In November, Facebook announced its plans to create an external content oversight board that would serve as something of a “supreme court” for Facebook’s more controversial content policy decisions. The company took the first steps in January to describe how this content review board would function with the release of a draft charter. Today, Facebook is opening up a public consultation process to help it answer more questions around the Oversight Board’s design.
Over the next six weeks, Facebook says it will accept submissions from the public about its plans.
Public submissions will include two parts: a questionnaire and free-form questions.
The latter will focus on gathering input around membership, case decisions and governance. The questionnaire portion, however, is a more straightforward user survey where participants are asked to vote on various aspects (many already detailed in the draft charter) – like how many total members should the board have, how long they should serve, how they should gain their positions, what their makeup should be in terms of background, professional experience, views and diversity, among other things.
It also asks the public to weigh in on how the Oversight Board will make decisions on cases, with questions about how their rulings will impact policy, what subject matter experts they can consult, whether they should review written opinions from those the case affects, the precedent set by prior rulings, and more.
Some of these questions are simpler to answer, while others may give survey respondents pause.
For example, one asks if it’s more important for the board to dedicate more time and research to each case or if it should prioritize making more decisions each year?
While obviously all cases reviewed should be well-researched, if you believe Facebook’s board should resemble the U.S. courts system, then there should be guidance around how long its board members have to make a decision. Otherwise, it could see some of the toughest content policy decisions tied up in never-ending deliberations, with the board citing “more research is needed” to rule. That wouldn’t be fair to those whose content is held hostage in the meantime. But the question doesn’t allow for this level of nuance – so you’d need to take to the essay portion to share this position.
However, anyone can take the survey portion of the questionnaire and can choose to skip the essay section if they don’t have more to add.
Facebook says it has partnered with the firm Baker McKenzie, which will help it review the submissions. The responses will be summarized in a report published in June.
For Facebook, the launch of an independent review board allows the company to further distance itself from controversial policy decisions.
As we noted in January, decision-making around content removals is an area where Facebook has repeatedly and publicly failed, and with disastrous consequences. The company has been widely criticized for how it handled issues like the calls to violence that led to genocide in Myanmar and riots in Sri Lanka; election meddling from state-backed actors from Russia, Iran and elsewhere; its failure to remove child abuse posts in India; the weaponization of Facebook by the government in the Philippines to silence its critics; Facebook’s approach to handling Holocaust denials or conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones; and more.
The board’s creation will not only take the pressure off Facebook to make these decisions, it’s also an admission of sorts that Facebook agrees it’s not able to handle this level of responsibility any longer.
Those interested in sharing their own thoughts around the review board can go here for the survey.
Facebookannounced today that it is adding to News Feeds a feature called “Why am I seeing this post?” Similar to “Why am I seeing this ad?,” which has appeared next to advertisements since 2014, the new tool has a drop-down menu that gives users information about why that post appeared in their News Feed, along with links to personalization controls.
Meant to give users more transparency into how Facebook’s News Feed algorithm works, the update comes as the company copes with several major events that have highlighted the platform’s shortcomings, including potentially harmful ones. These include its role in enabling the dissemination of a video taken during the shooting attacks on New Zealand mosques two weeks ago, which were originally broadcast using Facebook Live; a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that accuses Facebook’s ad-targeting tool of violating the Fair Housing Act and its role in spreading misinformation and propaganda (after years of complaints and criticism, Facebook recently announced plans to downrank anti-vaccination posts and ban white nationalist content.
Facebook’s announcement says this is the first time it has “built information on how ranking works directly into the app.” Users will be able to access “Why am I seeing this post?” as a drop-down menu in the right-hand corner of posts from friends, Pages and Groups in their News Feed, which displays information about how its algorithm decided to rank the post, including:
Why you’re seeing a certain post in your News Feed — for example, if the post is from a friend you made, a Group you joined or a Page you followed.
What information generally has the largest influence over the order of posts, including: (a) how often you interact with posts from people, Pages or Groups; (b) how often you interact with a specific type of post, for example, videos, photos or links; and (c) the popularity of the posts shared by the people, Pages and Groups you follow.
The same menu will also include links to personalization options, including See First, Unfollow, News Feed Preferences and Privacy Shortcuts. The company’s blog post said that “during our research on ‘Why am I seeing this post?,’ people told us that transparency into News Feed algorithms wasn’t enough without corresponding controls.”
“Why am I seeing this ad,” a similar feature that launched in 2014, will be updated with to include more information. For example, it will tell users if an ad appeared in their News Feed because a company uploaded their contact lists, like emails or phone numbers, or if they worked with a marketing partner to place the ad.
Xing, the business networking platform that has been described as Germany’s answer to LinkedIn, has made an acquisition to beef up its recruitment business ahead of a rebrand of the business as “New Work.” The company has acquired Honeypot, a German startup that has built a job-hunting platform for tech people, for up to €57 million ($64 million). Xing tells us that Honeypot is its biggest acquisition to date.
The figure includes the acquisition (€22 million) plus a potential earn-out of up to €35 million if certain targets are met in the next three years.
Xing said that it plans to rebrand as New Work in the second half of 2019, bringing together a number of other assets it has acquired and built over the years.
“This acquisition is an excellent addition to our New Work portfolio,” Thomas Vollmoeller, CEO at Xing, said in a statement. “Honeypot focuses on candidates by helping them to find a job matching their individual preferences… With subsidiaries and brands such as kununu and HalloFreelancer, Xing is far more than just a single network. New Work is the umbrella spanning all our business activities.” Xing said that all the smaller companies will keep their branding.
Xing already offered job listings as part of its platform, with 20,000 businesses as customers; but Honeypot will add a few different things to the mix.
Second, Honeypot’s structure is a natural fit for a social recuitment platform: as with a lot of social recruiting, Honeypot lets recruiters use platforms, profile pages and social graphics to find and approach candidates, rather than candidates reaching out in response to specific opportunities.
