iPhone Applications

Pretty soon Google's and Apple's voice assistants will come to blows. The Google Search app for iOS has been updated with major improvements for iPhone users including improved voice search. The update proves that Siri might be getting a run for her money sooner rather than later.

Google Search is available for free on the App Store. Not only does the latest version understand natural language queries, but the app will read back results when they are found. The entire experience is of course powered by Google's unrivaled search engine.

Striiv has launched a new wearable Play Smart Pedometer which works with the free Striiv iPhone fitness app. The Striiv Play Pedometer uses Bluetooth 4.0 to connect to your iDevice to help you easily keep track of your fitness activities wirelessly. Its built-in rechargeable Lithium ION battery allows for up to one week of usage on a single charge, and its nickel-plated clip fastens to any workout gear or clothes.

The Striiv Play plus app allows users to measure their activities like walking and running, play games and share their achievements with friends via Facebook and Twitter.

Customers who are familiar with the shopping frenzy that often surrounds highly anticipated new products, such as electronics, video games and toys, now have a valuable new tool to aid in their search for these hard to find items.

Online media and publishing firm Cignal Media LLC announced today the launch of whohas.it, a new online service that allows users to monitor and locate hard to find, out of stock or pre-release products. When paired with the whohas.it app, now available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, hopeful shoppers can receive realtime notifications when the product they are searching for arrives in stock or becomes available for pre-ordering.

Netflix just got better on the iPhone with an update designed to take advantage of the larger 16:9 aspect ratio screen on the iPhone 5. This means that when watching many films streaming they fill the entire screen edge-to-edge, with no black borders or letterboxing.

Given the small size of the iPhone screen for movie watching, every millimeter counts. Netflix also optimized the searching and browsing screens to take advantage of the additional display real estate. This improved the process of looking for movie titles and getting information on the wide variety of content available to Netflix subscribers.

Google is in no rush to create a standalone Maps app for the Apple App Store, said Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Apple replaced the Google Maps app with its own mapping service with the launch of iOS 6. iPhone 5 owners and users who upgraded their devices have complained that Apple's new map service features too many geographical errors, and is missing many of the Google Maps features that so many iOS users enjoyed.

Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told a small group of reporters in Tokyo that he can't force Apple to use Google's mapping services.

"We think it would have been better if they had kept ours. But what do I know?" said Schmidt. "What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It's their call."