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GIFs are commonplace in our conversations today, and messaging apps are constantly taking advantage of them and making it easier to insert them into a conversation. Facebook Messenger added native support for GIF search last year, and now it’s adding further support for GIFs on Android by taking advantage of  Gboard’s built-in  search feature… In case you missed it, Google’s Gboard keyboard for Android recently, and quietly, expanded support for GIFs outside of Android Nougat, allowing for users on almost any OS version to quickly search for GIFs via the keyboard. Granted, the process is a little smoother on Nougat with supported apps. Twitter  added the feature  earlier this month, and now Facebook Messenger is too. However, with built-in GIF search already in Facebook Messenger, you might be wondering why you would want to use GIF search via a keyboard like Google’s Gboard? The simple answer is diversity.  Android Police  points out that Messenger typically pulls GIFs only via Ten

Inevitably your computer slows down. You try to open a website and it grinds to a halt, or read an email and it churns along sluggishly. A slow computer, in many ways, is worse than a broken one—or at least infinitely more frustrating. If you’re going to have any chance of reversing the serious slowdown that’s affected your computer, you’re going to have to work out what’s at the root cause of the sluggishness. Don your detective’s hat and identify the source of the problem with the help of these tools and tricks. Tidy up your start up items and OS A good place to start is with the apps currently running on your machine and the ones that try and load themselves at the same time as your operating system. For that we need Task Manager on Windows or Activity Monitor on macOS. Task Manager, which has gotten a lot more user-friendly and useful over the years, can be found by right-clicking on a blank part of the taskbar and choosing  Task Manager . Over on macOS, launch Spotlight ( C

Samsung is definitely not launching the Galaxy S8 but it will reveal the launch date of the new premium flagship smartphone during the Mobile World Congress. Samsung will have a special event on February 27 and by then we’ll know when the Galaxy S8 will be announced. The South Korean tech giant usually introduces its newest Galaxy S phone at the MWC each year but this year is different as the S8 will be delayed. Samsung is believed to be holding an Unpacked event this March in New York. We’re guessing it will be late March because that’s what we’ve been saying the past few weeks–late March or early April launch. As for the exact date, reporters in Korea will know earlier when the Galaxy S8 will be announced according to Koh Dong-jin, President of Samsung’s mobile business. This year will be a bit different but we’re expecting that Samsung has finally and properly addressed the battery issue. Hopefully, the  Quality Assurance tests ,  protocols, and safety measures , the next flagship

Google’s Home   digital assistant has been      Google’s Home  digital assistant has been compared to  Amazon’s Alexa  a lot over the last few months, and now it’s getting the ability to  order things through voice commands , just like Alexa can. Of course, Home is still a Google product, so instead of buying things through Amazon Prime, orders go through Google Express instead. And while Google Express typically has a  membership fee or per-delivery charge , Google is waiving those costs for purchases made with Home through April 30th. The update should be rolling out today — Home users simply need to  add a payment method  in the Google Home app, and then they can place orders simply by asking Google Assistant. Since the service is run through Google Express, products are limited to  stores that are partnered  with Google already, and of course, you’ll need to live in an area where Google’s  same-day delivery service is offered .

Google Assistant still lacks any sort of chain of command when using it across multiple devices. And now your watch has it. A big part of the  Android Wear 2.0  update is the inclusion of  Google Assistant . If you've never used it, Google Assistant is like a friendlier version of  Google Now  that can remember things and help you by doing more "stuff" than the original could. It's pretty cool, and even though it's not been around for long we've already seen it get better and smarter. And now, it's on your watch. Assistant is on different devices with different hardware and different abilities. That means you can tell your watch to do things like add milk to your shopping list, tell you the weather or how traffic looks for your evening commute, or even play a movie on your  Chromecast . It can do all those things and will. But Google Assistant acts differently depending on what device it's running on, and there are some things your watch can'

Snapchat's corporate parent seeks to raise more than $2 billion for the fast-growing social media group in the tech sector's largest public offering in nearly three years, documents filed Thursday showed. Outlining the financial details of its initial public offering (IPO), Snap Inc. said it expects net proceeds of some $2 billion. It will offer 145 million new shares and sell 55 million from existing share owners, with an expected price range of $14 to $16, the documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed. The offering -- confirmed with a public filing on February 2 -- would be largest in the sector since the Chinese online giant Alibaba's US market debut in 2014. The listing would value Snap at between $19.5 billion and $22.2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the deal. The move is expected to be closely followed by Wall Street and the tech sector, with other highly valued peers such as Uber and Airbnb also s

Eric Ravenscraft Android: For most users, the Google Play Store is the best way to find apps and keep them updated. If you’re using a non-Google ROM or downloading apps from outside the store, APKUpdater can help keep you up to date. This app, created by XDA user  rumboalla , scans your list of apps and then finds updates for those apps on sites like APKMirror. It can also optionally scrape the Google Play Store itself to find app updates. It won’t automatically install the new versions, though. You’ll have to download and install them one-by-one. However, it’s still helpful to find out when an update is available. This might not be necessary for most situations, but if  your custom ROM  doesn’t have Google Play, or if you’re avoiding it for privacy reasons, this is a handy way to fill in the gaps

