A Summary of the Google Flood Forecasting Meets Machine Learning Workshop

Posted by Sella Nevo, Senior Software Engineer and Rainier Aliment, Program Manager

Recently, we hosted the Google Flood Forecasting Meets Machine Learning workshop in our Tel Aviv office, which brought hydrology and machine learning experts from Google and the broader research community to discuss existing efforts in this space, build a common vocabulary between these groups, and catalyze promising collaborations. In line with our belief that machine learning has the potential to significantly improve flood forecasting efforts and help the hundreds of millions of people affected by floods every year, this workshop discussed improving flood forecasting by aggregating and sharing large data sets, automating calibration and modeling processes, and applying modern statistical and machine learning tools to the problem.

Panel on challenges and opportunities in flood forecasting, featuring (from left to right): Prof. Paolo Burlando (ETH Zürich), Dr. Tyler Erickson (Google Earth Engine), Dr. Peter Salamon (Joint Research Centre) and Prof. Dawei Han (University of Bristol).

The event was kicked off by Google's Yossi Matias, who discussed recent machine learning work and its potential relevance for flood forecasting, crisis response and AI for Social Good, followed by two introductory sessions aimed at bridging some of the knowledge gap between the two fields - introduction to hydrology for computer scientists by Prof. Peter Molnar of ETH Zürich, and introduction to machine learning for hydrologists by Prof. Yishay Mansour of Tel Aviv University and Google

Included in the 2-day event was a wide range of fascinating talks and posters across the flood forecasting landscape, from both hydrologic and machine learning points of view.

An overview of research areas in flood forecasting addressed in the workshop.

Presentations from the research community included:

• Dr. Dhanya C. T. of IIT Delhi gave a talk on satellite precipitation error characterization.
  
• Adarsh M. S., Assistant Director of the Indian Ministry of Water Resources presented India's Central Water Commission's role and challenges.
  
• Prof. Andras Bardossy of the University of Stuttgart discussed variation in discharge series and the challenges this presents.
  
• Frederik Kratzert of Johannes Kepler University presented recent work on hydrologic modeling using LSTMs.
  
• Prof. Paul Bates of the University of Bristol gave a keynote on the potential uses of machine learning in inundation modelling.
  
• Prof. Emmanouil Anagnostou of the University of Connecticut spoke about hyper-resolution hydrologic simulations at global-scale.
  
• Prof. Efrat Morin of the Hebrew University highlighted flood prediction challenges in dry climate regions.
  
• Dr. Zachary Flamig of the University of Chicago presented NASA's new global flash flood prediction project.
  

Alongside these talks, we presented the various efforts across Google to try and improve flood forecasting and foster collaborations in the field, including:

• Vova Anisimov presented our progress in hydraulic modeling.
  
• Ami Weisel presented our research on remote discharge estimation.
  
• Stephan Hoyer presented our work on data-driven discretization approach to solving partial differential equations.
  
• Jason Hickey presented our efforts using machine learning for precipitation prediction.
  
• Avinatan Hassidim presented lessons learned from previous projects in Google, and how they apply to our flood forecasting efforts.
  

Additionally, at this workshop we piloted an experimental "ML Consultation" panel, where Googlers Gal Elidan, Sasha Goldshtein and Doron Kukliansky gave advice on how to best use machine learning in several hydrology-related tasks. Finally, we concluded the workshop with a moderated panel on the greatest challenges and opportunities in flood forecasting, with hydrology experts Prof. Paolo Burlando of ETH Zürich, Prof. Dawei Han of the University of Bristol, Dr. Peter Salamon of the Joint Research Centre and Dr. Tyler Erickson of Google Earth Engine.
Flood forecasting is an incredibly important and challenging task that is one part of our larger AI for Social Good efforts. We believe that effective global-scale solutions can be achieved by combining modern techniques with the domain expertise already existing in the field. The workshop was a great first step towards creating much-needed understanding, communication and collaboration between the flood forecasting community and the machine learning community, and we look forward to our continued engagement with the broad research community to tackle this challenge.

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Avinatan Hassidim, Carla Bromberg, Doron Kukliansky, Efrat Morin, Gal Elidan, Guy Shalev, Jennifer Ye, Nadav Rabani and Sasha Goldshtein for their contributions to making this workshop happen.

Luna 2

Luna 2

EU gov’t and public health sites lousy with adtech, study finds

A study of tracking cookies running on government and public sector health websites in the European Union has found commercial adtech to be operating pervasively even in what should be core not-for-profit corners of the Internet.

The researchers used searches including queries related to HIV, mental health, pregnancy, alcoholism and cancer to examine how frequently European Internet users are tracked when accessing national health service webpages to look for publicly funded information about sensitive concerns.

The study also found that most EU government websites have commercial trackers embedded on them, with 89 per cent of official government websites found to contain third party ad tracking technology.

The research was carried out by Cookiebot using its own cookie scanning technology to examine trackers on public sector websites, scanning 184,683 pages on all 28 EU main government websites.

Only the Spanish, German and the Dutch websites were found not to contain any commercial trackers.

The highest number of tracking companies were present on the websites of the French (52), Latvian (27), Belgian (19) and Greek (18) governments.

The researchers also ran a sub-set of 15 health-related queries across six EU countries (UK, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy and Germany) to identify relevant landing pages hosted on the websites of the corresponding national health service — going on to count and identify tracking domains operating on the landing pages.

Overall, they found a majority (52 per cent) of landing pages on the national health services of the six EU countries contained third party trackers.

Broken down by market, the Irish health service ranked worst — with 73 per cent of landing pages containing trackers.

While the UK, Spain, France and Italy had trackers on 60 per cent, 53 per cent, 47 per cent and 47 per cent of landing pages, respectively.

Germany ranked lowest of the six, yet they still found a third of the health service landing pages contained trackers.

Searches on publicly funded health service sites being compromised by the presence of adtech suggests highly sensitive inferences could be being made about web users by the commercial companies behind the trackers.

Cookiebot found a very long list of companies involved — flagging for example how 63 companies were monitoring a single German webpage about maternity leave; and 21 different companies were monitoring a single French webpage about abortion.

