14 January 2019
Rumor suggests Apple’s AirPower mat has finally gone into production
In 2017, Apple announced the Qi-compatible AirPower Mat, a device that would charge multiple devices at once simply by placing them on the mat.
That product has been seriously delayed due to reported interference and overheating issues, with a whole year going by without hearing much about the availability of the product. In fact, Apple’s total silence on the matter led some to believe it may have been canceled altogether.
Today, however, a new rumor has breathed life back into hopes for an AirPower Mat.
Hong Kong website ChargerLAB tweeted that a credible source in the supply chain said Luxshare Precision (the same manufacturer that builds Airpods and USB-C cables) has started production on the AirPower charing pad.
MacRumors took a look at the tweet and used Google Translate to translate the WeChat screenshot included in the tweet, saying that the conversation is consistent with the information in the tweet.
ChargerLAB went on to tweet that another manufacturer, Pegatron, would start production on January 21st alongside Luxshare Precision. A report from June said that Pegatron would also be involved in manufacturing, so these tweets at least line up with what we’ve already heard.
Respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in October that the AirPower Mat could be released in first quarter 2019.
That said, this is just a rumor being passed along the Twitter grapevine for now.
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This Brooklyn man makes massive robotic costumes out of junk
One Man's Trash from We Are Films on Vimeo.
Peter Kokis makes robots or, more correctly, he turns into robots. This Brooklyn artists takes parts from different things – slicers, juicers, and the like – and sticks them together to make some amazing costumes. He then wanders the streets of Brooklyn looking like an escaped Transformer.
His studio site, Brooklyn Robotworks, features many of his creations including an alien-looking robot and an exosuit that looks like something out of Gears of War.
“I look at the shape of objects and see their potential to portray something,” he wrote. “Virtually everything can be changed to suit my needs: re-shaped, cut-down, painted…altered in my ‘foundry’, to be seen as something else.”
This cute video shows Kokis’ foundry – actually his kitchen table – up close and explores the dedication of an artist who likes to make cool stuff to make people happy – a mission that applies to us all.
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Schneider’s EVLink car charging stations were easily hackable, thanks to a hardcoded password
Schneider has fixed three vulnerabilities in one of its popular electric car charging stations, which security researchers said could have easily allowed an attacker to remotely take over the unit.
At its worst, an attacker can force a plugged-in vehicle to stop charging, rendering it useless in a “denial-of-service state,” an attack favored by some threat actors as it’s an effective way of forcing something to stop working.
The bugs were fixed with a software update that rolled out on September 2 shortly after the bugs were first disclosed, and limited details of the bugs were revealed in a supporting document on December 20. Now, a fuller picture of the vulnerabilities, found by New York-based security firm Positive Technologies, were released today — almost a month later.
Schneider’s EVLink charging stations come in all shapes and sizes — some for the garage wall and some at gas stations. It’s the charging stations at offices, hotels, shopping malls and parking garages that are vulnerable, said Positive.
At the center of Positive’s disclosure is Schneider’s EVLink Parking electric charging stations, one of several charging products that Schneider sells, and primarily marketed to apartment complexes, private parking area, offices and municipalities. These charging stations are, like others, designed for all-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles — including Teslas, which have their own proprietary connector.
Because the EVLink Parking station can be connected to Schneider’s cloud with internet connectivity, either over a cell or a broadband connection, Positive said that the web-based user interface on the charging unit can be remotely accessed by anyone and easily send commands to the charging station — even while it’s in use.
“A hacker can stop the charging process, switch the device to the reservation mode, which would render it inaccessible to any customer until reservation mode is turned off, and even unlock the cable during the charging by manipulating the socket locking hatch, meaning attackers could walk away with the cable,” said Positive.
“For electric car drivers, this means not being able to use their vehicles since they cannot be charged,” it said.
Positive didn’t say what the since-removed password was, but, given the curiosity, we asked and will update when we hear back.
The researchers Vladimir Kononovich and Vyacheslav Moskvin also found two other bugs that gives an attacker full access over a device — a code injection flaw and an SQL injection vulnerability. Both were fixed in the same software update.
Schneider did not respond to a request for comment. If that changes, we’ll update.
Additional reporting: Kirsten Korosec.
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11 Internet Annoyances You Can Get Rid of Immediately
The internet is a vast, wild land that caters to all your needs. But while its rapid evolution has opened several new doors, they have also spawned a series of annoyances you probably face every day. Thankfully, for every problem, there’s also a solution. Here are eleven common internet annoyances and how to fix them.
1. Spoilers
Problem: The internet is filled with spoilers for that movie or TV series you’ve been meaning to watch but couldn’t find the time for.
