Instagram announces global launch of 30-second video ads
Advertising pays the bills for many tech companies, and to that end, Instagram has announced some changes in its advertising platform that means users will soon see 30-second video adverts in their feed.
By leveraging Facebook’s infrastructure, Instagram has made it easier for advertisers (large and small) to reach their target audience. Advertisers will be able to roll out ads up to 30 seconds in length so that they can ‘engage in richer storytelling‘, while users are still limited to 15 second segments. Ads are now available in more than 30 countries – including Italy, Spain, Mexico, India and South Korea.
Advertisers will also be able to embed actionable buttons in the adverts, enabling users to install apps or visit a website from the ad.Instagram is also rolling Marquee – a premium product that helps drive mass awareness and expanded reach in a short time-frame – perfect for events like movie premieres and new product launches.
If you are an Instagram user, what do you think of the upcoming 30 second video ads? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: Instagram
Come comment on this article: Instagram announces global launch of 30-second video ads
What are Google Now Cards? How to tailor them to your needs.
In this post, I’ll show you how to customize Google Now cards. But first, what is Google Now? The service essentially is a personal assistant. With it, you can get notifications and updates on topics that matter to you, such as apps, websites, sports, stocks, Google Play albums, and even travel notifications and bills. Google Now can also display topics based on searches you’ve made. You have control over these because you can tailor them directly to your needs.
Customizing
Before you can tweak Google Now, you’ll need to make sure the cards are turned on. Swipe from the left edge of the screen or tap the menu icon at the top left. Next, go to “Settings,” “Now cards,” and “Show cards,” and switch the toggle to on if it is off.
Google Now’s sidebar menu
Next, we can customize the cards. Return to the sidebar menu and click “Customize.” You should see options for apps & websites, sports, stocks, etc., possibly with some numbers next to them.
Clicking on any one will give you relevant options for each. For example, under apps & websites, you can select whether to allow cards from apps and websites in general or even at an individual level as long as Google Now thinks you would be interested in receiving updates from that particular site.
And under anything else, Google Now will list a number of choices it thinks are relevant to your interests. It will ask a question such as, “Continue to get updates about albums?” to which you can submit “Yes” or “No.”
Periodically, Google Now will show these options on the main page if you have not answered them.
Let’s do two tasks for this example: add a sports team and add a stock.
On the “Customize” menu, click “Sports.” Then, tap “+ Add a team.” This will pull up a prompt that allows you to type the name of the team you want to follow. As you do so, suggestions of teams and icons indicating their sport appear. Select one, and it will be added to the “Interested in” section.
The steps for adding a stock are nearly the same. The differences are that you need to click “Stocks” from the “Customize” menu, and then, you have to click “+ Add a stock.”
Moving on, at least most of the cards you see will have three, small circles (…) at their top right corners. Clicking these circles will bring up a yes or no question. If you’ve already answered it, it’ll tell how long ago it was answered. Of course, you can change your response at any time.
Set Reminders
Google Now is able to set up reminders for events manually either from “Reminders” in the sidebar menu or by tapping the microphone icon on the main screen and telling it your command. They will appear on the main screen as their deadlines approach.
Additionally, they can be viewed and edited from “Reminders” or the main screen.
Shipping Information
Google Now also is capable of tracking the shipment statuses of your packages through its integration with Gmail.
The service looks for online orders in your Gmail. When it finds them, it will show you a card including the package’s status (shipping versus delivered, for example), where the item originated from, and the estimated arrival date.
At the bottom, you can track the card directly and view the email that contains information about the order.
Flight Information
This works similarly to how Google Now tracks packages. You’ll receive the name of the flight, its status, the email address of the flight company, and details pertaining to which terminal to go to at which airport at a specific time.
Just as before, you can view the email directly via the “View email” button at the card’s bottom. There also is an option to navigate by GPS, with the estimated arrival time included.
Website Updates
In addition, the service can update you on sites you’ve recently visited when it detects that new content is available. However, this feature is one of the hardest aspects of Google Now to really pinpoint. It isn’t very consistent, and even websites you visit frequently aren’t likely to show up, though they are more likely to show up. See the problem?
