Mobile App Update Bonanza

Chrome, Facebook, Vine and other popular apps for Android and iOS

platforms got significant updates this week.

App developers pushed out scores of updates to their applications this

week. Smartphone and tablet owners can now do more with apps including

Chrome, Facebook, Maps, Skype, Twitter, Vine and Yahoo Mail. Here's

what's new.

-- Chrome: Google offered an update to its popular Android browser

that adds full-screen browsing to tablets. Chrome now lets users hide

the toolbar so Web pages will fill the entire display. The app added

support for Google Translate, which will translate Web pages from one

language to another. Last, Google Chrome for Android added a

right-to-left viewing option to support languages such as Arabic,

Farsi and Hebrew.

Facebook: Facebook was updated this week for both the Android and iOS

platforms. For Android, Facebook gained the ability to share news

stories privately, a new swipe-left-to-open messages gesture, the

ability to store and run the app from microSD cards, and drag-and-drop

folder support for Facebook Home. For iOS, Facebook added support for

verified accounts, which lets iPhone and iPad owners stalk, er, search

for and follow celebrities and other high-profile users. The app also

made it easier to edit Places within Facebook.



[ What's new on Microsoft's smartphone? See Windows Phone Scores More

Key Apps. ]



-- Google Maps: Google rolled out a huge update to Google Maps. The

update hit Android devices this week and will reach iOS devices soon.

The new Google Maps makes it easier to search for nearby places with

an Explore feature, and also added the ability to automatically alert

drivers to changing road conditions ahead. Even better, Google is

going to offer a version of Maps specifically for tablets.



-- Skype: Microsoft gave Windows Phone devices some love with a new

version of Skype. Skype 2.8 for Windows Phone 8 makes significant

improvements to the app's start-and-resume performance. Essentially,

users who've multitasked away from Skype will see much faster resume

behavior when they return to the app. Skype also makes changes to how

it tallies unread conversations on the Live Tile and made the app

available in South Korea.



-- Twitter: Twitter revised its application for Android and iOS

devices, as well as its dedicated Mac desktop application. The most

significant new feature in this version of Twitter is that it will

sync direct message status across devices. One of Twitter's most

nagging problems has been its inability to mark-as-read DMs between

devices. Now, when a Twitter DM is read on one device, such as an

Apple computer, it will be marked read on mobile devices as well.

Twitter also refreshed the search tool, which provides more user

details in results, and made it easier to join ongoing conversations.



-- Vine: Vine, Twitter's video-sharing social network, added tons of

features to its Android app that should make users happy. The update

gave Android devices a new quick-capture widget that can be put on the

home screen and used to jump straight to recording a video. The app

added 15 new channels through which users can browse for videos, and

added the ability to share videos, which Vine calls re-Vining, with

others. It also gained a new mute button and performance improvements.



-- Yahoo Mail: Yahoo updated its email app for both Android and iOS

devices. Yahoo Mail for Android devices added integration with

Dropbox. That means Yahoo Mail users can access and share their

Dropbox files from within the email program. The app also now lets

users swipe from message to message, and adds support for business

mail accounts. The iOS version of Yahoo Mail gets business mail

support, too, and throws in support for multiple accounts for good

measure.