HTC has just added a new API to its OpenSense SDK to help developers take advantage of the IR hardware on the HTC One. Because the device has an IR emitter -- which cleverly placed in the power button -- HTC is hoping that developers will be able to take advantage of it and offer new apps above and beyond the bundled Sense TV. The new API, which is available upon request, will let the One be programmed in the same way a universal remote can. HTC envisions that developers could build apps to have the One control TVs, printers, cameras and any other device that relies on IR for control.
Developers will have to contact HTC directly and apply for more information on the API, so it's clear that HTC is going to try and build partnerships to make compelling apps out of the gate. That little hurdle aside, it's important that a wider range of developers will have access to the hardware features at this level.
Source: HTC
[From HTC adds IR control functions to OpenSense SDK]
Thursday, February 21, 2013
HTC adds IR control functions to OpenSense SDK
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Apple eases up on 3-device limit for employee friends and family buys
Apple for whatever reason has decided to lift its 3-device limitation for employees looking to buy friends and family products. The reason for this could be due to inventory levels finally normalizing, or maybe the tech giant is feeling a little generous this time of year.
Now, don’t get it twisted, reasonable limits on EPP 15 percent discount program purchases are still in place. What does this mean, you ask? Well, according to people at Apple who noticed the policy change:
Use your discretion when determining “reasonable quantities” purchases for friends and family. There isn’t a specific number limit — it’s a judgment call. For example, buying iPod devices as gifts for your nieces and nephews at a 15 percent discount is fine. However, advertising a 15 percent discount on Apple products for all of your Facebook friends is not. If you have questions about what is considered reasonable, contact your HR representative.
It’s good to see Apple relax on this policy a bit. Unfortunately, anyone who works at Apple may start to get a lot of calls from people they haven’t heard from in a while. You know people go to extreme lengths to get a discount. Regardless, it is beneficial for Apple to make it easier for people to buy its products.
[via iMore]
Apple eases up on 3-device limit for employee friends and family buys originally appeared on IntoMobile.com on 2013-02-14T01:19:41Z. FV1gMYsz9b5j
[From Apple eases up on 3-device limit for employee friends and family buys]
Google Now widget now live in latest Search update
Well that didn’t take too long. A day after spotting a Google Now widget in a support page, the Big G has updated its Search application that includes the new widget and a few new features.
Alone with the new Google Now widget, the updated Search application now includes the following for Android 4.1+ users
-Google Now widget for home screen or lock screen
- Movie passes from Fandango
- Movies now includes ratings from Rotten Tomatoes
- Real estate listings from Zillow when in the market for a home
- Music button when a song is playing in voice mode (US only)
- Support for US college sports
Nothing groundbreaking here, but things like Rotten Tomatoes rating when searching for a movie in Google now is pretty helpful, and the addition of US college sports should make a lot of people happy.
Google Now is a pretty awesome service, and it just got better! Head over to the Google Play Store and update now!
What’s you’re favorite feature? Sound off in the comments below!
[Via: AndroidCentral]
Google Now widget now live in latest Search update originally appeared on IntoMobile.com on 2013-02-13T20:55:15Z. FV1gMYsz9b5j
[From Google Now widget now live in latest Search update]
Mozilla announces Nightly build of Metro Firefox for Windows 8, says it’s stable enough for regular testing
Mozilla today announced the release of the first Nightly build of Firefox Metro. The company also confirmed that the browser is now stable enough for “regular testing” by interested Windows 8 users.
Mozilla’s Director of Community Development Asa Dotzler revealed the news last night:
On Tuesday, our preliminary Metro Firefox development work arrived at mozilla-central, the source code repository that feeds the Firefox Nightly channel. This means that if you are on the Firefox Nightly channel and you have a Windows 8 device, your Wednesday Firefox update should deliver a Metro Firefox tile to the far right end of your Windows Start screen. There’s plenty of work still to do, but it’s stable enough that we’re ready for more and more regular testing.
Unfortunately, as the comments on his post indicate, some users (including yours truly) are having issues enabling the new user interface. A new Nightly build will be coming out tonight though and might fix some of these issues. The new Nightly is supposed to launch a chromeless browser window similar to Metro IE. Here’s how it should look:
You can only access the new user interface if you set Firefoxt Nightly as your default browser. If not, the Desktop version of Firefox will launch instead when you click on the Nightly icon in your Start Screen. This is a limitation Microsoft has purposefully included for security reasons: only the default browser can run in the Metro UI.
The Firefox Nightly channel, as its name implies, is automatically updated each night. The builds are meant only for developers interested in helping out the company test new and experimental features.
After six weeks or so, Nightly builds are brought into the Aurora channel. This is the alpha channel, which is followed by the beta and release channels. We can thus expect the Metro version of Firefox to be released as a stable build somewhere in May or June, but possibly later if testing takes more time.
Mozilla first revealed it had a Windows 8 Metro prototype of Firefox back in April 2012. The company then showed off a pre-release of Firefox for Windows 8 in October 2012.
Image credit: Andreas Krappweis
[From Mozilla announces Nightly build of Metro Firefox for Windows 8, says it’s stable enough for regular testing]
Sunday, February 10, 2013
How a social media news stream turns the sealed-off World Economic Forum into a virtual event
Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Igor Schwarzmann, co-founder of Third Wave, a Berlin based business consultancy for the digital world, and Adrian Rosenthal, Head of Digital and Social Media for MSL Group Germany, the PR network of Publicis Groupe.
