How to Make a Snapchat Filter in 11 Easy Steps

Snapchat remains one of the most popular multimedia messaging apps on the planet. Although some millenials aren’t fans of Snapchat. The launch of “geofilters” in 2014 is one of the reasons Snapchat boasts 187 million daily active users.

With Snapchat geofilters, you can put artwork, names, logos, and other designs over messages in the app. In a unique twist, Snapchat geofilters only work in specific locations and are often only available for a limited time.

In recent years, Snapchat filtering uses has been dramatically expanded. Today, you can submit filters to represent birthdays, weddings, parties, and much more. These filters cost money and can be expensive, depending on the size of the location you wish to see the filter run.

In this article, you’ll learn all about how to make a Snapchat filter using the new geofilters feature.

How to Make a Snapchat Filter

Any Snapchat user can submit a filter for approval. At the time of this writing, they take two forms: custom and community.

Snapchat is an excellent resource for your workplace, and paid custom filters (sometimes called on-demand filters) can be used to show off your business or celebrate a special event, such as a wedding or birthday, etc.

Free community filters are intended to represent a location (city, university, landmark, or another public place) or moment (sports game, shopping, etc.)

You can create a Snapchat filter either in your web browser or through the Snapchat app. Once you’ve created a filter and submitted it, you should hear back from Snapchat within a few hours on whether it’s been approved.

Let’s take a look at exactly how to make a Snapchat filter.

How to Create a Snapchat Filter Online

Here’s how to make a custom Snapchat geofilter online. Note: Be sure to log into your account at the Snapchat website before you begin.

1. Select Create a Filter from the left side of the screen.
2. Under Design Online, select your occasion from the pulldown menu. Available choices include Celebrate, Business, Birthday, Prom, and many more.
3. Once you select a topic, you can choose a template on the left side of the screen or submit your own.
4. Next, choose a color palette on the right-hand side of the screen, write in new text and choose different fonts, and upload pictures as needed. You also add your Bitmoji or even Friendmoji.
5. When the filter is to your liking, click Next.
6. On the next screen, you must assign a start and end time for your filter. You can also select Repeating Event to have the filter run at different times, daily or weekly.
7. Select Next to draw your geofence. Inside your geofence is the location where Snapchat users will find the filter.
8. Note that the Snapchat geofilter cost is based on the square foot of the area. Please keep this in mind.
9. When you’re comfortable with your geofence, click Checkout.
10. Name your filter, enter your payment information, and then hit Select.
11. Wait for the approval email.

Snapchat’s geofilter maker is a fun way to customize your Snapchat experience.

How to Make Your Own Snapchat Filter in the App

You can also create a Snapchat geofilter through the official Snapchat app, which is available for iOS and Android:

1. From the camera page in the Snapchat app, select your Profile/Username at the top left of the screen.
2. Select the Settings icon at the top right.
3. Choose Filters & Lenses, then select Get Started.
4. Click Filter.
5. On the next screen, select the filter occasion. Examples include Birthdays, Baby Shower, Date Night, and more. You can also “Start from Scratch”.
6. You can select a design and customize your filter with text and stickers.
7. Once you decide on these items, you need to enter a start and end time for the custom filter. Select Continue.
8. Create a geofence showing where you’d like the filter to run. Hit Continue.
9. After agreeing to the filter price, choose Continue.
10. Select Purchase from the summary page, then make your payment.
11. Wait for the approval email.

About the Snapchat Geofilter Cost

Now that you know how to make a geofilter, let’s talk about the cost.

The price for a Snapchat filter depends on the location of your geofence, how big it is, and how long you want it to run. Your payment isn’t charged to your account until the filter has been approved. Package prices are available to businesses.

At the time of this writing, Snapchat accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.

What About Community Snapchat Filters?

You can only create community filters via the Snapchat website. You can submit a filter or moment filter. Community filters don’t include templates. Instead, you send an original design that follows Snapchat’s geofilter guidelines.

Snapchat suggests creating community filters in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. Canva is another good choice. Regardless, Snapchat offers the following submission tips:

• Provide a good description if the artwork does not speak for itself, including any relevant dates.
• Snapchat’s geofilter size is 1080px wide and 2340px tall.
• Make sure no text or important elements are within the buffer zone of your filter (210px from the top and bottom).
• Files should be under 300KB and in PNG format (transparency enabled).

If you stick with these guidelines, your custom Snapchat geofilter will look great.

Adding Snapchat Filters

To add one of the many Snapchat filters to a Snap, follow these simple steps:

1. In Snapchat, capture a Snap, as usual.
2. Swipe left and right to choose a filter.
3. Next, tap the Stack button to stack filters.

To find filters specifically for your area, be sure to Enable Location “While Using the App” in your device’s settings.

Personalize Your Snapchat Experience With Filters

Making a Snapchat filter a great way to personalize your Snapchat experience. Whether you’re thinking of creating a customized filter for an upcoming event or want to advertise the town you call home, Snapchat filters have you covered.

You can create most filters via the Snapchat website and app. Select from one of the many Snapchat filter templates or create one of your own. There’s no limit to the type of filter you can create.

Now that you know how to make a Snapchat filter, you can learn how to unlock hidden Snapchat filters, too.

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GoPro launches Trade-Up program to swap old cameras for discounts

GoPro is willing to take that old digital camera stuffed in your junk drawer even if it’s a GoPro. Through a program called Trade-Up, the camera company will discount the GoPro H6 Black $50 and Fusion $100 when buyers trade in any digital camera. The company tried this last year for 60 days, but as of right now, GoPro is saying this offer does not expire.

This offer works with any digital camera including old GoPros. It clearly addresses something we noticed years ago — there’s often little reason to buy a new GoPro because their past products were so good.

GoPro tried this in 2017 for 60 days and says 12,000 customers took advantage of the program.

