Twitter May Soon Stop Counting Links and Images Against Your 140 Character Limit

Twitter May Soon Stop Counting Links and Images Against Your 140 Character Limit

According to a source familiar with Twitter’s upcoming plan who spoke with Bloomberg, the company will soon stop counting links to the web and images against your 140-character tweet limit. For the longest time, Twitter has counted any added links and photos against your limit, leaving less room for actual words. In a change that could happen within the next couple of weeks, folks may soon see more words, links, and photos. 

As of right now, when a link is added or a photo is embedded into a tweet, it takes up 24 characters. If multiple links are required in a tweet, that’s an additional 24 characters for each link. However, if adding multiple images (up to four), only the first 24 characters are counted and the photos are assembled into the same album with a single link.

With that being said, the process has gotten better over the years, but if Twitter does change how images and links are counted, you should begin to see more words with tweets that are accompanied by images and links.

According to Bloomberg, Twitter even contemplated lifting the character limit to 10,000, but apparently, that wasn’t seen as a good idea. Limiting a tweet’s size is one of the main reasons people flock to Twitter. Topics and headlines are easily digestible in 140 characters, so here’s hoping that the 140 character limit never vanishes.

In the comments, feel free to express how much you hate Twitter and all social media. We know you will.

Via: Bloomberg

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Google Play Beta Tests Will Soon be Easier Than Ever to Join

Google Play Beta Tests Will Soon be Easier Than Ever to Join

Joining a group to a beta version of an app on Android hasn’t exactly been the simplest of tasks. It typically involves finding out or knowing about a Google+ group or Google Group that hosts the beta, then clicking through a special link in that group to opt-in to testing, before moving onto Google Play to get the beta installed. See what I mean? 

Thankfully, those days of jumping through hoops to get involved in a public beta will be in the past. During Google I/O, Google announced that beta tests will become easier to find and participate in because they will start showing up in Google Play search results, assuming they are open and not in production. Through the beta listing, you will be able to opt-in and also send developers private feedback.

This new beta setup has already appeared briefly in Google Play, so it may happen more broadly within the coming days or weeks. Either way, joining beta tests should be easier than ever.

Via:  Google Developers

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Report Samsung Pay Will Soon Move Into Online Payments too on Both Android and iOS

Report Samsung Pay Will Soon Move Into Online Payments too on Both Android and iOS

To help boost the amount of users making purchases through Samsung Pay, Samsung is reportedly working on an extension to the existing Samsung Pay platform that will be available to both Android and iOS devices, as well as online for desktop users. According to industry insiders, this Samsung Pay extension could launch as early as June.

To recap Samsung Pay as a whole, it is a bit different from what is offered by Google (Android Pay) and Apple (Apple Pay). As of right now, only select Galaxy device owners can use Samsung Pay in stores, and it is also limited to whichever banks support it. The list of supported banks is growing, but there are still plenty that do not. If you do have a supported bank and smartphone, users can upload banking and credit card info into Samsung Pay, then pay for goods at almost any retailer in the US, as long as there is a MS-powered credit card terminal. Samsung Pay does not entirely run off of NFC (Android Pay and Apple Pay do), so it allows users to benefit from the service in more places.

More importantly, both Apple Pay and Android Pay heavily support online payments through 3rd-party applications. This is the area where Samsung is playing catch up and this reported extension is Samsung’s investment into that online payments realm.

Think of this possible extension as a counter to PayPal online. When checking out inside of an online store, or even through a mobile app, many retailers grant the option to use PayPal for hassle-free payments. Your banking and credit card info is already stored on PayPal, which makes the payment experience much quicker. This same experience is what Samsung is reportedly going for. By offering Samsung Pay more broadly online, as well as to virtually all Android users and iPhone owners, the company can grow the amount of users exponentially.

Details regarding partners and concrete launch timeframe are unknown, but it seems that Samsung wants to launch as quickly as possible. Of course, nothing has been made official by the company yet.

If you are a current Samsung Pay user, could you see yourself using Samsung Pay for more online desktop purchases?

