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Instashare lets you easily transfer files between iOS devices, Macs

David Gilson — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:30:31 +0000

If you have multiple iOS devices, you’ve probably noticed that it’s quite tricky to share photos from device to device. There’s no option to share by Bluetooth, and there are no file management apps for iOS. Sure you can email a photo from device to device, but it can be somewhat wasteful to send something on a round trip halfway around the world just to get a file to the device a few mere inches away from the device you’re holding. Instashare is here to change that by bringing drag and drop file transfers between your iOS and Macs. Instashare works by finding other Apple devices either on a local WiFi network or via Bluetooth. This has a clear speed advantage over other methods like emailing attachments or using cloud storage apps like Dropbox. Devices have to be awake and running the Instashare app though, so it’s not possible to perform unattended file transfers. Instashare will work with any type of file. However, if you’re performing iOS to iOS transfer, only images and videos are possible. However, if you’ve transferred say MP3s or PDFs to your iOS device from your Mac computer, they’ll then be visible in the app for further sharing – e.g. Sharing to another Mac computer. On iOS, you simple tick the images and videos to be transferred, then a long press reveals the device selector. Dragging the stack of files to the desired device and letting go will initiate the transfer. As mentioned above, the devices have to be awake and running the Instashare client. If not they will not appear on the list of devices. Instashare works surprisingly well. There were only two instances where I hit bugs in the software. The first was that taking screenshots can interfere with drag and drop operations – this would not affect most users. Also, after selecting too many files, the stack would be lost and no transfer would take place. Instead, when trying to copy a large number of files, I had break my selection into smaller subsets. It’s inconvenient, but again, I doubt many people would be wanting to transfer so many files much of the time. One thing that you have to be careful to remember with Instashare is that the received files remain contained in the app’s file storage area. If you have received a lot of images you want to see in your Camera Roll, you’ll have to manually ‘share’ each of them from Instashare to the gallery. Instashare is free on iOS, but an in-app ad-free upgrade costs just $0.99. The OS X version is still in beta and available from Instashare’s website. ➤ Download link Continue reading →

Free Apps: The Heist, Flickr Studio and Oldify

Rounak Jain — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:30:40 +0000

Today’s free apps include The Heist a puzzle game by the makers of Camera+, Flickr Studio, a third party Flickr app for the iPad and Oldify, a fun app to take pictures of your friends and make them look old. The Heist is a puzzle game developed by tap tap tap, the folks behind popular camera app Camera+, with more than a million installs and a rating of 4.5 stars. As the player, you’ll have to solve a series of puzzles to claim the prize stored in the vault. The app is Starbucks’ pick of the week, which means that Starbucks has a lot of promo codes for this app to giveaway to customers. The app is $0.99 but can be installed for free by visiting this special Starbucks link. Flickr Studio is a 4.5 star rated Flickr app for the iPad, normally priced at $4.99. The app lets you view, download, edit and upload images to Flickr. It also lets you view photos on Flickr based on their location by moving around a world map. The developer has dropped the app’s price to free, celebrating yesterday’s Flickr redesign and the complimentary 1TB of storage space. (Flickr’s official app doesn’t support the iPad yet.) You can install the app for free by visiting this link. Oldify is a fun app that lets you shoot images of your friends and make them look old with wrinkles and other old-age signs. It has a rating of 4.5 stars and is available on the App Store for free, down from $0.99. You can download the app from this link. Continue reading →

Take better photos with your iPhone [Deals Hub]

StackSocial — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:27:23 +0000

The iPhone is so much more than a simple phone – it’s replacing a ton of other gadgets that you’d normally take with you when you’re on the go. One of the biggest uses of the iPhone is for taking photos, and this iPhone Hacks Deals offer will show you how to make the most out of each and every shot – and for just $19! In this video course, you’ll learn about: Your iPhone’s Camera Settings and Functions Managing Photos in the Camera Roll Sharing Photos in the Camera Roll Popular Sharing Apps Favorite Apps for Photo Capturing, Editing, and Special Effects iPhone Photography Tips and Techniques – Building Your Creative Eye Connecting iPhone and Computers for Sharing and Archiving While familiarity with basic iPhone operation is helpful, all operations to success in this class will be covered in the sessions. For more details on the important reminders surrounding this offer, visit the Deals Hub. Here’s what some of this course’s satisfied users have to say: “Love the enthusiasm & professionalism of Chet Davis already…can’t wait to learn more.” – Farnoosh “Chet has created a concise, easy to follow, set of lectures for the iPhone… To sum up, the course hits all bases and has taught me some new tricks, which makes using my new iPhone even more enjoyable!” – Chris “As someone technologically challenged I appreciate how the viewer is walked through all the lessons. Very helpful and I highly recommend!” – Annette The instructor for this course is Chet Davis. Chet has 17 years of experience in the classroom as teacher of a high school video technology program in California. He’s made presentations at national and regional conferences and led hands-on workshops for in 41 US States, 3 Canadian provinces and in Europe (European Schools Program). So what are you waiting for? Learn the tools, techniques, and tips to create stunning iPhone photographs with this video course – and save 51% in the process. Pick it up at the iPhone Hacks Deals Hub for just $19 today! Subscribe to our mailing list Continue reading →

