YouTube rolls out Super Stickers, a new way for creators to make money

YouTube today is expanding the ways creators can make money with the global launch of a new feature, Super Stickers. The stickers are aimed at fans who want to show their support and connect with favorite creators, similar to Super Chat, which highlights a fan’s messages within a live chat. To be eligible for either, creators have to operate a monetized channel with over 1,000 subscribers in supported markets.

Super Chat was first launched nearly three years ago, as a way for creators to generate additional income from top fans. This is particularly useful in crowded live chats hosted by popular creators where the comments section is packed, such as during Premieres. A “super chat,” similar to Twitch’s Cheering feature, lets a fan call attention to their message by highlighting it in a bright color and pinning it to the top of the stream to give it more visibility.

Since launch, over 100,000 channels have used Super Chat, with some earning more than $400 per minute, YouTube says.

Super Stickers, meanwhile, are seemingly inspired more by Twitch’s emotes and cheermotes, as it’s also a way to bring stickers — and sometimes animated stickers — into a chat.

However, YouTube’s stickers have a very different look and feel from those at Twitch, as they resemble more like what you’d find in a messaging app’s chat, rather than Twitch’s gem or the highly personalized cheermotes Twitch offers partners.

YouTube also said its Super Stickers would span categories including gaming, fashion, beauty, sports, music, food and more.

At launch, there are 8 distinct Super Sticker packs being offered, 5 which are animated and include unique bios. These include packs like “Hi, Popo” (a hippopotamus), “Baby Lemon,” “Energetic Lemon,” “Bushiba,” “Biggest Fans,” and others.

The packs are available in English, French, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese, and are immediately available to any eligible creators already using Super Chat across 60 countries.

The stickers will also come in a range of price points, says YouTube, from 99 cents to $50.

YouTube first announced Super Stickers at the VidCon event this July,  saying the new stickers would arrive sometime later in 2019. The stickers have been in limited pilot testing until today.

Super Stickers are only one of many new ways YouTube has been expanding creators’ monetization opportunities in recent years. The company also in 2018 launched new products like channel memberships, merchandise, and premieres.

Twitch’s influence has been apparent in some of these launches. In addition to the similarities with Super Chat and Super Stickers with Twitch features, the Twitch-like channel membership model had come from YouTube Gaming, where it was first called sponsorships. Twitch also offered the ability to schedule premieres, but a message on its site says this feature is being shut down on November 12, 2019.

YouTube also rolled out support for merchandise shelves underneath videos, with partners like Teespring, Crowdmade, DFTBA, Fanjoy, Represent, Rooster Teeth, and most recently, Merchbar for artists’ channels. And it expanded channel memberships to include different, tiered levels.

The company hasn’t shared specifics on how well its newer monetization products have performed, but said earlier this year that “thousands” of channels have more than doubled their revenues as a result of the use of things like memberships, merch and Super Chat.

YouTube says Super Stickers are rolling out 100% today, but they may take a few days to propagate to all eligible channels. That process should complete by week-end.

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Twitter suspends accounts affiliated with Hamas and Hezbollah

Twitter suspended several accounts affiliated with Hamas and Hezbollah over the weekend after being repeatedly asked to do so by a bipartisan group of U.S. Representatives. The lawmakers — Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Tom Reed (R-NY), Max Rose (D-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) — criticized the company for allowing the accounts to stay up even though Hamas and Hezbollah are designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the United States government.

The accounts suspended include Hamas’ English and Arabic-language accounts and ones belonging to Al-Manar, a television station linked to Hezbollah, and Hamas-affiliated news service Quds News Network.

Hamas’ suspended English-language Twitter account

Twitter initially told the congressmen that it distinguishes between political and military factions of those organizations. In an October 22 response, the House members told Twitter that “this distinction is not meaningful, nor is it widely shared. Hezbollah and Hamas are terrorist organizations as designated by the United States Government. Period.”

On November 1, Twitter’s director of public policy in the United States and Canada, Carlos Monje Jr., replied that the accounts had been suspended after a review.

“Twitter’s policy is to remove or terminate all accounts it identifies as owned or operated by, or directly affiliated with, any designated foreign terrorist association. If Twitter identifies an account as affiliated with Hamas or Hizballah [sic], Twitter’s policy is to terminate that account,” he wrote in a letter to the congressmen.

Monje added that “Twitter also takes significant steps to identify accounts that are not directly affiliated with a designated foreign terrorist organization but which nonetheless promote or support violent extremism.”

Raja Abdulhaq, co-founder of Quds News Network, told The Wall Street Journal that three of the news agency’s accounts had been removed and described the suspensions a “clear censorship of Palestinian narratives.”

The accounts’ suspension comes as social media companies, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, face increased scrutiny from lawmakers over what content and advertising they allow on their platform. Twitter recently said it would stop running political ads, an announcement that came after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended his company’s policy of not fact-checking political ads while testifying in front of Congress last month.

TechCrunch has contacted Twitter for comment.

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The Amazon belongs to humanity -- let's protect it together | Tashka and Laura Yawanawá

The Amazon belongs to humanity -- let's protect it together | Tashka and Laura Yawanawá

Tashka and Laura Yawanawá lead the Yawanawá people in Acre, Brazil -- a tribe that stewards almost 500,000 acres of Amazon rainforest. As footage of the Amazon burning shocks the world's consciousness, Tashka and Laura call for us to transform this moment into an opportunity to support indigenous people who have the experience, knowledge and tools needed to protect the land.

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

5 Ways Your WhatsApp Messages Can Be Hacked

WhatsApp is a popular and easy to use messaging program. It has some security features, like the use of end-to-end encryption to keep messages private. However, hacks targeting WhatsApp could compromise the privacy of your messages and contacts.

