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Sharing Instagram photos on Google+ automatically
Instagram (free) is a lot of fun, although it's often criticized as being the "auto-tune for photography." Google+ is the new social networking flavor of the week, so it's natural that the two services should get together. Wired's Gadget Lab has cooked up a recipe for more Instagram enjoyment by hacking a method of joining the two in unholy matrimony, as well as providing other fun hints. Before I divulge their other hints, let's get to the meat of the matter for those of you who are among the Google+ cognoscenti: getting your Instagrams to Google's Picasa photo sharing site so they can be shared on Google+. Yeah, hopefully this is added to Instagram in the near future. For the present, this is how you do it, folks. To have all of your future Instagram photos sent immediately to Google+, blogger Charlie Sorrel has you set up Instadrop, which automagically connects your Instagram and Dropbox accounts. Send a photo out on Instagram, and it shows up in a Dropbox folder named Instagram Photos. Next, pick up a copy of the free Picasa app for Mac. From the File menu, select "Add Folder to Picasa" and point it at your new Instagram Photos folder on Dropbox. The next step is to have Picasa watch that folder all the time. There's one fly in the ointment here -- this means that if you want true real-time updating of Picasa / Google+, your Mac has to be up and running continuously. Go to Tools > Folder Manager in Picasa, select the Instagram Photos folder, and then tell Picasa to "Scan Always." Finally, find the folder in the sidebar of Picasa, click on it, and then select "Enable Sync" from the Share drop-down in the main menu. That's it. Send a photo to Instagram, and through this complex chain of events the image eventually makes it to Google+, where it is re-shared and commented on by thousands of your friends and complete strangers. Sorrel has some other great tips in the post, including using your "real" camera to take photos, transferring them to an iPad using the Apple Camera Connection Kit, and then zapping them to Instagram. He also recommends the $1.99 Instaplus app to have much more control over the camera and filters.
TUAW TV Live at 5 PM EDT: Brian X. Chen talks about "Always On"
Today's TUAW TV Live features a guest whose new book, "Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future--and Locked Us In" is garnering praise for its unblinking look at the good and bad aspects of the iPhone phenomena. Brian X. Chen is the interim editor of Wired.com's Gadget Lab and was formerly an editor at Macworld, and he'll be joining me for a discussion of the book and of the device that launched our always-connected digital future. The book is a fascinating and fast read, and loaded with anecdotes about how the ability to have hundreds of specialized apps can help our lives. It's also a cautionary tale filled with discussion of how Apple's vertical integration in the iPhone ecosystem has made the company wildly successful, but at a cost to consumers and developers alike. As usual, I'll be starting the show at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT / 10 PM BST) sharp, and we'll take a few minutes to chat before the fun starts. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes before the start time to get your instructions on how to participate. If you're unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure in iTunes or any other favorite podcatching app. The past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel.
Kinect helping robots see and recognize environment
Wired has a fascinating (if a little long) read up about how Microsoft's Kinect hardware is changing the robotics industry. For a long time, robotics has been held back, not by technology that defines how robots move, but by a lack of understanding of their environments -- a robot that can't "see" or recognize its surroundings won't have any idea where to go. Most solutions to this problem were too expensive or unwieldy to use in a lot of robotics applications. But the Kinect has made that much easier, providing what's basically a sub-$500 kit that can recognize humans, their movements and almost any other objects around the room. And while Kinect hacks first began as a push by unofficial open source engineers, Microsoft has more or less made that kind of stuff official, both by providing developer kits for programmers and by supporting community mods. So let it be known: Just a few years from now, when Skynet is chasing you down after capturing your loved ones to work in the slave camps, it'll be thanks to Kinect that those robots can see and hunt you while moving across the post-apocalyptic wasteland.
NVIDIA's new wired 3D Vision glasses give up some freedom for a lower price
NVIDIA has been pushing its 3D Vision platform for a couple of years and at this year's Computex it is looking to pull in more PC users with new wired LCD active shutter glasses. The original wireless specs rely on the same IR sync tech and battery power seen in glasses for many HDTVs, but these get power and data over a 10-foot USB cable. While that might not work for living room viewing, a single user application like PC gaming or watching a Blu-ray 3D on a laptop doesn't suffer for the cable restriction. Besides foregoing the sometimes finicky IR sync these are also cheaper, with a $99 MSRP when they go on sale in "late June" compared to $149 for the wireless version. The company hopes the combination of a lower entry price and ability to be secured to the PC make it a viable option for gamers who may already have a compatible LCD and GPU, or gaming cafes that want to run a few Starcraft II tournaments in 3D -- check the rest of the details in the press release after the break.
