Microsoft Ends Support for Windows 7

Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 7. So, unless you’re a company willing to pay for continued support, it’s time to move on from Windows 7. And if you don’t then you’ll be stuck using an increasingly unsafe operating system. The choice is yours.

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A History of Windows 7 Support

Windows 7 was initially released in 2009. It proved to be very popular, being treated as the spiritual successor to Windows XP. However, Microsoft has since moved on, first to Windows 8, and then to Windows 10, which arrived on the scene in 2015.

Mainstream support for Windows 7 ended that same year, with Microsoft encouraging everyone to upgrade to Windows 10 (for free, for a time). However, Microsoft has continued delivering security updates to Windows 7 to keep everyone safe. Until now.

The End Is Nigh for Windows 7

On January 14, 2020, Windows 7 hit its end of life. This means that both mainstream support and extended support have ended, and Microsoft no longer supports Windows 7. The one exception being businesses running Windows 7 Professional or Enterprise.

Windows 7 PCs the day after support ended. #windows7 pic.twitter.com/F5SY6bs8Sa

— Baz (@doomedbaz) January 14, 2020

To be clear, this doesn’t mean your Windows 7 PC is going to stop working. On the contrary, you should be able to continue using it exactly as you have been doing. However, Microsoft will no longer be issuing patches, even for major security issues.

What this means is that the longer you continue using Windows 7, the more the risk rises. Also, over time, developers will end support for Windows 7, which means some of your favorite software will no longer work on Windows 7. Just as happened with Windows XP.

How to Upgrade From Windows 7

If you want to carry on using Windows 7, then you do so at your own risk. However, we suggest moving onwards and upwards, whether that’s by upgrading to Windows 10, buying a new PC with Windows 10 on it, switching to macOS, or by installing Linux.

The key is not to panic, as all operating systems eventually reach their end of life. If you want to explore this subject further, read our tips for coping with the end of Windows 7 and/or discover the best ways to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

Image Credit: Imilyas/Flickr

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The 7 Coolest New Products at CES 2020

MakeUseOf covered CES yet again this year, and we saw a lot of cool stuff across the expo’s four days. And also a lot of not-so-impressive rubbish.

Here’s a rundown of our coolest findings, including mixed reality glasses, a headphone sound quality booster, and a massive yet sleek TV with close to zero bezel.

1. Nreal AR Glasses: Next-Gen Mixed Reality On-the-Go

Nreal’s AR glasses, called Nreal Light, opened plenty of eyes at CES 2020 to the practical real-world applications of mixed reality. It’s no longer theoretical or hypothetical—these AR glasses prove that mixed reality can truly augment day-to-day life in ways beyond mere gimmickry. I walked away impressed and excited.

Nreal’s CES 2020 exhibition showcased three separate demos that showed practical mixed reality in action: a set of AR games (including a wave-based zombie survival, Fruit Ninja-esque slasher, and Street Fighter-esque fighting game), a virtual shopping experience for apparel, and an augmented smart home setup involving interactions with real-world devices via Nreal’s AR glasses.

While the demos were rough around the edges with occasional bugs and crashes, and even though the glasses felt a bit bulky when worn, the overall exhibition was a triumph for Nreal in proving the viability of their approach to mixed reality.

Contributed by Joel Lee, read the full post:

2. Dirac Audio Boosting App: Professional Tuning to Make Any Headphones Sound Better

Dirac’s first appearance at CES is to mark its foray into a mass-market consumer product. Its upcoming app allows you to take any pair of headphones and instantly make them sound better with a simple tap on an app.

Chances are that no matter what headphones you have, they could sound better. Dirac’s engineers create custom profiles for major models of headphones so you get a more complete listening experience from your favorite music.

You might think that it’s the same as the equalizer that’s already on your phone, but those are difficult to use properly for non-audiophiles. Using Dirac’s app is like handing your headphones to an audio professional and getting a perfect mix tuned for them.

Whether you want to make low-end headphones sound better or squeeze every last bit of performance out of your high-end cans, we think Dirac’s app has a lot of potential to change the headphone game.

Contributed by Ben Stegner, read the full post:

3. Healium AR/VR: Immersive Stress and Anxiety Reduction

Traditional meditation doesn’t work for everyone. Healium recognizes that problem, and has reinvented meditation through its AR and VR apps. It’s the perfect gamified way for anyway to de-stress and relax.

When you use Healium’s VR app, you’ll need the Muse brain-sensing headband, along with Oculus Go VR goggles. Healium provides you with a range of VR environments that you can immerse yourself in. Once you land in your new world, you’ll notice a chart of your brain activity.

Healium hopes that you recognize the power of your thoughts. The more positive your brain activity is, the more the environment around you will change. It’s a clever way to promote more positive and relaxed thinking that you can use in your daily life.

On the other hand, the Healium AR app utilizes your smartphone, Apple Watch, and Muse headband. This time, you’ll see AR elements that you can interact with from your phone’s screen.

Healium collects your heart rate from your Apple Watch and your brain activity from the headband. You can try lowering your heart rate to hatch AR butterflies, or use relaxed thinking to brighten the solar system.

For a company that began as a startup, Healium has already made some amazing impressions. Published scientific studies show that Healium can actually help reduce anxiety and improve your mood.

Contributed by Emma Roth, read the full post:

4. New Laptop Concepts by Dell, LG, and Lenovo

CES has a reputation for showcasing the weird, wacky, and wonderful. But how much of that “cool” stuff is ever going to make it to market? How much of it is really useful for end-users and regular consumers? In truth, very little.

That’s why the best products at CES 2020 were the laptops and desktops from the biggest players in the industry. LG, Dell, and Lenovo were all on hand to take the wraps off their new releases for the upcoming 12 months. Unlike some of the stranger devices at CES , these products do have release dates, do have a fixed price point, and are unquestionably useful for the consumers.

But which was the best new laptop at CES? It depends on your personal preference. For me, it’s hard to beat the sheer beauty of the Dell XPS 13. It’s sleek, powerful, lightweight, and packed with useful features. Business-minded folks might prefer the refreshed Lenovo ThinkPads though.

And lastly, a nod to some of Dell’s concept ideas. Provisionally called Duet and Ori, they boast seamless folding screens, dual screens, and touch/e-ink inputs. A sign of the future, no doubt.

Contributed by Dan Price, read the full post:

5. Creative SXFI GAMER: 3D Sound for Pro Gamers

Last year, Creative wowed the press with its Super X-Fi Headphone Holographic technology. At CES 2020, they released Super X-Fi Gen2 and a new line of improved SXFI products, including the SXFI GAMER gaming headset.

Super X-Fi turns your headphones into a 3D surround sound experience. Creative offers a line of SXFI headphones that come with the technology built-in, as well as an AMP that adds the feature to any conventional headphones. Unlike Sony’s 360 Reality Audio, Super X-Fi does not require a special audio format.

The new Creative SXFI GAMER headphones will bring 3D sound to gaming. The built-in sound profile was specifically designed for first-person shooter games and is driven by Super X-Fi Gen2, which preserves more audio details, more accurately represents the direction of sound, and provides higher audio fidelity. The gaming headset includes a high-end, yet replaceable gaming microphone with an integrated pop filter.

The SXFI GAMER will launch in Q2 of 2020, and we estimate that it will retail  between $200 and $250.

Contributed by Tina Sieber, read the full post:

6. Cherry Viola: Solder-Free Mechanical Keyboard Switch

At the end of CES 2020, Cherry Keyboards—a manufacturer of mechanical switches and keyboards—announced a new mechanical keyboard switch which dramatically reduces the cost of keyboards and switch manufacturing. On top of making keyboards less expensive, the Viola’s box-shaped stem allows for rattle-free keys, faster rebound and reaction time for gamers, and (above all else) solder-free construction which makes keyboards far less expensive manufacture and easy to upgrade.

