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TagsDock for iOS is every social media maven’s dream keyboard

Jun23
by on June 23, 2015 at 11:27 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, hashtags, ios, Keyboard, TagsDock

TagsDock hed

If you’re frequently sharing content on Twitter, asking the important questions on ask.fm and capturing the best moments of your life for your Instagram followers, try TagsDock, a new iOS keyboard that makes it easy to add all the hashtags you need with a tap or two.

TagsDock comes with more than 3,000 hashtags in over 100 popular categories, like seasons, people, photography, food, fashion, celebrities, sports and travel.

TagsDock screens

When you’re ready to share content on your preferred social network, switch to the TagsDock keyboard and tap on relevant categories to reveal a list of trending hashtags for your post.

You can add all the hashtags in a category at once to annoy people to increase visibility. TagsDock also lets you add your own custom hashtags and retrieve them from the Favorites menu.

TagsDock works well enough to save you time and is cleverly designed with colored labels that make it easy to spot your frequently used categories. If you hate keying in hashtags as much as you love using them, this is certainly worth its $1 asking price.

➤ TagsDock [iOS]

Read next: Line just launched an emoji and sticker keyboard for iOS

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Forget Taylor Swift, Eternify wants to help small artists by gaming Spotify

Jun23
by on June 23, 2015 at 11:00 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

Eternify

First Taylor Swift called out Apple and won, now an unknown band is trying to outsmart Spotify in a successful attempt to get its name in the press.

Eternify is a site which endlessly loops 30-second clip – the minimum length required to get paid – of whatever artist you choose from the streaming service’s catalog.

The idea is to rack up royalties for them, while presumably muting the tab so you don’t have to hear the same thing over and over.

The whole thing is a clever stunt by Ohm And Sport, a new band who describe themselves as “in beta” and, unsurprisingly, have a single to push. It’s a slice of fairly inoffensive electro-pop called ‘Air Tonight’ and, of course, it’s on Spotify.

The band told TNW – and every other site that will listen – that they’ve launched the site “in the wake of numerous false promises of a better future for streaming: not a single one of these announcements or apparent victories have had any meaningful impact on the vast number of small artists on whom these services depend.”

That’s nice fiery rhetoric, but I expect to see Spotify stamp down pretty hard on the site as soon as it can. Creating audio loops is banned under its terms of service.

In the meantime, I earned Ohm And Sport $0.07 in royalties while composing this story.

➤ Eternify [Ohm And Sport]

Read more: Apple responds to Taylor Swift’s open letter, promises to pay royalties during free trial

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The US Army is building hoverbikes based on technology from a Kickstarter campaign

Jun23
by on June 23, 2015 at 10:27 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

bike

Last year, 451 backers pledged £64,089 to bring Malloy’s hoverbike prototype to life on Kickstarter. That same company has now announced a partnership with a US Department of Defense contractor to build the futuristic bike for the US Army.

Under the new partnership, Malloy Aeronautics will open an office in Maryland and build the bikes with SURVICE Engineering Co, a DOD contractor, to operate as a “tactical reconnaissance vehicle.”

The hoverbike was positioned on Kickstarter as a rideable motorcycle for the sky, with two engines and a petrol motor keeping it in the air.

The design has since been altered as “current technology” meant it could not build the device to be both safe and cheap enough for it to sell well.

Screen Shot 2015-06-23 at 12.01.59 PMIn its current form, the hoverbike looks like a oversized, rideable quadcopter. It features slightly offset rotors in order to shrink the overall size, however the company is yet to build a full-scale prototype.

According to Reuters, the US Army is interested in the hoverbike “because it can support multiple roles” such as “[transporting] troops over difficult terrain” as well as moving supplies and being used both as a rideable and autonomous drone.

The next step is to build a full-scale prototype in collaboration with the army, however Malloy Aeronautics insists that it’s still an independent company and it also plans to build devices for the commercial and leisure markets.

➤ Hoverbike at the Paris Air Show [Malloy Aeronautics, via Ars Technica]

Read Next: Boeing just patented a system for recharging drones in mid-air

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Irish privacy regulator’s annual report spends just 78 words on Facebook

Jun23
by on June 23, 2015 at 9:22 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Irish Data Protection Commissioner, report

Facebook_featured

Facebook often makes a point of reminding the press and public that its privacy measures and data protection compliance in Europe are regulated by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC). But how thorough is that organization?

You won’t get a clear idea from the IDPC’s annual report, which has just been released. It dedicates a mere 78 words to its discussions with the social network:

Continuing engagement with Facebook Ireland prior to the introduction of new features, alterations to existing features, privacy settings and controls for individuals, advertising functions, and the recent launch of its new “Terms and Conditions” in January 2015.

This included legal and technical examinations of the ‘user facing’ elements of Facebook’s offering, and the organisational and technical processing that goes on behind the scenes. In addition, a substantial on-site review of audit recommendations took place in mid-2014.

What did that “substantial on-site review” entail? The document doesn’t give any further details. I’ve emailed the IDPC and will update this post if it provides any.

Facebook’s privacy measures and its use of data are hot topics, so it is somewhat unsettling that the regulator best placed to investigate its European activities isn’t more transparent.

Other tech companies highlighted in the report include Apple (which has been consulting with the regulator about its forthcoming ‘Streetview-style’ maps product), Microsoft (which is mentioned once in regard to terms and conditions) and LinkedIn (which received a privacy audit.)

Incidentally, when I contacted the IPDC earlier this year, following an update to Facebook’s terms and conditions, it told me its last full audit of the company took place in December 2011, followed by a review in September 2012, and that there were no upcoming plans to repeat the exercise.

➤ Annual Reports [Irish Data Protection Commissioner]

Read next: Facebook Moments not coming to Europe because of privacy concerns

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Gmail’s ‘Undo Send’ feature finally graduates out of labs after six years

Jun23
by on June 23, 2015 at 9:18 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Google, Insider

Gmail

After what seems to have been the longest beta period ever, Google has finally graduated Gmail’s “Undo Send” option from labs into a permanent spot.

When you enable Undo Send, you’re able to “unsend” an email up to ten seconds after you hit the send button — Gmail just delays sending briefly so you have a moment in case you change your mind.

You’d be surprised how often I’ve caught a typo just as I send an email, so the feature is a lifesaver for me.

The feature has lived in Gmail’s “Labs” area, which the company uses to test out new features, since March 2009.

Undo Send now lives in Gmail’s settings under the “General” tab. It’s disabled by default, but it’s worth turning on if you haven’t already.

➤ Undo Send for Gmail on the web [Google, via Venturebeat]

Read Next: This amazing interactive picture book for the Web makes me jealous of kids these days

Image credit: Alexander Supertramp / Shutterstock.com

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