29 April 2019

Talk key takeaways from Facebook’s F8 with TechCrunch writers


Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference is taking over the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose this week and TechCrunch will be on the ground covering any and all announcements.

The week is sure to have its fair share of fireworks as the company’s top brass takes the stage to talk about the future of Facebook’s product offerings, privacy, developer tools and more. TechCrunch’s Josh Constine and Frederic Lardinois will be on the ground at the event. Wednesday at 2:00 pm PT, Josh and Frederic will be sharing with Extra Crunch members what they saw, what excited them most and what the future of Facebook might look.

Tune in to dig into what happened onstage and off and ask Josh and Frederic any and all things Facebook, social or dev tools.

To listen to this and all future conference calls, become a member of Extra Crunch. Learn more and try it for free.


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Announcing the 6th Fine-Grained Visual Categorization Workshop




In recent years, fine-grained visual recognition competitions (FGVCs), such as the iNaturalist species classification challenge and the iMaterialist product attribute recognition challenge, have spurred progress in the development of image classification models focused on detection of fine-grained visual details in both natural and man-made objects. Whereas traditional image classification competitions focus on distinguishing generic categories (e.g., car vs. butterfly), the FGVCs go beyond entry level categories to focus on subtle differences in object parts and attributes. For example, rather than pursuing methods that can distinguish categories, such as “bird”, we are interested in identifying subcategories such as “indigo bunting” or “lazuli bunting.”

Previous challenges attracted a large number of talented participants who developed innovative new models for image recognition, with more than 500 teams competing at FGVC5 at CVPR 2018. FGVC challenges have also inspired new methods such as domain-specific transfer learning and estimating test-time priors, which have helped fine-grained recognition tasks reach state-of-the-art performance on several benchmarking datasets.

In order to further spur progress in FGVC research, we are proud to sponsor and co-organize the 6th annual workshop on Fine-Grained Visual Categorization (FGVC6), to be held on June 17th in Long Beach, CA at CVPR 2019. This workshop brings together experts in computer vision with communities from areas including biodiversity, botany, fashion, and the arts, to address the challenges of applying fine-grained visual categorization to real-life settings.

This Year’s Challenges
This year there will be a wide variety of competition topics, each highlighting unique challenges of fine-grained visual categorization in real-life settings. Some of the challenges at this year’s FGVC include an updated iNaturalist challenge, fashion & products, wildlife camera traps, food, butterflies & moths, fashion design, and cassava leaf disease. We are also delighted to introduce two new partnerships with world class institutions—The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the iMet Collection challenge and the New York Botanical Garden for the Herbarium challenge.
The FGVC workshop at CVPR focuses on subordinate categories, including (from left to right, top to bottom) animal species from wildlife camera traps, retail products, fashion attributes, cassava leaf disease, Melastomataceae species from herbarium sheets, animal species from citizen science photos, butterfly and moth species, cuisine of dishes, and fine-grained attributes for museum art objects.
In the iMet Collection challenge, participants compete to train models on artistic attributes including object presence, culture, content, theme, and geographic origin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art provided a large training dataset for this task based on subject matter experts’ descriptions of their museum collections. This dataset highlights the challenge of inferring fine-grained attributes that are grounded in the visual context indirectly (e.g., period, culture, medium).
A diverse sample of images included in the iMet Collection challenge dataset. Images were taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public domain dataset.
The iMet Collection challenge is also noteworthy for its status as the first image-based Kernels-only competition, a recently introduced option on Kaggle that levels the playing field for data scientists who might not otherwise have access to adequate computational resources. Kernel competitions provide all participants with the same hardware allowances, giving rise to a more balanced competition. Moreover, the winning models tend to be simpler than their counterparts in other competitions, since the participants must work within the compute constraints imposed by the Kernels platform. At the time of writing, the iMet Collection challenge has over 250 participating teams.

In the Herbarium challenge, researchers are invited to tackle the problem of classifying species from the flowering plant family Melastomataceae. This challenge is distinguished from the iNaturalist competition, since the included images depict dried specimens preserved on herbarium sheets, exclusively. Herbarium sheets are essential to plant science, as they not only preserve the key details of the plants for identification and DNA analysis, but also provide a rare perspective into plant ecology in a historical context. As the world’s second largest herbarium, NYBG’s Steere Herbarium collection contributed a dataset of over 46,000 specimens for this year’s challenge.
In the Herbarium challenge, participants will identify species from the flowering plant family Melastomataceae. The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) provided a dataset of over 46,000 herbarium specimens including over 680 species. Images used with permission of the NYBG.
Every one of this year’s challenges requires deep engagement with subject matter experts, in addition to institutional coordination. By teeing up image recognition challenges in a standard format, the FGVC workshop paves the way for technology transfer from the top of the Kaggle leaderboards into the hands of everyday users via mobile apps such as Seek by iNaturalist and Merlin Bird ID. We anticipate the techniques developed by our competition participants will not only push the frontier of fine-grained recognition, but also be beneficial for applying machine vision to advance scientific exploration and curatorial studies.

Invitation to Participate
We invite teams to participate in these competitions to help advance the state-of-the-art in fine-grained image recognition. Deadlines for entry into the competitions range from May 26 to June 3, depending on the challenge. The results of these competitions will be presented at the FGVC6 workshop at CVPR 2019, and will provide broad exposure to the top performing teams. We are excited to encourage the community's development of more accurate and broadly impactful algorithms in the field of fine-grained visual categorization!

Acknowledgements
We’d like to thank our colleagues and friends on the FGVC6 organizing committee for working together to advance this important area. At Google we would like to thank Hartwig Adam, Chenyang Zhang, Yulong Liu, Kiat Chuan Tan, Mikhail Sirotenko, Denis Brulé, Cédric Deltheil, Timnit Gebru, Ernest Mwebaze, Weijun Wang, Grace Chu, Jack Sim, Andrew Howard, R.V. Guha, Srikanth Belwadi, Tanya Birch, Katherine Chou, Maggie Demkin, Elizabeth Park, and Will Cukierski.

