Facebook 10.0 Update brings post previews, offline posts and faster News feed

Facebook has released a major update for its iOS app.

Facebook 10.0 update includes new features such as the ability to preview posts and the ability to create posts in offline mode. The update also includes improvements to make News feed load faster.

The preview feature will allow you to review what your post will look like before publishing it.

The offline posts feature will allow you to create posts even when you have poor connectivity or in Airplane mode.

TechCrunch also reports that Facebook is testing a new Facebook Now feature, which will bring the real-time, contextual content suggestions in the feed to mobile apps. The feature will display contextual information in the form of cards.

Now Facebook is bringing context to mobile, and applying it to the most central parts of its graph: people and photos. The cards test is rolling out to a small subset of users, and uses color-coded styles with green for content, red for places, yellow for photos, and blue for birthdays.

Facebook tells me “These cards can help you discover information about where you are or what to do next, or inspire conversations with your friends around you.  This feature respects all existing privacy settings, and the card will only show you information that you could already see elsewhere on Facebook. We wanted to make it easier for you to interact with your friends about the things you’re doing and the places you are visiting.”

Here’s how the cards will look like:

Facebook is currently rolling out the feature to a small subset of users, so you may not see it immediately. Facebook also hasn’t mentioned by when it plans to roll out the feature to all users.

Here’s the complete change log of Facebook 10.0:

• Review what your post will look like and choose whether to remove any suggested links before sharing what you’re reading, watching or listening to






• Create posts even when your connection is weak or you’re in airplane mode, and they’ll be shared once your connection gets strong enough






• Improvements to make News Feed load faster, especially on older phones and tablets

You can download the update for free using this direct iTunes link if the Facebook app did not get updated automatically.

Let me know what you think of the new features in Facebook 10.0, and the upcoming Facebook Now feature.

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iPhone 6 mockup with 5.5-inch screen compared to iPhone 5s

We saw images of a physical mockup of the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 last month, and new images posted on Rocket News 24 compare the mockup to the 4-inch iPhone, giving an idea of how big the larger model would actually be relative to the iPhone 5s.

We’ve seen several such images comparing mockups of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 model, but this is the first time we’re seeing images of the 5.5-inch iPhone being compared to the current 4-inch iPhone 5s. 3D models for the two rumored iPhone 6 variants are available since quite some time, so we’re surprised that it took this long for 5.5-inch iPhone 6 comparisons to surface.

The comparison images show the huge difference in size of the 5.5 inch screen and the 4 inch screen. At 157 mm in height, and 77 mm in width, the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 is significantly taller and wider than the iPhone 5s, but is much thinner at 6.7 mm versus iPhone 5s’ 7.6 mm thickness.

The other design characteristics of the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 mockup bear resemblance to the 4.7-inch mockup, with rounded edges, pill-shaped volume buttons, and the repositioned power button.

Apple is widely rumored to release two different sized iPhone 6 variants this year, with the 4.7-inch model due for release in September, while the larger 5.5-inch variant being delayed due to yield issues. iPhone 6 is expected to include Apple’s new A8 processor, Touch ID fingerprint sensor, and an improved 8-megapixel camera. The iPhone 6 will also come pre-installed with iOS 8, which may include new apps such as Healthbook, TextEdit and Preview, improved Maps, inter-app communication capabilities and more.

[Rocket News via MacRumors]

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Here’s How Apple can transition to a ‘3x’ iPhone 6 with 1704×960 Resolution Display

A report from earlier today claims that the iPhone 6 will feature a 1704×960 resolution display with a much higher pixel density. The 1704×960 display resolution is thrice the base resolution (568 x 320 pixels), and the transition to a 3x screen resolution from the current 2x Retina displays would be quite smooth.

Just like the non-Retina to Retina transition, the 2x to 3x transition would involve a proportional scaling up of image assets in unoptimised apps, and would require developers to issue updates to their apps to supply @3x image assets as well.

A MacRumors forum poster visually explained that scaling up 2x image assets for the 3x iPhone 6 display would look much better than what 1x assets scaled up to 2x looked like.

From the forums:

Keep in mind however that unlike with the @1x -> @2x transition we had in 2010, this time we’d only have a 50% enlargement rather than 100%. 

The thing is, a 50% enlargement with interpolation doesn’t look worse than a 100% enlargement with pixel-doubling, despite the loss of details due to the interpolation. [...] 

As you can see, older non-@3x-optimized apps would actually look better on an @3x iPhone than non-@2x-opitmized apps did on an @2x iPhone. Add to this the fact that the screen’s pixel density would be higher this time around, and the perceived image quality difference would be even smaller.

iOS 8 will presumably automatically handle optimising system-drawn elements like text, vector icons, etc., for the higher-resolution screen, so that it looks sharp and crisp. This optimising will be done without developers having to update their apps.

