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Instagram Photos No Longer Appearing On Twitter Feeds

If you’re wondering what happened to those Instagram photos you were trying to share on Twitter, you’re not alone.

Photo images from the popular photo sharing service went dark Sunday on Twitter, a decision, Twitter says, that was made by Instagram, which was acquired earlier in the year for $1 billion by Facebook.

[quote]”Instagram has disabled photo integration with Twitter,” the micro-blogging site wrote in a status update. “As a result, photos are no longer appearing in Tweets or user photo galleries.”[/quote]

Before you go throwing your smartphone into the wall, however, that’s not to say that Twitter has banished Instagram entirely from its service. That’s not what we mean. You can still take a photograph on Instagram, automatically upload it to your linked Twitter account, and your message will appear on the website with the standard “instagr.am” link to your pic following it.

What appears to be different now, for unknown reasons, is that the photos themselves aren’t showing up in feeds. In other words, there’s no cropped image to accompany the post – just the raw text and the Instagram link.

What remains to be seen is whether the issue at-hand is a purposeful act by Twitter or Instagram, or whether some kind of glitch is affecting Instagram shots on Twitter.

December 10, 2012
Apple Maps Can Be “Life Threatening” : Australian Police

Australian police Monday, December 10, warned motorists about using the map system on new Apple iPhones after rescuing several people left stranded in the wilderness, saying the errors could prove deadly.

The warning comes after after a number of people trying to find the town (Mildura) of 30,000 people have become hopelessly lost in scorching temperatures.

One man was stranded for 24 hours last week in temperatures of up to 46 degrees centigrade, and at least three more have had to be rescued after following the directions given on Apple’s new maps, which locate Mildura far from its actual position.

Authorities said tests on the mapping system had confirmed that it lists Mildura, around 500 kilometers (310 miles) northwest of Melbourne, as being in the heart of the Murray Sunset National Park.

[quote] “It’s quite a dangerous situation, so we would be calling for people not to use the new Apple iPhone mapping system if they’re traveling from South Australia to Mildura.[/quote]

Apple dropped Google as its map provider in September with the launch of its iOS 6 software for the iPhone and iPad. But problems quickly emerged with the map detail. Apple received criticism over inaccuracies in mapping data like the mislocation in Victoria, which led to the termination of several people involved with the Maps project, including Senior Vice President of iOS Software Scott Forstall and Maps manager Richard Williamson.

December 10, 2012
Apple And Google Join Forces To Acquire Kodak Patents

According to a Bloomberg report, Apple and Google could be joining forces to buy Eastman Kodak patents out of bankruptcy for around $500 million.

Apple’s groups aiming for the Kodak patents included Microsoft and Intellectual Ventures Management LLC, sources said, while Google’s associates included patent risk solutions company RPX and the makers of Google’s Android phones.

Kodak went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January and got a cash infusion based largely on the value that could be realized on the auction of its patent portfolio. Kodak has a huge amount of digital imaging patents and estimates the stack’s value at over $2bn at current market rates.

Unlikely partnerships are typical in patent sales because they allow competitors to neutralize potential infringement litigation. A group including Apple,Microsoft Corp. and Research in Motion Ltd. bought Nortel Networks Corp.’s more than 6,000 patents for $4.5 billion out of bankruptcy last year. Google lost the auction for those patents after making an initial offer of $900 million.

[quote]”Apple and Google learned a lesson from the Nortel’s auction,” said Richard Ehrlickman, former vice president of Intellectual Property at International Business Machines Corp. and president of IP Offerings, a patent brokerage and consulting company in the Bloomberg report. “They have decided to come together in this process to reduce the cost of purchasing the Kodak patents, while meeting their business needs.”[/quote]

What exactly the two companies would do with the Kodak patents is unclear, but owning patents is a thing companies like to do. So, maybe they’ll just own them to own them. There’s always that option.

December 9, 2012
Woman Orders One iPad From Best Buy, Gets Five! Told To Keep The Rest!

A Best Buy customer was pleasantly surprised after she opened a package from the store. The woman ordered one iPad from Best Buy but instead of getting one iPad tablet she got five of them. She wondered what to do and after a while she called the Best Buy hotline to report the mistake to the company.

