CES 2020: Plex Is Ready to Take the Battle to Amazon, iTunes, Vudu

Plex was in Las Vegas at CES this week to talk about its ever-growing suite of services. The company is already the most full-featured video management/playback app out there, but the upcoming 12 months promise to take the organization to ever greater heights.

For those who missed the announcement, Plex launched an ad-supported on-demand streaming app in early December 2019. The service is seen as a direct competitor to Roku’s “The Roku Channel,” and is already available in more than 200 countries worldwide. It offers content from partners like MGM, Lionsgate, and Warner Bros.

At CES, however, the company was keen to talk to us about the roadmap for rest of 2020, and there’s some exciting stuff on the horizon.

Most notably, it will begin offering subscription channels to its users. There’s not a definitive timeline, but the reps we chatted to were hopeful that we’d see it go live at some point in 2020. We don’t yet know exactly which channels will be offered, nor do we know the prices you’ll have to pay for access. You can expect to see the usual big name such as HBO and Showtime become available.

Here’s how Plex CEO, Keith Valory, explained the decision:

“Through the process of doing these deals with the AVOD (ad-supported video on demand) partners, we found a lot of those same companies have their own SVOD (subscription video on demand) channels they would like to deliver through us, or have a strong desire to have their content included in some types of either linear or SVOD bundles.”

Plex will also offer a marketplace feature in the app. Again, the specifics are still a bit hazy, but it is assumed that it will allow users to either buy or rent the specific content they’re interested in.

Of course, the big question is whether Plex’s users will start using the app for their subscription needs. The ad-supported VOD service will undoubtedly be popular, but the company faces stiff competition from apps like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple for both subscription and rental services.

What do you think about Plex’s new offering? Let us know in the comments below.

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How to Change Your Minecraft Game Mode

Are you new to Minecraft? Then you’ve probably noticed while exploring the distinctive blocky landscape that it seems somewhat empty. Yet you’ve seen people playing Minecraft with many other elements in the game, such as animal mobs and creepers.

So, where are they?

Well, they’re definitely there. The problem is, you’re not—you’re playing Minecraft in the wrong game mode. Here’s how to change your Minecraft game mode, and switch from Creative mode to Survival mode.

The Minecraft Game Modes

There are three main Minecraft game modes, and two less common modes:

• Creative
• Survival
• Adventure
• Spectator
• Hardcore

Below we’ll look in detail at the three main Minecraft game modes and how to switch to them. We’ll also outline how to switch to Minecraft’s Spectator and Hardcore modes.

What Is Minecraft Creative Mode?

The most recognisable Minecraft game mode is Creative, which lets you build your world, drawing on unlimited resources. There is no health bar, hunger bar, or experience counter, and you’re able to fly around your world in this mode.

You can kill mobs, but they cannot fight back; you won’t take damage and cannot die in Creative.

What Is Minecraft Survival Mode?

In Survival mode, you search for resources, mine, and craft. You can also build, mainly for survival purposes, but you’re limited to what you have mined.

Keep an eye on the health and hunger bars, as you need to keep them topped up to survive. Avoid hostile mobs as they inflict damage and might even kill you.

The Minecraft Adventure Mode

This is a less-used option for Minecraft, mainly for creating worlds for others to play in. There is a limit on changing the map and blocks cannot be destroyed by hand.

Instead, they’re mined only using a suitable item with the pre-determined CanDestroy tag. Similarly, building is only possible if a block has the CanPlaceOn tag. Otherwise, Adventure mode is like Survival.

How to Change Game Mode in Minecraft

Switching between the three main game modes in Minecraft is straightforward. Thanks to the similarities of the Minecraft game across mobile, desktop, and consoles, the following steps should work on all devices (with some exceptions).

For the best results, ensure your version of Minecraft is fully updated before proceeding.

How to Switch to Creative Mode

Minecraft’s Creative mode is an option you’ll find upon launching the game.

On game setup, click Play > Create New > Create New World. Here, click the Default Game Mode drop down and choose Creative.

You can also switch to Creative mode in Minecraft using the /gamemode command:

/gamemode creative

A faster command is also available:

/gamemode 1

Switch to Survival Mode in Minecraft

When creating a new game you’ll find Survival mode in the setup screen. Click Play > Create New > Create New World then Default Game Mode > Creative.

To switch to Survival mode in Minecraft, use the command:

/gamemode survival

You can also use:

/gamemode 0

How to Switch to Minecraft’s Adventure Mode

Adventure mode isn’t a setup option in Minecraft. Instead, you’ll need to manually switch to Adventure mode once your game is up and running. For example, you might have built a detailed world for your friends to play in.

Adventure mode lets you limit what they can do; to stop the world from being destroyed before the aim is achieved, switch to Adventure mode with:

/gamemode adventure

Alternatively, use the shorter:

/gamemode 2

A Note About Minecraft Game Mode Commands

While modern versions of Minecraft all feature support for the /gamemode command, older games do not.

So, if you’re playing Minecraft on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or Wii U, the /gamemode command is unavailable. As such, the Adventure mode is unavailable on these devices. Similarly, switching modes is only possible using standard controller commands.

How to Change to Hardcore and Spectator Modes

In addition to the standard trio of game modes, Minecraft Java Edition offers a further two options:

Hardcore

With just one life available, this is the toughest mode. Once selected there is no way to switch to a friendlier game Minecraft mode. Similarly, you cannot switch to Hardcore mode.

To create a hardcore Minecraft game, in the Create New World screen select Game Mode: Hardcore. Note that Allow Cheats and Bonus Chest are unavailable; meanwhile, the world is deleted upon death.

Spectator

This lets you fly around a Minecraft world and observe. No integration with any objects or mobs is possible, although you can move through solid objects.

Spectator mode can be accessed using /gamemode spectator or by dying in Hardcore mode. You can also switch to Spectator game mode from Creative by pressing F3 + N. Press again to switch back.

A keyboard command can also be used:

/gamemode 3

What About Minecraft Multiplayer Mode?

Depending on your device, Minecraft can be played in multiplayer mode using game-to-game multiplayer, local split screen, LAN play, and servers. Most of the game modes above can be accessed in multiplayer.

This means that you can create a world in Minecraft then invite other players to join you in it. The benefit of this is that any device can be used to host a multiplayer Minecraft session.

