Juul files lawsuit against other e-cig makers for patent infringement

Juul Labs today filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) claiming that several organizations are infringing on Juul Labs’ patents. Juul has asked the ITC to halt the importation, distribution and sale of these products in the U.S.

In all, eighteen entities are listed within the complaint as having infringed Juul patents. They predominantly hail from within the U.S. and China, with one based in France, according to the complaint.

Earlier this year, Juul Labs filed for trademark infringement against 30 different companies which were allegedly using the Juul design or name brand.

Obviously, competition is one reason to take legal action, but Juul has other priorities. The company is under an immense amount of scrutiny by the FDA and lawmakers with regards to underage usage of the product. Counterfeit products are often sold without any age verification, putting electronic nicotine delivery systems in the hands of yet more minors.

From the release:

Whereas Juul Labs implements strict manufacturing and quality controls during the manufacturing of its products, little is known about how most of the accused devices are manufactured. Similarly, whereas Juul Labs applies strict age-gating when selling its products through its website, many of the accused products appear to be sold with little or no real age-verification processes. Notably, in contrast to Juul’s products, many of the accused copy-cat products include inappropriate flavors, seemingly directed to attract underage users – flavors like “Bubble Bubble,” “Apple Juice” and “Sour Gummy.”

In mid-September, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced that Juul and other vape makers would have 60 days to come up with a more robust, comprehensive plan to combat underage use of the products. That 60-day period is about half-way complete.

It’s unclear what the consequences will be for a plan that doesn’t meet the FDA’s satisfaction, but there has been plenty of talk about banning flavored liquids, which would be a severe blow to Juul and other e-cig companies.

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How to Build a Custom Raspberry Pi NES or SNES Classic Emulator With RetroPie

9 Chrome Extensions Your Gmail Needs for a Better Email Experience

In spite of numerous efforts, emails still exist and are thriving more than ever. But their fundamental shortcomings have remained the same. It’s still relatively easy for your Gmail inbox to get clogged up with spam. Inbox zero is still a dream for many, you still treat your email as a free commodity and give it everytime a website demands a new account. You get the idea.

Thankfully, third-party Gmail plugins have come a long way in the meantime. Here are nine best Google Chrome extensions for all your emailing needs.

1. FlowCrypt

There are myriad aspects of your digital life which deserve better security and emails undoubtedly is one of them.

FlowCrypt is a free extension which lets you send encrypted emails to anyone on Gmail or Google Inbox (RIP). Once you’ve linked your account, the extension asks you to set a custom passphrase and only if the recipient knows that, it can read the message. If the person at the receiving end doesn’t have FlowCrypt or any other encryption platform, you can even set a one-time password for the email.

Your attachments are also secured by the extension. For a monthly fee, you can compose self-destructing emails, send files larger than 25MB, and more.

Download: FlowCrypt (Free, premium subscription available)

2. Burner Emails

Remember that time when a website asked you to create an account for accessing some information and your inbox ended up being swamped with promotional emails? Well, you don’t have to give out your personal email in those scenarios. It’s time for you to get used to disposable emails.

Try Burner Emails, a Chrome extension which lets you easily produce and manage new temporary emails. Whenever you come across an email form field, you can simply hit the Burner Email icon, enter the new disposable address, and view the content.

Of course, if the website requires you to verify it, there’s a solution for that too. You can have the tool forward emails to your personal email and disable the link as soon as you’re done. It is ingenious and the type of plugin every internet user needs today.

Download: Burner Emails (Free)

3. Hunter

Ever scrounged a website for emails? Next time, let Hunter do it for you.

The free extension is capable of going through websites and sift through the email addresses available on its several pages. You can search a specific keyword from its omnibar menu and browse by category too. Hunter also allows you to save leads and revisit them all later from a central dashboard.

The free version maxes out at a thousand requests and for more, you will have to pay.

Download: Hunter (Free, premium subscription available)

4. Hiver

If you’re someone who handles multiple company mailboxes for purposes such as sales or support, you should check out Hiver.

The extension comes with the ability to integrate mailboxes so that you don’t have to constantly juggle between them. You can manage them from the same place. Also, you can assign these mailboxes to your colleagues and monitor their activities.

There are a bunch of more features Hiver offers including a snooze option, templates, and more.

Download: Hiver (Free)

5. Rebump

Rebump is another clever extension which automates one of the most annoying aspects of emails: the follow-ups. The plugin sends a follow-up response every few days if you don’t get a reply. You can tweak the messages and their timelines of when they should be dispatched as well.

There’s also an option to track emails’ progress, check whether the recipient has read the follow-ups and more. Rebump is free for the first thirty days and at least five dollars a month after that.

If you need help setting up your follow-up timeline, here’s how to master the art of follow-up and networking. 

Download: Rebump (Free, premium subscription available)

6. Email This

Can’t escape the email vortex but still want to catch up on articles? The Email This is the productivity aid you need for your inbox.

This one lets you email articles and links from around the web to your inbox. The extension also gets rid of every distracting elements such as embedded links or advertisements so that you can quickly go through the clean copy.