The service is reminiscent of what wireless carries do to encourage smartphone owners to buy new phones. It’s a clever solution though other options could net more money. Users could sell their camera on ebay or use other trade-in programs. Best Buy lets buyers trade in old cameras, too, and currently gives $60 for a GoPro Hero3+ Black and $55 for a HD Hero 960.

GoPro is in a tough position and this is clearly a plan to spur sales. The company’s stock is trading around an all-time low after a brief upswing following a report that Chinese electronic maker Xiaomi was considering buying the company. The company also recently started licensing its camera technology and trimmed its product line while introducing a new, $200 camera.

 

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5 Things You Have to Know About the Dangers of Ransomware

Ransomware is the single biggest risk to your digital security. Capable of encrypting your data and leaving you unable to access vital personal files and folders, ransomware can be very expensive whether you opt to pay the ransom or not.

But are you really up to speed with how dangerous it really is? Here are five things you should really know about ransomware.

1. Ransomware Is a Massive Security Threat on Mobile

You’re probably more focused on ransomware hitting your desktop or laptop computer than other devices, but you would be wrong. While ransomware is a big risk to PCs, it’s also a huge risk to smartphones and tablets.

One example is Fusob (Trojan-Ransom.AndroidOS.Fusob), which was particularly active in Germany in 2015. Masquerading as an adult video player, Fusob targeted fans of adult material who were already eager to part with their cash for paid online services.

It isn’t only mobile devices that are at risk, but the operating systems that run them. In recent years, Android has been adopted as the OS of choice for several smart TV manufacturers (and smart TVs are considerable security risks even without ransomware).

Frantic Locker (aka FLocker) started out targeting Android phones and tablets before being revised and re-released as a ransomware for smart TVs. Locking your TV screen (imagine that happening during a Game of Thrones finale) and displaying a message alleging you’ve committed a crime, complete with law enforcement iconography, FLocker demands payment of $200 in iTunes gift card credits.

2. Backups, Drives, and Databases Aren’t Immune

One of the earliest methods of avoiding potential ransomware attacks was to your data in a separate location. This might have been a daily backup stored on a different device, for instance. Unfortunately, ransomware coders have become wise to this defense, and backups can now be encrypted and locked until the ransom is paid.

But did you know that modern ransomware can also encrypt databases and unmapped disk drives? While the first risk (typically executed by the Cerber ransomware) is mainly troublesome for businesses that operate SQL databases (pretty much every database-driven desktop and web application), the latter is particularly disconcerting. In this situation, database processes are terminated before the data is encrypted.

CryptoFortress was the first ransomware to lock files regardless of whether they were associated with a particular drive letter (or not). Locky is another ransomware that can encrypt data on network drives. These risks also affect cloud storage, although some services (such as Dropbox) will restore your data to its state before the ransomware attack.

3. Ransomware Affects Windows, Mac, and Linux

Perhaps the most stunning thing about ransomware is its reach. We’ve already considered its ability to lock mobile devices, encrypting the contents until you pay up. But it can devastate your desktop data too, regardless of which operating system you’re running.

There’s the old mantra, isn’t there, that Macs can’t get viruses. We’ve seen increasingly over recent years that this is untrue, with the increase in Mac-targeted malware. Quite simply: If enough people are using a platform, hackers will work to subvert it. The same is true of Linux; while desktop distros have an overall small market share, Linux server operating systems run the majority of websites currently online.

So, you’re not safe just because you’re using Mac or Linux, no more than you would be if you were using Windows. Ransomware can catch you out whatever operating system you’re using.

4. Ransomware Always Poses as Legitimate Software

When ransomware first materialised, it was usually introduced onto computers via email attachments. Over the years, this approach has been streamlined and improved; while you can still end up with ransomware on your computer thanks to an email, there are now other methods.

It’s important to realise that if you are the victim of a ransomware attack, it’s not something to feel ashamed of. The developers of these insidious pieces of software go to great lengths to produce malware that looks utterly convincing and totally reliable. Ransomware is typically hidden in applications and games; they have to look like the real deal in order for you to install and use them!

Mobile games, fake Windows Updates, “useful” applications and utilities… all of these methods (and others) are used to deliver ransomware to your PC or mobile. You need to be certain that the software you install is legitimate.

How do you do that? Well, if you’re not installing from published media (such as a CD or DVD), the best thing you can do is ensure that you download apps and games direct from the publishers, or an approved digital delivery system.

5. Beware Petya’s Total Disk Encryption

One of the most notorious ransomware strains, Petya, was first discovered in 2016, managed to infect Windows machines via infected email attachments. Rather than focusing on specific personal files (such as those found in My Documents, for example), it attacks the Master Boot Record (MBR), encrypting the file system table of a computer’s hard disk drive.

Leaving you unable to access your PC’s data, your computer will simply boot to a screen telling you how to make a Bitcoin payment to regain control of your PC.

As with any ransomware attack, Petya will leave your data locked. Sometimes it can be tempting to just delete the locked data and move on with a backup; but if Petya has paid a visit, and the backup is stored on the same HDD, you’re stuck. Fortunately, Petya has been cracked, so it is possible to rescue your encrypted data without paying the ransom.

How to Prevent and Fight Against Ransomware

Protecting your data from ransomware is vital. It doesn’t matter if you’re using Windows, Mac, Linux, or a mobile device. All are at risk from ransomware. So what can you do?

There are five key steps you should follow:

1. Make regular backups.
2. Keep your operating system up to date.
3. Keep an eye out for suspicious files.
4. Use mail filtering.
5. Subscribe to a full internet security suite.

Want to learn more? Our guide to defending yourself against ransomware provides further details. Several useful tools have been released for decrypting your data, and the list is always growing. Meanwhile, check our list of the best security and antivirus tools to find a solution that can protect your data from ransomware.

