This Week in Apps: Zoom has issues, Pinterest founder’s new COVID-19 research app, record Q1 spending

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all.

The app industry saw a record 204 billion downloads and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019, according to App Annie’s “State of Mobile” annual report. People are now spending 3 hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus.

In this Extra Crunch series, we help you keep up with the latest news from the world of apps, delivered on a weekly basis.

This week, we’re continuing our special coverage of how the COVID-19 outbreak is impacting apps and the wider mobile app industry — or rather, the boost many apps are receiving as a result. In fact, the first quarter saw consumer spending hit record levels in Q1 as everyone was staying indoors. But as some apps shoot up the charts, scrutiny over their practices increases. This week saw No. 1 app Zoom defending itself against a host of complaints over security issues, for example, while social video app Houseparty defended itself against a possible smear campaign. There’s also a new app from the Pinterest CEO for tracking the spread of COVID-19.

Also this week: more leaks about the new version of iOS, Apple bought Dark Sky, Niantic pivoted, TikTok moved up the charts and more.

Coronavirus/COVID-19 special coverage

Pinterest CEO, scientists team up on COVID-19 tracking app

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Be Positive! 5 Good News Websites for Uplifting & Inspirational Stories

Had enough of the constant barrage of depressing and negative news in the media? Look on the brighter side with these websites and apps that give you uplifting and positive news.

These days, it seems like every news media outlet only reports on death, disease, and distress. While you shouldn’t shy away from harsh realities, the incessant bad news can affect your mental health. That’s when you should turn to these people who highlight the good.

There are news websites, apps, podcasters, and YouTubers who focus on the steps taken for betterment. This includes small acts of goodness and kindness to large leaps that inspire you to fight the good fight.

1. Some Good News (YouTube): John Krasinski’s Short Show for Positive News

Alright everybody, how about #SomeGoodNews ! Send me the stories that have made you feel good this week or the things that just made you smile!

— John Krasinski (@johnkrasinski) March 25, 2020

Actor John Krasinski, famous for The Office, was also overwhelmed by the avalanche of depressing news on TV. So he asked his Twitter followers to send him good and positive events in their lives, as well as stories they heard. That gave birth to Some Good News.

Stuck at home during the pandemic, Krasinski’s new YouTube show is all about focusing on positive news. He hosts it himself, sitting in front of an “SGN” banner drawn by his children.

The actor is quick to point out that this isn’t his natural strong suit, but it’s a good alternative to the kind of footage you’ll see on news channels.

In the first episode, Krasinski talked about a few good stories and spoke to someone who went viral after getting a rousing social-distancing reception when she beat cancer. And he spent a few minutes talking to his co-star Steve Carell.

More episodes of Some Good News will air every week, so subscribe to this channel for positive vibes with a hint of celebrity magic.

2. Newser’s Uplifting News (Web): News Aggregator for Good News

Newser is one of the oldest news aggregators on the internet. Its dedicated team of editors and writers hand-pick articles from a variety of news publications in the US and also come up with their own. One of its hidden gems is the Uplifting News section to give you a dose of happiness.

If you’re new to Newser, the website’s aim is to curate articles and summarize them. You’ll often find the juiciest part of the story in a quick few paragraphs. It’s the ideal format for positive and good news because in most cases, the cool part is worth only a few sentences. It’s the feeling you get that lasts longer than the words.

While Reddit’s r/UpliftingNews is perhaps the fastest and most frequently-updated good news website, Newser isn’t far behind. In the course of writing this article, the section got two new articles. A quick glance shows that these are daily updates, so you’ll get a little bit of joy every day.

3. Good News (Web, Android, iOS): 6 Positive News Stories Every Day

From its name to its approach, Good News keeps things simple. Every weekday, you get seven news items that talk about good things happening in the world. In particular, it focuses on social and ecological progress, showing how the world isn’t stuck in a rut.

Instead of the website, use the well-designed and powerful app. In six swipes, you’ll see all the headlines for the day. Tap any item to read the full article at the original site. You can also sort the categories you want items in, such as conservation, climate, sustainability, health, education, and human rights. The app also allows you to save items to read later.

The Good Impact Foundation, the developers, are based in Germany and get their news from German-language media, but you can switch to English language easily. And while there are a few items that only matter to Germany, largely, the news affects anyone in the world.

Download: Good News for Android | iOS (Free)

4. The Positive Truth (Podcast): Uplifting and Inspiring Stories on Audio

It’s best to give your eyes and neck some rest from continuous screen time. Podcasts are an excellent way to catch up on infotainment. J. P. Phillips and Tim McCoy host The Positive Truth, a podcast that’s all about good news.

Updated thrice a week, The Positive Podcast has three sections, one for each day.

The Uplifting and Positive News episode is a round-up of news articles that the duo comes across.

Inspiring Stories is an episode series of both articles and social media snippets.

And finally, in the Improving Your Community/World episodes, they discuss how you can make a difference in social, ecological, or other humanitarian causes.

Phillips and McCoy have an easy-going conversational style, sharing light banter and keeping a happy tone. They often have guests joining them too. Each episode lasts about 15 minutes.

It’s available on several podcast feeds, with detailed episode descriptions on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe to The Positive Truth: SoundCloud | Apple Podcasts

5. The Happy Broadcast (Web): Illustrated, Kid-Friendly Good News

Mauro Gatti isn’t a journalist, an actor, a social media influencer, or anything else. Mauro is an average person like you, who got fed up with venomous and vitriolic news in the media. So he started collecting positive news and used his skills as an artist to illustrate them.

The Happy Broadcast is a labor of love as Gatti uses his inimitable style to draw a new picture for uplifting news stories. Click the picture to get a short excerpt from a leading publication that inspired him.

It’s a great website to browse with your children, with bright colors and kid-friendly language. You can submit stories to Gatti through the website too.

Gatti updates the website about three times every week. You should also follow The Happy Broadcast on Instagram for the “Happier Sundays” posts, where he shares three positive stories and a feel-good task for the week.

