It was just a matter of time, right? We knew Samsung had to be working on a Bixby-based Amazon Echo/Google Home competitor. Welp, the Galaxy Home was announced at today’s big Note 9 event, and the device is going right after Apple’s HomePod with a premium design and what looks to be some high-end hardware.
The device has a cloth covering and a tripod stand, which would make it just as at home on the floor as it would on a desktop. There’s a built-in subwoofer and eight-microphones designed for a similar far-field communication as other smart speakers. Like the HomePod launch, there’s not really a lot of information at the launch — not even pricing or timing. Instead, the product is currently listed as “coming soon.”
Given the design and Samsung’s device history, I’d expect the thing to cost an arm and a leg — or, at the very least, something similar to the HomePod. At very least, some working reference units in the world. Dozens of the devices were present at the event, partially powering the sound system for today’s keynote.
Naturally, the company’s smart assistant is the key to the product, which is, well, a mixed bag at best. Bixby got off to a major rough start here in the space and still doesn’t offer much to differentiate it from Alexa/Assistant/Siri and the like. Instead, the company is no doubt hoping to making existing Galaxy users the base here.
Given that Samsung has failed to offer a decent music streaming service of its own, the company found a natural partner in fellow Apple competitor, Spotify. The popular music service will serve as the basis for the smart speaker’s music playback. That in and of itself may be enough to cause users to give it a second look. Though the Google Home Max, notably, also lets users make Spotify the default choice.
As with the rest of the competition, smart home functionality is also key, with Samsung’s SmartHome service as the the basis of that experience.
However, if you’ve already got an extensive library of locally saved TV shows and movies (perhaps because you spent time ripping your old DVDs to digitize your collection), you might not want to pay for Netflix.
So, why not use Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox in conjunction with Kodi to make your own private Netflix?
Warning: Don’t download TV shows and movies illegally. This process should only use content that you legally own. Watching pirated material could land you in trouble with the law.
What You’ll Need to Get Started
There are two ways to make your own private Netflix. You can either use the cloud storage providers’ desktop apps and point your Kodi library at the synced folder, or you can use the companies’ official Kodi plugins.
We’ll explain both methods. But first, there are some steps you need to take regardless of which process you decide to use.
Firstly, download and install Kodi. It’s available for all the major operating systems (yes, you can even install Kodi on iOS). The app is also available on most streaming boxes. You might even decide to buy a dedicated Kodi box.
Secondly, you’ll need to upload all your TV shows and movies to your preferred cloud storage provider. Put your TV shows and movies into separate folders within the cloud. Depending on the size of your videos and the speed of your internet connection, this process could take a considerable amount of time.
If you’re not sure which cloud provider to use, you should consider each service’s storage limits. From the standpoint of making your own private Netflix, it’s the most important feature.
Google Drive gives you 15GB for free, OneDrive provides 5GB, and Dropbox offers 2GB. However, all three have ways to increase their storage without spending a dime. Google sometimes offers free storage for undertaking a privacy health check, while OneDrive and Dropbox both provide more space when you refer friends to the services.
Of course, you can also pay for more space. For example, if you subscribe to Office 365, Microsoft will boost your OneDrive space to 1TB.
When all your content has successfully uploaded, you’re ready to move on to the next step.
Method 1: Use Desktop Apps
All three cloud services offer official desktop apps. The apps will create a directory on your machine which allows you to access your content through your computer’s file system. You can then point Kodi at the apps’ folders and pull the videos into your library.
You should use this method if there’s a chance you might watch your TV shows and movies through other apps on your computer in addition to Kodi; the videos will always be available on your machine.
It’s also a great way to keep your content up-to-date on multiple instances of Kodi without needing to add new videos to each one of your Kodi apps on a case-by-case basis.
If you plan to use Kodi on a streaming box (such as the Amazon Fire TV), you will need to learn how to set up Kodi as a server to make this process work. It might be better to use the second method which we will explain shortly.
To get started with this method, you need to download and install the app for the provider you have chosen:
During the initial setup phase, all three apps will prompt you to choose which cloud folders you want to be available on your computer.
Make sure you select the folder where you uploaded your videos. Furthermore, ensure you choose the setting which keeps a copy of the videos on your hard drive. The next steps will not work if you merely enable a link to the cloud version of the file.
Create a Library
Now we need to turn our attention to Kodi. You need to create a new library and point it at the synchronized folder on your hard drive.
It’s a straightforward process, just follow the instructions below:
Open Kodi.
In the menu on the left-hand side of the screen, select either Movies or TV shows.
Click on Add videos.
The Add video source window will open. Click on Browse and choose the synced folder on your hard drive. Its location will vary depending on which cloud service you use.
Choose a name for your new library.
Click OK.
Tell Kodi what type of media is in the library and select your metadata agents.
Click OK.
Your media will appear in your Kodi library (though it might take some time for all the associated metadata to download). You can now browse your media like a regular local Kodi library.
Method 2: Use Official Kodi Add-Ons
There is an add-on in the official Kodi repo for each of Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox. You can use them to display videos from your cloud storage drives directly in the Kodi app.
