HQ Trivia nabs Target to sponsor game with biggest ever single winner prize of $100K

HQ Trivia is aiming to attract more players following a slight decline in downloads with a new, large prize. The company announced today it has bagged Target to sponsor to sponsor a special Emmy-themed game featuring its biggest-ever single winner prize of $100,000. The game will air on Monday, September 17 at 9 PM ET, but will be played in a different fashion than usual.

Typically, HQ Trivia players compete to win or split a cash prize, which often doesn’t amount to much more than enough for a cup of coffee. But this time around, HQ Trivia will run in a “one winner takes all” format, meaning only one individual will earn the winnings from the game.

Instead of a normal 12-question round with 10 second to answer, the game will continue until only one winner remains. Players can still use their extra lives, but only until question number 15. After that, they won’t work.

The game’s content will be Emmy Awards-themed, featuring questions about shows, actors, the Emmy telecast, and other historical facts.

Target is stepping up as the game’s sponsor for this winner-takes-all milestone game. The game itself will also be branded, but the exact nature of the creative is something Target is keeping under wraps for the time being as it’s first for the retailer.

HQ Trivia has worked with a number of other big-name brands in the past through its game, including Warner Bros, Nike, MillerCoors, National Geographic, Chase, Viacom, and NBCUniversal.

The news of the milestone game comes at a time when HQ Trivia’s downloads have been trending slightly downwards. As TechCrunch’s Josh Constine reported last month for the app’s Apple TV launch, the iOS version of HQ Trivia had fallen from being the No. 1 U.S. trivia game to No. 10, and the No. 44 game to No. 196.

Today, it’s the No. 135 game and No. 467 Overall app.

According to data from Sensor Tower, the app has 12.8 million downloads across platforms, the majority of which (11M) were this year.

HQ Trivia claims the app continues to have the “largest live audience on mobile daily.”

The company responded at the time that games are a “hits business” and “don’t grow exponentially forever.” Rus Yusupov, CEO of HQ Trivia parent company Intermedia Labs, also noted that HQ was working on new game formats as a result.

Despite the fickle nature of mobile gamers, HQ Trivia has spawned a number of clones and other live games, including Fox’s FN Genius, ProveIt, FameGame, Gravy, MajorityRules, Cash Show, and many others. Even Facebook caught onto the trend, launching its own gameshows platform to support interactive video.

However, it remains to be seen if live game-playing is a lasting interest for mobile gamers, or just a flash in the pan.

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The Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Glossary: Common Terms to Know

If you’re new to the world of cryptocurrency and the blockchain, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the new words and phrases you’ll come across. What is a hash? Or a DApp? And what on earth does “hodl” mean?

Here’s the only blockchain and cryptocurrency glossary you’ll ever need.

51 Percent Attack

The blockchain’s most significant weakness from a security standpoint. An entity on a blockchain only needs 50%+1 to control the entire network, allowing them to do almost anything they want: spend the same coins twice, prevent validation of certain transactions, stop miners, etc. Learn more in our article on blockchain security and Bitcoin transactions.

Block

The blockchain is made up of blocks. Each block is akin to a page on a traditional paper ledger; it contains a list of recent transactions. When a block is completed, it is added to the end of the previous block, thus giving rise to the word “blockchain.” Each block also contains the solution to its mathematical puzzle. Without this answer, the block cannot be added to the chain.

Block Height

The block height is the number of individual blocks in a blockchain. The first block is Height 0. It is also known as the Genesis Block.

Blockchain

A distributed ledger that records all the transactions and smart contracts for a cryptocurrency or platform. The blockchain is replicated on several thousand nodes all around the world.

Cold Storage

You cannot keep your cryptocurrency in your bank account or under your bed. Instead, you need to keep them in cold storage.

Cold storage typically comes in three forms: a printed QR code that you keep somewhere safe, a USB drive, or a specialized hardware wallet. See our recommendations for the best cold wallets for cryptocurrencies.

Confirmation

A transaction receives confirmation when it’s been successfully hashed and added to the blockchain. For Bitcoin, most companies will require six confirmations before processing a transaction.

Cryptocurrency

A decentralized digital currency that can be used for goods, services, and transfer of assets. The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin. It went live in January 2009.

DApp

DApp is short for “decentralized app”. Unlike a regular app (which uses centralized servers to run its code), a DApp runs on a decentralized peer-to-peer network. The most well-known mainstream example is CryptoKitties, a cat breeding game. Popular exchange EtherDelta is also a DApp.

Decentralized apps also need a frontend. That requirement differentiates them from smart contracts, which only run on the backend. Learn more about what decentralized apps are and how they’re used.

