Amazon Announces And Starts Selling Fire TV Set Top Box

One of the worst kept secrets among tech circles was Amazon’s plan to enter into the set top box game with its very own Android-based device. Well, the once book seller now eCommerce giant has made it all official with the recent announcement of its new device called the Fire TV. Of course, while the fact it was coming was a surprise to no one, Amazon did have some tricks up its sleeve for its big reveal. One of the first surprises for Amazon’s box is just how powerful it is. It boasts a quad core processor, 2GB of RAM,...

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How To Make Skype Calls Via Your Browser

Learn how to make a Skype call from Outlook.com in just a few simple steps. Because some moments are just right for Skype. Set up a couple of simple things and you could soon be bringing all your friends into Outlook with one click. If you are always in your browser, and hate opening up apps you’ve probably realised that Skype is one of those things you generally forget to open. Well, that just changed. You can get Skype in your browser. Here’s how. Install The New Skype Plugin Microsoft recently released the Skype Web Plugin for browsers, meaning that...

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Google Keep OCR

Google Keep has recently added a few new features. You can now upload images and Google automatically performs OCR and indexes the text, so you can quickly find images by searching for a few words from the images. This is not the smart visual search feature from Google Drive and Google+ Photos, but it's still useful. You can also transcribe the text, so that you can actually extract the text from the image. Another options lets you "make a copy" of a note.

If you click the 3-dot menu icon from a note that includes a list, you can change list settings. New list items can be added at the top or at the bottom and checked items can be moved to the bottom. By default, the changes also apply to new lists, but you can uncheck this setting.

Here's what happens after enabling "move to the bottom" for checked items:

When you delete a note, it's now moved to the Trash and it will be permanently removed after 7 days. Go to the Trash to empty it or restore some of the notes you've accidentally deleted.

The Android app was also updated with support for multiple accounts, a yellow action bar that changes color with notes and the same new features from the desktop interface.

How To Install Windows 8.1 Update 1

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With Windows 8.1 Update 1, Microsoft is trying to address the mistakes that it had committed while developing Windows 8. Even though, Microsoft hasn’t re-introduced the Start menu with Windows 8.1 Update and will bring back the same with in a future update later this year, the newly released major Update for Windows 8.1 enhances […]

Net Neutrality, Cuban Twitter, Brendan Eich, Open Source .Net [Tech News Digest]

Today in Tech News Digest, net neutrality in Europe, Cuban Twitter plot revealed, Brendan Eich resigns, open source .Net, new Kinect for Windows, Lingua.ly on Android, and the advanced Bitcoin simulator. Europe Votes For Net Neutrality The European Parliament has voted to protect the idea of net neutrality, with a major telecoms reform package clearing its first hurdle. The reforms clearly define what net neutrality is and ensure telcos treat all services equally. For those unsure of the issue at hand, we previously explained the concept thusly: “Net neutrality is, at its core, a very simple concept. It describes an...

Read the full article: Net Neutrality, Cuban Twitter, Brendan Eich, Open Source .Net [Tech News Digest]

Customize Google's App Launcher

Last week, I mentioned that you can customize Google's app launcher, but the feature didn't work well: changes weren't saved. Now it works well and you can reorder the apps using drag and drop. You can also add new shortcuts: go to Google Keep, Google Sites, Play Music, Webmaster Central, Google Voice, Google Patents, Google Groups, click the app launcher icon and then click "Add a shortcut".

There's no way to remove shortcuts, but you can always drag them to the second page, so they're out of the way.

No More SMS in Gmail Chat

A few days ago, Google removed the experimental SMS feature from Gmail Labs, which was launched back in 2008. "As of April 1, 2014, sending SMS messages to phone contacts through Chat in Gmail will be discontinued for all supported mobile operators. All existing users can opt in to Hangouts and select to receive messages in SMS settings," informs Google.

If you're in the US or Canada, you can send SMS from Google Voice. You can also switch to Hangouts and "continue receiving SMS messages as follow-me (i.e. if you're offline and receive a Hangout message, you'll get an SMS message)."



Google says that "by streamlining our services, we're able to focus on creating the best possible products for our users," but I suspect that Google wants to discontinue Gmail Chat and switch all the users to Hangouts.



Unfortunately, the SMS feature from Hangouts is more limited and supports less countries. When click this link, I get this message: "We're sorry, the feature you are looking for is currently only available in a limited number of countries."



There are plenty of other ways to send SMS online. You can use the SMS feature from Yahoo Mail or Yahoo Messsenger, use MightyText, which has a nice web app, browser extensions, an Android app and also integrates with Gmail.



{ Thanks, Beta Aly and Michael Hardt. }

Caption Contest: You May Now Text The Bride

Wait, you’re just checking in now? Caption this cartoon, will ya? Enter your captions in the comment section and you’ll be in the running to win a free MakeUseOf t-shirt! Every comment counts as one entry, and there may be more than one winner! Paul Harris won the Water Cooling contest with his caption: “I said use water to cool it, not cool it in water.” Congratulations, Paul! We’re still accepting submissions for Glassastrophe, so head over there and think of a great caption. The winner will be announced tomorrow.

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4 Simple YouTube Music Players For A Swim In The Stream Of Free Music

YouTube is for watching videos, right? No arguments there. But YouTube is also an unlimited source of restriction-free music anyone in the world can listen to. While it’s easy enough to find and listen to it on YouTube itself, there are other, easier ways. These services will turn YouTube into your own personal streaming service. Streamus (Chrome) Streamus is probably the easiest way to play YouTube songs in your browser. Streamus is a Chrome extensions that lets you find songs and tracks from YouTube and start listening to them without ever visiting the YouTube website. Or any website, for that...

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Dogecoin: How A Meme Became the 3rd Largest Digital Coin

What happens when a joke turns into a currency with a market cap over $30 million? You get Dogecoin. If you browse sites like Reddit and 9GAG, you’ve most certainly run into the doge meme and its iconic Shiba Inu, but you may not know that that same Shiba Inu is now the mascot of a digital coin. Wow, such money. What Is Dogecoin? Dogecoin is a derivative of Litecoin, which is a cryptocurrency inspired by Bitcoin. Don’t let the term cryptocurrency frighten you, though; just think of it as digital currency and you’ll be fine. While the technology behind...

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