Solution: To avoid reading those spoilers, all you need to do is install a simple browser extension called Spoiler Protection. It is available for both Chrome and Firefox. You can manually add the name of the movie or series and the extension will hide any related content on the majority of websites like Google News, Facebook, Twitter, and more.
Also, you can personalize the settings for hiding spoilers for a specific scene as well through filters.
Download: Spoiler Protection
2. Pop-Ups and Overlays
Problem: In an ideal world, websites wouldn’t flood your computer with a multitude of pop-ups as soon as you visit them. But in the real one, some of them do and even your browser’s built in protection can’t block them at times.
Solution: Again, a browser extension for Chrome is the way out of this mess. Along with pop-ups, they are capable of blocking overlays as well which a lot of websites tend to put up for purposes such as newsletters.
Download: Pop-Up Blocker
3. Auto-Playing Videos
Problem: Websites use auto-playing videos which begin playing without your consent.
Solution: Similarly, you can easily put an end to auto-playing videos by installing a free browser extension. There are a ton of options in the market for stopping auto-playing videos on the internet which are both effective and don’t impact your computer’s performance.
4. Trackers and Cookies
Problem: Online advertising platforms and websites are notorious for tracking your browsing. Two of the most crucial components in that process are known as trackers and cookies. Both of these are essentially little pieces of information that contribute toward your digital profile so that online services know what to show you even when you’re not logged in.
Solution: There are multiple ways you can handle trackers and cookies. You can either switch to a more privacy-focused browser like Mozilla Firefox or download quick extensions (like Ultrablock) that can automatically delete the produced data.
5. Obscene and Inappropriate Media
Problem: There are instances when even if you’re browsing regular websites like Facebook, you come across obscene or inappropriate media.
Solution: To ensure such media remains hidden even if the websites’ own algorithms fail to keep them at bay, try a third-party extension. Install vRate to automatically analyze the images on the page you’ve loaded and hide the ones which are explicit in nature.
Download: vRate
6. Fake News
Problem: Misinformation and fake news have spread over the interwebs like wildfire. But unfortunately, it’s not that straightforward to figure out whether a story is fake or accurate.
Solution: While there’s no complete solution for this crisis yet, there are a few browser extensions which are capable of telling you how trustworthy a particular source is. The one we recommend downloading is a Chrome extension called ZenMate SafeSearch which lets you quickly check if an article is fake even when you’re scrolling through Google News.
Download: ZenMate SafeSearch
7. Too Many Passwords to Remember
Problem: With a lot of online accounts, comes a lot of passwords you’ve to remember and manage. And considering it’s always best to set a different one, that’s quite a task.
Solution: Thankfully, there’s a better way to do that—a password manager. A password manager allows you to configure a unique password for every account and login into them without having to type them manually. There are several password managers available but the one we would recommend is LastPass. It’s mostly free, comes with all the features you would need and can be installed on any operating system.
8. Too Many Subscriptions
Problem: With the shift toward internet services, came a flurry of subscriptions in your life. Music, TV shows, ad-free experiences, all demand a monthly charge. Keeping track of these payments and ensuring you don’t pay for an app you haven’t used in a while can be difficult.
Solution: To put an end to this snafu, take a look at a website called TrackMySubs. It lets you stay on top of all your subscriptions and keeps you up to date with every statistic there is to know. What’s more, TrackMySubs can also alert you before a subscription is about to expire allowing you to cancel before it automatically deducts the renewal fee.
9. Too Many Things to Read and Watch
Problem: The internet is swamped with content you wish you had enough time for. But you don’t.
Solution: This is where a save-for-later service enters. They let you simply save all your links and you can revisit them when you’ve time later. While you have a lot of options in this space as well, Pocket works best among all and is compatible with most platforms. In addition, Pocket can even recommend you new articles based on your activity and what’s trending.
Download: Pocket
10. High Mobile Data Consumption
Problem: With websites turning more interactive and graphical, the amount of data they consume has simultaneously grown as well. Unfortunately, your data packs are still limited.
Solution: While we obviously can’t suggest using the internet less, you can give a few data saving tips and extensions a shot. For desktop browsers like Google Chrome, there are tools like Google’s own Data Saver available which can dramatically reduce your data usage. For smartphones, there are a host of tricks and tips you can look into for preserving mobile data.
11. Searching Inside Your Browsing History
Problem: Your browser’s history isn’t that handy if you’re not sure which web page you’re looking for in the first place.
Solution: For that, try History Search, an add-on for browsers that indexes everything you’ve browsed. The search assistant enables you to directly look up content inside the web pages you’ve opened in the past. The extension works with nearly every type of site and browser since it’s logging the text they contain. It might not be a good idea though if you have optimized your browsing for maximum privacy.
