Weekly Mobile News Roundup – 13 December 2013

 Once again the week is coming to an end and that means it’s time for a roundup of the past weeks news!

Apple Punishes iPhone ‘Traitors’ By Cutting Off iMessages – The iMessage feature lets iPhone users send each other text messages for free, however, if one of the parties switches to other brand’s device, the messages sent to the number do not arrive on the new handset but reach the discarded iPhone.

Google Launched Chrome Apps for OS X With Chrome App Launcher – Google has officially launched Chrome apps for Mac OS users, and any user with Google Chrome browser installed on its Mac machine can use it. These Chrome apps are not the applications that you see in Chrome OS, actually these are web-applications that are designed to work offline and sync with Google services when you connect with internet.

AVG AntiVirus for Mac launches with triple protection – AVG has been offering fee antivirus software for Windows PC users and smartphones for a long time. The antivirus software that the company offers users for free works well and protects 172 million active users today according to the company. AVG has announced the launch of a new software suite aimed at protecting Mac computers.

Fleksy releases first third-party keyboard SDK for iPhone and iPad – At the D11 conference in June, when Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said that the company plans to open up a “lot more” on the API front in the future, I was hoping that Apple would open up API for the keyboard in iOS 7, so developers could launch third-party keyboards in the App Store as well.

Google Maps For iOS Update Gets Support For Flight And Hotel Reservations – Google Maps used to be the default mapping application on Apple’s iOS devices, this changed when Apple launched their own maps app, Apple Maps. The latest version of Google Maps for iOS comes with a couple of new features, it now adds in support for flight, hotel, and restaurant reservations.

Your iPhone Is Now A Homing Beacon (But It’s Ridiculously Easy To Turn Off) – If you carry around a device that can be tracked, people will do their best to track it, whether it’s the EZ-Pass in your car or those tracking devices we can’t leave home without, our phones. Many stores have started tracking how often you come in and how long you stay by registering the presence of your phone’s unique i.d. Apple Apple is now getting into the in-store tracking game with iBeacon, a technology in iOS 7 that turns your Apple devices into, as the name indicates, homing beacons.

Rdio expands into 20 new countries – Rdio, the popular music-streaming services, announced today that it has expanded its service into twenty new countries globally. After today’s expansion, the service is available in 51 countries across six continents.

iCloud Control Panel 3.1 With Support For Windows 8.1 Released – Apple has recognized the ongoing needs of its iCloud users using alternative desktop operating systems. The Cupertino based company has officially released an updated version of iCloud Control Panel offering Windows 8.1 support and taking the software to v3.1.

Remote Desktop update brings OS X Mavericks support and improved multi display support – Apple released an update for Remote Desktop earlier this month that fixes several issues that were effecting the apps stability and usability. Here’s a quick list of everything you’ll have to look forward to in version 3.7.1.

Apple’s iPad Air, iPad mini take 6 of Japan’s top 10 tablet sales spots – During its first month on the market, Apple’s iPad Air has taken four of Japan’s top ten tablet slots while iPad mini has taken two additional spots, giving Apple 60 percent of the sales charts.

New Square Payment Card Reader Launched – On Monday Square launched a new version of their mobile card reader, the new version is much slimmer and smaller than the previous model. As well as getting a new design, the Square is now compatible with a wide range of smartphones and tablets, and the latest version was designed by Jesse Dorogusker, who spent 8 years as the head of Apple’s accessories division.

Joystick Mapper Makes Your Favorite Mac Gamepad Work with Any App  – Some games have gamepad and joystick controls functional out of the box. Some don’t. For the latter, a little app called Joystick Mapper can allow you to use any compatible controller with any game—whether it supports your gamepad/joystick or not.All you need is a connected joystick or gamepad to get started—you can even work with an Xbox 360 controller.

The Brushed Metal Diaries: Sherlock – In the Brushed Metal Diaries, we take a look at one of Apple’s most unique — and most hated — user interface paradigms. In our modern, always-on world, finding just about anything online is just a Google search away, that hasn’t always been the case. Sherlock 1 In October 1998, Apple shipped Mac OS 8.5. The first PowerPC-only release of the Mac OS came with a much simpler installer, an improved Help system and Sherlock: image via Apple The OS 8.5 promo artwork featured Sherlock heavily, showing just how important the software was to the release.

Apple updates Remote app with the ability to control iTunes Radio – Apple has updated its Remote application for iOS with the ability to control iTunes Radio playing on a user’s computer. Previously the app could only control playback of music that was stored locally in an iTunes library, but now Mac and PC users will be able to control their streaming stations remotely as well. The feature does not appear to work with Apple TVs running iTunes Radio yet.