Geek Trivia: The Quietest Place On Earth Is Located Where?

The Quietest Place On Earth Is Located Where?

Davis Station, Antarctica Cusco, Peru Paris, France Redmond, Washington Think you know the answer?

from How-To Geek http://bit.ly/2EVJ5uC

As Alphabet tests Wing drone deliveries in a suburb of Canberra, some enjoy the convenience of orders arriving in minutes while others complain about noise (Mike Cherney/Wall Street Journal)

Mike Cherney / Wall Street Journal:
As Alphabet tests Wing drone deliveries in a suburb of Canberra, some enjoy the convenience of orders arriving in minutes while others complain about noise  —  In one of the world's most advanced drone-delivery tests, sunscreen arrives in minutes—as do complaints

from Techmeme http://bit.ly/2BLgKEe

Profiles of Arab women influencers, like the recently murdered Tara Fare, who are pushing boundaries in conservative societies while facing death threats (Meher Ahmad/The Verge)

Meher Ahmad / The Verge:
Profiles of Arab women influencers, like the recently murdered Tara Fare, who are pushing boundaries in conservative societies while facing death threats  —  Middle Eastern women like Tara Fares hustle for followers and brands like any other influencers — but they risk being killed for it

from Techmeme http://bit.ly/2SmKzlC

Tencent left out as China approves the release of 80 new video games

Chinese internet giant Tencent has been excluded from the first batch of video game license approvals issued by the state-run government since March.

China regulators approved Saturday the released of 80 online video games after a months-long freeze, Reuters first reported. None of the approved titles listed on the approval list were from Tencent Holdings, the world’s largest gaming company.

Tencent is best known as a the company behind WeChat, a popular messaging platform in China. But much of its revenue comes from gaming. Even with a recent decline in gaming revenue, the company has a thriving business that is majority owner of several companies including Activision, Grinding Gears Games, Riot and Supercell. In 2012, the company took a 40 percent stake in Epic Games, maker of Fortnite. Tencent also has alliances or publishing deals with other video gaming companies such as Square Enix, makers of Tomb Raider. 

The ban on new video game titles in China has affected Tencent’s bottom line. The company reported revenue from gaming fell 4 percent in the third quarter due to the prolonged freeze on  licenses. At the time, Tencent claimed it had 15 games with monetization approval in its pipeline.

China, the world’s largest gaming market, tightened restrictions in 2018 to combat myopia and addiction. Tencent placed its own restrictions on gaming in what appeared to be an attempt to assuage regulators. The company has expanded its age verification system, an effort aimed at curbing use of young players, and placed limits on daily play.

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2s1fng6

Citi slashes sales outlook for iPhone XS Max by nearly half

Citi Research has joined a growing list of analysts to lower first-quarter production estimates for Apple’s iPhones amid weakening demand for the smartphones.

Citi Research analyst William Yang cut the overall iPhone shipment forecast by 5 million to 45 million for the quarter, reported Reuters. That’s a sting that falls in line with others such as influential TF International Securities Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who delivered a less than stellar iPhone forecast earlier this month.

It’s Yang’s outlook for the 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max that is particularly gloomy. In a research note to clients, Yang slashed the shipment forecast for the iPhone XS Max by 48 percent for the first quarter of 2019.

The cut in Citi’s forecasts is driven by the firm’s view that ” 2018 iPhone is entering a destocking phase, which does not bode well for the supply chain,” Yang wrote.

Two weeks ago, Kuo predicted that 2019 iPhone shipments will likely between 5 to 10 percent lower than 2018. He also lowered first quarter shipment forecasts by 20 percent.

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2Alpfpm

Bangladesh orders mobile operators to shut down high-speed mobile internet services to "prevent rumours and propaganda" ahead of national elections on Sunday (Al Jazeera)

Al Jazeera:
Bangladesh orders mobile operators to shut down high-speed mobile internet services to “prevent rumours and propaganda” ahead of national elections on Sunday  —  The country's telecom regulator say it ordered mobile operators to shut down 3G, 4G services until December 30 midnight.

from Techmeme http://bit.ly/2EWx9cX

FlixBus is testing VR on certain routes to Las Vegas

FlixBus, the low-cost tech-forward bus service out of Europe that launched in U.S. this year, has added a VR experience to some long-distance routes to and from Las Vegas.

