Apple's App Store Censorship Doesn't Make Any Sense

Apple reserves the right to deny apps entry into its App Store, but its application of this policy is maddeningly inconsistent.

Take the case of software engineer Charles Yeh, who developed an app called Speed Camera Alert and recently tried submitting it to Apple's marketplace. The company decided to block his program -- which tells drivers in Washington, D.C., when they're nearing local police speed cameras -- from being sold in the App Store and downloaded on iOS devices.

 Here's what Apple told Yeh, according to The Washington Post:

"Your app contains content or facilitates, enables, and encourages an activity ­ that is not legal in all of the locations where the app is available. Specifically, the primary purpose of your app is to identify speed trap locations."

However, there are already a ton of similar apps available for download in the App Store. Those got by Apple's censors. Why not Yeh's app?

A quick search for "speed camera" in Apple's catalog of approved applications found that not only are there apps that seem to do exactly what Speed Camera Alert did, but there are others with features that offer something pretty similar. The traffic app Waze, for example, has reporting and mapping features for fixed speed cameras and "police hazards," from speed traps to mobile cameras.

Just look at the examples below to get a sense of what's already live in the App Store. (There's even one called Fuzz Alert.) 

Yeh's app, by contrast, is relatively simple: It just maps the location of fixed traffic cameras using publicly available information posted online by the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police Department. There's no crowdsourced reporting feature, like Waze, that implicitly encourages distracted driving. It's just public data -- available on the Web -- mapped in an app.

You can see a simple video of the Speed Camera Alert below:

The illogicality of Apple's decision is breathtaking, especially taken in the context of the company's decision this week to pull a separate app showing public reports of drone strikes. Developed by Josh Begley, an editor at The Intercept, the drone strike app was first approved by Apple then yanked because it violated the company's app guidelines on "excessively objectionable or crude content."

That provoked reasonable criticism from Gawker's Sam Biddle, who said, "It's hard to imagine what about national security news presented in text format could be considered 'crude' (let alone 'excessively' so), and while the idea of extrajudicial killings is objectionable, aggregated news of it happening isn't." 

Apple also prohibits apps that contain "mean-spirited" personal attacks, except if they're delivered by professional satirists or humorists like cartoonist Mark Fiore. 

Whether or not you agree that the First Amendment protects the ability of the public to use phones and apps to record and publish the locations of police officers or traffic cameras -- a feature that cops have urged Google to turn off in Waze and even tried to spread misinformation about -- Apple's inconsistency on this point is troubling. 

As Apple moves more directly into the role of a traditional publisher, with its own news app delivering readers a mix of personalized content from media companies around the web, the hard news it makes available will often include crude, rude, upsetting or objectionable facts, from stories about shooting deaths to images of the Confederate Flag.

The uneven record the company has on apps means that trusting Apple for news might not be a slam dunk. Here's hoping that the iPhone-maker's attitude toward free expression matches its commitment to other human rights.

Source: Apple's App Store Censorship Doesn't Make Any Sense

10 Simple Tips To Improve Your Smartphone Photography

Smartphones have replaced many gadgets especially it has changed the notion of traditional photography.

These days' smartphones come with high-quality cameras. In fact, smartphone cameras have evolved over the past few years. While smartphones don't take photos like a dedicated digital camera, you never leave home without your mobile device.

SEE ALSO: How to Manually Download And Install MIUI 7 on Your Xiaomi Smartphone

Today, smartphone cameras have largely replaced point-and-shoot cameras for casual photo shooting. Even a budget smartphone camera is capable of taking much better shots compared to previous generation devices in the same league.

SEE ALSO: 10 Important Things To Do For Your First Android Smartphone

The question is - are today's smartphones capable of shooting professional-grade photos? Not really...but we can get some terrific shots by tweaking the settings and knowing a few tricks. Take a look at the slider below.

Stay tuned to GizBot for more updates!

Appropriate Light

One of the biggest problems with smartphone cameras is that they hardly perform well in low light settings. To solve this issue, make sure you take photos under natural light settings.

HDR Mode

Use High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode instead of a flash. These days even a low-end camera phone has this mode. Using the HDR, you will capture a range of tones and colors that often results in far better images.

Don't use Digital Zoom

The Digital zoom actually magnifies the subject of your shots, but does not enhance the quality of the image. Instead, you should always move closer to your subject.

Hold Steady

Always make sure you have a good grip on your smartphone. Try to not move it at all while taking the shot as it may lead to a blurry photo, especially if your camera doesn't have an in-built in image stabilizer.

Use Flash Wisely

Of course, a flash generally helps solve the lighting limitations of smartphone cameras. But make sure you use a flash with utmost care. A flash that's too bright can ruin the image.

Use Camera Modes

Almost every smartphone these days come with camera modes like Auto, HRD, Closeup and more. Some phones have advance camera modes, while others have standard camera settings. Knowing how to use these modes will sharpen your photography skills.

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a simple and easy trick you can use when composing your photos. Just imagine that the frame is split into three equal sections vertically and horizontally, as pictured. Place your subject along one of the vertical lines, or where a horizontal and a vertical lines intersect.

Camera Apps

Some smartphones come with a great native camera app, but there are dozens of free camera apps available on the Google Play Store that could be seen as an alternative to your smartphone's camera app.

Check the Background

Always check the background of the photo. It is an important element when you learn photography.

Clean Camera Lens

Generally, smartphone cameras tend to have lenses exposed. It is recommended to clean it before taking photos.

Stay tuned to GizBot for more updates!

Story first published: Wednesday, September 30, 2015, 11:04 [IST]

Source: 10 Simple Tips To Improve Your Smartphone Photography

iPhone 6s diary: Putting the camera to the test, with interesting results

Today

AAPL: 112.44

-2.27 iPhone 6s diary: Putting the camera to the test, with interesting results

Ben Lovejoy

- 15 hours ago

@benlovejoy

iOS Devices Feature Comments (42)

I should open by saying I'm a tough sell where cameraphones are concerned. My primary camera is a Nikon D3 full-frame 35mm DSLR with a set of lenses that takes the total cost well into 'let's never do the sums' territory, so the bar is set rather high.

But camera technology advances, and I judge by results rather than reputations, so I did recently switch to using a Sony a6000 compact camera for most shots – including travelling. This is a lot smaller and lighter, and also attracts less attention. It has an APS-C sensor, which isn't quite in D3 territory, but is a lot larger than an iPhone sensor and has proven itself remarkably capable.

I'd love to have that kind of performance in an iPhone, but it's not there yet in two respects: shallow depth of field, and low-light performance, both of which I'll address below. So the question for now is: is the 12MP camera in the iPhone 6s a worthwhile improvement on the 8MP version in the iPhone 6 … ? 

Let's start with the shallow depth of field business. I'm sure some people reading my comment on that were immediately ready to disagree and pull out some flower shots to prove it. So yes, if you get the iPhone very close to the subject – as you would when taking a  flower shot – then you can get reasonably shallow DOF.

But only with the iPhone positioned very close to the subject. As soon as you are further away, you get almost infinite depth of field. You can't, for example, take a shot like this, where I'm about twelve feet away from the subject and still able to isolate the subjects from the background.

