Facebook has today made a new version of its app for Windows Phone available, which will give users the opportunity to test new features before they hit the main app.
The social network and Microsoft are inviting users to join its Beta program for the new application, which brings several of the features most requested by users, in an unrefined form.
The Beta app brings high-res photos, the Facebook Timeline profile pages, giving the app an appearance more like the Android and iOS iterations rather than the 'Metro' UI associated with Windows Phone.
The pair hope that users will send bug reports and feedback to enable the new features to graduate to the main Facebook for Windows Phone app in a more timely fashion.
Energetic volunteer? You're up
In a post on the official Windows Phone blog, Microsoft wrote: "Today we're launching a new program designed to help speed up delivery of new features in the official Facebook app for Windows Phone and need sharp-eyed, energetic volunteers to download a beta version of our next release and tell us how to make it better."
However, the company warned: "Don't like it when apps crash? This probably isn't the program for you."
The good thing for Windows Phone users is that the existing app and the Beta app will sit alongside each other, so if users get too annoyed by the crashes, they can revert back to the main app.
The Beta app is not listed on the Windows Phone store (Microsoft reckons it'd cause confusion and it is probably right), but Windows Phone users can download the app by clicking this link.
Find the perfect techy Mother's Day gift for any mom
Mother's Day is the the time to show your mom how grateful you are that she's put up with all your crap for so long, but it's not easy to find a good Mother's Day gift.
Everyone's mom is different, and while some might be satisfied with a card and brunch, others will want more. After all, she carried you for nine whole months - the least you can do it spend a couple hundred bucks on a thoughtful gift.
And while some moms are tech-savvy, some may have no clue. But that doesn't mean that you can't make her day with the right gadget. You've just got to discover the perfect Mother's Day tech for her.
No matter what tech your mom is already into, there's bound to be a technologically advanced Mother's Day gift here that she'll appreciate. And even if she doesn't, at least it's the thought that counts with mothers.
1. Fitbit Flex wristband and Aria smart scale
Get it at:Fitbit.com (scale US$129.99) Fitbit.com/uk (scale UK£99.99) (wristband coming soon)
Taglines: "Outsmart your weight with Aria" / "Never stop moving with Fitbit Flex"
If your mom doesn't already have a Nike FuelBand, you might want to clue her in to this fitness gift combo from Fitbit. The scale will track her weight, body fat, and BMI, all the while connecting to her computer via Wi-Fi and uploading her stats and progress.
Whether your mom's obsessed with fitness or she's been struggling to get into it, the Aria smart scale could be a great Mother Day tech gift.
Your mom can get fit with this combo
And the Flex wristband, much like the popular Nike FuelBand, is much more than a pedometer that will count your mom's footsteps. In addition to steps taken, it tracks calories burned, distance traveled, active minutes, and - get this - both hours slept and quality of sleep. It even acts as a silent alarm clock so she won't wake up your dad when she gets up early to go running. And naturally the two gadgets will work together.
Unfortunately, the Flex isn't out yet, though Fitbit is currently promising a Spring 2013 release date that should arrive any day.
Tagline: "Whether home or away BabyPing keeps you connected to your baby"
New moms have always relied on baby monitors in this modern age, but the technology has come a long way. Static-filled walkie-talkies are a thing of the past, and now it's all about the video.
There are plenty of different choices when it comes to video baby monitors, but the BabyPing is one of the best - and more importantly, it's one of the easiest to set up, so even non-techy moms should be able to get into it.
The camera streams live to tablets and other gadgets
It's full of features, too, including night vision, audio filtering to keep background hiss down, two-way audio, built-in nursery rhymes, and Wi-Fi connectivity to PCs and iOS devices (no Android, unfortunately, though there are plenty of alternative baby monitors for non-iOS-using moms).
Plenty of moms out there already have an e-reader, but there are plenty more who probably don't yet know what they've been missing.
There are several reasons a Kindle Paperwhite will make a perfect Mother's Day tech gift: it's affordable and it's easy on the eyes, and since it's the newest Kindle model, your mom will be able to brag to all her friends about it.
Your mom is missing out if she doesn't have an a-reader
The best part? You won't have to look at all the trashy romance novels she has lying around anymore, since they'll all be digital.
Moms have it hard. Whether their kids are 2, 12 or 40, it seems their job never ends. The shower may be one of the only places your mom gets to relax. And with the Moxie showerhead and built-in bluetooth speaker, she can do it while listening to her favorite Celine Dion or Phil Collins songs.
The showerhead speaker connects to a smartphone or other bluetooth device at up to 32 feet, and one of the best parts is that the speaker isn't limited to the shower - it detaches and can travel with your mom all over the house or wherever she wants to go, with seven hours of battery life.
