Facebook and Instagram roll out Shops, turning business profiles into storefronts

Starting today, you’ll be able to browse and buy products directly from a business’ Facebook Page or Instagram profile.

Both Facebook and Instagram already supported a degree of ecommerce — for example, Facebook has its Marketplace and will likely make a bigger push through its Libra cryptocurrency initiative, while Instagram allows users to buy products featured in posts and ads. But the company’s new tools go further, enabling businesses to create a full-fledged Facebook Shop.

After all, the pandemic has probably made consumers even more likely to treat Facebook and Instagram profiles as the go-to source of information on local restaurants and stores — if your favorite store has changed their hours, or switched to online delivery/curbside pickup, they’ve almost certainly posted about it on Facebook or Instagram. So why not allow visitors to make purchases without having to leave the Facebook and Instagram apps?

It’s also worth remembering that the pandemic’s economic fallout is already hurting and killing off many small businesses — businesses that post and advertise on Facebook. So the company has a stake in helping those businesses survive in any way it can.

In a Facebook Live session today, CEO Mark Zuckerberg described this as a way to help businesses suffering in the wake of COVID-19, though he acknowledged it will not “undo all the economic damage.”

He also suggested that this will remain useful after the pandemic: “I do think we’re going to continue living more of our lives online and doing more business online.”

Image Credits: Facebook

Meanwhile, Instagram’s vice president of product Vishal Shah told me this as a big, global test of the feature, with nearly 1 million businesses already signed up.

Those businesses will be able to create a Facebook Store for free — they just upload their catalogue, choose the products they want to feature, then customize it with cover image and accent colors. Visitors can then browse, save and order products.

Facebook’s vice president of ads Dan Levy said that while the company will charge “small fees” on each purchase, the real monetization will come from driving more advertising.

Levy described this as a “build and render anywhere” solution, with Shah adding that “the shop itself will be very consistent, whether it’s on Facebook or Instagram.” What will differ is how consumers discover the shops, whether it’s via the Facebook Marketplace or a product tagged in a photo on Instagram.

The company also plans to launch another experience called Instagram Shop this summer, allowing users to browse products directly from Instagram Explore and eventually to jump into a shopping experience from the app’s main navigation tab. There will also be ways for merchants to feature and link products from their Facebook Stores in their live videos, and for consumers to connect loyalty programs to their Facebook accounts.

As part of this announcement, Facebook said it’s partnering with Shopify, BigCommerce, Woo, Channel Advisor, CedCommerce, Cafe24, Tienda Nube and Feedonomics.

Merchants will be able to use these third-party platforms to manage their Facebook Shops, as well as the ads tied to those Shops. For example Shopify said, “Facebook Shops allows Shopify merchants to get control over customization and merchandising for their storefronts inside Facebook and Instagram, while managing their products, inventory, orders, and fulfilment directly from within Shopify.”

Facebook announces $100M grant program for small businesses

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Daily Crunch: Disney’s streaming chief departs for TikTok

TikTok enlists a big name from Disney as its new CEO, Walmart is shuttering its Jet e-commerce brand and EasyJet admits to a major data breach.

Here’s your Daily Crunch for May 19, 2020.

1. Disney streaming exec Kevin Mayer becomes TikTok’s new CEO

Mayer’s role involved overseeing Disney’s streaming strategy, including the launch of Disney+ last fall, which has already grown to more than 50 million subscribers. He was also seen as a potential successor to Disney CEO Bob Iger; instead, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Chairman Bob Chapek was named CEO in a sudden announcement in February.

Mayer was likely an attractive choice to lead TikTok not just because of his streaming success, but also because hiring a high-profile American executive could help address politicians’ security concerns about the app’s Chinese ownership.

2. Walmart says it will discontinue Jet, which it acquired for $3B in 2016

Walmart tried to put a positive spin on the news, saying, “Due to continued strength of the Walmart.com brand, the company will discontinue Jet.com. The acquisition of Jet.com nearly four years ago was critical to accelerating our omni strategy.”

3. EasyJet says 9 million travel records taken in data breach

EasyJet, the U.K.’s largest airline, said hackers have accessed the travel details of 9 million customers. The budget airline said 2,200 customers also had their credit card details accessed in the data breach, but passport records were not accessed.

