Snapchat and NBC Olympics are again teaming up to produce customized Olympics content for users in the U.S. — this time, for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this summer. The companies had previously worked together during the Rio 2016 and PyeongChang 2018 Olympics. The PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games in 2018 reached over 40 million U.S. users, up 25% from the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In addition, 95% of those users were under the age of 35.
This younger demographic is getting harder to reach in the cord-cutting era, as many people forgo pay-TV subscriptions and traditional broadcast networks in favor of on-demand streaming services, like Netflix. That limits the reach of advertisers, impacting NBC’s bottom line.
The Snap partnership helps to fix that, as it offers NBC Olympics a way to sell to advertisers who want to reach younger fans who don’t watch as much — or any — TV. Snapchat today reaches 90% of all 13 to 24 year-olds in the U.S., and 75% of all 13 to 34 year-olds. 210 million people now use Snapchat daily.
NBC Olympics says it’s the exclusive seller of all the new customized content associated with the Games, working in partnership with Snap.
This year, it’s also putting out more content than before.
The company plans to release more than 70 episodes across four daily Snapchat shows leading up to and during the Games. That’s triple the number of episodes it offered in 2018.
For the first time, it’s creating two daily Highlight Shows for Snapchat, which will be updated in near real-time. The shows will include the must-see moments from the day in Tokyo.
In addition, two unscripted shows will air during the Games, each with two episodes per day. One, “Chasing Gold,” which first debuted during PyeongChang 2018, will follow the journeys of Team USA athletes. The second show is new this year, and will be a daily recap of the most memorable moments curated especially for Snapchat users. Both are being produced by The NBCUniversal Digital Lab.
The deal will also see Snap curating daily Our Stories during the Games, as it has done in previous years. The stories will include photos and videos from fans as well as content from the NBC Olympics.
“We know the audience on Snap loves the Olympic Games,” said Gary Zenkel, President, NBC Olympics, in a statement. “After two successful Olympics together, we’re excited to take the partnership to another level and produce even more content and coverage from the Tokyo Olympics tailored for Snapchatters, which also will directly benefit the many NBC Olympics advertisers who seek to engage further with this young and active demographic.”
Snapchat isn’t the only digital destination for Olympics content, however. NBC and Twitter teamed up to stream limited live event coverage, highlights and a daily Olympics show from the Tokyo Games. It was unclear at the time the deal was announced if NBC had opted for Twitter over Snapchat. Now we know that’s not the case — in fact, Snap’s deal with NBC is even bigger than before.
NBCU had said earlier, it expected to exceed $1.2 billion in ad sales for the 2020 Games, which are also presented on NBC, NBCSN, Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA, and NBC Sports’ digital platforms.
When Dfinity raised $102 million in funding in 2018 at a $2 billion valuation in a round jointly led by Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital, it was thought of as a step change in the world of blockchain technology. In an area that was synonymous with generating a lot of headlines around cryptocurrency speculation, this was a shift in focus, looking instead at the architecture behind Bitcoin, Ethereum and the rest, and how it could be used for more than just “mining,” distributing and using new financial instruments — with a major, mainstream VC backing the idea, no less.
Dfinity launched with a very lofty goal: to build what it called the “Internet Computer”: a decentralized and non-proprietary network to run the next generation of mega-applications. It dubbed this public network “Cloud 3.0”.
Now, it looks like this Cloud is now about to break.
In Davos this week, Dfinity launched the Bronze edition of its Internet Computer, a limited release that takes the startup one step closer to its full commercial release, expected later this year.
And to prove out the concept of how an application would run on its new network, Dfinity today demonstrated an open social network called LinkedUp.
The startup has rather cheekily called this “an open version of LinkedIn,” the Microsoft-owned social network for professionals. Unlike LinkedIn, LinkedUp, which runs on any browser, is not owned or controlled by a corporate entity.
LinkedUp is built on Dfinity’s so-called Internet Computer, its name for the platform it is building to distribute the next generation of software and open internet services.
The software is hosted directly on the internet on a Switzerland-based independent data center, but in the concept of the Internet Computer, it could be hosted at your house or mine: the compute power to run the application — LinkedUp, in this case — is coming not from Amazon AWS, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure, but is instead based on the distributed architecture that Dfinity is building.
Specifically, Dfinity notes that when enterprises and developers run their web apps and enterprise systems on the Internet Computer, the content is decentralised across a minimum of four or a maximum of an unlimited number of nodes in Dfinity’s global network of independent data centers.
And while the company initially was described as a blockchain-based system, that’s also had some refinement. A spokesperson describes the Internet Computer as a “next-generation distributed computing system — similar to its Mainframe, Client Server, and Public Cloud predecessors” that is based on cryptography.
“While DFINITY is not building a traditional blockchain/smart contract platform, it uses advanced cryptography in its consensus layer [of the Internet Computer stack] to ensure apps and workloads have the same security guarantees as Bitcoin or Ethereum,” the spokesperson added, “but its network of independent data centres ensures the speed and scale required by corporates and entrepreneurs.” The Internet Computer also has governance tokens to ensure the ownership of the technology is distributed, he said.
LinkedUp is a test case for all of this, and so Dfinity is open-sourcing LinkedUp for developers to create other types of open internet services on the structure it has built.
This “open social network for professional profiles” suggests that, on Dfinity’s model, one could create an “Open WhatsApp,” “Open eBay,” “Open Salesforce” or “Open Facebook.”
(Good news, since LinkedIn might not be so happy about a lookalike service with a name and layout that also looks very familiar, were it to go much further as a commercial endeavor. “While we can’t comment specifically on any proposed trademark, LinkedIn does monitor and take action as necessary to protect our trademarks,” a spokesperson said.)
