Watch a Waymo self-driving car test its sensors in a haboob

Waymo, the self-driving car company under Alphabet, has been testing in the suburbs of Phoenix for several years now. And while the sunny metropolis might seem like the ideal and easiest location to test autonomous vehicle technology, there are times when the desert becomes a dangerous place for any driver — human or computer.

The two big safety concerns in this desert region are sudden downpours that cause flash floods and haboobs, giant walls of dust between 1,500 and 3,000 feet high that can cover up to 100 square miles. One record-breaking haboob in July 2011 covered the entire Phoenix valley, an area of more than 517 square miles.

Waymo released Friday a blog post that included two videos showing how the sensors on its self-driving vehicles detect and recognize objects while navigating through a haboob in Phoenix and fog in San Francisco. The vehicle in Phoenix was manually driven, while the one in the fog video was in autonomous mode.

The point of the videos, Waymo says, is to show how, and if, the vehicles recognize objects during these extreme low visibility moments. And they do. The haboob video shows how its sensors work to identify a pedestrian crossing a street with little to no visibility.

Waymo uses a combination of lidar, radar and cameras to detect and identify objects. Fog, rain or dust can limit visibility in all or some of these sensors.

Waymo doesn’t silo the sensors affected by a particular weather event. Instead, it continues to take in data from all the sensors, even those that don’t function as well in fog or dust, and uses that collective information to better identify objects.

The potential is for autonomous vehicles to improve on visibility, one of the greatest performance limitations of humans, Debbie Hersman, Waymo’s chief safety officer wrote in the blog post. If Waymo or other AV companies are successful, they could help reduce one of the leading contributors to crashes. The Department of Transportation estimates that weather contributes to 21% of the annual U.S. crashes.

Still, there are times when even an autonomous vehicle doesn’t belong on the road. It’s critical for any company planning to deploy AVs to have a system that can not only identify, but also take the safest action if conditions worsen.

Waymo vehicles are designed to automatically detect sudden extreme weather changes, such as a snowstorm, that could impact the ability of a human or an AV to drive safely, according to Hersman.

The question is what happens next. Humans are supposed to pull over off the road during a haboob and turn off the vehicle, a similar action when one encounters heavy fog.  Waymo’s self-driving vehicles will do the same if weather conditions deteriorate to the point that the company believes it would affect the safe operation of its cars, Hersman wrote.

The videos and blog post are the latest effort by Waymo to showcase how and where it’s testing. The company announced August 20 that it has started testing how its sensors handle heavy rain in Florida. The move to Florida will focus on data collection and testing sensors; the vehicles will be manually driven for now.

Waymo also tests (or has tested) its technology in and around Mountain View, Calif., Novi, Mich., Kirkland, Wash. and San Francisco. The bulk of the company’s activities have been in suburbs of Phoenix  and around Mountain View.

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Is Knotel poised to turn WeWork from a Unicorn into an Icarus?

The day of reckoning for the ‘flexible office space as a startup’ is coming, and it’s coming up fast. WeWork’s IPO filing has fired the starting gun on the race to become the game-changer both in the future of property and real estate but also the future of how we live and work. As Churchill once said, ‘we shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us’.

Until recently WeWork was the ruler by which other flexible space startups were measured, but questions are now being asked if it deserves its valuation. The profitable IWG plc, formerly Regus, has been a business providing serviced offices, virtual offices, meeting rooms, and the rest, for years and yet WeWork is valued by ten times more.

That’s not to mention how it exposes landlords to $40 billion in rent commitments, something which a few of them are starting to feel rather nervous about.

Some analysts even say WeWork’s IPO is a ‘masterpiece of obfuscation’

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FAA threatens $25,000 fine for weaponizing drones

It’s perfectly natural for a red-blooded American to, once they have procured their first real drone, experiment with attaching a flame thrower to it. But it turns out that this harmless hobby is frowned upon by the biggest buzzkills in the world… the feds.

Yes, the FAA has gone and published a notice that drones and weapons are “A Dangerous Mix.” Well, that’s arguable. But they’re the authority here so we have to hear them out.

“Perhaps you’ve seen online photos and videos of drones with attached guns, bombs, fireworks, flamethrowers, and other dangerous items. Do not consider attaching any items such as these to a drone because operating a drone with such an item may result in significant harm to a person and to your bank account.”

They’re not joking around with the fines, either. You could be hit with one as big as $25,000 for violating the FAA rules. Especially if you put your attack drone on YouTube.

That’s the ThrowFlame TF-19, by the way. TechCrunch in no way recommends or endorses this extremely awesome device.

Of course you may consider yourself an exception — perhaps you are a defense contractor working on hunter-killers, or a filmmaker who has to simulate a nightmare drone-dominated future. Or maybe you just promise to be extra careful.

If so, you can apply to the FAA through the proper channels to receive authorization for your drone-weaponizing operation. Of course, as with all other victimless crimes, if no one sees it, did a crime really occur? The FAA would no doubt say yes, absolutely, no question. So yeah, probably you shouldn’t do that.

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The Pad & Quill Gladstone Briefcase offers plenty of storage in a beautiful design

Pad & Quill makes some of the most handsome leather goods for the modern world and its Gladstone Leather Briefcase is no different. This bag harkens back to the day of gentleman with a newspapers tucked under their arms and an ascot on their head. This bag has an air of permanence and longevity and yet it’s designed for people with modern needs.