Meditate for Happiness

Sometimes, fighting fire with fire isn’t the best way. You can’t always drown out the negativity of the media by reading positive news instead. Be open to trying different strategies to ensure a healthy mindset.

If you’re feeling depressed or overwhelmed with bad vibes, turn to techniques that have proven to help. Try exercising or moving around, talk to a friend, or put on your headphones and listen to one of the best meditation apps for relaxing.

Read the full article: Be Positive! 5 Good News Websites for Uplifting & Inspirational Stories

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Do More With Your Android Phone: 70+ Tips and Tricks You Should Know

Whether you’re a new convert or a veteran user, whether you have the latest Samsung Galaxy or something much older, our Android tips and tricks will help you!

Android phones have come a long way over the past few years. No matter which brand you’re using, there are plenty of awesome tips and features that you need to know about—they’ll make your life easier, guaranteed.

And not just tips and features, but apps as well. With so many apps in the Google Play Store (and elsewhere), you can pretty much do anything you want with your Android phone. You just need to know what’s out there!

Here’s everything we’ve written to turn you into an Android master.

Understanding Android

Confused about a particular Android feature? Want to grab a few tips and tricks for things like Google Assistant and Android Auto? Check out these useful articles:

• What Is Stock Android?
• What Is an Android ROM?
• What Is Split Screen Mode on Android?
• What Is Airplane Mode on Android?
• What Is Android Auto?
• What Is Android Doze?
• What Is Android Go and Android One?
• What Is USB Debugging Mode on Android?
• What Is USB OTG for Android?
• What Is Google Assistant?

Basic Android Tips and Tricks

Your Android phone can do more than just download and install apps. Here are some of our favorite practical tips for taking your Android skills to the next level, and they aren’t difficult at all:

• How to Remove, Change, and Set Default Apps in Android
• How to Clear Cache on Android
• How to Take a Screenshot on Any Android Phone
• How to Turn On the Flashlight on an Android Phone
• How to Unlock an Android Phone With Your Voice
• How to Unlock an Android Phone Without the Power Button
• How to Schedule SMS Text Messages on Android
• How to Manage the Clipboard on Android
• How to Transfer Files From Android to PC
• How to Move Android Apps to an SD Card
• How to Uninstall Unwanted Apps on Android
• How to Prevent Apps From Using Mobile Data on Android

Advanced Android Tips and Tricks

Did you know your Android phone has a built-in FM radio? Or maybe you want to connect a game controller to play your mobile games? Here are some of the cooler things you can do with a bit of know-how:

• How to Use an Android Phone as a Webcam
• How to Control an Android Phone From a Computer
• How to Connect a USB Keyboard to Your Android Phone
• How to Connect a Game Controller to an Android Phone
• How to Connect an Android Phone to a TV
• How to Mirror Your Android Screen to a PC
• How to Hide Private Photos on an Android Phone
• How to Recover Deleted Photos on an Android Phone
• How to Unlock the FM Radio Hidden in an Android Phone
• How to Use an Android Phone as a GPS Tracker Device
• How to Stop Google From Listening on Your Phone
• How to Use Android Without Google

Useful Apps for Android Users

With the right apps, you can turn your mundane Android phone into a powerhouse tool. Want to make free phone calls? Learn a new skill? Work out and improve your health? Listen to podcasts or stream TV shows? Yep, there’s an app for that:

Practical Apps

• The Best Free Group Conference Call Apps
• The Best Free Calling Apps (Unlimited Calls and SMS With Wi-Fi)
• The Best Free Calling Apps for Making Free Phone Calls
• The Best Apps for a Temporary Burner Phone Number
• The Best Free Offline GPS Navigation Apps
• The Best Walkie Talkie Apps
• The Best Text-to-Speech Apps
• The Best Speech-to-Text Apps
• The Best Apps for Learning New Skills
• The Best Free Note-Taking Apps
• The Best Study Planning Apps
• The Best Bullet Journal Apps
• The Best Receipt Tracking Apps
• The Best Workout Apps
• The Best Google Authenticator Alternatives
• The Best Apps to Really Clean Up Your Device

Entertainment Apps

• The Best Free IPTV Apps
• The Best Music Player Apps
• The Best Podcast Apps
• The Best Volume and Sound Booster Apps
• The Best Reverse Image Search Apps
• The Best Music Production Apps
• The Best Drawing and Painting Apps
• The Best Home Screen Widgets
• The Best Weather Widgets
• The Best Offline Games That Don’t Need Wi-Fi

Google Play Store Tips

• The Most Popular Android Apps in the Google Play Store
• How to Change Your Region in Google Play Store
• How to Fix the “Google Play Service Has Stopped” Error
• How to Fix Common Google Play Store Issues
• The Best Google Play Store Alternatives
• The Best Sites for Safe Android APK Downloads
• How to Sideload Apps on Android

Troubleshooting Android Device Issues

No matter what device you’re using, Android or otherwise, you’re bound to run into issues. When that happens, you can consult our best articles on how to solve issues and problems on Android phones:

• The Most Common Android Problems, Solved
• How to Make Android Faster: What Works and What Doesn’t
• How to Fix an Android Phone That’s Overheating
• How to Check If Your Android Phone’s Battery Is Healthy
• How to Extend the Battery Life of Your Android Phone
• How to Charge Your Android Phone Faster
• How to Remove Popup Ads on an Android Phone
• How to Fix Android Notifications Not Showing Up
• How to Fix an Android Display That’s Flickering
• How to Fix an Unresponsive Android Touchscreen
• How to Recover a Forgotten Android Passcode
• How to Unbrick Your Android Phone

Read the full article: Do More With Your Android Phone: 70+ Tips and Tricks You Should Know

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Before suing NSO Group, Facebook allegedly sought their software to better spy on users

Facebook’s WhatsApp is in the midst of a lawsuit against Israeli mobile surveillance outfit NSO Group. But before complaining about the company’s methods, Facebook seems to have wanted to use them for its own purposes, according to testimony from NSO founder Shalev Hulio.

