Category: technology

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Here’s How to Unlock Facebook Messenger’s New ‘Dark Mode’

If you’re like me, you’re on Facebook Messenger all day long. Not only do I use it to talk to all my friends and family, but a lot of my work conversations are also actually on Messenger too! Staring at those message windows all day can be pretty taxing on the eyes, which is why I was pretty stoked to take advantage of its newest feature.

Facebook recently rolled out a secret “dark mode” for Messenger that features white text on a black background for two reasons: to lessen eye strain for users late at night and to save battery.

You want in on this action, don’t you? Well, it’s a pretty simple process to unlock the hidden feature.

He’s what you need to do: in Facebook Messenger, send someone the “crescent moon” emoji, like this: ? .

Then you’ll see a whole bunch of moons falling from the top of the screen and you’ll be prompted to enable the dark mode option for Facebook Messenger. You’ll now see the new option in the app’s settings.

Photo Credit: Facebook

As you can see, the feature is now working for both iOS and Android.

And there you have it! I love it when a plan comes together!

Try it out for yourself, it really is easy on the eyes!

The post Here’s How to Unlock Facebook Messenger’s New ‘Dark Mode’ appeared first on UberFacts.

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When Facebook and Instagram Went Down, Twitter Naturally Had Jokes About It

As just about EVERYONE is aware, we had a Facebook and Instagram blackout recently. Both networks were down for an entire day!

So, how did people deal with it? By going on Twitter to joke about it, of course!

Isn’t social media wonderful?!?!?

Here are some of the best tweets from that infamous and tragic day…

1. A team effort?

2. Oh hi, Mark

3. That is an evil laugh

4. It’s happening!

5. I’ll be here now

6. Tantrums everywhere

7. Just keep hitting refresh

8. That’s not cool, Cardi B

9. The world is on fire

10. She’s not doing well with this

11. That’s what it’s for

12. Gotta love Tommy Wiseau

13. It’s getting ugly

14. Pure hatred

15. This is crucial

How did you deal with this humanitarian crisis?

Stay strong everyone! We’ll get through the next blackout, too!

The post When Facebook and Instagram Went Down, Twitter Naturally Had Jokes About It appeared first on UberFacts.

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As part of its ‘Toilet Revolution’…

As part of its ‘Toilet Revolution’, a campaign to improve sanitary conditions across the country, China has been installing dispensers with facial recognition technology in order to fight the stealing and overuse of toilet paper.

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6 Incredible Ancient Finds Discovered by Workers Expanding the London Underground

The funny thing about people is that we’re kind of lazy. Instead of making entirely new cities out of scratch, we’re just like “Hey, why not just build right on top of this existing city? Way easier, amirite guys?”

As a result, digging around in cities can reveal all kinds of interesting things from the past. That’s what happened during the 2009-2018 expansion of the London Underground. Here are six totally neat things that came out of England’s latest modernization.

#1. A rare Roman medallion

Image Credit: Crossrail

Archaeologists who excavated Crossrail’s Liverpool Street uncovered more than 100 copper Roman coins and a bit of silver currency that ranged from 43 CE to 348 CE.

There was also a rare bronze medallion issued to mark the new year 245 CE. It was presented by Emperor Phillip I to a high-ranking government official and is the only one of its kind to date.

#2. A 55-million-year-old piece of amber

Image Credit: Crossrail

Engineers found the piece of amber from 50 feet below the dock bed beneath Canary Wharf before construction officially began – it’s the oldest amber ever to be found in London.

Don’t worry, no one has reported a mosquito containing dinosaur blood (yet). It did contain bubbles of trapped gasses that could yield new scientific insights about climate change.

#3. Victims of the Black Death

Image Credit: Crossrail Site

Archaeologists unearthed dozens of Black Death-related skeletons beneath London’s Charterhouse Square back in 2013 – the remains indicated that the people died during 14th and 15th century pandemics. Their teeth contained DNA traces of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that caused the bubonic plague, and carbon dating indicated the burial ground had been used from 1348-1350 and again during the 1430s.

Not all of the skeletons were plague victims, however, suggesting the burial ground was for dead in general.