4. Where these 6 top VCs are investing in cannabis

The results paint a stunning picture of an industry on the verge of breaking away from a market correction. Our six respondents described numerous opportunities for startups and investors, but cautioned that this atmosphere will not last long. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

5. Brex brings on $150M in new cash in case of an ‘extended recession’

Where upstart companies aren’t cutting staff, they are often reducing spend — which is bad news for Brex, since it makes money on purchases made through its startup-tailored corporate card. But co-founder Henrique Dubugras seems largely unbothered on how the pandemic impacts Brex’s future.

6. Popping the hood on Vroom’s IPO filing

Yesterday afternoon, Vroom, an online car buying service, filed to go public. What does a private, car-focused e-commerce company worth $1.5 billion look like under the hood? (Extra Crunch membership required.)

7. Experience marketplace Pollen lays off 69 North America staff, furloughs 34 in UK

Founded in 2014 and previously called Verve, Pollen operates in the influencer or “word-of-mouth” marketing space. The marketplace lets friends or “members” discover and book travel, events and other experiences — and in turn helps promoters use word-of-mouth recommendations to sell tickets.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

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Daily Crunch: Disney’s streaming chief departs for TikTok

TikTok enlists a big name from Disney as its new CEO, Walmart is shuttering its Jet e-commerce brand and EasyJet admits to a major data breach.

Here’s your Daily Crunch for May 19, 2020.

1. Disney streaming exec Kevin Mayer becomes TikTok’s new CEO

Mayer’s role involved overseeing Disney’s streaming strategy, including the launch of Disney+ last fall, which has already grown to more than 50 million subscribers. He was also seen as a potential successor to Disney CEO Bob Iger; instead, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Chairman Bob Chapek was named CEO in a sudden announcement in February.

Mayer was likely an attractive choice to lead TikTok not just because of his streaming success, but also because hiring a high-profile American executive could help address politicians’ security concerns about the app’s Chinese ownership.

2. Walmart says it will discontinue Jet, which it acquired for $3B in 2016

Walmart tried to put a positive spin on the news, saying, “Due to continued strength of the Walmart.com brand, the company will discontinue Jet.com. The acquisition of Jet.com nearly four years ago was critical to accelerating our omni strategy.”

3. EasyJet says 9 million travel records taken in data breach

EasyJet, the U.K.’s largest airline, said hackers have accessed the travel details of 9 million customers. The budget airline said 2,200 customers also had their credit card details accessed in the data breach, but passport records were not accessed.

4. Where these 6 top VCs are investing in cannabis

The results paint a stunning picture of an industry on the verge of breaking away from a market correction. Our six respondents described numerous opportunities for startups and investors, but cautioned that this atmosphere will not last long. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

5. Brex brings on $150M in new cash in case of an ‘extended recession’

Where upstart companies aren’t cutting staff, they are often reducing spend — which is bad news for Brex, since it makes money on purchases made through its startup-tailored corporate card. But co-founder Henrique Dubugras seems largely unbothered on how the pandemic impacts Brex’s future.

6. Popping the hood on Vroom’s IPO filing

Yesterday afternoon, Vroom, an online car buying service, filed to go public. What does a private, car-focused e-commerce company worth $1.5 billion look like under the hood? (Extra Crunch membership required.)

7. Experience marketplace Pollen lays off 69 North America staff, furloughs 34 in UK

Founded in 2014 and previously called Verve, Pollen operates in the influencer or “word-of-mouth” marketing space. The marketplace lets friends or “members” discover and book travel, events and other experiences — and in turn helps promoters use word-of-mouth recommendations to sell tickets.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

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Microsoft launches industry-specific cloud solutions, starting with healthcare

Microsoft today announced the launch of the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, an industry-specific cloud solution for healthcare providers. This is the first in what is likely going to be a set of cloud offerings that target specific verticals and extends a trend we’ve seen among large cloud providers (especially Google), who tailor specific offerings to the needs of individual industries.

“More than ever, being connected is critical to create an individualized patient experience,” writes Tom McGuinness, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Health at Microsoft, and Dr. Greg Moore, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Health, in today’s announcement. “The Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare helps healthcare organizations to engage in more proactive ways with their patients, allows caregivers to improve the efficiency of their workflows and streamline interactions with Classified as Microsoft Confidentialpatientswith more actionable results.”

