Specializing in Computer Repair, Networking, Internet Solutions, Web Designing, Hybrid App Designing and Windows Operating systems.
Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:
How AI is being used to detect and fight ransomware attacks, and how criminals could use AI to plot more efficient ransomware attacks — Imagine getting to a courthouse and seeing paper signs stuck to the doors with the message “Systems down.” What about police officers in the field unable …
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Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
India-based social commerce startup Simsim, which supports local languages like Hindi and Tamil, raises $16M across seed, Series A, and Series B in seven months — Simsim, a social commerce startup in India, said on Friday it has raised $16 million in seven months of its existence as it attempts …
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:
Pakistan approves new restrictions for social media companies, requiring local offices, removal of content deemed unlawful, providing decrypted content, more — Pakistan's government has approved new rules for regulating social-media content that critics say would give the authorities unflinching powers …
Nick Keppler / VICE:
Increasingly automated job screening systems are forcing job seekers to adopt time-consuming tasks to be noticed, like writing application-specific resumes — Jeffrey Johnson was on one continuous job search, more or less, for 12 years. — After the recession shuttered the textbook publisher …
Microsoft this week threw a wrench into the workings of its long-touted Windows 7 post-retirement support, telling IT administrators that there was a brand new prerequisite that must be installed before they can download the patches they'd already paid for.
The last-minute requirement was titled "Extended Security Updates Licensing Preparation Package" and identified as KB4538483 in Microsoft's numerical format.
The licensing prep package can be downloaded manually from the Microsoft Update Catalog. It should also appear in WSUS (Windows Server Update Services), the patch management platform used by many commercial customers. It will not, however, be automatically delivered through the Windows Update service, which some very small businesses rely on to provide them necessary patches.
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Google says it saw a 98% drop in the number of Play Store apps accessing SMS/call log data in 2019 since cracking down on apps abusing permissions in Oct. 2018 — Google has been clamping down on Android apps that abuse permissions, and that appears to have had a very tangible effect on the Play Store.
Science says regular meditation leads to a happier, more productive, and more focused life. These guides and apps prove how easy it can be to start a habit of meditating regularly anywhere you want.
Meditation is much easier than you might think. Meditation is a mental exercise that you can do at any point, and for any purpose. It can help calm anxiety, refresh your brain, change your mood, along with many other uses.
These are some of the simplest guides and tools to you practice meditation. We’ve also included a couple of recommended apps, along with a repository of meditation apps for different purposes.
Meditation training app FitMind isn’t free, but it offers a fantastic free guide for beginners to the art. The 10-page ebook requires you to hand over your email, but it’s well worth the price of some spam that you can filter.
The guide explains in simple terms what meditation is, and more importantly, what it isn’t. It has insights and clarifications you won’t find in most writings.
For example, an entire section talks about attitude and posture, two of the most important elements of successful meditation. It breaks myths about yogic poses or rigorous mental practices for meditation, making it more accessible to any ordinary person.
Similarly, you will find further clarifications on focus, breathing, and metacognition. The guide gives you a simple path to becoming mentally healthier through meditation so that you can figure out how you should approach it.
The Buddhist Centre released multiple free meditation diaries or workbooks for beginners to understand, track, and adopt the practice. All the techniques focus on mindfulness meditation, taking you through a body scan, breathing, and metta bhavana.
Don’t be alarmed, “metta bhavana” simply means “loving-kindness” and is the same as having a calm, relaxed, and benevolent outlook.
Start with the four-week course, which has a new focus each week: breath and body, breath and breadth, positive emotion, and mature effort. Each meditation program is neatly described in detail, telling you what you should and shouldn’t do. The workbook or diary then asks you to note down how you felt through the exercise, as well as answer a few questions in the journal.
Go through the four week course and see how you feel. If you like the process and want to go deeper, there’s a 6-week workbook for advanced meditation practices.
Finally, also check out the Living Practice Workbook, which tells you how to record what you feel throughout a meditative session. It’s a much deeper dive into mindfulness, and is best adopted after you’ve done the four-week or six-week course.
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has a dedicated team of scientists studying mindfulness at the Mindful Awareness Research Center. This team has developed the UCLA Mindful app and conducts a weekly podcast on the topic.
The UCLA Mindful app is great for beginners to mindful meditation. The Getting Started section has short video explanations of mindfulness and meditation, how to choose a meditation, and how to select posture.
Based on that, you can choose one of the 14 guided audio meditations as per your current need. By keeping it basic, UCLA Mindful is a fantastic app for beginners till you get used to regular practice.
Every week, the team holds a free 30-minute guided meditation at the UCLA Hammer Museum. They also record these sessions, each of which has a new theme, and release it as a podcast. Once you’ve learned the basics on the Mindful app, the podcast is a wonderful way to keep the practice going with different meditations.
