12 March 2019

An All-Neural On-Device Speech Recognizer




In 2012, speech recognition research showed significant accuracy improvements with deep learning, leading to early adoption in products such as Google's Voice Search. It was the beginning of a revolution in the field: each year, new architectures were developed that further increased quality, from deep neural networks (DNNs) to recurrent neural networks (RNNs), long short-term memory networks (LSTMs), convolutional networks (CNNs), and more. During this time, latency remained a prime focus — an automated assistant feels a lot more helpful when it responds quickly to requests.

Today, we're happy to announce the rollout of an end-to-end, all-neural, on-device speech recognizer to power speech input in Gboard. In our recent paper, "Streaming End-to-End Speech Recognition for Mobile Devices", we present a model trained using RNN transducer (RNN-T) technology that is compact enough to reside on a phone. This means no more network latency or spottiness — the new recognizer is always available, even when you are offline. The model works at the character level, so that as you speak, it outputs words character-by-character, just as if someone was typing out what you say in real-time, and exactly as you'd expect from a keyboard dictation system.
This video compares the production, server-side speech recognizer (left panel) to the new on-device recognizer (right panel) when recognizing the same spoken sentence. Video credit: Akshay Kannan and Elnaz Sarbar
A Bit of History
Traditionally, speech recognition systems consisted of several components - an acoustic model that maps segments of audio (typically 10 millisecond frames) to phonemes, a pronunciation model that connects phonemes together to form words, and a language model that expresses the likelihood of given phrases. In early systems, these components remained independently-optimized.

Around 2014, researchers began to focus on training a single neural network to directly map an input audio waveform to an output sentence. This sequence-to-sequence approach to learning a model by generating a sequence of words or graphemes given a sequence of audio features led to the development of "attention-based" and "listen-attend-spell" models. While these models showed great promise in terms of accuracy, they typically work by reviewing the entire input sequence, and do not allow streaming outputs as the input comes in, a necessary feature for real-time voice transcription.

Meanwhile, an independent technique called connectionist temporal classification (CTC) had helped halve the latency of the production recognizer at that time. This proved to be an important step in creating the RNN-T architecture adopted in this latest release, which can be seen as a generalization of CTC.

Recurrent Neural Network Transducers
RNN-Ts are a form of sequence-to-sequence models that do not employ attention mechanisms. Unlike most sequence-to-sequence models, which typically need to process the entire input sequence (the waveform in our case) to produce an output (the sentence), the RNN-T continuously processes input samples and streams output symbols, a property that is welcome for speech dictation. In our implementation, the output symbols are the characters of the alphabet. The RNN-T recognizer outputs characters one-by-one, as you speak, with white spaces where appropriate. It does this with a feedback loop that feeds symbols predicted by the model back into it to predict the next symbols, as described in the figure below.
Representation of an RNN-T, with the input audio samples, x, and the predicted symbols y. The predicted symbols (outputs of the Softmax layer) are fed back into the model through the Prediction network, as yu-1, ensuring that the predictions are conditioned both on the audio samples so far and on past outputs. The Prediction and Encoder Networks are LSTM RNNs, the Joint model is a feedforward network (paper). The Prediction Network comprises 2 layers of 2048 units, with a 640-dimensional projection layer. The Encoder Network comprises 8 such layers. Image credit: Chris Thornton
Training such models efficiently was already difficult, but with our development of a new training technique that further reduced the word error rate by 5%, it became even more computationally intensive. To deal with this, we developed a parallel implementation so the RNN-T loss function could run efficiently in large batches on Google's high-performance Cloud TPU v2 hardware. This yielded an approximate 3x speedup in training.

Offline Recognition
In a traditional speech recognition engine, the acoustic, pronunciation, and language models we described above are "composed" together into a large search graph whose edges are labeled with the speech units and their probabilities. When a speech waveform is presented to the recognizer, a "decoder" searches this graph for the path of highest likelihood, given the input signal, and reads out the word sequence that path takes. Typically, the decoder assumes a Finite State Transducer (FST) representation of the underlying models. Yet, despite sophisticated decoding techniques, the search graph remains quite large, almost 2GB for our production models. Since this is not something that could be hosted easily on a mobile phone, this method requires online connectivity to work properly.

To improve the usefulness of speech recognition, we sought to avoid the latency and inherent unreliability of communication networks by hosting the new models directly on device. As such, our end-to-end approach does not need a search over a large decoder graph. Instead, decoding consists of a beam search through a single neural network. The RNN-T we trained offers the same accuracy as the traditional server-based models but is only 450MB, essentially making a smarter use of parameters and packing information more densely. However, even on today's smartphones, 450MB is a lot, and propagating signals through such a large network can be slow.

We further reduced the model size by using the parameter quantization and hybrid kernel techniques we developed in 2016 and made publicly available through the model optimization toolkit in the TensorFlow Lite library. Model quantization delivered a 4x compression with respect to the trained floating point models and a 4x speedup at run-time, enabling our RNN-T to run faster than real time speech on a single core. After compression, the final model is 80MB.

Our new all-neural, on-device Gboard speech recognizer is initially being launched to all Pixel phones in American English only. Given the trends in the industry, with the convergence of specialized hardware and algorithmic improvements, we are hopeful that the techniques presented here can soon be adopted in more languages and across broader domains of application.

Acknowledgements:
Raziel Alvarez, Michiel Bacchiani, Tom Bagby, Françoise Beaufays, Deepti Bhatia, Shuo-yiin Chang, Yanzhang He, Alex Gruenstein, Anjuli Kannan, Bo Li, Qiao Liang, Ian McGraw, Ruoming Pang, Rohit Prabhavalkar, Golan Pundak, Kanishka Rao, David Rybach, Tara Sainath, Haşim Sak, June Yuan Shangguan, Matt Shannon, Mohammadinamul Sheik, Khe Chai Sim, Gabor Simko, Trevor Strohman, Mirkó Visontai, Yonghui Wu, Ding Zhao, Dan Zivkovic.