Like similar Microsoft-branded offerings from the company, Cloud for Healthcare is about bringing together a set of capabilities that already exist inside of Microsoft. In this case, that includes Microsoft 365, Dynamics, Power Platform and Azure, including Azure IoT for monitoring patients. The solution sits on top of a common data model that makes it easier to share data between applications and analyze the data they gather.

“By providing the right information at the right time, the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare will help hospitals and care providers better manage the needs of patients and staff and make resource deployments more efficient,” Microsoft says in its press materials. “This solution also improves end-to-end security compliance and accessibility of data, driving better operational outcomes.”

Since Microsoft never passes up a chance to talk up Teams, the company also notes that its communications service will allow healthcare workers to more efficiently communicate with each other, but it also notes that Teams now includes a Bookings app to help its users — including healthcare providers — schedule, manage and conduct virtual visits in Teams. Some of the healthcare systems that are already using Teams include St Luke’s University Health Network, Stony Brook Medicine, Confluent Health, and Calderdale & Huddersfield NHSFoundationTrust in the UK.

In addition to Microsoft’s own tools, the company is also working with its large partner ecosystem to provide healthcare providers with specialized services. These include the likes of Epic, Allscripts, GE Healthcare, Adaptive Biotechnologies and Nuance.

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Azure Arc, Microsoft’s service for managing cloud resources anywhere, is now in public preview

At its Build developer conference, Microsoft today announced that Azure Arc, its service for managing cloud resources anywhere, including competing clouds like AWS and GCP and platforms like Red Hat’s Open Shift, is now in public preview.

Microsoft first announced this Kubernetes-based solution at its Ignite event in Orland last September. One feature that makes it stand out is that it takes some of what Microsoft has learned from its Azure Stack project for bringing Azure Services to its customers’ data centers (and unsurprisingly, Azure Arc also supports deployments on Azure Stack). Thanks to this, Azure Arc doesn’t just allow you to manage containerized workloads anywhere but also includes the ability to bring services like Azure SQL Database and Azure Database for PostgreSQL to these platforms. It’s also worth noting that while this is a Microsoft service, it supports both Windows and Linux servers.

As part of today’s public preview launch, Microsoft also announced that Arc now supports SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and the SUSE CaaS Platform. “Azure Arc for servers gives customers a central management control plane with security and governance capabilities for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server systems hosted outside of the Azure cloud, such as edge deployments,” says SUSE President of Engineering and Innovation Thomas Di Giacomo.

It’s no secret that most large cloud vendors now have some kind of multi-cloud management service that’s similar to Azure Arc. Google is betting heavily on Anthos, for example, while AWS offers its fully-managed Outpost service. They all have slightly different characteristics and philosophies, but the fact that every major cloud player is now offering some version of this is a clear sign that enterprises don’t want to be locked into using a single cloud — even as these services make them place a bet on a specific vendor for their management services, though.

In a related set of announcements, Microsoft also launched a large set of new features for Azure Stack. This includes the private preview of Azure Stack Hub fleet management for monitoring deployments across Azure and Azure Stack Hub, as well as GPU partitioning using AMD GPU’s, which is also now in private preview. This last part matters not just for using those GPUs for visualization but also for enabling graphics-intensive workloads on virtualized desktop environments through Azure Stack Hub for enterprises that use AMD GPUs in their servers. With GPU partitioning, admins can give multiple users access to their share of the overall GPUs power.

You can now use Azure to manage resources anywhere, including on AWS and Google Cloud

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How to Handle GET and POST HTTP Requests in Google Apps Script

With Google Apps Script, you can easily create a Web App that serves HTML, JSON, XML or plain text output using the HTML service. When your publish your Google Script project as a web app, the script gets a public URL (think API) that can be invoked from external applications using either HTTP GET or POST requests with query parameters and request body.

When publishing the script as a web app, make sure to choose “Allow anonymous access” and execute the script as yourself. If you edit the script, create a new version inside the script editor and deploy the latest version.

Here are some examples that demonstrate how you can convert your Google Script into a web API by adding the doGet and doPost methods to your project.

