Have you or your friends used Venmo, or any other money transferring app but feel neglected by the inability to send the recipient a seflie along with your money transference? Fear no more! We now have… Snapcash. Snapchat and Square are collaborating on this project where Square will handle the actual cash movements and Snapchat will host the social networking platform. The deal will also provide Square with access to Snapchat’s 100 million plus monthly active users according to Mashable.

To use the new feature, one must live United States, have a debit card, and be 18 years old. Snapcash will be made first available to Android users, and shortly after it will be brought to iOS users. When using Snapcash, one also creates a Square account where the actual money transference will take place. This new feature exhibits Snapchat’s ability to push past its original limitations of strictly existing as a chat application and now becoming a surprising new competitor to mobile payment companies such as PayPal. 

Snapchat has recently begun marketing and developing platforms for Snapcash, so draining your bank account might be even easier in the near future. Also, we love the video Snapchat made for the new feature. It’s crazy but that’s part of the reason why it’s amazing!

Read more about it on Snapchat’s blog.

One of our newest clients, Blind Tiger Santa Barbara, is celebrating the month of November and men’s health with a Made In Movember ‘STACHE BASH next Saturday, November 22nd.

They are also hosting a contest for the BEST ‘STACHE on social media—if you post a photo to either INSTAGRAM or TWITTER with hashtags #stachebash AND #blindtigersb, and FOLLOW @blindtigersb, you could win a bundle of super awesome prizes!

‘STACHE BASH supports the Movember Foundation, who seeks to raise awareness about men’s health and wellness.

The winner of the contest will recieve:
—2 Free Tickets to the Made in Movember ‘STACHE BASH on November 22nd
—2 Free Drink Cards
—Gift Certificates to Richie’s Barber Shop
—Dinner for two at Blush SB

Amazon Echo part speaker part voice activated personal home assistant is new on the market and has consumers wondering what this product is for. Alexa is Amazon’s new version of Siri, which when asked can set alarms, reference the dictionary and play music. Echo has some promising features, but at this point seems slightly out of place. Amazon’s main objective is to sell products, but it is unclear at this point whether the functionality the Echo will provide highly marketable. However, Amazon has had success in the past with technological gadgets such as the Kindle when ahead of the market.  

It looks like Echo is making its way to the smart home scene just in time along with Google and Apple’s new home smart gadgets. According to Mashable, Echo could take Amazon from one-click purchase to no-click purchase, creating the ultimate in-home impulse purchase engine — all done with voice command. this new smart home technology could be a change in the future, making online shopping, downloading audio books and simple day to day questions easier and more convenient than ever. When addressed, Alexa, the Echo will listen and respond to questions, tasks and commands given to the device. The purpose of this product is to add a smart technology feature to homes and aid in day to day tasks. Smart home devices are a rapidly expanding market, and Amazon’s new product is currently being tested by being sent to some Amazon Prime members to test the product and receive feedback. According to Mashable the device runs around 99 for Amazon Prime members for a limited time and 200 for other customers.  

President Obama intervenes to save the internet by asking the FCC (Federal Communications Commissions) to classify the internet as a public utility, and not allow destructive practices like fast lane and throttling which will limit internet equality according to Gizmodo. The idea of net neutrality, gives innovators the chance to thrive, Obama wants the internet free and open in order to protect neutrality. Internet providers have a legal and ethical obligation to not block access to certain websites you want to visit, or to pay for priority to competitors. The internet has become an essential tool for communication and life. 

The FCC asked for feedback on its policies, and the general public responded. With over 4 million responses, the public has asked that consumers, not companies choose what sites to use and are currently very dissatisfied with current rules and regulations being practiced by the FCC. Obama then backed the public, by sending a message asking the FCC to reconsider some of its unethical practices, and adhere to the publics requests and dissatisfactions. The internet’s inherit purpose was to be a communication tool, without regulations that would spur innovation and promote freedom. According to Gizmodo, Obama is presenting a 4 point plan including: no blocking, no throttling, increased transparency, and no paid prioritization to target the main problems. In the past there have been telecommunication acts passed to prevent cellphone and telephone holders from financially over paying in services used in everyday life. Now we will have to wait for a response from the FCC since it is an independent agency. 

For those of you who might not know, AIGA is the professional association for design, and AIGA Santa Barbara is one of 69 chapters across the nation. One of many cool benefits of being on the AIGA SB board of directors is being able to put on great design-related, educational, and networking events for our local chapter and community. Oniracom has already been part of many AIGA events (Jacob and Tad have been Portfolio Day judges, and Oniracom hosted a studio tour this past May), but the biggest bang so far was definitely last Thursday’s “Art of Music” discussion, where Jacob was a panelist and I co-moderated with David Cowan, also of AIGA SB.

