Hipstamatic is giving everyone access to its Oggl photo-sharing application, ending its invite-only policy more than two weeks since it launched. Users can download the app for iOS devices and start sharing their photos with the service’s 4 million users. Today’s release also comes with other additions, including profile updates, ability to set exposure, double-tapping to love a photo, and other improvements.

Developed to build a community for creative people, Oggl is a blend of Instagram and 500px. At launch, Hipstamatic told us that the app would offer a new way for its crafted filters to be experienced while also connecting the user with other likeminded creative people around the world. The app was intended to be used for those photos users couldn’t quickly upload to the Web and the ones people wanted to spend more time selecting and processing.

Oggl is an evolution of Hipstamatic’s original self-titled photo app. One could think about it as a movement away from a Polaroid to a point and shoot camera where now users are given the ability to make modifications to filters, lenses, and other settings before a picture is taken, along with other capabilities.

Invite-free, or is it?

For two weeks, the company has been allowing people to use Oggl only if they requested an invitation. Today, according to its iTunes listing, the time has come for everyone to experience using the app.

Users may notice that the Oggl website still says that users will need to request an invite. However, we’ve installed the app on an iOS device and registered a new user with no prompt for an invite code, so it appears that Hipstamatic just has not yet updated its website yet. We did reach out to the company for comment.

App updates

For those that previously had access to the app, Hipstamatic has released some new updates.

Profiles have been updated to allow users to include an artist statement — akin to a brief description about who you are.

Additionally, taking a photograph has been improved. The app now lets users tap-and-hold to focus before then dragging to set the exposure. This looks to be perhaps a valuable feature for photographers who wish to emphasize one element of the image without having the lighting be too bright or dark.

Since Oggl also includes a social network component, similar to Instagram’s news feed, users can double-tap on a photo to love it. Previously, feedback was only possible by single tapping on an image and then on the heart that appeared. This method simplifies the process.

Lastly, Hipstamatic has made battery and performance improvements to the app.

No Android version yet and Windows Phone is coming in June

Oggl is currently only available for iOS, but earlier this month, the company revealed that it will be landing on Windows Phone 8 devices, specifically on Nokia’s Lumia 925 flagship model. The company says that its Windows Phone app will be available in June when the Lumia 925 is sold.

For those Android users eager to use the app, Hipstamatic has not made any immediate plans to release a version.

➤ Oggl for iOS

Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service.

Been following the Tumblr/Yahoo deal? Notice how every company that gets acquired says the same things (we’re in it for the long haul. Nothing’s going to change. The new management “gets it.”), but then reality sets in and things get hazy? In this video, Vooza’s CEO reveals the TRUTH about what happens when you get acquired.

Vooza is a video comic strip about the startup world that’s been buzzed about by David Karp, Dennis Crowley, Jason Fried, and other tech bigwigs. Join Vooza’s email list for exclusive VIP access to more Vooza.

Type/Code, the interaction design studio behind Google’s Currents app, has launched Screensiz.es, a deceptively simple database of (…you guessed it!) screen sizes.

This free service lets you view smartphone, tablet, laptop and desktop screen sizes by pixel dimension, physical size and pixel density. It’s also able to order by demand, using “average monthly Google queries, and some fuzzy math.” No, the popularity sorting isn’t scientific, “but it’s better than nothing,” Type/Code says — we agree.

Nice subtle touches to the site include the ability to show and hide extra columns of data, allowing responsive-design obsessed developers to zero in on exactly what they need.

As we’ve said before, we’re big fans of single-purpose tools and resources that make your life easier. This is especially true when it comes to design, because sometimes a simple, straight-forward solution can solve the worst headaches. We’ve given plenty of attention to apps of this category in the past, including services like SnapRuler, Sip, Icon Strike and Red Pen.

To give Screensiz.es a try, check it out via the link below.

➤ Screensiz.es

Ride-sharing startup SideCar has updated its iOS and Android apps with a number of new features, including “detour mode” which lets riders modify routes, Facebook Connect login support, and a revamped rating system.

