U.S. smart speaker owners grew 40 percent over 2018 to now reach 66.4 million – or 26.2 percent of the U.S. adult population – according to a new report from Voicebot.ai and Voicify released this week, which detailed adoption patterns and device market share. The report also reconfirmed Amazon Echo’s lead, noting the Alexa-powered smart speaker grew to a 61 percent market share by the end of last year – well above Google Home’s 24 percent share.
These findings fall roughly in line with other analysts’ reports on smart speaker market share in the U.S. However, because of varying methodology, they don’t all come back with the exact same numbers.
For example, in December 2018, eMarketer reported the Echo had accounted for nearly 67 percent of all U.S. smart speaker sales in 2018. Meanwhile, CIRP last month put Echo further ahead with a 70 percent share of the installed base in the U.S.
Though the percentages differ – the overall trend is that Amazon Echo remains the smart speaker to beat.
While on the face of things this appears to be great news for Amazon, Voicebot’s report did note that Google Home has been closing the gap with Echo in recent months.
Amazon Echo’s share dropped nearly 11 percent over 2018 while Google Home made up for just over half that decline with a 5.5 percent gain, and “other” devices making up the rest. This latter category, which includes devices like Apple’s HomePod and Sonos One, grew last year to now account for 15 percent of the market.
That said, the Sonos One has Alexa built in, so it may not be as bad for Amazon as the numbers alone seem to indicate. After all, Amazon is selling its Echo devices at cost or even a loss to snag more market share. The real value over time will be in controlling the ecosystem.
The growth in smart speakers is part of a larger trend towards voice computing and smart voice assistants – like Siri, Bixby and Google Assistant – which are often accessed on smartphones.
A related report from Juniper Research last month estimated there will be 8 billion digital voice assistants in use by 2023, up from the 2.5 billion in use at the end of 2018. This is due to the increased use of smartphone assistants as well as the smart speaker trend, the firm said.
Voicebot’s report also saw how being able to access voice assistance on multiple platforms was helping to boost usage numbers.
It found that smart speaker owners used their smartphone’s voice assistant more than those who didn’t have a smart speaker in their home. It seems consumers get used to being able to access their voice assistants across platforms – now that Siri has made the jump to speakers and Alexa to phones, for instance.
The full report is available on Voicebot.ai’s website here.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule has safely splashed down in the Atlantic, making it the first privately built crew-capable spacecraft ever to complete a mission to the International Space Station. It’s one of several firsts SpaceX plans this year, but Boeing is hot on its heels with a crew demonstrator of its own — and of course the real test is doing the same thing with astronauts aboard.
This mission, Demo-1, had SpaceX showing that its Crew Dragon capsule, an evolution of the cargo-bearing Dragon that has made numerous ISS deliveries, was complete and ready to take on its eponymous crew.
It took off early in the morning of March 2 (still March 1 on the West coast), circled the Earth 18 times, and eventually came to a stop (relatively speaking, of course) adjacent to the ISS, after which it approached and docked with the new International Docking Adapter. The 400 pounds of supplies were emptied, but the “anthropomorphic test device” known as Ripley — basically a space crash test dummy — stayed in her seat on board.
(It’s also worth noting that the Falcon 9 first stage that took the capsule to the edge of the atmosphere landed autonomously on a drone ship.)
Five days later — very early this morning — the craft disengaged from the ISS and began the process of deorbiting. It landed on schedule at about 8:45 in the morning Eastern time.
It’s a huge validation of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, and of course a triumph for SpaceX, which not only made and launched a functioning crew spacecraft, but did so before its rival Boeing. That said, it isn’t winner take all — the two spacecraft could very well exist in healthy competition as crewed missions to space become more and more common.
Expect to see a report on the mission soon after SpaceX and NASA have had time to debrief and examine the craft (and Ripley).
According to a new report from Ming-Chi Kuo (via 9to5mac), a reliable analyst on all things Apple, the company has been working on an augmented reality headset and is about to launch the device. This pair of glasses could go into mass production as early as Q4 2019 and should be available at some point during the first half of 2020.
It’s still unclear what you’ll be able to do with this mysterious headset. Kuo says that it’ll work more or less like an Apple Watch. You won’t be able to use the AR headset without an iPhone as it’ll rely heavily on your iPhone.
The glasses will act as a deported display to give you information right in front of your eyes. Your iPhone will do the heavy lifting when it comes to internet connectivity, location services and computing. I wouldn’t be surprised if the AR headset relies on Bluetooth to communicate with your iPhone.
Kuo’s report doesn’t say what you’ll find in the headset. Apple could embed displays and sensors so that the AR headset is aware of your surroundings. An AR device only makes sense if Apple puts sensors to detect things around you.
Apple has already experimented with augmented reality with its ARKit framework on iOS. Developers have been able to build apps that integrate digital elements in the real world, as viewed through your phone cameras.
While many apps have added AR features, most of them feel gimmicky and don’t add any real value. There hasn’t been a ton of AR-native apps either.
One interested use case for augmented reality is mapping. Google recently unveiled an augmented reality mode for Google Maps. You can hold your phone in front of your face to see arrows indicating where you’re supposed to go.
Apple has also been rebuilding Apple Maps with its own data. The company isn’t just drawing maps. It is collecting a ton of real world data using LiDAR sensors and eight cameras attached on a car roof. Let’s see if Apple Maps will play an important part in Apple’s rumored AR headset.
Serial Box, a startup bringing back the tradition of serialized fiction, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding.
The company actually disclosed the funding last week, when announcing a partnership to produce stories about Marvel characters, but it’s sharing more details about the round — namely, the fact that it was led by Boat Rocker Media, with participation from Forerunner Ventures, 2929 Entertainment co-founder Todd Wagner and Japanese business intelligence and media firm Uzabase.
