How Google’s Earthquake Alerts Protected Millions — And How to Turn It On in Quake-Prone Countries When two massive earthquakes (7.2 and 7.5) struck Venezuela recently, the country had no national early warning system. But millions of Android phones lit up with loud alerts seconds to minutes before the shaking hit — giving people precious time to drop, cover, and hold on. Google’s clever system turns the accelerometers in over 2 billion Android phones into a giant crowdsourced seismic network. It detects the first waves, confirms the quake, and blasts notifications to users in the affected area. In Venezuela, it reached 11.4 million people — proving technology can save lives even where governments can’t. How to activate it (works in nearly 100 countries): Open Settings on your Android phone. Tap Safety & Emergency (or search for “Earthquake alerts”). Select Earthquake Alerts and toggle it ON. Keep Location services ena...
ET deals: Save over $400 on a Dell Inspiron 3847 quad-core desktop By Grant Brunner on February 18, 2016 at 2:30 pm 1 Comment Share This article 26 5 13 Looking for a powerful desktop that won’t break the bank? Check out the Inspiron 3847 from Dell. With a quad-core CPU, plenty of RAM, and tons of potential for expansion, this PC is a great bargain — especially when you use today’s coupon code. Dell Inspiron 3847 quad-core desktop for $599 (List price: $1032.99 — Coupon code: DELLDT599 ) What kind of specs are we looking at, though? Inside, it has a fourth generation quad-core 3.6GHz Intel Core i7-4790 processor, integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600, 16GB of DDR3 RAM (1600MHz), a 2TB 7200RPM hard drive, a DVD burner, Bluetooth 4.0, and 802.11b/g/n WiFi support. As a nice little bonus, a wired keyboard and mouse come along for free — all you’ll need to get started is a display. Since it has an HDMI port and a VGA port on the back, you can easily conn...