Instagram’s handy search tool arrives on the web
Last month, Instagram redesigned the discovery section of its photo-sharing app to make it easier to spot what’s trending and leverage search abilities. Now, that revamped search function is arriving on the web. If you’ll recall, the option for browsing filter-draped photos in a browser received an update last month too, and now you’ll be able to do more than peruse images. Using the search tool, you can hunt for user profiles, hashtags and locations in order to see what’s happening at a particular event or in a specific place. There are also landing pages for hashtags and locations — similar to the mobile app — allowing you to scroll through a collection of images before clicking to nab the details for each. This is the latest in a number of steps the photo app has taken to embrace browsing on the web, following embeddable posts, timelines and more over the years. This doesn’t mean Instagram is taking its eye off mobile by any means, but adding the web-based tools as a complimentary piece is certainly a nice touch.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Facebook
Source: TechCrunch
Philae comet lander goes silent once again
It looks like the Philae comet lander’s moment in the sun was short-lived. Just weeks after getting back in touch, the European ground crew has once again lost contact with its celestial explorer — the lander is sending irregular bursts of data, but that’s about it. It’s not clear as to what went wrong, but scientists suspect that comet gas or some other unexpected phenomenon moved Philae and blocked it from collecting that all-important, energy-giving sunlight. To make matters worse, one of its transmitters also appears to be out of commission.
The team has sent a command that will (hopefully) have Philae fall back to using a single transmitter, and the host Rosetta probe is moving to an orbit that should help it get in touch. However, the odds aren’t working in researchers’ favor. The closer the comet gets to the Sun, the more dust and ice it casts off — Rosetta may have to keep its distance and limit its communication opportunities. While this state of affairs beats the months of deep sleep from before, it’s evident that this mission still isn’t going according to plan.
[Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab]
Filed under: Science
Source: The Guardian
2nd generation Moto Hint gets a new design and better battery
The Moto hint is a very discreet and stylus bluetooth headset that was introduced last year and now it looks like Motorola has secretly released the 2nd generation. The differences are subtle, but noticeable. One being a new design that resembles more of an earbud look which Motorola says has an “improved fit and enhanced audio“.
The front of the packaging says the battery is quite a bit larger “with up to 70% more talk time“. The last gen had 10hrs of talk time with the 2nd gen claiming 17hrs of talk time.
The price at BestBuy has also ben reduced to $129 as opposed to $150. Motorola’s site has reduced it even further to $79, but it is probably the 1st gen.
Via: Google+
Come comment on this article: 2nd generation Moto Hint gets a new design and better battery
Spotify’s Discover Weekly now recommends new music based on your habits
Spotify’s Discover Weekly will now recommend users new music to listen to based on their listening habits. The way it works is by building a two hour playlist based on not only your previous listening habits, but also other people’s. Every Monday the playlist will update bringing you all new tracks each week. The more music you listen to the better and better the new choice of music will be. You will also still be able to save songs you like or share them with friends.
So far reviews of the new feature has been positive, but not perfect. This feature is similar to their new competitor Apple Music which has “human created” playlist while Spotify is relying on software. If you don’t have access to this new feature yet it should be appearing in your Spotify app shortly.
Via: Engadget
Come comment on this article: Spotify’s Discover Weekly now recommends new music based on your habits
Sling TV’s new ads pioneer Internet TV over the ‘bullies’ that are traditional TV providers
Dish’s Sling TV has just launched its latest flurry of ads, pioneering Internet TV over traditional ways of accessing television. The ads make it clear: television providers are ruthless, forcing customers into long-term contracts, have too many hidden fees, and offer poor customer service. That’s why Dish thinks you should choose Sling TV.
Sling TV offers access to 20 live TV channels, including ESPN, one of the few channels keeping traditional TV providers in business. Sling TV also touts a massive video-on-demand library for only $20/month.
The irony is that Sling TV is a service provided by Dish, meaning Sling TV users could still see awful customer service, but without the egregious contracts and astronomical hidden fees. It goes without saying: Internet TV will be the new medium for entertainment on your television, but we still have a little ways to go before it becomes commonplace.
That day will come sooner than later, though. Sling reported having 250,000 subscribers signed up since its launch earlier this year.
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via: The Verge
Come comment on this article: Sling TV’s new ads pioneer Internet TV over the ‘bullies’ that are traditional TV providers
Apple Expands Seattle Presence With New Lease at Two Union Square
Apple has agreed to lease office space in the Two Union Square skyscraper in downtown Seattle, according to Bloomberg. The report claims that Apple will occupy the 44th floor and half of the 45th floor in the 56-story office building, which is roughly 30,000-square-foot space that can house 120 to 200 employees based on standard corporate leasing ratios.
Seattle has become a hotbed recently for Silicon Valley companies because of its talent pool and lower cost of living compared with the San Francisco Bay Area, with Amazon, Facebook, Google and Alibaba Group among the tech giants with offices in the region. Apple opened its first engineering office in Seattle last year after acquiring Union Bay Networks.
