YouTube’s ‘Trusted Flagger’ users have an inside track to get videos removed
Ever notice that little flag icon that underlines YouTube videos? It’s part of Google’s content reporting system — clicking it notifies YouTube moderators that the attached video might violate site’s community guidelines. The feature has been in place for ages, but it caught some attention last week when the Financial Times reported that British security had been granted special permissions to police YouTube content. Naturally, the online community was concerned: why is a governmental body being allowed to censor online content? Well, it isn’t. Google has since explained that UK officials are simply part of YouTube’s Trusted Flagger program: 200 or so organizations and individuals (including “fewer than 10″ government agencies according to a Wall Street Journal source) with access to advanced flagging tools. These so-called “super flaggers” don’t have the ability to manually curate or remove videos, but they can flag up to 20 at once for internal review.
The program has actually been around since October, with more Trusted Flaggers being added periodically. According to the WSJ source, YouTube offered access to the UK’s counter-terrorism unit after the agency began flagging videos that violated the site’s community guidelines, which ban videos showing dangerous and illegal acts, threats, hate speech and more. British officials say they try to flag videos that violate the UK’s Terrorism Act, adding that the burden of judging content as appropriate or inappropriate still lies with YouTube. The program seems to be invite-only, but YouTube users with an eye for the naughty can show their interest on Google’s Trusted Flagger support page.
Source: YouTube, Wall Street Journal
Google Hangouts outage brings chatting to a halt
If you’ve been having trouble with Google Hangouts today, you’re not alone. The chat service has been experiencing issues, and the folks in Mountain View have confirmed the “service disruption.” According to the Apps Status Dashboard, Google Talk and Sheets (spreadsheets) are having down time of their own, but there’s no confirmation on the latter two applications. We’re keeping an eye on things, and we’ll be sure to update when more details become available.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Google
Source: Google
Get This Look: ‘Remix’ Zooper Widget
We’re huge fans of changing the home screen around a bit and creating a new user experience for our Android. So much so that we present our ongoing series of Get This Look posts. In a nutshell we show you a new layout, app, widget, or icon set for your Android handset and tell you which apps you’ll need to mimic the feel.
Some of these are a little easier to create than others and many of them can be tweaked to no end. The following details are but the ingredients to which you can create your own delicious Android dish; your results will vary. Which is awesome! If nothing else, this is a great way to discover new apps, widgets, icons, and more!
Remix by ToxicThunder
Why we love this look:
if you’re after a complete redesign of your Android device then Remix is what you’re looking for. This Zooper widget completely changes the look of your homescreen into something that doesn’t look like Android at all. With quick access to important media such as your music and gallery, and with notifications and custom shortcuts organised in a visually appealing way, Remix is sure to have your friends asking ‘where did you get this look?’. What you’ll need:
The post Get This Look: ‘Remix’ Zooper Widget appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Google helps devs create cross-platform Android and iOS multiplayer games
The annual Game Developers Conference descends on San Francisco this week, and Google’s wasting no time in sharing its news. For gamers, Mountain View’s said it’ll be launching a “game gifts” service for sending in-game swag to other players, and increasing the number of game categories in the Play store to 18 in the hope you’ll stumble upon titles you might like easier. More important, however, is what devs can do with the new features of Google Play game services, a backend tool for managing leaderboards, achievements and more in Android, iOS or web games. Multiplayer support has been added for iOS games, and via an update to the Unity plug-in, cross-platform multiplayer between Android and iOS devices is now possible. These features have to be implemented by developers, of course, but next time you see that friend who’s always arguing the merits of one mobile OS over another, you might just be able to settle the discussion in-game instead.
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablets, Software, Mobile, Google
Google Play Games gets new features following Game Developers Conference
With Google highlighting that 3 out of 4 Android users now use their device for gaming, increased focus has been put on improving the experience for those users. Google has also said that the momentum of their Google Play Games service is continuing to grow, with approximately 4 times the amount of revenue paid to developers in 2013 when compared to 2012.
As part of this move to improve the Google Play Games experience is the launch of new features for the service during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) which is taking place this week.
The first change focuses around gamer engagement and discovery with the introduction of game gifts. This is a new service that lets players send virtual in-game objects to anyone in their circles or through player search. The Play Games app has also been updated to allow multiplayer invites to be directly sent, allowing your friends to discover and join your activity. This will be facilitated by the introduction of 18 new game categories to make it easier to find games that consumers want.
Perhaps one of the biggest introductions is the enhancement of the Play Games Unity Plug-in to support cross-platform mutliplayer services, meaning you can be on Android and participate in a multiplayer game against someone on iOS.
Futher improvements see enhancements brought to Play Games statistics on the Google Play Developer Console to provide analytics for developers and their games in the Google Play Store. This will include a dashboard to visualise player and engagement statistics for active users, retention analysis, and achievement performance.
Hopefully these enhancements to the Google Play Games services will entice developers to invest in the Android environment and see some great games brought to the platform. The end-user should also benefit from these changes by being able to engage with the community better, and also participate in cross-platform mutliplayer events.
