June 24, 2010

iMovie for iPhone 4 Now Available

iMovie iPhone 41 300x300 iMovie for iPhone 4 Now Available

Apple [AAPL] launched the iPhone 4 today. Along with that launch the iMovie app for the smartphone was also launched. The iMovie app is for iPhone 4 only and costs $4.99 to buy.

The app allows you to create HD movies and edit them whilst on the move. A number of transitions have been included allowing you to create effects between two videos or between two segments on a video.

Made for Multi-Touch.

• Tap to add or record video right into your project.
• Drag to trim the lengths of video clips and photos.
• Pinch to zoom the timeline and get a closer look.
• Slide to scrub through the video in your project.

Give it a theme.

• Choose from a selection of themes including Modern, Bright, Travel, Playful, and News.
• Each theme includes a matching set of titles and transitions – plus its own soundtrack.
• Instantly change themes or swap themed elements in your project.
• Titles and graphics automatically update with location data from your video.

Add music and photos.

• Select from included music that matches each iMovie theme, or select from your own song library.
• Enable ducking to automatically lower the volume of background music and highlight audio from video clips.
• Add photos from your own library, or take a picture and drop it into your project.
• Customize each photo with a unique “Ken Burns” panning effect.

Share your movie.

• Export your movie in one of three sizes: Medium, Large, or HD.
• Share your movie on the web in a MobileMe gallery or on YouTube.
• Send your movie to friends and family in an email or via an MMS message.
• Easily sync your movie back to your computer.

The iMovie app is available now over at iTunes.

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June 16, 2010

Facebook Comments Getting a “Like” Button

There’s a small feature on the way that’s about to make another big change to the way people use Facebook: the ability to “Like” comments.

Much like you can currently “Like” status updates, wall posts and other items in the News Feed, Facebook has started rolling out a “Like” button for comments. The feature is not yet live for everyone.

The functionality is much the same as traditional “Likes.” In a blog post, Facebook (Facebook) writes that, “when you click ‘Like’ on a comment the commenter will receive a notification. Other people who can see the comment based on its privacy setting also will be able to see who has liked the comment.”

Already the web’s number one time sink, expect this feature to add a few more minutes per day to our collective use of Facebook.
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June 3, 2010

Hello Kitty Has Her Own iPhone Twitter Client



After Twitter purchased and relaunched Tweetie for the iPhone (now known as Twitter for the iPhone), many people expected the race for the ultimate iPhone Twitter app to slow down. Those individuals didn’t count on a Hello Kitty Twitter client. Yes, that’s right, we said a Hello Kitty Twitter client.

Developed by Digital Garage, makers of the free Japanese Twitter client Tappit, Hello Kitty on Tappit [iTunes link] is a fully skinned Twitter client featuring everyone’s favorite mouthless cartoon cat. The images are all licensed by Sanrio and the app works in both English and Japanese.

We’ll admit, we originally purchased this $3.99 app for the novelty factor. I mean, come on, a Hello Kitty Twitter client is the sort of thing three-year-old Christina would go completely crazy over. At 27, I still squealed like a little girl.

Here is where it gets interesting: As a Twitter client, Hello Kitty on Tappit is actually pretty awesome.


Advanced Features Plus Hello Kitty


The interface for the app is almost identical to that of Tweetie. The layout of the bottom menu is the same, and the compose menu and multiple account support work the same way.

In addition to being able to upload videos and pictures and shorten hyperlinks, Hello Kitty on Tappit lets you embed what are called “deco-images.” These images are basically little animated icons that can be viewed natively in any Tappit Twitter client or via a hyperlink for users of other Twitter clients. 40 of these deco-images are available in the app.

You can also choose between four different backgrounds for the client itself. We wish we could also change the color of text, as it is difficult to read on certain backgrounds.

Retweets are handled the same way the official Twitter app handles them. You can also use and search by geolocation, and view the latest trends (powered by What the Trend) and user profiles. The only feature that this app doesn’t have is Twitter List support.

Additionally you can customize gesture controls in the app for designated actions. By default, a swipe to the right will create an @reply. You can customize swipes to the left or two finger swipes to perform other actions, including favoriting a message and sending a direct message, retweet or quote.

For kitschy fun — or for users that want a Twitter client with superb Japanese language support — Hello Kitty on Tappit manages to be both adorable and functional.

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Mark Zuckerberg on Privacy and the Stupid Things He Did in College

Yesterday, Steve Jobs took the stage and was hit hard with questions on Adobe Flash, the lost next-generation iPhone and Facebook’s increasing competition with Google.

AllThingsD producers Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher definitely didn’t let up the 26-year-old founder. They questioned him on the recent privacy fiasco, instant personalization, his past at Harvard, and his future as CEO of the web’s most important companies.
The Privacy Backlash

Swisher and Mossberg wasted no time digging into the big issue: Facebook and privacy. Zuckerberg started by making it clear that “privacy is very important to us.” He says that Facebook isn’t out to make all of their users’ information public — that’s a misperception. In fact, he drilled deeper, saying that they never changed people’s privacy settings, they just suggested settings where some information is left public.