The impact of Cherry Viola switches on the keyboard market remains to be seen, both in terms of reliability and cost. However, given Cherry’s outstanding reputation in the market, their long history, and the quality of their previous product, the Viola will likely come to replace the now venerable MX line of switch. (Cherry will continue to support its MX switch line as indicated by the new MX1A upgrades.)

On the downside, the Viola will require specialized printed-circuit boards, meaning older keyboards can’t be retrofitted with the new technology. Fortunately, your old key caps will continue to work with the Viola stems, which retain the X-shaped fitment pattern.

Cherry is already working with its manufacturing partners to release its first wave of Viola-equipped mechanical keyboards by the holiday season of 2020. My best guess is that the first full-sized Viola keyboard will become available by Black Friday of 2020 from Logitech and will cost around $60. Cherry’s estimate was that the first keyboards would be in the $50 range.

Contributed by Kannon Yamada, read the full post:

7. Samsung’s 8K TV: Beautiful, Sleek, Zero Bezel

I’m a sucker for a giant TV. Throw in the latest in high-resolution technology and a screen with almost no bezel, and you have a piece of tech that I could spend all day on the show floor drooling over.

Samsung’s Q950TS is literally the most beautiful TV I’ve ever seen, and while I probably won’t be able to afford one anytime soon, just knowing that such a sexy TV exists is enough to make me feel that all is right in the world of technology.

While you’re average television features around a 94-percent screen-to-bezel ratio, Samsung’s upcoming Q950TS features a staggering 99-percent ratio. That means that you can barely even tell that the TV has a bezel when sitting from a reasonable viewing distance. Imagine looking at your wall and seeing nothing but  gorgeous 8K picture. It’s the television future we’ve all been waiting for, and it’s actually here.

Contributed by Dave LeClair, read the full post:

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Integrate Flight Data Into Your Projects With aviationstack

Building a website or app and want to include flight information? Perhaps it’s a travel app, or simply a website providing local news. Whatever the challenge, you’ll need reliable, up-to-the-minute flight information that’s relevant to your readers.

That’s where the aviationstack API comes in. Offering real-time flight data, this API provides statistics for over 250 countries and more than 13,000 airlines. It’s already trusted by over 5,000 companies, and integration with your project is straightforward.

What Is an API?

An application programming interface (API) provides a collection of operations and queries for developers to access. These make it easier to design and build an app, ensuring you have access to the features needed for it to work.

APIs are used everywhere. You’ll find ones that handle everything from supporting fingerprint reader authentication on phones to sharing photos on Facebook. APIs can also route live data and information stored in a database into an app or website.

In the case of aviationstack API, you get access to a wealth of flight data. Users can find vital flight information if you share the data through your website or app. Perhaps a relative’s flight is landing soon; maybe traffic is holding up someone trying catch a flight.

By supplying data to apps and websites via its API, aviationstack can prove a vital feature to your audience.

Features of the Aviationstack API

Offering “free, real-time flight status and global aviation data,” the aviationstack API provides extensive flight information. With the right package, your users will also enjoy worldwide API coverage, powerful infrastructure, and a suite of features to suit any budget.

Aviationstack API’s flight data provides details on real-time flights and their status. There is also data on historical flights, schedules, airline routes, airport status, aircraft, and more. Aviation data includes:

• 10,000+ Airports
• 19,000+ Airplanes
• 300+ Airplane types
• 13,000+ Airlines
• 9,000+ Cities
• 250+ Countries
• 500+ Aviation taxes

The API delivers accurate details from a backbone of reliable aviation sources. You can easily find accurate details about any flight, at any stage of its journey. It enables the simple lookup of data for any airport, airline, country, city, route, or details on aviation tax.

Scalable cloud infrastructure, designed to handle almost anything, underpins the vast data available through the aviationstack API. Whether you need thousands or millions of requests per minute, the aviationstack servers are equal to the task.

Get Aviationstack Free, or Pay for Premium Service

Various payment options are available with aviationstack.

The Basic option is $49.99 a month (or $39.99 per month if billed annually) and provides up to 10,000 monthly requests. It includes unlimited support, a commercial license, full aviation data, real-time flights, airline routes, and historical flights. The package also uses HTTPS encryption and an autocomplete feature for queries.

Need more? The Professional package includes 50,000 requests for $149.99 a month ($119.99 monthly with annual billing). You’ll also get the same additional features.

Meanwhile, the Business package is $499.99 a month ($399.99 with annual billing) for all the above, with 250,000 monthly requests. There is also premium support. If this isn’t enough, aviationstack also offers an Enterprise option with custom pricing and solutions.

To get started, however, it’s smart to stick with the Free plan. This offers 500 free API requests per month—perfect for the development stage of your aviationstack-backed project. While you only get limited support, it still includes access to full aviation data and real-time flights.

Integrate Aviationstack API With Your App or Website Project

To get started with the aviationstack API, start by registering for a free account. Just use your email address, provide any relevant personal details, and select a password.

Moments later, you’ll have a free aviationstack API account. Now it’s time to get started.

Find and Use Your API Access Key

Sign into your new aviationstack API account to find the API access key. This is a secure key, assigned to you personally. It authenticates with the API and can be refreshed at any time in the aviationstack account dashboard.

Every request you make via the API requires the API access key. A request starts with the base URL:

https://api.aviationstack.com/v1/

(Note that for the free account, you’ll need to change the URL to http://. The free account does not support HTTPS.)

A basic request, therefore, might be something like this:

The result of this will load pages of data, which you can then present on your webpage.

Query the API Endpoints

Various API endpoints are available with aviationstack. They include the following:

• Real-Time flights: Look up current flights in real-time
• Historical flights: Look up flights from the past
• Airline routes: Look up airline routes
• Airports: Look up global airports
• Airlines: Look up global airlines
• Airplanes: Look up airplane/aircraft
• Aircraft types: Look up aircraft types
• Aviation taxes: Look up aviation taxes
• Cities: Look up global cities
• Countries: Look up countries

These integrate into queries either as subdirectories of the URL (for example, /flights or /routes) or as extended parameters.

Choose From Six Languages for API Integration

To help you get the most out of aviationstack API, the developers offer support for six languages:

• PHP
• Python
• Nodejs
• jQuery
• Go
• Ruby

You can consult extensive documentation to find the best solution for your project. This covers all API response objects and GET request parameters for each data type provided by the API.

Examples in each programming language are provided, leaving you with little heavy lifting. In short, it shouldn’t be long before you’re integrating air traffic data on your website with the aviationstack API.

Get Flight Tracking and Airport Timetable Data on Your Site

As you can see, the API provided by aviationstack provides all the air traffic data your audience will need. The API is easy to access, with a straightforward base URL, while the website provides detailed documentation.

In short, the aviationstack API is the number-one option for flight tracking and times. With a wide choice of endpoints, response objects, and request parameters, the API is easy to integrate into your projects.

Want more features for your website or app? We’ve also looked at the weatherstack API for adding weather information to your project. Alternatively, you might scrape search data with serpstack API.

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How Cloud Gaming and Streaming Games on Stadia and xCloud Works

Cloud gaming is an interesting idea. Instead of buying a games console or a gaming PC, you buy a subscription to a cloud gaming service. You stream PC games to your monitor or TV instead of installing them on your hardware. Perhaps most interesting is that cloud games and gaming streaming services are not new tech—not by a long shot.

But the arrival of Google Stadia and the ongoing development of Microsoft xCloud is forcing the gaming world to sit up and take note. So, how do cloud gaming and video gaming streaming services work?

