YouTube to invest $100M in kids’ content that showcases character strengths, like compassion and curiosity

YouTube in September announced a $100 million fund to invest in new children’s video content, following its $170 million settlement with the FTC over children’s privacy law violations. The fund was meant to help soften the blow for children’s content creators on YouTube, who are being financially impacted by the changes the FTC required of their channels. Now we have the first bit of insight into what sort of content YouTube plans to back with the fund’s resources.

According to a report by Bloomberg, YouTube is looking to fund videos that “drive outcomes associated with the following character strengths:” courage, compassion, communication, gratitude, curiosity, humility, teamwork, integrity, perseverance, self-control, empathy, and creativity.

The details were shared in a note to partners, the report said.

“All our programming will seek to support kids in uncovering their unique strengths and passions,” the note read. “Specifically, we want to develop content that inspires children to develop life skills and pursue their passions; establish healthy habits and care for themselves; increase their understanding of culture and diversity; and/or engage with and care for their community.”

YouTube confirmed the report’s accuracy to TechCrunch. It said the company is now in discussions with partners, but further details on the kids content fund wouldn’t be shared until later this year.

The planned $100 million investment, which will be distributed over the next three years, is meant to help set the tone for the sort of children’s video content YouTube wants to see more of on its video-sharing platform.  Today, a number of creators in the kids’ space are gaining views for things like toy unboxings, pranks and family vlogs. For example, Ryan Kaji of Ryan’s World and Ryan ToysReview, was YouTube’s highest-paid star of 2019, pulling in a massive $26 million.

Parents, on the other hand, don’t often care for their kids’ addiction to this sort of lightweight, consumer-driven content. And thanks to updated screen time controls across iPhone and Android, they can now choose to limit the time their kids spend on YouTube. And with a growing number of streaming services on the market, including the kid-friendly Disney+, kids and families have other options.

The move to fund an elevated set of kids’ content could also help YouTube attract more advertising dollars, as companies are looking to pair their marketing messages with “brand-safe” content, which can be hit-or-miss on YouTube at times.

YouTube has no immediate concerns on the ad revenue front, having pulled in $15 billion in 2019. But the company knows there’s still so much more room to grow, given the TV ad market still massively dwarfs YouTube, with $70 billion in ad spending last year.

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YouTube has seen soaring growth in South Korea

Earlier this week, Google released revenue figures for YouTube for the first time in the product’s history, revealing that the video service pulled in $15.1 billion in advertising revenues in 2019. Growth was 31% year-over-year during the quarter — strong growth for such a late-stage property, but of course, everyone always wants more. The company also claimed that it had an audience of more than 2 billion users — making it among the most popular products in the world.

Part of that global success comes from countries like South Korea, where YouTube has long been a serious laggard to local video players, but which has managed to penetrate the market much more heavily in recent years.

According to the latest data from Wiseapp, an app usage and retail revenue data service for the Korean market which is sort of a fusion of App Annie and Second Measure, YouTube has seen dizzying growth over the past few years, particularly among older, non-millennial users.

Based on data from Android users, YouTube has seen consistent increases in unique users in the market, almost to a point of saturation. At the end of 2019, Wiseapp estimated that YouTube had nearly 34 million Android users, up 6% from 2018 and 38% from 2016.

Data from Wiseapp, exclusively depicting Android users

For context, South Korea has a population of about 51.5 million, and local polling from Gallup puts Android penetration at roughly 80% overall. One serious caveat here is that there is a huge age discrepancy between Android and iPhone users — iPhone penetration among twenty-somethings is nearly half, while its penetration among users over 50 is in the low single digits.

While YouTube has had users aplenty for years, what’s been striking has been seeing the increase in the average view time on the platform. Again, for Android users measured by Wiseapp, YouTube increased its total minutes viewed on its platform by 38% last year, and has seen 187% growth since 2016. The platform isn’t just getting more users, but deepening engagement with those users over time.

A Google PR representative would not confirm third-party data about the platform’s performance, but did say in a statement to TechCrunch that the hours of content uploaded to Korean YouTube channels grew by 50% between 2018 and 2019. The company also said that as of February 2019 (the most recent data available), “there are over 12,000 channels with over 10K subs, over 2000 channels with 100K subs and more than 200 channels with 1M+ subs in Korea.”

What’s changed in the local market? A handful of trends are lining up in YouTube’s favor, helping it break through local competitors for the lucrative online video market.

First and perhaps most importantly according to local sources, more and more creators have moved their businesses to YouTube from other competitors due to better creator economics on the platform.

As Cynthia Kim at Reuters discussed in a profile article last year about the changing job market in South Korea, “YouTube creator” is a new career path for some young people interested in focusing on their interests and expressing their thoughts online for income. From the article:

“Among elementary school students, YouTube creator is now the fifth-ranked dream job, behind being a sports star, school teacher, doctor or a chef, a 2018 government poll showed.”

As those creators have migrated to YouTube, so have users, or so the thinking goes. And so you see the number of popular channels increase, and the total number of video hours uploaded growing quickly to capture that increased usage.

Another dynamic at play is globalization. While many Koreans grew up watching Friends or Home Alone in their drive to learn English and compete effectively on the country’s harrowing college entrance exam, YouTube offers a much wider vista into all kinds of places beyond those depicted by Hollywood.

As one former senior Korean technology executive, who once managed a competing product to YouTube, explained to me, the challenge for local players is that they just don’t have the kind of global content library that is attractive for users. Local players have local content, and while engagement remains high, they lack the extended global content that platforms like YouTube can provide.

What’s interesting is that Korean globalization has also worked the other direction. Korean dramas and Korean pop bands like BTS have expanded dramatically in global popularity over the past decade. Google said in its statement that the top 25 Korean bands on YouTube now receive 90% of their views from outside the country.