While a dedicated server is certainly an advantage (especially for larger groups), a multiplayer game can be hosted on anything from an Android phone to a desktop PC, and beyond.

Almost any device can be set up as a Minecraft server. It might be a PC, or even something as affordable as a Raspberry Pi (how to set up a Minecraft server on Raspberry Pi).

For a simple Minecraft multiplayer game on your local network, create a world and set it as Visible to LAN Players. Other players can then connect to the game and you can play alongside them.

Enjoy Minecraft’s Survival and Creative Modes

By now you should know how to distinguish Minecraft game modes and how to switch between them. Using a command, a keyboard shortcut, or a menu option, you can change to each of the Minecraft game modes

There is one other Minecraft mode you should know about: full screen. To expand your desktop version from windowed mode, hit F11 to view Minecraft in fullscreen mode.

Do you want to know more about Minecraft? Then check out our Minecraft commands cheat sheet for keyboard shortcuts designed to streamline your game sessions.

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How to Delete or Restore a YouTube Video

If you have a YouTube channel, you’ll probably wonder how to delete a YouTube video at some point. Maybe you uploaded something that you don’t want on your channel anymore, or need to re-upload a copy with some fixes.

Whatever your reason, we’ll show you how to remove a video from YouTube, as well as some tips on restoration.

How to Delete YouTube Videos on Desktop

As you’d expect, you can only remove YouTube videos that you’ve previously uploaded. The site thankfully makes this easy.

To get started on your desktop or laptop, visit YouTube and click your profile icon in the top-right corner. If you’re not signed in, do so now. Otherwise, select YouTube Studio to enter the management panel for your YouTube channel.

Select Videos on the left side to see everything you’ve uploaded to YouTube. By default, these will show by date of upload, starting with the most recent video.

Hover over the video you want to delete and click the three-dot button that appears. This will show more choices. In the list of new options, click Delete forever.

If you want to delete several videos at once, use the checkboxes along the left side to select them all. Once you’re ready, click More actions along the top bar and choose Delete forever.

You’ll then have to check a box confirming that you understand this permanently erases the video(s) with no option for recovery. After selecting this, click Delete Forever if you’re sure.

That’s everything you need to know to delete a YouTube video. Just remember that doing so is permanent. If you want to keep a copy for yourself, YouTube provides a Download Video button on the deletion page.

How to Delete a YouTube Video on Mobile

Prefer to delete one of your YouTube videos on your phone or tablet instead? It’s also simple using a mobile device.

First, open the YouTube app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. On the Home tab, tap your profile picture at the top-right. If you’re not already signed in to your account with the app, sign in now.

Next, select Your channel from the list of options. Once your channel page appears, jump over to the Videos tab using the list at the top.

Find the video you want to delete and tap the three-dot menu button next to it. In the list of options that appears, choose Delete and confirm your choice.

The YouTube mobile app is pretty limited, so you can’t do much more than this. If you want better management tools for your videos on mobile, take a look at the YouTube Studio app for Android or iOS. This gives you many of the same options available in the desktop YouTube Studio.

Download: YouTube Studio for Android | iOS (Free)

What Happens When You Delete a YouTube Video?

Completing the above process permanently deletes your video from YouTube with no way to recover it. In addition, most other data associated with the video (such as comments and the like/dislike count) will disappear.

Viewers won’t be able to find the video by searching for it. Anyone who has the link—whether it was embedded on another website, saved to a playlist, or copied somewhere—will see a “video deleted” message if they try to watch it.

A YouTube support page notes that the watch time from deleted videos will still be included in your channel’s aggregate reports. However, it doesn’t show as credited to the deleted video.

Can You Recover Deleted YouTube Videos?

YouTube does not allow you to recover deleted videos. If you change your mind immediately after deleting a video, you can try contacting YouTube Support and asking them to restore it, but that’s a long shot.

We recommend keeping a local copy of all videos you upload to YouTube so that you have a backup in case you change your mind later. If you had the video on your computer but deleted it, see the best data recovery tools for Windows for info on how to get it back.

Consider Unlisted or Private Instead of Deleting

Because deleting a YouTube video is permanent, it’s often a good idea to change the video’s visibility instead of outright deleting it. Doing so lets you prevent people from finding it on YouTube, while still preserving it in case you want to bring it back.

To change a video’s status, follow the same steps as above to open your Channel Videos page in YouTube Studio. There, you’ll see a Visibility column next to each video.

You can choose from three options for this:

• Public: Everyone can watch the video. It will appear in searches and on your channel page.
• Unlisted: Anyone who has the link can watch the video. It won’t appear on your channel page or in recommendations, and will only show up in searches if someone adds it to a public playlist.
• Private: Only you and people you specifically invite can watch these videos.
  • Select a video in Creator Studio to open the Video details page, then click the three-dot menu button at the top-right and choose Share privately to send it to a friend’s email address.

Choosing either of the more restrictive options achieves almost the same effect as deleting it since people won’t be able to find or watch it easily. But if you change your mind, you just have to set the video back to Public.

How to Find and Watch Deleted YouTube Videos

Thus far we’ve looked at how to delete YouTube videos on your own channel, but what if you want to find deleted YouTube videos from other people? Perhaps you added a video to a playlist and the owner has since deleted it or made it private.

Because deletion is permanent, you don’t have many good options here. However, there are a few steps you can try.

If you remember the name of the video, you should first try searching for it on both YouTube and Google. A third-party account could have uploaded a copy of the video to YouTube or another video site.

If that doesn’t work, you can try using the Wayback Machine to view a saved copy of the video page. Just enter the video’s URL and you can see the page as it existed in the past. However, while this may let you check the video’s title and read some of the comments, it rarely allows you to watch the full video.

Finally, if the video is private, you might consider asking the channel owner for access to view it. They probably had a good reason for doing this, so don’t expect anything. But you might be pleasantly surprised if you explain why you want to watch this particular video.

How to Report Other YouTube Videos

Of course, it’s not possible to delete someone else’s video from YouTube. But if you find a video that you think shouldn’t be on YouTube because it violates a policy, you can report it.

To do this, visit a YouTube video and click the three-dot button at the bottom-right of the video. Here, choose Report and select a reason, then walk through the steps.