Fiat

Fiat currency is regular national currency like the U.S. dollar, British pound, and the euro. It is declared legal tender by a government but is not backed by physical assets like gold.

Fork

A blockchain fork can arise for several reasons. Perhaps it’s necessary for security, maybe part of the community wants to take the project in a different direction, or perhaps new governance rules are added to the blockchain’s code. A hard fork will make previously invalid blocks/transactions valid, while a soft fork will make previously valid blocks invalid.

Halving

Bitcoin’s code dictates that only 21 million coins can ever be in existence. To manage the flow of coins, the reward for discovering a valid block is due to half at certain times. The reward was originally 50 BTC. That fell to 25 BTC in 2012 and 12.5 BTC in 2016. Once 64 “halvings” have occurred, the supply of new Bitcoins will cease. That’s expected to happen sometime in the next century.

Hash Rate

The hash rate refers to the number of hashes that a cryptocurrency miner can perform every second.

Hashing

Hashing is a cryptographic term that refers to turning an input of any length into a fixed-length output. In the world of the blockchain, the input is every transaction that’s ever occurred, meaning the output is a direct representation of the blockchain’s current status. A change to the input (such as an edited transaction) would drastically change the output and alert people to the attempted fraud.

Hodl

Hodl is a cryptocurrency meme for holding on to your crypto assets rather than selling. The meme was born in December 2013 when a user who’d drunk one too many beverages made a typo on a popular Bitcoin forum. You can still see the original thread on bitcointalk.org.

Hot Wallet

Hot wallet refers to cryptocurrency storage that’s connected to the web. Coins kept in an exchange fall under this category. Due to security vulnerabilities, you should not keep large amounts of coins in a hot wallet.

ICO

As cryptocurrencies grow in popularity, an increasing number of start-ups launch coins. Each of them promises to fix, address, or improve a particular aspect of the crypto landscape. These new coins are made publicly available via ICOs (initial coin offerings). They are like the crypto version of a stock market IPO.

Lambo

We end with Lambo. It’s a phrase you will see time and time again in forums and chatrooms. There’s nothing technical about this one—it’s just the car we’re all going to buy when crypto finally makes us rich!

Lightning Network

The Lightning Network is a possible answer to Bitcoin’s inherent scalability problems. Using smart contract functionality, it allows payments to happen instantly. It even allows from cross-blockchain payments, as long as both use the same cryptographic hash function. With specific regard to Bitcoin, the Lightning Network is still in its infancy.

Mining

Because of the cryptographic nature of cryptocurrencies, verifying transactions requires an enormous amount of computing power and specialized hardware. In exchange for the computing power, people who solve (and thus, authorize) a transaction receive some cryptocurrency for doing so. This process is called mining.

Mooning

In 2017, coins would explode in price seemingly overnight. The entire sector’s market cap went from $15 billion in January to $600 billion in December. Ripple was the biggest winner; its price increased 28,963 percent over the 12 months. For comparison, the S&P 500 went up by 19.4 percent. The phenomenon of massive gains by a single coin is known as mooning.

Node

A node is a computing device on the blockchain. It is responsible for verifying transactions and keeping the distributed ledger up-to-date.

Permissioned Ledger

Most blockchains—including Bitcoin—allow anyone to join them. This creates some risks; the blockchain could become vulnerable to a 51 percent attack. A permissioned ledger means only verified people can join the blockchain.

However, it’s still not perfect. Who is setting the criteria for verification? And who is doing the verifying?

Private Key

If you want to send or withdraw coins, you need to use your private key. Anyone who knows the key can access your funds, so you need to guard it carefully. If you lose your private key, you will lose access to your funds forever.

Public Key

If you want to receive cryptocurrency, either from an exchange or other people, you need to provide them with your public key (also known as a public address). Sharing the key has no ill-effects from a security viewpoint.

Satoshi

A Satoshi—named after Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto—is the smallest unit of Bitcoin that can be recorded on the blockchain. It has a value of 0.00000001 BTC.

Smart Contracts

In addition to the cryptocurrencies (a.k.a. tokens or coins), some blockchains also support smart contracts. The most prominent smart contract network is Ethereum.

Smart contracts allow non-currency assets to exchange hands on the blockchain without the need for a middleman. Assets could include membership records, insurances, or even real estate.

Any Other Cryptocurrency Terms We Missed?

Of course, the deeper you dive into the world of crypto, the more terms you don’t understand you will come across. If you’d like us to explain anything, reach out in the comments below.

