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WHO debunks coronavirus misinformation on Facebook Messenger

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Facebook and the World Health Organization (WHO) are again teaming up to make it easier to find reliable information about the coronavirus. 

The organization launched a new chatbot for Messenger, which allows Facebook users to access news and updates about the pandemic, such as the latest official statistics and press releases from the organization. Perhaps most importantly, the bot will also debunk common hoaxes and misinformation, such as claims that taking hot baths or eating garlic can help prevent people from getting sick. 

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Arutria’s KeyStep Pro MIDI controller is out now for $399

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MIDI controllers — which let you trigger sounds from your computer or outboard gear — are usually standard fare: three or four octaves of keys, pitch and modulation wheels, maybe some drum pads and USB and 5-pin MIDI connectivity. Just a few hundred dollars should get beginners and hobbyists everything they need to perform and record music. Arturia’s KeyStep Pro, though, puts a lot of emphasis on the “Pro.” The controller eschews the typical drum pad section for a four-track polyphonic sequencer, and has all the connectivity you’d need, both for live performance and for building your studio’s command center. The KeyStep Pro is out today, and though Arturia charges $449 plus $70 for shipping, retailers like Musician’s Friend are selling it for $399 with free shipping.

Thanks to their connectivity and sequencing capabilities, Arturia’s more affordable KeyStep and its BeatStep Pro are popular choices, especially among those who take an old school, DAW-less approach to recording and performing. The BeatStep Pro in particular impressed gear-savvy musicians several years ago, and fans have been demanding a Pro version of the KeyStep ever since. While it’s fun to control each of your synths independently, it can be a hassle. Leveraging the KeyStep Pro’s multitude of MIDI and CV (control voltage) connections, you could potentially hook up the majority of your hardware with the KeyStep Pro, and only touch your synths when you need to make adjustments to oscillators, filters and the like.

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Traeger’s redesigned grill app offers cooking videos and customization

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There’s also a lot more customization inside the app with this latest version. Previously, you could favorite recipes to keep track of ones you like, but Traeger has gone much further. You can setup a profile according to your dietary preferences and skill level. The app will then suggest recipes based on that info so you always have some recommendations if you’re looking for culinary inspiration. You can also make and share notes on recipes so you’ll have info for your next cook on what you might like to do differently or what you liked about the dish. There’s the ability to follow specific categories (pork, beef, etc.) or chefs so you’re always aware of new additions that might appeal to you. Both the profiles and the recipe notes are available on Traeger’s website too, should you need to hunt through the archive on your computer.

In addition to the app update, Traeger is updating its 2019 Pro Series grills to offer a maximum temperature of 500 degrees. The company regularly releases new features and software tweaks via OTA updates, and this is one of the more notable ones. Before now, the Pro 575 and Pro 780 grills could go up to 450 degrees, so tweaking the software to give these units a higher range will enable something closer to a true high-temp sear when cooking steaks and other foods.

Traeger isn’t the only grill company that offers culinary guidance for its grills via an app. Weber has Weber Connect that works with its SmokeFire grills and its Smart Grilling Hub in a similar fashion. There’s step-by-step guidance and video clips to help you along the way. However, Weber’s take on recipes are more presets for specific cuts of meat and seafood rather than complete dishes. You aren’t offered any ingredients for rubs or sauces, but that does leave things open to you to use whatever you like.

The new Traeger Grills App is available now from the App Store for iOS and the Google Play Store for Android.

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MIT uses wireless signals and AI to monitor COVID-19 patients at home

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The CSAIL team has already put Emerald to use at an assisted living facility, where they used it to remotely monitor a COVID-19 patient. As the patient recovered, the system detected that her breathing rate decreased from 23 to 18 breaths per minute, her sleep improved and she was walking more quickly around her apartment.

“Given how Emerald can generate important health data without any patient contact, it could minimize the risk that doctors and nurses will catch the disease from their patients,” says Dr. Ipsit Vahia, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. That could be especially helpful in places like skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, where so many patients are at a high risk for contracting COVID-19.

As the number of COVID-19 cases spike, Emerald could allow less severe patients to stay at home but remain under the supervision of healthcare providers. In the future, Emerald could be used to monitor other conditions, like anxiety, insomnia and sleep apnea. And along with telehealth, it could spur the shift toward tech-driven remote care.



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YouTube Music adds an Explore tab to help you find new music

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Google has organized this part of the tab by moods and genres, so you’ll see headings like “chill,” “commute” and “focus.” In a lot of ways, the interface here is reminiscent of Spotify’s recent Home tab redesign in its use of color coding and square icons.  

In March, Google updated YouTube’s mobile app to add an Explore tab to it as well. In the past, the company’s different apps haven’t always been consistent with one another. So it’s nice to see at least the YouTube apps align.

