Gmail Contacts auto-save can now be disabled plus myriad of small updates

The Gmail team has been busy behind the scenes of late addressing a plentiful supply of little niggles. First up on the chopping block is the annoying (or amazing, depending on how you look at it) auto-save contacts feature, which has been the bane of many-a-contact neat-freak (myself included) since its inception. Now Google has finally added an option to turn off the auto-save contacts feature. It's available in the 'General' tab of Gmail settings going forward, and should please anyone who syncs their phone contacts with Gmail contacts.

Gmail will also now point out any incorrectly entered email addresses visually, rather than simply telling you something was wrong. This will be handy for anyone addressing emails to a long list of recipients, as it'll be a lot easier to spot the typo. A few of Gmail's error messages have also migrated from pop-ups to in-window messages that allow you to action things more easily, while still getting on with the task in hand. Gmail will also now send you back to the message you were looking at if you happen to create a filter for 'messages like these,' a nice tweak that should save you some time.

If you're into your keyboard shortcuts, Gmail now has one turned on by default and that's the shortcut help key. Hit 'shift' and '?' together and you'll be presented with an overlay detailing all the keyboard shortcuts available to boost your productivity. Last but not least, the 'refresh' link is now a button on to match the rest of the buttons on the toolbar. Consistency in UI is important for a decent user experience, and now Gmail conforms just a little bit more.

To check out these little changes, all you have to do is head to your Gmail and have a look around the UI. Many people rely daily on Gmail in the browser, and these small, but important changes, can make the difference between a slick and productive experience, and a sluggish and frustrating one.

Gmail Contacts auto-save can now be disabled plus myriad of small updates originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/07/gmail-contacts-auto-save-can-now-be-disabled-plus-myriad-of-smal/

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Developer frustrated over Game Center use by pirates

The developer of an iOS game that offers Game Center support is frustrated with Apple over their apparent inability to block pirated games from the Game Center leaderboards.

GAMEized developer Luís Fonseca said in a blog posting that he had high hopes for his FingerKicks soccer game when it was released earlier this month. Over the first weekend of sales the game sold a modest 380 copies according to the sales stats in GAMEized's iTunesConnect account.

When logging into Game Center that Monday Fonseca saw that there were over 200 FingerKicks players listed on the leaderboards -- meaning a high percentage of users were playing and sharing awareness of the game. Anxious to track his sales, Fonseca started checking the number of player of FingerKicks on Game Center throughout the day. He did so because Apple only allows developers to see new sales at the end of the day. In the meantime the Game Center numbers could act as a barometer of how his sales were increasing.

The morning of the day after he last checked his sales, Game Center showed a whopping 1,000 players for FingerKicks. By that same evening the number of players jumped to 5,000. Fonseca was astonished at the high rate of sales and checked the official number in his developer account later that night. That's when he discovered that, despite over 5,000 Game Center players, FingerKicks had only sold an additional 160 copies over its opening weekend sales of 380 copies. A majority of the 5,000 FingerKicks Game Center players were pirating his app.

FingerKicks had fallen prey to massive pirating on jailbroken iPhones. That in itself incensed Fonseca, but more so, he was angry that Apple didn't have a way to block pirated games from GameCenter's leaderboards. "Most bewildering of all is that even with all their rhetoric chastising piracy and intellectual property theft, Apple apparently has no functional counter-piracy safeguards in place on their Game Center - essentially permitting users to play pirated software on their Game Center without any fear of reprisals or consequence," Fonseca wrote.

While Apple isn't responsible for app piracy, it is reasonable to expect that they should support their developers by implementing a way to stop games running on jailbroken devices from accessing GameCenter's leaderboards. Here's hoping that Apple can find a way to make this happen -- soon. And for those people who might have pirated the game: Grow up. It's US$0.99 and fun as hell. Piracy doesn't lead to development of future cool games, sales do.

[via Razorianfly]

Developer frustrated over Game Center use by pirates originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2011/07/15/developer-frustrated-over-game-center-use-by-pirates/

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2011 Sachsenring MotoGP Warm Up Result: Stoner Leads Lorenzo

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Blog Post: DIZZEE RASCAL ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF BING?S YOUR BRITAIN NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

Last night Dizzee Rascal revealed the overall winner of the Bing.com Your Britain national photography competition to be Carl Haynes, who captured an image of cyclists speeding through a pedestrian tunnel in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His image was picked by the judges out of more than 8,500 entries and scooped the £10,000 prize plus the chance to appear on the Bing homepage today.

Mercury award winning artist Dizzee Rascal, who kicked off the competition by capturing a series of photos for the visually led search engine’s homepage, joined an esteemed panel of judges to whittle down the top public voted entries to choose the overall winner and the winners for each category: my local Britain, my natural Britain, my Britain at night, my secret Britain and my urban Britain, with each of these winners receiving £250. More than 120,000 public votes were cast throughout the duration of the competition.

After much deliberation the expert judging panel, which includes Alan Sparrow, Picture Editor of Metro Newspaper; Ben Drury, Art Director and long-time Dizzee Rascal collaborator; and Pleasance Coddington, writer and tourism expert from Visit Britain, finally arrived at a consensus and hailed Carl Haynes’ gritty action shot using a long exposure technique as the overall winner. 

Upon winning the competition Carl Haynes said: “I am delighted to have won the Bing Your Britain photography competition. The image is a snapshot of Britain through my eyes and for me, the blurred pair on bikes evokes a feeling of a progressive nation. I love the idea of seeing a trajectory or path from where the riders have come from to where they are heading - that’s what makes this picture work for me.”

