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After the announcement of Duo and Allo, the newest in a long line of Google messaging apps, Google made it clear that Hangouts would be re-positioned for corporate use. Last month, a new 'Meet by Google Hangouts' app appeared on the iOS App Store, revealing that a major reworking for Hangouts was nearing completion. Now, Google has officially announced Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat.

First up is Hangouts Meet, a video-conferencing platform with the goal of making online meetings as painless as possible.

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Google officially splits Hangouts into 'Meet' and 'Chat,' new apps and @meet chat bot coming soon was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

You’ve tried to curb your spending problem. You’ve frozen your credit cards. You won’t travel within a mile radius of a Best Buy, Marshall’s, Sephora, or wherever else your spending weakness hits hardest. Yet, somehow, you’re still screwing up your budget every month. It’s time to get your impulsive spending under control once and for all.

The problem with most “stop impulsive spending” tips is they don’t focus on the right thing: your willpower. I guess it might be helpful to literally cut up your credit cards, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that you’re still tempted to buy stuff. Certified Financial Planner Carl Richards advises people to create space between the stimulus (your impulse to buy a new gadget you don’t need) and the response (your decision to buy the gadget). In other words, don’t just avoid your impulse or deal with the aftermath of it—fight it. Spending hacks can help, but if you really want to nip the problem in the bud, focus on your willpower with these tips instead.

Wait It Out

The easiest way to test and hone your willpower? Force yourself to wait.

A friend uses something I call the “$100 Rule.” When she has the urge to buy something that costs $100 or more, she forces herself to wait at least a week. This way, she has time to think about whether or not she actually wants the thing or if she’s just being impulsive. Adjust the numbers to suit your own budget. Maybe you’re flat broke and even a $25 purchase will set you back. Change it to the $25 rule. Or maybe you’re balling and $100 is nothing to you. Cool, make it the $1,000 rule.

The point is just to give yourself time to make a conscious spending decision that fits your budget. Bonus: when you wait, you also give yourself time to look for deals or discounts.

Impulse spending isn’t always expensive, though. Sometimes it’s lipstick at the cash register or a new phone case on Amazon. For small purchases like these, I follow the 10/10 Rule. If I’m thinking about buying something that’s $10 or less, I don’t spend more than 10 minutes thinking about it. If the item costs more than $10 and I’m still not sure, it goes back on the shelf, no matter what. It’s basic, I know, but for those impulse items, it works fairly well. Again, you can adjust the numbers to suit your own situation.

I recently wrote about Amazon Contemplate, too. It’s a Chrome extension that’s perfect for this sort of thing. When you click to buy something on Amazon, it forces you to wait 30 seconds to really think about whether or not you want that item. Half a minute isn’t a long time, but sometimes it’s all you need to stop yourself from being impulsive.

Focus on Opportunity Cost

This is why it helps to have goals. When you’re saving up for a goal, it’s a lot easier to resist the urge to spend because you can think of impulsive spending as the enemy of your financial goal. Oh, you want to get out of debt by July? That new pair of shoes you don’t actually need will set you back until September.

There’s a technical term for this: opportunity cost. Investopedia defines opportunity cost as “the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.” In this context, opportunity cost is the thing you give up when you use your money to buy crap you don’t need.

Opportunity is the key word here. Let’s face it, when you have to deny yourself of a splurge, it usually feels like a sacrifice. No one likes sacrifice. When you have a savings goal, though, you’re able to reframe “sacrifice” as an opportunity. You now have the opportunity to use your money in a better way. It’s up to you to take that opportunity, but it’s a lot easier to take control of your money when you can see how it will benefit you.

Splurge Strategically

When I first started budgeting, I really overestimated my willpower. I figured I could fight every temptation to spend, so I budgeted zero room for anything that wasn’t debt or bills. You can probably guess what happened next. I destroyed my budget because it wasn’t realistic. And, since my budget was already destroyed, I would just keep splurging because what’s the point?