Daily Crunch: Facebook pulls Warren ads criticizing Facebook


The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Facebook’s ad team shoots itself in the foot by pulling Elizabeth Warren campaign ads

Facebook’s advertising department pulled Elizabeth Warren campaign ads touting the senator’s proposal to break up big tech. According to Politico, the offending ads were pulled over their use of the Facebook brand in their copy.

The removal appears to be short-lived, but it has given the Warren campaign ammunition for their argument.

2. Marking 30 years of the web, Tim Berners-Lee calls for a joint fight against disinformation

“If we give up on building a better web now, then the web will not have failed us,” said the inventor of the World Wide Web in an open letter. “We will have failed the web.”

3. Google paid $105 million to two executives accused of sexual harassment

The suit, filed by shareholder James Martin, confirms the board of directors approved a $90 million exit package for Andy Rubin “as a goodbye present to him. No mention, of course, was made about the true reason for Rubin’s ‘resignation’ — his egregious sexual harassment while at Google.”

4. Twitter’s new prototype app ‘twttr’ launches today

Initially, the new twttr app will focus on testing new designs for conversations. As the company demonstrated at CES, the app will show a different format for replies, where conversations themselves have a more rounded chat-like shape and are indented so they’re easier to follow.

5. Russia blocks encrypted email provider ProtonMail

The block was ordered by the state Federal Security Service, formerly the KGB, according to a Russian-language blog, which obtained and published the order after the agency accused the company and several other email providers of facilitating bomb threats.

6. Hulu and Spotify launch an even more steeply discounted bundle of $9.99 per month

This effectively lowers the price of Hulu’s ad-supported service to nothing.

7. Amazon reportedly nixes its price parity requirement for third-party sellers in the US

Amazon will stop forbidding third-party merchants who list on its e-commerce platform in the United States from selling the same products on other sites for lower prices, according to Axios.


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Harvard-MIT initiative grants $750K to projects looking to keep tech accountable


Artificial intelligence, or what passes for it, can be found in practically every major tech company and, increasingly, in government programs. A joint Harvard-MIT program just unloaded $750,000 on projects looking to keep such AI developments well understood and well reported.

The Ethics and Governance in AI Initiative is a combination research program and grant fund operated by MIT’s Media Lab and Harvard’s Berkman-Klein Center. The small projects selected by the initiative are generally speaking aimed at using technology to keep people informed, or informing people about technology.

AI is an enabler of both good and ill in the world of news and information gathering, as the initiative’s director, Tim Hwang, said in a news release:

“On one hand, the technology offers a tremendous opportunity to improve the way we work —
including helping journalists find key information buried in mountains of public records. Yet we
are also seeing a range of negative consequences as AI becomes intertwined with the spread of
misinformation and disinformation online.”

These grants are not the first the initiative has given out, but they are the first in response to an open call for ideas, Hwang noted.

The largest sum of the bunch, a $150K grant, went to MuckRock Foundation’s project Sidekick, which uses machine learning tools to help journalists scour thousands of pages of documents for interesting data. This is critical in a day and age when government and corporate records are so voluminous (for example, millions of emails leaked or revealed via FOIA) that it is basically impossible for a reporter or even team to analyze them without help.

Along the same lines is Legal Robot, which was awarded $100K for its plan to mass-request government contracts, then extract and organize the information within. This makes a lot of sense: People I’ve talked to in this sector have told me that the problem isn’t a lack of data but a surfeit of it, and poorly kept at that. Cleaning up messy data is going to be one of the first tasks any investigator or auditor of government systems will want to do.

Tattle is a project aiming to combat disinformation and false news spreading on WhatsApp, which as we’ve seen has been a major vector for it. It plans to use its $100K to establish channels for sourcing data from users, since of course much of WhatsApp is encrypted. Connecting this data with existing fact-checking efforts could help understand and mitigate harmful information going viral.

The Rochester Institute of Technology will be using its grant (also $100K) to look into detecting manipulated video, both designing its own techniques and evaluating existing ones. Close inspection of the media will render a confidence score that can be displayed via a browser extension.

Other grants are going to AI-focused reporting work by the Seattle Times and by newsrooms in Latin America, and to workshops training local media in reporting AI and how it affects their communities.

To be clear, the initiative isn’t investing in these projects — just funding them with a handful of stipulations, Hwang explained to TechCrunch over email.

“Generally, our approach is to give grantees the freedom to experiment and run with the support that we give them,” he wrote. “We do not take any ownership stake but the products of these grants are released under open licenses to ensure the widest possible distribution to the public.”

He characterized the initiative’s grants as a way to pick up the slack that larger companies seem are leaving behind as they focus on consumer-first applications like virtual assistants.

“It’s naive to believe that the big corporate leaders in AI will ensure that these technologies are being leveraged in the public interest,” wrong Hwang. “Philanthropic funding has an important role to play in filling in the gaps and supporting initiatives that envision the possibilities for AI outside the for-profit context.”

You can read more about the initiative and its grantees here.


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7 Essential Productivity Gadgets for Remote Workers

The Quick AutoHotkey Guide for Beginners


autohotkey-guide

Learning the keyboard shortcuts to your system and software changes the user experience. In most cases, it makes you more productive and able to achieve more in less time. Other shortcuts aim to improve quality of life.

AutoHotkey takes this idea one step further and allows you to create custom shortcuts for almost any task you perform on your computer. AutoHotkey is addictive once you become proficient. but for now, let’s learn the basics with this guide for beginners.

What Can AutoHotkey Do?

