OTHERS NEWS

the developing worries about the current Covid-19 flare-up has driven some to get another diversion,

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 06:24:00 -0700

Self-disconnecting because of the developing worries about the current Covid-19 flare-up has driven some to get another diversion, attempt their most aggressive preparing undertaking, or make up for lost time with their watch records. In any case, the blend of extra time and web get to has driven me down the hare opening of livestreaming, semi associations, and our aggregate dejection.

It began as I was sluggishly perusing the application store for whatever may save my consideration for over 10 seconds. I experienced applications I used to have downloaded on my telephone and saw one that was so covered in my memory that I confused it with a game and chose to give it a shot once more. Anyway the application was certifiably not a portable game, it was Periscope, a live video spilling administration that propelled in 2015. The idea was basic yet progressive — Periscope offers clients the chance to communicate whatever they're doing, any place they are. Despite the fact that the idea of "going live" appears to be typical now, Periscope (and the others that preceded it) were on the ball in imagining what live communicates can accomplish for web based life (live stories for Instagram and Facebook weren't totally turned out until late 2016).

Yet, for reasons unknown, Periscope or even parent organization Twitter aren't top of psyche with regards to live communicates. While livestreaming was getting progressively famous on different stages, for example, Jerk, YouNow, and Instagram, Periscope grew dim of my cognizance. Anyway Periscope isn't dead, and for a little partner of individuals, it's in excess of a straightforward stage. It's the last open air fire in the night.

It is unimaginably troublesome not to get sucked into a portion of these livestreams. I'll end up burnning through my normal collection of applications at twist speed and afterward out of nowhere, I'm viewing a trucker hustling from Indiana to Ohio as he sings nation works of art for 90 minutes. While a decent number of streams are Youth ball games and truckers on long journeys, it doesn't take long to find that Periscope is a cornucopia of unpredictable characters.

I ended up becoming involved with the lives of individuals all around the globe. The main individual I viewed was a young lady in English Columbia whose 3 a.m. tease with a man from Brooklyn was stopped when she saw somebody in a secretive cover moving toward her vehicle and she needed to run inside (she went live again the following day to clarify that she got inside before anything occurred). There were four individuals in Lawrence, Indiana, having a refreshingly blunt discussion about how people should treat each other impractically, complete with generous chuckles and testing questions. I got fixated on a rapper from Islington in the Unified Realm named BDawg who might simply prop up his telephone and free-form for quite a long time, just halting to salute himself on how well he was doing. In the event that you pick any livestream at arbitrary you have about a 40% possibility that you'll get a trick scholar or a minister, two gatherings that share more for all intents and purpose as far as informing and conveyance than you would might suspect.

In Philadelphia, a Pennsylvania man in his fifties named Johnny set up his piano and gave a free show, and as he sang, he regretted "I need somebody to hit the dance floor with me so awful." At 2 p.m. on a Tuesday I watched in stun as a man in Murray, Utah, swallowed down many containers of Irish bourbon without saying a word. I chose to leave after the third container, so, all in all I'd just been looking for 20 minutes. That equivalent day I checked out watch a man in Inglewood, California, who was carefully drilling down everything that he ought to have purchased rather than drugs, including garments, his vehicle note, and a bagel. After his rundown, he took a gander at the camera, read my username, and asked me what my biography was. I was totally frightened. I had overlooked that he could see I was viewing.

Individuals weren't spilling just to stream, they were gushing to interface.

I attempted to be a detached eyewitness as much as I could, yet it was almost inconceivable. There were never in excess of five individuals observing any given livestream, and most of the time it was simply me and the streamer. Normally, when I expend content it's a single direction move of vitality, just me taking in something that was intended for anybody to see. Be that as it may, with Periscope, there is no stowing away in the group in light of the fact that there is no group. It works progressively like a video visit room where investment by all gatherings is the standard. I was recognized, welcomed, and allured continually.

"Where are you from?"

"What are you doing up so late?"

"Do you like this beat?"

"Converse with me."

"Have you been spared by Jesus Christ, our Ruler?"

"They put soy in our nourishment to make men more fragile, you do realize that right?"

"I need assistance turning my life around before it's past the point of no return."

"Converse with me, if it's not too much trouble

I am a prepared web based life client however this effort, this call for association is not normal for anything I've at any point experienced. In the event that I like a YouTube video, or retweet an image, or respond to a status, the creator never reacts in kind. I realize that somebody can see when I've seen their Instagram story, yet not progressively. Also, regardless of whether somebody tails me or reacts to a tweet, it is so natural to simply overlook and move along, yet that wasn't the situation with Periscope. At the point when I was the main individual watching a stream and I attempted to leave, I became overwhelmed with this substantial blame that sat in the pit of my stomach. A great many people who were spilling consistently had their eyes fixed on the talk box and were continually checking who was in the stream with them. Individuals weren't spilling just to stream, they were gushing to interface. Publicly supporting guidance for their own life, sharing their strict declaration, attempting to discover love, facilitating the torment of their forlornness. I felt so remorseful leaving them since, well that is correctly what it wanted to leave, them. Hammering the entryway in somebody's face, being the last supporter to leave the performance center during the show, banishing them back to the void. Back to the dejection.

Forlornness is general. Dejection is overpowering. Dejection is deadly. In any event, when we're not looking down a worldwide pandemic, just around half of Americans feel they have significant, every day, in-person social connections — and that incorporates collaborating with family. Web-based social networking should be the cure to depression—offering the guarantee of association with anybody at the entire hours of the day. In any case, it was discovered that the additional time one spends via web-based networking media the more one encounters apparent social confinement. This sentiment of being detached and desolate (regardless of whether somebody is genuinely alone or not) can prompt gloom, stoutness, and is even connected with expanded mortality.

Plainly Covid-19 isn't going anyplace at any point in the near future and that considerably after it leaves, a lot of society will work in an unexpected way. Schools are spearheading better approaches to teach on the web, nations are reconceptualizing what "telecommuting" signifies revenue driven edges and efficiency, it is in any event, rethinking what a gathering can be. With more advancements around the online experience to come, it is an undeniable chance that a few parts of life won't move back to the physical domain and will stay on the web. Be that as it may, I don't get that's meaning for the eventual fate of social cooperation or the life of the forlorn?

Stephanie Cacioppo, PhD, who has gone through the vast majority of her time on earth contemplating social neuroscience with an emphasis on how social separation influences the mind, told the New York Times, "Forlornness, which propels us to bond with others, gives us what we call humankind."

In truth, it wasn't simply isolate weariness that drove me to clean off the patterns Periscope, it was my own dejection. Forlornness because of moving the nation over, beginning another alumni program, and just the way that I'm developing into adulthood. It was this dejection that made me go through hours engaging myself in another person's life, offering any guidance I could, and simply being there, to hear any stable that anybody may make.

Don’t Make “The Economy Matters” a Republican Talking Point It was turf the left fought over until like six days ago

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 07:41:00 -0700

“Do you have any idea what you just did?”

“Come on, we just made the deal of our lifetimes. We should celebrate.”
“You just bet against the American economy.”
“Fuck yeah we did. Fuck yeah!”
“Which means, if we’re right, people lose homes, people lose jobs, people lose retirement savings. People lose pensions. You know what I hate about fucking banking? It reduces people to numbers. Here’s a number: for every one percent unemployment goes up, 40,000 people die. Did you know that? Did you know that?
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“Whoa. I just got really scared.”

That’s dialogue from a scene in the 2015 movie The Big Short. Here’s the BBC looking into the eye-popping claim made by Brad Pitt’s character, featuring an interview with Harvey Brenner, the veteran public health researcher the number traces to. It’s complicated, but this statistic is in textbooks and studies — and the film — because over the decades, health behavior experts have continued to find something like it to be true.

The factoid doesn’t prove what we should do in our unprecedented current moment of coronavirus. Going out to work in America is a lot deadlier relative to staying home compared to one month ago. But it does show an odd change in the way we discuss the economy and public health. The Big Short is not a right-wing film, and the characters hand-waving away concerns about economic recession are supposed to be the callous and evil bankers. But these days, being concerned about the effects of a ghastly recession is treated as right-wing propaganda.

To be sure, the conservative discussion of “trade-offs” between economic losses and public health policies that minimize deaths has gotten very stupid. On the right, pundit and idiot Jesse Kelly tweeted on Tuesday that, “if given the choice between dying and plunging the country I love into a Great Depression, I’d happily die.” President Trump was operating at roughly the same level of intelligence and responsibility on Wednesday, writing that “the LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success.”

It’s worth noting that while the country has stopped working faster than at any
point in history, it isn’t currently “closed” and the economy isn’t “shut down” per se. A New York Times editorial urged the president to institute a nationwide lockdown, partially because some workers are still on the job everywhere. Some states still have few or no quarantine measures at all.

But in the preceding days, a much less brain-dead version of the argument against a monomania for public health measures was circulating on the right. Reason’s Nick Gillespie wrote a piece called “We Will Regret Not Taking the Economic Effects of Quarantine More Seriously,” arguing that “with a virtually complete halt of the American economy about to begin, we should enter this phase with full awareness that it wasn’t the only choice available to us.” (Gillespie arguably downplays the public health risk by citing an analysis of how the impact of the virus has gone in South Korea, which took drastic early testing and containment measures, as a guide for how things would likely play out in America, which did not.) Within the right, Reason and the Wall Street Journal editorial board have not often been close together on economic policy in the Trump years, but Gillespie also quotes a March 19 Journal op-ed, which argues that “no society can safeguard public health for long at the cost of its overall economic health.”

The left used to deeply agree with this, if its magazines and star presidential candidates are anything to go by. Until a couple of weeks ago, it was considered not only acceptable but fairly dogmatic to talk about economic losses in terms of the harm they will cause people. That harm included medical problems and death, and the people harmed by economic privation were not Wall Streeters.

