The Best Features in elementaryOS You May Have Overlooked

I’m a long-time desktop Linux user, and elementaryOS is one of my favorite options. I love the work the team has done to make free and open source software feel vibrant and welcoming in the era of intuitive smartphone interfaces.

elementaryOS 5.0 “Juno” is the most refined version of the desktop to date. Here are some of the best parts of the experience that you may have missed. Some of these features are specific to Juno, while others also apply to elementaryOS in general.

1. Built-In Night Light

The light that radiates from electronic devices into our eyeballs isn’t great for us. It causes eyestrain, makes it harder to fall asleep, and reduces the quality of that sleep.

While it’s best to avoid screens at night time, there are times when you need to get work done to meet a deadline. In that case, it’s better to replace the blue light with red light. There are third-party apps that do this, but elementaryOS Juno now comes with the functionality out of the box.

Look for the Night Light tab under System Settings > Displays.

2. Picture-in-Picture Mode

Do you regularly watch video while working? Whether it’s clicking back and forth, or lining two apps side-by-side, managing windows is probably a regular part of your routine.

In elementaryOS Juno, you can say goodbye to this struggle with Picture-in-Picture mode. Just press Super + F and select the window you want to keep visible. (The “Super” key is either the Windows key on PCs or the Command key on Macs.) To exit, click the X that appears when you hover your mouse over the floating preview.

A few things to keep in mind about Picture-in-Picture mode:

• The floating preview provides an ongoing look at the window you selected.
• Click on the preview to drag it around.
• You can resize the preview by clicking the button that appears in its bottom-right corner.
• If you minimize the window you selected, the preview freezes, so you must leave the window open in the background.
• If you want to stream video while looking at other tabs, move the video out into a separate window.

3. Easy Image Resizing

Resizing an image isn’t particularly fun or exciting (you might even call it tedious). You often need to resize an image before sending an email or uploading a photo to a website.

This usual process involves opening an image viewer or photo editor and clicking a “resize” button. Thanks to the Resizer app, you can do this task in elementaryOS from the right-click context menu. Right-click > Resize images opens up a window that lets you designate a size and name. Boom. Done.

4. Easier App Funding

When elementary introduced AppCenter, it also rolled out a new funding model for Linux apps that lets you pay what you want for software. Some apps recommend a default price, but there’s always the option to change that number to $0.

Thing is, you often don’t know if you want to toss a developer a few bucks until you’ve first tried out their app. In the past, you could only pay money when first installing an app. This meant you had to reinstall an app if you decided to make a contribution.

With Juno, “paid” apps that you downloaded for free will prompt you to pay whenever an update is available to download (you can still change the number to $0). You can also find a Fund button at the bottom of a paid app’s AppCenter page, allowing you to make donations whenever you like.

5. Simple App Launcher Edits

The app launcher is a part of the computer interface that we may not stare at for long, but we see it often. Occasionally you will come across an app that doesn’t fit in with the others. Either the name is off or the icon is big and fuzzy.

On elementaryOS, you can address the issue using AppEditor. It will let you edit icons, change names or descriptions, alter categories, and more. This is one of the most straightforward tools for the job you can find on any system.

If you’re on the lookout for alternate icons for apps like LibreOffice and VirtualBox, I recommend downloading the elementary add or elementaryPlus icon packs.

In both cases, you can extract the icon folder without having to deal with any pesky installation instructions!

6. A Panel That Adapts to Your Wallpaper

The panel along the top of the screen provides a few essentials. You have your app launcher, the time, and system indicators. These elements change color depending on your desktop wallpaper.

How the elementaryOS panel adapts to wallpapers:

• On dark backgrounds, icons are white.
• On bright wallpapers, the icons turn black.
• On relatively clear images, the panel’s background is transparent.
• If a wallpaper is busy toward the top of the screen, the panel becomes translucent.

When it comes to translucent panels, Juno is more adaptable than previous versions. There’s now a light translucent option for bright and busy wallpapers (pictured above).

7. Keyboard Shortcut Cheatsheat

elementaryOS may be a relatively simple desktop interface, but it still comes with a fair amount of keyboard shortcuts. Discovering and memorizing them all can take time and effort.

Juno makes your job easier by including a Shortcut Overlay that appears when you tap the Super key. Many of these shortcuts use the Super key and are not the standardized ones you see on other desktops.

But don’t fret! Common shortcuts like Ctrl + B (to bold text) or Alt + F4 (to close windows) still work on elementaryOS.

8. Bold Use of Color

The elementary project began as a desktop theme, so it makes sense that color would play a role in elementaryOS. While the overwhelming majority of apps are gray, some have HeaderBars (the name for the toolbar with core app buttons) in various colors.

Consider the Vocal podcast client, which is purple. The Aesop PDF reader is brown. The Eddy DEB installer is red (what is a DEB, you ask?).

While colorful HeaderBars were around in the previous version of elementaryOS, Juno continues the trend. The elementaryOS Music app may have a gray interface, but it has adopted orange highlights. More apps may make this sort of change in the future.

9. Easy Web Integration

I love how easy it is to view and share elementaryOS software online. The team has provided a way to browse AppCenter in your browser. If you’re currently running elementaryOS, the apps compatible with your version will appear at the top, with others listed below.

Click on the app to get to a page you can share with others. If they’re using elementaryOS, the browser will attempt to open the app in AppCenter directly. To share an app with someone from the desktop version of AppCenter, just click the Share button at the bottom of an app’s page to get a link you can copy and paste.

10. Transparent and Readable Updates

Want to know what recent changes have come down the pipeline? The elementary team provides semi-monthly updates that summarize what’s new.

To get this information, check out the elementary Medium page. There you will find write ups and screenshots about major app changes and background system improvements. Transparency is hardly new to the Linux world, but it’s a treat to see this information presented in such a readable and digestible format.

Do You Use elementaryOS?

elementaryOS isn’t quite like other Linux-based operating systems. While, technically, it isn’t all that different under the hood, it feels like a polished and distinct alternative. The elementary team regularly states that most downloads come from people using Windows or macOS.

