Foxconn’s dubious Wisconsin factory — the subject of billions of dollars of tax subsidy scrutiny — will be used to produce ventilators to aid in treatment for COVID-19 around the US. The company, best known for assembling Apple’s iPhones at factories in China, has entered into a partnership with healthcare firm Medtronic for the project, which will see ventilators produced “as soon as possible,” according to a statement provided to Reuters.
The factory — dubbed the “eighth wonder of the world” by President Trump — was first announced back in 2017 and has been the focus of controversy ever since. While its arrival promised new job opportunities for the state, many homes would subsequently be bulldozed to make space for the plant. It was initially earmarked for use as an LCD factory, but plans have repeatedly changed and the ample job opportunities never materialized. For the few that did, pay and working conditions was were way below those originally touted by Foxconn. Meanwhile, the plant was in receipt of more than $4.5 billion in government incentives. The whole endeavour has certainly fallen short of its promises.
“These are difficult times for the music industry globally. Livelihoods are at risk, with multiple sources of income that our industry relies on vanishing overnight. Apple has a deep, decades-long history with music, and we are proud to be in close partnership with the best labels and artists in the world. We want to help.”
Some of Apple Music’s rivals also previously banded together to come to musicians’ and industry workers’ aid. Amazon Music, Facebook, SiriusXM, Pandora, Spotify, Tidal and YouTube Music pledged to contribute to MusiCare’s COVID-19 relief fund. Spotify made it easy to donate to artists, as well, and vowed to match up to $10 million in donations. Meanwhile, SoundCloud and Bandsintown are helping artists earn money from their online concerts streamed via Twitch.
WhatsApp imposes even stricter limits on message forwarding
It’s to slow the spread of misinformation.
If you receive a frequently forwarded message — one that’s been forwarded more than five times and identifiable with a double arrow icon — you’ll only be able to forward them on to one chat at a time. It’s a defense against misinformation: The company says it’s seen a “significant increase” in the number of forwarded messages on the platform, and while many of them are relatively innocent — memes and prayers, for example — this practice is contributing to the spread of misinformation.
It’s not the first time WhatsApp has imposed such measures. After both it and its parent company, Facebook, were accused of playing a pivotal role in the spread of misinformation during violence in India in 2018, WhatsApp reduced the number of times a message could be forwarded from 20 to five. This time it’s a global effort, however. Continue reading.
Netflix’s new parental controls include PIN-protected profiles
And you can turn off auto-play for kids’ profiles.
Engadget
Netflix has had separate user profiles, including ones that stick to kids’ content, for a while, but some new changes could make parents more comfortable. Adults can use a PIN to secure their own profiles so kids can’t open the app and watch whatever they want. Adults can also remove series or films by title, select between different age filters for a kid’s profile and see the history of what children have been watching. Continue reading.
Google releases Chrome 81 with ‘app badging’ for subtle notifications
The next version will be Chrome 83, update your notes accordingly.
Engadget
Keeping up to date with Google’s reworked schedule, the latest version of Chrome is going out to everyone. It has new tweaks for WebXR and some NFC support, plus widely available support for app badges. That lets web apps update their icons to let you know there’s something new, like a waiting email or a message in Slack, without popping up an intrusive notification. Continue reading.
The best Xbox games
Given the 2020 refresh.
Engadget
Today, we walk through the best games to get for your Xbox One — there’s still time before the next-gen consoles get here, you know. And if you want something that doesn’t center around guns or blades, we recommend the newest addition to the list: Ori and the Blind Forest. Continue reading.
The best board games with an app-based twist
Ten Engadget favorites that blend digital and analog play.
Engadget
Conversely, how about some games involving less screen time. The caveat, here, is that not all of these are lockdown appropriate, but if you’re living with family or several roommates, we have a few ideas to distract from Monopoly or another Netflix binge. Continue reading.
Of course, that introduces a new challenge: how do you sort the wheat from the chaff among these millions of bots? The answer: a verified bots and developers program. By completing a few security checks, developers will get a verified check mark for their bot, which not only unlocks development tools for future creations, but lets users know the bot is trustworthy — something users will appreciate in the wake of a recent wave of bot spamming. According to Discord, the initiative also means the platform can encourage users to adopt bots within Discord, rather than scouring the internet, which could mean there’s some kind of dedicated Discord Bot section in the works.
