MobileCrunch |  |
- WX03A: World’s Smallest And Lightest PHS Cell Phone Unveiled In Japan
- New Enterprise, Benchmark, Ron Conway And More Pour $10 Million Into Web Talk Radio Startup Stitcher
- Windows Phone Manager Leaves Microsoft Over Nokia Phone Tweets
- Leak, Revamp, Repeat: How The HTC Rhyme Almost Went Unisex
- musiXmatch, The IMDB For Song Lyrics, Comes To iTunes & Spotify; Passes 1M Mobile Downloads
- Card.io’s SDK Comes To Android
- Fotopedia Creates A Flipboard Photo Magazine, But Its New HTML5 Site Looks Even Better
- T-Mobile CMO Says No iPhone 5 This Year
- Google+ Hits Beta With 9 New Features Including Search, Mobile Hangouts, And Open Signups
- With Version 2.0, Instagram Focuses On Re-engineering The Camera
- Samsung To Make Bada OS Open Source And Part Of Your Smart TV?
- The HTC Rhyme: Apparently Girls Prefer Mid-Range Specs
- Social Entertainment App GetGlue Streamlines iPhone App Around Check-Ins And Tweets
| WX03A: World’s Smallest And Lightest PHS Cell Phone Unveiled In Japan Posted: 21 Sep 2011 04:54 AM PDT  Japanese mobile carrier Willcom has announced [JP] the WX03A today, the world’s smallest ten-key cell phone complying with the PHS standard (Willcom is Japan’s only telco left supporting that network system). The company markets the device as a “Frisk case”-sized handset, and in fact, it’s really tiny. Sized at W32×H70×D10.5mm, it’s smaller than the already tiny Palm Pixi (55x111x10.85mm), and at 40g, it’s substantially lighter, too (the Pixi weighs 100g). The WXo3A comes with a 1-inch OLED screen and a microUSB port and offers 300 hours of standby time (2 hours of talk time). Willcom plans to start distributing the phone in Japan in December. Via Keitai Watch [JP]
|
| New Enterprise, Benchmark, Ron Conway And More Pour $10 Million Into Web Talk Radio Startup Stitcher Posted: 21 Sep 2011 03:53 AM PDT  Last we heard, video had killed the radio star. But thanks to the Web, radio is finding new distribution channels and a new mobile home. When you think of Web radio, you might think of Pandora — and for good reason. Stitcher is looking to find its way into your podcast playlist by becoming the Pandora of web talk radio. So far, so good. The startup’s apps currently stream over 6,000 shows that cover everything from news and entertainment to sports and comedy. On iOS, Android, or Stitcher.com, listeners can find NPR, Fox, The Onion, the NYTimes, and even a little old blog called TechCrunch — Stitcher’s play at becoming a discovery tool for all things talk. Today marks another victory for web talk radio as Stitcher announced that it has closed a $10 million series C funding round, led by New Venture Associates. The round also included returning investors such as Benchmark Capital, New Atlantic Ventures, and Silicon Valley veteran investors like Ron Conway. As part of its series C raise, New Enterprise General Partner Ravi Viswanathan will be joining Stitcher’s board of directors. The new round brings Stitcher’s total funding to just under $19 million. According to the Stitcher team, the funding will be used to continue building out its content offerings and to ramp up hiring for its direct sales team. The funding follows on the heels of Stitcher’s release of a new iPhone app last week, which introduced a major redesign to its iOS mobile service. One of the most compelling changes included giving users the ability to more easily create custom stations from scratch. To go along with a more seamless and user-friendly UI, Stitcher introduced an “Add Station” button to users’ profiles to give custom station creation one-click functionality. As for many burgeoning web startups, mobile has been a growth area for Stitcher. According to Stitcher CEO Noah Shanok, the company has “added about a million new users in the last five months, with the largest increase in listening coming from mobile devices. We only expect that growth to accelerate in the coming year, especially with the explosion of smartphones hitting the market and the number of car manufacturers adopting Internet radio in their new models”, the CEO told TechCrunch. In an effort to do for talk radio what Pandora and Spotify have done for music, Stitcher is trying to take full advantage of both the mobile and automotive market. As terrestrial radio represents a $5 billion advertising market, the potential for Stitcher and others in this space is huge — and it starts with offering a personalized radio experience for both mobile and mobile automotive. As to the latter, Stitcher is currently available in vehicles through For SYNC and Buick IntelliLink’s connectivity systems. With its new funding in tow, the startup plans to continue expanding into these markets. For more, visit Stitcher at home here. Stitcher is a personalized mobile radio company that provides convenient access to high quality, on demand, streaming audio on a wide variety of platforms, most notably the iPhone, Android, [iPod touch], and stitcher.com. Content ranges from CNN and TechCrunch to BBC and ESPN. Stitcher's in-house personalization engine serves up only the most relevant, engaging, and user-specific content for a unique listening experience.