As far as I know, you are mostly unable to control directly which sites you want to get updates from, as you can with an RSS feed. If anyone has any tips regarding this feature, shoot off in the comments below!
Conclusion
With these steps, you can make Google Now your very own ecosystem.
If you think about it, the service is not all that different than RSS. Each acts as a hub for potential sources that you want to add in order to follow them.
Google Now is more flexible in the sense that it can do more than give you just news content. However, it probably is not a complete replacement for RSS since it will not always use the same source for a particular topic. It will use the same source only if you specify to receive updates from a specific site. Also, Google Now is not all that time-sensitive with this, which is not desirable for people who like to get their news as it is released.
Although, if you have Feedly, you can integrate the news aggregator and follow content from Google Now in order to make the service a better RSS feed.
The post What are Google Now Cards? How to tailor them to your needs. appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Acer Predator 8 tablet hands-on and first look
When it comes to gaming tablets, the available selection is quite limited, but there is going to be a new one to pick from soon. We go hands-on, and give you the first look at the Acer Predator 8 tablet!
Along the lines of the Acer Predator PCs, the Predator mobile devices are meant to deliver a high-end gaming experience on the go. The Predator 8 is a very unique-looking Android tablet that is designed to bring a fantastic gaming experience to a compact form factor.
The Predator is an 8-inch tablet, and you can see right off the bat that it has a look unlike any other mobile device we’ve seen so far, with its sharp and aggressive body line, and the corners, where the speakers are located, flaring out from the main body. There’s one speaker in each corner, for a total of four front-facing speakers, which Acer likes to call “Predator Quadio.” This setup is of course intended to deliver an audio experience like no other, and they do sound extremely good.
Up front is an 8-inch IPS LCD display with a Full HD resolution, that uses zero air gap technology. Acer also claims that this display supports a 100% of the NTSC color gamut, which is certainly very impressive for a screen on a tablet. Granted, it is hard to say actually how accurate that claim is without more technical testing, but it is a very good looking screen, with great viewing angles, color saturation, and brightness.
Under the hood, the Acer Predator 8 comes with an Intel Atom x7-Z8700, backed by an Intel HD Graphics GPU and 2 GB of RAM. 32 GB or 64 GB of internal storage options are available, which can also be further expanded via microSD card, by up to an additional 128 GB. For a device designed with gaming in mind, the amount of RAM sounds a little bit low, but the Intel chipset should make for a solid gaming experience and good overall performance. Should you ever need to take pictures or do video chats, there is a 5 MP primary camera on the back, along with a 2 MP front-facing unit. As is the case with most tablet cameras, this camera setup is likely not going to be very impressive though.
The Predator 8 also comes with what Acer calls TacSense technology, that provides vibrations and tactile feedback on the screen and throughout the body of the tablet when gaming, similar to what you would experience on the DualShock controller of the PlayStation 4. This is meant to provide for a more immersive experience when playing games, and it definitely does add to the experience. The vibrations are nice and strong, but not overly so that they feel like a distraction.
On the software side of things, the Acer Predator 8 is running Android 5.1 Lollipop, and it is a very stock-like experience, with the unfortunate exception of a lot of pre-installed bloatware. Acer has done a great job with keeping everything else as clean as possible however.
So there you have it for this first look at the Acer Predator 8 tablet! The tablet will be available in the month of November, priced at an affordable $299, and if you are looking for a gaming tablet that could potentially rival the Nvidia Shield tablet, the Acer Predator 8 tablet is likely going to be your best bet.
Apple to Release (PRODUCT)RED Sport Band for Apple Watch
Apple will release a (PRODUCT)RED Sport Band for the Apple Watch, and likely other new Sport Band colors, according to a retail source. At least one Apple Store has received inventory of the new bright red band ahead of Apple’s “Hey Siri” media event in San Francisco today.
Tech blogger Larry Greenberg shared a picture of the (PRODUCT)RED Sport Band box on Twitter a few hours ago. The band could look similar to the custom red Sport Band that Apple design chief Jonathan Ive gifted to former British professional rugby player Will Carling in April.
