Tip Trick Here: 08/10/18

10 August 2018

What the Facebook Crypto team could build

Facebook is invading the blockchain, but how? Back in May Facebook formed a cryptocurrency team to explore the possibilities, and today it removed a roadblock to revealing its secret plans.

Former head of Messenger David Marcus who leads the Facebook Crypto team today announced he was stepping down from the board of Coinbase, the biggest crypto startup. Marcus was formerly the president of PayPal and helped Facebook Messenger adopt chatbot commerce and peer-to-peer payments, so he was both a natural choice for Coinbase’s board and Facebook’s blockchain skunklabs.

Facebook told CoinDesk this was to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, which is exactly what it was. Marcus provided a statement to TechCrunch explaining he was stepping down “because of the new group I’m setting up at Facebook around blockchain” noting that “Getting to know Brian [Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase], who’s become a friend, and the whole Coinbase leadership team and board has been an immense privilege. I’ve been thoroughly impressed by the talent and execution the team has demonstrated during my tenure, and I wish the team all the success it deserves going forward.”

Now Facebook is cleared to start publicly talking about its plans, though it hasn’t yet. So what could Facebook be building? I see three main opportunities:

3% Off With FaceCoin

Facebook could build a cryptocurrency wallet with its own token that people could use to pay for things with partnered businesses or that they discover through Facebook ads. Since blockchain can make transactions free or very cheap, Facebook and its partners could sidestep the typical credit card processing fees. That would potentially allow Facebook to offer users “3% off purchases made with FaceCoin” or a similar promotion.

Discounts like this could draw users into Facebook’s cryptocurrency feature. It’s well positioned to run such the scheme thanks to its extensive connections with over six million advertisers and 65 million businesses that have Facebook Pages. The social network could eat the costs of running the program, passing the transaction fee savings on to the users, while touting partnerships with Facebook Crypto as ways to boost sales for businesses. That could in turn get clients to spend more money on Facebook ads, as the discounts would enhance conversion rates and drive sales.

P2P and Micropayments

Facebook already lets you send friends money through Messenger for free, but only with a connected debit card or PayPal account. Facebook could offer cryptocurrency-based payments between friends to let a wider range of users settle debts for shared dinners or taxis through Messenger. Users might fund their Facebook Crypto wallet once with a payment, possibly with a one-time transaction fee, and then they could send and receive the tokens for free from then on. Blockchain becoming the backbone of peer-to-peer payments could further increase engagement with Messenger for its 1.3 billion users.

Meanwhile, Facebook could also potentially use cryptocurrency to let fans send micropayments to their favorite creators, like video stars and game streamers. Facebook recently debuted its own virtual (not crypto) currency called Facebook Stars that users can buy and send to creators, who can then cash them out for one cent each. Facebook takes an undisclosed cut but gives the majority of what users spend on Stars to the creator.

Facebook could potentially undergird this system with cryptocurrency to alleviate transaction fees and let people tip creators smaller amounts of cash for exclusive content or just to show their appreciation. Facebook started with a minimum of $3 tips at a time so that transaction fees wouldn’t be too high of a percentage of the total purchase. A cryptocurrency solution could let users efficiently tip much smaller amounts, which could lure people towards the behavior. The more money Facebook can deliver to internet celebrities, the more popular ones it can recruit to live on its platform and the more content they’ll produce.

Facebook Stars. Image via KiwiFarm

Facebook Connect For Crypto

A top problem in the world of decentralized blockchain apps is how you bring your identity with you. Securely connecting your wallet, blockchain-based virtual goods, and biographical info to new dApps can be a laborious process. Users typically have to type in long, complicated alphanumeric keys that are tough to remember and annoying to input. User experience design around identity in the blockchain space lags far behind what we’re used to with mainstream social apps like Facebook Connect, which uses a OAuth single sign-on to let you instantly join apps without creating a new username and password, or filling out a profile and uploading a photo.

Facebook could use its expertise in operating a popular identity platform to ease login to dApps. While the company has faced plenty of privacy issues and attacks on election integrity, Facebook has a strong record of not being traditionally hacked. It hasn’t suffered a massive user data breach like LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social networks. Using an overtly centralized identity system to connect with decentralized apps might be counterintuitive, but Facebook could deliver the UX convenience necessary to unlock a new wave of blockchain utility.

For now it’s unclear if Facebook will end up directly competing with Coinbase in the exchange and wallet space, or if it might instead partner with the blockchain mainstay to accelerate its efforts. But with deep pockets, tons of tech talent, and ubiquity amongsts social networkers and businesses, Facebook Crypto’s primary limits are its ambitions and the extent of user trust.