A store rep from Best Buy’s 1-800 number acknowledged their mistake. Again, to the woman’s surprised she was told to keep the extra iPads.

[quote]”We, here at Best Buy, acknowledge that we obviously made a mistake, but in the spirit of the holidays, we encourage you to keep the additional iPads and give them to people in need – friends, family, a local school or charity,” Best Buy responded.[/quote]

Another customer reported a similar situation that happened to him. He ordered an iPad and received a package with five iPad tablets from Best Buy

[quote]”I called Best Buy’s 1-800 number and the rep told me there was nothing he could really do because the system only reported one as being sent to me,” the customer wrote to the Consumerist. “He told me I could try and drop them off at the Best Buy store, but I had reservations about how traceable this return would be.”[/quote]

That customer said he was keeping the iPads in his closet “until Best Buy comes knocking at my door or a reasonable amount of time goes by.”

Looks like Christmas came early for these customers. Next time I want to buy an iPad, I’ll keep Best Buy in mind!

December 9, 2012
Developer Finds Loophole In Jelly Bean To SIM Unlock Galaxy S3 And Note 2!

In case you happen to own one of Samsung’s 2012 flagship smartphone, either the Galaxy S3 or the Galaxy Note 2, you’ll be happy to hear that you can unlock them from the shackles of your carrier free of charge. And you can do all that by yourself, as long as your handset runs a Jelly Bean version.

An enterprising XDA Developer named owl74 has discovered a loophole inside the Jelly Bean software on Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III devices that unlocks the SIM slot for free.

The hack is quite simple to pull off and doesn’t require the phone to be rooted or running custom software. It does, however, involve some precise timing and a bit of luck — not all users are finding success with the process, and it won’t work if your Galaxy S III is still running Android 4.0.4, only Jelly Bean.

While we can’t guarantee the safety of this little hack, nor can we verify the efficacy of its claims, but several reports online suggest that the hack is legitimate.

(Note : We do not encourage hacking!)

December 9, 2012
Woman Sued For Defamation After Writing Negative Review On Yelp!

A negative Yelp review could cost one woman close to $1 million.

Jane Perez, a Virginia woman who wrote a scathing Yelp review of the contracting company that worked on her home, is being sued by Christopher Dietz for $750,000, according to the Washington Post.

Unhappy with the work Dietz’s company, Dietz Development LLC, did on her house, Perez took her anger to the web, alleging that the company had done damage to her home and that jewelry had disappeared. On Wednesday, a judge in Fairfax County Virginia ruled in a preliminary injunction that certain accusations be deleted—and as of Thursday Perez’s comments are no longer viewable on the Yelp page for Dietz Development.

A police investigation found no connection between the missing jewelry and Dietz or his company.

Perez was also ordered to change a reference to a previous lawsuit filed by Dietz because it included incorrect legal terminology.

The actual online review websites–Yelp, Angie’s List, TripAdvisor, etc.–are protected from lawsuit by the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Section 230 of the law protects online service providers from liability based on actions of third parties (a.k.a site users.) But the claims made by the reviewer can be subject to defamation charges, which vary based on state laws.

In Virginia, where Dietz is bringing his suit, the state says that someone can be found guilty of defamation charges if he or she makes or even implies statements that are not factual that harm a person or businesses’ reputation.

December 9, 2012
Google Apps Basic Free package discontinued, Now priced US$ 50 per user per year
Planning to host your official emails with Google Apps? Then you will be disappointed to know that Google is killing the Google Apps Basic Free package and replacing it with their premium only package. The premium pack costs US$ 50 per user per year, and promises 24/7 phone support, 25GB inboxes and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

For those who are already with Google Apps fret not, because your existing accounts will continue to work, and Google will not bother you. The standard pricing will also not apply to schools or universities and some other charitable institutions.

However, personal emails are still free too, with added space and Google Drive integration.