And rightly so. A January paper by Hannes Schwandt and Till von Wachter looked at a large cross section of the population and concluded that graduating during the 2008 recession depressed lifelong wages and correlated with higher rates of death from both suicides and medical problems, including lung cancer and heart disease.

This is one of those moments in the Trump Era when I wonder how I keep missing the memos about what to memoryhole and when. This was a major issue for the left, one liberals and progressives liked to put at the center of their rhetoric until repudiating it as insane and psychopathic roughly five minutes ago. Remember how medical bankruptcy and America’s coldly capitalist system morally amounted to something like the murder of its most vulnerable and poor citizens? Or remember when Larry Summers said that his estimate that ten thousand Americans would die annually as a result of the GOP tax bill was actually a conservative guess? Here’s Roge Karma in The New Republic in 2019 on “the health-wealth gap”:

One of the most disquieting facts about life in the United States today is that the richest American men live 15 years longer than the poorest men, while for women it’s 10 years. Put a different way, the life expectancy gap between rich and poor in the U.S. is wider than the gap between the average American and the average Yemeni or Ethiopian.

The article goes on to call the recent growth of the “health-wealth gap” the equivalent of “curing cancer for only the rich.” Lest I be informed that the existence of any health-wealth connection proves the need to decouple health from wealth, please note that our current crisis does not demonstrate that this is a matter of making public healthcare available on the Scandinavian model. That model relies on vigorous economies. It is predicated on people paying in to the funds the single payer draws on. And so it, too, connects economic health with literal public health — arguably even more directly.

It’s not a coincidence that the U.K. and Sweden were the countries to experiment with herd immunity policies in response to coronavirus. No model fully decouples the stock market from health outcomes. When a plague requires five times more ICU beds than any country normally maintains, it doesn’t matter how democratic socialist (or market capitalist or whatever else) your system is. There will be economic concerns, not just epidemiological ones. “Give us bread, but give us roses” still assumes that everyone needs bread.

Until coronavirus and the quarantine, the intellectual vogue was not to think that the social and moral value of a good economy is a special treat for rich people, except among the Berniest of bros. Or to put it another way, even among the Berniest of bros, nobody thought the social and moral devastation of a bad economy is worst for rich people. Quite the opposite.

Now? There’s been a one-eighty on the subject of the “health-wealth” connection. There are hundreds of thousands of tweets about the trending hashtag, #dieforthedow, referring to the stock market index of 30 large companies that is often used as a colloquial stand-in for the market as a whole. The idea is that Trump (and Tom Friedman) suggest sending people back to work to die for no other reason than concern for their well-invested rich buddies’ bottom line. Talking Points Memo is keeping a list of people it characterizes as “willing to trade COVID-19 deaths for economic gains.” In the New Republic, Libby Watson also has a rundown of these “right-wing ghouls” who are concerned about the economic costs of the public health measures. She frames the position she’s attacking, in the inimitably annoying post-Gawker style, as the view that “allowing a pandemic to rage unchecked in service of Stocks Go Up Again is good and correct.” Virtually-presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden is fighting equally straw men, tweeting that “No one is expendable. … No life is worth losing to add one more point to the Dow.”

Look, other than the people claiming that you would have supported slavery if you are worried about the economy, most people are doing the best they can right now — probably the only thing they can at a moment when fear and anger are emotionally legitimate reactions. It was much the same after 9/11, when this country probably couldn’t have been convinced by anything not to do something foolish and recriminate. But that doesn’t make our impulses right or our accusations against our political enemies true.

So, does a large portion of America have the morality of a contract killer. Or is something fundamentally dishonest going on here?

On March 22, Trump tweeted, in all-caps: “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!” That freaked out a lot of people who want to commit for sure to a longer quarantine. They’re almost certainly right that a longer quarantine will be necessary. And Trump is almost certainly the worst possible person to be making these kinds of assessments. But those are separate questions from whether it’s psychopathic to worry about the economy and the human toll — and yes, the death toll — an economic depression creates.

We can’t resume life as normal and imagine the economy would rebound with hospitals overwhelmed by millions of sick and dying people. Of course we can’t. But the resumption of normal life as quickly as possible is something we should value highly, not downplay as a ridiculous thing to focus on. And not for the sake of loaded Wall Streeters.

It’s odd that once-serious bastions of intellectual left publishing have become staffed by people so enbubbled that they think the stock market is owned entirely by Jeff Bezos rather than by union and public sector worker pension funds. These are real concerns the left shouldn’t just throw away.

Think about what it means to say that the coronavirus plague year is a moment to wave off concerns about economic disruption as the concerns of the rich. Being rich means being able to afford to drive around a city in an enclosed private car, or to buy a few weeks of groceries no problem, or to see a doctor in private practice paid for with private insurance. It means being able to draw on savings to keep the bills paid for a long period when the economy goes into cold storage. So when there’s an economic downturn, it sucks, but it’s OK.

Being rich means — I can’t believe I have to say this — that you’ve got spare money. That’s the whole point of being rich, really, and it’s why the American left is at its most relevant when it is looking out for the “precariat.” It doesn’t make for good reality TV, but a paid-off mortgage is a greater luxury than a private jet.

You can’t stress caring about the precariousness of most Americans’ financial situations for years and then claim it is heartless to care about a massive economic depression. And yet much of the left is acting like the only interest in making any hard-nosed calls about weighing the economy against public health are the class interests of the bankers and the capitalist bourgeoisie. Well, they’re wrong. We’re about to see unprecedented levels of unemployment and the evaporation of huge amounts of ordinary people’s savings. And the traditional defenders of the working class don’t think that’s among the appropriate things to focus on mitigating.

As some dude in a movie once said, “Whoa. I just got really scared.”

The Tale of The Goblin Wizard (Clash of Clans Official) download ios and...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 12:07:00 -0700

Physicists create world's smallest engine

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 04:10:00 -0700

Theoretical physicists at Trinity College Dublin are among an international collaboration that has built the world's smallest engine—which, as a single calcium ion, is approximately ten billion times smaller than a car engine.

Work performed by Professor John Goold's QuSys group in Trinity's School of Physics describes the science behind this tiny motor. The research, published today in international journal Physical Review Letters, explains how random fluctuations affect the operation of microscopic machines. In the future, such devices could be incorporated into other technologies in order to recycle waste heat and thus improve energy efficiency.

The engine itself—a single calcium ion—is electrically charged, which makes it easy to trap using electric fields. The working substance of the engine is the ion's "intrinsic spin" (its angular momentum). This spin is used to convert heat absorbed from laser beams into oscillations, or vibrations, of the trapped ion.

These vibrations act like a "flywheel", which captures the useful energy generated by the engine. This energy is stored in discrete units called "quanta", as predicted by quantum mechanics.

"The flywheel allows us to actually measure the power output of an atomic-scale motor, resolving single quanta of energy, for the first time," said Dr. Mark Mitchison of the QuSys group at Trinity, and one of the article's co-authors.

Starting the flywheel from rest—or, more precisely, from its "ground state" (the lowest energy in quantum physics)—the team observed the little engine forcing the flywheel to run faster and faster. Crucially, the state of the ion was accessible in the experiment, allowing the physicists to precisely assess the energy deposition process.

Assistant Professor in Physics at Trinity, John Goold said: "This experiment and theory ushers in a new era for the investigation of the energetics of technologies based on quantum theory, which is a topic at the core of our group's research. Heat management at the nanoscale is one of the fundamental bottlenecks for faster and more efficient computing. Understanding how thermodynamics can be applied in such microscopic settings is of paramount importance for future technologies."

The groundbreaking experiment was carried out by a research group led by Professor Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler and Dr Ulrich Poschinger of Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World 2019 AMAZING MOVIES

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 15:06:00 -0700

One year after the events of the previous film, Hiccup, Toothless and their fellow dragon-riders continue to rescue captured dragons in order to bring them to Berk and its bustling dragon and human utopia. Their efforts have resulted in the island becoming overpopulated with dragons. In a response to the overcrowding, Hiccup desires to find the "Hidden World", a safe haven for dragons spoken of by his late father Stoick. Meanwhile, a white dragon resembling a Night Fury, held captive by warlords, is given to infamous dragon hunter Grimmel the Grisly as bait for him to capture Toothless for the warlords' use as an alpha.

Toothless discovers the white Fury (dubbed a "Light Fury" by Astrid) in the woods and the two become enchanted with each other until the Light Fury, sensing Hiccup's nearby presence, flees. Hiccup and Tuffnut later discover Grimmel's dragon traps in the area. Grimmel visits Hiccup that night demanding he hand over Toothless, but Hiccup has prepared an ambush for him; Grimmel escapes, burning down Hiccup's house and most of Berk in the process. In response, Hiccup rallies the citizens and dragons to leave Berk on a quest to find the Hidden World and safety from dragon hunters.

Mid-journey, the Berkians discover an island on which they initially plan to rest for a short while, but soon begin to settle there, dubbing it “New Berk”. Seeing Toothless's inability to fly solo hindering his growing relationship with the Light Fury, Hiccup rebuilds an automatic tail for him. Upon receiving the tail, Toothless flies off, meeting the Light Fury on his own and flying with her to an unknown land. Valka, on a scouting patrol, notices Grimmel's approaching army and quickly reports back to Hiccup. Hiccup and the dragon riders head to capture Grimmel; yet, they fall into his trap and barely escape. Ruffnut is captured, but irritates Grimmel until he lets her go and secretly follows her to the Berkians' new location.

