App Store generated 93% more revenue than Google Play in Q3

There’s always been a gap between how much money Apple’s App Store makes when compared with Google Play. But in the third quarter of 2018, that gap widened considerably – possibly to the widest point yet. According to a new report from Sensor Tower, the App Store earned nearly 93% more than Google Play in the quarter, the largest gap since at least 2014 – or, when Sensor Tower began tracking Google Play data.

The firm says that approximately 66% of the $18.2 billion in mobile app revenue generated in Q3 2018 came from Apple’s App Store. The store made $12 billion in the quarter, up 23.3% from the $9.7 billion it made during the same period last year.

Meanwhile, Google Play earned $6.2 billion in the quarter, up 21.5% from the year-ago quarter’s $5.1 billion.

Based on Sensor Tower’s chart of top-grossing apps across both stores, subscriptions are continuing to aid in this revenue growth. Netflix remained the top-grossing non-game app for the third quarter in a row, bringing in an estimated $243.7 million across both platforms. Tinder and Tencent Video remained in the second and third spots, respectively.

Mobile game spending also helped fuel the revenue growth, with spending up 14.9% year-over-year during the quarter to reach $13.8 billion. In fact, it accounted for 76% of all app revenue across both platforms in the quarter, with $8.5 billion coming from the App Store and $5.3 billion from Google Play.

In terms of app downloads, however, Google Play still has the edge thanks to rapid adoption of lower-cost Android devices in emerging markets, the report said. App installs grew 10.9% across both stores, reaching 27.1 billion, up 24.4% from Q3 2017.

The rankings of the most downloaded apps also got a big shakeup in Q3, thanks to Bytedance’s short-video app TikTok absorbing Musical.ly during the quarter. As a result of the merger, it’s now the No. 4 ranked app worldwide, having grown 15% quarter-over-quarter and 440% year-over-year.

That puts it ahead of both Instagram (No. 5) and Snapchat (No. 10), in terms of Q3 app downloads, and sets the stage for Bytedance becoming a more serious player in the social app market.

Sensor Tower’s full report is available here.

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Facebook rolls out 3D photos that use AI to simulate depth

What if you could peek behind what’s in your photos, like you’re moving your head to see what’s inside a window? That’s the futuristic promise of Facebook 3D photos. After announcing the feature at F8 in May, Facebook is now rolling out 3D photos to add make-believe depth to your iPhone portrait mode shots. Shoot one, tap the new 3D photos option in the status update composer, select a portrait mode photo, and users on the desktop or mobile News Feed as well as in VR through Oculus Go’s browser or Firefox on Oculus Rift. Everyone can now view 3D photos and the ability to create them will open to everyone in the coming weeks.

Facebook is constantly in search of ways to keep the News Feed interesting. What started with text and photos eventually expanded into videos and live broadcasts, and now to 360 photos and 3D photos. Facebook hopes if it’s the exclusive social media home for these new kinds of content, you’ll come back to explore and rack up some ad views in the mean time.

So how exactly do 3D photos work? Our writer Devin Coldeway did a deep-dive earlier this year into how Facebook uses AI to stitch together real layers of the photo with what it infers should be there if you tilted your perspective. Since portrait mode fires off both of a phone’s cameras simultaneously, parralax differences can be used to recreate what’s behind the subject.

How Facebook’s new 3D photos work

To create the best 3D photos with your iPhone 7+, 8+, X or XS, Facebook recommends you keep your subject three to four feet away, and have things in the foreground and background. Distinct colors will make the layers separate better, and transparent or shiny objects like glass or plastic can throw off the AI.

Originally, the idea was to democrative the creation of VR content. But with headset penetration still relatively low, it’s the ability to display depth in the News Feed that will have the greatest impact for Facebook. In an era where Facebook’s cool is waning, hosting next-generation art forms could make it a must-visit property even as more of our socializing moves to Instagram.

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Facebook rolls out 3D photos that use AI to simulate depth

What if you could peek behind what’s in your photos, like you’re moving your head to see what’s inside a window? That’s the futuristic promise of Facebook 3D photos. After announcing the feature at F8 in May, Facebook is now rolling out 3D photos to add make-believe depth to your iPhone portrait mode shots. Shoot one, tap the new 3D photos option in the status update composer, select a portrait mode photo, and users on the desktop or mobile News Feed as well as in VR through Oculus Go’s browser or Firefox on Oculus Rift. Everyone can now view 3D photos and the ability to create them will open to everyone in the coming weeks.

