Facebook adds asynchronous voice messages to Messenger app ...

Facebook today released an update for its standalone Messenger app to allow users to record and send each other voice messages. The company also announced that it would begin testing free voice over IP services for iOS users in Canada.

These updates give users new ways to communicate through Facebook and fewer reasons to use other apps and services, whether it?s their traditional phone line or other free apps.?The social network is in a position to connect people through a single identity rather than through phone numbers, of which people can have multiple (work, home and cell) and that can change when a person moves or makes other changes in their life.

There are costs and other frustrations associated with cellular plans that can be reduced by VoIP solutions. However, existing voice apps like Skype, HeyTell or Voxer generally require both parties to have downloaded the app and created accounts in order to communicate for free. For Facebook this is less of a hurdle because of the ubiquity of the service.

Android and iOS users with the latest version of Messenger can send each other voice messages up to one minute long. This feature is similar to mobile walkie-talkie apps, which can be used for fun or utility, for example when a user doesn?t want to type a long message or doesn?t want to interrupt someone with a phone call.

In Messenger, users?tap the ?+? next to the message box, then hold down the record button. When they release the record button, the audio is ready to be sent. Messages can be played via mobile or desktop, but they can only be recorded from the mobile Messenger app.

With the VoIP test in Canada, iPhone users can?open a conversation with the person they want to call by tapping the ?i? button in the top right corner of the Messenger app, and then tapping ?Free Call.? The call, however, contributes to people?s data usage.

Today?s push into voice communications has been anticipated for years. In January 2011, Facebook tested a desktop-based voice chat feature that never rolled out very widely. In August that year?Skype?s Vice President Neil Stevens said?a Skype/Facebook mobile calling app would become available and code in Messenger hinted that video calling could become part of the app, but neither materialized.

Facebook has a partnership with Skype to provide video calling on Facebook.com, but it did not work with the Microsoft company for this new mobile VoIP product.

In November 2012,?French telecommunications company Orange today?announced?a partnership with Facebook to offer ?Party Call,? a social calling application for mobile and desktop. A number of mobile voice apps?already connect with Facebook to help users find their friends to chat with.

Source: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2013/01/03/facebook-adds-asynchronous-voice-messages-to-messenger-app-begins-testing-voip-in-canada/

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Microsoft: Google is deliberately ruining YouTube on Windows Phone

12 hrs.

Devin Coldewey , NBC News

A Microsoft legal representative has alleged foul play on the part of Google in withholding critical YouTube components from Windows Phone, relegating users of the mobile operating system to a second-class experience of the world's most popular video site. Google denies it.

Dave Heiner,?Microsoft vice president and deputy general counsel,?wrote Wednesday on a company blog?that Google refuses to let YouTube work properly with Windows Phone, and contends that's?because Microsoft offers a competing search engine, Bing.

But is Google really withholding features? A spokesperson for the company issued the following statement to NBC News:

Contrary to Microsoft?s claims, it?s easy for consumers to view YouTube videos on Windows phones. ?Windows phone users can access all the features of YouTube through our HTML5-based mobile website, including viewing high-quality video streams, finding favorite videos, seeing video ratings, and searching for video categories. ?In fact, we?ve worked with Microsoft for several years to help build a great YouTube experience on Windows phones.

In other words, the Web?browser version is feature-complete and should suffice.?

Still, Heiner said having "proper access" to YouTube on Windows Phone is "an important issue because consumers value YouTube access on their phone," and wrote?that "just last month we learned from YouTube that?senior executives at Google told them not to enable a first-class YouTube experience on Windows Phones."

Google's spokesperson did not?answer questions on this statement directly, but did tell?NBC News that "it?s not scalable to build and support individually tailored YouTube apps for every mobile platform."

This implies that?Windows Phone may be out of luck. Heiner's comments?come?in the wake of remarks last month by a Google Apps executive who indicated that they would not be working on Windows 8 or Windows Phone apps, citing a lack of users. "We are very careful about where we invest and will go where the users are but they are not on Windows Phone or Windows 8," he told the website V3 at the time.

