Google Will Now Focus On Making Search Results More Local

If you’ve tried to search on Google before, usually what the search engine does is it attempts to search for results that are local and relevant to the user. However previously users were able to circumvent this by going to a different Google top level domain, like Google.br, Google.com.sg, Google.com.my, to try and get search results in that particular country.

However it seems that Google will no longer be allowing users to do that anymore. According to Google, “Today, we’ve updated the way we label country services on the mobile web, the Google app for iOS, and desktop Search and Maps. Now the choice of country service will no longer be indicated by domain. Instead, by default, you’ll be served the country service that corresponds to your location.”

This will switch automatically depending on the country you are in, and will switch back once you go home. However if you absolutely have to search in a different country, that will still be possible as you can change that via your settings, which is a slightly longer process than changing the top level domain.

“If for some reason you don’t see the right country when you’re browsing, you can still go into settings and select the correct country service you want to receive. Typing the relevant ccTLD in your browser will no longer bring you to the various country services—this preference should be managed directly in settings. In addition, at the bottom of the search results page, you can clearly see which country service you are currently using.”

Google Will Now Focus On Making Search Results More Local , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

AT&T Doesn’t Believe The iPhone X Needs Aggressive Promotion

Ahead of the iPhone X’s launch, it’s safe to say that one of the contentious issues many had regarding the phone was its hefty price tag of $999 for the base 64GB model. However US carriers have since attempted to soften the blow by introducing various discounts and promotions.

We’ve seen these promotions offered by the likes of Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile, but conspicuously absent from that list is AT&T. What gives? As it turns out, AT&T believes that the iPhone X does not need any form of “aggressive promotion” as the carrier believes that they’ll still be able to be competitive regardless.

In a transcript of the carrier’s quarterly earnings call, obtained by Seeking Alpha (via Fierce Wireless), AT&T’s CFO John Stephens was quoted as saying, “With regard to the competitive environment, so far we’ve seen some rational activity through the iPhone 8 launch and most recently the activities that are going on, so we’re optimistic. We’re certainly ready. And as you can see, our margins are very solid and the performance has been great. But we believe we can compete and win based on our product offerings and that promotional activity of an extensive nature is not necessary.”

Whether or not that will happen remains to be seen, but we suppose at the end of the day it’s also about what kind of features and plans and other reasons that factor in when choosing a carrier, and not just about phone discounts.

AT&T Doesn’t Believe The iPhone X Needs Aggressive Promotion , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Cancer Discovered In Throat Using An iPhone-Connected Ultrasound

It used to be that back in the day, huge and expensive and specialized medical equipment was needed in order to detect and look for various health issues. While that is still true today, a lot of medical technology has since been shrunken down and can be easily brought on the go and even paired with mobile devices.

A recent story involving a certain Doctor John Martin is a perfect example of that. Martin, the Chief Medical Officer of a company called the Butterfly Network, felt an uncomfortable feeling in his throat and decided to use the Butterfly IQ to see what was going on. The Butterfly IQ is actually a product made by the company and is essentially a portable ultrasound machine that can be paired with a smartphone, like the iPhone, and is shaped like a razor (see photo above).

After applying the ultrasound gel and putting the device to his throat, Martin found a 3cm mass that indicated that he had squamous-cell cancer. Thankfully it was caught early and after undergoing a five and a half hour surgery, he is now expected to undergo radiation treatment where hopefully he will manage a full recovery.

The Butterfly IQ is expected to go on sale in the US later this year for $1,999. This is not the first time we’re hearing about how our modern electronics are proving to be useful at monitoring our health. For example there have been reports of how users of the Apple Watch have been alerted to impending heart attacks, and where Apple is working with medical companies and researchers at exploring how the Apple Watch’s functionality can be further expanded upon.

Cancer Discovered In Throat Using An iPhone-Connected Ultrasound , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

eBay’s Image Search Feature Is Now Live For Mobile

Sometimes it’s hard to search for things that you find difficult to describe using words. After all you can’t exactly point to an object and tell your computer, “Hey find me something like that”, or can you? Earlier this year eBay announced plans to add image search to its mobile app and the good news is that it looks like the feature is now live for mobile users.

