31 July 2019

Aspire raises $32.5M to help SMEs secure fast finance in Southeast Asia


Aspire, a Singapore-based startup that helps SMEs secure working capital, has raised $32.5 million in a new financing round to expand its presence in several Southeast Asian markets.

The Series A round for the one-and-a-half-year old startup was funded by MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia. Arc Labs and existing investors Y Combinator — Aspire graduated from YC last year — Hummingbird, and Picus Capital also participated in the round. Aspire has raised about $41.5 million to date.

Aspire operates a neo-banking-like platform to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) quickly and easily secure working capital of up to about $70,000.

AspireAccount, the startup’s flagship product, provides merchants and startups with instant credit limit for daily business expenses, as well as a business-to-business acceptance and other tools to help them manage their cash flow.

“I saw the problem while trying to rally small businesses trying to grow in the digital economy,” Andrea Baronchelli, founder and CEO of Aspire told TechCrunch last year. “The problem is really about providing working capital to small business owners,” said Baronchelli, who served as a CMO for Alibaba’s Lazada platform for four years.

Aspire currently operates in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam. The startup said it will use the fresh capital to scale its footprints in those markets. Additionally, Aspire is building a scalable marketplace banking infrastructure that will use third-party financial service providers to “create a unique digital banking experience for its SME customers.”

The startup is also working on a business credit card that will be linked to each business account by as early as this year, it said.

Baronchelli did not reveal how many business customers Aspire has, but said the startup has seen “30% month-on-month growth” since beginning operations in January 2018. Additionally, Aspire expects to amass more than 100,000 business accounts by next year.

Southeast Asia’s digital economy is slated to grow more than six-fold to reach more than $200 billion per year, according to a report co-authored by Google. But for many emerging startups and businesses, getting financial services from a bank and securing working capital have become major pain points.

A growing number of startups are beginning to address these SMEs’ needs. In India, for instance, NiYo Bank and Open have amassed millions of businesses through their neo-banking platforms. Both of these startups have raised tens of millions of dollars in recent months. Drip Capital, which helps businesses in developing markets secure working capital, raised $25 million last week.


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Google’s Titan security keys come to Japan, Canada, France and the UK


Google today announced that its Titan Security Key kits are now available in Canada, France, Japan and the UK. Until now, these keys, which come in a kit with a Bluetooth key and a standard USB-A dongle, were only available in the U.S.

The keys provide an extra layer of security on top of your regular login credentials. They provide a second authentication factor to keep your account safe and replace more low-tech two-factor authentication systems like authentication apps or SMS messages. When you use those methods, you still have to type the code into a form, after all. That’s all good and well until you end up on a well-designed phishing page. Then, somebody could easily intercept your code and quickly reuse it to breach your account — and getting a second factor over SMS isn’t exactly a great idea to begin with, but that’s a different story.

Authentication keys use a number of cryptographic techniques to ensure that you are on a legitimate site and aren’t being phished. All of this, of course, only works on sites that support hardware security keys, though that number continues to grow.

The launch of Google’s Titan keys came as a bit of a surprise, given that Google had long had a good relationship with Yubico and previously provided all of its employees with that company’s keys. The original batch of keys also featured a security bug in the Bluetooth key. That bug was hard to exploit, but nonetheless, Google offered free replacements to all Titan Key owners.

In the U.S., the Titan Key kit sells for $50. In Canada, it’ll go for $65 CAD. In France, it’ll be €55, while in the UK it’ll retail for £50 and in Japan for ¥6,000. Free delivery is included.

 


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Icon Swap


Icon Swap

Luna Labs creates playable ads, directly from Unity


It seems obvious that the best way to advertise a game is to let people play the game itself — and we’ve covered other startups tackling this problem, such as AppOnboard and mNectar.

But Luna Labs co-founder and CEO Steven Chard said that for most developers, the creation of these ads involves outsourcing: “It might take weeks to make an ad, and the quality of the content at the end could be limited.”

The problem, Chard said, is that most games are built on the Unity engine, while the ads need to be in HTML5, which means that developers often have to build playable ads from scratch — hence the outsourcing.

“There’s this huge demand for playables, but the tech hasn’t caught up with it,” he said. “Our view — and I think why it’s really resonating with developers — we’re saying to developers: Use that same [Unity] editor to create a playable ad. You’re going to give the user a playable ad which genuinely feels like the game.”

In fact, while Luna is officially launching its service to developers this week, it’s already been working with a few partners like Kwalee and Voodoo. Luna says that in Kwalee’s case, the results were good enough that the company spent 60% more than they did on other playable ads, and the Luna playables drove more than 250,000 installs per day.

“Luna is solving a real pain point for our studio, and the initial results have been tremendous,” said Kwalee CRO Jason Falcus in a statement. “Integrating the Luna service has allowed us to significantly scale our campaigns by a comfortable margin, to the best results so far.”

Luna Labs screenshot

Luna’s investors include Ben Holmes (formerly of Index Ventures, backer of King and Playfish) and Chris Lee (who also invested in Space Ape and Hello Games).

Chard said the startup is currently focused on providing tools to developers, rather than getting involved in the ad-buying process. More generally, he said the company has been focused on the technology rather than the business model.

“We’re an early company with a very, very complex piece of technology — it’s taken a lot of time to get where we are,” he said. “We’re not doing it for free, but the focus isn’t on short-term profitability. It is, in the longer term, on creating a scalable product which can be used by developers.”

Chard added that eventually, he’s hoping Luna can become more involved in “at the content creation level.” For example, he suggested that developers could use the technology to test out playable concepts and see what resonates, before building a full game.

You can test it out for yourself on the Luna Labs website.


