YouTube’s new beta program will test stability, not new features

Google sometimes experiments with new features in beta versions of its various Android applications on Google Play. However, the recently spotted YouTube beta program will not, unfortunately, be a testbed for upcoming additions to the video-sharing service. Instead, Google says it only plans to test the stability of the YouTube app at this time, not features.

The company quietly rolled out a YouTube beta program last week on Google Play, where it was soon spotted by the folks at Android Police.

Originally, the belief was that Google would use this new beta to try out features it was planning to bring to the YouTube app – in fact, that’s what Google’s own help documentation about the beta said!

Not only that, but the documentation urged testers not to share information about the features they see in the app until they’re publicly launched.

That all sounds pretty exciting, right? (At least for us early adopters who love to get mess around with the latest new thing before anyone else.)

But after asking Google for more information on the program, the company updated its help documentation to remove the wording about “experimental features.” It now says testers will only help YouTube to stabilize its app.

We also understand, too, that YouTube has always run a beta program, the only change is that, as of last week, it become more broadly accessible.

Users can now join the program to help YouTube test stability of the app and can then opt out at any time they choose. At this point, however, Google doesn’t plan on trying out new features in the beta build. That could, of course, change at any time in the future. So if you really want to be the first to know, you may want to join the beta program just in case.

But YouTube for a long time now has been testing its new additions by way of server-side testing. It even decided this year to be more public about those tests – disclosing its experiments by way of its @TeamYouTube handle and the Creator Insider channel.

For example, this is where the company first announced its test of a new Explore tab on iPhone a few months ago, and more recently said it would try different ways of inserting ads into videos, to see if users prefer fewer interruptions even if it meant multiple ads per interruption.

YouTube beta program members may or may not be opted into those same experiments, as they roll out. It will depend on if they’re in the testing bucket that’s targeted at that time.

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TC Sessions AR/VR surveys an industry in transition

Industry vets and students alike crammed into UCLA’s historic Royce Hall last week for TC Sessions AR/VR, our one day event on the fast-moving (and hype-plagued) industry and the people in it. Disney, Snap, Oculus and more stopped by to chat and show off their latest; if you didn’t happen to be in LA that day, read on and find out what we learned — and follow the links to watch the interviews and panels yourself.

To kick off the day we had John Snoddy from Walt Disney Imagineering. As you can imagine this is a company deeply invested in “experiences.” But he warned that VR and AR storytelling isn’t ready for prime time: “I don’t feel like we’re there yet. We know it’s extraordinary, we know it’s really interesting, but it’s not yet speaking to us deeply the way it will.”

Next came Snap’s Eitan Pilipski. Snapchat wants to leave augmented reality creativity up to the creators rather than prescribing what they should build. AR headsets people want to wear in real life might take years to arrive, but nevertheless Snap confirmed that it’s prototyping new AI-powered face filters and VR experiences in the meantime.

I was on stage next with a collection of startups which, while very different from each other, collectively embody a willingness to pursue alternative display methods — holography and projection — as businesses. Ashley Crowder from VNTANA and Shawn Frayne from Looking Glass explained how they essentially built the technology they saw demand for: holographic display tech that makes 3D visualization simple and real. And Lightform’s Brett Jones talked about embracing and extending the real world and creating shared experiences rather than isolated ones.

Frayne’s holographic desktop display was there in the lobby, I should add, and very impressive it was. People were crowding three or four deep to try to understand how the giant block of acrylic could hold 3D characters and landscapes.

Maureen Fan from Baobob Studios touched on the importance of conserving cash for entertainment-focused virtual reality companies. Previewing her new film, Crow, Fan noted that new modes of storytelling need to be explored for the medium, such as the creative merging of gaming and cinematic experiences.

Up next was a large panel of investors: Niko Bonatsos (General Catalyst), Jacob Mullins (Shasta Ventures), Catherine Ulrich (FirstMark Capital), and Stephanie Zhan (Sequoia). The consensus of this lively discussion was that (as Fan noted earlier) this is a time for startups to go lean. Competition has been thinned out by companies burning VC cash and a bootstrapped, efficient company stands out from the crowd.

Oculus is getting serious about non-gaming experiences in virtual reality. In our chat with Oculus Executive Producer Yelena Rachitsky, we heard more details about how the company is looking to new hardware to deepen the interactions users can have in VR and that new hardware like the Oculus Quest will allow users to go far beyond the capabilities of 360-degree VR video.

Of course if Oculus is around, its parent company can’t be far away. Facebook’s Ficus Kirkpatrick believes it must build exemplary ‘lighthouse’ AR experiences to guide independent developers towards use cases they could enhance. Beyond creative expression, AR is progressing slowly since no one wants to hold a phone in the air for too long. But that’s also why Facebook is already investing in efforts to build its own AR headset.

Matt Miesnieks, from 6d.ai, announced the opening of his company’s augmented reality development platform to the public and made a case of the creation of an open mapping platform and toolkit for opening augmented reality to collaborative experiences and the masses.

