Chrome 28 gains Richer System Notifications

The upcoming Chrome 28 will not only be the first Chrome using the new Blink engine - leaving behind the long time collaboration with WebKit - but will also mark the beginning of a new era for web apps and web services with richer notification capabilities that can popup even if you're not running Chrome.

These new notification will show up in a notification center on Windows and Chrome OS, allowing you quickly scan through what happened even when you've been away from the computer, and just like the notifications on Android, you can initiate actions immediately (like answering an email) from there. Being on a separate notification center also means they'll keep showing even if you have no open Chrome window.

Similarities with Android notifications don't stop there, as you can also get exactly the same kind of notifications: like image previews, or collapsible and aggregating notifications that combine multiple notifications into a single item.

Of course, you'll be able to select which notifications to receive and their priority, so your life doesn't end up being ruled by the popping up of notifications all the time. If can't wait to try this out, you can get it right now, using Chrome Beta.

Scanadu Scout shows us our Medical Future

If you think there's isn't anything else that could possibly be crammed into smartphones, that now have FullHD screens, high-resolution cameras (two!), motion sensors, GPS, temperature sensors, and even barometric sensors... Maybe you'll want to consider what this Scanadu Scout has to offer - and most importantly, just how much it may affect future mobile devices.

Instead of adding features that are nothing but a gimmick for you to show off, the SCOUT is a health monitor that allows you to track things like your temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and even blood oxygen level (among other things).

To use it you need only place it on your forehead for a few seconds, and you can then see all the info on your smartphone or tablet.

It isn't exactly cheap ($199), but one can imagine it to be just like GPS devices. A decade ago, GPS systems were expensive devices only a few could afford; today, you have it even in the least expensive smartphone devices and you don't even think about it. I bet a decade from now, our mobile devices, whatever they may be (tablets, smartphones, smart glasses, smart watches, smart clothing, etc.) will be able to monitor everything about out health, alerting us to potential problems before they reach a critical level.

What will come next? Maybe by then we'll have technology that will allow us to heal our own body should the need arise!

So, you don't have to worry about "not having anything more" to put into our smart devices. There's still a long way to go.

Microsoft Unveils Xbox One

As promised, Microsoft has finally unveiled the next Xbox, that won't be called Xbox 720 as some were counting on but goes back to the beginning, marking a new era: the new Xbox is the Xbox One. The presentation felt kind of weird - leaving more questions than answers, and showing just about what was already expected - leaving me (and other) wondering why MS decided to do this at this moment, when it ends up promising to show much more less than 3 weeks from now on the Xbox event at E3.

So... what can we expect from the new Xbox?

Flickr now offers 1TB of space for Photos

Yahoo seems to have noticed Flickr was needing an overhaul... and what a great overhaul they did! If you, like many others, simply stopped using it because it looked tiresome and dated, you'll now want to give it another chance. Just take a look at the before and after shots and tell me what you think:

Yes... Flickr is now really oriented to photos, and they now use up most (all?) the available space. Long gone are the text links and wastful white space... and that new design can also be found on the new Flickr Android App. But I'm yet to tell you the best part: Flickr now offers 1TB of free space so we can all stop worrying about whether we should upload our photos in full resolution!

1TB of free space is unheard of, and I can only liken it to the time when Gmail offered 1GB of free space (back in the day that was also revolutionary) - and now it seems like the terabyte is new the gigabyte!

If 1TB isn't enough, you can double it... provided you're willing to pay $499.99/year; though you can also just get rid of the ads for $49.99/year. For comparison, Google now offer 15GB of unified space but if your want 1TB of space you'll nee to pay $49.99... per month (that's roughly $600 per year!) - though Google allows you to upload unlimited photos as long as they're less than 2048 pixels wide.

You'll have to wait and see if this move will work out for Yahoo... but I can tell you that after a couple of years without visiting my old Flickr account, this made me go back and install the Apps. Looks like this year's vacation photos will find their way into Flickr! :)

Jolla Readies First Smartphone for Year's End

Is there enough room for yet another mobile platform? The people that were working on Nokia's MeeGo think so, and they joined up to form a new company - Jolla - and kept working on their new Sailfish OS, that is now making its first public appearance. The first Jolla phone with Saiflish OS can now be pre-ordered, and is promised to be delivered before year ends.

The Jolla smartphone has a 4.5" HD screem, dual-core CPU, 16GB + microSD, 4G/LTE, replaceable battery, 8MP camera, and a mysterious "The Other Half" attachment that will allow you to add/change features by snapping some kind of special case/cover. More importantly though, is that the Sailfish OS will be able to run Android apps - which will certainly make it a lot less frightening than jumping on board a new platform that will surely struggle to find developers willing to make native apps for it - especially in the initial phase.

Jolla will cost 399€ (about $513 USD) and can be pre-ordered right now for 100€ (that will be redeemable when you buy the actual smartphone later on). But for now that offer is available only in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France, and Italy.

Do you think Sailfish and Jolla will have any chance against Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry? Is there really enough room for all?