Snapchat takes on Google with Context Cards

Ever watched Snaps on Snapchat and wonder how to get to that awesome restaurant your friend is at? You don’t have to wonder anymore with the latest feature Snapchat is introducing into its app. Called Context Cards, this lets you swipe up on some of your friends’s photos and videos to pull up details about the businesses they are at. The cards will show you things like reviews, contact information, reservations, maps, and even the option to call an Uber or Lyft to the store or restaurant. Snapchat has partnered with the likes of Foursquare, Opentable, Michelin, and the aforementioned two ride-sharing services. Context Cards will also allow you to pull up more public snaps from the area.

Context Cards remind us of the cards Google uses for its Search feature but instead of relying on your written text, Snapchat makes use of the photo or video you are viewing to answer questions like “Where is this person at? What else is there? How can I get there?” They work under the assumption that when someone is enjoying being someplace you might want to learn more about this area. 

Source: Fast Co Design

Review: Fitbit Ionic

 

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Fitbit is the leading wearable company in the world. It has outlasted the competition in the entry-level and mid-range with a succession of truly transformative fitness trackers backed by the industry's best analytics and most comprehensive apps.

The only area where Fitbit has seemeed lacking has been in the higher end. The Fitbit Blaze was sorely lacking many of the touchpoints that made smartwatches popular. While it had the tracking aspect nailed, it didn't offer much in terms of apps and other functionality. Now we have the Fitbit Ionic, which leapfrogs its predecessor in many ways.

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Amazon now offers a waterproof Kindle Oasis eReader

Amazon.ca announced its most advanced Kindle ever – the all-new Kindle Oasis.  It is the first-ever waterproof Kindle, boasting an IPX8 water resistance rating. Designed so readers can take their favourite stories even more places, it is protected against immersion in up to two meters of fresh water for up to 60 minutes. Plus, it’s designed to withstand getting splashed at the beach or dropped in the bath tub, hot tub, or pool.

With a larger 7-inch and 300 ppi display, it also fits over 30 per cent more words per page for fewer page turns. Plus, it has the fastest page turns of any Kindle. Despite an even larger display, the all-new Kindle Oasis weighs only 194 grams, 10 grams less than the best-selling Kindle Paperwhite.

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Google tries out autoplaying videos on YouTube app

While I’m personally not a fan of autoplaying videos in my apps, some prefer to have this as a matter of convenience. That’s why we aren’t surprised Google is experimenting with this feature in its YouTube app. Videos will start to play when you scroll through the Home section but you don’t have to be worried about being startled by audio as these videos will play without sound but will have subtitles overlaid. And if you’re worried about this eating up your data, only one video will play automatically at a time and you have the option to turn this feature off or have it work only on Wi-Fi. It must be noted that this feature isn’t available to all users as YouTube is just testing the feature out. Whether they roll this out to all users is something we don’t know right now.

Source: Android Authority