Starting today for all new customers:
- Individuals wishing to use Google’s web apps like Gmail and Google Drive should create a free personal Google Account, which provides a seamless experience across all of our web services on any device.
- For Businesses, instead of two versions, there will be one. Companies of all sizes will sign up for our premium version, Google Apps for Business, which includes 24/7 phone support for any issue, a 25GB inbox, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee with no scheduled downtime. Pricing is still $50 per user, per year.
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Changes to Google Apps for businesses
Google Apps started with the simple idea that Gmail could help businesses and schools work better together without the hassles of managing software and servers. As we grew from a handful of customers to a few hundred, we expanded to offer a premium business version of Google Apps. Fast forward to today and Google Apps is used by millions of businesses. We’ve also added versions for governments, universities and schools.

When we launched the premium business version we kept our free, basic version as well. Both businesses and individuals signed up for this version, but time has shown that in practice, the experience isn’t quite right for either group. Businesses quickly outgrow the basic version and want things like 24/7 customer support and larger inboxes. Similarly, consumers often have to wait to get new features while we make them business-ready.

With this in mind, we’ve decided to make things very straightforward. Starting today for all new customers:
- Individuals wishing to use Google’s web apps like Gmail and Google Drive should create a free personal Google Account, which provides a seamless experience across all of our web services on any device.
- For Businesses, instead of two versions, there will be one. Companies of all sizes will sign up for our premium version, Google Apps for Business, which includes 24/7 phone support for any issue, a 25GB inbox, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee with no scheduled downtime. Pricing is still $50 per user, per year.
Please note this change has no impact on our existing customers, including those using the free version. And as before, Google Apps for Education will be available as a free service for schools and universities. Also, as the first cloud productivity suite with FISMA certification, we’ll continue to offer Google Apps for Government for $50 per user, per year.

With focus we’ll be able to do even more for our business customers. We’re excited about the opportunity to push Google Apps further so our customers can do what matters most to them–whether that’s scooping ice cream, changing the face of healthcare or contributing tolifelong learning.
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December 7, 2012
YouTube Rolls Out New Design

It was a long time coming. The new YouTube was officially unveiled on Thursday.

Available to a limited amount of users since June 2012, the new interface marks a turning point in the history of the social network, whose emphasis in now on channel promotion.

Google is pushing how the subscription-focused design is “just like adding your favorite shows to your DVR.” Watching videos has changed, too, with content edging closer to the top of the screen, and playlists showing up just to the right, making it easier to flip through other videos on the same channel.

With YouTube investing heavily in its own original channels, it only makes sense that it would try to make that content as easy as possible to access and navigate through, and the new design is a big step in that direction.

Major website design changes are rarely received well by their users, however the feedback to this particular YouTube design is particularly nasty. Almost every YouTube video with comments from the past few hours features some sort of complaint relating to the changes, often relating to how YouTube has made it harder to perform certain actions

December 7, 2012
Galaxy SIII Premium Suite Update 4.1.2 gets Detailed on Video by Samsung

Samsung had started pusing out Jelly Bean 4.1.2 to some phones yesterday, but has now made an official video highlighting the features and calls it a Premium Suite. The Galaxy SIII Premium Suite brings a lot to the already popular SIII, including most of the features that are shared by big brother the NOTE II. A customizable notification panel, smart rotation, Page Buddy, Multi Window, new multitasking, NFC and reader features, plus contextual awareness tweaks that adjust the phone around your actions.

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Contextual Awareness

(1) Page Buddy: Galaxy SIII Premium Suite will smartly predict what you intend to do according to your actions. For example, when you plug in your earphones, the device automatically opens up a page with the music player.

(2) Galaxy SIII Premium Suite Contextual Menu:  When you list up apps, you can now choose to see the most frequently used ones first. Especially convenient when you’re looking through apps  to find files to attach.

(3) Contextual Tag:  When you take a picture on the Galaxy SIII Premium Suite, you can tag the weather, date, and place immediately.



Enhanced Features

(1) Multi Window: You can open two different apps at the same time into two different windows on the mobile screen.

(2) Auto Share Shot Pairing using NFC: By setting the camera to ‘Auto Share Shot’ mode, you can quickly share your photos and videos by simply tapping their Galaxy SIII Premium Suite with other NFC and S-Beam enabled devices

(3) Reader Mode: You can easily control the size of the text on your browser! Also, you can just click the webpage to share it!

(4) Facebook Lock Ticker: The easiest way to see your Facebook News Feeds – set your Galaxy SIII Premium Suite to show it on your lock screen.