Honeypot adds additional features to help make this process more accurate and less of a waste of time on both sides. Those doing the recruiting have to provide specific details around salary and, say, programming languages required, as part of their outreach. On the other side, individuals go through a “brief expertise check” to vet them, and they too have to be a bit more specific on what they can and what they want to do, and what they want to earn, to help weed out opportunities that might not be suitable.
Third, the acquisition will help Xing make a bigger push into building its profile outside of Germany into more of Europe, as New Work.
This is no small thing. Xing years ago was considered a would-be rival to LinkedIn. But — and this was perhaps even more true in the past, and Xing was founded in 2003 — scaling startups to be global players out of Europe can be a challenge, even more so when there is a formidable direct competitor growing quickly as well.
In the end, Xing developed as a much more modest operation, relatively speaking. While LinkedIn today has some 600 million users and was acquired by Microsoft in 2016 for $26.2 billion, Xing is publicly traded and currently valued at around $2 billion (€1.81 billion), with some 15 million members.
Xing says that today Honeypot’s current emphasis is German-speaking countries and the Netherlands, which together cover some of the biggest startup hubs in Europe, including Berlin and Amsterdam.
The company is still relatively small but growing, adding 1,000 IT specialists to its books each week, with some 100,000 individuals and 1,500 businesses currently registered. Xing said that it will be investing in the company to expand to more markets in Europe, as well as to grow its business by tapping Xing’s own customer base.
Although there have been some notable exceptions like payments startup Adyen from the Netherlands, Farfetch from the UK and Spotify (originally from Stockholm, grown in London and now increasingly a US company), scaling startups in Europe has proven to be challenging.
One of the big reasons why has to do with a shortage of talent to build these companies: in Germany alone — home to the buzzy startup city of Berlin — there are 82,000 unfilled tech jobs. In other words, there is an opportunity for more user-friendly platforms to help connect those dots.
“XING and Honeypot both have the vision of helping people to further their career. We want Honeypot to offer the world’s largest work-life community for IT specialists by giving candidates the power to decide on their next career step,” said Kaya Taner, CEO who founded Honeypot with Emma Tracey. “We will continue to pursue this vision with XING. Going forward, around 100,000 IT specialists from all over the world who are registered on Honeypot will be able to connect with the many first-rate employers in German-speaking countries. This will enable Honeypot to continue developing its domestic market, while also further expanding its international community.”
When one major tech company develops something new, other companies always jump on the bandwagon and develop a competing product. After Amazon released the Echo Show, Google followed suit with the Home Hub, and Facebook even got in on the action with the Portal.
If you’re considering a smart video speaker for your home, you’re faced with three solid choices. How can you determine which is best for you? Here, we’ll dissect the features of each device so you can easily make your decision.
Amazon Echo Show (2nd Gen)
The second-generation Amazon Echo Show boasts newly-updated speakers, along with a 10.1-inch display. So, what can you do with its crisp audio quality and HD video display? The answer: a lot.
If you own an Amazon Echo, you’ll already have experience with some of its basic functions, such as asking Alexa about the weather or finding out the latest news.
The Echo Show’s video capabilities provide more details to these classic Echo features and create room for new functions as well. The next time you ask Alexa the weather, the Echo Show can show and tell you what the forecast looks like.
Stream Movies, Shows and Music
You can use the Echo Show to stream your favorite shows and movies from Amazon Prime Video as well. If you don’t feel like watching a movie, cue up some music instead. Sync your Echo Show to Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, or Spotify to turn the device into a full-blown speaker.
Video-Calling Functionality
Like the Google Home Hub and Facebook Portal, the Echo Show can also perform video calls. You can call your friend as long as they can connect to you using their own Echo Show, Echo Spot, Alexa app, or Skype.
Experiment With New Recipes
Whether you’re an aspiring or expert chef, the Echo Show can help when you’re busy in the kitchen. Ask Alexa to pull up a recipe, and the Echo Show will provide you with detailed instructions that you can follow along step-by-step. Right now, the Echo Show only supports recipes from Epicurious, Allrecipes, and Food52.
Manage Your Smart Home
You might already use Amazon Echo’s voice commands with Phillips Hue. If you do, you’ll be happy to hear that the Echo Show allows you to communicate with your smart lights and then some—you can shut off or turn on electronics, lock or unlock doors, and watch for any intruders with Ring or August.
Did I mention that you can use the Echo Show as a way to monitor your pets or baby? Connect the Echo Show to a compatible baby monitor, or simply set up another Echo Show in a different room. Ask Alexa to check on your loved one, and you’ll see live video and audio from that room.
Google Home Hub
The Google Home Hub and Amazon Echo Show share many of the same features, but you can purchase the Home Hub for a much cheaper price. With such a low price comes a few sacrifices, such as poor audio quality and the lack of a camera.
The 7-inch display still comes with some advantages, like an RBG sensor that automatically adjusts the Home Hub’s screen brightness. You can even ask Google any question in your choice of 30 different languages. The Home Hub will then display an answer along with a series of suggested follow-up questions.
Access to Google Photos
Google Photos comes with a ton of amazing features on its own, and pairing it with a Home Hub makes it even better. Have your Home Hub display certain photos just by saying something as simple as: “Hey Google, show me pictures of my dog.” You can do the same with other pets, locations, events, and more.
Use the Home Hub as a photo frame by creating a shared Live Album. Choose certain friends, family members, or pets that you want to appear in your frame, and your Home Hub will display their photos. You don’t have to worry about constantly updating your Live Album either—when you or your family take new photos of your best friend or pets, they’ll automatically appear on the Home Hub.
One-Way Video Calling
Unfortunately, the Home Hub falls short in terms of video calling, as it doesn’t come with a camera for privacy reasons.
The Home Hub still allows you to make video calls through Google Duo, only you won’t be seen on camera. As long as your friend has a camera on their device, they’ll appear in video-form on your Home Hub. Your friend will just have to get used to the fact that they have to talk to your unmoving profile picture.