Facebook accused of blocking wider efforts to study its ad platform


Facebook has been accused of blocking the ability of independent researchers to effectively study how political disinformation flows across its ad platform.

Adverts that the social network’s business is designed to monetize have — at very least — the potential to influence people and push voters’ buttons, as the Cambridge Anaytica Facebook data misuse scandal highlighted last year.

Since that story exploded into a major global scandal for Facebook the company has faced a chorus of calls for increased transparency and accountability from policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic.

It has responded with lashings of obfuscation, misdirection and worse.

Among Facebook’s less controversial efforts to counter the threat that disinformation poses to its business are what it bills “election security” initiatives, such as identity checks for political advertisers. Even as these efforts have looked hopelessly flat-footed, patchy and piecemeal in the face of concerned attempts to use its tools to amplify disinformation in markets around the world.

Perhaps more significantly — under amped up political pressure — Facebook has launched a searchable ad archive. And access to Facebook ad data certainly has the potential to let external researchers hold the company’s claims to account.

But only if access is not equally flat-footed, patchy and piecemeal, with the risk that selective access to ad data ends up being just as controlled and manipulated as everything else on Facebook’s platform.

So far Facebook’s efforts on this front continue to attract criticism for falling way short.

“the opposite of what they claim to be doing… “

The company opened access to an ad archive API last month, via which it provides rate-limited access to a keyword search tool that lets researchers query historical ad data. (Researchers first need to pass an identity check process and agree to the Facebook developer platform terms of service before they can access the API.)

However a review of the tool by not-for-profit Mozilla rates the API as a lot of weak-sauce ‘transparency-washing’ — rather than a good faith attempt to support public interest research which could genuinely help quantify the societal costs of Facebook’s ad business.

“The fact is, the API doesn’t provide necessary data. And it is designed in ways that hinders the important work of researchers, who inform the public and policymakers about the nature and consequences of misinformation,” it writes in a blog post where it argues that Facebook’s ad API meets just two out of five minimum standards it previously set out — backed by a group of sixty academics, hailing from research institutions including Oxford University, the University of Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, and many more.

Instead of providing comprehensive political advertising content, as the experts argue a good open API must, Mozilla writes that “it’s impossible to determine if Facebook’s API is comprehensive, because it requires you to use keywords to search the database”.

“It does not provide you with all ad data and allow you to filter it down using specific criteria or filters, the way nearly all other online databases do. And since you cannot download data in bulk and ads in the API are not given a unique identifier, Facebook makes it impossible to get a complete picture of all of the ads running on their platform (which is exactly the opposite of what they claim to be doing),” it adds.

Facebook’s tool is also criticized for failing to provide targeting criteria and engagement information for ads — thereby making it impossible for researchers to understand what advertisers on its platform are paying the company to reach; as well as how effective (or otherwise) these Facebook ads might be.

This exact issue was raised with a number of Facebook executives by British parliamentarians last year, during the course of a multi-month investigation into online disinformation. At one point Facebook’s CTO was asked point blank whether the company would be providing ad targeting data as part of planned political ad transparency measures — only to provide a fuzzy answer.

Of course there are plenty of reasons why Facebook might be reluctant to enable truly independent outsiders to quantify the efficacy of political ads on its platform and therefore, by extension, its ad business.

Including, of course, the specific scandalous example of the Cambridge Analytica data heist itself, which was carried out by an academic, called Dr Aleksandr Kogan, then attached to Cambridge University, who used his access to Facebook’s developer platform to deploy a quiz app designed to harvest user data without (most) people’s knowledge or consent in order to sell the info to the disgraced digital campaign company (which worked on various U.S. campaigns, including the presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump).

But that just highlights the scale of the problem of so much market power being concentrated in the hands of a single adtech giant which has zero incentives to voluntarily report wholly transparent metrics about its true reach and power to influence the world’s 2BN+ Facebook users.

Add to that, in a typical crisis PR response to multiple bad headlines last year, Facebook repeatedly sought to paint Kogan as a rogue actor — suggesting he was not at all a representative sample of the advertiser activity on its platform.

So, by the same token, any effort by Facebook to tar genuine research as similarly risky rightly deserves a robust rebuttal. The historical actions of one individual, albeit yes an academic, shouldn’t be used as an excuse to shut the door to a respected research community.

“The current API design puts huge constraints on researchers, rather than allowing them to discover what is really happening on the platform,” Mozilla argues, suggesting the various limitations imposed by Facebook — including search rate limits — means it could take researchers “months” to evaluate ads in a particular region or on a certain topic.

Again, from Facebook’s point of view, there’s plenty to be gained by delaying the release of any more platform usage skeletons from its bulging historical data closet. (The ‘historical app audit’ it announced with much fanfare last year continues to trickle along at a disclosure pace of its own choosing.)

The two areas where Facebook’s API is given a tentative thumbs up by Mozilla is in providing access to up-to-date and historical data (the seven year availability of the data is badged “pretty good”); and for the API being accessible to and shareable with the general public (at least once they’ve gone through Facebook’s identity confirm process).

Though in both cases Mozilla also cautions it’s still possible that further blocking tactics might emerge — depending on how Facebook supports/constrains access going forward.

It does not look entirely coincidental that the criticism of Facebook’s API for being “inadequate” has landed on the same day that Facebook has pushed out publicity about opening up access to a database of URLs its users have linked to since 2017 — which is being made available to a select group of academics.

In that case 60 researchers, drawn from 30 institutions, who have been chosen by the U.S.’ Social Science Research Council.

