Facebook Camera, Messenger, Gifts added to main iOS app in 5.1 update

Facebook has pushed a major update to its main iOS app, porting the best elements of its standalone Messenger and Camera apps, as well as adding Facebook Gifts.

Facebook has pushed some major updates to its iOS app: In the latest version, the best elements of Facebook Messenger and Camera make an appearance in the native iOS app, and for those of you that are lucky enough to have early access to Facebook Gifts, sending gifts to friends can now be done through the mobile app.

Facebook Camera and Messenger were formerly standalone apps, coexisting with the Facebook app but accessible on their own only. Now, the main iOS app offers a healthy dose of the best of both of these apps.

The update that adds Facebook Camera’s features is comparably minor to the other changes. The photo icon at the very top of your Facebook News Feed, which opens up your device’s camera roll, now enables you to select and share multiple photos to your Facebook page. Previously, Facebook only supported sharing one photo at a time. Sharing an album to Facebook was, to be blunt, a huge inconvenience. 

You’ll find the Messenger integration with Facebook’s main iOS app to be convenient for frequent users. It’s now significantly more efficient to instantly message your Facebook friends since online friends are listed on the app. Sliding your News Feed to the left reveals a “Favorites” and “Active Now” list, where you can see all of your Facebook friends that are online at the moment. “Favorites” surfaces the friends that you most interact with, but you can edit the friends that appear on your list. Unfortunately video chatting is a feature supported via desktop only. In 5.0, messages were initiated through the messaging icon, which felt more like we were sending an email than an instant message, and 5.1 makes this much more instant chat-friendly. 

The major news in the 5.1 mobile update is addition of the e-commerce platform that the social networking company calls Facebook Gifts. The platform was launched in September and rolled out slowly to the United States user base. With Facebook Gifts, users can send gifts selected from an assortment of third-party product partners to Facebook friends and family on special occasions like holidays and birthdays. And since launching Gifts, you’re not relegated to sending gifts to just your friends and family anymore. Charity partners are accepting charitable Facebook gifts including the American Red Cross, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, and Water.org.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Peugeot Onyx Megatrike and Onyx Concept bicycle: A trike and a bike inspired by a supercar

Peugeot took design elements from its Onyx hybrid supercar concept and applied them to these two- and three-wheeled creations.

As concept cars go, the Peugeot Onyx is especially good at getting attention. Its carbon fiber and copper body, draped over a racecar’s diesel hybrid powertrain, is hard to top. Peugeot has no plans to put the Onyx into production, but it felt the design worked so well that it decided to build an Onyx-inspired scooter and bicycle.

The scooter, called the Onyx Megatrike, looks like it came from the future. It has the same angular lines and copper panels as the Onyx supercar, as well as miniature versions of the car’s headlights and grille.

The Megatrike may sound like the prized possession of a post-apocalyptic warlord, but, like the Onyx supercar, it’s a fuel-efficient hybrid. The powertrain consists of a 400-cc gasoline engine and an electric motor. The Megatrike can travel 18 miles at 30 mph on electric power only.

The Megatrike might actually be more practical than the car it emulates. Supercars are notorious for having small trunks, but the Megatrike has a storage compartment in front of the rider, where a motorcycle’s gas tank would be. A rider can remove it to sit forward like on a conventional scooter, or straddle it like on a motorcycle.

If designing a scooter to complement a supercar seems like a difficult task, then designing a bicycle for the same purpose seems nearly impossible. Nonetheless, Peugeot tried to make the connection between these two disparate modes of transportation with a smattering of tech.

Like the four-wheeled Onyx, the Onyx Concept bike is made of carbon fiber. Peugeot already makes a racing bike with a carbon fiber frame, so that wasn’t much of a stretch. The Onyx Concept also has carbon fiber forks, wheels, and handlebars.

Peugeot’s designer’s also focused on aerodynamics. The handlebars were flattened to reduce frontal area, and the wheels were covered with fairings. The Onyx Concept bike also has an electronic shifter; exposed shift cables would have created too much drag.

Peugeot isn’t putting the Onyx supercar into production, so don’t expect either of these equally outrageous concepts to be in showrooms anytime soon. Instead, they’ll fulfill the same purpose as the Onyx at the Paris Motor Show: attract visitors to Peugeot’s stand and create interest in its products, whether they have two, three, or four wheels.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Sony Xperia Tablet S visits our office, shows its fold-over design and customized Android to our camera

The Sony Xperia Tablet S left its Sony HQ home to spend some time with us. It carries over some design elements from its predecessor, like the 9.4″ WXGA screen and fold-over design, but it adds goodies like a quad-core processor (moving from Tegra 2 to 3), thinner aluminum frame and IPX-4 certification (splash proof).

