MacRumors

Popular automation platform IFTTT today announced a few new iOS-focused toolsets that will integrate Apple's Calendar and App Store into new applets, allowing users to streamline certain workflows related to each of Apple's applications.

With Calendar Applets, users can get important information funneled right into their daily agenda. This includes automation flows that add in weather reports to the calendar at certain times of the day, track Foursquare checkins and work hours, or get daily email summaries of every new Calendar event.

The company said that App Store Applets will keep a user's device "full of the newest and best apps" that Apple's store has to offer. With the new IFTTT feature, users can get notified when a certain app gets a price drop or receives an update, or even when a new game enters into popularity in the top ten free apps list.

Services that work with your smartphone or tablet have been an important part of IFTTT since the very beginning. Today we’re excited to announce two brand new ways to do more with your iOS devices: the iOS Calendar and App Store services.

In total there are a collection of IFTTT applets for iOS users surrounding first-party Apple apps like Contacts, Reminders, Photos, and the Safari Reading List. The company has listed a few examples of these on its website here.

Twitter today announced that usernames such as @MacRumors will no longer count towards the 140-character limit for tweets.

Now, the usernames of anyone who a user is replying to will appear above the tweet rather than within the tweet itself, so that users have more characters to have conversations. Twitter said users will be able to tap on "Replying to…" to see and change which users are part of the conversation.

Twitter already stopped counting photos, videos, GIFs, polls, and Quote Tweets towards the 140-character limit for tweets last September, and it removed the 140-character limit from Direct Messages in August 2015.

Twitter said this update is rolling out now on the web as well as in the Twitter app for iOS [Direct Link] and Android.

Facebook today announced that it will begin allowing its users to generate their own crowdfunding campaigns directly within the social network's mobile app, meant as a way "to raise money for themselves, a friend, or someone or something not on Facebook, for example a pet." Any user 18 or older will be able to set up a personal fundraiser, which Facebook hopes will be a way for people to more easily reach potential project backers like close friends and family members.

The catch is that fundraisers will be locked into six specific categories: education, medical, pet medical, crisis relief, personal emergency, and funeral and loss. Every fundraiser will also face a 24-hour review process by Facebook to ensure that the project's creator and its goals are legitimate. The company broke down the six categories in today's press release:

• Education: such as tuition, books or classroom supplies
• Medical: such as medical procedures, treatments or injuries
• Pet Medical: such as veterinary procedures, treatments or injuries
• Crisis Relief: such as public crises or natural disasters
• Personal Emergency: such as a house fire, theft or car accident
• Funeral and Loss: such as burial expenses or living costs after losing a loved one

On the donator side of things, friends and family will be able to support a user's fundraiser in a few taps and without leaving the Facebook app. The company said that all payments are secure and that donators will have more peace of mind thanks to Facebook's use of real profile information for the person raising the funds, and the person or cause the money will go to.

Personal fundraisers allow people to reach friends where they already are to quickly build momentum for their cause. Friends can donate in a few taps with secure payments, without leaving Facebook. Since you can see real profiles on Facebook, donors will see how they are connected to the person who created the fundraiser, the person benefiting and others who are supporting the fundraiser.

The update is also bringing donate buttons to Facebook Live streams of verified pages, which the company said will give "public figures, brands, businesses and organizations new ways to fundraise on Facebook for the nonprofits they support." With a simple tap, watchers of live streams can donate to a specified cause that the page is supporting.

Facebook said that personal fundraisers will be entering a beta over the next few weeks, and should face a wider launch sometime after that.

Uber today is beginning to roll out a new "pickup corrections" feature in its iOS app, which will allow riders to change their pickup location after it's been entered and a ride has been requested. With the new addition, riders who accidentally enter a wrong pickup location can tap "edit" next to it, enter the new address, confirm it, and send it to the driver, who is updated on-the-fly about the new location.

The pickup is a core part of the Uber experience and we’re always looking for ways to make it as painless as possible for both riders and drivers. This simple fix gives riders more control over their pickup experience and saves everyone time and avoidable headaches.

The new update also comes with a collection of driver-side support tweaks, which "give drivers more of a say on concerns and complaints that affect their bottom line." This includes ways for Uber to validate a driver corresponds correctly to their in-app profile to satisfy riders, an adjustment to the scale of the rider complaint system, changes to how disputes are handled on fare adjustments, and more.

The new pickup corrections update will begin rolling out today to users in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, and should take a few weeks to get to everyone. Uber this week also published a humorous post that looks at the most common items lost on trips, the most forgetful cities, and the most common days of the week during which riders forget items.

Mobile messaging app Telegram introduced voice calls today, bringing the communications platform's secure feature list up to date and more in line with rival chat apps WhatsApp, Viber, Messenger, and Signal.

Telegram said in a blog post that the voice calls are based on the same end-to-end encryption methods as its Secret chats feature, but says it has introduced a new "key exchange mechanism" to make sure calls are even more secure.

The key verification UI we came up with in 2013 to protect against man-in-the-middle attacks served well for Telegram (and for other apps that adopted it), but for Calls we needed something easier. That‘s why we’ve improved the key exchange mechanism.

To make sure your call is 100% secure, you and your recipient just need to compare four emoji over the phone. No lengthy codes or complicated pictures!

