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Google Flights: How so save money when planning a holiday

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Searching for cheap flights can be a maze, which is why Google Flights was launched for Irish users recently.

What is Google Flights?

Google Flights provides you with a hugely powerful search engine for flights. You enter your preferred travel details. Google then does all the donkey work and returns an overview of prices to each airline.

Preview of Google Flights

Once you’ve assessed the available flights and are happy with your airlines, the service will prompt you to book. This is done directly with the airline, so Google has nothing to do with it. Once you book one, you can return to the screen below to book your second flight.

booking-with-google-flights

Why use Google Flights?

You can spend as much time as you like trawling through all the airlines in the world looking for cheap flights. Or you can let Google do it for you. For years many have suggested using incognito mode while booking flights. The idea is that airlines like Ryanair track you returning to their site to increase the price. Google should discredit this theory with their travel service, or at least give you a smarter way to beat it.

If you adjust your own online flight booking habits slightly, you’ll benefit greatly. Google Flights lets you track prices, with updates going to your inbox. This will tell if you if there is a sudden price drop or increase so you can react quicker. Google Flights also lets you know if you might there are cheaper flights on a similar date. The service goes even further now, warning you of previous trends where prices normally increase.

google-flights-alert

As cliché as it may sound, why wouldn’t you use Google Flights? The best feature simply has to be the ability to track flight prices and get warnings for price increases. By giving new technology like this a try, you could save yourself a nice bit of cash!

 

Crowdfunded June: 6 tech Kickstarter campaigns you should back

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I’m a massive fan of Kickstarter as products that come through crowdfunding already know the public needs them. I’m currently waiting patiently on the Everlast notepad from Rocketbook – hopefully, the last notebook I ever buy. That crowdfunding ship has sailed, but there’s no shortage of techie gadgets on Kickstarter right now for you to back.

Jelly: The world’s smallest smartphone

Get your giggles out of the way because this is a serious smartphone once you dive into it. Produced by Chinese manufacturer Unihertz, Jelly has already raised over $1m. They only bloody set out to bag $30k, but over 9,000 backers have sent them flying past their goal. The Jelly will run Android 7, full 4G and boasts an 8MP primary camera. Top that off with dual-SIM slots and three days of battery life and you’ve got yourself a top-notch piece of kit. Did I mention it measures in with a 2.45-inch screen?

Yep, the Jelly is designed to fit in the ‘johnny’ pocket of your jeans (fun fact, that was actually for cowboys to carry those watches on a chain, not your ‘jimmy-hats’).

The Jelly will set you back about €70 before shipping.

HEED: Turn your smartphone into a dashcam

I’ve been loving Nexar for a long while now. It’s a super simple app that lets you use your smartphone as a dashcam. There’s no doubting that dashcams can save your bacon if you’re in an accident. HEED is a new Kickstarter campaign combining an app similar to Nexar with some in-car hardware. HEED will reduce your need to handle your phone while driving and even charges it wirelessly.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/420513186/heed-probably-the-smartest-car-accessory-in-the-wo?ref=producthunt

The HEED super early bird is still available for about €52.

Vintage vinyl Bluetooth speaker

Recycling madness, but still absolute class, is how I would describe the latest from UncommonGoods. They’re reclaiming old vinyl and making them into Bluetooth speakers. This is really cool for a few reasons, my personal favourite being that old vinyl will continue to produce different types of music for a new generation.

Even more importantly, it would appear that the speaker is made from really high-quality material meaning you get great sound.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uncommongoods/vintage-vinyl-bluetooth-speaker/description

You can back this now for less than €190, but the levels are filling up fast.

Momo: A smart home assistant

First impression: why do we need another smart home assistant to compete with Google Home and Amazon Echo. Then, I realised the Momo isn’t really taking them on, it’s trying to replace them in a way. Momo will work with everything the two heavyweight home assistants does and more. It also doubles as a lamp and is much easier to flip into a definite privacy mode.

The Momo goes the extra mile to Google and Alexa, learning from your actions and even recognising users. Like all of these gadgets, to get the absolute most out of it, you’ll need some other smart tech such as WeMo lights. Still, worthy of making the list because it’s taking on the big dogs if nothing else.

