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BlackBerry has finally unleashed its Blackberry 10 operating system (OS), with the platform making its debut on the recently launched BlackBerry Z10 smartphone. After facing some tough times in 2012, BlackBerry has completely redesigned its OS to start 2013 afresh with a brand new approach.

The software is a lot different to previous BlackBerry operating systems and promises big things, but could this radical departure re-establish the company at the top of the mobile manufacturer game? We spent some time with the BlackBerry 10-toting BlackBerry Z10 to weigh up the pros and cons of BlackBerry's new operating system venture.

Pros

BlackBerry Z10 hardware:

The BlackBerry Z10 features a 4.2-inch full touchscreen display and is currently the only device released that sports the BlackBerry 10 software. The smartphone is highly superior to any previous BlackBerry handsets and looks sleek, sophisticated, and a little bit like the iPhone 5. The only criticism that could be mustered is that the plastic back casing feels a little cheap when it's removed, however, when it is secured in place it doesn't detract from the look or feel of the mobile.

Keyboard

The touchscreen BlackBerry Keyboard on BlackBerry 10 helps you to type faster and more accurately because it learns which letters you regularly mistype and then adjusts itself to make sure you hit the right key. Cool huh? The predictive text function is intuitive too, and suggested words will appear above the first letter of the word you are typing. These can then be easily 'flicked' into whatever you are typing on screen using an upward swipe gesture.

Message notifications

There's a feature called the BlackBerry Hub on BB10 that collects all message notifications in one place. Sounds good yes? Well get this - it can be accessed whilst you're using any feature of the phone without leaving that app. An upward and to the right swipe gesture pulls the hub screen out and allows you to 'peek' in to see if you have any new messages. BlackBerry has dubbed this BlackBerry Peek, and it lets you keep on top of all your messages whilst multitasking.

Camera features

The Time Shift camera feature on the BlackBerry Z10 is really cool and helps you capture perfect pictures every time. Time Shift allows users to isolate sections of photos they have taken, and rewind and fast forward to milliseconds before and after the shutter button is pressed. This is handy if anyone in the photo has blinked because you can simply isolate their face and rewind until their eyes are open.

BBM video call with Screen Share

The BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) messaging service has been upgraded so that you can now make video calls, and there is also a new feature called Screen Share on board. Screen Share allows you to share whatever is on your screen with the person you are video calling, whilst continuing the conversation. It could be an image, webpage, or anything else that you are looking at whilst chatting.

Cons

Flagship pricing At the moment BlackBerry 10 is only available on the BlackBerry Z10, which is a high-end flagship smartphone and carries an equally high price tag. A QWERTY BlackBerry has been announced too in the form of the BlackBerry Q10 but as this has not been released yet, so your only option is the BlackBerry Z10 if you want a slice of BlackBerry 10 action.

Gesture functionality

The BlackBerry Z10 uses gesture-based navigation that can be a little awkward if you're not familiar with it. It does take a bit of time to get to grips with if you're more used to Android or iOS devices, and if you're a lover of older QWERTY-fied BlackBerrys you may find it even more of a challenge.

No upgrades to BB10

Earlier BlackBerry devices can't be upgraded to BlackBerry 10, so if you were hoping to update your BlackBerry Bold 9900 to BB10 you're in for disappointment. Those who wish to use the new BlackBerry software will have to invest in new hardware. Sad face.

Camera competition

The BlackBerry Z10's 8 megapixel camera doesn't produce photos that are as good as those created by the likes of the Sony Xperia Z's 13 megapixel camera, or the HTC One's UltraPixel camera. Although Time Shift helps to get the correct expressions from all the people in photos, the images produced aren't as detailed and the camera doesn't perform as well in low-light conditions. When you compare it to the camera functionality on previous BlackBerry devices it's light years ahead, but there are other recently released mobiles with extremely advanced snappers that trump the BlackBerry Z10.

Lack of apps

BlackBerry pulled out all the stops before the release of BlackBerry 10, offering incentives to developers to create apps for the new BlackBerry World app store. Despite its efforts BlackBerry can't quite compete with the number and quality of apps provided by the likes of Apple's App Store and Google Play at present. However, we should point out that BlackBerry World did have the most apps of any new app store upon its launch, and the number is growing all the time.