“Big tech has hijacked the internet and stifled innovation by owning the proprietary infrastructure and user relationships,” said Dominic Williams, founder and chief scientist at Dfinity in a statement. “As a result, a handful of for-profit companies have created a monopolistic and closed internet. The Internet Computer provides a means to rebuild internet services in open form.”
So perhaps what we should be calling this is not LinkedUp, but more a new sort of “Linux for the cloud.”
Dfinity claims the application was built by “1.5 engineers in three weeks,” thus demonstrating how easy the infrastructure is to use.
The tools include a Canister Software Developer Kit and a simple programming language called Motoko that is optimized for Dfinity’s Internet Computer.
“The Internet Computer is conceived as an alternative to the $3.8 trillion legacy IT stack, and empowers the next-generation of developers to build a new breed of tamper-proof enterprise software systems and open internet services. We are democratizing software development,” Williams said. “The Bronze release of the Internet Computer provides developers and enterprises a glimpse into the infinite possibilities of building on the Internet Computer — which also reflects the strength of the Dfinity team we have built so far.”
Dfinity says its “Internet Computer Protocol” allows for a new type of software called autonomous software, which can guarantee permanent APIs that cannot be revoked. When all these open internet services (e.g. open versions of WhatsApp, Facebook, eBay, Salesforce, etc.) are combined with other open software and services it creates “mutual network effects” where everyone benefits.
We quizzed Dfinity a little more on all this and asked whether this was an actual launch.
A spokesperson told us: “Since our first major milestone of launching a terminal-based SDK and new programming language called Motoko — by the co-creator of WebAssembly — on 1 November, DFINITY has released 13 new public versions of the SDK, to our second major milestone [at WEF Davos] of demoing a decentralized web app called LinkedUp on the Internet Computer running on an independent data center in Switzerland. Subsequent milestones towards the public launch of the Internet Computer will involve (1) on-boarding a global network of independent data centers, (2) fully tested economic system, and (3) fully tested Network Nervous Systems for configuration and upgrades.”
It also looks like Dfinity will not be raising more money just yet.
But the question is how they plan to woo people to it? “Dfinity has been working with a select group of Fortune 500 companies, strategic consultancies, systems integrators, venture capitalists, and universities,” the company said.
We are not sure that will quite suffice to take out Facebook, LinkedIn and all the other tech giants, but we’re fascinated to see how this plays out.
Time is supposed to make technology better. The idea is simple: With more time, humans make newer, better technology and our lives improve. Except for when the opposite happens.
Google is a good example of this. I’ve been harping on the matter for a while now. Google mobile search, in case you haven’t used it lately, is bad. It often returns bloated garbage that looks like a cross between new Yahoo and original Bing.
Here’s how it butchered a search query for “Metallica” this morning:
Remember when that interface was simpler, and easier to use, and didn’t try to do literally every possible thing for every possible user at once?
It’s not just Google’s mobile search interface that makes me want to claw my eyes out and learn how to talk to trees. Everyone now knows that Mountain View has effectively given up on trying to distinguish ads from organic results (Does the company view them as interchangeable? Probably?). TechCrunch’s Natasha Lomas covered the company’s recent search result design changes today, calling them “user-hostile,” going on to summarize the choices as its “latest dark pattern.”
Google, once fanatical about super-clean, fast results is now trying to help you way too much on mobile and fool you on Chrome.
Chrome itself kinda sucks and is getting worse. But we all know that. Of course, that all this is shaking out around the same time that the company’s founders left is, you know, not shocking.
I’d also throw TweetDeck into the mix. It’s garbage slow and lags and sucks RAM. Twitter has effectively decided that its power users are idiots who don’t deserve good code. Oh, and Twitter is deprecating some cool analytics features it used to give out to users about their followers.
Chrome and TweetDeck are joined by apps like Slack that are also slowing down over time. It appears that as every developer writes code on a computer with 64,000 gigs of RAM, they presume that they can waste everyone else’s. God forbid if you have the piddling 16 gigs of RAM that my work machine has. Your computer is going to lag and often crash. Great work, everyone!
Also, fuck mobile apps. I have two phones now because that’s how 2020 works and I have more apps than I know what to do with, not to mention two different password managers, Okta and more.I’m so kitted out I can’t breathe. I have so many tools available to me I mostly just want to put them all down. Leave me alone! Or only show me the thing I need — not everything at once!
Anyhoo video games are still pretty good as long as you avoid most Battle Royale titles, micropayments, and EA. Kinda.
Time is supposed to make technology better. The idea is simple: With more time, humans make newer, better technology and our lives improve. Except for when the opposite happens.
Google is a good example of this. I’ve been harping on the matter for a while now. Google mobile search, in case you haven’t used it lately, is bad. It often returns bloated garbage that looks like a cross between new Yahoo and original Bing.
Here’s how it butchered a search query for “Metallica” this morning:
Remember when that interface was simpler, and easier to use, and didn’t try to do literally every possible thing for every possible user at once?
It’s not just Google’s mobile search interface that makes me want to claw my eyes out and learn how to talk to trees. Everyone now knows that Mountain View has effectively given up on trying to distinguish ads from organic results (Does the company view them as interchangeable? Probably?). TechCrunch’s Natasha Lomas covered the company’s recent search result design changes today, calling them “user-hostile,” going on to summarize the choices as its “latest dark pattern.”
Google, once fanatical about super-clean, fast results is now trying to help you way too much on mobile and fool you on Chrome.
Chrome itself kinda sucks and is getting worse. But we all know that. Of course, that all this is shaking out around the same time that the company’s founders left is, you know, not shocking.
I’d also throw TweetDeck into the mix. It’s garbage slow and lags and sucks RAM. Twitter has effectively decided that its power users are idiots who don’t deserve good code. Oh, and Twitter is deprecating some cool analytics features it used to give out to users about their followers.