Facebook is constantly in search of ways to keep the News Feed interesting. What started with text and photos eventually expanded into videos and live broadcasts, and now to 360 photos and 3D photos. Facebook hopes if it’s the exclusive social media home for these new kinds of content, you’ll come back to explore and rack up some ad views in the mean time.

So how exactly do 3D photos work? Our writer Devin Coldeway did a deep-dive earlier this year into how Facebook uses AI to stitch together real layers of the photo with what it infers should be there if you tilted your perspective. Since portrait mode fires off both of a phone’s cameras simultaneously, parralax differences can be used to recreate what’s behind the subject.

How Facebook’s new 3D photos work

To create the best 3D photos with your iPhone 7+, 8+, X or XS, Facebook recommends you keep your subject three to four feet away, and have things in the foreground and background. Distinct colors will make the layers separate better, and transparent or shiny objects like glass or plastic can throw off the AI.

Originally, the idea was to democrative the creation of VR content. But with headset penetration still relatively low, it’s the ability to display depth in the News Feed that will have the greatest impact for Facebook. In an era where Facebook’s cool is waning, hosting next-generation art forms could make it a must-visit property even as more of our socializing moves to Instagram.

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10 Useful Excel Project Management Templates for Tracking

Project management templates are an essential ingredient in replicating successful projects. With Microsoft Excel’s free templates, you can turn your simple spreadsheets into powerful project management tools.

In this article, you’ll find some of the most useful and free Microsoft Excel project management and project tracking templates you’ll want to use for your next project.

In this article:

• Microsoft Excel Project Management Templates
• Third-Party Project Management Templates for Excel
• Managing Microsoft Excel Templates

Microsoft Excel Project Management Templates

Let’s have a look at the best Microsoft Excel project management templates.

Note: We cover both native and third-party templates here. To find the pre-installed Excel spreadsheet templates, open Excel and search for the respective keyword from the New document screen. If you’re already in Excel, go to File > New to bring up the template search. Check the Managing Microsoft Excel Templates section below for more details.

Excel Project Timeline Templates

Excel comes with several timelines and Gantt chart templates provided by Microsoft, but it also integrates templates from Vertex42, one of the most popular third-party resources for spreadsheets.

1. Work Plan Timeline

The Work Plan Timeline template is suitable for a basic project with multiple phases. When you enter your data into the worksheet, the roadmap will update automatically.

This template comes pre-installed with Microsoft Excel 2016.

2. Date Tracking Gantt Chart

Gantt charts are a staple in every project manager’s toolset. They help you visualize the flow of your tasks and track progress.

With this template, you can create a comprehensive Gantt chart with minimal effort. Just enter each task, complete with a description, who it’s assigned to, a percentage to indicate progress, a start date, and allocated days until completion.

This template is a Microsoft Excel default.

3. Milestone and Task Project Timeline

If you want to integrate milestones into a basic timeline, this template provided by Vertex42 is ideal. It combines the best elements of a Gantt chart, i.e. the visualization of the task flow, with milestones hovering above the timeline. Just fill in the respective tables to populate the visual.

You can find this template by searching in Excel.

Excel Project Plan Template

A project plan is a document that may require Excel charts but is otherwise composed in Microsoft Word. For basic projects, however, you may get away with only a Microsoft Excel document.

4. Simple Gantt Chart

When you search Excel’s template repository for project plan templates, you’ll mainly find different Gantt chart variations, including this Simple Gantt Chart from Vertex42. What sets it apart from the Gantt chart above is the inclusion of project phases.

This template is included in Microsoft Excel.

5. Event Planner Template

A project plan really isn’t something you typically put together in Excel. But if your project is simple enough, like planning a party, a solid one-page template that lists essential tasks and lets you define a schedule and budget is all you need. This template from Office Templates Online is a great start.

Excel Project Tracker Template

A search for tracker will bring up a wild mix of personal and business-related Excel spreadsheet templates for tracking. You can narrow down your search by selecting the categories that relate to the project management task you’re dealing with.

6. Activity-Based Cost Tracker

This tracking template can help you get an overview of direct, indirect, and general and administrative product costs.

7. Project Tracking Template

This Vertex42 template is essential if you are handling multiple different clients, projects, and/or deliverables. It combines project details, expenses, task statuses, and due dates.

Business Plan Templates

Microsoft Office has its own category for business plans. Use the suggested business search and select the Business Plans category on the right.

You’ll find the following Microsoft Excel templates:

• Startup expenses
• Business plan checklist
• Business plan checklist with SWOT analysis

For more business plan templates, have a look at our dedicated article.

Search for Online Templates

Couldn’t find the exact project management template you need inside Excel? Turn to a third-party online resource for a wider selection of Excel spreadsheet templates. We recommend the following sites.