Facebook united

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New material design stores energy like an eagle

Auxetics are materials that store energy internally rather than bulging out. In this way they can store more energy when squeezed or struck and disperse it more regularly. Historically, however, these materials have had sharp corners that could break easily with enough pressure. Now researchers at Queen Mary University of London and University of Cambridge have discovered a way to use auxetics in a more efficient and less fragile way. In this way you can create systems that store energy and release it mechanically multiple thousands of times.

“The exciting future of new materials designs is that they can start replacing devices and robots. All the smart functionality is embedded in the material, for example the repeated ability to latch onto objects the way eagles latch onto prey, and keep a vice-like grip without spending any more force or effort,” said Queen Marry University’s Dr. Stoyan Smoukov. For example, a robot using this system can close it’s hand over and object and keep it closed until its time to let go. There is no need to continue sending power to the claw or hand until it is time to open up and drop the object.

“A major problem for materials exposed to harsh conditions, such as high temperature, is their expansion. A material could now be designed so its expansion properties continuously vary to match a gradient of temperature farther and closer to a heat source. This way, it will be able to adjust itself naturally to repeated and severe changes,” said Eesha Khare, an undergrad who worked on the project.

The project used 3D printing to make small clips that grab a toothed actuator. To release the energy, you pull on the opposite sides of the object to release the teeth. While the entire thing looks quite simple the fact that this object stores energy without bulging is important. The same technology can be used to “grab” bullets as they strike armor, resulting in better durability.

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What the Facebook Crypto team could build

Facebook is invading the blockchain, but how? Back in May Facebook formed a cryptocurrency team to explore the possibilities, and today it removed a roadblock to revealing its secret plans.

Now Facebook is cleared to start publicly talking about its plans, though it hasn’t yet. So what could Facebook be building? I see three main opportunities:

3% Off With FaceCoin

P2P and Micropayments

Facebook Stars. Image via KiwiFarm

Facebook Connect For Crypto

Facebook united

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The 6 Best Hidden Cameras for Checking on Your Babysitter

Facebook now requiring Pages with large US audiences to go through additional authorization

Facebook today announced it’s implementing a new measure to secure Facebook Pages with large U.S. followings in order to make it harder for people to administer a Page using a “fake or compromised account.” Beginning with those that have large U.S. followings, some Facebook Pages will now have to go through a “Page Publishing Authorization” process. This will require the Page managers to secure their accounts and verity their location.

Facebook says the process only takes a few minutes to complete. If a Page requires this authorization, the Page admins will receive a notice at the top of their News Feed directing them to begin the process.

If they choose not to submit to Authorization, they will no longer be able to post to their Pages, the company says. Enforcement will begin this month.

When the Page owners click through, a message informs them why this is being done and what steps they have to take. To secure their account, Facebook is asking the Page manager to secure their account using two-factor authentication. This makes it more difficult for their account to be hijacked by a third-party, and is a best practice that all Facebook users – not just Page admins – should follow.

Separately, the Facebook Page managers will need to verify their location. This will then be set as the Page’s primary country and display in the new Page Info tab Facebook introduced in June.

Here, Facebook will also show a list of countries of the people who manage the Page, and how many managers hail from each country in that list.

In addition, under Page History, Facebook will show when a Page has merged with another.

The company says this new policy will initially roll out to Pages with large U.S. audiences, and Instagram will soon do something similar. Specifically, Instagram will allow people to see more information about accounts with large audiences.

“Our goal is to prevent organizations and individuals from creating accounts that mislead people about who they are or what they’re doing,” reads a Facebook announcement about the new process. “These updates are part of our continued efforts to increase authenticity and transparency of Pages on our platform.”

The changes follow the recent news that Facebook had found evidence of possible Russia-linked influence campaigns on its network, whose goal was to influence the U.S. midterms. The company removed 8 Facebook Pages, 17 Facebook profiles, and 7 Instagram accounts as a result of its findings.

New policies to make Facebook Pages that reach a sizable number of Americans more secure, and their management more transparent, seems like a good first step on Facebook’s part. Though it’s still possible that those aiming to disrupt democracy and seed division will eventually find workarounds for these measures at some point in the future.

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Grand Seiko is an homage to watchmaking’s past

The 1960s were a beautiful time for watches. Horlogy was in its prime and the great names we know and love today – Rolex, Omega, Cartier – were just one of many watchmakers churning out commodity products to a world that needed to tell the time. Their watches – simple, elegant, and mechanically complex – were the ultimate in mechanical efficiency and design and no one did it quite as well as Seiko. This mechanical golden age ended in the late 1970s with the rise of the quartz watch but Seiko is resurrecting it with their Grand Seiko line of luxury pieces.

