geekosystem

Sure, the Watson Supercomputer is pretty great at Jeopardy!, but IBM thinks it's time to branch out. They're going to be giving software developers access to Watson with a goal to "launch an ecosystem where Watson is a service and you build applications around it," said CEO Ginni Rometty. Could Watson soon challenge -- and probably dominate -- Siri?

Evernote is a very popular cross-platform note-taking app, though personally I prefer Google Keep. It seems, though, that they're not quite content being an app on someone else's device. Evernote CEO Phil Libin says they plan to build "new and magical" Evernote devices. We love new devices here at Geekosystem, but I think the bigger story is that Evernote has discovered magic.

The long-time excuse of husbands, boyfriends, and anyone else who subscribes to Playboy without wanting to admit they like looking at photos of naked women has been that they just read it for the articles. Well if that's the case, you're in luck, because Playboy's new iPhone app doesn't have any nudity at all.

We've all been clamoring to find a new RSS reader since Google gave their Google Reader service a death sentence. In the first two days since Google's announcement, more than half a million Reader users defected by signing up with Feedly. The service started listening to their new users about what they can do better, and it looks like they took the suggestions to heart, because Feedly just launched new versions of their apps. I had an early look at the updates for Android and Firefox, and they're pretty great.

Google is continuing to shake up their product line. First, they announced the untimely death of Google Reader. Then it came out they'll be smashing all their chat products together into a single tower of an app known as Babble. Now they've jumped into the note-taking pool to make waves for competitors like Evernote with Google Keep. I installed Keep on my Galaxy S3 last night, and I'm already in love.

Anyone ever use Drop.io, the file-sharing site? When that went away, I discovered Dropbox, and I can't even estimate how many gigs I've dragged through that  service already, mostly to share files with friends and collaborators. It's been invaluable. It fills a void, and it's good at what it does. Except now it's going to do more than what it does, because Dropbox just bought Mailbox, the popular email app. But don't panic -- nothing's going away.

There are a lot of apps like Instagram to make the pictures you snap with your smartphone look like old 35mm film prints, but as far as we know there aren't any that take your actual 35mm film and digitizes it. Lomography wants to change that. They're launching an app and the Lomography Smartphone Film Scanner to give photographers the ability to take archival quality scans of their film. Looks like it's time to bust out that old box of film, or to explain what film was to your kids.

With the new year hours away, a lot of us are realizing how gross and out of shape we are after weeks of holiday eating. We're also realizing just how easy it would be for zombies to get us when the inevitable outbreak occurs. Whether you just want to work off some extra holiday weight, or want to stay in fighting shape to keep the shambling undead from munching on your brains, RunKeeper just released new version 3.0 to track your fitness progress and help you meet your goals. Cardio is rule #1 in Zombieland for a reason, people.

Earlier this year the Federal Trade Commission(FTC) issued a report titled Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures are Disappointing (cringe-inducing emphasis theirs). They surveyed apps available from both iOS and Android platforms to see how available things like privacy practices were prior to downloading, and it's probably not shocking that their findings were disappointing, so the FTC told everyone involved to straighten up. Today the FTC released the findings of a follow-up study to see how things are improving. In short: They're not. In fact, the findings of the new report are even worse than the old one. Stay classy, app developers.

Before we begin, no, this isn't Nintendo calling the quits on console development and becoming a third party publisher. Nor should this be taken as a sign of the impending 2012 apocalypse. Now, with that messy business out of the way, Nintendo has just released a fully functional and interactive Pokédex app designed for iOS devices. Yes, we know Nintendo would sooner die than let their money-making intellectual properties fall into the grubby hands of non-affiliated peasants, but to emphasize: This is more a superfluous portable Pokémon encyclopedia than it is an actual game, so the company, we guess, gets to maintain its integrity as a first party publisher/developer while making a few quick bucks on the side.

Do you like beer? Do you like letting the Internet know every time you have a beer? Then you're probably already familiar with Untappd, an app that is "a social discovery and check-in network for anyone that enjoys beer," according to the description in the Google Play store. The app is free for Android and iOS, but they rolled out a premium version yesterday with some new features. Guess I'm hitting the liquor store on the way home tonight.

In an age where the ownership of mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads, and BlackBerry smartphones is becoming more commonplace and, somewhat proportionally, used at the workplace for various job-related purposes, the IT departments of most businesses are constantly developing and offering in-house apps to their workers as opposed to relying on similar ones created by third-party developers that may or may not be up to par in relation to the needs of the business. Sometimes, however, these developers lack a proper channel to offer these apps and are forced to distribute them on app marketplaces open to the general public. Internet powerhouse Google declares "no more" with the unveiling of Private Channels on Google Play.

We thought Apple Maps was the bottom of the barrel in terms of iOS navigation, but Nokia just proved how low the bar can go with the release of Here Maps for Apple iOS. The new software manages to be more buggy and less reliable than Apple's own Maps app, which is really saying something. For anyone hoping a better solution to the whole maps debacle would come along, Nokia's Here Maps is not that knight in shining armor.

Apple tends to feature various apps that their products can run in their commercials. Since this is pretty much the only function these devices provide, it's a common occurrence. Developers love it when the company does this, because the general public really isn't that discerning. Thanks to a recent iPad commercial featuring a piano being used in GarageBand, piano apps across the board seem to be doing exceedingly well.

The internet loves to complain about Apple fans. There are plenty of reasons why people find Apple fanboys (and girls) annoying, but the central problem generally revolves around their tendency to explain away every problem with Apple's products with some sort of non-technical excuse, shrugging off the company's missteps as strokes of artistic genius. With that in mind, even true members of the cult of Mac have been at a loss recently looking for a reason why Apple's new Maps app, which even Apple admitted isn't the best service available, is actually amazing.