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Stop these popular apps from running up monthly data charges. Curtailing your phone use as you near your data cap at the end of each month is no way to live. A better way is to stop data-hungry apps from using too much data in the first place. The apps that use the most data typically are the apps that you use the most. For a lot of people, that's  Facebook ,  Instagram ,  Netflix ,  Snapchat ,  Spotify ,  Twitter  and  YouTube . If you use any of these apps daily, change these settings to reduce how much data they use. On an  iPhone , you can check how much data each of your apps use by going to  Settings > Cellular . For each the apps on the alphabetical list, you'll see a small number listed below its title that shows how much data it has used. Scroll to the bottom to see when it started counting this data usage, which is likely either when you first activated your iPhone or installed the app in question. At the bottom of the list, you can tap the  Reset Sta

If you're addicted to Facebook quizzes but hate how they bug everyone in your feed, check out this tip. Photo by Screenshot by Alina Bradford/CNET Facebook quizzes are so seductive. Of course you want to know who you were in a past life and what your decorating style is. The only problem with these quizzes is that they often send spammy messages to everyone you know by posting things on your page at random. Nothing makes friends unfollow faster than feed spam. You can stop the spam and keep your quizzes by making sure to click appropriately. As soon as you click on a quiz, most of them will ask you, "Who can see updates from this app?" Always click  Only Me . Even though you pick this option, you can still take the quiz and you can still post the results, if you like. When the quiz does post spam on your feed, though, only you will be able to see the post, and your friends won't be bothered. Did you already do a quiz and it won't stop spamming? Go

Yesterday we  reported  that a new update for Telegram is rolling out where users can pin messages at the top of the chat screen, especially in groups, making it easier for members to keep up with what is new. Today we are hearing that a similar feature will be coming to WhatsApp soon. According to WABetaInfo, the newest WhatsApp beta for Android with build number 2.17.105 comes with a pinning feature. According to the source, users will be able to pin chats (not more than 3, at the moment) in next versions. Also, this feature is disabled by default so users have to turn it on in chat settings. WhatsApp seems to be playing catch-up. Not only Telegram, it recently  copied the Snapchat-like  Photo Story feature and put it under the Status section. This feature takes almost the same approach like Snapchat where the your status picture disappears after 24 hours. It also offers the ability to doodle on the video or photo that you are adding to the status. This wasn’t received ve

Matt Weinberger/Business Insider Snap, Inc. makes a hiring pitch to developers at its booth at Game Developers Conference 2017 in San Francisco In a great recent essay, The  New York Times' Farhad Manjoo  made a strong case that Snap, the company behind the social phenom Snapchat, represents a big bet that the camera is the new way to communicate. As of late 2016, even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to concede that " the camera is the composer " in response to Snap's ever-rising star, even as it  builds Snapchat-like functionality into the news feed, Instagram, and its other products . I think that Manjoo is exactly right. But from where I'm standing, Snap's bet is much bigger, and could presage another way in which computing is undergoing a massive shift. Whenever you take a Snapchat selfie with the infamous  puppy  or rainbow puke filters, there's a surprising amount of math going on behind the scenes, as artificial intelligence algorithms t

China has long held a policy of blocking Western-based social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. It does this in order to control what gets shared online, and to benefit indigenous services like Weibo, Meipai, and Nice. One website that has miraculously avoided the Great Firewall ban-hammer is Pinterest, which isn’t really known for its radical political discourse, but rather as a great place to get cooking and wedding inspiration from. But  according to a report from TechCrunch , this is no longer the case, and the site is now blocked to all 721 million Chinese internet users. Per TechCrunch , the Chinese censorship watchdog GreatFire has been  unable to reach Pinterest from within the country for seven days . While the Great Firewall is notoriously glitchy and error-prone, it seems that this isn’t a mistake, but rather a deliberate decision made by China’s authorities. This is somewhat puzzling. TechCrunch’s Jon Russell believes that the timing has something

For all Gmail has changed over the years, there are still bits of it that are a bit old. For example, if you send a video attachment, you still have to download it onto your computer first in order to watch it. Well, not anymore. Google is rolling out an update that will allow you to watch videos right within Gmail, using the same streaming infrastructure as YouTube and Google Drive. That said it’s not going to change terribly much. Videos over 25 MB are uploaded onto Google Drive automatically, which means they would have streamed anyway. But for smaller clips, like some funny recording you want to send your family – I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to explain how to open a downloaded attachment – it’ll at least make your life a bit easier. Google says the change is rolling out to Gmail over the next 15 days or so. >  Improving video file attachments in Gmail with video streaming   Google