AutoHotkey - the shortcut scripting language

AutoHotkey is a scripting language that allows the creation of macros and scripts, typically triggered using hotkeys. Examples of common uses for AutoHotkey are:

  • Creating new shortcuts in Windows.
  • Automating data entry work and auto-filling online forms.
  • Expanding abbreviations, for instance expanding “IDK” to “I don’t know.”
  • Controlling the mouse via keyboard or joystick

How to Install AutoHotkey in Windows

AutoHotkey installer

AutoHotkey is open source and available for Windows. To install AutoHotkey, head to the official AutoHotkey website and click download. On the following screen, select Download AutoHotkey Installer and the download should begin automatically.

Installing with the default settings is recommended. But if you are using a 32-bit system, use the Custom Installation option to install the correct version. There is also a version for the ANSI character set. This is not something you’ll need, though some older scripts rely on it.

How to Use AutoHotkey

AutoHotkey help document welcome

After installation, locate AutoHotkey in the Start menu and open it. You will see the help document, which AutoHotkey has in place of a traditional GUI. The simplest way to use AutoHotkey is to use scripts already made by others. This script will convert “btw” to “by the way” every time you type it.

Download: by the way.ahk

Simple Script expanding "btw" to "by the way"

This image shows what the script contains. Double click on the script to launch it, then try it out by opening any text editor or browser window and typing btw.

The "btw" script in action

Pretty cool, but maybe not that practical. How about something you can use every day?

Try This Instant Monitor Killer

AutoHotkey can also send system commands. If you work at your computer all day, there are probably times when you won’t be actively using it but don’t want to turn it off. This script will instantly cut the signal to your screen, rather than waiting for it to time out or for a screensaver to trigger.

Download: monitor_sleep.ahk

Once downloaded, open the script and press F1. Wake it up again by moving the mouse or pressing any key on the keyboard. AutoHotkey can control many elements of your system in similar ways to this, including sending shutdown commands, open custom Windows Explorers, and even commands on the command line.

Create an AutoHotkey Script from Scratch

So far you’ve been using other people’s scripts. Now, let’s create a simple sketch from scratch which will take whatever is on our clipboard and search it with Duck Duck Go. Right click on the Windows desktop and select New > AutoHotkey Script. Alternatively, you could use any text editor or IDE of your choice, and enter the following:

#s::Run https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%clipboard% 

The #s refers to the shortcut to trigger the script. The hash symbol refers to the Windows key, meaning that Win + S is our chosen shortcut. This shortcut is reserved for Windows 10’s search function. In this case, we are overriding it, meaning the DuckDuckGo search will happen in its place. If you use the Windows search shortcut, replace this with a different letter.

The Run command is one of AutoHotkeys multi-tools. According to the documentation it will open “A document, URL, executable file (.exe, .com, .bat, etc.), shortcut (.lnk), or system verb…” In this case, AutoHotkey will open the URL in the default browser.

Finally, the ?q=%clipboard% part is a command to append the URL with the contents of the Windows clipboard.

Save and Run Your First Script

Make sure to save scripts with the AHK extension

Save the file under File > Save As, naming your file, and giving it the ahk extension. Once saved, navigate to your file and open it. It might appear that nothing has happened, but the script is now running in the background. To check if it has launched, look in the system tray in the bottom right of the screen.

Running AutoHotkey scripts can be found in the system tray

To test it out, copy any piece of text, followed by Win + S.

Instant DuckDuckGo searching with AutoHotkey

Not a bad timesaver! This program will run in the background until you close it or log off. To stop the script, right click on its system tray icon, and select Exit. Alternatively, if you only want to disable the script temporarily, select Suspend Hotkeys. The script will remain open, yet inactive until resumed.

How to Edit AutoHotkey Scripts

Let’s say you decided to switch the search to YouTube. To edit an AutoHotkey script, right click on it and select Edit Script. This will open the script in your default text editor. The URL for searching YouTube is slightly different.

#s::Run https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%clipboard%

Save the script. You can use this script straight away without closing and reopening the script. Instead, right click on the system tray icon and select Reload This Script. Copy something to your clipboard and try it out!

YouTube Searching with a Shortcut Key

This might just be the fastest possible way to search YouTube, which puts it up there with some of the best YouTube URL tricks!

Automate Your Repetitive Tasks With AutoHotkey

AutoHotkey is capable of a lot, and to say this tutorial barely scratches the surface would be an understatement. We have covered many essential AutoHotkey scripts in the past, and there are many more out there which can make your life easier.

Learning to create custom AutoHotkey scripts is also a great skill, though it is worth checking the Windows Keyboard Shortcut Ultimate Guide to see if the shortcut you want to make already exists!

Read the full article: The Quick AutoHotkey Guide for Beginners


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5 Places That Fix iPhone Screens for Cheap


iphone-screen-fix

The unthinkable has happened: you’ve dropped your iPhone, and it fell face down. You pick it up, flip it over, and the screen is shattered. Or maybe it’s just a small crack. Either way, your screen needs help.

If you have AppleCare+, this is not a huge problem. Pay $29 to Apple and your problem is solved. However, if you’ve got an older phone or don’t have AppleCare, you need to look for other options.

Fortunately, Apple is far from the only company that offers iPhone screen repair services. Here are several places that will fix your iPhone screen for cheap.

1. Office Depot

An Office Depot tech examining a phone

Office Depot has over 1,300 locations in the US, making it one of the most common places that fixes iPhone screens. It doesn’t support every model of the iPhone, but few of the services on this list do. Office Depot does service the iPhone SE through the iPhone 8, so if you’ve got a modern model you should be okay.

Pricing isn’t available up-front, but Office Depot does offer a one-year warranty on iPhone screen repairs. If you want to be extra careful, you can opt for the company’s Platinum Cell Phone Repair Plan. This costs $49 per year and gets you one repair per year; the company also promises same-day repairs.

