Updated Pushbullet improves notifications, supports Tasker events

File- and notification-pushing Android app Pushbullet fired its big guns again as the app’s updated version now provides richer desktop notifications and Tasker event plugin support.

According to the Pushbullet blog, the full images of notifications on your Android device are now displayed on your desktop. This means that, with just one look, you can instantly know who sent an email or a text message.  A preview of the message is also shown in the notification.

The post also mentions that Pushbullet can now display the album art of a song currently playing on your Android device.

Improved power efficiency

Pushbullet forwards notifications from your Android device to your desktop through the app’s Notification Mirroring Service, which, according to the same blog post, has been optimized for performance and power consumption. The improvements will reportedly make the service run faster and use less memory, resulting in a more efficient battery use.

Tasker Events support

Pushbullet also now supports Tasker event plugins, a new feature as of Tasker version 4.3. Pushbullet already supported sending Pushbullet notifications through Tasker. The latest version of Pushbullet, however, added support for triggers. This means that you can push a notification from your desktop to phone, for example, and have Tasker react to that. This feature practically opens up many different possibilities for automating your Android device using both Tasker and Pushbullet.

And, while not many people will be as eager to play around with a Pushbullet+Tasker toy, most people will find Pushbullet’s core functions still useful for “pushing” notes, files, images, URLs, addresses, and others to your desktop from your phone — or vice versa — plus the convenience of not having to pick up your Android device just to know why it’s beeping or ringing.

Do you use Pushbullet? Or do you prefer other file-sharing Android apps or remote desktop apps? What do you use Pushbullet for? Have you tried using Tasker with Pushbullet — and for what purpose? Let us know in the comments.

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Drawbridge Says It Now Supports Video In Its Cross-Device Ad Targeting

Drawbridge, the Kleiner Perkins- and Sequoia-backed startup that targets ads across devices, announced today that it has added support for video ads, too.

It sounds like the targeting technology remains the same. Drawbridge is still looking at user behavior to suggest when multiple devices are likely being used by the same person, which in turn allows advertisers to use desktop data to improve the targeting of their mobile ads. It’s just adding video into the mix, as well.

However, co-founder and CEO Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan told me that this is still a significant move for the company. For one thing, there’s the general rise in video advertising, particularly on mobile. For another, she said that this should help Drawbridge expand into other advertising categories, such as entertainment and automotive.

For example, if someone watches a movie trailer on their computer, Sivaramakrishnan suggested that it’s useful for a movie studio to know that, so that they can deliver targeted marketing and promotions to their smartphone.

Moving forward, Sivaramakrishnan said she wants to do more to support different types of “creative dimensions” at Drawbridge.

“I don’t think we’ll ever be a creative shop,” she said. “What we will do is expand our arsenal to support a myriad of formats that are very relevant across a spectrum of performance.”

Drawbridge says it has added new metrics to its ad reporting as part of its video support — in addition to ad clicks and impressions, it’s also looking at completion rates, viewability, and drop-off points.

And the company can both host ads directly or integrate with existing video ad platforms. As part of today’s announcement, it’s unveiling its first partnership on this front with Twitter-owned MoPub.

“Partnering with Drawbridge provides immediate benefits to our clients, as well as advances video advertising in general,” said MoPub Director of Exchange Janae McDonough in the announcement release.