Monday, October 3, 2016

How to Keep Up With Social Media Feeds Using One Nifty App

Nancy Messieh October 3, 2016 1 minute

Keeping up with several social media profiles can quickly become overwhelming and information overload is inevitable. Add to that the algorithms used on social networks, it might be difficult to catch all the posts you want to see. Bynd, an iOS app, aims to solve that problem.How (and Why) to Disable Algorithmic Feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook How (and Why) to Disable Algorithmic Feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and FacebookTwitter and Instagram are now following Facebook with algorithmic timelines. See what this change means for you, why you might want to disable it, and how to go back to the old view.READ MORE

When you first download the app, you can log in with your Twitter or Facebook account. You cannot sign up using your email address. In my experience, logging in with Twitter alone did not get you access to the app. Rather, it appears that you have to log in with both Facebook and Twitter.

Once you’re in, you can create your customized social media feed by adding individual users or pages from your Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow the latest and most popular posts on Designer News and Hacker News, as well as your favorite news sources — from CNN and The Guardian, to the BBC and NFL News.

Tech blogs like The Verge, Recode, and TechCrunch are also included in the news sources. While Bynd is free, if you want to add Instagram or YouTube feeds, there’s an in-app purchase of $0.99 per site. Bynd does limit you to up to 100 feeds from all of your

Bryan Wolfe September 30, 2016 5 minutes

The smart home industry in 2016 looks much different than it did only five years ago when Nest introduced its first-generation smart thermostat. No doubt, the industry will change again half a decade from now.

It’s time to jump into your time machine. You’re about to uncover what could be the biggest trends in the smart home industry in 2021 and the products you might be using.
Emerging Trends in Home Automation

The smart home of the future is expected to include more energy efficient products controlled by localized virtual assistants. Tomorrow’s homes will also be safer, which is particularly good for aging populations.
Siri Says

Every tech giant offers a digital voice assistant, from Apple’s Siri to Microsoft’s Cortana to Amazon’s Alexa. Right now, these voice assistants require an active web connection and external data to work. In the future, smartphones, tablets, and wearables will feature local voice assistants. In doing so, they will save battery life and reduce many of the privacy concerns some have about those services.7 Creative Uses for Amazon Echo and Alexa 7 Creative Uses for Amazon Echo and AlexaYou’ve seen the ads starring Alec Baldwin, but you're still not sure what Amazon Echo does or whether you need one in your home. We’re about to find out.READ MORE

Earlier this year, MIT researchers unveiled a computer chip optimized for deep-learning. Code-named “Eyeriss”, the chip could allow mobile devices to perform such tasks as natural language processing and facial recognition without going online.

As Vivienne Sze, the Emanuel E. Landsman Career Development Assistant Professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science explains:

You can imagine that if you can bring that functionality to your cell phone or embedded devices, you could still operate even if you don’t have a

Smartphones are replacing desktops and laptops as our primary devices. That’s cool. Unfortunately, this has been a case of two steps forward, two steps back.

The smartphone industry is very different from the PC market. You could say that’s to be expected, but this has had a negative effect on our digital lives and what we can do with our devices. Let me explain.

1. You Can’t Customize Hardware

You can buy a desktop PC pre-built or order the parts and construct one yourself. Either way, with the exception of certain All-in-One designs, you have the ability to dive inside and make upgrades. Need more RAM? Storage space? A better graphics card? You can change what you need and keep your machine running for longer.

Smartphones don’t give you those options. Many leave you with fewer choices than our old flip phones. Back then, you could take out the battery and pop in a MicroSD card for most models. Both of those options are left out of today’s top phones.

Need a faster processor, a battery battery, or a better camera module? Your only option is to replace your phone with the latest model. And it’s not easy for the average person, or even the average geek, to make repairs without sending the device to a professional.

What Can You Do?