For those who missed the news earlier this year, eBay announced that they will be adding image search to its app. Basically this lets users upload a photo from their phone and eBay will attempt to find a listing for that particular product or something that looks similar. The company will be relying on machine learning to attempt to identify what exactly it is that you are searching for.

How well does this feature work? We suppose your mileage may vary as Android Police reports that it doesn’t seem to be particularly accurate for now. However as with machine learning, over time it should eventually start to become more accurate and correct its mistakes, so maybe give it some time and hopefully we’ll see some improvements.

Smart image searching features aren’t exactly new and Google has offered users reverse image search in the past. Recently the company has begun to preview its Google Lens feature for Pixel owners, where users just need to point their smartphone camera to an object to identify it or even provide translations if it’s in a foreign language. eBay’s image search is now live for both its iOS and Android mobile apps.

eBay’s Image Search Feature Is Now Live For Mobile , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Analyst Thinks Apple’s 5-6 Week iPhone X Shipping Estimates Are ‘Conservative’

By now if you haven’t pre-ordered your iPhone X, don’t be surprised if you are greeted with shipping estimates that say you’ll have to wait as long as 5-6 weeks before your phone arrives to your doorstep. However it seems that not everyone is buying that particular shipping estimate.

In a memo obtained by BGR, it quotes RBC Capital Markets analyst Amit Daryanani as saying that Apple is simply being conservative with its shipping estimates, and that customers could actually be getting their phones earlier than expected. He writes, “We checked lead times for US, UK, Germany, UK, China, Japan and UAE, and interestingly the 5-6 week lead time is consistent across carriers, colors, memory size and geographies. This could mean that the 5-6 weeks number is conservative and users would likely receive it before that timeline.”

There is a chance that Daryanani could be right, because an earlier report had suggested that customers who were previously faced with 1-2 week shipping estimates found their shipping times brought forward. However this is not necessarily a guarantee and if you are planning to order the iPhone X, you best proceed under the assumption that it will take 5-6 weeks, or possibly even longer to avoid being disappointed.

So far things are looking pretty good for the iPhone X pre-orders as Apple has claimed that pre-orders are “off the charts”, which was echoed by Canadian carrier Rogers who claimed that they are seeing “tremendous customer excitement” for the phone.

Analyst Thinks Apple’s 5-6 Week iPhone X Shipping Estimates Are ‘Conservative’ , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

India Overtakes The US To Become The Second Largest Smartphone Market

In the past the US was the biggest market when it came to smartphones. However after various Chinese companies like Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, and so on started to get in on the smartphone business with affordable and value-for-money offerings, things started to shift and it eventually pushed the US down to second place.

However it seems that the US is having a hard time holding onto its position because in a new report from research firm Canalys (via TechCrunch), it looks like India has managed to overtake the US and is now the second largest smartphone market at the moment. The firm claims that India has managed to cross the 40 million mark in terms of smartphone shipments for the first time ever in Q3 2017.

Will India eventually catch up to China? We suppose it is possible, but right now China is said to be managing more than 110 million smartphones shipped per quarter, which is a little under three times that of what India has managed to accomplish, so if and when they do, it might take some time.

Ironically enough it appears that Chinese smartphones are the ones that are dominating in India, with Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, and Lenovo rounding up the top five brands, with Samsung still in the lead.

India Overtakes The US To Become The Second Largest Smartphone Market , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Rogers Claims ‘Tremendous Customer Excitement’ For iPhone X

While the iPhone 8 is an upgrade over its predecessor, the iPhone 7, it’s safe to say that many were more excited over the iPhone X which featured a brand new design as well as sporting new hardware and software features that were exclusive to it, so much so that it appeared to have affected the iPhone 8 sales.

In fact Canadian carrier Rogers had called the demand for the iPhone 8 “anemic”, but in an exclusive report from Axios, the carrier now appears to be singing a completely different tune. According to the carrier’s executive VP Raj Doshi, “We’re seeing tremendous customer excitement for iPhone X with strong customer pre-orders.”

