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IFTTT Pro will let users create more complex actions for $10 per month
IFTTT introduced a new $9.99 per month Pro plan for unlimited applet creation.
WhatsApp says its forwarding limits are slowing the spread of fake news
WhatsApp's measure to restrict the spread of fake news appear to be working.
Google Duo's group video limit rises to 12 people just at the right time
With many of us cooped up at home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, video calls have become a rare lifeline to friends and family. To that end, Google has updated its popular Duo chat app by increasing the group video user limit from eight to 12. That'll make calls more of a party, as you join up with loved ones to share news and commiserate.
UK raises contactless payment limit to £45 amid coronavirus spread
The limit for contactless card payments in the UK will be increased to £45 from April 1st. According to UK Finance, the decision was already under consideration by those in the industry, but the process has been sped up to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, and to support consumers that would rather pay by contactless at this time. It's important to clarify, however, that the World Health Organization has not warned people against using paper money and coins, but it does advise thorough handwashing after handling it.
A new bill could ban facial recognition in federally-funded housing
Now that facial recognition is more common, so are the laws aiming to limit its scope. San Francisco, Oakland, Calif. and Somerville, Mass. have all passed laws prohibiting city use of facial recognition. Now, a group of Congresswomen hope to pass the first federal legislation to limit the technology. According to CNET, the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act is expected to be introduced this week.
Facebook fact checkers will soon review Instagram posts
Fake news, conspiracy theories and misinformation aren't just problems for Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. They're also rampant on Instagram. While Instagram has been working to reduce the reach of false posts, starting this week, it will go a step further. Soon, the platform will run potentially false posts past Facebook's fact-checking partners.
Gmail now lets you receive 50MB attachments
"Sending and receiving attachments is an important part of email exchanges," quoth the announcement on the official Google blog. The only downside is that the search engine is quite heavy-handed with attachment sizes, capping both incoming and outgoing messages at 25MB. At least, that was the case since, from today, Gmail now allows you to receive mails with attachments up to 50MB in size.
Comcast's 1TB data caps start to roll out nationwide
Comcast's data restrictions are going from testing to reality for most of its customers. Its 'XFINITY Terabyte Internet Data Usage Plan' is already in place in a number of places, and will roll out to 18 new markets (including California, Michigan, Florida and others listed on its FAQ) beginning November 1st. For its part, the ISP claims 99 percent of customers use less than 1TB of data per month, and that median use is just 75MB (correction: 75GB). Of course, with digitally delivered games and software, and streaming video that is increasingly coming in HD and 4K resolutions, that could change rapidly.
iOS games are about to get bigger and (hopefully) better
Not many apps hit iTunes' 2GB file limit, but those that do tend to fall into a certain category (cough games). As a result, developers often must sacrifice graphics quality and effects for iOS titles, the exact problem we pointed out with the recent BioShock iOS release. But Apple has finally lifted that limit, and the max file size on iTunes titles is now 4GB, according to its developer site. That should result in better games, with a caveat. If you decided that $949 was a tad too much to pay on the 128GB iPhone 6 Plus and went for much cheaper 16GB iPhone 6 instead, you may not have enough space for the latest, largest titles.
Report: PS Vita with 32GB memory card can display 100 apps, no more
One Vita owner and NeoGAF member has discovered that even if his PlayStation Vita's 32GB card has space remaining in its storage, the system can display only up to 100 apps.Shagg_187 shared the above photo, explaining that his card had 9GB of space left, with around 50 minis, 10 PSOne games, 20 mandatory apps, and 20 Vita or PSP games and apps. We've contacted Sony for an explanation on the numerical cap. Until then, maybe start treating your apps like children and think about which one really is your least favorite.
