Google will let you shop straight from search results
Google is preparing to make shopping online even easier, by cutting out the middle-man and allowing customers to shop directly on the search engine.
Called Purchase on Google, a small list of retailers will allow Google to show their products on the search engine, with a Buy button for quick sales. Once the user clicks the buy button, it will take them to a mini-site with the look and feel of the real site, and advance straight to payment.
Microsoft's Bing will stop you from moving to a crappy neighborhood
It is a cliche, but the three most important things to look for when buying a house are location, location and location. In other words, no matter how beautiful the house, if the location sucks, so too will the living experience. For example, if the house is in a city with a high-crime rate, next to the railroad tracks, or near an airport, you just wasted your money (unless, of course, you can't afford anywhere better). If you have children, you ideally need to find a neighborhood with a good school district too.
With all of that said, if you are looking for a new home, you have your work cut out for you. Quite frankly, what should be a fun experience ends up being a stressful chore. Don't worry, however, as Microsoft has your back. Bing is now updated to make this easier for you.
Road to a cleaner web: Google seeks to aggressively target unwanted software
Google has had enough of websites that present viewers with annoying adverts that try to trick users into downloading downright ridiculous tools on their computers. The Mountain View-based giant announces today that it will now more aggressively block unwanted software (UwS) over the coming weeks in Chrome.
Over the years, these unwanted tools have aggressively grown on the web, especially on shady websites. The fraudsters behind these tools use misleading adverts to trick users into downloading and installing their bogus applications.
Is virgo the smallest virtual desktop manager ever?
When you’re regularly trying out new software, it’s important to look for anything odd or unusual, any sign that a program might not be what it seems.
The Windows "virtual desktop manager" virgo seemed like a great example. A 3.7KB download? Which unpacked to a single 8KB executable? There had to be something wrong here. Surely?
A short history of text messaging
The text message has become such a key part of our modern lives that it's hard to believe that the concept behind it dates back 31 years. Email to SMS gateway service Neon SMS has produced an infographic tracking how SMS has evolved.
The first text message was sent in 1992, although it had to be from a PC because it was the following year before Nokia introduced the first SMS-enabled phone. In 1997 the Finnish company produced the 9000i Communicator, the first mobile phone to feature a full keyboard.
HTC One (M8) will get Android M
HTC is sticking with its promise to offer quick updates, with the vice president of product management Mo Versi confirming that the HTC One M8 will receive Android M.
Versi didn’t give any dates for the update, and it doesn’t look like HTC are sticking to the 90 day policy it promoted in 2014. The company had various issues fulfilling this promise, including carrier blocks in the United States and some parts of Europe.
New process removes the risk from accepting bitcoin payments
One of the things that inhibits merchants from accepting bitcoin payments is that there’s a time lag in receiving cleared funds. A bitcoin payment can take around 10 minutes to be verified and confirmed on the blockchain.
Even then most payment processors will wait for 2-6 confirmations (taking 20-60 mins) before guaranteeing to the merchant that the transaction is complete and the merchant will receive the funds. For merchants used to accepting card payments which are verified in seconds this is a problem.
Banning encrypted messaging apps is a stupid idea
In light of the recent news that the UK government is pushing harder for a legislation which would allow it to monitor all digital communications, and ban those apps that use encryption, a huge debate has sparked on whether the government should be allowed to do this or not.
Professor of Law at the London School of Economics, Andrew Murray, has had his say on the matter in a Huffington Post article, arguing that banning communications apps to curb the work of terrorist groups would be similar to banning cars in order to stop terrorists from using them.
DataSift brings machine learning to analyzing social data
Information from social media is becoming more and more important to many companies. But extracting data and getting something useful from it can prove difficult.
Business intelligence specialist DataSift is launching a new technology called VEDO Intent, which aims to take social analysis further, gaining more nuanced insights into markets and customers using machine learning.
Jolla finds first licensee for its Sailfish 2.0 in Indian smartphone maker Intex Technologies
Jolla, the Finnish developer of Android-based Sailfish OS, has roped in Indian smartphone vendor Intex Technologies as the first licensee for its mobile operating system, it announces today at the ongoing Mobile World Congress event in Shanghai.
As part of the collaboration, the two companies plan to build an ecosystem for Sailfish OS in India. Intex, the second largest Indian smartphone vendor, announces that it will be launching the phone later this year at a price point near Rs 10,000 ($150).
AndroMouse is a smart Android remote control for your PC
Your PC’s large screen, quality sound card and speakers make it great for viewing and sharing media, but having to control the system via a keyboard and mouse isn’t always convenient.
AndroMouse provides a versatile alternative, with a comprehensive collection of tools which allows you to remotely control a PC from your Android device.
US consumers losing interest in smartphones, but Microsoft 'delights'
Despite the introduction of some impressive smartphones in the past year it appears that the market is showing signs of contracting in the US.
According to a new report from Argus Insights, following a strong holiday season, US smartphone demand in Q2 (ending June 30 2015) dropped steadily and is down 8 percent compared to June 2014. While Samsung and Apple remain the top smartphone brands, Samsung appears to have failed to woo consumers with its two new flagship devices, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.
Apple's App Store is host to 1.5 million titles
Apple’s App Store has passed another huge milestone, 1.5 million total apps.
It is an enormous amount of active projects on one platform, considering Apple’s Mac OS X store only has 25,000 apps. The only platform to rival iOS is Android, which has a large app library but lower revenue.
UK government launches voucher scheme to boost small business security
For smaller businesses cyber security isn't always their highest priority which means they can be left vulnerable to attacks.
In an effort to beef up protection for small and medium businesses, the UK government is launching a voucher scheme as part of a package of measures designed to increase the resilience of UK businesses to cyber-attacks.
Living with Amazon Echo
There's no reason to give you a full review of Amazon's Echo, my colleagues have already said plenty on that score. Instead I wanted to explain what living with Echo is like after one day. Yes, that's how long I've had the device, so this is a "first impressions" in the truest sense, and they run all over the place.
First, Echo has very solid build quality; it's a hefty device and it's very easy to set up -- plug it in, download the Android app and you're on your way. The app walks you through the process and there isn't a whole lot to it.
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