Google finishes the install of its private Curie cable, announces Panama branch

Google today announced that it has finished the install and test of its private Curie cable. When it was announced, Curie, which connects the U.S. to Chile, was the company’s third private cable. Since then, it has announced two more, Dunant and Equiano, which will connect the U.S. to Europe and Portugal to South Africa. The 10,500 kilometers long cable will offer a total capacity of 72Tbps and will go online in Q2 of 2020. Right now, Google’s teams are working on connecting the cable to its own network.

In addition, Google also today announced that Curie will get a branch to Panama. “Once operational, this branch will enhance connectivity and bandwidth to Central America, and increase our ability to connect to other networks in the region, providing resiliency to our global cloud infrastructure,” the company says in today’s announcement.

For Curie’s Panama branch, Google will once again work with SubCom, the same engineering firm that helped it build the rest of the cable. SubCom is also working with Google on the Dunant, while Google opted to partner with Alcatel Submarine Networks for the Equiano cable to South Africa.

While Google is also partnering with other technology firms to share bandwidth on other cables, these private cables give it full control over all of the resources. The company also argues that owning and operating its own cables adds another layer of security, on top of all the other benefits.

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Google brings RCS support in its Android Messages app to the US

Google today announced that it is now rolling out support for Rich Communication Services messages (you can think of it as the next generation of SMS) in the Android Messages app to all of its users in the U.S., after already testing it with a small set of users in recent months. For Google, this push for RCS is also a way for the company to more effectively compete with Apple’s iMessages (though it doesn’t feature end-to-end encryption) and since Google has mostly taken control of this rollout away from carriers, it gets to call the shots on when users get access to this, not the telcos. It already did this in the UK and France earlier this year, so the company already has some experience in managing this service.

It’s also no secret that Google’s messaging strategy, at least for consumers, remains messy, with Hangouts still being a widely used tool. At least on mobile, Google hopes that Messages, which until now was essentially the company’s SMS client, can take over that role. Like other messaging services, RCS support in Messages will allow you to talk to your friends over WiFi or mobile data and send photos and videos. You will also get read receipts, typing notifications and all the usual messaging features you’d expect.

With Google taking control of the rollout, it’s also now responsible for keeping this network running and there are some legitimate concerns about the company owning this over the carriers. On the other hand, though, the carriers didn’t do them any favors by making their own RCS rollouts as messy as possible, up to the point where Google really didn’t have an option but to do this itself. For Android users, though, this is good news, even though they will still show up with a green bubble on iPhones — and will hence be judged by their iPhone-using friends.

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Amazon and Google double down on hands-free recipes to help sell their smart displays

Amazon and Google have identified a solid use case for their smart speaker devices, powered by Alexa and Google Assistant, respectively: recipes. The companies this week have both announced new product features that aim to help users cook, hands-free, while guided by the voice assistant. Amazon this week rolled out a new feature integration in partnership with BuzzFeed’s recipe site Tasty, to offer step-by-step voice and video instructions to Alexa users. Meanwhile, Google partnered with entrepreneur and chef Ayesha Curry to bring her recipes to Google Assistant.

Curry’s recipes will also include step-by-step cooking instructions on Google Assistant-powered Smart Displays, like the Nest Hub Max.

Meanwhile, the Tasty recipes are available across Echo devices, but will include cooking videos on the Echo Show devices.

What’s interesting about the new features is that both involve content partnerships, instead of dedicated skills from third-parties. In fact, Curry is even providing her new recipe (Cast Iron Fall Bread Pudding with Brown Butter Apples) exclusively to Google Assistant users.

The growth in voice apps had been growing steadily over the past few years, with Amazon announcing earlier this fall it had surpassed over 100,000 skills. But that momentum may now be slowing, reports say — a possible indication that developer enthusiasm may be waning, as well.

The issue with voice apps is they’re hard to discover by way of voice commands alone, and they require particular syntax to properly launch. Sure, users may find a great weather app or game, but if they can’t remember its name later on, they may not visit again. Another issue is that many of the first voice apps were built by developers, some of whom lack user experience design backgrounds resulting in kludgy, confusing voice experiences.

Finally, it’s not clear that a large number of smart speaker or smart display owners are even regularly using voice apps. After all, Amazon and Google tend to tout the number of skills they have, not the number of people using them.

Content integrations by way of partnerships route around all these problems.

They simplify things and put Amazon and Google back in control of the user experience. And they still give users what they want without requiring them to launch a third-party app.

Recipes are also more straightforward, as far as integrations go. They consist of only a few parts — ingredient lists and cooking instructions, for example. And the commands to launch them are as simple as “Alexa” or “Hey Google,” followed by “show me recipes from…” and then the recipe source.

Navigating recipes can also be easier than other voice apps, thanks to basic commands like “Alexa, ingredients,” “Alexa, next step,” or “Alexa start recipe.”

The smart speakers can aid with general cooking questions, too, like “Hey Google, how many tablespoons in a cup?” or “Hey Google, show me how to brown butter.”

Before the Tasty partnership, Amazon had already tapped into the potential for recipes to boost device sales with the launch of a Guided Cooking feature that allowed Echo Show and Echo Spot customers to get step-by-step instructions from Allrecipes, Epicurious, Food52, TheKitchn, and SideChef while they cook without having to install a skill.

In addition, Alexa more recently was the debut voice platform for Discovery’s new subscription service Food Network Kitchen, which doesn’t just offer recipes and videos, but also live cooking classes with master chefs.

Ayesha Curry isn’t Google’s first recipe partnership, either. It had also indexed recipes from Bon Appetite, The New York Times, Food Network and others for use on Google Home. This year, it said recipe suggestions would be personalized to users with the launch of a “Picks for You” feature for its smart displays.

Both new recipe integrations are live now.

