Google began shipping Google Glass a few days ago, and many developers have received their units, spurring anticipation on we’ll see from these devs. However, it’s been discovered that the magical pair of glasses aren’t fully compatible with iOS quite yet. Only Android users can experience the full spectrum of functionality.
It’s noted on a Google Glass support page that the pair of glasses must be connected to an Android device running the MyGlass app in order to send text messages and use GPS. This means that iOS users will be out of luck when it comes to these two features, and there are possibly even more features that may not be supported in iOS.
Google Glasses also requires a handset that runs Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich or higher. Granted, most newer Android devices come with Jelly Bean, and even some older devices are being updated to the newer platform, but for those still rocking an even older handset, you may be out of luck when it comes to getting everything out of Google Glass.
Other features that work on Google Glass, such as making phone calls, video chatting, and composing Google searches will still work with iOS, but GPS functionality and text messaging will be a no go on Apple‘s platform for at least the foreseeable future. It’s always possible that Google will release the MyGlass app for iOS, but it doesn’t look like it’ll arrive anytime soon.
Today the Twitter #music app has been launched for iPhone and the web. While you’ll be able to use this app on your iPad and iPod touch, right here at the start it’s really an iPhone-specific interface – and yes, you’ll not be seeing an Android app for some time. Right out of the box you’ll find that this app shines forth with four distinct ways for you to discover and share new music.
Twitter Charts
What you’re seeing here is Twitter-generated charts that allow you to see what’s trending – it’s not just the best of the best, but the most popular as well. You’ll be seeing charts based on what’s most popular, what’s “hottest”, what’s best for you, and more. One of the most interesting connections you’re going to see here is your suggested tracks.
We’ll be investigating further to see how Twitter selects this list for you. Stay tuned to this post as well as SlashGear’s main news feed for more information on Twitter’s music discovery engine throughout the day!
Follow Artists
If you’re like me, you’ve already been following a collection of musical artists on Twitter well before the #music app launched. Artists like Ice Cube, Santigold, and the RZA already have tracks set up right at the start. From here you’ll be able to see new tracks they promote sent straight from their Twitter handles – tweets for listening in!
We must assume that artists will quickly begin to send out tracks that are shown on Twitter first – just so long as they’re also posted to iTunes, RDIO, and/or Spotify as well. The way artists will generate revenue for themselves here is through those services. It’s unclear at the moment how exactly Twitter is cashing in on this project.
Tweet Tracks
Once you find a track you like in RDIO, Spotify, iTunes, or straight through the Twitter #music app, you can tweet or re-tweet it. From there your Twitter followers will be able to play a preview of the track instantly. If they’re a RDIO or Spotify subscriber, they’ll be able to play the full track you’ve tweeted straight from your tweet!
In the future there will more than likely be a rather similar interface to what we’re seeing here on the web as well. Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry may very well be getting the same app interface soon too – just wait!
Listen Now
You can listen in using your own Twitter #music app (available for download now for free) or you can see all you need to see in your web browser. If you’re using RDIO or Spotify, you’ll be able to listen right out the gate – if you’re listening in with iTunes, you’ll need to give your web browser permission to use Quicktime to play a track.
Head over to this tweet to see what it’s like to play a music track with iTunes inside Twitter. You’ll also be able to – from there – hit the #NowPlaying hashtag link to see what everyone on Twitter is playing right now!
Feedback
Let us know what you think of this app and/or the web interface you’re using if you don’t want to go mobile just yet. Also please feel free to let us know how you’re feeling about Twitter’s music app if you’re NOT an iOS user – feeling left out, or is the web browser interface enough for you?
Surely no one was surprised when Twitter formally announced the launch of its #Music service this morning (save, perhaps, from the fact that the company used Good Morning America, of all places, to share the big news). Frankly, we’re just glad to finally get our hands on the promised big announcement, which rolled out in both browser-based and iOS formats this morning. We’ve played around with both versions, listening to Taylor Swift, so you don’t have to. Check out our impressions after the break.