On the fence? Here are several reasons to start using elementaryOS.

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7 Reasons Why PC Gaming Is Better Than Console Gaming

7 Reasons Why Console Gaming Is Better Than PC Gaming

The console vs. PC gaming debate is a perennial battle we don’t expect to end anytime soon. But if you’re just starting out or looking to switch your gaming rig, a console might be the way to go. Here are seven reasons why console gaming is better than PC gaming.

1. Console Games Just Work

With console gaming, there’s essentially no installation process. You simply insert the disc or download the game and in a couple of minutes, you’re all set. There are no pesky drivers to worry about, nor you will have to download a separate, proprietary installation tool for a particular game.

Sure, you may have to download updates if there are any, but this is a simple process. In addition, on a PC, you might also have to make a few adjustments specific to your machine’s specifications, like the games graphics settings in order to avoid framerate drops.

The bottom line is that on a console, you won’t have to face the majority of the common nuances of configuring a new game on a PC. It just works.

2. You Don’t Need to Check the Specs

Another burden you can avoid by opting for a console is hardware specifications. There are thousands of options you will have to go through to find the right PC to suits your needs. You have to ensure the mouse is comfortable and the graphics card can handle the games you want to play, and check how high is the display refresh rate, and more besides.

With consoles, you only have to worry about your budget and desire to play 4K games. In addition, unlike PCs, consoles continue to perform smoothly and run the latest games even after a couple of years of use. PC rigs generally wear out quicker and you will be forced to upgrade two or three years down the line (especially if you want to try out the most recent games).

3. There Are More AAA Games to Choose From

With studios such as Sony and Microsoft backing them, consoles have benefited from a wide collection of AAA games. Just look at the best PS4 exclusives for proof.

For instance, some of the most highly rated titles, such as The Last of Us, the Uncharted series, God of War (2018), and Red Dead Redemption 2 are not even available on PC. On the contrary, most popular PC games will be ported to consoles.

4. Console Gaming Is Generally Cheaper

Console gaming is more affordable than PC gaming. You can buy one for as little as $250 and still play each and every available game at 1080p. That package will even include the controller, one or two games, and possibly more. New gaming PCs, however, start at about $700 and that will only enable you to play the mid-tier games.

Plus, you will be spending hundreds of dollars extra for other accessories, like the keyboard and mouse. In addition, on consoles, you can share game discs with your friends and split the cost. On PCs, licenses are locked to a specific account and are non-transferrable.

5. You Can Play Console Games From Your Sofa

Since consoles are compatible with televisions, you can operate and play games on them from the comfort of your sofa. Their controllers are also designed in a way that you won’t have to fiddle around to find the right spot.

PCs, in addition to being incompatible with television displays, are not suited for non-desk setups and you will end up spending most of your time trying to make it work somehow. Make the sensible choice and play a console from the comfort of your sofa.

6. It’s Easier to Play With Friends

PCs also fall short in scenarios like parties or when your friends come over to hang out. Your desk probably doesn’t have the space for more than one keyboard and mouse, your laptop might not have enough ports, and more issues plague a PC’s ability to handle local multiplayer.

On a console, you can simply plug more consoles in to play with your friends. In addition, consoles have slots for USBs too, so if you have a keyboard lying around, you can plug that in as well.

What’s more, the aforementioned fifth argument supplements this advantage even further. If your monitor is a little small or there’s not room for more than two or three people in your study, you can quickly move to the living room where there is a larger television and more seating available.

7. Controllers Are Better Than Keyboard and Mouse

Controller preferences are certainly a subjective topic. But if you’re new and still exploring video games, the controller is the way to go. It’s built with a design that more naturally sits in your hands, unlike the keyboard and mouse combo which has a steeper learning curve.

With a controller, the fingers you’re not using can easily rest on the rear triggers and can come into play as soon as you want them.

In addition, apart from FPS (first-person shooters) and RTS (real-time strategy) games, the joysticks are a more ergonomic fit for most titles. PlayStation 4’s controller also has a touchpad so that you can navigate around the interface easily.

Are You Ready to Start Gaming on Consoles?

While PC gaming certainly has its advantages, consoles are definitely superior. As outlined in this article, they offer a hassle-free experience, a cheaper point of entry, and a wider selection of games.

If, after reading this article, you have made up your mind to buy a console, here is our Xbox One X review and our PlayStation Pro review to help you choose.

You might also be interested in hearing the other side: reasons why PC gaming is better than console gaming!

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Careem launches delivery service as it nears closing a massive round

The ride-hailing giant Careem is now in the delivery business as the company seeks new verticals in its ever-increasing fight against other services in the Middle East including Uber. Starting with food delivery in Dhabi and Jeddah, the company sees the delivery service expanding to pharmaceuticals according to a report by Reuters. Careem is investing over $150m into the service.

“We believe the opportunity for deliveries in the region is even bigger than ride-hailing,” Chief Executive and Co-Founder Mudassir Sheikha told Reuters. “It is going to become a very significant part of Careem over time.”

Called Careem Now, the service will operate independently from its ride-hailing business. It will have its own app and Careem is building the service a dedicated call center.

This comes as the company is trying to close a $500m funding round. Back in October, the company announced it had already raised $200m from existing investors. Prior to this announcement, rumors were swirling around the company that several companies including Didi Chuxing could acquire the company.

 

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K Health raises $25m for its AI-powered primary care platform

K Health, the startup providing consumers with an AI-powered primary care platform, has raised $25 million in series B funding. The round was led by 14W, Comcast Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners, with participation from Lerer Hippeau, Primary Ventures, BoxGroup, Bessemer Venture Partners and Max Ventures – all previous investors from the company’s seed or Series A rounds.

Co-founded and led by former Vroom CEO and Wix co-CEO, Allon Bloch, K Health (previously Kang Health) looks to equip consumers with a free and easy-to-use application that can provide accurate, personalized, data-driven information about their symptoms and health.