The bag features a smooth hinged top that opens to reveal a large opening. The bag doesn’t collapse inward when it’s empty or open; it retains its shape thanks to its sturdy structure making it easy to sort through the contents. The inside is lined with a tough herringbone fabric that seems like it will hold up well.

For me, the bag is heavy. It weighs over four pounds and that’s a lot for an empty bag. But with the weight comes confidence that it’s constructed out of durable leather.

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I’ve always been a big fan of Pad & Quill’s leather goods. I reviewed one of the company’s roll-top messenger bags last year and still use it. The leather has aged nicely with light scraps and scuffs adding to the character.

This bag has a traditional look thanks to the contrasting stitching. It might not be for everyone. It looks Western more than most modern leather goods. For me, I dig it as the stitches convey a sense of confidence in the quality. It looks the part.

Pad & Quill’s Gladstone bag has all the right organizational pockets. There’s a small exterior pocket on one side and a large, open pocket on the opposing side. Inside there’s a padded laptop pocket, a zippered pocket, and several small spots including a few spots for pens and pencils. This amount of organizational is rare in most leather bags. I’ve found most leather bags offer just a few compartments and instead look to the user to bring their own small bags to hold cables, cameras and the like.

This is a good size bag and able to easily hold a full-size laptop, DSLR and a lens or two. It’s thicker than a water bottle and has ample room to hold everything a person needs for a day.

The top is secured with a looping strap that feels a bit superficial. The hinges are tough enough to keep the top closed and the strap is a bit tough to secure. Maybe I need to use the bag a bit more. Over the couple weeks I carried this bag, I never used this strap nor felt like the top would accidentally open without it. Maybe this strap should be detachable?

The Gladstone costs $500 (though it’s on sale for $420 at time of publication) and it feels like it should last. It’s a lovely leather bag that uses a proven hinged opening. The leather is thick and durable. For me, that’s a winning combination.

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UK’s health data guardian sets a firm line for app development using patient data

The UK’s health data watchdog, the National Data Guardian (NDG), has published correspondence between her office and the national privacy watchdog which informed the ICO’s finding in 2017 that a data-sharing arrangement between an NHS Trust and Google-owned DeepMind broke the law.

The exchange was published following a Freedom of Information request by TechCrunch.

In fall 2015 the Royal Free NHS Trust and DeepMind signed a data-sharing agreement which saw the medical records of 1.6 million people quietly passed to the AI company without patients being asked for their consent.

The scope of the data-sharing arrangement — ostensibly to develop a clinical task management app — was only brought to light by investigative journalism. That then triggered regulatory scrutiny — and the eventual finding by the ICO that there was no legal basis for the data to have been transferred in the first place.

Despite that, the app in question, Streams — which does not (currently) contain any AI but uses an NHS algorithm for detecting acute kidney injury — has continued being used in NHS hospitals.

DeepMind has also since announced it plans to transfer its health division to Google. Although — to our knowledge — no NHS trusts have yet signed new contracts for Streams with the ad giant.

In parallel with releasing her historical correspondence with the ICO, Dame Fiona Caldicott, the NDG, has written a blog post in which she articulates a clear regulatory position that the “reasonable expectations” of patients must govern non-direct care uses for people’s health data — rather than healthcare providers relying on whether doctors think developing such and such an app is a great idea.

The ICO had asked for guidance from the NDG on how to apply the common law duty of confidentiality, as part of its investigation into the Royal Free NHS Trust’s data-sharing arrangement with DeepMind for Streams.

In a subsequent audit of Streams that was a required by the regulator, the trust’s law firm, Linklaters, argued that a call on whether a duty of confidentiality has been breached should be judged from the point of view of the clinician’s conscience, rather than the patient’s reasonable expectations.

Caldicott writes that she firmly disagrees with that “key argument”.

“It is my firm view that it is the patient’s perspective that is most important when judgements are being made about the use of their confidential information. My letter to the Information Commissioner sets out my thoughts on this matter in some detail,” she says, impressing the need for healthcare innovation to respect the trust and confidence of patients and the public.

“I do champion innovative technologies and new treatments that are powered by data. The mainstreaming of emerging fields such as genomics and artificial intelligence offer much promise and will change the face of medicine for patients and health professionals immeasurably… But my belief in innovation is coupled with an equally strong belief that these advancements must be introduced in a way that respects people’s confidentiality and delivers no surprises about how their data is used. In other words, the public’s reasonable expectations must be met.”

“Patients’ reasonable expectations are the touchstone of the common law duty of confidence,” she adds. “Providers who are introducing new, data-driven technologies, or partnering with third parties to help develop and test them, have called for clearer guidance about respecting data protection and confidentiality. I intend to work with the Information Commissioner and others to improve the advice available so that innovation can be undertaken safely: in compliance with the common law and the reasonable expectations of patients.

“The National Data Guardian is currently supporting the Health Research Authority in clarifying and updating guidance on the lawful use of patient data in the development of healthcare technologies.”

We reached out to the Royal Free NHS Trust and DeepMind for comment on the NDG’s opinion. At the time of writing neither had responded.

In parallel, Bloomberg reported this week that DeepMind co-founder, Mustafa Suleyman, is currently on leave from the company. (Suleyman has since tweeted that the break is temporary and for “personal” reasons, to “recharge”, and that he’s “looking forward to being back in the saddle at DeepMind soon”.)

The AI research company recently touted what it couched as a ‘breakthrough’ in predictive healthcare — saying it had developed an AI model for predicting the same condition that the Streams app is intended to alert for. Although the model was built using US data from the Department of Veterans Affairs which skews overwhelmingly male.

