Popular fitness app RunKeeper has had a host of updates and new features added this week, which mean that users can now access more free training plans and coaching advice than ever before.

RunKeeper has always offered tailored advice and training programmes to paying users, but now the team behind the app has realised that people get much better fitness results when they have to follow a strict plan (which we're not surprised by one bit). So, a range of new training features have been added to the app for all users.

In a blog post about the new training programmes Chas Wagner of RunKeeper writes:

"Whether your goal is to lose weight, complete a race of a certain distance, or do so with a specific time goal in mind, now you can follow a detailed plan from your favorite coach that will tell you what to do each day, and provide guidance in your ear as you are doing it."

If you haven't already tried it out yet, then you can download RunKeeper from iTunes and Google Play for free.

[Via Connected Health Via RunKeeper]

It's been five months since we first heard about Facebook's acquisition of the hipster photo app and today, two weeks after the deal was officially cleared by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), it's official, Facebook and Instagram are now an item. AWH.

For those worried that this means the end of your favourite photo app, fear not, the Instagram team assured its fans it'll only be changing location on its blog today (well for now anyway):

"While our team is making the short move to the Facebook offices, Instagram isn't going anywhere. The Instagram app and its features will stay the same one you know and love, and we'll keep working together to build a better Instagram for everyone."

In a blog post (that actually seems to have crashed under everyone's incessant clicking) Facebook also reaffirmed its plans to keep the two entities separate, (well for now anyway):

"As we said from the beginning, we are committed to building and growing Instagram independently.

"Instagram will continue to serve its community, and we will help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook's strong engineering team and infrastructure. We also can't wait to work with the talented Instagram team to improve the mobile experience."

Interesting. But let's hope they don't start messing around with the Instagram mobile experience because it's about 4,545 times better than Facebook on our phones.

Pop sensation, entrepreneur, eccentric dresser and Mother Monster Lady Gaga has revealed on her social network LittleMonsters.com that she'll be releasing her next album, Artpop, as a dedicated app packed full of awesome Gaga-esque content.

The Mother Monster wrote about the thinking behind the app in a status update over on LittleMonsters.com:

"The most major way to fully immerse yourself in ARTPOP is through the APP. ARTPOP will be released as an IPAD, iPhone, mobile and computer compatible application (WORLD) that is completely interactive with chats, films for every song, extra music, content, gaga inspired games, fashion updates, magazines and more in the works! I will also be able to upload new things to the APP all the time, the same way I upload to Twitter and LM.com. You inspired me to create something that communicated with images, because YOU do, YOU communicate with me and each other with .gifs and pictures, and artwork, graphics ALL DAY 24/7 YOU'RE an ARTPOP generation."

Oh yeah, she sounds totally insane, but we love her passion and clearly so do her army of Little Monsters.

[Via Little Monsters]

So many of us tweet random thoughts, links and photos throughout the day, yet there's no surefire way to export all of our pointless musings or even properly search through the crazy things we've been ranting about since we first signed up to the highly addictive service.

Well enter a new iOS app called Tweet Keeper, which gives you a lot more control over your Twitter data.

Once you've downloaded the app you add in a username and it'll start collecting together old tweets, before presenting them in a list and allowing you to search through them and even export them all as a spreadsheet or plain text file if you're that interested in what you've been saying.

Unfortunately Twitter only provides access to your last 3,200 updates but for most users that's probably a big chunk of everything they've been saying. If you're a serial Twitter user like me you'd probably rather not rewind any further back to see the silly things you were moaning about well over a year ago anyway.

Once you've set up an archive for your tweets all future updates will be sent there too and interestingly you can set up seven more archives. The app page on iTunes suggests that you use that space to stay up to date with other interesting Twitter users, but we really know that it'll be a useful tool for super social media stalkers who need a crazy and reliable way to keep tabs on certain people ALL OF THE TIME.

You'll have to pay £1.49 for the Tweet Keeper app, but it actually provides a very handy service so if you want to permanently save your tweets and really care about keeping your old content safe, then it's well worth it.

Available from iTunes for £1.49.

Today Amazon has rolled out its Appstore to the European market, bringing it to the UK as the "Amazon Appstore for Android", to Germany, France and Italy as "App-Shop" and to Spain as "Tienda Apps".

The Appstore is available for phones and tablets running Android via a new app download that can be accessed through Amazon.

Those in the US have been able to download apps from Amazon's Appstore for some time now, but from today those in Europe will be able to take advantage of its perks, including free app of the day promotions, one-click payments and a whole host of other cool features.

