Kapwing is a laymen’s Adobe Creative Suite built for what people actually do on the internet: make memes and remix media. Need to resize a video? Add text or subtitles to a video? Trim or crop or loop or frame or rotate or soundtrack or… Then you need Kapwing. The free web and mobile tool is built for everyone, not just designers. No software download or tutorials to slog through. Just efficient creativity.
In a year since coming out of stealth with 100,000 users, Kapwing has grown 10X to over 1 million. Now it going pro, building out its $20/month collaboration tools for social media managers and scrappy teams. But it won’t forget its roots with teens, so it’s dropped its pay-$6-to-remove-watermarks tier while keeping its core features free.
Eager to capitalize on the meme and mobile content business, CRV has just led an $11 million Series A round for Kapwing. It’s joined by follow-on cash from Village Global, Sinai, and Shasta Ventures plus new investors JaneVC, Harry Stebbings, Vector, and the Xoogler Syndicate. CRV partners ‘the venture twins’ Justine and Olivia Moore actually met Kapwing co-founder and CEO Julia Enthoven while they all worked at The Stanford Daily newspaper together in 2012.
“As a team, we love memes. We talk about internet fads almost every day at lunch and pay close attention to digital media trends” says Enthoven, who started the company with fellow Googler Eric Lu. “One of our cultural tenets is to respect the importance of design, art, and culture in the world, and another one is to not take ourselves too seriously.” But it is taking on serious clients.
As Kapwing’s toolset has grown, it’s seen paying customers coming from Amazon, Sony, Netflix, and Spotify. Now only 13% of what’s made with it are traditional text-plus-media memes. “Kapwing will always be designed for creators first: the students, artists, influencers, entrepreneurs, etc who define and spread culture” says Enthoven. “But we make money from the creative professionals, marketers, media teams, and office workers who need to create content for work.”
That’s why in addition to plenty of templates for employing the latest trending memes, Kapwing now helps Pro subscribers with permanent hosting, saving throughout the creation process, and re-editing after export. Eventually it plans to sell enterprise licenses to let whole companies use Kapwing.
Copycats are trying to chip away at its business, but Kapwing will use its new funding to keep up a breakneck pace of development. Pronounced “Ka-Pwing” like a bullet riccochet, it’s trying to stay ahead of Imgflip, ILoveIMG, Imgur’s on-site tool, and more robust apps like Canva.
If you’ve ever been stuck with a landscape video that won’t fit in an Instagram Story, a bunch of clips you want to stitch together, or the need to subtitle something for accessibility, you’ll know the frustration of lacking a purpose-built tool. And if you’re on mobile, there are even few options. Unlike some software suite you have to install on a desktop, Kapwing works right from a browser.
“‘Memes’ is such a broad category of media nowadays. It could refer to a compilation like the political singalong videos, animations like Shooting Star memes, or a change in music like the AOC Dancing memes” Enthoven explains. “Although they used to be edgy, memes have become more mainstream . . . Memes popularized new types of multimedia formats and made raw, authentic footage more acceptable on social media.”
As communication continues to shift from text to visual media, design can’t only be the domain of designers. Kapwing empowers anyone to storytell and entertain, whether out of whimsy or professional necessity. If big-name creative software from Adobe or Apple don’t simplify and offer easy paths through common use cases, they’ll see themselves usurped by the tools of the people.
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.
Facebook has talked a lot about working on a non-invasive brain input device that can make things like text entry possible just by thinking.
So far, most of the company’s progress on that project appears to be taking the form of university research, but with the acquisition of CTRL-labs (which we’ve confirmed was worth between $500 million and $1 billion), Facebook appears to be moving closer to turning this idea into a commercial product.
The company’s team will be reduced to 19 people, a reduction that will affect over 100 employees, as it focuses on converting more Kin users into buyers. Kin still faces a lawsuit from the SEC, claiming the company’s ICO was illegal.
Google and other search engines started implementing the right to be forgotten in 2014, allowing European citizens to ask search engines to delist results with sensitive personal information. Now the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that Google doesn’t have to de-reference those results on a global scale.
Whereas CleanTech has traditionally been known in the field of energy generation, such as solar, battery and hydro, ClimateTech could perhaps be defined as data-driven products aimed at addressing the risk and exposure to the effects of climate change. (Extra Crunch membership required.)
Honestbee, the Singapore-based grocery delivery startup that has been struggling with financial issues, owes 217 employees a total of almost USD $1 million in unpaid salary.
We’ll be hosting a Q&A session with Orange Digital Ventures’ Marième Diop, International Finance Organization‘s Wale Ayeni and 500 Startups’ Sheel Mohnot, three Africa-based investors who bring plenty of experience screening startups across its top tech hubs.
Apple has just released iOS 13.1. This updated brings everything new in iOS 13 in case you haven’t updated yet, as well as many bug fixes. I would recommend updating to iOS 13.1 to get a more stable phone.
But that’s not all. iPadOS and tvOS are finally making the jump to version 13 with iPadOS 13.1 and tvOS 13.1 also available today.
