Posts tagged "Apps"

Best Buy Playbook 2.0 ad in Canada mentions Kindle, Twitter apps

[via SlashGear]

Geek love: Dating apps that choose social over science

Algorithm-based online dating sites are a dime a dozen, and several new apps are trying to inject a little more personality into the system.

A recent study claims that algorithm-based dating sites aren’t all that they’re cracked up to be, and with Valentine’s Day just around the corner this could put the more Web-savvy among us on edge. There’s plenty to be skeptical about when it comes to online dating, and now you’ve been given even more ammunition.

If you’re weary of the same setup or need something outside the box to break up your Internet-inspired social life, there are options. A handful of Web applications are trying to put a new, less formulaic spin on the system.

Nerve Dating

The pitch: Stripping out the science in favor of casual conversation.

“The thing that baffles me is how the online-dating industry has become dominated by gimmicks, pseudoscience, robot matchmakers, and the deployment of virtual fruits,” CEO Sean Mills said at launch. “So even if you’re convinced it’s great to date online, these sties don’t make it feel so great. They look like places to book a flight, and they make you feel like you’re auctioning yourself off on eBay.”

Doing the exact opposite of its traditional competitors is the theme behind Nerve Dating. It claims it connects people based on the things that are truly unique to them by having users share opinions on food, bars, events, music, and everything and anything else. And instead of forcing members onto one another, you do more of the work yourself by “overhearing” what like-minded individuals are talking about.

Nerve Dating looks and feels more like a social networking community rather than most Web setup sites. It’s a more natural and conversational way to approach what’s inevitably going to be sort of awkward.

DuoDater

The pitch: First dates (online-inspired, no less) are bad enough. Rope in friends to make it less painful.

A few things about finding love online are bad. One is that personalities don’t always translate accurately, and algorithms aren’t faultless. Another, much more serious one, is that the Internet is an inherently unsafe place. A first date is always uncomfortable, but you should be even more on your guard if it’s with someone you’ve met online.

DuoDater is a like a security blanket to ease awkward lulls in the conversation and act as a safety net. You and a friend come as a package deal, and from there you set up dates with eStrangers and hope to find a love connection. It’s a less isolating way to approach e-dating, and easily a safer one.  

TheIcebreak

The pitch: Inject romance into your relationship – regardless of what stage it’s at.

TheIcebreak isn’t your traditional online dating site. But the e-romance world has been inarguably tailored to the plight of singles and their quest to meet new people. What about those already entrenched in relationships – isn’t there something the Web can do for them?

Turns out there is. TheIcebreak creates an ongoing dialogue for couples with prompts that get them talking or reminscing, a Pinterest-like wishlist feature which can serve well for gift-hinting, and a photo-sharing tool for collecting visual moments. There’s a public community aspect as well, but you’re more than welcome to use TheIcebreak for you and your significant other alone. You’ll be able to give your relationship the infographic spin as well so you can visualize how it’s all going. It’s like a private Facebook with analytics built-in.

The site is also rewards-based, and your participation will earn you Date Night Coins that you can apply to your nights out. After earning enough coins, you basically just prove you spent money on a date and TheIcebreak will send you up to $ 20 (20-percent off your receipt from said date). For social media junkies in love, that can translate into more than a few cheap dinners. 

[via Digital Trends]

Mercedez-Benz mbrace2 in-vehicle technology and apps hands-on

[via SlashGear]

If Facebook won’t bring filters to you, these apps will bring filters to Facebook

If you’re sick of pushing Instagram photos to the site, or one of the unlucky few without a smartphone, here are three tools to bring filters to your Facebook.

Last summer, Facebook was rumored to be eyeing Instagram. Obviously the acquisition speculation was merely that, and Instagram has gone on to quick and unparalleled photo-sharing success. And for its part, Facebook has been rumored to be developing a built-in filter application of its own.

Unfortunately, nothing has surfaced since. We’ve said for some time now that given its popularity as an image hosting platform, Facebook should integrate some sort of photo edits or effects feature. For starters it appears that its users clearly want it: the News Feed is constantly pulling in photos pushed from the Instagram app or PicPlz. Secondly, the photo-filter craze has hit full swing and the social network would be stupid not to jump on board.

