MobileCrunch |  |
- ARROWS Kiss F-03D: Fujitsu Japan Rolls Out “Women-Only” Android Handset
- Zinio Raises $20 Million For Digital Newsstand
- Rate Beautiful Images For Bursts Of Inspiration with DailyModi
- 2011 Holiday Gift Guide: Five Phones To Take Into 2012
- Drive A Bus Through The Desert On Your Phone (For Charity!)
- Android Researcher Hit With C&D After Dissecting Monitoring Software
- Windows Phone Marketplace: One Year In
- Fondu Is Foursquare For Foodies
- Samsung And T-Mobile To Launch A White Galaxy S II By The Holidays
- Intel Capital Invests $10M In Customized Android Distributions, Firmware Maker Insyde
- Blow Up Instagram Photos Into 20″ x 20″ Paintings With CanvasPop
- Ready For More Social Apps? Socialize’s “Social Action Bar” Hits Version 1.0
- Yet Another Ho-Hum Android Phone: Samsung Illusion Headed To Verizon Tomorrow At $79.99
- Occipital Brings 360 Panorama To Android
- Remember The Samsung Nexus Prime? Verizon Sure Does
| ARROWS Kiss F-03D: Fujitsu Japan Rolls Out “Women-Only” Android Handset Posted: 23 Nov 2011 04:01 AM PST  It’s not the first cell phone that has been designed specifically for women, but it’s certainly one of the most interesting, as far as features and specs are concerned. Fujitsu’s so-called ARROWS Kiss F-03D for the Japanese market runs on Android 2.3, is targeted at women aged between 20 and 30, and comes with “elegant and glimmering jewelry design”. The area around the “gem-cut” buttons on the front starts lighting up in one of 23 illumination patterns when users receive a call or message. Fujitsu also provides a small stylus that’s supposed to make it easier to write Japanese characters. The Kiss F-03D is waterproof (and ready for use in the bathtub), too. Users can choose between a set of different fonts, icons, and wallpapers. They can decorate pictures with a “special photo enhancement function”, control their body posture with a special app, or optimize their sleep with the Sukkiri Alarm app (which wakes them up when sleep is detected to be at its lightest point). Spec-wise, buyers get a 3.7-inch TFT screen with 480 × 800 resolution, a single-core CPU with 1.5Ghz, 1GB RAM, an 8MP outer camera, a 1.3MP inner camera, a microSDHC slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, infrared, a digital TV tuner, e-wallet function, wireless charging (Qi) support, etc. The Kiss F-03D goes on sale in Japan on Friday with an open price model.
|
| Zinio Raises $20 Million For Digital Newsstand Posted: 23 Nov 2011 03:17 AM PST  Zinio, which bills itself as the world’s largest digital newsstand and bookstore, has raised $20 million in new funding according to an SEC filing. Zinio provides global access to thousands of magazine titles from most major publishers in a variety of languages. The company’s website allows publications to be read online or offline on desktop computers (Windows, Mac OS X and Linux) and mobile devices such as the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, WebOS and Android handsets (they just launched their Kindle Fire offering). Originally founded in 2000, Zinio is owned by billionaire entrepreneur David H. Gilmour, with managing director Doug Carlson (who is solely listed on the regulatory filing documents) and Zinio founder and CEO Richard Maggiotto running the business. The company also recently appointed Virendra Vase, a former Jigsaw (now a Salesforce company) executive, as its new COO. Zinio is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in NYC, London, Paris, Barcelona and Taipei. Last we heard Zinio raised funding was way back in 2005, when the company completed a $7 million growth financing round led by North Bridge Ventures and Commonwealth Capital, partly to finance an acquisition. It’s unclear if they or which new investors participated in the recent $20 million funding round, but we’ve contacted the company for more information and will update when we hear back.