This is actually more expensive than AppleCare+ if you keep the service for a few years. That said, if you’re on the clumsy side, it could be worth it.

2. iCracked

An iCracked iTech at work

One of the well-known services that will fix a cracked iPhone screen for you, iCracked also comes to you. Instead of heading to a store, you simply book your repair online. iCracked will then send you a few appointment options and you can pick the one that works best for you. The service supports iPhone models ranging from the 5S all the way up to the iPhone X.

Unlike some services, you don’t have to live in one of a few select cities in order for iCracked to come to you. The company has more than 5,000 repair technicians around the United States that it refers to as “iTechs.” With this many technicians, you have a good shot at finding one local to you. Of course, if you live in a shack on top of an isolated mountain, you might need to meet the technician at a nearby coffee shop.

Simply signing up and requesting a repair doesn’t mean you’re obligated to spend any money. Once you talk to an iTech, they’ll give you an estimate and you can decide whether to move forward. The iCracked website says pricing is depending on your local market and how extensive the damage is.

Typically, you can expect to spend around $99 for a fix, and the service offers a limited lifetime warranty.

3. Amazon Home Services

Amazon Home Services iPhone repair screenshot

A relative newcomer to the world of iPhone screen repair, Amazon Home Services can be a solid option depending on where you live. It doesn’t offer as wide-ranging service as a company like iCracked, but it could end up costing you less money. If you live in or near a city supported by Amazon Home Services, it may even be the cheapest option.

Similar to iCracked, Amazon Home Services matches you up with a local technician who will then fix your cracked iPhone screen. The service supports repairs for iPhones ranging from the 5S all the way up to the iPhone 8 Plus. Unless you’ve got a brand-new or super-old iPhone, this should have you covered.

Prices vary based on your exact device, but will generally run from $80 to $120 depending on the model and size of your phone. As you might imagine, it’s cheaper to fix an iPhone 5S screen than the screen on the iPhone 8 Plus.

4. uBreakiFix

A UbreakiFix location

With 450 locations across the US, uBreakiFix is the only service on this list that supports repairs on every model of iPhone. From the ancient 2G model all the way up to the iPhone XS Max, uBreakiFix will repair it. But that’s not the only great feature of this service.

Unlike most other iPhone screen repair services, uBreakiFix actually lists estimated repair costs on its website. For example, the service lists the estimated cost of repairing a cracked iPhone SE screen at $89. That may not be the cheapest option you’ll find if you call around, but it’s nice that the company makes it so easy to find out.

A screen repair will take an hour or less, and the service offers a 90-day warranty.

5. Cellairis

A Cellairis image of a falling iPhone

Many screen repair services like uBreakiFix usually appear in the form of a kiosk. In the case of Cellairis, you’ll often find these kiosks located in Walmart stores. If you don’t live in a major city but do live close to a Walmart, this may be your easiest option. That said, while Cellairis has locations in 47 states, not every Walmart has a Cellairis kiosk.

This service promises low prices, but doesn’t give any estimates on its site. Instead, you’ll need to either take your phone to a kiosk or give the company a call to find out. The company promises fast repairs, saying your phone will usually be fixed in 45 minutes or less.

Cellairis supports screen repair for models from the iPhone 5 up to the iPhone XS Max. This means the service should work for you unless you have a seriously old phone. The only real downside we can find is the service’s awkward name.

Fix Your iPhone Screen Yourself

While all the above options are often cheaper than taking your phone to the Apple Store, there’s a cheaper option still. First, take a look at our guide to what you should do after cracking your phone’s screen. Then explore your options.

If you consider yourself handy, you could always try fixing the screen yourself. You still need the parts, but you can buy a kit online from iCracked. Other companies sell kits as well.

While this is cheaper than having someone else fix your phone, it’s also riskier. Even once you’ve completed the repair, you may end up with dark spots on your screen or other issues. Still, if you’re confident or not particularly attached to your phone, it’s a good way to save some money.

If you’re not sure how to fix your iPhone screen, YouTube has plenty of tutorial videos.

Other Issues With Your iPhone?

A cracked screen might be one of the worst fates to befall your phone, but it’s far from the only one. One of the other dreaded mistakes is dropping your phone in water or getting it wet some other way.

Newer iPhones are water-resistant, but this doesn’t apply to older models. If you’ve gotten your phone wet, we’ve got a guide that explains how to fix a water-damaged iPhone.

Read the full article: 5 Places That Fix iPhone Screens for Cheap


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How to Find the Perfect Resume for You on Canva


canva-perfect-resume

The job market is tough, and making resumes is worse. Searching for a job can be a job unto itself. Which is why you need to have Canva on your side at this trying time.

In this article, we show you how to find the perfect resume template for you on Canva. And then show you how to customize that template to better fit your individual needs.

What Is Canva?

Canva landing page for browsing templates

Canva is a template website that helps you publish beautifully designed documents for every subject, ranging from birthday cards to invoices. It’s perfect for anyone who needs to create something for web or print, but who doesn’t have the skills or time. It’s also free, with options for paid designs available.

Step 1: Know Your Job Market

Indeed job search for Content Writer

The first thing you need to do—before you even build your resume—is to actually know your job market. You need to know what industry you want to target, and what they’re looking for.

We strongly recommend targeting one or two industries max for your job search. If you throw your net wider, your resume will end up being too generalized. There’s also the risk of running out of time to customize your resume for different fields.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, we have a rundown of the best job search engines to try. Searching through these websites for specific keywords will give you a good idea as to what kind of jobs are out there, and where.

After you know which markets you want to target, figure out what you need to say. Is this an industry you’re already in? Just talk about your experience. Is this an industry you want to break into? Then play up your skills related to the field.

