The Next Web |
- SocialRadar’s iPhone app helps locate your friends by tapping into a range of social networks
- Facebook announces Paper, a Flipboard-like iOS news app that launches in the US on February 3
- Forgotify: Only play Spotify songs that have never been streamed before
- So it looks like Google and Samsung are pals again
- Peek: A simple, beautiful calendar app for iPhone
- Sony PlayStation Vita ‘Slim’ headed to UK on February 7, priced at around £180
- The original owner of @N still hasn’t got his Twitter account back – someone else snapped it up
- Popular financial planning service Mint now lets users keep track of their Bitcoins
- Korea fines Google $196,000 for collecting unauthorized data via its Street View program
- Coursera partners with Carlos Slim Foundation to translate courses into Spanish, boost education in Latin America
| SocialRadar’s iPhone app helps locate your friends by tapping into a range of social networks Posted: 30 Jan 2014 05:00 AM PST  SocialRadar has launched as an iPhone app that combines location data from social media services like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, and more to provide you a snapshot of where all your connections are. The new app has two components to it. The first is allowing it to bring in data from your other social accounts. Most of the usual suspects are covered. You use your Facebook credentials to login, but you can pull data from Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn and your iPhone.
SocialRadar's second purpose is to act as a real-time ambient location, similar to Highlight, Banjo and the now-defunct Sonar. Frankly, the ambient hyperlocal craze has died down quite a bit, but the problem still has yet to be solved. Co-founder Michael Chasen, who previously founded Blackboard, came up with the idea for SocialRadar while spending time on campus for his former ed tech startup. For years, he'd watched students leading trends like Facebook and Snapchat, and then he noticed that they were using location sharing to keep in touch. "I've always been fascinated by the fact that there are a billion smartphones around the world that are location beacons," Chasen told The Next Web. He wants to cross-reference all that data so that users can know who's at a meeting ahead of time, or walk into a restaurant and see who's there. "All that information is out there, but no one's put it together to make it so it's relevant,""he said. Once you connect your profiles, you'll see groups of contacts based on how you know them. You can also filter by category, such as employer, where you went to school professional, interests, demographics and venue. You can expand your "radar" range from as narrow as 25 feet to a global view, and you can, of course, plot your friends' locations on the map.
If you want to dive deeper into the app, you can set up IFTTT-style alerts for certain situations, such as when alumni from your college are nearby, and send messages to other users. In order to preempt one of the biggest complaints about ambient location apps, SocialRadar comes with a battery manager setting so you can keep taps on drain. The medium and low settings only update your location periodically and are meant to sip power. A high mode uses GPS to update your location in real-time, but turning it on comes with a noticeable impact on battery life. Despite the existence of several other location apps, Chasen believes SocialRadar has accomplished something no one else has tried with its combination of a social dashboard and real-time updates. In his view, users have specific purposes in mind when they share location data on social networks. Foursquare is for going out, Facebook is for life events and vacations, Instagram for when you're taking photos while out. "Only by aggregating all those different locations together [do you] get a sense of where people are around you," he said. While the app is currently iPhone only, SocialRadar says it's planning on releasing a Google Glass app in the next few weeks, followed by an Android version. The concept of SocialRadar appeals to me, but there's something kind of off about its current implementation. The interface has a clean iOS 7 look to it, but it manages to feel awkward and impersonal. Depending on how it's handled, location data can be creepy, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I was doing something almost inappropriate while looking at everyone's status updates. I do, however, love the serendipity of finding out one of your friends is in the someplace through Foursquare, Twitter Instagram, so having everything in one place is great. I suspect SocialRadar will really shine at an event like SXSW, so I'll give it another try in March. We're definitely interested to see how this app develops. ➤ Social Radar for iOS Photo credit: MICHAEL KAPPELER/AFP/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Facebook announces Paper, a Flipboard-like iOS news app that launches in the US on February 3 Posted: 30 Jan 2014 04:00 AM PST  It's been rumored for more than a year and Facebook has finally introduced a news reader app that will rival Flipboard: it's called Paper. The iOS mobile app displays stories around specific interests and can be customized based on a variety of topics. It's also the first product to come out of Facebook's Creative Labs, which is leading the charge to come up with new ways to help people better connect with one another. Paper will be available for download from February 3 and only for those in the US. There are no details of whether or when it will be available worldwide. Just like a newspaper, the app is broken up into multiple sections with the first featuring content from your News Feed. It will feature photos, videos, and longer-form written posts — shades of Cover Feed, perhaps? Users will have more than a dozen sections of interesting topics to choose from, whether it's photography, sports, food, science, or even design. Facebook says that one section to note is its Ideas section, which will offer a daily and in-depth look at a particular idea, event, or personality and will change each day.
