A new project from Google’s in-house incubator, Area 120, aims to help people find things to do and others who share your same interests. Through a new app called Shoelace — a name designed to make you think of tying things together — users can browse through a set of hand-picked activities, or add their own to a map. For example, someone who wanted to connect with fellow dog owners could start an activity for a doggie playdate at the park, then start a group chat to coordinate the details and make new friends.
The end result feels a bit like a mashup of Facebook Events with a WhatsApp group chat, perhaps. But it’s wrapped in a clean, modern design that appeals more to the millennial or Gen Z user.
Like Meetup and others in the space, Shoelace’s focus is not on building yet another social networking app, but rather on leveraging a social app to inspire real-world connections.
This is not a novel idea. In fact, startups many times over have tried to create an alternative to Facebook by offering tools to connect users around locations or sharedinterests, instead of only re-creating users’ established friend networks online. And many cities today have their own social clubs designed to help people make new friends and participate in fun, local activities.
Shoelace is still in invite-only testing and only offered in New York City, for the time being.
However, its website says that the long-term goal is to bring the app to cities nationwide after the team learns what does and does not work. There’s also a form that will allow you to request Shoelace in your own community.
Google has had a rocky history when it comes to social networking products. Its largest effort to date, Google+, finally wound down its consumer business in April. That said, Shoelace is not really a “Google” product — it’s a project built by Googlers as a part of the Area 120 incubator, where employees can experiment with new ideas full-time without having to leave the company.
“One of the many projects that we’re working on within Area 120 is Shoelace, an app that helps people meet others with similar interests in person through curated activities,” a Google spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch. “Like other projects within Area 120, it’s an early experiment so there aren’t many details to share right now,” they said.
The app is live on Google Play and iOS (TestFlight) for those who have received an invite.
Google has responded to a report this week from Belgian public broadcaster VRT NWS, which revealed that contractors were given access to Google Assistant voice recordings, including those which contained sensitive information — like addresses, conversations between parents and children, business calls, and others containing all sorts of private information. As a result of the report, Google says it’s now preparing to investigate and take action against the contractor who leaked this information to the news outlet.
The company, by way of a blog post, explained that it partners with language experts around the world who review and transcribe a “small set of queries” to help Google better understand various languages.
Only around 0.2 percent of all audio snippets are reviewed by language experts, and these snippets are not associated with Google accounts during the review process, the company says. Other background conversations or noises are not supposed to be transcribed.
The leaker had listened to over 1,000 recordings, and found 153 were accidental in nature — meaning, it was clear the user hadn’t intended to ask for Google’s help. In addition, the report found that determining a user’s identity was often possible because the recordings themselves would reveal personal details. Some of the recordings contained highly sensitive information, like “bedroom conversations,” medical inquiries, or people in what appeared to be domestic violence situations, to name a few.
Google defended the transcription process as being a necessary part of providing voice assistant technologies to its international users.
But instead of focusing on its lack of transparency with consumers over who’s really listening to their voice data, Google says it’s going after the leaker themselves.
“[Transcription] is a critical part of the process of building speech technology, and is necessary to creating products like the Google Assistant,” writes David Monsees, Product Manager for Search at Google, in the blog post. “We just learned that one of these language reviewers has violated our data security policies by leaking confidential Dutch audio data. Our Security and Privacy Response teams have been activated on this issue, are investigating, and we will take action. We are conducting a full review of our safeguards in this space to prevent misconduct like this from happening again,” he said.
As voice assistant devices are becoming a more common part of consumers’ everyday lives, there’s increased scrutiny on how tech companies are handline the voice recordings, who’s listening on the other end, what records are being stored, and for how long, among other things.
This is not an issue that only Google is facing.
Earlier this month, Amazon responded to a U.S. senator’s inquiry over how it was handling consumers’ voice records. The inquiry had followed a CNET investigation which discovered Alexa recordings were kept unless manually deleted by users, and that some voice transcripts were never deleted. In addition, a Bloomberg report recently found that Amazon workers and contractors during the review process had access to the recordings, as well as an account number, the user’s first name, and the device’s serial number.
Further, a coalition of consumer privacy groups recently lodged a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission which claims Amazon Alexa is violating the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by failing to obtain proper consent over the company’s use of the kids’ data.
Neither Amazon nor Google have gone out of their way to alert consumers as to how the voice recordings are being used.
As Wired notes, the Google Home privacy policy doesn’t disclose that Google is using contract labor to review or transcribe audio recordings. The policy also says that data only leaves the device when the wake word is detected. But these leaked recordings indicate that’s clearly not true — the devices accidentally record voice data at times.
The issues around the lack of disclosure and transparency could be yet another signal to U.S. regulators that tech companies aren’t able to make responsible decisions on their own when it comes to consumer data privacy.
The timing of the news isn’t great for Google. According to reports, the U.S. Department of Justice is preparing for a possible antitrust investigation of Google’s business practices, and is watching the company’s behavior closely. Given this increased scrutiny, one would think Google would be going over its privacy policies with a fine-toothed comb — especially in areas that are newly coming under fire, like policies around consumers’ voice data — to ensure that consumers understand how their data is being stored, shared, and used.
Google also notes today that people do have a way to opt-out of having their audio data stored. Users can either turn off audio data storage entirely, or choose to have the data auto-delete every 3 months or every 18 months.
The company also says it will work to better explain how this voice data is used going forward.
“We’re always working to improve how we explain our settings and privacy practices to people, and will be reviewing opportunities to further clarify how data is used to improve speech technology,” said Monsees.
