Google’s Project Euphonia wants to make voice recognition work for people with speech impairments

For those with speech impairments, artificial intelligence-powered voice recognition technology simply doesn’t work for them. Google is trying to fix that.

Today at Google I/O, Google unveiled Project Euphonia, to explore how artificial intelligence can better recognize those with speech impairments and other types of speech patterns.

“We also want to help those with speech disorders or people whose speech has been affected by a stroke or ALS,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at I/O. “Researchers from Google AR are exploring the idea of personalized communication models that can better understand different types of speech, as well as how AI can help even those who cannot speak to communicate.”

Voice recognition technology doesn’t work today for people with speech impairments because no one has collected large enough data sets, Pichai said. That’s where Euphonia comes in.

In partnership non-profits like ALS Therapy Development Institute and ALS Residence Initiative, Google is recording voices of people who have neurodegenerative condition ALS.

“We are working hard to provide these voice recognition models to the Google Assistant in the future,” Pichai said.

But in order to get there, Google will need more training data. Pichai ended with a call to action asking people with slurred or otherwise impaired speech to submit voice samples here.

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Incognito mode comes to Google Maps

Being able to browse the web without leaving the usual local traces is a valuable tool for a lot of reasons, and now you can do the same thing in Google Maps. Incognito mode, announced today at Google I/O, prevents any movements or searches in Maps from being linked to your account or stored locally.

There are lots of reasons people might want to limit what their phone and Google account store when it comes to locations they look up or visit.

Take for example a person looking up nearby sexual health clinics. It’s a normal thing, but do you want it popping up on your “recently visited” list when you and a friend look up nearby happy hours?

Likewise someone who prefers to keep their visits to alcoholism support groups off the record, or a night out at a gay bar. Not everyone has the privilege of being able to be completely open about every aspect of their life.

It’s easy to turn on and turn off: Simply tap your profile picture in the top right, and in the few big options immediately presented should be incognito mode. Do the same thing to turn it off.

Note that this does not prevent your location from being logged by other entities by other means — for instance, your phone carrier will still know roughly where you are at all times because of how your device connects to its towers. And other apps and services that use location won’t be affected — for instance, if you have Incognito mode on, but then switch to a restaurants nearby type app, that app will be able to access your location freely.

Just as with privacy modes in web browsers, the protection this offers is limited but but some may be crucial. The feature should be rolling out to Maps users soon.

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Fli Charge Technology acquired by Birch Lake to accelerate a wireless future

Fli Charge Technology is today announcing it was acquired by an affiliate of Birch Lake Associates. As part of the purchase, industry veteran Khalid Zitouni is taking the chief executive position as the company looks to expand its reach for Fli Charge’s clever power delivery technology.

TechCrunch first spied Fli Charge at CES 2018 when the company demonstrated its tech with Craftsman power tools. Once a Fli Charge device is placed on the strip, charging starts immediately at the same rate as if it was plugged into an outlet. Four small conductive nubs make contact with the pad and serve up power as needed. The system is capable of simultaneously charging batteries of different voltages. One strip can charge a smartphone, power tool and laptop at the same time, even though each device has different power requirements.

Fli Charge tech could bring the convenience of wireless charging to new industries. That’s where Birch Lake comes in.

“The FLI Charge technology is a clear outlier in the power and charging space,” said FLI Charge’s incoming chief executive officer, Khalid Zitouni. “While it resembles wireless charging solutions on the market today, it is not constrained by the limitations that have held back those technologies from garnering significant market adoption or expanding into new product categories. We are excited to rapidly expand our consumer product offerings and continue to develop a robust licensing platform for all portable products, including power tools, IOT devices, drones, audio products and small appliances, among others.”

Zitouni is taking over for former Fli Charge CEO Cliff Weinstein, who is staying on as a company consultant. In 2017, Weinstein led a management buyout to take Fli Charge private after the debut of an early version of the product on Indiegogo in 2016.

When I spoke to Weinstein at CES 2018, he was optimistic about a future where Fli Charge’s technology was built into desks and tool boxes, allowing office workers and construction workers alike to live a cord-free life. Now, with Birch Lake taking the company forward, that future could be nearer than ever. Fli Charge’s implementation of wireless power delivery is impressive and if adopted by the market, could lead to a truly wireless future.

Fli Charge demonstration at CES 2018

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Google Assistant gets more personalized through a new ‘Picks for You’ feature

In addition to Google’s plan to bring a more powerful, next-generation Google Assistant to Pixel phones, the company also introduced new personalization features for its digital assistant. The update will take into account user preferences to help when choosing what to listen to, what to do on the weekend, or even what to eat. For example, the Google Assistant will be able to respond to a question like “What should I cook for dinner?” with selection of recipes tailored just for you.

Other people would get different results, based on their own preferences.

The feature will also leverage Google’s new plans to index podcasts, by making personalized suggestions of what to listen to.

The system, called “Picks for You” will launch on smart displays later this summer, beginning with recipes, podcasts, and events, said Google.

Beyond its understanding of your interests, Google Assistant will know which people are important to you, as well.

For instance, you could ask “How’s the traffic to mom’s house?” and Google Assistant would know where that is, and respond accordingly.

For this to work, you’ll have to share information with the system first — similar to how you today share locations with Google’s service like, “Home” or “Work,” for instance. This could include locations or important events — like mom’s birthday.

Once updated with the information you want Google Assistant to know, you could ask it to remind you to order flowers or get a card for mom’s birthday.

Other examples could include asking the Assistant for photos of your son, or directions to your dinner reservation tonight.

Users will be in control of what Google Assistant knows, as they’ll be able to edit or delete this sort of information in an updated tab in the Assistant settings, Google said.