 

The only catch is that at just under $300, it does come in a little more expensive than Google Home and a lot more expensive than the Echo Dot. You do get more for your money though.

AquaGenie: The world’s smartest water bottle

You can slap a microchip into anything these days. AquaGenie is a great example of how slapping a microchip into everything can lead to brilliance. I can’t remember the last day I drank my proper allowance of water. AquaGenie is a smart water bottle tracks your water consumption and reminds you with subtle light flashes when you need to take a sup. Drinking water is probably the most overlooked part of being healthy and this bottle will definitely help with that.

Unlike many Kickstarter campaigns, the AquaGenie is very far along in terms of development and is already integrated with key fitness apps. This means you’ll get even more value from the bottle straight from the start.

The smart bottle charges wirelessly, is extremely durable and comes with a dedicated water tracking app. The AquaGenie is also BPA free, which bottle enthusiasts will appreciate.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/921287511/aquagenie-the-worlds-smartest-water-bottle/faqs

It might seem like peak world of tech stuff, but the AquaGenie is one of my favourite and most affordable Kickstarters to come along for a while.

The Spyslide: Just in-case your webcam is watching you

Apparently, Russian hackers are mad to see you sliding around the sitting room in your bockies. So much so, you’ll often see bits of tape covering people’s webcams. All joking aside, I cover my webcam with a little sticky on slidy thing I bought over on Amazon for €10. If you’ve ever watched Black Mirror, you’ll have an appreciation for things like this.

The Spyslide is a very similar Kickstarter campaign that’s just been slight more engineered than my cheap Amazon solution. They also pride themselves on being the world’s thinnest cover, so you’re laptop will close nice and smoothly. I’m sure this is even more important for Macbook users.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2126936003/the-spyslide-the-most-elegant-webcam-cover?ref=category_most_backed

Privacy gadgets like his are going to become more popular in the coming years, so it’s worth taking a look at it.

Recall drunks texts and pin WhatsApp chats

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Snapchat doesn’t let you pin chats, do they? No, they don’t but you can now pin WhatsApp chats. That’s an innovation WhatsApp decided all on their own. Fair play.

Isn’t pinning WhatsApp chats a little boring?

Yeah, it’s a slow news day. Sure WhatsApp isn’t even talking about it on their own site where WhatsApp Status is still their big news.

Ah no, being able to pin chats is actually fairly cool and it lets you cut through a lot of the noise in the popular chat app. If you’ve been landed into a few groups, the people you actually want to hear from often get pushed way down into the depths chat list. Now, you simply tap and hold the chat you want to pin and Bob’s your uncle.

There are a few other bits and pieces in the pipeline including what might be the best feature ever for drunk people.

Recall messages in WhatsApp

Why the bloody hell are you allowed to text people when you’re drunk.

drunk texts

Well, WhatsApp got your back. Right now, they’re testing a feature in WhatsApp Beta where you have a five-minute window to recall any texts you send. Guess you’ll have to come to your senses pretty quickly, but still, it’s a step in the right direction.

Samsung’s new Galaxy S8 is the most fragile flagship ever made

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2017 certainly seems to be the year of the Samsung Galaxy S8. Between its subtle Edge, Bixby and that beautiful Infinity Display, it seems like the perfect phone. But all is not what it seems on paper. The lads over at Squaretrade put the S8’s new screen through its paces and the results were not what we wanted to see. They have said that it is the most fragile flagship on the market. Given that it has the new Gorilla Glass 5, that’s not what you want to hear.

In the video below, the phone was put through a series of drop tests. If you’re a Samsung enthusiast, look away now. This is tough to watch.

The S8 smash test results are in

As you can see, after succumbing to a 6-foot drop, the results were… well, shattering, to say the least. You may think a 6-foot drop is a bit too much. But think about it, you’re a 6-foot lad or a lassie in heels. You’re taking a selfie on a night out and then whack. Then someone bumps into you and your S8 goes bye-bye. What you are left with is loose glass, spiderwebbing and starburst shaped cracks all of the phone. Squaretrade said it was the first phone they ever tested that resulted in cracks all over the phone from a drop like the one tested.

