Software & Apps News - Page 67

The latest and most important Software & Apps news - Page 67.

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Facebook turns Messenger's camera into a Snapchat copy

Lana Jelic | Dec 16, 2016 8:35 AM CST

Instagram recently added a new feature Stories, which is a clear copy of Snapchat. Now, Facebook introduced a new camera feature in their Messenger that lets you add special effects and art on your photos and videos. Sounds familiar?

On their official blog, Facebook says that users send over 2.5 billion emojis, photos, stickers and videos every day on Messenger, and they expressed hope that this new feature will enable even more visual messaging.

In some ways the camera is now replacing the keyboard. As more people use Messenger in their everyday lives, we wanted to make it faster, simpler and more fun to send photos and videos - so we built the new Messenger camera.

Continue reading: Facebook turns Messenger's camera into a Snapchat copy (full post)

Facebook Events app now available for Android users

Lana Jelic | Dec 14, 2016 8:26 AM CST

Back in October, Facebook launched a standalone app for events. Initially, the app was available only for iOS users, but Facebook has now released it for Android users as well and you can get it on Play Store.

Facebook events app is perfect for users who like to have a better overview of their upcoming events, but Facebook doesn't require you to download the app to be able to use Events in your Facebook app, at least not for now.

When you open Events, you can see the events your Facebook friends are interested in, recently-announced events by the pages you like, and updates from events you're already connected to. You can also browse events based on your interests or location. Events app features an interactive map that will help you browse trough the events easier, something that the Events feature in Facebook's main app doesn't have. Facebook also added a calendar in the app so you can keep track of the events you are attending.

Continue reading: Facebook Events app now available for Android users (full post)

iOS 10.1.1 causes serious battery problems

Lana Jelic | Nov 28, 2016 4:16 PM CST

Apple's iOS 10, launched back in September, was mainly praised, but with the recent release of the 10.1.1 update, many users reported issues with battery life. The main point of the 10.1.1 update was to fix some of the camera issues that users were experiencing with the new iPhone 7 Plus dual camera.

The iPhone users who installed 10.1.1 update are reporting that the battery life of their devices lasts much shorter and even that their phones are shutting down with at least 30-50% charge left.

Continue reading: iOS 10.1.1 causes serious battery problems (full post)

Google Play Music gets new look

Sean Ridgeley | Nov 14, 2016 4:28 PM CST

Google Play Music receives an overhaul today, complete with personalized music, a new home screen, and an auto generated offline playlist.

The new version of the app exploits machine learning to curate song lists for you based on what you like, where you are, what you're doing, and the weather, among other things. So whether you're chilling at home or about to work out, it has the soundtrack for you (or claims to, anyway).

The reworked home screen also takes advantage of Google's machine learning and is designed to always present you with the music you care about most at any given moment, whether it's your favourite new album or the after work playlist you listen to regularly, or whatever else.

Continue reading: Google Play Music gets new look (full post)

Spotify writing huge amounts of data to storage drives

Sean Ridgeley | Nov 11, 2016 9:58 AM CST

For five months or more, the Spotify software on Windows, Mac, and Linux has been writing a gigantic amount of data to storage devices, potentially taking years off their lifespan. Tens, hundreds, or even thousands of gigabytes written within an hour have been reported, and occur when the software is idle and is not storing any songs locally.

The problem -- which was reproduced easily by Ars Technica -- is said to be tied to one or more database files with the Mercury.db string. It is of course particularly burdensome to solid state drives (SSDs), which have limited write capacity.

"We've seen some questions in our community around the amount of written data using the Spotify client on desktop," a Spotify spokesperson said in a statement. "These have been reviewed and any potential concerns have now been addressed in version 1.0.42, currently rolling out to all users."

Continue reading: Spotify writing huge amounts of data to storage drives (full post)

Google introduced Android nine years ago today

Lana Jelic | Nov 5, 2016 7:11 AM CDT

A recent report showed that Android phones hold 88% of the market. Global shipments hit 375 million units in the third quarter of 2016, and 328.6 million of them were Android phones.

The first commercially available smartphone running Android was the HTC Dream, released on October 22th, 2008. However, the history of Android OS started much earlier.

The Android OS was initially developed by Android Inc., which Google bought in 2005 for at least $50 million. Not much was known about Android Inc. at the time, but many assumed that Google was planning to enter the mobile phone market with this move.

Continue reading: Google introduced Android nine years ago today (full post)

Google Chrome is up to 15% faster, thanks to Microsoft

Anthony Garreffa | Nov 1, 2016 4:32 AM CDT

Google Chrome has received some performance improvements applied, with help from Microsoft and its PGO technology that makes Chrome's startup time around 17% faster. Chrome now loads web pages 6% faster and is 15% faster with new tab loading times.

Microsoft's PGO technology is 'Profile Guided Optimization', which measures just how users use the application, and then with this data in-hand it will re-compile an application that focuses on optimizing the most-used functions. Another feature of PGO is that it speeds apps up by keeping the most-used functions inside of the CPU's fast instruction cache.

Google took to the Chromium Blog, explaining in a new article called 'Making Chrome on Windows faster with PGO'. The team added: "To gather this data, the nightly build process now produces a special version of Chrome that tracks how often functions are used. PGO then optimizes those high-use functions for speed, in some cases increasing the binary size of those functions. To balance out that increase, PGO also optimizes less-used functions with smaller, though slightly slower code. These trade-offs result in higher overall performance, and a smaller overall code footprint".

Continue reading: Google Chrome is up to 15% faster, thanks to Microsoft (full post)

We tested some fun and scary Halloween apps

Lana Jelic | Oct 31, 2016 1:05 PM CDT

The scariest night of the year is here! Although Halloween isn't celebrated in every part of the world, why not join the fun with some scary apps that will turn you into a fictional character or something from your wildest dreams?

We tested some apps that might help you celebrate the scariest night of the year. There is a wide range of different Halloween apps, from stickers, fun games to masks, etc., so here are few chosen one that caught my eye. All the apps I tested are free.

YouCam Fun lets you create fun real-time videos and photos in seconds with live filters and camera effects. The app lets you add stickers, live filters, photo effects and more to your face, all in real-time. If you have ever used Snapchat, you will know what I'm talking about.

Continue reading: We tested some fun and scary Halloween apps (full post)

Google celebrates Halloween with an amusing browser game

Lana Jelic | Oct 31, 2016 9:32 AM CDT

Google is celebrating Halloween with a special Doodle - an amusing browser game.

The game seems simple - a player controls a cat that needs to defeat ghosts by drawing the symbol hovering over their heads. But, as the game progresses, the ghosts appear faster, in more numbers and the symbols get more complicated to draw.

The game includes five levels set in school environments: the library, cafeteria, classroom, gym, and the building's rooftop, each with their own boss.

Continue reading: Google celebrates Halloween with an amusing browser game (full post)

Twitter kills Vine app, web version still available

Anthony Garreffa | Oct 27, 2016 11:14 PM CDT

Twitter is going through troubles of its own, but now the social media giant has announced it will be shutting down the Vine app in the next few months.

Vine wrote in a blog post: "Since 2013, millions of people have turned to Vine to laugh at loops and see creativity unfold. Today, we are sharing the news that in the coming months we'll be discontinuing the mobile app".

Twitter announced it is restructuring itself, laying off 9% of their global workforce, and working on other methods to reduce cost. Vine users won't feel the pinch immediately, with their Vines still accessible, with Vine adding it will continue working with creators on answering any questions.

Continue reading: Twitter kills Vine app, web version still available (full post)