Are you part of the lucky bunch that got offered a pair of Google Glass and had $1,500 bucks to kick down? Good news! The camera on your set just got a whole lot better.

Following up on their promise to update Google Glass every month, Google has just released a patch that brings two important photo-centric features to their robo-eyewear: HDR photography and on-the-fly photo captions.

HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography is something you might have seen on your smartphone’s camera, even if you didn’t know exactly what it was. Built into a fair number of today’s handsets, “HDR” mode essentially takes multiple photos in very, very rapid succession at multiple exposure levels, then automatically combines those photos to give you one with the best brightness levels.

The benefit is two-fold: If you’re shooting in a room with crummy lighting, Glass recognizes that and will try to crank up the exposure in your photo accordingly. If you’re instead shooting outdoors while staring pretty much directly at the sun (how else are you going to get that sweet, sweet lens flare?), your photos won’t be nearly as washed out.

The update also brings voice-powered photo captions — which, while not quite as exciting, is still pretty important. Previously, photos shared through Google Glass’ voice system would go up without much context; now, Google Glass gives you a chance to caption the photo before it goes live. You just tap to select the caption option, speak your caption, confirm your words, and share away.

Curious as to how well Google Glass’ HDR functionality works? Here are a few before and afters:

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Last month, a startup called Joyride came out of stealth mode and announced that it has raised $1 million in funding. Since the company is building a platform for creating entertaining drivetime experiences, we decided that the best place to see the Joyride app in action was on the road.

Co-founder and CEO Jeff Chen described Joyride as an attempt to “make drive times more fun and more interesting” — instead of just listening to the same songs on the same radio stations, you could say, “Hey, let’s play a game together.” Or, “Pull up the latest comedy clips.” Or, “Teach me a new language.” It’s an application that you’ll eventually be able to install on your smartphone, which you then connect to your car stereo and control with your voice.

The first application is a trivia game, which you can see me play above. (Since we were playing with a pre-release version of the app, we decided to make the filming process go a little smoother by partially relying on the touch controls as well.) There’s a social component to the game, where you can try to do better than your friends or other players did — it’s timed so that the experience feels like you’re playing each other live, even though it’s really, in Chen’s words, “fake synchronous.”

The game is fun, but Chen acknowledged that it’s not going to be how people spend all their commute time. That’s why the company hasn’t launched its product yet — it’s working on a feature that plays comedy content from around the web, and it’s looking to expand the functionality in other ways.

“As you start getting two or three of these key features on that platform, it really starts getting interesting,” Chen said. Ultimately, he said he wants to turn Joyride into a “voice portal” for a variety of apps, some built by the company itself, and others by third-party developers.

The aim is to launch an Android app by mid-2013, he added.

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LinkMe is an LED smart bracelet that connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth and displays SMS and social media updates in text that scrolls across your wrist.

Smartwatches and smart bracelets promise convenience – it’s easier to glance at a device on your wrist than it is to dig out your buzzing smartphone from your tightly fitting jeans. But so far, many of them have had boring, uninspired designs. For example, the Pebble smartwatch has an amazing complement of features. But it looks plastic and boring. I’d never be caught wearing that on my wrist.

LinkMe is unabashedly beautiful. It’s a single chrome ring that clips around your wrist. The smart bracelet has a curved LED display that seamlessly blends in with the rest of the device. The display streams long lines of text in red or blue letters, like one of those big news tickers in Times Square.

LinkMe can display anything that be relayed in a stream of text – SMS, social media updates, flight information, personal reminders and alerts. When it isn’t displaying messages, LinkMe defaults to displaying the time, so you can easily use it as a watch.

But when it comes to functionality, the Pebble outstrips LinkMe in a number of ways. With its e-ink display, the Pebble can offer multiple watch faces and display limited graphics. It also can flash multiple lines of text at once. With LinkMe, you have to wait until the message or alert finishes scrolling across the bracelet.

Still, there’s just something about LinkMe that makes me want to have it around my wrist. Maybe it’s just another case of aesthetics trumping functionality. Maybe this feeling will go away if/when Apple releases a smartwatch that fuses beauty with a healthy complement of features.

But for now? I’m sold.

A LinkMe can be had for a $99 contribution at their KickStarter here. They’re pushing to raise $100,000 by May 5th.

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Perpetual underdog Mobli, an app that’s a cross between Instagram and Vine, has released a new update to its iOS app in their latest effort to gain some of the photo sharing market.

The new update contains a plethora of features, such as a new aggregated feed and location-based photo filters, but the app’s most notable update is its newfound ability to switch back and forth between the front and back facing cameras of your smartphone while recording.

In practice, it works pretty well. Although there’s a one second lag when you switch between cameras, the recorded video plays back seamlessly and I imagine it could be used for some great reaction videos. It’s a very simple feature that hasn’t been implemented in any other video recording apps yet (including the stock camera apps in iOS and Android), although I would expect all of them to follow suit pretty soon.

It’s also a little like the dual camera feature that was showcased in Samsung’s Galaxy S4 event, which allowed you to use both cameras simultaneously while recording video. Somehow this simple feature of switching back and forth seems a little more practical than seeing your face boxed into a stamp next to whatever it is that you’re recording.

The update is available in the Apple App Store now.

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GiveO2 is an app that calculates your transport-related carbon footprint. The app uses your smartphone’s 3G or GPS connection to track your daily movements and spits out an answer, explaining in grave detail just how much you’re destroying the world.

Until now, calculating the carbon footprint of your daily commute is tedious at best. Although there are web tools that supposedly make it very easy, you still have to take precise notes on the miles traveled and the type of transportation on a constant basis throughout the day. I don’t know anybody who has time to do that.

GiveO2 gives you a readout of the miles you’ve traveled on foot, cycling, or driving, then uses a unique algorithm to calculate your carbon production. You’ll see these stats in a way that’s easy to understand. For example, the app will tell you that the carbon output during your drive to Philadelphia equals X amount of trees.

Through the app, you can also purchase premium carbon credits to offset your carbon output. “We offer to plant native trees in the Patagonia,” says co-founder Joaquin Dufeu, “and soon we will have projects located in Canada and the United States.”

Much like Foursquare, users of GiveO2 receive points and badges for offsetting their carbon footprint. And as an added incentive, those points can be redeemed for discounts in retailers like Amazon, GAP, Reebok, and Converse.

GiveO2 is available in the iOS App Store now, with an Android version set to be released in the coming months.

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Haven’t we all suffered enough abuse at the hands of Big Smart Watch? No? Well now there’s Buddy, a Bluetooth smartwatch that aims to solve the problems associated with all those other watches. Buddy is focused on social networking and notifications so it will ping you when your Facebook or Twitter feed is updated as well as send the standard call/text/calendar notifications you expect from a smart watch.

The ambitious watch is the product of Vea Digital, a smartwatch company best known for their Sportive work-out watch. The company’s new project, however, is wildly ambitious. It has a capacitive color touchscreen, works with iOS and Android, and contains 8GB of memory in a package 8mm thick. It’s a huge watch, to be sure, and the renders/prototype models show a unique and colorful icon-based UI that might work better than the cramped black and white design of other devices.

What can it do?

The makers claim a battery life of “10 days or 2 weeks standby” which sounds like crazy talk. They’re asking for $320,000 to build the first run and have raised $42,000 so far. A black watch can be had for a pledge of $150 and they will be delivered in August 2013.

I’ll believe it when I see it, but if you’re looking to get in on the ground floor of an acceptably cool-looking smart watch, Buddy might be the way to go.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

You may be getting your sports results on your smartphone from one of the major results providers like ESPN, MLB NFL, but a number of others have appeared in the space. One getting traction and now funding is 365Scores, an online sports notification app. The Tel-Aviv-based startup has today signed a $1.2 million Series A round funding from Cedar Fund, Tal Elyashiv and Shy Datika in order to grow the product.