We were thrilled to be speaking with some legendary heavy hitters: Hale Milgrim (former President/CEO, Capitol Records); John Kosh (former Creative Director, Apple Records; current Principal at Ten Worlds Productions), and Andy Engel (former Art Director, CBS Records; current Principal, Andy Engel Design, Inc.), and they did not disappoint. The combined wisdom from our featured panelists was a great blend of business, design and inside information, and music by DJ Darla Bea helped set a groovy tone. Here’s a quick rundown of what we covered (full audio at the AIGA SB website; all photos by Tad Wagner):

Apple pay sets a new benchmark for mobile payments, however, they are not alone.  according to Mashable, MasterCard has been a pioneer of mobile commerce innovation for years, including the world’s first contact-less and mobile payment solutions. Apple Pay turned to MasterCard to help ensure high quality mobile transactions. Earlier in 2005, Mastercard used Near Field Communication technology to turn almost anything into an instant and secure form of payment, meaning your smartphone, bracelet or watch could soon replace your wallet. These new methods of payment, enable consumers to spend more than they regularly would with traditional payment methods. Mastercard, has been working to promote and distribute these new methods of payment and further expand these technologies promoting them to be faster, more secure and convenient. Some may be worried about the security of using contact-less payment methods, but master card ensures heightened security through 3 layers of tokenization, EMV cryptology, and biometrics meaning respectively a special number assignment which prevents hackers from stealing your card information, creating a one time transaction number, and is thumb print or passcode secure.  Wallets might be a thing of the past, while reliance on smart phones and technology is predicted to expand and grow.

We were elated to get a bag of coffee in the mail from Bedfellows Roasting Company this week.

The company’s founder Marc Beauregard, now living in San Francisco, is a long time friend of Oniracom, soulful singer/songwriter, surfer and all-around cool guy.

Tomorrow, AIGA Santa Barbara is hosting The Art of Music: Translating Sound to Sight at the Balboa Building (735 State St.) from 6 to 8 p.m. Organized by our very own designer/developer Keir DuBois, the event will include presentations by Capitol Records president Hale Milgrim, former Apple Records art director John Kosh, former CBS Records art director Andy Engel, and our CEO Jacob Tell! Each will be sharing their personal experiences with the processes of designing iconic album artwork, gig posters and illustrations to show how artists transform their songs into something visual.

Keir was interviewed by the SB Independent recently to talk about the event. He is beyond excited to have these legendary artists speak at this event. He stated, “I still get starry-eyed thinking about what it was like to work somewhere like Capitol Records, so we like to draw a balance between inspirational stories for creative professionals and discussing the practicality aspects of the job.” You can read the full feature here.

Admission to the event includes food, wine, and music spun by DJ Darla Bea that you won’t want to miss. To learn more about the event visit santabarbara.aiga.org!

Recently, Facebook has released a new update allowing for a more organized way to post batches of photos from your smart phone. According to Mashable , Once an iPhone or Android user uploads a set of pictures from their mobile device, the app generates a quick preview of how the photos will be displayed and then allows users to rearrange image order.  This can be done by holding the selected photo and dragging it to the desired position. This update is compatible for selecting up to thirty photos at a time including tags, captions and locations. Now smartphone users are able to control photo order from the convenience of their phones rather than being limited to having this control on just website uploads. According to Mashable, Facebook is positioning photos as more of a platform for telling stories about everyday moments, rather just a place to store albums of hundreds of photos. This places emphasis not only on the large album uploads, but the importance of smaller photo uploads telling a story or updating Facebook friends. These smaller uploads are coined stories, which are different from albums in size, focusing on sharing in the moment with one’s Facebook community. 

Fitbit recently unveiled their new and improved super watch the Fitbit Charge, just in time for the Holiday season. Six months ago the company recalled their product the Fitbit Force to due the nickel content in the surgical steel affecting some consumers causing allergic reactions, thought limited in cases according to Mashable Fitbit offered a full refund, and worked hard to come back with a new and improved product. During this release, Fitbit introduced the three products it is releasing within the next year.  

Products include the Fitbit Charge, the Fitbit Charge HR, and the Fitbit Surge. Currently the only product available for purchase is the charge which offers special features that track steps, calories burn, and sleeping patterns, which can then be synched to your smart phone. The fit band also displays incoming calls and messages, so you can check your wrist before reaching for the phone. So far the Fitbit products come in black and slate, but new colors such as blue and burgundy will be released in 2015 according to Mashable.

The FitBit collections offer the combination of hardware and software unity to take health tracking to the next level. Relying on smartphone devices is less efficient, than synching the features of a smartphone and smart watch. The Fitbit HR offers heart rate monitoring during physical exertion and rest periods alike, offering extensive health insight for only a 20$ price increase. the Fitbit Charge HR offers heart rate monitoring, GPS, sleep analysis, and activity tracking. Unfortunately these two products are yet to be released to the market, but we will patiently await their release, and look forward to taking health tracking to a new level.