I can confirm one product that Apple will be announcing at today’s event. #AppleWatch #red #product pic.twitter.com/HkuQvO5jLG
— Larry Greenberg (@lgreenberg) September 9, 2015
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsLast week, we corroborated a report that Apple will unveil new Sport Bands for Apple Watch at its September 9 media event. The additional colors beyond (PRODUCT)RED could include other shades of red, orange, yellow, blue and beige, as shown off at the Milan Design Week in April.
Apple is also expected to introduce new metal finishes for the Apple Watch Sport, possibly including lower-cost anodized rose and yellow gold versions. The new color will likely resemble the rose gold Apple Watch Edition and to-be-announced rose gold iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.
Other Last-Minute Rumors
– iPhone 6s could have always-on Hey Siri per AppleInsider
– iPad Pro could cost $799/$899/$999 for 32GB/64GB/128GB per 9to5Mac
– Apple TV software platform will be called tvOS per 9to5Mac
Apple Likely Filed ‘tvOS’ Trademark for New Apple TV in November 2014
An overnight report from 9to5Mac claims the new operating system for the revamped Apple TV will be called “tvOS”, and it appears Apple may indeed have moved to trademark that term as long ago as November 2014.
A series of trademark filings for the name were made in mid-to-late May in a number of countries by a company called Television OnStream LLC, which appears to be a shell corporation created just days earlier and based out the Corporation Trust Center in Delaware. Apple commonly uses this tactic to hide its trademark filings, although many other companies employ similar strategies.
The mid-May timing is also interesting given it occurred just a few weeks ahead of WWDC where Apple was rumored to be introducing the new Apple TV until what appeared to be a last-minute decision to push back the announcement to this month.
All of the May trademark applications cite a priority date of November 2014 for a filing made in Jamaica, yet another of Apple’s typical strategies for hiding trademarks. Jamaica is a frequent location for Apple’s initial filings as the country does not publish an online database of trademark filings, making it difficult to track them down.
In another similarity to Apple’s previous trademark patterns, Television OnStream LLC conveniently shortens to an acronym of “tvOS”, much as Apple previously hid its “iPad” trademark behind a company named IP Application Development.
One final similarity between the “tvOS” filing and known Apple trademarks is the use of specific law firms to handle the filings. For example, Television OnStream used London-based firm Locke Lord to handle its Italian filing, and Apple used the same firm to protect its “watch OS” trademark in Italy earlier this year. In Turkey, the same trademark lawyer handled both Apple’s “watch OS” filing and Television OnStream’s “tvOS” application, and in Mexico both companies used the law firm of Arochi & Lindner to handle their filings.
As is common with these filings, there is no concrete link between Apple and the new “tvOS” trademark, but given recent rumors and a number of similarities to Apple’s past behavior in hiding trademark filings, it appears likely Apple is indeed behind the “tvOS” applications.
(Thanks, Rodney and Lennart!)
(Deal) Start developing for Android Marshmallow now for only $25
We should be seeing the official release of Android Marshmallow by the end of this month, if not early next month. With the impending release, it would be a good time to either brush up your development skills, or start learning so that you can hit the ground running. Today’s deal from AndroidGuys and StackCommerce aims to help you out with that.
The Android Marshmallow Mobile Developer Course helps you not only develop applications for your mobile device, but also your various wearables. With over 14 hours of Java Development training, you can be sure to start creating whatever app ideas you have in your mind now.
- Code Android M phone & smart watch apps using Java w/ over 93 lectures & 14.5 hours of content
- Learn to use Google’s main API’s when making Android apps
- Understand the Wearable API to create apps for wearables
- Learn to code in Java from scratch
- Build five varied apps—from a weather app to a unit convertor
- Navigate the process of publishing apps
We aren’t saying this is a guaranteed way to develop an app that will take a stranglehold of the top spot in the Play Store, but it will surely help guide the way. Normally priced at $199, you can jump on this great deal for only $24.99. That’s a savings of almost 90%. So be sure to head over to the AndroidGuys Deals page, and grab this great deal today.
You can find this, and many other great tech bargains through our Deals Page. Backed by StackCommerce, there are daily promos, giveaways, freebies, and much more!
The post (Deal) Start developing for Android Marshmallow now for only $25 appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Moto Pulse: a wonderful wireless widget
Alliteration aside (see what I did there?), I had the opportunity to spend some time with the Moto Pulse wireless headset. And let me tell you, I now want to buy a pair. Why is that, you ask? Well my friend, that’s what I’m here to do, to answer such questions!