Chrome and TweetDeck are joined by apps like Slack that are also slowing down over time. It appears that as every developer writes code on a computer with 64,000 gigs of RAM, they presume that they can waste everyone else’s. God forbid if you have the piddling 16 gigs of RAM that my work machine has. Your computer is going to lag and often crash. Great work, everyone!
Also, fuck mobile apps. I have two phones now because that’s how 2020 works and I have more apps than I know what to do with, not to mention two different password managers, Okta and more.I’m so kitted out I can’t breathe. I have so many tools available to me I mostly just want to put them all down. Leave me alone! Or only show me the thing I need — not everything at once!
Anyhoo video games are still pretty good as long as you avoid most Battle Royale titles, micropayments, and EA. Kinda.
Does photographing a moment steal the experience from you? | Erin Sullivan
When we witness something amazing, many of us instinctively pull out our phones and snap pictures. Is this obsession with photographing everything impacting our experiences? In a meditative talk, Erin Sullivan reflects on how being more intentional with her lens enhanced her ability to enjoy the moment -- and could help you do the same, too.
Twitter is pouring a little more fuel on the messaging fire. It’s added a heart+ button to its direct messaging interface which lets users shortcut to a pop-up menu of seven emoji reactions so they can quickly express how they’re feeling about a missive.
Emoji reactions can be added to text or media messages — either via the heart+ button or by double tapping on the missive to bring up the reaction menu.
The social network teased the incoming tweak a few hours earlier in a knowing tweet about sliding into DMs that actually revealed the full line-up of reaction emojis — which, in text form, can be described as: Crying lol; shocked/surprised; actually sad; heart; flame; thumb-up and thumb-down.
So instead of a smilie face Twitter users are being nudged towards an on-brand-message Twitter heart, in keeping with its long-standing pick for a pleasure symbol.
If it’s there to stand in for appreciation a clap emoji could surely have done the trick. Whereas flame wars aren’t typically associated with constructive speech. But — hey — the flame icon does catch the eye…
Say more with new emoji reactions for Direct Messages!
To add a reaction, click the icon that appears when you hover over the message on web or double tap the message on mobile and select an emoji from the pop-up.
Twitter is late to this extroverted party. Rival messaging platforms such as Apple iMessage and Facebook Messenger have had emoji reactions for years, whereas Twitter kept things relatively minimal and chat-focused in its DM funnel — to its credit (at least if you value the service as, first and foremost, an information network).
So some might say Twitter jumping on the emoji reaction bandwagon now is further evidence it’s trying to move closer to rivals like Facebook as a product. (See also: Last year’s major desktop product redesign — which has been compared in look and feel to the Facebook News Feed.)
But if so this change is at least a relatively incremental one.
Twitter users have also, of course, always been able to react to an incoming DM by sending whatever emoji or combination of emoji they prefer as a standard reply. Though now lazy thumbs have a shortcut to emote — so long as they’re down with Twitter’s choice of icons.
In an FAQ about the new DM emoji reactions, Twitter notes that emoting will by default send a notification to all conversation participants “any time a new reaction is added to a message”.
So, yes, there’s attention-spamming potential aplenty here…
Adjust your notification and DM settings accordingly.
You can only choose one reaction per missive. Each symbol is displayed under the message/media with a count next to it — to allow for group tallies to be totted up.
NB: Clicking on another symbol will swap out the earlier one — generating, er, more notification spam. And really annoying people could keep flipping their reaction to generate a real-time emoji streaming game of notification hell (hi growth hackers!) with folks they’ve been DMing with. So that’s another good reason to lock down your Twitter settings.
Users still running older version of Twitter’s apps which don’t support message reactions will see a standard text emoji message per reaction sent (see examples below). This kinda confusingly makes it look like the reaction sender has actually been liking/flaming their own stuff. So all the more reason to not be spammy about emoji.
Voicemail is such an integral part of using a modern phone that we tend not to think about it much. At least, you don’t think about it until you switch cellular providers and you need to set up voicemail on your phone. Maybe you even forgot that setting up voicemail is something you have to do.
Getting voicemail set up on your iPhone is a simple process. The only problem is that the process can be different depending on which carrier you use. That’s why we’ve gathered everything you need to know about using voicemail on your iPhone here.
Getting Started With Voicemail on iPhone
For the most part, setting up voicemail is the same, no matter which carrier you use. We’ll go through the basic steps first, then look at any carrier-specific quirks you may run into.
The first step you need to take is opening the Phone app. Assuming you haven’t re-arranged your home screen, the icon will appear in the dock at the bottom of your screen. If for some reason you can’t find it, you can search for it. Swipe down from the middle of your screen and search for “phone” in the search bar at the top.
Once you’ve opened the app, tap the Voicemail icon at the bottom-right of the screen. You’ll see a message letting you know that you need to set up your voicemail before you can use it. Tap the button labeled Set Up Now to begin.
If you’ve used Apple’s visual voicemail service before, you’ll see a prompt to enter your password. Otherwise, you need to create a password and enter it twice. Once you’ve done this, tap Done.
Next, you’ll see the greeting screen. Here you can either record a custom greeting or select Default to use your carrier’s default voicemail message. To record your own, tap Custom, then hit the Record button to start recording.
Play back your message to make sure you’re happy with it, then tap Done at the top of the screen.
Now your phone is ready to use Apple’s visual voicemail feature, assuming your carrier supports it. If you run into trouble, we’ll tackle that later on.
Setting Up AT&T Voicemail on Your iPhone
If you’re wondering how to set up voicemail on the iPhone as an AT&T customer, it’s a little different. To access the company’s voicemail service, you need to go through a bit of setup. Start by pressing and holding 1 on the number pad in the Keypad section of the Phone app.