Handling GET Requests

When a script is published as a web app, the doGet callback function handles all GET requests made to the script’s public URL. The Google Script can return plain text content, HTML or JSON data as shown in the examples below:

Return Text Content

const doGet = (event = {}) => {
  const { parameter } = event;
  const { name = 'Anonymous', country = 'Unknown' } = parameter;
  const output = `Hello ${name} from ${country}`;
  return ContentService.createTextOutput(output);
};

Any query parameters added to the Google Script URL, like name and country in our example, become available in the parameter property of the event object of the doGet and doPost methods in Apps Script.

https://script.google.com/macros/s/12345/exec?name=Amit&country=India

If something is not working, you can always log the request object to the StackDrive console logs and easily debug the full request.

console.log(`doGet`, JSON.stringify(event));

Serve JSON Output

The same ContentService can be used to return JSON output by using the setMimeType method with the mime set as ContentService.MimeType.JSON.

const doGet = (event = {}) => {
  const { parameter } = event;
  const { name = 'Anonymous', country = 'Unknown' } = parameter;
  const message = `Hello ${name} from ${country}`;
  const json = { name, country, message };
  return ContentService.createTextOutput(JSON.stringify(json)).setMimeType(
    ContentService.MimeType.JSON
  );
};

When testing HTTP requests in Google Script with utilities like CURL or Postman, ensure that that “Automatically follow redirects Follow HTTP 3xx responses as redirects” setting is turned on since the ContentService serves a 301 redirect from the script.googleusercontent.com domain.

Serving HTML Content

Your Google Apps script project can serve HTML web pages with the HtmlService service. The web pages served with App Script included Google warning header at the top but it can be removed if you embed the Google Script in another web page (like Google Sites) with the IFRAME tag.

const doGet = (event = {}) => {
  const { parameter } = event;
  const { name = 'Anonymous', color = 'Black' } = parameter;
  const html = `<p><b>${name}'s</b> favorite color is <font color="${color}">${color}</font></p>`;
  return HtmlService.createHtmlOutput(html)
    .setTitle('Apps Script Webpage')
    .setXFrameOptionsMode(HtmlService.XFrameOptionsMode.ALLOWALL);
};

You should set the X-Frame-Options header of the webpage to XFrameOptionsMode.ALLOWALL to allow other pages to embed your Google Script HTML page.

Handle POST Requests with Google Scripts

The callback function doPost is invoked when an HTTP POST request is make to your Google Script URL that is published as a web app with anonymous access.

const doPost = (request) => {
  console.log(request);
  return ContentService.crateTextOutput(JSON.stringify(request));
};

The request argument of the doPost method can include:

1. queryString - The name-value pairs sent in the URL of the request (name=Mike&age=12)

2. parameter - The query string name-value pairs are also accessible inside the parameter object similar to GET requests (e.paremeter.name or e.parameter.age).

3. postData - The contents property of the postData object includes the POST body and type property of postData specifies the MIME type of the post body. It can have values like application/x-www-form-urlencoded (key-value pairs separated by the ’&’ character and each key is separated from its encoded value by ’=’), application/json for JSON data or text/plain for text body.

For binary data, like file uploads, the HTTP post request is sent with the multipart/form-data mime type. In the case of application/x-www-form-urlencoded, the queryString is set as part of the POST request body.

const doPost = (request = {}) => {
  const { parameter, postData: { contents, type } = {} } = request;
  const { source } = parameter;

  if (type === 'application/json') {
    const jsonData = JSON.parse(contents);
    return ContentService.createTextOutput(JSON.stringify(jsonData));
  }

  if (type === 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded') {
    const json = {};
    contents
      .split('&')
      .map((input) => input.split('='))
      .forEach(([key, value]) => {
        json[decodeURIComponent(key)] = decodeURIComponent(value);
      });
    return ContentService.createTextOutput(JSON.stringify(json));
  }

  return ContentService.createTextOutput(contents);
};

Testing HTTP Requests with Google Scripts

You can use Postman, RequestBin, CURL or any of your favorite dev tool to send GET and POST requests to your Apps Script service. We’ll use Apps Script itself with the built-in UrlFetchApp service to test the request and response.