There’s no sign-up or access required. If you opt for the premium subscription, you can also label these links, receive them as attachments, and more.

Download: Email This (Free, premium subscription available)

7. Mailtrack

Mailtrack, as the name suggests, allows you to track your emails whether you’re on your phone or desktop. The extension lets you know when the email was read, how many times it was opened, and which platform was the recipient on.

Mailtrack can even notify you as soon as the email is read. Mailtrack is mostly free but you can pay extra to access a few premium features such as the ability to disable Mailtrack signature, daily reports, and more.

Download: Mailtrack (Free, premium subscription available)

8. Email Monster

Email Monster offers free templates and layouts for designing personalized emails. There are a plethora of options to choose from whether you’d like to send an invoice or create a party invitation. The interface is fairly straightforward too and even allows you to easily customize the designs.

Download: Email Monster (Free)

9. Sortd

Watching your list of unread emails pile up every second can be distressing. But what if you could turn in Trello-like lists? Still quite distressing. But in the latter’s case, at least you will have better organizational tools. Therefore, take a look at Sortd.

Sortd turns your mailbox into a multi-list layout where you can simply drag and down emails into specific lists like Marketing, Personal, and respond to them with a better plan in place. From there, you can set reminders, notes, and prioritize each of them so you don’t end up missing the ones which are important.

Download: Sortd (Free)

Master Your Gmail Inbox

Our email habits can help us start off the day well or turn it into a bumpy few minutes. So it pays to pay attention to the right extensions that tame the information overload. Now that you’ve learned about every essential Chrome extension for emails, here are a dozen tips and tools for mastering the Gmail inbox.

Read the full article: 9 Chrome Extensions Your Gmail Needs for a Better Email Experience

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4 Reasons Why Python Isn’t the Programming Language for You

Python is one of the most popular programming languages of recent years. Its clear syntax and readability make it the perfect coding language for beginners. It’s forgivable to think that learning Python was essential given its wide usage.

This raises the question: when is Python NOT the right answer? When is the Python programming language the wrong language to learn and/or use?

What Python Is Good For

In short, Python is becoming the language of machine learning. Most machine language courses are written using the Python language, and coding education as a whole has adopted Python as the language to learn, with wide use in classrooms, on Raspberry Pi, and elsewhere.

These reasons, along with the plethora of big companies using Python, leave many thinking it is the main programming language of the future. But if Python is such a Swiss Army Knife, when wouldn’t you use it?

1. You Want to Be a Web Developer

Python is more than capable of large-scale web development. Instagram is the largest site running Django, a Python web framework. This is no mean feat, as Instagram engineer Zekun Li explains:

“We began using Python early on because of its simplicity, but we’ve had to do many hacks over the years to keep it simple as we’ve scaled.”

That said, Django is a robust, elegant framework. The issue does not lie with its failings as such. The simple question is: why learn Django when JavaScript is still so dominant?

JavaScript frameworks like React and Vue.js are in high demand. Both can use Django or other back-ends like Ruby on Rails. However, since both are JavaScript-based languages, why would you use anything other than Node.js? This makes for a full stack JavaScript application. One language to learn and master.

This is not to say that JavaScript is a perfect language; many would argue the opposite. If you are starting out in web development, however, there is still no better choice than JavaScript.

2. You Want to Be a Game Developer

Users of Pygame might find this section a little confusing. Isn’t there a well-regarded library specifically for creating computer games in Python? Yes, there is, and Pygame is a fantastic resource for learning Python and game mechanics.

Some good games have been written in Python, and there is even a first-person shooter made entirely in Pygame:

Without taking away from the incredible achievement that DUGA is, you can see the issue here. Most (but not all) people wanting to get into game development are looking for something more. A robust platform with development tools and an editor. The potential to scale from a small idea up to something large and more mainstream.

Python cannot offer this, whereas game engines like Unity and Unreal can.

Learn C# for Unity

Unity is based solely on C#, with a considerable number of libraries on top to help with game development. The Unity editor is a very powerful tool allowing for quick prototyping, and a fast start for beginners making their first game.

For a comparison of scale and visual beauty, Escape From Tarkov is a Unity Engine creation:

Much like low-level Python tutorials cover programming essentials, Unity’s official tutorials assume no prior programming knowledge.

Learn C++ for Unreal Engine

C++ is somewhat notorious for being difficult to learn. There are resources online for beginners, and the Unreal Engine website has some great getting started tools too.

If you need any evidence that Unreal Engine games can be a success, look no further than Fortnite. This hugely popular game, which you can even play on your mobile, was created and optimized using Unreal.

Games that look like this, and run at 1080p with good frame-rates, are currently not possible using Python. This is not a failing on Python’s part, more a simple case of game development not being one of its strengths.

3. You Want to Work With Low Level Systems

While the amateur robotics community loves Python, it isn’t the best language for the job. In many low level and embedded systems, Python isn’t an option.

Embedded Systems

While the definition of what an embedded system is has become blurred in recent years, there is a good analogy. It’s safe to consider small development boards such as Arduino as embedded. Larger, more complex devices like Raspberry Pis or similar single board computers are generally not seen as embedded.

