Lovestagram is being billed as Trigger’s Valentine’s Day gift to Krieger. It allows Instagram users to create custom Valentines Day cards from their photos on Instagram.

It’s a sweet gift and potentially great new service for those who want to make something a little special for their significant others this Valentine’s Day.

Trigger built Lovestagram from scratch after learning Python, Django, Jinja, HTML, CSS, jQuery and Photoshop. It’s an impressive feat and makes the idea behind Lovestagram all the more sweet.

The only downside of course is that it requires an Instagram account to use and the service is only on the iPhone. Us Android users are just left out of the romance, but hey, at least we go straight for the lovemaking instead of wasting time on Valentine’s Day cards.

Here’s an example:

Flurry began the study with the belief that the “second screen” (a mobile device, the “first screen” being the TV) is still “largely more disruptive than complementary.” Basically, people aren’t really using their devices in tandem with the TV – more like opposed to it. When something happening on the TV isn’t interesting to a viewer, they are then likely to pick up their iPhone and start playing Angry Birds.

Their study pretty much corroborated that belief. Big moments in the Super Bowl broadcast equated to decreases in app usage. People put down their phones for things like the coin toss and for kickoff.

But the longest sustained period of time with a drop in app usage covering the entire Super Bowl came during Madonna’s halftime performance.

Whether people were watching because they thought it was awesome, or because it’s hard to look away from a train wreck – the point is people were tuned in.

From the post:

Studying overall trends reveals a highly correlated, inverse relationship between app usage and game, halftime and commercial events. Generally, app usage increased steadily over the first three quarters of the game, showing the challenge in holding peoples’ attention over several hours. However, because this year’s game was close throughout, including an exciting fourth quarter finish, app usage remained relatively checked.

Noticeably, app usage declined significantly during the last part of the fourth quarter. The most clearly visible change in app usage occurred during Madonna’s half time show, where app usage remained consistently low for the longest, sustained period of time. From this, we conclude that Madonna strongly held viewers’ attention on the first screen and was a major draw for the Super Bowl this year.

Advertisement popularity was also found to link to a decrease in mobile app usage. The ad that saw the smallest use in apps was Elton John’s Pepsi commercial.

It was reported some time ago by WebProNews that Apple might throw their TV hat into the ring and as time has passed it seems to be more prevalent that the super-company may indeed introduce a groundbreaking smart-TV.

Reportedly, the new iTV will sport many of the same features as your iPad and iPhone sporting apps, games and even Siri voice control. According to the article a Canadian research team has been testing an iTV prototype in their labs and their findings about the device are fairly similar to the other iDevices Apple has.

It seems you will be able to do all your favorite TV activities from the comfort of your couch with Siri voice control. Much like the 4S, you’ll be able to give Siri vocal commands and then set back and relax while you enjoy your entertainment; movies, television and more.

It’s also been rumored that the new device may support an iPhone link that will allow you to possibly do many of your iPhone activities, such as stream Netflix, on the iTV. The TV is also said to support Skype and and an iSight camera, which would be an interesting feature.

With all this supported technology, it has to be able to support games and apps, right? Speculation says the new device will be able to support apps and games. With that technology, you’ll be able to enjoy your iTV much like your other iDevices. Apple is very quiet about their work, but it’s rumored that the TV could be released sometime in 2013, although not much is certain.

With apps ranging from free to as much as a few dollars in price, companies can have the chance to rake in millions upon millions due to the vast amounts of apps available.

The following list displays and details just a few of the many, more expensive apps you can purchase; warning these prices may cause your wallet to cry.

Agro for iPhone and iPad ($999.99)- Available to help argonomists create and distribute field inspection reports. Specially designed for those in such fields as farming, orchards, vineyards and other similar soil management areas.