Working with HTTP GET Requests

In this example, the GET API coverts the query string to JSON. The test function makeHttpGetRequest compares the supplied query string value with the returned object.

const doGet = (event = {}) => {
  const { parameter } = event;
  const { name, country } = parameter;
  return ContentService.createTextOutput(
    JSON.stringify({ name, country })
  ).setMimeType(ContentService.MimeType.JSON);
};

const makeHttpGetRequest = () => {
  const queryString = '?name=Amit+Agarwal&country=India';
  const apiUrl = ScriptApp.getService().getUrl();
  const url = apiUrl + queryString;

  const options = {
    method: 'GET',
    followRedirects: true,
    muteHttpExceptions: true,
    contentType: 'application/json',
  };

  const response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url, options);
  if (response.getResponseCode() == 200) {
    const { country } = JSON.parse(response);
    Logger.log('Country', country);
  }
};

Working with HTTP GET Requests

The doPost method returns either the country or the name from the request body depending on the action parameter of the script URL.

const doPost = (request = {}) => {
  const { parameter, postData: { contents, type } = {} } = request;
  const { name, country } = JSON.parse(contents);
  if (parameter.action === 'getCountry') {
    return ContentService.createTextOutput(country);
  } else {
    return ContentService.createTextOutput(name);
  }
};

const makeHttpPostRequest = () => {
  const url = ScriptApp.getService().getUrl() + '?action=getCountrdy';

  const payload = {
    name: 'Amit Agarwal',
    blog: 'www.labnol.org',
    country: 'India',
  };

  const options = {
    method: 'POST',
    followRedirects: true,
    muteHttpExceptions: true,
    payload: JSON.stringify(payload),
  };

  const response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url, options);
  if (response.getResponseCode() == 200) {
    Logger.log(response.getContentText());
  }
};

POST Request with HTML Forms

The next example uses a simple HTML form that sends a POST request with application/x-www-form-urlencoded mime type.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
  </head>
  <body>
    <form
      action="https://script.google.com/macros/s/#####/exec"
      method="POST"
      target="_blank"
    >
      <input type="text" name="name" />
      <input type="text" name="country" />
      <button type="submit">Submit</button>
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

The POST method returns the POST body of the request.

const doPost = (request = {}) => {
  const { postData: { contents, type } = {} } = request;
  return ContentService.createTextOutput(contents);
};

Using CURL to make HTTP Requests

The POST API returns a parameter from the query string of the URL and the name from the request body.

const doPost = (request = {}) => {
  const { parameter, postData: { contents, type } = {} } = request;
  const data = JSON.parse(contents);
  return ContentService.createTextOutput(parameter.secret + type + data.name);
};

You can use CURL to make a POST request to Google Script. Remember to add the -L flag so that curl follows the redirect from script.google.com to googleusercontent.com.

curl -L \
-H 'Content-Type:application/json' \
-d '{"name": "Amit","country": "India"}' \
"https://script.google.com/macros/s/###/exec?secret=1234"

Also see: AJAX, jQuery and Google Scripts

Decrypted: No warrants for web data, UK grid cyberattack, CyberArk buys Idaptive

One vote.

That’s all it needed for a bipartisan Senate amendment to pass that would have stopped federal authorities from further accessing millions of Americans’ browsing records. But it didn’t. One Republican was in quarantine, another was AWOL. Two Democratic senators — including former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders — were nowhere to be seen and neither returned a request for comment.

It was one of several amendments offered up in the effort to reform and reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the basis of U.S. spying laws. The law, signed in 1978, put restrictions on who intelligence agencies could target with their vast listening and collection stations. But after the Edward Snowden revelations in 2013, lawmakers champed at the bit to change the system to better protect Americans, who are largely protected from the spies within its borders.

One privacy-focused amendment, brought by Sens. Mike Lee and Patrick Leahy, passed — permits for more independent oversight to the secretive and typically one-sided Washington, D.C. court that authorizes government surveillance programs, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. That amendment all but guarantees the bill will bounce back to the House for further scrutiny.

Here’s more from the week.

---

THE BIG PICTURE

Three years after WannaCry, U.S. still on North Korea’s tail

A feature-length profile in Wired magazine looks at the life of Marcus Hutchins, one of the heroes who helped stop the world’s biggest cyberattack three years to the day.

The profile — a 14,000-word cover story — examines his part in halting the spread of the global WannaCry ransomware attack and how his early days led him into a criminal world that prompted him to plead guilty to felony hacking charges. Thanks in part to his efforts in saving the internet, he was sentenced to time served and walked free.

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Can we edit memories? | Amy Milton

Can we edit memories? | Amy Milton

Trauma and PTSD rewire your brain -- especially your memory -- and can unearth destructive emotional responses when stirred. Could we eliminate these triggers without erasing the memories themselves? Enter neurologist Amy Milton's mind-blowing, memory-editing clinical research poised to defuse the damaging effects of painful remembered experiences and offer a potential path toward better mental health.

