This is the time of the year teachers make decisions about social media, but this year the decisions are harder than usual. I actually reported this post when it was first published back in 2012. Doug Peterson offers what would usually be good advice: grab that class hashtag and start using it on Twitter. And tie this into your classroom blogging. Great, right? But is Twitter really an appropriate venue for learning? People have asked this question in the past, but this year they are asking it with more urgency. I don't have any good answers here, but teachers need to ask themselves the questions before they take to social media.
Chrome just turned 10 and Google is celebrating with a big update to its Chrome browser on iOS and the Mac. The update, which was announced on Google’s The Keyword blog, includes a redesign of the app’s UI, improvements to password management, answers to common queries directly from Google’s Omnibox, new personalization options, and under-the-hood enhancements.
Front and center is a redesign of Chrome’s UI. Iconography, text fields, and tabs all have more rounded corners than previously. Google has also adjusted the color palette used. The overall effect has a more lightweight feel, especially on the Mac where there is abundant white space.
Chrome’s password manager is improved too. Google says the app is better at filling in names, addresses, and credit card information in web forms. Chrome also generates, saves, and syncs your passwords across platforms.
If all you need is a simple answer to a question, Google’s combination search bar/address bar, which it calls the Omnibox, will now display relevant information as you type on the Mac. Google says the Omnibox will return definitions in the drop-down results as you type as well as information about people and other subjects. In my limited testing, I was able to display definitions from the Omnibox, but I couldn’t recreate the other results demonstrated by Google in its announcement.
Definitions and other information is available from the Omnibox.
Google has also added shortcut management to newly opened tabs, which can also feature a photo of your choice in the background. Google also mentions that it is experimenting with under-the-hood changes to improve Chrome’s overall performance that are covered in detail on its developer blog.
Colin Kaepernick is the new face of Nike’s 30th-anniversary “Just Do It” campaign. Cue outrage and applause. All across America, red-faced blowhards are spewing venom while chucking their Nike kicks onto barbecues. But, at Nike HQ’s just outside Portland, I’m betting all that burnt rubber smells like victory.
The timing is well-orchestrated, thanks to the NFL’s 99th season opening in a couple days, on the heels of a summary judgment that clears a path for Colin Kaepernick’s collusion lawsuit against the league.
Of course, even some of those on the side of racial justice and Black Lives Matter are saying the timing is all too convenient, and oh-so-commercial. After all, Kaepernick’s jersey was in the top 50 NFL best-sellers last year, despite remaining unsigned all season after his kneeling-during-the-anthem rebellion took hold in the NFL.
Maybe it was just business for Nike. So?
Back when they made Michael Jordan the face of their brand, it blew teeny minds all across the advertising sphere, but then it blew their brand into one of the biggest in the world.
Yes, Black men could be the face of a campaign. Yes, Black men could sell.
Was that a commercial ploy? Or was it a social position?
Why can’t it be both? Why do we demand principles be selfless?
When Michael Jordan became a pitch man in 1984, it was a turning point for Blacks in America. It didn’t change things overnight, and lord knows we’ve far to go, but the Air Jordan explosion was important. It empowered Black athletes. 1984 was huge. Air Jordans launched around the same time that the now-scandalized Cosby Show aired, changing the way a lot of us fish-belly white folk perceived Black Americans. With that, we also began seeing more Black faces reporting the news, rather than being covered in it.
It was a cultural shift, it wasn’t just a shoe or an advertising campaign or a show.
Ever since the Air Jordan days, Nike’s made rebellion its business.
So, the news of Colin Kaepernick having been signed all along as Trump and other wrong-minded people railed about vets and patriotism, well, it’s ruffling some feathers with folks who think Nike should’ve stood up long ago. The company admits it was waiting for the right moment to drop its campaign. Enter skepticism.
Here’s the thing, though. Had Nike come right out at the beginning of Kaepernick’s rebellion, it’d have accomplished nothing. They’d have kicked up some sand, pissed off the league, and the rebellion would continue on the trajectory much as it has.
But, now, Nike has recently extended their deal with the NFL. They’re the team’s official outfitter through to 2028. The contract’s locked. The season kicks off this week and all 32 teams will continue wearing the Nike swoosh when they hit the gridiron.
The timing goes beyond the season opener, though. Just 10 days or so ago, the political rising star from the Lone Star State, Beto O’Rourke, went viral with nearly 20 million views on a Now This video where he explained to a voter that he could think of “nothing more American” than peacefully standing, or taking a knee in protest, during the anthem.
