5 Ways to Play Your Video Games on Any TV, PC, or Mobile Device

Console gaming is awesome, but sometimes you just can’t get the TV to yourself. One option is to move the console into another room; another is to stream the games to your PC, laptop, TV, or mobile device.

Didn’t know you could do this? Well, you can, by streaming games across your home network. Here’s everything you need to know to allow you to play PC and console games on a range of other devices around your house.

Play Your Favorite Games Across Your Home Network

The great thing about streaming games to other devices is that you’re not limited to one location. Streaming to a laptop lets you play your favorite console games in comfort, away from the family gathering around the TV to watch soap operas. Which means no more unplugging and moving your console.

If you want to stream games across your network, from one device to another, you have the following five options:

1. Xbox One to PC: Games can be streamed from your Xbox One to a Windows 10 PC.
2. PlayStation 4 to PC: Games from Sony’s latest console can be streamed to Windows and Mac.
3. PlayStation 4 to Android: You can even stream games from your PlayStation 4 to an Android device.
4. Steam to TV: Your favorite PC games (on Windows, Mac, or Linux) can be streamed to any TV with a suitable streaming device attached.
5. Steam to Android: PC games can also be streamed to your Android device.

Let’s take a look at each of these options in turn.

1. How to Stream Xbox One Games to Windows 10

If you want to have a gaming session but cannot get anywhere near your TV, the solution is to play your Xbox games on your Windows 10 PC.

This is made possible thanks to the Xbox Live app on Windows 10, which lets you stream any game from your Xbox library to your PC (the game disc needs to be inserted where available).

Meanwhile, there is also Xbox Play Anywhere, which lets you play Xbox One games on either your PC or Xbox One console. It features continuity of play, meaning that progress on one device is retained when you start playing on the other.

As long as the game supports Xbox Play Anywhere (which is typically highlighted on the game’s disc case), it can be activated on Windows 10 or Xbox One, and launched on either platform.

See our guide to Xbox Play Anywhere for more details. Both solutions work best with wired connectivity, via the router. Note that if this is a problem, you should consider a powerline network solution.

2. How to Play PlayStation 4 Games on a PC

What if you own a PlayStation 4, and want to play on it while your family gathers to watch a movie you’ve already seen? The answer is quite similar, and this time is suitable not just for Windows 10, but also Windows 8.1 and a Mac (running OS X Yosemite or macOS El Capitan).

To do this, you’ll need a computer running an Intel Core i5 CPU at 2.67GHz or faster, with at least 2GB of RAM. You’ll also need a spare USB port for connecting your Dualshock 4 controller. Once again, the solution requires a reliable, fast connection with your router for both devices, preferably via Ethernet.

This solution also requires the PS4 Remote Play app, which you need to download and install on your Windows or Mac computer.

Our guide to PS4 Remote Play on Windows and Mac will show you how to set this up. Note that not all titles support remote play, so to find out if yours do, check the backs of the boxes.

3. How to Play PlayStation 4 Games on Android

You’re not limited to a computer if you want to stream PS4 games to another device. Thanks to an app on Sony Xperia phones that has since been ported to other devices, you can now stream your favorite PlayStation 4 games to your Android device.

No need to kick your family out of the living room. No need to avoid sunlight when you want to game; just use the PS4 Remote Play app (linked in the “How to Play PlayStation 4 Games on a PC” section above), connect a Dualshock 4 controller via Bluetooth, then kick back and enjoy!

4. How to Play Steam Games on a TV

What if you want stream games from a PC to your TV set?

Perhaps you own a powerful gaming PC, and want to enjoy it on the big screen TV in your living room. Maybe you’re having a few friends round, and rather than squeeze everyone into your office, you opt to play games on the main television. It’s impractical to move the entire PC into the room, so streaming is the best alternative.

If you’re using Steam to manage your PC games library, you can use a Steam Link to stream games across your home network using Steam’s In-Home Streaming technology.

This feature is built into the Steam client, and once a Steam Link box is connected to your network (directly to the router via Ethernet for the best results), you can use it to play games on your TV. Better still, the Steam Link includes USB ports and Bluetooth for connecting game controllers.

Meanwhile, you shouldn’t feel limited to Steam games. Buy a Raspberry Pi and install Parsec, and you can stream any PC game to any TV in your house.

5. How to Play Steam Games on Android

It is now possible to stream your favorite PC games from your Steam library to your Android phone, tablet, or even Android TV box.

Thanks to the free Steam Link app on Google Play, you can enjoy PC games, controlling them with any Bluetooth controller that can be paired with your tablet.

Check out our guide to setting up Steam Link on Android. (iOS support is expected at a later date.) For best results, use your router’s 5GHz band. If this isn’t possible, ensure that the PC hosting your Steam library is connected to the router via Ethernet.

Start Playing Your Games on Other Devices Today

It doesn’t matter where you are in the house. Whatever game console you’re using, you now have an option to enjoy your games in any room, and even outdoors.

Want to go the other way? Learn how to play Android games on your PC!

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Dropbox hires a new VP of product and VP of product marketing

After a largely successful IPO, Dropbox is adding another couple of hires today as it looks to continue its consumer-slash-enterprise growth playbook: bringing on a new VP of product in former CEO and president of Wealthfront Adam Nash; and a new VP of product marketing and global campaigns in Naman Khan.

Both have extensive from products that span multiple different verticals, with Nash previously working at LinkedIn and eBay and Khan spending time with Microsoft Office and Autodesk. The company went public earlier this year to a pretty successful IPO, though the stock hasn’t seen any dramatic fireworks, and has accumulated more than 500 million registered users in its decade-plus life. But it’s also gone through a kind of transition as it starts expanding into more enterprise-focused collaboration tools as it looks to woo businesses, which represent a substantial opportunity for growth for the company that started off as a dead-simple file-sharing service.

Previously an entrepreneur in residence for Greylock, Nash is now going to oversee a wide range of products that span consumer-focused file storage and sharing services all the way up to its Google Docs competitor Paper. Each of which has a kind of consumer-born aesthetic that’s targeting use cases within enterprises, whether that’s building tools to get documents into its service or to actually helping teams spec out products within a kind of continuous document like Paper. But as it focuses on simplicity, Dropbox has to take care not to end up feature-creeping its way out of what made it successful initially, so the final product decisions may be a bit different. Naman will also inherit that challenge of marketing a consumer-oriented product that’s targeting businesses.

As Dropbox looks to continue to mature as a public company, it has to ensure that it still brings on talent that understands where it’s going now as it tries to wrangle larger enterprise customers that have a complex set of needs beyond just the typical consumer. Going public certainly helps with that credibility a little bit, but it’s hires like these that will determine what kinds of products actually make it out the door and the messaging that goes with them — and whether larger enterprises will actually adopt them.

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These 4 Antivirus Tools Are Using AI to Protect Your System

The future of antivirus protection is exciting. Much like our cars, trains, and boats, the future of antivirus runs on artificial intelligence. AI technology is one of the fastest growing sectors around the world and security researchers are continually evaluating and integrating the technology into their consumer products.