The issue lies where memory and timing are essential. An 8-bit chip in a piece of embedded hardware needs to have its memory managed very carefully. This is not something Python is suited for, and there is a reason why the Arduino language is a simplified version of C/C++. Getting a grasp of Arduino’s version of C++ is less complex than you would think.

The C programming language is as powerful as it can be dangerous. Despite being high-level, C and its C++ super-set can access low-level processes. Essentially, C was the first translation of machine code into something that humans could easily understand.

Precision and Speed

On top of the ability to manage systems at a low level, C comes with a speed increase. Since C is a very raw language, there are no overheads or garbage collection to slow it down. This is where C gets its reputation for being dangerous, as memory leaks can cause terrible problems. It does mean, however, that C shines where timing and speed are critical.

Anyone looking to get into hardware programming or any form of kernel programming should consider looking into C. The same is true for anyone wishing to create device drivers.

Bonus fact: Have you used VSTs to create digital music and wondered how to make them? You can write your own using C++.

4. Do You Need Python?

While this may sound obvious—if you already know another capable coding language, why change?

If you took a coding class in school, or started an online coding course in a particular language, sticking to it has benefits. Learning your first language gives you the fundamentals of programming, and switching to learn a whole new syntax slows that process down.

Most top level Python coders didn’t begin working with the language. Due to its highly readable nature and intuitive syntax, many find it easier to learn Python coming from other languages.

Maybe You Should Learn Python After All

There are so many languages out there that choosing can be stressful. The truth is, there can never be a perfect language for everything.

But Python is popular, multi-use, and great for beginners. Learn more about the benefits of Python programming and see our most commonly asked questions about Python.

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4 Ways to Build Your Own DIY HDTV Antenna for Cheap

Master Microsoft Office with 80 Hours of Video Tutorials for $29

In most desk-based careers, it’s impossible to get through the day without opening Word or Excel. But how well do you know these apps? The Microsoft Office Mastery Lifetime Bundle shows you all the best features, with seven courses and 80 hours of video training. You can get lifetime access now for just $29 at MakeUseOf Deals.

Office Ninja

When you start at a new job, someone will usually show you the ropes. This is how many of us are introduced to the Microsoft suite. Instead of learning from experts, we pick up the terrible bad habits of our new colleagues.

These CPD-accredited courses help you to unlock the full potential of Microsoft Office and work smarter. Through concise video tutorials, you learn how to write with Word, crunch the numbers in Excel, and deliver stunning presentations with PowerPoint.

You also discover how to work with large data sets in PivotTable, while the Outlook course shows you how to keep control of your inbox.

The courses are available to stream 24/7, meaning you can learn at your own pace. In addition, you can claim a certificate of completion at the end of each course. Given how few people have mastered Microsoft Office, these certificates should help you stand out from the crowd.

Seven Courses for $29

These courses are worth $1,750 in total, but you can get the whole lot now for $29, with lifetime access included.

Read the full article: Master Microsoft Office with 80 Hours of Video Tutorials for $29

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Plex Adds Free On-Demand Web Shows

Plex is adding web shows to its lineup of content. This means that anyone with a Plex account can watch web shows on the Plex app. All for free, and all on demand. Plex Web Shows is currently in beta, but already has a good selection to choose from.

While Plex may be best known as a media player for people’s personal collections, it’s slowly but surely pivoting to become a means of streaming content from the web too. In May 2018, Plex added support for podcasts, and now it’s adding web shows too.

Plex Web Shows Are Free for Everyone

On the Plex Blog, Plex states it has “partnered with a number of media producers to bring you high-quality episodic video content inside Plex!” While most of these shows can already be found elsewhere, Plex hopes you’ll choose to watch them on Plex.

These Web Shows are available for free to anyone with a Plex account. You don’t need either a Plex Media Server or a paid Plex Pass subscription. Instead, you can just log in to your account, open your Plex app, and watch these shows to your heart’s content.

At launch Web Shows offers thousands of episodes across dozens of shows. Publishers include Condé Nast, Bonnier Corp., Fandor, Future, TWiT, Jukin, and Studio 71. Shows include Epic Meal Time, ASAPscience, People are Awesome, and The Pet Collective.

Plex Has Big Plans for the Future

While Web Shows is still a work in progress, when combined with Plex News and Plex Podcasts it suggests Plex has big plans for the future. Plex is moving beyond its humble beginnings, and blossoming into a massive media ecosystem.

We have written extensively about Plex. So why not read our guide to Plex, or discover everything you need to know about Plex Live TV. Alternatively, you can see what you get with a Plex Pass subscription, or find out what Plex settings you need to change.

Read the full article: Plex Adds Free On-Demand Web Shows

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Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime on Wii U ‘stumbles’ and balancing nostalgia with reinvention

Nintendo is nearing its 130th birthday, and the company is once again in the midst of major changes as it embraces mobile platforms and online services. But Nintendo of America’s president Reggie Fils-Aime says that should come as no surprise: “We reinvent ourselves every 5 or 10 years. We have to. It’s in our DNA.”