Look into resources within your industry that can improve your skills. If your potential job involves being active online, have a social media presence as proof-of-concept. Above all, network with your peers, both online and offline.

For the purpose of this exercise, let’s keep it simple, and say you want a job in content writing. The company you’re targeting? A website that rounds up the best cake and confectionary news in your city. Let’s try to find a perfect resume for it.

Step 2: Search Canva

Using the search bar on Canva

First, make sure you’re signed up for Canva. Once you’re signed up, use Canva’s search function and type in Resume. It will automatically call up a list of templates.

These templates will be divided into different categories depending on what kind of job you want. At the very bottom will be a full list of all templates available in that category. Because you’re tailoring your resume for a social media position, the best thing to keep in mind is to find a resume that follows the trends of current web design. Those trends are:

  • Modern
  • Minimalistic
  • Lots of white space to help content stand out

Think “glossy” and “sleek”.

Finding a minimalist resume on Canva

With that in mind, let’s search for something under the Minimalist Resume category. I like this design because it’s got a clean, eye-catching look that mimics the downwards scroll of content on a webpage. This is important if someone is viewing the resume on a screen.

Step 3: Keep It Simple; Words Are Important

Filling out work experience on a Canva resume

You want to pick a resume that mirrors the industry you’re applying to because you want to show them that you understand their purpose. However, you don’t want a resume that looks identical to the company’s branding. If it’s too similar to their official website, your personality won’t shine through.

This is where customization comes in handy.

Once you have your template picked out, fill in your work details. The most important thing to keep in mind is clarity. Keep your resume to one page if possible.

State your name and professional profile—a short, two-sentence blurb explaining your specialty—along with contact details. Next, name your program proficiencies required for the position, along with your most relevant work experience.

Because this resume is for a website about confectionary, focus on your experience related to content writing and online management. Anything that has to do with food—like working in a bakery—would also help, because it shows that you know the product.

Sell yourself as the expert that you know you are. Use terms relevant to your field while also keeping your writing accessible. Don’t be wordy for no reason.

Step 4: Visuals Are Important Too

Customizing font and color on a Canva resume

Once you’ve got your content down, it’s time to customize the design. You can change the font to make it more suitable for the company you’re applying to, but keep it legible. You can also switch the colors of the template to mirror the company’s branding. It will be a subtle nod to their overall culture and show that you’re good with detail.

Once this is done, you’re ready to download your finished template and apply for the job.

You can also create a cover letter with Canva to match your resume. However, if you’re sending the application by email, we recommend that you put the cover letter in the body of the email unless people ask otherwise. There’s no need to tell them the same thing twice.

Bonus: Create Your Own Template for Other Jobs

How to copy your resume template on Canva

Let’s say you really like the changes that you made to this resume. Let’s also say that you want to reuse this template for similar jobs without having to redesign it from scratch. To do this, simply create a copy of your finished template using Canva’s built-in function. Then give it a meaningful title like “Full Name – Social Media Resume.”

Now whenever you apply to a job with similar parameters, you can quickly call it up and tweak the font and color as needed. Then you’re good to go.

Good Luck With the Job Hunt!

Sticking to these basic steps to finding and customizing a resume on Canva will get you pointed in the right direction. Once you have them down, the job search should prove far less daunting.

Are you interested in using Canva for other designs to make your life easier? Then check out our list of things you can create with Canva.

Read the full article: How to Find the Perfect Resume for You on Canva


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Upgrade Your Mac with 8 Top-Rated Apps for $29.99


Every Mac comes equipped with a list of great apps. But that doesn’t mean OS X can’t be improved. If you want to work smarter and get creative, the Epic Mac Bundle can help. This collection of top-rated apps includes Fantastical 2, PDF Expert, and many more powerful tools. Right now, you can get all eight apps for just $29.99 over at MakeUseOf Deals.

Instant Upgrade

https://www.youtube.com/embed/WmiIZU2slwU

Under normal circumstances, you might think twice about paying $50 for a productivity app. But with this bundle, high-quality software is genuinely affordable.

Heading the bill is Fantastical 2, a powerful replacement for Calendars. This app lets you create events using natural language, and you can set smart reminders based on your location. It syncs with most cloud calendars, and you get live travel updates.

PDF Expert is another headliner. This app lets you work with PDF files as if they were Word files. With a couple of clicks, you can correct typos, add images, and annotate documents. It’s a fast reader, too.

The bundle also includes WYSIWYG website builder, Flux 7, and elite task manager, Pagico 8. You can switch between apps seamlessly with Command-Tab Plus, while iStat Menus 6 provides live information about your Mac. iLocker Pro lets you password-protect specific apps, and Ultdata Recovery can bring back files from the dead.

8 Top-Rated Apps for $29.99

These apps are worth $478 put together, but you can get them bundled now for just $29.99.

Read the full article: Upgrade Your Mac with 8 Top-Rated Apps for $29.99


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5 Automatic Citation Apps That Make Bibliographies Easier to Write


Automatic Citation Tools

Writing your homework or a research paper? Steer clear of the iceberg called plagiarism. A bibliography or a simple reference list can be the lifeguard. It’s not only academic writing but any writing that can benefit from the proper citation of sources. Different citation styles like MLA, APA, and Chicago solve one problem only to open another.

You must be precise when using them because each citation style has a different format. But again, free online citation tools can save you a few buckets of sweat. Here are five automatic citation apps for writing accurate bibliographies.

1. Citationsy (Web, Chrome, Mac)

Manage Your Citations With Citationsy

Citationsy is a new clean tool for creating citations, reference lists, and bibliographies. The developer built this as an alternative when CiteThisForMe bought the popular RefMe. The idea was to combine the latter’s ease with more automatic reference management features. Use this power-packed free tool to create a bib­liography in one of over 9000 styles—APA, Harvard, DIN, Chicago, and many more.