Assuming you already have voicemail with AT&T, enter your password. Your voicemail greeting and all your old messages will transfer to your iPhone. If you’re a new AT&T customer, follow the prompts to create your password and leave your voicemail greeting.
Setting Up Voicemail on Your iPhone for Verizon and T-Mobile
For Verizon or T-Mobile customers, setting up voicemail on your iPhone is easy. If you’ve followed our steps above, you’re already done.
As with AT&T, you need to go through an extra setup step with Sprint. Press and hold 1 on the dial pad in the Phone app to begin.
For a new voicemail box, you need to create a four to 10 digit passcode. Then you need to record your name. After you’ve done this, you can choose between recording a personal greeting or using the standard greeting. Finally, you can choose whether to enable One-Touch Access to your voicemail.
Make sure to do this all without hanging up or canceling the process. If you don’t go through all the steps, you’ll have to repeat everything again.
Setting Up Voicemail on Your iPhone For Other Carriers
Outside of the major carriers above, you may use another like Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, or Straight Talk Wireless. Most of these are Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO). This means they use one of the major carriers above as their backbone instead of setting up their own infrastructure.
This is good news, because it means setting up voicemail is similar to one of the above approaches. In most cases, your carrier will have instructions for setting up your voicemail. If not, your best bet is to follow Apple’s instructions for setting up voicemail on your iPhone.
Troubleshooting Apple Visual Voicemail
Visual voicemail is a handy feature, especially if you deal with a lot of voice messages. While support on Android is iffy to the point that there are many third-party visual voicemail apps to make it work, support on the iPhone is much better.
Apple supports visual voicemail on the iPhone for most, but not all, carriers in the United States and Canada. To see if the iPhone supports visual voicemail for your carrier, check Apple’s detailed breakdown of carrier support.
If your carrier supports it, the setup process will automatically configure visual voicemail. If you’re having trouble with visual voicemail not working, try checking for a carrier-bundle update by going to Settings > General > About. If an update is available, a notification will let you know.
Assuming you’ve tried the above and still run into trouble, you can try resetting the network settings on your iPhone. To do this, go to Settings, then General, then Reset. Here, tap Reset Network Settings.
This only takes a moment and may solve your problem. However, keep in mind that doing so will reset your saved Wi-Fi networks, any VPN configurations, and similar network settings.
Finally, there are a few other areas to check. Try calling someone to make sure you have a cellular connection. If this fails, that could explain why visual voicemail isn’t working. You can also try calling your own number to make sure that your voicemail is fully set up.
If you’re setting up voicemail, it usually means that you’ve either switched providers or just got a new phone. If you’re the proud owner of a new iPhone, you should be all ready to use voicemail, but that doesn’t mean you’re finished setting up.
To get the most out of your phone, there are a few tweaks, changes, and other bits and pieces of setup to get out of the way. Not a fan of tinkering with your phone? Just take a look at our guide to the tweaks you should make to a new iPhone.
Netflix is a great streaming service with a ton of content to watch on all sorts of different devices. However, sometimes, you’ll encounter Netflix error codes that stop you in your tracks.
In this article, we’ve tried to round up some of the most common Netflix error codes, explain what they are, and how to fix them. So we recommend bookmarking this one in case you need it again…
1. How to Fix Netflix Error Code 11800
You’ll see Netflix error 11800 when there is a problem with the playback of your selected content on a mobile device. Usually, the error code will be accompanied by one of two messages:
“A problem occurred while playing this item. Try again later, or select a different item. Go to www.netflix.com/support for more information.”
or
“Cannot play title. Please try again later.”
This indicates that the information which is on your device is out of date or corrupted and needs to be refreshed. Typically, you will see this error on an Apple device like an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV.
The easiest way to fix this error is to restart your device. This should clear out any old information used by the Netflix app and allow you to reload your content. If this does not work, you should update the Netflix app through the App Store.
2. How to Fix Netflix Error Code M7111-1331
This is an error which appears when you access Netflix from a browser, specifically from Chrome. Firstly, it may indicate you are using a link to a page which no longer exists (for example, if you use a bookmark to access Netflix). To fix this, go directly to www.netflix.com.
Secondly, this could be caused by an incompatibility with one of your browser extensions. Try disabling browser extensions to fix the error.
3. How to Fix Netflix Error Code F7111-5059
This error occurs if you try to access Netflix from a browser while using a VPN or proxy. As Netflix only has the rights to show certain content in certain countries, it restricts users from accessing content from outside of their home country. In the last few years the site has cracked down on people using a VPN to access Netflix.
This is annoying if you are using a VPN or proxy for security reasons rather than trying to change your region, as you cannot safely connect to the Netflix website. Instead, you have to disconnect your VPN or proxy and then refresh the page, or use VPNs that still work with Netflix.
4. How to Fix Netflix Error Code 10013
This error code arises when you are using the Netflix app and are trying to download an episode or movie while connected to a VPN or proxy. You’ll see an error message: “There was a problem with this download. (10013)”
To fix this issue, as with the one above, you must disable your VPN or proxy. Once it is disabled, you’ll be able to download your content as normal.
5. How to Fix Netflix Error (AVF:11800;OS:42800;)
Using the Netflix app, you can download episodes or movies to your device to watch when you don’t have internet access. However, sometimes when you do this you will get an error saying, “This title can no longer be watched offline. (AVF:11800;OS:42800;).”
This means that the downloaded file you are trying to watch has become corrupted or has been deleted or moved. Unfortunately there is no way to fix this if you don’t currently have an internet connection, as you need to re-download the file.
However, if you do have internet access then you can easily fix this error. Go to the Downloads section of the app by either clicking the arrow icon at the bottom of the app or by tapping the menu icon and selecting My Downloads. Now tap Edit in the top-right corner of the screen. Select the file that is not working and tap the red X icon to delete it.
