After weeks of testing, the Skype for Web beta interface is now being rolled out for all users based in US and UK regions. The new Skype for Web beta aims to bring the official app’s functionality to the Web for competing with WhatsApp and Telegram.

Skype for Web is available for existing as well as new users to login and start using the interface for voice calls and instant messages. The new timeline view makes it easier to search for recent and old conversations. Now all you need is a Web browser and a Skype account to start making voice calls and chat. Read more »

Over a month after announcing that its mobile payments service will be launched in the second half of 2015, Samsung has confirmed that Samsung Pay will debut this September in the United States and South Korea.

The confirmation came from the company’s Executive Vice President Rhee In Jong, who also revealed that the service will be launched in conjunction with Samsung’s next high-end mobile device, which – given the time frame – could well be the Galaxy Note 5. Read more »

In an effort to court budget-conscious customers, Amazon has started offering free shipping on small items – including make-up, earplugs, and mobile phone accessories – without any minimum order or membership requirements.

Dubbed Fulfillment by Amazon Small and Light, the service covers goods that weigh under 8 ounces (230 grams), measure under 9x6x2 inches, and are priced at less than $10. While orders will be fulfilled via the company’s new shipping hub in Florence, Kentucky, deliveries will take 4-8 business days. Read more »

Imgur is one of those services you never really pay too much attention to when using on and off. Once you get into it, however, you will quickly discover that, just like reddit, the image platforms has grown into somewhat of an internet sensation and has an amazing ecosystem of its own.

There is tons of content to discover, trends to follow and all the viral memes and jokes you can handle. After only have a web app on Android for a while, Imgur now finally has a proper native app. Its interface is quite intuitive and user friendly. It is almost entirely card-based and swiping left and right navigates the endless stream of content. A tap brings out additional options like commenting, voting and adding to favorites. Read more »

If you opened any Google service in your browser, say, Gmail or Maps, then you’d have noticed your name at the top right that would link to your Google+ profile.

If you look now, though, you’ll notice that it is, in fact, just your name and is no longer linked to your Google+ profile. Google has unlinked all its services from Google+ so you will no longer see profile links while using other Google services. Read more »

Amazon has just launched a new discovery-style shopping experience. Stream is quite reminiscent of a Pinterest board, featuring an endless list of Amazon products. They can be filtered according to sex, which doesn’t sound very concrete and it really isn’t. But, seeing how the idea behind the service is to give eager users the ability to browse through new products, it is perfectly adequate.

The offers that make it into the service, however, aren’t picked at random – instead they are all sponsored. This is an important note to make and means that things you pick out within the interface might not always be competitively priced. Still, if you really like something, you can always dig around in the conventional search interface to see if you can get a better deal. And if you are an Amazon seller, you might want to consider promoting some items in the new service. Read more »

Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was convicted in February of creating and operating the online drug marketplace, has been sentenced by a US federal judge to life in prison without parole. He was facing a minimum prison sentence of 20 years.

“It was a carefully planned life’s work. It was your opus. You wanted it to be your legacy—and it is,” said Judge Katherine Forrest. “You are no better a person than any other drug dealer.” Read more »

Finally. After a long time, Google has finally added support for push notifications in the Gmail API.

Until now, if an application wanted to add support for Gmail, it would have to resort to polling the service after set intervals to see if there were any new changes. Polling is a bad idea on mobile, as it consumes a lot more power than push notifications, which are pushed directly to the device without it constantly having to check for changes. Read more »

Well, this was bound to happen. Yesterday during its annual I/O developer conference Google announced that it would finally offer full offline support in Maps for Android by the end of the year. Nokia’s Here Maps division has obviously heard about this, and decided to make fun of the fact that Google Maps is still pretty much useless offline at the moment.

Here has had offline maps since the moment it launched. Even its predecessor, known as Nokia Maps (and Ovi Maps at one time), came with this feature built-in. Read more »

Not many technologies can boast turning into every day, household terms and even the select few that can are nowhere near as revolutionary as Google’s world changing search platform. This one-of-a-kind information hub that drives most of today’s online traffic is constantly getting better at what it does and is receiving a lot of much-deserved care and attention by users and developers alike.

A new update to Google search now delivers answers so fast that it is kind of creepy. The concept is simple enough – if Google can give you a concise and definite answer as you type your question, why wait for you to do so? It does precisely this and quickly appends short answers straight into the suggestion interface as you type. Read more »

US-based technology companies, including Google, Twitter, and Facebook have been warned by Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor against violating the country’s Internet laws.

The agency has sent out letters to the firms asking them to comply with the rules. “In our letters we regularly remind (companies) of the consequences of violating the legislation,” said the agency’s spokesperson Vadim Ampelonsky. He also said that the Russian government could block access to the services being offered by the companies if they do not fall in line. Read more »

YouTube recently launched 60fps playback and now it’s enabling the smoother framerate for livestreaming videos too. This update comes thanks to the new HTML5 player for livestreams, the old one used Flash.

The YouTube team has also worked with the developers of screen capturing tools that support livestreaming. Read more »

Music streaming service Rdio has announced a new subscription service called Rdio Select for those seeking on-demand, affordable music. The new Rdio Select will cost $3.99 a month against the standard $9.99 a month for unlimited access.

Rdio Select is almost like a diet music subscription plan that offers streaming without ads and capability to skip tracks. However, the catch here is the you can only download 25 songs a day. Read more »

A few weeks after it was revealed that Facebook’s Internet.org has benefited over 800 million people in nine countries, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the service, which was recently launched in the African country of Malawi, is now available to over 1 billion people around the world.

“Giving people free access is the right thing to do,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “We will keep connecting more people and more countries, and we won’t stop until every person in the world can connect to the internet.” Read more »

Gmail for Android received a major update. The new version of the popular email client brings new functionality and improvements based on feedback from users.

The new version of the application allows users all their recent conversations with a contact by tapping on its avatar. Read more »