Flickr, Vimeo integration coming to iOS 7

Rounak Jain — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:59:57 +0000

Flickr and Vimeo are all set to become first-class citizens on iOS, as Apple works with these companies to deeply integrate their services into iOS 7. Flickr and Vimeo are popular media sharing networks, with Flickr specialising in photos while Vimeo in videos. Currently the online third-party networks iOS supports natively are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the Chinese social network Weibo. Flickr and Vimeo integration would be very similar, according to 9to5Mac: With Flickr integration, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch customers will have the ability to share photos stored and/or taken on their devices to Flickr with a single tap from the system-wide share menu. [...] Vimeo will be a new video-sharing option that Apple deeply embeds into iOS, giving users an option beyond YouTube. The integration will most likely also bring single sign-on capabilities that third-party photo and video apps can take advantage of. Flickr, already built into Apple’s iPhoto apps on Mac and iOS, will receive a major boost if it indeed finds a place in iOS 7. Yahoo, the company that owns Flickr, is putting a lot of resources behind reviving the former leader in photo sharing, and just yesterday announced that the free tier would now have 1TB of storage space. For what it’s worth, Apple has its own photo sharing service for iOS users called Shared Photostreams, but it doesn’t seem to have taken off. Apple is also looking to partner with Yahoo for other features like search and Siri integration with Yahoo News and other Yahoo websites. Vimeo integration is interesting given Apple’s complicated relationship with YouTube’s parent company, Google. The YouTube app was previously bundled with every iOS device, but is now a third-party app available on the App Store. iOS still has native “Share to YouTube” options for videos, and it remains to be seen if this makes its way to iOS 7. Improved sharing is great for iOS 7 but we had thought that Apple would no longer have to do this on a case-by-case basis, and would rather expose APIs that let any third party app hook into the system. Continue reading →

Senator John McCain asks Tim Cook “Why do I have to keep updating the apps on my iPhone”

Rounak Jain — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:04:14 +0000

Apple CEO Tim Cook today testified in front of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee, defending the company’s tax avoidance strategies. During a questioning session with Cook, U.S. Senator John McCain asked a rather funny question to Tim Cook about an issue that bothers many people. “I’m out of time, but why the hell do I have to keep updating the apps on my iPhone? Why can’t you fix that?” To which, Tim Cook laughed and replied “We’re working on making our products better all the time.” While delivering updates to apps is obviously a good thing, having to manually update them isn’t exactly a great experience. Most people don’t bother with app updates, which is why an option to automatically install app updates in the background in iOS 7 would be great. If you’ve a jailbroken iOS device, then you should get the Auto App Updater tweak, which as the name suggests is a great way to ensure that your apps are always up-to-date. Continue reading →

Google Play Music All Access unofficially coming to iPhone and iPad

iPhoneHacks — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:45:32 +0000

Last week when Google launched Google Play Music “All Access,” its music streaming service, it didn’t come as a surprise when it didn’t release an app for the iPhone and iPad as it is still to release an app for Google Music that was launched in 2011. It is still a mystery why Google launched a web app for Google Music rather than a native app. However, this void has been filled by third-party apps like gMusic that allow users to listen to the songs that they’ve uploaded to Google Music. The goods news is that the developer of gMusic has just confirmed to Wired that he has submitted an update to the App Store, which will bring Google Play Music “All Access” to iOS, thus allowing users to stream millions of songs from Google’s All Access song database on their iPhone and iPad, in addition to the songs uploaded to Google Music. The update includes a Web Search feature that taps into the subscription-based All Access song database. Want to hear Lemon Crush from Prince’s Batman soundtrack? Do a quick web search from within the app and you’re good to rock out like it’s the late 1980s. If you’re in the U.S., you can sign up for a free 30-day trial later today, and if you subscribe before June 30th, the monthly fee will be $7.99 as opposed to the regular price of $9.99. Google said that it will rollout All Access to other countries soon. It’s a pity that Google hasn’t released a native app for Google Music as they have some of the best apps in the App Store. We really hope they change their mind and release an app. Until then gMusic seems like the best alternative available currently. It is available in the App Store for $1.99 (download link). We’ll let you know as soon as the update for gMusic app with Google Play Music “All Access” is available in the App Store. Via Wired Continue reading →

