Hasta La Gadget!

It does take a fair bit of guts to say that one is sorry when one has done something wrong – and for a company to do so would go some way in gaining back some of the goodwill in which it has lost due to a recent gaffe. In fact, Google has just issued an apology after they were bombarded by messages from unhappy users, who claim that their translation software did not perform as expected, rolling out homophobic terms.

Attitude reports that if Google’s translation software were to translate the word ‘gay’ from English to several European languages, it showed off a slew of pejorative terms where homosexuals are concerned. Apart from that, other similarly offensive terms could also be found if one were to translate back to English from other languages, Russian included.

A number of people were not happy – nay, offended by the translations, simply because Google failed to mark the more vulgar terms as being ‘slang’, as well as informing the masses that these are inappropriate for general use. LGBT equality group All Out issued a statement, “Imagine learning English and being taught to say hateful insults instead of neutral language for ‘gay’. Google Translate – used by over 500 million people every month – was suggesting slurs as synonyms for the word ‘gay’.”

Google has since modified its translator, and apologized regarding the matter. Do you think that that would have been enough to bury the hatchet?

Google Apologizes For Translation Software Screwing Up , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Now this could be a particularly chilling thought – how do you like the idea of a government agency keeping constant tabs on you as you move around? It sure as heck sounds unnerving, to say the least, but we have received word that the United States’ Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) happens to be spying on millions of Americans each day, while ensuring that they know where their targets are traveling to around the country. The Guardian claims that this is done by the constant tracking of car license plates.

Such a major, ongoing initiative would see the DAE collect and track license plates automatically, through the use of license plates readers that are located all over the country. Not only that, the DEA also has a program that would be able to track vehicles in real-time, and they also have a database which is large enough to stash hundreds of millions of records of motorists throughout the country. The main goal of this? To combat drug trafficking, but at what cost to personal liberty, privacy and freedom?

Of course, when you think about the ability for such information to be leaked out and fall into the hands of unscrupulous people, merging that with cell phone records, NSA information and the like, it does seem as though the government of the day has the ability to know all that is required concerning the average Joe on the street.

DEA Spies On Motorists Constantly , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

The HTC Desire 826, a smartphone that we talked about earlier this year when CES hit the ground running in Las Vegas, Nevada. Well, the handset had already been unveiled over in the world’s most populous country, China, earlier this morning. Just what will this particular model deliver right out of the box? Let us go through a little refresher course right after the jump before arriving at a possible purchase decision.

For starters, the HTC Desire 826 will be equipped with a generous 5.5” display that has a resolution count of 1080 x 1920 pixels, where it is accompanied by a 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor that keeps things chugging along at a nice pace. Not only that, it will be assisted by an Adreno 405 GPU which ought handle graphics decently. There will also be 2GB RAM and either 16GB or 32GB of internal memory, which can be further augmented thanks to the inclusion of a microSD memory card slot.

At the back of the HTC Desire 826 lies a 13MP shooter, while the front has a 4MP Ultrapixel snapper which I am sure, is familiar to many HTC One (M7) and HTC One (M8) users. At the very least, it comes with Android 5.0 Lollipop right out of the box to help you get started.

HTC Desire 826 Hits China At Last , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Its proving to be a good day for Apple Pay. A few hours back Western Union announced support for Apple Pay meaning that the service can now be used to fund money transfers and bill payments. Now USA Technologies has pushed out a press release announcing support for Apple Pay at over 200,000 self-serve and vending machines across the country.

USA Technologies’ self-serve payment terminals include a wide variety of unattended hardware like kiosks, laundry machines, pay parking terminals, vending machines, coffee brewers and more. This will undoubtedly expand Apple Pay’s reach to areas where contactless payment solutions don’t have much ground in.

Apple Pay works with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. When the Apple Watch is released in the near future it is going to support this payments service as well. It adds a layer of security to these payments as payment card numbers are never shared with the terminals at merchants or these self-serve machines.

Every single transaction is authorized with a unique dynamic security code that’s exclusive to that transaction so the security code on the back of the user’s card doesn’t have to be used.

Since USA Technologies provides this equipment to all sorts of companies, big and small, users can expect support to be present at chain outlets as well as their local neighbourhood stores.

Apple Pay Now Supports 200,000 Self-Serve Locations And Vending Machines , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

OS X Yosemite brought with it a new Spotlight; one that’s a bit smarter, more contextual, and exceedingly more useful than its predecessor. It’s not quite the one-stop monster some want, though, and for that there’s Alfred. The Spotlight replacement app takes what Spotlight does and gives it a Red Bull. With some configuration, you can set up keyboard shortcuts … Continue reading