Instagram Can Take Video Too

Instagram, the wildly popular photo-sharing app that was bought by Facebook last year for a cool billion dollars, just announced that it now supports videos.

They're pretty cleanly integrated into your feed; they won't autoplay as you scroll, instead showing just as a thumbnail with a small icon of an old-timey movin' picture camera in the top-right corner to indicate that these are videos rather than stills. Tap the image to start playing. Easy!

Videos can be up to 15 seconds long (or as short as 3 seconds), and you can stop and resume recordings while shooting, so you don't have to take a single continuous shot like you do with Snapchat. All the usual Instagram filters can be applied, and the videos include audio as well. It's available right now as an update for the iOS app, with Android soon to come.

So, the obvious question: isn't this just, um, a carbon copy of Vine, the video app launched by Twitter earlier this year? Ha ha ha welllllll yes, it is pretty much exactly the same, except Instagram is an app used by 130 million people a month, and Vine has maybe a tenth that many. And Vine has had trouble; apparently a stream of videos isn't the easiest thing to grapple with, and Vine is often buggy or slow to load. Instagram videos could be almost three times as long as Vine videos--how is Instagram going to deal with that? "We have to figure this out," Instagram's CEO told.

10 Simple Way To Extend iPhone Battery Life

Me and my friend use iPhone and we knows that the iPhone's battery life isn't great. In fact, many users can't make it through a full day without having to plug in at some point. There are a few simple ways to stretch your battery life and make it further on a single charge.

While you may have already heard some of these tips, it's always good to get a refresher.

1. Turn off auto brightness and turn down screen brightness. Screen brightness is the biggest battery drain culprit. If you want to get more time in unplugged, turn the brightness down as low as you can stand. To adjust screen brightness head to Settings --> Brightness --> Wallpaper and adjust accordingly.
2. Turn off your Equalizer. The Equalizer lets you tweak sound output from the music app, but it also drains battery. To switch this off head to Settings --> Music --> EQ.
3. Fetch data less frequently. Instead of having your phone push you new emails every 15 minutes, set it to "manually" or "hourly." This will stop your phone from looking for emails so much, which can drain the battery.
4. Close out apps in the multitasking tray. Apple's iPhone software does a good job at managing the power of apps running in the background so they don't use up a lot of power. But if you're desperate, you may be able to squeeze a small amount of time from your battery by closing all your apps. Double tap the home button, then press and hold any one icon and they will begin to shake. Now tap the red minus in the top right corner of each app until all of them disappear.
5. Turn off Push Notifications. Chances are you have a email account or other app set up on your phone that pushes an alert each time you receive a new message. Turning off the push notifications temporarily will definitely save some battery life. To adjust this head to Settings --> Mail, Contacts, and Calendars --> Fetch New Data and turn off fetching for email. Other notifications can be adjusted in Settings --> Notifications.
6. Turn off LTE/3G whenever you don't need it . If you have an iPhone 5, you have a fast Internet connection called LTE. Unfortunately, it can be a huge battery drain. If you're on an older model iPhone you should be able to turn off 3G when you don't need it or are low on power. To adjust head to Settings --> General --> Cellular and switch them off.
7. Turn off Wi-Fi. If you're not near a wireless network, it's not necessary for your phone to continually search for these networks. Turn it off until you're near somewhere where you want to connect. Also turn off the "Ask to Join Network" option, this will drain battery too. To adjust head to Settings --> Wi-Fi.
8. Turn off Bluetooth. If you're not using it, don't keep it on. Head to Settings --> Bluetooth.
9. Turn off Location Services. A lot of people use their phone as a GPS, but if you don't need directions, turn off location services. It's one of the biggest drains on your phone's battery. You can adjust individual apps that use location if you absolutely need to have this feature on. To fix this head to Settings --> Privacy --> Location Services.
10. Get a Mophie Juicepack. If you don't want to sacrifice any of your iPhone's features, the Mophie Juicepack will double you battery life and save you in a pinch.

@ Global Info Center

iOS versus Android: The Battle Begins

In the aftermath of the release of the Samsung Galaxy S4 last week, and Apple’s marketing backlash, the iOS vs Android arms race has hit a milestone. Android is growing faster than ever, in terms of both their market share and the revenue they pay out to app marketers. Apple’s marketing has taken on a decidedly ‘attacking’ tone. ‘There’s iPhone. And then there’s everything else’ is clearly mirroring the phrase, ‘Here’s the best, forget the rest’. It’s about time, for an infographic on the iOS vs Android feud as it stands now. Which is the best platform for app marketers? Let’s consider some factors, or scroll down to view the infographic right away.

Smartphone and tablet market share

Some contests seem to have been won by Android categorically. Last month, the worldwide smartphone market share figures stood at 69.2% (Android) and 22.1% (iOS). These current figures are actually more in Apple’s favor than the October figures (75% and 15%), due to the release of the iPhone 5. But now the S4 is here, it’s likely we’re going to see the gap widen again.

On other counts though, iOS is the reigning champion. While Android also takes the lead in terms of tablet market share and smartphone app downloads, albeit with smaller margins, iOS is far, far ahead in terms of tablet app downloads; which must be due to the fact that there are over 275,000 optimized for the full-size iPad and iPad mini.

iOS vs Android app revenue and monetization

It is also a widely known and inescapable fact that, on the whole, iOS apps monetize much better than Android apps. The type of user that iOS attracts (and nurtures) are high earning and very engaged users. But that’s not to say the situation isn’t changing for Android.

While iOS pays out four times as much revenue to app marketers than Android, app revenue growth is growing five times more rapidly on Android. But will it stay this way so that Android can catch up and even overtake iOS? This remains to be seen, as we watch the battle of the platforms progress.

The life of the app marketer

In terms of the day-to-day of marketing apps on the respective platforms, iOS is a less fragmented platform with higher app marketing costs but greater profits for advertisers. It is also much easier and more predictable to carry out iOS App Store ranking boost campaigns due to the ranking algorithm being more heavily weighted on download volumes than an intransparent selection of factors. On Android, we see a more complex and fragmented reality for app marketers.

The following infographic to compare iOS and Android in terms of market share, user demographic and app marketing.

There’s a myriad of points on which you can compare the two platforms, and on reflection I think the conclusion must be this: both are winners in their own ways. Highly democratic I know, but that is how it is. Final words: Compare everything and identify and support the platform that’s right for your app.

What are your thoughts on current status quo of the arms race between iOS and Android?