Hasta La Gadget!

It would appear that the real impact of the Instagram Privacy Policy update (and subsequent revolt on the part of its users) has come to light – a relatively massive 25% decrease in daily users – but there’s a catch. While the statistics given by AppData could very well be due in part to Christmas and the holidays in general, a decrease of over 3 million daily users is nothing to scoff at for one of the most-used apps on the market. According to AppData the amount of daily users Instagram is working with fell from 16.4 million to 12.4 million between the week the Privacy Policy changes occurred and now… on Facebook. Meanwhile the app has taken off in popularity in its original iPhone and Android form.

What you really should be asking at this point is where these “active users” are coming from? In fact what you’re seeing on AppData in the reports shown earlier this morning on sites such as the New York Post is not the active users on all platforms, but on Facebook specifically. This means that the amounts you’re seeing are specific to the Facebook app Instagram, not the app on iOS or Android. If you have a peek at Instagram on iOS on the leaderboards on AppData, you’ll notice that it’s currently number 9 overall (that’s today, the 28th of December) while back on the 17th of December is was number 22 – it’s actually gained quite a bit of popularity during this series of epic events for iOS!

The same is true of Android – if you look at how popular Instagram is today – number 3 on the top Free Apps list – and compare to back on the 17th of this month, you’ll find that it’s gone up a spot from number 4. That’s important on its own, but given the idea that we’re being told Instagram is losing popularity when it’s actually staying the same or gaining – that’s a rather significant difference!

So think about this, readers: when you see a site telling you an app has lost users but they only source one single platform, you might want to think twice! Instagram hasn’t lost popularity over this situation, it’s gained it! If users are leaving the Facebook version of Instagram in droves while masses of users are joining the mobile versions of the app, there can be only one reason why: they don’t like Instagram on Facebook. Simple as that!

Instagram use surges on iOS and Android, falls 25% on Facebook is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A security flaw that quietly saves private videos in Snapchat and Facebook Poke for future recovery, when the sender expects them to be deleted after a few seconds, has been identified in the new “sexting” apps. Both apps promise a simple way to share photos and video temporarily, with the promise that they’ll be deleted shortly after viewing; however, BuzzFeed discovered, a simple third-party file browser can pull the video files from a cached store on your iPhone or iPad, allowing the clips to be archived and shared.

Snapchat and Poke – Facebook’s recently released copy of the original app – each cater to the temporary messaging market. Senders of messages, photos, and video can choose how long they wish the content to be available, for up to ten seconds, after which time the promise is that they are deleted from the app and the company’s own servers.

Although a wide variety of uses are suggested, the most commonly-cited purpose for Snapchat and Poke is “sexting” where the ephemeral nature of the media leaves users more confident that DIY pornography won’t hang around to haunt them later. While screenshots can be saved on the device, both apps warn the sender that a shot has been taken.

This new hack, however, gives no such warning. Users simply need to load – but not open – any received clip, then plug their iOS device into their computer and use a third-party file browser such as iFunBox to navigate through to the Snapchat/Poke temporary file folder (either Snapchat/tmp or library/caches/fbstore/mediacard). The video clips are stored there; in Facebook’s case, they are deleted after being watched, whereas Snapchat appears to save them forever.

The hack only works with videos – photos don’t appear to be cached – but serves as another warning that even the most casual digital content could be extracted if users have the right tools. Despite the relative simplicity of the cache access, Snapchat doesn’t appear to be concerned. “The people who most enjoy using Snapchat are those who embrace the spirit and intent of the service” founder Evan Spiegel told BuzzFeed. “There will always be ways to reverse engineer technology products — but that spoils the fun!”

Facebook Poke and Snapchat bug saves “deleted” videos is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Are you one who cannot live without your social network account working in full swing? If you have answered in the affirmative, chances are you own a smartphone or tablet (most probably the former) which also sees most use of the Facebook app, even more so than the phone and text messaging functions themselves. Well, Windows Phone users, here is some good news for you – the Facebook for Windows Phone has just gotten an update to version 2.8, and while there was no change log listed down in the release, those who have given the app a software version bump would do us a great favor if you could share any of the more notable changes that you have experienced. We do know that its previous update (version 2.7, of course) came with its fair share of bug fixes and performance improvements, so we figure that the same can be said of version 2.8 as well.

What you see above are screenshots of Facebook for Windows Phone running on Windows Phone 7.8, and it seems that one is able to conjure a double-wide tile on the double (sorry, I could not resist that), while it will rely on your banner image or last status update to make up the banner’s content.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung To Ship 500 Million Phones In 2013, ZTE Grand S Is One Thin Handset,

Facebook, the world’s most popular social network, has just announced that they will be doing the general public a great service when the clock strikes 12 this December 31st, as we bid goodbye to this year, and usher in 2013 – so much for the world ending on December 21st, eh? Well, Facebook’s upcoming feature via the ‘Stories’ application will enable users to send a personalized special greeting to select friends at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve. Touted to be a ‘Midnight Message Delivery’ system, it is said to guarantee a holiday greeting to friends who are on your “nice” list.

Guaranteed delivery is definitely something that we love to hear, considering how during holidays such as Christmas and New Year, the mobile phone networks tend to get jammed as millions and millions of people overload the network, trying to send a message out to their loved ones simultaneously. Oh yeah, and since it is free, why not, no?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Mysterious ASUS P1801-T Spotted At The FCC, LG Announces PC Lineup For CES 2013,

Welcome to Wednesday evening everyone! We’re back from a brief holiday break and there was plenty of news waiting for us when we returned, so let’s jump into the Wrap-Up. Mark Zuckerberg’s sister Randi found herself with a semi-private photo being shared publicly today, which brought up some debate about Facebook’s privacy policy. Samsung is expected to ship 500 million smartphones in 2013, while we saw a leaked image of a white BlackBerry X10 handset with a QWERTY keyboard. Instagram is facing a class action lawsuit over the controversial changes to its Terms of Service, despite the fact that it has tried to ease users’ minds since the new Terms were announced.

We heard that Windows Blue may still use the controversial Metro UI design, while Mark Cuban spilled the beans on his gadget collection in an AMA on Reddit. Samsung is seeking a ban on Ericsson products here in the US, and the Panasonic P-02E 1080p Android smartphone showed up at the FCC. The expensive yacht that was built for Steve Jobs has been released from the impound lot, and we learned that Netflix will be introducing new social features next year.

Samsung will apparently be showing off a Smart TV UI refresh at CES 2013, and Google has extended free domestic Gmail calls in the US and Canada for another year. Rockstar released a collection of new Grand Theft Auto V screenshots, and we heard that the Samsung Galaxy S III might soon be heading to T-Mobile with LTE functionality. NVIDIA TegraZone landed on Windows RT today, and we heard how loud it is on the International Space Station thanks a new audio clip containing the station’s ambient noise.

Apple has a patent on file for a new kind of curved glass, while Microsoft announced that it will soon be opening six new store locations. The POP charger has been given approval by Apple, which means the project is a go once again, and Google said that it plans to take 90% of Microsoft Office’s audience for itself. Toyota will be paying out $1.1 billion in settlements for cases relating to the floor mat issues with the 2010 Lexus RX, and iPad mini yield problems are starting to look better. Netflix’s Christmas Eve outage was blamed on problems with Amazon’s Web Services, and finally tonight we have a review of the Adorama Flashpoint 500C LED camera light for you to have a look at. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: December 26, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.