Blizzard shows parental controls for World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and StarCraft II
MMOs and other online games have such a wide appeal that they attract players of all ages. Some MMOs simply add a minimum age requirement to the signup process and advise parents not to let their children play, but others implement strict parental controls. Blizzard recently released a new video explaining the parental controls that parents can use to monitor and control their childrens' play time in World of Warcraft, Diablo III and StarCraft II. Parents can use the system to limit the total number of hours an account can play each day or week or even schedule specific play times on a calendar. The controls can also limit the use of RealID and voice chat and even mute all of the game's chat channels if necessary. Parents can also disable Diablo III's real money auction house and use of the Blizzard forums. WoW Insider suggests that parental controls may actually be equally useful to students who need to limit their play time or any player who might want a weekly report of his activity. Read on to see the full video and find out how to use parental controls on your child's Battle.net account.
Google Music users granted de-authentication reprieve as company retools activation system
Google Music users learned of a frightful new policy this morning that dictates a user may de-authorize only four devices in a year, out of ten total activations. While the policy is likely to go unnoticed by the majority of consumers, it instantly created a great pain for those who regularly flash ROMs to their phones and tablets. It seems the road to de-authorization hell is paved with good intentions, however, as Google has since responded to critics with the revelation that it'll introduce an activation system that accounts for such nuances. We've determined through our own experimentation that Google has temporarily suspended the de-authorization limit of four devices, and while it's difficult to know how long this reprieve will last, we're hopeful that it'll remain in effect until Google implements this new system to recognize duplicate authorizations. Additionally, we've learned through our conversations with the company that users may, in fact, sign in to their Google Music account from any number of devices, and it's only when a tune is deliberately streamed that your smartphone or tablet will be added to the list of ten. What's more, while the company was rather insistent that songs couldn't be streamed to multiple devices at the same time, it seems that Google's system of checks and balances is spotty at best -- we were able to simultaneously stream tunes to three devices without so much as a hiccup. Yes, the system eventually shook its finger at us, but it serves as a nice reminder to have fun while the insanity lasts.
PSA: Google Music allows four device de-authorizations per year, rooters beware
Just when you thought you could go on rooting and switching ROMs with impunity, it turns out you can't -- at least, not if you want to continue enjoying your Google Music account. Watchful eyes at XDA Developers have discovered a snag in Google's authorization system, which means that not only is there an upper limit of ten devices that can be authorized simultaneously, but there's also a limit of four de-authorizations per year. Since every time you flash your phone or tablet counts as a new authorization, and since your other devices probably hog a few tickets already, rooters will quickly hit the ten-device limit, at which point they're going to have to think long and hard about their de-auth strategy. Is that a ration of one flash per quarter? But then what happens if you buy a new device in a few months' time? Oh, this is too much. [Thanks, Aman]
Apple ups over-the-air download limit to 50MB for iOS
This tid-bit didn't warrant a lot of attention during Apple's presentation today, but it's definitely worth noting: the limit on downloads from the App Store is now 50MB over-the-air, instead of a paltry 20MB. Now, anything larger than that and you'll still need to hop on a WiFi network, but you probably don't want to chew through your data plan that quick any way. So, enjoy downloading Jaws Revenge without the aid of 802.11.
India caps text messages to curb telemarketing, Desi teens plot mutiny
SMS-based telemarketing is a serious problem in India -- so serious, in fact, that the government has decided to crack down in a pretty severe way. As of this week, every Indian mobile user or company is allowed to send only 100 text messages per day, as part of a new anti-spam initiative from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The move is just the latest in a series of campaigns to combat a boom in aggressive telemarketing that, according to some, borders on harassment. Authorities say spam phone calls have already declined significantly since 2007, when the government instituted a national "do not call" registry, yet the problem persists, with many users complaining of receiving commercial texts during the wee hours of the night. Regulators seem confident that these new rules will go a long way toward solving this riddle, though some have been left wondering why India's millions of mobile subscribers should pay the price, rather than the spammers themselves. The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, is reporting that subcontinental telemarketers have already begun circumventing the new regulations by re-focusing their efforts on junk mail, ad-based Twitter feeds and other ways to be just as annoying as they ever were. [Image courtesy of Thomas Hawk]
Rogers listens, bumps data caps, lets you stream a few extra Netflix movies a month
Rogers hasn't exactly made a lot of fans with the rather draconian caps on its cable modem service. But the company wants you to know, it has heard your complaints and doesn't want to cut you off from your precious, bandwidth-intensive Netflix streams. That's why it's raising the limits on its three top tier plans later this month. Extreme subscribers are getting a bump from 80GB to 100GB, Extreme Plus users from 125GB to 150GB, and Ultimate customers from 175GB to 250GB. The company is even boosting speeds, you know, to help you make more efficient use of that newly raised data ceiling -- from 15Mbps to 24Mbps for the Extreme and 25Mbps to 32Mbps for Extreme Plus. It's always nice to see a company listen to its customers, and come on, data caps aren't all that bad.