Here are five ways that WhatsApp can be hacked.

1. Remote Code Execution via GIF

SONY DSC

In October 2019, security researcher Awakened revealed a vulnerability in WhatsApp that let hackers take control of the app using a GIF image. The hack works by taking advantage of the way that WhatsApp processes images when the user opens the Gallery view to send a media file.

When this happens, the app parses the GIF in order to show a preview of the file. GIF files are special because they have multiple encoded frames. This means that code can be hidden within the image.

If a hacker were to send a malicious GIF to a user, they could compromise the user’s entire chat history. The hackers would be able to see who the user had been messaging and what they had been saying. They could also see users’ files, photos, and videos sent through WhatsApp.

The vulnerability affected versions of WhatsApp up to 2.19.230 on Android 8.1 and 9. Fortunately, Awakened disclosed the vulnerability responsibly and Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, has been able to patch the issue. To keep yourself safe from this problem, you should update WhatsApp to version 2.19.244 or above.

2. The Pegasus Voice Call Attack

Another WhatsApp vulnerability discovered in early 2019 was the Pegasus voice call hack. This scary attack allowed hackers to access a device simply by placing a WhatsApp voice call to their target. Even if the target didn’t answer the call, the attack could still be effective. And the target may not even be aware that malware has been installed on their device.

This worked through a method known as buffer overflow. This is where an attack deliberately puts too much code into a small buffer so that it “overflows” and writes code into a location it shouldn’t be able to access. When the hacker can run code in a location that should be secure, they can take malicious actions.

In the case of this attack, it installed an older and well-known piece of spyware called Pegasus. This allowed hackers to collect data on phone calls, messages, photos, and video. It even let them activate devices’ cameras and microphones to take recordings.

This vulnerability applied to Android, iOS, Windows 10 Mobile, and Tizen devices. It was used by the Israeli firm NSO Group which has been accused of spying on Amnesty International staff and other human rights activists. After news of the hack broke, WhatsApp was updated to protect it from this attack.

If you are running WhatsApp version 2.19.134 or earlier on Android or version 2.19.51 or earlier on iOS, then you need to update your app immediately.

3. Socially Engineered Attacks

Another way that WhatsApp is vulnerable is through socially engineered attacks.These exploit human psychology to steal information or spread misinformation. A security firm called Check Point Research revealed one such attack they named FakesApp. This allowed people to misuse the quote feature in group chat and to alter the text of another person’s reply. Essentially, it allows hackers to plant fake statements that appear to be from other legitimate users.

The researchers were able to do this by decrypting WhatsApp communications. This allowed them to see data sent between the mobile version and the web version of WhatsApp. And from here, they could change values in group chats. Then they could impersonate other people, sending messages which appeared to be from them. They could also change the text of replies.

The researchers point out this could be used in worrying ways to spread scams or fake news. Even though the vulnerability was disclosed in 2018, it had still not been patched by the time the researchers spoke at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas in 2019, according to ZNet.

4. Media File Jacking

A vulnerability which affects both WhatsApp and Telegram is media file jacking. This attack takes advantage of the way that apps receive media files like photos or videos and write those files to a device’s external storage.

The attack starts by installing a malicious piece of malware hidden inside an apparently harmless app. This malware can then monitor incoming files for Telegram or WhatsApp. When a new file comes in, the malware can swap out the real file for a fake file. The researchers who discovered the issue, Symantec, suggest it could be used to scam people or to spread fake news.

There is a quick fix for this issue. In the WhatsApp app, you should look in Settings and go to Chat Settings. Then find the Save to Gallery option and make sure it is set to Off. This will protect you from this vulnerability. However, a true fix for the issue will require app developers to completely change the way that apps handle media files in the future.

5. Facebook Spying on Whatsapp Chats

The last topic to consider is more of a security issue than a true vulnerability. It regards whether WhatsApp messages could potentially be read by Facebook or not.

In a blog post, WhatsApp implied that because it uses end-to-end encryption, it is impossible for Facebook to read WhatsApp content: “we’ve rolled out end-to-end encryption. When you and the people you message are using the latest version of WhatsApp, your messages are encrypted by default, which means you’re the only people who can read them. Even as we coordinate more with Facebook in the months ahead, your encrypted messages stay private and no one else can read them. Not WhatsApp, not Facebook, nor anyone else.”

However, according to developer Gregorio Zanon, this is not strictly true. The fact WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption does not mean all messages are private. On an operating system like iOS 8 and above, apps can access files in a “shared container.”

Both the Facebook and WhatsApp apps use the same shared container on devices. And while chats are encrypted when they are sent, they are not necessarily encrypted on the originating device. This means the Facebook app could potentially copy information from the WhatsApp app.

To be clear, there is no evidence that Facebook has used shared containers to view private WhatsApp messages. But the potential ability is there for them to do so. Even with end-to-end encryption, your messages may not be private from Facebook’s all-seeing eye.

Stay Aware of Security Issues in WhatsApp

These are examples of the way that WhatsApp can be hacked. While some of these issues have been patched since their disclosure, others have not.

To learn more about whether WhatsApp is safe, see our guide to WhatsApp security threats users need to know about.

Read the full article: 5 Ways Your WhatsApp Messages Can Be Hacked

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6 Ways to Remove DRM From Ebooks You Own

Many ebooks come with digital rights management (DRM) protection. Thankfully, it’s possible to remove DRM from ebooks. Several different tools make the DRM removal process simple and straightforward. And here are the ways to remove DRM from ebooks.

What Is DRM and Why Is It Bad?

In theory, DRM prevents the unlicensed copying and distribution of ebook files, thus safeguarding the commercial interests of the various parties involved.

