Yet another Friday has arrived… the weeks fly by don’t they? It is once again time for another chapter of “Best of Apps of the Week” here at Mobile Mag.

The format is pretty simple here. I look at 5 Android apps that I consider some of the “best” for the week. Directly after, I also take a look at 5 iOS apps. Pretty simple, right? Okay, so let’s jump right in ladies and gents:

Best Apps of the Week – Android

Best Apps of the Week – iPhone & iPad

Summing it all up….

That’s all folks! Did you agree with our picks, or did we live out a vital new app that you feel should have made the cut? Let us and other readers know about them through the comments below.

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Announced at last year’s Google I/O conference, Google Now is now bringing the personal assistant service and predictive search to iOS users. It has arrived as an update to the Google Search app for iOS and is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Google Now’s response via voice recognition is much quicker, compared to Siri. And iOS users will get predictive “cards”, whether you asked for it or not, for stuff such as weather, traffic, navigation and sports scores (you can choose what comes on), and this service depends on the way you use Google services. So it’s like getting an answer before you know you want one.

Unlike the Google Now on Android (4.1 and later), the iOS version requires you to log into your Google account for using Now. It also won’t run in the background, and there will be no notifications. This might not be a perfect version, but it certainly gives iDevice owners a taste of what Google Now has to offer.

To get your hands on Google Now for iOS, head over to the App Store.

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Twitter released their new music discovery app, Twitter #music today, currently only for iDevices. In a world crowded with all kinds of music services how does this new one from Twitter stand out? Well, let’s take a look.

As you already know, there are many other services out there such as Pandora (great for instant playlists and background music), Spotify (to hear something specific), and iTunes and Rdio and Xbox Music and many more. The new Twitter #music puts more fun into music discovery and offers a good looking user interface.

Launch the app and log in with your Twitter account, you can check out accounts of artists you follow. The app presents four categories: Popular for the most viewed songs, Emerging for not so popular artists, Suggested showing musicians recommended specifically for you by Twitter, and there’s also #NowPlaying for checking out songs shared by the people you follow.

The songs are arranged in a grid showing album covers and just tap on an artist to listen to a sample of their music via iTunes. You will need to connect with Spotify or Rdio if you want to listen to the full song. If you want to purchase the song all you have to do is tap the iTunes button. As you will see in the video below, the whole experience is pretty smooth.

The app is certainly very easy to use and it doesn’t overwhelm you with stuff. It just brings to you tracks the people being followed by you have tweeted, and just one song per artist.

Is it perfect? Not exactly, though it is a solid first effort. They can surely improve some things on the new app such as the search function which won’t allow you to search for songs. It’s just for artist profiles.

Check out the video below and Twitter #music is available here on the App Store. An Android version is expected to be available sometime in the not-too-distant future as well.

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The iPhone (or any other smartphone) certainly makes people’s lives a whole lot easier with all sorts of apps, but this new app called the BioAid, from the folks over at the University of Essex, is going to be a blessing for people with a hearing impairment. It converts the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad into hearing aids.

The BioAid app makes use of the iPhone’s microphone, audio processing capability, and earphones. All that a user has to do is install the app and choose a setting that will allow them to hear properly. And since the app has six fixed settings, each one of which has four fine-tuning sub-settings, users will be able to target specific frequencies. And that’s not all. The app can bring up low sounds while simultaneously turning down loud noises in the earphones.

In theory, there’s no need for those hearing aids worth hundreds of dollars and no need to visit the hearing aid specialist. There is that need to own an iDevice, though. It will be a great help if there is also an Android app available. Hopefully in the future we might see BioAid available with tiny behind-the-ear gadgets or smartwatches, and its settings might even be adjusted remotely.

A beta version of the BioAid is available for free on iTunes. It is certainly an interesting idea, though it probably is no match for specialized hearing equipment at this stage. What do you think?

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Every time a new version of iOS is released, the race is on to exploit it. Despite constant warning from Apple and even the government, jailbreaking has become even more popular. In fact, the evad3rs iOS 6 Evasi0n jailbreak is already being called the most popular jailbreak in history.

This claim is most likely due to the insane amount of downloads that evasi0n received in such a short amount of time. More specifically, Jay Freeman of Cydia claims that 5.15 million iPhones, 1.35 million iPads and 400,000 iPod Touches accessed Cydia within 4 days of evasi0n’s release.

All of these numbers combined equals 6.9 million iDevices. Plus, this number only includes people who visited Cydia after jailbreaking. Over 7 million jailbreakers in just a few days is surely enough to make Steve Jobs roll over in his grave.

With jailbreaking becoming more and more prevalent, could Apple’s lack of design changes be to blame? Aside from Notification Center and multitasking, iOS has remained the same in terms of design since 2007. Although some may argue that if it isn’t broken don’t fix it, it may be time for Apple to change it up a bit.

