Microsoft Ends Support for Windows 10 Mobile

Microsoft is ending support for Windows 10 Mobile. Which means Windows 10 Mobile is deader than dead. It also means Microsoft’s foray into the mobile market is over. So much so that Microsoft is actively advising people to switch to Android or iOS.

Windows 10 Mobile has been a bust since it debuted in 2016. We dubbed its arrival a “tech launch failure,” and things didn’t get any better from there. Now, three years on, Windows 10 Mobile is being put out of its misery, with Microsoft ending all support.

The End of Windows 10 Mobile

As indicated in this Microsoft support note, Microsoft’s support for Windows 10 Mobile will end on December 10, 2019. After this date there will be no “new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free assisted support options or online technical content updates”.

The “automatic or manual creation of new device backups for settings and some applications will continue for 3 months, ending March 10, 2020”. And “some services including photo uploads […] may continue to work for up to another 12 months”.

Pour one out for all three people who still use Windows Phone. ? https://t.co/nBSGsmdvGT

— ??? Jony Ive (@JonyIveParody) January 18, 2019

Microsoft makes it clear that your Windows 10 Mobile device will not simply stop working on December 10, 2019. However, because “there will be no updates after that date,” Microsoft is recommending “customers move to a supported Android or iOS device”.

Unlike Windows 7, which has been replaced by Windows 10, the end of Windows 10 Mobile signals the end of the line completely. Microsoft has ceded the market to Android and iOS, and is focusing on developing apps and services for the competition instead.

Choosing Between Android and iOS

This is a crying shame for Microsoft, but also for consumers who wanted more than a binary choice when it came to mobile operating systems. Unfortunately, Microsoft was too slow to realize that mobile was the future, and both Apple and Google filled that void.

Microsoft was never a major player in the mobile market. Windows Phone had its fans, but we said goodbye to Windows Phone in 2014. And everything that has happened since suggests we were right to do so, despite what commenters said at the time.

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5 Fastest Ways to Find a Good Movie or Film Worth Watching

There are so many films out there, and so little time to watch them. When you’re ready to kick back and enjoy a movie, you don’t want to waste time figuring out what to watch. So here are five of the fastest ways to find a good film.

These sites recommend films that are currently showing in theaters as well as old films worth watching. If it’s the latter, you might want to check which movies you can stream on services like Netflix or Amazon Prime.

StayIn (Web): Quick Questionnaire for Mood-Based Recommendations

StayIn uses a Tinder-like interface and a quick series of questions to figure out what sort of mood you are in, and recommends a movie based on that. It’s a browser-based app that also works well on mobile screens.

The questions are written like a human would ask (and sometimes include profanity too). So instead of “Choose a genre”, it would ask something like, “Are you in the mood for some action?” You have to click Yes, No, or Don’t Care on each question card. Don’t think too much about it, go with your gut.

When you’ve sorted these filters enough, StayIn will give you recommendations for movies to watch, complete with their basic details. It’s one of the quickest ways to get a film worth watching.

End Rating (Web): For a Satisfying Climax

There are some great movies that mess up their conclusion. Then there are films that seem to build up to the end, and the climax is what makes the whole film worth watching. If you’re looking for the latter, End Rating is a quick way to find such movies.

The site gives movies two types of ratings. One is a general film rating, which is indicated in green. This seems to be based on movie ranking sites like IMDb or Metacritic. Then there is the rating in orange, which is where users rate the film’s ending.

Among the top-rated films in this are the likes of Limitless and The Usual Suspects. You haven’t seen The Next Three Days? Well apparently, the ending makes the movie worth watching since it got a 100/100. What’re you reading this for, go see it.

Suggest Me Movie (Web): The StumbleUpon for Movies

There is no searching or clicking around at Suggest Me Movies. Open the site and you’ll get a new film recommendation, complete with its IMDb rating, a trailer, genres, and quick details about the plot and cast. It’s like the classic StumbleUpon website, but only for films.

If you want, you can customize these recommendations with a few filters. Set start and end years, genres, minimum IMDb score, votes, and up to three keywords to search in actor names or the synopsis.

You won’t always get a winner with Suggest Me Movie, and there are quite a few foreign film recommendations. But if you don’t like what you see, just click the Suggest Me Movie button again to get a new pick. This simplicity is hard to beat.

