Starting on April 10th Google plans on pushing out an update to the sign-in page for Google accounts. This change is meant to further unify the sign-in process across your various devices.
Although the news was posted to the G Suite Developers blog, we do fully expect this change to affect all Google accounts on all browsers, mobile browsers, and iOS apps (Android apps should not be affected). Google's SSO will also see additional changes beyond the purely cosmetic, as a new permissions grant redirect will be added to the login process, and permissions requested by a site or service will be more explicitly stated.
In 1980, Lal Bihari, a man from the poor Indian state of Uttar Pradesh whose cousins had bribed a local official to have him declared dead in order to steal the one-fifth acre of land he owned, founded Mritak Sangh, the "association of the living dead," for similarly situated people who spend decades (and sometimes their entire lives) trying to resurrect themselves in the eyes of the national bureaucracy.
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One of the most striking sights in some Australian cities is the white ibis, an exotic-looking large bird that has adapted to city life as a scavenger. Here's a hilarious spoof of nature documentaries. (more…)
Clips, "a new video sketching app from Apple that aims to give everything from your iMessage to your Insta a whole new level of lit", launched this week, and people are pretty pumped about it for a few reasons:
1) It allows you to shoot video with a wide variety live filters.
2) You can speak and have your words appear onscreen (almost flawlessly) in real-time, making editing captions after the fact totally unnecessary.
3) Forget knock-off, crummy, royalty-free music – you get to pick from tracks from artists like Hans Zimmer, Dick Haggerty, Alvin Risk, and more.
The app is a little bit of something new with stickers and filters and funky new features, and a little bit of your old fashioned standard video editor, but one thing that it isn't is available for Android.
While they won't come super-duper close to the real thing, here are three Clips alternatives that you can use on Android right now!
Clips is a super simple app to use: just open it up, adjust your filters and live text settings, hit the big red button, add music, add stickers, save your clip, and you're good to go. Another app that mirrors that simplicity and effortless fun feel is the Funimate Video Effects Editor for Android!
Funimate allows you to create professional image slideshows and add soundtracks [to your video]. It boasts more than 30 video effects that you can play with, and the editing process is very easy, so you can make your video more enjoyable, creative and unique! (Liza Brown, Filmora)
After you're done recording your video with Funimate Video Effects Editor, you can add different transition effects, filters, text, and more. You can even upload your video to the Funimate community and connect with other video creators!
One big difference between Funimate and Clips is the live text – you can't talk with Funimate and have the text instantly appear on screen. If you have text you'd like to add, you're going to have to do it the old fashioned way — with captions.
With Magisto, you can turn all of your stale mobile footage into a polished compilation video that's ready to be shared. With the help of Magisto's seemingly magical technology, the app analyzes your videos, picks out interesting clips, and automatically edits them together, complete with music and transitions. It requires no editing skills at all. (Jaymar Cabebe, CNET)
If you're looking for an auto video-making app that will make sharing your videos simple (like Clips), allows you to add filters and effects (like Clips) and lets you pick your own music or select from its massive music library (like Clips), then take a peek at the Magisto Video Editor & Maker for Android!
Magisto Video Editor & Maker has been downloaded and used by over 80 million users worldwide, and was featured in Google Play Editors' Choice, Google's list of Best Android Apps, and CES best app of the year, so you know it has to be good.
After selecting your clips and uploading them to Magisto, you can pick your theme (there are options like Dance, Storyteller, Memories, Travel, etc), select your perfect soundtrack, set your movie length, and then make your movie. It's that simple!
While this app is super similar to Clips, there are a few differences: one, you can't add stickers or random captions across your movie, and two, there's no live text talking option. But it's still the closest thing we Android users have!
If you want a video app that does super similar things to Clips for your Android, that's just as reliable and fun to use, and has almost as much potential for you to edit and get creative with your footage, then keep the Quik - Free Video Editor in the back of your mind.
I mean, a video editing app from GoPro has to be pretty awesome, right?
It's designed to create videos that look professionally edited in just a few taps, whether or not you know how to edit. Users can select multiple videos that are stored on their phone, pick a soundtrack, and Quik automatically edits the videos together to the beat of the music. The app uses algorithms to search for the best moments in each video, and can even add transitions, effects, and filters. When the video is done, users can either post directly to social media or go back in to make minor tweaks to the finished product. (Sean O'Kane, The Verge)
With the app, you can either choose to record on the spot, or you can upload up to 75 photos and video clips from your albums, galleries, Google Photos, Facebook, or even GoPro Plus. The app does a ton of work for you, using face detect to frame each photo and video clip perfectly (and if you're not happy with the auto-edits, you can always change it yourself).
