Daily Crunch: iPhone sales decline in Q1

Apple’s earnings show the impact of COVID-19, NVIDIA’s top scientist shares an open source ventilator design and Amazon anticipates big spending in the coming months.

Here’s your Daily Crunch for May 1, 2020.

1. iPhone sales are down, ahead of uncertain times for the industry

Apple device sales have taken a hit, but the company’s services are doing swell, according to its latest earnings report. The iPhone, the longtime cornerstone of the company’s hardware portfolio, hit $28.96 billion in revenue for Q2, down from $31.1 billion from this time last year. The iPad and Mac lines saw drops for the quarter, as well.

In fact, a new Canalys report suggests that smartphone sales are down 13% globally.

2. NVIDIA’s top scientist develops open-source ventilator that can be built with $400 in readily-available parts

The mechanical ventilator design developed by NVIDIA’s Bill Daily can be assembled quickly, using off-the-shelf parts with a total cost of around $400 – making it an accessible and affordable alternative to traditional, dedicated ventilators which can cost $20,000 or more.

3. Amazon Q1 beats on net sales of $75.5B but posts net income of $2.5B, down $1B on a year ago

The company’s net sales were up 26% year-year-over. Of those sales, $41 billion was attributable to product sales and $33 billion to services (which includes AWS, but also streaming and other non-physical goods). CEO Jeff Bezos acknowledged the challenges the company is facing, but he also reiterated that it plans to double down on spending in Q2.

4. Walmart is piloting a pricier 2-hour ‘Express’ grocery delivery service

Walmart now hopes to capitalize on the increased demand for speedier delivery with the introduction of a new service that allows consumers to pay to get to the front of the line. The retailer confirmed today it’s launching a new Walmart Grocery service called “Express,” which promises orders in two hours or less for an upcharge of $10 on top of the usual delivery fee.

5. 5 tips for starting a business with a stranger

Co-founder and CEO Sam Pillar argues that his startup Jobber is proof that starting a company with a stranger isn’t just doable, it can even be an advantage. That’s because it allowed them to arrive at big decisions and have productive debate without the baggage and bias of a pre-existing relationship, establishing Jobber’s feedback-oriented culture. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

6. Cliqz pulls the plug on a European anti-tracking alternative to Google search

Cliqz, a Munich-based anti-tracking browser with private search baked in that has sought to offer a local alternative to Google powered by its own search index, is shutting down — claiming this arm of its business has been blindsided by the coronavirus crisis. However, the company is not closing down entirely, and a spokesman confirmed that Ghostery will continue.

7. JetBrains Academy for learning code launches for free during COVID-19 pandemic

Most online coding courses, either free or paid, essentially suggest you download a project or copy-paste code from their snippets going through their courses. Unlike JetBrains, they tend not to include Integrated Development Environments, which are more helpful in the learning process.

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.

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In spite of pandemic (or maybe because of it), cloud infrastructure revenue soars

It’s fair to say that even before the impact of COVID-19, companies had begun a steady march to the cloud. Maybe it wasn’t fast enough for AWS, as Andy Jassy made clear in his 2019 Re:invent keynote, but it was happening all the same and the steady revenue increases across the cloud infrastructure market bore that out.

As we look at the most recent quarter’s earnings reports for the main players in the market, it seems the pandemic and economic fall out has done little to slow that down. In fact, it may be contributing to its growth.

According to numbers supplied by Synergy Research, the cloud infrastructure market totaled $29 billion in revenue for Q12020.

Image Credit: Synergy Research

Synergy’s John Dinsdale, who has been watching this market for a long time, says that the pandemic could be contributing to some of that growth, at least modestly. In spite of the numbers, he doesn’t necessarily see these companies getting out of this unscathed either, but as companies shift operations from offices, it could be part of the reason for the increased demand we saw in the first quarter.

“For sure, the pandemic is causing some issues for cloud providers, but in uncertain times, the public cloud is providing flexibility and a safe haven for enterprises that are struggling to maintain normal operations. Cloud provider revenues continue to grow at truly impressive rates, with AWS and Azure in aggregate now having an annual revenue run rate of well over $60 billion,” Dinsdale said in a statement.

