Blog

What we’re watching: ‘Back to Life’

[ad_1]

Back to Life

Daniel Cooper

Daniel Cooper
Senior Editor

I’m sure you can’t have escaped the enormous hype train around Fleabag, the BBC sitcom currently airing on Amazon Prime. Here in the UK, Fleabag aired a month back, and we’ve all moved on to viewing the show that inherited its timeslot: Back To Life.

Since both shows are written by (and starring) women, there’s plenty of lazy comparisons that people have made. But Back To Life is its own entity, a beautifully-shot black comedy about life in a small town on the Kent coast.

Actually, to call it a black comedy does it a disservice: it is pitch, tar, vantablack in its darkness, telling the story in the aftermath of a murder. Daisy Haggard (who created the show and wrote it with Laura Solon) stars as Miri Matteson, who killed her friend as a teenager.

After serving her 18-year (“life”) sentence in jail, she returns to her hometown to try and rebuild a life for herself. It’s not an excuse to trot out some well-worn fish-out-of-water tropes, either, but a tale of healing from trauma, not just for the star, but the community at large.

Miri’s journey back to life is hindered by her emotionally-unavailable parents, who are dealing with their own problems. The townfolk who are mistrustful of her, and a true crime podcaster who is trying to use Miri as fodder for his own version of Serial / Making of a Murderer.

Haggard, who US audiences are likely to remember as Myra from Showtime’s Episodes, is an extraordinary talent. And the cast is filled with ringers, including stars Geraldine James and Adeel Akhtar.

The breakout character, however, is Miri’s environmentalist father Oscar, played by Richard Durden. He gets some of the biggest laughs (and the one moment of triumph) in the series, and I hope this gets a second series just for more of him.

Back To Life is a slow show, and one that manages to feel far longer than its slender, 23-minute runtime. But you’ll want to sip each episode slowly, rather than blowing the lot in three hours, and enjoying the music from brilliant electronica duo Solomon Grey.

The one comparison I keep coming back to is Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, a show that was also about a young woman recovering from trauma. In Kimmy’s case, the show was painted in big, bright, primary colors, while Back To Life is painted in piss and vinegar.

And I’m delighted that it’s been picked up to air in the US soon. Because it deserves the same sort of love that Fleabag received.

In the US, Back to Life will be available via Showtime, starting on October 6th.

“IRL” is a recurring column in which the Engadget staff run down what they’re buying, using, playing and streaming.

[ad_2]

Source link

George Clooney will direct and star in a post-apocalyptic Netflix movie

[ad_1]

Mark L. Smith (The Revenant, Overlord) wrote the screenplay. You probably shouldn’t expect to see the flick until later next year at the earliest, as filming will get underway in October. It won’t be Clooney’s first streaming project either, as he was heavily involved in Hulu’s Catch 22 miniseries.

[ad_2]

Source link

Canonical backtracks on pulling 32-bit support from Ubuntu Linux

[ad_1]

Rather than pull support altogether, Canonical will enable support for the applications where there’s a specific need. It will work with WINE, Ubuntu Studio and gaming communities to address the ultimate end of life of 32-bit libraries. But gamers should still be able to run old applications on newer versions of Ubuntu.

In a blog post, Canonical said it’s been discussing whether or not to support 32-bit x86 internally since 2014. “None of those discussions raised the passions we’ve seen here,” the company wrote, so it assumed it had consensus to drop support in newer versions. Apparently Ubuntu gamers felt otherwise. “Community discussions can sometimes take unexpected turns, and this is one of those,” Canonical wrote.

Canonical does warn that running software that gets little testing is inherently risky, and since there are fewer eyes on 32-bit x86 packages, there’s an increased chance that they’ll develop bugs. While it’s a bit of a play-at-your-own risk scenario, at least Linux users with extensive Ubuntu collections won’t lose their Steam game libraries.