Look for phones with MicroSD card slots and

Mihir Patkar October 1, 2016 4 minutes

Say what you will about the giant from Redmond, Microsoft can be pretty awesome. It’s a technology giant that employs thousands of the world’s smartest engineers, and ends up building some really cool things.Stop Bashing Microsoft: 5 Ways In Which They're Awesome Stop Bashing Microsoft: 5 Ways In Which They're AwesomeMicrosoft doesn't always get fair treatment. When it comes down to it, they're a pretty awesome company. There's been enough Microsoft bashing, now it's time for some love.READ MORE

Not everything that comes out of Microsoft gets a lot of attention. Not everything deserves it either. But there are some Microsoft apps and services that deserve to be known. Some are useful, some are entertaining, and some are genius — and you should know about them all.

1. How Old (Web): Upload a Photo to See How Old You Look

There is now a robot that can look at a photo of you and try to guess your age. More importantly for the ego factor, it’s a reality check about how old the average person thinks you look!

How Old is a cool Microsoft project that relies on the big data and personal data economy to make smart connections. By crunching the numbers from different data points, the robot has gathered signs that mark age on a human face. It then takes your photo and looks for those points on your face. Depending on the correlation and patterns, it will

Joel Lee October 3, 2016 1 minute

As an Android user, you’ve probably run into your fair share of app issues and operating system glitches. (Not that iOS is any better — those users have their own kinks to work out.) And one of the more problem-prone areas is the Google Play Store.20 Common Android Problems Solved 20 Common Android Problems SolvedHaving problems with your Android device? We can solve it!READ MORE

When you have problems with the Play Store app, there are a handful of simple fixes that will work most of the time and you should always start there — but sometimes, as is the case here, you’ll need to try something a little more outside the box.

If you keep seeing “Check your connection and try again” and nothing works to fix it, try the following methods. These steps are for Android 5.1 but should be similar regardless of your Android version.

Method 1: Change time settings.
Open Settings and select Date & time.
Disable Automatic date & time.
Disable Automatic time zone.
Select Set date and go forward by five years.
Open the Play Store app and let it connect.
Go back and enable both Automatic date & time and Automatic time zone settings.

Method 2: Remove the host file.
You must have a rooted Android device.
You must have a file manager app that can view system files. I use File Manager by ZenUI.
With your file manager app, navigate to /root/etc/ and look for the hosts file (it doesn’t have an extension).
Remove it or rename it (e.g. hosts-backup).
Reboot your device.
Open the Play Store app and let it connect.

Method 3: Change DNS server.
You must be using a Wi-Fi connection.
Open Settings and select Wi-Fi.
Tap-and-hold the network you’re connected to and select Modify network.
Enable Advanced options.
Change IP settings to Static.
Change DNS 1 to 8.8.8.8.
Change DNS 2 to 8.8.4.4.
Tap Save.
Open Settings and select Apps.
Under All, clear the cache for these apps: Google Play Store, Google Play Services, and Google Services Framework.
Open the Play Store app and let it connect.

Which one worked for you? If none of them did but you found a different solution elsewhere, please let us know in a comment down below! Thanks.

The Best Firefox Addons

Sandy Stachowiak October 3, 2016 11 minutes

Firefox is famous for its addons, and for good reason: they can make your browser do just about anything. But which addons are the most useful? Here are the addons we think are best, what they do, and where you can find them.

Enjoy! Also let us know if we’ve missed anything, okay? We plan to update the list semi-regularly.
Bookmarks and Clipping

If you’re using the web for research, you need to compile what you find as quickly as possible, and note a few sites for future reference. Here are tools for saving those relevant bits of information, and for compiling and managing your bookmarks.
Evernote Web Clipper

If you don’t use Evernote, you’re missing out: it’s the perfect place to put all those things you need to remember for later but don’t need right now. And the fastest way to send something to Evernote is the Web Clipper, which Aaron called the ultimate content saving tool. You won’t remember how you browsed without it.Evernote's New Web Clipper Is The Ultimate Content Saving Tool Evernote's New Web Clipper Is The Ultimate Content Saving ToolEvernote's Web Clipper isn't new. But if you haven't heard, or perhaps didn't like the Evernote clipper in the past, this is the right time to look into it again.READ MORE
Zotero

