6 Common Annoying Photoshop Issues and How to Fix Them

Photoshop can rightly be considered Adobe’s pride and joy. One of the most used image editing programs available, it’s a treasure trove of all the tools, techniques, and libraries a graphic designer could ever want.

That said, it’s also probably one of the most annoying pieces of software to use. That’s especially true for beginners, who aren’t familiar with the software’s maze-like user interface.

In this article we detail a number of the most common Photoshop annoyances, and how to fix them.

Note: This article won’t cover keyboard commands, which are absolutely vital for every Photoshop aficionado. But we’ve already covered Photoshop keyboard shortcuts before, and you may want to check out that article before continuing.

1. Change Measurement to Pixels

By default or chance, you might find yourself using inches as a unit of measurement rather than pixels in Photoshop. This can be very annoying when you’re dealing with work designed for the web rather than for print.

To change, click on Edit, mouse over Preference, and click Units & Rulers. You can also open the Preferences window by typing Ctrl + K and selecting the Units & Rulers section on the side menu.

From the Preferences window, change the Rulers setting to Pixels using the drop down menu.

Click OK and you should now have all of your selection measurements as pixels.

2. Rule of Thirds Guidelines

Most people choose not to work with grid lines when using Photoshop, even though they can be of help when creating (particularly free form) graphic works. You can change this immediately by creating a rule of thirds guideline which you can access using a simple keyboard macro.

First, press Ctrl + K on your keyboard to open your Preferences window. Then, select the Guides, Grid & Slices option in the side menu.

In the Grid section, change what you have to the following: Gridline Every to 100 and Percent, and Subdivisions to 3. Then, hit OK. That’s it. Now, you can access a quick and simple rule of thirds guide by pressing Ctrl + Tilde on your keyboard whenever it suits you.

If you’d like to have a measurement counter all of the time while you work, you can also press Ctrl + R on your keyboard to open a ruler that displays pixel information on your art board at all times.

3. Pen Tool Practice

If you have ever seen impressive Photoshop artwork, you can rest assured it required the pen tool. The pen tool is not only one of the most versatile Adobe tools out there—available on most Adobe software products—it’s also one of the hardest to learn to use well.

After all, Adobe products are designed for and cater mostly to professionals. Considering there’s no real official tutorial for it, and using the Pen tools assumes you’re already familiar with creating and editing shapes free hand, most people simply don’t bother.

To get used to drawing freehand, try The Bezier Game by Mark MacKay. A simple and sophisticated interactive game, all you have to do is create simple shapes using the pen tool. It’s simple, quick, and will surely teach you a few things if you’re new to the pen tool game.

Trust me when I say that playing this simple game will extend your knowledge and ability of the pen tool by a surprising amount. Especially if you’re just starting out with digital drawing techniques.

4. Proper Image Rotation

Stop trying to rotate your image using the Image adjustment page. You’ll only end up rotating the whole art board, and feeding your bad habit. To rotate, move, or skew your image, use the Transform tool.

Place your image, select it, and then press Ctrl + T on your keyboard. A box should open around your image. Then, right-click the image and select your option.

Unfortunately, most users will try to rotate images using the Image option (causing unnecessary anguish any time) or other options along the toolbar. As plentiful as Photoshop’s tools are, try to wander from your art board as little as possible.

5. Bird’s Eye View

Most of the time you’ll spend in Photoshop—especially when you’re new to Photoshop—is looking at and editing small details in a project. It can be a serious pain, too, considering you constantly have to zoom in and out when finishing an entire canvas.

Unless you use the hand tool. If you’ve zoomed in on a part of your design and want to zoom in the same amount on another spot, simply press and hold H, click and drag your cursor, and place the magnifying square on any other place on your art board.

Now you don’t have to keep zooming in and out manually to finish your project.

6. Smart Object Layering

Let’s say, for example, you’re applying filters to a layer to make it look good. Typically, if you made a mistake, you’d have to revert every filter and reapply to get it looking good.

What if you forget the specific value of a filter, or a filter entirely? What if a filter is giving you issues, but you don’t know which it may be? All of these issues can be fixed by converting your layer to a Smart Object. To show the difference, here’s an image of a simple layer scheme:

Smart objects allow users to list the growing modifications they commit to a layer, and allow users to modify, delete, or create any modification without losing track. To convert a layer into a smart object, right-click the layer name and select Convert to Smart Object. A small icon should appear in your layer thumbnail.

Now you should have a smart object as your layer. To view or delete a filter, just click on the eye icon to the left of the listing. To modify options, double-click on the levels icon on the right.

It’s Not You, It’s Photoshop

Photoshop is one of the most powerful and prolific applications around. That said, it won’t hold your hand throughout the learning process. It takes years to weave your way through all of it. So, if you ever have a problem with Photoshop, bear in mind that you might just need to adjust some settings rather than give up on Photoshop altogether.

Hopefully, this short list of Photoshop annoyances has fixes some of your woes. And even if you run into some more annoyances down the line, don’t give up, as Photoshop is a powerful tool once you get the hang of using it.

Image Credit: eggeeggjiew/Depositphotos

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Google is testing self-destructing emails in new Gmail

Google is working on a brand new design for the web version of Gmail. Yesterday, I published screenshots of the new design. TechCrunch’s tipster Chaim also discovered an interesting new feature in the new Gmail. You’ll soon be able to send expiring emails.

Working on an email service is hard as you have to be compatible with all sorts of email providers and email clients. But it doesn’t seem to be stopping Google as the company is now evolving beyond the simple POP3/IMAP/SMTP protocols.

Based on those screenshots, expiring emails work pretty much like expiring emails in ProtonMail. After some time, the email becomes unreadable.

In the compose screen, there’s a tiny lock icon called “confidential mode”. It says that the recipient won’t be able to forward email content, copy and paste, download or print the email.

You can configure the expiration date so that your email disappears after 1 week, 1 month, multiple years, etc. You can also ask your recipient to confirm their identity with a passcode sent via text message. This sounds like a great way to associate email addresses with phone numbers and improve Google’s ads.

When our tipster clicked on “Learn more”, it opened Google’s help articles but the page was not found. The feature isn’t ready for prime time just yet.

On the recipient’s side, the person was using the existing version of Gmail and received a link to view the confidential email. The recipient had to log into their Google account once again to view the content. When viewing the confidential message, copy and paste as well as the print feature were disabled — it didn’t stop our tipster from taking a screenshot of the email though.

It’s unclear if this feature is going to be compatible with non-Gmail users as the company asks you to confirm your Google account to view the confidential message. It’s also unclear if the integration is going to work better in the future when everybody is using the new Gmail.

For instance, when a ProtonMail user sends an expiring message to another ProtonMail user, it looks like a regular email in the inbox. After the message expires, it is automatically deleted from the inbox and the sender’s outbox.

In Gmail’s current implementation, it sounds like Google simply generates an email with a link. The message behind the link disappears after a while, but not necessarily the intermediate email.

It’s also worth noting that Google doesn’t mention end-to-end encryption anywhere. A “confidential” message doesn’t have to be encrypted. It’s likely that Google could still see the content of that message and comply with warrants. Once again, Google said that the new Gmail is going to come out in a few weeks. Confidential emails could be released at the same time or at a later date.

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Telegram hit with block in Russia over encryption

CyberGhost vs. TunnelBear: Which VPN Is Better for You?

CyberGhost and TunnelBear are two of the best VPN options to consider if you want better internet privacy, increased security when using public Wi-Fi, access to region-blocked content, and many of the other benefits of using a proper VPN.

Both are paid services—CyberGhost has a seven-day free trial and TunnelBear caps data to 500MB per month for free users—but we wouldn’t have it any other way because paid VPNs are the only ones you should be using.