You just have to past a link and Citationsy will find all the information needed to cite it. The Chrome extension also makes it easy with a click on the icon. Want to cite a book? There’s a database of all published books behind the engine. So type the name to fetch the reference. Archive any links you have cited.

Archive the links you have cited so that they are preserved forever. And download them in a format of your choice like Microsoft Word, EndNote, BibTeX, RefWorks, or CSL.

Download: Citationsy for iOS (Free)

Download: Citationsy for macOS (Free)

Download: Citationsy for Chrome (Free)

2. Citeshare (Chrome)

Properly cite a website using APA or MLA

Citeshare is one of the quickest citation tools for web articles you can find anywhere. The Chrome extension supports only APA or MLA though. But you just have to load the online article in your browser and cite it with a click on the extension.

The Chrome extension is meant to quickly cite and share articles for reference. For instance, you can use the extension when you want to share a quote from an online article. It’s a no hassle route for non-academics who want to quote from a resource.

Download: Citeshare for Chrome

3. Formatically (Web)

Instant Citation tool

Using citation tools can get boring. That’s why the Instant Citation Manager from Formatically does two things well. It presents a beautiful interface and then makes the whole process fast. It has a manual citation wizard, but when you are trying to finish a paper in a hurry, you will prefer the automatic tool.

Formatically says it can help you create your entire bibliography in under 11 seconds. It supports MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard citations for books, websites, audio, video, artworks, dictionary entries, and more.

This umbrella over the sheer variety of content you find online is the key benefit of the Instant Citation Manager.

4. JabRef (Windows, Linux, and macOS)

An open source bibliography reference manager

JabRef is an Open Source bibliography reference manager. The software runs on Java VM and uses the LaTeX bibliography format. If you work a lot with BibTex files then you will appreciate this editor. Yes, the format and the tool is designed for scientific researchers but it’s useful to have around as few citation tools work with this format.

You can search and download from sources like arXiv, CiteseerX, Google Scholar, Medline, GVK, IEEEXplore, and Springer.  You can then generate the citations and also format them in other styles.

A Firefox add-on makes it easier to import bibliographic information from the web too.

5. Mendeley (Windows, Android, iOS)

Create bibliographies with Mendeley

Mendeley can help you format your bibliographies, but it is also more than that. It is a document management software too. It’s a powerful tool for high-school students and researchers in any field. You can use it in three stages:

Add papers to Mendeley from the browser, desktop, or mobile instead of scattering them all around.

Use the Reference Manager to organize your research and collaborate with others with your notes and annotations.

Then use the Citation plugin to generate citations and bibliographies in Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, and LaTeX. The software supports more than 8000 citation styles. The almost cross platform support makes it easier to do your work from anywhere.

The Citation plugin can be used with Microsoft Word (Windows, Mac) or Libre Office (All platforms).

Download: Mendeley for Windows, macOS, Linux (Free)

Download: Mendeley for iOS | Android (Free)

Make Bibliographies Easy

These bibliography tools save you a lot of time and headaches. They make the process easy and automatic. But it’s also important to learn the nuances of the citation styles on your own so that you can spot the mistakes a software can make. Remember, you might get away with a poor citation in a blog or a school assignment. But academic work demands accuracy.

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Twitter launches its first podcast, ‘Character Count,’ focused on its ad business


Twitter today is joining the podcasting arena. This morning, the social network is launching its first-ever podcast series with a new show focused on Twitter’s advertising business, which it’s calling “Character Count.” The company says, for now, it’s testing the waters with five already-produced episodes of around 25 to 30 minutes in length. It plans to wait to record more shows after getting the crowd’s reaction to the first few episodes, so it can make adjustments if need be.

The podcast will be hosted by Joe Wadlington, a marketer at Twitter who’s specifically supporting Twitter’s Business initiatives.

Each episode will involve talking to people behind the scenes of some of Twitter’s advertising stories, including the Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq), Dropbox (@dropbox), and Simon & Schuster (@SimonBooks). The companies will speak about how they built effective ad campaigns and why Twitter’s audience mattered to them. The goal, says Twitter, is to offer others in the industry a look into which brands are “doing it right on Twitter,” and potentially spark more brands to do the same.

The launch of the podcast arrives when Twitter is trying to shift Wall Street’s attention away from the network’s stagnant user growth. Twitter recently said it would stop reporting monthly users, in favor of daily users, as a result of its inability to grow this key number. The change was announced in Twitter’s Q4 2018 earnings release, where the company said it had lost another 5 million monthly users in the final quarter of 2018 bringing its total down to 321 million.

Instead, Twitter wants more attention on its ability to turn a profit from the users it does have – as it did in Q4 for the fifth quarter in a row, and the fifth time ever. Its Q4 revenues were $909 million, which were more than the expected $868.1 million and up 24 percent on the year ago quarter. Advertising accounted for 87 percent of those revenues, Twitter said. It’s no surprise, then, that Twitter now wants to help advertisers learn from others succeeding in this space and grow that figure further.

Twitter is not the only company that’s tapping into the popular audio format of podcasting to talk to advertisers and marketers more directly.

In January, Facebook also launched its first U.S. podcast with a series focused on entrepreneurship – the larger, unspoken goal being to position Facebook as a place where entrepreneurs come to advertise their business. And somewhat related, LinkedIn debuted LinkedIn Live, a new video broadcast service which gives people and organizations the ability to stream real-time videos to groups in a sort of cross between YouTube Live and video podcasting, perhaps.

Twitter, like Facebook and LinkedIn, will not be running other ads within its programming. That makes sense, as the podcast itself is effectively an ad for Twitter’s business and advertising tools.

New episodes will debut every two weeks on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and Stitcher.