Grand Seiko is special for a few reasons. First, it’s Seiko’s haute horlogerie skunkworks, allowing the company to experiment with all the fancy materials and techniques that Swiss watchmakers have worked with for years. The watches are made of precious metals and feature Seiko Hi-Beat movements. These watches “vibrate” 36,000 times an hour or ten times a second. This means that the balance wheel inside the watch is moving back and forth far faster than, say, an Omega Co-Axial 8500/1 series which is clocked at 25,200 vibrations per hour. What this means in practice is that the seconds hand moves with an almost uncanny smoothness.

The rest of the watch I tested, the euphoniously-named SBGH263G, is based on a piece from 1968 that came from Seiko’s mechanical hey-day. The $6,200 watch has a 39mm case and, according to Seiko, is style for maximum elegance. They write:

The dial has elegant and easy-to-see Arabic numeral for the hour mark. The concept color “Shironeri” is a reflection of Japanese tradition. The color and texture of the dial come from the glossy white silk of the outfit worn by the bride in a Japanese wedding. It symbolizes purity and innocence.

This watch is a formal piece for wearing, presumably, to your own wedding. That said, it’s also very reminiscent of 1960s style watches. The size, case shape, and polished hands and numerals all hearken back to a simpler time in watchmaking when everything didn’t have to look like a robot’s goiter or a pie plate.

It is quite small and if you’re used to Panerais or Nixons you’ll definitely notice a grandpa vibe about this piece. Because it is not very complex – that is it does not have any real complications like a stopwatch – it is very pricey. However, knowing Grand Seiko’s dedication to a very lost art of non-Swiss horology, it’s well worth a look.

I’ve been following Grand Seiko for years now and the quality and care the company has been putting into these watches is palpable. This watch is no commodity product. The case is polished to a high sheen and everything – from the screws to the beautiful domed sapphire crystal – is put together with great care. Seiko also makes lower end pieces – my favorite is the Orange Monster – but this is far above that in terms of build quality and price.

Pieces like this Grand Seiko remind us that, before Apple Watches and Fitbits, there was an entire universe of truly striking timepieces made for the absolutely sole purpose of telling the time. I love pieces like this one because they are no frills and yet they are full of frills. The watch is as simple as can be – three hands and a date window without any lume or extraneous buttons – and yet it shows amazing technical skill. It is expensive but this is a handmade watch by a storied manufacturer and it’s well worth the price of admission of you’re a lover of the elegantly antiquated.

[gallery ids="1689595,1689594,1689593,1689592"]

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Why You Should Stop Using CCleaner on Windows Right Now

Some Windows software has become so ingrained into PC users’ minds that we don’t think twice to recommend them. Unfortunately, this leads to major issues when a popular tool goes rogue.

That’s exactly what’s happened with CCleaner. Once everyone’s favorite Windows maintenance utility, its increasingly shady behavior means that you should now leave it in the dust.

Here’s why you can’t trust CCleaner anymore, and what to replace it with.

What’s Wrong With CCleaner?

CCleaner, once a tidy app with no history of issues, has had two major problems in less than a year. This is unfortunately not surprising after Avast purchased CCleaner developer Piriform in July 2017.

CCleaner’s New Monitoring

The first is a new behavior in CCleaner version 5.45. Dubbed “Active Monitoring”, it’s a fairly standard feature that collects anonymized information about your system. You can disable it to turn the feature off—or can you?

CCleaner-Disable-Active-Monitoring

As it turns out, if you disable Active Monitoring in CCleaner, the software automatically re-enables it after you reboot or reopen CCleaner. This is extremely suspicious behavior and though Piriform has backpedaled on it, upset users are fleeing in droves.

Additionally, the new version of CCleaner is much harder to quit. When you click the X to close the software, it instead minimizes to your System Tray. If you right-click its icon, there’s no option to exit CCleaner. This means you have to close it using the Task Manager, which novice users might not know how to do.

Thus, CCleaner now runs constantly in the background, collecting data for Avast. This is despite most people only opening CCleaner when needed, and requesting to not have this information collected.

CCleaner Distributed Malware

Prior to this, Piriform discovered that CCleaner was hacked and distributed malware. The 32-bit version was infected with a Trojan that collected information about systems it was installed on. It also had the capability to run code on affected systems.

Thankfully, the company caught it before a widespread attack could happen. But it’s pretty embarrassing that a top-tier security company like Avast had such an embarrassing slip-up.