You should use this method if you want to make your own private Netflix on Kodi on a Fire TV device, Android TV device, or another set-top streaming box.
To begin, you need to install the add-ons from the repo:
Open Kodi.
In the left-hand panel, select Add-ons.
At the top of the page, click on Install from repository.
Choose Kodi Add-on Repository.
Select Picture Add-ons.
Click on your preferred cloud storage provider. The Dropbox add-on is called Dbmc.
To run the add-on, return to the Kodi homescreen and click Add-ons in the left-hand panel. You will see your new add-on in the main panel.
Click on the app’s thumbnail and enter your credentials when prompted. You can add as many accounts as you want, meaning each member of your household can make their own private Netflix.
Add the Source
When you’ve completed the login process, you will be able to use your cloud storage as a source when you create a new library.
The source address varies depending on which add-on you’re using:
Google Drive: http://localhost:8587/source/
OneDrive: http://localhost:8586/source/
Unfortunately, you cannot use Dropbox as a source. You can only browse the TV shows and movies within your Dropbox account through Kodi’s Videos menu. Therefore, if you have a choice, it’s preferable to use the desktop version of Dropbox as described in “Method 1”.
The other downside to this method is the potential security implications. Third-party developers make all the add-ons; some people might not feel comfortable granting the add-ons access to their accounts.
Other Ways to Watch Content on Kodi
Using cloud storage providers to make your own private Netflix is just one of the many ways you can watch content on Kodi.
Florida police have arrested 25-year-old named Ricky Joseph Handschumacher. The young man is suspected of grand theft and money laundering. Handschumacher used SIM Swapping techniques to steal thousands in Bitcoin and to “drain bank accounts” according to security researcher Brian Krebs.
Handschumacher’s scam was simple: he called+ telecom operators and ask them to swap his SIM card for the victim’s SIM card. This, in turn, gave him access to two-factor authentication techniques via SMS and allowed him to access email accounts, bitcoin wallets, and file storage systems. I experienced this firsthand a year ago when my phone stopped working and all of my Google passwords began changing without my control.
“In some cases, fraudulent SIM swaps succeed thanks to lax authentication procedures at mobile phone stores. In other instances, mobile store employees work directly with cyber criminals to help conduct unauthorized SIM swaps, as appears to be the case with the crime gang that allegedly included Handschumacher,” wrote Krebs.
The takedown happened after a mother overheard her son pretending to be an AT&T employee. Police found multiple SIM cards and a Trezor in the Michigan home of the first hacker as well as logins for Telegram and Discord channels dedicated to SIM swapping. The police found that the hackers had stolen 57 bitcoins from one victim. Handschumacher was head of the group.
The hackers were allegedly targeting the Winklevoss twins before Handschumacher was arrested.
According to the police complaint, “Handschumacher and another co-conspirator talk about compromising the CEO of Gemini and posted his name, date of birth, Skype username and email address into the conversation. Handschumacher and the co-conspirators discuss compromising the CEO’s Skype account and T-Mobile account. The co-conspirator states he will call his ‘guy’ at T-Mobile to ask about the CEO’s account.”
Worried about getting hacked? Given the ease with with Handschumacher and his team worked, non-SMS-based two factor authentication is still the best solution for ensuring you aren’t effected. There are also methods to add a SIM lock to your phone so outsiders can’t swap your SIM as easily but remember: all the protection in the world can’t stop a dedicated hacker. Keep your important data and cryptocurrencies offline if possible.
Posted by Lukas Zilka, Software Engineer, Google AI Zürich
Earlier this week we launched Android 9 Pie, the latest release of Android that uses machine learning to make your phone simpler to use. One of the features in Android 9 is Smark Linkify, a new API that adds clickable links when certain types of entities are detected in text. This is useful when, for example, you receive an address from a friend in a messaging app and want to look it up on a map. With a Smart Linkify-annotated text, it’s a lot easier!
Smart Linkify is a new version of the existing Android Linkify API. It is powered by a small feed-forward neural network (500kB per language) with low latency (less than 20ms on Google Pixel phones) and small inference code (250kB), and uses essentially the same machine learning technology that powers Smart Text Selection (released as part of Android Oreo) to now also create links.
Smart Linkify is available as an open-source TextClassifier API in Android (as the generateLinks method). The models were trained using TensorFlow and exported to a custom inference library backed by TensorFlow Lite and FlatBuffers. The C++ inference library for the models is available as part of Android Open-Source framework here, and runs on each text selection and Smart Linkify API calls.
Finding Entities
Looking for phone numbers and postal addresses in text is a difficult problem. Not only are there many variations in how people write them, but it’s also often ambiguous what type of entity is being represented (e.g. “Confirmation number: 857-555-3556” is not a phone number even though it it takes a similar form to one). As a solution, we designed an inference algorithm with two small feedforward neural networks at its heart. This algorithm is general enough to perform all kinds of entity chunking beyond just addresses and phone numbers.