There’s no guarantee that YouTube will take immediate action from your report, but doing so is the best way to remove inappropriate content from the site.

Keep in mind that you should only report videos that are blatantly against YouTube’s guidelines. Don’t use reporting as a way to get videos taken down that you don’t like.

Deleting YouTube Videos Is Simple

Now you know how to delete unwanted YouTube videos from your channel, plus some information on reporting videos and finding videos others have deleted. Remember to consider unlisting or make them private before deleting so you have an easy way to get them back.

For more, take a look at everything you should know about uploading videos to YouTube.

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Google Adds New Ways to Plan Your Next Vacation

Google has added new features to Google Travel. These provide you with new ways to plan your next vacation, helping you decide when to visit and where to stay, and informing you exactly how much you’ll need to pay. Making the whole process easier than ever.

Google used to maintain an app called Google Trips. This was an invaluable tool, helping you save your reservations, plan day trips, and discover the best restaurants. Sadly, Google Trips is no more, but Google still wants to help you plan your next vacation.

How to Use Google Travel to Plan a Vacation

Google Travel is a dedicated website which offers some (but not all) of the same features Google Trips used to offer. It’s also where Google Hotels and Google Flights now live, as the search giant has tried to consolidate everything into one resource.

As outlined in this post on The Keyword, Google has added new features to Google Travel. This is in addition to listing the trending destinations for 2020, which are Da Nang, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Marseille, Vienna, Bangkok, Dubai, and Perth.

Taking a trip in 2020? Before you book, search for hotels on Google to see when the best time is to visit, the average cost of hotels, which neighborhood to stay in, and more. We'll show you how. https://t.co/LuaTh5vsqq

— Google (@Google) January 8, 2020

Once you have picked your destination, Google wants to help you plan your next vacation. The When To Visit tab will show you “how weather, crowds and pricing vary across the year.” And the What You’ll Pay tab will show you how much you’ll need to budget.

Where To Stay will help you find the best neighborhoods. And when you’re ready to confirm your booking, Google will show you your Stay Total. Signing into your Google account means you can also see Personalized Results and the option to Add Shortcut.

Tips to Use When Planning Your Next Vacation

Google Travel is an amazing resource for anyone planning to go on vacation. These days there are so many options available to travelers that any help booking flights, finding affordable accomodation, and researching locations could prove invaluable.

As useful as Google Travel is, it can only help you so far. Thankfully, we have previously listed the most important tips to help you plan your next vacation. These range from blocking internet trackers to finding a suitable traveling companion to go with.

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The 7 Best Photo Scanners for Backing Up Old Photos

The digital age has made it easy to capture and store photos that you can access in just a few seconds. But most of us probably have a plethora of old photos in a drawer or somewhere else that signifies a special memory with family or friends.

To help bring those old prints to the modern age, there are a number of great photo scanners that can scan photos to a digital format.

We’re highlighting seven of the best photo scanners.

1. Kodak SCANZA Digital Film and Slide Scanner

Kodak SCANZA Digital Film and Slide Scanner Kodak SCANZA Digital Film and Slide Scanner Buy Now On Amazon $159.98

Along with photos, you might have old images only on film or a slide. The Kodak SCANZA Digital Film and Slide Scanner can quickly and easily convert those to a digital format in just a few seconds. The portable scanner is compatible with Super 8, 35mm, 110, and 126 films along with 35mm, 110, and 126 slides. Kodak provides all of the adaptors for the different formats, too.

The scanner features a 3.5-inch LCD screen that can tilt up if necessary. On-screen instructions help you select the correct adapter to use and also allow you to view the image. You can do quick edits on the scanner screen and interface. All of the images can be saved at up to 22 megapixels. If you’re not around a computer for exporting, the images can be saved to an optional SD card or even viewed on a TV screen with the included HDMI cable.

2. Doxie Go SE

Doxie Go SE Doxie Go SE Buy Now On Amazon $179.00

A great portable photo scanner, the Doxie Go SE is completely wireless. A built-in rechargeable battery means you can scan up to 400 images on a single charge. You can store up to 4,000 images in the small scanner’s memory before having to sync with a computer. To increase the memory, you can also add your own larger SD card.

All of your photos can be scanned in a resolution of up to 600 dpi. With Doxie’s software, compatible with macOS and Windows, you can save and edit photos or send them to cloud storage services like Dropbox, iCloud, OneNote, or Evernote.

3. Epson FastFoto FF-680W

Epson FastFoto FF-680W Epson FastFoto FF-680W Buy Now On Amazon $599.99

If you have a mountain of photos to scan, take a look at the Epson FastFoto FF-680W. At 300 dpi resolution, you can scan as fast as one photo per second. The high-resolution photo scanner can also scan at up to 1,200 dpi with prints 8.5-inches wide and smaller. It can also capture any notes on the back of a photo in a single scan. The scanner is able to handle different sizes of prints in a single job to save even more time.

Thanks to built-in Wi-Fi, the scanner doesn’t need to be placed near a computer, but you can connect it to a computer if necessary. Along with a computer, you can automatically send scans to Dropbox or Google Drive to access anywhere. Epson includes Mac or PC software that allows even inexperienced users to edit, crop, and restore the images.

4. Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner

Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner Buy Now On Amazon $149.00

The Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner is a great portable picture scanner for old and fragile photos. Instead of having to put the photo through a feeder, the device acts as a small flatbed scanner. Just remove the lid and flip the scanner over to scan up to a 4×6-inch image in an album or other location. The images, up to 300 dpi, are sent to an SD card.

A 1.7-inch LCD screen shows the scans. The scanner takes power from 4 AA batteries. For larger images, the Mac or PC software can reassemble all of the originals into a final print. The software also allows you to combine an image with a voice recording that can help tell the story behind the picture. No special player is needed to view the result.

5. Plustek Photo Scanner ePhoto Z300

Plustek Photo Scanner ePhoto Z300 Plustek Photo Scanner ePhoto Z300 Buy Now On Amazon $198.99

As you could probably tell by the name, the Plustek Photo Scanner ePhoto Z300 is specifically designed for images. The scanner supports 3×5-inch, 4×6-inch, 5×7-inch, and 8×10-inch photos. You can save scans to a Mac or PC at 300 dpi or 600 dpi. With speed in mind, a 4×6-inch photo can scan in just two seconds.