With Quik, you can pick and edit over 22 video styles with different transitions and graphics, while still having creative control over font, eye-catching graphics, and effect filters for any type of video.
The only big difference between Quik and Clips? You guessed it – no live text talking option, so you'll have to add in any speech/talking afterwards with captions.
Cows love to rub stuff with their faces and bodies, so lots of farms like the Hof Butenland Foundation install these rotating cow brushes. Rescue cow Paul is no exception. (more…)
The folks at the Monterey Bay Aquarium have been streaming this live jellyfish tank footage since March. And its soothing music and peaceful underwater seascape make it the perfect relaxing background video. There's also a live shark cam for those who want a little more variety in their sea creature video feeds:
Hinted at in previous teardowns, screenshot editing tools in the Google app are beginning to go live for some users. Once enabled, screenshots can be usefully cropped and drawn on before being shared.
Google has today announced a major expansion of the Fact Check tool it first introduced back in October of last year to help counter fake news. The tool was initially limited to Google News, and restricted to just two countries, the UK and USA.
Google says that it is now making the tool available in Search as well as News, and rolling it out globally in all languages.
With thousands of new articles published online every minute of every day, the amount of content confronting people online can be overwhelming. And unfortunately, not all of it is factual or true, making it hard for people to distinguish fact from fiction. That’s why last October, along with our partners at Jigsaw, we announced that in a few countries we would start enabling publishers to show a “Fact Check” tag in Google News for news stories. This label identifies articles that include information fact checked by news publishers and fact-checking organizations.
After assessing feedback from both users and publishers, we’re making the Fact Check label in Google News available everywhere, and expanding it into Search globally in all languages
You won’t, however, be offered a Fact Check for every single search you conduct …
A couple of weeks ago, Google told us on its blog about some new features Allo would soon be getting. Today, Google Allo’s head of product has confirmed to us on Twitter that one of those features, the new button for quick access to Assistant, is now rolling out for everyone.
Universal Basic Income isn't just one proposal: it's a whole spectrum of ideas, with different glosses and nuances coming from the right and the left, from libertarians and those of a more paternalistic bent.
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Pet toys can make your dog or cat happier, more mentally engaged, and more entertaining to hang out with. Buying toys is fine, but it can add up and sometimes your pet might not like the new toy. Making your own from stuff you already have at home cuts down on costs and gives your pet an endless supply of fun things to play with.
These DIY toys shouldn’t take you too long to make, especially if you set aside a weekend morning to bust them out and then let your pet go wild.
Dogs
Braided rope: Turn an old t-shirt or two into a braided rope you and your dog can play tug-o-war or fetch.
Tennis ball treats: Cut a slit in a tennis ball, pop a couple treats in, and give it to your dog to figure out how to get the treats out.
Water bottle in a sock: Put an empty water bottle in a sock and tie the top closed. If crinkling noises annoy you, don’t make this one!
An empty milk or juice jug: You’ll need to toss this one if your dog chews it into pieces. Keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t eat any of the pieces.
Knotted fabric: Any heavy fabric, like denim or a towel, cut into a large strip and knotted to create a chew toy that you can also use for fetch.
No sew bed: Okay, this isn’t a toy, but it’ll be a great spot for your pup to rest after playing.
Cats
Fabric on a string: A floaty fabric (or feathers if you have them) tied to a string.
Puzzle feeders: Poke a hole in a plastic container, put a couple treats inside, and leave your cat to try and get them out.
Cardboard roll: Honestly, this is good as is. Your cat will love it.
Scratching stump: Cut strips of cardboard that are three to four inches wide. Roll the first strip tightly in on itself to create a cylinder. Tape the end down and roll another strip around the first, continue until your stump is as large as you want. Lay it flat and sprinkle catnip into the cardboard.
Ramps: Set up ramps (from scrap wood, heavy cardboard, or plastic tub lids) so your cat can get a bird’s eye view of your home.
Cat tent: A cozy spot for your kitty to nap after playing. You just need a t-shirt, two wire hangers, and cardboard.
If your pet who tends to eat things they shouldn’t, be watchful when they play with their new toys. If you’ve made one of these toys before, or have another DIY toy that your pet loved, share it in the discussion below.
