The announcement of the Android Device Manager is sure to be good news for those of us who habitually lose or misplace our phones. Another little feature that allows you to securely wipe all the data in case it has been stolen is God-sent for the security conscious… and aren’t we all in today’s day and age? The Android Device Manager Service will be available later this month on mobiles and tablets running Android 2.2 or above from Google Play. The Android Device Manager will be a combination of an app and a web service. Some reports on the web indicate that it has already started rolling out, like this thread on Reddit attests. Android Police also has a report on the first signs of arrival.

The Device Manager will help you find your misplaced phone by playing a loud ring even if your phone is silenced – perfect for the absent minded among us. You can also use the web service to help pinpoint the location of the phone (or tablet) on a map in real time. You will have to be signed in with your Google account. More importantly than this everyday occurrence is the ability it will give the device owner to securely wipe all data remotely in case the phone is stolen or it is unrecoverable.

The Android Device Manager fills a lacuna that was being met with third-party apps – and there were a bevy of them. Apple has its own Find my iPhone solution while Microsoft too has a similar Find My Phone feature. As a default feature, it is still untested on the ground, and we can only wait for its arrival on all phones to see it in action. A welcome feature surely, but we still would welcome your comments on this development.

Source: The Next Web

 

The developers of the video and image sharing site, Imgur released last Thursday their iPhone and iPad mobile apps. The Imgur free iOS app is similar to the Imgur Android app released earlier this year.

Imgur (pronounced im-ij-er) allows you to browse the most viral images on the Internet, and vote and comment on them. Most of the displayed images are funny, cartoonish, entertaining, and sometimes insightful. Content can be browsed by Most Viral, or by the most recent posts. You can also view a random display of images, or do a SubReddit search of a topic you’re interested in. Selected photos can be copied and saved to your iPhone Camera Roll.

You can also upload photos straight from your own phone and submit them directly to the Imgur gallery. Posted images can be share to Facebook, iMessage, and a URL link to the iPhone clipboard. And if you register an Imgur account (which can be done using your Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo account), you can favor and comment on individual images and videos, as well as of see the feedback by other other members.

The iOS apps also include handy finger gesture features for quickly updating galleries and browsing between images and videos.

The online version of Imgur contains a meme browser and creator that allows you to upload and create your own content, or customize existing favorites.

Imgur started as an online image hosting service, founded by Alan Schaaf in 2009 in Athens, Ohio. Let us know what you think of Imgur and its new iOS apps. Are there features you would like to see added?

Source: Mashable

Pinterest launched a new feature on Thursday that will help users take a step towards actually purchasing the items they see: price alerts.

Pinterest has long served the Internet community’s place for virtual window-shopping. Typically, users pin items that they hope to have but may never even buy at all. Coming shortly after the release of Pinterest’s “pin price” feature which allows users to see the current price of their pinned items, the new price alerts help users keep up with price changes for items that they have set their sights on.

Users can activate price alerts simply by pinning items to one of their boards, and they will be notified via email when the price has dropped. To avoid unintentional spamming, representatives have already announced that various prices will be consolidated into as few emails as possible for the benefit of the user. If the email frequency is still too high, the user can customize it in their settings.

Pinterest hopes to add value to the pins on their site, and by teaming up with major and independent retailers, the new price alert system makes Pinterest stand out in the world of online commerce.

The new price drop feature also pits Pinterest against other sites such as Wanelo and Wantworthy which have already taken a stab at the consumer market.

How do you feel about the new Pinterest price alerts? Will you make use of them? Do you believe that the email notifications will be too much, or do you look forward to them? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Source: Pinterest via TechCrunch

Twitter has just improved the way we search on the microblog by giving us additional filters and what it calls “a social context”. The new search is a smart makeover, with suggested results revealing the relationship between the user and the other suggested accounts in the results. Twitter calls it “social context”. Photos and accounts have also been brought in as search filters in the other significant changes.  With the search improvements, users get to enjoy the same experience on their desktop and searching Twitter on mobiles.

Search is becoming more visual all around, and it is moving away from being text-only into the realms of social connectivity and multimedia. Twitter can’t be left too far behind in the game. First, when you type a query, Twitter will show you which of the other connections you follow, also follow the suggested accounts in the search result. Recent results and saved searches have been incorporated along with the social context which you can spy even as you type in your query. With a click you can see the top tweets, all tweets, and tweets from those you follow on the results page. It is a much cleaner way to dissect the tweets than before.