A special soft roller will help protect fragile photos from any damage or scratches during a scan. The included software allows you to quickly and easily restore the old image with many different quick fixes. More advanced editing functions are also available.

6. Epson Perfection V550

Epson Perfection V550 Epson Perfection V550 Buy Now On Amazon $177.25

The Epson Perfection V550 is a great way to scan any photos to digital using either a Mac or PC. Along with prints, you can also scan 35mm slides, negatives, and film. The high-resolution scanner can save images at up to 6,400 dpi, which allows high-quality reprints at up to 17×22-inches. To help get to work quickly, there’s no warmup time, unlike some other models.

You can scan multiple photos on the flatbed scanner simultaneously thanks to auto edge detection that crops each image and saves it as a separate file on a Mac or PC. When scanning film, special technology will help remove the appearance of dust and scratches for the best possible image. An Easy Photo Fix feature will also help bring faded photos back to life.

7. Canon CanoScan Lide 400 Slim Scanner

Canon CanoScan Lide 400 Slim Scanner Canon CanoScan Lide 400 Slim Scanner Buy Now On Amazon $87.39

You can save space on a desk when using the Canon CanoScan Lide 400 Slim Scanner. The scanner is able to scan upright without any difference in image quality. The scanner uses USB-C, so you’ll just need one cable for operation and power.

The picture scanner can capture images up to 8.5×11-inches at up to 4,800 dpi. A special scan function can also send images directly to cloud storage services like Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox. The scanner can is compatible with both Mac and PC.

Preserve Your Memories With the Best Photo Scanners

There’s no need to worry about losing precious and important photos. Using one of these photo scanners, you can take your old images and enjoy them for many more years to come in a digital format.

For more help bringing images into the modern age, take a look at the best ways to scan and digitize old photos.

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The 5 Best 5G Smartphones in 2020

You’ve heard the term 5G and you know it means faster mobile internet. But does your phone support this network? Probably not. So, it’s time to consider a new smartphone that has 5G support.

Several 5G smartphones are already available, with more expected as the network becomes widely available. But which 5G phone should you buy?

1. Samsung Galaxy S10 5G

Samsung Galaxy S10 5G Samsung Galaxy S10 5G Buy Now On Amazon $638.95

First up is perhaps the most desirable non-Apple smartphone in the world, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G Enabled. This is an upgrade of the original S10 with an improved display and camera alongside 5G connectivity.

It’s the top of the range smartphone capable of doing everything you need, with super-fast mobile internet where available. This is thanks to the X50 modem.

Featuring a 6.7-inch WQHD+ 3040×1440 display and Snapdragon 855 CPU, the phone also boasts a 12MP Super Speed dual-pixel 16MP ultra-wide and 12MP 2x Zoom 3D depth-sensing camera. There’s 8GB of RAM, and the phone comes equipped with either 256GB or 512GB of storage.

2. Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G

Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G Buy Now On Amazon $1,639.00

Samsung is making a huge push into the 5G arena, as proven by the existence of another 5G model. The Samsung Galaxy Note range is aimed at consumers with an eye on productivity and ships with a stylus.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G model bundles the note-taking productivity advantages you’ve come to expect with ultra-fast mobile broadband. The integrated cloud-based apps benefit from the 5G speed, too. The Dynamic AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display measures 6.8 inches (1440 x 3040 pixels) and boasts 16M colors.

With 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, the Note 10+ also boasts a feature-packed primary quad camera. Also squeezed inside is an octa-core processor. This is powered by two 2.73 GHz Mongoose M4, two 2.4 GHz Cortex-A75, and four 1.9 GHz Cortex-A55 chips.

3. OPPO Reno 3 Pro 5G

OPPO Reno 3 Pro 5G OPPO Reno 3 Pro 5G Buy Now On Amazon

Chinese device manufacturer OPPO is another option if you’re looking for a 5G smartphone. The OPPO Reno 3 Pro 5G is a dual-mode 5G phone featuring a 6.5-inch, 90Hz high-sensitivity curved touchscreen display, and Snapdragon 765G octa-core processor.

Preinstalled with the Android 10.0-based ColorOS 7, the device has 8GB of RAM and comes with 128GB of storage. The phone’s dual-mode 5G means that the device can connect to two types of 5G network. These are NSA (Non-Standalone Access) and SA (Standalone Access).

A quad-camera system is employed on the rear of the phone. This 48MP camera offers a remarkable five times zoom feature, alongside a 32MP front-facing camera. 4K video shooting is also possible at 30FPS. Built-in facial and fingerprint recognition secure the OPPO Reno 3 Pro 5G.

4. Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G

5G Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G 5G Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G Buy Now On Amazon

Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer Xiaomi is another entrant into the 5G data market. Its flagship Mi Mix 3 has a strong 5G variant while offering a surprisingly limited selection of bands. While other phones in this list retain support for 2G and 3G networks, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G only supports LTE and 5G.

This shouldn’t be a problem for most, but travel to rural areas might result in a lack of mobile signal. Inside, a quad-core Snapdragon 855 processor runs the device, alongside a choice of 6GB, 8GB, and 10GB of RAM. Storage is either 128GB or 256GB, while a Qualcomm X50 5G modem handles mobile internet connectivity.

The Android 9.0-based MIUI 10 features on the device, which boasts a 6.4-inch 2340 x 1080 Full HD+ OLED display. There are four camera sensors on this phone; two front and two rear. On the front, you can take selfies with the 24MP Sony IMX576 sensor which is paired with a 2MP depth sensor. Meanwhile, on the back, you’ll find a 12MP Sony IMX363 paired with a 12MP Samsung S5K3M3+.

5. Huawei Mate 20X 5G

Huawei Mate 20X 5G Huawei Mate 20X 5G Buy Now On Amazon $829.00

You’ll have noticed how the Samsung devices are 5G versions of existing hardware. This is a common tactic—enhancing an existing model with 5G. It avoids the need for a completely new device when the new technology arrives during a manufacturing run. You’ll find the same tactic employed by Huawei, a company smaller than Samsung, but challenging in the same markets.

