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Bumble users can now match with anyone in the US
Like most things, dating has become more difficult since the coronavirus pandemic began. Dating apps recognize this, and to make life a little easier for users, Bumble is introducing a few new virtual dating features.
Christine Fisher04.14.2020
Pass Tinder’s catfish test and you’ll get verified
In an attempt to deter catfishing, or that awkward moment when you show up for a date and the other person looks nothing like their photos, Tinder is introducing a new Photo Verification feature. The tool will compare a series of real-time posed selfies to existing profile photos. If the photos match and pass a human-assisted AI review, the user will get a blue checkmark on their profile.
Christine Fisher01.23.2020
Chrome may shame slow-loading sites with 'speed badging'
While there are many, many worse things going on in the world than waiting far too long for a website to load, that's bound to tick off even the most patient of us. Google's not standing idly by, though, as it might start naming and shaming sites that take forever to display their contents in Chrome.
Kris Holt11.11.2019
LinkedIn's new quizzes can prove you're not lying on your resume
Starting today, LinkedIn is rolling out Skills Assessment quizzes. The short, standardized tests will allow you to prove your knowledge of everything from coding languages to Photoshop and Microsoft Excel. If you score in the 70th percentile or above, you'll have the option to add a "verified skill" badge to your profile. The change, LinkedIn hopes, will benefit both job seekers and recruiters.
Christine Fisher09.17.2019
Project Athena gets its own version of the 'Intel Inside' badge
Intel teased Project Athena at CES at the start of this year, then in May the company revealed what the program really hopes to achieve: super long battery life, fast charging and 5G all packaged neatly into ultra slim, lightweight devices aimed at today's "mobile go-getters." Now, the company has unveiled its visual identifier, which will indicate which laptops meet Athena's high specifications.
Rachel England08.08.2019
This cute Def Con badge beckons you to hack it
At previous Def Cons I wrote about the unofficial badges and the culture surrounding those pieces of technology. This year I was determined to move past my infatuation with blinking lights and colorful PCBs (printed circuit boards). Then I saw the Maneki Neko badge. It's the iconic beckoning cat (literally what "maneki-neko" means) with a moving 3D-printed arm and two 16-segment LEDs that blink at you while it waves.
Roberto Baldwin08.15.2018
TripAdvisor labels hotels involved in sexual assault cases
Travel reviews website TripAdvisor has launched a new badge notifying users that they may want to do more research about the hotel or resort they're looking at. "TripAdvisor has been made aware of recent media reports or events concerning this property which may not be reflected in reviews found on this listing," the notification says. "Accordingly, you may wish to perform additional research for information about this property when making your travel plans." The company promised to launch the badge after a report revealed that it deleted several users' reviews warning others of rape and assault that allegedly happened over the years in some of the highest-rated resorts on the website.
Mariella Moon11.09.2017
Google experimented with a Star Trek-style Communicator badge
Did you ever watch Picard's Star Trek and hope that someday, we too might communicate with just the touch of a lapel-worn gadget? No, we didn't really, either -- Bluetooth headsets quickly poured water on that fire. But, Amit Singhal, senior vice president and software engineer at Google did, and the company even made a prototype. In a report in Time, Singhal describes the never-before-known wearable as a simple Bluetooth device controlled by touch, just like on the show. Once activated, your voice command would be passed to your handset, with feedback delivered by either a small speaker, or headphones.
James Trew11.23.2015
Dropbox badge and comments ease collaboration headaches
Remember that Dropbox badge we heard about in December? The ones that'll tell you when someone else is editing a shared file? Well, after a period of early access for some, that handy feature is now ready for the masses. If you're in need of a refresher, the badge allows you to see who is viewing or editing a file, and how long they've been at it. They can also be used to nab the most recent version of a file with a single click and grab a link for you to share the document.
Billy Steele03.17.2015
YouTube makes sure you know 4K videos are out there
Even though most of us are only just now starting to look at 4K / Ultra HD, YouTube has had support for the high-res video since 2010 (just two years after it started streaming in HD!). With more than four years of experience under its belt the video service has a bigger library of 4K video than you might think, and starting today it's highlighting that with a special label (shown after the break) to point out 4K videos. According to a spokesperson, 4K uploads tripled last year, and searches for 4K video continue to increase. YouTube says that the VP9 codec it showed off last year is helping that video squeeze through connections of all bandwidth sizes, so give those high quality streams a shot.