AWS led the way with a third of the market or more than $10 billion in quarterly revenue as it continues to hold a substantial lead in market share. Microsoft was in second, growing at a brisker 59% for 18% of the market. While Microsoft doesn’t break out its numbers, using Synergy’s numbers, that would work out to around $5.2 billion for Azure revenue. Meanwhile Google came in third with $2.78 billion.

If you’re keeping track of market share at home, it comes out to 32% for AWS, 18% for Microsoft and 8% for Google. This split has remained fairly steady, although Microsoft has managed to gain a few percentage points over the last several quarters as its overall growth rate outpaces Amazon.

AWS hits $10B for the quarter putting it on a $40B run rate

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NVIDIA’s top scientist develops open-source ventilator that can be built with $400 in readily-available parts

NVIDIA Chief Scientist Bill Daily has released an open-source ventilator hardware design he developed in order to address the shortage resulting from the global coronavirus pandemic. The mechanical ventilator design developed by Daily can be assembled quickly, using off-the-shelf parts with a total cost of around $400 – making it an accessible and affordable alternative to traditional, dedicated ventilators which can cost $20,000 or more.

The design created by Daily strives for simplicity, and basically includes just two central components – a solenoid valve and a microcontroller. The design is called the OP-Vent, and in the video below you can see how bare-bones it is in terms of hardware compared to existing alternatives, including some of the other more complex emergency-use ventilator designs developed in response to COVID-19.

Daily’s design, which was developed using input from mechanical engineers and doctors including Dr. Andrew Moore, a chief resident at Stanford University and D.r Bryant Lin, a medical devices expert and company co-founder, can be assembled in as little as five minutes, and is small enough to fit in a Pelican case for easy transportation and potability. It also employs fewer parts and uses less energy than similarly simple designs that adapt the manual breather bags used by paramedics in emergency response.

Next up for the design is getting it cleared by the FDA under the agency’s Emergency Use Authorization program for COVID-19 equipment, and then seeking manufacturing partners to pursue large-scale manufacturing.

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JetBrains Academy for learning code launches for free during COVID-19 pandemic

During this pandemic, many organizations are offering free or drastically cheaper courses to help people skill-up for when we eventually get out of lock-down. There are numerous outlets if you want to learn to code from, for instance, Freecodecamp or the ‘Free Fridays‘ scheme form General Assembly. And for gamers, Gamedev.tv has taken 80% off its courses where you can learn to code by building video games.

However most online coding courses, either free or paid, essentially suggest you download a project or copy-paste code from their snippets going through their courses. They tend not to include Integrated Development Environments, which are more helpful in the learning process.

But JetBrains, a startup that makes development tools for developers actually developed its own Educational IDEs, realised they could take a fresh approach to online learning, especially during this pandemic.

Their own IDE means that, while some of the learning happens in the browser, a large part is be available in the IDE on a person’s computer. That means a student learn coding through practicing tasks and integrated tests – directly in the professional environment of the IDE and get instant feedback.

This new product, JetBrains Academy, was due to be launched out of beta just prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19, and it would have been a paid-for product. But now JetBrains has decided to make the entire platform free during the pandemic, allowing people stuck at home or who were laid off or furloughed to learn new skills.

Students can learn Java, Python or Kotlin (the preferred language for Android development by Google) through 60+ projects which they would be building themselves and then get instant feedback because of the IDE. They are provided with the full curriculum that consists of single-concept topics that can be completed in about 15 minutes and try out more than 5,700 interactive challenges.

They are also offering free Educational IDEs, that help teach coding through practicing tasks and integrated tests – directly in the professional environment. These support Java, Kotlin, Python, Scala, JavaScript, Rust, C/C++, and Go, with more languages to come. Any teacher can create their own educational course right in the IDE with any number of lessons and share them privately or publicly with their students.

In addition, students, teachers, schools and courses can apply for educational licenses for full-on JetBrains IDEs and team tools and use them for free.

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Rode’s new white Wireless GO and accessories extend the flexibility of the most versatile creator mic

Sound industry leader Rode has done an amazing job keeping up with the needs of the fast-moving creator industry, supporting YouTubers, podcasters, Instagram and Tik Tok media mavens with a host of new products at impressive price points. The Rode Wireless GO mic system might be the most impressive of these, taking the quality you’d expect from a more expensive wireless mic pack system formerly reserved for broadcast pros and bringing it to the masses at a very compelling price point, with easy setup and use. Now, Rode has introduced a new white version of the Rode Wireless GO, along with new accessories that increase the flexibility of the already very flexible audio device.