|
| Windows Phone Manager Leaves Microsoft Over Nokia Phone Tweets Posted: 20 Sep 2011 03:46 PM PDT  It’s usually a company’s social media reps that get caught tweeting things they shouldn’t be, but ex-Microsoftie Joe Marini was a bit higher up on the food chain than that. Formerly the principal program manager of the Windows Phone web team, Marini has resigned his post at Microsoft after tweeting his first impressions of a forthcoming Nokia-made Windows Phone. Microsoft typically doesn’t comment on personnel matters like this, but one spokesperson broke the silence to Geekwire to confirm that Marini is no longer employed by the company. Microsoft has their own set of guidelines [PDF] regarding how employees should approach social media, but all it really says about content is that employees should “be smart” and refrain from sharing “new features, functionalities, or innovations that have not been publicly disclosed.” The kicker here is that the tweets themselves are hardly what one would call juicy. The original tweet, posted on September 7, simply mentioned that he got to play with a Windows-powered Nokia device: Follow @joemarini@joemarini Subsequent tweets were a bit more open with details, like these two from later that day: Follow @joemarini@joemarini @samsabri Overall I would say an 8. Solid feel, good camera, responsive UI, and nice little touches on the body construction Follow @joemarini@joemarini @samsabri Yeah, the camera was good, but I didn't have optimal lighting. I'd like a larger screen too. So far, all he managed to confirm that the new device has a camera, a screen, and a body — hardly anything groundbreaking. Marini (probably very carefully) left out any specifics aside from some very general comments on the devices build and UI. Still, it was apparently enough for him to run afoul of Microsoft’s social media policy, which (understandbly) bars using services like Twitter to share confidential information. Joe, however, isn’t exactly a first time offender. Back in March, Joe tweeted that he would be showing off an unreleased version of IE9 for Windows Phone while attending SXSW. Placed in that context, this new set of tweets could have been the straws that broke the camel’s back, but something about this situation leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Call me naive, but I think Microsoft and Windows Phone need more people like Joe. His Twitter account paints a portrait of a guy who was dedicated to his work, and was very excited for what Microsoft and Nokia have coming down the pipeline. The offending tweets gave people just enough to whet their interest, and left it at that. Considering that Nokia and Microsoft struck their official agreement months ago, it’s no surprise to anyone that a handset was in the works. Why try to fire a guy for stating the obvious? My money is on Microsoft and Nokia not being too fond of his jab at the device’s screen size — a reasonable remark, but one that probably didn’t sit well with the brass. Still, given Marini’s overall vagueness about what he saw, another interesting question comes to mind: at what point is a leak really a leak?