Via: ET News

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Moto G4 Moto G4 Plus and Moto G4 Play All Announced Coming Soon to North America

Moto G4 Moto G4 Plus and Moto G4 Play All Announced Coming Soon to North America

Moto and Lenovo unwrapped a new Moto G family this morning in India and Brazil, a family that includes three phones, not two. Please welcome in the Moto G4, Moto G4 Plus, and Moto G4 Play, three phones that should match up to the world’s “unique” people who all “use their phones differently.”

The Moto G4 (or Moto G 4th gen) sports a 5.5-inch Full HD display (1080p), 13MP camera, 3000mAh battery, Snapdragon 617 octa-core processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB or 32GB internal storage with SD support, and charges quickly when needed with TurboPower. Like previous generations, this new Moto G also has interchangeable shells, so that you can customize the look and make it yours. 

The Moto G4 Plus is the exact same phone as the Moto G4, only with a handful of addition features that might make it slightly more appealing. You still have the 5.5-inch FHD display and 3000mAh battery with Turbo charging, but Moto also tossed in a 16MP camera with laser and phase detect autofocus. Moto used DxOMark to either test or optimize their camera, so DxOMark says that this camera is among the best and tops the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. And finally, the Moto G4 Plus has a fingerprint reader as well, but can be found with 64GB internal storage and 4GB RAM, along with the 2GB version.

On the lower end, we have the Moto G4 Play, a phone with a “reliable” Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor, 2GB RAM, 5-inch 720p display, and 2800mAh battery. Motorola’s press release isn’t saying, but my guess is that this is more like a new Moto E than a true Moto G.

You can find full Moto G4 specs here.

The Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus arrive in Brazil starting today, while the Moto G Plus, by itself, hits India. Moto says to expect both of these phones to show up in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific before long. The Moto G Play arrives this summer.

UPDATE: Motorola is now saying to not expect the Moto G4 or Moto G4 Plus until “mid-Summer.”

Moto G4

Moto G Plus

Moto G Play

---

Via:  Moto

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Android Auto at I O Coming Soon to Your Phone Plus Waze Hotwording and a Concept

Android Auto at I O Coming Soon to Your Phone Plus Waze Hotwording and a Concept

Google didn’t mention much about Android Auto yesterday during either the keynote or through their barrage of blog posts once that wrapped, but they are sharing big changes with media and in the I/O Sandbox. The changes include a phone mode that allows you to use your phone as your Android Auto unit, incoming Waze support, and a really cool concept that is Google’s vision for a full-blown in-car infotainment suite. 

The first bit of Auto news that is likely to impact you has to be the introduction of a phone mode, where your phone can become the Android Auto device. Another way to put that would be to consider the idea of your car no longer needing an Android Auto-capable infotainment device, since your phone is that device. Think of it as the return of the Android car app that we had so long ago, only it’s Android Auto’s new pretty UI.

This also means that you get Android Auto’s features, like “voice-enabled calling, media, messaging and navigation with a new driver-friendly interface.” The Android Auto for phones will arrive as an update to the Android Auto app in the near future.

  

Outside of the phone news, Google announced that Waze is coming as an app/service for Android Auto within the next “few” months. According to Google, this has been the top requested feature. They are tossing in hotwording, where you can activate voice by saying “OK Google,” and also bringing more apps from car manufacturers, Honda and Hyundai included. Finally, they are showing how Android Auto can be projected to screens in cars that have WiFi, something that should happen more and more in the future.

Last, but certainly not least, Google is showing off a concept infotainment system that has been setup to run inside of a Maserati. This isn’t just a a stock Maserati system with Google running over the top. Instead, they custom built a system, along with Qualcomm, that includes a 15-inch 4K display to showcase it all, that shows info in 720p clusters.

The concept allows Google to control everything, not just the Android Auto stuff. Thanks to the custom software and Android N, it can power a car’s HVAC, AM/FM radio, digital instruments, and almost anything else your standard infotainment system would.

See, big news. I don’t know why Google didn’t make a bigger splash with this stuff, because the Android Auto experience is about to be tested by us all.

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