Vimeo has launched a sleek new iPhone app that has been built from the ground up. The new version of the video sharing app has been made in a step to improve its viewing and upload processes.
In a company blog post, Joseph Schmitt, lead developer at Vimeo, said that the ‘reimagined’ iPhone app was "awesomer, sleeker, more beautiful, way awesomer, and also much more awesomer than ever before." 
The sleek looking new Vimeo
The previous Vimeo app had face a lot of criticism over trying to bring in all the features of its website onto the phone to an audience who didn’t want them. The new app has done away with the editor function, which was rarely put to use anyway. This move has made uploads way faster, easier and more hassle free.
Another feature that makes using it a delight is the fact that it uploads videos in the background, while you fill in details like the name of the video, where to share it, etc. There is also a good looking status bar that shows you the status of your upload using which you can pause and resume uploads. It also automatically manages uploads so the progress isn’t lost if your phone loses connectivity midway.
The new Vimeo app has also made watching and discovering new videos a breeze by moving from a grid view to a tab based view. The four buttons at the bottom of the screen - besides the capture button- include watch later, and explore.
Users can share videos with ease too in-app, on Facebook, Twitter, through email, iMessage and SMS. This app, unlike its predecessor, has been completely built by the Vimeo staff. Vimeo has had a busy year. From appointing a new CEO and a reworked new website to adding a ‘tip jar’ and paywall options, Vimeo has had quite a makeover. The feature launched in September allowed Vimeo Plus or Pro members to add a button to their videos that let users click and donate anything between $0.99 and $500, in order to help the creators make more money. A pay-to-view service was also announced. 
The upload continues in the background while you explore new videos
The mobile app has become crucial for video sharing websites with even YouTube releasing an app for iPhones. The app that came preloaded with Apple products previously had to release a new app when its license to include the YouTube app in the iOS operating system had ended in August. The pre-installed YouTube app -- which was actually built by Apple using YouTube standards -- was not as full-featured as YouTube's own website, but it was popular. The app that was finally released in the iOS App Store by Google also for the first time featured advertisements unlike the time it was a preloaded app. |
Thursday 29 November 2012
Vimeo revamps iPhone app, makes it sleeker, easier to use
Adobe Photoshop Touch now supports 7-inch tablets
Adobe has recently announced the release of Adobe Photoshop Touch 1.4, which brings optimisation for smaller tablet displays including the iPad Mini and Google Nexus 7. It also adds new features and bug fixes for all users of the app. The update comes shortly after Adobe and Amazon's earlier announcement of Photoshop Touch availability in the Amazon Appstore and support for the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD.
Photoshop Touch 1.4 brings new features and effects, including:
Now optimised for 7-inch devices
Adobe claims that the Photoshop Touch app brings the legendary creative and image-editing magic of Photoshop to tablet devices and it is now expanded to support more tablets and displays to provide customers greater flexibility to create. Adobe Photoshop Touch 1.4 is immediately available as a free download for existing Photoshop Touch users in the iTunes App Store, Google Play and Amazon Appstore. For those who have not used this and new users may purchase the app for Rs 550 for iOS while the Android versioncosts Rs 539. Here is a quick look at what’s new with the Android app:
Earlier this year, Adobe announced the release of this app. Adobe Photoshop Touch offers core Photoshop features, as well as new capabilities for creating and sharing in an app custom-built for tablets. The app is a central component of Adobe Touch Apps, a family of six intuitive touch screen applications, inspired by Adobe Creative Suite software. Photoshop Touch gives users the ability to combine multiple photos into layered images, make essential edits and apply professional effects to create beautiful artwork, touch up photos, paint, lay out ideas and much more. The Scribble Selection Tool allows users to easily extract objects in an image by simply scribbling on what to keep, and then what to remove. With Refine Edge technology from Photoshop, even hard-to-select areas with soft edges are easily captured when making selections. Photoshop Touch helps users quickly find images and share creations through integration with Facebook and Google Image Search. |
Grid 2 achievements, trophies to be designed by Achievement bloggers
Developer Codemasters is enlisting the help of the Xbox 360 Achievements and PS3 Trophies websites to create the achievement and trophy list for the upcoming racing game, Grid 2. The websites will be working hand-in-hand with the designers at Codemasters’ racing studio to create an achievement and trophy list that will, hopefully, compliment the game and play to its strengths.
