The Next Web

Earlier, we told you about a new feature from photo hosting site Snapjoy called “Flickraft“. The premise is simple: get all of your photos off of Flickr and onto Snapjoy’s platform. For those who were looking to ditch Flickr, much excitement was to be had. Apparently Flickr didn’t share in this excitement.

We were just contacted by Snapjoy’s co-founder Michael Dwan, and he shared this:

Looks like flickr shut down our api key

Dwan tells us that no warning was given to Snapjoy about its access to Flickr’s API being shut down, nor did his company do anything that other sites do with the freely available access to many other developers.

Since the Flickraft site launched, over 250k photos have been imported to Snapjoy via Flickr, showing that there are many people who were pretty happy about the offering of a “life raft” to get their photos off of the Yahoo! owned photo site.

Perhaps the Flickr team didn’t have a sense of humor about Snapjoy’s reference to Titanic on the Flickraft site:

The site now has a message from the Snapjoy team, instead of the image above:

Earlier today, we launched a Flickr to Snapjoy importer with a tongue-in-cheek promotional page to draw attention to it.

In roughly two hours, our users imported over 250,000 photos from their Flickr accounts. However, we decided to pull the plug because our API key was disabled. We tried our best to stay within Flickr’s API limits, but the overwhelmingly positive response has exceeded our expectations.

What does this mean for you? Unfortunately, you will not be able to import your Flickr photos at this time. We’re working diligently to restore this functionality.

Thanks again for checking us out and please stay tuned for updates.

Sincerely,

- the Snapjoy Team (Michael, JP, and Dustin)

We’ve reached out to Yahoo!’s PR team and will let you know what they have to say on the matter.

In January 2011, Microsoft decided to grace us with its presence on Apple’s App store with its popular note-taking solution, OneNote. At that time, the company said that OneNote was installed on 78M PCs, so it looked like the company wanted to spread the seed a bit.

This past December, Microsoft released another popular service, SkyDrive, on iOS. As our own Alex Wilhelm pointed out at that time, “Sorry Android, Redmond has no goodies for you.”

It took a while, but we finally have ourselves some “goodies” for Android from Microsoft.

In a blog post today, Microsoft announced the launch of OneNote for Android and here’s what it had to say:

For all of you who’ve been asking (and patiently waiting) for a version of OneNote for your Android phones, we have great news: OneNote Mobile for Android is now available! Download it from the Android Market app store today!

Mobile versions of OneNote are currently available on Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, and now Android. No matter which platform you prefer, OneNote Mobile lets you easily capture and access all of your notes and ideas on the go.

Its presence on Android’s Market now gives the company the smartphone “trifecta” of support for iOS, Android, and it’s own Windows Phone platform. It’s odd that it took this long for Microsoft to pop out an Android app, since it has a better chance of finding PC users on the Android Market than it does on Apple’s App Store.

The OneNote app sports the ability to create to-do lists that include images and bulleted lists, along with clickable checkboxes to mark off the tasks that you’ve completed. Clearly, if you’re a OneNote user on the PC and happen to have an Android device, you’re going to be in heaven:

For those of us who aren’t die-hard PC users, we’ve been playing around with note-taking app Evernote for quite a while on Android devices. In fact, the version of Evernote for Android tablets that launched last July is absolutely gorgeous.

➤ OneNote for Android

No matter what you think about Apple and its community of die-hard fans, it’s difficult to deny how iconic some of its more popular products have become over time. Products like the iMac and iPod have made an incredibly strong impression on our lives, and the simplistic-yet-beautiful aesthetic that surrounds them is one reason why they have become so memorable (many thanks to Sir Jony Ive).

As far as iPhone cases go, everybody’s seen the ones that look like a Polaroid or R2D2, but I have never seen a case that actually made my retro-loving-jaw drop with admiration like these cases by Schreer Delights, which were dug up by Core77.

From the creator:

If your new iPhone is too high-tech looking, try a case that transforms it into a reproduction of the 2001 iPhone that complemented the brightly colored iMacs. This case simulates the iMac speaker, stereo headphone plugs and power button over a translucent body shell.