History Search has free and paid plans.
Download: History Search
More Tips for Living an Organized Digital Life
Annoyances can be distractions. And your problems won’t end even after using these solutions. There are a number of hassles you will have to go through daily for managing your data and presence online. For those too you can employ a series of tips and services for staying more organized on the web.
Read the full article: 11 Internet Annoyances You Can Get Rid of Immediately
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Huawei’s MediaPad M5 Lite Kiddie Tablet Might Be a Bust
Huawei’s latest MediaPad tablet, the M5 Lite, is for both children and adults. But its $300 price tag might not be worth it.
The main selling point of the MediaPad M5 Lite is that it offers parents and children a single device for all their tablet needs. For parents, the M5 Lite includes adequate specifications in the Kirin 659 chipset, 3/4GB of RAM, and 32/64GB of storage space. For children, the M5 Lite offers three features:
First, it includes a blue light filter that reduces the emission of blue and ultraviolet light (which can damage a child’s eyes or cause insomnia). Blue light filters aren’t new. The first Blue Light filters, like the Twilight for Android, came out years ago. It’s only over the past few years have filters come to tablets at the firmware level. Before you’d have to install an application.
Second, it offers a sandboxing feature which allows parents to control content, usage time, eye-to-screen distance using an infrared camera, and more. The sandboxing software also prevents children from accessing purchasing features, without parental permission.
The Kirin 659 system-on-a-chip comes from a subsidiary of Huawei. The processor includes eight cores derived from ARM’s versatile, high-efficiency Cortex-A53 architecture in what’s known as a big.LITTLE configuration. big.LITTLE isn’t a true eight core platform. It runs four cores at a low frequency and four at their highest and then a “governor” attempts to use the efficient cores for light tasks and the powerful cores for heavier duties. While this design performs well, the processor is not first-and-foremost a performance SoC but rather one aimed at cost effectiveness and power efficiency.
Overall, the processor does not belong in a $300 tablet. And there are better products in the 10.1-inch space, such as the 2018 version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab A. However, for those who want a single device for themselves and their children, the Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite might satisfy their needs.
Is the Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite Child-Proof?
The first questions you might ask about the M5 Lite are whether or not it can resist a spill, drop, or accidental immersion in a fish tank. The answer to all of these questions is “no”. While Huawei representatives claimed the tempered glass covering the Huawei was “extra tough” and that it offers water resistance, it’s unlikely to be any more durable than other 10.1-inch tablets. And without a special case, the M5 Lite’s aluminum body will warp and distort when dropped on a corner.
Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite Tablet: Potentially Overpriced
The $300 that Huawei is charging for a Full High Definition LCD screen, with parental filter controls, blue light filters, and sandboxing for children may not match the value offered by other platforms, particularly Amazon’s HD 10 tablet (which we strongly endorse because it comes with a ruggedized Children’s Edition). We’ll know more when the MediaPad M5 Lite releases in the US in late January.
Read the full article: Huawei’s MediaPad M5 Lite Kiddie Tablet Might Be a Bust
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Samsung’s new Galaxy M smartphones will launch in India first
Samsung will launch its new lower-priced Galaxy M series in India before the smartphones roll out globally. Asim Warsi, senior vice president of Samsung India’s smartphone business, told Reuters that three devices will be available through its website and Amazon India at the end of January and are intended to help the company double online sales.
Samsung is currently trying to recover its lead in India, the world’s second-largest smartphone market behind China, after losing it to Xiaomi at the end of 2017, when Xiaomi’s sales in India overtook Samsung for the first time, according to data from both Canalys and Counterpoint.
Xiaomi’s budget Redmi series gave it an advantage since Samsung had a dearth of competitors in the same price bracket, but analysts noted the Korean electronics giant maintains an edge in terms of R&D and supply chain expertise. Samsung leaned into those strengths last year, opening what it describes as the world’s largest mobile phone factory in Noida, just outside of New Delhi.
Specs about the three Galaxy M smartphones emerged last month, with details appearing on platform benchmark Geekbench about devices called M10, M20 and M30, the latter of which may be powered by an Exynos 7885 chip with 4GB ram.
Warsi told Reuters that “the M series has been built around and incepted around Indian millennial consumers.” The price range of Indian-first smartphones will be from less than 10,000 rupees (about $142) to 20,000 rupees. TechCrunch has emailed Samsung for more information about the new phones.
The company will debut the latest version of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S10, in San Francisco on Feb. 20.