The update is currently rolling out and is available in the Settings app on your device. iOS 13.1 is compatible with the iPhone 6s or later, the iPhone SE or the 7th-generation iPod touch. iPadOS is compatible with any iPad, iPad mini and iPad Pro that was released in 2014 or later. tvOS 13.1 is compatible with any Apple TV that can run tvOS 12.
It’s also worth noting that today’s release of iPadOS and tvOS marks the launch of Apple Arcade on the iPad and Apple TV. For a $4.99 monthly subscription fee, you can access dozens of games across your Apple devices. You can also pair a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One controller with your Apple devices to play those games.
But first, backup your device. Make sure your iCloud backup is up to date by opening the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and tapping on your account information at the top and then on your device name. Additionally, you can also plug your iOS device into your computer to do a manual backup in iTunes (or do both, really).
Don’t forget to encrypt your backup in iTunes. It is much safer if somebody hacks your computer. And encrypted backups include saved passwords and health data. This way, you don’t have to reconnect to all your online accounts.
Once this is done, you should go to the Settings app as soon as possible to get in the queue. Navigate to ‘Settings,’ then ‘General’ and then ‘Software Update.’ Then you should see ‘Update Requested…’ It will then automatically start downloading once the download is available.
Here’s a quick rundown of what’s new in iOS 13. This year, in addition to dark mode, it feels like every single app has been improved with some quality-of-life updates. The Photos app features a brand new gallery view with autoplaying live photos and videos, smart curation and a more immersive design.
This version has a big emphasis on privacy as well, thanks to a new signup option called “Sign in with Apple” and a bunch of privacy popups for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi consent, and background location tracking. Apple Maps now features an impressive Google Street View-like feature called Look Around. It’s only available in a handful of cities, but I recommend… looking around, as everything is in 3D.
Many apps have been updated, such as Reminders with a brand new version, Messages with the ability to set a profile picture shared with your contacts, Mail with better text formatting options, Health with menstrual cycle tracking, Files with desktop-like features, Safari with a new website settings menu, etc.
“It was SoundCloud’s opportunity to lose and now it’s ours” says Audius CEO Roneil Rumberg. Plenty of musicians and fans are sick of SoundCloud’s expensive hosting costs, haphazard content takedowns, and lagging user experience as the site’s status withers. Audius wants to be the opposite, and offer a new home for artists where they’ll eventually earn 90% of revenue earned and the startup itself can’t remove songs.
Today Audius launches its music streaming and free hosting service backed by DJs like Deadmau5 and Zed’s Dead, plus $5.5 million in A-list venture capital. Music makers can upload their songs at no cost, and users can browse, follow, and get listening recommendations. The catalog is small to start with just a few hundred artists, but Audius has big plans for how to lure artists choosing between other SoundCloud alternatives from Mixcloud to YouTube.
The secret sauce is that Audius isn’t just a web and mobile site, it’s an open source protocol built on the blockchain, not that users need to be versed in cryptocurrency or do anything special to signup. Audius doesn’t actually host the music, but decentralizes it across independently operated nodes, which it believes will protect it from lawsuits and record label pressure. It’s distributing its own crypto tokens to incentivize artists that join early as well as the node operators with the insinuation that these might rise in value if the service grows popular.
Audius is completely free for listening at high quality 320kbps. For now, artists can’t make money, though many still can’t on SoundCloud. But in early 2020, the startup plans to let artists opt into requiring users to occasionally listen to ads or pay a few dollars per month for an Audius subscription. 90% of revenue will go to the artists and 10% to the node operators, and their are also plans to cut in playlist curators. Audius itself hopes the value of its tokens will rise so it can sell from its stockpile to generate revenue.
“Audius’ dedication to empowering artists through supporting direct relationships with fans, censorship resistance, and fair pay is so important in a time when artists are being mistreated regularly” writes dance music superstar Deadmau5 aka Joel Zimmerman who’s on the startup’s advisory board. Other artists like Zeds Dead, Mr. Carmack, and Rezz have pledged to put some exclusive music on Audius, ranging from finished tracks to rough drafts. They were attracted by the promise of bigger and faster payouts, plus a transparent copyright takedowns process.
The biggest challenge for Audius will be playing catchup recruiting artists and listeners over a decade after SoundCloud launched and when Spotify already has 108 million paying subscribers from is 232 million users. For now there’s not much special about the user experience, where you can listen to a feed of what you follow or library of saved songs, or check out trending artists and playlists At least sign up is easier than most blockchain apps, requiring merely an email address or Twitter sign-in, though crypto kids can use MetaMask. The lack of native mobile apps won’t help, though.
All the artists-first philosophy won’t matter if it never gains traction. But if Audius does grow, it has a savvy approach to preventing unnecessary content takedowns. Rumberg claims an estimated 80% of takedowns on apps like SoundCloud and YouTube are not actually infringing copyright, leading to great content disappearing. “Audius doesn’t have the ability to deplatform you or censor you” says Audius co-founder Forrest Browning.