“If anyone knows the achievement and trophy crowd, it’s us,” said the editor-in-chief of Xbox360Achievements.org and PS3Trophies.org, Dan Webb, “For years we’ve been criticising lacklustre Achievement & Trophy lists, and now, we finally get the chance to put our money where our mouth is. Codemasters have put their faith in us to work with them on creating the ultimate list, and we’re looking forward to repaying that trust to design Achievements and Trophies with unique objectives that will put a smile on players’ faces with each and every unlock.” 
The achievements will be designed by achievement tracking websites
“Xbox 360 Achievements and PS3 Trophies are the recognised ‘go to’ sites for anyone interested in getting the most from their game’s Achievements and Trophies,” said Clive Moody, Executive Producer, Codemasters Racing Studio. “Their extensive knowledge coupled with our studio talent will make for a uniquely crafted list with insight from the experts, offering gamers real challenge and reasons to chase every possible reward. It’s a new approach, but we think it will be a lot of fun and a great way to give player’s an insight into this increasingly important element of game design.” Codemasters has generally been pretty quiet about the development of Grid 2. Back in October, the company released a trailer that showcased the LiveRoutes system for the game. It will be an optional feature in the game used to change the routes on race courses on a lap-by-lap basis. During the demo of the game at this year's Eurogamer Expo, the system was shown off on the Chicago race circuit. Over two laps, one of the sections had changed in the second lap – a straight road was replaced by a left-right switchback. Back in August, Codemasters had released an announcement trailer for the game. The trailer had shown off some bits of the new Ego Engine 3.0. The original game, Grid is still counted as one of the best arcade racing games ever. Many racing games have tried to attain the fine balance between arcade and simulation, but none of them did it as well as Grid. It was one of the first games outside the Dirt franchise to employ the Ego engine, showcasing stunning visuals and bone crunching crashes in urban and circuit environments. The factor that sets Grid apart from other racers right from its conceptualization was the ‘flashback’ feature. This game mechanic allows you to rewind time (much like Prince of Persia – Sands of Time) in case you make a horrid turn and total your car. The mechanic sounds like a complete gimmick on paper, but the flashback feature does an amazing job by helping players correct errors and cope with the extremely high speeds, while acting like a buffer between the blurring speed and detailed damage mechanics of the game. In a game like Grid where ramming your car into the railing can actually break a wheel, Codemasters has managed to cut us ‘not-so-talented-racers’ some slack by allowing us to move back in time every time we screw up. |
Google Drive update brings support for spreadsheets, homescreen shortcuts
If you’re the type who regularly writes and edits documents online, you’ll be happy to know that Google Drive on mobile devices now lets you make and edit spreadsheets. Google has launched an update to Google Drive that includes a new native editor that lets you create a new spreadsheet or edit an existing one right from the Drive app on your iPhone, iPad or Android device. You can switch fonts, resize columns, sort data and do much more in a spreadsheet. And just like on the online service, you will be able to see other people’s edits and comments in real time. Click here to get the update.
More interestingly, Google Drive now lets you create a shortcut to Drive files and folders on your homescreen. This will allow you to directly access frequently accessed files and folders from the shortcuts on the homescreen instead of having to navigate to the Drive app, opening it and then browsing to the desired file or folder. This feature can be quite useful if you have a truckload of files and folders stored on Drive. 
Now edit spreadsheets on the go
The update also includes a slew of functionality improvements to the Google Docs editor. You can now edit the contents of tables in the Google Docs editor. The updated editor also preserves the formatting of content when copy/pasting content within Google Docs. You can also enter the ‘Edit’ mode in Google Docs by single tapping, instead of having to manually switch between the edit and view modes. What’s more, the Send Link option for files and folders now has a new option that lets you copy links to the clipboard, in addition to giving you the usual roster of services and applications you can use to share links. This is only the latest in the improvements that Google is rolling out for Google Drive in a bid to increase the integration between its various services and the cloud storage solution. Just yesterday, the company announced that Drive has now been integrated into Gmail, allowing you to directly attach files to emails from Google Drive. This feature allows you to attach a maximum 10 GB worth of files to your emails. Google explained that since the files being sent are stored in the cloud, this feature would let the recipients access the most recent version of the file. Interestingly, Gmail will also work like a smart assistant and double-check that the intended recipients have access to the files being sent. This way, whenever a user sends a file from Drive that isn't shared with everyone; he will be given the option to change the file's sharing settings, without moving away from his mail. Moreover, this will work with Drive links pasted directly into emails. The new feature that will be rolled out over the next few days will only be available with Gmail's new compose experience, so you'll need to opt-in if you haven't already. Google also announced early this month that Google Drive now lets you share your files on Google+. People you share your files with can now view presentations, open PDFs, and play videos and music, right from their Google+ stream. Unlike shares on Facebook or Twitter, where you can only share links of certain files, Google+ adds functionality that would let you view your documents and presentations in the Google+ stream itself. If on a mobile device, the document or file will instead open in the Google Drive app. |
'Blue' could be Microsoft's new, low-cost version of Windows
Windows 8 is barely two months old and we already have rumours of Microsoft working on a new version of the operating system. Citing “sources familiar with the company’s plans", The Verge reports that Microsoft is already working on a new Windows version – codenamed Blue – that would be in the form of an update to be released in mid-2013. This is apparently part of Microsoft’s efforts to provide Windows and Windows Phone users updates on a more regular basis. We may see Microsoft pushing out annual updates for Windows, similar to what Apple does with its OSX platform.