Setup
Setup was surprisingly easy for a Bluetooth headset. Almost perpetually the first time setting up a Bluetooth device to my phone is an arduous process of turning Bluetooth on and off, searching for a device, making both visible, so on and so forth.
However, turning the Moto Pulse on and pairing to both my smartphone and laptop was an instantaneous action. I was listening to audio without any qualms.
And that, is a beautiful thing.
Usage
Again, using these headphones could not have been an easier thing to do. Any time I did struggle was because I was actually complicating things (I know, surprising).
On the right-ear cup are a myriad of buttons to control the audio from your device. Starting from the top going down, you have the power button, which also acts as the answer/end call button, then volume up/previous track, volume down/next track, and lastly play/pause button.
Usually when devices have buttons with dual purposes, it is a pain in the butt to perform the action you need. 
However, again I found that following the directions to perform an action would translate perfectly to the device. Skipping tracks, pausing sound, answering calls, everything was a seamless experience. What’s great is this seemingly works across all apps. At least the play/pause button worked with Google Play Music Joyride and YouTube. I can’t guarantee this per se, but it certainly seems hopeful.
Another great thing about these headphones is just how light they are. If it weren’t for the fact that I live in Phoenix, Arizona where the heat makes anything noticeable, I probably would have hardly noticed I had them at all. So, traveling with them was a breeze, whether it was around my neck or in my bag. A neat design choice Motorola added was that the headphone cups will turn so that the headset lays flat, making storage in a bag much better than just about any other set of headphones. I definitely preferred this method over headphones that fold in, but that might be personal preference. Add with all of this the fact that these are wireless headphones, and the Moto Pulse is the perfect set of headphones for travel.
Now one hesitation for wireless headphones is battery life. I’ll tell you straight-up, battery life is no problem for the Moto Pulse. Motorola claims 18 hours of usage for these, and yet, in some miraculous form of black magic, I’ve gotten about 24 hours of use. Generally a manufacturers claim for battery life rounds up, but for these they rounded down! Have you figured out yet why I love these so much?
Sound Quality
Now, I should front this section by saying this: I don’t necessarily consider myself an audiophile, however, I do drive my wife nuts by complaining that sound from our TV, car, etc doesn’t sound very good when she thinks it’s fine (maybe that’s just typical spousal bickering…). Point being, I don’t want audiophiles to come back with their torches and pitchforks when something I said wasn’t right.
With that out of the way, I thought the Moto Pulse sounds great. I can hear each instrument clearly, with good highs and lows. If anything, there were times where I wanted to feel the bass a bit more, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t fix with an equalizer on my phone. When listening to podcasts (with voices only), I could hear each voice crisply, and never felt as though I was missing something because I couldn’t understand someone.
So, these $60 pair of headphones isn’t going to win any audio awards necessarily, but I think 99% of the world is going to love the sound that come out of the headphones. If you need something more, then stop looking at $60 headphones!
Overall
Ask anyone I’ve been bugging the last few weeks, I love these headphones. They sound good, feel good, are easy to setup and use, have a long battery life, and travel well. Further, they look good, and have no wires!
Now I know what you’re thinking: how much do I need to spend to enjoy these great headphones? $60. Yup. When it comes to wireless headphones that work well and sound good you’re generally looking to spend over $100. The Moto Pulse? Nope. $60.
Have I mentioned I love these headphones?
The post Moto Pulse: a wonderful wireless widget appeared first on AndroidGuys.
BLU announces the Pure XL with 6-Inch Quad display, 24MP main camera and fingerprint scanner for just $349
BLU has just announced the arrival of the Pure XL, a 6-inch smartphone that is the first U.S. smartphone to feature MediaTek’s Helio X10 Octa-core processor. The BLU Pure XL will launch exclusively on Amazon.com on September 29th for just $349.
The BLU Pure XL sports a solid aluminium metal body with machine chamfered edges. If you look at the images you can see the cutouts on the top and bottom of the device that aid mobile signal reception. Let’s see what else the Pure XL has to offer.
