WebProNews

Tag: Updates

  • Ouya Updated With New UI, Storage Options

    Ouya Updated With New UI, Storage Options

    The holidays are quickly approaching and people are trying to decide which game console to buy. Should you go with the Wii U, PS4 or Xbox One? That’s a question that I can’t answer, but Ouya can.

    In an attempt to make you drop $100 on the micro-Android console this holiday season, the Ouya team has updated the system software with its biggest patch yet. The new update – codenamed “Abominable Snowman” – brings with it a number of new UI tweaks and storage options.

    With this latest update, the UI is seeing the most change with an increased focus on ease of use and readability. Here’s everything that you can expect to see:

  • Ouya is now more intuitive, visually appealing, and better able to feature your games. It’s even got built-in functionality to allow us to update featured games and the wallpaper on the fly.
  • All game titles are now underneath the tile art, for easier browsing.
  • Tiles have new icons for installed games and game with available updates.
  • Controller icons now appear for all connected controllers and will give a low battery indication.

    • Here’s what it looks like:

    Ouya System Update Gives Micro-Console New UI

    In other good news, double-tapping the Ouya button will now bring up the system menu instead of exiting the game. From the system menu, you can exit games, eject external drives, turn off controllers or put the Ouya into sleep mode.

    The other major update in the latest system software moves external storage support from closed to open beta. In other words, all users can now plug an external USB drive into their Ouya for additional storage. Here’s what you need to know:

  • We support NTFS, FAT32, and ext4 file formats.
  • Games on external storage are currently associated with the OUYA they were downloaded from (so you can’t use the storage to transfer a game from one OUYA to another. Sorry!).
  • If you’ve modded your system with apps like Link2SD, you’ll want to undo your changes in order for external storage to work.
  • You may notice some slowdown while a game is installing to USB. This is expected and is something we hope to address in future updates.
  • After downloading a game to external storage, sideloading an app will put it on external storage.
  • Some games do not properly move their saved game data when moved to an external drive. If this occurs, you can move the game back to its original location to recover the save files.
  • When connecting a USB drive, scanning can take a few minutes if lots of games (100+) are installed. We plan to improve this in future updates, but if you download all of DISCOVER, scanning will take a while.
  • Occasionally on bootup with an external drive attached, the screen wil go completely orange while the scanning takes place. You can wait for the scanning to finish, or reboot. We are looking into a fix.
  • When ejecting the USB drive, sometimes it will say a download is still going even if one isn’t. We are working on a fix for this.

    • For all other changes, including some minor bug fixes, check out the Ouya post about the latest update. You can grab it from the system update option on the Ouya console. There’s no word on whether or not the system update will be pre-installed on Ouya hardware sold during the holidays, but it would be nice to have one console this Christmas that doesn’t require a day-one update.

    [Image: Ouya]

  • PS4 Gets Its First Post-Launch Update Tonight

    When you got your shiny new PS4 last Friday, you were prompted to download system software version 1.50. This day one update enabled many of the features that Sony promised would be available at launch, such as game streaming on Twitch and Blu-ray playback. Now a second software patch is already on the way, but it’s decidedly less impressive.

    Sony announced this morning that an update will hit the PS4 today that upgrades the console’s system software to version 1.51. As the number indicates, it’s a minor update that brings the usual system software stability and “minor refinements to elements of the system UI.”

    What refinements can we hope to see with this update? Sony isn’t saying a lot at moment, but it does reveal that the system will now “clearly indicate when a user downloads a game and a game patch at the same time.” That’s definitely a nice little improvement as my day one download of Contrast told me that I was downloading the game twice instead of alerting me that one of the downloads was merely a patch.

    As for other features, like MP3 playback and DLNA support, those are presumably still coming at a later date. Sony has repeatedly said that it focused on the gaming side of things for launch and will update the console with more media capabilities over the next few months. Let’s hope the MP3 playback comes sooner rather than later then as many of us don’t want to pay for Music Unlimited just to listen to our own music while playing games like Need for Speed Rivals or Madden 25.

    While we wait for upcoming updates with some heft, Sony says that you wont have to lift a finger to install the system software update 1.51. The PS4 will download it automatically as soon as it becomes available, even if the system is in standby mode. While we may never be free of Sony’s need to constantly release system updates, the PS4 at least makes the process more bearable.

