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YouTube’s website is now more tablet-friendly

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Now that more tablets can view desktop-quality websites, YouTube has tweaked its web version to match. The streaming site has updated its web interface to better support large touchscreen devices, such as iPads, Android tablets and Chrome OS machines. New gestures let you quickly swipe into full-screen mode or the mini player, while improved scrolling and larger icon sizes should feel more intuitive. Even the usual three-dot menu (under thumbnails) is now persistent instead of requiring a mouse hover.

Regardless of what you’re using, you should also see a better-sorted viewing history and sort playlists by moving videos to the very top or bottom. Android Police understands that the changes were first visible in March, but are now more widely available.

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Scientists can 3D print insect-like robots in minutes

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It might soon be relatively trivial to make soft robots — at least, if you have a 3D printer handy. UC San Diego researchers have devised a way to 3D-print insect-like flexible robots cheaply, quickly and without using exotic equipment. The trick was to print “flexoskeletons,” or rigid materials 3D-printed on to flexible and thin polycarbonate sheets. Much like insects, there are features that increase rigidity only in specific areas — a contrast with conventional soft robots that often have soft features tacked on to solid bodies.

Each flexoskeleton component takes about 10 minutes to print, and a completely assembled bot should be ready in less than two hours. An individual part costs less than $1 — the processing power, sensors and battery are likely to be the most expensive parts.

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‘Call of Duty: Warzone’ brings back three-player squads after two days

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The introduction of four-player squads to Call of Duty: Warzone doesn’t appear to have gone as smoothly as hoped. Infinity Ward has rolled out a playlist update for the battle royale brawler that brings back three-player teams alongside the four-player and solo options. The developer didn’t say what prompted the shift, but this won’t apply to the alternative Plunder mode.

As Rock Paper Shotgun explained, larger teams have a number of consequences for gameplay. It can take longer to get a squad together (especially if you want friends), and there will be fewer teams competing in any given match. Team cohesion might be more difficult, too. Trios might just represent the sweet spot for many players, and it won’t be surprising if Infinity Ward recognized that quickly.



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Anti-5G cell tower attacks spread to the Netherlands

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Cell tower attacks aren’t just a UK phenomenon. De Telegraaf reports (via Reuters) that attackers committed arson or sabotage against several cell towers in the Netherlands, four of them just in the past week. The incidents were likely fuelled by anti-5G panic, with at least one perpetrator spraying a slogan opposing the new wireless tech. The full scale isn’t clear, although the country’s National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) said there had been “various incidents.”

There had been anti-5G protests in the Netherlands since plans to deploy the format had been announced in 2019, but there had “never before” been violent acts, according to NCTV. Officials at the coordinator repeated warnings that this could disrupt communications, including for emergency services, and that they were in “close contact” with police and providers.

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Follow Apollo 13 in real-time on its 50th anniversary

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Now’s your chance to relive another important part of space history. Apollo in Real Time is streaming audio and video from Apollo 13 on the 50th anniversary of the “successful failure’s” launch on April 11th, 1970. The mission dialogue will let you experience the incident (which happened on April 13th) and the mix of uncertainty and hope that gripped everyone until the crew made it back to Earth. If you’d rather not schedule your listening around historical timeilnes, you can always listen on your own terms.

The failure was ultimately traced to a short-circuit that ignited one of the Service Module’s oxygen tanks, and led to important design changes that ensured future Apollo missions went smoothly. And of course, it’s the textbook example of ingenuity in space — the crew and mission control avoided what could easily have been a tragedy. The choice of a path around the Moon, the improvised rig for removing CO2 and reentry challenges (such as figuring out how to separate the Command and Lunar Modules) required on-the-spot coordination. It was also an exceptional test of endurance for the astronauts, who had to endure strict rationing, the cold and other hardships to survive a days-long return home.

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NASA’s Mars helicopter is ready for the red planet

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NASA is in the final stages of preparing the Perseverance rover for its trip to the red planet, which could begin anytime between July 17th and August 5th if everything goes as planned. Over the past week, the team assembled the machine, tested what needed to be tested and filled its tanks with fuel. They also attached the Mars Helicopter and its delivery system onto the rover’s belly, making sure it’s ready to fly in Martian skies and pave the way for future space unmanned aerial vehicles.

Last year, the agency proved that its space chopper can fly in Martian conditions when it tested the 4-pound vehicle in JPL’s Space Simulator. The team replicated the Martian atmosphere and gravity inside the vacuum cylinder, where the helicopter was able to hover around 2 inches above the ground. Next time the helicopter flies, it’ll be on Mars.

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Apple Maps will show COVID-19 testing locations

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It should soon be easier to find COVID-19 testing locations if you live in Apple’s ecosystem. As 9to5Mac discovered, Apple has opened a portal for healthcare providers to add their COVID-19 test facilities to Maps. The listings will tell you what you need to know if you go, including requirements for appointments or referrals, the kind of testing (hospital or lab, for example) and facility types like drive-thrus or buildings. You might not have to worry about being turned back if you have the symptoms.

As with Apple’s contact tracing feature, it’ll take a while for this to manifest in practice. It’ll depend on timely participation from facilities. When enough testing facilities are available, though, Maps could prove vital for people who don’t have (or don’t want to use) third-party apps to know where they should go.

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PC shipments see their largest drop in four years due to COVID-19

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Many suspected PC shipments would take a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, but now it’s clearer as to what the damage was. Canalys estimates that computer shipments fell a steep 8 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2020 as Chinese factories stayed shut for a while after the Lunar New Year. Intel chip shortages from a rough transition to 10-nanometer manufacturing didn’t help, either. The decline was the steepest since the start of 2016, when Canalys recorded a 12 percent plunge.

Apple was the hardest hit among the top five, with shipments tumbling 21 percent compared to the start of 2019. However, everyone but Dell (which saw a 1.1 percent growth) was suffering, with HP and Acer seeing drop over 10 percent. Even frontrunner Lenovo saw shipments drop 4.4 percent.

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Recommended Reading: Zoom's security struggles

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'Every day is a crisis': Zoom boosts its security as scrutiny growsCyrus Farivar and Jo Ling Kent, NBC NewsAs many of us are working and attending school from home, Zoom has become a popular vehicle for video meetings and classroom sessions. During t…

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Maybe don’t start playing ‘The Last of Us’ during a pandemic

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I also like how the combat encourages you to be thoughtful — but not without a sense that you need to micromanage your inventory. And it’s not a horror game so much as one where there’s a long-standing undercurrent of tension. You sit forward in your chair, always primed for something to happen when you’re navigating the desolate, empty world of the game. 

Which is probably why I’ve had to put it back on the shelf, for now. 

You see, I live on a major road and there’s always stuff going on — in the day, you have people going to work, the bar down the street getting deliveries. The trucks delivering food to the supermarkets, the vans bringing parcels to the logistics centers nearby. At night, the bar has live music, and in seven years of living here, you’re always reminded how close you are to other people. 

But, after the UK went into lockdown, all of that stopped, and the background noise of the world fell to silence. The traffic noise, the drunken revelers, the music, the chatter, all of it gone, and now looking out the window fills me with the same tension, and dread. It’s a real, sort of paranoia-inducing silence that can quickly stop being fun and start keeping you awake at night.

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