As we wrote at the time, the episode underscores the potential value locked up in NHS data — which offers population-level clinical data that the NHS could use to develop AI models of its own. Indeed, a 2017 government-commissioned review of the life sciences sector called for a strategy to “capture for the UK the value in algorithms generated using NHS data”.

The UK government is also now pushing a ‘tech-first’ approach to NHS service delivery.

Earlier this month the government announced it’s rerouting £250M in public funds for the NHS to set up an artificial intelligence lab that will work to expand the use of AI technologies within the service.

Last fall health secretary, Matt Hancock, set out his tech-first vision of future healthcare provision — saying he wanted “healthtech” apps and services to support “preventative, predictive and personalised care”.

So there are certainly growing opportunities for developing digital healthcare solutions to support the UK’s National Health Service.

As well as — now — clearer regulatory guidance that app development that wants to be informed by patient data must first win the trust and confidence of the people it hopes to serve.

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Samsung’s Note 10 is available today, starting at $949

Samsung’s settled into a nice little twice-yearly schedule for releasing flagships. That’s allowed the company double the opportunity to introduce some nice upgrades to their high-end Android handsets. Nearly six months after the release of the S10, the company just dropped the new Note line. Here’s a whole bunch of words I wrote about the 10+, the larger of the devices, which is helping distinguish the two lines with an utterly gigantic 6.8 inch screen.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ review

Interestingly the Note 10 marks a rare (albeit very slight) step down in screen size over the last generation to a still large 6.3 inches. The company says it’s hoping that the smaller device will appeal to first time Note users and maybe even convince Galaxy S buyers to transfer over to S-Pen Station.

The smaller size also helps keep the device just under $1,000, at $949. Which is become shockingly rarer amongst flagships these days. Even as fewer people are buyer phones, they keep getting more expensive. That certainly applies to the $1,100 Note 10+ and the $1,299 Note 10+ 5G (also available now, as a Verizon exclusive).

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The TLDR of last week’s review is that this is a very good phone that gets even better. Nothing particularly revolutionary, but it’s a nice design, great camera and just generally good stuff all the way around. If big and flashy is your thing, Samsung’s got you covered with the new Note.

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Facebook really doesn’t want you to read these emails

Oh hey y’all, it’s Friday! It’s August! Which means it’s a great day for Facebook to drop a little news it would prefer you don’t notice. News that you won’t find a link to on the homepage of Facebook’s Newsroom — which is replete with colorfully illustrated items it does want you to read (like the puffed up claim that “Now You Can See and Control the Data That Apps and Websites Share With Facebook”.)

The blog post Facebook would really prefer you didn’t notice is tucked away in a News sub-section of this website — where it’s been confusingly entitled: Document Holds the Potential for Confusion. And has an unenticing grey image of a document icon to further put you off — just in case you happened to stumble on it after all. It’s almost as if Facebook is saying ‘definitely don’t click here‘…

So what is Facebook trying to bury in the horse latitudes of summer?

An internal email chain, starting September 2015, which shows a glimpse of what Facebook’s own staff knew about the activity of Cambridge Analytica prior to The Guardian‘s December 2015 scoop — when the newspaper broke the story that the controversial (and now defunct) data analytics firm, then working for Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign, had harvested data on millions of Facebook users without their knowledge and/or consent, and was using psychological insights gleaned from the data to target voters.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s official timeline of events about what he knew when vis-a-via the Cambridge Analytica story has always been that his knowledge of the matter dates to December 2015 — when the Guardian published its story.

But the email thread Facebook is now releasing shows internal concerns being raised almost two months earlier.

This chimes with previous (more partial) releases of internal correspondence pertaining to Cambridge Analytica  — which have also come out as a result of legal actions (and which we’ve reported on previously here and here).

If you click to download the latest release, which Facebook suggests it ‘agreed’ with the District of Columbia Attorney General to “jointly make public”, you’ll find a redacted thread of emails in which Facebook staffers raise a number of platform policy violation concerns related to the “political partner space”, writing September 29, 2915, that “many companies seem to be on the edge- possibly over”.

Cambridge Analytica is first identified by name — when it’s described by a Facebook employee as “a sketchy (to say the least) data modelling company that has penetrated our market deeply” — on September 22, 2015, per this email thread. It is one of many companies the staffer writes are suspected of scraping user data — but is also described as “the largest and most aggressive on the conservative side”.

On September 30, 2015, a Facebook staffer responds to this, asking for App IDs and app names for the apps engaging in scraping user data — before writing: “My hunch is that these apps’ data-scraping is likely non-compliant”.

“It would be very difficult to engage in data-scraping activity as you described while still being compliant with FPPs [Facebook Platform Policies],” this person adds.

Cambridge Analytica gets another direct mention (“the Cambridge app”) on the same day. A different Facebook staffer then chips in with a view that “it’s very likely these companies are not in violation of any of our terms” — before asking for “concrete examples” and warning against calling them to ask questions unless “red flags” have been confirmed.

On October 13, a Facebook employee chips back into the thread with the view that “there are likely a few data policy violations here”.

The email thread goes on to discuss concerns related to additional political partners and agencies using Facebook’s platform at that point, including ForAmerica, Creative Response Concepts, NationBuilder and Strategic Media 21. Which perhaps explains Facebook’s lack of focus on CA — if potentially “sketchy” political activity was apparently widespread.

On December 11 another Facebook staffer writes to ask for an expedited review of Cambridge Analytica — saying it’s “unfortunately… now a PR issue”, i.e. as a result of the Guardian publishing its article.