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A super fast, next-generation Google Assistant is coming to new Pixel phones this year

A next-generation Google Assistant that can handle more complex tasks across apps — quickly switching from hailing a ride, to checking the weather and taking a selfie — is coming to new Pixel phones later this year.

An early demonstration of the more robust Google Assistant was shown Tuesday at Google I/O 2019, the company’s annual developer conference.

A key feature is that users will no longer have to exclaim “Hey Google” for every question or task. Instead, a user can make a variety of requests after the initial “Hey Google” wake command.

During the demo, a Google employee on stage was able to use the voice assistant to craft a text message, quickly search photos of a trip, filter further to find animals photos, then add the image and send the message. In a subsequent task, the user verbally asked for flight information, added to the text and sent.

The next-gen Google Assistant will be able to compose and send emails as well.

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Google Assistant gets driving mode

Google’s Assistant app for your phone is getting a voice-enabled driving mode, the company announced today at its annual developer conference. The idea is to bring relevant activities front and center. The Driving Mode dashboard features personalized suggestions for navigation, messages, calling and media.

Within driving mode, for example, you can see if you have a dinner reservation and if so, can quickly tap to navigate there via Google Maps. Once you’re in navigation, you can say, “Hey, Google, play some jazz.” If your mom calls, a notification will appear within the Maps app, asking you if you want to answer the phone. You can then simply say “yes” or “no.”

Driving mode, coming this summer on Android, will automatically launch when you connect your phone to your car’s bluetooth. If you’re not connected to your car, you can just say, “Hey Google, let’s drive.”

In addition to driving mode, Google is making it possible to use Assistant to remotely control your car. For example, you could ask Google to adjust your car’s temperature before you get in. This feature will be available in “the coming months” to cars compatible with Hyundai’s “Blue Link” and Mercedes-Benz’s “Mercedes me connect.”

#HeyGoogle, let's drive: Coming this summer on @android phones, the Google Assistant’s new driving mode features a thoughtfully designed dashboard with personalized suggestions for navigation, messaging, calling and media. #io19 pic.twitter.com/epJoJdqhX5

— Google (@Google) May 7, 2019

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Protestors fly banner-towing plane over Google I/O

It wouldn’t be a Google I/O without a little bit of controversy. In the middle of today’s keynote, a plane started circling the amphitheater where Google holds its annual conference, towing a protest banner. “Google control is not privacy #savelocalnews,” the banner read.

That’s a first for Google. We’ve seen the occasional protests inside the venue, but mostly outside. With I/O happening in an outdoor space, the company opens itself up to this kind of protest and there’s really no way to stop it. There were also no flight restrictions for the airspace over the venue.

Google, of course, once flew blimps over I/O to show off Google Glass. Those were different times, though.

It’s a bit odd to see protestors use something as expensive as a banner tow, but it’s not unheard of either. The text on the banner is also a bit of an odd mix of privacy concerns and advocating for local news, but there is only so much you can fit on a banner, I guess.

We’ll update this post as we learn more.

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Google is bringing AI assistant Duplex to the web

Last year at Google I/O, the tech giant’s annual developer conference in Mountain View, Calif., the company showed off a splashy demo of an artificial intelligence assistant, Duplex, that could book reservations on your behalf via the phone. Now, Google is gearing up to launch Duplex on the Web, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced at Google I/O this morning.

Duplex, which is live in 44 states, is now expanding beyond the phone and voice to the web. To start, Duplex will be focused on a couple of narrow use cases: car bookings and movie ticketing, Pichai said.

Let’s say, for example, you get a calendar reminder about an upcoming trip. You can then ask Google to rent a car for your next trip. Duplex will then open up the car rental company’s website and fill out all of the necessary information on your behalf. Before submitting the request, you can double check the details.

Pichai said Google will share more details on Duplex’s web version later this year.

Watch the Google I/O 2019 keynote right here

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Google Search will offer better news coverage, and soon, support for podcast search

Google Search is getting an upgrade with better news coverage and now, podcast indexing. At the company’s developer conference Google I/O this morning CEO Sundar Pichai kicks things off with an announcement that Google News’ “Full Coverage” feature, first launched last year, would now make its way directly to Google Search. Additionally, the exec said Google Search would begin indexing podcasts.

Google’s News vertical was updated last year with an A.I.-powered redesign, which included a “Full Coverage” feature to get a more holistic view of a news story.

“We use machine learning to identify different types of stories and give you a complete picture of our stories being reported from a wide variety of sources,” explained Pichai today. “It surfaces a breadth of content, but allows you to drill down into what interests you,” he said.

Google News today offer a view of all the different aspects of a story and a timeline of the events. Later this year, these features will come to Google Search, as well — not just the News vertical.

The more interesting news was glossed over, but is highly relevant to one of the most popular sources of news and information today: podcasts.

Google will begin to index podcasts so the engine can surface relevant episodes of a given program, based on the content, not just the title.

Plus, web searchers will be able to listen to the podcast right in Google’s Search results, or save an episode for later listening — like on their commute to work, for example.

The company didn’t spend much time on this announcement, so it’s unclear for now what this means for podcasters themselves. Today, they’re used to tracking listens through analytics programs which help them get a better idea of what podcast listeners engage with and respond to. It’s unclear if Google plans to offer any analytics service of its own, as part of this change.

“These are all examples of how we are making search, even more helpful for our users surfacing the right information in the right context,” said Pichai.

 

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Watch the Google I/O 2019 keynote right here

Google’s annual developer conference starts today, beginning as usual with a consumer-focused keynote where the company unveils new technology — devices, software, services and more for the first time. Today, we’re expecting to get news about Google’s new budget Pixel device, the Pixel 3a; its new mobile operating system Android Q; a new smart hub for the home, the Google Hub Max; and perhaps updates to other recently announced technology like game streaming service Stadia or the A.I. technology, Duplex. And plenty of other surprises, too, we hope!