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Sex tech companies and advocates protest unfair ad standards outside Facebook’s NY HQ


A group of sex tech startup founders, employees and supporters gathered outside of Facebook’s NY office in Manhattan to protest its advertising policies with respect to what it classifies as sexual content. The protest, and a companion website detailing their position we reported on Tuesday, are the work of ‘Approved, Not Approved,’ a coalition of sex health companies co-founded by Dame Products and Unbound Babes.

These policies are applied have fallen out of step with “the average person’s views of what should or shouldn’t be approved of ads,” according to Janet Lieberman, co-founder and CTO of Dame Products.

“If you look at the history of the sex toy industry, for example, vibrators were sexual health products, until advertising restrictions were put on them in the 1920s and 1930s – and then they became dirty, and that’s how the industry got shady, and that’s why we have negative thoughts towards them,” she told me in an interview at the protest. “They’re moving back towards wellness in people’s minds, but not in advertising policies. There’s a double standard for what is seen as obscene, talking about men’s sexual health versus women’s sexual health and talking about products that aren’t sexual, and using sex to sell them, versus taking sexual products and having completely non-sexual ads for them.”

facebook ad protest nyc

Credit: TechCrunch

It’s a problem that extends beyond just Facebook and Instagram, Lieberman says. In fact, her company is also suing NYC’s MTA for discrimination for its own ad standards after it refused to run ads for women’s sex toys in their out-of-home advertising inventory. But it also has ramifications beyond just advertising, since in many ways what we see in ads helps define what we see as acceptable in terms of our everyday lives and conversations.

“Some of this stems from society’s inability to separate sexual products from feeling sexual, and that’s a real problem that we see that hurts women more than men, but hurts both genders, in not knowing how to help our sexual health,” Lieberman said. “We can’t talk about it without being sexual, and that we can’t bring things up, without it seeming like we’re bringing up something that is dirty.”

IMG 9739

Credit: Unbound / Dame Products

“A lot of the people you see here today have Instagrams that have been shut down, or ads that have been not approved on Facebook,” said Bryony Cole, CEO at Future of Sex in an interview. “Myself, I run Future of Sex, which is a sex tech hackathon, and a podcast focused on sex tech, and my Instagram’s been shut down twice with no warning. It’s often for things that Facebook will say they consider phallic imagery, but they’re not […] and yet if you look at images for something like HIMS [an erectile dysfunction medication startup, examples of their ads here], you’ll see those phallic practice images. So there’s this gross discrepancy, and it’s very frustrating, especially for these companies where a lot of the revenue in their business is around community that are online which is true for sex toys.”

Online ads aren’t just a luxury for many of these startup brands and companies – they’re a necessary ingredient to continued success. Google and Facebook together account for the majority of digital advertising spend in the U.S., according to eMarketer, and it’s hard to grow a business that caters to primarily online customers without fair access to their platforms, Cole argues.

“You see a lot of sex tech or sexual wellness brands having to move off Instagram and find other ways to reach their communities,” she said. “But the majority of people, that’s where they are. And if they’re buying these products, they’re still overcoming a stigma about buying the product, so it’s great to be able to purchase these online. A lot of these companies started either crowdfunding, like Dame Products, or just through ecommerce sites. So the majority of their business is online. It’s not in a store.”

IMG 9753

Credit: Unbound / Dame Products

Earlier this year, sex tech company Lora DiCarlo netted a win in getting the Consumer Technology Association to restore its CES award after community outcry. Double standards in advertising is a far more systemic and distributed problem, but these protests will hopefully help open up the conversation and prompt more change.


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Verizon adds Washington DC, Atlanta, Detroit and Indianapolis to list of 5G cities


This morning Verizon (TechCrunch’s parent company) flipped the 5G switch on four additional cities. Washington DC, Atlanta, Detroit and Indianapolis join Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Providence in getting coverage for the carrier’s growing next-generation network.

All of the usual caveats apply here. While the list of cities continues to grow, coverage varies from city to city to such a point where Verizon currently includes specific neighborhoods in these announcements. Here’s the break down,

In Washington DC, consumers, businesses and government agencies can initially access Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband service in areas of Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle, Cardozo / U Street, Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, Le Droit Park, Georgetown Waterfront, Judiciary Square, Shaw, Eckington, NOMA, National Mall and the Smithsonian, Gallery Place / Chinatown, Mt. Vernon Square, Downtown, Penn Quarter, Brentwood, Southwest Waterfront, Navy Yard, and nearby Crystal City, VA, as well as around landmarks such as the Ronald Reagan National Airport, United States Botanical Gardens, Hart Senate Building, National Gallery of Art, Lafayette Square, The White House, Freedom Plaza, Farragut Square, George Washington University, Capital One Arena, Union Station, Howard University Hospital, George Washington University Hospital, and Georgetown Waterfront Park.

In Atlanta, 5G Ultra Wideband service will initially be concentrated in parts of the following neighborhoods: Downtown, Midtown, Tech Square, and around such landmarks as The Fox Theater, Emory University Hospital Midtown, Mercedes Benz Stadium, Home Depot Backyard, Centennial Olympic Park, Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca Cola, and parts of Renaissance Park.

In Detroit, 5G Ultra Wideband service will initially be concentrated in parts of the following areas: Dearborn, Livonia, and Troy, including areas around the Oakland-Troy Airport.

In Indianapolis, 5G Ultra Wideband service is initially available in parts of the following neighborhoods, Arsenal Heights, Bates Hendricks, Castleton, Crown Hill, Fountain Square, Grace Tuxedo Park, Hawthorne, Historic Meridian Park, Lockerbie Square, Ransom Place, Renaissance Place, St. Joseph Historic Neighborhood, Upper Canal and Woodruff Place and around such landmarks and public spaces as Garfield Park, and Indiana University School of Medicine.