Competing against the likes of Uber and Lyft, SideCar is a service that turns everyone into a taxi driver. It uses a “pay what you want” model, whereby riders can specify the amount that they wish to “donate” to the driver. Anyone can be a driver, as long as they have a valid driver’s license, insurance, and a car. Currently the service is available in nine cities across the US, including San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, DC.

One of the features that separates SideCar from Lyft and Uber is the ability for riders to choose their routes. In some cases, there may be a need to make multiple stops or to deviate from the original destination — things happen. The app now has a detour mode whereby riders can make changes to their journey without needing to “mentally adjust” their donation. SideCar says that its app will automatically compute a new suggested amount based on the time and distance traveled.

To help encourage more people to use the app while also making it easier to log into the system, SideCar has implemented Facebook Connect.

Being able to easily access the service is really important — while reviewing the app for this post, I wasn’t able to remember what password I had entered in,which is why Facebook Connect would have been helpful in simplifying things. There’s no word as to whether the company will enable Google+ Sign-In in the future, however. Users can still log in with their SideCar credentials if they choose not to utilize Facebook.

Lastly, the updated apps include a new rating system to rate drivers. Previously, riders evaluated their journey using a five-star rating. Now, the company is giving some additional options it hopes will make it easier for riders to share their feedback.

Sidecar is looking to expand its services to other markets besides the nine it’s in now. It tells us that 250,000 rides have been provided since February 2012.

However, just like the other ridesharing services, the company has found itself under regulatory scrutiny, including receiving a cease and desist letter in California. But things might be picking up for it, as California regulators approved a proposal to begin the process of reviewing and modifying existing transportation laws to accommodate Sidecar and other smartphone app services.

➤ SideCar for iOS | Google Play

Photo credit: Thinkstock

Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service.

Microsoft and Google have apparently put their differences aside and are now building a compliant YouTube app together for Windows Phone. The app will likely be developed using YouTube’s iFrame API, will serve ads, and will be out as soon as next month.

“Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube’s API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks,” the two companies said in a joint statement to TNW. “Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time.”

The apparent agreement and decision to work together follows a few episodes of back and forth between the two companies. The timeline below puts today’s announcement into perspective.

On May 7, Microsoft rolled out a new YouTube app for Windows Phone 8 that the company developed itself. The app included extra features such as being able to download videos from the site, and no ads.

On May 15, Google sent Microsoft a cease-and-desist letter regarding its YouTube app, pointing out the company had violated some of YouTube’s terms of service. Google requested that Microsoft either block or pull the YouTube app from the Windows Phone Store by May 22.

On May 22, Microsoft released an updated app with the download functionality removed. The company also offered the following statement:

Microsoft updated the Windows Phone YouTube app to address the restricted video and offline video access concerns voiced by Google last week. We have been in contact with Google and continue to believe that our two companies can work together to hone an app that benefits our mutual customers, partners and content providers. We’re earning new customers every day, with IDC reporting recently that Windows Phone posted the largest year-over-year gain among leading operating systems. We look forward to working with Google to maintain a great YouTube experience for the growing number of people who rely on both of our respective products.

Today, it appears that Google has finally agreed to play ball, though it’s not clear what Microsoft had to offer to pull off a deal. Ultimately, it appears that every Windows Phone user who uses YouTube will benefit from a Google-approved app.

See also – Rivals: The long burning turf war between Google and Microsoft

Top Image Credit: Eric Piermont/Getty Images

Azimuth security researcher Dan Rosenberg claims to have found a “design flaw” in Samsung’s secure boot system for the Galaxy S4. When exploited, the security hole allows the owner of the device to install another operating system other than the version of Android used by Samsung.

The S4, which has already passed 10 million channel sales one month after launch, comes in a variety of models, most of which include an unlocked bootloader. This means most S4 owners can flash custom kernels and make other modifications to the software on their own devices.

