India’s Reliance Jio rolls out Wi-Fi calling feature

Two of the top three telecom operators in India are beginning to address one of the biggest challenges hundreds of millions of their subscribers face in the country each day: poor call quality and abrupt voice drops.

Reliance Jio, India’s second largest telecom operator, announced today that it now supports voice and video calling functionality over Wi-Fi networks. The 4G-only network said it has started to roll out the feature to all of its subscribers in India and expects to reach all of its 360 million consumers by next week.

The rollout of calls over Wi-Fi functionality on Jio comes weeks after Airtel, India’s third largest telecom operator with more than 260 million subscribers, began to support this feature in select places in the country. Neither of the operators are levying any additional fee for this feature and say that their subscribers can place phone calls over Wi-Fi across the networks.

Wi-Fi calling is a popular feature that enables users to latch onto their wireless internet connection to make phone calls. These calls tend to be of much better quality than those that rely on traditional telecom infrastructure. In the U.S., T-Mobile, Verizon (which owns TechCrunch) and AT&T began to offer this feature in late 2015 and early 2016.

In many markets such as India, calls over internet began to gain traction four to five years ago after services such as WhatsApp enabled such functionality. In the years since, telecom operators have also rolled out support for calls over LTE networks.

Airtel currently supports Wi-Fi calling in select circles — such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu — and requires its users to be a subscriber of Airtel broadband service. It also works only on a handful of smartphone models.

Reliance Jio, on the other hand, supports more than 150 smartphone models, including several recent iPhone generations and a wide range of mid-tier and high-end Android smartphones. A Reliance Jio spokesperson told TechCrunch that Jio’s Wi-Fi calling functionality works on any Wi-Fi network.

Akash Ambani, director of Jio, said Reliance Jio consumers already use more than 900 minutes of voice calling every month. “The launch of Jio Wi-Fi Calling will further enhance every Jio consumer’s voice-calling experience, which is already a benchmark for the industry with India’s-first all VoLTE network,” he said in a statement.

Vodafone, which at the last count (PDF) was ahead of Reliance Jio by a few million subscribers, is yet to offer this functionality. The announcement follows price hikes by all the top three telecom networks in India.

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The secret weapon that let dinosaurs take over the planet | Emma Schachner

The secret weapon that let dinosaurs take over the planet | Emma Schachner

We've all heard the theories on how the dinosaurs died -- but why did they come to dominate the earth for so long in the first place? (Hint: it has nothing to do with their size, speed, spikes or fantastic feathers.) Travel back in time to 200 million years before their extinction with paleontologist Emma Schachner for a breath of fresh air on dinosaur history.

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

Facebook and eBay pledge to do more to tackle trade in fake reviews after pressure from UK regulator

Facebook and eBay have made commitments to do more to stop fake reviews being sold on their platforms after coming under pressure from a UK markets regulator — even as fresh examples of the problem have been found on Facebook-owned Instagram.

Last June the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) warned the two platform that they must do more to prevent the sale of fake reviews on their platforms, saying it had found “troubling evidence” of a “thriving marketplace for fake and misleading online reviews.”

The regulator estimates that more than three-quarters of UK shoppers are influenced by reviews when they shop online, with billions of pounds being spent every year based on write-ups of products or services — which in turn encourages an illegal trade in fake and misleading reviews.

A few months after the CMA’s warning UK consumer rights group Which? released the results of its own investigation of the problem — singling out Facebook for having failed to move the needle (while finding eBay had made progress).

Today the CMA says Facebook has removed a total of 188 groups and disabled 24 user accounts as a result of its investigation. While eBay has permanently banned 140 users after the intervention.

The regulator said both companies have now pledged to put measures in place to “better identify, investigate and respond to” the trade in fake reviews, and help prevent such content from appearing in the future — with Facebook agreeing to introduce “more robust systems” to detect and remove such content; and eBay saying it has improved its existing filters to “better identify and block listings” for the sale or trade of online reviews.

Commenting in a statement, CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli said: “We’re pleased that Facebook and eBay are doing the right thing by committing to tackle this problem and helping to keep their sites free from posts selling fake reviews.”

“Fake reviews are really damaging to shoppers and businesses alike. Millions of people base their shopping decisions on reviews, and if these are misleading or untrue, then shoppers could end up being misled into buying something that isn’t right for them – leaving businesses who play by the rules missing out,” he added. 

The CMA’s press release does not contain any detail of the kinds of improvements the pair have agreed to but Facebook told us it’s looking into developing automated technology to help detect and remove the bogus content.

Commenting in a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said:

Fraudulent activity is not allowed on Facebook or Instagram, including offering or trading fake reviews. While we have invested heavily to prevent this kind of activity across our services, we know there is more work to do and are working with the CMA to address this issue. Since we were first contacted by the CMA, we have identified and removed over 180 groups and 24 accounts for violating our rules and have taken robust steps to prevent this type of fraudulent activity from re-appearing on our platforms. This includes exploring the use of automated technology to help us detect and remove this content quickly, before people see it and report it to us.

An eBay spokesperson also told us: “We maintain zero tolerance for fake or misleading reviews and will continue to take action against any seller that breaches our user polices. We welcome today’s CMA report, as well as their acknowledgement of our ongoing enforcement work on this issue.”

Despite the CMA chalking up the platforms’ pledge to ‘do more’ as a win for consumers, it also reveals it’s found fresh examples of fake reviews traded on Facebook-owned Instagram — suggesting the game of whack-a-fake goes on. And will go on, unless or until platforms face more robust regulation and enforcement vis-a-vis the content they spread and monetize.

The CMA notes that websites have a responsibility to ensure that unlawful and harmful content isn’t advertised or sold through their platforms. However, as it stands, there’s little real punishment for failing to tackle the trade in bogus reviews — beyond reputational damage (and the slow burn of user trust).

The UK government recently proposed legislation to tackle a range of online harms, setting out a safety-first plan to regulation Internet firms last year — which could mean more stringent controls on platform content in future. For now, though, regulators only really have tough words in their toolbox to try to make tech giants clean up their act.