Augmented reality headsets like Magic Leap and Hololens tend to hog the spotlight, but phones are where most people will have their first taste. Parham Aarabi (Modiface), Kirin Sinha (Illumix) and Allison Wood (Camera IQ) agreed that mainstreaming the tech is about three to five years away, with a successful standalone device like a headset somewhere beyond that. They also agreed that while there are countless tech demos and novelties, there’s still no killer app for AR.

Derek Belch (STRIVR), Clorama Dorvilias (DebiasVR), and Morgan Mercer (Vantage Point) took on the potential of VR in commercial and industrial applications. They concluded that making consumer technology enterprise grade remains one of the most significant adoption to virtual reality applications in business. (Companies like StarVR are specifically targeting businesses, but it remains to be seen whether that play will succeed.)

With Facebook running the VR show, how are small VR startups making a dent in social? The CEOs of TheWaveVR, Mindshow and SVRF all say that part of the key is finding the best ways for users to interact and making experiences that bring people together in different ways.

After a break, we were treated to a live demo of the VR versus boxing game Creed: Rise to Glory, by developer Survios co-founders Alex Silkin and James Iliff. They then joined me for a discussion of the difficulties and possibilities of social and multiplayer VR, both in how they can create intimate experiences and how developers can inoculate against isolation or abuse in the player base.

Early stage investments are key to the success of any emerging industry and the VR space is seeing a slowdown in that area. Peter Rojas of Betaworks and Greg Castle from Anorak offered more details on their investment strategies and how they see success in the AR space coming along as the tech industry’s biggest companies continue to pump money into the technologies.

UCLA contributed a moderator with Anderson’s Jay Tucker, who talked with Mariana Acuna (Opaque Studios) and Guy Primus (Virtual Reality Company) about how storytelling in VR may be in very early days, but that this period of exploration and experimentation is something to be encouraged and experienced. Movies didn’t begin with Netflix and Marvel — they started with picture palaces and one-reel silent shorts. VR is following the same path.

And what would an AR/VR conference be without the creators of the most popular AR game ever created? Niantic already has some big plans as it expands its success beyond Pokémon GO. The company which is deep in development of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is building out a developer platform based on their cutting edge AR technologies. In our chat, AR research head Ross Finman talks about privacy in the upcoming AR age and just how much of a challenger Apple is to them in the space.

That wrapped the show; you can see more images (perhaps of yourself) at our Flickr page. Thanks to our sponsors, our generous hosts at UCLA, the motivated and interesting speakers, and most of all the attendees. See you again soon!

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Envoy raises $43 million to digitize your office

The office might not seem like an area in desperate need of disruption, but Envoy — a Silicon Valley company used to sign in over 100,000 visitors at offices across the world each day; and a TechCrunch SF office neighbor! — has raised $43 million to do just that.

The company started life five years digitizing the sign-in book with a simple iPad-based approach, and it has moved on to office deliveries with an automated system that simply involves scanning a barcode. In both cases, alerts are routed directly to the person collecting the goods or visitor using an app.

The concept is simple: no more pen and paper, no calls or prompts, everything goes digital.

The result is an easier life for office workers and more efficiency for front desk staff, who have more time for important items. A basic version of Envoy is available for free, but the feature-rich options include two-tiered plans ($99/$249 per month) and bespoke packages for more advanced integrations.

This new Series B capital takes Envoy to $59.5 million raised to date. The round was led by Menlo Ventures with participation from existing backers Initialized Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Envoy’s previous round was a $15 million Series A in 2015, and its seed investors include Marc Benioff as well as Initialized Capital partners Gary Tan and Alexis Ohanian.

Envoy has certainly expanded since that first $1.5 million seed deal. CEO and founder Larry Gadea, who spent four years at Google after joining at 19 and later worked for Twitter, told TechCrunch in an interview that its customer base spans 72 countries. Over 32 million visitors have been signed in to date and Gadea is particularly proud that 80 percent of its 10,000 daily companies — which includes well-known names like Yelp, Mailchimp and Rakuten — are based outside of Silicon Valley. That, he rightly asserts, is evidence that the issue isn’t just a Silicon Valley/first world problem like so many ideas spun out of The Valley can be.

“The growth has been absolutely nuts. It’s a very viral product… people see it, use it and then take it back to their company,” Gadea, who joined Google from high school in Canada, explained. “The majority of our deals happening through inbound.”

Child prodigy Larry Gadea was plucked from high school in Canada by Google after the company discovered a plug-in he had developed for its desktop search service

Organic growth is a good start, but $43 million is a lot of money and it’ll be used to go push things further still and expand the Envoy team which is currently at around 100 people. You can expect more new office digitizations from the company since its ultimate goal is to make the entire office smarter. That could include products like meeting room booking and other small pieces which, when put together, Gadea hopes will allow workers to concentrate on their work not unnecessary admin. Just as Envoy has done with front desk staff.