Last year brought news of an exploit that could be used to install one of NSO’s spyware packages, Pegasus, on devices using WhatsApp. The latter sued the former over it, saying that over a hundred human rights activists, journalists and others were targeted using the method.

WhatsApp blames — and sues — mobile spyware maker NSO Group over its zero-day calling exploit

Last year also saw Facebook finally shut down Onavo, the VPN app it purchased in 2013 and developed into a backdoor method of collecting all manner of data about its users — but not as much as they’d have liked, according to Hulio. In a document filed with the court yesterday he states that Facebook in 2017 asked NSO Group for help collecting data on iOS devices resistant to the usual tricks:

In October 2017, NSO was approached by two Facebook representatives who asked to purchase the right to use certain capabilities of Pegasus, the same NSO software discussed in Plaintiffs’ Complaint.

The Facebook representatives stated that Facebook was concerned that its method for gathering user data through Onavo Protect was less effective on Apple devices than on Android devices. The Facebook representatives also stated that Facebook wanted to use purported capabilities of Pegasus to monitor users on Apple devices and were willing to pay for the ability to monitor Onavo Protect users. Facebook proposed to pay NSO a monthly fee for each Onavo Protect user.

NSO declined, as it claims to only provide its software to governments for law enforcement purposes. But there is a certain irony to Facebook wanting to employ against its users the very software it would later decry being employed against its users. (WhatsApp maintains some independence from its parent company but these events come well after the purchase by and organizational integration into Facebook.)

A Facebook representative did not dispute that representatives from the company approached NSO Group at the time, but said the testimony was an attempt to “distract from the facts” and contained “inaccurate representations about both their spyware and a discussion with people who work at Facebook.” We can presumably expect a fuller rebuttal in the company’s own filings soon.

Facebook and WhatsApp are, quite correctly, concerned that effective, secret intrusion methods like those developed and sold by NSO Group are dangerous in the wrong hands — as demonstrated by the targeting of activists and journalists, and potentially even Jeff Bezos. But however reasonable Facebook’s concerns are, the company’s status as the world’s most notorious collector and peddler of private information makes its righteous stance hard to take seriously.

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New PC? 15 Must-Have Windows Applications You Should Install First

Whether you’ve just purchased a new PC or reinstalled Windows, the first task you’ll likely do is installing apps. While there are dozens of amazing Windows programs, knowing which are the must-have software for Windows 10 makes setting up a new installation easy.

In no particular order, let’s step through 15 essential apps for Windows 10 that everyone should install right away, along with some alternatives.

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1. Internet Browser: Google Chrome

Unsurprisingly, Google Chrome is our top browser pick. It’s still super-speedy, includes little conveniences like instantly searching Google for an image, and the library of Chrome extensions is vast. Throw in cross-platform syncing that lets you open your desktop tabs on your phone and vice-versa, and you’ve got a fantastic browser for all purposes.

Chrome isn’t without its faults, however. Plenty of people want to avoid Google’s pervasive tracking in Chrome, and it gobbles a lot of RAM. But the good news is that you have plenty of other fantastic browsers to choose from, like Firefox and Opera.

Download: Google Chrome (Free)
Download: Firefox (Free)
Download: Opera (Free)

2. Cloud Storage: Google Drive

If you only pick one cloud app service, Google Drive is the one you should install. It offers 15GB of free storage, which is shared across your Google Photos and Gmail accounts.

Google Drive offers an app for every major platform, so you can take your files anywhere. On Windows, the app is now called Backup and Sync from Google, which allows you to back up folders on your computer and external devices, too.

It’s also super easy to share files with others, plus it plays well with Google’s productivity suite. Whether you use it as part of your backup plan, as a cloud flash drive, or for setting up shared folders with others, Google Drive is an essential pick.

Paired with OneDrive that comes built into Windows 10 or another free cloud storage provider, you can get plenty of storage space and separate your files logically.

Download: Google Drive (Free, subscription available)

3. Music Streaming: Spotify

Years ago, listening to music on your desktop meant painstakingly importing and organizing a collection of MP3s. That’s no longer the case; music streaming services eliminate the need for buying individual albums physically or digitally.

There are many music streaming services in the market, but we recommend Spotify. Its ad-supported free plan lets you listen to as much music as you like, and the Spotify Premium upgrade is definitely worth it for avid listeners. Spotify is also home to hundreds of podcasts, making everything available in one convenient place.

Spotify also has a dedicated Windows app, while Apple Music requires the bloated iTunes and Google Play Music is web-only. If you’re invested in either ecosystem, though, the respective music app might be a better choice for you.

Download: Spotify (Free, subscription available)
Visit: Apple Music (Free trial, subscription required)
Visit: Google Play Music (Free, subscription available)

4. Office Suite: LibreOffice

Chances are that you’ll need a tool that lets you work with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations at some point. You might think that paying for Microsoft Office is the only way to do this, but that’s far from the truth.

No Windows user should go without LibreOffice. It’s a completely free and powerful office suite that includes alternatives to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and more. Once you get used to a few small aesthetic differences from MS Office, you’ll be flying through your work with LibreOffice.

Note that OpenOffice, a popular alternative, is basically dead now. If you don’t want to use LibreOffice, try FreeOffice.

Download: LibreOffice (Free)
Download: FreeOffice (Free)

5. Image Editor: Paint.NET

Whether you want to try your hand at image manipulation, need a way to blur sensitive info on screenshots, or want to retouch old photos, everyone should have an image editing program installed. Photoshop is the gold standard for this, but there are plenty of free tools that are more accessible.

Paint.NET is our top choice. It’s far more powerful than Microsoft Paint but doesn’t overwhelm you with loads of confusing tools. You can easily blur out parts of an image, auto-level photos to make them look better, and add text and shapes to your pictures in just a few clicks. Plenty of plugins allow you to expand its functionality, too.

If you find Paint.NET too basic, GIMP is a more advanced solution.

Download: Paint.NET (Free)
Download: GIMP (Free)

6. Security: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

Windows 10 includes Windows Defender, which is a good enough antivirus for most people. However, it’s wise to keep a secondary security program installed.

