Trendy apps for NY Fall Fashion Week

New York Fall Fashion Week opens Thursday, as the world's top designers unveil their spring 2014 collections. With these apps, you can keep tabs on what's taking off on the runway, see what the stars are wearing and learn how to speak the language of fashion.

Style.com

(iOS; free)

This app from publisher Condé Nast puts you in front of the runway and then takes you behind the scenes at the major fashion shows. The app dishes out news and then dishes out the dish, with reports and photos from the star-studded parties that are as much a part of Fashion Week as the catwalks. Archival news and photos from past fashion shows can also be accessed through the app.

Speak Chic

(iOS; $1.99)

Do you ask for a Hermès bag as if it were made by the Greek god instead of the French designer? This app is for those who know high fashion even if they're not sure how to pronounce haute couture. Speak Chic offers audio pronunciations and phonetic spellings for about 300 fashion brands and designer names. The app covers an array of fashion categories, including womenswear, menswear, cosmetics and luxury watches.

WWD

(iOS; free)

Whether you know it as Women's Wear Daily or simply WWD, the trade journal has been the go-to publication for fashion-industry news for more than a century and is the must read of the trendsetters and the trendy. Fashion Week is WWD's Super Bowl, and the magazine's editors and reporters will be out in force in Manhattan. The app is free to download, but only subscribers can access the digital edition of WWD. Nonsubscribers can purchase a monthly or yearly subscription through the app.

Fashion TrendTracker

(iOS, Android; free)

News, predictions and behind-the-scenes reports help make this app from trendstop.com a lively read. While TrendTracker is aimed primarily at industry professionals, there is enough gossip and analysis to keep even amateur fashionistas interested. For past major fashion events, TrendTracker has posted photos and videos from the shows within 24 hours. The app has a crowdsourced guide of local boutiques selling trendy items, but the listings are slim, especially for stores on Long Island.

Tech Bytes

Srsly, Oxford?

When the Oxford dictionary updates its words list, it is buzzworthy. Especially now. The arbiter of English, in its quarterly update, added about 250 words to the Oxford Dictionaries Online, including "buzzworthy." Among other words added were "selfie," "phablet" and "srsly" -- texter shorthand for "seriously." Also added: "babymoon," defined as "a relaxing or romantic holiday taken by parents-to-be before their baby is born." -- Peter King

Apple to allow iPhone trade-ins

Phone users will be allowed to trade in their devices for a discount on the new iPhone 5 at Apple Stores, according to Apple news website 9 to 5 Mac. In addition to selling more devices directly from the Apple Store, Apple hopes the policy will spur customers with damaged iPhones to trade them in rather than getting them fixed and "clogging up the Genius Bar," 9 to 5 Mac says. -- Peter King

GM amps up wireless chargers

General Motors will start offering wireless charging for smartphones in some vehicles next year. Instead of plugging in cables to replenish battery power, drivers of some 2014 GM models will be able to place mobile devices onto a Powermat surface inside the car to draw electricity. GM, an investor in Powermat, would be the first carmaker to build the company's technology into its models. -- Bloomberg News