[Via The Next Web]

If you're looking to do something a little bit different in the capital over the next few weeks, then ditch the usual tourist haunts and take a little wander around some of London's hidden waterside areas. Yes really. It'll be fun, we PROMISE.

The WWF has recently ventured into the world of mobile, launching a free smartphone web app called The Waterside Challenge, which has been designed to get people walking around some of London's top nature hotspots. The app activates once you visit one of ten special locations and allows you to discover new wildlife, take part in quizzes and challenges, watch videos, find cool Augmented Reality surprises along the way too and learn how you can make a difference to your local community.

The new app is part of The Panda Made Me Do It, a WWF campaign to reward and encourage the most awesome pro-environmental behaviour. Neil Gunn, Head of Digital Strategy at WWF-UK said:

"This is the first time we've jumped into apps in a major way. We think that by combining the beauty of the natural world with the rich information available in the digital world, people might get even more out of their weekend trip to the riverbank."

Now admittedly it's a bit twee to spend your weekend wondering around looking at wildlife, but great if you want some fresh air (OK fresh may be a bit of a leap), a stroll through a different area or if you have kids to entertain, because they love nothing more than running around trying to spot hidden creatures.

As The Waterside Challenge is a web app you can access it via iOS and Android devices, just visit wwf.org.uk/waterside for more information and it'll work at ten special locations in and around London town, including Tottenham Marshes, Highgate Ponds, Middlesex Filter Beds, Camley Street Natural Park, New River Walk, Regent's Canal and the Olympic Waterways Mini-trail that runs from Hackney Wick along the canal to the Olympic Park.

There are so many apps available for creating and keeping track of your to-do lists, whether you want a simple and intuitive solution (we're big fans of Clear) or something a little more detailed with sharing options (give Wunderlist a whirl).

Now a new iOS app, created by Dave Feldman of CrunchFund, aims to make your to-do lists even more simple and (hopefully) doable. Just like a post-it note, everyday the app presents you with a blank screen, which you can choose to fill from a drawer full of tasks that you've already written out or add in new ones. You can then mark tasks as completed or send them back to the drawer until a later date.

Dave Feldman explained the thinking behind Stky to TechCrunch and said:

"Most of us aren't disciplined enough to maintain a to-do list effectively.

"Despite our best intentions it gets out of hand. One day we can't face the 200 items in our "today" list. So we close the app, grab a sticky note, write five things on it, and slap it on our monitors."

As much as we hate to say it, as we're sat surrounded by awesome tech and hundreds of thousands of apps, sometimes there's nothing quite like grabbing a blank post-it note, so we hope Stky will be able to give us that experience on our mobiles in a much more organised way.

Available from iTunes for £1.49.

[Via TechCrunch]

Despite the fact that tabloids dissect what Kate Middleton is wearing day in and day out, the world has decided that there should be an app solely dedicated to the princess and her classic (read:dull) sense of style.

The app, called Kate's Style List, aims to keep her biggest fans, fashion lovers and stalkers up-to-date about where she's been spotted, what she's been wearing and how to copy her looks.

As far as apps go Kate's Style List is just on the right side of ridiculous (for examples of those on the other side, check out Knocked App and I Just Made Love), but we still can't help but feel if you're downloading an app dedicated solely to the material that one person wears on their body then you need to have a long, hard think about your life.

Available from iTunes for 69p.

We're not sure whether there's something in the air this Friday or whether the Mayans were right and the sky is about to come crashing down on us all and bring about the apocalypse. First Lauren Conrad mutilated some books Saw-style, then we discovered an app that can impregnate your friends and family and now here's another one that rewards your child if they do chores with regular reward-like things, such as points! presents! junk food! oh and your parental love.

The app called ChoreMonster (which is currently in beta) sounds great in theory, giving your kids awesome incentives to do boring things, like clear the table, in a fun and colourful way. However, it's not until you delve a little deeper into the rewards that everything becomes a little less fun, modern and digital parenting in 2012 and more sad, lonely Dickensian workhouse.

Fair enough we all know kids sometimes don't want to do things and sometimes bribing them (or maybe a better word is "encouraging them") is the only way to teach them to help out around the house and become better little human beings. However, it's the promise of "anything from hugs to money to a camping trip" that worries us.

That's right HUGS. HUGS. WTAF. Now I'm no expert parent (I'm no parent but I have got a small sister, so you know, I feel like I have a leg to stand on here), but I really don't think affection should be used as a bargaining chip to clear away the plates or shove the dog outside, right? RIGHT? That's not to say offering them money is great either, but everyone's currently whining about how young people have no work ethic, so maybe forcing them to get out there and earn cash as a toddler could have its strengths.

