Let鈥檚 face it鈥� we鈥檙e humans and we tend to make mistakes. Lots of them, in fact.
I mean, just look at the 1980s. Pretty much that whole decade was a mistake, with the exception of maybe those teen movies with Molly Ringwald. Who didn鈥檛 have a crush on Molly Ringwald, am I right?
But today, our mistakes sometimes get broadcast further than we鈥檇 like, thanks to modern technology.
Take, for example, email. Who among us hasn鈥檛 accidentally hit 鈥渞eply all鈥� on a snarky email instead of responding to just one individual? Or maybe you鈥檝e sent a particularly embarrassing email to the wrong person, or neglected to simply attach the file you wanted to send. Maybe it鈥檚 a missive laden with sexual innuendo that you sent to Molly Ringwald one night after too many beers鈥� not to admit anything here.
Well, Gmail users can breathe a little sigh of relief and be as clumsy, inebriated and thoughtless as they please, because the email service recently rolled out a feature that lets you recall a message within 30 seconds of it being sent.聽
Actually, the 鈥淯ndo Send鈥� feature has been around on Gmail since March 2009, but it鈥檚 been hidden as an experimental 鈥淟abs鈥� feature. You can enable the option officially now by tapping on the gear icon at the top right and selecting 鈥淪ettings鈥� from the menu. Under general settings, just check 鈥淓nable Undo Send.鈥� I noticed you could also change the number of seconds you have to undo your message to either five, ten, 20 or 30 seconds. But, unless you have super speed or something, I think five seconds is a rather short span of time to sober up, realize Molly Ringwald doesn鈥檛 want to know what 鈥渟weaty snugglebunnies鈥� means, and hit 鈥渦ndo.鈥濃�� to give a completely at-random, didn鈥檛-happen-in-real-life example, of course.
But what about non-email-related mistakes and incidents?
Unfortunately, life doesn鈥檛 have an undo button like Gmail, but it does now have a record button.
Have you ever had an argument with someone and wished you could later play back whatever was said to prove your point? Or maybe you were in an altercation with a co-worker; complete stranger or police and you need evidence of what happened. Well, now there鈥檚 a smartphone app called Alibi that continuously works in the background to record audio, video and location 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Yeah, it turns out Big Brother is you鈥� and you鈥檙e watching yourself. Creepy and weird, right?
The app is apparently designed for people who don鈥檛 have the time or quick wits to whip out their cellphone to record confrontations or accidents as they are actually happening. So, if you can undo a racy Molly Ringwald email in less than five seconds, Alibi is probably not for you.
The way the app works, is you download it onto your smartphone, then you only have to start it up once. After that, Alibi continuously works in the background to record your audio, video and location. Once Alibi has recorded one hour鈥檚 worth of data, it鈥檚 automatically deleted, and nothing is stored. However, if something just happened to you that you need to keep, and then you just have to hit 鈥渟ave鈥� and Alibi will save the last hour of recordings and hide the file on your phone so it can鈥檛 be tampered with by anyone else. If anything, just knowing that anyone with a cellphone could potentially be recording your every action and word may just be enough to make people think twice, and make fewer embarrassing mistakes or escalate a situation.聽
I know if that tech existed in the 80s, Molly Ringwald would鈥檝e probably had at least one less incoherent love letter.聽