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

Intraday Trading Calls for 20-May-2020

Intraday Trading Calls for 20-May-2020

Please click on the following link to view full post.

https://intradayguruji.blogspot.com/2020/05/intraday-trading-calls-for-20-may-2020.html

Via http://intradayguruji.blogspot.com

10 Essential Animal Crossing: New Horizons Tips and Tricks

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the best games you can play on the Nintendo Switch. It’s a charming, relaxing experience that places you on an island with anthropomorphic animals as you catch fish and insects, craft furniture, and build amenities.

If you’re new to the Animal Crossing series or have just started playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, we’ve got the essential tips and tricks you need to ensure your island flourishes…

1. Don’t Rush Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons plays in real-time and isn’t the sort of game that you can rush through to completion. It reflects the seasons and time of the real world, which means that sometimes you might have done everything possible for that day.

For example, trees and flowers take a few days to grow and some fish and bugs will only appear in specific months. If you’ve dug up all the fossils you can find and chatted to all of the villagers, it’s OK to save the game and come back the next day when things have progressed naturally.

2. Pay Off Your Home Loan

Tom Nook is the mastermind of your island and owns its economy. You will need to pay him to cover your moving costs. Do this as soon as possible, payable with Nook Miles, then take out a loan to upgrade from a tent to a house. Tom Nook will immediately begin construction (even before the loan is paid off) which takes 24 hours to complete.

Having a house grants you access to lots of important features. You can buy recipes and items from the Nook Stop machine, earn additional Nook Miles for completing daily tasks, and put extra items in your house’s storage.

3. Collect Everything You Find

Your island is packed full of valuable resources. Look out for the crosses on the floor, which you can dig to find fossils. Grab your net to catch bugs and use your rod to reel in fish. Shake trees, hit rocks, and pick weeds. If you see something, pick it up.

This is important for several reasons. First, resources like clay and wood can be used to craft items to decorate your island and home. Second, Timmy and Tommy at Nook’s Cranny will buy pretty much everything, so you can start building up bells to plunge back into their store or paying off your loan.

Selling items is also one of the essential Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp tips.

4. Donate to the Museum

When you first start Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you won’t have a museum. Instead, you need to donate bugs and fish to Tom Nook in order to lure Blathers, the museum curator, to your island.

You can only donate one of each item. Use your Nook phone’s Critterpedia to see if you’ve donated it before—if there’s an owl icon next to the bug or fish, it’s already part of the museum’s collection. Blathers will also accept fossils, but you need to take them to him so that he can identify them.

There’s no financial benefit to donating things to the museum (you can sell any duplicates at Nook’s Cranny and the fossils usually net high amounts), but it’s immensely satisfying to wander around the populated exhibits and admire your hard work.

5. Talk to Your Fellow Island Inhabitants

At first, you will have two fellow inhabitants. These are randomly chosen from a selection of almost 400 possible characters. More will start moving in over time when they hear how great your island is.

It’s important to cultivate these relationships, so don’t forget to have a quick chat if you bump into them or simply visit their house. They will give you tips, recipes, items, and generally brighten up your day. You can also send them letters and give gifts to improve your friendship.

On the other hand, if there’s someone you’re not particularly fond of, you can ignore them and they will eventually move off the island and be replaced by someone else.

6. Scan the Sky and Beach

There’s obviously a lot happening on land, but don’t forget to look up at the sky and roam the beaches.

If you hear a whooshing sound above, get your slingshot out because it means there’s a balloon floating past with a present attached. Fire at the balloon and it’ll pop and the present will fall to your feet. It’ll contain a recipe, an item, or some bells. Be careful not to let it drop into some water, though you will earn some consolation Nook Miles the first time this happens.

Meanwhile, check your beach every morning and you will find various things washed up. Look for any message bottles because these will contain recipes from far-away islands. If you already have the recipe, don’t worry, just sell it to the Nook twins or gift it to a resident.

7. Upgrade Your Inventory

You’ll quickly discover that your inventory doesn’t hold many items, especially when you account for all the tools.

Once you’ve paid off your tent loan to Tom Nook, access the Nook Stop and visit the Nook Miles shop. Here you can buy a Pocket Organization Guide for 5000 Nook Miles. This will upgrade your inventory from 20 slots to 30, which makes a world of difference.

