The popular #socialmedia app #Snapchat released a three-feature #update this week: Lenses, Trophies, and Paid Replays. - http://clapway.com/2015/09/17/snapchat-update123/

The popular social media app Snapchat released a three-feature update this week: Lenses, Trophies, and Paid Replays.

SNAPCHAT UPDATES

Lenses

If you have Snapchat, you have probably seen by now the grotesque images of your friends vomiting rainbows and donning wrinkly-faced, monocled old-man grimaces. The Lenses update appears to be the product of Snapchat acquiring and implementing facial recognition software. The result is very similar to the real-time photo and video distortions we’re familiar with from Apple’s Photo Booth effects page–only stranger.

To activate the feature, first make sure you’ve installed the app’s most recent update. Next, open your front-facing camera in the app as though you’re about to take a selfie. Then, press and hold on your face. Seven Lens options will appear next to the shutter button for you to play around with: a grotesque zombie, a terminator-type screen, heart eyes, weeping tears, a face full of wrinkles, a strange mustachioed vampire-looking option, and of course, the rainbow vomit.

The Lenses appear to be one more in a string of features Snapchat has unveiled that make it more fun for us to play with pictures of our own faces. Between Lenses, geotags, text enhancement options, and the classic drawing tools from the original version, sending pictures on Snapchat is really more like creating and sharing little works of goofy art.

Trophies

The new Trophies feature will award stickers to users for unlocking certain achievements, like sending ten snaps with the front-facing flash on. It appears to be a continuation of the recent emojis update that labeled your best friends (and your peon devotees of unrequited admiration), which included a feature that kept tabs on your snap streaks with other users. These are features that drive engagement and encourage you to set usage goals on the app. They keep you coming back, which means more users, more user dependence, and more potential revenue from in-app advertisements. Snapchat is a business, too.

Paid Replays

And that brings us to the paid Replays. For $0.99, you can now replay three different snaps of your choosing, one time each. It’s the first in-app purchase for Snapchat, and it essentially allows you to undo the fundamental impermanence of digital image sharing that the medium is built on. We all got into Snapchat because it offered freedom from the high stakes of Internet permanence. Of course, this required work in order to convince ourselves that all those snaps really aren’t archived anywhere accessible (which I think we all knew wasn’t the case).

Touché, Snapchat. Maybe now we’ll think twice before sending anything extra-questionable. But I stand by the replay value of the five-chin selfies. Accidentally sending one of those to my crush instead of to my sister was about as liberating as it gets for a millennial.

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Snapchat Releases its New Three-Feature Update

%99% of #contactlens users ignore hygiene rules, adopting behaviors that could lead them even to #blindness.% - http://clapway.com/2015/08/21/contact-lens-users-risking-blindness-101/

​In an effort to promote contact lens and eye health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did a report based on a nationwide survey of 1,000 contact wearers. CDC discovered that 99 percent of them ignore hygiene rules adopting behaviors that could lead them even to blindness.

CONTACT LENS RISKS IN NUMBERS

Almost 85% of contact lens wearers say that they have showered with their lenses in while 61% have gone swimming wearing them. Health officials have always been suggesting that lenses should not come in contact with water and that even swim goggles are not a healthy solution.

Users’ cleaning habits are not better with 55% of them sometimes “topping off” their lens case with a more disinfecting solution. The official recommendation says that all contact lens users have to empty the case and then clean in before filling with fresh solution.

RELATED POST: SCIENTISTS DISCOVERED HOW OBESITY WORKS TO TREAT IT

Almost two-thirds of the surveyed sample had rinsed their contact lenses using tap water, which is a potentially risky move. As the report says, household tap water may be safe for drinking, but it is not sterile and the microorganisms contained in it can cause eye infections:

“Household tap water, although treated to be safe for drinking, is not sterile and contains microorganisms that can contaminate lens cases and contact lenses and cause eye infections,” the report says.

Over half said that they had slept overnight with their lenses in and more than 87% admitted they had fallen asleep in their contacts at some point, making napping the most common offense. While certain contact lenses are FDA approved for overnight wear, the CDC says that “sleeping in any type of lens can increase the risk of eye infections.”

Jennifer Cope, the lead author of the study, CDC medical epidemiologist said in a statement that healthy contact lens wear and care is extremely important and that many users do not have a clear idea about their proper use:

“Good vision contributes to overall well-being and independence for people of all ages, so it’s important not to cut corners on healthy contact lens wear and care. We are finding that many wearers are unclear about how to properly wear and care for contact lenses.”

THE RIGHT USE OF CONTACT LENS

The report of CDC comes with tips, to help reduce the risk of eye irritation or infections:

– Users should never sleep with their contact lenses in unless an eye care provider advises them to do so.

– All water must be kept away from contact lenses. Do not shower while wearing them and remove them before swimming or using a hot tub. Never wash or store your contact lenses in water.

– Contact lenses must be replaced as often as recommended by your eye care provider.

– Before putting their contact lenses in the case, users should clean it using fresh solution and never water.

– Store contact lens case upside down with the caps off after each use.

– The contact lens must be replaced, at leas, once every 3 months.

– Visit an eye care provider as often as recommended by your primary health care provider.

– If experiencing eye pain, blurred vision, redness or discomfort, remove the contact lenses immediately and call an eye care provider.

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Survey: Contact Lens Users Risking Blindness