Nikon D3/Nikkor 35-70/2.8

But for daylight shots where you don't need shallow depth of field, both sensors are extremely capable. In all honesty, at the typical sizes at which photos are viewed these days, you're not going to see a noticeable difference between an iPhone shot and a good compact camera, and even the DSLR offers only a marginal benefit in this situation. 

Of course, you can't tell anything from downsized photos viewed online, so let's start pixel-peeping, starting with a daylight shot …

With all the comparison shots, the iPhone 6 is on the left, the 6s on the right.

Here, if we weren't pixel-peeping, there would be nothing to choose between the two. If we do a 100% crop, then we can see that there is just a tiny bit of noise in dark areas of the iPhone 6 shot, while the iPhone 6s version is cleaner (and also larger, due to the extra pixels – more on this in a moment).

But really, this is nothing at all that is going to show up when viewed on even desktop screen sizes, and it would be exceedingly unlikely to show in a print (we've been at the stage for years where screens show more detail than even pro prints).

12MP vs 8MP

The iPhone 6s does, of course, have more pixels to crop from if we want to zoom in, either when we take the photo or when editing afterwards. So what I've done below is take the earlier photo of the Gherkin shot through the arch, and zoom right in to the very top of the building. That's a very severe crop indeed, losing around 90% of the total photo! I've done both crops proportional to the resolution so you can get an idea of what the difference between 8MP and 12MP means in real life.

Is this significant? In all honesty, I'd have to say not. How often do you really need to zoom in to that kind of extreme, either in the camera or in editing? I'd say for most people the answer is going to be hardly ever.

And let's be real here: the vast majority of iPhone shots are viewed online: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, whatever. They are viewed at small size, and even zoomed right in to the top of the building, the 8MP sensor still gives us an acceptable size photo for most online use (i still had to reduce it in size for this piece). Your mileage may vary, but for typical use of the camera, I'd say the extra pixels are not a big deal.

Live Photos

But there is, of course, one very big difference between the two cameras: the Live Photos functionality of the iPhone 6s. As you probably know, the way the iPhone camera eliminates shutter-lag – the time between pressing the button and taking the photo – is that it's actually taking photos the whole time time the camera app is open. Most of the time, it's silently deleting them immediately afterwards, but when you press the shutter button it keeps the frame it shot just as you touched the button and throws away the rest.

What Live Photos does is to save a couple of seconds worth of these auto-taken photos and turns them into a very short video. When you swipe between photos in the Photos app, it gives you a very brief preview of the animation, and if you 3D Touch, you can view the entire clip. Here's an example.

It's too early to tell what I'm going to make of Live Photos. At one end of the scale, it could be a feature I'd play with a few times then switch off, never to use again. At the other end, it could be seen as a must-have feature that all cameras would offer within a year or so. My jury is still out, but so far at least, I've left it on. Apple claims it only roughly doubles the storage size for a photo, and my tests show this to be true (typically a bit more than double, but not significantly so). I have a 128GB phone, meaning space is not at a premium, so I'm guessing I'll switch it on for people and cat shots, just in case.

I am, though, already pretty sure that 90%+ of the Live Photos people are going to show will be of just two subjects: kids or cats …

Oh, and I also tested the selfie flash. I do my best to stay on the correct side of cameras, so I'll simply say that it works.

Low-light photos

Ok, this is where we get to the stuff that separates the men from the boys: low-light photography. As I mentioned earlier, DSLRs and high-level compact cameras deal with low-light situations in three ways. First, they have large sensors which have more widely-spaced sensor pixels that are less vulnerable to noise, so you can boost the ISO (aka amplify the signal) a lot before it degrades significantly. Second, they have wide-aperture lenses, which let in as much of the available light as possible. Third, they allow long exposures, keeping the shutter open longer to allow in more light in total (this of course requires a tripod or similar to hold the camera steady).

Cameraphones have small sensors, wide-ish aperture lenses but still not in DSLR territory, and they can't do long exposures. So, what they do instead is to amplify the signal from the sensor a lot. This works, but the downside of amplification on a small sensor is that it generates even more noise than you get from a densely-packed sensor in the first place.

All photos were taken with Live Photos off, which improves the quality by allowing (somewhat) slower shutter speeds.

This is a reasonably-challenging shot for a camera. We're in relatively low light, and we're shooting directly into the light, which washes out detail. Cheap cameraphones tend to shrug and give up when faced with this kind of situation.

But both iPhone cameras are up to the task. If we take a 100% crop, we do see a tiny difference, but there's very little in it.

Ok, let's let the sun dip a little further, and see how the two cameras cope with that.

Now this is where things start to get interesting. Light levels outside are falling, and this is the point at which you normally start to see noise. Again, both cameras are coping really well. Viewed at normal screen size, it's a perfectly acceptable photo – and even viewed at 100%, the noise level is extremely low. Both sensors are impressive.

But … if you compare closely in the 100% crop above, there's actually slightly less detail in the iPhone 6s shot. I think what's going on here is that the more densely-packed 12MP sensor is starting to get noisier, so Apple is applying more noise reduction to compensate – and this is where we lose a little detail.

I stress, this is only visible here when pixel-peeping – it's not something we'd ever worry about in real life in this level of light. So let's see what happens as things get darker.

Here we have bright light from the sun, and most of the rest of the shot is dark. This is a really tough challenge for any camera. As we'd expect, detail at street level is washed out. In real-life use, I wouldn't bother including anything at street level, I'd just show the sunset and the reflection on the Cheesegrater (the foreground building), but it's interesting to include for test purposes. (The diagonal streaks, incidentally, are on the window, not an issue with the photos.)

Now, at this point, looking at the photos on my iPad, I was convinced that the 6s shot was better. There seemed to be less noise. But, when I looked at 100% crops the next day, it confirmed my theory about the more aggressive noise-reduction necessary to compensate for the denser pixels. There is indeed less noise, but it's achieved at the expense of loss of detail. You can see this in both the street-level buildings and the reflections in the windows – there's a muddier look to the 6s shot.

So in a sense, my initial impression of the iPhone 6s camera being better in low light was completely wrong. But I'll return to this point shortly.

Let's now give it the ultimate test of a true night shot. There's still a glow in the sky, but the city is essentially in darkness and all the lights are on. I wouldn't normally even dream of attempting a cameraphone shot in this light, but let's see what we get.

Again, viewed on the phone and at iPad size, the 6s shot looked noticeably cleaner (look at the sky around the Shard, top left). But again, when we look at 100% crops, it's because the stronger noise-reduction on the 6s is simply wiping out detail. Look at the latticework in the arched arcade lit in yellow, for a good example. The 6s shot is noticeably less sharp due to the greater level of noise-reduction applied by the phone.

This reinforces what I'd long said: that Apple was right to refuse to enter the megapixel race and concentrate instead on quality rather than quantity. The more densely-packed sensor in the higher megapixel camera requires more aggressive noise-reduction to overcome the increased noise – and that is achieved at the expense of detail. So the higher resolution image does, in low-light conditions, end up less detailed than the lower resolution version.

This is, unfortunately, what happens when people who know nothing about photography simply count pixels and criticize Apple for falling behind. The company refused to play that game for a long time, but I guess this is the point at which it feared it would be panned for remaining with an 8MP camera for a fifth generation (after the iPhone 4S, 5, 5S and 6).