Consumer antivirus products with AI or machine learning elements are appearing thick and fast. Does your next antivirus subscription need to include AI, or is it just another security buzzword? Let’s take a look.

Traditional Antivirus vs. AI Antivirus

The term “artificial intelligence” once conjured fantastical images of futuristic technology, but AI is now a reality. To understand what AI antivirus is, you need to understand how traditional antivirus works.

Traditional Antivirus

A traditional antivirus uses file and data signatures, and pattern analysis to compare potential malicious activity to previous instances. That is, the antivirus knows what the malicious file looks like, and can move swiftly to stop those files from infecting your system, should you pick one up. That’s a very basic explanation. You can read more about how it works and what scans to use right here.

The antivirus on your system works well, don’t get me wrong. However, the number of malware attacks continues to rise, and security researchers regularly discover extremely advanced malware variants, such as Mylobot. Furthermore, some traditional or legacy antivirus solutions cannot compete with advanced threats such as the devastating WannaCry ransomworm, or the Petya ransomware that encrypts your Master Boot Record.

As the threat landscape shifts, so must the antivirus detection mechanisms.

AI Antivirus

AI antivirus (or in some cases, machine learning—more on this distinction in a moment) works differently. There are a few different approaches, but AI antivirus learns about specific threats within its network environment and executes defensive activities without prompt.

AI and machine learning antivirus leverage sophisticated mathematical algorithms combined with the data from other deployments to understand what the baseline of security is for a given system. As well as this, they learn how to react to files that step outside that window of normal functionality.

Machine Learning vs. Artificial Intelligence

Another important distinction in the future of antivirus is between machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence. The two words are sometimes used interchangeably but are not the same thing.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI refers to programs and machines that execute tasks with the characteristics of human intelligence, including problem-solving, forward planning, and learning. Broadly speaking, machines that can carry out human tasks in a manner we consider “intelligent.”
• Machine Learning (ML): ML refers to a broad spectrum of the current applications of AI technologies focusing on the idea that machines with data access and the correct programming can learn for themselves. Broadly speaking, machine learning is a means to an end for achieving AI.

Machine learning and AI are deeply intertwined, and you can see how the terms see occasional misuse. The difference in meaning with regards to antivirus is an important distinction. Most (if not all) of the latest antivirus suites implement some form of machine learning, but some algorithms are more advanced than others.

Machine learning in antivirus technologies isn’t new. It is getting more intelligent, and is easier to use as a marketing tool now that the wider public is more aware of ML and AI.

How Security Companies Use AI in Antivirus

There are a few antivirus solutions that use advanced algorithms to protect your system, but the use of true AI is still rare. Still, there are several antivirus tools with excellent AI and ML implementations that show how the security industry is evolving to protect you from the latest threats.

1. Cylance Smart Antivirus

Cylance is a well-known name in machine learning and artificial intelligence cybersecurity. The enterprise-grade CylancePROTECT uses AI-techniques to protect a huge number of businesses, and they count several Fortune 100 organizations among their clientele. Cylance Smart Antivirus is their first foray into consumer antivirus products, bringing that enterprise-level AI protection into your home.

Cylance Smart Antivirus relies entirely on AI and ML to distinguish malware from legitimate data. The result is an antivirus that doesn’t bog your system down by constantly scanning and analyzing files. (Or informing you of its status every 15-minutes.) Rather, Cylance Smart Antivirus waits until the moment of execution and immediately kills the threat—without human intervention.

“Consumers deserve security software that is fast, easy to use, and effective,” said Christopher Bray, senior vice president, Cylance Consumer. “The consumer antivirus market is long overdue for a ground-breaking solution built on robust technology that allows them to control their security environment.”

Thanks for the shout out @sawaba I can vouch that the primary reason we launched Cylance Smart Antivirus is because our customers have told us they’ve grown frustrated with everything on the market now.

— Hiep Dang (@Hiep_Dang) June 19, 2018

Smart Antivirus does, however, have some downsides. Unlike other antivirus suites with active monitoring, Cylance Smart Antivirus allows you to visit potentially malicious sites. I assume this is confidence that the product will stop malicious downloads, but it doesn’t protect against phishing attacks or similar threats.

A single Cylance Smart Antivirus license costs $29 per year, while a $69 household pack lets you install on five different systems.

2. Deep Instinct D-Client

Deep Instinct uses deep learning (a machine learning technique) to detect “any file before it is accessed or executed” on your system. The Deep Instinct D-Client makes use of static file analysis in conjunction with a threat prediction model that allows it to eliminate malware and other system threats autonomously.

Deep Instinct’s D-Client uses vast quantities of raw data to continue improving its detection algorithms. Deep Instinct is one of the only companies with private deep learning infrastructure dedicated to improving their detection accuracy, too.

3. Avast Free Antivirus

For most people, Avast is a familiar name in security. Avast Free Antivirus is the most popular antivirus on the market, and its history of protections goes back decades. Avast Free Antivirus has been “using AI and machine learning for years” to protect users from evolving threats. In 2012, the Avast Research Lab announced three powerful backend tools for their products.

• The “Malware Similarity Search” allows almost instantaneous categorization of huge samples of incoming malware. Avast Free Antivirus quickly analyzes similarities between existing malware files using both static and dynamic analysis.
• “Evo-Gen” is similar “but a bit subtler in nature.” Evo-Gen is a genetic algorithm that works to find short and generic descriptions of malware in massive datasets.
• “MDE” is a database that works on top of the indexed data, allowing heavy parallel access.

These three machine learning technologies collectively evolved as the foundation for Avast’s CyberCapture.

CyberCapture is a core feature of the Avast security suite, specifically targeting unknown malware and zero-days. When an unknown suspicious file enters a system, CyberCapture activates and immediately isolates the host system. The suspect file automatically uploads to an Avast cloud server for data analysis. Afterwards, the user receives a positive or negative notification regarding the status of the file. All the while, your data is feeding back into the algorithms to define further and enhance yours and others’ system security.

Download: Avast Free Antivirus for Windows | Mac | Linux
Download: Avast Mobile Security for Android

4. Windows Defender Security Center

The Windows Defender Security Center for enterprise and business solutions will receive a phenomenal boost as Microsoft turns to artificial intelligence to bulk out its security. The 2017 WannaCry ransomworm ripped through Windows systems after hackers released a CIA trove of zero-day vulnerabilities into the wild.

Microsoft is creating a 400 million computer-strong machine learning network to build its next generation of security tools. The new AI-backed security features will start with its enterprise customers, but eventually filter down to Windows 10 systems for regular consumers. Windows Defender is constantly improving in other ways, too, and is now one of the top enterprise and consumer security solutions. The below image illustrates a snapshot of how Windows Defender machine learning protections works.

Want a prime example of how machine learning antivirus springs into action? Randy Treit, a senior security researcher for Windows Defender Research, writes up the Bad Rabbit ransomware detection example. It’s worth a read (it’s short!).