So, what better time for Nike to launch their Just Do It campaign featuring Kaepernick? That he’s had all his legal obstacles cleared to sue the league they’re outfitting is icing on the cake.
Some say it’s risky. Not really. We know the guys barbecuing their Nike shoes with a fist full of Bud beer aren’t the brand’s target audience anyhow. They’re the guys who are in it for a shoe, not a brand, not a lifestyle, not an ethos.
Maybe it’s not risky at all. Maybe it’s the most lucrative move the brand has ever made, making the Nike swoosh synonymous with not taking shit from a system that isn’t down with freedom, that puts money before righteousness.
Maybe it was sheer genius to wait until the wrong-headed ignorance of the NFL declaration that kneeling during anthems won’t be tolerated this season, before they announced Kaepernick as being top-dollar 30th-anniversary poster boy.
Just Do It. Colin did. Swoosh!
And, if so, well, I hope Nike takes it to the bank. Let the mere act of wearing Nike be akin to saying “fuck that racist shit.” In a world where it seems we’re veering ever more right by the day, it’s a ballsy move but arguably a critical one, a way to passively say exactly where you stand on ICE, on oppression, on racism, just by choosing a shirt from the closet.
For anyone too jaded to accept an act of rebellion having a financial payday, get over it. Drop the naivety.
Being ethical should not have to be without an upside. Being ethical shouldn’t have to be uncalculated. Being ethical shouldn’t have to require financial penalty or austerity to be valid.
It’s naive — and dangerous — to think ethics must exclude reward.
In a perfect world, making the right decision and being on the moral side of the coin would mean a deluge of dollars, not a downpour of commercial consequences.
But if justice warriors and other fighters for the greater good continue to insist that business decisions positioning brands on the side of morality must come without profit or reward, it’ll hurt us in the long run. Companies must be able to be both ethical and profitable without apologizing for profit.
Nike has chosen social justice as a platform. They have brilliantly orchestrated their campaigns to have loud impact with masterful timing, while capitalizing on social dissension and political missteps to bolster their brand.
Good for them.
And if they change some minds and advance the causes of equality and righteousness while they’re at it? Then Just Do It, indeed.
Hi. I’m Steff. I’m a Canadian freelance writer who went nomad and has travelled to 24 countries in three years. I’m a writer for hire and occasionally write about my travels at fullnomad.com. I have a Patreon account here.
It's long been known that waterfall is the superior model for developing software, and we finally (~12 years ago, but probably didn't hit its schedule) have a conference to discuss these important techniques.
Good analysis and criticism here of that study on Facebook and anti-immigrant violence in Germany, from Tyler Cowen:
Even if internet or Facebook outages do have a predictive effect on attacks in some manner, it likely shows that Facebook is a communications medium used to organize gatherings and attacks (as the telephone once might have been), not, as the authors repeatedly suggest, that Facebook is somehow generating and whipping up and controlling racist sentiment over time.
Alex Stamos was until recently the head of cyber security at Facebook:
Social media platforms, including my former employer, made serious mistakes in 2016. Tech companies were still using a definition of cyber-warfare focused on traditional hacking techniques—such as spear-phishing or the spreading of malware—and were not prepared to detect and mitigate the propaganda campaigns that were subsequently found and stopped.
After this morning’s very positive experience at Schiphol Airport, I had high hopes for the balance of the day. As usually happens, we had good times and challenging ones. But we survived, and as I type we are trying to stay up to a regular Atlantic Daylight Time bedtime.
Our transfer in Frankfurt was made much easier by not needing to clear security again (the secret here appeared to be taking the subterranean “passenger tunnel” that connects the A concourse where we arrived to the B concourse where we were to depart; if you happen to take the same tunnel someday, there’s an impressive photo installation by Martin Liebscher lining the wall). On the outbound voyage a couple of weeks ago we didn’t know we’d need to clear security while transferring to our SAS flight to Copenhagen, and it created some early morning jet-lagged transition stress.
Things took a turn for the anxious, however, when we arrived at gate B61, a cavernous basement cattle pen with not enough seats for we who were herded in. The lack of seating was inconvenient, but not stressful; the source of the stress was that each of the three Condor staff that we showed our “print out all attached documents and keep them with you during the whole journey” documents regarding Oliver’s need for assistance paid them no heed, and offered us no assistance whatsoever. As a result, when the pre-board call came, there was a crush of about 150 already checked-in passengers crowding to catch the buses to the apron. So we sat down and caught the last bus, which provided a little more calm. It was frustrating the Condor didn’t rise to the challenge of providing assistance.
The flight across the Atlantic was long (the extra 60 to 90 minutes that the westward flight takes vs. the eastward always makes coming home seem like a long slog). Oliver upped for the €9 “premium entertainment” voucher to avoid having to watch one of the two “free” movies on offer; he watched Yes Man and Love, Simon. Meanwhile I watched four episodes of the new Jack Ryan series, downloaded in advance to my phone from Amazon Prime (the ergonomics of watching a film on a plane are horrible).
Oliver had a brief spasm of anxiety during my pre-landing “oh, right, I need to calculate how much we spent on things” calculations. He was very, very concerned with accuracy (as, of course, I was), and wanted to make sure I included everything, and that I didn’t include anything that we left in Europe. He also was concerned that we had a written record of all purchases and of all the places we visited. So I complied, and compiled. And he calmed down.
When we arrived at the customs line in Halifax there were approximately 300 people waiting in line, a mixture of Condor and Icelandair passengers.
Unable to face the prospect of managing a stressed-out Oliver for however long it would take to wend through the line, I redirected us to the line labeled “crew and special services,” rationing that it was indeed special services that we need. We waiting for about 20 seconds before we were in front of perhaps the kindest, most compassionate border agent I’ve ever met. I introduced him to Oliver; Oliver presented his lists; he complimented Oliver on his lists, and told him that he wish that all passengers were as organized. When he noted that we’d done a lot of stationery shopping in Halifax, he mentioned his own stationery interest, and ended up giving Oliver a pen. This experience reminded me that accessible service for people with autism is simple: just be clear, precise, and friendly. Which is the service that everyone should expect.
After a quick diversion to get a form filled out for the items we mailed ahead, we beat a path to the Quality Inn shuttle bay, and were checked in and in our room within 20 minutes. The Quality Inn doesn’t look like much, and it could certainly use some new hallway carpeting and a coat of paint. But the beds are comfortable and the rooms are clean. I expect, in any case, that we’ll be awake and on the road at 5:00 a.m.
A simple rule of thumb is 1% of members will create 90% of your content.
If you believe this, it makes sense to spend a lot of your time keeping top members happy and highly active. Superuser programs thrive in these environments. They do everything possible to anticipate and satisfy the needs of your best members.
But the data is often a lot more nuanced than this. This is a recent breakdown from a client’s community:
(you can show this in a bar chart, I prefer line graphs).
Yikes!
The top 1% are contributing only 20% to 25% of contributions. Once we dove deeper, it became clear an overwhelming number of these contributions were in a private forum and in off-topic areas (in short, the least valuable areas).
The 1% to 10% group are making over 40% of the contributions to the community. A further dive shows this group both asks and answers most questions outside of the off-topic and social categories.
The 10% to 50% group are creating around 30% of the content. This was primarily the newcomer group and they posted a significant percentage of the new questions which appeared in the community.
Finally, the bottom 50% contributed just 5% of contributions.
We can also see how many posts they make on average per month:
The top 1% post 300+ contributions per month (and rising), the 1% to 10% group post around 60 times per month, the 10% to 50% group post around 10 and the bottom 50% approximately 1.5.
Once we ran a multivariate analysis on this group, we found the no. of contributions from the top member group was negatively correlated with the outcome we were trying to achieve while the number of new members and number of posts from the 1% to 10% groups were most highly correlated with the desired outcome.
Don’t Fall Into The Superuser Fallacy
This is the danger of superuser programs. You can spend a huge amount of time trying to treat your top members like royalty without realising it’s hurting your community’s value.
In the above example, the overwhelming contributions from this group were driving others away and were hurting us. If we want to achieve the best results, we clearly need to focus on the 1% to 10% group (people making an average of 2 posts per day) and attract more newcomers to the site. This is where we want to be spending the bulk of our time.
This is important too because it laser-focuses our strategy on a specific group of members and getting them to make an extra quality post per day. It’s also a lot easier and more effective to get members making 2 posts per day to publish 3 than to get the top 1% posting an additional 30 posts per day.
There are plenty of nuances here. If the top 1% of members are providing all the best content (which often happens in customer support communities), then, by all means, pursue your superuser program with gusto. But be aware that outside of customer support the members who contribute the most to the community’s value are probably not the most active group.
