Facebook ‘Safety Check’ lets friends know you’re OK after a major disaster
Despite the frivolous nature of most social media interactions, Facebook’s latest new feature is intended for use only in serious situations. Unveiled today in Japan, Safety Check notifications are pushed to users when a natural disaster hits and area you have listed as your location, where you’ve checked in on Nearby Friends, or where you recently logged in from. Tech companies like Google and Facebook have worked to connect people after significant disasters in the past, and Facebook says the project is an extension of the Disaster Message Board its Japanese engineers rolled out after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami there. Safety Check is rolling out globally on Android, iOS, feature phones and the desktop — there’s a demo video (embedded after the break) to explain how it all works.
A simple I’m safe / I’m not in the area set of buttons can push an update (and comments, if you enter them) that’s visible only to people on your friends list, intended to quickly give some piece of mind when they notice a USGS report for your zipcode — or worse. If you simply have friends who are in the area of a natural disaster, there’s a notification when they check-in as safe that can take you to a list of their updates.
A truly useful tool, or just a cagey way to try to take some of the creepiness out of the apps’ location tracking features? We’re figuring the latter impression doesn’t hurt from Facebook’s perspective, but in this connected age it’s also a reflection of how people really use the net in trying times. Additionally, it can take some pressure off of overloaded infrastructure with everyone trying to call affected areas after disasters hit, and of course, save you from a post-tragedy chewing out for failure to let people know you’re fine. C’mon, just call your parents / friends / casual acquaintances once in a while, it’s not that hard.
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Filed under: Internet, Mobile, Facebook
Source: Facebook
Now Google’s Translate Chrome extension can zoom in on short bits of text
Say, you’re reading an article written in your third language but can’t properly decipher a sentence or two — you can just highlight those specific lines and let the Google Translate extension for Chrome do the rest. The add-on’s new update makes it simpler to translate small snippets out of websites: highlighting part of the text leads to a pop-up icon you can click to view the translation (or some semblance of it, since we all know the service isn’t always on point) on the same screen. You can also right click and choose Google Translate to view the original sentence and its meaning in a separate tab, though. Of course, if you want to to read the whole page in the language of your choice, you can always click the service’s icon living in the corner of your browser. The extension should update itself if it’s already installed, otherwise, you can download it right now from the Chrome Web Store.
Source: Google Chrome Blog
Verizon Increases Edge Upgrade Time and some Pricing Points
Starting October 16th, Verizon will increase the number of monthly payments Edge customers must make from 20 to 24 months in order to upgrade to a new device. The increase in time between upgrades should decrease a customer’s monthly payment; although customers much pay off 75% instead of the 60% previously required to upgrade early. With the new system, customers sticking to their upgrade plan will be able to get a new device every 18 months as opposed to 12.
Verizon is also offering bigger discounts for users of edge plans as well, offering a $15 per line discount for data plans from 500 MB to 8 GB and $25 off for plans higher than 8 GB. Verizon also lowered the cost of its 500 MB plan from $30 to $20, but raising the cost of its 2 GB plan from $60 to $75. These plans still feature severe overage charges.
Verizon is making some changes in order to raise the percentage of users on an Edge plan in order to compete with AT&T’s success with its NEXT plan, which has about half of its users, as compared to 18% of Verizon users on Edge.
Source: Fierce Wireless
Come comment on this article: Verizon Increases Edge Upgrade Time and some Pricing Points
Amazon Games Studio Announces Three new Upcoming Games
Amazon’s Games Studio has a mantra of quality over quality; releasing few games, but keeping them superb. Today it announced three more games it’s been working on that will be released onto the market soon.
The three games all have 3D visuals and offer an immersive, exciting gaming experience. “Till Morning’s Light,” available for the Fire Phone, is a spooky game set in a Haunted Mansion with a 200 year curse. Erica, the protagonist in the game, is locked in the house and has to break the curse in order to escape alive in the morning. Players will have to use their wits to explore, solve puzzles, and defeat dangerous creatures.
Click here to view the embedded video.
