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The Engadget Podcast Ep 13: A Chicken with its Head Cut Off
Editor in chief Michael Gorman and executive editor Christopher Trout are in town this week and stop by to talk Peter Thiel, Vine and online voting with host Terrence O'Brien and reviews editor Cherlynn Low. Then, after they've had their fill of beating up on Thiel, the four will explore how dating and sex have changed in the age of apps. Warning, things get a little NSFW.
Recommended Reading: How Netflix is changing storytelling
Netflix and the future of entertainment Ben Bajarin, Techpinions Since Stranger Things debuted on Netflix, I've seen a number of articles and heard a few podcasts discuss the merits of an 8-episode season over the usual 13. When you think about shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, there can be some filler that helps meet the quota. In this piece, Ben Bajarin takes a look at how Netflix and the concept of binge watching is changing how writers and directors tell stories. Bajarin makes the case that the future of entertainment is in fact storytelling as a service through things like original content and posting an entire season at once.
Grindr is launching its own clothing line
Grindr is looking to insinuate itself into every part of your life it can. Next stop? Your wardrobe, of course. But it's for a good cause, in support of Athlete Ally's efforts in fighting against LGBTQ discrimination. You can find various items of clothing within the dating app's new collection, including tops, outerwear, bottoms, accessories and more.
Grindr successfully convinced gay men to test for HIV
Grindr, the popular gay social networking app, recently ended a study in which a subsection of users were targeted to receive and utilize HIV self-testing kits for a quick diagnosis. Of the 56 men who were tested and answered survey questions, two learned via the kit of their infections.
There's no perfect equation for getting laid in the Tinder age
Last July, I joined Grindr and things started off strong. I had a few good screws, a handful of hot dates and an intense summer fling. I saw more action in six months than I'd seen in the past three years. I was winning and a computer was helping me do it. Then, after an eight-day trip to Las Vegas this past January, all the action dried up.
Ghosting redefined
They are our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our teachers, our students, our bankers, our janitors, the bathroom attendant, the perfume-counter girl, the porn star, the preacher. They are the right-wing nut job, the Left Shark and the guy in the middle seat. There's no discernible difference between us and them. In fact, there's a good chance you're one of them. They are ghosts -- or so we've been told.
The incredibly sad world of niche dating apps
When I exited the market in 2006, online dating was akin to wearing sweatpants in the club. It was a sign that you'd given up on the "real" world; a symbol of existential surrender.
Tinder hits 100 million downloads, but newbies beware
Many New Year's resolutions were apparently "hook up with someone," because Tinder said it had its biggest day in active user growth on January 3. That's part of an overall trend that culminated yesterday in the dating app reaching 100 million downloads since it launched in September 2012. CEO Sean Rad said that "more downloads increases the potential for making matches and creating meaningful connections," and added that more features are "on the way." However, new users might want to temper their excitement with a huge amount of caution, according to recent UK police statistics.
Grindr sells majority stake to a Chinese gaming company
The majority stake of gay dating app Grindr is now in the hands of Beijing Kunlun, a Chinese gaming firm. The company will pick up 60 percent of the app, which it valued at $155 million. "We have users in every country in the world, but in order to get to the next phase of our business and grow faster, we needed a partner," Carter McJunkin, chief operating officer of Grindr. Mr. McJunkin told the NYT the pairing made sense for Grindr because the gaming company agreed to let the app's founders continue its current structure and keep the existing team. The gay dating app is available across 196 countries and has become one of leading gay dating apps. However, Grindr consistently scores low in user reviews. Many users cite issues with spam bots and persistent bugs — problems that Beijing Kunlun's "digital expertise" might help solve.
Gay dating app Grindr is hosting a fashion show this Sunday
Apparently there comes a time in every (allegedly) salacious dating app's life where it tries shedding its perceived sins by going mainstream. For Grindr, that's being the exclusive live-streaming option for a show at the upcoming London Collections Men event. This Sunday the gay-male-focused, location-based application will host J.W. Anderson's menswear fall 2016 show. But according to The New York Times, you won't be watching the runway from within the app itself -- users will get a link and a code to watch on a mobile browser. Grindr's VP of marketing, Landis Smithers, says that for a portion of the app's users, fashion is a pretty big deal and future projects like this could include music and night life.
Let's talk about sex: This is Computer Love
Computer Love is a semi-regular column exploring the weird world of human sexuality in the 21st century. That's me four months ago, emerging from the frozen tomb of a near decade-long relationship. OK, that's Brendan Fraser, but when I finally surfaced from the cold-comfort coffin of love lost, I was thrust into a strange new world, where courtship starts with a dick pic, dating is done by phone and text messages are the preferred mode of romantic communique.
Samsung and Google censor LGBT apps in South Korea
Samsung is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, in the hub of an exceedingly connected country: South Korea boasts the fastest internet connection speed in the world and is second globally in smartphone penetration. It's in this environment that both Samsung and Google have banned popular gay social networking apps from their online stores, Buzzfeed News reports. Samsung rejected the gay hookup app Hornet from its South Korean store in 2013, citing local values and laws that disallow LGBT content. Hornet is available in the US and other countries, though it remains banned in Argentina, Iceland, Syria and South Korea, the report says. Samsung confirmed to the site that it blocks LGBT apps on a country-by-country basis, though it's notable that Argentina and Iceland both legalized same-sex marriage in 2010.