In an interview at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle, Fils-Aime talked, in his immaculately Nintendo-promotional manner, about the company’s ups and downs over the last decade and what it took to get the Switch out the door.

“We focus on giving consumers experiences that they haven’t even thought of,” he explained. Anyone who has followed Nintendo for a few years certainly wouldn’t disagree — remember the vitality sensor? “By going down this path you create doubters. And we’ll be the first to admit that there will always be stumbles along the way.”

“The Wii had sold a hundred million units globally; the Wii U did not have that same level of success,” he admitted. That’s something of an understatement; the Wii U is widely considered something of a boondoggle, interesting but confusing and hugely outgunned by the competition when it came to what was valued by the rapidly growing mainstream gaming world.

“But in the words of one of our presidents — this is [Hiroshi] Yamauchi — when you’re doing well, don’t be excited by that high-flying performance, and when you’re doing poorly, don’t be said. Always have an even keel,” he said. Not exactly catchy, but it is good business advice. The focus should be on the horizon.

And that’s where it was, despite the painfully low sales numbers and lack of third party support. As he tells it, they just plowed ahead with new lessons under their belt.

“If we had not had the Wii U, we would not have the Switch,” he said seriously. “What we heard from customers was that the proposition of a tablet on which they could experience gameplay, coupled with the ability to play games on the TV, is really compelling. Users were telling us, I want to play with this tablet, but when I get 30 feet away from the TV, it disconnects. The one point gamers all hate is the point where they have to put the controller down. So it was an important step for us to be able to deliver on this proposition.”

“When I first saw the embodiment of that system,” he recalled, “the hairs on the back of my neck raised up.” It was the same feeling, he said, that he had with the Wii Remote and the DS — both featuring technologies that people were highly skeptical of at first but proved versatile and compelling.

Touchscreens weren’t common when the DS came out, and motion controls weren’t common when the Wii came out, he noted. Both have since become mainstream — not entirely due to Nintendo’s success with them, of course, but it would be disingenuous to say that had nothing to do with it.

But while the company can rightly be said to be taking risks in some ways, in other ways it is uniquely stuck in the past. Its most successful franchises are well past a quarter of a century old.

As Fils-Aime sees it, however, this is exactly how it should be. Mario and Link are characters the way Mickey Mouse or even someone like Robin Hood are characters. New franchises like Splatoon can be established and cared for, but the traditional ones (though no one mentioned Metroid, predictably and unfortunately) should be recycled and brought to new platforms and generations.

Nowadays that includes mobile games, where Nintendo has been taking tentative steps in recent years.

Nintendo’s latest has been criticized for its unvarnished quest for players’ money.

“We see our mobile initiatives as a way to bring our intellectual properties and our gameplay experiences to a larger population than the tens or hundred million consumers that own a dedicated gaming system,” he said. “With Super Mario Run, we literally have hundreds of millions of consumers experiencing Mario, consumers in places where we don’t even distribute our gaming systems. Then maybe they buy that Super Mario t-shirt, they may eat that Super Mario cereal, they may buy a Nintendo Switch.” (Presumably imported.)

Here Fils-Aime’s comments rang a bit hollow, however. Nintendo’s mobile strategy has leaned hard on the “gacha” style game that massively incentivizes in-app purchases of virtual currencies and grinding levels to unlock new characters randomly in loot box style. This seems so far from Nintendo’s core mission of entertainment and so close to the current industry method of cash extraction that it’s hard to believe it’s what the company really wanted to create.

It does, as Fils-Aime said was the goal, allow them to be “effective” on platforms and marketplaces they don’t themselves own, and it does drive their “overall business agenda.” But it seems as though the company is still trying to figure out how to truly bring its games to mobile. Perhaps the upcoming Mario Kart game will be a better option, but it could very easily go the other way as well.

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N26 is launching its bank in the U.K.

Nearly a year after German fintech startup N26 announced that it would launch its service in the U.K., the company is launching in the U.K. N26 is already quite popular in the Eurozone with over 1.5 million customers. In this new market, it will face tough competition from existing players, such as Revolut, Monzo, Starling and many others.

N26 is going to roll out its product in multiple phases. Some lucky few will be able to open an account right away. The startup will then go through its waiting list — 50,000 people already left their email addresses to express interest. After that, anybody will be able to download the app and sign up.

This might sound like a convoluted process, but N26 expects a full public launch in just a few weeks. So it should be quite quick if everything goes as planned.

So what can you expect exactly? British customers will get all the basic N26 stuff with one killer feature — U.K. account numbers and sort codes. This way, customers will be able to receive payments and share banking information with their utility providers just like they would with a regular Barclays or Lloyds account.

When you open an N26 account, you get a true bank account and a MasterCard. Basic accounts are free and N26 has a proper banking license — your deposits up to €100,000 are guaranteed by the European deposit guarantee scheme. You can then send and receive money and pay with your card. Sending money to other N26 users is instantaneous (they call it MoneyBeam).

N26 recently launched Spaces, a new feature that lets you create sub accounts and put some money aside. It’s still limited but the company plans to add more features.

Your MasterCard works like any other challenger bank. Every time you use it, you receive a push notification. You can set payment and withdrawal limits, lock your card if you lose it and reset your PIN code. N26 will also bring Black and Metal plans to the U.K.