Antivirus: More Advanced Than You Realized

Is your antivirus suite more advanced than you realized? Machine learning and artificial intelligence are undoubtedly making larger inroads with security products. But their current prominence is more buzzword than effective deployment.

Try not to worry too much about whether your antivirus has AI or is implementing machine learning techniques. In the meantime, here’s a comparison of the best free antivirus products for you to check out. AI or not, it is important to protect your system at all times.

Image Credit: Wavebreakmedia/Depositphotos

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Facebook builds its own AR games for Messenger video chat

Facebook is diving deeper into in-house game development with the launch of its own version of Snapchat’s multiplayer augmented reality video chat games. Today, Facebook Messenger globally launches its first two AR video chat games that you can play with up to six people.

“Don’t Smile” is like a staring contest that detects if you grin, and then users AR to contort your it’s an exaggerated Joker’s smirk while awarding your opponent the win. “Asteroids Attack” sees you move your face around the navigate a space ship, avoiding rocks and grabbing laser beam powerups. Soon, Facebook also plans to launch “Beach Bump” for passing an AR ball back and forth, and a “Kitten Craze” cat matching game. To play the games, you start a video chat, hit the Star button to open the filter menu, and then select one of the games. You can snap and share screenshots to your chat thread while you play.

The games are effectively a way to pass the time while you video chat, rather than something you’d ever play on your own. They could be a hit with parents and grandparents who are away and want to spend time with a kid…who isn’t exactly the best conversationalist.

Facebook tells me it built these games itself using the AR Studio tool it launched last year to let developers create their own AR face filters. When asked if game development would be available to everyone through AR studio, a spokesperson told me “Not today, but we’ve seen sucessful short-session AR games developed by the creator community and are always looking out for ways to bring the best AR content to the FB family of apps.”

For now, there will be no ads, sponsored branding, or in-app purchases in Messenger’s video chat games. But those all offer opportunities for Facebook and potentially outside developers to earn money. Facebook could easily show an ad interstitial between game rounds, let brands build games to promote movie releases or product launches, or let you buy powerups to beat friends or cosmetically upgrade your in-game face.

Snapchat’s Snappables games launched in April

The games feel less polished than the launch titles for Snapchat’s Snappables gaming platform that launched in April. Snapchat focused on taking over your whole screen with augmented reality, transporting you into space or a disco dance hall. Facebook’s games merely overlay a few graphics on the world around you. But Facebook’s games are more purposefully designed for split-screen multiplayer. Snapchat is reportedly building its own third-party game development platform, but it seems Facebook wanted to get the drop on it.

The AR video chat games live separately from the Messenger Instant Games platform the company launched last year. These include arcade classics and new mobile titles that users can play by themselves and challenge friends over high-scores. Facebook now allows developers of Instant Games to monetize with in-app purchases and ads, foreshadowing what could come to AR video chat games.

Facebook Messenger rolls out Instant Games worldwide

Facebook has rarely developed its own games. It did build a few mini-games like an arcade pop-a-shot style basketball game and a soccer game to show off what the Messenger Instant Games platform could become. But typically it’s stuck to letting outside developers lead. Here, it may be trying to set examples of what developers should build before actually spawning a platform around video chat games.

Now with over 1.3 billion users, Facebook Messenger is seeking more ways to keep people engaged. Having already devoured many people’s one-on-one utility chats, it’s fun group chats, video calling, and gaming that could get people spending more time in the app.

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Facebook builds its own AR games for Messenger video chat

Facebook is diving deeper into in-house game development with the launch of its own version of Snapchat’s multiplayer augmented reality video chat games. Today, Facebook Messenger globally launches its first two AR video chat games that you can play with up to six people.

“Don’t Smile” is like a staring contest that detects if you grin, and then users AR to contort your it’s an exaggerated Joker’s smirk while awarding your opponent the win. “Asteroids Attack” sees you move your face around the navigate a space ship, avoiding rocks and grabbing laser beam powerups. Soon, Facebook also plans to launch “Beach Bump” for passing an AR ball back and forth, and a “Kitten Craze” cat matching game. To play the games, you start a video chat, hit the Star button to open the filter menu, and then select one of the games. You can snap and share screenshots to your chat thread while you play.

The games are effectively a way to pass the time while you video chat, rather than something you’d ever play on your own. They could be a hit with parents and grandparents who are away and want to spend time with a kid…who isn’t exactly the best conversationalist.

Facebook tells me it built these games itself using the AR Studio tool it launched last year to let developers create their own AR face filters. When asked if game development would be available to everyone through AR studio, a spokesperson told me “Not today, but we’ve seen sucessful short-session AR games developed by the creator community and are always looking out for ways to bring the best AR content to the FB family of apps.”

For now, there will be no ads, sponsored branding, or in-app purchases in Messenger’s video chat games. But those all offer opportunities for Facebook and potentially outside developers to earn money. Facebook could easily show an ad interstitial between game rounds, let brands build games to promote movie releases or product launches, or let you buy powerups to beat friends or cosmetically upgrade your in-game face.

Snapchat’s Snappables games launched in April

The games feel less polished than the launch titles for Snapchat’s Snappables gaming platform that launched in April. Snapchat focused on taking over your whole screen with augmented reality, transporting you into space or a disco dance hall. Facebook’s games merely overlay a few graphics on the world around you. But Facebook’s games are more purposefully designed for split-screen multiplayer. Snapchat is reportedly building its own third-party game development platform, but it seems Facebook wanted to get the drop on it.

The AR video chat games live separately from the Messenger Instant Games platform the company launched last year. These include arcade classics and new mobile titles that users can play by themselves and challenge friends over high-scores. Facebook now allows developers of Instant Games to monetize with in-app purchases and ads, foreshadowing what could come to AR video chat games.

Facebook Messenger rolls out Instant Games worldwide

Facebook has rarely developed its own games. It did build a few mini-games like an arcade pop-a-shot style basketball game and a soccer game to show off what the Messenger Instant Games platform could become. But typically it’s stuck to letting outside developers lead. Here, it may be trying to set examples of what developers should build before actually spawning a platform around video chat games.

Now with over 1.3 billion users, Facebook Messenger is seeking more ways to keep people engaged. Having already devoured many people’s one-on-one utility chats, it’s fun group chats, video calling, and gaming that could get people spending more time in the app.

Read Full Article

Emby vs. Plex: Which Is Better?

Plex and Kodi have dominated the media center landscape for a long time, but Emby is becoming an increasingly popular choice among users.

In truth, Plex and Emby are more alike than Plex and Kodi. First and foremost, both are dedicated media servers. In contrast, Kodi either requires expert-level knowledge in MySQL or a far-from-ideal workaround to make it work as a media server.

So, if you’re new to the world of cordcutting and home media, which one should you choose? Emby or Plex? Which is the best? Keep reading to find out.

Emby vs. Plex: Cost

We’ll start with a quick word on cost. Both Plex and Emby offer a premium plan. They introduce extra features which make the apps shine (though some of you might decide you don’t need a Plex Pass).