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Apple HomePod comes to China at $400 amid iPhone sales woes
Apple is finally launching HomePod in China, but the timing is tricky as the premium device will have to wrestle with local competitors and a slowing economy. The firm said over the weekend that its smart speaker will be available in Mainland China and Hong Kong starting January 18, adding to a list of countries where it has entered including US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Mexico and Spain.
The Amazon Echo competitor, which launched in mid-2017, is already available to Chinese buyers through third-party channels like “daigou”, or shopping agents who bring overseas products into China. What separates the new model is that it supports Mandarin, the official language on Mainland China and Cantonese, which is spoken in Hong Kong and China’s most populated province Guangdong. Previously, Chinese-speaking users would have to converse with HomePod in English.
A main selling point of HomePod is its focus on music, so the China version comes with Airplay support of a range of local music streaming apps like Tencent’s QQ Music for Mainland users and JOOX which is more popular in Hong Kong.
In its home market, HomePod remains an underdog with 5 percent market share while Amazon Echo and Google Home command 66 percent and 29 percent, respectively.
The question is how many Chinese shoppers are willing to shell out 2799 yuan, or $414, for the Siri-controlled speaker. A host of much cheaper options from local giants are available, such as Alibaba’s Tmall Genie, Xiaomi’s Mi AI and several models from Baidu.
Analysts have cited relatively high price — on top of a softening economy — as a major culprit for iPhones’ low sales in China, which have prompted Apple to lower its quarterly revenue forecast for the first time in over a decade and Chinese retailers to slash iPhone prices. It remains to see how Chinese shoppers react to HomePod, which is already about 17 percent higher than its normal $349 price in the US.
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A first look at Twitter’s new beta app and its bid to remain ‘valuable and relevant’
Twitter has made a name for itself, at its most basic level, as a platform that gives everyone who uses it a voice. But as it has grown, that unique selling point has set Twitter up for as many challenges — harassment, confusing way to manage conversations — as it has opportunities — the best place to see in real time how the public reacts to something, be it a TV show, a political uprising, or a hurricane.
Now, to fix some of the challenges, the company is going to eat its own dogfood (birdfood?) when it comes to having a voice.
In the coming weeks, it’s going to launch a new beta program, where a select group of users will get access to features, by way of a standalone app, to use and talk about new features with others. Twitter, in turn, will use data that it picks up from that usage and chatter to decide how and if to turn those tests into full-blown product features for the rest of its user base.
We sat down with Sara Haider, Twitter’s director of product management, to take a closer look at the new app and what features Twitter will be testing in it (and what it won’t), now and in the future.
The company today already runs an Experiments Program for testing, as well as other tests, for example to curb abusive behavior, to figure out how to help the service run more smoothly. This new beta program will operate differently.
While there will only be around a couple thousand participants, those accepted will not be under NDA (unlike the Experiments Program). That means they can publicly discuss and tweet about the new features, allowing the wider Twitter community to comment and ask questions.
And unlike traditional betas, where users test nearly completed features before a public launch, the feedback from the beta could radically change the direction of what’s being built. Or, in some cases, what’s not.
“Unlike a traditional beta that is the last step before launch, we’re bringing people in super early,” Haider said.
The first version of the beta will focus on a new design for the way conversation threads work on Twitter. This includes a different color scheme, and visual cues to highlight important replies.
“It’s kind of a new take on our thinking about product development,” explains Haider. “One of the reasons why this is so critical for this particular feature is because we know we’re making changes that are pretty significant.”
She says changes of this scale shouldn’t just be dropped on users one day.
“We need you to be part of this process, so that we know we’re building the right experience,” Haider says.
Once accepted into the beta program, users will download a separate beta app – something that Twitter isn’t sure will always be the case. It’s unclear if that process will create too much friction, the company says, so it will see how testers respond.
Here are some of the more interesting features we talked and saw getting tested in the beta we were shown:
Color-coded replies
During the first beta, participants will try out new conversation features which offer color-coded replies to differentiate between responses from the original poster of the tweet, those from people you follow, and those from people you don’t follow.
In a development build of the beta app, Haider showed us what this looked like, with the caveat that the color scheme being used has been intentionally made to be overly saturated – it will be dialed down when the features launch to testers.
When you click into a conversation thread, the beta app will also offer visual cues to help you better find the parts of the thread that are of interest to you.
One way it’s doing so is by highlighting the replies in a thread that were written by people you follow on Twitter. Another change is that the person who posted the original tweet will also have their own replies in the thread highlighted.
In the build Haider showed us, replies from people she followed were shown in green, those from non-followers were blue, and her own replies were blue.
Algorithmically sorted responses
One of the big themes in Twitter’s user experience for power and more casual users is that they come up with workarounds for certain features that Twitter does not offer.