Play YouTube Videos and Stream Music
This is where the similarities between the Echo Show and Home Hub get pretty obvious. The Home Hub gives you access to recipes from a number of websites, along with follow-along instructions and videos.
Google’s device also hogs all of YouTube’s excitement, as Echo Show users have no access to this app. Play YouTube videos and music completely hands-free. Don’t forget that you can stream music through iHeartRadio, Pandora, and Spotify as well.
Screen Visitors With Nest
While the Echo Show connects with Ring and August, the Home Hub pairs with the Nest Hello video doorbell and outdoor cameras. Instantly view live footage of your front doorstep when someone arrives.
Facebook Portal and Portal+
The Facebook portal comes in two different sizes: 10.1 inches for the regular Portal, and 15.9 inches for the Portal+. Compared to the Echo Show and Home Hub, the Portal places a much larger focus on video calling and communication.
Smarter Video Calls
When video calling with the Echo Show, you might find yourself awkwardly tilting the device to capture footage of everyone in the room. Facebook solves this issue by incorporating AI into the Portal’s Smart Camera. The next time you make a video call with multiple people in the room, the Portal will automatically adjust the camera to fit everyone in the frame.
If there’s a ton of background noise where you live, the Portal ensures that your voice can still be heard. The Smart Volume feature silences any competing sounds that interfere with your call.
Does a long-distance family member miss seeing your children? Now they can have the same bonding experience as they would in-person with Portal’s Story Time. Your family member can read a short story to your little one, while Portal uses augmented reality to add silly effects to their face.
Ask Amazon Alexa Anything
It seems like Facebook acknowledges the inadequacy of their own AI since it added Amazon Alexa to the Portal. The built-in Alexa comes with the same, basic features that include adjusting your smart home settings, making a schedule, asking questions, and more.
Privacy Features
While Google completely eliminates a camera from the Home Hub’s design to solve the issue of privacy, Facebook provides a practical camera cover. For an increased feeling of security, you can turn the camera and the microphone off as well.
Listen to Music and Watch Videos
The Portal offers the same web-surfing features as the Home Hub and Echo Show, including the ability to find recipes.
A huge downside to the Portal is that it doesn’t offer access to any streaming service. You can only watch videos on a limited number of largely unexciting websites, such as CNN, YouTube, and Food Network.
On the bright side, you can still stream your favorite music from Spotify, Pandora, and iHeartRadio.
Get Social With Superframe
The Superframe might sound like some heroic photo feature, but it just barely stacks up to the Live Albums on the Home Hub. When the Portal is idle, it shows the photos and videos you’re tagged in from Facebook. It also displays the availability of your contacts, the weather, and birthday reminders.
Which Smart Device Is Right for You?
It’s hard to choose between the Echo Show, Home Hub, and Portal when they all have similar features. The Echo Show proves to be the most powerful of the three, with its all-around capabilities that the Home Hub and Portal just don’t have yet. Still, the Portal has many advantages when it comes to video calling, while the Home Hub is still a reliable and less expensive alternative to the Echo Show.
Microsoft bought the much-loved Wunderlist to-do app in a $150 million deal in June 2015. Two years later—in April 2017—the company used its new acquisition as the foundation for an all-new app: Microsoft To-Do.
Initially, the Microsoft To-Do was barebones. It lacked some essential functionality that Wunderlist users previously relied on, including collaboration and attachments.
Fast-forward to today, however, and the situation has improved dramatically. Here are 10 Microsoft To-Do tips that should convince you to give the app a second chance.
1. Collaboration and Shared Tasks
When we first compared Microsoft To-Do and Wunderlist following the launch, several of you commented that the new app was a non-starter without task list collaboration.
Thankfully, the feature is now available. You cannot share individual tasks with other users, but you can give them access to to-do lists you have created. If you give another person access, they will be able to view and edit the list’s contents.
To share a task list with another user from the desktop app, right click on the name of a to-do list and select Share List. On mobile, tap the Add User icon in the upper-right-hand corner. You’ll receive a link that you can share with other users.
Tap on More Options to limit access and manage members.
2. Sub-Tasks on Microsoft To-Do
Sub-tasks were a core feature of Wunderlist that didn’t make it over to the first iteration of Microsoft To-Do. Again, their absence was frustrating to many users.
Following a recent update, the app now supports sub-tasks. Officially called Steps, they allow you to add a series of to-do items under a single parent task.
You can use Steps in many ways. For example, they are useful if you want to control the workflow of a group of people who are all working on one project, but they also serve as bullet point reminders for you to jot down quick thoughts on a topic.
The number of sub-tasks remaining are shown under the main to-do item in the task list.
3. Microsoft To-Do Keyboard Shortcuts
Microsoft To-Do’s list of shortcuts is short but effective. All the most important actions in the app are supported.
The complete list of shortcuts on Microsoft To-Do is:
Ctrl + N: Add a new task
Ctrl + L: Create a new list
Ctrl + T: Add a task to My Day
Ctrl + D: Complete a task
Ctrl + F: Search
Ctrl + R: Sync
Ctrl + 1: Open the sidebar
4. Microsoft To-Do Integration With Cortana
One of the newer features on Microsoft To-Do is its integration with Cortana. To use it, you need to live in the US, UK, India, or Australia. A gradual rollout is expected over the course of the coming months.
The integration allows you to use Microsoft To-Do from any Cortana-enabled machine, including Windows, Android, iOS, and smart home devices.
When you use Cortana with Microsoft To-Do, you will have the option to create your to-do lists and reminders directly on the app rather than in Cortana. Cortana can also read out your tasks in My Day and other lists you have made.
To use Cortana with the app, you need to set up Microsoft To-Do as a Connected Service. To do so, go to Cortana > Notebook > Manage Skills > Connected services on a PC or Cortana > Settings > Connected services. Select either Outlook or Office 365 (depending on whether you’re using a personal of enterprise account), then hit the Connect button.
