tagging
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Minuscule ID chips could help spot even the smallest counterfeits
There are times when something is simply too small to tag it with existing technology, and that can be a serious problem when you're trying to fight counterfeits. MIT researchers might have a way to tag even the tiniest devices, though. They've created a very small (0.002 square inches) ID chip that's still secure enough to protect sensitive data. The team managed the feat through a monolithic chip powered solely by light, with antennas that use beam steering and RFID-style (but terahertz-level) backscatter to wirelessly send info to a nearby reader without requiring energy. These keep the design small while reserving enough electricity for encryption.
Instagram may soon let you tag your friends in videos
Instagram is testing a feature that lets users tag their friends in videos. Unlike with photos, where an overlay on the image shows everyone who's tagged, you can tap a button that takes you to page listing all the people tagged in the clip.
Snapchat now lets you tag other users in Stories
It's usually the Facebook-owned Instagram aping Snapchat, adding features like Stories and face filters from the social selfie platform to the photo-sharing one. This time, however, it's Snapchat that's "borrowing" a hallmark from Instagram: now you can add @ replies to your Snaps and make it easier to tag your friends in posts.
Land Rover puts Tile's stuff-finding Bluetooth tech in an SUV
Tile's Bluetooth-connected trackers are made to keep you from misplacing all kinds of stuff -- keys, bags, phones, laptops, whatever. Now Land Rover is building the tech into a vehicle that makes it pretty much impossible to leave your important items behind. In the 2017 Discovery Sport Tile will be a part of its InControl apps setup, ready to alert the driver if tagged items aren't in the car. Maybe you've never shown up to the airport one bag short, but for the rest of us, it's one way to avoid an awkward situation.
Facebook shows how you'll be able to auto-tag friends in videos
On stage at Facebook's annual F8 developer conference, the company did a quick demo of an upcoming auto-tagging feature for video. Using the artificial-intelligence-based recognition technology Facebook already uses to identify your friends in photos, the social network will be able to determine who's in your videos.
Facebook's video tutorials sweetly teach you how to block someone
Even the most socially adept of us can fluff an attempt to quietly block an ex or do other Facebook stuff. That's because the apps differ from Android to iOS to the web and are regularly overhauled to boot. To help, Facebook has released some wildly over-produced but effective videos on how to do important functions. The four videos present a scenario that requires action from the protagonist -- a girl broke up with her boyfriend and wants to block him, for instance. Each then lays out the step-by-step actions needed to share a photo privately, untag yourself from a embarrassing photo, block and unblock someone or edit a post (web only), for both Android and iOS. We've embedded two below and you can find the rest at the source.
Steam's game recommendation tags are now ready for everyone
At a loss as to what to play next after finishing all the games you bought in that last Steam sale? Don't fret -- after months of beta testing, the service's tagging feature is officially ready for prime time. Visit a product page and you can browse tags to see other games you might like in a similar vein, no matter how vague the criteria. Click "sci-fi" when checking out Space Marine and you'll see loads of futuristic titles; choose "Warhammer 40K" and you'll see more specific recommendations, like Space Hulk. You can create your own tags as well, although you'll want to use discretion. Valve is both consolidating tags that have a similar theme and getting rid of tags that aren't really helpful -- as much as you might want to label bad purchases as "junk," you'll have to resist the urge.
New Twitter feature labels #hashtags you may not recognize
My feed is currently littered with hashtags I've never seen before. Iberia (the Spanish airline) tweeted with #ttot (Travel Talk on Twitter), Al Gore used #CRinBrazil (Climate Reality in Brazil) and Verizon posted something with #MobileBKsweeps (no clue). Things can get even more confusing during evening hours on the East Coast, when tags like #TWD (The Walking Dead), #AHSFX (American Horror Story) and #HIMYM (How I Met Your Mother) might appear. A quick trip to Google typically clears things up, but most of the time it's simply not worth the hassle. According to #WSJ, Twitter's now testing a tool that would help bring some clarity to those cryptic tags, in an attempt to make the service more user-friendly. The Wall Street Journal noticed expanded hashtags in Twitter's iOS app, and while reps declined to comment, it appears that the new feature is beginning to roll out. #itsabouttime.
