Bubble Motion Rebrands As Bubbly, Retires Old Voice Messaging For Good

“Voice Twitter” app, Bubble Motion, has just rebranded itself as Bubbly, and revamped its interface as it enters version 3.0 of its mobile app. The Bubbly app has been around for two years now, but this rebranding marks a pivotal shift in the company’s direction away from its original model of providing voice text messages. When it started in 2005, its service allowed people to record voice clips, sending it to friends via ordinary SMS. The recipient would dial the code in the text to retrieve the message from Bubble Motion’s system. The analog nature of this made the app popular in its target emerging markets of Indonesia, the Philippines and India. Two years ago, the Singapore-based startup decided to get in the smartphone game and launch an app that made it a lot more like Twitter. Instead of sending messages to another person, you’d now record a voice clip and broadcast it to your followers. The new version 3.0 responds to requests from smartphone users, who asked for more audio layers such as background audio imitating a coffee shop or club atmosphere, or voice filters to alter recordings by adding reverb or changing pitch. The iOS app had some of these filters already, and the new version brings these to Android, as well. Its CEO, Thomas Clayton, spoke to us about the Bubbly app in February, and said the older voice message function was receiving “zero attention” from the company. But Bubbly is careful about not alienating its feature phone base. Clayton emphasized that the new “Twitter” service is 95 percent subscribed to via feature phone users, who dial in to retrieve voice blasts via the old circuit-switch method. The company is planning to add private and group posts made from smartphones to SMS available in its next update, scheduled for next month. “More than four billion consumers in emerging Asian markets still use feature phones,” he said. And as this base eventually go to smartphones, it’s the company’s hope that they’ll stick with Bubbly on the other side. Since Clayton spoke to us in February, Bubbly’s user base has grown from 25 million to 30 million. The company has raised $50 million in funding so far. In 2011, it got $10 million from investors like SingTel Innov8 and Sequoia Capital, and in 2012 it got another $5 million from Japanese firm, JAFCO Asia. You can download Bubbly for

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/LGYIped-xAs/

Gangnam Style Ryan Lanza Sandy Hook Univision josh hamilton

This Telescope Shoots Lasers to Unlock the Mysteries of the Cosmos

Ground-based telescopes have long struggled to achieve the image clarity and resolution of their orbiting cousins due in large part to atmospheric distortions. That's why we build observatories on mountain tops: to minimize the amount of atmosphere between the telescope and incoming starlight. But with the help of a cutting-edge adaptive optic system, astronomers are getting an unprecedented and undistorted look at deep space sans the perilous rocket launches.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/iVcUHf-2Hvk/this-telescope-shoots-lasers-to-unlock-the-mysteries-of-659070582

earthquake bay area deron williams clear channel drexel dale george will obama birth certificate

Texas State GOP Rep. Sanford Says Pro-Choice Demonstrators Are Chanting "Hail Satan" (Little green footballs)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/316809641?client_source=feed&format=rss

Honey Baked Ham hostess israel AMA BCS Standings 2012 American Music Awards 2012 oregon ducks

Everything You Thought Was Real in The Great Gatsby Was Visual Effects

At this point even the most gullible of filmgoers must realize that nearly every movie has been digitally enhanced in one way or another. Long gone are the days when talented VFX artists were only called on to bring spaceships and dinosaurs to life; these days directors like Baz Luhrmann spend millions on effects to simply help bring even a few lamp posts to life.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/IZl-_7A7QpI/everything-you-thought-was-real-in-the-great-gatsby-was-644878070

Microsoft Surface Candy Crowley binders of women presidential debates Felix Baumgartner Little Nemo gawker

Selena Gomez Wardrobe Malfunction: Rogue Skirt, Nude Underwear Alert!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/07/selena-gomez-wardrobe-malfunction-cover-that-thing-up/

The Wolf of Wall Street marilyn monroe MAC Cosmetics The Voice Results Miss USA 2013 Daytime Emmy Awards 2013 Danielle Bradbery

Tracy Morgan Welcomes Daughter Maven Sonae

Daughter Maven Sonae Morgan arrived Monday, July 1, his rep tells PEOPLE exclusively.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/f7cQFpZMucQ/

minka kelly James Holmes court Rupert Sanders penn state Ernie Els Teen Choice Awards 2012 Aurora victims

Intergalactic magnifying glasses could help astronomers map galaxy centers

June 30, 2013 ? An international team of astronomers may have found a new way to map quasars, the energetic and luminous central regions often found in distant galaxies. Team leader Prof. Andy Lawrence of the University of Edinburgh presents the new results on Monday 1 July at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in St Andrews, Scotland.

