Mobile App

The reign of the trophy kitchen is officially over. The dream kitchens of today aren't about the sexiest six-burner range or the most exotic countertop material. As cooking has returned to center stage and remodeling budgets have sobered, the kitchen island is nurturing family togetherness and reviving casual entertaining. In kitchens with a small footprint, glass tiles, quartz counters and dish drawers are adding sparkle and practicality. The kitchen of 2013 has soul. "That industrial, commercial style was looking a little cold," says...

The District has long been an area with a booming tech start-up industry and a vibrant entrepreneurial scene. And local young African Americans are taking advantage of the rapidly expanding opportunities, developing tech LLCs, support groups and ventures to nurture their dreams. Enter Ron Cade and Adrienne Sheares, two budding entrepreneurs who this week launched a delivery service mobile app for the Washington area. Urban Delivery allows users to request carriable items for pickup or purchase and then...

Here's a quick verdict on Facebook's new layout: it's nice and clean, but maybe a little too clean. The larger, more picture-centric posts are easy on the eyes, music to the ears of advertisers who want they take up more screen real-estate , meaning that users see fewer posts per glance at the screen. In a wholly unscientific comparison between the two layouts, I went from being able to see four posts on the old layout to two on the new one. Those changes could certainly "increase engagement" — I did take more time looking at a post from...

This online feature allows me to answer the questions I couldn't get to during the live chat and to respond to questions you send by e-mail ( colorofmoney@washpost.com ), Twitter ( @SingletaryM ) or Facebook ( www.facebook.com/MichelleSingletary.com ). From Twitter Randolyn Flournoy @RandyTresev: I need budgeting help. What budget apps if any do you like? Michelle: I'll be honest I don't budget on my smartphone. Don't do any of my banking either.

Davidsonville resident Clint Stelfox set up two of his friends with each other, but he had no idea he was doing it. One of those friends — Justin McLeod — recently started a D.C.-based mobile dating app called Hinge, which lets users rank and connect with their friends' Facebook friends. McLeod, also a Hinge user, used the app to rank Stelfox's friend, and she'd ranked him. They both independently mentioned their interaction to Stelfox, who isn't a Hinge user. "I don't think there's any other way they...

Parking in the District? There's an app for that. Drivers will soon be able to use a cellphone to pay for any of the city's almost 17,000 on-street, metered parking spots. The system is one of a flurry of high-tech moves to overhaul the District's aging meter network and address two perennial complaints of motorists: Meters are frequently broken, and hauling around fistfuls of quarters is a pain. "The goal is to give people options," said John Lisle, a District Department of Transportation...

Occasionally, we publish blog posts, speech transcripts and other commentaries of interest to the Washington business community. Here are excerpts from recent online posts from various federal technology executives, discussing new apps on the one-year anniversary of the Obama administration's digital government strategy. [May 23] marks one year since we released the Digital Government Strategy, as part of the president's directive to build a 21st Century Government that delivers better services to the American people.

It may be premature to call it a runaway hit, but in the first month since the Census Bureau released its first mobile application, it's been downloaded more than 32,000 times. The app, called America's Economy, provides updated statistics from the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It includes 16 monthly economic indicators, such as house sales, personal income, international trade, Gross Domestic Product and the unemployment rate.

A popular smartphone app that tracks Metrobus arrivals has stopped working. NextBus DC, which uses Global Positioning System tracking and other data to determine when the next bus will arrive at a stop, quit working a few weeks ago after a contract ended between companies that provide the data to riders. The data for NextBus DC was provided by a company called NextBus in Emeryville, Calif. But a contract between the company and Ken Schmier — who invented the bus-tracking technology — ended in mid-December.

"The profile page should be a representation of me and what I do when I go out into the world," Foursquare Head of Search Andrew Hogue told me, but what he really means is that you as a person are quickly becoming the sum of everywhere you've been and everything you've done. On Facebook, you're the sum of all your interactions and photos with others; but on Foursquare, location and detecting patterns are key. Foursquare today released a completely revamped mobile app for iOS and Android that takes years of data...