In short, YouTube has broken into an app ecosystem that is almost entirely local, and has even done so in a tough demographic like older users which have been particularly impervious to non-Korean apps. Messaging app KakaoTalk remains the country’s most popular app, and the only other top-ranked foreign app is Instagram at number eight with an estimated 10 million Android users from Wiseapp’s calculation.

While some analysts were surprised at YouTube’s smaller than expected revenue numbers, it is clear that the platform is making headway in a variety of other international markets. As other emerging digital economies like India, Africa and Southeast Asia come online, expect even more competition in this category between this big global video product and local competitors.

With $4B food delivery acquisition, Korea poised to enter upper tier of startup hubs

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Verana Health aims to organize and analyze doctors’ clinical data sets, whether patients like it or not

If the two-year old healthcare startup Verana Health has its way it could become the Google for physician generated healthcare data.

The company has raised $100 million from GV (one of the corporate investment arms of Alphabet, the parent company of Google), Bain Capital Ventures, Casdin Capital and Define Ventures and counts the famous life sciences investor, Brook Byers, as the chairman of the company’s board.

The company offers products like Verana Practice Insights, which provides aggregated views on practice trends across the U.S, and it also has a service called “Trial Connect” which gives physicians the ability to find patients among their practices who may be suitable for clinical trials.

Verana has also built up the Axon Registry, which tracks the impact of treatments over time for conditions like multiple sclerosis, migraines, and epilepsy. The company points to the registry as an example of how the data collected can provide value for the entire healthcare ecosystem.

Verana has inked data collection deals with the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Academy of Neurology to create large pools of de-identified patient data that can be used for drug discovery, population health analysis and medical research. But the company’s story actually begins nearly twenty years ago, when specialty medical associations started building clinical data sets to share information among medical practitioners and standardize reporting required by the federal government.

More recently, as Verana explains, medical associations realized that there was a lot of quality data locked away in those records. And since the medical communities lacked the wherewithal and technical expertise to digitize and analyze those records themselves, they decided to outsource those services to Verana two years ago, according to a blogpost from the company.

“Our society partners have entrusted us with their data to partner with them to advance the quality of patient care and to accelerate the adoption of evidence into practice,” the company states. “Through these partnerships, Verana supports the full operating costs for these registries, which enable physicians to track performance against federal quality measures and submit information for quality reporting at no expense to the physician practices and medical specialty organizations.”

It seems that Verana has made the same pitch to physicians that Google has made to consumers: give us all of your information, and we’ll organize it and manage it for you (as well as collect it to monetize in other ways that physicians have no control over).

Image via Getty Images / Ja_inter

Alongside its new financing, the San Francisco-based company also announced the acquisition of Knoxville, Ten.-based PYA Analytics, a company which has designed data analytics software and services for Medicare and Medicaid.

“Verana Health is building the team and technology to unlock deep clinical insights that support the development of new treatments while increasing our understanding of how these treatments can benefit patients more broadly,” said Dr. Krishna Yeshwant, General Partner at GV. “Under the leadership of its strong management team, Verana continues to redefine how we approach medical research.”

While Verana is currently focused on ophthalmic and neurologic diseases, the company intends to expand into additional therapeutic categories over the next year while integrating imaging, genomic, and claims data sources into its data pools.

“Verana is assembling the most comprehensive datasets in medicine across multiple disease types with the goal of accelerating medical research for patients with ophthalmic and neurologic conditions,” said Miki Kapoor, the chief executive officer of Verana Health, in a statement. “The financing and the addition of PYAA enable us to enrich these large clinical databases, creating a longitudinal view of the complete patient journey to inform research and patient care.”

However, the company’s approach seems to disregard the role of the patient in the healthcare process. The emphasis on de-identification is one that new technology companies consistently rely on; however, evidence tells us that these practices aren’t as secure as consumers would want when it comes to sensitive information around health.

In June 2019, the University of Chicago Medical Center and Google were sued for allegedly violating HIPAA regulations by sharing patient records that weren’t de-identified properly. Google used the research for predictive data analysis based on massive population data. Google and the medical center have both filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit.

But even the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services warned that there’s a risk that de-identified data could be linked back to the corresponding patient. Indeed, new machine learning capabilities developed by companies like Google have already been used to re-identify anonymized patient data, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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The science of friction -- and its surprising impact on our lives | Jennifer Vail

The science of friction -- and its surprising impact on our lives | Jennifer Vail

Tribology: it's a funny-sounding word you might not have heard before, but it could change how you see and interact with the physical world, says mechanical engineer Jennifer Vail. Offering lessons from tribology -- the study of friction and wear -- Vail describes the surprisingly varied ways it impacts everyday life and how it could help us make a better world.

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

Fix Broken Headphone Jacks, LCD Burn In, and Geeky Valentine’s Gifts

We’re back for a new run of Really Useful tips and tricks from the MakeUseOf team, this week offering some useful house technology repair tips for broken headphone hacks, LCD and plasma burn-in, and the best geeky gifts for Valentine’s day!

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Really Useful Podcast Season 5 Episode 1 Shownotes

Christian Cawley and Gavin Phillips have a packed show for you this week, looking at:

• How to watch YouTube TV on PS4
• Try on makeup with Pinterest
• Clear your off-Facebook activity
• How to remove a broken headphone jack from your phone
• Fix image burn-in on your LCD or plasma TV
• Video game-themed Valentine’s Day gifts

We’ve also got some recommendations for you to check out:

• Paul Davids guitar tutorials and reviews on YouTube
• Tifo Football informative analysis

We also take a look at two current giveaways on MakeUseOf that you can enter now:

• Insta360 One R action cam
• Doogee S95 Pro modular phone

Your rating or brief review on iTunes can help us reach more listeners and if you find something useful in the show, share the Really Useful Podcast with your friends on social media.

