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Instax Mini's latest feature lets you digitally doodle on your photos
Instax has added a new mini link feature that makes it easier to get creative with your photos.
Jack Dorsey says Twitter ‘probably’ won’t get an edit button
Many Twitter users have long been clamoring for a tweet edit button to fix annoying little errors after blasting their missives to their followers. But after years of Twitter higher-ups musing the feature in public, CEO Jack Dorsey says "we'll probably never do it."
Jack Dorsey says a Twitter edit function has to be done ‘the right way’
While speaking at the Indian Institute of Technology, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was asked a question that comes up all the time -- will Twitter ever roll out an edit feature? Dorsey has acknowledged the possibility of such a function in the past, and like before, his recent comments on the topic noted that while the company has been considering an edit function, it would want to be sure it was implemented in the right way.
'Astrocyte' explores how architecture can interact with humans
Philip Beesley's Astrocyte aims to show that architecture can be more than just ornamental. Built from acrylic, mylar, sensors, custom glasswork, 3D-printed lights and using AI, chemistry and a responsive soundscape, it not only invokes emotional reactions but reacts to participants' movements and gestures. The giant, delicate-looking structure (inspired by astrocyte nerve cells), also prompts unusually respectful interactions from human observers.
Edit your GoPro videos on your TV with Sugarlock
Right now, if you want to share GoPro videos (or any video sitting on a memory card, and not your phone), then it usually involves a PC and some effort -- or at least some time exporting and uploading it. Sugarlock describes itself as an "action cam dock," but it's perhaps better (if less sexily) described as a dedicated video editing box you plug into your TV. The aim of which is to help you sift through your footage easily, find the best parts, and export them as sharable clips, without any of the baggage of most editing software.
Adobe Lightroom for iOS brings another desktop tool to mobile
Adobe continues to make its mobile photography apps more powerful, and a new update for Lightroom mobile on iOS delivers more of that. Leveraging another useful feature from the desktop, you can now employ a Point Curve mode to make adjustments in the Tone Curve and Split Toning tool. In other words, you now have more control when you add a tint or tone to the shadows and highlights of an image using Split Toning, for example. Lightroom mobile also allows you to "shoot through presets" now, too.
Wikipedia edit turns groupie into backstage VIP
Wikipedia edits often get politicians and law enforcement officials into trouble, but a sneaky amendment apparently pays dividends if you're looking to gain access to somewhere you shouldn't. The Guardian reports that Australian man David Spargo successfully snuck into the backstage area of a gig featuring local act Peking Duk after he duped guards with a rather opportune revision.
Adobe and Dropbox make it easier to edit PDFs from the cloud
Dropbox got cozy with Microsoft Office back in the spring, offering a way to easily edit files stored in its cloud-based repository. Now, Dropbox is getting friendly with Adobe Document Cloud, too. More specifically, the company is playing nice with Adobe Acrobat DC and Acrobat Reader to serve up quick and easy access to edit PDF documents. Once you connect your Dropbox account with the Adobe apps, you'll be able to pull in files without leaving the app. What's more, when you're browsing files in Dropbox, you'll have the option to open a PDF in the appropriate Adobe app to edit, e-sign, comment and markup the file as needed. And as you might expect, no matter how you open the document or which device you're using, everything automatically syncs in Dropbox across desktop and mobile. PDFs are by far the most common file format stored with the could-driven storage service,and now its improving the workflow for power users. The new functionality goes live on the desktop today with iOS integration arriving "in the coming months." Android users can expect to employ the PDF-editing workflow next year.
Gnarbox puts a video editing suite in your back pocket
Gnarbox is a modern solution to a modern problem. Right now, if you're shooting video outdoors, you'll either need your laptop with you, or (more likely) have to wait until you get back to base to make an edit. By which time, the moment has gone, and your footage risks ending up stockpiled on a memory card or hard drive. Gnarbox tackles this issue by bundling a WiFi hard drive with a quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM, a dedicated GPU, about seven hours battery life and a comprehensive mobile app. With just the paperback-sized device and a phone you can make decent edits, even with 4K video, and share them right after the wave/ride/moment.
NYPD edited Wikipedia pages on police brutality, stop-and-frisk
Apparently it's not just politicians that are concerned about their reputation on Wikipedia -- a report by Capital found evidence of the New York Police Department digging into the crowd-sourced encyclopedia. IP addresses registered to the NYPD have been linked to edits and/or requests to delete the Wikipedia pages for well-known police shooting cases like Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell. In the hours after a grand jury decided not to indict an officer for the death of Eric Garner, someone logged on via an NYPD IP address to make several changes to the corresponding article.
Letterspace gets iOS writing and editing right
It's easy to write on an iPad or iPhone, but editing and revising, not so much. At this moment I have six separate writing apps on my iPad and the all share the same problem: if you want to edit or change a word or phrase, you are required to touch the spot on the screen near where you want to "insert" the cursor and then fiddle around, moving your finger around to try and get to the precise spot that you want. Letterspace, a clever new iOS app, solves this problem elegantly. Letterspace requires iOS 7.1 or later, is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The base app is free, but has an In-App purchase option of additional fonts and colors for $4.99. Letterspace really is beautifully designed. When you create a new document you are presented with not only the blank page and the virtual keyboard, but they are separated by a and a few useful characters not displayed on the basic iOS keyboard. That's nice, but the real magic happens when you type a line or two of text and then run your finger across this bar. The cursor moves easily and quickly back and forth across your text. The moment I started using sliding approach to move the cursor I fell in love with it. This is exactly how editing should work with touch devices. Using it for the first time was one of those, "of course!" moments. It's brilliant, simple, and very effective. But is that enough for a writing app? I found the app to be well designed and easy on read and use. Letterspace includes a few other clever features. Along with the sliding cursor bar the app includes smart quotes and parentheses in the editing bar. Simply touch the parentheses, type, and touch it again and you get both proper open and close characters. That's a nice touch (and it makes it easier to add parenthetical phrases like this). There's also a not as well thought out feature that allows you to create list items that you can then toggle by touching the screen. Once again, clever, but this feature doesn't come off as well. To make it work I needed a total of 10 key presses to start a new task. That took some fiddling about to make it work and once I did figure it out it didn't seem like a strong benefit to me over other list making apps. It would be much more effective and usable is one didn't have to manually start the process. The app also recognizes hashtags, a nice feature for searching, and an archive feature for clearing documents from the front display. Letterspace also uses iCloud for syncing and that worked very well when I tested it on both my iPhone and iPad. I found it easy to send a document that I'd created in Letterspace via the standard iOS methods, including AirDrop, Message, and Mail. I particularly appreciated the "Open In" feature, allowing me to open a Letterspace document in some of the other writing apps on my device. I spend my working day writing, either on my iPad, iPhone, or more likely, my MacBook Pro. I prefer to have my current projects immediately at hand without intentionally and manually moving them about. That's one of the things missing here: a Mac OS seamless option. My current default for writing fully cross-platform is Simplenote (iOS) and nvALT on my Mac (and I can do the same with Pages and even Microsoft Word). When I use these apps I never have to think about where a doc is or how to move it-it's just where I need it. Letterspace's additional niceties don't trump what I need the most: having my documents readily at hand without pre-planning. If you don't need seamless syncing and availability Letterspace is an exceptionally nice writing AND editing tool. My initial delight at using it remains, but that may not be enough to cause me to move from my current apps.
Ask Massively: Forums, edit buttons, and staff change-ups
Last week, we announced that we are closing down Massively's forums. What forums, you ask? Yeah, unfortunately, that was exactly the point. The forums were always a bit too adjacent to the site, and in the wake of the success of our newfangled comment system, we'd prefer to focus on publishing articles and engaging readers right here in the comments on the site, rather than on a neglected off-site portal. I'm genuinely sorry, but I hope the few remaining, stalwart forumgoers will migrate over and help make our comments an even more interesting place to be. In return, we'll try to crack down harder on the comment trolls who are hell-bent on killing the buzz. Believe me, they annoy us as much as they annoy you, especially when we're babysitting them on a Friday night. But this is Ask Massively, the meta column where you ask us weird questions and we give you weird answers. So what else did you wonder about this week?
Skullcandy launches Edit headphone customization service, personalized cans from $199 (video)
One charge you could never level at Skullcandy is that its headphones are drab. But, if you were still thinking that the designs just aren't, well, jazzy enough, perhaps the new Edit service is for you. Taking a page out of Fanny Wang's book, the headphone maker has handed the painter's palette over to you. An online tool presents you with a stock pair of Aviators, letting you choose the color of the headband, frame, cord and ear caps -- all for $199. If you're even more fussy specific, an extra $20 will open up extra cap options. The creatively challenged among you needn't worry either, as there is a randomize button, and once you've conjured up something to your taste, naturally you can share it with your social world. Already set on your team's colors? Wave a brush over the source link to get started.