Price starts at £129 for both devices from Google's store and retail partners.
As previously announced, today's the day Google Home and Google Wifi go on sale in the UK, as Google begins a broader international push for its connected speaker and wireless router products. Both are listed on Google's own store and retail partners including high street names like Currys, Argos, Maplin and John Lewis. A single Google Home or Google Wifi will set you back £129, while a 2-pack of Google Wifi routers lets you kick off your mesh network for £229.
UK-specific partners for Google Home include the BBC, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Sun, The Telegraph, Huffington Post, Sky News, and Sky Sports as part of the daily news brief. As for music, local partners include Google Play Music, Spotify, TuneIn, and live radio from the BBC.
Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu linux distribution, has been trying to make a dent in the mobile market for years. Back in 2012, it developed a feature that allowed phones to dock into full Ubuntu PCs, similar to Samsung DeX. That eventually evolved into Ubuntu for phones and tablets, a mobile OS specifically designed to work as as phone and portable PC.
In a blog post, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth announced the end of Unity 8's development, which would have been Ubuntu's new interface across all platforms.
With Easter just a few weeks away, it’s the perfect time to revisit this adorable video from 2013. This baby really wasn’t expecting her sister’s toy Easter hen to have an extra surprise in store for her.
Monzo, one of a number of so-called “challenger” banks in the U.K. aiming to re-invent the current account, has had the “restrictions” on its banking license lifted and says it will begin rolling out full current accounts to its pre-paid card and beta app users. Read More
A self-driving shuttle will ferry around 100 people in Greenwich, London along a short route on a public cycle and pedestrian path over the next three weeks, in a trial using Oxbotica’s driverless vehicle technology. The goal, according to Oxbotica, is to show average people that they can safely share space with autonomous cars, helping dissuade any perception of threat and generally… Read More
There are several apps on the market that help you track your spending (Parity), save money (Pennies), or invest (Moneybox) using basic machine learning. Now an ambitious startup wants to do all three. Based out of London, new startup Oval (Apple, Android) will combine expense tracking, saving, and investing into one app, while also adding a social element by enabling its community of users… Read More
We’ve talked about what a VPN is plenty of times before, but let’s take a second for a quick refresher. A VPN encrypts your data before it leaves your device, and that data stays encrypted while it travels through your local network and internet service provider (ISP) until it reaches the VPN provider’s servers. This process is referred to as “tunneling.” When the traffic reaches the VPN’s servers, it’s decrypted and sent off to the internet at large. This is generally useful if you’re using the internet in a public place, like a coffee shop Wi-Fi network where someone might be trying to spy on your traffic. It’s also useful if you want to hide your traffic from your ISP or get around a government firewall, since they won’t be able to see what websites you visit.
“VPNs Protect You From Ad Tracking”
VPNs will mask your IP address and make you relatively invisible to your ISP, but they will not block the millions of other ad trackers on the internet. Ad networks generally use cookies instead of an IP address to identify you, so if you’re using a VPN to get away from ad tracking, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Worse, some VPN providers actually serve up their own ads or sell your browsing data. The most notorious example of this was Hola Better Internet, which users caught injecting its own ads.
Security comes at the cost of speed, and using a VPN will almost always slow down your internet connection a little bit. Between the security protocols and the encryption, there’s no way around this.
How much this matters depends on what you do on the internet, the speed of your VPN provider, and where you’re tunneling into. If you’re tunneling into a VPN outside of your country, that will add latency no matter what, so expect a slower connection. If you stay within your country, this won’t have the same effect, but it will still be a bit slower than usual. For general browsing this won’t make a huge difference, but you’ll notice slowdown for large file downloads or uploads and video streaming.
Some services and web sites block VPNs altogether because they don’t want you to circumvent region restrictions. Netflix is the most notorious for this, but Hulu tried as well. This might have a different effect depending on where in the world you’re located.
“Using a VPN Makes You Automatically Secure and Private”
The entire purpose of a VPN is security, but if you set it up wrong (or a provider sets it up wrong), then you might lose that security. Likewise, your VPN provider can see all your traffic, which means it can potentially log everything you do or even modify that traffic.
Research published by High-Tech Bridge found that many VPNs used one of several different outdated encryption methods, including the very outdated Point-To-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP). That’s assuming they’re encrypting data at all, VPNs can do whatever they want until someone calls out their BS. Don’t believe me? Earlier this year, security researchers found that 18 percent of VPN apps on Android don’t do the one basic thing VPNs are made to do: encrypt traffic. 84 percent also leaked user data. That’s just on Android.