Now re-download the episode or movie and you should be able to watch it without errors.
The Netflix error UI-800-3 comes up when you are using a device such as a Blu-ray player, Roku box, games console, smart TV, or Amazon Fire Stick. It indicates that the information stored on your device is out of date and needs to be refreshed.
This can be fixed simply by restarting your device. If this does not work, you can try signing out of Netflix on your device and then signing back in. Finally, if this does not work either, you can disconnect the device from your network, restart your router, and reconnect your device.
7. How to Fix Netflix Error 10023-10008
This error arises when a network connectivity issue affects your ability to download content via the iOS app. This usually happens when there is a block of some kind on the internet connection you are using. For example, if you are on a school or work Wi-Fi network, there may be a firewall in place which blocks streaming.
To fix this error, you should try connecting to a different Wi-Fi network.
Alternatively, this issue can sometimes be caused by having the incorrect time displayed on your device. Check your device’s date and time settings and make sure they are correct.
8. How to Fix Netflix Error 10025 or 30103
These errors occur along with a message saying, “Cannot play title. Please try again later.” This usually happens because your Netflix app is out of date. First, trying updating the Netflix app. If that doesn’t fix the problem, try uninstalling and reinstalling the app.
This error can also sometimes be fixed by restarting your device.
Finally, if you are using an HDMI adapter to watch content from an Apple device on an external display, make sure you are using one of the compatible HDMI adapters.
9. How to Fix a “Network Error” or Error NW-2-5/NW-3-6
When using an iOS device, you might see an error saying, “Network Error. A network connection is required to continue downloading.” Or on a device like a games console, smart TV, or Blu-ray player, you might see the error codes, NW-2-5 or NW-3-6.
All of these codes indicate a network connectivity issue which is preventing your device from contacting the Netflix servers. To fix it, first restart your device. If that does not work, try going closer to the source of the Wi-Fi to get a better signal, or use a wired connection instead. If this doesn’t work either, try restarting your router.
10. How to Fix an “Unexpected Error” on Netflix
Finally, one error you may see when using Netflix in a web browser is a message saying, “There was an unexpected error. Please reload the page and try again.”
To fix this, refresh the page and try again. If that does not work, try clearing your browser’s cache and browser history, or restarting your computer.
Fix Netflix Error Codes on Any Device
Using these tips, you should be able to fix the most common Netflix error codes on mobile devices, smart TVs, and web browsers. And if you encounter a Netflix error code we haven’t listed, feel free to ask for help in the comments below.
Did you notice a recent change to how Google search results are displayed on the desktop?
I noticed something last week — thinking there must be some kind of weird bug messing up the browser’s page rendering because suddenly everything looked similar: A homogenous sea of blue text links and favicons that, on such a large expanse of screen, come across as one block of background noise.
I found myself clicking on an ad link — rather than the organic search result I was looking for.
Here, for example, are the top two results for a Google search for flight search engine ‘Kayak’ — with just a tiny ‘Ad’ label to distinguish the click that will make Google money from the click that won’t…
Turns out this is Google’s latest dark pattern: The adtech giant has made organic results even more closely resemble the ads it serves against keyword searches, as writer Craig Mod was quick to highlight in a tweet this week.
There's something strange about the recent design change to google search results, favicons and extra header text: they all look like ads, which is perhaps the point? pic.twitter.com/TlIvegRct1
Last week, in its own breezy tweet, Google sought to spin the shift as quite the opposite — saying the “new look” presents “site domain names and brand icons prominently, along with a bolded ‘Ad’ label for ads”:
Last year, our search results on mobile gained a new look. That’s now rolling out to desktop results this week, presenting site domain names and brand icons prominently, along with a bolded “Ad” label for ads. Here’s a mockup: pic.twitter.com/aM9UAbSKtv
But Google’s explainer is almost a dark pattern in itself.
If you read the text quickly you’d likely come away with the impression that it has made organic search results easier to spot since it’s claiming components of these results now appear more “prominently” in results.
Yet, read it again, and Google is essentially admitting that a parallel emphasis is being placed — one which, when you actually look at the thing, has the effect of flattening the visual distinction between organic search results (which consumers are looking for) and ads (which Google monetizes).
Another eagle-eyed user Twitter, going by the name Luca Masters, chipped into the discussion generated by Mod’s tweet — to point out that the tech giant is “finally coming at this from the other direction”.
‘This’ being deceptive changes to ad labelling; and ‘other direction’ being a reference to how now it’s organic search results being visually tweaked to shrink their difference vs ads.
Google previously laid the groundwork for this latest visual trickery by spending earlier years amending the look of ads to bring them closer in line with the steadfast, cleaner appearance of genuine search results.
Except now it’s fiddling with those too. Hence ‘other direction’.
Masters helpfully quote-tweeted this vintage tweet (from 2016), by journalist Ginny Marvin — which presents a visual history of Google ad labelling in search results that’s aptly titled “color fade”; a reference to the gradual demise of the color-shaded box Google used to apply to clearly distinguish ads in search results.
Now a user of Google’s search engine has — essentially — only a favicon between them and an unintended ad click. Squint or you’ll click it.
This visual trickery may be fractionally less confusing in a small screen mobile environment — where Google debuted the change last year. But on a desktop screen these favicons are truly minuscule. And where to click to get actual information starts to feel like a total lottery.
A lottery that’s being stacked in Google’s favor because confused users are likely to end up clicking more ad links than they otherwise would, meaning it cashes in at the expense of web users’ time and energy.
Back in May, when Google pushed this change on mobile users, it touted the tweaks as a way for sites to showcase their own branding, instead of looking like every other blue link on a search result page. But it did so while simultaneously erasing a box-out that it had previously displayed around the label ‘Ad’ to make it stand out.