Grindr now shows an ETA to your next hookup
Relax everybody: Grindr is going to make finding a potential partner a much simpler affair. You see, now the app will calculate travel time in addition to how far away a potential Lothario is from you, physically. So let's say you've been messaging with Dylan for the past few days, but now that you know he's 45 minutes away that might change the situation a bit -- especially when your fall-back, Bryan, is only a five-minute walk from your apartment. That could affect your evening's plans considerably we'd imagine ('in a quarter-mile, turn right and smile). The app's update also makes swipe-navigation between chats and profiles free for everyone, whereas before it was limited to those paying for Grindr Xtra.
Mister is a gay meetup app that aims to help the dating Grind grow up
There aren't a lot of cutting edge apps for gay dating. The most popular one is Grindr, but that app is largely used to find men who want to hook up rather than be your long-term boyfriend. What if you want more than just another hook-up? Why can't there be a grown-up alternative to Grindr? There is, and it's called Mister. With a user base of 1 million there are plenty of other men looking for love on Mister's network, and their new app makes finding "the one" easier than ever. Mister is designed to take gay dating apps beyond the limit of hook-up culture and truly help each user focus on a well-rounded image of the men they're looking for. Unlike Grindr, which limits you to 130 characters in your profile, Mister provides 3,000 characters to present an image of who you truly are. Instead of the one picture Grindr allows, Mister allows you to post 25. Every day users get 30 personalized introductions, and the app's learning engine allows it to evolve its selections over time to help you find a better match. Matches are done using a mix of geolocation and Mister's web server, leveraging the web server's power to give you better searches. In addition, the new app is faster, sleeker and easier to browse than ever before. Mister CEO Carl Sandler created Mister as a place that emphasizes maturity, safety and respect in the app dating scene. When I spoke to Sandler last week, he explained the motive accordingly: A lot of people in other apps created an environment that was very much aimed at people who look really great in one photo of themselves. Especially shirtless. So if you happen to not be the kind of person that has a washboard stomach or is 23, Grinder sort of became a place that wasn't for you. It wasn't inclusive of a lot of people. There are reasons for that, but a lot of it is because Grindr was designed as a hook-up app. And a lot of people are looking for more than that. To that end Mister also features an encouraged, but optional, MISTER code of ethics. Maturity: MISTERs act like adults. No games. No attitude. Integrity: MISTERs live authentically and honestly. Safety: MISTERs protect themselves and their partners, emotionally and physically. Truth: MISTERs represent themselves accurately in their profiles. Enjoyment: MISTERs value mutually pleasurable experiences. Respect: MISTERs treat each other with respect. The MISTER code creates an environment that's free of the sometimes outright insulting and hostile stances taken on other apps. Sandler told me: This is a space for real men that's about being themselves. You don't have to pretend to be some kind of super jock or athlete. You can have a space that's about authentic experiences and conversations. We want to use the app to empower people not to have shame around dating. You can go on the app to look around and have a good time, or find dates. I'd say we're somewhere between a Match.Com and a Grindr. Mister's redesigned app is debuting exclusively on iOS today, with an Android version coming out in the fall. iOS was the logical place to debut the app, considering around 70 percent of its current users have iPhones.
Apps for Valentine's Day
Image: Shutterstock Today's smartphones are, by their nature, quite versatile. It's impossible to guide every lover on Valentine's Day to the app for their particular needs, because despite the requisite "flowers, chocolate, *something*" expectations, we all do it differently. I tried to round up a few apps that might appeal to just about anyone who participates in tomorrow's festivities. Happy Valentine's Day, if that's your thing! Going out to eat If you're trying to get a reservation, one of the fastest ways to check and make a reservation is with OpenTable (hopefully your area's restaurants are on-board with their system). If you're out and looking for somewhere to eat, I still use one of the first big breakout apps from the App Store, UrbanSpoon. Of course, you can always ask Siri, but if you don't have a 4S, try Yelp. Going out to find someone to love Personally I've had a great experience with OKCupid, probably the least skeevy of the online dating sites and its app is quite excellent. There's also Skout, which I haven't tried, but it has good reviews and features a location-based singles finder in the app. There are also most specific love-finding apps like Grindr for the gay community and Cupidtino for fans of Apple stuff. Buying a gift Don't know what to buy your sweetheart? Apps like El Gifto, and Thoughtful (not yet available in app form) will help you answer that question by asking a few background questions first. You can use Red Laser to comparison shop (you hopeless romantic, you) or Giftiki to pool your money with friends -- the gift that says "I love you enough to beg our friends for money." Setting the mood Yeah we've all heard of Pandora by now, but lately I'm digging the DJ-powered Slacker Radio for less repetition and a wider set of music. Slacker also has several romance-themed stations set up, like this one called Love Songs. If you subscribe to Rdio or Spotify, you can build your own playlist for all-night romance without commercial interruption. My personal preference is Rdio, but it'll be fun to see all the romantic songs being played in Spotify on the night of V-Day thanks to Spotify's in-your-face social mechanisms. Having fun Spending a night at home? Try Scene It? Romance Movies for some lighthearted fun -- although it could be embarrassing if you never watch romance movies. If you want to reminisce about the times you had together and snapped with Instagram, check out Lovestagram, which will bring up all the pics of you and your loved one taken using the social photo service. iKamasutra is the App Store-approved Kama Sutra for the iPhone. You could just as easily buy the real deal in ebook form, but the app provides easy navigation to all your favorite, um, love pretzels. Got any other apps you recommend for Valentine's Day? If you need to call a florist, I'd suggest Google or Siri -- and that you do it fast.