To get started, say “Hey Google, show me recipes from Ayesha Curry,” or ask Alexa for recipes from Tasty based on ingredients, dish name or occasion, like, “Alexa, find chicken recipes from Tasty.”

 

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Instagram tests hiding Like counts globally

Instagram is making Like counts private for some users everywhere. Instagram tells TechCrunch the hidden Likes test is expanding to a subset of people globally. Users will have to decide for themselves if something is worth Liking rather than judging by the herd. The change could make users more comfortable sharing what’s important to them without the fear publicly receiving an embarrassingly small number of Likes.

Instagram began hiding Likes in April in Canada and then brought the test to Ireland, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand in July. Facebook started a similar experiment in Australia in September. Instagram said last week the test would expand to the US, but now it’s running everywhere to a small percentage of users in each country. Instagram tweets that feedback to the experiment so far has been positive, but it’s continuing to test since it’s such a fundamental change to the app.

Instagram wants its app to be a place people feel comfortable expressing themselves, and can focus on photos and videos they share rather than how many Likes they get, a spokesperson tells TechCrunch. Users can still see who Liked their own posts by tapping on the Likers list, but they won’t see a count anywhere — they’d have to count the names manually. Viewers of a post will only see a few names of mutual friends who Liked it.

The expansion raises concerns that the test could hurt influencers and creators after a study by HypeAuditor found many of them of various levels of popularity lost 3% to 15% of their Likes in countries where Instagram hid the counts.

Instagram tells me it understands Like counts are important to many creators, and it’s actively working on ways that influencers will be able to communicate their value to partners. Since Like counts won’t be public, influencer marketing agencies must rely on self-reported screenshots from creators that could be photoshopped to score undue rewards.

Without even privately visible counts, agencies won’t be able verify a post got enough engagement to warrant payment. Instagram may need to offer some sort of private URL, partner dashboard, or API creators can share with agencies that reveals Like counts.

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said last week at Wired25 that “We will make decisions that hurt the business if they help people’s well-being and health”. Hidden Like counts might reduce overall ad spend on Instagram if businesses feel it’s less important to rack up engagement and look popular. But it might also shift spend from influencer marketing that goes directly into the pockets of creators towards official Instagram ads, thereby earning the company more money.

An Instagram spokesperson provided this statement to TechCrunch:

“Starting today, we’re expanding our test of private like counts to the rest of the world beyond Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, and New Zealand. If you’re in the test, you’ll no longer see the total number of likes and views on photos and videos posted to Feed unless they’re your own. While the feedback from early testing has been positive, this is a fundamental change to Instagram, and so we’re continuing our test to learn more from our global community.”

The difference between good and bad Facebooking

This is perhaps the final step of testing before Instagram might officially launch the change and hide Like counts for all users everywhere. It’s surely watching closely to determine how the test improves mental health, but also how it impacts usage of the app.

Hiding Likes is probably a win for the sanity of humanity, and a boon to creativity. Before, people often self-censored and declined to share posts they worried wouldn’t get enough Likes, or deleted posts that didn’t. They’d instinctually bend their public persona towards manicured selfies and images that made their life look glamorous, rather than what was authentic or that they wanted to communicate. Meanwhile, viewers would see high Like counts on friends’ or influencers’ posts, compare those to their own smaller Like counts, and feel ashamed or inadequate.

Putting an end to the popularity contest might lead people to share more unconventional, silly, or artsy posts regardless of their public reception. That could make Instagram’s content more diverse, surprising, and alluring over time versus an increasingly stale aesthetic of perfection. Hidden counts might also decrease the need for “Finstagram” accounts aka fake Insta profiles that users spin up to share what might not receive as many Likes.

While Facebook is credited for inventing the Like button, it’s Instagram that institutionalized the red heart icon that Twitter eventually adopted, and codified public approval into a concentrated dopamine hit. Instagram turning against Like counts could start a larger shift in the social media industry towards prioritizing more qualitative enjoyment of sharing, instead of obsessing over the quantification of validation.

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Instagram tests hiding Like counts globally

Instagram is making Like counts private for some users everywhere. Instagram tells TechCrunch the hidden Likes test is expanding to a subset of users globally. Users will have to decide for themselves if something is worth Liking rather than judging by the herd. The change could make users more comfortable sharing what’s important to them without the fear of people seeing them receive an embarrassingly small number of likes.

Instagram began hiding Likes in April in Canada and then brought the test to Ireland, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand in July. Facebook started a similar experiment in Australia in September. Instagram said last week the test would expand to the US, but now it’s running everywhere to a small percentage of users in each country.

Instagram wants its app to be a place people feel comfortable expressing themselves, and can focus on photos and videos they share rather than how many Likes they get, a spokesperson tells TechCrunch. Users can still see who Liked their own posts by tapping on the Likers list, but they won’t see a count anywhere — they’d have to count the names manually. Viewers of posts will only see a few names of mutual friends who Liked it.

The expansion raises concerns that the test could hurt influencers and creators after a study by HypeAuditor found many of them of various levels of popularity lost 3% to 15% of their Likes in countries where Instagram hid the counts.

Instagram tells me it understands Like counts are important to many creators, and it’s actively working on ways that creators will be able to communicate their value to partners. Since Like counts won’t be public, influencer marketing agencies must rely on self-reported screenshots from creators that could be photoshopped to score undue rewards.

Without even privately visible counts, agencies won’t be able verify a post got enough engagement to warrant payment. Instagram may need to offer some sort of private URL or API creators can share with agencies that reveals Like counts.

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said last week that “We will make decisions that hurt the business if they help people’s well-being and health”. Hidden Like counts might reduce overall ad spend on Instagram if businesses feel its less important to rack up engagement and look popular. But it might also shift spend from influencer marketing that goes directly into the pockets of creators towards official Instagram ads, thereby earning the company more money.