The company tells us that the way things are organized within each section is based on its algorithm and curation team — in a sense its process is similar to Inside.com, which launched earlier this week. Paper is relying on computational programming and human-based expertise in order to know how good of a story is on Facebook, whether it's receiving any shares or comments or if it's visually appealing. Earlier this week, Re/code also reported that Facebook was looking to bolster its human curation efforts by hiring more editors. These individuals would be responsible for finding passionate and talented professionals within each topic to share their knowledge. These people wouldn't necessarily be celebrities in their field and could be those that simply don't have thousands of followers. However, it appears that stories shown in Paper will be those that are currently being shown on Facebook — there won't be any exclusivity in the app where certain stories will be available only on Paper. What makes Paper perhaps interesting to some users is that they'll be able to have that one news reader app that's tied directly into their Facebook profile. Facebook's most recent stats show that nearly 1 billion people are accessing the service from mobile devices each month. And while the News Feed may be one of the most trafficked parts of the social network, it's possible that the company wants to deliver some additional value and maybe improve upon its personalization algorithm and help discover new content you might be interested in.
The app also offers fullscreen viewing for content of various types. If you're looking at a high-resolution photo, tilt the phone in order to enlarge it so that you can explore the image from "corner to corner" as well as "see faces and other important details up close. Additionally, videos will autoplay and take up the entire dimensions of the screen. The full text of articles can also be read within Paper — the native browser app won't be opened. And yes, you can share content back to Facebook as Paper will allow you to customize how your preview will appear. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Forgotify: Only play Spotify songs that have never been streamed before Posted: 30 Jan 2014 03:31 AM PST
Around one fifth (20%) of Spotify's music has never been played on the music-streaming service. And given that Spotify claims to have twenty million tunes in its arsenal, that equates to around four million songs never seeing the light of day. With that in mind, a new Web app going by the name of Forgotify is looking to remedy this travesty by playing only songs that haven't been played before. Though there may well be a reason why many of these songs have never been played, but we'll leave that to you to decide. This also raises another important question – how long can this service last for? If even a few thousand people start using this with any kind of regularity, surely these forgotten wonders will be banished from Forgotify as soon as they get a single listen? Anyway, if you want to listen to tracks such as Aus dem Klavierbüchlein für… by Herbert Collum, Skinny Minnie by Ledernacken, or Lonely, Lonely Nights by Vernon Garrett, be our guests. Please note, you will be required to sign in to Spotify on your machine to use Forgotify. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| So it looks like Google and Samsung are pals again Posted: 30 Jan 2014 03:09 AM PST  The debate about the financial implications of Google's acquisition and sale of Motorola goes on in the wake of Lenovo's purchase of the company yesterday, but one thing that's for sure is that the deal is good news for Samsung. It may be the world's largest smartphone maker — based on pretty much any metric you choose — but things are getting a little tougher for the Korean firm. Its explosive sales growth has been slowing for some time and, while Motorola hadn't challenged it on sales, it was developing quality Android devices, like the Moto X, which had the potential to rival Samsung's Galaxy family. There was also always the issue of Google owning Motorola and Android itself. Now Lenovo has removed those points of fraction and, looking at other developments, it seems that Google's fractured relationship with Samsung is on the mend. (Lest we forget that Google executives were reportedly "worried" by Samsung's dominance of Android one year ago, while Samsung has dabbled with mobile platforms beyond Android.)
Indeed, 9to5google makes a compelling argument that the Lenovo-Motorola deal "has Samsung written all over it" — and there is certainly plenty of evidence to support a theory that the deal was made to appease Samsung. Firstly, there are signs of increased unison between the two companies. The duo agreed to their first patent licensing deal at the beginning of the week, citing the desire to promote innovation not litigation. (Samsung has said that before, but we found it hard to take seriously coming after the trial with Apple.) Secondly, there are reports that Samsung has agreed to "dial back" some of the tweaks and design tailoring that it had become renowned for on its Android devices. Case in point, a leaked image purporting to be its upcoming Touchwiz UI suggests it may give Google Now and other Googley parts of Android greater visibility going forward, rather than hiding them away from users.
