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Iran backs away from censoring whole websites
Iran's current approach to internet censorship typically isn't subtle -- either you get unfettered access, or (more often) you don't see a site at all. However, the country's government is about to take a more measured approach to blocking online content it doesn't like. It's deploying "intelligent filtering" that tries to restrict only the material deemed "criminal or unethical," rather than cutting off an entire service. The smarter filter is only active on one social network (most likely Instagram) as part of a test phase, but it's expanding to more sites within the next six months. Ultimately, the nation wants to use this technology on "all networks."
Instagram gives you more control over your photo filters
Instagram's photography thrives on filters, so it's only fair that you get as much control over those filters as possible, right? The developers clearly think so. An update rolling out today to Instagram's Android and iOS apps lets you reorganize and hide filters; if you're obsessed with Sutro's vignettes, you can bump it to the front. Each filter icon also shows a blurred preview of the effect on your photo, giving you a better sense of what will happen if you tap a given icon. There are five new filters (Aden, Crema, Ludwig, Perpetua and Slumber) available today as well, so you'll have plenty of excuses to check out the new interface when it reaches your phone.
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.
Snapchat tests stickers that only unlock when you're in popular locations
Snapchat's ephemeral messaging service is enjoying huge growth, but as it stands the company is not making any money (at least from its users). But that isn't to say it isn't testing potential new revenue sources, one of which involves fusing two popular messaging features: stickers and location. As discovered by Mail Online, Snapchat has begun offering some users the opportunity to add special stickers to their photos based on their where they are. Some Snapchatters have gained access to filters that shower them with dollar bills when they are in New York's financial district, while others have shared stickers that can only be unlocked inside popular US airports. We know that Snapchat has been working with brands to add their logo to images or videos for specific events, but these new stickers could provide an easy way to share a user's location visually, instead of checking in. Whether you'll soon be able to share a McDonald's sticker when you grab a Big Mac remains to be seen, but Snapchat appears to be open to the idea.
Instagram adds nine new editing tools, makes filters adjustable
The problem with trying to be unique on Instagram, is that there are millions of other users spoiling that, using the same darn filters. How dare they. Starting today, things should get a little more varied, as the food photo sharing network has just introduced a host of new features, but most importantly those popular filters are adjustable, too. The new controls include: filter strength, brightness, contrast, warmth, saturation, highlights, shadows, vignette and sharpen. Instagram's no doubt hoping these new options put it's free app on a par with some big name paid apps when it comes to editing power. But, unless you like your images square, it might not be a full editing replacement just yet. It's available for iPhone and Android right now. Fill yer boots.
Android now lets you search for hotels and restaurants you can actually afford
So far, Android search hasn't been very discriminating when it comes to hotels and restaurants; finding a posh eatery one block away is no use if you can't afford it. Google is about to provide relief to wallets everywhere, though, as it just updated the mobile search app to include filters à la Foursquare or Yelp. Ask for a place to eat or stay and you can narrow the results by price range, cuisine style, rating and hours. The upgraded search only works in the US at the moment, but it should eventually be a boon to anyone who's looking for a cheap bite or a late-night crash pad.
UK government will unblock websites after adult filter blunder
Shortly after the UK government implemented a nationwide adult content filter, it transpired that it wasn't just naughty sites you couldn't access. Copyright blogs, relationship education sites and even women's crisis centers were all marked as being dangerous for family viewing. After much hand-wringing, the government has admitted the error, and is now working on a whitelist of sites that shouldn't be censored. At the same time, there are plans to develop an appeals system -- so that we can all go back to reading about James Earl Miles Jr. without fear.
UK adult content filters inadvertently block online education and medical resources
We've all fallen victim to the pedantic e-mail filter that denies the existence of Scunthorpe and refuses to let you order Shiitake Mushrooms, but the situation just got a whole lot worse in the UK. The country's new nationwide adult content filter has been found to restrict access not just to smut, but also to online educational, medical and emergency resources. The list of "offending" sites runs from BishUK, a site to teach young people about relationships, all the way through to several women's crisis centers being blocked. In response to questions from the BBC, networks like BT and TalkTalk have pledged to make the necessary changes -- although some have questioned if it's right that ISPs have this much say in what parts of the internet are safe or not.
New BT net subscribers will choose whether to block adult content during setup
The UK government's been pushing ISPs to make a bigger deal of adult content filters for quite some time, and today BT has fulfilled its commitments, joining other major providers like TalkTalk and Sky. A new tool from the telecoms outfit, cleverly named "BT Parental Controls," blocks unwelcome traffic at the router level -- BT has provided similar services before now, but this improved effort will be more conspicuous, especially for new broadband subscribers. When setting up their HomeHub, customers will have the option to turn off filters or run with one of the default presets, almost like David Cameron wanted. Existing customers will be notified of the new controls next year, and if they're on board, will have three levels to choose from. Other features include a user-defined blacklist and timed filter periods, but as yet there's no "ignore Miley Cyrus" setting. Please BT, for the children.
