snapshots
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Bing beats Google Now to system-wide contextual search
If you can't wait for Android Marshmallow, Microsoft is offering an alternative for one of its most highly anticipated features. With the Bing Search app installed, you can now get "snapshots" by long-pressing on the home button, just as you would to launch Google Now on Tap. Microsoft's search engine will then scan what's on the page and bring up a small overlay card with useful information and shortcuts to related apps. So if you're watching the trailer for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, for instance, you'll get its current IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings, as well as an option to order tickets with Fandango. At the moment the feature is only supported in the US, and you'll need to download the app to get started -- unlike Google's offering -- which will almost certainly curb its popularity. Still, if you're curious to see what Google Now on Tap is all about, this is a good preview.
Microsoft to start showing people's social and career info in Bing results
Back in 2011, the relationship between Microsoft and social analytics company Klout made it possible for some folks to take home a free Windows Phone. In 2013, though, it's all about Bing. To that end, Microsoft's know-all engine will, as of today, begin displaying Klout-verified information inside Bing search results. The new partnership makes it possible for people to share personal tidbits using Bing's Snapshot feature, things like employment history and prominent social posts from Twitter and Instagram. While this integration with Klout goes considerably deeper than that, it'll ultimately be up to each user to determine the amount of details they want shown when someone is searching for them in Bing. You'll need Klout and LinkedIn accounts to create your very own Snapshot -- and let's be honest, we all know how important first impressions on the web can be.
The Daily Grind: What do you look for when taking screenshots?
There's an art to taking a cool screenshot, an art that I'm sadly not very good at. I never seem to be able to take good shots in combat, and my attempts at picking out perfect environments are pretty much nonexistent. The one thing I can do is ensure that whether I'm in Final Fantasy XIV or Star Wars: The Old Republic, I have good screenshots of my characters looking cool. I've paused what I'm doing in-game on occasion just to make sure that I can line up a nice character shot perfectly. Of course, some people can find perfect angles for landscapes. Some people look for a funny glitch or a strange character type. And some people just find the right art to capture an intense battle in one moment. What do you look for when you're taking a screenshot? Do you go to great lengths to set up the right shot, or do you just have a knack for getting a certain picture type just right? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Smithsonian captures 201,000 wild photos with automated cameras
We have this big, fang-filled, claw-sharpened big cat all up in our grill thanks to the researchers at the Smithsonian, who have created a new database filled with over 201,000 pictures of elusive animals in their natural habitats. These candid shots were made possible with motion-activated automated cameras scattered around the world, and feature over 200 species of birds and mammals, and here's most impressive part -- these photos are au naturel. That's right... there's no editing here, these are untouched raw shots straight from the rain forests of places like Peru and China -- which allow us to see these magnificent creatures as scientists do. If you want more info or desire to check out these wild photos, hop over to the source link or check out the gallery below. %Gallery-118866%
It came from the Blog: Midsummer Flamefest snapshots
Last Saturday, <It came from the Blog> flamed the Eastern Kingdoms. We started at Silvermoon City, hanging out, chatting and pole dancing. We then proceeded to work our way down the continent, hitting all of the Horde flames and some of the Alliance ones. The first half of the event was an all-levels affair. Stay on the road! Protect the lowbies! But then the mid- to high-levels abandoned the lowbies at Hammerfall and we took flight paths the rest of the way, There was a slight glitch, however. (Perfect is boring.) Robinator didn't have the flight path in the Burning Steppes. But that turned out to be a good thing. We landed in Swamp of Sorrows, rode through Darkshire and then into Lakeshire to get to the Burning Steppes. This allowed us to douse a few more Alliance fires. I should have planned it that way all along. It was a lot of fun, as usual. This was the first time I had streamed an event, and I liked it. I'll continue to do that from now on. Stay tuned for the pics from the Server Maintenance Party. And I'll let you know what this month's event will be as soon as I know. %Gallery-96717%
It came from the Blog: Running of the orphans snapshots
On the first day of Children's Week, we at <It came from the Blog> adopted orphans for the day and ran them around to wherever they wanted to go. We ended the day by letting them gorge on ice cream, like the irresponsible guardians we are. More than 80 people joined us, including Thrahk, our candidate for warchief -- should that position become available. We began the event by meeting and greeting at the waterfall in Orgrimmar. Note: It's hard to fish when you can't tell which bobber is yours. Then we completed all of the Orgrimmar orphan quests. We have snapshots that I took as well as those sent in by guildies. Midsummer Fire Festival is next month, so expect our next event to be on either June 26 or 27. We'll pick a continent and hit all the fires on it. And of course, Choose My Adventure continues. %Gallery-92548% Please join us on US Zangarmarsh-H in <It came from the Blog>. Ask Robiness, Robinemia or any member online for an invite. Guild ranks of Lurker or above have the ability to invite. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules, which can be summed up with "Don't be a Funsucker!" Also, please see the guild FAQ for the most common questions.
