BBM update brings stickers, larger attachments and group photo sharing

Kamran Farooqui 2014-04-02T12:16:51Z1 day ago

Kamran Farooqui

Curious by nature and a big techie at heart, Kamran is a big Android enthusiast, absolutely loves his Nexus 4 and believes that there is a special place in hell for people who prefer skinned Android over stock. When not vegetating, you will probably find him either struggling with his university essays or playing football or Call of Duty.

Blackberry has announced today the latest version of BBM which finally puts BBM on par with other popular messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Viber. The BBM update brings with itself support for larger file attachments, picture sharing in group chats and the introduction of free and paid stickers.

The sticker packs would be available in a variety of different shapes, sizes and themes, and would be available as both free and paid packs from the BBM shop which is integrated in the app. In addition to stickers, BBM now supports files up to 16 MB (Up from 10 MB) and users can now share photos in group chats as well.

Even though Blackberry might be struggling to compete in the smartphone market against the likes of Apple and Samsung, its BBM platform is still pretty popular and is growing at a healthy rate, and actually has a higher engagement level in major European markets than similar popular messaging apps such as Tango and LINE.

Blackberry has said that the latest version of BBM should be rolling out today for Blackberry 10, iOS and Android, so you can download it for free from your device’s respective App Store. The correct version for Android is BBM 2.1 so look out for that on Google Play.

So what do you think about the latest update to BBM? Personally, I never really understood the charm of purchasing a bunch of stickers when emojis more or less does the job for me, so perhaps a kind reader could explain to me the rationale behind it that has so far eluded me. I’d rather save that money to buy some gems for Clash of Clans. At least it’s FUN.

Via: TechCrunch

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How Not To Piss People Off in a Group Text Message

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It's a shame you can't unsubscribe from group texts. This week I was one of the recipients of a never-ending text bacchanal with a bunch of people I didn't know. But it wasn't fun or consensual. It was just a good reminder that we need to talk about text etiquette.

It would be a helluva lot easier to just say "stop texting me, oh please for the love of god stop texting me," and for that to actually... work. But like it or not, texting—and group texting especially—are facts of life. And as with most facts of life, they come with some unspoken rules that, for some, need to be spoken into reality.

I have one friend in particular who is an especially severe offender. We'll call her Carmen. I love Carmen, and she is a dear friend, but Carmen has a tendency to fire off group texts of links or photos or something to like, nine people at once. It's not the what's inside the text that's offensive—it's the act of gangbang texting that is at fault.

The worst part of these chains of smartphone-based terrorism is that there's generally not any organizing principle at play other than "people the sender knows." You know how annoying it is to get replies from numbers you don't recognize you don't know? Try five in a row. It's the rebirth of the chain email, a format that blessedly died off (for the most part) years ago.

Group texts also never improve with age. After the initial missive is lobbed off, the near-strangers start responding. A third of the people on the thread might think said image macro or link is funny, and they respond as such. A third might think it's dumb as hell and that group texting is harassment, and they respond as such. And the last third sits in excruciating silence, hoping they'll stop being held captive by textual assault in this lifetime. It's like being at a party that you didn't want to go to and didn't RSVP to, but suddenly you awoke from a fog right next to the punch bowl anyway.

As a last resort, you can block numbers. But that isn't exactly the answer. Most of the time when you're being text molested, the perpetrator is someone you know. So you have to tread lightly.

So how do you proceed? As with life, you are probably not going to change someone else's behavior. That's fine, it's how the world works, life isn't fair, etc. etc. But you can abide by some rules yourself, and hope that the laws of Karma bring back good things to your life.

A Few Rules For Group Texts

1) If you're sending out a group text, the people in the text should all know each other. The only exception to this rule is if you're sending out a reminder to an event or a party. In that case it's perfectly fine to send out a blast, because you've minimized the chances that people will write back.

2) It's okay to ask people to cool it. Unless they're assholes, which they very well may be, they should respect your request. I have a group thread with two old college roommates, and when I went to CES back in January, I asked them if we could mute things until I came back. They were totally fine with it. When I returned back to from the brink and reentered functioning society, I came back to our texts.

3) Conversely, you should respect a request to STFU. Unless you're a dick!

In short, group texts aren't evil, but they can be annoying as hell. But we can get through it with a little common courtesy.