What Is Cloud Gaming?

Cloud gaming services allow you to play the latest and greatest games without investing in expensive gaming hardware. Cloud gaming services stream the video game to your monitor or TV directly, processing the game in a data center and using your internet connection to deliver the game.

The one thing you do need for a successful cloud gaming experience is a fast internet connection. Otherwise, you will experience poor stream quality, and the game inputs may experience lag. A decent monitor or TV for the games is worthwhile, too, though not imperative.

How Does Cloud Gaming Work?

There are differences in the way cloud gaming services stream games to their subscribers. All cloud gaming streaming services require significant backend infrastructure. Gamers want cloud gaming services to provide games with Ultra settings and without any input delay, putting a serious strain on any server resources.

Every cloud gaming service uses high-performance servers. The game streaming servers comprise extremely high-end hardware. Cloud gaming hardware isn’t uniform across game streaming services and is dependent on the game streaming service developer.

Let’s look at how Google, Microsoft, and others are approaching cloud gaming.

Google Stadia

Google Stadia is Google’s cloud gaming platform. Launched in November 2019, Google Stadia promises to change the Gaming as a Service world. You can access the Google Stadia interface through a regular Google Chrome browser, as a smartphone or smart TV app, and using a Chromecast Ultra.

Behind the scenes, Google Stadia cloud hardware uses a custom 2.7GHz Intel CPU, with a custom AMD GPU based upon AMD Vega architecture. The GPU hardware is expected to upgrade to AMD’s Navi architecture when that arrives, giving the graphics quality a boost.

Interestingly, Google Stadia integrates heavily with YouTube. A gamer watching a YouTube stream of a Stadia game can launch the same game, in the same save state as the streamer, which is an almost unique selling point.

Google Stadia costs $130 out of the box, plus an additional $70 for an extra controller. For a cloud gaming service, that seems like a significant outlay to get up and running. Plus, there is a monthly subscription of $9.99 if you want access to extra games, the best streaming quality, and other perks.

Find out if Google Stadia lives up to expectations in our hands-on Google Stadia review!

Microsoft xCloud

Microsoft Project xCloud is a cloud gaming option for Xbox users. At the time of writing, you can stream your Xbox games to your Android smartphone or tablet directly, making use of Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing services. Testing for iOS devices is also underway.

Differing from Google Stadia, Microsoft xCloud focuses on Xbox platform games that you already own. (In fact, during the test period for Android and iOS, you don’t even need an Xbox—it is open to anyone.) The current roster features 50 top Xbox games, with more to arrive when the cloud gaming service completes its rollout.

xCloud doesn’t require any additional hardware. It works more as an extension of your Xbox gaming setup rather than as a replacement. If you have a Bluetooth Xbox controller, you can pair that with your cloud gaming device and continue using it there. However, at the current time, there is no information regarding pricing, in terms of whether Microsoft xCloud will use a subscription model or an alternative pricing structure.

Similarly, Microsoft xCloud hardware specs are currently unknown. Microsoft has confirmed that the xCloud server blades will run similar hardware to an Xbox One S, so that is at least an outline.

OnLive Gaming as a Service

Although Google Stadia and Microsoft xCloud are leading the game streaming services charge at the current time, they’re not the first cloud gaming services. The first cloud gaming service was OnLive, back in 2010. OnLive required a minimum 2Mbps internet connection to enable stable gaming, although OnLive recommended 5Mbps for the best experience.

OnLive offered both a subscription service and an individual game purchase option. The OnLive subscription, known as the PlayPack, came in at around $10 per month and gave subscribers access to around 100 games. Otherwise, users could purchase individual games on the OnLive platform for between $5-$50.

The initial OnLive launch was a success, with gaming critics praising the services range of games and the overall immersion of a cloud gaming service. However, issues with latency in fast-paced games and video compression due to poor internet connections were an issue.

In slower-paced exploration games, video compression was easier and slower internet connections could easily cope with the demands. However, a racing game or first-person shooter with fast screen transitions and the need for extremely responsive inputs suffered.

Ultimately, 2010 was too early for a cloud gaming service. By 2012, OnLive laid off all its employees and sold the service, including its cloud gaming patents, for just $4.8 million.

Cloud Gaming: Pros and Cons

There are several pros and cons to cloud gaming services. How they apply to your situation will determine whether a cloud gaming setup will suit you.

Cloud Gaming Pros

The immediate benefit of any cloud gaming setup is the lack of a hardware cost. While some cloud gaming services come with an initial outlay, such as Google Stadia, the costs after that point are very low.

When you consider that a gaming PC that can play the latest games on ultra-settings will set you back the best part of $1,000, a $200 (or less) outlay for a cloud gaming service seems like the best option. Alternatively, a PS4 Pro retails for around $350 at the time of writing, while an Xbox One X still retails for anywhere between $350 to $500.

Keeping gaming PC hardware up to date isn’t cheap, either. You can keep a gaming PC going for years with small upgrades. But larger upgrades, such as a new CPU or GPU are going to cost the same as a dedicated gaming console.

One huge plus to cloud gaming is that you can take your games anywhere you want. With Android, iOS, and web apps, you can plug-in and stream the latest games to your device, no matter where you are. That’s not just the games, either. Your saves follow you from device to device, too.

With regards to mobile gaming, users will no longer have to divvy up their smartphone storage to make enough space for games, videos, apps, and more. All you’ll need is the cloud gaming service app and an internet connection. However, if you are using a smartphone with limited storage, here are some of the best Android games under 50MB.

Updates are something that every gamer curses from time to time. You’re about to start a new game, but you have to wait for a pending update. Or, you purchase a new game on Steam, or another gaming platform then must wait for it to download. Cloud gaming eliminates updates and waiting around for downloads to complete as every game is ready to go and updates automatically.

Cloud Gaming Cons

First up, your cloud gaming experience is only as good as your internet connection. If you live in an area with poor connection speed, a cloud gaming service might not be your best option for gaming. Also, you need a direct internet connection to access your games. If your internet connection goes down for any reason, you also lose access to your cloud gaming service.

Tying into the internet connection is data limits. If your internet connection has a data limit, a cloud gaming service will eat through your data allowance rapidly. Data usage estimations vary between cloud game services, but at the highest level, streaming Google Stadia at 4K could see a 1TB allowance demolished in just 65 hours.

Another downside to cloud gaming is that the service itself could go down—permanently. Purchasing games as part of any cloud gaming service is a risk. When the OnLive cloud gaming service died, subscribers didn’t receive a refund for their now-defunct games. That is something to consider.

While you technically don’t own games on services like Steam or otherwise, you can at least download a local version of most games for offline use.

The subscription side of cloud gaming services is off-putting for some users, too. You still have to purchase games on the service, yet pay a subscription fee to access different perks, streaming quality tiers, and other premium content. Google Stadia’s premium option (which unlocks 4K streaming, amongst other perks) costs $9.99 per month.

Once you factor in your hardware purchase at $120 and a year’s subscription, you’re still looking at $240, plus another $70 for an extra controller.

Is Cloud Gaming the Future?

Cloud gaming definitely has a place in the future of video gaming. The cloud gaming and Gaming as a Service model gives gamers another option to play the best games using a media format that suits their situation. There is enough interest in cloud gaming that Google and Microsoft are developing new platforms, while several alternatives already exist on the market.

The cloud gaming market will move from strength to strength. However, if you already own a gaming PC, you might want to stream your gameplay. Here’s how you record and stream your games using Windows 10. Once you’re up and running, why not consider monetizing your gaming streams to pay for a hardware upgrade?

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How to Cancel Your Disney+ Subscription

Have you had your fill of Disney+? Then it might be time to cancel your subscription. In this article, we show you how to cancel Disney+, and explain what that means.