Removing filters applied to photos in the iOS 7 camera app
You know the scenario -- you try to take a creative photo by applying a filter and then hate how it turns out. You decide to snap another shot, but the moment is gone, and you are left with an ugly photo of a beautiful scene. If you used iOS 7 to snap your photo, then you are fortunate as you may be able to remove that offending filter. As originally described by MacObserver, just follow these few directions below. If you are on an iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s or an iPod touch (fifth gen), then you can easily undo the camera filter in a few short steps. Just open the image in the Photos app, and click on the "Edit" button in the bottom-middle of the toolbar. When you are in editing mode as shown above, you'll notice the tri-circle icon for the filters. Tap on the filters icon and then scroll to the left to select "None." Hit "Apply" in the upper-right-hand corner and, voila! The filter will be removed. You can also change the filter to another one as I did in the image below.
Apple confirms iOS 7 removes content filters from school-issued iPads, fix coming soon
It seems you can't release a major operating system update these days without a few things going wrong. The latest iOS 7 issue is affecting iPads issued by schools. After updating, the content filters put in place through the Apple Configurator tool are no longer effective, leaving students with unrestricted access to the internet when used at home (school WiFi networks often have separate filters in place that restrict access through all devices). According to an AllThingsD report, a school district in Colorado is collecting iPads at the end of each school day in the meantime -- it's hardly a sustainable long-term solution, but Apple, which acknowledged the issue, expects a fix this month. One crafty administrator set up a DNS block to prevent students from upgrading to iOS 7, but for many other schools, the damage is already done.
Huawei runs David Cameron's preferred porn-filtering system, just FYI (updated)
Authorities in the UK have never had quite the same level of anxiety over Huawei that we've witnessed in the US, and they've so far been happy to let the Chinese firm get involved with numerous parts of the country's data infrastructure. As it turns out, the company's control even extends to the "Homesafe" filter used by internet service provider TalkTalk, which David Cameron recently praised during his push for tighter controls on adult content. The BBC discovered that UK-based Huawei employees are able to decide which sites are blocked on TalkTalk's service, and that even users who opt out of Homesafe have their internet usage data routed through Huawei's system. Whether or not this is an issue depends entirely on how much you trust reports of close ties between Huawei and the Chinese government, versus Huawei's claim that these concerns are based on anti-Chinese prejudice rather than evidence. From a purely practical point of view, however, if the mission is to block off huge swathes of the internet, why wouldn't you hire an expert? Update: A representative of Huawei has been in touch to provide the company's side of the story. He said that Huawei doesn't "run" the Homesafe system, but that the system is "supported by Huawei" without Huawei having control over it. He added that Huawei does not decide which sites are blocked, and that the final decision as to what filters are implemented rests with TalkTalk. Meanwhile, the BBC is apparently standing by its story, since it has issued no retraction.
UK government to activate adult content filters by default
In a speech later today, David Cameron will announce that, by the end of this year, all new UK broadband accounts will have adult content filters activated by default. Such restrictions will only be removed if the account-holder specifically requests it. Meanwhile, around 20 million users already connected will be presented with an "unavoidable decision" concerning adult content, and public WiFi providers must advertise if they utilize filters or not. Cameron also wants to outlaw "extreme pornography," unify police forces' regional databases and request that the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center draws up a "blacklist" of search terms to prevent people from searching for outlawed images online. Legislation will be introduced towards the end of the year to codify the changes, and ISPs not considered to be doing enough will be forced into action.
Nokia Cinemagraph update brings 720p, improved desktop quality and color pop feature
Lumia users have no need for low-quality-GIF makers, thank you very much. Why? Because they can now use the new version of Cinemagraph to create animated images in full 1,080 x 720 glory. What's more, HD cat mems made with the updated app -- not to be confused with the similar Cinemagram -- can be viewed as short high-res video clips instead of GIFs when accessed on computers. As a nice bonus, the developers also threw in a new color pop feature that lets you highlight one hue and render the rest of the image black and white. Sure, the style's been overdone, but we'll bet many WP8 users are thankful the app's expanding its filter offerings in the absence of Instagram.
UK reportedly wants internet filters labeled as 'default-on,' true or not
It's no secret that some British residents want an active-by-default internet filter to keep kids away from salacious content. However, the BBC now claims that the UK government wants to falsely imply that this filter already exists. According to a reportedly leaked letter, the Department of Education is asking internet providers to refer to their filters as "default on" without changing what's ultimately a voluntary system. As you'd imagine, the companies are supposedly quite unhappy: ISP sources believe the phrasing would mislead customers and encourage complacency. Officials have declined to comment on the demands, but we may know the truth soon enough as the Department of Education's letter says an announcement could come "shortly."