Overall, the system architecture is as follows: A given input text is first split into words (based on space separation), then all possible word subsequences of certain maximum length (15 words in our case) are generated, and for each candidate the scoring neural net assigns a value (between 0 and 1) based on whether it represents a valid entity:
For the given text string, the first network assigns low scores to non-entities and a high score for the candidate that correctly selects the whole phone number.
Next, the generated entities that overlap are removed, favoring the ones with the higher score over the conflicting ones with a lower score. Now, we have a set of entities, but still don’t know their types. So now the second neural network is used to classify the type of the entity, as either a phone number, address or in some cases, a non-entity.
In our example, the only non-conflicting entities are “And call 857 555 3556tomorrow.” (with “857 555 3556” classified as a phone number), and “And call 857 555 3556 tomorrow.” (with “And” classified as a non-entity).
Now that we have the only non-conflicting entities, “And call 857 555 3556 tomorrow.” (with “857 555 3556” classified as a phone number) and “And call 857 555 3556 tomorrow.” (with “And” classified as a non-entity), we are easily able to underline them in the displayed text on the screen, and run the right app when clicked.
Textual Features
So far, we’ve given a general description of the way Smart Linkify locates and classifies entities in a string of text. Here, we go into more detail on how the text is processed and fed to the network.
The task of the networks, given an entity candidate in the input text, is to determine whether the entity is valid, and then to classify it. To do this, the networks need to know the context surrounding the entity (in addition to the text string of the entity itself). In machine learning this is done by representing these parts as separate features. Effectively, the input text is split into several parts that are fed to the network separately:
Given a candidate entity span, we extract: Left context: five words before the entity, Entity start: first three words of the entity, Entity end: last three words of the entity (they can be duplicated with the previous feature if they overlap, or padded if there are not that many), Right context: five words after the entity, Entity content: bag of words inside the entity and Entity length: size of the entity in number of words. They are then concatenated together and fed as an input to the neural network.
The feature extraction operates with words, and we use character n-grams and a capitalization feature to represent the individual words as real vectors suitable as an input of the neural network:
Character N-grams. Instead of using the standard word embedding technique for representing words, which keeps a separate vector for each word in the model and thus would be infeasible for mobile devices because of their large storage size, we use the hashed charactergram embedding. This technique represents the word as a set of all character subsequences of certain length. We use lengths 1 to 5. These strings are additionally hashed and mapped to a fixed number of buckets (see here for more details on the technique). As a result, the final model only stores vectors for each of the hash buckets, not each word/character subsequence, and can be kept small. The embedding matrix for the hashed charactergrams that we use has 20,000 buckets and 12 dimensions.
A binary feature that indicates whether the word starts with a capital letter. This is important for the network to know because the capitalization in postal addresses is quite distinct, and helps the networks to discriminate.
A Training Dataset
There is no obvious dataset for this task on which we could readily train the networks, so we came up with a training algorithm that generates synthetic examples out of realistic pieces. Concretely, we gathered lists of addresses, phone numbers and named entities (like product, place and business names) and other random words from the Web (using Schema.org annotations), and use them to synthesize the training data for the neural networks. We take the entities as they are and generate random textual contexts around them (from the list of random words on Web). Additionally, we add phrases like “Confirmation number:” or “ID:” to the negative training data for phone numbers, to teach the network to suppress phone number matches in these contexts.
Making it Work
There are a number of additional techniques that we had to use for training the network and making a practical mobile deployment:
Quantizing the embedding matrix to 8 bits. We found that we could reduce the size of the model almost 4x without compromising the performance, by quantizing the embedding matrix values to 8-bit integers.
Sharing embedding matrices between the selection and classification networks. This brings almost no loss and makes the model 2x smaller.
Varying the size of the context before/after the entities. On mobile screens text is often short, with not enough context, so the network needs to be exposed to this during training as well.
Creating artificial negative examples out of the positive ones for the classification network. For example for the positive example: “call me 857 555-3556 today” with a label “phone” we generate “call me 857 555-3556 today” as a negative example with a label “other”. This teaches the classification network to be more precise about the entity span. Without doing this, the network would be merely a detector whether there is a phone number somewhere in the input, regardless of the span.
Internationalization is Important
The automatic data extraction we use makes it easier to train language-specific models. However, making them work for all languages is a challenge, requiring careful checking of language nuance by experts, as well as having an acceptable amount of training data. We found that having one model for all Latin-script languages works well (e.g. Czech, Polish, German, English), with individual models for each of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Arabic and Russian. While Smark Linkify currently supports 16 languages, we are experimenting with models that support even more languages, which is especially challenging given the mobile model size constraints and trickiness with languages that do not split words on spaces.
Next Steps
While the technique described in this post enables the fast and accurate annotation of phone numbers and postal addresses in text, the recognition of flight numbers, date and time, or IBAN, is currently implemented with a more traditional technique using standard regular expressions. However, we are looking into creating ML models for date and time as well, particularly for recognizing informal relative date/time specifications prevalent in messaging context, like “next Thursday” or “in 3 weeks”.
The small model and binary size as well as low latency are very important for mobile deployment. The models and the code we developed are available open-source as part of Android framework. We believe that the architecture could extend to other on-device text annotation problems and we look forward to seeing new use cases from our developer community!