Notably the Facebook-selected research dataset entirely skips past the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when Russian election propaganda infamously targeted hundreds of millions of U.S. Facebook voters.

The UK’s 2016 Brexit vote is also not covered by the January 2017 onwards scope of the dataset.

Though Facebook does say it is “committed to advancing this important initiative”, suggesting it could expand the scope of the dataset and/or who can access it at some unspecified future time.

It also claims ‘privacy and security’ considerations are holding up efforts to release research data quicker.

“We understand many stakeholders are eager for data to be made available as quickly as possible,” it writes. “While we remain committed to advancing this important initiative, Facebook is also committed to taking the time necessary to incorporate the highest privacy protections and build a data infrastructure that provides data in a secure manner.”

In Europe, Facebook committed itself to supporting good faith, public interest research when it signed up to the European Commission’s Code of Practice on disinformation last year.

The EU-wide Code includes a specific commitment that platform signatories “empower the research community to monitor online disinformation through privacy-compliant access to the platforms’ data”, in addition to other actions such as tackling fake accounts and making political ads and issue based ads more transparent.

However here, too, Facebook appears to be using ‘privacy-compliance’ as an excuse to water down the level of transparency that it’s offering to external researchers.

TechCrunch understands that, in private, Facebook has responded to concerns raised about its ad API’s limits by saying it cannot provide researchers with more fulsome data about ads — including the targeting criteria for ads — because doing so would violate its commitments under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) framework.

That argument is of course pure ‘cakeism’. Aka Facebook is trying to have its cake and eat it where privacy and data protection is concerned.

In plainer English, Facebook is trying to use European privacy regulation to shield its business from deeper and more meaningful scrutiny. Yet this is the very same company — and here comes the richly fudgy cakeism — that elsewhere contends personal data its platform pervasively harvests on users’ interests is not personal data. (In that case Facebook has also been found allowing sensitive inferred data to be used for targeting ads — which experts suggest violates the GDPR.)

So, tl;dr, Facebook can be found seizing upon privacy regulation when it suits its business interests to do so — i.e. to try to avoid the level of transparency necessary for external researchers to evaluate the impact its ad platform and business has on wider society and democracy.

Yet argues against GDPR when the privacy regulation stands in the way of monetizing users’ eyeballs by stuffing them with intrusive ads targeted by pervasive surveillance of everyone’s interests.

Such contradictions have not at all escaped privacy experts.

“The GDPR in practice — not just Facebook’s usual weak interpretation of it — does not stop organisations from publishing aggregate information, such as which demographics or geographic areas saw or were targeted for certain adverts, where such data is not fine-grained enough to pick an individual out,” says Michael Veale, a research fellow at the Alan Turing Institute — and one of ten researchers who co-wrote the Mozilla-backed guidelines for what makes an effective ad API.

“Facebook would require a lawful basis to do the aggregation for the purpose of publishing, which would not be difficult, as providing data to enable public scrutiny of the legality and ethics of data processing is a legitimate interest if I have ever seen one,” he also tells us. “Facebook constantly reuse data for different and unclearly related purposes, and so claiming they could legally not reuse data to put their own activities in the spotlight is, frankly, pathetic.

“Statistical agencies have long been familiar with techniques such as differential privacy which stop aggregated information leaking information about specific individuals. Many differential privacy researchers already work at Facebook, so the expertise is clearly there.”

“It seems more likely that Facebook doesn’t want to release information on targeting as it would likely embarrass [it] and their customers,” Veale adds. “It is also possible that Facebook has confidentiality agreements with specific advertisers who may be caught red-handed for practices that go beyond public expectations. Data protection law isn’t blocking the disinfecting light of transparency, Facebook is.”

Asked about the URL database that Facebook has released to selected researchers today, Veale says it’s a welcome step but points to further limitations.

“It’s a good thing that Facebook is starting to work more openly on research questions, particularly those which might point to problematic use of this platform. The initial cohort appears to be geographically diverse, which is refreshing — although appears to lack any academics from Indian universities, far and away Facebook’s largest userbase,” he tells us.

“Time will tell whether this limited dataset will later expand to other issues, and how much researchers are expected to moderate their findings if they hope for continued amicable engagement.”

“It’s very possible for Facebook to effectively cherry-pick datasets to try to avoid issues they know exist, but you also cannot start building a collaborative process on all fronts and issues. Time will tell how open the multinational wishes to be,” Veale adds.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment on the criticism of its ad archive API.


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Is this the vertical-folding Motorola Razr?


This could be the upcoming Motorola Razr revival. The images purporting to be the upcoming smartphone appeared online on Weibo and show a foldable design. Unlike Galaxy Fold, though, Motorola’s implementation has the phone folding vertical — much like the original Razr.

This design offers a more compelling use case than other foldables. Instead of traditional smartphone unfolding to a tablet-like display, Motorola’s design has a smaller device unfolding to a smartphone display. The result is a smaller phone turning into a normal phone.

Pricing is still unclear but the WSJ previously stated it would carry a $1,500 cost when it’s eventually released. If it’s released.

Samsung was the first to market with the Galaxy Fold. Kind of. A few journalists were given Galaxy Fold units ahead of its launch, but a handful of units failed in the first days. Samsung quickly postponed the launch and recalled all the review units.

Despite this leak, Motorola has yet to confirm when this device will hit the market. Given Samsung’s troubles, it will likely be extra cautious before launching it to the general public.


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The Best Way to Search for Jobs Using Indeed


search-jobs-indeed

Job searching can be utterly exhausting when you’ve been at it for a long time. There are so many resources devoted to finding the right gig that you can feel inundated by the sheer amount of options. I know I have in the past.

Fortunately, Indeed allows you to search for a career based on your field of work, where you want to live, and the length of time you want to stay at a job. It’s an incredibly useful tool and it cuts back on the stress-induced headaches.