How does it compare to Revolut?

Let’s be honest, the elephant in the room is Revolut. The company has hundreds of thousands (if not over a million) customers in the U.K. N26 lets you do many of the things that you can already do with your Revolut account.

So let me point out a few differences. As I noted, N26 has a banking license and U.K. banking information. N26 cards work in Apple Pay and Google Pay.

When it comes to international payments, N26 lets you pay with your card anywhere in the world without any additional fee. The company uses MasterCard’s conversion rates. Revolut first converts the money with its forex feature and then lets you spend your money.

There are an infinite number of forum posts about the exchange rates you’ll get. Sometimes Revolut is cheaper, sometimes N26 is cheaper. It mostly depends on the day of the week (Revolut conversion rates are more expensive on the weekend) and the currency. Unless you plan on spending tens of thousands of GBP during your vacation, you won’t see a huge difference on your banking statement.

Revolut also has many more features than N26. You can insure your phone, buy bitcoins, buy travel insurance, create virtual cards and more. It’s clear that N26 and Revolut have two different styles.

Revolut has a bigger user base than N26. But it’s always been a bit hard to compare them as N26 wasn’t available in the U.K. Of course, they will both say that there are tens of millions of people relying on old banks — multiple challenger banks can grow at the same time if they capture market share from those aging players. Still, the battle between N26 and Revolut is on.

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The new version of Wi-Fi is called Wi-Fi 6 because rules don’t matter

The Wi-Fi Alliance, the working group that has long offered such euphonious, IEEE-defined names for Wi-Fi protocols as 802.11ab and 802.11n has finally decided enough was enough with the numbers and letters and such. Their decision? The next Wi-Fi version will be Wi-Fi 6 and sucks to your assmar if you don’t like it.

“For nearly two decades, Wi-Fi users have had to sort through technical naming conventions to determine if their devices support the latest Wi-Fi,” said Wi-Fi Alliance CEO Edgar Figueroa in a release. “Wi-Fi Alliance is excited to introduce Wi-Fi 6, and present a new naming scheme to help industry and Wi-Fi users easily understand the Wi-Fi generation supported by their device or connection.”

Wi-Fi 6 is actually 802.11ax, an improvement on 802.11ac. The ostensible data rate for Wi-Fi 6 is, according to Wikipedia, “37% higher than IEEE 802.11ac, the new amendment is expected to achieve a 4× increase to user throughput due to more efficient spectrum utilization.” It runs eight 5 GHz streams and four 2.4 GHz streams.

In addition to 6 we will now all call 802.11ac Wi-Fi 5 and 802.11n will be called Wi-Fi 4. Devices will be officially certified by generation and the first Wi-Fi 6 devices will arrive in 2019. We would encourage you to stop using the 802.11 nomenclature well before the deadline, ensuring a swift and effortless transition into Wi-Fi chaos.

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Kobo’s Forma e-reader takes on Kindle Oasis with an asymmetric design and premium price

Kobo’s latest e-reader is a complete about-face from its anonymous, cheap, and highly practical Clara HD; the Forma is big, expensive, and features a bold — not to say original — design. It’s clearly meant to take on the Kindle Oasis and e-reader fans for whom price is no object.

The $280 Forma joins a number of other e-readers in using a one-handed design, something which is, we might as admit up front, isn’t for everyone. That said, I’ve found that my reading style on these devices has been able to adapt from one form factor to another — it’s not like they made it head-mountable or something. You still hold it like you would any other small device.

It uses an 8-inch E-Ink Carta display with 300 pixels per inch, which is more than enough for beautiful type. The frontlight — essentially a layer above the display that lights up and bounces light off it to illuminate the page — is a Kobo specialty, adjustable from very cold to very warm in cast and everywhere in between.

The Clara HD, Kobo’s best entry-level device, left, and the Forma. (The color cast of the screens is adjustable.)

The screen will be very similar to that of the Aura One, Kobo’s previous high-end reader, but the Forma’s asymmetric design gives it slightly closer to square dimensions.

Where it differs from the Kindle Oasis is in size and a couple important particulars of design. The Forma is slightly larger, by about 20 millimeters (3/4″ or so) in height and width, and is ever so slightly but not noticeable thicker. (I didn’t have one to compare on hand, unfortunately.)

It’s also worth saying that like all Kobo devices, there are no forced advertisements on this one and you can load your own books as easy as that. To me Kindles aren’t even an option any more because of the “special offers” and limited file support.

Chin or ear?

The shape is similar, as anyone can see, but the Kobo team decided to go against having a flush front side and instead give the device a “chin,” as we used to call it on HTC phones, though being on the side it would perhaps more accurately be termed an “ear.” The screen, of course, is flat, but the grip on the side rises up from it at a 15 degree angle or so.

Is this better or worse than having a flush front? Aesthetically I prefer the flush screen but practically speaking it is better to have a flat back so it lies flat when you put it down or prop it against something. That the Oasis sits at a tilt when you set it down on a table is something that bothers me. (I’m very sensitive, as you can tell.)