Take reading through long threads that may have some interesting detail that you would like to come back to later, or that branches off at some point that you’d like to follow after reading through everything else. Haider says she marks replies she’s seen with a heart to keep her place. Other people use Twitter’s “Tweets & Replies” section to find out when the original poster had replied within the thread, since it’s hard to find those replies when just scrolling down.
Now, the same kind of algorithmic sorting that Twitter has applied to your main timeline might start to make its way to your replies. These may also now be shown in a ranked order, so the important ones — like those from your Twitter friends — are moved to the top.
A later test may involve a version of Twitter’s Highlights, summaries of what it deems important, coming to longer threads, Haider said.
The time-based view is not going to completely leave, however. “The buzz, that feeling and that vibe [of live activity] that is something that we never want to lose,” CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey said last week on stage at CES. “Not everyone will be in the moment at the exact same time, but when you are, it’s an electrifying feeling…. Anything we can do to make a feeling of something much larger than yourself [we should].”
Removing hearts + other engagement icons
Another experiment Twitter is looking at is what it should do with its engagement buttons to streamline the look of replies for users. The build that we saw did not have any hearts to favorite/like Tweets, nor any icons for retweets or replies, when the Tweets came in the form of replies to another Tweet.
The icons and features didn’t completely disappear, but they would only appear when you tapped on a specific post. The basic idea seems to be: engagement for those who want it, a more simplified view for those who do not.
The heart icon has been a subject of speculation for some time now. Last year, the company told us that it was considering removing it, as part of an overall effort to improve the quality of conversation. This could be an example of how Twitter might implement just that.
Twitter may also test other things like icebreakers (pinned tweets designed to start conversations), and a status update field (i.e. your availability, location, or what you are doing, as on IM).
The status test, in fact, points to a bigger shift we may see in how Twitter as a whole is used, especially by those who come to the platform around a specific event.
One of the biggest laments has been that on-boarding on the app — the experience for those who are coming to Twitter for the first time — continues to be confusing. Twitter admits as much itself, and so — as with its recent deal with the NBA to provide a unique Twitter experience around a specific game — it will be making more tweaks and tests to figure out how to move Twitter on from being fundamentally focused around the people you follow.
“We have some work to do to make it easier to discover,” Dorsey said, adding that right now the platform is “more about people than interests.”
While all products need to evolve over time, Twitter in particular seems a bit obsessed with continually changing the basic mechanics of how its app operates.
It seems that there are at least a couple of reasons for that. One is that, although the service continues to see some growth in its daily active users, its monthly active users globally have been either flat, in decline, or growing by a mere two percent in the last four quarters (and in decline in the last three of the four quarters in the key market of the US).
That underscores how the company still has some work to do to keep people engaged.
The other is that change and responsiveness seem to be the essence of how Twitter wants to position itself these days. Last week, Dorsey noted that Twitter itself didn’t invent most of the ways that the platform gets used today. (The “RT” (retweet), which is now a button in the app; the hashtag; tweetstorms; expanded tweets, and even the now-ubiquitous @mention are all examples of features that weren’t created originally by Twitter, but added in based around how the app was used.)
“We want to continue our power of observation and learning… what people want Twitter to be and how to use it,” Dorsey said. “It allows us to be valuable and relevant.”
While these continual changes can sometimes make things more confusing, the beta program could potentially head off any design mistakes, uncover issues Twitter itself may have missed, and help Twitter harness that sort of viral development in a more focused way.
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13 January 2019
12 January 2019
Google Makes It Easier to Resume Previous Searches
Google has launched new activity cards that make it easier to resume previous searches. By using these activity cards, you will be able to build up a repository of research over time. And it won’t matter how often you step away from Google.
Google’s Activity Cards Save Your Searches
Without Google the web would never have taken off in the way it did. However, it’s far from perfect. Right now it’s too easy to search for something, bookmark a few sites, and then forget about the paths you took to reach those destinations.
Google is trying to change all that by employing activity cards when you want more than just a quick answer. Perhaps you’re planning a holiday itinerary, or finding meals to fit in with your new eating regime. Either way, Google’s activity cards could prove invaluable.
How Google’s Search Activity Cards Work
According to The Keyword, Google’s new activity cards work like so. If you conduct a search while logged into your Google account, Google will compile these searches into an activity card. Google already saves these searches, but it now bundles them by subject.
Pick up where you left off on Search with new activity cards, here to help with ongoing tasks like meal planning or researching new hobbies ? https://t.co/j5kRdKnslt pic.twitter.com/ddAqDhZijs
— Google (@Google) January 9, 2019
The next time you search for that same subject, you’ll see “Your Related Activity” at the top of the results. If you click on it you’ll see previous websites you’ve visited, plus related searches. You can then continue where you left off rather than start again from scratch.
You can also add and remove items as you see fit. To add a web page just tap and hold the link. It will then be added to your activity card. To delete an item just tap on the link and select “Delete”. You can turn off cards completely through the 3-dot menu.
Making the Google App Even More Useful
The new Google Search activity cards are available now on Google’s mobile website and the Google app. Unfortunately, they’re initially only available in English and in the U.S. There’s no word yet on an international rollout, but it should only be a matter of time.
Image Credit: Frankieleon/Flickr
Read the full article: Google Makes It Easier to Resume Previous Searches
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D-Link Introduces the 5G NR Router and Exo Mesh Wi-Fi Routers
At CES 2019, D-Link presented a new series of Exo mesh-enabled smart Wi-Fi routers that come preinstalled with a McAfee security suite. D-Link also introduced its first 5G router.
EXO Mesh Wi-Fi Routers
A mesh Wi-Fi router spreads the network across one or more access points to cover a wider area. This is helpful for users who either have a large property or struggle with Wi-Fi-blocking obstacles, such as concrete walls or ceilings. In contrast to non-mesh Wi-Fi extenders, which create multiple separate networks, a mesh Wi-Fi network is a unified network, meaning you can seamlessly move between different access points.
The five Exo routers in the new series support 10 or more access points. The number isn’t limited, but D-Link told us that it hadn’t tested more. At D-Link’s test house, this setup covered around five thousand square feet, but your results will vary depending on your environment.
The lower-end Exo AC1300 is a dual-band router, while the high-end AC3200 features tri-band Wi-Fi.
For ease of use, the Exo routers use a WPS switch for Wi-Fi Protected Setup. The problem with this convenient solution is that anyone with access to the button could gain access to your network. So make sure to secure your router to prevent unsolicited access.
McAfee Security Suite
All Exo routers give you a free five-year subscription to McAfee’s cloud-based, machine learning-enabled security suite.
The software comes pre-installed on all routers in this series. It protects every connected device from external threats, using McAfee’s global threat intelligence, which can learn and adapt to emerging threats.
Users can manage their network security, including parental control settings or blacklisting of websites, via McAfee’s app.
The expected release date for these new Exo routers is Q2 2019 and the prices will range between $170 and $190. Access points are sold separately and will cost up to $100.
5G NR Router
D-Link also showcased a 5G router. 5G mobile internet is all the rage at CES this year. Besides faster mobile internet, the promise is that 5G could replace traditional wired broadband internet.
With the 5G NR, you won’t need a traditional ISP. D-Link expects that mobile internet service providers will outfit routers with in-built SIM cards and sell them directly to consumers. At this point, the company is not planning to release an unlocked version of the 5G NR, though they said it would depend on user demand. D-Link also couldn’t comment on prices for 5G “home” internet plans.
A potential advantage of a 5G home internet router is that you can take it with you wherever you go and connect to 5G, provided your ISP provides a 5G network. In other words, you might not have to change your ISP when you move.
The expected release for the 5G NR is Q3 or Q4 2019. Should it get it as fast as you can? Not unless 5G is available where you live.
Read the full article: D-Link Introduces the 5G NR Router and Exo Mesh Wi-Fi Routers
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6 Ways to Make Money Playing Video Games
“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Well, what if you love playing video games? Is it possible to get paid and make money playing games? Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could make a living that way?
The truth is, you can! But it’s hard work. Many who go this route will give up within a few years because the work aspect kills the fun of playing video games. Instead of doing what they love, they end up hating what they once loved. And, it’s risky: for every success story, there are hundreds of others who tried and failed.
It’s not something I’d recommend unless you are young, single, and willing to commit several years knowing that it may all be for nothing. But it’s certainly possible! Here are several potential ways you can start earning money by playing video games.
1. Get Paid to Live Stream
How It Works
Stream your gameplay in real-time for the world to see. Aim to build a large audience (which you can monetize with ads) or a loyal audience (which you can monetize with donations and subscriptions). The biggest platform right now is Twitch, but YouTube Gaming is also an option.
Why It’s Difficult
It takes a long time to build a live stream audience. You may not break 10 viewers for several months, and you may not reach 100 viewers for years. The reality is that some streamers never reach that point—and to earn a living streaming video games, you’ll need thousands of regular viewers.
The streaming landscape is oversaturated. Why should someone watch YOU when there are plenty of OTHER popular streams to watch? That’s the tricky part. Set yourself apart with your own brand of humor or personality, by being a world-class player, or by playing games no one else is playing.