With a 7.2-inch OLED FHD+ 1080 x 2244-pixel touch display with 16.7 million colors, the Huawei Mate 20X 5G phone features four cameras. The rear triple Leica primary cameras are 40MP (Wide Angle Lens), 20MP (Ultra Wide Angle Lens), and 8MP (Telephoto). Meanwhile, the front-facing camera is 24MP.

Inside is an octa-core processor, utilizing two Cortex-A76 based 2.6 GHz, two Cortex-A76 based 1.92 GHz, and four Cortex-A55 1.8 GHz chips. The phone has 8GB of RAM, with 256GB of onboard storage, expandable to a further 256GB, for a total of 512GB.

The phone ships with Huawei’s own version of Android, EMUI 9.1, which is based on Android 9.0. It also has dual SIM support, although only one slot is 5G capable. Note that Huawei products now ship without Google Play. As a result, while you can enjoy a good Android experience, it won’t be a Google Android experience.

The Best 5G Smartphones for You

If you’re looking for a way to get online with the fastest available mobile speeds, 5G is the answer. Perfect for online gaming, video streaming, and Internet of Things uses, it has the potential to make standard browsing as effortless as turning the pages in a book.

The quintet of 5G smartphones we’ve looked at are:

1. Samsung Galaxy S10 5G
2. Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G
3. OPPO Reno 3 Pro 5G
4. Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G
5. Huawei Mate 20X 5G

It’s worth keeping in mind that many 5G phones have non-5G variants, too. Meanwhile, some networks don’t yet support 5G, perhaps due to infrastructure restrictions, or the lack of a 5G option for CDMA. It’s wise to avoid buying a 5G phone just yet if your network doesn’t support it.

To avoid buying the wrong device, read the details carefully, and do your own research. You should also take a moment to check the differences between LTE, 4G, and 5G.

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What a digital government looks like | Anna Piperal

What a digital government looks like | Anna Piperal

What if you never had to fill out paperwork again? In Estonia, this is a reality: citizens conduct nearly all public services online, from starting a business to voting from their laptops, thanks to the nation's ambitious post-Soviet digital transformation known as "e-Estonia." One of the program's experts, Anna Piperal, explains the key design principles that power the country's "e-government" -- and shows why the rest of the world should follow suit to eradicate outdated bureaucracy and regain citizens' trust.

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

Facebook won’t ban political ads, prefers to keep screwing democracy

It’s 2020 — a key election year in the US — and Facebook is doubling down on its policy of letting people pay it to fuck around with democracy.

Despite trenchant criticism — including from US lawmakers accusing Facebook’s CEO to his face of damaging American democracy — the company is digging in, announcing as much today by reiterating its defence of continuing to accept money to run microtargeted political ads.

Instead of banning political ads Facebook is trumpeting a few tweaks to the information it lets users see about political ads — claiming it’s boosting “transparency” and “controls” while leaving its users vulnerable to default settings that offer neither.  

Political ads running on Facebook are able to be targeted at individuals’ preferences as a result of the company’s pervasive tracking and profiling of Internet users. And ethical concerns about microtargeting led the UK’s data protection watchdog to call in 2018 for a pause on the use of digital ad tools like Facebook by political campaigns — warning of grave risks to democracy.

Facebook isn’t for pausing political microtargeting, though. Even though various elements of its data-gathering activities are also subject to privacy and consent complaints, regulatory scrutiny and legal challenge in Europe, under regional data protection legislation.

Instead, the company made it clear last fall that it won’t fact-check political ads, nor block political messages that violate its speech policies — thereby giving politicians carte blanche to run hateful lies, if they so choose.

Facebook’s algorithms also demonstrably select for maximum eyeball engagement, making it simply the ‘smart choice’ for the modern digitally campaigning politician to run outrageous BS on Facebook — as long time Facebook exec Andrew Bosworth recently pointed out in an internal posting that leaked in full to the NYT.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s defence of his social network’s political ads policy boils down to repeatedly claiming ‘it’s all free speech man’ (we paraphrase).

This is an entirely nuance-free argument that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen expertly demolished last year, pointing out that: “Under this twisted logic if Facebook were around in the 1930s it would have allowed Hitler to post 30-second ads on his solution to the ‘Jewish problem.’”

Facebook responded to the take-down with a denial that hate speech exists on its platform since it has a policy against it — per its typical crisis PR playbook. And it’s more of the same selectively self-serving arguments being dispensed by Facebook today.

In a blog post attributed to its director of product management, Rob Leathern, it expends more than 1,000 words on why it’s still not banning political ads (it would be bad for advertisers wanting to reaching “key audiences”, is the non-specific claim) — including making a diversionary call for regulators to set ad standards, thereby passing the buck on ‘democratic accountability’ to lawmakers (whose electability might very well depend on how many Facebook ads they run…), while spinning cosmetic, made-for-PR tweaks to its ad settings and what’s displayed in an ad archive that most Facebook users will never have heard of as “expanded transparency” and “more control”. 

In fact these tweaks do nothing to reform the fundamental problem of damaging defaults.

The onus remains on Facebook users to do the leg work on understanding what its platform is pushing at their eyeballs and why.

Even as the ‘extra’ info now being drip-fed to the Ad Library is still highly fuzzy (“We are adding ranges for Potential Reach, which is the estimated target audience size for each political, electoral or social issue ad so you can see how many people an advertiser wanted to reach with every ad,” as Facebook writes of one tweak.)

The new controls similarly require users to delve into complex settings menus in order to avail themselves of inherently incremental limits — such as an option that will let people opt into seeing “fewer” political and social issue ads. (Fewer is naturally relative, ergo the scale of the reduction remains entirely within Facebook’s control — so it’s more meaningless ‘control theatre’ from the lord of dark pattern design. Why can’t people switch off political and issue ads entirely?)

Another incremental setting lets users “stop seeing ads based on an advertiser’s Custom Audience from a list”.

But just imagine trying to explain WTF that means to your parents or grandparents — let alone an average Internet user actually being able to track down the ‘control’ and exercise any meaningful agency over the political junk ads they’re being exposed to on Facebook.

It is, to quote Baron Cohen, “bullshit”.

Nor are outsiders the only ones calling out Zuckerberg on his BS and “twisted logic”: A number of Facebook’s own employees warned in an open letter last year that allowing politicians to lie in Facebook ads essentially weaponizes the platform.