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Grasshopper, a learn-to-code app from Google’s Area 120 incubator, goes live

Google’s internal incubator, Area 120, is today releasing its next creation: a learn-to-code mobile app for beginners called Grasshopper. At launch, the app teaches would-be coders how to write JavaScript, via short lessons on their iPhone or Android device. The goal is to get coders proficient in the basics and core concepts, so they can take the next steps in their coding education – whether that’s taking online classes, attending a bootcamp, or playing around in Grasshopper’s own online playground where they can create interactive animations.

Like other Area 120 projects, Grasshopper was built by a small team of Googlers, who had a personal interest in working on the project.

“Coding is becoming such an essential skill, and we want to make it possible for everyone to learn even when life gets busy,” the app’s About Us page explains. “We made Grasshopper to help folks like you get into coding in a fun and easy way.”

Area 120 has now been around for just over two years, but Google’s hadn’t heavily publicized its efforts until last year, when it launched a dedicated website for the incubator. To date, Area 120 has released things like Advr, an advertising format for VR; personal stylist Tailor; emoji messenger Supersonic; a job-matching service in Bangladesh, a booking tool called Appointments; and the YouTube co-watching app UpTime.

The incubator’s goal – beyond potentially finding Google’s next breakthrough product – is to retain talented engineers who may have otherwise left the company to work on their own passion projects or startups.

Grasshopper – whose name is a tribute to early programming pioneer Grace Hopper – was already known to be one of the projects in the works at Area 120.

However, it hadn’t launched to the public until today.

The app itself offers a series of courses, beginning with “The Fundamentals,” where users learn how code works, along with various terminology like functions, variables, strings, for loops, arrays, conditionals, operators, and objects. Grasshopper then moves into two more courses where coders learn to draw shapes using the D3 library, and later create more complex functions using D3.

This curriculum will expand over the next couple of months. Grasshopper will add more content to The Fundamentals section as well as a new course.

But the team says it’s not currently focused on expanding beyond JavaScript, a language used by over 70 percent of professional developers, the site notes.

The Grasshopper app is now live on both iOS and Android, but only in English.

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Snapchat now lets advertisers sell products directly through Lenses

This week Snapchat is rolling out Shoppable AR, a new feature that makes it even easier for advertisers to sell goods through sponsored lenses. The new offering builds on top of the Sponsored Lenses the service rolled out in late-2015, which let advertisers create branded filters, bringing product placements to selfies.

Now companies can essentially close that shopping loop, while keeping users inside the Snapchat experience. Shoppable AR makes it possible to add a button directly to a Lens, which users can tap on to visit a website where they can learn more about — or more to the point — just buy the product. Other options include a link to install an app or a “long form” video like a trailer. All of that happens directly inside the app. 

The feature is rolling out with a quartet of media partners to start. Clairol is selling an AR “beauty product trial,” Adidas is moving its Deerupt running shoes, King has an AR Candy Crush game, and STX will try to get you to watch Amy Schumer’s new comedy, I Feel Pretty.

There’s no price increase here for advertisers. The additional features will no doubt be an easy sell for those companies that have already been using Snapchat to advertise. Keeping users inside the app reduces friction of sales quite a bit, offering up ads and product sales as a more organic feature — one that doesn’t necessarily feel like advertising. For Snap, of course, the more time users spend engaged directly inside the app, the better.

According to Snap, 70 million users engage with Lenses each day. Earlier this week, the company also rolled out updates to Lens studio, which lets users create their own AR Lenses for the platform. 

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Grasshopper, a learn-to-code app from Google’s Area 120 incubator, goes live

Google’s internal incubator, Area 120, is today releasing its next creation: a learn-to-code mobile app for beginners called Grasshopper. At launch, the app teaches would-be coders how to write JavaScript, via short lessons on their iPhone or Android device. The goal is to get coders proficient in the basics and core concepts, so they can take the next steps in their coding education – whether that’s taking online classes, attending a bootcamp, or playing around in Grasshopper’s own online playground where they can create interactive animations.

Like other Area 120 projects, Grasshopper was built by a small team of Googlers, who had a personal interest in working on the project.

“Coding is becoming such an essential skill, and we want to make it possible for everyone to learn even when life gets busy,” the app’s About Us page explains. “We made Grasshopper to help folks like you get into coding in a fun and easy way.”

Area 120 has now been around for just over two years, but Google’s hadn’t heavily publicized its efforts until last year, when it launched a dedicated website for the incubator. To date, Area 120 has released things like Advr, an advertising format for VR; personal stylist Tailor; emoji messenger Supersonic; a job-matching service in Bangladesh, a booking tool called Appointments; and the YouTube co-watching app UpTime.

The incubator’s goal – beyond potentially finding Google’s next breakthrough product – is to retain talented engineers who may have otherwise left the company to work on their own passion projects or startups.

Grasshopper – whose name is a tribute to early programming pioneer Grace Hopper – was already known to be one of the projects in the works at Area 120.

However, it hadn’t launched to the public until today.

The app itself offers a series of courses, beginning with “The Fundamentals,” where users learn how code works, along with various terminology like functions, variables, strings, for loops, arrays, conditionals, operators, and objects. Grasshopper then moves into two more courses where coders learn to draw shapes using the D3 library, and later create more complex functions using D3.

This curriculum will expand over the next couple of months. Grasshopper will add more content to The Fundamentals section as well as a new course.

But the team says it’s not currently focused on expanding beyond JavaScript, a language used by over 70 percent of professional developers, the site notes.

The Grasshopper app is now live on both iOS and Android, but only in English.

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How to Run Android Apps and Games on Linux

Want to run Android apps on Linux? How about play Android games? Several options are available, but the one that works the best is Anbox, a useful tool that runs your favorite Android apps on Linux without emulation.

Here’s how to get it up and running on your Linux PC today.

Meet Anbox, Your “Android in a Box”

Having access to your preferred Android apps and games brings an exciting new dimension of productivity to your Linux desktop or laptop. Mobile apps are, by design, a lot simpler than those found on desktop operating systems.