The carrier adds that service will be expanded within the above cities “in the months to come.” But hey, the White House is covered, which means even more rapid tweet storms. Verizon is adding a bunch more cities by the end of the year, including Boston, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Des Moines, Houston, Kansas City, Little Rock, Memphis, Phoenix, San Diego and Salt Lake City.

That will bring the total up to 30 for 2019.

The device selection is still limited, too for the moment. Verizon currently offers the LG V50 ThinQ 5G, Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and the Moto Z, which has an option 5G mod. There’s a 5G MiFi from Inseego available, as well.


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Sex tech companies and advocates protest unfair ad standards outside Facebook’s NY HQ


A group of sex tech startup founders, employees and supporters gathered outside of Facebook’s NY office in Manhattan to protest its advertising policies with respect to what it classifies as sexual content. The protest, and a companion website detailing their position we reported on Tuesday, are the work of ‘Approved, Not Approved,’ a coalition of sex health companies co-founded by Dame Products and Unbound Babes.

These policies are applied have fallen out of step with “the average person’s views of what should or shouldn’t be approved of ads,” according to Janet Lieberman, co-founder and CTO of Dame Products.

“If you look at the history of the sex toy industry, for example, vibrators were sexual health products, until advertising restrictions were put on them in the 1920s and 1930s – and then they became dirty, and that’s how the industry got shady, and that’s why we have negative thoughts towards them,” she told me in an interview at the protest. “They’re moving back towards wellness in people’s minds, but not in advertising policies. There’s a double standard for what is seen as obscene, talking about men’s sexual health versus women’s sexual health and talking about products that aren’t sexual, and using sex to sell them, versus taking sexual products and having completely non-sexual ads for them.”

facebook ad protest nyc

Credit: TechCrunch

It’s a problem that extends beyond just Facebook and Instagram, Lieberman says. In fact, her company is also suing NYC’s MTA for discrimination for its own ad standards after it refused to run ads for women’s sex toys in their out-of-home advertising inventory. But it also has ramifications beyond just advertising, since in many ways what we see in ads helps define what we see as acceptable in terms of our everyday lives and conversations.

“Some of this stems from society’s inability to separate sexual products from feeling sexual, and that’s a real problem that we see that hurts women more than men, but hurts both genders, in not knowing how to help our sexual health,” Lieberman said. “We can’t talk about it without being sexual, and that we can’t bring things up, without it seeming like we’re bringing up something that is dirty.”

IMG 9739

Credit: Unbound / Dame Products

“A lot of the people you see here today have Instagrams that have been shut down, or ads that have been not approved on Facebook,” said Bryony Cole, CEO at Future of Sex in an interview. “Myself, I run Future of Sex, which is a sex tech hackathon, and a podcast focused on sex tech, and my Instagram’s been shut down twice with no warning. It’s often for things that Facebook will say they consider phallic imagery, but they’re not […] and yet if you look at images for something like HIMS [an erectile dysfunction medication startup, examples of their ads here], you’ll see those phallic practice images. So there’s this gross discrepancy, and it’s very frustrating, especially for these companies where a lot of the revenue in their business is around community that are online which is true for sex toys.”

Online ads aren’t just a luxury for many of these startup brands and companies – they’re a necessary ingredient to continued success. Google and Facebook together account for the majority of digital advertising spend in the U.S., according to eMarketer, and it’s hard to grow a business that caters to primarily online customers without fair access to their platforms, Cole argues.

“You see a lot of sex tech or sexual wellness brands having to move off Instagram and find other ways to reach their communities,” she said. “But the majority of people, that’s where they are. And if they’re buying these products, they’re still overcoming a stigma about buying the product, so it’s great to be able to purchase these online. A lot of these companies started either crowdfunding, like Dame Products, or just through ecommerce sites. So the majority of their business is online. It’s not in a store.”

IMG 9753

Credit: Unbound / Dame Products

Earlier this year, sex tech company Lora DiCarlo netted a win in getting the Consumer Technology Association to restore its CES award after community outcry. Double standards in advertising is a far more systemic and distributed problem, but these protests will hopefully help open up the conversation and prompt more change.


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Snapchat launches ‘instant’ tool for creating vertical ads


Snapchat is hoping to attract new advertisers (and make advertising easier for the ones already on the platform) with the launch of a new tool called Instant Create.

Some of these potential advertisers may not be used to creating ads in the smartphone-friendly vertical format that Snapchat has popularized, so Instant Create is to designed to make the process as simple as possible.

Executives at parent organization Snap discussed the tool during last week’s earnings call (in which the company reported that its daily active users increased to 203 million).

“Just this month we started testing our new Instant Create on-boarding flow, which generates ads for businesses in three simple steps from their existing assets, be it their app or their ecommerce storefront,” said CEO Evan Spiegel.

Now the product is moving from testing to availability for all advertisers using Snapchat’s self-serve Ads Manager.

Snapchat Instant Create

Those three steps that Spiegel mentioned involve identifying the objective of a campaign (website visits, app installs or app visits), entering you website address and finalizing you audience targeting.

You can upload your creative assets if you want, but that’s not required since Instant Create will also import images from your website. And Snap notes that you won’t need to do any real design work, because there’s “a streamlined ad creation flow that leverages our most popular templates and simplified ad detail options, enabling you to publish engaging creative without additional design resources.”

The goal is to make Snapchat advertisers accessible to smaller advertisers who may not have the time or resources to try to understand new ad formats. After all, on that same earnings call, Chief Business Officer Jeremi Gorman said, “We believe the single biggest driver for our revenue in the short to medium term will be increasing the number of active advertisers using Snapchat.”

Instant Create is currently focused Snapchat’s main ad format, Snap Ads. You can read more in the company’s blog post.


