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USPS will email you images of what's in your mailbox
We've all done it. Take a few minutes to walk to the mailbox only to discover it's either empty or filled with junk that immediately goes in the trash. The US Postal Service is testing a new tool that will save you a trip if there's nothing interesting to be found. The feature is called Informed Delivery and it sends up to 10 images a day of what's in your physical mailbox to your email inbox.
Snap makes your Android widgets reachable from any app
Android's widgets are certainly helpful, but you have to duck out to your home screen (where they also consume valuable real estate) to see them. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just take a quick glance? You can, with the right tools. Francisco Barroso's Snap lets you stuff widgets into a notification bar drawer, where they're accessible from any app. It's a bit like iOS' Today view, only more customizable -- if you want a giant, always-available Flipboard widget, you can make it happen. Snap is free if you only need quick access to three widgets, and it'll cost you a modest $2 to remove that cap.
Facebook's mobile notifications say more about the world around you
Facebook's mobile app practically revolves around the notifications tab, but it can be a pretty insular place. It won't show much about what's happening in your friends' lives, let alone the outside world. The social network wants to change that, though. It's rolling out an expanded notifications tab that will show you friends' life milestones, events you've joined and a few details based on pages you've liked, such as sports scores and upcoming TV shows. You can also see local goings-on if you like, including movies, restaurants and weather. This isn't exactly Facebook's take on Google Now, but it'll certainly seem familiar.
Google is killing Chrome's notification center for Mac and Windows
In 2013, Google added a full-fledged notification center to Chrome for Windows, Mac and Linux that combined rich notifications from web pages with Google Now info. However, it seems that almost no one ever used that notification center, so Google's killing it in the next version of Chrome. In its Chromium blog, Google admitted that "few users" visited the notification area, so it would be removed to streamline the desktop experience.
Twitter noob Snowden gets hammered with 47GB of notification emails
What happens when one of the most wanted men in the world joins Twitter and forgets to disable email notifications? 47GB of emails. As you might expect, Edward Snowden was immediately inundated with followers, replies, favorites, DMs and retweets -- all of which came with individual alerts to the NSA whistleblower's email account. For reference, Snowden currently sits at 1.26 million followers (and counting) and his first tweet earlier this week has been favorited 110,000 times with 120,000 retweets. Hopefully his phone was in silent mode. [Image credit: AP Photo/Charles Platiau, Pool]
Facebook can notify Android users via Chrome, as well as its app
Facebook has just flicked the switch on notifications via Chrome on mobile. Previously, if you wanted the social network to send you updates, you'd have to have the Facebook app installed. Now, if you browse to Facebook's site with Google's mobile browser, you'll be asked if you'd like to receive notifications (or not). At least on Android, for now. If this sounds familiar, it's because Google announced the planned feature back in Spring, only Facebook (by far and away the biggest notifier of anything?), finally added the feature this week.
Slack ties in with Windows 10's notification center
Communication / productivity tool Slack is starting to blend in with Windows 10 after its latest update. In version 1.2.0, notifications show up in the desktop OS' Action Center, and clicking them links directly to the appropriate conversation in the app. Many Windows applications never updated to take advantage of new features in Windows 8, or even to become fully compatible with how it worked with hardware like touchscreens, so it's encouraging to see some support.
Twitter adds desktop notifications to direct messages on the web
Twitter's direct messages via the web just got more useful. Today the social network will start rolling out DM notifications for its site which will be available for everyone by the end of the week. Once it does go live for you, if you have Twitter.com open in a browser tab and get a DM, a notification will appear in the top right corner of your display. The company has really been pushing for the DMs feature to become a full-fledge messaging service to compete with the likes of Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. In addition to today's desktop news, it recently removed the 140-character limit from direct messages and in January added group messaging. The company has been in the midst of determining how to attract and keep new users to its service. Expanding one of the core features into something most people use on a daily basis, it might be able to get those users to stick around and actually post status updates.
Huawei's got another low-end smartwatch in the works
Huawei hasn't even launched its first Android smartwatch yet and it's already talking-up the following entry into the wearables business. As Engadget Chinese reports, the company revealed that it's working on the Band Zero, a watch-style device for cheapie sub-brand Honor. We've only got rendered images to go on, but it's believed that the device will tell the time, offer fitness tracking and some basic smartphone notifications. In addition, Leiphone is reporting that the hardware will have a battery life for four days and be both dust and water resistant to IP68 standards. That's all that there is to say right now, but perhaps it might be wise if Huawei concentrated on getting its products out of the door instead of teasing us with what's coming up in the future.
Google lets you hide unwanted web notifications
When you launch a Google service like YouTube or Gmail on the web, there's always a little bell icon in the corner hiding a bundle of notifications. For many people, this feed is a complete mess and full of alerts for services they rarely use. Well, now Google is making it a little easier to focus its notifications on the tools that really matter to you. As Android Police notes, it's now possible to hit the settings cog and toggle alerts for Google+, Photos and YouTube individually. Never use Google's social network? Now you can remain blissfully ignorant whenever someone adds you to a circle or gives your post a +1. Likewise, if you only care about knowing when people have replied to your YouTube comments, it's now much easier to keep those notifications front and center. At the moment only a handful of Google services are supported, but if enough people start using it, we suspect it'll only be a matter of time before the company bundles in all of its web properties.
Google's Cloud Messaging now sends notifications to iOS devices
Google's Cloud Messaging is no longer just for sending alerts to Android devices or your web browser. The internet giant has announced that the service now pushes notifications to iOS devices as well -- your favorite app can deliver updates to all your gadgets using a single system. The Cloud Messaging update also introduces topics, so an app can ask you about getting only the notifications you care about. A news app can send you notifications about tech and world news, for instance, while skipping entertainment. These features will take a while to filter down to the software you use, but they promise to both keep your hardware in harmony and cut back on some noise. Don't miss out on all the latest news and updates from Google I/O 2015. Follow along at our events page.