A Plex Pass will set you back $14.99 for three months or $119.99 for a lifetime subscription. Emby Premiere is similarly priced; the monthly plan costs $4.99/month and the lifetime subscription is $119.

Emby vs. Plex: Initial Setup

Both Plex and Emby use a client/server setup. You need to install the server app on the computer or NAS drive where you keep your local media and the client app on any device on which you want to enjoy the content.

Setting up both apps’ client software is as easy as installing the program and entering a code. The complicated part is setting up the server software.

The process on Plex is more straightforward than on Emby. In broad terms, it’s more geared towards the mass market and non-tech-savvy users.

For example, when you’re creating a movie library on Emby, you’ll see advanced options such as whether to enable chapter image extraction and whether to download metadata images in advance. The settings will appeal to experienced heads but may be off-putting for newcomers.

Emby vs. Plex: Navigation

Thanks to its more substantial budget, Plex is the more polished of the two apps. As such, it’s fair to say it offers a more enjoyable and easy-to-use navigation experience.

Of course, much of this is subjective; there’s nothing wrong with Emby’s navigation, Plex just feels more professional. For someone who’s used to dealing with slick operating systems on Apple TV, Android TV, and other set-top boxes, the switch to Emby can feel jarring.

Emby vs. Plex: Customization

One of the areas in which Kodi has an advantage over Plex is in the level of customization available. Emby shares this advantage. If you like to tinker with endless settings and tweak the UI to your own specifications, Emby is the better of the two.

If you have the knowledge, you can apply your own CSS to the web app, change the login screen, use other people’s themes, and a whole lot more. None of which is possible on Plex.

Much of the customization is possible thanks to Emby’s open source nature. Plex is closed source.

Emby vs. Plex: Live TV and DVR

Plex and Emby both offer a live TV and DVR feature. Whereas Live TV on Plex is restricted to premium users, Emby users can watch live TV for free through the web app but will need to subscribe to Premiere to watch it on any other device.

Naturally, there are some design differences, such as Plex’s integrated electronic program guide (EPG). However, in terms of functionality, they are almost identical.

Once again, however, Plex has the edge when it comes to supported equipment. Emby only supports the HDHomeRun tuner natively (and Hauppauge devices on Windows). Plex supports HDHomeRun, DVBLogic, AVerMedia, and Hauppauge. You can add support for other tuners on Emby by using a live TV plugin.

It’s also worth mentioning Plex’s news feature. It uses machine learning to recommend stories that it thinks you will be interested in. There is no equivalent feature on Emby.

Emby vs. Plex: Local Streaming

This is a big win for Plex. Assuming all your devices are on the same network, Plex lets you stream your content around your home for free. You do not need to subscribe to Plex Pass.

Emby, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. It will only let you enjoy streamed content via the web app, Roku, Apple TV, and Samsung Smart TVs.

If you want to stream content on Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android and iOS tablets, and other devices, you will need to either pay the App Unlock fee on a case-by-case basis or subscribe to Premiere.

Emby vs. Plex: Remote Streaming

The ability to stream content when you’re away from home is a premium feature on both apps.

Assuming you have the subscription, you can download content for offline viewing, sync a video’s “watched status” between devices, and stream content directly from your server.

Setting up remote streaming on Plex and Emby is as simple as enabling the feature in the server’s Settings menu.

Emby vs. Plex: Add-Ons

Plex and Emby both support third-party extensions. They are made by the community to enhance and extend the apps’ core functionality.

One of Plex’s best features—the Unsupported App Store—is a third-party extension. It allows you to access some brilliant unofficial Plex channels. The Unsupported App Store is easy to set up and install. There are also dozens of officially-supported add-ons, called Channels, to choose from.

Because Emby is the newer of the two apps and has a smaller userbase, its list of third-party plugins is less extensive.

Nonetheless, both apps have many of the big-name plugins that most users would want, including TuneIn Radio, Trakt, and ITV Player.

Emby vs. Plex: Device Compatibility

The Plex and Emby server apps are both available on Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, Docker, and a wide selection of NAS devices. The only difference is that Plex supports Drobo NAS devices whereas Emby does not.

Both client apps also support all of the major desktop operating systems, mobile operating systems, and streaming boxes. However, once again, there are some devices and services which Plex supports but Emby does not. They include Sonos and Android Auto.

Also, on Emby, you need to subscribe to Premiere to access the Amazon Alexa plugin.

Emby vs. Plex: And the Winner Is…

Look, we have nothing against Emby. It’s a great app that deserves enormous praise for taking the fight to Plex. Competition is a good thing; at the very least it will force Plex not to rest on its laurels.

However, it’s hard to argue that Plex isn’t the better of the two. It offers more native features, supports more external devices, provides a smoother user experience, and has a more polished interface.

We’re sure some of you will disagree with us, so please leave your opinions in the comments. And if you’d like to learn more about Plex’s features, check out our list of Plex plugins for power users, how to use subtitles on Plex, and how to watch Plex in virtual reality.

Image Credit: boggy22/Depositphotos

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MessageBird offers single API for customer comms across WhatsApp, WeChat, Messenger and more

MessageBird, the Amsterdam-based cloud communications platform backed by Accel in the U.S. and Europe’s Atomico, is unveiling a new product today that aims to make it easier for enterprises to communicate with customers across various channels of their choosing.

Dubbed “Programmable Communications” (yes, really!), the product takes the form of a single API that unifies customer interactions across multiple channels into a single conversation thread. Out of the box these include WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, Line, Telegram, SMS and voice interactions. The idea is that by providing a consolidated view of a customer’s entire communication history with an enterprise, customer support agents and other customer-facing staff will have the firepower to stay on top of their game in terms of the customer service they provide.

Or, put another way, more communication channels inevitably lead to fragmented conversations, which, especially when multiple support staff are involved, can lead to a degradation of service. Programmable Communications is an attempt to help solve this problem.

In a call with MessageBird founder and CEO Robert Vis, he told me that more broadly enterprises — and fast-growing startups — no longer have the luxury of dictating how and through what channels customers converse with them. Traditionally, customer service would be delivered via a dedicated phone number, but the plethora of established and emerging online messaging and communications channels has radically increased the number of options customers have and expect.

However, this creates a headache for businesses as each channel needs developer time to be integrated into an existing CRM or business process and additional staffing to service conversations across multiple channels.

It is this heavy lifting that MessageBird’s Programmable Communications takes care off — keeping conversations in sync across multiple channels, for example, isn’t technically simple — thus cutting down on not just initial implementation time and cost, but also continued maintenance and upkeep.

Vis also explained that Programmable Communications is designed to enable comms for enterprises that are global — including scale-ups with global ambitions from the get-go — in terms of the territories, carrier integrations and messaging platforms the company supports.

“Delivering communications experiences that improve customer satisfaction and loyalty has to be a focus of businesses today,” adds the MessageBird CEO in a statement. “Consumers today want to connect with businesses in the same way they do with their friends and family – on their own time, via their preferred channel with all the context of previous conversations. With Programmable Conversations enterprises can now easily build a modern communications experience while reducing the burden of their often over-tasked developers”.