“We carefully chose trusted partners for this round of investment,” said co-founder and CEO Molly Barton in a statement. “They see the big opportunity that we do to retool reading for the smartphone age, to take the best elements of traditional book publishing and innovate with influences from the audio, podcast, gaming and TV industries.”
Serial Box publishes stories in text and audio format, broken up into weekly episodes. The first episode of each story is free — then if you’re hooked, you can pay $1.99 for additional episodes or sign up for a season pass.
The idea of making readers and listeners wait for the next chapter of the story may seem strange. Hasn’t Netflix trained us to want to binge the full season, as soon as possible? Maybe, but anyone who’s watched “Game of Thrones” week-to-week knows that there’s still immense pleasure in waiting for smaller chunks of the larger story.
Behind the scenes, the company is borrowing from the TV production model, with a showrunner leading each writing time creating the stories. Serial Box writer include popular YA/science fiction/fantasy authors Gwenda Bond, Yoon Ha Lee, Max Gladstone and Becky Chambers. And as mentioned, the company will also be publishing stories based on Marvel characters, starting with Thor.
The company says it will launch its Android app next week, with plans for more product upgrades and content partnerships in the coming months.
The influential Massachusetts Senator and Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren has been a longtime critic of the consolidation of economic power by Amazon,Google, and Facebook. Now she’s making their break-up a key component of her Presidential platform.
Warren has just released her plan for breaking up big tech, in what seems like a watershed moment for a Democratic nominee. Since Al Gore famously (infamously?) “invented the internet”, Democratic candidates have turned away from serious regulation of technology companies, preferring instead to receive their campaign contributions.
Eric Schmidt and Google donors were hugely important to the Obama campaign, and big tech companies were among his biggest supporters.
Now, Warren has said (on Medium no less) that the massive market power that Google, Facebook, and Amazon wield is a threat and will be treated accordingly.
“Twenty-five years ago, Facebook, Google, and Amazon didn’t exist,” writes Warren. “Now they are among the most valuable and well-known companies in the world. It’s a great story — but also one that highlights why the government must break up monopolies and promote competitive markets.”
The parallel she uses to make her case is the breakup of Microsoft, which she weirdly calls “the tech giant of its time” (Microsoft is still a tech giant), and holds as perhaps the last example when government went toe to toe with the technology industry.
“The government’s antitrust case against Microsoft helpedclear a path for Internet companies like Google and Facebook to emerge,” Warren writes.
But now the companies that flourished in the wake of the Microsoft case have, themselves, become too powerful, she argues.
“They’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation,” writes Warren.
The key components of the Warren plan include passing legislation that would designate companies with annual global revenue above $25 billion that provide marketplace, exchange, or third-party connectivity as “platform utilities” and prohibit those companies from owning participants on their platforms.
It’s a dragnet that now encompasses Alphabet and Amazon (but I don’t think it touches Facebook?). The new law would also be required to meet a standard of fair and non-discriminatory use with their users, and platforms would be restricted from sharing user data with third parties.
For companies with revenues below $25 billion, they’d be required to adhere to the fair use standard.
Warren would give state attorneys general and private parties the right to sue a platform for conduct that violates those requirements and the government could fine a company 5% of their annual revenue for violating the terms of the new legislation.
As Warren notes, “Amazon Marketplace, Google’s ad exchange, and Google Search would be platform utilities under this law. Therefore, Amazon Marketplace and Basics, and Google’s ad exchange and businesses on the exchange would be split apart. Google Search would have to be spun off as well.”
The part of Warren’s plan would be the rollback of acquisitions that Warren deems anti-competitive. In Amazon’s case that means Whole Foods and Zappos, would have to be spun back out. Alphabet would have to unwind Google’s acquisitions fo Waze, Nest, and DoubleClick (but not YouTube?), and Facebook would have to part with WhatsApp and Instagram.
“Unwinding these mergers will promote healthy competition in the market — which will put pressure on big tech companies to be more responsive to user concerns, including about privacy,” Warren writes.
Her call for regulation is a big moment for the tech industry, it should also serve as a wake-up call for these companies to do more than just pay lip service to the problems their dominance is causing in the marketplace.
One of the key challenges in making these AR features possible is proper anchoring of the virtual content to the real world; a process that requires a unique set of perceptive technologies able to track the highly dynamic surface geometry across every smile, frown or smirk.
Our 3D mesh and some of the effects it enables
To make all this possible, we employ machine learning (ML) to infer approximate 3D surface geometry to enable visual effects, requiring only a single camera input without the need for a dedicated depth sensor. This approach provides the use of AR effects at realtime speeds, using TensorFlow Lite for mobile CPU inference or its new mobile GPU functionality where available. This technology is the same as what powers YouTube Stories' new creator effects, and is also available to the broader developer community via the latest ARCore SDK release and the ML Kit Face Contour Detection API.
An ML Pipeline for Selfie AR
Our ML pipeline consists of two real-time deep neural network models that work together: A detector that operates on the full image and computes face locations, and a generic 3D mesh model that operates on those locations and predicts the approximate surface geometry via regression. Having the face accurately cropped drastically reduces the need for common data augmentations like affine transformations consisting of rotations, translation and scale changes. Instead it allows the network to dedicate most of its capacity towards coordinate prediction accuracy, which is critical to achieve proper anchoring of the virtual content.
Once the location of interest is cropped, the mesh network is only applied to a single frame at a time, using a windowed smoothing in order to reduce noise when the face is static while avoiding lagging during significant movement.
Our 3D mesh in action
For our 3D mesh we employed transfer learning and trained a network with several objectives: the network simultaneously predicts 3D mesh coordinates on synthetic, rendered data and 2D semantic contours on annotated, real world data similar to those MLKit provides. The resulting network provided us with reasonable 3D mesh predictions not just on synthetic but also on real world data. All models are trained on data sourced from a geographically diverse dataset and subsequently tested on a balanced, diverse testset for qualitative and quantitative performance.