The conference kicks off with the consumer keynote at 10 AM Pacific Time (1 PM on the East Coast and 6 PM in London). The developer keynote follows at 12:45 PM PST.

You can watch the live stream right here on this page, starting at 10 AM PST.

If you don’t have time to watch, don’t worry — TechCrunch will have all the news from I/O here: techcrunch.com/tag/google-i-o-2019

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OnePlus CEO Pete Lau will discuss the future of mobile at Disrupt SF

Founded in late 2013, OnePlus did the impossible, coming seemingly out of nowhere to take on some of the biggest players in mobile. The company has made a name by embracing a fawning fanbase and offering premium smartphone features at budget pricing, even as the likes of Samsung and Apple routinely crack the $1,000 barrier on their own flagships.

OnePlus’ history is awash with clever promotions and fan service, all while exceeding expectations in markets like the U.S., where fellow Chinese smartphone makers have run afoul of U.S. regulations. The company’s measured approach to embracing new features has won a devoted fantasied among Android users.

Over the past year, however, the company has looked to bleeding edge technology as a way forward. OnePlus was one of the first to embrace In-Display fingerprint sensors with last year’s 6T and has promised to be among the first to offer 5G on its handsets later this year.

CEO Pete Lau formed the company with fellow Oppo employee Carl Pei, with funding from the Chinese smartphone giant. The pair have turned the company into arguably the most exciting smartphone manufacturer in the past decade. OnePlus has big plans on the horizon, too, including further expansion into the Indian market and the arrival of its first TV set in the coming year.

At Disrupt SF (which runs October 2 to October 4), Lau will discuss OnePlus’ rapid accent and its plans for the future.

Tickets are available here.

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OnePlus CEO Pete Lau will discuss the future of mobile at Disrupt SF

Founded in late 2013, OnePlus did the impossible, coming seemingly out of nowhere to take on some of the biggest players in mobile. The company has made a name by embracing a fawning fanbase and offering premium smartphone features at budget pricing, even as the likes of Samsung and Apple routinely crack the $1,000 barrier on their own flagships.

OnePlus’ history is awash with clever promotions and fan service, all while exceeding expectations in markets like the U.S., where fellow Chinese smartphone makers have run afoul of U.S. regulations. The company’s measured approach to embracing new features has won a devoted fantasied among Android users.

Over the past year, however, the company has looked to bleeding edge technology as a way forward. OnePlus was one of the first to embrace In-Display fingerprint sensors with last year’s 6T and has promised to be among the first to offer 5G on its handsets later this year.

CEO Pete Lau formed the company with fellow Oppo employee Carl Pei, with funding from the Chinese smartphone giant. The pair have turned the company into arguably the most exciting smartphone manufacturer in the past decade. OnePlus has big plans on the horizon, too, including further expansion into the Indian market and the arrival of its first TV set in the coming year.

At Disrupt SF (which runs October 2 to October 4), Lau will discuss OnePlus’ rapid accent and its plans for the future.

Tickets are available here.

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How to Uninstall Apps on Windows (Without Leaving Leftover Junk Data)

Take a look in the Control Panel for apps you’ve installed but never use. Also peek at those apps with trial expired. They all consume hard disk space and valuable system resources. Even on a new machine, you may see all sorts of junk apps and bloatware.

Since the built-in uninstaller isn’t powerful enough to remove apps, third-party uninstaller apps could be of great help. We’ll show you how to uninstall apps on Windows without leaving any leftover data.

Should You Uninstall That App?

Once you install a dozen or more apps, you forget their purpose and intent over time. A quick search can give a brief overview of the app. If you want to get more details, head to Should I Remove It. It’s an online database of a huge number of apps. Based on the crowdsourced data from other users, it grades the app’s popularity, ranking, stats, and more.

For more convenience, check out PC Decrapifier. It analyzes apps installed in your computer and divides them into three categories: Recommended, Questionable, and Everything Else. Based on the crowdsourced data from other users, it gives you suggestions on apps you should uninstall or keep.

3 Tools to Uninstall Apps Without Leaving Junk

Revo Uninstaller

Revo Uninstaller helps you uninstall software and remove unwanted traces from your PC. With Revo’s advanced algorithm and comprehensive application log database, it can analyze the data much before the uninstallation. It knows where to scan in the registry or disk for any leftovers.

It has three scanning modes: Safe, Moderate, or Advanced. In the Safe mode, Revo performs a scan of the registry and hard disk to find unwanted items. The moderate scan includes an extended scan of the common locations.

Unique Features:

• Uninstall built-in apps from the Microsoft Store. It helps you delete bloatware on a new PC.
• The Traced Program module lets you monitor app installation in a real-time. You can even revert all the changes made to the system.
• The Force Uninstall module helps you find and remove leftovers of apps already uninstalled or incompletely installed.
• If an unknown app loads on start-up or stays in the system tray without your consent, then with Hunter mode you can stop or uninstall that app instantly.

Download: Revo Uninstaller (Free, Pro Version: $24.95)

Geek Uninstaller

Geek Uninstaller is a portable app to uninstall apps and remove leftovers. Novice users can start using this app without any need for instructions. When you try to uninstall the app, Geek Uninstaller will scan the computer for any unwanted items and present you in a dialog box. The app is compatible with XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 10.

Unique Features:

• Quickly sort apps by size, installation date, and name.
• You can look up details of any app in the Registry, Program folder, and Google.
• Uninstall built-in apps from the Microsoft Store.
• The Force Removal feature lets you forcibly remove a program by deleting registry entries, files, and folders.

Download: Geek Uninstaller (Free)

Bulk Crap Uninstaller

BCUninstaller excels at uninstalling a large number of apps with minimum effort. It can clean up leftovers, detect orphaned apps, run uninstallers according to premade lists, and more. It is also compatible with Steam and apps you install from a package manager like Chocolatey.