The same day a Facebook employee emails to say Cambridge Analytica “is hi pri at this point”, adding: “We need to sort this out ASAP” — a month and a half after the initial concern was raised.

Also on December 11 a staffer writes that they had not heard of GSR, the Cambridge-based developer CA hired to extract Facebook user data, before the Guardian article named it. But other Facebook staffers chip in to reveal personal knowledge of the psychographic profiling techniques deployed by Cambridge Analytica and GSR’s Dr Aleksandr Kogan, with one writing that Kogan was their postdoc supervisor at Cambridge University.

Another says they are friends with Michal Kosinsky, the lead author of a personality modelling paper that underpins the technique used by CA to try to manipulate voters — which they described as “solid science”.

A different staffer also flags the possibility that Facebook has worked with Kogan — ironically enough “on research on the Protect & Care team” — citing the “Wait, What thread” and another email, neither of which appear to have been released by Facebook in this ‘Exhibit 1’ bundle.

So we can only speculate on whether Facebook’s decision — around September 2015 — to hire Kogan’s GSR co-founder, Joseph Chancellor, appears as a discussion item in the ‘Wait, What’ thread…

Putting its own spin on the release of these internal emails in a blog post, Facebook sticks to its prior line that “unconfirmed reports of scraping” and “policy violations by Aleksandr Kogan” are two separate issues, writing:

We believe this document has the potential to confuse two different events surrounding our knowledge of Cambridge Analytica. There is no substantively new information in this document and the issues have been previously reported. As we have said many times, including last week to a British parliamentary committee, these are two distinct issues. One involved unconfirmed reports of scraping — accessing or collecting public data from our products using automated means — and the other involved policy violations by Aleksandr Kogan, an app developer who sold user data to Cambridge Analytica. This document proves the issues are separate; conflating them has the potential to mislead people.

It has previously also referred to the internal concerns raised about CA as “rumors”.

“Facebook was not aware that Kogan sold data to Cambridge Analytica until December 2015. That is a fact that we have testified to under oath, that we have described to our core regulators, and that we stand by today,” it adds now.

It also claims that after an engineer responded to concerns that CA was scraping data and looked into it they were not able to find any such evidence. “Even if such a report had been confirmed, such incidents would not naturally indicate the scale of the misconduct that Kogan had engaged in,” Facebook adds.

The company has sought to dismiss the privacy litigation brought against it by the District of Columbia which is related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal — but has been unsuccessful in derailing the case thus far.

The DC complaint alleges that Facebook allowed third-party developers to access consumers’ personal data, including information on their online behavior, in order to offer apps on its platform, and that it failed to effectively oversee and enforce its platform policies by not taking reasonable steps to protect consumer data and privacy. It also alleges Facebook failed to inform users of the CA breach.

Facebook has also failed to block another similar lawsuit that’s been filed in Washington, DC by Attorney General Karl Racine — which has alleged lax oversight and misleading privacy standards.

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Ping-pong and the riddle of victory | Pico Iyer

Ping-pong and the riddle of victory | Pico Iyer

Growing up in England, Pico Iyer was taught that the point of a game was to win. Now, some 50 years later, he's realized that competition can be "more like an act of love." In this charming, subtly profound talk, he explores what regular games of ping-pong in his neighborhood in Japan revealed about the riddle of winning -- and shows why not knowing who's won can feel like the ultimate victory.

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

Google Ditches Desserts: Android Q Is Android 10

Google is changing the way it names different versions of Android. The company is ditching desserts and sweet treats in favor of numbers. Which are obviously simpler and universally understood. Which means Android Q is officially Android 10.

Android’s Sweet Naming Convention

Android has been with us since 2007, and made its debut on the HTC Dream in 2008. And aside from the alpha and beta, all versions since have been named after desserts or sweet treats. We’ve had Cupcake, Eclair, Gingerbread, KitKat, Lollipop, and Oreo, amongst others.

Android (Alpha)
Android (Beta)
Android Cupcake
Android Donut
Android Eclair
Android Froyo
Android Gingerbread
Android Honeycomb
Android Ice Cream Sandwich
Android Jellybean
Android KitKat
Android Lollipop
Android Marshmallow
Android Nougat
Android Oreo
Android Pie
Android ….. 10

— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) August 22, 2019

Google has been working its way through the alphabet, and the most recent stable release was Android Pie. However, all versions of Android have also been numbered, and Android Pie is officially known as Android 9.0. Which leads us nicely onto…

Android Q Is Android 10

During development, the next version of Android has been known as Android Q. And there has been much speculation over what dessert Google was going to use as the name. After all, there aren’t many sweet treats whose names begin with Q.

So, as explained on The Keyword, Google has decided to call Android Q “Android 10”. There’s no amusing nickname, it’s just Android 10. And this signals the end of Google naming Android after desserts and sweet treats, so the next version will be Android 11.

Google’s reasoning for this is that the names don’t always translate well. While everyone who speaks English will understand what Lollipop means and how to pronounce it, in other languages Lollipop may be unpronounceable or unfathomable.

Google has also tweaked the Android branding. The name has changed color, from green to black, and the letters are slimmer and easier to read. The name will also now be accompanied by the Android robot, but just the head, with the body removed.

How to Speed Up Your Old Android

So, Android Q is Android 10, and it will be numbers all the way from now on. And while it’s a shame to lose the fun names, numbering the new versions of Android should make it easier for users to know what version of Android their phone is running.