Despite its slight faults, the BlackBerry Z10 is undoubtedly the best BlackBerry smartphone ever produced, and if anything is going to save the Canadian manufacturer, this handset could. To learn about the BlackBerry 10 operating system and the BlackBerry Z10, check out our hands-on video below:

This guest blog was written by Abbi Cox of Phones 4u, who offer great mobile phone deals including the Blackberry Z10 in white.

 

Yahoo has been making all kinds of awesome changes to its Flickr app in recent months and today it's unveiled another new upgrade, incorporating better tagging and notification features, faster uploading and much more.

Today's latest update means that users can easily save photos from their photo stream directly to their camera roll, upload their images much faster than ever before, automatically save the original, pre-filter photo to your camera roll, quickly tag your contacts in comments and enjoy a higher resolution lightbox photo display.

When Instagram screwed up its terms and conditions many were left looking for a cool, photo editing and sharing alternative and turned to Flickr. This latest set of updates means that we won't be surprised when more and more start migrating away from Instagram and straight into the arms of Flickr and Yahoo.

If you haven't downloaded it already, you can get Flickr from iTunes for free.

Here at Shiny Shiny we're big fans of apps and services that aim to make us more productive and generally just better at life, which is why we were keen to test out a new calendar app that's been getting all of our Twitter followers REALLY excited.

Launched today by former designers from Foursquare, Sunrise is a slick calendar app, which has garnered a lot of attention in a matter of hours due to its super simplistic approach to keeping you organised.

It combines your current calendars with Facebook events, Linkedin (so you can see the faces of people you might be meeting for business events), birthdays, weather forecasts based on your location and even Google Maps so you know where you're going.

We've only been playing with Sunrise this afternoon and already we love many of its features, like the really quick ways you can add events, location tagging, the intuitive interface and the fact you can accept and decline Facebook events all from within the app, making it your go-to place for everything you may need to make a note of.

Enjoy!

What the hell did we all do without IMDb? Like, SRSLY? Did we have to actually remember what movies people had been in before? Did we all have a really geeky mate we only hung out with because he could reel off the name of directors and the projects they'd worked on? It just doesn't bear thinking about, does it?

Well now our favourite website and application is being beefed up with the help of Amazon, because soon you'll be able to go from reading all about a film to watching it with a number of Amazon Instant Video links alongside them within the iOS app.

Any of the movies listed on IMDb that are also on Amazon Prime will have watchable links alongside them, providing users with a seamless experience between the movie database and the Amazon Instant Video app.

IMDb app from iTunes for free.

They're not all new, they're not all particularly exciting and we can't guarantee they'll replace the likes of Instagram, but if you're feeling a bit bored of your good mates Brannan, Amaro and Rise (Instagram filters for anyone who's not a huge app geek), then we recommend you try out some of these photo apps, whether you want to play around with filters, make your subjects move about or just make your mobile better at capturing images.

1. Eyeem

It's one of those many, many apps that's been dubbed "the next Instagram" at some point or another, but it is one of our favourite competitors and it's probably because the controls and interface are just so easy to use. You can see filters (there are 14 in total) live as you take a photo (just like Instagram) by swiping left to right and then can tweak frames by swiping up and down. This means you can pair different filters up with different borders.

It's not just about photos and locations with Eyeem either, you can add emotions and activities to your images as well, which we imagine some of you will love and others will despise.

It's also got a very strong community feel, just like Instagram, which makes us more inclined to share images and engage with others.

For iOS, Android and Windows devices. Check out www.eyeem.com for more info and downloads.

2. Pudding

Many tech blogs refer to it as "the Instagram of Asia" because in many ways it's very similar, take or upload a photo, add a cool filter to it (Pudding has 13) and engage with the rest of the narcissistic, image-loving community.

However, Pudding is about much more than just sharing your photos, as you can add emotions, activities and even the music you're listening to at the time as well. In this way, it's much more akin to Tumblr and other social networking apps than just a simple tool to tinker around with photos and show off your work.

For iOS and Android device. Check out www.pudding.to/ for more info and downloads.

3. Cinemagram

We became a little obsessed with Cinemagram last year and it's still one of our favourite apps for creating images with moving elements, you just need to make sure you're patient with a steady hand.

For iOS devices. Check out cinemagr.am for more info and downloads.