Getting Started
Fortunately, the barrier to entry is low. All you need is a decent computer, some games that viewers want to watch, a decent personality, and some streaming software.
For PC gaming, we highly recommend streaming gameplay with OBS Studio, which is free, open-source, and works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. For console gaming, we’ve covered some ways to capture your gameplay.
2. Try Your Hand at Games Journalism
How It Works
Either join an existing site or launch your own and start writing news, reviews, and interviews for a specific game, genre, or industry. If writing for an existing site, you can get paid on a per-article basis as a freelancer. If starting your own site, you can monetize your traffic with ads or Patreon subscriptions.
Why It’s Difficult
As with most kinds of journalism, games journalism is competitive. Lots of people want to write about games for a living! If writing for an existing site, you’ll have to work for pennies while you establish a portfolio and prove your skills. If starting your own site, it’ll take years to build an audience from which you can earn enough to live on.
Journalism can be intensive. For news writing, you’ll need to tap into all kinds of sources around the clock to get scoops before others do. Reviews and interviews can take a lot of time to do properly. And in general, writing every day can be a huge drain on mental energy.
Getting Started
Look for open positions at intermediate-sized gaming sites. Forget sites like IGN for now, and ignore upstarts who have no readership. Make sure you have some writing samples on hand. Send in your application (with writing samples included) and hope for the best. If you don’t have any samples, consider volunteer writing for smaller sites first.
I don’t recommend launching your own games journalism site until you have several years of experience writing for an established site. Writing day in and day out is hard enough. Managing a site on top of that? That’s a whole new level of effort that can easily lead to burnout.
3. Create Guides and Tutorials
How It Works
Newbies love reading guides, especially for multiplayer player-versus-player (PvP) games. You can either create a website for written guides, upload video guides to YouTube, or publish guides as ebooks. The first two are often monetized with ads, whereas the ebook route earns revenue through sales.
Why It’s Difficult
Anyone can write a guide. To make a living, you need to create guides for popular games—but the more popular the game, the more competition you’ll run into. To set your guides apart, you’ll need to offer more insight than others can provide, which means investing a ton of time and setting yourself up as an expert.
On top of that, you’ll need strong writing skills. Guides need to be dense and comprehensive, but also entertaining and comprehensible. Formatting skills are imperative whether you’re publishing ebooks or writing for the web.
Getting Started
Find a popular game, figure out what players are having trouble with, learn the ins and outs of that problem, then teach others how to overcome it themselves. In massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), aim for gold guides, leveling guides, and raid guides. For PvP games like Overwatch, go for build guides and mechanics guides.
4. Host a Podcast or YouTube Channel
How It Works
Create a daily, weekly, or monthly show related to gaming. It could be an opinion-based roundtable discussion, a series of interviews with high-profile players, tips and tricks for a specific game, etc. Podcasts and YouTube videos can be monetized with ads, but this format can also be supported through Patreon subscriptions.
Why It’s Difficult
You’ll need to build a sizeable audience before you see any revenue. Your show must be compelling enough for people to tune in. Boring? Shallow? Poor production quality? These will all keep your show from succeeding.
In a way, this is like a hybrid of Guides (#3) and Live Streams (#1). You need the knowledge and insight of a guide creator, plus the diligence and charisma of a streamer. On the plus side, the content doesn’t have to be as deep as a guide and your personality doesn’t have to be as distinct as a streamer.
Getting Started
We’ve written about starting your own podcast and starting your own YouTube channel. These are good resources to start with.
5. Win Tournaments and Acquire Sponsorships
How It Works
Tournaments are commonplace for PvP games, and the more popular the game, the larger the prize pools become. If you’re skilled enough to join an esports organization, you may be able to earn a livable salary through winnings and sponsorships. Most competitive gamers also take advantage of Live Streams (#1) for additional income.
Why It’s Difficult
Not everyone has what it takes to win. You can be a world-class player, get knocked out early in a tournament, and leave with zero winnings. Even if you do win some cash, it may not cover the cost of hotels and flights. If you aren’t consistently at the top, forget about living off winnings.
Furthermore, the esports industry is still young. Even if you land a position on a revered team, the “salary” could be below minimum wage. The industry is plagued with con artists and thieves who prey on naive gamers. It isn’t unusual to hear about players who are never paid what they were promised.
Getting Started
Find a popular PvP game with lots of tournaments and heavy interest from esports organizations. Practice, practice, practice. As you get better, network with other professional gamers to get your name out there. But to be completely honest, you’ll likely have better luck (and earn more money) pursuing a career as a non-competitive streamer.
6. Get Paid to Test Games
How It Works
Games go through various phases of development. Near completion, developers need outsiders to playtest their games with fresh eyes. As a playtester, your job is to test everything the developer wants you to test, which includes finding and documenting bugs and issues.