The only question is, which VPN service is right for you? Here’s our side-by-side comparison of CyberGhost and Tunnelbear to help you decide.

Price and Availability

CyberGhost

CyberGhost has a single premium VPN plan ($12/mo) with a hefty discount if you buy one year upfront ($6/mo) and a massive discount if you buy two years upfront ($3.50/mo). All of this with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

With CyberGhost, you can use up to 5 concurrent devices, each equipped with an active VPN connection. CyberGhost’s network provides around 1,200 servers across 59 countries worldwide on every continent except Antarctica.

The paid plan allows for unlimited bandwidth and traffic.

TunnelBear

TunnelBear has a single premium VPN plan ($10/mo) with a significant discount if you buy one year upfront ($4.16/mo). This makes it slightly more affordable than CyberGhost, but not enough to be a deciding factor. TunnelBear does not offer a money-back guarantee or refunds of any kind.

With TunnelBear, you also get to use up to 5 concurrent devices with active VPN connections on all of them. TunnelBear’s network isn’t as wide as CyberGhost’s, but is still respectable at 22 countries. The actual number of servers is unknown.

The paid plan allows for unlimited bandwidth and traffic.

Ease of Use

CyberGhost

CyberGhost is available on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and most routers.

Using the CyberGhost client could not be easier. The installation process is a breeze, and the app itself sits out of the way in the system tray. You have the option of auto-launching on system startup, auto-establishing connection on launch, and starting minimized so you don’t even notice it.

There’s really nothing to “set up” with CyberGhost. You can toggle settings right in the dashboard, and when you’re ready, just click the big “Click Here to Start” button. If you want to connect to a specific country or server, it’s right there too.

TunnelBear

TunnelBear is available on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. It can also be used as browser extensions for Chrome and Opera if you only want your web traffic to go through a VPN connection without affecting apps outside your browser.

The interface is different, but TunnelBear is just as easy to use as CyberGhost. It sits in the system tray, and clicking the icon brings up a dashboard where you can select a country and toggle the connection on or off. Not much else you need to do.

Speed and Performance

We compared normal internet speed with speeds when connected to CyberGhost and TunnelBear, and we used three different speed testing services: Speedtest, TestMyNet, and Speakeasy.

A normal non-VPN connection:

• Speedtest: 27.3 Mbps / 6.0 Mbps
• TestMyNet: 20.0 Mbps / 5.4 Mbps
• Speakeasy: 25.5 Mbps / 5.8 Mbps

A CyberGhost connection:

• Speedtest: 27.2 Mbps / 5.5 Mbps
• TestMyNet: 23.9 Mbps / 4.0 Mbps
• Speakeasy: 24.0 Mbps / 5.3 Mbps

A TunnelBear connection:

• Speedtest: 25.7 Mbps / 5.7 Mbps
• TestMyNet: 20.4 Mbps / 4.6 Mbps
• Speakeasy: 24.3 Mbps / 5.2 Mbps

Due to the laws of physics and how the internet works, there will always be some variance when testing the speed of a connection. And because these VPNs are encrypted, we’d expect to see a slight decrease in speed when connected.

That is indeed what we see here. All things considered, both CyberGhost and TunnelBear offer excellent speed and performance.

Security and Privacy

CyberGhost

CyberGhost defaults to the OpenVPN protocol on all supported platforms, which is the strongest and most secure VPN protocol currently available. If you don’t want to use the CyberGhost client, you can establish a VPN connection through some other means using OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP, or IPSec protocols.

CyberGhost supports 256-bit AES encryption.

Importantly, CyberGhost has a strict no-logging policy: IP addresses, server connections, login and logout times, traffic data, and all other information that gets transmitted through their servers are completely ignored—neither observed nor recorded. The only piece of recorded data is a once-per-day check to see if you used CyberGhost that day, and this information is deleted within 24 hours.

Other important features include DNS and IP leak protection as well as an automatic killswitch that halts your entire internet connection if the VPN connection is interrupted (to prevent the accidental transmission of unprotected traffic). CyberGhost is based in Romania, which is a privacy-safe country.

TunnelBear

TunnelBear defaults to the OpenVPN protocol when used on Windows, Mac, and Android but resorts to the IKEv2 when used on iOS. There is a severe privacy-related downside with IKEv2, so we recommend avoiding it whenever possible.

TunnelBear supports 256-bit AES encryption.

Meanwhile, TunnelBear does log some data: OS version, client app version, whether you connected this month, how much data you used this month, and payment/transaction information. The following data is NOT logged: IP addresses, DNS queries, or traffic content.

Other important features include Vigilant Mode (which blocks all incoming and outgoing traffic if TunnelBear’s connection is interrupted) as well as Trusted Networks (TunnelBear automatically turns on if you ever connect to a network that isn’t on your trusted networks list). TunnelBear is based in Canada, which is a five-eyes country.

Other Features and Considerations

CyberGhost

CyberGhost DOES successfully bypass region blocking on Netflix but does NOT for Hulu. It will allow access to region-blocked content on most other sites.

CyberGhost DOES support torrenting for paid users on all of their servers except those located in the United States, China, Russia, and Singapore.

Other useful features of CyberGhost include: the option to remove ads and trackers when browsing the web, protection against malware-ridden websites, forced usage of HTTPS, and web traffic compression to use less data.

TunnelBear

Unfortunately, TunnelBear does NOT bypass region blocking on Netflix or Hulu, but does work for accessing region-blocked content on most other sites.

TunnelBear also does NOT support torrenting. All peer-to-peer file sharing ports are blocked when connected.

However, it does have an optional feature called GhostBear that “scrambles” your VPN connection so that governments and ISPs have a harder time detecting that you’re behind a VPN—but is only available in the Windows, Mac, and Android clients.

CyberGhost vs. TunnelBear: The Winner Is…

While neither VPN service is bad, one of them is clearly superior—and that one is CyberGhost, which is negligibly more expensive but offers these benefits:

• Based in a privacy-safe country
• More servers across more countries
• Available on Linux and routers
• OpenVPN on all supported platforms, including iOS
• Strict no-logging policy
• DNS and IP leak protection
• Supports torrenting and bypasses Netflix’s region blocking!

The only reasons you might prefer Tunnelbear is if you need the GhostBear feature to prevent governments and ISPs from detecting VPN usage, or if you really want the Trusted Networks feature (which is admittedly quite convenient).

But for our money, we prefer CyberGhost. The 2-year plan is one of the cheapest plans you’ll find among top-tier VPN providers, and that’s the one we recommend.

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Privacy Shield now facing questions via legal challenge to Facebook data flows

The Irish High Court has referred for a second time a legal challenge to Facebook’s EU-US data transfers to Europe’s top court, seeking a preliminary ruling on a series of fundamental questions pertaining to the clash between US mass surveillance law and EU citizens’ fundamental privacy rights.

The sustainability of the EU-US Privacy Shield mechanism — which thousands of companies rely on to expedite transfers of personal data across the Atlantic — looks to be at stake.

The case is based on a 2013 complaint by lawyer and privacy campaigner Max Schrems against Facebook (and other tech giants) related to US surveillance law. Schrems drew on information about US intelligence agency practices and systems for sucking up data that had been revealed by NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden.

In 2015, a landmark ECJ judgement overturned a long-standing EU-US data transfer mechanism, called Safe Harbor, as a result of his legal action.

Schrems then updated his complaint, this time focusing exclusively on Facebook and addressing a secondary EU-US data transfer mechanism that’s still being used, called Standard Contractual Contracts (SCCs).

SCCs are used by Facebook to transfer data between its European entity, Facebook Ireland, and Facebook USA — essentially via a contract in which Facebook USA pledges to follow EU privacy principles.