I’ve been a fan of the Wireless GO since its launch, and previously used the original black version in a number of different capacities. The white version doesn’t mess with anything that was great about the original – it just gives you a light-colored option that is more suitable for use with light clothes when you’re shooting video. If you’re not already familiar with the Wireless GO, what you get in the box is a transmitter and a receiver (with built-in clips on the back for attachment to clothing), each of which charges via USB-C, along with wind filters, charging cables, a 3.5mm audio cable, and a carrying case.

Out of the box, the receiver and transmitter are synced, so all you need to do is power them on to get started. The transmitter comes with a mic built-in, so you can immediately clip it to your collar to get started transmitting sound. The receiver pack can easily slide right into the cold shoe mount on a DSLR or mirrorless camera, and the included standard audio cable can connect from it to the camera’s mic input for direct recording.

The Rode Wireless GO’s USB-C port acts as an audio output, too, so you can use either a USB-C headset or a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter to get direct audio monitoring from the pack, too. On the transmitter side, there’s a 3.5mm input so you can connect a lavalier (or any other) mic to up your audio game even further. Speaking of lavs, Rode also introduced a new white version of its own Lavalier GO lapel mic, which is also a fantastic, affordable option that produces very high quality results. Below, you can hear both the sound direct from the GO itself, and a sample using the Lavalier GO attached to the transmitter.

The versatility of the Wireless GO mean that they’re incredibly useful for a wide range of uses. For instance, I have then connected into a USB audio interface on my main work Mac for use during video calls – I just power them up when it comes time to conference, and no one has to deal with muffled or low-quality audio from my end in terms of clarity and ease of understanding. On the road, the Wireless GO is also a great option for podcasting, providing much better sound than what you can get out of wireless earbuds or built-in device mics. And they’re extremely portable, unlike most USB mics that would also provide a good alternative.

Rode has also debuted a couple of accessories alongside this launch that make them great for even more use cases. The Interview GO adapter, for instance, allows you to mount the transmitter on a handheld mic grip, turning it into a stick mic complete with foam filter to reduce wind sounds and plosives. That means one less mic to carry around when you’re doing on-camera interviews with passers by, or participating in a media scrum.

[gallery ids="1982580,1982579"]

There’s also a new magnetic clip attachment that means you can easily adapt the Rode Wireless GO transmitter pack to clip anywhere on a subject’s clothing, rather than requiring that it clip to a collar or exposed seam. This is huge for placement flexibility with any outfit, and can help with hiding the pack, too, if you’re looking to get a clean video shot.

Rode’s Wireless GO can also perform some neat tricks that could help with other audio applications, including being able to act as a latency-free wireless converter for any set of headphones. You can connect any input to the 3.5mm port on the transmitter, and then connect a set of headphones to the receiver and get that input piped to you directly.

It’s hard to find any mic system that’s truly a jack-of-all-trades without also having to deal with significant trade-offs in on department or another, but the Rode Wireless GO is pretty near perfect for a range of use at a price point that’s hard to beat. The GO itself costs $199, while the Lavalier GO is $79. The MagClip magnet clip for the transmitter is $19, and the Interview GO handheld mic adapter is $29.

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Cliqz pulls the plug on a European anti-tracking alternative to Google search

Cliqz, a Munch-based anti-tracking browser with private search baked in that has sought to offer a local alternative to Google powered by its own search index, is shutting down — claiming this arm of its business has been blindsided by the coronavirus crisis.

Today was not great. We closed parts of @cliqz & our dream of an independent, private search engine: https://t.co/S4XI0LhjVl If you're looking for tech folks: Ping me. Cliqzers are among the best, people that can do stuff & punch way above their weight. The @cliqz team is amazing

— Marc Al-Hames (@MarcAlHames) April 29, 2020

The bigger challenge is of course competing in a market so dominated by Google.

In Europe, where the tech giant’s search engine commands a marketshare approaching 95%, trying to lure users to an alternative ecosystem is difficult at the best of times, and a pandemic is certainly not that.