Here’s a thing that should have never been a thing: Bluetooth-connected hair straighteners.
Glamoriser, a U.K. firm that bills itself as the maker of the “world’s first Bluetooth hair straighteners,” allows users to link the device to an app, which lets the owner set certain heat and style settings. The app can also be used to remotely switch off the straighteners within Bluetooth range.
Big problem, though. These straighteners can be hacked.
Security researchers at Pen Test Partners bought a pair and tested them out. They found that it was easy to send malicious Bluetooth commands within range to remotely control an owner’s straighteners.
The researchers demonstrated that they could send one of several commands over Bluetooth, such as the upper and lower temperature limit of the device — 122°F and 455°F respectively — as well as the shut-down time. Because the straighteners have no authentication, an attacker can remotely alter and override the temperature of the straighteners and how long they stay on — up to a limit of 20 minutes.
“As there is no pairing or bonding established over [Bluetooth] when connecting a phone, anyone in range with the app can take control of the straighteners,” said Stuart Kennedy in his blog post, shared first with TechCrunch.
There is a caveat, said Kennedy. The straighteners only allow one concurrent connection. If the owner hasn’t connected their phone or they go out of range, only then can an attacker target the device.
Here at TechCrunch we’re all for setting things on fire “for journalism,” but in this case the numbers speak for themselves. If, per the researchers’ findings, the straighteners could be overridden to the maximum temperature of 455°F at the timeout of 20 minutes, that’s setting up a prime condition for a fire — or at very least burn damage.
It’s estimated that as many as 650,000 house fires in the U.K. are caused by hair straighteners and curling irons left on. In some cases it can take more than a half-hour for these heated devices to cool down to safe levels. U.K. fire and rescue services have called on owners to physically pull the plug on their devices to prevent fires and damage.
Glamoriser did not respond to a request for comment prior to publication. The app hasn’t been updated since June 2018, suggesting a fix has yet to be put in place.
There are successful companies that grow fast and garner tons of press. Then there’s Roblox, a company which took at least a decade to hit its stride and has, relative to its current level of success, barely gotten any recognition or attention.
Why has Roblox’s story gone mostly untold? One reason is that it emerged from a whole generation of gaming portals and platforms. Some, like King.com, got lucky or pivoted their business. Others by and large failed.
Once companies like Facebook, Apple and Google got to the gaming scene, it just looked like a bad idea to try to build your own platform — and thus not worth talking about. Added to that, founder and CEO Dave Baszucki seems uninterested in press.
But overall, the problem has been that Roblox just seemed like an insignificant story for many, many years. The company had millions of users, sure. So did any number of popular games. In its early days, Roblox even looked like Minecraft, a game that was released long after Roblox went live, but that grew much, much faster.
Yet here we are today: Roblox now claims that half of all American children aged 9-12 are on its platform. It has jumped to 90 million monthly unique users and is poised to go international, potentially multiplying that number. And it’s unique. Essentially all other distribution services offering games through a portal have eventually fizzled, aside from some distant cousins like Steam.
This is the story of how Roblox not only survived, but built a thriving platform.
Seeds of an idea
(Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch)
Before Roblox, there was Knowledge Revolution, a company that made teaching software. While designed to allow students to simulate physics experiments, perhaps predictably, they also treated it like a game.
“The fun seemed to be in building your own experiment,” says Baszucki. “When people were playing it and we went into schools and labs, they were all making car crashes and buildings fall down, making really funny stuff.” Provided with a sandbox, kids didn’t just make dry experiments about mass or velocity — they made games, or experiences they could show off to friends for a laugh.
Knowledge Revolution was founded in 1989, by Dave Baszucki and his brother Greg (who didn’t later co-found Roblox, but is now on its board). Nearly a decade later, it was acquired for $20 million by MSC Software, which made professional simulation tools. Dave continued there for another four years before leaving to become an angel investor.
Baszucki put money into Friendster, a company that pre-dated Facebook and MySpace in the social networking category. That investment seeded another piece of the idea for Roblox. Taken together, the legacy of Knowledge Revolution and Friendster were the two key components undergirding Roblox: a physics sandbox with strong creation tools, and a social graph.
Baszucki himself is a third piece of the puzzle. Part of an older set of entrepreneurs, which might be called the Steve Jobs generation, Baszucki’s archetype seems closer to Mr. Rogers than Jobs himself: unfailingly polite and enthusiastic, never claiming superior insight, and preferring to pass credit for his accomplishments on to others. In conversation, he shows interests both central and tangential to Roblox, like virtual environments, games, education, digital identity and the future of tech. Somewhere in this heady mix, the idea of Roblox came about.
Facebook has been adding new tools to provide more transparency about why users are seeing certain ads and content (and what they can do about it), but in a blog post today, Product Manager Sreethu Thulasi wrote, “We heard feedback from people that they can still be hard to understand and difficult to navigate.”
To address that, the company said it’s making two changes. First, when you select the “Why am I seeing this ad?” option on an advertisement, you’ll get more info:
In the past, “Why am I seeing this ad?” highlighted one or two of the most relevant reasons, such as demographic information or that you may have visited a website. Now, you’ll see more detailed targeting, including the interests or categories that matched you with a specific ad. It will also be clearer where that information came from (e.g. the website you may have visited or Page you may have liked), and we’ll highlight controls you can use to easily adjust your experience.