9to5Mac notes:

Sources say that core user interface elements, from iOS functions like the Home screen, Notification Center, and Settings panels, will simply appear like larger versions of those functions on the current iPhone display. However, sources also say it is likely that developers and Apple itself will be able to optimize some applications to better utilize the larger screen area. It is possible Apple could revamp the Home screen and other functions between now and this fall’s launch.

To see how the existing iPhone interface would scale up, 9to5Mac tweaked the iOS Simulator to run at 3x mode.

Here’s how the home screen would look on the higher resolution iPhone 6 display. As you can see, the number of apps in the home screen grid remains the same, but their size increases.

Similarly, here’s how the Notification Center would look on the larger screen. Since the interface is mostly text, Apple would need to make very few tweaks to get Notification Center ready for the iPhone 6:

The Calendar app on the other hand makes use of image assets for search, add and list buttons, and they will appear pixellated until Apple uses @3x images for the buttons:

Apple’s known to make transitions between new screen sizes, new resolutions as easy as possible for developers, and this @3x approach is the easiest for developers, because apart from providing high-resolution image assets, they won’t have to make any other layout changes for their apps. The transition also ensures that users would get the best experience possible with apps not optimised for 3x mode.

Let us know what you think of Apple’s transition strategy to 3x screen resolution in the comments below.

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Research Project Cider Makes Running iOS Apps on Android Possible

A bunch of PhD students at Columbia University have managed to get iOS apps running on an Android tablet, and they have a video to prove it. The team of computer science students are using an OS compatibility architecture called Cider to accomplish this, which runs multiple binaries on one device, rather than utilizing a traditional virtual machine.

The full abstract from their recently-released research paper:

We present Cider, an operating system compatibility architecture that can run applications built for different mobile ecosystems, iOS or Android, together on the same smartphone or tablet. Cider enhances the domestic operating system, Android, of a device with kernel-managed, per-thread personas to mimic the application binary interface of a foreign operating system, iOS, enabling it to run unmodi?ed foreign binaries.

This is accomplished using a novel combination of binary compatibility techniques including two new mechanisms: compile-time code adaptation, and diplomatic functions. Compile-time code adaptation enables existing unmodi?ed foreign source code to be reused in the domestic kernel, reducing implementation effort required to support multiple binary interfaces for executing domestic and foreign applications.

Diplomatic functions leverage per-thread personas, and allow foreign applications to use domestic libraries to access proprietary software and hardware interfaces. We have built a Cider prototype, and demonstrate that it imposes modest performance overhead and runs unmodi?ed iOS and Android applications together on a Google Nexus tablet running the latest version of Android.

Basically, to achieve this amazing feat, the team had to use many different binary compatibility techniques including diplomatic functions, which enable the iOS apps running on the device to access and interact with Android hardware and software. Check out the team’s official demo video of Cider below:

 

In the video, the team demoes a host of well-known iOS apps running directly on a 2012 model Nexus 7 tablet. Using Cider running on top of the Android OS, apps like Yelp, Apple iBooks, and Apple iTunes Remote all perform fairly well considering they were built to run on a completely different kernel. As you might expect, though, not everything works perfectly; apps that rely on certain hardware such as the camera and GPS won’t work completely.

One of the main goals of this project was to reduce lag and make running iOS apps on Android a feasible and smooth possibility, but Cider still doesn’t work perfectly. Apps still suffer from a decent amount of lag, but probably less than they would if they were being emulated. The research paper says that this is due to an incomplete implementation of OpenGL ES. 

While there aren’t any known plans for Cider to ever be released as a full-fledged product, the team says that it plans to continue development and it’s definitely interesting to see that something like this is possible. You can read the full research paper here: Cider: Native Execution of iOS Apps on Android.

[TheNextWeb]

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Flappy Bird to return to the App Store in August with multiplayer feature

According to CNBC’s Kelly Evans, who spoke to developer Dong Nguyen, Flappy Bird will return to the App Store later this year with a new multi-player feature.  Though he didn’t provide a concrete date, Nguyen said the new version of the game could be ready as soon as August. 

Nguyen also told Evans that he is working to make the game less addictive. This addictive quality was one of the reasons Nguyen cited when he pulled the game from the App Store earlier this year. Besides working on a new version of Flappy Bird, Nguyen also has been working on other games, including one that allows the player to jump from building to building. These new details were gleaned from a series of tweets posted by both CNBC and Evans, who  was able to secure an interview with Nguyen, even though he prefers to avoid the spotlight. The clip will air sometime today on CNBC’s Closing Bell.

Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen tells @Kelly_Evans that he's bringing back Flappy Birds, but not soon; it'll have a multi-player feature.

