Rolandt

A large proportion of the information I consume on my mobile comes from two apps: The Economist (iOS, Android), and a whole lot of feeds via Feedly (iOS, Android). They both present text in narrow columns and share a lovely, simple navigation metaphor which unfortunately has recently broken (on Android at least).

In both cases, each story is presented in a single column that fills the screen from left to right and extends arbitrarily far down, as long as need be for the piece’s body. The stories are side by side. There are only two ways to navigate: Up or down the columns, and right or left between stories. Here’s a picture.

I’m sure other newspaper and information-dense apps must have adopted this metaphor because it’s just so intuitive. It works great on mobile because no matter how fat-fingered you are, the app only has to distinguish between vaguely-North/South and vaguely-East/West and the right thing almost always happens.

Now, there’s a subtlety: If you swipe left to go to the next story, you want to bounce up to its top. But if you swipe back, you almost certainly don’t want to bounce to the top of the previous story, because you already read that, and you probably are going back because you accidentally swiped while reaching for a drink, or realized a microsecond after you swiped that that paragraph was more interesting than it’d seemed when you launched your finger.

And if you’ve read a ways down story B and swipe back to A, then forward again to B, once again you don’t want to pop to the top of B. Which is to say, it should remember your scroll position, at least for the immediate predecessor and successor of whatever it is you’re reading.

And, both apps used to. But sometime in 2017 they stopped, snapping remorselessly to the top of whatever column you swipe to, forward or back. It’s annoying as hell; maybe because I often change my mind about leaving an article and decide to go back. And the fact that it happened in both the Economist and Feedly makes me wonder if something in the Android app framework broke.

So I’m not sure who I’m mad at; the developers of two of my favorite apps separately, or just someone in the Android group.

If you’re reading this and you think it’s you I might be mad at, well hey, no biggie, but please fix?

There we go again, it’s the last week of the year and while most people are trying to recover from recent festivities, ‘the Congress’ has opened its doors again. As in the previous years I’m doing a mix of attending talks and helping out with various things and here’s my roundup of day 1.

Welcome!

Like every year the main difficulty during the Congress is to decide what to see and what to miss, it’s just too much for four short days and nights. As all of the talks are recorded I decided this year to only attend the really really really (3x) important ones to me and keep the other important talks for later. The opening ceremony was certainly one of those not to miss with Tim Pritlove talking about the history of the CCC. While most talks I attended today were in German, many of the recordings also contain an English and French translation. To get that version click on the little ‘sun’ icon in the video player on the web page and select your audio! For those wanting to know more about CCC history, there are other videos about Wau and early CCC history on Youtube. If you can read German, ‘Der Phrasenprüfer‘ will give you even more background information.

The Press

Before and after his talk I decided to help a bit with welcoming the press to Congress and to make sure the house rules and the privacy of all participants are respected. If you’ve seen the official press coverage of the congress on TV or elsewhere you might have noticed that there are only few scenes were persons can actually be identified. And there’s a reason for that as the prime rule is that anyone that can be identified on pictures or videos must be asked for consent. I was walking through the congress with a TV crew for a few hours and at least this crew was happy to play by the rules and try their outmost to capture interesting scenes and content. From what I hear not all teams are as cooperative.

Opa Erzählt Vom Krieg (Grandpa Tells War Stories)

Remaining on the history track for a bit, Laforge didn’t show up with a very technical talk about how to hack cellular networks this year but instead with a talk about the early days when modems and bulletin board systems were the way to communicate electronically. At the end of the talk ‘Ray’ in the audience proposed a get together later in the day for those who would like to travel down memory lane a bit furhter. One thing I really like about Congress is that the Congress Wiki can be used to book a room on the spot and make the information about where and when available instantaneously. Quite a number of people showed-up and the discussions that followed made me wonder if I should bring some 1980/90s modem equipment to the Congress next year to re-live a time when ‘the Internet still made sounds’ (TM). Also, I started wondering if and how circuit switched data is still supported in GSM networks today, especially for incoming calls. Perhaps something to be followed up for next year as well.