Read the full article: The Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Glossary: Common Terms to Know

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10 Tools to Make a Bootable USB From an ISO File

Installations from a USB flash drive have become one of the easiest ways to update your computer with a new operating system. A USB installation is quick, extremely portable, and has the bonus of reverting to a storage device following the install.

You’ll find a fair few ISO to USB tools out there, and they feature a range of tools for beginners and advanced users. Let’s take a look at the burn time, and the resources available to each software. For science!

Note: To keep this test fair, I’m going to burn a copy of Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17713 x64 to an 8GB Integral USB flash drive, formatting the drive between each burn.

A Mini-Glossary of ISO-to-USB Tool Terminology

Before we plow into the testing phase, there are a handful of acronyms I’d like to spell out, and a few other bits of ISO to USB jargon we’ll clear up.

• Bootloader Options: The bootloader loads the operating system. Some ISO burners allow you to choose the bootloader you’ll need for your desired operating system installation.
• Grub4dos: A bootloader package designed to allow users to select between multiple operating systems installed on a single system.
• Syslinux: A lightweight bootloader package designed to allow users to select between multiple Linux or Unix installations.
• QEMU: Short for Quick Emulator, is a hardware virtualization tool. In this context, it allows users to test their USB before proceeding with the burn process.
• Cluster Size: Defines the smallest available space for storing data. Instead of assigning individual disk sectors, the file system assigns contiguous groups of sectors, called clusters.
• File System: Controls how data is accessed and stored. Without it, your data would lump together with no beginning or end. A file system defines easy access. There are different file systems available, though your burning tool should discern your requirements via the ISO you use.
• Bad Sector: Some ISO to USB tools allow you to perform a bad sector check. Before the burn commences, your USB will be scanned, fixing any irregularities to ensure your installation is smooth. Somewhat like defragmenting your desktop, but on a much smaller scale.

Now, in no particular order, here are the ISO to USB burning tools with their respective times.

Want the TL;DR? Check out the best ISO to USB comparison video below!

1. Rufus

Features: Partition schemes, file systems, automatic ISO detection, target system type, mode of bootable, bad sector checks, ISO write mode

First up, Rufus. Rufus is a very small executable that has consistently improved its offerings over the years. Along with standard ISO to USB options such as cluster size and file system, Rufus now automatically detects settings for the ISO you select and fills in the optimal settings. Furthermore, Rufus has a hidden Advanced Mode with a bunch of extra options.

Rufus clocked in at 21m12s which is definitely not the fastest. Regardless, Rufus is an excellent ISO to USB tool.

2. Windows USB/DVD Download Tool

Features: None

Such an eloquent name. You select your ISO. You select your media type; USB or DVD. You click Begin Copying, and off it goes. In what is the most basic of basic UIs, and with only two options, the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool is almost sublimely simple, comparable only to ISO to USB.

Windows USB/DVD Download Tool came home in 17m51s which puts it toward the top of the ISO to USB timings board.

3. RMPrepUSB

Features: Bootloader options, file systems and overrides, grub4dos, syslinux, QEMU

RMPrepUSB is one of the most complete ISO to USB packages on this list. Aside from the features above, it comes packed with a host of other bootloaders, DiskDoctor, Speed Tests, and individual user configurations for frequently prepared drives.

RMPrepUSB clocks in with a 21m38 putting it firmly toward the top of the timings board but, like Rufus, the features more than make up for the slightly slower time.

4. YUMI

Features: Multiboot, ISO auto-download

YUMI (Your Universal Multiboot Installer) is another multiboot ISO to USB installer with settings for a vast range of Linux, Windows, and system utility ISOs. YUMI is easy to use. You scroll down the distribution list and check for the ISO you want, then select the corresponding ISO on your system from the box below. Don’t have the ISO? YUMI will take care of that for you.

YUMI clocked in at 17m46—slower than the first time I ran these tests some five years ago (it was 14m50s back then!), but still ahead of the rest.

5. Novicorp WinToFlash

Features: Multiboot, grub4dos, bootloader options, burning wizard, file systems, burning profiles, ISO auto-download

Novicorp WinToFlash is a popular ISO to USB utility that features a handy burning wizard. The wizard guides you through the burning process, although it isn’t unique to the utility (Rufus fills in all the information you need, for example). WinToFlash also allows you to create multiboot USBs as well as an auto-downloader for any ISO files you’re missing.

WinToFlash clocks in at 22m01, decent speed for a tool that guides you through the ISO to USB process.