    [Image: PlayStation/YouTube]

  • YouTube’s Big Comments Revamp Has Begun

    YouTube’s Big Comments Revamp Has Begun

    Weeks ago, YouTube announced that they were finally going to do something about comments. I guess they felt that it was about time for a paradigm shift. I mean, it’s well understood that if you want to go find the worst of humanity, YouTube comments are a great place to start.

    Until now, it was probably wise to simply avoid venturing into the comment section on your favorite video. And actually commenting? Hah. Like I’m going to subject myself to that. But starting this week, YouTube says that they will be implementing the new commenting system. A better one, in fact.

    The basic changes that YouTube is making to comments involve how comments are shown and how Google allows you to post a comment in the first place. Yeah, you knew it was coming – Google is now forcing YouTube commenters to link a Google+ account.

    For starters, comments will be shown based on their significance by default (with an option to sort by recency if desired). What kind of comments does YouTube want to show you?

    “You’ll see posts at the top of the list from the video’s creator, popular personalities, engaged discussions about the video, and people in your Google+ Circles,” say YouTube’s Nundu Janakiram and Yonatan Zunger.

    Also, say hello to true threaded replies.

    Video creators are also getting some new tools to help them better moderate comments. “If you also post videos on your channel, you’ll have new tools to review comments before they’re posted, block certain words or save time by auto-approving comments from certain fans,” according to YouTube.

    More about that forced Google+ commenting system:

    “If you want to keep using a different name on YouTube than on other Google services, you can still do that with the Google identity system,” says a YouTube help page.

    So, if you really want to stay halfway anonymous while commenting on YouTube, you could create a dummy account and use that. According to Google, they’re not really seeing much resistance to the merging of YouTube and Google+ – they say that the “majority” have already done so. Still, anonymous commenting is something that many internet users value – especially on YouTube. Feel free to sit back and watch the fallout.

    Image via YouTube

  • Spotify for iOS Now Keeps Track of Concert Dates

    Spotify for iOS Now Keeps Track of Concert Dates

    Spotify just released an update to its iOS app that makes a few fixes and additions – most notably the inclusion of concert dates on artist pages. Take a look:

    Spotify iOS Concert dates

    Spotify has also introduced a better search function which sports instant results as well as the new ability to search playlists and user profiles – the latter being a much-needed feature for Spotify search.

    Also, if you speak Japanese, Russian, or Indonesian – Spotify is going to make more sense to you (they added language support). It now looks more in-tune with all of your other iOS 7-optimized apps as well.

    You can grab the update now over at the App Store.

    Images via Thinkstock, Spotify for iOS

  • Twitter Forces Image, Vine Previews In-Stream

    Twitter has just announced an update for iOS, Android, and the web that’s all about putting more content in your actual tweet stream.

    “We want to make it easier for everyone to experience those moments on Twitter. That’s why starting today, timelines on Twitter will be more visual and more engaging: previews of Twitter photos and videos from Vine will be front and center in Tweets. To see more of the photo or play the video, just tap,” says Twitter’s Michael Sippey.

    What that means is that your timelines will not longer contain vine.co and pic.twitter.com links inside the tweets – instead, those images and videos will be displayed in rich media format, as a preview, right inside the tweets. Apart from making your timeline a lot more visual, this will probably make scrolling through hours worth of tweets a bit more challenging.

    For now, Vine videos and Twitter pics are the only rich content that will be visually previewed in your stream.

    Here’s how it will work:

    The update is likely to annoy some users who follow people who constantly post images and videos – as it will cut down on the actual amount of tweet text they’re able to digest over any given period of time. But Twitter’s moving toward a more visual focus – and have been for some time. No matter how you feel about this update, your timeline will look a lot more visually appealing.

    It’s hard not to think about promoted tweets and other forms of Twitter advertising with this update. By forcing visual previews of images and Vines, Twitter can assure advertisers that users are more likely to actually see their rich content.

    A smaller change Twitter has brought to its apps and web experience still lands in the realm of wanting to put more goodies in your actual timeline. Starting now, you can favorite, reply, or retweet in-stream – without having to click through the tweet.

    You can grab the iOS and Android update today – and you should notice the change in your web stream soon.

    Image via Twitter Blog

  • Tumblr Search Gets Smarter, NSFW Content Easier to Manage

    Tumblr has just announced a big improvement to their search function, one that they say will help users better explore the 65 billion posts now currently housed on the site (65 billion posts, yeah).

    Now, when you search a term, the results page shows posts that mention said term, not just the ones tagged with those terms.

    For instance, a search for “Breaking Bad” will yield results that are tagged #Breakingbad and results that simply mention the term “Breaking Bad.” If you only want to search results that are tagged #Breakingbad, you’ll need to enter the tag in your query.

    Tumblr is making it easier to find more specific posts too by allowing multiple tag searches in individual queries. That means you can now search for #breakingbad #amc #aaron paul #bryancranston to limit your results to post that include all of those tags.

    Also, the search results page will now include related blogs for your search terms.

    The final change has to do with NSFW content:

    “And in an effort to make the explicit content filter more transparent (and less confusing), we’ve moved the option right to the search results page. We’ve also been able to use this smarter filtering to unblock innocuous keywords in our apps that used to be prohibited by app store policies,” says Tumblr.

    You can see the new filter as it appears inside search results below:

    As you may recall, Tumblr took a lot of heat for supposedly censoring a bunch of NSFW and Adult content earlier this year. Tumblr fixed a bug that was preventing adult blogs from appearing in search results even when Safe Mode had been disabled. One issue that still remained, however, was Tumblr’s app family filtering tag searches for terms like #lgbt and #gay, even if that content wasn’t NSFW. But at the time, CEO David Karp said that there was really nothing to be done about some tag searches being blocked in the mobile apps – mainly because of Apple’s strict rules on promoting adult content and their fears over being banned from the App Store. This change to search should help alleviate some of those issues.

    Images via Tumblr Blog

  • You Can Finally Edit Your Vine Videos

    Today, Vine released an update on both iOS and Android that probably includes the the most useful new feature since the app’s launch back in January.

    Starting today, you can now edit your Vine videos before you post them. Vine is calling it “Time Travel,” and it allows you to delete, reorganize, and even replace each individual shot of your 6-second masterpieces.

    That’s not the only new feature you’re getting with today’s update. Vine is also introducing “Sessions,” which allows you to save uncompleted posts (up to 10 of them at a time) and come back to them later. That means that you can film a couple of frames, stop, and check out other Vines without losing your progress.

    “Vine was built for one purpose: to make it easy for people to capture life in motion and share it with the world. That is the reason we built the Vine camera, and it’s why we continue to improve upon and build new tools for your creations, nurturing the balance between power and simplicity that you’ve come to expect from us. We think these features offer new ways for people to express themselves and their creativity. We hope you like them,” says Vine’s iOS Director Ben Sheats.

    I’m sure these updates are going to make avid Vine users pretty damn happy.

    Image via Vine Blog

  • Facebook for iOS Gets Post Editing, Photo Comments, and More

    Facebook has just launched an update to their iOS app that brings post editing, photo comments, and more to the experience.

    First up, and most importantly (in the eyes of most, I’m sure), you can now edit both your posts and your comments on Facebook for iOS. A few weeks ago, Facebook unveiled post editing on the web and on Android and told iOS users to sit tight. Well, it’s here. Comment editing has been around for over a year, but it’s nice that users can now do both on mobile.

    The update also brings a couple of Facebook’s more visual web features to the iOS app. First, you can now add photos to comments. You can also insert emoticons (Facebook calls them icons) when you post on a friend’s timeline. You know, the “feeling excited” or “feeling sad” status enhancers that Facebook rolled out back in April.

    Finally, there’s one privacy-based change. Now users have shortcut access to their privacy options by clicking a lock icon right next to their name in the main menu.

    According to some, Facebook appears to be testing trending topics inside the iOS app. TechCrunch says that when some users load the news feed, they’re seeing a trending topics bar at the top that can be clicked an expanded to show 10 topics that are popular across the network. It’s clearly a test, as we’re not seeing any such topic bar inside our update.

    Either way, it’s a solid update that brings a couple of much-used web features to mobile. You can snag it over at the App Store today.

  • Pinterest for iOS Gets Some New Swipe Gestures

    Pinterest for iOS Gets Some New Swipe Gestures

    Pinterest has just released a minor app update that not only brings it more in line with other iOS 7 apps (in terms of flatter, simpler design), but also adds new swipe gestures.

    Starting today, you can now swipe to the left or right to cycle through all of the pins on your feed.