The 3D mesh network receives as input a cropped video frame. It doesn't rely on additional depth input, so it can also be applied to pre-recorded videos. The model outputs the positions of the 3D points, as well as the probability of a face being present and reasonably aligned in the input. A common alternative approach is to predict a 2D heatmap for each landmark, but it is not amenable to depth prediction and has high computational costs for so many points.
We further improve the accuracy and robustness of our model by iteratively bootstrapping and refining predictions. That way we can grow our dataset to increasingly challenging cases, such as grimaces, oblique angle and occlusions. Dataset augmentation techniques also expanded the available ground truth data, developing model resilience to artifacts like camera imperfections or extreme lighting conditions.
Dataset expansion and improvement pipeline
Hardware-tailored Inference
We use TensorFlow Lite for on-device neural network inference. The newly introduced GPU back-end acceleration boosts performance where available, and significantly lowers the power consumption. Furthermore, to cover a wide range of consumer hardware, we designed a variety of model architectures with different performance and efficiency characteristics. The most important differences of the lighter networks are the residual block layout and the accepted input resolution (128x128 pixels in the lightest model vs. 256x256 in the most complex). We also vary the number of layers and the subsampling rate (how fast the input resolution decreases with network depth).
Inference time per frame: CPU vs. GPU
The result of these optimizations is a substantial speedup from using lighter models, with minimal degradation in AR effect quality.
Comparison of the most complex (left) and the lightest models (right). Temporal consistency as well as lip and eye tracking is slightly degraded on light models.
The end result of these efforts empowers a user experience with convincing, realistic selfie AR effects in YouTube, ARCore, and other clients by:
Simulating light reflections via environmental mapping for realistic rendering of glasses
Natural lighting by casting virtual object shadows onto the face mesh
Modelling face occlusions to hide virtual object parts behind a face, e.g. virtual glasses, as shown below.
YouTube Stories includes Creator Effects like realistic virtual glasses, based on our 3D mesh
In addition, we achieve highly realistic makeup effects by:
Modelling Specular reflections applied on lips and
Face painting by using luminance-aware material
Case study comparing real make-up against our AR make-up on 5 subjects under different lighting conditions.
We are excited to share this new technology with creators, users and developers alike, who can use this new technology immediately by downloading the latest ARCore SDK. In the future we plan to broaden this technology to more Google products.
Acknowledgements We would like to thank Yury Kartynnik, Valentin Bazarevsky, Andrey Vakunov, Siargey Pisarchyk, Andrei Tkachenka, and Matthias Grundmann for collaboration on developing the current mesh technology; Nick Dufour, Avneesh Sud and Chris Bregler for an earlier version of the technology based on parametric models; Kanstantsin Sokal, Matsvei Zhdanovich, Gregory Karpiak, Alexander Kanaukou, Suril Shah, Buck Bourdon, Camillo Lugaresi, Siarhei Kazakou and Igor Kibalchich for building the ML pipeline to drive impressive effects; Aleksandra Volf and the annotation team for their diligence and dedication to perfection; Andrei Kulik, Juhyun Lee, Raman Sarokin, Ekaterina Ignasheva, Nikolay Chirkov, and Yury Pisarchyk for careful benchmarking and insights on mobile GPU-centric network architecture optimizations.
Cookie walls that demand a website visitor agrees to their Internet browsing being tracked for ad-targeting as the ‘price’ of entry to the site are not compliant with European data protection law, the Dutch data protection agency clarified yesterday.
The DPA said it has received dozens of complaints from Internet users who had had their access to websites blocked after refusing to accept tracking cookies — so it has taken the step of publishing clear guidance on the issue.
It also says it will be stepping up monitoring, adding that it has written to the most complained about organizations (without naming any names) — instructing them to make changes to ensure they come into compliance with GDPR.
Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, which came into force last May, tightens the rules around consent as a legal basis for processing personal data — requiring it to be specific, informed and freely given in order for it to be valid under the law.
Of course consent is not the only legal basis for processing personal data but many websites do rely on asking Internet visitors for consent to ad cookies as they arrive.
And the Dutch DPA’s guidance makes it clear Internet visitors must be asked for permission in advance for any tracking software to be placed — such as third party tracking cookies; tracking pixels; and browser fingerprinting tech — and that that permission must be freely obtained. Ergo, a free choice must be offered.
So, in other words, a ‘data for access’ cookie wall isn’t going to cut it. (Or, as the DPA puts it: “Permission is not ‘free’ if someone has no real or free choice. Or if the person cannot refuse giving permission without adverse consequences.”)
“This is not for nothing; website visitors must be able to trust that their personal data are properly protected,” it further writes in a clarification published on its website [translated via Google Translate].
“There is no objection to software for the proper functioning of the website and the general analysis of the visit on that site. More thorough monitoring and analysis of the behavior of website visitors and the sharing of this information with other parties is only allowed with permission. That permission must be completely free,” it adds.
We reached out to the DPA with questions. A spokesperson told us it can’t comment on any individual complaints, but added: “Cookie walls are non-compliant with the principles of consent of the GDPR. Which means that any party with a cookie wall on their website has to be compliant ASAP, whether or not we will check that in a couple of months, which we certainly will do.”
In light of this ruling the cookie wall on the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB)’s European site (screengrabbed below) looks like a textbook example of what not to do — given the online ad industry association is bundling multiple cookie uses (site functional cookies; site analytical cookies; and third party advertising cookies) under a single ‘I agree’ option.
It does not offer visitors any opt-outs at all. (Not even under the ‘More info’ or privacy policy options pictured below).
If the user does not click ‘I agree’ they cannot gain access to the IAB’s website. So there’s no free choice here. It’s agree or leave.
Clicking ‘More info’ brings up additional information about the purposes the IAB uses cookies for — where it states it is not using collected information to create “visitor profiles”.
However it notes it is using Google products, and explains that some of these use cookies that may collect visitors’ information for advertising — thereby bundling ad tracking into the provision of its website ‘service’.