The main window of BCUninstaller list all the apps. On the left pane, you have various filtering options. You can filter them by apps published from Microsoft, System components, Windows updates, and Microsoft store. Right-click any app to see the uninstall options. Once the uninstallation completes, it’ll search for leftovers.

A window will pop up with unwanted items, their location, and the confidence rating. The higher the confidence, the safer is to remove an item. If you want to remove a bunch of apps, BCUninstaller can quietly uninstall them without showing any pop-ups or windows.

Unique Features:

• It can scan your hard drive for orphaned files and folders. Click Tools and select Clean up Program Files folder. BCUninstaller tick the items that are safe to delete.
• BCUninstaller can read and verify certificates of uninstallers. You can check the certificate by seeing the Color legend in the status bar.
• You can find and uninstall an app based on one of its windows, shortcuts, or its install location. It’s a useful feature when you can’t identify a particular app.
• Missing or corrupted uninstallers are shown in grey. BCUninstaller can manually remove the app without leaving any junk.
• If an app not registered in the registry but present on the drive, then BCUninstaller can automatically generate a simple uninstaller.

Download: Bulk Crap Uninstaller (Free)

How to Uninstall Antivirus Apps

Antivirus apps deeply integrate with the system. A typical uninstallation procedure through the Control Panel often leaves behind a lot of junk. But after you remove the antivirus, you might see pop-ups asking you to scan the PC or upgrade the antivirus.

The leftovers cause issues with Windows Defender too. In the worst case, it may not let you enable Windows Defender. Installing another Antivirus app is also an issue.

You can use a dedicated tool developed by Antivirus companies to purge the leftovers from your PC:

McAfee: McAfee provides a McAfee Consumer Product Removal tool. It works with Total Protection, LiveSafe, and WebAdvisor.

Norton: Norton Remove and Reinstall tool helps to uninstall Norton security products. It works with Antivirus Plus, 360 Standard, 360 Deluxe, and Lifelock Select.

Bitdefender: Bitdefender Uninstaller Tool works differently for each product (paid or a trial version).

Kaspersky: Kavremover tool by Kaspersky Lab lets you remove a complete range of Kaspersky products. It includes Kaspersky Free, Antivirus, Internet Security, Total Security, and more.

AVG: AVG Clear lets you remove AVG Antivirus Free, Internet Security, and Ultimate.

Avast: Download the Avast Clear and boot your machine in Safe Mode. This utility works with Free, Internet Security, Premier, and Avast Ultimate.

ESET: Eset Uninstaller Tool works for the entire range of ESET business and home products.

Quick Heal: It does not need a separate uninstaller tool. Just click Uninstall from the Control Panel and check Remove Quick Heal completely.

How to Uninstall Adobe Creative Cloud Apps

The Creative Cloud app is an all-in-one tool to install and manage Adobe applications. Uninstalling them through the Control Panel is a nightmare. Not only it’ll leave behind leftovers but also consume GB’s of disk space.

Adobe has provided an easy way to get rid of their products using a tool called Creative Cloud Cleaner. Right-click the app and choose Run as Administrator. In the window that appears, choose a language option. Enter y to accept the disclaimer agreement.

Then review the Adobe Creative Cloud apps installed on your machine. To get rid of all the apps, press 1.

Or, you can even uninstall individual Adobe apps. Select the app and type in 8 to remove all Adobe apps. Type y to confirm, press Enter and reboot your PC.

How to Uninstall Microsoft Office From a PC

How many times have you had a Microsoft Office application crash, lock up your system, or worse stops working? A quick repair tool is already built into Office to replace any corrupted files or wrong configuration. Reinstall won’t fix anything. Uninstalling Office is the only solution.

Open the Control Panel and choose Programs > Programs and Features. Right-click Office and select Uninstall. Follow the prompts to complete the uninstall.

You can also use the Uninstall Support tool to uninstall Office. Launch the SetupProd_OffScrub.exe app. Wait for a few moments and let it install Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant.

Select the version and follow the steps to uninstall Office. Once you restart the system, the tool will reopen to complete the final phase of the uninstallation. It supports Office 2019, 2016, Office for Business, Office 365 for Home, and more.

How to Uninstall Bloatware on a Windows PC

If you’re a prolific app user and use a variety of third-party apps, it makes sense to use an uninstaller tool. Try all the apps mentioned in this article and see which one fits best to your needs. In most cases, Geek Uninstaller works best for typical uninstallation and BCUninstaller for edge cases.

A novice user won’t need any third-party uninstaller app. But even then, your laptop manufacturer and Microsoft install a bunch of bloatware. They consume both system resources and disk space. Read this piece on how to easily remove bloatware from Windows 10.

Read the full article: How to Uninstall Apps on Windows (Without Leaving Leftover Junk Data)

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The 7 Best Netflix Shows With New Seasons in 2019

Few things in life fill me with pure joy like new episodes of my favorite Netflix shows. If you’re a TV fiend yourself, you’ll understand where I’m coming from.

New seasons of your favorite shows mean the characters you love are going to be getting up to something new. And this year, some of the best Netflix shows have new seasons.

In this article we reveal the best Netflix shows with new seasons in 2019.

1. Black Mirror

After playing with interactive cinema in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the show is back with a new batch of dystopian stories.

If you somehow missed this Emmy-winning series, Black Mirror comments on technology-related trends and explores where they lead if taken to extremes. From state surveillance to social media shaming, the topics it covers are all too familiar.

There’s no official release date or trailer for Season 5 yet, and the teaser doesn’t tell you much about what to expect. So far we can be certain of two things. One, that the new season will be on Netflix at some point in 2019. And two, that it will be as mind-bending as ever.