#4. A humorous Victorian chamber pot

Image Credit: Crossrail

When you’re poo-ing in something that has to be dumped manually, a sense of humor seems to be a no-brainer – and this chamber pot found during Stepney Green Station in East London verifies my assumption. It was found in a 19th-century cesspit filled with tobacco pipes and fragments of pots like this chamber pot that contains a cartoon of a grimacing man and the phrase “Oh what I see/I will not tell. …when you in it want to p*ss/remember they who gave you this.”

Ha!

#5. A cluster of Roman skulls

Image Credit: Crossrail

In 2013, workers at the Liverpool Street station site dug up Roman pottery and around 20 Roman skulls. Similar skulls have been found in the area, and some archaeologists suspect they belonged to rebels led by the Iceni warrior-queen Boudicca, who revolted against the Empire during the 1st Century CE.

These skulls, however, appear to date after the uprising, and likely washed out of a Roman cemetery long ago.

#6. An 8,000-year-old tool

Image Credit: Crossrail Site

At North Woolrich, in southeast London, scientists discovered a Mesolithic-era site near the Thames where early humans crafted tools 8500-6000 years ago. There were traces of campfires, flint pieces, and an 8,000-year-old stone tool.

The find is only one of a handful that confirms humans lived in the Thames valley after an Ice Age hiatus.

I’m all for progress if it means finding more delightful things like these!

The post 6 Incredible Ancient Finds Discovered by Workers Expanding the London Underground appeared first on UberFacts.

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Tumblr User Blows Everyone’s Mind with Post About a Horse’s Ass

What do a horse’s ass and a spaceship have in common? It’s definitely a question I’ve never once considered until today, because you wouldn’t tend to think they have anything in common.

But, it turns out I couldn’t be more wrong. Just follow along now.

It starts out simple enough…

Photo Credit: themattbusbyway

Indeed. Why WAS that gauge used? You’re about to find out…

Photo Credit: themattbusbyway

Get ready! You’re about to learn the wonders of wheel ruts!

Photo Credit: themattbusbyway

Of course the Romans were involved. Because they ran things back in the day.

Photo Credit: themattbusbyway

Now, the horses come in and it’s glorious…

Photo Credit: themattbusbyway

Trains and tunnels and rockets! Oh my!

Photo Credit: themattbusbyway

Well, my ass is officially astounded!

Photo Credit: themattbusbyway

Boom! Mind blown! ?

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This Guy Made a “Glitter Bomb” that Blows Up in Amazon Thieves’ Faces

YouTuber Mark Rober has a pretty impressive engineering background, having worked on the Mars Rover for NASA. Needless to say, when you steal a package from a guy like that, he’s going to start finding creative solutions to the problem. Guys like Mark aren’t content with just calling the cops and getting just regular old revenge against them. Nope, he spent six months building a glitter bomb that would self-detonate when the thieves opened the package.

To be fair, Mark had no choice! The local police told him they didn’t have time to investigate the robberies, even though Mark had captured the whole thing on his home surveillance camera.

Photo Credit: YouTube, Mark Rober

“I just felt like something needs to be done to take a stand against dishonest punks like this,” Mark explained.

“If anyone was going to make a revenge bait package and over-engineer the crap out of it, it was going to be me.”

The glitter bomb also included four cameras to capture the thieves’ reactions, which took a good deal of ingenuity. There was also fart spray!

As a hint to any would-be thieves, Mark wrote a fake return address using the names and location of Home Alone. Luckily for viewers at home, it didn’t deter the thieves.

The glitter bomb package completely worked, as you can see in the video below.

Thankfully, the same bait package can be retrieved and used more than once. Genius.

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No, You Really Don’t Need to Let Your Smartphone Die Before Charging It

Is there anything quite as anxiety-inducing as seeing the little “1% icon on the battery bar of your cell phone? Every time I see my battery icon going red, I go racing for the charger because yes, I am addicted to my phone and it needs to never die, thankyouverymuch.

Some people are not like me, apparently, and believe that you shouldn’t charge your battery before using up a full 100% of the previous charge. But according to science and Apple and, well, just about everyone, that’s not necessary.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Here’s why.

