Google teams with the CIJ in the UK for free workshops for journalists on investigative journalism

Google has been the target of many an investigative journalism scoop, but today in the UK it’s sitting on the other side of the table. The search giant’s Digital News Initiative — the division that was created to give millions in funding to startups and new projects that are pushing the boundaries of digital news — has announced a new partnership with the Centre for Investigative Journalism to help journalists learn how use digital tools to dig up news.

The two will be jointly running 20 free workshops in the UK under the name “Access to Tools,” available both to freelancers and staff editors and writers, that will train them on some of the tricks of the trade when it comes to using digital media to find and report a story, including data analysis on spreadsheets, finding and ‘reading’ minutes from public meetings, and tracking down sources for images. Google says the workshops will use “technology from a range of providers” — not just Google. As for the content: the focus here seems to be on using these tools for digging up local news stories, not dirt on Google.

The efforts are Google’s latest moves to position itself as a friend, and not a foe, to the news industry. Over the years, the company has raised the hackles of many a publisher that has been unhappy with how Google either summarizes stories in Google News, or simply provides enough links around a subject from other sources that a user potentially never needs to visit a publication online to read the original source of the information — thereby depriving the news organisations of traffic and subsequent revenues that come with that traffic from advertising.

That scuffle between Google and the news industry has been going on for years, with the latest frontier being mobile. Google has developed a format for viewing stories on pages with accelerated loading times on mobile, but those stories (signified with a lightning bolt when you search on Google for a story on you mobile device) all get delivered on Google URLs. Now, as Google plans to expand its so-called AMP project to desktop, it has said it’s working on fixing that URL situation, although I’ve checked just now and those Google URLs are still there.

All of this comes at the same time that company is already under investigation by European regulators for its anticompetitive practices in areas like search and mobile.

Google’s News Initiative is one example of how Google is trying to offset all this controversy. Aimed at news organisations in Europe, the group provides no-strings-attached grants to businesses that are aiming to bring more innovation to the field using tech like AI, mobile and more. Google has also run training on its own steam through its News Lab, and also offers online courses. The CIJ association adds another layer of impartiality to the wider strategy.

For the CIJ, it gives the group some funding to bring more of their expertise to a wider set of journalists, and that on balance can only be a good thing.

“Our leading concern is to put the best tools in the hands of investigative journalists, and then grow their expertise in using them,” said CIJ director James Harkin. “Building on our 15 years of expertise in data journalism, advanced internet research, financial search, and internet-powered fact-checking and our relationships of trust with the corporate and independent local media, ‘Access to Tools’ is the perfect way to extend the already impressive reach of our regional network and to get out there into more regional newsrooms, communities, and universities.”

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Instagram hits 1 billion monthly users, up from 800M in September

Instagram’s meteoric rise continues, dwarfing the stagnant growth rates of Snapchat and Facebook. Today Instagram announced that it has reached 1 billion monthly active users, after reaching 800 million in September 2017 with 500 million daily users.

That massive audience could be a powerful draw for IGTV, the longer-form video hub its launching for creators today. While IGTV monetization options are expected in the future, content makers may flock to it early just to get exposure and build their fan base.

Instagram launches IGTV video hub for creators

While Snapchat’s daily user count grew just 2.13 percent in Q1 2018 to 191 million, and Facebook’s monthly count grew 3.14 percent to reach 2.196 billion, Instagram is growing closer to 5 percent per quarter.

Hitting the 1 billion user milestone could put more pressure on Instagram to carry its weight in the Facebook family and bring home more cash. Facebook doesn’t break out Instagram’s revenue and has never given any guidance about it. But eMarketer estimates that Instagram will generate $5.48 billion in US ad revenue in 2018, up 70 percent from last year. It reports that Instagram makes up 28.2 pecent of Facebook’s mobile ad revenue.

The Instagram brand increasingly looks like Facebook’s life raft. Sentiment towards Facebook, especially amongst teens, has been in decline, and its constantly rocked by privacy scandals. But many users don’t even realize Facebook owns Instagram, and still love the photo sharing app. With the 1 billion user badge, businesses and content creators may take the photo and video app even more seriously. Selling windows into your friends’ worlds is a lucrative business.

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Instagram launches IGTV video hub for creators with 1-hour uploads

Instagram is ready to compete head on with YouTube. Today at a flashy event in San Francisco, the company is announcing it will begin allowing users to upload videos up to 1 hour in length, up from the previous 1 minute limit. And to house the new longer-form videos from star content creators, Instagram is launching IGTV. Located in the app’s Explore Tab, IGTV will spotlight popular videos from Instagram celebrities.

The launch confirms TechCrunch’s scoops over the past month outlining the features and potential of IGTV that we said would arrive today, following the WSJ’s report that Instagram would offer videos up to an hour in length.