However, DRM is a nightmare for consumers. It can prevent you from reading an ebook on all of your devices, even if you’ve bought it legitimately.

For example, if you buy an ebook on the Kindle Store, you will only be able to read it on Kindle ereaders or the Kindle app. You’ll face issues, therefore, if you decide to switch to an ereader from a different manufacturer or if you want to use an alternative ereader app on your smartphone.

The solution is to use a DRM removal tool. Don’t worry; doing so is not illegal. Here’s a rundown of some of the best DRM removal apps available today.

1. Calibre

Available on: Windows, Mac, Linux

Calibre is the best app for organizing and managing your ebook collection. You can use it to edit a book’s metadata, convert an ebook into different formats, and even download news and magazine articles onto your ereader device.

Download: Calibre (Free)

Thanks to the presence of plugins, you can also use Calibre to remove the DRM from any ebook you own.

2. Epubor

Available on: Web

Epubor is a free online tool that removes the DRM from your ebooks. The service only works with ebooks from the Kindle Store. If you want to remove the DRM on ebooks from some of the other ebook stores, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

To use Epubor, you will need to know your Kindle e-reader’s serial number. You can find it by firing up your Kindle and going to Menu > Settings > Device Options > Device Info. When you enter the serial number into the tool, omit any spaces and hyphens.

Next, you need to connect your Kindle to your computer using a USB cable. You can then drag-and-drop the ebooks from your Kindle directly into the web app’s interface. If you wish, you can drag several books and remove the DRM in bulk. Alternatively, you can download the desktop Kindle app, sync your ebooks, and drag them into Epubor directly from your hard drive.

DRM removal will begin automatically. When the process is complete, you will see a Download button appear. Click on the button to save the DRM-free books onto your computer.

3. ePUBee Kindle DRM Removal

Available on: Windows, Mac

ePUBee has made a name for itself as one of the best online ebook converters. However, because you cannot perform an ebook format conversion if the book in question is DRM-locked, ePUBee has also developed an accompanying desktop app to help you remove DRM from your ebooks.

Like Epubor, this tool only works if you want to remove DRM from Kindle ebooks. Books from other stores are not supported. In total, six ebook file types are supported. They are AZW, AZW3, AZW4, TPZ, MOBI, and PRC.

To the use ePUBee app, you will need to authorize it with your Amazon ID. Some people may be uncomfortable with the security and privacy implications of doing so. You will also need to download your Kindle books onto your hard drive using the official Kindle app.

Once you’ve synced your ebooks, just drag-and-drop them into the ePUBee app as needed.

Download: ePUBee (Free)

4. Other ePUBee DRM Tools

Available on: Windows, Mac

ePUBee has developed two other DRM removal tools. One is for removing DRM from PDFs, while the other lets you get rid of the DRM on EPUB files.

Like the Kindle DRM tool, both of these apps are free to download and use.

Download: ePUBee EPUB DRM Removal (Free)
Download: ePUBee PDF DRM Removal (Free)

5. Any eBook Converter

Available on: Windows

If you want a single tool to remove the DRM for ebooks that you’ve bought from lots of different stores, you might need to pay for the privilege.

One of the best apps for the job is Any eBook Converter. It can remove DRM restrictions on books from the Kindle Store, Adobe, Nook, and Kobo. In total, 24 different ebook formats are supported. They include EPUB, PDF, MOBI, AZW, TXT, KFX, PRC, HTMLZ, and DOC. The app supports bulk removal.

In addition to its DRM removal capabilities, Any eBook Converter also has a few other useful features.

For example, you can edit an ebook’s metadata (including the title, author, publisher, data, identifiers, and language. You can also convert your ebooks into different formats, allowing you to read them on whichever ereader device/app you use. Editing and conversion can only be performed after you’ve removed the DRM restrictions.

Download: Any eBook Converter ($30, free trial available)

6. AzwSoft eBook DRM Removal

Available on: Windows, Mac

A free (though less polished) app for removing DRM protection on ebooks from lots of different stores is AzwSoft eBook DRM Removal. It works with Adobe ADE DRM, Kindle AZW/MOBI DRM, and Nook DRM. And, unlike Any eBook Converter, the tool is also available on macOS.

AzwSoft eBook DRM Removal supports all the major ebook formats, including EPUB, PDF, AZW, AZW3, MOBI, and PRC. Several less common niche formats are also supported.

The DRM removal process is fairly similar to the other apps we’ve looked at. You need to drag-and-drop the respective ebook files into the app’s main window, then click the Start button to begin. The DRM-free ebook output is automatically saved on your computer’s hard drive.

Download: AzwSoft eBook DRM Removal (Free)

What’s the Best Way to Remove DRM From Ebooks?

The apps we’ve discussed here should be able to remove the DRM on almost any ebook you own. But what’s the best way to remove DRM from your ebooks?

We rate Calibre the highest; having a single app that can take care of all your ebook management needs is advantageous. However, from a DRM removal standpoint, Calibre is the hardest to get up and running. If you’d prefer a more straightforward solution, the Epubor web app is the winner. And for people who need to perform DRM removal regularly, a desktop app might be preferable.

To learn more about DRM, check out our analysis of whether DRM is a threat to your computer’s security.

Read the full article: 6 Ways to Remove DRM From Ebooks You Own

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6 Apps to Get Memoji on Android and Animate Yourself

Do you have an Android phone and enviously watch your iPhone-owning friends send custom emojis of their faces? This is called Memoji, and there are ways to get a similar feature on Android.

We’re going to show you different methods and apps to get Memoji on Android.

What Is Memoji?