Later in the game you can upgrade the Resident Services tent into a building. At this point you will be able to buy the Ultimate Pocket Stuffing upgrade, which costs 8000 Nook Miles and boosts your inventory to 40 slots.

8. Visit Other Islands With Nook Island Tickets

Use the Nook Stop and you can buy a Nook Miles Ticket for the price of 2000 Nook Miles. These are delivered immediately and valid for one trip. Head to the airport, talk to Orville, and you can use the ticket.

The ticket will send you to a randomly generated island that could be full of fruit and wildlife that isn’t native to your personal island. As such, before travelling, clear your pockets of everything except your tools, and then stock up on the exotic goodies so you can plant them when you get back home.

Don’t leave anything important behind because once you fly home you won’t ever be able to return.

9. Look Out for Visitors and Events

Your island will often play host to visitors. Some will arrive on specific days, like turnip seller Daisy Mae on Sunday morning, while others like shady artwork seller Redd have a more flexible schedule. Take some time to roam your island to see who’s there on any given day.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons will often host season events that reflect the real world. For example, past events include Bunny Day for Easter and Nature Day for Earth Day. These are limited events that reward you with items or Nook Miles. Isabelle will announce them in her morning updates.

10. Play With Friends

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is great fun to play offline, but it’s even more fun when you play with friends. You can visit other people’s islands from the airport to check out their islands, mingle with other residents, and fish and catch bugs as normal.

Each island has its own native fruit, so get a group of friends together and share the goods out. Then plant them so that they grow on your island. Exotic fruits will sell for higher prices at your Nook’s Cranny; you can quickly build up a fruit farm for lots of bells.

Download the NookLink app on your smartphone to make it easier to chat with others, since the in-game chat keyboard is slow and cumbersome.

More Great Nintendo Switch Games to Play

Remember, take your time with Animal Crossing: New Horizons and it will reward you. This is a game to pace out and enjoy over the course of weeks, months, or even years.

And if you want some more gaming fun, check out the best local multiplayer games for Nintendo Switch.

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Break Into Cybersecurity With 98 Hours of White Hat Hacker Training for Under $40

While the streets outside are silent, the digital world is bustling. Along with the people doing genuine work online, there are plenty of cyber criminals trying to steal and scam. Ethical hackers are paid good money to find the flaws that these criminals exploit. If you want to break into this lucrative career, The Ultimate 2020 White Hat Hacker Certification Bundle is the place to start. This bundle offers 98 hours of training from top instructors, and it’s now only $39.90 at MakeUseOf Deals.

A Huge Opportunity

These are challenging times for most industries, but cybersecurity is booming. Industry experts estimate that there will be around 3.5 million vacant jobs by next year, and some ethical hackers earn over $500k a year from bug bounty programs.

This bundle is the perfect launchpad for a career in cybersecurity, with 10 courses covering key practical skills and theory. Through hands-on video tutorials, you learn how to secure any system, hack networks, bring down websites, and automate penetration testing. In addition, you get full prep for the widely respected CompTIA CySA+ Security and PenTest+ exams.

Your tutors include Joe Parys, who has 4.3 stars on Udemy having assisted over 500,000 students. You should come away with the knowledge and the certificates to find your first job.

10 Courses for Under $40

This training is worth $1,345 in total, but you can pick up the bundle now for just $39.90.

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5 Best Gardening Websites & Apps for Beginners to Garden Anywhere

Whether you have a house or an apartment, these are some of the best gardening websites, ebooks, and apps to cultivate your own little green patch.

When you have some extra time at home, seize the opportunity to add a little greenery. If you have a garden, you can use it to grow vegetables and herbs, or beautify it with flowers. Growing plants in apartments has been shown to improve mood and mental stability.

These gardening websites and apps have something in them for both beginners and experienced gardeners to reap what they sow.

1. A Way to Garden (Web): One of the Best Gardening Blogs for All Stages

Margaret Roach, the former editorial director of the Martha Stewart empire, set up a blog and wrote a book to share her gardening secrets. A Way to Garden is one of the most recommended must-read gardening resources on the internet.

The Garden Planting Calculator is a particular favorite on the web. It tells you when to lay seeds for different vegetables, herbs, and flowers. If you need to have a few weeks indoors with them first, you’ll get that calculation too.