Thirdly, as 9to5Google points out, Moto was developing into a Samsung rival — despite continuing to hemorrhage cash. Motorola's ownership of Google was always a major concern and conflict of interest, but there were signs it could steal increasing market share from Samsung — which would make Google's conflict of interest all the more awkward. Regardless of whether the deal was made to appease Samsung, or Google took the reigns to breathe life into Motorola and re-energize the Android ecosystem, Samsung is certainly among the biggest benefactors. That said, the deal brings increased competition as Lenovo will become the mobile industry's third largest player — behind Samsung and Apple — although it will keep the Motorola brand separate. It will be interesting to see what Samsung has in store for Tizen – the Linux-based operating system that it has backed. That commitment Tizen is evidence of Samsung's desire to explore other platforms, which was doubtless increased by Google's (brief) foray into competing hardware. Samsung's first Tizen device is almost certain to emerge at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona next month. Image via Dmitry Zimin / Shutterstock This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Peek: A simple, beautiful calendar app for iPhone Posted: 30 Jan 2014 02:51 AM PST  First up, it's worth noting here that we've seen a slew of so-called smart calendar apps come to the fore over the past year or so – there's Readdle's Calendars 5, Any.Do's Cal, Tempo and Sunrise for starters. And now there's Peek Calendar, which is entering the fray with its own unique take on what a mobile calendar could and should look like. Now, Peek isn't setting out to be an all-singing, all-dancing jack-of-all-trades that cooks you breakfast in the morning – it is all about the design. For me, Peek is very reminiscent of Clear, the to-do list app from Realmac Software. Indeed, if I'd downloaded this without any knowledge of who was behind it, Realmac would've been my first guess. Steve Jobs famously said, "Good artists copy, great artists steal." And while the good folks at Square Mountain certainly haven't stolen anything, they've probably borrowed a few design cues – but that's not a bad thing and it certainly shouldn't deter you here. Peek Calendar is a beautiful thing. How it worksPeek can automatically pull in events from your existing calendar, and it lets you add items too. Peek is all about the swipes and pulls, with little clicks and subtle sounds (these can be turned off) providing feedback for your actions. A long-hold on a specific day lets you add an event, including start time, duration, reminder interval and location.
Little sliders are used to set the time, and you can set the event to recur daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. You can opt to have the calendar display no events if you like, but then to reveal each day's schedule you simply tap the box and the events unfurl as if by magic. While only the event name and time is displayed by default, a swipe to the right reveals the location too.
As noted already, it's the little navigational animates and transitions that really elevate Peek to the next level, as you can see here – things don't just open and close, they fold, unfurl and generally dazzle.
Over and above the Clear-esque look-and-feel, Peek follows a basic design mantra – keep it simple. This won't necessarily appeal to uber-busy folk who demand automation. Peek is all about giving you access to your schedule at a glance. "Apps like Clear proved that simple tools that don't try to do too much can sometimes be more useful," explains Amid Moradganjeh, one of the developers behind Peek. "This is mainly the case for the group of people that are not necessarily that busy, and therefore, don't need an app that thinks for them. We designed Peek for this group of people that simply need to manage time on the go without being overloaded by unnecessary information and features. Peek is not meant to be the primary calendar for power users." Peek is available to download from the App Store now, costing $1.99 or your local currency equivalent. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Sony PlayStation Vita ‘Slim’ headed to UK on February 7, priced at around £180 Posted: 30 Jan 2014 02:10 AM PST  Sony has announced that its slimmed-down handheld PS Vita console will go on sale in the UK from February 7 and will cost around £180, making it £50 cheaper than when the original PS Vita first went on sale. The device, which is available to pre-order from today, had previously only been available to customers in Japan, but the consumer electronics manufacturer has decided to offer it more widely outside of its home market. In comparison to the original Vita, this version is 20 percent thinner, around 15mm (excluding its deepest protrusion) and weighs in at 219 grams, down from around 260 grams. Sony has also swapped the proprietary charger for a standard USB connector and given it 1GB of storage to get you going.