The CMA says it reported the instances of fake reviews that it found being traded on Instagram to Facebook, adding: “Facebook has committed to investigate the issue” — and saying it “will be seeking a commitment from Facebook to take action to tackle these further issues.”

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Everything You Need to Know About Twitter DMs

Twitter is a social media site that has active communities based around niche interests. These communities are in constant communication with each other, and one of the ways they talk to each other is through Twitter DMs.

In this article we explore everything there is to know about Twitter DMs. Including the basics, such as how to send and receive Twitter DMs. And then how to delete all of your Twitter DMs using a Twitter DM cleaner.

What Are Twitter DMs?

Twitter DMs are “direct messages” that you send to other users. These DMs are private and are held between you and one other person. They can also be a conversation between you and a small group of people instead of an individual user, depending on how many people are added to the DM.

Through Twitter DMs, you can talk to people, send GIFs, or add pictures to your messages. Twitter is a very public forum—if you’re a user with an unlocked account, everyone can see your posts—so this DM option is an attractive alternative for a lot of people.

NB: It’s considered bad manners to “slide into someone’s DMs” if you don’t know them. However, between friends and acquaintances, it’s a good way to catch up.

If you want to know more about user etiquette on the website, here’s a list of unwritten Twitter rules you’re probably breaking. We recommend reading up on it if you’re worried about committing a direct message “faux pas.”

How to Send and Receive Twitter DMs

You can send Twitter DMs in a couple of different ways.

If You’re Using Twitter Through a Web Browser

• Go to a person’s profile, and click on the envelope icon.
• You can also go to your inbox, click the envelope icon within that inbox, and start a new message with a new user by searching their username.

If You’re Using Twitter Through the Mobile App

• Tap on the envelope icon in the bottom right-hand corner of your app.
• Tap the “new message” icon above it. It should look like an envelope with a plus sign.

Additionally—if you’re on a web browser or mobile app—you can send public posts directly to a person’s DMs by tapping on the “upload” symbol on the bottom right-hand corner of each post.

After that, click Send via Direct Message in the pop-up window. You can choose a person to send it to by searching for their username.

Additional Information

On both the mobile app and web browsers, you cannot send a Twitter DM to someone if:

• They are not following you.
• They have a setting called Receive messages from anyone turned off at the same time.

You also can’t message a person if they’ve blocked you.

If you’re messaging a person for the first time, and they do accept DMs from strangers, your message will be filtered into a Message requests section instead of their inbox. From there, a person can decide whether or not to respond.

Do you want to receive DMs from other people? Make sure the Receive messages from anyone option is turned on. When you receive a DM, go to your inbox, and click on the message to read it.

How to Delete Twitter DMs

The first thing you should know is that you can’t actually “delete” your Twitter DMs, whether you’re using a Twitter DM cleaner or not. You can hide DMs from your side of the conversation, but according to The Verge, Twitter stores deleted messages “for years.”

Additionally, the recipient on the other end of the conversation will still have a copy. This copy will remain in their possession unless they manually remove your messages with a Twitter DM deleter, too.

To Delete a Twitter DM Through a Web Browser

• Click on a conversation in your inbox.
• Click on a message you sent.
• Select the option Delete for you.

To Delete a Twitter DM Through the Mobile App

• Tap on a conversation in your inbox.
• Tap on a message within that conversation.
• Select the option Delete message for you.

To Delete an Entire Conversation Through a Web Browser

• Go to your Twitter inbox.
• Click on a conversation that you want to delete.
• Click on the i icon in the top right-hand corner of the conversation.
• Choose Leave conversation.
• When you choose Leave conversation, a warning sign will pop up. This warning will remind you that the person on the other end will retain a copy.
• Click Leave again.
• The conversation will be deleted from your inbox.

To Delete an Entire Conversation Through the Mobile App

• Tap on a conversation in your inbox.
• Press the i icon in the top right-hand corner of the conversation.
• Select the option Delete conversation.

Once again, you will be given a warning that the other person in the conversation will still retain a copy.

What Happened to Twitter InboxCleaner?

In 2010, we wrote about a Twitter DM cleaner called InboxCleaner. It was a tool that helped you manage your Twitter inbox and delete Twitter DMs.

InboxCleaner used Twitter’s oAuth access to log into your account, and it was free, with no sign-up required. Through InboxCleaner, you could organize your Twitter messages or click a button to delete all your messages in one go.

Unfortunately—since we first wrote about it—the tool no longer seems to be working with any consistency. The website and Twitter account are still there, but both have been inactive since 2017.

So we suggest deleting your Twitter DMs manually instead. If may be a little more work, but it shouldn’t take long.

Useful Twitter Accounts to Follow for Life Hacks

Twitter is a great tool for connecting you with other people to talk about a variety of different subjects. Its direct messaging system is also pretty easy to use. Especially if you follow the above advice.

However, sending messages is just one of the many things you can do on Twitter. Following interesting accounts is another. And with that in mind here are some useful Twitter accounts to follow for life hacks.

Read the full article: Everything You Need to Know About Twitter DMs

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Apps Won’t Download on Your iPhone? 10 Fixes to Try

Your iPhone isn’t much good as a smartphone if it won’t download apps from the App Store. Usually, grabbing one is as simple as tapping the download button in the App Store.

But when that doesn’t work, here are the steps to fix iPhone apps that won’t install from the App Store.

1. Test Your Internet Connection

For your iPhone to download apps from the App Store, it needs a working internet connection. Most of the time, you should connect to Wi-Fi, since cellular downloads use up your data allowance and are often limited to 200 MB.

After connecting to Wi-Fi, test your internet connection by streaming a video on YouTube. If the connection is slow or unstable, find out how to troubleshoot your Wi-Fi network.

If you need to use data to download apps instead, make sure you allow the App Store to use cellular data on your iPhone:

1. Go to Settings > Cellular.
2. Scroll down to the list of apps and turn on App Store.

2. Make Sure Your Have Enough Free Space

Internal iPhone storage is not expandable. If you’ve already filled up your device with photos, videos, music, and other content, you might find you don’t have enough free space for new apps.