Memoji is the name of Apple’s iPhone functionality that lets users create an emoji that looks like them. You can build your likeness from different categories like hairstyle, eyes, head shape, and so on. This becomes your Memoji.

You can then send this Memoji in iMessage to amuse friends and family. Memoji also makes use of the iPhone’s True Depth camera to become animated and match your expression and mouth movements.

It isn’t possible to get an exact replication of Memoji for Android, but these are the methods that will get you close. If you have an iPhone, check out our guide on how to create and use Memoji.

1. Gboard Emoji Minis

Gboard, also known as Google Keyboard, contains a feature called Emoji Minis. With this, you can scan your face and get a bunch of stickers in different styles and poses. To use it, you’ll of course have to use Gboard as your phone’s keyboard. You may already be doing so, since Gboard has tons of cool features.

Once Gboard is installed, open the keyboard somewhere, hit the sticker icon, then tap the plus icon. At the top is the Your minis section—select Create.

This guides you through taking a selfie and generates three sets of stickers: Emoji, Sweet, and Bold. You can customize these if the process didn’t accurately capture your likeness from the photo.

Tap Done and your emojis are now ready to use. They will appear on the sticker section of the keyboard. You can also return to the Your minis section to customize some more whenever you like.

Download: Gboard (Free)

2. Samsung AR Emoji

Samsung AR Emoji is available on the Galaxy S9 and S10, Note 9 and 10, and in a limited capacity on the S8.

To use it, launch the Camera app and switch to the front-facing camera. Tap AR Emoji from the camera modes at the top. Then select the blue Create My Emoji button and take a selfie. Go through the wizard—select your gender, customize outfits, and so on. Tap OK when done.

When using the selfie camera, the AR Emoji will appear as an option at the bottom, alongside the other filters. You can take pictures and record videos of the emoji mirroring your movements. This function isn’t available on the S8.

You can also choose from a selection of stickers and GIFs with your emoji appearing in different poses, which are great for use as amusing reactions. These can be overlaid on photos or sent via the default keyboard in messaging apps.

3. Face Cam

Face Cam doesn’t scan your face to create the emoji. Instead, you build it from scratch using the different categories. Select your hair, skin color, eye shape, and similar characteristics.

Once created, the app then functions as a camera. But instead of seeing your actual face, you’ll see a giant emoji version of it. It’ll move as your face does and will try to mimic your eyebrows, eyes, and mouth too.

You can apply color filters to the camera to get that perfect look. The app also lets you choose from photos in your gallery and apply your emoji face to them.

The free version is limited on customization and puts a small watermark on your pictures, but it’s not a big deal. You can save the photos to your phone or send them straight into other apps.

Download: Face Cam (Free, in-app purchases available)

4. MojiPop

MojiPop is an app that turns your face into a hand-drawn styled cartoon and then applies it to loads of scenes and stickers. If you’ve wondered how you’d look sitting on top of a planet, dancing with a cat, or in a famous painting, MojiPop makes it a reality.

The stickers are plentiful and all animated, based around themes like friends, travel, love, and seasonal activities like Halloween. Some content is locked behind a paywall, but there’s more than enough free content to play around with.

You can create up to three different emoji avatars. Some stickers include multiple people, so these other avatars will crop up there. This means you could send stickers to your friends that include both you and them.

MojiPop has its own keyboard, which makes using the stickers in other apps a breeze, but it’s not worth using. Instead, you can share the emoji directly from the app itself, sending it straight into your gallery or other apps like WhatsApp and Facebook.

Download: MojiPop (Free, premium version available)

5. Bitmoji

You might be familiar with Bitmoji if you use Snapchat, since the same company owns both apps. Bitmoji lets you create a full-body cartoon avatar.

You can scan your face and Bitmoji will automatically create your likeness. Alternatively, try building your character from scratch. Once done, you can then choose your clothes and see your avatar in all sorts of different situations.

Bitmoji integrates directly into Snapchat, of course, but a handy feature is that it also appears on Gboard’s Stickers tab. This means you don’t have to keep switching into the app while messaging—just send your Bitmoji like you would any other sticker.

For more information on Bitmoji, check out our guide to Bitmoji and how to create your own.

Download: Bitmoji (Free)

6. EMOJI Face Recorder

EMOJI Face Recorder is the equivalent of the iPhone’s Animoji feature. It doesn’t let you turn your own face into an emoji like Memoji, but we’re including it here as an alternative.

Instead, this app lets you select from a variety of fun creatures and emojis—like a unicorn or the sunglasses emoji—and then mimics your face movement. Just start emoting and it will copy you.

You can also change the background color of your recording. For example, you might have your octopus face floating in space.

The face tracking is a bit hit-and-miss. While it does move with your head and mouth, some finer movement (like blinking) isn’t accurate. Nonetheless, it’s still good for a bit of fun.

Download: EMOJI Face Recorder (Free, in-app purchases available)

Create More Personal Avatars

Hopefully you’ve found a method that you like to create an emoji of yourself. Now you can get sending it to everyone on your contacts list!

If you’ve caught the Memoji craze and want to animate yourself more, have a look at our list of sites to make personalized avatars.

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The 10 Best Bezel-Less Phones in 2019

Even if you don’t have a massive budget to play with, you’ll want your next phone to look good. That means a phone with a sleek, modern design and no bezels.

But are there any devices like this that won’t break the bank, and if so, which is the right one to choose? Here are the best bezel-less phones available today.

1. Samsung Galaxy A50

Samsung Galaxy A50 Samsung Galaxy A50 Buy Now On Amazon $238.00

The Samsung Galaxy A50 is an infinity screen phone on a budget. It gives you a lot of the best bits of the Galaxy S10, but without the eye-watering price tag.