The Xperia Tablet S is 8.8mm thick along its back, with a thicker “fold” on top. This makes the tablet easier to hold in the hand and is used to attach the tablet to various accessories.

Sony gave us a suede cover to test, which also serves as a stand (it can hold the tablet tilted at two different angles). It snaps into place and will hold the tablet upside down, but we wouldn’t shake it too hard. When you close it, you can use the elastic band to keep it shut.

The tablet is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, but the 16GB one will probably be the most popular as there is an SD card slot. That’s right, not microSD, but a regular-sized SD card slot, meaning you can expand the storage on the cheap.

Sony Xperia Tablet S in our office

The top of the tablet houses an IR port, so you can use the tablet as a remote control. The included app is quite powerful and can even learn new commands directly from a remote control, if your appliance isn’t on the (quite extensive) list of presets.

The Sony Xperia Tablet S really feels like something intended for home use with the Remote control app. It even comes with a Small app version, so you can always switch the channel.

Speaking of Small apps, they are floating apps that take up only a part of the screen and can be used along side regular apps. You can see them in action in the video below.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Adobe upgrades Photoshop Elements to version 11, offers new bundles with Premiere Elements

Adobe today released an update to its Elements and Premiere Elements applications, bringing their version number to 11.

The software is lighter than Photoshop but still pretty powerful. In addition Adobe will offer a discounted bundle of the two services – $150 for new customers and $120 for updating ones.

Photoshop Elements 11 comes with a refreshed UI, the same engine as Photoshop, one-click editing, photo organizing based on people and places, new filters and three editing options for every taste – Quick, Guided and Expert.

Photoshop Elements 11 will put an emphasis on image editing, while Premiere Elements is focused on making home movies look a whole lot better.

Premiere Elements will include new effects, transitions, themes, etc. There’s also an integrated video sharing with Vimeo.

If purchased separately the two products will cost $100 each. Upgrading users will have to shell out $80 for each.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

$100,000 worth of iPhone 5 units stolen in Japan just before launch

Wait in line for the iPhone 5, exposed to the elements? Wait 3-4 weeks for your pre-order to go through? Nah, someone is Japan decided to go Gone in 60 seconds. Three stores that were going to sell Apple’s latest smartphone in the same night were hit and all but two of their handsets went missing.

The total damage is estimated at 7.45 million yen, nearly $100,000. That sounds like a lot, but it’s only 191 iPhone 5 units that are gone. Here’s what happened.

The first store was a KDDI au store which was hit at 2:30 AM and robbed of 42 iPhone 5s with only two left behind. Later, around 3 AM another au store was was wiped clean of its 33 iPhone 5s. Police was called around this time, with info that three men were acting suspiciously.

Finally, at 4:24 AM three men hit a Softbank store and took off with 116 iPhone 5 units, as seen on security camera footage. The police is still to announce if these three men are the same as the ones from the second KDDI store.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Critter, the portable kitchen, is made for the nomadic top chefs

Who says cooking outdoor means working around strange elements? The Critter kitchen system brings indoor functionalities anywhere you go.

You know those cooking reality shows where contestants are often required to go outside their comfort zones and craft a masterful dish in an unconventional location? This has ranged anywhere from a sandy beach, a snowy mountain, a forest, even inside a gondola lift up a ski slope as seen on the recent Top Chef: Texas. If only these chefs could use Critter: a modular kitchen that’s designed to be movable, portable, and can provide full functionalities comparable to a full-sized facility.

Envisioned by Italian designer Elia Mangia, Critter is unlike most portable cooking systems that only feature electric stoves or one water heating pot. The kitchen can be fully assembled to provide a dual-burner gas stovetop, hot water faucet with a sink, elongated food preparation space, garbage disposal area, and hooks underneath to hold utensils, pots, and pans. The entire system is free standing and can be put together in just eight screws, allowing users to take it apart and piece it back together again in quick and easy steps. This means simple preparation for those who want to shift from cooking inside their tiny apartments to a patio or backyard, or even taking the Critter system along on a driving trip for roadside cookouts and camping overnights. It also helps that Critter looks like an actual kitchen, adding a sense of home to wherever it may be that requires a portable cooking system.

Of course, a slight downside to Critter is how many pieces the full kitchen actually has. Assuming you need both a sink, burner, and trays to keep all your separate ingredients apart, you’re looking at bringing at least 12 pieces of hardware to assemble once you’re onsite. Still, Critter looks good, is relatively space-efficient, and seems more practical than cooking over open fire. Who knows, maybe the juxtaposition of fancy modular kitchen and the rugged wilderness can actually make a trip more memorable, especially when you can whip up something a bit more complex than s’mores and ramen noodles.

Critter will be available on the Italian contemporary design shop Skitsch but no pricing information has been announced just yet.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com