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Tuesday, April 13, 2021
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Instant Articles Now Rolling Out On Facebook Messenger

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Facebook enables Instant Articles on Messenger

Facebook Messenger for iOS will also roll out support for Instant Articles in the weeks to come.

Starting Thursday, July 14th, Facebook started rolling out Instant Articles for Facebook Messenger, it’s stand-alone messaging app. The initial roll-out will start with Android devices, but the feature will be added to the iOS version of Messenger in the coming weeks.

Browsing In The Fast Lane

Google developed Accelerated Mobile Pages HTML, or AMP HTML, in order to combat the increasing number of websites which load slowly due to how many elements are present in their design.

The open AMP HTML framework enables a far more lightweight design, lessening the burden of older machines, slower connections, and generally all devices using mobile data. Many and diverse publishers, companies, and industries adopted the AMP HTML framework.

Facebook’s Instant Articles

Facebook wants to be able to accommodate its users without them having to resort to additional extensions or browsers. As part of the effort, in 2015, the company set up the groundwork for Instant Articles.

The service enables the option for publishers to have Facebook host their website. Thus, Instant Articles guarantees almost no loading times for Facebook users. Accessing Instant Articles present in a Facebook News feed does not cause the browser to separately load the website.

The company also recently broadened access to the service, giving all publishers the opportunity to use it. Websites hosted with Instant Articles prove to be a popular choice among Facebook users. The company reports an over 20 percent increase in the popularity of the fast loading sites. They are on average also shared 30 percent more often.

The Speedy Messenger

Facebook Messenger will be getting updated with the Instant Article feature. Android users will be able to quickly and easily access the hosted sites.

Links to Instant Articles on Facebook Messenger are easily distinguishable thanks to a small lightning bolt sticker visible on the upper right corner of the article thumbnail. Clicking on Instant Articles will not cause the browser app to open and instead will make the website load in the Facebook Messenger app.

Facebook Messenger currently has over 900 million active users on both Android and iOS, ensuring quite the number of pageviews for any publisher interested in Facebook’s speedy service.

Image Courtesy of Facebook.

Facebook’s Mobile Device Lab Tests Apps 24/7 On 2,000 Phones

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Facebook Tasks Mobile Device Lab To Test Out All Its Apps

The Mobile Device Lab tests several versions of all of Facebook’s apps.

How many phones does it take to test out the Facebook app? Almost 2,000. The number is no joke and not even a rough estimate. In Facebook’s Mobile Device Lab, dozens of server racks are lined on each side humming to the point where it feels more like an airport hanger rather than a cool, dark room.

Some of the server racks hold smartphones, of varying models and varying ages. Each rack can snuggly fit 32 devices, and each of them is on Facebook 24/7. Facebook’s Mobile Device Lab manages the phones in order to test the apps’ performance before each update.

Within The Racks Of The Mobile Device Lab

The devices run different versions of the Facebook app, Facebook Lite, Messenger, Instagram, and so on, but all of the devices have automated gesture programs running on them, which makes the phone behave as it was actually used by a human being. Likes, comments, stickers, tagging, searching, surveys, the gesture programs do them all, while monitoring chip, memory, and battery usage.

Small cameras hang above the screen of each phone recording every second of uptime so that engineers and researchers can see exactly what crashes when so that they can fix it.

So why does a Facebook’s Mobile Device Lab need almost 2,000 different devices? Well, because they are different. The smartphone market is a very big place. While most of us know the bigger names that pop up every year, there are actually hundreds of different smartphone manufacturers.

Almost each brand has a different chip covering the CPU, GPU, and modem, potentially different RAM and internal storage manufacturers, as well as different battery manufacturers and limitations. And each brand releases on average one or two phones per year.

The Mobile Device Lab needs to account for all the tech specs of a device. The apps need to look good and behave, no matter what device they run on. Phones with different or unique screen sizes, for example, also require their own version of Facebook.

Then there is the issue of operating systems, as almost each version of Android has its own settings and most phones also come with their own modified version of Android.

App developers are well aware of the fact that an app can work perfectly on several models of phones but crash on others, even if they’re running the exact same OS.

iOS devices run the same version, which is great for app developers, but technical specifications such as CPU, GPU, memory, and screen size are still an important factor.