[ad_2]

Source link

Carnegie Mellon will help Ford advance its self-driving vehicle tech

[ad_1]

Argo AI has pledged $15 million over five years, and the funding will support five faculty, along with a group of doctoral candidates. The center will work to advance autonomous vehicle tech as a whole, but it will also help Argo AI develop its next-generation technology and push into more cities. According to Argo, neither industry nor academia alone can solve the challenges of developing and deploying self-driving cars and the infrastructure needed to support them; together, though, Argo and CMU might stand a chance. Argo isn’t the first autonomous vehicle company to partner with CMU. A few years ago, Uber was charged with poaching the university’s robotics lab of top staff. It’s likely this time around CMU will be looking for a more collaborative endeavor.

[ad_2]

Source link

Sidewalk Labs finally publishes its smart city master plan

[ad_1]

Quayside and Villiers West

First and foremost, a bit of geographical background. The company is currently proposing two smart neighborhoods — Quayside and Villiers West — that will exist inside a broader area called the Innovative Development and Economic Acceleration (IDEA) district. Quayside would be the first part of the project, and house 4,200 residents. The company is then proposing a partial redevelopment of Villiers Island, called Villiers West, that would house a 1.5 million square foot innovation campus. Google would build a new headquarters on this land and an applied research institute for urban innovation, “anchored by local institutions.” Villiers West would house 2,700 residents and offer 7,400 jobs.

Sidewalk Labs

Construction

As expected, Sidewalk Labs wants to use timber to construct most of the buildings inside the Eastern Waterfront. The materials would be sourced from a new factory in Ontario that would, according to the company, create roughly 2,500 manufacturing jobs. The final structures would offer adaptable “Loft” spaces with floor plates that can serve both residential and commercial tenants. They would have also have “flexible wall panels” to accelerate renovations and reduce vacancies. Crucially, the company is promising “an ambitious below-market housing program” that would include 20 percent affordable housing and 20 percent middle-income housing units.

Energy

Every building inside Quayside will have a Toronto Green Standard Tier 3 rating for energy efficiency and a Tier 4 rating for greenhouse gas intensity. The district would also leverage a thermal grid that, in part, relies on the natural temperature of the earth to both heat and cool homes. In addition, Quayside would leverage solar energy, some kind of battery storage solutions, and software called Schedulers to optimize energy usage for residents, businesses and building operators. Finally, the proposed smart neighborhoods would have a “smart disposal chain” that includes an underground tube system for household and business waste.

Sidewalk Labs

Data

Sidewalk Labs is pushing ahead with the independent data trust that it first announced last October. The proposed watchdog would oversee, analyze and ultimately approve any company that wants to collect or use urban data — including Sidewalk Labs. The Alphabet-owned company has made three overarching commitments: No selling personal information, no using personal information for advertising, and no disclosing personal information to third parties without explicit consent. The trust, though, could hold other companies to higher or lower standards — for now, it’s still a theoretical concept. The ambiguity though, won’t assure residents who are worried the project will become a privacy nightmare.

Public space

Sidewalk Labs is pitching three major public spaces for Quayside, called Parliament Plaza, Parliament Slip and Silo Field. They would be supported by building “Raincoats” and free-standing “Fannsheels” to provide shelter during harsh weather. The company will also introduce a “stoa” concept that means ground-floor spaces — the type usually reserved for retail — can accommodate shops, restaurants, cafes and community-focused events. In addition, Sidewalk Labs will push ahead with its modular pavement system that could make it easier to repurpose and reprioritize parts of the city — think temporary street festivals, rush-hour cycle lanes or EV drop-off points — for public use.

Funding

Everyone wants to know how Sidewalk Labs will make money from the project. In the MIDP, the company outlined its “specific commitments” and associated “business models.” The commitments include a $900 million equity investment that will form part of a $3.9 billion budget for both Quayside and Villiers West. It’s also proposing $400 million in optional financing to accelerate the development of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) that is needed to connect the area to the rest of Quayside, as well as “municipal and advanced infrastructure systems” in the area.

On the flipside, Sidewalk wants “standard real-estate economics” for property sold and rented across both Quayside and Villiers West. It would also charge for “advisory services,” and “standalone economics” for its investment in the proposed timber factory ($80 million) and a new venture fund ($10 million), based in Villiers West, with a mission to help Canadian startups. Sidewalk Labs would also charge for select technologies that cannot be provided by external partners and “market return” for the optional LRT financing, should Toronto decide to go with it. Finally, Sidewalk is suggesting performance payments, at the end of the project, based on the following:

“Success in accelerating development, achieving priority outcomes, and generating new economic activity and government revenues.”

Timeline

Sidewalk admits that its involvement beyond Quayside — including Villiers West, which would house its new Google office — will need to be “earned, not guaranteed.” It has therefore proposed a number of steps that will be gated — until it completes the first, it cannot start the second, and so forth. The steps include submitting a Quayside development plan before 2021; beginning construction on Quayside before 2022; submitting a Villiers West Development Plan before 2023; beginning construction on Villierst West before 2024; proposing innovation guidelines for the broader IDEA district by 2025; and requesting performance payments by 2028.

“To successfully achieve each stage gate, Sidewalk Labs would prove that its progress was consistent with Waterfront Toronto’s priority objectives and demonstrate the effectiveness of its overall approach,” the company says in the MIDP.

The MIDP has been released in four parts. We’ve embedded each volume below.

Volume 0

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

[ad_2]

Source link

It’s all about the apps

[ad_1]

A word of caution

Since this is software that is still incomplete (and kind of buggy), these are just my initial thoughts on an OS that’s sure to see some refinement between now and its final release in the fall. If you’re thinking of upgrading yourself, you’ll need one of the following: a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro from mid-2012 or later; an iMac or Mac mini from late 2012 on; a MacBook from 2015 or later; an iMac Pro from 2017 and on; or a Mac Pro as old as the late 2013 model. Basically, any recent Mac will do.

If you take the plunge, remember to back up your files first. There’s always inherent risk in downloading beta software on your main machine. In this case, though, I’d be especially careful: Though the current release has been stable enough for me to carry on through a normal workday, it’s also buggier than some other Apple betas I can remember testing. So far, the fun times have included the Photos app crashing every time I try to exit full screen (it now only loads in full screen) and the Notes app deciding my lists would be better in mixed black and yellow font, with random words underlined, and links to Google docs mixed up with GDocs links from other notes. Everything is fine!

Goodbye, iTunes

One of the most memorable moments in Apple’s WWDC 2019 keynote was when software chief Craig Federighi playfully poked fun at how bloated iTunes is. “One thing we hear over and over,” he asked. “Can iTunes do even more?” Cut to a render of iTunes with a calendar, mail app, web browser inside. It’s true, what was once a revolutionary way to organize and consume music has become a test of patience. Apple clearly agrees. iTunes for the Mac is now a thing of the past, though it lives on in Windows. In its place are dedicated apps for music, podcasts and TV. And, as you might expect, they each take design cues from their iOS counterparts.

Music

Music app in macOS Catalina

One of the best things about the new Music app — and this drew tons of cheers at WWDC — is the fact that when you plug in your iPhone, you won’t immediately auto-launch iTunes. Now, if you want to sync your phone, you can do it from the left pane of the Finder. Isn’t that more civilized?

The app itself has gotten a facelift, but still shares DNA with the last version of iTunes. Navigation largely happens from the left pane, with Apple Music getting top billing. On tap are For You, Browse and Radio tabs, with options just below for artists, albums and songs you have stored locally. (Yes, you can still rip CDs.) And, of course, there’s a tab for the iTunes Store, and another for Genius playlists, which have lived on. You can also click through by device to see what you’ve stored where. Like I said, just because the app has been streamlined, that doesn’t mean it’s fundamentally different from the thing it’s replacing.