Here are some tips to maximize the website and your own job search.

1. Make an Account on Indeed

Indeed Home Page

The very first thing you should do is create an account.

You can browse the job postings on Indeed.com without one. But an account will help you use this service to its fullest extent.

Indeed Create Free Account

To create an account, click on the Sign In button located on the top right-hand corner of your homepage.

When the new screen appears, click on Not a member? Create an account free.

It will prompt you to fill in your details.

2. Set Up Your Resume

Indeed Resume

Once you’ve set up your account, the next best tip is to set up your resume.

Your Indeed Resume is a text-only copy of your regular resume that you can attach to job applications. This resume can either be set to public—meaning potential employers can search you—or you can set it on private.

If your resume is set to private, only the companies that you apply to will be able to see your profile.

Hiring managers are busy people, and chances are high that they won’t be searching for you on top of the applications being sent their way. To protect your privacy, feel free to set your resume to private.

The reason you want your resume on Indeed is ease-of-use. You can apply to new positions directly through the website, and when you apply for a job it allows you to attach that resume and your profile specs.

After you attach your resume, the only thing you need to worry about is writing a cover letter. It will save you a lot of time in your search.

Looking for tips on how to write an application? Here are some things you should NOT include in your resume. It will help you avoid common mistakes.

3. Use Indeed’s Search Function to Research Your Field

Indeed Search an Industry

Indeed’s search function is great, and because of its versatility, we’re going to split this section into two parts.

The first way you can use the search function is to scout out an industry’s “health” in a geographic area. This is a good pre-job hunt search to do, especially if you’re:

  • Switching careers.
  • Looking to move for your job, or
  • Searching for a new job after being employed for a very long time, and you don’t know the current standards.

By typing in what kind of job you’re searching for and where, you will get an overall idea of how many jobs are available in a region. You’ll also see how much competition there will be.

For example: If there are very few jobs located in a highly desirable area, the competition for those jobs will be much fiercer. Think supply and demand.

4. Set Up Search Alerts for Your Email

Indeed Sign Up for Job Alerts

You can also use the search function to set up job alerts.

A lot of jobs are posted on Indeed. Seriously, there’s a ton. Also, searching through the website takes time.

One of the best ways to maximize your time is to have very specific job alerts sent directly to your email on a daily or weekly basis.

To set up a search alert, type in the type of job you want under what. Then type the location of the job under where.

Once you hit Find Jobs, it will pull up a list of jobs that fit these parameters.

You can then narrow your search further by clicking on Advanced Job Search to the right of the search bar. However, this step is optional.

After you have your search parameters, you can subscribe to the job search under the Get new jobs for this search by email. Simply fill in the email you want the alerts to be sent to. Then click Send me new jobs.

The good thing about this function is that Indeed will send you multiple job postings per email. It works a bit like a newsletter. All you have to do is open up the email, scroll through the postings, then click on the individual links to read more about the positions that interest you.

Indeed Delete Job Alert

If you grow tired of receiving these emails, go to the top right-hand corner of your screen where you see your login information. Click on the dropdown menu. Then click on My Subscriptions.

When you do this, your Subscription page will pop up. Here you can either edit your job alerts, change their frequency, pause them, or delete. It’s pretty simple.

5. Use “My Jobs” to Keep Track of Applications

Indeed My Jobs Section

Lastly, use the “My Jobs” section to help you organize your applications. You can find the link in the dropdown menu on the top right-hand corner of your screen under My Jobs.

Click on it.

There, you can keep track of saved jobs (AKA the job postings you want to read at a later date), the jobs you’ve applied to, the ones you’re currently interviewing for, or any offers you have on the table.

This organizational tool can become invaluable when you’re applying for a lot of jobs over a longer period of time.

Grab That Job Vacancy Today

Indeed is a really great service for job hunting, and if you haven’t signed up we fully recommend you do so.

If you’re still not satisfied with it? Well, there are other options out there. Here’s a list of the most effective job search websites to grab your next gig.

Image Credit: Devon/Depositphotos

Read the full article: The Best Way to Search for Jobs Using Indeed


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9 Useful Ways to Control Sound in Windows 10


control-sound-windows10

Back in the day, there were very few ways you could control the volume on your Windows computer. However, Windows 10 plays well with smartphones, remote desktop connections, different software fixes, and more. Now there are more ways to control the volume in Windows 10 than ever before.

Here are some of the best ways to control the sound in Windows 10.

Are you looking for something specific?

  1. Control Windows 10 Sound Using Remote Mouse for iOS
  2. Control Windows 10 Sound Using PC Remote for Android
  3. Use EarTrumpet to Control Individual App Volume in Windows 10
  4. Restrict Volume Range in Windows 10 Using Speaker Locker
  5. Control Windows 10 Volume Using Your Mouse Wheel
  6. Change the Windows 10 On-Screen Volume Using 3RVX
  7. Use Audio and Volume Control Rainmeter Skins
  8. Use AutoHotKey to Control Windows 10 Volume
  9. Control Windows 10 Volume Using Mouse Gestures via StrokePlus

1. Control Windows 10 Sound Using Hippo Remote Lite for iOS

Hippo Remote Lite is a free iOS app that gives you remote control of your Windows 10 machine. Hippo Remote Lite offers a decent range of functionality for free. You can easily turn your iOS device into a Windows 10 remote control.

Controlling the volume is incredibly easy, too.

  1. Download Hippo Remote Lite for iOS
  2. Download and install Hippo Remote Lite Server for Windows (also available for macOS and Linux)
  3. Connect your iOS device and computer to the same Wi-Fi network and create the connection
  4. Control the volume on your Windows 10 machine using the volume switch on your iOS device or the slider within the Hippo Remote Lite app

See, simple!