4. Camerabag 2

The original Camerabag app has always been popular and one of our simple editing favourites, but now the team has created a second version, which is similar to the first but with a few more filters, borders and basic tweaking options, like exposure, contrast and filter intensity.

For iOS devices. Check out nevercenter.com/camerabag/mobile/ for more info and downloads.

5. Flickr

Flickr's photo app is one of the most comprehensive out there and looks great too, you can take photos, add some great looking apps to them and then share your creations with the slew of new people who signed up to Flickr when Instagram screwed up its terms and conditions.

Scrolling through other people's photos is an even nicer experience than Instagram, because not only are you swiping up and down through users, you can browse left and right too between everything they've shared.

It's a great option for those who love the community feel of Instagram or who already use their online Flickr account a lot already.

For iOS and Android devices. Check out flickr.com/mobile for more info and downloads.

6. Motiongraph

Sony has recently launched Motiongraph, an Android app that works in exactly the same way as Cinemagram really, just tap pieces of your image to make them move. It takes a bit of time to get the hang of it, but once you do you can create some really great, dynamic images.

For Android devices. Check out www.sonydna.com/sdna/e/products/motiongraph/index.html for more info and downloads.

7. Afterglow

A simple photo editing app, which allows you to add filters, borders and play around with light effects. A great one to have for pre-tweaking before you share your images elsewhere.

For iOS devices. Check out for afterglow-app.com/ more info and downloads.

8. Snapseed

Snapseed is a super comprehensive application, which allows you to add filters, frames and drama to your images. You can then make all kinds of tweaks, like cropping, straightening, adding tilt-shift effects and adjusting brightness.

It's a must-have option if you take your mobile photography seriously and want more from an app than just a few filters.

For iOS and Android devices. Check out www.snapseed.com/ for more info and downloads.

9. Nightcap

Nightcap isn't an all singing, all dancing option like many of the others, it's been specially created to make your night shots just a little bit better and promises that they won't be nearly as grainy or crappy as they'd normally be.

For iOS devices. Check out interealtime.com/ for more info and downloads.

10. Pureshot

Just like Nightcap, Pureshot isn't going to replace the likes of Instagram, but it will help you take better photos with your mobile camera. You can select different file sizes, tweak exposure, white balance and focus and use a special night mode too.

For iOS devices. Check out jag.gr/pureshot/ for more info and downloads.

There are plenty of apps out there that collect the best of the web and the best of your social networks into one handy place, like Flipboard and Summly. However, new contender Winston is a little bit different, because not only does it gather together cool chunks of news so you don't have to bother, but it also crams it all together into what the developers call a "narrated, audiovisual newscast", so you don't even have to read the words yourself either. Because that'd be far too much effort, obviously.

Like most social news apps, you begin using Winston by selecting a number of different categories that you find the most interesting and then it'll do its magic and once you tap on the 'briefing' tab it'll begin reading out the customised newscast to you, complete with photos on the screen too.

The voice is a bit robotic and its collecting together the same news snippets you'd find from other apps, but if you prefer to consume your information via audio because it's easier during your commute or keeps your hands free, then Winston could be your news BFF.

From iTunes for free.

[Via The Next Web]

The Instagram team has slowly been adding more and more web functionality to its super popular photo app and today users are able to browse their feed directly from the internet at instagram.com.

In a blog post announcing the changes, Instagram's Co-Founder, Kevin Systrom, explains that a mobile-only experience has, up until now, worked very well because we all take photos on the move. However, the decision to venture onto the web has been all about making Instagram more accessible to its diverse and growing community. Because after all, it may not be acceptable to sit at your desk mesmerised by retro images of cats on your phone while you're at work (but it's totally acceptable on your computer, obviously):

"We believe that you should be able to access Instagram on a variety of different devices, any of which may be convenient to you at a given moment - including your desktop computer or tablet. We do not offer the ability to upload from the web as Instagram is about producing photos on the go, in the real world, in realtime. On the other hand, Instagram for the web is focused on making the browsing experience a fast, simple and enjoyable one."

Kevin Systrom reveals that the team has been wanting to build the web version for "quite some time now", but that doesn't mean it's any different to the app. In fact the new web feed works in much the same way as Instagram does on your mobile, you can browse photos, like them, write comments underneath them and click on web profiles to stalk people even more. However, you can't upload photos and you can't add filters, but that makes sense because Instagram is still focused on taking and sharing photos on the go, this is just about a more passive, accessible viewing experience. It's great the simple mobile user experience has been translated to the web, which we predict will certainly make people who are obsessed with the app much more inclined to seamlessly browse between the two.

