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Keyboard shortcuts are a great way to speed up common Windows tasks. Although it can be a bit difficult to remember every shortcut at first, it will become easier with time. Windows 8 has its own list of unique shortcuts, and you can always use an app that lets you create and edit keyboard shortcuts. Although it’s a little hidden in Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8), you can also create your own keyboard shortcuts to open apps.
Continue reading “Create keyboard shortcuts to open Windows apps”
Twitter login verification rolled out recently, granting extra security to those who have received the update. While it makes it harder for hackers to log in to your account, enabling login verification does not automatically sign you out of apps. In order to increase security you should see what apps are connected to your Twitter account and revoke access to the ones you don’t use. Not sure how to do this? Don’t worry, we’ll guide you through the process.
Today, some images leaked of a Nexus 4 running Android 4.3 at a mobile expo taking place in Thailand. Photos were uploaded of the device showing a different kernel number, JWR45B, than what is currently shipping with Android 4.2.2. Although we didn’t see any new version of Android at Google I/O, it’s nice to see that the operating system is out in the wild so it should be arriving soon.
While the photos of the device only showed a few settings pages, it gave us a glimpse into the revised camera app for Android. The changes aren’t dramatic but it shows that Google has thought about how to improve the camera interface. In Android 4.2.2, users could tap anywhere on the screen to bring up a radial dial full of settings like HDR and flash. The problem with this layout is that your thumb would inevitably block your view of a setting or two. The new camera menu fixes this by only expanding outward to one side instead of in a full circle.
This is a minor, but much needed change. Droid Life also noticed that there is a new timer button in the settings. Watch the video below to see a brief tour of the Android 4.3 camera app.
[Source: Theogusper George Philip Piccadilly (Google+) | Via: Droid Life]
Google Play Music is the newest streaming music service on the block and it’s a solid contender to Spotify. One thing where Spotify has Google Play Music beat is data usage. Droid Life reports that one of its readers compared data usage between Google Play Music and Spotify by playing the same album with both services. Spotify used a paltry 26MB compared to Google Play Music’s 108MB. That’s over four times the data usage of Spotify.
Of course, this all depends on the settings within each app. While Spotify has options to dial back the bitrate of songs, Google Play Music All Access only has the ability to toggle “Stream at highest quality only.” This means that Google Play Music will dynamically choose a bitrate according to your connection if you have this setting disabled. If you have a solid connection, Google Play Music will stream at the highest quality: 320 kbps. Spotify, on the other hand has options for 96 kbps, 160 kbps, and 320 kbps. When both services play at 320 kbps, they use about the same amount of data, so it’s not really down to how each service compresses the music.
So if you’re using Google Play Music All Access on the go, make sure you have unlimited data or you can use up your cap by just listening to a few albums!
[Source: Droid Life]
The Softonic Minute: Flickr gives out 1TB of free storage, Twitter tightens security, and some good news for fans of Call of Duty and FIFA.
Here’s your Friday dose of this week’s top news in the software world.
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Flickr is giving you a Terabyte…completely free. Flickr has been redesigned from top to bottom. Along with the new design, Flickr is offering up to one Terabyte of online storage which you can fill with your high resolution images. The new version of Flickr gives more attention to your images. Updates for Android and iPhone versions of the photo sharing service will arrive soon.
Twitter has just got a whole lot more secure. Thanks to its new two-phase verification system, Twitter has reduced the possibility that your account can be compromised. You can access this new security feature through the options menu.
A new trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts has been released. There have been significant graphical improvements in Call of Duty: Ghosts and we’ve seen already some impressive screenshots of the game during the presentation of the new console from Microsoft, the Xbox One. Finally, Call of Duty has some quality graphics that should live up to expectations of fans.
FIFA 14 will have a new graphics engine. The new engine is called Ignite and was announced during the Xbox ONE presentation. The first gameplay shots in FIFA 14 have not disappointed so far. Artificial Intelligence is now capable of more complex gameplay but the bad news is that Ignite won’t be a feature of the PC version.
FIFA 14 has a firm release date. Electronic Arts announced today that FIFA 14 will be released on September 24th in North America and on September 27th in Europe. The game will support the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.