“Vulnerable citizens who seek official health advice are shown to be suffering sensitive personal data leakage,” it writes in the report. “Their behaviour on these sites can be used to infer sensitive facts about their health condition and life situation. This data will be processed and often resold by the ad tech industry, and is likely to be used to target ads, and potentially affect economic outcomes, such as insurance risk scores.”

“These citizens have no clear way to prevent this leakage, understand where their data is sent, or to correct or delete the data,” it warns. 

It’s worth noting that Cookiebot and its parent company Cybot’s core business is related to selling EU data protection compliance services. So it’s not without its own commercial interests here. Though there’s no doubting the underlying adtech sprawl the report flags.

Where there’s some fuzziness is around exactly what these trackers are doing, as some could be used for benign site functions like website analytics.

Albeit, if/when the owner of the freebie analytics services in question is also adtech giant Google that still may not feel reassuring, from a privacy point of view.

100+ firms tracking EU public sector site users

Across both government and health service websites, Cookiebot says it identified a total of 112 companies using trackers that send data to a total of 131 third party tracking domains.

It also found 10 companies which actively masked their identity — with no website hosted at their tracking domains, and domain ownership (WHOIS) records hidden by domain privacy services, meaning they could not be identified. That’s obviously of concern. 

Here’s the table of identified tracking companies — which, disclosure alert, includes AOL and Yahoo which are owned by TechCrunch’s parent company, Verizon.

Adtech giants Google and Facebook are also among adtech companies tracking users across government and health service websites, along with a few other well known tech names — such as Oracle, Microsoft and Twitter.

Cookiebot’s study names Google “the kingpin of tracking” — finding the company performed more than twice as much tracking as any other, seemingly as a result of Google owning several of the most dominant ad tracking domains.

Google-owned YouTube.com, DoubleClick.net and Google.com were the top three tracking domains IDed by the study. 

“Through the combination of these domains, Google tracks website visits to 82% of the EU’s main government websites,” Cookiebot writes. “On each of the 22 main government websites on which YouTube videos have been installed, YouTube has automatically loaded a tracker from DoubleClick.net (Google’s primary ad serving domain). Using DoubleClick.net and Google.com, Google tracks visits to 43% of the scanned health service landing pages.”

 

“Given its control of many of the Internet’s top platforms (Google Analytics, Maps, YouTube, etc.), it is no surprise that Google has greater success at gaining tracking access to more webpages than anyone else,” it continues. “It is of special concern that Google is capable of cross-referencing its trackers with its 1st party account details from popular consumer-oriented services such as Google Mail, Search, and Android apps (to name a few) to easily associate web activity with the identities of real people.”

Under European data protection law “subjective” information that’s associated with an individual — such as opinions or assessments — is absolutely considered personal data.

So tracker-fuelled inferences being made about site visitors are subject to EU data protection law — which has even more strict rules around the processing of sensitive categories of information like health data.

That in turn suggests that any adtech companies doing third-party-tracking of Internet users and linking sensitive health queries to individual identities would need explicit user consent to do so.

The presence of adtech trackers on sensitive health data pages certainly raises plenty of questions.

We asked Google for a response to the Cookiebot report, and a spokesperson sent us the following statement regarding sensitive category data specifically — in which it claims: “We do not permit publishers to use our technology to collect or build targeting lists based on users’ sensitive information, including health conditions like pregnancy or HIV.”

Google also claims it does not itself infer sensitive user interest categories.

Furthermore it said its policies for personalized ads prohibit its advertisers from collecting or using sensitive interest categories to target users. (Though saying you’re telling someone not to do something is not the same as that thing not being done. That would depend on the enforcement.)

Google’s spokesperson was also keen to point to its EU user consent policy — where it says it requires site owners that use its services to ensure they have correct disclosures and consents for personalised ads and cookies from European end users.

The company warns it may suspend or terminate a site’s use of its services if they have not obtained the right disclosures and consents. It adds there’s no exception for government sites.

On tags and disclosure generally, the Google spokesperson provided the following comment: “Our policies are clear: If website publishers choose to use Google web or advertising products, they must obtain consent for cookies associated with those products.”

Where Google Analytics cookies are concerned, Google said traffic data is only collected and processed per instructions it receives from site owners and publishers — further emphasizing that such data would not be used for ads or Google purposes without authorization from the website owner or publisher.

Albeit sloppy implementations of freebie Google tools by resource-strapped public sector site administrators might make such authorizations all too easy to unintentionally enable.

So, tl;dr — as Google tells it — the onus for privacy compliance is on the public sector websites themselves.

Though given the complex and opaque mesh of technology that’s grown up sheltering under the modern ‘adtech’ umbrella, opting out of this network’s clutches entirely may be rather easier said than done.

Cookiebot’s founder, Daniel Johannsen, makes a similar point to Google’s in the report intro, writing: “Although the governments presumably do not control or benefit from the documented data collection, they still allow the safety and privacy of their citizens to be compromised within the confines of their digital domains — in violation of the laws that they have themselves put in place.”

“More than nine months into the GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation], a trillion-dollar industry is continuing to systematically monitor the online activity of EU citizens, often with the unintentional assistance of the very governments that should be regulating it,” he adds, calling for public sector bodies to “lead by example – at a minimum by shutting down any digital rights infringements that they are facilitating on their own websites”.

“The fact that so many public sector websites have failed to protect themselves and their visitors against the inventive methods of the tracking industry clearly demonstrates the educational challenge that the wider web faces: How can any organisation live up to its GDPR and ePrivacy obligations if it does not control unauthorised tracking actors accessing their website?”

Trackers creeping in by the backdoor

On the “inventive methods” front, the report flags how third party javascript technologies — used by websites for functions like video players, social sharing widgets, web analytics, galleries and comments sections — can offer a particularly sneaky route for trackers to be smuggled into sites and apps by the ‘backdoor’.

Cookiebot gives the example of social sharing tool, ShareThis, which automatically adds buttons to each webpage to make it easy for visitors to share information across social media platforms.

