Ever hear of a little app called Instagram? How about a website called Hunch? Well apparently they were both created by real people, and in this video those real people are in the same room.
Chris Dixon talks about the long, weird journey from college to Instagram fame, and the terrible moments after the app launched for the first time. He’s interviewed by Kevin Systrom, the creator of Hunch and current darling of the tech start-up world.
“Popular mobile check-in application Foursquare today announced that it grew 3400% in 2010. The company now stands at 6 million users.
Other interesting stats include more than 381 million total check-ins accounting for every country (including North Korea) as well as a check-in from space. California also appears to have the most fit Foursquare users, being the top state for gym check-ins.”
How awesome are these infographics? A check-in from space?!
(Photo by Paul Fraughton | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Heard of a little app called Bubble Ball? Well, if you’re Robert Nay, you created it. Between gym class and dinner.
4,000 lines of code and 4 million downloads later, Bubble Ball has become the #1 free app on the iTunes store. Since the app is free, 14-year-old Mr. Nay is still just a relatively normal (if hyperintelligent) kid.
Way to go, dude!
“Taxpayers waiting on a refund from the Internal Revenue Service can now check on its status using a smartphone.
The application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android operating system also will give taxpayers daily tax tips during the filing season, the U.S. tax collection agency said today. Smartphone users may download the “IRS2Go” app for free, the IRS said.”
Would you use an app to check your tax refund status? What will be the next government-made mobile app??
credit: Unhindered by Talent
On the night before the night before Christmas, a disgruntled fellow named Jonathan Lalo decided to drag Apple Inc. to court. Why? He says that the UDI (Unique Device Identifier) built in to iPhones and iPads allows apps to collect data on their users without their permission. (He called out some of these apps right in his complaint: Pandora, Paper Toss, the Weather Channel, Dictionary.com.)
Why is that a big deal? Well, appmakers can do pretty much anything they want with the information they collect about you. They can make their products better, customize offerings, or, you know. Sell your most intimate details to the highest bidder.
The suit says: “Some apps are also selling additional information to ad networks, including users’ location, age, gender, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation and political views.”
JLa wants to make his legal challenge into a class action suit – which means that he wants to sue Apple on behalf of everyone who has downloaded an app from the Apple Store in the past two years. If he wins, or if Apple agrees to some kind of settlement, everyone in that “class” (or category of people) would share in the settlement benefit.
Congratulations, English! There’s now a thing called “entertainment snacking.”
“[I'm] something of a master at Angry Birds.” – Salman Rushdie, Booker Prize-Winning Novelist