“We’re known for the front desk and sign-in but where I think it’s really interesting, and where our future is, is that the rest of the office is just so broken,” he explained. “There’s so much low-hanging fruit we can go after.”

Gadea explained a little more in an Envoy blog post announcing the new round:

Though we’ve helped modernize over 10,000 lobbies with automated iPad-based sign-in, and started bringing some order to the chaos of the mailroom, the rest of the workplace remains largely untouched: people are losing their keys/badges (and being locked out of their office!), meeting rooms are reserved but are unoccupied, lights/heating are left on after-hours, there’s all sorts of out-of-place things that nobody’s reporting, etc. Where are the products to fix all those things? And to unify them all together.

The ultimate vision is a kind of ‘office OS’ platform that other companies can build off. Gadea compares the potential impact to what Nest has done to the home with its smart products, which started with the thermostat.

Gadea is still working on a name for the platform, and he isn’t saying exactly what features it might include. Certainly, now that there’s an additional $43 million in the kitty, expectations for what might (first) appear to be a modest proposal for the front desk have been raised.

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iPharmacy Roman fights stigmas with premature ejaculation meds

There’s a war brewing to become the cloud pharmacy for men’s health. Roman, which launched last year offering erectile dysfunctional medication and recently added a ‘quit smoking’ kit, is taking on $97 million-funded Hims for the hair loss market. Today, Roman launched four new products it hopes to cross-sell to users through a unified telemedicine subscription and pill delivery app. It now sells meds for premature ejaculation, oral herpes, genital herpes, and hair loss at what’s often a deep discount versus your local drug store. And for those who are too far gone, it’s launching a “Bald Is Beautiful, Too” microsite for finding the best razors, lotions, and head shaving tips.

Roman CEO Zachariah Reitano

“It’s unlikely that you’ll buy razors from Bonobos or pants from Dollar Shave Club. But with a doctor, it’s actually the exact opposite” Roman CEO Zachariah Reitano tells me. “As a customer you’re frustrated if they send you somewhere else.” And so what started as a single product startup is blossoming into a powerful product mix that can keep users loyal.

Roman starts with a telemedicine doctor’s visit where patients can talk about their health troubles without the embarrassment of going to their general practitioner. When appropriate, the doc can then prescribe medications customers can then instantly buy through Roman.

“If you have something that’s truly consuming your day-to-day, it makes it really hard or nearly impossible to think about the long-term. If you’re 30 pounds overweight and experiencing erectile dysfunction, [it’s the latter symptom] that’s dominating your head space” Reitano explains. The doctor might focus on the underlying health issue, but most humans aren’t so logical, and want the urgent issue fixed first. Reitano’s theory is that if it can treat someone’s erectile dysfunction or hair loss first, they’ll have the resolve to tackle bigger lifelong health challenges. “We’re hoping to work on this so you can take a deep breath and get the monkey off your back” the CEO tells me.

But one thing Roman won’t do is prescribe homeopathic remedies or spurious remedies. “We will only ever offer products that are backed by science and proven to work” Reitano declares. Taking a shot at Roman’s competitor, he says “Hims sells gummies. Roman does not.  No doctor would say Biotin would help you regrow hair”, plus the vitamin can distort blood pressure readings that make it tough to tell if someone is having a heart attack.

“Roman will never slap sugar on vitamins, sell them on Snapchat, and say they’ll regrow your hair” Reitano jabs. Roman also benefits from the fact that Reitano’s father and one of the company’s advisors Dr. Michael Reitano was a lead author on a groundbreaking study about how Valacyclovir could be used to suppress transmission of genital herpes.

So what is Roman selling?

• Erectile Dysfunction – $31/month –  Viagra, Sildenafil (generic Viagra), Cialis, or Tadalafil (generic Cialis)
• Premature Ejaculation – $19/month – Sertraline, Tadalafil (generic Cialis), Sildenafil (generic Viagra)
• Hair Loss – $17/month – Finasteride
• Genital Herpes – $14/month Valacyclovir (generic Valtrex)
• Cold Sores / Oral Herpes – $14/month Valacyclovir (generic Valtrex)

With Roman, Hims, Amazon acquisition PillPack, and more, there’s a powerful trend in direct-to-consumer medication emerging. Reitano sees it as the outcome of five intersecting facts.

1. The evolution of telemedicine regulation allowing physicians to have a national presence by seeing patients online
2. Physicians are being reimbursed less by Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers for the same activity, pushing them towards telemedicine
3. A patent cliff is making many medications suddenly affordable under generic names.
4. Insurance deductibles are increasing, turning patients into consumers
5. Technology is making it easier and cheaper to start medical startups

Roman’s $88 million Series A it announced last month is proof of this growing trend. Investors see the traditional pharmacy structure as highly vulnerable to disruption.