An Instagram spokesperson provided this statement to TechCrunch: “Starting today, we’re expanding our test of private like counts to the rest of the world beyond Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, and New Zealand. If you’re in the test, you’ll no longer see the total number of likes and views on photos and videos posted to Feed unless they’re your own. While the feedback from early testing has been positive, this is a fundamental change to Instagram, and so we’re continuing our test to learn more from our global community.”

This is perhaps the final step of testing before Instagram might officially launch the change and hide Like counts for all users everywhere. It’s surely watching closely to determine how the test improves mental health, but also how it impacts usage of the app.

Hiding Likes is probably a win for the sanity of humanity, and a boon to creativity. Before, people would often self-censored and declined to share posts they worried wouldn’t get enough Likes, or deleted posts that didn’t. They’d instinctually bend their public persona towards manicured selfies and images that made their life look glamorous, rather than what was real or what they wanted to communicate. Meanwhile, viewers would see high Like counts on friends’ or influencers’ posts, compare those to their own smaller Like counts, and feel ashamed or inadequate.

Putting an end to the popularity contest might lead people to share more unconventional, silly, or artsy posts regardless of their public reception. That could make Instagram’s content more diverse, surprising, and alluring over time versus an increasingly stale aesthetic of perfection. Hidden Like counts might also decrease the need for “Finstagram” accounts aka fake Insta profiles that users spin up to share what might not receive as many hearts.

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What's really happening at the US-Mexico border -- and how we can do better | Erika Pinheiro

What's really happening at the US-Mexico border -- and how we can do better | Erika Pinheiro

At the US-Mexico border, policies of prolonged detention and family separation have made seeking asylum in the United States difficult and dangerous. In this raw and heartfelt talk, immigration attorney Erika Pinheiro offers a glimpse into her daily work on both sides of the border and shares some of the stories behind the statistics -- including her own story of being detained and separated from her son. It's a clear-eyed call to remember the humanity that's impacted by policy -- and a warning: "History shows us that the first population to be vilified and stripped of their rights is rarely the last," she says.

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

SPICE: Self-Supervised Pitch Estimation

Posted by Marco Tagliasacchi, Research Scientist, Google Research

A sound’s pitch is a qualitative measure of its frequency, where a sound with a high pitch is higher in frequency than one of low pitch. Through tracking relative differences in pitch, our auditory system is able to recognize audio features, such as a song’s melody. Pitch estimation has received a great deal of attention over the past decades, due to its central importance in several domains, ranging from music information retrieval to speech analysis.

Traditionally, simple signal processing pipelines were proposed to estimate pitch, working either in the time domain (e.g., pYIN) or in the frequency domain (e.g., SWIPE). But until recently, machine learning methods have not been able to outperform such hand-crafted signal processing pipelines. This was due to the lack of annotated data, which is particularly tedious and difficult to obtain at the temporal and frequency resolution required to train fully supervised models. The CREPE model was able to overcome these limitations to achieve state-of-the-art results by training on a synthetically generated dataset combined with other manually annotated datasets.

In our recent paper, we present a different approach to training pitch estimation models in the absence of annotated data. Inspired by the observation that for humans, including professional musicians, it is typically much easier to estimate relative pitch (the frequency interval between two notes) than absolute pitch (the true fundamental frequency), we designed SPICE (Self-supervised PItCh Estimation) to solve a similar task. This approach relies on self-supervision by defining an auxiliary task (also known as a pretext task) that can be learned in a completely unsupervised way.

Constant-Q transform of an audio clip, superimposed on a representation of pitch as estimated by SPICE (video).

The SPICE model consists of a convolutional encoder, which produces a single scalar embedding that maps linearly to pitch. To accomplish this, we feed two signals to the encoder, a reference signal along with a signal that is pitch shifted from the reference by a random, known amount. Then, we devise a loss function that forces the difference between the scalar embeddings to be proportional to the known difference in pitch. For convenience, we perform pitch shifting in the domain defined by the constant-Q transform (CQT), because this corresponds to a simple translation along the log-spaced frequency axis.

Pitch is well defined only when the underlying signal is harmonic, i.e., when it contains components with integer multiples of the fundamental frequency. So, an important function of the model is to determine when the output is meaningful and reliable. For example, in the figure below, there is no harmonic signal in the interval between 1.2s and 2s resulting in low enough confidence in the pitch estimation that no pitch estimate is generated. SPICE is designed to learn the level of confidence of the pitch estimation in a self-supervised fashion, instead of relying on handcrafted solutions.

SPICE model architecture (simplified). Two pitch-shifted versions of the same CQT frame are fed to two encoders with shared weights. The loss is designed to make the difference between the outputs of the encoders proportional to the relative pitch difference. In addition (not shown), a reconstruction loss is added to regularize the model. The model also learns to produce the confidence of the pitch estimation.

We evaluate our model against publicly available datasets and show that we outperform handcrafted baselines while matching the level of accuracy attained by CREPE, despite having no access to ground truth labels. In addition, by properly augmenting our data during training, SPICE is also able to operate in noisy conditions, e.g., to extract pitch from the singing voice when this is mixed in with background music. The chart below shows a comparison between SWIPE (a hand-crafted signal-processing method), CREPE (a fully supervised model) and SPICE (a self-supervised model) on the MIR-1k dataset.

Evaluation on the MIR-1k dataset, mixing in background music at different signal-to-noise ratios.

The SPICE model has been deployed in FreddieMeter, a web app in which singers can score their performance against Freddie Mercury.

Acknowledgments

The work described here was authored by Beat Gfeller, Christian Frank, Dominik Roblek, Matt Sharifi, Marco Tagliasacchi and Mihajlo Velimirović. We are grateful for all discussions and feedback on this work that we received from our colleagues at Google. The SingingVoices dataset used for training the models in this work has been collected by Alexandra Gherghina as part of FreddieMeter, which is using SPICE and a vocal timbre similarity model to understand how closely a singer matches Freddie Mercury.