They also argued that the platform’s advanced targeting and behavioral tracking tools make it “hard for people in the electorate to participate in the public scrutiny that we’re saying comes along with political speech” — accusing the company’s leadership of making disingenuous arguments in defence of a toxic, anti-democratic policy. 

Nothing in what Facebook has announced today resets the anti-democratic asymmetry inherent in the platform’s relationship to its users.

Facebook users — and democratic societies — remain, by default, preyed upon by self-interested political interests thanks to Facebook’s policies which are dressed up in a self-interested misappropriation of ‘free speech’ as a cloak for its unfettered exploitation of individual attention as fuel for a propaganda-as-service business.

Yet other policy positions are available.

Twitter announced a total ban on political ads last year — and while the move doesn’t resolve wider disinformation issues attached to its platform, the decision to bar political ads has been widely lauded as a positive, standard-setting example.

Google also followed suit by announcing a ban on “demonstrably false claims” in political ads. It also put limits on the targeting terms that can be used for political advertising buys that appear in search, on display ads and on YouTube.

Still Facebook prefers to exploit “the absence of regulation”, as its blog post puts it, to not do the right thing and keep sticking two fingers up at democratic accountability — because not applying limits on behavioral advertising best serves its business interests. Screw democracy.

“We have based [our policies] on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all, and that what they say should be scrutinized and debated in public,” Facebook writes, ignoring the fact that some of its own staff already pointed out the sketchy hypocrisy of trying to claim that complex ad targeting tools and techniques are open to public scrutiny.

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Facebook won’t ban political ads, prefers to keep screwing democracy

It’s 2020 — a key election year in the US — and Facebook is doubling down on its policy of letting people pay it to fuck around with democracy.

Despite trenchant criticism — including from US lawmakers accusing Facebook’s CEO to his face of damaging American democracy — the company is digging in, announcing as much today by reiterating its defence of continuing to accept money to run microtargeted political ads.

Instead of banning political ads Facebook is trumpeting a few tweaks to the information it lets users see about political ads — claiming it’s boosting “transparency” and “controls” while leaving its users vulnerable to default settings that offer neither.  

Political ads running on Facebook are able to be targeted at individuals’ preferences as a result of the company’s pervasive tracking and profiling of Internet users. And ethical concerns about microtargeting led the UK’s data protection watchdog to call in 2018 for a pause on the use of digital ad tools like Facebook by political campaigns — warning of grave risks to democracy.

Facebook isn’t for pausing political microtargeting, though. Even though various elements of its data-gathering activities are also subject to privacy and consent complaints, regulatory scrutiny and legal challenge in Europe, under regional data protection legislation.

Instead, the company made it clear last fall that it won’t fact-check political ads, nor block political messages that violate its speech policies — thereby giving politicians carte blanche to run hateful lies, if they so choose.

Facebook’s algorithms also demonstrably select for maximum eyeball engagement, making it simply the ‘smart choice’ for the modern digitally campaigning politician to run outrageous BS on Facebook — as long time Facebook exec Andrew Bosworth recently pointed out in an internal posting that leaked in full to the NYT.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s defence of his social network’s political ads policy boils down to repeatedly claiming ‘it’s all free speech man’ (we paraphrase).

This is an entirely nuance-free argument that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen expertly demolished last year, pointing out that: “Under this twisted logic if Facebook were around in the 1930s it would have allowed Hitler to post 30-second ads on his solution to the ‘Jewish problem.’”

Facebook responded to the take-down with a denial that hate speech exists on its platform since it has a policy against it — per its typical crisis PR playbook. And it’s more of the same selectively self-serving arguments being dispensed by Facebook today.

In a blog post attributed to its director of product management, Rob Leathern, it expends more than 1,000 words on why it’s still not banning political ads (it would be bad for advertisers wanting to reaching “key audiences”, is the non-specific claim) — including making a diversionary call for regulators to set ad standards, thereby passing the buck on ‘democratic accountability’ to lawmakers (whose electability might very well depend on how many Facebook ads they run…), while spinning cosmetic, made-for-PR tweaks to its ad settings and what’s displayed in an ad archive that most Facebook users will never have heard of as “expanded transparency” and “more control”. 

In fact these tweaks do nothing to reform the fundamental problem of damaging defaults.

The onus remains on Facebook users to do the leg work on understanding what its platform is pushing at their eyeballs and why.

Even as the ‘extra’ info now being drip-fed to the Ad Library is still highly fuzzy (“We are adding ranges for Potential Reach, which is the estimated target audience size for each political, electoral or social issue ad so you can see how many people an advertiser wanted to reach with every ad,” as Facebook writes of one tweak.)

The new controls similarly require users to delve into complex settings menus in order to avail themselves of inherently incremental limits — such as an option that will let people opt into seeing “fewer” political and social issue ads. (Fewer is naturally relative, ergo the scale of the reduction remains entirely within Facebook’s control — so it’s more meaningless ‘control theatre’ from the lord of dark pattern design. Why can’t people switch off political and issue ads entirely?)

Another incremental setting lets users “stop seeing ads based on an advertiser’s Custom Audience from a list”.

But just imagine trying to explain WTF that means to your parents or grandparents — let alone an average Internet user actually being able to track down the ‘control’ and exercise any meaningful agency over the political junk ads they’re being exposed to on Facebook.

It is, to quote Baron Cohen, “bullshit”.

Nor are outsiders the only ones calling out Zuckerberg on his BS and “twisted logic”: A number of Facebook’s own employees warned in an open letter last year that allowing politicians to lie in Facebook ads essentially weaponizes the platform.

They also argued that the platform’s advanced targeting and behavioral tracking tools make it “hard for people in the electorate to participate in the public scrutiny that we’re saying comes along with political speech” — accusing the company’s leadership of making disingenuous arguments in defence of a toxic, anti-democratic policy. 

Nothing in what Facebook has announced today resets the anti-democratic asymmetry inherent in the platform’s relationship to its users.

Facebook users — and democratic societies — remain, by default, preyed upon by self-interested political interests thanks to Facebook’s policies which are dressed up in a self-interested misappropriation of ‘free speech’ as a cloak for its unfettered exploitation of individual attention as fuel for a propaganda-as-service business.

