Monthly Archives: February 2016

Amazon’s Actually Free Apps: What’s The Catch?

Ever since Amazon launched its Underground program for apps, through which consumers can get “Actually Free” versions of popular apps, app fans have been wondering how this is possible. After all, all Actually Free apps are free to download and include in-game items like power ups, hints, extra turns and other upgrades (that the user formerly had to buy with real money) at no charge. Who’s Paying For This? Amazon. If you’re thinking the catch must be that somehow, some way, at some point you are going to be charged for using Actually Free apps, you can stop worrying about that. They are really, truly, Actually Free. With a regular, not Actually Free app the app developer makes his money through up-front purchases of apps or in-app purchases paid by app users. In an Actually Free app, the developer gets paid by Amazon on a sort of commission basis that’s tied to…

Facebook-ery: Facebook Emoticons & Emoji

FB Emoticons! You can enter specific keyboard combinations and Facebook will automatically convert them into those full-color pictures for you (though the full-color picture won’t be visible until AFTER you’ve posted the status update). Alternatively, you can copy certain symbols from one page or window and paste them into your Facebook status update to achieve the same effect. It doesn’t work with just ANY old symbol, though. There are approved character sets. Here’s an image from Symbols & Emoticons showing some of the full-color emoticons you can create on Facebook with simple keystrokes (click or tap on images to view an enlarged version in a new tab or window): And here are a few more from The Next Web: