selfies
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Bumble will verify profiles by asking users to take selfies
Bumble, a dating service that you can also use to find new BFFs, has launched an unorthodox verification process specifically designed to prevent catfishing. It won't just ask you to click a link sent via email or to confirm your identity through a phone call -- no, the service will ask you to take selfies to prove you're not using somebody else's photos. If you choose to go through the process, Bumble will send you one of the 100 random photo poses it has on file. You'll then have to take a selfie copying that particular pose and send it in. Bumble says it can hand out verification badges within just a few minutes, even though real employees will authenticate and take a look at every single picture people send.
Fujifilm's entry-level mirrorless will up your selfie game
Fujifilm has launched the X-A3, a low-priced mirrorless camera aimed at casual users, particularly those who want excellent selfies. It has a number of improvements to its successor, the X-A2, in that regard. The sensor now has 24.2-megapixels, a big improvement over the 16.3-megapixels of the last model. However, as before, it uses a regular CMOS sensor, not the X-Trans model (with effectively higher resolution) used in Fujifilm's X-Pro2, X-T10 and other, more expensive models.
Crappy smartphone 'for women' does everything wrong
What's small, cute, fashion-focused and pink? The Keecoo K1 -- a smartphone 'designed for women,' of course. No, we're not kidding. The K1 is destined for the Chinese market, and is being marketed with a veritable check-list of gender stereotypes. It comes in an array of fashionable colors, features a hexagonal design to fit the "small hands of women" and boasts a front-facing selfie camera that "automatically makes your skin look delicate and smooth." That's not condescending at all.
Sony's XA Ultra takes 16-megapixel stabilized selfies
Sony said in February that its mid-range Xperia X smartphone lineup would be camera-centric, and with the Xperia XA Ultra, it's making good on that claim. The 6-inch device has a 21.5-megapixel Exmor RS main camera with quick launch and hybrid autofocus (though the AF isn't predictive like on the Xperia X Performance). The coup de grace is the front-facing selfie cam, which packs an impressive 16-megapixel low-light sensor with a front flash and optical image stabilization (OIS).
Mastercard to let Brits confirm payments with a selfie
In its latest attempt to reduce online fraud, payment giant Mastercard is bringing its "selfie pay" technology to the UK. MasterCard Identity Check, which also utilizes fingerprint technology, maps a user's face to verify their identity, replacing pin codes, passwords or verification codes typically used to verify mobile phone payments.
Panasonic's mirrorless selfie camera fixes your flaws
To get the best possible pictures -- of yourself -- you could do worse than Panasonic's latest Lumix, the GF8. With a 16-megapixel sensor and flip-around screen, the mirrorless camera will certainly take far better pictures of you (and other stuff) than a smartphone. The drawback of putting an interchangeable-lens camera next to your face is that it also highlights your flaws, so Panasonic has introduced "Beauty Retouch" mode for selfies. In its own words, the feature "enables users –- especially women -- to shoot portraits more attractively with its Soft Skin, Defocusing and Slimming effects."
New Hampshire judge makes 'ballot selfies' legal again
Voters in New Hampshire are once again free to take "ballot selfies" after a judge struck down one of the silliest laws ever enacted. Yes, folks actually take pictures of their ballots and share them on Facebook. But if you're proud of who you voted for or just the act of voting, what's the harm? That's not how legislators in New Hampshire see it at all, though. They figure that such people are surely selling their votes and using the photo as proof of the deed. To back it up, the state enacted a bill banning ballot photos last September, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000.
Russia starts a 'safe selfie' campaign to curb fatal photography
If you've spent any time on YouTube browsing for Russian dash cam or parkour videos, you know that the country's people can take life to the (often ill-advised) limit. That devil-may-care attitude also extends to how they take selfies. Since there were "at least" 10 deaths and 100 injuries resulting from folks aching to get the perfect shot last year, the Russian government has issued a set of rules for safe self-photography. A leaflet's going around advising people to not take photos with weapons, big animals, hanging from antennas on rooftops or in front of rail transport, among other situations.
Thanks, Obama: Now you can take selfies in the White House
We've seen President Barack Obama take a few selfies in the White House before, but until now the practice has been strictly forbidden for visitors on the public tour. Well, today that 40-year-old ban has been officially lifted. From now on, you can use a smartphone or a compact camera with a lens no longer than three inches to take photos inside the building. (Yes, this includes selfies.) While the rules have been relaxed somewhat, there are still plenty of gadgets on the "Prohibited Items" list. These include selfie sticks, tablets, GoPro-style action cameras and any snapper with detachable lenses. Texting, calls and livestreaming are also forbidden -- so no Periscoping while you walk down the entrance hall.
Artist adds poop emoji to selfie sticks to remind us of mortality
As depressing as it may be, selfie sticks are inescapable despite how many places ban them. It's a sad truth of the future we live in. But! An enterprising artist by the name of Pablo Garcia has figured out a way to "reduce vainglory and self-importance" by adding pixely emoji to the reviled smartphone accessory. It's a bit more difficult than it looks, though. Garcia says he employed elements of anamorphosis, a technique to distort an image so that it's only visible from a specific angle, to make sure the smiling pile of poop, thumbs up and party horn appear correctly when shot from the smartphone's extended perspective. Is there some bigger message or implication here? "Perhaps it's a sober reminder of your mortality in the midst of your vainglory, or simply a pile of poop with eyes," Garcia writes. There you have it folks: sometimes a rose really is just a (smelly) rose.
What Instagram did for brunch, MassRoots hopes to do for weed
Cannabis or "weed" is, in practical terms, going mainstream. It's no longer exclusively sold from basements and back alleys; in 23 states and Washington D.C., it's sold from licensed and bonded shops. The cannabis movement has done a lot of growing up over the past couple of years as its public acceptance has skyrocketed across the US. Cannabis itself has gone from a black market "gateway" drug that funded the atrocities of Mexican cartels to a potential super-medicine drawing the attention of Wall Street's most powerful investors and all seemingly overnight.
How I tried and failed to be social at Coachella
I arrived in Palm Springs, California, with the best of intentions. I was to document -- painstakingly document -- the entire Coachella experience with all of the available mobile social tools at my disposal. I would Meerkat and Periscope and Instagram and Snapchat and tweet from Engadget's official accounts and the folks peering through from the other side of the digital window would watch, fave, like, retweet and comment live. I would use the festival's official app to plan my day and navigate the crowds. I would use an app dedicated to setting up reservations at (and paying for) pop-up dining experiences at the festival. I would Uber to and from the festival with abandon. With technology as my crutch, I would hack my Coachella experience. I would live through this festival as the ultimate millennial. Except I failed miserably at it.
Major museums start banning selfie sticks
Selfie sticks, the logical "extension" of an already irksome activity, were recently banned in Premier League soccer stadiums. Now museums around the world are starting to do the same over worries of accidental damage to artwork. The Smithsonian barred their use effective last week as a "preventative measure to protect visitors and museum objects," especially on crowded days. Meanwhile, a formal ban is pending at Versailles palace and Centre Pompidou in France, and visitors are now being told to stow their sticks by guards at the Louvre. Both Pompidou and the Louvre will continue to allow regular photography and selfies.
'Doom' selfie mod lets you indulge your ego while slaying demons
Like it or not, selfies in games are officially a "thing" -- and they're now invading classic titles like Doom. Linguica's new InstaDoom mod lets you spin the virtual camera around to take a shot of your Doom (or Doom II) marine, complete with Instagram-like filters and the seemingly inescapable selfie stick. Yes, you can now show your friends that you've killed a Spiderdemon by striking an obnoxious pose over its body. Is this a novelty? You bet. Still, it's fun to see a decades-old shooter make a commentary on the modern obsession with narcissistic photos.
Selfies may have led to a deadly airplane crash
Taking selfies while you're driving any moving vehicle is a bad idea, especially in an aircraft -- and unfortunately, those snapshots may have cost two air travelers their lives. The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that a double-fatality Cessna 150 crash in Colorado "likely" occurred because the pilot distracted himself with cellphone self-portraits shortly after takeoff. Action camera footage from a flight just minutes earlier showed the man taking selfies -- investigators believe it's no big stretch to suggest that he repeated this mistake on his final voyage.
'World of Warcraft' is getting a selfie camera -- don't tell Leeroy Jenkins
Okay, so at last count World of Warcraft had a Pokémon clone built into it, an in-game web browser of sorts and even a tribute to the late Robin Williams. Now it has another way to distract you as the epic battle between the Horde and Alliance rages on in the background: selfies. Naturally. As our sister site WoW Insider reports, the camera is part of a rare late-game quest in the forthcoming update (6.1 if you're keeping track at home), and there's a follow-up mission that rewards virtual narcissists with a trio of camera filters for the self-aggrandizing new feature. Your toon'll even mug for the camera with duckface or perhaps something a little more charming and less 2009 as you show off that sweet new bit of armor.
Capture your personal sports highlights with Fancred
Recently we have seen a growing number of sports related apps that provide an opportunity to connect with other fans of your favorite teams or to engage in a distribution of photos, gifs, and comments about games and teams more than they provide stats, scores, or background on upcoming games. Fancred is another app along those same lines. It is a free universal app that requires iOS 7.0 or later. The push from the developers for the app is that it is the perfect app to capture your own personal sports moments such as a selfie at the game, or a photo highlight, or anything tied to the event you are attending. That is easy to do and works well. In fact the entire app is easy to navigate and even for someone like me who shuns social media outlets, I figured it out pretty quickly. First you need to set up a profile with the usual information, name, email, and password. Then you select your favorite team or sport. Once that is accomplished you will start receiving a separate feed for each of your favorites. In that feed you will receive comments and gifs from other fans of that team or sport. Some provide new information while others are personal opinions on the team, its players, it performance, or the outcome of a game. I set up four teams and did get some input in the feed that I found useful. You also will get a general news feed that includes the same types of items, gifs, photos, and comments, but covering sports in general. So you may see a posting about the Lakers and Kobe Bryant, or Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, or Maria Sharapova swing changes. Some of these postings are complete articles.. The ones I saw were all features rather than hard news. In both feeds it is easy to share any of the postings with others through Facebook and Twitter. The "cred" part of the app is in a feature called Fancred Score. Each user has their own score ranking from 1, the lowest, to 100. Users increase their Fancred Score each time they post to the app or interact in some way with other users. So if you want to max out, get in there and start sharing. As I indicated earlier, I am not a social media user so Fancred doesn't hold much appeal for me. However, I am positive a lot of you regularly use social media to stay in touch with friends and family every day so this app would work well for you. Now instead of connecting with your friends and family members you can be building a new family of Patriot fans, or Blues fans, or fans of any of the more than 2700 teams included in Fancred. Happy sharing!
Nokia Lumia 735 review: more than just a selfie phone
Last year's Lumia 720 was an awkward middle child. It was more powerful than its 620 cousin, but not so much so that you'd consider it over the 820 unless you just had to have the first budget Lumia with LTE. If you're going to pay a lot more, why not get a lot more? Flash forward to 2014, and the Lumia 735 follow-up (along with the dual-SIM 730) appears to have more of a reason for being -- namely, catering to a selfie-loving public. With a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, more powerful internals and a €219 ($279) price, the 735 promises great self-portraits without decimating your bank account. But is it necessarily your best choice for those "I was there" photos? And more importantly, is it worth buying over both other Windows Phones and the other devices in its price class? You're about to find out.
iStabilizer Monopod + Shutter Remote = The ultimate selfie setup
A few years ago, TUAW reviewed the iStabilizer Monopod (US$34.95). It's a brilliant little accessory that telescopes out to over 3 feet in length, allowing you to hold your iPhone at more than arm's length away for those perfect selfies. It's also wonderful for taking shots over the heads of crowds, or even shooting pictures stealthily by poking the iPhone out from around a corner. Well, there was one little issue with using the iStabilizer Monopod before -- pushing the shutter button just when everything was perfect. Now iStabilizer is selling a Bluetooth remote called Shutter Remote for iOS ($39.95) that, when combined with the Monopod in a bundle for $59.92, makes the perfect setup for shooting selfies. Basically, you can now pop your iPhone into the jaws of the iStabilizer Monopod (you'll need the Mount XL to hold your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus), aim at your smiling self, and then use the Shutter Remote to trigger as many selfies as you want. The Shutter Remote can also serve as a remote for your Mac when you're doing presentations, activate Siri from up to 35 feet away, and even let you control music if your favorite iOS device is sitting in a dock across the room. It's a pretty handy little gizmo any way you look at it. Now, we know that everybody likes to take selfies, so TUAW and iStabilizer are teaming up to give you the ultimate selfie setup. Enter by filling out the form below, and one reader will win the selfie combo of the iStabilizer Monopod and Shutter Remote. Here are the rules for the giveaway: Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, fill out the form below completely and click or tap the Submit button. The entry must be made before October 4, 2014 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. One winner will be selected in a random drawing and will receive an iStabilizer Monopod and Shutter Remote valued at $59.92 Click Here for complete Official Rules. Loading...
Samsung's next big budget phone is made for selfies
Companies like Microsoft and Sony know that you don't necessarily want to buy a high-end smartphone just to take selfies, and it now appears that Samsung knows this, too. In the wake of store listings and government filings, Thegioididong has managed to get its hands on the unannounced Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime (aka G530), a 5-inch budget Android phone that's seemingly tailor-made for self-portraits. Its centerpiece is undoubtedly its 5-megapixel front-facing camera; while that's certainly not the highest resolution we've seen, it's unusually powerful for a device that's likely to be cheap off-contract.