That made it “harder to differentiate ads and search results,” as we wrote then — predicting it will “likely lead to outcry”.
There were certainly complaints then. And there will likely be more now — given the visual flattening of the gap between ad clicks and organic links looks even more confusing for users of Google search on desktop.
We reached out to Google to ask for a response to the latest criticism that the new design for search results makes it almost impossible to distinguish between organic results and ads. But the company ignored repeat requests for comment.
Of course it’s true that plenty of UX design changes face backlash, especially early on. Change in the digital realm is rarely instantly popular. It’s usually more ‘slow burn’ acceptance.
But there’s no consumer-friendly logic to this one. (And the slow burn going on here involves the user being cast in the role of the metaphorical frog.)
Instead, Google is just making it harder for web users to click on the page they’re actually looking for — because, from a revenue-generating perspective, it prefers them to click an ad.
It’s the visual equivalent of a supermarket putting a similarly packaged own-brand right next to some fancy branded shampoo on the shelf — in the hopes a rushed shopper will pluck the wrong one. (Real life dark patterns are indeed a thing.)
It’s also a handy illustration of quite how far away from the user Google’s priorities have shifted, and continue to drift.
“When Google introduced ads, they were clearly marked with a label and a brightly tinted box,” says UX specialist Harry Brignull. “This was in stark contrast to all the other search engines at the time, who were trying to blend paid listings in amongst the organic ones, in an effort to drive clicks and revenue. In those days, Google came across as the most honest search engine on the planet.”
Brignull is well qualified to comment on dark patterns — having been calling out deceptive design since 2010 when he founded darkpatterns.org.
“I first learned about Google in the late 1990s. In those days you learned about the web by reading print magazines, which is charmingly quaint to look back on. I picked up a copy of Wired Magazine and there it was – a sidebar talking about a new search engine called ‘Google’,” he recalled. “Google was amazing. In an era of portals, flash banners and link directories, it went in the opposite direction. It didn’t care about the daft games the other search engines were playing. It didn’t even seem to acknowledge they existed. It didn’t even seem to want to be a business. It was a feat of engineering, and it felt like a public utility.
“The original Google homepage was recognised a guiding light of purism in digital design. Search was provided by an unstyled text field and button. There was nothing else on the homepage. Just the logo. Search results were near-instant and they were just a page of links and summaries – perfection with nothing to add or take away. The back-propagation algorithm they introduced had never been used to index the web before, and it instantly left the competition in the dust. It was proof that engineers could disrupt the rules of the web without needing any suit-wearing executives. Strip out all the crap. Do one thing and do it well.”
“As Google’s ambitions changed, the tinted box started to fade. It’s completely gone now,” Brignull added.
The one thing Google very clearly wants to do well now is serve more ads. It’s chosen to do that deceptively, by steadily — and consistently — degrading the user experience. So a far cry from “public utility”.
And that user-friendly Google of old? Yep, also completely gone.
Internet services company Opera has come under a short-sell assault based on allegations of predatory lending practices by its fintech products in Africa.
Hindenburg Research issued a report claiming (among other things) that Opera’s finance products in Nigeria and Kenya have run afoul of prudent consumer practices and Google Play Store rules for lending apps.
Hindenburg — which is based in NYC and managed by financial analyst Nate Anderson — went on to suggest Opera’s U.S. listed stock was grossly overvalued.
That’s a primer on the key info, though there are several additional shades of the who, why, and where of this story to break down, before getting to what Opera and Hindenburg had to say.
A good start is Opera’s ownership and scope. Founded in Norway, the company is an internet services provider, largely centered around its Opera browser.
Two years later, Opera went public in an IPO on NASDAQ, where its shares currently trade.
Though Opera’s web platform isn’t widely used in the U.S. — where it has less than 1% of the browser market — it has been number-one in Africa, and more recently a distant second to Chrome, according to StatCounter.
On the back of its browser popularity, Opera went on an African venture-spree in 2019, introducing a suite of products and startup verticals in Nigeria and Kenya, with intent to scale more broadly across the continent.
In Nigeria these include motorcycle ride-hail service ORide and delivery app OFood.
Central to these services are Opera’s fintech apps: OPay in Nigeria and OKash and Opesa in Kenya — which offer payment and lending options.
Fintech focused VC and startups have been at the center of a decade long tech-boom in several core economies in Africa, namely Kenya and Nigeria.
In 2019 Opera led a wave of Chinese VC in African fintech, including $170 million in two rounds to its OPay payments service in Nigeria.
Opera’s fintech products in Africa (as well as Opera’s Cashbean in India) are at the core of Hindenburg Research’s brief and short-sell position.
The crux of the Hindenburg report is that due to the declining market-share of its browser business, Opera has pivoted to products generating revenue from predatory short-term loans in Africa and India at interest rates of 365 to 876%, so Hindenburg claims.
The firm’s reporting goes on to claim Opera’s payment products in Nigeria and Kenya are afoul of Google rules.
“Opera’s short-term loan business appears to be…in violation of the Google Play Store’s policies on short-term and misleading lending apps…we think this entire line of business is at risk of…being severely curtailed when Google notices and ultimately takes corrective action,” the report says.
Based on this, Hindenburg suggested Opera’s stock should trade at around $2.50, around a 70% discount to Opera’s $9 share-price before the report was released on January 16.
Hindenburg also disclosed the firm would short Opera.
Founder Nate Anderson confirmed to TechCrunch Hindenburg continues to hold short positions in Opera’s stock — which means the firm could benefit financially from declines in Opera’s share value. The company’s stock dropped some 18% the day the report was published.
On motivations for the brief, “Technology has catalyzed numerous positive changes in Africa, but we do not think this is one of them,” he said.