Volume control is far from the only thing Hippo Remote Lite does. You can use it as a keyboard or media controller, plus it has support for Boxee, XMBC, and Plex.

Download: Hippo Remote Lite for iOS (Free)

Download: Hippo Remote Lite Server for Windows | macOS | Linux (Free)

2. Control Windows 10 Sound Using PC Remote for Android

Next up, you can use PC Remote for Android to control the sound on your Windows 10 machine. Like Remote Mouse, you install PC Remote to your Android device and a server version to your Windows 10 desktop or laptop. You can then make a connection using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, controlling the sound of your Windows 10 machine direct from your Android device.

  1. Download PC Remote for Android
  2. Download and install PC Remote for Windows
  3. Connect your Android device and computer to the same Wi-Fi network, or via Bluetooth
  4. Control the volume on your Windows 10 machine using the volume switch on your Android device or the slider within the PC Remote app

Again, simple!

PC Remote has a bunch of extensive functionality, too. For instance, it has numerous built-in game controller configurations so you can use the PC Remote to control your favorite games. It has integrated file transfers, direct streaming from your Android device camera to your Windows machine, app launch support, specialized keyboards, and much more.

Download: PC Remote for Android | iOS (Free)

Download: PC Remote Server for Windows (Free)

3. Use EarTrumpet to Control Individual App Volume in Windows 10

windows 10 volume control EarTrumpet

EarTrumpet is a fantastic piece of open source software that gives you vastly more control over Windows 10 volume control. The single best feature of EarTrumpet is the control you have over multiple audio input and outputs for a single system. Instead of having to use the Control Panel or Windows 10 Settings, EarTrumpet creates an individual volume panel for each audio device. Better still, it integrates perfectly with Windows 10, appearing as a native Windows application.

Another ridiculously handy feature is dragging and dropping applications playing audio into different audio devices, plus the control over the volume of those individual apps.

Download: EarTrumpet for Windows (Free)

4. Restrict Volume Range in Windows 10 Using Speaker Locker

windows 10 volume control speaker locker

At times, you may need to restrict the volume range available to Windows 10 users. Greennaturesoft’s Speaker Locker does just that. Speaker Locker has four options:

  • Keep speaker volume muted
  • Restrict speaker volume to an upper limit
  • Keep speaker volume to an exact level
  • Restrict speak volume to a lower limit

Best of all, you can combine those volume limits with operation times. For instance, you can set the volume level to remain below 50-percent between 6 AM and midday, but then above 75-percent from midday until 5 PM.

Speaker Locker has administrative passwords so that other users cannot disable it. You can also set Speaker Locker to start with Windows to make sure it is always in place.

Download: Speaker Locker for Windows (Free)

5. Control Windows 10 Volume Using Your Mouse Wheel

windows 10 volume control volumouse

You can control the volume in Windows 10 using your mouse wheel. Nirsoft’s Volumouse lets you use your mouse wheel to control the system volume. Volumouse works best in conjunction with another trigger button, rather than just on its own.

For instance, you can set Volumouse to work only when you hold down right CTRL, or when the mouse cursor is hovering over a certain part of the screen, and so on.

Nirsoft has also developed some plugins that allow you to control the active window or open and close the door of your CD-ROM/DVD with the mouse.

Download: Volumouse for Windows (Free)

6. Change the Windows 10 On-Screen Volume Control with 3RVX

3RVX is an open source on-screen display for Windows 10. It features a decent range of customizable on-screen volume controls, tray notifications, and other handy features.

Download: 3RVX for Windows (Free)

7. Use Audio and Volume Control Rainmeter Skins

windows 10 volume radian visualizer rainmeter

Rainmeter is a free and open source desktop customization tool for Windows. Developers sometimes create incredible Rainmeter skins, including usage meters, audio controls, calendars, applets, and more. I haven’t tinkered with Rainmeter for several years, up to the point of writing this article, so seeing some of the latest custom designs was illuminating.

  • Audio Switcher is a very simple Rainmeter skin that allows you quickly swap between your headphones and speakers
  • Radian Linear Visualizer is a live audio visualization applet for your desktop complete with auto-updating album covers and a bunch of other customization options
  • VolKnob adds a simple volume knob to your desktop that you turn by scrolling your mouse wheel (similar functionality to Nirsoft’s Volumouse)
  • AppVolumePlugin adds volume meters and volume control for individual apps
  • Minimal Volume Control adds an extremely basic but functional volume control bar to your desktop

Other Rainmeter skins come with integrated audio and volume control features. There are a lot of Rainmeter skins out there, and a huge number of plugins and applets too, so you will find something that suits your requirements. Get your Rainmeter desktop customization journey underway with our simple guide to Rainmeter.

Download: Rainmeter for Windows (Free)

8. Use AutoHotKey to Control Windows 10 Volume

AutoHotKey lets you create custom keyboard macros. You can program AutoHotKey to control your Windows 10 volume settings. The following basic script allows you to turn your Windows volume up and down using Windows Key + Page Up and Windows Key + Page Down.

#PgUp::Send {Volume_Up 3}
#PgDn::Send {Volume_Down 3}

But what do you do with the script?

  1. Download and install AutoHotKey
  2. Right-click your desktop and select New > Text Document
  3. Copy the script into the new text file
  4. Head to File > Save as, and change the file type to .ahk (AutoHotKey Script).
  5. Run the AutoHotKey script; you can change your volume using the custom keyboard macro

You don’t have to stop there. The AutoHotKey SoundSet document details how to customize the script further. You can add controls to mute, control the bass, treble, bass boost, and many other features.

Download: AutoHotKey for Windows (Free)

Interested in learning more about AutoHotKey? Check out Ian Buckley’s quick AutoHotKey guide for beginners!