    “To try it out, tap any pin in your home feed. Then swipe your finger from right to left to get a peek at the next pin in line. You can go backwards too! You can do this anywhere you see a feed of pins: on a board, through your own pins, or in our category feeds. While you’re at it, try swiping up when you’re looking at a specific pin—we’ll show you a bunch of related pins below,” says Pinterest engineer Naveen Gavini.

    A few months ago, Pinterest updated their iOS app with a new swipe motion that allowed users to hold down on any pin, and then swipe to like, pin, or send the pin. Before that, the last Pinterest app update added notification, mentions, and improved search function.

    You’ll also notice that the app has looks a little different – that’s Pinterest “sprucing” it up for iOS 7. While it doesn’t feel as flat and iOS 7-inspired as some apps, it does have a cleaner look.

    You can snag the update today. You’re probably going to start seeing some ads hit Pinterest any day now, as the company just unveiled their first round of Promoted Pins last week.

  • Google Maps for iOS Updated with Faster Navigation, More Languages

    Google has just launched an update to their Google Maps for iOS, one that brings faster navigation with the help of a new route mini-map and a “tricks and tips” guide that helps users make the best of the app.

    First up, you now have a mini-map when selecting your routes:

    Google has also added a “tips and tricks” guide in the right-hand side menu that takes you to a Google help page on getting the most out of the navigation app.

    Google Maps for iOS now supports Arabic and Hebrew as well, including voice navigation.

    Here’s the full list of updates in v.2.3.4:

    – Faster access to navigation, complete with route and traffic overview
    – Tips and Tricks available in the side menu
    – Arabic and Hebrew now supported, including voice guidance in navigation, where available
    – Bug fixes

    What you won’t find is an app that’s been updated to sport the look and feel of iOS 7 – it still sports the keyboard from earlier versions of iOS. Oh well, with the hullabaloo surrounding Google Maps’ reentrance into the iOS family last year, one can’t be too surprised that Google has yet to cater to the iOS 7 physique.

    You can snag the new version over at the App Store today.

    Image via Google Maps for iOS, Screenshot Josh Wolford

  • Flickr Tests ‘New Photo Experience’ with 25% Larger Photos

    Continuing on the path to making Flickr awesome again, the Yahoo-owned company has taken a step to make viewing photos on the web a lot more enjoyable.

    “The new photo experience now gives you the largest possible image, while not deprecating the story around a photo. With the new photo experience the image is about 25% bigger than on the previous photo page. You’ll see more pixels, get a cleaner view without any elements on the top or the bottom of the screen, so that photos can really be the center point,” says Flickr.

    Photos are indeed much, much larger in the new view. Comments, descriptions, likes, and other supplementary information have been pushed to the right-hand side. It allows you to see all of the pertinent photo info without having to scroll down. Flickr is also experimenting with photo recommendations

    Back in May, Flickr unveiled a completely redesigned user interface that did away with a lot of the white space and make photo viewing a more immersive experience. At the time, individual photo pages were improved, but the new design represents a marked improvement.

    Flickr also touts a speed improvement:

    “The new photo experience is build from the ground up and uses new technology to show you photos much faster. While we are still working on improving the performance even more, you’ll see a significant performance boost just by going from one photo to another. Which, by the way, you can now simply do by clicking in the image,” says Flickr’s Emily Yiu.

    You can take the new photo experience for a test drive by clicking the “try our new photo experience” button, which is located on any individual photo page. Flickr says that they plan to roll it out wide later this year.

    Image via Flickr blog

  • Twitter Lets You Get DMs from Anybody, If You Want

    On occasion, you need to communicate with someone on Twitter and you don’t want everyone to see it. That’s fair – maybe you’re complaining about an embarrassing product that you bought. Maybe you’re a Congressman and you want to send a nice picture of your package. Whatever, I won’t judge.

    That’s where the direct message comes in – Twitter’s more private communication. It’s always been a little bit clunky, in that Twitter only lets people send direct messages back and forth if the two accounts follow each other. Users can also send direct messages to any other user that follows them, but they won’t be able to receive a reply unless they turn around and follow back.

    That’s all changing – if you want it to.

    Twitter has unveiled a new option that allows you receive direct messages from anyone that follows you – you don’t have to follow them back.