Conde Nast brings The New Yorker to iPad, seven other magazines by month's end
Yet another print powerhouse is bringing its wares to the iPad, all lining up neatly ahead of Apple's upcoming WWDC. First it was Time, then it was Hearst, and now Condè Nast is joining the fun with very similar terms to the other two. Starting this week with The New Yorker, digital versions will be available for free to current print edition subscribers. For new subscribers it's $5.99 per month or $59.99 a year, which gets you 47 issues. Seven other magazines from the publisher are coming by the end of May, including Wired and Vanity Fair, priced at $1.99 each or $19.99 annually. That matches up perfectly with the earlier announcements, meaning Apple and the publishers seem to finally be getting along. Isn't it nice when everyone gets along?
New Wired for iPad issue out now, Adobe's picking up the tab
Want to try out Wired Magazine for iPad, but you're not too thrilled about paying US$3.99 for the latest issue? In an attempt to encourage potential subscribers to push the buy button in the future, and to show off some new features in the app, Wired 19.05 (otherwise known as the May 2011 edition) is being offered for free. To get the free issue, simply download the free app and visit the Wired Library once you've launched it. You'll see an issue at the top marked Free Download, and with a tap you can download the 380 MB file. Conde Nast, publisher of Wired, isn't going to lose money on this proposition. Adobe has sponsored the issue, much like how Lincoln has paid for up to 200,000 passes for The New York Times paywall. As usual, the magazine is chock-a-block with ads, but many of the ads in this issue are showing Wired's commitment to making advertising both more interactive and more social. The interactive ads range from one that has you search for four Lexus hybrids to a rather boring Ameritrade ad that plays a teaser for an iPad app when touched. In some ads, you can brag about your achievement by tweeting friends or updating Facebook. There's also animated content; in a one page article titled "Why Soda Goes Pop," the equation for Henry's Law appears in animated carbon dioxide bubbles. There's a video about lawn darts, and in an article about earbuds, a small info pop-up appears when you tap on each brand of bud. I actually found most of the ads to be more compelling than the content in this issue, which is why I haven't had a subscription to Wired since the late 1990s. Playing "Where's Waldo?" in ads is more interesting than the "Pat the Bunny" type of interactive content that the magazine seems to be dredging up. However, it's worth the time and bandwidth to give the Wired for iPad app a look while it's still available for free. The app is currently getting awful reviews in the App Store for losing previous issue purchases that readers had made, but if you've never bought an issue before, you'll be safe. Be sure to check out the gallery below for some screenshots of some of the content and ads. %Gallery-122453%
iOS 4.3 gold master benchmarks from WIRED show speedier Safari browsing
In case you're wondering how that iOS 4.3 update is going to work out for you, WIRED has released results of benchmarks they performed using the gold master (release) version of the software. What they found was that the update provides major improvements in Safari's ability to run JavaScript. iOS 4.3 uses the new Nitro JavaScript engine for JavaScript rendering, and WIRED's tests showed that Safari was able to pull a SunSpider time of 4340.1 ms compared to 10626.4 ms for iOS 4.2.1. That's over twice as fast! The iOS 4.3 update is available right now in iTunes, so if you'd like to see sites like Google Voice, Google Docs, and Google Reader running faster on your iPhone or iPad, or browse your Facebook page at light speed, get the update loaded ASAP. The update also adds AirPlay functionality to more apps, including Safari and YouTube.
National Day of Unplugging 2011 starts now, but only after you tweet about it
Darren Murph was scheduled to write about the National Day of Unplugging 2011, which spans from sundown on March 4th to sundown on March 5th. Unfortunately, this post was delegated to him too late in the evening. He had already "unplugged." You could bother to search Facebook and Twitter to see his last snippet of digital communication for the day, but then you'd be laughing in the face of this marvelous idea. Your call. You know who you have to answer to in the end.