4 Sites Where You Can Sell Non-Refundable Travel Tickets

You can buy cheap flights to almost anywhere in the world. But their low price comes with one major flaw. Those cheap flights are non-refundable. If you don’t make the flight, the airline keeps the money.

In some cases, the airline will even resell your seat, making double the money at your expense. It is the same for concerts, cruises, rail travel, hotels, and more.

This defect of non-refundable cheap flights and bookings is changing. These are the best sites where you can sell your non-refundable flight tickets.

What Is a Non-Refundable Flight?

Around the world, there are many budget airlines. These airlines offer cheap tickets, letting you hop between countries and even continents. However, many of these budget airlines refuse to allow you to refund your ticket once sold. Some airlines give you a 24-hour grace period during which you can still cancel and receive a refund.

The vast majority take your money and offer no assistance if an issue arises. Some airlines offer a refund for an unforeseen issue. But those unforeseen issues are bereavements and similar awful circumstances.

It isn’t just flights. Tickets for concerts, festivals, rail travel, ferries, and more are all non-refundable. At other times, your hotel might refuse to refund your booking. In all those situations, the companies ride roughshod over consumers.

Thankfully, there are now several sites where you can sell your non-refundable tickets. Alternatively, if you want a cheap flight, check out the best cheap flight sites that’ll save you money.

1. SpareFare

SpareFare is a rapidly expanding non-refundable flight marketplace. Using the tagline of “The Secure Marketplace for Travel Reservations,” SpareFare connects non-refundable flight holders with willing buyers to get everyone a great deal.

SpareFare deals primarily with non-refundable flights. Since then SpareFare has expanded to offer non-refundable sales on package holidays, hotel rooms, and flight vouchers. The combination has seen SpareFare connect travelers lumped with non-refundable tickets to willing buyers looking for a flight or holiday bargain.

The process of buying and selling non-refundable airfares using SpareFare is simple.

SpareFare uses a bidding and escrow system. Buyers can scroll through the list of flights, hotels, or holidays on offer, then submit a bid. The bid is put to the seller who then has 48 hours to decide.

If the seller agrees to the bid price, SpareFare contacts the buyer to deposit their funds into the site escrow. Once SpareFare confirms the deposit, the seller transfers the tickets to the buyer. The transfer process involves changing the names on the flight tickets and reassigning the associated email address for the flights.

You can read more about the process in the SpareFare FAQs.

SpareFare doesn’t take any commission if the seller posts all the information required manually. If the seller uses the assisted booking option (where SpareFare posts the non-refundable flight for you), SpareFare collects 10-percent of the sale.

2. Transfer Travel

Transfer Travel is a non-refundable travel marketplace with the tagline, “Bringing people with unwanted travel plans together with those wanting incredible last-minute deals.”

Transfer Travel offers a wider spectrum of non-refundable travel options than SpareFare. With Transfer Travel, you can find discounted non-refundable flights, rail and coach tickets, festival tickets, cruises, accommodation, and travel vouchers.

Transfer Travel has a more extensive range of travel options. A flexible traveler can pick up cheap flight tickets, travel to a festival, and stay in a nice hotel, all at a reduced price.

The travel vouchers offer a greater variety, too. You can find vouchers for flights, hotels, getaways, spas, cruises, and more, with decent concessions.

Non-refundable flight tickets (and other travel tickets) on Transfer Travel are listed at set prices. Though, you can make an offer to the seller.

If the buyer agrees to the set price, the seller receives a notification that Transfer Travel is holding the payment securely. The seller then updates their flight tickets with the buyer’s information and changes the email account linked to the tickets. Transfer Travel holds the payment until 24 hours after the travel date (or the start of the festival or hotel booking).

If the seller doesn’t transfer the non-refundable tickets within 72 hours, the payment is refunded automatically.

One major downside to Transfer Travel is the commission. Transfer Travel takes a 15-percent slice of any sales.

Another way to score cheap flights is by using Skyscanner. Check out the best tips for scoring cheap flight tickets using Skyscanner.

3. Cancelon

Cancelon is one of the oldest non-refundable hotel reservation marketplaces. It deals in non-refundable hotel reservations exclusively. Hundreds of hotel reservations up for grabs at any one time.

You can use Cancelon in two ways. If you have a specific location and date that you want to travel on, you can use the search function. The biggest cities around the world have the most listings, but it all depends on your dates and availability.

The second option is to use Cancelon Traveler Deals. You can browse a world map of selected non-refundable hotel reservations on the Cancelon site. Pick your location and see if the availability fits your schedule.

Cancelon takes a reasonable 10-percent of the final sale price. Once the payment is complete, Cancelon makes the arrangements for the name change.

4. UseMyBooking

UseMyBooking is a non-refundable ticket marketplace for your smartphone, focused primarily on UK travel. Available on iOS and Android, UseMyBooking is “A secure global marketplace for non-refundable tickets, reservations, vouchers, and packages.”

The first thing to note is that you don’t have to sign up to explore the listings and features. That’s a huge plus if you want to check it out without committing. More apps should offer a similar option.

The UseMyBooking app lets you swipe through potential travel choices on the home page. Alternatively, you can use the Hotel, Train, or Others category to streamline your search criteria.

The non-refundable travel and hotel options are for the U.K. So UK-based users will find a travel bargain or two!

UseMyBooking takes a large slice of any sales. Once the non-refundable ticket transfer is complete, UseMyBooking takes 20-percent. Considering the seller is already at a loss, losing another fifth of your ticket sale is painful.

It also means the ticket prices on the platform aren’t as low as they could be as sellers look to recoup a higher percentage of their initial outlay versus the sale commission.

Download: UseMyBooking for Android | iOS (Both Free)

Are Non-Refundable Flights Worthwhile?

Non-refundable flights keep the cost of certain types of air travel low. You never truly know if you will make that flight, hotel reservation, or concert. But you wouldn’t book tickets for anything, ever, if you lived in fear of never receiving a refund.

At least now you have the option of receiving a partial refund on your non-refundable flights or other bookings. Earlier all you could do was shred those tickets and look at your empty wallet.

If you’re looking for cheap flights, why not try using a VPN to see if you can score a massive discount? Results vary between airlines, flight booking sites, and location—but it can help you grab a cheap flight!

Image Credit: MicEnin/Depositphotos

Read the full article: 4 Sites Where You Can Sell Non-Refundable Travel Tickets

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How to Play Local Multiplayer Games Online on Steam

Are you looking for more ways to play games online with friends? Then you need to check out Steam’s Remote Play Together feature, which allows Steam users to game online.

However, before jumping in, Remote Play Together has some nuances you need to know about. So, in this article, we’ll explain how to play local multiplayer games online on Steam.

What Are Local Multiplayer Games?

Before diving into the specifics of Remote Play Together, let’s tackle the basics. Playing local multiplayer games is not the same as playing on LAN (Local Area Network).

LAN refers to playing games using multiple copies across multiple machines connected by LAN. Local multiplayer, on the other hand, just requires a single machine with a single copy of a game. Local multiplayer games also typically make use of multiple controllers to play together on the host game.

In short, local multiplayer gaming refers to couch gaming. The term came from playing together with your friends within your own home (and likely on your couch).

For example, a group of four people playing on a home console with different controllers counts as local multiplayer gaming. A group of people on multiple computers playing together via a local network does not count as local multiplayer.

What Is Steam’s Remote Play Together?

Steam’s Remote Play Together lets you play local multiplayer games online. You’ll still have one host device and one copy of a game, but you won’t have to be in the same room.

If you’ve ever had issues getting your friends to play together, this feature wants to help you out. Only the game host will need to have the game purchased and installed before inviting others to play. Your game nights instantly become more streamlined by removing all of the legwork from everyone else.

Your Steam Friends now have the option to join you online for local multiplayer, shared/split-screen, and local co-op games. Four players (or more in optimal settings according to Valve) can join your game instantaneously. Once they have joined, there’s the option for them to use their own controllers or to share your keyboard and mouse.

Preemptively Addressing Feature Concerns

For anyone with privacy concerns, only the game screen will be visible to those that joined. You don’t have to worry about anyone accessing your desktop or other windows.

The host can also decide how much access they want to allow. If you’re ever unsure, there’s the option to disable mouse, keyboard, or controller support.

If you’re playing across different devices, the feature supports PC, macOS, and Linux crossplay. Remote Play Together seeks to make group gaming as flexible as possible while also protecting the host from anything invasive.

How to Update Your Steam Client to Beta Status

Remote Play Together is currently in beta, so, in order to access Remote Play Together, you need to update the Steam client to access the beta client. Once you have Steam open, go to Steam > Settings > Account > Beta Participation > Change. Once at the Beta Participation – Steam menu, choose “Steam Beta Update” from the drop-down menu. You can then select “OK” to close the window.

Afterwards, you’ll see an alert telling you that Steam needs to restart for the change to take effect. You’ll then need to download a small update. After updating, your Steam client will restart as the new beta client.

How to Use Remote Play Together

Now, you’ll be able to try Remote Play Together using the following steps:

1. Launch a Steam game from the list of supported titles.
2. Once in-game, press Shift and Tab to bring up the Steam Overlay.
3. When it’s visible, hover the friend you want to play with and click the arrow next to their name.
4. Select “Remote Play Together”.
5. At this point, you may receive an error, and you might have to install additional drivers to make it work. Follow the on-screen prompts from Steam to do so.
6. Make sure your friend has accepted your invite. You’ll receive an on-screen notice once your friend has accepted.
7. Repeat the process to invite any remaining friends (if applicable).
8. Once all desired players have joined, press Shift and Tab to view the Remote Play settings. You can enable or disable the shared input of the mouse, keyboard, or controller here. You can also adjust the joined player’s volume.
9. Play together.

As Remote Play Together is in beta, you may experience some connection issues or latency depending on the host’s internet connection. Valve will be working to improve the stability of network and hardware support across different devices. If you experience any issues with chat, consider looking into Valve’s Steam Chat app for mobile.

Games to Try With Remote Play Together

Steam offers over 4,000 supported titles to experiment with from the get-go. Amongst these, a number of popular titles stand out as games you should try.

Left 4 Dead 2

When suggesting a title for Remote Play Together, one of Valve’s classic cooperative campaign titles easily comes to mind. If you have some friends that haven’t yet tried the iconic title, consider introducing them to it.

Risk of Rain

Risk of Rain offers another solid entry that can support you and up to three other friends. As an easier graphical entry point, the title can also take some of the load off the host’s internet connection.

Cuphead

While famously noted as difficult, Cuphead’s local co-op can make the game’s difficulty more manageable. If you need some help or just want to bring a friend in, consider giving it a shot.

Enter the Gungeon

If you’re looking for another dungeon crawler to share a screen with, look no farther. Enter the Gungeon’s local co-op experience works incredibly fluidly.

The Lasting Appeal of Remote Play Together

Regardless of which title you pick, Remote Play Together provides a ton of new opportunities. With the ability to allow online multiplayer for games that previously never had it, Steam is giving a massive upgrade to both past and present titles.

If you want another way Steam can rekindle old games, here’s how to turn your Steam Link into a retro gaming station.

Read the full article: How to Play Local Multiplayer Games Online on Steam

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Explore Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence With This Certified Training

As smart devices take an ever greater role in our lives, specialist knowledge of artificial intelligence and machine learning is becoming highly valuable. If you want to get ahead of the curve, the Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Certification Bundle is the place to start. This learning library contains eight hands-on video courses, working towards certification. You can pick up the bundle now for just $29 at MakeUseOf Deals.