6. UNetbootin

Features: grub4dos, ISO auto-download (Linux only), syslinux

UNetbootin is primarily a Linux LiveUSB burning tool, but it works sufficiently well with Windows that it deserves inclusion in this list. The UNetbootin utility isn’t flashy, but it does come with a few nifty features. For instance, it has an auto-download feature for Linux distributions, letting you select from a range of popular distros and system utility tools.

UNetbootin came home in 22m01, exactly the same as WinToFlash and again, a decent time for a useful tool.

The ISO-to-USB Winner Is…

The winner regarding speed is YUMI. The winner regarding features and ease of use is Rufus, which was only 3 minutes slower than YUMI. Furthermore, both burning tools cater to slightly different markets; Rufus is for one-off ISO to USB creation whereas YUMI is excellent for multiboot tools.

Let’s not discount the other USB to ISO tools. The range of burn times didn’t vary much, so it really boils down to the features you need and find in a specific utility.

Other ISO-to-USB Tools We Tested…

I tested many more ISO to USB tools for the sake of competition—and to bring you the best overall picture possible. There were a few tools that didn’t make the grade, for one reason or another. Here are the fallen few:

• XBoot is another multiboot tool featuring an inbuilt download, but other options were faster and somewhat easier to use. However, XBOOT’s QEMU function is excellent.
• WinToBootic fits comfortably into the basic features category and clocked a decent time, too.
• Passcape ISO Burner is a multifunction burning tool, but it wouldn’t work for me. I have read other positive reviews, so it could be worth a look for other individuals.
• ISO to USB is another very basic tool. However, it didn’t make the cut through a slow time and lack of features.
• FlashBoot has a decent UI and a burning wizard to guide you through, but I gave up on the test as it had not even hit 50% after nearly 40 minutes.
• UltraISO burned the ISO to USB at a reasonable speed and has the bonus of being able to mount ISOs before burning to check their files.

What’s Your ISO-to-USB Tool of Choice?

Hopefully, you now have a better overview of the best ISO to USB tools available to you. Furthermore, you can pick your tool based upon its raw speed, its functionality, or a combination of both. Got a load of USB flash drives and that you don’t know what to do with? Here are five use you might not have considered!

Read the full article: 10 Tools to Make a Bootable USB From an ISO File

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XS, XR, XS Max? The difference between the new iPhones

XS is the normal one. XR is the cheap one. XS Max is the big one. That’s a good start to understanding Apple’s confusing naming scheme for its new line of iPhones. Apparently jealous of Android’s fragmentation, Apple decided it needed three different models, three different storage sizes, and nine different colors.

You can think of the XS as the updated iPhone X, the Max as the new Plus, and the XR as a revival of the great-for-kids budget iPhone SE. Here’s a comparison of their features, prices, options, and release dates.

The iPhone XS – Standard, Smaller, Sooner

Apple’s new flagship phone is the iPhone XS. If you want the best Apple has to offer that will still fit in your pocket, this is the one for you. It’s got a 5.8-inch diagonal OLED “Super Retina” screen with 458 pixels per inch, which is actually taller than the old 8 Plus’s 5.5-inch screen, but it’s a little thinner so it has less total screen volume. Dual 12 megapixel cameras offer stabilization and 2X optical zoom plus the new depth control Portrait mode feature. It’s $999 for the 64GB, $1,149 for the 256GB, or $1,349 for the 512GB. It comes in silver, gold and space gray, all in stainless steel that’s waterproof to 2 meters. Pre-orders start this Friday September 14th, and they ship and hit stores on September 21st.

The iPhone XS Max – Bigger Screen, Bigger Price

If you love watching movies, browsing photos, and shooting videos on your phone, you’ll want the iPhone XS Max. The 6.5-inch OLED “Super Retina” screen is the biggest ever on an iPhone, dwarfing the 8 Plus’s screen yet with a similar device size since the XS Max takes up more of the phone’s face. The twin 12 megapixel lenses stabilize your images and offer 2X optical zoom as well as Portrait mode depth control. It too comes in stainless steel silver, gold and space gray that are all waterproof to 2 meters, and costs $100 more than the XS at $1,099 for 64GB, $1,249 for 256GM, or a whopping $1,449 for 512GB. As with the XS, pre-orders start Friday September 14th, and you can get it in your hands on September 21st.

The iPhone XR – Colorful, Cheaper, Duller

Don’t need the sharpest or biggest new screen and want to save some cash? Grab an iPhone XR.  It’s size comes in between the XS and XS Max with a 6.1-inch diagonal LCD “Liquid Retina” screen with 326 pixels per square inch. That means it won’t look quite as brilliant as the XS models. The XR also only has one 12 megapixel camera lens so it doesn’t offer stabilization or 2X optical zoom like its XS siblings, but it still gets the cool Bokeh-changing Portrait mode depth control. The XR is only waterproof to one meter instead of two likes its expensive sisters, and lacks 3D Touch for quick access to deeper features.

