Whatsapp Web is Finally Available on iPhone!

After launching on Chrome and Android earlier this year, WhatsApp Web is finally making its way to the iPhone. WhatsApp Web lets users access their messages in Chrome, bringing one of the world’s largest messaging platforms to the desktop. Up until this point WhatsApp Web was restricted to Android, Windows, and Blackberry devices due to “Apple platform limitations.”

But now it’s available on every major platform, with iPhone support currently rolling out, as first noted by The Next Web. To use the web client, head to web.whatsapp.com and scan the QR Code using WhatsApp on your device and it will begin pairing.

Go to Settings in your Whatsapp App, and it should be there “Whatsapp Web”. No Update required!

WhatsApp for iPhone updated with Chat notification, Videos Backup, Lower Data Usage and more!

Not to be outdone by rival Viber which rolled out animated stickers, location sharing, a brand new keypad and other enhancements in yesterday’s refresh, Facebook-owned WhatsApp today pushed a substantial update to its App Store application.

WhatsApp for iPhone now features richer notifications settings with per-chat rules and mute options, a new swipe gesture to mark chats as read or unread, the ability to directly share contacts from the Contacts app and locations from Apple Maps, backups for your videos and much more.

Other new features in this update include an enhanced interface when cropping photos and videos before adding them to a chat, friendlier features for hearing-impaired users with improved VoiceOver support and infinite scrolling with earlier messages loading automatically as you scroll chats.

Message swiping and muting

WhatsApp now features the familiar swiping gesture on the chat screen that you can use to reveal hidden options, like in Apple’s Mail and a number of other third-party apps.

For example, swiping in the chat list from left to right lets you mark a message as read. If a message has already been read, you will see the option to mark it as unread.

Swiping in the chat list from right to left lets you archive a message.

If you tap More, a menu pops up offering options to mute the conversation, bring up contact information, share the contents of your chat in an email message, clear the chat without deleting it from your history or delete the chat forever.

For those wondering, you can mute a chat for 8 hours, 1 week or 1 year.

Location sharing from Apple Maps

WhatsApp is now listed as an option in the Share sheet within Apple Maps.

This lets you quickly send your current location, or any point of interest for that matter, directly to WhatsApp without leaving Apple Maps. Just fire up Apple Maps on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, find a location (or drop a pin on the map) and tap the share icon in the upper right corner.

Now choose WhatsApp in the top row of icons, choose one or more WhatsApp contacts to share the location with and tap Send, as shown above. Which brings me to another new feature in WhatsApp 2.12.5: a larger map thumbnail in the chat window.

Here’s what it looks like.

As you can see, the Fifth Avenue location I just sent to myself from Apple Maps appears in the chat window as a larger map thumbnail. If I tap the embedded thumbnail, WhatsApp takes me to a full-screen map view like before.

Location sharing from Contacts app

In addition to native sharing to WhatsApp from Apple Maps, the same feature is now available in Apple’s stock Contacts app. As you may have suspected, this lets you quickly share specific contact data with a friend on WhatsApp right within the context of the Contacts app.

First, open Contacts on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and tap on a contact. Scroll down in the contact view screen until you see the Share Contact option. Tap it, choose WhatsApp in the top row of icons, select your recipient and you’ll be taken to a new screen to cherry-pick which contact information you’d like to share.

In the example above, I’m sharing Apple, Inc’s work address and its homepage with myself. Depending on specific contact information shared, WhatsApp will provide additional options in the chat window. In the example above, I can tap on the received Apple Inc. contact card to reveal the homepage and work address I shared with myself.

But if send more contact information from Contacts to WhatsApp like phone number, the embedded contact card in WhatsApp’s chat window will provide buttons to immediately message the contact, save the card as a new contact on my iPhone or add information to one of the existing contacts on my device.

Lower data consumption

Viber’s most recent update brought out a more efficient data compression and WhatsApp follows suit. Just tap on the Settings icon alongside the bottom of the WhatsApp interface to bring up in-app settings. Now tap on Chats and Calls and then flip the Low Data Usage switch to ON.

WhatsApp says enabling the feature “further lowers the amount of data used during a WhatsApp call,” but stops short of saying how many kilobytes are saved during a call with this enabled. Viber, for instance, said its new data compression allows the app to burn just 84 kilobytes per minute to make an audio call on a 2G connection.

WhatsApp’s option that lowers data usage will be of particular importance to users in emerging markets and developing countries who either purchase data on the go in 100-megabyte buckets or their monthly cellular data allowance is below one gigabyte.

Video backups

I like WhatsApp’s built-in backup system that periodically saves my chats and media in the cloud. It gives me a piece of mind knowing that I can restore my chat history on another device in just a few seconds.

Now in WhatsApp 2.12.5, you can at last tell the app to back up videos, too.

To enable video backups, visit the Chats and Calls section in WhatsApp settings, tap on Chat Backup and flip the Include Videos switch to the ON position.

WhatsApp stores your backups in iCloud so it may be a good idea to perform a backup while on Wi-Fi or disable cellular data for iCloud if you really must back up a WhatsApp archive on a cellular connection.

WhatsApp 2.12.5 changelog

The following new features and enhancements are listed in the changelog:

• Per chat custom notification settings and mute
• You can now include videos in your chat backups in Settings > Chats and Calls > Chat Backup
• Mark chats as unread or read with a swipe to the right
• Better support for VoiceOver
• Directly share contacts from the Contacts app and locations from Apple Maps to WhatsApp
• Lower the data usage used during WhatsApp calls in Settings > Chats and Calls
• Earlier messages now load automatically as you scroll chats
• Improved design for cropping photos and videos
• Location messages now use a large map thumbnail

WhatsApp is the leading mobile messaging platform with more than 800 million active monthly users versus Viber’s installed base of 500 million active users.

WhatsApp availability

The 46-megabyte application requires an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with iOS 6.0 or later. WhatsApp is optimized for native display resolution on the iPhone 5/5c/5c, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but continues to lack an iPad-optimized interface and a WatchKit component for your wrist.

Source

Kim Kardashian Shares Super-Skinny Bikini Pic and Jokes That She’s ”Miss Teen Armenian”

Kim Kardashian looks crazy skinny in her latest TBT pic!

The 34-year-old Keeping Up With the Kardashians star took to Instagram today to share a bikini photo of herself for throwback Thursday. “#TWTFBT I’m throwing this way the f–k back Thursday #MissTeenArmenian,” Kanye West‘s other half captioned the sexy snapshot.

In the photo, Kim rocks a tiny sequined two-piece swimsuit that shows a whole lotta skin. The mother of one’s stomach looks super flat and her waist very skinny as she models the barely-there bikini at her house. In addition to flaunting her slim figure, Kim also shows off her ample cleavage.

While Kim joked that she looks like “Miss Teen Armenian,” we could definitely she her winning a beauty pageant in this sexy swimsuit look!

In other Kim K Instagram news, the E! star melted our hearts yesterday by sharing multiple pics of North West wearing a tutu and ballet shoes. She captioned one adorable shot with, “My tiny dancer.”

Kim also posted pics of Nori playing the piano in her tut. Too darn cute.

Source

The Best And Worst Super Bowl Commercials Of 2015!

Remember when Super Bowl ads were funny?

Clever commercials and an afternoon of snacks and beer were some of the only draws for people who didn’t care about the game itself.

These extra eyeballs helped inflate the Super Bowl’s viewership well beyond what it would have been as just another championship game, which in turn led to even more expensive ad spots.

The cycle should have been vicious. Instead, it’s become boring and stale.

Watching Super Bowl commercials used to be a lot of fun. Sometimes, the commercials were better than the game itself. But these days, the expensive ad budgets must have led to cuts in the creativity department.

The thrill is gone. Or the comedy, at any rate.

Super Bowl XLIX between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots was a great game—but its array of commercials were among the worst I’ve ever been unlucky enough to sit through.

There used to be some competition between advertisers. Yes, you’d get your fair share of slick car commercials and TV programming, but you’d also get a few good ones from Budweiser, Doritos, and the like. It was enough to keep you watching during the breaks, anyways.

Those days are gone. The usually funny Doritos commercials were nowhere to be seen. Instead, Doritos spent $4.5 million dollars on a 30-second spot just to make an extended ”when pigs fly” joke. Boy, nobody saw that coming. Next time you borrow humor from second-graders, at least include some potty jokes.
Lame attempts at humor weren’t even the worst of the bunch.
Bright idea of the century: Make Super Bowl ads dark and gloomy.

Nationwide’s childhood death ad was not only depressing, it was exploitative and insulting, playing on our fears in an age where parents already freak out way too much about their kids’ safety.

Actually, a lot of the ads this year were somber, including a spot for Nissan that should have been far more exciting given its race-car theme.
Victoria Secret managed to be boring in spite of its array of hot models.

Kim Kardashian was…well, look, I’m still not sure who Kim Kardashian is or why she would inspire anyone to go with T-Mobile. The ad was neither funny nor informative. It was just…Kim Kardashian.

