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Google's latest Chrome extension helps you link directly to a piece of website text
The extension makes it easier to point towards specific text.
Google's featured snippets now take you straight to the info you want
Google's highlighted featured snippet tool makes it easier to navigate to the information you want.
What becomes of a failed app: It tries to become the next Snapchat
A few days ago, a new app called Shorts arrived in the app store. The app lets you share your camera roll with anyone who's interested -- it's okay, you get to choose which photos and videos you want shared -- with the idea that your friends and family will get a peek into your everyday life, and vice versa. Creator Paul Davison likened it to a lifestream, where the mundane becomes entertainment, where oversharing is encouraged, where the meaning of "TMI" is pushed to the bleeding edge. "It's the most personal and intimate thing we've ever created," he said.
The Daily Grind: What was the highlight of your 2013 gaming year?
Folks, I hate to break it to you, but we're running out the clock on 2013. If it's been a year that's near and dear to your heart, I urge you to cherish every moment you have with it from now until midnight on New Year's Eve. After that, your only recourse is to wait for VH1's Remember the 2013s to air. Every year for gaming has its ups and downs, both for individuals and for the community as a whole. Instead of dwelling on the negative, I'd love for you to pick out one highlight of your 2013 gaming year to share with us. For me, it was probably getting to play WildStar at long last and finding that it's met my expectations and then some. I was nervous about that, because you know how hype can be, but now I can breathe easier and just get excited for launch. What about you? 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!
Highlight people discovery app adds Photos and Events to its 1.5 update
Highlight, a location-based people discovery app that made a splash at last year's SxSW Interactive in Austin, TX, just released a big 1.5 update that adds photo-sharing and event-creation to its set of features. Sharing snapshots has a whiff of the Color app to it: whenever you take a picture of something, that photo will automatically appear on your friends' Highlight stream as long as they're in the vicinity. You can add captions, tag it with a name of the place, your friends' names, and share them to Facebook or Twitter. The pics will automatically be geotagged of course, but if you don't like sharing that info, you can remove the lat-long information afterward. However, it appears that untagging is not yet available, which is why the tagging is limited to just friends for now. Creating events, on the other hand, is entirely different from what you might imagine. As opposed to planned invitations that you would create on eVite or Facebook, Highlight's Events are entirely spontaneous. You can only create an event "here and now" and the only people who are invited are those nearby (within a 250 meter radius or so). There isn't even a dedicated events tab; instead, you create or attend an event by tapping the map marker in the new post window. After you're done partying it up, the event will automatically end when people leave and stop posting due to the location and context-aware nature of the app. At the announcement in San Francisco, CEO Paul Davison said that both photos and event features intend to create a "new way to hangout." "They're not for thousands of friends," he said, "They're for the people around you in the room." Yet, all the photos and event information will be available publicly, so he emphasized the entirely opt-in nature of Highlight: "You're in the service because you want it." As the next SxSW Interactive is only weeks away, the company is keen to see how users will take to the new features in a high-density environment like the popular Austin conference. To give it a go yourself, you can download both iOS and Android versions right now from the App Store and Google Play.
Facebook testing 'highlight' feature, lets users pay $2 to promote their status updates
Finding ways to throw money at Mark Zuckerberg is notoriously difficult, but a new 'highlight' feature could be just the trick. Currently being tested with a small population of users, it allows an ordinary member to pay $2 to ensure that their latest status update crops up in more of their friends' news streams. Ordinarily, the degree to which a status update is streamed depends on the number of likes or comments it has, which ensures that users generally only see the juiciest gossip, but paying this little premium would cause Facebook's algorithms to distort that in your favor. In other words, it's money replacing popularity, or simply -- sigh -- life.
Google offers updates for Google+ this holiday season, fruitcake en route
If Google's idea of a stocking stuffer is tweaking Google+, its engineers are getting the gift-giving over with a few days early. Today, the company announced that it'll be introducing a few new features to its social network, including new controls that adjust how posts from a given circle are blended into the overall stream of posts, along with which posts are highlighted for your attention. The outfit also says it's working on refining its toolbar to highlight newer posts and see how widely your posts have been shared. For advertisers, up to 50 named managers can now administrate a Google+ Page, and a fix to the photo side of the site allow for improved navigation and better tagging. Head past the break to see full clips of the changes in action, and since Google bought out Santa's operation, expect to hear Eric Schmidt's footsteps on your roof come the 24th. Update: The Google+ Android app has also seen an update tonight, gaining the ability to start a hangout from a Messenger conversation, new photo album design and more. Hit the Android Market for more details.