Roman will have defeat not just security threats and competitors, but also the status quo of keeping a stiff upper lip. A lot of men silently suffer these conditions rather than speak up. By speaking candidly about his own erectile dysfunction as a side-effect of heart medication, Reitano is trying to break the stigma and get more patients seeking help wherever feels right to them.

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SoundCloud tracks can now be shared to Instagram Stories

Streaming service SoundCloud is making it easier for its users to share music from its service directly to Instagram. The company announced this morning a new feature that allows users to share tracks to Instagram Stories. However, there’s a big caveat here – the tracks are shared as a link that appears within Stories. To actually listen to the track, users have to click the “Play on SoundCloud” link, which then redirects them to the SoundCloud app to begin listening.

This offers a way for fans and artists to promote their music through Instagram’s hugely popular Stories platform, but it’s not quite the same as being able to actually share music via Instagram, as the listening takes place elsewhere.

Prior to this, people shared their SoundCloud discoveries via workarounds – like taking screenshots, for example.

To use the new feature, you first find the track you want to share, and tap the “Share” icon at the bottom of the screen. You then tap the Instagram icon or select “Share to Instagram Stories,” depending on whether you’re on an iOS or Android smartphone. The link to the track is then shared right in your Instagram Story. There’s a sticker label you can drag around to place on the screen. To listen, viewers click the “Play on SoundCloud” link at the top of the Instagram Story.

This sharing feature was actually first announced in May at Facebook’s F8 developer conference, alongside news of Instagram’s support for sharing from other third-party apps, like Spotify and GoPro, among others.

However, SoundCloud confirms that it simply hadn’t been implemented until now.

The sharing feature follows the recent launch of SoundCloud’s monetization program for artists, and serves as another means for musicians to reach their fans outside of the platform itself. However, because users have to click a link to listen, it’s not necessarily a way to expose friends to new music the way that Instagram’s own soundtracks feature can.

SoundCloud says sharing feature is live in the latest version of the SoundCloud iOS and Android app.

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Apple’s CEO Tim Cook to flag trust and humanity in major privacy speech

Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to endorse the idea of a “comprehensive federal privacy law” for the U.S. in a keynote speech tomorrow.

He will also back Europe’s approach to data protection and privacy — recently cemented in place via the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — essentially saying technology does not have to be creepy to be innovative. Nor should the tech itself be a cause of harm.

Cook will be addressing the 40th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC), which is being held in Brussels this year to coincide with the introduction of GDPR.

Europe’s updated privacy framework came into timely force, this May, weeks after the Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal had erupted into a major global scandal — further raising the profile of data protection as a consumer need, and convincing governments to prioritize an oft overlooked area.

By contrast US lawmakers have found themselves on the back foot, increasingly viewed as laggards on the issue vs Europe.

California also recently passed a state-wide data protection law. So federal regulators now have clear impetus to draw up domestic privacy rules. Though it remains to be seen whether they will stand up to platform power at home and hold their own on the world stage. Or merely close down the risk of a state-by-state data protection patchwork springing up to create new compliance headaches for business.

Silicon Valley’s response to talk privacy laws has been predictably disingenuous — with attempts to reframe the issue under broadbrush, malleable concepts like ‘control’ or ‘accountability’; and lobbying efforts aimed at steering regulators away from drafting laws anywhere near as robust as GDPR.

The usual soundbites are being trotted out about the need to ‘protect innovation‘ (aka the data-fuelled business models such companies use as revenue engines).

Cook’s intervention is a reminder that not every tech giant is hostile to privacy. And privacy does not have to be systematically violated for value to be derived from data.

For example, Apple has invested in pro-privacy technologies that enable it to leverage data-based insights while protecting individual privacy, such as its use of differential privacy to pull aggregate patterns of behaviour across its user-base; rather than pursuing a per-person profiling approach, as adtech giants Google and Facebook do, riding roughshod over individual privacy in the process.

In his speech to the audience of international privacy commissioners, Cook is expected to thank global regulators for the work they do, and reiterate that Apple views privacy as a “fundamental human right” — a position which aligns the company with the EU’s ethics-based perspective on big data.

He will also compliment GDPR, specifically — dubbing it an example of how “good policy and political will can come together to protect the rights of us all” — and focus on ethical underpinnings, saying that at Apple “we are optimistic about technology’s awesome potential for good. But we know that it won’t happen on its own. Every day, we work to infuse the devices we make with the humanity that makes us.”

He will also say: “We will never achieve technology’s true potential without the full faith and confidence of the people who use it” — which looks like a not-so-coded attack on big tech’s trust crisis, which continues to be fuelled by data breach after data breach, every passing week.

As we wrote previously, Apple’s signalling to US lawmakers on privacy is clear. 

In the speech, Cook will also seek to push the conversation beyond talk of compliance and defence of rights — by laying out a broad, positive vision for technology and privacy in the 21st century. 

He is expected to tell delegates “we need to keep making progress — now more than ever” on “humanity’s greatest common project”, citing challenges such as climate change, fighting disease, and education and economy inclusion.

