It's unclear exactly what Google plans to do with it
What if you could give your janky old laptop PC a fresh-faced Chrome OS-inspired makeover? That's the promise of CloudReady, a free operating system based on the open-source Chromium OS that essentially converts legacy Windows, Macs, and even older Chrome OS devices into brand-new Chromebooks. Now Neverware, the company behind the endeavor, has announced that it's officially joining up with Google — but there may be some unwanted consequences for consumers.
Ever since learning of the passing of John le Carre, the celebrated British author, and creator of fictional characters like George Smiley, I have been in a shroud of sadness. After tossing and turning last night, I woke up early and went for a walk. It was very cold in San Francisco (by San Francisco standards, at least), and I wanted the chilled sea air to wash out my melancholy brain. I hoped that the morning sun would head-butt the shadows of gloom that enveloped me. As the day broke, and I began to see more clearly, I realized that the person at the center of this misery was me. My mood was not about le Carre’s passing, but rather it was me mourning for myself.
I started reading le Carre’s books when I was a wee lad. I rented a well-thumbed copy of The Spy Who Came in From The Cold from my local lending library. It cost 20 paisa a day — a lot of money for a kid who received just one rupee a week as pocket money. I rented it three times before I could finish reading it. I was 13 years old at that time. It was fun to learn a lot of words and to read about the Cold War. I learned about the reality of the Soviet Union, which was very different from what Indian papers told me. It would take me another ten years to really understand the book.
I haven’t just read le Carre’s stories — the George Smiley series, The Little Drummer Girl, The Tailor of Panama, and so many more — I have grown up with them. They provided me with a frame for understanding the shifting reality of geo-politics. After I caught up with the archives, I read most of his books within a few weeks of their being made available. Each one has metadata of memories attached to it. The Night Manager, for example, kept me going during a difficult phase of my life as a new immigrant. (And perhaps that is why I didn’t care to have the memory tampered with by the TV series, no matter how brilliant Hugh Laurie was as a baddie.)
“John le Carré was a towering writer whose books are a teeming Dickensian guide to the bleak Machiavellian underworld beneath the international power struggles of the last 70 years,” Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale and other classics, wrote in her tribute to le Carre. Another British author, Ian Rankin, agreed, “le Carré was our great chronicler of the geopolitical made personal. He shaped our understanding of a shadow world, one we are not supposed to know exists.”
More than any other medium, books have defined life. They have helped me imagine. They have helped me escape. And they have educated me and shown me a better version of myself. Perhaps, that is why books and those who write them are such a presence in my life. You can imagine the impact of le Carre’s words on a young, impressionable boy who didn’t know much about geopolitics. He isn’t the first author whose passing has left me maudlin. I also felt a strange sense of loss when Lawrence Sanders died. It was the same for a few others. In reality, I wasn’t mourning the writers. After all, their words are with us for eternity. Instead, what I was grieving the passage of time was realizing how much of my own life is now in the past. These deaths dredge up the detritus of memories, which suddenly measure the distance of life lived.
The mortality of these towering figures, who created whole worlds through which we could discover our reality, is a reminder of loves lost, dreams unfulfilled, destinations that one time defined the future. The idea that there won’t be another book by le Carre or any of my other favorite late authors stirs a feeling of sadness that I won’t get to enjoy their work anew ever again. It is not so much that they aren’t alive anymore. Honestly, the sadness I feel is so very selfish.
If you pay enough attention, you can see the future. You can learn, adapt, and be ready for a world reshaped by science and technology. My occasional newsletter is focused on the future — the Near Future, to be precise. (read more)
Google’s advertising controls today range from seeing why something was served to turning off personalization entirely. Moving forward, the company will let you limit ads that are sensitive in nature, with YouTube being the first to get this option.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Football Manager 2021 Touch, Donut County, plus more
Welcome to the roundup of the new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today's list is broken up into several segments, ranging from best, average, to mediocre. So whether you're looking for the best games of quality or are simply looking for the latest free-to-play gacha titles, you're covered. This week I have the arrival of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, though it's a shoddy port.
The Fitbit Versa 3 launched earlier this year alongside Fitbit's flagship tracker, the Sense. That device is packed with features, including heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, what have you — but it can also do ECG scans, and even purportedly measure your stress levels. In his review, our own Ryan found that the usefulness of some of the Sense's features was questionable. He also said it's too expensive at $329.