CreepStorm will be available for Fire Tablets and will feature a team of vampire slayers hoping to vanquish the the world’s most powerful vampire, all the while striking down hordes of the evil undead. The gameplay is like a modified tower defense, where you upgrade your characters and weapons and maneuver them in order to defeat the enemy.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Tales from Deep Space is a comic adventure where you help E the traveling salesman work with his drone CASI escape the Big Moon after it is put in lockdown. The game is both single player with switching between characters or co-op where both players are played simultaneously.
The titles will be exclusively available for Amazon’s devices like the Fire Phone or Fire Tablet, so unless you can find the apks for these apps, you’ll have to have an Amazon product to be able to play.
Source: Droid Gamers
Come comment on this article: Amazon Games Studio Announces Three new Upcoming Games
Old Navy’s machine turns your selfies into giant balloon art
Want to do more with your selfies than post them on Instagram for the umpteenth time? Old Navy might have a way to make them stand out… if just for a brief, glorious moment. The clothing shop is kicking off its 20th birthday by creating the Selfiebration machine, a 15 foot tall behemoth that converts Twitter photos into balloon art. All you do is tweet a photo to Old Navy with the #selfiebration hashtag — after that, the device (co-designed by Deeplocal) rasterizes your self-portrait and displays it on a grid of nearly 1,000 balloons that inflate to different sizes.
The campaign runs between October 16th and 25th, and public machines will generate pop-up pics in New York City’s Times Square (starting October 22nd) and Los Angeles’ Hollywood & Highland Center (October 25th). However, you probably won’t want to get too attached to any physical manifestations of your ego. The balloon stations will cycle through photos every 30 seconds, and you’ll only see the fully inflated picture for about 10 seconds; you’ll likely get more entertainment out of the GIF animation that Old Navy will send as a keepsake. Nonetheless, this might be your best chance at getting a picture of yourself that truly stands out. If you manage to get one, let us know what it looks like in the comments.
http://www.engadget.com/embed-5min/?sid=577&playList=518464737&responsive=false
Source: Old Navy
Google Fiber hits Austin this December
It looks like AT&T’s gigabit internet is going to get some new company in Austin come December: Google Fiber. At a recent planning meeting in the Weird City, Mountain View detailed how it’ll at long last roll the service out, and, as Gigaom notes, it seems similar to what’s been in place in the Kansas City, Missouri area. Just like before, individual neighborhoods will have to commit to using the service for Google to consider putting Fiber there. If your area’s selected, you’ll have to pay a $300 “construction fee” to access the pipeline but, aside from a free 5mbps package, other pricing details haven’t been announced. Itching to sign-up and get yourself on the map? You’ll have to wait until the last month of the year for that. It feels like a lifetime ago since we first caught wind of Fiber’s Austin appearance, but surely you’ve used those 18 months to plan your first blazing-fast download, right?
[Image credit: StuSeeger/Flickr]
Source: Gigaom
TalkAndroid Daily Dose for October 15, 2014
With hectic schedules, it can be hard to keep track of everything in your news feed. That’s why we created the TalkAndroid Daily Dose. This is where we recap the day’s hottest stories so you can get yourself up to speed in quick fashion. Happy reading!!