“It’s time for video to move forward, and evolve” said Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom on stage at the event. “IGTV is for watching long-from videos from your favorite creators.”

Instagram’s press event just started, but the Instagram Business blog has already been updated with all the details of today’s launch.

IGTV will let anyone be a creator, not just big name celebrities. People will be able to upload vertical videos through Instagram’s app or the web. In the IGTV hub, viewers will be able to swipe through a variety of longer-form videos, or swipe up to visit a Browse tab of personally recommend videos, popular videos, creators they’re following, and the option to continue watching previously started videos.

Meanwhile, app investigator Jane Manchun Wong dug these screenshots out of Instagram’s Android app.

 

With 1 billion users on Instagram, IGTV could be popular with creators not only trying to earn money but grow their audience. Instagram is expected to build out a monetization option for IGTV creators, potentially including ad revenue shares. The big user base could also attract advertisers. eMarketer already expects Instagram to earn $5.48 billion in US ad revenue in 2018.

Instagram hits 1 billion monthly users, up from 800M in September

Instagram has evolved far beyond the initial simplicity of just filtering and sharing photos. When it launched, mobile networks, screens, and cameras weren’t ready for longer-form video, and neither were users. As more families cut the cord or teens ignore television all together, though, Instagram has an opportunity to become the TV of mobile. YouTube may always have a wider breadth of content. But through curation of creators and publishers’ video content, Instagram could become the reliable place to watch something great on the small screen.

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Instagram hits 1 billion monthly users, up from 800M in September

Instagram’s meteoric rise continues, dwarfing the stagnant growth rates of Snapchat and Facebook. Today Instagram announced that it has reached 1 billion monthly active users, after reaching 800 million in September 2017 with 500 million daily users.

That massive audience could be a powerful draw for IGTV, the longer-form video hub its launching for creators today. While IGTV monetization options are expected in the future, content makers may flock to it early just to get exposure and build their fan base.

Instagram launches IGTV video hub for creators

While Snapchat’s daily user count grew just 2.13 percent in Q1 2018 to 191 million, and Facebook’s monthly count grew 3.14 percent to reach 2.196 billion, Instagram is growing closer to 5 percent per quarter.

Hitting the 1 billion user milestone could put more pressure on Instagram to carry its weight in the Facebook family and bring home more cash. Facebook doesn’t break out Instagram’s revenue and has never given any guidance about it. But eMarketer estimates that Instagram will generate $5.48 billion in US ad revenue in 2018, up 70 percent from last year. It reports that Instagram makes up 28.2 pecent of Facebook’s mobile ad revenue.

The Instagram brand increasingly looks like Facebook’s life raft. Sentiment towards Facebook, especially amongst teens, has been in decline, and its constantly rocked by privacy scandals. But many users don’t even realize Facebook owns Instagram, and still love the photo sharing app. With the 1 billion user badge, businesses and content creators may take the photo and video app even more seriously. Selling windows into your friends’ worlds is a lucrative business.

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Mobile website creator Universe nabs $4 million Series A

The small team behind Universe, an iOS app that allows users to build modular, simplistic websites in a minute or two, has scored some new funding as it looks to grow its operation and its ambitions.

The startup has closed a $4 million Series A investment from Javelin Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Y Combinator, Box Group, Eniac Ventures, Paul Buchheit, Yuri Sagalov, Louis Beryl and others. Universe has raised $7.2 million to date.

The startup’s focus on building mobile websites has aimed to bypass the more complicated approaches of desktop-first web design companies for a process that feels a bit more like editing an Instagram photo. More than 160 thousand sites have been built with the app.

We covered the Brooklyn-based company when it launched last year and when it graduated from Y Combinator with seed funding. The team is still just three full-time employees; with this latest funding the team is looking to grow a bit.

“Javelin got excited about Universe because we saw a massive group of content creators that aren’t sitting at a desk or taking the time and cost to develop a website with the traditional tools,” Noah Doyle, Javelin’s managing director said in a statement. “We loved how Universe’s grid-based interface gives anyone the power to design a high-quality web presence, and see it as transformative for artists, free agent professionals, small business owners and individual personal use, too.”

Universe has spent the last few months rethinking how it’s approaching monetization with power users of the service. The company is switching from an à la carte approach that let users use a custom URL or ditch Universe branding on their site for an extra $3 a pop to a Pro tier that’s a flat $10 per month and will gain new functionality over time.

Universe is iOS-only for now; you can check it out here.

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The Best Walkie Talkie App: Turn Your Phone Into a Two-Way Radio

New system connects your mind to a machine to help stop mistakes

How do you tell your robot not do something that could be catastrophic? You could give it a verbal or programmatic command or you could have it watch your brain for signs of distress and have it stop itself. That’s what researchers at MIT’s robotics research lab have done with a system that is wired to your brain and tells robots how to do their job.