“When your child says their head hurts, you can play doctor for the first two questions or so – where does it hurt? How does it hurt?” Bloch explained in a conversation with TechCrunch. “Then it gets complex really quickly. Are they nauseous or vomiting? Did anything unusual happen? Did you come back from a trip somewhere? Doctors then use differential diagnosis to prove that it’s a tension headache vs other things by ruling out a whole list of chronic or unusual conditions based on their deep knowledge sets.”

K Health’s platform, which currently focuses on primary care, effectively looks to perform a simulation and data-driven version of the differential diagnosis process. On the company’s free mobile app, users spend three-to-four minutes answering an average of 21 questions about their background and the symptoms they’re experiencing.

Using a data set of two billion historical health events over the past 20 years – compiled from doctors notes, lab results, hospitalizations, drug statistics and outcome data – K Health is able to compare users to those with similar symptoms and medical histories before zeroing in on a diagnosis. 

With its expansive comparative approach, the platform hopes to offer vastly more thorough, precise and user-specific diagnostic information relative to existing consumer alternatives, like WebMD or – what Bloch calls – “Dr. Google”, which often produce broad, downright frightening, and inaccurate diagnoses. 

Ease and efficiency for both consumers and physicians

Users are able to see cases and diagnoses that had symptoms similar to their own, with K Health notifying users with serious conditions when to consider seeking immediate care. (K Health Press Image / K Health / https://www.khealth.ai)

In addition to pure peace of mind, the utility provided to consumers is clear. With more accurate at-home diagnostic information, users are able to make better preventative health decisions, avoid costly and unnecessary trips to in-person care centers or appointments with telehealth providers, and engage in constructive conversations with physicians when they do opt for in-person consultations.

K Health isn’t looking to replace doctors, and in fact, believes its platform can unlock tremendous value for physicians and the broader healthcare system by enabling better resource allocation. 

Without access to quality, personalized medical information at home, many defer to in-person doctor visits even when it may not be necessary. And with around one primary care physician per 1000 in the US, primary care practitioners are subsequently faced with an overwhelming number of patients and are unable to focus on more complex cases that may require more time and resources. The high volume of patients also forces physicians to allocate budgets for support staff to help interact with patients, collect initial background information and perform less-demanding tasks.

K Health believes that by providing an accurate alternative for those with lighter or more trivial symptoms, it can help lower unnecessary in-person visits, reduce costs for practices and allow physicians to focus on complicated, rare or resource-intensive cases where their expertise can be most useful and where brute machine processing power is less valuable.

The startup is looking to enhance the platform’s symbiotic patient-doctor benefits further in early-2019, when it plans to launch in-app capabilities that allow users to share their AI-driven health conversations directly with physicians, hopefully reducing time spent on information gathering and enabling more-informed treatment.

With K Health’s AI and machine learning capabilities, the platform also gets smarter with every conversation as it captures more outcomes, hopefully enriching the system and becoming more valuable to all parties over time. Initial results seem promising with K Health currently boasting around 500,000 users, most having joined since this past July.

Using access and affordability to improve global health outcomes

With the latest round, the company has raised a total of $37.5 million since its late-2016 founding. K Health plans to use the capital to ramp up marketing efforts, further refine its product and technology, and perform additional research to identify methods for earlier detection and areas outside of primary care where the platform may be valuable.

Longer term, the platform has much broader aspirations of driving better health outcomes, normalizing better preventative health behavior, and creating more efficient and affordable global healthcare systems.

The high costs of the American healthcare system and the impacts they have on health behavior has been well-documented. With heavy copays, premiums and treatment cost, many avoid primary care altogether or opt for more reactionary treatment, leading to worse health outcomes overall.

Issues seen in the American healthcare system are also observable in many emerging market countries with less medical infrastructure. According to the World Health Organization, the international standard for the number of citizens per primary care physician is one for every 1,500 to 2,000 people, with some countries facing much steeper gaps – such as China, where there is only one primary care doctor for every 6,666.

The startup hopes it can help limit the immense costs associated with emerging countries educating millions of doctors for eight-to-ten years and help provide more efficient and accessible healthcare systems much more quickly.

By reducing primary care costs for consumers and operating costs for medical practices, while creating a more convenient diagnostic experience, K Health believes it can improve access to information, ultimately driving earlier detection and better health outcomes for consumers everywhere.

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HQ Trivia and Vine co-founder Colin Kroll found dead of suspected overdose

Colin Kroll, the 35-year-old co-founder and CEO of the HQ Trivia app, has been found dead of an apparent drug overdose in his apartment, TechCrunch has confirmed.

A spokesman for the NYPD told us that a female called 911 for a wellness check on Kroll’s apartment and he was found dead inside at 08:00 hours today.

The police department said the investigation is ongoing but added that the cause of death is “allegedly a drug overdose”.

“We’re still waiting on the ME’s report to confirm that,” he added.

The story was reported earlier by TMZ — which cites a police source saying cocaine and heroin were believed to be involved.

We reached out to HQ for comment but the company has declined to make a statement at this time.

Kroll was only named CEO of the HQ Trivia mobile game show app three months ago, replacing fellow co-founder Rus Yusupov who moved over to serve as chief creative officer.

Prior to taking the CEO role Kroll served as HQ’s CTO. He co-founded the startup in 2015, a few months after moving on from Vine — the Twitter-owned short video format startup which got closed down in 2017.

It’s not clear who will take over the CEO role for HQ Trivia at this stage but Yusupov looks a likely candidate, at least in the interim.

In recent months the startup has been beta testing a follow up mobile game show, called HQ Words. Its original trivia format show airs twice per day and awards winners as much as $100,000 for successfully answering 12 questions.

The app debuted last August and was a viral success. But the question hanging over HQ Trivia and its co-founders has increasingly been how to sustain an early winning streak, once the novelty of the original show ran its course.