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Adobe Is Finally Killing Shockwave


Adobe Shockwave will soon be a thing of the past. And most people will agree that this is long overdue. Shockwave is old technology, and with the majority of people having moved onto newer and better alternatives, Adobe has decided Shockwave’s time is up.

What Is Adobe Shockwave?

Adobe Shockwave is a browser-based multimedia platform used to create interactive applications. To view the content, users need to install the Shockwave player. Shockwave was popular through the 90s and 00s, but has now been superseded by new technologies.

Adobe states that killing Shockwave and the Shockwave player for Windows is “the last step in a multi-year process”. Which is borne out by the fact that both Adobe Director and the Shockwave player for macOS were both discontinued in 2017.

Adobe Shockwave Is No More

Now, as first reported by Ghacks, Adobe is killing Shockwave altogether, citing the fact that “usage of Shockwave has declined”. Therefore, Adobe is discontinuing Shockwave (the platform) and removing the Shockwave player for Windows.

According to Adobe Support, on April 9, 2019, “Shockwave will be discontinued and the Shockwave player for Windows will no longer be available for download. Enterprise customers “will continue to receive support until the end of their current contracts.”

The end of Shockwave means Adobe is focusing on its Creative Cloud instead. And the company cites the use of “Adobe Animate CC for authoring interactive content for multiple platforms, such [as] HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, Flash/Adobe AIR, and others”.

Good Riddance to Shockwave

With the number of websites that now use it being so low, it’s time for Shockwave to go. And because of the constant need to update Shockwave, and the security issues that constantly arose, we’re not sorry to see the back of this Adobe plugin.

Shockwave isn’t the only Adobe plugin being killed off either. As we reported in 2017, Adobe is killing Flash in 2020. Flash will eventually go away 10 years after Steve Jobs campaigned for it to die. But sadly, Flash outlived the Apple founder himself.

Image Credit: Toshiyuki IMAI/Flickr

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Facebook’s ad team shoots itself in the foot by pulling Elizabeth Warren campaign ads


Facebook’s gang that couldn’t shoot straight advertising department has made another blunder, this time by pulling Elizabeth Warren campaign ads touting the Senator’s proposal to break up big tech.

The offending ads were pulled, according to Politico, over their use of the Facebook brand in their copy.

Meanwhile, other ads that the Senator’s Presidential campaign had run which addressed the plan to unwind various acquisitions by Facebook, Amazon, and Alphabet (the parent company of Google) were not removed from Facebook.

Indeed, the removal appears to be short-lived, but has given the Warren campaign ammunition for their argument and numerous headlines, tweets, and retweets.

“We removed the ads because they violated our policies against use of our corporate logo,” a Facebook spokesperson told Buzzfeed’s Ryan Mac. “In the interest of allowing robust debate, we are restoring the ads.”

That’s a good move for the Facebook public relations team, especially since the ads reportedly didn’t include Facebook’s logo.

But the damage has already been done. It provides fodder to Warren’s argument that big tech has too much power and control over the way information is disseminated — especially on its own platforms.

This incident may be a tempest in a teapot, but it will calcify positions on the left and the right about the self-interest of big technology and these companies’ ability to regulate content on their own platforms to the detriment of free speech — even in advertising.


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Instagram founders say losing autonomy at Facebook meant “winning”


Rather than be sore about losing independence within Facebook, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom told me it was an inevitable sign of his app’s triumph. Today at South By South West, Systrom and fellow co-founder Mike Krieger sat down for their first on-stage talk together since leaving Facebook in September. They discussed their super hero origin stories, authenticity on social media, looming regulation for big tech, and how they’re exploring what they’ll do next.

Krieger grew up hitting “view source” on websites while Systrom hacked on AOL booter programs that would kick people off instant messenger, teaching both how code could impact real people. As Instagram grew popular, Krieger described the “incredi-bad” feeling of fighting server fires and trying to keep the widely loved app online even if that meant programming in the middle of a sushi restaurant or camping retreat. He once even revived Instagram while drunk in the middle of the night, and woke up with no memory of the feat, confused about who’d fixed the problem. The former Instagram CTO implored founders not to fall into the “recruiting death spiral” where you’re too busy to recruit which makes you busier which makes you too busy to recruit…

But thankfully, the founders were also willing to dig into some tougher topics than their scrappy startup days.

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger (from left) drive to Palo Alto to raise their Series A, circa January 2011

Independence vs Importance.

“In some ways, there being less autonomy is a function of Instagram winning. If Instagram had just been this niche photo app for photographers, we probably would be working on that app for 20 year. Instead what happened was it got better and better and better, and it improved, and it got to a size where it was meaningfully important to this company” Systrom explained. “If this thing gets to that scale that we want it to get to which is why we’re doing this deal, the autonomy will eventually not be there as much because it’s so important. So in some ways it’s just an unavoidable thing if you’re successful. So you can choose, do you want to be unsuccessful and small and have all the autonomy in the world, or no?”

AUSTIN, TX – MARCH 11: Mike Krieger speaks onstage at Interactive Keynote: Instagram Founders Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger with Josh Constine during the 2019 SXSW Conference and Festivals at Austin Convention Center on March 11, 2019 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Chris Saucedo/Getty Images for SXSW)

Krieger followed up that “I think if you study . . . all the current companies, the ones that succeed internally eventually have become so important to the acquiring company that it’s almost irresponsible to not be thinking about what are the right models for integration. The advice I generally give is, ‘are you okay with that if you succeed?’ And if you’re not then you shouldn’t do the deal.” If the loss of autonomy can’t be avoided, they suggest selling to a rocket ship that will invest in and care for your baby rather than shift priorities.