For those who missed out on the very first iPhone back in 1989, here’s your chance to rock a retro look on your new iPhone! This case simulates the original’s trademark vent grooves, SCSI port, ADB printer and modem ports as well as a stereo mini plug for speakers.

The Retro iMac case catches my attention the most, but the Retro Macintosh and the original iPod case is also striking. Check out these and others via the link below!

➤  Schreer Delights

It’s been less than a week since we called on Microsoft to make plain its plans for ARM-based Windows 8 computers, in regards to whether they will be able to run normal desktop applications or not. The company has yet to provide a response.

To quickly summarize the issue, we offer the following paragraph from the aforementioned post:

However, just what these ARM tablets will be able to run in terms of software is a critical component of their potential salability, and therefore how well Windows 8 will be able to perform as a whole. There has been talk that only so-called ‘Metro Style Apps’ will work on ARM-based Windows 8 machines. That means the standard Windows desktop, and the applications that it runs, would be moot on the touch-centered machines. This may make sense, even if we don’t like it, for consumer friendly, low-priced tablets, but it certainly marks a shift in how Windows works.

There was recent news that perhaps some desktop apps will run on ARM-based machines, but only if they garner a special certificate from Microsoft. That’s a rather half-cocked bit of middle ground, but it may be where Microsoft ends up. The problem is that we still don’t know, and developers and Windows enthusiasts alike are beginning to fret.

In the most recent post on the Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft talked about battery life and app efficiency, and managed in the process to not mention ARM chips a single time. That, in a post on application power usage is comically conspicuous; the reason that ARM chips are exciting in the first place is that they can be battery-sipping bits of silicon. The post garnered several comments that bemoaned the current state of affairs:

So in Windows on ARM scenario, the old apps will drain the battery life as old Windows 7 based scenario. This seems to be bad as when I run Office on Windows 8 ARM tablet, it might run out of battery in few hours.

Hi, I just have question regards to editions of ARM version of Windows 8 that will there be anything like “Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate” for it or just they are for just X86?

I was hoping for some mention of the desktop interface on ARM in this post. Until Microsoft clarifies whether the desktop will be available or not (with or without restrictions), rumours and innuendo will continue to fill the information vacuum. Will Windows 8 for ARM truly be Windows without compromises?

This video from Qualcomm shows desktop IE running on a Snapdragon processor (with the ability to run Adobe Flash touted as a benefit, no less): www.youtube.com/watch Has the strategy shifted since that video was made?

The questions are constant, and public, and Microsoft refuses to clarify the issue. Either the company is playing a longer game than we can see at the moment, or it has no strategy on this issue.

Microsoft declined to comment.

Screen typography is at a crossroads right now. On one hand, it is evolving into a beautiful space where print and Web design can finally converge in a world with endless wonder and unicorns. On the other side, however, it is still an inconsistent mess where kerning requires JavaScript hacks and Web font licensing is dodgy at best unless you rent fonts via the likes of Typekit.

The Web continues to grow into a more and more elegant place, and it shows no signs of stopping. Right now though, we still have to work with what little we have. If you’re tight on money and want finer Web fonts than what’s bound to be in the average computer’s system fonts, Google Web Fonts might be your best bet.

There are currently 404 typefaces in the Google Web Fonts directory. Many of them are awful. Very awful. But there are also high-quality gems that certainly deserve a closer look. Beautiful Web Type show off the potential of Google’s free typefaces in all their glory. Trust me: you don’t want to miss this.

The project is maintained by Chad Mazzola, a product designer at thoughtbot with a gorgeous portfolio site. You can keep up with updates on the project via GitHub and Twitter.

From bold serif display typefaces to subtle serif and sans-serif reading faces, there certainly is a lot more to Google’s font directory than Lobster. This site is just one way of making it easier for all of us to take note.

➤  Beautiful Web Type

Check out our full Design and Dev channel for more inspiration! Also, you can exclusively view typography articles here.