Alter-Ego: Using a controller with DC Universe Online on PC
This week I'm actually going to detour slightly from the game and instead feature one of my favorite hacks for playing DC Universe Online. Well, OK, not a hack -- more like a fun project for the nerdily inclined. Part of the reason I've decided to detour is an email I received earlier this week from Rusty, who asked: "I am very interested in trying the controller on my PC and would welcome your opinion on the best way to accomplish this. I'm leery of downloading software to make this happen. Would you mind sharing your experience?" As such, this week I'm dedicating my column to helping my fellow PC fiends get their controller on in DC Universe Online. Depending on your personal level of hardware nerditry, your extant pieces/parts, and your budget, this can range from incredibly inexpensive on up to ridiculously awesome. Hungry for more? Join me after the break!
iPad magazine sales numbers show steep decline over a few short months
Uh oh. Since its debut, the iPad has been variously hailed as the final nail in the coffin of all physical media and the savior of the magazine and newspaper industries. A few magazines, such as Wired, had truly impressive digital launches, with over 100,000 downloads of its first issue in June. It doesn't seem, however, that the stellar start was in any way sustainable. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which collects magazine circulation data from companies willing to furnish numbers, all iPad magazines have seen fall offs in downloads over the past few months. Wired was averaging 31,000 downloads from July through September, had 22,000 and 23,000 respectively in October and November. Other magazines have seen similar declines: Vanity Fair sold 8,700 downloads of its November issue, down from an average of about 10,500 from August through October; GQ sold 11,000 copies, its worst showing yet. Now, not all magazines release their numbers, of course -- including The New Yorker, People, and Esquire -- but the numbers we do have seem to be indicating a trend of general decline after a short burst of excitement.
Wired chronicles the (brief) history of Kinect
Got your Instapaper bookmarklet prepped? This is a bit of a long one: Wired UK has put together an in-depth creation history for the soon-to-be-released Kinect. While a "one man against all odds" story might be a little quicker to read, the story of Kinect (or Project Natal, as it's been known for most of its lifetime) is actually a pretty remarkable collaboration. An original demand and vision for the Xbox 360 from Don Mattrick (in pretty obvious response to the Wii), project leadership from Alex Kipman, gameplay creativity from Kudo Tsunoda, camera technology from PrimeSense, computer vision algorithms from Andrew Blake and Jamie Shotton -- and that was just the incubation stage! The vision was cast in 2007, the project really started in 2008, and we'll have the finished product (along with the all-important games of course) in our living rooms in November. While the most immediate battle for Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft is who can sell the most games and the most motion control hardware, it's clear that Kinect is a major technical achievement with some pretty broad reaching implications for human / machine interaction going forward. Still, we wonder: can it run provide an effective user interface for Doom? Oh, and if you need a little more Kinect in your life, check out our Engadget Show with Kudo Tsunoda where he dives into a bit of the tech and gameplay.
Apple discussed Verizon switch 'at least half a dozen times,' and other stories about its AT&T relationship
"An iPhone, an iPhone, my carrier's reputation for an iPhone." Grab a cup of coffee and get yourself comfortable, fans of behind-the-scenes industry drama. Wired has published an exhaustive and fascinating expose on the "loveless celebrity marriage" that is Apple and AT&T -- all from sources familiar with the matters but who cannot (or will not) be named, of course. In other words, don't take this as gospel, but frankly, none of this sounds too crazy or outside the realm of what we've already surmised ourselves. In brief, the two companies have been contentious towards one another since just after the iPhone was unveiled. For AT&T's part, the carrier was reportedly taken aback when its requests (delivered by Senior VP Kris Rinne) to restrict YouTube's bandwidth usage (or make it WiFi-only) while the network infrastructure was built up fell on deaf ears in Cupertino. Word has it Apple also refused to allow its devices to be used in campaigns to combat Verizon's Map for That ads: "It was [effective] because of AT&T's network. We would have been letting them use the iPhone to put lipstick on a pig," remarked one anonymous Apple exec. What's most interesting to us here is the ongoing reported discussion to drop AT&T in favor for Verizon. That chapter apparently begins just months after the original's launch, with an investigative team (including Scott Forstall) ultimately concluding that Qualcomm's CDMA (or CDMA / GSM hybrid) chips would require a complete redesign of the device, not to mention a nasty lawsuit with AT&T over its exclusive contract (perhaps a minor issue, knowing Apple). Back then, Verizon wasn't seen as a guaranteed improvement, and according to one executive privy to such meetings, the carrier switch has been discussed at least a half dozen times, with the general consensus always being that it would "cause as many problems as it solved." We can't imagine this is gonna help stem the perpetual VZW iPhone rumor mill. Hit up the source link for the full tale, which does hit on a fundamental issue of the mobile industry going forward: as smartphone makers continue to push their devices' capabilities, bandwidth concerns will continue to grow and carriers are likely to take the majority of the blame. If you ask us, David Fincher has just found his ideal follow-up to The Social Network -- we'd especially love to see someone film the part where AT&T asks Steve Jobs to ditch the turtleneck and wear a suit when meeting with its board of directors.
