Canadian Reviewer Weekly Roundup 2/22-2/28

Leaked specs and photos of the HTC One M9 surface

Review: Samsung Galaxy Note Edge

Apple's Maps Connect now available for Canadian small businesses

iOS 8.3 update to addresses diversity with new skin tone emojis and flags

Review: Alcatel OneTouch Pop 8 Android tablet

Pebble skips back to Kickstarter roots to launch new Pebble Time wearable

TELUS, Public Safety Canada help Canadians protect personal information on smartphones

OneTap app can help stop distracted driving

Motorola launches new Moto E entry-level smartphone now featuring LTE and Lollipop

Microsoft YouthSpark Challenge for Change contest launches today

Metal versions of Motorola Moto 360 coming soon to Canada

Cannibal! The musical is as funny as you think it is

LG Canada rolls out Android 5.0 Lollipop for G3 users

Apple sets Spring media event for March 9

Google aiming for enterprise with Android for Work initiative

Link Google Drive files with Google Calendar for Android

Latest Modern Family episode takes place entirely on a MacBook Air

It's been 10 years since the first Kijiji ad was posted in Canada

YouTube on Android lets you trim your videos before you upload

You don’t have to define your gender on Facebook anymore

MLB.com at Bat app for Android receives Material Design makeover

BlackBerry OS 10.3.1 begins rolling out internationally

Huawei aiming for the luxury Android smartwatch segment

Get more mobile-friendly sites on tablet or smartphone with Google

Google thinks you should see more mobile-friendly sites when you search through your mobile devices. That’s why starting April 21, online sites with mobile versions will get higher placements in search result pages. And you’ll see these if you are using a mobile device. It will also parse information from indexed apps if you’re signed in and have them installed on your device. Google has been ranking points for sites with optimized pages for new devices so this change doesn’t come as a surprise. If you want to check if your company or personal mobile site works with Google, you can run it through this test from Google.

Source: Google Webmaster Central Blog | Via: Engadget

Swatch unveils smartwatch geared towards beach volleyball

Swatch has just unveiled its first rather specific smartwatch. The Touch Zero One looks rather similar to the old Swatch Touch. But this one has a few “smart” features to bring it into that category. But if you’ve come to expect the ability check notifications or playback music, you won’t find that here. What sets the Touch Zero One apart is it works for beach volleyball.

It tracks your steps and hits. Swatch says it can even differentiate between attack hits, high hits, low hits, high hits, and even high fives during the game. It will then be sent to an app for processing (no word yet if the app works with iOS or Android or both). It will rate you on a scale of 0 to 100 (or from beginner, amateur, and up to professional). It also calculates the calories you’ve burned and has a graph that shows your progress based on days, weeks, and months. It’s not a colored screen so expect battery life to be good. Swatch touts it at several months between charges but these are non-chargeable. At US$159 it fits right into the activity tracker niche, if you play a lot of volleyball, that is.

Source: Swatch | Via: SlashGear

You don’t have to define your gender on Facebook anymore

Last year social network Facebook worked with GLAAD to generate custom genders, such as transgender and cisgender, but it wasn’t universally well-received because users were still boxed in by pre-selected options. Facebook seems to have scrapped that and now has a custom gender field. It still populates suggestions as you type but you can put in whatever gender you want to represent yourself on the site, similar to the “infinite” gender options on Google+. Aside from that, you can choose the pronoun you want to be called on the site. You can even tweak your privacy settings for gender if you just want a select audience that can see your gender. There isn’t any word though how fast the roll out of the option is. So best keep your eye out for it.

Source: The Verge