The ShareThis social plugin is used by Ireland’s public health service, the Health Service Executive (HSE). And there Cookiebot found it releases trackers from more than 20 ad tech companies into every webpage it is installed on.

“By analysing web pages on HSE.ie, we found that ShareThis loads 25 other trackers, which track users without permission,” it writes. “This result was confirmed on pages linked from search queries for “mortality rates of cancer patients” and “symptoms of postpartum depression”.”

“Although website operators like the HSE do control which 3rd parties (like ShareThis) they add to their websites, they have no direct control over what additional “4th parties” those 3rd parties might smuggle in,” it warns.

We’ve reached out to ShareThis for a response.

Another example flagged by the report is what Cookiebot dubs “YouTube’s Tracking Cover-Up”.

Here it says it found that even when a website has enabled YouTube’s so-called “Privacy-enhanced Mode”, in a bid to limit its ability to track site users, the mode “currently stores an identifier named “yt-remote-device -id” in the web browser’s “Local Storage”” which Cookiebot found “allows tracking to continue regardless of whether users click, watch, or in any other way interact with a video – contrary to Google’s claims”.

“Rather than disabling tracking, “privacy-enhanced mode” seems to cover it up,” they claim. 

Google did not provide an on the record comment regarding that portion of the report.

Instead the company sent some background information about “privacy-enhanced mode” — though its points did not engage at all with Cookiebot’s claim that tracking continues regardless of whether a user watches or interacts with a video in any way.

Overall, Google’s main point of rebuttal vis-a-vis the report’s conclusion — i.e. that even on public sector sites surveillance capitalism is carrying on business as usual — is that not all cookies and pixels are ad trackers. So it’s claim is a cookie ‘signal’ might just be harmless background ‘noise’.

(In additional background comments Google suggested that if a website is running an advertising campaign using its services — which presumably might be possible in a public sector scenario if an embedded YouTube video contains an ad (for example) — then an advertising cookie could be a conversion pixel used (only) to measure the effectiveness of the ad, rather than to track a user for ad targeting.

For DoubleClick cookies on websites in general, Google told us this type of cookie would only appear if the website specifically signed up with its ad services or another vendor which uses its ad services.

It further claimed it does not embed tracking pixels on random pages or via Google Analytics with Doubleclick cookies.)

The problem here is the lack of opacity in the adtech industry which requires users to take ad targeters at their word — and trust that an adtech giant like Google, which makes pots of money off of tracking web users to target them with ads, has nonetheless built perfectly privacy-respecting, non-leaky infrastructure that operates 100% as separately and cleanly as claimed, even as the entire adtech industry’s business incentives are pushing in the opposite direction.

Also a problem: Certain adtech giants having a long and storied history of bundling purposes for user data and manipulating consent in privacy-hostile ways.

And with trust in adtech at such a historic low — plus regulation having been rebooted in Europe to put the focus on enforcement (which is encouraging a cottage industry of GDPR ‘compliance’ services to wade in) — the industry’s preferred cloak of complex opacity is under attack on multiple front (including from policymakers) and does look to be on borrowed time.

And as more light shines in and risk steps up, sensitive public sector websites could just decide to nix using any of these freebie plugins.

In another “inventive” case study highlighted by the report, Cookiebot writes that it documented instances of Facebook using a first party cookie workaround for Safari’s intelligent tracker blocking system to harvest user data on two Irish and UK health landing pages.

So even though Apple’s browser natively purges third party cookies to enhance user privacy by default Facebook’s engineers appear to have managed to create a workaround.

Cookiebot says this works by Facebook’s new first party cookie — “_fbp” — storing a unique user ID that’s then forwarded as a URL parameter in the pixel tracker “tr” to Facebook.com — “thus allowing Facebook to track users after all”, i.e. despite Safari’s best efforts to prevent pervasive third party tracking.

“In our study, this combined tracking practice was documented on 2 Irish and UK landing pages featuring health information about HIV and mental illness,” it writes. “These types of workarounds of browser tracking prevention are highly intrusive as they undermine users’ attempts to protect their personal data – even when using browsers and extensions with the most advanced protection settings.”

Reached for a response to the Cookiebot report Facebook also did not engage with the case study of its Safari third party cookie workaround.

Instead, a spokesman sent us the following line: “[Cookiebot’s] investigation highlights websites that have chosen to use Facebook’s Business Tools — for example, the Like and Share buttons, or the Facebook pixel. Our Business Tools help websites and apps grow their communities or better understand how people use their services. For example, we could tell them that their site is most popular among people aged 20-25.”

In further information provided to us on background the company confirmed that data it receives from websites can be used for enhancing ad targeting on Facebook. (It said Facebook users can switch off ad personalization based on such signals — via the “Ads Based on Data from Partners” setting in Ad Preferences.)

It also said organizations that make use of its tools are subject to its Business Tools terms — which Facebook said require them to provide users with notice and obtain any required legal consent, including being clear with users about any information they share with it. 

Facebook further claimed it prohibits apps and websites from sending it sensitive data — saying it takes steps to detect and remove data that should not be shared with it.

ePrivacy Regulation needed to raise the bar

Commenting on the report in a statement, Diego Naranjo, senior policy advisor at digital rights group EDRi, called for European regulators to step up to defend citizens’ privacy.

“For the last 20 years, Europe has fought to regulate the sprawling chaos of data tracking. The GDPR is a historical attempt to bring the information economy in line with our core civil liberties, securing the same level of democratic control and trust online as we take for granted in our offline world. Yet, as this study has provided evidence of, nine months into the new regulation, online tracking remains as hidden, uncontrollable, and plentiful as ever,” he writes in the report. “We stress that it is the duty of regulators to ensure their citizens’ privacy.”

Naranjo also warned that another EU privacy regulation, the ePrivacy Regulation — which is intended to deal directly with tracking technologies — risks being watered down.

In the wake of GDPR it’s become the focus of major lobbying efforts, as we’ve reported before.

“One of the great added values of the ePrivacy Regulation is that it is meant to raise the bar for companies and other actors who want to track citizens’ behaviour on the Internet. Regrettably, now we are seeing signs of the ePrivacy Regulation becoming watered out, specifically in areas concerning “legitimate interest” and “consent”,” he warns.