Die Lauschprogramme der Geheimdienste

Enough traveling down memory lane, the next talk I attended was by Constanze (Kurz) interviewing Hans-Christian Ströbele about his work in the past years in the parliamentary investigation committee on the NSA spying scandal in Germany (NSAua). Lots could be said about this but I leave it to the recording if you are interested in the details. One comment though: Hans-Christian Ströbele is now 78 years old but his mind is sharp as ever!

Der PC-Wahlhack

Lots of German politics on day 1 and the next talk I attended on the hack of one of the software suites used in the recent German parliamentary election was well worth seeing live. Again a talk in German but by the time you read this there’s likely a recording with an English translation (for the translation version see if there’s already an edited version of the stream available here). Even if you are not living in Germany, this talk is well worth seeing as it’s more than likely that the same kind of 1990’s software and according security measures are used elsewhere as well.

Misses

Time goes by to quickly and there are often parallel streams so I had to miss the Ultimate Apollo Guidance Computer Talk, which really hurt as I was very much looking forward to seeing this live, KRACKing WPA2 by Forcing Nonce Reuse and Markus Beckedahl’s talk on the current state of internet politics in Germany. Thank heaven VOC for the recordings!

Final link for today: The Fahrplan (schedule) of all talks of the coming days can be found here and live streams of everything here!

Facebook, Instagram & Co machen süchtig. Süchtig nach Likes, nach Anerkennung. Sie machen süchtig, aber sie befriedigen nicht. Wie bei jeder Sucht gibt es nur einen Ausweg: aufhören. Die Apps vom Telefon löschen.

Ich habe vor einiger Zeit aufgehört, Facebook und Instagram mit Inhalten zu füllen. Der Grund war diese Schmierigkeit von Facebook, mir immer mehr anzudienen. Schau doch mal hier, das könnte Dich interessieren. Ja, das hast Du Dir nicht ausgesucht, aber probier doch mal. Und so lange Du dort hingehst, hast Du nicht den Hauch einer Chance, dem zu entkommen. Facebook weiß ganz genau, wieviel man Dir zumuten kann, ohne dass Du wegläufst. Und weglaufen sollst Du nicht, denn Facebook will Dir "sponsored" Inhalte zeigen. Dafür bekommen sie Geld, als einziger in diesem Spiel.

Was ich nicht verstehe: auch sehr intelligente Menschen sind nicht in der Lage, von dieser Nadel runterzukommen. Vielleicht hilt eine drastische Analyse: wer ist in diesem Spiel der Zuhälter, die Nutte und der Freier? Und dann muss man sich überlegen, ob man das sein will.

Stefan Krempl für heise online:

Haupert führte eine Demo für eine App der VR-Banken vor, auf einem Nexus 5X mit Android 7.0 und einem Sicherheitsupdate vom Ende 2016, bei dem einige Verwundbarkeiten noch nicht geflickt seien.

Es ist immer das gleiche Pattern: Altes Android-Handy mit alter Android-Software. Einfach Schlussfolgerung: Meide alte Android-Handys, oder einfacher, meide Android-Handys.

Ich gebe Sicherheitsforschern immer wieder mal mein aktuelles iPhone in die Hand und bitte sie, mir ihren Exploit zu demonstrieren. Das hat ohne Ausnahme noch niemals jemand geschafft. Dabei haben sie alle eins. Sie scheitern bereits an den "unsicheren" Zugangssperren wie TouchID oder FaceID.

Sometimes you can’t call bullshit by its name. To avoid repetition, to write in places that prohibit curse words, or just to be more descriptive, you need synonyms. Thanks to Stephen Chrisomalis on a site called The Phrontistery, I now have a useful list of synonyms for bullshit. Here are some of my favorites. Descriptions … Continued

The post Synonyms for bullshit appeared first on without bullshit.

