Yahoo has announced that they’re canceling some of their mobile apps in an effort to — wait for it — keep moving and keep innovating. Some of the apps that will be discontinued include:

• Yahoo! Meme (iPad and iPhone)
• Yahoo! Mim (iPad)
• Yahoo! Answers (Android)
• Yahoo! AppSpot (Android and iPhone)
• Yahoo! Deals (iPhone)
• Yahoo! Finance (BlackBerry)
• Yahoo! Movies (Android)
• Yahoo! News (Android)
• Yahoo! Shopping (iPhone)
• Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search (iPad and iPhone)

Yahoo has been in the mobile space for quite some time and managed to amass a good amount of apps so looking to cut some of their weight and move on isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The decommissioning of these apps, as Yahoo noted, will allow them to put more effort into creating other applications, like LiveStand in the mobile space. Of course, the apps that Yahoo! cut weren’t really up there in terms of usage and it’s hard to imagine anyone will be sad to see any of them go.

Source: Yahoo via: Android Central

Yahoo! released their new personalized living magazine Livestand, today. It includes stories from ABC News, Forbes, Source Interlink, Yahoo’s global media network, and more. From these sources, you can create a “Personal Mix” of the topics that interest you. Additionally, Livestand supports up to 4 profiles so that each member of the family can have their own Personal Mix.

Livestand is your living magazine app, where the news and stories you care about come to life with visually stunning photos and videos. Explore its publications for breaking headlines, celebrity news, sports, or whatever you’re into—as you’ve never seen it. You’ll lose yourself for hours with its electrifying images and captivating content. Livestand is the ultimate tapping, scrolling, and swiping magazine experience!

• Inline videos and photo galleries are displayed in a unique way always tailored to what will look best on the iPad.
• Fresh Content: Articles, photos, and video update constantly. Headline news, stock quotes, and Twitter feeds update automatically.
• Make It Personal: Create your own “Personal Mix” magazine of your favorite topics from Yahoo! and around the web, whether it’s science headlines or the latest design trends.
• All About You: With Yahoo! Today, exclusive to Livestand, you get a personalized serving of your daily basics: weather, stocks, horoscope, and TV. Add the titles you want to “My Library”.
• Up To Four Unique Profiles: Everyone in your family can have their own personal Livestand on the same iPad.
• Spread The News: Share your favorite articles by email or on Facebook right from Livestand.

Livestand from Yahoo! is available on the iPad for Free.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Switching to an iPhone 4S from BlackBerry, webOS or Android phone and curious how to transfer your data over? We’ve already told you how to transfer data from an existing iPhone to the 4S, but crossing platforms can seem like a bigger headache. It doesn’t have to be. There’s lots of services available to help you transfer data from one device to another. Keep reading for some simple suggestions that can make the process of going from BlackBerry or Android to iPhone and iOS 5 just a little easier for you.

There are two main ways to move all your data over to iPhone: desktop sync via iTunes and cloud sync via Google, Yahoo!, Exchange, etc.

iTunes

If you want to move your music, TV shows, movies, photos, and other media over to your new iPhone and you already use iTunes on Mac or Windows PC then it’s pretty easy.

1. Just plug the dock cable into your iPhone and into your PC and your iPhone will show up in iTunes.
2. Go through the tabs and choose what information, media, and photos you want to sync.
3. Press sync

You can sync multiple iOS devices (if you already have an iPad or iPod touch) with one iTunes library or set up multiple iTunes libraries to keep things extra neat and tidy.

Google Sync

Here is a way to use Gmail or Google Sync to transfer your data. If you’re already using a Gmail or Google Account to sync your mail, contacts, and calendars, this process is dead simple. Just make sure you’ve done a sync on your current BlackBerry, webOS or Android device.

1. On your new iPhone tap Settings and go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

2. You’ll need to add your new account to your iPhone. Simply tap the new account and then Gmail option.
3. If you want full push, you can also set Gmail up as Exchange as well. Visit Google’s Exchange page for instructions on setting up this way.
4. After your account is verified, you can simply choose to sync what items you would like to sync by turning those options On.

5. If a message pops up asking what you’d like to do with the data, choose to replace your iPhone data or merge data. Whichever is appropriate to your situation.

After you’ve done this you can continue using Google Sync if you’d like or disable it and use iCloud going forward. Just delete the Gmail account or disable it. If asked what to do with the data on your iPhone, just choose to keep it on your device. Then sign in with iCloud and it will now sync everything up and everything new from here on out.

Note: One of our readers has pointed out that Google may have issues syncing your contacts unless they are in the “My Contacts” category in Google. He had some contacts listed in other groups and they wouldn’t come down. So make sure all your contacts are filed under the general “My Contacts” group if you’re having issues with your iPhone syncing into your Contacts app from Google. Thanks for the tip, Will!