“A watering down of the ePrivacy Regulation will open a Pandora’s box of more and more sharing, merging and reselling of personal data in huge online commercial surveillance networks, in which citizens are being unwittingly tracked and micro-targeted with commercial and political manipulation. Instead, the ePrivacy Regulation must set the bar high in line with the wishes of the European Parliament, securing that the privacy of our fellow citizens does not succumb to the dominion of the ad tech industry.”

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YC-backed Basement is a social network for close friends only

The past few years have been a bit of a dark age for budding social media startups. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snap and messenger apps took up all the time of their users, leaving little room for yet another social media platform.

But the tide is shifting. Privacy scandals have shaken some users’ faith giants like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and users have grown fatigued by the constant onslaught of #content.

Basement, a YC-backed startup, is looking to give users a new, simpler social network.

Basement allows users to only add up to 20 friends on the network. Cofounders Fernando Rojo and Jeremy Berman said they waited around for someone to build something like Basement after seeing their own friend groups migrate most of their communication to messenger apps from Facebook and other social networks.

On Basement, there are no filters or influencers. The hope is that users share with the people they actually want to share with.

It uses a feed-based system for sharing, letting users share content to their 20 friends. Users can also share to a smaller group of friends by tagging them, which limits the viewership to only mutual friends of those tagged.

Users who are friends can see one another’s comments on a mutual friend’s post. However, comments left by non-friends will always appear anonymous.

Alongside the main feed, Basement also has a meme feed, letting users choose from the internet’s top trending memes to share to their friend group.

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset

Of course, Basement isn’t the first startup to try out the idea of a close-friends social network. Path was founded by Shawn Fanning and Dave Morin in 2010, giving users a photo-sharing and messaging platform that maxed out at 50 friends.

The network grew in the face of competition from Facebook, and at peak had around 50 million users. In fact, Path was raising money at a valuation of $500 million and turned down a $100 million offer from Google in its early months.

But it failed to retain talent, users and momentum. (A controversial privacy scandal in 2012 didn’t help.) In 2015, Path sold to Kakao for an undisclosed amount and was shut down for good just last year.

Rojo and Berman believe timing is more in their favor than it was with Path, but are also targeting a different audience. Whereas Path was aimed both at close friends and family, Basement wants to position itself squarely with young people who are already spending their time in meme-laden group chats.

“One of the challenges is that growth isn’t necessarily as inherently explosive in a micro-network as it would be with a broader social network,” said Rojo. “What’s exciting to us is that if anyone tries to spark up something similar to this, they’ll be one or two years behind. It’s harder to grow a micronetwork, but once it’s bigger it’s much more robust because it’s the place where people turn when they want to connect with their close friends.”

What’s more: Basement promises to never run ads on the platform.

The company plans to mimic the WhatsApp business model, giving users their first year free and then charging an inexpensive subscription after that.

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America Movil acquires Nextel in Brazil for $905M

Latin America continues to remain a focus for investors that are eyeing up its large population and growth potential. In the latest development, America Movil, the Latin American carrier that is part of the Carlos Slim empire, today announced that it would acquire Nextel in Brazil, owned by NII (formerly Nextel International), for $905 million. NII in turn said that once the deal is closed, it has received approval “to dissolve and wind up NII.”

This is a move to scale up an existing carrier in competition with existing large players like Telefonica (which co-owns Vivo with Portugal Telecom), Telecom Italia and Oi (owned by Telemar). America Movil already has an operation in the country, Claro, which it plans to merge with Nextel to “consolidate its position as one of the leading telecommunication service providers in Brazil, strengthening its mobile network capacity, spectrum portfolio, subscriber base, coverage and quality, particularly in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the main markets in Brazil.”

America Movil — based out of Mexico — has been on a consolidation spree, swallowing up other smaller holdings in a variety of markets in the region. In January, it acquired Telefonica’s assets in Guatemala and El Salvador respectively for $333 million and $315 million.

The Nextel Brazil deal will include buying a 70 percent stake in the carrier from NII, as well as a remaining 30 percent stake from AI Brazil Holdings BV, NII said today. AI Brazil Holdings is controlled by Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries, the company that owns Warner Music, Deezer and a number of other assets and investments. It had reportedly also been interested in increasing its share in the carrier, before agreeing to sell its stake altogether.

The acquisition is the final chapter for the struggling business, which had originally been the international division of Nextel but had spun out as a separate company before Sprint acquired Nextel in the US in 2005. NII’s focus had been mobile carrier operations across a range of developing markets but it struggled and had been through multiple bankruptcy processes.

“The announcement of this transaction marks the culmination of an extensive multi-year process to pursue a strategic path for Nextel Brazil and provides our best opportunity to monetize our remaining operating assets in light of the competitive landscape in Brazil and long-term need to raise significant capital to fund business operations, debt service and capital expenditures necessary to remain competitive in the future,” stated Dan Freiman, NII’s Chief Financial Officer, in a statement. “Management and our Board of Directors believe the transaction is in the best interest of NII’s stockholders.”

The deal represents a final chapter of sorts for the Nextel brand, which had been a trailblazer in the mobile market through its push-to-talk, walkie-talkie-style mobile service. This was was an early mover in the bigger wave of messaging services that competed with basic carrier SMS, and some came to think of it as the first mobile social network. Over time, though, the iDEN digital network that carried the service became outmoded and most carriers that offered iDEN-based services (including Nextel) discontinued them to focus on 3G and subsequent mobile technologies.

More generally, the acquisition underscores how a number of investors, willing to ride the waves of economic and political ups and downs in Latin America, continue to view the growth opportunities in the region.

NII — which is based out of Reston, VA — was traded on Nasdaq and had a market cap as of last market close, of just $322 million. The company currently has 3.3 million subscribers. But while it was reportedly looking for a buyer of the business in Brazil, its last remaining asset, for some time, this final price — at nearly three times its market cap — is a sign of how some might see locked up value in Nextel Brazil that exceeded all that.

