Now this… this is an ultra-wide monitor

I’ve been working with an ugly but functional lopsided two-monitor setup for years, and while it has served me well, I can’t say the new generation of ultra-wide monitors hasn’t tempted me. But the truth is they just aren’t wide enough. Or rather, they weren’t.

Samsung has just blown my mind with a monitor so wide it will serve as a ramp that you can trick off of in the summer. It’s so wide that when it puts on a pair of BVDs they read BOULEVARD. It’s so wide that the Bayeux Tapestry got jealous.

Actually it’s a little less wide than a couple of the monitors Samsung announced at CES — but those had two problems. First, they were 3840×1080. And I just need more vertical pixels than that. Second, they were 49 inches wide. That’s a BIG monitor! Not just big, but with those pixels spread out that far, it’s not going to be sharp at all.

On the other hand, this new one not only adds an extra 120 pixels, bringing it to the far superior 1200 vertical (for a total of 3840×1200), but it is 43 inches corner to corner. 43 inches… would that be too big, too small, or would it be…

Just right?!

(Yes, my left monitor is a bit warmer than my right, but it’s not as bad as it looks — that’s a viewing angle issue.)

One of the downsides of a giant monitor is that it can be a pain to separate workspaces or, say, have a movie playing “full screen” on one half while you browse Etsy for vintage kettles on the other. But Samsung has a “picture-by-picture” mode and some other useful features that help with this. So I’m going to give it a shot.

It’s also got 120Hz refresh (though no word on sync tech), a bunch of USB ports, and even a headphone jack. I don’t know why you would want built-in sound on a thing like this, since you clearly are a media freak if you buy it, but they felt the need to add in speakers.

The Samsung C43J89 monitor will cost $900 when it comes out, which admittedly is two or three times what I would normally pay for a monitor — I’m more of a Dell Ultrasharp guy, IPS all the way. But my whole workflow could change when this thing goes on sale.

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Wilson is like Longreads for podcasts

Meet Wilson, a new iPhone app that plans to change the way you discover and listen to podcasts. The company describes the app as a podcast magazine. It has the same vibe as Longreads, the curated selection of longform articles.

With its minimalistic design and opinionated typography, Wilson looks like no other podcasting app. On an iPhone X, the black background looks perfectly black thanks to the OLED display. It feels like an intimate experience.

Every week, the team selects a handful of podcast episodes all tied together by the same topic. Those topics can be the Supreme Court, the LGBTQ community, loneliness, dads, the World Cup…

Each issue has a cover art and a short description. And the team also tells you why each specific podcast episode is interesting. In other words, Wilson isn’t just an audio experience. You can listen to episodes in the app or open them in Apple Podcasts.

Navigating in the app is all based on swipes. You can scroll through past editions by swiping left and right. You can open an edition by swiping up, and go back to the list by swiping down. This feels much more natural than putting buttons everywhere.

Wilson also feels like tuning in to the radio. Podcasts are great because they let you learn everything there’s to learn about any interest you can have. But it also narrows your interests in a way. Podcast apps are too focused on top lists and “you might also like” recommendations.

Gone are the days when you would switch on the radio and listen to a few people talk about something you didn’t know you cared about. Human editors can change that. That’s why Wilson can be a nice addition to your podcasting routine.

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Surprise! Top sites still fail at encouraging non-terrible passwords

You would think that Amazon, Reddit, Wikipedia and other highly popular websites would by now tell you that “password1” or “hunter2” is a terrible password — just terrible. But they don’t. A research project that has kept tabs on the top sites and their password habits for the last 11 years shows that most provide only rudimentary password restrictions and do little to help users.

Steven Furnell, of the University of Plymouth, first did a survey of websites’ password practices in 2007, repeating the process in 2011 and 2014 — and then once more this week. His conclusions?

It is somewhat disappointing to find that the overall story in 2018 remains largely similar to that of 2007. In the intervening years, much has been written about the failings of passwords and the ways in which we use them, yet little is done to encourage or oblige us to follow the right path.

Although the university writeup notes that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo had the best password practices and Amazon, Reddit and Wikipedia had the worst, it diplomatically declined to go into specifics. Fortunately, I acquired the paper for myself and am prepared to name and shame.

The top 10 unique sites in English (as measured by Alexa; the lineup has changed somewhat over the years) were evaluated: Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, Reddit, Yahoo, Amazon, Twitter, Instagram, Microsoft Live and Netflix.