Don’t get me wrong — I love Likes. They continue to serve as a simple way for people to show support for a thought, product offering or opinion, and they have provided marketers with a valuable tool to measure media effectiveness. Unlike the one-way nature of other media, social feedback mechanisms allow you to see how your audience is responding to different types of content with one lightning-fast, simple metric. But ever since  Facebook Reactions  were introduced, things have become a bit more complicated. A Like has always signified support for a message, where negative thoughts had to be expressed in comment feeds, or perhaps, not at all. Facebook Reactions (represented as Love, Sad, Wow, Angry and Laughing icons) have changed the way users can express their feelings for a piece of content. As marketers who love data, we should be taking advantage of any information that can help us create better posts. Reaction data is exactly that — signals from the audience about what mak

If you’re handing over your internet connection for free, don’t expect top-notch security. For individuals seeking extra privacy online or trying to access geo-blocked content, a virtual private network (or VPN) can seem like an ideal fix. VPN applications protect users by encryp        For individuals seeking extra privacy online or trying to access geo-blocked content, a virtual private network (or VPN) can seem like an ideal fix. VPN applications protect users by encrypting internet traffic and routing it through different countries. That makes it harder for hackers to intercept your connection, and can also fool Netflix into thinking you're in a different country. However, these programs can also pose a risk to users. A  new analysis  of nearly 300 Android VPNs found that 84 percent of those studied leaked users’ web traffic, 38 percent contained malware or malvertising, and 18 percent didn’t encrypt data at all. Three of the apps even directly intercepted traffic, allowing, f

WHY IT MATTERS TO YOU Never fear: Windows 10 Cloud might not be as locked down as we thought, and you might be able to install your desktop applications after all. Microsoft’s Windows 10 is a robust operating system that can do just about anything. Usually that’s a strength, but while Windows 10 competes well against Google’s Chrome OS platform on features and overall power, it’s at a disadvantage in terms of cost and manageability. That’s why Microsoft is releasing the Windows 10 Cloud edition, which essentially enables locking down the OS to allow apps to be installed only from the Windows 10 Store. At least, that’s how it works in theory and with the current preview build, but there’s a way to bypass that limitation for the technically astute, as  Windows Central reports . More:   An early build of Windows 10 Cloud has leaked, proving the new OS is no myth By limiting Windows 10 Cloud to only Windows Store apps, Microsoft could accomplish a few things. First, it would make non

A SWEET TIME FOR POKEMON GO Valentine's Day is sweeter than ever with extended lures, extra candy, and more frequent catches! Pokemon Go's  next event has just gone live, and this one is aiming to steal your heart. A special Valentine's Day event runs from 11 a.m. PST February 8th thru 11 a.m. PST February 15th. There is going to be plenty going on for the next week, from extra candies to help evolve your Pokemon to lures that'll last for hours. Don't worry, though, we have all the details for you here. Candies, candies everywhere As you're probably well aware, in order to evolve your Pokemon you need to collect enough candy. That's where the first perk in this event shows up. Each time you catch, hatch, or evolve a Pokemon you'll receive twice the normal amount of candy. That isn't all either. Your buddy Pokemon will also find candy to help them evolve twice as fast! Extended lures Lures are also receiving a special perk. Instead of their usu

Ever have a hard time understanding a road sign in another country? Computer vision startup Mapillary thinks it has a solution. You know how Google hopes to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful?” Swedish startup Mapillary wants to do the same thing with the world’s road signs. As it turns out, from warnings about polar bears to alerts concerning “ invisible cows ,” there are some pretty darn unusual roadside messages you’ll come across as you travel the globe. But if you’re only used to the regular old boring signs found in your neighborhood, being expected to understand all of them from behind the wheel is a tall order. Throw self-driving cars — which need to understand this stuff to get you safely from point A to point B — into the mix and things become even more confusing. Computer vision company  Mapillary  has spent the past several years working on just this problem. “Mapillary is a collaborative street-level imagery platform power

A new feature makes it easier to make sure the page you're seeing from an AMP search result is legit and lets you share the "real" URL with others. AMP pages are great . They are designed to help us find what we're looking for when we're mobile and point us towards search results that are easy to read because they were designed for a smaller screen and touch-based navigation. So many people use their phones to get on the internet and get the information they need that anything that makes the experience better is welcomed. On the web, trust is important. You need to know you're seeing results from a place you trust. But there are a few drawbacks to using AMP URLs, too. One is that they require a separate (and sometimes frequently changed) URL to be cached by Google, and this breaks the traditional way the web works. When something goes on the internet, it should be there forever, in the same place. Moving the URL we use from a mobile device around can mak

