New Features
Welcome to the New Radar
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Today we unveiled an all-new Radar site, with a significantly simplified and refreshed design. We hope you'll feel right at home in the new site, but here are some things you might be wondering.
Why redesign Radar now?
Although we've introduced a bunch of new features since launching Radar, the core structure has remained relatively unchanged since its original design. Since then, we've seen dramatic growth around the world and we've been thinking a lot about how to improve your experience across the service, both on the desktop and on your phone. In order to accomplish our goals, we rethought some core aspects of the Radar interface from the ground up, and while we were at it we improved navigation and brightened up the place.
What is My Radar?
My Radar is the hub of the new site, and where you'll find the latest posts from all of your friends (both groups and individuals) and Gallery channels you subscribe to: everything on your Radar. From My Radar, you can also access and manage your friends and subscriptions by selecting the appropriate link on the left-hand side of the page.
What happened to 'Everything'?
What was called 'Everything' is now called 'Posts', and this is where you land after logging into Radar. All of your friends' and subscriptions' latest posts are accessible from here.
Where are all my friends and subscriptions?
Don't worry, all of your friends and subscriptions are still there. We've moved friend and subscription management to new pages accessible from the Friends and Subscriptions links on the left side of the page within My Radar. From these pages you can add and remove friends and subscriptions, or navigate to a specific friend's channel.
What about groups?
Groups are now called Friend Lists: private groupings of friends for easy filtering and privacy. Any Friends Lists you create will appear under Posts, allowing you to easily use them to filter what's showing on your Radar. To create or edit the members of a friends list, go to the Friends page.
This redesign took place under the covers, setting the stage for a host of new functionality to be unveiled throughout the summer. We hope you enjoy, and most importantly keep in touch.
In addition to the new gallery channels, we've made some visual adjustments to the pictures list page that dramatically improve the look and feel of Radar.
The new sidebar now allows you to filter pictures to show exactly what you want to see. See the latest from the gallery, by choosing "Subscriptions" or the latest from your friends by choosing "Friends". Or choose "Everything" to see everything that's new on your Radar.
Also, in an effort to standardize our notifications we moved the "new friends of friends" notification to the top of the page. Enjoy the update and be sure to let us know what you think.
Ready for more?
Radar for iPhone and iPod Touch
We're excited to announce a whole new Radar web app for iPhone and iPod Touch featuring a whole new, touch-friendly interface to make it easier to navigate and browse. As a bonus, videos on Radar can be streamed and played in the built-in video player. Check out the Vimeo channel in the Gallery for some great new videos to watch.
Radar for iPhone and iPod Touch are accessible, as always, at http://radar.net in the Safari browser. Bookmark it today. We look forward to hearing feedback from all you Apple fans out there.
Radar Mobile Application v2.0
We've added a ton of new functionality on the Radar Mobile App:
The new Radar Gallery is now available across all mobile platforms: the mobile website; the mobile application v2.0 for Java MIDP, RIM BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile phones; and the iPhone and iPod Touch!
Radar for BlackBerry has a new feature to keep you in touch with new pictures and videos--background updates! The application will regularly check the server (you decide how frequently) and automatically refresh the content in the different views. In addition, you can choose to enable system pop-up prompts when new content is available, keeping you up to date even when Radar is hidden and running in the background. Download the new version today from http://radar.net and check out the new Settings in the Updates category.
Finally, Radar for Windows Mobile is now out of "beta". With this release, we now support both Smartphone/Classic and Pocket PC/Professional devices. You can use your keyboard or your stylus to interact with the Radar mobile application, including those devices with both input modes and rotating screens. Envious of your iPhone-toting friends? With Radar, you simply tap and drag on the screen to scroll the contents- no scrollbars!
We'll be working hard to make sure we support as many popular phones as we can with Radar. If you don't see a download available, keep checking back, and don't hesitate to drop us an email or a comment to let us know!
Radar for BlackBerry has a new feature to keep you in touch with new pictures and videos--background updates! The application will regularly check the server (you decide how frequently) and automatically refresh the content in the different views. In addition, you can choose to enable system pop-up prompts when new content is available, keeping you up to date even when Radar is hidden and running in the background. Download the new version today from http://radar.net and check out the new Settings in the Updates category.