First, since it doesn’t host the songs itself, it will just pass copyright holder complaints on to the uploaders themselves. Owners can be reassigned the revenue being earned by a song rather than have it taken down. And instead of pulling down a whole DJ set, the rights holder of a 5 minute song in an hour-long mix would get 1/12 of the proceeds. Browning tells me “A lot of artists are completely fine with their content being remixed or mashed up.”
If disputes aren’t resolved, rights holders can approach the operators of nodes hosting the music and file a local equivalent of ta DMCA takedown request, though the music might still live on other nodes beyond the law. In that case, rights holders file a complaint to the Audius arbitration committee made up of users. That group can vote on whether a track legally should be removed or its revenue reattributed, and both plaintiffs and committee members must put up a small financial stake they’ll lose if their claim is frivolous or they make erroneous decisions.
We’ll see if this hands-off approach to censorship actually flies with the law. If so, it could give artists confidence in joining Audius that they lack elsewhere. Many are frustrated after constantly having to rebuild their audience on different platforms from MySpace to iTunes to Spotify to SoundCloud, especially if their tracks are disappearing. One benefit of being open sourced and decentralized is that “Let’s say our company closes up shop in 5 years? Audius and the content will live on forever, as long as folks continue to operate the nodes” Rumberg explains.
To make sure it stays in business as it stretches its venture funding from General Catalyst and Lightspeed, Audius has plans for additional tools that could make it and artists money. From being able to crowdfund future albums to selling merchandise or VIP experiences, Audius could become a gateway to spending on independent music. It could have to compete with itself, though, since Audius’ on-demand streaming site is just one client built on its Open Source protocol. The founders say they hope other people will build Pandora-style radio clients, music discovery apps, and more listening options through its APIs.
Rumberg and Browning met the summer after high school at a camp of Stanford admits. Throughout college, the recent graduates got deeper into dance music subgenres by devouring everything on SoundCloud. But watching their favorite artists get music kicked off that app while their DJ friends struggled to break through the algorithms, Rumberg says they wondered “how can we remove the platform from this equation?”
Music businesses aiming to free art from “the man” so often end up becoming him. But by decentralizing control and funneling money directly to creators, Audius may code its way into music culture.
Posted by Nick Dufour, Google Research and Andrew Gully, Jigsaw
Deep learning has given rise to technologies that would have been thought impossible only a handful of years ago. Modern generative models are one example of these, capable of synthesizing hyperrealistic images, speech, music, and even video. These models have found use in a wide variety of applications, including making the world more accessible through text-to-speech, and helping generate training data for medical imaging.
Like any transformative technology, this has created new challenges. So-called "deepfakes"—produced by deep generative models that can manipulate video and audio clips—are one of these. Since their first appearance in late 2017, many open-source deepfake generation methods have emerged, leading to a growing number of synthesized media clips. While many are likely intended to be humorous, others could be harmful to individuals and society.
Google considers these issues seriously. As we published in our AI Principles last year, we are committed to developing AI best practices to mitigate the potential for harm and abuse. Last January, we announced our release of a dataset of synthetic speech in support of an international challenge to develop high-performance fake audio detectors. The dataset was downloaded by more than 150 research and industry organizations as part of the challenge, and is now freely available to the public.
Today, in collaboration with Jigsaw, we're announcing the release of a large dataset of visual deepfakes we've produced that has been incorporated into the Technical University of Munich and the University Federico II of Naples’ new FaceForensics benchmark, an effort that Google co-sponsors. The incorporation of these data into the FaceForensics video benchmark is in partnership with leading researchers, including Prof. Matthias Niessner, Prof. Luisa Verdoliva and the FaceForensics team. You can download the data on the FaceForensics github page.
A sample of videos from Google’s contribution to the FaceForensics benchmark. To generate these, pairs of actors were selected randomly and deep neural networks swapped the face of one actor onto the head of another.
To make this dataset, over the past year we worked with paid and consenting actors to record hundreds of videos. Using publicly available deepfake generation methods, we then created thousands of deepfakes from these videos. The resulting videos, real and fake, comprise our contribution, which we created to directly support deepfake detection efforts. As part of the FaceForensics benchmark, this dataset is now available, free to the research community, for use in developing synthetic video detection methods.
Actors were filmed in a variety of scenes. Some of these actors are pictured here (top) with an example deepfake (bottom), which can be a subtle or drastic change, depending on the other actor used to create them.
Since the field is moving quickly, we'll add to this dataset as deepfake technology evolves over time, and we’ll continue to work with partners in this space. We firmly believe in supporting a thriving research community around mitigating potential harms from misuses of synthetic media, and today's release of our deepfake dataset in the FaceForensics benchmark is an important step in that direction.
Acknowledgements Special thanks to all our team members and collaborators who work on this project with us: Daisy Stanton, Per Karlsson, Alexey Victor Vorbyov, Thomas Leung, Jeremiah "Spudde" Childs, Christoph Bregler, Andreas Roessler, Davide Cozzolino, Justus Thies, Luisa Verdoliva, Matthias Niessner, and the hard-working actors and film crew who helped make this dataset possible.