Logs are also a crucial issue when it comes to privacy. Some VPN providers keep a log of all your traffic, which defeats the purpose of using a VPN for privacy purposes. If you search for a VPN provider and “logging” in a Google query, you should pull up their privacy policy. There, you’ll find if they keep logs of all your traffic, your access logs, or “whatever law enforcement requires,” which is a bit of a cop out because that could encompass a wide range of things. For true privacy and anonymity, Tor is a better bet than a VPN, because it makes it much harder to trace any data back to you.
“There’s a Best VPN”
It would make everyone’s lives easier if someone could compile a list of the best VPNs, right? But it turns out picking a trustworthy and reliable VPN is next to impossible. On the most basic level, why you’re using a VPN affects your search for a reliable one. Some are more about security, some are about getting around regional blocks, while others are more about privacy. Some are in the United States, many are not. All those factors alter how the service works.
Unlike a lot of services we all use, VPNs aren’t regulated and aren’t pushed through security audits. A VPN can say basically anything they want about privacy and security, but nobody is holding them accountable. The only public liability they have comes from users unearthing shady practices.
Which is all to say, you have to do your research. Security takes homework beyond a quick search on Google. We’ve walked through this a bit before: you’ll need to search for a VPN providers logging rules, take a look at forum posts to see if anyone’s talking about them, and test your VPN after you’ve set it up. If you can’t find anything about a VPN provider online, or if a deal sounds “too good to be true,” it probably is. Thankfully, the more popular a service is, the more people hold that service accountable.
VPNs might be in the public eye today, but that doesn’t make them any easier to understand than they were two weeks ago. They’re complicated, nerdy things, and while setting one up is trivial, finding one that’s legit requires the same amount of effort any other $50-$100/year purchase does, so treat it like one.
For our part, we’ve long recommended Private Internet Access, SlickVPN, NordVPN,Hideman, and Tunnelbear because they’ve been reputable over the years, but that’s not an all-inclusive list, nor is it one we can consistently update. The Privacy Site attempts to catalog VPNs based on where they’re located, their logging rules, and more, but even that’s such a complex undertaking that it’s never completely up to date.
Whichever service you go with, make sure you do the required research ahead of time, then take a few extra moments to make sure everything is set up and properly working.
It's important to take advantage of WiFi in this era of capped data plans, but what if you forget to turn your WiFi on? That might happen much less often in Android O. There's a feature (not currently active) that can turn your WiFi on for you when you get near a saved network.
Based on the limited information available, this feature will turn your WiFi on automatically based on your location.
In the Olympics, there should be a medal for how impressive a synchronized swimming routine looks upside down and underwater.
(via @ziyatong, thanks UPSO!)
Great news if you’re the sort of person who just wants to kick back and watch movies on your laptop when you’re flying. The Netflix app for Windows 10 now supports offline playback, meaning you can download shows and movies and save them for when you don’t have Wi-Fi.
Netflix added offline playback to its mobile iOS and Android apps last year, which was very useful but meant you were limited to watching on a phone or tablet. (Indeed I put it to use last time I was on a plane; I stuck with some comedy specials since watching a feature-length movie on a phone didn’t really sound too appealing.) But now they’re bringing that same feature to the Netflix Windows 10 app, as first reported by MSPoweruser.
You can’t download any movie or show on Netflix (they’re limited by their licensing deals with studios), but there are plenty to choose from, particularly Netflix originals like Stranger Things and House of Cards. So now you can load up your laptop for whenever you don’t have decent internet service and watch to your heart’s content. The update to the Windows 10 app should be rolling out today. You can find the free app in the Windows Store.
The research arm of StatCounter, an independent web analytics company, has revealed an interesting stat today: according to its numbers, Android has overtaken Windows for the first time in terms of worldwide total internet usage.
This bold statement comes with a lot of asterisks. We're talking about total internet usage here, not sales numbers or users. We're also looking at worldwide usage across all platforms combined (desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile). And even then, the difference is minimal at 37.93% for Android compared to 37.91% for Windows.
New data from comScore shows that Roku leads the market in streaming TV boxes, with an 18% market share, giving it close to the combined totals of its closest rivals, Amazon’s fireTV and Google’s Chromecast. Apple TV completes the top four, with a 5% share …
Princess BB is a Japanese white-eye and there’s nothing she loves more than getting massaged by Q-tips. So much so, in fact, that sometimes she forgets to focus on anything else.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSBZFILBgrf/
As you can see below, she also enjoys listening to Phantom of the Opera, taking baths, and hanging out with her owner.