Last week, Paypal and Dragoneer collectively committed $850 million towards MercadoLibre, a marketplace in Argentina. The week before that, SoftBank announced that it would set up a new $2 billion fund to invest in tech companies out of the region, and to help existing portfolio companies to expand there. (By coincidence, the SoftBank venture will be led by Marcelo Claure, who is also executive chairman of Sprint, which swallowed up the US part of Nextel years ago and eventually got acquired by SoftBank.)

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Apple launches new iPad Air and iPad mini

Apple has refreshed its iPad lineup with a press release. The company is (finally) updating the iPad mini and adding a new iPad Air. This model sits between the entry-level 9.7-inch iPad and the 11-inch iPad Pro in the lineup.

All new models now support the Apple Pencil, but you might want to double check your iPad model before buying one. The new iPad models released today work with the first-gen Apple Pencil, not the new Apple Pencil that supports magnetic charging and pairing.

So let’s look at those new iPads. First, the iPad mini hasn’t been refreshed in three years and a half. Many people believed that Apple would simply drop the model as smartphones got bigger. But the iPad mini is making a surprise comeback.

It looks identical to the previous 2015 model. But everything has been updated inside the device. It now features an A12 chip (the system on a chip designed for the iPhone XS), a 7.9-inch display that is 25 percent brighter, features a wider range of colors and works with True Tone. And it also works with the Apple Pencil.

Unlike with the iPad Pro, the iPad mini still features a Touch ID fingerprint sensor, a Lightning port and a headphone jack. You can buy it today for $399 for 64GB. You can choose to pay more for 256GB of storage and cellular connectivity. It comes in silver, space gray and gold.

Second, the iPad Air. While the name sounds familiar, this is a new device in the iPad lineup. When Apple introduced the new iPad Pro models back in October, Apple raised the prices on this segment of the market.

This new iPad Air is a bit cheaper than the 11-inch iPad Pro and looks more or less like the previous generation 10.5-inch iPad Pro — I know it’s confusing. The iPad Air now features an A12 chip, which should represent a significant upgrade over the previous generation iPad Pro that featured an A10X. The iPad Air works with the Smart Keyboard.

You can buy the device today for $499 with 64GB of storage. You can choose to pay more for 256GB of storage and cellular connectivity. It comes in silver, space gray and gold.

pic.twitter.com/Iqz1MHTg1p

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) March 18, 2019

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How to Merge Microsoft Outlook PST Files: 5 Easy Methods

The Microsoft Outlook PST file contains all the data for your inbox. If you have more than one email account within Outlook, you will also have multiple PST files. You may well find yourself having to merge those multiple PST files to create a unified account. But how do you merge multiple Outlook PST files?

Why Do You Need to Combine Outlook PST Files?

Good question. Why would you need to combine multiple Outlook PST files? There are several instances where combining existing PST files into a new data file is the best course of action:

• Merging multiple old accounts
• Combining work and social accounts
• Creating backups of existing accounts
• Receiving files from a team or family member
• Migrating to a different service or exchange

That is just a handful of reasons as to why you merge PST files. I’m sure you can think of more use cases.

1. Combine Outlook PST Files Within Outlook

You can combine multiple Outlook PST (an acronym for Personal Storage Table) files within Outlook. Combining PST files within Outlook is a quick task that works with all versions of Outlook from 2007 up to the current time. It is a two-stage process.

First, you create a brand-new blank PST file. Then import your existing PST files. Here’s how it works.

1. Select your Home tab, then New Items > More Items > Outlook Data Files. Give your blank data file a name and save it.
2. Now, head to File > Open & Export > Import > Import from another program or file. On the next screen, select Outlook Data File (.pst).
3. Browse to the PST file you want to import. You now have the option to replace duplicate files, allow the creation of duplicates, or to refuse the import of duplicate files. Your choice here depends on the PST files you are importing. In this example, choose Do not import duplicates. (Please remember that you need the password for each PST file you are importing.)
   
4. Once the import completes, you can start the process again to import as many PST files as you want into a single new PST file.

See how easy it was. Here are 10 more awesome Outlook features you’re not using!

2. Merge PST Files

Merge PST Files is a free tool that you can use to merge multiple PST files simultaneously. Merge PST Files builds on the manual merge PST process in the above section, allowing you to make a comprehensive selection.

For instance, Merge PST Files lets you filter the PST merge by folder type, such as only importing contacts or calendar folders from different PST files.

Merge PST Files is free for non-commercial use. However, “it will not run in a domain environment.” That is because Merge PST Files is a product developed by ReliefJet Essentials, which is a premium Outlook management tool.

Download: Merge PST Files for Windows (Free)

3. ReliefJet Essentials for Microsoft Outlook

From the free tool to the premium tool. What’s the difference? Well, ReliefJet Essentials for Microsoft Outlook packs in all the functionality of the free Merge PST Files program, but you get an extensive range of additional Outlook tools, too.

For instance, ReliefJet Essentials allows you to:

• Import and export any Outlook item
• Export your contacts into vCard format
• Find, remove, or move duplicate Outlook items and attachments, with reporting on any duplicates
• Extract email addresses and URLs from email message headers and text

And a massive list of extra tools, too. This alongside the ability to merge or join multiple PST files simultaneously.

As far as tools go, ReliefJet Essentials certainly packs in more than most. The Premium version retails for $49.95 for a single system, including every ReliefJet Essential utility. However, they also offer a Single Utility license for $14.95. The Single Utility license lets you install a single utility—in this case, PST Merge—on your system.

Download: Relief Jet Essentials for Windows (Free) | Windows ($14.95 Single Utility) | Windows ($49.95 Personal License)

4. Datavare Outlook PST Merge

Datavare is a freemium Outlook PST merge tool. The free version comes with one significant limitation; you can only merge two PST files simultaneously. In that, the free version is similar to merging your PST manually or using the free Merge PST Files tool above.

The premium license comes with a few PST merge perks, most notably merging more than two PST files simultaneously. You can use several large PST files and merge them quickly. You can also choose various files from each PST file to merge into a new PST file, another handy feature.