2. Stranger Things

If you’re nostalgic for arcades, Dungeons and Dragons, and other nerdy attributes of the 1980s, Stranger Things is for you. And you’re not the only one. Stranger Things is one of the best Netflix shows, which is why millions tuned in for Season 2.

This mighty crowd is about to be glued to their screens again, with new episodes of the creepy Netflix sci-fi series due on July 4.

Stranger Things Season 3 will see the AV club, Eleven, and Sadie struggle with adolescence while fighting off the monsters of the Upside Down. It will jump two years ahead to the summer of 1985—and as the Season 3 poster says, “One summer can change everything.”

3. Peaky Blinders

The Shelby brothers will once again walk the grimy streets of Birmingham, their black coats flapping in the wind. The BBC crime drama series, set in the aftermath of World War I, will return to Netflix for Season 5 this year.

The exact date is as yet unknown, but rumor has it the new season will appear on Netflix in the summer of 2019. Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones), Sam Claflin (Hunger Games), and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Handmaid’s Tale) are among the new additions to the Peaky Blinders cast.

There’s no official trailer yet, so we can only wonder what awaits the Shelby clan in Season 5. Seeing as Tommy Shelby was elected Member of Parliament at the end of Season 4, things are bound to get interesting.

4. The Crown

While the world is anticipating a new royal baby, The Crown’s fandom is awaiting new episodes of the period drama. Netflix hasn’t announced the exact due date for Season 3 yet, but it’s set to air sometime after July 1, 2019.

The new episodes will follow Queen Elizabeth II through the 1960s and 1970s. The season will start in 1964 and show the rise of The Beatles, among other major events of the era.

New characters will include Camilla Parker Bowles, but Princess Diana won’t appear just yet. The cast is going to get a few stellar additions. Oscar-winning Olivia Colman (The Favourite) will take over as the middle-aged Queen; Helena Bonham Carter will join the show as Princess Margaret; and Tobias Menzies (Game of Thrones) will play Prince Philip.

5. The OA

With its interdimensional travel and somewhat silly “movements,” The OA is as addictive as it is bizarre. So if you’re hooked on this supernatural story, we have good news for you. The long-awaited Season 2 is finally on Netflix.

New episodes of The OA premiered on March 22, 2019—more than two years after the first season. The very first episode cuts to the chase and answers the questions the season finale left open.

Not to spoil Season 2 for you, but let me just say it adds a whole new dimension to the OA’s story. Two new dimensions, actually.

6. Orange Is the New Black

For six seasons, Netflix subscribers have followed Piper Chapman through her time in the Litchfield prison. From riots and police brutality to prison romance and marriage, the series has covered the ins and outs of life in the U.S. penitentiary system.

Now, according to Netflix, the story is coming to an end. The new Season 7, scheduled to appear on Netflix in 2019, will be the final one.

There’s no official date or even trailer for the season yet, but we more or less know what to expect.

With Piper granted an early release at the end of Season 6, we’re going to see her adjust to post-prison life while struggling with separation from her new spouse Alex. Blanca’s immigration status will get addressed, and the storylines of other inmates will hopefully reach their own resolutions.

7. Dear White People

If you overlooked this satirical series, you have just a few months to catch up. Dear White People deals with race and social justice in a fictional Ivy League college, and does so brilliantly. The show is coming back for Season 3 in 2019.

The new season of the Netflix original will see the mystery of The Order of X unfold.

Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), the narrator of the first two seasons, appeared as a member of The Order in the Season 2 finale. Whether he’s the leader or just the messenger of this black secret society, we’ll definitely see more of him in the new episodes.

More of the Best Netflix Shows Worth Watching

Once the excitement of these new seasons wears off, you’re sure to start looking for more of the best Netflix shows to watch. Fortunately, Netflix has more TV shows than you’ll have time to watch. You should start with these awesome Netflix originals you’ve probably never heard of.

Sadly, not all good Netflix series get renewed for more seasons. Sometimes they get cancelled, much to the fans’ dismay. But if you don’t mind getting attached to a show that won’t get new episodes, here are the best cancelled Netflix originals still worth watching.

Read the full article: The 7 Best Netflix Shows With New Seasons in 2019

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U.S. digital advertising exceeded $100B in 2018 (IAB report)

Digital ad spending in the United States exceeding $100 billion for the first time last year, according to the latest internet advertising report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Specifically, total domestic spending reached $107.5 billion, a 22 percent increase from 2017. Mobile advertising has become increasingly dominant, growing 40 percent year-over-year, to $69.9 billion. And video ad spending grew 37 percent to $16.3 billion.

Sue Hogan, the IAB’s senior vice president of research and measurement, said that in the past, mobile ad spend has lagged behind time spent on those devices. But now, she said, “That parity is almost being reached. Eyeballs are being followed by dollars.”

PwC partner David Silverman acknowledged that this leads to an obvious follow-up: Once ad dollars catch up to consumer attention, will growth slow? In Silverman’s view, “the industry has found ways to evolve” in the past, and it will again.

“There’s other shifts that are occurring now,” he added, pointing to the growth in digital audio advertising (up 23 percent to $2.3 billion), as well as other areas like out-of-home advertising and bringing ads to new devices.

One of the recurring concerns about the digital ad industry is its dominance by Facebook and Google. While the IAB report doesn’t single out specific companies, it does measure concentration in terms of how much spending is going to the top 10 ad sellers. In 2018, those sellers collected 77 percent of total spending — the IAB says the percentage has fluctuated between 69 percent and 77 percent in the past decade.

As for the effect of GDPR and other privacy regulation, Silverman said, “It certainly will have a significant impact, particularly on the use of data and AI in making advertisements more relevant and more effective” — but he suggested it’s too early to say precisely what the financial impact will be.