Mimi Ito, EdSurge, Dec 31, 2017

"In 2017," writes Mimi Ito, "reality took a massive swipe at the wobbly optimism of technology progressives." How so? Well, despite things like MOOCs and YouTube we still see digital inequality and gender discrimination. Schools continue to be unequal, open access doesn't seem to promote equity, etc. But instead of the four lessons Ito draws (unite around shared purpose, focus on minorities) I think we need to look at the wider picture. Open and progressive education are necessary, but by no means sufficient, factors in equity. Take away people's livelihood and health care and equity suffers, no matter what else you do. Defund government programs and equity suffers, no matter what else you do. You can't vote for policies that result in inequity - which Americans (and others) continue to do - and expect education and openness to fill the gap. Won't. Happen.

This starchitect building continues to rise, and the final look becomes more evident.

In this interview with Adam Grant, Walter Jacobson talks about some of the things he learned while writing biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Leonardo da Vinci. A common theme is that all four were curious and interested in a wide range of topics. Toward the end of the interview, Jacobson says:

We of humanities backgrounds are always doing the lecture, like, "We need to put the 'A' in 'STEM', and you've got to learn the arts and the humanities." And you get big applause when you talk about the importance of that.

But we also have to meet halfway and learn the beauty of math. Because people tell me, "I can't believe somebody doesn't know the difference between Mozart and Haydn, or the difference between Lear and Macbeth." And I say, "Yeah, but do you know the difference between a resistor and a transistor? Do you know the difference between an integral and a differential equation?" They go, "Oh no, I don't do math, I don't do science." I say, "Yeah, but you know what, an integral equation is just as beautiful as a brush stroke on the Mona Lisa." You've got to learn that they're all beautiful.

Appreciating that beauty made Leonardo a better artist and Jobs a better technologist. I would like for the students who graduate from our CS program to know some literature, history, and art and appreciate their beauty. I'd also like for the students who graduate from our university with degrees in literature, history, art, and especially education to have some knowledge of calculus, the Turing machine, and recombinant DNA, and appreciate their beauty.

You may have been  following the story of the Richmond residents living in Steveston that found out that the closed back lane in their back yards was going to be opened and become a functioning lane. When these properties were purchased, the easement for the City’s lane was clearly on the title, but was not being acted upon, allowing residents to use that space for their own green spaces. The City of Richmond indicated that the back lanes would only be constructed when lane dedication and associated access were required for sewer or other such infrastructure replacement.

As reported in the Richmond News, Richmond has 45 kilometers of open and unopened lanes. Approximately 85 per cent of the lanes are constructed across the city, although in Steveston only 40 per cent are open and functioning. The City has easements of about ten feet on the back of properties, and when the lanes are constructed the actual lane width is about twenty feet.

Back lanes are an unusual feature in Metro Vancouver municipalities and are well-loved by movie sets. They were originally designed to be service lanes for services such as garbage removal. In the City of Vancouver lane “improvements” mean paving over the back lane provided which sustainably seems at odds for reducing off gassing, permeability and speed, and does contribute to flooding of adjoining properties. It was Sharole Tylor in Mountainview Neighbourhood in Vancouver that convinced the City of Vancouver to try something different other than the so-called improvement of the “paved lane”. By installing two concrete driving strips, using a permeable geoblock with structural soil, engineer  David Desrochers created a new demonstration of a new lane that also became a popular public space useable in a community that was park deficient.  As the National Post reports, even though three of these demonstration “country” lanes were installed, they were never costed out correctly for their sustainable benefits, and were dismissed by the then new Vision civic leadership in favour of more “green” paving techniques.

But perhaps the timing of the rebirth of a sustainable country lane is more appropriate now with clear concerns about  how to create usable parklike space, to manage flooding, and off gassing, and  to encourage more sustainable practices. The City of Richmond perhaps learning from the City of Vancouver’s lack of sustainable followup   is offering several options for the new laneway, including paving, the use of green filtration swales, or a country lane. There are open houses at the Steveston Community Centre on January 10 and January 17 and more information that will be available on the LetsTalkRichmond.ca site in early January.