Specifications:
- Android 5.1 Lollipop
- 6-Inch Super AMOLED Quad HD display (2560 x 1440), 490ppi, Gorilla Glass 3 protection
- MediaTek MT6795 Helio X10 Octa-core processor @ 2.0GHz (64-bit)
- PowerVR G6200 GPU
- 3GB RAM
- 64GB Internal storage
- MicroSD card support (up to 64GB)
- 24MP Rear camera with Truetone flash, Phased-Detection Auto Focus (PDAF), dedicated camera button, 4K recording
- 8MP Front camera with autofocus and wide angle lens
- WiFi bands ac/b/g/n
- Mobile connectivity: 3G/HSPA+/4G (LTE: 2/4/7/17)
- Fingerprint scanner on rear
- Dimensions: 164 x 82.2 x 9.6mm
- Weight: 202 grams
- Battery: 3,500mAh
- Available in gold or grey
Just to recap, the Pure XL offers a 6-inch Quad HD smartphone, octa-core processor, 24MP rear camera, 3GB of RAM, 64GB internal storage, and is unlocked to any network, supporting both T-Mobile and AT&T 4G/LTE networks, for under $350. Add to that the rear fingerprint scanner, 3,500mAh battery and aluminium design, and that’s a lot of phone for a more than reasonable outlay. If you are in the States, does the BLU Pure XL tick your boxes? Let us know in the comments below.
Press Release:
MIAMI, Sept. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — BLU Products, the market leader in unlocked devices in the United States, announced today the launch of the BLU Pure XL, which will be on display at the 2015 CTIA Super Mobility Event in Las Vegas, September 9-11. The BLU Pure XL is the first U.S. smartphone to include MediaTek’s premium Helio X10 chipset, a 64-bit True Octa-core™ LTE smartphone SoC designed for both extreme performance and power efficiency. The BLU Pure XL will highlight a 6.0-inch Quad HD Super AMOLED display paired with an industry leading 24 Megapixel Camera. It will go on sale exclusively on Amazon.com on September 29 at a price of $349.00, unlocked, with 4G LTE support nationwide on T-Mobile and AT&T Networks.
“The BLU Pure XL is an industry flagship in every sense of the word, competing with any of the top tier devices available in the world today,” said Samuel Ohev-Zion, CEO of BLU Products. “Anyone will be hard pressed to find better technology period, including the extreme and powerful performance of the MediaTek Helio X10 processor found inside.”
Powerful and Power Efficient MediaTek Processor
The BLU Pure XL is powered by the 64-bit MediaTek Helio X10 2.0GHz Octa-core processor and offers a seamless user experience, with the power to run multiple apps at once, quickly browse the web, or enjoy smooth rendering of graphics for just about any game all while maximizing power efficiency. Benchmarks on the BLU Pure XL with MediaTek Helio X10 result in AnTuTu scores in the range of 49,000, which is among the top performing smartphones in the world today.This power and performance is enabled on the Helio X10 chipset by CorePilot, MediaTek’s advanced power resource management technology providing world-class multi-processor performance and thermal control. CorePilot maximizes device performance and power saving through interactive power management, adaptive thermal management and advanced scheduler algorithms. CorePilot 2.0, used in the Helio X10, adds new advancements in heterogeneous computing including both CPUs and GPUs. This cooperation, named Device Fusion, is an “intelligent” technology which can efficiently execute fuse GPU and CPU computing capabilities. More about CorePilot can be found on the MediaTek website athttp://www.mediatek.com/en/features/corepilot-30/.
“The partnership between MediaTek and BLU has produced a powerful and attractive smartphone in the Pure XL,” said Russ Mestechkin, Director of Corporate Sales International at MediaTek. “The Helio series is our flagship family of extreme performance processors that provide consumers with the cutting-edge multimedia experience they demand from their smartphone today combined with efficiency and extended battery life that supports current usage patterns.”
Captivating Camera
The BLU Pure XL boasts a 24 megapixel main camera featuring advanced, second-generation Optical Image Stabilization, F/2.0 aperture, 1/2.3 inch sensor with Sapphire + 6P lens, real-time HDR, True Dual Tone LED Flash, and Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF) with Fast Focus between 0.08-0.2 seconds. A dedicated camera button provides lightning fast access to the ideal shot. Additional features include:
- Magic Focus, which allows you to choose the focus point after shooting.