As we reported previously, HQ Trivia’s ranking in the app store has been steadily decreasing in recent months.

Kroll started his career as a software engineer at Right Media, which went on to be acquired by Yahoo in 2006. From then until 2011, he led the engineering team in Yahoo’s search and advertising tech group before joining luxury travel site Jetsetter as VP of Product — where he went on to be promoted to CTO.

In 2012 he left to start Vine with co-founders Dominik Hofmann and Yusopov.

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3D-printed heads let hackers – and cops – unlock your phone

There’s a lot you can make with a 3D printer: from prosthetics, corneas, and firearms — even an Olympic-standard luge.

You can even 3D print a life-size replica of a human head — and not just for Hollywood. Forbes reporter Thomas Brewster commissioned a 3D printed model of his own head to test the face unlocking systems on a range of phones — four Android models and an iPhone X.

Bad news if you’re an Android user: all four phones unlocked with the 3D printed head.

Gone, it seems, are the days of the trusty passcode, which many still find cumbersome, fiddly, and inconvenient — especially when you unlock your phone dozens of times a day. Phone makers are taking to the more convenient unlock methods. Even if Google’s latest Pixel 3 shunned facial recognition, many Android models — including popular Samsung devices — are relying more on your facial biometrics. In its latest models, Apple effectively killed its fingerprint-reading Touch ID in favor of its newer Face ID.

But that poses a problem for your data if a mere 3D-printed model can trick your phone into giving up your secrets. That makes life much easier for hackers, who have no rulebook to go from. But what about the police or the feds, who do?

It’s no secret that biometrics — your fingerprints and your face — aren’t protected under the Fifth Amendment. That means police can’t compel you to give up your passcode, but they can forcibly depress your fingerprint to unlock your phone, or hold it to your face while you’re looking at it. And the police know it — it happens more often than you might realize.

But there’s also little in the way of stopping police from 3D printing or replicating a set of biometrics to break into a phone.

“Legally, it’s no different from using fingerprints to unlock a device,” said Orin Kerr, professor at USC Gould School of Law, in an email. “The government needs to get the biometric unlocking information somehow,” by either the finger pattern shape or the head shape, he said.

Although a warrant “wouldn’t necessarily be a requirement” to get the biometric data, one would be needed to use the data to unlock a device, he said.

Jake Laperruque, senior counsel at the Project On Government Oversight, said it was doable but isn’t the most practical or cost-effective way for cops to get access to phone data.

“A situation where you couldn’t get the actual person but could use a 3D print model may exist,” he said. “I think the big threat is that a system where anyone — cops or criminals — can get into your phone by holding your face up to it is a system with serious security limits.”

The FBI alone has thousands of devices in its custody — even after admitting the number of encrypted devices is far lower than first reported. With the ubiquitous nature of surveillance, now even more powerful with high-resolution cameras and facial recognition software, it’s easier than ever for police to obtain our biometric data as we go about our everyday lives.

Those cheering on the “death of the password” might want to think again. They’re still the only thing that’s keeping your data safe from the law.

FBI reportedly overestimated inaccessible encrypted phones by thousands

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Facebook Bug Exposes Users’ Photos

A Facebook bug has exposed the private photos of up to 6.8 million users. The bug means thousands of third-party apps had potential access to photos they didn’t have permission to view. The worst thing is the amount of time Facebook took to disclose the incident.

Facebook’s Very Bad Year

It’s fair to say Facebook hasn’t had a good 2018. There was the Cambridge Analytica scandal everyone should be familiar with by now. And over a backdrop of people deleting Facebook, the social network has had ongoing issues maintaining people’s trust.

The issues run deep, with Facebook battling the spread of fake news, advertising campaigns with the potential to influence elections, and a seemingly lax attitude to users’ data and privacy. And now we get the news that private photos were exposed to apps.

Facebook Discloses New Bug

Facebook disclosed the incident in a Facebook for Developers Blog post. The social network explains that this bug affected “people who used Facebook Login and granted permission to third-party apps to access their photos”.

If you want to check if you're affected by Facebook's latest bug involving photo sharing, here's the link: https://t.co/yQDopYtQhy pic.twitter.com/QNMWErLOU9

— Zack Whittaker (@zackwhittaker) December 14, 2018

Users sometimes give apps permission to access photos they share on their timeline. However, this bug meant that for 12 days developers could also access other photos shared on Facebook, and even photos people uploaded but then decided not to post.

The bug in question was live between September 13 and September 25, 2018. Facebook discovered and duly fixed the bug on the 25th. However, it has taken almost three months for Facebook to notify the developers affected and, by extension, the users affected.

Facebook is “sorry this happened,” and is rolling out tools to help developers “determine which people using their app might be impacted by this bug.” Those people will then be notified, and directed to a Help Center link explaining the issue in more detail.

Fingers Crossed for 2019

This tops off an annus horribilis for Facebook, and we really hope 2019 brings better fortune. Not for Facebook’s sake, but for the sake of its users. Otherwise Facebook et al might find that everyone collectively decides to quit social media altogether.

Image Credit: Marco Verch/Flickr

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The limits of coworking

It feels like there’s a WeWork on every street nowadays. Take a walk through midtown Manhattan (please don’t actually) and it might even seem like there are more WeWorks than office buildings.

Consider this an ongoing discussion about Urban Tech, its intersection with regulation, issues of public service, and other complexities that people have full PHDs on. I’m just a bitter, born-and-bred New Yorker trying to figure out why I’ve been stuck in between subway stops for the last 15 minutes, so please reach out with your take on any of these thoughts: @Arman.Tabatabai@techcrunch.com.

Co-working has permeated cities around the world at an astronomical rate. The rise has been so remarkable that even the headline-dominating SoftBank seems willing to bet the success of its colossal Vision Fund on the shift continuing, having poured billions into WeWork – including a recent $4.4 billion top-up that saw the co-working king’s valuation spike to $45 billion.