Yahoo! Sync

To perform a sync with Yahoo!, you are essentially going to repeat the same steps you would for Google sync (see above), except you’ll choose Yahoo when you choose your new account type. All the options should be identical when it comes to syncing contacts, calendars, and email accounts. And again, when you’re done you can choose to continue using Yahoo! Sync or use iCloud.

Exchange and Hotmail

If you’re using Exchange at work, and/or Windows Live Hotmail at home, again the instructions are the same as above just choose Exchange ActiveSync as your account type, or hit the new iOS 5 Hotmail button and you’re set. (If you have problems with a work Exchange account, check with your IT department for the proper settings)

Transferring contacts and calendars from your computer with iTunes

If you don’t use any Google, Yahoo!, Exchange or any online service and you’re just looking to transfer your contacts to your iPhone, you can do that too. Whether you have Windows or Mac, you can transfer contacts from your current smartphone to your iPhone pretty easily.

1. Plug your old device into the computer and sync them with either Outlook, Exchange, or Mac Address book. This process is pretty easy but varies from device to device, so you may need to refer to your specific device instructions in order to do this. If you still have an issue doing this, head on over to the TiPb Forums for some expert switcher advice and help.
2. Once your contacts are already on your computer, you can plug your new iPhone into your computer.
3. Open iTunes and click the Info tab under your iPhone sync settings.
4. You will see a Contacts option. Select that and choose what contacts you would like to be synced to your phone.

5. Click sync and wait for iTunes to do its thing. When complete, your contacts should now be on your new iPhone.

Note: You may have noticed iTunes has native options to configure Yahoo! or Gmail sync. You are more than welcome to use these options as well. They are just as easy. You can also choose to sync calendars via iTunes as well. Use whatever process is going to be more convenient for you on an ongoing basis.

Transferring photos from your old device to your new iPhone [PC users]

1. Simply sync or transfer the photos from your old device into your photos on your Windows PC. Whether you choose to do this with your actual device, or from removable storage like an SD card is your choice.
2. Plug your new iPhone into the computer and open iTunes and navigate to the Photos tab.
3. Navigate your way to where you save your photos to your PC when choosing what photos to sync and make sure to choose the pictures you’d like on your phone.
4. Click sync and wait for iTunes to finish. Your photos should now show up in the Photos app on your iPhone.

Transferring photos from your old device to your new iPhone [Mac users]

1. Plug your old device into your Mac and open iPhoto. (If iPhoto doesn’t recognize your Android, webOS, or Blackberry phone, simply transfer the pictures from the removable storage in your device, if you have that option.)
2. Your device should show up in the left navigation pane of iPhoto.
3. Name your album and import the photos. Alternately, you could select just the photos you’d like on your new device if you want.

4. Open iTunes and go to the Photos tab. Select the albums or events you’d like to sync to your new iPhone.

5. Click sync and wait for iTunes. After the sync is complete, you should see your new Photos in your Photo app on your iPhone.

Next steps

The iPhone is a pretty easy device to transfer data to. Once you’ve gotten all your data from your other device into a cloud service or on your computer, it should be easy as pie. If you guys have any issues doing any of this, feel free to check out the TiPb Forums for answers to many questions.

For more on using your new iPhone 4S check out our iPhone Starters Guide, and then dive into our iPhone 4S Forums for help and community!

Daily Tips range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

New to iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and trying to figure out how to change the default search engine to something other than Google? For many users Google is synonymous with web search but if you prefer Yahoo! or Microsoft Bing, it’s an easy change to make. And we’ll show you how after the break!

If you want to change your default search engine from Google to Yahoo! or Bing, here’s what to do:

• From the home screen, tap on the Settings app
• Tap on Safari.
• Tap on Search Engine.
• Select the new Search Engine.

Once you quit settings, your selection will remain the default Search Engine until you change it again.

Bonus Tip: Just because you set one search engine as default for the search field doesn’t mean you can’t use others. Just enter their URL (google.com, yahoo.com, bing.com, etc.) in Safari and you can use any one you wish, whenever you wish.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Yahoo! has announced that it will be launching an iPad application that could rival News Corp’s recently launched The Daily.  Coming in the first half of 2011, Livestand will be available for the iPad and will deliver news personalized to your interests, location and even time of day.

Livestand will take the form of a highly visual magazine. Yahoo! will use the app to entice advertisers, by offering ads within the digital pages. The ads served will include media rich interactive content that can even be based on location. We assume the ad revenue will enable Yahoo! To deliver the content as a free app without subscription, this has not been confirmed.

Livestand should be available for the iPad in the first half of this year and will include Sports, News, Finance, Flickr and omg! content.

