FEMA’s latest app feature came out in its Android update this week – a social tool for disaster efforts that allows anyone to upload geotagged photos of ongoing disasters. In addition to location specific images, users can also add a small description of the images prior to submission., All photos go through an approval process to ensure authenticity and then placed on a publicly accessible map for everyone to view.

In a statement to Mashable, Craig Fugate, FEMA’s adminsistrator said, “The public is a resource and oftentimes the initial and first reports we get are people putting up information, from tweets, from Flickr. Rather than waiting for that to come up, they would be doing that in the app that will allow it to be shared with other responders.” The next logical step is to use social crowdsourcing to fund  disaster relief efforts. Read more

Facebook has introduced a new pilot program for small developers to release their mobile games through the Facebook app called Mobile Games Publishing. The social network will promote select games across their mobile apps. The effort gives smaller developers a chance to show off their games to a larger audience and it gives Facebook users access to new games.

Here is more from the Facebook blog:

With more than 800 million monthly users of our mobile apps and more than 260 million people playing games on Facebook, we are using our unique reach and targeting capabilities to help games in our program find and engage a valuable audience of the right users. This program is designed to reach people who already play games on Facebook with new games that may interest them. For example, we will help strategy game fans find strategy games and casual game enthusiasts find casual games. Read more

We’ve all seen it. You are at a restaurant and you look over at a table of friends only to see all of them ignoring each other and looking down at their phones tweeting and Instagraming their experience, losing site of the moment of being able to talk to their friends in person. Is being on our phones all the time, hurting the art of conversation?

liGo UK has created an infographic called, “Have Mobile Phones Killed the Conversation?,” which explores how the rise of smartphones have actually hampered real life communication. According to the graphic, “the average phone call is now 50% shorter than it was 5 years ago.”

We’ve embedded the entire graphic after the jump for you to explore further.  Read more

It seems like every platform you use online is somehow connected to NSA spying. While you may enjoy Skype’s free video calling service, it is also unsettling to realize that what you thought were private conversations are probably being heard by a government agency. Enter Tox, a new platform that is currently in pre-alpha, that hopes to be like Skype, but actually private.

Check it out: “Tox is built with the idea that you can keep up with friends and family without having your privacy violated. While other big-name services require you to pay to unlock features, Tox is free in both price, and in liberty. That is, you’re free to do whatever you wish with Tox.”

The platform will let you make phone calls, video calls, and chat with friends, all on an encrypted server that promises not to let the government spy on you. The platform is free, ad-free and even has a feature that lets you modify it, so that you can do  your own encryption if you like.

Keeping a notebook while you are writing an article or a book is a good way to remember random ideas about and keep track of the people and places that you encounter along the way. Grid from Binary Thumb Corporation can help you organize all of these little pieces to your story in a fun way.

The iOS app claims to be a “place for projects and plans,” and “helps you keep and organize notes, pictures, people and places in your own unique manner. Grid is a place where your ideas fit.”

The app lets you be a “Maestro” and orchestrate your ideas on your screen. You can organize photos and text in different layouts to help you visualize your ideas. You can use the app to create lists, collages, and tables to help give structure to all of the content that you may be collecting.

After buying up the restaurant review brand Zagat almost 2 years ago, Google has revamped the Zagat app and introduced a totally rebuilt app for both iOS and Android platforms. The new app is designed to help users find good restaurants, clubs and bars based on their location. It reads like a magazine, and includes feeds of review summaries, interviews with chefs, and even includes videos.

Users can search by occasion or type of food in one of nine cities– Austin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington DC. Google recently made use of Zagat content in its latest Google Maps update. The Zagat app makes use of Google Maps and users can search the map for places to eat as well as look up directions.

Reviews are summarized with photos and their overall score for food, decor, service and cost is rated. The app is also integrated with Open Table, so users can book reservations directly from within the app.

Love & Madness: My Private Years with George C. Scott by Karen Trusedell Riehl is today’s Free eBook of the Day.

The memoir is the personal story of Scott’s mistress. Check it out:

Film and theater audiences were attracted to George C. Scott’s powerful stage presence and charisma, as was Karen Truesdell, a Stephens College theatre student. After performing with him on stage, a long term love relationship developed. Following her graduation, Karen and George moved to New York City together, where George’s problems with booze and joblessness sent him into frequent rages. Broke, pregnant and ruling out an abortion, Karen entered a home for unwed mothers. Her liaison with Scott spanned 30 years as his hidden mistress and mother of his child. Truesdell Riehl’s honesty and willingness to expose her own blindness to Scott’s Jekyll and Hyde persona creates a compelling page-turner that reveals a compassionate understanding of young women trapped in the hypocrisy of the 1950′s.

Amazon has the free download.

For more free eBooks, check out our 10 Websites to Download Free eBooks list, as well as our Free eBook of the Day archive.

Looking to get new readers for your blog? Check out Glipho. The social blogging platform wants to help writers connect with new readers. Like WordPress, you can use the Glipho platform to write and publish blog posts through an online dashboard. The platform is designed to make it easy to share your content to your social audiences, as you can set it up to autotweet your posts on your behalf across various social networks.

Readers can access this content and as they browse around for new blog stories. Readers can curate their profiles to read content based on a specific topic or they can follow specific readers. Like Digg or Reddit, content on Glipho is ranked by and highlighted by users.

Here is more about Glipho from the site: “We want to be the network where you publish your words and express your views. The place which helps you take advantage of all the other networks to create better content, and where you can reach and interact with an even bigger audience.”

Moleskine has released a new iPad 3 or iPad 4 cover and notebook combination, helping you scribble on paper or the iPad while creating.

The rubber shell case protects your iPad and adds a fancy Volant Reporter Notebook–customizable for left and right-handed writers. Would you pay $89.95 for this handsome accessory? Check it out:

This Moleskine tool integrates devices and paper, digital and analog, protection and design. The rounded spine allows the tablet cover to lay flat when opened fully, and the inside is lined in soft, ivory faux-suede. The new Moleskine Tablet Slim Cover is available in a variety of stunning colors to match your personality, AND the cover of the included Volant Reporter Notebook matches the cover color of the Tablet Cover!

Read more

Drone-powered aerial photography has a bad reputation thanks to drones with guns, but it’s not always death and destruction. Flying robots have been capturing some amazing photography from above and now they have a home at Dronestagr.am. Not all of the photos are taken by “drones” so even if you have a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) or even a kite with a camera attachment you can share your photos at Dronstagr.am.

The photos are stunning – once I stopped caring about privacy issues, it was easy to take a ten minute aerial vacation over Vancia, France over to the Kintzheim over to the beautiful Coco Palm Bodu Hithi in the Maldives. A search on the public site showed zero results for Fan Francisco – a place I know that is teeming with professional and amateur drone builders. There’s even a drone store on my block! Evidently there are few San Franciscans willing to be social with their drone photos. Read more