The way Google names or numbers the different versions of Android obviously doesn’t make much difference to users. However, how well your phone is operating does make a difference, so here are some ways to speed up an older Android device.

Read the full article: Google Ditches Desserts: Android Q Is Android 10

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10 Best Websites to Find Volunteer Work That’s Right for You

Giving back to the community makes yourself and others feel great. Thanks to the internet, volunteer opportunities have never been easier to find. Whether you want to help animals, the environment, or people in need, volunteer websites can match you with specific opportunities.

Ready to lend a helping hand? Check out these best websites to find volunteer work.

1. VolunteerMatch

VolunteerMatch has matched millions of people with wonderful volunteer opportunities. When you type your location in the search bar, VolunteerMatch lists all the work possibilities near you.

You can sort several possibilities by cause—animals, children, seniors, women, and the arts are just some of the filters you can use to find the right volunteer work for you.

Since we live in an age where smartphone apps can help someone, VolunteerMatch also allows you to check out virtual opportunities. This lets you do volunteer work from the comfort of your home. Once you find work that you want, sign up to the site and let the organization know that you want to help.

2. All for Good

All for Good uses your location to find opportunities near you. Simply click Find Ways to Volunteer on the top menu bar to search for local organizations. All for Good provides you with thousands of results for you to choose from.

Hit See more search options to type in a keyword that filters the opportunities by your special interests. The site also lets you filter the results by remote projects, date, and family-friendly projects.

3. JustServe

JustServe makes signing up for volunteer work a breeze. Once you find an opportunity, simply sign up for an account on the website, and just show up at the event when the day comes.

Type in the location of your choice to view opportunities. Filter the events by age group, volunteer skills, and your own interests. JustServe not only displays one-time events, but it’ll show you ongoing opportunities as well.

4. United Way

If you ever volunteered, you’ve probably heard of United Way. This nonprofit organization specializes in giving back to the community, especially in the form of education, healthcare, and fundraising.

United Way connects you with a wide range of opportunities that involve supporting children, gardening, construction, therapy, disaster services, and even working at a food bank. The huge variety of work makes it simple to use your preexisting skills to help your community.

When you search for opportunities, you’ll find that most events are sponsored by United Way in your area. To get involved in volunteer work overseas, make sure to contact your local United Way.

5. Do Something

Do Something empowers young people to get involved in their community and fight for social change. The entire organization helped register over 100,000 new voters in 2018 and even cleaned up a total of 3.7 million cigarette butts. Do Something’s movements directly affect the community and make an immediate difference.

You don’t have to live in a specific area to get involved in its events. Most movements simply ask you to do your part to help the cause and give you guidance on how to do so. Some events might ask you to clean up litter around you, while others instruct you to collect food for the needy.

6. Habitat for Humanity

Do you have a knack for construction, or have an interest in learning about interior design? In either case, you should definitely check out the opportunities at Habitat for Humanity. This organization specializes in building houses for underprivileged people across the United States and around the world.

When you search for opportunities, Habitat for Humanity lists its offices in your area. From here, you can select the branch closest to you, and sign up for any current or future activities. On the other hand, you can also search for global opportunities, which enables you to build shelters around the world.

To volunteer at Habitat for Humanity, you don’t have to know anything about construction to get involved. It encourages women, children, and veterans to join in as well.

7. GivePulse

GivePulse offers a whole database of volunteer opportunities. Simply type in your location, and scroll through a list of valuable volunteer work. As you spend your time helping others, it can turn into an educational experience for both you and the people in need. Work as a volunteer yoga instructor, or even become a caregiver for children with special needs.

If you need to keep track of your volunteer hours, GivePulse can help you with that too. GivePulse shows the amount of time you’ve worked, verifies your hours, and even calculates your volunteer statistics.

8. AARP Create the Good

AARP is one of the United States’ biggest nonprofit associations. It aids Americans age 50 or older by helping them feel more comfortable and confident during the aging process.

AARP allows you to volunteer with people from all walks of life. Become a senior companion, tutor young children, or even assist veterans. As you uncover the secrets of generosity, you’ll get addicted to the satisfaction of volunteering your time.

9. Feeding America

Connect with your local food bank through Feeding America. Since most food banks actually rely on volunteers to do most of the work, this organization can really use your help. By spending a small amount of time sorting through and stocking food, you can help the hungry families in your city.

10. American Red Cross

The American Red Cross specializes in providing emergency services and disaster relief to those affected by medical conditions or natural disasters. When you sign up for the Red Cross, you can choose from a variety of roles.

Opt to take a short quiz that places you in a specific position, or choose to browse through opportunities by category. While some roles have to do with finances, education, and IT, other roles allow you to help people face-to-face.

It’s Time to Make a Difference

Nothing beats the amazing feeling that comes along with volunteering. By taking a couple of hours out of your day, you can help improve your community or your environment. In the end, volunteering is always worth it.

When you’re not volunteering, you should think about donating your gently used clothes and items to the needy. Check out our article on NeedHave, an app that promotes goodwill donations in your area.

Read the full article: 10 Best Websites to Find Volunteer Work That’s Right for You

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11 Premium Mac Apps That Make a SetApp Subscription Worthwhile

App developers are increasingly moving away from one-time purchases and towards a subscription model. It makes sense for them, since it guarantees a future income stream as long as they keep apps updated. But for the consumer, it makes us wonder if we want to pay for yet another subscription.

SetApp aims to solve that problem by charging one monthly fee of $10 for an entire suite of apps. There are so many of them, however, that you might not know where to start. Here are some of the most valuable players currently in the SetApp library.

