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How to turn off Amber Alerts and other emergency notifications

You should probably turn them back on after your movie

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The best 5G Android phones, iPhones, and tablets make it easy to turn off most notifications. However, some notifications, such as Amber Alerts, can take some effort to silence. When a child is abducted, law enforcement officials notify FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) via its Integrated Public Alert & Warning System. FEMA then issues an Amber Alert through the WEA (Wireless Emergency Alert) system.

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Your phone will sound an alarm on Wednesday, but there’s no need to panic

The test will roll out in the US as a part of the Emergency Alert System

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Nationwide warning systems were established to help spread the word about emergencies to as many people as possible when necessary. The goal is to make sure that information gets to the right people to address the emergency as quickly and efficiently as possible. However, this system occasionally needs to be tested to ensure that, when the time comes, everything is in working order. For this reason, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) plans on holding a nationwide test tomorrow.

Google Shopping will tell you if you found a good price this holiday season

Introducing price comparisons and deal notifications

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Last month, Google Shopping added features to make local shopping easier with new information on availability and curbside pickup options. In light of the upcoming holiday season, the search company has now announced that it will add price insights, deal alerts, and more comprehensive shop comparison tools.

Google's crowd-driven mapping app, Waze, is officially rolling out railroad crossing alerts to drivers around the world in navigation.

For better or worse, a lot of people get their news primarily from Facebook. The social network is aware of this, and earlier this year, started testing a feature called Today In, which brings curated local stories to users. The feature is apparently progressing well, as Facebook has announced that it's now available in more than 400 cities around the United States.

As we hit the last few days before Christmas, app updates from Google have gone from a firehose to a slow trickle. It's only natural that most of the developers don't want to ship any major updates right before their holiday plans for fear that they might be called in to fix a catastrophe. Hey, I've done it too. Nevertheless, there's a new version of Google Duo rolling out today. It probably comes as no surprise that this one isn't taking any unnecessary risks either. There are a few very minor tweaks to the interface. However, there is a little bit for a quick teardown, so let's get into it.

One of my main problems with 'smart' assistants is that they aren't great at delivering information. Yes, you can ask "will there be storms," but having your Echo or Google Home proactively inform you about dangerous weather would be far more useful.

When you create an event in Google Calendar, you have multiple options for how you want to be reminded. Google can shoot you an email or text, though if you know you will be at your desktop, a pop-up notification may be better. But those things can also be pretty intrusive.

If you have more than a dozen friends on Facebook, odds are pretty good that at least one of them has started tagging every person on Earth with suspiciously misspelled advertisements for knockoff Ray-Ban sunglasses. Facebook would really prefer that this not happen, or at least not happen quite so often. To that end the company introduced the Security Checkup feature to the web version of the social network, and now it's available on Android as well. Maybe.

Pushbullet Channels are the headlining feature in the app's latest update. In short, these are feeds that can push out notifications to subscribers whenever something new happens. Want to keep up with our APK downloads? You can simply subscribe to the channel to get notified whenever we have something fresh to send your way.

An update is rolling out to the Lookout security app with a new feature tucked away exclusively for premium account holders. This feature is theft alerts. After the alerts have been enabled, Lookout will send phone owners an email automatically when the phone starts engaging in behavior that indicates it could have been stolen. This way you get notified as soon as shenanigans begin, rather than having to manually check for the device's location yourself. Lookout defines said shenanigans as follows.

Back in 2011, Google added the ability to keep up with live transit updates to Google Maps. After all, commuters in big cities that require cars to get around (like my own Atlanta), have traffic info for highways. Why not people who primarily use the subway to get around? One glaring omission from that service, though, was the New York City subway system. Today, that problem is rectified.

Hey, did you guys know there's an election coming soon? I know, it's been a pretty low-profile thing, but it's true. Of course, we want to be a well-informed electorate, right? One source of information that should probably be watched to achieve that goal is the White House. Today, the administration of the most powerful office in the country revealed a newly-designed app that will allow mobile users to watch live presidential events, search its stable of blog posts, videos, and press releases, and in a forward-thinking move, makes all this content available on tablets.