Instagram Introduces ‘Photos of You’→

Linked By Cody Fink

Now available in both the App Store and Google Play, Instagram 3.5 introduces “Photos of You,” a new feature that makes tagging friends in photos as easy as adding hashtags. Anyone who has an Instagram account can be tagged in the photo, adding a new dimension of social photography on top of Instagram features like Photo Map, which describes where photos were taken.

The new Photos of You section in your Instagram profile will collect all of the photos you’ve been tagged in, helping to connect you with friends who may have snapped your picture. Similarly to Facebook, you can opt to approve pictures you’ve been tagged in before they appear in your profile. To give people a chance to play with the new feature, Photos of You will go live as a new profile section on May 16th.

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Should Tech Giants Take Greater Measures Against Smartphone Theft?→

Linked By Cody Fink

Brian X. Chen of the New York Times writes:

In San Francisco last year, nearly half of all robberies involved a cellphone, up from 36 percent the year before; in Washington, cellphones were taken in 42 percent of robberies, a record. In New York, theft of iPhones and iPads last year accounted for 14 percent of all crimes.

Some compare the epidemic of phone theft to car theft, which was a rampant problem more than a decade ago until auto manufacturers improved antitheft technology.

Michael Bloomberg has blamed Apple products for growing crime rates in New York City before, noting that the devices are the preference of thieves looking to make a quick buck. The New York Times has been increasingly and consistently publishing coverage on growing concerns over the theft of personal devices, and now several news organizations have referred to the act of snatching an iPhone away as “Apple Picking.”

Josh Harkinson of Mother Jones slammed wireless carriers for not doing enough to prevent smartphone thefts, asking why the phones couldn’t be tracked once they reach secondhand markets. Brian X. Chen does the same, but additionally asks why tech giants such as Apple aren’t doing more to curb thefts. San Francisco’s district attorney, George Gascón, says, “Unlike other types of crimes, this is a crime that could be easily fixed with a technological solution.”

Finding the specific accounts and highlighting individuals on Twitter would be invasive, but I do recall clear cases where those I’ve followed have had iPhones snatched out of their hands while simply leaving a bar. My campus email address is occasionally sent incident reports of parking lot thefts where iPhones are stolen from students after being confronted. It’s a real issue that’s not just happening in major metropolitan tech hubs. While carriers are jointly working together to track smartphone thefts with a national database, the IMEI (International Mobile Station Equipment Identity) number that identifies specific phones can be easily spoofed.

Many of those I follow have echoed requests for basic security precautions against thefts like this, such as requiring a password to power off iPhones so that features like Find My iPhone aren’t as easily combated by thieves. I think something as simple as that is smart, even if it’s a minor inconvenience for people who need to do so. We can argue that it is sole the responsibility of owners to hide their iPhones or be more discrete, but I do think tech giants should find ways make these kinds of thefts less lucrative. Thefts like this cost both consumers and local government — the NYPD even has their own division for responding to smartphone thefts. And no one should have to feel unsafe for taking a call or finding their way around town with their phones.

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FoxTube For Mac →

Linked By Cody Fink

Almost a year ago we highlighted FoxTube, an alternative YouTube replacement for iOS that filled in a lot of missing gaps. And even though Google’s own YouTube app (iTunes link) has replaced Apple’s and delighted many users, FoxTube is the non-Jailbroken power user’s player of choice, offering extra playback controls, media information on the lock screen, and the ability to play media in the background.

While I’m personally happy browsing YouTube on the web and using Tube Controller to integrate my Mac’s media keys, FoxTube has come to the Mac, giving anyone the power to download videos offline for later viewing, take advantage of advanced media controls, and play media through a convenient mini player. In contrast to many recent app launches for OS X, it’s even available for the latest version of Lion. FoxTube for Mac is $9.99, but you can download a free trial from the developer’s website. Due to restrictions on the App Store, I’d recommend purchasing the app from the developer to get the full set of features.