QuickGestures brings Android-style gestures to iPhone’s Contacts and Phone app

iPhoneHacks — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:15:14 +0000

QuickGestures is a new jailbreak tweak that brings Android-style gestures to the Contact lists in the Phone and Contacts app. It adds the following gestures to iPhone’s Contact and Phone app: Swiping from right to left on a contact in the Contact list initiates a call. If there is more than one number then it will prompt you to select the number to call. Swiping from left to right on a contact launches iMessage (or Quick compose sheet if you’ve biteSMS installed). If there is more than one number then it will prompt you to select the number to send the iMessage or SMS to. To send a new email to a contact long press on the contact. You can customize the tweak via the Settings app. It allows you to reassign the gestures and also disable them. As a bonus it also allows you to hide section headers and hide the Search bar from the Contact list, which seem unnecessary as I can’t figure out why anyone would want to do it. You can check out the video walkthrough of the tweak below. The tweak works exactly as advertised and it ends up saving you a few taps. If you prefer gesture driven UI then you should like this tweak. QuickGestures is available on Cydia for $0.99. As always, let us know what you think in the comments. ➤ Download link Continue reading →

Apple courting American Express cardholders in India with a 10% cash-back offer

Stefan Constantinescu — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:30:21 +0000

The iPhone is expensive, even if you live in the West, so you can only imagine how hard it must be for someone living in places like India. That’s not to say Indians are poor, but let’s be honest, there’s an obvious difference in income levels. Apple knows this, and according to ZD|Net, they’re going to try to do something about it. If you trade-in your old smartphone when buying an iPhone, you can expect to receive a discount of up to $145. If you have an American Express card, you can get 10% off an iPhone. Why American Express and not Visa or MasterCard? Don’t ask us, we don’t have the slightest clue. Our favorite California company is also giving people discounts on their iPhone if they pay a $182 down payment and then agree to pay the rest off in six months. How are they going to enforce that though? We can imagine it could be rather simple to swipe someone’s identity card and just buy as many iPhones as you can so you can sell them in other countries. Anyway, what’s important here is that Apple is trying, trying hard, to get the iPhone into more people’s hands. We’re eagerly awaiting news of the “cheap” iPhone, which looks like it’ll be an iPhone 5 that’s in a plastic case instead of a beautiful glass and metal body. Continue reading →

Yahoo unveils redesigned Flickr site, offers a free TB of storage space

iPhoneHacks — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:55:12 +0000

Hot on the heels of the Tumblr acquisition, Yahoo has released a completely redesigned website for Flickr, the popular yet what seemed like a neglected photo sharing service. Along with the launch of the new design for its website, Yahoo has also announced that it is giving users a 1 terabyte of storage space for free so that they can upload and share all their images in full resolution. Yahoo has also released a new app for Android smartphones and tablets. Yahoo had released a major update for its iPhone app last December with improved design, Instagram-like filters and social features. Yahoo had this to say about the redesign on Flickr’s blog: Spectaculr. A new, beautiful experience for your photos We want Flickr to be the most amazing community and place for you to share your photos. So, we’re also revealing a beautiful new design that puts photos at the heart of your Flickr experience, where they should always be. Whether it’s a sweeping landscape or a family portrait, we want every photo to be at its most spectacular. Your homepage is now a gateway to everything you care about, and all the photos Flickr has to offer. Our new Activity Feed combines your friends’ recent uploads with activity on your own photos, and all in a beautiful design that lets you share and interact right on the page We completely rebuilt the photostream to show off your photos in a seamless layout, and gave you room to express yourself with a customizable cover photo and high-res profile picture. So how many high resolution photos can you upload with 1 TB of free storage space? Yahoo is saying that the storage space is enough room to stash 537,731 “full-resolution” photos per user. If that’s not enough then users can buy an extra terabyte of storage with Flickr’s Doubler account for $499 a year. There’s also an ad-free version, which costs $49.99 per year. Let us know what you think of the redesign and 1 terabyte of free storage space. Is that enough to convince you to switch to Flickr? I’m definitely contemplating it. Continue reading →

To-do app Checkmark, Units, Ninja Slash free on App Store

Rounak Jain — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:30:52 +0000

Popular to-do app Checkmark, usually priced $4.99, has gone free today on the App Store along with Units, a unit converter, and Ninja Slash, a 4.5 star rated game. Checkmark: Checkmark is an excellent to-do app that takes the stock Reminders app one-step further. The app lets you set favourite locations, create reminders based on these locations including those that fire a specified time after you reach a certain location. It also lets you set time based reminders. You can download Checkmark from this link. Units: Units is a unit converter for the iPhone that sadly isn’t updated for the iPhone 5. It however is a great app for older devices, and has a rating of 4 stars. The developer notes that version 2.0 is coming soon, and till then version 1 of the app will remain free. You can download Units from this link. Ninja Slash: Ninja Slash is a Temple Run like runner game where you play the role of a ninja who runs through the streets, “slashing” zombies and avoiding obstacles. $0.99 usually, the game is a universal binary and can be downloaded from this link. Continue reading →