How couples can sustain a strong sexual connection for a lifetime | Emily Nagoski
As a sex educator, Emily Nagoski is often asked: How do couples sustain a strong sexual connection over the long term? In this funny, insightful talk, she shares her answer -- drawing on (somewhat surprising) research to reveal why some couples stop having sex while others keep up a connection for a lifetime.
Spotify this morning is rolling out an updated version of its app for artists, across both iOS and Android. The new app includes a refreshed design, as well as new analytics like real-time stats on how many plays a song is currently getting around the world, most notably. Educational materials are also for the first time available through the app’s new Home tab.
Launched two years ago, the Spotify app already offers a way to see real-time listening stats for new releases for the first week they go live. Now it’s expanding its listening stats so artists can see how many people are playing any of their songs right now, and compare that with the song’s all-time streams.
It’s also now easier to track important milestones in the revamped app, Spotify says — like when a song gets added to a playlist or the artist gains new followers.
From the Home tab, Spotify will offer more recommendations on how to best use its tools and promote its Co.Lab events. Here, artists will be able to read articles, watch videos and presentations, get advice from successful artists, learn about product updates, and more.
The audience analytics and music sections have also gotten a visual refresh, designed to make it easier to see the latest stats related to who’s listening, where, and what similar artists these fans like.
And in a much-needed addition, artists or their managers can now update the artist’s profile in the app, including the ability to pick a new profile photo, rewrite the bio, update playlists and the Artist’s Pick directly from the Artists page in the app. For those who are managing multiple artists, it’s now easier to switch between profiles.
The update to the Spotify for Artists app is one of the more significant to a arrive since the analytics dashboard moved to mobile back in 2017. And with the standout feature of real-time listening stats for any song at any time, the app is even more of a competitor to Apple’s artist dashboard, which just exited beta last month with the addition of Shazam data.
Spotify says the new app is rolling out this week across both iOS and Android.
There many different malware types. Some are easier to remove than others, understandably. Often, an antivirus suite can sweep a drive, removing malicious files. But that doesn’t always work.
At times, a full system wipe is the only option. Burn it down and start again. The potential for data loss is very high in that situation. You need a clean computer, but don’t want to lose your important documents.
So, here’s how you safely copy files from an infected computer, cleaning it up in the process.
How Do You Clean an Infected Drive?
There are two methods you can use to remove files from an infected drive. However, all of them involve cleaning the drive first before you begin copying files from the infection source onto a clean drive.
Use an antivirus boot disk to scan and clean the drive before removing
Remove the drive and attach to a second machine for cleaning and copying
You don’t want to start messing around with a malware infection, or worse, ransomware. You could, in theory, just start copying non-operating system files to a clean disk. However, as malware can attack and hide in a vast range of locations, why take the risk of reinfection after going through the effort of copying everything over?
1. Use an Antivirus Boot Disk to Clean Your Drive
An antivirus boot disk is a complete antivirus package that comes in the form of a Live CD/USB. A Live CD/USB is an environment you can boot into without using the host operating system. For instance, your infected machine might run Windows 10, but the antivirus boot disk doesn’t interact with Windows 10 in any way.
As the antivirus boot disk doesn’t interact with Windows or any other host operating system, it doesn’t trigger any malicious files. Whereas if you attempt to run an antivirus or antimalware suite from within the infected operating system, there is a chance the malware will fight back.
Download and Create Bitdefender Rescue
First up, you need to download and create the bootable antivirus disk on a known clean system. You cannot complete this process on the infected machine as it could corrupt the process. I’m using Bitdefender Rescue CD for this example.
Next, you need to burn the rescue disc to a USB or CD. I’m going with a USB as that is what I have to hand, and I’ll use UNetbootin to burn the ISO to the USB.
Fire up UNetbootin and insert the USB drive. Please note this process will completely wipe your USB flash drive, so back up any important data before proceeding.
Select Diskimage, then browse to the Bitdefender Rescue ISO
Select the USB flash drive you want to use, then press OK.
How to Scan and Clean Using Bitdefender Rescue
Once the process completes, insert the Bitdefender Rescue USB in the infected system. After you switch it on, press F11 or F12 to enter the boot menu. (The boot menu keys vary by machine.) Use the arrow key to select the USB drive and boot into the Bitdefender Rescue drive.
Select Start the Bitdefender Rescue CD in English and press Enter. You need to agree to the EULA. After agreeing, Bitdefender will automatically update, then begin scanning any local drives it finds. The Bitdefender scan automatically quarantines and removes malicious files.
At this point, I would run the scan again to make sure nothing flew under the radar. After your scan confirms the drives you scan are clean, you can copy them onto another machine.
Other Linux Live Rescue Disks
A Linux Live USB/CD is very similar to the antivirus rescue disc. You are booting into an environment outside of your regular operating system, but you can still interact with your local files and folders. In this case, you can scan your local files before extracting them to a clean external system.
The second and less advisable option is to remove the drive from the infected system. Once removed, you can connect the drive to an alternative system to scan. In theory, so long as you have a strong antivirus or antimalware suite installed on the second machine and, most importantly, you don’t interact with or execute any file on the removed infected drive, you can scan it without causing an issue.
There are a few things you need to make this approach work.