TV
macOS Catalina TV app

The TV app looks a lot like what you’ll find on Apple TV, which makes sense. There are sections for Watch Now, Up Next and Apple TV Channels, which lets you watch content from heavy hitters like HBO, Showtime and Starz. There are also dedicated movies and TV tabs, along with an editorially curated kids section. If you’ve ever download movies or TV episodes from iTunes, you’ll see that too in the Library section. And, as you might expect, if you pause a movie or show on one device, you can pick it up on another where you left off. That makes sense given Apple’s push to bring “continuity” to as many of its apps as possible. And, you know, it’s a feature we’ve already come to expect on rival services like Netflix

Podcasts

Podcast app macOS Catalina

Podcasts has long had its own app on iOS, so it only makes sense that it broke free on the Mac as well. You can see your “Up Next” queue, which matched the playlist I had already created from the Podcasts app on my iPhone. Unfortunately, an episode of “The Daily” that I was halfway through when I arrived at the office showed as completely unplayed on my Mac. You can also see all of the shows you subscribe to, with a separate breakout for those that have recently been updated. Additionally, there are tabs in the left-hand pane for episodes and downloaded items as well.

And, of course, you can browse the podcast library by category or the curated “New & Noteworthy” section or take a look at the trending charts to see which shows and episodes are popular. I’m particularly interested in the search feature, which lets you search by name or topic. When I hear an interview with someone I find compelling, I tend to go on a kick and find other podcasts where they were guests. So, this feature will come in handy.

All the other apps

Photos

Photos app in macOS Catalina

Whereas previous macOS releases have endeavored to make Photos smarter, this go-round seems to be mostly about presenting images in a more pleasing way. There are now Days, Months and Years tabs, with large previews and auto-playing videos and Live Photos. Meanwhile, a new “Best shots” feature uses machine learning to pick the best from a series of possibly repetitive photos and hide the rest. Don’t worry, though, Apple isn’t deleting those duplicates; you can always click the “All Photos” tab to see everything.

There’s also some interesting personalization at work under the hood. Say you sort by years: If you happen to be in the Years view on your kid’s birthday, the cover photo for each year might well be birthday photos from years gone by. But those cover shots could update dynamically tomorrow as the context changes.

The last update here is that you can now view and edit Memory Movies on your Mac, with any changes you make on the desktop saving to your other devices.

Notes

Notes app in macOS Catalina

Over in the notes app, there’s now a gallery view in addition to the standard list layout. Each note inside a folder will appear as a thumbnail. Folders are also now shareable, and if you dig around inside the Format menu you’ll see an option to check all items, uncheck all, delete checked or move checked to the bottom of the list. In fact, when you check an item in the new Notes, you’ll see a prompt asking if you want to move checked items to the bottom going forward. (I said yes, because I am persnickety about these things.) The unchecking could come in handy for lists you’re likely to repeat — say, grocery store staples like coffee, milk and eggs.

Notes app in macOS Catalina

Lastly, search has gotten smarter, with object recognition and the ability to search text in things like receipts. When I searched “meal” for example, I got notes containing photos of food, as well as a note where I had bullet points about our parent company’s new meals-expensing policy.

Reminders

Reminders in macOS CatalinaReminders has also been redesigned across macOS, iOS and watchOS, making it easier to add dates, locations and various flags. So when I set up a reminder to buy groceries at Whole Foods on the way home from work, at 7pm, I saw a map of the Whole Foods in Gowanus Brooklyn after I clicked through on that entry. There’s also some deeper Messages integration here. If tag a person in a reminder, when you’re chatting with them you see a prompt to bring up whatever that item is.

Safari

Safari in macOS Catalina

Though Safari has, in the past, featured some of macOS’ most significant upgrades, this time the list is pretty short. The start page has been refreshed, offering a mix of favorite sites, frequently visited pages and Siri suggestions. The browser also now warns you when you’re about to create a weak password. Meanwhile, a “switch to open tab” feature knows if you’re typing in a URL you already have open in another tab. Lastly, Apple streamlined Picture in Picture so that launching a new video window is a little faster and easier than it used to be.

Mail
Some of the new features in Mail feel a bit like Apple playing catch-up. You can now mute a thread or block a sender, as well as unsubscribe from lists. None of this is novel, but they’re welcome improvements nonetheless for those who use Apple’s desktop mail client. Lastly, the “classic” layout looks a little different, with two columns, one of which shows a message preview.

