Apps

Instagram surpasses a hundred million active users

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 26, 2013

Facebook-owned Instagram, despite negative publicity surrounding the controversial terms of service brouhaha, continues to grow its installed base. Today, the company announced a major milestone: Instagram now has over a hundred million active users across mobile platforms. That's ten million more active monthly users since it announced the 90 million milestone on January 17. By comparison, Twitter over a six-year time span hit 200 million active users, as of end of 2012.

Commenting on the development, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom shared an anecdote in a blog post about how he realized Instagram was going to be different when fans at the Giants Stadium starting posting their Instagrams after another co-founder "with a few quick commands at his terminal" filled the service with images of the game...

Facebook launches free or discounted Messenger access in 14 countries

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 25, 2013

Facebook on Sunday announced a new promotion that will allow users of Messenger for iOS and Android to exchange instant messages for free or at heavily discounted data rates in select international markets. Partnering with more than eighteen operators in fourteen international markets, the social networking giant said Facebook for Every Phone, basically a bare-bone service for feature phones that is now optimized for chat, is also included in this promotion.

The move arrives just after the company flipped the switch on the in-app VoIP calling feature in its mobile client for iOS and Android devices. Facebook first rolled out VoIP calling in Canada earlier this year, and some parts of the US, via the Messenger app...

Quick Key, a game-changing app for educators

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUqZYcAnUlw

Walter Duncan is a classroom teacher with fourteen year experience who dared to think different when it comes to grading papers. Looking beyond the tedious manual process, he came up with an app which scans grade papers using the iPhone's camera and then immediately turns pictures into numbers and logs that data with any major electronic grade system such as PowerSchool, for example.

This saves a hell of a lot time compared to manually entering the results and if the video above is an indication, the software does scan as quickly as he can move the papers. This game-changing app for educators isn't ready for prime time yet as they're looking for testers over at Power2Teach...

App Store and Google Play games top handheld entertainment

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

Is it game over for Nintendo, Sony and other handheld entertainment companies? That's the question as a report released Thursday shows consumers spent more on games downloaded from app stores than those designed for dedicated handhelds. Indeed, during the fourth quarter of 2012, more than 20 billion games were downloaded to smartphones and tablets. Perhaps anticipating today's finding, Sony announced Wednesday its new PlayStation 4 will support used games...

Traktor DJ makes the leap from desktop to iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 21, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScjJiGYawuM

German developer Native Instruments has long been regarded as the maker of some of the finest music and DJing software on the market and today they released Traktor DJ, a pro music mixing $19.99 iPad app that complements the desktop Traktor Pro software with bi-directional content synchronization and a host of other feature.

Unlike virtually all the other DJ apps that tap virtual turntables, Traktor DJ sports touchable waveforms and has two virtual decks, each with dedicated three-band equalizer and filter sections, including eight Traktor effects.

The app relies heavily on multitouch gestures: you can grab audio waveforms with two fingers to set a loop, perform scratches, mark cue points for live re-editing, and scrub, browse or navigate through tracks. Go past the break for additional tidbits and a hands-on video...

Another try at group photo sharing: Albumatic

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVfXuuLrnOI

A new iPhone app called Albumatic hopes to succeed where the likes of Color and Highlight have failed, to make sharing between groups of people easy and fun. It has a clean minimalistic interface that lets you easily start an album and add photos for others to see. Whenever you add a new photo, all the folks you've shared an album with get notified.

Folks nearby can join the album and add photos of their own and those that are farther away are only allowed to view the album, but not interact with the photos (likes, comments, etc.) We've seen this location-based photo sharing focus before and it didn't work out well (hint: Color), but Albumatic nonetheless bets party-goers will use it to share embarrassing cocktail snaps between themselves, Galaxy S III style...

Flickr updated with comment alerts, @username tags, volume shutter and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 21, 2013

After a long time, I recently fell in love with Yahoo's Flickr service, all over again. I mean, not everyone is on Facebook. More importantly, Instagram leaves a lot to be desired in terms of screen resolution so Flickr, which stores original-res photos, is becoming increasingly relevant to my iPhoneography workflow. The freshly updated software now supports @username tagging (with tags linked to users' photo stream) and can notify you via push alerts when someone tags you in their comment.

And if you happen to find the volume shutter feature of the stock iOS Camera app useful, you're going to love this update as it lets you snap a photo using your iPhone's volume up button. The program also includes a few other improvements, mentioned right below...

Apple and Google app stores are nearing saturation point

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Making it big in mobile apps is getting tougher. That's the finding from a company which researched how many new developers reach the top level at either Apple's iOS App Store or Android's Google Play. In fact, just two percent of first-time App Store developers enter the top 250 list of publishers while only slightly more - three percent - reach that level at Google Play.

As a result, three times as many "newcomers" to the app game publish for Google Play than the iOS App Store. According to analytics firm Distimo on average six Android apps are published for every two Apple titles. And the news doesn't get much better for newbie app developers hoping to cash-in at either app store...

Netflix gives its iOS app better playback controls

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 20, 2016

Netflix has a pretty decent app on the iOS platform that really becomes indispensable if you're among the growing number of people subscribed to its service that streams Hollywood movies and television shows to your home.

Today, the company has issued a new version 3.0 build of the iOS app, tweaking the user interface while adding a few improvements. For starters, the zoom icon is back so you can control your experience when in full screen.

And if you're on an iPad, you can also touch the player UI screen to see the title of the currently watched show...

Spotify and record labels in talks over free streaming on mobile devices

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 20, 2013

I get literally 90+ percent of my digital music through Spotify. Just ten bucks a month buys me unlimited, high-quality, ad-free streaming. Apple's à la carte iTunes downloads just don't stand a chance. But Spotify isn't the juggernaut of Apple's calibre so no wonder record labels have limited free streaming to computers and notebooks. That could change now as the Swedish startup is reportedly in talks with content owners over extending free streaming to smartphones and tablets like iPads and iPhones...

Audible launches iPad app

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 20, 2013

In the speeded up world I'm increasingly finding myself listening to audiobooks because I just don't have the time for long reads. Besides, reading is rarely a background activity.

That's what I love about spoken word: it saves time. I can enjoy my audiobooks while jogging, cooking, commuting and what not. Heck, I sometimes even listen to audiobooks while I simultaneously blog about technology.

Amazon-owned Audible sells some awesome digital audiobooks, radio and TV programs and today they've finally launched an iPad app. And let me tell you, it's been a worthwhile wait.

Of course, the Newark-based company has had an iPhone app in the App Store since July 2010. That piece of software, too, has received a major refresh today, bringing out a revamped interface, quick sign ups / sign ins and other tidbits...

Make room on your home screen for Sunrise Calendar (it’s that good)

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

https://vimeo.com/sunriseapp/ios

If the stock iOS Calendar app is too boring and you wish Fantastical, a nice iOS/OS X calendar alternative from Flexibits, had a raft of social features, don't miss out on Sunrise Calendar, a free iPhone calendar alternative by Sunrise Atelier, Inc.

The program pulls your appointments from multiple Google Calendars and Facebook Events and retrieves your weather forecast. Frankly, I was wondering why there was no app to combine weather data with my appointments, so I could make changes to upcoming meetings in case my weather forecast takes a turn for the worse. The only downside: Sunrise Calendar is made with Google Calendar users in mind (for now)...