Facebook Messenger For iOS Updated With Action Extension

fbm_shareiOS users who want to share images or links with friends can click the share button, after which a menu will appear allow them to choose the apps that they’d like to share it with. The apps are pretty standard and includes the Messages app, Mail app, and the usual range of social media apps such as Facebook and Twitter.

However for those who are frequent users of Facebook Messenger, you will be happy to learn that the app has recently been updated with an action extension, which basically means that you will be able to add Facebook Messenger to the list of apps you want to share data with, as you can see in the image above.

The feature is pretty straightforward and if you’ve ever used it before, it’s the same. Selecting the app will launch it and from there you can choose the contacts that you’d like to share the information. This will save you some time versus more “traditional” methods where you’d have to copy the link first, swap back to the app, and paste it and send it.

The latest update to Facebook Messenger brings it to version 22.0 and it seems that this was the only feature added to it. If you have yet to update your app, you can do so by heading on over to the iTunes App Store for the download.

Facebook Messenger For iOS Updated With Action Extension , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Mercedes-Benz CEO Not Worried About Apple’s Electric Car Rumors

mercedes benz ledApple has been known for their ability to disrupt the market despite their share of critics. Many were skeptical of the iPhone when it was first launched, and many rolled their eyes at the iPad when it was first announced as well. The MacBook Air was also met with a bit of hesitation but look where all of these products are today.

That being said does Apple have the Midas Touch when it comes to every product? Hardly, which is why we can’t say we’re too surprised that Mercedes-Benz’s CEO isn’t too worried about the Apple car rumors. Speaking to Motoring.com, Dieter Zetsche was quoted as saying, “If there were a rumor that Mercedes or Daimler planned to start building smartphones then [Apple] would not be sleepless at night. And the same applies to me, and this is full of respect for Apple. That is what I am saying.”

For those who might have missed the news, there were rumors last week that Apple was planning on making an electric car of their own. The project had reportedly been approved a year ago and there is a team of hundreds already in place. A recent report even revealed some of the alleged team members, most of whom have experience in the automotive industry.

Unsurprisingly Apple has had their share of critics with this rumor. GM’s former CEO had even warned Apple about entering the business, claiming that it is a lot harder than most people think it is. Of course whether or not such a product is being made by Apple remains to be seen, but do you think that car manufacturers need to be worried?

Mercedes-Benz CEO Not Worried About Apple’s Electric Car Rumors , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

LG G Flex 2’s Global Rollout To Begin In March

flex-2-review-31The LG G Flex 2 was a handset that LG unveiled at CES 2015 and was one of the first handsets of the year to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset. Now previously LG had only made the handset available in South Korea, but the good news for customers in international markets who are eyeing the handset, LG has announced that an international rollout will begin in March.

According to LG’s press release, “Major carriers in the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, France, Germany and the U.K. will be among the first to offer the G Flex2 to lucky customers while key markets in North and South America, Europe and Asia will announce the start of sales in the weeks following MWC.” No specific dates were mentioned and no word on pricing, but we guess this will depend on which market you are in, so you might want to keep an eye out for its release in your country.

As a quick recap for those who might have missed out on our review of the phone, the LG G Flex 2 is the latest smartphone from LG and is the successor to last year’s LG G Flex. It will feature a 5.5-inch Full HD curved P-OLED display and will be powered by a 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 810 chipset clocked at 2.0GHz. It will be accompanied by 2GB of DDR4 RAM, 16/32GB storage options, a 13MP rear-facing camera with OIS and laser auto focus, a 2.1MP front-facing camera, a 3,000mAh battery with Android 5.0 Lollipop running the show.

LG G Flex 2’s Global Rollout To Begin In March , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Leaked HTC One M9 Are Real, According To Former Product Manager

htc-one-m9-renders-6Yesterday following a leaked promotional image, a trio of promotional videos made their way online which basically showed off the upcoming HTC One M9 in all of its glory. The authenticity of those videos were questioned and if you were just as skeptical, it seems that you might not need to be as Leigh Momii, the former product manager for HTC, confirmed that those videos were real.