So the next time the Facebook app glitches out, we can think of the Mobile Device Lab and know that they sometimes have their hands full but that they will eventually get to it.

Photograph Courtesy of Flickr.

Final Fantasy VII Now Available For Android

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Final Fantasy VII Available For Android

Aerith, as seen in the Final Fantasy VII animation.

Final Fantasy VII is one of the games who has stood the tests of time. With its initial release in 1997, the seventh installment in the always popular Final Fantasy series is nearing a decade of popularity.

The decade marker has been hit by several games in the past but those games have received balance patches over the years. The gameplay style of other cult classic decade-old games additionally had more replayability offering either several multiple choices or mechanics such as New Game Plus.

Final Fantasy VII inspired sequels and prequels, novels, comic books, and a movie to name a few. In 2015 it was announced that the game was finally receiving an overly demanded remake, but there is talk that it may end up a different game altogether.

Android users are now able to buy, download, and play Final Fantasy VII on their smart devices. Considering there is almost no chance for even the Remake version ever to make it to Xbox Consoles, Android is the last platform on which the game finally arrived.

VALVe re-brought the game to attention in 2013, when it became available for purchase on the Steam Store. The iOS Store received its version of Final Fantasy VII in August 2015. Sony also made the game replayable to the PlayStation 4 in December 2015, almost nine years after its original release on the first PlayStation in January 1997.

Final Fantasy VII for Android is priced at $16 and requires 2GB of storage space to play but a bit over 4GB to initially install, making the classic a steep investment not compatible with older devices.

Much like the iOS version, the Android release of Final Fantasy allows players to skip random fights, and to max out all their values entirely minimizing the duration of the otherwise lengthy combat scenes. Realistically, the game is only affected by a strategic system alone as some fights can still be lost with poor choices even when having capped out stats.

The original code of the game also comes with its caveats for smart devices. Android users are advised to safe as often as they remember and to also backup their saves. A glitch which will probably never be fixable unless the engine for Final Fantasy VII is made open source affects how data is stored in the game.

The glitch causes sudden crashes with no data saved on forced exit leading players to lose all their unsaved data or sometimes all their game data, hence the backups. Even so, Final Fantasy is a cult classic for a reason and is worth the time of any lover of the genre.

Is The Final Fantasy VII Remake Coming Out On The 10th Anniversary In January 2017?

Image and Videos Courtesy of YouTube.

Keep From Google Is Getting More Organizational Features

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Google Keep Is Now Easier To Organize

The new Google Keep categorization features were by far the most requested by users.

Google Keep had gone through several amazing improvements ever since 2013 when it was originally launched. The latest improvement to the note-taking app will let users organize their notes by tags, making the view similar to organizing files inside of a folder.

In 2013, soon after its March debut, Google Keep was named one of Google’s Top 50 Apps. It has since then improved considerably and currently boasts a great number of useful integration and organizational features.

Color-coding notes and lists made it easier to discern the different post-its visually. Users, however, could also search easier by organizing and searching by color. Nevertheless, that option to search has proved not to be enough for the almost 50 million Google Keep users.

Keep can now efficiently organize a user’s notes, ordering and classifying similar keywords into an open folder-like view.

Google’s new change to Keep was quite expeditious considering that, a day prior, Evernote announced that it would be increasing its paid monthly subscription service and limiting access to its free accounts.

With Evernote expecting a very soon massive loss in its popularity, it would appear that Google Keep will be the main player in the note taking business for a while.

In addition, Google Keep currently allows users to insert images into their notes. Note reminders either based on location or time are one of the other most used features. The integration of the reminders into other Google apps like Clock, Calendar, or Now is seamless, quick, and flawless.

Finally, Google’s note-taking app allows users to take voice memos. The options are currently available only in the United States and for English speaking users. Nevertheless, the app does automatically transcribe the voice memos and saves them both as audio and text. Finally, Google Keep acts similarly to Google Docs, allowing multiple users to write collaboratively in the same note.

Google Keep is available for no cost on both Android and iOS. Additionally, the app is available on desktop browsers with the exact same functionality. It was one of the first apps that Google took into account for their initial Chrome OS app pack.