When this happens, an alert should pop up saying “Not Enough Storage.”

Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage to see how much free space you have and take a look at which apps are using the most. There are plenty of ways to create more free space on your iPhone if you need to.

3. Update Your Apple ID Details

Even if you only download free apps from the App Store, you need to have valid payment information and contact details linked to your Apple ID account. It’s possible that the payment details on your account expired, so you should check if you need to update them.

Update your Apple ID details from the iPhone Settings app:

1. Go to Settings and tap [Your Name] at the top of the screen.
2. Tap Name, Phone Numbers, Email to check or update your contact details.
3. Tap Payment & Shipping to update your payment information.

4. Change the Date and Time

As strange as it sounds, having the wrong date or time set might be the reason your iPhone won’t download or install apps from the App Store. This inconsistency causes communication problems between your device and Apple’s servers.

To correct the date and time on your iPhone:

1. Go to Settings > General > Date & Time.
2. Turn on the option to Set Automatically or choose your Time Zone manually.

If you can’t edit the date and time, you may need to turn off Content & Privacy Restrictions on your iPhone first. We explain how to do that in the next step.

5. Turn Off Content and Privacy Restrictions

The content and privacy restrictions on an iPhone let you limit settings, apps, or features to keep the device safe for children. However, those same limitations might stop you from installing new apps.

To edit your restrictions from the Screen Time settings:

1. Go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions.
2. If prompted, enter your Screen Time passcode, which may be different from the standard passcode you use to unlock your iPhone.
3. Turn off all Content & Privacy Restrictions at the top of the screen or change the following setting:
   1. Tap iTunes & App Store Purchases > Installing Apps.
   2. Select Allow to enable installing apps.

6. Pause and Resume Your App Download

Sometimes, if your iPhone won’t download apps, all you need to do to fix it is pause the download, then resume it again. You can do this from the Home screen on your device.

While an app is downloading, it should appear on the Home screen as a gray icon with a progress circle in the middle. Tap it to pause the download—causing a pause symbol to appear. Wait a few seconds, then tap it again to resume the download.

Alternatively, tap and hold or firmly press on the app icon to reveal a quick-action menu. You can choose to Pause Download or Resume Download from this menu as well.

Alternatively, you have the option to Prioritize Download from the quick-action menu. This is a good idea if your iPhone is downloading other content as well, since it prioritizes this app above all other downloads.

7. Sign Out of the App Store, Then Sign In Again

Like pausing and resuming downloads, you can fix a lot of software bugs by re-signing in to the App Store. This often reveals issues with your Apple ID account, like an incorrect password or username.

When you sign out of the App Store, it cancels any app downloads in progress. After signing in again, you need to download the app from the App Store again.

To sign out of the App Store from your iPhone settings:

1. Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store.
2. Tap your Apple ID at the top of the screen and select Sign Out.
3. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen (or double-click the Home button on iPhone 8 and earlier) to open the app switcher.
4. Swipe to close the Settings and App Store apps.
5. Return to your iTunes & App Store settings and tap Sign In.
6. Enter your Apple ID username and password to sign in to the App Store again.

8. Quit Every App and Restart Your iPhone

After downloading an app to your iPhone, it might appear as a white icon with gray lines running through it. This happens when an app doesn’t download or install correctly. You can usually fix it by restarting your device.

First, swipe up from the bottom of the screen (or double-click the Home button on iPhone 8 and earlier) to view the App Switcher. Slide each app off the top of the screen to close it.

After closing every app, press and hold the Sleep/Wake button with either Volume button (on iPhone X and newer). If you have an older iPhone, press and hold the Power button instead. When prompted, slide to power off your iPhone.

Wait 30 seconds after it powers off before pressing the Sleep/Wake button again to restart it.

9. Delete the App, Then Download It Again

Sometimes a download becomes so corrupted that the only way to fix it is deleting the app and downloading it again from scratch. If you never used the app before, there’s nothing to lose from doing this.

However, if you were trying to update an app rather than download it for the first time, deleting it might also delete any data you have in the app. You should make a backup of your iPhone before deleting apps to protect your data.

When you want to delete an app from your iPhone, tap and hold the app icon on the Home screen. In the quick-action menu that appears, tap Delete App, then confirm you want to Delete it.

After deleting an app, restart your iPhone and download it again from the App Store.

10. Make Sure the App Works With Your iPhone

Sometimes, you can’t download or install an app because it’s not compatible with your device. This might happen when the app depends on a piece of hardware your iPhone doesn’t have—like Face ID or dual cameras—or when the app developer discontinues support for older versions of iOS.

Open the App Store and search for the app you want to download. View the app details and scroll down to the Information section. Next to Compatibility, the App Store lists whether this app should work on your iPhone or not.

Tap the dropdown arrow to view more information about the app compatibility.

If an app doesn’t work with your device, you might need to update iOS on your iPhone to the latest available version. This is a good idea even if the app is compatible, since iOS updates often fix problematic software bugs.

Find Ways to Organize Your Downloaded Apps

By now, you should be able to download as many apps as you want. If your iPhone still won’t download apps from the App Store, contact Apple Support for more help.

In the meantime, take a look at some creative ways to organize your iPhone apps. With all the new apps you’re sure to download, these simple setups make it easy to find what you’re looking for without swiping endlessly through messy Home screens.

Read the full article: Apps Won’t Download on Your iPhone? 10 Fixes to Try

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Introducing Bluetooth LE: A Generation of Audio-Sharing and High-Quality Listening

The vice president of marketing in the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Ken Kolderup, just announced that Bluetooth is entering a new generation. Bluetooth LE, or Bluetooth Low Energy, will change the way you listen with wireless audio.

Its name is self-explanatory—Bluetooth LE operates at a much more efficient energy level when compared to previous versions. This is possible thanks to the LC3 (Low Complexity Communication Codec), which transmits higher quality audio using less energy than SBC, the former codec. As a result, this allows for more exciting applications besides just listening to music on your mobile device with wireless headphones.