Antivirus or Antimalware
The first is a strong, up to date antivirus or antimalware suite. If you don’t already have premium protection, I would strongly suggest Malwarebytes Premium. Wondering if the Premium version is worth the expense? Here are five reasons you should upgrade to Malwarebytes Premium. In short; it’s worth it.
Sandbox
Next, I would also advise using a sandbox tool during the data transfer process. A sandbox creates a temporary environment within your operating system. If there is an issue with the data transfer, such as malware sparking into life, you can close the sandbox to remove everything inside. For that, Shadow Defender is an excellent option.
You can use Shadow Defender free for 30 days, which is ideal if you only have one system to transfer data from. Otherwise, a lifetime license will set you back around $35.
The idea with Shadow Defender is that you turn it on, creating a virtual restore point. From that moment, you can safely play with anything on your system because once you restart your system, Shadow Defender will wipe any system changes. In the event you trigger malware on the infected drive, the combination of antivirus/antimalware and reboot to restore sandbox tool will keep you safe.
There Shadow Defender alternatives available for both macOS and Linux:
The final thing to remember is to disconnect the clean machine from the internet before copying or scanning the malicious files. Any malware requiring a network connection will cease to function. However, before disconnecting from the internet, ensure you have up-to-date virus definitions, ready to capture any malicious activity.
Infected System Clean Checklist
So, to recap, you need to:
Download, install and update an antimalware suite
Download, install and update a sandbox tool
Unplug your system from the network
Then you can plug in your potentially infected external drive, scan it, clean it, and hopefully free yourself from malware.
Keeping Your System Clean
The most difficult thing with a malware infection is understanding if the system is truly clean. You can scan a system with multiple antivirus and antimalware tools, and they still might miss something. I’m not trying to worry you. It is the truth of the matter.
Thankfully, most of us “only” run into common forms of malware. You should keep your eyes peeled for phishing attempts and other drive-by malware attacks, but these are all generic malware types. For the most part, only high-value targets need to worry about targeted malware attacks.
You’re probably familiar with Microsoft OneDrive, the company’s cloud storage tool. But Microsoft also offers a product called OneDrive for Business. Are these tools similar, and what are they used for?
Let’s find out. We’ll dig into what OneDrive and OneDrive for Business are each for, then look at the differences between them.
What Is Microsoft OneDrive?
If you have used Windows for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with OneDrive. This is Microsoft’s personal cloud storage and syncing service that allows you to access your files from any device.
OneDrive was originally known as SkyDrive and rolled out for testing in 2007. In 2013-2014, legal troubles led to Microsoft changing the name to OneDrive, which has stuck since.
Those familiar with other cloud syncing services like Dropbox will understand OneDrive well. After you log into OneDrive on your PC, you’ll see a special folder called OneDrive in your user directory. Anything you place there is synced to Microsoft’s servers.
Then, you can install the OneDrive app on other computers and mobile devices you use. If you’re signed in with the same account, you can access those files from anywhere.
Anyone who signs up for a free Microsoft account has access to OneDrive, with 5GB of storage for free. This includes those with @outlook.com email accounts, but you don’t need an Outlook email address to have a Microsoft account. If you have an Xbox, Skype, or Office login, then that can be your Microsoft account too.
Using the service with a personal Microsoft account grants access to the standard version of OneDrive, while logging in with your work or school account leads to OneDrive for Business. Of course, there are differences in what they offer.
One of the major differences of OneDrive for Business is that system administrators decide where to host the service. They can keep it in the Microsoft cloud, which is a lot like personal OneDrive. With this setup, each user gets at least 1TB of space.
However, business users can also host their OneDrive for Business library on a SharePoint server. This allows them to host everything on their own physical server instead of using Microsoft’s cloud. If they do so, the admins decide how much storage space each user gets.
Usually, organizations have access to OneDrive for Business as part of a corporate Office 365 plan. Depending on the plan, they might have just OneDrive, or both OneDrive and SharePoint. This can affect how companies use OneDrive for Business.
OneDrive for Business and SharePoint
If you’re not familiar, SharePoint is a collaboration platform Microsoft offers for business use. As it’s highly customizable, different companies use it in various ways.
But in many cases, it works like an internal company website that stores, manages, and organizes documents, procedures, news, and similar shared knowledge. Compared to OneDrive, where files are private unless the user shares them, SharePoint allows companies to define exactly who can see what pages and access what files.
Years ago, Microsoft offered a tool called Microsoft SharePoint Workspace, which was known earlier as Microsoft Office Groove. This was a desktop app that allowed team members who weren’t always online or had different network clearances, to collaborate on SharePoint documents.
It synced the SharePoint files from the server library to your system to keep you up-to-date. When you worked offline, it would cache your changes and then update the library when you were back online. Starting with Office 2013, Microsoft discontinued this tool, with OneDrive for Business replacing it.
Thus, if an employee wants to sync company files from SharePoint to their local machine in this way, they must use OneDrive for Business.
OneDrive for Business Without SharePoint
Despite this functionality, you don’t have to use OneDrive for Business with SharePoint.