There's lots to wrap your head around in Google Photos, but the new Assistant feature is here to help.
Whether you want to check up on the status of your photo backups, see the Creations that Google Photos has made for you, or be alerted of space to be freed up on your device, Assistant is the place to go. It's just a tap, swipe, or click away from your photo library, and it'll keep you in the loop with what's going on in the Google Photos world.
It's like an all-in-one notification center for everything that's happening with your photos, and it's quite useful. Here's how you use it.
If you just opened up Google Photos for the first time and got straight into viewing photos, you may have missed the Assistant area. You'll find the menu in the slide-in left panel of the Google Photos app or website or by simply swiping to the right across the main gallery view.
The Assistant is appropriately named, as it's the one place where you'll get updates about what's happening with your Google Photos library. You'll get Google Now-like cards that show when photos are being backed up, whether the phone is waiting to charge before uploading, and when new "Creations" (formerly known as Auto Awesomes) are available to view and act on. You can even get notified when your device is running low on internal storage and with a single tap clear out local versions of photos that have already been backed up to Google Photos.
Cards will each offer you different actions, but in general they'll be pretty basic — either act on the item with a tap on the function at the bottom, or swipe away the card to dismiss it. Some notifications in Assistant such as a battery upload warning can't be swiped away but will clear on their own once the function has been completed.
How to view Assistant notifications
Open Google Photos.
Tap on the plus icon at the bottom left of your screen to open Assistant. Here you will see cards with new creations, and other notifications.
How to enable Google Photos notifications
Open Google Photos.
Tap the overflow button in the upper left corner of your screen. It looks like three stacked lines.
Tap on the gear icon to open settings.
Scroll down and tap on the toggle to turn notifications on or off.
How to disable Assistant cards
Open Google Photos.
Tap the overflow button in the upper left corner of your screen. It looks like three stacked lines.
Tap on the gear icon to open settings.
Tap on Assistant cards.
Tap on the toggle to disable the type of Assistant card you don't want to see anymore.
With Assistant at the ready, you'll never be left out of what's happening in your Google Photos library.
With warm weather comes pollen, and that means seasonal allergies for a lot of people. Nasal sprays are an effective way to treat the symptoms, but over reliance with some varieties can actually make you feel worse in the long run.
Topical decongesting nasal sprays, like Afrin or the generic oxymetazoline, work by shrinking inflamed blood vessels in the nasal passages, thus unclogging your sinuses so more air can flow through. But, as Dr. Madeleine Schaberg of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai explains to Women’s Health, frequent use of these nasal sprays cause more problems than they resolve. After a few days of continual use, those blood vessels develop a slight addiction and come to rely on the drug, which causes them to swell beyond their normal size when they don’t get that next hit. This causes your congestion to rebound and get even worse, or what’s known as rhinitis medicamentosa. The more you rely on the spray, the worse it can get over time.
But don’t fret, it’s pretty easy to avoid rebound congestion. Schaberg says that topical nasal sprays can still be used sparingly, but you should included other decongestants in your anti-allergy arsenal. Nasal saline rinses, neti pot flushes, and antihistamines can be thrown into the mix. You can also try an over-the-counter steroidal nasal spray like Flonase or Nasacort that won’t give you the same problems.
Update: A medical expert contacted me and provided clarifications regarding the various types of nasal sprays. The content above has been updated to reflect this new information.
Monzo, one of a number of so-called “challenger” banks in the U.K. aiming to re-invent the current account, has had the “restrictions” on its banking license lifted and says it will begin rolling out full current accounts to its pre-paid card and beta app users. 
A self-driving shuttle will ferry around 100 people in Greenwich, London along a short route on a public cycle and pedestrian path over the next three weeks, in a trial using Oxbotica’s driverless vehicle technology. The goal, according to Oxbotica, is to show average people that they can safely share space with autonomous cars, helping dissuade any perception of threat and generally… 
There are several apps on the market that help you track your spending (Parity), save money (Pennies), or invest (Moneybox) using basic machine learning. Now an ambitious startup wants to do all three. Based out of London, new startup Oval (Apple, Android) will combine expense tracking, saving, and investing into one app, while also adding a social element by enabling its community of users… 
Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android games that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.
