Mobile, Iphone App | featured news

Smartphones are powerful tools, and with the right apps and accessories, they can become even more so. A California-based tech company has launched a tool that turns a regular iPhone 4 or 4S into a powerful biometrics scanning tool. AOptix has unveiled its app and a wrap-around device for turning the smartphone into a portable iris, face, fingerprint and voice scanner.

It's about time someone came up with a tech-savvy way to determine the optimal taxi route.As hard working as they are, some cab drivers may take a slower, more congested route to run up the fare, but the free Taxi Turvi app strives to help passengers judge whether their drivers are taking the best course possible.

App developers have turned cellphones and tablets into powerful tools, spawning a multibillion-dollar industry but making huge sacrifices in the process.

Did "sexting" just get safer? Maybe, but probably not. A free and increasingly popular iPhone app called Snapchat allows users to take a picture, send it and control how the message is visible – between 1 and 10 seconds.

Can a two-year-old photo sharing app really be worth $1bn? It would buy you some some 2,100 Rolls Royce Phantoms. Or 200 million mosquito nets to fight malaria. Or the whole of the New York Times company (with $50m change to spare). If you are Microsoft, it buys you some 800 AOL patents to fight the next patent war.

Instagram, the iPhone photo-sharing app that turns almost anyone into an artful photographer, is growing at an astonishing rate.

How do you like those Apples? An unnamed New Yorker claims Apple's new "Find My Friends" app -- which uses GPS to locate any of your friends that have allowed you access to their location -- led to a stunning revelation: His wife has been cheating on him.

Need extra money? Who doesn't, these days? If you have an iPhone, extra cash is only a Gigwalk away. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it's not. I tried Gigwalk last week, and it works. In fact, I'm relying on the app to fill a gap in my income. I'll tell you how so you can, too.

The average price for a gallon of gas is again approaching $4. But this time, drivers can cope by using their smartphones.

While publishers are grumbling about Apple’s new enforcement of in-app purchases for content, parents and one lawmaker are also raising questions about the way Apple handles in-app payments in apps aimed at children. According to the Washington Post, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D – MA) on Tuesday urged the Federal Trade Commission to review the way Apple markets its apps because of questions about the ease with which children are buying items in games.