Perhaps Google's tune will change if Windows Phone gains more market share. But for now its focus on iOS and Android, which together represent nearly 90 percent of phones on the market.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBCNews Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/microsoft-google-deliberately-ruining-youtube-windows-phone-1C7805924

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Al-Jazeera buys Current TV from Al Gore

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2012 file photo, Former Vice President Al Gore, Current TV Chairman and Co-Founder, participates in the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena , Calif. Al-Jazeera, the Pan-Arab news channel that has struggled to win space on American cable television, has acquired Current TV, Gore confirmed Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2012 file photo, Former Vice President Al Gore, Current TV Chairman and Co-Founder, participates in the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena , Calif. Al-Jazeera, the Pan-Arab news channel that has struggled to win space on American cable television, has acquired Current TV, Gore confirmed Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Al-Jazeera, the Pan-Arab news channel that struggled to win space on American cable television, has acquired Current TV, boosting its reach nearly ninefold to about 40 million homes. With a focus on U.S. news, it plans to rebrand the left-leaning news network that cofounder Al Gore couldn't make relevant.

The former vice president confirmed the sale Wednesday, saying in a statement that Al-Jazeera shares Current TV's mission "to give voice to those who are not typically heard; to speak truth to power; to provide independent and diverse points of view; and to tell the stories that no one else is telling."

The acquisition lifts Al-Jazeera's reach beyond a few large U.S. metropolitan areas including New York and Washington, where about 4.7 million homes can now watch Al-Jazeera English.

Al-Jazeera, owned by the government of Qatar, plans to gradually transform Current into a new channel called Al-Jazeera America by adding five to 10 new U.S. bureaus beyond the five it has now and hiring more journalists.

Al-Jazeera spokesman Stan Collender said there are no rules against foreign ownership of a cable channel ? unlike the strict rules limiting foreign ownership of free-to-air TV stations. He said the move is based on demand, adding that 40 percent of viewing traffic on Al-Jazeera English's website is from the U.S.

"This is a pure business decision based on recognized demand," Collender said. "When people watch Al-Jazeera, they tend to like it a great deal."

Al-Jazeera has long struggled to get carriage in the U.S., and the deal suffered an immediate casualty as Time Warner Cable Inc., the nation's second-largest cable TV operator, announced it is dropping Current TV due to the deal.

"Our agreement with Current has been terminated and we will no longer be carrying the service. We are removing the service as quickly as possible," the company said in a statement.

Previous to Al-Jazeera's purchase, Current TV was in 60 million homes.

In 2010, the network's managing director, Tony Burman, blamed a "very aggressive hostility" from the Bush administration for reluctance among cable and satellite companies to show the network.

Even so, Al-Jazeera has garnered respect for its ability to build a serious news product in a short time. But there may be a culture clash at the network. Dave Marash, a former "Nightline" reporter who worked for Al-Jazeera in Washington, said he left the network in 2008 in part because he sensed an anti-American bias there.

Current, meanwhile, began as a groundbreaking effort to promote user-generated content. But it has settled into a more conventional format of political talk television with a liberal bent. Gore worked on-air as an analyst during its recent election night coverage.

Former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Cenk Uygur are currently its lead personalities. Current signed Keith Olbermann to be its top host in 2011 but his tenure lasted less than a year before it ended in bad blood on both sides.

Current has largely been outflanked by MSNBC in its effort be a liberal alternative to the leading cable news network, Fox News Channel.

Current hired former CNN Washington bureau chief David Bohrman in 2011 to be its president. Bohrman has pushed the network to innovate technologically, with an election night coverage that emphasized social media conversation.

Current TV, founded in 2005 by former vice president Gore and Joel Hyatt, is expected to post $114 million in revenue in 2013, according to research firm SNL Kagan. The firm pegged the network's cash flow at nearly $24 million a year.

___

AP Television Writer David Bauder in New York contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-01-02-Current%20TV-Al%20Jazeera/id-7433d0d4f9194761807ad6229572c062

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Job Cost Accounting Software Improves Payroll Processing Plus More

January 2nd, 2013 ?|? Published in technology

Financial administrators at construction companies leverage job cost accounting software to manage payroll processes while efficiently and accurately meeting the ever-changing government and construction regulations.

After implementing complete construction management software with job cost accounting functionality for his business, one president explained:

?Without question, the single biggest benefit has been in the accounting department. Every task is faster and we have reduced the time required to process payroll by a minimum of 25% when compared to other systems.?

?Not only can job cost accounting software help contractors improve payroll processing, but it allows better management of AP, AR, and GL, too. For example, that same construction company president said:

?Processing invoices and payments is equally efficient and is simple enough to teach within a few minutes to a new employee. We have also saved a great deal of time in the preparation of invoices. The unit price breakdown and billing reports are very easy to use.?