The biggest failure is inarguably Amazon, which combines truly inadequate password controls with an incredibly valuable and personal service. Wikipedia and Reddit had fewer restrictions, but neither protects such important data; an Amazon account being accessed by malicious actors is a far greater danger.

Amazon accepted practically every password Furnell threw at it, including repeats of the username, the user’s own name and, of course, the all-time classic, “password.” (Netflix and Reddit also took “password,” though Wikipedia didn’t. Wikipedia, on the other hand, accepted single-character passwords like “b.”)

Even sites that do have restrictions, like requiring multiple character types or rejecting commonly used passwords, seldom explain themselves. Presented with no feedback at the start, users creating an account may enter a password, only to be told it must be longer… and then, again, that it can’t have a certain word (like the user’s last name)… and then, again, that it must include special characters. And some sites have different requirements when you sign up than when you set a new one!

Why not lay it all out at the start? And for that matter, why not explain the reasoning behind it? It’d be trivial to make a little info box saying “We require X because Y.” But hardly any of the top sites do.

The one bit of light in this dreary report is that two-factor authentication — arguably more important than a good password — is in fact making strides, and some of the worst offenders in password policy (looking at you, Amazon) allow it. Now they just have to move it off of SMS and onto a secure authenticator app.

The final word is pretty the same as it’s been for the last decade:

The basic argument here – as with the earlier versions of the study and the others referenced – is for provision of user-facing security to be matched with accompanying support. Passwords are a good example because we know that many people are poor at using them. And yet the lesson continues to go unheeded and we continue to criticise the method and blame the users instead.

Two-factor is a start, but:

Users arguably require more encouragement – or indeed obligation – to use them. Otherwise, like passwords themselves, they will offer the potential for protection, while falling short of doing so in practice.

In other words, quit talking about how bad passwords are and do something about it!

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How to Save Adobe Illustrator Files in Other Formats: JPEG, PNG, SVG, Etc.

By default, Adobe Illustrator saves files in the AI format. This is ideal for when you’re working on projects, or for saving a master copy of your work.

But when the times comes to print or share the finished product, post it online, or import it into other programs, you will need to save it into a different format.

Adobe Illustrator gives you lots of options for this. The right one to choose depends on how you want to use your resulting image. Let’s take a look at the best formats to use and how to use them.

Saving Artboards in Adobe Illustrator

Before we look at how to save files in specific formats, it’s important to know how Illustrator handles artboards, and how to save artboards as separate files.

Artboards are like different pages within an Illustrator file. They can be combined into a single image, but you can also save them out separately.

Most of the ways to save Illustrator files let you choose how you want to handle artboards, and this affects what your final, exported image will look like. In most cases, you choose what to do through an option in the Export screen.

Here’s what you should do:

• If you want to save multiple artboards as separate files, check the Use Artboards box. Then select either All to save all the artboards, or enter a Range (such as 2-4) to specify which artboards to save.
• When you have objects placed outside of an artboard (like if it’s overlapping the edge), check the Use Artboards box. This will ensure that your final image only contains what’s inside the artboard, and that the rest is cropped out.
• If all your artwork is within the artboard, and you only have one of them, clear the Use Artboards box. This will produce an image that is cropped to the bounds of the objects within in, with all white space removed. This is especially handy for outputting square or rectangular shaped objects.

Saving High Resolution JPEGs in Adobe Illustrator

For an illustration, infographic, or anything that needs to be printed like a business card, the best option is to output it as a high resolution JPEG.

Ideally, you should design your artwork at roughly the size at which you want to output it. Although Illustrator images can be resized without any loss of quality, you’ll find that the sizing between objects—and especially the kerning in text—needs to be tighter at larger sizes than smaller sizes.

If you haven’t previously worked in this way, create a new document, paste in your artwork and tweak it to taste. You’re now ready to save your high res JPEG.

1. Go to File > Export > Export As. Type in a file name and set Format to JPEG.
2. Set how you want to save your artboards, then hit Export to continue.
3. In the JPEG Options screen change the Color Model if you need to, and choose a quality.
4. Under Options, set the output resolution. Screen (72dpi) will produce a file the same size as your original document and should be okay for web use. Choose High (300dpi) for a high res image. This will be good enough for printing.
5. Click OK to save the file.