The initial system is fairly simple. A scalp EEG and EMG system is connected to a Baxter work robot and lets a human wave or gesture when the robot is doing something that it shouldn’t be doing. For example, the robot could regularly do a task – drilling holes, for example – but when it approaches an unfamiliar scenario the human can gesture at the task that should be done.

“By looking at both muscle and brain signals, we can start to pick up on a person’s natural gestures along with their snap decisions about whether something is going wrong,” said PhD candidate Joseph DelPreto. “This helps make communicating with a robot more like communicating with another person.”

Because the system uses nuances like gestures and emotional reactions you can train robots to interact with humans with disabilities and even prevent accidents by catching concern or alarm before it is communicated verbally. This lets workers stop a robot before it damages something and even help the robot understand slight changes to its tasks before it begins.

In their tests the team trained Baxter to drill holes in an airplane fuselage. The task changed occasionally and a human standing nearby was able to gesture to the robot to change position before it drilled, essentially training it to do new tasks in the midst of its current task. Further, there was no actual programming involved on the human’s part, just a suggestion that the robot move the drill left or right on the fuselage. The most important thing? Humans don’t have to think in a special way or train themselves to interact with the machine.

“What’s great about this approach is that there’s no need to train users to think in a prescribed way,” said DelPreto. “The machine adapts to you, and not the other way around.”

The team will present their findings at the Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) conference.

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Facebook tests “subscription Groups” that charge for exclusive content

Facebook is starting to let Group admins charge $4.99 to $29.99 per month for access to special sub-Groups full of exclusive posts. A hand-picked array of parenting, cooking, and ‘organize my home’ Groups will be the first to get the chance to spawn a subscription Group open to their members.

During the test, Facebook won’t be taking a cut, but since the feature bills through iOS and Android, they’ll get their 30 percent cut of a user’s first year of subscription and 15 percent after that. But if Facebook eventually did ask for a revenue share, it could finally start to monetize the Groups feature that’s grown to over 1 billion users.

The idea for subscription Groups originally came from the admins. “It’s not so much about making money as it is investing in their community” says Facebook Groups product manager Alex Deve. “The fact that there will be funds coming out of the activity helps them create higher quality content.” Some admins tell Facebook they actually want to funnel subscription dues back into activities their Group does together offline.

Content users might get in the exclusive version of groups include video tutorials, lists of tips, and support directly from admins themselves. For example, Sandra Mueller’s Declutter My Home Group is launching a $14.99 per month Organize My Home subscription Group that will teach members how to stay tidy with checklists and video guides. The Grown and Flown Parents group is spawning a College Admissions and Affordability subscription group with access to college counselors for $29.99. Cooking On A Budget: Recipes & Meal Planning will launch a $9.99 Meal Planning Central Premium subscription group with weekly meal plans, shopping lists for different grocery stores, and more.

But the point of the test is actually to figure out what admins would post and whether members find it valuable. “They have their own ideas. We want to see how that is going to evolve” says Deve.

Here’s how subscription Groups work. First, a user must be in a larger group where the admin has access to the subscription options and posts an invitation for members to check it out. They’ll see preview cards outlining what exclusive content they’ll get access to and how much it costs. If they want to join, the admin vets their application, and if they’re approved they’re charged the monthly fee right away.

They’ll be billed on that date each month, and if they cancel, they’ll still have access until the end of the month. That prevents anyone from joining a group and scraping all the content without paying the full price. The whole system is a bit similar to subscription patronage platform Patreon, but with a Group and its admin at the center instead of some star creator.

Back in 2016, Facebook briefly tested showing ads in Groups, but now says that was never rolled out. However, the company says that admins want other ways beyond subscriptions to build revenue from Groups and it’s considering the possibilities. Facebook didn’t have any more to share on this, but perhaps one day it will offer a revenue split from ads shown within groups.

Between subscriptions, ad revenue shares, tipping, sponsored content, and product placement — all of which Facebook is testing — creators are suddenly flush with monetization options. While we spent the last few decades of the consumer internet scarfing up free content, creativity can’t be a labor of love forever. Letting creators earn money could help them turn their passion into their profession and dedicate more time to making things people love.

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Facebook tests “subscription Groups” that charge for exclusive content

Facebook is starting to let Group admins charge $4.99 to $29.99 per month for access to special sub-Groups full of exclusive posts. A hand-picked array of parenting, cooking, and ‘organize my home’ Groups will be the first to get the chance to spawn a subscription Group open to their members.

During the test, Facebook won’t be taking a cut, but since the feature bills through iOS and Android, they’ll get their 30 percent cut of a user’s first year of subscription and 15 percent after that. But if Facebook eventually did ask for a revenue share, it could finally start to monetize the Groups feature that’s grown to over 1 billion users.