Creating citations is the funnest part of academic writing, right? If you’re convinced, check out Zotero for Firefox. It takes the stress out of referencing by creating a bibliography in just one click, and it’s also a useful tool for compiling resources. A must for academics.Take The Stress Out Of Referencing With Zotero Take The Stress Out Of Referencing With ZoteroEssays are dry. They're time consuming. They're dull. And the worst part of it? Referencing. Thankfully, there's an app out there making referencing less frustrating.READ MORE
Scrapbook

If you’d rather your clippings live right in your

By Matthew DeCarlo on October 2, 2016, 11:30 AM

IEEE sets new Ethernet standard that brings 5X the speed without disruptive cable changesAs expected the IEEE has ratified a new Ethernet specification -- IEEE P802.3bz – that defines 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T, boosting the current top speed of traditional Ethernet five-times without requiring the tearing out of current cabling. The Ethernet Alliance wrote that the IEEE 802.3bz Standard for Ethernet Amendment sets Media Access Control Parameters, Physical Layers and Management Parameters for 2.5G and 5Gbps Operation lets access layer bandwidth evolve incrementally beyond 1Gbps... Network World

Stewardship of IANA functions transitions to global internet community as contract withith U.S. government ends Today, 1 October 2016, the contract between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the United States Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), to perform the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions, has officially expired. This historic moment marks the

Best Audio deals you need to check out on Amazon and Flipkart

By Nikhil Rastogi / 03 Oct 2016 , 09:48

With the October sales upon us, it is indeed exciting and at the same nerve-racking as to what to pick up. Flipkart and Amazon are advertising their massive deals days and it can get a bit tiring to figure out where to head to, to get the best deals. Both sites always show something off but is it really a good deal? We looked through thousands of deals to bring you the best.

Amazon
Amazon has some amazing to good discounts on some products. The key here is that the following audio category products keep rotating on Lightning deals. So if you don’t see it right now, it shows up in “Upcoming Deals” in a few hours.

Single handedly, the BEST DEAL on Amazon is the Sennheiser 598 SE and 598 CS headphones (Amazon exclusive) at Rs 9,909 and Rs 6,999; both cost Rs 18,990 otherwise. Practically the same with supreme sound while the new 598 CS being a closed back design offers more bass and zero sound leakage, unlike the SE original.

Best-audio-deals-Amazon-Flipkart-Sennheiser-598

Sennheiser 598CS and Sennheiser 598SE

If you are looking for a deal on good Bluetooth speakers, Logitech X50 speakers should suffice. They have good bass in a small package and attractive colours. You’ll see various colours go on

Facebook rolls out Messenger Lite for emerging markets

03 Oct 2016 , 11:40

Facebook Inc launched a stripped down version of its popular Messenger app for emerging markets on Monday as it seeks to expand its international footprint.

Messenger Lite, which uses less data and is designed to work in areas with slower internet connections, will roll out in Kenya, Tunisia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Venezuela. Facebook said it will expand to other countries in the coming months.

Facebook has largely saturated Western markets, including North America and Europe, and has set its sights on developing countries, in part by

Indian enterprises and Hybrid cloud solutions are a good mix, says top execs

03 Oct 2016 , 12:08

As enterprises the world over aim for a secured and faster Cloud experience, Hybrid Cloud solutions are turning out to be the preferred choice for them including in India for enhanced efficiency and productivity and improved cyber security, top executives have said.

A Hybrid Cloud is an integrated Cloud service utilising both private and public Clouds to perform distinct functions within the same organisation.

Enterprises the world over are moving to Hybrid Cloud faster than anyone expected to support digital transformation, drive business model innovation and fuel growth and

Apple ordered to pay $302.4 million after losing patent retrial against VirnetX

03 Oct 2016 , 12:27

A federal jury in Texas on Friday night ordered Apple Inc to pay more than $302 million in damages for using VirnetX Holding Corp’s patented internet security technology without permission in features including its FaceTime video conferencing application. The verdict came in a new trial in Tyler, Texas that had been ordered by the judge in the case, Robert Schroeder, who last August threw out VirnetX’s $625.6 million win over Apple from a previous trial because he said jurors in that case may have been confused.