Unfortunately, the AT&T and Verizon versions ship with a locked bootloader, which Rosenberg has detailed and in which he has discovered a vulnerability that lets users bypass it. As a result, S4 users on the two largest carriers in the US could potentially run custom unsigned kernels and recovery images, just like their peers.

Samsung’s secure boot feature only allows kernels with the company’s RSA-2048 digital signature to boot the device. Since it is essentially impossible to crack RSA with 2048-bit keys, at least with the computing power available to most, Rosenberg had to sidestep the security in another fashion.

The security researcher says he reverse engineered Samsung’s code to figure out the memory address where the bootloader will load the kernel to carry out the signature check. He found the memory address can be chosen in such a way that the bootloader’s check_sig() function is overwritten before the loader actually calls it, thus bypassing the need to check whether a valid signature is present or not.

Rosenberg offers a tool to work around the bootloader’s security system. That being said, it’s not easy an easy process, so we recommend waiting a bit until other hackers build up simpler solutions on top of his work. The FAQ says as much:

This all seems complicated. What about a step-by-step guide?

These tools are primarily intended for developers, who will be able to use them and provide ordinary users with easy ways to flash custom ROMs. Be patient, I’m sure your favorite ROM developer will come up with something for you.

If you’re still interested, head to this thread over at XDA Developers. All the files you need are hosted on GitHub.

Top Image Credit: Greg Wood / Getty Images

Facebook Page owners this week have noticed that their Page Insights data has not been updated since last week, as far back as May 13. Facebook has confirmed the issue with The Next Web and is currently working on a fix.

“Page Insights data from 5/13 onward is currently delayed in Page Insights,” a Facebook spokesperson told TNW. “This is a known issue, and we are working to update our systems ASAP.”

In a thread on the Facebook Community Forum, over 30 comments were posted this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday as users realized the issue has persisted for much longer than it should have. While the thread was started six months ago by a user seeing a similar issue last year, all replies on it have been about the issue from this week from users searching for an explanation.

The only reply from a Facebook Help Team employee by the name of “Aiden.” He pointed to a Help Center link with this explanation:

When you visit your Page Insights, you should see data about how people have been using your Page. It takes about 2 days for today’s data to start showing up. If your Page’s insights aren’t loading correctly, let us know.

Our Community Director Matt Navarra checked our own Facebook Page and found that it isn’t showing Insight Data past May 15. Another commenter noted that she wasn’t seeing data beyond the 13th until today, when it updated to the 15th — either way it’s still more than a week behind.

Given that this issue has been going on for 11 days, Page owners are understandably getting frustrated as they are unable to track their campaigns and promotions. This prompted us to look into the problem and get in touch with Facebook for a better explanation.

We’ll update this article when the company fixes the issue and if it shares more details.

See also – Facebook adds realtime Page updates and Graph Search insights for developers

Top Image Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

News-aggregation is a pretty busy space as things stand, with the likes of Flipboard and Pulse leading the way, and other emerging social platforms such as Njuice showing promise. There’s always room for one more though, right? Right.

Fireplug for iOS has been quietly plugging away in the background for several months already, but in light of a handful of recent tweaks and updates, we thought we’d take a quick look under the hood. We’ve heard good things.

How it works

When you first launch the app, you’ll be invited to create a new account – you can do so via Facebook or email.

Before you’ve lifted a finger, the app already serves up a slew of stories in your personal stream – this covers business, technology, sport and everything in between. But given this isn’t tailored, there’s a fair chance it won’t be to your liking – for my stream it had a slew of American sports for example. This is why you set about building your own streams.

It’s also worth adding here, if you choose to connect your Facebook account you’ll see an additional ‘Social Stream’ menu option which reels in articles shared by your Facebook Friends. But that may not be for you.

For each publication within each category, you simply hit the ‘Plus’ button and select which Stream you wish to add it to – you can choose to create a new stream at this point too.

If you don’t see a publication of your choice, you can hit ‘Search’ instead and chances are, if it has a website, it will show up.