The Irish High Court court issued an underlying judgement on the updated complaint last October, deciding to refer legal questions over this EU-US data transfer mechanism to Europe’s top court, as it had with Schrems’ original complaint.

The court has backed the view that US government surveillance practices involve a mass processing of personal data.

It’s a finding that clashes with fundamental European privacy rights. And this core legal clash is the Gordian knot that US tech giants — including Facebook — are now bound up with as a consequence of domestic surveillance law granting the US government swingeing rights to suck up data from “electronic communication service providers”.

Incompatibility between two separate and distinct legal regimes and data priorities (in simple terms, EU vs US law on data boils down to protection for privacy vs retention for security) was the reason for the 2015 strike down of the 15-year-old Safe Harbor arrangement, following Schrems’ original complaint.

It’s also why the replacement EU-US Privacy Shield mechanism, which only started operating in August 2016, remains precariously placed — with the Trump administration doing nothing to enhance privacy protections as EU lawmakers want.

On the contrary; earlier this year president Trump signed into law another six years of the controversial warrantless surveillance law — aka Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Yet last fall year EU lawmakers were still lobbying publicly for a sympathetic reform of FISA 702 — i.e. which would include privacy provisions for foreigners’ data.

In the event US lawmakers failed to reform surveillance law even where domestic targets are concerned, renewing a controversial legal loophole that provides U.S. intelligence agencies with a means for the warrantless surveillance of American citizens.

Privacy reforms that consider the rights of foreigners don’t even appear to register as a debate-worthy concept on the floor of the US Senate and House — which spells big trouble for the sustainability of EU-US transatlantic data flows. And means this issue will inexorably continue to be brought before EU judges — as has happened again here.

The court that invalidated Safe Harbor will now have to consider how its follow up meshes with several similar points of law vis-a-vis US mass surveillance practices. And whether a targeted application of EU law might be possible.

It’s even possible the entire Privacy Shield mechanism could come unstuck — if so it would be years sooner than its predecessor, given it’s not even reached its second birthday yet.

In all the Irish court has referred 11 questions to the ECJ for a judgement — seeking guidance on a range of fine-grained points around whether rights afforded to EU citizens are being adequately protected by the current data transfer mechanisms and regimes, including Privacy Shield and SCCs; how to determine which rules and regulations take precedence across borders and/or where legal priorities clash and overlap; and whether, in cases of rights violations caused by surveillance law, data protection authorities have to suspend data flows or whether they can use discretion to not do so.

Schrems’ original hope with the 2015 complaint was that the Irish Data Protection Commissioner would suspend only Facebook’s use of SCCs. And he continues to advocate for targeted suspension of data flows if a company falls under US mass surveillance laws — i.e. rather than a blanket strike down of underlying mechanisms.

However the DPC took the unusual move of deciding to go to court — raising concerns about the validity of the entire SCCs mechanism.

Here are the last three points the court has referred to the ECJ, including where it references Privacy Shield:

9.      (1) For the purposes of Article 25(6) of the Directive, does Decision (EU) 2016/1250 (“the Privacy Shield Decision”) constitute a finding of general application binding on data protection authorities and the courts of the member states to the effect that the US ensures an adequate level of protection within the meaning of Article 25(2) of the Directive by reason of its domestic law or of the international commitments it has entered into?

(2) If it does not, what relevance, if any, does the Privacy Shield Decision have in the assessment conducted into the adequacy of the safeguards provided to data transferred to the United States which is transferred pursuant to the SCC Decision?

10. Given the findings of the High Court in relation to US law, does the provision of the Privacy Shield ombudsperson under Annex A to Annex III of the Privacy Shield Decision when taken in conjunction with the existing regime in the United States ensure that the US provides a remedy to data subjects whose personal data is transferred to the US under the SCC Decision that is compatible with Article 47 of the Charter?

11. Does the SCC Decision violate Articles 7, 8, and/or 47 of the Charter?

In a statement on the court’s reference to the ECJ, Schrems said: “While I was of the view that the Irish Data Protection Authority could have decided over this case itself… I welcome that the issue will hopefully be dealt with once and forever by the Court of Justice. What is remarkable, is that the High Court also included questions on the ‘Privacy Shield’, which has the potential for a full review of all EU-US data transfer instruments in this case.”

Without a legal solution to the clash, Schrems suggests it might be required for US companies to entirely split their US and global services and ensure no data is passed.

An incoming update to the EU’s data protection rules, called GDPR, steps up privacy enforcement potential significantly — with far higher fines possible for data violations when it comes into force on May 25.

“In the long run the only reasonable solution is to cut back on mass surveillance laws,” he said. “If there is no such political solution between the EU and the US, Facebook would have to split global and US services in two systems and keep European data outside of reach for US authorities, or face billions in penalties under the upcoming EU data protection regulation. Previously such a technical solution was done for financial data in the SWIFT case, where European data is now solely stored in Europe.”

“Given the case law, the question in this case does not seem to be if Facebook can win it, but to what extent the Court of Justice will prohibit Facebook’s EU-US data transfers and which approach they will take to remedy the conflict of EU privacy protections and US surveillance,” Schrems added.

A Facebook spokeswoman told us the company has nothing to add to its prior statement on the Irish High Court judgement from October, when it said:

Standard Contract Clauses provide critical safeguards to ensure that Europeans’ data is protected once transferred to companies that operate in the US or elsewhere around the globe, and are used by thousands of companies to do business. They are essential to companies of all sizes, and upholding them is critical to ensuring the economy can continue to grow without disruption.

This ruling will have no immediate impact on the people or businesses who use our services. However it is essential that the CJEU now considers the extensive evidence demonstrating the robust protections in place under Standard Contractual Clauses and US law, before it makes any decision that may endanger the transfer of data across the Atlantic and around the globe.

How long the ECJ will take to deliver its preliminary judgement on the referral remains to be seen — and it’s possible the process could take multiple years — but in the case of the original Schrems complaint the judges only took a little over a year to return their landmark verdict striking down Safe Harbor. So they have shown they are willing to move quickly to defend EU privacy rights against the threat of mass surveillance.

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How to Check the Power Output of a USB Port

Given so many devices now power themselves using a USB connection, it’s important to know how much power the USB port on your laptop can supply. If a device tries to draw more power than the port can supply, you risk killing the port—or even starting an electrical fire

Not all USB ports are created equal. Your machine might have a mix of USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 connections, each of which might have different outputs. Knowing a USB plug’s power output also helps to determine if there are any problems with your ports. For example, if a port is not charging gadgets as quickly as normal, you might discover its power supply is not as high as it should be.

Thankfully, it’s easy to measure a USB port’s power output.

How to Check the Power Output of a USB Port

To check the power output of a USB port on Windows, download the free USBDeview. It’s a portable app, so no installation necessary.

Once you fire up the app for the first time, you will see a complete list of all the USB devices that you have ever used, as well as a list of your USB ports. The ports which are currently active on your machine are highlighted using a green checkbox.

To see the details of a USB port, double-click on its name. You will see all the information about the port, including when it was last used, whether it is safe to unplug any currently-connected device, and a whole lot more.

You need to locate the Power field. It will show you how many milliamperes the port can supply.

If you would like to learn about electrical safety, we covered the topic in more detail when we looked at the safety of Kodi boxes.

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How to Check and Reset File Associations in Windows 10

File extensions are vital because they tell your computer what programs can open a file. Normally, you don’t have to do much with them in Windows aside from setting your default programs.

However, sometimes you’ll find that a file extension doesn’t open in the right program. Or maybe you want to double-check what app is set as default for a certain type of file. Here’s a quick guide to managing and resetting file associations in Windows 10.