VirnetX and Apple have been fighting over patents for years. The case began in 2010 when VirnetX, a Nevada-based patent licensor, filed suit in

Microsoft has managed to sell 20mn Xbox One units; from its original target of 200mn

03 Oct 2016 , 12:42

US tech giant Microsoft originally aimed to sell 200 million consoles of Xbox One but only managed to sell about 20 million units since its launch in 2013, media reported on Monday.

“The goal that the team had was to figure out how could we sell 200 million game consoles. We have never seen a console sell that many units. The biggest individual console, the PS2, did 120 million or something like that,” technology website TechTimes quoted Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, as saying.

Xbox One houses TV capabilities and the company also created the Xbox Entertainment Studios, a division aimed at creating TV and film content for the console, similar to Netflix, but the product focussed more on

Pokémon Go is becoming a part of the course curriculum in colleges around the world

By Aditya Madanapalle / 03 Oct 2016 , 10:19

Pokémon Go was the viral sensation this summer. The game uses the global positioning system, augmented reality and licensed content from Nintendo. Behind the scenes, Google has a team of engineers directly working with the Niantic team to ensure that the servers are up and running. The game is very social, and makes trainers form networks, co-ordinate attacks, and discuss strategies. Pokémon Go is physically demanding, and unlike a conventional video game, it makes you go outside and explore locations in the real world.

Training can also make you oblivious to your surroundings.

These social and technical characteristics mean that Pokémon Go is now becoming a part of university courses around the world. According to a report in the Daily Mail, Salford University students studying Business Information Technology will be required to play and understand the game as part of

Andromeda OS coming to a Huawei-made Nexus tablet and a Pixel 3 laptop: Reports

By tech2 News Staff / 27 Sep 2016 , 09:55

As we approach closer to the launch of the Google flagship phones this year, there are speculations floating online about two new devices which will sport the newest operating system from the search giant. According to a report in 9to5 Google, a Huawei-made Nexus tablet is in the works and AndroidPolice states that a laptop, allegedly named Pixel 3 is in the works. Both the speculated devices are expected to run an Android and Chrome OS hybrid OS called Andromeda.

According to 9to5 Google, there will be a Huawei-made Nexus-branded tablet that will be released by Google which will sport the Andromeda OS. This is in line with the tweet from Evan Blass earlier this month about a 7-inch tablet with 4GB RAM which would be released before the end of the year. Another thing that adds gravitas to the matter is the spotting of trademark filings for a product named Huawei 7P.

The report further states that while Google is testing Andromeda OS on the Nexus 9 tablet, it will not be officially released on the Nexus 9.

Andromeda OS is being speculated as the next generation operating system which will be an amalgamation of the Android OS and the

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Google Pixel and Pixel XL: Here’s everything we know

By Sheldon Pinto / 03 Oct 2016 , 10:32

It’s just a day to go until Google unveils a new breed of “refined” Google smartphones that are expected to be called the Pixel and the Pixel XL. While it isn’t clear, whether Google will retain the Nexus brand post the launch, the Pixel brand is all about Android growing up and taking this year’s Apple iPhone 7 and 7 Plus head on!

And Google has got its secret sauce just right this year, or so it seems. Smartphones with a premium looking design with metal and glass. Check! The latest hardware. Check! The latest and specially customised software experience. Double Check! And there’s even the smarter Google Assistant built right into the smartphone. Good luck Siri!

With that said Google seems to have a rather attractive product in a time when every new smartphone launch we have witnessed lately seems unimpressive. The Pixel smartphones come at the time when the smartphone industry seems to be plateauing with little or no innovation, apart from software.

So what do we know about these upcoming smartphones. Well, thanks to the recent leaks (and we’re expecting some more), all the major details are already out including some of the finer bits.

Design and Construction
We have seen them in plenty of leaks and considering all of them (renders and photographs) look identical, it’s easy to conclude that this is the stuff we will see in a few days at the launch. Both Google Pixel and Pixel XL look identical. Google may have taken a page out of Apple playbook here, but yes, for the first time Google may announce two identical looking smartphones, just that the Pixel XL is an inch bigger (overall size) than the standard Pixel model.

For long, both smartphones are said to be manufactured by HTC and even though Google is rooting for its “Made by Google” campaign, we highly doubt that Google may have manufactured the smartphones by itself.