Why It’s Difficult
These days it isn’t too difficult to become a tester, but it can be mind-numbing work. The pay isn’t great (on par with, or slightly better than, minimum wage). And unless you can land an internal position at a large game development company, most game testing positions are for mobile games.
Getting Started
For on-demand playtesting, look into services like PlaytestCloud, BetaFamily, BestReviewApp, and ErliBird. Becoming an internal tester at a company is tougher. You’ll have to browse job boards, research companies for open positions, send in applications, and hope for the best.
Earning Money to Play Video Games Is Still Work
Games are fun because they give us time to escape reality. When gaming becomes your job, that aspect of escapism disappears—and likely so will the fun. Love playing games? Think long and hard before turning it into a potential career. You may come to regret it.
If you still want to forge ahead, the opportunities in this post are the best ways to make a gaming-related living right now. If you’re interested in making your own games, check out these free game development software and tools.
Image Credit: file404/Shutterstock
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IMDb Launches Freedive, a Free Streaming Service
IMDb has launched a free streaming service called Freedive. The streaming service will offer a range of Hollywood movies and highly rated TV shows, all completely for free. How? By breaking the content up with the occasional advertising break.
Free, ad-supported streaming platforms are quite common. There’s Vudu Movies on Us, Tubi TV, and many more besides. There are so many we’ve compiled a list of the best free movie streaming sites. And now IMDb Freedive is another one to add to the list.
IMDb Freedive Offers Quality Over Quantity
At launch, Freedive doesn’t boast a big catalog of content. There’s around 130 movies and 30 TV shows available to stream. However, some of the titles are big names you’ll actually want to watch, so it appears IMDb is focusing on quality over quantity.
IMDb has promised that the catalog will be constantly changing too, so if a movie or show isn’t on Freedive at the moment it could be in the future. On the flipside, if there’s a movie or TV show available now you should watch it before it potentially disappears.
Introducing #Freedive, a new way to start streaming shows and movies for free on Fire TV from @IMDb. Learn more: https://t.co/t9bpomxiJ4 pic.twitter.com/Xezpdes0lw
— Fire TV ? (@amazonfiretv) January 10, 2019
TV shows currently available to watch on Freedive include Fringe, Heroes, Quantum Leap, and The Bachelor. Movies available to watch on Freedive include Memento, Foxcatcher, The Last Samurai, and True Romance. IMDb has also produced a couple of original shows.
All Freedive content is supported by ads, and there’s currently no way to skip past them. IMDb also isn’t offering the chance to buy or rent these movies and TV shows. Instead, you’ll be directed to Amazon if you want to buy or rent the content you’re watching.
How to Access IMDb Freedive
IMDb Freedive is available on imdb.com/freedive as well as on Amazon Fire TV devices. To watch Freedive through the site you’ll have to log in to IMDb. Amazon Fire TV users will find Freedive under “Your Apps & Channels”. Freedive is only available in the U.S.
Nobody likes adverts, but sitting through the occasional ad break in order to watch movies and TV shows for free is surely a price worth paying. Freedive isn’t going to replace Netflix, especially with the increasing quality of Netflix Originals, but it’s a good backup.
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Google cans the Chromecast Audio
The Chromecast Audio is no more. Google has decided to stop manufacturing the audio dongle that allowed you to add any ‘dumb’ speaker to your Google Cast setup. If you still want one, you’ll have to hurry — and to entice you to buy a discontinued product, Google is now selling its remaining inventory for $15 instead of $35.
“Our product portfolio continues to evolve, and now we have a variety of products for users to enjoy audio,” Google told us in a statement. “We have therefore stopped manufacturing our Chromecast Audio products. We will continue to offer assistance for Chromecast Audio devices, so users can continue to enjoy their music, podcasts and more.”
While the Chromecast turned out to be a major hit for Google, the Chromecast Audio was always more of a niche product.
Google is clearly more interested in getting people to buy its Google Home products and Assistant- or Cast-enabled speakers from its partners. It’s also worth noting that all Google Home devices can connect to Bluetooth enabled speakers, though plenty of people surely have a nice speaker setup at home that doesn’t have built-in Bluetooth support. “Bluetooth adapters suck,” Google told us at the time, though at this point, it seems a Bluetooth adapter may just be the way to go.
The Chromecast Audio first launched back in 2015, in conjunction with the second-generation Chromecast. Over the years, the Chromecast Audio received numerous updates that enabled features like multi-room support. Google says it’ll continue to support Chromcast Audio users for the time being, so if you have already invested in this ecosystem, you should be set for a few more years.
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