5. Flagged Emails in Outlook
If you have a work or school account with Microsoft, Microsoft To-Do integrates with flagged emails on the Windows Outlook app or on the web.
Sign into To-Do and Outlook with the same account, and you’ll see a pop-up asking if you want to enable the feature.
Once it’s up and running, any emails you flag will appear on My Day as a task. If you want to add extra importance to a given task, mark the email flag as high-priority; it will appear starred in the To-Do app.
A word of caution though: Microsoft To-Do will only import a maximum of 10 flagged emails from the previous two weeks.
The feature is not yet available on Android or iOS devices, though Microsoft’s literature suggests it’s in the pipeline.
6. Manage Your Day
You can use Microsoft To-Do in lots of different ways, depending on the type of content you store in the app.
If you use the app as a day-to-day task manager, you will probably find the My Day list to be one of its most useful features. In addition to flagged emails in Outlook appearing on the list, you can also add any other tasks onto it.
To add a to-do item to My Day, open the task in question (on desktop or mobile) and select Add to My Day.
The My Day list also offers suggestions on what you should add. On the desktop, go to the My Day list and click For Today in the upper right-hand corner. On mobile, open My Day and tap the icon at the bottom of the screen.
The suggestions are based on recently added tasks and tasks that have a due date of today. The app will not make suggestions for tasks which have reminders set for today.
7. Add Attachments to Tasks
You can add files to Microsoft To-Do tasks. The attachments are available on all versions of the app, providing a great way to share important documents between your devices.
There is one significant limitation: Microsoft has capped the file size at 25 MB (just like most email services). If you need to send a large file, you will need to look elsewhere.
Attaching a file is easy. Open the task in question and either click on Add a File.
8. See Your Week Ahead
A recent update brought a new smart list to the app: Planned.
The Planned section is split into two parts: Overdue and Later. Later shows any tasks in your calendar for the upcoming five days; Overdue displays tasks that you should have already completed but which have not yet been marked as such.
To turn on the smart lists, open the To-Do app on your desktop, then click on your profile picture and go to Settings > Smart Lists. Toggle the sliders next to the lists you want to enable.
9. Account Switching
In February 2019, account switching became available for the first time. It means you can access both your work and personal Microsoft accounts in the app and jump between them at the press of a button.
At the time of writing, the feature is only available on Windows 10 and Android. Microsoft says iOS support is imminent.
To set up account switching on Windows, click on your profile picture in the top left-hand corner, select Manage Accounts, and hit Add Account. On Android, tap on the More menu (the three horizontal lines in the left-hand corner), then tap on your email address and select Add Account.
10. Live Tiles in Windows 10
If you’re a Windows 10 users, you can take advantage of Microsoft To-Do’s support for live tiles.
You can pin as many lists to the Start menu as you wish. Pinning a list is as simple as opening the To-Do app, right-clicking on the list in question, and selecting Pin to Start.
Unfortunately, you cannot complete tasks from the live tile. Clicking on the tile takes you directly to the list in the main app.
Microsoft To-Do Is a Work-in-Progress
Microsoft To-Do has improved immeasurably over the last two years. It’s gone from being a poor alternative to Wunderlist to be the previously-popular app’s natural successor.
That said, Microsoft To-Do is still not a finished product. Microsoft even admits as much on the app’s website.
If you want an app with endless bells and whistles, To-Do might not be for you. But if you want an easy-to-use app that’s tightly integrated with the operating systems you use every day, you should check it out.
Apple News has always been a great way for anyone with an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to get caught up on the latest news. It covers a wide variety of different topics, including everything from politics to sports.
Now Apple is looking to make the experience even better with its optional Apple News+ subscription. Along with complete access to more than 300 different magazines, readers can also view content from newspapers like the LA Times and The Wall Street Journal, along with other online news sources.
We’ll take a closer look at the service and how to make the most of your Apple News+ reading experience.
How to Use Apple News+
To use Apple News+, you’ll need an iPhone or iPad running iOS 12.2 or later. On a Mac, it requires macOS Mojave 10.14.4 or later.
The service is currently available to access in the United States and Canada. Apple is promising expansion to other countries soon. A subscription costs $9.99 per month in the United States and $12.99 monthly in Canada. There is a free one-month trial for new subscribers.
After the trial completes, your plan will automatically renew unless you cancel it before the 30 days are complete. To do that, open up the App Store app and select the silhouette on the top right-hand part of the screen. On the Account page, select Manage Subscriptions. Select Apple News and then choose Cancel Free Trial. The same steps also apply if you want to cancel after the trial period.
As a nice touch, thanks to free Family Sharing, one subscription can provide access for up to six members of a single family to use. This is a major advantage over Apple Music, which requires you to pay more to allow family access.
Speaking of which, if you already subscribe to the streaming service, make sure to take a look at these great Apple Music features.
Getting Started With Apple News+
To begin, head to the Apple News app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. On an iPad or Mac, select the sidebar and then find News+, which is directly below the Today icon. On iPhone, News+ is a separate tab on the bottom menu between Today and Following.
If you haven’t already purchased a subscription, you’ll see a banner on top of the section to start a free trial. You’ll need to enter your Apple ID password to confirm. Once you’ve taken care of this, you can start enjoying all the additional magazine and other news sources Apple News+ offers.
At the top of the News+ section, you can browse the catalog of magazines alphabetically or by different subject categories. When you find a magazine that interests you, just select it to start reading.
To find the premium content from newspapers and other online sources, select the Following tab on iPhone or the search field located on the sidebar when using the iPad or Mac version. Type in the name of a publication; The Wall Street Journal for example. Select the heart icon on the top-right part of the screen to add it to your favorites.
It will then appear in the Channels & Topics portion of the main News App.
Reading Magazines on Apple News+
You’ll encounter two types of magazine formats while reading Apple News+. As you could probably guess by the name, the Apple News Format is specifically for Apple’s service.