And there are no signs of the trend slowing down. With growing frequency, new startups are popping up across cities looking to turn under-utilized brick-and-mortar or commercial space into low-cost co-working options.

It’s a strategy spreading through every type of business from retail – where companies like Workbar have helped retailers offer up portions of their stores – to more niche verticals like parking lots – where companies like Campsyte are transforming empty lots into spaces for outdoor co-working and corporate off-sites. Restaurants and bars might even prove most popular for co-working, with startups like Spacious and KettleSpace turning restaurants that are closed during the day into private co-working space during their off-hours.

Before you know it, a startup will be strapping an Aeron chair to the top of a telephone pole and calling it “WirelessWorking”.

But is there a limit to how far co-working can go? Are all of the storefronts, restaurants and open spaces that line city streets going to be filled with MacBooks, cappuccinos and Moleskine notebooks? That might be too tall a task, even for the movement taking over skyscrapers.

The co-working of everything…

Photo: Vasyl Dolmatov / iStock via Getty Images

So why is everyone trying to turn your favorite neighborhood dinner spot into a part-time WeWork in the first place? Co-working offers a particularly compelling use case for under-utilized space.

First, co-working falls under the same general commercial zoning categories as most independent businesses and very little additional infrastructure – outside of a few extra power outlets and some decent WiFi – is required to turn a space into an effective replacement for the often crowded and distracting coffee shops used by price-sensitive, lean, remote, or nomadic workers that make up a growing portion of the workforce.

Thus, businesses can list their space at little-to-no cost, without having to deal with structural layout changes that are more likely to arise when dealing with pop-up solutions or event rentals.

On the supply side, these co-working networks don’t have to purchase leases or make capital improvements to convert each space, and so they’re able to offer more square footage per member at a much lower rate than traditional co-working spaces. Spacious, for example, charges a monthly membership fee of $99-$129 dollars for access to its network of vetted restaurants, which is cheap compared to a WeWork desk, which can cost anywhere from $300-$800 per month in New York City.

Customers realize more affordable co-working alternatives, while tight-margin businesses facing increasing rents for under-utilized property are able to pool resources into a network and access a completely new revenue stream at very little cost. The value proposition is proving to be seriously convincing in initial cities – Spacious told the New York Times, that so many restaurants were applying to join the network on their own volition that only five percent of total applicants were ultimately getting accepted.

Basically, the business model here checks a lot of the boxes for successful marketplaces: Acquisition and transaction friction is low for both customers and suppliers, with both seeing real value that didn’t exist previously. Unit economics seem strong, and vetting on both sides of the market creates trust and community. Finally, there’s an observable network effect whereby suppliers benefit from higher occupancy as more customers join the network, while customers benefit from added flexibility as more locations join the network.

… Or just the co-working of some things…

Photo: Caiaimage / Robert Daly via Getty Images

So is this the way of the future? The strategy is really compelling, with a creative solution that offers tremendous value to businesses and workers in major cities. But concerns around the scalability of demand make it difficult to picture this phenomenon becoming ubiquitous across cities or something that reaches the scale of a WeWork or large conventional co-working player.

All these companies seem to be competing for a similar demographic, not only with one another, but also with coffee shops, free workspaces, and other flexible co-working options like Croissant, which provides members with access to unused desks and offices in traditional co-working spaces. Like Spacious and KettleSpace, the spaces on Croissant own the property leases and are already built for co-working, so Croissant can still offer comparatively attractive rates.

The offer seems most compelling for someone that is able to work without a stable location and without the amenities offered in traditional co-working or office spaces, and is also price sensitive enough where they would trade those benefits for a lower price. Yet at the same time, they can’t be too price sensitive, where they would prefer working out of free – or close to free – coffee shops instead of paying a monthly membership fee to avoid the frictions that can come with them.

And it seems unclear whether the problem or solution is as poignant outside of high-density cities – let alone outside of high-density areas of high-density cities.

Without density, is the competition for space or traffic in coffee shops and free workspaces still high enough where it’s worth paying a membership fee for? Would the desire for a private working environment, or for a working community, be enough to incentivize membership alone? And in less-dense and more-sprawl oriented cities, members could also face the risk of having to travel significant distances if space isn’t available in nearby locations.

While the emerging workforce is trending towards more remote, agile and nomadic workers that can do more with less, it’s less certain how many will actually fit the profile that opts out of both more costly but stable traditional workspaces, as well as potentially frustrating but free alternatives. And if the lack of density does prove to be an issue, how many of those workers will live in hyper-dense areas, especially if they are price-sensitive and can work and live anywhere?

To be clear, I’m not saying the companies won’t see significant growth – in fact, I think they will. But will the trend of monetizing unused space through co-working come to permeate cities everywhere and do so with meaningful occupancy? Maybe not. That said, there is still a sizable and growing demographic that need these solutions and the value proposition is significant in many major urban areas.

The companies are creating real value, creating more efficient use of wasted space, and fixing a supply-demand issue. And the cultural value of even modestly helping independent businesses keep the lights on seems to outweigh the cultural “damage” some may fear in turning them into part-time co-working spaces.

And lastly, some reading while in transit:

• The Grim Future of Urban Warfare – The Atlantic, Darran Anderson
• New York’s New Wage Law for Uber Drivers is a Lesson for Cities Around the World – MIT Technology Review, Erin Winick
• Can New Home Building Tech Help Solve the Affordability Crisis? – FastCompany, Adele Peters
• Homelessness Rises More Quickly Where Rent Exceeds a Third of Income – Zillow Research, Chris Glynn & Alexander Casey
• Vote on Temescal to Test Core Values – StreetsblogSF, Roger Rudick
• L.A. Approves New Rules for Airbnb-Type Rentals After Years of Debate – Los Angeles Times, Emily Alpert Reyes
• Can France Revive its Industrial Heartland? – FT, Harriet Agnew
• Why Communities Across America Are Pushing to Close Waste Incinerators – CityLab, Rebecca Stoner

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The Worst Passwords of 2018, Revealed

We now know the worst passwords of 2018. These are the passwords you should never use, and that you shouldn’t let any friends or family members use either. Because not only are they very common, they’re so weak that even a six-year-old could crack them.

