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Google Calendar for Android gets automatic event scanning and redesigned interface

Google just announced a completely redesigned Google Calendar for Android that’s smarter than ever. The updated app now scans your Gmail for events and will automatically add them to your calendar. Gmail on the web hinted at this feature by allowing auto-event creation when you hovered over an address or event.

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Google Calendar is so smart that it’ll even update your event if there’s a delay. For example, if your flight gets delayed, the new time will show up in the calendar event. Automatically created events will update if subsequent emails show a change in time or place.

Taking automation even further, Google Calendar for Android now features auto-completing events. Just start typing a place or a contact’s name and the app will give live suggestions below. The app also understand natural language so you don’t have to worry about plugging in the correct information into the correct space.

Last but not least, there’s a new Schedule View, which shows your events in a clear list with maps and illustrations. The app feels a lot more modern and incorporates Google’s Material Design language.

The new Google Calendar app for Android is rolling out today to Android 5.0 Lollipop users and will be available to all Android 4.1+ users in the coming weeks.

Google is also working on an iPhone version but doesn’t state when it will be available.

Source: Gmail Blog

Battlefield Hardline release date announced

EA’s delayed Battlefield Hardline will be released on March 17th (19th in EU, 20th in UK). In a change for the military FPS series, it’s based on police versus criminals, with a crime story single player mode and multiplayer that sees you on the right or wrong side of the law, fighting the other.

Originally slated for a fall 2014 release, Battlefield Hardline has probable been delayed to avoid the terrible problems Battlefield 4 faced last year. In a year of botched online launches for EA, Battlefield 4 was probably the most damaging because it looked like it was on its way to stealing the FPS crown from Call of Duty.

Battlefield Hardline claims to be inspired by ‘the most popular crime dramas seen on television today’, so we could expect it to be dark and gritty with muddy moral waters. As ever, the multiplayer modes will be most people’s focus – single player campaigns in modern FPS games are ever decreasing in importance.

Call of Duty has often used the single player campaign to generate controversy, as with the ‘no Russian’ level, which saw players take part in a terrorist massacre. The Battlefield series has typically shied away from this kind of thing, but that does beg the question, ‘what is the point of Battlefield’s single player campaign?’ Maybe Hardline’s storyline– set in Miami with cops chasing the supply of drugs to the city– could change this.

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Check out our impressions of the Battlefield Hardline beta. It will be released on PC, PS 4, Xbox One, PS 3 and Xbox 360.

Out now on PC, Civilization: Beyond Earth

Sid Meir’s futuristic strategy game Civilization: Beyond Earth is out today on PC. The latest in the long running series follows the very successful Civilization 5.

Civilization: Beyond Earth is a turn based strategy game that begins with humanity leaving earth to search for habitable planets. When you arrive, you’ll have the usual task of setting up your civilization while dealing with a planet that isn’t entirely pleased to see you setting up home.

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Civilization: Beyond Earth has a multiplayer mode for up to 8 players, and will support mods right from the start, so the game’s community can have fun adding its own content.

The first reviews have started to appear, and they are almost universally very positive. It seems that as well as the new futuristic setting, developer Firaxis has addressed the criticisms of its previous game, making this one of the best Civilization games ever. Our review will be online soon.

Get Civilization: Beyond Earth

First update for Windows 10 Technical Preview rolling out now

If you’re testing the Windows 10 Technical Preview, the first new build is now being rolled out. It’s snappily titled build 9860.

You’ll get the build automatically, and it will be downloaded with no input from you if your PC is plugged in, on or sleeping. To get it manually, open PC Settings > Update > Preview Builds, then click the Check Now button to get the new build. The download will be between 2 and 2.74 GB, depending on your PC specs. Once your PC has installed the build and rebooted, eventually you’ll see Windows 10 as you left it, with all the apps and everything else you’ve installed.

What’s new in Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9860

Action Center for Windows PCs. As we showed a while ago, Windows 10 will have a notification center like other operating systems, although it was hidden in the first public build. Microsoft is calling it Action Center – it’s notifications that you can click to act on them.

Better multiple monitor support. Now you can move apps between multiple monitors, with WIN+SHIFT+. There are more new shortcuts for managing multiple desktops, which Microsoft has published here.

Desktop switching animation. Users said switching between desktops wasn’t clear enough, so a new animation has been added to make it easier to notice.

User ideas from the Suggestion Box and Windows Feedback Tool, according to Microsoft, are being sorted through and the good ones will be part of future developments. It encourages everyone to give feedback on the Windows 10 Technical Preview using the Feedback app.

Download Windows 10 Technical Preview. You can use it until April 15th 2015

Premium features coming soon to dating app Tinder

One of the most popular dating apps launched in recent years, Tinder has grown quickly by mixing a simple idea and being free to use. Now, co-founder and CEO Sean Rad has announced that a premium service will be launched in early November.

Tinder is a simple dating app that matches your location and an age range, and lets you swipe through the profiles of potential dates. Swipe right to ‘like’ a profile, and the other to ignore it. When two users like each other, they are matched, and able to chat to each other in the app. It’s free to use, but you need a Facebook profile to sign up for the service. It’s available for iOS and Android.

Rad hasn’t given details about how Tinder premium will work, but he did say that it will ‘add features users have been begging us for,’ and that they would be willing to pay for them. One feature might focus on traveling, and Forbes suggest it might ‘move Tinder…beyond dating’, although that might make the app much less focused.

There’s no suggestion that Tinder’s current features will be charged for yet. Rad says 1.2 billion profiles are viewed via the app every day, but won’t comment on user numbers.