It took me a long time to get realistic with my budget. Let’s not forget that money is just a tool. It’s okay to spend it! There’s nothing wrong with splurging on something you love every now and then, you just want to do it strategically. This way, you don’t burn yourself out but you’re also not spending money like crazy.

Create a small splurge fund or add a category for splurging in your budget. Don’t get crazy with it, of course. It’s not meant to afford some luxurious lifestyle, it’s just a small pool of money you can draw from when you’re tempted to treat yourself. This way, you have boundaries and guidelines so you can splurge strategically. You’re bound to whatever amount is in that fund.

When you splurge, it also helps to splurge on the stuff you love, not the stuff you like. This way, you get more out of your spending and it’s more fulfilling. Divide your spending into two categories: likes, and loves. What kind of stuff you do love spending money on and what kind of stuff do you just like spending money on? I like spending money on clothes but I love spending money on travel. Ditch the likes and focus on your spending on the things you love instead. This helps weed out impulsive purchases you later regret. Here’s how finance site Phroogal explains it:

Take a step back and ask yourself, “how many purchases have you made that you only liked and didn’t really love?” Quite a few? You’re not alone. Imagine all my $40 dinners I had in span of a 30 days. That’s $1200 enough for an all inclusive trip to the Dominican Republic for two people. I would complain I didn’t have the money to go on vacation but I was continuing to buy things I liked over what I said I loved…traveling.

In trying to exercise your willpower, you also don’t want to burn yourself out on it. Part of exercising your willpower is understanding your limits. No one has an unlimited supply of willpower. That said, you probably have more than you think, it just takes learning to build it, which can be especially hard when it comes to money. These tips are harder to implement because they focus on restraint, but in the long run, they’ll probably pay off more (literally).

 The fundamental components of computers are becoming small enough that they are pressing against the boundaries of the familiar world of Newtonian physics. And nowhere is the scale and precision of operation on better display than in hard disk drives, where a trillion bits may fit in a square inch. But IBM has outdone them all by reading and writing data to a single atom. Read More

True's beaked whales spend much of their time deep underwater, so much of what we know about the mysterious species comes from stranded corpses. That's why a live sighting of a pod including underwater footage is so remarkable. (more…)

I'm playing this recording of soft droning engine noise from Star Trek TNG as I type this and I can hardly keep my eyes open. This is just one of several space ship sounds recordings featured on Open Culture. There's also the USCSS Nostromo from Alien, Dr. Who's Tardis (yes, not really a spac.... ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz

One of the two Ford Mustang automobiles used in the filming of the Steve McQueen classic 'Bullitt' has been found. Long missing, the green pony car was found wasting away in a Baja, Mexico junkyard.

https://youtu.be/31JgMAHVeg0

The car is now being restored.

Via the LA Times:

Paramount-based body shop owner Ralph Garcia Jr., who has made a career building replicas of the “Eleanor” Mustang featured in the Nicolas Cage movie “Gone in 60 Seconds,” said he was contacted by an associate in Mexico. He had found a clean ‘68 Mustang fastback that he thought would be a good candidate for “Eleanor”-ization.

Ralph Garcia Jr., Kevin Marti and Hugo Sanchez pose in front of the reputed "Bullitt" car.

The associate, Hugo Sanchez, delivered the car to a shop Garcia owns in Mexicali, Mexico. It was scheduled for restoration when Sanchez called Garcia and told him that he had run the vehicle identification numbers on the car and discovered it was no ordinary Mustang.

“I was going to turn it into another ‘Eleanor’ car, but my partner Googled the VIN,” Garcia said. “That’s how he found out it was the ‘Bullitt’ car. He said, ‘You can’t touch it!’ ”

The pair later enlisted the expert opinion of Ford evaluator Kevin Marti, who gave the car his official seal of approval.

Though initially skeptical — “I see car fraud on a daily basis” — Marti asked Garcia for detailed photos of the car, then traveled to Mexicali to inspect it in person.