Find My

Find My in macOS Catalina

In Catalina, Find My iPhone and Find My Friends have been combined into one app, simply called Find My. This also marks the first time these apps are available natively on the Mac. Perhaps more significant, you can use the app to find offline devices. In real life (read: when I’m not reviewing gadgets) I don’t use Find My Friends, but Find My iPhone has saved me at least once. This new app would have come in handy the time I dropped my phone on the curb as I was stepping out of a cab in front of a hotel. This story has a happy ending — someone found the phone and turned it into the front desk — but if I had this app on my MacBook, I would have immediately seen it on a map, at the hotel’s entrance.

Because these maps were mainly designed with outdoor spaces in mind, though, they’ll be the most helpful if your phone really is lost or stolen. If you simply misplaced it in another room of your apartment, it probably won’t help.

The iPad as a computer

iPad apps for Mac
Now that Apple has opened up the API needed for developers to easily port their iOS apps over to the Mac, you’re going to see more mobile-first apps make their way over to the desktop. By mobile-first, to be fair, Apple really means iPad apps. I’m told these apps won’t arrive until the final version of these operating systems come out, sometime this fall. That said, Apple is quick to name some early apps for the Mac that were born from existing iPad apps. Think: Twitter, the game Asphalt 9, JIRA, DC Universe, TripIt, Fender Play, Post-It, Rosetta Stone, American Airlines, Morpholio, Crew, and Proloquo2Go.

Sidecar

Sidecar in macOS Catalina

As mentioned, Sidecar is a feature that allows you to use an iPad as a secondary display. This works wired or wirelessly, with options to either extend or mirror your desktop. At first this might seem like a niche feature, and it is, but I can think of a few scenarios where it could be useful. For starters, what if you want a second screen but don’t want to buy a monitor or don’t have much room for one. Personally, I was testing this setup with a 27-inch iMac as my primary machine, so I didn’t really need a second screen. But what if I had a 13-inch MacBook Air or Pro?

If I wanted I could use that iPad mainly to give Messages or Slack its own screen, which would be reasonable enough. But things get interesting when you make use of the Apple Pencil, which of course wasn’t designed to be used with Mac apps. For starters, if you take a screenshot you can select “share to iPad” from the Markup menu on the Mac, and then it’ll appear on the iPad, in a touch-friendly interface, complete with onscreen paintbrush and pen options. As you mark up the screenshot on the iPad, you’ll see it update in real time on the Mac, where you left it. Hit save and the updated version will be available on both devices.

Though I’m not sure how many people feel the need to mark up a screenshot. A more likely use case might be creative apps that work with the Apple Pencil. Any app with stylus support will work. For the purposes of my testing, I tried Affinity Photo. I launched the program on my Mac and was then able to drag that window off-screen to make it appear on my iPad Pro.

I could have gotten to work immediately, but instead I hit the green stoplight on the iPad Pro app to bring it full screen, at which point the interface transformed into something more tablet friendly. From the iPad, I drew an abstract thing using the Pencil. Now that I’ve saved the file and dragged the application window back over to my macOS desktop, I can continue making finer edits from there. You know, if I were artistic.

Likewise, you can begin a sketch on the iPad and export it the other way. From a document or Note on the Mac, you can select “add sketch” from the “Import from iPhone or iPad” menu, at which point a sketch interface will open on the iPad.

Throughout, you’ll notice a sidebar on the iPad when Sidecar is enabled, giving you access to the Command, Option, Control and Shift keys, along with an undo button. There are also icons for hiding and showing the menu bar, Dock and keyboard. Additionally, Sidecar on the iPad supports the sort of Touch Bar commands that you’d normally find on the secondary display on newer MacBook Pros. Here, they show up at the bottom of the iPad display, though you can hide them too if they ever get in the way.

Screen Time

Screen Time in macOS Catalina

Another no-brainer move from iOS to the Mac: Apple’s Screen Time controls. It would be inaccurate to describe these purely as parental controls, because a grown-up could use it to gauge which apps and notifications are sucking up the most time. That said, most of the options here — content restrictions, enforced media ratings, app time limits — seem designed for parents. If you wanted, you could block certain apps altogether; prevent a child from installing or deleting apps or making in-app purchases; or select age ratings for apps, movies and TVs, with separate options to exclude books, music, podcasts, Apple News stories and websites with explicit content.