If you’re a startup looking to go viral… then you’ve very likely heard of LaunchRock, the San Francisco based startup that helps other startups build an audience with alluring, tweet-inducing launch pages.

One year ago, (somewhat ironically) LaunchRock officially launched its viral launching platform, which includes analytical-style insights for its ever-growing list of clientele. While LaunchRock won’t divulge the number of startups using its platform to date (other than a 5-figure range), it’s not just startups anymore: Comedians Demetri Martin and Adam Carolla have jumped on board too.

Now, that LaunchRock has capitalized off the startup craze of the past year, its ready to squeeze the juice out of the extremely ripe and hyped SXSW conference this March. In a savvy move, LaunchRock co-founder and CEO Jameson Detweiler has planned the company’s epic sounding “Rock Austin with LaunchRock” event, which will feature a campground retreat for startups who want to hang out together and get away from the SXSW madness.

At the LaunchRock campground, “there will be music, campfires, drinks, some competitive shenanigans and mostly good times with your fellow LaunchRockers,” says Detweiler. “So, lots of events, big and small, crazy and not so crazy, but the venue is huge.” LaunchRock will have beer-stocked party buses (with startup branding) running between the campground and the downtown activities every 15-30 minutes. Crosswalk is the first official partner for the event; more partners and details will be announced soon.

Want in on the fun? There are two options, both of which include stickers, t-shirts and VIP access to the campgrounds and TourBus. So, are you a hustler or a baller?

➤ Rock Austin with LaunchRock

In September we told you about a new exciting startup that aimed to host all of your photos in a beautiful and elegant way. That startup, Snapjoy, has announced a new feature in a big way, and it’s shooting an arrow directly at Yahoo!’s Flickr.

Up until now, you could only directly upload your photos to Snapjoy, and it would use all of the meta data from the pictures to build a gorgeous timeline. Today, with a site it calls “Flickraft“, Snapjoy wants to offer you a way to get all of your Flickr photos onto its service.

The site sports an artistic rendition of the “SS Flickr”, Snapjoy’s way of saying that Flickr is sinking like the Titanic. According to the site, 48,863 photos have been “rescued” so far.

The site clearly is meant to grab attention away from Flickr, but the new tool works flawlessly, allowing you to bring every single one of your photos over to Snapjoy for safe keeping. And at least for right now, it’s free.

Once you sign up for an account on Snapjoy, you can then authorize it to work with your Flickr account. All you have to do after that is sit back and relax while Snapjoy does the importing rescuing.

Once you’re done, you’ll be presented with this screen:

So there you have it, for everyone who has been ready to take the dive away from Flickr, now’s the time. Thanks to Snapjoy, this process is now, well a snap.

➤ Flickraft

Kinect Star Wars, one of the very few games that we have covered with regularity at TNW, was awarded a launch date this morning, along with a specially branded Xbox console that matches the theme of the game. Both Star Wars-branded products will be released on April 3rd.

Microsoft is pushing a bundle, including the game, Star Wars-themed Xbox, controller, and Kinect unit, which will retail for $449.00, according to Amazon.

Kinect Star Wars is a game that has obvious potential; the motion control features of Kinect fused with the magic of the Star Wars universe is an appetizing concept, even for the least serious fan of the brilliant franchise. Even more, the Xbox unit that Microsoft has put together, skinned in R2D2 and C3PO colors, is simply fun. However, the game itself has had a bumpy road to launch.

Last June, when an extensive demo of the game began to make the rounds, we found its gameplay to be rather lacking:

Microsoft just showed off a live demo of the game at E3 and it was, well, wonky. The kid who was the live guinea pig on stage playing the game had to struggle to get the controls to bend to his will. There was certainly no one-to-one connection between his arms and what happened on-screen. There seemed to be extensive lag, and the game had to help him move through the level enough that it is not clear if the game will even be fun.

That and the use of in-game weapons and their capabilities (blocking lasers with a light saber, for example) was so cut down as to be simplistic. How many times do you want to make the same all-purpose slashing motion? Perhaps this is just for children, but there are many gamers who grew up watching and dreaming about Star Wars who probably want a bit more. [...] Of course, the game is not yet complete, but it is disappointing thus far.