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What it was like to grow up under China's one-child policy | Nanfu Wang

What it was like to grow up under China's one-child policy | Nanfu Wang

China's one-child policy ended in 2015, but we're just beginning to understand what it was like to live under the program, says TED Fellow and documentary filmmaker Nanfu Wang. With footage from her film "One Child Nation," she shares untold stories that reveal the policy's complex consequences and expose the creeping power of propaganda.

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

Snapchat launches ‘instant’ tool for creating vertical ads


Snapchat is hoping to attract new advertisers (and make advertising easier for the ones already on the platform) with the launch of a new tool called Instant Create.

Some of these potential advertisers may not be used to creating ads in the smartphone-friendly vertical format that Snapchat has popularized, so Instant Create is to designed to make the process as simple as possible.

Executives at parent organization Snap discussed the tool during last week’s earnings call (in which the company reported that its daily active users increased to 203 million).

“Just this month we started testing our new Instant Create on-boarding flow, which generates ads for businesses in three simple steps from their existing assets, be it their app or their ecommerce storefront,” said CEO Evan Spiegel.

Now the product is moving from testing to availability for all advertisers using Snapchat’s self-serve Ads Manager.

Snapchat Instant Create

Those three steps that Spiegel mentioned involve identifying the objective of a campaign (website visits, app installs or app visits), entering you website address and finalizing you audience targeting.

You can upload your creative assets if you want, but that’s not required since Instant Create will also import images from your website. And Snap notes that you won’t need to do any real design work, because there’s “a streamlined ad creation flow that leverages our most popular templates and simplified ad detail options, enabling you to publish engaging creative without additional design resources.”

The goal is to make Snapchat advertisers accessible to smaller advertisers who may not have the time or resources to try to understand new ad formats. After all, on that same earnings call, Chief Business Officer Jeremi Gorman said, “We believe the single biggest driver for our revenue in the short to medium term will be increasing the number of active advertisers using Snapchat.”

Instant Create is currently focused Snapchat’s main ad format, Snap Ads. You can read more in the company’s blog post.


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DJI aims for the best first-person drone experience with new googles, controller and more


New gear from DJI will equip you with everything you need to become the best first-person drone racer that’s ever graced the Earth – you’ll be the Anakin Skywalker of FPV drone races. The company is launching a new suite of products specifically to make the most of Digital First Person Viewing (FPV) when operating drones, with a wide range of compatibility.

The DJI Digital FPV Ecosystem includes a set of FPV goggles, a transmission unit that you attach to your drone of choice, a camera that also attaches to the transmitter unit and the drone body, and an FPV controller. Together, they provide the “first low latency HD video transmission signal” according to DJI, with total end-to-end latency of just 28 milliseconds per the specs, and the ability to transmit 720p footage at 120fps with that low lag transmission.

There are a few key ingredients here that are tuned specifically to the needs of drone racers here: low-latency is important because you want the video feed to be as real-time as possible when you’re racing high-speed drones around courses with tight turns and a field of airborne competitors you can potentially run into. And high-quality speed, with a high refresh rate for the video, is important for similar reasons – you need to ‘see’ accurately from the perspective of the drone in order to race it effectively.

The system can also transmit at a distance of up to 2.5 miles, and there are eight channels of 5.8GHz wireless frequency supported by the Air Unit so that you can fly as many as eight drones at the same time connected to a single system. Users can even change feeds on the fly when multiple units are in use, letting them take a look at the competition or just watch the race rom an FPV perspective if they don’t actually have a drone in the running.

As for the camera, it offers a 150-degree field of view, and while the feed is optimized for action at 720p 120fps as mentioned, you can export video at either 1080p 60 or 720p 120 depending on your editing needs. The live video transmission also optimizes by first pixellating around the edges and keeping the center clear when it needs to increase broadcast efficiency under heavy load and in sub-optimal connection conditions, so that the important part of the action remains in focus for racers.

DJI will be selling these in two packages, including a ‘Fly More Combo’ that retails for $929 and an ‘Experience Combo’ that will be $819, with the main difference being that you get the Remote controller in the mix with the ‘Fly More’ version.


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10 Ways to Get More TikTok Fans and Followers

How to Make Notepad++ Compare Two Files With a Plugin


compare-two-files-notepad

Notepad++ is a free, open-source, code and text editor jampacked with lots of features for both casual users and programmers. It supports various programming languages with custom syntax highlighting, auto-completion, and code folding.

The inclusion of sophisticated editing tools, user-defined style options, and support for plugins is like icing on the cake. One such powerful plugin is the Notepad++ Compare plugin which lets you see the visual difference between the two files. We’ll show you how to use this plugin to compare two files in Notepad++.

Basics of Plugins Admin in Notepad++

Plugin Admin or Manager is the repository of dozens or more plugins to extend the functionality of Notepad++. Before you start using them, there are a couple of settings you should watch out for while installing the app.

On the Choose Component screen during installation, make sure to select the Custom option from the dropdown list and check Plugins Admin box. Many users skip the installation steps. If you do so, then the plugin manager will not get installed. Slowly proceed with the steps while installing Notepad++.

select plugin admins option while installing notepad++

Notepad++ keeps configuration files in the \Users[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Notepad++\plugins folder.

If you plan to use this app on another computer or store in a USB drive, then check Don’t use %APPDATA box.

Your configuration files will remain in the Program Files folder.

don't use the appdata option in notepad++

Plugins Admin lists all the available and installed plugins. From here, you can install, update, or remove installed plugins. A revamped version came into effect in version 7.6 and above. If you want to use the plugins, then upgrade Notepad++.