|
| Leak, Revamp, Repeat: How The HTC Rhyme Almost Went Unisex Posted: 20 Sep 2011 01:59 PM PDT  A while back, rumors surfaced about a new Android smartphone built by HTC. Rumors and leaks happen with just about every phone, but for this particular Android handset, we were hearing quite a lot about it. Eventually specs trickled out, but before that all we knew was that it was a phone targeted to women: The HTC Bliss (now known as the Rhyme). Leak: We heard it would launch in a “calming” sea foam green, and come with an LED-powered dangling charm to let ladies know if the phone in their purse was getting calls. We even heard that women-centric dieting and shopping apps would come along for the ride. This was unsettling. Joanna Stern of TIMN felt the same way I did, writing:
Even our own Sarah Perez tagged her own thoughts to the end of her leak post:
I second, +1, and “Like” all that was said. And what’s worse (that these ladies neglected to touch on) is that the phone itself wasn’t* all that great. By no means was it a “bad” phone, but the specs we heard about were average and likely to be outdated a few months later. With a single-core 1GHz processor and a 3.7-inch WVGA touchscreen, Sense 3.5 can’t really make up for what is very clearly a mid-range Android device. So why target something mediocre towards women? Because we don’t know what kind of processors we should want? Because we don’t enjoy beautiful, large touchscreens? I was at a loss. *I continue to use the past tense in this section as I’m referring to rumors, and what we knew then. Revamp: No doubt whatsoever, HTC saw the reaction. Many tech bloggers are male, so of course it wasn’t as fiercely disputed by the boys as it was by us woman-folk, but the reaction seemed pretty collective and HTC heard what was being said, which was: “Are you guys really doing this?” As the launch announcement drew closer and closer, specs, press shots, and even pictures of the accessories were leaked, and it looked like not much had changed from the info in the original rumors. The only new information we got on the Bliss was an invitation to the launch event (that happened this morning), in which HTC didn’t actually disclose the product they were announcing. But from the way that things were worded here in New York, this phone isn’t just for women. HTC was super serious about not using any female-centric words or pronouns once during the entire thing. In fact, they made a push to say that this phone was for “everyone.” I even asked an HTC rep at the event why we had heard no mention of women during the announcement. He robotically replied that this phone is for “everyone,” and that the Rhyme is more about following you through your daily life than being catered to a specific gender. Words vs. actions is an interesting thing, isn’t it? To be quite honest, not much has changed from what we had thought, save for a couple last minute switcharoos. The Bliss is now the Rhyme, which I guess has a bit of a more masculine feel to it than Bliss does, but not by much. Then there’s the “calming” sea foam green we had all expected, which has changed over to a dark plum color. Again, not too much of a shift toward “unisex” here either, but I guess it’s a small step in the right direction. And those dieting/shopping apps that were probably the most insulting part of the whole thing? Those are no where to be found, which is an entirely welcome announcement after all those rumors. But that silly purse-friendly charm is still alive and well, and even worse it glows pink. That same rep mentioned how men could hang the charm out of their work-out bag when they’re at the gym, but that seems like more of a hassle than a step towards making life easier. Purple may be a step up from a light shade of green, but still doesn’t scream “A man’s man should own this phone!” My point? HTC listened to the rants in the rumor phase, and in my opinion they at least attempted (albeit weakly) to calm the storm. By never actually saying that the phone was designed for women, HTC can technically get itself off the hook. The problem is that no man will buy a phone that comes with a “charm,” so no matter how much they say the phone is for “everyone,” it just takes a quick glance at the Rhyme to see how misleading that is. Repeat: Purposeful leaks aren’t unheard of. Not only do leaks build hype around a phone, but they give the developers a chance to gauge our first reactions. HTC didn’t do an excellent job of nixing all the obviously girl-centered features of this phone, but in small ways you can tell that we were heard. My hope is that HTC, and every other phone maker, will pay attention to the coverage of their products before announcement. Whether the rumor itself is true or false, anonymous internet commenters give the most brutally honest feedback you could ask for. Take the hints. HTC Corp, (TAIEX: 2498) produces smartphones running the Android and Windows Phone 7 operating systems for themselves and as an OEM to other manufacturers. Since launching its own brand in late 2006, the company has introduced dozens of HTC-branded products around the world. The company recently introduced the HTC diamond to compete with Apple’s iPhone. Founded in 1997 by Cher Wang, Chairwoman, and Peter Chou, President and CEO, HTC made its name as the company behind many of the...