Samsung Highlight comes to T-Mobile, we play with it
That rumored Highlight for T-Mobile is now official, filling yet another niche segment in Samsung's massive full-touch attack on the carrier -- an attack that now includes the Behold, the Memoir, and this bad boy. As you might have gathered from the appearance, this one comes in at the bottom end of that range, but it really doesn't slack on the spec sheet -- it's still managing to pack AWS HSDPA, a 3 megapixel camera, WQVGA display, quadband EDGE for world travel, AGPS, and a full HTML browser. It's available in two colors today -- fire and ice, which are basically orange and a black / cool blue combo -- for $149.99 on contract after rebates.We've been toying around with the Highlight this week in its "fire" livery, and we've got to say: for its entry-level aspirations, we're really impressed. The TouchWiz UI is plenty speedy, the browser was about as good as you could expect a Samsung dumbphone browser to be, we had an easy time adapting to the landscape QWERTY keyboard (and the numeric one, for that matter), and -- this is a biggie -- the screen felt really good. Historically, some of Sammy's full touch phones have had a reputation for having really bendy plastic screen -- and yes, granted, this is clearly still plastic, but it's thick and / or strong enough so that there's virtually no give to it. That definitely makes you feel more confident using the phone, and gives it a vaguely upmarket appeal. Do we recommend it? If you're looking for a relatively cheap way to get on T-Mobile's 3G network, yeah, absolutely, though we might wait until they get their pricing strategy figured out -- it's clearly a lower-end device than the Behold and it needs to be priced accordingly. If T-Mobile can manage to get it down to, say, $79.99, it's an all-around winner.
Samsung Highlight pictured, confirmed for July 15 release on T-Mobile?
That T-Mobile roadmap we analyzed with a fine-tooth comb a little while back already suggested we'd be getting Samsung's t749 Highlight on July 15, and that date's looking more solid than ever with new launch documentation that shows off the touchscreen set in all its low-end glory. We're not sure what's possessing these guys to fill every conceivable market segment in their lineup with a full touch Sammy, but the Highlight looks poised to slot in beneath the Behold with a 3.1 megapixel camera, 3G, and GPS on board. Pricing's still a mystery, but we're willing to be you'll be able to nab this one for a song.
T-Mobile roadmap shows Dell netbooks, BlackBerry Gemini, and more
Leaked carrier roadmap documents of unknown age and origin aren't necessarily the most accurate things in the world, but they are one very awesome, important thing: leaked. Pictured above is a fragment of one such spreadsheet that we've had the good fortune of receiving for T-Mobile USA -- obviously it's a little bit on the small slide, but no sweat, we'll walk you through what it's saying. Again, we wouldn't take these dates as the gospel truth, but we'd venture to say they're a good rough guide for what to expect out of these guys for the next few months. Move along for the full list![Thanks, anonymous tipster]
IBM project lets users make their own mobile versions of websites
Tired of waiting for your favorite bowling enthusiast website to finally release its long-awaited mobile optimized version? Yeah, we hear that -- but if a new IBM research project ever sees the light of day, maybe we can just fix that glitch ourselves. "Highlight" is a Firefox-based plug-in that allows end users to script common tasks on sites and boil them down to super simple mini-sites that are more easily digested on mobile browsers, at which point the new sites are copied up to a proxy server that would theoretically be hosted by IBM or another company. There could be some resistance from sites that aren't so keen on having their content re-hosted somewhere outside of their control, but it sounds like IBM is ready to push forward with the project if it generates enough interest. [Warning: PDF link][Via textually.org and PC World]
Cheaper PS3 loses HDMI, slots, Wi-Fi, 40GB
As you can see above, there are a few things different between the two PS3 SKUs planned. (Hint: the obvious alterations concern high-def output and wireless connectivity -- though Bluetooth controllers should work just fine with both, with or without any chrome case highlighting.)So what's HDMI, built-in multimedia card-reader slots, wireless internet connectivity, and an extra 40 gigabytes' hard disk space worth to you? $100? Now that Sony's gone with the 2-SKU approach with its next-gen hardware (a la the Xbox 360's premium and "Core" systems), we can expect some tough consumer choices after six months -- with console shortages possibly for another six months after that -- as $100 separates the base $499 and premium $599 versions of Sony's "Clear Black" hope.HDMI is important to those who want to take full advantage of Blu-ray high def and have the new screens to use it; MemoryStick, SD, and CompactFlash slots would be nice for the PS3 memory-card users and those will run multimedia on the system; Wi-Fi's the only way to avoid stringing ethernet cables for online access; and 360 owners might appreciate the full 60GB available to potential buyers of the premium PS3 model. Neither model comes with a second HDMI port; thankfully, one should hopefully be all most users need. The details are laid out in a feature-comparison table at the end of Sony's official PS3 hardware press release, available in both Adobe Reader and Microsoft Word formats. Determine what's most important to your PS3 ambitions there.[Image pieced together from the PlayStation.com forums; thanks, Guru]