Everyone said the original Edge on the S6 was going to be fragile because of the curved screen. But this is on another level. Now it’s not all doom and gloom. The lads working with Motherboard have said the glass might only be around $100 to get repaired. But it’s still not exactly a USP for a flagship phone. You don’t want to fork out almost €1000 or sign up for a 2-year contract just for your phone to break after a couple of falls.

Solid advice

Before you decide to go out and buy the latest toy, make sure to do your research to make sure the quality is up to scratch. Or give us at Goos3D a shout and we’ll advise you as best we can. For the love of all that’s good, get gadget insurance.

You are using Google Photos already, right?

There’s a few apps that I use day in and day out and Google Photos is one of them. The funny thing is, that I’ve become so used to it in my life I’d never even think to write about it. Watching Google I/O it occurred to me that I barely hear people talking about how much they love Google Photos. Fearing people might not know about how great it is, here’s why you should be using it already.

Google Photos is Google’s fastest-growing product ever

What is Google Photos?

Google Photos first came onto the scene in 2015 and ever since it has been backing up billions of photographs. You can upload photos from your PC or smartphone and view them on both too. There are a few small caveats like 1080p images only with a max camera quality of 16MP but you get unlimited cloud storage for your images – which is pretty nice. Better still, you can set your smartphone to automatically backup everything to the cloud and even delete them from your phone to save memory. While this is all great, Google Photos goes far beyond simply backing up your photos.

Google Photos Assistant is amazing

Similar to Facebook, Google Photos will regularly invite you to remember this day over the past few years. That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the power of Google Photos Assistant. You’re just one tap away from creating super simple collages or adding a rake of filters. Even more impressive is how Google Photos uses AI to categorise your photos. This allows you to search for images over a massive timeframe matching a single piece of criteria, like every gadget you’ve ever taken a picture of:

images-of-gadgets-in-google photos

Sharing photos

Probably one of the handiest features in Google Photos is the ability to share photos. You know the scene, you’ve been at a wedding at the weekend and everyone remembers you taking a geansai load of photos. All you need to do is lump the photos into an album and share that with whoever wants it. In return, they can even throw their snaps into the photo album too. Holy collaboration Batman. It’s all fine and dandy, but Google wasn’t happy leaving it there.

New Google Photo features

At Google I/O 2017, Google Photos had some of the best-received features.

Even smarter photo management

Photo sharing is handy for a rake of reasons, but if your parents and you snap your kids a lot, you’ll love this. Auto-sharing will recognise that you’re taking a picture of your kids and share it with your other half. This is the example Google provided at I/O but I’m sure there will be a load more uses for auto-sharing.

Photo Books

Google are absolutely and online business but they’re also commercial and love making a buck. Even so, Photo Books is sure to prove popular as it allows people to get a physical book filled with all their memories. You create this from within Google Photos and the app will even help you pick out the best snaps from your photo gallery.

Google Lens

I genuinely forgot Google Lens was a thing, even though it was one of my favourite things just a few years ago. Google Lens is a smart layer over the photographs you take which effectively scans anything like a human eye and processes. This is great for getting information on landmarks and the likes, but the real cool bit is snapping something like a phone number and being able to dial straight from the image.

Towards the end of the talk, machine learning was dropped a few times which basically means any time you use Google Photos and it’s not great, it will be better next time.

Google Photos is available now on Android and iOS.

What is the Blue Whale game? A shocking social trend parents need to know about

Social media has a huge amount of power for good. Not too long ago, half the population of Ireland were pouring ice-cold water over themselves to raise money for charity. Unfortunately, social media also has a shocking amount of power for evil. A horrible trend known as the Blue Whale game.

If you’re involved in the Blue Whale game or are feeling suicidal, please contact Childline on 1800 66 66 66 or chat with them online

What is the Blue Whale game?

The Blue Whale game takes place on social media. It gained coverage on English speaking websites in February 2017 and the trend seems to have started out in Russia. New ‘players’ to the Blue Whale game request access to the game on social media by posting a request using the hashtags ‘#57’, ‘#58’ and ‘#curatorfindme’. One of these ‘curators’ then messages the ‘player’ with 50 days of challenges.