|
| Rate Beautiful Images For Bursts Of Inspiration with DailyModi Posted: 22 Nov 2011 02:21 PM PST  We crave inspiration. When energy is low or there’s a pause in our day, we turn to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. But there, stimulation is drowned in exhausting, endless streams of content. DailyModi is a brand new free iPhone app committed to structuring inspiration into bursts of discovery. With addictive finger swipes, you rate your way through 3 daily slideshows of paintings, shoes, typography, and more. Compare preferences with friends, and buy or learn about what you like. Leave feeling satisfied, and return tomorrow for more. DailyModi’s co-creator Gregor Hochmuth believes “It’s about creating a daily ritual. You know there’s content waiting for you. And it’s very quick and simple, you can play in two minutes.” Hochmuth explained that sites like Pinterest and FFFOUND are beautiful and different each time you visit, but there’s no prescriptive way to use them. By giving DailyModi more direction — there’s just 3 sets of 20 images to rate each day — the app pairs inspiration discovery with a sense of accomplishment when you complete the available sets. Modi, Inc was founded after Hochmuth, a product manager on Chrome, and the eponymous Shaun Modi, an interaction designer who created the G+ circle editor, both left Google. They first released PlayModi last month, a website that lets you create your own image or text sets, and browse those of others. AirBnB now uses a PlayModi Facebook Page app to let fans rate its top 40 destinations with their arrow keys. However, Hochmuth says “People really like the swipe gesture for rating things” and with the backend in place set out to built their mobile app. With DailyModi, you login through Facebook so it knows your gender and can tailor the fashion sets accordingly. You’re then shown the day’s 3 sets. They’re like slideshows, but you have to swipe up to like or down to dislike in order to proceed. When you complete a set you can share it as well as see the percentage, count, and Facebook friends who liked each image. If enabled, Push notifications improve retention by informing users when new sets have been added. You can then click through to buy the fashion products on sites like Zappos, learn about art and culture images through Pinterest, or just save any of the images to your photo library. This last feature makes DailyModi a killer way to find cool phone wallpapers, especially since all your liked images are collected in a shoebox on the app’s home screen. There’s still some rough edges. Set results take a few seconds to load, and there’s currently no way to share individual images, but these seem easily remedied. Its biggest challenge will be getting users actually make it a ritual, because since it lacks direct communication channels there’s less urgency to open it than a social network. In addition to monetizing through affiliate fees on products bought through the app, Modi has had a lot of interest from brands. They want to use it as a distribution and feedback channel for product promotion and market research. They could pay to offer a branded set, and then use the like and dislike data collected to refine their marketing or design strategies. I can foresee brands being eager to create sets and replace their slideshows with Modi embeds that can collect this valuable data. DailyModi is a breath of fresh air in so many ways. The finite set size keep you from feeling overwhelmed, and the daily turnover prevents guilt. There’s no overt prompts to share or produce content, so there’s no shame in spectating. What’s most innovative is that with DailyModi, inspiration isn’t a side effect of content consumption, it’s the explicit purpose.
|
| 2011 Holiday Gift Guide: Five Phones To Take Into 2012 Posted: 22 Nov 2011 02:06 PM PST  The holiday season is upon us, and no gift keeps on giving quite like a smartphone. Think about it — there’s probably nothing in your dear friend or family member’s life that he or she will use on a regular basis more than their trusty new smartphone. And if you happen to be a super controlling boyfriend or girlfriend, just think of this spent cash as the best possible way to keep dibs on your sweetie pie. Prices range from $50 to a whopping $300 so there should be something here for everyone. If not, check out the BlackBerry lineup at your nearest retailer because you surely won’t see it anywhere here. The Droid RAZR currently takes the cake as the thinnest smartphone in the world. If appearances matter to your loved one, this is the phone you should be looking at. It’s super thin at just 7.1mm thick, with heavy-duty Kevlar fiber back casing and a unique shape with squared off corners. I have yet to see any Android-powered hardware differentiate itself as much as the RAZR, but under the hood things get even more impressive. The phone is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and packs support for Verizon’s 4G LTE network. On the back you’ll find an 8-megapixel