ChoreMonster is available from iTunes for free.

[Via Jezebel Image via lonelydimple]

A new app has been released by Sydney-based Appy Dude (we hope his name is already ringing alarm bells) that's caused a lot of controversy over in Australia because it allows you to impregnate people.

No, no, it doesn't turn your phone into some kind of twisted sex toy from the land of Saw, it's just like those other 35,874,093 apps that let you make someone fatter or give them a huge nose, but instead it makes their stomach look like they're nine months pregnant.

The app called... wait for it... Knocked App (we couldn't make this up) has caused a stir amongst family planning groups for being insensitive and trivialising the very serious issue of teen pregnancy, whereas the developers have clearly pulled out the "awh it's just fun and totally harmless" card.

Now we know what some of you are thinking, come on, it IS just harmless fun, right? Well yes, we get the arguments in defence of Knocked App (do we have to say it AGAIN?), we've all tried those silly apps that add 100lbs to your friends or show you what you might look like in 80 years. But you know what? They get old VERY quickly and you soon realise that you're not 12 years old and it's the modern day (and slightly more realistic) equivalent of just drawing someone with a crayon with a dick on their head. Or something like that.

But Appy Dude's argument is kind of all screwed up, because he suggests people are already using the app to terrify the living crap out of people:

"We really just wanted to give people a laugh. It's had an amazing response. It's all over Facebook with teenage girls scaring their mums and stuff like that."

We also don't like Appy Dude's approach to dating either, although that's hardly a surprise, as he says:

"You can meet someone and conceive with them with just the press of a button."

Well Appy Dude, that has always been the dream.

FFS WORLD.

[Via Digital Trends]

Instagram has had another shiny update today, which includes Photo Maps and a new look to profiles, the explore tab and hashtag and location pages.

Although there's a cleaner, whiter look to pages and your profile, the key feature of the 3.0 update is definitely the Photo Maps, which pin all of your geotagged snaps to a map that you can add to your profile.

Kevin Systrom, the CEO and co-founder of Instagram, explains to Mashable that the decision to add in maps was made so we can all access photos from the past with ease:

"Up until now we made it too difficult to access [those old photos], you had to scroll back pages and pages. We want to let you browse those photos in a fast and efficient manner, and we realized that the way to organize them wasn't time, but [location] ... There's something really powerful in exploring who someone is on Instagram through a geo versus a time display."

Before you publish the map to your profile you're warned that crazies might be able to see it and work out where you've been, where you are and where you're likely to be. Give this some thought, but not too much if you're already geotagging everything you tweet and take a photo of anyway...

Don't worry though, the team have put a lot of consideration into the privacy implications of the new map feature and from now on you'll be able to decide whether a photo you've uploaded should be shown on the map and you can go through old photos and delete them from certain locations too, we'd start with your flat.

If you're lucky enough to have got your hands on a new MacBook Pro, then you're only going to want to know which the best apps are to make the most of its incredible retina display.

We've pulled together a few different lists over the past few months for the new iPad (check out New iPad 3: 10 Best retina display apps to get you started), but now new app directory Retina Mac Apps is an easy-to-use and regularly updated library of only retina display-compatible applications solely for your MacBook.

You can browse by category, release date and name, or just scroll through the big icons and click on anything that looks interesting.

[Via Lifehacker]

Today social bookmarking site Pinterest has announced that you can now download its app for iPad and Android devices too, so you no longer need an iPhone to happily pin away your days.

The Android version has been in the pipeline for some time now and promises to work just as well on mobile phones as it does on tablets running Google's OS.

The iPad version works in the same way as the iPhone one does, we're just surprised it's taken so long to get to our fancy, swiping tablets because there's really no better way to browse through great looking photos than on an iPad.

If you're an iPhone user you've probably already got the Pinterest app, but you will notice a number of updates today so you don't feel too left out, including faster image loading time and a new two column layout.

The Pinterest app for the iPhone and iPad is available from iTunes for free and you can download the Android version from Google Play for free too.

[Via Pinterest]

Our sister site Connected Health has been keeping a close eye on health tech company Withings over the past few months, as the company has launched a range of gadgets designed to keep track of how your body's doing, but now it's ventured into the app space too to be your personal health companion...

Over the past year few companies have stood out in the health and wellbeing tech space as much as Withings. The company has brought out scales for adults, blood pressure monitors and scales for the whole family.