Yet other policy positions are available.

Twitter announced a total ban on political ads last year — and while the move doesn’t resolve wider disinformation issues attached to its platform, the decision to bar political ads has been widely lauded as a positive, standard-setting example.

Google also followed suit by announcing a ban on “demonstrably false claims” in political ads. It also put limits on the targeting terms that can be used for political advertising buys that appear in search, on display ads and on YouTube.

Still Facebook prefers to exploit “the absence of regulation”, as its blog post puts it, to not do the right thing and keep sticking two fingers up at democratic accountability — because not applying limits on behavioral advertising best serves its business interests. Screw democracy.

“We have based [our policies] on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all, and that what they say should be scrutinized and debated in public,” Facebook writes, ignoring the fact that some of its own staff already pointed out the sketchy hypocrisy of trying to claim that complex ad targeting tools and techniques are open to public scrutiny.

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Pro-privacy search engine Qwant announces more exec changes — to ‘switch focus to monetization’

More changes have been announced in the senior leadership of French pro-privacy search engine, Qwant.

President and co-founder, Eric Leandri (pictured above), will be moving from an operational to a strategic role on January 15, the company said today — while current deputy managing director for sales and marketing, Jean-Claude Ghinozzi, is being promoted to president.

Leandri will leave the president role on January 15 , although he is not departing the business entirely but will instead shift to chair a strategic and scientific committee — where he says he will focus on technology and “strategic vision”.

This committee will work with a new governance council, also being announced today, which will be chaired by Antoine Troesch, investment director of Qwant investor, Banque des Territories, per the PR.

At the same time, Mozilla veteran Tristan Nitot — who was only promoted to a new CEO role at Qwant in September — is returning to his prior job as VP of advocacy. Although Leandri told us that Nitot will retain the spokesman component of the CEO job, leaving Ghinozzi to focus on monetization — which he said is Qwant’s top priority now.

“[Nitot] is now executive VP in charge of communications and media,” Leandri told TechCrunch. “He has to take care of company advocacy. Because of my departure he will have now to represent Qwant in [the media]. He will be the voice of Qwant. But that position will give him not enough space and time to be the full-time CEO of the company — doing both is quite impossible. I have done that for years… but it’s very complicated.”

“We will now need to focus a lot on monetization and on our core business… to create a real ad platform,” he added, by way of explaining the latest round of exec restructuring. “This needs to have somebody in charge of doing that monetization process — that execution process of the scale of Qwant.”

Ghinozzi will be responsible for developing a “new phase” for the search engine so it can scale its business in Europe, Leandri also said, adding: “For my part I take on the strategy and the tech, and I’m a member of the board.”

The search engine company is also announcing that it’s closing a new funding round to support infrastructure and scaling — including taking in more financing from existing backers Banque des Territories and publishing giant Axel Springer — saying it expects this to be finalized next month.

Leandri would not provide details on the size of the round today but French news website Liberation is reporting it as €10M, citing a government source. (Per other reports in the French media Qwant has been losing tens of millions of euros per year.)

Qwant’s co-founder did trail some “very good announcements” he said are coming imminently on the user growth front in France, related to new civil companies switching to the search engine. But again he declined to publicly confirm full details at this stage — saying the news would be confirmed in around a week’s time.

Liberation‘s report points to this being confirmation that the French state will go ahead with making Qwant the default search engine across the administration — giving its product a boost of (likely) millions more regular users, and potentially unlocking access to more government funding.

The move by the French administration aligns with a wider push for digital sovereignty in a bid to avoid being too reliant on foreign tech giants. However, in recent months, doubt had been thrown on the government’s plan to switch wholesale from Google’s search engine to the homegrown search alternative — after local media raised questions over the quality of Qwant’s search results.

The government has been conducting its own technical audit of Qwant’s search engine. But, per Liberation — which says it obtained an internal government memo earlier this month — the switch will go ahead, and is slated to be completed by the end of April.

Qwant has faced further uncomfortable press scrutiny on its home turf in recent months, with additional reports in French media suggesting the business has been facing a revenue crunch — after its privacy-respecting search engine generated lower than expected revenues last year.

On this Leandri told us Qwant’s issue boils down to a lack of ad inventory, saying it will be Ghinozzi’s job to tackle that by making sure it can monetize more of the current impressions it’s generating — such as by focusing on serving more ads against shopping-related searches, while continuing to preserve its core privacy/non-tracking promise to users.

The business was focused last year on putting in place search engine infrastructure to prepare for scaling user growth in Europe, he suggested — meaning it was spending less time on monetizing user searches.

“We started to refocus on the monetization in November and December,” he said. “So we have lost some months in terms of monetization… Now we have started to accelerate our monetization phase and we need now to make it even better in shopping, for example.”

Leandri claims Qwant has already seen “a very good ramp up”, after turning its attention back to monetization these past two months — but says beefing up ad inventory including by signing up more ad partners and serving its own ads will now be “the focus of the company”.

“For example today on 100 queries we were sometime during the year at 20 ads, just 20% of coverage,” he told us, noting that some ‘iPhone 11’ searches done via Qwant haven’t resulted in any ads being served to users in recent times. “We need to go to 30%-40%… We need to make it better on the shopping queries, brining new customers. We need to do all these things.

“Right now we have signed with Havas and Publicis in France for Europe but we need to ad more partners and start adding our own ads, our own shopping ads, our own technology for ads. That’s the new focus.”

Additionally, there have also been a number of reports in French media that have alleged HR problems within Qwant. Articles — such as this one by Next Inpact — have reported at length on claims by some employees that Leandri’s management style created a toxic workplace culture in which staff were subject to verbal abuse, threats and bullying.

Qwant disputes these reports but it’s notable that the co-founder is stepping back from an operation role at a time when both he and the business are facing questions over a wave of negative domestic press, and with investors also being asked to plough in fresh financing as a key strategy customer (the French government) is scrutinizing the product and the business.

The health of workplace culture at technology companies and high pressure startups has come in for increasing attention in recent years, as workplace expectations have shifted with the generations and digital technologies have encouraged greater openness and provided outlets for people who feel unfairly treated to make their grievances more widely known.