MobiGage for iPhone and iPad($999.99)- this is a meteorology app that measures materials in manufacturing plants using a Leica laser. It can be used in the production of airplanes, cars, etc. . . PC versions of this software can cost as much as 25,000 dollars

BarMax for iPhone and iPad ($999.99)- This app is a prep course for either the New York or California state bar exam. It comes with test prep questions from actual past tests, essays and also comes with audio lectures. The company that makes the app is currently working on the app for other states as well.

iStutter for iPhone ($999.99)- For those who struggle with with the speech problem of stuttering, this app is intended for you. According to the app’s description It “analyzes vocal fold activity and selectively provides delayed auditory feedback when the user’s speech is too fast or the user is stuttering”.

iVIP Black for iPhone ($999.99)- this is cool app caters to those who have at least a net worth of 1 million dollars and you have to be able to prove it. The app gets you special treatment at select luxury events, hotels, clubs, etc… It allows you to book private jets, yachts, private islands and more.

Engine Connect for iPad ($999.99)- Meteorologists, sportscasters and news anchors alike can manipulate animations like weather maps and other illustrations live on screen as viewers watch.

Android users don’t have to feel left out, they have a couple of expensive apps as well; although they are pretty pointless.

Black Diamond ($200)- Buy this app and you have your very own black diamond…as a wallpaper. Yeah, that’s right, it’s just a pointlessly expensive wallpaper for your homescreen. I say pointless because the nearly same Blue Diamond app is available for the astonishing price of…free.

Vuvuzela World Cup Horn Plus ($200)- Download the app, shake your phone and boom, you have your own Vuvuzela horn. Shake it to stop. Again, all for a ridiculous 200 bucks.

To give you an idea of how old this yummy sandwich-blocking law is, the Video Privacy Protection Act was passed as a reaction to Robert Bork’s video rental records being released to the press back when he was busy getting shut out of his nomination to the Supreme Court. The law states that only so much information related to a person’s video viewing and renting habits can be shared.

And.. that’s it. You can’t have a Netflix app for Facebook all because Robert Bork wasn’t confirmed to the Supreme Court.

Things have changed a lot since Bork’s butthurt complaint about his video rentals being published and, luckily, people in Congress have realized that this law really isn’t so useful anymore. Sen. Al Franken, of Minnesota, is one of them and has been pressing for an update to VPPA. Check out his speech on the issue in the video below:

If that’s too much for you, here’s an excerpt:

If someone wants to share what they watch, I want them to be able to do so. But I want to make sure that consumers have the right to easily control who finds out what they watch—and who doesn’t. The Video Privacy Protection Act guarantees them that right. I want to make sure we protect that right for another quarter of a century.

Let’s all hope that Sen. Franken can push this issue far enough to gather the support needed to make sure that we can all look forward to a future of Netflix-Facebook sandwich smorgasbord of sharing video watching preferences.

Today on their blog, Facebook announced the new ways they are planning to drive “more discovery for games.” I don’t know about you, but I find it pretty easy to find games on Facebook only because my friends keep on telling me to play games with them. Regardless, there are a few changes in the works to make the discovery process even easier.

A feature of Facebook mobile is now making its way to Facebook proper. A player’s news feed will feature the games they are playing. The idea is to “bring new users” by “encouraging users to discover games their friends are playing.”

The controversial Timeline will also get in on the action by giving users the choice to list Facebook games in their Timeline. The Timeline will integrate a user’s “top game activity over a given period of time.” Essentially, the Timeline will list the games the user plays the most while listing their high scores and achievements.

A small change will be a link on the upper right that will list outstanding app requests. All those ignored requests to play a game will now be constantly displayed at the upper right. Looks like I’m going to have to ignore each request one-by-one to get rid of it.

They are adding a games-only activity feed which will allow users to see which games their friends are playing. The feed is accessible underneath the “Apps and Games” bookmark on the left hand navigation column.

They have also found that the live ticker for games does not drive traffic to said games. They are removing the current version of the live ticker to improve it. They will continue to show bookmarks on games and apps pages.

They also want to remind users that they will be removing all app profile pages on February 1. If you don’t know how to move your app to a separate Facebook page, they have instructions here.

No, I’m not talking about that Yahtzee!-like practice of self-diagnosing yourself by Googling your symptoms. That’s a horrible thing to do to yourself so you should stop doing it (seriously, stop doing that). And no, I’m not talking about apps that assess any symptoms you enter and then spit out some offerings of what you could have. This is real: scientists in South Korea have developed a new technology that would enable a touchscreen – like the one attached to your smartphone – to diagnose you by simply placing a droplet of of saliva or blood onto the screen.