Sure, Facebook’s primary focus is not to center itself with photos—it’s an all-encompassing site. But photos have clearly become top content on the site, and users want more.

We’ve nearly given up hope that Facebook will introduce this type of tool in the near future. If that spring IPO is on the horizon, then the company is about to enter its quiet period before filing and that means no big announcements. In fact, the debut of its Open Graph apps hitting the site was speculated to be its last major event. Post-IPO, Facebook obviously can still update the site with new features, but filters probably wouldn’t be a priority.

So if  you can’t wait and don’t want to push outside app photos to Facebook (or want to edit old images or don’t have a smartphone… the list goes on) there are a couple of options at your disposal.

Aviary

Aviary offers free Web editing software that’s reminiscent of Gimp or the now-defunct Picnik. After installing the app, you can choose any of your already-uploaded photos or choose a new one from your computer. It will only display a handful at a time, so you may have to hit the “show more” icon obnoxiously often.

There are 11 different filters, as well as a heavy helping of simple edits, like crop, enhance, and red-eye removal. You save the photo, and Aviary ports it into an album of your Aviary edits.

Pixlr-o-matic

Pixlr-o-matic is very possibly our favorite platform-free photo filter app. For the images you want to manipulate but don’t want to post to a community, this is a great option—made better yet by a Facebook app. Like Aviary, you can grab photos from your computer or from Facebook. Be forewarned: it will only pull up about 36 photos from each album, so you will be somewhat limited in these choices.

The app has 30+ filters, and that’s not counting its separate lighting effects and borders.

Phixr

Phixr doesn’t have the intuitive, nicely-designed UI the other two options do, but it certainly gets the job done. You have a variety of edits (add text, add icons, flip, adjust color and saturation… it goes on) and it also has color filters and lens filters. And it has a lot of them. What’s nice about Phixr is that it shows your original image and what it will look like with the filter side-by-side for comparison’s sake.

You are bounced out of Facebook (although this is done pretty smoothly). The benefit is that instead of auto creating a new “Phixr” album, you can choose where the editing image will go, as it shows a drop-down of all your albums. From Phixr, you can add a caption and tag anyone you want. 

[via Digital Trends]

Tobii Gaze: launch Windows 8 apps by looking at them [video]

Tobii, an eye-tracking technology company, has been working on making its Gaze eye-tracking technology compatible with Windows 8. With this new version, users can just look at App tiles and click on a trackpad or a mouse to launch them. There is no need to reach out to the screen and swipe, which is a bit awkward when not working with a tablet. Tobii says that Gaze can emulate every swipe motions from Windows 8.This is a new potential application for Gaze, which has been used in the past for professional or medical applications. Gaze requires the installation of an “Eye control device” which attach to the computer via USB. It looks a bit like a webcam that track where your eyes are looking. So far, the device has been successful at helping patients with motor skills impairments, but Tobii is now ready for the next level. What would you do with this technology?

Related articles:
Eye Asteroids need no joystick
Tobii X60/X120 is the most precise eye-tracking system in the world for mobile devices
Tobii PCEye released

Add a Comment   tobii 

Ubergizmo

Samsung Smart TV SDK 3.0 entices developers with paid apps

SlashGear

Apple TV hacked to allow the running of full-screen iPad apps

Digital Trends

Ten apps for your brand new iPad 2 : Christmas 2011

Should you receive or if you’ve already received a brand new iPad or iPad 2 for the holidays here at the tail end of 2011, the first thing you’ll want to do is download a few fabulous and essential apps. What follows is a list your humble narrator has put together for you, the informed reader, detailing what a set of 10 may well be for your instantly impressive apps collection. Everything from high-powered music software to pinball and back down to news reading apps. You’ll be set by the end of this post!

