Currently there are only a handful of applications in the Android Market that have been written specifically for Honeycomb. One such title, Pulse News Reader, is a shining example of how gorgeous these new OS 3.0 apps truly are. Indeed, I've noticed that my tablet user experience on the Xoom is completely different from what it was on a Galaxy Tab. And thanks to news and magazine apps such as Pulse, I'm consuming more information and becoming more productive.

In short, Pulse is an RSS feed reader for Android. But it's the presentation of your articles that really sells this app. I should point out that for the sake of this review, I will be referring to the latest release (1.9.5), written with Honeycomb in mind. After more than 500,000 downloads, the smartphone version is definitely popular and something to use should you not have an Android 3.0 tablet just yet.

You will notice that upon opening the app, there are a handful of selected feeds that you can keep or delete. Should you opt to add additional feeds, you can select from more than a dozen categories stocked with a variety of sources. There are, of course, preset featured sources such as Flickr, YouTube, Digg, and more. What's more, a search allows you to find content based on keywords and Web sites, and you can import feeds you already track from Google Reader.

Pulse delivers each source in a mosaic-like fashion, with each feed getting its own row. The app will poll for new articles at whatever interval you choose, placing the latest info on the left-hand side of the screen. Tapping a headline brings up the article and options to share, open in Web browser, adjust font, and more.

Whether in portrait or landscape mode, the articles fill the screen with enough space left over to navigate other posts and feeds. What might look like information overload the first time you run Pulse, quickly becomes intuitive and never feels cluttered.

If I had one complaint it's that you can only have 25 news sources (I imagine that a device with the Xoom's power could handle more). Given this drawback, I've used preset feeds from Flickr and PicPlz just to discover new photos and content I might otherwise never have found.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

Amid all the news of the iPad 2 today, Apple quietly released iTunes 10.2 (Windows and Mac), readying the software by adding compatibility for syncing with iOS devices ahead of the coming release of iOS 4.3 next Friday. For the full breakdown of what's coming in iOS 4.3, read our coverage.

Along with compatibility with the latest iOS, the iTunes 10.2 update includes improved home sharing, which means you'll be able to play music and other iTunes content on other computers in your network and on any iOS device (running iOS 4.3) tied to the account.

The update also adds security fixes related to ImageIO, libxml, and WebKit. These security fixes are for machines running Windows 7, Vista, and XP Service Pack 2 or later.

Among all the exciting news at the iPad 2 event today, Apple announced that GarageBand will be coming to the iPad. Already a part of the Mac's iLife suite (latest update for Mac here), GarageBand lets you make music using prerecorded clips as well as your own real-time recordings to lay down multiple-track songs.

At the event, the director of music marketing for Apple, Xander Soren, gave a rundown of the main features for GarageBand on the iPad. It offers Touch Instruments, guitar amps and effects, eight-track recording and mixing, more than 250 loops to play with, and you can export an AAC file of your project through e-mail.

Soren demonstrated flipping through instruments, reminding us of the CoverFlow interface feature in iTunes. Once he selected a Piano, the keys filled the screen and Soren showed how the app uses note dynamics; using accelerometer technology, GarageBand is able to produce touch-sensitive sounds that detect the velocity of your finger as you play.

Soren then switched instruments, noting that each instrument has its own visual identity. Some instruments have unique touch-screen interfaces, such as the guitar, which gives you a strumming interface. You can even have GarageBand play through a chord progression where you pick the notes it will play. Soren referred to these handy interface tricks as "training wheels" for beginning musicians.

Just like the Mac version of GarageBand, you'll also be able to record your own tracks straight into the iPad and then combine them with loops, other instruments, or whatever you want. You get a total of eight tracks to play with, and the layout is very similar to the Mac version.

Steve Jobs then came back on stage to say that GarageBand will be available at the iTunes App Store on March 11 for $4.99.

For those who have been longing for iLife-quality apps on the iPad, iMovie just might be the start of something special. The new iMovie app demoed at today's iPad 2 event looks like it will deliver something significantly more advanced than the disappointing iMovie app for the iPhone 4.

The app will support multitrack audio recording, same-timeline scrubbing and clipping, gesture support, and even a waveform editor for audio. A voice-over track can be added via the iPad's built-in microphone.

Instant video sharing support includes YouTube, FaceBook, Vimeo, CNN iReport, and iTunes. The app also supports AirPlay for direct streaming to an Apple TV, and has a built-in set of themes, like its Mac iLife big brother.

The new iMovie app be available March 11 for $4.99, and will be a universal app that will support the iPhone 4, 4th-generation iPod Touch and iPad 2.

Now that this and GarageBand are finally heading to the iPad, when will iPhoto make its way over?

Originally posted at Crave

If you enjoy watching Flash video on your iPhone browser, you'll want to check out Skyfire 3.0 for iPhone, updated today.

Skyfire is a WebKit-based alternative to the iPhone's default Safari browser that uses Skyfire Labs' servers to render pages more speedily by first compressing data before delivering it--up to 85 percent, the company claims.

However, the app's most significant draw, and the reason the company is charging $3 per download, is its ability to work around Apple's blocking of Flash video content.

