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Wired [Winnipeg Free Press (Canada)](Winnipeg Free Press (Canada) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) David Bell (@thedavidbell) is a young entrepreneur in Winnipeg. He specializes in emerging technology and online aspects of business, including web and social media consulting. Access his company online at iBXMediaGroup.ca . He is an active member of the YouTube community (http://www.ibellix.com), with more than two million views and 5,000 subscribers. He was also a Dragons' Den contestant. Email: [email protected] Facebook releases Instagram clone A month or so after Facebook bought Instagram, the mobile photo app for $1 billion, Facebook released an Instagram clone for iPhone. The application is called Facebook Camera. The application allows you to post photos, edit them, apply filters and then upload them to Facebook; much like Instagram, less uploading to Facebook directly. Within the Facebook Camera app, you can scroll through your friends' Facebook photos and comment or like them. Unlike the primary Facebook app for iPhone or iPod Touch, you cannot view statuses, groups, or events -- Facebook Camera is only for uploading and viewing your friends' photos. The camera app has 15 filters you can choose to apply to your photos. Strangely, the Instagram team designed none of the filters. According to the New York Times, Facebook has been in the process of developing this application for months now, even before they acquired Instagram. Facebook Camera is now the third mobile application Facebook offers. The first and most renowned is of course, Facebook and the second is Pages (which I wrote about last week). In my opinion, Facebook having three applications is a great idea. Facebook offers too many features to be included into one application. Apparently, more applications will be coming in the near future. At an investors' meeting, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said "mobile is our No. 1 priority." First official Google Glasses video As I've written in the past, Google is going to be coming out with a pair of techno glasses. They are very futuristic and sci-fi-looking. The product is called Project Glass. They are only a concept right now, but Google explains them as an augmented-reality experience that will take you into web frenzy. If you're like me and don't have a clue what augmented reality is, here's a brief explanation from Wikipedia. "Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one's current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one." Sounds crazy, eh? I'm an ultra-geek, so I think this product will be really cool -- but would you wear these glasses out in public? Hit me up on Twitter giving me your opinion @thedavidbell. Here is the link to the first ever Google Glasses video: bit.ly/LkTe13 Smartphones are taking over our lives Nowadays, every single person, give or take, owns a smartphone. It's a really handy device that allows you to basically do anything. You can play games, email, chat, text, update, tweet, surf the web and much more. Even just thinking about how much time I spend on my iPhone each day is scary. The people over at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a number of graphs that document the nine key technology items instituted since 1876. The graphs shows us the traction they have gained over those years. So how did smartphones do on the graph? Quite well. Mint Aaron Patzer, a graduate from Princeton with a degree in computer science and engineering, had a very hard time managing his finances. Essentially, he couldn't figure out how to budget his money well and keep track of investments and debts. You'd think with a degree from Princeton you might be able to figure out your finances. Aaron figured there must be other people facing the same problems he was. So what does every smart computer-savvy college grad do to solve their problems? Well, Aaron sat in a room seven days a week for seven months and developed a user-friendly personal-finance application called Mint with a desktop version to begin with. It got a lot of traction and was used by hundreds of thousands of users. Two years after he launched the application his company was bought for $177 million. Mint now offers an app for iPhone and iPad. I dove into the Mint application suite just to experience it for myself... it's fantastic. So if you have problems with your finances, go check out Mint, it just might help. (c) 2012 F.P. Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] |