Saving Adobe Illustrator Files as PNG

When you need to save an image like a logo or icon for use on the web, especially if it has a transparent background, then you might want to save it as a PNG file.

In order to support standard and high resolution displays you should export your file at different sizes. You can do this automatically.

1. Go to File > Export > Export for Screens.
2. Select the Artboards tab. If there’s more than one artboard in your image, choose the ones you want to output.
3. Under Formats, set Format to PNG and Scale to 1x.
4. Click Add Scale. This will create the settings for a second image, so set the Scale option to a new relative size. 3x, for example, will output an image three times taller and wider than the original.
5. Add more sizes if you need them.
6. Click Export Artboard to save your images.

Saving Adobe Illustrator Files as SVG

A better, more modern way to export graphics like icons and logos for the web is by using the SVG format. Short for Scalable Vector Graphics, SVG is actually an XML-based markup language.

While you can output files that you can link to in your web page, you can also save the image as a piece of code that you can paste directly into your HTML file. You can then edit this using CSS. It’s a very efficient way of adding effects and animations to your images.

There are other benefits: the images are lightweight, and because they’re vectors you can resize them easily. There’s no need to output multiple sized images for different screen resolutions.

There are a couple of ways to create an SVG. Using Save As creates a larger file for working on. To create a final image you can use in your projects use the Export option.

1. Go to File > Export > Export As.
2. Set the Format to SVG and click Export.
3. Set Styling to Internal CSS. This places all the styling information in a <style> block that can be easily changed with CSS.
4. For Font choose SVG to keep the text selectable. Only choose Outlines if you’re using an obscure, custom font. Leave Images on Preserve.
5. Make sure Minify and Responsive are both checked for maximum performance and compatibility.
6. Now click Show Code to open the code in a text editor. You can copy and paste this into your HTML file. Or click OK to output the image as an SVG file.

Saving Artboards as PDFs in Adobe Illustrator

The simplest way to save an Illustrator file as a PDF is through the Save As option. However, if you are using more than one artboard this will combine them all into a multi-page PDF.

There’s a simple trick to save artboards as separate PDF files:

1. Go to Export > Save for Screens.
2. In the dialog box that opens, click the Artboards tab and select those that you want to save.
3. In the right hand column set Format to PDF, then hit Export Artboards. It may take a few seconds to output large or complex files.
4. When done your files will, by default, saved in their own separate sub-folder.

Saving Objects From an Adobe Illustrator Image

Sometimes you might need to save or export only selected objects from a larger piece of art. For instance, if you have designed a logo you may want to save the text or the symbol in its own individual file.

You can do this by turning the objects into Assets.

1. Go to Window > Asset Export.
2. Choose the Selection Tool from the Toolbar, or hit V on your keyboard. Now drag the objects you want to save onto the Asset Export panel.
3. Now select the Asset. Hold Ctrl or Cmd to select more than one.
4. Under Export Settings choose a Format. You can select PNG, Jpeg, SVG, or PDF.
5. If you’re saving as a PNG or Jpeg you can export at multiple sizes. Set Scale to 1x, then click Add Scale and the set Scale to, for example, 2x. You can also use this option to export the asset in different formats.
6. Click Export and choose a location to save your new files.

How to Use Adobe Illustrator Files in Other Apps

There are other options, too, that allow you to use your Illustrator file in other programs. Photoshop can open AI files directly, but only as a flat, uneditable image. Use the Export As option instead to save the file in the PSD format. This retains all the separate layers when you open it in Photoshop.

You can use AI files in other Adobe apps and products like InDesign, where it won’t be editable but will keep things like its transparent background.

For most non-Adobe apps, you will most likely need to save the file in the SVG format (using the Save As command this time). Check out our guide to opening AI files without Adobe Illustrator for more details.

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The World Cup led to a record-breaking number of app downloads and consumer spend in Q2

The second quarter of 2018 was another record-breaker for mobile app downloads and revenue. According to a new report this week from App Annie, there were over 28.4 billion app downloads worldwide across both iOS and Google Play in the quarter, up 15 percent year-over-year. That number is even more remarkable because it doesn’t include reinstalls or updates – only new app downloads. In addition, consumer spending in apps was up 20 percent year-over-year to reach $18.5 billion across iOS and Google Play combined.

This is the most money spent in apps compared with any other quarter before, the report notes, topping the prior quarter’s record-breaking $18.4 billion in app revenue, and 27.5 billion downloads.

