Technology & Business
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).
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.
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.
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.