UZU

An app that’s been the #1 app in the App Store and was voted 2010′s Best Generative Art and Sound App, this magic creation machine never gets old. Touch your screen and let the magic flow, lines of color spinning and exploding in front of your eyes, all controlled by your fingertips. There are several versions of this app, free and pay, the one we’re most interested in is the plain ol’ Uzu. [Uzu on iTunes App Store] $ 1.99 USD

AC/DC Pinball

There are several pinball games available for the iPad made by the same group: Gameprom. This AC/DC pinball machine is hosted by a the same group that shows off SLAYER Pinball, an equally epic game, then the rest are hosted by Gameprom (shown in the iTunes App Store here). The AC/DC table is a great example of one that’ll instantly appeal to vast hoards of users because not only does it feature some excellent classic rock tunes, it’s one dern good pinball table as well. Gameprom is the current king of pinball in the mobile environment, no contest. [AC/DC Pinball on iTunes App Store] $ 2.99 USD

BONUS: Hands-on from launch day:

Soundrop

This absolutely impossibly simple application is so good, the developer was tapped to work with Bjork on her newest album because she wanted an app of her own. There’s nothing better for creating gravity-based beat music based on the dropping of digital balls and watching them bounce as they hit tune bars you place. Colors and sound assigning galore for one heck of a fun time for anyone and everyone. [Soundrop on iTunes App Store] FREE

Photo Transfer App

You can either go through the relatively laborious process of uploading all your photos taken with your iPad 2 to your computer with your cords and your apps and your waiting, you can connect both your iPad 2 and your computer to the same Wi-fi network and let it all work its magic with the amazingly simple titled “Photo Transfer App.” It has literally never failed to work for me and I use it all the time. [Photo Transfer App on iTunes App Store] $ 2.99 USD

Multiponk

In this game you’ve got a multi-player interface and high definition graphics combined with simple gameplay and a host of challenging computer opponents. Basically it’s PONG but with a slightly more 3D interface and it’s on the iPad. Because the iPad, like most tablets these days, has multi-point touch compatibility, you’ll be able to play with up to three friends in a four-way tournament, best bumper wins! [Multiponk on iTunes App Store] $ 4.99 USD

Asphalt 6 : Adrenaline HD

This is the greatest racing game to be released for the mobile platform thus far, no contest whatsoever. The only thing that comes close is Asphalt 5, and that’s not got nearly the fun we’re experiencing here. Race your favorite high-class car copied straight up from the real world, except for extraordinary details such as Adrenaline afterburners, and decide for yourself who will be your worthy opponent and who will be run off the road by your mighty hand. Crashing into your opponents encouraged! [Asphalt 6 : Adrenaline HD on iTunes App Store] $ 0.99 USD

SampleTank

When it’s time to get going with music making on the iPad, there’s nothing more diverse than SampleTank. And now that you’re fully functional on the iPad at full HD resolution, taps become hits on instruments of so many kinds your head will spin. Pull out the pads if you like patterns, key the keyboard if you’re an ivory superstar. Combine this with a variety of SampleTank associated hardware for a full concert-quality performance. [SampleTank on iTunes App Store] $ 19.99 USD

Google Currents

For reading blogs, there’s really nothing better than a brand new project created by Google and a host of partners that included SlashGear! Check in the Tech section for SlashGear sitting front and center, and be sure to search for Android Community while you’re at it – unless you’re a straight up Apple addict, of course, that’s your prerogative! [Google Currents on iTunes App Store] FREE

Shadowgun

There’s a third-person shooter adventure game on the mobile platform by the name of Shadowgun, and it’s the current benchmark in gameplay, controls, and graphics, to which all other similar games are compared. At the moment there’s no greater shooter game in the mobile world than Shadowgun, and it’s one whole heck of a lot of fun. Beware the zombie mutants around all corners. [Shadowgun on iTunes App Store] $ 2.99 USD

SlashGear

We’ve got our own app for the iPad and iPad 2 and yes, it does look and work pretty cool. You can get all your required reading in from an easy to navigate interface as well as check in on any new reviews we’ve done with futuristic projects from the gadgetsphere! Best of all, this whole situation is free of charge, of course! [SlashGear on iTunes App Store] FREE

SlashGear

Great Apps for Any Phone

Would you recommend this story? YES NO