There is also an  old YouTube Video of the first Country Lane in Vancouver that can be viewed at this link.

One of the reasons why the bottled water market remains as is (in a position of domination whereby it’s one of the top 5 most profitable businesses out there, together with scholarly publishing, and yes I recognize the irony in all of this), is the fact that there are institutional and structural factors that drive increases in bottled water consumption. One that I find particularly galling is the fact that there aren’t enough drinking water fountains within cities’ territory. Water provision is a public service that is usually the responsibility of cities. It’s one of the many public services that local governments are entrusted with, alongside garbage collection, treatment and disposal, parks and public gardens, and street road lighting. One of the many ways in which cities can reduce bottled water consumption is through the provision of public water fountains.

While drinking water fountains provide still water, and even if there’s a taste for a different type of water (like sparkling water), there are cities where you can find fountains that offer this type of offering, like Rome and Paris.

The Rome case:

Rome has unveiled a kiosk that dispenses free water, both still and sparkling, on Via dei Fori Imperiali outside the Colosseum metro station.

The Paris case:

That’s right: a public fountain that serves up sparkling water. France might be known for its bottled water — take Evian from the Alps, or a bottle of bubbly Perrier. But in Paris, the mayor is pushing people to give up the bottles in favor of tap water from the city supply. One way the city is trying to do so is to make its water more appealing.

Dr. Andrew Biro has written about how individuals may develop a taste for specific types of water (sparkling or “gourmet”) and Dr. Rachel Black has developed the notion that Acqua Minerale di Sangemini (mineral water of Sangemini) gained a place at the table. If this is the type of water that needs to be supplied to entice individuals to switch back from bottled to tap water, then so be it.

In an open letter to customers, Apple has addressed how it handles the CPU performance of iPhones with older batteries.

We’ve been hearing feedback from our customers about the way we handle performance for iPhones with older batteries and how we have communicated that process. We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize. There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we’re making.

First and foremost, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.

Since iOS 10.2.1 the CPU performance of iPhones with older batteries has been reduced by iOS to prevent device shutdowns. The CPU throttling was not communicated to customers, however, which led to accusations of planned obsolescence.

In response, Apple is taking two steps:

To address our customers’ concerns, to recognize their loyalty and to regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple’s intentions, we’ve decided to take the following steps:

• Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 — from $79 to $29 — for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced, starting in late January and available worldwide through December 2018. Details will be provided soon on apple.com.

• Early in 2018, we will issue an iOS software update with new features that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance.

In addition to the open letter to customers, Apple added a new support article called iPhone Battery and Performance, which explains how lithium-ion batteries chemically age and how this can lead to device shutdowns. The support article also lists some of the changes users can expect to experience if their iPhone’s CPU is slowed down.

It’s unfortunate that the kind of clear, reasonable explanation of why device CPUs are throttled wasn’t communicated to customers when it was first introduced in iOS 10.2.1. Battery chemistry and device shutdowns are not the easiest topics to explain to customers, but today’s letter shows Apple is capable of it and hopefully will be more likely to do so in the future.

Support MacStories Directly

Club MacStories offers exclusive access to extra MacStories content, delivered every week; it's also a way to support us directly.

Club MacStories will help you discover the best apps for your devices and get the most out of your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Plus, it's made in Italy.

It's December 2017. And I have already been rewarded for reaching a challenge in January 2018. I was going to ask who is up for the challenge since it started the #dontbreakthechain for 2017, but that opportunity has been ruined.

I have also completed all three rings for 180 weeks, but I have completed the Exercise ring for only 134 weeks. Which does not compute since the Watch hasn't been on the market for 180 weeks.

Who is running software at Apple? Hairforce One? Step up the QA!

• Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 — from $79 to $29 — for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced, starting in late January and available worldwide through December 2018. Details will be provided soon on apple.com.
• Early in 2018, we will issue an iOS software update with new features that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance.

More >

Well, this is interesting, although it does raise a few conundrums.

This post explains why cycling is the best exercise for weight loss, and describes 7 steps to lose weight by cycling. Cycling burns a lot of calories, and can be sustained for long periods of time because it is so much fun. And because cycling is a low-impact exercise, you can start cycling even if you are very overweight. Many people have lost impressive amounts of weight with the help of cycling, and you could become one of them!

The post 7 Steps to Lose Weight by Cycling appeared first on Average Joe Cyclist.

Lieber Volker,

an dieser Stelle ein riesengrosses Dankeschön für Deinen Blog! Eine der wenigen Internetadressen, die ich täglich aufrufe. Weil: sehr gut geschrieben, kein tausendfach kopierter Müll, einfach aus dem Leben!

Alles Gute weiterhin - auch im neuen Jahr!
Herzliche Grüsse aus dem Alpen-Nachbarland

Vielen lieben Dank. So fängt der Tag gut an.

Das ist übrigens eine meiner Lebenslektionen. Sag mal was Nettes zu den Menschen, die Dir täglich begegnen. Einfach immer, wenn Dir etwas gefällt. Das kommt irgendwann zurück.

Yesterday, in a discussion with our homeschooling friends we talked about schools. About socialisation as a big part of what happens in a school, even when everyone talks that schools are  about education. In a sense that question that every homeschooler gets, often before any discussion about learning, confirms it. What about socialization? What about making friends, learning the norms, experiencing traditions, working in groups, going through conflicts…

We also talked about our homeschooling community. About the effort that it takes to build that village that we all need to raise our children. About newcomers and lurkers. About the challenges of staying open and having an environment build on trust and knowledge of each other. About the choices that everyone of us has to make, because to be fair it’s both education and socialisation that we create the conditions for. And yes, socialisation is an issue and it requires deliberate work.

The irony is that if I look closer into our homeschooling community I see way more support for socialisation than for education. Learning is always there, but a lot of it is incidental and informal. There is always play and a lot of self-directedness. Yet, it feels that “education” is what parents do with their kids outside of the group, mainly on their own. Learning to read and write, practicing a skill, going deep into a topic, reflection and documentation – those things are not often explicitly supported in the group activities that we have.

Which I find sad. Because we have a warm welcoming community that is a treasure. But for me the main purpose of it is not about being together, but about learning deep while being together. I feel that part could do with more support and intentional facilitation. Which is where I’m happy to focus in the coming time.

Mobike, China’s major bike rental company, announced today that it will roll out its first ride-hailing service in Guizhou, marking the firm’s official attempt to expand outside of the bike rental business. The first batch of the “shared” cars are all new energy vehicles and will be placed in Guian New Area and Guiyang City […]

Mobike officially launches ride-hailing service, first testing in Guizhou originally appeared on TechNode

Hello everyone,

Last Friday – December 22nd – we held a Testday event, for Firefox DevEdition 58 Beta 12.

Thank you all for helping us make Mozilla a better place!

From India team: Surentharan R.A, Fahima Zulfath A, M.G.Sudarshan,  Amit Kumar Singh, Aditya Anand,Aishwarya Narasimhan, Baranitharan,Mohammed Adam,Sriram.B,Abhishek,Terry john paul,Aravind Arul,Nagarajan Rajamanickam,Bharathvaj,Karthikeyan Sethumadhavan,Andal_Narasimhan,Sudarshan Seshadri,Krishnaveni.B ,Kishore Kumar.

Other great mozillians:

Gabriela Montagu.

Results:
– several test cases executed for Graphics and Web Compatibility;

– 3 bugs verified: 1387141, 1188859, 1403998.

Thanks for another successful testday! 