Photos have been given a tab all of their own. Think of it as a filter and it almost makes you think of Google Image Search. Clicking on People shows you the accounts behind the top tweets. You can choose to follow (or un-follow) users here. Twitter announced the changes with… a tweet.

Search update on http://t.co/eNvqKTup1d: See photos & accounts in results + recent searches & social context as you type your query.

— Twitter (@twitter) August 1, 2013

The announcement was surprisingly low-key because after last year’s overhaul of Twitter Search, this is another step in a richer direction.

Have you tried it out yet? Tell us how you find the update.

Source: Searchengineland.com

Drivers are important for every computer. Without them, hardware and software wouldn’t be able to communicate, leaving a system inoperable. Updates to drivers can dramatically improve the stability, speed and features of a computer without any changes to the hardware inside. Yet, for whatever reason, driver updates remain difficult to locate for most devices. Most users don’t update unless something has gone wrong.

Driver Booster, from IObit, promises an easier solution by acting as an all-in-one command center. All of your drivers are listed in the app’s interface, making them easy to update; or that’s the idea, at least. Let’s see if one interface can truly handle updates for all your hardware.

 

Quick Installation

The download for IObit Driver Booster is less than 20 megabytes, which is an exceptionally small file size for a modern program. Users lacking bandwidth will appreciate how easy the file is to grab.

Installation is dead-simple. There are no special options to select, no adware offers to avoid, no unusual choices to make. Most users will have the software installed within minutes of starting the download, and those are very quick connections might complete the entire process in less than sixty seconds.

 

Software With A Purpose

Driver Booster is designed with one goal in mind; update drivers. As such, it has a rather simple interface. All devices with drivers are detected automatically (and quickly) when the program starts, and those with out-of-date drivers are shown as “bad, worse, worst.” How “bad” a driver is appears to be based on how old it is relative to the latest version available. As you can see, I haven’t been doing a good job of updating my motherboard drivers – shame on me!

The list of devices shown by the software is very through and includes not only installed hardware but also peripherals like printers, monitors, mice and gamepads. All of this information come across as intimidating because there’s just so much of it (even the most basic PC will probably have 50 drivers), but there’s no need to filter through the list manually. Out-of-date drivers are automatically pushed to the top.

While drivers can be updated by clicking the “update” button, a right-click on a drive can be used to view its details (like the currently installed version) or add it to the ignore list. Once added to ignore, the driver will no longer be listed even though it’s out-of-date, and it won’t be updated when you perform the “Update All” action. This is useful if you have reason to hold on to the outdated version.

 

Smooth Driver Updates

Updating a driver through Driver Booster is an entirely in-app experience. In other words, there’s no need to launch a separate browser window or installation program to handle the process. The download and installation all takes place in Driver Booster, and the software even creates a restore point before the new driver is installed.

Multiple drivers can be updated at once using the “update all” button, or they can be updated individually. Whichever you choose, it’s a good idea not to use your PC until the software has finished installation of all scheduled updates. While using the PC shouldn’t be a problem in theory, in practice a computer can behave strangely while drivers are being installed. The monitor may flicker, peripherals may stop working, or the computer may seem to freeze for several seconds. All of this is normal.

Once the installation is complete you’ll be prompted to reboot your computer and the “update” button will change to a “reboot” button. Do so, and you’re done!

 

Other Options

While this Windows software is purpose-built for a very specific task, there are a few extra menus worth noting. First among these is restore, which can be accessed through the circular restore icon in the upper-right. The restore menu shows all of the restore points created during driver updates, which can then be selected and used to revert your PC to its previous settings. These restore points can also be accessed through Windows Restore in the unlikely event that a driver update crashes Windows and you can’t boot back to your desktop.

The other important menu is Settings, which is actually a series of sub-menus. This is where you decide how often your PC should be scanned for out-of-date drivers, select the download location of drivers, and manage the ignore list.

 

Conclusion

Driver Booster is not a complex program, but it does its job well. Downloading and installing drivers with the software is a cinch and often takes just minutes (or less). IObit has also thoughtfully included restore points and an ignore list, two essential features every driver manager must have. Though hardly innovative, Driver Booster is free, simple, capable and quick; what more could you ask for?