An accompanying video shows how a user might dig into an an ad to see how their interests, location, demographic information and a past visit the advertiser’s website all played a role in the targeting. If you don’t like what you see, you can adjust your interests on Facebook, or your can click through to the “What You Can Do” section, which will point out options like blocking all ads from that advertiser or limiting the personal data that’s shared by third-party companies.
Speaking of third-party data, Facebook said it’s also telling you more about the businesses that are uploading data about you, dividing the listing (found in your Ad Preferences) into two sections — one that shows advertisers who have uploaded a list with your information and used it to run an ad in the past seven days, and another of businesses that have shared lists with your data, along with advertisers who have used that data to show you an ad in the past seven days.
Like many privacy tools, these may not get used by most Facebook users. But for those who are curious or concerned, this seems like a clear way to make the information accessible without dumbing it down too much.
And of course, this just one of a number of steps Facebook has taken recently to increase transparency as it faces regulatory scrutiny (and even proposals for a break-up).
After cracking down on ICOs, the SEC just okayed the first two RegA+ tokens that offer an alternative way for anyone to gain a financial stake in a company, even unaccredited investors. Blockstack got approved for a $28 million digital token sale to raise money, while influencer live streaming app YouNow’s spin-off Props received a formal green light for a consumer utility ‘Howey’ token users can earn to get loyalty perks in multiple apps.
Props has already raised $21 million by pre-selling tokens to Union Square Ventures, Comcast, Venrock, Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon, and YouTuber Casey Neistat, so it isn’t raising any money with the RegA+ by selling its tokens like Blockstack. Instead, users earn or ‘mine’ Props by engaging with apps like YouNow, which will award the tokens for creating broadcasts, watching videos, and tipping creators. Having more Props entitles YouNow’s 47 million registered users bonus features, VIP status, and more purchasing power with the app’s proprietary credits called Bars which users have bought $70 million-worth of to date.
But unlike most virtual currencies that can only be used in a single app and don’t technically belong to consumers, the open-sourced Props blockchain system can be integrated into other apps via an API and people can export their Props to cryptocurrency wallets. That lets them apply their Props in other apps beyond YouNow. Four partnered apps have been lined up including xSplit, a 17 million registered user app for video game streaming.
While Props aren’t currently redeemable for fiat currency, they were valued at $0.1369 each by the SEC-approved filing. The company is working to have Props listed on Alternative Trading Systems that work similarly to cryptocurrency exchanges. That lets Props give everyday app users a financial incentive to see the network of apps that adopt them grow. Since there’s a finite supply of 1 billion Props (with 600 million mined so far), if demand for Props rises then users could sell them for more. This creates a new growth hacking method for startups by providing a way to reward early and hardcore users.
“Our offering of Props is the first consumer-facing offering of “Howey tokens” to be qualified by the SEC. It makes it the first offering of consumer-oriented utility tokens that the SEC deems compliant, outside of Bitcoin and Ether” Props CEO Adi Sideman tells me. While SEC officials have said Bitcoin and Ether aren’t securities thanks to their sufficient decentralization, they haven’t received formal approval. “We used Regulation A+ (Reg A) for this qualification, so that Props may be earned by, and provide functionality to, non accredited investors, users, apps and validators, in compliance with US regulations.”
However this could also create risk for less savvy users who might misunderstand the token system and be overly convinced they’ll get rich by watching tons of musicians or comedians streaming on YouNow. Props will need to ensure partners that integrate its tokens don’t exaggerate their potential. It’s spent two years working on SEC approval but could still face consequences if Props are misrepresented.
“Props enables us to turn creators into stakeholders in the network, meaning they become partners in the success of the network. It’s an important tool for us to better incentivize and align with the most important users of our apps” PeerStream CEO Alex Harrington writes. “Props abstracts, for us as developers, the technical and regulatory complexity associated with blockchain-based tokens, through a simple set of APIs that we can use to integrate the token into our apps’ experience.”
With Blockstack and Props having pioneered the RegA+ approach, we could see more companies filing to use this method of raising money or sharing stakes with their users.
The first-person shooter (FPS) genre is probably the most popular genre in the world. Games like Call of Duty, Halo, and Counter-Strike are among the best tactical shooters you can play. However, if you don’t want to spend money on these games, you might want to try browser-based FPS games instead.
Unfortunately, a lot of the best FPS browser games have been discontinued. Which leaves us with indie FPS games that are playable but tend to come with standard indie game problems. In this article we list the best FPS browser games you can play directly on the web right now.
If we had to sum up Rush Team in one word, it would be “solid”. Don’t come into this one expecting flashy effects, innovative gameplay, or anything else that’s anywhere near industry-changing. There’s only one reason to play Rush Team, and that is that you want a traditional shooter experience.
You’ll find the usual gameplay elements: melee weapons, pistols, rifles, grenades, etc. A Free For All mode is available, but Rush Team becomes even better when played in one of its team-based, objective-focused modes. Some cosmetic and gameplay features are only available to VIPs, but you’ll be fine without them.
Warmerise: Red vs. Blue may not look all that nice—closer in aesthetics to 90s-era shooters like Quake and the original Counter-Strike—but it’s balanced out by its gameplay and player activity. There’s a Top 100 Leaderboard that keeps players motivated. Although it only features elimination-based game modes, it has vehicular combat that makes it unique.
In terms of playerbase, Warmerise: Red Vs. Blue is one of the healthiest games on this list. Matches are easy to find even during off-peak hours in the U.S. All in all, if you can get over the outdated graphics, this is a solid choice for a browser shooter.
