UK Investigatory Powers Bill: what you need to know

The UK government has put forward a bill today that would force internet service providers (ISPs) to keep a record of the websites their customers access for up to 12 months. These “internet connection records” (ICRs) could then be requested by law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies to identify, the home secretary claims, which services a person and device has been accessing. It would not reveal every webpage they’ve visited — the current understanding, as set out in David Anderson’s review of surveillance laws, is that it would cover google.com or bbc.co.uk, but nothing beyond the first forward slash.

Source: GOV.UK

Dear Veronica: Ice-cold science!

This week on Dear Veronica, I welcome onto the show Dr. Kiki Sanford of This Week in Science. She brilliantly explains the science behind why your whiskey and vodka stays perfectly chilled in your freezer, while your beer completely explodes! Briefly, I wonder why you would bother freezing your whiskey (but I’m not here to judge).

Have you tried out online dating? It’s a tough scene out there, but I try to help viewer Nick figure out some other ways to meet the match of his dreams. And don’t forget, you can “swipe right” on this show by leaving us a review on iTunes! Because you’re the best. Keep sending those questions in to me over Twitter with #DearVeronica, and I’ll see you next week!

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A Reliable Development Company Can Help You Design Your AppThe Right Way

The statistics are in, and everyone these days seems to own a cellphone, from grade school students to retirees — everyone, it seems, has access to a smartphone and the plethora of available apps that come with it. According to the U.S. Consumer Electronics Association, smartphone sales have increased nearly twentyfold in the last decade, and smartphone sales have passed the 50 billion dollar mark in the U.S. alone. If you have ever wondered about cutting yourself off a slice of that pie and getting your project to market, the process of building a mobile app might be a little bit more complicated than you think. You have an idea, of course, but it takes more than just a genius idea to get a revolutionary app off the ground and into everyone’s hands. Designing a mobile app is complicated, and the sophisticated and often challenging benchmarks are difficult to reach if you’re working by yourself. Luckily, you aren’t in the fight alone, and there is help out there — all you have to do is look for a knowledgeableand reputable app development company to help you out.

The first step is picking a platform for your mobile app. Do you want to specialize, catering your app to Apple users alone, or do you want to spread your reach and target Android, Tizen, and Blackberry users as well? You need to carefully target your market and understand which platform — or platforms — your app will work best on. A dedicated mobile app developer can help you pinpoint demand matrices and point you in the right direction when you gear your app to specific customer bases. Next, you’ll need to determine what stage your app is in. If your app idea is brand new, a developer can help you storyboard your idea, getting the ideas onto paper, and finding the right target market for your new application. You’ll need to build fast and iterate often, which means you probably want to stick to one platform to cut down on development time. If possible, stick to a coding language you already know if you want to build your base quickly and efficiently.

Conversely, if you have already got the preliminary ideas down, and you know what kind of loadout you want to run, an app development company can help you with the next vital stage: wireframing. In the traditional lifecycle of an app’s development, there are a number of different ways to create the specs specific to your vision for an application. Sketching out wireframes is a great way to get your thoughts out there and to start to plan how the app features and views will flow together.

A development company can then help you take your app through the development and testing phases, keeping you up to speed on the latest technology trends, like cloud computing, NFC, wearable tech, and IOT. They’ll tell you when to move on and adopt newer technologies and how to maintain your legacy systems, and they’ll also stay with your app through the launching and quality control phases. If you place your trust in a proven company, driven to achieving goals and seeing your project through to the end, why not go with a reliable partner like Toronto’s Clearbridge Mobile custom app development team. They will stick with your project every step of the way, even helping you get your app into the Google Play or Apple stores.

If you want to build a next-level app, look into partnership with a professional development team. For end-to-end service, forward-thinking support, and teams of agile experts who can handle anything from mobile payments to QSR, enterprise to retail, a mobile app company with a proven record cannot be contended with. Toronto’s Clearbridge Mobile is a good place to start your search for a reliable partner; after all, their portfolio boasts partnerships with a number of Fortune 500 companies such as PayPal and Microsoft. Creating a great mobile experience requires talent, vision, and innovation. Only an expert mobile application development company can bring a project from concept to polished product and ensure that your app delivers the kind of experience your customers need.

Fallout C.H.A.T. aims to add Fallout-themed communications to your phone

The folks over at Bethesda Softworks are gearing up for a big launch, the much anticipated Fallout 4. It’s only a week out from release day, but in the meantime, those looking forward to the game can add a Fallout-theme to spice up their text communications by way of a new app from Bethesda.

Dubbed the Vault-Tec Communications Hub and Transmitter, or Fallout C.H.A.T. for short, this new application will flavor your messaging with 60 Fallout-themed emoji and animated GIFs, and a fully customizable keyboard.

Unfortunately, Fallout C.H.A.T. isn’t a true keyboard extension. The app is essentially an image database. You can compose a message, and then C.H.A.T. will convert it into a corresponding image, as you cannot actually “chat” with anyone. In other words, the application will be fun for Fallout fans to poke around with, but only for a short time.

It would be awesome if Bethesda instead made this into a fully-functioning keyboard, but alas, that isn’t the case. If anyone wants to take it for a spin, the download link is below.

Play Store Download Link

Come comment on this article: Fallout C.H.A.T. aims to add Fallout-themed communications to your phone

Airbnb wins over voters in fight against rental restrictions in SF

Airbnb and similar services have won against Proposition F, with most San Francisco residents choosing to vote against the controversial measure. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the proposition lost by 55 percent to 45 percent, though Reuters is reporting that it lost by 61 percent instead. Prop F, which is also known as the Airbnb Initiative, is backed by hotel workers’ unions, landlords and housing activists. They believe that laws governing services like Airbnb’s should be stricter and that rentals are making the housing crisis worse, driving up rent and land prices in the city.

Source: Reuters