Installing the Compare Plugin

Open Notepad++. Navigate to Plugins > Plugins Admin to open plugins manager. In the popup window that appears, type in Compare on the search bar. Check the box, then click Install. Once the plugin gets installed, the app will restart.

plugins admin notepad++

Click the Compare tool option from the Plugin menu. As of now, you can download the latest iteration of this plugin (version 2.0.0) from Github. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are available.

choose the compare option from the plugins menu

How to Compare Two Files in Notepad++

The compare plugin assumes that you want to compare an old version of your work versus the new version. Open any two files (A, B) in Notepad++ which you want to compare. File B (new) gets compared to File A (old).

Then, navigate to Plugins > Compare Menu > Compare.

comparing two files in notepad++

It shows the difference/comparison side by side, as shown in the screenshot. You can set any open file as the default by clicking Set as First to Compare. You can then choose this selected file to compare it with other ones in whatever mode you decide.

Colors and Symbols

The compare plugin uses various colors and symbols to denote the changes in your file. You could have added, deleted, moved, or changed the line.

  • Added (+): The line only exists in the new file and not the old ones. The highlight color is green.
  • Removed (-): The line does not exist in the new file and only present in the old file. The highlight color is red.
  • Moved: The line appears once in the other file and a different location.
  • Changed: Most of the line is identical in both files. You’ll see the changes highlighted in orange.

Note: If you uncheck the Detect Moves option in Plugins > Compare Menu the meaning of symbols changes. Therefore, whenever you’re comparing two files in a session, always check for this option.

file comparison areas highlighted in various colors and symbols

Navigation Bar

The navigation bar to the right side of the Notepad++ comes handy when you’re comparing big files. In a big file, navigating the whole file by going up and down to find the difference is difficult and time-consuming. The navigation bar works like a sitemap and bookmark browser.

navigation bar in notepad++

Click the selected area to scroll in your file. Since it uses the same convention for colors and symbols, you’ll come to know which line was added, removed, and more with a glance.

Changing the View Modes

By default, when you compare two files, it does so in double-view mode. Right-click the gripper and choose Rotate to right or left. It either splits the window horizontally or vertically.

view modes in notepad++

And if you continue rotating, your old file appears in the left while the new file appears in the right panel. It is recommended to restart Notepad++ after shifting from horizontal to vertical split or vice-versa.

Time-Saving Uses of the Notepad++ Compare Plugin

We often need to compare two files. The tool enables you to compare the original and modified files and list the lines you’ve changed. It has many practical uses:

  1. If you’re working on a code and want to see the changes other people made, then a compare tool can make comparison easier.
  2. You can precisely check the line with any code errors, defects that you don’t remember, and find the source of your problem.
  3. Any difference gets highlighted in various light and dark color hues to help you identify changes.
  4. You can compare files in a folder and know which directory is missing what files. This is useful if you have a large collection of music or ebooks on your computer.

When you click the Compare menu, it shows a popup with all the commands and options. It even lists down the keyboard shortcuts for those commands.

Explore the Settings

The compare plugin has all the basic features of a standard Diff tool. Click Settings to see the list of options you can tweak.

  • Color Settings: This option allows you to set color coding for Added, Deleted, Moved, and Changed line. For each option, you can choose a different color, change the highlight color, and its transparency.
  • Menu Settings: This option enables you to customize the file positions. First is determines whether you’re comparing the old or new file. Old file position allows you to position the old file at the left or right view (top/bottom in vertical split). Single-view default compare to lets you compare the active file in a single-view mode with the previous or next file.
  • Warn about encodings mismatch: shows you a warning message on trying to compare two files with different encodings.
  • Wrap around diffs: Determines whether it should enable the Next command on reaching the last diff and go to the first diff.
  • Go to first diff after re-compare: When unchecked, the caret position will not change on re-compare.

compare plugin settings

Compare Microsoft Office Files

Notepad++ is a flexible code and text editor app. You can customize it to any level depending on your needs. The compare plugin is a solid example which shows the power of plugins. You can compare a text, markdown file, or any programming language file.

With the flexible view modes and settings, this plugin is just as good as a Diff tool. But for some reasons, you cannot compare proprietary file formats like DOCX, XLSX, and more. If you want to know the procedure, look at our guide on how to compare two excel files and Microsoft word documents.

Read the full article: How to Make Notepad++ Compare Two Files With a Plugin


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What Is Credential Dumping? Protect Yourself With These 4 Tips


credential-dumping

It’s bad enough when hackers get their hands on one of your accounts or logins. But sometimes they can use one stolen password to steal many of your other passwords as well. If your computer is on a network, they may be able to steal other users’ passwords too.

This is achieved using a technique called credential dumping. We’ll explain how it works and how to protect yourself from it.

What Is Credential Dumping?

Credential Dumping - weak password

Recently security researchers have been talking about the dangers of credential dumping. This is a technique used by hackers to access multiple accounts from one person.

It begins when hackers get access to a victim’s computer. From this one computer, they are able to extract usernames and passwords for multiple accounts. These could include logins for bank accounts, email accounts, and login information for other machines or networks.

This can make it easier for hackers to steal someone’s identity and take over all of their accounts. They can also use this technique to grab login details for other users on the network, spreading a vulnerability from a single machine to an entire system.

How Are You at Risk of Credential Dumping?

It is possible for hackers to access many passwords when they access a computer due to the way operating systems handle passwords. Your operating system doesn’t want to annoy you by asking for passwords all the time, so once you have entered a password it is stored in the computer’s memory for later use.

If the hacker is able to access a file called the Security Account Manager, they can see a list of the passwords stored on that computer. The passwords are hashed, meaning each character is transformed into something else to hide it. This is the same process used for passwords on secure websites. But if the hashing is not strong enough it can be broken for each stored password. Then the hacker will have access to all the different accounts for that user.