According to her tweet, Momii wrote, “the whole cat is out of the bag…no surprise there…i’ll probably get the gunmetal/black m9 :)” Given her former position, we can only imagine that Momii probably has some idea of what’s going on, or at least be experienced enough to make an educated deduction. However a tweet by HTC’s Jeff Gordon has us wondering if this could be part of HTC’s ongoing efforts to throw us off their scent.

According to Gordon, “The best parts of HTC’s March 1st launch event are the parts you have NO IDEA are coming.” Prior to this, there was a report in which it was suggested that HTC could have been putting out fake images in a bid to distract us from the actual product which is due for an announcement this coming Sunday.

While faking images is one thing, it is another to put together elaborate fake videos which we guess we would have to commend HTC on their efforts. That being said, the videos have since been taken down, but if you’re really curious about what HTC has to offer, remember to check back with us on the 1st of March for the details.

Leaked HTC One M9 Are Real, According To Former Product Manager , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Visa’s New Security Could Pave The Way For Apple Pay In Europe

apple-pay-002As it stands Apple Pay is only limited to the US as the deal Apple has worked out is only with American financial institutions. We expect that Apple will want to eventually rollout the service to other parts of the world, and while China might be reluctant to let Apple Pay in, over in Europe Visa might have paved the way for Apple’s entrance.

Visa Europe has recently announced a new and more secure way for customers to make purchases from retailers using their phone. Instead of transmitting the customer’s entire credit card information during the transaction, a series of random numbers would be used as a token to identify the card and the details. These numbers are generated each time meaning that even if it were to be intercepted, it would be useless in future purchases.

Coincidentally enough this is the same system employed by Apple at the moment with US-based credit card providers, so with Visa Europe introducing a similar system in the region, it could persuade banks and other financial institutions to allow Apple Pay to be used as well. After all if Visa is going to use the same security measure, there wouldn’t be anything wrong with allowing Apple to do so as well, right?

Visa Europe’s Chief Digital Officer Steve Perry declined to comment on whether Apple had agreed to use Visa’s new security measure in Europe, although he was quoted as saying, “Apple and Visa have an agreement around what has happened. I am as excited as anyone, but we have to wait.”

Visa’s New Security Could Pave The Way For Apple Pay In Europe , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Anthem Admits Up to 18.8 Million Non-Customers Could've Been Hacked Too

Earlier this month, health insurer Anthem was hit by a massive hack . Now, it’s admitted that between 8.8 million and 18.8 million people who are not its customers could also be victims in the attack.

Read more…



Reddit Bans Nude Photos Posted Without Consent

Reddit officially banned naked photos posted without permission on Wednesday, months after a nude celebrity photo scandal had critics pointing fingers at the site’s privacy policy.

Reddit executives issued a short statement alluding to its failure last year to quickly remove a forum that acted as a cache for nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and other women.

“Last year, we missed a chance to be a leader in social media when it comes to protecting your privacy — something we’ve cared deeply about since reddit’s inception. At our recent all hands company meeting, this was something that we all, as a company, decided we needed to address.

No matter who you are, if a photograph, video, or digital image of you in a state of nudity, sexual excitement, or engaged in any act of sexual conduct, is posted or linked to on reddit without your permission, it is prohibited on reddit. We also recognize that violent personalized images are a form of harassment that we do not tolerate and we will remove them when notified. As usual, the revised Privacy Policy will go into effect in two weeks, on March 10, 2015.

The addition to Reddit’s privacy policy, called “involuntary pornography,” states that anyone whose photo or video containing nudity or a sexual act was posted without their consent can email contact@reddit.com to “expedite its removal as quickly as possible.”

Last year, Reddit took down a forum that spread stolen nude photos of various celebrities. But it allowed another forum, “r/photoplunder,” to stay up. That forum, which had 30,000 readers, featured the tagline: “They should know better.”