A recently discovered flaw in the Google Allo messaging application has raised concerns over users’ privacy. According to a report from  Recode , Google Assistant in Allo can reveal your Google search history details without your permission while in the middle of a conversation. Before  Google Assistant started rolling out to all devices  running Android 6.0+, using Google Allo was the only way to access Assistant on non-Pixel (and non-rooted) devices. While not as powerful as the voice-based Google Assistant, Allo’s Assistant can perform many useful conversational tasks such as suggesting the best restaurants around you, setting reminders, giving you weather updates and more thanks to Google’s AI. As discovered by  Recode ‘s Tess Townsend while testing the application with her friend, when the friend asked Assistant to identify itself, instead of answering the question, the Assistant responded with a search result containing a link to a Harry Potter fan site called  Pottermore .

The status feature will be rolled out for Android users next week PHOTO: AFP Popular messaging app WhatsApp has decided to withdraw its latest update. Weeks ago, the messaging app launched a ‘stories’ feature whcih replaced text statuses. The feature brought WhatsApp in line with Facebook’s other major apps, which all now include the stories tool that was once Snapchat’s most famous feature. The Stories feature allowed users to post video and picture statuses that lasted for 24 hours before self-destructing. However, the move resulted in a major backlash from WhatsApp users and has prompted the developers to bring back the original status feature while keeping the image-based replacement. PHOTO: WHATSAPP “We heard from our users that people missed the ability to set a persistent text-only update in their profile, so we’ve integrated this feature into the ‘About’ section in profile settings. Now, the update will appear next to profile names anytime you view contacts,

When it comes to keeping in touch, we're now spoilt for choice. If we’re not absorbed in our WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger chats, there’s always Twitter, Snapchat and Google Hangouts to keep us busy. And that’s just the tip of the message-heavy iceberg.  There only used to be one choice though. Well, at least one choice worth considering - MSN Messenger. Launched back in 1999, a full 18 years ago, MSN Messenger was a pioneer. Sadly, despite its addictive, message-sending, memory-building ways, it was switched off for good in the UK and US four years ago today, March 15 2013. Yes, time has passed, and new, arguably more superior services have launched in its place, but MSN Messenger will forever hold a special place in the hearts of many. Facebook and WhatsApp might dominate our current online chat sessions, but MSN Messenger was the instigator for many of the features we now take for granted. More than that though, for any noughties kid, it was a new means of keeping

The Nigerian Air Force personnel, who killed his lover and colleague in the early hours of Sunday, Aircraft Man Kalu AB, wrote a suicide note after carrying out the act, it has been gathered. Kalu had shot and killed Solape Oladipupo after accusing her of double dating at the Air Force Base in Makurdi, Benue State. Solape Oladipupo, NAF personnel shot and killed by her former lover, Kalu Punch NG A snapshot of the said suicide note, which is making the rounds online, indicated that the airman had planned to take his own life afterwards. He, however, did not go through with the plan and is being detained by the Air Force authorities. In the note, the airman accused the lover he killed of deceiving him and his mother. He said he was aware that “some idiot” would insult him for his actions, but bore no grudge as he would do the same if the tables were turned. He, however, insisted that others in his shoes would do worse than what he did and suggested that he would prefer

Google Wallet  has been integrated  into Gmail on the web since 2013, but today Google is rolling out a new integration on mobile. Starting today, users of the Gmail app on Android will be able to send or request money with anyone, including those who don’t have a Gmail address, with just a tap. The user experience has been designed to make exchanging money as easy as attaching a file, Google explains in its  announcement . To access the new feature, you tap the attachment icon (the paperclip), then choose either send or request money, depending on your needs. A pop-up window appears where you can input the amount and add a note, and send. The entire process takes place in the Gmail app — you don’t have to have Google Wallet installed. In addition, recipients can configure it so the money they receive through Gmail goes directly into their bank account.  There are no fees involved, notes Google. The goal, seemingly, is to take on quick payment apps like PayPal, Venmo or Sq