|
| musiXmatch, The IMDB For Song Lyrics, Comes To iTunes & Spotify; Passes 1M Mobile Downloads Posted: 20 Sep 2011 01:55 PM PDT  I don’t know about you, but I’m awful at remembering the lyrics to songs, and I often find myself turning to Google search to answer my lyrical questions — and frequently, to lose arguments. Apparently, I’m not alone, as “lyrics” is one of the most searched-for terms on Google. While a quick search is often all one needs to flick on the light switch, overall, lyric search remains a pretty disappointing (and frustrating) experience. There are tons of lyrics sites out there, but most of them are unofficial, don’t have rights to broadcasting free lyrics, or they’re hiding malware. Founded in 2010, musiXmatch is a startup trying to solve this very problem by building a database of legal song lyrics on the web in the hopes of becoming the IMDB for legal song lyrics. So far, the site has collected over 5.5 million songs (in 18 languages) and is not only building a database that meets with international rights management standards, but it is also developing an API to distribute its lyrics to music publishers, services, app developers, and hackers. Phew. Today, musiXmatch is announcing the official launch of its “musiXmatch Lyrics App” for Mac OSX, which is available for $5 on the App Store. The plug-in enables users to automatically view full screen lyrics for the music they’re currently playing and includes support for iTunes and Spotify. The widget is still in its early stages, and the team said that it will soon be giving music fans the ability to search for lyrics by artist, song name, or keywords, and browse discography info on albums and artists — and share that info with friends through social networks. (Another cool update coming down the pipeline: Enabling listeners to automatically embed the lyrics into the id3 tag of your songs.) For iTunes and Spotify users like myself, musiXmatch’s widget is a pretty cool little add-on to the existing listening experience, as it automatically matches your iTunes and Spotify libraries (and automatically opens both), works with both platforms’ “radio” features, allows you to share lyrics to Facebook and Twitter, and receive Growl notifications. (And it works with Lion.) In addition to today's launch of its iTunes and Spotify compatible iOS plug-in, musiXmatch also shared with us that their mobile applications, which are available on iOS, Android, Symbian, and Windows Mobile, have been downloaded more than 1 million times. Over 50 percent of those users are active on a daily basis. musiXmatch’s mobile solution allows users to easily find and match lyrics for their entire mobile music library, and with desktop availability, a sweet API that lets developers easily distribute kosher lyrics, the startup is becoming a very appealing service for everything from radio streaming platforms and video services to tablet apps and OEM manufacturers. With partnerships that include BMG, Kobalt, Universal Music Publishing Group, and Sony ATV Music, among others, musiXmatch is becoming a very interesting business and platform. But, what about competition, you say? Well my friends, look no further than TuneWiki. While musiXmatch is an up-and-comer, the well-funded TuneWiki has been going mobile with its lyric-centric social music player for quite some time now. MusiXmatch is, now, essentially the European equivalent. It will be interesting to see how the two vie for marketshare going forward. Which would you choose, or both? Check ‘em out. musiXmatch is a new challenging start up offering “Lyrics in The Cloud” via a scalable Lyrics API. musiXmatch is the first fully licensed provider of global lyrics solutions, enabling developers and music fans around the world to quickly and easily harness the power of online lyrics. Featuring the largest lyrics database in the world, musiXmatch is the first and only comprehensive solution for international lyric rights management. musiXmatch's comprehensive lyrics API allows anyone to easily plugin and distribute authorized lyrics....
|
| Card.io’s SDK Comes To Android Posted: 20 Sep 2011 11:58 AM PDT  Card.io, the mobile commerce company started by two former AdMob employees, Mike Mettler and Josh Bleecher Snyder, is launching a software development kit (SDK) for Android today. The SDK for iOS launched in June, allowing mobile app developers to retrieve credit card information from cards held up in front of the phone’s camera. As of today, the company says that card.io is up-and-running in 80 iOS applications, with 750 developers in total having signed up for the service. The idea behind card.io is to make the experience of paying for items on mobile easier and faster. Instead of having to manually type in your credit card information, including expiration dates and the CVV code from the back of the card on tiny mobile keyboards, card.io users simply hold up their cards to their phone to pay for purchases. The solution has appeal across industries, including everything from e-commerce to ticketing to daily deal apps to retail. Among the 80 applications supporting card.io for credit card input are social payments platform Venmo, retail app Qthru, plus Newegg, Spotze, EventDay, Clinkle, TaskRabbit, Ambur, InvoiceASAP, BeagleApp, Floktu, WillCall and others. While we were hoping to see several more established applications jump on board with card.io right away, having 80 apps is nothing to sniff at, we suppose. And with 250 developers on board, card.io should become an even more prevalent option soon, at least in niche apps looking to gain traction. Meanwhile, payments company Jumio recently launched a similar service that will work on both desktop and mobile, but uses its own payments network. (Card.io requires developers to use the merchant accounts they already have in place). However, Jumio’s mobile app libraries for iOS and Android won’t go live until later this year, giving card.io the immediate edge in terms of availability. In the long run, though, Jumio’s will be the more complete solution. It will offer not just the scanning and card reading components, but the authorization, processing and fraud prevention features, too. Neither card.io nor Jumio is necessarily “better” – it just comes down to what a developer needs. Card.io is backed by angel investors Michael Dearing of Harrison Metal, Jeff Clavier and Charles Hudson of SoftTech VC, Manu Kumar of K9 Ventures, Alok Bhanot (former VP, Risk Technology at PayPal), and Omar Hamoui (CEO and founder of AdMob). App developers interested in the new card.io Android SDK can check out the demo available here on the Android Market. More details on the Android SDK are here. Card.io offers an SDK to developers that makes inputting credit card information as easy as holding your card in front of your smartphone’s camera.
