You now need Facebook Messenger app to message!

As of this week, you will no longer be able to use the messaging feature in the Mobile Facebook App. Instead, as Facebook announced yesterday, it’s more than 200 million wordlwide users will need to use the separate Facebook messenger App on their mobile devices.

 

If you already have the messenger app installed, nothing will change. If you try to use the messaging function in the main Facebook app once the full change comes into effect, it will link you to the messenger app instead of the inbox.

 

Those of you who do not have the standalone Messenger App installed, either go ahead and install it (it’s free, so that’s a come up, right?) or say goodbye to all those lovely, animated Facebook conversations! And to those silly hooligans Pusheen, Meep, Biscuit and Beast. Now that’s a sad day! (If you don’t know who they are, well, you’re already missing out. Maybe.)

 

 

 

 

Apple TV now comes with these new stations

As of this morning Apple TV now includes a bunch more content !Hooray! Fox Now and CNBC now feature as part of the Apple TV line up, and FX now (including the Simpsons catalog) will be coming soon to an Apple TV near you!

 

To access Fox Now and CNBC you will need a cable subscription to unlock the content, however some videos and episodes will be available without this.

 

CNBC will show live broadcasts as well as previously aired content. With Fox Now, you will be able to access such wonderful shows as American Idol and Glee. Wait. We mean such wonderful shows as Family Guy. Yeah. That sounds better.  

 

So… Have you guys heard about the bird? The bird is the word. ( If you don’t get the reference – quick! To your Apple TV! Family Guy! )

 

 

 

Emjoi your FACE!

Everyone loves the glee Emoji’s bring us young and young at heart, but now, someone has gone a step further by doing that thing where you go I SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT and created an App where you can make an Emoji out of your FACE. Or yo mama’s face.

 

Created by San Francisco based App developer Tom Smith, Imojiapp has the ability to turn any face into a sticker that can then be used as an Emoji in iMessages.

 

Simply download the app (free from the App Store), sign up with your email address, agree to the terms and conditions ( Duh) and you’re off face creating!

 

Here is the favorite so far at the iPhone Antidote offices. Meet Papa Nu Guinea Pig as an Emoji.

 

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Deals of the Day!

 

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Today’s deal of the day proudly brought to you by Groupon! You guys should totally jump on a couple of the stellar accessory deals they have on sale right now.

 

For instance:

 

The BassBoomz 2.0 Portable Bluetooth Speaker. for $29.99

 

The QFX 2.1-Channel NFC Bluetooth Speaker System with FM Radio and USB/SD Port for $34.99

 

The Aduro 3-Piece Camera Lens Kit for iPhones for just $11.99

 

The Aduro U-Snap Wireless Selfie Remote Photo Clicker with Tripod for only $14.99

 

And last but not least, and our favorite of today’s deals – is The Roku Streaming Stick with 2 Months Free of Hulu Plus for a miserly $49.99. Although it’s competitor to Apple TV and we do prefer the latter, the price of Roku with the addition of 2 months free Hulu plus is a great deal.

 

Merry Friday!

 

 

Image courtesy of Webdesigner Depot – http://www.webdesignerdepot.com

OS X Yosemite Available on Beta today!

OS X Yosemite is Apple’s new update to their Mac operating system, and as per usual it will be released in the Fall of this year. What is not as per usual is that this year, Apple will be giving the public the opportunity to be a part of the OS X Beta program and try out Yosemite before the Fall. 

 

That’s right Kiddies! All that exciting stuff we talked about here, will be available at some of your very lovely fingertips as of… um.. when was that again…. oh yeah…today!

 

This is the first time a major version of OS X will be available to you guys, members of the public, before it’s actually released, so a lot of people are awfully excited.

 

So here’s the deal –  Beta means that the software is working, but needs some more testing before it’s formal release. It could just be in need of some polishing, or it could need a little more than that. There will most definitely be bugs and although almost all of the features will be there, some of them will not have full or even some functionality.  The idea behind releasing it to the public is basicallly to give us a sneak peak, make us feel special, and then use us as free testers so we can tell Apple any of the glitches that we encounter. Then, they fix all the problems, and OS X Yosemite is PERFECT come release day.

