The Award Winning Place for Plain English Explanations of Internet Stuff
As men and women across the country (and around the world) struggle to both upgrade the definition of ‘consent’ and to understand the new paradigms, it seems only natural that app makers would get into the game. Sexual consent apps such as We-Consent, SaSie (Safe and Secure intimate encounters) and LegalFling have all thrown their hats (and whatever other clothing) into the ring to be your assurance that consent to intimate encounters goes recorded.
Have you ever wished you could have a second screen for your Macbook or Windows PC, but just couldn’t justify the expense or real estate? Well if you have an iPad or Android tablet you’re in luck, because there’s an app to turn your Android tablet or iPad into a second screen! You can even use your iPod or iPhone as a second screen, if you want to!
While we personally find this vaguely-to-very disturbing, some of our readers may be interested in the newest thing for long-distance relationships: sending ‘actual’ kisses across the Internet. The Kissenger, which calls itself ‘the world’s first mobile kiss messenger’ accessory, and exhorts you to “experience Internet kissing”, is an add-on to your iPhone that you actually kiss, and which translates and sends that kiss to anyone who also has a Kissenger, who will feel the kiss you sent against their own lips, cheek, or other body part*. {Ed. note: Obviously this will be put to uses other than lip-to-lip or lip-to-cheek kisses.}
The new, updated Starbucks app finally allows you to tip your barista from your Starbucks card (well, from its digital representation, through the app). However, how to tip your Starbucks server is completely unclear – so here is how to tip using the Starbucks mobile app. Here is the first thing to realize: you can’t tip at the same time as you make your purchase! That right there should save you hours of frustration, trying to figure out why you can’t tip at the point of purchase.
Siri has made it incredibly easy to set reminders on your iPhone. Want to be reminded of something you have to do at a certain time? Tell Siri to remind you when it’s time. Want to be reminded of something you need to do when you arrive somewhere? Tell Siri to set a reminder based on location. But what if you want to set a reminder manually – silently – without invoking Siri? Maybe you’re in a meeting, or church, or somewhere else where you don’t want Siri blabbing her loud mouth?
If your Android is operating on the 4.2 operating system, AKA Jelly Bean, you may notice something in your calendar is missing – the entire month of December. Those running the 4.2 operating system on the Nexus 4 device, Nexus 10 device, Nexus 7 tablet and Galaxy Nexus smartphones have reported the issue.
What if you want to check to see which of your friends are having a birthday using the Facebook mobile app? Is it even possible? It is, but it’s not obvious how to do it. Here is how to find a list of your friends who are having birthdays today and upcoming using the Facebook mobile app.
If you have started receiving spam iCal calendar invitations on your iPad or iPhone or Mac, you’re not alone. This is because of some change that Apple has made allowing spammers to send you ‘in-app’ iCal invitations for calendar events. Here’s how to turn that off.
If you are trying to cancel your paid subscription with Match.com and get the message “You are currently subscribed through the iTunes App Store. Please log in to your iTunes account to manage any subscription issues” when logged into Match on your computer, you may be having trouble figuring out exactly how to do that. They certainly don’t make it easy (but of course it’s easy enough to sign up for that paid subscription.
SnapChat has just unveiled SnapChat Spectacles – sunglasses which have an embedded video camera so that you can record video Snaps from a truly first-person perspective. To enhance the perspective, the video is shot in a circular frame rather than a more traditional rectangular frame. SnapChat has also rebranded itself to just Snap Inc..
A new Russian facial recognition app called FindFace is raising privacy concerns around the world. Unlike other recent facial recognition systems, Find Face works somewhat in reverse: rather than recognizing images of someone already known to you, it allows you to take a picture of a stranger, and then it will identify who the person is for you. Source say that so far it works about 70% of the time, based on it’s usage with Vkontakte (also known as VK), which, with 200million users, is said to be the European equivalent of Facebook, and third in size only behind Facebook and Twitter.
So far no ‘solution’ to the problem of drivers texting while driving, or otherwise using their phone while driving their car (for example, using the maps app), seems to have made much of a difference. Now a new app, called JoyRyde (nee ‘JoyRide’) is hoping to change that by rewarding drivers for not using their phone while behind the wheel.
Uber has announced that it is putting autonomous vehicles (self-driving cars) on the streets later this month. The first city to get the Uber robot cars is Pittsburgh, and experts say that if Uber’s self-driving cars can handle Pittsburgh, they can handle anywhere.