Again the only ‘choice’ offered to site visitors is ‘I agree’ or to leave without gaining access to the website. Which means it’s not a free choice.
The IAB told us no data protection agencies had been in touch regarding its cookie wall.
Asked whether it intends to amend the cookie wall in light of the Dutch DPA’s guidance a spokeswoman said she wasn’t sure what the team planned to do yet — but she claimed GDPR does not “outright prohibit making access to a service conditional upon consent”; pointing also to the (2002) ePrivacy Directive which she claimed applies here, saying it “also includes recital language to the effect of saying that website content can be made conditional upon the well-informed acceptance of cookies”.
So the IAB’s position appears to be that the ePrivacy Directive trumps GDPR on this issue.
Though it’s not clear how they’ve arrived at that conclusion. (The fifteen+ year old ePrivacy Directive is also in the process of being updated — while the flagship GDPR only came into force last year.)
The portion of the ePrivacy Directive that the IAB appears to be referring to is recital 25 — which includes the following line:
Access to specific website content may still be made conditional on the well-informed acceptance of a cookie or similar device, if it is used for a legitimate purpose.
However “specific website content” is hardly the same as full site access, i.e. as is entirely blocked by their cookie wall.
The “legitimate purpose” point in the recital also provides a second caveat vis-a-vis making access conditional on accepting cookies — and the recital text includes an example of “facilita[ting] the provision of information society services” as such a legitimate purpose.
What are “information society services”? An earlier European directive defines this legal term as services that are “provided at a distance, electronically and at the individual request of a recipient” [emphasis ours] — suggesting it refers to Internet content that the user actually intends to access (i.e. the website itself), rather than ads that track them behind the scenes as they surf.
So, in other words, even per the outdated ePrivacy Directive, a site might be able to require consent for functional cookies from a user to access a portion of the site.
But that’s not the same as saying you can gate off an entire website unless the visitor agrees to their browsing being pervasively tracked by advertisers.
That’s not the kind of ‘service’ website visitors are looking for.
Add to that, returning to present day Europe, the Dutch DPA has put out very clear guidance demolishing cookie walls.
The only sensible legal interpretation here is that the writing is on the wall for cookie walls.
Opera is one of the few, major browsers to survive in a market dominated by Google Chrome. With consistent updates and a wide set of built-in tools you wouldn’t find on others, Opera has managed to thrive.
But Opera offers much more than what meets the eye. There are a host of other nifty features you probably don’t know about. Here are nine of them.
1. Take and Annotate Screenshots Natively
Screenshots have become an essential means of communication online. Opera users, however, don’t need a separate app to take or edit one. They can do so right from the browser with the built-in Snapshot option.
It can be triggered by clicking the little camera icon on the sidebar or pressing the Ctrl+Shift+ 5 shortcut (Command + Shift +5 in macOS). You can either capture the entire screen or grab a portion of it.
Once done, Opera will bring up a preview screen where you can easily edit the image, add text, arrows, the works. If you don’t want to save the file, you can even copy and paste it anywhere.
2. Link and Quickly Access Your IM Chats
Opera allows you to connect your instant messaging accounts to the browser as well. That lets you instantly access your conversations from the sidebar. It’s compatible with a couple of popular services including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and VK.
To link your accounts, you will have to first ensure your preferred platform is available on the sidebar. If it’s not, head into the Settings and under Manage Sidebar, switch it on. Then, all you need to do is tap its icon and Opera will load the login screen.
3. Instant Search
Opera also has a search shortcut if you want to look up something on the internet or jump to a tab. It’s called Instant Search and it can be fired up either by tapping the search icon on the sidebar or pressing Ctrl + Space for tab search and Alt + Space (Option + Space on Mac) for web search.
With Instant Search, you can execute a query on Google or search an active tab by switching modes which itself can be done by pressing the Tab key. In case Instant Search is not enabled by default on your machine, you can turn it on from the Settings.
4. Dark Theme
If you’ve found Opera’s design too bright for those late-night surfing sessions, there’s some good news for you. The browser comes with a dark theme which you can enable from the Settings (Preferences on Mac).
The setting is situated in the Appearance section. You can also do it through the Easy Setup button present at the top right corner in the new tab page.
Switching to the dark mode revamps all the fundamental elements such as the bookmarks bar, settings page, and more.
Opera has upgraded the usual text selection prompt with a few, additional handy extensions too. For starters, whenever you select a foreign currency amount, Opera will automatically convert it to your local one and show the result in the pop-up.
Opera is even compatible with a handful of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin. In addition, you can do the same with time zones and units.
From the Settings (Preferences on Mac), you can also specify which currency should it translate to. Although, at the time of writing this article, you can not tweak the resultant metrics for time zones and units.
6. Smart Tab Multitasking
Just like you would with windows on your computer, you can cycle between tabs on Opera by using the Ctrl + Tab shortcut. But Opera takes this common functionality a step further by altering the switching order based on which tab you’ve most recently visited.
It’s not enabled by default, however. You will have to manually go into the Settings (Preferences on Mac) and in the User Interface section, activate the Cycle tabs in most recently used order option.
7. Connect Your Phone and Computer With My Flow
For people who employ Opera both on their computer and smartphone, the browser has a continuity tool titled My Flow.
My Flow allows you to seamlessly share content across Opera Touch and the desktop apps. You can push links, text, and even images. Plus, it’s integrated into nearly every aspect of the experience.
For instance, if you come across an image online you’d like to send to your desktop, you can simply right-click and click the My Flow option.
Similarly, if you select a piece of text, Opera will bring up a My Flow shortcut in the pop-up menu. My Flow also doesn’t need an Opera account to work. You just need to scan a QR code from your phone and you’re set.
8. Navigate Faster With Gestures
Apart from the keyboard shortcuts, Opera is compatible with mouse gestures as well. You’ll need the right button for activating them. Hence, trackpads like the ones found on MacBooks aren’t eligible for this.
To utilize mouse gestures on Opera, you will have to first enable them from the Settings (Preferences). Now, after holding down the right key, you can perform a multitude of actions by moving the mouse in a certain direction. To go back a page, for instance, you will have to slide it towards the left.
What’s more, Opera also has something called Rocker Gestures. These are specifically for navigating backward or forward through pages. They’re a bit more complicated to master than the normal mouse gestures.
To go back, you will need to hold the right button, click the left one, and then release the former before letting go the second. For going forward, you will have to do the opposite.
9. Quick Access Pane
Opera is filled with a series of thoughtful features but they’re not enabled by default to ensure the user doesn’t get overwhelmed at first. One of them is the Quick Access Pane. Turning it on reveals a new panel whenever you click the address bar which houses a bunch of nifty shortcuts you’d normally have to go through a few steps.
There’s a copy button, an option to save the webpage as a PDF document, and more. It’s available in the Settings under Manage Quick Access.
Is Opera Better Than Chrome?
In spite of shipping with these supplementary features instead of forcing you to rely on extensions, Opera still performs well and doesn’t stutter even under heavy duress.
Your Mac’s cursor has turned into that dreaded spinning color wheel way too much lately. You think you might need to upgrade your Mac, but how do you know for sure? Using benchmark tests can help you make that decision.
If your Mac’s performance isn’t up to par, you can either try to improve on certain aspects or look at getting a new machine. Continue reading to find out how to analyze your Mac’s performance with benchmark tests.
Why Should You Benchmark Test Your Mac?
Benchmark testing your Mac gives you insight on your machine’s performance. By comparing the data from your system with other computers, you can see which areas your Mac falls short in.
If you’re guilty of making some common mistakes that slow your Mac down, it’ll show on the benchmark test results. This is a hint that you might need to clean up some of your files or add more RAM.
Today, we’ll use the benchmark tests made specifically for analyzing your Mac’s general performance, CPU, GPU, disk speed, and gaming performance. Just remember to close all open apps before trying any of these tests.
1. Geekbench 4
While your Mac already comes with the Activity Monitor, it doesn’t always provide you with the most useful data. Geekbench gives you more detailed information about your computer’s general performance with tests modeled after realistic situations.
When you open Geekbench, a small screen appears that prompts you to choose your processor architecture. If you’re not sure, all Macs from 2007 and newer are 64-bit. After making your selection and hitting Run Benchmarks, the test will begin.
The free version displays your results in a browser. Although you’ll see many different types of results, Single-Core Score and Multi-Core Score are the ones you need to pay attention to.
The single-core score shows how well your Mac operates with only one core running, while the multi-core result shows your computer’s performance with all its cores running. A higher score means more efficiency.
Your score will fluctuate when you run the test several times, but it should give you an idea of your Mac’s capabilities. Check out the Geekbench Browser to compare your results to other Macs. A low score can be a sign that you need to upgrade your Mac.
Download: Geekbench (Free, premium version available)
2. Blackmagic Disk Speed Test
Are you curious about how fast your new SSD is? Blackmagic Disk Speed Test can help. More specifically, this tool lets you know how fast your drive can read or write a file.
The app is pretty simple to use. After changing the test settings, click Speed Test Start to begin the test. Since this app was originally intended for video editors, you don’t have to pay attention to the columns titled Will it Work? and How Fast?
The two large gauges will tell you all the information you need. The gauge on the left represents your write speed, while the gauge on the right shows your drive’s read speed. It’s not uncommon for SSDs to reach read speeds of 500MB/s and write speeds of 200MB/s, so if your drive is under 100MB/s, it’s pretty slow.
MAXON’s Cinebench analyzes both your Mac’s GPU and CPU with two simple tests. This tool has some pretty legit credentials, as popular movies like Iron Man 3 and Life of Pi have used MAXON software to create 3D graphics.
Click the Run button next to the CPU label to begin testing your CPU’s performance. A black screen will appear that slowly fills up with pieces to create a whole image. You’ll probably notice your Mac’s fans grow significantly louder as the image loads.
This test utilizes your Mac’s entire processing power with its incorporation of 2,000 objects, 300,000 polygons, detailed lighting, shadows, and more. The faster your computer loads the image, the better your score.
Cinebench’s GPU test doesn’t go easy on your Mac either. It checks how well your graphics card can handle a 3D scene in OpenGL mode. The demo shows a video of cars containing many textures (about one million polygons) and various effects like lighting, transparency, and environments.
You get the results of the test in frames per second (FPS). A higher FPS indicates better performance from your graphics card.
Gamers are always looking for ways to improve their Mac gaming experience. FPS counters come in handy, but trying to find one to measure your Mac’s in-game performance can be a hassle. Count It solves this issue by recording your gameplay and keeping track of FPS in a helpful graph.
You don’t even have to interrupt your game in order to activate Count It. Just tap a hotkey and Count It will start recording your game.
Ever wonder how many FPS your game is running at while you play? You can finally satisfy your curiosity, as Count It displays the current FPS in the corner of the screen during your game. You can also save game settings, helping you remember what resolution you used to get the best performance.
Novabench is a catch-all benchmark test that analyzes your CPU, GPU, memory, and disk speed. Simply pressing Start Tests will begin the comprehensive analysis. Like Cinebench, Novabench also opens a complex video that measures your Mac’s ability to handle 3D images.
After a few minutes, your test results should appear, but just looking at them won’t help you figure out how well your Mac performs. Compare your results to thousands of other Macs on Novabench’s results database. To save the results, you’ll have to make an account.
Download: Novabench (Free, $19 premium version available)
Does Your Mac Measure Up?
There’s no point to performing these tests if you don’t compare them to other Macs, so don’t forget to find out how your Mac measures up. If your computer’s scores aren’t as high as you expected, don’t worry. Newer Macs can still get bogged down by excess clutter and software.