Vertex42

This website has a few great project management templates for Microsoft Office 2003 and up. The site notes that its templates are mostly related to project scheduling. Anything more complicated might require Microsoft Project or other project management software.

On the page dedicated to project management, you’ll find a list of useful material, including, but not limited to, the following:

• Timeline
• Project Budgeting
• Critical Path Method

Each page contains a quick rundown of what the template does, one or more templates, and further tips and tricks for the respective project management tool. It’s a great resource for budding project managers.

TidyForm

TidyForm has a respectable selection of Microsoft Excel project management templates. The most popular categories are listed on the homepage. If you can’t immediately spot what you need, switch to the Business section or try the search feature.

When you scroll to the bottom of a section, you’ll see a list of popular categories and related categories. This can be helpful when trying to find just the right template.

We recommend the following pages:

• Gantt Chart
• Project Proposal
• Work Breakdown Structure

Still looking for the perfect template? You might have to create custom Excel templates to get exactly what you want.

Managing Microsoft Excel Templates

First, let’s see what templates you already have installed in Microsoft Excel. For the purpose of this demonstration, we’ve used Excel 2016, but the procedure is similar in Microsoft Office 2013 and Office 2019.

Defaults

When you start up Microsoft Excel, the first window you see will contain a search field for online templates. When you’re starting from an existing workbook, go to File > New to arrive at the same view.

Microsoft Excel comes with a selection of pre-installed templates. They are listed underneath the search field. You can pin favorite ones by clicking the respective symbol in the bottom right of the listing.

Search Online for More Project Templates

The fastest way to finding the kind of template you need is searching for it. Once you start a search, for example for the term project, you will also see template categories listed next to the templates that match your search.

Narrow Down Your Search

A neat feature is that you can narrow down your search by selecting multiple categories. This helps you exclude templates that may match your keyword, but not your desired category. On the downside, you may find that the perfect template is not available in Microsoft Excel.

Preview & Create Your Template

When you click a template, you’ll see a preview with a brief description of what the template provides. You can also pin the template from its preview; the symbol sits in the top right.

To download and use a template, click the Create button, which will open a new Microsoft Excel workbook with the template pre-filled.

Template Ready, Set, Go

While you’re at it, review our list of useful office templates and stock up on business letter templates.

We have covered a lot of project management tips and tricks the past. Once you’re good with templates, you might want to consider additional tools and solutions. For example, did you know that Outlook is great for project management? Likewise, you could use OneNote for project management. And you could integrate OneNote with Outlook for project management? The possibilities are endless.

Whatever you do, before you start a project, prepare a Work Breakdown Structure.

Read the full article: 10 Useful Excel Project Management Templates for Tracking

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Spotify Looks Back Over a Decade of Music

Spotify is now 10 years old, and the company which popularized music streaming has taken the opportunity to look back over a decade of discovery. Which means lists of the most-streamed artists and songs, plus other milestones from the past 10 years.

A Brief History of Spotify

Daniel Ek and his Swedish cohorts launched Spotify in October 2008, having founded the company two years previously. Spotify soon spread from its home country of Sweden to the U.K., and then in 2011, Spotify was launched in the United States.

Spotify is now available in 60 countries worldwide, and boasts hundreds of millions of users, millions of which pay for the privilege. In April 2018, Spotify started trading publicly, with its shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Spotify Serves Up Statistics

With 10 years under its belt, Spotify has decided to look back over what it terms a “Decade of Discovery“. And the statistics paint a fascinating picture of what we’ve all been listening to on Spotify between 2008 and 2018.

The most-streamed artists of all time are:

1. Drake
2. Ed Sheeran
3. Eminem
4. The Weeknd
5. Rihanna
6. Kanye West
7. Coldplay
8. Justin Bieber
9. Calvin Harris
10. Ariana Grande

Remember discovering the biggest hits of the last 10 years?https://t.co/ESiI93a9xb #DecadeofDiscovery pic.twitter.com/nK5wKMUaRc

— Spotify (@Spotify) October 10, 2018

The most-streamed songs of all time are:

1. Ed Sheeran – “Shape Of You”
2. Drake – “One Dance”
3. The Chainsmokers, Halsey – “Closer”
4. Post Malone – Rockstar” (feat. 21 Savage)
5. Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud”
6. Major Lazer, MØ, DJ Snake – “Lean On”
7. Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, Justin Bieber – “Despacito – Remix”
8. Justin Bieber – “Love Yourself”
9. Justin Bieber – “Sorry”
10. The Chainsmokers – “Don’t Let Me Down”

There’s more to learn too. Such as Humans by The Killers being the most-streamed song in 2008. And the fact that Rihanna was the first artist to reach 1 billion streams. Or, most impressive of all, Spotify racking up 16,858,080 years in total time streamed.