The Blue Whale challenges are far from harmless, spanning from self-harm with cutting and waking ‘players’ up in the middle of the night to watch disturbing and violent videos. This goes on for 50 days where the final days instructs participants to commit suicide.

green whale game

[vc_btn title=”Play the Green Whale game instead” color=”warning” align=”center” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fgoos3d.ie%2Fgreen-whale-game%2F|||”]

Why is it called the Blue Whale game?

The trend gets its name from Blue Whales apparently deliberately beaching themselves to die. This is widely considered true but has never been proven.

Have people died playing the Blue Whale game?

According to fact-checking site Snopes, direct links between young deaths and the game are largely still unsubstantiated. There have been reports of 130 children committing suicide in Russia being linked to the game. In Ireland, a recent tragic death of a Clare schoolboy has prompted a Garda investigation of links between his death and the Blue Whale game. His father has since refuted claims his death is linked to the game.

Whether or not the trend was real at the start, the Blue Whale game has gained enough momentum to be a problem. Instagram has taken steps to encourage people to avoid the trend, but parents should remain extra vigilant about right now about what their kids are doing online.

How to stop the Blue Whale game

Whether you’re a concerned parent or involved in playing the game, you can stop it. For parents, it’s essential that you have an open dialogue with your kids. Spying on them isn’t the answer and it will destroy the mutual trust you have built up. Speaking with your kids can offer you insights into why they might looking up something like this online and what they might find. It also gives you an opportunity to highlight the dangers of online trends like these.

If you’re involved in the game yourself, there are several people you can talk to. Of course, your parents is the first port of call, but if you don’t feel you can speak with them, pick up any phone and call 1800 66 66 66. That number is completely free to call and will get you chatting with Childline, who will help you. You can even chat with them online if you feel down or suicidal. Talking is the first step to making things better.


Article updated 16 May 2017 to reflect father refuting the connection to Blue Whale game in Clare schoolboy death.

 

Wanna Cry Ransomware Attack: What is it and what do you need to know?

Ransomware is not something new by any stretch of the imagination. However, recent cyber attacks on the UK’s NHS has shone a spotlight on ransomware. Here’s everything you need to know about the Wanna Cry ransomware attack.

What is ransomware?

Ransomware is a virus or piece of software which works its way between personal or business computers. When it infects a computer, it freezes the machine and files on the machine. A window on the screen will ask you to pay money to unlock the machine again. This is where the ‘ransomware’ term comes from, as Wanna Cry looks for a $600 ransom to unlock your files.

What is the Wanna Cry ransomware attack on the NHS?

The name ‘Wanna Cry’ comes from a piece of US software designed by the NSA – ‘wannacrypt’. This virus is described as a worm because it burrows into machines, locking everything and then moves on to the next machine. Early reports estimated that Wanna Cry had infected 75,000 machines in 74 different countries. Day one of the attack, 12 May 2017, saw the UK National Health Service crippled, turning patients away from hospitals and rerouting ambulances. The virus initially spreads from something as simple as someone clicking a link.

Are Irish systems at risk?

Initially, it appeared that Ireland had skipped through the attacks fairly unscathed. One day after the attack, late on 13 May, it emerged that an attack may have taken place. The source of this attack was a small stand-alone health facility in Wexford, but this was an isolated incident. Often considered fairly inefficient, the HSE had already shut down external access to their network.

How to avoid ransomware attacks

While Ireland seems to have gotten off fairly lightly, ransomware is a very real threat for internet users. This is far from the first sight of ransomware in Ireland. One particularly well-known virus masquerading as a Garda notification did the rounds a few years ago.

garda ransomware attackThere are some super simple steps you can take to protect yourself from ransomware attacks and other bad things online:

Don’t ignore updates

Look, we get it. Updates are a pain in the arse and often take a whole ten minutes of your day. Absolutely no excuse I’m afraid. Those updates are essential running repairs on your system and also block up security gaps. Updates are bloody important and out-of-date systems were a major weak point that Wanna Cry took advantage of.

Backup your files

Here is the most important thing you’ll ever learn about digital data. If your files don’t exist in three different places, they don’t exist.