There are many reasons why you may be considering canceling your Disney+ subscription. Whether it’s the lack of new content, the price, or a better option becoming available.

Thankfully, cancelling Disney+ is fairly straightforward. And if you want to completely untangle yourself from Disney, we’ll also show you how to cancel your Disney account too.

How to Cancel Disney+

As mentioned, canceling your Disney+ subscription doesn’t take long at all. You can finish the process in less time than it took to sign up for Disney+. Simply follow the steps below if using your browser:

1. Log into Disney+ on your browser.
2. In the upper right-hand corner, hover your cursor over your profile image.
3. From the menu options, scroll down to and press Account.
4. On the account page, click Billing Details.
5. Afterward, you’ll see a page summarizing your subscription information. Look for the text that says Cancel Subscription and press it.
6. You’ll get another alert asking if you’re sure you want to cancel. Press the red Completion Cancellation button.
7. You’ve now canceled your Disney+ subscription.

If you decide to cancel Disney+ via the app, it will take one extra step. Sadly, you can’t directly cancel your subscription via just the app. It will still follow roughly the same process, but you’ll finish canceling it via your mobile browser.

Just follow these steps to cancel your Disney+ subscription via the app:

1. Open up the Disney+ app.
2. In the bottom right-hand corner, press on your profile image.
3. From the menu options, scroll down to and press Account.
4. On the account page, click Billing Details. The app will now open your mobile browser.
5. You’ll need to sign-in if you haven’t already. Once logged in, click Billing Details.
6. Afterward, you’ll see a page summarizing your subscription information. Look for the text that says Cancel Subscription and press it.
7. You’ll get another alert asking if you’re sure you want to cancel. Press the red Completion Cancellation button.
8. You’ve now canceled your Disney+ subscription.

How Canceling Disney+ Impacts Your Billing Cycle

If you’ve just canceled your Disney+ trial, it’s very straightforward.

You’ll receive no charges for Disney+ as long as you cancel the trial before your billing cycle begins. If you want to prevent this from the start, you can preemptively cancel Disney+ at the beginning of your trial. You’ll still get the service for the trial’s full seven days, and you won’t have to worry about any charges.

For anyone already paying for the service, you’re on a monthly cycle. If you decide to cancel Disney+, you can cancel at any time during the billing cycle. You’ll then be able to carry on watching Disney+ until you lose access on the next billing date.

In short, just make sure to cancel Disney+ before the start of the new month to avoid an additional charge. But before you go, make sure to check out the best classic films on Disney+.

How to Delete Your Disney Account

One of the overlooked aspects of testing out Disney+ is the need to create a Disney account. During your initial Disney+ registration, you don’t get many options. You’re only able to influence what emails you receive and whether your payment information gets stored.

If you want to remove all of your stored information, you should unsubscribe from Disney’s emails and potentially delete your Disney account altogether.

To take this optional extra step, simply follow these steps:

1. Head to Disney’s Communication Choices website.
2. Scroll down to Manage Your Registration Account
3. Click on the Disney, ESPN, ABC, Marvel, and Star Wars accounts link.
4. You’ll be prompted to log in. Use the same username and password to log in that you used for Disney+.
5. Scroll first to the Email Preferences heading and click Manage Your Email Subscriptions. Another browser tab will open.
6. Select either Unsubscribe from All or individually uncheck Disney+ and/or The Walt Disney Family of Companies. You can now close this tab.
7. Return to your previous window and look for the Delete Account heading.
8. Press Delete Account.
9. If you have an active Disney+ subscription, you’ll see a warning notice stating you have one. If you see this, you won’t be able to delete your account directly.
10. You can wait out your Disney+ subscription then return to delete your account. Otherwise, follow-up with Disney Guest Services via their contact option for assistance in deleting your account.
11. If you don’t have an active subscription then just select Yes, delete this account.

If you have any reservations, you can restore your account until 14 days after the deletion request. So if you have any regrets after deleting your Disney account, you have a safety net in place.

What Happens After You Cancel Disney+

Now that you know how to cancel Disney+, you’re equipped with the knowledge you need if and when you decide it’s no longer for you. It’s a quick process, and it’s just as easy to restore your subscription. Perhaps when a new season of The Mandalorian drops.

Even if you do cancel your Disney+ subscription, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have fallen out of love with Disney. So, with that in mind, here are the best Disney gifts for Disney fans, whether that’s you or someone else in your social circle.

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How to Jailbreak a Fire Stick

So, you’ve got a new Amazon Fire Stick. It’s ready for you to enjoy Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Netflix, and more. But what if you want to install other apps on it? To do that, you’ll need to know how to jailbreak a Fire Stick to unlock its full potential.

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Why Jailbreak Your Amazon Fire Stick?

The popular Amazon Fire Stick (and its 4K alternatives, the Fire TV, and Fire TV Cube) comes with content preinstalled. Quite a lot of content, in fact; and then there’s the stuff that you can install later.

Think YouTube, Hulu, ESPN, Disney+, Netflix, even HBO. And don’t forget regional TV apps and streaming services either. CNN Go, CBS All Action, and BBC iPlayer are also available, depending upon where you live.

In short, the choice available is huge, so why hack an Amazon Fire Stick? Apps available by default on Fire TV devices are from the curated library of software in the Amazon App Store.

Jailbreaking the Amazon Fire Stick means removing the device from the Amazon ecosystem. With an unlocked Fire Stick you can install additional software that isn’t officially available for the device. This might mean, for example, Kodi; but it might also mean other apps, such as Android games and media streaming software.

Why Android? Simple, the Amazon Fire Stick’s operating system is based on Android.

A simple Amazon Fire Stick hack lets you install any Android software, if you have the APK installer file.

Is It Legal to Jailbreak a Fire Stick?

If you own an Amazon Fire Stick, and you want to jailbreak it, you might be concerned about the legality of doing so. After all, it might be illegal, right?

However, in this regard, you do not need to be concerned. How you use the Fire Stick is entirely up to you. This includes jailbreaking (or unlocking or hacking) the device. The simple act of jailbreaking the Fire Stick is entirely legal.

What is illegal, however, are some of the ways you might use the Fire Stick after unlocking. We’ve already considered that you might install Kodi, for example. While Kodi is not illegal, some uses of the software certainly are.

Many third-party add-ons for Kodi have been built with the intention of streaming copyrighted video, for examples. Using these tools is illegal, so if you unlock your Fire Stick to install Kodi and install such add-ons you’re on the wrong side of the law.

However, you don’t have to be limited by this. The basic Fire Stick jailbreak is legal, as is Kodi. So as long as you don’t use it to watch copyrighted content, you’re fine.

What Is a Jailbroken Fire Stick?

If you’re looking online to buy an Amazon Fire Stick, you may have seen mention of jailbreaking. The listing might read “Jailbroken Fire Stick”—but what does this mean? What is a jailbroken Fire Stick?

As you might have guessed, it’s a Fire Stick (or Fire TV or Fire Cube) that has already been unlocked, hacked, or… jailbroken. It’s then put up for sale, often with various apps preinstalled.

But these aren’t the type of apps you can consider legitimate. They’re almost always Kodi add-ons, or dedicated apps for streaming copyrighted content. Such material ranges from TV shows and movies to live sporting events.

A jailbroken Amazon Fire Stick might seem a good idea; the price certainly represents a good deal. But as explained above, streaming copyrighted material without permission is illegal. Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu etc. all offer legal streams, which is why you pay for them.

Streaming illegal content via your Fire Stick could result in your internet access being restricted by your ISP. Or worse. So it’s best to avoid doing this.