Facebook is shutting down Friend List Feeds sometime today, according to a message posted in the Facebook app. The feature allowed users to scroll through only those posts from one of their designated friend lists – for example, family, work colleagues, neighbors, industry peers, and so on. The end result was a much more personalized version of Facebook – one where you could catch up on the updates that were important to you, without the clutter from Facebook Pages, posts from acquaintances, or those from friends whose updates you didn’t care to follow for any other reason.
To use Friend List Feeds, you would first have to create a friend list in Facebook. And to be clear – those friend lists are not going away.
So if you still want to brag about your professional successes to your industry colleagues or post baby pictures for your family to see, that will still be possible.
Facebook’s note regarding the feeds’ shutdown says “don’t worry – you can still continue to create, edit and share to your friend lists.” What’s winding down are the Friend List Feeds, which is a way to read these specific people’s updates in their own separate News Feed within the Facebook app.
To access this feature, there’s a section called “Feeds” in the Facebook app which would list all the feeds available to you, based on your friend lists.
Friend lists have been around on Facebook for a number of years, but the original version required a lot of manual labor. You’d first have to create a list, title it, and then go through all your friends one-by-one to determine who to add. And of course, as you added new Facebook friends, you’d have to remember to add them to the appropriate list, too.
Few adopted this feature – in fact, Facebook said in 2011 that 95 percent of Facebook users hadn’t made a single list. To make things simpler, Facebook launched “smart lists”, where it began auto-grouping your friends into lists for you to save you the effort. Facebook focused on making smart lists where it could identify some common factor based on profile data – like people who went to school with you, people you work with, people who live within 50 miles of you, and other things.
That way, you could use the lists for selective sharing and to browse their feeds, without having to do the work of list-building yourself.
But even with Smart Lists, it seems that not many people likely used the “Friend List Feeds” feature, specifically – or perhaps, even knew it existed.
In addition, with the rise of Facebook Groups, those who want to share and browse posts focused on a given topic – like neighborhood news, discussions about a favorite show, people going through a similar health crisis, or anything else – could just join a private group instead.
According to Facebook’s message, Friend List Feed are shutting down on August 9, 2018 – which is today. However, the feature is still available as of the time of writing.
The goal is to create a seamless cross-device listening experience on Samsung devices, including the ones announced today. As demonstrated on-stage, you should be able to start playing a song on your phone, then switch over to your TV, then over to your Galaxy Home.
This integration will allow you to play Spotify on your Samsung Smart TV through the SmartThings app deepens the integration between Spotify and Samsung’s voice assistant Bixby, making Spotify the default choice whenever you ask Bixby to look for music.
In addition, Spotify will become part of the set-up experience on Samsung devices.
For Spotify, this partnership should mean more visibility, making it the preferred music experience on Samsung devices. And for Samsung, it highlights one of its differences compared to Apple, which has been focusing on Apple Music as it rolls out new devices like the HomePod.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek took the stage at Unpacked to talk about the partnership, which he also discussed in the official Spotify announcement.
“We believe that this significant long-term partnership will provide Samsung users across millions of devices with the best possible music streaming experience, and make discovering new music easier than ever – with even more opportunities to come,” Ek said.
The goal is to create a seamless cross-device listening experience on Samsung devices, including the ones announced today. As demonstrated on-stage, you should be able to start playing a song on your phone, then switch over to your TV, then over to your Galaxy Home.
This integration will allow you to play Spotify on your Samsung Smart TV through the SmartThings app deepens the integration between Spotify and Samsung’s voice assistant Bixby, making Spotify the default choice whenever you ask Bixby to look for music.
In addition, Spotify will become part of the set-up experience on Samsung devices.
For Spotify, this partnership should mean more visibility, making it the preferred music experience on Samsung devices. And for Samsung, it highlights one of its differences compared to Apple, which has been focusing on Apple Music as it rolls out new devices like the HomePod.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek took the stage at Unpacked to talk about the partnership, which he also discussed in the official Spotify announcement.
“We believe that this significant long-term partnership will provide Samsung users across millions of devices with the best possible music streaming experience, and make discovering new music easier than ever – with even more opportunities to come,” Ek said.
Your smartphone screen is a big distraction, isn’t it? Texting and walking is so common now that it’s becoming a real threat to public health.
People are (usually) getting better at avoiding texting and driving. However, far too many people have no qualms about walking around with their faces glued to their smartphone screens. This leads to situations that at best result in embarrassing accidents, and at worst have far more serious consequences.
Let’s take a look at some of the worst texting and walking fails and reflect on why texting was a bad decision at that given moment.
1. Smartphones and Poles Don’t Mix
A priest and a rabbi walk into a bar. The priest asks the rabbi why he walked into the bar, to which the rabbi replies, “Oh, I was texting, and didn’t see it.”
Bad jokes aside, poles are everywhere. Looking down at a phone while you’re walking along a sidewalk increases your odds of coming face-to-face with a pole in a short time.
And as you can see in this video, when a human and pole collide, the pole always wins.
