Tired of politics on Facebook? Replace it with cat pictures

Ideal for everyone tired of listening to campaign rhetoric being spouted by Facebook friends, there's a Chrome extension that can help silence the noise.

Covered in detail by The Register recently, Buzzfeed and the creators of Unbaby.me have developed a new Chrome extension to help people avoid endless political posts on Facebook and Twitter as the 2012 Presidential election rapidly approaches on November 6. While the previous Firefox and Chrome extension Unbaby.me replaced all baby photos on Facebook with images of bacon, puppies and art among other things, the Chrome-only Unpolitic.me extension replaces the majority of political posts on Facebook and Twitter with various pictures of cats.

While Facebook does provide filters to help users avoid updates from specific Facebook friends, this type of application can be particularly helpful for anyone that’s tired of hearing about politics. It allows the Facebook user to avoid political posts, but still read other interesting updates about friends, family and activities from politically outspoken friends.

The Unpolitic.me extension works by actively scanning a user’s social media feed for mention of specific keywords related to politics. While the user has the option of adding any specific keyword into the mix, a large number of default keywords have already been selected for the user.

For instance, the creators of the extension have added “Romney, Obama, election, voting for, republican, democrat, Ron Paul, 47 percent, binders, debate, how messed up is this country, Biden, Paul Ryan, Akin, Scott Brown, Elizabeth Warren, abortion, romnesia” along with 30 other keywords to help identify political posts. 

In addition, the user of the Unpolitic.me extension has the ability to use any image-based RSS feed. The creators of the extension have set the default as a stream of cat pictures from Instagram users. However, the user of the extension can change the RSS feed to anything else in addition to adding more feeds into the mix. There’s no reason that a usr has to stick with cat pictures.

For instance, someone that likes all types of cute animals could add more image streams of puppies, panda bears and bunnies. The makers of the extension recommend using RSS feeds that provide large resolution pictures. In addition, there’s no limit to the number of RSS feeds that a user can choose to use.

The Unpolitic.me extension will randomly pull from those feeds and replace the content on the page. On Facebook, a post about politics is simply replaced with the phrase “Politics blocked” and the replacement image. There’s also a link to remove the image if the user really wants to see what was originally posted. On Twitter, the user also has the ability to undo the content block. However, Twitter users will see a link to Buzzfeed’s animals section rather than a photo pulled from the RSS feeds chosen by the user. 

Conceptually, the Unpolitic.me extension can be used to block any type of content found on Facebook or Twitter. If a user doesn’t like a particular organization, any posts about said organization can be blocked by adding a few keywords in the settings of the extension. However, the extension can only block posts that include words. For instance, if a Facebook friend posts an political meme without adding a description, the person using Unpolitic.me will still see the political post within their Facebook feed. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Netflix to add closed captions to all videos by 2014

Ideal for the hearing-impaired community, Netflix plans to finish adding closed captions to online video within the next two years.

Settling a recent lawsuit over the availability of closed captions when watching video on Netflix Instant, company officials with Netflix agreed to make sure 100 percent of all video content includes closed captioning by September 30, 2014. The lawsuit was brought against Netflix during 2010 by a deaf Massachusetts resident named Lee Nettles in addition to the Western Massachusetts Association of the Deaf and Hearing-Impaired as well as the National Association of the Deaf. According to the documentation, Netflix has already added closed captions to 82 percent of video content on the streaming service and will hit 90 percent by September 2013.

Regarding the agreement, Netflix chief product officer Neil Hunt stated “We have worked consistently to make the broadest possible selection of titles available to Netflix members who are deaf or hard of hearing and are far and away the industry leader in doing so. We are pleased to have reached this agreement and hope it serves as a benchmark for other providers of streaming video entertainment.“

In addition to adding captioning to existing content, rules have been put in place for future content additions. During the first year following the 2014 deadline, Netflix will need to add captions an average of 30 days after the video has been made available on Netflix Instant. That figure decreases to fourteen days in the following year and just seven days beyond September 30, 2016. The deal also indicates that the court will continue to check up on Netflix over the next dour years in order to evaluate the company’s progress with adding captions to both movies and television shows.