Facebook rolls out comment editing, embraces your change of heart
Facebook has long betrayed you by forwarding your drunken wall ramblings in an email for posterity. Previously, though, the only way to limit further public shame was to try to delete the comment altogether. Now, it looks like the loose fingered have been given a reprieve, as the social giant is rolling out the ability to edit your ill-thought missives long after the fact. Even better, this seems to extend back to those written in the past. Don't think you can be sneaky though, as an "edited" link will appear below, letting everyone see the thread history. So even if you change your opinion, that indecision remains for all to see.
iPad drag-to-edit keyboard prototype shows Apple how easy it could be (video)
Text editing on the iPad is a bit of a slog unless you have a dedicated keyboard. One Daniel Hooper, however, has a simple but clever idea to fix this: use the keyboard as a pseudo-trackpad. As he shows in the prototype video below, his idea has touchscreen typists just drag one or two fingers along the keyboard to whip through text. Need to select something? Hold the Shift key while you swipe. While the concept is the sort of addition you'd normally only expect to appear in a jailbreak mod, Hooper sees the convenience as worth petitioning Apple directly -- and while there's no guarantee Apple will ever implement it, that he's been told Apple now sees it as a "known issue" suggests that someone in Cupertino is contemplating the possibilities.
CloudOn offers Microsoft Office functionality for iPad, your parents will love it
If you got your parents an iPad for Christmas, you were probably thanked with this: "Can it run Office?" CloudOn may be the answer, the cloud-based service letting you log in to create and edit Office documents on the aforesaid slate. Similar to a lot of remote services, CloudOn runs Office on its own end and allows you to pull in documents from Dropbox for editing and post them back when you're done. Strangely, CloudOn launched on the App Store as a freebie but was pulled due to heavy demand. The company has asked users to sign up to be notified when the app goes back in the App Store. In other news, Las Vegas oddsmakers are now taking bets as to which will occur first; the release of an iOS-native version of Microsoft Office or the Robot Apocalypse.
YouTube Editor enables cloud-based combining of clips, trimming of masterpieces
Too many YouTube clips in your library? Not enough cheddar to get a decent piece of video editing software on your PC? Fret not, as the World's Greatest Time Waster has just rolled out a new web-based Video Editor that enables users to combine clips, trim segments, add audio and then preview the results before finalizing. Hey, Numa Numa kid -- get on those mashups, pronto!
Twisted Nether Wiki compiles a nice list of WoW utilities
A few folks over at the Twisted Nether Wiki have done a great thing and compiled a nice full list of all of those little online WoW utilities that we talk about every once in a while. From character improvement tools like Be Imba! to resources like Kaliban's Loot Lists and even humor sites like WoWBash, if it's online, WoW-related, and worth visiting more than once, it's on this list.And of course it's a wiki, so even if it's not on that list, you can add it. But it is cool to have all of those resources in one place -- we mention them, obviously, when there are updates to share, but if you don't bookmark them when you hear about them, they might have fallen off your radar. There are so many great and well-designed tools out there for players to use that something like this, tracking them all, is great to have.
How to increase your camera distance
It seems to me like we've covered this before, but I can't find it, so it must have been a while. The standard camera distance in World of Warcraft isn't bad, especially if your computer is right at the system requirements-- you can usually see most of what's happening and yet it's close enough to keep you focused on your character.But if you've got a really nice PC and, like me, want to see a little farther than normal (or as in the picture above, a lot farther than normal), there are a few easy ways to increase your camera distance, as Dr. Laxative found over on LJ.ImprovedCamera is probably the easiest-- it's an addon that will give you a slider to increase camera distance up to the max allowed range. You can also see, in the description on that site, that there are ways to edit your WoW files and increase the max range even farther. By editing the "SET cameraDistanceD" number in your config.wtf file, you can change one of the preset lengths for the camera, and then cycle through them with Home and End. You don't even really need an addon to tweak your settings-- type "/script SetCVar("cameraDistanceMax",30)" (or whatever distance you want) into the chat console, and then you should be able to scroll out to the max distance that you just set.If your computer's not that great, doing this stuff will definitely introduce slowdown and pop-in to your graphics, so run these commands with care. But if you've got the gear for it, you can see Azeroth at a whole new distance.
TUAW Tip: Safari's reset button
Brandon sent us a great tip that I should have known was in Safari, but that I hadn't found yet. For you paranoids out there, the Safari 3 beta offers an easy way to clean up every single thing you've ever done, including the history, passwords, cookies, and even favicons and Autofill text. Under the Edit menu, there's a "Reset Safari" option which reveals a checklist that lets you hit the reset button on your browser. Firefox users like myself will notice that this was "gently lifted" from the Clear Private Data function under FF's Tools menu.And it's not just for paranoid browsers out there-- the blogging engine here at TUAW, Blogsmith, is a great program but sometimes hiccups when the cache gets overwritten or pushed out of sync. When it does, the Reset options let me flush the cache in just a few clicks without losing any of my browser windows. If you ever run across a browser-based application that's not doing what you want, this is definitely an alternative to try before actually restarting the browser.