Richard Lawler02.25.2015
Mozilla launches Open Badges 1.0, delivers virtual kudos for real skills
We've long missed the stickers and badges we could wear to show achievements in our childhood, whether it was an A+ in History or our campfire-making chops. Mozilla must miss those too, as it's launching Open Badges 1.0, a spec for proving skills on the web. The approach provides verifiable credentials that are stowed away in a virtual Mozilla backpack and shareable through a number of online avenues, starting with WordPress blogs and Twitter updates. You won't necessarily need to be a web scripting wizard to earn badges, either -- they're available or coming from 600-plus companies and educational institutions that include Disney-Pixar, NASA and the Smithsonian. We're a long way from only having to flash our Open Badges to land a job, but those symbols may be enough to let teachers and coworkers know we're up to snuff for key tasks.
Jon Fingas03.14.2013
Apple's Sir Ive honored with BBC kids TV's greatest honor, the gold Blue Peter badge (video)
Knighthood, schmighthood. Apple's British design head has just picked up a golden Blue Peter badge. The show, which has been running on UK TV for over 50 years, even had their gift reciprocated, with Sir Jonathan Ive offering up a solid aluminum Blue Peter badge (above) that took over 10 hours to craft. Ive can count himself in good company, joining other luminaries like JK Rowling and David Beckham. The segment will air during a gadget special tomorrow, but you can watch the exchange between kids TV and Apple design right after the break.
Mat Smith02.15.2013
Instagram Badges are now available, because your web profile deserves the love
It's a minor move, but the app that never even acknowledged the desktop world until recently is taking its first notable step to promote Web Profiles. Instagram has today launched Badges, which are intended to help users "link to and promote one's Instagram web profile." Sure, designers with the right skill set have been able to do similar for some time, but now it's easy. Just surf over to your web profile, hit your username and select 'Badges' from the drop down menu. And just like that, you'll be on your way to adding yet another little icon to your About.me page -- not like things weren't crowded enough with Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Google+, Tumblr, Formspring and Foursquare already.
Darren Murph11.21.2012
Robotics merit badge gets official within Boy Scouts of America, Wall-E approves emphatically
Yours truly knows exactly how determined one has to be to achieve the honor of Eagle Scout, but it's getting a heck of a lot easier for the more modern offspring of this world. This month last year, we saw the Video Games belt loop sashay into the Cub Scout ranks and make all of the others seem inadequate, and now, there's yet another award that'll likely have your nerd-of-a-child clamoring to suit up in blue or brown. The Robotics merit badge was just made official within the Boy Scouts of America, falling nicely into a sect that promotes science, technology, engineering and math. Officials are purportedly expecting some 10,000 or so of the nation's 2.7 million Scouts to earn this badge within the next dozen months, with those who choose to do so required to "design and build a robot while learning about robot movement, sensors and programming." Thankfully for aspiring Ben Heckendorns, we're told that "even some video game controllers can be considered robots," proving that we're just one leap of faith away from a bona fide Hacking badge. Hey, they want us to Be Prepared, right?
Darren Murph04.10.2011
Foursquare debuts special "I voted" badge for 2010 midterm election
Hey, if you don't already know, tomorrow is election day. And if you're the kind of person that needs a present for doing things you should or would probably do regardless, well, this one's for you. Foursquare's just announced a special badge just to show that you voted in tomorrow's election! You can grab the 2010 election badge anytime tomorrow by voting and then checking in at your local polling place. The company is teaming up with a host of other organizations for real-time voting analytics as well, so if you're a numbers junkie, be sure to check out the source link.
Laura June Dziuban11.01.2010
Boy Scouts introduce videogame badge, other badges ask 'Really?'