We're not sure what this latest development will mean for third party apps, some still offer unique ways of viewing your photos, but many people might now swap independent viewing services for Instagram's super simple offering. That's unless the app plans on adding lots of advertising to its web properties, as a number of tech blogs today have pointed out there's a LOT of white space sat there on the sides of the news feed, which is a little ominous.

Check out instagram.com to see your shiny, new web feed.

[Via Instagram Blog Image via Emkwan's Instagram]

CouchCachet is probably one of the saddest, most depressing app ideas we've come across in some time. It basically plays on the crazy, insecure minds of those who venture online to stalk their friends and find out what amazing things they're doing and have a bad case of what the creators call FOMO, a Fear of Missing Out (geddit?).

To combat the stupid (and totally fabricated) FOMO disease, CouchCachet does all kinds of cringeworthy things, like checking you into cool places on Foursquare and tweeting lyrics from popular bands (when was that ever considered a wise move?):

"CouchCachet finds the coolest parties in your neighborhood, and automatically checks you in on Foursquare so all your friends can be super jealous of how awesome you are. Plus it will tweet all the right lyrics from the right indie rock bands, post amazing images of young 20-somethings in skinny jeans from instagram and wax poetic about that perfect local, organic, microbrew that everyone's drinking. You won't be cooler, but you will seem that way."

IS THIS REAL LIFE?

The app's creators insist it's a bit of a joke, but the fact it doesn't reveal the punchline at all when it's checking you into things and tweeting on your behalf makes us think it's less funny HAHAH and more like genocide funny, i.e. NOT FUNNY AT ALL.

[Via Mashable]

Fitness tracking apps and gadgets have been all the rage over the past year or so, with brands from Nike to BodyMedia to Jawbone to Fitbit launching devices that keep an eye on everything you've been up to over the course of the day. However, there are plenty of apps that promise to do a similar thing with less of the hassle and we think Moves might be set to lead the pack.

The app is solely for iPhone users right now and makes use of the smart phone's accelerometer to record all running, walking and cycling activity that you do. It's smart (and different to many other devices on the market) because it doesn't need you to tell it what kind of exercise you're doing or tell it when you've stopped or started, it's able to tell straight away all by itself, which makes for much more accurate tracking.

Not only does Moves track your activity levels a little differently, but it presents the data in a much more intuitive way as well. It'll automatically create what the team call a 'storyline' of your life, which includes your activity throughout the day at specific times, along with a heat map kind of system to show how hard you were working and even your locations as well. It's this storyline feature which is what really excites us about Moves, because it makes it so easy for users to see what they've been up to, so they're more likely to change for the better. Don't get us wrong, we love gadgets like Fitbit's Zip, but to be able to see such a simple indication of what you've been doing like this makes us want to track everything because it's just so damn easy!

In its offensive against tracking gadgets, the Moves team has handily created a chart for its website that shows just what a great option it is in comparison (of course they would say that), which is certainly worth checking out if you're considering ditching your wearable devices.

Available from iTunes for free.

[Via Connected Health Store]

As much as it sometimes irritates us, it's clear that lots of people just can't get enough of sharing photos of their food, whether it's some lame cookies they've baked or a big spread at a fancy, pretentious restaurant.

It's no surprise then that lots of apps have cropped up in recent years to allow people to take photos of what they've been eating and one Japan-based offering called Snapdish has now set its sights on the rest of the globe by introducing seven different languages and support for the Kindle Fire.

Snapdish is appealing to food lovers, because not only do you share photos of your food, but you're also prompted to add in other important details too, like recipes and extra information about ingredients. It's already a big hit in its native Japan, but now the app caters for lots of different languages, including English, Chinese French, Spanish and Italian.

We're not sure whether a dedicated application for foodies is really necessary when those who use other platforms and apps, like Instagram, can just follow people who share food photos and have a ready made community at their fingertips. However, it'll be interesting to see whether Snapdish's recent added features and growth turns more people onto the idea of exclusively sharing foodies snaps.

