Canadian government wants to ‘unbundle’ cable and satellite channels

"watch TV" by D.Reichardt, Creative Commons License

The government wants to give its citizens the ability to buy channels on an a la carte basis, according to a report on The Verge. 

Industry Minister James Moore said on an interview, "We don't think it's right for Canadians to have to pay for bundled television channels that they don't watch. We want to unbundle television channels and allow Canadians to pick and pay the specific television channels that they want."

Updated Google terms of service can use your reviews and photos for ‘endorsements’

Based on a new terms of use announced on Friday, Google will be able to collect your comments and ratings on Play Store or any of its products and sell these to companies as “shared endorsements” to be used for online advertising. The new policy will go live on November 11 and will display users’ names, photos, and comments beside things liked, reviewed, followed, or positively commented on. You can opt out of the feature for now through this page.

Facebook takes out Timeline search auto-hide option

Facebook seems to be taking out a few features from both its purchased business and main application. The social network site will be taking out the option for users to opt out of being searched by others on the website. The removal of the “Who can look up your Timeline by name?” has been taken out for those who wanted to a few months ago. Now, all users can't hide themselves for Timeline search. If you want to avoid being searched by others, you are going to have to block them individually.

Source: CNET Australia

Change to come for Google Play Store for Android tablets

Google will be revamping its Play Store for tablet users starting November 21. Tablet owners will first see “Designed for tablets” apps when they browse the top lists on their devices and those apps and games that do not meet this criteria will be labeled as “Designed for phones.”

Google is announcing this change a few weeks in advance to give developers a chance to optimize their apps for tablets. If you’re an Android developer, you can check the Tablet App Quality Checklist to see if you meet the criteria.