Nokia marketing head: Customers' 'biggest complaint' is missing apps

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="copy post-body" dir="ltr" itemprop="text" style="text-align: left;"> <div class="image-container" style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Nokia marketing head 'The biggest complaint is that customers are missing the apps they want'" data-src-height="340" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/05/apps.jpg" /></div>We managed to grab a quick chat with Nokia's Global Head of Smartphone Marketing, Vesa Jutila, following the global launch of the Lumia 925. When asked about the still-notable absence of some mainstream apps within Windows Phone 8, Jutila was surprisingly frank. With reference to the company's Lumia series, he said that "the biggest complaint is that customers are missing the apps they want."<br /> Nokia has been on a recent charm offensive towards Instagram, not least with a mini Twitter campaign, but it announced earlier today that a new Hipstamatic Oggl app will be headed to Microsoft's mobile OS, capable of sharing through Twitter, Facebook and, yes, Instagram. However, for users coming from other platforms, they may find some first-party favorites missing -- with things like Google+ and Amazon Cloud Player being just a couple of examples. Jutila acknowledged that there were "some gaps" but said Nokia is "addressing this very strongly" with the help of Microsoft. He added:<br /> <blockquote>"[Developer attention] is very much driven by the absolute volume of Windows Phones in the market. That's why we're so pleased when other manufacturers also make Windows Phones."<br /> </blockquote>When asked if Nokia has a strategy for a scenario in which it becomes the <em>only</em> manufacturer of Windows Phones, Jutila replied "No, we don't have a strategy for that."<br /> <em>Sharif Sakr contributed to this report.</em><br /> </div></div>

Nokia marketing head: Customers' 'biggest complaint' is missing apps

We managed to grab a quick chat with Nokia's Global Head of Smartphone Marketing, Vesa Jutila, following the global launch of the Lum...

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Instagram's new 'Photos of You' feature lets users tag each other

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div class="image-container" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Instagram 35 lets users tag each other in photos" data-src-height="340" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/05/instagram-photos-of-you-1367514891.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">It was just a matter of time, really. We're well acquainted with Facebook letting us tag friends in our photos, so it's no shock that a similar feature has just spread to the social network's mobile darling, Instagram. The Android and iOS apps will both hit version 3.5 today, letting users tag others in a shot (whether or not they're human). A new Photos of You section has also been added to members' profiles, where you can see any photo linked to that account. As you might imagine, Instagram is already trying to head off potential privacy issues -- account holders have until May 16th before their Photos of You sections become public, and settings will let them turn down connections to any revealing (or simply inaccurate) images. The update is already available through the iTunes App Store and should be landing soon in Google Play. Hit up the source links if you've ever wanted to see how other Instagrammers see you.</div></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/65246801" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe></div>

Instagram's new 'Photos of You' feature lets users tag each other

It was just a matter of time, really. We're well acquainted with Facebook letting us tag friends in our photos, so it's no shock th...

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Incredimail launches for iPad with a photo inbox and built-in browser