If a star passes too close to a giant black hole found in the centre of a galaxy, it will be shredded by the strong gravitational field. This produces a flare-up in the brightness of an otherwise normal looking galaxy that then fades over a few months. In a large scale survey using the PanSTARRS telescope on Hawaii, Prof. Lawrence and his team studied millions of galaxies to search for this rare effect. They did find flare-ups but with very different behaviour to the 'star shredding' predictions.

Instead of seeing a fade over months, the objects they found look like 'normal' quasars, regions in the centre of galaxies where material is swirling around a giant black hole in a disk. But the quasars in the survey were not seen a decade ago, so must now be at least ten times brighter than before. Monitoring with the Liverpool Telescope on La Palma showed that they are also changing slowly, fading over a timescale of years rather than months.

The biggest surprise however was that the quasars seemed to be at the wrong distance. Measuring the characteristic shift in lines found in the spectrum of the quasars allows astronomers to measure the speed at which they are moving away from Earth. Knowing the way in which the universe is expanding enables scientists to deduce the distance to each object.

In the new survey, the quasars are typically around 10 billion light years away, whereas the galaxies that host them seem on average to be about 3 billion light years distant. The distances are rough estimates, so it could be that the estimated galaxy distances are completely wrong and that they are actually much further away. The black holes in their centres have then have flared up very dramatically, explaining why they seem so bright. But past studies of thousands of well-known quasars have never shown events on this scale.

If however the estimated galaxy distances are right, then Prof. Lawrence and his team believe they are looking at a distant quasar through a foreground galaxy. Normally this has little effect on the light of the quasar, but if a single star in the foreground galaxy passes exactly in front of the quasar, it can produce a gravitational focusing of the light which makes the background quasar seem temporarily much brighter.

This "microlensing" phenomenon is well known inside our own Galaxy, producing a brightening when one star passes in front of another. (It is for example also now being used to detect exoplanets). Microlensing may also be the cause of low-level "flickering" seen in some quasars. But this is the first time it has been suggested to cause such giant brightening events.

Prof. Lawrence sees real potential in this newly-discovered effect. "This could give us a way to map out the internal structure of quasars in a way that is otherwise impossible, because quasars are so small. As the star moves across the face of the distant quasar, it is like scanning a magnifying glass across it, revealing details that would otherwise simply be impossible to detect."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/dx2MD1m0pB4/130630225229.htm

Brothers Grimm Tate Stevens Miss Universe 2012 x factor x factor john kerry eastbay

3 Best Native English Speaking Article Writers Required!!! | Article ...

Tax Type Tax Rate Tax ID or Company no.

eg. VAT, GST ? Registration no.

Source: http://www.freelancer.com/projects/Copywriting-Blog/Best-Native-English-Speaking-Article.html

jeff carter chomp national enquirer kate gosselin helicopter crash matt jones whitney houston in casket photo

Especially proud: Parades across country celebrate LGBT community and recent gains

Justin Lane / EPA

Todd Fernandez (L) and Giovanni Miranda (R), who were just married today, kiss while marching during the 44th annual gay pride march in New York, New York, USA, 30 June 2013.

By Elisha Fieldstadt, NBC News

Gay Pride weekend festivities are rarely understated,? but after the Supreme Court?s decisions last week, marches and rallies all over the country were expected to be especially celebratory this year.

Pride weekend generally occurs at the end of June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots, in which the gay community exploded against a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, in New York City on June 28, 1969.

After the Supreme Court?s decision on Wednesday to overturn DOMA, granting legally married same-sex couples the same federal benefits as their heterosexual counterparts, and to let "Prop. 8" die, resuming the legalization of gay marriage in California, the festive atmosphere surrounding Pride events has been ramped up several notches.

While many of the largest and most notable Pride rallies and parties occur in New York, San Francisco and Chicago, smaller but equally colorful celebrations were set to take place in Seattle, St. Louis, Cleveland and other cities throughout the U.S. and around the globe.

Although the first gay pride march was in New York, in forty-plus years, pride events have spread throughout the world. The Paris pride march also had a duel celebration purpose on Saturday, marking the one month anniversary of France?s first gay marriage. Simultaneously, LGBT groups and supporters marched in Spain, Portugal and Mexico. Canada, Sweden, and Finland held parades on Sunday.

Jose Cabezas / AFP - Getty Images

Members of the LBGT community and their allies celebrate around the world.

Appropriately leading the way in New York City, was Edith Windsor ? the woman who championed the fight against DOMA.

Signs along the route read, "Thank you, Edie" ? celebrating Windsor for her successful challenge of a provision of DOMA that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

"If somebody had told me 15 years ago that I would be the marshal of New York City's gay pride parade in 2013, at the age of 84, I wouldn't have believed it," said Windsor.

Singer Harry Belafonte and activist Earl Fowlkes, both equality and civil rights advocates, wijoin her in leading the two-mile march down New York's famed Fifth Avenue from Midtown to the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.