As a bonus with the XR, you do get is 1.5 hours of additional battery life and six color options in the alumninum (“aloominium” if you’re Jonny Ive) finish: white, black, blue, yellow, coral and red. And it’s cheaper at $749 for 64GB, with $799 for 128GB and $899 for 256GB. If that’s not cheap enough, you can now get the iPhone 7 for $449 and the iPhone 8 costs $599 — though there are no more iPhones with headphone jacks now that the 6S and SE are getting retired. In hopes that you’ll buy a pricier one, the XR arrives a month later than the XS models, with pre-orders on October 19th and it shipping October 26th.

Apple may find this level of customization lets everyone find the right iPhone for them, though it could simultaneously produce decision paralysis in buyers who aren’t confident enough to pay. While it’s a headache at first, you’ll end up with a phone fit for your style and budget. Though without a ton of improvements over the iPhone X, you might not need an “iPhone Excess”.

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Here are the first videos of the Apple Watch Series 4, iPhone XS and iPhone XR

Apple just announced the latest iPhone and Apple Watch and these are the first promo videos for the devices. As usual, Jony Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, narrates the videos as the camera pans over the different features and aspects of the new products.

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Say goodbye to Inbox by Gmail

With the launch of the new Gmail, the writing was on the wall, but today Google made it official: Inbox by Gmail, the company’s experimental email client for Gmail, will shut down at the end of March 2019.

Google says it’s making this change to put its focus “solely on Gmail.” While that makes sense, it’s a shame to see Inbox sail into the setting sun, given that it pioneered many of the features that have now become part of the new Gmail.

I would have loved to see Google continue to experiment with Inbox instead. That, after all, was one of the reasons the company started the Inbox project to begin with. It’s hard to try radical experiments with a service that has a billion users, after all. Today, however, Google now seems to be willing to try new things right in Gmail, too. Smart Compose, for example, made its debut in the new Gmail (and many pundits correctly read that as a sign that Inbox was on the chopping block).

While the new Gmail now has most of Inbox’s features, one that is sorely missing is trip bundles. This useful feature, which automatically groups all of your flight, hotel, event and car reservations into a single bundle, is one of Inbox’s best features. Our understanding is that Google plans to bring this to Gmail early next year — hopefully well before Inbox shuts down.

So there you have it. Inbox for Gmail will shut down in six months, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Google resurrected the idea in a few years to try some other email experiments. Until then, here is Google’s guide to moving from Inbox to Gmail.

Google’s Smart Compose is now ready to write emails for G Suite users

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Apple is releasing iOS 12 on September 17th

Even if you don’t plan on buying a new iPhone, you’ll be able to get a bunch of new features next week. Apple plans on releasing iOS 12, the next major version of iOS, on Tuesday, September 17th.

As always, iOS 12 will be available as a free download. If your iPhone or iPad runs iOS 11, you’ll be able to update to iOS 12 as Apple plans to keep supporting all existing iOS 11 devices.

Here’s a quick rundown of what’s new in iOS 12. The main feature of iOS 12 is a performance improvement, especially for older devices. If you have an iPhone 6 or an iPad Air for instance, you should see a big improvement when it comes to launching apps, triggering the camera and entering text.

The other big theme of the year is new features to help you spend less time using your phone. There’s a new Screen Time feature to see and control how much time you spend using each app. Notifications are now grouped and you can silence them from the lock screen. You also can turn on Do Not Disturb when you’re in a meeting, for a few hours or for longer.

Apple didn’t stop there, and added new power features as well. Developers will be able to take advantage of a new file format for augmented reality and new features in ARKit 2.0. Apple is releasing the Workflow app as a new Siri Shortcuts app. Developers will be able to add information to Siri, as well, so that you can add a boarding pass or a music playlist to Siri.

The Photos, News and Stocks apps have been improved, as well as Apple Books (the app formerly known as iBooks). Apple is introducing Memoji on the iPhone X. It’s a customized avatar that you can use in iMessage and FaceTime to represent you.

If you want to learn more, read my iOS 12 preview to get my thoughts on this update.

iOS 12 is all about making your phone work better

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Here are the prices of the iPhone Xs, Xs Max and Xr

Apple just unveiled brand new phones. The iPhone Xs and Xs Max are the two new flagship devices, replacing the iPhone X. The iPhone Xr is replacing the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus with Face ID and an edge-to-edge design.

And maybe you were waiting for this press conference to buy a new smartphone. So here’s a quick rundown of how much you’re going to pay for those devices.

The iPhone Xs is are available with 64GB, 256GB or 512GB of storage for $999, $1,149 or $1,349. You need to add $100 on top of that for the iPhone Xs Max with a bigger display ($1,099, $1,249 or $1,449). There are three different colors — silver, gold and space gray.

The iPhone Xr replaces the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. It will start at $749 for 64GB, with 128GB and 256GB also available. There will be plenty of color options — white, black, blue, yellow, coral and red.

As a comparison, the iPhone X cost at $999 for the 64GB model and $1,149 for the 256GB model. The iPhone 8 used to cost $699 with 64GB or $849 with 256GB. The iPhone 8 Plus was $100 more expensive for each option ($799 or $949).

In other words, if you’re confused, the iPhone Xr is the entry-level device of this year’s iPhone lineup. The iPhone Xs and Xs Max are the exact same phone in two different screen sizes. They are the premium devices in the lineup, with a better display, better cameras and better material (stainless steel).

The iPhone Xs, Xs Max and Xr will be available on September th. For the iPhone Xs, pre-orders start on Friday and shipments start on September 21st Pre-orders of the iPhone Xr will start on October 19th and ship in October 26th.

If you want something cheaper, the iPhone 7 now costs $449 and the iPhone 8 costs $599. It’s unclear how many GBs you get for those prices.

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Say goodbye to Inbox by Gmail

With the launch of the new Gmail, the writing was on the wall, but today Google made it official: Inbox by Gmail, the company’s experimental email client for Gmail, will shut down at the end of March 2019.

Google says it’s making this change to put its focus “solely on Gmail.” While that makes sense, it’s a shame to see Inbox sail into the setting sun, given that it pioneered many of the features that have now become part of the new Gmail.

I would have loved to see Google continue to experiment with Inbox instead. That, after all, was one of the reasons the company started the Inbox project to begin with. It’s hard to try radical experiments with a service that has a billion users, after all. Today, however, Google now seems to be willing to try new things right in Gmail, too. Smart Compose, for example, made its debut in the new Gmail (and many pundits correctly read that as a sign that Inbox was on the chopping block).

While the new Gmail now has most of Inbox’s features, one that is sorely missing is trip bundles. This useful feature, which automatically groups all of your flight, hotel, event and car reservations into a single bundle, is one of Inbox’s best features. Our understanding is that Google plans to bring this to Gmail early next year — hopefully well before Inbox shuts down.

So there you have it. Inbox for Gmail will shut down in six months, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Google resurrected the idea in a few years to try some other email experiments. Until then, here is Google’s guide to moving from Inbox to Gmail.

Google’s Smart Compose is now ready to write emails for G Suite users

Read Full Article

Here are the prices of the iPhone Xs, Xs Max and Xr

Apple just unveiled brand new phones. The iPhone Xs and Xs Max are the two new flagship devices, replacing the iPhone X. The iPhone Xr is replacing the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus with Face ID and an edge-to-edge design.

And maybe you were waiting for this press conference to buy a new smartphone. So here’s a quick rundown of how much you’re going to pay for those devices.

The iPhone Xs is are available with 64GB, 256GB or 512GB of storage for $999 — add more money for those upgrades. You need to add $100 on top of that for the iPhone Xs Max with a bigger display (it starts at $1,099). There are three different colors — silver, gold and space gray.

The iPhone Xr replaces the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. It will start at $749 for 64GB, with 128GB and 256GB also available. There will be plenty of color options — white, black, blue, yellow, coral and red.

As a comparison, the iPhone X cost at $999 for the 64GB model and $1,149 for the 256GB model. The iPhone 8 used to cost $699 with 64GB or $849 with 256GB. The iPhone 8 Plus was $100 more expensive for each option ($799 or $949).

In other words, if you’re confused, the iPhone Xr is the entry-level device of this year’s iPhone lineup. The iPhone Xs and Xs Max are the exact same phone in two different screen sizes. They are the premium devices in the lineup, with a better display, better cameras and better material (stainless steel).

The iPhone Xs, Xs Max and Xr will be available on September th. For the iPhone Xs, pre-orders start on Friday and shipments start on September 21st Pre-orders of the iPhone Xr will start on October 19th and ship in October 26th.

If you want something cheaper, the iPhone 7 now costs $449 and the iPhone 8 costs $599. It’s unclear how many GBs you get for those prices.