If you’re a graphic designer, picking which fonts to use can be daunting. However, we’re here to help, and these free font bundles compile hundreds of fantastic fonts in one place. Which means you can easily find something that suits your needs.
Google Fonts is the most popular directory for embedded web fonts. Many designers consider it an invaluable resource. However, with around 900 fonts in the registry, it can be a little overwhelming trying to pick which ones to download.
Typewolf curates a collection of 40 of the best Google Fonts every year. This pack includes typefaces from renowned type designers that come in a variety of weights and styles. The site also highlights which fonts look great as body text.
The fonts are all free for both commercial and personal use. You can download each font individually or access its Google Fonts page. And if you sign up for Typewolf’s newsletter, you can download all 40 in a single zip file.
TheHungryJPEG is a popular design resources website. It offers high-quality fonts, graphics, stock photos, themes, and templates. While the majority of the resources aren’t free, TheHungryJPEG offers a bundle of 26 fonts worth $104 that only costs a post on social media.
The majority of the typefaces in this pack are display and script fonts. They work well for large-scale printed graphics, online posts, and invitations. For example, Echizen is a hand painted typeface that looks excellent on social media layouts.
If your next design project has a retro aesthetic, you’re going to love the Ultimate Old-School PC Fonts pack.
These fonts are amazing reproductions of typefaces from the early days of computing. Those who owned computers in the 1980s will instantly recognize the characters patterned after IBM PCs, DOS devices, and the built-in BIOS.
There are 81 sets of characters in this package. Some of them have multi-lingual support via Unicode. All these files are free for personal and commercial use, as long as you attribute them to the designer.
They can each be downloaded separately, or in a small zip file. The site also has a previewer that lets you test out the fonts.
The Type Lovers Bundle is a free compilation of 20 stylish fonts by Dreambundles, a service that provides bundles of design resources. All these fonts vary in style and are all free for commercial use.
This pack has fonts that suit a variety of situations. Mosk is a clean sans-serif with nine weights, while Selima Script is a brush script that works well on top of nature photos and landscapes.
Various artists and designers contributed to this pack. If you enjoy a particular font in the pack, you can access the designer’s site for other work that they’ve made.
When browsing Indestructible Type, you’ll quickly notice that most of the fonts have an asterisk. These asterisks are part of the name of the font. Artist Owen Earl, who developed this foundry, uses them as a way to stand out.
Indestructible Type is home to an array of unique, archetypal fonts that are all incredibly versatile. Gnomon* is a bold font for large-scale design. Bodoni* is a serif meant to be readable across all sizes. While No Tears is a derivative of Comic Sans that is cleaned up.
All of the fonts on Indestructible Type use a pay-what-you-want model and are essentially free. If you want to donate to the project, you can leave an amount during checkout.
In 1668, Dr. John Fell, a Bishop from Oxford, developed a set of types that he wanted to use in Christian publications and texts. After his death in 1686, the University of Oxford preserved his types and began publishing in his style for several decades.
In the 2000s, Italian engineer Igino Marini began recreating the Fell types as modern font files. The 13 striking serif fonts here are accurate revivals of his types. All of them come together in a single zip file. They’re all free, as long as you attribute them to the designer.
Not every designer can say that they’re using a font developed in the 1600s, but now you can.
Ten By Twenty is a set of typography projects by English designer Ed Merritt. On his site, you’ll find his nine alpha-numeric fonts and one iconic font.
His typefaces range in style from publishing-ready serifs like Jura to interesting, blocky displays like Tödi. His fonts have over 1.5 million downloads. They are all licensed under an open font license, so they are free for all types of use.
He sells all of them using a pay-what-you-want scheme. If you find that you really enjoy using one of his fonts, you can come back later and pay a small amount.
At just two fonts, this is the smallest set in this list. However, both of them are very useful to have.
The Linux Libertine fonts are intended to be replacements to the standard Windows and Mac fonts. Therefore, they’re well-optimized for UI/UX design, word processing, and text publishing.
Libertine and Biolinum feature clean numerals, small capitals, and true fractions. The files are available in a tgz archive, and here’s how to extract files from common archives if you need to know more.
If you’re a creative professional, there are several reasons to buy the Adobe Creative Cloud. Having a CC account gives you unlimited access to Adobe Fonts, a library of over 14,000 fonts from Typekit.
The Adobe Collections are 30 free font packs sourced from its font library. Each pack is curated by design professionals for a specific use. There are collections for outdoorsy layouts, for creating street signs, and for activism materials.
If you find a font pack you enjoy, all you have to do is activate it in your account. All the included fonts will be added to your CC library.
The Velvetyne Font Foundry or VTF is one of the most striking and unusual collections you’ll see online. You’ll find a wide array of typefaces, from a gothic script like Blocus to a punk pixel font like Terminal Grotesque.
The fonts in this collection come from many different designers, but they are all libre fonts. This means that they are open-source, so you can modify them, change them, and use them in any way you want. You’re also free to redistribute edited versions of the fonts.
You can download any of the fonts in zip format directly from the site.
As the public get smarter about online dangers, malware authors have increased their efforts to fool people into handing over their data. Domain Name System (DNS) cache poisoning, also known as DNS spoofing, is one of the sneakiest means of hijacking a user’s browsing experience to send them to a malicious site.
Let’s look at how DNS cache poisoning works and how you can avoid it.
What Is a DNS Cache?
How URLs and IP Addresses Work
To start, let’s look at the DNS cache itself. When you want to visit a website, you usually enter its URL. If you wanted to check your bank account online, you’d type the URL www.mybanksaddress.com into your browser.
The problem is, your computer doesn’t really “speak” in URLs. It knows about IP addresses, though; these are the strings of numbers that act as the “home address” of a device on the internet. We use URLs because it’s a lot easier for us to remember the name of a site than its IP address.
How a DNS Server Works
In order to work out where you want to go, your computer has to translate your URL into an IP address that it can use. In order to do this, it passes your URL to what’s called a DNS server.