If another user has logged onto the same machine, the hacker might be able to find their passwords too. If a business user has problems, they may call IT support and get a network administrator to come and check their machine. Once the network administrator logins in to a compromised machine, the hacker can steal the administrator’s login information as well and do more damage.

How to Protect Yourself From Credential Dumping

Credential Dumping - password manager

You can see the threat posed by credential dumping. But there are some simple steps you can take to protect yourself and your device from this technique:

1. Don’t Store Your Passwords on Your Computer

A bad habit many people have picked up is storing all their passwords in an unencrypted text file on their hard drive. They know that they mustn’t use the same password for multiple sites, and that passwords should be hard to guess. So they use random passwords. But they can’t remember all of them so they write them down in a file on their computer.

The reason this is a problem is that if an attacker accesses that one text file, they have access to all of your passwords for every site. This is a big security risk and makes credential dumping very easy, so it should be avoided.

2. Use an Online Password Manager

So if you shouldn’t store passwords on your computer, what should you do with them? It’s a good idea to use a trustworthy online password manager like LastPass or 1Password.

Online password managers work by storing your credentials online. This data is encrypted before it is uploaded to the internet, so you can access your passwords from any device. This has the advantage of protecting you from credential dumping. But it can also be a disadvantage; if someone finds out the master password for your password manager, they can access every single one of your accounts.

On balance, an online password manager is the option that many people choose for the best security. But you need to be very careful with your master password and make sure you never write it down anywhere, either on a computer or on paper. This is one password you really need to memorize.

3. Enable Microsoft Defender

If you’re a Windows user, you should definitely make sure Microsoft Defender, Microsoft’s antivirus solution, is enabled. There’s even a version of Microsoft Defender available for Mac.

Microsoft says that Defender will protect against credential dumping by protecting the lsass.exe process which is the target of many credential dumping attacks. When you enable Defender, it will run automatically in the background to protect your computer.

Defender should be enabled by default on Windows machine. To check, go to Settings in Windows, then to Update & Security. Choose Windows Security from the menu on the left. Now click Open Windows Defender Security Center. Here, check that Virus & threat protection and Account protection are enabled.

4. Use Two-Factor Authentication

One of the best ways to protect yourself from password theft is to use two-factor authentication wherever possible. This means that when you go to log in to a site, you first enter your username and password. Then, if the password is correct, you enter a second piece of information.

Usually, you will enter a code that is generated by an app on your phone. Alternatively, you can enter a code which is sent to your phone via SMS.

The idea is that even if an attacker knows your password, they don’t have access to your phone or your email. The only way to access your account is when you have both the password and access to your device.

The annoying thing about two-factor authentication is that you have to enable it individually on every site you use. But you should definitely start by enabling it on your most essential websites, like your email account, your online banking, and PayPal or other payment services.

Beware the Threat of Credential Dumping

Credential dumping is a technique used by hackers to steal passwords for multiple accounts when they have accessed one computer. It can happen because of the way operating systems store passwords once you have entered them.

You can protect yourself from this threat by using a password manager, enabling Microsoft Defender, and enabling two-factor authentication.

To learn more about how passwords can be compromised, see our article explaining the most common tactics used to hack passwords.

Read the full article: What Is Credential Dumping? Protect Yourself With These 4 Tips


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How to Connect an Xbox One Controller to Raspberry Pi

Privacy Precautions for Travel, Use Technology for Vacations


google-plan-summer-vacation

Planning a trip this summer? Looking forward to a hot vacation, or simply traveling to see family and friends? Whatever you’re up to, it helps to plan in advance, stay secure, and not share your activity online.

In this Really Useful Podcast we take a look what precautions you can take for travel and vacations and how technology can help.

Really Useful Podcast Season 3 Episode 9 Shownotes

In this week’s show:

Want to hear more from James Frew and Christian Cawley? They’re on Twitter, so why not give them a follow?

This is the tech podcast for technophobes. It would be great if you could share our podcast with any friends or family you think would benefit from clarity and honesty about technology. Show them how to subscribe to the Really Useful Podcast on:

We’re taking a few weeks off for the summer—we’ll see you in September.

Read the full article: Privacy Precautions for Travel, Use Technology for Vacations


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Vizio rolls out its Apple AirPlay and HomeKit integrations to its SmartCast TV platform


Ahead of Apple launching its big video streaming initiative Apple TV+ this autumn, a integration is going live today that brings Apple closer to working with third-party TV makers and making its services available on a wider array of devices. Today Vizio said it would start to roll out support for AirPlay2 and HomeKit to its SmartCast TV sets, making it possible to stream video and other media from Apple devices to its TVs and control the sets using Apple’s Home app and through its Siri voice assistant.

The support is coming by way of an over-the-air update to SmartCast 3.0, the system that underpins Vizio’s smart TVs. Notably, using the Apple services will not necessarily mean buying new Vizio TVs: the service is backwards compatible to TVs dating back to 2016. New sets range in prices from $259.99 to $3,499.99.

“SmartCast 3.0 is full of added value for VIZIO customers. With both AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support, users can now share movies, TV shows, music and more from their favorite apps, including the Apple TV app, directly to SmartCast TVs, and enable TV controls through the Home app and Siri,” said Bill Baxter, Chief Technology Officer, VIZIO. “We are thrilled to offer an even more compelling value proposition to our users with a smart TV experience that supports all three major voice assistants. This broad range of compatibility enables VIZIO SmartCast to seamlessly integrate into any household with Siri, Google Assistant or Alexa – giving users more ways to sit back and enjoy the entertainment they love.” Vizio still appears to be the only smart TV maker that’s offering support on its sets for all of the major voice assistants.

