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Shuffle lets you protect your phone number and email with disposable aliases

May19
by on May 19, 2015 at 4:35 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web

Shuffle
Ever wanted to have a temporary number or email address for when you are dating, selling something online, or for any other purpose? Something that would allow you to keep your personal number or email private? With our lives increasingly entrenched in the Web, and a lot of business being conducted solely on the Web, we tend to want to keep our personal information more private, but doing that when everything requires a phone number or email address is difficult. Shuffle aims to protect your sensitive phone number and email address(es) by giving you disposable numbers and emails you can use any…

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Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel hit Android phones in beta

May19
by on May 19, 2015 at 4:07 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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In November, Microsoft released mobile versions of its Word, Excel and PowerPoint office apps on Android, but they were only compatible with tablets to start. Today, they’ve added phone support for beta testers – those who’ve joined the Microsoft Office Preview community on Google+ and sign up for the apps you want to try. You’ll then be able to find them on the Google Play Store, where the apps have dropped “for tablet” from their name. Phone support had to come sooner or later, and it will finally bring Android to parity with iOS and Windows Phone (or Windows 10…

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How a misguided American is trying to achieve peace in the Middle East with a dating app

May19
by on May 19, 2015 at 3:58 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider, ios, Social Media, Verona, West Bank

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Two households, both alike in dignity/In fair Verona, where we lay our scene/From ancient grudge break to new mutiny… The creators of Verona, an app that purports to bring Israelis and Palestinians together through the now well-established method of Tinder-style swiping, certainly got one thing right when they picked the name. No place on Earth is more riven with ancient grudges than the Middle East. But borrowing from the Prologue to Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet breaks down when you recall that while Verona was the setting for the great love affair – spoiler – the couple die in the end. The…

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‘Not for attribution’ quotes are tech reporting’s dirty little secret

May19
by on May 19, 2015 at 3:42 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, journalism, not for attribution, Opinion, reporting, tech writing

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This is not for attribution but the habit among tech companies of refusing to publicly comment on anything from big issues to minor feature updates is out of hand. As a reader, you’re not explicitly clued into when it happens, but you can probably detect it. When a publication tells you it “understands” something is going to happen/not happen, that almost always means a PR person has told them that, on the understanding that it will be “not for attribution.” There are ghosts in the machine and they work for PR agencies. Here’s a made-up example of what one of those…

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Twilio launches IP messaging API for building chat services, “epic” audio conferences and more

May19
by on May 19, 2015 at 3:12 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Design & Dev, Insider

twilio
At Twilio’s SIGNAL conference, which kicks off today, the company will be announcing a number of new features for its communications platform. A new API, IP Messaging, allows developers to build in-app chat services across Web and mobile. The IP Messaging API includes a typing indicator, message read status, mobile push notifications and chat history. With IP messaging, any mobile app or website can integrate a messaging platform without needing to build out the infrastructure required to do it at scale. In theory, you could build an entire messaging app like WhatsApp out on top of Twilio’s new API. The company also announced Messaging Copilot which adds…

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