One of the biggest advantages is that magazines in this format will show the table of contents immediately. The Apple News Format also allows publishers to create a richer digital experience with the addition of elements like photo galleries, social media, interactive maps, and more.
On magazines in the Apple News Format, you can select the type size icon at the top-right of the page to make the words slightly larger by hitting the larger A. Selecting the smaller A will shrink the size of the text.
With a PDF format magazine, you can simply zoom in to get a closer look at the text or images.
Currently, around 50 percent of the available magazines use the Apple News Format. Hopefully, that number will increase over time as it’s a clearly better experience.
In each edition of a magazine, next to the font icon you’ll find the Share Sheet icon. For any magazine using the Apple News Format, you can favorite a story or entire issue, open it in Safari, add to your Safari reading list, and more.
For all magazines, you can AirDrop a link to another Mac or iOS device. You can also share it with others via a message or email.
Managing Your Magazines
You’ll automatically be shown the most recent issue of the publication. To view all available back issues, tap the name of the magazine at the page header. All of the back issues show on the top bar of the page. The rest of the page will show the latest news stories from the magazine.
When you select a magazine, the most recent issues will download to your iPhone or iPad so you can view them even without an internet connection. To download a previous issue, select the download icon at the bottom-right of the cover image.
All the publications you’ve read will appear in the My Magazines section of Apple News+ for quick and easy access.
Apple News+: One Stop for Magazines and More
With an Apple News+ subscription, you can supplement the already popular app with even more content from popular magazines, online sites, and newspapers. Even though the service might not be for every reader, it’s a great way to save money if you already subscribe to many of the magazines available.
The Mac apps for the two most dominant music streaming services—Spotify and Apple Music—have come a long way. Since they released, both have pushed several updates to sustain their growing user bases.
But for power users who listen to music all the time, there are still a lot of features absent. So we’re looking at some great third-party Spotify and Apple Music add-on apps for Mac that you should try.
1. SpotMenu
SpotMenu is a handy Mac app that puts a mini-player in the menu bar. You can select its icon (which also shows the active track’s name) to reveal quick playback actions for Spotify or iTunes such as play, pause, next, and others.
Plus, SpotMenu even displays the album art and a tiny progress bar you can employ to instantly scrub through the song. The app lets you customize its interface per your preferences too. You can disable elements such as the track’s title in the menu bar to make it a bit cleaner.
Silicio is another mini-player you can install for easily controlling Spotify or Apple Music playback. But instead of dropping down from the menu bar, Silicio adds a floating window which features a minimalist design similar to SpotMenu.
Apart from hosting playback options, Silicio lets you view the track’s title, artist, and associated album art. In addition, there are a bunch of personalization settings to get into.
Silicio allows you to alter the size of the floating window and trigger it through a range of custom shortcuts. You can also pin it in the notification center if, for some reason, Spotify or Apple Music’s official widget won’t work.
On top of that, Silicio comes with Last.fm integration if you’d like to build a personal library based on the tracks you’ve played in the past.
The media keys on a Mac keyboard are infamous for abrupt malfunctions. More often than not, you’re forced to restart the music app or the computer entirely to regain usage of them. Fortunately, there’s a better fix available now; it’s called Mac Media Key Forwarder.
Mac Media Key Forwarder is a simple app through which you can manually prioritize Spotify or Apple Music for the keyboard’s media buttons. It lives in the menu bar so that you can switch between the two services without having to go through any settings.
Spotify and Apple Music have both made a name for themselves with smart radio algorithms and human-curated playlists. But they’re not always accurate and will sometimes play an album or artist you don’t enjoy. With a clever Mac utility called Denied, you don’t have to worry about that happening anymore.
Denied comes with the ability to configure what it calls “rules” for Spotify and Apple Music playback. For instance, you can set one up for “Post Malone” and whenever your streaming app tries to play something by that artist, Denied will automatically skip it for you. Similarly, you can add multiple rules for albums and particular tracks.
That’s not all. Denied enables you to get around repeating songs you’ve listened to in the past few hours or those that have explicit lyrics. If you’re an iTunes user, Denied also works with music you’ve disliked.
With so many companies entering the music streaming space, there’s an abundance of choices available. Settling on one, though, is a tough decision as you end up jumping among numerous apps. Muzie thinks it can make that situation a little more bearable. It does so by letting you use multiple music streaming services on a single platform.
Muzie is a free Mac app where you can set up accounts for the majority of music platforms (except for Apple Music) and operate them all in one place. The app achieves this by essentially using a web wrapper. Moreover, you’ll find a couple of additional convenient features such as quick muting options and a responsive layout.
Have you ever headed to a search engine to read the lyrics of a song you recently heard? Well, with Musixmatch’s Mac app, you no longer have to do that. The free app will automatically pull up the live lyrics of the track playing through Spotify or Apple Music.
Musixmatch allows you to follow along by matching the music’s pace. You can, of course, view the entire lyrics with a click of a button. Musixmatch’s mini-player has playback options too, enabling you to quickly perform actions like skipping or seeking.
Spotlight, the native universal search function of macOS, still doesn’t have the ability to fetch results from inside third-party apps. That means if you’d like to look up tracks or playlists, you have to rely on the app’s own search.
But for people who would prefer a quicker shortcut to access their library, there’s an option. It’s called Alfred, which is one of the many third-party universal search apps for Mac.
Think of Alfred as Spotlight on steroids. It retains the efficiency of macOS’s built-in tool but comes with a vastly superior set of capabilities. The one that matters here is that you can build and install workflows for third-party services.
Alfred has add-ons for both Apple Music and Spotify that enable instant searching of your library through the app’s universal search. You can also execute commands like play and pause right from the search bar.
While Alfred does offer a free version, you’ll need pay for the premium Powerpack package to benefit from the workflow feature.