The Top 10 Worst Passwords of 2018

1. 123456
2. password
3. 123456789
4. 12345678
5. 12345
6. 111111
7. 1234567
8. sunshine
9. qwerty
10. iloveyou

A lot of these terrible passwords will be familiar from previous lists. Obvious words such as “password” and “qwerty” plus the the easy-to-remember number sequences such as “123456” and “111111” make it into the top 10 worst passwords year after year.

This means there are people out there who have failed to change their passwords despite being shamed for their choices every year. But then someone using the same number six times in a row probably isn’t the brightest of individuals. Eh, Kanye.

Donald Trump Inspires a Bad Password

The more interesting passwords appear further down the list. At #67 we have “maverick” (as in Top Gun), at #60 we have “starwars” (as in Star Wars), at #45 we have “solo” (as in Han), at #39 we have “harley” (as in Harley Quinn), and at #23 we have “donald”.

We have to assume “donald” is a reference to Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States of America. But then it could also refer to Donald Duck, Donald Glover, or Donald Sutherland. None of which are quite as newsworthy as Trump right now.

Learn More About Password Managers

This list of bad passwords comes courtesy of SplashData, the company behind password manager, SplashID. The passwords are the most commonly found passwords from recent data breaches, which is testament to both their popularity and their uselessness.

Whether or not you use a password manager, it’s worth learning more about them. We have previously compared the biggest password managers, explained how password managers keep you safe, and discussed some password manager security mistakes.

Image Credit: Maxx-Studio via Shutterstock.com

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10 Christmas Decorations You Can Make From Recycled Materials

Christmas is approaching fast, and as well as choosing gifts for your loved ones, it is time to think about decorating for the festive season. While it can be tempting to buy new decorations each year, these purchases can all add up.

Making your own decorations not only saves money and cuts out pointless waste, but is a great way to do something creative. Here are 10 ideas for DIY decorations to brighten up your home this Christmas.

1. Recycled Christmas Card Bunting

Every year after Christmas, many houses are left with a huge wealth of Christmas cards. While they were perfect to display around the home during the season, most of these cards end up in the bin shortly after festivities end.

This project from Emily Peckenham on inhabitat.com requires nothing more than some string and a stack of old cards, the more colorful the better! They are so quick and easy to make that it could be easy to go crazy and cover your whole house, your pets, and your children with recycled card bunting.

2. Mason Jar Snow Globes

The much underappreciated snow globe is a great decoration for your home. The inside of your snow globe can comprise of anything, old Christmas decorations, tree branches, holly from the garden—the possibilities are endless.

As well as looking great, these snow globes provide an interactive child distraction system which can be a much needed commodity during this season.

3. Origami Ornaments

This fascinating design consists of only two pieces of paper, and ends up with an incredibly professional looking decoration you can hang from your tree. This design by Instructables user sebnibo is made out of paper, and there is nothing to stop you using any kind of paper you would otherwise throw out.

Just make sure it isn’t too flimsy or you may end up with some rather limp stars!

If you are feeling like adding a tech aspect to the build, why not follow sebnibo’s other Instructable to add lights to your origami stars?

4. Cork Wreath

Depending on your poison, you may end up with a surplus of wine corks around Christmas or any other day of the year. Instead of chucking them out, collect them for a while and make something out of them!

This is a great thrifty project requiring only a pre-made ring and some glue. For an extra splash of color you can paint the corks first, or bribe younger family members to do it for you with cookies. The choice is yours.

Why not make it flashy by adding our Motion Activated LED Matrix project to the center of it?

5. Five in One Decorations

Since this is Christmas time, it seems fitting to give a gift. Number 5 on this list is five simple projects you can create yourself using basic materials. All of these builds are simple and suitable to do with children under supervision.

All of these projects use things you’ll likely have around the house except from the Styrofoam balls. That does of course depend on your house, owners of a dedicated Styrofoam ball room will be at an advantage here.

6. DIY BB-8

So far we have covered some traditional Christmas decorations, but we all know that the festive season is truly about Star Wars! What better way to adorn your Endorian Soul Tree than with a DIY BB-8 droid?

The above video is taken from an Instructable by inspiretomake, and shows the surprisingly straightforward process required to put it all together. Comprising of just a few baubles and printed templates, the droid can be built in minutes.

7. Star Wars Snowflakes

Snow Wars! Star Flakes? Lets just call them War Flarks. Either way, for the past few years designer Anthony Herrera has been offering templates for Star Wars themed snow flakes on his website. The templates are free to download as PDF files, and are utterly stunning.

There really is a wealth of designs to choose from, encompassing every major character and vehicle in the series, along with a few less obvious choices which will cause any true Star Wars fan to make involuntary noises.

8. 8-Bit Baubles

With our eighth idea we are going 8-bit! These baubles bring Christmas down to a level of pixelation we understand, and look fantastic too. They are the creation of Kat and Cam of the ourNERDhome blog, and the design they have come up with is as eye catching as it is colorful.

These retro gaming inspired decorations are made out of foam board and painted with simple hobby craft paint—though a similar effect can be achieved painting on scrap cardboard to make this truly a recycled DIY project.

The real kicker in this project is the optional use of a finishing coat on the baubles to make them shine.

9. Mario Star Christmas Tree Topper

Christmas is a great time to enjoy the important people in your life, like Mario. This DIY Mario Star is easy to make, and will give the top of your Christmas tree that feeling of invincibility it deserves!

This crafty project is the brain child of Instructables user scoochmaroo, and gives a great effect using simple materials. You could easily switch out the vinyl for scrap material, and you should find you have most of the bits you need to make this around the house.

It’s worth adding a 100-300 ohm resistor to the LED circuit if you want your LED to last more than a day or so!

