iOS 11’s new App Store boosts downloads by 800% for Featured apps

When Apple launched its new App Store in iOS 11 back in September, it aimed to offer app developers better exposure, as well as a better app discovery experience for consumers. A new study from Sensor Tower out today takes a look at how well that’s been working in the months since. According to its findings, getting a featured spot on the new App Store can increase downloads by as much as 800 percent, with the “App of the Day” or “Game of the Day” spots offering the most impact.

The app store intelligence firm examined data from September 2017 to present day to come to its conclusions, it says.

During this time, median U.S. iPhone downloads for apps that snagged the “Game of the Day” spot increased by 802 percent for the week following the feature, compared to the week prior to being featured.

“App of the Day” apps saw a boost of 685 percent.

Being featured in other ways – like in one of the new App Store Stories or in an App List – also drove downloads higher, by 222 percent and 240 percent, respectively.

The numbers seem to indicate that Apple is achieving the results it wanted with the release of its redesigned App Store.

Over the years, Apple’s app marketplace had grown so large that finding new apps had become challenging. And developers sometimes found ways to bump their apps higher in the top charts for exposure, leaving iPhone owners wondering if a new app was really that popular, or if it was some sort of paid promotion.

The iOS 11 App Store, on the other hand, has taken more of an editorial viewpoint to its app recommendations. While the top charts haven’t gone away, the focus these days is on what Apple thinks is best – not the wisdom of the masses. Apple has applied its editorial eye to things like timely round-ups of apps; curated, thematic collections; as well as articles about apps and interviews with developers. Apple also picks an app and game to feature daily, so the App Store always has fresh content and a reason for users to return.

The end result is something that’s more akin to a publication about apps, instead of a just an app marketplace.

What’s most interesting, then, in Sensor Tower’s report, are what sort of app publishers Apple has chosen to feature.

Apple had touted the App Store changes would be a way to give smaller developers more exposure. But if you’ve popped into the App Store from time to time, you may have noticed that big publishers – not indies – were having their apps featured.

In fact, an early report about the App Store revamp criticized Apple for giving big publishers too much attention. It said that apps from brands like Starbucks and CBS, or game makers like EA and Glu, weren’t exactly hurting for downloads.

But Apple’s favoring of big publishers is only true to a point, says Sensor Tower.

It found that 13 of the top 15 featured publishers (by number of features) had at least one million U.S. iPhone downloads since the launch of the new App Store last September. It’s not surprising that Apple wants to highlight these publishers. Many of them, and particularly the game publishers, have multiple popular apps. So when their apps get an update or they have a new release, consumers pay attention.

Apple, of course, wants to capitalize on that consumer interest because it shares in the revenue app publishers generate through things like paid downloads, in-app purchases and subscriptions.

However, Apple isn’t only giving the limelight to large publishers, says Sensor Tower.

It also found that 29 percent of the apps it has feature since the launch of the revamped App Store were from publishers who had fewer than 10,000 downloads during that time.

“While it’s clearly the case that big publishers are more likely to receive the largest number of features, small publishers still very much have their chance to benefit from a feature on the App Store,” said Sensor Tower’s Mobile Insights Analyst, Jonathan Briskman.

Though Sensor Tower’s published report focused only on the iOS App Store, it’s worth noting how it compares with Google Play.

Getting a featured spot on Google’s app store isn’t as impactful, the firm tells TechCrunch. The largest week-over-week increase to the median it saw there was only around 200 percent.

Image credits, all: Sensor Tower 

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Why Robolinux Is the Best Linux for Windows Users

While switching from Windows to Linux carries several considerations, it’s simple enough to ease the transition. But what’s the best version of Linux for Windows users?

Robolinux is an operating system that targets Windows users who want to start learning and using Linux as painlessly as possible. In this article, we’ll cover what Robolinux is, how to install it, and more.

What Is Robolinux?

Robolinux, a Debian-based operating system, places a heavy emphasis on Windows and Linux integration. This is nothing new: Wine can already help you run Windows programs on Linux, for example.

Still, compatibility varies greatly. As such, running Windows in a virtual machine (VM) offers the best compatibility. Because the virtual machine method runs programs natively on Windows, there’s far greater compatibility.

Within Stealth VM, the default virtual machine in Robolinux, there are options to install various versions of Windows. These one-click Windows installers make running Windows OSes and programs in Linux a breeze.

How to Install RoboLinux

Robolinux is simple to install on a hard drive, bootable media such as a live CD, or even a virtual machine.

Head over to the Robolinux downloads page. Then, select your preferred version. You’ll find Robolinux Raptor 8.10 LTE iterations with different desktop environments including MATE, Cinnamon, XFCE, and LXDE. Robolinux 7 LTE features KDE, LXDE, XFCE, and GNOME desktop environments.