How to Jailbreak a Fire Stick

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t jailbreak your Amazon Fire Stick. Remember, there are plenty of apps that you might want to install that aren’t available on the Amazon App Store. Installing apps manually on an Amazon Fire Stick TV means following a three-step process:

1. Unlocking your Amazon Fire Stick
2. Downloading the APK installer file for an app
3. Installing that app

To jailbreak your Fire Stick, grab the remote and go to Settings.

Here, select My Fire TV (or Device) then Developer Options.

Select Apps from Unknown Sources and click Turn On, then confirm when prompted.

You should also browse to Settings > Preferences > Privacy Settings and disable these settings:

• Device Usage Data
• Collect App Usage Data

Exit the settings screen. The Amazon Fire Stick is now jailbroken, (or unlocked or hacked, depending on your choice of terminology). You’re now ready to download an APK file to your Amazon Fire Stick.

For more details on this, see our guide explaining how to sideload apps on an Amazon Fire TV Stick.

Remember to Lock Your Amazon Fire Stick

Although your Fire Stick is now jailbroken, this isn’t a state that you should rely on long-term. Instead, once the apps you want to sideload have been installed, it is smart to disable the option to install apps from Unknown Sources.

With the device unlocked, any app can be installed, potentially without your knowledge. This is a potential security risk, which is why once you’ve installed your APK, you should undo the steps above.

What this means is revisiting Settings > My Fire TV > Developer Options and disabling Apps from Unknown Sources.

This will ensure that no apps can be installed on your Amazon Fire TV Stick without your knowledge.

What Should You Install on a Jailbroken Fire Stick?

As noted, Android apps can be installed on a hacked Amazon Fire Stick. However, not all are suitable.

It’s not easy to determine which will work. However, those that rely on Google Play Services won’t work well, if at all. Meanwhile, most high-end games will be too much for the Amazon Fire Stick hardware to handle.

Whatever you’re watching or playing with your Amazon Fire Stick, it’s a smart idea to keep your activity private. Here’s how to set up a VPN on the Amazon Fire Stick.

Never Buy a Jailbroken Fire Stick

By now it should be obvious: jailbreaking an Amazon Fire TV Stick is easy.

As such, you don’t need to buy a jailbroken, hacked, or unlocked Fire Stick. All it takes is for you to browse to an accessible menu item and flick a virtual switch. Once this is done, you’re free to install APK files of your choice.

Just remember to undo the process (relocking the Fire Stick) afterwards to retain the device’s built-in security.

If you’re planning on using your Amazon Fire Stick regularly, make sure you have the best Amazon Fire TV remote next to you.

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How to Create a Custom Template in Microsoft Word

A word to the wise. Right out of college, turn your resume into a Microsoft Word template. You will use many Word templates through the years, but this single resume template will hold you in good stead always.

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Most of us who work in any Word processing software know the value of document templates. But sheer laziness makes us download them from the online template sites we find. Have you created your own reusable Word template yet?

You can make a custom Word template for common documents, business plans, Request for Proposals, forms, cover letters, company newsletters, or anything else. It’s so easy.

All About Templates in Word

A Microsoft Word template allows you to carry over the same design and layout from one document to the next. Here are a few things to know about them:

• You can make a Word template file with boilerplate text, macros, logos, and headers and footers.
• Word templates can have rich text controls, pictures, drop-down lists, date pickers, and even custom dictionaries and toolbars.
• You can add instructional text to a template so anyone else who uses it knows what to do.
• You can protect parts of a template and prevent them from being changed.
• A normal Word document and a template are saved with different file types.
• You can reuse a template as many times as you like.

Open the template and use it as a jumping point for a new document. You can download free and paid Word templates online. But they might not stand out. Create a template in Microsoft Word and make it your own.

How to Save a Word Document as a Template

The quickest way to create a template is from an existing Word document. Let’s say, a business plan or a legal document you want to reuse. Open the document in Word.

1. Go to Ribbon > File > Save As.

2. In the Save As dialog box, enter a descriptive filename to recognize it as a template.

3. Select the file type dropdown arrow and choose Word Template. If any document has macros, click Word Macro-Enabled Template instead.

4. Note that the Save path has changed to the Custom Office Templates folder. This default folder appears in the Templates dialog box when you want to use a template for a new document.

5. You can pick any other location on your desktop too. Click on More options and browse to the location you want to use. Select Save.

How to Edit an Existing Template in Word

To update any template, open the file in Word, make the changes you want, and then save the template. Let’s start with one of Word’s own templates.

1. Click on File to go to the Backstage screen.

2. Choose New and instead of a blank document, select a template (For example, a resume template).

3. Click on Create to download the template from the Gallery to a new Word document.

4. As this is a resume template, the Resume Assistant can open up. You can read the simple instructions in the template. For instance, follow how to change the profile photo on the template.

5. Depending on the nature of the template, you can make sweeping changes or just tweak a few parts of the boilerplate. Fill all the information and save it as a document (with a DOC or DOCX file type), so you can print it out or share it with others.

Whenever want to update your resume, just open the template, enter the fresh information, and save the final resume as a document.

How to Make Your Own Template in Word

Making your own template is just like designing any Word document. You can make them as simple or as complex according to your needs.

Let’s create a fresh Word template with a simple letterhead.

1. Open a blank Word document.

2. As you can see, I have used Shapes to style a simple letterhead. The document also has a footer at the bottom of the page.

You can tweak and adjust any document property before saving the file as a template. For example, you might change the margins, fonts or style.

3. Go to the File menu and select Save As…

4. In the Save As dialog, change the Save as type: to Document Template (*.dotx).

5. Give a descriptive name for your template and click on Save.

Microsoft Word stores it in a templates folder. Usually, the path is:

C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

To use this template: Open Microsoft Word and select New either from the File menu. Click Personal to see your template.

How to Make an Interactive Template in Word

Remember the profile photo in the resume template example above? It’s an interactive content control that can make our template more customizable. For instance, you can create a fillable form template with content controls like date pickers, combo boxes, dropdown lists, rich text boxes, etc.

This saves a lot of time because you don’t need to adjust the same information every time you reuse the template.

1. Create the template and then decide the content controls that you want to add.

2. Content controls are configured from the Developer tab in Word. Enable it If it’s not visible.

• Go to File > Options > Customize Ribbon.
• Under Customize the Ribbon, select Main Tabs in the list on the right.
• In the list, select the Developer checkbox, and then click OK.

3. Display the Developer tab on the Ribbon. Go to the Controls group and click Design Mode. Now, insert the controls that you want in your template.

Example Template With a Date Picker Control

In the following example, you can see a simple template that’s a log for meeting minutes. You would want to change the date every time you use it.

1. Place the cursor where you would like to insert the control. You can also use a text box to place the control in the right place.
2. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Design Mode.
3. Select the Date Picker content control to insert it in the document.
4. Click on Properties in the controls group to enter the placeholder text and format it in any style you want. The Properties panel will differ with the type of control used.
5. Now, click Design Mode to turn off the design feature and save the instructional text.

6. You can open this template, change the date to reuse it every time, and save it to print or share.

Word Templates Do Your Job For You

This was a simple instructional on Word document templates. There’s a lot more you can do with them. For instance, you can protect sections of the template from being changed by anyone else and also lock the entire thing with a password so that only reviewers who know the password can open the file.

Want to start your project with the right design? Look at these cover page templates and the best table of contents Word templates for your new document.

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Kubernetes gets a bug bounty program

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) today announced its first bug bounty program for Kubernetes, the ubiquitous container orchestration system originally built by Google. To run this program, the CNCF is partnering with Google and HackerOne and bounties will range from $100 to $10,000.