However, in a blog post today, Microsoft promised a new mode to the game, perhaps in a bid to bolster its content and improve the title’s overall quality. For the enthusiast, the branded console is fun. For the average gamer, provided that Microsoft has salvaged the game from its slow start (its launch date has slipped several times), it could be a hit.

Once it comes out, we’ll share our take on the game. For now, we have to sit tight. For fun, this is what the new Xbox looks like (images via Gizmodo):

Have you heard of OpenNews? This is the new name of the Knight-Mozilla News Technology Partnership, its head Dan Sinker announced today in a blog post.

As you may remember, Mozilla and the Knight Foundation have been partnering since 2011, with the ambition to invent the future of journalism by bringing it together with technology. Over the same period, other groups emerged that shared the same goals, such as Hacks/Hackers, leading us to predict that the convergence of journalism and technology will be one of the top media trends in 2012.

With OpenNews, both non-profit institutions are now taking this partnership one step further. According to Sinker, OpenNews plans to promote several new initiatives in 2012, starting with organizing and sponsoring hackdays around the world.

While hackdays will mostly appeal to developers interested in coding for newsrooms, online Learning Labs will give journalists a chance to become code-savvy ‘webmakers.’

As for existing initiatives, such as the Knight-Mozilla Fellowships, they will be extended, as eight annual fellowships will be granted this year, up from five in 2011.

Perhaps even more importantly, OpenNews seems interested in building a journalism code community, and has announced that it would soon launch a stand-alone site called ‘Source’, where readers will find “case studies, walkthroughs, tutorials, code snippets, and much more.”

Do you think hacks should also be hackers? What’s the best way to convince developers to work for newsrooms? Let us know in the comments.

Pears is a brilliant WordPress theme created by SimpleBits, the creative studio of Dan Cederholm who is also responsible for Dribble (think show and tell for designers). The theme allows anyone to collect, test and experiment with interface pattern pairings of CSS and HTML.

If you’re not an interface designer, don’t feel bad if you aren’t sure what interface pattern pairings means. But if you’re building websites, you’ll need to get this sooner than later:

As UI Patterns wisely puts it, “user interface design patterns are recurring solutions that solve common design problems. Design patterns are standard reference points for the experienced user interface designer.”

So why is this so useful? First off, Pears is an awesome way to start learning how markup and style work together. Second, it makes it ridiculously easy for anyone to start saving and playing with their own UI Patterns for use in future projects. Pears blocks out all of the extraneous details and updates instantly, making it easy to learn and play with your code.

In reality, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel with every project (aka solving common problems that already have solutions). Most of the time, Web designers are better off learning from and starting with what clearly works — then comes time for experimentation and creation.

➤  Pears

Things have been heating up at Yahoo! ever since it hired its new CEO Scott Thompson away from his post at PayPal. Most notably, one of its founders, Jerry Yang, resigned from its board of directors.

More changes are on the way, according to a report by AllThingsD. Four board members are leaving, and two new ones will be brought on board.

In a changing of the guard at the company, Yahoo! chairman Roy Bostock will leave the board along with Vyomesh Joshi, Gary Wilson, and Arthur Kern.

Here is an excerpt of Roy Bostock’s letter to its shareholders:

…the board has concluded that in order to accelerate the Company’s transformation, the combination of a new Chief Executive Officer with an enhanced team of independent directors would provide Yahoo! with the expertise and perspectives necessary to drive innovation and growth going forward. Therefore, Mr. Joshi, Mr. Kern, Mr. Wilson and I have volunteered not to stand for re-election at the next shareholders’ meeting.

While it’s not known who will replace Bostock as chairman, the two new board members will be Fred Amoroso, former Rovi CEO, and Maynard Webb, former CEO of LiveOps.

The future of Yahoo! is very uncertain, with the company cleaning out some deadwood apps and telling us that Yahoo! is now thinking “mobile first”.