While Spotify and Apple Music’s own Mac apps offer an ample number of features on their own, these third-party extensions will certainly let you overcome their handful of flaws. They make listening to music even better.
Sending large video files to other people is not as straightforward as you might think.
Depending on the resolution and length, the size of a video file can quickly exceed the 25MB attachment limit that most mainstream email providers impose.
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to share large video files. If you want to learn more, keep reading. We’re going to look at the best ways to send videos around the world.
How to Send a Video Through Email
As we just mentioned, almost all email providers impose a 25MB size limit on any file you want to attach to your email. Some services are as low as 10MB.
A smartphone video that’s more than a few seconds long will quickly exceed that limit. If you’ve created your recording using professional equipment, you’ve got no chance.
But don’t worry. If your file is larger than the 25MB limit, you do still have two options if you want to send a video through email—you can create a ZIP file of your recording or use your email provider’s cloud storage services.
How to Create and Send a ZIP File
For those who don’t know, a ZIP file is a compressed version of a file. You create the ZIP file at your end and send it to the other person. They then receive the file and unzip it to restore the video to its original size.
Both Windows and macOS have a native feature that allows you to zip and unzip files, though plenty of third-party options are also available.
To create a ZIP file on Windows, find the file you want to compress, right-click on it, then go to Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder.
To create a ZIP file on macOS, find the file in question, hit the right-click button, and choose Compress items from the context menu.
Of course, if your newly created ZIP file is still more than 25MB (which is entirely possible in the event of a lengthy high-resolution video), you will still not be able to send the video through email. You’ll need to use another option instead.
How to Use Cloud Storage Services to Send a Large Video File
These days, most large email services also provide some form of free cloud storage. You can use the storage to send large video files that exceed the 25MB limit.
Both Gmail and Outlook will automatically provide you with the option to upload your video to their respective clouds if they detect that your file is too big. Once the file is in the cloud, you can attach it to your email in the usual way.
The recipient will then be prompted to download the video from the cloud rather than from the email server. However, they can also watch the video in the cloud without downloading it onto their device if they wish.
Unfortunately, even this method is not without its drawbacks.
Most notably, you’re still restricted by the free space that’s available in your cloud storage drive. Google gives you 15GB for free; OneDrive and iCloud only offer 5GB. If you need more, you’ll need to subscribe to a plan for a few dollars per month.
There’s also the issue of clutter. You only need to send a few videos via email using your cloud drive, and you’ll be drowning under unattached files. If you use cloud services to store all your documents, it’s far from ideal.
How to Send Large Video Files From iPhone
If you want to see a large video from your iPhone, you can’t use WhatsApp. Attachments on the instant messaging app are limited to 16MB. iMessage is slightly better; files can be up to 100MB in size.
So, what other options do you have?
If you want to send the file to another nearby Apple device, the most straightforward method is to use AirDrop. There is no file size limit, and you don’t need to install any third-party apps—the feature is a native part of the operating system. It is one of the best ways to transfer files between computers.
To turn on AirDrop on iOS, go to Settings > General > AirDrop and select either Contacts Only or Everyone.
Next, open the Photos app and find the video you want to send. Just hit the Share icon and select AirDrop to begin the transfer.
If you need to send your large video file to a non-Apple device or a non-nearby device, the best solution is once again to use a cloud storage provider. Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive all have apps in the App Store.
How to Send Large Video Files From Android
Sadly, there is no native AirDrop equivalent on the Android operating system.
If you want to send a large video file from your Android device, you can either use one of the common cloud storage providers or a dedicated third-party app that specializes in large files.
There a few third-party apps worth considering. Here are three that we like:
1. WeTransfer
You can use WeTransfer to send large video files for free as long as the total size is under 2GB. If you subscribe to the Plus plan ($12 per month), you can send files up to 20GB in size.
Send Anywhere is perhaps the closest thing to AirDrop that you’ll find on Android. It lets you send large video files to anyone that’s on the same Wi-Fi network. All the files sent via the app are encrypted. The maximum file size the app supports in 50GB.
Google does not take itself too seriously. After all, few companies fiddle with their logo and break it apart on special days. That’s why Google Doodles and Google Doodle Games have become part of our online culture. Every Google Doodle game pays homage to key events, people, and even fictitious characters from nerd culture.
For me and you, it just makes that vanilla search page so much more fun. Which are your favorite Google Doodle Games? Any on this list below?
Count 1… 2… 3… 4… 5. Someone somewhere in the world has solved a Rubik’s Cube. A teenager has already broken the five second barrier. It will be broken again in the World Rubik’s Cube Championship in July at Melbourne. Most of us won’t be there, but we can open our browser and enjoy this Google Doodle game
It was a grateful nod to Hungarian inventor and Professor of Architecture Erno Rubik who launched it on May 19th, 1974. The toy celebrated its 40th anniversary on Google Search homepage. You can still play it with the help of shortcut keys.
This rendition of the classic arcade game started it all. PAC-MAN was the first Google Doodle game and it was a little demo of what a browser can do. If you are still nostalgic for those retro games from your childhood then head to the Google archives and insert a virtual coin.
The Maze is shaped like the Google logo. Enable a two-player co-op mode (with Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man) with another click on Insert Coin after the game has already started. Keep eating the dots till the 255th level.
It took a petition from 4000 Doctor Who fans to spark this 8-bit interactive doodle (or the “Whodle) game. Like the iconic British TV show, you get to choose one from the 11 Time Lord’s identities and then battle your way through the levels. The goal is to rescue the Google letters from the diabolical Daleks.
Hit the Play head in the middle and jump across the obstacles in your imaginary TARDIS.
The first word across is a three-letter noun that connects the spirit of the crosswords to the doodles. “Fun” should be a verb when you look at how the humble crossword has enlivened gloomy newspapers across the globe. The Google Doodle game came out on the 100th anniversary and it was also a mindful tribute to Arthur Wynne, the inventor of the crossword puzzle.