For this, you can’t beat Malwarebytes. The free version lets you scan your system for malware that your antivirus might not catch. And for a powerful blended security solution, we think upgrading to Malwarebytes Premium is worth the cost.

Download: Malwarebytes (Free, subscription available)

7. Media Player: VLC

Thanks to YouTube’s ubiquitous nature, you probably don’t watch local videos too often. However, you should still keep a solid video player around on your desktop for when you need to play media files locally.

For this task, nothing beats VLC Media Player, which packs a ton of features and is capable of playing nearly every video and audio format imaginable. You might not break it out often, but give VLC a download and save yourself the hassle of messing with video codecs or using the awfully insecure QuickTime.

Download: VLC (Free)

8. Screenshots: ShareX

Taking a Windows screenshot is useful for everything from capturing funny moments to having a record of important information. The basic Snipping Tool and Snip & Sketch apps only provide a barebones feature set, so you need something better.

You won’t find a better free screenshot tool than ShareX. With tons of capture methods, a powerful built-in editor, automated steps after you take a screenshot, and extra tools like a color grabber and ruler, ShareX has an impressive feature set for no cost.

If ShareX overwhelms you, give PicPick a try instead.

Download: ShareX (Free)
Download: PicPick (Free)

9. File Compression and Extraction: 7-Zip

Windows includes native support for simple zipped files, but anything beyond the basics requires a more powerful tool. While this isn’t the most exciting software category, it’s important to have so you can work with any kind of archived files you might encounter.

7-Zip is the gold standard for file compression and extraction apps. It’s small and installs in seconds, is easy to use, and stays out of your way when you’re not using it. Those who needs advanced features will still find them in 7-Zip, though.

The only drawback of 7-Zip is its aged appearance. If you can’t get over that, take a look at PeaZip, which is a similar tool with a much more attractive interface. Either way, you certainly don’t need to pay for tools like WinRAR.

Download: 7-Zip (Free)
Download: PeaZip (Free)

10. Messaging: Rambox

Chances are that you use at least one messaging service to stay in touch with your friends during the day. With so many options to choose from, there’s no way we could pick the best messaging service because it all depends on what your friends use. So why not pick all of them?

Rambox is our pick for the best messaging app on Windows. It lets you add accounts from dozens of popular messaging services, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Telegram, GroupMe, Hangouts, Discord, and many more.

The app simply adds a new tab for every service you use, letting you keep up with every group in one window. It includes some extra features that make it more useful than opening them in your browser, and you can easily close one program when it’s time to focus. While Rambox’s free plan has some limitations, it offers more for free than competitors like Franz.

Download: Rambox (Free, subscription available)

A Few More Important Software for Your PC

Let’s quickly wrap up with five other programs that everyone should install. These don’t fit into any of the above categories, but are handy nonetheless:

• LastPass is a great free password manager. Using one is essential for creating strong logins and keeping track of your passwords for you.
• ClipClip increases the usefulness of the Windows clipboard many times over. With it, you can keep recently copied entries close at hand, pin frequent snips for easy access, and search through your clipboard history.
• Macrium Reflect is our favorite free backup software for Windows. Making a backup is vital so you don’t lose data in the event of a system failure.
• ExpressVPN is our recommend VPN service. Use it to protect your web activity from surveillance and access geoblocked content.
• TreeSize Free allows you to quickly analyze your storage usage and see which folders are taking up the most space.

Windows 10 Essential Apps and Programs: Installed!

We’ve looked at must-have apps for Windows 10 that everyone should install right away—and they’re almost all free! If you don’t prefer one of our favorites, you’ll find a suitable alternative without much trouble. Most people will get plenty of use out of these programs and appreciate them much more than basic default software.

Now that you know the essential software for PC users, you should also be aware of unnecessary Windows apps that you should uninstall.

Read the full article: New PC? 15 Must-Have Windows Applications You Should Install First

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The 4 Best Free Alternatives to DAEMON Tools for Mounting Image Files

Sometimes you come across a file type you’ve never seen before. It’s a disk image file, but you don’t know what it means to mount that file and create a virtual drive. Depending on your operating system version and file type, you might need a third party program like DAEMON Tools.

For years, DAEMON Tools remained the first-choice software for mounting these files. However, free alternatives to DAEMON Tools exist and continue to become more competitive.

So, why pay outright? Try these three free alternatives to DAEMON Tools for mounting image files.

Do I Need a Virtual Drive?

Before downloading any software, you might wonder if you need a virtual drive. You only really need a virtual drive if you want to mount disk image files. Disk image files are digital copies of optical media such as CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray disks.

It is possible to rip the entire contents of optical media and then mount it with image mounting software. The software installs a virtual optical drive on your PC, which functions exactly the same as a normal drive. But instead of physical media, you feed it image files.

You can then access the disk image file as if you had put a physical disk into your computer. It’s useful when you download software or applications but want to avoid burning them to a disk. Just mount your chosen software in the virtual drive.

DAEMON Tools Lite

There exists a free version of the DAEMON Tools product line, DAEMON Tools Lite. However, this version does come with ads. For the ad trade-off, DAEMON Tools Lite mounts images, VHDs, and ZIP archives.

It detects these image types: .MDX, .CCD, .BWT, .VMDK, .MDS, .ISZ, .NRG, .VDI, .MDF, .CDI, .VHD, .ZIP, .ISO, .IMG, .B5T, .B6T, .TC, .CUE, and .ISCSI.

As a free user, you can only mount four virtual drives.

Download: DAEMON Tools Lite (Free, Ad-Free Version: $5.99)

Alternatives to DAEMON Tools

If you want to find alternatives, don’t worry. Maybe you’re after a simpler software and don’t have any use for exotic file types. Regardless of your reasons, here are three good alternatives to DAEMON Tools that won’t cost you a penny.

1. Use Windows 10’s Mounting Feature for ISO

If you’re just looking to mount an ISO image, there’s no need to install any third-party software. Here are three ways to do it before installing any software:

• Right-click the ISO image and select Mount.
• Just double-click the ISO image to mount it.
• Click on the ISO image, press the Disc Image Tools tab, and then choose Mount.