10. Mario Coin Goodie Boxes

Sticking with the Mario theme, our final project is the ubiquitous Coin Box from the Mario series.

Templates for the box design can be found in the video description, and the finished boxes are really impressive. This project uses foam core, but if you do not have any to hand you can use card from packing boxes to the same effect.

The finished product in this video has a slot in the top for placing items in the boxes.

A great alternative would be to stash tasty edible goodies inside the boxes and hang them from the tree for your family and guests to break open and eat. Tiny Mario box pinatas? Yes please!

Getting Into the Spirit

These few ideas are a great start to giving you a DIY Christmas—with an emphasis on recycling where possible. This list is just a tiny glimpse of the hundreds of fantastic projects out there.

As well as getting the perfect gift for your tech savvy family members, give your home the creative treatment this Christmas.

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Is Amazon Prime Pantry Worth It? 5 Things You Need to Know

Allow me to start with two important remarks.

One, I’m a huge fan of Amazon Prime and I recommend it to pretty much everyone who has regular internet access. Two, even though I don’t personally use Prime Pantry, that doesn’t mean I think it’s a bad service. It’s actually one of the lesser-known benefits of Amazon Prime that can be great under the right circumstances.

But is Prime Pantry right for you? You’ll need to consider a handful of details that will inform your decision. If you decide that it won’t benefit you, that’s fine. If you think it will, even better. I have no stake in this—I just want to help you come to the best decision according to your needs.

Here’s everything you need to know about Prime Pantry.

1. How Does Prime Pantry Work?

As the name implies, you’ll need an Amazon Prime membership to take advantage of Prime Pantry, which means committing to $129/year. Is Amazon Prime worth it? I think so. The two-day shipping alone is fantastic, but you also get Prime Video, Prime Music, and more.

As an Amazon Prime member, you have three ways to shop Prime Pantry:

1. On Prime Pantry orders that total under $35, shipping costs a flat $5.99.
2. On Prime Pantry orders that total $35 or more, shipping is free.
3. With a Prime Pantry supplemental subscription, orders that total $10 or more have free shipping. The supplemental Prime Pantry subscription costs $4.99/month on top of the regular Amazon Prime membership.

Only Prime Pantry-eligible items count towards Prime Pantry orders. The easiest way to shop Prime Pantry is to visit the Prime Pantry Store page. However, you can also browse Amazon normally as long as you look for the Prime Pantry label, which you can see on the items below:

When Prime Pantry-eligible items are added to your Cart, they’ll display separately from normal Amazon items. In your Cart, you’ll see a Prime Pantry item that has a bunch of sub-items below it, along with how much each item costs and the total cost of the box. You can also see any eligible coupons (more on this later in the article):

Note: If you’re a student with an active .EDU email, you can actually get Amazon Prime for 50% off through the Prime for Students program. This discount applies every year for up to four years or until you graduate, whichever comes first. This makes Prime Pantry a much better deal for students!

2. Prime Pantry Shipping Restrictions

As far as shipping restrictions go, you’ll need to know three major details.

Only in the Continental US

If you live in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Canada, or any other country in the world, you can forget about Prime Pantry. Since its debut, the service has only been available to users in the 48 states that make up the continental US. (There are ways to get around this but may violate the terms of Amazon Prime. Do so at your own risk!)

Only Shipped by Ground Shipping

Amazon Prime has spoiled me with its two-day shipping policy, so now anything longer than that feels like an eternity. Unfortunately, Prime Pantry isn’t included in the two-day shipping policy that makes Amazon so convenient. All Prime Pantry orders are shipped using ground shipping, which takes an average of four days.

Note: If you have non-Prime Pantry items in your Cart when checking out, they’ll ship separately.

Only for Residential or Business Addresses

For the most part, Amazon Prime can ship anywhere—including PO boxes, Amazon Lockers, and even APO, FPO, and DPO addresses. One major downside to Prime Pantry is that those exceptional address types are excluded: no PO boxes, no Amazon Lockers, no APO/FPO/DPO addresses.

3. Prime Pantry Is Mainly Non-Perishable Items

This point isn’t so much a downside as it is an observation: 99% of the items you’ll find in the Prime Pantry catalog are non-perishable household goods. You probably could’ve surmised that from the name itself (“things you’d put in your pantry”), but I just wanted to be extra clear on that. And by non-perishable, we mean “it might eventually perish, but it’s shelf stable for quite some time.”

Common Prime Pantry-eligible item types include:

• Snacks, like cookies.
• Canned and bottled beverages, like soda.
• Cleaning supplies, like bathroom sprays.
• General supplies, like paper towels.
• Laundry supplies, like detergent.
• Food storage, like containers.
• Hygiene products, like soap and makeup.
• Healthcare products, like vitamins.
• Medication and first aid products.
• Pet care products, like litter.

As you can see, Prime Pantry covers many categories—along with several others that aren’t mentioned above. However, you will not find any fresh produce or groceries in the Prime Pantry catalog. For that, you should look to Amazon Fresh instead.

4. Prime Pantry Lacks Generic and Luxury Brands

Here’s another detail that might seem unremarkable at first but could end up being quite the deal breaker: Prime Pantry is only stocked with “regular” brands.

I personally don’t care about brands all that much—I prefer to shop using value-to-price ratios—but I know a lot of people who are picky about this sort of thing. If that’s you, nothing wrong with that. I’m not here to judge.

Just know that some of your preferred brands won’t be available through Prime Pantry, especially if your tastes lean toward the more expensive end of the spectrum. Then again, if you’re a bargain hunter and always opt for generic brands, you’ll also be sorely disappointed in the Prime Pantry selection.

5. Save Money With Prime Pantry Coupons

Did you know that Amazon has a Coupons program for Amazon Prime members? I had no idea this existed until I dove a little deeper into Amazon as research for this article. In short, you can browse Amazon’s catalog of coupons and click Clip Coupon to get an instant discount on that item at checkout.