Here’s what the company said last month about the new mobile direction:

You can expect to see more new Yahoo! mobile products in 2012, especially in areas ripe for innovation that build on Yahoo!’s strengths, such as companion experiences for TV like IntoNow, new ways to experience personalized media like Livestand, and some of our most popular and useful mobile apps like Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, Sportacular and Flickr, which are already being used by millions of people around the world.

Of course, there are still talks of acquisition and Yahoo! is still trying to untangle itself from places like Japan, as we reported just a few weeks ago. The new CEO has quite the road ahead of him, and now he’ll have a new fresh board of directors to move forward with.

Apple has issued a notification to iOS developers today, informing the that they need to begin submitting screenshots that are Retina resolution or above, that is 960×480 pixel images. These high-res shots will be required for any application updates or new apps.

When you create or update your apps in iTunes Connect, you must upload screenshots that are high-resolution. We require your screenshots as high-resolution images so that your app is optimized for the Retina display.

The requirements for high-resolution images are 960 x 640, 960 x 600, 640 x 960, or 640 x 920 pixels. Images must be at least 72 dpi, in the RGB color space, and the file must be .jpeg, .jpg, .tif, .tiff, or .png. You can update your screenshot files at any time in iTunes Connect.

The requirement could definitely just be Apple cleaning house on screenshots, as the lower resolution versions that have frequently been submitted for apps in the iPhone 3G-3GS era do not display well on Retina devices like the iPhone 4S. However, there is a definite possibility that it wants to make sure the store is ready for the time when it moves to delete the iPhone 3GS from its inventory of devices for sale.

The iPhone 3GS is still selling very well, and there is no reason for Apple to discontinue it before it has another “$0″ option for carrier subsidized phones. But once the company is able to reduce its cost of manufacturing on the iPhone 4, you can bet it will be happy to slide it into that slot. Whether that is before the release of its next device, or just after, we’ll have to wait and see. As the iPhone that has been on sale the longest of any model Apple has offered so far, the 3GS is a bit long in the tooth and ripe for replacement.

The iPhone 3GS uses a lower-res 480×320 screen and therefore produces lower resolution screenshots. The emulator for iOS devices included in the Xcode development kit is capable of producing shots in any device resolution.

The requirement shouldn’t be too onerous for most developers, who should be used to developing for Retina displays as they have been present for some time in most of Apple’s devices. There is a definite possibility that we will see a call for double-resolution graphics to be implemented by developers prior to the iPad 3′s release, as we have seen evidence of a Retina display being included in Apple’s as-yet-unannounced but heavily rumored new tablet.

According to a report by The Guardian, Sky News has instituted new rules for its reporters when it comes to Tweeting news from their personal accounts.

The report references an internal email sent to Sky News journalists about how to conduct themselves on the micro-messaging platform with a series of new guidelines.

The new guidelines include a ban on retweeting publications or people reporting on breaking news, especially journalists that are competitors. The new guidelines aren’t just about news though, as the publication has also told its employees to “stick to your beat” and not to tweet about non-work things from their professional accounts.

Other interesting rules that Sky News journalists must follow are:

• Where a story has been Tweeted by a Sky News journalist who is assigned to the story it is fine, desirable in fact, that it is retweeted by other Sky News staff.
• Do not retweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter. Such information could be wrong and has not been through the Sky News editorial process.
• Always pass breaking news lines to the news desk before posting them on social media networks.

While these might sound like some heavy-handed restrictions, a Sky News spokesperson had this to say about the new guidelines:

Sky News has the same editorial procedures across all their platforms including social media to ensure the news we report is accurate.

Every news organization has to now look at Twitter as a global publishing platform where any tweet can be shared to millions within seconds, thus making it even more important to report accurately at all times. Just a few weeks ago, CBS fired a blogger for reporting on the death of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, citing an erroneous report from another blog. That news spread on Twitter within moments, becoming a trending topic almost instantly.

Developer Arun Thampi was doing a bit of hacking around with Path 2, trying to get a version of it running on OS X as an experiment, when he discovered that the app actually uploads your entire address book when it is launched. This obviously raised concerns about what the app is doing with that information and, in fact, why it needs it at all.