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <img alt="Incredimail launches for iPad with a photo inbox and builtin browser" data-src-height="340" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/incredimail-ipad-1362675845.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;">Many of us whose parents discovered the internet in the past decade are all too familiar with Incredimail, mostly through the excessively cute stationery that would come attached to virtually every message. It's time to shake some of those old preconceptions now that an iPad version is here. The tablet port has stationery for anyone who craves it, but it's more focused on becoming a one-stop shop for everything associated with communication: it centers on a unified inbox for IMAP-based email accounts (POP3 soon) that shows quick peeks of both mail and any included links. Users won't have to leave the app at all for a few common non-messaging tasks. There's both an integrated web browser as well as a photo inbox that currently shows Facebook images, with plans to support Flickr, Instagram and Picasa in the long run. Those on Android devices or the iPhone will have to wait for their eventual turns at Incredimail, but everyone using Apple's tablet can give it a whirl today, for free -- even if they have no intentions of sending messages that could be confused with greeting cards.</div><div class="open" dir="ltr" id="pr_box" style="text-align: left;"> <div id="pr_box_button">Hide Press Release</div><div id="pr_text"> <em><strong>Incredimail Recreates the Email Experience</strong></em><br /> <em>Beginning with the iPad, Incredimail gives you your inbox with a better view</em><br /> <em>TEL AVIV, Israel & SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Perion Network Ltd. (NASDAQ: PERI), developer of the leading email client Incredimail, today debuted its latest version of Incredimail, forever changing the email experience for iPad owners. Incredimail for the iPad is the first email application truly adapted for the touch-screen, and is the first major redesign of email in over 20 years. It redesigns the inbox, unifies multiple email accounts, creates a photo inbox from your friends and family Facebook photos, and elevates messages so their contents can easily be seen by users at a glance, in an intuitive "magazine-by-touch" format.</em><br /> <em>"The team has been focused on the vision of bringing a new look to email and we're proud to deliver some exciting new tweaks to the best of traditional email."<br /> "We love email and believe it is, and will remain, a vital form of communication for years to come. But the new Incredimail is more than that. It is both a unified messaging application, including a photo inbox, as well as a bold new step in recreating the experience as needed for a multi-screen world, especially for newer mobile formats that have seen explosive growth," said Josef Mandelbaum, CEO of Perion. "We think users, especially our users, are going to love Incredimail for the iPad. It changes the entire email experience, tailored just for devices like the iPad. We look forward to extending this quality experience to the iPhone, Android and other devices later this year and eventually even bring this exciting new email to the desktop."</em><br /> <em>In its recent survey1, Perion found that consumers, especially second wave adopters, now prefer the iPad for reading and writing email, beating out PCs and smartphones by a wide margin. But the survey also found that typically passionate iPad users were not as pleased as they could be with their current email choices. Previous email applications were designed for the PC era, and until now, there has not been a major rethink of the email experience for a multi-screen mobile world.</em><br /> <em>Incredimail's striking visual design provides innovative functionality for users, to easily view and share email content, including articles, photos and videos. Incredimail redesigns the email experience, bringing the elegance and ease-of-use consumers love from the iPad to their inboxes.</em><br /> <em>Incredimail is available for free download in the App Store. Highlights that users can enjoy with Incredimail for the iPad include:</em><br /> <em>* Unified Inbox: Add as many email accounts as you want and view them in a unified inbox, or view each account separately. Incredimail currently supports Gmail, Yahoo!, AOL, and any other IMAP account.<br /> * Quick Peeks: See a quick preview of emails directly from the inbox, without having to open them.<br /> * Photo Inbox: In addition to the regular email inbox, enjoy a photo inbox that features photos from friends and family, keeping you fully up to date with the people that matter most (starting with Facebook photos, others will be added soon).<br /> * Link Previews (a.k.a. Snippets): All links sent to you including photos, videos and articles, are presented as a preview within the email for a pleasant and uninterrupted email experience. Links you send are also viewed as previews by the email recipient.<br /> * Email Stationery: Enjoy a specially designed email stationery collection to add a personal style to emails you send. Additional stationery and rich content coming soon.<br /> * Built-In Web Browser: Search and browse the web right inside your inbox, ensuring an uninterrupted experience.<br /> * Future features to include: POP3 email support, other social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and more photo integration with Picasa Web, Flickr and Instagram.</em><br /> <em>"Incredimail brings together the potential of new devices with the beautiful visual interface that iPad users enjoy," said Ron Harari, General Manager of Perion's Communication Products Division. "The team has been focused on the vision of bringing a new look to email and we're proud to deliver some exciting new tweaks to the best of traditional email."</em><br /> </div></div></div>

Incredimail launches for iPad with a photo inbox and built-in browser

  Many of us whose parents discovered the internet in the past decade are all too familiar with Incredimail, mostly through the excessively...

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AllThingsD: No native BlackBerry 10 Instagram app in sight

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><hr dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" /> <div class="copy post-body" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <div class="image-container" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="AllThingsD: No native BlackBerry 10 Instagram app in sight" data-src-height="532" data-src-width="800" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/01/rim-2013-01-24-600-12.jpg" /></div>The mobile OS that needs more big name apps to tether their wagons to insure a boost in user adoption is less one key photography app. According to <em>AllThingsD</em>, there is no native Instagram app in development for BB10 handsets -- at least for the foreseeable future. Quoting sources close to the popular social / photo filtering app, the report goes on to say that future development is also uncertain. Of course, the outfit is working on an Android port that will be usable on BlackBerry's latest, but with significant compromises to user experience to come as the cost of admission. The new operating system did secure native support from Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn and Twitter at launch.<br /> </div></div>

AllThingsD: No native BlackBerry 10 Instagram app in sight

The mobile OS that needs more big name apps to tether their wagons to insure a boost in user adoption i...