Cook is the first tech CEO to give the keynote speech at the ICDPPC, accepting an invitation from the conference organizers to do so.

And perhaps the only big tech CEO who could comfortably take to such a stage in person.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai will also be heard at the conference, but remotely, via pre-recorded video messages. The companies are sending policy staffers to answer delegates’ questions in Q&A sessions.

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13 Windows Diagnostics Tools to Check Your PC’s Health

No matter who you are, whether newbie or veteran, your Windows system will eventually run into problems that aren’t so easy to diagnose. (It happens on other operating systems too.) When that happens, what do you do?

You could hire somebody to troubleshoot the problem for you, but that should be a last resort. There’s no need to pay someone when you can easily figure out the problem on your own using tools you can download for free.

We recommend giving these tools a try first. You might be surprised by how much you can solve with these alone! If you STILL can’t fix the issue, then sure, bring in the cavalry.

Windows System Diagnostic Tools

Hardware problems can be a huge pain in the neck on Windows. They tend to occur most often when you’re using an older version of the operating system (e.g. Windows 7 or Windows 8) or a cutting edge version (e.g. Windows Insider).

But sometimes you just want to know which hardware you’re using. These are the tools you should absolutely know how to use for any of these use cases.

1. CPU-Z

CPU-Z is a nifty little program that scans your system for its internal hardware configuration. It’s indispensable if you ever want to upgrade your PC parts and want to avoid incompatibility issues.

But it’s also good for when you forget which components you have installed, especially if you built your own PC, as well as for verifying the components when buying a used PC from someone you may not trust.

2. Performance Monitor

As in older versions of the operating system, Windows 10 has a Performance Monitor, except now it exists as an app. Once launched, look at the sidebar. Under Monitoring Tools, you should see Performance Monitor.

By default, the Monitor only shows “% Processor Time” which displays how much of your CPU is used at any given time, but you can add more Counters such as disk usage, energy used, paging file size, search index size, and more.

3. Reliability Monitor

The Reliability Monitor is a hidden tool that’s been around since Windows Vista, yet so many people have never even heard of it. It’s in the Control Panel under System & Security > Security & Maintenance > Maintenance > View reliability history.

Here you’ll see a history of your system and a timeline of events and errors that occurred during a given time period. The blue line is an estimate from 1 to 10 of how stable your system is over time.

If something is crashing a lot, this is a good place to look because you can select the error and Check for a solution.

Windows Network Diagnostic Tools

Whether you’re using Wi-Fi or Ethernet, there’s a good chance you’re going to run into network problems. It’s one of the most common problems to have these days. That’s why you need these tools.

4. WiFi Analyzer

WiFi Analyzer is a free tool that does exactly what its name says: it analyzes your Wi-Fi network’s setup to see whether your wireless channel is interfering with other nearby Wi-Fi networks.

Once analyzed, it will recommend a channel setting for you. It’s not perfect, especially in crowded apartments and dense cities, but in some cases it can boost your Wi-Fi speed and reliability by a significant amount. It’s worth trying!

5. Angry IP Scanner

Angry IP Scanner is a nice tool to have. In a nutshell, it scans your network to see which IP addresses and ports are being used by which devices.

You can use it at home to see how many devices are connected to your network (to check if anyone is mooching off of your Internet) or to find the IP address of a specific device (such as your smartphone).

Windows Drive Diagnostic Tools

6. CrystalDiskInfo

Ever wondered if your hard disk drive or solid state drive was in good condition? It’s not easy to find out, especially with newer SSDs that can die before you even realize something’s wrong. (Learn the warning signs of a failing SSD!)

Well, that’s where CrystalDiskInfo comes into play.

This simple program gives you a complete overview of the state of your data drives, including HDDs, SSDs, and USB drives. Details include temperature, spin-up time, uptime, error rates, and more. It also calculates an overall Health Status.

Note that it has a sister program called CrystalDiskMark, which you can use to benchmark your data drives (i.e. see how fast they can read and write data).

7. WinDirStat

WinDirStat is a must-have application as far as I’m concerned. I’ve used it regularly for many years now and it has never disappointed me. It stands for Windows Directory Statistics and it does exactly what it says.

In short, it scans your data drives and tells you how much space is used up by various folders and files, all displayed in a neat tree-based hierarchy and a detailed graph view.

Not only is WinDirStat perfect for visualizing where your data is stored, it’s also fantastic for cleaning up lost files and recovering disk space.

Windows Memory Diagnostic Tools

RAM problems are another common issue for computers at home. (Learn more about RAM here.) These days, it’s way too easy to run out of physical RAM, which can lead to system slowdowns and even crashes. Fortunately, diagnoses are usually straightforward.

8. Resource Monitor

Windows has a feature called the Resource Monitor, which was implemented back in Vista. Traditionally, you’d have to launch it through the Task Manager, but it’s now a separate app in Windows 10 that you can launch through the Start Menu.