The idea for subscription Groups originally came from the admins. “It’s not so much about making money as it is investing in their community” says Facebook Groups product manager Alex Deve. “The fact that there will be funds coming out of the activity helps them create higher quality content.” Some admins tell Facebook they actually want to funnel subscription dues back into activities their Group does together offline.

Content users might get in the exclusive version of groups include video tutorials, lists of tips, and support directly from admins themselves. For example, Sandra Mueller’s Declutter My Home Group is launching a $14.99 per month Organize My Home subscription Group that will teach members how to stay tidy with checklists and video guides. The Grown and Flown Parents group is spawning a College Admissions and Affordability subscription group with access to college counselors for $29.99. Cooking On A Budget: Recipes & Meal Planning will launch a $9.99 Meal Planning Central Premium subscription group with weekly meal plans, shopping lists for different grocery stores, and more.

But the point of the test is actually to figure out what admins would post and whether members find it valuable. “They have their own ideas. We want to see how that is going to evolve” says Deve.

Here’s how subscription Groups work. First, a user must be in a larger group where the admin has access to the subscription options and posts an invitation for members to check it out. They’ll see preview cards outlining what exclusive content they’ll get access to and how much it costs. If they want to join, the admin vets their application, and if they’re approved they’re charged the monthly fee right away.

They’ll be billed on that date each month, and if they cancel, they’ll still have access until the end of the month. That prevents anyone from joining a group and scraping all the content without paying the full price. The whole system is a bit similar to subscription patronage platform Patreon, but with a Group and its admin at the center instead of some star creator.

Back in 2016, Facebook briefly tested showing ads in Groups, but now says that was never rolled out. However, the company says that admins want other ways beyond subscriptions to build revenue from Groups and it’s considering the possibilities. Facebook didn’t have any more to share on this, but perhaps one day it will offer a revenue split from ads shown within groups.

Between subscriptions, ad revenue shares, tipping, sponsored content, and product placement — all of which Facebook is testing — creators are suddenly flush with monetization options. While we spent the last few decades of the consumer internet scarfing up free content, creativity can’t be a labor of love forever. Letting creators earn money could help them turn their passion into their profession and dedicate more time to making things people love.

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PC Gaming on Linux: 7 Common Questions and Concerns Answered

You use a Windows PC, but you’ve been thinking about trying out Linux. The only problem: no games. After all, you can’t play games on Linux, right?

Wrong!

Anything you can do with a Windows computer, you can do with Linux. That includes watching and editing movies, playing local and streamed music, standard browsing and office tasks… and yes, even gaming.

In fact, Linux has almost as many gaming options as Windows, making it a great alternative. Here’s everything you need to know about gaming on Linux.

1. Yes, You Can Play Games on Linux!

We’ve established that you can play games on Linux. But how many? How good are they? Do modern titles get released on Linux? So many questions!

In short, there are five types of games you can play on Linux:

• Native Linux Games
• Windows games in Linux
• Browser Games
• Terminal Games
• Retro games

Of that list, the first two are the ones that you might be more interested in, coming from a Windows PC. But playing Linux versions of popular games and running the Windows originals within Linux might just open up a whole new world of gaming to you.

2. Where Can I Find Native Linux Games?

You think it’s easy to find Windows games? Let us tell you something: it’s just as easy to find Linux games. While you’re unlikely to find them in your favorite game shop, you’re unlikely to buy a Windows game there anyway.

No, Linux games are found almost exclusively online—often in the same places you find Windows games.

Finding Linux Games via Steam

Without a doubt, the first place you should look for Linux games is on Steam. While it might be a proprietary service, the majority of Linux versions of popular Windows games are hosted here. A vast number of titles are available in the Linux library; many top titles are simultaneously released across Windows, macOS, and Linux these days.

All types of Linux games are available on Steam, from top MMORPGs playable on Linux to high-quality strategy games that support Linux.

Note that Linux games are intended mainly for Ubuntu-based distros. You also won’t see the Tux emblem in Steam. Developers Valve released their own Ubuntu-based Linux gaming distro called SteamOS, and Linux games available in Steam display this logo instead.

But you don’t have to use SteamOS to play Steam titles on Linux. Simply install the Steam client on your Linux PC!

Finding Linux Games via GOG

Linux games can also be found on GOG, where the former mantra of “good old games” has more recently made way for newer titles. Whatever the era of game, however, many have been packaged with the necessary software (which we’ll come to below) to enable Linux playability.

Simply head to gog.com to browse the library and sign up for an account.

Finding Linux Games via Penguspy

If you’re looking for purely open source titles, then this is the place to go.

Although free, paid, and closed source titles are also available, Penguspy gives you a collection of titles to browse. It’s a good idea to check the ratings before installing. You won’t find the games at Penguspy, however; instead, links to the homepages of each title are provided.

