Love them or hate them, Apple is one of the most dominant players all over the world world with their iPad and iPhone devices. And now they’re looking to expand that dominance into a new place: your car.

That’s right, today Apple announced a new way to integrate iOS7 devices with your future vehicle. It’s called CarPlay and, to be honest, it looks pretty darn cool.

Set to debut later this year in vehicles from select manufacturers, CarPlay will let users make and receive calls, send and receive messages, listen to music and navigate with Maps, all via a built-in display in the car. Several other apps will be supported at launch, including Podcasts, Beats Music, Spotify, iHeartRadio and Stitcher.

Car companies such as Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo will showcase CarPlay at next week’s Geneva International Motor Show. Meanwhile, others such as BMW, Ford, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota intend to make future vehicles compatible with CarPLay.

For more on how it will work, Volvo has released a video highlights CarPlay’s features. Check it out after the break.

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People seem rather divided over the look of Apple’s new iOS 7. But love it or hate it, iOS 7 is here to stay. That’s great for iPhone and iPad users excited for the new OS, but what about people using Android smartphones?

Fortunately, Android users who do want the iOS 7 experience are in luck because an intrepid Android developer has decided to copy it and create a theme for Android called “jbOS 7.” The theme, who’s full name is “Jelly Bean OS 7,” is compatible with handsets running Android 4.0 and later.

Once installed, the theme mimics the look and feel of many aspects of the iOS 7 interface including the lock screen, home screens, some apps and the new app icons. The photo above gives you an idea of how that looks.

There’s also a handy video as well, which we’ve included after the break. For more on “jbOS 7″ or to get the files needed to install the theme, head on over to the developer’s website.

In truth, we’re not entirely sure why someone using Android would want to do this, but heck, who are we to judge? People do love to modify their Android devices. Maybe the iOS 7 theme will actually catch on?

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It must be a bit difficult to be Microsoft sometimes, especially these days. Sure, they still make a desktop OS that dominates the world, but that lead is dropping as fast as sales of desktop computers.

And their other products, like the Surface, don’t seem to be catching on with the kids. And don’t get us started on the XBox One.

Microsoft just doesn’t seem to get it. So what do you do when you are a big company that’s falling behind the times? You go negative, of course.

In a new ad that’s just come out, Microsoft again decides to mock Apple and the iPad via Siri, the company’s voice-enabled personal assistant. The chief reasons the iPad is bad this time: it doesn’t have a zoomable home screen, lacks an SD card slot and for not being able to multitask as efficiently as Windows RT.

Sure, okay. Now that you put it that way we’re going to throw our iPads in the trash and rush out to buy a Surface right now. Not.

Check out the ad after the break.

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It might be cold in here because Hell may have frozen over. That’s right, Microsoft Office for iOS has finally arrived. Sort of.

The “Redmond Giant” has released Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers. The app is a free download, at the moment, but an Office 365 subscription is required for use. Lame.

Couple things that struck us off the bat with this: The app is currently available only for the iPhone. Double lame. Who uses an iPhone for this kind of thing? That’s what iPads were made for.

Second, you can only save documents to your Sky Drive account. No local saving is available. Triple lame. For more, check out the full release notes below:

Microsoft Office Mobile is the official Office companion optimized for your iPhone. You can access, view and edit your Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint documents from virtually anywhere. Documents look like the originals, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt graphics and shapes. When you make quick edits or add comments to a document, the formatting and content remain intact.

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If you want the latest news about updates and improvements to Google services, you won’t find a much better source than Vic Gundotra. As Senior VP of Engineering for Google, he’s privy to pretty much everything that happens at the company. And he likes to share.

So, when he touts a new update for Google+, we listen. In fact, that’s just what he did this morning. According to his post, the update introduces a new navigation drawer that is “more consistent with other Google apps.” In addition, notifications will now sync across devices so you no longer have to see the same notifications from device to device if you’ve already dismissed them.

