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Tag Archives: applications

New Playboy App Lets You Really Read The Magazine “For The Articles”

By David Ponce on 04/04/13 • Leave a comment!

Playboy-Magazine

For the younger generation, the easy access of nekkid pictures online has kind of made the old joke that you read Playboy “for the articles” kind of obsolete. The new generation is increasingly asking “What the heck is Playboy?” But now that the magazine has decided to launch an application for iOS, and that they have to follow the no nudity guidelines, it’s kind of relevant once again. Somewhat.

Scott Flanders, Playboy Enterprises’ chief executive said in a statement:

As the on-the-go extension of the Playboy brand, our new app brings the best of Playboy with original, thought-provoking and enticing bite-sized content that captures our design-driven and discernible style. We’ve rebuilt Playboy for iPhone from the ground up to attract the new generation of Gen Y fans who enjoy the indulgences of the artisanal good life and modern culture.

So… how good are the articles? Is it worth paying $2 for an application to a nudie mag… with no nudie pics?

VIA [ Geekosystem ]

Will Facebook Start Nagging You To Post Status Updates?

By David Ponce on 03/25/13 • Leave a comment!

facebook-nagging

Sometime last week, Bijan Sabet, a general partner at Spark Capital discovered a new “feature” in Facebook’s iOS application: notifications meant to encourage you to post a new status update. No… nagging you to post an update. We’re not sure exactly how he found it, but he tweeted a screenshot, which you see above. So what’s the deal?

Mashable reached out to Facebook for comment and was told that it’s “a small test they’re running.” Facebook of course does this all the time, trying things out to see what works and what doesn’t, always looking for new ways to boost engagement. There’s no way to tell if this is something that’s going to be made into an official “feature”, but we’re thinking that backlash on this one could very likely top the frequent privacy kerfuffles Facebook is known for.

Any of you want something like this?

VIA [ UberGizmo ]

Use Sonar And Your Smartphone To Catch Fish

By David Ponce on 01/29/13 • Leave a comment!

Assuming that going fishing isn’t just an excuse for you to go get drunk on a canoe, the Realsonar system pictured above might interest you. It’s an ultrasound device mounted on a buoy, which then communicates with your smartphone through Bluetooth. In this fashion, you get to see where the fish are up to a depth of 150ft. It works at about 4 frames per second, which should be plenty for you to cast your line in the direction and depth required.

But that’s not all the Realsonar does. There’s a Bite Alarm that lets you know when a fish is nearby, so you don’t even have to look at the screen (or even put your line in the water) while you wait. There’s also a mapping feature that lets you get an idea of the underwater topography, which is welcome to any boat owner that doesn’t want to run aground. Salinity and temperature sensors give you an idea of water conditions. And should you lose your buoy in the dark, you just press a button on the phone and it’ll light right up.

The Realsonar system is in the funding phase on IndieGogo. It’s $79 if you get in early, though there’s plenty of room right now.

[ Project Page ] VIA [ DVice ]

Bold Poker Brings Smartphone New To Gambling Old

By David Ponce on 12/12/12 • Leave a comment!

There are very few things quite as satisfying as a poker night with the buddies. You get yourself a couple drinks, play some music, and hope to go home with a bit more money than you started with. It’s been a tradition for quite some time, and it’s always been one that required roughly the same gear: chips, a deck of cards and a dealer button. The application Bold Poker hopes to replace most of the physical gear with a virtual set, involving a central iPad (or any iDevice, but an iPad would work best) and an iPhone in each player’s hands. The application deals the cards automatically when the dealer button is moved, and they appear on the player’s phone. Depending on the angle you hold your phone, the cards appear either upright for normal viewing, or reversed for discreet mirror use. Chips, however, are still required.

The advantages are many, including not having to wait to reshuffle the pack every time, not having to deal with inexperienced friends who aren’t really sure what to do next, etc. Plus it’s fun. It only handles Texas Holdem’ at the moment, and it’ll cost you $2.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

This Is The One Thing Apple Maps Does Better Than Google Maps

By David Ponce on 10/02/12 • 5 Comments

Apple’s Maps application is garbage. Haha. We sure like to beat a dead horse, on the Internets, but we do it because some things stay funny even when they’re not. That is, they’re funny until someone makes a left turn off a bridge… But to be perfectly honest, the Maps application from Apple is very pretty and does at least one thing better than Google’s: it is much more data efficient. This means that you’ll use up to 7 times less data on it for the same actions on the other one. From the folks at Onavo:

Our data experts performed an identical series of activities on Google Maps and Apple Maps that included searching for several US cities, addresses and airports and zooming in and out to locate specific locations. On Google Maps, the average data loaded from the cellular network for each step was 1.3MB. Apple Maps came in at 271KB – that’s approximately 80% less data! On some actions, such as zooming in to see a particular intersection, Apple Maps’ efficiency advantage edged close to 7X.

Why the difference? Mostly because the Apple Maps app uses vector graphics that can resize infinitely without having to reload any new data. But if you’re on a limited data plan and need to use this application a lot, we suppose that it’s some kind of silver lining.

[ Full Analysis ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

The Monocle Helps Bicycle Riders Keep Their Organs On The Inside

By David Ponce on 09/19/12 • Leave a comment!

I’ve become obsessed with riding my bike and have been keeping an eye out for anything related to that. So when I saw the Monocle application/accessory that turns your iPhone into a blinking safety light, I was intrigued. You just pop your phone in a specially made holster that relocates it to the back of you, and the LED strobes at a frequency you determine. There’s a timer, so it won’t keep going even if you forget to turn it off and you get audible and vibrating alerts when the battery is getting low. The makers of the Monocle estimate that a 15 minute ride set at 3Hz will impact your battery by about 7%. You also get a case to protect the iPhone, by the way.

It’s a smart way to put a ubiquitous device to extra use, and could just make the difference between being turned into human spaghetti and making it home in one piece. It’s $18 for the app and the case, on pre-order now with delivery slated for December if they reach their funding goal.

[ Project Page ] VIA [ Gear Patrol ]

LIFX LED Lightbulb’s Kickstarter Success Shows There’s Some Heavy Demand

By David Ponce on 09/18/12 • Leave a comment!

A while ago we wrote about The Bluetooth Light Bulb. It was a nice product but its availability was not known. Now we’re hearing about the LIFX LED Bulb and we’re starting to hope we can actually get our hands on something real. Unlike the other one, the LIFX works with WiFi to communicate with its application. One bulb connects to the router, and then creates a mesh network with every other one you have installed in your home. Once online, you can adjust each bulb’s brightness and color, as well as program it with a timer. Other features include the ability to dim the light when you go to bed, and to automatically match the colour to the music you’re listening to (mood lighting).

It’s $65 right now as a pledge on Kickstarter, with delivery slated for March 2013. More importantly, the project is not only fully funded, but it’s raised $700,000+ when its goal was $100,000, proving that the market is ripe to bring a bit of innovation to an invention that’s barely changed in the last 100 years.

[ Project Page ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

Cardiio Application Measures Heartbeat, No Contact Required

By David Ponce on 09/05/12 • Leave a comment!

Arthur C. Clarke once said that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” That’s certainly true of a mobile application that’s able to give you your heart rate simply by looking at you, with no physical contact required. No straps, nothing. Cardiio simply uses slight changes in your face’s reflectivity to calculate how fast your heart is beating. It seems the iPhone 4S’s camera is sensitive enough to detect the change in colour to the skin on your face related to an increase in blood flow, which occurs with every beat of your heart. It works with all skin tones and works best with an iPhone 4S, though other iDevices should still manage, albeit at a reduced performance.

It’s $5.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ CoolMaterial ]

Protect Your Rights: ACLU Police Tape Application Puts Technology On Your Side

By David Ponce on 07/10/12 • 2 Comments

By David Ponce

Most times police are well intentioned and their interactions with the public will go down smoothly. But every now and then a bad apple pushes his power too far and tramples on your rights; sometimes massively so. In cases of police abuse, it can come down to their word versus yours and if there’s no reliable witness, there may be no way to make things right later on. The Police Tape application from the NJ office of the ACLU has developed an application that could tip the balance in your favour. If you see you’re about to be in a potentially abusive situation just start the application; it will promptly vanish from your screen as if nothing is happening when in fact it’s either recording audio or video, discreetly. But most importantly, should a tech savvy cop confiscate your phone and start looking through it to erase any possible incriminating files, the application simultaneously uploads what you’re recording to the ACLU’s servers, safely out of reach of any police action.

There’s also information on what rights you have, depending on where you are: your car, at home, on the street or while being arrested.

It’s available now on Android with an iOS version potentially due later this summer. It’s free.

[ Police Tape ] VIA [ BoingBoing ]

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