Hiccup and Astrid, searching for Toothless, find the Hidden World and see Toothless and the Light Fury leading the dragons there with Toothless now betrothed to her. When the two are soon discovered, Toothless rescues Hiccup and Astrid and returns them to the Berkians, with Hiccup realizing his people would be intruders and unsafe in the Hidden World. Suddenly, Grimmel appears and captures Toothless and the Light Fury (who followed Toothless). Toothless's alpha status allows Grimmel to capture the rest of Berk's dragons by threatening to kill the Light Fury if any dragon or Berkian attacks.

With Astrid's encouragement, Hiccup sets out with the dragon riders to stop Grimmel and his army. Gliding on wingsuits, they catch Grimmel's army off-guard, igniting a battle. Hiccup frees Toothless, while Grimmel drugs the Light Fury into obeying him. Hiccup and Toothless give chase, but Grimmel tranquilizes Toothless midair causing the dragon to fall helplessly. Hiccup, realizing he cannot rescue Toothless alone, frees the Light Fury and implores her to save Toothless. Hiccup is fully prepared to sacrifice himself in order to save Toothless as both he and Grimmel plummet toward the sea. The Light Fury, however, returns to save Hiccup as well while Grimmel impacts the water and drowns.

Back on the island, both Toothless and Hiccup fully realize that dragons will never be safe in the human world. Hiccup bids a tearful farewell to Toothless as all of the Berkians set their dragons free to live in the Hidden World. Toothless and the Light Fury lead the rest of the dragons away to their new home. Sometime later, Hiccup and Astrid finally marry on New Berk.

Ten years into the future, Toothless and the Light Fury are shown to have mated and have given birth to three hybrid dragon fledglings named Night Lights. Hiccup, Astrid, and their two children sail across the sea to visit them at the edge of the Hidden World. After introducing his children to his old friend, Hiccup takes their son flying on Toothless while Astrid and their daughter fly on Stormfly, accompanied by the Light Fury and their offspring. Hiccup vows that until humankind is ready to coexist peacefully with dragons, the dragons will stay hidden while the Berkians guard their secret.

Cast[edit]

Jay Baruchel as Hiccup, the son of Stoick the Vast and Valka, the newly crowned Viking chief of Berk, and the one who initially trained the dragons.^[8]
- A.J. Kane as young Hiccup.
America Ferrera as Astrid, an excellent fighter; she is Hiccup's betrothed fiancée.^[8]
F. Murray Abraham as Grimmel the Grisly, an infamous dragon hunter who is responsible for the near-extinction of the Night Furies.^[9]
Cate Blanchett as Valka, a dragon rescuer and Hiccup's mother, now living on Berk after twenty years of isolation.^[8]
Craig Ferguson as Gobber the Belch, a seasoned warrior, blacksmith and dragon dentist.^[10]

Jonah Hill as Snotlout Jorgenson, a brash, overconfident, and fairly unintelligent, but a reliable friend of Hiccup.^[10]
Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fishlegs Ingerman, an enthusiastic friend of Hiccup knowledgeable in dragon lore which he often relates in a role-playing game style.^[10]
Kristen Wiig and Justin Rupple as Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston, fraternal twins who are friends with Hiccup.^[11]^[10]^[12] Tuffnut had been voiced by T. J. Miller in the two preceding movies as well as the television series.
Kit Harington as Eret, a former dragon hunter who used to work for Drago Bludvist who has joined the dragon riders after the events of the second film.^[9]
Gerard Butler as Stoick the Vast, the late father of Hiccup and Berk's previous chieftain, as seen in flashbacks.^[13]
Julia Emelin as Griselda the Grievous, an aggressive warlord who works with Grimmel.
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Ragnar the Rock, an incompetent warlord who works with Grimmel.
James Sie as Chaghatai Khan, a less aggressive and stubborn warlord who works with Grimmel.
David Tennant as Ivar the Whitless, a dragon trapper who works for the Warlords.
- Tennant also voices Spitelout Jorgenson, the father of Snotlout.
Robin Atkin Downes as Ack, a blond-bearded viking.
Kieran Elliot as Hoark, a viking with a knotted beard.
Ashley Jensen as Phlema, a female viking who works as a botanist at the School of Dragons.
Gideon Emery as Trapper

Production[edit]

In December 2010, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg announced that there would also be a third film in the series: "How To Train Your Dragon is at least three: maybe more, but we know there are at least three chapters to that story."^[14] Dean DeBlois, the writer and director of the second and the third film, stated that How to Train Your Dragon 2 was being intentionally designed as the second act of the trilogy: "There are certain characters and situations that come into play in the second film that will become much more crucial to the story by the third."^[15] DeBlois said in an interview that the third part would be released in 2016.^[16] Although the series has taken a different path of telling a story of Hiccup and Vikings, author Cressida Cowell revealed that the trilogy and the book series will have similar endings (with "an explanation as to why dragons are no more").^[17]

The film is produced by Bonnie Arnold^[18] and Brad Lewis. DeBlois and Chris Sanders are the executive producers; Sanders was an executive producer of the second film and co-director of the first.^[18] Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Kristen Wiig returned in the third film,^[18] with Justin Rupple replacing T.J. Miller as Tuffnut.^[11] DeBlois revealed that Miller did initially return to voice Tuffnut, but Dreamworks recast him after the actor's sexual assault allegations and arrest for calling in a fake bomb threat.^[19] Cate Blanchett also reprised her role as Valka from the second film.^[8] On November 14, 2017, it was announced that Kit Harington will reprise his role as Eret and F. Murray Abrahamhas joined the cast.^[9] During the earlier stages of production, DeBlois stated that Djimon Hounsou would also return as Drago Bludvist.^[20] It was even planned to have Drago redeemed by the film's end, but halfway through development, DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg convinced DeBlois that the story of Drago's redemption required more screen time that they could not provide, causing his inclusion to be scrapped.^[21] On April 17, 2018, DreamWorks Animation announced that the sequel's title would be entitled How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.^[22]^[23] The animation challenges of the production required DreamWorks Animation to update and invent new software to handle complex tasks, such as lighting the Light Fury dragon.^[24]

Music[edit]

John Powell, who composed the previous two films, returned to compose the film's score.^[25] In addition, Powell's collaborators Batu Sener, Anthony Willis, and Paul Mounsey are credited as additional composers. Also returning from the previous films, Jónsi wrote a new song for the film, titled "Together From Afar", which was released as a single in January 31, 2019.^[26] Jónsi also provided vocals for a track titled "The Hidden World".^[27]

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Raiders Return to Busy, Busy Berk"	5:26
2.	"Dinner Talk / Grimmel's Introduction"	3:53
3.	"Legend Has It / Cliffside Playtime"	4:21
4.	"Toothless: Smitten"	3:15
5.	"Worst Pep Talk Ever"	2:40
6.	"Night Fury Killer"	3:35
7.	"Exodus!"	4:38
8.	"Third Date"	6:48
9.	"New 'New Tail'"	1:28
10.	"Furies in Love"	3.03
11.	"Killer Dragons"	5:04
12.	"With Love Comes a Great Waterfall"	2:08
13.	"The Hidden World" (feat. Jónsi)	5:16
14.	"Armada Battle"	8:40
15.	"As Long As He's Safe"	6:29
16.	"Once There Were Dragons"	5:45
17.	"Together From Afar" (Written and performed by Jónsi)	3:17

showBonus Track

Release and marketing[edit]

In September 2012, 20th Century Fox, the studio's then-distributor partner, and DreamWorks Animation announced the film was originally going to be released on June 17, 2016.^[18]^[28]^[29] In September 2014, the film's release date was pushed back a year from its original release date of June 17, 2016 to June 9, 2017.^[8] DeBlois explained the release date shifts as such: "It's just that these movies take three years. I think it was a little ambitious to say 2016... As is normally the case, they kind of throw darts out into the future and wherever they land they call that a release date until we start talking about it in practical terms, and then it's like, 'Uh yeah that's not enough time'. So knowing that they take three years from this moment, from outlining and writing the screenplay through to the final lighting of it, it's just a process of building models and doing tests and animating, storyboarding, the whole thing just adds up to about three years."^[30]

In January 2015, the release date was pushed back a year from June 9, 2017 to June 29, 2018 following DreamWorks Animation's corporate restructuring and lay-offs meant to maximize the company's "creative talent and resources, reduce costs, and drive profitability."^[31]^[32] On June 18, 2016, the release date was moved up from June 29, 2018 to May 18, 2018, taking the release date of the Warner Animation Group's The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.^[33] On December 5, 2016, the US release date was pushed back from May 18, 2018 to March 1, 2019.^[34] The release date was moved up for a final time from March 1, 2019 to February 22, 2019, taking the slot of The Turning, a live-action DreamWorks film which in turn was pushed back to January 24, 2020.^[35]^[36]

The movie's poster was released on May 31, 2018. Its first trailer premiered on June 7, 2018, while its second trailer was released on October 25, 2018.^[37]^[38]

In some countries, the film is plainly called How To Train Your Dragon 3, dropping "The Hidden World" subtitle.^{[citation needed]}

Home media[edit]

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World was released on digital and Movies Anywhere on May 7, 2019 by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, and was subsequently released on Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray, and DVD on May 21. All releases included the 2018 short films Bilby and Bird Karma.^[39]^[40]

Video games[edit]

Unlike the first two films of the trilogy, The Hidden World does not have a tie-in game based on its plot. Instead, there are two games set before the events of the film, which are the top-down action adventure game DreamWorks Dragons: Dawn of New Riders available on consoles and personal computers(Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows)^[41] and the match-3 game Dragons: Titan Uprising for mobile devices (iOS and Android).^[42] Both games play as RPGs, and the latter is free-to-play, while offering in-app purchases.