“We didn’t see a pandemic coming,” Cliqz wrote in a farewell blog post yesterday. “We didn’t expect that a virus could have impact on Cliqz. And even just one and a half months ago, we completely underestimated what this would do to the economy and even more so to the political priorities. It became clear to us in the last weeks, that all political initiatives to create an independent European digital infrastructure have been stalled or postponed for years. Covid-19 is overshadowing everything. This is not a climate where we will have any meaningful discussion about a public funding of a solution like Cliqz.”

It’s been a long road for Cliqz, which was founded back in 2008 — initially focused on German-speaking markets. The browser was a fork of Mozilla’s Firefox, and Cliq went on to take investment from Mozilla, in 2016, when it was eyeing expanding to more markets.

In 2017 it acquired the Ghostery anti-tracking tool, which had around 8 million users at the time, with the aim of combining algorithmic and blocklist anti-tracking approaches. But the wider challenge for Cliqz’s browser+search effort was not a lack of tech but the difficulty of building broad backing for its alternative approach.

The farewell blog post says the company failed to raise enough awareness among mainstream web users to convince them to step off Alphabet’s beaten path. But it’s also true that, in recent years, mainstream browsers have been baking in anti-tracking and steadily upping their own splashy privacy claims.

Even Google has said it will phase out third party cookie tracking in its Chrome browser — so the available space for ‘easy’ differentiation around privacy is shrinking. Unless you can clearly and powerfully articulate key technical nuance and complex wider market dynamics related to how user data is passed around in the background.

There is also ongoing regulatory failure in Europe around privacy, despite a recently updated data protection framework, with many national watchdogs failing to grasp the nettle of rampant unlawful online tracking.

The lack of GDPR enforcement against major tech and adtech platforms also means there’s been less succour for those businesses that are making privacy respecting choices than they might have been led to expect, having read the rules on paper.

“We failed to make people truly aware of the problem; we failed to reach a scale that would allow our search engine to be self-financing,” Cliqz writes. “We have reached several hundred thousand daily users. But — and this is the disadvantage of running our own technology — this is not enough to run a search engine, to cover our costs. And most of all, we failed to convince the political stakeholders, that Europe desperately needs an own independent digital infrastructure.”

While the Cliqz browser and search is being shuttered, the company is not closing down entirely — and a spokesman confirmed Ghostery will continue.

Cliqz investor, Hubert Burda Media, which holds a majority stake in the business, said Thursday that the resulting “restructuring” of the business will affect 45 employees — “for whom individual solutions are currently being sought”.

“The 100% Cliqz subsidiary Ghostery, headed by Jeremy Tillman, will continue to bundle Cliqz’s expertise in the area of ​​anti-tracking,” it wrote. “In addition, a team of experts will be formed from Cliqz, which will take care of technical issues such as artificial intelligence, search and the influence of technology on media.”

Burda added that it’s looking at a possible integration of Cliqz’s MyOffrz unit — aka the division that had sought to monetize use of the anti-tracking browser via contextually targeted (and thus privacy sensitive) ads.

In a wider statement on the restructuring, Burda CEO Paul-Bernhard Kallen said: “We have invested in Cliqz for years because we believe that Europe needs its own digital infrastructure to stay fit for the future. Without the necessary political structures at European level for this, however, we will not be able to overcome the superiority of the tech giants from the USA and China. In addition, the Corona pandemic is unlikely to lead to a far-reaching innovation program in Europe in the foreseeable future, so that we can no longer drive this path alone. I very much regret this because the basic idea of ​​establishing a counterweight to the USA and China in the European search sector is still the right one.”

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Streaming service Hooq shuts down, ends partnership with Disney’s Hotstar, Grab and others

Hooq, a five-year-old on-demand video streaming service that aimed to become “Netflix for Southeast Asia,” has shut down weeks after filing for liquidation and terminated its partnerships with Disney’s Hotstar, ride-hailing giant Grab, and Indonesia’s VideoMax.

Hooq Digital, a joint venture among Singapore telecom group Singtel (majority owner), Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros Entertainment, discontinued the service on Thursday. It had amassed over 80 million subscribers in nearly half of the dozen markets in Asia.