Occasionally, we publish blog posts, speech transcripts and other commentaries of interest to the Washington business community. Here are excerpts from recent online posts from various federal technology executives, discussing new apps on the one-year anniversary of the Obama administration's digital government strategy. [May 23] marks one year since we released the Digital Government Strategy, as part of the president's directive to build a 21st Century Government that delivers better services to the American people.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Harried Venezuelans who devote hours scouring supermarkets for increasingly scarce food basics and toilet paper have just received some digital help thanks to a young software developer. A free application for mobile devices written by Jose Augusto Montiel lets people notify one another where flour, sugar, milk, cooking oil and toilet paper are for sale. It has been downloaded more than 12,000 times. The app, known as Abasteceme, or Supply...

On the photo-sharing app Instagram , search the keywords #Fairfax, #Rockville or #DC and up pops hundreds of photos from children. Among them, until recently, were many from Kyle, a 12-year-old. His full name, Gaithersburg middle school and favorite Montgomery County hangouts were on public display before his parents put a stop to it. Technically, Kyle was not supposed to be on Instagram, the mobile app owned by Facebook . The company's policy sets the minimum age at 13 . But...

The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday the winners of its contest to combat robo-calls, awarding a $50,000 prize to two developers with plans for stopping the recorded messages for good. Serdar Danis and Aaron Foss will receive $25,000 each for their proposals, which use filtering technology to block robo-callers before the call is connected. Foss's technology, known as Nomorobo, automatically routes all incoming calls to another line that would screen for bad calls. The software, he said,...

Dear Dr. Gridlock: I was pleased to see that you mentioned iCommute DC in your tips section , and even happier that the app is back with new life. What wasn't clear from your tips, though, was that the new version also provides information about trains. As someone who just used iCommute DC for a trip downtown that involved a bus and a train, this is the app I have been waiting for! — Soren M. Peterson, Riverdale I was grateful to have readers...

Yahoo has announced its acquisition of Summly , an app that lets users easily skim through news and articles on their mobile devices — an app that's particularly notable because its founder is just 17 years old. Nick D'Aloisio, who founded the company when he was 15, launched it in December 2011, and has received financial backing from investors including Yoko Ono and Ashton Kutcher . The service sums up news articles in 400 characters, making...

Twitter has pushed out a new layout for its mobile applications and will be pushing out the new design to all of its users over the next few weeks. The new layout introduces three new buttons: Home, @Connect and #Discover. The Home button takes you to your main Twitter feed. The @Connect button shows you all the interactions you've had with other users (favorites, conversations, etc.) and displays suggested accounts. The #Discover section features trending news stories and hashtags.

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican unveiled Pope Benedict XVI's Twitter account on Monday (Dec. 3) as it announced a series of new initiatives aimed at raising the church's online profile. The pope's account, @Pontifex, drew nearly 200,000 followers in the hours after the announcement even though Benedict will not officially start tweeting until Dec. 12. That's when the pope plans to answer questions about faith submitted to him via Twitter through a special hashtag, ‥askpontifex, set up by the Vatican.

Information about Cheverly soon could be at residents' fingertips. Town officials are deciding this month whether to support an app created for the community. My Cheverly, an app created by resident Joel Thomas, contains information on all things Cheverly, such as more than a dozen links to Web sites of town groups and reviews of restaurants in and near the town. It also shows Twitter feeds for Metro, Pepco and Prince George's County Public Schools. "I think that technology today provides unique opportunities for...

Here's a quick verdict on Facebook's new layout: it's nice and clean, but maybe a little too clean. The larger, more picture-centric posts are easy on the eyes, music to the ears of advertisers who want they take up more screen real-estate , meaning that users see fewer posts per glance at the screen. In a wholly unscientific comparison between the two layouts, I went from being able to see four posts on the old layout to two on the new one. Those changes could certainly "increase engagement" — I did take more time...