At a pixel-peeping level, then, the iPhone 6s sensor is actually a retrograde step, sacrificing detail for pixel-count. But … real-life viewing for most people maxes out at either a 15-inch MacBook or a 27-inch iMac. And the vast majority of photo viewing these days is far smaller than that, downsized by Facebook and its ilk. At any of those sizes, the iPhone 6s shots look better. So on balance, Apple made the right decision: in real-life use, your iPhone 6s photos are going to look better to almost everyone who views them.

For me, though, I care about quality, and have some of my photos blown up on my walls at 30×20 inches. So I'm going to be sticking with real cameras for now. If you want to see why, here's a photo taken on my Sony a6000 camera with APS-C sensor: a 30-second exposure at 100iso. You would never guess it, but this is actually taken in very similar light to the final shot above – it just lets in so much more of it! The difference between 30 seconds of light and a fraction of a second is … night and day.

Sony a6000/Sony 16-50mm lens

Maybe we'll get there by the iPhone 10s.

If you've bought the iPhone 6s and tried out the camera, do take our poll – and as ever, please share your thoughts in the comments. Oh, and if you have any long-exposure apps you'd recommend, do please let me know – I'm going to be testing one or more of these shortly.

You can find part one of my iPhone 6s diary here. You may also enjoy my Apple Watch diary series, and my many and varied opinion pieces.

Take Our Poll

Source: iPhone 6s diary: Putting the camera to the test, with interesting results

3D Touch on the iPhone 6S vs. '2D Touch' on iPhone 6

[MUSIC] 3D touch is a feature on the new Iphone 6 and the Iphone 6+ that everyone is talking about. But Jessica and I are gong to put it to the touch compared to regular touch on the Iphone 6 to see if it's actually any quicker. Let's do this thing. Test number one we are going to make a phone call to one of our favorite contacts. We are going to use regular touch or we are going to use 3D touch. Three Two, one. Boom. You've definitely won that one. Yeah, I think for me, also, because I've got that sliding motion right there. So I can just use my thumb and slide up to that contact, I don't have to open anything. I don't even have to tap. Next, we're gonna take a selfie with this front-facing camera. You're gonna do a 3D Touch, straight from the home screen with a quick action. I'm just gonna do it in a regular way. Three, two, one. And there we go. Yes, you a [UNKNOWN]. I have to remember to press the home screen pretty hard to get 3D touch there. We're going to take that selfie that we just took in the camera app and post it to Instagram. Three, two one. [UNKNOWN] Then there's my picture. In that corner. Sure. Well I'm pretty close on that one but I think that the action of doing that over time you'll get really really quick at it. Right I think there's definitely a benefit of pressing, holding then sliding up to new posts and being able to get to it that way. We're gonna use the keyboard now to insert a word in a phrase that is missing through the Notes app, so we'll open that up. and it is fox, we need a fox in here. All right, three, two, one. [MUSIC] [NOISE] See you're trying to press down hard on the keyboard. I am. To get the track pad to come up. Usually this works a lot faster this time it didn't and then I scrub and if I lose my place it's no good. So there's really not much of an advantage here. You have to be quick on the draw to not lose any time. Now we're going to touch on pod in the fun. The pick and pulp action. You just couldn't resist. I couldn't. In the mail app. So what we're gonna do is we're both gonna go into our mail app and open the same link. Tap on it, but you are gonna peek at it whereas I have to open it fully. No. Oh I think has to maybe be the whole link. The whole link? Yeah, there's that. Oh, there it is. But that's quite an interesting thing that you just did. There we go. Yeah, the beacon app is not that intuitive. You have to kind of like fully hold it, rather than highlight it. You do, but it's nice because once I do that, I can interact with that. I can open a link, I can. You press harder to go into the full page? There we go. Just set up. Whereas I only have the option to open it fully and then go back to the menu using the back button in iOS 9. So now that we've done the comparison test, what are your thoughts on 3D touch? Overall I really like it. I think it's going to be more useful for certain apps then for others. I do like that the vibration makes it a little bit more integrated and immersive. And I do think that in the first few minutes of me picking it up, I wasn't as graceful as I could be and over time I think I'm going to really get the hang of it. But overall I do think it adds a little certain something that other phones don't have Well for more on straytouch make sure to check out CNET.com. [MUSIC]

Source: 3D Touch on the iPhone 6S vs. '2D Touch' on iPhone 6

A Closer Look at 3D Touch on iPhone 6s

3D Touch is a flagship feature of the new iPhone lineup. We take a closer look at how different apps use it in this video.

3D Touch could change how you use the iPhone. The new iPhone models' pressure-sensitive screens let you "peek" into content and jump to frequently used actions from the home screen, making more actions accessible more easily.

Right now, 3D Touch mostly works with Apple's built-in apps. You can dip in and out of mail, messages, camera, maps, photos, Safari, calendar, music, video, news, iBooks and a few other apps. The most obvious use of the "peek" functionality, in our estimation, was previewing mail messages, but the real killer was previewing URLs in Safari. That got rid of the commitment factor of opening a new Web page when I tapped on a link, making browsing even more fluid.

A few third-party apps are beginning to dip into the 3D Touch waters. Dropbox lets you upload photos with a quick action from the home screen. An astronomy app, Sky Guide, lets you check the position of satellites. It's going to spread quickly across the third-party app universe.

I'm also intrigued to see how 3D Touch works with the iPhone 6s Plus for artists. 3D Touch makes the screen pressure-sensitive, which means a simple capacitive stylus will work a lot more like a real pen or brush. For now, that only seems to be supported in Apple's Notes app.

Watch the video to see how 3D Touch works in several different iOS apps.

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. His commentary has appeared on ABC, the BBC, the CBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and in newspapers from San Antonio, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta. Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer, having contributed... More »

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Source: A Closer Look at 3D Touch on iPhone 6s

Wolverton: New iPhones a touch better than last year's

Apple's catch line for its new iPhones is, "The only thing that's changed is everything."

But you'd be hard pressed to tell how the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus differ from last year's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus by just looking at them or casually interacting with them. The changes are more subtle than the revamped design and jumbo screens that came with last year's versions.

Indeed, the highlight feature of the new models is something you don't see right away -- but it could soon change the mobile experience in ways everybody will notice: It's called 3D Touch, and it gives a new dimension to touch-screen devices by allowing them to sense how hard users are pressing on the screen. The power of this new technology is apparent only after you interact with the new phones for a while, which I did Friday as Apple released its latest phones for sale.

With 3D Touch, the phones allow you to do different things -- view shortcuts to popular features or get quick glimpses of photos, emails and apps -- depending on the pressure you exert.

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It's a great addition to the touch-screen interface, and Apple and other software developers are just beginning to explore how to tap into it.

One way Apple is using the new technology is to simulate a right mouse click on a computer. If you press down hard enough on certain app icons on your home screen, you'll get a short menu of things to do, rather than simply launch the app. These menus, which Apple calls Quick Actions, generally serve as shortcuts to particular features within those apps.

So, for example, press down hard enough on the Maps app icon, and you will have the option to get directions to your house or to search for retailers or points of interest nearby. If you do the same on the Camera app's icon, you can quickly snap a selfie or record a slow-motion video.

Apple has opened up the new feature to outside developers and some are already starting to use it. Dropbox's Quick Actions include opening recently added files and uploading photos. Pinterest allows you to search through pins or create new boards using 3D Touch.

