BardTech

The post Skype rolls back its redesign by ditching stories, squiggles and over-the-top color appeared first on BardTech . Just over a year after Skype introduced a colorful, Snapchat-inspired makeover which included its own version of “stories,” the company says it’s now going to refocus on simplicity – and it’s ditching stories along the way. The redesign had been met with a lot of backlash. Skype had clearly wanted to appeal to a more youthful demographic with its update, but in doing so, it cluttered the user experience with features no one had asked for or needed. One of these was “Highlights,” a feature that was very much Skype’s own take on Snapchat’s or Instagram’s Stories. With Highlights, Skype users were able to swipe up to pull up their smartphone’s camera, then snap a photo or record a video that could be decorated with typed or handwritten text, as well as with Skype’s own set of stickers. This could then be shared with individual Skype users, groups, or posted to the ...

The post Google Pixel 3/Pixel 3 XL appear on FCC with Band 71 support on T-Mobile appeared first on BardTech . It’s that time of the year again: Google is preparing to launch their next generation of Pixel devices this October . This time around, the Google Pixel 3 and the Google Pixel 3 XL will appear, though sadly the Pixel Watch has been delayed . We already know pretty much everything about the larger Pixel 3 XL and have recently seen some real-life pictures of the smaller Pixel 3 , but the devices are still over a month away from their official announcement. As we approach the announcement, both phones have now stopped by the FCC, giving us a look at the connectivity information. The Google Pixel 3 and the Google Pixel 3 XL both bear model numbers G103A and G103C. Presumably, the former is the regular Google Pixel 3 while the latter is the bigger Google Pixel 3 XL. Both Google Pixel phones are designed entirely in-house by Google and manufactured by Foxconn , in contras...

The post Apple’s new iOS 12 beta fixes the annoying ‘please update’ bug appeared first on BardTech . iOS 12 beta testers have been plagued with a frustrating bug that continually pops up messages alerting them that a new iOS update is available when, in fact, it’s not. Apple has now fixed this bug, which is patched in the latest iOS 12 betas rolling out now, we understand. The bug had first made headlines on Thursday, when a number of iOS 12 beta testers – including developers and those on the public beta program – began to complain on social media about the problem. All users were seeing a pop-up message that read, “A new iOS version is now available. Please update from the iOS 12 beta.”   Users could close this window with a tap, but the same pop-up would reappear at regular intervals. There was nothing to be done about it, because the message itself was wrong – there was no new beta available for download at the time. A new iOS update is now available. Please updat...

The post Apple will require all apps to have a privacy policy as of October 3 appeared first on BardTech . Apple is cracking down on apps that don’t communicate to users how their personal data is used, secured or shared. In an announcement posted to developers through the App Store Connect portal, Apple says that all apps, including those still in testing, will be required to have a privacy policy as of October 3, 2018. Allowing apps without privacy policies is something of an obvious hole that Apple should have already plugged, given its generally protective nature over user data. But the change is even more critical now that Europe’s GDPR regulations have gone into effect. Though the app makers themselves would be ultimately responsible for their customers’ data, Apple, as the platform where those apps are hosted, has some responsibility here, too. Platforms today are being held accountable for the behavior of their apps, and the data misuse that may occur as a result of their ...

The post Weebly brings more e-commerce features to mobile appeared first on BardTech . Weebly is part of Square now , but it continues to update as a standalone product. This week, for example, the company announced a number of new e-commerce features for the Weebly mobile app. Those features include the ability to ship and print labels, to respond to customer questions (via Facebook Messenger, which can be embedded on Weebly sites), to approve customer reviews, to create branded coupon codes and to edit every aspect of your store, including product listing and pricing — all from the app. Much of this functionality already existed on desktop, so the announcement is about moving these capabilities onto smartphones. In a blog post , the company outlined a vision for the mobile phone to become “the new back office.” Weebly CEO David Rusenko told me that as his team has been adding more features for merchants, he wants people to think of Weebly “increasingly as an e-commerce plat...

The post Nintendo’s next mobile game arrives September 27 appeared first on BardTech . Nintendo was slow on the draw to enter the mobile market, but now that the company’s in, the titles are starting to come at pretty steady clip. The gaming giant’s got another RPG arriving on Android and iOS September 27. We don’t know a ton about Dragalia Lost at the moment. The title was announced back in April , and the company plans to shed more light on the game during a Mobile Direct event tonight. That will be streamed live via the YouTube video right here: The RPG was developed by Cygames, a Japanese studio behind titles like, Granblue Fantasy , the hugely popular cross-platform title featuring art direction by Final Fantasy ’s Hideo Minaba. Nintendo also acquired a chunk of stock in the studio, which bodes well for future collaborations between the two. Nintendo describes the title as “a vast multiplayer action RPG” with a bunch of dragons. Even more importantly, it will be free to pla...