Evernote also accumulated most of its popularity through its iOS app. Initially, its Firefox and Chrome extensions saw more popularity than the Android version of the app. Currently, all three mediums are popular for Evernote as well.

Image Courtesy of Flickr.

Huawei Quietly Working on Backup OS Just in Case

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Huawei Honor 4X handset on tableAccording to a recent report, the Chinese smartphone maker Huawei is currently developing its own mobile operating system just in case Google ever decides to end support for Android.

Rumors have it that the Chinese company has hired a team of engineers which includes former Nokia technicians for the project. The operating system, which may never see the light of the day, is reportedly being built in great secrecy at an undisclosed location in Scandinavia.

The new OS will be used as a backup measure as the company prepares to enter the U.S. market.

The report reads that the new OS would be ready by this fall. People familiar with the matter told a technology news outlet that Huawei plans to be less reliant on Google.

The firm is concerned that some management decisions at Google could change and the U.S. web search giant could abruptly cut support for third-party handsets or limit the options phone makers have in tweaking the system.

Sources couldn’t tell whether Huawei will build the OS from scratch or use Android as a starting point.

Huawei, which is world’s third largest mobile phone maker with an 8 percent share of the global market, is tremendously popular in China. But it struggles to gain more customers abroad.

One of the reasons for the international stalling growth is its poor external design that is no match for devices produced by South Korean giant Samsung or U.S. behemoth Apple Inc.

Additionally, Huawei has been often accused that it draws inspiration for its handsets from the iPhone. As a result, the China-based OEM recently hired a designer that contributed to the iPhone’s famed UI look

Former Apple designer Abigail Brody joined Huawei team to help the company look less like Apple. She was also behind last year’s changes in how Android skin EMUI looks. Now, she is in a race against time to make the phones less iPhone-esque by September, when the EMUI gets another update.

Broody said that she and a fellow engineer needed just one week to design “the core DNA of the visual attributes” of the first iPhone.

She is now working on removing the iPhone look from Huawei devices including features such as square icons with rounded corners. She also plans to make the handsets more Android-like and pleasant looking by adding features such as app drawers and brighter colors respectively.

Image Source: YouTube

Quoted Message Responses Arrive to WhatsApp

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The WhatApp service introduces quoted message replies soon after Twitter revises its own quoted message reply system.

WhatsApp’s popularity has consistently been on the rise ever since its initial widespread awareness.

 

Whatsapp has finally implemented quoted message responses, a feature which, for the past several years, has been on the wishlist of probably all mobile messaging users at one point or another.

Most mobile messaging users have several groups in which they are active, or they have those few extra-chatty friends who type with inhuman speed because they just have a lot to say. Most messaging users have found themselves in the situation where they had to reply to a question, or make a comment about some part of a conversation that has since moved on.

The short and easy way out was for the users just to write their reply and hope the other parties understood. More often than naught, hilarity, confusion, or both would ensue. The long way out implied taking the time to write an answer containing the question or manually selecting the text, copying it, and pasting it into the reply.

Older, non-instant messaging services on applications, such as forums, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, etc. always had the possibility of quoting or responding to individual questions or pieces of text and personally I always wondered why no modern app considers adding a quote or reply button next to other people’s chat boxes.

WhatsApp answers that time old question by doing something about it. With the quoted message feature, WhatsApp users get the advantage of quality communication while replying with an easily implemented feature.

In order to use the quoted message feature, the WhatsApp user needs to long press on a previous message and then select the new reply button set alongside the options for starring, deleting, or copying. Responding to a message in WhatsApp will automatically display the message as a quote as part of the user’s message.

The quoted message responses feature is currently available for the beta version of WhatsApp. On Android devices, this is v.2.16.118. Many users, however, seem to have access to the feature already after just reinstalling the app.

With the quoted message responses feature reaching such a popular messaging app as WhatsApp, it is perhaps possible to see more quality of life improvements to rival instant messaging apps in the near future.

Image Courtesy of Pexels.

Cyanogen OS 13.1 Brings MOD Ready to OnePlus One Devices

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The Cyanogen OS 13.1 is MOD Ready.