AI and Machine Learning

Building an intelligent app is a little different from other kinds of development. Instead of writing simple instructions in code, you are essentially building a brain that is capable of learning. This bundle helps you to understand the process and start writing the algorithms that underpin every intelligent app.

Through 44 hours of video training, you learn how to program with Python and use various frameworks for machine learning. Along the way, you get hands-on practice by building two neural networks, and deep learning structures.

The training also looks at data science with Python and pre-processing with R. These skills are vital for AI development, but they also transfer to many other careers.

44 Hours of Training for $29

These courses are worth $1,600, but you can grab the bundle now for $29 with lifetime access included.

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Motorola throws back to the future with a foldable Razr reboot

The rebirth of the Razr has been rumored for several months now. And honestly, such a product is a bit of a no-brainer. The Lenovo-owned company is embracing the burgeoning (if sputtering) world of foldables with the return of one of its most iconic models.

While it’s true that Motorola’s kept the Razr name alive in some form or another well into the Android era, everything that’s come since has failed to recapture the magic of the once mighty brand.

From the looks of things, however, the newly announced Razr is a lovely bit of symmetry. The product, which was announced earlier today in Los Angeles, leans into the lackluster criticism that foldables are simply a return of the once-ubiquitous clamshell design.

Motorola Razr

According to Motorola, the company has been toying around with flexible technology for some time now. Per a press release: “In 2015, a cross functional team, comprised of engineers and designers from both Motorola and Lenovo, was assembled to start thinking about how we could utilize flexible display technology.”

The device swaps the horizontal design of its best known competitor, the Samsung Galaxy Fold. The vertical form factor looks to be a match made in foldable heaven. Certainly it loses some of the uber-thin design that made the original Razr such a hit so many years back, but makes the ultra-wide (21:9) 6.2-inch screen compact enough to fit in a pocket.

As with the Galaxy Fold, there’s another a small display on the front for getting a glimpse of notifications and the like. It’s another design feature that mirrors the O.G. Razr. Predictably, the device runs Android — Android 9 (for now), to be precise.

For full throwback appeal, there’s also a “Retro Razr” mode, that mimics the original metallic button design for the bottom half of the screen. It’s a skin that does, indeed, double as a number pad, usable with Android messaging app. Motorola clearly put a lot of love into the design and it shows. If nothing else, the new Razr could go a ways toward proving that retro handsets can be more than just nostalgic novelty for bygone tech.

After the whole Samsung kerfuffle, you’d be right to question the device’s durability, though Motorola says it’s less concerned, citing an “average” smartphone timespan for the product. Only one way, to find out, I guess. Also like the Fold, price is a pretty big obstacle to any sort of mainstream adoption for this first-gen product. The Razr will run $1,499 when it launches in January of next year.

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Disney+ to launch in India, Southeast Asian markets next year

Disney plans to bring its on-demand video streaming service to India and some Southeast Asian markets as soon as the second half of next year, two sources familiar with the company’s plans told TechCrunch.

In India, the company plans to bring Disney+’s catalog to Hotstar, a popular video streaming service it owns, after the end of next year’s IPL cricket tournament in May, the people said.

Soon afterwards, the company plans to expand Hotstar with Disney+ catalog to Indonesia and Malaysia among other Southeast Asian nations, said those people on the condition of anonymity.

A spokesperson for Hotstar declined to comment.

Hotstar leads the Indian video streaming market. The service said it had more than 300 million monthly subscribers during the IPL cricket tournament and ICC World Cup earlier this year. More than 25 million users simultaneously streamed one of the matches, setting a new global record.

The international expansion of Hotstar isn’t a surprise as it has entered the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. in recent years. In an interview with TechCrunch earlier this year, Ipsita Dasgupta, president of Hotstar’s international operations, said so far the platform’s international strategy has been to enter markets with “high density of Indians.”

In an earnings call for the quarter that ended in June this year, Disney CEO Robert Iger hinted that the company, which snagged Indian entertainment conglomerate Star India as part of its $71.3 billion deal with 21st Century Fox, would bring Star India-operated Hotstar to Southeast Asian markets, though he did not offer a timeline.

Disney+, currently available in the U.S, Canada and the Netherlands, will expand to Australia and New Zealand next week, and the U.K., Germany, Italy, France and Spain on March 31, the company announced last week.

Price hike

Disney, which debut its video streaming service in the U.S. this week and has already amassed over 10 million subscribers, plans to raise the monthly subscription price of Hotstar in India, where the service currently costs $14 a year, one of the two aforementioned people said.

A screenshot of Hotstar’s homepage

The price hike will happen towards the end of the first quarter next year, just ahead of commencement of next IPL cricket tournament season, they said. The company has not decided exactly how much it intends to charge, but one of the people said that it could go as high as $30 a year.

In other Southeast Asian markets, the service is likely to cost above $30 a year as well, both of the sources said. The prices have yet to be finalized, however, they said.

Even at those suggested price points, Disney would be able to undercut rivals on price. Until recently, Netflix charged at least $7 a month in India and other Southeast Asian markets. But this year, the on-demand streaming pioneer introduced a $2.8 monthly tier in India and $4 in Malaysia.

Hotstar offers a large library of local movies and titles syndicated from international cable networks and studios Showtime, HBO, and ABC (also owned by Disney). In its current international markets, Hotstar’s catalog is limited to some local content and large library of Indian titles.

The arrival of more originals from Disney on Hotstar, which already offers a number of Disney-owned titles in India, could help the service sustain users after cricket seasons. The service’s monthly userbase plummets below 60 million in weeks following IPL tournament, according to people who have seen the internal analytics.

In recent quarters, Hotstar has also set up an office in Tsinghua Science Park in Beijing, China and hired over 60 engineers and researchers as it looks to expand its tech infrastructure to service more future users, according to job recruitment posts and other data sourced from LinkedIn.

