Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Snapchat x Video & Instant Messaging [APPS]


Snapchat, everybody's favorite sexting app, has just grown up. Now, to complement its simple self-destructing messages, the iOS and Android apps both handle instant messaging and live video chats.

To use them, you just swipe right from the main camera screen to find a list of friends, from where you can send them a message or start a video call. In keeping with Snapchat's ethos, text is wiped as soon as you exit a chat screen, though you can tap messages to save if you so wish.

Video chats are designed to be ephemeral: a throbbing blue icon tells you when a friend notices you, and you press—and have to hold—it to provide a one-way video stream to their device. Your friend can do the same right back at you.

It's an interesting pair of additions. They radically expand functionality of Snapchat, but also avoid changing the purpose of the app. Sexting has never had it so good. [Snapchat]

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Tab: Mobile Restaurant Payments [APPS]


Gone is the awkward pause when the server brings the check. Tab, a new free mobile payment application that launches today in Toronto, offers a simplified payment process for restaurant-goers. To get started, users download the app, create a profile, and register their credit card information. When at a participating restaurant, users can simply "create a tab" or "join" an existing tab (the bill will automatically split between the members). When it's time for the bill, users tell the server they are "paying with Tab" and leave whenever they are ready. Tab is currently ready to use at 13 participating eateries that includes The Chase, Playa Cabana Hacienda, Blowfish, with more being added in the coming weeks.

The Tab Team is led by Adam Epstein, Fahd Ananta, andMichael Kimel. Epstein founded HUDDLERS, a mobile sports scheduling app for recreational athletes. Ananta, the technical lead, founded Chime acquired by Hubspot in 2013. Kimel is the principal of MJK Capital, and a partner in the Chase Hospitality Group. Other funders of the company include Tyler Bozak and Phil Kesselof the Toronto Maple Leafs, as well as various leaders in the Toronto food and beverage industry.

via EATER