As it turns out, a lot of Prime Pantry items are also eligible for these digital coupons. Individually these discounts may seem worthless, but when you have an entire Cart worth of stuff and all of it is discounted to some degree, the savings add up. If you have the time to clip coupons regularly, you might even save enough to negate the shipping fee.

Note: Each coupon is only available for a limited time and is only applicable up to a certain quantity.

Is Prime Pantry Right for You?

After looking at all of these facts about Prime Pantry, a couple things become very clear.

Convenience is the main reason to use Prime Pantry. You don’t have to leave your house, you can shop at your own leisure, and everything gets dropped off right at your doorstep. It’s a great value for students (who get discounted Prime for Students memberships) and supremely useful for those who don’t have cars and don’t want to walk back from the supermarket with heavy bags of groceries.

Prime Pantry is NOT a way to save money on groceries. It’s convenient, but that convenience comes at a cost—namely, flat-rate shipping and the lack of generic brands. The four-day shipping is also a bit disappointing, but not a deal-breaker.

Get started with a free 30-day trial of Prime Pantry, only for current Amazon Prime members. Not an Amazon Prime member yet? Get started with a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime instead!

If Prime Pantry isn’t for you, Amazon Prime is still worth getting for other reasons. Perhaps the benefits of Amazon Prime Day will convince you to become a member.

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How to Build a Home Theater on the Cheap

Propel raises $12.8M for its free app to manage government benefits

Propel, maker of the Fresh EBT app for managing food stamps and other benefits, announced today that it has raised $12.8 million in Series A funding.

Fresh EBT (the EBT stands for the Electronics Transfer Benefit card, which is how food stamp participants receive their benefits) allows users to check their food stamp/SNAP balance and find stores that accept food stamps. Users can also track their spending. The app is free for consumers and government agencies — the company makes money through digital coupons and a job board.

Propel says Fresh EBT is now used by more than 1.5 million Americans each month, and that more than 30,000 people have applied for jobs this year that they discovered through the app. For example, the announcement quotes one user, Tracy B. from Fairland, Virginia — she described Fresh EBT as her “personal financial adviser,” and also said she used it to find discount zoo tickets, and even her current job.

When Propel raised its $4 million seed round last year, founder and CEO Jimmy Chen described his mission as building “a more user-friendly safety net.” He argued that there’s no conflict between Propel’s social mission and its structure as a for-profit business, a position he reiterated in today’s announcement.

“Our investors are world-class experts in their respective fields,” he said. “They share an understanding of the challenges of low-income Americans and a belief that Propel can build a massive business by fighting poverty.”

Those investors include Nyca Partners, which led the round. Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Omidyar Network, Alexa von Tobel and Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures also participated.

“It’s not hard to see the huge opportunity in building better financial services for low-income people,” said Nyca Managing Partner Hans Morris in a statement. “We just haven’t seen many companies in this space that have an opportunity to have such a large impact at massive scale. That’s why we’re so excited to invest in Propel.”

Propel raises $4M to make the social safety net more tech savvy and user friendly

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Amazon Echo speakers now play friendly with Apple Music

Amazon recently said Apple Music would find its way onto Amazon Echo devices sometime soon — and sure enough, it appears to be rolling out now.

To make Alexa work with Apple’s streaming service, you should just have to jump into the newly updated iOS/Android Alexa app and link up your account. You can find the option under Settings > Music.

Once done, commands like “Alexa, play music by Halsey on Apple Music” should work. Or, if you don’t want to have to say the “… on Apple Music” bit every time, you can just set Apple Music as the default service. If you don’t have a specific artist in mind, you an also request playlists or genres.

One catch: as 9to5mac points out, it appears this currently only works with Amazon Echo speakers, and not yet with third-party speakers (like the Sonos ONE or Polk’s Audio Command sounder) that happen to have Alexa-support built in.

Not a fan of Apple’s offering? Alexa also works with Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, Deezer and Amazon’s own Music service.

Using Google devices, rather than Amazon’s? Alas, still no word on if/when proper Apple Music support might come to Google Home.

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Google agrees not to sell facial recognition tech, citing abuse potential

In recent months, pressure has been mounting for major tech firms to develop strong policies regarding facial recognition. Microsoft has helped lead the way on that front, promising to put in place stricter policies, calling for greater regulation and asking fellow companies to follow suit.

Hidden toward the end of a blog post about using artificial intelligence to benefit health clinics in Asia, Google SVP Kent Walker affirmed the company’s commitment not to sell facial recognition APIs. The executive cites concerns over how the technology could be abused.

“[F]acial recognition technology has benefits in areas like new assistive technologies and tools to help find missing persons, with more promising applications on the horizon,” Walker writes. “However, like many technologies with multiple uses, facial recognition merits careful consideration to ensure its use is aligned with our principles and values, and avoids abuse and harmful outcomes. We continue to work with many organizations to identify and address these challenges, and unlike some other companies, Google Cloud has chosen not to offer general-purpose facial recognition APIs before working through important technology and policy questions.”

In an interview this week, CEO Sundar Pichai address similar growing concerns around AI ethics. “I think tech has to realize it just can’t build it and then fix it,” he told The Washington Post. “I think that doesn’t work,” adding that artifical intelligence could ultimately prove “far more dangerous than nukes.”

The ACLU, which has offered sharp criticism over privacy and racial profiling concerns, lauded the statement. In the next paragraph, however, the company promised to continue to apply pressure on these large orgs.

“We will continue to put Google’s feet to the fire to make sure it doesn’t build or sell a face surveillance product that violates civil and human rights,” ACLU tech director Nicole Ozer said in a statement. “We also renew our call on Amazon and Microsoft to not provide dangerous face surveillance to the government. Companies have a responsibility to make sure their products can’t be used to attack communities and harm civil rights and liberties — it’s past time all companies own up to that responsibility.”

The organization has offered particularly sharp criticism against Amazon for its Rekognition software. This week, it also called out the company’s patent application for a smart doorbell that uses facial recognition to identify “suspicious” visitors.

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