|
| Fotopedia Creates A Flipboard Photo Magazine, But Its New HTML5 Site Looks Even Better Posted: 20 Sep 2011 09:41 AM PDT  For the past year, Fotopedia has been laser-focused on reinventing the photo book for the iPad. Now, with 7 apps and 4.8 million downloads under its belt, it is turning its attention back to its website and creating more magazine-like experiences. Today it is launching Fotopedia Magazine on Flipboard and pushing out a complete overhaul of its website, which is built on HTML5 and designed for tablet and smartphone browsers. “What we decided was to go to a different level of granularity,” CEO Jean-Marie Huillot tells me, “something that is always fresh, always new, to attract people back to have more engagement.” The Fotopedia Magazine in Flipboard will highlight five photo essays every day, featuring the high-end photographers who contribute to Fotopedia. These stories are told mainly through pictures that you can swipe through, with a paragraph of text and captions. Photo feeds are popular on Flipboard, and in this case Flipboard is creating the new channel from the new @FotopediaMag Twitter feed. When you drill down into an article, it takes you directly to the HTML5 site (within the Flipboard wrapper), which is designed for touchscreens. But even in a desktop browser, it looks gorgeous and gets you into full-screen slide shows quickly. Here is an example of photo essay on Iceland, and another one exploring the Indian state of Rajasthan. I actually prefer going to the Fotopedia site in my iPad browser than going through Flipboard. Try both and you will see an example of how HTML5 sites can be better than apps. The navigation is cleaner, and the wrapper doesn’t get in the way. But Flipboard is still an important distribution partner, and will introduce Fotopedia to a whole new audience. Fotopedia’s grand ambition is to become the photo encyclopedia of the world. Its audience is global, with nearly 40 percent in Asia, 30 percent in Europe, and 28 percent in America. China alone represents 30 percent of its audience. It has attracted a community of 30,000 photographers and curators, and through its iPad apps offers a way for them to get more exposure and even a little money. The iPad photo books are popular, with 4.8 million downloads and growing. But once you’ve flipped through one of the books, like the one it did with National Geographic, there is not much reason to pick it up every day. On average, active users come back twice a month. The tablet magazine format will get people coming back every day. fotopedia’s mission is to enable the creation of the definitive pool of images for everyone to contribute to, discover, use and enjoy, covering all areas of human interest. fotopedia (formerly known as fotonauts) will deliver the world's best tools for individuals to organize, enrich, share and collaborate with images, wherever they are stored. A Delaware Corporation, with offices in Palo Alto California and Paris, France, fotopedia was founded in 2006 by Jean-Marie Hullot, former CTO of NeXT and Apple’s Applications Division.... Flipboard is a digital social magazine that aggregates web links from your social circle, i.e. Twitter and Facebook, and displays the content in magazine form on an iPad.
|
| T-Mobile CMO Says No iPhone 5 This Year Posted: 20 Sep 2011 09:27 AM PDT  Bad news T-Mobile customers: you may have to cross the iPhone 5 off of your holiday wish list. According to a leaked document from T-Mobile’s OneVoice intranet, Chief Marketing Officer Cole Brodman has unequivocally said that T-Mobile will not get the iPhone 5 this year. The statement was pulled from his appearance at a company Town Hall at their Field Service Center, where the CMO fielded questions from inquisitive employees. Perhaps to ease the blow, he mentions that T-Mo will launch two new smartphones in the lead up to the holiday season right before giving all those iPhone rumors the axe. It’s almost certain that one of those smartphones is going to be their Qualcomm-powered Galaxy S II variant, but the other is still shrouded in mystery. Leaked images showed off an impressive device called the HTC Amaze 4G that was reportedly meant to hit T-Mobile — could that round out their holiday blitz? Even though his phrasing seems pretty clear, the web is already a buzz with people considering the semantics of his remark: does he mean that T-Mobile is getting the iPhone 5 next year? The iPhone 5 isn’t coming to T-Mobile yet, but does that mean the iPhone 4S will? While the debate rages on, it’ll take nothing less than a full reversal from Bellevue to convince us otherwise.
