Viber update brings improved call UI and animated stickers to its iOS and Android apps

Viber
Viber has rolled out a notable upgrade across its Android and iOS apps today that brings new features to the messaging app. Viber’s head of product, Ofir Eyal, says that most of the changes have been implemented based on feedback received from users, so the additions should (in theory) be ones users have been waiting for. Among the main changes are a redesigned interface for video calls, with more options to trigger a new call from various places in the app, thereby making it a little easier to navigate. It also improves the quality of both video and voice while keeping data…

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Games, chat and personalized content: Ray Chan on the future of 9GAG

Ray Chan 9GAG
9GAG is known and loved as a source for fun videos, GIFs, memes and everything in between to put a smile on your face. I sat down with co-founder Ray Chan at Rise Conference in Hong Kong last weekend to learn more about what the site has in store for its fans, and what social content might look like in the future. You’ve recently begun experimenting in the mobile gaming space, releasing Redhead Redemption and Ramen Celebrity with Indonesian developer Touchten Games. What have you learned from that experience? It’s a good experiment for us. Our users tell us they…

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Makerbase is the ultimate directory of who made what in tech

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Makerbase is a new project that hopes to be a collection of people and their digital creations, or a directory of who’s who of tech. It’s a reference for if you’re trying to find out who the people are behind an app or website. Think of it as a mashup of IMDB and Wikipedia. The new service was built by Anil Dash and Gina Trapani, the founders behind social insight service ThinkUp. Makerbase is free and fully editable by any signed in user, which allows anyone to add information about a maker or project. Makerbase then pulls in information automatically from Twitter or the App Store.…

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You’re about to see more Instagram ads thanks to its new API

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We knew it was coming – Instagram announced a test of its advertising API back in June – and now it’s here. The switch has been thrown and now everyone can start buying ads. Previously brands had to talk to Instagram sales people directly. That meant advertising on the photo sharing network was limited to those with big budgets and plenty of time to negotiate. Levi’s is one of Instagram’s advertising partners With the ads API, they’ll now be able to schedule their campaigns on Instagram in the same way as they do on Facebook and Twitter, coordinating their efforts…

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Kodak Moments app update lets you share and print photos more easily

kodak
It’s super easy to shoot photos from your smartphone, but printing them poses a dilemma. Some people possess actual fancy photo printers where they can immediately choose which photos they want to print — provided they have a fully stocked ink and paper supply. Or they can print photos the old-fashioned way — at one of those one-hour places or the drugstore. A new update to the Kodak Moments app removes a small but nagging obstacle from the process by allowing you to immediately send your print order via Wi-Fi to the Kodak Printer Kiosk directly from the app in…

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Twitter tests News Tab to make scanning headlines easier

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Twitter is always experimenting with new features, A/B testing across the world to figure out the next experience on the platform. It seems that one of those experiments is a special News Tab, according to a report by BuzzFeed. The tab, which sits on the navigation bar of the Twitter app, has already rolled out to users in Japan. It provides a list of headlines from Twitter-approved publishers, designed to help people get the news of the day quickly and easily. The tab appears to be a more content-driven version of the app’s old “Discover” tab, which was discontinued on…

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YouTube’s Web video player just received a sleek transparent update

YouTube Video Transparent 2
If you’ve been watching cat videos on YouTube today, you may have noticed things are looking a bit different. Google appears to be rolling out a transparent video player on its Web interface today. The new video player is a lot sleeker, featuring controls floating on the video itself instead of planted underneath. Besides just looking nicer, the redesign also saves a few vertical pixels of screen real estate. I like these new controls, a lot. http://pic.twitter.com/u2FCqrcorH — Joe Caiati (@JoeCaiati) August 3, 2015 The controls disappear after a second or two of inactivity, and reappear once you point your…

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This Chrome plugin supercharges Airbnb for sightseeing

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Travel app yapQ has launched a Chrome plugin for Airbnb that lets you see a list of noteworthy places near the accommodation you’re checking out as you search. The plugin wasn’t exactly a planned feature; the yapQ team came up with the idea last week at an in-house hackathon and three days later it was submitted and approved by Google. It appears on the right-hand column of the Airbnb accommodation pages, showing up to 20 nearby spots of interest per listing, along with the exact distance (metric or imperial) and a short description. With a clean, non-intrusive design, the plugin…

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Peakon wants to help you keep your best employees by bringing ‘people analytics’ to the masses

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It’s a familiar tale; you join a company that proudly trumpets how much it values its people, only to later discover it’s not really listening to them at all. Regular surveys can help bosses know what their employees think about their working environment, but a new startup called Peakon wants to go further and give firms real, actionable insights that they can use to improve company culture and staff retention. The Copenhagen-based firm has just raised $1 million from a group of investors including Tommy Ahlers (Podio, Zyb); Zendesk co-founders Morten Primdahl and Alexander Aghassipour; Doug Monro (Gumtree, Zoopla, Adzuna), and Sunstone Capital.…

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