Reviews
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 review: The best Samsung smartphone ever
Android TV
Google’s Nexus Player is Google’s first Android TV device
Plex announces its support for Android TV and the upcoming Nexus Player
AOL jumps on the Android TV bandwagon
Apps
Androidify update overhauls with new design, GIFs, and new items
Messenger application will not replace Hangouts on Nexus 6
HTC Dot View app gets third-party notifications, music controls, and holiday surprises
Carriers
Nexus 6 to be available on all major U.S. carriers
The ASUS PadFone X mini is coming to AT&T on Oct. 24, $199 contract free on GoPhone
Google Play Store downloads beat out iOS App Store downloads in volume by 60%
Android 5.0 Lollipop is official, includes full Material Design overhaul and tons of new features
Google posts video showing how Lollipop name was decided on
Android 5.0 Lollipop statue arrives at Google headquarters in Mountain View
Google posts Android Lollipop Statue Unwrapped video
Android Lollipop features “Factory Reset Protection” to stop thieves from wiping stolen phones
Hardware
Samsung SDI develops new batteries that are both flexible and rollable
Phones
The ASUS PadFone X mini is coming to AT&T on Oct. 24, $199 contract free on GoPhone
HTC reaffirms promise of Lollipop to the M7 and M8 in 90 days
LG aims to improve camera in next flagship device
Motorola announces which devices will get Android 5.0
Nexus 6 with Android Lollipop officially unveiled, pre-orders start late October for $649
Nexus 6 to be available on all major U.S. carriers
Google shows us what the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 have to offer in a couple of new promotional videos
Nexus 6 poses with the iPhone 6 Plus
Oppo N3 smart rotating camera gets a demo video
Samsung announces its latest “Galaxy Gifts” campaign for the Note 4 & Note Edge
Tablets
The ASUS PadFone X mini is coming to AT&T on Oct. 24, $199 contract free on GoPhone
HTC’s Nexus 9 is official, complete with brushed metal design and BoomSound speakers
Google shows us what the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 have to offer in a couple of new promotional videos
Updates
Android 5.0 Lollipop is official, includes full Material Design overhaul and tons of new features
Developers will be able to grab the Android 5.0 SDK on October 17
Android Lollipop features “Factory Reset Protection” to stop thieves from wiping stolen phones
Motorola announces which devices will get Android 5.0
HTC reaffirms promise of Lollipop to the M7 and M8 in 90 days
Miscellaneous
Standalone streaming service from HBO coming in 2015
Come comment on this article: TalkAndroid Daily Dose for October 15, 2014
Printer for self-destructing photos brings Snapchat to real life
Normally, you print things out to get a permanent copy. Not with Diego Trujillo Pisanty’s new printer, however. His This Tape Will Self-Destruct art project coats its printouts (in this case, Cold War pictures) with glycerol and potassium salt, triggering an exothermic reaction that burns the paper within moments after you read them. Think of it as a real-world Snapchat where photos literally disappear in a puff of smoke.
This machine doesn’t just exist for the pyrotechnics, of course. As Diego explains, it’s a commentary on how decades-old spy fiction is suddenly relevant in an era when people are determined to keep their information away from the NSA and other nosy surveillance agencies. Don’t expect to pick up this technological political statement at your local store, then. All the same, it’s easy to imagine the printer being genuinely useful to secret agents and anyone else who doesn’t want to leave a trail of evidence — digital or physical.
Filed under: Peripherals
Via: Gizmodo, We Make Money Not Art, GearFuse
Source: Diego Trujillo Pisanty
Moto devices to get Lollipop makeover
Among all the big announcements today was a little update from Motorola talking about updates coming to a number of Moto devices.
Since Motorola and Google partnered on the Nexus 6, Motorola got a head start on prepping Android Lollipop for Moto devices. In their announcement today, they report,
…we are excited to confirm that this latest and greatest Android release will also come to our other devices as part of our ongoing software strategy to provide fast updates to our pure Android experience.
Motorola doesn’t give exact dates as to when the devices will get the update, but they were able to share a list of which Moto devices will get the benefit of Lollipop.
- Moto X (1st Gen. & 2nd Gen.)
- Moto G (1st Gen. & 2nd Gen.)
- Moto G with 4G LTE
- Moto E
- Droid Ultra, Droid Maxx, and Droid Mini
More to come. Stay tuned Moto-heads, and Droid-dudes.
Source [The Official Motorola Blog]
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The post Moto devices to get Lollipop makeover appeared first on AndroidGuys.
The Big Picture: A massive typhoon as seen from orbit
No, a black hole didn’t suddenly open up on the Earth’s surface. That’s Vongfong, a gigantic storm (then a super typhoon) that has been causing chaos in the Asia-Pacific region for much of October. NASA astronaut Reid Weisman posted this dramatic photo as the International Space Station orbited overhead on the morning of October 9th, when Vongfong was getting close to Okinawa. It had been downgraded to “just” a category 4 super typhoon by then, but that still made it both enormous and dangerous — the eye alone was about 30 miles across, and it had sustained winds of nearly 150MPH. As beautiful as this orbital view may be, it’s comforting to know that Vongfong has since weakened to a tropical storm and isn’t posing nearly as much of a threat.
Filed under: Science
Via: NBC News
Source: Reid Wiseman (Twitter), NASA
AIVAnet 