BeamIt Wants to Change The Way We Share Photos

Right now, messaging apps are one of the fastest growing categories in the Android and iOS app marketplaces, as every developer tries to become the next WhatsApp. From stickers and emoticons to free voice and video calls, they offer pretty much everything people need for communication. In such a crowded market, is there really any space for one more messaging app? The team that developed Cooliris (an app that lets you view all your social feeds' images in one place), feels so.

The company has launched BeamIt, a free "visual messaging" app that aims to add context to photo sharing on iOS, with Android and Web versions "coming soon". We got early access to the app, and came away largely impressed, and while we still have a couple of reservations about the concept, there's no denying that the app's philosophy and design are interesting.

BeamIt has common features such as comments, likes and sharing photos with private groups, but the difference is in the design. BeamIt links comments and conversations to photos and makes all of these feel like one thread as opposed to separate events. If you've ever been in a messaging group, you probably know how confusing it can get sometimes.

For instance, someone shares five photos in a group of 10 people. Immediately nine people start commenting about different photos and often it's hard to decipher who is speaking about which photo. BeamIt lets you select any one photo from a big batch and comment on it or comment on all at once. This helps provide context to each comment. You can long-press any photo to comment, like, share or save photos to the camera roll.

Another nice touch to the app is the way it handles multiple photos. We selected 36 photos on an iPhone and saw them appear in a side-scrolling row under the message box. You can take a look at the photos by scrolling sideways and remove any of these before sending. Once you send a large number of photos, they appear in two rows and you can scroll sideways to take a look at them all.

This works for two reasons - one is that you can send a large number of photos in one go (most messaging apps limit that number) and the second is you don't have to keep scrolling up or down to read messages every time someone posts many photos. Therefore, scrolling up and down will show you different conversations around photos, and scrolling horizontally will let you look at the various pictures being talked about in each conversation.

On an iPhone, the advantage is already apparent, but the iPad is where BeamIt shines. The app has an excellent three-column layout - one column lists all the conversation threads, the second shows text and the third shows photos. Once again, a batch of photos sent together can be seen by scrolling sideways, which has a neat slide-out animation on the iPad. If a person comments on a photo, a line links that part of the conversation to the photo, making conversations easy to follow. The way BeamIt marries text to photos is impressive.

Cooliris CEO Soujanya Bhumkar says BeamIt is also different from its competitors because it sends photos in full resolution. 

"All photos are uploaded in full-resolution but the resolution of photos BeamIt downloads depends on your device" he says. "If you're using an iPad 2, the app will download slightly lower quality images as opposed to an iPad with Retina Display."

If you delete a message or photo from a conversation, it gets removed from all recipients' devices. This "unsend" feature is quite nice, but the app doesn't explain this. This means that some users may inadvertently delete photos without knowing that it will get removed from everyone else's devices too.

This works for two reasons - one is that you can send a large number of photos in one go (most messaging apps limit that number) and the second is you don't have to keep scrolling up or down to read messages every time someone posts many photos. Therefore, scrolling up and down will show you different conversations around photos, and scrolling horizontally will let you look at the various pictures being talked about in each conversation.

On an iPhone, the advantage is already apparent, but the iPad is where BeamIt shines. The app has an excellent three-column layout - one column lists all the conversation threads, the second shows text and the third shows photos. Once again, a batch of photos sent together can be seen by scrolling sideways, which has a neat slide-out animation on the iPad. If a person comments on a photo, a line links that part of the conversation to the photo, making conversations easy to follow. The way BeamIt marries text to photos is impressive.

Cooliris CEO Soujanya Bhumkar says BeamIt is also different from its competitors because it sends photos in full resolution. 

"All photos are uploaded in full-resolution but the resolution of photos BeamIt downloads depends on your device" he says. "If you're using an iPad 2, the app will download slightly lower quality images as opposed to an iPad with Retina Display."

If you delete a message or photo from a conversation, it gets removed from all recipients' devices. This "unsend" feature is quite nice, but the app doesn't explain this. This means that some users may inadvertently delete photos without knowing that it will get removed from everyone else's devices too.