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December 7, 2012
2013 Skoda Octavia Unveiling In Prague This Week, Will Launch In India Next Year

The 2013 Octavia (Laura to us) is set to be unveiled in Prague this week, and will most probably end up in India in the last quarter of 2013.

Latest leaked images reveal some design traits of this new car. The 2013 Octavia carries the new Skoda design language which has been heavily influenced by the VisionD concept and the lines on the car are silky smooth.

The looks are now more like the VW cars, especially the side profile. The picture of the rear styling shows a complete transformation over the current one and has a more European look to it.

Image Courtesy : AutoCZ

The 2013 Skoda Octavia is seen with 5 spoke alloys on 17″ wheels, bumper design is more angular while boot area looks to have enhanced capacity of approximately 590 liters. Interiors too have been overhauled and fitted with quality material with better equipment.

Engine choices for international markets range from 1.2, 1.6 and 2.0-litre petrol engines and 1.6 and 2.0-litre diesels mated to either 5 or 6-speed manual transmissions and a 6-speed DSG ‘box.

2013 Skoda Octavia will stand 4,659mm in length, 1814mm in width and will sit on a 2,686 long wheelbase. Skoda expects this vehicle to be at the top of the charts of best selling cars in the world.

In India, the Octavia will be launched as the all-new Laura and will compete with the current crop of D-segment luxury sedans including the Volkswagen Jetta, Chevrolet Cruze, Renault Fluence and the recently launched Hyundai Elantra. It will go up against some stiff competition given the fact that the new Elantra is selling in big numbers.

December 7, 2012
HTC’s M7 Flagship Android Phone Rumoured For Early 2013

HTC is prepping a new flagship Android phone for launch, new reports have suggested, with a rumoured HTC M7 release date pegged for early 2013.

According to Focus Taiwan, HTC plans to stage a huge comeback in 2013, focusing on a few core products. This time it intends to actually sell them, ordering up to five million M7 devices from its manufacturing partners.

Such a device would have to be plenty powerful and plenty beautiful, right? The M7 is expected to feature a 5-inch 1080p Super LCD 3 screen, a 1.5Ghz quad-core APQ8064 SoC, 2GB RAM and 13MP camera, along with a unibody aluminum shell.

2012 wasn’t the best year for HTC, in the first three quarters the company failed to impress on the smartphone market and the financial results didn’t look to well for it.

HTC’s revenue for November increased over previous months, to $732 million USD, but is still down 31% over the same time last year. Products like the One X+, Windows Phone 8X and Droid DNA have helped bring the company back into the spotlight, but the brand has lost much of its recognition in recent months as Samsung continues to dominate the Android ecosystem.

December 7, 2012
Mushkin Unveils World’s First 480GB mSATA SSD

Mushkin announced on Wednesday the upcoming launch of the “world’s first” mSATA SSD with a 480 GB capacity on a single module. It’s the latest addition to the company’s Atlas family of mSATA drives, and is scheduled to be available early January 2013 in the U.S. at select resellers and distributors.

If you want an ultra-thin laptop like an Ultrabook, manufacturers are pretty limited on the components they can fit inside that slender case. Storage is no exception, with most relying on an mSATA SSD as the more typical 2.5-inch drives just won’t fit. That also means storage space has been quite limited to just a couple hundred of gigabytes. Until now, that is.

Although read/write speeds for the mSATA 480GB version haven’t been officially announced, the 256GB model achieves 560MB/s reads and 530MB/s writes over a 6Gb/s SATA III connection using a SandForce controller. The 480GB model will at the very least equal those speeds, if not improve on them slightly.

The Atlas ships with TRIM and S.M.A.R.T. support, comes with a 3-year limited warranty, and is expected to start shipping by the middle of January next year. It’s by no means cheap, though. On its own you can expect to pay $499.99, in the U.S that is, although that price is sure to drop significantly for any manufacturers wanting to ship one inside an Ultrabook. Still, at around a Rs 55 per gigabyte for such a speedy drive, it’s still a very tempting proposition.

Specifications:

– SandForce SF-2281 SSD processor with unthrottled IOPS
– SATA III (6Gb/s) interface
– Supports ATA APM, Security Set, NCQ
– TRIM support (OS/driver support required)
– S.M.A.R.T. support
– Built-in BCH ECC (Up to 55 bits correctable per 512 byte sector)
– High speed MLC NAND
– MO-300 (mSATA) form factor (50.80 x 29.85 x 4.85mm)
– Mini PCIe Interface
– User-upgradeable firmware
– RoHS, FCC, CE
– 3-year limited warranty

December 7, 2012
Snapseed Photo Editor Now On Android, Goes Free on iOS

Nik Software’s robust photo editing app, Snapseed, has finally made its way to Android. The app, which is also available on iOS, lets you edit your photos using simple gesture controls, and allows you to share your newly-minted masterpieces via Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.

Snapseed for Android is available for phones and tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich or above.

While this does limit the user base, Google is pushing people stuck on Android 2.2 and 2.3 to update their phones, or to purchase a Nexus device that will always stay updated.

Snapseed is very easy to use, and less onerous or labour-intensive than Photoshop Touch. It can aut0-fix photos, definitely, but it can be used to make subtle and even minute edits to photos that affect exposure, saturation, sharpness and contrast. In other words, it’s a fully-fledged photo editor that competes with iPhoto.

Google also updated the Snapseed’s iOS version, along with making it free. For reference, Snapseed for iOS was $4.99 until right this second.

Back in September, The Verge reported that Google had acquired Nik Software, the German startup behind Snapseed, a photo editing app that won Apple’s App of the Year in 2011.

December 6, 2012
Fujitsu Stylistic Q702 Hybrid Tablet Launched For INR 69,000

Fujitsu has introduced the Stylistic Q702 hybrid tablet in India aimed at the mobile business user. Fujitsu states that this hybrid tablet can be used as two-in-one replacement for a tablet and a notebook as it comes with a full-size notebook keyboard and an addition battery. It has been priced at Rs 69,000/-.

Fujitsu claims that the screen is easy to use even in direct sunlight. STYLISTIC Q702 comes with a standard 4 cell battery but there is a second battery in the keyboard as well. One can opt for 3rd Generation Intel Core i3 or i5 processor with optional Intel vPro Technology. Other features include 4GB DDR3 RAM, biometric fingerprint sensor and optional embedded support for 3G/UMTS or 4G/LTE mobile data.

Apart from the STYLISTIC Q702, Fujitsu has also showcased a redesigned version of LIFEBOOK T902. LIFEBOOK T902 is a convertible tablet PC, which according to the company, is targeted at the consumers who need more performance than a tablet. LIFENOOK T902 will come with 3rd Generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and support up to 16GB of RAM. This tablet can run Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and even Windows 7 Professional. However, the company did not reveal any further details about the pricing, or availability of LIFEBOOK T902.

December 6, 2012
Latest : Galaxy S IV To Launch In April With Breakthrough Unbreakable Screen?

Although the display of Samsung’s Galaxy S II uses Gorilla Glass, it’s certainly not unbreakable – as various videos on the web are demonstrating, and as some users have seen for themselves.

According to Reuters, the next flagship smartphone from Samsung may rock a cutting-edge OLED panel that resists cracks and scratches more easily, and would be “unbreakable”.

Unofficially dubbed the Galaxy S4, Samsung’s Next Big Thing could benefit from major advances in screen technology whereby the glass substrate protecting the display can be replaced with a more shatter-resistant plastic material. It would also be lighter, thus further reducing the chance of breaking the screen.

Samsung is already one of the pioneers of OLED technology and is hotly tipped to be the first to introduce it to mobile devices, as it was previously too expensive and experimental to do so. Naturally, the Galaxy S4 or at least its successor, would be a very likely to debut it.

Reuters also jumped on board the rumour train and sourced unnamed “analysts and tech blogs” stating that Samsung will unveil their new flagship Galaxy smartphone, internally called ‘Project J’ after head of its mobile division JK Shin, as early as April 2013. That is one month ahead of when the GS III was announced.

Rumoured specs of the GS IV have it running Android (potentially Key Lime Pie), larger display at 5-inches with a 441 pixels per inch (ppi), a quad-core processor and a 13-megapixel camera.

Of course, all this is a rumour until Samsung comes out with an official announcement.

December 6, 2012