3D Touch also allows you to take a quick glance at emails, delete messages and even start responses -- without leaving your inbox.

These types of uses for 3D Touch have the potential to save time or make it easier to perform routine actions. But what I find more exciting are what developers will do with the technology in the future. Already there are some tantalizing hints.

Apple is using it in conjunction with the new drawing features in its Notes app. Press harder as you are drawing and you'll get a darker line. Meanwhile, a new game called "Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade" allows users to change weapons by pressing down on the screen. You'll likely see more games and other apps that take advantage of the feature in the future.

Besides 3D Touch, the next most significant changes involve the cameras in the new models. The new phones sport 5-megapixel front and 12-megapixel rear cameras, up from 1.2 megapixels and 8 megapixels in the older models.

The new cameras allow you to print larger photos or zoom in closer on your subject, but I wasn't super impressed with the quality of the photos they took. In some cases, the colors were more lifelike than in pictures I took with an iPhone 6, but they weren't that much better. And in some cases, the pictures I took looked worse; when I zoomed in, the pictures I took on the iPhone 6S were less sharp than those I took on last year's iPhone 6.

But the cameras do more than just offer higher resolutions. The neatest of their new features is something called Live Photos, which essentially records short videos as you snap pictures. The Live Photos look like regular pictures, except that when you press on the screen, you can see -- and hear -- what happened about a second and a half before and after the snapshot. I had fun taking Live Photos of my kids and dog, and I can see them being an enjoyable way to remember special moments in the future.

In addition to Live Photos, the new cameras will also shoot 4K, or ultrahigh-definition, video. This is the new standard for video that's already begun to make its way into televisions.

Another cool trick the iPhones can do is allow you to activate Siri without touching the home button first, even if they're not plugged in. All you have to do is say, "Hey, Siri." It's a nice feature to have because it allows you to access information when it's inconvenient or dangerous to pick up your phone, like when you're cooking or driving.

The other changes the new phones bring are much less obvious. They have more powerful processors than last year's models, which makes them slightly snappier and allows them to more rapidly recognize your fingerprint when you attempt to log in that way, but the differences aren't dramatic.

They also support speedier versions of Wi-Fi and LTE, the wireless technology used by the mobile carriers. But unless you've upgraded your router or your carrier has put the new technology in place in the cell towers in your area, you won't see much difference.

Finally, Apple is using a different, sturdier kind of aluminum in the iPhone's cases. That should make the jumbo iPhone 6S Plus more resistant to butt-bending when you put it in your back pocket, a problem that plagued last year's model, at least in terms of bad PR.

But the biggest change is 3D Touch. It's not a big enough change to swap last year's model for the new one, at least not yet. But if you're trading in an older iPhone or thinking about switching from an Android device, you'll find it makes things more than a touch better than before.

Contact Troy Wolverton at 408-840-4285 or twolverton@mercurynews.com. Follow him at www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton or Twitter.com/troywolv.

Troy's Quick Take

What: Apple iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus smartphonesLikes: 3D Touch feature provides new capabilities to touch screens; Live Photos feature takes short videos while shooting snapshots; allows users to activate Siri hands-free; slightly faster than last year's modelsDislikes: Base models offer only 16gigabytes of storage; new cameras offer higher resolutions, but pictures aren't markedly improvedPrice: iPhone 6S starts at $650 without a contract for 16-gigabyte model; iPhone 6S Plus starts at $750 without a contract for 16-gigabyte modelWeb: www.apple.com

Source: Wolverton: New iPhones a touch better than last year's

First Look: iPhone 6s brings major user interface enhancements

You'll change the way you use the iPhone.

iPhone Day is upon us once again, as Friday marks the first day that the general public can take delivery of the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on both models a day ago. So here are some first impressions to tide you over while you're waiting for your new iPhone to arrive, while you're copying your data onto your new iPhone, or maybe while you're wrestling over whether to go down to the Apple Store on the off chance that they've got one in stock with your name on it.

They're just the same, or are they?

Traditionally the "s" model of iPhone is essentially identical on the outside from the version it's improving on. Apple doesn't throw away its smartphone design language every year, and this is no exception—at a glance, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus look just like the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

But. Here's the thing: They're not quite identical. Both new models are fractions of a millimeter wider, longer, and thicker than last year's versions. Which has led to some grave concern among prospective buyers that they'll seem bigger, or that they'll no longer be able to fit in that fancy leather case that was such a great holiday gift in 2014.

Well, good news on that front: Unless your phone's case was an impossibly tight fit on the old models, it'll fit these new models just fine. I was able to pop Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus cases on an iPhone 6s and 6s Plus without any trouble at all. Turns out that most cases can manage variances of two tenths of a millimeter.

These phones are also heavier than their predecessors—the iPhone 6s by 14 grams, the 6s Plus by 20 grams. (That's less than an ounce, for haters of the metric system.) Apparently, this weight increase is largely due to the new Taptic Engine that's embedded inside these phones. Is the difference noticeable? Well, if you pick up an iPhone 6 and then immediately pick up an iPhone 6s, it's clear that the 6s is slightly heavier, and likewise for the Plus models. But perceptible is probably the word I'd choose to use here: Yeah, it's heavier, but unless you are constantly shifting back and forth, I don't think you'd notice. My Apple iPhone 6 leather case weighs 17 grams by itself, as a matter of comparison.

Are these phones bigger and heavier than the ones from last year? Sure, but not so anybody would notice.

Apple

Rumors have been flying since last week about whether these new models are more "grippable," for lack of a better word, than the previous models—which felt a bit slippery when you held them all by themselves, without any case. (The iPhone 6 is the first iPhone I've used with a case, and it's because I never felt comfortable holding it when it was reduced to its naked robotic core.)

Last week I got a chance to hold a rose gold iPhone 6s, and its aluminum back really did feel a bit more tacky than the iPhone 6 I keep in my pocket. But when I sat here at my desk and directly compared the feel of the four phones, I honestly felt no difference. Yes, the aluminum on the 6s is of a different, more rugged variety (as you'll find on the Apple Watch Sport), and it's even possible that different color combinations have a different feels based on variations in the anodization process.

But based on what I can feel with my fingertips, I have to say that there's no real difference in grippability between this year's models and the last. If you can't hold an iPhone 6 without being afraid it's going to shoot out between your fingers like a slick bar of soap, I don't think these models will give you any additional reassurance.

3D Touch, better than 3D movies

The banner feature for these new iPhones is 3D Touch, and I'm on the record as being a huge fan, just from the time I spent with it a couple of weeks ago. There's nothing in my first few hours with these devices that has dissuaded me from that opinion.

To enable a Force Touch on the Apple Watch takes far more force than it does to trigger a 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus with a gentle "push" on an icon or other interface element. On the home screen, a 3D Touch on an app icon that's been updated to support 3D Touch will bring up a contextual menu with up to four different items. (You don't need to keep your finger down on the glass after you make this gesture. The menu will remain visible even if you lift your finger up.) These items are all shortcuts to different areas or features inside the app—for example, choosing Take Selfie from the Camera app's 3D Touch menu will launch the Camera app and switch to Photo mode, with the front-facing FaceTime camera selected.