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World grossed $160.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $359 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $519.8 million, against a production budget of $129 million.^[3]

In the United States and Canada, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World held early screenings at 1,000 theaters on February 2, 2019 and grossed $2.5 million, one of the highest advance showing totals ever.^[43] It was released alongside the wide expansion of Fighting with My Family, and was initially projected to gross $40–45 million from 4,259 theaters in its opening weekend.^[44] After making $17.5 million on its first day (including $3 million from Thursday night previews), weekend projections were increased to $60 million. It went on to debut to $55 million finishing first at the box office.^[3]^[45]^[46] The film made $30 million in its second weekend, retaining the top spot, before being dethroned by newcomer Captain Marvel in its third.^[47]^[48]

The film grossed $1.5 million on its opening day in Australia, setting a record for a DreamWorks Animation film in that country (surpassing Shrek 2). In New Zealand, the film grossed $173,000 on its opening day, ranking as DreamWorks Animation's second biggest opening day in the country, behind Shrek 2.^[49] By its third weekend of international release the film has grossed a total of $41 million.^[50] As of March 24, 2019, the film's largest markets in other territories were China ($53.7 million), Russia ($26.8 million), France ($25.0 million), United Kingdom ($24.8 million) and Mexico ($21.0 million).^[3]

Critical response[edit]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 244 reviews, and an average rating of 7.25/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The rare trilogy capper that really works, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World brings its saga to a visually dazzling and emotionally affecting conclusion."^[51] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[52] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale (the same score earned by the first two films), while those at PostTrak gave it a 90% positive score and a 77% "definite recommend."^[46]

Jennifer Bisset of CNET praised the voice performances of the main characters, while also citing the visuals and action sequences, and singled out the development of the relationship between Hiccup and Toothless, saying, "Continuing a series-long focus on family and love, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World narrows on what those values mean for Toothless. He experiences romance. He grows up. And with heavy, satisfied hearts, we let him, and Hiccup, go."^[53]

Michael Nordine of IndieWire gave the film a B, saying, "Directed once again by Dean DeBlois, “The Hidden World” strikes a bittersweet chord in reminding its young audience that all good things — including the age of dragons — must come to an end." He later went on to applaud the CGI, lauding the "arresting visuals", and stating that "The animation itself is striking — an early sequence in which the sky is filled with dragons is an early sign of the visual treats to come — and ends up being the film’s highlight."^[54] Ben Kenigsberg of the New York Times gave a positive review of the characters and emotional messages of the film, writing "More bittersweet and less triumphal than its predecessors, and directed by a returning Dean DeBlois, “The Hidden World” concerns the exigencies that Hiccup faces as a leader, both politically and personally. If you truly love that dragon you trained, its message says, let him go."^[55]

Conversely, some critics felt the film had the presence of too many juggled sub-plots and an obligatory ending, with Movie Crypt concluding that "Fans will enjoy seeing their characters grown and progressing as story arcs are closed, but the final resolution rings hollow. Ultimately, none of it appeared necessary other than a need to say goodbye; the dragons and their champions certainly earned a better conclusion than that."^[56] Kerry Lengel of Arizona Republic says that "The plot is thin and holey and the characters are mostly just a single gag set on repeat" and calls it "a lazy effort."^[57]

Experts: Spy used AI-generated face to connect with targets

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 14:44:00 -0700

LONDON (AP) — Katie Jones sure seemed plugged into Washington’s political scene. The 30-something redhead boasted a job at a top think tank and a who’s-who network of pundits and experts, from the centrist Brookings Institution to the right-wing Heritage Foundation. She was connected to a deputy assistant secretary of state, a senior aide to a senator and the economist Paul Winfree, who is being considered for a seat on the Federal Reserve.

But Katie Jones doesn’t exist, The Associated Press has determined. Instead, the persona was part of a vast army of phantom profiles lurking on the professional networking site LinkedIn. And several experts contacted by the AP said Jones’ profile picture appeared to have been created by a computer program.

“I’m convinced that it’s a fake face,” said Mario Klingemann, a German artist who has been experimenting for years with artificially generated portraits and says he has reviewed tens of thousands of such images. “It has all the hallmarks.”

Why experts think this is a fake photo. (AP Photo)

Experts who reviewed the Jones profile’s LinkedIn activity say it’s typical of espionage efforts on the professional networking site, whose role as a global Rolodex has made it a powerful magnet for spies.

“It smells a lot like some sort of state-run operation,” said Jonas Parello-Plesner, who serves as program director at the Denmark-based think tank Alliance of Democracies Foundation and was the target several years ago of an espionage operation that began over LinkedIn .

William Evanina, director of the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said foreign spies routinely use fake social media profiles to home in on American targets — and accused China in particular of waging “mass scale” spying on LinkedIn.

“Instead of dispatching spies to some parking garage in the U.S to recruit a target, it’s more efficient to sit behind a computer in Shanghai and send out friend requests to 30,000 targets,” he said in a written statement.

Last month, retired CIA officer Kevin Mallory was sentenced to 20 years in prison for passing details of top secret operations to Beijing, a relationship that began when a Chinese agent posing as a recruiter contacted him on LinkedIn.

Unlike Facebook’s friends-and-family focus, LinkedIn is oriented toward job seekers and headhunters, people who routinely fire out resumes, build vast webs of contacts and pitch projects to strangers. That connect-them-all approach helps fill the millions of job openings advertised on the site, but it also provides a rich hunting ground for spies. And that has Western intelligence agencies worried.

British , French and German officials have all issued warnings over the past few years detailing how thousands of people had been contacted by foreign spies over LinkedIn.

In a statement, LinkedIn said it routinely took action against fake accounts, yanking thousands of them in the first three months of 2019. It also said “we recommend you connect with people you know and trust, not just anyone.”

The Katie Jones profile was modest in scale, with 52 connections. But those connections had enough influence that they imbued the profile with credibility to some who accepted Jones’ invites. The AP spoke to about 40 other people who connected with Jones between early March and early April of this year, many of whom said they routinely accept invitations from people they don’t recognize.

“I’m probably the worst LinkedIn user in the history of LinkedIn,” said Winfree, the former deputy director of President Donald Trump’s domestic policy council, who confirmed connection with Jones on March 28.

Winfree, whose name came up last month in relation to one of the vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, said he rarely logs on to LinkedIn and tends to just approve all the piled-up invites when he does.

“I literally accept every friend request that I get,” he said.

Lionel Fatton, who teaches East Asian affairs at Webster University in Geneva, said the fact that he didn’t know Jones did prompt a brief pause when he connected with her back in March.

“I remember hesitating,” he said. “And then I thought, ‘What’s the harm?’”

Parello-Plesner noted that the potential harm can be subtle: Connecting to a profile like Jones’ invites whoever is behind it to strike up a one-on-one conversation, and other users on the site can view the connection as a kind of endorsement.

“You lower your guard and you get others to lower their guard,” he said.

The Jones profile was first flagged by Keir Giles, a Russia specialist with London’s Chatham House think tank. Giles was recently caught up in an entirely separate espionage operation targeting critics of the Russian antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab. So when he received an invitation from Katie Jones on LinkedIn he was suspicious.

She claimed to have been working for years as a “Russia and Eurasia fellow” at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, but Giles said that, if that were true, “I ought to have heard of her.”

CSIS spokesman Andrew Schwartz told the AP that “no one named Katie Jones works for us.”

Jones also claimed to have earned degrees in Russian studies from the University of Michigan, but the school said it was “unable to find anyone by this name earning these degrees from the university.”

The Jones account vanished from LinkedIn shortly after the AP contacted the network seeking comment. Messages sent to Jones herself, via LinkedIn and an associated AOL email account, went unreturned.

Numerous experts interviewed by AP said perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the Katie Jones persona was her face, which they say appears to be artificially created.

Klingemann and other experts said the photo — a closely cropped portrait of a woman with blue-green eyes, copper-colored hair and an enigmatic smile — appeared to have been created using a family of dueling computer programs called generative adversarial networks, or GANs, that can create realistic-looking faces of entirely imaginary people. GANs, sometimes described as a form of artificial intelligence, have been the cause of increasing concern for policymakers already struggling to get a handle on digital disinformation. On Thursday, U.S. lawmakers held their first hearing devoted primarily to the threat of artificially generated imagery.

Hao Li, who directs the Vision of Graphics Lab at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies, reeled off a list of digital tells that he believes show the Jones photo was created by a computer program, including inconsistencies around Jones’ eyes, the ethereal glow around her hair and smudge marks on her left cheek.

“This is a typical GAN,” he said. “I’ll bet money on it.”

Online:

Test your ability to tell a real face from a fake one at: http://www.whichfaceisreal.com/

Generate your own deepfake faces at: https://thispersondoesnotexist.com

___

Raphael Satter can be reached at: https://raphaelsatter.com

LinkedIn is full of spies

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 14:39:00 -0700

What kind of a LinkedIn user are you? The kind who only accepts "connect" requests from people you know? Or a blanket accepter who connects to everyone who asks?

Unluckily for the American public, there are plenty of members of the U.S. government and political intelligentsia who fall into the latter camp! Which makes LinkedIn a prime hunting ground for... foreign spies?!

According to a new report from the Associated Press, foreign intelligence operations routinely use LinkedIn to target, connect with, and eventually gain knowledge about and influence over American political affairs.

These operations create fake LinkedIn profiles, boasting impressive (imaginary) credentials alongside computer-generated photos, that send connection requests to politicians, lobbyists, academics, or think tank employees. Once one person accepts, that bolsters the fake account's credibility, so other high-profile LinkedIn users accept, too, and so it goes.

These profiles send out tens of thousands of connection requests at a time. And, apparently, there have been multiple independent cases of American figures being targeted by Russian or Chinese spy operations via connections they unwittingly accepted on LinkedIn.

The AP spoke with multiple D.C. figures, including a former Trump administration official, who had accepted a connection request from political expert "Katie Jones." None of Jones' credentials checked out, and experts determined that her photo was generated by A.I., so Jones, by all accounts, does not exist. But the person running the account still had the ability to direct message with political influencers, posing as a colleague.

