stickers
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A family of four... um, Apples?
I generally dislike the whole practice of putting stickers on your car to represent your immediate family, but I suppose if I were to join in, I'd consider this as a way to go. Of course, there's also the possibility that this person just really really loves Apple, in which case I'd have to insist that one sticker gets the point across just fine. [Photo credit: Lenore Edman]
Stickers on your MacBook: Yes or no?
I'll admit that I've been known to cover my notebooks in obnoxious stickers for absolutely no reason other than needing somewhere to stick them. Something about doing it felt like I was making my gadget a little bit more "mine," but when it comes to my most recent MacBook purchases, it feels like defacing a work of art. I've still done it, mind you, but it's the first time I've felt guilty about it. So what's the verdict: Do you see sticker-ing your Apple notebook as a fun hobby, or is it shunned in your circles? %Poll-87845% [Photo credit: Claire Sambrook]
BlackBerry updates BBM with stickers and group photo sharing
Admit it: Sometimes what you need to say is best expressed through the image of a WWE character. Now you can send that wrestler, or a picture of Shaun the Sheep (if you're feeling a little less hostile) to friends via BBM. Following rumors we heard a few weeks ago, today BlackBerry launched stickers for the messaging app, similar to what all some other messaging apps have been doing for a while now. The company is opening a new BBM Shop where you can pick up a variety of sticker packs (with 20-25 icons each) now for $1.99 or less a pop, with more expected to come on a regular basis. If the addition of stickers isn't quite enough for you, today's update also brings the ability to share photos with friends in multi-person chats, so you can make sure the whole crew gets that #groupie at the same time.
BBM beta now offers stickers, because that's really what it needs to catch up
Good news! BlackBerry has finally figured out how BBM will pose a threat to messaging giants like WhatsApp. It's... stickers. Yes, of all the things the company could do to improve its chat app, it's introducing the same sort of purely cosmetic decals that everyone else offers. As with rival services, those using a new BBM beta can buy themed sticker packs to express themselves in creative (and very cutesy) ways. In all fairness, the addition may help BlackBerry court younger chatters. However, we hope that the phone maker has a lot more up its sleeve than this -- me-too upgrades can only go so far.
Line messaging app doubles size in seven months, has 300 million users
The public's adoration of stickers and kawaii mascots continues unabated. There are now 300 million Line users out there, possibly making it the biggest messaging app you've never used. While it still has a challenge on its hands to claw away users from Western favorites like Whatsapp and Facebook, the conventional wisdom is that messaging is very much big business. Line continues to grow its following in Asia and while Japan forms the base of operations for the app, overseas messaging accounts for roughly 80 percent of its business. We're off to score some new Dragon Quest stickers. Or maybe some Finding Nemo ones. So many 'stamps', so little time.
Facebook brings lock screen music controls to Home, animated stickers to all Android users
Facebook's Android offerings just got a little livelier through a pair of updates. If you're using Facebook Home, you now have music controls on the lock screen during playback. Everyone using the regular Facebook app, meanwhile, should see animated stickers in messages. Neither upgrade is dramatic, but they're both enough to justify a quick visit to Google Play.
Path 3.1 brings stickers to comments, uses QR codes for adding friends
Stickers, stickers everywhere -- that's what'll happen once everyone on your Path friends list updates their app. The newest version for iOS and Android takes cartoony stickers out of private messaging and lets you use them on the comments section of your feed. Additionally, folks on the go can now easily add friends using QR codes the app generates -- new pals need only scan it to approve the request. If that leads to a barrage of new contacts, version 3.1's improved friends list and better landscape and profile navigation on the iPad will help you sort things out. Considering the social network credits stickers as one of the reasons why it's seen significant growth recently, we imagine Path's comments will be populated with smileys and furry creatures in no time.
Facebook stickers come to the web
Facebook brought stickers to its Android and iOS apps this spring, and they're reaching the web right as summer hits full stride. As in the mobile space, desktop users can now use critters, giant smileys and other over-the-top graphics in their private messages. A store is on hand for those who want to venture beyond Facebook's free catalog. Web stickers are available today -- if :) just won't cut it for your conversations, you'll now have a more expressive set of emoticons wherever you go.