1. 2Do

Many popular to-do apps have subscription models of their own. 2Do doesn’t usually opt for this business model, instead charging separate fees for its Mac, iOS, and Android apps. A single license for 2Do will cost you $49 if you buy the app, which is only slightly less than half the price of an annual SetApp subscription.

2Do offers quick entry, even when the app isn’t running, which helps to capture new tasks as you think of them. It also features smart scheduling, automatic backups, and more features than we could possibly list here.

Download: 2Do

2. Ulysses

If you write on your Mac, there’s a good chance that Ulysses can help you do it better. It lets you write in a slightly customized version of Markdown that can export in any number of different formats. This separates the presentation of the text from the content and helps you focus on the actual words.

On its own, Ulysses normally costs $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year. That makes it one of the best bargains of a SetApp subscription. We’ve looked at alternatives to Ulysses in the past, but topping its feature set is a tough nut to crack.

Download: Ulysses

3. CleanMyMac X

Like any other operating system, macOS tends to accumulate a layer of clutter over time. You can clean up some of this clutter on your Mac by manually deleting files or emptying the Trash. When you’ve already done that and still need to reclaim space, it’s time to try CleanMyMac X.

Despite the name, CleanMyMac X does more than just clean your Mac. It will help clear cookies, scan for malware, and help you keep your privacy in check. The app costs $34.95 for a one-year subscription for one computer, so it’s a valuable addition to your SetApp library.

Download: CleanMyMac X

4. MacPilot

You might have gone through all the available options in the Settings app on your Mac, but that’s far from everything you can adjust. MacPilot exposes hidden macOS options and lets you tweak them without having to dive into Terminal tricks.

Of course, having access to all these settings means you could potentially mess up your system. Still, if you want to tweak every aspect of your Mac, this is a great way to do so. Even without SetApp, MacPilot requires a subscription, though it starts at $2.50 per month.

Download: MacPilot

5. iStat Menus

Do you frequently find yourself running the Activity Monitor app to see what your system is doing? Wouldn’t it be easier just to click an icon in the menu bar instead of launching an app? That’s exactly what iStat Menus is for.

While iStat Menus can simply serve as a quick way to view your CPU activity or detailed battery stats, it can do much more. The app can detail the weather, notify you when your CPU is working hard, and more. While a single license for the app is only $9.99, that only gets you six months of weather data, which is included in the SetApp subscription version.

Download: iStat Menus

6. One Switch

There are plenty of reasons you might have to open System Preferences a few times per day. Maybe you want to toggle Dark Mode on, then off again, or perhaps you need to connect a Bluetooth device. No matter what you use it for, One Switch can make this easier.

One Switch lets you configure a list of settings you want available in the menu bar, up to seven at a time. It can also hide and show desktop icons, which is perfect if you want to look more organized than you really are.

Download: One Switch

7. Bartender

If you’re reading this on your Mac, pause for a moment and look at your menu bar. How many icons are there? If you needed to take longer than a few seconds to count, you need to install Bartender right now.

Bartender is a simple app with one purpose: to keep your menu bar in tip-top shape. You can reorder icons, plus you can hide and show them as needed. If you have too many menu bar icons, you can even search to find the one you need right away.

Download: Bartender

8. BetterTouchTool

There are some apps that make you wonder why the functionality they offer isn’t just built into macOS. BetterTouchTool, the ultimate Mac productivity utility, is absolutely one of those apps. The app lets you customize nearly everything about not only your touchpad, but your Magic Trackpad or even the MacBook Pro Touch Bar.

You can tie multi-touch gestures to certain actions, but that’s just the start. BetterTouchTool can target specific apps, letting you link controls to them. It also features a built-in clipboard manager, Siri integration, and more.

Download: BetterTouchTool

9. DCommander

If you fondly remember the days of Norton Commander and other dual-pane file managers, you’ll love DCommander. Even if you don’t come to the app for nostalgia, you may find that you prefer this way of working with files to the built-in macOS Finder.

Instead of using two separate windows or tabs, you get a view of one directory on the left and one on the right. This makes dragging and dropping and similar operations much easier. DCommander also brings batch operations and other powerful features to the table.

Download: DCommander

10. Mosaic

Window management isn’t perfected, despite how long computers have used this system. Yes, you can resize and move them manually, but once you use an app like Mosaic, you’ll realize how much more efficiently you can manipulate windows with the right tools.

Mosaic sits in your menu bar, doing effectively nothing until you start to move a window. Move the window you’re dragging up near the top of the screen and you’ll see several icons appear. Drag your mouse pointer over them and you can position windows in several different ways.

Add in keyboard shortcuts and you’ve got almost any possible window layout available in seconds.

Download: Mosaic

11. Workspaces

Doing any serious work on your computer rarely involves just one app. Whether you’re writing, coding, or doing design work, chances are you’ll have a few windows open. You probably move them to familiar locations as well to keep them within easy reach. Workspaces handles all that for you, and that’s just the beginning.

Workspace lets you set up task groups. For example, you might open a certain document in one app while pulling up notes in another. Workspaces handles this, but can also pull in emails, webpages, and more. When you don’t need a certain file or other piece of data anymore, just remove it from the Resources list and it’s gone.

Download: Workspaces

What If You Hate Subscriptions?

Part of the problem with subscription-based apps is feeling like money is constantly leaking out of your pockets. SetApp’s “one subscription for everything” model can help, and as we’ve seen, it definitely provides a good value. But that doesn’t do you any good if you hate subscriptions, period.