Finally, Radar for Windows Mobile is now out of "beta". With this release, we now support both Smartphone/Classic and Pocket PC/Professional devices. You can use your keyboard or your stylus to interact with the Radar mobile application, including those devices with both input modes and rotating screens. Envious of your iPhone-toting friends? With Radar, you simply tap and drag on the screen to scroll the contents- no scrollbars!
We'll be working hard to make sure we support as many popular phones as we can with Radar. If you don't see a download available, keep checking back, and don't hesitate to drop us an email or a comment to let us know!
Yesterday was a busy day here at Radar headquarters, and the culmination of a great deal of planning. We introduced the Radar Gallery, a brand new destination that will be the site of a whole lot more action in weeks and months to come.
The gallery is host to several new categories of content: publicly shared Radar posts, pictures and videos from outside Radar that we think you'll find engaging or amusing, and content from some of our partners.
The idea is simple: go to the gallery, have a look at what's new, and subscribe to channels you think are interesting. These channels will be added to your Radar, and just as with pictures and videos from your friends, you'll be able to view and comment on them from wherever you access Radar: on your phone, your PC, or the Facebook app.
We're launching the gallery with a few representative channels:
- Hitman, with exclusive content from the 20th Century Fox film hitting theaters November 21
- fuguu, on which I've shared my favorite Radar moments publicly (kind of like a visual version of Tom from MySpace)
- IWOOT, a channel featuring quirky gifts from online retailer I Want One Of Those
- Vimeo, featuring the best videos from our friends at the popular and smart video sharing service Vimeo
We'll soon be launching more, including a Hendrick's Gin promotion, and a very special channel for the super-stealthy Nowheremen project. (To be totally honest, even ~we don't know much about Nowheremen, so we'll be following along with you and trying to figure it out.)
There's far more in store, to be sure, from some hugely popular music acts, to the brands you love, to the best of the best Radar content shared more broadly.
We hope you enjoy adding these channels to your Radar and watching this area evolve. Do let us know what else you'd like to see. And if you're using Radar for something special and crave a wider audience, get in touch about being featured. Enjoy.
We've made some significant improvements to the Add Friends page. Now you can click on each of your Radar friends' names, see each of their Radar friends, and in once click invite the ones you know.
Mike came up with a hot little feature that we just quietly rolled out: whenever you mention a friends' Radar name in a picture comment, that person gets an immediate alert via email telling them someone's talking about them.(And of course, if it's a whisper, or a picture they don't have access to, your secret stays safe with us.)
Give it a try. It's a fun way to pull your friends back into the conversation, or to alert someone that you posted a picture specifically for them. It's also nice to know when people are name-checking you.
Stay tuned for more and more in this area, and as always, let us know what you think.
We've just added some new options for using the Radar embed player we launched a few weeks ago.
You can now display a mini-channel of your public pictures and videos right in the Radar embed player. We've added a new tab in settings that gives you a channel-enabled embed code, and displays a preview of what the player looks like.
If you just want to embed a single picture or video, that option remains on the picture detail page.
Have a look around, and as always, let us know what you think.
Enjoy.
"Radar: It's is only as fun as you and your friends." It's a phrase that we repeat often at Tiny Pictures because we believe it to be true: Radar becomes a lot more fun when your friends are playing as well. But we also realize that it's not always easy to get them to sign up for another service. And if they are on Radar, it may not be easy to find them. So in this release we've worked hard to improve the invitation and sharing experience all around.
We started by creating the new Add Friends page. We took the old Invite page, which previously was only used for inviting friends via email, and added a few new ways to invite and find friends.
You can still invite friends like you always could, but we've made it even easier thanks to a new contact importer which allows you to import your contacts directly from Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail and other popular email services.
Already know someone who's on Radar? Just click on "Invite Code" and add them to your Radar immediately. Finally, look to the right side of the Add Friends page to find friends of your friends who are already on Radar. If you don't see them in the initial list, click on "Show all friends of friends" to see the entire list. You might be surprised to find out who else is in your network!