“Then I was sure,” he said, after checking VIN stamps and specific aspects of the car that would likely be unknown to anyone attempting to pass off a regular Mustang as the “Bullitt” car.

Marti said there were two identical cars used in the filming of “Bullitt,” a “hero” car that was used for the casual driving scenes, and a “jumper” car that was used for the dramatic chases, some of which involve airborne launches.

“This is the jumper,” Marti said, based on documents obtained from the filming and alterations to the car’s suspension system

 I’m convinced that if humans could find fun in simple games as easily as pets, our world would be a healthier place. Watching footage of dogs playing with Hansen Goh’s Pebby pet toy, launched today, has only persuaded me of this further. The smartphone-controlled mechanized ball keeps pets active and in good spirits, letting owners remotely draw their companions from one room to… Read More

There is something timeless about a black and white portrait. Let’s look at a few examples from several photographers. Here are 21 fine examples of dramatic black and white portraits.

The post 21 Dramatic Black and White Portraits by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

NVIDIA has one of the best track records for software support among Android manufacturers. The original Nvidia Shield tablet, originally released in 2014 with Android 4.4 KitKat, is still being updated and currently runs Android 7.0 Nougat. Now both the original Shield Tablet and the newer Tablet K1 have a new update.

The update, referred to as 'Software Upgrade 5.1' by NVIDIA, unfortunately doesn't include the latest Android 7.1 update. Instead, the update fixes issues with the included Launcher3, addresses a problem with the cursor when using a mouse, and includes several other minor stability fixes.

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Software Upgrade 5.1 now available for Shield Tablet and Tablet K1 was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

While Spotify remains primarily a streaming music service, the apps and web portals have become more and more capable as the company continually tweaks them. That looks to continue as Spotify has acquired Sonalytic, a tech firm dedicated to audio and music recognition systems. The terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed in the short announcement post on Spotify's blog, but the company did say that Sonalytic's expertise would be used for "improving Spotify’s personalized playlists, matching songs with compositions, [and]improve our publishing data system."

Sonalytic, Inc.

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Spotify acquires sound identification firm Sonalytic was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

StatCounter is out today with its data for February 2017 and highlights that Android is inching closer to passing Windows as the most popular operating system for internet usage worldwide.

more…

Filed under: Google Corporate

Today is the fifth anniversary of the Google Play Store. That's right, it has been five years since we saw the last of the Android Market - unless you had a very old device that never received the redesigned store app. To celebrate, Google is taking $5 off any book on Google Play Books - as long as it costs more than $5 to begin with.

To use this discount, open the Play Store app, switch to the books tab, and tap the 'Celebrate Play's 5th Birthday' banner.

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[Deal Alert] Get $5 off on any book over $5 on Google Play was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

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.

Games

Shadowmatic

Android Police coverage: Shadowmatic is a gorgeous puzzle game of space and silhouettes

Shadowmatic took its sweet, sweet time coming to Android, but the game is so pretty I'm minded to forgive it.

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28 new and notable Android games from the last 2 weeks (2/22/17 - 3/6/17) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Sugar isn’t inherently bad for you, but producers add so much of the stuff to their food and drink it’s way past overkill. Trouble is, a number like “20g of sugar” on a nutrition label isn’t easy to comprehend. This trick will help.

In the video above from the Business Insider YouTube channel, registered nutritionist Andy Bellatti explains a simple way to mentally visualize how much sugar is your favorite snacks and beverages. Take the listed grams of sugar, then divide by four. That’s how many teaspoons, or small spoonfuls, of sugar are in there. If, for example, your soda has 20g of sugar in it, that means it has five teaspoons of sugar. If you were to go measure those out and dump them in a bowl, it wouldn’t seem nearly as appetizing. Ideally, you should keep your added sugar intake to less than 40g per day, so keep that in mind as you do your shopping.