Much of the download activity in Q2 came from Google Play.

On its app marketplace alone, global downloads topped 20 billion, up 20 percent year-over-year and widening the gap between itself and iOS by 25 percent points to 160 percent. (See below).

This massive download growth is attributable largely to India, says App Annie.

The country was the biggest driver of download growth year-over-year in both absolute values and growth in market share. Indonesia also played a big role in Google Play downloads.

Meanwhile, the U.S., Russia and Saudi Arabia saw the largest growth in iOS downloads.

In particular, Google Play app downloads included growth in categories like games, video players and editors, and – not surprisingly, given the World Cup – sports applications. And on iOS, Sports apps were also the largest driver of global iOS downloads, followed by Finance and Travel apps.

The impact on the 2018 FIFA World Cup on sports app downloads was also highlighted last month by Sensor Tower, whose own analysis found that new installs of the five leading live TV on demand apps offering channels with the World Cup grew 77 percent during the first week of World Cup coverage, compared with the three preceding weeks (excluding the NBA Finals period).

Sports streaming service fuboTV saw the largest impact, growing at a whopping 713 percent and adding 309K new users in the U.S., while Hulu saw the smallest impact at 18 percent growth.

Single network apps grew, too, this earlier report said. FOX Sports downloads increased by 95x for the same period, while Telemundo Deportes En Vivo grew 444x, for example.

App Annie added that the top 3 sports apps in Android in the U.S. during the first three weeks of the tournament were Telemundo Deportes (#1), FOX Sports GO (#2), and FOX Sports (#3), in terms of average megabytes per user – an indication of users’ live-streaming activity. The apps were also new entrants to the top 10 list of apps by total time spent, compared with the three weeks directly prior.

In the U.K., over 6 million hours were spent in the top 10 sports apps on Android during the first 3 weeks of the World Cup, up 65 percent from the 3 weeks prior.

The World Cup also had an impact on consumer spending in apps in the quarter.

Sports apps on iOS were the third largest contributors to absolute growth in consumer spend and in market share in Q2, while Entertainment and Productivity apps were numbers one and two, respectively. In-app subscriptions for both Sports and Entertainment apps drove the consumer spending increases.

On Google Play, Games, Social, and Music & Audio apps saw the largest download growth, quarter-over-quarter.

However, despite the downloads and consumer spending in sports and TV apps, the charts of the top 10 apps by worldwide downloads and consumer spending look a lot like they usually do – with Facebook apps dominating the top 10 by downloads (Messenger, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram were the top  4).

And the top 10 apps by spending were still largely those subscription-based entertainment services like Netflix, Tencent Video, iQIYI, Pandora, Youku, and YouTube.

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10 Useful Telegram Features You Should Be Using

Dish is the first TV provider to offer support for Apple’s Business Chat

Dish today announced it’s becoming the first TV provider to offer customer support over Apple’s Business Chat. Launched earlier this year, Business Chat allows companies to communicate with their customers over iMessage in order to answer questions, provide customer service, or even enable purchases. In Dish’s case, the TV provider says its customers can use Business Chat to reach a live agent with their questions, make account changes, schedule an appointment, and more.

They can even use their credit card in Business Chat to order a pay-per-view movie or sporting event, then watch it within minutes of confirming the purchase, Dish says.

This feature takes advantage of Apple Pay, which lets you quickly make purchases using your stored payment information without having to leave the iMessage conversation.

Business Chat is as secure as placing a call, where customers would have had to provide information to identify themselves as the account holder. As Dish explains, Apple Business Chat doesn’t display the customer’s contact information to the agents, so customers can choose if they want to share that information themselves. They’re also in control of authenticating their account, if they want to make changes or purchases.

“TV should be simple, so we’ve made reaching our live customer service representatives as easy as sending a text,” said John Swieringa, Dish’s chief operating officer, in a statement about the launch. “Adding messaging with Apple Business Chat is a powerful way to connect with us, giving another choice so you can pick what fits with your life.”

Business Chat is a direct attack by Apple on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Today, businesses tend to set up Facebook Pages and often offer customers the ability to reach out over Facebook’s Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp with questions. Twitter has also entered the customer service business, allowing businesses to respond to customers over tweets and DMs. Business Chat offers companies an alternative to social media, with the advantage of having access to Apple Pay built-in. (Facebook, meanwhile, hasn’t established itself as a payments company nor does much of its user base keep their payment information on file with the company. The same goes for Twitter.)