The A50 has a 6.4-inch SuperAMOLED display with an in-screen fingerprint scanner, a massive 128GB of storage, and a triple camera system, including an ultra-wide-angle option. With a large 4000mAh battery, it should keep running for the whole day and maybe a bit more too.

The A50 has a small water-drop notch. If you want a fully no bezel phone from Samsung, take a look at the Galaxy A80 as an alternative. It isn’t as widely available, but it has no-notch and no-hole-punch display; it’s all screen.

2. Moto G7

Moto G7 Moto G7 Buy Now On Amazon $299.99

Motorola’s G-series phones are well established as being among the best value phones around. The Moto G7 lives up to that reputation. It comes with a 6.2-inch display, with a water-drop notch that’s a little larger than the norm. The phone is equipped with a Full HD display, along with 64GB of storage, and a memory card slot so you can add more.

Performance is solid, thanks to the Snapdragon 632 processor and 4GB of RAM, and the cameras are solid for this price point. However, it lacks NFC, so you won’t be able to use Google Pay, and users report the battery last for around a day’s use but no more. However, with fast charging in place, you can get up to nine hours of power in just 15 minutes.

3. Honor 8X

Honor 8X Honor 8X Buy Now On Amazon $199.72

The Honor 8X is one of those budget phones that looks like it should cost twice as much as it does. Along with the 6.5-inch bezel-less HD display, the phone is wrapped in a classy glass and metal body.You also get 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage, expandable via microSD.

It’s no slouch in the camera department either. There’s a 20MP rear camera, and 16MP selfie camera. The Kirin 710 processor is a solid mid-ranger, and is equivalent to something like a Snapdragon 660. It isn’t as good for gaming, though, so keep that in mind if that’s one of your main uses.

4. Xiaomi Mi Mix 3

Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 Buy Now On Amazon $348.98

For the ultimate bezel-less phone, look no further than the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3. There’s no notch or anything on the front—you have to slide the screen down to reveal the 24MP selfie camera. It’s completely hidden when you don’t need it, and gives the phone an incredible 93.4 percent screen-to-body ratio.

The other specs are flagship-level too. It is powered by a Snapdragon 845 CPU, and comes with 6GB of RAM. The phone has dual 12MP rear cameras, and supports fast wireless charging as well. It’s a truly innovative device, especially for the price.

5. Huawei Mate 20 Pro

Huawei Mate 20 Pro Huawei Mate 20 Pro Buy Now On Amazon $469.00

Assuming you’re happy to buy a Huawei device, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is a pretty compelling example of a sub-$500 bezel-less phone. It launched in late-2018 at a much higher price point. It has flagship specs that make it one of the best value phones you can buy.

There are some standout features here too. For starters, there’s the 6.4-inch AMOLED display with 1440 x 3120 resolution. Then there’s the ultra-fast Kirin 980 processor, with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

That’s not to mention the high-spec camera setup either. The Mate 20 Pro has a 40MP wide, 20MP ultra-wide, and 8MP telephoto modules on the back. In addition, there’s a 24MP selfie camera on the front too. If photos are your thing, the Mate 20 Pro is truly impressive bezel-less phone.

6. Xiaomi Redmi Note 7

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Buy Now On Amazon $189.47

A solid, affordable mid-ranger, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 has slightly thicker bezels than you’ll get on a lot of other phones. But it still looks great and has plenty to love under the hood. The phone’s respectable performance comes courtesy of its Snapdragon 660 processor and 4GB of RAM.

The 48MP camera is something you’d only expect on a much more expensive phone. And the 4000mAh battery with fast charging is rated for at least a full day of use. To meet the low price point, there are a few compromises. These include a lack of NFC and only a single mono speaker.

7. OnePlus 7

OnePlus 7 OnePlus 7 Buy Now On Amazon $421.99

The OnePlus 7 is a high-end phone at an accessible price. It runs OnePlus’ Android-based OxygenOS. The company has also committed to deliver at least two full Android update cycles too.

As well as the usual high-end specs, you get Dolby Atmos speakers and a massive 256GB of storage. We also love the fast charging that takes the battery from zero to 50 percent in just 30 minutes; though we’re not so keen on the fact that it uses a proprietary charger to do so.

The phone has a small notch at the top of the screen, but the OnePlus 7 still beats the iPhone’s screen to body ratio. If your budget can stretch a little further, take a look at the OnePlus 7T as well. The main difference is a higher quality screen with a faster refresh rate.

8. Xiaomi Mi 9

Xiaomi Mi 9 Xiaomi Mi 9 Buy Now On Amazon $389.00

Xiaomi makes a lot of no-bezel phones, and the Xiaomi Mi 9 might be the best of the lot. It has many similarities to the Mi Mix 3, though it has a small notch in place of the slider. Despite this, the bezels are barely there, and the design is truly striking. It also has better specs in almost every department.

The most crucial among these are the cameras: a 48MP main camera, 12MP ultra-wide camera, and a 12MP telephoto lens that also supports macro shots. Tests have put battery life among the best of the phones in this list. With fast wired and wireless charging, you should always have power to spare.

9. Honor 20

Honor 20 Honor 20 Buy Now On Amazon $411.39

The Honor 20 is a flagship device, but at half the price. It has a large, 6.26-inch bezel-less hole-punch display. This is combined with a fast processor, 6GB of RAM, and an awesome camera setup.

There are four cameras on the back: 48MP primary camera, 16MP wide, 2MP macro, and 2MP for depth assist. And that’s not all; the front camera is a class-leading 32MP. The days of lower quality selfies are long gone.

The only real complaint is about the software. The phone runs a heavily customized version of Android that’s closer in look to iOS, and which is full of extra—likely unwanted—apps.