It didn’t take long for Mossberg and Swisher to turn up the heat, though. Mossberg asked Facebook’s CEO why he’s making people take extra steps to protect their information. Zuckerberg eventually responded that people still have control over their Facebook information, and more than half of the userbase has changed privacy settings at one point, demonstrating that most users understand the privacy tools.

That wasn’t the end of the privacy discussion, though. Much of the conversation became Mossberg and Swisher trying to get answers to one question, but Zuckerberg finding ways to dodge. There was no straight answer from Zuckerberg about why Facebook Instant Personalization was opt-out instead of opt-in. Most likely, we’ll never get one.
Zuckerberg the Kid, Zuckerberg the CEO

There was a lot of focus on Zuckerberg himself during his time on stage. Swisher asked Facebook’s CEO how he felt about the backlash against him and whether he has been accurately portrayed to the rest of the world. His response began with his telling Swisher that he “did a lot of stupid things” when he was in college, and that he doesn’t intend to make excuses for it. He was likely referring to IMs that recently surfaced that took a less-than-serious attitude towards privacy.

More of the focus was on Zuckerberg as the 26-year-old CEO of Facebook. He discussed how it is his job not to make the same mistakes of his competitors, although he once again dodged the actual question (“Who are your competitors in this space?”). He reiterated that he intends to be CEO of Facebook when it goes public, although he wouldn’t reveal when that would happen. Given his tight control over the Facebook Board of Directors, it’s tough to find a scenario where he would be forced out.

As with many of his interviews, Zuckerberg focused less on himself and more on generalities, such as his focus on building a great team and having a clear direction for the company. He didn’t seem to think of himself as the CEO of one of the world’s most important companies, but just the leader of a team that shares his values.

Overall, Zuckerberg likes to talk about the topics that interest him — the social graph, building great products, etc. — and he avoided answering the uncomfortable questions about privacy, controversies, and IPOs. Still, we give him credit for going on the stage of D8 at all.
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June 1, 2010

Cats Can Now Tweet with New Liveblogging Device


If you love your cat so much that you can’t stand to be away from it — even for a hot second — you’re in luck: Sony Computer Science Laboratories (CSL) Inc has developed a liveblogging device for Mr. Mistoffelees and friends.

This revolutionary new toy, which was created with the help of the University of Tokyo, comes all pimped out with a camera, an acceleration sensor and a GPS, which monitors kitty’s every move, translating actions like walking, eating and sleeping into tweets. Sadly, there are only 11 fixed phrases currently available (I’m guessing, “I left a lovely hairball in your sneaker” is not among them), but Sony CSL is hoping to improve Fluffy’s conversational skills soon.

The device fits easily onto the cat’s collar, so as to avoid hindering its movement, which means your cat can tweet all over the neighborhood.

We’ve seen an influx of novel Twitter functions of late: tweeting trees, tweeting beds and even tweeting cows. While the tech may seem kind of, well, silly, we could see it being of use to people besides lonely cat ladies. For instance, such a collar could be exceedingly useful for zoologists and the like.

What do you think of the tweeting cat collar? Genius or cat-astrophically ridiculous?

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Facebook and Google Maps Dominate Smartphone App Usage [STUDY]



Nielsen has released a new mobile application report and its findings showcase not only the increase in smartphone usage, but also what applications are most popular. For its report, Nielsen surveyed more than 4,200 people who had downloaded a mobile application in the last 30 days.

The survey really highlights just how much smartphone ownership trails traditional feature phone ownership, at least in the U.S. Nielsen’s study shows that 21% of American wireless subscribers have smartphones.

Still, even non-smartphone users have heavily embraced mobile apps. Nielsen’s survey indicates that the average number of apps that a feature phone user has on his or her device is 10, while the average number of apps a smartphone user has is 22.

Broken down even further, the average number of installed apps based on smartphone OS looks like this:

  • BlackBerry: 10
  • iPhone: 37
  • Android: 22
  • Palm: 14
  • Windows Mobile: 13

Most Popular Smartphone Apps


While the specific applications vary from platform to platform, the most popular apps across smartphones were pretty consistent in this report: Maps, weather, Facebook and music all had strong showings.

Check out this chart which breaks down the five most popular apps by smartphone OS:

It’s interesting to see just how much Facebook dominates the mobile app space; it’s one of the top five apps on each of the platforms highlighted. Still, Nielsen notes that broken down by demographic, MySpace is still very popular among teens and that LinkedIn is strong in the 25-44 demographic.

Do any of these findings surprise you or does this align with your own mobile app usage? Let us know.

source: mashable.com

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AT&T Stores Being Prepped for Apple iPhone 4G Launch



BGR is reporting that AT&T [T] is sending out engineers to corporate store locations to plan and set up new kinds of display in preparation for the next generation Apple iPhone that we are expecting to hear details about next week.

Not much is known about the new displays other than they are a "new kind of display" which we suspect is for the launch of the new handset.

Although there has been a ton of leaks regarding the Apple iPhone 4G, we still don't have all the details such as when it will arrive, what the final model will look like and how much it will cost. We expect to hear the full details at WWDC this coming Monday where Steve Jobs is doing the keynote.

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