|
| Google+ Hits Beta With 9 New Features Including Search, Mobile Hangouts, And Open Signups Posted: 20 Sep 2011 09:17 AM PDT  In the roughly 90 days that Google+ has been available, Google says that they’ve made 91 different improvements to the service. Today brings nine more — a few of which are big. First and foremost, Google+ finally has search. Yes, I know it’s hard to believe that a service built by Google launched without it, but it did. Now Google+ allows you to search for people and posts simply by using the search box at the top. Of note, you can filter results by either “Best of” or “Most recent”. This also allows you to search the Sparks feature, which is still underdeveloped. The other big news: Google+ is moving from “field trial” to”beta”. Along with this upgrade, Google is opening signups for anyone. Finally, Google has rolled out a ton of new features for Hangouts, the live multi-user video chat service that has been an early hit on Google+. Of the changes, the biggest is the ability to do a Hangout from a mobile device. Google has updated the Google+ Android app with this functionality, and says an update to the iOS app will be coming soon. Another new feature is the ability to go “on air” — essentially a fully public broadcast. When you do this, up to nine other people can still join your broadcast, and anyone can watch. Google notes that the feature will be limited to certain broadcasters (read: big ones). They’re kicking it off tomorrow night with an On Air Hangout with will.i.am. Google has also started adding “extras” to Hangouts. The first ones:
Google notes that these extras are still under construction (read: beta beta). Finally, Google is also releasing an API for Hangouts. This follows the broader (but limited) Google+ API roll out last week. I’m sure all of these changes rolling out two days before Facebook’s big f8 conference are coincidental. War. A Google project headed by Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz, Google+ is designed to be the social extension of Google. Its features focus on making online sharing easy for users. “Circles,” think social circles, akin to Facebook’s lists “Sandbar,” a user-unifying toolbar “Sparks,” a search engine for sharing content between users “Huddle,” a group messaging app that allows users to share with certain “Circles” “Hangouts,” group video chatting designed to allow up to 10 users video chat at once Each Google+ user can replace his...
|
| With Version 2.0, Instagram Focuses On Re-engineering The Camera Posted: 20 Sep 2011 09:03 AM PDT  It was exactly one year ago today that I wrote up my initial lengthy preview of Instagram. I had a feeling that when it launched, it was going to be big. I underestimated it. Fast forward to today. Instagram is just about to hit 10 million users. They are the nimble upstart that has become the gold standard in the mobile social photo space . Everyone is gunning for them. And so it’s fitting that today, a year after my initial post, they’re unveiling version 2.0 of their app. First, it’s important to note what Instagram 2.0 is not: a completely new app. If the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies to anyone, it applies to Instagram. At its core, what they’ve built is clearly working, so there’s no reason to change that. But the Instagram team realized there was a way to dramatically improve the service while retaining the elements users love. So they set out to completely re-engineer the camera. The aspect of the app where the magic really happens has been completely re-done. When you first load the camera up, you’ll notice that it looks different. The limited settings buttons at the bottom have been replaced by more robust controls along the top of the camera screen. There you’ll find the flash toggle, the ability to flip to the front camera, and the ability to close the camera. But you’ll also find the new tools: border toggle, and a new water drop icon (more on that in a second). Along the bottom of the camera portion of the app, on either side of the shutter, you’ll find the button to load images from your camera roll and a new eye icon. Clicking on this icon alters the Instagram camera to make it so that you can see camera filters in realtime. Yes, you now see what a picture will look with a filter before you take it. How? Instagram has completely re-written the filters to make them as fast as possible. It used to be that you would have to wait a few seconds for a filter to be applied to a photo, even on the quick iPhone 4. Now it’s nearly instantaneous in Instagram 2.0. And this allows them to do live filtering as well. The filters now perform over 200 times faster, co-founder Kevin Systrom says. Other apps, notably Path, have done live filters before. But the performance has left something to be desired. And more recently, Path removed the ability and now focuses on filtering after a picture