How to Check/Reset File Associations in Windows 10

1. Open the Settings panel, using Win + I as a keyboard shortcut if you like.
2. Select the Apps entry, and choose Default apps on the left sidebar.
3. Here, you’ll see the apps you have set as default for common tasks like emailing, listening to music, and more. Click one to change it.
4. To look over the complete list of file associations, scroll down a bit and click Choose default apps by file type. This will let open a huge list of file extensions, many of which you’ve probably never heard of. You can select any entry to change its associated program.
5. The Choose default apps by protocol menu lets you select apps to handle certain URL protocols, like Mailto and FTP. In most cases, these change when you adjust default apps, so you shouldn’t have to make many changes.
6. If you choose Set defaults by app, you’ll see all the types of files a certain app can open. This lets you easily change defaults when you notice a program opens when it shouldn’t, or vice-versa.
7. Should you find that your file associations are completely messed up, you can click the Reset button to change everything back to the defaults. This includes Microsoft’s “recommendations”, so you’ll need to change your default browser back from Edge, as well as the other categories like photos, videos, and email.

For more, see our complete guide on fixing file type associations.

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Disney Launches ESPN+ for Cord-Cutting Sports Fans

Disney has launched ESPN+, a streaming subscription service aimed squarely at sports fans. ESPN+ offers lots of content, but it’s being pitched as an accompaniment to ESPN’s cable channels rather than a replacement. Still, cord-cutters should see what’s on offer.

Cord-cutters the world over have a lot of different options to choose from these days. From the big names such as Netflix and Hulu to some rather niche streaming services. Sadly, sports aren’t present on these services, leaving a vacuum waiting to be filled.

ESPN+ Offers a Mixed Bag of Sporting Content

To this end, Disney has launched ESPN+. This is a streaming service for sports fanatics. You don’t need to download a new app; ESPN+ is part of the redesigned ESPN app. However, ESPN+ content will only be made available to those willing to pay for it.

The asking price is $4.99/month or $49.99/year. For that you’ll get one Major League Baseball and one National Hockey League game every day, 250 Major League Soccer games, plus live coverage of golf, cricket, rugby, and tennis.

You’ll also get original content such as the 30 for 30 documentary series, a new studio show called Detail, which sees Kobe Bryant analyzing basketball, and Draft Academy, which follows the top prospects as they enter the 2018 NFL Draft.

So…ESPN is losing viewers/readers for their FREE content and their answer is offer a subscription "plus" service for $4.95/month? pic.twitter.com/Nqv7EXy5Jq

— Chip Reiderson (@ChipReiderson) April 2, 2018

While that’s a lot of content, most sports fans will have noticed the distinct lack of NFL and NBA games, which will remain part of the main ESPN package. This is because ESPN still makes most of its money from the cable companies, leaving little room for maneuver.

To be fair to ESPN, despite our headline the company itself isn’t describing ESPN+ as a service for cord-cutters. ESPN sees this as an extension of the main ESPN offerings, with content designed to complement, rather than replace, the traditional cable channels.

At Least ESPN+ Is Free to Try for 30 Days

Even if the content doesn’t appeal, ESPN+ buys you ad-free access to the ESPN website and app. You won’t see any display ads, or pre-roll or post-roll ads on ESPN. You’ll still see ads broadcast during live events, but ESPN+ is essentially YouTube Red for sports.

ESPN+ is available exclusively in the United States on Android, iOS, Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, and the web. Disney is offering a 7-day free trial to everyone, but if you sign up before April 18 you’ll get 30 days to test the service for free.

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Facebook Stories adds funky AR drawing and Instagram’s Boomerang

You’ll soon be able to draw on the world around you and shoot back-and-forth Instagram Boomerang GIFs with the Facebook Camera. Bringing additional creative tools to the Facebook Camera could make it a more popular place to shoot content and help the company compete with Snapchat.

“We wanted to give people an easy way to create with augmented reality and draw in the world around them” says John Barnett, a Facebook Camera Product Manager about the feature it calls “3D drawing”. It’s rolling out to users over the coming weeks. Matt Navarra first spotted the features.

With AR drawing, you can scribble on the world around you, then move your camera and see the markings stay in place. It’s a fun way to add graffiti that only exists inside your screen. You can add the drawings before or while you’re recording, allowing you to draw on something out of frame, then pan or unzoom to reveal it. Facebook will eventually add more brushes beyond the pastel gradient colors seen here.

Facebook tells me the technology understands the corners and objects in the room to create a 3D spec. Facebook could that use that to detect surfaces like walls and tables to wrap the drawing onto them. Currently, it only does that when it’s confident about the object recognition, such as in optimal light conditions.

Since drawing is a universal language, the feature could make AR easy to use for younger users and Internet novices. Facebook launched its AR effects at F8 last April, and has recently added AR tracker target experiences that are triggered by real-world posters or QR codes. It all started with the company acquiring fledgling AR masks startup MSQRD in 2016.

Facebook added looping GIF creation to the Facebook Camera a year ago, but those can feel a bit jarring since they start back at the beginning once they end. Some users no longer have that GIF option, so it’s potentially being replaced by Boomerang’s established brand and more silky back-and-forth animated video clips. Facebook confirms that this feature is now rolling out to the Facebook Camera.

As we reported last week, Facebook is determined to make Stories work. Despite the criticism of it being a rip-off of Snapchat and redundant given Instagram Stories, Facebook is trying new ways to make Stories more popular an accessible. That includes tests of Stories as the default destination for content shot with the Facebook Camera, showing bigger tiles with previews of Stories atop the News Feed, and showing a camera and camera roll preview window when you open the status composer. Those, combined with these new features, could give Facebook Stories a boost in utility and visibility.

Facebook believes social media is on an inevitable journey from text to photos to videos to Stories equipped with augmented reality. Since Snapchat refused its acquisition offers, Facebook is now on a quest to evolve into an AR company rather than having to buy a big one. It remains to be seen whether users think AR is a novelty or a core utility, but Facebook won’t wait to find out.

3 tests show Facebook is determined to make Stories the default

Instagram will let you download your content after criticism about portability

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Facebook Stories adds funky AR drawing and Instagram’s Boomerang

You’ll soon be able to draw on the world around you and shoot back-and-forth Instagram Boomerang GIFs with the Facebook Camera. Bringing additional creative tools to the Facebook Camera could make it a more popular place to shoot content and help the company compete with Snapchat.

“We wanted to give people an easy way to create with augmented reality and draw in the world around them” says John Barnett, a Facebook Camera Product Manager about the feature it calls “3D drawing”. It’s rolling out to users over the coming weeks. Matt Navarra first spotted the features, and provided a copy of the video at the bottom of this post.

With AR drawing, you can scribble on the world around you, then move your camera and see the markings stay in place. It’s a fun way to add graffiti that only exists inside your screen. You can add the drawings before or while you’re recording, allowing you to draw on something out of frame, then pan or unzoom to reveal it. Facebook will eventually add more brushes beyond the pastel gradient colors seen here.

Facebook tells me the technology understands the corners and objects in the room to create a 3D spec. Facebook could that use that to detect surfaces like walls and tables to wrap the drawing onto them. Currently, it only does that when it’s confident about the object recognition, such as in optimal light conditions.

Since drawing is a universal language, the feature could make AR easy to use for younger users and Internet novices. Facebook launched its AR effects at F8 last April, and has recently added AR tracker target experiences that are triggered by real-world posters or QR codes. It all started with the company acquiring fledgling AR masks startup MSQRD in 2016.

Facebook added looping GIF creation to the Facebook Camera a year ago, but those can feel a bit jarring since they start back at the beginning once they end. Some users no longer have that GIF option, so it’s potentially being replaced by Boomerang’s established brand and more silky back-and-forth animated video clips. Facebook confirms that this feature is now rolling out to the Facebook Camera.