Often called the grandfather of modern 3D shooters, Wolfenstein 3D is a monumental classic that all FPS fans need to play at some point. You play as an Allied spy who fights his way through Castle Wolfenstein, slaughtering Nazis and tracking down the Fuhrer himself for a final showdown. Despite the simplistic gameplay, it’s surprisingly fun and features charming old-school graphics.
The game was originally released for MS-DOS, (here’s how to play old DOS games on your Mac). However, Wolfenstein 3D is now available online for free and is considered one of the best retro browser shooter games.
You can play Superhot on your PC, Xbox One, or PS4, but why should you do that when you can access its prototype for free from your browser? It’s also the perfect way to try out the game in case you do want to buy it eventually.
This FPS is unlike any other on this list—instead of the events around you happening in real-time, time only passes when you move. You can use this to your advantage to dodge bullets and to buy some time to pick up a weapon. Your enemies come in the form of red people who shatter to pieces when you hit or shoot them.
The browser-based version of Superhot doesn’t come with as many levels as the full game, but it’s still just as enjoyable.
No matter how powerful of a computer you have, you can run Krunker. Which is what makes it such a great browser shooter. It uses Minecraft-like graphics that allows it to run on any type of computer (even super old ones). You assume the role of a soldier who’s tasked with killing their enemies.
Krunker has 10 game modes that you can choose from. One of the most popular modes includes Free For All, where the game pits you against other players and the player with the most kills wins. You can also choose from several character classes, including a bullet-crazed Triggerman, a marksman Hunter, and a revolver-wielding Detective.
War Brokers also uses blocky graphics, similar to Krunker. You can customize your character by editing your appearance and choosing your weapons. War Brokers offers plenty of variety when it comes to weapons—decide between a rifle, sniper, homing missile, minigun, and more. All of these options (including the chance to drive vehicles) make War Brokers one of the best browser FPS games you can play right now.
The game currently has two game modes: Classic and Battle Royale. The Classic version comes with several game modes, including Team Deathmatch and Vehicle Escort, among others. The battle royale version of War Brokers has some of the same elements as PUBG, Fortnite, and H1Z1, so you’ll definitely enjoy it if you like those games.
This FPS browser game is known for its fast-paced multiplayer action. It features several modes that keep the game from getting boring. For example, when you get tired of playing Team Deathmatch, you can switch to Mutation mode, which lets you and other players become zombies. Those who are left as humans must try to stay alive and kill the infected players.
Some players view Global Strike as a pay-to-win game. It features a shop where you can buy permanent weapons, characters, and other accessories with real cash. As a result, certain players will buy the best weapons in the game with their own money. This gives them a huge advantage over other players, and can definitely put a damper on the gameplay.
Relive Your Youth With FPS Browser Games
You might remember playing FPS browser games when you got bored at school. The games you played as a kid might not exist anymore, but there are still plenty of browser shooter games worth checking out. Give one of the above games a try and relive your youth.
Do you want to expand your knowledge of browser-based games? The good news is that browser shooters aren’t the only types that still exist. Instead, you could pass the time with one of these cool puzzle games you can play for free in your browser.
When you’re building or upgrading a gaming PC, you have several components to consider. Each one affects your computer’s performance in different ways, and neglecting any could lead to a bottleneck.
Today, let’s focus on RAM. We’ll look at RAM’s role in gaming, the RAM specs you should look for when shopping, and what you don’t need to worry about.
What Is RAM?
Just in case you’re not at all familiar with RAM, let’s briefly define what this vital computer component does. See our intro to RAM for more information.
RAM stands for random access memory. It’s short-term volatile storage that temporarily holds information your PC needs to access. When you open any program, the OS stores it in RAM. Then, once you shut down your machine, it clears out anything that was in RAM.
Without sufficient RAM, your computer could slow to a crawl when you open too many programs.
How Does RAM Play Into Gaming?
RAM is important because your system can access data in it more quickly than it can retrieve info from your main storage disk. You have the entire game’s data stored on your hard drive or solid state drive, but constantly pulling it from there is inefficient. Thus, your computer moves the game information it will need to RAM in order to quickly load it.
With low RAM, your computer won’t be able to store all the game info it needs to run properly, leading to choppy frame rates and poor performance. An extreme lack of RAM could even prevent the game from working at all.
It’s important to note that dedicated video cards have their own RAM, known as vRAM. This is different than system RAM in that it’s completely focused on sending graphics to your display. Thus, if you want to play games at high resolutions like 4K, you need a lot of vRAM. You could have 32GB of system RAM, but performance would still suffer greatly with just 2GB of video RAM in your card.
Because RAM allows games to load efficiently, you might think that adding more RAM will always result in better performance. However, this isn’t the case. If you have more RAM than information you need to hold, the extra goes to waste.
To help illustrate this, think about a storage container for liquid. If you need to store a gallon of water, but only have a half-gallon container, you can’t keep everything in one place like you want to. But if you have a 10-gallon container that’s only storing one gallon of water, most of that container is going to waste.
It’s the same way with RAM. You could put 64GB of RAM into your system, but if you only use 2GB to play light indie games at 720p, you’ll never utilize the vast majority of that memory. While it’s not a bad idea to have a little extra RAM for future-proofing, unused RAM is wasted RAM in most cases.
How Much RAM Do I Need for Gaming?
As of this writing, the generally accepted baseline is 8GB of RAM for normal PC gaming. Casual tests have found little performance benefit between having 8GB and 16GB of RAM.
While you can get away with just 4GB of RAM for many older games, there’s little reason to build a new system with this little RAM. As games continue to become more complex and require more RAM, 4GB won’t be enough.
