Twitter counts emojis equally now, no matter what gender or race

Emojis have gotten more and more inclusive but there is a quirk in the way Unicode handles emojis with some taking up more characters than others. This wouldn’t be much of a problem but with Twitter’s 280 characters, this might dissuade people from using the ones they identify with and go back to using the default colours and genders. You see in some cases, the more inclusive emojis end up taking more than two characters than the original yellow one. Emojipedia notes that an emoji on its own can take two characters but then you add a skin tone modifier that adds two more, and then you add a gender on top of that and that increases to nine characters all in all. What Twitter has done is treat all of these as two characters. It might be considered a small move but it does encourage people to use a more identifiable emoji in their tweets.

Source: The Verge

Review: Fitbit Charge 3

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The new Fitbit Charge 3 fitness tracker may look like a dead ringer of its predecessor but closer inspection reveals a thoroughly refined and rethought personal fitness device. Now touting 7-day use on a single charge, the Fitbit Charge 3 is the wearable you can wear 24/7 and which you can even swim with.

The Fitbit Charge 3 has undergone a Zen makeover. The design is sparer and more unobtrusive, the buttons are now capacitive and the display and menu are simplified so that you’re only two or three swipes away from starting an exercise, reading notifications or checking the time.

Built form lightweight but durable aerospace-grade aluminum that has a smooth slightly curved case and a durable Gorilla Glass 3 cover make this one of the tougher Fitbits in the market.

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Facebook tests unsend feature on Messenger

Earlier this year, Facebook talked about how it secretly deleted some old messages sent on Messenger by its CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg. It wasn’t a feature that was available to normal Facebook users, though. When we deleted messages on the Messenger app, it gets deleted from our end but stays in the recipient’s inbox. Around April, Facebook said it was working on implementing this feature for all users but didn’t give a timeframe for its implementation. Now, it looks like the company is testing it out. Tech tipster Jane Manchun Wong tweeted screencaps of the unsend feature appearing on an Android device.

A prompt to “Unsend Message” shows up above the “Delete Message” option when you try to edit a message sent in a conversation. If you choose to unsend the message, a pop-up will appear to confirm the choice. It says “Your message will be removed from the chat, and you.” According to Wong, there will be a time limit for when you can unsend a message, similar to the 30-second window you get for Gmail. She didn’t specify though how long Messenger’s unsend time limit is.

Source: The Verge

Review: Rowenta Intense Air Pure Purifier

By Sonya Davidson

When we finally decided it was a good time to add a furry friend to our home we did some research. Our son had his heart set on a corgi. All research has drawn to the same conclusions on this breed - great family dog and loyal. We knew it was a shedding dog so while I have allergies to some breeds, this one I wasn’t sure of. So, we set off to meet a few breeders and with our luck, none of us had any allergic reactions. But having said that, there are few family members who are allergic to dogs but we decided there were enough ways to minimize airborne hair and dander to keep things at bay, hopefully. Constant vacuuming of the floors and removing most carpeting was important. But so was keeping the air clean. 

We understood that corgis shed. Honestly we had NO IDEA just how much this little puppy sheds his hair. Apparently twice a year he goes through a major shedding. We just survived one where it left us covered in fur. Our vacuum was constantly filled to the limits. Remarkable. 

Now that we’re heading into the colder and “staying indoors” weather, vacuuming just isn’t enough. We have been testing out the ROWENTA INTENSE PURE AIR for a month. 

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