2014
AllCast Android Media streaming app works with Chromecast... Again
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“2500”]Image by iannnnn under Creative Commons License [/caption] The Chromecast is a little wonder at $30. It allows you to easily stream content directly from authorized apps (the internet) straight to your Chromecast without going through you smartphone or tablet. But El Goog (aka Google) has been very protective of its little baby and hasn't allowed "unauthorized" apps to connect and use it. Why the change? Google released the Cast SDK yesterday which will allow developers to legally write apps for it (most creative developers has reverse engineered the code and were using that to stream to it, which Google didn't like).
Sanitize your phone while charging it
October 2012, I wrote an article called Stop what you're doing and clean your phone , if you haven't read it, go and read it now. Your phone can get filthy. I mean it can get dirtier than a public toilet yet you routinely jam it against your face close to your ears and mouth. A company has now come up with a neat idea called PhoneSoap (link). they combine the act of sanitizing with charging which ames a lot of sense.
PPShots allow you to pee on your enemies
This is an odd and disturbing product but I guess there is a market for it somewhere. PPShots is a special waterproof picture holder. You add your own picture, seal it up and then apply it to the inside of your toilet bowl. Now you can get some kind of weird satisfaction knowing you are peeing on your enemy. A 2pack of protectors costs $9.95 from Amazon (link) This is not an affiliate link. I do not get any compensation for linking to this Amazon page.
30 years of Apple video shot entirely on iPhones
Apple prepared the above special video (shot entire on iPhones) to celebrate its 30th and to remind the world of its promise of making computing accessible to everyone. Hundreds of iPhones were involved in this project generated hundreds of hours of raw footage that had to be reviewed and edited. Still impressive to see what they were able to do.
Best Buy / Futureshop Canada laying off 950 employees
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“676”]Image from OSDE8Info under Creative Commons License [/caption] BestBuy is kicking off another organizational restructuring to "optimize its retail footprint" (link) They have now announced another 950 full-time employee layoffs (from both BestBuy & Futureshop brands). They will be consolidating departments. The company has said “We have seen our online sales grow by more than 50 per cent in the past year and new services such as in-store reserve and pick up more than doubling. These changes in the way our customers are interacting with us have led us to look at how to best deploy our staff to meet those evolving needs.
Google is Canada's most influential brand
Ipsos Reid has released their "Top 10 most influential brands in Canada" list (link) . The survey was conducted in December and polled 5008 Canadians. Ipsos Reid used their mathematics magic to massage the results which they claim are +/- 1.6%, 19 times out of 20. The top 10 most influential brands in Canada are: Google Facebook Microsoft Apple Visa Tim Hortons YouTube President's Choice *NEW in 2013* Walmart MasterCard *NEW in 2013 3 companies that didn't make the top 10 list but that had considerable improvement in their positioning this year (compared to last year) are:
Will Twitter offer a commerce platform?
Re/Code, the new site from Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, revealed (link) that Twitter is working on a new commerce platform that will enable users to buy and sell via tweets. It looks like Twitter will use the Sponsored Tweet model and insert commerce ads into your twitter stream. The user can click on the link and will be taken to a special Twitter page showing the standard commerce information (pictures, description and the ability to buy the item. The current information shows Fancy.
Tim Horton's offers Blackberry Donut
Who's hungry? A special guest will be buying some @TimHortons with the new @BlackBerry TimmyMe App. pic.twitter.com/r4F7H6o1iA — Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) January 31, 2014 To celebrate the launch of the TimmyMe blackberry app (which allows customers to pay via their BB10 device), tim Hortons and Blackberry launched a special promotional campaign at the Adelaide Street West location. This is a tasty promo, not sure it would make me buy a blackberry device!
Google to release red Nexus 5 for Valentine's day
EVLeaks was the first to proclaim the coming of a red Nexus 5 Google Nexus 5, in red, by LG. pic.twitter.com/tFyBoS0aj1 — @evleaks (@evleaks) January 31, 2014 An Android Police (link) informant also provided the usual "non clear" spy shots from Sprint showing the red Nexus 5 promising a February 4 launch. <img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/e494f9f596.jpg" alt="">
Will Google discontinue the Nexus line in 2015?
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“2500”]Image by solarbotics under creative common license [/caption] Nexus line by Google is over in 2015 ;) Yes - this line will be replaced by Play Edition (current name, it will be rebranded) — Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) January 27, 2014 Eldar has mixed success with his predictions but this is an interesting discussion.