If your files don’t exist in three different places, they don’t exist

It’s much easier to backup files than you might think. One version is on your laptop, another on an external hard drive and another in the cloud. The cloud doesn’t have to be fancy either as Google and Dropbox offer you loads of storage for free.

With all your files backed up, you can flip the bird to anyone thinking they’re holding you to ransom.

Install some sort of anti-virus on your machine

Again, this doesn’t have to cost a fortune. In fact, it doesn’t have to cost anything. There are loads of anti-virus packages out there which offer levels of protection for free:

Avast

AVG

Bitdefender

While you’re at it, definitely install Malwarebytes too for good measure. Windows also provides you loads of protection, but that’s only good news if everything is up to date.

 

Firemole: The Irish Gadget Reducing Risk of Phone Charger Fires

As big technology advocates, we hate nothing more than scaremongering. Technology is great and should be adopted as much as possible. With that said, phone chargers catching fire is a very real risk.

A quick look at Google shows you that phone chargers are the leading suspects in house fires every month. With more plugs in our houses being occupied with phone chargers every year, Firemole is possibly the most important gadget you could buy.

Why are phone chargers catching fire?

There are two main schools of thought on how phone chargers cause house fires. The predominant one is people using unofficial chargers. I stopped using these a few years ago simply because I thought they charged too slowly. It turns out that unofficial chargers are cheaper because they don’t go through really important safety tests. They then overheat and malfunction and cause fires, just like the one the Dublin Fire Brigade showed above.

There are also fears that even official chargers can cause fires when used incorrectly. These fires have been linked with chargers being left on beds leading to overheating. With our houses being full of chargers, a Cork company has invented a gadget to make chargers much safer.

Spending years working as a qualified electrician, Seán Ó Tuama saw the damage that phone chargers catching fire can cause. According to Seán, “there has been huge growth in the electronic and electrical markets over the last number of years, but there has not been the proportional growth in safety devices to protect people from faulty, ageing or counterfeit equipment.” This led him to design and develop Firemole.

firemole warns of phone chargers catching fire

Firemole is a small device that you can easily fit to any electrical charger or device with a flat surface. Firemole’s focus is fire prevention, versus fire detection which is what traditional smoke detectors do. Once a charger or device fitted with a Firemole reaches a temperature of 54°C an alarm sounds. The designers chose this temperature as our skin can be damaged from just 50°C

When the alarm sounds, it’s time to unplug the device Firemole is connected to. It’s probably a good idea to chuck it too.

The people behind Firemole

We’re particularly taken with Firemole because it’s an Irish gadget. The Cork-based company started designed the device in late-2016 and now plan their Irish and UK launch in July 2017. You can order the Firemole from their website for €19.99, get three for €45 or ten for €119.99.

 

 

 

 

 

Why buy an Apple Watch? Well, it could save your life

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What’s the point in smartwatches eh? Stupid yolks you have to charge every night amiright? Look, I’m an avid smartwatch fan, in particular, the Huawei Watch which I’ve been rocking for an age now. I do understand the apprehension, but with the right innovations, you might buy an Apple Watch because it might save your life. This isn’t pie in the sky stuff either, mainly thanks to the app Cardiogram.

What is Cardiogram?

According to their website, Cardiogram is all about organising your mobile health data and making it useful. We’re going to go ahead and dig a little deeper. First of all, you’ll need an Apple Watch to get the most from Cardiogram. The app uses the Apple Watch’s built-in heart sensor to track your heart rate in real time. Looking back through the app, you’ll be able to tell when that asshat pulled out in front of you on the way home. Again, perhaps this all sounds a little gimmicky while smartwatch fans struggle to justify these expensive gadgets, but there’s more.

How can the Apple Watch save your life?

The clever people behind Cardiogram teamed up with the University of California San Francisco to carry out some clever research. They signed up 6,158 people through the Cardiogram to share their heart rate readings. While most had normal readings, around 200 had an abnormal heartbeat. Using this research, the developers programmed some artificial intelligence within the app to detect similar heart irregularities for users of the app.

Who can this help?