Image Credit: Bluetooth

Bluetooth LE lets you privately stream the same audio to multiple devices. In other words, just one device can simultaneously broadcast audio to any audio sink devices closeby.

If you’re wondering about public use of audio-sharing, Bluetooth LE has that too. You’ll likely see this location-based audio-sharing feature at public venues like gyms, waiting rooms, airports, movie theaters, museums and more.

For example, if you’re at a gym with closed-caption TVs, you can turn on your Bluetooth device to listen in. You can also use this feature at a museum that allows for audio descriptions. This will let you use your own Bluetooth device to get exhibit information from a public audio broadcast.

In the same vein, you can also use Bluetooth LE to listen to multiple sources from one headset. You can listen to your music, while also getting reminders from Alexa. Bluetooth LE even opens the door for hearing aid integration. Someone wearing a Bluetooth hearing aid will be able to clearly hear announcements, music, audio directly to their hearing aid.

Just because Bluetooth is ushering in Bluetooth LE, doesn’t mean that Bluetooth Classic Audio won’t be supported. The two modes will coexist, allowing developers to pick and choose which version they’d like to use.

However, you won’t see Bluetooth LE-supported devices just yet. The specifications will get released sometime within the first portion of 2020.

Read the full article: Introducing Bluetooth LE: A Generation of Audio-Sharing and High-Quality Listening

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Pout Launches Eyes 9 Single: The Sleek, All-in-One Charging Desk Station

Pout, the South Korean “desk-terior” design guru, has just launched the latest product in its line of minimalist products. The Eyes 9 Single conquers the disorganized desk space with something much sleeker. So if you’re currently in the process of decluttering your desk, you might want to check out the Eyes 9 Single.

At first glance, the Eyes 9 Single looks like a typical stand for your computer monitor. While it does consist of just a stand, this stand is made with modern wood that raises your monitor to the most comfortable height. This helps you maintain good posture while using your computer. Not to mention that the stand is conveniently designed to hide your keyboard and mouse.

The stand itself isn’t the only noteworthy aspect of the Eyes 9 Single—its charging capabilities make it more than just a piece of furniture. If you have a phone that supports wireless charging, you can simply place it on the 10W charging pad that’s located on the side of the stand. Your phone will immediately start charging, making it easier for you to keep all of your tech in one place. Plus, it eliminates the need for a charging cable, which can quickly clutter up your workspace.

Want even more features right on your desk? The Eyes 9 Single boasts four USB 3.0 hubs that you can use to connect your phones, cameras, flash drives, and any other USB 3.0 devices. When these ports are right on your monitor stand, you won’t have to struggle to find the USB ports on your computer tower or on the back of your monitor.

Pout’s Eyes 9 Single isn’t out just yet, but it’s set to officially release in spring 2020. Don’t lose hope if your desk looks like a mess. Soon, the Eyes 9 Single will swoop in to organize your computer space. This makes a great addition to your desk, both for style and usefulness.

Read the full article: Pout Launches Eyes 9 Single: The Sleek, All-in-One Charging Desk Station

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Wi-Charge: Long Range Wireless Charging Coming to Your Smart Home

How many rechargeable or battery-driven devices float around your home? If you have a secure smart home, it’s likely a two digit number. Consequently, long-range wireless charging could banish a great number of cables, chargers, or batteries from your household.

AT CES 2020, Wi-Charge is presenting the PowerPuck, a long-range wireless charger that plugs into a wall outlet or screws into a lightbulb socket. Using Wi-Charge’s AirCord technology, it can charge compatible smart or IoT devices wirelessly from distances of up to 30 feet (ca. 9 meters). We gave this product a spin on the show floor.

The biggest upside of long-range wireless charging is that it eliminates the need replace batteries or handle various chargers and power cords. Charging would also happen automatically, whenever your device is in range of a suitable charger. And you would only need to install a single wireless charger to feed several devices at once.

The installation could hardly be easier. Wi-Charge provides adapters to make its PowerPuck compatible with light and wall sockets. Next, you don’t have to pair the charger with receiving devices. It automatically locates compatible receivers and initiates power transfer.

Each PowerPuck can recognize and charge an unlimited number of devices, but only three at a time. Devices can request a charge and will disconnect independently once they’re fully charged. The power is transmitted through infrared light and each device receives 2 Watts. That’s not a lot of energy, but for a static device with low power usage it’s good enough.

While wireless charging would work with mobile phones or tablets, the usefulness of the technology for portable devices is limited by the avaialbility of compatible chargers. Until the infrastructure exists to wirelessly recharge your phone over the air at your local coffee shop, at work, or at school, we’re unlikely to go see this mainstream.

Meanwhile, it’s a great solution for recharging static devices, like your security camera or smoke detector. It can also power smart home devices. For example, Wi-Charge is collaborating with hansgrohe on their smart faucet.

Wi-Charge isn’t the only company offering distance wireless charging. Some of the competitors to the PowerPuck are Ossia’s Cota or Energous’ WattUp, which use radio frequency charging instead of infrared light. When we asked Wi-Charge about the difference, they quoted power, cost, and safety as the three main reasons for using infrared over other methods. That said, both methods are deemed safe for consumers.

Like its competitors, Wi-Charge is not aiming to sell directly to consumers, but you can expect to see this technology showing up in smart home devices more frequently soon.

Read the full article: Wi-Charge: Long Range Wireless Charging Coming to Your Smart Home

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Garmin Dashcam Tandem: Safety on the Inside and Outside of Your Car

Garmin has just debuted its latest dashcam at CES 2020: the Garmin Tandem. This innovative dashcam features two lenses: one that faces towards the windshield, and another that faces towards the passengers inside the car. You’ll have full 360-degree coverage as soon as the Tandem turns on.

The footage on the lens facing towards traffic has a crisp resolution of 1440p, while the interior-facing footage has a lesser (but still decent) resolution of 720p. You can always count on seeing the interior recording, no matter what time of day. The Tandem comes with night vision that makes it easy to keep an eye on your passengers.

