Hasta La Gadget!

While our smartphones have become considerably better at taking photos and videos over the past few years, there are just certain things that it can’t do that a proper camera could. For example audio recording on smartphones while taking video is less than ideal and so is stability in the footage.

However a Kickstarter campaign for a device called the miniRIG will help solve your videography woes. If you check out the video above, what you’ll realize is that the miniRIG is basically multiple accessories for your smartphone combined into a single convenient device. It combines things like a stabilizer (thanks to counterweight mechanisms), an adjustable handle, a built-in microphone, a ring light, and an integrated tripod for those moments where you need to place the camera down on a flat surface.

All of this combined should allow you to snap much better photos and videos compared to before. Of course just like photos, good videography is also about framing and composition so don’t think that the miniRIG will turn badly shot videos into an amazing masterpiece, but it should help with certain technical aspects of the shoot.

While designed for smartphones, the miniRIG will also offer up a GoPro adapter so that you can use it with GoPro cameras if you so desire. If this sounds like something you might be interested in, the miniRIG is priced at £38 as an early bird special with an estimated retail price of £70 upon its release.

The miniRIG Will Help You Shoot Better Videos On Your Phone , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

The problem with developing for different platforms is that developers typically choose to focus on one first before moving onto the next one. This usually results in an app getting new features for one platform first before the feature arrives for the other platform. Such is the case with Dropbox’s scanning feature which has finally arrived onto Android.

According to an announcement by Dropbox, “Our Dropbox mobile app for Android has a new feature that makes it easy. The doc scanner—one of the most popular features on our iOS app—now allows you to scan printed or handwritten docs right from your phone. Plus, you can crop or rotate your scans to capture exactly the right image, and even scan multiple pages into a single PDF.”

We’re not sure what took so long but we guess better late than never. Dropbox won’t be the first to offer up scanning features, but we guess if you do rely on Dropbox pretty heavily for sharing your documents and what not, then being able to scan and upload to Dropbox straightaway is a feature that could come in handy.

Dropbox also announced that the feature is slightly more enhanced for its business users where if you’re on a Dropbox Business team, you’ll be able to search for keywords inside the scans.

Dropbox’s Document Scanner Finally Arrives On Android , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

DENVER ― The International Church of Cannabis is slated to open its doors on April 20 and welcome the first-ever congregation of “Elevationists,” as it calls its members.

The church’s stated purpose is to serve as “a home to adults everywhere who are looking to create the best version of themselves by way of the sacred plant.” Just how that will be achieved is still up in the air, but church leaders told 9News that programming is expected to include guest speakers, comedians, artists, musicians and film screenings. 

And while city officials ― and skeptical neighbors ― are concerned that founders Steve Berke and Lee Molloy are merely exploiting a legal loophole to create a cannabis club, the two promise the church isn’t just a smokescreen for illegal activities. No marijuana will be sold at the church.

“First and foremost, this is a community church,” Berke told Denver publication Westword. “There are rumors that this is a rasta smoking lounge or a nightclub. It’s not. It’s a safe place to congregate and consume.”

“Elevationism is about elevating one’s life and spiritual self-discovery through the sacrament of cannabis,” Molloy added. “I grew up in an evangelical, Pentecostal religion with people speaking in tongues and falling on the floor. If those people are considered a real religion, then why not us?”

Elevationism is not a replacement to your existing faith. It’s more a supplement to it.
International Church of Cannabis co-founder Steve Berke

Berke told KDVR he doesn’t intend for Elevationism to take the place of other religions.

“Elevationism is not a replacement to your existing faith. It’s more a supplement to it,” he said. “You can be a Christian and an Elevationist. You can be Jewish and an Elevationist.”

This new church is housed in a building steeped in history. 

The 113-year-old structure in Denver’s well-heeled Washington Park neighborhood was most recently inhabited by a Lutheran congregation. The Spanish muralist Okuda San Miguel has since painted the vaulted ceilings with colorful, geometric designs.

To see what the church looks like on the inside, watch the church’s IndieGoGo campaign video:

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WASHINGTON ― In a spate of local elections last week in Illinois, Democrats picked up seats in places they’ve never won before.

The city of Kankakee elected its first African-American, Democratic mayor. West Deerfield Township will be led entirely by Democrats for the first time. Elgin Township voted for “a complete changeover,” flipping to an all-Democratic board. Normal Township elected Democratic supervisors and trustees to run its board ― the first time in more than 100 years that a single Democrat has held a seat.

“We had a pretty good day,” said Dan Kovats, executive director of the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association. “We won in areas we normally would win, but we also won in areas Republicans never expected us to be competitive in. They were caught flat-footed.”