In addition, operating over iMessage means businesses get even closer with their customers – their conversations are in the same Messages app as chats with friends and family, not in a third-party app. And Apple isn’t interested in profiting from data collection. Its main goal is to sell more devices, which in turn allows it to sell more of its own services to users, like iCloud storage and Apple Music.

That said, it’s not likely that businesses will abandon their social media presence for Business Chat, so it may end up being just one more place for them to check – albeit one with an install base of hundreds of millions.

Dish is one of the earlier adopters for Business Chat. Other companies on the platform include Aramark, Discover, Four Seasons, Harry & David, Hilton, The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Marriott, NewEgg, T-Mobile, TD Ameritrade, Wells Fargo, 1-800-Flowers, and, of course, Apple.

To chat with Dish via Business Chat on iPhone or iPad (iOS 11.3 or higher), customers search for “Dish” then tap the Messages icon that appears next to the Dish search result. They can also open chat form the contact page of their MyDISH app, where they manage their Dish TV account.

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Why Smartphone Batteries Explode and How to Prevent It

Yes, that little smartphone you keep in your pocket has the potential to burst—and it’s not limited to exploding Samsung batteries. A lithium-ion battery is the same no matter what device it’s in, and they all carry identical risks.

What are these risks? And how can you reduce them with your phone? That’s what we’re going to explore in this article.

Smartphone Battery Explosions: The Facts

We don’t have a bunch of doom-and-gloom fear-mongering stories for you. Yes, your phone can explode. But no, it’s isn’t likely to happen at all.

Modern lithium-ion batteries—today’s preferred rechargeable batteries for everything from smartphones to Tesla vehicles—have the capacity to be highly explosive.

Have a look at this thermal video of a lithium-ion battery cell under “heat abuse” for two minutes:

The point of explosion is sudden and extremely hot.

But outside of a lab where people apply an extremely hot source to the battery, how do these batteries explode in the real world?

Here is the sequence of events that happen inside a lithium-ion battery before and during an explosion:

• One area of the battery starts getting too hot due to a short-circuit in the charging circuit, or some other external cause.
• The chemical reaction inside the hot area begins generating its own heat as well, which spreads to other areas in a process known as electrolyte overheat.
• Eventually, this building heat causes the electrolyte to give off stream, which bursts the battery casing.
• Very flammable, hot liquid (not unlike napalm) escapes and usually burns or melts the surrounding phone casing and whatever the phone is next to.

This reaction, known as “thermal runaway,” does sound pretty horrendous, but there’s one fact that should set your mind at ease: manufacturers are constantly implementing new safety features in lithium-ion batteries that reduce the likelihood of this happening, or at least reduce the damage caused when it does.

Smartphone Battery Safety Features

Some of these safety features include:

• Non-flammable additives added to the electrolyte and battery coatings.
• Built-in circuitry that protects against current surges.
• Circuit interrupt devices that open the circuit if the cell pressure exceeds safe limits.
• Fail-safe safety vents that release gases if the cell expands beyond a higher safety limit.
• Thermal fuses that break the circuit when temperatures reach a safety limit.

So for a healthy battery installed inside the average phone, the worse-case scenario before the battery ever reaches this nightmare “thermal runaway” scenario is a message that the phone needs to shut down. Or the battery may simply stop working.

Still, there are situations that could still cause a battery to explode.

1. Dropping and Damaging the Battery

As mentioned above, everything will work fine so long as you are dealing with a healthy battery. One problem that can negatively affect a battery’s health is physical damage from drops.

Most people will rush to a local repair center to get their screen repaired when this happens. If the phone still works, they don’t even give a second thought to what damage the battery might have sustained.

Unfortunately, a drop can alter the internal mechanical or chemical structure of the battery. These changes could cause any of the fail-safe circuitry to fail in extreme stress conditions.

How can you tell if a battery might be damaged? Open up the case and take a look at the battery. If any of the following conditions exist, consider replacing it immediately:

• Swelling
• Deformation
• Frequent, unexplainable overheating

In many situations, you can avoid explosive battery failure by paying close attention to signs of existing battery damage. For a smartphone battery to be safe, all its built-in safety features need to function properly. So it’s important to never use a battery that has visible signs of damage.