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Keeping Your iPhone Safe While Traveling →

Linked By Cody Fink

Dave Caolo of 52 Tiger has kicked off a short series of articles on traveling with the iPhone, starting with some basic security tips that will protect your phone from thieves and help you recover it in case it’s misplaced. He’s also featuring some related apps on his homepage such as easyJet for digital boarding passes. If you or members in your family are new to the iPhone, you’ll quickly learn how to take basic precautions to safeguard your sensitive data. Lastly, I still highly recommend Tris Hussey’s hardened security tips, which will prevent thieves from disabling Find My iPhone.

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Xconomy Gets Hands-On With Automatic for the iPhone →

Linked By Cody Fink

Currently available for pre-order at $69.95 and now shipping in August is Automatic, a combination of a smartphone app and OBD sensor for your car that tracks your driving economy, helps you diagnose problems with your vehicle, and helps you find where you parked. An iPhone app is launching first, with an Android app coming this fall. While it’s only available in the United States, Automatic makes for an attractive alternative against Verizon’s expensive Vehicle Diagnostics by Delphi, which includes a subscription and a whopping $249.99 up front, or Torque, which works with some Bluetooth OBD sensors but requires drivers to have more intimate knowledge of their vehicles to get the most out of the Android app and web interface.

Xconomy has a short write up and under 15-minute video on the sensor and iPhone app, featuring a test drive with Automatic Chief Product Officer Ljuba Miljkovic.

If these screen shots remind you of the jogging maps and calorie counts you get with a fitness app like RunKeeper or Runmeter, it’s not a total coincidence. You might think of Automatic as one harbinger of a “quantified car” movement paralleling the quantified self craze. Now that our phones have become so powerful—able to communicate with many different kinds of sensors, and full of sensors of their own—it makes sense that they’re becoming the information hubs for all of our daily activities, from exercising to eating to driving.

Automatic is interesting — at a least from a glance, the company isn’t just throwing a slew of information at consumers on a screen, but rather presenting relevant information in an interface that’s understandable and useful. Automatic knows that not everyone is a mechanic, putting the power of diagnostic information at our fingertips. Automatic’s goal is to improve upon driving efficiency, and Xconomy’s look gives a little bit of insight as to what you can expect if you have or will pre-order the much talked about smart assistant for your car.

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Jawbone Announces UP Platform API, Partnerships, and Acquisition of BodyMedia

By Cody Fink

Between occasional swaps during the initial run of Jawbone UP wristbands, I wore the original device for a year and continued as Jawbone’s refreshed model hit the marketplace. With UP 2.0 came an updated iPhone app, and Jawbone finally seemed prepared to launch an overdue API that developers could extrapolate data from. And while Jawbone’s bracelet was being refreshed, Nike parternered with Path for their Nike+ FuelBand for sharing their daily progress, something that was similarly suggested by TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis for the UP just months before. I can’t help but admit the same thought crossed my mind as an early adopter.

This morning, Jawbone announced their new UP Platform, a closed API that’s currently available to developers per application and approval. Currently, Jawbone has said that ten partners have worked with the company to integrate their services with the UP app for iPhone (with Android support coming soon).

Beginning today, the UP app version 2.5 for iOS enables you to integrate any of these 10
best-in-class services: IFTTT, LoseIt!, Maxwell Health, MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, Notch, RunKeeper,
Sleepio™, Wello® and Withings.

Integration with these services is mostly inclusive to the UP app however, presenting additional workout data or weight trends alongside Jawbone’s regular sleep or activity goals. The clear differentiator and the service that has the most potential to do interesting things with UP data is IFTTT, as Lex Friedman from Macworld explains.

Kittredge sounded particularly enthusiastic regarding the IFTTT integration, suggesting several clever “recipes” that Up users could try with that service, such as: If I sleep too little, text me later in the day that I should go to bed earlier; if I log a certain number of steps, tweet about it; or each day, append my progress to a Google document.

Also announced by Jawbone today is an acquisition of BodyMedia, a company that specializes in weight and calorie management, overall activity, and sleep tracking with their Armband and accessories. In their press release, Jawbone says that BodyMedia has the only platform of its kind registered with the FDA as a Class II medical device and that is additionally clinically proven to enhance weight loss.

“Jawbone’s deep expertise with consumer technology, design, and building products that fit seamlessly
into people’s lives is the best way to carry forward many of the innovations that BodyMedia has
developed over the past 14 years,” said Christine Robins, CEO of BodyMedia. “We are eager to pair our
depth of insight and IP with Jawbone’s expertise so that together, we can make an even bigger impact
on people’s health and help them achieve their goals.”