The Decade of Discovery Playlist

Given Spotify’s propensity to create playlists from the data it gathers, it should come as no surprise to learn there’s also a Decade of Discovery playlist. This is packed full of the most-streamed songs people have listened to on Spotify over the past 10 years.

Whether you’re a Spotify veteran or a relative n00b, be sure to read our unofficial guide to Spotify. Or, if you’re experiencing issues with Spotify, read how to fix common Spotify problems. And if you’ve had enough, here’s how to delete your Spotify account.

Read the full article: Spotify Looks Back Over a Decade of Music

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Facebook Groups can now launch up to 250-person chat rooms

If you miss the old AOL chat rooms, you’ll love Facebook’s plan to combine Groups and with Messenger without spamming you to death. Starting today, Facebook will gradually roll out the ability for members of Facebook Groups to launch group chats about specific sub-topics that up to 250 members can join. They can also start audio or video calls with up to 50 members. A dog owners’ Group could spawn threads for discussing spontaneous park meetups, grooming tips, or sharing photos as they’re puppies grow up. Chat for Groups could make Facebook’s discussion forums more real-time and engaging, strengthening loyalty to one of the social network’s most differentiated features.

But instead of immediately alerting you of every message in every thread, you’ll first get a Facebook Groups notification inviting you to each new group chat you have to voluntarily join to receive further notifications. If you miss that initial alert, you can always go to the new Chat tab on Facebook Groups to browse the active threads or launch a new one. And if a Group chat gets overwhelming, you can turn off notifications about message reactions and Messenger games, or opt to only be notified if you’re @ mentioned in the thread. As a last resort against spam, Group admins can always shut down a group chat or limit their creation to only other admins.

Facebook has been poking around how it could integrate Messenger and Groups for a while. It already offers group chat for up to 250 members of a Facebook Event, and in 2016 Messenger tested public discussion “Rooms”. Now Facebook has settled on building chat as an extension of its existing Groups instead.

As the News Feed gets more politically combative and the algorithm preferences generalist content that’s appealing to everyone, there’s less room for niche interest content on Facebook. That’s contributed to an explosion of group chat activity on competitors like Telegram. WhatsApp revamped its own group chats with more admin tools in May to fight off this threat.

With 1.4 billion people active in Facebook Groups each month as part of tens of millions of active Groups, the feature generates a ton of activity and return visits for Facebook. With Groups Chats, Facebook expects users could “plan events, arrange in-person meetings, or have deeper discussions”. Messaging could also help Facebook build towards its goal of getting 1 billion people into what it calls “meaningful Groups” after it announce 200 million people already were as of May. With all the scandals plaguing its reputation and concerns that it polarizes the populace, Facebook is eager to find more ways to show it actually brings people together

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How to Bring Desktop Gadgets Back to Windows 10

Desktop gadgets were useful widgets that could be added to the Windows Vista and Windows 7 desktop to improve productivity. They’re long gone, but don’t worry—you can add desktop widgets to Windows 10 using these third-party tools.

Hold On, What Are Windows Gadgets?

It might seem difficult to appreciate ten years later, but desktop gadgets were popular at the time. Capable of displaying the time, weather, sticky notes, and even CPU speed, these widgets were essentially mini apps that could be positioned around the desktop (mostly down the right-hand side, however). They would also hide behind your main apps, acting as if part of the desktop background.

Pretty useful, right?

Unfortunately, with the arrival of Windows 8, these widgets were abandoned. Suddenly, you couldn’t instantly see what time it was in your Hong Kong office, or get RSS feeds on the desktop. Instead, this sort of information was combined into live tiles on Windows 8, and to a lesser extent, Windows 10.

Fortunately, with the return to a dominant desktop on Windows 10 (as opposed to the Start Screen-first approach of Windows 8), gadgets and similar tools can be restored.

Security Vulnerabilities Killed Windows Gadgets

A key reason why Microsoft opted to drop Gadgets from later versions of Windows was security related.

In 2012, Microsoft announced that vulnerabilities in its Gadgets could allow the running of Remote Code Execution, in which a remote attacker can gain access to your PC. They noted that:

• “Some legitimate Gadgets… could contain vulnerabilities”
• You could be tricked into installing a “malicious Gadget.”

Using both of these attacks, the hacker could run code under your account profile (potentially opening backdoors for other malware) or even hijack your entire PC. A fix was released to disable the Windows Sidebar and the Gadgets in Windows Vista and Windows 7. A few weeks later, Windows 8 was released, and the Gadgets were no more.