shooter capable of video capture in 1080p along with a 1.3-megapixel front-facing cam for video chat. Up front you can’t help but notice that 4.3-inch 540×960 Super AMOLED display and you’ll also find a number of pretty sweet pre-loaded apps out of the box too, such as Netflix HD and Motorola’s MOTOCast app. The Droid RAZR will go for $299 on-contract from Verizon. The Galaxy S II isn’t quite as new as some of the others you’ll find here (launched in late September), but it’s probably one of the most solid Android handsets I’ve used to date. Much like the RAZR, the GS II is pretty thin itself, with a 8.89mm waist line and rounded corners not unlike the iPhone 4. It sports a Super AMOLED Plus screen (4.3-inch at AT&T, 4.52-inch at Sprint/T-Mobile), runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor under the hood. The GS II also has its photography bases covered, with an 8-megapixel flash-equipped rear camera (capable of video capture in 1080p) and a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter for video chat. You’ll also find support for HDMI out in case you want to relive the Holiday memories on a big screen. The beauty of the GS II as a gift is that it’s available on three of the four major networks, including Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile. If for whatever reason you’re able to start your loved one on a fresh contract with a new carrier, I’d suggest nabbing AT&T’s version of the Galaxy S II. T-Mobile’s model doesn’t keep the same killer design dress as the others, and at 4.3-inches the AT&T model’s screen has a greater pixel density than Sprint’s. You’ll be able to nab the Samsung Galaxy S II for $199 on-contract from both Sprint and AT&T, though T-Mobile’s Qualcomm processor-packin’ version will go for a tad more at $229.99. The Samsung Stratosphere is stuck in the middle (with you). Not only does it have the median price point of all of our gift guide options, but it also seems stuck somewhere in between the future and the past. By that I mean, it has all the specs of any solid mid-to-high-end handset, but throws it back a bit in the keyboard department with a physical sliding five-row QWERTY. In fact, this is the only phone running on Verizon’s 4G LTE network to have a real-life keyboard so if your puddin’ pop simply can’t stand using your touchscreen keyboard, this may be what you’re looking for. Past the whole keyboard thing, you’ll also find a 4-inch 480×800 Super AMOLED display, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with flash, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing shooter for video chat, and a 1GHz processor under the hood. Unfortunately, there’s no 1080p video capture on this bad boy, but the trade-off for keyboard-packing LTE speeds is worthwhile for anyone who’s still hooked on real buttons. You can find the Samsung Stratosphere at Verizon for $149.99 on-contract. This year, if you’d prefer to get a stunned gleeful expression instead of the usual “you really shouldn’t have,” I’d suggest the affordably priced iPhone 4. I don’t want to sound like some Apple evangelist or anything, but there are plenty of closeted fanbois out there just waiting for the right excuse to go buy an iPhone. It’s only a matter of time. So why not just nudge the process along with one of the most popular smartphones of all time. Specs wise we’re looking at a 3.5-inch 960×640 Retina display, a 1GHz A4 processor, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of 720p video capture, and a VGA front-facing camera for video chat. But we all know it’s about much more than that. Along with some of the most expensive and high-quality hardware on the market, the iPhone 4 will ship with iOS 5 which comes with all kinds of awesome features like iMessage, a super slick Notfications Center, and iTunes Wi-Fi Sync. Plus, no one will be able to tell whether it’s the brand new 4S or the 4, which is a bit shallow but aren’t we all? The iPhone 4 would be a great gift at its original price, but for $99 you’re pretty much out of excuses. Android and iOS are wonderful, sure, but if you’re anything like me you’re ready for a change. Luckily, there’s a new kid in town and he’s actually much cooler than you’d think. Windows Phone 7.5 is a welcome disruption in the mobile OS landscape, with threaded conversations across almost all messaging platforms, Xbox Live integration, and a tempting live-tile UI. But the Samsung Focus Flash is more than a mere vessel. Even though it’s made of mostly plastic, a few hints of metal and a brushed dark grey finish give it a much more expensive feel, especially given the fact that the phone is a bit heftier than you’d expect. It sports a 3.7-inch Super AMOLED display, a 1.4GHz single-core processor, a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a front-facing camera for video chat. Plus, the IE9 browser in Mango is super snappy, and beat out my iPhone 4S just about every time in testing. It sure doesn’t feel like it, but the Samsung Focus Flash costs $49.99 on-contract at AT&T.
