All Articles by Andrew Martonik

We loved the flexibility and business model of the original Karma for those who only need a hotspot from time to time, but it was hamstrung by Sprint's aging WiMax network. After a little stumble, the new Karma Go is here with better hardware, the same great usage model and yes, a proper LTE network behind it.

For its latest major release, popular camera app VSCO Cam has added batch photo editing, an undo edit button and performance improvements. The new batch editing feature, aka Copy + Paste, lets you make a complex set of edits to just one photo, then copy that set of edits and apply it to other photos you've taken already. It's kind of like an edit preset, but made to be used on a shorter-term basis, and it should really cut down on editing large sets of photos.

Instagram announced that it was bringing advertisements to users last year, and now the first full-on video ads are starting to arrive. The first ad spots, which land between eight and 15 seconds long, come from big names like Disney, Activision, Lancome, Banana Republic and CW, and are shown sparingly in user's Instagram feeds.

Hulu now finally lets users sign up for its paid Hulu Plus service inside its iPhone and iPad app, marking a truce between the media company and Apple over in-app billing. Prior to now, you had to sign up for Hulu Plus from the web and then sign into your premium account in the app, thus getting around Apple's policy of taking a percentage of all in-app billing activity.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are hitting store shelves in over 20 more countries as the calendar ticks over to September 26th in the respective regions. Folks in New Zealand and East Asia can now get their hands on the latest devices — on account of time zones, it's the next day there already — and those in many European countries will have their shot here soon as well.

The public may have had mixed feelings about a free U2 album showing up on their phones last week, but the world-renowned band and Apple are likely teaming up again to work on a new music format. This new music format, U2 claims, will make music so interesting and enticing that consumers will want to buy songs and albums once again.

It seems like it's tough to find a platform that Glympse isn't yet on, and with the expansion today to Pebble it's one more off the list. Building on its other smartwatch integration with Samsung's Gear line and Android Wear, folks using Pebble can now load the Glympse app onto their watch and quickly share their location with friends and family.

Following roughly a week of user reports on the Skype support forums, Microsoft has confirmed (in an awkward way) that Skype will no longer support users running OS X version 10.5.8 or older. Skype's official response to user complains explained that Skype still works on OS X 10.6 and higher, and encouraged all of its users to stay up-to-date with the latest version of OS X and Skype.

United Airlines is introducing a new "trial feature" to its app that lets international travelers scan their passports along with check-in using their phone. The app can use the scanned image of your passport to either verify previously-entered information or add it to the system, removing one step that slows down the ticketing and boarding process of international flights. If the app properly identifies your passport information, you won't be asked to provide any further documentation to receive your boarding pass.