[Via The Next Web]

Yesterday the world imploded because Twitter's new service Vine served up porn for those who went looking for it and stupidly posted a rather x-rated videoy-viney-thing in the Editor's Picks section of the app too.

Everyone went from declaring Vine the 'next big thing' to suggesting it's the work of the devil. Well now we can all calm down and breathe, because Twitter has been working relentlessly to address the big porn and penis problem Vine's been facing.

Now Twitter has tweaked the app so that searches for run-of-the-mill porn terms like #porn and #sex don't present any results. However, there's no way of policing every bit of content and they'll still be plenty of very 'adult' stuff on the app, it just won't be quite as easy to find.

Twitter still stands by its policy that other users are responsible for flagging up anything they deem inappropriate:

"Users can report videos as inappropriate within the product if they believe the content to be sensitive or inappropriate (e.g. nudity, violence, or medical procedures).

"Videos that have been reported as inappropriate have a warning message that a viewer must click through before viewing the video."

This is a good idea, but many are questioning whether Apple will intervene soon and deem Vine just far too porny for its own good.

[Via Telegraph]

All we've spoken about, read about and written about today is Vine. Whether we've been lamenting our terrible camera skills, complaining about boring vines or wondering if we can get away with searching for #porn in the office (you kinda can btw).

It's no surprise that a number of third party tools have cropped up in a matter of hours that admittedly don't look very pretty, but do allow you to stalk away to your heart's content, because FYI all of your vines are completely public (for now at least).

First up is VinePeek, a site that shows you newly posted vines as they're uploaded. It's totally unmoderated and random, so expect everything from someone who doesn't know what the hell they're doing and only produces really lame content to a lot of x-rated porny stuff. In this way it's fascinating but also REALLY creepy.

VineRoulette is a bit different and instead allows you to search vines by entering hashtags, before displaying a grid of relevant (we use that term loosely) results. Again, we can't stress how creepy it is and it definitely makes it feel like we're stalking complete strangers, but WOW is it addictive.

Twitter's new video sharing app Vine was only officially launched last week and we're already all creating short, silly clips of everything from our cooking exploits, ridiculous faces, morning commutes and lots of filthy porn too apparently.

As you'd expect from a brand new service there are those who aren't convinced and are being very vocal about it, labelling Vine a boring fad, but we're all about embracing new services, especially if they offer something a bit different and there are ways to avoid the naughty bits...

So here are five reasons why we love Twitter's new video app so far:

1. It's just so easy to use

If you really need it there's a quick walkthrough that shows you how to record your first Vine, but to be honest it's so simple and intuitive that we're confident you'll get it straight away. Just press the camera button and hold your finger down when you want to record something. You can do it all in one go or little chunks. You're then taken to a screen much like Instagram's, which allows you to add a caption, add a location or share with your social networks. Simple.

2. You can become a stop motion pro (kinda)

We've seen some pretty clever vines so far (we're calling the videos vines, that's OK, right?), but the ones that are particularly making us laugh are those that use basic stop motion animation in order to make things that don't move MOVE ON THEIR OWN. Admittedly these are the kinds of silly tactics that have made some people roll their eyes at the new app, but we just can't get enough of inanimate objects dancing around at the moment. Ask us in a week and we'll probably have a little cry about it.

3. Seamless Twitter integration (obviously)

Vine has been created by the team at Twitter, so as you'd expect there's seamless integration, which makes it really easy to upload to the micro-blogging platform, you can see vines within your stream and to embed a vine elsewhere you can easily just take the same steps you would have in the past to embed a tweet.

4. There's a sense of community already

Vine has been made by Twitter, but there are already plenty of people using Vine on its own and not necessarily sharing their creations with their Twitter followers every single time. Although we're encouraged to share our vines elsewhere (and many of us already do), just like Instagram we think we'll see circles of those that like to share their vines and make connections independently from any other service.

5. It's ideal for recipes or anything that shows a process speeded up

We don't doubt that there are thousands of weird and wonderful ways you can use Vine, but it particularly lends itself to following a process, like cooking something spectacular or getting to work on a morning. This means it'll be interesting for brands to tell stories, for people to record events, make tutorials and all kinds of other things...

And a few things we don't like...

1. All of the porn

We're not implying we're against porn here (or for it, stop putting pressure on us, OKAY?), but people uploading dodgy, adult content may well threaten the app for everyone.