If you can get past the more-than-a-little gross notion of intentionally bleeding or spitting a little onto your cellphone, you may stand to benefit quite a bit. The Daily Mail reports that the scientists who created the technology claim that the recognition rate is “almost 100% accurate” with its diagnosis. In fact, one researcher anticipates that this diagnosing touchscreen-technology would even be able to diagnose serious ailments like cancer and diabetes.

The Daily Mail has an accompanying video with the story that includes further interviews with the researchers who may have just changed pathology forever. Hopefully this will eliminate the all-time most self-destructive habit in all you budding hypochondriacs out there in the world of Googling your diagnosis. Because, really. Stop. Doing. That.

Part of that successl, according to Rovio CEO Mikael Hed, can be traced to learning from the music industry’s mistakes.

Speaking at the Midem conference in Cannes on Monday, Hed had this to say:

We have some issues with piracy, not only in apps, but also especially in the consumer products. There is tons and tons of merchandise out there, especially in Asia, which is not officially licensed products.

We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy.

Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business at the end of the day

Basically Hed said that they employ the strategy that says piracy = exposure. If you’re confident in the product, you can be confident that as more people experience it, profits will increase. One theory is that is something is good enough, people will want to pay money for it. Another says that creating fans of your product, even through piracy, can lead to eventual business somewhere down the road.

And to Hed, this has something to do with thinking about customers as “fans” as opposed to users – something the music industry actually got right:

We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans. We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have. If we lose that fanbase, our business is done, but if we can grow that fanbase, our business will grow.

Of course, saying that the music industry mishandled the topic of piracy doesn’t stop Hed from speculating about ways that Angry Birds can work with them in the future. He feels that Angry Birds has become an official “channel” for content – and that can be leveraged to form partnerships with the industry.

What do you think about Hed’s approach to piracy. Can piracy really lead to more business in the end? Let us know in the comments.

“The Web has evolved well past its origins as a way to publish and consume static information — the modern Web includes socializing, sharing, playing, creating, collaborating and other real world activities that it was never really designed to support,” Mozilla says. “As a result, the modern Web is less useful and usable than it could be, and it is hard to make use of its full potential.”

The project is even questioning the need for URLs. I’m sure those paying top dollar for generic TLDs will be thrilled with that concept.

This brings to mind some concept testing Google has done involving eliminating the address bar from Chrome.

“We’re playing with some huge concepts, monumental problems and occasionally crazy ideas,” says Mozilla’s Pancake Director (awesome title, by the way) Stuart Parmenter. “We’ll be looking at what tools and systems we can create to put more of the Web at users’ fingertips. We hope to devise new metaphors and new systems that give users greater power and control within the modern Web.”

“We want to address questions that go to the core of how users experience the Web,” continues Parmenter. “Some examples of the questions we are asking include: How can we make it easier for people to find what they’re really looking for on the Web? Do URLs still need to be something users care about? Can we make it easier for people to discover new and interesting things on the Web? What impact does social play in discovery on the Web?”

The project begins as a mobile app. “The prototype app we are building is really only the surface of Pancake,” says Parmenter. “We’re also pushing the envelope — using the latest and greatest Web technologies — to build an amazing, portable experience for users. The back-end of Pancake will live in the cloud, where we’re creating an extensive Web service that will allow you to carry your data and experience across many devices. Our initial focus is on iOS and Android tablets and phones, but our long-term goal is to help people live their online lives on their own terms, across all devices and platforms.”

The first prototype will be released (open source of course) within the next few months.

A Pancake wiki can be found here. Documentation, roadmaps, designs, experiments and other content will be posted in the coming weeks.

According to Neilsenwire Google has the #1 app in terms of reach for 5 out of 7 genres of apps, while Facebook dominates social network. Google apps dominate in time spent streaming videos, using GPS features, e-mail and search. Nearly 100% of the time used on streaming video goes to YouTube, while almost 90% of the time spent on GPS is with Google. Still with social networking, Facebook and Twitter remain on top.

Everybody loves their smartphone, whether it’s an Iphone or a Galaxy, some cannot live without it. How do you use your smartphone? Do you use it for business or otherwise? Let us know in the comments.