10. Nokia 7.2

Nokia 7.2 Nokia 7.2 Buy Now On Amazon $349.00

The best thing about the Nokia 7.2, like all Nokia handsets, is that it’s an Android One phone. This means it’ll be among the first devices to receive Android operating system and security updates. Only the Pixel 3a can offer that at a similar price point, and that’s a phone with some pretty hefty bezels.

The Nokia 7.2 has a small one bezel at the bottom but is otherwise all screen. The phone has mostly mid-range specs, apart from the 48MP main camera on the rear, which is part of a triple-lens arrangement. There’s also NFC (except in India), so you will be able to use Google Pay, too.

The Best Bezel-Less Phones

There are lots of reasons to choose a bezel-less phone. Not only do they look amazing, but when you’re making a phone size comparison, you’ll see that bezel-free phones can fit a larger screen into a much smaller body. Fortunately, as we’ve seen, these devices are now available to everyone at an affordable price.

But if bezel-less isn’t your only priority in a phone, you’ve got lots of other choices. If battery life is more important, see our list of the best phones with wireless charging.

Read the full article: The 10 Best Bezel-Less Phones in 2019

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8 Photography Tips to Help You Sell Products Online

If you’re looking to sell your products online, you need to possess some basic photography skills. For some buyers, good photos are more important than shipping costs, so here are some basic photography tips to help you sell products online.

1. Use a Simple Background

Image Credit: pixel2013/Pixabay

If your background is very vivid and detailed, it will take attention away from the product itself. You need a clean and smooth background for your product photography.

One way to achieve this is to hang a roll of cloth or paper behind the product to create a backdrop. Place your product in front of it to ensure a clean look. If that’s not possible, you can use tools such as Adobe Photoshop or Clipping Magic to remove the background.

If you want to get a photo with a natural backdrop, you can partially blur out the background details so that it doesn’t overpower the product. You can also use Photoshop to create a blurred background effect.

The same goes for props. If the prop is more vibrant or colorful than the product, viewers will be attracted to the prop and not the product itself. If the prop overpowers the product, you’ll need to blur it out.

Before you add a prop, keep in mind the guidelines of the shopping platform where you’re planning to sell your product. Platforms such as Google Shopping don’t allow props in product photographs.

2. Use Soft Lighting

Image Credit: nikitozawr/Pixabay

Soft light wraps around the product and makes the picture more enticing. It comes from a larger surface and is spread out on the product. Hard light (like regular camera flash) comes from a small surface and creates prominent shadows.

To create soft light, you need a large surface to generate light. And the product should be far enough away from the light source so that the light can spread evenly on it.

To achieve the soft light effect, one option is to purchase a softbox. It softens shadows and greatly reduces harshness caused by camera flash.

If you have advanced editing skills, you can also use Photoshop to remove shadows from your photos.

3. Use a Polarizer

Image Credit: byrev/Pixabay

Many experts recommend polarizers for landscape photography, but they’re important for product photography as well.

If you’re planning to buy just one lens for your camera, make sure it’s a polarizer. It will reduce glare reflected by water, metal, or any shiny surface. Also, it will bring out the colors of the photos and reveal richer colors and textures.

4. Learn to Take Steady Shots

Image Credit: Alexas_Fotos/Pixabay

If you don’t hold your camera steady, the product will not be in focus. Crisp and clear photos will encourage buyers to make a purchase whereas blurry images will turn them away.

To do away with the focus errors that often result from manual lens adjustment, you can use the auto focus feature of your camera.

Also, you can gain stability with the help of a tripod. It reduces shaking and movement, and improves the picture quality. You can also get a flexible tripod to achieve just the right position.

There are so many different types of tripods in the market that it’s easy to get confused. Before choosing the perfect tripod, you should compare its features with others so you can buy the best product for your needs.

5. Check Image Specifications Before Uploading

All selling platforms have some kinds of specifications for photos. For example, according to Amazon, your image must be JPEG, TIFF, GIF, or JPEG. Other file formats are not allowed.

Amazon also doesn’t allow borders or watermarks on images. You also need to have at least 500 pixels on each side of the photograph. And the filename should not have spaces in it.

Similarly, Google Shopping has its own rules. There must not be any props in the photo. Borders are not allowed. And there must not be any watermarks on the image.

Before posting your photos on these platforms, read their specification lists to understand what is required.

6. Crop Your Photos

A little cropping after taking a photo can help a lot. Be sure to crop out everything that doesn’t belong in the photo.

Most cameras come with basic cropping tools. But if you have already exported your photos to a computer, you might want to use third party software. You’ll find several free tools online. Options include Pixlr, Canva, and PicMonkey

Make sure you don’t over crop photos, as that removes pixels from the photo and too much cropping can lead to an image with jagged edges.

7. Retouch Your Images

Editing can make all the difference between a bad photograph and a good photograph. Even if you use a basic smartphone camera, you can edit the image to make it look wonderful.

For advanced editing, you can use Photoshop to do spot healing for fixing blemishes like dust and shadows. You can also use its hue/saturation tool for a product that’s available in several colors. So you can click one picture and then change the colors for all others. However, you need to make sure the color on the image matches exactly the color of the actual product.

Photoshop is paid software. However, if you’re looking for a free option, we recommend GIMP.

8. Check Color Tones

Retouching your shots is a fun thing to do, but make sure you don’t change the tone of the colors in the pic. If you’re selling a peach sweater and you apply a filter on it to make it look brighter, it might change its color on the picture.

Your buyers will not be happy if they order a white sweater and receive a peach one instead. And it will be your fault for making the image too bright. Before posting the image on any online marketplace or your own e-commerce website, export the image to a couple of devices to see how it looks on different screens.