For example, looking at the Office 365 pricing page, the Office 365 Business plan doesn’t include SharePoint, but it does have OneDrive. This allows companies to use OneDrive as a central file storage tool without using it to sync SharePoint data.
In this usage, OneDrive for Business functions similarly to Dropbox Business. It’s familiar if you’ve used the consumer version, but includes additional controls and features for business use.
For instance, OneDrive for Business allows IT administrators to restrict what users can do. They can block certain sharing options, adjust syncing, and easily deactivate user accounts when an employee leaves the company.
OneDrive for Business also includes advanced retention policies, allowing businesses to recover documents even after they’ve been deleted.
In this way, OneDrive for Business is more advanced than the consumer version, even without SharePoint integration.
Using OneDrive Yourself
With all this talk about OneDrive and OneDrive for Business, you might be confused about what it means for you. Thankfully, it’s not too difficult for the end user.
Checking and Adding OneDrive Accounts on Your PC
If you’re using Windows 10, you can see how you have OneDrive set up, and add another account, through its System Tray icon shortcut.
To do this, right-click the blue or gray OneDrive cloud icon in the bottom-right corner of your screen and click Settings. You might have to click the arrow to show more icons. If OneDrive isn’t running, type OneDrive into the Start Menu to find and launch it.
On the Account page, you’ll see the account you’re using OneDrive with. If it’s a personal account, it will most likely have a generic email address like @gmail or @yahoo. Business accounts will almost always have a custom domain, like @acme.com.
While you can’t link your OneDrive personal and business accounts, you can add more than one OneDrive account to your PC. Click Add an account here and sign in with your work or school credentials to add your OneDrive for Business account.
After doing this, you’ll have two OneDrive folders on your PC. You can then move files between them if needed. See our basic guide to using OneDrive for more info.
Using OneDrive on the Web
If you don’t want to use the desktop apps for some reason, you can always access OneDrive on the web. Simply log in with your personal Microsoft account or business account, then use the app switcher in the top-left corner to switch to OneDrive.
Here you’ll see all the files you have stored in the service. If you’ve signed into a business account that uses SharePoint, you can switch to SharePoint using the same switcher.
Syncing SharePoint Files With OneDrive
Your IT admins will probably direct you on syncing a SharePoint library to your PC if necessary. This is as simple as navigating to the SharePoint library in question and clicking Sync on the menu bar.
You’ll then see a prompt to open OneDrive on your PC. If you’re already signed into OneDrive with your business account, it will start syncing. Else, you’ll need to sign in first.
OneDrive and OneDrive for Business, Demystified
Hopefully, now the difference between personal OneDrive and OneDrive for business is clear. If you’re still not sure, here’s a brief summary:
OneDrive is Microsoft’s cloud storage service that anyone can use to sync files across devices.
OneDrive for Business is essentially the same service, but for company use. It includes advanced administration tools.
In addition, OneDrive for Business can optionally be used to sync company SharePoint libraries to your local computer.
The account you use to log into OneDrive will determine which service you use. If you’re not sure or need more help, talk to your system administrators.
At the 2019 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) the company announced a whole new way to enjoy iPad with iPadOS. The revamped iPadOS is now its own entity for Apple’s tablets, providing the same features as iOS 13 for iPhone plus some awesome extras.
Whether you’re completely new to the iPad or are a longtime iPad user looking at iPadOS for the first time, here’s an introduction to the basics of what iPadOS has to offer.
The New iPad Home Screen
The Home screen on iPadOS gives you redesigned layout options and cool widgets that you can pin for easy access.
Changing the Layout
When you look at iPadOS, you’ll notice right away that you can fit more apps on your screen. The grid for your apps is tighter, allowing you to see more of them at once. However, if you’re not a fan of this condensed view, you can change it.
Open the Settings app and select Display & Brightness.
Under Home Screen Layout, mark the button for Bigger.
Bigger will put the grid of 20 app icons back on your screen, whereas with the More layout, you get 30.
Today View
Another enhancement to the iPad Home screen is the Today View. Access this handy section by swiping from left to right. You then have a quick view of the date and time, along with widgets.
You can choose to keep the Today View on the Home screen or access it only by swiping. To keep it on the Home screen, follow these steps:
Open the Settings app and select Display & Brightness.
Under Home Screen Layout, turn on the toggle for Keep Today View on Home Screen.
You might also see a message at the top of Today View for Add to Home Screen; just tap that to add it. Alternatively, you can swipe to the bottom of Today View, tap Edit, and turn on the toggle on the next screen.
Note that if you decide to keep Today View on your Home screen, it will only remain there while in landscape view.
Pinned and Favorite Widgets
The Today View described above is a useful spot for app widgets, similar to the Today Screen widgets on iPhone. So it’s perfect for those apps that you use daily or several times per day. Plus, the best widgets give you quick glances at information like the weather, tasks, news, or other details pertaining to the app.
To add, remove, and rearrange widgets, swipe to the bottom of Today View and tap Edit. You have two ways to handle the widgets in Today view: Pinned Favorites and Favorites.
