Pro tip: Get the most out of Google Now cards

TechRepublic

 

Jack Wallen 

 May 1, 2015

 

 

 

Google has announced 70 new apps that will support integration with Google Now (the full list can be found here). As these new apps begin surfacing onto your Google Now space, you're going to want to know how to get the most out of what might well be the single most important feature of the Android ecosystem.

Let's take a look at some tips for getting most out of Google Now.

Location, location, location

Whether you love or hate Google, one of the best ways to get the most out of Google Now is to have Location services turned on. This setting is found in Settings | Location. If you set the mode to High accuracy (Figure A), Google now will have even better luck at personalizing your cards. 

Figure A

Making sure Location services is turned on in a Verizon-branded Nexus 6.

Location isn't the only configuration you need to take care of to improve the accuracy of your Google Now cards. You should also go into the Google Now settings and set both your work and home addresses. With these entered, you'll get drive times, traffic issues, weather reports, and more--all relevant to your location.

To set the location, do the following:

1. Open Google Now
2. Swipe right from the left edge of the screen
3. Tap Customize
4. Tap Places
5. Tap Home
6. Enter your home address
7. Tap Work
8. Enter your work address

That's it. Google Now should start offer up a bit more familiarity to you.

Research topics

If you want all of those searches you do on Google to be more helpful in Google Now, take advantage of Research Topics. This service will track your searches, categorize them, and more easily present them in Google Now. Check out my post "Pro tip: Make the most of Google Now with Research Topics" for more information. The nice thing about Research Topics is that it presents you with articles you've found on the searched topic and related articles as well. Surprisingly enough, I've often found the related articles quite helpful.

Get reminders

If you search for a TV show, musician, artist, author, etc., you can set up reminders about that topic. When you do a search (on your device, through the Chrome browser), sometimes you'll spot a "Remind me about ..." link in the search results (Figure B). Tap that link to be reminded of that topic.

Figure B

Getting reminders of new Veep episodes.

Train Google Now

When you see cards pop up for topics that you might be interested in, tap them to open the article. The more cards you tap, the more Google Now will be able to refine your interests. If there are cards that pop up that hold no interest to you, dismiss them with a swipe to the right.

Connect your desktop Chrome browser

If you use Chrome on your desktop (and if you're an Android user, you should), make sure to sign into your Google account on that browser. This way, Google Now will learn from your browsing history on your desktop and help refine the cards it presents to you on your phone.

To connect your desktop Chrome browser, do the following:

1. Open Chrome on your desktop
2. Click the menu button in the upper right corner (three horizontal lines)
3. Click Sign in to Chrome
4. Sign in with the same Google account you use on your Android device

Turn off irrelevant cards

Each time you search for something, Google Now will introduce a new card into your stream. Sometimes Google nails it, and sometimes it doesn't. When you find a card that is of no relevance to you, turn it off with the following steps:

1. Locate the card in question
2. Tap the three dots associated with the card
3. When prompted, tap NO to stop getting cards for that topic (Figure C)

Figure C

Stopping irrelevant cards is quite simple.

Listen to TV

This isn't really a Google Now cards feature, but it's a bit of lesser-known fun. While you're watching a show or movie on your television, open Google Now and say (you may have to tap the mic if you haven't setup your Google phrase) "Okay Google Now. Listen to TV." If you have your device close enough to your TV (or your TV loud enough so that your device can hear it), Google Now will present information related to the show (Figure D).

Figure D

Information about Arrow episode "Al Sah-Him."

Naturally, after you've done this enough, Google might just start making suggestions based on your viewing preference.

Google Now should become one of your go-to apps within the Android ecosystem. Not only is it an outstanding personal digital assistant, but it's great at keeping you up to date on the things you want to know.

How much time have you spent helping Google Now learn exactly what you want to know--or is this Android feature something that sits idle on your device?

Florida Woman Escapes Hostage Situation via Pizza Hut Smartphone App

Associated Press 

May 6, 2015

yahoo 

(Pizza Hut)

A central Florida woman helped save herself and her children by sending a message in an online pizza order that asked employees to call 911 because she was being held hostage.

The Avon Park Pizza Hut employees spotted what Cheryl Treadway wrote in the comment section of her online order. Employees recognized Treadway as a regular customer and called the sheriff’s office.