For now, the FlixBus VR feature, which includes about 50 virtual reality games and travel experiences, is limited to routes from Tucson, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego. And it will run for three months.

Travelers who reserve a panoramic seat on these routes will get the VR experience for free. Once on board, passengers will receive VR headset loaded with content.

The Pico Goblin 2 headsets are from Pico Interactive. Inflight VR provides the content and software updates of the VR platform. Inflight VR has experience with offering a platform to people who are traveling. The company already provides the platform for airlines and airport lounges.

If the VR feature is received well — meaning people use it, enjoy it, and don’t have ill effects like vertigo — it could stick around longer. A company spokesperson told TechCrunch that the VR experience was tested on bus routes in Spain and France and received positive feedback from customers. Flixbus also picked routes that tend to be straight and without a lot of winding roads to reduce the risk of a bad experience with the VR feature.

This VR experiment matches the company’s tech-forward and youthful approach to bus travel.

FlixBus competes with traditional bus company Greyhound with fares between U.S. cities as low as $4.99. However, it has a different business model that is more comparable to ride-hailing company Uber. FlixBus, which now operates in 28 countries, manages the ticketing, customer service, network planning, marketing and sale of its product. The driving is left to local partners, which get to keep a percentage of the ticket receipts.

These local bus partners manage the daily operations of the brightly painted FlixBuses, which are outfitted with free Wi-Fi, power outlets at every seat and complimentary onboard entertainment portal. The company launched in the U.S. in May, starting with routes across California, Arizona and Nevada.

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2An0NUV

European Commission to start offering bug bounties on 14 Free Software projects like Notepad++ and VLC that the EU institutions rely on (Julia Reda)

Julia Reda:
European Commission to start offering bug bounties on 14 Free Software projects like Notepad++ and VLC that the EU institutions rely on  —  It's been a while since I last wrote about the Free and Open Source Software Audit project, FOSSA, so let me start with a quick recap that you can safely skip …

from Techmeme http://bit.ly/2QachQH

Crawling from the wreckage

Things are tough all over — but especially in the digital media business of 2018.

Probably the most high-profile flameout this year was at Mic, which laid off most of its staff ahead of an acquisition by Bustle. Mic had raised nearly $60 million in funding, with major media organizations like Time Warner and Bertelsmann writing checks for the company’s vision of delivering news to a millennial audience.

But Mic’s issues were just the capstone to a long year of shutdowns and layoffs. Among the headlines:

• Vice instituted a hiring freeze with the goal of shrinking headcount by up to 15 percent.
• Blaming Facebook algorithm changes, LittleThings looked like it was going to shut down before getting acquired by RockYou, whose digital publishing strategy seems to be facing some challenges of its own.
• Refinery29 laid off around 10 percent of its staff and said it expects to miss its revenue projections for the year by 5 percent.
• BuzzFeed shuttered its in-house podcast team (though this reportedly only involved laying off a “handful” of employees).

• Vox Media laid off around 50 people. It also announced plans to fold its tech news site Recode into its general news publication Vox.com.
• Gizmodo Media Group cut its staff with a round of buyouts.
• Good Media Group, which owns Upworthy and Good Magazine, laid off 31 employees.
• The Outline laid off all its staff writers.
• Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letter shut down.
• Rookie shut down.
• Defy Media shut down.

It may not be entirely fair to group these stories together — some companies likely failed because of specific management or business issues, while others fell victim to broader shifts and still others may bounce back after figuring things out. But collectively, they paint the picture of an intensely challenging time.