How to stay safe: Sidewalks are rife with objects that’ll get in your path at any given moment, like signs, poles, and other people. If you absolutely need to respond to a text message, step to the side and out of the flow of pedestrian traffic before you start texting. Maybe even find a Wi-Fi hotspot and save on your data usage if you’re doing more than texting.
2. Texting and Shopping
Sure, there are lots of shopping apps that are tempting to use when you’re at the mall or browsing stores. But using those apps could get you in trouble.
Take the woman in this video as a case in point. While walking through a shopping mall, she decided to start texting. While entering the intersection of two mall wings, where there was a fountain, she inadvertently struck the fountain and fell over headfirst into the water.
There’s not much that can take away the embarrassment of falling into a water fountain in the middle of the mall just because you were texting and walking.
How to stay safe: The most dangerous objects to text near are walls or fences that are knee-high. They’re just short enough so that your phone blocks the part of your view where you’d normally see them. For ideas to stay safe in the mall, see the below section.
3. Running Into Signs
Here’s a fact about signs: they’re placed in locations where it’s easy to see and read them. The problem is that these days, because people are so busy looking at their phones, they’re now walking into areas they’ve never gone before.
The center of a mall is often a place for signage, kiosks, and more. But as you can see from this video, when texting and walking comes into play, no area is off-limits.
It would be funny if it weren’t so sad. In the mall, people run into benches, shopping carts, and sometimes even people. The madness needs to stop.
How to stay safe: If you’re in the mall, there are plenty of locations and opportunities to use your phone. Sit on one of the many benches in the middle of the mall (rather than running into them). The food court is a great place to sit down and use your phone.
But when you’re browsing the mall, just keep the phone in your back pocket or purse. Better yet, stay super safe by using our ultimate online shopping guide to do all your shopping from home!
4. Texting Could Get You Trapped
This video is almost unbelievable, but it actually happened. This woman absentmindedly walked into an automated parking carousel. Before she realized where she was, the door had closed and she was trapped.
To make matters worse, once the car lift arrived at the lower level, she ended up getting struck and hurt by a car getting automatically loaded onto the lift.
You may think this is something that would never happen to you, but how many times have you missed a turn while driving because you were focused on something else? The human mind is easily distracted. Your phone could land you in an unfortunate and dangerous location that you might struggle to get out of.
How to stay safe: The number-one tip any personal safety expert will offer is to always be aware of your surroundings. This protects you from criminals and other forms of danger, including getting trapped in a car carousel. Reading a text or typing a Facebook post makes you lose that awareness, among other negative effects of social media.
5. You’ll Walk Straight Into Danger
Here’s something else that can happen when you lose track of your surroundings: you might walk directly into the face of danger.
This could include entering a crosswalk when the “Do No Walk” sign is flashing, running into angry people, or getting injured by hitting a sharp object.
As bad as all of those sound, could you imagine walking directly into the path of a wild bear? That’s what happened to the poor guy in this video. Yes, you guessed it—he was texting and walking.
How to stay safe: There are areas that you know are more likely to contain dangers. Train tracks have fast-moving trains. Bad parts of town have people likely to mug you. Why increase your susceptibility to threats by letting your phone distract you?
You can take a break and text in plenty of places—a cafe, a library, or even just a park bench. Take advantage of those.
6. You’ll Miss Horns and Sirens
It’s bad enough when you’re distracted by trying to type a text message. But it can get even worse when you pop earbuds in and start walking around in public.
Many people fail to consider what not being able to hear their surroundings might do to their safety. But as you can see from this video, not hearing a horn or a siren can have disastrous consequences. This guy was lucky by inches, but that’s not always the case.
How to stay safe: As hard as it may be, try not to use headphones while you’re walking around in public. This is especially true in busy cities where there are cabs, ambulances, firetrucks, and more.
These vehicles can approach at speeds you won’t expect, and if you can’t hear them while attempting to cross the road, you could end up in a world of hurt. If you do use headphones while walking, just don’t use noise-canceling earphones.
7. You Could Miss an Unexpected Hole
Signs and poles are one hazard, but dropping headfirst into a six-foot hole is a lot worse. That’s exactly what happened to one woman in New Jersey.
This poor lady was probably having a normal day, minding her own business. Then at the most inopportune moment, she decided to check her phone. Just then, she collided into a knee-high open hatchway door leading to a six-foot deep hole under the sidewalk.
She eventually got carried away on a stretcher. My guess is that the text message wasn’t worth it.
How to stay safe: You may think you’ve memorized a walk you’ve taken every single day. In fact, you’re so used to it that you probably think you could text and walk the entire way. However, what you won’t be ready for is the unexpected change in your path. And if you’re staring at your phone, the only moment you’ll discover that change is when you’re colliding with it.
8. You Could End Up in a Lake
Lake Michigan is a beautiful place to explore. But when exploring the tourist attractions, some people can take the dangers a little too lightly.
That’s exactly what happened to a woman walking along a pier on Lake Michigan in 2012. She made the unfortunate mistake of texting while walking the pier, and ended up walking directly off the pier and into the water. While her husband attempted to save her, emergency services ended up having to save both of them.