 

The number of people that are being accepted to take part in the Beta program is limited to 1 Million. To sign up and be 1 in 1 million, go to the OS X Beta sign up page  and follow the steps. It’s really easy. You will need a valid Apple ID and you will, of course, have to agree to the terms and conditions. (Duh.) Oh, and it’s free.

 

You will be able to find out automatically if you’ve been accepted as one of the million. Go! Go now! And…. congratulations!

 

 

Now here’s the slammer. We are part of the Beta program, but as such, we cannot talk about anything we see there that’s awesome and not yet publicly disclosed unless the person we’re talking to is part of the program also. So.. uh, you guys? Go join. But make sure if you do, you actually test it. We want Yosemite to be as good as it can be, so, therefore, we want the testers to be as good as they can be.

 

Yay for Yosemite! Oh! And also? Talking of slammers reminds us, Happy Tequila Day! Our tip for all of you over 21’ers out there today ( drinking responsibly of course) – if you’re doing shots of tequila, try orange and cinnamon instead of lemon and salt. You’re welcome.

 

3nder is here!


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So the next ‘nder’ App some people may or may not have been waiting for is here!  That’s right, it’s the threesome answer to Grindr, Tinder, and Brenda, and it’s called, trumpets please – 3nder. That’s pronounced ‘Threender’ for those of you playing at home. And playing at home (with more than one person) is indeed the aim of the game in the particular circumstance. Or, you know, in hotels and stuff too.

 

The App is new, even though the idea behind it certainly is not –  neither is how it works. Once you download the App from the App store, you log on through Facebook, set your parameters  such as distance around you in which you’re interested in finding people, how many people you are and how many people you’re looking for, and what kind of interests and desires you have.

 

For example – 24 yr old single guy looking in the local 300 mile area for a couple of bi ladies who are interested in adding a male bedroom partner to their date nights. And, good news guy – after playing around with the app for research, we can attest that there indeed are such ladies on 3nder!

 

The App then works it’s magic, and shows you pictures of people in your prescribed area, their interests and desires, if they are in a couple or single,their sexual persuasions,  etc. Scrolling through the pics, you have the option to swipe up over them to indicate interest, and to swipe down if it’s more of a mmmm….no. You can them continue on scrolling through your options.

 

Once you swipe up and you are lucky enough to be matched ( meaning of course that they are also interested in you)  you have a set time to talk to the person or people that you’re interested in, so there’s less of the procrastination that some find in Tinder, where you find a match and then everyone just sits around being excited about the match and not talking to the person.

 

As 3nder says, it’s ‘the gentlest way to form a trio, without the knowledge of your friends and family.’ And it just might be.

 

3nder is currently available free through the App store, although you can upgrade to an incognito version for $2.99. An Android version will be available later this year.

 

 

 

‘King Penguin threesome on the beach’ image provided by Liam Quinn under the CC BY-SA 2.0 License

Cellphone unlocking legal again!

Excellent news! Just a few days ago the United States Senate passed Bill S. 517  ( also known as the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act) to legalize cell phone unlocking so that consumers can switch carriers easily once their contract is up with their current carrier!

 

Yes!!

 

This means that once you’re finished on your contract you are legally allowed to unlock your phone, hence being able to move between carriers as you please. Originally, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act made it illegal to do so, followed by a exemption period from ending in January 2012, again making it illegal to unlock your phone. A petition was then recorded on the White House website opposing this which gathered over 110,000 signatures.

 

Hooray for common sense and the people’s voice, right?!

 

Kindle unlimited – books foreVER!

Kindle has today officially announced the release of their new Kindle Unlimited product, which should make the bibliophiles amongst us prettttty happy! Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service that offers unlimited access to all of Kindle’s library of titles and thousands of Audible audiobooks.