“For the past 5 years, we gave you unbelievable thrills, heartrending drama, roaring laughs, awesome action, and more. Our goal was to bring you the best entertainment from here to Hollywood. Our hearts are full of gratitude for all of you who shared the journey with us,” it says on its website.

Hooq publicly disclosed that it had raised about $95 million, but the sum was likely higher. News outlet The Ken analyzed the regulatory filings last month to report that Hooq had raised $127.2 million, and its losses in the financial year 2019 had ballooned to $220, suggesting that it had received more capital.

The streaming service said last month that it could not receive new funds from new or existing investors.

Homepage of Hooq

The service counted India, where it entered into a partnership with Disney’s Hotstar in 2018 and telecom operators Airtel and Vodafone, as its biggest market. The company also maintained a partnership with ride-hailing giant Grab to supply content in its cab, and VideoMAX in Indonesia.

Hooq brought dozens of D.C. universe titles including “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “Wonder Woman” and other popular TV series such as “The Big Bang Theory” to its partners. In India, users began noticing last week that those titles were disappearing from Hotstar.

A spokesperson of Hooq told TechCrunch today that its tie-ups with all its partners including Hotstar have closed. A Hotstar spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Mobile operator Singtel first unveiled Hooq’s liquidation in an exchange filing last month. The Ken reported that the filing left hundreds of employees at Hooq stunned who thought the firm was doing fine financially. Nearly every employee at Hooq has been let go, with select few offered a job at Singtel, according to The Ken.

In an interview with Slator earlier this year, Yvan Hennecart, Head of Localization at HOOQ, said that the company was working to expand its catalog with local content and add 100 original titles in 2020.

“Our focus is mostly on localization of entertainment content; whether it is subtitling or dubbing, we are constantly looking to bring more content to our viewers faster. My role also expands to localization of our platform and any type of collateral information that helps create a unique experience for our users,” he told the outlet.

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The ‘PuffPacket’ could help researchers learn when, how and why people vape

Vaping is a controversial habit: it certainly has its downsides, but anecdotally it’s a fantastic smoking cessation aid. The thing is, until behavioral scientists know a bit more about who does it, when, how much and other details, its use will continue to be something of a mystery. That’s where the PuffPacket comes in.

Designed by Cornell engineers, the PuffPacket is a small device that attaches to e-cigarettes (or vape pens, or whatever you call yours) and precisely measures their use, sharing that information with a smartphone app for the user, and potentially researchers, to review later.

Some vaping devices are already set up with something like this, to tell a user when the cartridge is running low or a certain limit has been reached. But generally when vaping habits are studied, they rely on self-report data, not proprietary apps.

How companies are working around Apple’s ban on vaping apps

“The lack of continuous and objective understanding of vaping behaviors led us to develop PuffPacket to enable proper measurement, monitoring, tracking and recording of e-cigarette use, as opposed to inferring it from location and activity data, or self-reports,” said PhD student Alexander Adams, who led the creation of the device, in a Cornell news release.

The device fits a number of e-cigarette types, fitting between the mouthpiece and the heating element. It sits idle until the user breathes in, which activates the e-cigarette’s circuits, and the PuffPacket’s as well. By paying attention to the voltage, it can tell how much liquid is being vaporized, as well as simpler measurements like the duration and timing of the inhalation.

An example using real data of how location and activity could be correlated with vaping

This data is sent to the smartphone app via Bluetooth, where it is cross-referenced with other information, like location, motion and other metadata. This may lead to identifiable patterns, like that someone vapes frequently when they walk in the morning but not the afternoon, or after coffee but not meals, or far more at the bar than at home — that sort of thing. Perhaps even (with the proper permissions) it could track use of certain apps — Instagram and vape? Post-game puff?

Some of these might be obvious, others not so much — but either way, it helps to have them backed up by real data rather than asking a person to estimate their own usage. They may not know, understand or wish to admit their own habits.

“Getting these correlations between time of day, place and activity is important for understanding addiction. Research has shown that if you can keep people away from the paths of their normal habits, it can disrupt them,” said Adams.

No one is expecting people to voluntarily stick these things on their vape pens and share their info, but the design — which is being released as open source — could be used by researchers performing more formal studies. You can read the paper describing PuffPacket here.