|
| Drive A Bus Through The Desert On Your Phone (For Charity!) Posted: 22 Nov 2011 01:05 PM PST  I hope you like the landscape you see here because if you buy Amateur Pixel’s new Desert Bus app, you’ll be looking at it for the next eight hours. Seriously. The $.99 Desert Bus app is a pixel-perfect remake of the original trek as seen in “Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors,” the duo’s first (and only) video game from 1995. In it, you play an intrepid bus driver named Jocko who’s tasked with driving his rig 360 miles from Tucson to Las Vegas. Ah, but there’s a twist: you’ve got to do it in real time. Don’t think you can let your phone sit there as the bus chugs along, either: the bus’s steering pulls ever-so-slightly to the right so you’ll have to make sure it doesn’t go off-road. If it does, the bus is getting towed back to Tucson in — you guessed it — real time. Here’s hoping you didn’t nod off at the wheel, because that’s one chunk of your life you’re never going to get back. Desert Bus has become something of a cult classic recently, and has even spawned its own yearly charity event. It’s only fitting then that all the proceeds from the app’s sales go to this year’s Desert Bus For Hope event, which raises money for the day-brighteners at Child’s Play. Versions are available for iOS and Android, but you may want to keep some No-Doz handy just in case.
|
| Android Researcher Hit With C&D After Dissecting Monitoring Software Posted: 22 Nov 2011 11:52 AM PST  Android security researcher Trevor Eckhart has recently found himself in some hot water after performing a deep dive into mobile tracking software from a company called Carrier IQ. He managed to figure out how Carrier IQ’s software worked and what it could monitor, but in doing so he has earned the company’s ire. Carrier IQ has filed a cease-and-desist letter [PDF] against Eckhart claiming that he committed copyright infringement by reproducing some of the company’s training materials in his post and that he made “false allegations” about the nature of their software. If you haven’t heard of Carrier IQ before, here’s a brief intro: Carrier IQ pitches themselves as the “leading provider of mobile service intelligence solutions,” and provides their services to a number of players in the mobile space. The company’s main U.S. carrier partner is Sprint, and Eckhart claims that their tracking software appears on Android devices from HTC and Samsung among others. According to Eckhart’s research, Carrier IQ is capable of monitoring everything from where the phone is to what apps are installed, and even which keys are being pressed. Carrier IQ says that the information is collected to give carriers insight into how the mobile use experience can be improved. It sounds like a noble enough goal, except Eckhart found that the software could run without the user’s knowledge or consent as was the case with the HTC phones he tested. Carrier IQ maintains that the data they collect is being handled responsibly, and Sprint goes on to say that they only collect information that helps them to understand their customers’ use experience. “We do not and cannot look at the contents of messages, photos, videos, etc., using this tool,” a Sprint spokesman told CNET. In addition to taking down the training materials (which were freely available on Carrier IQ’s website), they also want Eckhart to publicly retract his findings and apologize to them. If Eckhart doesn’t comply with their demands, Carrier IQ is ready to take the matter to court. That is, of course, if they have any legal standing. Eckhart reached out to the Electronic Frontier Foundation for legal representation, and they clearly didn’t think much of Carrier IQ’s chances should things progress to that stage. Here’s a brief snippet from the EFF’s response to Carrier IQ’s allegations:
The proverbial ball is in Carrier IQ’s court at this point — it’s tough to say what their next step is going to be, but I have a feeling we won’t have to wait too long to find out.