[gallery ids="1725793,1725785,1725792,1725787,1725788,1725786"]

It’s still very light, only 30 grams more than the Clara, the same amount less than the Aura One, and nearly equal to the Oasis. Despite being larger than any of those, it’s no less portable. That said, the Clara will fit in my back pocket, and this one most definitely will not.

The device is fully waterproof, like the Oasis, although liquid on the screen can disrupt touch functionality (this is just a physics thing). Nothing to worry about, just wipe it off. The USB port is just wide open, but obviously it’s been sealed off inside. Don’t try charging it underwater.

I am worried about the material the grip is made of: a satin-finish plastic that’s very nice to the touch but tends to attract fingerprints and oils. Look, everyone has oils. But the grip of the Forma won’t let you forget it.

Although the power button is mushy and difficult to tell if you’ve pressed it right, the page-turn buttons are pleasantly clicky, and despite their appearance of being lever-like, they can easily be pressed anywhere along their length. Which goes forward and which backward switches automatically if you flip the reader over to use the other hand.

This flipping process happens more or less instantaneously, with a rare exceptions in my brief testing. Neither side feels more “correct,” for instance because of the weight distribution or anything.

The only one that doesn’t feel correct is the landscape mode. I’m not sure why someone would want to read this way, though I’m sure a few will like it. It just seems like a missed opportunity. Why can’t I have two pages displayed side by side, like a little pocket paperback? I’d love that! I’ve already asked Kobo about this and I assume that because I have done so, they will add it. As it is most books simply feel strange in this mode.

Familiar software, unfamiliar price

Text handling seems unchanged from Kobo’s other devices, which means it’s just fine — the typefaces are good and there are lots of options to adjust it to your taste book by book.

Kobo’s much-appreciated drag-and-drop book adding and support for over a dozen formats (epub, cbr, mobi, etc) is here as well with no changes. Pocket integration is solid and extremely useful.

The Forma (like Kobo’s other readers) does have Overdrive support, meaning that with a library card and account there you can easily request and read books from your local branch’s virtual stock. This is an underutilized service in general (by me as well) and I need to take advantage of it more.

So far, so good. But the real question is whether this thing is worth the $280 they’re charging for it — $30 more than the Kindle Oasis and even an even bigger jump over the Aura One. In my honest opinion, for most people, the answer is no. For the dollar you get a lot more from the Clara HD, which also has the advantage of being compact and pocketable.

But it must be said that the Forma is clearly a niche device aimed at people who use their e-reader a lot and want that bigger screen, the waterproofing, the thin profile, the one-handed design. There’s a smaller, but not necessarily small, number of people who are willing to pay for that. As it is the Forma is among the most expensive e-readers out there and it’s hard to justify that price for ordinary people who just want a good reader with the warmth control and good type.

The Forma is successful at what it aims to do — provide a credible competitor to Amazon’s most expensive device, and beat it at its own game in the ways Kobo usually beats Kindle. That much I can say for certain. Whether to buy it is between you and your wallet.

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Can You Really See Who Viewed Your Facebook Profile?

Opera Touch Brings One-Handed Browsing to iOS

Opera has launched Opera Touch on iOS, just in time for the release of the new iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max. Opera Touch is a mobile web browser designed to be used with one hand, and offering a host of mobile-friendly features.

While it cannot claim the biggest market share, Opera is continually innovating. After showing us the future of web browsers with Opera Neon, in April 2018, the company released Opera Touch on Android. And Opera Touch is now available on iOS.

Opera Touch Boasts FAB and Flow

According to Opera, a whopping 95 percent of iOS users in the U.S. stick with Safari, never even trying out the alternatives. However, the company is convinced its new mobile browser, Opera Touch, is better than Safari. Here’s why…

Opera Touch is designed to be used with just one hand, making it perfect for smartphones with large screens. The Fast Action Button is located in the bottom middle of the screen, and, once pressed, it gives you access to key functions.

Then there’s Flow, which allows you to share links, images, and videos between Touch and the Opera desktop browser. Just scan a QR code to establish a connection between the two, and you can then share files in an end-to-end encrypted environment.

Opera Touch also adapts to your browsing habits, adding your most-visited sites to your homescreen. The mobile browsers also boasts both a built-in ad blocker (please whitelist MakeUseOf!) and protection against cryptojacking.

Opera Touch Wants to Topple Safari

Unfortunately for Opera we think the company will struggle to convince many iOS users to ditch Safari. Just like Android and Chrome, the two go hand in hand. Still, Touch is an attractive and capable browser that’s available to download from the App Store.

If you’re currently using Apple’s default web browser you should check out these tips for boosting Safari’s speed and performance. And if you’re looking to try a different mobile browser beyond Opera Touch consider these alternatives to Chrome and Safari.

Read the full article: Opera Touch Brings One-Handed Browsing to iOS

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The 5 Most Reliable Hard Drives According to Server Companies

Facebook tests Snap Map-style redesign of Nearby Friends

Helping friends meet up offline has been a massive missed opportunity for Facebook. Whether because the brand is too creepy or the politely opt-in 2015 rollout of its location sharing feature wasn’t creepy enough, Facebook Nearby Friends never quite took off. Only 103 of my 1120 friends in San Francisco have it turned on.