So you don’t miss a show, subscribe for notifications:

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Transistor.fm
• Player.FM
• Google Podcasts
• Stitcher.com
• YouTube

See you next week!

Read the full article: Fix Broken Headphone Jacks, LCD Burn In, and Geeky Valentine’s Gifts

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LG and ZTE withdraw from MWC due to coronavirus-related concerns

LG Electronics and ZTE said they have cancelled plans to participate in MWC later this month in Barcelona, Spain, because of coronavirus-related concerns. In a statement on its site, LG said it will skip MWC, the world’s largest mobile trade show, and launch this year’s releases at separate events “in the near future” instead.

“With the safety of its employees, partners and customers foremost in mind, LG has decided to withdraw from exhibiting and participating in MWC 2020 later this month in Barcelona, Spain,” the statement from LG, headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, read. “This decision removes the risk of exposing hundreds of LG employees to international travel which has already become more restrictive as the virus continues to spread across borders.”

Shenzhen, China-based ZTE also announced today it will skip MWC today, telling the Verge that it cancelled its press conference because of travel and visa delays, but also because “[we] tend to be an overly courteous company, and simply don’t want to make people uncomfortable.”

The coronavirus outbreak has disrupted travel and supply chains around the world. While the vast majority of cases reported have been inside China, the outbreak has also led to a wave of open racism and xenophobia targeted at people of Asian descent around the world.

In a statement posted on its site today, MWC organizers GSMA said it “continues to monitor and assess the potential impact of the coronavirus on its MWC20 events held annually in Barcelona, Shanghai and Los Angeles and as well as the Mobile 360 Series of regional conferences. The GSMA confirms that there is minimal impact on the event thus far.”

All Barcelona events taking place February 24 to 27 will go on as scheduled. GSMA previously announced the measures it is taking to prevent the spread of the virus, including increased cleaning and disinfection of high-traffic areas, including catering areas, handrails, bathrooms, entrances and exits and touchscreens and more onsite medical support. It also said it will have a “mic change protocol” for speakers, and advise all attendees to “adopt a ‘no-handshake policy.”

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Facebook Adds New Messenger Kids Parental Controls

Facebook has launched a new set of parental controls for Messenger Kids. These new tools are designed to help parents “manage their child’s experience in Messenger Kids”. Which should help keep your child safe and you assured of their safety.

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A Brief History of Messenger Kids

In December 2017, Facebook launched Messenger Kids. This is a standalone version of Messenger designed for children aged between six and 12. The idea being to give children access to Facebook before they reach 13 and can sign up for Facebook proper.

Despite the fact that parents are in charge of setting up their children’s Messenger Kids accounts, experts begged Facebook to dump Messenger Kids. This was due to their belief that technology and social media can be harmful to children and teenagers.

Messenger Kids has persisted, and Facebook is now improving its parental controls.

New Messenger Kids Parental Controls

Facebook announced the new Messenger Kids parental controls in a post on About Facebook. You can now see who your child is chatting with, what photos they have sent, who they have reported and blocked, and on which devices they’re using Messenger Kids.

Giving Parents Even More Control in Messenger Kids https://t.co/Baf8td8IU9 pic.twitter.com/oC0fcDFJUR

— Facebook Newsroom (@fbnewsroom) February 4, 2020

You can also download your child’s information, in the same way you can download your own information from Facebook. This includes “a list of your child’s contacts as well as the messages, images and videos they have sent and received.”

Parents can access these new parental controls in the Messenger Kids Parent Dashboard in the Facebook app for Android and iOS. Just tap the shortcut menu in the Facebook app and scroll to the Messenger Kids icon. Then, select the name of your child.

Download: Messenger Kids on Android | iOS

The Pros and Cons of Social Media

Facebook has also updated the Messenger Kids privacy policy to “include additional information about our data collection, use, sharing, retention and deletion practices.” This also describes features Facebook is planning to roll out to Messenger Kids in the future.

Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no doubt that social media is affecting us all in some way. And as with almost everything, there are positives and negatives involved, as we have outlined in our article looking at the pros and cons of social media.

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The Top 9 Russian Social Networks

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube dominate the social media world in most countries, but Russia (and some surrounding areas such as Kazakhstan and Ukraine) often prefer regional replacements for these platforms.

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This difference in social media use is of huge importance for brands who utilize social media sites for advertising, as it can affect their marketing strategies. That aside, it’s also interesting to see how online communication can differ in different parts of the world.

Here are the top Russian social networks being used today.

Note: In this list, we include both Russian social networks, as well as social media platforms that are popular in Russia.

1. VK

VK (previously known as VKontakte) is by far the most popular social media platform in Russia, with over 97 million monthly active users.

The platform is best described as a combination of Facebook and a file-sharing platform. Much like Facebook, users have a profile and can easily search for and add other users to follow their status updates, photos, and videos.

Along with these traditional functions, users can also upload video and audio files of any kind and share these resources with other users as well. In the past, this has come under scrutiny as it occasionally crossed legal boundaries. However, users must now comply with copyright laws when uploading any content.

2. OK.ru

While VK may be most popular with younger users (aged 18-34), older social media users generally prefer the social media site OK (originally Odnoklassniki, meaning “classmates”). OK.ru has over 71 million users.

Wondering what is OK.ru? Much like VK, OK allows users to create a profile, search for friends, and share status updates and images. The focus of OK is reconnecting with classmates and friends that users may have lost touch with over the years, so the search parameters are quite detailed.