Fortunately, there are still developers that opt for the one-time purchase model instead of subscriptions. If you feel like everything has gone the way of Netflix, take a look at our favorite alternatives to subscription-based apps.

Read the full article: 11 Premium Mac Apps That Make a SetApp Subscription Worthwhile

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You Can Now Get Spotify Premium Free for 3 Months

Spotify is extending its free trial for Spotify Premium from one month to three months. Which means that anyone who hasn’t yet tried Premium can try it free for three months. Putting Spotify on a par with Apple Music, which also offers a three-month free trial.

Spotify and Apple Music Fight for Subscribers

Spotify now boasts more than 100 million subscribers. That’s the number of people who actually pay for the privilege of streaming music, with many more listening for free. However, Spotify wants more subscribers, especially with Apple Music growing as a threat.

Apple Music launched in 2015. Unlike Spotify, Apple Music doesn’t offer a free tier, so all of the 60 million users and counting pay for the privilege. But not before enjoying a free trial lasting three months. Which is two months longer than Spotify offers.

Spotify Extends Its Free Trial to Three Months

So, as a way of enticing people into subscribing to Spotify Premium, Spotify is extending its free trial from one month to three months. Putting it on a par with Apple Music. Which seems to be a sensible way of countering the growing threat posed by Apple Music.

Finally made the jump. After years of limited skips and ads, I bought Spotify premium. Live look at me for the next 24 hours: pic.twitter.com/2S5hbUyGwh

— Grace Curley (@G_CURLEY) August 16, 2019

Spotify announced this change in a post on the Spotify Blog talking up the benefits of a Spotify Premium subscription. Which includes the lack of ads, the option to download music and podcasts, and the ability to play music on demand across devices.

The three-month free trial is available from today (August 22) and will apply to all eligible users who sign up to Spotify Premium. This is available for individual and student plans, but only for people who “haven’t already tried Premium”.

Is Spotify Premium Worth the Asking Price?

If you’ve clicked on this article and read this far down, you’re probably keen to try Spotify Premium. So, once you have signed up for the free trial and tested it to an inch of its life, we recommend our article asking whether Spotify Premium is worth the money?

Read the full article: You Can Now Get Spotify Premium Free for 3 Months

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YouTube Kills Its Direct Messaging Feature

YouTube is killing its native messaging feature, which means you’ll no longer be able to send direct messages on YouTube. However, the chances are you’ve never actually messaged anyone on YouTube and weren’t even aware that YouTube Messages existed.

In August 2017, YouTube introduced in-app messaging on Android and iOS. Then, later on, the same messaging feature was added to the YouTube website. In a nutshell, Messages, as it was named, allowed you to share videos and chat with people.

YouTube Removes Its Direct Messaging Option

Now, two years on, YouTube is killing Messages. Google revealed the decision in a post on YouTube Help (as first spotted by 9to5Google). YouTube will be removing the ability to message people directly on September 18, 2019.

The reasons for retiring YouTube’s direct messaging feature are unclear. However, we suspect it simply wasn’t popular enough. YouTube claims it’s “constantly reevaluating our priorities” and has decided to “focus on improving public conversations”.

Precisely 2 years after introducing YouTube messaging, Google is killing it.

As Google does.

To everything. pic.twitter.com/8b3QsxLzNW

— Jason Scott (@textfiles) August 21, 2019

Most people are unlikely to be upset at this move. Firstly, because YouTube messaging has never been particular popular, and secondly, because there are so many other messaging apps available. So you can just grab the URL of the video and share it elsewhere.

However, having native messaging on YouTube did bring some benefits, such as integrated search and access to your viewing history, so for those who did use YouTube Messages, this could be a wrench. Hence the complaints posted on that support page.

YouTube Is Focusing on Public Conversations

YouTube says that since launching its direct messaging feature it has also “focused on public conversations with updates to comments, posts, and stories.” And these are the areas YouTube is likely to focus on improving moving forward.

If you’re one of the minority who will miss YouTube Messages, consider trying one of these strange and unusual messaging apps. Or, if you’re all about the content, check out our YouTube starter kit full of YouTubers worth watching.

Image Credit: Rego Korosi/Flickr

Read the full article: YouTube Kills Its Direct Messaging Feature

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What Are Supercookies? Here’s How to Remove Them Properly

In March 2016, the FCC hit Verizon with a $1.35 million fine for tracking customers with a unique identifier header (UIDH), also known as a “supercookie.” It was big news when the FCC forced Verizon to allow customers to opt-out of the tracking. But what is a supercookie? Why is a supercookie worse than a regular cookie?

Here’s what you need to know about supercookies—and how to remove them.

What Is a Cookie?

To understand supercookies, you need to understand what regular cookies are. An HTTP cookie, usually just known as a cookie, is a small piece of code that’s downloaded to a user’s browser when they visit a website. The cookie stores small pieces of information useful to the website, the user, and interactions between the two.

For example, when you put items in your Amazon shopping cart, those items store in a cookie. If you leave Amazon, when you return, your items remain in your cart. The cookie sends that information back to Amazon when you return to the site.

Regular cookies serve other functions too, like telling a website you are already logged in, so you don’t have to log in again when you return. More controversially, third-party tracking cookies follow you around the internet, reporting back to marketing and other companies about what you’re up to online.

What Is a Supercookie?

A supercookie is a tracking cookie but has a more sinister use. Supercookies also have different functionality to a regular cookie, too.