9. Control Windows 10 Volume Using Mouse Gestures via StrokesPlus

windows 10 volume control strokeplus

Your final Windows 10 volume control option is StrokePlus. StrokesPlus is a free mouse gesture recognition tool. Using StrokesPlus, you can program a custom mouse gesture to control your Windows 10 volume.

StrokesPlus is relatively intuitive. In most cases, you hold down your right-mouse key and draw your gesture. For volume control, you could draw a “U” for volume up, and a “D” for volume down. You can take it further with modifications, extensions, adding in the mouse wheel, and much more.

Download: StrokesPlus for Windows (Free)

Windows 10 Volume Control Is in Your Hands

You can now control the volume in Windows 10 using your smartphone, using a mouse gesture, with an interactive custom desktop skin, and many more options in-between.

Some people don’t like the Windows 10 volume control. If that sounds like you, why not follow Ben Stegner’s quick guide to getting the old Windows volume control back.

Read the full article: 9 Useful Ways to Control Sound in Windows 10


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How to Use the Kodi Web Interface to Control Kodi


kodi-web-interface

We all know that Kodi is a great open-source media center, but did you know about the Kodi web interface?

This feature is incredibly useful but not widely known. It lets you control your Kodi system, search your files, and manage playlists from any device connected to your network.

And in this article we’ll show you how to use the Kodi web interface to control Kodi.

What Is the Kodi Web Interface?

Kodi web interface - music

The web interface is a built-in feature of the Kodi media center. It lets you control your Kodi system, either from the same device or a different one, through your web browser.

This is useful in several ways.

Maybe you’re watching Kodi on your computer and want to be able to control it from your phone. Maybe you have Kodi installed on your PC, and you want to use your keyboard and mouse to set up a playlist. (Most skins, even the best Kodi skins, aren’t designed for keyboard and mouse.) Or maybe you’re having a party and you want all of your friends to be able to add tracks to a playlist. The Kodi web interface allows you to do all of this and more.

How Do I Install the Kodi Web Interface?

The good news is that the web interface called Chorus2 comes pre-installed with Kodi. You don’t need to download any new files as it will be automatically available.

You do need to enable the Kodi web interface though. And here’s how to do that:

  • Open up Kodi
  • Go to Settings (click on the cog icon)
  • Go to Services, then to Control
  • Find the Allow remote control via HTTP toggle and set it to On
  • Optionally, you may set a username and password here
  • Make sure Port is set to 8080 and Web interface is set to Kodi web interface – Chorus2
  • Make sure the checkboxes for Allow remote control from applications on this system and Enable remote control from applications on other systems are both set to On

Now the web interface is active. If you’re going to be using the web interface with friends, or if you are concerned about security, it’s a good idea to set a username and password. This will prevent anyone from accessing your Kodi system without authorization.

How Do I Access the Kodi Web Interface?

Accessing the Kodi web interface is simple. If you are using the interface on the same device that Kodi is installed on, just open up your web browser. Then type  localhost:8080 into the address bar. This will open up the web interface.

To access the Kodi web interface from a different device on your network, you will need to know the IP address of your Kodi device. To find this out, open up Kodi and go to Settings. Then go to System Info and look in the Summary tab. You will see a note with the IP address. It will be something like 192.168.1.4.

Now you know the IP address for your Kodi device, connect your other device to the network through Wi-Fi, then enter the IP address of the Kodi device followed by :8080. For example, you would enter 192.168.1.4:8080 into the address bar of your web browser. Now you’ll see the Kodi web interface and you can control Kodi from your other device.

If you want your friends to be able to access the web interface on their phones, get them to connect to your Wi-Fi then tell them to go to the IP address plus :8080 in their web browser. Now they can control Kodi too.

What Can I Do With the Kodi Web Interface?

So now that you know how to install and access the Kodi web interface you might be wondering what you can actually do with it? Here are five things to get you started…

1. Use It as a Remote Control

Kodi web interface - remote control

For basic controls using the web interface, you can play/pause, skip forward, and skip backwards using the icons at the bottom of the screen. You can also adjust the volume and activate repeat or shuffle.

But you can also use the web interface as a full remote control. To activate the full remote control, look at the black bar at the bottom of the web interface. You’ll see a small version of the artwork for the movie, TV show, or album you are playing. Click on this artwork.

This brings up a remote control panel. From here you can use the on-screen buttons to activate the 4-way navigation, stop, back, home, information, and context menu buttons.

For other ways to control Kodi remotely, see our list of the best ways to control Kodi from the couch.

2. Use It to Manage Playlists

One of the most useful features of the Kodi web interface is the ability to add files to a playlist and to reorder the current playlist. The current playlist appears in the right hand panel on the web interface and you can drag and drop files to reorder them, or hit the X on the right hand side to remove them.

Plus there’s a party mode so you and friends can all add songs to a playlist.

3. Use It to Search Through Your Kodi Files

You can search through all your different file types using the web interface. At the top of the interface is a grey box with a magnifying glass icon. Just type your search query into this box.

This will pull up all the files that match your query, including movies, TV show episodes, and songs. Then you can click on the artwork to play the file you want.

4. Use It to Edit File Metadata

It’s a bit of a pain to use a keyboard and mouse with Kodi, which makes tasks like cleaning up files’ metadata very slow. But you can do this quickly and easily using the web interface.

Just find the file you want to edit, then click the three dots in the top right of the artwork. Choose Edit. Now you can type in information like the title, artist, year, and so on, and hit Save.

5. Use It to Play Files on Your Local Device

Kodi web interface - play in browser

There’s an extra neat feature too. You can play files from your Kodi library right on your phone or other device. When you’re browsing with the Kodi web interface, you can click the three dots in the top right of an album or video file. Then choose Play in browser.

This will stream the file from your Kodi system to your mobile device. It’s great if you want to keep watching a movie in bed.