“This report identified issues relating to one company, but what we think will soon become apparent is that in the absence of effective local regulation, predatory lending is becoming pervasive across Africa and Asia…proliferated via mobile apps,” Anderson added.
While the bulk of Hindenburg’s critique was centered on Opera, Anderson also took aim at Google.
“Google has become the primary facilitator of these predatory lending apps by virtue of Android’s dominance in these markets. Ultimately, our hope is that Google steps up and addresses the bigger issue here,” he said.
TechCrunch has an open inquiry into Google on the matter. In the meantime, Opera’s apps in Nigeria and Kenya are still available on GooglePlay, according to Opera and a cursory browse of the site.
For its part, Opera issued a rebuttal to Hindenburg and offered some input to TechCrunch through a spokesperson.
In a company statement opera said, “We have carefully reviewed the report published by the short seller and the accusations it put forward, and our conclusion is very clear: the report contains unsubstantiated statements, numerous errors, and misleading conclusions regarding our business and events related to Opera.”
Opera added it had proper banking licenses in Kenyan or Nigeria. “We believe we are in compliance with all local regulations,” said a spokesperson.
TechCrunch asked Hindenburg’s Nate Anderson if the firm had contacted local regulators related to its allegations. “We reached out to the Kenyan DCI three times before publication and have not heard back,” he said.
As it pertains to Africa’s startup scene, there’ll be several things to follow surrounding the Opera, Hindenburg affair.
The first is how it may impact Opera’s business moves in Africa. The company is engaged in competition with other startups across payments, ride-hail, and several other verticals in Nigeria and Kenya. Being accused of predatory lending, depending on where things go (or don’t) with the Hindenburg allegations, could put a dent in brand-equity.
There’s also the open question of if/how Google and regulators in Kenya and Nigeria could respond. Contrary to some perceptions, fintech regulation isn’t non-existent in both countries, neither are regulators totally ineffective.
Kenya passed a new data-privacy law in November and Nigeria recently established guidelines for mobile-money banking licenses in the country, after a lengthy Central Bank review of best digital finance practices.
Nigerian regulators demonstrated they are no pushovers with foreign entities, when they slapped a $3.9 billion fine on MTN over a regulatory breach in 2015 and threatened to eject the South African mobile-operator from the country.
As for short-sellers in African tech, they are a relatively new thing, largely because there are so few startups that have gone on to IPO.
In 2019, Citron Research head and activist short-seller Andrew Left — notable for shorting Lyft and Tesla — took short positions in African e-commerce company Jumia, after dropping a report accusing the company of securities fraud. Jumia’s share-price plummeted over 50% and has only recently begun to recover.
As of Wednesday, there were signs Opera may be shaking off Hindenburg’s report — at least in the market — as the company’s shares had rebounded to $7.35.
A single-board computer (SBC) is an entire computer built onto a circuit board. SBCs come complete with memory, a microprocessor, inputs, and outputs. Although the Raspberry Pi ranks among the most popular and versatile single-board PCs, it’s far from the only option.
Most SBCs run Linux operating systems well. However, some single-board computers offer Android and Chrome OS compatibility. Lets take a look at the best single-board computers for installing Android and Chrome OS.
Why Buy a Single-Board Computer?
A single-board computer typically comes at a lower cost than purchasing a larger motherboard. This comes, partially, from the bundled components. It’s a computer that’s operational out-of-the-box. Just add an operating system and storage media, and you’re good to go.
Also, because SBCs use fewer circuit boards, the cost remains low. Along with the low price, SBCs have a low power draw in comparison with full-fledged PCs. However, a single-board PC lacks the computing power of a traditional desktop or laptop. As such, many SBCs struggle with computationally heavy tasks such as emulating PlayStation 1 or Nintendo 64 games.
Finally, SBCs typically lack the upgradeability found on larger circuit boards. For example, on a Raspberry Pi 4, you cannot upgrade the RAM, CPU, or GPU. Nevertheless, single-board PCs are an ideal project PC for everything from a retro gaming console to a smart home hub, to a low-power home theater PC (HTPC), a personal server cluster, and much more.
How to Run Android or Chrome OS on an SBC
To run Chrome OS or Android on an SBC, you need a few things. First, a compatible single-board computer. If you’re using Chrome, you’ll need Chromium OS. Chromium OS is an open-source operating system that brings Chrome OS to single-board computers.
Unfortunately, Chrome OS is relatively resource-heavy. It runs slowly, even on the Raspberry Pi 4’s upgraded 1.5GHz processor and 4GB RAM. Still, Chromium OS brings the lightweight, browser-based operating system to SBCs.
Several options allow you to run Android on an SBC. On the Raspberry Pi and Odroid, you can use RTAndroid. Other boards, such as the Banana Pi, utilize images available on the Android and SBC downloads page. Phoenix OS and Remix OS bring Android to x86 devices, allowing users to build a do-it-yourself Android PC.
Want to get started? Here are the top single-board computers for running Android and Chrome OS.
You cannot have a best SBCs list without including the Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi 4 is the latest iteration of the extremely popular SBC, and it is easily the most well-known and easily recognized option. You’ll need a decent chunk of computing power to run Android and Chromium.
The Raspberry Pi 4 has an upgraded 1.5GHz CPU, comes with 4GB RAM, and has additional Micro HDMI ports and USB 3.0 ports. There are also rumors of an 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 model, which would add a massive amount of additional storage. However, they are just rumors at the time of writing.
The Raspberry Pi 4 runs Chrome OS, and with RTAndroid, it can run Android. Plus, the device can also run a bevy of other operating systems, including Raspbian, RetroPie, and Recalbox.
