UPDATE May 6: 05 p.m.: See below for a bit more detail on the winners with links.

About 300 software developers spent the weekend together in a large room on the NYU-Polytechnic campus in downtown Brooklyn, all competing for three prizes in an MTA app contest.

Advertisers want to hear what you have to say, and many are about to roll out new kinds of ads you can actually have a conversation with. Marketers are hoping to leverage the power of voice and the kinds of technologies that power Apple's Siri to start selling us all sorts of things.

Yahoo recently bought Summly, a news-summarizing app, for $30 million. But the company is ditching the app and only keeping the small team and the algorithm that drive it. So could this signal a change in companies buying fewer actual products and services and instead taking gambles on algorithms?

Money Talking host Charlie Herman and regular contributors Joe Nocera of the New York Times and Rana Foroohar of Time magazine tell us what they're reading this weekend.

Devindra Hardawar is a national editor at VentureBeat where he focuses on mobile technologies. 

New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission is starting a one-year pilot program February 15 that will bring the technology to Manhattan for the first time.

NPR's Steve Henn says the new Google Maps for iPhone is not only better than Apple's maps — it's also much better than the old Google app that had been on the iPhone from Day 1.

UPDATED: Starting on February 15, New Yorkers will have the option to hail a cab from their smartphone, instead of hailing one the old fashioned way.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission adopted Thursday, by a vote of 7 to two abstentions,  a year-long pilot program allowing taxi drivers and passengers to use taxi-hailing apps on their phones.

Smartphone hails will override street hails within a half mile in most of Manhattan, or a mile in a half in Northern Manhattan and the outer boros.

Current rules prohibit apps like Uber, Hailo and GetTaxi because drivers are forbidden from using devices while driving for safety reasons.

TLC rules also forbid payment through a third party system, which is how Uber processes transactions, taking a cut for itself and why the company stopped operating in yellow cabs.

Under the new  rules to allow e-hail apps up for a vote, New York would require e-hail apps here to be a bit different from the ones operating in other cities already... albeit with lawsuits and political battles in many cases.

TLC commissioner commissioner David Yassky said Thursday the city risks falling behind. "We can look at other cities and see that passengers are using these products and benefiting from them, and when you have new technology that's available that can benefit passengers, regulations shouldn't stand in the way."

The apps would still not be allowed to process payments independently in NYC. They'll need to be integrated into the meter to prevent overcharging. In order to be approved under the proposed rules, apps would also need to be programmed so that a driver can't accept a ride while in motion -- that's possible using GPS data or even the accelerometer in a smartphone.

The non-yellow cab car service industry opposed the idea, fearing that it will pull yellow cabs out to places normally dominated by car services, which can be requested by phone call and apps currently. To mollify some of that fear, today's vote may not be on whether to permit e-hail apps in yellow cabs, but whether to run a one year pilot program.

 

As 2012 comes to a close, we’ve collected our favorite iPad apps of the year for current and future classical music lovers.

In the world of business and tech, “mobile revolution” and “app economy” are the buzzwords of the moment. The meaning behind the hype: In a smartphone world, money will be made by those creating the programs that make smartphones smart: apps. For those who want to get in on the act, the good news is there are a record number of books, classes and websites to help you every step of the way. But the hype also clouds a very simple truth: It’s a lot easier to get started than it is to finish. Good luck.

In his first interview since Facebook's troubled IPO, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the company's mobile-centered future, his commitment to mission over fun and explained why he doesn't code much anymore.

As the French author Jules Renard once wrote, "Being bored is an insult to oneself." And he didn't even have a smartphone! In today's digital environment, there's really no reason to ever find yourself with nothing to do (well, unless your phone or computer dies -- and then you're just out of luck). Evolver.fm writer Eliot Van Buskirk joins us to recommend his four favorite boredom-busting musical apps.

Two local app developers are finalists in a Department of Veterans Affairs contest to help reduce Veteran homelessness.

Washington has just become the first state to allow people to register to vote via Facebook, and the way things are going, it won’t be the last.

Every tech entrepreneur starts somewhere. Steve Jobs had his garage. Mark Zuckerberg had his dorm room. Now dozens of tech savvy New York City high school students will have NYC Generation Tech.

The top new transit app in NYC is now official, at least as far as government sponsored contests go. Embark won the MTA's app contest in February, and last night the trip planning phone application won the  NYC BigApps competition in the mobility category.

Last year, when NYC doled out $40,000 in prizes for apps that use government data in useful ways, transportation cleaned up with two of the top three.  This year Embark was the lone tool for getting around to get a nod. (Full list of other winners).

While most trip planning tools require internet access to generate suggested routes, or tell you your travel time, Embark is designed to work underground while actually on the subway. So when the garbled overhead announcement threatens to ruin your plans with a delay or unexpected closure, you can whip out your phone to see what alternatives you have right there on the train.

Nest year, maybe we'll get an app for making your train switch to express when you're running late.

An application that seeks to streamline the process of accessing and utilizing New York City's Open Data Portal is the winner of this year's third annual BigApps 3.0 competition.

Tuesday evening, at a ceremony attended by the stars New York's technology and venture capital scenes, Mayor Michael Bloomberg will congratulate the winners of a city-sponsored software competition, which includes $50,000 in prizes.