Netflix pushes max number of registered Watch Instantly devices to 50
We're not sure when this happened, but those keeping a close eye on the number of device activations tied to their Netflix Watch Instantly account will notice the max number of devices has recently gone up to 50. While that will be pleasing to hear for those that switch between computers / consoles and set-top boxes frequently, a quick look at our account listed 16 activations, half of which appeared to actually be just one PC and browser. Either way, with the streaming service ubiquitous on so many devices being able to activate and forget it without having to bump something else from the list will be helpful going forward -- as long as you don't share it too widely. [Thanks, Edwin]
Cisco phasing out FlipShare: 30 days to save your videos
Many Flip fans are already sporting black arm bands with little red spots in honor of the dying brand, and the New York Times reports there's more bad news coming. Starting May 12th, all videos uploaded to FlipShare will expire 30 days after they've been posted. This applies to videos you've already uploaded as well --- so you've got till June 11th to follow the lead of Google Video users and back up your collection of clips before they disappear into the digital ether. The FlipShare service will continue to live on for another two and a half years, if you don't mind the one month limit, but clearly Cisco wants users to move on with their video-sharing lives. Check out the more coverage link for instructions on how to export your videos, and let's have one more moment of silence for the tiny camcorder that could... at least until it couldn't.
PSA: AT&T DSL and U-Verse landline internet caps begin tomorrow, if you can see this website
Tomorrow is May 2nd, 2011, and you know what that means -- tomorrow is the day that AT&T will impose data caps on DSL and U-Verse Internet, and begin tallying up overage fees. At least, that was the plan on March 18th -- when the company formally announced 150GB DSL and 250GB U-Verse caps -- but even if you're a paying customer who chows down several hundred gigabytes in a month, you may not have to worry about paying extra right away. AT&T specified that folks like yourself will have access to an online tool to self-police your usage before the company even begins to calculate the cost of your formerly all-you-can-eat bandwidth buffet, and as you can see in the picture above, the tool isn't quite ready for public consumption across the entire country. Scoot on over to our source link, enter your AT&T ID, and if you see the same, perhaps you won't have to cancel your 700-hour Star Trek marathon quite yet.
Microsoft: 15-app push notification limit isn't that big of a deal, could be increased in the future
So Microsoft sounded off this week on the row over the 15-app push notification limit that just recently came to light, and while they've confirmed that the limit is very real, they've done a good job busting some of the FUD, explaining why it's not a huge deal, and how the limit might change in the future. First off, apps that support push but don't have it enabled don't count toward the limit, so that means that you won't necessarily end up with crashy software as long it's all coded correctly to handle errors raised by the operating system. Secondly, built-in live tiles -- Outlook, People, and so on -- don't count toward the limit, so if you include those, you could actually end up with over 20 total live tiles (sounds excessive to us, but we're sure someone's going to want to push the envelope). And finally, Microsoft notes that they imposed the limit to best balance battery life, bandwidth consumption, and server load but that they had to effectively take a stab at the dark at how notifications would be used in practice; as they learn more and collect data, the limit could be raised. All in all, sounds like this limit is going to affect a tiny sliver of users -- and it'll affect even fewer as long as apps are coded properly.