During the Xbox One keynote, EA specifically said that FIFA 14 will in fact come to the Xbox One with exclusive content. The company has also announced that the game will be released on the PS4 as well. The game will run on EA’s all new “Ignite” engine, which focuses on player contact to make motions look and feel more realistic. The Ignite engine will power all of EA Sports’ future games.
PC gamers will be disappointed as the Ignite engine will not run on the PC, meaning Windows gamers will get a gimped game. The Wii U isn’t getting the game either since EA announced that it has no plans to develop for the console.
Fans can pre-order FIFA 14 and will receive an “Ultimate Pass,” which gives players 24 weeks of gold packs for FIFA Ultimate Team.
[Source: EA Sports Soccer]
Electronic Arts has revealed the next game in the Need for Speed franchise: Need for Speed Rivals. The game will launch this year on current generation consoles and PC on November 19th and sometime later this year for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Fans of Need for Speed Most Wanted will be happy to know that developer Criterion Games will be collaborating on Need for Speed Rivals. The new game will let players choose between racing as street racers or cops. Both sides will allow you to rank up within the game, unlocking more cars, customization options, and pursuit/escape technology unlockables. Players can look forward to an open world full of challenges and collectables to unlock, much like Most Wanted and Burnout Paradise.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of Need for Speed Rivals is the ability for friends to instantaneously drop-in and drop-out of your game. This feature will be called AllDrive and will let your friends appear in your personal, open world to play with or against you. There will also be multiplayer, of course, where players can compete on live leaderboards and challenge other players.
While this game will be released on current-gen consoles, the Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, Nintendo fans will be left out in the cold. EA announced last week that it had no Wii U titles in development.
[Source: Polygon]
Rockstar Games sent out a press release today announcing two Grand Theft Auto V collector’s editions for the PS3 and Xbox 360. These are up for pre-order now, if you want to guarantee yourself a copy before they run out. Here’s what’s included in these versions:
For the Grand Theft Auto V Special Edition, you get the following:
For the Grand Theft Auto V Collector’s Edition, you get everything above and the following:
The Special Edition will run players $79.99 while the Collector’s Edition will run $149.99. Both are up for pre-order and will come out September 17th.
Google is experimenting with richer, interactive notifications within its beta Chrome browser and Chrome OS. Those using the Chrome beta channel will get a glimpse into the future of notifications for the browser. Chrome OS users will have to enable the notifications in the settings. Currently, Google Chrome has very basic notifications for things like chat alerts, music, and 3rd party apps. These work well if you just want a quick notification but they don’t let you interact with the content. That changes today.
There’s also more evidence that Google Now will be coming to Chrome soon, since there’s now a setting in Chrome OS to enable it, but the feature doesn’t work yet.
With the richer notifications in Chrome, you can now respond immediately. For example, if a contact calls you using Google Voice or tries to chat with you on Hangouts, you will get a notification with the person’s profile picture, information, and the ability to call/email them right from the notification.
If you’re away while a notification is displayed, you can go into the notification center to see them all at once. The notification center bears a striking resemblance to Android’s own notification shade. Emails will be grouped together in the same “card.” Users will also find settings that allow them to choose which applications and extensions are allowed to give notifications.
If you want to try out the notifications yourself, you can download the Chrome Beta below.
[Source: Chrome Blog | Download: Softonic]
To show off the impressive graphics of Call of Duty: Ghosts, Activision has released a comparison video between Modern Warfare 3 and Ghosts. The company touched a little bit on the improved graphics during the Xbox One event yesterday but this comparison video goes more into detail about how the leap in graphics was achieved.
In the video, Activision shows off improved polygon counts that make objects look completely smooth, with high-definition textures. The side-by-side comparisons of the graphics show just how far they have come and how powerful the PS4 and Xbox One will be.
Call of Duty: Ghosts will be coming out November 5th with timed-exclusive DLC for the Xbox One.
![Need for Speed Rivals launching this year on current and next-gen consoles [video]](https://articles-img.sftcdn.net/auto-mapping-folder/sites/3/2013/05/NEED_FOR_SPEED_RIVALS_KOENIGSEGG_COP_CAR__560px-940x198.jpg)
![See how Call of Duty: Ghost evolved from Modern Warfare 3 [video]](https://articles-img.sftcdn.net/auto-mapping-folder/sites/3/2013/04/1366815326-cod-ghosts-ps3-850x198.jpg)