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The 17 Best Free Browser Games to Kill Time

If you have some time to kill, why not give these fun free browser games a try. They’re all casual games that you can play for free in your web browser whenever you have a few minutes to spare.

1. Woggle

For a different kind of word game, Woggle teases your brain to find the word you are given. When you see the word at the top, click connected letters on the board to create it. You can connect letters up, down, or diagonally to make the word.

Woggle starts off simple enough with words of just three letters. However, as you do well, you will progress to longer words which creates more of a challenge. You have limited time to find a certain number of words on a given list. When you find the word, click the last letter twice to submit it and move onto the next.

For more like this, take a look at these other free online word games to play when you’re bored.

2. Shell Challenge

If you’re looking for a test of your coordination and speed, try your hand at Shell Challenge. The rules are simple. You’ll see a shell at the top of the screen. When the cards on the board reveal their items, click the identical shell as fast as you can.

What makes this online game a challenge is that the cards only reveal for a few seconds. After they cover and reveal again, the items change place. So, you must scan and click quickly. Once you reach the level goal you can move on.

3. Crash It

Collect jewels by making matches in Crash It. Unlike other matching games with gems, this one places the gems on the board in random spots for you to drop to the bottom. In order to drop them, match groups of three or more blocks of the same color.

You will see the number of gems you need of each color on the left. Since you have limited time, you may need to match blocks that drop an hourglass to the bottom to give you more time on the clock. Enjoy the soft music as you plan your moves in Crash It.

4. Number Mahjong

Mahjong games come in all shapes and sizes. If you love the genre, you should take a peek at Number Mahjong. Click matching numbers to create pairs and remove them from the board. And don’t worry, there’s no math involved here. Just match a 10 with a 10, a 17 with a 17, and so on.

Once you clear the board, you’ll move onto the next level and puzzle layout. Thus, you will never get bored with the same board. You can use hints and shuffles if you get stuck. Plus, the game offers relaxing music while you play.

5. Zoo Animals

For a different kind of matching game, head to the zoo. Zoo Animals is a stacking game. Each stackable piece has part of an animal on it that you must match to its counterpart. The match will remove the animal from the board.

You can move one piece at a time or an entire stack. Just keep in mind that every so often, a new piece will fall from the top. Remove as many animals as you can to score and move onto the next level.

6. Mystery Paradise

In Mystery Paradise, your objective is to remove the colored background tiles by arranging the balls. Match three or more of the same colored balls to remove them and the background tile(s) from the board.

If you make a match, you continue with the balls already on the board. But if you make a move that does not make a match, more balls will appear. This is important to remember because in order to make matches, balls must have a direct path to each other. Clear the tiles and move onto the next challenging level in Mystery Paradise.

7. Cube Crash

Cube Crash is a match-three game with a fun twist. Yes, you need to click on three or more matching colors to remove the tiles from the board. But the trick is that in order to meet the level goal you have to plan ahead of time. If not, you may be left with less than three tiles of the same color to match—and fail.

As you move your mouse over the blocks of tiles, you will see how many points that click will get you towards your goal. So, listen to the jazzy music and strategize your matches as you work to complete each level.

8. Snail Bob

If you like puzzlers with gadgets, levers, and buttons, then Snail Bob is one to check out. Your snail keeps on walking — slowly of course — but you can stop him with a click. Your objective is to get Bob to the exit by using the gizmos around him.

Rotate the levers to move objects, push the buttons to trigger ball drops, and figure out how to send Bob the snail to his safe spot in the pipe.

9. Cut the Rope: Magic

If you enjoy casual games, then you’ve probably already played Cut the Rope. Cut the Rope: Magic is another installment in this series of puzzling games with Om Nom the hungry monster. This enchanting challenge lets you change characters throughout the level to complete the goal of getting Om Nom his candy.

As with the other Cut the Rope games, you slice through ropes to get the monster his candy. Try to get three stars for a perfect score on each level. Check out Cut the Rope: Magic for another cute follow-up to the original.

10. Neon 3

For a classic matching game with a twist of lime, take a look at Neon 3. Swap neon tiles of cocktails and goodies to match three or more. If you match four or more tiles, you can create special ones that blow away columns, rows, or blocks of tiles.