Hogan suggested that the California Consumer Protection Act could be more influential on U.S. ad spend. The IAB (which is a trade group representing online advertisers and publishers) has been advocating for federal regulation, rather than a state-by-state approach.

“I hope that we don’t get to the point where it becomes a strain on the industry,” she said. “I think more and more education is needed around that.”

Digital ad spending grew to $49.5B in the first half of 2018, according to IAB

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Facebook is being sued by a Polish drug prevention group over free speech violation

Facebook’s efforts to shut down harmful and malicious content on its platform have landed it in a European courtroom, after an anti-drug abuse organization in Poland claimed that a freeze on its Facebook Pages is a violation of its rights to free speech.

The Civil Society Drug Policy Initiative (Społeczna Inicjatywa Narkopolityki in Polish, which goes by the slightly unfortunate abbreviation of ‘SIN’) says that it has filed a complaint with the District Court of Warsaw against Facebook for violating articles 23-24 of the Polish Civil Code, which ensures free speech for individuals and organizations.

SIN says that Facebook deleted several of its pages on Facebook and Instagram for violating its community standards in 2018 and 2019 (here, here, here, here, here, and one page that appears to have been claimed by someone else in the interim). Another page SIN set up after the others were shut down appears to still be up for now.

SIN is asking for Facebook to reinstate its Pages and its followers, and to apologise publicly for its actions.

When contacted for a response, Facebook declined to comment on the case.

SIN describes itself as a Polish NGO that runs educational activities to make people aware of the harmful consequences of drug use, and provides assistance to people drug abusers.

The group is being supported in its legal action by lawyers working pro-bono with a Polish non-profit called Panoptykon, which was set up in 2009 to find and help fight cases against tech companies where it believes personal rights are being violated in our current “surveillance society” (its description, and also the reason for the panopticon reference).

Panoptykon is a busy group these days: another case that it filed against Google and the IAB in Poland over targeted advertising recently got referred up to the authorities in Ireland (where many cases are heard as a result of the country being home to many global HQs) and Belgium (home of the European Commission.

It’s not exactly clear what Facebook found offensive in SIN’s content since Facebook declined to respond.

From the looks of it, SIN itself does not take your typical “don’t do drugs” approach but instead focuses on the concept of harm reduction. It sets up a presence at clubs, festivals and other events where people might take recreational drugs. Then, it “leave[s] the assumption that it’s best not to start using drugs, or to stop if you do so [since] it’s not always possible. If you are already using, we educate on how to do it with least damage possible.” It also offers methods for testing drugs and advice on what different drugs can do.

SIN notes that the UN, the EU, the National Bureau for the Prevention of Drug Addiction; Red Cross; Doctors Without Borders and many others support this approach.

However, it may be that its native approach appeared to Facebook’s algorithms as similar to groups that advocate using drugs. Alternatively, it may be that Facebook regarded SIN as taking a particular approach on a controversial subject — the best way to cope with illegal drug use — which would have run afoul of its guidelines. “The main goal of our action is to make sure that regardless of what decisions you make at parties, you have fun and keep it safe,” SIM notes on its site.

Social media platforms have come under fire for how their efforts to contain malicious or harmful content occasionally backfire by sometimes penalising more innocent accounts by mistake. Similarly, there have been accusations that rules designed by regulators to prevent harmful content on social media are partly responsible for the platforms mandating particularly stringent controls, which ironically end up violating the exact rights that regulators are trying to ensure, like free speech.

Facebook — which has had its share of heat from European regulators over issues like violations of personal privacy, data breaches, and the role it plays in helping to police its platform against abuses and misuse in democratic processes — has been working to improve the nuance of its controls, by making it more transparent to users when it has taken certain actions like shutting down pages or blocking content, and why. Panoptykon says that it believes this legal action, if successful, could help that evolution along.

“We hope that SIN vs Facebook will incentivize the portal to make further changes and implement ‘due process,’ thus establishing the standards also for other platforms,” Panoptykon notes. “In addition, with SIN vs Facebook we strive not only to persuade the platforms to create better internal procedures, but also to ensure that users who do not agree with their decisions can challenge them before an independent, external body, such as a court.”

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Journey launches its real-time group “Peloton For Meditation”

Sitting silently with your eyes closed isn’t fun but it’s good for you…so you probably don’t meditate as often as you’d like. In that sense it’s quite similar to exercise. But people do show up when prodded by the urgency and peer pressure of scheduled group cycling or aerobics classes. What’s still in the way is actually hauling your lazy butt to the gym, hence the rise of Peloton’s in-home stationary bike with attached screen streaming live and on-demand classes. My butt is particularly lazy, but I’ve done 80 Peloton rides in 4 months. The model works.

Now that model is coming to mindfulness with the launch of Journey LIVE, a subscription iOS app offering live 15-minute group meditation classes. With sessions starting most waking hours, instructors that interact with you directly, and a sense of herd mentality, you feel compelled to dedicate the time to clearing your thoughts. By video and voice, the teachers introduce different meditation theories and practices, guide you through, and answer questions you can type in. Each day, Journey also provides a newly recorded on-demand session in case you need a class on your own schedule.

“‘I tried Headspace’ or ‘I tried Calm’. With a lot of the current meditation apps, people go on but they drop off very quickly” says Journey founder and CEO Stephen Sokoler. “It means that there’s an interest in meditating and having a better life but people fall off because meditating alone is hard, it’s confusing, it’s boring. Meditating with a live teacher who can connect with you and say your name, who makes you feel seen and heard makes huge difference.”

Journey subscriptions start at $19.99 per month after a week-long free trial. That feels a bit steep, but prices drop to $7.99 if paid annually with the launch discount, or you can dive in with a $399 lifetime pass. The challenge will be keeping users from abandoning meditation and then their subscription without resorting to growth hacking and annoying notifications that are antithetical to the whole concept. Journey has now raised a $2.4M seed round led by Canaan and joined by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Betaworks, and more to get the company rolling.