Highlands County Sheriff’s deputies went to the home, where they were greeted by Treadway, who was carrying a small child. She told them her boyfriend, Ethan Nickerson, 26, was inside the home, armed with a knife. Her other two children were also inside.

Treadway and the child were escorted to safety.

WFLA-TV reports Lt. Curtis Ludden started talking to Nickerson through a closed door.

“His first words were, of course, ‘I’m not coming out because I know I’m going to jail,’” Ludden told the TV station.

It took about 20 minutes for Ludden to talk Nickerson into coming out peacefully. The children were not harmed.

(Fox News)

According to an arrest report, the couple had been arguing throughout the day, as Nickerson carried a knife. When Treadway started to leave to pick up her children from school, Nickerson grabbed her and took her phone away. He went with her to the school.

Deputies say she eventually talked Nickerson into letting her use her phone to order a pizza. But immediately after sending the request, Nickerson took the phone back.

Nickerson was arrested and now faces multiple charges including aggravated assault with a weapon without intent to kill, battery and false imprisonment. He remained in the Highlands County Jail on Wednesday and bond has been set at $45,000. Jail records didn’t indicate whether he has hired an attorney.

Authorities credit Treadway’s quick-thinking and the fast response by deputies for a peaceful conclusion.

“I don’t know if I would have thought of it,” Ludden said of the message in the pizza order. “I mean it’s just something she did so naturally. The boyfriend never knew about it until he saw us coming around the corner.”

The cry for help was also a first for Pizza Hut manager Candy Hamilton.

“We’ve never seen that before,” Hamiton said. “I’ve been here 28 years and never, never seen nothing like that come through.”

Information from: WFLA-TV, http://www.wfla.com/

PhoneDrone Turns Your Phone into an Autonomous Quadcopter

Drew Prindle, 

 

Digital Trends  

 

 May 6, 2015

 

 

 

We’re not sure if this is a bad idea or a brilliant one, but the more we think about it, the more it starts to make sense. PhoneDrone, which launched on Kickstarter earlier this week, is basically an exoskeleton attachment that turns your smartphone into an autonomous quadcopter drone.

Sounds pretty stupid at first, right? Who in their right might would willingly put propellers on their smartphone and allow it to fly up into the air? I’m a drone-happy hobbyist myself, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned from the experience, it’s that no matter how skilled or cautious you are as a pilot, you’re eventually going to crash. Gravity will always win in the end, and so from that perspective, yes, PhoneDrone is most definitely a bad idea — but if you look at it from another standpoint, it’s also kind of brilliant.

The problem with most drones, and the reason that it’s tough to find a decent one for less that 500 bucks, is that they generally have a lot of tech under the hood. Tear open any card-carrying consumer-oriented drone and you’ll likely find GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi radios, a high-resolution camera, and an on-board computer.

Related: Ingenious winged design lets this hybrid drone fly up to 100 km/h

And all these technologies are typically what makes drones so expensive. Instead of building that tech into the PhoneDrone directly, xCraft designed a system that leverages all the sensor tech and computing power you already carry around with you inside your smartphone. Using this approach, they were able to create a drone that only costs about $250. In truth, xCraft is just providing the drone body, battery, and control software — your phone provides everything else.

But this system isn’t without its own set of shortcomings. If you want to get the most out of it, you’ll need a second smartphone. PhoneDrone can fly autonomously using your phone as its brain, but in order to utilize the craft’s auto-follow functionality or manually control its flightpath, you’ll need a second device on the ground.

xCraft has already raised over $65,000 in pledges on Kickstarter, and still has well over a month to reach its $250K funding goal. All the early-bird-backer rewards have been snagged at this point, but if you back the project now, you can still get your hands on the base model PhoneDrone for $250. If all goes well, xCraft expects to finish production and begin shipping sometime around November.

Here’s What to Do When You Break Your Smartphone

Daniel Howley 

Technology Reporter May 7, 2015

yahoo

 

 

(TechRax)

As you pick the shattered remnant of your life from the pavement — that is, the smartphone you just dropped — your mind races. You didn’t have insurance on your handset. You can’t afford to spend $800 on a new one. How will you check your work email? Who will send your friends Snapchats at 2 a.m.? How will you play Crossy Road?