Google Chrome for IOS brings data compression, translation and more
Google updates its Chrome web browser for IOS yesterday and finally bestowed many highly anticipated features to its IOS faithful. The first major feature is automatic in browser translation. visit any webpage that is not in your preferred language and (just like on the desktop version), it will ask if you want Chrome to translate it for you. <img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/32945b3f6f.jpg" alt=""> Like its desktop counterpart, you can translate just this page or ask Chrome to translate all french pages in the future as well.
Blackberry sues Ryan Seacrest's company
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“2500”]Image by bigpresh under creative commons license [/caption] You may not know this but Ryan Seacrest is the founder of an iPhone accessory company called Typo. Typo designed and sells an add-on iPhone physical keyboard which Blackberry claims is a copy of its own proprietary design. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="660"]<img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/684e895c4f.jpg" alt=" Here is a picture of the Typo keyboard installed on an iPhone 5s "> Here is a picture of the Typo keyboard installed on an iPhone 5s [/caption] A report by CIO magazine says Blackberry has submitted a request to the US District Court in Northern California to block Typo from "
Canadian carriers ready for t-911 but emergency centres aren't
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“2500”]Image by UCL Mathematical and physical services under creative commons license [/caption] The Canadian wireless Telecommunications Association has been spearheading a 911 initiative to allow those with hearing or speech impairments to text 911 emergency response services. The trial, started in 2012, was such a success that CWTA members (all major carriers and their sub-brands) have been busy upgrading their networks to support the service nationwide. On January 24 2014, the CWTA announced that its member carriers have completed the required upgrades but that the 911 control centres themselves haven't implemented the required technologies.
Microsoft SkyDrive to become OneDrive
British Sky Broadcasting Group won a court battle with Microsoft last year and the settlement included an undisclosed amount of compensation and Microsoft agreed to change the name of its infringing SkyDrive product. Now Microsoft has announced that Skydrive will be rebranded to OneDrive (link). They are promising that OneDrive is everything Skydrive is and more. What the more means is anyone's guess and Skydrive hasn't been the most popular consumer online cloud storage service. No date of when the new service will go live but you can give them your email address and they will let you know.
Apple IOS 7 on 80% of compatible devices
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1024”]Photo by blakespot under creative commons license [/caption] Every operating system vendor dreams of being able to quickly upgrade its existing deployed users to its latest and greatest but in most cases, it take months to years. Apple is showing everyone how its done announcing that "80% of decides are using IOS 7". 17% are on IOS 6 and 3% are on some older version. <img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/951b3b084d.jpg" alt=""> Stats from Apple (link)
Monoprice offers amazing customer service
We live in a society where people are overly demanding from retailers but everyone wants the best deal in town. Traditional brick and mortar retailers have responded by drastically reducing store staffing levels which means its though having your questions answered or issues resolved. Many online retailers are able to offer competitive prices but do a really good job hiding their contact information. For the last several years, I have been huge fan of monoprice.com. They offer medium-to-high quality items at rock bottom prices.
January 2014 - Top 10 countries visiting my site and more
The top 10 countries sending visitors to my site for January 2014 are: United States Canada United Kingdom Australia India Germany France Spain Italy South Korea Top browsers used to visit my site in January 2014 Chrome (almost 60% of traffic) Safari Firefox 2/3 of my traffic came from desktop computers with mobile growing in importance steadily over the last 6 months.
Get the $99 OnOne Perfect effects 8 for Mac & Windows FREE!
Until January 28, you can get OnOne's Perfect Effects 8 Premium (standlone, Lightroom, Aperture, Photoshop Elements 10 compatible) for FREE! This app works on both Windows and Mac. This app is valued at $US99 so FREE is a fantastic offer on this quality app. The special offer link is here.
Glif from Studio Neat - The accessory every smartphone owner should have
The best part of my iPhone is the amazing camera it contains. It is always with me and allows me to capture moments that would otherwise be lost forever. For these immediate situations, I grab my iPhone and quickly snap a picture. Then there are times when I want to use a tripod (group shots, self shots or nature photography) but what tripod mount is the best. My local electronics store has several dozen (all of which are terrible by the way).
Swiftkey predictive keyboard coming to IOS
Everyone's favourite leaker, evleaks, says the popular Android keyboard Swiftkey is coming to an IOS device near you. But don't pop the champagne just yet because its not what you think. SwiftKey Note for iOS. pic.twitter.com/x4cJkq0KC5 — @evleaks (@evleaks) January 23, 2014 It seems the company will be releasing an app called Swiftkey Note. Swiftkey note looks like a plain clean looking notes app with the Swiftkey magic keyboard built in. We don't know if this is a prototype app to encourage other IOS app developers to license Swiftkey for their app do well just have to wait and see.