Since its acquisition by Avast, CCleaner also shows pop-ups harassing you to upgrade to the paid version (which has an automatic cleaning feature). And installing CCleaner sometimes shows an offer to install Avast, which you must uncheck to avoid.

With all this combined, enough is enough. If you’ve had your fill of this obnoxious and shady behavior, it’s time to say goodbye to CCleaner.

How to Uninstall CCleaner

The first step is removing CCleaner from your computer. Doing so is easy. Head to Settings > Apps > Apps & features. Scroll through the list or use the search box to look for CCleaner. Click its name, then choose Uninstall.

Uninstall-CCleaner

What to Replace CCleaner With

The good news is that you actually don’t need CCleaner—Windows 10 has most of its functionality built-in, and you can install other tools for the rest.

Cleaning Junk Files

The longtime Disk Cleanup tool makes cleaning junk files off your system easy. Launch it by typing its name in the Start Menu, then choose the disk you want to scan. Check the boxes for various types of files to clean, and you’re all set.

Windows-10-Disk-Cleanup

For a newer interface, you can also access the Storage Sense feature in Windows 10 at Settings > System > Storage. Click Free up space now under Storage sense to remove various types of unnecessary files.

Free-Up-Space-Windows-10

Clearing Caches

Aside from clearing unnecessary files, CCleaner also cleans the cache of your browser and other programs. However, you can clear your browser history, cache, and other information right inside it. Plus, incognito or private modes allow you to browse without saving any information in the first place.

Clearing cache to save space isn’t a long-term solution because your browser will recreate it when needed. The cache helps your browser run more efficiently, so you normally don’t need to clear it unless you run into an issue.

Chrome-Clear-Browsing-Data

Uninstall Programs and Remove Startup Items

CCleaner’s Tools section includes several functions that duplicate built-in Windows options. To uninstall software, visit the same page you did above to remove CCleaner at Settings > Apps > Apps & features.

Managing startup programs is easy with the Task Manager. Press the Ctrl + Shift + Esc shortcut, or right-click the Taskbar and choose Task Manager, to open it. Switch to the Startup tab and you’ll see everything that runs when you log in. Right-click an option and hit Disable to remove it from startup.

If you prefer, you can also manage these at Settings > Apps > Startup.

Windows-10-Startup-Apps

Find What’s Taking Up Space

CCleaner has a basic disk analyzer tool that shows you the biggest space hogs on your system. Unsurprisingly, you have better options for disk analysis.

Other CCleaner Features

The above are CCleaner’s major features, but you might want replacements for the other minor functions too. In each case, you have options that aren’t obnoxious like CCleaner.

Don’t worry about the Browser Plugins tool—you can manage your browser extensions manually. And there are other duplicate file finders with more features too.

The System Restore is a duplicate of Windows’ built-in functionality, while you can use other tools to completely wipe a disk.

Lastly, don’t worry about losing the Registry cleaner. Registry cleaners are useless, as even removing thousands of invalid entries won’t have the smallest effect on performance. There’s a better chance you’ll break something by cleaning the Registry than fixing it, so leave them alone.

CCleaner-Registry-Cleaner-With-X

Full Replacements for CCleaner

The above Windows tools and apps should take care of everything you used CCleaner for. But in case you just can’t live without a dedicated cleaning app, we recommend alternatives like atomiccleaner or BleachBit.

Have You Dropped CCleaner Yet?

It’s a shame to see a once-revered Windows tool go so far down the drain. It once was focused on helping you clean up crap, but has turned into a crappy software itself. While Piriform may make changes to the monitoring, these are too little, too late. You should use a tool that respects your privacy and isn’t susceptible to malware.

Have a look at other popular security apps you should replace for more like this.

Read the full article: Why You Should Stop Using CCleaner on Windows Right Now

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The 6 Best Budget Graphics Cards for Cheap Gaming

Discord Launches a Steam-Style Game Store

Discord, the voice and text chat app that’s insanely popular amongst gamers, is launching its own dedicated game store. What’s more, Discord Nitro subscribers will gain access to a selection of games as part of their paid subscriptions.

Steam is the biggest gaming platform around. However, in terms of social, Steam has lost ground to Discord. In July 2018, Steam redesigned Steam Chat to compete with Discord. And now Discord is launching a game store to compete with Steam.

The Discord Store Opens for Business

As detailed on the Discord Blog, there are two elements to Discord’s move into games. The first is the Discord Store, where you’ll be able to buy a curated set of games. The second is free games for Nitro subscribers, which Discord is calling “Netflix for Games”.