It's a single feature that instantly makes the home screen more useful, and reduces the amount of time you have to spent fumbling around in apps when you already know where you want to go. You get used to it in a hurry—and it's very sad when you 3D Touch on an app icon and don't get a menu. But even in that situation, I was impressed with Apple's attention to detail. When you use 3D Touch on an app with a menu, you feel a very short vibration from the new Taptic Engine that makes it clear that your 3D Touch has been detected and a menu has been popped up. If you use 3D Touch on an app without support for menus, there's a longer triple-tap vibration that makes it clear that while your 3D Touch has been detected, there's nothing that this particular app can provide to you. It's a smart, subtle difference.

In its own apps, Apple has implemented "peek and pop," an approach that lets you press on an item to bring up a preview of the content hiding beneath it—at which point you've got some choices to make. If the item doesn't interest you, you can remove your finger from the glass and the pop-up "peek" window goes away. If you want to act on the item, you can often do so directly from the "peek" itself. For example, from Mail I can drag a "peek" to the right to mark a message as unread, or drag it left to archive it. If I drag the "peek" up, I get a menu that lets me choose to reply, forward, move, mark, or set a notification on that message. In Messages, dragging up on a "peek" brings up a list of auto-reply messages, so I can quickly answer a text.

Apple

And of course, if you're intrigued by what you see in a "peek" and want to know more, you can press a little bit harder and the "peek" window will "pop" open in full, as if you had just tapped on it to begin with. The pressure to initiate a "peek" and the subsequent "pop" are connected to vibrations from the Taptic Engine, so you can always tell what the iPhone thinks you're trying to communicate.

App developers can take advantage of "peek and pop" directly, but they can also choose to go their own away and interpret the pressure sensitivity of the screen in any way they wish. In Apple's own Notes app, for instance, when you're in drawing mode the app detects the pressure of your finger on the screen and uses it to determine the intensity of the pencil marks.

Some of the fancy 3D Touch gestures will either require some of us to adjust how we hold our iPhones, or perhaps they will just require that we have large hands. I found that many times, there was no way that I could move a "peek" window up or to the side—my finger or thumb was already extended as far as it could go. Another nifty 3D Touch gesture is activating the application switcher by swiping with pressure from the left side of the screen, and if you simply flip across the entire screen it can function as a shortcut to switch to your most recently used app. That's great, but on the iPhone 6s Plus I was never able to get it to work—my hands just aren't long enough to drag all the way across that gigantic screen.

Still, we are humans and we adapt. I didn't end up holding my iPhone 6 like I held my iPhone 5, after all—it was a bigger phone and required a different grip, and after a couple of weeks it was like second nature. We'll all probably make adjustments that enable better 3D Touching as we go.

Rethink your home-screen priorities

Now that the home screen isn't just an app launcher, but a targeted app launcher, I've found that I'm already rethinking the way I've laid out that screen. I exiled my Camera app to a folder on a back page because it's easy to flick up Control Center from the bottom of the screen and launch the Camera app from there. Except—in a bit of an oversight, if you ask me—Control Center doesn't appear to support 3D Touch! Launching the Camera app from there has suddenly become a lot less appealing, because I can't specify whether I'm taking a video, a selfie, or a regular photo.

Likewise, I use the app Workflows to create some nice automated actions like texting my wife to let her know where I am and how long it'll take me to drive home. On my iPhone 6, I've used Workflows to output little shortcuts onto my home screen to provide me quick access to those scripts. But with the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Workflows can present its own menu item with my four most commonly needed workflows—meaning I don't need the shortcuts anymore.

Migration woes

Every time I review a new iPhone, I restore my old iPhone's data onto it and use it as my regular phone for the duration of the review process. But migrating from one iPhone to another can be a gigantic pain, one that a whole lot of people will be feeling on Friday and in the weeks to come.

Restoring an iOS device from a backup can big a big pain. Make it easy on yourself: Even if you've come to rely on iCloud for your device backups, before you switch phones you should plug your iPhone into a Mac and create an encrypted backup on iTunes. This is the only method that preserves all of your passwords, which are otherwise not backed up for security reasons. Only the encrypted local backup via iTunes to a Mac will prevent you from spending the next few hours looking up and entering in every password to every cloud service you use.

In iTunes, you can create an encrypted iPhone backup by checking the box for Encrypt iPhone Backup.

If you've got an Apple Watch, you'll need to unpair it from your old iPhone (which will wipe it entirely) and then pair it to the new one. This is an additional level of pain—if only you could just transfer between phones without wiping the data!—and you'll probably lose some of your fitness data along the way. It's not a great system, but it's what we have for now.

Even with the encrypted backup approach, restoring my data to my iPhone wasn't smooth. Though I instructed iTunes to transfer all my purchases from my iPhone to my Mac so that they'd be backed up, a bunch of my apps didn't come through in the transfer and had to be re-downloaded from the App Store. Some re-entering of passwords and verification codes is always going to be necessary for security reasons, but Apple's got more work to do to make this entire process less painful. Some focus on a quick, easy iTunes backup that actually saves everything and prevents you from having to re-download apps would be nice—all my experience reminded me is why I stopped syncing my iPhone to iTunes in the first place.

More to come

Stay tuned to Macworld.com for my full review of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus early next week. If you've got questions you'd like me to address, you can leave them in the comments here, email them to jsnell@sixcolors.com, or tweet them to @jsnell on Twitter. Until then, here's hoping you have a 3D Touch-filled weekend—I know I will.

Source: First Look: iPhone 6s brings major user interface enhancements

CatFi Box is the Google Cardboard of smart cat feeders

Last year, Zillians launched a high-tech cat feeder called Bistro that'll monitor how much food and water your little feline is eating thanks to a smart built-in facial recognition camera. Since then, the company has renamed the product to the CatFi Pro, which is pretty much the same exact thing, except with a different name. But what if you don't have the $199 or so to drop on the CatFi Pro and you still want to keep tabs on kitty's diet? Well, Zillians has just come out with a less-functional but still-workable cardboard alternative called simply CatFi Box, which they showed off at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this week. Yep, all you need is a spare Android phone, a piece of cardboard and an Exacto knife to make your very own high-tech cardboard cat feeder. Think of it as Google Cardboard but for your cat. And you know, without that whole VR thing.

To get started, you'll have to sign up for the beta on the CatFi website. From there you'll get instructions on how to cut and fold the cardboard, plus links to download the beta versions of the apps. Load the camera-version of the app (dubbed Cam-Phone) to your Android phone, and set it up so that the camera is facing the food bowl. You also don't technically even need the cardboard structure as it's just there to hold the phone -- as long as you've got the Android phone in a stationary position pointing at your kitty's feeding area, you're good to go.

A spokesperson tells us that the reason why the camera-side of the app needs to be on an Android phone, is because iPhones don't allow background video recording. The Android camera app will then transmit any activity about your cat's feeding to the cloud, which you can then track on an entirely separate app dubbed Control-Phone (this tracking app is available on both iOS and Android). This is the same app that's used in the CatFi Pro and lets you see at what times and how long your cats eat. The camera also records video of it so you can watch it happen to make sure little kitty is eating her food.

Of course, the CatFi Box doesn't have the same bells and whistles as the Pro version. It doesn't have a scale and it won't have a large reservoir of food and water to draw from. But hey, you can try making the CatFi Box work with automatic feeders or something like the Petzi Treat Cam. And while we laugh at the idea of needing a spare Android phone for it to work and the whole cardboard concept to begin with, it really does sound like a cheap and inexpensive way to track your cat's feeding habits to make sure it isn't suffering from any disorders. Unless, of course, your cat mistakes the cardboard box for, uh, something else entirely.

[Image credit: Lead image by the author; second two images by CatFi]

Source: CatFi Box is the Google Cardboard of smart cat feeders

10 Preinstalled (Stock) Apps You Must Replace For A Better Smartphone Experience

Most of us don't even bother to replace any of the stock apps that come with our phones. The end result of this is: you are often stuck with a set of inferior apps designed by the manufacturer, which are mostly buggy and less intuitive to use.

Here are some of the best free apps that you can use to replace your stock apps. This will definitely bring a positive change to the way you use smart phones.

1. Calendar: Sunrise CalendarAlmost all phones have a built-in calendar app that is very much limited to syncing your Google Calendar. They are often bare bones designed just for adding G-Cal events and getting notified. Sunrise Calendar is the most powerful alternative available. Not only you can sync your Google Calendars, MS Outlook Calendars, iCloud Calendar, MS Exchange Calendars etc., but it will also connect your calendar to many popular apps like Evernote, Wunderlist, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Trell o and Four Square. This will make it an all-around hub where you can see what is happening in your day. Additionally, it provides extra calendars such as Public Holidays, Schedule for football matches, and program schedule for your favourite TV shows too.

2. Email: Google Inbox / MS OutlookThird-party email apps has advanced so much that it feels primitive to even use the stock email apps on smartphones. If you live and die by Gmail, then Inbox is your app. But if you are a Hotmail, Live Mail or Outlook Mail user then MS Outlook Mail app is the right one. Although swipe gestures to delete or archive, schedule emails for later are available in both, Outlook provides you with a calendar and contacts tab, which makes it a complete package.

3. Browser: ChromeGoogle Chrome is the best browser on Android and does a good job on iOS too. It is fast and reliable and with recent updates it could save you precious data as well. Most importantly its PC and Mac version help you in a seamless cross-platform Web browsing experience.

4. Camera: VSCO CamStock camera app in phones such as LG G4, iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S6 are really good. But if you are not using any of those and still want a better image processing experience, VSCO Cam is your friend. Famous for its Instagram like editing and sharing features, VSCO Cam offers one of the best image processing camera apps that efficient and fast.

5. Gallery: Google PhotosYour photos represent the important movements in your life, and the last thing you want is to lose all those wonderful memories. Google Photos automatically sync your photos from phone to Google drive, so that you can access them from anywhere. It offers a free unlimited upload for pictures under 16 megapixels and videos up to 1080p resolution.

6. Notes: EvernoteEvernote is the gold standard for note taking apps. Whether its text, audio, Webpage, list, or reminders, Evernote got you covered. It also offers features like capturing b usiness cards, scanning documents and marking up images. Evernote syncs everything to its desktop and Web version of the app instantly. If you are looking for a place to dumb your thoughts and ideas, then look no further.

7. Reminders: WunderlistWunderlist is one of the best-designed apps for managing your tasks and reminders. It provides a tons of features from basic checklists, sharing list, starring the important ones, assigning tasks, multiple lists, folders, sub lists, attachments and chat with people who you have shared the list. Most importantly, it is very intuitive and available on all major platforms.

8. File Manager: DropboxGone are days of file managers, as almost all the phones and tablets don't even come with one. However, if you want to have access to your music, documents, pdfs or images all the time, then Dropbox can get you covered. You can upload the files to the cloud with the Dropbox apps on phone, PC or the Web and access them almost from anywhere. The free 2 GB plan is more than enough for the regular.

9. Weather: Yahoo WeatherYahoo Weather is a beautifully designed weather app. It gives you up to date weather info and displays great photos from Flickr that matches you location. Moreover, if you want a forecast for next day or week or any technical data like wind speed and humidity, you can find them with just a tap or two.

10. Keyboard: SwiftKeyPredictive keyboard is now an essential part of the smartphone experience. Though Google's and Apple's own keyboard apps does a good job, SwiftKey beats them all in terms of cross-platform sync and customization. You can modify the size and theme for your keyboard and you will also get your auto prediction synced between all your Android and iOS devices as well.

Source: 10 Preinstalled (Stock) Apps You Must Replace For A Better Smartphone Experience

OnePlus 2 gets Oxygen OS 2.1.0 OTA update with manual camera mode, color balance adjustment and more

Home » Android, News, OnePlus

OnePlus has started rolling out Oxygen OS v2.1.0 OTA update for the OnePlus 2 smartphone, as it promised earlier this month. This update includes manual mode for camera, Exchange support, several improvements and fixes. It also brings RAW support in 3rd party camera apps that support it, but there are some reports of RAW format still not being supported in 3rd party camera apps, and OnePlus says will look into it and provide a follow up soon. The OnePlus 2 got Oxygen OS 2.0.2 update with fingerprint recognition improvements and bug fixes earlier this month.

OnePlus 2 Oxygen OS 2.1.0 changelog

Manual mode in camera

Raw support is now enabled for 3rd party camera apps that support this format

New color balance slider in Display for adjusting the color tone of your screen.

Added Exchange support.

Fixes for some issues that were causing problems with popular 3rd party apps.

Telephony service improvements so you no longer get the lag when you turn on/off airplane mode.

The OnePlus 2 Oxygen OS v2.1.0 OTA update is gradually rolling out globally. The update is 39MB in size and the build is dated September 19th.

Source: OnePlus 2 gets Oxygen OS 2.1.0 OTA update with manual camera mode, color balance adjustment and more

These 7 apps get poor marks for privacy

When you're browsing through the millions of apps available from the Apple and Android app stores, you'll notice that close to 98 percent of them are free to download. That's great if you're looking to fill up your gadget, but many free apps, and some paid ones, come with a hidden price: your privacy.

Permissions 101

When apps install on your gadget, they request permission to access certain information or phone features. Sometimes they need this information and sometimes it's not necessary.

A messaging app, for example, needs permission to access to your contacts and Wi-Fi connection to do its job. However, a flashlight app doesn't need to know your location or have Internet access.

Most people just hit "Accept" and install apps without reading what they do.

Apple gadgets let you approve or deny each permission individually. You can go to Settings > Privacy and open a feature like the Camera to see and control what apps have permission to access it. Or you can go to Settings and scroll to the bottom and tap a particular app to see and control its permissions.

A similar system is coming to Android in the future Version 6, dubbed Marshmallow. Until then, however, it's all or nothing for Android users. So, you need to decide just how badly you want the app.

Of course, that leaves us with the problem of how to tell whether an app is on the up-and-up with its permissions. Most don't tell you what they use the data for, although some will if you contact the developer. Fortunately, you don't have to dig into every single app.

Researching permissions

A few years ago, Carnegie Mellon University set up a site called PrivacyGrade that analyzes popular Android apps to find out what permissions they ask for and how they use the information. Then it gives each one a grade from A to D.

This scoring system is a little tricky, though. Part of PrivacyGrade's scoring system is looking at the permissions the app uses and the libraries. Libraries are third-party bits of code from other developers that app creators can drop in. Many of the ones you'll see are from advertising networks, although some are utilities to track how the game is working, or even from Facebook for easier logins to the app.