We've also made it easier to share your pictures and videos with your friends and family who may not have Radar accounts. Now whenever you invite a friend from the Add Friends page, they can immediately access all of your shared pictures without having to register. Just by bookmarking a link, they'll be able to browse your pictures anytime. When they want to post their own pictures, they'll need to register, which they can also do anytime.
We hope you enjoy the new invitation and sharing features, and as always, we'd love to hear what you think.
We've just released version 1.5 of the Radar application for your Windows Mobile, RIM BlackBerry, or Java Powered mobile phone. All the great new features recently released on Radar.net are now available on-the-go, anytime and anywhere. You'll see the changes when you view the details of a picture:
A new picture toolbar has been added with the same tools available on the website. From left to right:
Select the star to "Like" a picture, or click it again if you change your mind. The Like It count is updated in real-time and is displayed both in the picture details below the toolbar as well as on the list views.
Select the "Share" button to control who gets to see your picture. All the choices from the website are available in the dropdown list, including the new "public" option. You can make pictures public and send them in email to anyone directly from your phone. And of course the same privacy controls you've used in the past are still available. If you choose "some friends" from the dropdown list, you'll be able to choose the friends and groups who can see your picture just as before.
Select the "Fullscreen" button to see just the picture, rotated and scaled to best fit your screen. This is great for showing off your pictures on the beautiful new QVGA displays found on the latest and greatest mobile phones.
The rest of the tools, Report, Rotate, and Delete function just as they do on the website.
Scroll down a bit further, and you'll see the new comment options. If you're looking at a friend's picture, you can whisper a private comment that only you and your friend will see. Or, if the picture is public, you can add your comments to the open discussion.
If you're running the Radar mobile application on your Java Powered phone, you should get an automatic upgrade notification the next time you launch it. Otherwise, please visit http://radar.net in your mobile browser, log in, and download the new version today.
A new picture toolbar has been added with the same tools available on the website. From left to right:Select the star to "Like" a picture, or click it again if you change your mind. The Like It count is updated in real-time and is displayed both in the picture details below the toolbar as well as on the list views.
Select the "Share" button to control who gets to see your picture. All the choices from the website are available in the dropdown list, including the new "public" option. You can make pictures public and send them in email to anyone directly from your phone. And of course the same privacy controls you've used in the past are still available. If you choose "some friends" from the dropdown list, you'll be able to choose the friends and groups who can see your picture just as before.
Select the "Fullscreen" button to see just the picture, rotated and scaled to best fit your screen. This is great for showing off your pictures on the beautiful new QVGA displays found on the latest and greatest mobile phones.The rest of the tools, Report, Rotate, and Delete function just as they do on the website.
Scroll down a bit further, and you'll see the new comment options. If you're looking at a friend's picture, you can whisper a private comment that only you and your friend will see. Or, if the picture is public, you can add your comments to the open discussion.
If you're running the Radar mobile application on your Java Powered phone, you should get an automatic upgrade notification the next time you launch it. Otherwise, please visit http://radar.net in your mobile browser, log in, and download the new version today.Enjoy.
We've spent a lot of time talking about privacy here at Radar. Such is the nature of our service: private and personal. You and your friends. But some of those moments you're sharing with your friends may want to be shared more broadly, so today we're excited to roll out a new set of features on Radar that let you open things up a bit whenever you choose.
A few weeks ago we introduced some new audience settings for your pictures. Click on one of your pictures and you'll see an audience selector in the upper right corner.
Last night we added a "public" option that allows you to make that picture or video available to anyone. You can pass the URL around to whomever you like, and they'll have access to that picture whether they're on your Radar or not. Your private pictures remain private, visible only to the Radar friends you choose.
More importantly you can grab an embed link to share that picture in a Radar widget on your blog or social network. And because Radar is about conversations, not just pictures, the embedded player also displays the comments people leave on your picture. We've even kept public comments separate from the comments and whispers your Radar friends leave for you.
And of course, this is all available on the Radar mobile site and mobile app as well, so you can read and respond to comments wherever you are.
This is my first publicly shared Radar picture: a classic shot of Ray, a long-standing member of our promotions team. Pass it around. Leave a comment. Let us know what you think.
And stay tuned for lots more to come.