Besides these ultra-convenient features, the Tandem also supports voice commands. When you want to save a specific recording to the included microSD card, you can simply tell the device to save the video. This is yet another safety feature of the Tandem—it prevents you from fiddling with the dashcam while you’re driving.

In the unfortunate situation of an accident, the dashcam will instantly detect it. It’ll automatically save the video, along with the exact location and time of the event. This video will sync with your Garmin Drive app, which lets you view the footage from both angles.

Hate choosing between charging your phone and powering up your dashcam? The Tandem actually comes with a dual USB charger. That way, you can plug in your phone and dashcam simultaneously.

Lastly, one of the most impressive aspects about the Tandem is its inconspicuous size. At a mere 2.2 inches wide and 1.6 inches tall, it won’t serve as a distraction while you drive. Despite its size, the small dashcam can still withstand harsh sunlight and hot temperatures.

The Garmin Tandem is currently available at a price of $299.99. It may be a steep price for a dashcam, but it’s a reliable choice for recording on the inside and outside of your vehicle.

Read the full article: Garmin Dashcam Tandem: Safety on the Inside and Outside of Your Car

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What to expect in digital media in 2020

As we start 2020, the media and entertainment sectors are in flux. New technologies are enabling new types of content, streaming platforms in multiple content categories are spending billions in their fight for market share and the interplay between social platforms and media is a central topic of global political debate (to put it lightly).

As TechCrunch’s media columnist, I spoke to hundreds of entrepreneurs and executives in North America and Europe last year about the shifts underway across everything from vertically-oriented video series to physics engines in games to music royalty payments. Looking toward the year ahead, here are some of the high-level changes I expect we will see in media in 2020, broken into seven categories: film & TV, gaming, visual & audio effects, social media, music, podcasts and publishing.

Film and TV

In film and television, the battle to compete with Netflix continues with more robust competition than last year. In the U.S., Disney is off to a momentous start with 10 million Disney+ subscribers upon its launch in November and some predicting it will hit 25 million by March (including those on free trials or receiving it for free via Disney’s partnership with Verizon). Bundled with its two other streaming properties, Hulu and ESPN+, Disney+ puts Disney alongside Amazon and Netflix as the Big Three.

Consumers will only pay for so many subscriptions, often one, two, or all of the Big Three (since Amazon Prime Video is included with the broader Prime membership) then a smaller service that best aligns with their personal taste and favorite show of the moment.

AT&T’s HBOMax launches in May with a $14.99/month price tag and is unlikely to break into the echelon of the Big Three, but could be a formidable second tier competitor. Alongside it will be Apple TV+. With a $4.99/month subscription, Apple’s service only includes a small number of original productions, an HBO strategy as HBO gets bundled into a larger library. CBS All Access, Showtime, and NBCUniversal’s upcoming (in April) Peacock fall in this camp as well.

Across Europe, regional media conglomerates will find success in expanding local SVOD and AVOD competitors to Netflix that launched last year — or are set to launch in the next few weeks — like BritBox in the UK, Joyn in Germany and Salto in France. Netflix’s growth in coming from outside the U.S. now so its priority is buying more international shows that will compel new demographics to subscribe.

The most interesting new development in 2020 though will be the April launch of Quibi, the $4.99/month service offering premium shows shot for mobile-first viewing that has already secured $1 billion in funding commitments and $150 million in advertising revenue. Quibi shows will be bite-size in length (less than 15 minutes) and vertically-oriented. The company has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into commissioning established names to create dozens of them. Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro each have Quibi programs and NBC and CBS are creating news shows. The terms it is offering are enticing.

Quibi, which plans to release 125 pieces of content (i.e. episodes) per week and spend $470 million on marketing this year, is an all-or-nothing bet with little room to iterate if it doesn’t get it right the first time; it needs hit shows that break into mainstream pop culture to survive. Billionaire founders Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman have set expectations sky-high for the launch; expect the press to slam it in April for failing to meet those expectations and for the platform to redeem itself as a few of its shows gain traction in the months that follow.

Meanwhile, live sports remains the last hope of broadcast TV networks as all other shows go to streaming. Consumers still value watching sports in real-time. Streaming services are coming for live sports too, however, and will make progress toward that goal in 2020. Three weeks ago, DAZN secured the rights to the 2021/22 season of Germany’s Champions League, beating out broadcaster Sky which has shown the matches for the last 20 years. Amazon and YouTube continue to explore bids for sports rights while Facebook and Twitter are stepping back from their efforts. YouTube’s “YouTube TV” and Disney’s “Hulu with Live TV” will cause more consumers to cancel cable TV subscriptions in 2020 and go streaming-only.

The winners in the film & TV sector right now are top production companies. The war for streaming video dominance driving several of the world’s wealthiest companies (and individuals) to pour tens of billions of dollars into content. Large corporations own the distribution platforms here; the only “startups” to enter with strength — DAZN and Quibi — have been launched by billionaires and started with billion-dollar spending commitments. The entrepreneurial opportunity is on the content creation side — with producers creating shows not with software developers creating platforms.

Gaming

The gaming market is predicted to grow nearly 9% year-over-year from $152 billion globally in 2019 to $165 billion in 2020, according to research firm Newzoo, with more than two billion people playing games each year. Gaming is now widespread across all demographic groups. Casual mobile games are responsible for the largest portion of this (and 45% of industry revenue) but PC gaming continues to grow (+4% last year) and console gaming was the fastest growing category last year (+13%).

The big things to watch in gaming this year: cross-platform play, greater focus on social interaction in virtual worlds and the expansion of cloud gaming subscriptions.

Fortnite enticed consumers with the benefits of a cross-platform game that allows players to move between PC, mobile and console and it is setting expectations that other games do the same. Last October we saw the Call of Duty franchise come to mobile and reach a record 100 million downloads in its first week. This trend will continue and it will spread the free-to-play business model that is the norm in mobile games to many PC and console franchises in the process.

Gaming is moving to the social forefront. Many people are turning to massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) like Fortnite and PUBG to socialize, with gameplay as a secondary interest. Games are virtual worlds where players socialize, build things, and own assets much like in the real world. That results in an increasingly fluid interplay between socializing in games and in physical life, much as socializing in the virtual realms of social apps like Instagram or Twitter is now viewed as part of “real world” life.

Expect VCs to bet big on the thesis that “games are the new social networks” in 2020. Large investment firms that a year ago wrote off the category of gaming as “content bets” not fit for VC are now actively hunting for deals.

On this point, there are several startups (like Klang Games, Darewise Entertainment, Singularity 6 and Clockwork Labs) that raised millions in VC funding to create open world games that will launch (in beta at least) in 2020. These are virtual worlds where all players exist in the same instance of the world rather than being capped at 100 or so players per instance. Their visions center of digital realms where people will contribute to in-game economies, create friendships and ultimately earn income just like their “real-world” lives. Think next-gen Second Life. Expect them to take time to seed their worlds with early adopters in 2020 before any of them gain mainstream traction in 2021.

Few are as excited about social interaction in games as Facebook, it seems. Eager to own critical turf in the next paradigm shift of social media, Facebook will accelerate its gaming push this year. In late 2019, it acquired Madrid-based PlayGiga — which was working on cloud gaming and 5G technology — and the studio behind the hit VR game Beat Saber. It also secured exclusive rights to the VR versions of popular games like Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed” and “Splinter Cell” for Oculus. Horizon, its virtual world for social interaction within VR, is expected to launch this year as well.

Facebook is betting on AR/VR as the paradigm shift in consumer computing that will replace mobile; it is pouring billions into its efforts to own the hardware and infrastructure pieces which are several years of R&D away from primetime. In the meantime, the consumer shift to social interaction in virtual worlds is occurring in established formats — mobile, PC, and console — so it will work to build the bridge for consumers from that to the future.

Lastly, cloud gaming was one of last year’s biggest headlines with the launch of Google Stadia and you should expect it to be again this year. By moving games to cloud hosting, consumers can play the highest quality games from lower quality devices, greatly expanding the market of potential players. By bundling many such games into a subscription offering, Google and others hope to entice consumers to try many more games.

As TechCrunch’s Lucas Matney argued, however, cloud gaming is likely a feature for existing subscription gaming platforms — namely Playstation Now and Xbox Game Pass — more so than the basis for a new platform to differentiate. The minor latency inherent in playing a cloud-hosted game makes it unattractive to hardcore gamers (who would rather download the game). Next to Sony and Microsoft’s offerings, Stadia’s limited game selection fails to stand out. The competition will only heat up this year with the entry of Amazon. Google needs to launch the Stadia integration with YouTube and the Share State feature that it promoted in its Stadia announcement to really drive consumer interest.

Visual and audio effects

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Impossible adds ‘ground pork’ and ‘sausages’ to its lineup of plant-based foods

Impossible Foods made huge waves in the food industry when it came up with a way of isolating and using “heme” molecules from plants to mimic the blood found in animal meat (also comprised of heme), bringing a new depth of flavor to its vegetarian burger.

This week at CES, the company is presenting the next act in its mission to get the average consumer to switch to more sustainable, plant-based proteins: it unveiled its version of pork — specifically ground pork, which will be sold as a basic building block for cooking as well as in sausage form. It’s a critical step, given that pork is the most-eaten animal product in the world.

Impossible has set up shop in CES’s outdoor area, situated near a line of food trucks, and it will be cooking food for whoever wants to come by. (I tasted a selection of items made from the new product — a steamed bun, a meatball, some noodles and a lettuce wrap — and the resemblance is uncanny, and not bad at all.) And after today, the new product will be making its way first to selected Burger King restaurants in the US before appearing elsewhere.

It may sound a little far-fetched to see a food startup exhibiting and launching new products at a consumer electronics show, attended by 200,000 visitors who will likely by outnumbered by the number of TVs, computers, phones, and other electronic devices on display. Indeed, Impossible is the only food exhibitor this year.

But if you ask Pat Brown, the CEO and founder of Impossible Foods (pictured right, at the sunny CES stand in the cold wearing a hat), the company is in precisely the right place.

“To me it’s very natural to be at CES,” he said in an interview this week at the show. “The food system is the most important technology on earth. It is absolutely a technology, and an incredibly important one, even if it doesn’t get recognised as such. The use of animals as a food technology is the most destructive on earth. And when Impossible was founded, it was to address that issue. We recognised it as a technology problem.”

That is also how Impossible has positioned itself as a startup. Its emergence (it was founded 2011) dovetailed with an interesting shift in the world of tech. The number of startups were booming, fuelled by VC money and a boom in smartphones and broadband. At the same time, we were starting to see a new kind of startup emerging built on technology but disrupting a wide range of areas not traditionally associated with technology. Technology VCs, looking for more opportunities (and needing to invest increasingly larger funds), were opening themselves up to consider more of the latter opportunities.

Impossible has seized the moment. It has raised around $777 million to date from a list of investors more commonly associated with tech companies — they include Khosla, Temasek, Horizons Ventures, GV, and a host of celebrities — and Impossible is now estimated to be valued at around $4 billion. Brown told me it is currently more than doubling revenues annually.  

With his roots in academia, the idea of Brown (who has also done groundbreaking work in HIV research) founding and running a business is perhaps as left-field a development as a food company making the leap from commodity or packaged good business to tech. Before Impossible, Brown said that he had “zero interest” in becoming an entrepreneur: the bug that has bitten so many others at Stanford (where he was working prior to founding Impossible) had not bitten him.

“I had an awesome job where I followed my curiosity, working on problems that I found interesting and important with great colleagues,” he said.

That changed when he began to realise the scale of the problem resulting from the meat industry, which has led to a well-catalogued list of health, economic and environmental impacts (including increased greenhouse gas emissions and the removal of natural ecosystems to make way for farming land. “It is the most important and consequential issue for the future of the world, and so the solution has to be market-based,” he said. “The only way we can replace themes that are this destructive is by coming up with a better technology and competing.”

