AT&T and Beats have partnered up to offer a deal to those attached to the network and on the family plan.  The AT&T deal is one that works for up to 5 accounts and that will include the unlimited access to more than 20 million tracks for just $14.99 per month.  With those 5 accounts, users can have up to 10 devices tied to the same access each month.  If you are on a Family Plan with AT&T and want the Beats Music streaming service, you will also be given the first 90 days for free just for signing up.

Beats Music is available on the web through your browser, but you can also get it on Android and iOS powered devices.  A Windows Phone app is planned for the future, but that will not launch until the 24th of this month, so you do not have that long to wait should you want to use the service with your Nokia smartphone.  The Beats Music service allows users to seek out and find new music like most services, but the big difference will be the option for the service to offer playlists from music experts like Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and more.

The service will cater to your music needs for sure, but they will also allow you to play some of the most popular songs via lists created by those that live for music.  Another feature that is built into the app is called Right Now and that is a sentence that users will fill in, much like a status update on Facebook or a tweet via your Twitter account.  Once you complete this sentence, Beats Music will offer up suggestions based on that information.

Beats Music now available for Android and iOS with Windows coming soon is a post from: Mobile Bloom News

If a third party application shows up in the search results page, a user can click a button to “open in app”.  As easy example would be to show that if a user was using Google Now to search for a movie, or an actor for that matter, the search results might show some from the IMDB application.  This would allow you to open the information in the application that you already have downloaded on your device.  Then you would not have to view the results within the Chrome browser, where a lot of times the pages are not optimized for mobile devices.

Google said in a post on its blog, “You might get your trivia from IMDb, the box office stats from Wikipedia and ratings from Rotten Tomatoes.  Google Search can make your life a little easier by fetching the answer you need for you — whether it’s on the web, or buried in an app.”  The idea is that with more integration with the third party applications that are already built, the end user is going to benefit more from using the Search to find what they are looking for.  The number of applications that are compatible with the service is quite limited, but the rollout just started.

Most of the applications that are developed today are optimized for the small, mobile displays rather than the traditional desktops monitors.  This gives developers more reason to build the Google Search and Google Now integration into its applications.  A lot of times websites that are optimized for mobile displays are not easy to read and with an application that is built specifically for a mobile device would be more effective in this case.  Google has been making more changes to Google Now to make it more user friendly adding more cards.

Google Now gets better with third party apps is a post from: Mobile Bloom News

Spotify competes with other services like Pandora, Rdio and Google Play Music All Access just to name a few.  Spotify has a desktop or laptop version that is free to use, but if you are on the go, you are going to be paying $10 per month for limited streaming access to millions of tracks.  The limited part of the deal is that you can only choose the streaming music for a certain number of tracks during each month.  Once you reach that number, you are going to be served up songs without any control over what you are going to hear.

That works very similarly to Pandora and Rdio, where users are offered music based on playlists, historical data or a rating system.  The service will try and choose songs based on the ones that you stream, but the service is not perfect as many users have noted in reviews of the application.  There is a press event scheduled for the 11th of December and that is where the company will reveal the new, free mobile version of the service that will be supported by ads.  The idea behind the streaming music through the mobile device was to get away from ads you hear on the radio, so it will be interesting to see if the company loses any subscribers.

Spotify has been working closely with big music companies in order to strike deals in order to get more access to music that users want to listen to more often.  There is reason to believe that the record companies agreed to some sort of deal that will include them getting part of the ad revenue.  The category is crowded with services and this might put Spotify out in front.

Spotify adding free service supported by ads for mobile devices is a post from: Mobile Bloom News

Before this week, Mint was only available on the iPhone, iPad and certain devices that were powered by Android.  The company says that both applications will provide “users with a convenient way to view all of their financial accounts in one place.”  The Mint application helps users create and follow customized budgets and it has been a very popular “must have” for both iOS and Android devices.  According to Mint, both the new applications will have all of the same features that many have been used to over the years.  Features like credit tracking, tracking of your spending, expense categorization and all of this can be done within one mobile app, or online.