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Magic Leap One AR headset for devs costs more than 2x the iPhone X

It’s been a long and trip-filled wait but mixed reality headgear maker Magic Leap will finally, finally be shipping its first piece of hardware this summer.

We were still waiting on the price-tag — but it’s just been officially revealed: The developer-focused Magic Leap One ‘creator edition’ headset will set you back at least $2,295. So a considerable chunk of change — albeit this bit of kit is not intended as a mass market consumer device but is an AR headset for developers to create content that could excite future consumers.

The augmented reality startup, which has raised at least $2.3 billion, according to Crunchbase, attracting a string of high profile investors including Google, Alibaba, Andreessen Horowitz and others, is only offering its first piece of reality bending eyewear to “creators in cities across the contiguous U.S.”.

Potential buyers are asked to input their zip code via its website to check if it will agree to take their money but it adds that “the list is growing daily”.

We tried the TC SF office zip and — unsurprisingly — got an affirmative of delivery there. But any folks in, for example, Hawaii wanting to spend big to space out are out of luck for now…

According to CNET, the headset is only available in six U.S. cities at this stage: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco (Bay Area), and Seattle — with “many more” slated to be added in fall.

Magic Leap specifies it will “hand deliver” the package to buyers — and “personally get you set up”.

So evidently it wants to try to make sure its first flush of expensive hardware doesn’t get sucked down the toilet of dashed developer expectations.

It describes the computing paradigm it’s seeking to shift, with the help of enthused developers and content creators, as “spatial computing” — but it really needs a whole crowd of technical and creative people to step with it if it’s going to successfully deliver that.

 

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Magic Leap One AR headset for devs costs more than 2x the iPhone X

It’s been a long and trip-filled wait but mixed reality headgear maker Magic Leap will finally, finally be shipping its first piece of hardware this summer.

We were still waiting on the price-tag — but it’s just been officially revealed: The developer-focused Magic Leap One ‘creator edition’ headset will set you back at least $2,295. So a considerable chunk of change — albeit this bit of kit is not intended as a mass market consumer device but is an AR headset for developers to create content that could excite future consumers.

The augmented reality startup, which has raised at least $2.3 billion, according to Crunchbase, attracting a string of high profile investors including Google, Alibaba, Andreessen Horowitz and others, is only offering its first piece of reality bending eyewear to “creators in cities across the contiguous U.S.”.

Potential buyers are asked to input their zip code via its website to check if it will agree to take their money but it adds that “the list is growing daily”.

We tried the TC SF office zip and — unsurprisingly — got an affirmative of delivery there. But any folks in, for example, Hawaii wanting to spend big to space out are out of luck for now…

Magic Leap specifies it will “hand deliver” the package to buyers — and “personally get you set up”.

So evidently it wants to try to make sure its first flush of expensive hardware doesn’t get sucked down the toilet of dashed developer expectations.

It describes the computing paradigm it’s seeking to shift, with the help of enthused developers and content creators, as “spatial computing” — but it really needs a whole crowd of technical and creative people to step with it if it’s going to successfully deliver that.

 

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Amazon’s Storytelling App for Kids Goes Free

Amazon Rapids, Amazon’s storytelling app for kids, is now available for everyone. Rapids was formerly priced at $2.99/month, but is now completely free. So if you have children aged between 5 and 12, you may want to check out Amazon Rapids ASAP.

Encouraging children to read is one of the most important jobs parents have. There is literally no downside to reading. It helps kids develop language skills, educates them, and even manages to keep them quiet when you need some peace.

All of which makes Amazon Rapids a Godsend.

Amazon Rapids Makes Storytelling Fun

Amazon Rapids is a storytelling app from, you guessed it, Amazon. It was originally launched in 2016 as a way of encouraging children to read, with the stories presented as text message conversations between the various characters.

Amazon Rapids, which is available on Android, iOS, and Amazon Fire devices, features hundreds of original short stories aimed at children primarily aged between 5 and 12, although older kids may find it entertaining as well.

Amazon Rapids, a reading app offering hundreds of short stories for kids ages 5 – 12, is now free for all Amazon customers. Read short-stories in the app, and listen to them in the free Amazon Storytime Alexa skill. Just say, “Alexa, open Amazon Storytime” https://t.co/bRsraYmrCL pic.twitter.com/6vCWM7n8f5

— Amazon Rapids (@AmazonRapids) August 2, 2018

These stories all have audio, with a cast of characters reading the stories aloud. Kids can then read the stories along with them. There’s also a built-in glossary allowing kids to check the pronunciation and definition of words they don’t recognize.

For parents keen to foster their children’s love of reading, there’s a parent dashboard. This shows recent activity, including what stories your kids have been reading, how many words they have read in total, and their favorite genre.

Chat Stories Apps Gain Momentum

Rapids was previously priced at $2.99/month, but it’s now completely free to use. According to TechCrunch, “monthly subscribers will no longer be charged and annual subscribers will be refunded for the remainder of the year.”

Amazon Rapids is just one of a number of chat stories apps to have popped up in the past few years. These all allow you to read short fictional stories on your smartphone, with the tales being broken up into bite-sized chunks.

Read the full article: Amazon’s Storytelling App for Kids Goes Free

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How to Add the Social Aspect Back to Spotify

If you used Spotify in the early days, you’ll know the service used to offer a selection of much-loved social features.

Today, those features have mostly vanished, much to the chagrin of long-time subscribers. Although you can get some of them back using workarounds, it’s clear that Spotify’s priorities have shifted away from the social aspects of the platform.

If you’re yearning for the olden days, you might be in luck. A new app called Vybes is trying to restore the social side of Spotify. Keep reading to learn more.

What Is Vybes for Spotify?

At its core, Vybes is an app which allows you to enjoy Spotify music with friends. You can share music with them, use their musical tastes to discover new music for yourself, and listen to tracks together at the same time.

Instead of using the well-trodden path of news feeds, comments, and “likes,” Vybes encourages you to follow other people on their musical journey. You can see what your friends are listening to and tune in for a while.

At the moment, the app is in beta, but you can sign up and have a poke around. The full app is expected to go live in late 2018. The app is available on the web, Android, and iOS.

Spotify Integration With Last.fm

If you’ve been a long-time user of Last.fm, you’ll have tens of thousands of scrobbles linked to your account. Potentially, they stretch back a decade or more.

Vybes can use your old Last.fm data to create playlists for you. To listen to a stream of songs you’d long since forgotten about, check out the Blast from the Past feature.

Note: In order to use Vybes features, you need a Spotify Premium account.

If you’d like to learn about more ways to discover new music, check out our article on websites to find new music genres you’ll love.

Read the full article: How to Add the Social Aspect Back to Spotify

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Analysis backs claim drones were used to attack Venezuela’s president

Analysis of open source information carried out by the investigative website Bellingcat suggests drones that had been repurposed as flying bombs were indeed used in an attack on the president of Venezuela at the weekend.