— CNBC Social Team (@CNBCSocial) May 14, 2014

Flappy Bird's Dong Nguyen: Flappy Bird is coming back. Multiplayer. August. @CNBC

— Kelly Evans (@Kelly_Evans) May 14, 2014

#Flappybird creator says he is creating lots of #games. Next one guy jumping from building to buildings. #CNBC

— Donna Burton (@DonnaBurton) May 14, 2014

Flappy Bird was an unexpected smash hit that quickly climbed to the top of iOS App Store charts earlier this year and kicked off a social media craze surrounding the app. The game was known for its 8-bit graphics and difficult gameplay that challenged players to fly a small, yellow bird through a series of pipes. At the time of its removal, the game was generating over $50,000 a day in advertising revenue and was downloaded more than 50 million times.

Would you like to see Flappy Bird return?  Let us know in the comments.

[Via Business Insider]

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iPhone grabs 36.6 percent of Japanese mobile phone market

Apple’s share of the Japanese mobile phone market is on the rise, climbing 11 percentage points year over year. According to a report in Bloomberg, this climb is due in part to the expansion of the handset to Japan’s largest wireless carrier NTT Docomo, which started offering the phone last September.

iPhone shipments now account for more than a third of Japan’s mobile phone market in the period ending March 2014. This figure is up 11 percentage points from last year when Apple’s iPhone models accounted for a quarter of the phones in the country.

Apple boosted iPhone shipments in Japan to 36.6 percent of the market in the year ended March, up from 25.5 percent a year earlier, according to Tokyo-based MM Research Institute Ltd. The Cupertino, California-based smartphone maker shipped 14.43 million phones in Japan the past fiscal year, the researcher said.

Other handset makers behind Apple include Sharp with 13 percent market share and Sony with 12.3 market share. Samsung was number six with 5.7 percent market share.

These results echo an earlier report from Kantar World Panel that pegged Apple’s smartphone market share at a dominant 56.7 percent. The popularity of the iPhone again was attributed to NTT Docomo, with the iPhone responsible for more than 40 percent of sales on the wireless carrier. Japan will be a key are of growth for Apple going forward as smartphone penetration in the country is low compared to Europe and the US, where the majority of cellular customers already own a smartphone.

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iPhone 6 may feature 1704×960 Resolution Display with significantly higher pixel density

Apple is planning to make a significant change in the resolution with the launch of iPhone 6, reports 9to5Mac.

The report claims the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 could feature a 1704×960 resolution display, which would be three times the base resolution (568 x 320).

The iPhone 5s comes with a 1136 x 640 resolution display, which is two times the base resolution. The report claims that Apple plans to retain the same 16:9 aspect ratio as the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5.

This would mean that the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 would feature a display density of 416 ppi, and the rumored 5.5-inch iPhone 6 would feature a display density of 356 PPI. The report points out that Apple plans to increase the resolution to ensure that pixel density is within its threshold for a “Retina Display”.

This means that Apple will likely be tripling the aforementioned “base resolution” (568 x 320) of the iPhone screen in both directions, and that the iPhone screen resolution will be scaled with an increase of 150% from the current 2X resolution of 1136 x 640. Of course, Apple tests several different iPhones and display technologies, so it is possible that Apple chooses to take another route for display specifications for the 2014 iPhone upgrade. [..]

[..] So, regardless of whether Apple goes with a 4.7-inch or 5.5-inch panel—or both—the new iPhone(s) will have significantly more dense screens in comparison to current and past iPhones, which will result in crisper text, images, and video for users of the next-generation Apple smartphones. Also, by definition, both screens will have pixel densities that fit comfortably within Apple’s threshold for a “Retina” display.

It has been speculated that Apple will increase the resolution to 1334×750 for the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 to maintain the 326 ppi density, which is the display density of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. However, the pixel tripling (3X) mode makes a lot more sense and would be easier to implement for both Apple and third-party app developers.

The report notes that Apple has been testing the 1704×960 resolution display, however it is not clear if Apple plans to go ahead with that resolution for the next generation iPhones.

Apple is widely expected to release two variants of the iPhone 6 this year, which may feature an all-new ultra thin design, narrower bezels and rounded edges. The first variant will have a 4.7 inch display, which could be launched as early as August, followed by the larger 5.5-inch model in September. 

In addition to the larger screens with higher pixel density, iPhone 6 is also expected to include Apple’s new A8 processor, Touch ID fingerprint sensor, and an improved 8-megapixel camera. The iPhone 6 will also come pre-installed with iOS 8, which may include new apps such as Healthbook, TextEdit and Preview, improved Maps, inter-app communication capabilities and more.

[via 9to5Mac]

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