This could be just what you’re looking for to improve desktop productivity!

Meanwhile, mobile games are becoming increasingly sophisticated. It makes sense that you might want to continue playing on a different device, especially given the limited battery life of a phone or tablet. Sure, you could plug the device in to recharge, but being able to play the game on your computer could give you an edge.

Several macOS and Windows tools are available for running Android apps. The most common tool for running Android on a desktop is Bluestacks, but this isn’t available for Linux.

Instead, Linux users should try Anbox, a free and open source alternative based on the latest version from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Offering a window-based Android environment, complete with apps and games, Anbox uses containers to separate Android from the host operating system (that is, the OS on your computer).

That’s not all; as well as being open source, Anbox has no limits, so in theory you can run any Android app on Linux. There’s no hardware virtualization either, and Anbox can work on a laptop or desktop as well as it might on a Linux-powered mobile device.

This last point is hugely significant, as it could overcome engagement issues with Linux mobiles.

Which Linux Distros Support Snap?

Although free to use, Anbox comes as a snap package. This means that the binary and any dependencies are included in a single package, easing installation. Unfortunately, it may also mean that your Linux OS cannot use Anbox unless it can unpackage and install snaps.

The snapd service is required to install snaps, and this is compatible with Linux distributions such as:

• Arch Linux
• Debian
• Fedora
• Gentoo
• Linux Mint
• Manjaro
• openSUSE
• Solus
• Ubuntu

In Ubuntu, it comes pre-installed from 14.04 onwards. You’ll find full details for your distro at the Snapcraft website.

To install snapd, use the following terminal command:

sudo apt install snapd

Wait until the installation completes before proceeding.

Installing Anbox on Linux

With the snapd service installed on your Linux PC, you’re ready to install Anbox. This is done using the following command, which installs everything you need:

snap install --classic anbox-installer && anbox-installer

You’ll be prompted for a password before the snap package downloads.

Shortly after, you’ll be presented with a choice:

1. Install Anbox
2. Uninstall Anbox

Should you need to remove the software at a later date, simply run the installer command above, and select option 2. In the case of installing Anbox, however, you can proceed with option 1.

Following this, you’ll see a summary of what the installation will do. For instance, files that are added from a PPA are highlighted, as is the information that the anbox runtime (a software library that enables other software and apps to run) will autostart when you log into Linux.

If you’re happy with all of this, enter the legend I AGREE, and wait for Anbox to install. Once done, follow the instruction to reboot your system before proceeding.

Downloading APK Files to Your Linux PC

With your PC rebooted, you should find Anbox available in your desktop’s menu. Click it to launch; you’ll soon see the Anbox window.

If nothing happens, or you’re stuck on a splash screen with the Starting message, cancel or wait for this to end. Then open a new terminal and enter

anbox session-manager

Next, click the icon in the menu again. A few moments later, Anbox should run. This is a known bug in Ubuntu 16.04-based distributions, and shouldn’t affect later distros.

With Anbox running, you’ll see a list of the basic Android apps you can run on Linux, such as Calendar and Email. Simply left-click these icons to open them; they’ll appear in new windows that you can resize as required. If you need a browser, the WebView Shell is included.

To add your own apps and games, all you need to do is download (or copy from another device) the appropriate APK files. These are installer files, like DEB files (or snaps) in Linux, or EXE files in Windows. They’re typically available via Google Play on Android… but that doesn’t apply on Anbox.

Installing Android Apps on Linux With Anbox

Because the Anbox implementation of Android is not registered, you won’t be able to access (or install) Google Play. The answer, therefore, is to download and sideload APKs.

Where will you find the APKs? Several Google Play alternatives are available, but if you’d rather stick with the Play Store, you have several methods for extracting APKs from Google Play. While Google restricts access to the Play Store to registered Android devices, bypassing this is not piracy. If you own the APK files, or they’re available freely, it’s okay to run them on unregistered Android devices.

Once you’ve got hold of any APK files you want to install, you’ll need to enable installation from unknown sources. Do this by opening the Settings menu from the apps screen, then find Security. Here, enable the switch next to Unknown Sources, and click OK to accept.

With this done, find your APK files and double-click the first one you want to install. A few moments later, the app or game should be ready, and will run in its own window in Linux. Installed games are listed alongside all other apps.

It’s that simple!

Now You Can Run Android Apps on Linux

Since Anbox is in the alpha stage, there may be some stability issues. However, it is reassuring to know how simple it is to set up, install, and run Android apps on Linux with Anbox.

To review:

1. Confirm your distro supports snap packages.
2. Install or update the snapd service.
3. Install Anbox.
4. Launch Anbox from your Linux desktop.
5. Download APK files, and run them.
6. Wait as the APK file installs.
7. Click to run Android apps on your Linux desktop.

Anbox isn’t the only way to run Android apps and games on Linux, but we reckon it will be the most popular within a few years.

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YouTube promises expansion of sponsorships, other monetization tools for creators

YouTube says it’s rolling out more tools to help its creators make money from their videos. The changes are meant to address creators’ complaints over YouTube’s new monetization policies announced earlier this year. Those policies were designed to make the site more advertiser-friendly following a series of controversies over video content from top creators, including videos from Logan Paul, who had filmed a suicide victim, and PewDiePie, who repeatedly used racial slurs, for example.

The company then decided to set a higher bar to join its YouTube Partner Program, which is what allows video publishers to make money through advertising. Previously, creators only needed 10,000 total views to join; they now need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of view time over the past year to join. This resulted in wide-scale demonetization of videos that previously relied on ads.

The company has also increased policing of video content in recent months, but its systems haven’t always been accurate.

YouTube said in February it was working on better systems for reviewing video content when a video is demonetized over its content. One such change, enacted at the time, involved the use of machine learning technology to address misclassifications of videos related to this policy. This, in turn, has reduced the number of appeals from creators who want a human review of their video content instead.