According to reports this morning, a quick search for the #porn tag reveals all kinds of things you don't want to see over your breakfast. Vine itself is censorship-free and the idea is that the community will help to self regulate and flag up inappropriate content, but if people keep uploading dodgy stuff then Apple could wade in and deem it too x-rated for your poor, little eyes.

2. No ability to make things private (yet)

We get it, Vine and Twitter and social media generally is all about sharing and making your content public and accessible. But for various reasons that's an issue for some people, whether they're super secretive and a bit weird or have problems with stalkers. Although many people wouldn't use a private, locked option like you can activate on Twitter, the fact that option doesn't exist yet on the new app will definitely stop some people vining their way through the next few months.

3. Ads and ads and ads and ads

There aren't many yet, at all, but just like spam comments and weird ads have started to infiltrate Instagram a lot over the past few months, we imagine there'll make their way onto Vine pretty quickly. This is all the more reason to go looking for cool new content, but be aware that a new platform is really what you make of it, so follow great people and you'll have the best experience.

4. Babies, kittens and everything else we hate about the internet

All of the people that drive you insane with their incessant updates about cats and babies and food on other social networks will probably start using Vine at some point or another. So get ready for 64,348 vines of little Matilda crawling and crying. And crawling then crying. And crawling again.

5. It COULD all get a bit dull

The things that are getting us excited about Vine now, like cooking clips, stop motion thingies and silly voices could well start to grate on us a few months down the line. And when we say months, we mean hours.

If you haven't tried out Vine yet, then get it from iTunes for free.

Today the team over at Twitter HQ have launched a brand new mobile app called Vine, which allows users to share short video clips on Twitter and Facebook.

Just like short and snappy tweets, Vine is all about sharing clips of video content of six seconds or less, which you can create from a single clip or a selection of a few super short ones. Everyone's discussing Vine as if it's a video sharing app, when really the results remind us a bit more of a gif or a Coub.

We'll be testing out Vine over the next few days and giving you our thoughts.

You should be able to download Vine from iTunes now, but many people - including us here at Shiny HQ - are noticing some issues. The main being it won't download. But we'd expect these teething problems should be sorted out soon and we'll be recording and sharing a mixture of really interesting and really dull video clips in no time.

Available from iTunes for free.

If you often think there are just so many cult TV shows you really should be watching to get you up to speed with your mates, cool, indie films you should see to make you more intelligent and books to read that'll really get you thinking, then you're not alone. If only we had enough time to consume all of the media we want to consume then we'd all be so much more knowledgeable, enlightened and generally more awesome, right?

Well DoneNotDone is here to make everything a little bit easier. It's essentially a to-do list for media consumption, which allows you to enter things you've been meaning to watch and read and create a backlog as well as keep a record of what you've been consuming with your little peepers recently too.

You simply type in something and then tag it "done" or "not done" before rating it and adding in any notes too. It's all really intuitive to use and the simple tabs make it easy to quickly add in content or find new ideas.

The great thing about DoneNotDone is that you can hook it up to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, find people also using the app and get lots of interesting suggestions from them.

For those who are dead against sharing everything they're up to and get really secretive about their tastes, you'll hate it. For those who are into social media and like discovering new things through their networks, then it's a real gem, we're just not sure how long we'll keep using it when we already have the Notes in our phone and ready made networks to ask for suggestions...

DoneNotDone is available from iTunes for free or you can access the web version too.

RIM has renamed its BlackBerry App World store this week and given it a makeover in time for the launch of its new operating system, BlackBerry 10, later in the month.

Now called just BlackBerry World, the store is set to become the major storefront for RIM's BB10 devices and is set to launch existing BlackBerry devices and the PlayBook tablet range too.

The brand new look and name are all steps to unify the BlackBerry brand and the "app" element was dropped because it won't just be all about the apps in future, but movies and music will all fall under the same umbrella.

The store is split up into different channels, which include themes, games and apps. You can share items to Facebook and Twitter really easily and content can also be shared locally using NFC with other BlackBerry phones.

You can check out the new desktop version today, but the store's mobile reveal will be at the same time as the BlackBerry 10 launch on the 30th of January.

[Via Tech Digest]

Since its launch early last year Clear has been our favourite to-do list application because it's so simple to use and looks bloody good too. However, all that could change now we've got our hands on 24me, an app that's admittedly a little harder to get your head around than Clear, but is able to track your job list and remind you about birthdays all from one dashboard.