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AirSnap Helps You Take Beautiful Group Selfies By Pairing Two iOS Devices

How many times have you stepped out of the group to click pictures, feeling left out as others posed? Or have there been instances when you’re jostling to get back for a group picture after setting the timer of a camera shutter? While there is Samsung NX Mini, which comes with an LCD screen that flips 180 degrees for taking selfies, it still requires users to make adjustments in the frame. Ditto for camera-fitted mobile phones that need a lot of work in getting that perfect selfie.

Group selfies are mainstream now, and that’s despite all the theories linking selfies with head lice. As TechCrunch’s Jordon Crook wrote last month, selfies aren’t a passing trend.

GlobalDelight, an iOS app developer based in the Indian coastal town of Udupi, is today going live with an upgrade of its Camera Plus app, loaded with a new feature called AirSnap that helps users capture photos and videos remotely by pairing two iOS 7 devices  (using Bluetooth or wi-fi) like iPhones, iPads or iPod Touches. Both the iOS 7 devices need to be loaded with Camera Plus app, which converts one of the devices into a remote trigger and the other one for capturing images, videos.

I am not a big selfie fan, but while trying out the app it became clear that AirSnap allows much more than just clicking selfies. I paired my iPad with iPhone and used one of them to capture emotions of my 3-year old daughter opening a gift-wrapped doll some 20 feet away. I connected the two devices through Bluetooth, which assigned iPad as the device for capturing images and converted my iPhone 5 into a remote shutter.

AirSnap allows users to control flash, switch between camera modes, see instant previews on the trigger device and select front and rear cameras. All these features make it so much easier to manage group photos where no one wants to be left out.

“We’re also looking into ways of saving those captures to the trigger device and/or to all the other members who are part of the capture,” said Robosoft founder Rohith Bhat. 

Among features I liked while playing around with the app was the customized experience it offered for different iOS devices. For instance, AirSnap has a customized floating capture bar for Camera Plus on the iPad so that users don’t end up straining their fingers while reaching for the capture button.

There are some standard features too that help enhance the quality of images and videos. Pix’d is a feature for instance that fixes color, skin tones.

As part of the new release, Camera Plus 3.5 has also been upgraded with several cool features. A “Soft Flash” for iPads helps brighten images along with a 720p video capture option. AirDrop sharing and the ability to pause and resume video recording on-the-go are among other cool additions.

The app allows standard social sharing across Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, iMessage, AirDrop, and helps Instagram users to fit entire images into the square format before uploading them.

The latest release of Camera Plus also makes it easier to focus and hunt down that perfect shot. Along with “Lumy”, a slider feature on the screen that analyses prevailing light conditions and adjusts brightness accordingly, the photos should get clearer too.

Apple has recently been granted patent for a wireless iPhone camera remote control, underscoring how the company is moving into the wearable computing era. AirSnap kind of follows that trail too.

“Apple seems to be bracing itself for the introduction of wearables era. It looks like an external device that can control and trigger photos and videos remotely. We just hope they open up their API’s so that Camera Plus can leverage it,” said Guruprasad Kamath of GlobalDelight. AirSnap marks an evolution for the most popular app developed to date by GlobalDelight – Camera Plus. The app has seen close to 25 million downloads and has nearly 9 million active users.

Some of the past features such as the option of storing images and videos in a password-protected “Locked Roll” have been retained, but it comes at an extra cost through in-app upgrade.

GlobalDelight might not be as well known in India as the country’s biggest technology companies such as Infosys and Wipro, but it’s not an alien in the Apple app store. Over six years since it was first established as a subsidiary of Robosoft Technologies, GlobalDelight has launched several apps  such as Game Your Video (3.5 million downloads) and Camera Plus, which has seen close to 25 million downloads to date.

“Going beyond the intuitiveness and beauty of the app, we’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for the user. We’ve brought out simple ways to adjust the exposure and brightness (Lumy) as well as an easy way to take care of image enhancement (Pix’d),” added Rohith.

Robosoft/GlobalDelight is inspiring a whole new breed of entrepreneurs from small towns in India to build software products. Based in Udupi, which is more famous for its temples and local cuisine, a team of 35 engineers have been cooking apps at GlobalDelight since 2008, totaling over 35 million downloads on the Apple App Store to date.

Camera Plus with AirSnap will be available for download starting today on the iTunes App Store for $0.99. If you’re an existing Camera Plus user, the upgrade with AirSnap comes free.