Users have taken to the Windows Phone Store to check out the new application, but have been reporting that although it is a free app, it has not shown up for download yet.  Users will be able to pin specific accounts to their Start Screen for easy access and instant analysis when they turn their device on in the morning.  Users that are running Windows 8.1 can pin their accounts to the Start Screen, but the user interface for tracking what you spend where, is broken down into very visual graphs that help to understand the information.

Multitasking is a piece of cake with support for snapped states, which allows users to do what they want while keeping an eye on their financial history at the same time.  If you have wanted a good application to help keep your spending in check, then you will have to check out the app for Windows devices.  If you are on the fence about whether the app is for you, there are plenty of positive reviews posted online that can show you the features and how they can help.

Mint app just arrived for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 devices is a post from: Mobile Bloom News

Visit the Amazon Appstore

Amazon and Apple were not exactly friends earlier this year the two ended up in court because Apple did not like the use of the word Appstore to describe the place where Amazon customers can get their apps.  The two companies settled outside of court when Apple claimed that if users want to get an app, they know where to go to get one.  Since then, there has been little to note about the Amazon Appstore, so this update is bound to make some waves and cause some chatter around the water cooler.

One of the main reasons that you might use the Appstore through Amazon is if you wanted to check out a paid app for free, or if you want to try new games that you normally would not pay for.  Most of the Android users will easily head over to the Google Play Store for apps, but those that have a Kindle device are likely to be directed to the Amazon Appstore first.  Screenshots and more images have been posted online showing all of the new changes that the company brought to the app.

Amazon has yet to bring a smartphone to the marketplace making tablets their mobile device of choice.  Amazon was rumored to be working on a smartphone again and might even offer it for free to those that have an Amazon Prime Membership, but after a couple rumors months ago, nothing has been said since then.  Instead, Amazon has refreshed its Kindle line of tablets and that includes the new Kindle Fire HDX, which is likely to be a very hot seller throughout the holiday shopping season.  The HDX can be purchased right now on the website for just $230 and that is for 16GB of internal memory.

Amazon brings update to Android Appstore is a post from: Mobile Bloom News

The update, which was surely going to bring major changes to those on the Android operating system platform, was paused this week for unknown reasons.  The update brought a change to the usual buttons that you see when using the application, replacing them with a swiping menu that allowed users in the beta testing group to swipe from stream to stream.  In the end, Twitter had decided to skip the update for now and keep the four buttons that many see on the top of the display when using the app for Android devices.

The alpha version of Twitter has a Discover section that is a little different from the current app and allows users to see Trending in a detailed view or via a list.  In the detailed view, users can see a couple of sample tweets to get used to how the option works.  When composing a tweet, a pop up asks users if they are in a particular city in order to put a location with the tweet.  In the Discover option users can see why certain tweets are trending.

Rumors have been flowing around the internet that suggest that Twitter has slowed progress when it comes to making changes to the Android application and this step back from a more “swipeable” interface is a confirmation of that.  Twitter has more than 554 million users registered all over the world, tweeting more than 58 million tweets per day.  More than 40 percent of the registered users send out messages through their phone.  Twitter reaches 1 billion tweets every 5 days as of this year and allows for more than 9,000 tweets to happen every single second throughout the day.

Twitter decides against major upgrade for Android app is a post from: Mobile Bloom News

Putting all of your credit and debit cards in one service will save you time and space.  ISIS claims that the “contact-less” mobile payment solution is now available at 1.3 million retail outlets all over the country.  That number includes 24 of the top 100 merchants that we shop at all of the time.  The ISIS mobile payment application can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for free.  Each of the apps will work with selected devices that have an enhanced SIM card in their device like the Galaxy S4 or the HTC One.

If you picked up the new Galaxy Note 3 last month, you will also have support for the new mobile payment service.  Those that are currently using an iOS powered device will eventually get access to the mobile app and for those that do not have the NFC technology loaded on their phone, a sleeve with technology needed will also be for sale soon.  The iPhone will be one device that could work with the new NFC-enabled sleeve, according to reports.  The ISIS mobile payment option is not the first to pop up on the market, in fact, Google Wallet has been available for a couple of years now.

None of the services that are on the market have really been all that popular with smartphone users up to this point, but they are slowly gaining the right amount of attention as retailers jump on board with the technology needed to accept the payments.  The ISIS mobile application has been in the works for more than two years so it is nice to see it finalized and through the testing stages so that mobile carriers can get ready for users that want to download and install it.