The Resource Monitor is an advanced way to view real-time data about your system and is usually used in conjunction with the Performance Monitor. However, I mainly use it for viewing process details and memory usage. Indeed, it’s one of the easiest ways to troubleshoot RAM problems.

9. Windows Memory Diagnostic

Did you know Windows actually has a built-in tool that can physically test your RAM modules to check if they’re free of errors? An app called Windows Memory Diagnostic.

Using it will restart your computer. On boot up, the tool will run several tests on your RAM, and if it encounters any errors or failures, it will do its best to let you know which module is the culprit. You should replace that module ASAP.

Windows Display Diagnostic Tools

10. JScreenFix

Look carefully at your screen. Do you see any spots that aren’t caused by flecks of dust? If so, you may have a stuck pixel, which is a pixel that’s stuck on a certain color. These can be super annoying.

JScreenFix is a web tool that can help. All it does is flash the area of the screen with the stuck pixel with hundreds of different colors every second. This should unstick the pixel after about ten minutes.

Does it always work? No. Sometimes a stuck pixel will be stuck forever due to a physical defect in the screen. But JScreenFix has a success rate over 60 percent, so give it a try if you have a stuck pixel of your own.

Windows Malware Diagnostic Tools

11. AdwCleaner

Not many people know about AdwCleaner, which is a shame because it’s fantastic and deserves more recognition. It’s just a simple malware scanner, but it’s fast, efficient, and free, which is all anyone can ask for.

It’s mainly designed to target malware that comes bundled with installer files, so it detects adware, toolbars, unwanted programs, browser hijackers, etc. Scan results are sorted as services, files, DLLs, scheduled tasks, registry entries, and more.

12. MalwareBytes

MalwareBytes has been king of the malware scanners for many years now. Most people have heard of it at least once, but if you haven’t, know that a lot of folks consider this a must-have application on every computer.

Note that MalwareBytes comes in both Free and Premium versions. The Free version is great, of course, and it’s more than enough for most home users, but the Premium version has all kinds of advanced features that are awesome. Learn more about why MalwareBytes Premium is worth the money.

13. ClamWin

ClamWin may look primitive, but don’t let that fool you. It’s one of the best free antivirus scanners currently available. The scans can take a while but it detects pretty much everything so the trade-off is worth it.

Why use ClamWin? Because it’s open-source, unlike the above-mentioned alternatives, and this is important if you want to verify that a program is doing what it claims to be doing—especially if that program is a security application. You can never be too careful.

Diagnose Your PC’s Problems With These Tools

We hope you’ll find these tools useful. Will you need ALL of them? No, probably not. Just pick the ones that seem valuable to you and forget the rest, at least for now.

You can always bookmark this page and refer back to it if you ever stumble into an issue that you’ve never seen before. Just remember to reboot before troubleshooting.

Image Credit: La Gorda/Shutterstock

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The Biggest 4chan Controversies Everyone Should Know About

Even if you’ve never visited the site, you’ve probably heard of 4chan. Outside of the dark web, there are very few online communities that have generated as much controversy.

Yet 4chan isn’t a backwater that’s only visited by nerds and geeks. It’s extremely popular. By some metrics it’s one of the most popular sites in the world.

But why is 4chan so contentious? In this article we take a look back over some of 4chan’s biggest controversies, scandals, and storylines.

1. Crashing Apple’s Stock Price

In October 2008, 4chan was responsible for Apple stock losing 10 percent of its value when its members successfully spread a rumor about the death of Steve Jobs. The rumor said he’d suffered a massive heart attack.

The 4chan-created story was spread via CNN’s iReport service, where any member of the public could leave tip-offs and citizen journalism reports. It became the top headline on the site.

4chan members had been trying to get the fake story off the ground for some time. In the aftermath, it emerged the same lie had been posted at MacRumors, Digg, and SAI during the preceding days.

2. A Swastika on Google

Because of the way Google’s algorithms work, it’s possible to game the system if you can get enough people on board.

That’s precisely what 4chan did in 2008 when it sent the swastika symbol to the top of Google’s Hot Trends list.

For a while, Google was stumped. It couldn’t find the reason why it happened. Eventually, it was discovered a post on 4chan told users to search for the swastika’s Unicode symbol.

Google was forced to issue an apology.

3. Trayvon Martin’s Email Account

In 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed. The death made headlines around the world as gun laws, racial tensions, and social equality in the U.S. were once again put under a microscope.

In the aftermath of the killing, a white supremacist operating under the username Klanklannon managed to hack Trayvon’s email and Facebook accounts. He posted screenshots of their contents to 4chan’s /pol/ (politics) board, claiming they included evidence that the teenager deserved to be killed.

4. Anonymous

Anonymous is a secretive, decentralized group of hacktivists. Members are easy to spot thanks to their stylized Guy Fawkes masks.

