A new Kickstarter project wants to fix your iPhone night photos by turning your smartphone case into a camera flash light.

Lightstrap began crowdfunding on Kickstarter this week, and it promises to make your low-light iPhone pictures 10 times brighter.

The smartphone case works using a camera light that wraps all the way around its edges, creating a ring of light that goes off whenever users take photos on their iPhone while using the flash feature. The project says it works with any iPhone camera app.

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"No more blur and grain, just crisp vibrant photos with the distinctive look of a professional ring light," the project promises on Kickstarter. A video of the smartphone case can be seen on its project page.

Lightstrap works with photos and videos. And despite using a huge camera flash, users can get more than 500 photos or 30 minutes of video before Lightstrap's battery runs out. 

The smartphone case also offers users more...

Twitter made headlines Thursday by appointing its first female board member, Marjorie Scardino. But it turns out the former Pearson chief executive had never sent a tweet prior to joining the company.

Scardino's first tweet came after the @Twitter account announced her appointment.

"@twitter Thank you. There couldn't be a more exciting time in Twitter's history to join!" the new board member tweeted Thursday morning.

PHOTOS: Top 10 ways to take advantage of the 'sharing economy'

Scardino's lack of tweets might make her seem unqualified for the job, but if anything she's just as qualified as several others on Twitter's board of directors.

As pointed out by Quartz, about half of Twitter's board members rarely use the social network.

Besides Scardino, neither Peter Currie, David Rosenblatt nor Peter Chernin has sent out more than 108 tweets since opening their accounts.

Fellow board member Peter Fenton has sent out 1,164 tweets, which is more respectable but still somewhat lacking.

The...

Instagram has sent out media invitations for an event next week in New York City.

The Facebook-owned social network sent the invitations via FedEx, rather than through email as is customary with tech companies, according to CNET. Instagram opted for FedEx because its invitation contained more than just a piece of paper with a time and address on it.

Instagram sent a small wooden block with a printed Instagram picture on it. The block is 4 inches long by 4 inches wide by 1.75 inches thick. It comes with a slot on the back so that it can be hung.

PHOTOS: Top 10 ways to take advantage of the 'sharing economy'

Along with the block, Instagram included a note that says "You are invited to share a moment with [Instagram cofounder] Kevin Systrom and the Instagram team," according to CNET.

The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. Dec. 12 in Manhattan, and of course the Internet has begun speculating what Instagram has in store.

CNET believes Instagram will announce a service that lets users print...

Google is spreading holiday cheer by automatically adding twinkling lights and falling snow into users' Google+ photos.

A software engineer for the company announced Thursday that when users upload photos that contain things that sparkle or snow onto Google+, the social network will automatically enhance the images by adding lights that twinkle and snow that's falling.

The GIFs will show up automatically in the Photos section of users' Google+ accounts where only the user can see them. If the user likes the enhanced pictures, he or she can then choose to share it with others in their Google+ circles.

PHOTOS: Top 10 ways to take advantage of the 'sharing economy'

The new effects are a part of Auto Awesome, a Google+ feature that adds effects to users photos.

Among other capabilities, Auto Awesome can turn multiple sequence shots into action GIFs, it can turn multiple landscape pictures into panoramas and it can also stitch together multiple pictures into photo-booth images.

You can...

The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission has launched an investigation into the construction of Google's mysterious barge. 

The state agency is charged with monitoring development of San Francisco Bay. The probe apparently began within the past week, according a report from Reuters. 

After immense secrecy around the project, Google acknowledged that the barge is to be used as some kind of showroom for new technologies. 

In this case, the agency is not looking at how Google will eventually use the structure, but whether the proper permits have been obtained to allow for its construction on Treasure Island in the middle of the bay.

"We want to make sure that the permits that are used by the owners of the pier actually allowed for construction to happen," Larry Goldzband, the agency's executive director, told Reuters news service on Wednesday. 

He also described the effort as "a preliminary and formal enforcement investigation."

The barge is made up of steel shipping...

SAN FRANCISCO -- In a major step in building up its advertising business, Twitter will begin showing ads to users based on their Web browsing history, the company said Thursday.