Finding Linux Games via Humble Store

Another online store that sells games for Linux users, humblebundle.com invariably furnishes you with keys for games via Steam. However, you’re likely to find massive discounts through the Humble Store.

Finding Linux Games via Linux Game Database

Similarly, the Linux Game Database (or LGDb for short) has a great collection of games. Again, you can check screenshots, read descriptions, and check ratings. Unlike Penguspy, however, LGDb will provide links to almost every Linux game going, including those on Steam.

Finding Linux Games via Itch.io

The home of indie games on the internet, itch.io features a number of Linux games. You can identify these via the Tux logo, or find them all via this filter page.

Finding Linux Games via Game Jolt

Another crucial site for indie games and developers, Game Jolt also includes a number of Linux games within its library.

Games-Centric Linux Operating Systems

Another place to find Linux games is to install a Linux operating system that has been designed just for games. These distributions have the games either built in, or accessible from the repository or app store.

Our list of the best Linux gaming operating systems should help you out here. But note that you don’t NEED a games-focused flavor of Linux. Almost all Linux distros have games available in their repositories.

What About Portable Linux Games?

If for some reason you prefer your Linux games to run off external media (such as a USB stick or SD card), then portable games might be more suitable. A good selection of these can be found at portablelinuxgames.org.

3. How Can I Play Windows Games on Linux?

Concerned that you won’t be able to play your favorite Windows games on Linux? Don’t be.

The overwhelming majority of Windows games that have not been released on Linux can nevertheless be run using Wine. This is a piece of software that creates the right environment within Linux for the Windows games to be run. Three options are available for Wine.

• Wine: This is the original project, but it’s a bit fiddly to use on its own.
• PlayOnLinux: A more usable version of Wine, this lets you install your Windows games with the correct settings via a slick user interface.
• Crossover: A paid version of Wine, Crossover features fixes and improvements before they’re included in Wine. This means that Crossover essentially allows you to play more games than Wine. Using Crossover pays for development of Wine.

If none of these solutions works for the game you’re trying to run in Linux, try installing a Windows virtual machine instead.

4. What About Terminal Games for Linux?

Amazingly, it’s even possible to play Linux games in the terminal. If you’re not keen on graphics-heavy first person shooters (FPS) and MMORPGs, and prefer the simplicity of ASCII graphics, this might be the option for you.

A great selection of terminal games can be found at ttygames.wordpress.com. Many of these titles evoke the early 8-bit era with their rudimentary graphics, so prepare for a nostalgia hit!

5. How Do I Play Retro Games on Linux?

If you’re into old games, revisiting nostalgic classics from yesteryear, or simply enjoying them for the first time, Linux is the perfect platform. Unlike modern gaming, you can enjoy retro gaming on lower spec computers.

Even the Raspberry Pi, which has a whole selection of emulation suites to choose from!

Many options are available for playing retro games on Linux. Some are available on Steam; others can be accessed via the Internet Archive; older MS-DOS PC games can be emulated in DOSBox. Our roundup of retro gaming options for Linux covers all the bases.

6. How Do I Host Online Games on Linux?

Linux gaming doesn’t end when you save the game. You can install the server version of Minecraft for group online play. You can go further by installing SteamCMD, which lets you host many Steam games for online multiplayer action.

There’s also the Linux Game Server Manager software, which makes hosting online games easy to use. Our guide to hosting games on Linux covers all you need to know.

7. How Do I Play Browser Games on Linux?

As well as games that you install locally, Linux users can play browser games. This might be anything from Facebook games to browser-based MMORPGs.

Our list of the best free browser games will get you started, as will our look at browser-based FPS titles. Just make sure you’re using an up-to-date browser on your Linux PC.

Linux Gaming Is Great and Here to Stay

While Linux gaming isn’t quite mainstream yet (although if we consider that Android is based on Linux, then the opposite is true), it is nevertheless the best alternative to Windows for PC gaming. Steam’s support is a major driver for this, but other factors are in play too.

At the very least, retro gaming is perfect for Linux. However, we reckon Linux is the perfect alternative to Windows for all but the most hardcore PC gamers.

Image Credit: AY_PHOTO/Depositphotos

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Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram

Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram

GoFundMe now allows team fundraising, where multiple people collaborate to raise money

GoFundMe, the popular service for raising money for causes with some $5 billion raised to date, is expanding its platform to serve more community efforts: today the company is launching GoFundMe Team Fundraising, which lets groups of people collectively raise money for a single effort. The idea is that it will make it possible for schools, churches, sports teams, and other groups to set up fundraising campaigns on GoFundMe.

In many cases, groups have traditionally relied on people to use offline methods to raise money for a single cause, or if people have used digital platforms, harnessing those individual campaigns has not been straightforward.