Download: UCLA Mindful for Android | iOS (Free)
Australian psychologists developed the Smiling Mind app (a not-for-profit organization) to promote daily mindfulness and meditation. It’s one of the few meditation apps that is actually completely free, with no in-app purchases or other strings attached.
During setup, Smiling Mind asks about your experience with mindful meditation and what you seek from the app. Based on that, it recommends a few audio guides to add to your favorites.
The full list of programs is a massive library of neatly categorized audio guides for every possible need. There are programs for adults, youth, children, classrooms, families, workplace, and so much more. Each program lists how many modules and sessions it has, and you can slowly go through it as recommended by psychologists.
Additionally, you can download any guide or session for free, and store it for as long as you want. Very few apps offer such a rich catalog of features without asking you to pay anything.
Smiling Mind suggests you need only 10 minutes of meditation every day on their app to start. It’s just 10 minutes, what are you waiting for?
Download: Smiling Mind for Android | iOS (Free)
UCLA Mindful and Smiling Mind aren’t the only meditation apps around. But these apps can have different purposes. For example, we’ve already rounded up the best meditation apps for relaxing and sleeping. MeditationApps.com lists as many of these apps as possible and categorizes them according to your needs.
Broad categories include apps with support for anxiety, balance, creativity, focus, motivation, performance, pregnancy, relationships, and sleep. And there’s a special section for meditation apps for kids.
One of the best parts about MeditationApps.com is that it clearly shows the actual price of the app. A lot of meditation apps are free to download, but quickly ask for a subscription to unlock all their guided audio clips. But on this website, you’ll see this potential price upfront, saving you from wasting your time on an app.
Mindfulness meditation is the first step towards a calmer, happier mental state. The more you practice it, the better you will feel. In fact, once you practice meditation long enough, you can apply mindfulness in several other spheres of your life.
Are you ready to try mindful web surfing to improve your focus?
Read the full article: 5 Easiest Meditation Tools for Beginners to Learn Mindfulness
Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:
Target's Shipt delivery app workers describe a culture of retaliation and fear, say its algorithm pushes them to buy gifts for customers to boost their ratings — In late October, Ashley Johnson, a single mom and seasoned gig worker in a quiet Seattle suburb, tweeted about the decline …
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Greg Bensinger / Washington Post:
Workers on Google's outsourced maps team say they alter maps based not just on history and local laws but also on whims of diplomats and Google executives — The Silicon Valley firm alters maps under political pressure and the inscrutable whims of tech executives
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Samsung announces partnership with Netflix with bonus content associated with Netflix shows on Galaxy smartphones and deeper device integration — As the streaming battles heat up, Netflix is hoping a new partnership with Samsung will help it fend off rivals.
Stephen Gandel / CBS News:
After a study showed that Ring shares data with Facebook, Google, and others without users' consent, Ring says it will soon allow more control over data sharing — Ring, the Amazon-owned maker of smart-home doorbells and web-enabled security cameras, is changing its privacy settings two weeks …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Nonprofits say Facebook's donation tools let them reach big audiences with minimal effort, but give them “virtually useless” data on actual donors — - Groups weigh donor relations versus network's broad reach — Company's fundraising products have generated $3 billion
Manoj Kumar / Reuters:
In a presentation, online retailers in India ask the government to scale back a proposal for 1% tax on each sale made by third-party sellers on their platforms — NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart are among online retailers demanding that India scale back a proposed tax …
Bloomberg:
Amazon is cutting ties with small delivery firms in the US because they don't meet its delivery standards, putting at least 1,300 drivers out of work — - Illinois, Washington and Kansas firms are among those culled — About 1,300 drivers in several states will lose their jobs
The Galaxy Z Flip ships with the same “Care Instructions” as the Fold. It’s a five-item list with the following basic points:
Unlike the last time around, however, these warnings seem to have been included out of an (understandable) abundance of caution. As stated in my hands-on the other day, the Flip feels more solid than the Fold in just about every way, from the folding mechanism to the display, which now sports foldable protective glass.
A couple of notes before we start here. First, and most importantly, this is a rare 24-hour device loan. Short loan times are not entirely uncommon with high-end products, but a single day is a bit extreme. I’m being upfront about this because:
This isn’t a case of an early product in limited supply. The Z Flip went on sale today (happy Valentine’s/Sonic the Hedgehog Day to you and yours). If I had to venture a guess, it would be that Samsung is still reeling a bit from fallout from the Fold, which found a number of review devices breaking prior to the product hitting the market.
For all of the downside, however, I would argue that coverage that pushed the company to reinforce the product before actually selling it for $2,000 a pop was ultimately a good things. Besides, as was pointed out to me, most if not all of the faulty Folds went sideways before the 24-hour mark.