The DNS server acts like a giant phone book for websites. When your computer sends the DNS server the URL, it looks it up in its database and finds the corresponding IP address. It then lets your computer know what the IP address is.
Your computer now knows what IP address is associated with www.mybanksaddress.com and can visit the website.
How a DNS Cache Works
Because IP addresses don’t change that much (if ever), your computer decides to store this knowledge for later. It notes down the IP address for the URL www.mybanksaddress.com in a DNS cache.
Now, when you go to access your bank in the future, your computer doesn’t need to use the DNS server. It looks through its cache and finds the IP address it received last time. In a way, the DNS cache acts as a miniature phone book for all the sites you’ve previously visited.
How Does Someone “Poison” a DNS Cache?
Now we know what a DNS cache is, let’s look at how hackers can “poison” one.
How Hackers Plant the Poison
When a computer uses a DNS cache, it doesn’t notice if the IP address has changed since the last time it was used. In a way, the DNS cache is the computer’s memory; if the values within the cache are tweaked, the computer will act as if it has always been that way.
Let’s say a malicious agent decides to attack users of www.mybanksaddress.com. To do this, they create a fake website that looks identical to the real one. They create a fake login screen in order to harvest the details of people who use this phony website.
How the Poison Works
With the site online, they then attack the DNS cache of users. They can do this via malware, or by getting access to someone’s PC. Either way, their goal is to access the DNS cache and find where www.mybanksaddress.com is stored. Once in, they then swap out the real IP address for the bank with the address of the fake site they set up.
Let’s say your cache was attacked, and the IP address to your banks address was swapped out. Now, when you enter the bank’s URL, your computer looks it up in its cache. It finds the malicious IP address the hacker planted, and redirects your browser to the fake website.
If done smoothly enough, you won’t even notice you’ve arrived at a phony website. You then enter the login details into the fake website and compromise your account.
Are DNS Servers Vulnerable Too?
Given that computers talk to a DNS server to get an address, is it possible for a hacker to poison a server instead? Unfortunately, the answer is yes—and the ramifications can be damaging!
DNS servers operate similarly to your computer. If it gets a query for an IP address, and it doesn’t know where to direct the user, it will ask another DNS server for the answer. These servers use their own caches to store information.
If a hacker manages to gain access to a DNS server, they can alter the database to redirect users wherever they want. Now, every computer accessing the DNS server to get an IP address will get a poisoned result.
Even worse, servers who don’t have the IP address for a specific website will ask the poisoned server for the answer. They then receive a poisoned answer as a result! This leads to a nasty chain of infections around DNS servers as they pass on this phony information.
How to Avoid DNS Poisoning
As scary as DNS spoofing sounds, there are ways to tackle it. Let’s look at some ways you can be vigilant while browsing the internet.
1. Keep Your Antivirus Active and Up-to-Date
A good antivirus should thwart a DNS cache poisoning attempt. The internet is always full of risks, so it’s important to have something to protect yourself! Download and install a critically-acclaimed antivirus to keep yourself safe.
If you need some help, we’ve covered the best free antiviruses available so you can stay protected without breaking the bank.
2. Don’t Download Suspicious Files
In order to protect your own DNS cache, stay safe when browsing the internet. Don’t click on suspicious files, links, or banner advertisements. These might be attack vectors for malware that will alter your DNS cache.
3. Use a Respected ISP or DNS Server
Protecting yourself is a good step, but what about infected DNS servers?
A good DNS server will never trust the first thing it receives from another server. It’ll treat every piece of information with suspicion and won’t accept it unless it knows it’s not poisoned. By using these servers, you can be certain that the results your computer gets will always be legitimate.
Usually, your computer uses a DNS server provided by your ISP. As such, it’s a good idea to use a reputable ISP who perform good security practices.
If you want, you can use a different DNS server than the one your ISP gives you. This allows you to choose a reputable service with the knowledge that your connection is safe from poisoning. You can read about how to do this in our guide to swapping between multiple DNS servers in Windows.
4. Flush Your DNS Cache
If you suspect your DNS cache is poisoned, flush it out! This cleans the palette of any corrupted entries and starts you afresh. Just be sure you’re using a respected DNS server when refilling the cache, or you may end up poisoning yourself again!
How you flush your DNS cache depends on the OS you’re using. If you’re using Windows, you can learn how to flush the DNS cache in our guide to the commands every Windows user should know.
5. Double-Check All Websites You Visit
When you arrive at a website, you can double-check to ensure you’re not on a fake one. Unfortunately, the URL of the website may still display what you entered, as your computer believes this is the real IP address of the website you want to access.
If you notice there’s no HTTPS encryption, or if something looks suspicious, there’s a good chance you’re on the wrong site! Don’t enter any login details, back out of the website, and perform a virus scan and DNS cache flush immediately.
6. Restart Your Router to Clear Its DNS Cache
Routers can also carry a DNS cache of their own. This is just as susceptible to DNS poisoning as a PC or DNS server. To make extra sure you’re safe, give your router a hard power cycle. This should flush out its DNS cache and fix the problem.
Protecting Yourself From DNS Attacks
DNS servers are useful tools for speeding up your browsing experience, but they can also do serious damage if compromised. Thankfully, there’s a lot you can do to ensure you’re never the victim of a DNS cache poisoning attack.
When you buy a new product, you probably take everything out of the box without much of a second thought. After all, you just want to get at what’s inside, right?
However, videos of people unpacking a new technology product, called unboxing, have become a huge trend online. They’re useful if you’re considering buying something and want to see what exactly comes with it. But they’re also great to see a product in real life without any advertising, or just to check out cool products for fun.
Here are some of the best tech unboxing channels on YouTube.
UrAvgConsumer’s channel is built around all the technology we use every day. You’ll find reviews of phones and computers, accessories for game consoles, and much more. However, the reason for including it on this list is the channel’s Massive Tech Unboxing videos.