Sokoler’s own journey could set an example of the possibilities of sticking with it. “Meditation changed my life. I was fortunate enough to move to Australia, find a book on Buddhism, and then I had the willpower to start practicing meditation every day” he tells me. “I lost 85 pounds. People ask me how I lost the weight and they expect me to say a diet like keto or Atkins, but it was because of the program I was in.” Suddenly able to sit quietly with himself, Sokoler didn’t need food to stay occupied or feel at ease.

The founder saw the need for new sources of happiness while working in employee rewards and recognition for 12 years. He built up a company that makes momentos for commemorating big business deals. Meditation proved to him the value of developing inner quiet, whether to inspire happiness, calm, focus, or deeper connections to other people and the world. Yet the popular meditation apps ignored thousands of years of tradition when meditation would be taught in groups that give a naturally ethereal activity more structure. He founded Journey in 2015 to bring meditation to corporate environments, but now is hoping to democratize access with the launch of Journey LIVE.

“You could think of it as a real-life meditation community or studio in the palm of your hand” Sokoler explains. Instructors greet you when you join a session in the Journey app and can give you a shout-out for practicing multiple days in a row. They help you concentrate on your breath while giving enough instruction to keep you from falling asleep. You can see or hide a list of screen names of other participants that make you feel less isolated and encourage you not to quit.

Finding a market amidst the popular on-demand meditation apps will be an uphill climb for Journey LIVE. While classes recorded a long time ago might not be as engaging, they’re convenient and can dig deep into certain styles and intentions. Calm and Headspace run around $12.99 per month, making them cheaper than Journey LIVE and potentially easier to scale.

But Sokoler says his app’s beta testing saw better retention than competitors. “If you’ve ever been to the New York Public Library, there’s so many books versus going to a local curated bookstore where something is right there for you. This is much more approachable, much more accessible” Sokoler tells me. “There’s a paradox of choice and having so many options makes it hard for people to stick with it and come back every single day.”

With our phones and Netflix erasing the downtime we used to rely on to give our brain a break or reflect on our day, life is starting to feel claustrophobic. We’re tense, anxious, and easily overwhelmed. Meditation could be the antidote. Unlike with cycling or weightlifting, you don’t need some expensive Peloton bike or Tonal home gym. What you need is consistency, and an impetus to slow down for fifteen minutes you could easily squander. We’re a tribal species, and Journey LIVE group classes could use camaraderie to lure us into the satisfying void of nirvana.

Read Full Article

Journey launches its real-time group “Peloton For Meditation”

Sitting silently with your eyes closed isn’t fun but it’s good for you…so you probably don’t meditate as often as you’d like. In that sense it’s quite similar to exercise. But people do show up when prodded by the urgency and peer pressure of scheduled group cycling or aerobics classes. What’s still in the way is actually hauling your lazy butt to the gym, hence the rise of Peloton’s in-home stationary bike with attached screen streaming live and on-demand classes. My butt is particularly lazy, but I’ve done 80 Peloton rides in 4 months. The model works.

Now that model is coming to mindfulness with the launch of Journey LIVE, a subscription app offering live 15-minute group meditation classes. With sessions starting most waking hours, instructors that interact with you directly, and a sense of herd mentality, you feel compelled to dedicate the time to clearing your thoughts. By video and voice, the teachers introduce different meditation theories and practices, guide you through, and answer questions you can type in. Each day, Journey also provides a newly recorded on-demand session in case you need a class on your own schedule.

“‘I tried Headspace’ or ‘I tried Calm’. With a lot of the current meditation apps, people go on but they drop off very quickly” says Journey founder and CEO Stephen Sokoler. “It means that there’s an interest in meditating and having a better life but people fall off because meditating alone is hard, it’s confusing, it’s boring. Meditating with a live teacher who can connect with you and say your name, who makes you feel seen and heard makes huge difference.”

Journey subscriptions start at $19.99 per month after a week-long free trial. That feels a bit steep, but prices drop to $7.99 if paid annually with the launch discount, or you can dive in with a $399 lifetime pass. The challenge will be keeping users from abandoning meditation and then their subscription without resorting to growth hacking and annoying notifications that are antithetical to the whole concept. Journey has now raised a $2.4M seed round led by Canaan and joined by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Betaworks, and more to get the company rolling.

Sokoler’s own journey could set an example of the possibilities of sticking with it. “Meditation changed my life. I was fortunate enough to move to Australia, find a book on Buddhism, and then I had the willpower to start practicing meditation every day” he tells me. “I lost 85 pounds. People ask me how I lost the weight and they expect me to say a diet like keto or Atkins, but it was because of the program I was in.” Suddenly able to sit quietly with himself, Sokoler didn’t need food to stay occupied or feel at ease.

The founder saw the need for new sources of happiness while working in employee rewards and recognition for 12 years. He built up a company that makes momentos for commemorating big business deals. Meditation proved to him the value of developing inner quiet, whether to inspire happiness, calm, focus, or deeper connections to other people and the world. Yet the popular meditation apps ignored thousands of years of tradition when meditation would be taught in groups that give a naturally ethereal activity more structure. He founded Journey in 2015 to bring meditation to corporate environments, but now is hoping to democratize access with the launch of Journey LIVE.

“You could think of it as a real-life meditation community or studio in the palm of your hand” Sokoler explains. Instructors greet you when you join a session and can give you a shout-out for practicing multiple days in a row. They help you concentrate on your breath while giving enough instruction to keep you from falling asleep. You can see or hide a list of screen names of other participants that make you feel less isolated and encourage you not to quit.