Select the clues on the right and then use the keyboard to fill the boxes. If you are a Google fan, then try 70 Down and let me know the answer in the comments!
Can you imagine the connection between an email giant and one of the most enduring symbols of the Old Wild West? The Pony Express existed as a mail delivery service for a mere 18 months and was a financial loss. But it captured everyone’s imagination, just like Google has done today.
Climb a pony, collect letters, and avoid obstacles to deliver 100 letters. It’s much easier than what it was 159 years ago. Just watch out for the cacti.
In an ultimate nudge to laziness, Google tried to stop you from trick-or-treating through the town. Just kidding… this Google Halloween game was Google’s first-ever multiplayer interactive game Doodle. You had to join a team of four ghosts and compete against another four-member team to collect the “wandering spirit flames before the moon is gone”.
The ghost who collected the most spirit flames unlocked special powers such as speed boosts, night vision, and more. You can still play the game, Halloween or not.
The Lunar New Year is celebrated in many countries across Asia. For instance, the Chinese New Year (also called the Spring Festival in mainland China), is one of the Lunar New Years. According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2019 marks the Year of the Pig. Google celebrated this sign of prosperity with AI-enabled shadow puppetry in one of its doodles.
Puppetry has a special place during the festivities. So you can switch on your webcam and then use your hands and fingers to form one of the twelve animal zodiac shadows. The doodle still exists as a demonstration of how AI has arrived in Google’s Chrome browser.
Just remember that you have only 20 seconds to cycle through the twelve animals.
Who doesn’t like aimless throws into a circular hoop? Quite a few timewaster games for browsers and mobiles have been built on this idea. And they continue to be popular because Google says that one billion souls played this basket doodle game in their browsers when it was launched in 2012 around the London Summer Olympics.
The game gives you 24 seconds to get as many hoops in. Shoot basketballs with the spacebar. The longer you hold down the space bar, the more power you can draw to shoot the ball.
The Google basketball game was just one of the several launched for the Olympics. There were interactive Doodle games on hurdles, slalom canoe, and soccer too.
Honorable Mentions
There are more than 4000 Google Doodles in the archives. From the first static Doodle for the Burning Man Festival in 1998, a growing portion of them are now interactive Doodle games. Since it’s impossible to rank them all, here are a few more worthy mentions:
Rest assured Google will continue innovating with such games. You can bet that the games are going to get more interactive and exciting as the Chrome browser trots out its latest developments. Even if you miss a doodle game or two, you can catch them on the Google Doodles archive.
The games are not as common as the static doodles. But they can get addictive. So if you decide to switch off the sound and visuals, then try these text-based games in your browser.
For all the fantastic graphics and immersive gameplay offered by modern games, there is still something special about booting up old PC games.
Playing one of these classic titles can fill you with nostalgia. So we have compiled a list of the best old PC games you should still seek out and play today.
1. StarCraft
When Blizzard announced legendary real-time strategy StarCraft was receiving a graphical overhaul, it also announced that the original (and its expansion, Brood War) would become free to anyone. Blizzard kindly patched StarCraft, modernizing various outdated aspects and fixing several bugs on the way.
StarCraft is one of the godfathers of the real-time strategy genre, with many of the best modern games taking inspiration from its strategies, factions, and more. Which makes it more than worthwhile playing again.
Download: StarCraft for Windows | macOS (Free, includes expansion)
2. Quake
Quake is the best first-person shooter of all time. There, I said it. Id Software’s return to the first-person shooter genre was a massive critical success, and it remains excellent, even today.
You fight your way through four worlds filled with all manner of horrific beasts, from the basic Grunt to the terror-inducing Shambler, and into the depths of Shub-Niggurath’s Pit. And that’s without even considering Trent Reznor’s incredible soundtrack.
There are also several Quake expansions, all available on Steam and on GOG.
Download:Quake ($10 on GOG) Download:Quake ($5 on Steam)
3. Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango was a revolutionary adventure game developed by LucasArts. Grim Fandango was a step forward for LucasArts, bringing its vision of the adventure genre into the then-modern era.
Grim Fandango’s film-noir, Day-of-the-Dead inspired characters must work through the Underworld, finding objects and solving puzzles to reach the final destination. The largely pre-rendered 3D environments were visually interesting and it has one of the best soundtracks of any game, ever.
Despite this, Grim Fandango bombed. It did so badly on release that it compounded LucasArts decision to leave the adventure genre and focus on other titles. Yet, despite the negative reaction to the original, Grim Fandango is regularly touted as one of the best games of all time.
In 2018, developers Double Fine Productions released Grim Fandango Remastered. This includes new high-resolution characters, repainted scenes, dynamic lighting, and more tweaks and bugfixes. The updated Grim Fandango is one of the remastered video games worth playing again.
1999 was a monumental year in video games. Final Fantasy VIII, Silent Hill, Super Smash Bros, EverQuest, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Unreal Tournament, Gran Turismo 2… the list is just incredible. Adding to that list is classic role-playing horror-survival, System Shock 2.
System Shock 2 starts with a classic horror trope: a mysterious distress call coming from a distant space sector. And you’re sent to check it out. I won’t say more than that. System Shock 2 offers an excellent storyline, immersive soundtrack, and a few jumps and scares along the way.
System Shock 2 lead developer, Ken Levine, would find success with another modern series you might know: Bioshock.
Bullfrog were the masters of irreverent management-sim humor. Theme Hospital’s jokes still hold up today, from the critical receptionists to the ridiculous diseases like Bloaty Head and Jellyitus. Theme Hospital’s campaign mode sees you take control of a succession of hospitals, competing against other healthcare facilities in the same locale.
There are targets, inspections, emergencies, earthquakes, and sickness outbreaks to deal with, all while turning a profit.
If you’re looking for a modern version of Theme Hospital, I’d strongly advise checking out Two Point Hospital. It is the spiritual successor, made by former Bullfrog developers.