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Instagram now lets you browse your feed on the web

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><hr dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" /> <div class="copy post-body" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <div class="image-container" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Instagram now lets you check your feed on the web" data-src-height="389" data-src-width="500" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/02/instagram-web-eed.jpg" /></div>Instagram has already made the jump to the web with profile and individual photo pages, but it's fully embraced it today. You can now keep an eye on your entire Instagram feed in your desktop web browser (or mobile browser, for that matter), and make use of most of the functionality found in the mobile app. The key exception is that you still can't upload photos using the web interface; Instagram says that it's "about producing photos on the go, in the real world, in realtime." You can like and comment on photos, though, and take advantage of a responsive design that lets you narrow the site to a single column more reminiscent of the mobile app.<br /> </div></div>

Instagram now lets you browse your feed on the web

Instagram has already made the jump to the web with profile and individual photo pages, but it's...

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Editorial: Facebook vs. Vine is another chapter in the book of 'We Own You'

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><hr /> <div class="image-container" style="text-align: left;"> <img alt="Editorial Facebook vs Vine is another chapter in the book of 'We Own You'" data-src-height="386" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/01/brad-hill-pic-1359380274.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Oh man, Vine is fun. It is already apparent that with creativity and planning you can produce something approaching an epic experience in a 6-second video. <span>Vine is a perfect enhancement of Twitter's casual "what's happening now" social base. With stop-and-go videos that resemble animated GIFs, Vine puts greater movement and reality into life-casting. I showed it to my wife, who is not remotely a Twitter user, and she immediately began storyboarding microvideo adventures for our Serta sheep. So my message to all seven people who follow me on Vine: You've got a lot to look forward to.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Speaking of followers, let's consider the tectonic unfriending that transpired in the ongoing skirmish between Facebook and Twitter, the serfdom of social media users and the historical risks of walled gardens.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> A bit of background. Vine is a Twitter-owned mobile startup represented by an iOS-only app for iPhone / iPod touch (it works on iPads too) that turns the device's video function into a rudimentary real-time editing machine. The sweet-and-simple interface keeps the video rolling for as long as your finger is touching the screen, for six seconds. You can lift and replace your finger (stop and start) as fast and often as you like, creating jumpy, time-crunched stories like an entire commute to work or cooking an elaborate dinner dish.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> Don't get haughty about this before trying it -- unless you're an Android user, in which case haught away. There's been a fair amount of "So what?" user commentary posted since Vine launched last Wednesday, along with generally positive critical reviews for the app. Surfing Vine as a stand-alone service is rewarding, but as you might expect, quality and substance are spread unevenly, as in Twitter. The cute brigade is bulking up with cat and dog clips, foodies assume we have an appetite for 6-second visual timelines of dinner devouring, and stop-motion specialists are reborn in the new format.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> After joining this thing I started seeing Twitter photos differently, as underpowered Vine potentials. I am not a disciple of the internet's tidal migration to video, and I worry about already debilitated attention spans in the online citizenry. But Vine is too much fun on its own to quibble, and it's a perfect Twitter accessory.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> The people I stalk on Twitter don't seem to be rushing in: of the 385 individuals I follow, only 12 had signed up (via their Twitter accounts) by Sunday night. If I could expand my fledgling Vine community with Facebook friends ... oh, never mind. In a well-publicized<span> maneuver, Facebook cut Vine's access to Facebook's friend-finder API which external platforms use to connect their members to Facebook friends.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Facebook cut a path through <span>confused and generally negative media coverage by revising its </span>Facebook Platform Policies<span> for developers. The chief explanatory addendum related to the Vine cut-off says this: "</span><span>Replicating core functionality: You may not use Facebook Platform to promote, or to export user data to, a product or service that replicates a core Facebook product or service without our permission."