Now Path’s CEO Dave Morin has addressed Thampi’s concerns in a comment below his post:

We upload the address book to our servers in order to help the user find and connect to their friends and family on Path quickly and effeciently as well as to notify them when friends and family join Path. Nothing more.

We believe that this type of friend finding & matching is important to the industry and that it is important that users clearly understand it, so we proactively rolled out an opt-in for this on our Android client a few weeks ago and are rolling out the opt-in for this in 2.0.6 of our iOS Client, pending App Store approval.

Note that many applications on the App Store that have anything to do with address book data do grab it, hash the data and save a checksum, ditching the plain text data afterwards. It’s a fairly standard procedure, but normally the data is not stored whole on the servers, which is a move that Path still has yet to justify or clarify.

There is also the matter of the application not asking explicit permission to access and/or store the data, which the Android version does. The iOS version currently out does not, but Morin says that an update is on the way which will.

These questions, along with an additional request to be able to delete the existing contact data from Path’s servers, if it is indeed stored there, were also asked by developer Matt Gemmel, in a response to Morin’s comment.

Morin then replied further, saying that the Path team would look into implementing the hashing procedure. He also says that the App Store guidelines do not specifically require a notification to the user, although he does acknowledge that it is the current ‘industry best practice’.

Morin also reiterates that the ‘opt-in’ functionality but says that “We fundamentally believe that you as a user should always have control over your information and data and you can always email our service team and we will remove anything you’d like from our servers.”

To that end, if a user would like the entire account, or just their address book data, deleted, Path is happy to do so if a user contacts it at service@path.com.

We have reached out to Path for comment and clarification and will update this post when they respond.

If you’ve been paying attention to the web lately, or the special lady in your life according to its demographics, you might know that the curation service Pinterest is on fire. The site lets you add interesting things you find on the web to a virtual pinboard to share with your friends.

Trapit on the other hand is a service that launched in November that does the searching for you, based on keywords having to do with your interests. The two services might be a match made in heaven for pinning when paired together.

I spoke with Trapit co-founder & Chief Product Officer Hank Nothhaft today about that very topic, along with how Trapit is doing since its launch. He shared some interesting stats with me, and says the site has had 3M unique users since launch, and those users save 10 searches on average, which the company calls “traps”. The site also signs up an impressive 20k unique users a day.

Today, the service has launched a simple integration with Pinterest with a big payoff for users of both sites.

When you sign up for Trapit, all you have to do is enter a search phrase and the site the will find relevant news and sites on the web that match it. The sources are vetted, so you won’t get a bunch of junk and spam like when you use Google Alerts for a similar reason.

More importantly, you can interact with the things that Trapit finds and just by giving it a thumbs up or down, the service learns a bit more about your tastes and refines future search results you to better suit you.

In the example above, I’ve told Trapit to find stories for me about the Super Bowl, and within seconds, the results start pouring in. I can save that search as a “trap”, and the service will continually find me new things about the subject. You can click on individual stories for reading or sharing, as well as clearing them out of the “Trap”. By doing so, Trapit knows what type of content to focus on for you.

Since Trapit is doing all of the heavy lifting for you by way of searching for new items continually for all of your traps, an integration with Pinterest is absolutely perfect. Consider Trapit as the discovery engine for your pinboards. If you have a pinboard full of things that are orange, simply create a Trap for it and watch the content flow in. Once you find something, you’ll now be able to share it directly on Pinterest.

The reason why Trapit is now focusing on sending content to Pinterest is because the company noticed all of the inbound traffic it was getting from the site. Nothhaft told me that Pinterest easily sends them 5-6 times the traffic that Tumblr or StumbleUpon does. The company also had users asking them for the ability to easily pin content found on its site, so the feature was a no-brainer, plus the founders are already power users of the site.

If you’re a Pinterest Pro like the founders of Trapit and want to find a steady stream of cool things to share on Pinterest, then it’s worth giving the site a try. Even if you’re not a Pinterest user, finding really interesting things is made simple with Trapit, as they have sections of the site dedicated to featured Traps and hot content.