The report cites sources as stating that Microsoft would still be using the Windows 8 brand for future updates. The update will incorporate changes to the user interface as well as the entire platform. The Verge’s sources even state that the pricing of the new operating system will undergo changes—Microsoft would make Windows Blue available at a low price point or even for free to ensure that users upgrade. The Verge states that Microsoft would update the Windows SDK and stop accepting apps built solely for Windows 8 once Blue is out, but you’ll be able to run Windows 8 apps on Blue just fine. 
Microsoft's next OS may arrive sooner than we'd thought
However, it appears that you’ll need to have a previous version of Windows installed to upgrade to Windows Blue. Also, if Blue is installed on a pirated copy of Windows 8, the built-in apps and the Windows Store would stop functioning. Microsoft may be planning to standardise its approach for releasing regular updates with Windows Blue, but it’s not doing too bad with Windows 8. The company’s Chief Marketing and Financial Officer for Windows, Tami Reller, recently revealed that it has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses since its launch on October 26. However, Reller has not mentioned whether these figures are derived from Windows 8 licenses sold directly to consumers, upgrade license sales, or channel sales. Reller also stated that Microsoft has certified 1,500 computers and tablets for Windows 8 so far, and that the number of apps available in the Microsoft app store has doubled since it was launched. She also mentioned that some applications in the Windows Store have earned more than $25,000 in revenue so far. While speaking at a meeting for software developers at Microsoft's headquarters near Seattle in late October, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated that the company had sold more than 4 million upgrade licenses in the first three days of its launch. He had also predicted that hundreds of millions of Windows systems would be sold over the next year, and said that the company was seeing strong interest from business users. Ballmer had earlier stated that Windows 8 was outselling the previous version, Windows 7, at the same stage after launch three years ago. |
Dutch court orders Samsung to pay damages to Apple
In what has come as a big blow to Samsung, a Dutch court recently ruled that the South Korean giant's Galaxy smartphones and tablets infringe an Apple patent. Samsung has been ordered to pay damages to Apple -- how much will be decided upon based on the profit the company amassed from the sales.
The Dutch court went on to add that the patent battle pertains to the Android OS versions 2.2.1 and 3.0 used on the company's Galaxy line of tablets and smartphones. The Dutch court judgment is the latest to come in the long standing patent battle between the two technology giants.
Apple sought the inclusion of the Samsung Galaxy Note II to the list of devices, which allegedly infringes on Apple's patents, the Sydney Morning Herald reported recently. This development marks the continuation of the attempts of the warring companies to get sales bans implemented on each other’s products, which they believe infringe their respective patents. As per the filings at the San Jose federal court in California, not only does Apple want Samsung’s Jelly Bean-running devices included in the list, but also those running the Ice Cream Sandwich version.
Samsung ordered to pay damages to Apple
Only recently did Samsung Electronics receive a go-ahead by a US Magistrate, Judge Paul Grewal, in San Jose, California, to put forth its claims that the Apple iPhone 5 violates its patents. The US judge also allowed Apple to go ahead with its claims that the Samsung Galaxy Note, Galaxy S III, and the Google-owned Android Jelly Bean operating system violate its patents. This development is the latest in what has been a longstanding patent battle involving Cupertino-based Apple and brands manufacturing Android-running devices, Samsung being one of them. At the time, both companies had refused to comment.
Recently, Apple was ordered by a US judge to reveal the details of its legal settlement with HTC to arch rival Samsung Electronics. The South Korean mobile phone manufacturer had reportedly sought the details of the settlement with HTC earlier and had filed a motion to further it. Also included in the details sought are terms of a 10-year patents licensing agreement. A settlement between Cupertino-based Apple and Taiwan-based HTC had been reached upon only recently (November 10), the details of which were kept secretive.