Whenever possible, calls go over a peer-to-peer connection, "using the best audio codecs to save traffic while providing crystal-clear quality", according to Telegram. If a peer-to-peer connection can't be established, the closest server to the user is connected to instead.

Once a voice call is made, a dedicated tab for calls appears on the main screen of the app. The Voice Calls feature rolls out in Western Europe today, with the rest of the world to get them "very soon".

In addition to voice calls, the latest v3.18 version of the app also offers users direct control over the quality of videos shared over the platform. Telegram remembers the compression rate once it has been selected, and uses it as the default setting for future video uploads.

Telegram is a free download for iPhone on the App Store. [Direct Link]

All regulatory hurdles that previously made it difficult for Apple to sell the iPhone in Argentina are set to be removed next month, allowing Apple's suite of smartphones to be legitimately sold in the country for the first time in years. According to a person familiar with the Argentinian government's plans (via Bloomberg), President Mauricio Macri is seeking to lift restrictions placed by his predecessor in 2009 that pressured companies to assemble products locally.

Some companies abided by these rules and opened factories in Argentina, including Samsung, but Apple never did. Now with the restrictions being lifted, Apple will be able to import and sell iPhones created elsewhere to customers in Argentina, although the company will face a hefty import tax. iPhones in Argentina could be "at least 25 percent more expensive" than smartphones assembled locally, according to Bloomberg's source.

One Apple reseller in the country, Hector Goldin, thinks it could cost even more than that. Goldin is already preparing pre-orders for iPhones, even though the customers placing the orders have yet to discover exactly how much they'll be paying for Apple's smartphone. Goldin is set to sell five iPhone models at his reseller location in Argentina beginning April 7, and is said to have been informed of the prices of each model, some of which could run "double the price in the U.S." In the past, Apple devices like the iPad have sold for three times as much in Argentina as they did in the U.S.

He declined to give prices, saying Apple doesn’t like to disclose such details until device goes on sale, but said it will be expensive -- perhaps double the price in the U.S. and 40 percent higher than in neighboring Chile because of sales, import and income taxes. But Argentines who do buy local will have be able to get full service on certified iPhones, he said.

“It’s hard to explain how happy I am,” he said. “I am already receiving the new ones for sale and at the same time getting reservations from clients who still don’t know the final price.”

Despite the steep price of the iPhone, local phone companies have been wanting to offer the smartphone "for high-end users" who aren't bothered by the expensive cost. Monthly installment plans will also be used by carriers in a bid to make iPhones "more accessible" to a wider group of Argentinians. Before the restriction's lift, iPhones found their way into users' hands in Argentina thanks to "gray market" resellers that imported the devices to sell online.

Apple is also expanding into Argentina with a new retail location set to open up in Buenos Aires in 2018, which will become Apple's first official retail location in the country. It was reported last month that a group of third-party retailers will also begin selling Apple products in 2017, including electronics chain Frávega, and with today's news that should begin including the iPhone as well.

Apple is currently offering panoramic Instagram image-sharing tool Panols as a free download from within its Apple Store iOS app.

Usually $1.99, the Panols app takes pictures from a user's photo library that have been shot in panoramic mode and accurately splits them into three images. The triptych of photos can then be uploaded in the official Instagram app using the new Multiple Picture post feature, after which they appear in an account feed as a carousel-like seamless panoramic image.

"Panols can be used by any iPhone photographer to display their Panorama photos the way they were meant to be seen. Users are no longer shackled by the limitations of Instagram, and instead can share their wide-screen shots in a fun and creative way."

The app lets users edit the metadata of each shot, including name, description, and geolocation, while Panols images are stored in a separate "Panols" album in the Camera Roll.

To get the Panols app, users can scroll down to find it in the Discover section of the Apple Store app, which a free download from the App Store. [Direct link]

Connected home security cameras have been on the market for quite some time, but D-Link recently began selling the first HomeKit-compatible security camera.

Priced competitively at $199, the D-Link Omna 180 Cam HD camera has several perks over competing cameras that don't offer HomeKit integration -- it's guaranteed to have Apple's required level of encryption, it works with Siri, and it can be viewed right in the Apple-created Home app.

Design

The Omna is made from brushed aluminum and is palm-sized, so it can be placed just about anywhere, but it needs to go on a flat surface and can't be wall mounted like some other options. Size wise, it's a bit taller than a standard soda can, but skinnier.

The camera portion is mounted on the front, a microSD card slot is at the bottom along with a reset button, and there's a small grated area at the bottom, presumably for heat dissipation, since the Omna does get somewhat warm. A green LED on the front lights up when it's powered on, and a power cord is attached to the back.

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Google today announced it has updated its Calendar app with long-awaited iPad support.

The app is essentially the same as the iPhone version, but it is now optimized for the tablet's larger screen. Google said a Today view widget for Notification Center and the Lock screen is coming soon.

Here's a quick overview of the app's features:

• Different ways to view your calendar - Quickly switch between month, week and day view.
• Events from Gmail - Flight, hotel, concert, restaurant reservations and more are added to your calendar automatically.
• To-dos - Use Reminders to create and view to-dos alongside your events.
• Goals - Add personal goals—like “run 3 times a week”—and Calendar will schedule time for them automatically.
• Quick event creation - Smart suggestions for event titles, places and people save you time when creating events.
• All your calendars in one place - Google Calendar works with all calendars on your device, including Exchange and iCloud

Google Calendar can be downloaded for free on the App Store [Direct Link].