Source: Forbes

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare minimum PC requirements released

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be released on November 4th, and now publisher Activision has revealed the minimum requirements for PC users, which are almost identical to those for last year’s Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Running Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare requires at least 6GB of ram, which is no change. It will be more interesting to see what Sledgehammer games publish as recommended requirements. This game is the first in the series to be genuinely ‘next gen’, so PC users with powerful machines will be hoping to be able to take advantage of them.

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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare aims to shake up the massive series in a number of ways. The near-future setting has allowed Sledgehammer Games to include futuristic technology like exo-skeletons, which makes multiplayer especially very different to previous games. The single player campaign also introduces a famous face, in the shape of Kevin Spacey, and there is only one protagonist – you won’t jump between characters and scenarios.

Will this be enough to freshen up a series that seems to have lost it’s way?

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare PC minimum requirements.

– OS: OS: Windows 7 64-Bit / Windows 8 64-Bit / Windows 8.1 64-Bit

– Processor: Intel® CoreTM i3-530 @ 2.93 GHz / AMD PhenomTM II X4 810 @ 2.80 GHz or better

– Memory: 6 GB RAM

– Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 450 @ 1GB / ATI® Radeon™ HD 5870 @ 1GB or better

– DirectX: Version 11

– Network: Broadband Internet connection

– Hard Drive: 55 GB available space

– Sound Card: DirectX-compatible

iTunes 12.01 released with new design and Family Sharing

Windows and Mac users can now download iTunes 12.01, which has been released alongside Mac OS X Yosemite. According to Apple, its new design and improvements make iTunes ‘easier and more enjoyable to use.’

The new design brings iTunes in line with Mac OS X Yosemite, and it makes the app cleaner and neater looking. All the usual library features are still there, but have been rearranged again. In My Music, for example, to switch sorting options, you now use a drop-down menu on the right, to choose Songs, Albums or Artists etc.

The first thing you’ll notice though, is the new red iTunes logo. It’s quite jarring after the blues and greys of older versions, almost looking like a warning sign.

In terms of new features, iTunes 12 has Family Sharing, so you can share your library with up to six other people without sharing accounts or passwords. iTunes Store has also been brought closer to your library, and is no longer separated. How much you like that will depend on whether you actually use iTunes to buy music, movies and TV shows.

Download iTunes 12.01 for Windows or Mac OS X

Angry Birds Transformers out now on iOS

The Angry Birds franchise steam rollers on, this time with Angry Birds Transformers. But this game is radically different to others in the series, a pseudo 3D side scrolling arcade shooter, and it’s really fun to play.

Eschewing the seriousness of the Michael Bay movies, Angry Birds Transformers begins with an excellent homage to the opening sequence of the 80s cartoon series. The tone, with its tongue in cheek tagline ‘Birds Disguised as Robots in Disguise‘, is light and fun.

The game is easy to play, with typically well made tutorials. It’s free to play, meaning you can speed your progress with in-app purchases, but they are not necessary. Like the original Angry Birds, each level has a number of pigs (or Deceptihogs) to take out, by knocking down their towers. Instead of the catapult, you simply tap where you want your Autobird to shoot. The difficulty comes from the speed of the game – you have to pick your targets carefully for the most efficient hit, and time your transformations into vehicles to avoid falling objects.

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The graphics are flashy, and there are great touches like slow motion if you have a close call with a falling tower. Levels are short and sweet, maintaining the on-the-go mobile feel to the game.

Angry Birds Transformers is currently iOS only, but it’s coming to Android in two weeks.

Download Angry Birds Transformers.

Firefox 33 for desktop improves performance and restore feature, Android version coming soon

Firefox 33 is out for Linux, Mac and PC today, bringing with it performance upgrades and slight changes to its search and sessions restore features.

Some under-the-hood changes ensures that Firefox 33 runs smoothly, even if a rogue process is bogging down the browser. This will also make scrolling and zooming more fluid across all platforms.

The browser also get an improved session restore feature, which will help back up your browsing session in case of a crash or restart. It’s extremely frustrating to lose all your open tabs if your browser crashes or you need to restart it because of an update.

Search has also been improved by offering search suggestions on both the new home and new tab pages.

Firefox for Android will receive and update to version 33 in the coming days. The update will bring Chromecast and Roku support for beaming video to your TV. You can also look forward to an undo tab close feature in case you accidentally swiped away a tab you needed.

Download Firefox 33 for Mac and Windows

Source: Mozilla

Microsoft launches instant video messaging app Skype Qik

In 2011 Skype bought mobile video service Qik, and then closed it in early 2014. Now it’s back as Skype Qik, a free instant video messenger that allows you to talk to your friends and also delete videos from conversations if you want.

Skype Qik look’s like the VOIP company’s answer to Snapchat, but it’s got some differences. It’s extremely simple to set up, and focuses purely on video, with no distractions like photos or text messages. You can record up to 42 seconds at a time, and your video is instantly sent to your friend or group chat.

It also features Qik Flik, where you can record and keep five second videos to use as emoticon-like responses in a chat. Any video you send can be deleted from a chat by you, and all chats are automatically deleted after two weeks. There are no in-app options for saving videos, although like Snapchat, Skype Qik might be exploited by third party apps. This is even admitted in the app’s description, so you shouldn’t send anything believing you have total control over it.

Like WhatsApp, Skype Qik is mobile only and you register using your phone number – there’s no login required as the app is tied to your device.

Skype Qik is available for iOS, Windows Phone, and Android

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