Favorites are widgets that will appear in Today View, while Pinned Favorites are Favorites that will always appear in Today View. If you have Today View open and swipe down, the only widgets you’ll see are the Pinned Favorites. Then, just swipe up to see all Favorites.
Now that you know the difference in the widgets, you can set them up on that Edit screen. Tap the plus signs in green to add widgets to Favorites. To turn a Favorite into a Pinned Favorite, tap and drag it to that section at the top. And to rearrange widgets, just tap and drag them where you want them. Tap Done when you finish.
Other Home Screen Changes
You might notice a couple of additional Home changes with iPadOS.
To rearrange apps, hold one as you used to. But now you’ll see a popup menu with shortcuts for the app and the option to Rearrange Apps. If you don’t make a selection from the shortcut menu and continue to hold an app icon, all apps will jiggle like they did on iOS 12 and earlier, so you can move or delete them.
You can now add folders to the Dock on iPad. Hold a folder, choose Rearrange Apps, and move it to the Dock. Alternatively, hold until the shortcut menu disappears, the folder jiggles, and then move it.
The iPad’s New Keyboard
You’ll be happy to see improvements to the keyboard (like QuickPath, which lets you swipe to type) in both iOS 13 and iPadOS. In addition, iPadOS gives you a floating keyboard.
Floating Keyboard
The floating keyboard is one of the extras now available in iPadOS. With this new feature, you can shrink the keyboard and move it wherever you like on the screen. This gives you a larger view of what you’re typing without it getting cut off by a large keyboard.
Plus, the floating keyboard also uses QuickPath, so you have two new features in one with the iPadOS keyboard.
You can make your keyboard float using one of two convenient methods:
Tap and hold the keyboard button at the bottom-right and then slide your finger up to Floating.
Pinch two fingers inward to the center of the keyboard.
Once you see the keyboard shrink, you can put it anywhere on the screen by dragging at the line on the bottom of it. To put the keyboard back to its normal size, swipe two fingers outward from the center of the floating keyboard.
QuickPath
If you’re a fan of apps like SwiftKey or Gboard that let you swipe to create words instead of tapping each individual key, then QuickPath is for you.
Just slide your finger through each letter of a word without releasing until it’s time for the next word. This is a helpful feature for those who never improved their thumb-typing nimbleness. As mentioned, you can also access this on your iPhone with iOS 13.
If you prefer not to use QuickPath when you use the floating keyboard, you can disable it:
Open the Settings app and select General.
Tap Keyboard.
At the bottom in the language area, turn off the toggle for Slide on Floating Keyboard to Type.
A Fresh Dark Mode
While Dark Mode is a feature available on both iPadOS and iOS 13, it’s definitely worth mentioning for iPad users. This slick theme that we first saw on macOS Mojave is now on Apple’s mobile devices.
The setting helps to ease eyestrain and reduce the brightness of your screen for people around you. You can see the richness of Dark Mode in the built-in apps, system views, and some third-party apps. You’ll find lots of third-party iOS apps that support dark mode, too.
Enable Dark Mode
You can manually enable Dark Mode on iPad with a few simple taps:
Open the Settings app and select Display & Brightness.
Under Appearance, mark the button for Dark.
You can also set a schedule for Dark Mode to turn on and off. This is a great way to enable the feature without having to open Settings each time and do it manually.
Open the Settings app and select Display & Brightness.
Under Appearance, turn on the toggle for Automatic.
Tap Options and leave it as Sunset to Sunrise or pick Custom Schedule to set specific times for the light or dark mode to toggle.
Enjoy the New iPadOS
Apple making iPadOS its own system for iPad users was a bit of a surprise. But as you can see, it does offer additional options and features that you don’t get on your iPhone. Hopefully, this means that Apple will continue to give iPadOS its own unique features to make it even more useful for tablet users.
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The human mind can’t stand up to the constant barrage of new information we get in the 21st century. It’s no wonder we can’t remember a lot of what we read, people we meet, sounds we hear. But these recall tools and brain hacks can help you level-up your memory.
Not many people know that memory relies on techniques. There is science behind how our brain handles new information, and if you learn the techniques, you can retain more of that information. Needless to say, none of these will magically change your mind in a day. But practice, and you’ll astound others about how well you can remember what happened.
1. FlipToMind (Web): Custom Flash Cards With Spaced Repetition
FlipToMind combines flash cards with the spaced repetition memory technique to revise and repeat what you need to remember. It supports a range of input like text, images, and also markdown, and works in any browser, desktop or mobile.
To create a card, you have to put a cue in one box and the answer in the other. You have to copy-paste full image URL links to add a picture to a card. Once you’ve created a stack, test yourself.
The app will cycle through your cues. Say the answer in your head and flip the card. Mark it as “knew it” or “failed” so that the app knows which cards you have trouble with. Using a smart algorithm, FlipToMind then figures out which cards you are likely to forget soon, and creates custom tests.
This is among the simplest flash card web apps based on spaced repetition. The free version of FlipToMind lets you create 25 cards. You can upgrade to unlimited cards for one dollar per month.
Mochi also uses the spaced repetition technique. But this isn’t a web app, so you can only access it on the desktop that you install the software on.
