Stephen Hall

• Apps & Updates
• Apps
• Snapchat
• geofilters

Snapchat introduces Geofilters, bringing special filters to specific locations

Stephen Hall Jul 15 2014 - 8:03 am PT

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJx6R5zbIfk

The well-renowned social snap-sharing application Snapchat today introduced a new feature it is calling Geofilters, bringing you special custom-designed graphics that can easily be applied to photos taken in specific geographic locations. In the above video, a couple of girls take a snap at what appears to be a bicycle shop, and a quick swipe to the right places a small yellow bicycle tire on the top-left of their photo.

As mentioned on the official Snapchat blog, privacy disclaimer and all:

We’ve had a lot of fun drawing up new filters for special locations in Los Angeles and New York. Swipe right on the preview screen to check them out – they’ll change depending on which neighborhoods you’re in! Although you’ll need to enable location services for this feature, we don’t store your location.

Right now, Snapchat has only incorporated these filters at specific locations in Los Angeles and New York, but it will be interesting to see if the company expands the feature to other locations in the future — or maybe even opens these filters up to be crowd-sourced in some way. It doesn’t appear that you need to update your Snapchat client to take advantage of Geofilters.

• Apps
• app
• Google Search
• voice
• assistant

Google Search app can now fix its voice recognition mishaps with a quick command

Stephen Hall Jul 8 2014 - 1:18 pm PT

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If you’ve ever been using any form of Google voice recognition and gotten frustrated that the friendly female on the other side just can’t understand you, you may be happy to know that a quick command can now fix misheard words. Previously, you would have to start the query over completely, but the Google Search app can now fix its blunders on the fly using a natural corrective voice command.

For instance, if you’re trying to search for the nearest bars, you might say “find me the nearest bars.” Whether it’s your fault or a problem in Google’s voice processing, there’s a chance that the app might interpret your query as “find me the nearest cars.” Using the command “no I said” in a new search will let you replace just that one word. To fix the search, say “no I said bars” and chances are that Google will fix it right up.

Ultimately this is a great and useful update because it makes our interactions with the voice assistant much more natural. Every update that comes to both Google Now and Apple’s Siri seem to make these virtual helpers more and more human like, which in turn make them much more useable. This new feature works in both the iOS and Android versions of the official Google Search app.

• T-Mobile
• Tech Industry
• Accessories
• un-carrier
• EIP

T-Mobile expected to start offering accessories on equipment installment plans starting July 20

Stephen Hall Jul 2 2014 - 12:54 pm PT

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According to a leaked internal T-Mobile memo, accessories being sold to eligible customers will qualify for an EIP (equipment installment plan) starting on July 20th (via TmoNews). Much more expensive smartphone accessories such as smartwatches and high-end Beats headphones are surely becoming more and more attractive to customers, and the un-carrier seemingly wants to give customers an easier way to get their hands on them.

The current EIP programs, which allow you to pay for your device typically over a period of 24 months will be coming to accessories in some form and should be presented to customers as “part of the complete solution” according to the memo. And customers may very well be enticed by the deal because that would mean that they’re able to walk out of a brick-and-mortar store with a lot of new product without having to pay much up-front.

Sadly, details on the program are still fairly scarce. While you’ll likely be able to finance a $299 Samsung Gear Two, it’s still unclear whether or not cheaper accessories will also be eligible for the program.

• T-Mobile
• Tech Industry
• General
• LTE
• neville

T-Mobile’s LTE footprint passes 230 million points of presence

Stephen Hall Jun 30 2014 - 1:35 pm PT

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T-Mobile held its un-carrier 5.0 (and 6.0) event a couple of weeks ago, and the company’s press release to go along with the event had T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray promising that the company would have an “LTE footprint north of 230 million pops by the end of [the] month.”

It appears that, just in time, the company has hit this goal. And in sarcastic and hilarious fashion, John Legere has taken to Twitter to confirm:

Neville confirmed we hit 230M POPs of LTE! Met our goal but still going! Where you at @Sprint? I hear you’re running behind. #sprintlikehell

— John Legere (@JohnLegere) June 28, 2014

Along with its growing LTE network, the un-carrier 5.0 event brought a slew of other announcements including an iPhone 5s test drive program, free streaming for iTunes Radio and other music services, and the company’s own music streaming service dubbed “unRadio.”