This mounting method can save you some time if you’ve just learned how to create an ISO image of your Windows system.

2. WinCDEmu

The first freeware and open source program is WinCDEmu. Right off the bat, you’ll notice the much more minimalist design for this program compared to DAEMON Tools.

When you open WinCDEmu’s settings you’ll see they consist of drive letter policy, your language, and whether you want to require administrator rights (UAC) to mount an image.

While WinCDEmu doesn’t cover all the same types as DAEMON Tools, it supports many of the major formats. The mountable image file types are: .ISO, .CUE, .NRG, .MDS, .BIN, .CCD and .IMG.

WinCDEmu offers a portable version too. This special build of WinCDEmu doesn’t require an installation (just a quick driver install), so it’s useful if you don’t want to keep a mounting program installed. Also, you’ll have access to an unlimited amount of drives.

Download: WinCDEmu (Free)
Download: WinCDEmu – Portable Version (Free)

3. Virtual CloneDrive

Virtual CloneDrive functions in a similar way to WinCDEmu. On installation, you agree to associate it with certain file formats. Specifically, you can choose between CCD, DVD, ISO, IMG, UDF, and BIN disk image formats.

Open the program to get a few more drive options. You can choose to replace your virtual drive icons with that of sheep (virtual sheep), keep a history of your recent disk mounts, auto-mount your last image, show a tray icon, and the eject command unmounts image files. Of these, the history setting offers the most advantage since it makes it easy to swap between recent images.

You can also alter the number of drives available at a time. However, it caps out when you hit fifteen.

Download: Virtual CloneDrive (Free)

4. Alcohol Portable

Alcohol Portable offers another alternative where you don’t need to install the software. While it does have a set-up file, it simply creates a folder with all the program contents. Once you’re in the program, you can remove it with one click.

Hit File then select Exit + Remove Device Driver and Service. It’s a great option if you don’t want to leave a footprint just to mount one single file.

Alcohol Portable is easy to use too. Drag your image file onto Alcohol Portable, and it will mount itself. By right clicking your image file, you can choose to unmount the image file or set its drive letter as well.

The only downside is unlike the other virtual drives, you can’t locate a support list of what file types work within the app. However, there’s no problem mounting common file types like ISO or MDS.

Download: Alcohol Portable (Free)

Explore Programs Like Daemon Tools

If you’re looking for a free alternative to Daemon Tools, all these programs cover the most common file types. Plus, if you need to use Daemon Tools, you can always use Daemon Tools Lite for free. Just decide how frequently you use a file mounting software and the file types you come across.

Are you looking to use disk image files for operating systems other than Windows? Consider looking into how to extract ISO files with Linux. If you’d rather apply what you know with Windows, why not create a bootable USB from an ISO with these tools.

Read the full article: The 4 Best Free Alternatives to DAEMON Tools for Mounting Image Files

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The 10 Best Sites for Free College Courses Online

You don’t have to travel to a university or pay tuition to access many learning resources, with a variety of institutions offering free online college classes through open learning initiatives.

While most of these free courses don’t offer credit or certificates (unless you pay a certification fee), they are a great way for you to expand your knowledge and keep up-to-date with your industry. Then, there’s the benefit of being able to learn anywhere, anytime, and at your own pace.

Interested in accessing free college-level courses while at home? Here are some of the best sites to take free online college courses.

1. EdX

EdX is one of the largest massive open online course providers in the world, giving over 14 million users access to free courses from universities. Originally founded by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the site now includes courses from the likes of Boston University, Caltech, and dozens of other prestigious universities from around the world.

You can study courses in a wide range of fields on the website—including science, education, history, medicine, and more. There is also a wide range of free computer programming courses available.

While the courses are free, verified certificates and degrees are not. EdX offers certification and online master’s degrees on the website, but these require users to pay fees or tuition.

 2. MIT OpenCourseWare

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was a pioneer in offering online college courses. The university gives you the ability to download and follow their archived courses through its OpenCourseWare platform.

The benefit of using the platform is that you get access to a huge range of actual courses that the university has offered over the years. The downside is that you may still need to purchase textbooks to follow the curricula.

The website also doesn’t offer accreditation or certification, since these are archived courses. But they are a useful resource if you want to expand your knowledge on certain subjects.

3. Carnegie Mellon OpenLearning

Carnegie Mellon University provides free online courses for anyone wishing to access them. In fact, it even offers materials for instructors who wish to teach their students these courses.

For independent learners, there are short courses on topics such as computer science, biology, psychology, and more. The downside is that the number of open courses is much more limited than other open learning websites.

Carnegie Mellon’s open courses are similar to what a paying student would receive minus the course credit or access to an instructor.

4. Coursera

Coursera is another online learning platform through which many universities and companies offer their open courses. Like other course providers on the list, you can access courses for free, but you won’t receive accreditation or a certificate without a fee.

Nevertheless, the site provides a great platform for online learning. Major universities such as Duke and Columbia offer courses on the platform. Meanwhile, you can also access online courses from Google and companies such as Intel or Amazon.

If you wish to access the certification and specialization features on the platform, there is a monthly subscription you can buy. However, all individual courses are available to view for free if you choose the audit option. This gives you access to all the material and lectures in the course, minus a certificate or accreditation.

5. Stanford Online

Stanford Online is the website through which Stanford University offers all its online courses. While you would have to pay tuition to complete a certificate or degree through the platform, the university’s open learning courses are available to anyone for free. This includes courses offered by the different university schools, such as Stanford School of Medicine and Stanford Business School.

These open courses are particularly useful for those looking for Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits, which can be earned by completing certain courses on the website without needing to spend a cent.

6. FutureLearn

FutureLearn is another platform that offers courses from universities and organizations around the world. Like the other open learning platforms, courses are available for free but certificates require a fee.

The website has an impressive range of courses across different fields, as well as various courses aimed at improving life skills. For example, FutureLearn has courses dedicated to improving your budgeting skills, online research skills, critical thinking, and job interview skills.