You can also use the site to make voice and video calls, send messages, and give virtual gifts.

3. Moi Mir

Moi Mir (“My World”) is another site like VK. It’s an extension of the internet/e-mail provider mail.ru (which also owns both OK and VK) and has struggled to find its unique niche in the broader social media scene.

5.4 million people use Moi Mir each month to share images, music, and videos, as well as to play games. The Groups tab on the upper-right corner of the screen also allows you to make new friends with people who share common interests.

4. Facebook

Even though Facebook isn’t the most popular social media site in Russia, its popularity has definitely begun to spread, and it now boasts over 50 million users. This isn’t surprising, as Facebook is constantly changing its platform to better align with its perceived users’ needs.

What’s interesting is that analysts suggest that part of the reason Facebook is becoming more popular in Russia is because of business conversations. Reports suggest that in 2015, over 30 percent of business-related discussions in Russia took place on Facebook.

5. LiveJournal

LiveJournal is a blogging platform that has been around since 1999, but has since generally fallen into disuse in most of the world. This trend is far from true in Russia, however, where Russian users account for about half of the site’s total traffic.

Personal blogs are a great way to develop and share your opinion and perspectives online. They allow for more thought and discussion than the sort of short messages shared on newer social media platforms.

Thankfully, LiveJournal integration is still supported by a number of online services, allowing it to maintain its important role in Russia and beyond.

6. Twitter

Twitter is another classic social media site that does quite well in Russia. While it doesn’t have as many users as the other sites in this list (with approximately 13 million), it boasts the most engagement per author out of all Russian social networks.

So, even though Twitter may not be a mainstay for most Russian social media users, those who choose to use it are tweeting up a storm!

7. Rutube

Rutube is essentially Russia’s answer to YouTube—a social media platform centered on video-sharing content of all types.

While it hasn’t achieved the incredible reach of YouTube, Rutube has collected a wide range of content from a large number of diverse users.

Rutube hosts both licensed content and user uploads, and the vast majority of all uploads are in Russian. This high percentage of Russian content makes Rutube an incredibly valuable resource for anyone trying to learn the language.

8. Instagram

Instagram has become hugely popular in the last few years and its popularity in Russia is no exception. Instagram is rapidly moving up the social media ranks in Russia, and currently has 40 million users (58 percent of whom are female).

This shift in popularity is thanks in large part to cross-posting between Instagram and other platforms, where users can use great Instagram tools that most people don’t know about to enhance and caption a photo. From there, they can post it both to Instagram and to other popular social media websites.

9. Pinterest

If you don’t know what Pinterest is and how to use it, all you need to know is that it’s home to aesthetically pleasing boards full of photos. The site has seen some growth over the past few years, so it’s no surprise that Russian Pinners have been appearing on the site as well.

Americans make up the majority of Pinterest users. However, Russians currently hold a place in the top three countries (besides the United States) that have the highest percentage of Pinterest users.

Learning About Russian Social Networks

The success of unique social media platforms such as VK and OK in Russia and surrounding countries can be surprising to those of us who are used to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram holding a complete monopoly over all social media communication.

There is definitely something to be said for social media sites that are targeted at a specific userbase, whether geographically (as in these examples) or based on activities. Snapchat is the best example of this, as can be seen in this list of Snapchat filters.

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10 Films to Watch on Valentine’s Day If You’re Single

How many people do you know that can sincerely say they like Valentine’s Day?

For those of us in relationships, this annual holiday can bring a lot of anxiety. You’ll spend weeks worrying about organizing everything, only for there to be a high chance that it will all go wrong.

If your significant other says they’re “skipping the holiday,” you’re still better off buying a gift, just to be on the safe side. So you can’t really save any money by missing Valentine’s Day, either.

If you’re single, however, this might be the day to think about why you don’t have a partner. One option is to grab yourself a glass of wine and watch some anti-Valentine’s Day films on Netflix!

A Note on What Netflix Has to Offer

If your idea of a good Valentine’s Day film is Love Actually, then we recommend that you check out our list of the best romantic comedies on Netflix. For this particular list, however, we’re going to suggest movies that show the other side of relationships.

This means no happily ever-afters, or movies designed to make you laugh. Many of the following films have unhappy endings, but at least they try to portray the darker side of romance with honesty.

1. Gerald’s Game (2017)

Perfect for you if… you’re bored on Valentine’s Day.

They say love can kill you. Gerald’s Game takes this one step further by illustrating how it can kill you, through the depiction of a worst-case scenario during a romantic getaway.

Based upon a Stephen King novel, this chilling adaptation is stylish, gripping, and definitely intense. Sit down and watch how a passionate role-playing session turns into a nightmare when one partner injures the other, causing them to have a fatal heart attack.

When this happens, they leave the other party chained to the bed with no key.

Gerald’s Game will easily grab your attention and take your thoughts away from being lonely on Valentine’s Day. A friendly warning, though… you might find yourself having some trust issues after this one.

2. Blue Jay (2016)

Perfect for you if… you’re looking for something a little outside the box.

Blue Jay might offer the ultimate romantic premise, but don’t be fooled—this one is not your typical cheesy rom-com. It’s a black and white indie dramedy with a truly heartbreaking plot.

The leads, Sarah Paulson and Mark Duplass, have incredible chemistry together. They deliver the “one that got away” storyline masterfully.

This movie might take you on a trip down memory lane, so be prepared with a box of tissues if you’re the sensitive type.

3. Tallulah (2016)

Perfect for you if… you keep on finding yourself in self-destructive relationships.