It came from the Blog: Gurubashi Beatdown snapshots
Before last Saturday, my favorite It came from the Blog event had been the Love is in the Air event. But now I think the Gurubashi Beatdown may have become my new fave. We had a great time playing games in the Gurubashi Arena. But first we met in Orgrimmar and had another mixer with some of the WoW.com staff. Matthew Rossi, Chase Christian, Amy Schley, Anne Stickney and I hung out at the entrance, chatting it up. A lore discussion broke out... and there was much rejoicing. Then those of us participating in the main event made the trip to Gurubashi Arena. There, we played the following games: Get nekkid and punch Robinella to death. Nekkid fistfighting last man standing. Fully clothed last man standing. Run the gauntlet. Kill the Alliance... whenever appropriate. It was so much fun that if you like PvP at all, you should really join us at the next Gurubashi Beatdown. And believe me, there will be one. There are more details about the games in the gallery below. And stay tuned for details on some upcoming fun we'll be having in between events in It came from the Blog. %Gallery-88810%
FunMail adds instant images to Facebook status & MMS
At the risk of invoking a round of reader rage, I'll admit that I've never really been that hyped on the idea of MMS on the iPhone (and, by the way, get off my lawn). If I want to send someone a picture, I've got their email address; I'll just send them a picture. No big whoop. I do have some friends and colleagues who 'came up' on mainline camera phones and they gleefully pop pics back and forth via MMS. I also appreciate the ability to decode the snapshots my wife sends from her Motorola RAZR, but overall I wouldn't rate it among the top iPhone features I was eager to get from AT&T (not like the ongoing lack of tethering, which is making me grind my teeth in my sleep). That prejudicial attitude may have made me a little skeptical when I met with FunMobility's CEO Adam Lavine this week to get a preview of his company's new free app FunMail [iTunes link], which promises to leverage the Semantic Media Project and add appropriate imagery to your MMS messages, short emails, Facebook wall posts, et cetera. It's available in the US App Store as of last night. Sure, the app is simple enough to use (once you register and accept the company's TOS, which may subject you to occasional text messages from them if you don't opt out) -- type in your message, and the system gives you the text (up to 140 characters) atop your choice of image from a list of five, sourced from FunMobility's licensed libraries along with Creative Commons remixable content from Flickr and other repositories. If you want to include a hidden search term, putting it at the end of the message with a double-hash (##) will tell FunMail to search those words without including them in the sent message. You can send it to any mobile phone number in your address book, to email recipients, or to your Facebook friends or wall via Facebook Connect. The result is a little bit inspirational office poster, a little bit LOLcat, and in some ways strangely intriguing... but not really, you know, useful.
Share your Second Life summer look for a chance at L$10,000
Today seems to be a day of contests! First we have the DDO stress test contest that's going to be occuring tonight, and now we have another one for Second Life! A contest of summer style, no less! Who's up for some virtual modeling?It's the summer, and Linden Lab is interested in seeing everyone's summer attire -- like swimwear, bright colors, and the things you generally wear on the beach. So interested, in fact, that they're willing to lay L$10,000 on the whole deal via an Xstreet shopping spree.
Dojo update: Wait, what?
We buried our friend, the Smash Bros. Brawl Dojo, many months ago. Then, like a zombie, the beast rose from its grave to honor today's European Brawl release. Aside from an apology (and the promise that you can play Brawl in five different languages), the Dojo doesn't offer much in terms of words. Yet, it does feature a snapshot gallery with some super silly Brawl images worth looking at. "Snapshots Galore" has been around the Dojo two times before, but since we happened to be around those parts today anyway, we decided to put the most recent ones in a gallery for your viewing pleasure (below). We're really proud of what the Smash Bros. community has done, regarding these snapshots (which are filled with ridiculousness, awesomeness, and "huh?") and other creations, too. Now it's your turn to take the Brawl torch, Europe. Let's see what types of goodies you can come up with.Warning: The pictures in the gallery below reveal spoilers! Only view the gallery if you're man (or woman!) enough to handle it.%Gallery-26316%[Thanks RupeeClock!]
iriver's E100 reviewed before it hits American soil
As any true iriver aficionado would realize, just because one of its device isn't yet available in the US doesn't mean that it's not being thoroughly enjoyed elsewhere. Case in point: the E100, which was recently loosed in Europe, has already been acquired, photographed and reviewed by the cats over at Pocketables, and unfortunately for those certain of this thing's awesomeness, it's not exactly the surefire winner you had hoped for. Put simply, the fantastic styling and native FLAC support weren't enough to overcome the lackluster speaker output, subpar audio quality (for iriver standards, anyway) and non-integration of material on the internal memory and microSD card. Still, it seems that those without ultra-high expectations would be more than pleased with what the E100 is packin', but we'd still recommend giving the full review a look before pulling the trigger and never looking back.[Thanks, Jenn]
Office Snapshots goes inside Apple's Cupertino offices
And they found ... not that much. There's something not-quite-right about these snapshots purportedly from inside Apple's Cupertino campus. They look like they come from almost anywhere -- despite the plentiful Apple products (and one notable Microsoft natural keyboard), there's no major signs of genius -- no "the crazy ones" posters, iTablet prototypes lying around, or "how to act around His Steveness" employee pamphlets. Could it be that the people who work at Apple are, strangely enough, just like us?No, surely not. These pictures are also a bit out of date, we're told, as rumor has it that the front lobby always shows off the new products, not the old iMacs. So clearly these snaps are from the late '90s, when the rest of us were using beige boxes and OS 9 to compute, and only Apple employees had the luxury of using thin keyboards and horizontal LCDs gone vertical (madness!) in their super-futuristic office space. There: our worldview is back to normal. As normal as it gets, anyway.Thanks, Steve!