Kubernetes already has a Product Security Committee that includes engineers from Google’s own Kubernetes security team and there are obviously plenty of eyes on the code. A bounty program, however, will get more (and new) security researchers to examine the code and help reward those who are already doing this work.

“Kubernetes already has a robust security team and response process, further cemented by the recent Kubernetes security audit,” said Maya Kaczorowski the Product Manager for container security at Google. “We have a stronger and more secure open-source project than we’ve ever had before. By launching a bug bounty program, we’re putting our money where our mouth is – and most importantly, rewarding the researchers already doing this important work. We hope to attract additional security researchers to get more eyes on the code, shakeout security bugs, and back up our work on Kubernetes security with financial support.”

The bounty includes all of the core Kubernetes components in its GitHub repository. Specifically, the team notes, it is interested in authentication bugs, potential privilege escalations and remote code execution bugs in the kubelet and API server. The CNCF also stresses that researchers are encouraged to look at the overall Kubernetes supply chain. You can find the exact details of how the program and rewards are structured here.

How Kubernetes came to rule the world

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Instagram tests Direct Messaging on web where encryption fails

Instagram will finally let you chat from your web browser, but the launch contradicts Facebook’s plan for end-to-end encryption in all its messaging apps. Today Instagram began testing Direct Messages on the web for a small percentage of users around the globe, a year after TechCrunch reported it was testing web DMs.

When fully rolled out, Instagram tells us its website users will be able to see when they’ve received new DMs, view their whole inbox, start new message threads or group chats, send photos (but not capture them), double click to Like, and share posts from your feed via Direct so you can gossip or blast friends with memes. Instagram’s CEO Adam Mosseri tweeted that he hopes to “bring this to everyone soon” once the kinks are worked out.

Web DMs could help office workers, students, and others stuck on a full-size computer all day or who don’t have room on their phone for another app to spend more time and stay better connected on Instagram. Direct is crucial to Instagram’s efforts to stay ahead of Snapchat, which has seen its Stories product mercilessly copied by Facebook but is still growing thanks to its rapid fire visual messaging feature that’s popular with teens.

But as Facebook’s former Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos tweeted, “This is fascinating, as it cuts directly against the announced goal of E2E encrypted compatibility between FB/IG/WA. Nobody has ever built a trustworthy web-based E2EE messenger, and I was expecting them to drop web support in FB Messenger. Right hand versus left?”

A year ago Facebook announced it planned to eventually unify Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram Direct so users could chat with each other across apps. It also said it would extend end-to-end encryption from WhatsApp to include Instagram Direct and all of Facebook Messenger, though it could take years to complete. That security protocol means that only the sender and recipient would be able to view the contents of a message, while Facebook, governments, and hackers wouldn’t know what was being shared.

Yet Stamos explains that historically, security researchers haven’t been able to store cryptographic secrets in JavaScript, which is how the Instagram website runs, though he admits this could be solved in the future. More probematically, Stamos writes that “the model by which code on the web is distributed, which is directly from the vendor in a customizable fashion. This means that inserting a backdoor for one specific user is much much easier than in the mobile app paradigm” where attackers would have to compromise both Facebook/Instagram and either Apple or Google’s app stores.

“Fixing this problem is extremely hard and would require fundamental changes to how the WWW [world wide web] works” says Stamos. At least we know Instagram has been preparing for today’s launch since at least February when mobile researcher Jane Manchun Wong. We’ve asked Instagram for more details on how it plans to cover web DMs with end-to-end encryption or whether they’ll be exempt from the plan.

Critics have called the messaging unification a blatant attempt to stifle regulators and prevent Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp from being broken up. Yet Facebook has stayed the course on the plan while weathering a $5 billion fine plus a slew of privacy and transparency changes mandated by an FTC settlement for its past offenses.

Personally I’m excited because it will make DMing sources via Instagram easier, and mean I spend less time opening my phone and potentially being distracted by other apps while working. Almost 10 years after Instagram’s launch and 6 years since adding Direct, the app seems to finally be embracing its position as a utility, not just entertainment.

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Google wants to phase out support for third-party cookies in Chrome within two years

Google today announced its plans to phase out support for third-party cookies in Chrome within the next two years. The fact that Google will drop support for these cookies, which are typically used to track users across the web, doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise, given Google’s announcements around privacy in Chrome, including its proposed ‘privacy sandbox.’  But this aggressive timeline is new and puts the company on a track that will have repercussions for a lot of other industries as well.

“This is our strategy to re-architect the standards of the web, to make it privacy-preserving by default,” Justin Schuh, Google’s director for Chrome engineering, told me. “There’s been a lot of focus around third-party cookies, and that certainly one of the tracking mechanisms, but that’s just a tracking mechanism and we’re calling it out because it’s the one that people are paying attention to.” Preventing fingerprinting, among other things, is also something Google’s team is working on.

Starting this February, Google will already implement some techniques for limiting cross-site tracking by enforcing its new SameSite rules and by requiring that cookies that are labeled for third-party use can only be accessed over an HTTPS connection. The new SameSite rules, which Google had already tested with a subset of users in Chrome over the last few months, are somewhat complex, but the over idea here is that developers who want others to be able to use their cookies will have to explicitly label them as such.

Over the next two years, though, Google plans to go far beyond this and completely remove support for third-party cookies from Chrome. That, however, marks a massive change for the advertising industry and the publishers that often depend on marketers’ ability to (for better or worse) track users across the web. Google’s solution to this is the ‘privacy sandbox,’ which would ideally still allow advertisers to show you relevant ads while also allowing you to share as little about you and your browsing history as possible.

What exactly this will look like still remains to be seen, though, as a lot of the ideas are still in flux. Schuh, however, noted that Google doesn’t want to go this alone and that it plans to go through the web standards process for this. He noted that Google plans to start some trials over the next year or so and start migrating advertisers and publishers to some of the new systems it is working on.

This is a massive change, though, and Google will surely face some pushback. “I’m not going to say that everyone has been on board for all of our proposals,” Schuh admitted. “But in all corners, some of the proposals have been received very well. For the ones that haven’t, we’re open to alternative solutions as long as they have the kind of privacy and security properties — as long as they have the same kind of predictability that we expect — because we don’t want to put bandaid solutions on top of the web, we would rather fix the architecture of the web, […] we just don’t see any alternative but to fix the architecture of the web.”

Others, however, will have to get on board — including other browser vendors. Schuh seems optimistic that this will happen, in part because it is also in the best interest of the users. “We don’t want the web to be fragmented,” he said. “We don’t want people to have to figure out every different thing they have to do on every different browser. We want a level of consistency here, even if there are details that browsers choose to be different.”

Right now, a lot of Chrome’s competitors like Mozilla’s Firefox have taken pretty radical approaches to simply blocking many third-party cookies. Google argues that this will be to the detriment of the web and only drive the industry to find workarounds.

As with all of Google’s recent privacy proposals, it’ll be interesting to watch how the industry will react to this one. Given Google’s own role in the advertising ecosystem, Google has some clear financial interests in getting this right — and to keep the advertising ecosystem on the web healthy.

 

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Google acquires Pointy, a startup to help brick-and-mortar retailers list products online, for $163M

Google has been on a long-term mission to build inroads into the world of e-commerce by working more closely with brick-and-mortar retailers, and now it looks like it plans to extend that work a little further. The search giant is acquiring Pointy, a startup out of Dublin, Ireland, which has built hardware and software technology to help physical retailers — specifically those that might not already have an extensive e-commerce storefront detailing in-store inventory — get their products discoverable online without any extra work.

The companies are not disclosing the financial terms of the deal but a source tells us it is €147 million ($163 million).