If you want to future-proof your system, or also use your computer for activities like video editing or heavy multitasking, then 16GB is a fine upgrade to make. While you might not see a huge benefit in games right away, that foresight will pay off in the future.
Understanding RAM Specs for Gaming
The amount of RAM that you have for gaming is only part of the story. Not all RAM is the same; it has other specifications to consider. Let’s look at at a few of them.
DDR Designations
Virtually every stick of RAM you see will have DDR and a version number accompanying it. DDR stands for Double Data Rate, which means that it operates twice per every clock cycle. Over time, this technology has improved, which has led to DDR2 and further versions.
DDR2 is quite outdated, so you’re unlikely to come across it now. You’ll still see DDR3 RAM around, but it’s mostly been superseded by DDR4, which is the current standard. While DDR5 is on the way at the time of writing, it’s not commercially available yet.
Different generations of RAM are not compatible with each other, so you can’t plug a DDR4 stick of RAM into a motherboard with DDR3 slots. If you’re buying more RAM for an existing machine, make sure it matches what your motherboard supports. For a new build, stick with DDR4 since it’s the best we have now.
Clock Speed
In addition to DDR, you’ll also see a RAM stick’s clock cycles listed on its product page. These are offered in megahertz, and represent how many cycles the RAM can perform every second. For instance, 2666MHz RAM runs 2.666 billion cycles each second.
As you’d expect, the higher this number, the faster the RAM and the smoother your experience. However, it’s not a drastic improvement. Faster RAM is better than slower, but in most cases, it’s not noticeable.
The DDR generation and the clock cycles are correlated; you won’t see ultra-fast numbers on ancient DDR2 RAM, for example. Because of this, as long as you stick to the current standard, you know you’ll have RAM that runs at a decent speed.
If you mix sticks of RAM with different clock cycles, it will all run at the lowest frequency. Your motherboard may also limit the available speed.
You’ll also sometimes see a series of numbers listed on RAM, such as 5-9-5-23. These are called timings and illustrate how much latency the RAM has when responding to requests. Most people don’t need to worry about these numbers; capacity and DDR generation are more important.
Number of Sticks
When buying RAM, it’s also important to consider how many slots your motherboard has. Most motherboards support dual-channel memory. This lets your system utilize two sticks of RAM simultaneously, which has slight performance benefits.
Say you wanted to put 16GB of RAM in your system. To take advantage of dual-channel memory, it’s better to buy two 8GB sticks than one 16GB stick. If your motherboard has more than two slots, make sure you arrange the sticks according to the manual to properly utilize this.
Summarizing RAM’s Role in Gaming
We’ve looked at several aspects of RAM’s role in your gaming machine. But thankfully, it’s not actually too complicated. Below is a summary of the most important points:
RAM is a short-term storage unit used to temporarily hold data from a game you’re playing.
8GB is the baseline for gaming today, but 16GB is a good future-proofed option.
Until DDR5 arrives, use DDR4 RAM (unless you’re limited by a motherboard with DDR3 RAM slots).
The higher the RAM clock speed the better, but this has a minimal effect in the real world. Higher cycles come with newer DDR generations. Mixed RAM sticks will drop to the lowest speed.
Consider the number of slots on your motherboard when deciding how to buy your RAM.
With all this said, keep in mind that RAM is a relatively minor part of a gaming computer. As long as you have enough RAM and it’s not too old, that aspect is pretty much taken care of. You can then work on finding the slickest-looking RAM that blends in with the rest of your build.
You’ll see much greater benefit from upgrading to a more powerful graphics card with additional vRAM. And if you still have an old HDD in your system, you should instead prioritize upgrading to an SSD. Check out the upgrades that will have the biggest effect on your PC for some advice on this.
Has a toolbar or a window disappeared from your Mac? Or maybe it’s a menu bar icon that has gone missing.
Sometimes one unintentional key press or a change in a mystery setting is all it takes to make items disappear from view. As we’ll see below, it’s often easy to bring such items back if you know where to look.
Let’s explore several common items that could disappear from your Mac and how you can restore them.
1. The Dock
Can’t see the Dock anymore? Does it appear only when you mouse over the bottom edge of the screen? That’s most likely because you’ve triggered the Dock’s auto-hide feature, either by:
Entering the full screen mode for the active app, or
Hitting the keyboard shortcut Option + Cmd + D accidentally
The shortcut toggles the auto-hide feature, so using the same shortcut again will restore the Dock to its always-visible status.
You can also toggle automatic hiding for the Dock from System Preferences > Dock. Look for the Automatically hide and show the Dock checkbox and enable or disable it as needed. You’ll find the toggle option tucked away in the Dock’s right-click menu too.
If the Dock still hasn’t made a comeback, you can reset it to its default settings. To do so, open the Terminal app and enter the following command:
defaults delete com.apple.dock && killall Dock
Remember to hit Enter to execute the command.
2. The Menu Bar
Like the Dock, the macOS menu bar has an auto-hide feature, which you can toggle from System Preferences > General. Look for the Automatically hide and show the menu bar checkbox.
You can toggle the visibility of the menu bar with the shortcut Ctrl + F2 also. If this shortcut doesn’t work, ensure that:
macOS is set to use F1, F2, etc. as standard function keys under System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard.
You haven’t changed or disabled the default shortcut under System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Keyboard.
3. Menu Bar Icons
Let’s say you want to restore the Wi-Fi status icon to the menu bar. To do this, open the System Preferences app and look for menu bar using the search box provided at the top-right.