The Venezuelan government claimed three days ago that an attempt had been made to assassination president Maduro using two drones loaded with explosives. The president had been giving a speech at the time which was being broadcast live on television when the incident occurred.

Initial video from a state-owned television network showed the reaction of Maduro, those around him and a parade of soldiers at the event to what appeared to be two blasts somewhere off camera. But the footage did not include shots of any drones or explosions.

News organization AP also reported that firefighters at scene had shed doubt on the drone attack claim — suggesting there had instead been a gas explosion in a nearby flat.

Since then more footage has emerged, including videos purporting to show a drone exploding and a drone tumbling alongside a building.

Vídeo prueba del segundo drone que exploto en el aire sin causar daños colaterales #Sucesos Vídeo cortesía pic.twitter.com/ipWR2sbYvW

— Caracas News 24 (@CaracasNews24) August 5, 2018

Bellingcat has carried out an analysis of publicly available information related to the attack, including syncing timings of the state broadcast of Maduro’s speech, and using frame-by-frame analysis combined with photos and satellite imagery of Caracus to try to pinpoint locations of additional footage that has emerged to determine whether the drone attack claim stands up.

The Venezuelan government has claimed the drones used were DJI Matrice 600s, each carrying approximately 1kg of C4 plastic explosive and, when detonated, capable of causing damage at a radius of around 50 meters.

DJI Matrice 600 drones are a commercial model, normally used for industrial work — with a U.S. price tag of around $5,000 apiece, suggesting the attack could have cost little over $10k to carry out — with 1kg of plastic explosive available commercially (for demolition purposes) at a cost of around $30.

Bellingcat says its analysis supports the government’s claim that the drone model used was a DJI Matrice 600, noting that the drones involved in the event each had six rotors. It also points to a photo of drone wreckage which appears to show the distinctive silver rotor tip of the model, although it also notes the drones appear to have had their legs removed.

Venezuela’s interior minister, Nestor Reverol, also claimed the government thwarted the attack using “special techniques and [radio] signal inhibitors”, which “disoriented” the drone that detonated closest to the presidential stand — a capability Bellingcat notes the Venezuelan security services are reported to have.

The second drone was said by Reverol to have “lost control” and crashed into a nearby building.

Bellingcat says it is possible to geolocate the video of the falling drone to the same location as the fire in the apartment that firefighters had claimed was caused by a gas canister explosion. It adds that images taken of this location during the fire show a hole in the wall of the apartment in the vicinity of where the drone would have crashed.

“It is a very likely possibility that the downed drone subsequently detonated, creating the hole in the wall of this apartment, igniting a fire, and causing the sound of the second explosion which can be heard in Video 2 [of the state TV broadcast of Maduro’s speech],” it further suggests.

Here’s its conclusion:

From the open sources of information available, it appears that an attack took place using two DBIEDs while Maduro was giving a speech. Both the drones appear visually similar to DJI Matrice 600s, with at least one displaying features that are consistent with this model. These drones appear to have been loaded with explosive and flown towards the parade.

The first drone detonated somewhere above or near the parade, the most likely cause of the casualties announced by the Venezuelan government and pictured on social media. The second drone crashed and exploded approximately 14 seconds later and 400 meters away from the stage, and is the most likely cause of the fire which the Venezuelan firefighters described.

It also considers the claim of attribution by a group on social media, calling itself “Soldados de Franelas” (aka ‘T-Shirt Soldiers’ — a reference to a technique used by protestors wrapping a t-shirt around their head to cover their face and protect their identity), suggesting it’s not clear from the group’s Twitter messages that they are “unequivocally claiming responsibility for the event”, owing to use of passive language, and to a claim that the drones were shot down by government snipers — which it says “does not appear to be supported by the open source information available”.

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How to Watch Instagram Live Videos in a Browser

If you spend a lot of time on Instagram, you’ve no doubt come across live videos. If you’d rather watch a live video on your computer as it’s being broadcast, logging into your Instagram account in a browser won’t be any help. Instead, you’re going to need a Chrome extension to view Instagram live videos in your browser.

You’re going to specifically need the Chrome extension Chrome IG Story to view live videos from Instagram accounts you follow.

If you know someone you follow is going live, open up Chrome IG Story in your Chrome browser, and the live video will show up straight away. If the accounts you follow aren’t live, you can check out some of the popular live videos on Instagram at any given time.

In addition to watching live videos, you can also keep up with your friends’ Instagram stories. While you can also easily view Stories on the Instagram website without the need for an extra extension, there are some advantages to using this extension.

You can take your time going through the posts, as they don’t automatically switch to the next post. Instead, you hit the next button to skip to the next image.

You can also view stories and live videos anonymously. According to the developer, you won’t show up on the list of users who have viewed the story or video.

Other features of the extension include search by hashtag or location, the ability to download stories or videos, and the ability to view stories and videos of users you don’t follow.

Chrome IG Story is just one of many apps you can use alongside Instagram to get more out of the photo-sharing app.

Read the full article: How to Watch Instagram Live Videos in a Browser

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2 VLC Media Player Easter Eggs You Have to Try

VLC Media Player is packed with features. For some of us, it is just a video player. But pop the hood and it reveals other tricks. It can be a YouTube downloader or a file converter. It can take a screenshot and it can also be your video wallpaper.

With so many hidden features, you might have missed the few Easter Eggs it comes with. Let’s play around with two of them.

1. Create the Mind-Bending Inception Trick

Inception played with reality and dreams. This effect is like a metaphor for the movie.

1. Open VLC Media Player. Press Ctrl+N.
2. Type screen:// in the window that opens and press Play.

2. Make a Jigsaw Puzzle

Break any movie you are watching into a jigsaw puzzle board.

1. Go to the menu and click on Tools > Effects and Filters.
2. Select the Video Effects tab > Geometry tab > Check Puzzle Game.
3. Set the number of columns and rows (a maximum of 16 for each) that you want and press Close. Open a video and watch the multi-colored effect start playing.

You can even move the jigsaw puzzle pieces.

The Easter eggs are just something you can have fun with. They have no practical utility and are often considered as bloat too because it is “useless” code. But, as a sneaky part of our tech culture, you can enjoy these Windows Easter eggs in a variety of platforms.

Read the full article: 2 VLC Media Player Easter Eggs You Have to Try

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How to Block Third-Party Junk Offers With Windows Defender

Today, most malware doesn’t come from traditional viruses but from potentially unwanted programs, which are third-party programs foisted on you during free downloads. They’re often shady utilities like PC cleaners or search hijackers.

If you aren’t careful, you’ll end up downloading an unrelated junk program while installing a legitimate free tool. While Windows Defender has been a solid antivirus without nags, it now has a hidden feature that will block this kind of junk. Here’s how to use it.

How to Block Third-Party Junk Offers

1. Open a PowerShell window by typing PowerShell into the Start Menu. Right-click the entry and choose Run as administrator, then confirm the prompt.
2. Enter the following command:

   Set-MpPreference -PUAProtection 1
   

That’s all you have to do to enable automatic junk protection with Windows Defender. You can run this command again with a 0 replacing the 1 to turn it off anytime.