According to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, the volume of appeals is down by 50 percent as a result.

Wojcicki also announced another new program related to video monetization which is launching into pilot testing with a small number of creators starting this month.

This system will allow creators to disclose, specifically, what sort of content is in their video during the upload process, as it relates to YouTube’s advertiser-friendly guidelines.

“In an ideal world, we’ll eventually get to a state where creators across the platform are able to accurately represent what’s in their videos so that their insights, combined with those of our algorithmic classifiers and human reviewers, will make the monetization process much smoother with fewer false positive demonetizations,” said Wojcicki.

Essentially, this system would rely on self-disclosure regarding content, which would then be factored in as another signal for YouTube’s monetization algorithms to consider. This was something YouTube had also said in February was in the works.

Because not all videos will be brand-safe or meet the requirements to become a YouTube Partner, YouTube now says it will also roll out alternative means of making money from videos. 

This includes an expansion of “sponsorships,” which have been in testing since last fall with a select group of creators.

Similar to Twitch subscriptions, sponsorships were introduced to the YouTube Gaming community as a way to support favorites creators through monthly subscriptions (at $4.99/mo), while also receiving various perks like custom emoji and a custom badge for live chat.

Now YouTube says “many more creators” will gain access to sponsorships in the months ahead, but it’s not yet saying how those creators will be selected, or if they’ll have to meet certain requirements, as well. It’s also unclear if YouTube will roll these out more broadly to its community, outside of gaming.

Wojcicki gave updates on various other changes YouTube has enacted in recent months. For example, she said that YouTube’s new moderation tools have led to a 75-plus percent decline in comment flags on channels, where enabled, and these will now be expanded to 10 languages. YouTube’s newer social network-inspired Community feature has also been expanded to more channels, she noted.

Earlier this year, I outlined our priorities for creators in 2018. Sharing some updates, and looking forward to sharing more throughout the year. https://t.co/DxygVeO5ZE

— Susan Wojcicki (@SusanWojcicki) April 17, 2018

The company also patted itself on the back for its improved communication with the wider creator community, saying that this year it has increased replies by 600 percent and improved its reply rate by 75 percent to tweets addressed to its official handles: @TeamYouTube, @YTCreators, and @YouTube.

While that may be true, it’s notable that YouTube isn’t publicly addressing the growing number of complaints from creators who – rightly or wrongly – believe their channel has been somehow “downgraded” by YouTube’s recommendation algorithms, resulting in declining views and loss of subscribers.

This is the issue that led the disturbed individual, Nasim Najafi Aghdam, to attack YouTube’s headquarters earlier this month. Police said that Aghdam, who shot at YouTube employees before killing herself, was “upset with the policies and practices of YouTube.”

It’s obvious, then, why YouTube is likely proceeding with extreme caution when it comes to communicating its policy changes, and isn’t directly addressing complaints similar to Aghdam’s from others in the community.

But the creator backlash is still making itself known. Just read the Twitter replies or comment thread on Wojcicki’s announcement. YouTube’s smaller creators feel they’ve been unfairly punished because of the misdeeds of a few high-profile stars. They’re angry that they don’t have visibility into why their videos are seeing reduced viewership – they only know that something changed.

YouTube glosses over this by touting the successes of its bigger channels.

“Over the last year, channels earning five figures annually grew more than 35 percent, while channels earning six figures annually grew more than 40 percent,” Wojcicki said, highlighting YouTube’s growth.

In fairness, however, YouTube is in a tough place. Its site became so successful over the years, that it became impossible for it to police all the uploads manually. At first, this was the cause for celebration and the chance to put Google’s advanced engineering and technology to work. But these days, as with other sites of similar scale, the challenging of policing bad actors among billions of users, is becoming a Herculean task – and one companies are failing at, too.

YouTube’s over-reliance on algorithms and technology has allowed for a lot of awful content to see daylight – including inappropriate videos aimed a children, disturbing videos, terrorist propaganda, hate speech, fake news and conspiracy theories, unlabeled ads disguised as product reviews or as “fun” content, videos of kids that attract pedophiles, and commenting systems that allowed for harassment and trolling at scale.

To name a few.

YouTube may have woken up late to its numerous issues, but it’s not ignorant of them, at least.

“We know the last year has not been easy for many of you. But we’re committed to listening and using your feedback to help YouTube thrive,” Wojcicki said. “While we’re proud of this progress, I know we have more work to do.”

That’s putting it mildly.

 

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The Best Keyboard Cases for Turning iPads Into Laptops

How to Batch Edit Photos Quickly Using Lightroom

If you’re a big fan of Adobe Lightroom, you probably already know all the tips and tricks to editing awesome photos, but how can you speed up that workflow? How can you save yourself from hours of work when you have a large batch of photos to work on?

This article will show you how to batch edit in Lightroom. We’ll also cover some simple-but-effective tricks you can employ to start racing through batch edits.

And if you’re not sure on the differences between Lightroom and Photoshop, take a look at our comparison of Lightroom vs. Photoshop.

1. Organize Your Library

Once you’ve completed the Lightroom import process, you will usually have a bit of tidying up to do before the real editing begins.

You may have photos which are out of focus, badly exposed, or simply duplicates. One thing that will really speed up your editing process is by filtering out all of the bad or unusable shots immediately.

From the top-right of Lightroom, choose the Library module.

To view each photo individually, select the Loupe View on the bottom left, use the shortcut key E.

To the left of the Loupe view button is the Grid View (shortcut key G). The grid view shows all of your library at once, similar to a folder structure. This is useful, but you won’t need it for this first pass.

In loupe view, all your photos are visible horizontally at the bottom of the screen, underneath your currently selected photo.

It’s wise to build previews of all your photos. This greatly speeds up the editing process, and makes Lightroom much more responsive, but it does take a small amount of time to begin with.

Start by selecting all of your photos. Click the first photo, hold down Shift and click the last photo. You’ll see that selected photos change from a dark gray to a light gray background.

Build previews by going to Library > Previews > Build 1:1 Previews. This may take some time, depending on your computer’s power and number of photos, but the performance gain is worth the wait.

Once previews have been built, you can finally begin to batch edit in Lightroom!

2. Filtering Images

I like to make multiple passes over a batch of photos, filtering out bad, unusable, or duplicate photos. Although it seems counter-intuitive, doing this can actually save you time, as you won’t need to edit any photos that you won’t actually use.

To speed things up, enable Auto Advance from the Photo menu.

Auto Advance is a simple feature which will save you a lot of time. Put simply, whenever you rate a photo, Lightroom will automatically move on to the next image. This may sound insignificant, but it allows you to really race through a batch edit.

Start by filtering out all of your bad photos. You can use the arrow keys to navigate through your collection, but if you use the X key to mark photos as rejected, Auto Advance will do the rest for you. Go through your whole catalog and reject any photos that cannot be used at all.

Once done, switch to the Grid View by pressing the G key. Underneath the modules selection on the top right, choose the Filters button, and then Flagged.

You may immediately notice that all your photos now disappear. This is because by default Lightroom is filtering by photos marked as Picked. All of your rejected photos are marked as rejected, so use the attribute selector at the top to filter by rejected photos.

Now that only your rejected photos are visible, go ahead and select them all and then hit Delete.

Lightroom will ask you to confirm if you’d like to remove the photos from Lightroom, or delete them from the disk entirely. I personally like to delete them from disk, as I have multiple backups, and don’t need to keep bad photos, but your choice may vary.

Now repeat the process as many times as you like. You may want to remove duplicates, or any stray photos which do not belong to this series.

3. Image Selection

Now that all your bad photos are removed, it’s time to further refine and reduce. There’s no point editing 1000 photos if you only need to deliver 100, so save yourself some time and only edit the photos you need to.

Lightroom provides several different methods for grouping photos. You can rate each image from one to five stars, you can apply a color label, or, as you’ve seen above, you can mark photos as rejected or flagged.

This stage is something of a personal preference, but I prefer to use colors to group photos into different batches (this may be outside and inside shots, or perhaps different cameras). Color labels are slightly slow to apply however, and can be done by right clicking > Set Color Label.

You can apply a color label to a selection of multiple photos, but there’s no shortcut key. Color labels are best used for roughly sorting images into different batches, and then using the filters to work on one batch at a time.

By using the numbers one through five, you can rate each photo. I like to use four for any photo suitable for editing, and then five for any finished photos ready for export.

4. Batch Processing

Once you’ve refined your final image selection, you can finally begin batch editing. Use the filters at the top of the grid view to chose your selection. You may want to edit in color batches, or only edit four star photos. Whatever your choice, the use of colors, stars, and flags provide huge flexibility in choosing your selection.

We’ve covered image editing before, whether that’s working with the Lightroom histogram, understanding split toning your photos, or recommending free Lightroom presets, so this section will focus on applying edits across a range of images.

Once your images are filtered, you can be confident that each batch contains similar images. Maybe they were all taken in the same room, with similar lighting.

Switch to the Develop from the top right. Start with the first photo. Make basic changes which can apply to all the images. This may be White Balance, Sharpening, Noise Reduction, and Lens Corrections, but you can change anything you like.

Once you’ve made your basic edits, you should apply this to all images in the series. Staying with the image you’ve chosen, right click and go to Develop Settings > Copy Settings.

This will bring up the Copy Settings panel. Use the tick boxes or the Check All and Check None buttons to choose which settings to copy. If you haven’t made specific individual image changes, you can usually copy all with no problems.

Once you’ve chosen the settings you’d like to copy, click the Copy button. Now select all the images you’d like to apply these settings to. You can hold the Shift key, and click the first and last images to select all those between.

Right-click on one of the destination images, and once again go to Develop Settings and then Paste Settings.

All of your selected images will now have the changes applied. Any further changes you make will not automatically move across however.

At this point, most of the hard work is done. You’ll still need to go in and make adjustments to each image individually, but hopefully the repetitive tasks are all complete, saving you a lot of time and effort.

How Do You Batch Edit in Lightroom?

As you’ve seen, it really is that simple to batch edit in Lightroom. From simple filtering to copy and pasting settings, these tips can really save you a lot of time. A few minor changes here and there can quickly add up to hours over the course of a large edit.

If you’ve got the skills but your computer struggles to cope with Lightroom, you should make a note of these Lightroom performance tips.

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Overclocking Raspberry Pi: How to Do It and What You Need to Know

The Raspberry Pi 3 is a great little computer, far more powerful than the models before it. But did you know you can squeeze even more power out of it? Here’s how to overclock your Raspberry Pi, and push it further than you ever imagined!

Why Overclock Your Raspberry Pi?

A standard Raspberry Pi 3 boasts a 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core CPU, 1GB RAM, along with a Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU as part of the Broadcom System on a Chip (SoC) BCM2837.

Overlocking the CPU will result in increasing the default Raspberry Pi clock speed from 1.2GHz up to 1.5GHz, depending upon your cooling solution (such as a heat sink). Note that because the Raspberry Pi uses a SoC, you’ll need to adjust RAM to accommodate overclocking.

What’s the point of overclocking a Raspberry Pi? Well, it’s simple: you want to get the most out of it. Several popular tools will work better than intended with overclocking.

Retro gaming: If you’ve been struggling with running Sony PlayStation 1, Sega Dreamcast, or Nintendo N64 games on RetroPie, RecalBox, or whatever retro gaming solution you’ve chosen, overclocking can help considerably.

Kodi: Performance issues with streaming video in Kodi can be overcome thanks to overclocking your Raspberry Pi. If you’re also using a VPN, higher clock speed will help here too.