Polymo makes organizing your iPhone photos easy
Polymo is a new camera app for iPhone with some nice twists. It just came out today, but I've been testing it for a while and I can say that at its US$1.99 pricetag, it's a really slick tool to have. This isn't a fancy photo app with a bunch of filters, grids and other features. It's a gesture-driven tool for both taking and organizing your photos. The main idea is that it lets you enter tags before you start shooting, and then assigns those tags to all of the photos in the current session. This is great when you head to a party or out for a hike. You can tag the photos in advance and know that you'll be able to find them when you want them again, instead of flipping endlessly through your camera roll. Of course, Polymo can also add tags in post, and it can import photos from the Camera Roll. Because iOS doesn't really offer any shareable tagging methods, Polymo's tags are currently only valid within the app. You can search your tags in two ways. First, you can browse a list of all your tags, which is handy because you don't always remember what arcane word you might have used a year ago. Second, of course, you can type part of a tag name into a filter bar. Either way, you can build tag criteria and narrow down your search. If you're in the habit of creating logical tag taxonomies with a defined hierarchy, that should be easy... I love Polymo's interface because it's minimal without being lazy, and because it makes good use of gestures. I do not like trying to tap small hit targets on my phone, so any time I can just swipe screens aside and flick photos out of the way, I'm happy. You can tap-and-drag to select multiple photos in the browser, too. It even has a one-finger zoom when viewing photos. Just double-tap-and-hold, then swipe up and down to zoom the photo in and out. Lastly, if you have pictures you want to keep safe from prying eyes (or Facebook, or the NSA...), Polymo has password-protected mode you can enable for certain photos. It's $1.99 and has some great ideas that are well executed. Check it out in the App Store.
Shazam baffles UK users by dropping Spotify integration
If you, like us, regularly use Shazam to tag and add tracks to Spotify for later listening, we have some bad news: you may now find that option has gone. It comes as one of the unexpected consequences of a deal between the music discovery company and streaming service Deezer, which has now replaced its bigger rival in free versions of Shazam in Germany, Mexico, UK and Brazil. TechCrunch spotted that Deezer and Rdio now hold the two main "free" positions within the Shazam app, but also notes that the ad-free premium version Encore retains Spotify integration. In our tests, Shazam had removed Spotify tagging from the Encore Android app, despite still displaying the feature in screenshots on both the UK App Store and Google Play.
Twitter update lets you tag people in pictures, attach multiple photos
If there's a social network out there that epitomizes the mentality of "slow and steady wins the race," it's Twitter. With the addition of photo tagging and multiple picture uploads, the company is continuing to chip away at the advantages its competitors (both real and perceived) enjoy. In 2014 alone, the mobile and desktop sites have received face lifts, it introduced video previews on mobile apps, added ads in the form of promoted users, introduced photo editing tools and experimented with everything from view counts to hiding @ replies and hashtags. The two latest features focus squarely on pictures. For one, you'll now be able to tag people in the photos you upload. Sure you could always add their names to whatever text you appended before, but now you can tag up to 10 people without it counting against your 140 character count. Secondly, and this one will be rolling out more slowly, you'll soon be able to attach up to four photos to each tweet. When you upload multiple pictures a thumbnail collage will automatically be created and you can tap on it to swipe through the images in full size. That is hitting iOS devices first and coming soon to both Android and the website. Hit your respective app store now to get the appropriate update.
Steam's new user-tagging feature matches the best games to your tastes
The next time you get a specific urge to play a certain type of real-time strategy game, with a sci-fi theme, base-building and large quantities of blood for the blood god, Steam will have you covered. Instead of just browsing its catalog by genre, the Steam client now lets all users add their own tags to product pages -- tags which then become searchable by everyone else. The community seems to be embracing the feature quite quickly, with plenty of eclectic labels already visible (someone has already tagged CoD: Ghosts with the word "garbage," for example). As a result, the store should steadily become easier and more fun to navigate, especially with added features like automatic, tag-based game recommendations. Spess Mahreens, for the Emprah!
Shazam for iPhone can now listen for songs and shows in the background
Ever rush to identify a song with Shazam with your phone, only to be frustrated as the tune ends before you've even reached into your pocket? That won't be a concern with the latest update to Shazam's iPhone app. Much like on the iPad, the new audio recognition software can listen for music, live events and TV shows in the background, even if the device is locked; a night at the bar could leave you with a full playlist. There's still no corresponding Android update, but iPhone owners can start producing the soundtrack of their lives after a quick trip to the App Store.