Cardiogram’s research also uncovered that 25% of strokes are caused by heart beat irregularities. The irregularities that cause the strokes are treatable, with relatively cheap drugs, but often go unnoticed. Should Cardiogram continue their stunning progress, wearing an Apple Watch or Android Wear smartwatch could save your life. With their research still ongoing, the Apple Watch combined with Cardiogram can detect heartbeat irregularities with 97% accuracy. Smartwatches could become much more than a Rolex with a crap battery.

Grab the Cardiogram app from the iOS app store now. Coming soo to Android.

Futuristic tech that’s happening right now

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Right now we are living in the golden age of tech. Somehow, even though it doesn’t make sense, we’re living in a world, surrounded by futuristic tech. There are new and crazy inventions appearing on a regular basis.  We though we would have an aul gander at some bits that we all may recognise from the movies which are not too far from reality. Having scoured the internet for the weirdest and most wonderful bits we could find here are 4 tech innovations we can actually expect to see a lot sooner than you think.

Alternative realities

The tech world is a funny place. Little over a month ago, Facebook Spaces was supposed to be the next big thing. It was a virtual environment unveiled by Mark Zuckerberg which just last week was shut down. Still, it’s a sign of things to come as this was some crazy advanced stuff. The tech is developing ridiculously fast so just think in a few years we all may be spending a considerable amount of time in a virtual reality. Perfect for the Irish Mammy who wants to keep in touch with her son down under. We are looking at you here Deano.

To be honest with you, most of the VR the gadgetry stupidly expensive at the moment, and some people (namely myself) can suffer awful headaches from VR. But if we use our imagination for a moment we can all see where this kind of virtual reality can take us.

Not exactly sure whether this is good or bad myself, but hey that Tony Starkesque mansion on the coast could be yours. But that false sense of life which we can see in The Matrix and Wall-E is not far from happening. As long as we can all agree to not use this kind of technology as an escape from reality then we will be grand.

Companies like Google and Facebook are already pushing forward with this futuristic tech. While spaces fell apart, the potential is there. Movie studios are also adopting these new immersive ways of entertaining. Go on, drop me right into any horror universe, I swear I won’t cry, again.

Flying cars

Image result for flying cars cartoon

Just like the cartoons and movies of old, the dream of the flying car has been around for an age. According to all the old flicks we should actually be floating around long by now, but are we any closer?

One such company thinks so, AeroMobil have recently opened preorders for it’s first flying car so it’s possible. But before you go trading in your trusty Micra or Escort bear in mind the cost is an eye watering  €1.2 million and delivery isn’t expected until 2020, at best.

Then there’s the fact you’ll need a pilot’s license. With a top speed of 99 mph on the road, a 161 mph cruise speed in the air, and a one-button conversion process that takes just three minutes, it is fair to say the AeroMobil is a beaut. Wonder if the Credit Union will give me a loan.

Image result for aeromobil flying car

Flexible phones

 

Rumours have long been circulating about a fully flexible phone from Samsung called the Galaxy X. Apparently a prototype model, visible above, is apparently very close indeed. Curiously the model could hit the shelves in 2019. Surprised? Dont be.

Phone design has not been changing much over the last number of years. Samsung, however, with the latest S8 and the infinity screen has attempted to buck that trend. A mobile that could fold up and stick in your pocket would certainly be a huge change. For that to happen though, all of the various components and bits of circuitry inside a phone, from the screen to the battery, would have to be flexible.

As far as screens go, both Samsung and LG are known to be working on displays that can be rolled up, at least partially. This is something we want, no need to happen.

Personal jetpacks

Image result for james bond jetpack

James Bond tech in the real world. It’s happened before and god bless your cotton socks it’s happening again. Remember Connery in Thunderball? Well the most futuristic mode of personal travel is almost upon us. Over the last few years more and more jetpack-style contraptions have been hitting the headlines, from the JB10 from Jetpack Aviation to the Flyboard Air. In fact, the JB10 is already on sale to a select few. It’s going to take a while before jetpacks are actually legal to use and affordable – but in terms of the actual tech, they’re almost ready.

They’re also an incredible way of nabbing a pint:

Have we missed anything you think should be included on our list?