As we reported last week, Facebook is determined to make Stories work. Despite the criticism of it being a rip-off of Snapchat and redundant given Instagram Stories, Facebook is trying new ways to make Stories more popular an accessible. That includes tests of making Stories the default destination for content shot with the Facebook Camera, showing bigger tiles with previews of Stories atop the News Feed, and showing a camera and camera roll preview window when you open the status composer. Those, combined with these new features, could give Facebook Stories a boost in utility and visibility.

Facebook believes social media is on an inevitable journey from text to photos to videos to Stories equipped with augmented reality. Since Snapchat refused its acquisition offers, Facebook is now on a quest to evolve into an AR company rather than having to buy a big one. It remains to be seen whether users think AR is a novelty or a core utility, but Facebook won’t wait to find out.

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The Story of iPhone X’s Notch and How It’s Influencing Phone Designs

Reviews for the Apple iPhone X have primarily been positive since the handset was first announced in September 2017. Opinions about the device’s so-called “notch” have been polarizing, however.

Let’s look at the iPhone X’s most controversial hardware feature. We’ll also examine how Apple’s competitors are now embracing similar notches on their future mobile devices and what Cupertino plans on doing with the notch on upcoming mobile devices.

What Is the iPhone X Notch and What Does It Do?

The black housing notch on the iPhone X resides at the top of the smartphone. Inside, it contains the device’s all-new front-facing TrueDepth camera system, which powers the iPhone’s Face ID facial recognition tool. The notch also includes the components necessary for Apple’s Animoji feature, which remains exclusive to iPhone X.

As you can see from the following quotes taken soon after the phone was announced, reactions to the notch were mixed, at best:

• The Daring Fireball’s John Gruber called it offensive, as well as “ungainly and unnatural.”
• The Verge suggested the notch was an “odd design choice.”
• After some reflection, Mashable said “the notch might turn out to be the iPhone X’s best feature.”

As an early iPhone X buyer, I hated the notch—for the first few days, anyway. In time, however, I began to accept it, and now somewhat embrace it. Yes, the hardware array takes up some space. Nonetheless, it doesn’t get in the way when browsing the web or using my favorite apps.

I’ve also grown to believe the notch is necessary from a design perspective. Why? Because its distinct look makes the costly iPhone X immediately recognizable, which is vital to both users and Apple alike.

As Mashable explains:

“It’s so distinctive that it will become that one little thing that separates the iPhone owners from owners of, well, all other phones. On the iPod, it was the white colored earphones and cables. On the MacBook, it’s the Apple logo on the back. And on the iPhone, it’s going to be the notch.”

Expanding on this, the arrival of the iPhone X notch reminds me of Apple’s signature home button, which launched on the original iPhone way back in 2007. This input tool, like the notch, was heavily criticized in the early days for taking up precious real estate on the device.

This criticism didn’t keep it from popping up on all iPhone and iPad models since then, until the button-less iPhone X launched in November 2017.

Competitors Are Now Embracing the Notch

As the iconic proverb goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that other smartphone makers are now embracing the notch concept on some of their products.

OnePlus, for example, will include a notch on the OnePlus 6. Perhaps because of the iPhone X criticism, OnePlus 6 users will have to option to black out the side of the screen around the notch, thereby hiding it.

The Huawei P20 and Huawei P20 Pro, two of the first non-iPhones to include a notch, also allow this. Meanwhile, the ZenFone 5 includes a notch and the LG G7 could as well.

There’s also the Essential Phone, which has the distinction of being the first smartphone to embrace a notch. It arrived in May 2017, four months before the iPhone X.

Do you need more proof of the notch’s popularity? Android P, the successor to Android Oreo, is also catering to cutout smartphone designs like the notch. As CNET confirms:

“Android is the dominant mobile software on the planet, powering 85 percent of smartphones shipped globally, according to IDC. So Google’s big focus on notches signals a change in where hardware design is headed.”

Not everyone is joining in the notch parade, however. The biggest Android device maker on the planet, Samsung, didn’t include a notch on the Galaxy S9 or Galaxy S9 Plus. When announcing the new models in early 2018, the company jabbed, “And as always, you know, there’s no notch.”

Changes Coming to the iPhone X’s Notch

As you can see above, the notch concept in smartphone design is alive and well and doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon. Nonetheless, it does appear Apple plans to adjust the look of the notch on future iPhones.

Some 2018 reports suggest Apple will place the cameras and sensors associated with the notch on in a different location beginning in 2019, thereby removing the need for a notch. Other reports, however, suggest the notch will remain, but with a smaller footprint.

As I’ve already mentioned, despite early concerns, I like the iPhone X notch, although there is room for improvement.

If there’s one aspect I’d like to see changed about the notch, it’s the color. The black notch looks fine when you’re using the phone vertically. However, it’s a different story when the iPhone X is horizontal. It’s been my experience that the placement of the notch is most noticeable when you’re watching a video in this position.

In a perfect world, I’d love to see Apple introduce a notch on future iPhones that changes its look based on the content you’re viewing. I’m not sure whether this would be possible. However, we’re talking about Apple here—it’s a company known for thinking differently.

The Notch Is Here, Get Used to It

Some folks will never get past the look of the iPhone X notch. For those people, there are plenty of other options available, even from Apple. The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus don’t have notches, after all. And despite the strong push, not all upcoming Android smartphones will have a notch either.

(And you can always download iPhone X notch wallpaper that hides the notch.)

While it may tinker with the design, Apple isn’t likely to remove the notch altogether on future iPhones. The company’s TrueDepth camera and Face ID technology are likely to expand to other products in the future, including next-generation iPads and perhaps Macs. If a notch is necessary to bring those features and tools to other products, Apple will do so, regardless of some criticisms.

There’s more to learn about the iPhone X, which you can learn more about in our guide to mastering the iPhone X.

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Are hardware makers doing enough to keep Android phones secure?

For all the good of Android’s open-source approach, one of the clear and consistent downsides is that the onus to issue software updates falls on the manufacturer. That can mean frustration for those waiting for the latest and greatest feature updates — and in some cases, it can put your phone at risk with delayed or missed security updates.

A pair of researchers at Security Research Labs recently shared a study with Wired highlighting some of these risks. The team’s findings are the result of testing 1,200 Android handsets from all the major manufacturers over the course of two years, examining whether manufacturers had offered the security patches as advertised.

According to SRL, missed security patches were discovered on a wide range of different handsets across manufacturers. Sony and Samsung were both flagged as having missed some security patches — in some cases in spite of reporting that they were up to date. “It’s almost impossible for the user to know which patches are actually installed,” one of the researchers told the site.

Xiaomi, Nokia, HTC, Motorola and LG all made the list, as well, while TCL and ZTE fared the worst in the study, with, on average, not having installed more than four of the patches they claimed to have installed on a given device.

In a statement provided to TechCrunch, Google pointed to the importance of various different means used to secure the Android ecosystem. The company believes that the SRL findings might not tell the full story when it comes to keeping devices secure.

“We would like to thank Karsten Nohl and Jakob Kell for their continued efforts to reinforce the security of the Android ecosystem,” the company writes. “We’re working with them to improve their detection mechanisms to account for situations where a device uses an alternate security update instead of the Google suggested security update. Security updates are one of many layers used to protect Android devices and users. Built-in platform protections, such as application sandboxing, and security services, such as Google Play Protect, are just as important. These layers of security—combined with the tremendous diversity of the Android ecosystem—contribute to the researchers’ conclusions that remote exploitation of Android devices remains challenging.” 