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Social network for motherhood Peanut raises $5M, expands to include women trying to conceive

Peanut, an app that began its life as a match-maker for finding new mom friends but has since evolved into a social network of more than a million women, announced today it has closed on $5 million in new funding and is expanding its focus to reach women who are trying to conceive. The round was led by San Francisco and London-based VC firm Index Ventures, also backers of Dropbox, Facebook and Glossier, among others.

Other Peanut investors include Sweet Capital, Greycroft, Aston Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, Female Founders Fund, Felix Capital and Partech. To date, Peanut has raised $9.8 million.

The idea for Peanut arose from co-founder Michelle Kennedy’s personal understanding of how difficult it was to forge female friendships after motherhood. As the former deputy CEO at dating app Badoo and an inaugural board member at Bumble, she initially saw the potential for Peanut as a friendship-focused matching app with swipe mechanisms similar to popular dating apps.

Over the past couple of years, however, Kennedy realized that what women needed was more of a community space. The team then built out the app’s features accordingly, with the launch of its Q&A forums, Peanut Pages, last year, and more recently, with Peanut Groups. The latter has now become Peanut’s main use case, with 60% of users taking advantage of the app’s community features and just 40% using the friend-finding functions.

“Community is definitely becoming a very important part of what we do. It’s where we see the users that we deem to be power users — women who are using Peanut for hours every day — they’re very much within the community section,” explains Kennedy. “We see that growth there and it actually guides the product. So we’re taking the behaviors that we see and letting that inform our roadmap,” Kennedy says.

Since around November 2018, Peanut has been growing by 20% month-over-month, as more women discover Peanut’s private and ad-free alternative to Facebook Groups. On Peanut, users are verified (by selfies!), and people have the sorts of discussions that don’t really take place in other social apps.

Even Kennedy admits she was surprised at first by what women were talking about in the app.

“The conversations were much, much more personal and intimate and more related to their lives. So whether that had to do with their sex life or relationships, it was on a deeper level,” she says. “These are conversations that women simply can’t have anywhere else. Of course, they’re not happening in Facebook Groups…these are very intimate and self-reflective moments. And [women] want to do that in a private setting in a private social network,” Kennedy adds.

The new funding, in part, will be used to grow Peanut’s 16-person team to 22 this year, which will then double next year.

In addition, Peanut is expanding access to women who are trying to conceive, with the launch of the Trying To Conceive (TTC) community. This will offer a separate sign-up experience and access to a dedicated network of women, where members can candidly discuss the topic and ask questions. Within TTC, members can also create their own groups — like one for women on their fifth round of IVF, for example — to have conversations with others who are at the same place in their journey.

The community, today, won’t point women to other fertility-focused apps or related health services, Kennedy says, though she sees the potential for strategic partnerships further down the road. In the near-term, however, Peanut plans to generate revenue by way of the freemium model and micropayments.

“We’re incredibly excited to partner with Michelle to grow Peanut from the essential platform for mothers it is today, to a social network for women globally. Peanut is a true companion for women, bringing them together when they need each other the most,” says Hannah Seal, principal at Index Ventures, about the firm’s investment. “We’ve been impressed with the response Peanut has received since launch and look forward to supporting the team as it enters into new areas such as fertility, and expands globally.”

“We want to shine a light on an often silent struggle. What has always been Peanut’s point of difference is enabling conversations women feel unable to have on any other platform. Providing a safe, inclusive space for women to discuss fertility is a natural progression for our brand as we continue to support women throughout each life stage. No woman should ever feel lonely, isolated or muted on such an important issue,” Kennedy says.

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Google Maps Can Now Translate Place Names

Google Maps can now translate place names for you, making it easier to get around in foreign climes. This should put an end to you trying and failing to pronounce tricky place names while the locals look at you like you’ve got two heads.

Google Maps has made it much easier to get around while visiting a new country. You open the app, type in where you want to go, and Google Maps will direct you there. However, things can be trickier if you need to hail a cab or ask someone which bus to catch.

Google Integrates Translate Into Maps

In an effort to solve this problem, Google is integrating Translate into Maps in a small way. As outlined in a post on The Keyword, Google Maps can now translate place names for you. And all without you ever having to leave the Google Maps app.

All you need to do is search Google Maps for the place you want to visit. Click on the entry, and look for the speaker button next to the place name. Click on that and Google will tell you how to pronounce the name in the language of the country you’re visiting.

Next time you travel, tap the new ? button next to your destination's name and Maps will speak it in the local language. ????? pic.twitter.com/HZNTUYzMQD

— Google Maps (@googlemaps) November 13, 2019

If that wasn’t enough, you can then click “Get more translations” to open Google Translate (assuming you have it installed on your device). This allows you to get a translation for anything else you want to say, even if it’s just, “Thank you very much”.

This feature is being rolled out to Google Maps on Android and iOS this month (November 2019). Google Maps’ Translate integration will initially support 50 languages, with Google promising to add more languages in the future.

Download: Google Maps on Android | iOS

More Google Maps Features to Check Out

If you want to discover more ways Google Maps is helping people get around, Google Maps offers detailed voice guidance for people with visual impairments and Google Maps offers augmented reality directions which add virtual signs to the real world.

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Linux Mint vs. Ubuntu: Which Distro Should You Choose?

Linux Mint and Ubuntu are both known as two of the most newbie-friendly Linux desktops around. Ubuntu is the most popular—so much so that Linux Mint is based on it. But there are real differences between the two.

If you’re considering Ubuntu or Linux Mint, how do you know which one is right for you?

Ubuntu vs. Linux Mint

Ubuntu and Linux Mint are both Linux distributions. That may sound complicated, but it just means Ubuntu and Mint are both ways of packing together various components along with the Linux kernel to create a functioning desktop operating system. Ubuntu or Linux Mint are both capable of replacing Windows, macOS, or Chrome OS on your existing computer.