With your ISO downloaded, you’ll need to mount it to bootable media such as a flash drive or hard drive. Alternatively, you may install the ISO in a virtual machine. Use a program such as Etcher to burn your image file. In your burning program, select the Robolinux ISO file. Then, pick your desired medium such as flash drive or DVD. Mount the image file.

Once that’s complete, pop your live CD into your PC and power it on. Depending on your machine, you may need to change your BIOS boot order so that the live CD boots before the hard disk drive. When Robolinux loads, you’ll be ready to try it, or install on your HDD.

Download: Robolinux
Download: Etcher (Optional)

Hands-On With Robolinux

Immediately, Robolinux provides a user-friendly environment which makes getting started with Linux simple.

If you’ve used Debian or one of its derivatives including Ubuntu, you’ll notice a familiar layout. There’s a start menu, task bar, and a smattering of default apps. Bundled in the Robolinux default installation, you’ll find the Stealth VM virtual machine, and C Drive to VM program for simple migration of a Windows C Drive to a virtual machine.

You’ll still need to install these programs by hand, but they’re loaded in just a few clicks. Plus, in the start menu under “Installers” you’ll find options to load programs such as BleachBit, Clam Antivirus, and Steam for Linux.

I found Robolinux simple to use. It’s as intuitive as the likes of Ubuntu, Manjaro Linux, and ChaletOS. Like many distros that cater to both new Linux users and power users, Robolinux makes navigation as easy as using any desktop OS. A robust default apps list makes this a solid choice for any user.

But this isn’t a locked-down operating system. Rather, Robolinux boasts immense customization options. For instance, you can change desktop environments and set various sound effects which trigger when performing tasks like opening folders.

Why Robolinux Is Great for Windows Users

The main appeal of Robolinux is its overall, uncomplicated user experience. Additionally, included applications such as Stealth VM make installing Windows (or other operating systems) within Robolinux instinctive.

While there’s nothing in Robolinux that can’t be installed in other Linux distros, the main draw is the comprehensive feature set. When initially booting into Robolinux, there’s even a virtual machine ready, waiting for a fresh copy of Windows.

As noted above, some software such as C Drive to VM does not come pre-installed. Instead, you download it using the installers section of the start menu. Importantly, this Linux distro uses the hugely reliable Debian stable as its foundation.

How to Set Up a Windows VM in Robolinux

Configuring a Windows virtual machine in Robolinux is pretty simple. In the start menu, the favorites bar shows options for Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 10 VMs in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. These are also found under the Stealth VM entry of the start menu.

Click your desired virtual machine type, and you’re prompted to download Stealth VM. Download the tar.bz2. Don’t extract it. Instead, under the start menu select Robolinux Stealth VM installer.

Picking this installs Stealth VM. You’ll then be able to load any virtual machine option from the list. This of course requires an officially licensed version of Windows. If you need a copy of Windows XP, you can download this for free and legally from Microsoft.

The process is pretty easy, and though Stealth VM needs a bit of set up after installing Robolinux, it’s actually quite smooth and far simpler than a command line installation. Which, of course, isn’t terribly difficult. But it’s refreshing to just push a few buttons and have a free, quality VM at your disposal.

Yet, when installing Stealth VM, and when proceeding to the downloads page for Robolinux even, you’re prompted with a donation page. It’s optional, though a bit intrusive. A free Linux distro like this relies on support (monetary and otherwise) from its community of users, and that’s fine, but I’d rather a polite donation page that doesn’t pop up when attempting to install software or download an ISO.

Alternatively, you can always install Wine and a frontend such as PlayOnLinux or Vineyard if you’d rather eschew the virtual machine route.

Final Thoughts on Robolinux for Windows Users

Boasting stability, ease of use from installation to everyday use, and a bevy of bundled software options, Robolinux is a superb operating system. Notably, Robolinux places an emphasis on integrating Windows with Linux through its included virtual machine in Stealth VM.

While much of what Robolinux promises is achievable using almost any Linux distro and a virtual machine, Robolinux features a VM in its default software. Thus, the process of installing a VM, migrating a C drive, and other tasks involved in migrating from Windows are streamlined.

It’s not that Robolinux accomplishes what other Linux distros can’t—rather it simplifies the work of it. Although Robolinux opts for Debian stable over bleeding edge, this fosters a more reliable system environment. For more Linux distros, check out our exploration of the best Linux operating systems for every kind of user.

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Introducing the CVPR 2018 On-Device Visual Intelligence Challenge

Posted by Bo Chen, Software Engineer and Jeffrey M. Gilbert, Member of Technical Staff, Google Research

Over the past year, there have been exciting innovations in the design of deep networks for vision applications on mobile devices, such as the MobileNet model family and integer quantization. Many of these innovations have been driven by performance metrics that focus on meaningful user experiences in real-world mobile applications, requiring inference to be both low-latency and accurate. While the accuracy of a deep network model can be conveniently estimated with well established benchmarks in the computer vision community, latency is surprisingly difficult to measure and no uniform metric has been established. This lack of measurement platforms and uniform metrics have hampered the development of performant mobile applications.

Today, we are happy to announce the On-device Visual Intelligence Challenge (OVIC), part of the Low-Power Image Recognition Challenge Workshop at the 2018 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition conference (CVPR2018). A collaboration with Purdue University, the University of North Carolina and IEEE, OVIC is a public competition for real-time image classification that uses state-of-the-art Google technology to significantly lower the barrier to entry for mobile development. OVIC provides two key features to catalyze innovation: a unified latency metric and an evaluation platform.

A Unified Metric
OVIC focuses on the establishment of a unified metric aligned directly with accurate and performant operation on mobile devices. The metric is defined as the number of correct classifications within a specified per-image average time limit of 33ms. This latency limit allows every frame in a live 30 frames-per-second video to be processed, thus providing a seamless user experience¹. Prior to OVIC, it was tricky to enforce such a limit due to the difficulty in accurately and uniformly measuring latency as would be experienced in real-world applications on real-world devices. Without a repeatable mobile development platform, researchers have relied primarily on approximate metrics for latency that are convenient to compute, such as the number of multiply-accumulate operations (MACs). The intuition is that multiply-accumulate constitutes the most time-consuming operation in a deep neural network, so their count should be indicative of the overall latency. However, these metrics are often poor predictors of on-device latency due to many aspects of the models that can impact the average latency of each MAC in typical implementations.

Even though the number of multiply-accumulate operations (# MACs) is the most commonly used metric to approximate on-device latency, it is a poor predictor of latency. Using data from various quantized and floating point MobileNet V1 and V2 based models, this graph plots on-device latency on a common reference device versus the number of MACs. It is clear that models with similar latency can have very different MACs, and vice versa.

The graph above shows that while the number of MACs is correlated with the inference latency, there is significant variation in the mapping. Thus number of MACs is a poor proxy for latency, and since latency directly affects users’ experiences, we believe it is paramount to optimize latency directly rather than focusing on limiting the number of MACs as a proxy.

An Evaluation Platform
As mentioned above, a primary issue with latency is that it has previously been challenging to measure reliably and repeatably, due to variations in implementation, running environment and hardware architectures. Recent successes in mobile development overcome these challenges with the help of a convenient mobile development platform, including optimized kernels for mobile CPUs, light-weight portable model formats, increasingly capable mobile devices, and more. However, these various platforms have traditionally required resources and development capabilities that are only available to larger universities and industry.

With that in mind, we are releasing OVIC’s evaluation platform that includes a number of components designed to make mobile development and evaluations that can be replicated and compared accessible to the broader research community:

• TOCO compiler for optimizing TensorFlow models for efficient inference
• TensorFlow Lite inference engine for mobile deployment
• A benchmarking SDK that can be run locally on any Android phone
• Sample models to showcase successful mobile architectures that run inference in floating-point and quantized modes
• Google’s benchmarking tool for reliable latency measurements on specific Pixel phones (available to registered contestants).

Using these tools available in OVIC, a participant can conveniently incorporate measurement of on-device latency into their design loop without having to worry about optimizing kernels, purchasing latency/power measurement devices, or designing the framework to drive them. The only requirement for entry is experiences with training computer vision models in TensorFlow, which can be found in this tutorial.

With OVIC, we encourage the entire research community to improve the classification performance of low-latency high-accuracy models towards new frontiers, as shown in the following graphic.

Sampling of current MobileNet mobile models illustrating the tradeoff between increased accuracy and reduced latency.

We cordially invite you to participate here before the deadline on June 15th, and help us discover new mobile vision architectures that will propel development into the future.

Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge our core contributors Achille Brighton, Alec Go, Andrew Howard, Hartwig Adam, Mark Sandler and Xiao Zhang. We would also like to acknowledge our external collaborators Alex Berg and Yung-Hsiang Lu. We give special thanks to Andre Hentz, Andrew Selle, Benoit Jacob, Brad Krueger, Dmitry Kalenichenko, Megan Cummins, Pete Warden, Rajat Monga, Shiyu Hu and Yicheng Fan.