A nutritionist explains an easy way to understand how much sugar you’re eating daily | YouTube

I can't stop watching this video of someone slowly, carefully, unerringly directing his speedboat into a pole on a large body of water.

Here is a bonus video of someone slowly, carefully, unerringly directing a container ship into a large body of land.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLHP9h8zYD0

 HomeTouch, the U.K. home care marketplace, is announcing its nation-wide launch today, along with revealing that it now counts 500 Startups as a backer. Read More

In online communities where piracy is discussed on a regular basis, several base questions continually raise their heads. What’s the best and quickest torrent client? What is the largest torrent site? Which streaming platforms get movies quickest?

But perhaps the most common questions asked, particularly by newcomers to the arena, surround the legality or otherwise of consuming media online without copyright holders’ permission.

With torrents (where the user not only downloads but also uploads) sharing copyrighted content is illegal in the majority of countries with strong copyright law, such as North America, Europe, Australia etc. There are plenty of cases that have ended badly for uploaders, hence the rise of VPNs.

These days, however, people are increasingly asking questions about streaming copyrighted content. Whether that’s to a PC, tablet, phone, or Kodi-type device, streaming is becoming increasingly popular and thus questions about legality are on the rise.

Streaming is without a doubt a safer option than using torrents since there is no uploading (distribution). Without this crucial element, it is almost impossible for a user to be tracked and if they can’t be tracked, they can’t be punished or even warned. It’s notable that the UK’s piracy warning scheme, for example, makes no attempt to reach people who are streaming content, because it’s impossible.

So, in practical terms (if people have no problem with potential ethical issues) streaming illegal content is almost 100% safe. No one has ever been prosecuted for merely streaming content and with the rise of Kodi devices (which almost exclusively employ streaming), it’s not difficult to see the problems faced by copyright holders.

Dozens of headlines in mainstream news articles suggest that people who misuse Kodi could get into trouble. But these articles often blur the distinction between sellers and users, where the former is probably breaking the law and the latter operates in a gray area. Interestingly, however, we now have a voice in authority daring to say what most anti-piracy outfits will not.

In an article discussing Kodi, Derbyshire Council Trading Standards begin by noting the problems faced by sellers.

“Kodi is a legitimate piece of software and the developers do not support its use for illegal purposes,” a spokesperson said.

“Derbyshire County Council trading standards officers believe it is illegal under copyright legislation to sell Kodi boxes installed with those add-ons that facilitate the illegal streaming of copyrighted material – although there are court cases pending elsewhere in the UK that will provide further clarification.”

However, most people aren’t sellers, they’re users, and according to Trading Standards, they likely have little to worry about, despite industry claims to the contrary.

“Accessing premium paid-for content without a subscription is considered by the industry as unlawful access, although streaming something online, rather than downloading a file, is likely to be exempt from copyright laws,” the spokesperson added.

This statement certainly carries some weight. Although in a different region of the UK, Trading Standards is the driving force behind the prosecution of Kodi box seller Brian Thompson who entered a not guilty plea in January. He’ll face a trial in a couple of months but it now seems more clear than ever that his customers and millions like them around the country are not breaking the law, a position that’s shared by the EU Commission.

But while people guzzle on the latest movies and sporting events for free, moves are underway to try and close these loopholes. In February the UK government launched a consultation into IPTV and Kodi-enable devices, to see how the law could be tightened up.

The consultation is in its very early stages but there appears to be an effort to target not only sellers but also end users under titles such as “fraudulent reception of transmissions” and “obtaining services dishonestly.” Only time will tell how this will play out but for now at least, it appears that Kodi and other streamers are being given the green light.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Bavaria's Verfassungsschutz -- "Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution" -- says that the Haus der Kunst, one of the world's top contemporary art galleries, was infiltrated by Scientologists who rose through the ranks, illegally discriminated against non-Scientologists when hiring, and waged psychological warfare against staff who were not members of the cult. (more…)

The Witnesses’ annual conventions are now recognized as religious holidays, reaffirming the right of parents to educate their children according to their religious beliefs.