Facebook for Android adds stickers, new layout for business pages (update: and 'ongoing notification')
Facebook updated its Android app today, with a flurry of new features. The cutesy / creepy stickers that recently hit its messenger platform are now a part of its core application, along with the ability to delete unwanted comments from posts. The highlight of this new software push is a redesigned layout for business pages, which rolled out on iOS and its mobile web UI last month. Under this retooled interface Like, Directions, Check In and Call buttons at the top aid discovery in the style of Google Maps, Foursquare or Yelp. If you'd like to take closer at Facebook's refined setup for Android, feel free to socialize with the source link below. Update: Although it wasn't noted in the changelog, we've noticed a new "ongoing notification" that appears after updating, and judging by the comments, so have some of you. It can be switched off in the app's settings, but it's on by default and drops a Facebook icon in your notification bar with shortcuts to areas like messages, friend requests and service notifications. You can get a peek at the surprise addition in the pic above -- let us know if you're feeling appreciative or angered in the comments. Update 2: Without warning, the ongoing notification setting and accompanying icon / notification widget has disappeared from our Android devices, and from those of several readers. There was no update to the app, but the menu item is nowhere to be found and the bar disappeared after a device restart. Was this an accidental leak or just an early test by Facebook? We've contacted the company to find out more information, but for now all we have are these screengrabs.
Facebook Messenger for iOS: now with stickers and message-deleting swipes
Facebook's been giving its Messenger app quite a few facelifts lately, with the arrival of Chat Heads and VoIP calling among the highlights. Today, an app update was released for iOS that lets users add stylized critter stickers to messages, freeing them from the crippling visual limitations of emoticons in textual communications -- largely identical to the recent Android update. The upgrade also enables a swipe to delete feature to remove conversations from inboxes for good, saving users precious fingertips from an extra tap or two in the process. If your iPhone hasn't already told you about version 2.4, you'll find the fresh download at the source below.
LINE messenger has more than 150 million users, because we all love stickers
Four months since the Korean-Japanese messaging app broke through the 100 million user mark, LINE has added another 50 million -- not bad for an app that only launched in June 2011. In another testament to people's unabated love for stickers (or giant emoticons), LINE has launched in 11 languages and about 230 countries. New growth has apparently centered around the Middle East and Asia, with Taiwan, Japan and Thailand currently its most popular locales. The company is still looking to compete with incumbents like WhatsApp and Facebook in the US and Europe, however, with a little help from all those LINE-hosted games and apps.
Path app is adding 1 million new registered users a week
It looks like everyone loves stickers, because following its last update, Path is growing -- fast. The social app is now pulling in a million users a week and has recently topped nine million. It's picked up most of its new chroniclers and message-senders from English and Spanish speaking regions, particularly in South and Central America. In fact, 500,000 Venezuelans decided to start trying the app over a single weekend. According to Path's co-founder, Dave Morin, search features added at the start of the year have increased user traffic by 50 percent, while the addition of extra stickers and filter purchases has meant its making its way up the top-grossing charts too. The chief exec adds that the growth appears to be organic, with users largely split equally across iOS and Android, although there's nothing just yet on Google Glass user numbers . [Image credit: Sticker Robot]
Facebook Messenger for Android: now with free stickers
Emojis not giving that missive the right oomph? A Facebook Messenger for Android update has brought stickers into that mix with characters like cats and aliens, lending your chat head conversation just the right dose of nuance. It popped up yesterday as a hidden feature, but now you can download the final version at Google Play (at the source) -- then, just click on the smiley icon in the text input box to start dropping the cute bombs.
Path 3 adds private messaging and stickers, much like your 5th grade binder
Path hasn't held the same grip on social networkers as Facebook or Twitter, in part because it's almost too social -- you can't really control which friends (or friends of friends) see a post. The solution in Path 3.0? Recreate your Trapper Keeper from grade school, apparently. Along with introducing a much-appreciated private messaging system that lets two or more friends share text, maps, media and voice messages, the update lets us slap expressive stickers into the conversation when a basic emoticon just won't do. Of course, that's also how Path hopes to get a few extra bucks: two sticker packs come free, while others lurk in the same shop as custom photo filters. If you just have to tell buddies that Stacey was soooooo gross in chemistry class, you can get Path 3.0 today on iOS, and shortly on Android.
StickNFind Bluetooth tracking stickers to ship next week, get extended range
StickNFind managed to raise a grand total of $931,970 through IndieGoGo since we first caught up with it, and now it's set to start shipping next week. In case your memory requires a bit of jogging, the quarter-sized disc can help you hunt down whatever it's attached to thanks to a smartphone app that keeps tabs on its distance via Bluetooth. Mobile World Congress also brings news that the miniature homing tags have gotten a redesigned companion application, an extended range of up to 150 feet (ratcheted up by 50) and a tracking accuracy of within two inches. StickNFind is being geared up for an arrival on retail shelves this April, but there's still no word regarding which shops will carry it.