How to stay safe: It’s bad enough to text and walk in the streets, but it’s quite another blunder to text and walk when you have a sheer drop to the water just a few feet on either side of you. Texting near water risks not only an unfortunate dip in the water, but water can also destroy your expensive phone. Whether you’re walking a pier or riding on a boat, it’s best to keep that phone well-secured someplace on dry land.
Text and Sit Instead, NEVER Drive!
The truth is, texting is sometimes dangerous. You may think that only texting and driving can be fatal, but texting and walking can end up costing you dearly as well. The simple solution is not to do it at all, but that’s just not realistic for a lot of people.
So when you do find you need to answer an urgent text, email, social post, or call, then find a safe place to stop walking, or a bench to sit at. Then text to your heart’s content.
Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro makes robots in Osaka. His latest robot, Ibuki, is one for the nightmare catalog: it’s a robotic 10-year-old boy that can move on little tank treads and has soft, rubbery face and hands.
The robot has complete vision routes that can scan for faces and it has a sort of half-track system for moving around. It has “involuntary” motions like blinking and little head bobs but is little more than a proof-of-concept right now, especially considering its weird robo-skull is transparent.
“An Intelligent Robot Infrastructure is an interaction-based infrastructure. By interacting with robots, people can establish nonverbal communications with the artificial systems. That is, the purpose of a robot is to exist as a partner and to have valuable interactions with people,” wrote Ishiguro. “Our objective is to develop technologies for the new generation information infrastructures based on Computer Vision, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.”
Ishiguro is a roboticist who plays on the borders of humanity. He made a literal copy of himself in 2010. His current robots are even more realistic and Ibuki’s questing face and delicate hands are really very cool. That said, expect those soft rubber hands to one day close around your throat when the robots rise up to take back what is theirs. Good luck, humans!
Google has launched a new video-based Q&A app called Cameos on the App Store, which allows people to answer questions about themselves, then share those answers directly on Google. The app appears to be aimed at celebrities and other public figures, who are often the subject of people’s Google searches. With the Cameos app, they can address fans’ questions in their own voice, instead of leaving the answers up to other websites.
Initially, “Posts on Google” was open only to a small number of celebrities, sports teams and leagues, movie studios and museums. But last year, it expanded to local businesses who could then publish their events, products and services. This spring, it opened up to musicians.
Those invited to use the service have been able to post updates to Google which include text, images, video, GIFs, events, and links to other sites. In a way, it’s like Google’s version of Twitter – but with the goal of helping web searchers find answers to questions.
The new Cameos app is focused specifically on video posts.
As the App Store description explains: “Record video answers to the most asked questions on Google and then post them right to Google. Now, when people search for you, they’ll get answers directly from you.”
The app also allows celebrities using Cameos to see the top questions the internet wants answers to, so they can pick and choose which of those they want to answer. Their answers, recorded with their iPhone’s camera, will be published directly to Google search and in the Google app.
The service brings to mind Instagram’s new Q&A feature, launched this July. Via a Questions widget that’s added to an Instagram Story, users can solicit questions from their followers. The recipient can then select the questions they want to respond to, and post their replies publicly to their Instagram Story.
Google’s Cameo video answers could be more useful, as they’d only appear when that question was searched on Google. It would also give Google a social platform of sorts – a market it has tried to compete in for years, and is now littered with failures like Orkut, Dodgeball, Latitude, Lively, Google Wave, Google Buzz, and of course, Google+. At least with Posts, Google is focusing on what it does best: Search.
Google has been asked to comment. We’ll update if one is provided.
The Cameos app description also notes that it will add more questions for celebs to answer on a regular basis.
Access to use Cameos is only available upon invitation. Those interested can download the iOS app to request access.
Google has launched a new video-based Q&A app called Cameos on the App Store, which allows people to answer questions about themselves, then share those answers directly on Google. The app appears to be aimed at celebrities and other public figures, who are often the subject of people’s Google searches. With the Cameos app, they can address fans’ questions in their own voice, instead of leaving the answers up to other websites.
Initially, “Posts on Google” was open only to a small number of celebrities, sports teams and leagues, movie studios and museums. But last year, it expanded to local businesses who could then publish their events, products and services. This spring, it opened up to musicians.
Those invited to use the service have been able to post updates to Google which include text, images, video, GIFs, events, and links to other sites. In a way, it’s like Google’s version of Twitter – but with the goal of helping web searchers find answers to questions.
The new Cameos app is focused specifically on video posts.
As the App Store description explains: “Record video answers to the most asked questions on Google and then post them right to Google. Now, when people search for you, they’ll get answers directly from you.”
The app also allows celebrities using Cameos to see the top questions the internet wants answers to, so they can pick and choose which of those they want to answer. Their answers, recorded with their iPhone’s camera, will be published directly to Google search and in the Google app.
The service brings to mind Instagram’s new Q&A feature, launched this July. Via a Questions widget that’s added to an Instagram Story, users can solicit questions from their followers. The recipient can then select the questions they want to respond to, and post their replies publicly to their Instagram Story.
