First Look At 3D Camera App 3DAround

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/24/3daround/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity

What if you could shoot those cool 360-degree, swivel-around photos you see on ecommerce sites or in The Matrix with just your smartphone? Then you’d be using the 3DAround camera app that launches next month from Dacuda, which gave TechCrunch an early peek. Simply hit record, revolve your camera phone or tablet around an object, and 3DAround stitches together all the photos into a 3D image the viewer can spin at will.

Dacuda is famous for its PocketScan appthat lets you wave your camera over a document to get a digital image of it without a bulky scanner. Now Dacuda’s 25-person team and 5 years of experience are combining to make your phone a 3D scanner that always gets the perfect angle…because it gets every angle. For starters, it’s going to add some 360-spice to a ubiquitous but often boring type of photography: food porn.

“It’s a really good time for this kind of tech because Apple just opened up the camera APIs” Dacuda founder and CTO Dr. Alexander Ilic tells me. “We need pretty low-level access to controlling exposure time, focus, and more.” That’s just what Apple allowed with iOS 8.

Illic says the inspiration for the app came from watching food blogger friends take dozens of photos of plates of grub from different angles and struggle to decide which was best. He thought “Why can’t you just go around the whole thing, so you don’t have to worry about the perfect shot with a single angle.” Originally he figured that would require a camera with expensive 3D sensors, but in fact, newer iPhones are capable if given the right software. That’s where Dacuda comes in.

Spun out of top Swiss engineering school ETH Zurich by students from the university and MIT, Dacuda’s expertise is in image stitching. It’s backed by Wellington Partners, Swiss bank Schwyzer Kantonalbank, and Austrian entrepreneur Hans-Peter Metzler.

The 3DAround app extracts depth and structure information from a success of rapid-fire photos to create the 360-degree views. You’ll be able to interactively view the swivel-able photo through the 3DAround app or WebGL-equipped browsers like Chrome, and share some version of the images to Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterst

The app will launch for free next month on iOS 8 devices for the iPhone 5 on up. While some phones like the HTC EVO now have stereoscopic double cameras that can take slightly “3D” photos, 3DAround looks like the real deal. We’ll have hands-on coverage once the app launches, so check back to see us spinning around some delicious food.

Immediately Is An Email App For Sales Reps That Tracks When Messages Are Read

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/30/immediately-launches-an-email-app-for-sales-reps-that-tracks-when-messages-are-read/

SquareOne, an email startup that launched its iOS app for organizing messages earlier this year, has now pivoted to become Immediately, an email app designed with the needs of sales reps in mind. The new app, which is currently live on the web and on iPhone, is an email client application offering features like reminders, templates, scheduling and Salesforce sync, as well as the ability to track email opens — allowing you to jump when customers and leads are in their inboxes reading your message.

On mobile, you can configure the app to send you push notifications when email opens occur by designating which emails you want to track with a push of a button in its “Compose” interface.

This is not the first app to track email opens. In March, an app called MailTracker debuted on iOS that offered similar functionality. However, in its case, the MailTracker app allows you track opens and engagement time for emails sent using Apple’s built-in Mail App. It’s not meant to be a standalone client.

In addition, Immediately offers a number of features that make it more competitive with something like Acompli, as the new app also lets you quickly share your calendar availability without having to change to a different application.

Other buttons appear below your Compose screen, letting you quickly do things like change your signature, respond with a template or create a reminder.

Contact details are available at glance, too, allowing you to quickly get background information on those you’re communicating with by pulling data from LinkedIn — a feature that’s useful for those even outside the “sales rep” space Immediately is targeting.

The company says it trialled its app across a number of companies before today’s launch, including Plethora.io, TalentBin and Visually. Now live in the App Store and on the web, Immediately’s long-term plan is to leverage data to make intelligent suggestions to salespeople — like whether their pitch is wrong, or being sent at the wrong time — that will help them become more productive.

For what it’s worth, even email apps that let you stalk your recipients can tell you everything. Email clients that offer push notifications with message previews, or interfaces like Gmail that show headlines and part of the message, are often how those with busier inboxes “read” their messages – that is, they scan their inbox to know who’s emailing them and why, and react accordingly. And no app – Immediately, MailTracker or otherwise – can track that sort of thing.