Instead of one-off unboxing videos, UrAvgConsumer regularly uploads mega-videos where he unboxes tons of products at once. If you’re not looking for specific products and enjoy the thrill of unboxing the unknown, you’ll love them.
The above is the channel’s latest massive tech unboxing video at the time of writing. Watch as he unwraps battery cases, a new mouse, some video games, and more!
If you prefer single unboxing videos instead of major compilations, you’ll find some of those here too. This one shows off the unboxing process for the Galaxy S10+ and Galaxy Buds accessory. Speaking of which, check out what you should know about the Galaxy S10.
Here’s a similar tech-focused channel with an emphasis on smartphones. You’ll find its videos are mostly comprised of impressions, roundups, reviews, and similar. To that end, Tim Schofield regularly uploads unboxing videos of the latest phones.
One of his newest unboxings shows the Oppo R17, a mid-range phone similar to OnePlus devices. You’ll appreciate the close-up look at each item in the box.
And aside from just the unboxing, Schofield takes you through the setup process so you can see what the device looks like when it’s being used.
Interested in tech other than phones? Schofield also looks at laptops, projectors, and similar. The above video walks through the Huawei MateBook 13, a MacBook Air competitor.
Make sure to watch in 4K if you have a compatible display.
While this channel isn’t as popular as some of the others on the list, we’ve included it for a specific reason. Hassan Ahmed has the best YouTube channel for unboxing videos of Nintendo’s Amiibo.
If you aren’t familiar, Amiibo are toys-to-life figurines Nintendo releases alongside certain games. They have NFC functionality in their base, enabling you to scan and use them in compatible titles.
While Nintendo offers many lines of Amiibo, they were introduced and popularized with the launch of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. The above video is the first in a playlist that shows him unboxing every Smash Bros. Amiibo released. If you enjoy them, make sure to check out the newer Amiibo unboxing videos on his channel.
We had to include Unbox Therapy, one of the most well-known and most subscribed-to tech channels. After all, unboxing is in its name, and it’s been making videos since 2011.
Despite this, a lot of Unbox Therapy’s recent content doesn’t actually involve unboxing. But it still does so from time to time, so we’re including it.
The above video features the unboxing of a $1,300 Bluetooth speaker, which is ridiculously expensive. It’s a good example of how an unboxing video can show off cool tech you wouldn’t otherwise be able to check out.
For a more practical application, this one shows off the unboxing of every iPhone XR model. Of course, the colors don’t affect the device itself, but it’s a good way to see how the color you’re interested in looks.
The last unboxing channel on the list is unfortunately not in English. However, we include it due to the sheer number of products it has unboxed. You’ll find a much larger variety here beyond the typical smartphones and computers. Tech Unboxing features videos unpacking monitors, drones, speakers, cheap gadgets, and more.
Even though you probably won’t be able to understand what he’s saying, you can still get a good look at what’s inside the box.
This video looks at the budget LCARE smartwatch and what it can do with a connected Android phone.
For something different, have a look at this unboxing of an Adcom monitor.
Unbox the World
These are just a few of the many YouTube channels that focus on the unboxing of tech gadgets. You’ll find many more one-off videos unboxing all sorts of tech, so you can get a look at something before you buy it.
Leica is a brand I respect and appreciate but don’t support. Or rather, can’t, because I’m not fabulously rich. But if I did have $5,000 to spend on a fixed-lens camera, I’d probably get the new Q2, a significant improvement over 2015’s Q — which tempted me back then.
The Q2 keeps much of what made the Q great: a full-frame sensor, a fabulous 28mm F/1.7 Summilux lens, and straightforward operation focused on getting the shot. But it also makes some major changes that make the Q2 a far more competitive camera.
The sensor has jumped from 24 to 47 megapixels, and while we’re well out of the megapixel race, that creates the opportunity for a very useful cropped shooting mode that lets you shoot at 35, 50, and 75mm equivalents while still capturing huge pixel counts. It keeps the full frame exposure as well so you can tweak the crop later. The new sensor also has a super low native ISO of 50, which should help with dynamic range and in certain exposure conditions.
Autofocus has been redone as well (as you might expect with a new sensor) and it should be quicker and more accurate now. Ther’s also an optical stabilization mode that kicks in when you are shooting at under 1/60s. Both features that need a little testing to verify they’re as good as they sound, but I don’t expect they’re fraudulent or anything.
The body, already a handsome minimal design in keeping with Leica’s impeccable (if expensive) taste, is now weather sealed, making this a viable walk-around camera in all conditions. Imagine paying five grand for a camera and being afraid to take it out in the rain! Well, many people did that and perhaps will feel foolish now that the Q2 has arrived.
Inside is an electronic viewfinder, but the 2015 Q had a sequential-field display — meaning it flashes rapidly through the red, green, and blue components of the image — which made it prone to color artifacts in high-motion scenes or when panning. The Q2, however, has a shiny new OLED display with the same resolution but better performance. OLEDs are great for EVFs for a lot of reasons, but I like that you get really nice blacks, like in an optical viewfinder.
The button layout has been simplified as well (or rather synchronized with the CL, another Leica model), with a new customizable button on the top plate, reflecting the trend of personalization we’ve seen in high-end cameras. A considerably larger battery and redesigned battery and card door rounds out the new features.
As DPReview points out in its hands-on preview of the camera, the Q2 is significantly heavier than the high-end fixed-lens competition (namely the Sony RX1R II and Fuji X100F, both excellent cameras), and also significantly more expensive. But unlike many Leica offerings, it actually outperforms them in important ways: the lens, the weather sealing, the burst speed — it may be expensive, but you actually get something for your money. That can’t always be said of this brand.
The Leica Q2 typifies the type of camera I’d like to own: no real accessories, nothing to swap in or out, great image quality and straightforward operation. I’m far more likely to get an X100F (and even then it’d be a huge splurge) but all that time I’ll be looking at the Q2 with envious eyes. Maybe I’ll get to touch one some day.