Wired named the iPad... in 1999
Here's an interesting tidbit from WIRED. Way back in 1999, the magazine ran a short piece in the Hype List section reflecting on the company's recent financial turnaround. You'll remember that Apple introduced the iMac in 1998, which was a huge success. The piece was written in April of 1999, just 3 months before the clamshell iBook was introduced at Macworld Expo in New York City in July of 1999. Here's the interesting part. While reflecting on Apple's future, the snippet predicts that "The next iMac attack promises new lollipop laptops, a more serious series of professional machines and a wireless handheld dubbed the iPad." [Emphasis ours.] Betsy Mason (WIRED.com's science editor) posted a TwitPic of the article for all to see. It's an example of a lucky guess, of course (Apple was "i" crazy back then), but still a lot of fun. [Via ReadWriteWeb]
Gourmet magazine to return as iPad app
There's been a lot of talk about the iPad saving print, but in this case it might actually happen. Gourmet magazine closed up shop late last year, but the publisher is getting ready to bring the mag back -- as an iPad app called Gourmet Live. The app will be free (with a few options for in-app payments), and will not only include articles and recipes from the magazine, but some online check-in functionality, and a few other fun tidbits. It's not something that could support a print magazine, sounds like, but for fans of the brand, it'll be a nice return. Then again, maybe an app like this can support a magazine. Conde Nast, who owns both Gourmet and Wired (which is already making waves on the iPad), says that surprisingly, app sales have not only "surpassed our newsstand sales" but "has not cannibalized them either." That's intriguing -- all of the talk about the iPad saving print has focused on moving newsstand customers over to digital media, but a story like that hints that maybe digital media can still work as promotion for traditional newsstand publications. We'll have to see how this all plays out -- Gourmet Live is due out in the fall.
Innpu's 'wired phone' has retractable headphones, intractable sense of self-worth
This is news to us, but apparently there have been "few noteworthy advancements" in smartphone hardware since the iPhone and BlackBerry came out. Out to fix this stale, plateaued industry is Innpu, with its revolutionarily new "wired phone" (it's bad news when even the manufacturer puts the product name in quotation marks, right?). Setting the new high watermark in cellphone engineering, it comes with built-in headphones and mic, which retract automatically when you complete your call. And hey, we've seen earphones like that selling by themselves for $2, maybe $4 a pop -- luxurious stuff. Lest you think Innpu unambitious, the company's also promising to bring this life-saving functionality to the iPad and netbooks, while noting that its sophisticated technology "can hardly be copied." Probably because no one will ever care to try.
Entelligence: Wired or tired?
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide. In the mid 90s, a friend of mine was involved in a project to recreate magazines like Time on CD-ROM for the multimedia PCs of the era. The results were pretty cool, but the CD-ROM versions of the publications hardly replaced their print counterparts. Content has since moved from optical disk to the web, and now the allure of tablet devices has created a market for specific newspaper and magazine apps -- the number one paid app for iPad is a digital version of Wired, which sold about 1,000 copies an hour the first day it was launched. While it's a much better effort than some of the other efforts, more than anything Wired for iPad shows the weaknesses of media apps and demonstrates how the tablet remains a still-imperfect medium to deliver this type of content. Wired's efforts, like the CD-ROM efforts of the past, by has some cool features. A video clip of Toy Story 3 graces the cover and there are various interactive features, but more than anything else, it feels like a scanned in copy of the paper mag. Although navigation is better than most iPad magazines, it's still never clear when a screen should be scrolled down or just swiped horizontally.
Adobe's Digital Publishing Platform behind Wired app, uses CS5 tools and will be available to all
So, despite all that hubbub about Flash, Adobe managed to still deliver iPad magazine publishing tools to Wired after all... and it's not stopping there. Adobe's "digital viewer software" is the crux, which Adobe says it built in Apple's Objective C and will continue to maintain for the iPad while considering other platforms like the iPhone. Meanwhile, anything built matching this vaguely defined spec (Adobe's keeping a lot of details close to its chest right now) will be able to publish to this iPad reader software, along with any Flash 10.1 or AIR 2-compliant devices. HTML 5 will also come in to play somehow. Adobe will be releasing the publishing tech to Adobe Labs later this year, but you'll have to have Adobe InDesign CS5 to take advantage of it. Of course, none of this really solves the debate over 3rd party development tools for building iPad and iPhone apps, but it seems to sidestep it pretty handily.