Would you be happy to have ads in your daily news paper if the content was good enough and the app was subscription free? Let us know in the comments!

[Yahoo]

If you use MobileMe, Windows Live, Yahoo!, or AOL for email, then you can have Ping search your contacts for friends who are also using Ping as well as send annoying invites to those friends who are not using ping. Here’s how:

1. Go to Ping in iTunes and in the “Find People” box in the right column, click “email” in “invite friends by email”
2. A box will pop up asking you to list out the email address of those you would like to invite. Ignore this and notice the logos for MobileMe, Windows Live, Yahoo, and AOL at the bottom of the box.
3. Click the appropriate logo.
4. Sign in.
5. The window will divide into two sections: the top will list your contacts who use Ping but whom you don’t follow, complete with avatars, and the bottom will list the names and email of your contacts who do not use ping.
6. Use the checkboxes and deselect/select all links to send follow requests to those you’d like to follow and email invites to those you’d like to invite.

Ping has been off to a rocky start and this may help, but probably not enough. Personally, I only found 8 more friends using this search feature. Ping is also integrated with Twitter, but I don’t see Ping even having a chance to take off until Facebook jumps on board.

What do you think? Does the email search help make Ping more relevant?

[Apple]

On Sunday we told you that Yahoo! sent in their update to Apple for the Messenger app to allow for 3G video calling — well today the update is live in the iTunes App Store.

Not only will you now be able to better communicate with others Yahoo! Messenger users on iPhones but you will be able to chat with anyone who has a front facing camera on their phones. Even bigger news than that is the ability to video chat between a phone and the computer version of Yahoo! Messenger. This brings a whole new potential to having the iPhone 4 as well as any smartphone with a front facing camera.

Will you be downloading the newest update to this app? Does the potential for phone to computer video chat excite you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

[iTunes link - 9 To 5 Mac]

by Brian Tufo

Earlier this week the VP of Yahoo! Mobile in America, David Katz, let slip that Yahoo! will soon be supporting video chat on their mobile apps, including iPhone. A Yahoo Spokesperson has said that he believes:

the iPhone app has already been approved by Apple and that it would be would be available “soon.”

The advantage of Yahoo video calling as opposed to Apple’s built-in FaceTime is that the user will not only be able make video calls with iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4. but with Android devices, Mac and Windows PCs, and anything else Yahoo supports. Yahoo’s app will also not be restricted to just Wi-Fi like FaceTime, and will be able to be used via 3G/4G.

Apple used open standards to make FaceTime and has said they’re releasing FaceTime back as an open standard itself, but since it seems to be taking a while, are you interested in Yahoo! as a FaceTime alternative? Do you think Yahoo will do it right?

[iTunes link - Reuters]

by George Lim

With the Launch of iAd by Apple many companies are choosing to advertise with them instead of Google or Microsoft. Businessweek.com reported that Apple may control as much as 21% of the market by the end of the year. Google will drop to 21% from last year’s holding of 27% and Microsoft, who was only just getting into ads, will drop to just 7% from last year’s 10%.

Not bad for Apple, who wasn’t even in the mobile advertising market until they bought Quattro Wireless and announced iAd back at WWDC 2010.

Unilever, whose first iAd made its debut in July, is “extremely happy” with the results of its ad campaigns, Rob Master, the company’s North American media director, says in an interview. More than 20 percent of people who click on Unilever iAds—which feature video and an interactive game—check out the ad a second time, he says.

Natalie Kerris, a spokesperson at Apple, reports that since June the number of brands that use Apple’s iAd has doubled. This trend isn’t just affecting Google and Microsoft either as both Nokia and Yahoo ad services are suffering as well.

Have you seen iAds in your apps? Are you any more likely to check out the products showcased in an iAd compared to a Google AdMob ad, or an ad from another network? Is Apple really offering a better experience for both advertisers and end users? Let us know your thoughts.

This is an official entry by Slyfi in TiPb’s next top blogger contest. Think you have what it takes to join Team TiPb? Bring it!

[Business Week via Fortune]

Yahoo! has released an HTML5 iPad friendly version of its mobile webmail.

• Faster and more reliable: If you’re offline, Yahoo! Mail uses local caching capabilities to help you access and search your messages even without an internet connection.
• Smart: You can find and organize your messages using Full Search, personal folders and Smart Folders with messages from your most important contacts and optimized views for photos and file attachments.
• Feature Rich: View rich photo attachments in their full form, or as previews directly in the inbox view. Also includes a dual-pane view to make reading and organizing a breeze.

You don’t have to do anything special to begin using the new Yahoo! mail webmail experience on your iPad. Just visit http://mail.yahoo.com in Safari and you should see the change. Yahoo! promises to bring more features, improve performance, and Yahoo! Mail for iPad the “best it can possibly be.”