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1 Alternatively the same metric could encourage even lower power operation by only processing a subset of the images in the input stream.^↩

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DuckDuckGo vs. Google: The Best Search Engine for You

Over the years, Google has left its humble origins behind to become one of the largest companies in the world, offering a wide range of devices and services.

To keep those services free, Google records data about you and uses it to display targeted advertising—their main source of revenue. As the debate around online privacy ramps up, many people are looking for an alternative.

Fortunately, DuckDuckGo might be the privacy-focused search engine you’ve been looking for.

What Is DuckDuckGo?

DuckDuckGo describes itself as “the search engine that doesn’t track you.” Most search engines collect search data, with Google even linking that data to your account. The recorded data is used to personalize your search results, and to show you targeted advertising. But DuckDuckGo (DDG) doesn’t track you and opts not to personalize your search results.

The site has grown steadily since its inception, going from an average 79,000 daily searches in 2010, to 23.5 million daily and 16 billion total searches as of April 2018. Some of this growth has been down to DDG’s partnerships with browsers like Firefox, and Apple’s Safari. They have also partnered with many Linux operating systems, and have native apps for both Android and iOS.

For those that want to take anonymity a step further, TOR browser users are presented with DuckDuckGo search results by default. DDG focuses on search result quality over quantity, with results coming from over 400 sources.

If you still crave alternative results, DDG’s bangs feature allow you to directly search third-party sites and even other search providers.

Who Owns DuckDuckGo?

DuckDuckGo was first launched in 2008 by founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg. It is still owned and operated by Weinberg under the privately held company DuckDuckGo Inc. The company currently has 45 employees working behind the scenes to continue development of DDG.

When talking privacy, it can be important to know a bit about the people that run the companies you entrust with your data.

Before creating DDG, Gabriel Weinberg developed one of the first-wave social networks, Names Database. He later sold the business for approximately $10 million in 2006.

The money was used to self-fund the development of DDG through the company’s early years. Weinberg later co-authored Traction, a book about startup growth. Due to his stance on user privacy, he is regularly quoted as an expert source by the news community.

How Does DuckDuckGo Earn Money?

Weinberg’s original cash injection carried the company for some years. In 2011, the venture capital firm Union Square Ventures invested in DDG. That initial funding round netted DDG an additional $3 million.

However, venture capital investments don’t make a company profitable. To create a financially sustainable business model, DDG displays advertising.

However, unlike other search engines, the adverts are not based on targeted data. Instead, the ads are based exclusively on the keywords in your search. All of DDG’s advertising is syndicated by Yahoo, which is part of the Yahoo-Microsoft search alliance.

https://marissamayr.tumblr.com/post/116552888324/moving-search-forward

While DDG doesn’t provide any personal data to either company, the inclusion of two technology giants with questionable attitudes to privacy might make you uncomfortable. That’s why DDG allows you to pop over to the settings, and disable advertisements. This is one of the most important points in the DuckDuckGo vs. Google battle.

DuckDuckGo is also part of Amazon and eBay’s affiliate programs. If you click through to either site from your search results and make a purchase, DDG receives a small percentage of the sale.

Can You Trust DuckDuckGo?

You may have noticed that technology companies aren’t the most trustworthy of businesses. The list of problematic activity includes cooperation with government spying, unethical data gathering, and even an inability to protect your data. So its only natural that you would question why you should trust DuckDuckGo.

The founder’s privacy-focused background and the company’s admirable business model are excellent starting points, but there are plenty more reasons to trust DDG.

Privacy Policy

Their clearly written privacy policy also makes for reassuring reading, providing detail on the small amount information they do collect. The key takeaways are that they “do not store IP addresses or unique User agent strings” and will set a cookie only for storing site settings.

It ends with the assuring statement:

“…we will comply with court-ordered legal requests. However, in our case, we don’t expect any because there is nothing useful to give them since we don’t collect any personal information.”

Open Source

As well as being built using free and open source software (FOSS), DDG has made parts of their software open source.

Many of the site’s designs, mobile apps, browser extensions, whitelists, and instant answers are available on DuckDuckGo’s GitHub page. Although the primary search core is proprietary, open-sourcing most other parts of the site means that, given the inclination, anyone can view the code.

Donations to Privacy

Like many companies, DDG also donates a portion of their income to good causes. They specifically select organizations which share their “vision of raising the standard of trust online.”

Each year DuckDuckGo selects a new group of organizations, even reaching out to Reddit for suggestions. To date, they have donated $800,000 to their chosen beneficiaries.

Beyond Search

In January 2018, DuckDuckGo moved beyond search, releasing a suite of tools to help you maintain your privacy across the internet.