In the search results dropdown menu, you’ll see several Show [icon name] in menu bar items. (Notice the system icons you can choose to display.) Select the Show Wi-Fi status in menu bar option to access and enable that setting.
For any icons that you want to hide again, hold down the Command key, drag the icon out of the menu bar, and let go when you see an X mark next to the icon. Keep in mind that this works only for system icons.
You don’t have to worry about the Spotlight icon disappearing. It’s impossible to get rid of, accidentally or otherwise, unless you install a third-party app like Vanilla or Bartender.
4. Apps and App Windows
It’s easy to lose windows from sight when you’re working. You might click on the yellow Minimize button accidentally, or push a window out of view thanks to a misbehaving trackpad. If you’ve enabled hot corners for a faster workflow, reaching for any corner of your Mac’s screen by accident can force the active view out of sight.
Sometimes, app windows don’t respond as expected when you use the command switcher, making you think that you’ve lost a window. This happens, for example, when you switch to full-screen mode for a certain app and macOS automatically places that app on a separate desktop.
At times, it occurs when you open multiple windows of the same app in full-screen mode. In this case, only the latest window is accessible via the command switcher. Likewise, when you exit Split View by going full screen in either of the Split View apps, one of the apps might fail to appear when you hit Cmd + Tab.
In all cases, the easiest way to discover and recover lost windows is via these two macOS features:
Mission Control: Displays an overview of all your active apps and desktops.
For both these features, you can switch to three-finger gestures via System Preferences > Trackpad > More Gestures.
5. Sidebars and Toolbars
In native Mac apps as well as third-party apps, you can restore items such as toolbars and sidebars from the View menu. If the app allows you to toggle the item in question, you’ll most likely find a corresponding View menu option for it.
This also applies to special views that are unique to each app. For example, you can use the View menu to toggle Tab Overview in Safari, Preview in Finder, and Notes Panel in Books.
6. Mouse Cursor
If you aren’t able to locate the mouse cursor or mouse pointer on your Mac’s screen, give the trackpad or mouse a quick shake. This makes the cursor temporarily bigger to help you spot it.
Is this trick not working for you? You might have turned off the corresponding macOS setting in the past—it’s enabled by default. To re-enable it, first visit System Preferences > Accessibility > Display. There, select the Shake mouse pointer to locate checkbox.
7. Specific Types of Spotlight Search Results
Can’t see web-based suggestions in Spotlight? Have specific types of data, such as presentations, disappeared from Spotlight results?
You might have disabled their display at some point. Let’s say you followed some online guide to improve Spotlight privacy. Then you most likely disabled Spotlight suggestions in keeping with the instructions. Or you might have decided you don’t need folders to show up in Spotlight.
Whatever the case, if you want to re-configure what’s visible in Spotlight search results, visit System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results.
There, go through the list of data types available and select or deselect the relevant checkboxes to toggle their visibility as needed. Next, switch to the Privacy tab and add any folders or disks that you don’t want Spotlight to index.
No matter how good an operating system is, it’s behavior is sometimes unpredictable. Both technical glitches and user errors play a part in system malfunctions. Disappearing onscreen elements are a common occurrence. And now you know where to look to restore such lost items on your Mac.
Of course, there’s a lot more that can go missing and stay missing, such as photos, files, and folders. But you can retrieve lost data if you have the right data recovery software for your Mac.
After learning how to bring back items that often disappear from your screen, how about trying the opposite? Check out how to hide unwanted items on your Mac for improved productivity.
From the dial-up days till now, most of us have signed up for a countless number of online accounts. But we barely log in to even half of them today. Now, the email address or a phone number you surrendered for registration can be misused. It’s time to ask yourself—“How do I find all accounts linked to my email address?”
It’s best to revisit all your accounts to update your credentials or deactivate them. Here are a bunch of ways you can use to find all accounts linked to your email address or phone number.
1. Find Accounts Linked to Email
If you often sign into apps and websites through the email platform’s quick authorization button, the chances are you won’t have to dig too deep at least to review your most recently created accounts.
For the profiles you’ve generated by employing options such as “Sign Up With Google”, you can simply head over to your email’s security settings. There, you can go through the list of connected apps to edit or revoke their access.
To visit this section on Google, go to the My Account dashboard and click the Security tab present on the left. Scroll till you come across “Third-party apps with account access” and hit Manage Third-Party Access. You can then tap individual apps to disconnect them from your email account.
You should consider strengthening your online security once you have got rid of unwanted third-party apps. For that, take a look at how you can improve your online security and privacy.
2. Find Social Sign-Ins With Facebook and Twitter
Evaluate the apps and websites you’ve logged into using your social media accounts. The stakes are even higher when you attach third-party services to your social profile. Depending on the permissions, you run the risk of handing over the key to your friends’ list, personal details, cell number, and other private details.
Thankfully on platforms like Facebook, you can specifically decide what you want to share or cut off. For instance, you can retain a third party account but disable its access to the pages you like on Facebook.
On Facebook, go to Settings > Apps and Websites.
On Twitter, head over to Settings > Account > Apps and Sessions.
3. Search Your Inbox for Account Verification Messages
The two methods above will only take you only so far. For a thorough check, you will need to return to your email and hunt down the confirmation emails in your inbox. Search for common subject lines these services send you whenever you register for a new account.
Also, you can use Gmail’s search operators and keywords for filtering specific subject lines.
For instance, you can enter “subject: verify” to fetch all the emails with subject lines containing the word “verify”. This will allow you to discover roughly every app you’ve linked to your email address.