The majority of MODs are currently Microsoft services and features, but that won’t always be the case.

The Cyanogen OS 13.1 has arrived to the OnePlus One and it is MOD Ready. In only hours after its official arrival, the OS has been given well-earned cheer and positive feedback. Members of the Cyanogen team are probably used to this sort of reception by now, however, as they have been praised for their activities by a much larger community than before ever since the launch of the later versions of OS 11.

So what is MOD Ready?

MOD Ready is the new feature through which manufacturers and developers can reach and add tweaks to components of the Android platform that were initially inaccessible. MODs allow any and all interested and adequately skilled parties to enhance features and services further.

In short, manufacturers may now boldly go within the inner workings of the Android platform farther than ever before.

To demonstrate the applicability of MOD Ready, the Cyanogen OS 13.1 come with several MODs made by the team in February of this year. The mods themselves were prioritized for general utility and usage rate and are various Microsoft features.

For US users, the Cortana MOD may be utilized in several useful ways – hands-free voice activated selfies, and voice activated and delivered reminders and scheduling.

The Skype MOD enables Skype calls via the device’s core Phone app.

The OneNote MOD enables various note options with the device’s core Phone, E-mail, and Quick Settings apps.

The Hyperlapse MOD was also brought to OS 13.1. It makes the recording of stable and streamlined time-lapse video through the device’s core Camera app possible.

The Twitter MOD, the only current MOD that’s not a Microsoft service or feature, will display trending tweets to the device’s core Lock Screen. The Cortana MOD is also available for the core Lock Screen and the Twitter MOD requires the Cortana MOD to be enabled.

With the OS 13.1 now live and available to OnePlus One, the MOD Ready community is sure to see a spike in growth and popularity. The Cyanogen Team has already welcomed the world to the “Post-App Era”.

With a lot more MODs soon to be shared by 3rd party users, MOD Ready has the potential to be the new trending topic for years to come. Is there a phone or feature you’d like to see brought as a MOD? Is there anything you believe could stop the MOD Ready features from picking up speed? Let us know.

 

Image Courtesy of Cyanogen’s YouTube Channel.

Pokémon Go Hits the US

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"Pokémon Go"

Pokémon Go Hits the US

Last week, the producers of Pokémon Go announced the US launch of the augmented reality game in beta version or, better said, in field testing. It officially started yesterday; Australian, Japanese, and New Zealand players were the first ones able to enroll in the program.

Niantic opened up the Pokémon Go testing signups yesterday with invitations for beta testers. The company offered some information about the mechanics of the game: there will be “more than a hundred” Pokémon gizmos that players will have to discover and catch.

When a Pokémon is nearby, the players’ phone will buzz. Pokémon Go wristbands will be available for purchasing. The wristbands will light up and buzz when the little creature is around.

The tiny gizmos are caught with the phone’s touch screen. When the Pokémon is nearby, with the help of the touch screen users will overtake them in a Poke Ball.

These Poke Balls, or other items the user might need, are found at the “PokeStops.” Although a specific list of the exact locations was not provided, these PokeStops will be placed in the real world public spaces like “art installations, historical markers, and monuments.”

In battle terms, players will struggle to gain control of a Gym by using the creatures they’ve caught. By swiping to the left or the right on the screen and by attacking the defenders, Pokémon Go players will fight to diminish the Gym’s Prestige.

When the Gym’s Prestige has reached zero, the defending team has lost control and the victors will be assigned to defend the Gym. To increase the Prestige and the level, Pokémon Go players can train their Pokémon with other supporting ones.

Once the level of Prestige goes higher, the defending players can dispense more Pokémon to guard it. Teams of friends can also be created to battle together and conquer powerful Gyms faster.

The augmented reality Pokémon Go game is set to launch fully this year for Android and iOS. It will be free, but in-game purchasing will be available to buy PokeCoins. PokeCoins is the game’s currency that’s used to access items and power-ups.

Rumors say the game will launch in full by the end of this summer.

Image source: YouTube

Chromebooks Outsell Macs and Hits Hard at Microsoft

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"chromebooks"

Google’s Chromebooks Outsell Macs and Hits Hard at Microsoft

For the first time, Google Chromebooks outsold Apple’s Macs in the recent quarter, and Microsoft is feeling much more that a little heat.