It’s not the only one struggling with “The quest to cure loneliness”. Foursquare Swarm, Glympse, Apple’s Find My Friends, and Google Maps’ real-time coordinate sharing option have all failed to become a ubiquitous standard.

The redesigned map homescreen of Facebook Nearby Friends

But last year, Snapchat launched a different take on the idea based on its biggest acquisition ever, French app Zenly. With Snap Map, it wasn’t just about the utility of seeing a list of friends’ locations like on Facebook, but also splayed them out across map that you could dive into to see their latest geo-tagged Stories. It was as much about fun and content as it was about actually hanging out with people in person.

Now Facebook is testing a significant redesign of Nearby Friends that looks a lot more like Snap Map. It replaces the list view of the neighborhoods and cities friends are in with a map that groups friends together by city. A “view list” button opens up the former homescreen, though in both views you still can only see a friend’s approximate location in a neighborhood or city, not their exact coordinates. Facebook confirms to TechCrunch that “We’re testing a new design for Nearby Friends, a tool people have used for the past four years to meet with their friends in person. People have complete control over whether to use Nearby Friends or not. They can turn it on in the Nearby Friends bookmark.”

That statement both subtly promotes Facebook’s opt-in privacy setting for Nearby Friends while urging people to actually go back and activate it. The screenshot was generated from the code of Facebook’s Android app by mobile researcher and frequent TechCrunch tipster Jane Manchun Wong. Interestingly, after TechCrunch’s inquiry, Wong tells me Facebook appears to have deactivated server-side the ability to access the map feature.

The reason this matters is that Facebook is desperate for engagement, especially amongst younger users who are slipping away from it to Snapchat and Instagram. If revamped with this map and other improvements, Nearby Friends could become a more popular utility that keeps people opening Facebook. Getting more people to share their real-time location could open new opportunities for local ad targeting. And Facebook could benefit from showing it unlocks meaningful offline connection given its recent brand troubles following election interference and calls that it’s the opposite of “time well spent”.

The existing design of Facebook Nearby Friends

Snap Map was smart, but it’s sadly buried behind an awkward pinch gesture from Snapchat’s homescreen, or inside the search bar where some users wouldn’t expect it. Internal Snapchat usage data scored by Taylor Lorenz for The Daily Beast revealed that Snap Map had sunk from a high of 35 million daily unique viewers after its June 2017 launch to just 19 million by that September — merely 11 percent of Snapchat’s users at the time. Users never seemed to cease on it as a method of browsing Snapchat’s geo-tagged content.

Unfortunately, none of these location apps have figured out that meeting up isn’t all about location. It’s about availability. It doesn’t matter if I see my best friend is at a coffee shop right away if they’re not actually available to hang out. They could be on date, having a business meeting, or trying to get some work done. If I drop in just because I see they’re close by, it could be awkward. You’d have to first message them, but you can come off seeming desperate if they can’t or don’t want to meet up with you.

Location apps need an availability indicator similar to the green “online” dot used by many chat apps. You could toggle that on if you wanted to show you’re interested in some spontaneous friend time.

Facebook’s actually spent the last year trying to build this into Messenger in the form of “Your Emoji” status. It lets you pick an emoji like a martini, fork and knife, or barbell that’s temporarily overlaid on your profile pic thumbnail to let people know you’re down for drinking, getting dinner, or working out. The feature is yet to be widely tested, indicating that Facebook hasn’t quite cracked the nut of encouraging online meetups.

Ideally, Facebook would combine Nearby Friends and Your Emoji to help users share both approximately where they are and whether they want to hang out. The next step would be making it easy to watch a friend’s geo-tagged Facebook Story from wherever they are. And then, Facebook could further copy Snap Map by making public Stories and other location-based content accessible from the map so you could browse it for fun instead of the News Feed or Stories tray.

Facebook needs to rethink its entire product stack to embrace the high-definition cameras, big phone screens, and fast network connections that make it easier to convey information through imagery than text. Visual communication is the future and that goes far beyond Stories.

Facebook Messenger’s ‘Your Emoji’ status tells friends what’s up

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Facebook tests Snap Map-style redesign of Nearby Friends

Helping friends meet up offline has been a massive missed opportunity for Facebook. Whether because the brand is too creepy or the politely opt-in 2015 rollout of its location sharing feature wasn’t creepy enough, Facebook Nearby Friends never quite took off. Only 103 of my 1120 friends in San Francisco have it turned on.

It’s not the only one struggling with “The quest to cure loneliness”. Foursquare Swarm, Glympse, Apple’s Find My Friends, and Google Maps’ real-time coordinate sharing option have all failed to become a ubiquitous standard.

The redesigned map homescreen of Facebook Nearby Friends

But last year, Snapchat launched a different take on the idea based on its biggest acquisition ever, French app Zenly. With Snap Map, it wasn’t just about the utility of seeing a list of friends’ locations like on Facebook, but also splayed them out across map that you could dive into to see their latest geo-tagged Stories. It was as much about fun and content as it was about actually hanging out with people in person.