Google’s Cameo video answers could be more useful, as they’d only appear when that question was searched on Google. It would also give Google a social platform of sorts – a market it has tried to compete in for years, and is now littered with failures like Orkut, Dodgeball, Latitude, Lively, Google Wave, Google Buzz, and of course, Google+. At least with Posts, Google is focusing on what it does best: Search.
Google has been asked to comment. We’ll update if one is provided.
The Cameos app description also notes that it will add more questions for celebs to answer on a regular basis.
Access to use Cameos is only available upon invitation. Those interested can download the iOS app to request access.
One of these quirks is the presence of seemingly random emojis. You’ll find them next to your friends’ names, celebrities’ names, and even in your Snapchat Stories.
But what do the Snapchat emojis mean?
Snapchat Friend Emojis
Snapchat uses 14 different emojis to categorize your friends. Each emoji denotes a particular aspect of the relationship between you and the other person; it’s like a secret Snapchat emoji code.
1. Yellow Heart
Wondering what the yellow heart emoji means on Snapchat? It’s a simple one: you and the other person are best friends. Well, best friends on Snapchat. You have sent the most snaps to them, and they have sent the most snaps to you.
2. Red Heart
You’ll see the red heart emoji next to another Snapchatter’s name if you have been best friends on the service for the last two weeks consecutively (i.e., you have sent the most snaps to them, and they have sent the most to you).
3. Pink Hearts
Taking this to its logical conclusion, you will see an emoji of two pink hearts if you have been best friends for the last two months consecutively.
4. Gold Star
Snapchat also uses a gold star emoji. You will see it next to a friend’s name when someone has replayed one of their snaps in the last 24 hours.
5. Sunglasses Face
The sunglasses emoji on Snapchat means that you and the other person share a common good friend; you both send a lot of Snaps to a mutual connection. It does not mean that you share the same best friend.
6. Grimacing Face
The grimacing face emoji means that you do share the same best friend. You send the most snaps to the same person as they do. Awkward.
(Also, spare a thought for the poor person who receives all those snaps every day. Perhaps you should back off a bit!).
7. Smirking Face
The smirking face emoji is like the opposite of the grimacing face. It shows that you’re their best friend (they send you more snaps than anyone else), but they are not your best friend (you send more snaps to other people than you do to them). Also pretty awkward, we’re sure you’ll agree.
8. Smiling Face
Ah, this one is a bit more pleasant. A smiling face emoji on Snapchat means that you’re good friends with each other. Not best friends, but good friends. You both send each other lots of snaps on a regular basis.
9. Baby Face
Have you just become friends with a new person on Snapchat? Then you’ll see the baby face emoji alongside the person’s name. It will automatically disappear after a few weeks.
10. Fire
Snapchat uses three emojis that relate to your Snapstreak. If you see the fire emoji, it means you and the other person have snapped each other on three consecutive days. You both need to have sent a snap for the emoji to appear.
The number next to the emoji denotes how many days you have been on a Snapstreak.
Note: A Snapstreak only applies to snaps sent. Chatting with each other via text does not count towards your streak.
11. One Hundred
The red one hundred emoji will appear when you and your friend have completed a 100-day Snapstreak. It’s a great way to improve your Snapchat score.
Frankly, if you ever manage to get to 100 consecutive days of snapping, you deserve something more than an emoji. But alas, it’s not our decision.
12. Hourglass
The hourglass emoji will appear next to person’s name if your Snapstreak with them is about to end. It will pop up a few hours before your time runs out.
It’s pretty useful. After all, you wouldn’t want to jeopardize that glorious 100 emoji, would you?
13. Birthday Cake
It doesn’t take a genius to work this one out. You will see the birthday cake emoji alongside a friend’s name when it’s their birthday. Why not send them a snap to celebrate.
Note: This emoji only pops up if the person has added their birthday to Snapchat.
14. Zodiac Signs
If the person has added their birthday, the corresponding zodiac sign emoji will appear alongside their name. The zodiac signs are purple with a white emblem.
Verified Accounts
Some verified accounts have their own emoji. When the account posts a story, you will see the emoji alongside the account name so you know it’s official.
Snapchatters have started using an emoji code to display their relationship status on their profile and in their stories. Much like the early days of hashtags on Twitter, the relationship emojis are not supported by Snapchat itself. Yet.
Either way, it’s important to know what the relationship emojis denote. You will see them a lot.
1. Blue Circle
The person is single. Remember, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are looking. You should use the same etiquette as you would use when looking for a date on Facebook.
2. Pineapple
The Snapchat equivalent of Facebook’s “It’s Complicated” status.
3. Red Circle
The person is open to propositions, but it not ready to commit to a long-term relationship.
4. Cherry
You’ll see the cherry emoji next to people who are in a relationship and happy.
5. Apple
The apple emoji on Snapchat means that the user is engaged and will soon be married.
6. Banana
The person is married.
7. Avocado
An avocado means the person thinks they are the “better half” in their relationship. You can take that to mean what you will.