Not too long ago, the World Economic Forum (WEF) was a rather secretive event in the snowy mountains of Davos, Switzerland, for the global elites, where heads of states mingled with industry leaders, thought-leading academics and influential journalists behind closed doors. Unfiltered impressions were as scarce as Dutch cheese in the Swiss Alps. What we
knew about Davos was transported to us via classical media outlets.
Davos in January is certainly still a sealed-off “miniature society,” where Merkel meets Cameron (almost 40 heads of state were invited), where Sean Parker throws parties attended by the likes of Marissa Mayer, Jeff Jarvis and Jimmy Wales, and where Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho entertains his readers – via his Twitter stream.
While the WEF thus certainly remains an elitist gathering – you have to be invited by a member of the WEF to become an official participant, and Facebook competitions to win attendance have unfortunately not been conducted to our knowledge – the formerly closed doors have been opened a bit, thanks to social media.
How the WEF has digitalized Davos
The WEF has declared this
year’s meeting to be the most digital to date. With the help of some of its partners, the WEF opened up a variety of channels to follow the event, sharing info graphics to their almost 130,000 fans on Facebook and Google+ (more than 1.7 million followers) or using the Forum Blog and guest authors like WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg to drive traffic to their sites and start conversations. Key sessions and press conferences were also live streamed on multi
ple channels and then put on YouTube.
The key element of the Forum’s social media activities, however, was clearly Twitter. The communications team handled the WEF’s Twitter feed, and with more than 1.8 million followers tweeting live from over 40 sessions and producing a constant stream of news, the hashtag #wef got into the global trending topics for the first time. According to numbers provided to us from the Forum, the official hashtag generated around 170,000 mentions during the Annual Meeting 2013, which resulted in almost 2 billion potential Twitter impressions. With weflive.com, WEF partner KPMG also built a hub collecting delegates’ tweets and featuring live infographics.
The turn towards a more digital Davos has also been sped up by the attendees themselves. “Davos 2013 has been the most transparent and inclusive annual meeting in the history of the Forum. And frankly, we would be mad not to tap into the potential of global leaders in technology, ICT innovation and startup culture or our own “technology pioneer” community to develop that even further,” says WEF communications specialist Georg Schmitt. As digital topics and questions about the future of the Internet have entered the agenda of the WEF, a different, younger and more tech-savvy breed of participants has become an integral part of the now always-on conversation at Davos.
The youngest participant was certainly a true digital native: 12-year-old Khadija Niazi of Lahore, Pakistan talked about how she uses MOOCs (massive open online courses) offered by institutions like Stanford University, the alma mater of Silicon Valley, to learn about topics such as astrobiology. Not that CEOs, politicians and academics haven’t adopted social media: Almost 30 percent of the 2,500 participants were active on Twitter and produced more than 20,000 tweets with the #wef hashtag. And while women accounted only for 17 percent of the delegates, they were responsible for more than a third of the social media activity at the WEF.
2013 saw first attempts to let users participate directly in the Annual Meeting via questions on the Facebook page or Twitter chats, which is something the WEF social media team wants to encourage: “The idea of public goods is often discussed in Davos, and we’ve tried to match up to that digitally - on lifestream, on video, in blog posts, and in status updates. The ‘Digital Davos’ user experience still has some way to go, but we hope this year it gave a sense of the meeting to everyone who couldn’t be present, and an opportunity for them to contribute to or critique the discussions,” concludes Adrian Monck, who heads the communications team of the WEF.
While the extensive Twitter stream from Davos has certainly been the key platform both for participants and observers worldwide to engage and interact, it will be interesting to see how Adrian Monck and his team will further develop the social media activities and thus deepen the modes of participation at WEF meetings. But we might not have to wait one more year to see how digital topics will shape and evolve the agenda, according to Schmitt: “In June, the Forum’s Middle East summit will take place in Jordan. Two years after the Arab spring, social media and the blogosphere in particular are an essential space for the Forum if we want to live up to the idea of a multi-stakeholder platform in that region.”
Friday, February 8, 2013
Social dating service Badoo launches an iPad app for its 172 million users
London-based social network Badoo has finally released its iPad app, adding tablets to its list of devices that the service can be accessed on. In doing so, the company says that it helps move it closer towards its goal of connecting “people around the world for flirting, dating and making new friends.”
Badoo says that it created the iPad app because it has become an important part of people’s lives. For many, the tablet device has practically been a part of every day life. It’s with you when you’re watching TV, reading a book, sitting at work, or even lying in bed. It’s because of this behavior that Badoo believes an iPad version is optimal for its service — now users can “keep up with their social life” on a much bigger screen anywhere they are.
The social network’s iPad app comes with several features specific to the device, including twin-panel layouts to make it easier to browse through profiles and engage other users. Additionally, it has a notification feature and standard aesthetics that users are accustomed to across other devices. Finally, as the service has users in 180 countries, it has undergone extensive translations and localizations to cater to everyone.
Badoo has more than 172 million members signed up from all around the world. It positions itself as a global service which makes it important that the service is available on a range of devices to suit various audiences. The iPad is hugely popular worldwide and, as we explained above, many users will prefer the opportunity to use the service on the larger screened device. Badoo is also available for the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone, alongside its website