Pork is a necessary step in that strategy to compete. America, it seems, is all about beef and chicken when it comes to eating animals. But pigs and pork take the cake when you consider meat consumption globally, accounting for 38% of all meat production, with 47 pigs killed on average every second of every day. Asia, and specifically China, figure strongly in that demand. Consumption of pork in China has increased 140% since 1990, Impossible notes.

Pigs’ collective footprint in the world is also huge: there are 1.44 billion of them, and their collective biomass totals 175 kg, twice as much as the biomass of all wild terrestrial vertebrates, Impossible says.

Whether Impossible’s version of pork will be enough or just an incremental step is another question. Ground meat is not the same as creating structured proteins that mimic the whole-cuts that are common (probably more common) when it comes to how pork is typically cooked (ditto for chicken and beef and other meats).

That might likely require more capital and time to develop.

For now, Impossible is focused on building out its business on its own steam: it’s not entertaining any thoughts of selling up, or even of licensing out its IP for isolating and using soy leghemoglobin — the essential “blood” that sets its veggie proteins apart from other things on the market. (I think of licensing out that IP, as the equivalent of how a tech company might white label or create APIs for third parties to integrate its cool stuff into their services.)

That means there will be inevitable questions down the line about how Impossible will capitalise to meet demand for its products. Brown said that for now there are no plans for IPOs or to raise more externally, but pointed out that it would have no problem doing either.

Indeed, the company has built up an impressive bench of executives and other talent to meet those future scenarios. Earlier this year, Impossible hired Dennis Woodside — the former Dropbox, Google and Motorola star– as its first president. And its CFO, David Lee, joined from Zynga back in 2015, with a stint also in the mass-market food industry, having been at Del Monte prior to that.

Lee told me that the company has essentially been running itself as a public company internally in preparation for a time when it might follow in the footsteps of its biggest competitor, Beyond Meat, and go public.

“From a tech standpoint I’m absolutely confident that we can outperform what we get from animals in affordability, nutrition and deliciousness,” said Brown. “This entire industry is most destructive by far and has major responsibility in terms of climate and biodiversity, but it going to be history and we are going to replace it.”

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Jabra’s Elite Active 75t and Elite 45h Arrive at CES 2020

Last year at CES 2019, Jabra wowed us with its Elite 85h headphones. This year at CES 2020, the company is back with two new offerings.

First up is the Elite Active 75t. These truly wireless earbuds are a sport-focused iteration on the existing Elite 75t. The new fitness features include IP57 waterproofing for better protection against sweat. They don’t include active noise cancellation, but you can choose from a variety of colors (which will release in the months following CES).

Their battery life matches the standard model. Expect about 7.5 hours on a single charge, or 28 hours total with the charging case. Jabra will offer the Elite Active 75t starting in February at a recommended price of $199.

Jabra’s other announcement this CES is the Elite 45h, a pair of on-ear headphones. Jabra states that these are “a new standard for headphones in the below $100 category,” as they will retail for $99. They boast an impressive battery, packing 40 hours of listening on a single charge. When in a pinch, you can charge them for 15 minutes to gain eight hours of listening time. 

When we tested the Elite 45h, we were amazed at how light the headphones are. They sit on your head without any pain. In addition, they fold easily, making it a breeze to bring them on the go.

Later in 2020, Jabra plans to release a new functionality called MySound. This will personalize the sound of your headphones based on your level of hearing. It uses a series of beeps, similar to a hearing test, to analyze your listening profile and adjust the audio optimally for you.

While we weren’t able to test this feature at CES, Jabra’s sister company GN Hearing is a well-known manufacturer of hearing aids. Thus, there’s reason to believe it will be a valuable addition.

Whether you’re looking for true wireless earbuds you can wear during a workout or want a solid pair of headphones at an affordable price, Jabra has you covered in 2020.

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Creative Super X-Fi: Immersive 3D Audio You Won’t Want to Miss

At CES 2020, Creative unveiled Super X-Fi Gen2, an update to their immersive audio technology. Whether you’re watching a movie, listening to music, or playing a game, Creative promises that the sound emitted from Super X-FI-powered headphones will make you feel like you’re right in the middle of the action. We had a chance to hear it for ourselves at Creative’s private demo of the SXFI AMP, a dongle that works with any headphones, and the SXFI Carrier soundbar.

The Creative Super X-Fi Story

At CES 2019, Creative made waves when they received a stunning 15 best-of-show awards for their Super X-Fi headphone holographic technology. The press was blown away by a software solution that packs 3D surround sound, which typically requires a multi-channel speaker system, into a pair of headphones.

Creative CEO Wong Hoo Sim has had the vision for this product for over 20 years. And while the theory behind the technology has been known for a long time, processing power wasn’t anywhere near the required benchmark for a mass-market consumer product. In the past few years, however, technology finally caught up with Sim’s vision and Creative’s engineers made every audiophile’s dream come true.

The Super X-Fi Setup

The AI-driven technology customizes the sound experience based on physical features of your head. Creative has built its AI using data from tens of thousands of people and it continues to add head and ear shapes to its collection. Using the Super X-Fi app installed on your phone, you take three photos of your ears and face. Based on the images, the app tunes the optimal audio settings to surround you with a deeply realistic, spacial, and hence immersive listening experience.

A better alternative to the app, is building your custom audio profile using an in-ear microphone that records how your ear perceives sound amplitudes played at you. We were treated to this special setup during our demo, and Creative is planning on offering this as a premium feature in the US and Singapore sometime soon.

The Super X-Fi Experience

During our demo, we got to listen to the audio from two action movies, a YouTube video, and a mono recording from the Rolling Stones. We used the SXFI AMP, which acts as an intermediate between the audio source and the headphones. This gave us the opportunity to switch the SXFI feature off and on and really hear the difference.