He adds, “We’re also seeing good demand for the iPhone 8. We expect the two together will be very popular with our customers this holiday season with iPhone 8 being a major contributor.” This seems to be in line with what Apple themselves had said when they recently announced that pre-orders for the handset are “off the charts”.

Of course these are just words and we’ll definitely need to see the numbers, which most likely will be reflected in Apple’s financial reports soon. That being said, the release of the iPhone X should also have an impact on the iPhone 8 as well as it could be that customers after seeing/reading the reviews will decide that maybe they might be better off with the iPhone 8 instead.

Rogers Claims ‘Tremendous Customer Excitement’ For iPhone X , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Transparent Solar Cells Could One Day Be Installed On Windows

Image credit – Richard Lunt/Michigan State University

In the future there is a very good chance our homes and offices could be powered by renewable sources of energy, such as solar. However the way most solar panels are designed these days could stand to use some improvement, such as their placement and their design, where right now it isn’t exactly easy for the average homeowner to install in their homes.

However companies have been making strides in improving on this, such as Tesla who has designed solar panels to look like roof tiles to help them blend in, but it is possible that in the future solar panels could be installed on our windows instead of our roofs. This is thanks to researchers at the Michigan State University (via PC Mag) who have been working on creating transparent solar cells that can do just that.

According to Richard Lunt, the Johansen Crosby Endowed Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at MSU, “We analyzed their potential and show that by harvesting only invisible light, these devices can provide a similar electricity-generation potential as rooftop solar while providing additional functionality to enhance the efficiency of buildings, automobiles and mobile electronics.”

It should be noted that MSU’s efforts aren’t new and they aren’t the first. In the past we’ve seen various projects carried out by other researchers and companies in various iterations, such as films that can be simply pasted over glass doors/windows. However when these will become more commercially available or viable still remains to be seen.

Transparent Solar Cells Could One Day Be Installed On Windows , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

WhatsApp Now Allows Users To Unsend/Recall Messages

At the start of the year, it was discovered that in one of the betas for WhatsApp that the company could soon be adding a much requested feature: the ability to unsend/recall messages. Right now users can delete messages that they’ve sent, but this is only applied to their own screen and it doesn’t actually delete it from the other user’s screen.

Now if you’re the type that gets into the bad habit of sending drunk text messages, you’ll be pleased to learn that WhatsApp is now rolling out the unsend feature. It appears that this rollout is a gradual one as not all users can see it yet (I personally don’t have the feature yet), but given that the feature’s information has been posted onto WhatsApp’s FAQ section, presumably it will eventually find its way to all users.

According to the FAQ, there are several things to note about this feature. One of them is that it requires you and the other person to own the latest version of WhatsApp with the feature supported. If you have the latest version but the recipient does not, then deleting your message will do nothing.

Also if the person has already seen your message then deleting it would also be kind of pointless. In any case it is a long-awaited feature so do keep an eye out for it if this is something you’ve been looking forward to.

WhatsApp Now Allows Users To Unsend/Recall Messages , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

HTC Teases Bezel-Less Phone For Its November Event

It is pretty obvious that one of the current trends in smartphone design is all about creating phones with as little bezel as possible. Given how our phones are getting bigger, creating a handset with slim bezels allows companies to create devices that are more manageable in one hand.

In fact this is something that HTC is working on as the company appears to have posted a teaser image on Twitter hinting that its next smartphone could have a bezel-less design. Earlier this month HTC confirmed that they would be hosting an event on the 2nd of November in which a new HTC U branded smartphone would be launched. It has been rumored that the phone in question will be the HTC U11+.

However recently reliable leakster Evan Blass debunked the rumors by claiming that the phone in question will not be the HTC U11+, but rather a mid-ranger called the HTC U11 Life. While Blass does have a near-impeccable track record, it’s hard to imagine that HTC would spend this much time hyping up a mid-ranger, but since nothing is official yet do take it with a grain of salt.

Other teases that HTC themselves have posted regarding the upcoming device also includes wireless charging as a feature, but either way we should have all of the official details come 2nd of November, so check back with us then for the updates.

HTC Teases Bezel-Less Phone For Its November Event , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.