The Odroid N2 is one of Odroid’s most powerful SBCs to date. The Odroid N2 uses ARM big.LITTLE architecture to pack four 1.8GHz Cortex-A73 cores and two 1.9GHz Cortex-A53 cores into the Amlogic S922X SoC.
You’ll also find up to 4GB RAM running at 1320MHz, a Mali-G52 GPU (as part of the SoC), a microSD expansion slot, and 4 USB 3.0 ports. One downside to this SBC is the lack of integrated Wi-Fi. If you want to connect the Odroid N2 to your Wi-Fi network, you’ll need an adapter.
You can run a huge range of distros on the Odroid N2, from Ubuntu to Kali Linux, and even Android. Although the Odroid N2 has two fewer processor cores than the popular Odroid XU4 (which uses an octa-core Exynos 5422 processor), the overall performance gains more than make up the difference.
The UDOO X86 is another powerful Raspberry Pi alternative that you can use to run Android-x86. As the UDOO X86 SBCs use Intel CPUs, you can run Windows 10 and other x86-based operating systems. That means Linux, Android, Yocto, and Chrome OS are all good to go on the UDOO X86.
The UDOO X86 comes in two different flavors. First, the UDOO X86 II Ultra comes with an Intel Pentium N3710, a quad-core 2.56GHz processor, and Intel’s Quark SE core SoC. The processor is backed with 8GB DDR3 RAM and an Intel HD Graphics 405 chip.
Alternatively, the UDOO X86 II Advanced Plus comes with an Intel Celeron N3160, a quad-core 2.24GHz processor, also with Intel’s Quark SE core SoC. The Advanced Plus GPU is an Intel HD Graphics 400, which is slightly less powerful than the Ultra. Furthermore, the Advanced Plus has 4GB DDR3 RAM.
The Banana Pi M3 (BPI-M3) is a great single board computer that performs well in CPU tests. In these performance tests, a BPI-M3 running the Linux distribution, Debian, performed well in benchmarks against a range of SBC competitors. The benchmarks include password cracking tool John the Ripper, raytracing benchmark, C-Ray, as well as the Himeno and Smallpt benchmarks.
With a powerful Allwinner A83T ARM Cortex-A7 octa-core 1.8 GHz processor and PowerVR SGX544MP1 GPU, the Banana Pi M3 can run tons of distros such as Debian, Ubuntu, and Raspberry Pi images. Moreover, the M3 retains the same form factor as the Banana Pi M1, packing in loads more performance without expanding its physical footprint.
Powered by a dual-core Sitara AM5728 ARM Cortex A15, and a quad-core Cortex-M4, the BeagleBoard-X15 is a high-performance SBC. With its 4GB eMMC, an HDMI out, 157 GPIO I/O ports, an eSATA, and two 1GB Ethernet ports, the X15 delivers a smorgasbord of connectivity options.
What’s more, software options range from Ubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSUSE to FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Android, and Windows Embedded. Because of its power and compatibility, the BeagleBoard-X15 is a top Raspberry Pi alternative for running Android and Chrome OS.
The ROCK64 features an impressive 1.5GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU, backed up with a decent Mali-450 MP2 GPU and the option of up to 4GB DDR3 RAM. The Mail-450 MP2 is powerful enough to handle 4K video output at 60 frames per second, while the 40 GPIO pins make the Rock64 a powerful SBC.
Although the Raspberry Pi 4 specs now surpass the ROCK64, the 4GB variant is a handy alternative to the Raspberry Pi 3, especially given it has a 64-bit CPU. The ROCK64 can run several Linux distros, as well as Android.
At its core, the ASUS Tinker Board houses a Rockchip RK3288 system on a chip (SoC), and its GPIO pin layout is engineered for compatibility with the Raspberry Pi. The Tinker Board packs a performance punch with 4K video and 2GB of RAM alongside Gigabit Ethernet.
Operating system compatibility includes many Linux options such as Debian-based TinkerOS, Armbian, Android, and Flint OS.
The Orange Pi 4B is an open-source SBC that can run Android, as well as Ubuntu and Debian-based Linux distributions. It represents a serious upgrade from previous Orange Pi models. The Orange Pi 4B uses a Rockchip RK3399 SoC, which contains a hex-core ARM CPU cluster in a Big.Little configuration.
The device also include a powerful Mali-T860MP4 GPU and 4GB LPDDR4 RAM with an extra 16GB on-board flash memory. The Mali-T860MP4 supports 4K video at 60 frames per second, making it a great option for a media center or even a retro gaming console. The Orange Pi 4B isn’t all about power. It also features 40-pin GPIO, as well as ports for USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and USB Type-C.
What Is the Best Single-Board Computer to Run Android or Chrome OS?
The Raspberry Pi 4 stakes a very strong claim as the best SBC on the market for running Chrome OS or Android. There are, however, several Raspberry Pi alternatives that do an excellent job. In many cases, the additional functionality and power on offer mean Raspberry Pi alternatives can perform better in a wider range of situations.
Still, the Raspberry Pi, with its enormous user base, remains the top choice for tinkerers, developers, and SBC hobbyists. The sheer volume of distributions, project ideas, and free resources will keep the Raspberry Pi at the top for the time to come. However, will the Nvidia Jetson Nano replace the Raspberry Pi? Only time will tell.
Specifically, Dfinity notes that when enterprises and developers run their web apps and enterprise systems on the Internet Computer, the content is decentralised across a minimum of four or a maximum of an unlimited number of nodes in Dfinity’s global network of independent data centers.
icon that appears when you hover over the message on web or double tap the message on mobile and select an emoji from the pop-up.
The first is how it may impact Opera’s business moves in Africa. The company is engaged in competition with other startups across payments, ride-hail, and several other verticals in Nigeria and Kenya. Being accused of predatory lending, depending on where things go (or don’t) with the Hindenburg allegations, could put a dent in brand-equity.