Meanwhile, Budweiser is so far past its marketing heyday, it would probably have better luck just bringing back the “Bud—Weis—Er” frog commercials. Though maybe I’m wrong about that. Cute puppies are hard to beat. And a live-action PacMan maze is a neat idea. Okay, so Budweiser is a shadow of its former marketing self, but they’re not the worst of the bunch.
Carl’s Jr. had their trashy fast-food ad, and Jeff Bridges hummed people to sleep for SquareSpace. And the collective yawn continued.

A few rays of sunshine amid the darkness.

There were brief moments of respite at least.

Parks & Rec actor Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson) touted NASCAR after the game with a mildly funny ode. I’m not sure if it qualifies as a good ad or if I’m just a Ron Swanson fanboy. Personally, I prefer Offerman’s ode to whiskey.

TurboTax’s Boston Tea Party spot was entertaining enough—a nice alt-history look at how colonial rebels might have reacted if the British had offered them free tax returns:

I enjoyed the Minions, of course. And it was kinda funny to see Walter White again in an Esurance commercial—though perhaps the ad comes too far after Breaking Bad’send.

And the blue ribbon goes to…

My favorite spot of the entire evening—outside of a handful of decent movie trailers (Jurassic World!)—was Snickers.

The candy bar stole the show with perhaps the best ad of thegame—a clever Brady Bunch spot starring Danny Trejo and Steve Buscemi. It’s not the best Super Bowl ad I’ve ever seen, but it was funny and clever enough to rise above the rest of the pack.

So here it is, folks, the best Super Bowl ad of 2015. Feast your eyes:

For a brief moment, it was as if I were watching a Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez collaborative take on the Brady Bunch. And that made the whole thing worth it.

For 2016, I have a challenge and a plea to advertisers and the corporations who hire them: Get your game on. I dare you to just try to be funny. If you can’t, businesses should look to YouTube, crowd-sourcing and other avenues.

There are plenty of funny people out there who can sell you a pen.

Source

Yahoo’s 2014 Top Searches: Ebola Overshadowed Celebrities!

People used Yahoo this year to get the scoop on celebrities and tech products, but it was a deadly disease that elicited the highest volume of searches.

Revealing its Year in Review for 2014, Yahoo cited the Ebola virus as the most-searched item of the year as the disease ravaged several African countries and turned up in isolated cases in the US and Europe. Minecraft, a popular video game whose developer was bought by Microsoft in September, came in at No. 2.

Trendy celebrities dominated the list as usual, with Ariana Grande, Jennifer Lawrence, Kaley Cuoco, Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus and Jennifer Aniston all making their way onto Yahoo’s top 10. The Disney film “Frozen” was No. 7 among the top searches.
Apple’s new iPhone 6 squeezed onto the list in the No. 9 spot. The iPhone has been among the most-searched terms on Yahoo in four of the past five years, the company said.

“Each year, we see some recurring archetypes such as the female musical ingenue,” Yahoo Web Trends expert Vera Chan said in an email. “This year, that person was Ariana Grande — a former Nickelodeon star whose Billboard success made her number three on this year’s top searches. There’s also usually a cultural mood (‘Frozen,’ which also made our obsessions list), a social media promotion (Kim Kardashian and her ‘Break the Internet’), political or social disasters or concerns (Number one Ebola), and finally technological advances.”

While Yahoo users were searching for Ebola and Kim Kardashian, Yahoo itself was searching for more traffic and renewed stature. In November, Yahoo became the default search engine for Firefox, displacing Google in the process. Yahoo’s new default status in Firefox, which owns around 13 percent of the desktop browser market according to Net Applications, is a big coup for the search engine.

The more traffic a search engine generates, the more opportunities that advertisers have to display their ads. The more that people respond to such ads, the more the search engine can prove itself a viable and profitable platform for advertisers.

“At Yahoo, we believe deeply in search — it’s an area of investment and opportunity for us,” Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said in a blog post at the time. “This partnership helps to expand our reach in search and gives us an opportunity to work even more closely with Mozilla to find ways to innovate in search, communications and digital content.”

Tech users were also busy tapping into Yahoo this year.

The iPhone 6 captured the top spot among tech searches, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4 smartphones. Sports camera GoPro came in fourth, Apple’s iPad Mini came in fifth and Microsoft’s Xbox One came in sixth. Rounding out the list were the Amazon Kindle, Sony’s PlayStation 4, Apple’s iPad Air and Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3.

People also used Yahoo to stay abreast of the latest items in the news by searching for information on the death of actor and comedian Robin Williams, the 2014 elections, the leaked photos of popular celebrities, the loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Mo.

Source