LinkedIn told the AP that it removes fake accounts; indeed, it removed Jones' account shortly after the AP inquired about Katie Jones. But as multiple other social networks have demonstrated, a reactionary stance in the fight against fake activity online is an insufficient one.

And in the case of LinkedIn as a breeding ground for espionage, that's not enough.

Huge LinkedIn loophole put user security at risk

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 14:37:00 -0700

A LinkedIn user has discovered a serious flaw that allows users to post official-looking job listings on company's Linked

If you were browsing the LinkedIn job boards this morning, you could have come across a job opening from Mashable titled “Assistant to Matt Binder.”

Even though it appears right there on Mashable’s official LinkedIn business page, the company, unfortunately, is not hiring me an assistant. Mashable’s human resources department did not post that job listing. No one at the company posted the opening. The job does not exist.

So, how did it show up alongside the company’s very real, official job posts?

Michel Rijnders, an online recruiter from the Netherlands with absolutely no connection to Mashable, posted it. (The job listing has since been taken down.)

Rijnders discovered a serious flaw embedded within a very basic LinkedIn feature that allows users to post an official looking job opening on nearly any company’s LinkedIn business page. These unofficial listings show up on a company’s “Jobs” page and look just like any other job opening posted legitimately by the organization.

Earlier, Rijnders created job posts for a new Chief Executive Officer for LinkedIn and Google, something he very much has zero authority to do. Both fake listings appeared on the tech giants’ LinkedIn business pages alongside their other job openings. The listings also appeared in LinkedIn’s job search. There was no approval process required.

While LinkedIn does usually charge for posting a job listing, Rijnders, a premium LinkedIn subscriber, says he has been able to list each job opening for free.

Google, which scrapes hirings from recruitment websites all over the internet, aggregated the fake opening for its CEO position to its own job platform. Sorry, actual Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

Rijnders was even able to take LinkedIn users offsite by linking his own business’ website to the “Apply” button on the job listing.

It’s easy to see how a scammer could use these fake but official-looking listings, aggregated all over the web to other trusted sources who also believe the listings to be official, for nefarious means. People hand over a lot of personal data when applying for a job.

In fact, one notable offender, a job-scraping site called Jooble, is what tipped off Rijnders to the problem to begin with.

“For a while I noticed scrapers, like Jooble, posting massive amounts of jobs at companies on LinkedIn without consent of those companies,” wrote Rijnders in an email to Mashable. “A lot of companies complained without any result. The bad thing is [the scrapers] collect the application details of applicants who think they actually apply at the company. These companies also seem to only pick smaller companies to do this with less risk of getting into trouble.”

Other LinkedIn users replied to Rijnders’ LinkedIn post saying that they’ve brought up this problem to the company before.

Samsung's next smartwatch will probably arrive with the Galaxy Note 10

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 16:50:00 -0700

Samsung's Galaxy Note 10 won't be arriving by its lonesome self.

In addition to the new stylus-equipped Android smartphone, Samsung will likely also announce a new smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch Active 2, at its Unpacked event on Aug. 7.

Images and details of the unreleased Galaxy Watch Active 2 were published by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and uncovered by Droid Life.

Like the first-generation Galaxy Watch Active, the second-gen version will sport a round display with Samsung's signature Tizen OS designed for circular displays.

Details from the FCC filing also suggest the new smartwatch will be made of aluminum and measure about 40mm in diameter, which is the same size as the original. A stainless steel Galaxy Watch Active 2 is also listed so there may be a premium model this time.

Other specs the FCC has revealed about the upcoming smartwatch include: 4GB of storage, built-in GPS, and 5ATM water resistance (submergible in up to 164 feet of water for up to 10 minutes). The screen's also made of super scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass DX+ and the device was stress tested for MIL-STD-810 military-grade toughness.

The biggest upgrade for the Galaxy Watch Active 2 might be its rumored touch-sensitive bezel. On the Galaxy Watch Active, Samsung removed the rotatable bezel found on its Galaxy Watch and Gear-branded smartwatches to achieve a smaller overall device volume.

While I didn't lament the loss of the rotatable bezel, many other reviewers and consumers did. So, it looks like Samsung might have a compromise in the works. Instead of a mechanical bezel that rotates, the glass bezel around the screen is expected to be touch sensitive and allow for rotating gestures to work.

The Galaxy Watch Active launched starting at $200, far less than the $330 the Galaxy Watch costs. It's unclear if the Galaxy Watch Active 2 will cost more or the same as the original.

As always, the big question will be whether or not the Galaxy Watch Active 2 will be able to take on the Apple Watch Series 4. Both are positioned as health-focused wearables and the Apple Watch is the leading smartwatch. Will Samsung finally be able to catch up? We'll find out on Aug. 7!

Samsung's Galaxy Tab S6 is the iPad Pro's only serious competitor

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 16:44:00 -0700

iPads are the undisputed best tablets, but if you're not about iOS or Apple's walled garden, the best alternative is Samsung's new Galaxy Tab S6.

The new Android tablet succeeds the Galaxy Tab S4 — fun fact: there's no Tab S5 — with a thinner, lighter design and faster performance.

Most importantly, Samsung has remedied the Tab S4's key shortcomings. Specifically, the included S Pen magnetically attaches to the Tab S6 for storage (and charging) and the keyboard accessory includes a trackpad so you don't need to connect a separate wireless mouse when the tablet's in the desktop-like "DeX" mode.

Oh, and you'll probably like this: the Tab S6 starts at $649 — $150 less than the 11-inch iPad Pro it's competing directly against.

Volume 0%

This ad will end in 1

The first thing I noticed about the Tab S6 was its slimmer aluminum design. Compared to the Tab S4's glass back, which was more vulnerable to damage if dropped and attracted fingerprints with ease, the metal on the Tab S6 is far more durable.

Samsung's shaved the tablet's profile from 7.1mm on the Tab S4 to 5.7mm, making it barely thinner than Apple's iPad Pros, which are 5.9mm thick.

A tablet this thin is likely susceptible to bending, but I obviously couldn't test this during my brief time with it. It feel solid enough. I'll leave this to the stress-testing YouTubers like JerryRigEverything.

Solid build quality aside, the Tab S6's main hardware remains unchanged from the Tab S4. The 10.5-inch Super AMOLED display (2,560 x 1,600) is as bright as vibrant as before. Similarly, the AKG-tuned quad speakers are still present and support Dolby Atmos.

Embedded under the display is a fingerprint reader. This scanner is an optical sensor like the one on the OnePlus 6T and 7 Pro and not like the Galaxy S10'sultrasonic fingerprint reader. I got to test the Tab S6's sensor for unlocking the tablet and it's quite responsive. However, because it's an optical sensor, it's not as secure as an ultrasonic scanner; optical sensors can be fooled with high-res images of fingerprints. Still, an optical fingerprint reader is better than not having one.

The Tab S6 also has a face unlock feature. I'm told this is a 2D-based facial recognition system and not as secure as the iris scanner face unlock in the Tab S4.

On the back of the tablet are a pair of cameras: one main 13-megapixel option and a 5-megapixel ultra-wide angle shooter. These work well enough, though the ultra-wide angle camera is not as crispy due to its lower resolution. On the front is an 8-megapixel selfie camera.

One thing you won't find on the Tab S6 is a 3.5mm headphone jack. It's gone, which means you'll have to use USB-C headphones or go wireless with something like the Galaxy Buds or AirPods.

Powering Samsung's new tablet is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip and 6GB of RAM. Samsung says users can expect up to 81 percent faster processing performance and up to 68 percent more powerful graphics performance compared to the two-year-old Snapdragon 835 chip inside of the old Tab S4.

The $649 model comes with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM, but you can also fork over $729 for a version with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. The tablet also has a microSD slot that supports memory cards up to 512GB.

Battery life is also improved. Despite the battery capacity shrinking from 7,300 mAh on the Tab S4 to 7,040 mAh on the Tab S6, Samsung claims the new tablet lasts up to 15 hours of usage versus 14 hours.

As previously mentioned, Samsung made the biggest changes to the S Pen and detachable keyboard. The S Pen's still included, but the Book Cover Keyboard is sold separately ($179).

For the S Pen, Samsung's upgraded its features with wireless Bluetooth capability. In other words, the new stylus works like the Galaxy Note 9's S Pen: you can use it as a remote shutter for taking photos, a clicker for advancing slides in a PowerPoint, or as a controller for playing media.

The improved S Pen also magnetically attaches to the back of the tablet. There's a long groove for the S Pen to fit. When attached, the Tab S6 also charges the S Pen up. The implementation is similar to how the Apple Pencil 2 attaches to an iPad Pro (2018). However, the way the S Pen attaches to the Tab S6 is clearly less elegant and the magnet didn't feel reliably strong on demo units I saw.

As for the Book Cover Keyboard, it's also been tweaked for the better. First, it's a two-piece design. One half with an adjustable kickstand magnetically attaches to the Tab S6 via a pogo pin connector and the other half, the keyboard and trackpad, connects to that.

When both pieces are attached, the setup is akin to what you get with on a Microsoft Surface Pro. On the Tab S4's keyboard accessory, there was no trackpad. Samsung says it found 30 percent of Tab S4 users were connecting a wireless mouse so they decided to build a trackpad into the Tab S6's keyboard case.

Adding a trackpad does come at a literal cost, though: the Tab S6's Book Cover Keyboard costs $179, $20 more than the previous trackpad-less model.

I tried both the keyboard and the trackpad and they're OK. The keys are a little small and the layout felt a bit cramped, but they work and the keys at least have good travel to them. The trackpad was also a little jumpy whenever I moused around. Of course, the devices I checked out weren't production units, so any bugs could be ironed out before launch.