Finding a market amidst the popular on-demand meditation apps will be an uphill climb for Journey LIVE. While classes recorded a long time ago might not be as engaging, they’re convenient and can dig deep into certain styles and intentions. Calm and Headspace run around $12.99 per month, making them cheaper than Journey LIVE and potentially easier to scale.

But Sokoler says his app’s beta testing saw better retention than competitors. “If you’ve ever been to the New York Public Library, there’s so many books versus going to a local curated bookstore where something is right there for you. This is much more approachable, much more accessible” Sokoler tells me. “There’s a paradox of choice and having so many options makes it hard for people to stick with it and come back every single day.”

With our phones and Netflix erasing the downtime we used to rely on to give our brain a break or reflect on our day, life is starting to feel claustrophobic. We’re tense, anxious, and easily overwhelmed. Meditation could be the antidote. Unlike with cycling or weightlifting, you don’t need some expensive Peloton bike or Tonal home gym. What you need is consistency, and an impetus to slow down for fifteen minutes you could easily squander. We’re a tribal species, and live group classes could use camaraderie to lure us into the satisfying void of nirvana.

Read Full Article

Freedom Mobile server leak exposed customer data

A security lapse at Canada’s fourth largest cell network Freedom Mobile exposed customer data.

Security researchers Noam Rotem and Ran Locar found an Elasticsearch server leaking five million logs containing customer data. The server wasn’t protected with a password, allowing anyone to access the data.

Rotem and Locar, who shared their findings exclusively with TechCrunch and published his report at vpnMentor, said it took the cell giant a week to secure the leaking database after first reaching out.

The database is believed to be part of a logging system used by the company to determine errors and glitches in the company’s systems. The database recorded any errors and the plaintext data associated with it, including customer data.

Data seen by TechCrunch reveals customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, postal addresses, dates of birth, customer types, and Freedom Mobile account numbers.

The logs also answers to credit checks filed through Equifax, including details if an application was accepted or rejected — along with the reason why.

We also found full credit card numbers, expiry dates and verification numbers stored in plaintext.

None of the data was encrypted.

Freedom Mobile has more than 1.5 million customers across Canada, according to its latest financial earnings. Chethan Lakshman, a spokesperson for Freedom Mobile’s parent company Shaw Communications, said about 15,000 customers were affected.

“We have discovered that the data that was exposed was contained to a very small number of customers who had opened or made any changes to their accounts at 17 Freedom Mobile retail locations from March 25 to April 15, and any customers who made changes or opened accounts on April 16,” he said. “Our investigation has revealed that a very limited amount of Freedom Mobile customer data was exposed as the result of a misconfigured server managed by Apptium, a new third-party service provider Freedom Mobile has engaged to streamline our retail customer support processes.”

A forensic investigation is underway, the spokesperson said.

Apptium did not return a request for comment.

It’s the latest in a string of data exposures following security lapses that failed to secure databases with basic security measures. Earlier this year, Rotem and Locar found Chinese online shopping giant Gearbest inadvertently exposed millions of customer orders. Now, the researchers say the Freedom Mobile data leak could be one of Canada’s largest. The closest was Bell Canada’s data breach in 2017, in which hackers took more than 1.9 million customer records.

Access to credit card data and credit score data would be a boon for fraudsters and identity thieves wanting to cash in.

A spokesperson for Canada’s data protection authority, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, confirmed it “received a breach report related to Freedom Mobile,” and “will be examining the report in order to determine next steps.”

Read more:

• Security lapse exposed a Chinese smart city surveillance system
• A leaky database of SMS text messages exposed password resets and two-factor codes
• Chipotle customers are saying their accounts have been hacked
• We found a massive spam operation — and sunk its server
• Dow Jones’ watchlist of 2.4 million high-risk individuals has leaked
• Stop saying, ‘We take your privacy and security seriously’
• Robocaller firm Stratics Networks exposed millions of call recordings
• Massive mortgage and loan data leak gets worse as original documents also exposed

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Facebook unveils an automated ad builder and an appointment manager for small businesses

Facebook said it’s launching a number of new products aimed at small businesses today — which is appropriate, since we’re currently in the middle of National Small Business Week.

These new features include Automated Ads, which Director of Product Management Nikila Srinivasan said are “really built for small businesses that are one- to two-person businesses with very little marketing expertise.”

The idea is that business owner can answer a few questions about what kind of company they are and about their goals are for the campaign. Then based on their answers — as well as the information on their Facebook Page — Facebook will create recommendations for the audience they should target, the budget they should set and even how the different versions of the ad should look and what they should say.

Small businesses can still buy ads the way they did before, but even if they go the Automated Ads route, they don’t have to accept Facebook’s recommendations. They can set their own budget, for example, and Facebook will predict the results. These ads can run on Facebook itself, as well as Instagram, Messenger and the Facebook Audience Network.

Srinivasan said there’s a “set it and forget it” element to the program, but at the same time Facebook will make sure to keep advertisers alerted to how the campaign is going and “it’s up to the business if they want to come in and be more active.”

“The main thing is, we don’t want there to be guess work, we don’t want there to be expertise needed to use this product,” she said.

And while Facebook said it’s provided lightweight support for booking appointments in Messenger in the past, it’s now expanding that functionality, so businesses can accept appointments and manage all of them appointments through Facebook and Instagram. These appointments can also be synced with the business owner’s personal calendar, or with third-party appointment tools like MyTime and HomeAdvisor.

Lastly, Facebook said it’s rolling out new video editing capabilities, making it easier to add text and image overlays to a video, and to automatically crop a video to accommodate the different aspect ratios of different ad environments.

Facebook opens its first small biz pop-up stores inside Macy’s

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Tencent promises its technology will ‘do good’

Tencent promises its technology will ‘do good’

Pay What You Want for 200 Hours of Ruby on Rails Developer Training

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