The platform is a great tool for those looking to expand both their academic knowledge and useful everyday skills.

7. OpenLearn

The OpenLearn platform offers content from The Open University— a university that pledges to be open and offer free learning to as many people as possible. While the university has physical classrooms based in the UK, it has also opened its content to anyone online through its OpenLearn website.

The online college courses are laid out extremely well and cover many different topics. A great feature is that it offers courses for differing skill and knowledge levels, from beginners to experts.

Once you have completed a course, you can receive a statement of participation to show potential employers. While this does not count towards university credits, it provides evidence that you have successfully completed courses from The Open University.

8. Harvard Online

If you’re interested in courses from Harvard University, the institution offers many through its online portal. While some of these courses are paid, there are dozens that are also available for free.

Some of the university’s free courses include religious studies, game development, app development, and data science. When you filter according to free courses, over 50 are available, so look at which ones might interest you.

9. OEDb.org

The Open Education Database (OEDb.org) isn’t its own college, but rather a site that helps you explore free online classes from universities. It’s essentially a search engine for online courses. Kyoto University, Utah State University, and Tufts University are a few of the institutions included on the aggregator.

It can be tricky finding available courses using the “degree finder” on the site, so we suggest rather using the search field or scrolling down the page to search courses by category.

10. Class Central

Class Central is another free college course search engine that is user-friendly and easy to sort through. It aggregates courses from universities in different countries, but also other e-learning websites such as EdX and Coursera.

If you don’t want to be limited to searching for courses from one provider or platform, an aggregator like Class Central helps you find the courses that suit you best. The website even has a filter specifically for Ivy League institutions.

Online Learning Is Easier Than Ever

These online courses are a great way to expand your knowledge on certain topics for free. But you can also access online learning through other platforms. Increasingly, free apps are offering people ways to learn new skills with their smartphones.

From coding skills to foreign languages, apps can help you fit learning into your busy schedule. Check out how you can learn a new language with Rosetta Stone or look at these Android apps that will help you learn new skills anywhere, at any time.

Read the full article: The 10 Best Sites for Free College Courses Online

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How to Automatically CC or BCC Yourself in Outlook and Gmail

Copying (CC) and blind copying (BCC) yourself on emails can be a useful way to remind yourself of important emails or to keep your colleagues in the loop. Gmail and Outlook users can easily automate the process so that, if the need arises, all your emails are automatically CCed or BCCed.

This method isn’t for everyone and you might find that it could make for a messy inbox. That said, Outlook users also have the option to be more selective when choosing when to use the feature, but still keep it completely automated.

How to Automatically CC or BCC Yourself in Gmail

To automatically BCC or CC yourself (or any other email address for that matter) in Gmail, you will need to use a browser extension. The feature is not native to Gmail itself, and a lot of the third party extensions require pretty extensive permissions to access your email.

BCC Me for Gmail (which is not yet compatible with the new Gmail) requires access to read and change data on Gmail as well as access to your entire browsing history.

The extension with the least permissions required is Auto BCC for Gmail from CloudHQ, which unlike the other, does not access browsing history outside of the Gmail domain.

Once the extension of your choice is installed and has access to your Gmail account, you can create a rule using the following steps:

1. Click the Compose button to create a new email.
2. Click the envelope icon next to the send button. 
3. In the dialog box that opens, click Add new rule.
4. Under When emails are sent from, you should see your email address already filled in. In the dropdown menu directly beneath that select to everyone, but not to and leave the field blank. Under then automatically select BCC (or CC if you prefer) and enter your email address. 
5. Click Save Rule. 

Should you decide you no longer want to use this extension, you can uninstall it and revoke its access to your Gmail account in your Gmail Sign-in and Security settings, which you can reach at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

If you’re not a Chrome user, or don’t want to grant a third-party access to your email, a good workaround to automatically BCC is to use Gmail’s filter and forwarding features.

How to Automatically CC or BCC Yourself in Outlook

Outlook users can automatically CC or BCC themselves using the email program’s Rules feature.

1. On the Home tab, click the arrow under Rules and click Manage Rules and Alerts. 
2. Click New Rule.
3. Under Start from a blank rule, click Apply rule on messages I send and click Next.
4. If you want to apply this rule to all your sent emails, just click Next again and Yes in the pop-up window. If you want to be more selective, you can use the criteria listed to select only certain types of emails to add this automation to.
5. In Step 1 of this window, select Cc the message to people or public group. In Step 2, click the people or public group link. In the To field, enter your email address. Click Next. (If you would rather not publicly CC someone, you can mimic a BCC by checking Move a copy to the specified folder in Step 1, and clicking the Specified Folder link and selecting your Inbox.)
6. Again, you can add optional exceptions if there are certain emails you don’t want to apply this rule to.
7. You can then enter a name for your rule, and make sure that Turn on rule is checked.

For more tips, check out how to automatically forward email from Outlook to Gmail and vice-versa.

Read the full article: How to Automatically CC or BCC Yourself in Outlook and Gmail

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The pandemic is already reshaping tech’s misinformation crisis

Since 2016, social media companies have faced an endless barrage of bad press and public criticism for failing to anticipate how their platforms could be used for dark purposes at the scale of populations—undermining democracies around the world, say, or sowing social division and even fueling genocide.

As COVID-19 plunges the world into chaos and social isolation, those same companies may face a respite from focused criticism, particularly with the industry leveraging its extraordinary resources to pitch in with COVID-19 relief efforts as the world looks to tech upstarts, adept at cutting through red tape and fast-forwarding scientific progress in normal times, while government bureaucracies lag. But the same old problems are rearing their ugly heads just the same, even if less of us are paying attention.

On YouTube, new report from The Guardian and watchdog group Tech Transparency Project found that a batch of videos promoting fake coronavirus cures are making the company ad dollars. The videos, which promoted unscientific methods including “home remedies, meditative music, and potentially unsafe levels of over-the-counter supplements like vitamin C” as potential treatments for the virus, ran ads from unwitting advertisers including Liberty Mutual, Quibi, Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign and Facebook. In Facebook’s case, a banner ad for the company ran on a video suggesting music that promotes “cognitive positivity by using subtle yet powerful theta waves” could ward off the virus.