You have limited time to reach the level goal to move forward. So, keep your eye on the prize and your mind on the neon you see in Neon 3.

11. Tom and Jerry Mouse Maze

Based on the classic cartoon characters of Tom and Jerry, this cool maze game has you running for the cheese. In Tom and Jerry Mouse Maze, you must move Jerry around the room using your own mouse to get the cheese. But time is ticking because Tom is on the prowl.

In addition to watching out for that pesky cat, you must beware of mouse traps, sticky goo, and other dangers. Collect your cheese and head to the mousehole to move onto another fun level.

12. Fox Adventurer

Fox Adventurer is a puzzling game where you switch between day and night to find your way to the finish. As your fox continues to move, you must hit the button to make the switch. This will change the blocks he is walking on and allow you to move down towards the door.

With simple controls, make the fox jump for gems and the key on your way to the exit. Each level in Fox Adventurer offers a unique and puzzling challenge.

For other titles like this, take a look at these puzzle games you can play for free in your browser.

13. Monkey Bubbles

If you like bubble shooters, then head to the jungle and play some Monkey Bubbles. Aim and click to launch the bubbles above you to make matches. You have a limited number of moves to clear the board of fruit, so plan wisely.

If you aim carefully, you can bounce the bubbles off the walls to land them where you need them. You can also see which fruit bubble is next in your wagon and click to swap it with your current one. All monkeying around aside, this is a fun bubble shooter.

14. Letter Mix

For another out-of-the-ordinary word game, take a look at Letter Mix. The cute animal oversees your game as you create words from letters on the board. But this is a tricky one. Letters continue to fly in at a rapid pace and cover other letters.

Just click one letter at a time to move it to the bottom and create your word. When you’re ready, hit Submit and then create the next one. The longer your word, the better your score. But the key is to get the number of words needed to meet the goal.

15. Baseball for Clowns

If you are one of those people who cannot stand clowns, then this next game is for you. Baseball for Clowns dares you to take out those smiley-yet-creepy characters by throwing baseballs at them. This game is all about the planning.

You have a limited number of baseballs to take out all of the clowns you see. So try to use ricochet action to clobber as many clowns with one ball as you can. If you are a fan of Stupid Zombies, then you will love Baseball for Clowns.

16. Rescue the Divers

Dive into a unique type of match-three game with Rescue the Divers. Most games in this genre have tiles falling from the top while you work for matches toward the bottom. But this game has the divers on the bottom whom you want to float to the top by matching blocks above them.

Help all of the divers resurface to move onto the next level. If you run out of moves without completing a level, you can start it again.

17. Lines and Blocks

Lines and Blocks is an interesting take on Tetris. As blocks fall, you rotate and move them into place them on the board. All of the blocks contain lines in various patterns.

Your goal is to place the blocks so that three or more match up to remove a line. If a block is left with no lines in it, it will be removed from the board. If not, it will remain until all of its lines are matched.

Continue playing until you reach the level goal to move forward. If the blocks reach the top, the game is over.

More Free Browser Games to Pass the Time

Matching games, puzzlers, word challenges, and brainteasers are all available to play in your browser when you have some time to spare. And we hope this list of casual games gives you at least a few that you can enjoy playing.

For additional options, check out these HTML5 browser games that don’t require Adobe Flash and the hardest online games to play in your browser.

Read the full article: The 17 Best Free Browser Games to Kill Time

The 6 Best Sites to Play Board Games Online for Free

If you’re addicted to playing board games, you won’t always have enough people around to play with. Thankfully, there are plenty of sites which let you play board games online for free.

No matter what kind of board game you want to play, these free online board game sites will help you find an opponent to compete with.

1. Board Game Arena

With 175 games and counting, Board Game Arena is a popular destination for playing board games online for free.

The games in Board Game Arena cover a wide variety of genres. You’ll find the simple classics like Yahtzee, backgammon, and chess, as well as more complicated modern games like Race for the Galaxy, Carcassonne, Puerto Rico, Lost Cities, Seasons, and more. There are links to rules and videos for every game, so you can prepare yourself before you play for the first time.

Board Game Arena’s interface is easy to use and presents a lot of information in a compact space. This includes elements that are relevant to the game, turn timers, as well as ELO ratings. You also get a running report of what you and your opponent have done (which is nice, because it’s often hard to see what your opponent is doing when you play board games online).