You can also automate this task with a tool like EmailExport. The website can comb through your emails with more powerful filters and then organize the results in a spreadsheet. The service is not free but it can save you a lot of time.
But here’s a note of caution. As EmailExport will have the permission to read your inbox, you will be risking your personal data. EmailExport is free for the first hundred messages but once that quota expires, you will have to pay at least $5 for 250 emails.
4. Instantly Check All Accounts Linked to Your Email
Deseat is another effective method on this list if you are looking for ways to find all accounts linked to an email address for free. The web app indexes your inbox and siphons off all the third-party apps you’ve signed up with that email address. It then presents you with a list so that you can easily decide the action you want to take.
Deseat also adds a Request Removal button. Clicking this will enable you to email the associated company a pre-written data removal request.
Like EmailExport, Deseat can be a security threat too for sensitive emails. The developers explicitly say they don’t harvest your emails and all sorting operations are performed locally.
They have given the option to delete your Deseat account. For now, Deseat is free and supports the majority of email platforms.
5. Find All Online Accounts With a Username
If there’s a username you often enter for new accounts, you can tap into Namechk. The domain finder and username checker tool will scan for a username’s availability across dozens of platforms. Just type in your most commonly utilized ID at the top and Namechk will tell you if it has been taken.
Namechk plugs into a host of services such as Instagram, PayPal, Imgur, Foursquare, and Venmo. Namechk is a free utility and doesn’t cost a dime.
6. Check Your Browser’s Saved Accounts
Whenever you fill a form field on the internet, your browser caches your input. It’s a time saver as you don’t have to manually type that detail next time. This applies to email addresses and optionally, passwords too.
So, you can visit your browser’s settings and go through the list to find out any accounts you may have forgotten about. Do note that your success will depend on how long you’ve been using the browser. You can repeat this process for every browser you’ve installed in the past.
On Google Chrome, the option is present under Settings > Auto-fill > Passwords. You can browse the entries, update them, and delete if you don’t want them in your browser since it’s usually not safe.
On Mozilla Firefox users need to go inside Settings > Privacy & Security > Login and Passwords > Saved Logins.
Sort Your Online Accounts With a Password Manager
It’s unlikely you would be able to locate every online account you’ve ever created. But with these solutions, you can unearth the majority of them.
Once you have done that, it’s best to migrate them to a password manager and regularly use it to effortlessly keep tabs on your online presence. Here are the best password managers for every occasion.
The Arduino IDE has been the first coding experience for many people. While it gets the job done, it is missing key features that most modern code editors have.
Visual Studio Code (VS Code) has quickly become one of the most popular code editors but doesn’t support Arduino development as standard.
Enter PlatformIO, an open source tool for programming Arduino boards (and much more)! Learn how to get PlatformIO and use it to create a simple Arduino sketch in VS Code.
Project Requirements
You will need:
An Arduino Compatible Board. This tutorial uses a Nano clone.
Visual Studio Code, available from Microsoft (Free).
Today’s guide is for Windows 10, but this should work on Linux and Mac too.
Note: The Windows 10 App version of the Arduino IDE will not work with this tutorial.
How to Install PlatformIO
VS Code has many extensions to help programmers, and PlatformIO is no different. Open the VS Code Extensions Marketplace from the left panel, and search for PlatformIO IDE. Click install, and be prepared for a short wait.
Note: Do not close VS Code during this process as it can cause errors with the installation.
Once the installation is complete, a prompt will appear in the bottom right corner to reload VS Code. Click it, and the program will restart, showing the PlatformIO extension home page.
Setting Up a Project
The PlatformIO home page gives you several options, including opening existing Arduino projects and links to project ideas. Today you’ll be starting fresh, so click New Project.
You’ll be prompted to enter a name for your project and the board you’ll be using. This tutorial uses an Arduino Nano; PlatformIO supports over 650 boards, so you’ll likely find yours in the list.
The Framework tab should auto-fill as Arduino if you are using an Arduino compatible board. Leave the Location checkbox filled to use the default installation location. You’ll only need to uncheck this if you are working with a previously made Arduino project.
Click Finish and be prepared for a short wait. PlatformIO will download and install any dependencies needed for the project, and restart the IDE once it finishes.
The PlatformIO Workflow
Once VS Code restarts you’ll notice a new project folder open in the Explorer panel. At this stage it isn’t essential that you know what each file in this directory does, you’ll only be using the SRC directory for your Arduino sketches.
You’ll also notice a couple of new icons on the bottom bar of VS Code. These are the equivalent of the buttons in the Arduino IDE – a tick for compile, an arrow for upload, and a plug for the Serial monitor.
Now that everything is set up let’s get coding!
A Blank Program
PlatformIO creates a blank sketch with each new project.
Open it in the Explorer tab by navigating to SRC/main.cpp which will open the sketch. You’ll notice that the file has a different extension to normal Arduino sketches. CPP stands for C Plus Plus (C++), the programming language the Arduino language and IDE uses.
Note: This tutorial uses the work sketch as it is familiar to those with an Arduino IDE background. However, C++ sketches are commonly referred to as programs.
You’ll see some familiarity here—the sketch has setup and loop functions like a regular Arduino sketch. The main difference is found at the top of the program. The #include <Arduino.h> header must be present in every PlatformIO project for it to work.
Now, lets set up the Hello World of hardware—a blinking LED sketch.
Blinking LEDs
You’ll be creating this Blink sketch, we’ll go through each line below.
