Google Hangouts service restored after earlier problems
Google has issued an update stating that the reason many were experiencing issues with Google Hangouts is that the service was experiencing a service disruption.
In a rare event, Google published a status update on their service dashboard at 4:22PM GMT stating there were initial issues with the service, which then followed with an update at 5:15PM GMT advising that Google were investigating.
As of 6:15PM GMT, Google issued an update stating the service had restored for many users, and by 7:28PM GMT, Google Hangouts was back up for everyone.
he problem with Google+ Hangouts should be resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support. Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better.
Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to explain what the outage was caused by, or what Google have done to prevent a future occurrence, but if you were experiencing issues with Google Hangouts today around the above mentioned times, then you know why.
Drop us a comment if you were affected.
The post Google Hangouts service restored after earlier problems appeared first on AndroidGuys.
ADD52 gives Samsung another reason to ask Galaxy owners if they “Got Milk”
On the heels of launching Milk Music, Samsung has just announced a partnership with Russell Simmons and Steve Rifkind, co-founders of All Def Digital (ADD) and All Def Music, along with Narrative_today, and the world’s leading music entertainment company, Universal Music Group (UMG) to launch the new ADD52 service that will be a platform for emerging artist. .
Singers around the world can take their shot at stardom simply by posting their tracks to ADD52.com. The only requirements are that the musicians have an original song and a dream for a record deal. Several tools are made available online to help the emerging artists promote on the site and across various social media.
“For artists, it’s the place to be discovered. For music lovers, it’s the place to discover,” — Russell Simmons
Using Samsung’s new radio streaming service as the core platform, the curated ADD52 station will be exclusively on Milk. Selected artists will get more than just exposure and airtime on ADD52; production budgets will be extended to a select few in order to create their own music videos and remixes. Other perks include access to world-class studios, mentorship from industry legends, and the ADD52 TV show hosted by DJ Skee. The new ADD52 service gives Samsung another reason to ask all of it’s users if they “Got Milk”.
Milk Music is a free and ad-free streaming radio service launched by Samsung launched for select Galaxy smartphones (currently U.S. only) and is available in the Google Play Store.
Source: BusinessWire
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Send notes to OneNote with your Livescribe 3 smartpen
Shortly after the news that OneNote will be free starting today, Livescribe has announced a collaboration which will see its newest smartpen integrate with Microsoft’s service. Using the Livescribe+ application, Livescribe 3 owners can now easily send notes, drawings and other stuff to OneNote. Better yet, once your scribbles and doodles show up in OneNote, they can also be synced across multiple devices by way of OneDrive (formerly known as SkyDrive) — Livescribe states this is all part of its strategy to “make smartpens a ubiquitous and valuable tool.” You’ll need to have your pen running the latest software, version 1.1.0, for this to work — and in case you need any assistance with that, take a look at Livescribe’s help page here.
Filed under: Misc, Internet, Microsoft
Source: Livescribe
Microsoft Office for iPad to Launch on March 27
Microsoft will launch its Office suite on the iPad at a media event on March 27 according to a report from The Verge. The suite — including Word, Excel and PowerPoint — has been in the works for years, with recent reports saying the lack of Office on the iPad was costing Microsoft as much as $2.5 billion per year.
The company released a version of Office on the iPhone last year, part of its Office 365 subscription service, and The Verge says the iPad version will also require a 365 subscription.
Microsoft has been working on the software for a number of months now, having first introduced an iOS version of Office for the iPhone in June last year. We understand the iPad variant of Office will be similar to the iPhone version, and will require an Office 365 subscription for editing. We’re told that document creation and editing is fully supported for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps. Overall, the interface and features are expected to be similar to the existing iPhone version.
The site says new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will expand on his “mobile first, cloud first” strategy, something demonstrated by the free launch of the Mac version of OneNote earlier today.
Microsoft is also said to have an update for Office for Mac coming in the Spring of 2014.
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Seiki’s U-Vision HDMI cable arrives today to transform your HD video into 4K
We saw a brief demo of Seiki’s U-Vision HDMI cable back in January at CES, and now the $50 cable is officially on the market. When connected to your fancy 4K TV, the chord promises to up-convert HD content from your cable box or Blu-ray player to Technicolor-certified 4K Ultra HD. It’s also capable of transforming 720p content to 1080p, all while using adaptive sharpening and noise reduction to keep the picture looking its best. The demo we saw at CES was pretty clean, but the reel didn’t give us the opportunity to really put it through the paces — something we’ll definitely be looking to do now that it’s available. If you want to give it a try, you can pick one up today at Amazon, Newegg and Fred Meyers stores.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, HD
Samsung’s Galaxy S5 won’t be considered a medical device in South Korea
Samsung’s shiny new Galaxy S5 packs quite a stats monitoring punch with the help of S Health. While the FDA has approved the software companion for the US, it seems the same label won’t be applied in South Korea. The app does meet the criteria laid out by the regulations, but the governing body cited the confusion that could surface from classifying a consumer device like a smartphone as a medical gadget as the main reason for the denial. In order to clarify the formal requirements, regulators will rework to the law to be more precise in its parameters. S Health was approved as a “cardiology signal transmitter” by the FDA in the States back in January and originally debuted alongside the Galaxy S III in 2012. Back then, it monitored glucose levels, blood pressure and body composition via a Bluetooth-equipped scale. However, those functions weren’t a part of S Health when it finally debuted stateside on the GS4 — despite another lot of health-minded accessories that were available abroad.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Samsung
Via: Talk Android
Source: Yonhap News (Korean)
Dyson issues recall after bladeless heater starts a few ‘contained’ fires
As if a legal battle with Samsung wasn’t bad enough, Dyson has to put out a fire within its own walls now. The company’s issued a voluntary recall for the heater versions of its Air Multiplier fans because a few have short-circuited and caught alight, as spotted by Reuters. The entire sales run (around 1,000,000 units, as Dyson tells it) will be recalled after reports that four of them malfunctioned, resulting in “contained burning” inside the machines. For its part, the outfit says that there haven’t been any instances of injury or property damage; it’s simply being proactive to get this straightened out as soon as possible. How soon? Well, Dyson promises more info within 24 hours. We’ll update this post as new details arrive.