A Way to Garden’s “chores by month” is also a popular guide to essential activities based on the season. Roach’s tips apply for the north-eastern USA, so consult the provided regional calendar and adjust accordingly. You’ll also want to take a look at the garden FAQs, where she answers beginner queries on various topics.

Apart from these three resources, A Way to Garden is a treasure-trove of information for gardeners both new and experienced. There’s also a podcast that you can listen to while you’re tending to your little patch.

2. GardenBeast (Ebooks): 7 Free Gardening Ebooks

Beginners can download seven ebooks for free from GardenBeast in PDF format. You can download one or all, it’s up to you. And you can print these out, load them up on your kindle, or use them for offline reading whenever you want. All it takes is to sign up for the newsletter, but you can always use a disposable email address for that.

The seven books are:

1. Ultimate Organic Gardening for Beginners
2. 51 Tips for Green House Gardening
3. 100 Hints and Tips to Level Up Your Gardening
4. Herbs 101: Ultimate Guide to Herbs for Beginners
5. Vegetable Gardening for Beginners
6. How to Attract Butterflies Into Your Garden
7. Greener Living for a Greener World

The ebooks range from 16-52 pages, each tackling a different topic as you can see. The 100 Hints and Tips is especially useful for anyone, so download that no matter what. GardenBeast is also a full-fledged online magazine that you can check out for gardening news, resources, and guides.

3. Candide (Android, iOS): The Only Gardening App You’ll Need

Candide is a helpful gardening app to find inspiration and knowledge. In the app, you’ll find places to visit, knowledge of what to plant in your garden, and pictures from the community sharing what’s going on in their gardens.

The app is like a social network for gardening enthusiasts. The main options are share, ask a question, identify a plant, follow, trending, weather, and discover. Ask and Identify are the big winners here. Take a photo of a plant in your garden and the app will answer it. Similarly, ask a question and the community will chip in with their thoughts.

Scrolling the feed, you’ll find inspiration for different gardening projects, as well as tips and tricks. Check Candide’s content for various articles and guides, and along the way, make some friends with a green thumb.

Candide is available in the USA, UK, Ireland, and South Africa. You could download the APK and use it anywhere in the world too, but the information is localized to the above four regions.

Download: Candide for Android | iOS (Free)

4. Apartment Gardening (Ebook): Practical Guide to Gardening in Small Spaces

Jami Leigh of YoungWifesGuide.com wrote the go-to ebook for beginners who want to garden in an apartment or any small space. The ebook, titled “Apartment Gardening: A practical guide to growing vegetables in small spaces,” is widely cited and recommended across the internet.

The guide is for those just starting out, so it sticks to what matters: staying on budget, keeping it simple and practical for newcomers, and being mindful of space. You will learn how to pick the right area, soil, and seed for your apartment, sowing and harvesting patterns, and how to take care of the plants.

The guide is all about growing vegetables that you can eat. Once you’ve mastered that, look around the internet for other plants to grow in your apartment.

The 94-page book is available as a free PDF on her website, which you can download through the link below. You can also pay a small fee to get the book and additional worksheets.

Download: Apartment Gardening from YoungWifesGuide (PDF)

5. Charles Dowding (Web, YouTube): Learn the ‘No Dig’ Method of Gardening

Charles Dowding has been writing about gardening since the 1980s. He pioneered the “No Dig” method, which is all about disturbing the soil as little as possible. Dowding’s philosophy is that organisms in the soil will allow for natural aeration and drainage if you let them do what they do best. So by disturbing the soil less and feeding the organisms, you can adopt more sustainable and ecological gardening methods.

Dowding’s YouTube channel is full of fantastic videos about the concept and other gardening tips. Check out the short video above to get a 3-minute explanation of the technique from the man himself. If the No Dig method sounds interesting and you have questions, he probably answered it in the FAQs.

Start with Dowding’s beginner’s guide to the no dig method. While he is based in the UK, he offers advice on how to adapt the practices in any conditions. Dowding has a relaxing style in his YouTube videos, making gardening feel more accessible.

The Best Landscape and Garden Design Tools

The best gardening websites and apps will give you all the information you need, but when it comes time to implement it, you still need to do a lot of calculations. For planning your garden patch, calculating the sow patterns, and other estimates, turn to technology.

Try these best free online landscape and garden design tools to get started.

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