We hope to see you all in our next events, all the details will be posted on QMO!

Oh, das wird viele neue Geschichten produzieren. Vielen Dank, Secret Santa!

It looks like it’s time to pour one out for the Pixel C.

The Pixel C, Google’s unique, relatively well-received tablet experiment, never really took off, in part because its price tag was so astronomically high, coming in at about $800 CAD (when not discounted, which it often was).

Still, it’s arguably the best Android tablet to ever be be released. Now, however, it looks like Google has removed the Pixel C from the Canadian and U.S. Google Store.

Given the company’s track record, it’s possible Google could support the Pixel C with additional security patches for the next year or so, though there’s no way to know for sure.

From a broader perspective, this could also mark the end of Google’s interest in Android tablets. While some manufacturers still dabble in the Android tablet space, with Samsung being the most notable example, it’s been a long time since Google’s mobile OS was optimized for larger devices, with the last major tablet updates coming with Android Marshmallow — especially in the face of Apple’s iOS 11 and the 10.5-inch iPad Pro.

That said, Google did recently bring Google Assistant to tablets running Android 7.0 Nougat, along with smartphones running Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Via: Android Police 

The post The Pixel C has been removed from the Canadian Google Store appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Amazon has deactivated Google’s YouTube app on all Fire TV devices, four days before the Mountain View, California company’s planned blocking, according to a report stemming from Fast Company. 

While the higher-end versions of Amazon’s Fire TV aren’t officially available in Canada, the company recently launched a low-end, Basic version of the streaming stick north of the U.S. border.

Now that it’s gone, when you open the YouTube app via the Fire TV, the app encourages users to install Silk or Firefox, and opens a link to the video site once either browser is installed. Google originally stated that the company has plans to cut off Fire TV access starting on January 1st, citing Amazon’s unwillingness to to support Prime Video via the Chromecast, as well as to sell Google hardware via Amazon.com.

It’s unclear how long Amazon plans to offer a browser workaround when it comes to accessing YouTube on its streaming stick.

Amazon and Apple waged a similar tech giant cold war, with the former company refusing to sell the Apple TV in its store, and the latter tech giant not allowing Amazon to release Prime Video for Apple’s set-top box. The war has since cooled, however, with Amazon Prime Video finally making its way to Apple’s set-top box.

Source: Fast Company

The post Amazon Fire TV YouTube app stops working ahead of schedule appeared first on MobileSyrup.

In case you’re tired of the same old back-and-forth legal drama between Qualcomm and Apple, there’s a new feud that’s recently drawn the internet’s attention: Apple versus an Italian fashion company that’s dedicated to the brand name Steve Jobs.

The brand was trademarked in 2012 — about a year after Jobs’ death — by brothers Vincenzo and Giacomo Barbato, who were looking for an eye-catching name after deciding to start their own clothing and accessories company. Both had previously worked designing products for other brands and were inspired by the fact that Jobs was an “innovator par excellence.”

Not long after, Apple kicked off its fight against the brand, but according to La Repubblica, the European Union’s Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market issued its ruling against Apple in 2014. The brothers reportedly faced further legal issues over the brand’s logo, which is a ‘J’ with appears to be a bite taken out of it and an Apple-like leaf sitting atop the letter.

The brothers say the courts sided with them on the logo, due to the fact that a ‘J’ is not edible, so the bite mark isn’t really a bite mark and is thus different from Apple’s logo. They also say they’re now free to use the logo and brand name.

Of course, how much of this is actually accurate is unclear, as so far only the Barbatos’ have given their side of the story. Apple declined to comment on this story when asked by MobileSyrup.

Still, if what the Barbatos say is true, they could cause even more trouble for Apple in the future; the brothers say they aspire to eventually launch tech gadgets under the Steve Jobs brand name.

Image credit: Ben Stanfield via Flickr

Source: La Repubblica

The post Apple is reportedly unable to shut down Italian fashion brand ‘Steve Jobs’ appeared first on MobileSyrup.

