Kik’s new QR codes can do more than just add friends

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Even though QR codes never really took off in the United States, they’re overwhelmingly popular in Asia. Messaging apps like Snapchat have made them ‘cool’ again and Kik wants a piece of the action. Today it’s announcing Kik codes, which are a new way to add friends, get straight into group conversations and talk to brands. Kik’s new codes can be scanned by quickly pulling down on the friends list in the app, which opens the built-in scanner — when you add someone using their code, they automatically add you back too. It’s even more useful for getting you straight into…

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Minecraft for Windows 10 now lets you play with (or against) mobile users

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Microsoft is rolling out updates for Minecraft on Windows 10 and the ‘Pocket Edition’ that bring support for cross-platform local network play and a host of new features for mobile players. Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta now supports up to five players playing across Xbox Live, while mobile Pocket Edition players players get revamped touch controls, the ability to sneak and sprint and some snazzy new weather effects, like snow piling up and directional rain. How did you manage to play the game this long without directional rain? Microsoft says there are “plenty of new goodies to build and potions to brew”…

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Amazon now delivers from restaurants in Seattle

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Amazon is getting into the restaurant delivery business. The company today announced it would begin offering local food deliveries to its customers in Seattle via its Amazon Prime Now service. To order, you need to use the Prime Now mobile app to browse through menus and place orders, after which you’ll be able to track deliveries in real time. Amazon says the food should be delivered within an hour of purchase. Deliveries are free for a limited time (no word on how long, or how much it will cost after the initial period is over), and Amazon uses the information…

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Twitter can tell which apps will fail next… sometimes

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While not particularly well known for data-driven reporting, BuzzFeed found that by looking at the number of tweets linking to an app, it was possible in some cases to detect the health of an app, and whether it was likely to shut down in the near future. The site began collecting data after anonymous social updates app Secret closed down at the end of April. By charting how many tweets linked to an app over several months, BuzzFeed was able to spot a decline in interest in Frontback and This Is My Jam, two services that shut down recently (Frontback…

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HoverCards for Chrome lets you preview social links before you click them

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If you’re like me and always have more than 20 browser tabs open at any given time, you’ll want to check out HoverCards for Chrome. This handy little extension lets you preview content from Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, SoundCloud, Imgur and Instagram just by moving your mouse over a link. HoverCards displays link previews before you can click ’em Hover over a YouTube link a friend sent you, and you’ll see its title and stats without having to click on it. You can also view thumbnails from Instagram and Imgur links the same way. That’s not all: if you click on…

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Lens Writer is a smarter way to produce scientific papers for the Web

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Substance, the developer of a JavaScript library for Web-based content, has partnered with publisher eLife Sciences to create Lens Writer, a new tool to produce scientific manuscripts with minimal effort. The free and open source software allows users to create scientific content, complete with bibliographies, references and figures, far more easily than with a standard word processor. Lens Writer features a clean, simple interface for creating scientific content The app lets you cite references without having to worry about a correct citation style, and includes a Crossref.org search tool to make it easy to add publications to your bibliography. Lens…

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Opera Mini browser for Android now lets you choose between speed and experience while saving data

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Opera Mini
Opera has updated its Mini browser for Android with an option to switch between data saving modes for a faster or richer experience, depending on your needs. In order to reduce bandwidth use and serve pages faster, Mini’s ‘extreme’ mode pulls scaled-down images and simplified layouts, while saving up to 90 percent of data. ‘High’ mode doesn’t save quite as much — it manages about 30-40 percent on average — but presents pages with all their visual elements and rich media components (like video players) intact. Facebook in Opera Mini’s Extreme Mode (left); the same page in High mode (right) Opera…

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See the ridiculous prices you’ll have to pay to get an Airbnb at SXSW 2016

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South by Southwest is the time when the city of Austin, Texas goes absolutely bonkers. It’s not only the time for the biggest film and music festivals in the country, but also the period where the tech elite fly south for networking in a new climate. People are already competing for flights and hotels — and the event isn’t even until next March. That’s why the findings of Stay 22 — a company that offers lodging in proximity to events — aren’t so surprising. In a recent blog post, the company found out that hosts of Airbnbs in the area near…

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Weird Hangouts glitch means some Android users can’t chat

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If you’re a Google Apps user, you may want to hold off on upgrading to the newest version of Hangouts (version 4.0) on Android; a strange glitch means some users can’t connect to Google’s chat server. According to Android Police, if your Google Apps account has had Hangouts disabled by an administrator, you won’t be able to use Hangouts for any account on your phone. In other words, if you use your phone to check your work email, but an admin has disabled Hangouts for that account, you won’t be able to chat using your personal email either, or any other Google…

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