Month: October 2015

Flexible Feature Control at Instagram

“Flexible Feature Control at Instagram” article describes how Instagram controls the release of new features to groups of users.

I’ve implemented a very simple feature control mechanism before, but nothing to the sounds of this one. Rolling out to groups of users, conditional control, geo-tagging, and more. On top of it, non-technical users seem to be able to use for tuning the groups. This sounds quite impressive, especially when you think of the Instagram’s user base (400,000,000+ users).

Classic Bug Reports

Here’s an entertaining collection of bug reports:

A bug report is sometimes entertaining either because of the personalities involved or because of the bug itself. Here are a collection of links into public bug trackers; I learned about most of these in a recent Twitter thread.

Transpose – structured notes alternative to Evernote

Evernote is an excellent note-taking service. But it lacks any kind of templating, which is a pretty much required feature once you have more than a few hundred notes. It’s nice to see that some people realize this enough to create alternative services. Transpose is one such attempt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfKeTljl5ro

I haven’t tried it yet, but judging by the video, the interface is not the friendliest ever. Flexibility is a hard problem to solve when it comes to the UI. And at $15/month it’s a bit pricey. But it’s still nice to see that someone is trying.

Upcoming Android devices

The touch screen on my Nexus 4 is dying. There’s a strip right across the center, which doesn’t work anymore. The device is still alive, but it won’t last long. In fact, I’ve already borrowed an old Sony Xperia from my brother, for the day when the angels will take my phone to the Android heaven.

With that in mind, I started looking for what’s going to be my next device. I’m planning to get one closer to Christmas maybe, so not exactly in a rush. The official Google blog’s post “S’more to love across all your screens” from a couple of days ago came just in time.

The line-up covers upcoming tablets, phones, and Chromecast devices. On the smartphone front, there are two devices – 5.7 inch Nexus 6P built by Huawei, and a 5.2 inch Nexus 5X built by LG. Nexus 6P starts at $499, which I’m not yet prepared to pay for a smartphone (even though I use it heavily on a daily basis). Nexus 5X starts at $379, which is much more reasonable. Both phones feature a fingerprint scanner (finally, away with all those passwords and patterns), and a 12.3 MP camera for better pictures. Nexus 6P comes in an aluminum body, which sounds nice.

Nexus 5X seems like an excellent option for me. Of course, I’ll have to wait and see when it gets released, real-priced, and reviewed.