Vizio’s integration for Apple’s media services was first announced in January at CES, when Vizio said it would be getting actually rolled out later in the year.

The news was notable at the time for a couple of reasons. First, it underscored how Vizio was stepping up its growth efforts after a tough couple of years involving lawsuits, regulatory investigations and a failed M&A attempt.

Second, it was part of a bigger theme of Apple branching out into a wider consumer electronics ecosystem for its push into the world of TV and video. The latter still stands in stark contrast to Apple’s approach around smartphones, computers and watches, where it has spent years building hardware, operating systems and walled gardens.

That’s a story that is still playing out. The timing of the Vizio news is notable given that it’s just one day after Apple’s quarterly earnings report, where the company revealed a solid quarter that beat analyst expectations but also continued to show slowing growth, largely on the back of an ongoing decline in unit sales for the iPhone (amid a similar, bigger market trend for smarphones overall). To offset that story, Apple has been working hard to build new product categories in newer hardware areas like wearables (the Apple Watch) and smart home hubs (HomePod), and Services, which includes Apple’s efforts in areas like video and music (

Services came in at $11.455 billion — missing analysts expections but still growing 13% on a year ago. The promise — or perhaps more accurately, the hope — is that adding TV and gaming into the mix later in the year will boost that even more. This is where integrations such as the one getting announced today with Vizio will fit in: they will help expand the number of people who might be using the services, and of course the number of screens where the content can be consumed.

Vizio does not specify how many sets it currently has in the market — last number it gave me earlier in the year was “millions” — but it generally is behind Samsung, which currently leads in the smart TV category.

It notes that the service will work by way of tapping an AirPlay icon within SmartCast to be able to stream 4K and Dolby VisionTM HDR movies and TV shows from Apple TV, along with other AirPlay-compatible video apps. Mirroring (which you can also do with non-smart TVs) will also be supported. AirPlay 2 also lets users play content across multiple rooms (provided you have the sets, HomePods or other AirPlay 2 speakers installed).


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How to Download your Google Slides Presentation as a Video File


With Microsoft Powerpoint, you can easily convert your presentation decks into high-resolution video files for uploading to YouTube and other video sites. The exported video files can also include all the voice narrations and background audio that you may have included in the presentation.

Google Slides doesn’t offer an option to save presentations as videos but there’s a new add-on in town – Creator Studio – that brings new export capabilities to your Google Slides. With Creator Studio, you’ll be able to save your decks as animated GIFs, image sequences and HD video (with audio).

Watch the video tutorial for a quick introduction.

To get started, go to creatorstudio.dev and install the Google Slides add-on. It requests certain permissions as it has to read the presentation images for converting them into movies. It also requires access to creating files in your Google Drive since the exported files are automatically uploaded to your Google Drive.

Once the add-on is installed, open any deck inside Google Slides that has at least 2 or more slides. Go to the add-ons menu, choose Creator Studio and it will open up a sidebar.

Specify the width of the output file in pixels. Creator Studio will auto-calculate the height to maintain the original aspect ratio of the presentation. Next, specify the time interval (in seconds) and this is the duration for which each slide would be visible in the video before advancing to the next slide.

google-slides-video-convert.png

Finally, you have a variety of export options to choose from that are not available natively inside Google Slides.

GIF Image

An infinite looping animated GIF image is created that is perfect for sharing inside email messages and blog posts. You can even make stop motion animations by keeping the time interval very low (say 0.2 seconds).

Image Sequence

Creator Studio will capture screenshots of each slide in your presentation and save it as a numbered PNG file in your Google Drive folder. Internally, it uses the Google Slides API to generate these thumbnail images.

MP4 Video

Like the GIF image, Creator Studio will produce an MP4 video file from your deck and you can also vary the time interval between slides.

Video with Audio 

You can upload any audio file in MP3 or WAV format and it will play alongside the presentation. You can upload background music or even voice narration that will play in the background while the video is playing.

google-drive-slides.png

Install Creator Studio

The post How to Download your Google Slides Presentation as a Video File appeared first on Digital Inspiration.


The New Nintendo Switch Lite Is Available for Preorder Now


Nintendo recently announced a new version of its beloved Switch console, and it comes with some pretty sizable changes. Only a short time after revealing that the new console would be available, the Switch Lite has shown up on Amazon for preorder, meaning you can lock a console in for yourself without worrying about it selling out.

What’s the Nintendo Switch Lite?

Essentially, the Switch Lite is a cheaper, feature-light version of the Switch. In terms of price, Nintendo managed to shave quite a bit off, as the new console retails for only $199, while the original Switch sells for $299.

Obviously, in order to shave $100 off the price, Nintendo had to shave some features off the console as well. The biggest change comes from the ability to dock the console and use it on the big screen. The change is that, well, there’s no video out at all, so you actually can’t dock it.

Because the console can only be used in handheld mode, Nintendo also nixed the removable Joy-Cons from the console, so the controls are always attached. This could add a little bit of durability to the console, as there are fewer moving parts, which might make this a better option for parents looking for a device for their kids.

Another positive that comes from having the controllers attached is a better d-pad since there’s no need to use both Joy-Cons on their own.

Everything else about the Switch Lite is the same as the original Switch, so there’s no need to worry about the cheaper console suffering any performance issues when playing games—they’ll run exactly the same as they do in handheld mode on the original Switch.

Nintendo Switch Lite Release Date and Price

While you can lock in the device on Amazon now for $199.99, the device is actually scheduled to release on September 20, so you’ll need to be patient and wait for a console to actually arrive.

The Switch Light is available in three colors: grey, turquoise, and yellow. The price is the same regardless of which color you go with.