2. Hot Temperatures and Environments

While there may be safeguards built into your battery to ensure that it sheds excessive heat, or shuts down when too hot, it’s important to keep the battery away from those temperature limits in the first place.

Many elements contribute to your phone naturally heating up. Those include:

• Running intensive graphics that put a heavy load on the GPU
• Using apps that put too much demand on the CPU
• Widgets that run constantly while you’re multitasking with the phone
• Regularly connectivity checks when your cellular or Wi-Fi connection is spotty
• Long phone calls

Normally any of these uses are fine, but if you’re doing them in an environment that’s extra hot, you could run into trouble. For example, using a phone in direct sunlight at the pool, while listening to Spotify and browsing the web, makes an already straining smartphone struggle to cool itself.

Even if this doesn’t cause the battery to explode, it can contribute to the aging process and make getting long battery life a challenge.

Charging your phone under these conditions can contribute to overheating even further. The phone naturally builds heat during charging.

There are many ways to keep your phone cool and avoid these problems:

• Remove the phone from its case when you’re charging it.
• Keep the phone out of direct sunlight whenever possible.
• Don’t leave your phone in a hot car for extended periods.
• Don’t charge the phone while it’s in a pocket or inside a bag, or any other place that can trap heat.

We’ve offered many ways to avoid overheating an Android phone, and tips to keep your iPhone cool. Following these is an important part of being a wise smartphone user.

3. Using the Wrong Charger

I purchased a first-generation Google Pixel when it launched. Not knowing that the Pixel requires a cable with a built-in 56k Ohm resistor conforming to Type C specifications, I grabbed a cheap cable in the checkout line at Walmart to charge it.

I incorrectly assumed all USB-C cables are manufactured the same. The reality is that manufacturers of cheap chargers produce cables that do not always meet specifications required by USB-C devices.

After some time using it, I started noticing my phone became especially hot during charging.

One day when I went to charge my phone in my car, the phone became extremely hot and the charger actually became stuck in the charger port. As I was trying to pull it out, a small puff of smoke came out of the charger port.

I’m lucky I didn’t experience a smartphone exploding in my face.

Thankfully, Verizon replaced the phone under the manufacturer’s warranty. But the lesson I learned was an important one: Buy brand-name chargers from reputable retailers!

You can buy non-OEM chargers, but you need to make sure they meet all specifications required by your phone. Cheap knockoff chargers like these use materials with sub-standard quality or an incorrect gauge of wire that lacks appropriate overcurrent protection.

If you don’t invest in a quality charger, you can run into charging problems at best. At worst, you’re risking not only the destruction of your expensive phone, but possible injury to yourself.

4. Getting Your Phone Wet

Lithium will ignite and burn when in contact with water or water vapor. Batteries come well-sealed, so that kind of contact shouldn’t happen normally.

Many modern phones are waterproof or water-resistant. However, combine a cheap smartphone with a punctured battery, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

5. Battery Punctures

Lithium reacts to both water and oxygen, so puncturing a lithium-ion battery will produce a reaction. This could be anything from a little bit of smoke and a terrible smell to a full-on explosion.

And the reaction is rapid.

Obviously, this means there’s always a danger if a smartphone gets punctured during an accident or any other violent situation.

Staying Safe With Smartphone Batteries

It’s important to keep in mind that the battery inside your smartphone has the capacity to become a dangerous hazard under extreme conditions.

So the idea is to avoid those extreme conditions. Store, charge, and treat your smartphone in a way so that should anything ever happen, you are protected from serious injury.

To learn more, check out some common misconceptions about smartphone batteries.

Image Credit: weerapat/Depositphotos

Read the full article: Why Smartphone Batteries Explode and How to Prevent It

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Facebook, Google and more unite to let you transfer data between apps

The Data Transfer Project is a new team-up between tech giants to let you move your content, contacts, and more across apps. Founded by Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft, the DTP today revealed its plans for an open source data portability platform any online service can join. While many companies already let you download your information, that’s not very helpful if you can’t easily upload and use it elsewhere — whether you want to evacuate a social network you hate, back up your data somewhere different, or bring your digital identity along when you try a new app. The DTP’s tool isn’t ready for use yet, but the group today laid out a white paper for how it will work.

Creating an industry standard for data portability could force companies to compete on utility instead of being protected by data lock-in that traps users because it’s tough to switch services. The DTP could potentially offer a solution to a major problem with social networks I detailed in April: you can’t find your friends from one app on another. We’ve asked Facebook for details on if and how you’ll be able to transfer your social connections and friends’ contact info which it’s historically hoarded.

