Tag: app

On Telegram, that new messaging app

Seeing people signing up to Telegram. Heh. When you think the text messaging world is already inundated and oversupplied, another one pops up.

This one comes from the founders of Vkontakte, the Russian Facebook clone. Launched in August, it brands itself as perpetually free, no ads, decentralized, heavily encrypted, multi-device, multi-platform. You can do group chats with up to 100 participants and set your messages to self destruct after a set period of time. They’re still building features into it like voice and video calls.

You sign up using your phone number and because of this, I won’t be using it. I don’t use messaging services that give away my phone number to people, even my friends don’t have my phone number.

The founders don’t seem to care about making revenue from the service so there’s a chance that it could threaten WhatsApp if it does hit the low end devices like those running S40. If it doesn’t, WhatsApp has little to worry about.

When it comes to switching, It’s not so much about being able to pull people away from existing products, it’s whether the existing ones are no longer able to serve people’s needs or more appropriately, perceived needs because people are resistant to change.

Most people, despite the Snowden revelations, aren’t too concerned about their daily conversations being unsecured but for those who are, this is an alternative worth checking out.

http://telegram.org/dl
http://telegram.org/faq

Pinot’s Vine art

Making stop motion animation is one thing but @pinot has taken it to the next level with his Vine-imation. He drew every single frame. It’s like going back to the early years of animation.

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Windows Phone cannot maintain a Skype call in background

I downloaded Skype for Windows Phone as soon as I found out about the app. Although I don’t use Skype that much, it’s one of those apps that you just have to have on your phone. Funny that somehow Skype is beginning to be forgotten in this part of the world thanks to mobile text messaging apps like BlackBerry Messenger and WhatsApp. Skype is much more flexible and has a desktop interface, something that iMessage also has.

Anyway, the article on Ars Technica points out one flaw in Windows Phone’s app switching ability which is the lack of a persistent VoIP support. Apparently if you’re on a Skype call and you need to switch away to another application, say to look at a map or refer to an email, the call gets dropped.

This and the lack of USSD support are significant omissions from Windows Phone that needs to be remedied quickly. It is surprising that Microsoft had not included support from the beginning.

Windows Phone cannot maintain a Skype call in background

Samsung lied in its latest Galaxy Note video

Samsung Mobile USA put up a video this week showing several tasks that supposedly the iPhone can’t do but can be easily done on a big ass 5-inch Galaxy note with a stylus. A STYLUS! How 1994.

Of course, when Tap Magazine found out about it, they went to work on rebutting every point in the video by doing everything it said the iPhone can’t do, on an iPhone. Including shooting and editing the video.

Samsung lied in its latest Galaxy Note video

US Air Force Special Ops canceled iPad purchase because of Good Reader app

The purchase of nearly 3000 iPads as flight bags by the US Air Force Special Operations Command was canceled because it specified the use of Good Reader, a popular document management app which happened to be developed in Russia. Naturally, security concerns were raised after this fact was discovered. After all, the military wouldn’t want to be associated with potential risks originating from foreign products used in their operations would they?

As ridiculous as it sounds, I wonder if they’ve never heard of Air Sharing. It’s much better designed although it’s a bit more expensive but at least it’s American.

PC World has more details with comments from Yuri Selukoff, the developer of the software, who feels understandably insulted.

US Air Force Special Ops canceled iPad purchase because of Good Reader app

If Twitter is the backchannel of life, Path is the backchannel of Twitter

I’ve been so hooked on Path, it has managed to replace Twitter as my go to app every morning.

I love the private sharing feature it imposes on its members and I have no qualms rejecting sharing requests from people I know simply to limit my spread of updates. It’s not like I’ve left Twitter. My primary presence is still on Twitter but for a lot of personal updates, Path really is the place. Twitter is the public plaza where you seek out general news and other info.

Google+ would have been it though if the mobile app wasn’t so shit in the first place. Despite the focus on design Google has taken in recent months, its mobile app developers haven’t seem to be able to grasp how important a well-designed interface is when it comes to applications. The team has some serious issues to address.

Perhaps I’m part of an elite snob whose view on mobile apps have been so skewed by Apple’s near-meticulous designs, that I place a stronger emphasis on interface design in delivering functions, although Apple’s own apps are beginning to look ridiculous themselves lately.

Honestly there’s little to differentiate between Path and Facebook on mobile but Path isn’t full of people whose updates I don’t give a shit about. I mean yeah, I added those people on Facebook because I used to know them or I just met them but the kinds of things they share on Facebook are either duplicates of what they said on Twitter or that I’m so far removed from them these days that whatever they posted just fails to catch my interest anymore.

I set up this blog for Jakarta’s early Twitter adopters and as it turns out, Path is taking over the role what Twitter used to be back in the days of 2007-2008. 

Twitter is now like the mall and Path is that street corner cafe where you and your closest friends hang out. This is a funny analogy because back in 2008, Facebook was the mall and Twitter was the corner cafe. So what is Facebook now? I have no idea, I couldn’t care less and I only use it for messaging.

The other day I said that if Twitter is the backchannel of life, Path is the backchannel of Twitter.

finermac:

You can blog to Tumblr with myTumblr, a full-featured blogging client from MOApp Software Manufactory built just for Tumblr, entirely from the keyboard. A series of shortcuts let you pick which type of post you want to start (ex: Command+1 for Text, Command+5 for Link), and you can tab through all the fields like tags and the body of your post. When you’re done, Command+Shift+D ships the post off to Tumblr, just like it sends a message in Mail.

Simplenote. The notes app Apple should have came up with

Being a web oriented writer, I don’t have too much to ask from a text app, just one that has a built in word and character counts and a simple interface. I don’t find the need for text formatting or all the other fancy stuff that many word processing apps offer. Most of the stuff I do don’t even warrant text formatting although there’s that thing with embedding links in text.

Apple’s Notes in iOS is as simple as it gets but it requires me to copy out the text and put it into Pastebot because it doesn’t have word count, which is important in what I do. Notes also uses Marker Felt which tries to look friendly but reminds me of Comic Sans too much.

Along comes Simplenote. It’s the Notes app Apple should have came up with for the iOS. I’ve been using it for a while but it’s been recently updated. I suggest you read Shawn Blanc’s review of it.

John Casasanta shares tips on launching non-game iPhone apps

His tips in short: 

  • Be absolutely meticulous
  • Add some fun touches
  • Consciously social
  • Go big on the launch
  • Don’t depend solely on domestic sales
  • Listen to feedback and keep improving

Taptaptap’s Camera+ app sold in huge numbers in the US initially but then shifted to mostly international sales after a while. If you’re making an iPhone app, do not underestimate international market and make sure your app is not only worth using but also a joy to use.

John Casasanta shares tips on launching non-game iPhone apps

Macworld takes a first look at iMovie for iPhone

iMovie doesn’t seem to provide a way to import movie clips that weren’t captured on the iPhone. For example, you can’t import video that appears in the iPod app’s Videos area. And while you can add video clips to iPhoto and sync them to the phone, they aren’t available from within iMovie (though they do appear in the Photos app).

Macworld takes a first look at iMovie for iPhone