No longer do construction accounting professionals have to face the challenges involved with processing billings on a separate schedule of values and billing forms, and then enter information into the accounting software. Now with robust job cost accounting software, administrators can perform all of these functions without the need for separate software.

The right-fit solution also delivers a complete line of financial reports and can also automatically update all costing and financial records for complete accuracy. That allows construction companies to achieve strict control and flexible processing of their financial obligations.

Download this free case study to learn more about how this construction company president improved workflow, accuracy, reporting, and decision-making, thanks to job cost accounting software for construction.?

Source: http://blog.maxwellsystems.com/job-cost-accounting-software-improves-payroll-processing-plus-more/

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Playboy Hugh Hefner marries his 'runaway bride'

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Hugh Hefner is celebrating the new year as a married man once again.

The 86-year-old Playboy magazine founder exchanged vows with his "runaway bride," Crystal Harris, at a private Playboy Mansion ceremony on New Year's Eve. Harris, a 26-year-old "Playmate of the Month" in 2009, broke off a previous engagement to Hefner just before they were to be married in 2011.

Playboy said on Tuesday that the couple celebrated at a New Year's Eve party at the mansion with guests that included comic Jon Lovitz, Gene Simmons of KISS and baseball star Evan Longoria.

The bride wore a strapless gown in soft pink, Hefner a black tux. Hefner's been married twice before but lived the single life between 1959 and 1989.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-01-01-People-Hefner%20Marries/id-90173bbab5314ff3b88fd468a8707240

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Video of iPhone-eating elephant smells like hoax

A YouTube video from Thaistar2012 tells the story of a smartphone that's lost and found. (Eww!)

By Alan Boyle

The latest "stupid animal tricks" video to go viral shows an elephant at a Thai nature park nabbing a woman's smartphone and swallowing it down, followed by the recovery of the phone when it's heard ringing from a pile of elephant dung. Is it fake or real?

There are the usual signs of a hoax ??including the incredibly low quality of the video, and the staginess of the reactions to the loss of the phone and its unappetizing rediscovery. But beyond that, there are the scientific questions: Do elephants really go for foreign objects like phones? How long does it take for something to make its way from one end of the elephant to the other? Would a smartphone still work after passing all the way through?

---

For answers, we went to Murray E. Fowler, professor emeritus at the UC-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and co-editor of a textbook titled "Biology, Medicine and Surgery of Elephants."?It turns out that Fowler has some personal experience with the ins and outs of elephant feeding habits.

He recalled a time when he drove a van full of students to a zoo, put the key in the pocket of his coveralls, and then paid an up-close visit to one of the elephants. When it came time to get back in the van ... no key. Fowler had to retrieve a spare from the school.?"About four days later, they found the key in a stool sample from the elephant," Fowler said. He figures the elephant must have snagged the key out of his coveralls, or picked it up where he dropped it.

Based on that experience, plus Fowler's professional knowledge of an elephant's innards, he says it's possible that the animal could take an iPhone and swallow it. "I can verify that," Fowler said. But you couldn't expect to recover the phone from the poop on the same day. On the contrary: Experts say it takes between 18 hours and several days for an elephant's alimentary canal to do its work. (Fun fact: Elephants digest and absorb only 44 percent of what they eat.)

If that's the case, the woman would have to come back later to pick up her lost item, presumably after it has been found and cleaned up. Moreover, it's highly questionable whether the darn thing would work after all that time?? and not just because the battery ran down. "There'll be acids and various and sundry enzymatic situations," Fowler said.

Bottom line? Even if you presume that the video is not a hoax from start to finish, the idea that you could recover a working mobile phone after it's worked its way through the digestive tract smells fishy ... or in this case, elephant-y. To me, the mere idea of sticking the phone into the dung so that you can pull it out for the sake of a YouTube video is creepy enough. But what do you think?

More stupid video tricks:

---

Hat tip to Gizmodo / DVICE / Ubergizmo. While you're thinking, here's a better-produced "Elephant-Meets-Smartphone" video.

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/31/16271843-that-video-of-the-iphone-eating-elephant-sure-smells-like-a-hoax?lite

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Obama, Republicans reach deal on fiscal cliff; Senate vote expected tonight (Washington Post)

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