You can also block web searches from Siri and prevent your kid from joining multiplayer games in Game Center or adding friends there. Lastly, on a systems level, you can prevent changes to the passcode, user account, Do Not Disturb While Driving settings, TV provider or even the volume level. Regardless of your parenting style, it’s clear that the options are granular for those who want that degree of control.

Accessibility

Voice Control

Apple only presented one accessibility feature in its two-plus-hour WWDC keynote this year, but it’s one that could make a big difference. Voice Control is exactly what it sounds like: a way to control both macOS and iOS with one’s voice, including launching and navigating apps, dictating messages, inserting emoji and laying out documents.

To try and make this experience minimally tedious, Apple added a number of conveniences and shortcuts. Some of these rely heavily on contextual speech: the ability to say “delete that” or “capitalize that” and have the machine know you weren’t dictating those words. There’s also a so-called Numbers option so that, if you find yourself in an app with dense menus, you can assign each option a number and say the number of what you want.

Additionally, you’ll find word and emoji suggestions, which should hopefully save users some time. Similarly, you can add custom words as well as record commands for things you do on your iOS device, like sending a message with fireworks. Other tricks include spoken gestures (e.g., “tap,” “swipe,” “pinch,” “zoom”) and a grid option that allows you to zoom in on the part of the screen you want.

For those worried about an always-listening Mac or iOS device, Apple is quick to note that all of the processing happens on the device itself. You also have the option of either a dictation mode or a more limited command mode, meant purely for using voice commands. On iPhones and iPads with a TrueDepth camera, there’s also an Attention Awareness mode that shuts off Voice Control when you’re looking away from the device and talking to a friend, for example. You wouldn’t want the machine to pick up that conversation and confuse it for dictation or a command.

Improvements for the blind and hearing-impaired
What you might not have known is that although Apple focused on Voice Control at WWDC, macOS brings several improvements for blind and hearing-impaired users as well. Users with visual impairments can use Siri for Voice Over. Apple also simplified the way navigation works using the Tab key and made it so that if you make a customized recording for how a certain form of punctuation should be spoken, that’ll be stored to iCloud and synced across all your macOS and iOS devices. Lastly, developers using Xcode will find Voice Over can now read warnings, line numbers and break points.

Color filters in macOS Catalina

As for Zoom, a feature called Hover Text gives you a high-resolution zoom-in on text, displayed in its own window. To make that show up, just press the Command key while hovering over text with your cursor. You can also click buttons and interact with text from inside that dedicated window. Meanwhile, an option called Zoom Display lets you stay zoomed in on a secondary monitor, even if you choose to view text from the default distance on your primary machine.

Everything else

There’s a lot of miscellany in this release that I haven’t mentioned yet, either because these things are really minor or difficult to actually test. Here are some of the more interesting things to look out for:

  • The ability to share folders in iCloud Drive.
  • Native integration in Finder for third-party cloud services like Dropbox, Box and OneDrive.
  • You can now approve many security prompts from your Apple Watch.
  • Gatekeeper checks apps for known security issues before you run them for the first time and periodically after that.
  • Macs with Apple’s T2 security chip now have an Activation Lock similar to what already exists on iOS devices, wherein if the device is lost or stolen the rightful owner is the only one who can erase and reactivate it.
  • macOS Catalina will offer a security prompt before allowing an app to access data in the desktop, Documents, Downloads, iCloud Drive, removable media or folders for third-party cloud services. You’ll also be asked for permission before an app can perform key logging or take a still or video capture of what’s happening on your screen.
  • A streamlined view of your iCloud account in System Preferences, with your Apple ID listed right up top. This new settings menu combines your account info, iCloud settings, Family Sharing settings and media subscriptions in one place.
  • If a software installation goes wrong, you can restore your machine to a so-called Snapshot of right before the botched install.
  • You can set up your system to be multilingual even from the initial installation.
  • Users in India get an India-specific Siri voice, available in male and female versions.