Immediately is free for individuals and will offer a paid tier for enterprises.

Android Wear Smartwatch Comparison

http://techcrunch.com/mobile/

Muse Brain Sensing Headband

http://techcrunch.com/video/muse-brain-sensing-headband/518422821/

Four Things You Need To Know About Windows 10

http://readwrite.com/2014/10/01/windows10-microsoft-new-features

Microsoft has finally shown the world its plans for its next major Windows release, the one that will succeed the much-maligned Windows 8. It's not Windows 9 or Windows Threshold—not even Windows One, as Microsoft executive VP of operating systems Terry Myerson briefly teased at one point during a presentation in San Francisco.

Meet Windows 10. Why is Microsoft skipping Windows 9? Your guess is as good as mine. More on that below.

The Big 10

The new operating system, which Microsoft is targeting for release by mid-2015, aims to correct many of the most criticized features of the Windows 8 desktop mode—the one most business users are familiar with. The colorful touch-oriented interface, which Microsoft calls the Modern UI, still exists, but didn't get much attention today. Microsoft promises more events at which it will talk about other Windows 10 features.

In general, one of Microsoft's big goals is to make it easy for users to move to Windows 10. That was a big problem for Windows 8, whose new and unfamiliar interface threw a lot of users.

"Windows 10 will be familiar to end users, whether they're coming from Windows 7 or Windows 8," Myerson said.

Here are four big takeaways from today's event.

The Start Menu Returns

In probably the biggest change from Windows 8, Windows 10 will bring back the Start Menu. That feature, a popup panel that gave access to installed programs and common features like the control panel, went missing in action in Windows 8. As long rumored, the new Start Menu will incorporate Modern-like tiles (see the above picture), some of which will display real-time information a la the current Modern interface.

Microsoft says the Start menu will be fully customizable. Users can change its shape and size, swap programs and other elements in and out, search for apps and even type in commands for which the operating system will then offer autocomplete options.

Desktops Go Virtual

Microsoft operating-system VP Joe Belfiore introduces virtual desktops

Windows 10 will also feature "virtual desktops," which are collections of apps that users can rearrange for better multitasking. It's a reasonably easy concept to learn by messing around, although it's more difficult to describe.

In the photo above, Microsoft operating-system VP Joe Belfiore is pointing to four separate "desktops"—those little icons at the bottom of the screen. Each one features a distinct arrangement of different program windows, making it possible to group, say, various social-media apps in one, open files related to a particular project in another. Users will create, delete and switch between these desktops using a "task switcher" button next to the Start button.

Touch For Tablets, Keyboards For Desktops

Finally, Windows 10 is designed to switch between the desktop and the Modern touch interface depending on whether it detects an attached keyboard. This feature is apparently still under development, as Microsoft operating-system VP Joe Belfiore had to rely on a video instead of an actual product demo. He had previously warned that Windows 10 code is still early in development: "There will be rough spots, and things may go wrong," he said.

No One Can Explain The Name "Windows 10"

So, why name the new OS Windows 10? Myerson stumbled a bit as he tried to explain it during a Q&A with reporters:

Really, y'know, this is a, this product, when you see the product in its fullness, it's a more appropriate name for the breadth of the product family that's coming.... We have tested it with many people, and it was a name that resonated best for what we'll deliver.

ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley offered this translation: "It's going to be the last major version of Windows and Microsoft wanted to signify it will be a big and cross-platform release." In other words, 10 was a nice big round number, so why not skip the inferior "9" and move on?

That bit about the "last major version" of Windows, by the way, refers to the rumor that Microsoft is moving away from big "tentpole" releases toward a steady flow of smaller updates that have the effect of updating the OS in a more continuous fashion. Near as I can tell, Microsoft hasn't officially announced this plan yet, which might explain why Myerson was having trouble explaining the name.

Microsoft plans to release a technical preview build of Windows 10 to the public on Wednesday. You can start trying to download it at 9am PT at this link. I'll be grabbing it as soon as I can get through and will let you know more once I get my hands on it.