HuffPost’s Gerry Smith reported at the time:

In response to why Reddit wasn’t banning other forums that “contain deplorable content,” [systems administrator Jason Harvey] said, “We remove what we’re required to remove by law, and what violates any rules which we have set forth.”

“Beyond that,” he said, “we feel it is necessary to maintain as neutral a platform as possible, and to let the communities on reddit be represented by the actions of the people who participate in them.”

The forum quickly had advocates of “revenge porn” victims crying foul, and highlighted Reddit’s lack of recourse for non-celebrities who thought they were victims of so-called involuntary pornography.

(h/t ars technica)

'One Last Thing': Lea Michele Honors Cory Monteith As She Leaves 'Glee'

While the sixth and final season of “Glee” is still in full swing for fans, it’s already over for the cast. Star Lea Michele said her final goodbyes and left McKinley High behind her on Sunday.

But she didn’t leave everything behind.

Cauliflower Curry With Crispy Shallots

Cauliflower is kind of our thing at PureWow. Which is why we’re excited to bring you our latest dinner creation: cauliflower curry with crispy shallots. We simmer our favorite vegetable in a Thai-inspired yellow curry, which is mild (not spicy) yet big on flavor. Serve this as a main dish over rice or as a side dish. And should there be any leftovers, the curry tastes even better the next day.

Get the Recipe

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Best Design Driven Startups of the Decade

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Successful startups can transform the way we look at the world and ourselves, as well as, create immense value and skyrocket to the top of the Fortune 500 list. Some of these startups were design driven, think: Apple, Nike, HP, Sony and Nokia. However few of these were actually founded by designers, other than, AirBnB, Dyson and Disney. So, why have so few of the best design driven startups of the last decade been founded by designers?

AirBnB is the recent poster child of the best design driven startup in the hospitality business. Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, both graduates from Rhode Island School of Design, founded the firm in 2008 and by April 1014 it was valued at ten billion dollars. The firm quite simply connects people with beds to rent to travelers who need a place to sleep. AirBnB picked their business model wisely, since online connector startups have a distinct advantage since they do not require huge upfront capital investments in development and manufacturing.

On the other end of the spectrum are the automotive startups and there are few businesses that can be as challenging as these. Fisker Automotive (founded 2007) and Tesla Motor (founded 2003) are two of the latest arrivals on the automotive scene, which is known to be brutal to newcomers. Think: Vector Motors, DeLorean Motors and Tucker Car Corporation. Fisker and Tesla’s founders had very different backgrounds and destiny treated them accordingly.

Designer, Henrik Fisker and model maker Bernhard Koehler founded Fisker Automotive and the two long-term friends had all the prerequisites for a successful new venture, (decades of automotive experience from BMW and Ford) except for startup experience. We know that first time Venture Capital (VC) financed startups have an eighteen percent success rate.

Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 by Elon Musk, Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, JB Straubel and Ian Wright and although none of these entrepreneurs had automotive experience (coming as they did from PayPal), their previous VC financed successful startup experience, increased their odds of success to thirty percent. Although, strictly speaking, Tesla was not founded within the last decade, it is included here as a comparison for Fisker Automotive.

With startup statistics stacked against Fisker Automotive from the beginning, they ran into challenges when entering the electric/hybrid car market segment, that included rushed development and battery problems. The only difference was, as a startup, they did not have the deep pockets necessary to weather the storms and Fisker Automotive ran out of cash before they reached the break-even point.

Tesla, with a more experienced startup team, managed their investors and cash flow more effectively, enabling them to obtain an IPO (Initial Public Offering) thereby securing an additional infusion of much needed cash. Whether this will be enough to take on the established players in the business, still remains to be seen. What would you rather drive, an electric, Maserati, Porsche, BMW or Tesla?

Nearly everyone tends to forget that startups are expected to fail and thus are susceptible to seduction from the excitement of novelty. Though studies show design to be vital to startups – it probably only changes the probabilities for success by a dozen percentage points and although AirBnB and Fisker Automotive both leverage design sublimely, it still takes startup experience to succeed.