Facebook shouldn’t block you from finding friends on competitors

From porting playlists in music streaming services to health data from fitness trackers to our reams of photos and videos, the DTP could be a boon for startups. Incumbent tech giants maintain a huge advantage in popularizing new functionality because they instantly interoperate with a user’s existing data rather than making them start from scratch. Even if a social networking startup builds a better location sharing feature, personalized avatar, or payment system, it might be a lot easier to use Facebook’s clone of it because that’s where your profile, friends, and photos live.

If the DTP gains industry-wide momentum and its founding partners cooperate in good faith rather than at some bare minimum level of involvement, it could lower the barrier for people to experiment with new apps. Meanwhile, the tech giants could argue that the government shouldn’t step in to regulate them or break them up because DTP means users are free to choose whichever app best competes for their data and attention.

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Facebook, Google and more unite to let you transfer data between apps

The Data Transfer Project is a new team-up between tech giants to let you move your content, contacts, and more between apps. Founded by Facebook, Google, Twitter, an Microsoft, the DTP today revealed its plans for an open source data portability platform any online service can join. While many companies already let you download your information, that’s not very helpful if you can’t easily upload and use it elsewhere — whether you want to evacuate a social network you hate, back up your data somewhere new, or bring your digital identity along when you try new app. The DTP’s tool isn’t ready for use yet, but the group today laid out a white paper for how it will work.

Creating an industry standard for data portability could force companies to compete on utility instead of being protected by data lock-in that traps users because it’s tough to switch services. The DTP could potentially offer a solution to a major problem with social networks I detailed in April: you can’t find your friends from one app on another. We’ve asked Facebook for details on if and how you’ll be able to transfer your social connections and friends’ contact info which it’s historically hoarded.

Facebook shouldn’t block you from finding friends on competitors

From playlists in music streaming services to health data from fitness trackers to our reams of photos and videos, the DTP could be a boon for startups. Incumbent tech giants maintain a huge advantage in popularizing new functionality because they instantly interoperate with a user’s existing data rather than making them start from scratch. Even if a social networking startup builds a better location sharing feature, personalized avatar, or payment system, it might be a lot easier to use Facebook’s clone of it because that’s where your profile, friends, and photos live.

If the DTP gains industry-wide momentum and its founding partners cooperate in good faith rather than at some bare minimum involvement, it could lower the barrier for people to experiment with new apps. Meanwhile, the tech giants could argue that the government shouldn’t step in to regulate them or break them up because DTP means users are free to choose whichever app best competes for their data and attention.

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How to Use Time Machine to Back Up Your Mac

Backing up the data on your computer is crucial. If you’re using a Mac, you’ll be glad to know there’s a built-in backup tool called Time Machine that makes backing up your computer easy.

Today we’ll show you how to set up a drive for use with Time Machine, how to set up and use Time Machine, and how to restore from a Time Machine backup.

Setting Up a Drive for Time Machine

For Time Machine backups, you can use an external hard drive connected to a USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt port on your Mac. Backing up to a network drive also works.

For this overview, we’re going to use an external hard drive. You can dedicate the entire external hard drive to your backups. Or you can partition an external hard drive so you use part of it for Time Machine backups, and the rest of the drive for file storage.

Adding Time Machine to the Menu Bar

For easy access to Time Machine, add it to the menu bar on the desktop.

Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Time Machine. Then check the Show Time Machine in menu bar box.

Choose Back Up Now to manually start a backup.

If you haven’t done a backup yet with Time Machine, the menu says Time Machine Not Configured. Select Open Time Machine Preferences to begin setting up your first backup.

Excluding Files/Folders From Time Machine Backups

Before starting your first backup, you should specify which files and folders should not be included in your backups. For example, you might have some large files or unimportant files and folders you don’t need to back up.

Select Open Time Machine Preferences from the Time Machine menu or by going to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Time Machine. Then click Options.

Click the Plus sign to add a drive, file, or folder to the Exclude these items from backups list.

The backup disk itself is automatically excluded, as well as any other external drives. The list of excluded items applies to all backup disks added to Time Machine (we discuss setting up multiple backup disks in the next section).

When you’re done adding items, click Save.