Daily Update for July 30, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Shazam for iPad gets auto-tagging, trending charts, local maps, Spotify and Rdio integration (updated)
If you've ever sighed in frustration at not being able to leap straight from discovering a song to playing it ad-nauseum on Spotify or Rdio, here's a heads-up. Shazam's iPad-focused iOS update integrates both streaming services with its discovery software in addition to a new look home screen and an auto-tagging mode that'll passively observe any music in the background. The mapping service has also been tweaked, letting you search and see what songs are being tagged in your neighborhood (or anyone else's, for that matter) and if you'd like to see it in action, head on past the break. Update: Shazam's been in touch to clarify that Rdio is available for all users, but if you want Spotify integration, you'll have to upgrade to the paid version.
Instagram's new 'Photos of You' feature lets users tag each other (video)
It was just a matter of time, really. We're well acquainted with Facebook letting us tag friends in our photos, so it's no shock that a similar feature has just spread to the social network's mobile darling, Instagram. The Android and iOS apps will both hit version 3.5 today, letting users tag others in a shot (whether or not they're human). A new Photos of You section has also been added to members' profiles, where you can see any photo linked to that account. As you might imagine, Instagram is already trying to head off potential privacy issues -- account holders have until May 16th before their Photos of You sections become public, and settings will let them turn down connections to any revealing (or simply inaccurate) images. The update is already available through the iTunes App Store and should be landing soon in Google Play. Hit up the source links if you've ever wanted to see how other Instagrammers see you.
The risks and rewards of mob sharing
Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street was on Twitter yesterday, discussing the implications of the planned mob-sharing mechanic being introduced in patch 5.2. If you missed this, MMO-Champion reported on it a few days ago, but the jist of it is that several players can take on rares and quest mobs, regardless of faction, and have a chance at loot without affecting that of the original player attacking the mob. However, the mob's health will increase with every new player attacking it. Ghostcrawler comments as follows: @kortosis That's a risk and why we never did sharing before but tapping seems worse. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) February 26, 2013 @troqu the concern that someone would hit a quest boss to buff it then be lazy and make you kill it. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) February 27, 2013 The concern is that the system will be exploited, as many forum readers have commented, by players who just hit the mob once to get their presence recognized, then leave the original player fighting it to a harder job.
Shazam now rides shotgun with any TV show in the US, gets cozier with Facebook
Shazam doesn't want to let GetGlue control all our couch potato time -- it just rolled out an upgrade to its TV component that lets the mobile app provide social sharing, soundtrack and trivia details for nearly any TV show in the US, not just those deemed worthy of special attention. The app mirrors the program it's looking at -- we'll see stats instead of IMDb if we're watching hockey, for example. Whether or not attention is locked on the bigger screen in the living room, Shazam's little screen is making Facebook more a centerpiece of the experience. Media mavens can comment on friends' tagging habits and post their own tags to their Facebook timelines for all to see. The wider universe of TV shows should be available today, although we'll have to wait for an update in the "coming weeks" to broadcast our tastes in media with the rest of the world.
Google lands patent for automatic object recognition in videos, leaves no stone untagged
Google has already been working on patents that could pick out faces and song melodies in our YouTube clips. Now, it might just have the ultimate tool: the technique in a just-granted patent could pick out objects in a video, whether they're living or not. Instead of asking the creator to label objects every time, Google proposes using a database of "feature vectors" such as color, movement, shape and texture to automatically identify subjects in the frame through their common traits -- a cat's ears and fast movement would separate it from the ball of yarn it's attacking, for example. Movie makers themselves could provide a lot of the underlying material just by naming and tagging enough of their clips, with the more accurate labels helping to separate the wheat from the chaff if an automated visual ranking system falls short. The one mystery is what Google plans to do with its newfound observational skills, if anything, although the most logical step would be to fill in YouTube keywords without any user intervention -- a potential time-saver when we're uploading that twelfth consecutive pet video.
Soon apps may integrate Mention Tagging for Facebook
Facebook is adding a new tagging feature to its Open Graph that'll make it easy for Facebook users to tag their friends in any Facebook connected app. Called Mention Tagging, the new feature will scan text that is being typed into an app and look for phrases that mention the name of a user's Facebook friend. Facebook describes how this feature could be used in an app like foursquare. Instead of directly tagging friends when they check-in, users will be able to enter the names of their friends in natural language. The Mention Tagging feature will pick up on a name and find that person in the user's Friends list. When the story is posted to the user's timeline, the name of the friend will be linked in the post and the friend will receive an alert that they have been mentioned in a post. Facebook is aware of the power it is giving developers and added several restrictions that developers must follow so the feature in not abused. Apps, for example, can't pre-fill names from a user's Friend's list, and the message has to written by the user with the intention of sharing this information on Facebook. Developers also must go through an approval process before they can implement Mention tagging. [Via The Next Web]