While Tallulah might have the premise of a rom-com, it is, in fact, a comedy drama. The central theme of this Netflix original is putting platonic love over romantic love. It’s about knowing what’s best for you, including leaving bad partners and building up a family in the most unexpected of places.

What makes this Valentine’s Day movie so realistic is that the script is based on the writer’s lived experiences. Topped with the standout performances of Allison Janney (Margo) and Ellen Page (Tallulah), this is probably the perfect Valentine’s Day movie to watch on your own.

4. The Invitation (2015)

Perfect for you if… you’re looking for proof that your ex is evil.

No, really. If you’re looking for validation that love sucks, The Invitation is the film for you.

This horror thriller is about broken relationships, grief, depression, and how we cope with life-changing events in the modern world. If you’re not patient, you might want to skip this one, as The Invitation is a bit of a slow-burn. However, if you’re a fan of the “dinner party from hell” subgenre, this movie definitely fits the bill.

It’s impossible to say much more without giving away the plot. The ultimate takeaway from this film is to never accept an invitation from your ex.

5. Marriage Story (2019)

Perfect for you if… you’re going through a breakup. A bad one.

We don’t recommend this one if you’ve just been through a literal divorce, as it might be one of those films that ends up distressingly close to home. If your significant other recently left, however, and it wasn’t a marriage, you might find it cathartic to see the process play out on screen.

Recently nominated for the Academy Awards, Marriage Story stars Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as Charlie and Nicole: a previously happy couple who are now dealing with the dissolution of their marriage.

6. Secret Obsession (2019)

Perfect for you if… you want to be terrified.

Going into this one, I knew Secret Obsession would be a difficult watch. The Netflix original plays off a common fear a lot of women have: that maybe their loved ones have a dark side they don’t know about.

In this 2019 “Valentine’s Day” film, Jennifer—a victim of a severe brain injury—loses her memories. She wakes up in a hospital bed and finds her loving husband by her side, ready to see her return to health. The big catch? Her husband is not actually her husband.

Secret Obsession will make your heart race and your skin crawl. You might even want to watch it with the lights on.

7. Earthquake Bird (2019)

Perfect for you if… you’re running away from your past.

Earthquake Bird is a psychological romantic thriller for anyone who’s got skeletons in the closet. Based upon a book by the same name, Earthquake Bird is set in Japan in 1989.

It follows a translator named Lucy who is living and working overseas. When Lucy gets involved in a tumultuous relationship—and her friend is killed—she finds herself caught up in the murder investigation.

This film is an eerie, sensory-driven story that deals with the nuances of past trauma and how they manifest in our current relationships.

8. Berlin Syndrome (2017)

Perfect for you if… you’re looking for reassurance that your love life isn’t as hopeless as someone else’s.

Ever had a one-night stand that you remember with a pinch of regret? Watch Berlin Syndrome, to see how things could have turned out so much worse.

This psychological thriller follows a photojournalist named Clare who is backpacking across Europe. After she hooks up with the seemingly innocent Andi, and she spends the night at his place, she realizes that Andi might view their one-night hook-up differently.

Things start to look grim when Andi locks Clare in his apartment, making her his captive.

9. 6 Years (2015)

Perfect for you if… you believe that all relationships are doomed.

6 Years is yet another romantic drama about an idyllic relationship gone wrong. This time, the two lovers are former classmates (played by Taissa Farmiga and Ben Rosenfeld) who grew up together and began dating in high school.

As one of them nears college graduation, the two start to grow apart. But when you spend that many years together, it becomes difficult to figure out who you are without the other. Watch this relationship turn dark as the two characters face the inevitable end of their romance.

10. Concussion (2013)

Perfect for you if… you’re looking for something about the transactional world of money-for-love.

Concussion presents a modern take on relationships, and makes you question whether you can ever know your partner as well as you’d like. The story revolves around a lesbian mother named Abby, who gets knocked out by a baseball thrown by her son.

After her accident, she discovers a new side to her personality. Her increased sexual desires push her to become a high-end escort and lead a double life.

What Anti-Valentine’s Day Films Are You Watching?

There’s nothing wrong with watching romantic movies on Valentine’s Day. However, more and more people find themselves looking for something a little different. And that’s especially if you’re happily single (or self-partnered).

Thankfully, Netflix has all kinds of content available to watch. Including some stand-up specials guaranteed to make you laugh if you need cheering up after watching one of these flicks.

Image Credit: belchonock/Depositphotos

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How to Freeze, Unfreeze, and Lock Rows, Columns, and Cells in Microsoft Excel

You can fit a lot of data into an Excel sheet. With thousands upon thousands of rows and columns, it can get pretty unwieldy.

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One small feature that makes it easier to manage all of that data is the ability to freeze rows and columns. This means that no matter where you scroll in the spreadsheet, those rows or columns always stay visible.

Along with the freeze feature in Excel is a lock option. While it may sound like these two features could do the same thing, they actually serve different purposes. To avoid confusion, we’ll explain the difference and then how to lock rows, columns, and cells in Excel as well.

Freeze Versus Lock in Excel

As we briefly mentioned above, if you want a row or column to be visible no matter where you scroll in your Excel sheet, this requires the freeze feature.

You would use the lock feature to prevent changes to the content of a cell. As examples, you might lock a cell or range that contains formulas, lists, or similar types of data that you don’t want changed.

So if someone asks you how to lock a row in Excel, they likely mean to ask how to freeze a row in Excel.

How to Freeze the First Column or Top Row in Excel

More spreadsheets than not contain column or row headers. So freezing a column or row containing headers make is much easier to manage your data, especially when you have a lot of it.

With this method, you’re going to have to choose to freeze either the first column or first row. Unfortunately, you can’t do both.