While it hadn't been previously offered outside Japan, it makes sense for Sony to now begin to offer a cheaper, lighter version of its device to users as it functions as a companion device that extends the possibilities for the PlayStation 4 console with things such as remote play of PS4 games. In addition to announcing the new handheld for the UK market, Ben Law, senior product manager of PlayStation UK, revealed that there will also be a new indie games Megapack that will include 10 games (such as Thomas was alone, Limbo, Hotline Miami and more) and a 40GB memory card. Law said the pack would cost around £20. Featured Image Credit – KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The original owner of @N still hasn’t got his Twitter account back – someone else snapped it up Posted: 29 Jan 2014 11:59 PM PST  A day after details of Naoki Hiroshima's worryingly tale of being hacked emerged, and the Echofon developer still doesn't have his @N Twitter account back — in fact, it has actually fallen into the hands of someone else, someone who is neither Hiroshima nor the hacker that repossessed it. Twitter locked down and removed the account as word of Hiroshima's story circulated, and it looked like he would get his account back soon — though the fact that he willingly gave it is likely to have complicated things, as TechCrunch explains. Things took a turn for the unexpected, however, when an opportunistic individual swooped to pick up the desirably short handle — which Hiroshima says he was once offered $50,000 for — once it was available, leaving Hiroshima understandably confused and frustrated. We reached out to Twitter to get further clarification about what is going on. We suspect that the company will sort things out once it realizes that yet another third-party is in possession of the handle, but the process is certainly a lot messier than it needed to be. It would certainly seem to be in Twitter's best interest to implement a system for this kind of situation — particularly since others have spoken up about attempts made to hack their accounts. As for the account itself — it's not clear who the new owner is. It seems unlikely that it is the original hacker, but, at this point in this crazy story, anything seems possible.
Headline image via DAMIEN MEYER/AFP/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Popular financial planning service Mint now lets users keep track of their Bitcoins Posted: 29 Jan 2014 10:09 PM PST
Now Mint's 10 million-plus users can keep tabs on their Bitcoin stash, alongside their existing credit cards, bank accounts and investments. The service converts holdings into US dollars to keep things simple amid the changing price of Bitcoin. Mint's Vince Maniago told Venture Beat that Bitcoin's mainstream appeal has developed to the point that "we felt like it was something we couldn't ignore anymore." That's a line that we're starting to hear regularly, with the likes of Zynga, Overstock and TigerDirect all adopting the cryptocurrency in the past month. ➤ Mint integrates with Coinbase, so you can track bitcoin with the rest of your finances [Venture Beat] Image via Antana / Flickr This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Korea fines Google $196,000 for collecting unauthorized data via its Street View program Posted: 29 Jan 2014 09:05 PM PST  Korea's communication regulator has fined Google 210 million won (approximately $196,000) for collecting personal data as part of its Street View initiative in the country, the Korea Herald reports. The issue dates back to Google's Street View snooping saga from nearly four years ago. Back in 2010, Google admitted that its Street View teams had collected "fragments of payload data" — i.e. information from unsecured WiFi networks — while driving around the world taking photos for Google Street View. The unauthorized collection went on undetected for three years, and included the capturing of data in a number of cities in Korea between 2009 and 2010. In addition to handing out a fine, the Korean regulator has ordered Google to delete the data in question, and keep a note of its progress doing so on its website. Google provided the following statement to us in response to the fine:
Korea's action comes far later than most other authorities across the world. Google has copped fines in Germany ($189,000), Belgium ($205,000) and France ($136,000). The issue cost it $7 million in the US, but it escaped with a warning from UK regulators. Related: Japan is by far the most popular Asian country on Street View, according to Google Image via PEDRO LADEIRA/AFP/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2014 06:40 PM PST  Coursera today announced it has partnered with the Carlos Slim Foundation to improve employment opportunities by offering access to high-quality education at low cost or for free throughout Latin America. The initiative will entail a major translation project to bring top Coursera courses into Spanish. The duo plans to translate 50 courses by the end of 2014. The Slim Foundation has already worked with Coursera to translate the service's user interface into Spanish. The strategic partnership was announced today in Mexico City by Carlos Slim Foundation founder Carlos Slim Helú and Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller. The collaboration will focus on three shared goals:
Some of the effort will focus on the translation of Specializations, the multi-course certificate program introduced by Coursera last week to help students master skills in high-demand fields. Yet the joint education initiative goes beyond Coursera's existing offerings. The two groups will also work with leading universities in Latin America to identify and develop new Spanish-language courses tailored to local employment needs in the region. These courses will focus on "high-priority subject areas," including Computer Science, teacher professional development, healthcare and public health, as well as essential professional skills such as communication and leadership. Today's announcement comes hot on the heels of news that Coursera blocked its online learning service in Cuba, Iran, and Sudan to comply with US law. The Internet has the power to offer education for all, but unfortunately politics still play a big role. See also – Coursera partners with 13 new institutions to pass 100 total, eclipses 5 million students and 500 courses too and Coursera leaps another online learning hurdle, partners with Chegg and 5 publishers to give students free textbooks Top Image Credit: Fred Kuipers This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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