See also: the Moto Razr. Reviews of the product have started filtering in a week or so after the product hit the market. Seems the company opted not to give out review units until the product was already available (full transparency: I still haven’t gotten my hands on a review unit). The analogy I keep coming back to is movie reviews. If you don’t see any professional reviews by the time a movie hits theaters, that probably doesn’t bode well for spending $10 of your hard-earned cash.
None of this is an indictment of the Galaxy Z Flip, which so far is proving to be a pretty solid device. It’s more a comment on the optics of it all. Give than the handset is roughly the same price as 150 movies, reviews are all that much more valuable to consumers — many of whom are understandably wary after the category’s rocky start.
It’s a shame, because I’ve been enjoying my time with the Galaxy Z Flip. In many ways, this is exactly the device Samsung’s original foldable should have been. For starters, the form factor just makes more sense. The “why” of the Fold was significantly more difficult to explain to those outside the industry (and frankly, many of those inside it, as well).
Anyone who’s ever used a clamshell phone, on the other hand, will immediately get the Flip. You’ve got a roomy 6.7-inch screen that you can snap shut and stick in your pocket. It’s pretty much as simple as that — it’s just that there was a lot of innovation that had to happen in order to get us back to square one with a larger, uninterrupted touchscreen display.
Also of note is the price. Of course, $1,380 isn’t cheap by practically any measure, but that’s a pretty big drop down from the $2,000 Galaxy Fold. The argument that Fold users should have been extra careful with the device given its price point have always struck me as somewhat counter-intuitive. If anything, a device that price ought to have added safeguards built-in.
The Flip has implemented a number of learnings from the earlier product, namely a glass covering, edges hidden beneath (sizable) bezels and an advanced folding mechanism designed to keep dust and debris out. In fact, this time out, the folding mechanism itself is considered a marquee feature. Per Samsung’s press material:
Inspired by a lotus blossom, the Hideaway Hinge is precisely articulated for a satisfying folding motion — even allowing you to adjust the folding angle. Sweeper technology helps repel dirt and dust to keep your folds as smooth as your style.
That’s a marketing way of saying that it’s a lot harder to get crap trapped behind the screen, which could eventually break it. The folding mechanism is, indeed, a nice step up. It feels more robust than the sometimes floppy Fold. You can keep it open at different configurations, like a 90 degree “L” shape for watching videos.
The biggest downside of the more robust mechanism is that it’s harder to flip open with a single hand, owing to resistance, and it doesn’t have as satisfying a snap shut. Those all seem like pretty minor quibbles, to be honest — especially if it means a more robust product. Samsung rates the Z Flip at 200,000 folds — same as the Fold. Of course, in CNET’s testing, the Fold lasted about 120,000 mechanical folds.
Not terrible, and definitely better than the 27,000 or so the Razr made it through. Also, unlike Motorola’s device, the Flip doesn’t make a troubling creaking sound when it opens and shuts. The Razr really does seem awash in first-generation problems. Motorola can’t be pleased that Samsung introduced a competing device with the same form factor soon after its own product and was able to bring it to market roughly a week after the Razr.
I can’t imagine either of these devices will prove huge sellers for their respective manufactures, but if I was Motorola, the Flip would be cause for concern. The Razr went from an exciting new entry in the foldable category to another strike against it when it was released and both consumer and professional reviews began trickling in.
A little bit of the novelty has worn off for Samsung. That’s honestly not a bad thing. By the second generation, the product should no longer be reviewed as a sort of oddity. Instead, it should be regarded as a, you know, phone. And as such, should be subject to the same sort of regular wear any smartphones go through.
In other words, it’s reasonable to expect that it can withstand, say, a hard press from a finger but not necessarily a five-foot drop onto concrete. Again, this is only after a day of use, but so far, so good on that front, at least.
The 21.9×9 aspect ratio is an odd one. The phone is really tall and skinny. Also, the crease is still very noticeable — that much hasn’t changed. But the Flip looks mostly unremarkable when open. I was using it open on the subway ride home and no one seemed to notice (New Yorkers, amiright?). The Fold, on the other hand, drew curious looks every time I used it. If having strangers notice your expensive new phone is an incentive for spending $1,400, then that’s a downside, I suppose.
There haven’t been too many updates to the Android UI to accommodate the new screen paradigm. The biggest change is the ability to have two windows open in a vertical configuration. There’s also Flex model, which is currently limited to a select number of applications. Open, say, the camera app, bend the phone so it holds at a 90-degree angle and the app will adapt. In this case, the view finder moves up, occupying the top half of the screens while the controls take up the bottom. It’s a cool feature, with the device essentially serving as its own kickstand for things like taking selfies or reading the news.