Filed under: Household
Via: Reuters
Lepow Moonstone 9000 review
Up for review today we have the Lepow Moonstone 9000, a portable battery backup solution for Android and other smartphones. As the name implies, this guy packs 9000mAh worth of juice in a very cute and convenient form factor.
Measuring nearly 3.5-inches in width and depth, the Moonstone is roughly 1.5-inches in height. It’s small enough to toss into a backpack or purse but with enough juice to get you through a weekend. The model we tested was sapphire blue; it comes with a folding, felt carrying case and flat ribbon micro-USB cable.
Strangely, our review unit came with a handful of other oddball accessories, stickers, and gifts. We’re not sure if this comes with every Moonstone 9000 or if it’s part of our review kit. Nevertheless, none of them were overly useful and the whole lot felt like something you’d get from a claw machine game. If you happen to be so lucky, you can look forward to a rubber cord wrap, plastic headphone wrap, screen cleaning tool, tiny stylus, and other “goodies”.
The Moonstone 9000 offers two USB ports for charging, one being 1.2A and the other a 2.1A. The two ports are marked with lightning bolts with the former having one and the latter having two.
We were able to charge up a Tegra Note 7 from completely dead to roughly 60 percent over two hours. Considering the tablet comes with a 4100mAh battery, this was a little slower than we expected from the 2.1 output. For phones of around 2000mAh-2800mAh, the charging time should be about two hours – give or take.
We like the fact that this portable guy comes with his own carrying pouch and USB cable. While it’s not the fastest of charging cables it’s convenient nonetheless.
The overall feel of the power bank is one of quality if not a little slippery. There’s an indicator button/light to let you know what sort of juice is available. Nothing feels generic or cheaply made here and it’s nice to see how much life is left in the block. The blue is the right shade so as not to feel overly masculine or feminine.
If you’re looking for a convenient, portable power solution, the Lepow Moonstone series is a great place to start. The Moonstone 9000 has a suggested $120 price point – far too high if you ask us. In looking around, we noticed others reporting it for roughly $40, a much more practical price.
We should point out that we’ve run into issues locating the 9000 model online but no problems in getting the 3000 and 6000 lines. With that in mind, we’d have no problems recommending the Moonstone 6000 at $20 or so.
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MyCastScreen Brings Informative Home Screen to Chromecast TV’s
Google’s Chromecast device is a heck of a simple way to bring great content to your TV with very little effort. While it is great to cast Plex, Netflix, Photos and videos off your device and even play a few simple games, there is still a lot more that it is going to be able to do. While many of us love the home screen when nothing is casting, you know, the one with all the photos, there are time we wish that could be changed. Well, there is an app for that now, sort of.
MyCastScreen isn’t so much a replacement home app like you would think on Nova or Apex launcher. It is just another app that casts to your Chromecast, but it gives a bit more information in a pleasant card style look.
The app is super simple to set up and use. Once purchased, it does cost $0.99, you will input a few variables to your liking. You set your Weather and Traffic zip codes for the cards you see to the middle left and bottom left. You can then set a custom RSS feed URL for a live streaming feed of news. It is set to Reuters by default.
The app won’t do you a lick of good without a Chromecast of course.
MyCastScreen offers just a little bit of stuff, but clearly needs some more work. For instance, the Clock, Weather, Traffic and News buttons that state “On” can’t be turned off. At least I couldn’t. I also had to clear the app after disconnecting to get the cast button to reappear in the top right corner.
It has potential. If the buttons worked to disable the four items at will and if you could set up more than one feed that would be great. The developer mentions that custom background images, hiding/rearranging sections, image slideshow widget, stock ticker, custom refresh times, extended weather forecasts and more are on the way. I would like to see some AllCast/DayFrame style integration where you can choose the photo sources for a custom photo widget.
For $0.99 it is worth checking out. Especially since it sounds like the dev has some good plans for it moving forward.
Great find Google TV Friends
Rovio’s Angry Birds Epic is a Bird Brained RPG Game [Video]
Ten days ago there was a teaser video released by Rovio that alluded to a Angry Birds Epic. They said it would be the “the most epic soft launch ever” and has since launched in Australia, New Zealand and Canada on iOS devices. The new release takes the Angry Birds to a small island where they will face off against the sinister piggies in a turn-based RPG.
“A fantasy piggy island where silly costumes were fashionable, and weapons were—how to put it?—different.”
It doesn’t look all that bad really. The trailer of the gameplay doesn;t offer up a heck of a lot in terms of story line or progression. It just shows off some 3 v 3 battles with weird weapons. Take a watch.
No word yet on when Android will put into the mix. We assume their should be a soft launch for in the works as well.
Source: IntoMobile
AIVAnet 