Up until now dedicated apps for each device were accessible via your mobile or you could track the data via your desktop. However, this week Withings has launched its new Health Companion app, which aims to provide users with information about their weight, physical activity, heart and sleep data all from one dashboard on your phone.

The free application is like a central hub for all of the data the other Withings gadgets collect together, or just the stats that you add about you and your body manually. All of the information is then displayed in a super simple and accessible way with a visual representation of a user's health in the form of a butterfly, with four wings that represents different parts of the body, weight is pink, activity is orange, sleep is blue and your heart is green. As you'd expect, the wings grow and shrink based on how you're doing throughout the day. This cute little visualisation is a great idea and reminds us of the little flower thing on the front of the Fitbit, which is a simple and easy way to see how you're doing throughout the day without wading through a whole load of boring data.

It's not just Withings gadgets and tools that can get in on the action with the new app, the Health Companion also gathers data from BodyMedia FIT armbands, the Zeo Personal Sleep Coach and Runkeeper, as well as 60 other partner applications.

Cedric Hutchings, the CEO and co-founder of Withings, said:

"We are really pleased to be launching this new application as it encompasses many of the objectives which we have been working towards as a company. We wanted to offer the world a friendly and effective way to reach a healthier lifestyle. A companion that turns long-term goals into achievable targets, that motivates you to take action for yourself and finally that shows you how healthy you are, without worrying about numbers."

The Health Companion app is available from iTunes for free now and will soon be launched for Android devices, according to the official release from Withings.

[Via Connected Health]

We're big fans of Instagram here at Shiny Shiny, but we think it's just as important to follow awesome and talented people as it is to showcase the snaps you've taken yourself.

We've already written up a list telling you a few of the best celebrities and publications we think you should be following, but over the next few weeks we're really keen to find some of the best artists and photographers that Instagram has to offer and explore how they choose to visualise their work with the help of the ever popular photo app.

This week we'll be looking at tattoo artists, we've picked ten of our favourites for the gallery below, but if we've missed someone off that you think really deserves a mention then please get in touch using the comment box below and we'll update the post as we go along...

A big thank you to those who sent in suggestions for this list on Twitter too!

Related: 10 Best celebrities to follow on Instagram

Despite the huge amount of innovative technology being used at the London 2012 Olympics this summer, a Guardian photographer called Dan Chung made headlines last week for taking all of his sporty shots using only an iPhone 4S and a handful of accessories.

Although the photographer probably had access to hundreds of state-of-the-art cameras for the event, we weren't surprised he chose to use Apple's latest handset, because it's more than capable of taking great looking images, certainly makes for an interesting challenge and of course gives his brilliant photos even more exposure.

However, as self-confessed app lovers here at Shiny Shiny, we were even more interested in the fact Chung used photo app Snapseed to tweak his images after taking them.

So we decided to put Snapseed to the test to see if it's really worthy of the Olympics.

Effects and Filters

Some photo apps have pages and pages of actions buried deep inside confusing menus. However, Snapseed just has a simple menu bar running along the bottom of the screen, which includes basic editing features, such as 'crop', 'straighten' and 'brightness/contrast', alongside a number of different filters, including 'grunge', 'drama' and 'vintage'. There are then a few more advanced options at the far right of the menu bar, like 'frames', 'tilt-shift' and 'centre focus'.

The great thing about Snapseed is that you have complete control over each editing option and effect. It's not an Instagram-like experience that allows you to pick a filter and expects you to live with it, you can tweak everything to your heart's content, adjusting the likes of frames, brightness, contrast and the intensity of the effect.

Filter lovers won't be disappointed, although it may look like you only have a limited number to play around with, if you pick the 'vintage' effect you can stick with that initial option or delve a little deeper and choose between different styles under that label, they all look decidedly vintage but have distinct differences too.

User Experience

Snapseed makes full use of the iPhone's multi-touch screen, because to make changes to your images you swipe from left to right or up and down.

You can choose which elements are being adjusted by each gesture, but because that sounds a little confusing to a newbie every screen has an optional overlay as well, which clearly explains how to get started.

Sharing

As you'd expect from a comprehensive photo app, you can save your creations to your camera roll or share them via email, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

It seems developers now recognise that some users like to tweak their photos in a variety of apps, cherry-picking the best features from each, whether it be a border from there or a particularly awesome tilt-shift effect from here. So once you've finished playing around with your image using Snapseed, you can send it directly to the likes of Picfx, MagicHour, Lo-Mob, Camera+ or ColorSplash, which just so happen to be some of our all-time favourite photo apps.