In recent months, Google has also accelerated the pace at which it’s added new functionality to YouTube Music, building out features that were previously missing. The Hotlist was one of the last holdovers from the app’s less functional days. Moving forward, Google says it’ll introduce additional discoverability features and enhancements to the tab. The company is rolling out the new section to users gradually, so as usual, it may take a couple of days before you can check out the Explore tab for yourself.  

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‘Dark Pictures: Little Hope’ trailer shows horror from the age of witch hunts

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It’s now clearer just how Supermassive will follow up Man of Medan and continue the Dark Pictures Anthology. The studio has released a trailer for The Dark Pictures: Little Hope that shows just what the decision-driven horror title will entail. You’re visiting the town of Little Hope, a town gripped by witch hunts in 1692. However, it’s increasingly clear that the witches are the least of your concerns. It’s possible that the witch hunters left their own sinister legacies, or that something altogether different is at work.

The clip doesn’t provide much insight into gameplay for the title, which arrives on PC, PS4 and Xbox One sometime tis summer. However, you can safely presume that many of the mechanics you saw in Man of Medan (and Until Dawn, for that matter) will carry over. That means life-and-death choices that will ripple throughout the game, a focus on conversations and, of course, lots of scares and gruesome moments. We weren’t keen on Man of Medan’s tank-like controls and pacing issues, but we wouldn’t rule out a more refined experience with Little Hope.

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Apple leverages its Map data to help public health officials

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Several technology companies have stepped up to aid in COVID-19 efforts. Apple, for example, has donated over 20 million masks, designed and produced face shields and launched a collaboration with Google to help track the spread of the virus. Today, the company unveiled a new web-based tool that lets users see how the coronavirus pandemic has affected walking, driving and public transportation trends in major cities. The company uses data from its Maps app, and shows how mobility has waxed and waned since mid-January. Apple hopes that this data will provide the insights needed to help form public policy decisions. Presumably, this means that if a local government observed that people aren’t staying home — and are therefore spreading the virus — officials could take more rigorous steps to convince people to shelter in place.

Apple Mobility Trends

Apple

The website features data from major cities and 64 countries or regions. Curious users can enter their city and see a visual representation of how travel trends have changed, while researchers can export the raw data as a .csv file. Apple says that the data comes from the number of requests for directions made in the Maps app and that the data is anonymous, insofar as it is not associated with any Apple IDs.

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French court orders Amazon to continue only fulfilling essential orders

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A court in France has ruled that Amazon should only fulfill orders for essential products, like food and hygiene and medical products, TechCrunch reports. The court gave Amazon 24 hours to comply, and the company could face a penalty of one million euros for every day it fails to do so. To start, the ruling is valid for one month.

Amazon had already stopped taking orders for some non-essential items in France and Italy, and it was prioritizing more critical deliveries — things like groceries, health products, household items, personal care, industrial goods, scientific products and pet supplies. Now, Amazon has no choice but to restrict deliveries even further in France.

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Amazon fires two employees over criticism of labor practices

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“We support every employee’s right to criticize their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against any and all internal policies. We terminated these employees for repeatedly violating internal policies,” the spokesperson told the Washington Post.

Citing the same policy, Amazon had threatened to fire Cunningham and Costa in the past as well. The two say they were fired in retaliation for their climate and labor advocacy. Both women are members of an employee advocacy group called Amazon Employees for Climate Justice. At the start of the year, they criticized the retailer for its climate policies in a video former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders shared on his Twitter account. Representing approximately 8,700 other employees, Cunningham was also the person who called on Amazon to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels during the company’s annual board of directors meeting last year.

“Because of how effective we’ve been in getting Amazon to take leadership in the climate crisis, they’ve wanted me gone for a while,” Cunningham told the Washington Post. “They were targeting the most visible leaders in an attempt to silence everyone,” Costa added. 

More recently, both Cunningham and Costa expressed solidarity with Amazon’s warehouse workers, publically denouncing the sanitary conditions at the company’s fulfillment centers during the coronavirus pandemic. Before their firing, they said they would match donations up to $500 to support those individuals “while they struggle to get consistent, sufficient protections and procedures from our employer.” 

Amazon’s firing of Cunningham and Costa follows termination of warehouse worker Chris Smalls last month. Smalls, one of the organizers of the recent Staten Island fulfillment center coronavirus protest, was fired after he spoke to several media outlets about working conditions at Amazon’s warehouses. For its part, the company said it had fired Smalls for disregarding a quarantine order from his manager. In one of its recent daily updates, Amazon announced it had started providing masks to its warehouse employees. It also said it had begun conducting temperature checks. 



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Facebook releases an experimental messaging app for Apple Watch

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Kit is the first Apple Watch app from NPE Team, Facebook’s research and development group. The team was responsible for meme-making app Whale, a chat service called Bump and social music listening tool Aux. More recently, it released Tuned, an app for couples to share things in private with each other. 

The availability of NPE Team apps varies on a case-by-case basis. However, Facebook isn’t shy about shutting down experimental apps that don’t take off, so if you’re interested in trying out Kit, it might be best to check it out swiftly if it’s on your local version of the App Store.

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