There’s no reason to let hackers limit your productivity, however. It’s time to bring some new widgets onto your Windows 10 desktop.

Get New Gadgets in Windows 10 With Widgets HD

Available from the Microsoft Store, Widgets HD lets you put widgets on the Windows 10 desktop. Simply install the app, run it, and click the widget that you want to see. Once loaded, widgets can be repositioned on the Windows 10 desktop, and the main app “closed” (although it remains in your system tray).

As with the Windows Vista widgets, hovering your mouse over the widgets reveals an X button to close it. You may even see a Settings cog, for making customizations. For instance, the weather and clock widgets let you select your location; the weather widget also lets you choose Fahrenheit or Celcius.

While free, the app offers in-app purchases of additional widget types. These include a news feed, picture gallery, internet speed test, and more.

(Note that earlier versions of the app didn’t allow individual widgets to be placed on the desktop, accounting for some poor review scores.)

Download: Widgets HD (Free, with in-app purchases)

Windows Desktop Gadgets

Probably my favorite solution, if only because it is so straightforward and light on resources, is Windows Desktop Gadgets. This solution is designed to work with multiple languages, which can be added in the installation wizard.

The DesktopgadgetsRevived-2.0.exe must be extracted from the downloaded ZIP file before running, and once installed, traditional Windows Vista/7 style gadgets can be accessed by right-clicking your desktop and selecting Gadgets.

You’ll see that gadgets have been added to Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization (see our guide to Windows 10 settings for more information on personalization settings), and you can add them to the desktop by clicking-and-dragging them into place.

Once installed, you’ll see that this is essentially a replacement for the original gadgets. As you’d expect, clicking the cog icon in the corner accesses settings, enabling you to resize and configure each gadget. It’s essentially the original Windows Desktop Gadgets, repackaged to run with Windows 10 (and Windows 8).

Download: Windows Desktop Gadgets (Free)

8GadgetPack

Another lightweight option, 8GadgetPack is free and enables users to run gadgets in Windows 8.x and Windows 10.

To use 8GadgetPack, visit the link and download the MSI file via the link on the right-side of the page, and install it. Once open, simply click the + button to open the list of gadgets and drag these to your desktop. Although a Windows Vista-style sidebar is included, the gadgets are not limited to this location.

Again, each gadget features an options screen. Here, you can set colors, location, and other data to configure the gadget to your purposes. Once you’re done, you should end up with a selection of useful gadgets to boost your productivity!

Download: 8GadgetPack (Free)

Get Contemporary Desktop Gadgets With Rainmeter

If those screenshots of the old-style desktop gadgets aren’t exactly floating your boat, you have another option. Rainmeter is a tool for customizing the Windows desktop.

Among its features is the ability to introduce information to the desktop, such as a clock, live hardware statistics, current and forecast weather, and more. You can basically use Rainmeter to display everything that gadgets do, but with considerable style.

Now, if you’re happy with the gadgets options above, then by all means stick with them. Rainmeter opens a whole new world of stuff to install and tweak, and if you’re purely looking for gadgets to improve productivity you need to be aware. Configuring Rainmeter can be a massive time sink, so keep things as simple as possible.

You can start with our guide on installing and using Rainmeter. If you’re looking for results as in the image above, however, you’re in luck. Rainmeter installs with a default theme, illustro, which gives you those widgets and a few more.

Download: Rainmeter for Windows 10 (Free)

Will You Use These New Desktop Gadget Apps?

Each of these solutions is worth trying and can help improve productivity. For instance, using a clock set to a foreign time zone can be invaluable when collaborating with people overseas, or just checking that your aunt in New Zealand is awake before you call.

So, desktop gadgets can still be added to Windows 10. Who knew? It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, though. Various “lost” features can be reinstated thanks to third-party apps. For example, the Aero Glass software brings restores the glass effect in Windows 10. Want more customizations? Find out how to set animated backgrounds in Windows 10.

Read the full article: How to Bring Desktop Gadgets Back to Windows 10

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Facebook Groups can now launch up to 250-person group chats

If you miss the old AOL chat rooms, you’ll love Facebook’s plan to combine Groups and with Messenger without spamming you to death. Starting today, Facebook will gradually roll out the abilty for members of Facebook Groups to launch group chats about specific sub-topics that up to 250 members can join. A dog owners’ Group could spawn threads for discussing spontaneous park meetups, grooming tips, or sharing photos as they’re puppies grow up. Chat for Groups could make Facebook’s discussion forums more real-time and engaging, strengthening loyalty to one of the social network’s most differentiated features.