To distinguish between the two, let’s look at them one by one.

What Is Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is a version of desktop Linux that came about in 2004 when millionaire Mark Shuttleworth founded Canonical. The first release was version 4.10, referring to October 2004.

A new version of Ubuntu becomes available for download every six months. Every fourth iteration serves as an LTS (long-term support) release. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS launched in April 2016.

For the first six years of the project, Ubuntu’s tagline was “Linux for Human Beings.” While Canonical has changed the branding, Ubuntu remains a distribution aimed at general computer users and is your best bet if you want to continue using commercial apps that began on Windows or macOS.

What Is Linux Mint?

Linux Mint first hit the scene in 2006. The distro is built on top of Ubuntu but takes extra steps to remove obstacles for newcomers. The default interface, known as Cinnamon, will feel more familiar to people comfortable with Windows.

While the numbers are different, Linux Mint releases typically come a few months after each Ubuntu version. Starting with 17, every LTS marks a new version number, with the three subsequent releases being x.1, x.2, and x.3.

As a project based on Ubuntu, Linux Mint can run the same software available for Canonical’s distro. You will just find and interact with that software in a way that many find more welcoming.

Ubuntu and Linux Mint System Requirements

Ubuntu and Linux Mint can both run on machines with specs lower than the numbers below, but the experience may be less than ideal. These recommended numbers will likely lead to a better first impression.

Ubuntu

• 4GB RAM
• 25GB of disk space
• 1024×768 screen resolution

Linux Mint

• 2GB RAM
• 20GB of disk space
• 1024×768 screen resolution

Linux Mint has lower system requirements, mainly due to their different default interfaces. As you gain experience with Linux, you can reduce Ubuntu’s system requirements by swapping the default interface for a lighter alternative.

The Installation Process

Ubuntu and Linux Mint both use the same installer. This means if you can figure out how to install one, you know how to install the other. The experience isn’t identical, but it’s close.

That’s not to say that Ubuntu and Linux Mint support identical hardware. That can change depending on which version of the Linux kernel comes preinstalled. Other software decisions can also impact what runs where.

Linux Mint and Ubuntu both support UEFI, so you can dual-boot either one alongside Windows or replace Microsoft’s pre-installed operating system entirely. With Linux Mint, you will need to disable Secure Boot before attempting installation. With Ubuntu, you can leave Secure Boot enabled.

The Look and Feel

Ubuntu and Linux Mint both have distinct designs that rely heavily on vibrant colors and themed icons. While these first impressions matter, know that you can change every nearly aspect with relatively little effort.

Ubuntu

For many years, Ubuntu used its in-house Unity interface. Now it has gone back to the GNOME desktop environment, the most widely-used interface for Linux.

GNOME uses a minimal design with a single mobile-device like panel across the top of your screen. An Activities button opens the Activities Overview that shows your available apps, open windows, and virtual workspaces.

Ubuntu’s primary color is orange, which you can find splashes of throughout the desktop. App windows have a dark black titlebar. Ubuntu has its own custom icon theme that differentiates it from other Linux desktops.

Mint

Linux Mint’s Cinnamon desktop began as an alternative to GNOME 3 back before the latter won over the hearts of many long-time Linux users. Cinnamon provides a familiar feel for people moving over from Windows or a Chromebook. Applications appear in the panel along the bottom, with a launcher menu in the bottom left and system icons on the right.

Liinux Mint has a dark taskbar but bright windows. The desktop’s look utilizes the Arc theme and Moka icons.

Software

Ubuntu used to develop its own interface, its own display server, and its own package format. Today, most of that work has gone away, but the snap package format remains, and it’s one of the most distinct aspects of using Ubuntu.

Yet the snap format has also removed one of the key reasons to prefer Ubuntu. Snap is a universal format that enables you to install software on virtually any Linux desktop.

So while commercial app developers continue to target Ubuntu over the alternatives, now that you can download apps from the browser-based Snap Store, you’re no longer limited to using Ubuntu to get those apps.

While Ubuntu no longer has much of its own exclusive software, Linux Mint continues to maintain a few core components. There are X-Apps, generic applications aimed at traditional GTK desktop environments. They continue to use titlebars and menubars, elements the GNOME desktop phased out for GNOME 3.x.

The screenshot below shows Nemo and Xviewer, alternatives to GMOME Files and the Gedit text editor.

The team develops many apps specifically for Linux Mint. The distro has its own backup tool, update manager, and others. It’s this effort is what draws people to Linux Mint over Ubuntu.

For the most part, you can use the same software on Ubuntu and Linux Mint alike. The Ubuntu community has more resources and users to point out problems, so you might find better support there. On the flip side, the Linux Mint team prioritizes the desktop, which is no longer the case with Canonical and Ubuntu.

Official Spins

There are several versions of Ubuntu listed on the distro’s website. Besides the GNOME desktop, you have alternative “flavors” that default to KDE, LXQt, XFCE, and MATE. There are also specialized distributions, such as Edubuntu for education, Ubuntu Studio for multimedia producers, and Ubuntu Kylin for Chinese users.

Linux Mint has three main options. There’s Cinnamon, MATE, and XFCE.

Both distros let you set up your own desktop environments, but if you want to experiment with a bunch without configuring things yourself, Ubuntu is the way to go.

Ubuntu vs. Linux Mint: Which Will You Choose?

Ubuntu is the more well-known of the two distros, but Linux Mint is also one of the most popular out there. Both provide users with a great introduction to Linux. More Ubuntu-related web content exists due to the size of its community, which is a big help when you’re starting off. But much of what applies to Ubuntu also applies to Mint.

Yet when deciding between Ubuntu or Mint, you may want to go with neither. There are many other Linux distros to choose from.

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