Download: Outlook PST Merge for Windows (Free) | Windows ($29 Personal License)

5. Stellar Merge Mailbox for Outlook

Stellar Merge Mailbox for Outlook is another freemium tool. Again, the free version of Stellar Merge Mailbox restricts you to merging two PST files simultaneously.

Stellar stands out among the freemium tools for a couple of reasons. One, the UI is very easy to use and appears more “modern” that some of the alternatives. Second, the premium version allows you to Join your PSTs, rather than just merge them.

Instead of adding entire PST files into a single large new PST, you can add PSTs as a separate folder structure. Handy if you have detailed existing file structures you don’t want to lose when creating your new PST.

Also, Stellar Merge Mailbox will merge password protected PST files without requiring a password. You will still need the password to access the files within the new PST, but you can make the merge.

Download: Stellar Merge Mailbox for Windows (Free) | Windows ($39 Personal License)

Merging Outlook PSTs, the Easy Way

You have five methods for combining your Outlook PST files. The manual option is basic but does the job. It can become time-consuming if you have numerous PST files that need merging.

If you have a vast backlog of PST files to merge, consider one of the premium options. Stellar Merge comes with a decent UI and some handy settings, while ReliefJet Essentials packs everything and more into a single package (albeit, at a slightly higher price).

Spend all your time in Outlook? Here are tools to make your Outlook life easier.

Read the full article: How to Merge Microsoft Outlook PST Files: 5 Easy Methods

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The Best Unity 3D Tutorials for Beginners

Unity is a powerful engine for creating games on multiple platforms. While the Unity Editor runs on the C# programming language, it is even possible to develop games without coding.

Rust, Hearthstone and Kerbal Space Program are all Unity games. These tutorials will teach you everything you need to build your dream game! First, a note about the name.

Unity 3D or Unity?

When searching for information about Unity, you may have seen it referred to as Unity 3D or simply as Unity. Things don’t get any simpler when you visit the official website, which has the URL unity3d.com, but refers to the engine as Unity.

Unity dropped the 3D from their name as it isn’t only a 3D engine. It works in 2D and 3D and has tools for both. While the branding has changed everywhere else, it was presumably not worth changing the official website URL.

In short, Unity 3D is Unity, and we’ll stick to calling it Unity for this article.

Best Overall Beginner Tutorial for Unity

For a comprehensive Unity beginner course in basic game design, Unity3d College have you covered. This tutorial assumes no knowledge and takes you through opening Unity for the first time. It introduces the Unity Editor, game objects, and basic functionality with C# code.

The Unity3d.College website has a collection of content including links to videos, podcasts on game development, and written tutorials. This site has something for the total beginner and seasoned Unity user alike.

Best Interactive Tutorial for Unity

Many tutorials provide project files to help you get hands-on experience with Unity projects. The official interactive tutorial projects from Unity take it one step further.

These projects take beginners through game building and testing. The tutorial windows highlight different parts of the Unity Editor and give a step by step guide of how it works. There are several interactive tutorials available for free through the Unity Hub launcher, which comes with Unity.

Best Beginner C# Tutorial for Unity

Brackeys is a well respected YouTube teacher, who creates Unity tutorials for all levels. His introduction to C# leaves Unity aside and concentrates purely on the code which underpins the engine. This tutorial requires no previous coding knowledge.

It’s good stuff to learn as Unity’s libraries are all built on C#, but there are many other great reasons to learn C#!

Best Unity Game Kit Tutorial: Unity 2D Game Kit

Game Kits are template projects which allows beginners to design games in the Unity Editor. You can download the 2D Game Kit from the Unity website, which provides a step by step guide for using it.

While keeping everything beginner friendly, this guide introduces some core concepts for 2D game development. By the end of the tutorial, you’ll be familiar with Tile Maps, event-based behavior, and basic game testing. Unity also offer a 3D game kit, with more planned for the future.

Best No Coding Tutorial for Unity

Playmaker, available on the Unity Asset Store, allows non-coders to create games. The makers of Inside used it to enable artists and level designers to implement game content. YouTuber Jayanam explains the fundamentals of visual logic with Playmaker in his video tutorial.

As a visual Finite State Machine (FSM), Playmaker makes complex behavior and game mechanics easy to create. You can make whole games with complex behaviors and mechanics using the system. If you are brimming with ideas but don’t want to learn to code, Playmaker is perfect for you.

Best Platformer Tutorial for Unity

Thomas Brush, developer of Pinstripe and the highly anticipated Once Upon A Coma shares his knowledge in this comprehensive tutorial for creating a platformer in Unity. Drawing on ten years of experience, he breaks down every element into easy to understand language, perfect for beginners.

The tutorial covers importing layers from Photoshop into Unity and creating a parallax effect bringing it to life. He shows you how to render the scene correctly, import a player character, and give the game functionality through code. Thomas has created a wealth of tutorials on his YouTube channel, along with quick tips about life as a game developer.

Best Quick Tutorial for Unity

If you are looking for a quick overview of building basic game mechanics, the Android Authority YouTube channel has the answer. Using the Unity engine and the Android Software Development Kit (SDK), you can make a functional game in just seven minutes.

The video covers making pixel art and importing it into Unity, along with some basic behavior through code. If this is enough to get you interested in developing Android games, the process is also covered in much more detail in a series of posts by the creator of the YouTube tutorial.

Best Long Form Tutorial for Unity

Long form tutorials often create full games and cover topics of game design in a much deeper way than basic tutorials. YouTuber quill18creates creates accessible tutorial series which usually cover whole projects in detail.

The current tutorial covers creating a 4X Space Strategy game, in a similar style to Civilization. The entire game is open sourced, and each video features clear instructions which are suitable for beginners. There are multiple similar projects on the quill18creates channel, along with standalone videos on Unity game development.

Best Shader Tutorials for Unity

While not specific to Unity, shaders are essential to making any game look good. Every breath-taking image effect in games relies on them. Writing shaders can be a complicated task. They have a different syntax to C#, and even understanding basic terms can be confusing.