Easily my favorite new addition to the keyboard is the inclusion of a dedicated "DeX" button. Pressing the function key and the DeX button automatically switches the Tab S6 from regular Android mode to its desktop-like PC mode, complete with windowed app experience.

There are a handful of other upgrades you'll find on the Tab S6 as well. There's a "game booster" mode that uses AI to improve gaming performance and integration with Discord via the Samsung Game Launcher. And, of course, Samsung's One UI skin on top of Android 9 Pie is great.

I didn't spend enough time with the Tab S6 to determine if it's superior to an iPad Pro (running iPad OS of course). Can Samsung's new tablet replace a laptop and fulfill all of my work requirements? I'll have to wait until I get a review unit in for testing to pass judgment, but I recall that I was pleasantly surprised at how much work I could accomplish with the Tab S4 and keyboard accessory.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 is a hot alternative to the Apple Watch

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 16:37:00 -0700

Roast me all you want, but Samsung's new Galaxy Watch Active 2 is one hot smartwatch.

At first glance, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 looks virtually identical to the Galaxy Watch Active, which only launched this past spring. But place your finger on the edge of the display and turn it clockwise or counterclockwise and you'll see Samsung's signature rotatable bezel control has returned.

The Galaxy Watch Active 2 also comes in two sizes (40mm and 42mm) as opposed to the Galaxy Watch Active's one-size-fits-all model, two finishes (aluminum and stainless steel), an LTE version, and double the amount of tracking sensors to more quickly provide out readouts.

Samsung's new smartwatch isn't replacing the Galaxy Watch Active. Starting at $279 for the 40mm version and $299 for the 44mm model, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 will be sold alongside the $199 Galaxy Watch Active and Galaxy Watch, which starts at $349.

I spent some time with the Galaxy Watch Active 2 and, frankly, I think it's Samsung's best smartwatch to date. It's sharp-looking (especially the stainless steel model), has all of the same smartwatch and fitness-tracking features of the Galaxy Watch, and the digital rotating bezel is a delight to use. Plus, it's cheaper than an Apple Watch Series 4.

If you own a Samsung or Android phone, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 is easily the only new smartwatch to consider getting.

Volume 0%

OK, let's talk aesthetics. Like I said, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 looks virtually the same as the Galaxy Watch Active.

The 40mm has a 1.2-inch screen and the 44mm has a 1.4-inch display. Both come with 360 x 360 resolution. The screen's round, sharp, and bright — exactly what a good smartwatch display should be.

The bands are interchangeable and easy to swap out, too. Samsung showed off rubber and leather straps.

The digital rotating bezel around the screen is the most interesting upgrade on the Galaxy Watch Active 2. Though I personally wasn't bothered by the fact that the Galaxy Watch Active doesn't have a physical rotating bezel like on the Galaxy Watch, I love that the Galaxy Watch Active 2 has a digital version of it. Not only is it less chunky-looking, but it works really well. Just look at how buttery smooth it is to fly through different app screens:

I'm also liking the stainless steel version of the smartwatch. Aluminum's fine, but stainless steel gives the Galaxy Watch Active 2 are more luxurious look and feel. I'm less impressed with a few of the Apple Watch-inspired details, though. Like the red ring inside of the round button — it's so clearly a copycat of the red ring on the Apple Watch's digital crown.

Inside, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 is pretty standard smartwatch stuff: 4GB of storage in both models, 768MB of RAM in the 40mm and 1.5GB of RAM in the 44mm, Bluetooth 5.0, and built-in GPS. The watch is also water resistant in up to 164 feet of water for up to 10 minutes.

As with the rest of Samsung's smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 runs Tizen OS and has a built-in heart rate sensor. If you've used a Samsung smartwatch before, there will be next to no learning curve with the Galaxy Watch Active 2.

Tizen OS is fast, smooth, and easy to navigate, especially with the digital rotating bezel.

A few new Tizen OS features worth highlighting: Twitter, YouTube support, and Google Translate. With Twitter, users will be able to see tweets, favorite tweets, and retweet.

For YouTube, you'll be able to watch entire videos on your wrist, either in their original aspect ratio or zoomed in; Samsung doesn't expect you to watch a 10-minute video on the smartwatch, but maybe more for short movie trailers.

And with Google Translate, you can say something into the smartwatch in one language and have the app translate it in another. Google Translate requires an Internet connection and the translations aren't done on device, confirmed Samsung.

While the software is mostly the same, Samsung's beefed up the Galaxy Watch Active 2's sensors. Samsung tells me they've improved the sensors and doubled the sensitivity inside of the smartwatch to get faster readouts and be better at tracking your sleep, automatically detecting workouts, and monitoring your heart.

Also great: the Galaxy Watch Activ

e 2 has many of the same health features as the Apple Watch Series 4, including fall detection, Afib notifications, and an ECG monitor.

Short as my time with the Galaxy Watch Active 2 was, I really liked what I saw. The Apple Watch Series 4 remains the remains the best smartwatch you can get, but with the Galaxy Watch Active 2, Samsung's narrowing the gap.

Truthfully, I was getting bored with the selection of smartwatches for Android. Wear OS by Google smartwatches have all but fallen by the wayside and the Galaxy Watch Active and Galaxy Watch felt very uninspiring. The Galaxy Watch Active 2 seems to strike the best balance between style and health-tracking features. It's by far the best-looking and most capable round-shaped smartwatch I've ever used.

How well Samsung's new smartwatch compares to the Apple Watch remains to be seen. We'll find out when it come Sept. 27 when it's available on Samsung.com and other retailers.

Why Samsung removed the headphone jack from the Galaxy Note 10

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 16:30:00 -0700

Behold: the headphone jack-less Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ (left) and Note 10 (right).

Samsung is so over the headphone jack.

After three years of bashing Apple for removing the 3.5 mm headphone jackfrom the iPhone, Samsung has joined its rival and killed the audio port from its new Galaxy Note 10 phones, too.

Yep, the jack is gone from Samsung's biggest and most powerful phone of the year, and it's likely never returning in any future Galaxy Notes.

But why is Samsung eliminating the analog audio port after holding out for so long?

Volume 0%

The answer may be obvious to engineers and designers: The jack had to go in order to make room for other components.

Specifically, Samsung needed more space to cram larger batteries into both the Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+.

Samsung's director of product strategy and marketing Suzanne De Silva told me ahead of the Note 10s' Unpacked launch event that because the two Note 10s are so thin, they needed more space along the vertical y-axis to spread out the battery cells.

Samsung could have crammed in larger batteries that are thicker, but that would have also meant making the Note 10s fatter as well.

By gutting the headphone jack and making the batteries thinner and taller, Samsung was able to safely fit them inside the phones' thin bodies.

The headphone jack's dead on the Note 10, and it's not coming back.

If you recall, the reason why Note 7 phones exploded in 2016 was because the batteries barely fit into their thin bodies. Samsung tried to cram every imaginable phone feature in the Note 7 and paid the price. With the Note 10, Samsung's not taking any chances. A big and safe battery comes at the expense of the headphone jack. Don't like it? Get a Galaxy S10 or Pixel 3a or 3a XL instead.

And thin as the Note 10 batteries are, Samsung says they go through the same 8-point battery safety check as all of its batteries have since the Note 7 disaster.

There's also another reason Samsung removed the headphone jack: According to the company's post-purchase research, the majority of Galaxy Note users are using wireless headphones or earbuds with their phones.

Whether they're using Samsung's own IconX or Galaxy Buds or another brand's wireless headphones, De Silva said Note users are early adopters of new technologies and have embraced a wire-free listening experience.

My own unscientific polling on Twitter also suggests people aren't as bothered by the death of the jack. Maybe it's because other phones, like the Pixel 3 and OnePlus 7 Pro and Huawei P30 Pro, don't have headphone jacks, either. Or maybe because everyone's got wireless earbuds. Whatever the case, the loss of the port is no longer as unreasonable as it was a few years ago.

So, there you go. Samsung isn't killing the headphone jack because of "courage." The jack's dead for the sake of a bigger battery and wireless headphones. It sure isn't an exciting answer, but at least now you can sleep easy knowing why.

As for whether this means next year's Galaxy S11 won't have a headphone jack, Samsung and De Silva wouldn't say, but it's probably a safe bet it won't. After all, the Galaxy Fold, which is relaunching in September, doesn't have a headphone jack, either.

The future — for phones at least — is headphone jack-less. You can choose to resist it all you want, but just like they did with removable batteries, flagship phones will inevitably drop the jack.

WATCH: Hands-on with Galaxy Note 10

Volume 90%

Lefties are going to love Samsung's Galaxy Note 10

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 16:23:00 -0700

Samsung's Galaxy Note 10 and 10+ don't come out until Aug. 23, but we have the bigger phone — literally in our hands — in the enchanting Aura Glow color, and within seconds of unboxing it we can already definitively tell you there's gonna be a learning curve.

It's not the removal of the headphone jack or the S-Pen's new air gesture controls that's bothering us, but the power button. It's moved from the usual right side of the phone to the left, below the volume rocker.

As a righty, I instinctively reached for the power button on the right side of the Note 10+ as I have on my iPhone XS and Android phones for years, only to realize there's nothing there.

Learning to press the power button with my left hand is going to take some retraining of my muscle memory.

For lefties, though: This. Is. Your. Moment!

Finally, a flagship Samsung phone that doesn't make lefties feel like second-class citizens. On the Note 10 and Note 10+, lefties can now easily and comfortably press the power button as we righties have been able to do for years. No more awkwardly reaching over with your index finger anymore.

The power button's relocation from the right side to the left side also comes with two other important changes: turning the device off and activating Bixby.