But take a deep breath and know that this can be fixed. You have options. Life will go on. Here are some of the things you can try if you break your phone.

Try repairing it yourself

Smartphones are held together with screws and pins, which means in many cases, if you’re handy enough, you can easily fix them. In fact, there are entire websites dedicated to helping you repair your own phone.

(ABC)

One site in particular, ifixit.com, offers guides for replacing and fixing nearly every part of a wide variety of smartphones, ranging from the very first iPhone all the way to the iPhone 6 Plus.

It’s important to know, however, that as soon as you crack the seal on your phone and start tinkering with its insides, you’ll void its manufacturer’s warranty. So you’ll want to make sure your phone doesn’t have some kind of manufacturer’s defect that you can get repaired before you open it yourself.

Bring it to a repair shop

Smartphone repair shops and kiosks are all over the place these days. So why not see if one of these stores can fix your busted handset?

Depending on the damage to your phone, the price for repairs can range anywhere from $29 to more than $250. If you break the screen on your Samsung Galaxy Note 4, for example, you could end up paying $190. If you need to replace the LCD underneath the phone’s screen, it’ll cost you $250.

National chains, including Best Buy, also offer repair services for smartphones.

Take your iPhone to Apple

If you’ve got an iPhone, you’ve got an advantage over your Android-loving brethren: the Apple Store. 

If you break your iPhone 6’s or iPhone 6 Plus’s screen and don’t have Apple’s Apple Care service, you can still get it repaired at the Apple Store. Max prices for replacing a broken screen: $109 for an iPhone 6 or $129 for a 6 Plus. 

Try selling your busted phone

So your phone is busted, and you don’t want to spend the money to get it fixed. Why not try selling it? Even if your smartphone has a smashed screen, busted buttons, or cracked chassis, you can still sell it to any number of services willing to pay for broken handsets.

How much you get for your damaged phone depends on the model and what kind of issues it has. Gazelle, for example, will pay you $40 for a 16 GB iPhone 5s with a broken display, while Glyde will pay you $142 for an iPhone 6 with a cracked screen.

EcoATM kiosks, which are available at malls across the country, will pay between $10 and $100 for a Galaxy S5 depending on its condition.

The point is, there are plenty of places that are more than willing to pay for your beat-up smartphone. And if they don’t want your phone and you want to make sure that it’s at least recycled, they’ll do that too.

Buy a refurbished phone

So you’ve sold your broken smartphone and now you’ve got some extra spending cash, but it’s still nowhere near enough to cover the full cost of a new smartphone, which can run more than $600. What can you do?

Well, if preowned phones don’t bother you, you can buy a refurbished handset from any number of carriers or stores at a modest discount. 

Verizon, for example, sells a refurbished Samsung Galaxy S5 for $420. A new S5, meanwhile, would cost you $500. Similarly, a refurbished 16 GB iPhone 6 for AT&T costs $570 on Amazon, compared with a new iPhone 6, which costs $700.

 If you do buy a refurbished phone, though, you’ll have to make sure it works on your provider’s network. So if you broke a Galaxy S6 for Sprint, you’ll want to get a phone that runs on Sprint’s network.

Get insurance next time

You broke your phone, and now you’re cursing yourself for having skimped on insurance way back when. Hindsight is indeed 20/20. 

So what kind of insurance should you buy when you inevitably get your next handset? If you’re going for an iPhone, your best bet is to purchase AppleCare+. 

Sure, it costs $99, but it will cover at least two instances of damage to your iPhone. And though you’ll have to pay an additional $79 fee whenever your phone is serviced, it beats having to fork over $600 for a completely new phone.

You could also opt for insurance through your carrier. Verizon sells insurance for $11 per month, but you’ll have to pay a hefty deductible — up to $150 for a smartphone and up to $200 for an iPhone — for each incident. Fortunately, Verizon will cover up to four incidents over the course of two years.

T-Mobile charges $8 per month for its Premium Handset Protection plan, which also requires a deductible of between $20 and $75 for each incident, depending on the type of phone you have, plus a $5 processing fee.

42 Percent of Tinder Users Aren’t Even Single

Molly McHugh, 

WiredMay 7, 2015

 yahoo

 

 

The sad truth has been confirmed: Tinder users are fibbers. They’re not necessarily lying, but according to a new study of user demographics, it appears a large chunk of them aren’t being entirely forthright with their intentions. Research by Global Web Index found that 42 percent of people using Tinder are already in relationships—and many of them are men.

