Ask any Windows veteran and they will tell you to hold off until the “.1” release of any new O/S. Unless you’ve got a fire under you, hold off on installing the free upgrade until the equivalent of Windows 10.1 gets released, if you can.
…you should probably wait until the last minute to make the upgrade because of numerous problems everyone has found with Windows 10
Source: The Best Strategy for Windows 10: Wait | John C. Dvorak | PCMag.com
Google Maps iPhone users can rejoice. Next time you’re at your desk and you find that restaurant on Google maps, just send it to your iPhone, jump in your car, and let the sexy voice nav lady take over.
The latest version of Google Maps, now in the App Store, lets you send any place you search for with Google Maps on your desktop browser right to an iPhone or iPad. Your phone receives it as a notifcation, and once you tap on it, the mobile app will automatically take you to that spot.
Source: Google Maps now lets you send places from desktop to your iPhone | The Verge
I’ve been using Google Photos for only a few days and I’m already hooked on it. This is much, much more than a photo uploading service. Once uploaded, you can browse your collection according to people (via facial recognition), places, and even events. I love the added feature whereby it attempts to create animations when you take a few photos in one spot.
It’s a must. Get it, use it, love it! Mossberg’s review below goes into great detail.
The new Google Photos brings the company’s expertise in artificial intelligence, data mining and machine learning to bear on the task of storing, organizing and finding your photos. And that, combined with its cross-platform approach, makes it the best of breed.
This morning I saw an interesting desktop notification for the first time:
After opening it, was somewhat surprised to see that Microsoft determined I was ready for the free Windows 10 upgrade.
Very smart marketing. Got to admit that I’m intrigued. So I started the upgrade process. I’m a little nervous as I really can’t afford to “break” anything but right now, I’m proceeding with the download.
While it’s not in Hawaii yet, bringing more choices to Hawaii is always a good thing for consumers.
Hawaii regulators have granted permission to a subsidiary of Google Inc. to provide its new wireless phone service in Hawaii as part of a nationwide plan, according to a public filing this week.
Source: Google gets approval to offer mobile phone service in Hawaii – Pacific Business News
Better check local laws that dictate how you can use electronic devices while driving.
Macesin was hit with a $120 fine for violating the Quebec Highway Safety Code, which states “no person may, while driving a road vehicle, use a hand-held device that includes a telephone function.”
We live in a digital photo world, snapping hundreds (if not thousands) of pictures per month. You can safely back them all up, for free. Nice job, Google!
With Google Photos, you can now backup and store unlimited, high-quality photos and videos, for free. We maintain the original resolution up to 16MP for photos, and 1080p high-definition for videos, and store compressed versions of the photos and videos in beautiful, print-quality resolution.
Source: Official Google Blog: Picture this: A fresh approach to Photos
From the just-to-weird-to-be-true-department:
A new bug has been discovered in the Messages app, allowing a string of characters sent to a person via iMessage or SMS to crash an iPhone and cause the Messages app to crash after being opened.
Source: New iOS Bug Crashing iPhones Simply by Receiving a Text Message [Includes Fix] – Mac Rumors
A world of self-driving cars is right around the corner and I couldn’t be more excited. Google’s car is going to start driving itself on public streets and it will have a “safety driver” aboard to take over if anything goes wrong.
Each prototype’s speed is capped at a neighborhood-friendly 25mph, and during this next phase of our project we’ll have safety drivers aboard with a removable steering wheel, accelerator pedal, and brake pedal that allow them to take over driving if needed.
Source: Official Google Blog: Green lights for our self-driving vehicle prototypes
Hackers are breaking into Starbucks accounts with weak passwords and then reloading their gift cards with your money. The solution is to create a “hard” password. Do it right now.
Fraudsters have figured out how to break into Starbucks accounts and drain your bank account or credit card. Customers tell CNNMoney they’re furious Starbucks isn’t taking this more seriously.
Source: Hackers are draining bank accounts via the Starbucks app – May. 13, 2015