We’re told that Google will be making a formal announcement in about an hour, but Pointy has already posted the news on its own site while we were digging around for details after getting pinged by a source. The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks, pending “customary closing conditions.” (Update: Google’s post confirming the acquisition is now here.)

Pointy is continuing to operate post-acquisition. “We look forward to building even better services in the future, with the backing of Google’s resources and reach,” the company writes. It’s not clear yet who will stay on with that plan.

A source notes that the was a “good outcome” because Pointy has a “one of a kind” product that didn’t really have any comparables in the market. Pointy had also managed to pick up quite a lot of traction as a small startup, working with around 10% of all physical retailers in the US in certain categories (pets and toys were two of those, I was told).

Pointy is six years old and had raised just under $20 million from a variety of investors including Frontline Ventures, Polaris, LocalGlobe and individuals like Lars Rasmussen (the former Google Maps supremo who went on to build search and enterprise products at Facebook).

Pointy was co-founded by Mark Cummins (CEO) and Charles Bibby (CTO). Notably, this is Cummins’ second exit to Google. His first company, the visual search startup Plink, was Google’s first-ever acquisition out of the UK.

For Google, Pointy is a known quantity for more than the fact that it’s transacted with a Cummins startup before: Pointy and Google have been working together since 2018, when the former was part of a bigger push that the search giant was making into building tools for brick-and-mortar merchants.

At that time, Pointy’s primary product was a piece of hardware that plugged a company’s point of sale/barcode scanning units, so that every time a retailer scanned its products at the point of sale, it would upload the products online (including quantities of those items), and then keep stock numbers up to date with every subsequent purchase that was made and scanned in. Pointy doesn’t track incoming inventory per se: it uses algorithms over time to figure out stock amounts to a very close degree of accuracy based just on purchasing patterns.

Then, a user who might be searching for that product online might come across those details through Google’s search results (“See What’s In Store“, which come up in Google’s Knowledge Panels and on Google Maps), or via advertisements. The aim: these listings could potentially result in shoppers buying those products from the retailer in question, ideally getting them to come into the store, where they would buy even more.

The hardware retails for around $700, but Pointy also has a free app that integrates with specific POS devices from Clover, Square, Lightspeed, Vend, Liberty, WooPOS, BestRx, and CashRx POS, removing the need for the hardware.

Google’s initial partnership with Pointy in 2018 was part of a push to build out Google’s search portal with more e-commerce tools, and it was coming not a moment too soon: Amazon was both ramping up its own efforts with physical retail, and becoming a bigger threat to Google as a first port-of-call for online shoppers.

Two years on, those themes have only grown bigger with Amazon’s rise, perhaps one reason why Google was keen to bring Pointy in-house. Now, it can more deeply integrate the tech, and build upon it.

Pointy had also started to work a little closer with retailers, giving them insights into what was selling well, and what they might want to stock more of in the future, but it had never delved into the actual transaction aspect of products that it was listing online: that was left to the retailer and a shopper visiting a store to buy in person.  All of that leaves a wide door open to how Pointy — and Google’s own retail commerce efforts — might develop in the future.

Updated with more detail on price, Pointy’s technology, and Google’s confirmation.

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The perks of being a pirate | Tom Nash

The perks of being a pirate | Tom Nash

In this deeply charming and humorous talk, DJ and self-professed pirate Tom Nash meditates on how facing adversity due to disability invited patience, ambition and pragmatism into his life in enlightening, unexpected ways. "We all have unique weaknesses," he says. "If we're honest about what they are, we can learn how to best take advantage of them."

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

MicroEJ is taking over IoT on Earth and beyond

The internet of things (IoT) market is expanding at a rate where distinguishing it as a separate category is beginning to seem a bit absurd. Increasingly, new products — and updates of existing ones — are smart and/or connected. One company is changing the fundamental calculus behind this shift by lowering the barrier considerably when it comes to what it costs to make something ‘smart,’ both in terms of the upfront bill of materials, along with subsequent support and development costs.

MicroEJ CEO Fred Rivard took me through his company’s history from its founding in 2004 until now. Much of those earlier years were spent in development, but since around 2012 or so, the French company has been deploying for IoT devices what Android is to smartphones — a flexible, extensible platform that can operate on a wide range of hardware profiles while being relatively easy to target for application and feature developers. MicroEJ takes the ‘code once, deploy anywhere’ maxim to the extreme, since its platform is designed from the ground up to be incredibly conservative when it comes to resource consumption, meaning it can run on hardware with as little as one-tenth or more the bill of materials cost of running more complex operating platforms — like Android Things, for instance.

“We take category of device where currently, Android is too big,” Rivard said. “So it doesn’t fit, even though you would like to have the capability to add software easily devices, but you can’t because Android is too big. The cost of entry is roughly $10 to $15 per unit in hardware and bill of material — that’s the cost of Android […] So it would be great to be able to run an Android layer, but you can’t just because of the cost. So we managed to reduce that cost, and to basically design a very small layer that’s1000 times smarter than Android.”

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The robot homecoming is upon us

Robots were everywhere at CES, as has been the case for at least a decade. But there’s a different tenor to the robots shown off at the recent annual consumer tech event: they’re designed for home use, and they’re shipping products, not just concepts intended strictly for trade show glam.

Home robots have already had a few false starts, including some high-profile flare-outs like Anki and previous CES darling Kuri (despite the backing of global technology giant Bosch). But other robots, including autonomous vacuums, have already carved out niches for themselves within the domestic milieu. Between slow-burn but now mature categories and the sheer volume of newer products jumping in to establish new beachheads, it now seems certain we’re on a path at the end of which lie hybrid companion and functional robots that will become common household items.

Industrial to residential

One of the biggest signs that home robotics is gaining credibility as a market is the fact that companies which have found success in industrial technology are branching out. At CES, I spoke to Elephant Robotics founder and CEO Joey Song, who was at the show demonstrating MarsCat, a fully developed robotic cat designed to be a companion pet with full autonomous interactivity, similar to Sony’s Aibo.

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Dating and fertility apps among those snitching to “out of control” adtech, report finds

The latest report to warn that surveillance capitalism is out of control — and ‘free’ digital services can in fact be very costly to people’s privacy and rights — comes courtesy of the Norwegian Consumer Council which has published an analysis of how popular apps are sharing user data with the behavioral ad industry.

It suggests smartphone users have little hope of escaping adtech’s pervasive profiling machinery — short of not using a smartphone at all.

A majority of the apps that were tested for the report were found to transmit data to “unexpected third parties” — with users not being clearly informed about who was getting their information and what they were doing with it. Most of the apps also did not provide any meaningful options or on-board settings for users to prevent or reduce the sharing of data with third parties.

“The evidence keeps mounting against the commercial surveillance systems at the heart of online advertising,” the Council writes, dubbing the current situation “completely out of control, harming consumers, societies, and businesses”, and calling for curbs to prevalent practices in which app users’ personal data is broadcast and spread “with few restraints”. 

“The multitude of violations of fundamental rights are happening at a rate of billions of times per second, all in the name of profiling and targeting advertising. It is time for a serious debate about whether the surveillance-driven advertising systems that have taken over the internet, and which are economic drivers of misinformation online, is a fair trade-off for the possibility of showing slightly more relevant ads.

“The comprehensive digital surveillance happening across the adtech industry may lead to harm to both individuals, to trust in the digital economy, and to democratic institutions,” it also warns.

In the report app users’ data is documented being shared with tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Twitter — which operate their own mobile ad platforms and/or other key infrastructure related to the collection and sharing of smartphone users’ data for ad targeting purposes — but also with scores of other faceless entities that the average consumer is unlikely to have heard of.

