Mozilla is rolling out Firefox 41 to desktop and Android users and says it's now the first browser to have built-in instant messaging. That feature only works on the desktop version for now, but lets you IM directly from a Hello video call whether...
The social network has just started public testing for Hello, an Android-only app that can identify unknown number of both outgoing and incoming calls by matching them to Facebook profiles.
People are sharing an awful lot of information about themselves on Facebook, and with the help of Hello, some of that information will make its way to Hello, the caller ID app that tells on you. The new Android-only app (since iOS doesn’t allow apps to mess with phone calls) has some extra functionality besides displaying contextual data about the person who’s calling you. It can warn you if a certain number is spam, based on the reports of other people.
Xiaomi’s integrated caller ID could also prevent people from answering spammy phone calls, and Google has displayed names and profile pictures for quite a while now, provided that the name was bound to a G+ page, so it’s great to see that Facebook is jumping on this bandwagon, as well.
Assuming that people calling you have their phone number in their Facebook profile, and that their privacy settings don’t block others from seeing their info, you’ll get to see their name, their profile picture and even their city, employer, website, etc. More than that, Hello can remind you of any significant events the person at the other end of the phone call is celebrating.
Andrea Vaccari, Hello Product Manager, explained that “More than 1 billion phone calls are made in the US ever day,” and the main problem is that the “the experience of the phone call hasn’t evolved in a long time.” In order to change that, Facebook opened up public testing in the US, Brazil and Nigeria. What do these three countries have in common? Not much, besides being on the 3rd, 5th and 7th place, respectively, in the list of the most populous countries in the world.
“Anyone with your number can ring you day or night and interrupt you,” added Vaccari. “Calling is really big. It’s core to how people connect with each other, including family and close friends, but also businesses and colleagues.”
Supposing that the public tests go out well (and I really can’t imagine why they wouldn’t), more countries will be added to the list in the near future, so stay tuned for that! Also, there’s still time to hide your details or change your privacy settings.
Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the trimmed-down Facebook Lite app for Android, or the Facebook stickers in comments.
Sleep still is a mystery to us (and most importantly, to scientists), but at least this crowdfunded device simply known as Sense will help us be better at this time-costing activity.
It’s impossible to improve anything without proper feedback on the factors that influence it. The same goes with sleep, and according to Hello, the San Francisco-based developers of the Sense system, providing feedback on sleep patterns could help people turn this into a better experience.
The Sense system consists of three parts: a nightstand accessory that monitors your sleeping environment at night, the Sleep Pill (a sleep tracking devices that clips to your pillow inconspicuously), and a mobile app that, by the looks of it, will only be available on iOS.
By correlating the data collected by Sense and the Sleep Pill, the mobile app is able to generate a Sleep Score for each night, along with details that need to be adjusted in order to zZzzZZ better. Sense also records the loud noises that might have disturbed your sleep and enables you to play them back.
Assuming that you’re the type that can only fall asleep at the sound of rain that pours gently on your window, Sense can help you with that, even when the sky is clear. Its speaker can play white noise, pink noise or the sound of rain, so that you can slide easier to the other side.
The same speaker is used for the smart alarm that wakes you up when you’re the most relaxed, even if you haven’t had 8 hours of sleep. By tracking the sleep patterns, Sense can tell when an REM phase has ended, and hence, you can wake up completely refreshed, without feeling groggy.
The Sense sleep pattern tracking system is currently featured on Kickstarter, where it literally crushed its initial goal of $100K by having raised more than 9 times that. Moreover, at press time there were still 26 more days until the campaign’s end, so the tremendous success of this project cannot be denied. Pledging $99 will secure backers a Sense and a Sleep Pill. Considering that the pre-order price will be $129, it’s no surprise that thousands of people concerned about their sleep helped the developers of Sense to make the device a reality.
Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the KidFit bracelet fitness and sleep tracker for kids, and the Cafe Amazon Drive Awake app that prevents drivers from falling asleep.
When the Raspberry Pi was released earlier this year, the credit-card-sized Linux machine became an instant hit. The night it became available to order, both Premier Farnell/element14 and RS Components, the official distributors of the Pi project, exhibited the signs of a late '90s Slashdot effect: you could barely even get the two sites to load. Fast forward to today, and you can finally get your hands on one within three weeks. The Raspberry Pi is truly the Linux device of the year, if not the past decade. Follow past the break and we'll show you how to set yours up now that you've actually succeeded in snagging one.
Continue reading So you got a Raspberry Pi: now what?
Filed under: Desktops
So you got a Raspberry Pi: now what? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Sep 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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