Cool little additions

There's always a 'restore' button in the top right of the screen (it kinda looks like a mini photo), which shows you what your main image looked like before you started messing around with it.

There's online help and tutorials if you're struggling with the app or want to learn more about applying different techniques.

Who's Snapseed ideal for?

Snapseed doesn't do anything particularly special that you wouldn't find in any other comprehensive photo editing app, like Camera+ or Lo-Mob. It's got a selection of great filters and most simple editing tools, but it's the way these are packaged up in such an easy-to-use interface with a single menu bar along the bottom that makes it really stand out in a sea of over-complicated options.

Those with more experience of photo apps who want to be bombarded with lots of different features and choices for their final images can delve deeper into each effect and tweak away, but it's rare that you'll find a photo application like Snapseed that's just as suited to beginners too.

So yep, we understand your choice Dan, Snapseed is worthy of the Olympics and would probably win a well deserved silver medal...

Available from iTunes for £2.99.

Check out Dan Chung's Olympic Smartphone Photoblog over on The Guardian.

Related: Photojournalist takes Olympic photos with just an iPhone 4S

There are so many apps on the market at the moment that have been developed to keep track of your fitness, tell you what you should be eating and keep track of EVERYTHING you get up to on a daily basis.

However, what we've noticed on our app travels is that many of them try to tick all of the boxes, but we prefer specialist applications that really make a difference and don't promise the world.

So, if you enjoyed our round-up of dedicated running apps earlier in the week, then you should check out our top 5 apps for exercise routines, working out and interval training.

Whether you need a tailored training programme, some exercise suggestions or just a reminder that you need to get up and get moving we've got an app for you this week...

Check out the full list of top 5 workout apps over on our sister site, Connected Health.

A very cool and slick new web app called This Is Now collects real-time photos from Instagram and displays them on websites dedicated to big cities across the globe. We're going to warn you in advance that you'll be pretty damn mesmerised, so look away now if you don't have at least a few minutes to spare...

This Is Now is actually a network of different web apps, which are all tapping into Instagram's API in order to stream photos from certain locations in real-time. Right now there are dedicated sites for London, New York, Sydney, Sau Palo and Tokyo.

Once you're on the city of your choice you can watch photos scroll past you as they're uploaded to the app. If a photo takes your fancy you can click on it before it whizzes off into the ether, where you can like it, comment on it and even find out the user's name so you can go follow them later.

The sites use the geolocation data that Instagram stores whenever you take a photo, so even if you upload something when you're back from a trip to New York, it'll still appear on that website.

What we love most about This Is Now at the moment is that the London real-time feed has a fair few photos of the Olympic stadium and even some sports from inside, which we imagine there'll be more and more of as the games progress.

Visit: london-now.jit.su/

[Via Digital Trends]

The Famous Objects From Classic Movies online game is one of our favourite ways to waste away an hour or so (or three) and now it's available as an app for the iPad too.

It's a really simple and highly addictive game that flashes up a basic silhouette of an object and you have to then write which movie it appears in. We don't want to give many away, but think a bike for E.T. and a bowling ball for The Big Lebowski... You get the idea.

There are more than 150 images and movies in the app at the moment, so even the most extreme movie fans will be kept entertained. Enjoy.

Available from iTunes for free.

Lovely, another app that's a bit like this one with a hint of that one. Today we're checking out Pearltrees, it's existed on the web for some time, but now the Pinterest/Evernote hybrid has come to the iPhone packed full of new ways to share and gather content and lots of quirky terminology, including collecting pearls and hanging them to trees. Bear with us here...

Even if we don't know it, we all have different preferences when it comes to the ways we like to share and view content. Maybe you like to collect notes and group them together in Evernote, pin things to visual boards with Pinterest or make lists with Delicious. Well Pearltrees is essentially all of those services rolled into one, but with a unique way of visualising the content you choose to flag, share and curate.

Pearltrees allows you to take interesting content, whether it be a web page, photo or note (as well as much more), which it calls a "pearl" and then "hang it" to a place packed full of similar interests and topics, which it calls a "tree". It sounds a bit confusing, or like a scene from Lord of the Rings, but it's just the same concept as a mind-map.

From there you can share your pearls of wisdom with the world, discover other users who have the same interests as you and most importantly keep a pretty looking store of lots of great content in your mobile phone, which can actually be accessed offline too.

We imagine many users already have a favourite way of collecting together content, but if you're looking for something a little different and want to be able to access everything from your mobile as well as you're computer then don't be put off by its weird name and give Pearltrees a chance.

Visit www.pearltrees.com or download the app from iTunes for free.