Version 3.0 remains largely the same as Skyfire's inaugural iPhone app, which had a shaky launch last November. Yet, response was so positive that Skyfire also expanded to the iPad.

The new version does get a visual refresh with some reworked graphics, and it adds more social content, like Facebook Connect and "liking." You can also view Facebook and Twitter feeds.

On the more technical side, Skyfire now has a user agent switch that's easy to access in the Settings menu--this lets you tell the browser if you want to see iPhone-optimized Web sites or the full desktop experience.

Keep in mind that Skyfire won't yet support every Flash-enabled Web site, but this release does represent an expansion of the sites it will support. There are more new and improved features in Skyfire's video below. In the meantime, if you like or don't like the browser, tell us why.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Google apparently has used a kill switch to remove 21 malware-infected apps from both its Android Market and from people's Android devices.

Calling the Trojan the "mother of all Android malware," enthusiast site Android Police said yesterday the infected apps were discovered by a Reddit user. That Reddit user found that pirated versions of legitimate apps were infected by a Trojan called DroidDream, which uses a root exploit dubbed "rageagainstthecage" to compromise a device.

This piece of malware is especially virulent because it apparently cannot only capture user and product information from a device but also has the ability to download more code capable of further damage. The 21 apps in question, all now taken down but still listed by Android Police, came from a publisher named Myournet. However, mobile security vendor Lookout and other sources said yesterday that DroidDream has so far shown up in more than 50 Android apps, including ones from other publishers.

Conversation threads on Reddit suggest that Google was slow to respond to the malware discovery after the company was first alerted via official channels. But after contacting someone at Google directly, Android Police said the company responded quickly to remove the infected apps.

Like Apple, Google has a kill switch that gives it the ability to remotely remove apps from users' phones and tablets that it deems are in violation of its developer agreements. As in this case, such a feature can be used to wipe out apps infected by malware.

At least 50,000 people had downloaded the apps in question, according to enthusiast site AndroidCentral. However, many of those potentially infected may have been protected by staying current with the latest Android updates. AndroidCentral notes that Google actually patched its source code to prevent this type of exploit for users running Android 2.2.2 or higher and that the vulnerability doesn't exist at all in Gingerbread, aka Android 2.3.

CNET has contacted Google for further information and will update the story if and when more details are released.

This new exploit follows a report of a bot called Android.Pjapps that also has turned up in phony versions of legitimate Android apps. The difference is that the bot infected only apps in unregulated Android app stores, whereas DroidDream found its way into Google's "regulated" Android Market.

Originally posted at Android Atlas

Starting today, SoundHound Infinity for iPhone ($4.99) gets infinitely more useful. The latest version, SoundHound Infinity 3.6.1, includes a recommendations feature that suggests other songs you'll like based on the ditty you've just chosen to identify, either through recorded "tagging," text, humming, or singing the tune into the app.

SoundHound uses a proprietary engine based on intelligence collected from a combination of users' tagging behavior, a database of artists, and a list of underplayed songs--the latter composed of songs that are popular within SoundHound but receive less radio attention, if any at all.

Recommendations engines are all the rage, and for good reason, too. Discovering your next favorite songs based on beats you already like was the impetus behind Pandora and its ilk, after all, and also the guiding principle behind Apple's iTunes Genius feature, also a recommendations engine based on your music library.

In addition to suggesting other songs you can view or buy on iTunes, the premium and free (ad-supported) SoundHound app also sees improvements to its social networking hooks. Sharing songs with Twitter, Facebook, and e-mail contacts has gotten more intuitive, and more useful now that you're able to ping multiple status updaters with minimal tapping.

SoundHound users on Android will see these recommendation and sharing features soon.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Mobile-security company Lookout released a new free Android app today called Plan B that lets you find a lost phone without having downloaded special software onto it beforehand. You just install the app over the Web after the device goes missing.

To use the app you need access to the Android Market Web site and a Google account. Once the app is downloaded over the Web, an e-mail arrives in the associated Gmail account telling you the app is locating the phone, followed by another e-mail with a Google Map showing where the phone is.

Plan B will send follow-up e-mails for the next 10 minutes with updates on the whereabouts of the device. In order to locate the phone, Plan B sends a text via SMS and uses cell towers and GPS to locate the device, even if GPS is turned off.

If you aren't able to find the phone within the first 10 minutes, you can use a different phone to text the word "locate" to your missing phone to start the process over.

I downloaded the app and it was close to finding my phone's location, but it guessed that the phone was at a shop that's just around the corner from where the phone was located on my office desk. The final e-mail pinpointing the location (I received five of them) indicated it had located the device within 24 meters, or about 79 feet, which seems fairly accurate.

The service is available only in the U.S. at this time on AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile and only on Android 2.0. Plan B will not work if the phone is turned off, has no SIM card, or has no network connection. To test, call the phone and count the rings. If it rings once and goes right to voice mail, your phone is off.

The app, available here, is the first release from Lookout Labs, which was created "to explore and test out new ideas that push the boundaries of mobile," the company said.

More information is on the Lookout Blog.

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex