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Facebook wants to help you share that must-read story
Picture the scene: you're browsing on your phone when, suddenly, you find a list of the Top 10 celebrity pets that have killed people. Now, you just have to show this to your friends on Facebook, but that means finding the share link, holding it down until it copies, opening the app and pasting it in, which could take several seconds. Naturally, that's an intolerable situation for Mark Zuckerberg, which is why the social network is testing a way to search and add these links from within the Facebook app itself. That way, all you'd have to do is click the Add Link button, type "10 celebrity pets that have kil..." and the link should pop up all by itself.
Sharing app Droplr wants to woo you back with a 'free' tier
In case you dropped Droplr when the sharing app went from free to paid-only the company has a plan to potentially woo you back. How's that? It's going freemium starting tomorrow. Links and files you spread around with the free plan will have a week-long lifespan before evaporating. Should you want any long-term storage or whatnot, TechCrunch reports that you'll have to shell out basically double the price from before for Droplr Pro: $9.99 per month now versus the previous $4.99 action. Refreshed iOS and Mac apps are en route as well and the outfit has a few promotions going on to help take the sting out of the increased monthly price.
Google Drive for Android shares files as soon as they're ready
Can't wait to share a photo as soon as it hits the internet? Google has your back. The company has updated Drive for Android so that you can start sharing files from the notification that your upload is done -- you don't even have to launch the app to get things going. The update also adds support for 23 more languages, including local Chinese and French dialects. Just be ready to wait a while for this no-waiting feature, as Google says the update will be rolling out over the next week.
Vine's six-second slices of life get a big video-quality bump
Artists and comedians have been doing some truly amazing things with Vine since it launched as a Twitter product two years ago, but those mesmerizing slices of life that eat up your day in six-second increments have never really looked all that great. That's finally starting to change, according to a blog post by Vine API lead Mike Kaplinskiy -- you'll start seeing vines in 720p (up from the normal, eye-searing 480p) in the team's iOS and Android apps within the next few days, but some of them can already be spotted embedded around the web.
Virgin Mobile first prepaid US carrier with LTE data sharing plans
If your family can't agree on anything, a mobile data sharing plan on a two-year contract may not be the best idea. Virgin Mobile USA will now let you part company quickly if need be with its latest offering: prepaid 4G family data sharing plans, now available at Walmart. You can go month-to-month for $65 with two lines sharing 4GB or up to $115 with four lines and 12GB total of LTE data. The latter plan works out to a tempting $28.75 per month per person, with each member getting a 3GB share per month, provided nobody pigs out on data. T-Mobile, AT&T and others offer no-contract plans already, though all are post-paid, month-by-month services. The possible negative to Virgin's prepaid plan is that you'll be on Sprint's mobile network, which is far and away the slowest in the US. Update: As pointed out by a reader, Virgin is far from the first no-contract carrier, as AT&T, T-Mobile and others have shared no-contract plans. However, Virgin claims it's the first prepaid carrier with such an offering, so we've updated the post with that info. Thanks Seth! [Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]
Secret reboots its anonymous sharing app in search of a future
Secret first sprung into life in February 2014 as an app/social space where people could get together and engage in real talk, all while leaving their real names checked at the door. It generated Silicon Valley acquisition rumors. It sparked IRL dinner parties (complete with masks). And, as is often the case for the buzzy startup du jour, it got stale. So, what's a beleaguered company to do? Well, if you're Secret, you completely redesign your iOS and Android apps in hopes people fall in love with it again. Of course, a new coat of paint and some bolt-on features might not be able to change Secret's underlying problem.
OneDrive for Android gets push notifications for shared items
Good news for those of you who use Microsoft's cloud storage service on Android. Earlier today, the OneDrive app received an update that now lets it send push notifications for shared files and folders to your device, making it easier to keep up with collaborators on the changes being made to documents. In addition to that, this new version also allows you to get custom pin code timeouts within the application, as well as adding thumbnails to OneDrive for Business files. These improvements should help make OneDrive for Android much better on Google's platform, something that's going to be appreciated by people who utilize Redmond's virtual locker regularly.
Twitter lets you share public tweets in your direct messages
Well, that was fast. Twitter casually mentioned at its Analyst Day festivities last week that it'd soon give users the ability to share public Tweets in private conversations, and now a new update to its apps and web clients means you can do just that. Either a long-press on a Tweet or a quick pop into the 'More' menu in Twitter's mobile and desktop versions respectively will let you dump that micro-missive into a Direct Message conversation, where it'll pop up in a tiny card for lightspeed perusal. We can hardly contain our excitement either.
Google wants you to easily share files between Android and iOS
As handy as services like AirDrop or Android Beam may be for shuffling content between nearby devices, they're platform-exclusive. That's not much help if you want to share photos from your Android phone to an iPhone, or vice versa. However, Google may soon overcome that barrier. Android Police, Techaeris and GigaOM all have evidence of Copresence, a service that would let Android and iOS devices swap content over WiFi. Reportedly, it uses location data (including Bluetooth) to set up the connection; after that, you can send directions, photos and other info without having to either bump devices or rely on cloud storage options like Google Drive or Dropbox. The technique shouldn't require a Google account, either.
Add some flash to your sports photos with Winz
The next time you are at a game or watching a game on TV or out with friends you can improve your photos of the event with Winz, a free universal app that enhances the sports photos you share through social media outlets. Winz requires iOS 7.0. Open the app and choose one of the teams you are watching, the app opens your camera and brings up a graphic with the live score of the game on TV. If you pick your favorite team and they aren't currently playing the app provides the final score of their latest game or shows 0-0 if your team is scheduled to play in the near future. These score overlays will be added to any photos you take so your shots will include not just the activity in the game but a professional looking graphic that will set your pictures apart from others on your favorite social media site. Users can select from almost three dozen separate overlays or skins. They all include the score but put it in different places on your screen or in a different color scheme, and with or without logos. The skins are broken down into five different categories. Scores shows just the score. Fans uses canned slogans like "Go Bruins" in addition to the score. TV style places a graphic similar to what networks use for scores during a broadcast. In the players section you can choose a player from the team's roster and have his name included in the skin plus the score. That works best when you get a tight shot of a specific play. The fifth area allows users to type in their own text so users can add their own messages to the photos. Additionally, Winz allows users to change the location included the in the skin. The default location is the arena or stadium where the game is taking place. But you can type in your own location or by using the geo-location button at the bottom of the screen, choose from a variety of places nearby. So snap your photo or if you want choose a picture off your camera roll, make your skin selections, and you can now upload the photo to all of the usual social media outlets plus email, texting, and saving it to your device. The icons appear at the top of the page and a simple tap sets up your access. Winz will certainly add a new dimension to your sports photos. So download, snap, and share to impress your friends and followers.
Report: PS4 Share Play caps at 720p for guests
The PlayStation 4's latest update, codenamed "Masamune," adds a major feature, Share Play, to the console today. PlayStation Plus members can now share their games over PSN with friends that don't own a copy (and aren't necessarily PS Plus subscribers themselves unless both are playing), hosting one-hour play sessions at a time. As a Sony rep confirmed to Video Gamer, Share Play sessions are capped at 720p and will "have a limited frame rate" for friends partaking in the action, while those hosting the game will still see 1080p games on their screens at the full resolution. SCEE product planning manager Kazuhiro Yanase said that while Share Play "doesn't require any super-fast broadband," the company won't disclose recommended upload and download speeds for those looking to share games sessions with friends over PSN. "The internet environment is really different user by user. For example, some users will be using a LAN cable, some users will be using Wi-Fi, sometimes you use the microwave in your house," Yanase told Video Gamer. "It's very difficult for us to guarantee you can use Share Play if you have [a certain] speed." Today's update also adds the ability to play music from a USB device with support for MP3 and AAC file types. The Masamune update introduces YouTube as an option for gameplay clip uploading as well as home screen themes. We've reached out to Sony to confirm the Share Play restrictions and will update as we learn more. [Image: Sony]
Spotify finally has subscription sharing for an extra $5 per user
Spotify has just addressed one of the main beefs with its service: the lack of ability to share a premium subscription. With Spotify Family, you can now share your $9.99 plan with up to four other folks for an extra $5 per. That means the price starts at $14.99 for you and one friend, going up to $29.99 with five people altogether, for a savings of $5 to $20. They won't be stuck with your musical taste, either, as each member will get their own account with separate playlists, recommendations and more. That makes Spotify's premium service pretty tempting, and don't worry if your family or friends aren't music lovers -- that never stopped Sprint's Framily subscribers.
Share videos easily with RealPlayer Cloud
I'm old enough to remember when Real Video was the only game in town for streaming video. Once upon a time, everyone had some version of real on their computer. Then it went out of fashion or was overtaken by others, perhaps YouTube? I honestly do not remember. I was shocked to discover that RealNetworks are not only still around but introduced (about a year ago) a new app and service: RealPlayer Cloud. RealPlayer Cloud could be described as yet another video sharing app, but, unlike others, which mostly seem geared towards broadcasting videos to the world via Vimeo, YouTube, and the like, RealPlayer Cloud is also about sharing videos with specific people across multiple devices. After you create an account and grant the app all of the necessary permissions to access various services on your iPhone or iPad, it automatically populates its library with every video it can find on your phone in your camera roll. If you also run the companion Mac or PC app, both of which build your library from every video it can find on your hard drive (excluding those in iTunes, iPhoto, Aperture or iMovie libraries), then the library you view on your phone and on your PC or Mac contains every video from both sources (provided the app is running on your Mac or PC at the time, once you quit the app, the phone's library only shows items local to the phone). It does not attempt to figure out duplicates so my own library consists of two copies of many videos, one from my camera roll, and one scraped from Dropbox where I back up my pictures and videos on my phone. Each video gets a helpful icon depicting whether it is from the computer's library (a Mac icon), the local library (a camera icon), or the cloud (a cloud icon). If you tap on either a cloud-based or a computer-based video, it begins downloading the video immediately. As the data plans for RealPlayer are not free, it would have been nice to be given a dialog confirming that I was ok with this, perhaps even letting me know where I was in using my data plan. Videos themselves play smoothly, but I would expect no less from a company who has been doing this as long as RealNetworks has. AppleTV is also supported via AirPlay. When a video ends, you are given the choice to upload it to RealPlayer Cloud or to share it with friends. If you tap out of this screen, you have to rewatch (or scroll to the end of) the video to get those back or use the share options on the home screen. There are three menus on the home screen, the left menu denoted by the now-standard three lines that slides open a left panel giving you access to your camera (to shoot new video), your account information (including data used so far), and the free space on your iPhone or iPad (very handy). The middle menu lets you filter your library (camera roll vs. cloud vs. downloaded vs. Computer). The right-most menu is a mix of functions confusingly grouped under the older, pre-iOS 7 sharing icon (a rectangle with a curved arrow, now a square with an upward arrow since iOS 7). This icon generally calls up a menu where you can send selected content. In this case, you cannot select content until after you invoke this menu and tell it what you choose to do. Not every choice in the menu is about choosing and sharing, some of it is about sorting your library and choosing how it displays. These would make much more sense in the center menu. But I digress. Once you choose what you want to do (upload, download, add to a collection, delete, rename or share) you can then select the videos you want and start whatever process you wanted to start. I think the basic iOS Photos app handles this much better letting you select first and choose operations after. Videos may be shared with people on social networks or directly via Messages, Email or by copying a link and passing it to someone else as you wish. They do not need to have a RealPlayer Cloud account to watch the video but unless you are a paid member, you cannot upload HD quality video and the results are less that optimal. RealPlayer Cloud provides access to popular online videos in three categories: Daily Top 5 (though I do not know what criteria this is based on), Facebook videos posted by your friends, provided you have connected your Facebook account, of course, and Videos you have bookmarked from the previous two screens. RealPlayer Cloud is a free universal app for iPhone and iPad requiring iOS6 and up. Storage plans are available in-app as monthly subscriptions at US$1.99 for 10GB, $4.99 for 25GB and $9.99 for 100GB. Plans renew automatically and can be managed via your iTunes account as you would any other iOS Subscription. The obvious question is whether this is worth it. With iOS 8, I can share videos with members of my family easily enough with iCloud Family Sharing as well as to various social networks. What is harder to do is to share videos with various friends who are not in my iCloud Family Sharing group and that's where this app could come in handy. Also, because it scrapes video from the device it is on, it is a great way to collect everything in one central location quickly and easily. (I discovered some older videos I'd completely forgotten about on my Mac by doing this.) From there you can decide what you wish to upload and how much data you need or want to pay for. For me, the most important feature is what it does for you if you have a smaller device: upload your videos into the cloud and get them off your phone. With RealPlayer Cloud you'll have room to shoot new video and you'll have access to many more of your videos to share and play for people.
Karma's new hotspot gives you free LTE data when you share your WiFi
Karma's concept of a shareable mobile hotspot is clever -- you not only get data wherever you go, but you get some of it for free if you're kind enough to share with others. The service wasn't very alluring when it was using Sprint's pokey old WiMAX network, however, which is why the company has just unveiled a much-needed LTE hotspot, the Karma Go. You can now hop online (or invite others to do the same) at a far quicker 6-8Mbps typical speed, with much better coverage to boot.
Google Chrome plugs into iOS 8 app extensions
Enjoy how Chrome and other apps share data back and forth on Android? Now you can get that feeling on iOS, since Google has updated Chrome to take advantage of the app extensions supported by iOS 8. That doesn't mean you'll be able to install any of Chrome's desktop extensions -- it just means links can be shared directly to any other apps on your iDevice, as long as they also support the feature. The update is rocking "iOS 8 compatibility" but no tweaks for the extra size of the iPhone 6 family have appeared yet.