But instead of immediately alerting you of every message in every thread, you’ll first get a Facebook Groups notification inviting you to each new group chat you have to voluntarily join to receive further notifications. If you miss that initial alert, you can always go to the new Chat tab on Facebook Groups to browse the active threads or launch a new one. And if a Group chat gets overwhelming, you can turn off notifications about message reactions and Messenger games, or opt to only be notified if you’re @ mentioned in the thread. As a last resort against spam, Group admins can always shut down a group chat or limit their creation to only other admins.

Facebook has been poking around how it could integrate Messenger and Groups for a while. It already offers group chat for up to 250 members of a Facebook Event, and in 2016 Messenger tested public discussion “Rooms”. Now Facebook has settled on building chat as an extension of its existing Groups instead.

With 1.4 billion people active in Facebook Groups each month as part of tens of millions of active Groups, the feature generates a ton of activity and return visits for Facebook. With Groups Chats, Facebook expects users could “plan events, arrange in-person meetings, or have deeper discussions”. Messaging could also help Facebook build towards its goal of getting 1 billion people into what it calls “meaningful Groups” after it announce 200 million people already were as of May.

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Roblox makes first acquisition with purchase of app performance startup PacketZoom

Fresh off a $150 million round of funding, kids’ gaming platform Roblox is making its first acquisition. The company says it’s acquiring the small startup PacketZoom, bringing its team and technology in-house to help it improve mobile application performance as its platform expands further into worldwide markets.

Founded in 2013, and based in San Mateo, California, PacketZoom had raised a $5 million Series A late last year. The company combines a content delivery network (CDN) to speed up performance with an application performance management tool to identify issues in a single package, TechCrunch had explained at the time.

The company’s products allow developers access to analytics about the app and network-performance related issues, as well as optimize app delivery and content downloads – up to 2 to 3 times faster.

The system in particular is designed to overcome the limitations of slow and unreliable networks, like those found in emerging markets. It also helps to ensure faster and lower latency data transfers worldwide.

It’s clear how this acquisition makes sense for Roblox, which offers a platform where kids create and play in 3D worlds and games and has global expansion in mind. With PacketZoom integrated into its gaming platform, users will be able to join games faster and have a better experience when playing on mobile devices.

Roblox had said earlier this year it was cash-flow positive and continues to be profitable. It raised funds in order to stock its war chest and have a buffer, while focused on its international expansion efforts. It also said it would use the funds to make acquisitions and open offices outside the U.S. in some regions, like China.

PacketZoom had raised $11.2 million to date from investors including Founder Collective, Tandem Capital, First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, Arafura Ventures, and others.

According to PacketZoom’s website, it was working with customers like Glu Mobile, Sephora, Photofy, Inshorts, Upwork, News Republic, Wave, Belcorp, GOTA, Netmeds, Houzify, Wooplr, Fluik Entertainment, Wondermall, and others. These relationships will be wound down, as Roblox plans to only use the IP internally, not to support other customers.

Roblox declined to speak to the acquisition price, but notes it was an all-cash deal. It includes all of PacketZoom’s IP and code. PacketZoom’s founder and CTO, Chetan Ahuja, along with the PacketZoom’s four-person engineering team will join Roblox.

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Google updates its Assistant on smart displays and phones

Earlier this week at its annual hardware event, Google announced a number of new features for its Assistant coming to the new Pixel 3 phones and Google’s own Home Hub smart display. As it turns out, though, Google didn’t pull back the curtain on everything new with the Assistant, so today, it’s announcing a number of new features and clarifying which of those that it showed off on the Pixel 3 are coming to other phones as well.

If you currently have the Lenovo Smart Display or the JBL Link View at home, then you’ll be happy to hear that you’ll get Live Albums, support for the Nest Hello doorbell and Home View for controlling all of your smart home devices soon. This update will also remedy one of my biggest gripes with smart displays so far because you’ll finally be able to add them to your speaker groups — something that was oddly missing when Lenovo and JBL announced their gadgets.

As Google already announced before, Call Screen, which lets you use the Assistant to answer a call to make sure it’s not yet another annoying telemarketing scam, and Duplex for making restaurant reservations is coming to Pixel phones later this year.

What’s new is that Google also today announced that its new visual snapshot of your day — so that you can see reminders, recent notes and event notifications — is coming to all Android smartphones with the Assistant soon. To see this, you simply swipe up after activating the assistant.

The Assistant is also coming to the lockscreen and now lets you pose personal queries like “What’s on my calendar?” without unlocking the phone. Instead, Google relies on its ability to recognize your voice to provide you this information, similar to what it already does on its Google Home devices.

