From the furore engulfing the FCC this last year you might think that the agency had accomplished little but appalling privacy advocates and dancing for its patrons, the telecoms. But as is often the case, small works were overshadowed by more controversial items. Ajit Pai has released a list of “accomplishments,” such as they are, reminding us both of the FCC’s hard work and… Read More
Wouldn’t it be great if you could check your emails on the phone and also enjoy YouTube videos in the background at the same time? Or, to save battery, you turn off the phone display and YouTube would still continue to stream the audio from the selected YouTube playlist in the background.
Unfortunately, none of this is possible with the YouTube app on Android and iPhone. The app has to be active in the foreground and the phone display should be turned on else YouTube will immediately stop playback. The limitation holds true whether you are playing videos inside the YouTube app or using a web browser like Google Chrome or Firefox.
A few years ago, the Google Play Store listed a bunch of apps – uListen and SuperTube to name a few – that would let you use YouTube as a background music player but they’ve all been removed now.
Also see: Most Useful Android Apps
A bunch of open source options exist – MinTube and NewPipe for example – that are very capable and let you do more with YouTube than just play videos in the background.
Both offer a floating video player which essentially means that you can pull out a YouTube video and place it over any other app. It’s like the Picture-In-Picture effect – you can read the New York Times in the browser and watch a movie on YouTube simultaneously.
If you aren’t too inclined to download another app just to play YouTube videos, you can use the default web browser on your phone itself. Here’s how:
That’s it. YouTube will now play in the background while you multi-task.
You are at the check-in counter, there’s a long queue of people and the lady at the other end has just asked you to present a digital copy of some document for verification. You remember saving that file on your phone but don’t exactly remember where you placed it? Maybe the file is in your Gmail inbox, or Google Drive, or is it on the SD card?
Locating files on your mobile phone isn’t always straightforward, especially when you are in a hurry, and this is exactly where Google Drive can help.
You can upload the file to Google Drive, then open the file inside the Drive app on your Android phone, and tap “Add to Home Screen” to create a shortcut to that file on the home screen. You should also check the “Available Offline” option so that the file shortcut works even when you are outside the coverage are.
If you would like to place shortcuts to multiple documents on your home screen, it is recommended that you create a folder inside Google Drive and then create a shortcut. Unlike files, you cannot make an entire folder offline in Drive.
The Dropbox app for Android also allows you to create shortcuts for folders through widgets. Long tap any blank area on your home screen, drag the Dropbox folder widget and select the folder for which you would like to create the shortcut.
Please note that the option to add files to home screen is only available inside the Google Drive app but not the Docs, Slides or Sheets app. If you would like to create a shortcut to your work-in-progress presentation on the Android screen, you should do it inside the Drive App, not the Slides App.
Also see: The Best Android Apps (2018)
Read the full article: Show Your Love for Open Source by Giving to These 7 Organizations
With the Forms Email Notifications add-on, you can automatically send emails to anyone each time a user submits your Google Form. You can choose to notify the form owner, the form respondent, your team members or anyone else and the emails are triggered immediately after a form is submitted.
The Google Forms add-on can also send conditional emails to specific people depending on what a user has selected in your Google Form. The body and subject of the email message can be personalized for each recipient with the form answers.
Before we get into the implementation, here are some real-world examples where conditional email notifications can come handy:
This is a tech support form where the customer fills in the product name and their location. With the Google Forms addon, you can create a conditional email that goes out to the iPhone support team when the selected answer is either iPhone or iPad. Another email could go out to the India team when the customer selects India in the country drop-down.
This is a school form where parents are required to give consent. If a parent says “yes”, the class teacher of the student should be emailed and a confirmation email should also go out to the parent’s email address. If the answer is “No”, the email notifications aren’t sent anywhere.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set up notification emails based on the user’s answers in the Google Form.
Go to the Google Forms store and install the Email Notifications add-on. Next, go to forms.google.com and either create a new form or use any of your existing forms. The addon is also compatible with Quiz based forms.
Inside the Google Form editor window, click the add-on icon (it looks like a puzzle), choose Email Notification for Forms > Create Email Notification (you can also set up mobile notifications with IFTTT).
Here, specify the form rule name (say “Inform the Teacher”) but leave the “Email Addresses to Notify” field blank – we need to send emails only when specific conditions are met, else we skip the notification. Click Continue.
On the next screen, click the Visual Email button and create your own rich-text email template. You can also include placeholders for form fields – like – and these will be replaced with the actual values entered by the user. Click Continue
Click the Edit Conditions button and here add one or more conditional statements per rule. In the following screenshot, emails are sent to the parent and jeff@school.com whenever the consent value is “Yes” and the teacher’s name contains either Jeff, Jordon or Mary.
In the Rule #2, emails are sent to the school principal if the parent has chosen “No” as the answer and other rules will be skipped.
That’s it. Save the rule, go to the live Google Form and submit a test entry. If the rules are correctly set up, the emails will be correctly routed to different email addresses and you can find a copy of all the emails that were sent out in your Gmail Sent Items folder.
Check out the video tutorial ? on YouTube and the documentation to know more about the capabilities of the Google Forms Notifications addon.
At least one Facebook employee has been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into potential Russian interference with the 2016 election, reports Wired. But don’t put on your conspiracy hats just yet. Read More
Nintendo is culling Miitomo, its first ever smartphone app. Miitomo was Nintendo’s first foray into mobile gaming beyond its own platforms, and showed the company that there was demand for its games on Android and iOS. However, after just two years Nintendo has decided to pull the plug. In 2015 Nintendo announced its intentions to move beyond its own console and release games for mobile devices. In March 2016 this came to fruition with the release of Miitomo, which is a social platform built around Miis. Unfortunately, Miitomo‘s time is coming to an end. My Miis Need a Wii Miitomo...
Read the full article: Nintendo Kills Miitomo, its First Smartphone App
The prevalence of so-called fake news is far worse than we imagined even a few months ago. Just last week, Twitter admitted there were more than 50,000 Russian bots trying to confuse American voters ahead of the 2016 presidential election. It isn’t just elections that should concern us, though. So argues Jonathon Morgan, the cofounder and CEO of New Knowledge, a… Read More
iOS 11 brought a big change to the iPad. It’s almost like Apple’s tablet has been reborn. The new Dock makes it really easy to switch between apps, while Split View multitasking finally makes sense. But what takes the cake is the addition of drag and drop apps. This seemingly simple feature removes some of the biggest frustrations we had with iPad and takes it closer to being a “real” computer. The ability to quickly and easily transfer data from one app to another is a huge productivity booster. How Drag and Drop Apps Work in iOS 11 Drag and...
Read the full article: The Best Drag and Drop Apps for iPads Running iOS 11
Discovered in late 2016, the Dirty COW is a computer security vulnerability that affects all Linux-based systems. The surprising thing is that this kernel-level flaw has existed in the Linux Kernel since 2007, but was only discovered and exploited in 2016. Today, we’ll see what exactly is this vulnerability, the systems it affects, and how can you protect yourself. What Is Dirty Cow Vulnerability? Dirty COW vulnerability is a type of privilege escalation exploit, which essentially means that it can be used to gain root-user access on any Linux-based system. While security experts claim that such kinds of exploits are...
Read the full article: Dirty COW Vulnerability: Everything You Need to Know to Stay Secure
Facebook Live is launching monetization for video gameplay streamers, allowing users to tip creators a minimum of $3 via the desktop site. Right now, the contributor of the tips doesn’t get any special call-out or privileges, though Facebook tells me it’s considering different options for creators and gamers. For instance, it could have a special emoji Reaction float across the… Read More
