technology
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.
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.
Hack chrome OS and win cold hard cash
Google is sponsoring the Pwnium 4 hacking competition taking place at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver in March. Like previous years, Google will use this contest as an opportunity to confirm the security of its Chrome products or find bugs that need fixing. El Goog (aka the sultan of search, aka Google) is offering : $110,000 USD: browser or system-level compromise in guest mode or as a logged-in user, delivered via a web page. $150,000 USD: compromise with device persistence: guest to guest with interim reboot, delivered via a web page.
Apple to scrap iPhone 5c according to WSJ
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1024”]Image by Janitors under Creative Commons License [/caption] Another day, another Apple rumour. This time the Wall Street Journal (link) is reporting that Apple will unveil 2 new iPhones this year. One with a display larger than 4.5" and another one with a display larger than 5". Of course these rumour come from "people familiar with the situation" so take it all with a large block of salt. They are predicting a model that looks similar to the iPhone 5s with a metal casing and a standard October launch.
A $50 unlocked android phone from Motorola?
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1024”]Image by Hades2K under Creative Commons License [/caption] 2013 was the year of Motorola. When most Android manufacturers were competing on specifications (processor, memory, storage, screen size, etc), Motorola decided to take a different angle and built a well designed, customizable, reasonably priced android device. This device, the MotoX, came with an almost stock Android OS with some small but powerful usability add ons. I'm an iPhone user and have been from the very beginning but the MotoX was the device that almost made me switch.
Using Non-US cloud providers doesn't protect data
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1024”]Image by Jaaron under Creative Commons License [/caption] My day job is in security so I read every Snowden leak with great interest. It is fascinating to see how well funded intelligence agencies can collect the data they need. All these these leaks seem to have tickled a nerve with some non American corporate IT managers who are now demanding that their cloud providers store their data outside of the US. But does that really make a difference?
Netflix will implement 3-tier pricing for new members
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“1024”]Image by BrianC under Creative Commons License [/caption] A recent Netflix shareholder letter and an interview with GigaOM (link) makes it clear that Netflix is evaluating different tiered pricing plans. On page 2 of the shareholder letter (link) , the CEO explains: "Last April we introduced a 4-concurrent stream $11.99 option to begin our evaluation of plan tiering. Since late last year, we have also been testing 1-stream and 3-stream variants, as well as SD/HD variations, at various price points.
Atlas identifies and tracks all your exercises
Most fitness trackers are glorified pedometers. The same pedometer technology we have been using for 30 years with some extra software to make it look more modern. To really track your workouts and help you improve, you need a much deeper level of information collection and a more mature set of data analytics tools. Over a year ago, I loved the idea of a fitness tracker called Amiigo (link). <img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/f50ac2f850.jpg" alt=""> Unfortunately the Amiigo is more than a year late to deliver their product and updates aren't very comforting.
Whatsapp reaches 430M Users
A Whatsapp cofounder came clean and praised Android for its openness. He further explained how much easier it is to add new features to its Android version compared to IOS. And to top it all off, he confirmed that Whatsapp has more Android users than IOS. They have managed to collect 430M users (up almost 30 million since December). The company has 50 employees of which half work on localization and translation. Whatsapp is a lean organization which keeps costs low and has a steady revenue stream of $0,99 per account per year.
Rogers MotoX Kitkat update coming soon
Motorola shook up the smartphone business when it released the revolutionary MotoX. It wasn't revolutionary because of its specs but rather because of the built in value-added features it brought (Moto assist, Moto migrate, always listening, etc). One complaint Android owners have had for years is the huge unexplainable delay between a new version of the OS being released by Google and when it was made available to consumers through the carriers. Some updates take 12-18 months. Motorola used this as a potential differentiator and promised a Kitkat update to Its phones quickly.
New Samsung UI may bring predictive cards
Everyone's favourite Tweeter leaker, @evleaks (link), has now provided an alleged view of the upcoming updated Samsung Android User Interface (aka skin). More from that Samsung home screen. pic.twitter.com/5Z0jKKxXYN — @evleaks (@evleaks) January 19, 2014 These predictive cards remind me of the Google Now cards. It looks like Samsung's cards are much more integrated with social media sites allowing you to check-in or share your location. <img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/7ec00549d5.jpg" alt=""> Based on what we have seen so far, this still seems like a design mockup therefore it is likely subject to significant changes.
Adobe Lightroom coming for Apple's iPad
9to5Mac (link) is reporting that Adobe will release an iPad version of its Lightroom photo management app. The discovery was made when Lightroom for mobile briefly appeared on Adobe's website. The information was pulled when 9to5Mac asked Adobe for comment & clarifications. <img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/38daba2025.jpg" alt=""> The Adobe webpage didn't mention the iPad but an Adobe employee confirmed it was iPad centric to 9to5Mac. Looks like Lightroom for iPad will sync with the full Lightroom via the Adobe creative cloud which means it will require a subscription and 9to5Mac reports that it will cost $100 a year (which seems fairly steep).
Microsoft fixes Surface Pro 2 battery & sleep issues
In December, Microsoft released a horribly tested problem causing patch that was quickly withdrawn. Now they have released an updated patch which Microsoft assures fixes the biggest Surface Pro complaints such as battery life and a randomly waking up device. It doesn't fix all the issues but it is a step in the right direction. Just head over to your software update applet and enjoy some free device improvement now.