Read the full article: The New Nintendo Switch Lite Is Available for Preorder Now


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The Award-Winning FIDO Smart Lock Has 4 Secure Entry Methods


Smart locks are one of the cooler pieces of smart home tech out there. But with one, you’re entrusting access to your home to a device that’s connected to the internet.

A new smart lock called FIDO offers the same connected features as many other devices on the market, but it does it with four different unlock methods and an extra layer of security. It offers a very minimal design that doesn’t look like a smart lock at all.

FIDO Smart Lock Features

The main thing that makes FIDO cool is the fact that it can be unlocked in four different ways, which makes it easier to use than a lot of other locks on the market. You can open the door with a smartphone app, your fingerprint, Bluetooth, or an inducted access card.

Of course, FIDO also offers remote locking and unlocking through its mobile app. You can also grant other people access to your lock temporarily. If you have other people living in your home, you can see who has entered the home at any time with the app, which makes it easy to find out when your kids have come home from school, or whether your roommate is currently home.

As far as security, FIDO employs 128-bit encryption. The team promises that it’s impossible to break and hack by mere brute force and checking all possible key combinations.

Here are some other cool features of FIDO:

  • Automatic locking
  • 365-day battery life on two AAA batteries
  • Forced entry alarm
  • Works with any US door
  • Support for Alexa, IFTTT, Google Assistant
  • Waterproof for outdoor use

FIDO Smart Lock Price and Availablity

UJIA Smart Lock, the company behind FIDO, is seeking funding for its smart lock on Indigogo. It has far exceeded its funding goal, so assuming everything goes according to plan, the device should be delivered to backers by its September delivery date.

In terms of price, the lock is actually quite reasonable at $129 (though it’ll be more once the device hits retail).

The lock actually won a Red Dot Design Award, which definitely makes it worth a look. However, even with that, it’s important to keep in mind that there are risks involved with backing a crowdfunding project, and nothing is guaranteed when you put down your money on one.

Read the full article: The Award-Winning FIDO Smart Lock Has 4 Secure Entry Methods


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Waze Now Lets You Carpool With More People


Waze has experimented with carpooling since 2016, but is now upping the ante. Since its relaunch in 2018, Waze Carpool has only allowed drivers to pick up one passenger at a time. However, you can now add multiple passengers to a Waze Carpool.

What Is Waze Carpool and Carpooling?

Waze Carpool is a standalone app designed to help people carpool. The driver and passengers are matched based on various criteria, including the route and time of day of travel. The app then splits the cost of gas, and is used to manage the payment.

Carpooling has several benefits. It reduces the number of cars on the road (reducing traffic congestion and pollution), reduces the cost of commuting (thanks to sharing the price of gas amongst several people), and helps you make friends in the process.

How to Add More People to Waze Carpool

As detailed in this post on Medium, Waze now lets you add more people to a carpool. All you need to do is tape the + icon to invite more riders after you’ve confirmed the first one. You can add up to four people, potentially filling every seat in your car.

Adding more riders to your carpool means saving more money on your commute. As a driver you’ll get a little extra for each rider (with the price adjusted to match the cost of gas and wear and tear). And as a passenger you’ll pay slightly less for sharing the ride.

Download: Waze Carpool on Android | iOS

Beyond Carpooling: Other Ways to Use Waze

Waze Carpool is currently available in the US, Brazil, Israel, and Mexico. It’s free to use, with Waze not taking any commission for facilitating the ride-sharing. At least for the time being. Which is a major advantage over Uber and Lyft.

Waze Carpool is a relatively new concept, but there are plenty of other ways to use Waze. Waze is primarily a navigation tool, and one of the best Google Maps alternatives around. And in 2017, Waze started offering hands-free navigation for drivers.

Read the full article: Waze Now Lets You Carpool With More People


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DigitalOcean gets a new CEO and CFO


DigitalOcean, the cloud infrastructure service that made a name for itself by focusing on low-cost hosting options in its early days, today announced that it has appointed former SendGrid COO and CFO Yancey Spruill as its new CEO and former EnerNOC CFO Bill Sorenson as its new CFO. Spruill will replace Mark Templeton, who only joined the company a little more than a year ago and who had announced his decision to step down for personal reasons in May of this year.

DigitalOcean is a brand I’ve followed and admired for a while — the leadership team has done a tremendous job building out the products, services and, most importantly, a community, that puts developer needs first,” said Spruill in today’s announcement. “We have a multi-billion dollar revenue opportunity in front of us and I’m looking forward to working closely with our strong leadership team to build upon the current strategy to drive DigitalOcean to the company’s full potential.”

Spruill das have a lot of experience, given that he was in CxO positions at SendGrid through both its IPO in 2017 and its sales to Twilio in 2019. He also previously held the CFO role at DigitalGlobe, which he also guided to an IPO.

In his announcement, Spruill notes that he expects DigitalOcean to focus on its core business, which currently has about 500,000 users (though it’s unclear how many of those are active, paying users). “My aspiration is for us to continue to provide everything you love about DO now, but to also enhance our offerings in a way that is meaningful, strategic and most helpful for you over time,” he writes.

Spruill’s history as CFO includes its fair share of IPOs and sales, but so does Sorenson’s. As CFO at EnerNOC, he guided that company to a sale to investor Enel Group. Before that, he led business intelligence firm Qlikto an IPO.

It’s not unusual for incoming CEOs and CFO’s to have this kind of experience, but it does make you wonder what DigitalOcean’s future holds in store. The company isn’t as hyped as it once was and while it still offers one of the best user experiences for developers, it remains a relatively small player in the overall cloud game. That’s a growing market, but the large companies — the ones that bring in the majority of revenue — are looking to Amazon, Microsoft and Google for their cloud infrastructure. Even a small piece of the overall cloud pie can be quite lucrative, but I think DigitalOcean’s ambitions go beyond that.


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