Judge unseals documents in Gizmodo case, finder offered extra $3500 and bonus for lost iPhone
After multiple requests from media like Wired.com and the Los Angeles Times, a judge has unsealed the search warrant in the Gizmodo case. According to California law, search papers must be made public within 10 days of a search being completed, unless there are extenuating circumstances in the case. In this one, the prosecutors were arguing that the identities (presumably of the Apple employee who originally lost the iPhone purchased by Gizmodo's editor, as well as the person who found it and sold it to Gizmodo) could be revealed. But that information had already reached the Web -- Gizmodo identified the Apple employee as an iPhone engineer, and Wired identified the phone seller, so San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Clifford V. Cretan decided that since the information was already out there, there was no point in keeping the papers sealed up. Judge Cretan made note of the irony that the papers were originally sealed to hide "possible intrusion into media sources," and now it was media institutions asking to have the papers opened up. Wired has the papers now -- they say (not surprisingly) that the iPhone seller's roommate led police to Brian Hogan (who found the phone), but there's also news that Hogan had allegedly spread evidence around Redwood City. The papers also confirm that Gizmodo paid $5000 for the iPhone, but there was also a bonus promised to Hogan when Apple officially announced the phone, and an additional $3500 payment from "another source." Interesting. Maybe there is more to this case than we had originally heard. Keep in mind that this is only the initial investigation -- no charges have yet been filed. [via The Loop]
Apple visited the iPhone 4G's finder before the police did
With all of the chaos going on around the lost iPhone case, everyone has more or less assumed that Apple is behind the police department's actions in searching Gizmodo Editor Jason Chen's house late last week. Of course, no one believes that the sheriff is working for Apple, but most people seem to be under the impression that Apple wants to get to the bottom of the case, and that the company is pulling strings in law enforcement to try and do that. However, some new information discovered by Wired suggests that the story may be more complicated than that. They have heard claims from an anonymous source that Apple already knew the identity of the person who found the iPhone, and allegedly sold it to Gizmodo. Someone identifying themselves as being affiliated with Apple apparently arrived at the finder's house in Silicon Valley last week, looking for the finder (and possibly the phone) but finding only a roommate, who didn't let them in. Wired's source also says that the person who found the phone never tried to keep it a secret and even contacted Apple and searched Facebook for someone to return the phone to. When money finally changed hands (from Gizmodo), Wired's source says it was "for exclusivity," and not for a sale of the actual device. Of course, this is all a mix of hearsay and conjecture, spoken by an anonymous source who may or may not know about the case. The bottom line at this point is that the police investigation is underway. If they find evidence that makes them believe a crime was committed, then we'll see them take action. Until then, though, it's unclear exactly what happened with the iPhone's finder and whether the "sale" was illegal or not. [via Business Journal]
Videos: Wired, VIVmag showcase iPad offerings
One of the elusive goals of tablet computing has been to totally replace print media with something new. To date, nobody has been completely successful. When the Windows-based Tablet PCs shipped in the early 2000s, for instance, there was a lot of talk about how magazines would move completely to electronic publishing platforms such as Zinio. Well, here we are in 2010 and many of us still have print magazines showing up in our physical mailboxes on a regular basis. But it could be that the new generation of tablet devices, as heralded by the iPad, could finally create such a great user experience that most magazines would finally make the jump from "dead-tree" to electronic versions. Two magazines well-known for their content, typography, and art design have produced videos highlighting their upcoming offerings for the iPad. Wired Magazine is featured in a video that appears to have been produced by Adobe, highlighting how the magazine plans to use interactive advertising, social tools, and a very paper-like user interface to bring the Wired experience to tablet devices. The second video is from ViVmag, an online woman's magazine touted as "the first interactive all-digital luxury magazine for women." The VIVmag video shows how the magazine plans to use dramatic animation to move between elements in a story. Both videos give you a taste of what we might expect to see starting shortly after April 3rd. Click the Read More link to view the videos, and let us know iif you've already given up paper-based magazines or if you'll still need your paper copy of Popular Mechanics for bathroom reading material.