In the early days of the pandemic, YouTube prohibited ads on any videos related to the coronavirus. In mid-March, as the real scope of the event became clear, the company walked that policy back, allowing some channels to run ads. On Thursday, the company expanded that policy to allow ads for any videos that adhere to the company’s guidelines. One the major tenets in those guidelines forbids the promotion of medical misinformation including “promotion of dangerous remedies or cures.” Most of the videos in the new report were removed after being flagged by a journalist.

This example, and the many others like it, calls into question how to judge major tech platforms during these exceedingly strange times. Social media companies have been uncharacteristically transparent about the shifts the pandemic is creating within their own workflows. On a call in March, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg admitted that users can expect more “false positives” as the company shifts to rely more heavily on artificial intelligence to filter what belongs on the platform and what does not with its army of 15,000 contract moderators sent home on paid leave. The work of sorting through a platform’s most unsavory content—child pornography, extreme violence, hate speech and the like—is not particularly portable, given its potential psychological and legal ramifications.

YouTube similarly warned that it will “temporarily start relying more on technology” to fill in for human reviewers, warning that the automated processes will likely mean more video removals “including some videos that may not violate policies.” Twitter noted the same new reliance on machine learning “to take a wide range of actions on potentially abusive and manipulative content,” though the company will offer an appeals process that loops in a human reviewer. Companies offered fewer warnings about what might fall through the cracks in the interim.

What will become of moderation once things return to normal, or, more likely, settle on a new normal? Will artificial intelligence have mastered the task, obviating the need for human reviewers once and for all? (Unlikely.) Will social media companies have a fresh appreciate for the value of human efforts and bring more of those jobs in-house, where they can perform their bleak work with more of the sunny perks afforded to their full-time counterparts? Like most things examined through the nightmarish haze of the pandemic, the outcomes are hazy at best.

If the approach to holding platforms to account was already piecemeal, an uneven mix of investigative reporting, anecdotal tweets and official corporate post-mortems, the truth will be even more difficult to get at now, even as the coronavirus pandemic provides countless new deadly opportunities for price-gougers and myriad bad actors to create chaos within chaos.

We’ve seen deadly consequences already in Iran, where hundreds died after drinking industrial alcohol—an idea they got “in messages forwarded and forwarded again” amplifying a tabloid story that suggested the act could protect them from the virus. Most consequences will likely go unnoticed beyond the lives they impact and unreported due to tighetened newsroom resources and perhaps even more constricted attention spans.

Much has been written about the coronavirus and the fog of war, most of it rightly focused on scientific research pressing on as the virus threatens the globe and the devastating on-the-ground reality in hospitals and health facilities overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients while life-saving supplies dwindle. But the crisis of viral misinformation—and deliberately-sown disinformation—is its own fog, now intermixing with an unprecedented global crisis that has entirely upended business and relentlessly dominated the news cycle. This as the world’s foremost power heads into a completely upended presidential election cycle—its first since four years ago, when an unexpected election outcome coupled with deep U.S.-centrism in tech circles revealed nefarious forces at play just under the surface of the social networks we hadn’t thought all that much about.

In the present, it will be difficult for outsiders to determine where new systems implemented during the pandemic have failed and what bad outcomes would have happened anyway. To sort those causes out, we’ll have to take a company’s word for it, a risky kind of credulity that already offered mixed results in normal times. Even as we rely on them now more than ever to forge and nurture connections, the virtual portals we immerse ourselves in daily remain black boxes, inscrutable as ever. And as with so many aspects of life in these norm-shattering times, the only thing to expect is change.

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The intangible effects of walls | Alexandra Auer

The intangible effects of walls | Alexandra Auer

More barriers exist now than at the end of World War II, says designer Alexandra Auer. And when you erect one wall, you unwittingly create a second -- an "us" versus "them" partition in the mind that compromises our collective safety. With intriguing results from her social design project focused on two elementary schools separated by a fence, Auer encourages us to dismantle our biases and regain perspective on all the things we have in common.

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

Google rolls back SameSite cookie changes to keep essential online services from breaking

Google today announced that it will temporarily roll back the changes it recently made to how its Chrome browser handles cookies in order to ensure that sites that perform essential services like banking, online grocery, government services and healthcare won’t become inaccessible to Chrome users during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The new SameSite rules, which the company started rolling out to a growing number of Chrome users in recent months, are meant to make it harder for sites to access cookies from third-party sites and hence track a user’s online activity. These new rules are also meant to prevent cross-site request forgery attacks.

Under Google’s new guidance, developers must explicitly allow their cookies to be read by third-party sites, otherwise, the browser will prevent these third-party sites from accessing them.

Because this is a pretty major change, Google gave developers quite a bit of time to adapt their applications to it. Still, not every site is ready yet, so the Chrome team decided to halt the gradual rollout and stop enforcing these new rules for the time being.

“While most of the web ecosystem was prepared for this change, we want to ensure stability for websites providing essential services including banking, online groceries, government services and healthcare that facilitate our daily life during this time,” writes Google Chrome engineering director Justin Schuh. “As we roll back enforcement, organizations, users and sites should see no disruption.”

A Google spokesperson also told us that the team saw some breakage in sites “that would not normally be considered essential, but with COVID-19 having become more important, we made this decision in an effort to ensure stability during this time.”

The company says it plans to resume its SameSite enforcement over the summer, though the exact timing isn’t yet clear.