• iOS
• Jailbreak
• release
• pangu
• iOS 7.1.2

Pangu untethered jailbreak still works with iOS 7.1.2

Stephen Hall Jun 30 2014 - 11:15 am PT

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Apple today seeded iOS 7.1.2, and we’ve confirmed that the recently-released Pangu jailbreak does indeed work perfectly fine with the new build. While Pangu was released after Apple seeded 7.1.2 to carriers (meaning that the likelihood of the security holes being patched was fairly low), there was still the slim possibility that Apple would make a few changes and patch the holes before pushing the update to the masses.

But alas, the untethered jailbreak that we told you about last week is still capable of jailbreaking iOS 7.1.2, and you can still follow the very same guide that we published if you need help getting the famed Cydia application running on your device. It’s worth noting, however, that the jailbreak also recently got an update to support OS X, and that we would recommend you use this version if you’re planning on jailbreaking your iOS 7.1.2 device.

• Google
• Android
• video
• General
• I/O

Tune in live to Google’s I/O press event live stream

Stephen Hall Jun 25 2014 - 8:50 am PT

15 Comments

Google I/O starts today, and as per usual, the company is kicking things off with a huge 2-hour press event set to start at 9 AM PT. The event is said to be bringing a multitude of new products and service announcements, rumored to include the “L” version of Android, Android Wear smartwatches, a new line of “Android Silver” smartphones, a second-generation Chromebook Pixel, an “Android TV” set-top box, Project Tango tablets, and Google Glass announcements.

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• T-Mobile
• Tech Industry
• uncarrier 5.0

T-Mobile wideband LTE now in 16 US markets; VoLTE now covers 100 million people

Stephen Hall Jun 18 2014 - 6:34 pm PT

3 Comments

Amidst a plethora of swearing and shaming of its competing cellular carriers, T-Mobile CEO John Legere took the stage tonight at the company’s un-carrier 5.0 event to announce that its wideband LTE is now available in 16 markets across the United States. Additionally, Legere announced that its voice over LTE service now covers 100 million people.

Now, we’re announcing T-Mobile Wideband #LTE is now in 16 markets across the US. Our data-strong network is able to handle your data needs!

— T-Mobile (@TMobile) June 19, 2014

As noted in the press release for tonight’s announcements, T-Mobile now offers LTE (in at least 15+15MHz), in the following 16 markets:

• Atlanta, GA
• Birmingham, AL
• Columbus, OH
• Dallas, TX
• Detroit, MI
• Honolulu, HI
• Houston, TX
• Jacksonville, FL
• Los Angeles, CA
• Minneapolis, MN
• Mobile, AL
• Orlando, FL
• Portland, OR
• Seattle, WA
• Tampa, FL
• Upstate, NY

And, as for VoLTE, the company has announced that service is now supported in the below listed locales:

• Atlanta, GA
• Austin, TX
• Boston, MA
• Chicago, IL
• Dallas, TX
• Houston, TX
• Long Island, NY
• Los Angeles, CA
• Minneapolis, MN
• New Jersey
• New York, NY
• Philadelphia, PA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, D.C.

• Apps

Rumored Microsoft smartwatch to be OS agnostic, might land this summer

Stephen Hall May 29 2014 - 1:29 pm PT

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According to a new report from Forbes, Microsoft’s rumored smartwatch is going to be compatible with not only the Redmond, Washington corporation’s own Windows Phone operating system, but Android and iOS as well (via The Verge). Other details from the report include a release date for the watch potentially slanted for this Summer, as well as battery life that lasts upwards of two days.

Microsoft has been rumored to be working on a smartwatch for quite some time, but today’s report corroborates some information that was previously assumed, and adds a few details that we haven’t yet heard. The device will apparently be a sensor-rich device (as is expected from Apple’s iWatch as well), featuring a heart rate sensor that synchronizes data to the above mentioned variety of devices.

Supposedly, Microsoft is pulling some engineers from the Kinect side of the company to make sure this feature is running 24 hours a day. Microsoft was already rumored to be working on a health rate monitor called the “Joule” in 2012, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that it’s taking advantage of Xbox experts to help put this product together.

The report suggests that the device may land as early as this Summer, but Forbes — as might be expected — says that the timeline is “unclear.”

Image: The Independent