|
| Windows Phone Marketplace: One Year In Posted: 22 Nov 2011 11:52 AM PST  Mobile analytics firm Distimo has taken a look at Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace one year after its launch in November 2010. Now available in 35 countries worldwide, the store has grown consistently in size and scope since its debut, at a rate of 700 new publishers added per month. But its app download volume, in comparison with market leader iTunes, is still quite small. In fact, it’s 39 times smaller relative to Apple’s App Store for the iPhone. The Windows Phone Marketplace was initially available to 17 countries with 18 added later on.* Distimo’s report examines trends among all 35. Today, Microsoft’s Windows Phone is being hyped as the 3rd major mobile ecosystem, with some analysts even predicting it will steal huge chunks of mobile market share away from Apple’s iPhone by 2015. However, in terms of its app store, it’s still the 5th largest in size, behind Apple, Android, BlackBerry and Nokia. At its launch, 70% of the mobile apps in the Windows Phone app store were paid and this continued to be the case up until February 2011. At that point, the number of free apps began growing exponentially. By June, there were 900 more free apps than paid apps in the store. But the following month, Microsoft kicked out over a thousand free apps due to developer violations with regards to their policy on “app spam.” (According to Microsoft’s rules, a developer cannot publish more than 20 apps with similar functionalities per day.) Even with the crackdown, the number of free apps continued to grow again, and by October, there were again more free apps than paid ones in the store. Distimo found that paid apps increased steadily over the past 12 months, with nearly 1,300 new apps per month, while free apps grew by 1,650 new apps per month. As is par for the course in other app stores, games are the most popular category of app for Windows Phone, too, whether free (33% of the top 100) or paid (54% of the top 100). (As of Oct. 2011) However, when examining local markets, the free/paid mix isn’t always as consistent. For example, in the U.S. and Australian Marketplaces, 50% of the top 100 free apps are games. But in Brazil, South Korea, Norway and The Netherlands, games account for only 15% to 20% of the top free apps. Meanwhile, in the U.K and South Africa, games account for 64% of the top paid apps and in Brazil and South Korea only 10% of the top paid apps are games. This latter situation is likely impacted by those countries’ “notorious” game rating policies, says Distimo. In terms of downloads, the U.S. leads, with 101,000 free app downloads and 20,000 paid app downloads per day (out of the top 300 most downloaded apps). Compared with the iPhone, though, these numbers are chump change – that market saw 43 times more free downloads and 16 times more paid downloads daily (also out of the top 300). In addition, when calculating paid downloads, it’s important to note that paid downloads on Windows Phone include free trials. These types of “paid” apps account for 80% of the downloads, which means that only 4,000 downloads (out of the top 300 paid) are generating revenue in the U.S. Marketplace. Outside of the U.S., the other top download spots include Germany, the U.K., France and Italy, which hold spots 2 through 5. Out of the more recently added countries, Japan has to largest download volume with 6,000 apps (in the top 300) downloaded per day. Japan and the U.S. also have the most unique content in their stores, with 215 and 1,361 unique apps, respectively. Chile, Portugal, Colombia and South Africa have no unique content. For the most part, the overlap of free apps is lower compared with the overlap of paid apps. This holds true everywhere but Brazil and South Korea, Distimo found. One not too pleasant finding: nearly half of the applications are only available in the original 17 countries. That means developers did not take advantage of the new countries when launching their apps or have not updated their older pre-Mango apps since the Mango 7.5 release, which brought the additional countries on board. That may be the most interesting finding of all, as it speaks to developer inertia in this app store. For more details, the full report is available here. * The first 17 countries were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United. The additional 18 countries added were Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden and Taiwan.
|
| Fondu Is Foursquare For Foodies Posted: 22 Nov 2011 09:00 AM PST  Last May at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC, Gauri Manglik and her two cofounders launched SpotOn, a mobile recommendation app for bars and restaurants based on where your friends have checked in on Foursquare. The people who ended up using the app used it more as a social network than as a recommendation tool. So Manglik and her team took what they learned and built an entirely new product called Fondu, which they are launching today as an iPhone app. “We are building a social network for writing bite-sized reviews,” says Manglik. It is a Foursquare for foodies. You can search for places nearby or pull up a list of your recent Foursquare check-ins, and review each place with a short comment and give it a one-to-four petal rating with a swipe of your thumb. The app gives you a feed to follow your friends’ ratings and mini-reviews, or you can see what is popular on a map near you. Fondu is designed to be an antidote to Yelp. “You write your review on Yelp and it goes to a community directory,” notes Manglik. “There are so many people you don't care about on the service.” With Fondu, you see only reviews from your friends and popular reviews which have been given “cheers” by the community. The company raised a $575,000 seed round led by ENIAC Ventures. The NYU Innovation Fund, Harbor Road Ventures, Blazer Ventures, Lawrence Lenihan, and Zach Aarons also participated in the round.