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So long then, iPhone home button…

… it was nice pressing you. Well, at least some of the thousands and thousands of times. Apple has finally abandoned a feature that’s been a staple of its smartphones since the very start, over a decade ago: A physical home button.

The trio of almost-all-screen iPhones unboxed today at its Cupertino HQ go all in on looks and swipes, with nothing but a sensor-housing notch up top to detract from their smoothly shining faces. 

Last year Apple only ditched the button on its premium iPhone X handset, retaining physical home buttons on cheaper iPhones. But this year it’s a clean sweep, with buttons dropped across the board.

If you want to go home on the new iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max or iPhone Xr (as the trio of new iPhones are confusingly named) well, there’s a gesture for that: An up swipe from the bottom edge of the screen, specifically. Or a look and that gesture if your phone is locked.

This is because Apple has also gone all in on its facial biometric authentication system, Face ID, for its next crop of iPhones — throwing out the predecessor Touch ID biometric in the process.

“Customer love it!” enthused Apple’s marketing chief, Phil Schiller, talking up Face ID from the stage, after CEO Tim Cook had reintroduced the tech by collapsing it all to: “Your phone knows what you look like and your face becomes your password.”

“There’s no home button,” confirmed Schiller, going over the details of the last of the three new iPhones to be announced — and also confirming Face ID is indeed on board the least pricey iPhone Xr. “You look at it to unlock it… you look at it to pay with Apple Pay,” he noted.

So hey there Face ID, goodbye Touch ID.

Like any fingerprint biometric Touch ID is fallible. Having been doing a lot of DIY lately it simply hasn’t worked at all for my battered fingertips for more than a month now. Nor does it work well if you have dry skin or wet hands and so on. It can also be hacked with a bit of effort, such as via silicone spoofs.

Still, Touch ID does have its fans — given relative simplicity. And also because you can register multiple digits to share biometric access to a single iPhone with a S.O. (Or, well, your cat.)

Apple has mitigated the device sharing issue by adding support for two faces per device being registered with Face ID in iOS 12. (We haven’t tested if it’ll register a cat yet.)

However the more major complaint from privacy advocates is that turning a person’s facial features into their security and authentication key normalizes surveillance. That’s certainly harder to workaround or argue against.

Apple will be hoping its general pro-privacy stance helps mitigate concerns on that front. But exactly how the millions of third party apps running on its platform make use of the facial biometric feature is a whole other issue, though.

Elsewhere, debate has focused on whether Face ID makes an iPhone more vulnerable to being force unlocked against its owner’s will. The technology does require active interaction from the registered face in question for it to function, though — a sort of ‘eyes-on’ check and balance.

It’s probably not perfect but neither was a fingerprint biometric — which could arguably be more easily forcibly taken from someone in custody or asleep.

But it’s irrefutable that biometrics come with trade-offs. None of these technologies is perfect in security terms. Arguably the biggest problem is there’s no way to change your biometric ‘password’ if your data leaks — having your fingerprints or face surgically swapped is hardly a viable option.

Yet despite such concerns the march towards consumer authentication systems that are robust without being hopelessly inconvenient has continued to give biometrics uplift.

And fingerprint readers, especially, are now pretty much standard issue across much of the Android device ecosystem (which may also be encouraging Apple to step up and away now, as it seeks to widen the gap with the less pricey competition).

In the first year of operation its Face ID system does appear to have been impressively resilient, too — barring a few cases of highly similar looking family members/identical twins. Apple is certainly projecting confidence, now, going all in on the tech across all its iPhones.

If you’re inconsolable about the loss of the home button it’s not entirely extinct on Apple hardware yet: The iPad retains it, at least for now.

And if it’s Touch ID you’re hankering for Apple added the technology to the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar (on 2016 models and later).

Yet the days of poking at a physical button as a key crux of mobile computing do now look numbered.

Contextual computing — and all it implies — is the name of the game from here on in. Which is going to raise increasingly nuanced questions about the erosion of user agency and control, alongside major privacy considerations and related data ethics issues, at the same time as ramping up technological complexity in the background. So no pressure then!

At the end of the day there was something wonderfully simple about having a home button always sitting there — quietly working to take people back to a place they felt comfortable.

It was inclusive. Accessible. Reassuring. For some an unnecessary blemish on their rectangle of glass, for sure, but for others an important touchstone to get them where they needed to go.

Hopefully Apple won’t forget everything that was wrapped around the home button.

It would certainly be a shame if its spirit of inclusiveness also fell by the wayside.