1. Open your Excel spreadsheet and go to the View tab.
2. Click the Freeze Panes button.
3. To freeze the first column, click Freeze First Column in the dropdown menu. To freeze the top row, click Freeze Top Row.

In Excel on Mac, you have separate buttons on the View tab for each option. So just click Freeze First Column or Freeze Top Row.

How to Freeze Columns and Rows in Excel

You may want to freeze more than just the first column or row in Excel. For instance, maybe you want to freeze the first three columns or rows.

1. Open your Excel spreadsheet and go to the View tab.
2. Select the last column or row in the group you want to freeze. For example, if you want to freeze columns A through C, select column D. Or if you want to freeze rows 1 through 4, select row 5.
3. Click the Freeze Panes button and then the Freeze Panes option in the dropdown menu.

In Excel on Mac, this is also its own button on the View tab. So select the column or row and click Freeze Panes.

How to Freeze Panes in Excel

If you would prefer to freeze a combination of rows and columns, referred to as a pane, it’s possible but slightly trickier.

1. Open your Excel spreadsheet and go to the View tab.
2. Select the cell directly below the row you want to freeze and the cell to the right of the column you want to freeze. For example, if you want to freeze columns A through C and rows 1 to 4, you would select cell D5.
3. Click the Freeze Panes button and again, click the Freeze Panes option in the dropdown menu.

How to Unfreeze Columns, Rows, or Panes in Excel

It’s just as simple to unfreeze columns, rows, and panes in Excel as it is to freeze them.

1. Open your Excel spreadsheet and go to the View tab.
2. Click the Freeze Panes button.
3. Select Unfreeze Panes in the dropdown menu.

In Excel on Mac, as you may have already guessed, this too is its own button. Head to the View tab and click Unfreeze Panes.

How to Lock Columns, Rows, or Cells in Excel

Locking rows, columns, or cells in Excel involves two steps. First, you’ll lock the cell(s) and then you’ll protect the sheet. Note that cells in Excel are locked by default, but we’ll show you how to double-check that for the two-step process.

Lock the Cell(s)

1. Select the column, row, cell, or group that you want to lock.
2. Open the Format Cells dialog box by clicking the Alignment group on the Home tab or by right-clicking the cell(s) and picking Format Cells.
3. Choose the Protection tab.
4. Make sure the box for Locked is checked and click OK.

Protect the Sheet

1. Go to the Review tab and in the Protect group click Protect Sheet.
2. In the pop-up window, you’ll see a list of optional items that you can check or uncheck as part of the protection. Make sure that the first box is checked for Protect worksheet and contents of locked cells. If you want to allow other users to select the cells you lock, but not change them, you can check the box for Select locked cells.
3. Enter a password for the sheet in the box at the top and click OK. On Windows, you’ll need to verify your password and click OK once more. On Mac, the password and verification are on the same screen.

Unprotect the Sheet

To remove protection from an Excel spreadsheet, go to the Review tab, click Unprotect Sheet, and enter the password.

If you’re interested in the Protect Workbook button that you see in the ribbon, check out our tutorial on how to use that to protect your Excel file.

What’s important to note when you lock cells and protect a sheet is that as we explained earlier, all cells in an Excel sheet are locked by default. So unless you specifically unlock cells, all cells will be locked.

Lock Only Certain Cells

If you only want specific cells to be locked, you’ll start by unlocking them all and then only locking the ones you want.

1. Click the Select All button (triangle) on the top left of the sheet. You’ll see your entire spreadsheet become highlighted.
2. Open the Format Cells dialog box by clicking the Alignment group on the Home tab or by right-clicking the cell(s) and picking Format Cells.
3. Choose the Protection tab.
4. Uncheck the box for Locked and click OK.

Once you do this, all cells in the spreadsheet will be unlocked. Now you can follow the two-step process above to Lock the Cell(s) and Protect the Sheet.

Freeze for Easy Viewing, Lock to Prevent Changes

Freezing rows and columns along with locking cells can both help in different situations. Whether you want to see a large amount of data more easily or make sure unwanted changes don’t occur, Excel gives you the features you need.

And for doing more with your Excel spreadsheets, take a look at tips for working with worksheet tabs or how to manage columns in Excel.

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iCloud Drive Not Syncing? How to Solve iCloud Sync Issues

Having problems getting iCloud to sync your data between systems? You’re not alone; many developers have expressed their frustration with iCloud problems since its introduction.

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Fortunately, there are many fixes you can try to get your macOS and iOS apps syncing with Apple’s servers. Don’t be afraid to try them all if the first few don’t work out.

1. Restart and Wait

iCloud can take some time to kick in when you make a change. According to some reports, this can be up to 10 minutes.

You might find that your problem resolves itself with a bit of patience, but while you’re at it, you can also try restarting all affected devices. You also may want to plug your device in—sometimes we find that photos won’t sync to iCloud until the phone is charging.

2. Check That You’re Using the Right Account

It might sound obvious, but if you’re not using the same iCloud account on both devices, then they’ll never sync correctly. Head to Settings > [Your Name] on iOS or System Preferences > Apple ID on macOS and check which account is currently associated with the device.

You can only have one iCloud account active at a time, so make sure they match up.

3. Make Sure iCloud Is Working Properly

Every services experiences downtime at some point. While most planned outages occur at night when you’re asleep, catastrophic failure or human error can sometimes bring even the most reliable services down.

To check Apple’s current iCloud status, head to Apple’s System Status page and look for the green dots. Any ongoing issues should appear at the bottom of the screen.

4. Ensure You’ve Enabled iCloud for Your App

There are some elements you can change in your Settings (iOS) or System Preferences (macOS) in order to remedy apps that won’t sync.