If you use Yahoo! mail on your iPad, let us know what you think!

[Yahoo! Mobile Blog]

Yahoo! and Microsoft have just announced a 10-year search deal where Microsoft’s newly re-branded Bing service will take over web searches for the venerable Yahoo! For its part, Yahoo! will get 88% of ad-based search revenue for 5 years and the ability to sell ads to some Microsoft search sites as well and limited access to user data.

Um, okay. Is that a good deal? Even if it doesn’t face any regulatory or approval problems, the deal won’t close until next year and then will take up to a couple of years to get up and running.

So, impact on the iPhone and iPhone users in the short term is likely nothing. Although, like Jacob’s nemesis on Lost, it could mean Microsoft has finally found a loophole to get their Bing search service onto the iPhone…

Currently the iPhone offers too search options via Settings > Safari: Google and Yahoo. Will Apple be switching that to Google and Bing?

It’s been some time since the 2.2 firmware dropped, yet we have not heard of any developers getting their hands on the next version. So Dizzy wants to know, when is iPhone 2.3 firmware coming? That is a very good question, so check out that thread and let him know what you think…

Next up is a thread regarding the sharing of a single SIM card between your iPhone and another phone on the AT&T network. I’ve done it previously with no issues, now it seems like AT&T is tightening the screws just a bit. Have you tried sharing your iPhone SIM with another phone? Let us know how it’s worked out for you.

Forum member, EnterpriseGlobe, has started a fun thread – where did you get your iPhone? I stood in line for 2 hours or so on July 11th at my local Apple store. To kill time I emailed pictures and updates to Dieter while he was in line at the Providence, RI Mall. Oh the memories.

I know what you are thinking, this is an iPhone site, so why feature a thread about the upcoming Palm Pre? We all love competition, it just makes products better. Or at least that is the idea. To cut to the chase, what are your feelings regarding the recently announced Palm Pre? Is this real competition for the iPhone or is it simply one last ditch effort by Palm to try to stay afloat?

Finally, spidermanroach wants to know, Yahoo or Gmail? Which one do you think is better and why? Get in the forums and let him know!

Remember, before you can get in on any of the TiPb forum action be sure to register! It’s free and will only take a minute of your time.

See you on the forums!

Lately the forums have picked up quite a bit of traffic so we have been getting more and more good conversations. Today on the forums is no exception.

First up we have forum regular cjvitek. More than likely if you are reading this you have your own iPhone, well what is your choice of computer? Mac? Windows? Chime in and vote in the poll!

This next thread is something right out of the National Enquirer, It involves a man, woman, and their marriage. Some people are really not the sharpest tools in the shed. Check it out, Man Cheating Via iPhone Gets Caught… yes you heard me correctly…

Next up is thread started by iPhone Nanite, lasvegasoutlaw, and he seems to be having Yahoo “Push” issues on his iPhone. Honestly, it has had issues since day one but how is Yahoo holding up for you? Let the “outlaw” know how your luck has been in the following thread – What is up with Yahoo Push?

Be sure to join our community to be able to post in theforums! It’s free and will only take a minute!

See you on the forums!

Yahoo! oneConnect wasn’t the only news to come steamrolling out of the CTIA Keynote yesterday, and TiPb senior editor Dieter Bohn was there live to capture it:

The big story is BluePrint — it offers a very quick mobile services development platform based on XML. Basically it’s a large set of XML setup you can program a mobile app in and it will display very nicely on different platforms — iPhone, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Symbian, etc. They are opening it up for anybody and anybody can distribute however they’d like. Yahoo would prefer you use Yahoo’s ads on your apps, but not requiring it.

While our own Dear Leader is off live-blogging in San Francisco (no, sadly not for Apple but for CTIA oh, so close by), he hasn’t forgotten us, and indeed has just sent in word from the field of Yahoo! oneConnect for — what was last year’s “device unmentionable” — the iPhone.

“Pulse feature is sweet!”

And just was is the pulsey sweetness of which Dieter speaks? Yahoo! says:

Yahoo! oneConnect’s “Pulse” view (pictured, via Business Wire) combines the social activity of the web with mobile phone contacts, providing consumers with a dynamic overview of what friends are up to.

oneConnect looks to be all about combining contacts, SMS, social status messages, and activities into one integrated view. Your social heads-up display, as it were. Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Yahoo! Connected Life, PR-speaks:

“The iPhone has ignited and captured the imagination of what a mobile phone can do. The rich feature set of the iPhone enables the best way to experience oneConnect. The powerful combination of Yahoo! Blueprint, the mobile platform, and the iPhone SDK, was leveraged to create this unique experience of oneConnect for millions of iPhone users.”

Preview’s available now, for FREE, via iTunes!