A new battery-related problem appears to be affecting Samsung Note 8 smartphones.

Over on the Samsung Community Forums, Note 8 users have started reporting that they’re unable to charge their phone after completely discharging its battery to 0 percent. In every reported case, the Note 8 becomes unresponsive and refuses to accept a charge, even after users attempt to boot it in safe mode and try different cables.

There’s even a video of one user trying to revive their phone without success.

While Samsung has yet to issue an official response, the company appears to be doing what it can to take care of affected customers. In one thread, a moderator with the handle ‘SamsungMel’ can be seen telling affected users to return their phone for warranty replacement.

“This particular problem with the Note 8 not turning on is definitely something we want to get addressed immediately,” they write.

We’ve reached out to Samsung for comment. We’ll update this article when we hear back from the company.

Source: Samsung Via: Android Authority

The post Some Note 8s are becoming unresponsive after discharging their batteries completely appeared first on MobileSyrup.

The Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) has just released the results of its annual poll on Canadian road safety concerns.

“Canadians think texting and driving is getting worse, despite moves by law enforcement to crack down and extensive public education efforts,” writes the CAA in a press release issued on December 29th.

According to the organization, 83 percent of Canadians believe texting while driving is a more significant problem today than it was just three years ago. For reference, texting and driving first broke into the CAA’s top 10 list of major road safety concerns in 2011.

The same poll found that Canadians think that, in conjunction with drunk driving, texting and driving is the most significant threat to their personal safety while on the road. Moreover, other forms of distracted driving, including individuals using their phones to email and call while driving, are similarly becoming a concern for Canadians.

“Despite anti-texting and driving laws in all provinces across the country and several years of public education campaigns, Canadians still don’t seem to be getting the message,” said Jeff Walker, the CAA’s chief strategy officer, in a prepared statement.

The CAA compiled its data based on a survey of 2,003 Canadians conducted this past November.

What do you think of the organization’s findings? Are distracted drivers your number one concern while driving?

Source: CAA

The post Canadians think texting while driving is as bad as drunk driving: CAA appeared first on MobileSyrup.

Google is about to make a major change to how Android apps function on Chrome OS.

The company is currently beta testing a feature with Chrome OS 64 called Parallel Tasks that allows Chromebooks to run multiple Android apps simultaneously.

Previously, with a couple of exceptions, Android apps running on Chrome OS would temporarily pause when users switched out of them. Clearly, that situation is less than ideal for users that depend on Android apps for their productivity.

In another boon for heavy multitaskers, the same beta release also includes improved support for tablet split view.

Chrome OS 64 is currently in Google’s beta channel, which is to say we’ll likely see Parallel Tasks make its way to a stable release sometime soon. Google, however, hasn’t provided a definitive release date.

Source: ChromeUnboxed Via: 9to5Google

The post Google is testing a Chrome OS feature that will allow Android apps to run in the background appeared first on MobileSyrup.

The Echo Dot was one of Amazon Canada’s best selling devices this holiday season and helped the online retail giant experience ‘record-breaking’ revenues.

The smart home Alexa-enabled speaker is cost effective at $49.99 CAD, but some say the speaker quality is not up to par with its competitors in the space. Thankfully, the massive online retailer has partnered with Bose, one of the best audio device manufacturers in the industry, for an Echo bundle offer.

What seems to be a ‘Deal of the Day,’ Amazon Canada is offering up the Echo Dot (2nd Gen) in white or black with a Bose SoundLink Revolve Bluetooth speaker. In addition to connecting to Alexa, the Bose speaker is also compatible with Google Assistant and can last up to 12 hours of before needing a recharge.

The bundle is priced at $249 and includes a free Echo Dot.

Source: Amazon Canada

The post Amazon Canada bundles free Echo Dot with Bose SoundLink Revolve Bluetooth speaker purchase appeared first on MobileSyrup.