    Here’s the relevant option, now located in your settings:

    Note that you have to go into your settings and enable this – so if you like things just the way they are, please ignore this and continue on with your day. It’s a small change, but it fundamentally changes how DMs work. Now, if a business or brand has this option checked, all you have to do to send them a complaint, comment, or question is follow them. The days of the “follow back to DM!” tweet may be coming to a close.

    H/t The Verge
    Lead Image via Maryland GovPics, Flickr Creative Commons

  • Instagram Yanks Option to Turn Off Video Autoplay a Week After Announcing Ads

    Instagram Yanks Option to Turn Off Video Autoplay a Week After Announcing Ads

    In oh Instagram, I see what you’re up to news, you can no longer disable autoplay for Instagram videos.

    For the more visually inclined, you used to have this option…

    And now you don’t. Now, you only have an option to toggle the pre-loading of videos to “always” or “Wi-Fi only”

    It appears that Instagram snuck this into an update they released on Thursday without making any mention of it.

    The inability to turn off autoplay is probably a minor annoyance for most – but it’s a big, big deal for Instagram. You may remember that last week, the company announced that the first-ever ads would be hitting your feeds.

    “Our aim is to make any advertisements you see feel as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos many of you already enjoy from your favorite brands. After all, our team doesn’t just build Instagram, we use it each and every day. We want these ads to be enjoyable and creative in much the same way you see engaging, high-quality ads when you flip through your favorite magazine,” said the company in a blog post.

    But for advertisers to buy ads in your feed, Instagram has to be able to assure them that people will actually see them. By forcing autoplay, Instagram can do this.

    [h/t The Next Web]

    Image via Digital Trends

  • Facebook’s App Family Is About to Get Some Updates [REPORT]

    According to sources familiar with the situation, 9to5Mac is saying that Facebook is “preparing major update” to a bunch of the apps in its purview. This includes the basic Facebook for iOS, the Facebook Messenger app, and Instagram.

    First off, prepare for Graph Search on your Facebook for iOS app.

    A couple of months ago, Facebook pushed Graph Search to everyone in the U.S. When making that announcement, the company reiterated that they were working on adding more functionality to it (the ability to search statuses, comments, etc) and that they were working on bringing it to mobile. Well, they’ve already done the former, and it appears that the latter is coming soon. We knew that Graph Search would eventually hit mobile, and 9to5Mac says that an impending app update will incorporate it into the main search bar on the app.

    As far as the coming changes to Facebook Messenger…

    In addition to the aforementioned update to the main Facebook for iOS application, Facebook is preparing a redesign of its Messenger app. Facebook is said to be internally testing two new versions of Messenger. The first version is said to look largely similar to the Messages application bundled into iOS. That version includes green interface elements. The second version in testing, which the source says is more likely to ship to end-users, is heavy on white space and very fitting for iOS 7′s design. It is not filled with blue interface elements like the new Facebook app. The new app has tabs for active/recent chats, contacts, and settings across the bottom…

    Oh, and the team is also working on bringing some more video filters to Instagram.

    Lately, Facebook’s been on a pretty strict app release update – pushing something new about once a month. Hopefully this means that we’ll see the aforementioned changes in an update before October’s over.

  • Foursquare Brings Real-Time Recommendations to iOS

    Foursquare has just announced that their new style of real-time recommendations are now being pushed to some iOS users through an app update released today.

    “When you arrive someplace, we can tell you something great there (like the best thing to order, or a money-saving special). With this release, we’re turning real-time recommendations on for a small batch of people who use Foursquare on their iPhone (and expanding to more every day),” said the company on their blog.

    Foursquare’s new recommendations ping users when they get near (or check-in to) certain locations, and suggest things like popular menu items and current deals. Of course, this works with a variety of types of locations, but these new recommendations are going to be especially useful for restaurants.

    The feature is only going to be available for some iOS users right now, but Foursquare will expand it eventually. Android got this feature about a month ago.

    “The idea behind Foursquare has always been that, someday, hundreds of millions of people will carry software in their pocket that lets them know when friends are nearby, when places they’ll love are around the corner, and whether nearby merchants can help them save money. This is the future we’re spending our days building,” said Foursquare.

    And that’s the key – passive recommendations. Foursquare wants to let you know what’s good at that restaurant you’re at or what one user had to say about that concert venue before you even have to ask.