The post Air Canada confirms mobile app data breach appeared first on BardTech . Air Canada has confirmed a data breach on its mobile app, which the airline said may affect 20,000 people — or 1 percent — of its 1.7 million app users. The company said it had “detected unusual log-in behavior” occurring between August 22-24. According to an email to customers, attackers may have accessed basic profile data, including names, email addresses and phone numbers — but also more sensitive data that users may have added to their profiles, including passport numbers and expiry date, passport country of issuance, NEXUS numbers for trusted travelers, gender, dates of birth, nationality and country of residence. But credit card data was not accessed, the airline said. It’s not known if there was a direct breach of Air Canada’s systems or if hackers attempted to reuse passwords from other sites that may have also been used on Air Canada’s mobile app. When reached, an Air Canada spokesper...

The post For IGTV, Instagram needs slow to mean steady appeared first on BardTech . Instagram has never truly failed at anything, but judging by modest initial view counts, IGTV could get stuck with a reputation as an abandoned theater if the company isn’t careful. It’s no flop, but the long-form video hub certainly isn’t an instant hit like Instagram Stories. Two months after that launched in 2016, Instagram was happy to trumpet how its Snapchat clone had hit 100 million users. Yet two months after IGTV’s launch, the Facebook subsidiary has been silent on its traction. “It’s a new format. It’s different. We have to wait for people to adopt it and that takes time,” Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom told me. “Think of it this way: we just invested in a startup called IGTV, but it’s small, and it’s like Instagram was ‘early days.’” It’s indeed too early for a scientific analysis, and Instagram’s feed has been around since 2010, so it’s obviously not a fair comparison, but we took a look at...

The post Fortnite’s Android installer shipped with an Epic security flaw appeared first on BardTech . Google has clapped back in tremendous fashion at Epic Games, which earlier this month decided to make the phenomenally popular Fortnite available for Android via its own website instead of Google’s Play Store . Unfortunately, the installer had a phenomenally dangerous security flaw in it that would allow a malicious actor to essentially install any software they wanted. Google wasted exactly zero time pointing out this egregious mistake. By way of a short explanation why this was even happening, Epic explained when it announced its plan that it would be good to have “competition among software sources on Android,” and that the best would “succeed based on merit.” Everyone of course understood that what he meant was that Epic didn’t want to share the revenue from its cash cow with Google, which takes 30 percent of in-app purchases. Many warned that this was a security risk for s...

The post 10 Addictive Mobile Games You Can Play, 5 Minutes at a Time appeared first on BardTech . Life is full of five-minute gaps. Maybe you’re waiting in line for a cup of coffee or you’re 10 minutes early for an appointment. Your first instinct is to open Facebook or Instagram, or to start reading the news. But that’s actually all rather dull. There’s a better, more productive way to spend those five minutes. Instead of mindlessly scrolling through your social media feeds, or obsessing over yet another clickbait headline, you can play a quick game on your smartphone. Whether it’s one of these relaxing iOS puzzle games or one of these games you control in crazy ways . In this article we recommend the best mobile games to play when you have five minutes to spare. 1. Threes! If you’ve got five minutes to spare and you want to do something to use your mind instead of numbing it, Threes! is the game for you. It involves sliding numbered tiles around a four-by-four grid to comb...

The post 10 Addictive Mobile Games You Can Play, 5 Minutes at a Time appeared first on BardTech . Life is full of five-minute gaps. Maybe you’re waiting in line for a cup of coffee or you’re 10 minutes early for an appointment. Your first instinct is to open Facebook or Instagram, or to start reading the news. But that’s actually all rather dull. There’s a better, more productive way to spend those five minutes. Instead of mindlessly scrolling through your social media feeds, or obsessing over yet another clickbait headline, you can play a quick game on your smartphone. Whether it’s one of these relaxing iOS puzzle games or one of these games you control in crazy ways . In this article we recommend the best mobile games to play when you have five minutes to spare. 1. Threes! If you’ve got five minutes to spare and you want to do something to use your mind instead of numbing it, Threes! is the game for you. It involves sliding numbered tiles around a four-by-four grid to comb...