Exagear: Trying to run Windows software on your Raspberry Pi? Even with the right preparation, overclocking can help here.

Desktop: Raspberry Pi 3 can be used as a standard desktop. Who wouldn’t want a bit of additional performance, courtesy of an overclocked processor?

Overclocking a Raspberry Pi 3 is a practical response to some of its shortcomings (albeit ones that are dealt with in the more recent Raspberry Pi 3 B+).

Overclocking Is Always Risky

While overclocking Raspberry Pi is simple to achieve, it is not without risk.

Heat is generated: Cooling solutions are required if you plan to overclock your Pi. Heat is bad for computer systems, as it slows processing, which in turn generates heat.

Component failure: Increased heat can also result in the failure of components.

Data corruption: Using increased clock speeds often results in corrupted data. If you’re using a hard disk drive for your Pi’s operating system, this shouldn’t be a massive issue. However, if your Raspberry Pi relies on a microSD card (most do), then you may find flash media is increasingly unreliable.

Reliable power supply: You should already be using a good quality power supply for your Raspberry Pi. Anything less than the recommended 2.5amp power adaptor is unsuitable for overclocking. Data corruption will quickly occur with a low power supply.

At one stage, overclocking your Raspberry Pi would void the warranty. However, as of September 19, 2012, this is not the case, thanks to built-in overclocking tools; there is one setting that will affect the device warranty, however, which we’ll cover below.

How to Overclock a Raspberry Pi 3

Still want to overclock your Raspberry Pi? Although you can overclock on other distros, we’ll be looking at the process on Raspbian Stretch. Begin by running a full update and upgrade:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install upgrade

With that done, install the sysbench tool:

sudo apt install sysbench

You’ll need this later for checking how overclocking has improved performance. For now, however, run sysbench to get a baseline:

sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=2000 --num-threads=4 run

Make a note of the results, or append a destination file to output the results to for comparison later.

sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=2000 --num-threads=4 run > benchmark-before.txt

Next, you’ll need to edit the config.txt file. You’ll find this in the boot directory, which is best accessed via the terminal.

Begin by switching to the root directory

cd /

Next, change directory to boot.

cd boot

Confirm you’re in the right location by listing the contents.

ls

You should spot config.txt. At this point it is worth nothing that the boot directory is the only portion of your Raspberry Pi’s operating system that is accessible from Windows. We’ll come back to that later. For now, just make a copy of the file:

sudo cp config.txt config.old

You should now have two config files. The first is the one you can edit, config.txt; the second is your backup, config.old.

To edit config.txt:

sudo nano config.txt

Here, you’ll find a list of settings, in the format “name=value”. Look for “overclock”; you should find a line that reads “#Uncomment to overclock the arm.” Remove the hashtag from the first line beneath, #arm_freq=800.

To overclock your Raspberry Pi 3 significantly, you’ll need to enter values for the following four conditions:

1. arm_freq
2. core_freq
3. sdram_freq
4. over_voltage

For the Raspberry Pi 3, it’s most common to overclock with the following:

arm_freq=1300
core_freq=500
sdram_freq=500
over_voltage=600

These settings are the maximum stable clock speed you’re likely to get. Lower options are available, but somewhat pointless. However, as noted elsewhere, the software you’re running will determine whether or not you’re happy with the overclocked speed.

Check Overclock Performance With sysbench

Now the system is overclocked, you should run the sysbench tool again:

sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=2000 --num-threads=4 run > benchmark-after.txt

Comparing the difference here should highlight the performance improvements you can expect with your Raspberry Pi overclocked.

Once you’ve discovered which maximum clock speed you’re happy with, you can carry on as normal… or you might prefer to use the force_turbo setting to keep the Pi running at maximum speeds. While you’re free to do this, it is the one factor in Raspberry Pi overclocking that definitely will void your warranty.

How to Recover a Failed Overclock

If you’ve rebooted your Raspberry Pi with overclocked settings and found that it won’t run, or it crashes, freezes, of behaves in some other undesirable manner, you’ll need to undo your changes. This is easily done:

• Power off the Raspberry Pi.
• Remove the microSD card.
• Insert the card into your PC’s card reader.
• Rename \boot\config.old to config.txt.
• Open the \boot\config.txt file.
• Input the correct clock speed, and save.
• Safely remove the microSD card, replace in your Pi, and boot.

Everything should now be back to normal.

Can Other Raspberry Pi Models Be Overclocked?

Overclocking is an option for older versions of the Raspberry Pi. As ever, take precautions to ensure the device is efficiently cooled. Use our Raspberry Pi comparison to check the correct clock speed of your model, and be sure not to increase the speed by more than 10 percent.

To overclock older Raspberry Pis, everything you need is built into the Raspbian operating system. Begin by opening the configuration tool, either on the desktop (Preferences > Raspberry Pi Configuration), or from the command line.

sudo raspi-config

After noting the warning, choose Overclock.

In the next menu, you’ll find a list of options. The currently-selected overclocking option will be None, but you’ll have a selection of up to five alternatives, depending on your Raspberry Pi model. Pictured below is the overclock screen for the Raspberry Pi 2.

While on other devices, overclocking is a case of making a small increase and testing, with preset options, this isn’t really necessary. All you need to do is select the overclocked preset you want to use, then select OK to apply it. However, if you’re trying non-standard overclocking that isn’t available via a preset option (using the config.txt file, as explained earlier), then make small, careful adjustments and test the results.

Note that overclocking can also affect the performance of connected hardware, such as the PiTFT display from Adafruit. As such, you’ll need to take additional precautions (such as manually adjusting the config.txt file after setting a new clock speed in the menu).

Overlocking is never an exact science. As such, you should spend some time assessing its impact on your Raspberry Pi and any regularly-used software. Our general guide to PC overclocking provides plenty of background information.