Baldur’s Gate II is one of the best RPGs, up there in the pantheon of RPG classics.
What sets Baldur’s Gate II aside is the wonderfully intricate level design. The entire world is beautiful and urges you to explore to the depths of Amn. Baldur’s Gate II was exceptional for its approach to its storyline and your character.
Being a game of Dungeons and Dragons at heart, you can warp your character into different configurations, being rewarded with different outcomes, reactions, and events.
OpenTTD is the open source port of Chris Sawyer’s classic, Transport Tycoon Deluxe. OpenTTD takes the core gameplay of Transport Tycoon Deluxe and builds on it in so many ways. Custom train sets, advanced signals, user-made buildings and stations, entire industry overhauls, and much more await you.
You can forgive yourself for starting a quiet game of OpenTTD in the evening, and suddenly realizing it’s morning as you try to bring MagLev to the inhabitants of Little Plingfingpool.
Before the modern open-world RPGs you know the Fallout series for, it was a pixelated isometric piece of genius. Fallout 2 lets you do anything. You can complete the game how you want, on your own terms.
The character customization is what makes the Fallout series great, and that is one of the enduring features of the series (though, Fallout 4 somewhat dropped the ball, but that’s another story for another day).
Fallout 2 has incredible depth. It is unforgiving. But if you have never taken the time to play the game, do it, and it will change how you feel about the modern iterations.
Half-Life is the precursor to Half-Life 2, widely regarded as one the best games ever. Half-Life is where the story of Dr. Gordon Freeman begins. You must fight your way out of the Black Mesa facility, solve puzzles, and attempt to escape.
Although Half-Life’s graphics are beginning to look a little dated, the gameplay still holds up. At the time of release, Half-Life was an incredible experience, without proper “levels,” but with an environment that flowed throughout the game.
Our list of old PC games terminates with Thief, the classic first-person stealth game. Stealth games can look back at their past and see Thief firmly as the genesis. Or, if not the genesis, one of the first stealth games whose environment and soundtrack made sneaking around feel right.
Add in different ways to move through each level, combat, and a steampunk-esq setting, and Thief is a fantastic game that’s still worth playing to this day.
Download:Thief ($10 on GOG) Download:Thief ($6 on Steam)
What Are Your Favorite Old PC Games?
There are so many brilliant old games to choose from. Which made picking this list incredibly tricky. Other games that could make the list include Deus Ex, Ultima 7, The Secret of Monkey Island, Warcraft II and III, Star Wars: TIE Fighter, Myst, Unreal Tournament, and Planescape: Torment to name just a few.
Exactly fifteen years ago, Google decided to confuse everybody by launching its long-awaited web-based email client on April 1. This definitely wasn’t a joke, though, and Gmail went on to become one of Google’s most successful products. Today, to celebrate its fifteenth birthday (and maybe make you forget about today’s final demise of Inbox and tomorrow’s shutdown of Google+), the Gmail team announced a couple of a new and useful Gmail features, including improvements to Smart Compose and the ability to schedule emails to be sent in the future.
Smart Compose, which tries to autocomplete your emails as you type them, will now be able to adapt to the way you write the greetings in your emails. If you prefer ‘Hey’ over ‘Hi,’ then Smart Compose will learn that. If you often fret over which subject to use for your emails, then there’s some relief here for you, too, because Smart Compose can now suggest a subject line based on the content of your email.
With this update, Smart Compose is now also available on all Android devices. Google says that it was previously only available on Pixel 3 devices, though I’ve been using it on my Pixel 2 for a while already, too. Support for iOS is coming soon.
In addition to this, Smart Compose is also coming to four new languages: Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese.
That’s all very useful, but the feature that will likely get the most attention today is email scheduling. The idea here is as simple as the execution. The ‘send’ button now includes a drop-down menu that lets you schedule an email to be sent at a later time. Until now, you needed third-party services to do this, but now it’s directly integrated into Gmail.
Google is positioning the new feature as a digital wellness tool. “We understand that work can often carry over to non-business hours, but it’s important to be considerate of everyone’s downtime,” Jacob Bank, Director of Product Management, G Suite, writes in today’s announcement. “We want to make it easier to respect everyone’s digital well-being, so we’re adding a new feature to Gmail that allows you to choose when an email should be sent.”
Exactly fifteen years ago, Google decided to confuse everybody by launching its long-awaited web-based email client on April 1. This definitely wasn’t a joke, though, and Gmail went on to become one of Google’s most successful products. Today, to celebrate its fifteenth birthday (and maybe make you forget about today’s final demise of Inbox and tomorrow’s shutdown of Google+), the Gmail team announced a couple of a new and useful Gmail features, including improvements to Smart Compose and the ability to schedule emails to be sent in the future.
Smart Compose, which tries to autocomplete your emails as you type them, will now be able to adapt to the way you write the greetings in your emails. If you prefer ‘Hey’ over ‘Hi,’ then Smart Compose will learn that. If you often fret over which subject to use for your emails, then there’s some relief here for you, too, because Smart Compose can now suggest a subject line based on the content of your email.
With this update, Smart Compose is now also available on all Android devices. Google says that it was previously only available on Pixel 3 devices, though I’ve been using it on my Pixel 2 for a while already, too. Support for iOS is coming soon.
In addition to this, Smart Compose is also coming to four new languages: Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese.
That’s all very useful, but the feature that will likely get the most attention today is email scheduling. The idea here is as simple as the execution. The ‘send’ button now includes a drop-down menu that lets you schedule an email to be sent at a later time. Until now, you needed third-party services to do this, but now it’s directly integrated into Gmail.
Google is positioning the new feature as a digital wellness tool. “We understand that work can often carry over to non-business hours, but it’s important to be considerate of everyone’s downtime,” Jacob Bank, Director of Product Management, G Suite, writes in today’s announcement. “We want to make it easier to respect everyone’s digital well-being, so we’re adding a new feature to Gmail that allows you to choose when an email should be sent.”