First instinct is to call Tinder an app for cheaters, but perhaps it’s not all so devious. At one point, former Tinder CEO Sean Rad postulated that Tinder wasn’t so much a dating app as a “social discovery app.” As a non-single who’s used Tinder, I don’t think that’s how I’d describe it; it’s more like a social gaming app. I use Tinder exclusively to act as something of a wingwoman for my friends who are legitimately on Tinder. Two thumbs swiping through profiles are better than one, right?

I’ve also used it purely for creeping purposes: I want to see who else is on Tinder. I just swipe left into oblivion, cackling quietly (for reasons I cannot understand or justify) when I come across a friend’s ex or one of my own.

Every four months or so, I’ll download Tinder after being motivated by a group of Tindering single friends, or just stuck on a long bus ride home after a night out. And then, hours later, I’ll delete it. Rinse, wash, repeat.

I am not alone. I quizzed a handful of friends and Internet acquaintances on their own coupled Tinder use. Josh Barrie wrote about his alternative Tinder useearlier this year. He tells me he still uses Tinder “but mainly to alleviate boredom. It’s addictive, swiping. It really is.” His girlfriend uses it too, but rarely.

My former colleague at the Daily Dot, EJ Dickson, has written extensively on Tinder for Couples. She has a similar method as I do: “[I use it] Maybe, if I’m bored or waiting to meet a friend. Most of the time I’ll do it for a story but occasionally I’ll do it because I’m bored and it requires a lot less cerebral effort than, like, Trivia Crack or something. Most of the time, I’ll only message people if I know them or if they’re in media or if they have a cute pet or something,” she explains. “And I’ll just say ‘cute pet’ or ‘hey, I went to Hebrew school with you’ and delete it a few hours later and disappear back into the ether.”

For us, it’s all a game. Just another app to tap and swipe on. The Global Web Index stats initially conjure images of cheating bros wearing deep V-necks and prowling for some side action. But maybe it you should be picturing app-addicted couples, absentmindedly swiping on the subway ride home, or the taken friend out with a group, Tindering alongside his or her single friends, just to be in on the game. It’s fun, it’s funny, it’s whatever. Except for single people who, you know, downloaded it in order to connect with another human being.

“I think in a lot of ways, Tinder is really overwhelming, and to know that you’re wasting your time with close to half the people you might encounter is pretty disheartening,” my friend Coral told me when I gave her the depressing 42 percent stat. “It’s essentially mocking people who don’t have what they have and are looking for it.” EJ admits she sometimes feels guilty about spurning an earnest Tinder user she matches with… though, all-too-often the person on the other end is being creepy or “sends me a joke about his dick.”

LG G4 preview: Fashion and firepower collide in a flagship

by Chris Velazco | 

 | April 28th 2015

engadget




 

Between LG and the rest of the leakers running wild these last few weeks, there's not a whole lot we didn't know about the G4 before today. Screen details? Leather? Word of that sweet, sweet f/1.8 camera lens? Common knowledge, dear friends. Now that LG's G4 has crossed the boundary between leak and actual, honest-to-goodness product, though, let's take a quick first look at how those elements -- and quite a few more -- have come together in the company's finest flagship.​
To recap what we already know: You'll be able to buy a G4 next month with three different rear finishes: the leather we've all seen, a white (ceramic-coated) back and a hammered, "Metallic Craft" look that's actually just textured plastic. Pick up a G4 with that latter, plastic back and it'll feel instantly familiar, like a very slightly curved G3 (for extra durability, natch), or a flattened-out G Flex2. Trust me, though: If you're in the market for one of these things, you're going to want one clad in LG's vegetable-tanned leather. The company's event invitation showed off its fashionista ambitions to anyone interested, but it's even more handsome in person. We spent most of our time pawing a G4 with a deep caramel-colored leather back -- it was sturdy and unyielding, with less springiness than the leather you'll find on the back of the 2014 Moto X. To hear LG's brass tell the tale, it takes a full three months to convert a cow's skin into a cover for your phone, and some fetching stitching with Gütermann thread acts as icing on the cake.