is taken. To be clear, with Instagram 2.0, you can still filter after a picture is taken as well. If you don’t click on the eye icon, you won’t see the filtering option until after you’ve taken the picture — just like the old days. But what’s really cool is that even if you filter an image before you take the picture, you can change your mind after you take it, and switch the filter. Speaking of filters, yes, there are more of them. Instagram has added four news ones with the 2.0 release: Amaro, Rise, Hudson, and Valencia. Instagram has teamed up with one popular Instagram user to make these and even more down the line. Going back to the water drop icon, this allows you to also tilt-shift in realtime as well. Or you can do it after the picture is taken. This tool has also been re-written to be 100 times faster than before, and it’s now more visually obvious what the focal point is. Once you take a picture, there is also a new option to rotate it, 90 degrees at a time. And again, there’s also now a border toggle to turn off borders for any filter that has them by default. That’s about giving users more control, and along those lines, Instagram is giving users another element many have requested: high-resolution photos. Previously, Instagram would save all photos as 612×612 — now they’re 1936×1936, taking full advantage of the iPhone 4′s camera. But it’s important to note that these high resolutions images are only saved to your camera roll. The images uploaded to Instagram’s servers are still the smaller variety. Instagram says they’re doing this in order to ensure fast upload speeds are maintained and because iOS 5 with Photo Stream will allow people to share higher resolution images that way. With these changes to the camera, Instagram is simply extending upon its lead in the social mobile photo space. The picture-taking process is now much faster and more powerful and that’s a win for all current users. These things will also convert even more non-users over to the service. They’re not changing what’s working, they’re improving upon what’s working. And Instagram’s timing is good. While Google quickly killed off its mobile photo-sharing fledglings, others, like Facebook, are widely expected to get into the game soon. In fact, we’ve seen pictures of their app. Color is also about to pivot to Blue, a new mobile photo sharing app that ties in deeply with Facebook. Other rivals such as Path are said to be working on completely revamped products in the mobile photos space as well. And with the launch of iOS 5 in a few weeks, more developers will be building photo apps with filters than ever before. One more thing: the Android app? No sorry, not yet. But Instgram did get a pretty new iOS icon. You can find Instagram in the App Store here. [image: instagram/thequeenrebel] Click to view slideshow.Instagram is a photo sharing application for the iPhone. It allows you to quickly take pictures, apply a filter, and share it on the service or with a number of other services. The team behind it is also behind Burbn, a location-based service that works with HTML5-compatible web browsers.
|
| Samsung To Make Bada OS Open Source And Part Of Your Smart TV? Posted: 20 Sep 2011 08:14 AM PDT  A new report today suggests that instead of snatching up a mobile operating system whose future is uncertain at best, Samsung hopes to help grow their Bada OS by making it open-source within the next year. Taking a page out of Google’s book, Samsung is looking at the open-source paradigm as a way to drum up developer support for Bada. Their ideal end result? A more compelling software package to connect with their high-end smartphone lineup. Samsung is also considering expanding Bada’s presence by taking it to a smart television near you. While their current smart TVs use a proprietary OS, a Bada-powered television could help unify their mobile and home experiences. Typical of the Wall Street Journal, this news comes straight from the mouth of “a person close to the situation,” but if true, it’s a move that makes much more sense than buying up a completely separate platform. Samsung has been sitting on top of a completely serviceable OS for nearly two years now, but it’s more-or-less only ever found its way to middling handsets. That said, devices like the recently announced Wave 3 are no slouch — Samsung just needs to shore up Bada with more developer support, and taking the platform open-source could yield some really interesting results. Of course, that’s not the only reason Samsung would be doubling down on their own OS. In the aftermath of the Google/Motorola deal, a renewed focus on Bada means that Samsung can also try to lessen their reliance on using Android in their product lines. The situation hasn’t forced things to come to that, but if Google ever starts giving Motorola preferential treatment with Android, Samsung will have something of a safety net built up.
