You know the candid photos taken at the top of a roller coaster? The pictures are almost always hilarious combinations of screams and smiles. Fanpics aims to the do the same for your moments of sports fandom triumph (or defeat). It’s a free app that instantly captures your reactions to breaking plays right in the stadium.
Usually sporting event cameras are focused on the field or the court. There are some embarrassing exceptions, like the jumbotron and the kiss-cam. Fanpics turns that notion on its head, by using a series of cameras throughout the venue. Once you download the iOS or Android app, pick your stadium and your seat numbers and pictures of the big moments will pop up. Crop and edit them in the app and share them right to Facebook.
You might think, why bother with this when I could just take pics with my phone? Because Fanpics takes care of that for you, getting everyone (including the person usually stuck as photographer) in a high resolution photo without the need for a selfie stick and without interrupting the fun. You can even go back and see past games. The photos are always there to download.
Fanpics gets shots of everyone during big plays, but doesn’t post any of them. Some might think this is a little creepy, but legally, the simple act of being in a public space amounts to consent to being photographed. That’s why broadcasters can air people in the crowd during games on TV. Read the small print on your tickets carefully.
That said, Fanpic’s terms and conditions state you have to create an account with Facebook or email, and can only view your own photos. If people break the rules, the company reserves the right to boot the user and delete the photos.
Fanpics is available in Los Angeles at the Staples Center for Kings games; the StubHub Center for Galaxy MLS games, and at the Viejas Arena in San Diego for Aztecs NCAA games. The company plans to work with seven more teams for this year and 50 by the end of next year. If you’re headed to any of those games, Fanpics is an awesome way to get great shots you wouldn’t be able to otherwise. It will be great when Fanpics hits more stadiums.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.