Manufacturers like HP, Dell, and Lenovo have sold around two million Chromebooks combined, versus the seemingly lone wolf, Apple (approx. 1.7 million).

It’s not all that bad for Apple. Quarter after quarter, the company has shrunk the PC industry with its sales growth. Plus, Apple has always been satisfied with having just a piece of the larger pie. However, for Microsoft, the pressure is on.

It looks like Google is attacking Microsoft with its slow-but-steady strategic move. With the new Chromebooks, Android and Chrome are smashed together. Chromebooks have full access to Google Play store, which means the possibility to use 1.5 million Android applications.

Chromebook’s main concept is simplicity. Portability is its second key concept. The Chromebook devices have an ultra-lightweight Chrome operating system that offers a bit more than a web browser.

The gig seems to work just fine, especially in the educational space, since everything is cloud-based (nothing can be lost), and the performance is reasonable for laptops under $200. With the availability of the Android apps, the offer becomes irresistible, and the numbers are showing it.

Microsoft is taking a different approach with the new Windows 10 OS. The company is trying to convince developers to bring their services to the Windows store taking advantage of the lead Microsoft has in desktop operating systems.

It’s an interesting tactic, but will it work?

The Redmond-based company has attracted some powerful players like Facebook, Uber, and Hulu, but it does not have the growing ecosystem Android has; and is all probably because of Microsoft’s lack of presence in the smartphone environment.

For now, that’s not so bad, especially considering Windows 10 is still running all the software consumers and businesses are used to, but in the future, everything will be written for the smartphone and the web.

If Google will outsell Microsoft, it’s not yet clear – it might be just another challenge for Microsoft to take and beat – but what is clear is that Chromebooks are growing strongly amid the current market conditions and the tech giant is a fearful opponent.

Image source: Exeo

Bluestacks Gets a Polished New Look

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"Bluestacks Gets a Polished New Look"

Developers are updating Bluestack.

The wondrous Android emulator will be fitted with a couple of cool updates, aimed to further refine the emulator’s functionality. Bluestacks gets a polished new look and its overall performances are outstanding.

Android games are great. Some of them are even cooler than your run-of-the-mill computer games. But are you going to do when you get sick and tired of having to play those games on a phone’s or a tablet’s screen? Sure, you can connect your device to an external monitor or smart TV, but what if you don’t have that possibility? That’s simple. Just go ahead and download your very own Android emulator.

There is even a garden out there that grows Android emulator. A couple of names spring into mind right now: Andy’s emulator, AMIduOS, and Genymotion. They are all great emulators, very versatile and capable of bringing to your computer that great Android application. Unfortunately, most of them have a couple of bugs related to overall performance, video issues, rendering and so on.

One of that application seems to have made a name for itself. Bluestack is the name of the emulator and high-quality emulation is its game. Apart from giving your monitor that tablet-like look, the application is actually capable of downloading and running all Android applications available on the market.

Bluestacks gets a polished new look and I’m going bonkers over the perspective that I can play Fallout Shelter and Modern Combat 4 on my laptop. Yes, you heard it right. It there is any game that you fancy, just go ahead and download the application. The installation process is easy and it will only take 10 minutes top. Once it launches, you can navigate around it in the same manner as on your tablet.

But that’s not all. It would seem that the developers have another surprise for us. In order to secure the application’s position out there, on the market, the developers decided that it’s high time the application received a well-deserved upgrade. And so, without further ado, Bluestacks upgrades to Bluestacks 2, delivering a couple of tweaks that are aimed to facilitate the way we handle the application.

The list of updates includes multi-tasking, meaning that you can open more than one application and use tabs in order to switch between them. Moreover, the developers added some extra functions like screen shake, screen tilt, adjustable buttons, volume controls and they even enhanced the overall stability of the emulator.

With these being said, we end the article with a fun fact about Bluestacks: it would seem that the application just hit the 100 million threshold recently. Moreover, it seems that the emulator itself is capable of emulating more than 1 billion Android application.

In order to download the newest version of the application, hit a click on the link bellow.

www.bluestacks.com

Image source:www.flickr.com