LazyDay (Web): Search for Anything, or Get Random Picks

LazyDay is one of the best-tagged film catalogs to get movie recommendations. You can search for almost anything and get a film in the results. For example, you might search “Character says I love you” or “Stabbed with a needle” and you’ll get a result for it at LazyDay.

The results have everything you’ll need about a movie to make a decision, including a trailer, a quick synopsis, and the IMDb rating. You don’t even need to go away from the results to find these things, it’s all available without leaving the page, which makes your search much faster.

If you can’t make up your mind and are feeling too lazy to search, LazyDay also offers “Random Picks” so you don’t have to decide. That’s quite nice, isn’t it? Sometimes, all you want is to not think, and be catered to like TV used to do.

CringeMDB (Web): Find Films Safe to Watch With Parents

We all know IMDb is a great database of everything you’d want to know about a film. That includes its Parents’ Guide to find and avoid inappropriate movie scenes for kids. But what if you’re the kid and you want to watch something with your folks, or anyone else, without feeling awkward? Turn to CringeMDB.

The website lets you search films between 1995 and 2017 to find which ones are safe to watch with folks and which ones will make you cringe at a scene or two. But rather than the search function, you should use CringeMDB for theater releases.

The “In Theaters” and “Upcoming” tabs have movie posters showcasing what is playing in cinema halls right now, and films that are set to release soon. You can plan your outing accordingly, and save yourself a few blushes.

More Recommendations In Different Ways

Naturally, this list is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to film recommendation websites, apps, and engines. We’ve talked about many of them before, but if you’re looking for quick ways to find movies, then you should check out Movie of the Night.

Like Suggest Me Movie, it gives you only one recommendation at a time, but in this case, you set some criteria for it first. The website is a part of our list of five recommendation sites to find new movies, which also includes a cute app to find a movie that is common ground between you and your date. Try it out.

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Motorola’s Razr Is Coming Back as a High-End, $1500 Smartphone

One of the most iconic cell phones in history could be poised to make a comeback, as it looks like the Motorola Razr is set to return in the form of a foldable $1500 smartphone. The announcement of the upcoming phone hasn’t been confirmed just yet, so, for the time being, we need to treat it as a rumor.

Currently, Motorola is owned by Lenovo, and it looks like the company is aiming to cash in on the nostalgia many phone owners have towards the Razr. For many, it was the first “cool” cell phone they ever owned, so it would make a great deal of sense for the company to try to target owners of the original phone.

And if $1500 is out of your budget, the Moto G5 Plus is a much more budget-friendly option from the same company.

What We Know About the New Razr so Far

According to Wall Street Journal, the phone is scheduled to launch as soon as February and it will be exclusive to Verizon in the US.

The report says that it will be a foldable phone, which means that Lenovo and Motorola could actually beat Samsung to the market for devices with a folding screen.

Remember the Razr? Motorola's once-popular flip phone is being revived—this time as a $1,500 smartphone with a foldable screen. https://t.co/rLYHstwAEg

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 16, 2019

Unfortunately, we don’t know too much else about the phone. According to Digital Spy, the device will have a Snapdragon 855 processor and will apparently have an OLED foldable touchscreen that won’t crease or snap, but that’s about all we know for now.

The less exciting part of the rumor is the price, as it appears that the phone will retail for a whopping $1500. To put that price into perspective, the 128GB Google Pixel 3 retails for $999. Obviously, we don’t have another folding phone to compare it to, but we can definitely say that this won’t be a budget-friendly smartphone by any means.

It’s a New Razr, Yes It Is

As mentioned, the phone is rumored to hit the market as soon as February, so we shouldn’t have to wait too long to hear more concrete details about its specs and features.

The WSJ report indicated that Lenovo is planning to manufacture 200,000 of the luxury phones, so while it won’t necessarily be limited, it does look like there will be a finite amount of devices available.

Want to know more about folding phones? Check out our breakdown of what to expect from the foldable phone future.

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How to Remove Unwanted Apps on an Android Device

9 Mac Dashboard Widgets You’ll Actually Use

Your Mac’s Dashboard app lets you keep all kinds of useful dynamic information handy with free configurable widgets. If you have written this off as worthless, it might be time to reconsider and give it another shot.

To help you warm up to Dashboard again, let’s explore nine useful widgets that you won’t find in the default set that ships with the app.

1. PCalc: For Advanced Calculations

The calculator widget that comes with Dashboard is quite basic. If you prefer a more feature-rich option that can replace a scientific calculator, try the PCalc widget.

PCalc is primarily available as a macOS and iOS app with Notification Center support. This costs $10, but you can get the Dashboard version for free.

Download: PCalc (Free, premium version available)

2. DashNote: For Simplenote Notes

DashNote lets you create, edit, delete, pin, and search your Simplenote notes from Dashboard. Once you install the widget and log in with your Simplenote credentials, your existing notes show up instantly. You’re now ready to take new notes as usual.

For functions like tagging and enabling Markdown, you’ll have to use a full-fledged Simplenote app or the web version of the service.

If you don’t have a Simplenote account, try the Notefile widget for note-taking from the Dashboard. Since Notefile doesn’t have a search mechanism, it’s best to use the widget if you don’t have too many notes or if you want a temporary scratchpad.

Download: DashNote (Free)

3. Delivery Status: For Tracking Packages

If you’re expecting a package delivery, Delivery Status can let you know when it will arrive and even track its transit route. All the widget needs from you is the order number or tracking number for the package.

Delivery Status supports quite a few popular delivery services, and you can add more manually. Like PCalc, this app offers a free widget alongside a paid app that includes Notification Center support. Why not try the Dashboard version for free first to see if you like it?

The widget is really handy to have if you’re based in the US. If you live elsewhere, give the freemium app Parcel a shot. It doesn’t come with Dashboard support, but it has a Notification Center widget.

Download: Delivery Status (Free, premium version available)

4. Symbol Caddy: For Inserting Special Characters

Heard of the Keyboard Viewer menu bar utility on macOS? Symbol Caddy is similar to this, but does a much better job overall. It helps you find and insert special characters, like accent marks and currency symbols.

The widget is quite user friendly and stays out of your way. It has a couple of modes: Keyboard and HTML. The first mode copies the character you select to your Mac’s clipboard, while the second copies the character’s HTML code.

Download: Symbol Caddy (Free)

5. Currency Converter: For Currency Conversion

The widget displays up-to-date values for four common currencies by default. You can switch to different currencies by tweaking the corresponding dropdown menus.

To add more currencies, visit the settings by clicking on the tiny info icon at the bottom-right of the widget. Here, you’ll find a few extra options such as namewise sorting and widget skins.

Download: Currency Converter (Free)

6. TimeScroller: For Tracking Time Zones

Scheduling meetings across time zones can be a pain. That’s why a time zone tracking utility is essential for anyone who coordinates with people overseas. (Ask anyone who works at MakeUseOf—our staff is scattered across the world.)

Timescroller is one such utility with Dashboard access. It ensures that keeping tabs on the time in various cities is effortless.

You’ll see the current time in the widget for the default list of cities. Drag the slider at the bottom to check different times. You can add as many cities to the list as you like from the widget’s settings.

Download: TimeScroller (Free)

7. News Reader: For Checking RSS Feeds

News Reader is a simple widget to help you stay up-to-date on the feeds of your favorite websites.

You’ll have to open the widget settings to delete the default feeds and add new ones. Here, you can also select a new update frequency for feeds from one of the available presets.

Download: News Reader (Free)

8. Eject Volume: For Ejecting Media Drives

If you want a quick way to eject external volumes without accessing Finder or the desktop, the Eject Volume Dashboard widget is ideal. There’s also a menu bar app called Ejector for this task, but why crowd the menu bar even more?

Download: Eject Volume (Free)

9. Custom Widgets: For Monitoring Bits of the Web

You can get any part of a web page to show up on Dashboard as a custom widget called a web clip. This macOS feature is great if you want to track, say, Twitter trends, Amazon deals, or our latest articles without opening your browser. You’ll still need an active internet connection, of course.

To create a web clip in Safari, visit the website that’s you want as the source for your widget. Next, click on File > Open in Dashboard to grab the relevant part of the web page and turn it into a widget.

Want to learn more about web clips and get inspiration to create custom ones? Read our mini guide to web clips.

A Few More Dashboard Tips

Dashboard can be a great way to keep bits and pieces of information handy but hidden, especially when you use it as an overlay instead of a Space. To configure this setting, visit System Preferences > Mission Control. There, all you have to do is select As Overlay from the Dashboard dropdown menu.

You’ll also want to memorize the keyboard shortcut for Dashboard—it’s F12. Feel free to set up a new custom shortcut from System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control. Look for the Show Dashboard checkbox.

To top it all, you can also access Dashboard with a hot corner and even have multiple instances of the same widget. To discover more widgets, visit the official Apple page for Dashboard.

Dashboard hasn’t received a proper makeover in a while and has a bit of a retro look to it. But that doesn’t stop it from being valuable. Speaking of Dashboard, it’s just one of the useful features you aren’t using on your Mac.

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Facebook fears no FTC fine

Reports emerged today that the FTC is considering a fine against Facebook that would be the largest ever from the agency. Even if it were ten times the size of the largest, a $22.5 million bill sent to Google in 2012, the company would basically laugh it off. Facebook is made of money. But the FTC may make it provide something it has precious little of these days: accountability.

A Washington Post report cites sources inside the agency (currently on hiatus due to the shutdown) saying that regulators have “met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine.” We may as well say here that this must be taken with a grain of salt at the outset; that Facebook is non-compliant with terms set previously by the FTC is an established fact, so how much they should be made to pay is the natural next topic of discussion.

But how much would it be? The scale of the violation is hugely negotiable. Our summary of the FTC’s settlement requirements for Facebook indicate that it was:

• barred from making misrepresentations about the privacy or security of consumers’ personal information;
• required to obtain consumers’ affirmative express consent before enacting changes that override their privacy preferences;
• required to prevent anyone from accessing a user’s material more than 30 days after the user has deleted his or her account;
• required to establish and maintain a comprehensive privacy program designed to address privacy risks associated with the development and management of new and existing products and services, and to protect the privacy and confidentiality of consumers’ information; and
• required, within 180 days, and every two years after that for the next 20 years, to obtain independent, third-party audits certifying that it has a privacy program in place that meets or exceeds the requirements of the FTC order, and to ensure that the privacy of consumers’ information is protected.

How many of those did it break, and how many times? Is it per user? Per account? Per post? Per offense? What is “accessing” under such and such a circumstance? The FTC is no doubt deliberating these things.

Yet it is hard to imagine them coming up with a number that really scares Facebook. A hundred million dollars is a lot of money, for instance. But Facebook took in more than $13 billion in revenue last quarter. Double that fine, triple it, and Facebook bounces back.

If even a fine ten times the size of the largest it ever threw can’t faze the target, what can the FTC do to scare Facebook into playing by the book? Make it do what it’s already supposed to be doing, but publicly.

How many ad campaigns is a user’s data being used for? How many internal and external research projects? How many copies are there? What data specifically and exactly is it collecting on any given user, how is that data stored, who has access to it, to whom is it sold or for whom is it aggregated or summarized? What is the exact nature of the privacy program it has in place, who works for it, who do they report to, and what are their monthly findings?

These and dozens of other questions come immediately to mind as things Facebook should be disclosing publicly in some way or another, either directly to users in the case of how one’s data is being used, or in a more general report, such as what concrete measures are being taken to prevent exfiltration of profile data by bad actors, or how user behavior and psychology is being estimated and tracked.

Not easy or convenient questions to answer at all, let alone publicly and regularly. But if the FTC wants the company to behave, it has to impose this level of responsibility and disclosure. Because, as Facebook has already shown, it cannot be trusted to disclose it otherwise. Light touch regulation is all well and good… until it isn’t.

This may in fact be such a major threat to Facebook’s business — imagine having to publicly state metrics that are clearly at odds with what you tell advertisers and users — that it might attempt to negotiate a larger initial fine in order to avoid punitive measures such as those outlined here. Volkswagen spent billions not on fines, but in sort of punitive community service to mitigate the effects of its emissions cheating. Facebook too could be made to shell out in this indirect way.

What the FTC is capable of requiring from Facebook is an open question, since the scale and nature of these violations are unprecedented. But whatever they come up with, the part with a dollar sign in front of it — however many places it goes to — will be the least of Facebook’s worries.