Major scandals in the tech industry in recent years include Uber being publicly accused of having a sexist and bullying workplace culture by a former engineer — and, more recently, travel startup Away whose CEO stepped down in December after a bombshell report in the press exposing a toxic culture.

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The Wacom One Tablet Is an Affordable Option for Designers and Artists

At CES, Wacom unveiled its fantastic new tablet at a very affordable price. The Wacom One Drawing Tablet is the cheapest tablet in Wacom’s line. This makes it perfect for entry-level artists and designers, as well as social media gurus. It also makes a great purchase for someone who’s simply interested in drawing.

For $400, Wacom gives you a beautiful tablet with a 13-inch display. The Wacom One also offers an HD resolution of 1920 x 1080, as well as 72 percent NTSC color. That said, you’ll instantly notice how crisp and clean the tablet’s display looks.

Fortunately, the Wacom One’s performance is just as amazing as it looks. The device comes with a cordless pen that requires no charging. With a whopping 4,096 different pen pressure levels, you can execute precise photo edits and drawings that can take the form of sketches or even paintings. As soon as the stylus touches the tablet, you’ll notice how responsive it is—you’ll feel as if you’re drawing on a physical piece of paper.

You don’t even have to use Wacom’s included pen. It’s actually compatible with some of the most popular pen brands. The compatible pens include the Staedtler Noris Digital, Lamy Al-Star Black EMR, Mistubishi 9800 Pencil, Raytrektab DG-D08IWP, and even the Samsung Galaxy Note and Tab S Pen.

Speaking of compatibility, the Wacom One tablet isn’t just compatible with Windows and Mac either—it also works with Android. So far, you can link up your Wacom One with your newer Samsung phone (anything from the Samsung 8 to Note 10+), along with some Huawei phone models.

Want even more features alongside your Wacom One tablet? The Wacom One comes with a bonus pack that includes exceptional creative tools. When you buy the Wacom One, you’ll get a bonus pack with Clip Studio Paint, Bamboo Paper, and Adobe Premiere Rush CC. In the future, this pack will also include the Adobe Fresco drawing software.

Whether you’re a budding designer or interested in the artistic field, the Wacom One Drawing Tablet is definitely worth it for the price! This versatile tablet is on sale now, so make sure to get your hands on it.

Read the full article: The Wacom One Tablet Is an Affordable Option for Designers and Artists

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Become a Creative Genius With 64 Hours of Adobe CC Training for $39

For most professional artists, designers, and photographers, the Adobe Creative Cloud is an essential toolkit. If you want to work in the creative industries, you really need to know this software. The Complete 2020 Adobe CC Certification Bundle provides a great introduction, with nine video courses covering Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and other top apps. You can currently get the training for just $39 via MakeUseOf Deals.

Creative Masterclass

As with any professional tool, Adobe software can be a little daunting when you first get started. This bundle offers a guided tour, along with advanced tips and tricks from the pros.

Along the way, you discover how to edit images with Lightroom; design stunning logos and graphics with Photoshop and Illustrator; and produce eye-catching videos with Premiere Pro and After Effects.

While most of the courses aim to provide a broad education, some focus on individual skills. For instance, you can learn how to design flyers with InDesign or edit vlogs in Premiere Pro.

You get 64 hours of video tutorials in total, including many hands-on projects and exercises. Just as importantly, each course offers a certificate of completion to prove your new skills.

64 Hours for $39

This training is worth $1,800, but you can get the bundle now for just $39 with lifetime access included.

Prices subject to change

Read the full article: Become a Creative Genius With 64 Hours of Adobe CC Training for $39

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Mudra Mouse: Wearable Bracelet Gesture Mouse

The Mudra wearable mouse and media remote can control your devices with a wave of the hand or pinch of the fingers. Unlike other wearable control devices that convert hand motion into cursor movement, the Mudra Mouse uses a relatively unused approach called SNC. SNC is like electrocardiography except that it measures the electrical impulses that travel between the wearer’s brain to their hand.

The Mudra comes equipped with a range of conductive sensors. These conductive pieces of metal function like the ECG sensors on the Apple Watch. In other words, the Mudra measures surface-of-the-skin electrical impulses running through the wearer’s wrist. After measuring those impulses, the Mudra then uses deep-learning algorithms to turn the analog wave forms into binary inputs, such as left or right-mouse clicks, scrolling, changing songs, and more.

For example, if you wear the mouse and want to left-click, the user makes an okay-sign with their fingers. By going through the mental processes to form a sign-language letter F, the Mudra software instantiates a left-click. Users than make a pinching motion in the air and then drag their hand. In the Windows operating system, this means that the user has clicked and dragged.

If the Mudra does launch in 2020, it would enter a market with little competition. As of January 2020, only a handful of wireless (but not Bluetooth) competitors exist: the now ancient Mycestro. The Mycestro does not allow for Bluetooth pairing, although it uses Bluetooth as its underlying wireless connection standard. If the Mudra ever releases, it will enter an almost empty market with the Mycestro mouse (our Mycestro mouse competitor) as the only competitor. (There is a knock-off of the Mycestro that sells on Amazon and from other retailers, but I would not recommend it.)

In 2020, the Padrone Ring mouse might have relaunched its rescinded 2019 Kickstarter campaign. According to Padrone Ring founder Marc Speck, there remain a few technical issues that need to be solved before they can produce the ring. The device may appear at Mobile World Congress in 2020 but nothing is yet certain.

The Tactigon Skin offers a similar degree of functionality to the Mudra Mouse, except it uses a combination of sensors ranging from an accelerometer to a gyroscopic sensor. Like the Mudra Mouse, the Tactigon Skin claims to offer a number of applications to real-world devices. One unique use case is as a control device for drones and other remote-control devices. However, the Tactigon Skin hasn’t released yet and may still be vaporware. It was successfully funded though.

The downside of the technology behind all sensor-based mouse-like input devices is battery life. Because wearable, “air mice” (because they function in the air) require constant sensor readings, it also consumes a great deal of power. And because the devices are wearable, they require light batteries. The combination of high drain with light batteries results in, unfortunately, short battery life. Whether we see Mudra’s technology in smartphones may rest entirely on refinements that improve on power consumption.

Read the full article: Mudra Mouse: Wearable Bracelet Gesture Mouse

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