Enter Makin’ Stuff Look Good. This channel is among the best in explaining how shaders work and how to write shader code. The videos on deconstructing and recreating graphics from popular games are perfect for seeing how these concepts work in action.

Best Lighting Tutorial for Unity

This tutorial from YouTuber LMHPoly covers the fundamentals of lighting in Unity. You require no prior knowledge of Unity to build the project, and each step is explained with on-screen prompts.

Lighting is the difference between a good looking game and a great one. If you are more geared towards aesthetics than coding, learning about lighting might be for you.

Best CAD Tutorial for Unity

While the majority of Unity users are creating games, the engine is also perfect for architects and 3D modelers to show their work. YouTuber ArquMania takes you through the whole process of exporting a CAD model from Rhino and importing it into Unity.

Once imported, the model is textured and placed in a scene. By adding a player character, people can then walk around the model in the scene. This process works for any CAD software and would be perfect for architects and interior designers.

Game On… With Unity!

Unity is a powerful all in one tool for game development. You can learn the fundamentals in a day, but learning game development is an on-going process. While powerful, Unity might not be for you. Luckily there are many different game development engines to choose from, and one might fit you better than another.

If you do decide to learn Unity, it’s best to dive right in and get some experience of what game development is like. A beginner Unity tutorial which teaches you how to make a full game is a great place to start!

Read the full article: The Best Unity 3D Tutorials for Beginners

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How to Set Up a VPN on Your iPhone or iPad

We rely on our smartphones more than ever to browse the web, interact with social media, and keep in touch with friends. If you’re concerned about hiding your internet browsing habits from your ISP, network provider, and the government, then you might want to use a VPN.

A VPN, or virtual private network, is a connection through which your browsing data is encrypted. Not only can you use VPNs to safeguard your privacy, but you can also use them to appear as if you are browsing from another country or region by bypassing geo-restrictions.

Today we’ll look at how easy it is to set up and manage a VPN connection on your iPhone.

Method 1: Use Your Provider’s App

The first method we’ll look at is the easiest. Nearly all major VPN providers have their own iPhone apps that make connecting to and tweaking your connection easy. Which app you download depends on your provider.

Which VPN provider you choose depends on a few factors such as price, the logs policy, and how far the nearest server is from your current location. Learning more about why you might need a VPN can help you make a better choice.

The following providers each have an iPhone app available that makes setting up a VPN easy:

• ExpressVPN
• TunnelBear
• CyberGhost
• Private internet Access
• HotSpot Shield
• Buffered VPN

No matter which one you pick, there’s one important factor to keep in mind. You should avoid using a free VPN service at all costs. With free VPNs, the provider has to make money somehow, so you’ll have to put up with extra ads, throttled speeds, or the company selling your data.

Using a Provider’s App to Set Up an iPhone VPN

Getting connected to your VPN using an app is the easiest and most straightforward method available. Here’s how to do it:

1. Search the App Store for your provider’s app and download it. If you can’t find the right app, move on to Method 2 below.
2. Launch the app and log in with your credentials.
3. The app will guide you through the setup process and notify you that you need to provide permission to install a VPN configuration. Authorize any changes with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode.
4. Once setup is complete, use the app to connect to the VPN.

You should use the app to manage your connection, which includes changing region or choosing a different local server. The app is the easiest method of enabling or managing your connection. You can still disable or enable the VPN connection manually under Settings > General > VPN by toggling the Status switch on or off.

Method 2: Connect to a VPN Manually

If your provider doesn’t have its own app, or you’d rather connect manually for some reason, you can do that too. In order to connect you’ll need the following information:

• VPN type (learn more about the major VPN protocols)
• Server address
• Remote ID
• Username
• Password

In addition to this information, you may need to supply a Local ID and choose between Username or Certificate authentication. Your provider should give you the credentials you need on its website once you’ve logged into your control panel.

Keep in mind that your VPN connection username and password may differ from the username and password you use to login to your VPN provider’s website.

Connecting to a VPN Provider Manually

To connect to your VPN of choice manually, simply perform the following:

1. Head to Settings > General > VPN and tap Add VPN Configuration.
2. Fill out the required information, including VPN type, server, remote ID, username, and password. Consult your VPN provider’s website for this information if you don’t know it. The Description field is for your own records, so make sure you label the connection appropriately.
3. Tap Done to add the configuration.

You can now head to Settings > General > VPN at any time to enable or disable the connection by toggling the Status on or off.

Stay Protected With an iPhone VPN

Now you know how to install and use a VPN on your iPhone. A provider’s app vastly simplifies the process, so we’d always recommend starting with the first method. These make it easy to switch server locations.

If you’d rather encrypt all of your network traffic (at home, at least) then consider investing in a VPN router instead. By connecting your network equipment to a VPN directly, anything that uses it to access the internet will also be encrypted.

Just remember that this won’t protect your iPhone when you’re out of the house. For that, you should definitely stick with one of our recommended iPhone VPNs.

Read the full article: How to Set Up a VPN on Your iPhone or iPad

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4 Things to Do Before Becoming a Social Media Influencer

Open Instagram, and you can’t scroll far without seeing someone you follow promoting a brand. It might be a reality star hawking the latest wellness cleanse. Or a random person from high school living some fantasy life.

Now that we all have access to social media and low-cost editing tools that transform basic pics into curated content, does that mean influencing is a potential job opportunity for everyone? It depends.

Becoming a social media influencer doesn’t happen overnight. And, it’s more work than you might think. With that in mind, here are the things you need to do before you can even dream of becoming a social media influencer.

1. Know Where Your Account Stands

We’ll say this from the outset: starting from zero is not realistic. Instagram hobbyists who manage to pivot to influencing already have high engagement rates and a strong aesthetic well before brands come knocking.

Before you start creating stories and pitching brands, you need to look at where you can improve your efforts.

How Many Followers Do You Have?

If you only have a few hundred followers, now is not the time to start approaching your favorite brands with pitches. Your potential audience size is low, and you don’t offer brands a good return on their investment. The first step is to get more followers on Instagram.

