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Going somewhere? TripPix for iOS offers a swift new take on travel photo books

Jun20
by on June 20, 2015 at 2:27 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web

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Putting together digital photo albums was never as much fun as it sounded. That’s because the sheer volume of images — and the painstaking work it took to weed out the good from the less good and sort them in proper order — often turned into an exhausting, emotionally draining marathon.

Shutterfly, a digital photo veteran, has cooked up a way to lure a new generation back into making old-fashioned photo books, complete with scrapbook-y touches — like maps, icons and templates tailored to major trip types. Its new iPhone app, TripPix is designed to let you create a complete travel book in just a few minutes. Amazingly, it lives up to that claim.

All photos are derived from your phone, so just flip through your vacation shots and choose between 15 and 30 pictures you want to include. The app only shows you the images that are geo-tagged because it wants you to be able to choose maps to accompany the images.

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You don’t have to use maps with every image, but I found that when a group of images was shot roughly in the same location, a map was a fun addition.

There’s no time-consuming layout creation or multiple paper types. Books are a square 6 x 6 inches and run up to 51 pages for a flat rate of $19.99 (including shipping) that arrives one week after you tap the submit button. Another nice touch is that the book comes with a bamboo wood stand so you can display your book on a table, just as you would a photo.

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In short, Shutterfly has removed all the barriers and frustrations that go into making a photo album. Just choose the images from your phone, select a few maps and icons, and it’s done.

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The app sacrifices some flexibility for speed and ease of use, but not much: For example, once you decide which image to use, you can’t change your mind after the book has been assembled. You also can’t rearrange the order of images after the fact or pull in photos from other services like Instagram.

While TripPix is targeted to millennials, I suspect that other age groups will also appreciate its speed and simplicity.

➤ TripPix [iOS]

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Anti-censorship community Voat dropped by hosting service over ‘political correctness’

Jun19
by on June 19, 2015 at 11:34 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

VoatTNW

European hosting service hosteurope.de recently terminated its contract with Voat, a Reddit clone that promises not to censor users. Voat managed to move its database to an unnamed cloud platform hours ahead of the shutdown to avoid service interruption.

Voat’s founder, who goes by the handle Atko, said hosteurope.de wrote “we have received significant information that the content on your server includes political incorrect parts that are unacceptable for us” in terminating the contract.

Voat has been around since 2014, but found favor after Reddit banned five subreddits. Those communities have since popped up on Voat.

Atko also says he was a customer in good standing with hosteurope.de, but issues of political correctness caused it to lose a “bond of trust” in him as a customer. He says Voat never posted any illegal content.

➤ Our provider, hosteurope.de shut down our servers due to “political incorrectness” [Voat]

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Kleiner Perkins releases its first diversity report, outlining steps it will take to boost its record

Jun19
by on June 19, 2015 at 11:20 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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In the wake of its victory in the gender discrimination lawsuit filed by Ellen Pao, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers issued its first-ever diversity report.

The venture capital firm reported that nearly half of its employees are women, but they account for only one-fifth of the investing partners. Overall, Kleiner Perkins said 46 percent of its employees are women, as are 33 percent of its general partners.

The statistics on investing partners do not come as a surprise — they were revealed in testimony at Pao’s trial.

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A blog post by Beth Seidenberg, who testified for KCPB at trial, noted that her company’s statistics were not unusually low, compared with Silicon Valley’s record as a whole.

She cited a 2014 Babson College study that found only 6 percent of venture capitalists are women, while only 15 percent of VC companies employed any women executives at all.

Moreover, KCPB reports that the proportion of women in its internship program had risen to 32 percent this year, from 5 percent in 2012.

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In her post, Seidenberg outlined the steps KCPB is taking to improve opportunities for women:

Measuring Progress: Results matter. That is why we are starting by sharing gender statistics for both our firm and the KPCB Fellows Program at kpcb.com/diversity. We will continue to advocate for – and regularly report on – diversity at our firm.

Addressing Bias: Even with the best intentions, we can still possess unconscious bias. We have consulted with leading diversity experts and determined that training can help counter these biases. All KPCB employees and partners have been trained, and we are offering the same program to the companies we invest in.

Filling the Pipeline: We must improve the pipeline of diverse talent coming to tech companies. Every year, thousands of the best and brightest college students apply to beKPCB Fellows, a program that pairs students to opportunities at tech start-ups. In 2015, women accounted for 32% of the Fellows, up from 24% in 2014 and 10% in 2013. For 2016, our goal is to reach 50% women and underrepresented minorities.

Advancing and Retaining Talent: Two years ago, we started an initiative that brings together a community to champion rising women in the industry. Because retention is a key issue for most companies in Silicon Valley; we believe efforts like this can help provide mentorship and role models for up-and-coming women in tech.

➤ Kleiner Perkins Discloses Gender Numbers and Pledges to Improve [Wall Street Journal]

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Windows 10 testers will receive the final build as a standard software update

Jun19
by on June 19, 2015 at 10:12 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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Windows 10 Insiders – what Microsoft calls its public beta testers – have gotten early access to a lot of the upcoming operating system’s features, but with the July 29th release date approaching, many have wondered how the upgrade process to the final build of Windows 10 will happen.

Microsoft took to its Windows Blog today to clarify, and it’s simple as can be: Insiders will receive the RTM (release-to-manufacturing) build through Windows update, just as they’ve been doing since the first beta builds started rolling out.

There is one change for installing upcoming builds, however: you’ll need to make sure your computer is linked to a Microsoft account, and that it’s the same one you used to register as a Windows Insider. That change is not just for the final version of Windows 10 – it applies to any of builds leading up to July 29.

To be clear, this only applies to Windows 10 Insiders – everyone else can upgrade without the need for a Microsoft account come the final build July 29.

This is partly to keep track of who is using a preview build, as Insiders have been be able to download an ISO to create a clean installs of the OS, and Microsoft needs a way to verify people aren’t just trying to get a free clean copy of windows.

The Insider program will continue even after Windows 10 is released to the public – Microsoft says testers will receive future builds as it continues to work on the next Windows release “immediately after Windows 10 ships.”

It’s another sign that Windows will lean towards frequent, smaller feature updates, rather than the major releases every few years we’re used to. Microsoft recently called Windows 10 “the last version of Windows,” implying the shift to a product that is constantly refreshed with new features.

One last note: Project Spartan will finally be called Microsoft Edge is the next build; this will delete your bookmarks, so be sure to check out Microsoft’s blog if you want to transfer those over to the the newly-branded browser.

➤ Upcoming changes to Windows 10 Insider Preview builds [Windows Blog]

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