The group grew out of 4chan back in 2003. However, in its early years, it typically focused its energy on pranks and “banter” rather than activist causes.

That all changed in 2008 when the Church of Scientology became a target. Anonymous undertook distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) attacks, made hundreds of prank calls, sent black faxes to waste ink, and posted a now-infamous YouTube video that promised to “expel Scientology from the internet.”

In the following years, Anonymous increasingly started to get involved in political causes. In 2010, it launched Operation Payback. The group attacked the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America, and the Copyright Alliance over their attempts to shut down file-sharing sites like The Pirate Bay.

12 months later, the group stood alongside protesters during the Arab Spring. It took down regimes’ websites while simultaneously launching a script that would protect protestors’ browsers from government surveillance.

5. Gamergate

Gamergate, which started in 2014, was the low point of a culture war which is still ongoing to this day. There were accusations of unethical behavior amongst game journalists, harassment campaigns against female game developers, and even death threats and doxing.

4chan played a lead role in the early days of Gamergate. Eventually, 4chan’s founder—Christopher Poole—stepped in and banned all mention of Gamergate and the terms associated with it.

6. NFL Bomb Threat

In 2006, a Wisconsin man was jailed for six months and forced to serve a further six months under house arrest for threatening to blow up multiple NFL stadiums.

He posted the threats more than 40 times on 4chan, claiming that stadiums in Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Oakland, Cleveland, and New York would be targeted.

“The death toll will approach 100,000 from the initial blasts and countless other fatalities will later occur as result from radioactive fallout.”

He turned himself in to police two days before the supposed bombings were due to take place.

7. The iCloud Celebrity Photos Leak

The hack on iCloud in 2014 is infamous. After a targeted attack, more than 500 photos of celebrities were leaked online. Many of them contained nudity. Affected people included Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Kaley Cuoco, and Kirsten Dunst.

The photos were first posted on 4chan before spreading around other forums and message boards.

The fallout forced Reddit to ban associated subreddits, while Google was threatened with a $100 million lawsuit on behalf of the victims.

8. Taylor Swift Vote Rigging

A Canadian local radio show organized a contest to let one lucky fan meet pop star Taylor Swift. The fan with the most votes in an online poll would win.

The company assumed most of the competitors would be teenage girls wanting to meet their idol, but 4chan had other ideas.

It sent a “creepy” 39-year-old bloke called Charles into top spot thanks to a specially-made script running on more than 50 computers around the world.

Sadly, Charles’ dreams fell flat. He was disqualified for irregular voting patterns.

9. Sarah Palin Email Hack

Sarah Palin was the running mate for John McCain in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

On 16th September, just a couple of months before polling day, 4chan user David Kernell hacked into her email account and posted screenshots of its contents on the site.

The screenshots showed no malfeasance on Palin’s part. Here’s how Kernell described what he saw to other 4chan users:

“There was nothing there, nothing incriminating. All I saw was personal stuff [and] some clerical stuff from when she was governor.”

Kernell eventually served one year in prison.

10. #CuttingForBieber

In 2013, TMZ caught Justin Bieber using cannabis at a party. Predictably, the usual outpourings of faux media outrage followed. But, thanks to 4chan, things quickly took a darker turn.

The site’s users created a hashtag and doctored images in a bid to make it look like his fans were inflicting self-harm on themselves in response to the news.

It wasn’t long before other fans started to believe the 4chan fakes and also began cutting themselves in a bid to join the purported “movement.”

The actions of the 4chan users were widely condemned by charities, help groups, and Justin Bieber himself.

Policing the Internet

All of the 4chan controversies discussed here have victims, which is why we can’t condone such “pranks”. However, the question remains over how to deal with these issues when they arise.

This, of course, feeds into the broader debate around free speech on the internet, which is unlikely to be settled anytime soon.

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How to Play Local Co-Op Games Online Using Parsec

While most cooperative games have online functionality these days, there are still many that use the traditional, offline mode with a shared or split-screen.

In a busy world, meeting up with friends to play local multiplayer games together in person isn’t always an option. So what can you do to get around this? It turns out there’s a useful gaming program that can solve this problem for you…

Local vs. Online Multiplayer Gaming

When it comes to multiplayer games, there are two major types—local multiplayer and online multiplayer. Local multiplayer refers to multiple people playing on the same device—with local multiplayer games on the Nintendo Switch being especially popular. Players either share a view, or play in a split-screen mode.

Online multiplayer means that people play on different devices, often in different locations. Online multiplayer became popular through FPS games such as the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises, but also the dawn of MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft.

Parsec Turns Local Co-Op Into Online Co-Op

It turns out that game-streaming software Parsec is perfect for turning local co-op PC games into ones you can play with friends online. The program allows you to connect to other people’s computers and share a screen through streaming. Imagine a low-latency Teamviewer-type program that is specifically dedicated to gaming.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set up Parsec to play local co-op games with your friends online.