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Alphabet’s Verily scores FDA clearance for its ECG monitor

Big week for Google wearable news — which, honestly, I not a phrase I expected to write in 2019. But a day after the company announced an agreement to purchase Fossil’s wearable technology for $40 million, Alphabet-owned research group Verily just scored FDA clearance for its electrocardiogram (ECG) technology.

The clearance pertains specifically to the company’s Study Watch. The device, which was announced back in 2017, shouldn’t be confused with the company’s more consumer-facing Wear OS efforts. Instead, the product is designed expressly for the purpose of gathering vitals for serious medical studies of conditions like MS and Parkinson’s.

“The ability to take an on-demand, single-lead ECG, can support both population-based research and an individual’s clinical care,” Verily writes on its blog. “Receiving this clearance showcases our commitment to the high standards of the FDA for safety and effectiveness and will help us advance the application of Study Watch in various disease areas and future indications.”

The Study Watch is a prescription-only device, but the clearance leaves one wondering how this might open the door for an upcoming Pixel Watch. After all, Fossil’s most recent Wear OS devices had a decided health focus, in keeping with most recent smartwatches. After Apple’s recent addition of ECG on the Series 4 Watch, it tracks that Google would want to go to market with a similar health-focused feature set.

Meantime, this news should open the door for the E Ink device’s ability to help collect some meaningful information for medical researchers.

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Veteran Googler heads to Lyft to lead 1,000-plus person engineering team

Eisar Lipkovitz, a veteran Google executive who most recently led the video and display advertising team there, is leaving the company to head up engineering efforts at Lyft.

As executive vice president of engineering, Lipkovitz will be leading Lyft’s engineering team, which now eclipses 1,000 people.

Eisar’s hiring comes on the heels of massive growth at Lyft, specifically its engineering team. The ride-hailing company’s engineering team, doubled in size in the last year. It also follows the hiring of another Google engineering veteran Manish Gupta, who joined Lyft in August as vice president of engineering to build out the ride-hailing company’s business platforms, including enterprise, partnerships and healthcare.

Gupta will report to Eisar.

“It’s clear that Lyft is tackling one of the most interesting and world-changing engineering challenges of our lifetime, and the team has done an exceptional job innovating through dispatch, matching, pricing, and mapping to create the overall experience.” Eisar said. “The work Lyft is doing intersects with my passion of operating extremely complex systems efficiently while developing strong leaders in tech, and I couldn’t be more excited to join the team.”

Eisar will report directly to Logan Green, Lyft’s co-founder and CEO. Luc Vincent, who is vice president of Lyft’s autonomous vehicle technology program, operates separately.

During Eisar’s 15 years at Google, he led the team that built Google display, video and apps advertising products. He previously worked on the infrastructure behind Google Search. He also worked at Akamai.

Lyft has aggressively ramped up its staff and coverage in the U.S. over the past two years. And it’s paid off. The company’s ride-hailing app has more than 96 percent coverage in the U.S. and 35 percent market share.

It has also expanded Lyft Business, the company’s enterprise unit, through partnerships with organizations and companies like Starbucks, LAX,  Allstate, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, JetBlue, Delta and Blue Cross Blue Shield, as well as rolled out various other products such as a monthly subscription plan called Lyft’s All-Access.

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Corruption at DJI may cost the company $150 million

DJI, the world’s leading maker of consumer drones, said today that extensive corruption discovered within the company could lead to losses as great as $150 million in the 2018 financial year. The exact nature of the corruption is not stated, but it seems to involve dozens of people at the least.

The China Securities Journal, a state-operated finance-focused newspaper, got hold of an internal company report on a corruption investigation that said some 40 people had been investigated so far.

Reuters confirmed with the company that “set up a high-level anti-corruption task force to investigate further and strengthen anti-corruption measures,” and that “a number of corruption cases have been handed over to the authorities, and some employees have been dismissed.”

I’ve contacted DJI for more details.

“Corruption” is a versatile term, especially in China, and depending on who’s accusing whom it can carry political connotations as well. Given the large amount being blamed on the phenomenon here, one imagines it’s on the financial side — misrepresenting costs and earnings to advance careers, that sort of thing. However that is only speculation and we will almost certainly know more as DJI informs its shareholders further on the topic.

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