The agreement was put in place this week after a judge ruled that Netflix was subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act. It’s highly likely that the case will be referenced if more lawsuits are filed against other streaming video services like Hulu Plus or Amazon Instant Video. In order to see all video content that currently offers closed captions on Netflix, users can use the term “Subtitles” within the search function.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

AT&T to launch trial run of text-to-911 service

Ideal for many emergency situations where a call isn't an option, AT&T is testing the text-to-911 service prior to a major network launch.

Detailed within a press release earlier today, AT&T and representatives within the state of Tennessee are joining forces to start testing emergency 911 texting before a nationwide launch of the useful feature. In order to enable the new text-to-911 service, all 911 text messages from AT&T customers will be routed through Tennessee’s Emergency Service IP Network (ESInet) and send to emergency call centers around the state. As the new feature undergoes significant testing, AT&T and the state will get a better understanding of how useful the text-to-911 service is for the public in addition to measuring how efficient call center operators will be at handling the flow and distribution of emergency messages. AT&T hopes to develop a set of rules and standards that will help guide emergency call centers within other states. 

This new service will be particularly helpful for anyone that’s physically lost the ability to vocalize their emergency with a traditional voice call through 911 emergency services. In addition, the hearing impaired community will be able to communicate problems vastly quicker with a text message through the text-to-911 service.

Another scenario where a text-to-911 service would be vital would be a home invasion. A young child hiding within the home could easily text the emergency to 911 in order to avoid making any noise by speaking during a typical voice call. In addition, a text-to-911 service could be particularly helpful for customers that get poor voice reception in a remote area and have significant problems with dropped calls.

During August 2011, the Federal Communications Commission announced plans to push forward on the text-to-911 service and include the ability to send photos and videos to call center operators. A year prior to that, the FCC has started the initial planning on the project, namely because of the tragic shootings on the Virginia Tech campus. Apparently students were sending text messages to 911 during the shootings, but call centers weren’t equipped to receive the messages.

When asked about the trial run of the text-to-911 service, AT&T Business Solutions VP of Public Safety Solutions Mel Coker stated “AT&T is committed to working with standard bodies, national, state, and local public safety organizations to determine how best to integrate SMS text messages and other advanced communications into future 9-1-1 systems and wireless networks. This trial will be vital in evaluating Text to 9-1-1 solutions with the goal of providing reliable, universal access for our customers.”

Announced during May 2012, Verizon is also working toward providing a text-to-911 service to customers. Verizon customers will simply need a wireless phone capable of sending messages in addition to the wireless service plan that supports text messaging. Based off prior plans, Verizon representatives will launch the new feature within several major metropolitan areas during the first half of 2013 prior to launching the feature across the entire nation. A future planned addition to the text-to-911 service is the ability to automatically include a link to the user’s location. However, the phone would have to utilize a built-in GPS chip in order to relay that specific information to emergency services. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

DipJar lets customers leave small tips with credit cards

Ideal for generous customers that hate to carry cash, a digital tip collection method may help baristas make more money each month.

Detailed in the New York Post earlier today, a couple New York City coffee shops are trying out a trial of a new electronic gadget that allows customers to leave a tip for the barista with a credit or debit card. Called the DipJar, the silver cylinder is placed by the register and customers simply slide their credit card into the blue cup to tip the staff. The amount of the tip is already preset and listed on the top of the card reader in a bold font along with a description of the transaction on an information card. For instance, the two coffee shops list $1 on the top of the DipJar. Once the card has been swiped, the credit card information is encrypted and transmitted directly to the servers at the DipJar headquarters. According to the developer of DipJar, the credit card information isn’t stored in the actual hardware.