On phones, Google is also introducing its new “Filters” setting that allows you to manage your kids’ access to the apps on your phone and a new ‘downtime’ feature that lets you set a schedule for when you can’t use your device. Soon, you’ll also be able to access many of the Pixel phones’ Digital Wellbeing features from the Assistant (“Hey Google, set wind down for 10am”).

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Pro-privacy search engine DuckDuckGo hits 30M daily searches, up 50% in a year

Some nice momentum for privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo which has just announced it’s hit 30 million daily searches a year after reaching 20M — a year-on-year increase of 50%.

Hitting the first 10M daily searches took the search engine a full seven years, and then it was another two to get to 20M. So as growth curves go it must have required patience and a little faith in the run up.

A strength of conviction that’s paying off now, though, as usage continues to take off…

DuckDuckGo fun fact: it took us seven years to reach 10 million private searches in one day, then another two years to hit 20 million, and now less than a year later we're at 30 million! Thank you all #ComeToTheDuckSidehttps://t.co/qlSaz4j9ZH

— DuckDuckGo (@DuckDuckGo) October 11, 2018

Albeit 30M daily searches is still a drop in the ocean vs the at least 3BN+ daily searches that Google handles daily (at least because that metric dates back to 2015).

DDG’s search engine offers a pro-privacy alternative to Google search that does not track and profile users in order to target them with ads.

Instead it displays ads based on the keyword being searched for at the point of each search — dispensing with the need to follow people around the web, harvesting data on everything they do to feed an sophisticated adtech business, as Google does.

DDG says it has been profitable using its non-tracking business model since 2014, also making money from affiliate revenue.

It does not break out active user metrics but earlier this year cited third party estimates which peg its user-base at around 25M.

This year it expanded from its core search product to launch a tracker blocker to address wider privacy concerns consumers have by helping web users keep more of their online activity away from companies trying to spy on them for profit.

It also recently emerged that DDG had quietly picked up $10M in VC funding, which is only its second tranche of external investment.

The company told us this financing would be used to respond to an expanding opportunity for pro-privacy business models, including by tuning its search engine for more local markets and expanding its marketing channels to “have more of a global focus”.

Privacy regulations such as Europe’s General Data Protection Act are likely also helping to put wind in DDG’s sails.

While, in the US, lawmakers are also eyeing drafting federal privacy regulations — which could result in new domestic controls on how companies are able to process people’s information.

Not tracking people in the first place positions DDG’s business to be able to keep on flying regardless of tighter rules incoming.

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The 5 Best Free Media Players for Windows

Trying to choose a media player app is like deciding on a web browser: conflicting opinions abound, everyone wants to convert you to “their” app of choice, and it’s easy to drown beneath all the different options out there.

The good news? Worthwhile media player apps always rise to the top as they distinguish themselves, and for the most part, it doesn’t matter which one you choose. The best media player for you is the one you most enjoy using.

Here are the best media players available for Windows 10—and no, Windows Media Player is not one of them. It’s outdated so don’t use it. Pick one of the apps in this post instead. You’ll thank yourself for it!

1. VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is the most popular media player in the world. If you look on a site like AlternativeTo, you’ll see that VLC ranks up top with over 5,900 Likes with runner-up Media Player Classic coming in at just over 1,000 Likes. VLC is clearly the king. But is it right for you? Maybe, maybe not.

VLC is complex and powerful. “All-in-one solution” describes it best and you can do a lot with it, particularly with all of the advanced settings and options to tweak. The downside? VLC verges on “bloated” status and may not offer the best performance on older, slower hardware.

But if you hate tinkering and just want a media player that’s free and works right out of the box, VLC is the answer. It can stream video URLs in real-time, and it can play all standard media types, including CDs, DVDs, and most popular video formats like MP4, AVI, and MKV. No need to download, install, and fiddle with codecs.

All in all, we understand why VLC ranks as one of the most popular GitHub projects to date. Considering it’s been in active development since 2001, it’s safe to say that VLC won’t be going anywhere any time soon. For all of this, VLC keeps its spot in our list of best Windows software.

Summary of benefits and notable features:

• Supports most media codecs out of the box.
• Supports playback from files, discs, external devices, webcams.
• Supports online streaming with most mainstream protocols.
• Hardware acceleration for fast GPU playback.
• Customize appearance with the VLC Skin Editor.
• Available on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.

Download: VLC Media Player (Free)

2. PotPlayer

PotPlayer is a media player app from South Korea. If VLC didn’t have such a strong brand identity, I think PotPlayer would probably stand in its place as king of the free media players.

