What more could music fans want from an app that contains more than 20 million songs? Quite a bit, it turns out.

There are several tools you can use to get more out of using Spotify, whether it's a remote control app that connects your phone and desktop, a website that creates a playlist to relive that incredible show you went to last week, or a browser extension that opens up a Spotify search whenever you right-click text (just don't try searching "Taylor Swift").

If Spotify is the first application you want to open when you wake up in the morning and find the the soundtrack to your life, this is the list for you. ...

More about Music, Apps, Developers, Technology, and Features

By |November 8th, 2014|Apps and Software|0 Comments
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Using Shazam at movie theaters could score you free tickets for 50 years

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When someone's cellphone lights up in a dark theater, it often induces a collective groan from the other movie-goers. But now, Shazam is giving people an incentive to take out their mobile devices at screenings

Don't worry, though. It's only before the movie and trailers start.

FirstLook pre-feature program ads will work with the music-identifying app starting on Friday so that moviegoers can learn more about what's on the screen, discover new music and receive promo offers, depending on the advertisement

Most movie theaters prohibit phone use during films, but the Shazam ads most likely won't interfere with your experience. FirstLook runs prior to the previews, before the lights dim as people are still shuffling in from the lobby. Theaters typically include an on-screen warning to silence your phone before the movie starts, an advisory that comes after the FirstLook feature ...

More about Movies, Shazam, Film, Tech, and Apps Software

By |November 7th, 2014|Apps and Software|0 Comments
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Programmatic progress on several fronts

The industry has been talking about fraud, viewability and measurement for a while now, and these days one thing is becoming crystal clear — it's going to take cooperation on all sides to get any of this solved. This week, we've seen promises of fraud-free ad traffic and a call to action for publishers to help advertisers move past the CTR as the top measure for success in digital advertising.

  • Taking programmatic advertising from black box to glass house (VentureBeat) – It's a pretty widely accepted belief that no matter what the transaction, people want to know what they're spending their money on. They want to know how much they're spending and what they're getting in return. The programmatic ad scene can be no different, and advertisers are tired of “taxation without representation.”
  • A Better Programmatic Supply Chain Will Root Out Fraud (Adage) – Fraudsters are thriving on the supply side because that's where its easy to get away with it. That being said, it's the supply side that needs to be cleaned up. The industry is starting to take steps to get this cleaning done, but that forward momentum must continue.
  • Publishers Need To Help Brands Move Beyond The CTR (AdExchanger) – Another of the growing pains our industry is working through is that of measurement. Of course advertisers want the best return for their investment, and for years that's been measured in how many people click through to their websites, landing pages, social pages, etc. Many on the sell side argue that CTRs aren't the best measurement of digital campaigns. Check out these clear examples of how CTR simply isn't the best measure of success, and what can be done about it.
  • Fixing Programmatic Trading Models (Exchange Wire) – Big-time programmatic representatives were on had at ATS New York to discuss several fork-in-the-road situations currently facing the entire industry.

By |November 7th, 2014|Advertising Technology|0 Comments
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Facebook update gives you more control over your News Feed

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Facebook is giving you more ways to tweak what you see in your News Feed.

The social network unveiled a new settings menu and customization options for News Feed that allows users to personalize the types of content they see.

The News Feed settings menu, which appears in the Facebook apps and on the web, displays which friends appear most often in your News Feed and which friends you've chosen to unfollow

From there, you can choose to unfollow people you don't want to see anymore or re-follow (Facebook calls it "reconnecting" with) those you've previously hidden from your feed. ...

More about Facebook, Social Media, Tech, News Feed, and Apps Software

By |November 7th, 2014|Apps and Software|0 Comments
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