Twitter is following the example of Facebook, Google, Amazon and other companies which have profited handsomely from the controversial but effective form of ad targeting.

The feature allows marketers to use cookies -- files on computers that contain information on which websites have been visited -- to display ads for products people browsed on other websites. So when you check out a pair of pants or a sweater on a website but don't buy them, a marketer can show ads for those items on another website in an effort to get you to complete the purchase.

“Retargeting is one of the most precise ad targeting methods. People are...

Being the sister to the man who connected more than a billion people through Facebook can cause you to get overshadowed, and Randi Zuckerberg is getting a little tired of it. 

Randi went on BBC's "Woman's Hour" radio program this week where she half joked that she is not just the sister to Mark Zuckerberg.

"It must be awful, but do people always introduce you as Mark Zuckerberg's big sister?" "Woman's Hour" presenter Jane Garvey asked, to which Randi quickly replied "Yes."

PHOTOS: Top 10 ways to take advantage of the 'sharing economy'

No amount of hope or change can set President Obama up with an iPhone.

The leader of the free world said he is not allowed to use the popular Apple device due to security reasons, according to Reuters.

Obama revealed the limitation of his job at a meeting with youths on Wednesday to promote his healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act.

PHOTOS: Top 10 ways to take advantage of the 'sharing economy'

But it's not all bad for the president. Obama said he may not be allowed to use an iPhone, but he does get to use the iPad as his tablet. He also joked that his daughters are allowed to use Apple devices.

Instead of an iPhone, Obama uses a BlackBerry.

The president notably fought to keep using his BlackBerry after coming into office in 2009. Back then, the move made him seem like a cool president, but these days, using a BlackBerry is about as cool as owning a car phone.

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Marjorie Scardino, 66, former chief executive of publishing company Pearson, joined the Twitter board Thursday after a deafening wave of criticism that it lacked diversity in its upper ranks.

The absence of a woman on Twitter’s board was “a joke,” Sallie Krawcheck, a former Bank of America Corp. executive, said last month at a Bloomberg LP conference.

It was also the only dark cloud over Twitter's highly successful initial public offering last month in which it raised more than $2 billion.

Facebook, which also had no women on its board when it went public in May 2012, now has two female board members, including Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.

Scardino is the first major appointment for Twitter since the IPO. The move expands the Twitter board to eight members. Scardino will replace David Rosenblatt on Twitter's audit committee.

Scardino, a former lawyer, brings a...

AT&T is making a move next week to attract customers who use smartphones that are not under a wireless service contract.

The carrier  announced Thursday that starting Dec. 8, customers with off-contract smartphones can choose a "no annual service contract" option that will lower the price of their monthly Mobile Share Value service plan by $15.

Users can get the option if they are paying for their device through the AT&T Next early-upgrade plan, if they bring their own smartphone to use with AT&T's service, or if their smartphone is no longer under contract.

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The new option comes as a response to T-Mobile and Sprint, which offer similar plans to those who use off-contract smartphones.

Recently, more customers have begun to pay for devices at full retail price, in order to get cheaper plans and to be able to buy new devices without having to wait two years for a subsidized upgrade from their carrier.

As a result, more phone...

Apple may have finalized a deal with China Mobile, that nation's largest carrier, to sell the iPhone. 

Such a deal would give Apple access to China Mobile's 700 million customers for the first time. Though analysts have been predicting such a deal was close for months now, it's still expected to give a major boost to Apple in one of the world's most important smartphone markets. 

The deal was reported Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal, which said a source had indicated that it would be announced Dec. 18 at a China Mobile conference. 

[Updated, 6:47 a.m. PST Dec. 5: In a note to clients Thursday, Gene Munster, a Piper Jaffray analyst, said China Mobile iPhone sales could add as much as 5% to Apple's revenues in the current fiscal year that ends September 2014.

In early trading, Apple's stock rose $7.92, or 1.4%, to $572.92.]

[Updated, 10:49 a.m. PST Dec. 5: Reuters is reporting a deal may not have been inked yet. 

"We are still negotiating with Apple, but for now we have nothing new...