The idea with GoFundMe’s team product is that the organization that is raising the money can create the main repository, and then link up individuals to that anchor so that they can collect contributions directly. Then those contributions can all feed into the main goal as they go along, and campaign leaders can run leaderboards to show how they are progressing. Early tests of the Team feature have included sports teams, school groups raising money for travel to an event; work teams raising for a cause; and local communities.

As with GoFundMe’s other fundraising options, there is no platform fee for starting or running a team campaign, as GoFundMe has now switched to a “tips” model. (There are still standard card processing fees.)

“Before, when a sports team, school club, professional organization or other group was looking to raise money together, the options were limited and could take a lot of time and resources in order to execute successfully,” said Rob Solomon, CEO of GoFundMe, in a statement. “With GoFundMe Team Fundraising, we’re introducing an easy social fundraising solution to maximize reach and success for groups.These new tools will also give our existing community another way to fundraise. Our goal is to make fundraising faster, easier and more efficient for anyone looking to raise money, whether an individual, nonprofit or team.”

The move to expand to a team option is somewhat overdue for GoFundMe: fundraising in groups either for something for that group, or for a cause supported by that group, is one of the more popular ways of driving and getting donations. GoFundMe has built a strong business around individuals starting campaigns for specific causes, so this, in a way, is part of a second wave of expansion for the company.

It’s not coming a moment too soon. GoFundMe is currently the market leader when it comes to fundraising platforms, but it is facing very strong competition in the form of Facebook. The social networking behemoth has been working hard to expand its own fundraising services (which also has a team element) as part of its strategy to highlight its role as a community builder and strengthener (and not just a place to get your entertainment and news fixes). A move today to build stronger bridges with non-profits — it launched Workplace for Good, a free tier of its Slack-competing enterprise product for publicly-focused organisations — will only strengthen its credibility with them.

And separate to that, Facebook is in the process of scoring a huge win for its team-based fundraising efforts at the moment, as three people (who all happen to be ex-Facebook employees) are using Facebook to raise money to support the families who are getting separated at the US/Mexico border. The campaign has gone viral and is now close to raising $10 million, originally aiming for a mere $1,500. Given GoFundMe’s extremely astute use of social media to help spread the word about its own campaigns, it will well understand the significance of that turn of events.

GoFundMe is also running several campaigns related to the wider effort to help these families.

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Hired raises $30M to build an easy subscription pipeline for company hiring

Recruiting is one of the latest industries to get a data science makeover through companies like Hired and Triplebyte, but the former hopes to turn it into a subscription business just like other enterprise software companies — and has raised a new pile of funding to do that.

Hired looks to serve as a one-stop recruiting point for both companies and potential candidates. The startup collects information like a basic profile, some thoughts on what those candidates are looking for, and your resume information, and then crunches that through a series of back-end algorithms and processes in order to figure out the best match for that candidate. It then points those candidates to hiring managers at companies that are looking for a strong pipeline of candidates, though the company now hopes that they will be able to build a kind of recurring revenue model for those companies with its subscription business. Hired today also said it has raised $30 million in new financing led by the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario.

“Outside of your choice of life partner your choice of where to work is the second most important decision to make,” CEO Mehul Patel said. “You spend most of your time at work, and any misery or joy you take back to your life partner. When you look at recruiting, it’s a massive industry, and to companies it’s existential to find great talent — but it’s massively broken. Ask anyone who searches for a job whether it works great, and you are going to get a unanimous answer that it doesn’t.”

Chances are you’ve gotten a few pitches on LinkedIn to go throw your information on Hired, but that’s all part of the performance marketing that the company hopes to use to get a robust set of candidates onto the platform. By doing that, it can continue to not only have a steady stream of candidates, but also collect more and more information on what candidates might be the best fit. For example, a school might not be the best indicator of future success, while the number of followers on a Github account could be a better barometer for the performance of the candidate. It’s a pretty intuitive result, but not one that hiring managers are likely actively tracking unless they already know that’s the best protocol.

Through that, Hired tries to compress the amount of time it takes for a company to say it needs a candidate and then that candidate actually getting hired. The subscription idea is that hiring managers will be able to just post a position — whether it’s new or back-filling an existing role — and keep that steady stream of candidates coming. Patel said the company has been able to squish that threshold down to around 25 days, which was one data point they could flag investors on in order to convince them that the model was working. (The company, which did not disclose its bookings, also said its bookings grew 300% year-over-year, which is a big number but without a point of reference isn’t so useful.)

“We’re seeing the importance of data not just to drive the outcomes — that data lets you compare against other companies and makes sure you’re better hiring for any company,” Patel said. “We have data about which companies are successful, or why aren’t they successful, and we can share that and help companies figure out their best practices. That combination of helping companies hire predictably, or using high quality talent and doing that with great insight, is [where we think we’ll succeed].”