'#Notifications' is a weak attempt at simulating online abuse
Spend enough time on social media and you're bound to make a mistake that'll piss a few people off. It's pretty much inevitable. That's what the free indie "game" #notifications is all about. It begins the way many of us start our day: lying in bed, checking Twitter ("Twiddler" in this case) on a smartphone. There's a single eponymous notification for you at this point: a favorite on a tweet from the night before reading, "Tomorrow's going to be good, I can feel it!" That was incredibly short-lived.
Do you need a $249 'smart' water filter?
There seem to be three mindsets when it comes to the water we drink. You can care a lot about it and buy bottled; care a lot about it and have a water filter; or you just drink from the tap. Maybe it's because I fit into the third category that water filters don't really seem like a growth market to me. A casual survey of my colleagues tells me there are lots of people that do care, though. Cove is built for them. The pitch is simple: Our natural water is full of crap. Harmful chemicals, heavy metals, pathogens. You name it; it's in there. Most filters do a good job at removing chlorine and other elements, but according to some studies, many introduce bacteria into your water. Cove's new filtration system apparently solves that issue, and, this being 2015, it's wrapped up in a "smart" housing that talks to your phone.
BBC Sport widget delivers the news without annoying you
If you're a serious ports fan, keeping up with the latest results, injuries and transfers can feel like a full-time job. Plenty of apps offer all of this information in one place, but then you're often left with two options: continuously open the app, or set up push notifications and face an onslaught of vibrations in your pocket. Now, the BBC is trying to tackle the problem with a new "Top Stories" widget for its Sports app. On iOS, that means you can read the most popular headlines from the Notification Centre and jump through to the app if one grabs your interest. They work well enough, although some of the headlines are a little too short and ambiguous. On Android, however, the new home screen widget lets you choose from different sizes and sports. Neither addition is particularly earth-shattering, but they could prove useful if your smartphone is becoming a notification nightmare.
Chrome's push notifications reach your Android phone
Chrome's website push notifications are no longer confined to your desktop -- they now surface on your phone, too. Grab Chrome 42 for Android and you can opt into alerts from websites that show up no matter what you're doing. You won't have to worry about missing out on breaking news, even if your favorite sites don't have dedicated apps. You'll also have an easier time adding home screen shortcuts for those sites if you always want them close at hand. It'll be a while before many of the sites you frequent can deliver notifications (eBay, Facebook and Pinterest are some of the early adopters), but it's worth upgrading now to get ready.
Google Chrome's push notifications are now available to everyone
You no longer have to grab a test version of Chrome to try push notifications for yourself. Google has released the finished version of Chrome 42, which lets websites send you alerts (with your permission, of course) whether or not the browser is open. You can get breaking news, for example, or find out when someone outbid you in that antique auction. The feature will be more than a little familiar to Safari users, but this is platform-independent -- you should see it in Linux and Windows, too. There aren't any other conspicuous improvements to Chrome, but Google is promising lots of under-the-hood performance and security improvements that should make your update worthwhile.
Hack puts iPhone notifications on an Android Wear watch
Android Wear isn't going to officially support iOS devices any time soon, but that doesn't mean that the two platforms can never see eye-to-eye. Developer Mohammad Abu-Garbeyyeh has tweaked Android Wear to make it display an iPhone's notifications using the same ANCS technology as Pebble's smartwatches. While the creator hasn't revealed every nuance of how this modification works, he claims that you don't need to jailbreak iOS or get root access on Android Wear in order to pull this off -- apart from the notification hack, your devices could behave normally. Not that you'd necessarily want to snag a Moto 360 or LG Watch Urbane just to try this project, at least not in its current form. Even if the code were readily available (it isn't), you still wouldn't get Google Now or app support. This is more to show what's possible, not what makes sense.
Any app that works with Android Wear now works on your Pebble
It's been splashing around in beta for a little while, but now your Pebble can respond to notifications directly from that monochrome screen -- kind of like Android Wear, sans touchscreen. You'll need to update your Pebble smartwatch firmware as well as download the very latest edition of of the companion Android app to get rolling. But given Pebble's popularity and price, it should mean far more people are making wrist-based responses to messages. Aside from the ability to set multiple custom notification responses (available to you whenever a compatible app offers a reply option), you can toss money around with Square Cash. The update also adds support for Android 4.0 and over devices, as well as automatic app and watch face updates, even when your Kickstarted smartwatch is idle. Oh and you can reply with emoji. Hopefully, that will be enough to keep the Pebble on your wrist on until that fancy new interface arrives in the near future.
Google Now code hints at spoken notifications and third-party services
As convenient as Google Now may be, it has its limits: you're limited to Google's official services, and it's not very useful when you're driving or otherwise can't stare at your phone. A recent Android Police teardown of Android's search app has revealed that Google is exploring a handful of new features that would let you use Now in more situations. To begin with, there's preliminary code for spoken notifications. If you're on the road, you could get your phone to read traffic warnings aloud instead of distracting yourself by looking at the screen. There have been hints of a hands-free mode in Android for a while, but the new code hints that you might not even need to look in many cases.
Smartwatch-style notifications are finally coming to Polar's V800
Twelve months ago, Polar announced the V800, a supremely powerful GPS running watch that came with built-in activity tracking. The standout feature, however, would be that the device would offer-up Pebble-esque smartwatch notifications. Unfortunately, the company didn't have the development resources to make good on its promises, so the latter feature was iced in favor of improving the watch's swimming features. A year later, however, and the company is finally ready to make good on its pledge.