[ad_2]

Source link

Microsoft’s dual-screen tablet could run Android apps

[ad_1]

According to IHS Markit’s “supply chain info,” the new Surface could have two 9-inch screens and a 4:3 aspect ratio, and it will reportedly use Windows Lite OS. We knew Intel was “working closely” with Windows on a foldable tablet, and IHS Markit claims this device will come with Intel’s 10-nanometer Lakefield processor. It’s also expected to have always-on connectivity via LTE or 5G. We don’t know how much the dual-screen tablet could cost, or if it will be capable enough to win over early adopters. But other companies are definitely interested in building dual-screen devices, so it’s not surprising to see Microsoft get involved as well.

[ad_2]

Source link

BET+ streaming service launches this fall with Tyler Perry’s help

[ad_1]

The service doesn’t yet have pricing, but it will be ad-free. It should launch on Android and iOS as well as “other streaming devices” (read: set-top boxes and smart TVs). BET’s free channel on Pluto TV will stick around, though it’s clearly focused on back catalog material.

There is a risk that BET+ will add to the subscription fatigue affecting some internet viewers. However, BET Networks President Scott Mills is betting that his channel’s service can buck that trend. African Americans are more likely to adopt streaming services than other demographics, he said, and BET+ is catering to an “underserved audience.” In other words, Mills is counting on having a uniquely strong following that others are unlikely to match.

[ad_2]

Source link

Samsung’s new SmartThings camera and smart plug don’t need the hub

[ad_1]

Its ability to differentiate between people, pets and objects allows you to customize the notifications you want to get through the SmartThings app. In addition, it has two-way audio, so you can talk to a housemate or your pets through the app even when you’re not home. While the camera is part of Samsung’s SmartThings range, you don’t actually need a SmartThings hub to use it. Just plug it in and connect it to your home WiFi like other smart security cameras. Connecting it to a hub gives it the ability to link with other smart devices, though, such as lights that can be programmed to switch on if the camera detects movement.

Samsung’s new SmartThings WiFi Smart Plug also doesn’t need a hub to work. It can turn lamps, small appliances and other electronic devices smart by giving you the ability to switch them on or off, use a timer on them and set a schedule for them. The plug also turns them into voice-activated devices that work with Bixby, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Samsung’s new SmartThings Bulb is also compatible with those voice assistants, allowing you to control it with your voice. You can create personal automations for it through the SmartThings app when it’s connected to the SmartThings hub. For instance, you can set it to automatically go dim during movie nights or to turn on a minute or two before you usually get home.

All three devices are now available through Samsung’s website and select retailers in the US, including Best Buy. The SmartThings Cam and WiFi Smart Plug will set you back $90 and $18, respectively. Meanwhile, the SmartThings Smart Bulb will cost you $10 each.

[ad_2]

Source link

Google’s new curriculum teaches kids how to detect disinformation

[ad_1]

When Google launched its “Be Internet Awesome” curriculum for educators a couple of years ago, it focused its efforts on teaching children about online safety. This year, however, the company is adding a new component to its campaign: media literacy. Developed in partnership with the Net Safety Collaborative, the new program includes play-to-learn activities that help educate kids about how to spot disinformation, such as fake URLs or misleading headlines.

The curriculum includes “Don’t Fall for Fake” activities that are centered around teaching children critical thinking skills. This is so they’ll know the difference between credible and non-credible news sources, for example, and how to spot a bad URL. There are also other media literacy activities such as “Share with Care,” which have to do with teaching kids how to maintain a good online reputation, and “It’s Cool to be Kind,” which is about online harassment.

Along with the new curriculum, Google is also announcing a nationwide partnership with the YMCA, where it’ll help families talk to their children about topics like social media, cyberbullying and disinformation.

Google has been under quite a bit of heat recently on this exact topic, as YouTube has often been accused of spreading disinformation and propaganda, especially to impressionable youth. It’s interesting to see Google collaborate on a project that teaches children to identify disinformation, while at the same time not doing a stellar job at taking those sources down.

The new “Be Internet Awesome” curriculum is aimed mostly at seven to twelve year olds, and will be available to interested family members and educators starting today.

[ad_2]

Source link