An app with a lot of advertising libraries is going to get a worse score than an app just running utility libraries. That's because an advertiser can track you across any app that includes its library.

The other big part of PrivacyGrade's scoring system is how the average person feels about what the app is doing. So, for example, the Facebook app takes a ton of your information. However, it keeps a lot of it to itself, has a clearly defined privacy policy and people expect Facebook to take their information, so it gets an "A." However, you don't expect a basic app like "Flashlight — Torch LED Light" to need to know your location, or record audio, so it gets a "D."

With this scoring system, PrivacyGrade's scores can change over time. Some of the apps that used to be on the "D" list, such as the classic "Fruit Ninja," now get a "B" or even an "A." Sometimes that's because the app tweaked its permissions, but other times it's because it decided to be more upfront about what it does with your information.

Here are seven popular apps that PrivacyGrade gives a low score and why you should think twice.

•Draw Something Free — D. This popular app lets you play a version of remote Pictionary with friends. It's fun, but it includes several advertiser libraries and uses the "Read phone status and identity" permission to pass advertisers your phone number, call log, signal information, carrier and more.

•Words With Friends — D. This popular app is like a fast game of Scrabble, and it's great for brushing up on your vocabulary or being humbled by small children. However, it's from the same developer as "Draw Something." It's no surprise it has the same privacy worries. However, it goes a step further with the "Precise location" permission. While it does use your location for the game, it also uses it to show you location-based ads.

•GO Locker — D. This app acts as a screen lock for your phone, and promises to be more secure and smarter than your gadget's built-in screen lock. Naturally, that means it has to know a lot about your phone and requires just about every permission available, from your location to reading your text messages.

Oddly, it doesn't have advertising libraries installed, although it could be sending data to advertisers using its own first-party code. However, it does link up and send your information to app stores besides Google Play. This is potentially dangerous since app stores besides Google often have malicious apps that can steal information from your phone. This could very well be a gateway app for unsecured apps or apps that do seriously hurt your privacy.

•GO Weather Forecast & Widgets — D. From the same company that brought you "GO Locker," this app brings you the weather and a forecast. However, like "GO Locker" it uses a lot of its permissions to send data to app markets besides Google Play. After doing a little checking, it appears that every GO app, including "GO Battery" and "GO SMS Pro," has this same design. I recommend steering clear of them.

•Camera360 Ultimate — D. Android's default camera app is serviceable, but not fantastic. "Camera360 Ultimate" promises to add more camera modes, exclusive filters, free cloud storage, facial recognition, real-time "touch-ups" and more with no ads.

It doesn't include any ad targeting libraries, but it does grab a lot of information, and is has the Baidu search engine library built in. Baidu is China's answer to Google, and there's no good explanation why a Chinese search engine might need things like the ability to turn your Wi-Fi on and off. In the same vein, the in-app purchases are powered by Alipay, which is a Chinese payment system.

To really take control of your smartphone's camera, check out "Camera FV-5" for Android or "Manual" for Apple.

•Angry Birds — C. The first modern "viral" mobile game with more than 2 billion downloads since 2009, "Angry Birds" and most of its sequels and spinoffs don't fare so well with privacy. Most include several targeted ad libraries that grab your phone identity information, which includes phone call logs, your signal, carrier, device ID and number.

Outside of PrivacyGrade's score, "Angry Birds" also has the distinction of being one of the apps the NSA and British GCHQ targeted to snag user information from smartphones thanks to poor security. The newer versions of "Angry Birds" aren't as vulnerable, so they get a slightly higher "B."

•My Talking Tom — D. If you have kids around, "My Talking Tom" is an app you might get asked to download. It's basically a cute little game where you adopt and take care of a kitten. However, its privacy settings aren't so adorable.

It includes a whopping eight targeted ad libraries and, in addition to your phone's identifying information, it sends the advertisers audio from the microphone as well. For a kids' game, that's creepy.

Other games from the same developer, such as "Talking Angela" or "Talking Ben," cleaned up their act a bit by only sharing phone information with advertisers. However, they still access the microphone and camera for internal use, leading to a string of hysterical reports last year that they spy on kids. That's not what actually happens with the data, but if you want to give these apps a miss, I don't blame you.

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Source: These 7 apps get poor marks for privacy

Finally, a camera that won’t let you be an annoying tourist

Sometimes, despite your very best attempts at appearing nonchalant, or tastefully aloof, or reservedly admiring — just generally not like a tourist — your efforts fall short. You promised yourself you wouldn't take ten selfies in front of the Eiffel Tower, but the lights are just too beguiling, and you need someone or something to exercise some self-control on your behalf. Enter Philipp Schmitt's Camera Restricta, effectively an app inside a smartphone inside a 3D-printed camera case that actually prevents the over-zealous tourist from taking too many pictures (or any at all) in crowded, clichéd locations.

The Camera Restricta works by using GPS to pinpoint your location and then gauging the density of other geotagged photos that appear within a 115 square-foot-radius. If the camera determines that there are too many (including ones that you've taken yourself), you simply won't be able to get a shot — instead, the camera will click at you, and the lens will retract.

Related: Olympus gives new love to E-M1, E-M5 II cameras via firmware update

Schmitt, a German designer, notes that this latest invention of his simply expands on existing technologies already employed by high-tech cameras and image sensing. "Algorithms are already looking through the viewfinder alongside with you: they adjust settings, scan faces, and take a photo when you smile," he says. "What if your grin wasn't the only thing they cared about?"

While mass consumption of online media certainly comes with a lengthy list of both pros and cons, many creative workers and artists have long lamented the apparent lack of originality that has resulted from apps that allow you to both edit and share every moment of your life. But with Camera Restricta, some hope that even the amateur photographer will be forced to examine potential Kodak moments with a more critical eye, and look harder to find unique shots.

On his website, Schmitt wrote, "Camera Restricta could be a controversial tech product, promising unique pictures by preventing the user from contributing to the overflow of generic digital imagery." It is, after all, nothing more than an "obedient tool" that could ultimately be used by governments looking to censor photographs, as the European Parliament attempted back in July when they proposed a measure that would stymie tourists' right to photograph copyrighted buildings and sculptures.

While this measure was ultimately defeated, inventions like the Camera Restricta certainly make that seem like an easy restriction to implement.

So take your token shots while you can, folks. Soon, you may be forced to be a bit more original.

Source: Finally, a camera that won't let you be an annoying tourist

These 7 apps are the worst at protecting privacy

When you're browsing through the millions of apps available from the Apple and Android app stores, you'll notice that close to 98 of them are free to download. That's great if you're looking to fill up your gadget, but many free apps, and some paid ones, do come with a hidden price: your privacy.

Permissions 101

When apps install on your gadget, they request permission to access certain information or phone features. Sometimes they need this information and sometimes it's not necessary.

A messaging app, for example, needs permission to access to your contacts and Wi-Fi connection to do its job. However, a Flashlight app doesn't need to know your location or have full Internet access.

Most people just hit "Accept" and install apps without reading what they do.

Apple gadgets let you approve or deny each permission individually. You can go to Settings > Privacy and open a feature like the Camera to see and control what apps have permission to access it. Or you can go to Settings and scroll to the bottom and tap a particular app to see and control its permissions.

A similar system is coming to Android in the future version 6, dubbed Marshmallow. Until then, however, it's all or nothing for Android users. So, you need to decide just how badly you want the app.

Of course, that leaves us with the problem of how to tell if an app is on the up-and-up with its permissions. Most don't tell you what they use the data for, although some will if you contact the developer. Fortunately, you don't have to dig into every single app.

Researching permissions

A few years ago, Carnegie Mellon University set up a site called PrivacyGrade that analyzes popular Android apps to find out what permissions they ask for and how they use the information. Then it gives each one a grade from A to D.

This scoring system is a little tricky, though. Part of PrivacyGrade's scoring system is looking at the permissions the app uses and the libraries.

Libraries are third-party bits of code from other developers that app creators can drop in. Many of the ones you'll see are from advertising networks, although some are utilities to track how the game is working, or even from Facebook for easier logins to the app.

An app with a lot of advertising libraries is going to get a worse score than an app just running utility libraries. That's because an advertiser can track you across any app that includes its library.

The other big part of PrivacyGrade's scoring system is how the average person feels about what the app is doing. So, for example, the Facebook app takes a ton of your information. However, it keeps a lot of it to itself, has a clearly defined privacy policy and people expect Facebook to take their information, so it gets an "A." However, you don't expect a basic app like "Flashlight - Torch LED Light" to need to know your location, or record audio, so it gets a "D."

With this scoring system, PrivacyGrade's scores can change over time. Some of the apps that used to be on the "D" list, such as the classic "Fruit Ninja," now get a "B" or even an "A." Sometimes that's because the app tweaked its permissions, but other times it's because it decided to be more upfront about what it does with your information.

Here are 7 popular apps that PrivacyGrade gives a low score and why you should think twice.

1. Draw Something Free - D

This popular app lets you play a version of remote Pictionary with friends. It's fun, but it includes several advertiser libraries and uses the "Read phone status and identity" permission to pass advertisers your phone number, call log, signal information, carrier and more.

2. Words With Friends - D

This popular app is like a fast game of Scrabble, and it's great for brushing up on your vocabulary or being humbled by small children. However, it's from the same developer as "Draw Something," it's no surprise it has the same privacy worries. However, it goes a step further with the "Precise location" permission. While it does use your location for the game, it also uses it to show you location-based ads.

3. GO Locker - D

This app acts as a screen lock for your phone, and promises to be more secure and smarter than your gadget's built-in screen lock. Naturally, that means it has to know a lot about your phone and requires just about every permission available, from your location to reading your text messages.

Oddly, it doesn't have advertising libraries installed, although it could be sending data to advertisers using its own first-party code. However, it does link up and send your information to app stores besides Google Play. This is potentially dangerous since app stores besides Google often have malicious apps that can steal information from your phone. This could very well be a gateway app for unsecured apps or apps that do seriously hurt your privacy.

Find out why setting up your gadget's lock screen is essential to your phone security.

4. GO Weather Forecast & Widgets - D

From the same company that brought you GO Locker, this app brings you the weather and a forecast. However, like GO Locker it uses a lot of its permissions to send data to app markets besides Google Play. After doing a little checking, it appears that every GO app, including GO Battery and GO SMS Pro, has this same design. I recommend steering clear of them.

5. Camera360 Ultimate - D

Android's default camera app is serviceable, but not fantastic. Camera360 Ultimate promises to add more camera modes, exclusive filters, free cloud storage, facial recognition, real-time "touch-ups" and more with no ads.

It doesn't include any ad targeting libraries, but it does grab a lot of information, and is has the Baidu search engine library built in. Baidu is China's answer to Google, and there's no good explanation why a Chinese search engine might need things like the ability to turn your Wi-Fi on and off. In the same vein, the in-app purchases are powered by Alipay, which is a Chinese payment system.

6. Angry Birds - C

The first modern "viral" mobile game with more than 2 billion downloads since 2009, Angry Birds and most of its sequels and spinoffs don't fare so well with privacy. Most include several targeted ad libraries that grab your phone identity information, which includes phone call logs, your signal, carrier, device ID and number.

Outside of PrivacyGrade's score, "Angry Birds" also has the distinction of being one of the apps the NSA and British GCHQ targeted to snag user information from smartphones thanks to poor security. The newer versions of Angry Birds aren't as vulnerable, so they get a slightly higher "B."

7. My Talking Tom - D

If you have kids around, "My Talking Tom" is an app you might get asked to download. It's basically a cute little game where you adopt and take care of a kitten. However, its privacy settings aren't so adorable.

It includes a whopping eight targeted ad libraries and, in addition to your phone's identifying information, it sends the advertisers audio from the microphone as well. For a kids' game, that's creepy.

Other games from the same developer, such as "Talking Angela" or 'Talking Ben," cleaned up their act a bit by only sharing phone information with advertisers. However, they still access the microphone and camera for internal use, leading to a string of hysterical reports last year that they spy on kids. That's not what actually happens with the data, but if you want to give these apps a miss, I don't blame you.

Email Kim Komando at techcomments@usatoday.com.

Source: These 7 apps are the worst at protecting privacy

Google Street View Takes A Camera On A Journey Through The Philippines

Here in the States, we largely take Street View for granted. Sure, Google hasn't sent cameras down our large web of rural roads, but it has covered the bulk of our cities and large towns.

These days, the search giant is making its way to other parts of the globe. Not too long ago it took pictures you can only find deep in the Amazon or in a kayak around Malaysia. Now it's showing off the footage it got from carrying a camera through the many streets and diverse environments of the Philippines.

This means you can pick up Google's little orange avatar guy and drop him onto the many roads of Manila, the country's capital. Make a remote trip to Vigan, a World Heritage Site rich with colonial European architecture. You can view specific landmarks, like the Paoay Church, or take a virtual stroll down Bantigui Island.

 

Altogether, Google has worked with the Philippines Department of Tourism to map out 37 cities and 35 historic locations. Check them out in your browser or using the recently updated Android app.

Source: Google Street View Takes A Camera On A Journey Through The Philippines

Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update rolling out for Sony Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1 Compact and Xperia Z1 Ultra users

By Tasneem Akolawala on Sep 15, 2015 at 7:03 PM Email @muteriot comments News

Sony has started rolling out the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop to Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1 Compact and Xperia Z Ultra users. The update comes with a Stagefright patch, along with improvements to the Camera app and more theme options.

According to Xperia Blog, the update is being rolled out to a few regions and will reach other regions eventually. Apart from the Stagefright patch, the update brings a simplified design and improvements to volume and silent mode control. It also enhances speed and accuracy in Camera focus and brings upgrades to the Superior Auto mode. Additionally, it brings more theme options, and a new setting menu icon.

The Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update will be rolled out via OTA to all Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1 Compact and Xperia Z Ultra users. It is being rolled out gradually, so it might take a while before it reaches your smartphone. Alternatively, users can check for an update manually in the Settings menu as well.

RELATED: Sony aims 20% growth during festive season in India

It is recommended to free up some space before installing the update, and do the upgrade under a strong Wi-Fi connection. The smartphone should ideally also have full battery for seamless installation.

For the latest technology news, gadgets and reviews download the BGR India Android app. Also follow BGR India on Facebook and Twitter to stay tuned with the latest technology news.

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Tags: Android Lollipop, Sony, Sony Xperia Z1 Previous Next

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Source: Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update rolling out for Sony Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1 Compact and Xperia Z1 Ultra users