The company also pointed us to this year in review post, which sheds a bit more light on the matter.

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Duolingo Helps Language Learners Level Up

Duolingo has been helping people learn languages for several years. And with 25 million users and 31 courses—you can even learn to speak Klingon—Duolingo needs to keep innovating. Thankfully, the company is doing just that, with an all-new levelling system.

While everyone starts learning a new language enthusiastically, this can turn into frustration as things become more difficult. Duolingo was already countering that with a varied skill tree and an element of fun, but this new levelling system goes even further.

Crown Levels Let You Double Down on Skills

Previously, Duolingo offered a simple progression system. Lessons were separated into themes, and you would complete one before moving onto the next, more difficult, one. With Crown Levels, you can still do that, or you can double down on a particular theme.

Each skill now has five levels. Complete one, and you earn a crown. You can then choose to move onto another aspect of the language, or delve deeper into that skill. This means casuals can just learn the basics, while advanced users can challenge themselves.

Introducing Crown Levels, the biggest-ever redesign of Duolingo courses! You keep all your progress and now have tons more learning content in every course, including more challenging exercises.

Read more here: https://t.co/A8Y4BuEMdV pic.twitter.com/U30iwF0baa

— Duolingo (@duolingo) April 12, 2018

Duolingo isn’t stopping there either. The company is also working on new types of lessons to complement the usual listening, speaking, and typing. So you’ll soon have to deal with phonetics and multiple choice questions designed to test you further.

At the time of writing around half of all Duolingo users are using the new system. However, Crown Levels will be rolling out to everyone within the next few weeks. Some people may struggle to comprehend the changes, but most people will embrace them.

Giving People Choice When Learning Languages

These improvements give Duolingo users more choice when it comes to learning a new language. They can now choose which path to follow and their target fluency level. And for anyone that struggles, Duolingo has provided users with a Crowns FAQs.

This increased level of choice and freedom is important when some people just want to learn a few key phrases to get by on vacation, while others want to learn a language inside and out in order to converse with distant friends and family.

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Arcade fame turns to infamy as Billy Mitchell’s record-setting Donkey Kong score is invalidated

The record-setting score that settled the Donkey Kong arcade rivalry, made famous by the documentary The King of Kong, has been invalidated by Twin Galaxies, the de facto arbiter of arcade world records. What’s more, Billy Mitchell, the occasionally controversial player who set the scores, has been permanently banned from consideration for future records.

It’s a huge upset that calls into question decades of history. Will other similarly disputed scores get the ax? Are any old-school arcade legends safe?

Before anything, it should be noted that although this sounds like kind of a random niche issue, the classic gaming scene is huge and millions follow it closely and take it very seriously. Breaking a high score on a 30-year-old game or shaving a quarter second off a record time can and will be celebrated as if the player has won an Olympic medal. One can never underestimate the size or sincerity of online communities. Cheating is, of course, not tolerated.

With that said, it’s worth considering that Billy Mitchell’s case is unique. He is undoubtedly a highly skilled player and has been setting records since the ’80s. But, as anyone who watched The King of Kong will have learned, he’s also a bit shady and his Donkey Kong acumen is far from established.

The issue is simply that despite having provided tapes of games setting records — including being the first to break a million in Donkey Kong — no one has seen him play like that in person.

That may sound like a red flag, but in the speedrunning and record setting community a great deal of practice happens alone, in an empty arcade, or otherwise with no credible witnesses (though Twitch has changed that). You could set a world record while in the zone after getting home from work, but it doesn’t count unless it’s reviewed and accredited by a neutral party. Twin Galaxies is the largest organization performing that duty and they take it very seriously indeed.

The final score on Mitchell’s disputed tape showing in The King of Kong (the leading 1 is omitted because the digits roll over when you reach a million).

You may remember that at the end of The King of Kong, Mitchell reestablishes his supremacy over plucky local kid Steve Wiebe with a “direct capture” tape of a run scoring 1,047,200 points. There are no witnesses to this game. Shortly after this, he also recorded a 1,050,200 score, also not witnessed. And just a week before being inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame in Iowa, he set records in both Donkey Kong (1,062,800) and Donkey Kong 2.

Now here’s where things get dicey (and nerdy).

Jeremy Young, aka Xelnia, put together the official two-part complaint on Twin Galaxies. For one part of it, he mentioned the suspicions some already had regarding the evidence set forth of the last and highest score Mitchell set, in an arcade called Boomers.

As others had already pointed out, not only are the run itself and resulting score not shown in the video, but the referee is among the least reliable, the timeline is unclear, among other things. Most damning, however, it is clear that when Mitchell’s confederate ostentatiously “swaps out” the Donkey Kong board (so it can be verified elsewhere) for a Donkey Kong Jr one (which Mitchell supposedly later set a record on), both PCBs were in fact the latter.

Twin Galaxies user Robert.F explained the differences in charming internet forum argot:

to a UN-trained train eye Dk and DKjr look the same and in fact they are vary similar, except for a few noticeable differences…the DK pcb has white text on the pcb and the Dk jr has banana yellow text printed on the board ,, the DK pcb is 1/2 digital and 1/2 Analog sound and there is a adjustment pot on the dk pcb for the Analog sound`s, The Dk Jr board is fully digital and has no Analog sound adjustment pot in the exact same position on the dkjr board, and the 3rd noticeable differences and you will see; it if you review the video carefully Dk has the same ROM socket lay out and the same number of sockets as a Dkjr pcb ,, But DKjr has one of them ROM socket empty ,,,,,,

But these circumstantial issues could be explained as a bit of confusion in the moment, a misspoken word in their excitement, and so on. Fortunately, that wasn’t the extent of the evidence.

As you may know, emulators are a type of application made to run old software (like arcade games) as closely as possible to how it ran on the original hardware. MAME is by far the most complex and perhaps the best known emulator; this amazing app can emulate everything from Donkey Kong to much more recent games with complex 3D graphics. Of course MAME runs aren’t accepted for world records — you could easily manipulate the software or even the game data itself. Real arcade hardware is required.

But MAME isn’t perfect; there are tiny differences in how it displays graphics — things you wouldn’t notice unless you were watching a game frame by frame looking for them in particular.

Which is exactly what people started doing with Mitchell’s no-witnesses, only-on-video scores.

It turns out that the original Donkey Kong PCBs had a specific method of rendering a scene during graphics transitions called a “sliding door effect,” distinctive in the pattern of how pixels are updated. But careful inspection of Mitchell’s tapes showed not a sliding door, but instead a distinctive artifact of MAME emulation whereby the frame is rendered in chunks according to how the data is loaded from memory.

You can see the similarity in the GIFs below, provided as evidence by Young.

First is footage of an actual machine taken at 60FPS. Note the diagonal “sliding door” that reveals the scene from the top left downwards:

Next, Mitchell’s 1,050,200 run:

Last, how MAME renders a similar scene:

See how the ladders come in all at once in that pattern, and there’s no sliding door? As you can tell, it’s something of a smoking gun. Certainly Twin Galaxies investigators thought so. In their conclusions, issued today on the forums, they wrote (emphasis theirs):

The taped Donkey Kong score performances of 1,047,200 (the King of Kong “tape”), 1,050,200 (the Mortgage Brokers score) that were historically used by Twin Galaxies to substantiate those scores and place them in the database were not produced by the direct feed output of an original unmodified Donkey Kong Arcade PCB.

They decline to go so far as saying they know it was MAME, but that’s a mere scruple — everyone understands it’s the most likely situation. Regardless, the very fact that Mitchell passed off non-authentic footage as real is more than enough to strike his scores and, as they also announce, ban him from further placement anywhere in the system.