The Discord Store won’t offer every game ever released. Instead, Discord is pitching it as a boutique store for the best games, as chosen by Discord employees. There will also be “First on Discord” games that will be temporarily exclusive to the Discord Store.

Three years ago, we set out to bring people together around games. Now, we're going to bring the games to you.

We're going to launch a store and add games to Nitro. Read the plans here: https://t.co/3sJrd4MZqf pic.twitter.com/A7gOyZYNdo

— Discord (@discordapp) August 9, 2018

Meanwhile, Discord Nitro subscribers (who currently pay $4.99/month or $49.99/year) will be able to play a selection of classic games as part of their subscription. The initial offering includes Super Meat Boy, Saints Row: The Third, and Metro: Last Night Redux.

Discord has launched the Discord Store in beta by inviting around 50,000 Canadian users to be test subjects. However, the company plans to expand the beta over time, and eventually make the Discord Store available to all 150 million users.

Selling to 150 Million Dedicated Gamers

While this all seems to have taken some people by surprise, Discord was bound to start selling games at some point. Having built a userbase of 150 million people, it makes sense to then launch a store selling them the wares they currently buy elsewhere.

While Discord is the latest to try and steal Steam’s crown, it isn’t the first. There are plenty of other Steam alternatives worth considering. But if you love Steam so much you’ve bought too many games over the years here’s how to organize your Steam library.

Read the full article: Discord Launches a Steam-Style Game Store

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Pie Charts

10 Secret Functions of Default iPhone Apps You Aren’t Using

Hollywood gets its own open source foundation

Open source is everywhere now, so maybe it’s no surprise that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (yes, the organization behind the Oscars) today announced that it has partnered with the Linux Foundation to launch the Academy Software Foundation, a new open source foundation for developers in the motion picture and media space.

The founding members include a number of high-powered media and tech companies, including Animal Logic, Blue Sky Studios, Cisco, DreamWorks, Epic Games, Google, Intel, SideFX, Walt Disney Studios and Weta Digital.

“Open Source Software has enabled developers and engineers to create the amazing effects and animation that we see every day in the moves, on television and in video games,” said Linux Foundation CEO Jim Zemlin.” With the Academy Software Foundation, we are providing a home for this community of open source developers to collaborate and drive the next wave of innovation across the motion picture and broader media industries.”

The Academy Software Foundation’s mission statement notes that it wants to be a neural forum “to coordinate cross-project efforts; to provide a common built and test infrastructure; and to provide individuals and organizations a clear path to participation in advancing out open source ecosystem.”

According to a survey by the Academy, 84 percent of the industry uses open source software already, mostly for animation and visual effects. The group also found that what’s holding back open source development in the media industry is the siloed nature of the development teams across the different companies in this ecosystem.

“The creation of the Academy Software Foundation is an important and exciting step of the motion picture industry,” said Nick Cannon, the chief technology officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios. “By increasing collaboration within our industry, it allows all of us to pool our efforts on common foundation technologies, drive new standards for interoperability and increase the pace of innovation.”

The fact that even Hollywood is now embracing open source and its collaborative nature is yet another sign of how the world of software development has changed in recent years. Over the last few years, traditional enterprises realized that whatever technology they developed to run their software infrastructure isn’t what actually delivers value to their customers, so it made sense to collaborate in this area, even with their fiercest competitors — and the same, it seems, now holds true for the Hollywood studios, too (or at least for those that have now joined the new foundation).

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Google isn’t sure how to spell “Fortnite Battle Royale”

The launch of Fortnite Battle Royale has left Google in a slight predicament. While Google is in no way hard up for cash, Fortnite Battle Royale for Android certainly represented the potential for a relatively big revenue stream for an app. That is, until Epic Games decided it would launch Fortnite for Android from its own website, circumventing the Play Store.

But revenue aside, there’s also the matter of Google probably not liking the idea of huge titles circumventing the Play Store as a precedent. Plus, the lack of Fortnite Battle Royale within the Play Store poses a slight security risk to users, as there are quite a few V-bucks scams and malicious clones looking to capitalize on the popularity of Fortnite.

That’s why the Google Play store now displays a message to users in response to searches for “Fortnite,” “Fortnite Battle Royale,” and other similar search queries.

“Fortnite Battle Royal by Epic Games, Inc is not available on Google Play,” reads the message.

That’s right. Google mispelled the “Royale” in Battle Royale. It was likely an honest mistake, but given the fact that Epic Games is making upwards of $300 million in revenue a month, which Google is not getting a cut of, it makes for some fun back-and-forth for us spectators.

Google lists PUBG Mobile, Fortnite’s biggest competitor, at the top of all Fortnite Battle Royale queries, but doesn’t include anything in its message around how to actually find the real Fortnite Battle Royale for Android.

While Google Play’s app review process should catch the vast majority of malicious clones, the message is at least moderately helpful for folks hearing about the Android version of Battle Royale without knowing the details around Epic’s launcher.

For what it’s worth, Fortnite for Android isn’t yet available to everyone. The game launched yesterday as a Samsung exclusive for folks with a Galaxy S 7 or higher, and will become available to all Android phone owners on August 12.

[via 9to5Google]

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The 8 Best Free Mac Tools to Detect and Fix Common macOS Problems

All Macs are perfect, and never encounter a single problem. This is thanks to the unicorn dust applied liberally to the internals of each new machine.

Unfortunately, that’s not true. Just like Windows machines, your Apple hardware can and will go wrong from time to time. Apple provides plenty of tools to get you on your way, but a few free third-party apps don’t hurt either.

Here are eight free tools that can help when your computer don’t work properly.

1. Disk Utility

macOS Disk Utility

When to use it: Corrupted files, drive errors, or a Mac that won’t boot into macOS.

Disk Utility is a utility provided with macOS, which you can find under your Applications > Utilities folder. It’s used for formatting drives, mounting and unmounting volumes, and fixing problems as they arise.

You can run First Aid on any drive by launching the utility and clicking the corresponding button. For better results, and in cases where your Mac won’t boot, you can launch your Mac in Recovery Mode by restarting and holding Cmd + R while it starts up. Select Disk Utility, then First Aid to attempt a fix. Hit Repair Disk if it detects a problem.

It’s also possible to create whole images of your current disk using this utility, which is perfect if your drive is failing. Reboot in Recovery Mode and connect a large enough external drive. Then eject the drive you want to back up (probably called Macintosh HD), followed by File > Create New Image from “Macintosh HD” (or whatever the label is).

Failing Disk Utility’s repair options, you can always boot into single user mode and use fsck to fix drive options from a command line interface.

2. Apple Diagnostics/Apple Hardware Test

Apple Diagnostics results

When to use it: Suspected hardware issues, when trying to find out which specific component is causing an issue.

Another tool that comes bundled with your Mac is Apple Hardware Test. This simple utility can help diagnose problems, though it lacks the detail required to make serious repairs. It is, however, useful in cases where you’re trying to isolate a hardware issue from a software one.

The age of your machine will determine whether you use Apple Diagnostics or Apple Hardware Test, but they do the same job and launch using the same shortcut. Simply hold down D while your Mac boots, or Option + D to run the test from the internet (in cases where the test won’t run from disk).

If you’re feeling brave and you want to glean as much information as possible about your hardware problems, you can use Apple Service Diagnostics, assuming your Mac isn’t too new.

3. OnyX

OnyX for Mac

When to use it: For making deep system tweaks, cleaning up caches, and fiddling with the OS.

OnyX is the jack of all trades maintenance tool for macOS. Most users won’t have any specific need for it until the time comes, but it’s a handy tool to have installed. Just like Disk Utility, you can use OnyX to verify the structure of the startup disk. It can also repair permissions, something that most users of El Capitan or later will never need to do.

With OnyX you can perform tasks like run the operating system’s daily, weekly, and monthly clean-up scripts with the click of a button. You can also rebuild databases like Spotlight, Mail, and LaunchServices without having to boot into Safe Mode.

This tool works to to clear just about every cache on your system, though generally speaking you should let the OS take care of this task. You can also perform three and seven-pass secure erases, though you shouldn’t do this on solid state drives. OnyX can also show and hide files, folders, and applications, plus access macOS applications like the hidden Network Utility and Directory Utility tools with a click.

Finally, you can tweak some settings that are usually only available via Terminal prompts. These include the format, location, and naming conventions for screenshots, recent folder and file listings, Safari tweaks like history cutoff and DNS prefetching; startup sounds, and even graphical effects throughout the OS.

Download: OnyX

4. MemTest86

MemTest86

When to use it: Crashes, freezes, app instability—particularly if you just installed some new memory.

RAM is one of the last internal components Mac owners can still customize—on some machines at least. The iMac in particular still provides a window at the back that pops open and allows you to add physical memory. Older MacBooks, where the RAM isn’t soldered to the motherboard, are also open to tinkering.

But this can lead to issues when the memory you’ve installed is faulty. Application crashes, hard reboots, and freezing are all symptoms of dud memory. Even the old sticks of RAM installed when your machine was new can fail, leading to problems. MemTest86 is a free tool for thoroughly testing your RAM and isolating memory problems.