They revamped their browser extensions and mobile apps to include tracking protection, encryption, and quick access to their private search. The update also added a Site Privacy Grade rating from A through to F, for you to gauge how much a site maintains your privacy.

DuckDuckGo vs. Google

Alongside search, Google operates some of the web’s most used software including Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar and more besides. Google’s access to vast amounts of your personal data means that its results can be deeply personalized and their search page pulls it all together in one place. DuckDuckGo doesn’t have any personal data to draw from, and so makes itself stand out in other ways.

The privacy-focused environment is almost the exact reverse of Google’s highly targeted surroundings. There are no personalized ads, no personal search results, and no filter bubble. Depending on your point of view, this is either one of DDG’s best or worst features.

For the privacy-minded, this lack of tracking is likely to seal the deal. However, DuckDuckGo has another trick up its sleeve: bangs.

Bangs allow you to search third-party sites directly from DuckDuckGo. Say you wanted to search makeuseof.com. Google would let you perform a site search by entering “site:makeuseof.com”. Using DDG’s bangs you enter “!muo”.

Whats more, searching a site with any of the thousands of available bangs takes you directly to the site, rather than the search engine’s results. If you do find yourself missing Google’s tailored results, then adding ‘!g’ before your query will take you directly there.

DuckDuckGo Apps and Extensions

At this point, most of us are already deeply embedded in operating systems, browsers, and apps. That Google is so widely accessible on nearly every device, screen, and browser means that DuckDuckGo needs to be readily available wherever you need it.

That’s why DDG has graduated from its web-only origins to now offer mobile apps and browser extensions which add privacy-focused features to their private search.

DuckDuckGo on Your Browser

DuckDuckGo is a search provider on most mainstream browsers, but Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari users can also install the DuckDuckGo extension. The extension blocks hidden advertising trackers, forces sites to HTTPS where it’s available and gives you quick access to DDG’s search.

Download: DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials for Chrome | Firefox | Opera | Safari (Free)

DuckDuckGo Mobile Apps

DuckDuckGo’s Android and iOS offerings build on the features found in the browser extensions. Tracking prevention, encryption, and DDG’s private search are all built into a minimal mobile web browser. A fire icon on the browser lets you erase all browsing data and close all active tabs.

There is a basic bookmarking feature for access to your favorite sites, but there are few other features. For most people, this won’t do as a browser replacement. However, it’s handy for when you need to search for something sensitive.

Download: DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser for Android | iOS (Free)

Giving The Duck a Go

Google became the dominant force in search by offering you personalized search. They built incredibly useful apps and services which captured even more of our data to improve your search results further. However, in light of several privacy scandals in recent years, we are becoming more cautious with our data.

DuckDuckGo appeals to the privacy-minded, but importantly it isn’t a niche product. With a range of useful features, some of which aren’t even available on Google, DuckDuckGo shows that user privacy and usefulness aren’t mutually exclusive. Is it the absolute winner of the DuckDuckGo vs. Google fight? We’ll let you decide.

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Facebook has auto-enrolled users into a facial recognition test in Europe

Facebook users in Europe are reporting the company has begun testing its controversial facial recognition technology in the region.

Jimmy Nsubuga, a journalist at Metro, is among several European Facebook users who have said they’ve been notified by the company they are in its test bucket.

The company has previously said an opt-in option for facial recognition will be pushed out to all European users next month. It’s hoping to convince Europeans to voluntarily allow it to expand its use of the privacy-hostile tech — which was turned off in the bloc after regulatory pressure, back in 2012, when Facebook was using it for features such as automatically tagging users in photo uploads.

Under impending changes to its T&Cs — ostensibly to comply with the EU’s incoming GDPR data protection standard — the company has crafted a manipulative consent flow that tries to sell people on giving it their data; including filling in its own facial recognition blanks by convincing Europeans to agree to it grabbing and using their biometric data after all. 

Notably Facebook is not offering a voluntary opt-in to Europeans who find themselves in its facial recognition test bucket. Rather users are being automatically turned into its lab rats — and have to actively delve into the settings to say no.

In a notification to affected users, the company writes [emphasis ours]: “You control face recognition. This setting is on, but you can turn it off at any time, which applies to features we may add later.”

Not only is the tech turned on, but users who click through to the settings to try and turn it off will also find Facebook attempting to dissuade them from doing that — with manipulative examples of how the tech can “protect” them.

As another Facebook user who found herself enrolled in the test — journalist Jennifer Baker — points out, what it’s doing here is incredibly disingenuous because it’s using fear to try to manipulate people’s choices.