 

If you subscribe, you can access all of this on a Kindle, or on a Kindle app on the iPad, Mac or iPhone for a monthly fee of $9.99. . The nice guys over at Kindle are offering a 30 day free trial which also comes with a free three month Audible service.

 

Reading is pretty much one of the only things you don’t have to do in moderation, if you think about it, unless you’re paying a lot of money to do it. And now you don’t have to! Yay reading!

 

 

 

 

 

Google partnerships with Novartis for groundbreaking product

Google have announced that they have partnered with Novartis, the worlds biggest multinational pharmaceutical company, to work towards the development of a product that could have massive health repercussions if successful.

 

The product they have in mind is a ‘smart’ contact lens with capabilities to not only  help those who suffer with being shortsighted with an auto-focus type feature, but also to measure and transmit blood sugar levels of people who suffer from Diabetes. This would be a huge step forward in the care and health of diabetics not only with the elimination of manual glucose measuring  but with the ability for both themselves and their doctors to have real time blood sugar levels collated in a smart phone or similar device.

 

Google are already on their way with the creation of the groundbreaking product. As of January  their prototypes  being able to make one Glucose reading per second.

 

Those involved are saying that the development of the ‘smart’ lens will take at least 2 or 3 years to bring to market, but they are hopeful that with the collaboration of Novartis and those behind the miniaturization of electronics in the X blue-sky innovation arm of Google will be able to succeed as soon as possible.

 

This is one of many inroads into health technology being made by the big tech companies, and is a hugely positive marker that as an industry, they’re heading in the right direction!

 

New iOS 8 Features discovered

There’s by now been some time since the features of iOS 8 were announced at WWDC 2014. Developers have had access to the new operating system since then and some more details have arisen from that. Hooray for developers!

 

Here’s some of what they’ve discovered:

 

* You can send your iPhone or iPad’s last location to Apple before it’s battery dies.

 

* The magical miracle of Shazam will not be integrated into Siri, and you will have the option to buy or find out more about the song playing once it’s identified. Um, Awesome.

 

* Using Safari, you will be able to use the device’s camera to scan in credit card numbers when you make online purchases, rather than typing the number in. Because those numbers are soooo long, you guys.

 

* You know how sometimes you hand your phone or iPad to a friend so they can see a photo? And then they just start rolling on through all the rest of your photos? And sometimes we have photos that should not be seen by others, are we right? Well, in iOS 8 you will have the option to hide certain photos from the Moments, Collections and Years view within the app. The photos will still be visible in the albums view, but in a sneaky new ‘Hidden’ album.

 

* The Photos app will have two new albums; “Recently Added” and “Recently Deleted.” The Recently Deleted album will temporarily show photos that have been recently deleted. (d’uh).

 

* The Camera app will have a sweet new Time Lapse feature, manual exposure controls and a self timer mode for 3 or 10 seconds.

 

* The new Weather app will take it’s information from The Weather Channel in iOS 8 and will feature a bucket load more details about the weather- UV Index, sunset/sunrise times, humidity, pressure and that all important ‘feels like’ option.

 

* Photos will be able to be inserted into notes in iOS 8, so that instead of trying to describe that amazing thing you saw that one night that meant that you were actually supposed to be an astronaut, you can take a photo. Cos that’s a thousand words right there.

 

*There will be new options for calendars in iOS 8, including Islamic, Chinese and Hebrew. Meanwhile, keyboards will be available in Filipino, Marathi, Slovenian, and Urdu. Sladko!

 

* There will be location based apps displayed on your screen depending on where you are – the example given is the Apple App store App will display automatically if you’re in an Apple store. So many Apples.

 

* Peer-to-peer Airplay will give users the option to stream content via Apple TV without having to share a network connection.

 

So there you have it, some more details surfacing about iOS 8! Pretty neat ones too. Although we really can’t wait until the developers tell everyone about the iOS 8 line of sight transportation feature. Now that’s a rad feature.