What people are concerned about is helping their device’s lithium ion battery last as long as possible, but the battery itself doesn’t care whether your status bar says 10% or 80% – plugging it in at any point in the charge isn’t going to degrade it faster.

From Apple’s website:

“Charge your Apple lithium-ion battery whenever you want. There’s no need to let it discharge 100% before recharging. Apple lithium-ion batteries work in charge cycles. You complete one charge cycle when you’ve used (discharged) an amount that equals 100% of your battery’s capacity — but not necessarily all from one charge. For instance, you might use 75% of your battery’s capacity one day, then recharge it fully overnight. If you use 25% the next day, you will have discharged a total of 100%, and the two days will add up to one charge cycle.”

Another battery-protecting practice is to not leave your phone plugged in overnight because constantly charging a full battery – aka trickle charging – is hard on it in the long run.

Is this one true? Maybe more than the first.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

From Samsung’s website:

“Technically you should not be charging your phone for extended spans of time so overnight phone-charging is a big no. Though most chargers are designed to curb charging once your phone is full, you should avoid charging it to 100 percent and then leaving it connected to a charger. Overall, and for optimal long-term results, you should keep your phone charged between 40 and 80 percent at all times.”

And here’s what USAToday has to say about it:

“Chronically letting a battery go all the way down to zero puts unneeded stress on the materials inside. Believe it or not, the same goes for letting it sit on your charger overnight, because being continually juiced up quickly — and to the max also leads lithium-ion batteries to corrode faster than they otherwise would.”

And PCMag.com:

“Plug the phone in when you go to sleep; if you wake up sometime in the night, unplug it to prevent constant trickle-charging. If you don’t wake much, plug your phone into a outlet that you put on a schedule so it turns off.”

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Apple admits that the capacity of your lithium-ion battery “diminishes slightly with each complete charge cycle,” so letting the battery run all the way down probably does more harm than good. So, stop doing that. And if you think about it, stop letting it charge all night, too.

But you know. Prepare yourself for still having to buy a new phone (or battery) every couple of years. It’s inevitable no matter what.

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Fed-Up Dad Creates App That Forces Kids to Respond to Parents’ Texts

Parenting has always been a tough gig, and each generation has had its own unique challenges.

For millennial parents, the challenges come from the realm of technology. We’re faced with the dilemma of how much screen time is too much for our young ones. That said, we also live in an age where kids need cell phones at a certain point. Sadly, while cell phones were supposed to be a way for us to stay in constant contact with our kids, they’ve become yet another way for our kids to ignore us altogether.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

As a parent, few things are more frustrating than your kid refusing to respond to your texts.

So, one dad decided to do something about it.

Nick Herbert couldn’t stand it when his son continually failed to reply to his texts.

Photo Credit: CBS 11 Dallas

“My son has an iPhone, but I still can’t get hold of him very easily as it’s always on silent because he is playing games or has been at school and forgotten to turn the sound back on. There didn’t seem to be a solution out there that allowed me to send a message to him, that would override the silent function, appear over whatever he was doing and tell me when he had seen it.”

He created an app in response to this problem, calling it ReplyASAP. It works by taking over your iPhone when you get a message, not allowing you to ignore it or go back to playing a game or using social media. It also sounds an alarm, and tells the person who sent the text that it has been read.

Your child might be resistant to it at first, but chances are they’ll eventually see the use for it – it helps them remember that their parents are wondering whether they’re still alive.

Photo Credit: CBS 11 Dallas

In Herbert’s experience, this works out well.

“It is key to discuss with the child that they understand the reason for having it. It is not a punishment or a tool for tracking them, nor will it remotely lock or freeze their phone. It is simply a means of allowing them to carry on using their phone however they want, but giving a means of getting them an important message when you need to.”

You’ll probably want to also come to an agreement with your child on when and how you’ll use the app. For instance, it shouldn’t be something you employ every single time you send a text (especially if you know they’re in the middle of class). They should learn to associated ReplyASAP messages with something important and/or timely.

Communication is key in all relationships, so don’t skip on the chat and just download the app.

It’s currently only available on Android, but will be coming to iOs soon.

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