Let us know your thoughts about these changes in the comments below.
The post Google Play Games gets new features following Game Developers Conference appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Google Play Games to bring cross-platform multiplayer to Android and iOS at GDC 2014?
Games are one area that Google and Android in general have paid very little attention to in general, though they have taken steps to remedy this recently with the changes they brought in with Google Play Services 4.1 earlier this year (read more about what this changed here). Well, it looks like Google may be bringing in a few more gaming-centric changes in the near future as a blog post recently went up detailing changes to Google Play Games which look to change the face of mobile gaming as we know it and could be announced at GDC 2014 this week.
That blog post was quickly taken down, however we have the benefit of a cached copy to divulge Google’s incoming changes to Google Play Games. The biggest of the changes appears to be the ability to support Android and iOS cross-platform multiplayer, both for turn-based and real-time games. As you can imagine, this is pretty exciting news as bitter rivals like Android and iOS users can now be bitter rivals on the battlefield as well. Other changes detailed in the post include the addition of gifting to Play Games which will enable you to send virtual goods to people in your Google+ circles or standard player search. Google also says there will be changes to AdMob which should help developers make the most of Google’s advertising machines.
Whether these changes actually get announced at GDC 2014 or if the blog post was taken down for some other reason remains to be seen, but it looks like some big changes are due for Google Play Games in the near future. What’s the most exciting part of these changes in your opinion? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Source: Android Developers Blog via Phone Arena
Daily Roundup: new Amazon and Valve controllers, Samsung’s ultrasonic phone case and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Reported Amazon game controller appears in pictures
It looks like Amazon might finally be building its rumored set-top box, and this is probably the controller that will come along with it. Thanks to Dave Zatz, photos of the rather chubby handset were uncovered from the Brazilian FCC. All in all, it’s got all your standard gaming functions, with the addition of a few Android controls and what appears to be an Amazon Game Circle button.
Samsung’s new smartphone case uses ultrasound to detect people and objects
Samsung announced that it’s bringing three new accessories to its low-end Galaxy Core Advance smartphone that are designed to help the disabled or visually impaired: the Optical Scan Stand, Voice Labels and most impressively, the Ultrasonic Cover. By using the latter, the Core Advance can detect objects or people in a 2-foot radius and provide vibrational feedback or spoken alerts.
Here’s a much clearer look at Valve’s new Steam Controller
Valve released the first prototype Steam Controller toward late last year, and now it’s given us a much better idea of what the final product will look like. When compared to the older version on the right, you’ll notice the newer model lacks the touchscreen, but adds several buttons in its place.
ASUS could drop dual-OS devices following pressure from Google and Microsoft
What’s special about the ASUS Transformer Book Duet TD300? It runs both Android and Windows operating systems in the form of a laptop or tablet. However, this interesting hybrid may never see the light of day due to contention from Microsoft and Google.
You also might like:
Filed under: Misc
Google Maps for Android now tells you about upcoming events
Google wants to make sure that dance card of yours stays full. Rather than just showing you the best way to get to a new hot spot in town, today’s Maps update for Android tells you what events are coming up there as well. Information is displayed below the venue’s address, and may include a list of upcoming bands when you’re looking at a music club, or what games are set to go down at your local ballpark. No matter what you’re into, it should make planning your next night out that much easier.
Filed under: Wireless, Software, Mobile, Google
Via: Google+
Source: Google Play
San Antonio clears Google Fiber’s legal hurdles ahead of a possible deal
San Antonio really wants Google Fiber. Really badly. So badly, in fact, that its City Council has approved leases for Google’s networking nodes despite the absence of official rollout plans. The Texas town hopes that removing this legal obstacle in advance will make it a prime candidate for Fiber’s next big launch. Google still has some evaluation to do before it can even consider a San Antonio deployment, so locals shouldn’t dream of what they’ll do with gigabit internet access just yet. However, it’s not hard to see why the city is so optimistic — even the hint of a Fiber launch tends to spur competition and improve speeds for everyone.
[Image credit: Nan Palmero, Flickr]
Filed under: Networking, Internet, Google
Via: Wired
Source: San Antonio Express-News
Google Wallet’s tap-to-pay feature will require Android 4.4 KitKat starting April 14th
It’s time to upgrade that old phone you’ve been using for Google Wallet payments at the local store. Google is now telling Android users that they’ll have to run KitKat to use Wallet’s tap-to-pay feature from April 14th onward. The company prefers the newer OS’ “improved experience” for NFC-based payments; in other words, it would rather use a more universal, cloud-based approach to processing your banking info. You may be out of luck even if you are using KitKat, though, since the new requirements rule out support for the EVO 4G LTE, Galaxy Note 3 and 2012-era Nexus 7. We suspect that many Wallet fans are early adopters that already carry qualifying devices, but Google’s move could have many shoppers looking for alternatives.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google
Via: Droid-Life
Source: Google
AIVAnet 