Moving Beyond Basic Photography Tips

If the first few photos don’t come out right, don’t lose heart. Photography is all about practice, so keep shooting from different angles until you get the shot you’re after.

And if you need some additional help beyond these basic photography tips, here are some skill-building photography exercises to help you shoot better photos.

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The Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 is a truly great game controller

Microsoft’s original Xbox Elite controller was a major step-up for gamers, with customizable buttons, changeable physical controls and adjustable sensitivity for serious personalization. The new Xbox Elite Controller Series 2 has just landed, and it offers similar features, but with new and improved features that add even more customization options, along with key hardware improvements that take what was one of the best gaming controllers available, and make it that much better.

USB-C

This might seem like a weird place to start, but the fact that the new Xbox Elite 2 comes with USB-C for charging and wired connections is actually a big deal, especially given that just about every other gadget in our lives has moved on to adapting this standard. Micro USB is looking decidedly long in the tooth, and if you’re like me, one of the only reasons you still have those cables around at all is to charging your game controllers.

In the box, you get a braided USB-A to USB-C charging cable, which is plenty long enough to reach from your console to your couch at nine feet. Of course, you can also use your phone, tablet, MacBook or any other USB-C charger and cable combo to power up the Elite 2, which is why it’s such a nice upgrade.

This is big for one other key reason: Apple recently added Xbox controller compatibility to its iPad lineup, which also charges via USB-C. That’s what makes this the perfect controller for anyone looking to turn their tablets into a portable gaming powerhouse, since it reduces the amount of kit you need to pack when you want to grab the controller and have a good option for digging into some iPad gaming.

Adjustable everything

Probably the main reason to own the Elite 2 is that it offers amazing customization options. New to this generation, you can even adjust the resistance of the thumbsticks, which is immensely useful if you’re a frequent player of first-person shooter (FPS) games, for instance. This lets you tune the sensitivity of the sticks to help ensure you’re able to find the right balance of sensitivity vs. resistance for accurate aiming, and it should help pros and enthusiasts make the most of their own individual play style.

The shoulder triggers also now have even shorter hair trigger locks, which mean you can fire quicker with shorter squeezes in-game. And in the case, you’ll find other thumbsticks that you can swap out for the ones that are pre-installed, as well as a d-pad you can use to place the multi-directional pad.

On top of the hardware customization, you can also tweak everything about the controller in software on Windows 10 and Xbox One, using Microsoft’s Accessories app. You can even assign a button to act as a ‘Shift’ key to provide even more custom options, so that you can set up key combos to run even more inputs. Once you find a configuration you like, you can save it as a profile to the controller and switch quickly between them using a physical button on the controller’s front face.

Even if you’re not a hardcore multiplayer competitive gamer, these customization options can come in handy. I often use profiles that assign thumbstick clicks to the rear paddle buttons, for instance, which makes playing a lot of single-player games much more comfortable, especially during long sessions.

Dock and case included

The Xbox Elite 2 includes a travel case, just like the first generation, but this iteration is improved, too. It has a removable charging dock, which is a quality accessory in its own right. The dock offers pass-through charging even while the controller is inside the case, too, thanks to a USB-C cut-through that you can also seal with a rubberized flap when it’s not in use.

In addition to housing the charger and controller, the case can hold the additional sticks and D-pad, as well as the paddles when those aren’t in use. It’s got a mesh pocket for holding charging cables and other small accessories, and the exterior is a molded hard plastic wrapped in fabric that feels super durable, and yet doesn’t take up much more room than the controller itself when packed in a bag.

The case is actually a huge help in justifying that $179.99 price tag, since all of this would be a significant premium as an after-market add-on accessory for a standard controller.

Bottom line

Microsoft took its time with a successor to the original Xbox Elite Wireless Controller, and while at first glance you might think that not much has changed, there’s actually a lot of significant improvements here. The controller’s look and feel also feel better, with more satisfying button, pad and the stick response, and a better grip thanks to the new semi-textured finish on the front of the controller.

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USB-C and more customization options might be good enough reason even for existing Elite Controller owners to upgrade, but anyone on the fence about getting an Elite to begin with should definitely find this a very worthwhile upgrade over a standard Xbox One controller.

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Friended is a new social network that wants to get real

Though the social media landscape is dominated by a few major players, consumers still seem to want something new and different. Just look at TikTok.

Today, a new social app is launching called Friended, which is taking an altogether different strategy when it comes to connecting people online. Friended was started by Thumb cofounder and CEO Dan Kurani, Friended wants to give users a deeper and more meaningful connection to one another, which the company believes they crave.

On Friended, users can post to the community about what they’re thinking or feeling. But rather than catalyze a ‘town hall’-style group conversation, members of the community can respond privately to that post, offering their insights, anecdotes, or advice.

The idea is to give people a chance to share how they really feel in a vulnerable, one-to-one setting. In playing around with the app, I had conversations with people about how to make friends in NYC and why it sometimes feel like others don’t care about us as much as we care about them.

Anyone can respond to a thread, and comments on threads can be liked by the poster or respondent, but from the moment a response comes through, that conversation is one-on-one and private.

“People feel more lonely now than ever before,” said Kurani. “Part of the blame is the social media algorithms that only promote people’s highlights for more ad impressions. It’s isolating to see everyone’s happy moments, and, then get silence when you share something vulnerable. But, it’s also just plain hard to open up and share your feelings because of the pressure to be perfect.”

Because Friended wants to be a place where you always have someone to talk to, the company has eliminated ads as a possible revenue stream. Instead, the company is working to implement a premium tier.

Right now, users can only post a conversation starter every eight hours. The premium tier, which costs $4.99/week, allows users to post as frequently as they want, and also includes a few other premium features like the ability to talk to people in your location.