You can create new cards that support Markdown, text, and emojis too, but not images. Mochi has three features that distinguish it from regular flash cards.
First, you aren’t restricted to a single answer. In a physical flash card, you could only have the question on one side and the answer on the other. Mochi lets you add multiple answers, or hints, which cascade in steps. It’s a level-up for regular cards.
Second, Mochi allows you to hide words in the question you are setting up. The “Cloze” feature will simply blur words from a large chunk of text, asking you to fill in the blanks.
And finally, Mochi lets you add detailed notes for your studies. You can then link cards to the notes, or make cards from notes. It’s an effective system to remember what you needed to, and also learn more in case you forgot.
The app couple these two methods with an algorithm that tracks the cards and boosts retention with spaced repetition. You can add an unlimited number of decks and cards to Mochi but can’t access it on your phone or a different computer.
3. Art of Memory (Web): Learn to Build a Memory Palace
If you want to learn how to build Sherlock Holmes’ “memory palace” depicted in one episode of the BBC series, then visit Art of Memory. This website is a repository of various memory tools, including the simplest free beginner’s guide to how a memory palace works.
The step-by-step Memory Technique wiki takes you through the fundamentals of the Method of Loci (i.e. the technique’s original name). Through a scene from a village, it illustrates how to remember the first 12 elements of the periodic table. Memory palaces are often recommended as a useful memory tool for students.
The main website has much more to offer than this one method alone. In fact, it covers pretty much every memory technique you’ll come across.
Register for the website to get a free 28-page beginner’s ebook for all major memory techniques, which also answers common questions. You also gain access to the forums, which has an active community of experts and amateurs willing to help in your journey.
Memory expert Bill Powell’s website is full of articles and resources related to memory. Instead of focusing on one technique, Powell stresses on using different methods to remember different things. And he teaches you how.
The best way to start is with the free video course, for which you’ll have to sign up for the newsletter. These aren’t five-minute videos, each of the four-part video course is over half an hour in length. Powell touches upon the four essential memory tools, what purpose each serves, and how to use the tools to remember names.
Go through the course over a weekend and put the learnings into practice. If you have the time, Powell’s articles are worth reading too, especially on topics like why flash cards fail or how you can remember more of what you read.
Now that you know how to improve your memory, it might be worthwhile to check just how good it is. Memory Health Check offers a few free tests to see if you suffer from any memory loss.
The website gives you two types of tests: short term memory tests and working memory tests. In the short term memory tests, you will be shown a series of pictures of nature or animals. You have to tap the picture or the spacebar key every time an image is repeated.
The working memory tests are of two types. The digit span test shows you a series of digits (up to 10) at different speeds, and then you need to type out the full number. The spatial memory test shows you an object in different squares of a 4×4 grid. Remember the sequence and replicate it.
Note: These are basic tests to check a regularly functioning mind. If you seek clinical tests or think you might have a mental issue, please seek the opinion of a professional medical practitioner.
Other Ways to Improve Your Memory
Memory and recall are often a function of physiological conditions. Studies have shown that your memory will automatically improve if you are eating healthy, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep.
But even if you are doing those steps, apps can help. We are bombarded with so much data in this information age, why not let it also aid in recollection? Apart from the aforementioned websites and apps, these tools can improve memory and recall. In fact, there’s an app dedicated to helping you remember people’s names.
As Samsung and Huawei double down on their foldable smartphone lineups, and other handset vendors try to hide the notch, Chinese giant Xiaomi today chalked out a different path altogether. The company unveiled the Mi Mix Alpha, a smartphone with a front display that fully wraps around the back, save for a strip.
The Mi Mix Alpha’s body is made of a single piece of sapphire glass with ceramics and aerospace-grade titanium alloy. So what does the extra display gets you? Nothing much. The back display lights up and takes over the front screen’s duties when you flip the phone. Otherwise, it just sits there doing nothing.
Xiaomi says the Mix Alpha is a concept phone, so it is going to have a limited production run for the device. The smartphone will go on sale in China in December for 19,999 yuan (~$2,800).
While the size of the display remains unknown, it boasts a 180.6% screen-to-body ratio, Xiaomi said at an event in China. The Mi Mix Alpha is powered by Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 855+, coupled with 12GB of RAM, and 512GB UFS 3.0 storage. And it supports 5G connectivity.
The handset is housing 4,050 mAh battery and supports 40W wired fast charging, the company said. The Mi Mix Alpha is running Android Pie-based MIUI 11 software.
Which brings us to the strip: The front side of the Mi Mix Alpha does not have any camera sensors. Instead the back side sports a three-camera system: 108MP primary sensor it developed in collaboration Samsung, 20MP wide-angle sensor, and 12MP telephoto sensor.
At the sidelines of today’s event, Xiaomi also launched the Mi 9 Pro, follow up to the Mi 9 handset that the company unveiled earlier this year. The Mi 9 Pro, priced at roughly $520, now features support for 5G connectivity, becoming one of the low-cost handsets to support the networking technology. It also supports 40W fast charging, the company said.