Apple has hired more than 9,000 employees in the last year and now has a worldwide headcount of about 115,000, according to the report. The company’s existing Seattle office focuses on core infrastructure services such as iCloud, suggesting the northwestern city could serve as a hub for its rumored high-speed content delivery network for faster cloud services.
LG Tribute 2 and Tribute Duo now available on Sprint Prepaid and Virgin Mobile for $100
There are already a ton of budget-friendly handsets available on Sprint’s prepaid network and Virgin Mobile, and today it looks like the providers are getting two more. The LG Tribute 2 has just made its way to Virgin Mobile and the LG Tribute Duo is now available from Sprint Prepaid. Both handsets are available from today for just $99.99.
Both devices feature a quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz, a 4.5-inch IPS FWVGA display with 854 x 480 resolution, and a 1900mAh battery that LG says can offer up to 16 hours of talk time on a single charge. They also come with a 5MP rear-facing camera, VGA front-facing camera, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of on-board storage and microSD expansion up to 32GB. Both feature LG’s iconic rear-mounted volume buttons and power/standby key, run Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box and come with a few notable LG software features such as Knock Code, QuickMemo+ and Gesture Shot.
If you’re interested in either of these devices, both Sprint Prepaid and Virgin Mobile offer up some attractive plans for cheap. Sprint’s prepaid plans start at $35 per month for unlimited talk, text and 1GB of data, while Virgin Mobile’s plans start at $30 per month and include 300 minutes of talk, unlimited text and 3GB of 3G/4G data.
Adobe Lightroom updated to version 1.2, includes fixes and new features
Earlier this year, Adobe promised that we’d see more Creative Cloud content for Android and so far they’ve held true to their word. Among the first Creative Cloud apps to land on Android was Adobe Lightroom and today it’s getting a fairly decent update. This is a few months after the last update that added better RAW support and support for micro SD cards.
This update is a bit more substantial and includes a few new features and tweaks. They include:
- Edit images faster by copying image adjustments and pasting them onto another photo
- Crop the perfect photo with a re-designed experience on your Android device that enables you to quickly adjust, align and auto-straighten.
- Easily find your favorite images! The new Segmented view in Collections give you a different way to view and engage with your photos.
- Raw file support for the Panasonic Lumix CM1 Communication Camera
Perhaps the most interesting and useful new feature is the ability to copy image adjustments and pasting them onto other photos. One of the better uses for Lightroom is mass photo adjustment and this helps put the app more in-line with its desktop counterpart. The Segmented view in Collections should also be a welcome addition.
In addition to the new features and tweaks, there were a number of bug fixes and performance improvements as well. According to the official Adobe Blog, these include:
- Screen occasionally went blank after changing the orientation from landscape to portrait.
- Lightroom could crash when customers tap the sign-in button.
- Fixed issue that could cause crashes when scrolling through a large collection and changing the device orientation from portrait to landscape (or vice versa).
- Hardware back button was not closing any contextual menus.
- Slow performance when swiping from image to image.
- Copying or moving an image into a different collection was not working correctly. Please note that this issue only occurred on certain Samsung tablets.
- Lightroom sometimes caused automated logouts.
- Edits not visible when sharing photos to certain 3rd party apps and services.
- Crash occurred when occasionally navigating from grid view to collections view.
When you put it all together, this is a fairly substantial update for Adobe Lightroom and should correct a lot of issues that many people have been having. If you’re interested in checking it out for yourself, click the button below to pick up the app!
The Big Picture: NASA posts DSCOVR’s epic first image of Earth
What’s does Earth look like from a million miles away? Well, NASA provided the masses with a glimpse today, thanks to the first photo snapped from the Deep Space Climate Observatory Satellite (DSCOVR) launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 in February. More specifically, the image is constructed from three separate photos taken with NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC). The camera captures a series of ten images ranging from ultraviolet to near infrared narrowband filters. For the visual you see above, the red, blue and green channels were used to create the view. What’s more, once the instrument is to put a regular work schedule, it’ll send new images to Earth every day — 12 to 36 hours after they’re taken. And yes, you’ll be able to see them as NASA is planning a dedicated web page to house them all in September.
“As a former astronaut who’s been privileged to view the Earth from orbit, I want everyone to be able to see and appreciate our planet as an integrated, interacting system,” said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden. “DSCOVR’s observations of Earth, as well as its measurements and early warnings of space weather events caused by the sun, will help every person to monitor the ever-changing Earth, and to understand how our planet fits into its neighborhood in the solar system.”
Filed under: Science
Source: NASA
Xbox One Madden NFL 16 bundle comes with a year of EA Access
XBox One’s new bundle will have football fans cheering. The Xbox One Madden NFL 16 bundle includes 1TB of storage, a full download of Madden NFL 16 and a year’s subscription to EA Access. That subscription not only grants access to The Vault, EA’s collection of downloadable titles, users will also be able to play Madden 16 on August 20th, a full five days before the game officially launches. The bundle will go on sale August 18th for $400. You can also pre-order it from Amazon.
[Image Credit: EA Sports]
Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft
Source: Major Nelson
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