Backing Up Your Mac Using Time Machine

Once you’ve set up your drive, or when you connect a drive you’ve already set up, you might see a prompt asking if you want to use the connected disk to back up with Time Machine. If you partitioned the disk, select the partition you want to use from the dropdown list.

If your backup will contain sensitive data, you should encrypt the backup. To do this, check the Encrypt Backup Disk box. Encrypting the initial backup can take quite a long time. It could be hours or maybe a few days, depending on how many files you have.

Click Use as Backup Disk. The Time Machine Preferences dialog box opens and the backup process automatically starts.

If Time Machine doesn’t ask you to choose a backup disk when you connect the drive to your Mac, select Open Time Machine Preferences from the Time Machine menu on the menu bar. Or go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Time Machine.

Click Select Backup Disk.

Time Machine lists all available connected disks that have enough free space. Click the disk you want to use.

You can choose to encrypt your backup here, if you didn’t see the dialog box mentioned above. Check the Encrypt backups box. Then click Use Disk.

Backing Up to Multiple Disks and Encrypting

Time Machine allows you to back up data to multiple disks. For example, if you keep one backup disk at home and another at work, you can add both to Time Machine. Simply click Select Backup Disk again in the Time Machine Preferences and select another disk.

Time Machine rotates the backup schedule among your disks and keeps track of the status of the backup on each separate disk. The next time you connect each disk, Time Machine backs up everything that changed since the last time you used that specific one.

If you chose to encrypt your backups, you’re next asked for a backup password. Enter your password in the Backup password box and again in the Verify password box.

You can also enter a hint to help you remember your password in the Password hint box. Click Encrypt Disk to proceed.

Running Time Machine Backups

Once you’ve set up your backup, Time Machine starts preparing the backup and turns on automatic backups. The progress of the backup displays in the Time Machine Preferences.

If you don’t want to run automatic backups, uncheck the Back Up Automatically box in the Time Machine Preferences. The backup in progress stops.

When automatic backups are off, you can manually start a backup by opening the Time Machine menu on the menu bar and selecting Back Up Now from the menu (as discussed earlier).

Your first backup may take a long time, depending on how many files you have. Once you’ve done the first backup, Time Machine backs up only the files that changed since the previous backup, so future backups will be faster.

Feel free to continue using your Mac while a backup is in progress.

You can also view the progress of the backup on the Time Machine menu.

The Time Machine icon on the menu bar indicates when Time Machine is backing up, when it’s idle until the next automatic backup, or if it’s unable to complete the backup.

Time Machine uses notifications to keep you informed about the initial backup status. It displays a notification after the first backup is complete, or if any issues arise during the initial backup.

Click Close to dismiss the notification.

When a backup finishes, Time Machine gives you information about your Oldest backup, your Latest backup, and when the Next backup takes place.

Pausing a Time Machine Backup

If you want to pause a backup and finish it later, select Skip This Backup from the Time Machine menu. Time Machine automatically tries to back up again at the Next backup time.

Restoring From a Time Machine Backup

Performing regular backups isn’t going to help if you can’t restore them. We’ve covered three ways to restore files from a Time Machine backup so you can always recover your files.

Using Local Snapshots in Time Machine

Local snapshots in Time Machine allow you to restore data even when your backup disk isn’t connected to your Mac.

Time Machine stores some backups as local snapshots on your main hard drive or other local drives. One snapshot saves every hour, if Time Machine is set to backup automatically. If you’re using macOS High Sierra, Time Machine also saves a snapshot before installing any update to macOS.

When you select Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu on the menu bar, you’ll see files from both your external backup and the hourly local snapshots on your Mac’s hard drive, if your external backup drive is connected to your Mac. If the backup drive is not connected, Time Machine shows you the local snapshots only.

Use the arrows on the right to scroll through versions of your selected file or folder. Then you can choose a version of a file or folder and click Restore to get that version of the item.

You can also perform additional tasks when you enter Time Machine, such as restoring individual files and folders. But the feature also works for deleting a version of or all versions of a backed-up item, getting information about an item, previewing an item using Quick Look, or copying an item.

Perform Regular Backups on Mac to Avoid Data Loss

Performing regular backups is critical to avoid losing data and Time Machine is a good, built-in backup option. But it’s not the only one available for Mac.

We’ve covered Mac backup solutions that aren’t Time Machine if you’re looking for something more robust.

Read the full article: How to Use Time Machine to Back Up Your Mac

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