Other Features

These are just a few of the features of the web interface. You can also browse your Kodi add-ons, edit your Kodi settings, set up PVR recordings, and more. As is often the case with technology, the best thing to do is have a play around with the Kodi web interface to see what it can do.

Install Kodi Add-Ons to Get Even More Out of Kodi

Now you know how to enable and use the Kodi web interface, you and your friends can control your Kodi system. You can create and modify playlists, plus edit your files and play files in your browser.

To get even more out of Kodi, you can install add-ons to get new features. To get you started, here are the best Kodi add-ons you didn’t know you needed.

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What Is Google? How to Do an Internet Search


whats-google

“Why don’t you Google it? Do you use Google Docs? Have you looked it up on Google Maps? Can you share the file on Google Drive?”

If everybody around you speaks an alien language called Google, it’s time you learnt it, too. So let’s see what Google is and how it can help you.

What Is Google?

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have a vending machine that dispensed information? You already do! It’s called Google and it lives on the internet at google.com. Instead of feeding it money, you have to feed it words, phrases, or any snippet of text you want more information about. In return, Google pushes out resource after resource that it considers as relevant to your query.

Technically speaking, Google:

  1. Crawls (scans) websites to collect various details about them.
  2. Indexes (collates) webpages into a database.
  3. Retrieves webpages that are most relevant to your search query.

Actually, that’s how all search engines work, and Google is one of them—the most popular of them all. A few of the other noted search engines include Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, and Ask.

Google’s search results are webpage links to articles, images, videos, maps, books, etc. and usually, there are pages and pages of them. More often than not, you’ll find the most relevant links on the first page itself. Google has special behind-the-scenes rules called algorithms to stipulate the order in which the search results show up. The resource that appears first is ranked higher than the one that follows.

Now that you have a basic idea of what Google is all about, it’s time to see how exactly you can use it to find the information you want. You’ll need an active internet connection for that, of course.

search Google from the address bar in Opera browser

While the Google search engine lives at google.com, you don’t need to visit the website itself to start a Google search. Your browser’s address bar has embedded internet search capabilities. This means that to trigger an internet search or a web search you simply have to type in your query in the address bar and then hit Enter.

Is this web search a Google search? That depends on the browser you’re using and its default search engine, which happens to be Google in quite a few popular browsers. If it isn’t, you can configure it to be the default from your browser’s settings. (Not sure what a browser is? It’s the desktop program you use to access the internet. Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Vivaldi are all examples of browsers.)

change the default search engine in Opera browser

If you’d rather leave the default setting alone, you can still do an internet search from the address bar. But, the results will show up in the search engine that’s set as the default. For a Google search, you’ll have to visit google.com and type in your search query in the search box provided on the website. Your search results will show up after you click on the Google Search button below the search box. (Pressing the Enter key also works.)

search box on Google's homepage

Wondering where the second button—I’m Feeling Lucky—will lead you? If you click on that instead of the Google Search button, Google takes you to the webpage that ranks first in the search results.

For example, let’s say you type makeuseof in the search box. Now, if you click on the Google Search button, Google displays links to our website, YouTube channel, Twitter page, Facebook page, and so on. But, if you click on the I’m Feeling Lucky button, Google jumps to our website—makeuseof.com—the first link in the search results.

What Should You Type Into Google?

You can ask Google about anything—meanings of words, flight times, recipes, historical facts, consumer products, current events, trivia, electronics, the weather, anything. As you start typing into the search box, Google nudges you along with autocomplete suggestions of its own.

Autocomplete suggestions by Google Search

Begin your search with one or more keywords that are most relevant to the topic you have in mind. Sentences, questions, and phrases also work. You don’t have to bother with punctuation, capitalization, or even placing the keywords in a particular order. Google knows how to look past the rules of grammar to get to the heart of your query and displays results accordingly.

You can rest assured that there’s no such thing as a wrong query, but the links that show up as search results will vary based on what you ask Google. Here are a few sample queries to get you started:

  • weather in nevada
  • distance between 2 parallel lines
  • eggs benedict recipe
  • should i ask for a raise
  • who designed the statue of liberty
  • is chris hemsworth british
  • where is seychelles
  • how to do handstands
  • marmalade ingredients
  • is tomato a fruit
  • binary anagram

Once you’re comfortable running a basic web search and want to learn more, our Google Search FAQ will come in handy. It will help you narrow down search results with filters, search for images, hide explicit content, view your search history, and do a lot more.

The Google That’s Not a Search Engine

Google is not only the name of the search engine we introduced above, but also the name of the company that created it. A few years ago, that parent company split into multiple subsidiary companies, the largest of which is called Google. The original Google—the umbrella under which the new Google is a subsidiary—now goes by the name Alphabet.

Do you need to remember any of this to use Google Search? Not at all! That was just a tidbit of information that seemed worth sharing.

What Is Google Plus?

grid view of Google apps on Google homepage

The company that created Google Search has also created many other apps and tools that promise to make your digital life easier. One of them is Google Plus—a social networking platform like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You don’t need to explore it further because it has been officially shut down.

Wondering which other Google tools you can make use of apart from Google Search? You probably use a couple of them already—Gmail and YouTube. Here are a few others we recommend:

  • Google Drive: To store your files in the cloud and access them from anywhere
  • Google Docs: To create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations online
  • Google Keep: To store notes with text, images, lists, and audio clips
  • Google Maps: To find your way around any part of the world, whether you’re traveling by car, bicycle, or foot

You’re Ready to Google

Google is so popular that its name is now synonymous with a web search, even if you use a search engine that’s not Google! Tell people to google something and they won’t think it’s weird—the Oxford English dictionary includes google as a verb, after all. If you come across a topic that’s difficult to find information on using any search engine, you can call it ungoogleable.