A few easy ways to increase your count:

• Promote your dedicated hashtag on other channels.
• Join trending conversations.
• Interact with top influencers in your niche.

What’s Your Engagement Like?

Followers are great, but they don’t represent the full picture.

Over the past couple of years, brands have benefitted from working with niche influencers—they cost less than Insta-celebs and reality stars and tend to come with higher engagement rates.

The reason being that these smaller influencers can focus on creating authentic content that connects with an audience. They’ll have the time to respond to comments. And from a brand perspective, they drive more value because people are most likely to buy products based on recommendations they receive from a trusted source.

Calculate your engagement rate by finding the average number of likes and comments per post, then dividing that number by your total number of followers. Multiply by 100 to get engagement as a percentage.

Make Sure You Have a Well-Defined Niche

All businesses have a niche. If you’re considering monetizing your account, you need to have an angle. What are you passionate about? Is it travel? DIY or wellness? Don’t attach yourself to a “trending” niche just to ride the momentum.

Define your passion, then develop your social personality around that broader category. Here, you’re looking at four very different brands that all fall under the fitness umbrella, but each brings a different flavor to the table.

Popflex, for example, has a feminine, friendly look. Compare that to Lululemon’s minimal gray-scale take on yoga. Both brands might cater to someone who does yoga or pilates, but the colors, filters, and photography style speak to different audiences.

With that in mind, it’s important that you review your feed to get a sense of which colors and filters best represent your brand. As you scroll, you should delete anything that doesn’t fit the brand. For example, if your Instagram is focused on vegan recipes, the odd outfit of the day picture or some random meme won’t gel with the overall feed.

2. Get Your Feed in Order

Once you have a niche, it’s time to start thinking about your accounts as a business asset. We talked about getting a sense of where your accounts are at (an audit of sorts) and now, we’ll move on to getting your account in top form.

These are the key areas you’ll want to work on before you start trying to ramp up traffic. Otherwise, you risk attracting the wrong people or making a poor first impression.

Nail Your Biography

Keep it simple here. Your bio must explain who you are, and what you do, and you should throw in a little personality too. That’s a tall order for 150 characters.

Take, for example, Marie Forleo. Her bio describes what she does and even leverages Oprah for some social proof.

Then, she makes an offer, “learn to get anything you want,” and tops it off with an emoji that “tells you where to go.”

Another example is Gavin Strange, who introduces himself, rattles off a few accomplishments, and punctuates the space with emoji.

Connect With Your Followers

By following people with similar interests—no matter what level—you’ll most likely find others interested in what you have to offer. As people start commenting on your photos, be sure to respond to them.

Brands actually value engagement over massive followings and responding to your followers is a great way to build trust and loyalty as you carve out your digital identity.

In addition to following, commenting, and responding, use hashtags to your advantage. Because hashtags are searchable, it’s a good idea to take note of which hashtags your followers—and those you follow—are using in their posts.

Engage With Competitor Accounts

Get in front of a different but closely related audience. Because great content and relevant hashtags aren’t enough to catapult you to internet fame.

Follow other influencers in your niche to see what kind of content they’re posting and what seems to resonate with the audience. Take it a step further and engage with their followers; these people are your target audience, too.

3. Get Informed

The reality of influencing is it’s all about the business. In the early stages, your goal is to spend time gaining visibility and building relationships. Making the transition from engaged user to bonafide influencer depends on brand deals.

Find the Right Brands

Make sure you find brands that make sense for your niche. Start by looking at brands you admire and look at the “suggested for you” accounts at the top of your feed. Brands with fewer than 100k followers are a good place to start your outreach efforts.

These accounts fall into a sweet spot where you’ll gain some exposure by working with them, but they’re not so well-known that you’ll be competing with too many other influencers.

Dig Deeper

Do not reach out to brands without any prior knowledge of what they do. Do your research, and make sure you can answer the following questions:

• What channels does the brand use?
• Are they doing any influencer marketing already? If so, who are they working with?
• Who is the target market?
• Why do you want to work with them?
• Are there specific products you’d most like to pitch?
• Is there an email you can use to contact someone?

Record your findings on a list. A Google Sheet with multiple columns works great, and it’s free.

Know Your Numbers

Brands only want to work with people who have active, engaged audiences. So, it’s important to understand that you need to be able to produce some numbers.

Brands will want you to produce some information about your audience: average age, location, gender, interests, as well as things like follower count and engagement rates.

The more information you have, the easier it will be to show concrete examples of where you can add value.

4. Make Contact… the Right Way

During your research phase, you should have put together a list of brands and contact details, along with any notes regarding why you want to work with them. Now, it’s time to take that research and turn it into action.

Write a Pitch Tailored to Each Brand

Your goal is to show the brand how you can help them reach a wider audience, and, by extension, make more money. Instead, your pitch should do the following:

• Introduce who you are and what you do.
• Explain who your audience is in terms of interests and demographics.
• Highlight what you like about the product (don’t pitch brands if you don’t like their products).
• Give them an idea of what you can offer the brand: what will they gain by working with you?

We can’t say this enough; your pitch needs to get right to the meat. The person who reads the email likely receives hundreds of emails a day, and however well they manage their inbox, they won’t have time to read multiple paragraphs about why you love fashion.

Track All Brand Interactions

As you work your way through your list of brands, make sure you track each interaction. This way, you’ll have context for everything from who to follow up with to any action items you’ve discussed with the brand. Things to track include:

• Brand name
• Contact
• Contact role
• Email
• Notes
• Follow up

Becoming a Social Media Influencer Isn’t Easy

Before you even think about approaching brands, some light housekeeping is in order. Make sure your profile reflects the kind of content you want to be known for and delete the posts that don’t quite fit the bill.

Spend time talking to followers, connecting with other influencers, fans, and brands. Engagement isn’t just about raking in the likes and comments, it’s about building trust with a community.

People are attracted to authenticity, so it’s vital that you don’t compromise your values just to land a paid brand deal. And remember, success won’t come overnight.

Are you ready to kick your influencer career into high gear? Then consider these ways to make money on Instagram.

Read the full article: 4 Things to Do Before Becoming a Social Media Influencer

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