Perhaps more importantly, Steve Wiebe, the underdog challenger in The King of Kong, has been elevated to become the first player to actually hit a million points in the game. Better late than never! Belated congratulations to Wiebe.

Mitchell, on the other hand, has remained out of sight during the investigation that has gone on these last few months, and has essentially been ruined for good in the arcade world. Even if he were to set a world record today (and existing record holders doubt he has the skill to do so based on reviewing his play), it would be tainted by years of proven deception. The community won’t forgive him.

And that’s the worry others are voicing: will the investigators come for other scores that for years have been venerated but have not been verified as strictly as modern records are? Will, for example, any score without an accredited witness or reliable recording be removed from the lists?

In their decision, Twin Galaxies’ authorities write:

Twin Galaxies is dedicated to absolutely rooting out invalid scores from our historic database wherever we find them.

Our methodic approach has allowed many things to surface, not only related to this specific score, but other scores as well as some previously never-before-discussed video game related history.

We must repeat, the truth is the priority. That is the concern. Whatever it takes.

This dispute is closed, and a controversial but nevertheless legendary gaming figure covered in shame (or he should be if he has any). Who will be next? Regardless of who falls, the community will no doubt continue to thrive; the passion for these old games is undying and as new generations have shown, not limited to an aging cohort of Gen-Xers striving to extend a bygone era of glory (though admittedly they are a big part of it).

If this strange saga interested you anywhere near as much as it interested me, go ahead and dive in. You might find you have a new hobby. Just don’t try to fake it. And by the way, the current top score in Donkey Kong is 1,247,700, set just two months ago by Robbie Lakeman. Good luck.

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How Does Windows Hello Work and How Do I Enable It?

Seeing More with In Silico Labeling of Microscopy Images

Eric Christiansen, Senior Software Engineer, Google Research

In the fields of biology and medicine, microscopy allows researchers to observe details of cells and molecules which are unavailable to the naked eye. Transmitted light microscopy, where a biological sample is illuminated on one side and imaged, is relatively simple and well-tolerated by living cultures but produces images which can be difficult to properly assess. Fluorescence microscopy, in which biological objects of interest (such as cell nuclei) are specifically targeted with fluorescent molecules, simplifies analysis but requires complex sample preparation. With the increasing application of machine learning to the field of microscopy, including algorithms used to automatically assess the quality of images and assist pathologists diagnosing cancerous tissue, we wondered if we could develop a deep learning system that could combine the benefits of both microscopy techniques while minimizing the downsides.

With “In Silico Labeling: Predicting Fluorescent Labels in Unlabeled Images”, appearing today in Cell, we show that a deep neural network can predict fluorescence images from transmitted light images, generating labeled, useful, images without modifying cells and potentially enabling longitudinal studies in unmodified cells, minimally invasive cell screening for cell therapies, and investigations using large numbers of simultaneous labels. We also open sourced our network, along with the complete training and test data, a trained model checkpoint, and example code.

Background
Transmitted light microscopy techniques are easy to use, but can produce images in which it can be hard to tell what’s going on. An example is the following image from a phase-contrast microscope, in which the intensity of a pixel indicates the degree to which light was phase-shifted as it passed through the sample.

Transmitted light (phase-contrast) image of a human motor neuron culture derived from induced pluripotent stem cells. Outset 1 shows a cluster of cells, possibly neurons. Outset 2 shows a flaw in the image obscuring underlying cells. Outset 3 shows neurites. Outset 4 shows what appear to be dead cells. Scale bar is 40 μm. Source images for this and the following figures come from the Finkbeiner lab at the Gladstone Institutes.

In the above figure, it’s difficult to tell how many cells are in the cluster in Outset 1, or the locations and states of the cells in Outset 4 (hint: there’s a barely-visible flat cell in the upper-middle). It’s also difficult to get fine structures consistently in focus, such as the neurites in Outset 3.

We can get more information out of transmitted light microscopy by acquiring images in z-stacks: sets of images registered in (x, y) where z (the distance from the camera) is systematically varied. This causes different parts of the cells to come in and out of focus, which provides information about a sample’s 3D structure. Unfortunately, it often takes a trained eye to make sense of the z-stack, and analysis of such z-stacks has largely defied automation. An example z-stack is shown below.

A phase-contrast z-stack of the same cells. Note how the appearance changes as the focus is shifted. Now we can see that the fuzzy shape in the lower right of Outset 1 is a single oblong cell, and that the rightmost cell in Outset 4 is taller than the uppermost cell, possibly indicating that it has undergone programmed cell death.

In contrast, fluorescence microscopy images are easier to analyze, because samples are prepared with carefully engineered fluorescent labels which light up just what the researchers want to see. For example, most human cells have exactly one nucleus, so a nuclear label (such as the blue one below) makes it possible for simple tools to find and count cells in an image.

Fluorescence microscopy image of the same cells. The blue fluorescent label localizes to DNA, highlighting cell nuclei. The green fluorescent label localizes to a protein found only in dendrites, a neural substructure. The red fluorescent label localizes to a protein found only in axons, another neural substructure. With these labels it is much easier to understand what’s happening in the sample. For example, the green and red labels in Outset 1 confirm this is a neural cluster. The red label in Outset 3 shows that the neurites are axons, not dendrites. The upper-left blue dot in Outset 4 reveals a previously hard-to-see nucleus, and the lack of a blue dot for the cell at the left shows it to be DNA-free cellular debris.

However, fluorescence microscopy can have significant downsides. First, there is the complexity and variability introduced by the sample preparation and fluorescent labels themselves. Second, when there are many different fluorescent labels in a sample, spectral overlap can make it hard to tell which color belongs to which label, typically limiting researchers to three or four simultaneous labels in a sample. Third, fluorescence labeling may be toxic to cells and sometimes involves protocols that outright kill them, which makes labeling difficult to use in longitudinal studies where the same cells are followed through time.

Seeing more with deep learning
In our paper, we show that a deep neural network can predict fluorescence images from transmitted light z-stacks. To do this, we created a dataset of transmitted light z-stacks matched to fluorescence images and trained a neural network to predict the fluorescence images from the z-stacks. The following diagram explains the process.

Overview of our system. (A) The dataset of training examples: pairs of transmitted light images from z-stacks with pixel-registered sets of fluorescence images of the same scene. Several different fluorescent labels were used to generate fluorescence images and were varied between training examples; the checkerboard images indicate fluorescent labels which were not acquired for a given example. (B) The untrained deep network was (C) trained on the data A. (D) A z-stack of images of a novel scene. (E) The trained network, C, is used to predict fluorescence labels learned from A for each pixel in the novel images, D.

In the course of this work we developed a new neural network composed of three kinds of basic building-blocks, inspired by the modular design of Inception: an in-scale configuration which does not change the spatial scaling of the features, a down-scale configuration which doubles the spatial scaling, and an up-scale configuration which halves it. This lets us break the hard problem of network architecture design into two easier problems: the arrangement of the building-blocks (macro-architecture), and the design of the building-blocks themselves (micro-architecture). We solved the first problem using design principles discussed in the paper, and the second via an automated search powered by Google Hypertune.

To make sure our method was sound, we validated our model using data from an Alphabet lab as well as two external partners: Steve Finkbeiner's lab at the Gladstone Institutes, and the Rubin Lab at Harvard. These data spanned three transmitted light imaging modalities (bright-field, phase-contrast, and differential interference contrast) and three culture types (human motor neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, rat cortical cultures, and human breast cancer cells). We found that our method can accurately predict several labels including those for nuclei, cell type (e.g. neural), and cell state (e.g. cell death). The following figure shows the model’s predictions alongside the transmitted light input and fluorescence ground-truth for our motor neuron example.