The sound of the headphones without Super X-Fi was alright. Like most conventional headphones, it felt like the audio was playing in your head. But we actually went into the experience with Super X-Fi turned on and it felt like the sound came from the external speakers around us, which was rather perplexing. Once you’ve had this listening experience, it’s really hard to go back. Turning on Super X-Fi felt like turning off a headache and moving to a pleasant sound experience.

Which Products Offer Super X-Fi?

Creative has already released a range of headphones with built-in Super X-Fi and more are on the way.

The SXFI AIR C is optimized for gaming, though users told Creative that it didn’t work too well with FPS games. The SXFI Gamer, bound to be released in April 2020, will address this issue to give FPS gamers an optimized sound experience in regards to hearing distance, direction, and other FPS-specific audio features.

If you already have a pair of headphones that you love, you should get the SXFI AMP. But note that it requires a physical connection from the music source to the dongle and from the dongle to the headphones. Also, while the AMP does support any pair of headphones, it does work best if Creative created a profile; you’ll be able to see the list of certified headphones in the Super X-Fi app (Android, iOS). If yours isn’t available, you can use a default profile instead.

Creative has also launched true wireless in-ears with an impressive battery life of 14 hours.

The Super X-Fi Roadmap

Since its international launch last year, Creative has used accumulating real-world data to train the AI that’s powering the Super X-Fi technology. With Generation 2, the audio profile covers a wider range of content, such as more musical genres and gaming. If you’ve previously set up a profile, you’ll receive an upgrade to Gen2, automatically; just watch for the Gen2 sign on your profile in the app.

For Generation 3, which may come out in 2021, Creative is hoping to offer noise cancelling with its Super X-Fi headphones. They’re also looking into working on solutions for people requiring hearing aids.

Is 3D Immersive Audio Right for You?

Personally, I can only recommend trying it out for yourself. Fair warning: You might not want to listen to audio without this technology ever again.

I should note that Creative isn’t the only company with this kind of product. Sony has a product for headphones called 360 Reality Audio, which requires proprietary audio tracks. Waves offers 3D Audio, which you’ll find built into products like Dell laptops or Audeze headphones.

That said, at this point, Creative’s SXFI AMP is the best solution if you’re looking for something that works with your current headphones and music/sound collection.

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CES 2020: Award-Winning “Julia” Is the Device All Lazy Chefs Need

Imagine a world in which a single kitchen device could take care of your chopping, mixing, steaming, kneading, emulsifying, weighing, and cooking— you’d never need to step foot inside a kitchen again.

Oh right, yeah, the washing up…

Joking aside, the new Julia smart cooking machine from CookingPal promises to revolutionize the way we go about meal preparation. It combines cutting edge functionality, video-guided cooking, and AI food recognition into a single, sleek unit.

The gadget has picked up one of the coveted CES 2020 Best of Innovation awards in the Home Appliances sector and has been named as an Honoree in the Smart Home category.

Control of the machine is done via the accompanying smartphone app or the dedicated smart kitchen hub tablet. The tablet is touch-enabled and has both Alexa and Google Assistant support. There’s also a dial if you prefer haptic feedback.

The app/tablet has more than 500 chef-created recipes to choose from, though the list is steadily growing and is likely to be considerably more extensive by the time Julia hits the shelves in the third quarter of 2020.

During discussions on the show floor, we discovered that the company ultimately aims to allow users to add to the list of recipes. It’s not clear whether that’s a good thing; it runs the risk of diluting the quality of the available dishes. Hopefully, a robust quality control system will be put in place.

If you select a recipe and are missing an ingredient, Julia will give you a heads up and order the item on Amazon Fresh. The app also has smart food recognition; you can scan what’s in your fridge and pantry, and Julia will make meal suggestions based on what’s available. The food recognition software can also help to track the nutritional value of whatever you’re whipping up, thus helping to eat more healthily.

Over time, Julia will even learn about your food preferences and suggest customized recipes and shopping items accordingly.

The device itself has a cooking vessel and steaming racks, allowing you to cook multiple ingredients of a dish in different ways at the same time.

Later in the year, CookingPal will also introduce a smart grill and pressure cooker—all of which will be controlled via the tablet hub.

The final price tag of Julia is not yet confirmed, but Martin Ruge, the managing director of CookingPal, confirmed it would retail for less than $1,000.

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Panasonic’s Human Insight Technology Could Transform Everyday Spaces

At CES 2020, Panasonic showed off its Human Insight Technology. This functionality offers a whole new level of automated understanding of people’s physical and mental states, and has lots of exciting uses that may come to living and work spaces near you.

On the show floor, we saw a demo of the technology with observers doing a few yoga poses. As they followed the program’s lead to perform the moves, a heat graph updated in real time to show where the participants’ bodies were experiencing the most stress. Throughout the yoga poses, you could also monitor the balance of each person performing the exercises.

While this isn’t a technology that consumers would purchase directly, it has many interesting applications that we could see happen in the coming years.

For example, consider a company whose workers have to lift heavy objects regularly. It could use Human Insight Technology to see where the employees are most straining their bodies, potentially saving them from painful back injuries.

The technology also handles automated recognition of people’s mental state based on visual cues. From tells such as facial expression, blink rate, speed of movements, and similar motions, you can figure out if someone is happy, excited, nervous, or any other number of emotions.

With this in mind, a company could analyze what effect certain kinds of background music have on their employee’s productivity. A restaurant might adjust lighting levels automatically based on analysis of patrons’ skin temperature and heart rate. And you could study how well students are paying attention based on their facial expressions and body motion.

While this functionality definitely has promise, there are some concerning implications as well. While Panasonic says that it “uses non-invasive sensor and imaging to capture and interpret data based on human habits and behaviors,” it’s not hard to see how this could be used to invade people’s privacy.

Automated sensors could tell when someone looks frustrated and report it to security for example. As another example, it would easily allow advertisement screens to change their contents based on the profile of who walks by.

We’re interested to see what uses companies come up with for this Panasonic technology. But in a way, it also calls to mind elements of futuristic dystopias seen in media.

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