Legal experts have added that by knowing the specifics of the Apple-HTC settlement, and licensing details, Samsung's efforts to block Apple's efforts to install a permanent sales ban on its products will get a boost. Samsung opines that it is "almost certain" that Apple's deal with HTC covers some of the same patents involved in its own patent battle with Apple.
Apple was directed on Wednesday by the court to furnish a full copy of the settlement agreement "without delay", subject to an Attorneys-Eyes-Only designation.
Reports citing court documents indicate that Samsung requested a California court to add three of Apple's newly released products -- the iPod Touch 5, the iPad 4 and the iPad mini -- to the existing list of devices that Samsung claims to have infringed on some of its patents.
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WhatsApp promises to fix 'Status Unavailable' error message
WhatsApp users seeing the status message of their contacts as “Error: Status Unavailable’ need not panic. The popular messaging service has acknowledged on its Twitter and Facebook accounts that the status functionality is not working and will be resolved soon. Those spotting this unwelcome sight have been panicking, and what’s also fueling the entire episode is the string of false messages circulating on the netwrork.
The message that Whatsapp posted on Twitter
WhatsApp users have been inundated with lengthy messages asking them to forward the message to others on their list if they want to continue using WhatsApp as a free service. The message also warns that those who fail to forward the message will lose all their contacts and their accounts will remain inactive.
The message reads something like this: “Hello everyone, it seems that all the warnings were real, the use of WhatsApp cost money from summer 2012. If you send this string to 18 different on your list, your icon will be blue and will be free for you. If you do not believe me see tomorrow at 6 pm ending WhatsApp and have to pay to open it, this is by law This message is to inform all of our users, our servers have recently been very congested, so we are asking your help to solve this problem. We require our active users forwarded this message to each of the people in your contact list to confirm our active users using WhatsApp, if you do not send this message to all your contacts WhatsApp, then your account will remain inactive with the consequence of losing all their contactsMessage from Jim Balsamic (CEO of WhatsApp) we have had an over usage of user names on whatsapp Messenger. We are requesting all users to forward this message to their entire contact list. If you do not forward this message, we will take it as your account is invalid and it will be deleted within the next 48 hours. Please DO NOT ignore this message or WhatsApp will no longer recognise your activation. If you wish to re-activate your account after it has been deleted, a charge of 25.00 will be added to your monthly bill. We are also aware of the issue involving the pictures updates not showing. We are working diligently at fixing this problem and it will be up and running as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation from the Whatsapp team” WhatsApp is going to cost us money soon. The only way that it will stay free is if you are a frequent user i.e. you have at least 10 people you are chatting with. To become a frequent user send this message to 10 people who receive it (2 ticks) and your WhatsApp logo should turn Red to indicate a frequent user. Am sorry had no option! And check now the status of every individual contact is showing : Status : error."
One of the newer messages that a colleague received
The best way to deal with such messages is to ignore them altogether and remain calm; there's no need to panic. Also, do not consider these to be legitimate.
Irate users have taken to popular social networking sites expressing their irritation over being bombarded with these messages by their contacts, while those who have been spared the hoax messages are expressing relief. Another good reason to rubbish these messages as hoax is a blog post (which although came out way earlier, deals with the same message) on WhatsApp that clarifies all doubts.
It says, “WhatsApp is going to cost us money soon. The only way that it will stay free is if you are a frequent user i.e. you have at least 10 people you are chatting with. To become a frequent user send this message to 10 people who receive it (2 ticks) and your WhatsApp logo should turn Red to indicate a frequent user.
Please understand that this is a hoax and there is no truth to it. While we are flattered that we made it to Hoax Slayer, we would rather work on cool new features instead of debunking silly stories like these.
UPDATE: this is a hoax message as well:
Whatsapp is shutting down on 28th jan Message from Jim Balsamic (CEO of Whatsapp) we have had an over usage of user names on whatsapp Messenger. We are requesting all users to forward this message to their entire contact list. If you do not forward this message, we will take it as your account is invalid and it will be deleted within the next 48 hours. Please DO NOT ignore this message or whatsapp will no longer recognise your activation. If you wish to re-activate your account after it has been deleted, a charge of 25.00 will be added to your monthly bill. We are also aware of the issue involving the pictures updates not showing. We are working diligently at fixing this problem and it will be up and running as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation from the Whatsapp team”
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