Gallery | 41 Photos

Hands-on with the LG G4

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There'll be four colors at launch -- beige, black, sky blue and yellow -- and LG plans to have more on the market in time to match your jaunty summer outfits. Frankly, they can't come soon enough. While the bog-standard G4 feels purely all right, the tester units clad in leather felt absolutely phenomenal, not to mention a little thinner than their cousins. I know that's ridiculous. At 76mm wide, and with its 5.5-inch "Quantum" quad HD display -- more on that later -- the G4 will completely fill all but the meatiest of palms. Still, the G4's gently sloping back settles much more comfortably into your hand when it's decked out in cowhide.

Now, about that screen. LG's channeling the world of arcane science with its Quantum IPS screen, a 4K panel that plays nice with the film industry's DCI color standard. To date you've had to shell out thousands of dollars for DCI-compliant reference monitors (if you're in broadcasting, anyway), but LG was eager to bring that sort of accuracy to our pockets. The "quantum" angle is almost prohibitively complex, but no worries -- it means the screen has very accurate red, blue and green light sources all the while looking better outside and sipping more conservatively on power. So how does it actually look? At first glance, it wasn't immediately or necessarily better, just... different. Seeing an image of fresh, ripe strawberries on a G4 and a Galaxy S6 was perhaps the most telling example -- they looked purely red on LG's display, instead of the slightly out-there orange cast they took on thanks to the S6's super-saturated AMOLED screen. Alas, we reporters were stuck in a not terribly well-lit meeting room with these things, so stay tuned for more impressions to come.
I've given LG plenty of props in the past for reining in its once-overwrought interface and shaping it into something more reasonable, but after spending plenty of time using Samsung's Galaxy S6, I find myself wishing LG had used an even lighter touch this time around. Even with that said, there's not a whole lot to dwell on here: The version of Android 5.0 Lollipop baked into the G4 is awfully similar to the one I encountered on the Flex2, save for just a few small touches. Remember how you could close your hand in front of the front-facing camera to trigger a selfie? Well, now if you clench your fist twice, the camera will snap four selfies in quick succession to make sure at least one of them looks good. LG has also cozied up to Google more here than it has before, replacing its stock browser with Chrome, preloading Google Office and giving G4 owners 100GB of Google Drive space free for two years. The end result is a bright, light, Material Design-y version of Android to dig into, but one that can still feel a little clumsy. Still, the hexa-core Snapdragon 808 and 3GB of RAM thrumming inside the G4 did a fine job keeping things running smoothly, and app launches and operation were as fast -- if not a little faster in some cases -- than Samsung's own flagships.

Sadly, we didn't get a great handle on some of the G4's most notable features. Take the camera, for instance -- LG built it from the ground up with a 16-megapixel sensor and an f/1.8 lens around the back, which the company gleefully calls the brightest available in a smartphone. Throw in faster laser autofocus, RAW support and a color spectrum sensor that helps Auto mode scan and adjust to the colors and lighting of your subject and you've got a pretty powerful pocket camera. Too bad the inside of our meeting room didn't offer many vistas to shoot; what photos I did snap were crisp and well-exposed, but keep an eye out for some more nuanced impressions when we get our review unit.
LG teamed up with Qualcomm to dramatically boost positioning performance, too, and they claim the system is twice as accurate as phones using a more "conventional platform." That's all thanks to how the G4 leans on the gyrometer and other built-in sensors for extra locational context. It sure sounds good, and Google Maps locked onto the hotel we were in quickly, but we'll see how well this really works soon. I'm also not entirely sure why LG gave up on Qualcomm's QuickCharge tech after I fell in love with it in the G Flex2. Sure, the G4 has a removable 3,000mAh battery, but I'd still love to juice the thing up in a jiffy, wouldn't you?
Whew, okay. LG's done well in crafting a very handsome flagship smartphone that smartly addresses the shortcomings of its direct predecessors, and I suspect a decent chunk of people will take a shine to this thing. Still, I can't shake the feeling that LG might have played it a little safe this time. The camera improvements were a logical next step; just like the chipset choice was; just like the Flex2-y design was (leather experiments notwithstanding). All told, the G4 is a lovely device -- just not an immediately thrilling one. Maybe, like the leather stuck on the thing's back, this phone will only get better with time. Stay tuned for our full review to find out.