Utilizing it more broadly is going to require more work on Google’s part — and more adoption from app developers. The latter especially is going to depend quite a lot on how many of these devices are actually sold. For now, YouTube is the one pure video app that utilizes it.
That’s fine, honestly, as turning the device to landscape mode and opening it to about 130 degrees is actually an even better way to watch widescreen video. There are a smattering of other tricks here and there. Holding up a palm in selfie-mode, for instance, let’s you snap a photo without touching a button or using voice.
The Flip is the first Samsung device to bake Google’s Duo video calling directly into the UI. It’s a nice choice, too, since the Flex mode is basically built for video calling. Oh, and to answer the question I’ve been asked the most since the Flip was announced: yes, you can end a call by closing the phone. And yes, it is satisfying to give the person on the other end a tactile snap.
The feature is on by default and can be disabled in the settings menu. It won’t work if you have earbuds in, however, because in many cases you’ll want to be using them to chat while the phone is closed in your pocket.
As for the outside, Samsung’s gone decidedly minimalist. The inclusion of an exterior screen was a big selling point on the Fold, but honestly it was too skinny with too small an aspect ratio to do much. The outside of the device has a glossy mirror finish — black in my case. And yeah, it’s a complete fingerprint magnet.
There’s a one-inch display of sorts on the outside of the Flip, but it’s only large enough for small at-a-glance information like battery life and time. It can also show off notifications, but it’s too small to accomplish much without scrolling. If you’ve ever attempted to read a notification on a hybrid smartwatch, the experience is fairly similar.
The little window is actually a touchscreen. A double tap will turn it on, and from there a swipe with show off information like the music you’re listening to. Attempting to click into an app icon for more information on a notification, however, will prompt you to open the phone for more information. Interestingly, the tiny screen also serves as a view finder. Double-clicking the fingerprint reader/power button will fire it up. It’s okay for getting a rough approximation of what you’re shooting (likely yourself), but is pretty useless beyond that.
And honestly, I think that’s fine. In fact, I would even go so far as to say I think that’s actually a strength. In an era when so many of us are grappling with smartphone use, there’s something to be said for the ability to snap the device shut and disconnect for a bit. You can keep streaming music or listening to podcasts, but when the phone is closed, it’s time to engage with the world around you.
Or not. I’m not going to tell you how to live.
Hey, it’s your $1,400. There are plenty of other ways to spend that much money, of course. You could also pick up the Galaxy S20 Ultra — the mega premium version of Samsung’s latest flagship. For that price, you get the same-old boring form factor, coupled with some crazy high-end specs, including a 5,000 mAh battery, 12GB of RAM and the latest Snapdragon 865, versus the Flip’s 3,300 mAh, 8GB and Snapdragon 855+.
The Ultra also has an extreme edge on cameras, including a 108-megapixel wide angel, 48-megapixel telephoto, 12-megapixel ultra-wide and a time-of-fight sensor for depth. The Flip, meanwhile, sports a 12-megapixel zoom lens and 12-megapixel super-wide. There’s no competition, but Samsung’s breadth of imaging experience makes for a solid experience regardless.
Again, my time with the device has been limited, but so far I’m pretty satisfied with the combination of hardware an software options. The shots look good and have a nice color balance even in low light. I can’t see myself using Single Take too often, but the ability to get multiple different shot options with a single press could certainly prove useful for amateur photographers.
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Perhaps the most notable omission of all is 5G. While it’s true that a number of other companies (*cough* Apple) don’t even offer the option, Samsung introduced a 5G version of the Fold last year (in select markets) and went all in on 5G with the S20 line. It’s clear that the company took feedback over pricing concerns to heart with the Flip. The device is only available in a single configuration, highlighting the gulf between it and the Fold.
Which is to say, it’s still expensive, but that $500 or so makes a difference. So, too, does more robust build and new form factor. I’m recommending you buy the Flip. We’re still very much in the early stages of foldables here. That said, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Flip over the Fold. And while I haven’t really spent time with the Moto Razr, well, that seems like a slam dunk, too.
Again, if I was Motorola, I would be considering, at very least, a significant price drop. While the Flip likely won’t convince the skeptical that foldables are the future, it should, at very least, be a heartening indication that Samsung is headed in the right direction.
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Google says it is restructuring its Cloud business, including eliminating some roles; source says fewer than 50 employees are affected — - Google is restructuring its Cloud group internally, which will include eliminating some roles, a Google spokesperson confirmed to CNBC.
Matt Drange / Protocol:
Gun sales continue on Facebook and Instagram after 2016 ban as sellers keep finding workarounds that evade Facebook's algorithm — Basic workarounds remain popular, underscoring larger challenges for the company. — In early 2016, Facebook took a political stand unlike any it had before …