Since none of the Note 10 phones come with a physical Bixby button, Samsung's now mapped the digital assistant to the power button via a long press. Here's how the power button works on the Note 10 and Note 10+:

Single press: Unlock the phone.
Double press: Open the camera app.
Long press: Activate Bixby.

But if a long press on the power button activates Bixby, how do you turn the phone off or restart it?

To bring up these settings, which are accessed with a long press on the power button on other Samsung phones, you drag down the quick settings menu from the top and tap the new power button in the upper right corner, next to the shortcut to the settings app:

To turn off the Note 10 and Note 10+, you need to tap the power button in the quick settings shade.

Like I said, if you get a Note 10 or Note 10+, there's going to be an initial learning curve if you're a righty. Unlearning old habits and building new ones is hard, but you basically have no choice. However, if you're a lefty, the power button change is basically perfect.

We'll have a full review of the Note 10's with in-depth performance, camera comparisons, and more soon, but for now, if you're a lefty, go ahead and pump your fists! Your time has come.

WATCH: Hands-on with Galaxy Note 10

Volume 90%

Huawei launches its own operating system called HarmonyOS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 12:52:00 -0700

BY STAN SCHROEDER1 DAY, 6 HOURS

After Huawei found itself on the "entity list," which banned it from buying products and components (including licensing Google's Android) from U.S. companies, the Chinese giant teased its own smartphone operating system.

Now, that OS has officially been launched as HarmonyOS — but it's not exactly focused on smartphones.

Revealed at the Huawei Developer Conference in Dongguan, China, by the company CEO Richard Yu, HarmonyOS is a "distributed OS" that lets developers develop their apps once, then "flexibly deploy them across a range of different devices."

This is in contrast to Android and Apple's iOS, which are separate (though partially compatible) with the companies' other platforms.

This means that HarmonyOS will, in theory, offer the same experience on a variety of devices, such as smart TVs, tablets and phones. In practice, though, Huawei first plans to deploy HarmonyOS to a product called the Honor Smart Screen, would be unveiled this Saturday and launch later this year.

Over the next three years, HarmonyOS should arrive to other devices, including wearables and cars.

This is more akin to Samsung's Tizen, which was also once touted as an alternative to Android but is now mainly powering the company's smart TVs and wearables.

Besides its distributed nature, Huawei also highlights HarmonyOS "microkernel architecture," meaning the OS' kernel will be extremely small, making HarmonyOS both fast and resilient to attacks. There's also something called "Deterministic Latency Engine," which should make HarmonyOS better at prioritizing tasks and scheduling them in advance, which, again, should improve performance.

Notably, Google is also working on a microkernel-based, multi-platform operating system called Fuchsia.

HarmonyOS will be released as a worldwide, open-source platform. However, Huawei says it plans to "lay the foundations" of HarmonyOS in China, and expand globally later.

Huawei's position in the U.S. has improved somewhat in June, with president Trump allowing the company to buy some U.S. technology. This could mean that Huawei will be able to continue producing Android-based smartphones as before, while slowly developing HarmonyOS as a sort of backup.

WATCH: Huawei cancels new laptop launch, cites U.S. ban as cause

Easiest Method! - Get Free iTunes, Amazon, Paypal, Xbox, (Free Gift Card...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 11:27:00 -0700

paypal gift card (LINK TO FEATURE POINTS - THIS ONE GIVES EXTRA 50 POINTS) ►USE THIS CODE:9C764T ►Thanks for watching this video and you should click to see more! ►Buy T-Shirts, etc. At My Shop! CHEAP! Join more

How To Get FREE XBOX LIVE GOLD, PSN, STEAM WALLET, GIFT CARDS & MORE! On Android IOS + Desktop 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 23:12:00 -0700

2017So today I will be teaching you how to get free unlimited free robux on roblox 2017 its very easy to get how to get free unlimited free robux on roblox 2017 just watch this video and i will teach you how to get free unlimited free robux on roblox 2017 this has to be the easiest and ONLY WORKING VIDEO ON YOUTUBE on how to get free unlimited free robux on roblox 2017 so when ever you feel like you need a video on how to get unlimited free robux on roblox 2017 make sure to come and subscribe to my channel kazok for the best how to get free unlimited free robux on roblox 2017 type videos! TURN ON THERE NOTIFICATIONS OMG GUYS WE ARE LIVE GIVING AWAY A TOOON! OF FREE ROBUX, MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW THE STEPS IN THE STREAM ABOVE TO GET ENTERED! GOOD LUCK! - So today I will be teaching you how to get free unlimited free robux on roblox 2017 its very easy to get how to get free unlimited free robux on roblox 2017 just watch this video and i will teach you how to get free unlimited free robux on roblox 2017 this has to be the easiest and ONLY WORKING VIDEO ON YOUTUBE on how to get free unlimited free robux on roblox 2017 so when ever you feel like you need a video on how to get unlimited free robux on roblox 2017 make sure to come and subscribe to my channel kazok for the best how to get free unlimited free robux on roblox 2017 type videos! My favorite YouTubers are: DanTDM,TheDiamondMinecart,Denis,DenisDaily,RomanAtwood,RomanAtwoodVlogs,Alex,SubZeroExtaByte,Sub,Corl,jacksepticeye,VanossGaming,H2ODelirious,I AM WILDCAT,TheBajanCanadian,PopularMMOs,SSund

Get $ 5 upon registration on this site and other easily achieved profits

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 7 Jan 2017 02:24:00 -0800

In this new entry will discover many unknown site on the Arab arena, but he has a big applause from the party websites and Western forums, this site will help you a lot as you can kill two birds with one stone, and the first bird is buying a reduction from the Internet Among the most famous western sites and Chinese, and the bird the other is an important profit sums of money can be withdrawn to your Paypal account.

After login to the site via the link at the bottom and Registration (you can register by Facebook) will get directly to the US $ 5 will appear in the account.
Notes:
* There are two ways to pay for the first cross-check and is not supported by the Arabs, and the second by Albebal account.
* You can withdraw after five dollars bypassed and if b 0.01 and the so-called Balkash buck any return of the purchase.
* Each person who registers by you receive $ 5 but after his buying and using the site.
Breaker money into sections and there Abannding Pending section or in the preview phase and the money stays there for between 15 to 60 days depending on each store until it is verified that goes into your account to be able to withdraw it.
You can find more information by clicking on the link above the yellow button in the image:

Do not forget that you link your account with PayPal site after access to the settings as in the picture above.
Do not dwell too much upon you this is the location: Giving Assistant link

Introducing More Ways to Connect and Share Moments

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 7 Jan 2017 00:54:00 -0800

Every day people use Facebook to share moments with their friends. Today we’re introducing a marketing program to invite people to share and talk about events and moments that are happening in their communities and around the world.

Messages from Facebook will appear at the top of News Feed about a specific event or moment. Our goal is to:

Give people ways to connect and share with friends during holidays and events
Help people discover fun and interesting cultural moments
Celebrate moments in history that continue to make the world more open and connected

Here are some recent examples of moments that we’ve shared with people in the US:

Share a Holiday Card

Starting today, people will see a message from Facebook in their News Feed wishing them Happy Holidays. People will be invited to share a holiday card with their friends on Facebook and choose from a set of 18 custom-designed cards.

Downloads:

Instagram surges past 700M users, fueled by algorithmic feed

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 18 Dec 2016 09:00:00 -0800

Instagram has gone through a whirlwind of changes the past few months. Between bookmarks, likable comments, live video, tags, zoom, drafts, Stories and of course the controversial algorithmic feed – no one can argue that the Facebook-owned photo sharing app hasn’t been innovating at a rapid pace.

But the real question is what effect are these product enhancements having on the bottom line – which in the case of Instagram is measured in user growth. And the answers seems to be that it’s working.

The app just announced that they have grown to over 600 million monthly active users. This is almost 10% of the world population – and 100 million more than the company had 6 months ago when they announced a milestone of 500M monthly actives. As a comparison, it took about 9 months to get from 400M to 500M monthly actives – so their growth is still accelerating, even with such a large user base.

While the growth over the past 6 months was still broad-based, the company noted that they were doing partially well in Asian countries – a part of the world that will be important if they want to keep up this rapid growth.

And of course the product enhancements above have helped. Stories have given people a reason to check Instagram more frequently than ever before, and the personalized algorithmic feed has made sure people only see what they want to see on their feed – which also increases the chances they come back to the app.

As you may recall the algorithmic feed was controversial at first – people wanted their feed to remain in chronological order, and didn’t trust Instagram to show them what they wanted to see. But now it seems that not only has this outcry completely vanished, but the personalization is actually helping with retention and growth. Of course Instagram already knew this – the same thing happened when their big brother Facebook changed from a chronological to algorithmic newsfeed.

So now the question is how long will it take Instagram to hit its next 100M active users, and what product enhancements will they roll out to help make it happen faster?

The Arduino MKRZero is a teenier, tinier DIY board for hardware hackers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 18 Dec 2016 08:55:00 -0800

What do you buy for someone who has everything? Either a pink fairy armadillo or an Arduino MKRZero. I’d recommend going with the Arduino.

The MKRZero is basically a really, really small microcomputer with a number of outputs and headers as well as a battery management system and USB control. It’s great for learning or building 32-bit applications and it’s small enough to fit inside almost anything.

What can you do with it? A few things including building a DIY Theremin and a money spewing “Make It Rain” machine that spits out dollars when you clap your hands. Obviously your results may vary.

Little boards like this one are great fun and are always valuable experimental and hacking tools. At a mere $22 you could probably pick one of these up and learn a little Arduino programming in your spare time which is more than you can say for a pink fairy armadillo. All that little guy will teach you is how to love again.

Pokemon GO Latest Version APK 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:19:00 -0800

Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Pikachu, and many other Pokémon have been discovered on planet Earth!