Sure #Facebook, I'll take a milisecond to consider whether you want me to enable #facialrecognition for my own protection or your #data #tracking business model. #Disingenuous pricks! pic.twitter.com/s7nngaHVSq

— Jennifer Baker (@BrusselsGeek) April 20, 2018

Under the EU’s incoming data protection framework Facebook will not be able to automatically opt users into facial recognition — it will have to convince people to switch the tech on themselves.

But the experiment it’s running here (without gaining individuals’ upfront consent) looks very much like a form of A/B testing — to see which of its disingenuous examples is best able to convince people to accept the highly privacy-hostile technology by voluntarily switching it on.

But given that Facebook controls the entire consent flow, and can rely on big data insights gleaned from its own platform (of 2BN+ users), this is not even remotely a fair fight.

Consent is being manipulated, not freely given. This is big data-powered mass manipulation of human decisions — i.e. until the ‘right’ answer (for Facebook’s business) is ‘selected’ by the user.

Data protection experts we spoke to earlier this week do not believe Facebook’s approach to consent will be legal under GDPR. Legal challenges are certain at this point.

But legal challenges also take time. And in the meanwhile Facebook users will be being manipulated into agreeing with things that align with the company’s data-harvesting business interests — and handing over their sensitive personal information without understanding the full implications.

It’s also not clear how many Facebook users are being auto-enrolled into this facial recognition test — we’ve put questions to it and will update this post with any reply.

Last month Facebook said it would be rolling out “a limited test of some of the additional choices we’ll ask people to make as part of GDPR”.

It also said it was “starting by asking only a small percentage of people so that we can be sure everything is working properly”, and further claimed: “[T]he changes we’re testing will let people choose whether to enable facial recognition, which has previously been unavailable in the EU.”

Facebook’s wording in those statements is very interesting — with no number put on how many people will be made into test subjects (though it is very clearly trying to play the experiment down; “limited test”, “small”) — so we simply don’t know how many Europeans are having their facial data processed by Facebook right now, without their upfront consent.

Nor do we know where in Europe all these test subjects are located. But it’s pretty likely the test contravenes even current EU data protection laws. (GDPR applies from May 25.)

Facebook’s description of its testing plan last month was also disingenuous as it implied users would get to choose to enable facial recognition. In fact, it’s just switching it on — saddling test subjects with the effort of opting out.

The company was likely hoping the test would not attract too much attention — given how much GDPR news is flowing through its PR channels, and how much attention the topic is generally sucking up — and we can see why now because it’s essentially reversed its 2012 decision to switch off facial recognition in Europe (made after the feature attracted so much blow-back), to grab as much data as it can while it can.

Millions of Europeans could be having their fundamental rights trampled on here, yet again. We just don’t know what the company actually means by “small”. (The EU has ~500M inhabitants — even 1%, a “small percentage”, of that would involve millions of people… )

Once again Facebook isn’t telling how many people it’s experimenting on.

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AT&T CEO says a new $15-per-month, sports-free streaming service is launching in a few weeks

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson revealed on Thursday the carrier’s plans to launch another live TV service called “AT&T Watch,” which would offer a cheap, $15-per-month bundle of channels for customers, and be provided to AT&T Wireless subscribers for free. At this price point, the service would be one of the lowest on the market – less than Sling TV’s entry-level, $20-per-month package, and just a bit less than Philo’s low-cost, sports-free offering, priced at $16 per month.

Stephenson, who’s in court defending the proposed $85 billion merger with Time Warner against antitrust claims, announced the service on the witness stand. He held up the soon-to-arrive AT&T Watch as a rebuttal of sorts to the Justice Department’s point about the company’s continually climbing prices for its DirecTV satellite service, according to a report from Variety.

The Justice Department is concerned that, if the merger goes through, AT&T will then raise prices on Time Warner’s Turner networks, like TNT, TBS and CNN in a way that would hurt other pay TV providers.

Few other details were offered regarding AT&T Watch, beyond its price point – which is due to the fact that it will also be sports-free offering, like Philo.

But AT&T’s advantage over competitors is the distribution provided by its AT&T Wireless business. Although its existing streaming service DirecTV Now is one of the newest on the market, it has already reached number two in terms of subscribers, falling behind Sling TV.

Beyond its lack of sports, the channel lineup for AT&T Watch was not discussed, nor was an exact launch date.

Stephenson said the company hoped to launch it in the next few weeks.

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How to Hide and Unhide Anything You Want in Microsoft Excel

If you have a lot of data in a worksheet, or you’re working on a small screen, you can hide data on your spreadsheet to make it easier to view and analyze your data.

Today we’ll show you how to conceal different areas on your worksheets and hide the data.