Evernote released a substantial Skitch 2.5 update for both OS X and iOS today, which makes the four-month wait since the last Mac update seem worthwhile. The new features are primarily geared toward adding feedback and notes to PDFs, and Evernote Premium members get two of the best ones: PDF Annotation and Skitch Summary. As the name suggests, the former lets you mark up PDFs with text, arrows, shapes and highlighter tools, while the latter collates all the added notes into a single “summary” so users can get a visual overview of what’s changed.
Other non-premium updates include a new Stamps tool that’ll let you mark a document with symbols to indicate approval, disapproval, a question mark, an exclamation point and (of course) a heart. You can also add notes to those symbols to flesh your opinion out a little more. What about filling out those pesky PDF forms? Skitch is bundling a plain text notation mode just for that, too. Last but not least, there’s a handy Tool Tip to guide users through all the new features. Those on the Apple side of things can download the new Skitch straightaway, but as there’s no word on when Windows and Android users will get the update, they’ll have to content themselves with staring at the screenshots above and below for now.
Flock, Bump Technologies’ photo-sharing app, has just added localization for 15 different languages, gaining it potential international appeal. Founded by CEO David Lieb, Flock is essentially a photo-sharing app that collects photos taken within a certain location and remembers who you were with thanks to that aforementioned geo-tracking data. It’s similar to Highlight or even Color, except the app doesn’t need to be open. Instead, a push notification is sent to all users in attendance, giving them a choice to create a group album of shared photos.
Lieb tells us that it’s picked up some notable user stats since the app’s debut in July last year. Apparently more than 60 percent of the photos that Flock recommends are actually shared, and push notification response rates are around 40 to 50 percent. He also revealed that the average user gets around 33 photos from friends every week, while active users share 25 to 40 percent of all photos taken. It’s no wonder then that the company aims to widen its reach with added localization — after all, we know how well that’s worked for other socialnetworks. Head on past the break to see Flock in action, or just download it yourself from the source. Added languages are iOS-only, with the Android version remaining monolingual for now.
LinkedIn has seen relatively large growth since its launch, and in addition, says that those who use its mobile apps have changed over the last year. Such a change has prompted it to completely redesign its mobile apps, tailoring them for everyday professionals that span a variety of positions. The changes are said to give users easier access to the things they want, including richer content.
The first obvious change users will see is the new design, which is a complete overhaul over the previous design, bringing with it some substantial changes. The stream looks quite a bit similar to what you get when using Facebook’s mobile app, with updates and conversations in a status-like row. Users can like and comment on a post via the stream, rather than going to the content for interaction.
The new stream brings with it content that is even more tailored to the specific user via a new navigation page, which is revealed by swiping the main screen to the right. The navigation page can be personalized the way you want it, making it ideal for your needs and how you use the device. And finally, the updated apps add more support for users who are located outside of the US.
Over time, the number of users who utilize LinkedIn has shifted, with the majority (64-percent) being located somewhere other than the US. Because of this, the redesign has been done in such a way that it is more generalized towards all professionals and how they would use the app in an everday way. Support for more languages has also been implemented, including Norwegian and Dutch for the iPhone and Android apps, as well as Turkish for the Android app.
It hasn’t been all that long since the last update to Rdio’s iOS app, but the music streaming service is back with yet another revision today that offers some new features and minor tweaks. The big addition is a change to the way you can share music: instead of simply sharing to Facebook or Twitter (something still available through a refreshed UI), you can now share songs or albums directly with other Rdio users. That feature’s already available in Rdio’s web interface and desktop apps, but hasn’t yet made its way to the company’s Android or Windows Phone apps. Apart from that, you can only expect some promised UI improvements elsewhere and the usual bug fixes.
Recent moves by LinkedIn — including its acquisition of Pulse — suggested its eye was towards becoming a center of its users universe for much more than simple networking or job hunting, and its latest mobile updates continue on that path. Updates arriving today on the iOS and Android platforms are redesigned for more “delightful interactions” throughout the app. That means a shift of focus to the news stream, including conversations, updates from your network and of course, advertisements. Check after the break for a quick video demo of the new features or hit the blog for a description — whether it’s enough to overtake Twitter, Facebook or something else for your social dashboard remains to be decided.