To use it, simply download the version for Linux and Mac, create a bootable USB drive using the image, insert your USB stick, and hold the Option key when your Mac boots. Choose the USB boot option from the menu and follow the prompts.

There are memory testing tools that run under macOS or via a graphical interface. But the problem with this approach is that your operating system is already using the RAM you want to test. By booting into a lightweight Unix environment, you can test the RAM more thoroughly.

Download: MemTest86

5. Malwarebytes

Malwarebytes for macOS

When to use it: Periodically to ensure your Mac is malware-free.

Your Mac is susceptible to malware, even though the likelihood of infection is low. Apple has put in place protections like system integrity protection and Gatekeeper to limit damage from errant third-party software. But exploits still happen, and Malwarebytes is a free solution to keep you protected.

If you’ve already been infected, this is one anti-malware tool that can help. The free version lacks real-time protection, but that’s fine since resources are precious. A quick scan from time to time, as well as running the updates when they arrive, should be enough to keep you safe.

You’ll get a free trial of the premium version of Malwarebytes when you download, but the free version offers ample protection for most users.

Download: Malwarebytes

6. KnockKnock

KnockKnock for Mac

When to use it: When you suspect malware is persistently trying to install itself on your machine.

Objective See produces a whole range of security tools for macOS, but we’re going to focus on KnockKnock here. It’s a tool that looks a little deeper than your average malware scanner for applications that attempt to persistently install software on your machine.

This is the hallmark of many vehicles used to deliver malware, though the app will also detect benign applications that do this as part of their regular operation. The app is integrated with VirusTotal protection, indicating if anything unusual is attempting to install something more sinister.

Download: KnockKnock

7. EtreCheck

EtreCheck for macOS

When to use it: When you’re experiencing problems with the normal operation of macOS.

EtreCheck is a tool that can detect over 30 minor and major problems with your Mac. It generates reports based on what it finds, so you can ask others to help remedy the problem. EtreCheck works in tandem with Apple Support Communities to help users with limited technical knowledge solve their computer problems.

EtreCheck will generate five reports for free, which should be enough to help diagnose an immediate problem with your hardware. After this it will cost around $10, depending on where in the world you are. This is so anyone can use it as a fast diagnosis tool, but also to cover the continued development costs.

When you first run the app, you’ll see a prompt asking for description of your problem. EtreCheck will then scan your computer for hardware, configuration, software, and performance issues.

Download: EtreCheck

8. PhotoRec

PhotoRec

When to use it: In cases where you need to recover media from external drives.

Test Disk and PhotoRec are two closely related projects. The former is aimed at whole drive recovery, while the latter is designed to recovery media from removable storage. Unfortunately, TestDisk doesn’t yet support Apple’s new file system APFS, but it does work with HFS+ file systems created prior to macOS 10.13 High Sierra.

PhotoRec supports the most common file systems used to store media, so if you’ve lost an SD card full of photos it might be your best bet for getting them back. Unfortunately you’ll lose your original filenames, but that’s better than losing the data entirely.

If your card becomes unreadable, remember that you should not write to it at all until you have tried everything to get your data back. The more you write to the volume, the less likely a full recovery is possible.

Don’t Forget Your Boot Modes

You Mac uses various boot modes for all kinds of troubleshooting functions. Safe mode will automatically verify your disk on startup, while resetting your PRAM and SMC can solve numerous minor issues.

Check out the full list of Mac boot modes for fixing a whole range of problems with your computer. If you’re having network issues, macOS’s built-in Network Utility can help you out too.

Read the full article: The 8 Best Free Mac Tools to Detect and Fix Common macOS Problems

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OUTXE Savage 2000mAh Rugged Portable Battery Review

Where to Find the Netflix Download Folder Location

Netflix does allow you to download movies and shows offline with the Windows 10 Netflix app. That’s why the location of the Netflix download folder becomes important. Netflix as yet does not give you an option to change the download location. Also, it does not allow you to browse to the place where your downloads are saved.

If your drive is filling up fast, you can manually move the downloads to another location. When you want to watch them again, copy them back to the original location.

Where to Find the Netflix Download Folder

Open File Explorer from the Task Bar.
The Netflix folder is a hidden folder. To display it, go to the View tab and then click on the Option menu button on the right.
In Folder Options, select the View tab and scroll to the Files and Folders settings. If it’s not checked, then select the Show Hidden files, folders, and drives setting to enable it.
Click OK.
From the File Explorer, you can navigate to the Netflix download folder. The full path is:
```
C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Packages\4DF9E0F8.Netflix_mcm4njqhnhss8\LocalState\offlineInfo\downloads
```
Here [USERNAME] is the Windows folder with your current username.