This is particularly helpful for small businesses where the vast majority of transactions are already on credit cards rather than cash. When asked about the creation of the DipJar, CEO and co-founder Ryan Kessler recounted a story about a day spent within a coffee shop.

Kessler stated “Everyone was paying with credit or debit, so the tips had plummeted. Baristas take really great care of me, and I didn’t like that they were working just as hard and making less money.”

According to the company site, the hardware is completely free to retailers. Similar to Square, it’s likely that DipJar will eventually make money processing each transaction and Kessler is currently promising that 80 cents on the dollar will make it back to the tipped baristas. They are attempting to push that figure to 90 cents on the dollar, but won’t be able to negotiate more effectively until the business grows considerably. According to USA Today, DipJar is covering the cost of the credit card processing fees during the trial run with the coffee shops in New York City and sending back the entire $1 value of the tip back to the store employees. Setting up the DipJar is as simple as registering the device, plugging it in and placing it next to the register.

As tips are collected with the DipJar, the total amount is pooled and divided up among employees based on hours worked. Managers are encouraged to verify the inputted schedules before a check is cut to the employee.

Payments are sent out from DipJar every two weeks, but not everyone is happy with the disbursements yet. An unnamed barista told the Post “I get a check for, like, six dollars every two weeks. I think people just don’t notice it.”

To protect against fraud, DipJar checks for repeated dipping on a specific credit or debit card. If someone sees charges labeled “DipJar Inc.” on their credit card and suspects fraud, all charges can be contested on DipJar.com within 30 days of the original transaction. After providing information like credit card verification and the location of the transaction, a refund will be issued to the charged card within 30 days of filing the dispute.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Google adds sliders to help declutter Google+ streams

Ideal for curating the amount of posts within a Google+ feed, new features added this week should be helpful to most Google+ users.

Detailed within a Google+ post created by Google product engineer Austin Chang, the Google+ development team has added a more advanced tool that allows users to control the volume of  posts and notifications that appear within the main Google+ content feed. Located near the top right corner of the page, a slider will appear when a user clicks on a specific circle. There are five settings on the slider that will allow the user to control how much content coming from friends in that specific circle will appear in the home page feed. Users can completely mute an entire circle or subscribe to every single notification when people within that circle post new content or leave comments.

Along with the sliders, the Google+ development team added a way to mute notifications coming from a specific person on Google+. When a user clicks on the profile of a friend, they will see a new Mute link directly below the list of their friends in circles and above the blocking link.

Describing the new feature, Chang states “We all have a chatty Cathy (or Charles) in our circles. We still want to enjoy their posts in the stream, but we don’t want a notification every time they share with us. Now you can do exactly that: just click “Mute” from notifications or their profile.”

In addition to the upgraded filters regarding posts and notifications, the final feature added this week incorporates email into posting. Assuming that you have a particularly important link or piece of content to share, the development team has added a “Also send email to Circle” option. This feature can be particularly useful for big announcements like changing jobs, advancing a personal relationship or other important life events. It’s basically ideal for friends that don’t use Google+ often, but want to keep up with your life.

Beyond these new features, Google has also been rolling out vanity URLs for select accounts over the past couple weeks. According to Google+ product manager Saurabh Sharma, the development team is offering vanity URLs to large brands or popular celebrities first before pushing it out on a wider basis.

Some of the brands that have gotten access to the new vanity URL include Toyota, Delta and Hugo Boss while some celebrities that have snagged an easy to remember URL include Britney Spears, Hugh Jackman and David Beckham. It’s likely that the accounts have to be verified first before the vanity URL can be claimed. This requires the user to tie a specific Google+ page with an official company site using a short line of code.

Regarding expansion of the vanity URL program, Sharma states “At first, we’re introducing custom URLs to a limited number of verified profiles and pages. But over time we plan to offer custom URLs to many more brands and individuals, so please stay tuned!” According to a statement from Google spokesperson Andrea Faville, the company doesn’t have a specific timeline on when vanity URLs will be publically available to non-verified Google+ users.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Google planning to roll out gift cards, wishlists for Google Play

Ideal for the upcoming holiday shopping season, friends and family will soon be able to purchase Google Play gift cards for Android users.