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StudioBricks is a Barcelona-based startup that sends you a studio in a box

My friend Rick is a voiceover artist and works in Ohio – right along the flight path for jets taking off and landing at the Columbus airport. As a result, he said, he had to record late at night when the airport closed, a limitation that he found exasperating.

Enter StudioBricks, a cool startup from Barcelona. Founded by Guillermo Jungbauer, the small company makes and sells soundproof studios that click together like LEGO. The company started in 2008 and created a USA subsidy in 2014.

StudioBricks aren’t cheap. Rick paid $9,940 for his including almost $2,000 shipping. However, he said, it’s been a life-saver.

“The Studiobricks sound isolation booths are designed to be incredibly fast and easy to install without compromising the booths excellent sound isolating properties,” said Jungbauer. “This is achieved thanks to its modular panels which are built of high performance sound isolating materials and can simply be slotted together.”

The company sold 1,053 cabins in 207 and they’re on track to keep growing.

“About ten years ago I created the first booth as rehearsal space out of his own need as saxophonist,” said Jungbauer. “I developed the first bricks with acoustic engineers already having in mind the market possibilities.”

The system includes a ventilation system, a heavy, sound-proof door, and solid, sound-proofed wall panels. Rick, in his long build post, found it easy build and quite effective at keeping the plane noise at bay.

“From the beginning on Studiobricks aims to be eco-friendly. We are in a continuous process of improvement and have a strong commitment with the environment,” said Jungbauer. “That means that both, on an organisational level and product level we are improving continuously our processes and product considering the best options regarding the environment. For example years ago we changed our lacquer to a water based one. Our plant is the first and right now only in Spain using a biomass based central heating boiler.”

It’s cool to see a small European company selling a niche product gain such success. Because the company solves a notoriously difficult and wildly frustrating problem they are getting all the organic traction they need to keep going. Given the rise of corporate podcasting and other recording needs, a system like StudioBricks makes perfect sense. Considering it can be put together by two people in a few hours it is almost like the Ikea of vocal studios – compact, easy to build, and incredibly useful.

And now Rick doesn’t have to worry about the Delta flight from JFK intruding on his audio book reading session. Ganar-ganar, as they say in Barcelona.

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Here’s the 23rd batch of 500 Startups companies

500 Startups may soon be coming up on the one-year mark for the end of a tumultuous saga involving its founder, but its accelerator classes still continue to plug along — and its next batch is now getting ready to roll.

The firm’s 23rd batch of startups this year consists of the usual mix of business to business and consumer companies (even coffee) that end up in each class. This class is definitely a smaller one, but it still seems to spread a pretty wide number of different verticals. There’s also, of course, a blockchain track for this class, though a small percentage of the startups in it are taking part of that — and there was still a certain rigor they had to have to run through it.

“For every major tech movement, for every tech phase, there’s the infrastructure phase and the deployment phase,” 500 Startups partner Marvin Laio said. “Our view, with the blockchain, we’re in the infrastructure phase. A lot of these projects outside that we see and read about, they’re kind of bad. They’re really applications. There’s no point having a mobile app if you don’t have the app store. You need to build out the app store. For better or worse, we’re in the infrastructure phase right now.”

The firm is still clearly making some pretty big changes, including an unconventional deal with the Abu Dhabi Financial Group (ADFG) that gives it a stake in the firm’s parent company. The terms of that deal weren’t disclosed, it was another move among many by CEO Christine Tsai to begin to rework the mechanics of how the firm works — especially as it hopes to succeed as both a venture fund as as a program for entrepreneurs looking to get their companies off the ground. Dave McClure, the firm’s co-founder, resigned last year following allegations of sexual misconduct, and since then it’s been trying to get back to business as usual.

500 Startups takes a similar approach to other accelerators, where they will invest around $150,000 for a small chunk of equity and then take on a small amount of that back (a little more than $37,000) for program fees. The firm has primarily been known for its savvy when it comes to growth and marketing, so the support entrepreneurs get usually has that as a core part of the experience.

Here’s the next batch of 500 Startups companies:

• Chipper — A mobile app that helps student loan borrowers pay off debt faster through round ups from everyday transactions and contributions from family and friends.
• Copper Cow Coffee — A service that brings specialty Vietnamese coffee to offices and homes biodegradable pour over technology.
• Finedine Menu — A management platform for restauranteurs to create data driven digital menus for a smarter dining experience.
• Harmonica — A mobile application that helps users find the right life partner that focuses on quality and fits conservative cultures.
• Koreaboo — A digital media company that creates and shares viral Korean pop culture content in English to millions of people around the world.
• Lexop — A digital process server that allows law firms and property managers prove the delivery of their emails in a legal and trackable way.
• Lexyom — An online platform that provides users with smart legal answers and tailored legal services using artificial intelligence.
• Libra Credit — A global lending platform that allows anyone to borrow money against their crypto-curriences and crypto-assets
• Metadium — An identity service platform that provides the fundamentals for various services providers to develop their business on the blockchain.
• Orchard — A program for affordable smartphone insurance to enterprises, leveraging diagnostic software to make device support and claims a seamless self-serve experience.
• Purple Go — Enables retailers in the $36B vision care industry to reach today’s omni-channel consumer with seamlessly integrated online and in-store mobile software services.
• reflect — A mental health platform that reimagines in-person therapy to be more accessible and effective by using data-driven matching to increase engagement and outcomes.
• Salusive Health — A nurse-based healthcare provider that offers a technology platform with clinical services to help physician practices streamline disease management.
• Shezlong — An online mental health platform focusing in the Middle East and North Africa region that allows patients to be connected with licensed therapists via video visit on mobile or web.
• Solana — A high performance blockchain that can scale over 700,00 transactions per second on stock hardware.
• Starship — A mobile health savings account with automated investing built for humans.
• StructionSite Inc — Lets construction project teams access the jobsite remotely and compare design to reality.

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