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

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Exploring Nature-Inspired Robot Agility

Posted by Xue Bin (Jason) Peng, Student Researcher and Sehoon Ha, Research Scientist, Robotics at Google

Whether it’s a dog chasing after a ball or a horse jumping over obstacles, animals can effortlessly perform an incredibly rich repertoire of agile skills. Developing robots that are able to replicate these agile behaviors can open opportunities to deploy robots for sophisticated tasks in the real world. But designing controllers that enable legged robots to perform these agile behaviors can be a very challenging task. While reinforcement learning (RL) is an approach often used for automating development of robotic skills, a number of technical hurdles remain and, in practice, there is still substantial manual overhead. Designing reward functions that lead to effective skills can itself require a great deal of expert insight, and often involves a lengthy reward tuning process for each desired skill. Furthermore, applying RL to legged robots requires not only efficient algorithms, but also mechanisms to enable the robots to remain safe and recover after falling, without frequent human assistance.

In this post, we will discuss two of our recent projects aimed at addressing these challenges. First, we describe how robots can learn agile behaviors by imitating motions from real animals, producing fast and fluent movements like trotting and hopping. Then, we discuss a system for automating the training of locomotion skills in the real world, which allows robots to learn to walk on their own, with minimal human assistance.

Learning Agile Robotic Locomotion Skills by Imitating Animals
In “Learning Agile Robotic Locomotion Skills by Imitating Animals”, we present a framework that takes a reference motion clip recorded from an animal (a dog, in this case) and uses RL to train a control policy that enables a robot to imitate the motion in the real world. By providing the system with different reference motions, we are able to train a quadruped robot to perform a diverse set of agile behaviors, ranging from fast walking gaits to dynamic hops and turns. The policies are trained primarily in simulation, and then transferred to the real world using a latent space adaptation technique that can efficiently adapt a policy using only a few minutes of data from the real robot.

Motion Imitation
We start by collecting motion capture clips of a real dog performing various locomotion skills. Then, we use RL to train a control policy to imitate the dog’s motions. The policies are trained in a physics simulation to track the pose of the reference motion at each timestep. Then, by using different reference motions in the reward function, we can train a simulated robot to imitate a variety of different skills.

Reinforcement learning is used to train a simulated robot to imitate the reference motions from a dog. All simulations are performed using PyBullet.

However, since simulators generally provide only a coarse approximation of the real world, policies trained in simulation often perform poorly when deployed on a real robot. Therefore, we use a sample-efficient latent space adaptation technique to transfer a policy trained in simulation to the real world.

First, to encourage the policy to learn behaviors that are robust to variations in the dynamics, we randomize the dynamics of the simulation by varying physical quantities, such as the robot’s mass and friction. Since we have access to the values of these parameters during training in simulation, we can also map them to a low-dimensional representation using a learned encoder. This encoding is then passed as an additional input to the policy during training. Since the physical parameters of the real robot are not known a priori, when deploying the policy to a real robot, we remove the encoder and directly search for a set of parameters in the latent space that enables the robot to successfully execute the desired skills in the real world. This technique is often able to adapt a policy to the real world using less than 8 minutes of real-world data.

Comparison of policies before and after adaptation on the real robot. Before adaptation, the robot is prone to falling. But after adaptation, the policies are able to more consistently execute the desired skills.

Results
Using this approach, the robot learns to imitate various locomotion skills from a dog, including different walking gaits, such as pacing and trotting, as well as an agile spinning motion.

Robot imitating various skills from a dog.

In addition to imitating motions from real dogs, it is also possible to imitate artist-animated keyframe motions, including a dynamic hop-turn:

Skills learned by imitating artist-animated keyframe motions: side-steps, turn, and hop-turn.

More details are available in the following video:

Learning to Walk in the Real World with Minimal Human Effort
The above approach is able to train policies in simulation and then adapt them to the real world. However, when the task involves complex and diverse physical phenomena, it is also necessary to directly learn from real-world experience. Although learning on real robots has achieved state-of-the-art performance for manipulation tasks (e.g., QT-Opt), applying the same methods to legged robots is difficult since the robot may fall and damage itself, or leave the training area, which can then require human intervention.

An automated learning system for legged robots must resolve safety and automation challenges.

In “Learning to Walk in the Real World with Minimal Human Effort”, we developed an automated learning system with software and hardware components, using a multi-task learning procedure, a safety-constrained learner, and several carefully designed hardware and software components. Multi-task learning prevents the robot from leaving the training area by generating a learning schedule that drives the robot towards the center of the workspace. We also reduce the number of falls by designing a safety constraint, which we solve with dual gradient descent.

For each roll-out, the scheduler selects a task in which the desired walking direction is pointing towards the center. For instance, assuming we have two tasks, forward and backward walking, the scheduler will select the forward task if the robot is at the back of the workspace, and vice-versa for the backward task. In the middle of the episode, the learner takes dual gradient descent steps to iteratively optimize both the task objective and safety constraints, rather than treating them as a single goal. If the robot has fallen, we invoke an automated get-up controller and proceed to the next episode.

We solve automation and safety challenges with multi-task learning, a safety-constrained SAC algorithm, and an automatic reset controller.

Results
This framework successfully trains policies from scratch to walk in different directions without any human intervention.

Snapshots of the training process on the flat surface with zero human resets.

Once trained, it is possible to steer the robot with a remote controller. Notice how it's possible to command the robot to turn in place using the controller. This action would be difficult to manually design due to the planar leg structure of the robot, but is discovered automatically using our automated multi-instance learner.

We train locomotion policies to walk in four directions, which allow us to interactively control the robot with a game controller.

The system also enables the robot to navigate more challenging surfaces, such as a memory foam mattress and a doormat with crevices.

Learned locomotion gaits on challenging terrains.

More details can be found in the following video:

Conclusion
In these two papers, we present methods to reproduce a diverse corpus of behaviors with quadruped robots. Extending this line of work to learn skills from videos would also be an exciting direction, which can substantially increase the volume of data from which robots can learn. We are also interested in applying the automated training system to more complex real-world environments and tasks.

Acknowledgments
We would like to thank our coauthors, Erwin Coumans, Tingnan Zhang, Tsang-Wei Lee, Jie Tan, Sergey Levine, Peng Xu and Zhenyu Tan. We would also like to thank Julian Ibarz, Byron David, Thinh Nguyen, Gus Kouretas, Krista Reymann, and Bonny Ho for their support and contributions to this work.