May 2013

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Game: Google Brings Skeeball to Your Browser

29 May 2013 12:43 AM
Image courtesy of Google, Inc

Image courtesy of Google, Inc

Just in time for summer, Google is rolling out a modern twist on the classic boardwalk game Skeeball.

The game, called “Roll It,” can be played directly in your Chrome browser — and if you don’t already have Chrome, this is as good as an incentive as any to download it now.

To play, Chrome must be running on your computer or smartphone (any device which can access the browser should do actually). Visit Google Roll It on your desktop and g.co/rollit on your phone. Enter the code provided to sync the two. You’ll have the option of playing against yourself or others, and then can set the ball up to roll in any direction you choose.

Then the fun part starts: Stand up, wind back your arm and align your smartphone up with the computer screen. As though the mobile device is the ball, swing it toward the direction of the browser, just like you would in real-life skeeball. This will ultimately release a virtual ball on the desktop version and you’ll rack up points based on which bucket it lands in. So long, productivity. It’s been nice knowin’ ya.

Best viewed on Google Chrome for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.

Image courtesy of Google – Story by Mashable

Twitter Introduces Two-Step Authentication

22 May 2013 9:13 PM

Twitter has finally introduced two-factor authentication to more securely protect accounts, the company announced Wednesday.

The move comes after a number of hacks of high-profile Twitter accounts, including The Onion, the Associated Press and E! Online. Jim O’Leary from Twitter’s product security team announced the new feature via a blog post, saying it is in response to accounts “occasionally” being compromised by phishing schemes or password breaches on other sites.

Twitter is calling the new feature “login verification.” It works similarly to other two-factor authentication systems, especially Google’s: After the account holder logs into an account, Twitter will send a special code to the user via SMS text message that the person must enter to gain access to the account.

Users can enable login verification via their Twitter settings page. You’ll need both a confirmed email address and a verified phone number on your account to use the feature, and the system will send a test message to finish the activation.

Importantly, apps that you’ve linked to Twitter will continue to work “without disruption,” O’Leary wrote. For apps other than a browser that require you to log into Twitter, you’ll need a one-time password, available on Twitter’s application page (this is also similar to how Google two-factor authentication works).

Twitter built login verification out of its Twitter for SMS feature, which has been around almost since the service debuted. O’Leary says the work the company put into the new feature will enable more security enhancements in the future.

Calls for Twitter to introduce some kind of two-step verification service grew louder after account hacks became a frequent occurrence. Besides the companies mentioned earlier, the BBC, the Financial Times, Burger King and Donald Trump have all experienced Twitter hacks in recent months.

Currently it’s not available in UK/France

Update 25-May-13 10:54PM: This feature is now available in the United Kingdom, you will need to add a phone to your Twitter account to enable this feature.

How to Easily Capture Photos In Snapchat Without the Other Person Knowing

18 May 2013 3:03 AM
(c) Snapchat | Free for iOS and Android

(c) Snapchat | Free for iOS and Android

We knew that Snapchat security isn’t the best, but not this much! There is a method to easily capture images sent through Snapchap with no technical know-how whatsoever. Just a couple clicks and, boom, that nude is yours to keep forever without the other person knowing about it.

Before there was a method that required multiple steps, a computer and some technical ping pong. But this is super easy, requiring only two actions on your own iPhone:

  • Open the photo in Snapchat before it expires.
  • Take a screenshot by pressing the home and power buttons while keeping a finger on the screen.
  • Double tap the home button to bring up the application bar.

That’s it, you’re done.

Thanks to Raj Vir for his help and for bringing this to our attention. (Source)

YouTube introduces ultra-low bandwidth 144p video quality

3 May 2013 7:14 PM

YouTube videos are buffering all the time and you can only watch them a couple of seconds before they stop to buffer again? Or maybe the buffering takes ages and there is no apparent reason for that? This is usually the case when an Internet connection is not the most reliable one, or not fast at all but can also be because an Internet service provider is throttling the YouTube bandwidth artificially. Sometimes, it may also be because your ISP started to throttle your account, maybe because you passed a certain traffic threshold or because of other reasons.

YouTube introduced a new ultra-low bandwidth viewing option for select videos on the video hosting site. Up until now, videos were offered in qualities between 240p and 4k on the video hosting site with 320p being available on the site since the beginning.

If you have opened YouTube’s video quality menu recently you may have spotted a new 144p video quality option. Seen below from TheEllenShow.

144p (c) TheEllenShow - Shift It, Shift It in Forward

144p (c) TheEllenShow – Shift It, Shift It in Forward

The new quality level is not available for all videos and it is unclear if it will be made available for all, or if Google uses an algorithm of sorts to determine when to make it available. It is for instance possible that it is only enabled on videos that are requested by mobile users or low bandwidth users a lot. There has not been an official announcement of the feature so this is all guesswork right now.

The quality is not that great as you can imagine and only suitable if you are watching the video on a small screen, if you are only interested in the audio, or if you want to view the video no matter what and can’t get the other quality levels to play properly on the site.

It may be an option for the desktop as well because of this but make sure you play it in a player window that is appropriately sized as you will end up with an image quality level that is not the greatest. Still, the new option may be worth a shot for YouTube users who often experience playback issues on the site.