The social filter war is officially on: Twitter adds free photo filters to Android and iPhone apps
We knew good and well it was coming, and come it has: Twitter has begun its all-out assault on Instagram (and in turn, Facebook) by including its own set of (free) photo filters. As of now, just the Android version has been updated with the new lenses, but we're expecting iOS and the rest to follow suit in short order. Much like Flickr did earlier this year, Twitter has tapped Aviary to power all of the company's filters and effects. As of now, users will find just eight filters -- ranging from "black and white to vintage" -- while the grid view enables you to preview how your image would look if any of the eight were applied. You'll also be able to crop, as well as pinch to zoom in order to focus attention. Moreover, there's an "auto-enhance" feature that'll add a little whiz-bang to whatever you managed to snap, and if you're still struggling to wrap your brain around it, there's an introductory video waiting just after break. (As well as a (NSFW) video that speaks the truth about all of these filters.) %Gallery-173048%
Lytro camera gets manual controls, new colors and accessories for exacting light-field fans
A frequent gripe of Lytro camera owners has been the hands-off nature of the photography, with that signature infinite focus about the only real fine-tuning that's on tap. As of a fresh firmware upgrade, the light-field camera is much friendlier to demanding shooters. The unconventional point-and-shoot now lets owners manually adjust the ISO sensitivity (80 to 3,200) and shutter speed (1/250th of a second to 8 seconds) as well as lock the exposure or invoke a neutral density filter. Regardless of their precision demands, anyone who was already sold on the concept still gets a few perks with today's refresh: the 8GB model now comes in Seaglass green and a Target-exclusive Moxie Pink, and there's both a $30 sleeve as well as a $60, accessory-friendly case for those who've fully committed to the Lytro lifestyle. Neither upgrade will bring higher resolutions or video, but they'll go a long way towards accommodating those who were at least on the fence. Check out an interactive sample of the shutter speed control's benefits after the break.
Redbox app for Android updated with a new UI and better filtering, no Instant streaming yet
The official Redbox app for Android hasn't seen many changes since it was first introduced early last year, but that's changing with version 3.0. Now available in Google Play, it brings a new look that should make browsing a bit easier, plus enhanced filtering (you can sort Blu-ray discs by genre) and the ability to sort by date or alphabetical order. Finally, support for push notifications could mean unsubscribing to those weekly texts for coupon codes, and users report you can now input the coupon codes in the app while making reservations. We poked around but couldn't find any references to its Instant streaming service, so there's at least one thing to expect for the next update. Android powered kiosk renters can grab the app at the source link below.
YouTube video editing brings in real-time previews, trims UI down to the basics
YouTube's video editing suite is officially a toddler in human years, so it's about time that it grew a little more beyond learning how to walk and talk. By far the most conspicuous sign of maturity is a new real-time preview that shows edits and filter options as you play -- you'll now know if that effects filter at 1:37 is festive or just gaudy. The overall interface is also a little more buttoned-down with a simpler interface that cuts back on unnecessary clutter. YouTube has been rolling out the editor update in recent hours and may have wrapped up by the time you're reading this, which we'd take as a cue to start producing that streaming masterpiece.
Fujifilm unwraps FinePix F800EXR camera with wireless sharing to Android, iOS
If your company doesn't have a camera with WiFi sharing somewhere in your lineup, many will say you're not even in the photography game. Fujifilm is definitely playing: welcome the FinePix F800EXR, its first camera with wireless sharing as part and parcel of the experience. Its centerpiece is a free Photo Receiver app for Android and iOS devices that will catch as many 30 images at a time from an ad hoc WiFi camera link. The matching (if unceremoniously named) Camera Application can return the gesture by geotagging shots as well as finding existing photos on the map. Fujifilm will even pre-Instagram the photos through six new on-camera filters for those who can't stand posting images online without at least some Lomo or tilt-shift effects thrown in. As for the actual camera part of the camera, Fujifilm is keeping afloat in the competitive waters with a 16-megapixel, CMOS-based EXR sensor that can widen the dynamic range or lower the noise if sheer resolution isn't all that vital. An equally noteworthy 20x (25-500mm equivalent) lens out in front will zoom in a lot closer than any phone camera -- well, most of them. We're otherwise looking at the technology we'd expect in a point-and-shoot of this class, such as full-resolution burst shooting at up to eight frames per second, 1080p video and a RAW mode for image quality sticklers. Stores should have the F800EXR in August for about $350, or about as much as the Galaxy Nexus that just might serve as its companion.
