Over the past day or so the vituperation against the iOS 6 Maps app AKA the Maps app that makes you wish you were running Android has been rising on the blogsphere? Why? Well the app is kind of wonky, it doesn’t have StreetView, and it looks and feels like a twee designers vision of a ratty road atlas – hard to read yet surprisingly calming.
A new Twitter account @iOS6maps is offering a bit of levity by Tweeting out things that we can assume the Apple Maps team would say. → Read More
There’s trouble brewing in Pinterest land. Sex.com [SFW] (a site that can be arguably described as a Pinterest with yoo yoos and ha has) has been banned as a source for user pins, thereby reducing the freedoms of every man and woman who feels it is their god given right to create a Pinterest collection called “More Yam Yams Than You Can Shake A Stick At.” → Read More
Aaron Greenspan, a programmer and web entrepreneur who was a contemporary of Mark Zuckerberg’s while the two were students at Harvard University, has released a new batch of instant message conversations that allegedly took place between himself and Zuckerberg in 2004.
Though Greenspan has been less recognized in the press than the Winklevoss twins, he is not new to claiming that he played a neglected role in the founding of what is currently the largest social network in the world. → Read More
It looks like there’s been another bug in today’s launch of iOS 6. We’ve been getting multiple tips stating iOS 6 is causing a bug in users’ WiFi several hours after it’s installed. There are also tweets and a long discussion thread on the Apple website to that effect.
Heck, it’s already getting to the point where people are making jokes.
Here’s what the basic pattern seems to be: The WiFi works all right at first, but then you’re eventually booted off. → Read More
Moment.me is a newly launched iPhone application which automatically aggregates photos, videos and tweets from social networks, and then organizes them into multimedia albums it calls “moments.” It currently supports Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+ - meaning, it sources the content from those networks to create these moments, so you don’t have to change any of your current sharing behavior.
The system works using a proprietary “smart-matching” technology to determine which pieces of content should be organized together. When an event is ongoing, a red “Live” banner appears, indicating that updates are still coming in. → Read More
At its I/O developer conference earlier this year, Google showed off an upcoming browser-based collaboration with Cirque du Soleil that was meant to bring some of Cirque’s imagination to the browser. This experiment, Movi.Kanti.Revo, is now available online and it’s quite a trip. The experience makes full use of HTML5 and other moden web technologies and uses your webcam (or accelerometer) to track your movements as you wander through the imaginary world. → Read More
Back in June, Bright announced a new recruiting tool called Bright Score, a system that automatically scores whether someone is a good fit for the job. But that’s just one way Bright can make use of all the jobs data that it has amassed — the company claims to have processed more than 15 million job descriptions and 2 million resumes.
→ Read More
Silicon Valley, residents of California, and citizens in 11 other states can now register to vote online. California, the newest state to ease the inconvenience of voter registration, launched their online portal today. “Today, the Internet replaces the mailbox for thousands of Californians wishing to register to vote,” California Secretary of State Debra Bowen said. “Today we are taking the next step in the never-ending evolution of democracy and reaching every Californian.” → Read More
Already, apps are hitting the App Store with Passbook support, providing tickets, loyalty cards and coupons you can actually use. So I tried to do just that, using the newly updated Cineplex (Canadian theatre chain) app and my iPhone 4S, freshly updated to iOS 6. The experience wasn’t exactly as smooth as it might’ve been, and while I ultimately was able to get my ticket to Disney’s 3D Finding Nemo re-release, it wasn’t thanks to Passbook. Here’s a breakdown of how the process went. → Read More
TuneUp, the iTunes plug-in that improves your music library by fixing mislabeled songs, adding missing cover art, and the like, is introducing a fun new feature today — the ability to view the lyrics of whatever song you’re playing.
Adobe Systems reported third quarter earnings, missing analyst expectations. Adobe’s revenue came in at $1.08 billion, up 7 percent from the same quarter last year (analysts expected sales of $1.1 billion). Earnings were $0.58 on a non-GAAP basis ($0.40 on a GAAP-basis), which is inline with what Wall Street expected.
Operating income was $278.3 million and net income was $201.4 million on a GAAP-basis. Operating income was $391.8 million and net income was $291.2 million on a non-GAAP basis. Cash flow from operations was $263.3 million for the quarter. → Read More
The popular screenshot tool Skitch is launching on the iPhone today and Evernote, which bought the tool about a year ago, also just released version 2.0 for Mac and iPad. With this update, Skitch is also paring down Skitch’s smart but idiosyncratic user interface down to its bare minimum, leaving a lot of functionality that the application’s users always loved behind in the process. Skitch used to be the best screenshot tool for the Mac. Those days are now over. → Read More
Here we go again. Samsung (and its agency) has historically had no problem poking fun at overly-obsessed, iPhone-idolizing Apple fanatics, and just like clockwork, the Korean electronics giant has released a new commercial pointing out a handful of the iPhone 5’s omissions and foibles.
In case you don’t have a minute and a half to burn, here’s the whole thing in a nutshell: the commercial pokes at Apple’s (perhaps overly earnest) marketing language, the headphone jack’s new location, the new Lightning dock connector (twice!), the lack of NFC, and the general un-coolness of lusting after a smartphone your parents will probably want to own at some point too.
→ Read More
Makerbot has just announced the Replicator 2.0, a brand new Makerbot Replicator with a larger build plate, coated metal chassis, and improved software as well as better print resolution. In short, this is the Makerbot all grown up.
As you can see from the video, the new Replicator is completely rebuilt with new materials and a larger cavity that allows you to make projects of up to 410 cubic inches (11.2” L x 6.0” W x 6.1” H). It now supports 100-micron resolution and is optimized for PLA bioplastic.
