Ionic 2 + angular 2 pipes issue

IMHO, the stock date pipes are pretty much worthless because the format parameter doesn’t really work unless you’re using Dart. If you don’t mind adding a dependency on moment, it’s trivial to roll your own pipes with it that are more powerful:

import {Pipe, PipeTransform} from 'angular2/core';
import * as moment from 'moment';

@Pipe({
    name: 'moment',
    pure: false,
})
export class MomentPipe implements PipeTransform {
    transform(d:Date | moment.Moment, args?:any[]):string {
        let rv = moment(d).format(args[0]);
        return rv;
    }
}

@Pipe({
    name: 'timeago',
    pure: false,
})
export class TimeagoPipe implements PipeTransform {
    transform(d:Date | moment.Moment):string {
        let rv = moment(d).fromNow();
        return rv;
    }
}

As for your other problem, do you have typings installed?