Now Facebook is testing a significant redesign of Nearby Friends that looks a lot more like Snap Map. It replaces the list view of the neighborhoods and cities friends are in with a map that groups friends together by city. A “view list” button opens up the former homescreen, though in both views you still can only see a friend’s approximate location in a neighborhood or city, not their exact coordinates. Facebook confirms to TechCrunch that “We’re testing a new design for Nearby Friends, a tool people have used for the past four years to meet with their friends in person. People have complete control over whether to use Nearby Friends or not. They can turn it on in the Nearby Friends bookmark.”

That statement both subtly promotes Facebook’s opt-in privacy setting for Nearby Friends while urging people to actually go back and activate it. The screenshot was generated from the code of Facebook’s Android app by mobile researcher and frequent TechCrunch tipster Jane Manchun Wong. Interestingly, after TechCrunch’s inquiry, Wong tells me Facebook appears to have deactivated server-side the ability to access the map feature.

The reason this matters is that Facebook is desperate for engagement, especially amongst younger users who are slipping away from it to Snapchat and Instagram. If revamped with this map and other improvements, Nearby Friends could become a more popular utility that keeps people opening Facebook. Getting more people to share their real-time location could open new opportunities for local ad targeting. And Facebook could benefit from showing it unlocks meaningful offline connection given its recent brand troubles following election interference and calls that it’s the opposite of “time well spent”.

The existing design of Facebook Nearby Friends

Snap Map was smart, but it’s sadly buried behind an awkward pinch gesture from Snapchat’s homescreen, or inside the search bar where some users wouldn’t expect it. Internal Snapchat usage data scored by Taylor Lorenz for The Daily Beast revealed that Snap Map had sunk from a high of 35 million daily unique viewers after its June 2017 launch to just 19 million by that September — merely 11 percent of Snapchat’s users at the time. Users never seemed to cease on it as a method of browsing Snapchat’s geo-tagged content.

Unfortunately, none of these location apps have figured out that meeting up isn’t all about location. It’s about availability. It doesn’t matter if I see my best friend is at a coffee shop right away if they’re not actually available to hang out. They could be on date, having a business meeting, or trying to get some work done. If I drop in just because I see they’re close by, it could be awkward. You’d have to first message them, but you can come off seeming desperate if they can’t or don’t want to meet up with you.

Location apps need an availability indicator similar to the green “online” dot used by many chat apps. You could toggle that on if you wanted to show you’re interested in some spontaneous friend time.

Facebook’s actually spent the last year trying to build this into Messenger in the form of “Your Emoji” status. It lets you pick an emoji like a martini, fork and knife, or barbell that’s temporarily overlaid on your profile pic thumbnail to let people know you’re down for drinking, getting dinner, or working out. The feature is yet to be widely tested, indicating that Facebook hasn’t quite cracked the nut of encouraging online meetups.

Ideally, Facebook would combine Nearby Friends and Your Emoji to help users share both approximately where they are and whether they want to hang out. The next step would be making it easy to watch a friend’s geo-tagged Facebook Story from wherever they are. And then, Facebook could further copy Snap Map by making public Stories and other location-based content accessible from the map so you could browse it for fun instead of the News Feed or Stories tray.

Facebook needs to rethink its entire product stack to embrace the high-definition cameras, big phone screens, and fast network connections that make it easier to convey information through imagery than text. Visual communication is the future and that goes far beyond Stories.

Facebook Messenger’s ‘Your Emoji’ status tells friends what’s up

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Twitter launches a ‘Data Saver’ mode that turns its main app into Twitter Lite

An updated version of the Twitter mobile app will allow users to gain more control over their data usage – similar to how the Twitter Lite app designed for emerging markets works. Now, instead of having to download a separate app in order to limit data consumption or manually adjust various settings, users will be able to turn on a new ‘Data Saver’ option available in Twitter’s Settings.

Until today, Twitter offered Data Saver in Twitter for Windows, Twitter Lite, and its mobile website. Some users may have also seen the Data Saver option on iOS or Android, as well as on Twitter’s desktop website, because of a test Twitter had underway.

That desktop web test had also included moving other elements and features around, like putting Trends underneath the “Who To Follow” suggestions, for example, or making “Night Mode” a more visible option.

But with the launch today, the Data Saver feature is broadly available to all iOS and Android users, a company spokesperson confirmed.

To take advantage of Data Saver, you’ll visit the Data Usage settings in the iOs or Android mobile app and toggle the option on or off. When enabled, images will load in lower quality and videos won’t autoplay. If you’re browsing Twitter and want to see an image appear in higher quality, you can tap on the three-top menu and pick “Load High Quality” to change the setting on that particular piece of content.

The updated version includes a few other tweaks as well, including a change to make it easier to manage who’s in your group chats, plus VoiceOver improvements in polls, and better labels for some types of Twitter ads, according to the app’s update text in the App Store.

The new Twitter app is live now, but the features themselves may still be rolling out at this time.

Twitter tells us its @TwitterSupport account will tweet the news later today as Data Saver rolls out to everyone.

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