Start by defining your onboard LED pin. If you are using a board which doesn’t use pin 13 for the onboard LED, change it accordingly:
#define onboard 13
Use your setup function to set up the pin mode.
pinMode(onboard,OUTPUT);
Notice how VS Code will suggest code to you, and complete it when the press the Enter key!
Finally, create the blink LED logic in the loop function by setting the pin HIGH and LOW with a delay.
If you have any errors, VS Code will tell you while coding, rather than having to wait until you compile or upload your code. Live error checking and completion make coding less frustrating, and faster!
Next, you’ll learn how to upload your sketch to your board.
Uploading to the Board
If you haven’t already, plug in your board to a USB port. Save your sketch, and click the tick icon on the bottom bar to compile it, or click the arrow button to compile and upload the sketch in one go. After a brief wait, your LED should be blinking!
You may have noticed a step missing from the usual Arduino workflow. Usually, you need to specify which COM port your Arduino is attached to. If you scroll through the output when you upload a sketch to the board, you’ll notice that PlatformIO automatically detects the board for you.
Serial Monitor
Finally, add one more line of code to each function to test the serial monitor. In setup add:
Serial.begin(9600);
And in your loop function add a message to be printed to the serial monitor ever time the loop completes:
Serial.println("loop completed");
Upload the sketch, and click on the plug icon on the bottom bar to open the serial monitor and see your message.
A New World of Arduino Coding
Using VS Code and PlatformIO brings a breath of fresh air to Arduino coding. It also makes it much easier to collaborate remotely due to Visual Studio’s Live Share feature.
This tutorial only covers the basics, but everything you can do in the Arduino IDE is possible through PlatformIO, so pick an awesome project and get coding!
If you’ve come across the JAR file type online and wondered what it is, you’ve come to the right place. It’s a Java Archive file and here we’ll talk through what they contain and how to open them.
You might also encounter errors when trying to open a JAR file—we’ve got you covered with solutions for that too.
What are JAR Files?
JAR stands for Java ARchive. As the name suggests, it’s an archive file—this means that it’s a single file that contains other files, packaged together for reasons such as portability and to decrease storage space.
If you’re familiar with ZIP files, then a JAR file is essentially the same thing. The difference is that JAR files are applications designed to be used by the Java Runtime Environment.
The unique element of JAR files is that they contain a manifest. This is a special meta file that, simply put, tells the JAR how to behave and holds information about the files within.
A JAR file can also contain CLASS files (compiled Java code), audio files, image files and more. The JAR file can then be read and run as a single request by the Runtime Environment.
JAR can be used for all sorts of purposes on desktop and mobile. For example, it could be a game, application theme, or browser add-on.
How to Open JAR Files
If you want to execute a JAR file—that is, run the actual application contained within—then you need to install the Java Runtime Environment. You may already have it on your computer, but grab it again from the official site to ensure you’re running the latest version.
You should then download a lightweight utility called Jarx. This makes JAR files behave like ordinary programs on your computer. As such, once Jarx is installed, you can then open a JAR file like any other by double clicking it.
You can also run it from Command Prompt. Click on Search and type cmd. Right click on the Command Prompt result and select Run as administrator to open the window. Then input the following command, but replace sample.jar with the full file path of the JAR:
java -jar sample.jar
Extract a JAR
Alternatively, you can unpackage the JAR file. You can do this to see what files are contained within it, or if the JAR file isn’t designed to be an executable file.
To unpackage a JAR, you need a program that can extract compressed files. Windows includes functionality for this, but you can also use file extraction software like 7-Zip or WinRAR to get the job done.
Open the JAR file within the software and you can browse all the folders and files within it. You can also extract the JAR if you want to use or inspect the individual files further.
Want another JAR file opener when you don’t have an archive program installed? You can use an online extractor if you don’t want to download another program. Of course, make sure you choose one that supports the JAR format because not all of them will.
A good choice is Archive Extractor. Simply upload your JAR and it will show you the contents of the file within a tree structure. Click a folder to open or expand it and a file to download it individually.
Finally, if your computer is having problems recognizing an executable JAR file, you can right click the file, click Rename and then append the .ZIP file extension. This works because the file types are so closely linked.
How to Make JAR Files
Are you sure you need to make a JAR file? Remember, they serve a specific purpose: bundling files together to be used as a Java application.
If that’s what you need to do, head over to Oracle’s packaging programs in JAR files documentation. This will you give you all the information you need on how to create, package, and sign a JAR file.
How to Fix Problems Opening JAR Files
You might get an error when trying to open a JAR file, often due to incompatibility or security settings.
Update the Java Runtime Environment
You should always run the latest version of the Java Runtime Environment.
To see what version of Java you’re running, open the Start menu and type configure java and select the result. The Java Control Panel will open. On the General tab, click About… and check that the version you’re running aligns with the latest one available directly from Oracle’s website. If not, download it and update.
JAR Opens in the Wrong Program
Windows might not know what to do with the JAR file and could try to open it in a program that won’t support the format.
To resolve this, right click the file, and hover Open with. There’s a number of default programs to choose from and one of these might be the right one. If not, click Choose another app.
If you want to run the file within the Java Runtime Environment directly, navigate to Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_211\bin and select java.exe.
To resolve this, open the Start menu and type configure java and select the result. The Java Control Panel will open. Click the Security tab. Ensure you have Enable Java content for browser and Web Start applications checked, set the security level to High, and add to the exception site list if necessary. Once done, click OK.
Even More File Types You Should Know About
Hopefully, you now understand what a JAR file is, how to open it, and how to resolve any problems you might encounter.