As you'd expect, reminders and job lists are central to how the app works and are just as easy to add as those in Clear. You can then assign tasks to "today", "tomorrow", "rest of the week" and "later", which seems weird at first if you're used to working to a more rigid schedule, but does save time in the long run. You can add all kinds of things, like levels of priority, additional notes and due dates as well. For those who have gotten used to Siri, you can also use your voice to control how 24me works, because Nuance's speech recognition software is integrated into the app itself. 24me also syncs up to your Facebook account so birthdays are automatically added to your schedule too.

The app's even better if you're living in the US and Canada, because you can access "My Financials" and keep an eye on your ingoings and outgoings, but unfortunately that feature hasn't made its way across the pond quite yet.

According to The Next Web the app has been around since late last year, but its slew of new functionality updates means it's more useful than ever.

The key to using apps that are designed to make you more productive and awesome at life is finding one that really suits you, whether it's feeling like it's got really intuitive controls or just preferring the colour scheme to any others, the more you like using it, the more likely you are to be able to integrated it into your daily activities. We're not sure whether we'll be trading Clear in for 24me anytime soon, but for simple task management it's certainly a worthy competitor.

24me is available from iTunes for free.

[Via The Next Web]

Instagram has always been super secretive about revealing its stats, mainly because up until now we've always been able to guess roughly how many people are taking lame, amateur photos and putting retro filters on them. Answer: Everyone but our grans.

Well that all changed when Instagram randomly made a bunch of - kinda worrying - changes to its terms and conditions, which left many wondering whether their snaps could be sold to third parties without prior consent. As we were all expecting, a tirade of Instagram-related tweets and long-winded, ranting blog posts ensued with a few high profile users and celebrities dramatically quitting the service.

Despite it being such a hot topic online for a few days, it didn't seem as if the terms and conditions change - and subsequent change back again - would really have that much of an affect on numbers. However, a few publications published stats from service App Data this week, which pointed to a 25% decrease in users after the fiasco.

Well Instagram has decided to fight back against these recent stats, by publishing some interesting, official figures for the first time in its history. Today on the Instagram Press page the company has added a small side panel containing data about its users and their engagement with the app:

90 million Monthly Active Users
40 million Photos Per Day
8500 Likes Per Second
1000 Comments Per Second

The stats prove the app isn't dying a slow death, which is what some melodramatic naysayers have been suggesting, but is in fact going from strength to strength.

Digital Trends has pointed out that the stats from App Data, which called all of the fuss earlier in the week, could well be skewed given they only count users who have synced the app up to their Facebook accounts - not a requirement to use Instagram itself.

At the same time we shouldn't buy into Instagram's hype - it is owned by Facebook now after all - and deny that the debacle had an affect on its users. But at the same time we need to remember that sometimes we fall into the trap of assuming just because a few vocal Twitter users are chastising a service, that doesn't mean to say anyone else cares or is even aware of the whole controversy in the first place.

[Via Digital Trends]

Back in 2011 we collected together our favourite video editing apps for the iPhone and were surprised by how few really good quality offerings were available from the iTunes app store. Fast forward nearly two years and we still have some firm favourites from the past gallery as well as some great new apps too.

Well it's hardly rocket science, is it? We all bloody love Instagram and its - admittedly quite lame actually - retro filters and for some reason the world of GIFs never fails to make us LOL, so marry the two together and you're onto a winner, which is essentially what new app GifStory is all about.

GifStory allows users to cut together short clips of video and then add a filter to the finished product. So it's essentially just the same as Instagram, but you're tweaking video instead of a still image. You can then pimp it out to as many social networks as you please and share with the rest of the GifStory community too.

There are some examples above we found on TechCrunch, but no, we're not sure why they're so "porny" either...

We're undecided about whether GifStory is a brilliant idea that'll have us all hooked or just far too much work. We get it, you only have to record something for essentially SECONDS, but we're all so used to instantaneous photos of our cats/hats/bats/mats that it might just be too much of an ask to have us thinking about moving images when there's so much other stuff going on in the world. Let us know what you think in the comments below.

You won't be able to get hold of GifStory for another month or so, but you can sign up to be put on a waiting list on the app's landing page.

[Via Fast Company]