That subscription model is also going to be an important one as a hedge against a potential downturn, where hiring might slow. If the startup is able to convince companies that it is a viable pipeline that they should be paying a recurring fee, it might be able to absorb the shock of a recession and a slowdown in hiring and prove useful in cases like incremental hiring and back-filling old roles. The company also said that it has hired John Kelly to be its vice president of revenue, who previously worked at companies like SAP, Oracle, and FindView.

There’s going to be plenty of competition, especially as these companies are able to collect more and more data. There’s Recruit Holdings, the mega-Frankenstein of companies that include Indeed and GlassDoor (which the company acquired for $1.2 billion), that would likely provide the largest hurdle to cover. Patel said Hired should be able to close the time gap between finding the candidate and the hiring process, which would be the primary metric of success for the company, faster than other companies.

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Meditation app Calm hits a $250M valuation amid an explosion of interest in mindfulness apps

Just a few years ago, it might have been a bit of a challenge to convince investors that a mindfulness app would end up being a big business — but thanks to an increasing focus on mental health from both startups and larger companies, companies like Calm are now capturing the excitement of investors.

From meditation sessions like you might find on other apps to tracks called “sleep stories” designed to help people get control of their sleep, Calm serves as a suite of content for users focusing on mental wellness. It’s one of an increasingly hot space centered around mental wellness and maintaining a sort of mindfulness in the hope that it’ll convert into a daily habit and help people just generally feel, well, more calm. The company says it has raised $27 million in a new financing round that values it at a $250 million pre-money led by Insight Venture Partners with Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures also participating. Before this, Calm raised around $1.5 million in seed funding.

“There’s definitely a bias toward the physical body in fitness,” co-founder Michael Acton Smith said. “For a long time there’s been a certain amount of embarrassment and shame talking about our own feelings. A lot of people are realizing that we’re all, at different times, going through tough times. I think that’s part of the culture we’ve grown up in. Everything’s been about improving the efficiency and improving the effectiveness and the external circumstances. We haven’t considered the internal circumstances the same way. The same thing isn’t true of eastern philosophies. This crossover is just beginning to happen in a big way.”

Calm, at its core, is a hub of content centered around mindfulness ranging from in-the-moment sessions to tracks that are designed to soothing enough to help people get ready to go to sleep. Everything boils down to trying to help teach users mindfulness, which is in of itself a skill that requires training, co-founder Alex Tew said. This itself has morphed into a business in of itself, with the company generating $22 million in revenue in 2017 and reaching an annual revenue run rate of $75 million.

And the more content the company creates, and the more people come back, the more data it acquires on what’s working and what isn’t. Like any other tech tool or service, some of the content resonates with users and some doesn’t, and the startup looks to employ the same rigor that many other companies with a heavy testing culture to ensure that the experience is simple for users that will jump in and jump out. For example, it turns out a voice named Eric reading stories about being on a train struck a chord with users — so the company invested more in Eric.

“It’s a tricky balance,” Tew said. “Sometimes we’ll launch things that we think are popular but don’t end up being popular, but there’s never been any kind of dramatic errors. We try to create content that will appeal to the biggest range of users. We speak to our customers and find out what they would like.”

Calm’s focus is built off of an increasingly important topic the technology industry is grappling with — mental health. As more and more users pick up Calm and start listening to the tracks, the company can start to figure out what kinds of sessions or tools are helping people want to come back more often and, in theory, start feeling better with those kinds of practices. If you talk to investors in the valley, helping founders manage the highs and lows of starting a company is increasingly part of the discussion, with the refrain that ‘people are at least talking about it now’ showing up more and more often. That’s also helping companies like Calm and Headspace attract funding from the venture community.

“It does feel like a major societal shift,” Acton Smith said. “Just a few years ago no one talked about mental health, it was very much in the shadows. As more politicians talk about it, as the media treat it as something normal and healthy to do, more and more people step out of the shadows and into the light. We realize the brain is pretty much the most complex thing in the known universe, it’s not surprising it goes wrong every now and then. To be able to talk about that and understand it is a very healthy and positive thing. It just feels like we’re at the start, 50 years ago the wave began around physical fitness, jogging, aerobics, and now we’re at the start of this new wave.

Calm and other mindfulness apps are not the only companies at play here. Indeed, the two largest direct owners of smartphone platforms — Apple and Google — this year announced a suite of tools geared toward trying to manage the amount of time users end up glued to their screens. While those are centered around helping users manage their time on their phones, it does show that even the largest companies in the world are increasingly aware of the potential negative effects their devices may have spawned from people spending all their time on their phones.

But by extension, Calm is not the only app where people can throw on some headphones and listen to a soothing voice with a British accent. Headspace is another obvious player in the space, having also raised a substantial amount of funding. Tew said the goal is to remain focused on simplicity, which in the end will keep people coming back over and over — and then end up continuing to drive that business.