→ Read More
As you know, Apple has released iOS 6 widely, and I’m not too stoked about the new Maps application. I’ve been using it for a few months thanks to the developer version, and my experience has been maddening. Why? Because I take public transportation. A lot. → Read More
Today, comScore released a study on U.S. smartphone behavior with respect to retail and shopping. The study found that 4 in every 5 smartphone users, which represents 85.9 million U.S. users, accessed retail content on their device in July. Amazon was the top retailer with an audience of 49.6 million visitors, followed by eBay with (32.6 million visitors) Apple (17.7 million visitors), Wal-Mart (16.3 million visitors), Target (10 million visitors) and Best Buy (7.2 million visitors).
Beyond traditional retailers, Ticketmaster attracted 5.7 million visitors as summer concerts and performances saw fans turn to their smartphones for tickets and information. Home Depot (4.4 million visitors) and competitor Lowes (3.2 million visitors) also saw traffic. Location-based shopping rewards app Shopkick saw its mobile audience reach more than 4 million visitors in July, according to comScore. → Read More
So it looks like another social media marketing company may be close to getting acquired. We’ve been hearing for a month now that Eqal — which builds “influencer networks” around celebrities and brands — is buying Everyday Health, a network of 25 health-related sites. → Read More
Apple has released an update to OS X that brings Facebook single sign-on to its desktop operating system. That means you can use your Facebook credentials to sign in to the network under “Settings > Mail, Contacts & Calendars,” and then use Facebook directly from system menus and Notification center to do share updates, sync contacts and more. → Read More
Here’s an example of awesome technology working, but potentially at the wrong time. The Salesforce/Dreamforce keynote was interrupted during its Ustream streaming due to copyright protection.
→ Read More
Millions of people are downloading iOS 6 right now, and many will use the Facebook contact sync feature to pull in photos and current phone numbers of friends. But rather than your real email address, they’re going to pull in hundreds of @facebook.com addresses. These addresses don’t actually deliver to your email, but instead to your Facebook Messages Inbox.
Why? Because with little notice, Facebook changed everyone’s email address visibility settings in June to hide the Gmail or other addresses we purposefully shared with friends, leaving just our @facebook.com addresses. If you don’t want to miss out on email from friends, here’s how you undo Facebook’s change. → Read More
Facebook engineer Sean Lynch has built a mind-blowing, custom server-monitoring tool for the company that uses heat mapping to keep tabs on a huge number of servers at a glance. Lynch is part of the cache performance team at Facebook. When things go wrong he needs to know quickly whether problems are being caused by caching or something else. Off the shelf monitoring tools just weren’t good enough. → Read More
We’re hearing that Nils Puhlmann, the cloud security expert who has worked as Zynga’s Chief Security Officer since 2009, resigned from the company yesterday, according to several sources familiar with the matter.
When contacted this morning, a representative for Zynga declined to issue a confirmation or denial, and said the company was “not commenting” on the matter.
This is the latest in a slew of high-profile departures from the San Francisco-based online gaming giant… → Read More
Courtesy of a new partnership with Buffer, users of the ‘make-your-own-online-magazine’-styled service, Scoop.it, can now schedule social media updates at the same time as they curate their topic-based news. As is now traditional with just about every new Buffer integration, I’m told that the tie-in with Scoop.it was a much requested feature by users.
Buffer CEO, Leo Widrich, writes breathlessly on the company’s blog: → Read More
One of the worst things about getting drunk far from home is having to abandon your car overnight which you then have to painfully retrieve it the following day, hangover and all. Sometimes, the car isn’t even where you left it – it’s been towed. A startup called StearClear launched earlier this spring to address that problem by offering a designated driver service that uses driver teams who drive you home in your own vehicle, with another StearClear driver following behind.
Today, the company is announcing some numbers related to its initial traction and an additional round of $600,000 in funding, bringing its total funding to date to $1.1 million. → Read More
A theme is emerging Marc Benioff’s keynote. Man, machines and social networks are part of the next evolution in technology and compares to the movements of the past forty years dating back to the mainframe.
The talk began with a video that featured a woman who tells her car she wants to go to work. It showed a man using an immersive environment and gestures to command a network of automated operations. → Read More
Apple introduced an update to OS X alongside the iOS 6 update today, version 10.8.2. It offers Facebook integration, allowing users to sign in with their Facebook integration at the system level and share links and photos directly from the OS, as well as see Facebook information in the Contacts apps and receive Facebook notifications in Notification Center. → Read More
So, iOS 6 is upon us and people are going to start getting their new iPhones this week as well. What they’ll soon (maybe) realize is that Maps for iOS is no longer powered by Google. And it sucks something fierce.
I’m not going to go into tons of technical detail as to why this is, but let me just say that when consumers are used to an experience for, oh, five years, and you all of a sudden change it, people are going to be angry or confused. I’m betting on both happening with the Maps app. → Read More
iOS 6 is here, and you’re probably in some stage of trying to download or install it on one or more device if you’re reading this, or at least contemplating an upgrade. Some might be thinking about hanging back, waiting to see if the changes result in a net gain or not. Well let me tell you upfront: this is an update that should please most, if not all, with the possible exception of a single area where growing pains are still apparent. → Read More
Apple has pushed iOS 6 live, meaning you can update now, either by visiting Settings > General > Software Update on your iPhone 3GS or later, iPod touch 4th gen or later, or iPad, or by plugging into iTunes and checking for updates. The update offers a long list of new features, including some highlights like system-wide Facebook integration, Apple’s new Passbook app, a much more generally useful Siri, and many more besides. → Read More