How to Hide and Unhide Overflow Text

When you type text in a cell, and the text is wider than the cell, the text overflows into the adjacent cells in the row. If there is any text in the adjacent cell, the text in the first cell is blocked by the text in the adjacent cell.

You can solve this by having the text wrap in the first cell. But that increases the height of the entire row.

If you don’t want to show the overflow text, even when there is nothing in the adjacent cells, you can hide the overflow text.

Select the cell containing the text that’s overflowing and do one of the following:

• Right-click on the selected cell(s) and select Format Cells.
• Press Ctrl + 1.

On the Format Cells dialog box, click the Alignment tab. Then, select Fill from the Horizontal dropdown list and click OK.

The overflow text in the first cell does not show even when there is nothing in the cell to the right.

How to Hide and Unhide Comments

Comments in Excel allow you to annotate your worksheets. This is useful when collaborating on worksheets. You can set reminders or add notes for yourself or for others or explain formulas or how to use part of a worksheet.

You may want to hide comments if there are many on your worksheet. The comments could make it hard to read your data.

By default, cells with comments contain a small red triangle in the upper-right corner called a comment indicator. These indicators can also be hidden.

To hide a comment on an individual cell, select the cell and do one of the following:

• Right-click the cell and select Show/Hide Comment.
• Click Show/Hide Comment in the Comments section of the Review tab.

To show the comment again, select the same cell and select or click Show/Hide Comment again.

You can also show or hide comments on multiple cells by using the Shift and Ctrl keys to select the cells and then select or click Show/Hide Comment.

To show all comments at once, click Show All Comments in the Comments section on the Review tab. This option shows all the comments on all open workbooks. While this option is on, any workbooks you open or create will show all comments until you turn the option off.

To hide both the comments and comment indicators, go to File > Options. Click Advanced on the left, then scroll down on the right to the Display section. Select No comments or indicators under For cells with comments, show. The indicators and comments are hidden, and the comments don’t display when you hover over cells.

To show the comments and indicators again, select one of the other two options under For cells with comments, show. You can also click Show All Comments in the Comments section of the Review tab.

The options under For cells with comments, show in the Excel Options and the Show All Comments option on the Review tab are linked. For more information about the behavior when hiding and showing comments, see our article about working with comments.

How to Hide and Unhide Certain Cells

You can’t hide cells themselves, but you can hide the contents of a cell. Maybe you have some data referenced by other cells that does not need to be seen.

To hide the contents of a cell, select the cell(s) you want to hide (use Shift and Ctrl to select multiple cells). Then, do one of the following:

• Right-click on the selected cell(s) and select Format Cells.
• Press Ctrl + 1.

On the Format Cells dialog box, make sure the Number tab is active. Select Custom in the Category box.

Before changing the Type, note what’s currently selected. This way you know what to change it back to when you decide to show the content again.

Enter three semicolons (;;;) in the Type box and click OK.

The contents in the selected cells is now hidden, but the value, formula, or function in each cell still displays in the Formula Bar.

The hidden content is still available to use in formulas and functions in other cells. If you replace the content in a hidden cell, the new content will also be hidden. The new content is available for use in other cells just like the original content.

To show the content in a cell again, follow the same steps above. But this time, choose the original Category and Type for the cell on the Format Cells dialog box.

How to Hide and Unhide the Formula Bar

When you hide a cell, as described in the previous section, you can still see the contents, formula, or function in the Formula Bar. To completely hide the contents of a cell, you must hide the Formula Bar also.

On the View tab, uncheck the Formula Bar box in the Show section.

You can also hide the Formula Bar on the Excel Options dialog box.

Go to File > Options. Then, click Advanced on the left and uncheck the Show formula bar box in the Display section on the right.

How to Hide and Unhide Formulas

By default, when you enter a formula in a cell, the formula displays in the Formula Bar and the result displays in the cell.

If you don’t want others to see your formulas, you can hide them. One way is to hide the Formula Bar using the method in the previous section. But anyone can show the Formula Bar again.

You can securely hide a formula in a cell by applying the Hidden setting to the cell and then protecting the worksheet.

Select the cell(s) for which you want to hide the formula(s) and do one of the following:

• Right-click on the selected cell(s) and select Format Cells.
• Press Ctrl + 1.

On the Protection tab, check the Hidden box. Then, click OK.

You still need to protect the sheet to hide the formulas.

Click Protect Sheet in the Protect section on the Review tab.

On the Protect Sheet dialog box, make sure the Protect worksheet and contents of locked cells box is checked.

In the Password to unprotect sheet box, enter a password to prevent others from unprotecting the worksheet. This is not required, but we recommend it.