With a regular cookie, if you don’t want it to follow you around the internet, you can clear your browsing data, your cookies, and more. You can block cookies and third-party cookies from your browser, and auto-delete cookies after your browser session ends. You have to log into each site again, and your shopping cart items won’t store, but it also means tracking cookies are tracking you anymore.

A supercookie is different. Clearing your browsing data doesn’t help. This is because a supercookie isn’t really a cookie; it is not stored in your browser.

Instead, an ISP inserts a piece of information unique to a user’s connection into the HTTP header. The information uniquely identifies any device. In the case of Verizon, it allowed the tracking of every website visited.

Because the ISP injects the supercookie between the device and the server it is connecting too, there’s nothing the user can do about it. You cannot delete it, because it isn’t stored on your device. Ad and script blocking software cannot stop it, because it happens after the request leaves the device.

The Dangers of Supercookies

The potential for privacy violation here should be obvious — in most cases, cookies are tied to a single website, and can’t be shared with another site. The UIDH can be revealed to any website and contains a potentially vast amount of information on a user’s habits and history. Verizon was advertising this capability to its partners, too. It is highly likely this specific use of a supercookie intended to capture a lot of data to sell it.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) also notes that a supercookie can be used by advertisers to essentially resurrect deleted cookies from a user’s device and link them to new ones, circumventing the strategies that users might take to prevent tracking:

[S]uppose an ad network assigned you a cookie with the unique value “cookie1,” and Verizon assigned you the X-UIDH header “old_uid.” When Verizon changes your X-UIDH header to a new value, say “new_uid,” the ad network can connect “new_uid” and “old_uid” to the same cookie value “cookie1” and see that they all three values represent the same person. Similarly, if you subsequently clear cookies, the ad network will assign a new cookie value “cookie2.” Since your X-UIDH value is the same (say, “new_uid”) before and after clearing cookies, the ad network can connect “cookie1” and “cookie2” to the same X-UIDH value “new_uid.” The back-and-forth bootstrapping of identity makes it impossible to truly clear your tracking history while the X-UIDH header is enabled.

In the same blog post, the EFF also notes that a UIDH can also apply to data sent from apps, which isn’t as easy to track otherwise. The combination allows the creation of a fine-grain picture of a user’s internet usage. Verizon also bypasses the “Limit ad tracking” settings on iOS and Android. Skirting this limit compounds the potential privacy violations that supercookies perpetrate.

What Data Does a Supercookie Send?

A supercookie includes information on the request made by a user, like the website that they’re trying to visit and the time that the request was made. This is known as metadata (and is very similar to the metadata collected by the NSA from cell phone records). But supercookies can include other types of data as well.

Regardless of the exact type of data, if Verizon were to suffer a data breach and these cookies were tied to specific users, it would become a privacy nightmare. The EFF already found that hashed phone numbers were in use as user identifiers, which is a worrying sign. Hackers, other companies, or government organizations would love to get their hands on this type of information.

The fact that Verizon was one of the companies taking part in the NSA’s PRISM program only makes this more worrying.

What Is a Zombie Cookie?

A zombie cookie is another type of supercookie. As the name suggests, you cannot kill the zombie cookie. And when you do think you’ve killed it off, the zombie cookie can come back to life.

A zombie cookie remains intact as it hides outside of your browser’s regular cookie storage. Zombie cookies target local storage, HTML5 storage, RGB color code values, Silverlight storage, and more. That’s why they’re known as zombie cookies. An advertiser must only find an existing cookie in one of those locations to resurrect the rest. If a user fails to delete a single zombie cookie from any of the storage locations, they’re back to square one.

How to Remove a Supercookie

Supercookies store a lot of information about you. Some can resurrect deleted normal cookies, and some aren’t stored on your device. What on earth can you do about them, then?

Unfortunately, the answer for some supercookie types is “not very much.”

Verizon allows subscribers to opt-out of UIDH tracking. If you are a Verizon user, head to www.vzw.com/myprivacy, log into your account, and go to the Relevant Mobile Advertising section. Select “No, I don’t want to participate in Relevant Mobile Advertising.” Please note that opting out doesn’t actually disable the header. It only tells Verizon not to share detailed demographic information with advertisers searching for a UIDH value. Furthermore, if you participate in the Verizon Selects program, the UIDH will remain active even after opting out.

If an ISP decides to use a UIDH-level supercookie to track you, you’re basically plum out of luck. If someone is tracking you with a supercookie, your best bet is to use a VPN to create an encrypted connection between yourself and the rest of the internet. HTTPS is almost the de facto standard for internet browsing, which also protects your internet traffic from snoopers. Where possible, always use HTTPS over a basic HTTP connection.

Otherwise, check out The Best Browser Security Tools section in the MakeUseOf guide to the best security and antivirus apps.

Online Tracking Is Dangerous

UIDHs are a serious threat to internet privacy. They’re not stored on your computer, can uniquely identify your web traffic, and are extremely difficult to detect. Using HTTPS and a VPN helps, but what internet users need is strong legislation requiring ISPs to allow us to opt-out from such tracking programs, if not to stop dangerous, invasive tracking programs altogether. Lawmakers in the US state of Maine recently passed a bill preventing ISPs from selling private internet data to advertisers.

Worried about Facebook tracking? Here’s how you stop Facebook tracking your online movements.

Read the full article: What Are Supercookies? Here’s How to Remove Them Properly

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What Is WEP Wi-Fi Encryption? Here’s Why You Should NOT Use It