The good folks over at Sad and Useless have compiled this gallery of some of the most ambitious homemade cardboard cat forts I've ever seen. Some have elaborate turrets, others have gun towers or tiny cardboard bird cages. If you've been stockpiling a massive collection of boxes from all of your pandemic mail ordering like I have, let this glorious example of cardboard architecture inspire you to build a DIY castle for the beloved ingrate in your life. — Read the rest
In the late 1860s, artist, "amateur" zoologist, and maker Eugen von Ransonnet-Villez built a personal submersible so he could draw the otherworldly scenes he observed under the sea. (Did he actually see that skull on the ocean floor? Or is it, as my brother Bob suggests, a memento mori?) — Read the rest
In an astonishing display of control and focus, Andrey Matveenko calmly dives about 390 feet straight down into the ocean depths.
There are several kinds of freediving, including with or without fins or bifins, constant or variable weight, and dynamic, free, or static apnea. — Read the rest
Football Manager 2021 Mobile, The Tree, Walls Breaker, plus more
Welcome to the roundup of the new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today's list is broken up into several segments, ranging from best, average, to mediocre game releases from the last week. So whether you're looking for the best games of quality or are simply looking for the latest free-to-play gacha titles, you're covered. This week I have the arrival of Football Manager 2021 Mobile, a delightful board game from Plug in Digital, and a unique and simplified brick break where you're only tasked with breaking walls.
It took villagers 15 years to hand-carve the Lanying Cliff Road in Chongqing. There's a motorcycle for scale. Before the road, they had to make a six-hour (!) stair climb to get to a nearby area. As you might imagine, the stairs were not too safe-looking. — Read the rest
In an unprecedented show of support for women's and all vaginal health, Parliament unanimously passed a law this week granting all people legal right to free tampons and pads in schools and other public buildings.
"Period poverty" has made it difficult for some people to access necessary sanitary products, but other circumstance can interfere as well, such as homelessness, abusive relationships, or certain health conditions. — Read the rest
An update to the YouTube terms of service in the US has potentially altered the way the platform will show ads on content uploaded from channels without monetization enabled or “partner status” on the YouTube Partner Program.
Over the past year, Google has been working with banks and credit unions on co-branded checking and saving accounts. Google today is set to announce Plex Accounts, a “new way to bank in Google Pay.”
Possibly emboldened by the promise of new hope in the United States as a result of the Biden-Harris presidential win a black bear cub tried to cross into Alaska from British Columbia.
A traveller sought entry for essential reasons, but had no travel documents.
Nokia’s history in the smartphone industry is rich, and occasionally the company takes a look back at older hardware to inspire new devices. At one point, a reboot of the famed Nokia N95 was on the table with Android and some killer media features, but it never came to light. Here’s a look at what would have been.
Space Marshals 3, Samorost 2, Sine the Game, plus more
Welcome to the roundup of the new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today's list is broken up into several segments, ranging from best, average, to mediocre game releases from the last week. So whether you're looking for the best games of quality or are simply looking for the latest free-to-play gacha releases, you're covered. This week I have the first chapter in the latest Space Marshals shooter, the second game in Amanita Designs' Samorost adventure series, and an attractive arcade game where you control a sine wave.
It's Halloween, and there are 13 apps. Coincidence?
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous week or so. Today I have a data-saving app for Android TV, the new connection app for Starlink's (terrestrial internet) beta, and a TV service app from T-Mobile. So without further ado, here are all of the new and notable Android apps released on the Play Store in the last week.
The first ballpoint pen was sold in 1945 and cost $180 in today's dollars. As the price dropped, it quickly replaced the messy, finicky fountain pen. The BBC has a great article about the invention and rise of the ballpoint as the ultimate writing implement. — Read the rest
UK cellular carriers will be forbidden from celling phones locked to their networks, reports the BBC. The law comes into force in a year's time and results from continued shenanigans by carriers making it too hard to unlock phones after they've been paid for. — Read the rest
Google Play Music is on the way out and has already become inaccessible for many. A lot of people have probably long taken advantage of the migration tool and have started using YouTube Music. But there are still some key differences between the two services, and if you haven't made the switch, there are a few things to watch out for.
Joey is an orphaned sea otter pup that was rescued by the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia on July 3, 2020. You can watch his progress in rehabilitation live from his nursery, and they're streaming right now as I type this blog post, Friday, October 23, 2020. — Read the rest
As Google's app says "bye bye," it's time to move on to something else
The demise of Google Play Music might have you thinking it's time to go back to the old way of locally storing your favorite music. Fortunately, this is the kind of thing Android was made for, and there are so many apps available that do more than organize your library into a playlist.
A worthy local music playback app for Android has an easily navigable menu structure and automatically populates new music once it's added to a specific file directory.