Photo by Kim Kulish/Corbis via Getty Images

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So long then, iPhone home button…

… it was nice pressing you. Well, at least some of the thousands and thousands of times. Apple has finally abandoned a feature that’s been a staple of its smartphones since the very start, over a decade ago: A physical home button.

The trio of almost-all-screen iPhones unboxed today at its Cupertino HQ go all in on looks and swipes, with nothing but a sensor-housing notch up top to detract from their smoothly shining faces. 

Last year Apple only ditched the button on its premium iPhone X handset, retaining physical home buttons on cheaper iPhones. But this year it’s a clean sweep, with buttons dropped across the board.

If you want to go home on the new iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max or iPhone Xr (as the trio of new iPhones are confusingly named) well, there’s a gesture for that: An up swipe from the bottom edge of the screen, specifically. Or a look and that gesture if your phone is locked.

This is because Apple has also gone all in on its facial biometric authentication system, Face ID, for its next crop of iPhones — throwing out the predecessor Touch ID biometric in the process.

“Customer love it!” enthused Apple’s marketing chief, Phil Schiller, talking up Face ID from the stage, after CEO Tim Cook had reintroduced the tech by collapsing it all to: “Your phone knows what you look like and your face becomes your password.”

“There’s no home button,” confirmed Schiller, going over the details of the last of the three new iPhones to be announced — and also confirming Face ID is indeed on board the least pricey iPhone Xr. “You look at it to unlock it… you look at it to pay with Apple Pay,” he noted.

So hey there Face ID, goodbye Touch ID.

Like any fingerprint biometric Touch ID is fallible. Having been doing a lot of DIY lately it simply hasn’t worked at all for my battered fingertips for more than a month now. Nor does it work well if you have dry skin or wet hands and so on. It can also be hacked with a bit of effort, such as via silicone spoofs.

Still, Touch ID does have its fans — given relative simplicity. And also because you can register multiple digits to share biometric access to a single iPhone with a S.O. (Or, well, your cat.)

Apple has mitigated the device sharing issue by adding support for two faces per device being registered with Face ID in iOS 12. (We haven’t tested if it’ll register a cat yet.)

However the more major complaint from privacy advocates is that turning a person’s facial features into their security and authentication key normalizes surveillance. That’s certainly harder to workaround or argue against.

Apple will be hoping its general pro-privacy stance helps mitigate concerns on that front. But exactly how the millions of third party apps running on its platform make use of the facial biometric feature is a whole other issue, though.

Elsewhere, debate has focused on whether Face ID makes an iPhone more vulnerable to being force unlocked against its owner’s will. The technology does require active interaction from the registered face in question for it to function, though — a sort of ‘eyes-on’ check and balance.

It’s probably not perfect but neither was a fingerprint biometric — which could arguably be more easily forcibly taken from someone in custody or asleep.

But it’s irrefutable that biometrics come with trade-offs. None of these technologies is perfect in security terms. Arguably the biggest problem is there’s no way to change your biometric ‘password’ if your data leaks — having your fingerprints or face surgically swapped is hardly a viable option.

Yet despite such concerns the march towards consumer authentication systems that are robust without being hopelessly inconvenient has continued to give biometrics uplift.

And fingerprint readers, especially, are now pretty much standard issue across much of the Android device ecosystem (which may also be encouraging Apple to step up and away now, as it seeks to widen the gap with the less pricey competition).

In the first year of operation its Face ID system does appear to have been impressively resilient, too — barring a few cases of highly similar looking family members/identical twins. Apple is certainly projecting confidence, now, going all in on the tech across all its iPhones.

If you’re inconsolable about the loss of the home button it’s not entirely extinct on Apple hardware yet: The iPad retains it, at least for now.

And if it’s Touch ID you’re hankering for Apple added the technology to the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar (on 2016 models and later).

Yet the days of poking at a physical button as a key crux of mobile computing do now look numbered.

Contextual computing — and all it implies — is the name of the game from here on in. Which is going to raise increasingly nuanced questions about the erosion of user agency and control, alongside major privacy considerations and related data ethics issues, at the same time as ramping up technological complexity in the background. So no pressure then!

At the end of the day there was something wonderfully simple about having a home button always sitting there — quietly working to take people back to a place they felt comfortable.

It was inclusive. Accessible. Reassuring. For some an unnecessary blemish on their rectangle of glass, for sure, but for others an important touchstone to get them where they needed to go.

Hopefully Apple won’t forget everything that was wrapped around the home button.

It would certainly be a shame if its spirit of inclusiveness also fell by the wayside.

Photo by Kim Kulish/Corbis via Getty Images

Read Full Article