Now, you’ll have an extra layer of protection from installing unwanted programs. Unlike Unchecky, which detects these checkboxes and automatically unchecks them for you, Windows Defender will step in and quarantine this junk if you accidentally install it.

Windows Defender classifies it as a “potentially unwanted software.” You can view the history of what it’s blocked by visiting Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection. Click Threat history and you’ll see a list under Quarantined threats. Use the See full history link if there are too many entries to list.

This won’t block every piece of crapware, so you should still be diligent about avoiding those checkboxes and be careful where you download from. Keep an eye out for “special offers” when installing free software, and never click Next blindly. It’s a great part of Windows Defender, and it will hopefully improve in the future.

Read the full article: How to Block Third-Party Junk Offers With Windows Defender

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Master Your Raspberry Pi and the Internet of Things for $34

The Raspberry Pi is a perfect playground for learning to code and experimenting with electronics. But as a beginner, you might not realize the full potential of this tiny device. The Raspberry Pi Mastery Bundle helps you explore, with eight hands-on courses covering dozens of awesome projects. You can get the bundle now for $34 at MakeUseOf Deals — here’s a look at the lineup.

From Bitcoin to Robotics

Although the Raspberry Pi weighs just 1.6 oz, this microcomputer offers an impressive list of features. As such, you can use your Pi as the basis for numerous projects — from bitcoin mining to intelligent robotics. This course bundle covers a wide variety of cool ideas, with step-by-step video tutorials.

Absolute beginners can start with Introduction to Raspberry Pi. This course shows you how to set up your Pi and start running some simple programs. You also learn how to connect accessories and program your own Christmas lights show.

With the basics in place, you can pretty much choose your adventure. The videos show you how to automate your home with the Raspberry Pi Zero, using Python code to control any AC appliance. You also learn how to build a cool robotic arm, construct a light detector, and even convert your Raspberry Pi into a Bitcoin mining machine.

8 Courses for $34

The bundle is worth $865, but you can get lifetime access to all eight courses now for just $34.

Read the full article: Master Your Raspberry Pi and the Internet of Things for $34

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Slack is raising $400M+ with a post-money valuation of $7B or more

Slack — the app that lets coworkers and others in professional circles chat with each other and call in data from hundreds of integrated apps in the name of getting more work done (or at least procrastinating in an entertaining way) — has been on a growth tear in the last few years, most recently passing 8 million daily active users, 3 million of them paying. Now, the company is planning to capitalise on that with some more funding.

TechCrunch has learned that Slack is raising another round, this time in the region of $400 million or possibly more, with a post-money valuation of at least $7 billion — adding a whopping $2 billion on top of the company’s last valuation in September 2017, when SoftBank led a $250 million round at a $5.1 billion valuation.

We’ve heard from multiple sources that a new investor, General Atlantic, is leading this round, with possibly another new backer, Dragoneer, also in the mix. It’s not clear which other investors might be involved; the company counts no less than 41 other backers on its cap table already, according to PitchBook. (You might even say Several People Are Funding…) We also don’t know whether this round has closed.

At $400 million, this would make it Slack’s biggest round to date. That size underscores a few different things.

First, it points to the existing opportunity in enterprise messaging. Consumerisation has taken hold, and apps that let users easily start and carry on a mix of serious and diverting conversations, infused with GIFs or whatever data they might need from other applications, are vying to replace other ways that people communicate in the workplace, such as email, phone conferences and in-person chats, even when people are in the same vicinity as each other. With consumer messaging apps like WhatsApp topping 1.5 billion users, there’s plenty of room for enterprise messaging to grow.

Second, the round and valuation emphasize Slack’s position as a leader in this area. While there were other enterprise social networking apps in existence before Slack first launched in 2013 — Yammer, Hipchat and Socialcast among them — nothing had struck a chord quite as Slack did. “Things have been going crazy”, was how co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield described it to me when Slack exited beta: teams trialling it were seeing usage from “every single team member, every day.”

That growth pace has continued. Today, the company counts 70,000 paid teams including Capital One, eBay, IBM, 21st Century Fox, and 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies among its bigger users; and with customers in 100 countries, half of its DAUs are outside North America (UK, Japan, Germany, France and India are its biggest international markets).

But thirdly — and this could be key when considering how this funding will be used — Slack is not the only game in town.

Software giant Microsoft has launched Teams, and social networking behemoth Facebook has Workplace. Using their respective dominance in enterprise software and social mechanics, these two have stolen a march on picking up some key customer wins among businesses that have opted for products that are more natural fits with what their employees were already using. Microsoft reported 200,000 paying organizations earlier this year, and Facebook has snagged some very large customers like Walmart.

Slack’s bottom-up distribution strategy could give it an edge against these larger companies and their broader but more complex products. The lightweight nature of Slack’s messaging-first approach allows it more easily be inserted into a company’s office stack. Nearly every type of employee needs office messaging, creating potential for Slack to serve as an identity layer for enterprise software. It’s own Slack Fund invests in potential companies that plug in, as the company hopes to build an ecosystem of partners that can fill in missing functionality.

AUSTIN, TX – MARCH 15: Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack speaks onstage at ‘Stewart Butterfield in Conversation with Farhad Manjoo’ during the 2016 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival at Austin Convention Center on March 15, 2016 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Mindy Best/Getty Images for SXSW)

Alongside dozens of other, smaller rivals offering comparative mixes of tools, it’s no surprise that last month Slack tightened up its bootlaces to take on the role of consolidator, snapping up IP and shutting down Hipchat and Stride from Atlassian, with the latter taking a stake in Slack as part of the deal.

Slack, which has a relatively modest 1,000+ employees, has ruled out an IPO this year, so this latest round will help it shore up cash in the meantime to continue growing, and competing.

Contacted for this story, Slack said that it does not comment on rumors or speculation.

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Twitter defends its decision to keep the Alex Jones conspiracy factory around

[Heavy sigh]

Twitter is doing that thing again. That thing where it stands by an incoherent policy choice that is only consistent with its long historical record of inconsistency.

Late Tuesday, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey took to the platform to defend his company’s choice to keep manic conspiracy theorist and hatemonger Alex Jones and his Infowars empire alive and tweeting.

Last week, that choice wouldn’t have turned heads, but after a kind of sudden and inexplicable sea change from all of the other major social platforms over the weekend, Twitter stands alone. To be fair, those social platforms didn’t really assert their own decisions to oust Jones — Apple led the pack, kicking him out of its Podcasts app, and the rest — Facebook, Spotify and YouTube, most notably — meekly followed suit.

Prior to its new statements, Twitter justified its decision to not ban Jones first by telling journalists like us that Jones didn’t actually violate Twitter’s terms of service because most of his abuse and hateful conduct, two violations that might get him banished, live one click away, outside the platform.