Friended has raised a $500K seed round from investors such as Jonah Goodhart, Dr. Lara Otte, Jared Fliesler, and Bobby Goodlatte. Though the company won’t disclose monthly active user numbers, it did say that it has 500,000 registered users with an average of 11 sessions per day per active user during its beta. More than 2.5 million messages were sent last month.

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ZenHub adds roadmapping to its GitHub project management tool

ZenHub, the popular project management tool that integrates right into GitHub, today announced the launch of Roadmaps. As you can guess from the name, this is a roadmapping feature that allows teams to better plan their projects ahead of time and visualize their status — all from within GitHub.

“We’re diving into a brand new category which is super exciting and we’re really starting to think not only about how forward-thinking software teams are managing their software projects but how they’re actually planning ahead,” ZenHub CEO and co-founder Aaron Upright told me. “And we’re really using this as an opportunity to really evolve the product and really introduce now a new kind of entrant into the space for product roadmapping.”

The product itself is indeed pretty straightforward. By default, it takes existing projects and epics a team has already defined and visualizes those on a timeline — including data about how many open issues still remain. In its current iteration, the tool is still pretty basic, but going forward ZenHub will add more advanced features like blocking. As Upright noted, that’s just fine, though, because while the main goal here is to help teams plans, ZenHub also wants to give other stakeholders a kind of 30,000-foot overview of the state of a project without having to click around every issue in GitHub or Jira.

Upright also argues that existing solutions tend to fall short of what teams really need. “Smaller organizations — teams that are 10, 15 or 25 people — they can’t afford these tools. They’re really expensive. They’re cost-prohibitive,” he said. “And so oftentimes what they do is they turn to Excel files or Google spreadsheets in order to keep track of their roadmap. And keeping the spreadsheets up to date really becomes a complex and really a full-time job.” Yet those tools that are affordable often don’t offer a way to sync data back and forth between GitHub and their platforms, which results in the product team not getting those updates in GitHub, for example. Since ZenHub lives inside of GitHub, that’s obviously not a problem.

ZenHub Roadmaps is now available to all users.

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Google launches OpenTitan, an open-source secure chip design project

Google has partnered with several tech companies to develop and build OpenTitan, a new, collaborative open-source secure chip design project.

The aim of the new coalition is to build trustworthy chip designs for use in datacenters, storage, and computer peripherals, which are both open and transparent, allowing anyone to inspect the hardware for security vulnerabilities and backdoors.

It comes at a time where tech giants and governments alike are increasingly aware that hostile nation states are trying to infiltrate and compromise supply chains in an effort to carry out long-term surveillance or espionage.

OpenTitan builds off the success of Google’s own custom-built chip, Titan, which it uses in its multi-factor security keys and its own-brand Android phones. Critical to the chip’s success is its root-of-trust technology, which cryptographically ensures that the chip hasn’t been tampered with. Root-of-trust provides a solid foundation for the operating system and applications running on the chip.

Google said OpenTitan will be run by LowRisc, a non-profit community, and will rely on partnerships with ETH Zurich, G+D Mobile Security, Nuvoton Technology, and Western Digital to support the project.

OpenTitan will also be platform agnostic and can be adapted to almost any device or software, Google said.

It’s not the first project dedicated to building secure chip designs. The Open Compute Project, supported by Facebook, Intel and Google, was created to open-source designs for its core infrastructure servers as part of an effort to gain better efficiencies from datacenter operations.

Apple also has its own secure — albeit proprietary — custom silicon, the Apple T2, found in its latest MacBooks, which it uses to control a device’s security functions and store the user’s passwords and encryption keys.

Tech giants take seats on Homeland Security’s new supply chain task force

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UK drone register takes off

A UK drone registration scheme has opened ahead of the deadline for owners to register their devices coming into force at the end of this month.

The UK government announced its intention to introduce a drone registration scheme two years ago.

The rules apply to drones or model aircraft weighting between 250g and 20kg.

Owners of drones wanting to fly the device themselves must also take and pass a theory test to gain a flyer ID by November 30. Anyone who wishes to fly a drone owned by someone else must also first obtain a flyer ID by passing the theory test.

UK ministers have come in for serious criticism for lagging on drone regulations in recent years after a spate of drone sightings at the country’s busiest airport grounded flights last December, disrupting thousands of travellers. In January flights were also briefly halted at Heathrow airport after another unidentified drone sighting.

This fall the police investigation into the Gatwick drone shutdown found that at least two drones had been involved. In September police also said they had been unable to identify any suspects — ruling out 96 people of interest.

Following the Gatwick disruption the government tightened existing laws around drone flights near airports — extending a no-fly zone from 1km to 5km. But a full drone bill, originally slated for introduction this year, has yet to take off.

As well as introducing a legal requirement for drone owners to register their craft via the Civil Aviation Authority’s website by November 30, the new stop-gap rules require organizations that use drones to register for an operator ID too, also at a cost of £9 per year.

All drones must also be labeled with the operator ID. This must be clearly visible on the main body of the craft, and easy to read when it’s on the ground, written in block capital letters taller than 3mm high.

The registered person who obtains the operator ID must be aged 18 or older and is accountable for managing drones to ensure only individuals with a flyer ID fly them.

Individuals must be aged 13 or older to obtain a flyer ID.

The online test for obtaining the flyer ID involves answering 20 multiple choice questions. The pass mark for the test is set at 16. There’s no limit on how many times the test can be taken.

The Civil Aviation Authority says everything needed to pass the test can be found in The Drone and Model Aircraft Code. There’s no charge for taking the test or obtaining the flyer ID.

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