By default, Select locked cells and Select unlocked cells are checked in the Allow all users of this worksheet to box. You can check boxes for other actions you want to allow users of your worksheet to perform, but you may not want to if you don’t want other users to change your worksheet.

Enter your password again on the Confirm Password dialog box.

The formulas in the selected cells do not show in the Formula Bar now. But you still see the results of the formulas in the cells, unless you’ve hidden the contents of those cells as described in the “How to Hide and Unhide Certain Cells” section above.

To show the formulas again, select the cells for which you want to show the formulas and click Unprotect Sheet in the Protect section of the Review tab.

If you entered a password when protecting the sheet, enter the password on the Unprotect Sheet dialog box that displays. If you didn’t protect the sheet with a password, no further prompts display.

The formulas won’t show just yet. You must turn off the Hidden setting for them.

Select the cells for which you hid the formulas and do one of the following:

• Right-click on the selected cell(s) and select Format Cells.
• Press Ctrl + 1.

Uncheck the Hidden box on the Protection tab and click OK.

The formulas for the selected cells will now be visible in the Formula Bar again if you haven’t hidden the Formula Bar.

How to Hide and Unhide Rows and Columns

If you want to remove one or more rows or columns from a worksheet, but you don’t want to delete them, you can hide them.

To hide one or more consecutive rows, first select the rows. Then, do one of the following:

• Right-click on the selected rows and select Hide.
• Press Ctrl + 9.

The selected rows are replaced with a double line in the row headings and a thick line where the rows were. When you click anywhere else on the worksheet, the thick line goes away. But you can tell where the hidden rows are by the missing row numbers and the double line in the row headings.

Cells in hidden rows and columns can still be used in calculations in other cells and can perform calculations on other cells while hidden.

To unhide consecutive rows, select the rows above and below the hidden rows. Then, do one of the following:

• Right-click on the selected rows and select Unhide.
• Press Ctrl + Shift + 9.

What if you hide the first row? This method of unhiding doesn’t work on the first row of a worksheet because there is no row above the first row.

To select the first row, click in the Name box to the left of the Formula Bar, type in “A1”, and press Enter. Then, press Ctrl + Shift + 9.

Hiding columns work like hiding rows. Select the column or consecutive columns you want to hide, and do one of the following:

• Right-click on the selected columns, and select Hide.
• Press Ctrl + 0 (zero).

The same double line and thick line you see when hiding rows display in place of the hidden columns. The column letters are also hidden.

To show the columns again, select the columns to the left and right of the hidden columns. Then, do one of the following:

• Right-click on the selected columns and select Unhide.
• Press Ctrl + Shift + 0 (zero).

If you’ve hidden the first column (A), you can unhide it like you do for when you hide the first row. To select the first column, click in the Name box to the left of the Formula Bar, type in “A1”, and press Enter. Then, press Ctrl + Shift + 0 (zero).

If you’ve hidden a lot of rows and columns, you can unhide all the hidden rows or columns at once.

Select the entire worksheet by clicking in the box between the row and column headers or pressing Ctrl + A. Then, press either Ctrl + Shift + 9 to unhide all the hidden rows or Ctrl + Shift + 0 (zero) to unhide all the hidden columns.

You can also right-click on the row or column headers while the entire worksheet is selected and select Unhide.

Show Only the Data You Want to Show in Excel

Hiding data is a simple but useful skill to learn in Excel, especially if you plan to use your worksheets in a presentation. Enter all the data you need, even if you only need some data for calculations or some is sensitive or private.

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This robot can build your Ikea furniture

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who hate building Ikea furniture and madmen. Now, thanks to Ikeabot, the madmen can be replaced.

Ikeabot is a project built at Control Robotics Intelligence (CRI) group at NTU in Singapore. The team began by teaching robots to insert pins and manipulate Ikea parts and then, slowly, began to figure out how to pit the robots against the furniture. The results, if you’ve ever fought with someone trying to put together a Billy, are heartening.

From Spectrum:

The assembly process from CRI is not quite that autonomous; “although all the steps were automatically planned and controlled, their sequence was hard-coded through a considerable engineering effort.” The researchers mention that they can “envision such a sequence being automatically determined from the assembly manual, through natural-language interaction with a human supervisor or, ultimately, from an image of the chair,” although we feel like they should have a chat with Ross Knepper, whose IkeaBot seemed to do just fine without any of that stuff.

In other words the robots are semi-autonomous but never get frustrated and can use basic heuristics to figure out next steps. The robots can now essentially assemble chairs in about 20 minutes, a feat that I doubt many of us can emulate. You can watch the finished dance here, in all its robotic glory.

The best part? Even robots get frustrated and fling parts around:

I, for one, welcome our Ikea chair manufacturing robotic overlords.

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