Yes, really. The Boy Scouts of America have finally recognized that most important of modern children's pastimes with the creation of a "Video Games" belt loop and pin. However, our initial excitement on this momentous day is drastically lessened after reading how one goes about earning them. Here are the belt loop's three requirements: Explain why it is important to have a rating system for video games. Check your video games to be sure they are right for your age. With an adult, create a schedule for you to do things that includes your chores, homework, and video gaming. Do your best to follow this schedule. Learn to play a new video game that is approved by your parent, guardian, or teacher. To go on and earn the pin, Scouts will need to teach adults how to play videogames, participate in a family gaming tournament, and learn how to comparison shop for prices. In other words, the Boy Scouts aren't interested in how many digits you have in your Gamerscore, don't care how stuffed your Trophy Room is, and shun your techniques for surviving the latest Trials HD expansion. We, however, are all ears. Update: We're getting a number of e-mails upset that this post does not explicitly point out that these awards are for the Cub Scouts, not for the Boy Scouts. Mind you, the Cub Scouts are most definitely a part of the greater Boy Scouts of America organization, and anyone who knows anything about the BSA in the first place knows that pins and belt loops are exclusively for Cub Scouts. So, chill, yeah? Also, we're still waiting on that Trials HD advice -- we can't get 10 feet on those new Extreme levels without repeated faceplants.
Tim Stevens04.28.2010
Justifying the tiered badge system
Wrath is almost all wrapped up, and while we didn't know much about it before the expansion, we've all certainly experienced the token system that Blizzard implemented as they went along, where early instances drop one kind of badge/token, and then the newer instances offer up new tokens, which can then be exchanged back for the older ones and their rewards. Now that we see the big picture at the end of the expansion, it's pretty ingenious, actually, and it even allows Blizzard to beef up other parts of the game, as they did with the rewards in the new Dungeon system. Not that he needs to, but Bornakk steps up on the forums to justify exactly this kind of tiered system. Players complain that Ulduar is "useless" now that you can obtain its badges from lots of different places, but Bornakk says this system is definitely preferable to what Blizzard did in vanilla and BC, which was requiring new raiders to run through all of the old content before seeing the new and shiny stuff. They don't want the old content to sit useless (and it's not -- lots of guilds are still running Ulduar and even Naxx for the hard modes and achievements), but after the high-end raiders have their fun, it's important to get everyone else up to speed as well.
Mike Schramm11.19.2009
Patch 3.3: Emblems of Triumph to be the new base emblems
The floor is being raised again. Bornakk has stated that for the time being, the intent is to have everything that drops Emblems of Conquest drop Emblems of Triumph in patch 3.3. This will certainly players allow easier access to tier 9 level gear. Players who may not be at the upper tier of raiding will still gain access to the gear and weapons that will offer them a fighting chance against Arthas. Along with this change, quests like the heroic daily will drop the all new Emblem of Frost which will be the highest level emblem in the game. There are two other methods to obtain these emblems. The obvious route will be to take down Icecrown's raid bosses. The final method is to complete the new weekly raid quests that offer 10 Emblems as a reward for defeating a certain raid boss. Hooray for accessibility! Again, be advised that things may change and these aren't finalized. Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Matt Low10.07.2009
Neolux badges bring e-ink technology to trade show vendors, sweaty rock dudes
Ah, the backstage pass -- as much a part of the rock'n'roll lifestyle as sleeping with a roadie to get to the lead singer. Now, thanks to Neolux (an e-ink developer best known in these parts for its rather bland e-reader) the things have gotten that much harder to counterfeit. What does an e-ink badge do, exactly? Well, it does what a regular badge does -- with the added expense of color e-ink technology. How's that for progress? See for yourself after the break. Update: ...and by "color e-ink" we meant "regular old e-ink with a red overlay." Oldest trick in the book, really. Thanks to those of you who pointed it out! [Via E-ink Info]
Joseph L. Flatley09.22.2009
BlizzCon 2009: Lineblogging at the badge pickup
Good BlizzCon eve everybody! While Schramm was able to sneak in and get the inside scoop on the goody bag, some of us are still sitting out in here in line waiting patiently for our turn. While we were waiting, I grabbed my somewhat low quality woot purchased camera, had Michael Gray save me a place in line, and got some photos of the line. It's pretty long at the moment. At the least, it's snaked around the convention center. Check out our gallery below. %Gallery-70611% BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!
Daniel Whitcomb08.20.2009