- AE/AF separation while taking the picture.
- Video recording in 4K Ultra HD.
- An 8MP Autofocus Wide-Angle Front Camera.
Sharp and Responsive Display
At four times the resolution of a traditional HD display, the BLU Pure XL’s 6.0-inch Quad HD (2560 x 1440) Super AMOLED 490ppi display elevates the smartphone’s visual experience to a new level with stunning graphics and life-like colors that seem to jump off the screen, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.Key Features
Other key features on the BLU Pure XL include:
- 64GB internal memory plus 3GB RAM.
- Solid aluminium metal design with polished chamfered edges in 9.6mm design.
- All-day battery life with huge 3500mah long standby, and HD video playback for over seven hours.
- 9V/2A quick charger; four hours of phone call talk time with a 10 minute charge. 10 mins to 15%, 30 mins to 43%.
- 24-bit/192kHz audio quality, Smart PA, dual stereo speakers, DTS sound.
- Device unlock with a simple fingerprint touch in less than 10ms. Also, lock the files on device quickly and safely.
- Available in gold and grey color options.
Come comment on this article: BLU announces the Pure XL with 6-Inch Quad display, 24MP main camera and fingerprint scanner for just $349
Netflix to launch its service in Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong in early 2016
Netflix has today announced its next step in its expansion plans, with the news that it will launch in South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan in early 2016. The streaming service launched in Japan earlier this month, with Spain, Portugal and Italy set to gain access next month.
Netflix’s CEO, Reed Hastings, had this to say:
” The combination of increasing internet speeds and ubiquity of connected devices provides consumers with the anytime, anywhere ability to enjoy their favorite shows and movies on the Netflix service.”
As yet, Netflix hasn’t supplied any details on pricing for the affected countries, although that will no doubt become clearer closer to the time. Netflix currently has around 65 million subscribers based in 50 million countries.
Source: Netflix
Come comment on this article: Netflix to launch its service in Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong in early 2016
The 2016 Toyota Prius is here
The spy photos were right. The teaser images we saw of the new, fourth-gen Toyota Prius correctly previewed the model that was unveiled in Las Vegas tonight. Despite the overwhelmingly negative reactions from our readers, Toyota says the new look for the world’s best-selling hybrid has a “striking exterior design” and is “easy on the eyes.” To each their own.Slideshow-318163
When Toyota showed off the hydrogen-powered Mirai, it said that the design was meant to evoke, “the flowing shape of a droplet of water to express the vehicle’s characteristic of drawing in air and emitting water.” Toyota says the new Prius is a “sibling” to the Mirai, and the design claim is that the car was “Inspired by a runner in the starting blocks,” and that, “the sporty design conveys a feeling of forward motion.” Whatever the inspiration, the two vehicles look similar.
The new Prius is a bit bigger than the outgoing, third-gen version: 2.4 inches longer, 0.6 inches wider, and 0.8 inches lower, to be exact. This is the global vehicle built on Toyota’s New Global Architecture (TNGA). Toyota claims the new platform gives the Prius a lower center of gravity which, when combined with the new, responsive suspension package, will, “dial up the driving excitement.”
Inside we see the same center-mounted dash layout from previous Priuses. The glossy white plastic surrounding the gear selector is a bit reminiscent of the first-gen Chevy Volt, too. Overall, we like the clean, uncluttered layout. The exterior will come in seven colors, including the new Hypersonic Red.
Unfortunately, Toyota isn’t giving us specifics of the powertrain or fuel economy of the new Prius. Fortunately, the company is making the previously rumored 10-percent miles per gallon improvement over the third-gen model official. Since the current Prius gets 51 mpg city, 48 highway and 50 combined, we can look forward to something like 56/53/55 city/highway/combined fuel economy for the new Prius. Even more exciting for hypermilers, an available Eco trim “will achieve an even greater improvement.” Anyone want to bet if the Eco Prius will hit 60 mpg in the city?
Filed under:
Transportation
Source:
Toyota
Tags: 2016Prius, autoblog, EV, hybrid, official, partner, Prius, syndicated, toyota, video
AIVAnet 