Bloomberg has launched a news App for Android operating system based tablets. With this, users can get the latest news, portfolio information of companies and market data on their Android tablets.

The application is available for free and comes with advertisements. Users can create personalised news category, by industry, region, popularity or on any other basis. To top it all, users can also read stories while they are offline.

The app developers have optimised the application for both smartphones and tablets.

Apart from Android, Bloomberg app is also available for BlackBerry, Nokia, Apple devices.

With the launch of Google+ Android has perhaps received its biggest boost since inception. This, of course, assumes that Google+ will gain traction among users as a social networking site.

Currently, Google+ is available on Android and will soon be released for iOS devices as well. The Google+ service on Android may give users a reason to pick up their phone more often because there would always be something new to look at.

Google might be hoping this service would work similar to how Microsoft Office did for Windows and how BlackBerry Messenger worked for BlackBerry phones.

The biggest benefit of Google+ is that it allows the user to access varied applications like a calendar and documentfrom within it. Hence, people can use such apps while interacting with friends and need not get a different App altogether. Also, its group video chat service is quite unique.

Google has already announced a version for iOS devices, but there is a strong possibility that the full range of Google+ activities, for example group video chatting, can be performed only on Android devices.

Google may also bring the Photo Stream feature of iOS to Google+, which will allow users to upload a picture in the Google+ photo gallery as soon as they click it with their phone camera. Via Google+ these photos can be sent to certain circles of friends within the social network.

The functionality gap between mobile and desktop web browsers is getting thinner by the day, and Opera has played a significant role in making mobile web browsing an interesting experience.

In the last few months Opera has rolled out updated versions of Opera Mini and Opera Mobile web browsers for a majority of mobile platforms such as Android, iOS and Java.

These updated versions are available for download from Apple Store, Android Market, Ovi Store and other distribution platforms.

Sunil Kamath, sales director for India and SAARC at Opera Software, said, “We are seeing growing interest among smartphone users to download Opera Mini due to its easy to use interface and high speed browsing capabilities.”

In the past few years, a wide range of handset providers have been entering the market with attractive features at affordable prices, which has propelled the growth in the handset market and also in the number of mobile internet users.

To add to that, Indian telecom operators have consistently incentivised users to log on to the mobile web. This they have done by reducing data tariffs, which has resulted in the number of data users growing month on month.

“Statistics indicate that 100 million people have internet access, which equals 8.5 per cent penetration in India and through Opera Mini and Opera Mobile it is our endeavour that those people who are now without internet access can get there with their mobile phones,” said Kamath.

On the usage pattern, he said, “Our research shows that social networking and search continue to dominate the charts. We are observing significant data traffic and application downloads on our Opera Mobile Store available as a speed dial on Opera Mini.”

Mobile browsers are indeed a competitive market and Opera wants to stay ahead of its competitors. The company has provided solutions that operators are looking for: the same Browser UI across different platforms and mobile devices and the compression technology that allows more people getting online to enjoy fast internet browsing, without consuming too much bandwidth.

Nokia Beta Labs has released a new application which provides a real-time, first person, interactive 3D view of the world around you.

The new Nokia 3D World Gaze App uses the Symbian^3 device’s internet connection (WiFi or 3G), GPS and digital compass.

It pipes the data from several services like Panoramio, Wikinews, Wikipedia, and Geonames. The content pulled from these sites is represented in real-time and in 3D on the phone’s screen.

All you have to do is enable the data connection of the phone, start the app and point the phone in any direction. Then the app will reveal the physical reality of the earth on the other side.

Layar, an existing application, does something similar but it uses the phone camera, loads of digital data and the GPS device.

It shows real world and computer generated imagery mixed, what is also known as augmented reality. Do note that this is a beta app and may not mature into a full blown application for your Symbian device.

You can download the Nokia 3D World Gaze App for Symbian^3 device from this link if you own a Nokia N8, C6-01, C7, E7, E6 or X7.

Google+, the new social networking Android application, arrived with much bustle. Now the Google+ Mobile page suggests that the internet giant is working on a native Google+ application for Apple iOS.

Similar to Facebook Google+ allows users to share images, videos, links and locations with their friends as well as with the general public. Groups are named as ‘Circles’ and users can group chat within ‘Huddles’.

The App is available for Android devices running version 2.1 or above. At this moment, Google+ social network is also available on a majority of mobile platforms as a web app.

On the Google Mobile page, the new Google+ native mobile app is listed as ‘Coming Soon’ for Apple iOS. There is no information on whether it will be available for Windows Phone, BlackBerry or Symbian platforms.

In the past, Google apps (its Voice App in particular) faced rejection on Apple’s App Store. But post the FTC’s (Federal Trade Commission) probe into Google-Apple tie ups, Apple has relaxed the App Store approval process. Post that, Google has rolled out a couple of applications for the iPhone, iPod touch and also the iPad platforms. At this moment millions of users are still getting used to yet another social network by Google and many are evaluating its merits and demerits over others.

Group chat for iOS devices is already available through iMessage, which was released with iOS 5.0 earlier this year. However, the Google+ group chat, called Huddle, will let users connect and interact with groups of people who need not have an iOS device.

But with iMessage getting so much attention, it is hard to believe if iOS users would be interested in using Huddle.

It is indeed too early to comment much about the potential of Google+ and if it picks up then Huddle might be the Android’s response to BlackBerry’s Messenger and Apple’s iOS iMessage services.

Micromax has joined hands with Nazara Technologies, a mobile entertainment and content provider, to embed games from publishers like Electronic Arts on its mobile phones.

Nazara is the exclusive partner for EA in India and will offer over 40 key titles from the EA catalogue to Micromax consumers, Nazara said in a press release. These include popular titles such as Need for Speed, Tetris, Monopoly, EA Cricket 11, Harry Potter, GI Joe and Medal of Honor, among others.

The games will be available on Micromax handsets on a try and buy model, wherein the customer will be able to play each game free up to five times. After the free trial period consumers could either purchase the game outright for either Rs 50 or Rs 100, or can access the games through micro transactions for as low as Rs 3 for a day pass. Billing is enabled through all carrier channels.

“The combination of high quality titles from our key partners such as EA, with a leading handset partner such as Micromax, will make high quality gaming more accessible to consumers,” said Nitish Mittersain, chief executive officer, Nazara Technologies.
“As a next step, we will also be experimenting with free consumer games that will be monetised through in-game advertising and virtual goods,” he added.

After several delays Angry Birds, the popular mobile phone game, has made its entry into Windows Phone 7 devices, the last platform where it was not present till now. Though, only the initial version is available for the time being, other variants of the game may come to the platform soon.

Some users, who played the game on their Windows Phone devices, said the game play is smooth just like it is on the Android and iOS devices. Users can try the game for free or pay $2.99 (Rs 135 approx) for the ad free version.

The price of the game has been quite a surprise for the users since Angry Birds is available just for $0.99 on iOS devices and Android handset users can download the ad supported version for free.

The game was added to Chrome Web Store, Amazon App Store, and Barnes and Noble Nook as well. Nook Color tablet users can also play Angry Birds using the new location-based features. This is the first time when the real world location-based features are being deployed across the world.