You can share or bookmark any article simply by long-pressing it and selecting your desired action.

It’s very easy to delete publications from a specific stream too, by pulling down the little tab in the top-right – this also lets you delete an entire stream if you wish.

Things start to get really interesting in the ‘My Profile’ section, however. Fireplug essentially tracks every article you read, and serves up stats based on your history. This includes articles you’ve read and shared, as well as the number of different sources you’ve used.

Fireplug also draws on a gamification aspect, letting you become a subject-matter master – the more you read on a particular subject, the more credit you get. Your credit score is then categorized based on the contents of the articles you’re reading.

This is a great idea, but isn’t without its flaws – just because you’ve accessed a Web page, this doesn’t mean you’ve read it properly and retained all the information. But I guess the idea here is more of a signifier – if you’ve read 1,000 articles on Apple’s upcoming court case, for example, chances are you’re not blagging it.

This competitive element does have a slightly gimmicky air to it, but the stats page and the overall ‘become an expert’ concept is sound. It would genuinely be interesting to know over the course of a year what I’ve read about most and which publications I always keep coming back to.

While Fireplug may not be quite as slick or ‘visual’ to browse as Flipboard, it is still a very well constructed app. In many ways, it’s actually easier to personalize than its peers and it’s incredibly intuitive to use – if you’re looking for an alternative news-aggregrator, Fireplug is worth your time.

Finally, Fireplug has also just launched a Chrome extension, which syncs your PC-based reading with your mobile endeavors. So all we need now is an Android app and we’re ready to roll.

Fireplug for iPhone/iPod touch is available to download for free now.

➤ Fireplug | iOS

Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service

Feature Image Credit – Thinkstock

App.news is a social news reader app for iOS that uses App.net, an ad-free social network that recently hit 100,000 registered users, to serve up interesting articles and original journalism.

It’s easy to compare App.net with Twitter, given that both services encourage users to create an account using an @username and post short messages – 140 characters for Twitter, 256 for App.net – for followers to read in real-time. App.net offers a social feed and API, however, that other developers can leverage to prioritize individual aspects of the service, such as online file-storage and photo-sharing.

App.news, however, sets out to give users a streamlined news reading experience by stripping out any multimedia content contained within articles, similar to Flipboard and Pocket.

How it works

Launching the app will immediately show a stream of messages posted by various news publications on App.net. Users aren’t required to log-in at this point; literally anyone can download the app and start trawling the service for an interesting story.

Headlines are shown as brief messages, alongside a tiny profile picture on the left hand-side and a URL on the right. The design isn’t much to look at, but it’s clean and refreshingly simple to navigate. This is a bare-bones experience, in short, with little thought given to aesthetics or visual flair.

A quick tap will show an excerpt from the piece, combined with the original App.net post underneath. Users can then hit the eye icon above to see the original article on the mobile Web, or tap the page symbol to see a clean text-only version, similar to Pocket.

The reading experience

While looking at an excerpt, it’s also possible to flip to a new article simply by swiping from left-to-right, or vice versa, across the screen at anytime. As mentioned previously, it’s perfectly functional but lacks the polish and design enjoyed by similar services.

It’s not a deal-breaker, but it certainly detracts from the overall reading experience. As with physical newspapers and magazines, part of the enjoyment that stems from reading articles is attributed to the layout and design. Creative and thoughtful design can make a huge difference when wondering whether to read a feature to the very end.

App.net integration

The connectivity with App.net means that users can also log-in with their dedicated account and see a stream of articles that have been shared through the individual accounts they’re following. It works in the exact same way as the global stream, but helps tailor and restrict the sheer quantity of articles being posted to the service.

Through the stream, users can also reply and repost stories that they like, or choose to share by email, Twitter or Facebook. It’s not particularly innovative, but does provide a touch-point and help remind users that they’re directly interacting with App.net.

Tapping the menu icon in the top left-hand corner of the screen also reveals an area where the user can search for specific stories using a hashtag. Previous hashtags appear in a list below; an accessible way to track ongoing or breaking stories.