Noted by the enthusiast blog Android Police yesterday, a new version of the Google Play store application for Android phones contains options that will allow users to purchase gift cards for the store as well as place apps on a wish list. The gift card function could be particular helpful for Google assuming it launches prior to the holiday shopping season. Friends and family will be able to purchase and send gift cards electronically to be used on new Android smartphones or tablets like the Nexus 7. This feature could also be helpful for Android-themed sites that like to run giveaways to generate a larger readership. Apple has offered this feature within the App Store for several years and physical iTunes gift cards can be found at many large retailers around the United States.

Google did offer $25 Google Play gift cards with the purchase of a new Nexus 7 tablet, but the physical gift cards aren’t as widely available as an iTunes card. Similar to iTunes, the amount of the Google Play credit is tied to a user’s account and the credit can be redeemed by purchasing applications on the Google Play store.

According to the blog post, an Android user will eventually be able to go to play.google.com/redeem in order to enter a gift card code and add a specific credit to their account. However, Google hasn’t officially announced this new feature and hasn’t indicated a timeline when gift cards will be active.

Beyond gift cards, the wish list feature allows the user to add applications in addition to media like books, magazines, music, movies and television shows to a specific list. While this feature could allow users to bookmark items on the Google Play store to purchase at a later time, it could also be tied into a publishing function that publicly displays a wish list.

A link to that list could be sent to friends or family members prior to the holidays, however Google would also need to include a function that allows people to gift specific applications. Apple added that feature to the App Store during 2010, but never created a wish list function for users.

In addition to these two new features, Android Police also noted that Google has enabled a new technical feature called Smart App updates. Prior to this change, Android users had to re-download an entire app each time that they wanted to upgrade to the latest version. This process consumes a significant amount of battery power when the app is extremely large or the download speed is slow.

However, Smart App updates allow the user to only download the difference between the two versions. For example, the blog post noted that a recent update to the popular photo sharing application Instagram required a 3MB download rather than 13MB for the entire application. This feature was originally announced at the Google I/O conference during June 2012 and the development team in charge of the new feature estimated that download times would be cut down to a third for all app updates.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Netflix rolls out “post-play” to keep you watching endlessly

Ideal for avid television watchers, a new feature on Netflix allows users to sit back and relax rather than messing with the remote.

Detailed on The Official Netflix Blog earlier today, the streaming video company officially announced a new feature called “post-play” that’s designed to automatically start the next episode of a television show without requiring any user interaction. Currently active on the Web player as well as the Netflix application for the PlayStation 3, this is particularly helpful for television shows with large story arcs that spread over an entire season or multiple seasons. Viewers watching shows like 24, Lost, Mad Men, Prison Break, Breaking Bad or White Collar can simply wait for the next episode to begin as the credits roll on the previous episode. This new feature basically capitalizes on the recent trend of watching multiple episodes of a television program in a row rather than being forced to wait for each episode to be released during a season of network television. 

As a television episode ends, the Netflix post-play feature will bring up a screenshot of the next episode and a 15-second countdown timer. Once the timer completes the countdown, the next episode automatically begins.

Users can also stop the timer in order to read the synopsis about the episode, select a different episode or back out to the main Netflix menu to select a different show or movie. Specific to movies, the post-play feature offers suggestions about other movies and shows to watch once the credits roll on the first movie. 

According to Netflix representatives, the development team behind “post-play” is working to bring the feature to other platforms including the Xbox 360, Roku set-top box and Apple TV set-top box. The feature has been active on the PlayStation 3 for at least a couple weeks, but recently launched for all users watching streaming Netflix on a device like a desktop computer, laptop or tablet. In addition to automating the selection of episodes, the post-play feature is also helpful for a quick dash to the fridge to grab a snack or drink as the opening sequence on the next episode starts to roll. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com