Step 1: Download Parsec

To download Parsec, you will need to visit the Parsec Gaming website. Parsec is available for Windows, macOS 10.9+, Android, Linux Ubuntu, and Raspberry Pi 3. For the purposes of this article we’ll be downloading and installing Parsec on Windows 10.

Once installed, open Parsec and set up your account.

Parsec does have a web browser app, similar to Discord. However, in order to host games, you will need to download the standalone Parsec program.

Step 2: Set Up Parsec

You need an account to use Parsec—so luckily setting one up is very simple. To sign up, simply click the link on the login screen. The program will ask you to choose a username, which you can change at a later stage if needed. You will also need to provide your email address and create a password for your account.

Once signed up, the program will notify you that you need Parsec Daemon to host games. However, it seems that this prompt is directed at users of the browser app. After installing the standalone program software, you won’t need to install anything else.

To host games on your computer, you will need to enable the hosting feature. When first logging into the program, there is usually an option at the top of the window to enable hosting.

If you don’t see this option, you can also enable hosting in your settings menu. Simply visit Settings>Hosting and you will see the option to enable or disable the feature.

Step 3: Add Your Friends

To join a game with friends, you will either need to connect to their PC or they will need to connect to yours. You will all need to have Parsec accounts to do this since the program uses your unique Parsec IDs to connect you to each other.

To add a friend, visit the Friends tab in Parsec. You can either look for a friend’s username or use their unique Parsec ID. This number is found under their username in their Parsec window.

Your friend will need to approve the request before you can connect through the program. According to Parsec, each friend receives the least amount of permissions by default. You can adjust these permissions according to each friend.

Once a friend is added, their PC will be included in your list of available connections when they are online.

Step 4: Connect to the Host PC

With Parsec, you can either host or join a game. Who hosts the game really depends mostly on who has the game that you want to play installed on their PC. If you all have the game, you should connect to the person with the best internet speed and the most powerful PC.

Under the Party Finder tab, there is a list of available parties you can join in the Parsec community. However, if you would like to play with friends, visit the Play tab instead. Their PCs will be listed here as available connections.

Press the Play button next to the person whose computer you want to connect to. Depending on your settings, your request to connect to their computer may need to be approved first. The host can also choose whether a guest has controller, mouse, and/or keyboard access. Granting mouse control lets the user essentially control the PC, so you may want to reserve this for the host user only.

If you want to host the game, your friends will need to send a request to connect to your PC. These requests will show up in the side panel on the app. You can approve the request and adjust permissions. In your friends list, you can also set whether a friend can connect to a PC without needing to request permission first.

Once a request is approved and a connection is established, a screen-sharing window opens. Anyone with mouse and keyboard control permissions is able to control the screen. The host computer will need to open the co-op game. (The game needs to be a local co-op game that lets users play on the same screen.)

Step 5: Assign and Connect User Controls

Just like a local co-op game, you need to also decide who uses what controls. Either players need to be assigned certain keys (e.g. WASD versus arrow keys) or they will need to use a controller. Whoever is using a controller simply needs to connect it to their own PC. The game, thanks to Parsec, will detect the controller as if connected directly to the host PC.

For example, when we used Parsec with the puzzle game The Cave, the game detected the controller and entered co-op mode when a remote (non-host) PC in the same Parsec session was connected to a controller.

You can access features such as controller mapping, group chat, and other features through a hovering Parsec icon in the game window.

Make Online Gaming With Friends Easier

Now you know how to play local co-op games with your friends online. But it’s also important to be able to communicate in the game to really get the perfect co-op experience.

Luckily, there’s no shortage of voice chat apps that you can use. Have a look at our list of the best voice chat clients for gamers to find out which one is best for you.

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These Wireless Bone Conduction Earphones Are Now Under $40

Many of us enjoy listening to music at work. But if you need to communicate with colleagues or be aware of your surroundings, it’s simply not possible to cover your ears. That’s where the True Wireless Bone Conduction Earphones come into their own. Instead of pumping music straight into your ears, they conduct sound through your skull. You can get these revolutionary earphones now for $39.99 at MakeUseOf Deals.

True Wireless Bone Conduction

Bone conduction technology has been around for a while now. But rarely has it ever been paired with wireless connectivity. These earphones finally bring the two ideas together.

Each earpiece has an audio conductor that rests on the bone just in front of your ear. Sound is transmitted through the bone directly into your inner ear. You don’t feel the vibrations, but you will notice the excellent sound quality.

As there is no cable attachment, the earphones stay in place by hooking over your ears. This means you can get active while listening to your favorite playlist, using the built-in touch controls to switch tracks and adjust the volume. You can even answer calls, thanks to the integrated mic.

These earphones offer six hours of playback on a full charge, and they take only two hours to refill. They’re also pretty stylish, with three color schemes to choose from.

Now 20% off

If you want to experience bone conduction sound, grab these earphones now for $39.99 and save 20% on the standard price.

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