Facebook's rumored 'Moments' app will help you share privately
Facebook's megaphone-like approach to sharing makes it less than ideal for more private missives. Sharing private images or jokes with select people is something of a test of nerves. One slip of a drop-down menu, and your intimate photo could go global, rather than just to your "mates" privacy group. But, Facebook wants you to share in anyway, and to anyone you like with confidence it seems. According to TechCrunch, the social network's working on a "Moments" mobile app to help. Once again, Facebook would be taking a single-focused idea out of the main mobile app into a standalone one if sources are correct. The Moments app will reportedly use a visual, tile-based interface for you select the group or sub groups of people you wish to share your -- we assume -- moment with. If this sounds a lot like Google+'s "circles" mechanism, that's because it does. There's no word when Moments could find its way onto phones, so for now, you'll just have to run the gauntlet with current tools to avoid having your mom comment on bachelor(ette?) party photos.
Wheelio is a brilliant, must-have companion to Instagram
Most people mentally tie photo filters to Instagram. It's not what invented them, but it's what popularized them because every photo someone posts gets to have a unique touch. After a while though, the same filters eventually become stale. If that unique touch is what you yearn for in your photos, Wheelio is here to save the day. Using a distinctive wheel UI, anyone can quickly add text, stickers or gorgeous filters to not only improve a photo, but make it truly your own. It's totally free and requires iOS 7.0 or later. Wheelio has no menu bars, no toolbars and really no navigation other than one important element that aims to replace all of those. It's a wheel that looks like a concept web. As soon as you open the app, you have to choose a photo from your gallery or take one with the camera to get started. When the photo is ready, the wheel UI appears with six main options: Font and Color, Filters, Stickers, Save and Share, Edit Photo and More. It's not enough to just tap what you want. Instead, the bubble on the left is magnified, indicating that's the selected choice. Spin the wheel to the left with you finger to choose a menu option. When you select something, the wheel refreshes as it rapidly spins to include submenu items. Tapping "Font and Color" for instance brings up new menu items for Font, Color and Add Text. It's easy for the simple nature of Wheelio to fool you. The wheel only displays five menu items at a time, but don't think categories like fonts and colors are limited to just five options. If you start infinitely dragging your finger around in a circle, new options appear in place of the old ones, which stack up on the right until you finally spin all the way back around. In this regard, Wheelio is nothing short of brilliant. While the user interface is certainly something to chat about in this app, its photo-editing features are equally masterful. Adding a line of text or multiple lines of text, each with a different font, color and size takes seconds. In other photo-editing apps that might not even be possible at all. What blows me away most are the filters. Not only is there a huge selection, but the ones in Wheelio add a level of personality that's unparalleled even by Instagram. Stickers are somewhat like decorative text add-ons, but to contrast filters, the library is limited at least for now. Finally, save the photo or share it directly to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or others. When I first started using Wheelio, I was a bit concerned about whether the wheel UI is at all intuitive, or at least if it's more intuitive than standard tabs, lists and menus we're all familiar with on iOS. I've come to the conclusion that while spinning a wheel is a tad more tedious, the combination of amusement doing so plus the power baked into this app make it worthwhile. To me, Wheelio is a necessary companion for power Instagram users. Between text, filters and stickers, it adds a welcome bit of flair to your photos in a never-ending stream of Valencia and Earlybird. Even if you don't use Instagram, Wheelio is still a fun, yet powerful free photo editor.
Facebook Messenger's new trick brings doodles to your photos
Still looking for a reason to use Facebook's now-unbundled Messenger app? A new feature learns from competition including Snapchat and Facebook's own Slingshot by adding easy annotation on shared photos. Just click the picture icon like you normally do, then hit the edit button instead of send, and you can doodle with your finger (remember Draw Something? Is anyone still playing that?) or just type in some text before sending. Right now the tweak is Android-only, and should already be live if you're running the most recent version of the app.
BitTorrent Sync lets you share folders on your PC using web links
Yes, cloud services like Dropbox make it easy to share folders through public directories and links, but you still have to put those folders in the cloud in the first place. Wouldn't you rather share them straight from your PC? BitTorrent hopes to make things that direct with its big Sync 1.4 update. Now, you can share folders with others just by giving them web links; you don't have to wait for the files to reach a remote server, or rely on Sync's slightly more obtuse Key system. You don't have to sign up for an account, either, and you can still limit access to prevent others from messing with precious documents. About the only headache is that your recipient needs Sync, although BitTorrent promises that it will walk first-timers through the process.
Secret's next update will add polls and Flickr support, but limit photo uploads
If you love hanging your dirty laundry on carefully curated and symbolic images, then Secret's next update both is -- and isn't -- for you. Sometime next week, the anonymous sharing app will integrate Flickr image search, but access to the photo service's library comes at a price: the ability to use your own photos. The update will remove the ability to upload images from your phone, with the exception of pictures taken in real-time with the Secret app itself.