➤ Trapit

A new version of Google Voice has arrived for Android users , bringing an Ice Cream Sandwich styled UI and icon, along with another couple of minor changes. Among those is the addition of asynchronous SMS sending, which allows you to send messages when users are offline, queuing them for later delivery.

There is also an official user feedback menu on each screen. You can grab the update now from the Android Market or download the app directly here. If you’re not seeing the option to update your app on-device, try visiting the Android Market in your computer’s browser and sending it to your device, this should give you the full update.

UK startup Six3 today launches a free service that allows users to send short, private video messages between smartphones and computers. The company is one of the 22 finalists from the latest London Seedcamp, the European seed investment and mentoring program which we’ve written about extensively in the past.

Six3 video messages can be created on iPhones, PCs & Macs, and viewed on other video-capable smartphones and feature phones. It will shortly be rolled out to other mobile platforms, including Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone. But is video-messaging likely to take off in a big way? Maybe.

In the same way as you would send a text message to someone when a full-blown conversation isn’t possible, video-messaging can be good if you want to instantly share a key moment with friends and family.

“Hundreds of millions of people have discovered the power of video communication through video calling services,” says Tim Grimsditch, co-founder & CEO at Six3. “But people want the convenience of being able to create and view messages any time they want. Most video messaging services only allow people to communicate between one brand of smartphone, we want anyone with a video-capable Internet device to join the conversation.”

Six3 messages are optimized to transfer quickly over 3G and even 2.5G connections, with a cloud-based approach meaning that messages and contact lists are  accessible from any compatible device – be it desktop or mobile, and it also supports group conversations.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering about the name, Six3 video messages can be up to sixty three seconds long…though we’re not entirely sure which came first, the name or the seemingly arbitrary message-length restriction.

Six3 was founded in July 2011, and the service was built from the ground up in six months. The company’s CTO, Simon Frost, was previously Technical Architect for the BBC iPlayer, which is Europe’s largest Web TV service, and Grimsditch is the former global head of entertainment product marketing at Nokia.

“From our early testing, we found that families and close friends really enjoy using the service to keep in touch, sharing everyday messages and experiences,” continues Leigh Middleton, one of Six3′s co-founders and the Chief Product Officer. “Our goal was to make the service as accessible as possible – not just for early adopters, but for their grandparents and grandchildren. As a result, we’ve focused on making the service as easy to use, and as inviting as possible.”

We’ve previously written about a similar app called Vimessa, a Y Combinator and Startup Fund-backed service based out of San Francisco, which offers an iOS-only app for users to record and send video messages. So two similar apps in as many months suggests that video-messaging could be the next big craze. Will we all be v-texting each other this time next year? Only time will tell.

Of course, there’s also the likes of iMessage which allows users to send video messages between iPhones, but it doesn’t
permit video messages between Macs and PCs, or other smartphones. Six3 strives to make its service platform agnostic, working on smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, connected TVs and any other device Web-enabled device.

Six3 is available from six3.tv and from the Apple App Store.

➤ Six3

Why Six3 from Six3 on Vimeo.

UK startup Six3 today launches a free service that allows users to send short, private video messages between smartphones and computers. The company is one of the 22 finalists from the latest London Seedcamp, the European seed investment and mentoring program which we’ve written about extensively in the past.

Six3 video messages can be created on iPhones, PCs & Macs, and viewed on other video-capable smartphones and feature phones. It will shortly be rolled out to other mobile platforms, including Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone. But is video-messaging likely to take off in a big way? Maybe.

In the same way as you would send a text message to someone when a full-blown conversation isn’t possible, video-messaging can be good if you want to instantly share a key moment with friends and family.

“Hundreds of millions of people have discovered the power of video communication through video calling services,” says Tim Grimsditch, co-founder & CEO at Six3. “But people want the convenience of being able to create and view messages any time they want. Most video messaging services only allow people to communicate between one brand of smartphone, we want anyone with a video-capable Internet device to join the conversation.”