The same could be said for most of the hateful drivel that came from the infamous account of the now-banned Milo Yiannopoulos. Yiannopoulos was eventually booted from Twitter for violating the platform’s periodically enforced prohibition against “the targeted abuse or harassment of others.” Jones is known for commanding a similarly hateful online loser army, though in his case they mostly spend their time harassing the parents of Sandy Hook victims rather than black actresses. Twitter’s point is that this kind of harassment needs to actually take place on its platform to get a user kicked off, which in a world in which Twitter policy was uniformly enforced (i.e. a world in which Twitter dedicated sufficient resources to the problem) that would at least be a consistent policy.

Instead of articulating that policy in a clear, decisive way, Twitter said some unnecessarily defensive things that kind of miss the point via an @jack tweetstorm and a tepid blog post touting the company’s vague new commitment to “healthy public conversation.”

If you didn’t read either, you’re not missing anything. Here’s an excerpt from the blog post:

“Our policies and enforcement options evolve continuously to address emerging behaviors online and we sometimes come across instances where someone is reported for an incident that took place prior to that behavior being prohibited. In those instances, we will generally require the individual to delete the Tweet that violates the new rules but we won’t generally take other enforcement action against them (e.g. suspension). This is reflective of the fact that the Twitter Rules are a living document. We continue to expand and update both them and our enforcement options to respond to the changing contours of online conversation. This is how we make Twitter better for everyone.”

Great, crystal clear. Right? If it isn’t here’s a taste of Dorsey’s new tweetstorm:

We didn’t suspend Alex Jones or Infowars yesterday. We know that’s hard for many but the reason is simple: he hasn’t violated our rules. We’ll enforce if he does. And we’ll continue to promote a healthy conversational environment by ensuring tweets aren’t artificially amplified.

— jack (@jack) August 8, 2018

Truth is we’ve been terrible at explaining our decisions in the past. We’re fixing that. We’re going to hold Jones to the same standard we hold to every account, not taking one-off actions to make us feel good in the short term, and adding fuel to new conspiracy theories.

— jack (@jack) August 8, 2018

Here’s the gist:

Alex Jones and Infowars didn’t break any of Twitter’s rules. Twitter is very bad at explaining its choices and trying to get better, maybe. Twitter won’t follow other platforms for policy enforcement decisions like this because it thinks that sets a bad precedent. Twitter doesn’t want to become a platform “constructed by [its creators’] personal views” (this delusion of neutrality bit is where he really started losing us).

Dorsey finishes with a fairly infuriating assertion that journalists should shoulder all of the work of addressing hatespeech and generally horrific content that leads to real-life harassment, it’s not really Twitter’s problem. Believe us, we’re working on it!!

“Accounts like Jones’ can often sensationalize issues and spread unsubstantiated rumors, so it’s critical journalists document, validate, and refute such information directly so people can form their own opinions. This is what serves the public conversation best.”

To the bit about journalists, all we can say is: Twitter, just own your shit.

Even for those of us concerned about the precedents set by some of tech’s occasional lopsided gestures toward limiting the myriad horrors on the extremely totally neutral platforms that definitely in no way make tech companies publishers, Dorsey’s comments suck. Sure, the whole thing about staying consistent sounds okay at first, but Twitter is the platform most infamous for its totally uneven enforcement around harassment and hate speech and the one that leaves its users most vulnerable. If the company is truly making an effort to be less terrible at explaining its decisions — and we’re skeptical about that too — this is pretty inauspicious start.

Added to this, former Twitter VP of comms Emily Horne responded to Dorsey with some notable points, including a claim that Twitter has already begun taking into account user behavior offline. That makes the lack of action against Jones all the more baffling.

.@jack, please don’t blame the current state of play on communications. These decisions aren’t easy, but they aren’t comms calls and it’s unhelpful to denigrate your colleagues whose credibility will help explain them 1/4 https://t.co/IKo5UiWiWH

— Emily Horne (@emilyjhorne) August 8, 2018

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Otto co-founder Lior Ron is back at Uber

Lior Ron, the co-founder of the controversial self-driving technology company Otto, is returning to Uber to head up it’s trucking logistics company Uber Freight, TechCrunch has confirmed.

Both Ron and his co-founder and ex-Googler Anthony Levandowski came into Uber after the announcement of the acquisition of Otto in August of 2016. However, Levandowski was fired from Uber after pleading the Fifth Amendment to his accused involvement in stealing Google’s self-driving car trade secrets for use in Otto’s technology. Ron exited Uber a month after the company settled with Google parent company Alphabet for $245 million over the dispute.

Now, after some reportedly intense, month-long negotiations, Lior plans to return to Uber pending acquisition of Otto Trucking. The self-driving trucking company is a separate entity from Otto and the deal to purchase Otto’s other units never fully closed, leading to continued negotiations.

Ron is an obvious pick to run Uber Freight as he helped “lay the groundwork” for the momentum the company has seen since its founding, according to Uber. He’s also managed to negotiate a deal with his employees in mind. The new deal would allow Uber Freight to be a standalone business within Uber and give Otto Trucking shareholders an equity stake in Uber Freight.

However, Levandowski will sell his shares in the freight company to an undisclosed VC firm, according to Bloomberg. Uber did not comment on which firm that might be. Meanwhile, Uber, which owns a majority stake in Freight, plans to double its investment in the company over the next year.

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Autonomous drones could herd birds away from airports

Bird strikes on aircraft may be rare, but not so rare that airports shouldn’t take precautions against them. But keeping birds away is a difficult proposition: how do you control the behavior of flocks of dozens or hundreds of birds? Perhaps with a drone that autonomously picks the best path to do so, like this one developed by CalTech researchers.

Right now airports may use manually piloted drones, which are expensive and of course limited by the number of qualified pilots, or trained falcons — which as you might guess is a similarly difficult method to scale.

Soon-Jo Chung at CalTech became interested in the field after seeing the near-disaster in 2009 when US Airways 1549 nearly crashed due to a bird strike but was guided to a comparatively safe landing in the Hudson.

“It made me think that next time might not have such a happy ending,” he said in a CalTech news release. “So I started looking into ways to protect airspace from birds by leveraging my research areas in autonomy and robotics.”

A drone seems like an obvious solution — put it in the air and send those geese packing. But predicting and reliably influencing the behavior of a flock is no simple matter.

“You have to be very careful in how you position your drone. If it’s too far away, it won’t move the flock. And if it gets too close, you risk scattering the flock and making it completely uncontrollable,” Chung said.

The team studied models of how groups of animals move and affect one another, and arrived at their own that described how birds move in response to threats. From this can be derived the flight path a drone should follow that will cause the birds to swing aside in the desired direction but not panic and scatter.

Armed with this new software, drones were deployed in several spaces with instructions to deter birds from entering a given protected area. As you can see below (an excerpt from this video), it seems to have worked:

More experimentation is necessary, of course, to tune the model and get the system to a state that is reliable and works with various sizes of flocks, bird airspeeds, and so on. But it’s not hard to imagine this as a standard system for locking down airspace: a dozen or so drones informed by precision radar could protect quite a large area.

The team’s results are published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

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