?LGBT rights are expanding across the country and these individuals embody the soul of a movement far from over,? organizers NYC Pride said in statement.

The NYPD this year increased plain-clothes patrol to deal with problems that may occur before and after the parade, officials said. The additional surveillance is in response not only to expected record-breaking crowds but also the deadly shooting of a gay man that took place just a month ago in the area that Pride-goers are set to congregate.

Progressive songstress Lady Gaga spoke out against gay violence at New York?s kickoff rally on Friday, declaring "The violence that has taken place towards LGBTs in the past months is unacceptable here and anywhere ? enough is enough," according to NBCNewyork.

While the parade marks the peak of excitement in New York, marchers may have trouble trumping the grandeur of her surprise appearance and performance of her pride-centric ?Star-Spangled Banner? including the line, ?Oh, say does that flag of pride yet wave."

Although New York's Stonewall sparked gay pride marches, San Francisco is equally famous for its gay community, and also boasts a large and colorful pride weekend. According to NBCBayarea, San Francisco?s police chief expects over 1.5 million people to attend the parade.

"Even though the World Series was huge, this could quite possibly be larger in light of the decision that just came down from the Supreme Court ? but it will be just as happy as the World Series," Police Chief Greg Suhr said. Police presence has also been bolstered in San Francisco to keep musical performances, rallies and the parade enjoyable and safe.

Meanwhile, Chicagopride.com announced that their pride weekend will also include performances, over 200 floats and of course, marchers.

According to the Chicago Transit Authority, the parade route was expanded to include more streets last year and maintains that distance this year to accommodate the greater amount of people who wish to display their pride in Chi town.

According to NBCChicago, the gay rights advocates of their city could use a joyous occasion after Illinois could not garner enough support from the house to legalize gay marriage in the state, even after a petition on Change.org and a plea from President Barack Obama to the lawmakers of his home state.

Related: Justice Kennedy denies motion to halt gay marriage in California

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663306/s/2e00ad08/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A60C30A0C192187690Eespecially0Eproud0Eparades0Eacross0Ecountry0Ecelebrate0Elgbt0Ecommunity0Eand0Erecent0Egains0Dlite/story01.htm

amy schumer act blackhawks Wimbledon 2013 Antoni Gaudí Bobby Blue Bland Zara Hartshorn

Justice Kagan and Justice Scalia Are Hunting Buddies. Really. (Atlantic Politics Channel)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/316245808?client_source=feed&format=rss

Supermoon 2013 gay kobe bryant first day of summer Abby Wambach Xcel Energy Super Moon 2013

Helicopter Makes Emergency Landing In NYC's Hudson River After Losing Power

NEW YORK ? A charter helicopter carrying a family of four Swedes on a sightseeing tour of New York City lost power shortly after takeoff Sunday and made an emergency landing on the Hudson River, authorities said. The pilot and occupants were uninjured.

The helicopter landed shortly before noon in the section of the river near 79th Street by the New York City Marina.

Deputy Fire Chief Thomas McKavanaugh said the helicopter had taken off from the Wall Street Heliport and lost power after 12 minutes in the air. The pilot used the craft's pontoons, and it remained upright as it landed.

"The pilot did a terrific job considering he'd lost his engine power," McKavanaugh said.

The passengers were two adults and two children from Sweden, he said. No one was injured, but the tourists were taken to the hospital for observation, authorities said.

Sebastien Berthelet, visiting from Montreal, was on a boat when the craft went down and went over to help, bringing the pilot back to shore.

"At the beginning, we thought maybe it was an exercise," he said, but then "when he hit the water, it was hard."

He said he complimented the pilot on the landing, but the pilot said it could have been smoother.

"I said, `Well, it could have been worse, too,'" Berthelet said.

Another boater brought the family back to shore, and they were all calm, he said.

"They all seemed very healthy. They were all shocked, of course," Berthelet said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the helicopter, a Bell 206, is registered to New York Helicopter, which offers sightseeing tours ranging from $139 per person for a 15-minute flight to $295 per person for a 25-minute flight. A call to the company went unanswered.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

The emergency landing on the Hudson River was reminiscent of another one where all aboard escaped unharmed. In 2009, Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III safely landed a US Airways flight after striking a flock of geese. All 155 people aboard survived.

But other aviation incidents over the waterways surrounding Manhattan have been deadly.

In 2011, a helicopter crashed into the East River. Two passengers were killed at the scene, and a third died a month later.

In 2009, a collision between a tour helicopter and a small plane over the Hudson River killed nine people.

___

Associated Press photographer John Minchillo in New York contributed to this report.

Earlier on HuffPost:

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/30/helicopter-hudson-river_n_3525946.html

NFL.com Rebecca Martinson EJ Manuel Dion Jordan Omar Borkan Al Gala kylie bisutti jimmy carter