Peter Csathy, an industry veteran and occasional TechCrunch columnist, has just published a book, “Fearless Media,” about the changes in the media landscape.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Csathy argued that it’s become a best-of-times, worst-of-times world. The worst-of-times side seems obvious — the companies that are struggling due to the “devastation of certain business models,” particularly reliance on big platforms like Facebook, and on an online ad business that’s currently “under tremendous pressure.”

At the same time, he said, “The best of times are the companies like Netflix, the Amazons, the Apples — some of these major new tech-driven media companies.”

Of course, Amazon and Apple make most of their money outside the media business, leaving Netflix as the industry’s big success story. But even there, Csathy predicted that in 2019, “Netflix will be challenged like never before” as it tries to compete with a vast array of new streaming services, many of them created by the same companies that have been selling content to Netflix.

A remote control is seen being held in front of a television running the Netflix application on October 25, 2017. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“Ultimately, the question becomes whether Netflix can prove long-term that it is more than a ‘House of Cards,’” he added via email.

And what about companies that aren’t already big, dominant players — the entrepreneurs who want to build the next Netflix or the next BuzzFeed? It won’t be easy, particularly when it comes to convincing venture capitalists to come on-board. Still, there were some digital media startups that successfully raised funding in 2018, like podcast network Wondery and theSkimm, maker of female-focused newsletters.

And New York-based startup studio Betaworks recently announced an early-stage program focused on “synthetic media,” which Partner Matt Hartman explained is an area taking advantage of advances in graphics and artificial intelligence. This could include companies fighting against misleading, manufactured news stories and videos (“The need for deep fake detection is growing”), but also the ones trying to create new kinds of content, like “virtual” characters such as Instagram celebrity Lil Miquela.

More broadly, Hartman suggested that business models in the media world are changing, particularly as publishers experiment with paywalls and also explore bundling their products together.

Lil Miquela

“I think that next year, we’re going to see a lot of experiments — skinny bundles, thick bundles, companies you wouldn’t expect to come together saying, ‘These things work together,'” he said.

And even if many of these experiments fail, Hartman suggested that they’re pushing things in the right direction: “The last 10 years have been about building companies that have turned out to be harvesting our attention. I think what we’re really excited about is companies that treat their users more humanely. How do we align the incentives for the companies that are entertaining us and educating us and informing us, but also being respectful of our time and our attention?”

Csathy made a similar point, saying, “These new companies that are ad-driven have no choice but to reinvent their business models. [Otherwise] they’ll be lost in the shuffle, because the monetization just isn’t there.”

Does that mean that as a reader and a viewer, you’re going to keep hitting paywalls everywhere? It will probably become increasingly common (New York magazine, for one, just introduced a paywall), but Parse.ly CEO Sachin Kamdar suggested that subscriptions won’t solve things on their own.

“The best publishers are probably going to have five or six revenue streams,” Kamdar said. “It’s not just going to be one.”

Subscription hell

As the CEO of an analytics company that sells its products to publishers (as well as marketers), Kamdar has a vested interest in the continued health of the media business.He worried that in the industry’s “echo chamber,” publishers may simply follow the latest trend, but he warned, “Just because everybody else goes that direction doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you.

The key, he suggested, is “figuring out the existential thing — who you are as a publisher.” So he’s hoping they move on from “a very short-term view” of chasing the latest platforms and sources of traffic: “Now, I think, people are finally coming to the conclusion that sustainability needs to be a priority.”

And despite the current business climate, Kamdar said there’s a straightforward reason for optimism.

“More time is being spent reading things and watching things,” he said. “You take the long-term picture, there’s a big opportunity to figure out what is happening with that, where they’re going, how you can capture those audiences.”

from TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2ETIp95

China approves the release of 80 video games, none of which are from Tencent, a week after lifting a nine-month freeze on approvals (Andrew Galbraith/Reuters)

Andrew Galbraith / Reuters:
China approves the release of 80 video games, none of which are from Tencent, a week after lifting a nine-month freeze on approvals  —  SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China on Saturday approved the release of 80 online video games after a freeze on such approvals for most of the year.

from Techmeme http://bit.ly/2EUEYji

Chinese scientist who allegedly created the first genetically engineered babies is being detained

The Best Pot And Pan Sets To Refresh Your Kitchen

Convincing yourself to buy new pots and pans can be difficult. But it’s easier to make the investment when you can find a good cookware set that meets your needs.