WHY IT MATTERS TO YOU The Super Bowl ad for Google Home showed off the device's keen sense of hearing and attention to the "OK Google" wake word. Right around the time New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady orchestrated the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, Google officially introduced the world to its  Amazon Echo -competing home servant,  Google Home . A  one-minute advertisement  showing off the different ways in which people have the ability to interact with Home, the spot featured — over and over again, mind you — people uttering its popular wake word, “OK Google.” Due in part to the wake word’s prominent feature, Google Home users all over the country say their devices acted a bit erratic during the ad, responding to the commercial’s commands. At least it’s reassuring to know the Home as a keen ear for its wake word, right? Though the gaffe didn’t cause any serious harm to anyone — unless, of course, it accidentally turned off the lights while someone

WHY IT MATTERS TO YOU BT's public support could pave the way for other groups to chime in on the Android antitrust case, the result of which could have far-reaching implications for Google. BT, a telecommunications provider in the United Kingdom, has sent a letter to the European Commission announcing its support for Google in an  ongoing antitrust case  involving Android, the world’s largest mobile operating system. The European Commission alleges that Google is using Android’s dominant market share as a way to push its own apps and services, like Search, Drive, YouTube, and Google Maps. Anyone is free to use Android, but if a manufacturer wants access to the Google Play Store — where about  2.6 million apps reside  — they have to sign the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement and prioritize Google’s apps. More:   Microsoft’s unified user interface may be the namesake of Google’s hybrid OS Manufacturers can still preload their own apps or ones from competing services lik

Smartphones and other portable media players allow us to take our music, videos, and games anywhere, and having a good pair of earbuds is vital for getting the most out of our entertainment when we’re on the move. Unfortunately, many stock earphones are cheaply made and utilize undersized drivers that deliver tiny highs and a lackluster bass response. While there are many high-end earbud models available today, you don’t have to break the bank to get quality sound with budget-friendly options like the $8  Panasonic ErgoFit in-ear headphones . The ErgoFit earbuds utilize generously-sized 9mm neodymium drivers. These are larger than those found in similar in-ear headphones, giving you improved sound with a frequency response of 10Hz to 24Hz. This wider frequency response offers crisp treble and heavier bass so you don’t have to sacrifice sound quality when listening to your music, playing games, and watching videos on your mobile device. More:   The best iPhone 7 deals for every carri

Vizio did everything wrong when it comes to data collection. Vizio has been fined $2.2 million by  the Federal Trade Commission  for "surreptitiously collecting details on viewers' watching habits." The company also agreed to delete all the data collected before March 1, 2016, and to get specific consent from users with a new privacy program. Vizio's Smart Interactivity technology isn't much different from what other smart TV manufacturers use to find out exactly what you watch and when you watch it. The difference, according to  ProPublica , stems from the way Vizio went about collecting it and what they did with it afterward. For starters, Smart Interactivity is active and running unless you specifically opt out, and you're not told it's there or that opting out is even possible. Oddly enough, the instructions to tell you  how  to opt out have disappeared from Vizio's support site and have been replaced by a 404 error page. Thankfully,  Vizio no

Retailers that sell online and in-store need to balance where to send users in their paid search efforts. Columnist Andy Taylor explores when advertisers might want to rely on local inventory versus regular product listing ads. Andy Taylor  on February 3, 2017 at 10:30 am In response to the growing popularity of searches with local intent, Google released  Local Inventory Ads  (LIA) a few years ago as a variation of  Product Listing Ads  (PLA) that include information on when a product is available at a nearby store location. Taking into account the local intent of each search query in determining when LIAs should be featured, Google can serve these units in a similar format to traditional PLAs, as well as in other LIA-specific formats, such as beneath a Google Maps display. These units are steadily becoming an important part of paid search campaigns for brands with brick-and-mortar locations, and LIA traffic increased 60 percent Y/Y in Q3 2016 for the median Merkle retailer. How

Finding an image on  Google Photos  just got a tad easier. In an Android-only update Thursday, Feb. 2, Google reworked the albums feature, adding enhanced organization to the ways albums are displayed. The albums tab is now divided  into three parts . Along with sorting your actual albums, the app now separates images based on what app you shot them with. A third category auto-organizes photos by location and what’s inside them. While the auto albums isn’t a new feature, the new organization makes them easier to find. More:   Google Photos is one year old — here’s what’s next for it Along with the three new sections, the photos inside the albums are  easier to search through . That’s because Google switched up the large cover photo at the top to take up half as much room. That small design switch allows users to see more albums on the screen at one time, speeding up the process of finding a specific one. Version 2.8 of Google Photos is the app’s first significant update of the yea

Improvements coming to the integration of Progressive Web Apps on Android. Google is continually looking to empower developers with more tools to help deliver great web apps for Android users. It began back in 2015 , when Google first introduced Progressive Web Apps as a feature in Chrome for Android, which allowed developers to create web apps that prompt users to add a site shortcut to their Home screen while offering features such as push notifications. Google is ready to introduce the latest version of this experience which will start rolling out to the Chrome beta over the next few weeks. The aim is to make things much more convenient for users by improving the overall integration with the Android OS. From the  Chromium blog : For example, Progressive Web Apps will now appear in the app drawer section of the launcher and in Android Settings, and will be able to receive incoming intents from other apps. Long presses on their notifications will also reveal the normal Android no