|
| The HTC Rhyme: Apparently Girls Prefer Mid-Range Specs Posted: 20 Sep 2011 07:05 AM PDT  After wondering for a while what HTC’s mysterious media event would uncover, the woman-friendly (because women, like yours truly, apparently need gender-specific handsets) HTC Rhyme for Verizon has finally reared its pretty little head with several clever accouterments. As per the announcement (and earlier leaks), the Rhyme will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a 1GHz single core processor, with HTC’s latest and greatest version of Sense slapped on top. That’s about the best part, so go ahead and let your excitement peak out. Past that you’ll see a 3.7-inch LCD WVGA touchscreen with a 5-megapixel rear shooter and a 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video chat. As per usual, Bluetooth 3.0 and WiFi radios are in tow, along with 4GB of internal memory and 768 The HTC Rhyme also has charm factor. By that, I mean the phone literally has a little charm that is meant to hang out of a woman’s purse and lights up to tell if they’ve missed a call. While I see this as more of a Status-esque Facebook button gimmick, it will probably go over really well with 13-year-old girls. And that’s it. The Rhyme also launches with a surprisingly sweet charging station that also features speakers for improved sound quality, and what HTC is calling tangle-free headphones. Past those accessories, you’ll also get a Bluetooth headset (in matching magenta), a wireless visor speaker for the car, and an arm band for working out. As far as Sense 3.5 goes, HTC has thrown in 12 new stock wallpapers, updated the Flip clock, and added a preview tab that lets you peek into your recent emails, photos, music, texts and apps. These preview tabs remind me a lot of Windows Phone Mango’s live tiles, though on a much more subtle scale. Sense 3.5 also enhanced the camera app to add face recognition, the ability to take a quick-burst style series of shots, and a cool auto-upload feature. If you preset a certain Facebook album to upload pics from your phone, the Rhyme will automatically send any pictures taken on your phone straight to that specified album. This could make for a couple embarrassing moments, but it takes thinking out of the process of posting mobile pics to Facebook. According to Verizon, the phone will be available on September 29 at Verizon in-store and online, as well as at Target. Verizon says the Rhyme will cost $199 on-contract, with the docking station, the charm, and the headset all included.
|
| Social Entertainment App GetGlue Streamlines iPhone App Around Check-Ins And Tweets Posted: 20 Sep 2011 06:00 AM PDT  Social recommendations app GetGlue is debuting a new web UI and iPhone app in time for the Fall TV season. The mobile and web apps have become more conversation centric, with content surfacing around check-ins and Tweets about entertainment and shows. GetGlue allows users to check-in to their favorite shows, music, movies and books, and see what their friends are enjoying in real-time. With each check-in, users earn points and stickers from GetGlue and other major brands. The app also allows users to rate their favorite shows, movies, books and music and receive personalized suggestions. You can also share check-ins with your Twitter and Facebook friends, rate lists of popular shows, movies, music and books, receive weekly new releases and customized recommendations, and access existing reviews, clips and ratings for millions of shows, movies, books and albums. Using a proprietary filtering technology GetGlue's ‘Interesting Conversations’ feature allows you to keep updated on what’s being said about a movie or show. The new apps also features a deeper integration with check-ins and Tweets. After every check-in, users land on the conversation stream, where they'll find both recent check-ins from friends who are watching the same show as well as interesting check-ins from everyone. A Friend Leaderboard feature allows users can see a list of their top 10 friends around any piece of content ranked by the number of check-ins. As more consumers want a second-screen experience to accompany watching TV or movies, engagement with GetGlue is growing fast. Over the past four months, check-ins have increased by 130%, from 5 million in May to 11.5 million in August. TV lovers who use GetGlue this fall will have the chance to earn stickers, discounts and special rewards from participating networks including ABC, NBC, FOX, CW, HBO, Showtime, MTV, FX, AMC, Discovery, Food Network, Lifetime and other major networks. GetGlue has formed a number of branded partnerships with well-known media companies for the Fall including HBO, ABC, CW, Fox, Showtime, MTV, FX, AMC, Food Network, and Discovery. And late last year the startup received a $6 million investment from Time Warner, Union Square Ventures and others. GetGlue is a social network for entertainment that sparks real-time conversation about music, movies, television shows, celebrities, books and topics people are passionate about. GetGlue also offers users personalized recommendations and exclusive rewards from some of the biggest names in entertainment. GetGlue is at the heart of the rapidly accelerating "second screen" phenomenon, in which people increasingly choose to interact socially while consuming content. GetGlue enables consumers to connect to one another and express themselves in real-time while watching...
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from TechCrunch » Mobile To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