There’s a lot to take into consideration before buying new cookware. If you’re tired of replacing your pots and pans every couple of years, then maybe you should buy stainless steel or cast iron cookware. If you don’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen, then you might not need anything more than a cheap non-stick set.

Thankfully, we’ve done some of the work for you. We’ve taken the time to consider different needs, different cooking styles, and different budgets. Here’s our top picks.

AmazonBasics 8 Piece Non-Stick Set ($28)

If you’re just looking for some affordable pots and pans that will do their job, then you should consider the AmazonBasics non-stick set. It’s packed with two saucepans, a pot, and two frying pans (three of the “pieces” in this set are glass lids). That’s more than enough cookware for most meals, especially if you don’t spend a lot of your time cooking.

Of course, there are some downsides to these cheap Teflon pots and pans. For one, they can’t handle the power of your dishwasher. They’re also a bit thin, so they won’t distribute heat as evenly as a set of thicker cookware. Oh, and if the Teflon coating starts to flake off, then it can end up in your food. That’s a shame, because there’s no long term data on the effects of Teflon injestion and people try to avoid it in light of that. But if you take good care of your pots and pans, then the Teflon coating should be fine.

Buy on Amazon

Cuisinart 11 Piece Stainless Set ($117)

Stainless steel cookware is great to work with, and it can last forever if you treat it right. This 11 piece Cuisinart stainless set is an affordable, heavy-duty cookware set that can bring you into the world of stainless steel. It comes with two skillets, two saucepans, a saute, a stock pot, and a steamer-insert (four of the “pieces” in this set are lids).

Read the remaining 15 paragraphs

from How-To Geek http://bit.ly/2GYcSpl

How online hate and its long-term effects lingered for seven people in 2018, including a Parkland shooting survivor, a CNN journalist, and a track cyclist (Washington Post)

Washington Post:
How online hate and its long-term effects lingered for seven people in 2018, including a Parkland shooting survivor, a CNN journalist, and a track cyclist  —  It cost a school-shooting victim the safety of home.  —  It cost an athlete the joy of a victory.  —  It cost the family of a gay teen a battle with their community.

from Techmeme http://bit.ly/2Tke5sj

All the reasons 2018 was a breakout year for DNA data

Gene information on millions of people is revolutionizing how we predict disease, catch criminals, and find new drugs.

from Top News - MIT Technology Review http://bit.ly/2rXH49F

How to Get Refunds for Apps and Games

Some app and game stores offer refunds for digital purchases, and some don’t. For example, you can get refunds for Android and iPhone apps, or PC games you purchase from Steam or elsewhere.

Apple’s App Store and Mac App Store

RELATED: How to Get a Refund For an iPhone, iPad, or Mac App From Apple

Apple lets you request refunds for apps you purchase, whether you purchased them from the iPhone or iPad App Store, or the Mac App Store. This same method also lets you request refunds for digital media like videos and music you purchase from iTunes.

This isn’t a no-questions-asked refund policy. You’ll have to “report a problem” with your purchase using iTunes or Apple’s website and wait for a response from customer service. However, if you purchase an app or game that doesn’t work well, this should save you. Just tell Apple that the app didn’t work properly or otherwise didn’t meet your expectations and they should refund your purchase. We’ve successfully gotten refunds from Apple using this method in the past.

Google Play

RELATED: How to Get a Refund For an Android App You Purchased From Google Play

Google has a more generous refund policy than Apple does. Within the first two hours after purchasing an app, you can request a refund for any reason and automatically get one. So, if an app doesn’t work well or a game doesn’t meet your expectations, you can return it without dealing with customer service. Just open your order history in the Google Play app and use the “Refund” option for a recent purchase.

Read the remaining 17 paragraphs

from How-To Geek http://bit.ly/2Qa5s1n