You also get a new notifications tray with a bell icon that lets you know if there’s something for you to see as well as unread and read trays. So, some nice improvements. This update should start being availbe today for Android and the web with iOS update to follow.

Here’s what the changelog says about the update:

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Even though Google is pretty much the king of maps and traffic avoidance these days, it would seem the company wants to do it even better. So, with that in mind, today Google announced they are buying Waze, the GPS social traffic app that updates routes and drive information in real-time as users post updates.

The app has voice navigation, shows community-contributed road alerts, learns from your frequently traveled routes, and can even find the cheapest gas station near you, all based on community interaction with other users. With over 10 million downloads via the Google Play store and at least as many in iTunes, Waze has quite a large user base. With this, Google is hoping to further improve the ability for its Maps app to help drivers avoid those pesky long commute times.

According to the company, they are “excited” about the prospect of “enhancing Google Maps with some of the traffic update features” already used by Waze. They are hoping to “outsmart traffic together.”

Let’s hope they can. We, like everyone else in the world, hates traffic.

For most people, the iPad has become their de facto device to watch movies and television programs while on the go. To help facilitate this, services like Netflix and Hulu offer iOS apps to run on the device.

Today, in an effort to enhance that experience further, Hulu updated its app for the iPad. Here’s what the update gives you:

• Easier navigation. Simply tap or swipe as you navigate to find shows and discover great new content.

• Discover Panel. Tap the image of a new show, movie or episode, and we’ll give you a summary and more info instantly.

• Minimized Player. Want to multitask? Keep watching your desired video in a minimized player while you browse.

• New Series Pages. Includes both the most entertaining clip and the most relevant episode at your fingertips.

• Improved Search. Faster, more intuitive search bar.

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If you haven’t already heard the news, the email wars are over and Google won. Gmail is the dominate email address and platform that most people use. In fact, we’re not sure we know anyone who doesn’t have a Gmail account.

Fortunately, those who do don’t usually have to decide between using an iOS or Android-powered smartphone to get their email on the go. There’s plenty of other reasons for the debate between Android and iOS, but thankfully Google doesn’t make you choose — at least where email is concerned.

Today the Gmail apps for both iOS and Android got an update. Both updates feature the new “Categories” tabs as well as the usual bug fixes and performance improvements.

Here’s what you specifically get in the new iOS version:

• New notifications options: Get notified for all messages, only important messages, or none at all, on a per account basis. Customize these settings from the in-app settings page.

• Meet the new inbox: If you’ve enabled the new inbox, your mail is now grouped into categories so that you can see what’s new at a glance and decide which emails you want to read when. Primary mail is shown first and it’s easy to access and keep track of email in other categories by opening the menu. Configure this feature by going to Gmail.com on your computer.

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Rejoice Android-using fans of short videos, your iOS-using friends no longer have a reason to gloat. Well, one less reason at least.

That’s right, Twitter’s popular Vine application, that was previously an iOS-only exclusive, has arrived for Android. For those not familiar (and it could be a few of you), Vine allows users to record 6 seconds of video with sound and then share it with the world, much like you do with a Tweet on Twitter.

Once the video is posted, others can view it as it loops continuously. The app has become pretty popular and has spawned some very inventive videos that utilize the 6 second time limit as part of the piece and not a hindrance.

Now that Android users can join the fun, it will be interesting to see what new videos pop up. To get the app now, head over to the Play Store.

Even though they denied its existence, it looks like HTC will release a ‘Nexus Experience’ version of their flagship HTC One device. The announcement and confirmation came today during the AllThingsD conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA.

Google’s head of Android development, Sundar Pichai, personally confirmed the device on stage during the conference and said it will available through Google Play on June 26. It is also now up over at HTC’s website with the following specs:

32GB of storage, running stock Android 4.2.2, runs on T-Mobile and AT&T LTE, $599 through Google Play, unlockable bootloader. Now that’s a nice phone with great specs.

So tempting. If you’re an Android fan, will this be your new phone or will it be the ‘Nexus Experience’ Samsung Galaxy S4?