Six3 messages are optimized to transfer quickly over 3G and even 2.5G connections, with a cloud-based approach meaning that messages and contact lists are  accessible from any compatible device – be it desktop or mobile, and it also supports group conversations.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering about the name, Six3 video messages can be up to sixty three seconds long…though we’re not entirely sure which came first, the name or the seemingly arbitrary message-length restriction.

Six3 was founded in July 2011, and the service was built from the ground up in six months. The company’s CTO, Simon Frost, was previously Technical Architect for the BBC iPlayer, which is Europe’s largest Web TV service, and Grimsditch is the former global head of entertainment product marketing at Nokia.

“From our early testing, we found that families and close friends really enjoy using the service to keep in touch, sharing everyday messages and experiences,” continues Leigh Middleton, one of Six3′s co-founders and the Chief Product Officer. “Our goal was to make the service as accessible as possible – not just for early adopters, but for their grandparents and grandchildren. As a result, we’ve focused on making the service as easy to use, and as inviting as possible.”

We’ve previously written about a similar app called Vimessa, a Y Combinator and Startup Fund-backed service based out of San Francisco, which offers an iOS-only app for users to record and send video messages. So two similar apps in as many months suggests that video-messaging could be the next big craze. Will we all be v-texting each other this time next year? Only time will tell.

Of course, there’s also the likes of iMessage which allows users to send video messages between iPhones, but it doesn’t
permit video messages between Macs and PCs, or other smartphones. Six3 strives to make its service platform agnostic, working on smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, connected TVs and any other device Web-enabled device.

Six3 is available from six3.tv and from the Apple App Store.

➤ Six3

Why Six3 from Six3 on Vimeo.

The launch of Apple’s App Store in 2008 triggered a massive upswing in mobile application sales. Sure, apps had been being sold on a small scale in ecosystems like Palm or Windows Phone, but once the expectation of apps being purchased right on the device was established, the ecosystem took off like a rocket.

Now tech advocacy firm Technet has published a study indicating that 466,000 jobs have been created in the ‘app economy’ since 2008, reports The Loop. The firm says that in 2007, the economy was at zero, which is a bit misleading as there were definitely companies producing apps for mobile phones in ’07. But it can’t be argued that the market is infinitely larger since the App Store hit the scene.

The ‘app economy’ is said to include jobs for programmers, user interface designers, marketers of applications, managers and support staff. The group has also produced a list of the biggest states for app jobs and, unsurprisingly, California takes the top spot with 23.8%. New York follows with 6.9% and Washington, home to Microsoft and many other tech companies, comes in at 6.4%.

The fact that a business worth billions has spring up around the market for applications on mobile devices in just under 5 years is seen by TechNet’s CEO Rey Ramsey as a demonstration of America’s ability to create economic value through innovation. “Today, the App Economy is creating jobs in every part of America,” says Ramsey, “employing hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers today and even more in the years to come.”

Included in the full report‘s statistics are individual companies like Zynga, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, as well as platforms including Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Facebook API and Windows Phone.

You know them, maybe you’re even one of them. They’re the scumbag lowlifes of the Internet. They are the trolls. Typically hiding behind a mask of supposed anonymity, those who practice Internet harassment are often seen as the neckbeard basement-dwellers of the world. But maybe they’re every bit as scummy in person.

The BBC went on a manhunt, of sorts, for a recent episode of Panorama. The full show is well worth a watch, but this one section certainly stood out above the rest. BBC’s Declan Lawn did some investigative work and got face to face with racist, bigoted hate monger Nimrod Severen. To the rest of the world, he’s known as Darren Burton.

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What’s probably most interesting is that Burton brings about a hard point to argue, that “Facebook is an open forum”. Not that it gives any excuse to simply be rude for the point of being rude, but he also states that he doesn’t care about the consequences because the only conviction that’s been upheld sentenced someone for 18 weeks in jail, of which they only served 9.

If you’re in the UK, please do catch the entire episode. For those of us in the rest of the world…we’re a bit out of luck.