</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"> You might not think that Vine's quick-vid, point-and-shoot app replicates a core function of Facebook, since uploading a video directly to FB can be a soul-tormenting experience that ends in failure and dismay. Facebook is in the media-sharing business for sure, and in that broader context the new clause apparently applies. A parallel context is an assumed reciprocal animosity between Facebook and Twitter -- when Facebook acquired Instagram, which was and is rabidly used in tweets, Twitter cut the same friend-finding cord to Facebook.</div><div class="image-container" style="text-align: left;"> <img alt="Editorial Facebook vs Vine is another chapter in the book of 'We Own You'" data-src-height="350" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/01/vine-on-phone.jpg" /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> The truest context is the largest, and shines light on the role of social media users in ecosystem battles. Facebook and Twitter are both naturally motivated to keep visitors magnetized to their respective platforms. Facebook doesn't mind its users stepping into the larger internet for unrelated activities. But the company fears losing its grip on addicted users who might be lured onto a platform that has out-innovated Facebook in a certain space. It's not really that Vine is "replicating core functionality" now, but it is anticipating what Facebook might want to launch and monetize in the future.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> These argumentative feints seem painfully trivial since anyone can join Vine at any time. For Facebook, maintaining scale in a relentlessly competitive environment involves plugging possible usage leaks. For users, the complaint is about an artificially fragmented social graph.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> Many people who are socially active online enjoy the variety and contrasting features of different platforms, and are happy with multiple residences and communities with more or less overlap. My three main hangouts -- Facebook, Twitter and SoundCloud -- are distinct from each other. Twitter is the most virtual; I haven't met most of the people I follow. Facebook is better for extending offline relationships onto the screen. My SoundCloud connections are kindred around music creation.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> Even with this degree of separation, users are right to expect porous boundaries when liquidity is wanted. Sharing content across walls is part of it; I can extend tweets to Facebook, and share SoundCloud tracks everywhere. The more important user need is accessing friendship connections in different networks. The desire might not arise often, but when it is blocked, the ensuing friction feels artificial and hostile.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> The issue arose in both the Instagram acquisition (by Facebook) and the Vine launch (by Twitter), for a reason that will become more common with new waves of mobile apps. <span>It is about the creative quality of those apps. When we create something above and beyond the bedrock social function of connecting to friends, we naturally want to gather together a large community for sharing. It is when sharing a creation, even a photo or 6-second video, that we want to flip our conception of our social graph from several independent networks to one integrated network. It's like a 3D painting that suddenly becomes deep when you look at it in a certain way.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote class="quote right"> If there is one giant lesson of the last 20 years in the online community industry, it is that walling the garden never succeeds in the long run.</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;"> When Facebook or Twitter cuts the cord which integrates our friendship circles (the friend-finding part of their API), it becomes frustratingly clear that we are owned. We don't freely own our social connections across the internet. Social users are owned assets, like dollars in the bank, guarded by platform policies and hedged by developmental roadmaps that seek to cut off competing apps at the knees. I'm not the first to speculate that Facebook might develop a Vine-like function pronto. If so, Facebook users might be delighted with it, and settle ever more comfortably into the walled garden. That's fine.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> But if there is one giant lesson of the last 20 years in the online community industry, it is that walling the garden never succeeds in the long run. AOL was the case study during the web's emergent period. Hugely successful during a span of years when mainstream confusion about the internet was neatly solved by carving out a comforting oasis, the company was eventually brought to a point of reinvention by better knowledge and better access. When you're a galaxy you can't hide the universe forever.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> Facebook has attained much greater scale than AOL ever did. This business with Twitter / Vine is just a snarky play in a continuing poker game. But as an ongoing strategy, disabling users from calling back to their friends from another social destination depersonalizes Facebook and contradicts the social ethos that it was founded on. No secrets, Mark? Then the users of whom you demand that standard should be allowed to tell their friends about Vine, and the next one, and the next. Beat your competitors if you can. But don't obscure them from your users.</div></div>

Editorial: Facebook vs. Vine is another chapter in the book of 'We Own You'

Oh man, Vine is fun. It is already apparent that with creativity and planning you can produce somet...

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