The bottom line

App.news is one of the only dedicated news reader apps on iOS that showcases stories shared through App.net. It’s a robust and compelling proposition, but one that falls short due to a bland interface and design.

If Information Addicts can find a way to reinvigorate the app’s image, this could be one of the most useful and compelling apps for App.net. However, it’s also worth noting that App.news displays ads along the bottom of the screen – something which goes against the philosophy of App.net – but offers an ad-free version via an $2.99 in-app purchase.

“Even though App.net has promised to be an ad-free platform, we have always been open to apps using this business model and think that there is a place for them in the ADN app ecosystem,” Aaron Blyth, Marketing Manager at App.net said.

➤ App.news | iOS

Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service.

Image Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Technology holds the key to automating many of the repetitive and arduous tasks associated with housekeeping. It’s why products such as Nest, an intelligent thermostat that automatically adjusts the temperature in your home, have proven so popular.

The next phase, it would seem, is building a human interface based on voice commands. Being able to simply walk through the front door and say, “turn the sprinklers on outside” would be pretty useful, but what if your house could also talk back?

Tom Coates has taken the first step to realizing this utopia by building a Twitter feed for his San Francisco home. The ‘House of Coates’ account now posts regular tweets based on the temperature, lighting and weather, or if a plant needs watering outside.

Just so you know, the Bedroom Light is now on.

— House of Coates (@houseofcoates) May 24, 2013

It even mentions Tom when action needs to be taken. One example includes the line: “Hey @tomcoates, I just noticed some movement in the sitting room. Is that you?”

Now, this setup isn’t designed to give Coates the ability to issue new commands and tasks. Instead, it’s just a rather novel way of receiving notifications about the state of his home, or chores that need to be completed. What’s really clever is that it uses conversational language; something that anyone can understand and interact with.

It’s just hit 68 inside – that’s rather lovely. I’m pretty sure Tom will be happy about that.#Twine

— House of Coates (@houseofcoates) May 23, 2013

Coates has a number of sensors scattered around his home to help identify and track all of this information. These include several Belkin WeMo switches to help control the lights, as well as a Twine device to track temperature and moisture.

He then programmed all of these gadgets to trigger automated online actions using If This Then That (IFTTT), a free Web tool that can react on Facebook, Evernote, LinkedIn and a whole host of other services based on rules pre-set by the user.

It’s not just brilliant, but a great bit of fun too. Even if you dislike the idea of having your own personal Jarvis from Iron Man, the Twitter feed is well worth checking out. We promise it’ll put a smile on your face.

Image Credit: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images

Kim Dotcom, the Internet entrepreneur behind file-sharing service Megaupload and its successor, simply titled MEGA, has released a new single from his upcoming album today.

Reports of a full-length studio record date back as far as January 2012, but details of the release have been pretty scarce since then.

Dotcom released the first song from the album in August last year, called ‘Party Amplifier’, on SoundCloud and YouTube. In the video description for the latter, Dotcom said he loved the band The Prodigy and that this had “inspired me to do this song.”

Dotcom tweeted his latest effort, titled ‘Dance’, earlier today. As the name suggests, the track is clearly aimed at the dance floor and includes a number of electronic loops, beats and vocal samples.

At the time of writing, the track has received almost 9,000 plays on SoundCloud and has been met with some pretty positive reviews in the comments section underneath.

Dotcom first expressed his musical prowess in December 2011 with the ‘Megaupload Song’, which to date has surpassed 14 million plays on YouTube. It was also notable for featuring cameo performances by Kanye West, Alicia Keys and will.i.am.

Musical endeavors aside, Dotcom is still involved in a legal dispute regarding his previous Internet company, Megaupload. The Internet entrepreneur published a white paper last month co-authored by two lawyers, Robert Amsterdam and Ira P. Rothken, criticizing the way the case was carried out by the United States government.

Image Credit: Phil Walter/Getty Images