    With the new Foursquare for iOS, the company has gone back to a previous format which allows users to quickly sort recent friend check-ins by “nearby” or “worldwide.” They’ve also streamlined your feed to only show your friends’ most recent check-ins. To see all of their other check-ins you have to go to their profile.

    You can grab the latest version on iOS now.

    Image via Foursquare Blog

  • LinkedIn App Gets an iOS 7 Update, Mobile Endorsements

    LinkedIn App Gets an iOS 7 Update, Mobile Endorsements

    LinkedIn has just launched updates to both their iOS and Android apps – but the iOS app is getting the biggest overhaul.

    Today, it’s finally LinkedIn’s turn to get dressed up for the iOS 7 party. The new app falls in line with iOS 7’s design changes, and LinkedIn says that it features “flatter, cleaner and more modern designs” like sharp edges and soft colors. Basically, it fits in with iOS 7’s look. Most major social apps (like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, reddit) have already updated their apps to fit in with Apple’s new operating system.

    Ok, here’s where Android users can start to listen. Both LinkedIn apps now feature endorsement capabilities. That means that you can both accept others’ endorsements of you on the go and endorse your contacts on the go.

    There’s also a new tutorial to help new users get the most out of the service.

    “For new members visiting LinkedIn from a mobile device, you will now be greeted with a step-by-step guide to help you take advantage of some of the essential tools LinkedIn has to offer. From building your network, to joining groups that matter to you, to following channels for professional news that keeps you up to date, our new guided experience will help you get the most out of LinkedIn,” says LinkedIn’s Duncan Osborn.

    Introducing New Features for LinkedIn Mobile from LinkedIn

    And let’s not forget about Pulse, the news app that LinkedIn purchased earlier this year. It received its own iOS 7 refresh as well.

    Recently, LinkedIn launched a major redesign for groups, launched new university pages, and brought job applications to mobile.

    Image via LinkedIn, iTunes

  • Twitter Puts Greater Emphasis on Photos in Embedded Tweets

    Twitter has just made an update to the way embedded tweets with photos look on websites, and the goal is to “put the photo front and center, with a bigger and bold visual focus on the media.”

    Until today, embedded tweets that contained photos would appear with the actual text of the tweet on top, with the attached photo displayed under the text. Now, Twitter has moved the photos to the top and extended them to reach all the way across the tweet. Like this:

    As you can see, the focus is now on the photo itself, not the text of the tweet. This change is retroactive, meaning that all tweets that are embedded on old articles around the web sport this new look.

    The expanded look now appears for both photos in landscape and portrait orientation.

    This is the third significant update Twitter has released this week. Earlier, they launched a new opt-in alert system for emergenies and also rolled out new recommendations for who to follow on the network.

    Image via Twitter

  • You Can Finally Edit Your Facebook Posts

    You Can Finally Edit Your Facebook Posts

    Rejoice, Facebook users. The social network is finally giving you the ability to edit your posts.

    The first platform that’s getting the update is the Android app, which Facebook just launched a new version of today. Facebook confirmed that they are also beginning to roll out the edit posts feature to users on the web.

    Sit tight, iOS users – it’s coming.

    Of course, any edited posts will be marked as edited, because Facebook knows what Facebook users are capable of. Without this little safeguard, your like for a status about loving Breaking Bad could quickly turn into a like for a status about loving to do meth.

    The ability to edit posts will likely thrill users, as they won’t have to delete entire posts with tons of comments and likes just because they messed up “your” and “you’re.” Now, they’ll be able to fix it.

    In June of 2012, Facebook rolled out comment editing – but that was only one piece of the puzzle. The ability to edit your actual posts is something that Facebook users have be clamoring for, and it’ll be sure to help the careless, drunk, terrible speller in all of us.

  • Instagram for iOS 7 Launches with a Focus on Clarity

    Instagram is the latest app to launch an update designed specifically for compatibility with Apple’s new iOS 7. You can go download it right now over at the App Store.

    As you’d imagine, the update makes Instagram look decidedly iO7-ey.

    “We put the community – and the photos and videos you share – first. To bring you the best experience possible, we have always valued beauty and simplicity in our app. With the introduction of iOS 7 and its emphasis on clarity, we were excited to rebuild the look and feel of Instagram in a way that would bring these principles together and let the moments this community captures and shares shine,” says Instagram.

    What this means is that photos are now larger, stretching from side to side. They’re also sporting increased resolution (which applies to videos as well).

    “We led our redesign with a focus on clarity to keep the feel of Instagram clean, simple and grounded in the photos and videos you discover and share,” they say.

    If you’re noticing anything weird about Instagram for iOS 7 when you start using it, you can check Instagram’s help center on the topic. There’ you find answers to questions like “why the hell to I have to swipe to the left now to delete comments?” The answer is that Apple pulled the ol’ switcheroo on us, of course.

  • iOS 7 Update Hits iPhones, iPads & iPods Today

    Update: A lot of people are having trouble downloading the update.

    The long-anticipated iOS 7 update comes to various iDevices today. The new operating system was first unveiled earlier this year at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, and the release date was made official at the iPhone 5s/5c unveiling earlier this month.

    Starting today, the update will be available for free for iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad mini and iPod touch (fifth generation). US English, French and German will be immediately available with additional languages to be added over time.

    “iOS 7 is completely redesigned with an entirely new user interface and over 200 new features, so it’s like getting a brand new device, but one that will still be instantly familiar to our users,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Next month we’ll be shipping our 700 millionth iOS device, and we’re excited about what our hundreds of thousands of iOS developers are doing to bring great new features to their apps.”

    200 new features. That’s a lot to take in. You can learn about a bunch of them here, but here are the big ones Apple is highlighting:

    • Control Center, which gives you quick access to the controls you want in one convenient place with just one swipe from the bottom of your screen;
    • Notification Center, now available from the Lock screen so you can see all your notifications with a simple swipe, and the new Today feature gives you an at-a-glance view of your day with a summary of the important details such as weather, traffic, meetings and events;
    • improved Multitasking that gives users the ability to switch between their apps in a more visual and intuitive way, and iOS 7 pays attention to which apps you use most and automatically keeps your content up to date in the background;
    • AirDrop, an entirely new way to quickly and easily share content with people nearby;
    • new Camera app filters so you can add real-time photo effects, a square camera option, and you can quickly and easily switch between your four cameras—video, photo, square and panorama—with just a swipe;
    • a redesigned Photos app that introduces Moments, a new way to automatically organize your photos and videos based on time and location;
    • full-screen browsing with Safari’s new redesigned user interface, the new smart search field helps simplify searching, and there’s a new view for your bookmarks and your Safari tabs;
      Siri with new male and female voices,* Twitter search integration, Wikipedia integration and Bing web searching within the app; and
    • iTunes Radio, a free Internet radio service featuring over 200 stations and an incredible catalog of music from the iTunes Store®, combined with features only iTunes can deliver.

    Note that not all features are supported on all devices. In the U.S., the release comes with iTunes Radio at launch.

    Here’s what people are currently saying about iOS7:


    The iPhone 5s and 5c will become available on Friday.

    Image: Apple

  • Foursquare Asks Users to Help Make the App More Informative

    Foursquare has spent the past year or so making a bunch of alterations to its apps with one clear goal in mind: Foursquare wants to be the go-to place for local search and discovery. Foursquare is taking on Yelp, Google Places, Urbanspoon, and more. Remember that “going beyond the check-in” line that Foursquare has been using for years? Well, now they’re getting serious about it.

    Earlier this year, a major app update put local search and recommendations front and center, and since then Foursquare has been making tweaks to turn the app into a premier place to find information about locations. For one, they completely redesigned them to make them more photo-rich and to contain more of the info that users want when looking for a place to eat, drink, or see a show on the go. A couple of months ago, they expanded menus on restaurant pages in a partnership with Locu.

    Today, they’re looking to make business pages even more informative by crowdsourcing their research. With an app update, Foursquare is bringing quick questions to the app that ask users about key features of the locations they’re checking into.

    For instance, after you check-in to a restaurant, Foursquare might ask you if the place has free Wi-Fi…or if it has outdoor seating…or if they accept all types of credit cards.

    Basically, Foursquare wants users to help them display more information on business pages.

    Speaking of Foursquare and businesses, the company recently opened up their self-serve ad platform to thousands of small businesses – and they are continuing to allow more businesses to apply for the program every day.

    The last major app update to Foursquare for iOS was dedicated to speed improvements, making the app start up and load locations for check-ins twice as fast.

    You can grab the new Foursquare for iOS and Android today.