Commenting on the winning photo, Dizzee Rascal, said:  “This photo is untamed. I like the energy from the long exposure technique and I can relate to finding something powerful in every day urban life. We should be inspired by our towns and cities by looking for beauty in unlikely places. It’s cool to think this guy’s perception of beautiful Britain will be shared with over 16 million people when it appears on Bing’s homepage tomorrow.”

Dizzee, who recently bagged an Ivor Novello award for inspiration, joins the full panel of judges tonight at the official gallery event in the heart of Shoreditch, East London, and reveals some of his previously unseen photos of Britain, which were hung alongside the overall winning entry and the category winners’ photos.

Alex Payne, Head of Search at Bing, said: “Imagery is extremely important to Bing. Ever since launch, the Bing homepage has carried striking images each day, designed to capture peoples’ imaginations and inspire them to discover more about the subject. This approach, in making search a more visual and immersive experience has had a big impact and we really wanted to see what inspires people about the country. The standard of entries throughout the competition has been unbelievable. The nation’s ability to find beauty and inspiration in the most unlikely of places and translate that into powerful photography is truly impressive. The competition has been a runaway success and we’re excited to give the lucky winner a cheque for £10,000 and showcase their image on the Bing homepage.”

To see the winning image live today on www.bing.com. You can also check out the Bing Facebook page for the latest news, images and more here http://www.facebook.com/BingUK

Overall Winner, Pedestrian Tunnel, Carl Haynes

Category Winners
Local Britain
An image of an old pub in Wales dubbed the Royal British Legion captured the imagination of Greg Pawelski and demanded the attention of the judges to win the Local Britain category

Natural Britain
An atmospheric sunrise across the Bedruthan Steps in Cornwall was enough to secure the Natural Britain category for Eric Pearce

Urban Britain
The juxtaposition of a wall littered with graffiti as a backdrop with Police tape dominating the foreground created an image worthy of the Urban Britain category title for East Londoner, Danny Seaton

Secret Britain
Clapham junction was the spot of choice for amateur photographer Michael Debrah, whose interpretation of interlinking railway lines impressed the judges enough to steal the Secret Britain category

Britain at night
It was the calm dusk shot of idle rowing boats decorating an unusually tranquil Stornoway harbour that captured the imagination of the judges and delivered Tim Riches from the Isle of Lewis, the top spot in the Britain at Night category

 

For more information visit www.your-britain.com

 

 

Source: http://www.bing.com/community/Site_Blogs/b/uk/archive/2011/07/13/dizzee-rascal-announces-winners-of-bing-s-your-britain-national-photography-competition.aspx

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Blog Post: Dhani Jones and Bing Travel - Inspiring Great Travel Decisions

Dhani Jones - NFL superstar, author of “The Sportsman: Unexpected Lessons from an Around-the-World Sports Odyssey” and former host of the Travel Channel’s “Dhani Tackles the Globe” - is no stranger to planning the perfect vacation.  Dhani has pretty much seen it all when it comes to travel, and he recently partnered with Bing Travel to provide his tips, recommendations and personal stories on traveling the world. 

From his top 10 favorite destinations to his travel wish list, Dhani relates his passion for exploration:

• Dhani Jones’ 10 Favorite Places
• Dhani Jones' Travel Wish List
• Q&A: Traveling the World With Dhani Jones

Inspired by Dhani’s travels? You can go too! We asked Dhani to share his favorite Bing Travel tools that can help you make your travel dreams into a reality:

• Stop searching and start finding: “I love saving time by doing one search on Bing to uncover the best travel deals around versus having to go to several different sites to get the same information.”
• Find the best ticket price: “Bing’s Price Predictor is a great tool. It tells me if my airfare is likely to go up or down and gives me advice on if I should wait to get a better deal or to book now and snap it up before its gone. I also get flight deals from Bing sent directly to my Facebook feed so that I don’t miss a deal.”
• Get a great hotel for the money: “It’s always a win when you can stay at nice hotels for a steal. Bing’s hotel rate indicator looks at past rates for that hotel and lets me know the best deals around.
• Ask your friends: “I connected Bing to my Facebook account so that when I do research on new destinations, I can easily see which of my friends live in a city I want to visit and see which shows, restaurants, spas and adventures my friends have “liked”.

”Now all you need to do is spin the globe and figure out where you want to start. Happy travels!”

- Dhani Jones

Source: http://www.bing.com/community/Site_Blogs/b/travel/archive/2011/07/18/dhani-jones-and-bing-travel-inspiring-great-travel-decisions.aspx

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Google Voice Search learns Latin American Spanish, Indonesian, and Malaysian

Google Voice Search has just introduced localizations for Latin America, Indonesia and Malaysia, enabling native language search for hundreds of millions of users.

Google's official blog post offers some interesting insights into the process of collecting and analyzing the speech data needed to expand support. Thousands of hours were spent gathering voice samples and choosing key regional accents to analyze, and International Program Manager Linne Ha is clearly very appreciative of the Google users who helped the company complete the expansion. Without an enthusiastic base of users to lend a hand, Google Voice Search's polyglot powers would have been nearly impossible to deliver.

Google Voice Search learns Latin American Spanish, Indonesian, and Malaysian originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/google-voice-search-learns-latin-american-spanish-indonesian-a/

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