Now’s your chance to discover and capture the Pokémon all around you—so get your shoes on, step outside, and explore the world. You’ll join one of three teams and battle for the prestige and ownership of Gyms with your Pokémon at your side.

Pokémon are out there, and you need to find them. As you walk around a neighborhood, your smartphone will vibrate when there’s a Pokémon nearby. Take aim and throw a Poké Ball… You’ll have to stay alert, or it might get away!

Search far and wide for Pokémon and items

Certain Pokémon appear near their native environment—look for Water-type Pokémon by lakes and oceans. Visit PokéStops, found at interesting places like museums, art installations, historical markers, and monuments, to stock up on Poké Balls and helpful items.

Catching, hatching, evolving, and more

As you level up, you’ll be able to catch more-powerful Pokémon to complete your Pokédex. You can add to your collection by hatching Pokémon Eggs based on the distances you walk. Help your Pokémon evolve by catching many of the same kind.

Take on Gym battles and defend your Gym

As your Charmander evolves to Charmeleon and then Charizard, you can battle together to defeat a Gym and assign your Pokémon to defend it against all comers.

It’s time to get moving—your real-life adventures await!

Notes:

– This app is free-to-play and offers in-game purchases. It is optimized for smartphones, not tablets.

– Compatible with Android devices that have 2GB RAM or more and have Android Version 4.4 – 6.0 installed.

– Compatibility is not guaranteed for devices without GPS capabilities or devices that are connected only to Wi-Fi networks

– Not compatible with Android devices that use Intel Atom processors.

– Compatibility with tablet devices is not guaranteed.

– Application may not run on certain devices even if they have compatible OS versions installed.

– It is recommended to play while connected to a network in order to obtain accurate location information.

– Compatibility information may be changed at any time.

:Download Pokemon Go:
download here

Students only needed 36 hours to solve Facebook's fake news problem

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 7 Dec 2016 14:19:00 -0800

Facebook has been struggling to keep fake news

stories from infiltrating its trending sections and off people's newsfeeds. But it turns out all the social media giant had to do was work with some student programmers who found away to sniff out fake news sites in just 36 ho.

SEE ALSO: It’s time to stop blaming Facebook for fake news

The group of four students, including Nabanita De, who spoke to Mashable Friday, buckled down during a three-day hackathon event at Princeton University last week. They came up with a Chrome browser extension appropriately called FiB.

De said the idea struck her as she was on the bus to Princeton from UMass Amherst, where she is a grad student. The 22-year-old spoke with her hackathon teammates Anant Goel, 18, Qinglin Chen, 20, and Mark Craft, 19, about finding a way to tackle fake information that spreads through Facebook.

After a 36-hour whirlwind, the team had come up with its fake news solution. The extension goes through your feed and verifies the sources of news stories, images and other links. The posts are tagged with a "trust score" of either "verified" or "not verified" to give users a sense of whether a post is B.S. or legit. The Washington Post showed how the extension works by using advanced web scraping to find links, posts and images that are sent to AI that goes through a collection of API calls.

Since they released the tool, De said there have been something close to 50,000 downloads. "Servers are crashing because they can't handle so much," she said. The group has left all its code open and free and De said she hopes others who have been working on the Facebook issue for a lot longer will reach out. The team is all about having everything out in the open.

De said the team hasn't been in touch with Facebook, but she'd be up for better integration with the platform.

Also this week, other Chrome extensions including the "B.S. Detector" and the "Fake News Alert" debuted as tools in the ongoing effort to fight fake Facebook stories. Maybe Facebook will jump on some of these, since it doesn't seem to have quite figured out how to handle the problem.

Instagram's next big feature will be live video

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 02:26:00 -0800

Instagram's going to transform once again.

After copying Snapchat Stories with its own Instagram Stories, Instagram is now preparing to introduce live video, joining the likes of Facebook Live, Twitter's Periscope and YouTube Live, according to a recent interview Kevin Systrom, CEO of Instagram, gave to the Financial Times.

Last month, the Russian website T Journal published screenshots and a short video of what appeared to be a live video feature Instagram was secretly testing.

Instagram declined to comment on the feature. The company frequently tests new features with small groups of users; the tests, however, aren't confirmation that they'll ever become official (some never get released to everyone).

But live videos are definitely coming.

Systrom confirmed the company is planning to bring live video to its massive 500 million-plus monthly active users.

"If I’m trying to strengthen relationships with someone I love, them streaming video to me live would be an amazing way to be closer to them."

"Live is really exciting for us. I think it can enhance what we’re doing," Systrom told the Financial Times. "If I’m trying to strengthen relationships with someone I love, them streaming video to me live would be an amazing way to be closer to them."

The FT's report didn't mention when live videos will be rolling out to Instagram. Our guess is soon if Systrom is OK with talking about it publicly.

Introducing live videos will further bolster Instagram as theplace to create and share videos. With more than 100 million daily users viewing Instagram Stories since the feature launched this summer, there is a tremendous opportunity to leverage these eyeballs as they shun traditional video TV broadcasts for live content that's more personable and "authentic."

"If you’re the CEO of a company and all of a sudden 100m people are using a new format every single day, it’s not something you ignore. You push investment into it," Systrom told FT.

One thing that will be interesting to watch is how Instagram's live videos will affect Facebook Live. The two will, no doubt, be able to co-exist, and Facebook, which owns Instagram, will reap benefits from both platforms, but which one will the people choose?

Whatever happens, start getting ready to "Go Insta.

Zuckerberg doubles down against criticism of Facebook's election impact

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 13:21:00 -0800

More people get their news on Facebook than ever before, but Mark Zuckerberg is still convinced fake news on Facebook was not that big a deal during the presidential election.

Writing on Facebook Saturday, the CEO again responded to critics who have lambasted the social network for not doing more to combat the spread of misinformation. Instead, he wrote it was "extremely unlikely hoaxes changed the
outcome of this election in one direction or the other."

"We don't want any hoaxes on Facebook. Our goal is to show people the content they will find most meaningful," Zuckerberg wrote in the post.

The CEO did acknowledge the company can do more to combat made-up news stories, but suggested that type of content was negligible.

"Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99% of what people see is authentic."

"Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99% of what people see is authentic. Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes. The hoaxes that do exist are not limited to one partisan view, or even to politics," he added.

"Overall, this makes it extremely unlikely hoaxes changed the outcome of this election in one direction or the other."

Right now, the network relies primarily on its users to self-police content, including fake news stories. But Facebook's critics argue these tools don't go far enough in reducing the spread of false information.

Zuckerberg noted that discerning the "truth" is a more challenging problem than it may seem to those outside the company.

Identifying the "truth" is complicated. While some hoaxes can be completely debunked, a greater amount of content, including from mainstream sources, often gets the basic idea right but some details wrong or omitted. An even greater volume of stories express an opinion that many will disagree with and flag as incorrect even when factual. I am confident we can find ways for our community to tell us what content is most meaningful, but I believe we must be extremely cautious about becoming arbiters of truth ourselves.

Zuckerberg's comments, his most extensive public remarks on Facebook's role in the election yet, come as he and other executives at the social network are under fire for not doing more to combat the spread of invented news and conspiracy theories.

On Thursday, Zuckerberg said the idea that fake news influenced the election was "a pretty crazy idea."

His arguments will likely ring hollow to many critics who have hoped Zuckerberg would take a stronger stance on the issue, which has reportedly been controversial internally at the company.

Some Facebook employees have questioned whether the network should have done more to stop fake news and racists memes from spreading, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Though Zuckerberg seems unlikely to change his opinion — tone deaf though it may seem to critics — he confirmed a previous statement from the company that News Feed changes to address the issue are in the works.

"We hope to have more to share soon, although this work often takes longer than we'd like in order to confirm changes we make won't introduce unintended side effects or bias into the system," he added.

mashable

how to share all group facebook one click and very easy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 05:05:00 -0700

OTHERS NEWS

the developing worries about the current Covid-19 flare-up has driven some to get another diversion,

Don’t Make “The Economy Matters” a Republican Talking Point It was turf the left fought over until like six days ago

The Tale of The Goblin Wizard (Clash of Clans Official) download ios and...

Physicists create world's smallest engine

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World 2019 AMAZING MOVIES

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Music[edit]

Release and marketing[edit]

Home media[edit]

Video games[edit]

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

Critical response[edit]

Experts: Spy used AI-generated face to connect with targets

LinkedIn is full of spies

Huge LinkedIn loophole put user security at risk

Samsung's next smartwatch will probably arrive with the Galaxy Note 10

Here’s the Galaxy Watch Active 2

Samsung's Galaxy Tab S6 is the iPad Pro's only serious competitor

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 is a hot alternative to the Apple Watch

Why Samsung removed the headphone jack from the Galaxy Note 10

WATCH: Hands-on with Galaxy Note 10

Lefties are going to love Samsung's Galaxy Note 10

WATCH: Hands-on with Galaxy Note 10

Huawei launches its own operating system called HarmonyOS

WATCH: Huawei cancels new laptop launch, cites U.S. ban as cause

Easiest Method! - Get Free iTunes, Amazon, Paypal, Xbox, (Free Gift Card...

How To Get FREE XBOX LIVE GOLD, PSN, STEAM WALLET, GIFT CARDS & MORE! On Android IOS + Desktop 2016

Get $ 5 upon registration on this site and other easily achieved profits

Introducing More Ways to Connect and Share Moments

Instagram surges past 700M users, fueled by algorithmic feed

The Arduino MKRZero is a teenier, tinier DIY board for hardware hackers

Pokemon GO Latest Version APK 2016

Students only needed 36 hours to solve Facebook's fake news problem

Instagram's next big feature will be live video

Zuckerberg doubles down against criticism of Facebook's election impact

how to share all group facebook one click and very easy