It has also has passed the 1.5 million installs across web app, browser plugin, Android and iOS apps and released a new version of the app for both Android and iOS. This has added new features including a brand new live score display, better standings information and more social features.

Ami Sirkis, CEO of 365 Scores says with the new funding they plan to expand the platform and add features.

The app lets users follow their favorite teams, athletes, and sports on mobile and get live push notifications that update users about the important moments in a game, and serves news, scores, and photo and video updates. It also pulls in news and updates from local sports news outlets.

By way of contrast, in the UK, a lot of sports fans get their news now from social updates pushed from the startup Sports New Media which feeds to partners running numerous platforms.

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CES hasn’t even really started yet, but already some prevailing themes of the show have begun to emerge — I’m talking about tech that helps tie together disparate systems in your home into a a single, mobile-friendly experience. LG has already shown off its vision, complete with NFC-enabled ovens and washing machines that send diagnostic information to your smartphone, but AT&T’s Digital Life takes things in a different direction.

Put simply, Digital Life is equal parts home automation and security system, with users able to trick out their domiciles with cameras, appliance/lighting controls, door locks, and even thermostats. AT&T is gearing up to offer these devices in preset packages catered to people’s specific needs. A water package, for instance, is geared toward detecting moisture and controlling water flow should a leak be detected, while the energy package focuses mostly on remotely controlling lights and appliances. While the initial setup has to be performed by a third-party installer, users can later customize their own home load-outs by adding and subtracting components as needed.

Sure it’s a slightly kooky move to see from a company that most people equate with phone service, but the biggest upshot here? Using the Digital Life system doesn’t actually require users to own an AT&T phone/contract or broadband plan. As Jon Fingas at Engadget notes, it’s a strictly “go-between” service. AT&T expects to roll out its Digital Life system to eight initial markets in March, with up to another 50 being prepped for launch by the end of the year.

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MyFitnessPal, which allows users to track and share their exercise and nutrition, is rolling out an update that should make it easier to find your friends on the service.

Connecting with friends was an important feature on MyFitnessPal before, but until now, you had to know their email address or user name. With this update, you can log in with Facebook and connect with your Facebook friends, or invite your Facebook friends to join the service. You can also look up users from your smartphone address book. If, on the other hand, you’re not interested in sharing your weight and other fitness info with your Facebook friends, you have the option of keeping your profile private.

When I asked why MyFitnessPal is making this update now, co-founder Albert Lee told me via email:

This is a feature our users have been asking for, and we’ve been working hard to make sure the integration was perfect. We’ve been recruiting heavily, and as we’ve grown and added additional talent to our team, we’re finally able to push out even more features that our users have been craving.

The update is now live in the MyFitnessPal iOS app, and a spokesperson tells me the company will update the website and Android app next week (although I’m already seeing some of the new functionality on the website).

Back in October, the company announced that it had 30 million registered users.

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Vivino, a mobile wine app that allows users to keep track of wines they drink, rate them for future reference, and share their favorites with others, has raised $1 million in Series A financing from Creandum, the Nordic venture capital firm known for its early investments in Spotify, iZettle, and Wrapp. Vivino previously received seed funding last year from SEED Capital and Skype co-founder Janus Friis.

Keeping track of the wines you drink and store in your home can be a challenge. Vivino’s iOS and Android apps let you take a photograph with your smartphone of any wine you’re drinking. The app will automatically recognize labels and match them to an extensive database of nearly 500,000 wines. Users can note the ones they like or dislike, read wine reviews, and follow other people’s Vivino activity to discover new wines.

The company hasn’t turned on e-commerce yet, but soon you’ll be able to buy wine by the bottle or case.

Over the past six months, the startup has seen 100,000 monthly downloads. In November alone, active users on average scanned seven wine labels per month. The company sees a huge opportunity for growth, as more and more consumers are looking online and to mobile apps to both research, identify, and purchase wine.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch