Instagram releases new filters and effects

By Nicole Arce, Tech Times

Instagram takes a jab at photo-editing mobile apps with nine new and slightly more complicated photo editing tools in its latest update.
The photo-sharing site, whose popularity rests mainly on the fact that it allows users to take and share good-looking photos without going through the rigors of Photoshopping them, takes a strategy shift with the newest Instagram 6.0 app. Instead of snapping a picture, choosing a filter and sharing it with friends, Instagram users can now choose to customize individual filters.
For example, using the Valencia filter can lend an antique faded look to photos, but it can wash out colors in some instances. This time, users can now adjust the strength of the Valencia filter, and all other Instagram filters, to maintain the subtle sepia fade without removing all brightness from the photo.
Aside from adjusting filter strength, the updated app also includes a variety of editing tools that offer more than Photos on iOS but less than a full-blown professional photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop. Instagram now lets users tweak photo brightness, contrast, warmth, saturation, shadows, highlights and sharpness and darken the photo's edges for a vintage feel. Users can also view their photos in before-and-after mode to see what kind of changes they have been making.
"When you go to select a filter, you'll now see a new wrench icon," writes Instagram in a blog post. "Tap it and you'll find a tray of photo editing tools ready for you to explore."
For now, there is no knowing if Instagram's more advanced editing tools will be loved or loathed by Instagram's 200 million users. One group of users are casual snappers who take pictures of whatever comes to their fancy, choose a filter and post to Instagram in a few seconds. Another group takes their photography more seriously and might even give their photos a run on Photoshop before sharing their creations with the rest of the world.

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Windows 8.1 Update will be available on April 8

By Wayne Williams / www.betanews.com

Microsoft has just unveiled the Windows 8.1 Update at Build, and it will be rolling it out to users of the tiled operating system on April 8. MSDN subscribers can download it today.
Thanks to leaks, we already knew a lot about it, and even posted our thoughts here previously on BetaNews. I called it a Frankenstein product stitched together with compromises, which it undoubtedly is. My colleague Mark Wilson calls it the final nail in Windows 8.1’s coffin, but Brian Fagioli thinks it’s great. You’ll soon be able to try it out for yourself, but in the meantime here’s what it offers.

First up, yes the OS will automatically boot to the desktop if you’re using a keyboard and mouse system. Great news for many people who hate the Modern UI.
There are two new buttons on the Start screen next to your username -- Search, which opens the Search charm, and Power, which lets you shutdown, restart, or send your computer to sleep. There’s a new PC Settings button on the Start screen as well, so you don’t have to mess around in Charms if you want to make changes in Windows.
Mouse users can now sort the Start screen in a more traditional way. Right-click an app and a context menu will pop up that will allow you to unpin that item from Start screen and/or taskbar, resize its tile or uninstall it. You can select and move tiles around by holding down Ctrl and selecting a bunch at once.
You can also now pin Windows Store apps to the taskbar by right-clicking an app, or holding down on it, and selecting Pin to Taskbar. The Windows Store app is pinned there by default. The OS can display all running apps on the taskbar.
Windows Store apps now come with a title bar, making it easier to minimize or close them, and split left or right. You can access the taskbar from within running apps. The taskbar also now pops up when you move your mouse to the bottom of a running Modern UI app, so you can easily switch between apps and "legacy" programs.
The store UI is being improved to make it easier to use with the keyboard and mouse too.
If, like me, you prefer to have the Apps screen as the default rather than the Start screen, there’s a new alphabetical view which lets you filter apps by letter.
When you install a new app, it will be highlighted in the Apps list to make it easier to find.

OKCupid asking users to stop using Mozilla Firefox

By: The Associated Press

SAN JOSE, CALIF.—An online dating service is encouraging its users to stop using the Firefox web browser because the new CEO of the company that makes it supported California’s former gay marriage ban.

Mozilla, the non-profit maker of Firefox, infuriated many employees and users last week by choosing co-founder Brendan Eich — who invented JavaScript — to lead the Mountain View, Calif., company.

In 2008, Eich gave $1,000 to the campaign to pass California’s Proposition 8. The ballot measure outlawed same-sex marriages in California until the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a lower-court ruling that struck it down.

OkCupid.com updated its home page Monday so people who access the site with Firefox see a message saying,

“Mozilla’s new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples. We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid.”

However, readers who want to keep using Firefox are able to access the site with a link at the bottom.

BlackBerry to release BlackBerry Messenger for Windows Phone by July

By:Lynn Schindler / www.inferse.com

Barely five months since the BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) Messenger app shelled out a space for Android based handsets and iPhones. Being a cross platform messaging service, BlackBerry Messenger, popularly recited as BBM, is accepted quickly and now that has over 85 million monthly active users.
During the MWC 2014, BlackBerry’s CEO, John Chen confirmed the launch of messenger for Windows Phone and now, has reiterated that BBM will soon be brought to the Windows Phone in fiscal Q2, probably between May and July. BBM is also slated to be released on Nokia X Software platform. The app will be snowballed into other Nokia devices, including some Lumia devices, too.
However, the point of contention is the fiscal year that Chen referred to at the conference. The Q2 of the fiscal year in Canada ends in June, whereas in the US it ends on March 31^st. Unless Chen was referring to the Canadian fiscal year, it seems quite unlikely that the BBM app will have Windows Phone users enthralled with its benefits, considering the US fiscal has almost drawn to a close.
Once the app is successfully launched for Windows Phone and Nokia X users, they will have an easy access to a sweeping set of features, inclusive of BBM chats, groups and channels, and new emoticons.  The users will be empowered to have instant BBM chats – both private and group, with group chats enabling them to conversate with up to 50 people at the same time. In addition, BBM users for Windows Phone and Nokia X will now be able to share photos, audio messages and other documents via a single tap. Over a 100 new emoticons will effectively add to people’s communication pool by granting expression in copious ways.
Launched in 2005, BBM etched its way out to become one of the best-known mobile apps for messaging and private social networking. Immensely popular for its privacy and control features, BBM has already embarked on a journey to thwart WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app. Once the much-anticipated app hits the Windows Phone Store, it would only be a matter of a touch before the users are able to reap its networking benefits.