The speaker detaches for portable bluetooth listening
An alternative for moms who appreciate some ambiance but don't care as much about music is an LED showerhead that can simulate rainfall while projecting various soothing colors. Browse LightintheBox.com and take your pick.
The Slingbox is a great Mother's Day tech gift - whether your mom is down with all the memes or still thinks that her browser is called "Google," she'll appreciate the ability to take her episodes of soap operas and The View with her on the go.
The latest models are the Slingbox 350 and the Slingbox 500, and although the 500 comes with some extra features, let's be honest - your mom probably isn't going to use them anyway. You might as well go with the cheaper version (we won't tell).
She'll love a Slingbox if she can get past the shape
Plus, your dad will likely show some appreciation for this one as well.
Parrot's Flower Power is a device the likes of which we've never seen before, and it's sure to tickle your mom's green thumb - or better yet, lack thereof - on Mother's Day.
It's a plant sensor that sits in the soil of a planter or pot, monitoring sunlight, moisture, temperature, and fertilizer, then sending the data wirelessly via bluetooth to your mother's gadgets. It will even remind her when to water them.
Ding ding - time to water the bougainvilleas!
It was only introduced at CES this year, so unfortunately it's not on the market yet, but a 2013 release is promised and you can sign up to be notified at parrot.com. Maybe it will make a good birthday present, or you can remember it for next year's Mother's Day.
This one's for the working moms, though even the retirees and stay-at-homes out there could no doubt find some use for it. LogMeIn is a subscription service that will allow her to access her home PC from anywhere.
Moms at soccer practice or dance recitals won't have to duck out to email their bosses that important file, and when she's with her friends she'll be able to pull up all those cute baby pictures and home videos without having to worry about what's synced with her tablet or phone.
She'll love accessing home files from a tablet
Trying to juggle files between multiple devices can be a hassle even for the tech-savvy, so your mom will definitely appreciate not having to do it.
Getting her a year's subscription to LogMeIn Pro will ensure that she remembers what a good son or daughter you are all year long. But no matter what kind of Mother's Day gadgets you get her, don't forget the flowers, too.
Siri Eyes-Free integration could be just the beginning (credit: YouTube)
Now that automobiles are finally rolling off the assembly line with Siri's "Eyes-Free" technology introduced with iOS 6, Apple may be eyeing even deeper integration for the next version of its mobile software.
9to5Mac reported Tuesday that Apple is working on new ways to integrate iOS devices into the automobile, an initiative that could be unveiled when Cupertino rolls out the latest iOS 7 later this year.
According to numerous sources, Apple is working with automakers to "deeply embed" services like Maps, which could provide turn-by-turn navigation on a car's built-in display in place of proprietary GPS software installed at the factory.
The feature is said to be controlled by Siri, the voice assistant technology currently powering Apple's "Eyes-Free" auto integration with partners such as Chevrolet, BMW, Toyota, Honda and Land Rover.
Patent clues
This isn't the first time Apple has been rumored to jump into the driver's seat, with a June 2007 report claiming the company was hard at work on an in-car satellite navigation only days before the original iPhone hit the streets.
The company has also left a sizable trail of auto-related bread crumbs in its wake thanks to the patent filings required to protect future technologies the company might incorporate into its products.
Only last week, reports surfaced that Apple filed a pair of auto-related patents for smart key and parking locator functionality, while earlier today a patent for automatically selecting the best number to call in case of an emergency was revealed.
While Apple's own Maps and Siri integration may be ready for iOS 7, sources caution that there's no guarantee the features will actually be released this year, since they require extensive testing as well as agreements with automakers in place.
Apple has won a new patent for a phone which can intelligently detect the best means of contacting someone.
Confused? Let us explain. The iPhone would use features such as the GPS and accelerometer to work out where you are and what you're doing, and then react accordingly when someone tries to contact you.
For example, you're driving in your car when a call comes in. The GPS will detect that you're moving at a high speed and send a message back to the person contacting you to let them know that a text message would probably be a better option.
Sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that
You would also be able to set certain rules such as "No phone at the cinema" to make sure you won't be known as "that person" when someone tries to drop you a line mid-movie.
It's potentially a pretty useful feature. Perhaps Apple will even get Siri involved, turning it into the all-out personal assistant it wants to be. Who knows?
But with Google Now available for iPhone and iPad as of this week, Apple will no doubt be wanting to push its own services to offer as much user convenience as possible.
Apple's patent was actually first filed back in 2008. If Cupertino has been working on the technology since, it could be sooner rather than later that the functionality appears in the iPhone - if it ever appears at all.
Can Mozilla rival the might of iOS and Android with its love of HTML5?
"It cannot be right that two companies lock down and control their experience … it's the equivalent of two companies controlling every service you use on the internet." So says Dan Appelquist, Open Web Advocate at Telefónica Digital, which intends to pull the rug from under Apple and Android by selling smartphones with the 'open web' architecture of Mozilla's Firefox OS.
The first handsets like the ZTE Open, go on sale this June, will attempt to popularise common, open standards for apps that make them transferable across different handsets and tablets. In doing so it will try to take apart the acceptance of the 'walled garden' app ecosystem popularised by both Apple's iOS and the Android OS.
"Firefox OS is not a proprietary platform, it is fully standards-based and built on HTML5," says Andreas Gal, Vice President, Mobile Engineering, Mozilla. "What's more, Firefox OS is not a new ecosystem - it is the Web and the Web is the largest existing ecosystem we have today."
Gal thinks that under the present splintered, closed regimes, app developers have it too hard. "Having to build an app in multiple formats - all to reach people who have never asked for the specific app I am thinking of building - is not sustainable," he says, adding that Mozilla hopes Firefox OS will act as a catalyst for the 'open web'. "Over eight million developers develop in HTML5 today compared to around 100,000 iOS developers and 400,000 Android, but ten million for HTML5," he says. "We just want to unlock the power of HTML5 for standards-based work."
The not-for-profit Mozilla's intentions might be good, but the closed ecosystem for apps, popularised by Apple's app store (20 billion+ downloads in 2012) and Google Play (revenue up six-fold in 2012) on Android, is proving very popular.
"Right now, the mobile world is busy because there is so much economic value to be gained by owning a platform," says Gal. "The problem with mobile for users today is that once a user buys apps, music etc. on a given platform, they are not currently transportable to another ecosystem."
Rather than creating a competing platform, Firefox OS uses the web as the platform to build apps powered by open Web standards like HTML5, CSS, and Javascript and new Web APIs that enable Web apps to access functions of the handset previously only available to native apps - such as camera, telephony, messaging and Bluetooth.
Aiming low
However much of a 'level playing field' Firefox OS seeks to create, it's not owners of iPhones and Galaxy S-somethings in the UK, Europe or the USA that Mozilla is aiming Firefox OS at, at least not initially. Smartphone penetration stands at just 16% in Latin America (it's over 50% in the UK, and will nudge saturation levels shortly), which makes it an ideal proving ground for a new and untested operating system.
"In the coming years, lower-cost Android smartphones are expected to dominate the markets in emerging areas such India, China and Africa," says Kevin Curran, senior member at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). "Launching a new smartphone OS is not to be taken lightly, but Mozilla's main partner is Spain's Telefónica, which has over 200 million mobile subscribers in Latin America."
Firefox OS will see the light of day this June in Venezuela, Poland, Brazil, Portugal and Spain, with the first handsets including the Alcatel One Touch Fire and the ZTE Open. Telefónica has strong links with major carriers around the world including América Móvil, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Sprint, Telecom Italia and SingTel, and it also has mobile phone chip-maker Qualcomm on-board.
"These partners certainly add hope to the ambitious project," says Curran. "It seems they aim to sell it in the pre-paid phone markets, where lower-income people generally get their airtime."
This is a market where low income users prefer to pay only their operator for both air-time and apps rather than pay a third-party like Apple or Google. It's also a market where inexpensive Android devices currently dominate.
"This market is not being well addressed by current offerings," says Appelquist about Latin America. "High-end smartphones are priced out of the reach of the vast majority of consumers and we see low end Android devices offering a very poor experience."
However, for now, at least, most of the lower-end devices are - and will remain to be - based on Android. "It is standards-based and open source, so of course it will be the OS of choice for manufacturers of lower priced handsets," says Mohammed Hussain, MD of mobile phone accessories retailer, Mobile Fun, "but it will be interesting to see if Mozilla's Firefox OS gains traction in the budget smartphone sector." He expects Samsung's Tizen and Nokia's budget Windows devices to try to crack this sector, too, particularly in emerging markets.
Others are not convinced that Firefox OS can carve-out success despite its open-hearted intentions. "While I love the idea of the Firefox Phone OS, and a Firefox media based system on TV," says Peter Chadha, Founder of DrPete, "at the moment I am not convinced that these will gain market penetration, unless it is funded by Google or Yahoo on the basis of search and adverts, as Android is already free. Perhaps Firefox is hoping that by offering this operating system, open source developers will want to come on board and deliver something really different and innovative?"
That would please those who want to see an end to the 'walled garden' approach to the mobile web, such as World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, though the success of Firefox OS is far from inevitable.
