Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook and Vine were just the beginning — you should have known that. Especially once the biggest social network in the world started dipping its toes in the VoIP pool. Skype isn’t about to let others encroach on its hard won territory without a fight. The Microsoft-owned messaging platform has started testing what amounts to a video voicemail feature on OS X, Android and iOS, something that had already been hinted at in its updated TOS. Why those operating systems at first, without any word about Windows or Windows Phone, we’re unsure. But it’s a safe bet Redmond’s own platforms will get the feature sooner rather than later. Currently users in the US and UK should be seeing the option, just dig a bit as it might be hidden behind a more actions or overflow icon, as it is on Android. Customers are getting 20 free video messages to start, though we weren’t able to wrangle any further details out of the company regarding pricing.

(Update: While we still have some unanswered questions regarding pricing, Skype did say that unlimited voice messaging will be included as part of a premium subscription.)

(Update 2: A Skype spokesperson reached out to us with the following statement about availability:

“Users in these markets across all Windows desktop and mobile platforms can receive messages, too. We will have send capability in Windows by end of April. In the meantime, we continue to test this new feature in its early release.”

April isn’t ideal, but it’s better than nothing.)

Filed under: Internet, Software, Mobile, Microsoft

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Texting while driving is obviously really dangerous, and many states have already banned the use of mobile phones altogether while driving, with more and more states moving closer to that goal. However, with voice controls in smartphones becoming more prevalent, drivers are resorting to hands-free texting in the car, but recent studies show that hands-free texting is just as dangerous as hands-on texting.

California just passed a law that states that drivers are allowed to use mobile phones while driving, as long as its all done by voice. However, several groups, such as the National Safety Council for California, are begging the state to rethink the new law, saying that voice-texting while driving is still unsafe, and may be even just as dangerous as regular texting while in the car.

Researchers and psychologists have demonstrated in the past that people suffer significant impairment when they use a mobile phone while driving, and a study conducted by David Strayer of the University of Utah says that participants talking on a mobile phone had slower reaction times and were involved in more simulated accidents than when they weren’t on their phones — hands-free or not.

The participants’ cognitive impairment levels were around the same as those of participants who got in the simulator after drinking enough alcohol to register a 0.08% blood-alcohol content, which would be considered illegal in all 50 states. While hands-on texting certainly seems more dangerous than hands-free texting, studies have shown that sending a simple voice text led drivers to take their eyes off the road more often than usual, and they reported a higher mental demand during the experiment.

While you may be quick to retort that voice texting and chatting with people sitting in the passenger seat are the same thing, Strayer says that each of the two activities use different parts of the brain. Strayer’s research has shown that the mobile phone distractions in the car isn’t just physical, but also cognitive, meaning that drivers who use mobile phones “create weak memories of objects in the driving environment, suggesting a great deal of attention is drawn away from the road.”

[via The Atlantic Cities]

Hands-free texting while driving is still dangerous, according to studies is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Facebook is at it again, folks. The social network giant is testing out yet another new feature, and this time it’s almost too ridiculous to believe. Facebook is testing a new service that charges you $100 to send a message to a stranger. So, instead of having the message land in their “Other” inbox, it will go straight to their main inbox.

Some Facebook users have been reporting an interesting popup when they attempt to send messages to people outside of their friend network. The popup notes that the message will be filtered to the “Other” inbox of the recipient, but offers to deliver it to the top of the recipient’s inbox for a staggering $100.

Facebook first began experimenting with this kind of option last month when it first introduced filters, including the “Other” folder. In initial tests, the fee was just $1. However, according to Mashable, Facebook confirms the $100 option is part of that test, and they say they’re testing “some extreme price points to see what works to filter spam.”

Mashable reported seeing $100 as the fee to send a message to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but sending messages to other strangers result in the same price, which means that the fee isn’t based on the popularity of the user. However, unless you’re part of the test group, you still can’t send a message to strangers, and there’s no word on when or if the feature will be rolling out. It’s also entirely possible that if the service eventually launched, the fee might change.

[via Mashable]

Facebook testing $100 charge to message strangers is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Be the first to greet your friends and spam the heck out of their inboxes on New Year’s day! If greeting the people closest to you when the ball drops is something you’ve always done every year, then you might find Facebook Stories’ new Midnight Message Delivery service useful.

The service lets you send a special message to your chosen recipients at 12:00am on January 1st, 2013 in their local timezone. No need to send mass SMS or be at your laptop on New Year’s ever because you can draft up your messages right here, right now so you can spend the last hours of 2012 actually celebrating it instead of fussing over greetings.

Just pin the Facebook Stories app to your wall, create lists of people you want to send New Year greetings to, and bang out your message.

In other words, Facebook has made it easy for you to spam your friends and annoy countless others with automated and scheduled deliveries. But hey, it’s the New Year – you probably won’t be on Facebook anyway!

[via Ubergizmo]

It seems there is always someone Poking you on Facebook. To be honest, I’ve never replied to Pokes since they’re pretty silly, but Facebook has recently launched a new mobile app that will take things beyond the usual Poke.

Facebook Poke allows users to alert to their Facebook friends, sending quick, disposable messages, photos or video in order to share them without posting them to your timeline.

Pokes are set to self-destruct, lasting for 1, 3, 5 or 10 seconds after viewing. Basically, if you use it to send racy pictures to your boyfriend/girlfriend, knowing that they will be erased fairly quickly. In addition, Facebook says they are wiping out all of the Pokes encryption keys 2 days after viewing the message, so they can’t be recovered. Then again, you never know what Facebook will do with them. Ultimately, don’t they need to monetize them? After all, they do have shareholders these days.

iOS users can grab Facebook Poke on the App Store now. There’s no word on an Android version as of yet.

[via Facebook]