It’s obvious but you can also copy-paste C:\Users\ and then select the folder with your username. Just append the file path after that to get to the folder without drilling down the hierarchy.

The Netflix download folder will be empty if you have never downloaded any movies or shows with the Windows 10 Netflix app. But, carry out your first download and you will see a bunch of files here. The largest will belong to the actual media file.

Netflix Download Folder

Notice that there are no file names which help you identify the movie or show. Rename the largest file and Netflix won’t recognize them. Also, you cannot play them with any media player except the Netflix app.

Till Netflix adds a few more file management features, at least the location can help you manage your drive space when it starts to run out. If you haven’t tried Netflix and its offline viewing feature, try it once.

Read the full article: Where to Find the Netflix Download Folder Location

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Femtech hardware startup Elvie inks strategic partnership with UK’s NHS

Elvie, a femtech hardware startup whose first product is a sleek smart pelvic floor exerciser, has inked a strategic partnership with the UK’s National Health Service that will make the device available nationwide through the country’s free-at-the-point-of-use healthcare service so at no direct cost to the patient.

It’s a major win for the startup that was co-founded in 2013 by CEO Tania Boler and Jawbone founder, Alexander Asseily, with the aim of building smart technology that focuses on women’s issues — an overlooked and underserved category in the gadget space.

Boler’s background before starting Elvie (née Chiaro) including working for the U.N. on global sex education curriculums. But her interest in pelvic floor health, and the inspiration for starting Elvie, began after she had a baby herself and found there was more support for women in France than the U.K. when it came to taking care of their bodies after giving birth.

With the NHS partnership, which is the startup’s first national reimbursement partnership (and therefore, as a spokeswoman puts it, has “the potential to be transformative” for the still young company), Elvie is emphasizing the opportunity for its connected tech to help reduce symptoms of urinary incontinence, including those suffered by new mums or in cases of stress-related urinary incontinence.

The Elvie kegel trainer is designed to make pelvic floor exercising fun and easy for women, with real-time feedback delivered via an app that also gamifies the activity, guiding users through exercises intended to strengthen their pelvic floor and thus help reduce urinary incontinence symptoms. The device can also alert users when they are contracting incorrectly.

Elvie cites research suggesting the NHS spends £233M annually on incontinence, claiming also that around a third of women and up to 70% of expectant and new mums currently suffer from urinary incontinence. In 70 per cent of stress urinary incontinence cases it suggests symptoms can be reduced or eliminated via pelvic floor muscle training.

And while there’s no absolute need for any device to perform the necessary muscle contractions to strengthen the pelvic floor, the challenge the Elvie Trainer is intended to help with is it can be difficult for women to know they are performing the exercises correctly or effectively.

Elvie cites a 2004 study that suggests around a third of women can’t exercise their pelvic floor correctly with written or verbal instruction alone. Whereas it says that biofeedback devices (generally, rather than the Elvie Trainer specifically) have been proven to increase success rates of pelvic floor training programmes by 10% — which it says other studies have suggested can lower surgery rates by 50% and reduce treatment costs by £424 per patient head within the first year.

“Until now, biofeedback pelvic floor training devices have only been available through the NHS for at-home use on loan from the patient’s hospital, with patient allocation dependent upon demand. Elvie Trainer will be the first at-home biofeedback device available on the NHS for patients to keep, which will support long-term motivation,” it adds.

Commenting in a statement, Clare Pacey, a specialist women’s health physiotherapist at Kings College Hospital, said: “I am delighted that Elvie Trainer is now available via the NHS. Apart from the fact that it is a sleek, discreet and beautiful product, the app is simple to use and immediate visual feedback directly to your phone screen can be extremely rewarding and motivating. It helps to make pelvic floor rehabilitation fun, which is essential in order to be maintained.”

Elvie is not disclosing commercial details of the NHS partnership but a spokeswoman told us the main objective for this strategic partnership is to broaden access to Elvie Trainer, adding: “The wholesale pricing reflects that.”

Discussing the structure of the supply arrangement, she said Elvie is working with Eurosurgical as its delivery partner — a distributor she said has “decades of experience supplying products to the NHS”.

“The approach will vary by Trust, regarding whether a unit is ordered for a particular patient or whether a small stock will be held so a unit may be provided to a patient within the session in which the need is established. This process will be monitored and reviewed to determine the most efficient and economic distribution method for the NHS Supply Chain,” she added.

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