Did you use evasi0n to unlock your iOS device? Do you think that it is time for Apple to change up the iOS design? Let us know in the comments below.

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The time has almost arrived. Late last night the team behind the evasi0n jailbreak officially confirmed that their jailbreak solution would in fact be ready sometime today. Taking a quick look at their website you’ll notice a “status bar” with a percent by it. As of the time of the writing of this article, it reads 97% complete. When it reaches 100%, the jailbreak will have arrived.

For those wondering, this jailbreak tool will work with the iPod Touch, iPad, iPad Mini and all iPhones capable of running iOS 6 through iOS 6.1. Additionally this is the very first tool that provides support for the 4th-gen iPad and iPhone 5. Even better, this is a totally untethered solution.

Hopefully not much longer before we can update you with the final release information and instructions. Are you ready to finally break your iOS 6 device free from its chains? What unlocked features/apps are you most looking forward to using once jailbroken?

UPDATE: The jailbreak has now arrived. Click here for download information and installation instructions.

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Yesterday Apple released iOS 6.1 update to the masses.  iOS 6.1 is a pretty minor upgrade but does include support for LTE carriers around the world.  New LTEs in Denmark, Italy and many areas of the Middle East will now be supported, with Apple’s addition of 23 new iPad LTE and 36 new iPhone operators.  But the most exciting part of the release is 6.1s open door for hackers.

A group of iOS developers, evad3rs, are preparing a major hack for all recent iOS devices including the iPhone 5, iPad mini, iPad 4, and the iPod Touch 5G.We have been waiting patiently for the hack and it appears it may finally be upon us thanks to a vulnerability that exists in iOS 6.1.  The Apple developer Musclenerd hinted that this Sunday would be “fun day” for jailbreakers.

For those with newer iOS 6 devices  that have been impatiently waiting for a tetherless jailbreak, this is awesome news. For now though, don’t get too excited until we have firmer details regarding the jailbreak. Be sure to check back with us this weekend, when we will hopefully have news and instructions on how to jailbreak your iOS 6.1 device.

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Freedompop has forged a partnership with textPlus, preparing a free voice and text service that will start some time in the first quarter of this year. It will work with the sleeve that they have for the iPod touch and iPhone 4/4S. There is a free option, just like the free 500MB option, as well as stepped up plans that top out at just $15 a month for unlimited texting and 1,000 voice minutes.

“Our partnership with textPlus is another large step forward in offering consumers a true, free alternative to expensive mobile voice and data plans,” said Freedompop CEO Stephen Stokols. “FreedomPop and textPlus represent a new kind of telecom service based on principals established on the web. We are on a clear path to delivering affordable and convenient telecom services to everyone.”

I had a brief chat with Freedompop at CES in Las Vegas and they say that the transition to Sprint 3G/4G will likely happen some time in the third quarter of this year as they start to move away from the Clearwire 4G network. If you’re tired of giant cell phone plans, Freedompop’s “freemium” model sure sounds compelling.

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First, we’re hearing that the new iPhone could take the path of the iPod family and be introduced with a number of different colors. The manufacturing process will likely be similar to that of the iPod touch, giving you a metallic outer casing in your choice of colors. I’m not sure how popular that could be, but it does seem possible. I imagine most of us would still choose the monochrome options.

The business analyst also says that the new iPhone will come with some hardware upgrades, like the availability of a 128GB storage option. Given the current pricing model, that could place the top tier iPhone at a $300 premium over the base model. We’re also hearing that NFC will finally make it to the iPhone, as well as better battery life and a 4-inch 2272×1280 beyond Retina IGZO display with a pixel density of 652ppi. I think that’s wishful thinking, but considering we have 5-inch Android phones with 1080p, that’s not too far beyond that. I’d worry about battery life though.

We can fully expect all kinds of new iPhone 5S rumors in the months to follow, but here are some nuggets to munch on in the meantime.

[Source via Gizmag]

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While the iPhone 6 is probably a long ways away, the same might not be true for an iPhone 5 update, known as the iPhone 5S. According to Jeffries analyst Peter Misek, the phone is coming in June and will offer hardware updates including NFC and an improved camera.

Similar to the recent iPod Touch refresh, Misek claims that the next iPhone will arrive in much more colorful variations. Considering Microsoft has also went after the colorful look with the its HTC and Nokia phones, this wouldn’t be too surprising.

So we are getting NFC, new colors and a better camera, according to the analyst. Anything else? Yep, the phone will be SuperHD– or so he says. Keep in mind that this Jeffries analyst doesn’t mention any specific sources and could just be talking based on what he is seeing coming from competition. I would take all of this with a big grain of salt for now.

Still, the idea of an iPhone 5S with all these new features sounds like a nice way to push the iPhone forward and help it better compete against upcoming Android, BB10 and Windows Phone rivals. Do you think that Apple will in fact use the “5S” naming convention, or maybe they will skip forward and just call it the iPhone 6? What do you think?

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