VLC and PotPlayer share a lot in common, notably that they both serve as easy all-in-one media players for users who just want an out-of-the-box solution. But unlike VLC, which can run into trouble when dealing with larger files or cutting-edge video formats, PotPlayer always works.

And if you want to tweak options and customize to your liking, PotPlayer lets you. In fact, you’ll find it packed with more settings than even VLC, and lots of advanced features like scene previews, bookmarks, clip recording, and more. And best of all, it uses fewer resources than VLC.

Most users probably won’t care, but you should know that PotPlayer is free but proprietary software (i.e. not open source).

Summary of benefits and notable features:

• Detailed interface that shows a lot without being cluttered.
• Supports most media codecs out of the box.
• Supports playback from files, discs, external devices.
• Supports online streaming with most mainstream protocols.
• Better handling of large files (Blu-ray) and cutting-edge formats.
• Available on Windows only.

Download: Daum PotPlayer (Free)

3. Media Player Classic

Media Player Classic is one of those apps that can stir up nostalgia and send you down memory lane. Released back in 2003, it was the favored alternative to Windows Media Player back during the Windows XP days. It stalled development in 2006, and has since forked into two separate projects: Home Cinema (MPC-HC) and Black Edition (MPC-BE).

Home Cinema is the better choice for everyday users, aiming to remain as lightweight as possible, while supporting the latest standards and video formats. Black Edition is the superpowered version with more features, improvements, and enhancements, but it isn’t as simple to use.

And that’s really the biggest selling point of Media Player Classic: fast performance, low resource usage, small installation size—truly lightweight in every way. It handles most formats without issue, and it supports some advanced features like subtitle downloads, video capture, and integration with Skype.

Media Player Classic is the largest open-source alternative to VLC. If you don’t like how much bloat VLC took on over the past few years, and if you don’t like PotPlayer’s closed-source development, then this is the media player for you.

Note: MPC-HC was discontinued in July 2017, but it still works well and is worth using.

Summary of benefits and notable features:

• Intuitive and easy-to-use interface.
• Supports most media codecs out of the box.
• Supports playback from files, discs, external devices.
• Extremely lightweight, which means great performance on old machines.
• Advanced features like subtitle downloads and Skype integration.
• Available on Windows only.

Download: Media Player Classic (Free)

4. ACG Player

Now that we’ve got the “Big Three” out of the way, I want to highlight this gem of a video player that’s in the Microsoft Store. It’s called ACG Player and it’s tragically underrated. If you thought Media Player Classic was lightweight, this will blow you away.

The first thing you’ll notice is the simplified interface and touch-based controls. Tap the top half for Play/Pause, tap the bottom half to toggle the controls. Swipe left-right to rewind and fast-forward, swipe up-down for volume. Obviously this app was designed for Windows 10 tablets, but keyboard shortcut alternatives exist too.

Advanced features include gesture customizations, multiple window mode, playlist management, online stream playback, and the ability to tweak subtitle appearances and animations. You can also opt for Ax-Lite Video Player, which is a faster version with some of the features cut out.

In short, ACG Player is one of the few apps in the Microsoft Store worth using. It may be barebones, but it’s more than enough.

Summary of benefits and notable features:

• Simple, gesture-based interface. Great for tablets!
• Supports most media codecs out of the box.
• Supports playback from files, discs, external devices.
• Lightweight and barebones design.
• Available on Windows only.

Download: ACG Player (Free)

5. MPV

In MPV, we have another free, open-source, cross-platform contender to VLC. This particular project is a fork of both MPlayer and mplayer2, keeping the good bits of those, throwing out the junk, and introducing a whole lot more goodies.

The first thing that stands out is the lack of a traditional user interface. It’s a pure video player with minimal controls overlaid at the bottom—and it’s mostly controlled using mouse movements. Nifty and convenient for touchscreen devices.

Between MPV and VLC, MPV is definitely harder to use if you want to do anything more than just watch stuff. It’s generally more efficient and less demanding resource-wise, but things like fiddling with subtitles or streaming to Chromecast can be a pain.

Overall, it has a bit of a niche appeal, but it’s certainly worth giving a try. What do you have to lose?

Summary of benefits and notable features:

• Minimal, mouse-based user interface.
• Supports most media codecs out of the box.
• Excellent video quality, even when scaling.
• Lightweight and efficient video playback.
• Available on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android.

Download: MPV (Free)

Which Media Player App Do You Use on Windows?

I’m personally settled on VLC Media Player for my main computer and Media Player Classic for my older laptop.

If you have an Android device, you’ll also want a solid media player app for that too, in which case we recommend the excellent MX Player for videos and any of these music player apps for Android.

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