No doubt Google Search is a brilliant utility to have at your fingertips. But, it also proves harmful for your privacy with its vigorous tracking of your activity around the web.

What’s the alternative then? Are there search engines less intrusive than Google Search? Yes! We recommend using privacy-focused search engines like DuckDuckGo and Startpage.

Don’t want to give up Google Search now that you have just discovered its magic? How about hiding your tracks from Google?

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How to Uninstall Chromium Malware in 4 Easy Steps


chromium-malware

It’s cheap and easy for program developers to bundle their software with adware to make some extra cash. If you’re not paying attention, you might end up with more than you bargained for when you’re installing new software, thanks to pre-packaged malware.

Chromium malware is a pretty popular option for roguish developers to include. It may look almost like the real deal, but don’t be fooled—you’ll need to remove it if you want your PC to be safe to use. Let’s run through how to uninstall Chromium malware in four easy steps.

What Is Chromium Malware?

Chromium is Google’s open-source browser project, used as the basis of Google Chrome. Chromium malware is named after the project because malicious developers use that code to create fake Chrome web browsers.

They’ll have their own names (like BeagleBrowser and BoBrowser) but they’ll look a lot like Chrome on the surface. While there are other legitimate Chromium browsers you could install, these aren’t it—they’re not designed to benefit the end user.

They’ll set your home page and default search engine to match a site that generates income if you use it. If you’re a Windows novice, you might not even realize it’s happened. They may also infect settings in other browsers, or infect your own Chrome installation with rogue third-party extensions.

You might install these browsers (or malicious extensions) accidentally from browser pop-ups, or they may come pre-packaged with other software.

Step 1: End Running Processes, Attempt Uninstall

Before you can start learning how to remove Chromium malware, you’ll need to check the software isn’t running. Some malware will be stubborn enough to continue running in the background when you close it. This is designed to stop you from being able to uninstall it.

Open up the task manager on your Windows PC by hitting Ctrl + Shift + Esc. You’ll see a list of running processes and open apps. Look for anything named Chromium or Chrome.

Select an unwanted process and hit Del. If it doesn’t close, right-click the process and select End Task. If the processes won’t close, head to the next step, as you’ll need some extra software to deal with the problem.

Windows 10 Task Manager Menu End Chrome Process

If the software closed, you’ll be able to begin uninstalling the malware. If you’re using Windows 10, hit Win + X > Settings before choosing Apps in the screen that appears. In the Apps & features list, find the name of your malicious malware and choose Uninstall.

Windows 10 Uninstall Apps Menu Chrome Uninstall

Step 2: Begin a Thorough Malware Scan

We’re going to assume, for argument’s sake, that any malware you have installed won’t neatly uninstall itself when you ask it to. For that reason, you’ll need to do a full scan of your PC for any malware, viruses, or other PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) hiding away.

Start by installing some malware removal tools to help you search your system, especially if you find processes won’t terminate on your PC. Software like Rkill will terminate anything stubborn that won’t stop when you use the task manager. You can then attempt to uninstall malware-packaged Chromium installations using the method above.

You’ll also need to make sure you have a fully up-to-date antivirus installed. If you haven’t, install one of the best antivirus suites you can for your PC, either free or paid.

RogueKiller Anti Malware Standard Scan Screen

Start with a malware scan. If you’re using RogueKiller, open up the software and choose Standard Scan. It’ll then proceed to scan your PC for malware processes and files.

Once the process is complete, you’ll be asked if you want to review the results and remove any malware found, so confirm these if they appear.

If you’re using Malwarebytes, the process is similar. Hit Scan Now in the main dashboard menu, or goto Scan and select your chosen scan method. The full Threat Scan is recommended here.

Malwarebytes Anti Malware Scan Methods Selection Screen

Run similar scans using your chosen antivirus software, including a full boot scan. If you’ve only recently installed antimalware and antivirus software, these should now actively scan your PC on a regular basis to help avoid any future infections.

Step 3: Delete Your Chromium User Data Folder

While the malware scan should have removed any malicious Chromium malware it found, some lingering files may remain. This might include rogue settings and profiles that were created.

It’s better to be safe than sorry, so it’s time to go nuclear and erase your Chromium settings folder. Don’t be too concerned by this, as your standard Chrome browser will regenerate the folder when you run the program again.

As long as your Chrome browser isn’t running, hit Win + R and type %appdata% before hitting OK. This’ll take you to your Windows user AppData Roaming folder. Search for a folder named Chromium or, if your standard Chrome installation is infected, Google\Chrome.

Delete the folders, then do the same in the AppData Local folder with Win + R and %localappdata%.

Step 4: Reset Your Standard Chrome Installation

This step may not be necessary if you’ve been able to successfully remove the malware on your PC and you’ve erased your settings folder, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. If you’re running Chrome as your standard browser, you can reset it to its original settings inside Chrome itself.

This’ll remove any extensions or add-ons, remove your browser history, and log you out of any accounts. You’ll be able to start again with a fresh Chrome installation.

Click the menu icon (the three vertical dots) in the top right and go to Settings > Advanced > Reset and Clean Up. Choose Restore settings to their original defaults. Click Reset settings to confirm.

Chrome Browser Menu Reset Settings Option

This will then reset your Chrome installation to its original condition. This should be obvious, but only attempt this if you’re using the standard version of Google Chrome or a safe, alternative Chromium browser.

Don’t Be Duped by Chromium Malware

Chromium malware isn’t always easy to spot, but there are some obvious signs if you know what to look for. If your browser isn’t using Google or another major search engine, or you didn’t install the browser in the first place, you’ve got malware.

The best way to avoid future infections is to keep your system up-to-date and install the best malware protection for your Windows PC. If you’d prefer to ditch Windows completely, you can download and run Chrome OS on your PC instead.

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