Official Barclays Football app joins the Android fray

A couple days ago ESPN updated the ESPN Goals app for iOS and Android, bringing free
near-live video for the entire 2011-2012 season of the Barclays Premier
League. Today, we got the first version of the official Barclays
Football app, so how does it stack up against ESPN?

The
official Barclays Football app offers some of the same features as
ESPN, like the standard table, fixtures, results, and game stats. But,
in addition to those standards, Barclays brings some other pretty
interesting features, including:

• In-app
  competition with the chance to win tickets every 90 minutes


• Live
  text commentary of games


• Options to add fixtures to your
  calendar


• Augmented reality to find amenities near football
  stadiums (but it works everywhere)


• Instant chat on Facebook
  within the app


• Premier League trending topics on Twitter


• In
  depth team and player statistics such as who’s scored the most goals,
  how many goals scored in injury time, shots on target, number of
  handballs and much more, which can be tailored to any Barclays Premier
  League club

The
Barclays Football app is also a bit smoother in transitions than ESPN,
and obviously offers quite a lot more as far as stats and interactive
features, but getting the near-live video clips from ESPN is a big draw,
so it's up to you whether you want more stats or video. Of course, if
you're a football fan outside of Europe, the Barclays app is the only
option, unless you have a rooted phone and can spoof your Market
location like we did. And, even if you don't live near a football
stadium, the built-in AR feature will help you find restaurants, ATMs
and more no matter where you are (it worked perfectly in downtown
Boston).

The official Barclays Football app is
available for free in the Android Market.

Install Barclays Football (Android Market link)

Flickr Updates Contact View, Adds Light Box Feature And Keyboard Shortcuts

The photo-sharing service Flickr has added some new
display options and a guide to keyboard shortcuts to help users swiftly
navigate around the service.


Flickr has given users the option of selecting photo size right
inside of the stream for their contacts’ recent uploads. Previously, to
get all sizes of a photo, a user would have to click on the picture to
visit a new screen, but now they can do it right from their feed. Users
can view square, small, medium or large photos with this option.




The photo-sharing service, which is known for a minimal display that
enhances users’ ability to showcase their work, has added a new Light
Box feature. You can view all of your contacts’ newest photos in a
large-sized slideshow right on your screen by clicking “Light Box” in
the options on the right hand side of the page. From the Light Box, you
have access to all of the photo’s different sizes.





To help users navigate around the site, Flickr has added various
keyboard shortcuts for some of the service’s most commonly used
features. With the redesigned page, the service introduced dozens of
shortcuts that help users add photos to their favorites and navigate
through the photostream. To view the whole list of shortcuts, all you
have to do is click the “?” key on any Flickr page. Shortcuts include
functions like pressing “L” to view the photo in a lightbox, “G” to add
photos into a group and “C” to jump to the comment field.


Flickr has recently reached some major milestones and is constantly
expanding. The service just hit their 6
billionth photo upload last week and in June they reached 1
million galleries.

Vodafone UK starts selling the BlackBerry Bold 9900 starting today

Earlier this week, Vodafone
UK opened up to accepting pre-orders for  the BlackBerry Bold 9900 –
with an estimated ship date of August 16th. However, they’ve forged
ahead to allow anyone to buy it starting today!

For those people
in the UK playing nice, they can pick up the highly anticipated BlackBerry Bold 9900 through Vodafone
UK for as low as free on monthly
plans that start at 41 GBP per month or higher.



In fact, the wireless
operator comes after Bell
in Canada to launch the long awaited BlackBerry smartphone. Now
that it’s available for purchase, we presume that pre-orders are more
than likely en route to their destinations right now.

Seeing
that this is undoubtedly the flagship BlackBerry device to own right
now, are you going to pick it up over other highly prized upcoming
smartphones on the horizon?

Facebook Launches Messenger, Dedicated Messaging App For iPhone, Android

Facebook has launched a
brand new app for iPhone
and Android that helps you
keep in touch with your friends. The app, which is called Messenger,
aims to make it easier and faster for you to message your friends and
small groups.


Messenger can be used to contact any of your friends, whether they
are on Facebook or in your contacts list on your phone (via SMS). To
start a conversation with someone, all you have to do is type their
name. The app is an extension of Facebook messages, so you will be able
to see all of your texts, emails, chats and messages from conversations
with your Facebook friends.




One of the key features of the app is group messaging. You can
quickly set up a group conversation and message everyone in that group
at the same time. You may choose to add your location to the message
thread so that everyone can see where you are located and you can also
add photos to the conversation.


 
The launch of Messenger comes 5 months after Facebook
acquired group messaging app Beluga. The timing of the
app’s launch is most interesting as it follows the
launch of Google+,
which features a mobile group messaging component in the form of
Huddle. It remains to be seen what effect Messenger will have on the
likes of other group messaging services such as GroupMe and HeyWire.


This is the first official app that Facebook has released outside of
its own official Facebook app. However, it may not be the last as details
of a dedicated photo-sharing app that Facebook is secretly working
on emerged
in June.


The app — which is not available at the time of this writing — is
being made available on Tuesday. You can find it by searching for
“Facebook Messenger” in the App Store or Android Market.

LinkedIn Rolls Out ‘Improve Your Profile’ Tool

When looking for a job, your LinkedIn profile is one of
the most important things to consider. Having a complete and up-to-date
profile will likely make you more appealing to recruiters and hiring
managers, which should help you land the job you are looking for in your
field.


To help you stand out from the crowd a little more, LinkedIn has
rolled out a new tool called “Improve
your Profile.” The tool analyzes your profile and offers
suggestions and recommendations to make it a little better.




To get started, simply click on the “Improve your Profile” button on
the Edit Profile page. Once you have opened the tool, LinkedIn offers a
checklist of recommended steps to improve your profile on the right side
of your screen. On the left, LinkedIn guides you through each of the
steps. The tool will be updated as new features are added, so if new
sections are added to profiles — such as the student
section — then these will be taken into account when offering you
recommendations of how to improve your profile.


The launch of the “Improve your Profile” tool follows on from a
recent update to the visual appearance of profiles. The updated design
includes a new-look overview section and it is easier to share your
profile and export it to PDF and other printable formats. The company
also recently launched an “Apply
With LinkedIn” button that lets you apply for jobs with just a few
clicks using your LinkedIn profile.