8. Strawberry
The person is looking for the right person to spend their life with, but cannot find them. They have our sympathy.
9. Lemon
A lemon signifies a person who is in a relationship but who is unhappy and wants to be single.
10. Chestnut
The chestnut emoji implies that the person wants to get married to their long-term partner but is not yet engaged.
Don’t Forget About Snapchat Stickers and Filters
You should not confuse the emoji we’ve explained in this article with Snapchat’s filters and stickers.
You can add stickers to a story to convey more themes and emotions. There are even creator-made stickers that you can add in packs.
Snapchat also supplies users with hundreds of filters. You can use them in your stories to inject some additional personality. The list of filters, lenses, and geo-filters changes regularly (and you can even unlock hidden Snapchat filters). However, we’ve explained some of the most common ones in our complete list of Snapchat filters.
If you like to relive the good old days, you might enjoy the idea of making your Mac look retro. You can do that from the outside with a new decal or sticker, but what about the inside? That’s easy too!
With the following six tips, you’ll soon have macOS looking as good as old.
Note: Our tips focus on generic changes, not specifically those to match older macOS versions.
1. Paint the Screen Old
Computers of the past had either neon colors or, at the other extreme, gray and similar dull colors. You can achieve either effect on your Mac with a few tweaks.
To go gray, start by changing the theme for windows, menus, buttons, etc. from System Preferences > General. Select Graphite from the Appearance dropdown menu there.
You can also select Graphite from the Highlight menu to change the color of highlighted text from blue to a plain gray.
You’ll notice that the Graphite theme doesn’t affect app and folder icons. If you want to dull those down as well, you can do that from System Preferences > Accessibility > Display. Look for the Use grayscale checkbox and select it.
(Skip this step if you’d like to retain the option to customize colors across apps.)
Immediately, the icons in the sidebar and Dock turn gray. If you peek into the Applications folder, you’ll see that the apps in there are also gray.
Prefer brighter colors? You might want to enable the Invert colors option under System Preferences > Accessibility > Display.
To add to the overall retro look, you can also:
Increase contrast: Visit System Preferences > Accessibility > Display and select the Increase contrast checkbox. Then drag the Display contrast slider towards the right till you’re satisfied with the visual effect.
Reduce screen resolution: Select a lower screen resolution from System Preferences > Displays > Display.
2. Get a Wallpaper With the Right Feel
Adding a new wallpaper is an easy way to transform how your Mac looks, so you might next want to get an old-time wallpaper. Start your search with Unsplash. Our ultimate Mac wallpaper resource is also here to help you.
You can go for a wallpaper that, say, shows a rainbow-colored or pixelated version of the Apple logo or displays the logo in neon lights. One with psychedelic effects or tiled textures is also a good choice.
If you want a quicker way to induce nostalgia, pick a dull solid color as the background from System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver. Look for Apple > Solid Colors in the sidebar, and select one of the default colors displayed in that section. Medium gray, blue, and green are ideal for what we have in mind.
Also, search sites like Iconfinder and Noun Project to find old-style icons. Look for icon sets with flat, pixelated ones, or black-and-white icons. Those with exaggerated gradients will work well too.
4. Install a Classic Version of Finder
Finder started out as a visually simple, toolbar-free file explorer. If you want to return to that experience, you can thanks to the open source app Classic Finder. It runs in parallel to your usual Finder app, allowing you to switch between the two anytime.
If you’d rather have the stripped-down Finder experience without the classic Finder look, try Simple Finder. You’ll have to enable parental controls first via System Preferences > Parental Controls. Once you do, you’ll find the Simple Finder option in the Other tab that appears.
5. Make the Command Line Old Again
Your Mac’s Terminal app looks nothing like the black-and-green vision that says “instant flashback”. To bring back that classic look, you need the cool-retro-term app. It lets you emulate the look and feel of CRT screens from the past.
If you prefer an easier solution, try Cathode ($5), which comes with a free demo version. The app has quite a few options to get the look of the terminal just right. You can change themes, sounds, colors, fonts, and other visual effects.
6. Switch to a Monospaced Font
Monospaced or fixed-width fonts bring typewriters to mind, and typewriters equal charmingly old. That’s why switching to a monospaced font is perfect for our purposes here. It’s a pity that you can do it only in certain apps and not across macOS, though.
Your Mac already comes with a few fixed-width fonts. To view them, open the Font Book app and click Fixed Width under Smart Collection in the sidebar. You’ll see the available fonts listed on the right. Courier, Menlo, and Monaco are your top options.
If you aren’t happy with the default choices, you can find a new font from a site like Font Squirrel. After you install the font, feel free to switch to it via Format > Font > Show Fonts within apps that support font changes. To know more about installing and managing fonts, read our Font Book tips.
Finally, here’s a look at the combined result of various tweaks we’ve made above.
A Brand New Retro Look for Your Mac
After paying for an expensive fancy-looking Apple computer, you might not want to make it look like a relic permanently. So why not use these tips to set up a second user account with a retro feel just for fun? Combined with classic Mac software you still access, it’ll prove handy when nostalgia comes calling!