While lyric reading app Strophes has already been in the Mac App Store for a while, more often than not, it’s when you’re on the go that you’ll need to whip out lyrics at a moments notice. So whether want to sing along or end a friendly argument about the correct words (or lines… or paragraphs…), Strophes has finally arrived in pocket form, ready to offer sage lyric wisdom at your every whim. More »
I first saw the Sphero robotic ball about 2 years ago at CES, but I never really got a chance to play with one hands-on until now. When I first saw it in action, all I wanted to say was “Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.” This little orb is packed with cool technology that lets you use it as a remote-control vehicle, a game controller, and tech toy/plaything.
Made by Orbotix, the Sphero itself is a durable polycarbonate-shelled orb which fits nicely in the palm of your hand. This is no accident, since this makes it work perfectly as a controller or plaything itself when it’s not rolling around on the floor. Inside of the ball are its brains, wireless circuit, motion sensors, motors, a small rechargeable battery and multicolor LEDs.
The spherical robot is capable of traversing a variety of surfaces, including hardwood floors, tile, grass, concrete and low-pile carpet (it has a hard time on thicker carpets). It’s even waterproof, so you can drive it around in the bathtub or in a puddle. To juice up the Sphero, simply set it in its inductive charging cradle, and it’ll go for up to an hour on a single charge.
You control the Sphero using either iOS or Android apps, which range from the main Sphero R/C controller app to games, interactive toys, augmented reality and macro programming apps. The library of Sphero apps continues to grow too, since there’s a full Sphero API and SDK available for developers to make their own applications. Many of the current apps are free, while the few that cost money sell for $1.99 or less.
Playing with Sphero is a blast, and it’s stupid-simple to use. Simply pair it with your Bluetooth device, load up an app of your choice, orient the Sphero properly and start playing. It’ll operate at distances up to about 50 feet from your device. Setting the Sphero’s orientation is simple. Just place the ball on the ground and use two fingers to maneuver its secondary blue “tail” LED to point towards you. If you should pick up and move the Sphero, you can do this again in a jiffy.
The main Sphero app is a great place to start, as it lets you drive the Sphero and play with its colors with ease. You can choose from a touch-based or motion-based control scheme, as well as several pre-set macros for things like circles, Figure 8′s and a flashing light show.
The Sphero app can also capture stills or video of your escapades and save them to your device.
And if you log into the Sphero ecosystem, you can record fun achievements, track stats and compete with others for Sphero supremacy.
I tried out just about every Sphero app I could find on the iTunes App Store, and here are my personal favorites: 1) ColorGrab – a frustrating, but fun multiplayer game in which players must quickly pick up the Sphero when its flashing in a specified color; 2) Draw & Drive – which lets you simply draw a path for your Sphero to follow; 3) Etch-o-Matic – this turns your Sphero into the controller for an Etch-a-Sketch inspired drawing pad; and 4) Sharky – an augmented reality app which turns your Sphero into a funny looking beaver that you flick virtual cupcakes at. It’s completely silly, but a fun tech demo.
The hacker in me got the most joy out of the MacroLab app, which lets you create complex programming sequences for the Sphero, adjusting all of its available parameters. These include movement, rotation, light color, speed, and basic programming constructs like delays and loops. The only thing I wish is that you could take your saved macros and load them into the main Sphero application for playback. Apparently, the Android version can even control multiple Spheros at the same time.
If you and your friends have more than one Sphero, they can be independently controlled for races, running obstacle courses, or even for playing Sphero miniature golf (which can also be played solo).
All in all, I really have had a good time playing with the Sphero, and I can only imagine that kids and geeks of all ages would get a kick out of having one. It’s also great for tormenting your pets. The fact that it’s programmable and has a software development community means that even if you get bored with it for a little while, there will be more apps coming down the pike to give it new life. And if you’re a real tinkerer, you can even make your own apps.
Disclosure: Orbotix provided the Sphero for review in this article. However, all reviews are the unbiased views of our editorial staff, and we will only recommend products or services we have used personally, and believe will be good for our readers.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