You can chat with your opponents as well, though if you want audio or video you’ll need to sign up for a Premium membership. Becoming a Premium member also lets you play Premium games without limitations, and also eliminates wait times for games. However, it’s entirely optional.

2. BrettSpielWelt

BrettSpielWelt doesn’t have the variety of games available on BoardGameArena, but it still provides a lot of options. Some of the more popular games on BSW include Carcassonne (with a few expansions), 7 Wonders, Puerto Rico, and Stone Age.

BSW operates off of a mobile platform, whether you’re playing on a computer or not. This means you can choose to use BSW on your computer, phone, or tablet. No matter which platform you use, you’ll have access to the site’s text or voice chat to communicate with other players.

One thing to note: although BSW is available in a number of languages, it’s primarily a German site. Since some text hasn’t been translated, you may have to make a few educated guesses as to where some links will take you. That said, the best online language translators should help.

3. Yucata

Yucata places a stronger emphasis on turn-based play compared to other board game websites. Despite this, it still works well for both turn-based and real-time board games if you’re patient. It doesn’t have a timer when you’re playing real-time, so games can turn into very long affairs when you’re playing against someone who’s playing a lot of games at once or just decides to leave.

Even so, Yucata offers a good selection of games, including Carcassonne, Dragonheart, Jaipur, Roll Through the Ages, Stone Age, and The Castles of Burgundy. And you can play all of them for free, without even registering. When you select a game, you can read the rules and watch a tutorial video to help you get started.

While Yucata’s game-finding interface isn’t great, the play interface is nice-looking and responsive. Just keep in mind that this platform is built for playing several simultaneous games at once. Having multiple games on your roster keeps things entertaining. When one game is on hold, you can easily jump into another!

4. Boîte à Jeux

Primarily a French site, Boîte à Jeux has been translated into English and German as well. It doesn’t have quite as many big-name games as other options, but there are a few games that might appeal to you, like Agricola, Alhambra, Tzolk’in, Dixit, and Nations: The Dice Game.

Like Yucata, Boîte à Jeux is a good place to play the best browser strategy games. However, it doesn’t encourage real-time gaming. You don’t have a time limit on your turn, which means games can last for days.

When you want to start playing, you can opt to create a game, or join another player’s game. The play interface on Boîte à Jeux is nice—as you play, you can look at the game rules and the other players’ stats.

Boîte à Jeux is free to use, but you can also sign up for a premium account that unlocks a few extra features, like opening games and reserving spots for friends.

5. YourTurnMyTurn

YourTurnMyTurn is another turn-based site that lets you set turn time limits of one day and longer. There are a lot of classic games you can play, including chess, checkers, Connect Four, Battleship, Go, Reversi, and more. There are fewer Euro-style and modern games, but Carcassonne and Lost Cities are both available.

YTMT doesn’t have as big of a community as other board game sites, but if you’re looking for extended turn-based games, and like the selection available there, it’s worth checking out. After all, it’s free, so you don’t have anything to lose.

6. Tabletopia

Tabletopia features over 900 great board games. Its library ranges from modern games like Santorini and Sub Terra, to classics like Parcheesi and backgammon. Games with the “Try Now” label let you quickly jump into games without even creating an account or logging in. Otherwise, you’ll have to sign up to get started.

What makes Tabletopia unique is its three game modes: Solo, Hotseat, and Online. While the Solo mode lets you play any one-player games alone, Hotseat mode allows you to play multiplayer games on the same desktop. Online mode is ideal if you want to play online multiplayer board games with random opponents.

The free Bronze membership lets you play a huge variety of board games. Although Tabletopia offers paid Silver and Gold subscriptions as well, you don’t really need the upgrade. A paid membership is only necessary if you want to play more than two games at once, and if you want access to the small list of Premium games.

You Can Always Print Your Own Board Games

Out of all of these board game sites, BoardGameArena and Tabletopia have the widest selection of games and the most polished interfaces. The other sites are a bit more difficult to navigate, but they’re worth it if the site has a game you love.

Do you prefer to play board games in-person rather than online? If so, why not try these awesome free printable board games.

Read the full article: The 6 Best Sites to Play Board Games Online for Free