Asked if seeing his net worth ever feels surreal, Systrom said  money doesn’t make you happy and “I don’t really wake up in the morning and look at my bank account.” I noted that’s the convenient privilege of having a big one.

The pair threw cold water on the idea that being forced to earn more money drove them out of the company. “I remember having this series of conversations with Mark and other folks at Facebook and they’re like ‘You guys just joined, do not worry about monetization, we’ll figure this out down the road.’ And it actually came a lot more from us saying “1. It’s important for us to be contributing to the overall Fb Inc . . . and 2. Each person who joins before you have ads is a person you’re going to have to introduce ads to.” Systrom added that “to be clear, we were the ones pushing monetization, not the other way around, because we believed Instagram has to make money somehow. It costs a lot to run . . . We pushed hard on it so that we would be a successful unit within Facebook and I think we got to that point, which is really good.”

But from 2015 to 2016, Instagram’s remaining independence fueled a reinvention of its app with non-square photos, the shift to the algorithm, and the launch of Stories. On having to challenge the fundamental assumptions of a business, “You’ve got maybe a couple years of relevance when you build a product. If you don’t reinvent it every quarter or every year, then you fall out of relevance and you go away.”

That last launch was inspired by wanting to offer prismatic identity where people could share non-highlights that wouldn’t haunt them. But also, Systrom admits that “Honestly a big reason why was that for a long time, people’s profiles were filled with Snapchat links and it was clear that people were trying to bridge the two products. So by bringing the two products [Feed and Stories] into one place, we gave consumers what they wanted.” Though when I asked anyone in the crowd who was still mad about the algorithm to hiss, SXSW turned into a snake pit.

Regulating Big Tech

With Systrom and Krieger gone, Facebook is moving forward with plans to more tightly integrate Instagram with Facebook and WhatsApp. That includes unifying their messaging system, which some say is designed to make Facebook’s apps harder to break up with anti-trust regulation. What does Systrom think of the integration? “The more people that are available to talk with, the more useful the platform becomes. And I buy that thesis . . . Whether or not they will in fact want to talk to people on different platforms, I can’t tell the future, so I don’t know” Systrom said.

AUSTIN, TX – MARCH 11: Josh Constine, Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom speak onstage at Interactive Keynote: Instagram Founders Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger with Josh Constine during the 2019 SXSW Conference and Festivals at Austin Convention Center on March 11, 2019 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Chris Saucedo/Getty Images for SXSW)

Krieger recommended Facebook try to prove users want that cross-app messaging before embarking on a giant engineering challenge of merging their backends. When I asked if Systrom ever had a burning desire to Instagram Direct message a WhatsApp user, he admitted “Personally, no.” But in a show of respect and solid media training, he told his former employer “Bravo for making a big bet and going for it.”

Then it was time for the hardest hitting question: their thoughts on Presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to regulate big tech and roll back Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram. “Do we get our job back?” Systrom joked, trying to diffuse the tension. Krieger urged more consideration of downstream externalities, and specificity on what problem a break up fixes. He wants differentiation between regulating Facebook’s acquisitions, Amazon white-labeling and selling products, and Apple’s right to run the only iOS App Store.

Acquisition vs Competition

“We live in a time where I think the anger against big tech has increased ten-fold — whether that’s because the property prices in your neighborhood have gone up, whether it’s because you don’t like Russian meddling in elections — there are a long list of reasons people are angry at tech right now and some of them I think are well-founded” Systrom confirmed. “That doesn’t mean that the answer is to break all the companies up. Breaking companies up is a very specific prescription for a very specific problem. If you want to fix economic issues there are ways of doing that. If you want to fix Russian meddling there are ways of doing that. Breaking up a company doesn’t fix those problems. That doesn’t mean that companies shouldn’t be broken up if they get too big and they’re monopolies and they cause problems, but being big in and of itself is not a crime.”

attends Interactive Keynote: Instagram Founders Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger with Josh Constine during the 2019 SXSW Conference and Festivals at Austin Convention Center on March 11, 2019 in Austin, Texas

Systrom then took a jab at Warren’s tech literacy, saying “part of what’s surprised me is that generally the policy is all tech should be broken up, and that feels to me again not nuanced enough and it shows me that the understanding of the problem isn’t there. I think it’s going to take a more nuanced proposal, but my fear is that something like a proposal to break up all tech is playing on everyone’s current feeling of anti-tech rather than doing what I think politicians should do which is address real problems and give real solutions.”

The two founders then gave some pretty spurious logic for why Instagram’s acquisition helped consumers. “As someone who ran the company for how many years inside of Facebook? Six? There was a lot of competition internally even and I think better ideas came out because of it. We grew both companies not just one company. It’s really hard question. What consumer was damaged because it grew to the size that it did? I think that’s a strong argument that in fact the acquisition worked out for consumers.” That ignores the fact that if Instagram and Facebook were rivals, they’d have to compete on privacy and treating their users well. Even if they inspired each other to build more engaging products, that doesn’t address where harm to consumers has been done.

Krieger suggested that the acquisition actually spurred competition by making Instagram a role modeI. “There was a gold rush of companies being like ‘I’m going to be the Instagram of X . . . the Instagram of Audio, the Instagram of video, the Instagram of dog photos.’ You saw people start new companies and try to build them out in order to try to achieve what we’ve gotten to.” Yet no startup besides Snapchat, which had already launched, has actually grown to rival Instagram. And seeing Instagram hold its own against the Facebook empire would have likely inspired many more startups — some of which can’t find funding since investors doubt their odds against a combined Facebook and Instagram

As for what’s next for the college buddies, “we’re giving ourselves the time to get curious about things again” Krieger says. They’re still exploring so there was no big reveal about their follow-up venture. But Systrom says they built Instagram by finding the mega-trend of cameras on phones and asking what they’d want to use, “and the question is, what’s the next wave?”


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