“There was a lot of skepticism around Calm and this category as recently as a year ago,” Acton Smith said.” People were concerned that there was a lot of competition, and wondered whether people would really pay for this. We’ve quite convincingly shown we’ve answered all those questions with the growth we’ve had in our user numbers and our revenue. This is a successful business with very high margins and a huge addressable market. If you think about Nike, and the physical exercise boom being worth tens of billions, there’s no reason why mental wellness won’t be.”

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How to Get IMDb Ratings in the Netflix App on Android

How to Filter and Apply Tracked Changes in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature is one way in which it simply beats Google Docs. It’s an incredibly robust tool that most editors simply couldn’t live without—but it does have its quirks.

A major pet peeve when it comes to using Microsoft Word’s markup features is when I receive a document full of formatting changes that have been tracked. They fill up the sidebar, can make it hard to see important comments, and they’re a pain to clear. Sometimes when you accept one formatting change, you suddenly see ten more.

While you can click the arrow under Accept Changes and click Accept All Changes to get rid of the formatting changes, this also does away with any other changes you might need to review first. To get around this, you’ll first want to filter tracked changes in Microsoft Word.

Step 1: Filter Which Tracked Changes Are Shown

First you have to filter what markup changes are shown. There are two ways you can do this:

1. Make sure you have the Review tab open and click the arrow next to Show Markup. One by one, uncheck each of the items in the drop-down menu, leaving only Formatting. 
2. Or you can click the arrow at the bottom of the Tracking panel to open up Track Changes Options. In the dialog box that opens, make sure to uncheck all the options except for Formatting. 

Step 2: Apply Only the Filtered Tracked Changes

Now you should see only the formatting changes in the sidebar of your document, all other track change elements should no longer be visible.

In the Review tab, click the arrow directly beneath the Accept button and click Accept All Changes Shown.

Now all the formatting changes should have been accepted and you don’t have to worry about them. (The only exception will be any formatting of your Header and Footer.)

Step 3: Bring Back the Filtered Tracked Changes

To resume reviewing your document, you can toggle the view on the rest of the Track Changes elements back on using your preferred method in Step 1.

If you prefer Microsoft Word’s track changes but Google Doc’s collaborative features, Microsoft has you covered with real-time collaboration possible in Word 2016.

Image Credit: dennizn/Depositphotos

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3 Ways to Crop an Image Using Microsoft PowerPoint

It’s not easy to think of Microsoft PowerPoint as an image editor, but as presentation software, it needs to also be a design tool in order to help you create said presentations. This is why you need to learn how to manipulate images and create interesting effects with your images in PowerPoint.

Let’s learn three easy ways to edit your photos and images in Microsoft PowerPoint.

Method 1: Crop an Image by Dragging

1. Go to the Ribbon and click Insert > Picture to add an image to the slide.
2. Right-click on the image and click on the Crop button that appears on top. Black crop handles on the edges and corners allow you to re-size the image.
   
3. Drag one of the handles inward or outwards to crop the image. You can also crop equally on four sides (Press Ctrl + drag corner handle) or crop equally on two parallel sides (Press Ctrl + drag the crop handle on the sides). If you want you can drag the picture to re-focus the area you want to keep.
4. To crop to precise dimensions, use the Height and Width boxes next to the Crop button.
   
5. Press Esc to finish or click anywhere outside the picture.

Method 2: Crop an Image to Aspect Ratio

Let’s say you have a photo and you want to crop it into a square or any of the common aspect ratios. PowerPoint allows one-click cropping for several standard aspect ratios.

1. Click and select the image in the slide.
2. Go to Picture Tools > Format. In the Size group, click the dropdown arrow under the Crop button.
   
3. Select the Aspect Ratio you want from the dropdown and apply it to the image.
4. Use the Crop rectangle to adjust the crop area. You can also use the crop handles to adjust the final view.

Method 3: Crop an Image to Any Shape

A Shape Fill can be manipulated with the Crop tool and used for interesting effects. For instance, you can use a circular shape to crop a headshot.

1. Go to Insert > Shapes and select a shape from the options available. Select the drawn shape.
2. Click Drawing Tools > Format. In the Shape Styles group, click Shape Fill > Picture.
3. Browse to the picture you want and insert it into the shape as a shape fill.
4. Click to select the new shape picture fill.
5. Go to Picture Tools > Format. In the Size group, click the arrow under Crop to show the two cropping options.
6. Choose from Fill or Fit.

Fill matches the picture with the shape’s height or width, whichever is greatest. Fit sets the picture size so that the picture’s height and width both match the shape’s boundaries. 

Like any other crop, you can use the cropping handles to fine-tune the position of the shape fill within the cropped shape.

PowerPoint has many workarounds and it is the perfect platform even if you are a newbie to designing presentations.

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