Android L: 8 New Features in the Next Major Android Release

Android has grown from a tiny upstart to the world's dominant mobile computing platform with over a billion active users. Google isn't sitting still, though, and has just unveiled what it calls the most ambitious Android release yet. Currently known only as Android L, there's no dessert-themed codename or even formal version number yet. Android L will release later this year, though an exact date isn't known.

We hope to see new smartphones launch around the same time which take advantage of all the new features, and also updates to existing smartphones. HTC is amongst the companies committed to bringing it to its existing HTC One family, while others should announce support soon.

Here are some of the most exciting new features of Android L

Material design
Android will receive a complete visual overhaul aimed at promoting a consistent experience across Android device sizes and types. The new "Material Design" identity is bolder, more colourful, and more animated. Every transition between screens and every user interaction has been refined, down to the system-wide Roboto typeface and the Android navigation buttons.

The change could also be aimed at discouraging third-party vendors from developing custom Android overlays which greatly deviate from Google's vision. A strong enough core UI experience could lead users to reject anything seen as inferior to it.Screen elements will be able to simulate depth, with automatic shadows and scaling, but will also inherit elements of classic magazine typography and layout. There's more emphasis on simple shapes and consistent actions that lead you from one app into another. Google's new design page offers hints of what is to come.

The Material Design identity integrates elements of responsive Web design and will extend to other Google properties including Gmail, which will be redesigned for the Web as well as mobile apps. Material Design takes into account the fact that touch, voice, mouse and keyboard are all equally important input methods, clearly illustrating goals above and beyond smartphone usage scenarios.

Improved notifications

You will be able to interact with notifications more easily in Android L. For starters, you can choose which ones show up on the lock screen and what amount of detail they'll show. You can decide whether snippets of actual messages are displayed when your phone is potentially visible to others, or whether more details will only be revealed when you unlock it. They also aren't necessarily displayed in chronological order anymore - the OS can learn which ones you're more likely to respond to urgently and prioritise those.

There's also a new type of notification altogether - Google calls these heads ups. These appear on top of whatever you're doing and allow you to take action or dismiss them immediately. These are meant to be less intrusive, and can be used for things that can't wait, such as incoming calls.

Trusted environments
Speaking of the lock screen, you'll soon be able to have your phone detect when it's in a trusted environment, which will dispense with the lock code. This could be triggered by the presence of a Bluetooth device such a smartwatch that you wear all the time, a specific Wi-Fi access point, or other factors. When the environment is deemed safe, you won't have to bother with unlocking your phone.

Project Volta, battery improvements
Android L will be able to manage battery life much better, but Google's moves go beyond that to the app development stage, for which new tools have been developed that let developers track battery drain and optimise apps before they ever reach end users. The battery saver mode is similar to those implemented by third parties so far - non-essential services can be turned off or made to run only at intervals in order to save power. Android L will also be able to lower the screen refresh rate, reduce the frequency of data exchanges, or force apps to change their behaviour to match the prevailing battery state.

Google Fit
Everyone's getting into health and activity tracking, and Google is no exception. The new Google Fit framework will take Apple's Healthkit head on, tying into sensors on phones themselves as well as connected accessories to collect data which will be ready for apps to use. Major partners including Nike, Adidas, Runkeeper, HTC, Asus, LG and Motorola are already on board. Google Fit could monitor physical activity and food intake as well as health indicators such as heart rate and breathing.

Greater Web integration
There's also a change to the way individual tabs and documents in apps are handled by Android L. They'll now show up as individual entries in the Recents menu, allowing users to jump directly between them. This pulls the focus away from apps and puts it onto all the things you do with them. For example, Web apps open in Chrome tabs would appear much like native apps running on your device, and you'd be able to jump in and out of them more quickly.

Links on the Web can now also be used to launch apps instead of websites (presumably falling back to the website in case the app is not installed). For example, Google demonstrated looking up a restaurant in Chrome and then tapping a link to not only launch the OpenTable app, but also have it know that it should bring up that restaurant's booking page. Google search results can also now be links that trigger an app, rather than links to websites.

ART Runtime and Android Extension Pack
Google is ditching the Dalvik runtime which has served well for years, in favour of a new one called ART. It can make apps load and run quite a bit faster while using less RAM. ART is 64-bit compatible, and is also engineered to allow apps to work across hardware architectures such as ARM and X86. This also means that Android devices will be able to address more RAM than the 32-bit limit allowed.

With greater diversity in Android hardware obviously envisioned for the near future, the move is a welcome change. Google has worked with major hardware vendors to enable more fluid graphics, potentially paving the way for new Android-based game consoles and set-top boxes. Desktop-class graphics including tessellation, geometry shaders and texture compression will potentially be possible on Android devices.

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Knox

Google also made a few announcements that indicate interesting things on the horizon for enterprise users. The company announced that Samsung's Knox feature for work and personal separation will become a part of Android itself. Knox allows corporate IT administrators to control work-related data and policies on employees' smartphones while letting the employees themselves continue to store personal data and use unrelated apps. This alleviates many of the problems with accessing secure information from mobile devices and could make Android far more attractive to businesses.

Samsung Launches Terrain Home Android Launcher With Google Now-Like Features

Samsung has released a new home screen app dubbed Terrain Home: Sidebar and Search on Google Play, a launcher that brings some features that are similar to the Google Now launcher.

The beta version of the Terrain Home app comes from a Samsung-backed startup, Terrain, which is funded by Samsung Accelerator. The Terrain Home app brings three main feature according to the Google Play listing, namely - sidebar, search, and apps drawer. The app essentially lets users swipe in different directions to access the sidebar (right), search (up), and apps drawer (left).

The Terrain Home sidebar is where users can organize their favourite apps, tools, contacts and news content. Users can pick content from the library and add them in the form of cards.

The apps drawer on Terrain Home is meant for quick navigation, with a search function and alphabetical indexing.

The Terrain Home search feature functions as a local phone search, enabling users to find content such as contacts or apps on their phone quickly.

"Search with Android is Web first," stated Dwipal Desai, founder and CEO of Terrain to Recode. "We wanted search that is phone first."

The Next Web notes that the Terrain Home cards, like Google Now cards, can be stacked in any order. It has been also noted that developers who want to add a card to Terrain, can sign-up now for an SDK, which is said to arrive in coming few weeks.

Developers will continue work on the Terrain Home screen app after it gets a decent fan base. Desai further added that in order to reach out to more users, Samsung might make distribution deals to ensure the app doesn't remain unknown. The beta version of Terrain Home application is sized at 7.4MB and requires Android 4.1 and later OS versions to run.

Dropbox Sees Growth From 200 Million to 300Million Users in 6 Months

File sharing and cloud storage service Dropbox has announced that it has crossed the 300 million user mark. The announcement comes just six months after Dropbox had crossed the 200 million user mark in November. The 100 million user increase is also being attributed to Dropbox now focusing on rolling out more services, and improving its offerings for business users.

It is interesting to document the quick growth rate for Dropbox. Consider this, back in November 2012 Dropbox had a total of 100 million users. It took them one year to reach the 200 million user mark last year. Compared to that it has taken only six months to cross the 300 million user mark now. 

The official Dropbox blog just has a picture of door with the 100, 200, 300 million marks etched on the left side of the door frame. The blogpost is titled 'Thanks for helping us grow', with the caption 'New notch on the wall'.

For its phenomenal rise Dropbox seems mostly to have its Dropbox for Business service to thank. The shift towards a more business-focused approach has helped change the way it operates. It is to be noted that according to Forbes only around one percent of the users were paying for Dropbox's service whilst a majority of users were using it's free two gigabyte storage plan. 

Dropbox for Business has allowed users to maintain both personal and corporate accounts. In addition, Dropbox recently even acquired several new companies, such as the 3D photo app Bubbli, workplace chat solutions provider Zulip, as well as personal photo-stream app Loom and collaborative document tool Hackpad .

Apart from tweaking its Android and iOS apps, the company recently also announced the Carousel app - a cross- device photo gallery for users who use Dropbox for transferring images.