|
| Samsung And T-Mobile To Launch A White Galaxy S II By The Holidays Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:43 AM PST  I’ve always been something of a fan (a proponent, even) of white phones. Back in another life when I was consulting mobile manufacturers on their phone designs, it was always one of the first questions I’d ask: “This is great! Can you make it in white?” Back then, everybody acted like I was crazy. “White is too hard to keep clean!” they’d assure me. “The white bezel makes the black screen look smaller!” they’d say. These days, of course, white phones are all the rage. Sometime before the holidays, another flagship phone is now set to hop on the big list of handsets with snowy variants: the Samsung Galaxy S II. News of the hue-less model comes straight from Samsung themselves, though the announcement lacks details beyond its launch window of “in time for the holidays”. The announcement was made in partnership with T-Mobile, and only confirms that T-Mobile will be getting the white model. This is particularly interesting, as pictures of an identical white variant leaked out just days ago… but for AT&T. No official word yet from AT&T on when they might get it, but I’d guess that “in time for the holidays” window is the same across the board.
|
| Intel Capital Invests $10M In Customized Android Distributions, Firmware Maker Insyde Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:38 AM PST  Intel Capital, the chip maker’s investment arm, this morning provided some details about a recently made investment in Insyde Software, a publicly listed Taiwan company that specializes in system firmware based on Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) as well as customized Android distributions for OEM and ODM customers. Intel Capital injected NT$300 million, or roughly $10 million, into the company out of its recently announced $100 million AppUp fund. Intel and Insyde have long been working together, although we should note the software company also counts AMD, NVIDA and Microsoft among its technology partners. New is that there will be additional collaboration between Intel and Insyde Software on UEFI BIOS firmware and customized Android distributions for tablets, ultrabooks and other portable devices. The news comes after an announcement, made on September 13, 2011, that Intel had formed an alliance with Google for Android-based smartphones and tablets to be optimized for Intel's chips going forward (read: early 2012). The investment by Intel Capital is the fourth since Insyde's founding in 1998. The company supplies to OEM and ODM customers – including some of the world's largest computer systems designers and manufacturers – that are deploying Windows and Android on Intel-based platforms. In addition to UEFI BIOS, working in collaboration with Intel's Software and Services Group and its Netbook and Tablet Group, Insyde says it will provide “Android optimization, customization, and deployment services” for such partners worldwide. Related: Intel Capital Launches $300M Ultrabook Fund To Invest In Tablet Technologies
|
| Blow Up Instagram Photos Into 20″ x 20″ Paintings With CanvasPop Posted: 22 Nov 2011 08:17 AM PST  Over 10 million people have created artful iPhonography with Instagram, but they’ve never seen their masterpieces any bigger than a Postagram postcard. But now, thanks to a peculiar synergy between the mediums and a secret algorithm, CanvasPop has found a way to blow up Instagrams and print them as beautiful canvas paintings. See, Instagram’s filters reduce graininess and so does the texture of canvas. This means that even at 20″ by 20″, almost 10x their size on the iPhone, $60 CanvasPop prints look wall-worthy. CanvasPop is an expert at image upsizing, having been spun out of DNA 11 which printed blowups of DNA strands. CanvasPop launched 2 years ago to help emancipate low-resolution photos from mobile devices and social network. It accepts even the tiniest, noisiest images including old Facebook photos and those taken with the iPhone 3G. These are run through its algorithm that smooths pixelated edges, and the canvas they’re printed on further obscures any imperfections. Co-founder Adrian Salamunovic tells me CanvasPop saw Postagram and Prinstagram developing an Instagram ecosystem, and thought it could contribute something unique. Since those companies don’t have its technology and they print on paper, they’re restricted to producing stickers, small photo books, and posters tiled with little images. Built on the Instagram API, users can visit the CanvasPop website and authenticate with their Instagram account. They then choose their images, select print sizes ($30 for 12″ by 12″ or $60 for 20″ by 20′), and soon their prints are delivered to their door. The print CanvasPop sent me looked sharp from any farther than a few inches away. My only complaint was that it was packaged so securely to prevent damage in transit that it took me a few minutes to pull it free. Instagram has unlocked a generation of artists, helping people discover and capture the subtle beauty of the world around them. It seems tragic that once posted, Instagrams disappear down our social media streams and are rarely appreciated again. CanvasPop gives these works of art enduring life, and lets us express ourselves offline as vividly as we can on.
|
| Ready For More Social Apps? Socialize’s “Social Action Bar” Hits Version 1.0 Posted: 22 Nov 2011 07:33 AM PST  Socialize, makers of a “Social SDK” for mobile developers, is today launching version 1.0 of its “Social Action Bar.” This action bar is an easy-to-install mobile toolbar of sorts, which allows an app’s users to view the popularity of the app’s content, “like” and comment on items, and share content via SMS, email, Facebook or Twitter. In addition to the Social Action Bar SDK v. 1.0, the company is also offering an API for HTML5 developers with similar functionality. Socialize grew out of the app-making service AppMakr, which had previously built apps for brands like Disney, The Washington Post, Newsweek and Politico. In 2010, the company raised $1 million from Lotus founder Mitch Kapor, Bill Lee, Rich Chen, Charles River Ventures, and others. Shortly after, the company rebranded as “Socialize,” with the intent to provide mobile app developers with a customizable software development kit (SDK) that lets them quickly add social features to their apps. Says CEO Daniel R. Odio, the SDK can be installed in 5 minutes or less. The Socialize open source SDK, which launched earlier this summer, allows for the above-mentioned social activity (likes, comments, and shares), plus an “activity pane” allowing users to see what others have liked, commented on and shared, too. The idea is to add a social layer to all apps, allowing an app’s users to socialize with each other as well as with the brand itself. AppMakr is currently serving as the testing grounds for the Socialize beta, and the growth there has been massive. The beta channel is up 1 million end users from 30 days ago, with 3,768,381 users now testing the service. Meanwhile, the externally-implemented SDK is smaller, but also doing well, with 95,743 end users, up grom 45,000 just 30 days ago. Now the Socialize Action Bar SDK has reached version 1.0, which means it’s stable and ready for more broader testing. Developers interested in making their apps social can grab the new SDK from Socialize’s website here.
|
| Yet Another Ho-Hum Android Phone: Samsung Illusion Headed To Verizon Tomorrow At $79.99 Posted: 22 Nov 2011 07:17 AM PST  You know, I’m beginning to think that Samsung’s factory lines are rigged up like the bus in Speed. If at any time they drop below 50 newly created Android phones per month, bam! Factory falls down and Keanu Reeves never hooks up with Sandra Bullock. Alternative Intro: Samsung and Verizon are incredibly excited about their latest handset, the Samsung Illusion. You can always tell a company is excited about a product when much of the press release is dedicated to the riveting details, like its Underwriters Laboratory score. Before I rant on, the details: the Samsung Illusion, launching tomorrow on Verizon’s site for $79.99, is an Android 2.3 handset. It’s got a 1Ghz processor, a 3-megapixel camera, and all the standard goods (like Bluetooth, 802.11a/b/g/n, etc.) inside. And… well, that’s it, really. For the curious, there’s no support for Verizon’s 4G/LTE network. I mean, I get it. The Underwriters Lab score (and the other eco-focused-ish specs that Samsung chose to talk up this time, like the 70% recycled rear casing) give Samsung’s efforts some degree of “green” factor. But if saving the world was at all a part of Samsung’s goal, wouldn’t they stop releasing junk that they themselves seem to make obsolete the next week? Imagine the waste that goes into researching, developing, prototyping, producing, shipping, storing, and then eventually disposing of a handset that no one will remember in 6 months.
|
| Occipital Brings 360 Panorama To Android Posted: 22 Nov 2011 06:58 AM PST  It’s a good day for all you Android lovers out there, because today you’re getting a killer app from iOS land: 360 Panorama. The app is from Occipital, the 2008 TechStars grad, also makers of the (now eBay-owned) barcode scanner Red Laser. This is the first real-time panoramic photo capture app for Android, as the others on the Android Market require manual capture of separate photos followed by stitching. With 360 Panorama, you just move the device around to capture the image. In case you’re unfamiliar with 360 Panorama, it’s one of the easiest tools to take a 360-degree photo. All you have to do is launch the app and pan your camera around to take the photo. You can then save, email or share your photo to Facebook or Twitter. If, on the other hand, you previously used 360 Occipital on iOS, you already know that this is one of the better photography apps ever created. And if you were an iOS user who switched to Android, you’ll be happy to know that you can login once again using your same 360 Panorama credentials from before. For the most part, the Android version is the same as the older iOS app, but there are a couple of differences. For starters, Android users get one new feature that hasn’t made its way to the iPhone yet: an in-app list of saved panoramas. It should also be noted that the Android app doesn’t use gyroscopes at all yet, so it’s not recommended that you pan it against blank walls. (The next update, V1.1, will tap into gyros when it’s more stable). There’s an interesting side note to the story of this app’s development, too. Occipital had once abandoned Android development when it started back in 2008, citing performance issues. As Co-founder Jeff Powers wrote then:
Today, Android is finally ready for an app like this. “Only now has the OS come around enough to make this even possible (thanks to the NDK and Open GL),” explains Powers. Android users buying new phones will soon get a built-in panoramic photo capture app of their own with Ice Cream Sandwich’s (Android 4.0) default camera app. But 360 Panorama will work on almost any device made in the last two years, running Gingerbread (Android 2.3) and up. You can grap the new app this morning for 99 cents from occipital.com/360/app.
|
| Remember The Samsung Nexus Prime? Verizon Sure Does Posted: 22 Nov 2011 05:53 AM PST  It’s the age old tale. Company makes phone. Company codenames phone (sometimes multiple times). Company dabbles back and forth between a couple names before ultimately choosing the wrong one (*cough* HTC ChaCha *cough*). Carrier changes the name of the phone anyway, usually back to the better name (but sometimes to a ridiculously long and uselessly vague name). Happily ever after. Today the cycle repeats with none other than the holy grail of Android handsets, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus? Or is it Prime? You remember back before the leaked press shots and the official announcement, all of the rumors centered around a different name: The Nexus Prime. And what a perfect name it was. But sometime between then and now Samsung won the right to insert their Galaxy moniker into the name, effectively squeezing out the “Prime” bit altogether. Personally, I think keeping manufacturers’ individual brands out of a phone as sacred as a Nexus should be some sort ancient law, but seeing as the whole smartphone thing is relatively new I’ll settle for Best Buy and Verizon taking things into their own hands. Which is exactly what it looks like they’ve done. Right on the cover of this December catalogue for Best Buy is an ad for the Samsung Nexus Prime for Verizon (above), and if you flip a few pages you’ll see a second ad with a price tag of $299.99 on-contract (below). What’s odd is that Verizon still has an email sign-up page up on their site for the Galaxy Nexus. It does, however, exclude the word Galaxy in the URL. Perhaps they’ve left that up so as to not spoil the fun Nexus Prime fun (this is, after all, a leaked catalog ad), even if it is simply the Galaxy Nexus dressed in Verizon colors. Still no official word on availability, but it can’t be too far from now. Samsung absolutely wouldn’t miss out on the Holiday rush, especially with such fierce competition this season.
|
| 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 | |