StickNFind Bluetooth stickers let you tag and locate your goods with a smartphone (hands-on video)
We've all misplaced keys, gadgets and occasionally even children. Well, no more. StickNFind is a nifty, inexpensive solution for tagging and locating electronics, keys and pets. For roughly $25 a pop (estimated retail), you get a small adhesive disk that can be affixed to any flat surface or attached to a keychain. Inside, there's a replaceable CR2016 watch battery that's said to last more than a year, a Bluetooth module and antenna, an LED-lit ring and a piezoelectric speaker. A free Android or iOS app then lets you hone in on any stickers within a roughly 100-foot (line of sight) range. The current version can only display distance, but an update, set to hit before StickNFind ships, will add direction, leading you directly to your target. You can also activate a (fairly faint) beeper, and an LED ring around the perimeter of the sticker, further helping you to find the device, even in a dark room. The app will offer several other features, including a "Virtual Leash" that alerts you when the sticker goes out of range -- a "Reverse Virtual Leash" will make the device (perhaps attached to your keys) beep, letting you know you've left your smartphone behind. The product designers will also be offering an SDK, so developers can even create their own apps for StickNFind. For example, you could write an app that uses the stickers as triggers -- apparently one museum plans to affix the device to art, so as visitors approach, a text notification will pop up describing the piece. Another company is considering using stickers at an upcoming conference, and with Bluetooth transmitters placed around a venue, they can track the precise location of attendee badges (and the individuals wearing them), and even send "pages" by triggering the beeper and light. During our hands-on, StickNFind worked quite well, though as we mentioned, the current alpha version of the app only displays distance, not direction. The device is currently available for "pre-order" on Indiegogo, with an estimated March ship date. You can snag a sneak peek of it in action though, in our hands-on video after the break.
Austrian city builds public library with nothing but QR codes, NFC and stickers
Strangely, the Austrian city of Klagenfurt doesn't have a public library, even though it hosts the Festival of German-Language Literature. However, an initiative dubbed Project Ingeborg is turning the municipality into a book repository of sorts with 70 QR code and NFC chip-equipped stickers. Plastered throughout town, they direct users to web pages where they can download public domain works, largely from Project Gutenberg. Oftentimes, e-books will be located in relevant locations -- so you'll be sure to find Arthur Schnitzler's The Killer near the police station, for example. Come August, the team behind the effort will partner with local talent to distribute books, music and other digital content too. In an effort to build a stronger bond to the location, the organizers have prevented search engines from indexing the links, so you'll have to visit Klagenfurt to access the curated goods. If you'd like to turn your city into a library, the group hopes to release instructions for replicating their system soon. [Thanks, Michael]
Google Cr-48 Chrome laptop now shipping with stickers, the good kind
How is it that so few companies get it? While dozens of manufacturers will gladly slap an Intel, Microsoft, or NVIDIA advertisement on the palmrest of your brand new laptop, Google knows better than to partake in this annoying practice. Instead, it ships its Cr-48 Chrome laptop as a sticker-free slab of matte black stealth. At least it did. Now, don't worry, Google hasn't succumbed to the temptation to advertise (ironically) -- it's simply bundling this swank skin and a decal set with new Cr-48 shipments. The choice to apply is yours and yours alone, exactly as it should be. See the finished product after the break.
Coexist laptop decal puts presumptions to bed, demonstrates your tolerance
You've probably seen something similar wrapped around Bono's cranium, but this iteration of the famed Coexist logo is taking on an entirely new meaning. Rather than attempting to get warring factions and crazed arsonists on the same page, Suzie Automatic is simply trying to get the computing world on the same TextEdit document. The Coexist banner laptop decal ($10) obviously works best on Apple machines (aesthetically speaking), but there's a bumper sticker ($7) and t-shirt ($15) for those who wouldn't be caught dead with equipment Designed in Cupertino. But we're preaching tolerance here, remember fanboy? [Thanks, Stig]
Tactile+Plus adds buttons to your iPhone - kind of
Steve Jobs dislikes buttons, which is why one of the most premier gaming devices in the world has no tactile feedback whatsoever. But there's still a call for finding buttons on the screen by feel alone, and Tactile+Plus is designed to let you do just that. It's a little plastic sticker sheet that you can place on your iPhone or iPod touch's touchscreen, and it will provide touchable, raised bumps where buttons go in certain games. Just peel the buttons (you get a D-pad sticker and four buttons with the pack) off of the sheet, place them onscreen where the virtual controls are, and voila, you've got bumps that let you know what to press. The product is made in Japan, but there is a US price listed of $7.40, so you can order it (though it'll be at your own risk). Plus, it seems a little messy -- if the buttons really are sticky enough to stay on the glass, they might leave residue there, and if they're not, they might be tough to actually control games with. But it's an interesting idea, and until Steve and Apple work out that dynamic tactile interface, it might be a workable solution. [via Joystiq]