These may seem like relatively small victories ― we’re talking about municipal races in towns with tens of thousands of people ― but they fit with a broader pattern that should have Republicans on edge ahead of the 2018 elections: Progressive grassroots activism, exploding with energy since President Donald Trump’s win in November, is fueling Democratic gains in GOP strongholds.

This week, a Democratic congressional candidate in Kansas nearly pulled off a shocking win in a heavily Republican district. In Georgia, 30-year-old Democratic newcomer Jon Ossoff is outpacing his GOP rivals in a race to replace former Rep. Tom Price. The seat has long been Republican and was once held by former Speaker Newt Gingrich. These races come after a Democratic state Senate candidate in Delaware, buoyed by anti-Trump activism, annihilated her GOP challenger in an election that’s traditionally been close.

In the case of Illinois, a number of Democrats who just won got a boost from a program launched by Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) called Build The Bench. It’s an all-day boot camp that offers nuts-and-bolts details for running a successful campaign. Bustos came up with the idea last year when she noticed a dearth of new Democratic candidates for Congress, and decided the best way to help build up her party’s ranks was at the local level.

She’s held two boot camps in her district so far ― The Huffington Post attended one of them in March ― and she’s already seeing tremendous payoff. Twelve Build The Bench alumni ran for local seats in this election cycle, and eight of them won. A ninth alum, Rita Ali, is currently down by one vote in her race for Peoria City Council.

“I am incredibly proud that the majority of our graduates who were on the ballot in April municipal elections won their races,” said Bustos. “If we want to be successful in the heartland, we need to connect Democratic candidates for office at all levels with the best practices, skills and expertise needed to run winning campaigns.”

We won in areas we normally would win, but we also won in areas Republicans never expected us to be competitive in. They were caught flat-footed.
Dan Kovats, executive director of the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association

Chemberly Cummings and Arlene Hosea are among the Build The Bench alumni who recently won races. They both made history by becoming the first black members of Normal Town Council and Normal Township Trustee, respectively. That is no small feat in a predominately white, Republican region of the state.

“There’s this concept in Bloomington-Normal that everybody is conservative,” said Cummings, a 34-year-old State Farm employee. “But we are a group of people who are actually concerned about the issues in our community. I also think … when you have the representative of a party who is negative, I think you’ll start to see some things change. Nobody wants to be associated with something negative. They want to be associated with the positive.”

Hosea, a 57-year-old former Illinois State University employee, came out of retirement to run for her seat. She hadn’t planned on going into politics, but was deeply affected by Trump’s divisive tone all last year. 

“I am a descendent of slavery,” she said. “I saw and heard on the campaign trail so much awful rhetoric. My mom is still alive, she’s 90, and she faced racism through all of her childhood. I thought, ‘Arlene, you have to do more. You have to be the change that you want to see.’”

As someone born and raised in the area, Hosea said she takes pride in being able to give back to her town’s next generation. She got choked up thinking about how far she and her family have come, recalling how her mom lived through Jim Crow in the South and once watched the Ku Klux Klan drag her uncle out of the house and “almost beat him to death” in front of her when she was a child.

“Even if it’s just my seat at the table, they get to see me at that table. I have a voice,” Hosea said, her voice cracking. “In this community, no one has done it. So, it’s time.”

Of course, not everyone can win their first campaign. Jodie Slothower, a Build The Bench attendee who HuffPost met in March, lost her race for Normal Township clerk. She is disappointed, of course, but she’s already onto her next project: fueling the progressive momentum to oust more Republicans, like Rep. Rodney Davis (Ill.). She started a grassroots mobilization group in November, Voices of Reason, and it’s up to 2,000 members.

“We have events planned all the way through August,” Slothower said. “We’re going to keep up the pressure on the congressman. We’re figuring out how to take what we’ve learned here and bring it to other communities. We have a lot of work to do.”

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Back in February Google teased a screenshot of what appeared to be an upcoming desktop chat client for its Allo messenger app. Given that we can’t tend to our phones all the time, having a desktop client means that you’ll be able to reply messages and check on messages without having to switch back and forth between your computer and phone.

It follows in the footsteps of WhatsApp who launched their own desktop app back in 2016. Details of Allo’s desktop client are scarce as all we got was a teaser, but the folks at 9to5Google have managed to uncover some additional information, such as how it would pair a phone with the chat client.

As you can see in the screenshots above taken from the Allo smartphone app, users will be able to choose between scanning a QR code or entering a text code. This would basically verify the phone that the user is using and pair it with the chat client. This is also similar to what WhatsApp has done with its own chat client.

At the moment it is unclear as to when the chat client will be released, but hopefully it won’t be too long, and maybe we’ll have those details come Google I/O 2017 which will take place in May.

More Details Of Google’s Allo Desktop Client Revealed , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.