Nokia's N82 spotted, handled in the wild
In the midst of all this Gphone hysteria, we won't fault you for forgetting about a Nokia candybar first noticed way back in May, but pictured above is the first (confirmed, at least) in the wild shot of the firm's 5MP-packin' N82. You heard right -- this handset sports a five-megapixel camera (complete with Carl Zeiss lens and a Xenon flash), WiFi, Bluetooth, integrated GPS, 3G connectivity, Nokia Music Store access and automatic screen rotation. Regrettably, there's still no word on a price / release date, but click on through for a couple more angles, and check out what the built-in camera can do in the read link.[Thanks, pdexter]
Vii, meet Wii -- the wannabe gets caught in the wild
Just in case you thought this whole Vii thing was one big prank, guess again. Our pals over at Engadget Chinese managed to scrounge up one of these clones and put it toe-to-toe with its idol. Needless to say, Nintendo's unit tends to demand quite a bit more respect, but why not take a look at their gallery and see how the two really stack up.Update:Live video
Motorola RAZR 2 V8 for T-Mobile caught in the wild
As you well know, Motorola's RAZR 2 V8 isn't slated to land on T-Mobile until October 15th, but how's about a few looks to keep you antsy over the weekend? Thanks to a tipster who managed to get his hands around one of the T-Mobile-branded handsets, we're now getting our first looks at the device. So without further ado, why not check out the gallery below to see what the fuss is all about?[Thanks, Chris]%Gallery-8543%
HP's iPAQ 312 Travel Companion gets hands-on treatment
It was but a few weeks ago that we got wind of HP's iPAQ 300 Series Travel Companion, and now the folks over at AVing have had the chance to wrap their palms around the slim navigator and browse its features. Granted, you're already well aware of the 312's specifications, but if you're interested in taking a closer look at the exterior (and the 3D maps, too), feel free to tag the read link for the full spread.[Thanks, Robert M.]
Asus' Eee PC 701 exposed in Russian review
Well, would you take a look at this. Turns out, 3DNews somehow managed to get their palms around (and within) Asus' Eee PC 701 for a hands-on review. Granted, a heap of the writeup was a bit hard to grasp without understanding Russian (or being a master in deciphering broken translations), but we were able to notice that their sample unit boasted a 900MHz ULV Intel Celeron M processor, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a seven-inch 800 x 480 resolution display, Ethernet, a 56k modem, and 802.11b/g. Additionally, the wee machine was even put through a series of benchmarks, so if you're interested in digging through an early review (or just want to brush up on your Russian), head on over to the read link -- but for those just yearning for a few more pics, they're posted after the break.
First "real" snapshots of Meizu's M8 supposedly surface
We'll be the first to admit that the first "real" photographs of Meizu's M8 still appear mighty doctored, but hey, so long as the final product looks this good, we'll be content. Nevertheless, the firm has made available three supposed snapshots for us to drool over, and while we're far beyond the point of actually believing anything these guys say in regard to a release date, the latest news on that front has the finalized unit ready for testing by the year's end. 'Course, there's still no set date for actually getting it into the needy hands of consumers everywhere, but the most recent price estimates peg the 4GB M8 at 2,380CNY ($314) and the 8GB version at 2,880CNY ($380). Per usual, feel free to peep the other two snaps after the jump.[Via MyMiniOne]
Samsung's SGH-P520 gets photographed
Shortly after learning that Samsung's touchscreen-based SGH-P520 was slightly more than a figment of our imagination, a foreign site has seemingly sat down with oodles of time and snapped more images than you're likely to look at. Still, this oh-so-thin mobile has the sex appeal nailed down solid, so be sure and take a closer look at all the curves awaiting you after the break.[Via Slashphone]
Nokia's N81 snagged for lengthy photo shoot
Just days after catching the all-too-common blurred snapshots of Nokia's N81, here we have a plethora of photos that are much, much easier on the retinas. As expected, this diminutive slider is looking as good as ever, and that two-megapixel camera and 8GB of internal storage makes it all the better. You know the drill, click on through for a number of glamor shots as well as a few comparison snaps beside the N80.[Via JustAMP]