The Council commissioned a data flow analysis of ten popular apps running on Google’s Android smartphone platform — generating a snapshot of the privacy blackhole that mobile users inexorably tumble into when they try to go about their digital business, despite the existence (in Europe) of a legal framework that’s supposed to protect people by giving citizens a swathe of rights over their personal data.

Among the findings are a make-up filter app sharing the precise GPS coordinates of its users; ovulation-, period- and mood-tracking apps sharing users’ intimate personal data with Facebook and Google (among others); dating apps exchanging user data with each other, and also sharing with third parties sensitive user info like individuals’ sexual preferences (and real-time device specific tells such as sensor data from the gyroscope… ); and a games app for young children that was found to contain 25 embedded SDKs and which shared the Android Advertising ID of a test device with eight third parties.

The ten apps whose data flows were analyzed for the report are the dating apps Grindr, Happn, OkCupid, and Tinder; fertility/period tracker apps Clue and MyDays; makeup app Perfect365; religious app Muslim: Qibla Finder; children’s app My Talking Tom 2; and the keyboard app Wave Keyboard.

“Altogether, Mnemonic [the company which the Council commissioned to conduct the technical analysis] observed data transmissions from the apps to 216 different domains belonging to a large number of companies. Based on their analysis of the apps and data transmissions, they have identified at least 135 companies related to advertising. One app, Perfect365, was observed communicating with at least 72 different such companies,” the report notes.

“Because of the scope of tests, size of the third parties that were observed receiving data, and popularity of the apps, we regard the findings from these tests to be representative of widespread practices in the adtech industry,” it adds.

Aside from the usual suspect (ad)tech giants, less well-known entities seen receiving user data include location data brokers Fysical, Fluxloop, Placer, Places/Fouraquare, Safegraph and Unacast; behavioral ad targeting players like Receptiv/Verve, Neura, Braze and LeanPlum; mobile app marketing analytics firms like AppsFlyer; and ad platforms and exchanges like AdColony, AT&T’s AppNexus, Bucksense, OpenX, PubNative, Smaato and Vungle.

In the report the Forbrukerrådet concludes that the pervasive tracking of smartphone users which underpins the behavioral ad industry is all but impossible for smartphone users to escape — even if they are able to locate an on-device setting to opt out of behavioral ads.

This is because multiple identifiers are being attached to them and their devices, and also because of frequent sharing/syncing of identifiers by adtech players across the industry. (It also points out that on the Android platform a setting where users can opt-out of behavioral ads does not actually obscure the identifier — meaning users have to take it on trust that adtech entities won’t just ignore their request and track them anyway.)

The Council argues its findings suggest widespread breaches of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), given that key principles of that pan-EU framework — such as data protection by design and default — are in stark conflict with the systematic, pervasive background profiling of app users it found (apps were, for instance, found sharing personal data by default, requiring users to actively seek out an obscure device setting to try to prevent being profiled).

“The extent of tracking and complexity of the adtech industry is incomprehensible to consumers, meaning that individuals cannot make informed choices about how their personal data is collected, shared and used. Consequently, the massive commercial surveillance going on throughout the adtech industry is systematically at odds with our fundamental rights and freedoms,” it also argues.

Where (user) consent is being relied upon as a legal basis to process personal data the standard required by GDPR states it must be informed, freely given and specific.

But the Council’s analysis of the apps found them sorely lacking on that front.

“In the cases described in this report, none of the apps or third parties appear to fulfil the legal conditions for collecting valid consent,” it writes. “Data subjects are not informed of how their personal data is shared and used in a clear and understandable way, and there are no granular choices regarding use of data that is not necessary for the functionality of the consumer-facing services.”

It also dismisses another possible legal base — known as legitimate interests — arguing app users “cannot have a reasonable expectation for the amount of data sharing and the variety of purposes their personal data is used for in these cases”.

The report points out that other forms of digital advertising (such as contextual advertising) which do not rely on third parties processing personal data are available — arguing that further undermines any adtech industry claims of ‘legitimate interests’ as a valid base for helping themselves to smartphone users’ data.

“The large amount of personal data being sent to a variety of third parties, who all have their own purposes and policies for data processing, constitutes a widespread violation of data subjects’ privacy,” the Council argues. “Even if advertising is necessary to provide services free of charge, these violations of privacy are not strictly necessary in order to provide digital ads. Consequently, it seems unlikely that the legitimate interests that these companies may claim to have can be demonstrated to override the fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject.”

The suggestion, therefore, is that “a large number of third parties that collect consumer data for purposes such as behavioural profiling, targeted advertising and real-time bidding, are in breach of the General Data Protection Regulation”.

The report also discussing the harms attached to such widespread violation of privacy — pointing out risks such as discrimination and manipulation of vulnerable individuals, as well as chilling effects on speech, added fuel for ad fraud and the torching of trust in the digital economy, among other society-afflicting ill being fuelled by adtech’s obsession with profiling everyone…

Some of the harm of this data exploitation stems from significant knowledge and power asymmetries that render consumers powerless. The overarching lack of transparency of the system makes consumers vulnerable to manipulation, particularly when unknown companies know almost everything about the individual consumer. However, even if regular consumers had comprehensive knowledge of the technologies and systems driving the adtech industry, there would still be very limited ways to stop or control the data exploitation.

Since the number and complexity of actors involved in digital marketing is staggering, consumers have no meaningful ways to resist or otherwise protect themselves from the effects of profiling. These effects include different forms of discrimination and exclusion, data being used for new and unknowable purposes, widespread fraud, and the chilling effects of massive commercial surveillance systems. In the long run, these issues are also contributing to the erosion of trust in the digital industry, which may have serious consequences for the digital economy.

To shift what it dubs the “significant power imbalance between consumers and third party companies”, the Council calls for an end to the current practices of “extensive tracking and profiling” — either by companies changing their practices to “respect consumers’ rights”, or — where they won’t — urging national regulators and enforcement authorities to “take active enforcement measures, to establish legal precedent to protect consumers against the illegal exploitation of personal data”.

It’s fair to day that enforcement of GDPR remains a work in progress at this stage, some 20 months after the regulation came into force, back in May 2018. With scores of cross-border complaints yet to culminate in a decision (though there have been a couple of interesting adtech– and consent-related enforcements in France).

We reached out to Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) and the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for comment on the Council’s report. The Irish regulator has multiple investigations ongoing into various aspects of adtech and tech giants’ handling of online privacy, including a probe related to security concerns attached to Google’s ad exchange and the real-time bidding process which features in some programmatic advertising. It has previously suggested the first decisions from its hefty backlog of GDPR complaints will be coming early this year. But at the time of writing the DPC had not responded to our request for comment on the report.

Google’s lead EU regulator opens formal privacy probe of its adtech

A spokeswoman for the ICO — which last year put out its own warnings to the behavioral advertising industry, urging it to change its practices — sent us this statement, attributed to Simon McDougall, its executive director for technology and innovation, in which he says the regulator has been prioritizing engaging with the adtech industry over its use of personal data and has called for change itself — but which does not once mention the word ‘enforcement’…

Over the past year we have prioritised engagement with the adtech industry on the use of personal data in programmatic advertising and real-time bidding.

Along the way we have seen increased debate and discussion, including reports like these, which factor into our approach where appropriate. We have also seen a general acknowledgment that things can’t continue as they have been.

Our 2019 update report into adtech highlights our concerns, and our revised guidance on the use of cookies gives greater clarity over what good looks like in this area.

Whilst industry has welcomed our report and recognises change is needed, there remains much more to be done to address the issues. Our engagement has substantiated many of the concerns we raised and, at the same time, we have also made some real progress.

Throughout the last year we have been clear that if change does not happen we would consider taking action. We will be saying more about our next steps soon – but as is the case with all of our powers, any future action will be proportionate and risk-based.

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