The system isn’t intended to be a nice-to-have addition for developers, though. If you want your bot to thrive you’ll have to apply for verification — it’ll be a requirement for bots in 100 or more servers. Until your bot is verified, you won’t be able to grow past 100 servers, and if your bot is already in more than 100 servers, it won’t be able to join any more. As Discord says, it’s a pretty big change, so it’s instituting a six month depreciation period. You’ve basically got until October 7th of this year to get verified if you meet the criteria — until then there will be no restrictions. But it’s worth getting a head start, and if your bot is in 75 or more servers, you can apply right now.
It was really only a matter of time before Discord turned its attention to bots — they are, after all, a major part of the Discord experience, not to mention a good way for developers to flex their coding muscles. No doubt this is just a first step, though — we can probably expect to see a lot more attention given to discords’ bots in the future.
Now, the rules are “based on a standard level of coverage,” Twitch wrote. You can’t broadcast nude or partially nude, and “must cover the area extending from your hips to the bottom of your pelvis and buttocks.” Those presenting as women must cover their nipples and can’t expose the underside of their breasts. However, “cleavage is unrestricted as long as these requirements are met.” Swimsuits, breastfeeding and body-painting are also allowed, provided that genitals and nipples (for women) aren’t visible.
The policy goes into effect immediately with no grace period for new streams. Also, Twitch won’t re-evaluate past suspensions for things that are now allowed (like cleavage), even though the older rules were unclear. In a FAQ explaining why, it said that “although your content may not violate the new policy, it violated the guidelines in place when the enforcement was issued.” At the same time, though, Twitch is also forcing creators to take down older content that now violates the new rules, with a May 1st deadline.
Last year Microsoft added a Spotify integration to its Xbox Game Bar on the PC, and now it will be able to offer far more third-party support. That’s because it has introduced a new Game Bar Widget Store, as well as an SDK for outside developers to plug their apps into the gaming experience on Windows.
As introduced during its April 2020 Inside Xbox presentation, some of the first ones up include integrations from Razer for its Cortex gaming enhancements and Gold wallet deals. Another new widget adds controls for XSplit’s Gamecaster streaming app, so that creators can flip between settings without having to alt-tab out and stop the action. One other widget that’s on the way but not available yet is for Intel’s Graphics Command Center, with access to display settings, capture features and more.
The stable version of Chrome 81 has arrived for Windows, Mac and Linux after a couple of weeks of delay brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. As ZDNet notes, Google had to move some of the features it was supposed to ship with to future versions, but it still comes with a few notable updates.
The updated Chrome enables a feature called “app icon badging,” which allows apps and websites to notify users of new activities without interrupting them. It’s much less intrusive than outright notifications and could be the better choice for, say, chat and email apps displaying the number of unread messages. Or social media apps displaying the number of times a user has been tagged in a post.
This week brings the first home release of a major movie at the same time that it premieres in theaters (or, would if they were open), with Trolls World Tour available via video on-demand services for $20. If that’s not your speed, then Cats is avail…
The tech giant has also built new gestures for web browsing, such as the ability to go back to the previous page by swiping from the left side of the screen. Chrome tabs will soon be easier to manage in tablet mode, as well. You’ll be able to open a new tab simply by tapping a big button, reorder tabs by dragging them around and close tabs by swiping up. Those Chrome features will initially be available on the Lenovo Chromebook Duet when it comes out in the next few months.
Finally, picture-in-picture now works for all Play Store apps on Chromebook. That means you can minimize, say, a video on YouTube and continue watching it while doing another thing on another open app or window.
Just as the Project xCloud beta is preparing to reach even more areas, it’s adding a few new games from EA. The list of available titles ready for streaming from Microsoft’s cloud is already longer than you might think, and during the April 2020 Inside Xbox presentation, Microsoft announced that Dragon Age: Inquisition, The Sims 4 and Unravel Two are all joining the preview.
Right now players can try out the games on compatible Android devices, and manage their Sims or plow through Bioware’s RPG just as though they were playing on a full-fledged console. There’s still no word yet on when it will be ready for testing on other platforms, but at least there should be plenty of games to try when it is.
This week brings the first home release of a major movie at the same time that it premieres in theaters (or, would if they were open), with Trolls World Tour available via video on-demand services for $20. If that’s not your speed, then Cats is avail…