Tag: apps

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Review: Dash.by App Trains You to Become a Better Driver

It’s rare that I find an app which instantly becomes a “must download” service for my phone. Providing a one-stop shop for all of my vehicle mileage and maintenance tracking, Dash became a mandatory service for me after about two days of use.

Connecting to your car’s computer via a Bluetooth OBDII adapter, and utilizing the sensors in your phone, Dash provides Fitbit style tracking and alerts. It aims to make you a better driver, and hopefully that will save you money in fuel and maintenance costs.

Let’s check out all the features on tap in this free app!

The OBDII Bluetooth car computer adapter I used in this video.

More info on the Dash app and service at: https://dash.by/
Dash in the Google Play App store.
Dash in the iTunes App Store.

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Amplifon project allows you to hear “The Sounds of Street View” on Google Maps

Google Maps Street View is the go to application for getting a look at an area from a pedestrian perspective. While that kind of mapping and visual location data is handy, Amplifon thinks they can improve the experience by adding sound.

The Sounds of Street View is a project designed to provide a 3D soundscape of an area to correspond with popular search locations on Google Maps. Wearing headphones gives one the sense of being surrounded by the area’s audio, and panning around the scene will change the “focus” of the audio as well.

Playing around with some of the sample locations, the loops used were fairly short. Kids giggling in one area started to sound REALLY creepy with the short mechanical repetition for example, but it was an interesting way to augment the “feel” of looking at a Street View scene.

Amplifon is making a developer framework available, which will allow others to create their own 3D audio samples. You can read more on the project at the Amplifon website, or see their teaser video below.

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App Review: Protect your Android Phone or Tablet with Device Manager

We recently covered the news that California will become the second state to mandate a smartphone kill switch on all new smartphones sold after July 1, 2015.

Of course, that’s almost a year away, and for you folks using an Android here’s how you can better protect your phone or tablet today!

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Instagram Shows Off Hyperlapse App to Smooth Out Video and Time Lapse

hyerlapseHyperlapse is becoming something of a buzz word. It’s essentially a time lapse video, but with more (and smoother) movement. Microsoft recently showed off an incredibly complex and beautiful method to achieve fluid time lapse video. Now Instagram is taking the wraps off of their solution.

It’s novel in its simplicity. Many phones incorporate some form of electronic image stabilization. Instagram’s Hyperlapse app will use the sensors in your phone to detect movement, and then it’ll filter that movement out to give you a smoother tracking shot. As it detects movement in real time while recording, it’s unknown if the app will be able to import and smooth out previously shot video.

The UI is incredibly simple. Push big red button to capture video. Once Finished capturing, there’s a slider to change playback speed from 1X to 12X, and then you have the option to share that video with Instagram or Facebook.

As this is Instagram, it’s iPhone only for now, as they’re sorting out Android API’s, and it’s doubtful we’ll see this on Windows Phone (and those incredible Nokia cameras) any time soon. It is live now for you iOS folks though on the App Store.

See another sample from Hyperlapse below!
Continue reading “Instagram Shows Off Hyperlapse App to Smooth Out Video and Time Lapse”

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Pro Tip: How I would Fix the Camera on the LG G3 (Exposure and Metering Tutorial)

The LG G3 is a monster phone on paper, with bleeding edge specs for a flagship. While we’ve really liked the improvements to the camera, there’s always room for improvement.

How would we fix LG’s camera? Let’s have a quick conversation about Metering and Exposure controls…

Shop the LG G3 on Amazon.

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Review: Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 (Developer Preview review)!

Microsoft is keeping the pressure on their OS updates.

Phones are just now receiving the official 8.1 update, but those folks using the Developer Preview version will now have access to Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1! Apps corner, new IE11, bulk forwarding for text messages, and folders on the home screen! It’s a really clumsy name, but let’s take a look at some of the new features in this preview update!

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Google Voice Now Allows for Calls Through Hangouts

google voice hangoutsProgress has been painfully slow, but eventually Google Voice and Hangouts will merge into one super app of calling and communication. Recently we’ve been looking for changes to the Hangouts app, but Google has just announced an update to Voice that shows they are walking these two services together.

Alex Wiesen, a Manager at Google, posted this to G+ yesterday:

When I’m travelling I like to call my family from the Google Voice website on my laptop, but without a phone handy, it’s a little hard to use. To make things easier, we’ve just added Hangouts as an option when making calls from the web. It works even if you aren’t using Hangouts in Gmail, and doesn’t require a Google+ account. Try it the next time you place a call from the Google Voice website — I think it’s a much easier way to keep in touch with people.

You can check out the update now logging into Google Voice on a desktop browser. Hopefully this means we’ll eventually see updates to the mobile apps for these services soon.

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The NewYorker Makes Entire Archive Free Online for the Summer!

remnick-new-website-talk-story-690x410-1405955448Many magazines have been struggling with emerging technologies. On the software side you face blogs and social media, and on the hardware side phones and tablets are more “fun” than printed paper.

For their 90th anniversary, The NewYorker is trying something a bit radical for their publication. Following refreshes to their website and app, instead of hiding all their content behind a paywall, or splitting some content out for free, they’ll be making their entire archive available online for the whole summer. From any browser or through the app, even non-subscribers will be able to get their fill.

The paywall will return come fall, but for those of you scouting some fun summer reading, The NewYorker has you covered for the next couple months.

(via The NewYorker blog)

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