Animation showing the same cells in transmitted light and fluorescence imaging, along with predicted fluorescence labels from our model. Outset 2 shows the model predicts the correct labels despite the artifact in the input image. Outset 3 shows the model infers these processes are axons, possibly because of their distance from the nearest cells. Outset 4 shows the model sees the hard-to-see cell at the top, and correctly identifies the object at the left as DNA-free cell debris.

Try it for yourself!
We’ve open sourced our model, along with our full dataset, code for training and inference, and an example. We’re pleased to report that new labels can be learned with minimal additional training data: in the paper and example code, we show a new label may be learned from a single image. This is due to a phenomenon called transfer learning, where a model can learn a new task more quickly and using less training data if it has already mastered similar tasks.

We hope the ability to generate labeled, useful, images without modifying cells will open up completely new kinds of experiments in biology and medicine. If you’re excited to try this technology in your own work, please read the paper or check out the code!

Acknowledgements
We thank the Google Accelerated Science team for originating and developing this project and its publication, and additionally Kevin P. Murphy for supporting its publication. We thank Mike Ando, Youness Bennani, Amy Chung-Yu Chou, Jason Freidenfelds, Jason Miller, Kevin P. Murphy, Philip Nelson, Patrick Riley, and Samuel Yang for ideas and editing help with this post. This study was supported by NINDS (NS091046, NS083390, NS101995), the NIH’s National Institute on Aging (AG065151, AG058476), the NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute (HG008105), Google, the ALS Association, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

7 Android Apps for Recording Your Own Podcasts Anywhere

Want to start podcasting on the go? Android is the perfect mobile platform for podcasting, whether you’re using a smartphone or a tablet. But which podcast recording app should you use on your Android device?

1. Spreaker Studio

We’ll start with the most feature-packed podcast recording app of the lot. Spreaker Studio is a comprehensive podcasting tool. It offers a full virtual studio user interface, including editable soundboard functionality. You can broadcast your podcasts live, or record them as live, with separate volume controls for each channel.

Once done, the podcast uploads automatically to Spreaker’s hosting. (You don’t have to do this, however. You can upload the file to hosting of your choice, such as a dedicated podcast host, your web host, or a service like Audioboom or Soundcloud.)

Uploading lets you give the podcast a title, image, set tags, and a description. Spreaker will even let you share the podcast on YouTube and iHeartRadio (the latter with a Pro subscription).

For professional podcasters on the move, Spreaker Studio is the top choice for Android users. You can improve the experience further by connecting a high-quality podcasting microphone over USB OTG.

Download: Spreaker Studio (Free)

2. Anchor: Make Your Own Podcast!

Also available on the web at anchor.fm, Anchor offers completely free hosting for creators. Vying with Spreaker Studio for features, Anchor offers voice message importing, group chat, music importing from Spotify, transitions, background tasks, and sound effects, as well as standard recording. Once completed, you can upload your podcast to iTunes or Google Play.

Interestingly, Anchor also has a feature that imports your own existing podcast (as long as you commit to claiming them as your own), but this limits you to using Anchor’s hosting. (Even if you import an existing library of podcasts, no change is made to your existing setup until you agree to use the hosting).

To make a multiple-voice podcast, your guests will need to use Anchor on their phones too. You can send invite links via SMS. Once received, your guests can take part, using their phone as normal (or connecting a headset and mic).

All in all, Anchor is a good choice for recording podcasts on your Android device. After all, who would argue with free hosting? If you don’t fancy this service, however, note that other free podcast hosting is available.

Download: Anchor (Free)

3. Podbean

Offering a mobile app and hosting package, Podbean starts from $3 a month for 100MB of monthly storage and 100GB of bandwidth. Bigger packages are available, offering unlimited and unmetered options. These also include detailed stats and the ability to have multiple admins, depending on how much you want to spend.

The app itself is straightforward, offering access to the Podbean library of podcasts and managing subscriptions. You’ll find the record button only on your profile screen or home screen, although you’ll need to sign up in order to use this functionality.

Basic trim editing is available, as is the ability to record a podcast with some background music. This can be useful for overcoming unwanted background noises, for instance. Several tunes are provided in the app.

Note that you don’t have to use Podbean’s hosting, even if you’re using the app’s recording feature. Via the Settings page, you can specify a location for saving podcasts. This means you can easily upload your recording to the podcast hosting service of your choice.

Download: Podbean (Free)

4. Audioboom

If hosting is an issue and you want to publish your podcasts from a mobile device, Audioboom lets you record and upload from a phone or tablet. For $10 a month you get up to five episodes per month, 10,000 plays, distribution via iTunes (simpler than setting it up yourself), iHeartRadio, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher, and advanced analytics.

The free app, meanwhile, is focused on listening rather than recording, but still gives you the tools you need. This includes a running counter of how long you have left on your account for the current month, and some basic editing tools to trim your recording.

Once done, you can add image, title, description, and category before you upload the podcast. However, the comparative lack of features here may put you off. I’ve used Audioboom for hosting my podcasts for years, and have not yet felt confident using the mobile app. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

Download: Audioboom (Free)

5. SoundCloud

If you’re looking for a podcast recording app that offers recording and uploading to free hosting (with limits) then SoundCloud is ideal. As well as giving you the option to browse through as many podcasts, songs, audiobooks and trailers as it has, the SoundCloud app also features an effective recorder tool.

You’ll find the Record screen in the hamburger menu, and it’s possible to trim your recording and add a fade to the beginning and end before you upload.

There’s also the option to add some artwork for the podcast, and specify a title. You can set tracks as Public or Private, and they instantly upload when you Tap to post your recording. Remember, you can embed posts in other media, and if you have your social accounts connected to SoundCloud, your podcast shares there too.

Although missing the advanced features of Spreaker Studio, SoundCloud is a good portable podcast recorder and uploader. A companion app, SoundCloud Pulse, is also available for managing your channel, but has no podcasting capability.

Download: SoundCloud (Free)
Download: SoundCloud Pulse (Free)

6. JoJo: Go Record Yourself!

For a simpler approach, JoJo: Go Record Yourself is a tool for creating “mini-podcast” clips, which you can place on a map at the exact point where you made the recording.

An odd combination of micro-blogging services like Twitter and Tumblr, with tried-and-tested podcasting features (plus some Google Maps), JoJo lets you listen to other people’s podcasts based on location, and shares your own.

Recording is simply a case of tapping a button to start and stop, adding a title, description, and category, and assigning location permissions to the app before uploading. So what are the benefits of a three minute, location-based podcast?

Well, if you’re recording a travel-based podcast, it could be quite useful. However, as most podcasts are enjoyed while the listener is traveling (either in the car or subway, for example), JoJo really needs a strong (if not unique) selling point that the other examples here do not.

But if recording thoughts as you traverse an area or landscape appeals to you, JoJo is the ideal solution.

Download: JoJo (Free)

Maybe You Don’t Need a Podcast Recording App

If all of this seems a bit overly complicated, rest assured: you don’t actually need a dedicated podcasting app. While the benefits of these apps and hosting services may be obvious, you might already have your hosting sorted. And you might even have a voice recorder installed on your phone or tablet. Even if you don’t, for straightforward, basic podcasting, that’s really all you need.

My own suggestion is Audio Recorder from Sony, a tool I’ve used for some time now. It’s ideal for recording audio for podcasts, either interviewing people or recording your own thoughts, and works with any microphone you connect to your device. If you’re looking for a straightforward recorder that saves to MP3 files you can easily upload, this is ideal.

Download: Audio Recorder (Free)

With seven strong options, your podcasting can go fully mobile. In fact, there’s no need for you to worry about recording your podcast on a PC ever again! For more hints and tips for podcasting, see our guide to starting your own successful podcast.

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