Jawbone launched the UP in 2011 and unfortunately, the band came under intense scrutiny as manufacturing issues resulted in problems such as the bracelets losing their charge after a couple of weeks. Hosain Rahman, CEO of Jawbone, offered early adopters the chance to get a full refund to rectify the issue and examine the problem. With the launch of UP 2.0, Jawbone didn’t just fix the issue, but reengineered the device to make it even more durable and water resistant.

The single-most thing that has me excited about the UP Platform is not only Jawbone’s commitment to making a better product, but also the opportunity for breaking data out of Jawbone’s mobile app. Unlike FitBit for example, there isn’t a web front where someone can log in and access their data — the UP band has to be plugged into an iPhone or Android phone first, and that phone becomes the sole gateway to your information. People wearing the UP band are probably using the device in different ways: for example I don’t track what I consume with Jawbone’s app for calorie tracking, but I do run and track steps. There’s potential for a developer to come behind and complement the data that I actually use and hide what I don’t need or want to see, personalizing my Jawbone dashboard from generalized data to something that shows me improved workout statistics. With any luck and a good developer, I’m also hoping that the UP Platform also lets developers use the band in more interesting ways, such as tracking pushups or body workouts instead of just steps. Integration with a partner like Wello gives me confidence that Jawbone is stepping in that direction.

[via Macworld]

Twitterrific 5.2.1: Notification Badges, Favstar, Trends, and More →

Linked By Cody Fink

Big update for Twitterrific today, including automatic theme changing based on local sunrise and sunset times, automatic timeline refreshing after posting a tweet or DM, and improved VoiceOver support. The list of updates is long, but the rest is comprised of bug fixes and various improvements.

By the way, if you’re looking for those Trends, they’re buried in Search under the Tweets tab. For Favstar, you’ll also have to turn on those links in the Settings under Other Services.

For more information on Twitterrific, be sure to read our earlier reviews.

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Cloak VPN Service Adds $1.99 Mini Plan: 5 GB per Month Across All of Your Devices →

Linked By Cody Fink

Cloak is an easy-to-use VPN service that safeguards the flow of information to and from your computer on public networks (like a Wi-Fi hotspot at Starbucks). Cloak’s plans have always been inexpensive at less than $15 a month for their top tier 60 GB plan, but their new $1.99 Mini Plan for 5 GB is absolutely killer. It’s incredibly affordable, offering just the right amount of data you’d likely use on the road.

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Pocket Introduces “Send to Friend” on First Year Anniversary

By Cody Fink

Pocket, Share to Friend

One year ago today, Read It Later was reborn as Pocket, transforming into a service that emphasized saving anything, not just articles, for later. For the past year, Pocket has rapidly iterated while landing on numerous devices between Android and iOS, even arriving on Apple’s desktops and laptops with a native Mac app. Recently, Pocket made it even easier to save stuff for later thanks to Feedly, WordPress, and HootSuite integration. With more than 8.5 million users who’ve saved more than 300 million articles in the past year, Pocket has also launched Pocket for Publishers, giving creators on the web an easy way to gain insights on the lifespan of their content.

Share to Friend Inbox

To celebrate their one year anniversary, Pocket is launching Send to Friend, a brand new feature that goes beyond sharing to Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Send to Friend improves upon email sharing, which Pocket found people used more than twice as often as sharing to social networks. Send to Friend allows for better interpersonal sharing between friends and family. Content can be shared with a comment and a highlighted quote, and if the person receiving the shared link also uses Pocket, they’ll receive a Push Notification and the content in their inbox. Anyone who receives a link can save it to their list of stuff to view later, or simply ignore it.

Share Menu

Lastly, Pocket improves upon their Share Menu by automatically bubbling up icons and making more convenient shortcuts to often used services and friends that you share to. If you find yourself sharing to Twitter and to a couple of particular friends more often, the Share Menu will place shortcuts to them first. Of course, you can always get to seldom used services at any time.

Pocket with Send to Friend is available as a free download in the App Store.

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