On your iOS device, head to Settings > [Your name] > iCloud and make sure the app you want to sync is listed and enabled. You can also try toggling this off and back on to restart the sync process.

Apps that have access to iCloud Drive on macOS will appear under System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud.

5. Check That Apps Have Cellular Access

Do you have trouble syncing to iCloud while on mobile data, but not on Wi-Fi? You may have disabled cellular access for some apps.

Head to Settings > Cellular and scroll down to find a list of apps on your phone. Any apps that have their slider turned off will only work on Wi-Fi. Try enabling data access for any apps that you want to sync all the time, but note this may increase your data usage.

6. Rule Out Date and Time Discrepancies

You can run into a lot of problems when your iPhone’s date and time aren’t current. Many apps will simply refuse to connect to the internet at all. In order to avoid these problems, you can set the time to automatically update, which will keep your devices in sync and avoid these issues.

On iOS, head to Settings > General > Date & Time > Set Automatically. On macOS, you can do this from System Preferences > Date & Time > Time Zone.

7. Check That You’re Syncing the Right Folder

For apps that allow you to customize which folder you use to store data, ensure that the paths match up in both instances. You should make sure that your various iOS and macOS apps are looking for data in the same location, if applicable.

8. Reset and Restore Your Device

None of the above has helped and your device won’t access or sync iCloud data at all? You might want to take a stronger step and reset your phone to clear up any lingering issues. Before you do so, you should back up your phone to avoid losing any data.

After backing up, reset the device using the Restore option in iTunes (or Finder on macOS Catalina and newer) and then restore the backup you made when you set it up again. Once you’re finished your device will be near-identical to how you started, except you’ll need to add/authorize your various accounts again.

Hopefully, this will clear up whatever issue you had with iCloud Drive.

9. Look Into App-Specific Support

If you’ve got an app that uses data syncing to transfer between different platforms, there’s a good chance the developer offers help documentation to help you overcome your issues. Much of the time, developers can pinpoint exact files and folders you should delete in order to solve your issue.

A few apps that include specific guides to solving iCloud issues include DayOne, 1Password, and Ulysses. Search online for specific help if your issue lies with another app.

10. Use an iCloud Alternative

Many applications give you a choice of whether or not to use iCloud. If you can avoid using it, you’ll sidestep many of the issues that have plagued the service.

For example, apps like DayOne and 1Password both allow you to use Dropbox. Plus, third-party cloud storage solutions often provide you with more space and less hassle. And don’t worry, you can still use other iCloud features, like Find My iPhone and email.

Some of the best cloud storage alternatives include Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive.

Make It Easier to Use iCloud

Hopefully, these tips helped you clear up your iCloud Drive issues. While iCloud isn’t perfect, its integration with Apple platforms make it the de facto choice for many users. Now you can enjoy it as Apple intended.

For other issues with iCloud, check out solutions to the most common iCloud issues.

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7 Negative Effects of Social Media on People and Users

If you can’t imagine your life without social media, you’ve probably fallen victim to the power that social networking sites have on people. The chances are that you’ve also experienced some of the negative effects of social media on people who use them.

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Unfortunately, the bad effects of social media are all too real for a lot of us. Let’s look at the negative impact of social media on real people that happens every day.

How Social Media Is Bad for You

You might be surprised to learn that the negative effects of social media are both physical and mental. They can change your perception of the world and yourself. While social media does have some positive effects, it also has a lot in the drawback column.

Don’t believe it? Read on for a list of social media’s negative effects. If you recognize any of them as issues in your own life, it may be time to reduce your usage or even stop using social media altogether.

1. Depression and Anxiety

Do you spend several hours per day browsing through social media? Spending too long on social networking sites could be adversely affecting your mood. In fact, chronic users are more likely to report poor mental health, including symptoms of anxiety and depression.

It doesn’t take much thinking to figure out why. Social media lets you see the carefully selected best parts of everyone else’s lives, which you compare to the negatives in your own life. Comparing yourself to other people is a sure path to anxiety, and social media has only made this easier to do.

So how do you use social media without causing yourself psychological distress? If you turn to the same research (and common sense), the recommended amount of time you should spend on social networks is around half an hour per day. As with many other potential ills in life, it’s all about moderation.

2. Cyberbullying

Image Credit: HighwayStarz/Depositphotos

Before social media, bullying was something that was only possible to do face-to-face. However, now people can bully others online—anonymously or not. Today everyone knows what cyberbullying is, and most of us have seen what it can do to a person.

While social media makes it easier to meet new people and make friends, it also enables cruel people to tear into others with little effort. Perpetrators of bullying can use the anonymity that social networks provide to gain people’s trust and then terrorize them in front of their peers. For instance, they might create a fake profile and act friendly to a classmate, then later betray and embarrass them online.

These online attacks often leave deep mental scars and even drive people to suicide in some cases. And as it turns out, cyberbullying doesn’t just affect kids. Adults can become victims of online abuse, too. Since screens hide our faces, you can end up being a jerk on social media and other websites without even realizing it.

Learn how to hide your social media profiles if you suffer from this issue.

3. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is a phenomenon that was born around the same time as the rise of social media. Unsurprisingly, it’s one of the most widespread negative effects of social media on society.

FOMO is just what it sounds like: a form of anxiety that you get when you’re scared of missing out on a positive experience that someone else is having. For example, you might constantly check your messages to see if anyone has invited you out, or focus on your Instagram feed all day to make sure that nobody is doing something cool without you.

This fear receives constant fuel from what you see on social media. With increased social network use, there’s a better chance for you to see that someone is having more fun that you are right now. And that’s exactly what causes FOMO.