ISIS mobile payment app available for all users nationwide is a post from: Mobile Bloom News

As disappointing as that was for many, it is nice to see other things happening that will help the new software be installed correctly and without problems.  However, all problems with downloaded software are never avoided and judging by the history of Android updates, users are in for at least one hiccup before things are settled on their device after the update is installed.  While Google is still teasing the release of the Android 4.4. KitKat software to anxious mobile users all over the place, other updates have been happening behind the scene.  Typically, Google uses Wednesday to release updates to its pre-installed applications, but this time there was more than 15 updates in one day.

Of the Google apps that were updated, the list included Google Play Services, Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Earth, Translate, Chrome, Hangouts, Goggles, Play Magazines, Keep, Wallet, Blogger, Google+, Analytics, Fiber, Snapseed.  Not every single app on this list is pre-installed on all devices, but there are a couple of major ones including Chrome, Drive, Keep and Google Play services.  If you have automatic updates turned off and have been getting notifications, you might want to make sure you get the updates completed before the Android 4.4 software arrives.

These updates do not mean that Android 4.4 is coming tomorrow, but because Google found the need to get them updated all at the same time is a very good sign that the latest version of the operating system is finding its last few steps before downloads are available.  It is even possible that the Nexus 5 will come without the software, but based on all of the leaked information and what Google has been teasing that just does not seem likely to happen.  Rumors suggested that the software would be made available before November.

Google apps updated just days before Android 4.4 KitKat is expected is a post from: Mobile Bloom News

The app has officially been available for Android and iOS for some time now and it will be nice to see it on another platform, even if it is not as popular.  Taking photos with Nokia Lumia devices has always been top notch since the smartphones arrived, but now users will be able to add the popular filters to their photos and share them all over the internet as they see fit.  Instagram gives you a lot of creative power when it comes to simple edits to your photo, not to mention the fact that you can share it via social networking sites with a tap of your finger.

It is not enough to know that the application is coming, consumers want to know dates and times, but that is not going to happen this time around.  Nokia has not announced any specific date, but Instagram CEO did say, “Our ultimate goal is to bring Instagram to everyone who wants to use it. We’re looking forward to watching the Windows Phone community use Instagram to capture and share beautiful moments in the coming weeks.”  Nokia has some of the best smartphone cameras on the market today, including the amazing 42MP PureView sensor that so many have been talking about lately.

Sharing your filtered photos online with friends will only be one of the apps that you will have access to soon if you are on the Windows Phone device.  Nokia also announced that you will also have access to ESPN F1, EA Sports FIFA 14, Temple Run 2, Vine, Vyclone Pro, Xbox Video and more will be coming soon as well.  Other big name apps will also reportedly be coming to Windows Phone including Flipboard, which is a popular new related mobile app.  The Windows Phone Store might be the place to be in the coming months.

Windows Phone to welcome Instagram very soon is a post from: Mobile Bloom News

The Netflix app for Android powered devices was in need of a tune up.  The company was almost psychic and has announced that users can expect to see the update rolling out soon and getting to most devices over the next couple of weeks.  The update, which is going to remove the lag and stutter that has been the most talked about problem among the Android users.  The application is also going to be getting a small adjustment to get it more in line with Android design guidelines, which includes that navigation bar getting a more traditional layout.

Some are saying that the Netflix application works even better if you are using it on the Chromecast doggle that Google just released last month.  The app has better controls and a user interface that is better to look at through the lock screen.  The Netflix for Android application does not offer the new profiles features, so if you are hoping to get your favorites of the same list that your parents have, you will just have to wait.  Netflix launched the new profiles recently and that allows users to create their own “sign in” area once inside the Netflix app, keeping all of your favorites in one place and untouched by others that use the account.

The update went out his summer to those that access the application through the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and the iPhone.   The Netflix app has plenty of room to grow, but this update is considered a major one and it will be bringing a much needed upgrade to the overall user experience that the company hopes users have been looking for.  Getting rid of the lag and the stuttering or buffering is certainly a step in the right direction.

Netflix for Android gets update and is faster, smoother is a post from: Mobile Bloom News