Your role at the doctor’s office isn’t over when you describe your problem. You have to understand what your provider is telling you—and that goes double if you’re signing a form to say you understand the risks of a procedure or of being involved in a study.

Some providers do a better job than others of explaining, but two doctors write in the New York Times that if you ask the right questions, you have a better chance of learning what you’re really getting into. For example:

• Summarize what you heard, in your own words. Ask whether you got it right. This not only gives your doc a chance to correct any misconceptions, it’s also a great strategy for remembering things better.
• Ask for a written copy of the instructions, or even pictures or videos. Providers may have these on hand or be able to point you to good sources of information.
• Ask for the best case, worst case, and most likely scenarios. This can help you sort through a confusing list of risks, and understand better whether the procedure or treatment is even worthwhile.
• Explore alternative treatment options, and ask about the pros and cons of each. Your provider might be recommending the one she’s most experienced or comfortable with, but you deserve to know what other options are out there.

Read about more questions, and the reasons why doctor-patient communication doesn’t always go so well, at the link below.

Informed Patient? Don’t Bet on It | The New York Times

The idea of the 2,000 calorie diet is baked in to a lot of nutrition advice. It’s the basis for all of the daily values on food labels, for example. But it turns out that 2,000 is the wrong number for almost everybody. These charts show what people actually need to eat to maintain their weight.

Only 20 percent of women and 2 percent of men burn 2,000 calories a day or less. The average woman burns a little over 2,300 calories and the average for men is 3,100 calories. The charts you see here come from FitFolk, but they’re based on data from government studies.

So why do we use 2,000 as a standard number? Marion Nestle at Food Politics has the story behind that. The FDA originally proposed 2,350 calories, which is lower than the overall average—but then they started getting comments saying that number just seemed too high.

It turns out we are terrible at estimating our calorie consumption: women report consuming 1,600 to 2,300 calories per day, and men report 2,000 to 3,000. So, because we are lying to ourselves, the real numbers were too difficult to believe.

So the FDA decided to go with 2,000 calories, because that was the number that people liked the best—even though it was wrong. Two small perks were that lowballing the estimate might help people lose weight; and, hey, it’s a nice round number.

Read more at Food Politics for the story behind the numbers (or pick up Nestle’s book on the same subject), and check out the link below at FitFolk for an explanation of the charts.

What Are the Average Calories Burned Per Day by Men and Women? | FitFolk

BadUSB is bad news: malware that targets the firmware in your USB port's embedded system, bypassing the OS, antivirus software and other countermeasures. (more…)

Fifty years ago, American Airlines' flight from New York to Los Angeles took 5 hours and 43 minutes. The same flight is 6 hours and 27 minutes today. Wendover Productions examines why planes don't fly faster in this interesting video. (more…)

Under a new proposal from the UK Law Commission, journalists who handle or report on leaked documents demonstrating corruption or government malfeasance would face prison sentences. (more…)

Google Photos has long been one of my favorite services from the company, mostly because it just works so well. Then, to make things even better, Google goes and adds new features that I didn’t even know I needed. Now, the company has revealed in a blog post that the service will be picking up a new editing feature ─ auto white balance.

more…

Filed under: Google Corporate

 Thank you to our 50 million subscribers. #Spotify50 pic.twitter.com/eXkOV71bwu — Spotify (@Spotify) March 2, 2017 Spotify has reached a new milestone after it crossed 50 million paying users. The service is currently available in over 60 markets, with a total catalog of more than 30 million songs on off. The streaming firm clocked 40 million ‘Premium’ subscribers in… Read More

 OpenRent, one of a number of online letting agents (or realtor, as it might be described in the U.S.), has picked up £4.4 million in backing from Rocket Internet’s venture arm Global Founders Capital. Read More