4. Unrealistic Expectations

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As most people probably know by now, social media forms unrealistic expectations of life and friendships in our minds.

Most social media sites have a severe lack of online authenticity. People use Snapchat to share their exciting adventures, post about how much they love their significant other on Facebook, and load up their Instagram page with heavily staged photos.

But in reality, you have no way of knowing whether this is all a farce. While it looks great on the surface, that person could be in massive debt, on bad terms with their significant other, and just desperate for Instagram likes as a form of validation.

One simple way out of this mess is for everyone to quit lying on social media. But in the era of Instagram influencers and YouTubers who earn millions from being inauthentic, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

5. Negative Body Image

Speaking of Instagram celebrities, if you look at popular Instagram accounts, you’ll find unbelievably beautiful people wearing expensive clothes on their perfectly shaped bodies.

Today, body image is an issue for everyone. Of course, seeing so many people who are supposedly perfect (according to society’s standards) on a daily basis makes you conscious about how different you look from those pictures. And not everyone comes to healthy conclusions in this situation.

It’s really important to remember that everybody is human. No one wakes up every day looking like a supermodel, and while many people have gone to great lengths to train their bodies, that’s not the case for everyone who looks fit. Many people, in search of social media fame, have definitely taken unhealthy routes to appear more attractive.

Surround yourself with people who love you for who you are, and you won’t have to stress about Instagram beauty.

6. Unhealthy Sleep Patterns

On top of increasing the incidents of anxiety and depression, spending too much time on social media can lead to poor sleep. Numerous studies have shown that increased use of social media has a negative effect on your sleep quality.

If you feel like your sleep patterns have become irregular and have led to a drop in productivity, try to cut down on the amount of time you browse social media.

This is especially the case when using your phone in bed at night. It’s all too easy to tell yourself that you’ll spend five minutes checking your Facebook notifications, only to realize an hour later that you’ve been mindlessly scrolling through Twitter content you don’t even care about. Don’t let social media algorithms steal your valuable sleep.

7. General Addiction

Social media can be more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol. It has a powerful draw for many people that leads to them checking it all the time without even thinking about it.

If you’re not sure whether you’re addicted to social networks, try to remember the last time you went a full day without checking any social media accounts. Do you feel rejected if someone unfollows you? And if your favorite social networks completely disappeared tomorrow, would it make you feel empty and depressed?

At the end of the day, social media sites want to keep you scrolling for as long as possible so they can show you lots of ads and make more money. Because of the attention economy, these sites need your eyes on them for as long as possible.

Just because you’ve been going overboard on social media use doesn’t mean you necessarily need to wipe out all social networking platforms. However, if you think quitting is the best solution for you, it isn’t a bad idea. In fact, you can find out what it’s like to quit social media through a firsthand story.

How to Handle the Negative Effects of Social Media

As with everything else, there are good and bad aspects of social media. We’ve discussed some of the negative impacts social media has for many, but you’re the one who must decide whether there’s more help or harm in it for you personally.

If you find that social media is having a negative impact on your life, quit. However, if you decide to stay, use our tips to waste less time on social media to maintain your hobby in a healthy manner.

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Russia’s push back against Big Tech has major consequences for Apple

Josh Nadeau Contributor

Josh Nadeau is a Canadian journalist based in St. Petersburg who covers the intersection of Russia, technology and culture. He has written for The Economist, Atlas Obscura and The Outline.

Last month, Donald Trump took to Twitter to criticize Apple for not unlocking two iPhones belonging to the Pensacola shooter, another volley in the struggle between big tech and the world’s governing bodies. But even the White House’s censure pales in comparison to the Kremlin’s ongoing plans. Apple, as the timing would have it, also happens to be in Vladimir Putin’s sights.

The company’s long-running policy of not preloading third-party software onto its devices is coming up against a new piece of Russian legislation requiring every smart device to be sold with certain applications already installed, many of which are produced by the government. Inside the country, the policy has even been called the zakon protiv Apple, or the “law against Apple,” for how it disproportionately affects the tech giant. While the law was passed last November, the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service released the full list of apps only last week.

These regulations form the latest move in what’s turning out to be one of the largest national campaigns for digital control outside of Asia. These laws have been steadily accumulating since 2014 and are described as a way of consolidating sovereignty over the digital space — threatening to push companies out of the country if they fail to comply. Apple, for instance, will have to choose by July 1 whether maintaining access to the Russian market is worth making a revolutionary change in their policy. The same choice is given to any company wishing to do business in the country.

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Google’s Glass dreams live on with the arrival of enterprise hardware

Google Glass was ahead of its time. That’s not to say that the people who wore it out in public didn’t look like giant dorks, of course, but in hindsight it seems safe to say that the world just wasn’t ready for wearable augmented reality. The phenomenon has, however, seen a resurgence among enterprise applications, courtesy of companies like Epson and Microsoft.

Google’s ready to ride that wave. In May, the company announced the arrival of the second version of its Enterprise Edition of Glass. Today, the headset is available for developers as a direct purchase from a handful of resellers. The Android-based device, which graduated from Google X mid last year, looks remarkably like the earliest versions of Glass, albeit with a slightly refined design.

Glass graduates from Alphabet’s X as it scores new hardware update

Seven years after the arrival of the original model, the Glass Enterprise 2 isn’t cheap, either. It runs $1,000 from partner sites. There are a few suggestions for potential applications, including card text, imaging samples and QR scanning.

As Lucas noted in his initial write-up, the Glass system is much more limited than the likes of the latest HoloLens, which is focused on a more XR experience. Google, instead, is focused on lightweight usability — which could certainly serve as an advantage in certain settings. Key applications for the product include settings like construction sites, where contextual environmental information can otherwise be difficult to access.

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