Sports visualization and analysis tends to focus on gameplay — where the players are, where the ball goes, etc. In Reimagine the Game, the focus in on crowd noise through the course of a game. Pick a game and see the waves of noise oscillate through the arena during significant events.
It’s an advertisement feature on The Economist, which is kind of interesting, but it’s still fun to watch the games play out.
Last Friday we ended the Smart Stuff That Matters unconference by smashing an evil robot called Smarty. Elmine, this being her birthday party, officiated by using ‘The Unmaker’, a hammer my colleague Paul brought us. She proceeded to smash the evil robot that made angry buzzing sounds, as a representation of all the ‘wrong’ types of ‘smart’ automatisation. Smarty had been built during the afternoon workshop that Iskander Smit improvised.
As I said at the time, part of ‘smart’ is the social side of things, not just the tech side. And part of those social aspects is the frustration and rage that comes with devices and software not responding or working the way we expect them to. Elmine used the opportunity to take all that out on our evil robot Smarty with gusto.
Elmine says this about the difficulty to describe her feelings about having almost 70 guests, friends, family, clients, peers, neighbours, spend two days in our home. Where the youngest was 8 weeks, the oldest 80 years. Where the shortest trip made was from right next door, and the furthest from Canada and Indonesia, and the rest from somewhere in between:
I try to find words to describe what happened the past few days, but everything I write down feels incomplete and abstract. How do you put into words how much it means to you that friends travel across the world to attend your birthday party? That you can celebrate a new year in life with friends you haven’t been able to meet for four years (or longer)? Who’s lives have changed so drastically in those years, including my own, but still pick up where you left the conversation all those years before? How can I describe how much it means to me to be able to connect all those people Ton and I collected in our lives, bring them together in the same space and for all of them to hit it off? That they all openly exchanged life stories, inspired each other, geeked out together, built robots together?
It was an experience beyond words. It was, yet again, an epic birthday party.
It also extends to the interaction we had with those who could not attend, because the invitation and response also trigger conversations about how other people are doing and what is going on in their lives.
There’s a lot of junk that builds up on a Mac over time. The Trash fills up as do caches. There are also large language files, localizations, and other system files that most people don’t need. To eliminate the junk and keep as much space free as possible on my Mac, I’ve used CleanMyMac by MacPaw for several years. Today, MacPaw released an update to the app called CleanMyMac X in honor of the app’s ten-year anniversary.
The vast majority of the time I use CleanMyMac to free up space on my Mac. However, CleanMyMac does more than scan your Mac for junk and remove it. The app has grown over the years into a suite of utilities that also includes an uninstaller, system maintenance checks, privacy tools, large and old file removal, and a file shredder. That list has grown with CleanMyMac X, which has also been significantly redesigned.
CleanMyMac has always featured bold, colorful icons and animations to let users know what’s happening at each stage of the cleanup process. However, CleanMyMac X goes further than before with shiny, translucent, gradient-heavy icons in most sections of the app. The app also has virtually no window chrome, dispensing with elements like title bars and toolbars. It’s an opinionated design that may not appeal to some. However, although the design feels like a radical departure from traditional Mac apps, it is also a natural extension of CleanMyMac 3’s design.
CleanMyMac 3 (left) vs. CleanMyMac X (right)
I typically start a CleanMyMac scan, which is a one-click process, and move on to doing something else. When CleanMyMac is finished scanning, I get a notification, look at the results, start the cleanup process, and go back to what I was doing. As a result, the animations and other visuals have little impact on how I work but do provide useful feedback on what the app is doing if you prefer to keep a closer eye on it.
Beyond the new look, MacPaw says CleanMyMac X finds junk three times faster than earlier versions. That’s hard to judge. The app does seem faster, but running side-by-side tests on the same Mac with the CleanMyMac 3 and X is not an apples-to-apples comparison because the newer version has moved the large files scan from its Smart Scan to a separate part of the app. In my experience, scanning large files was the slowest part of CleanMyMac 3, so removing it from the default scan makes a big difference even before tuning the app’s code. That said, Smart Scan does seem faster.
CleanMyMac X's app updater module.
There is new functionality in CleanMyMac X too. The app has added an updater module that scans your installed apps for available updates. It's a great way to see all the apps on your Mac that have updates regardless of whether you bought them on the Mac App Store or not.
CleanMyMac X scans for malware by default.
CleanMyMac now includes a malware scanning module too. Malware attacks on Macs are no longer as rare as they once seemed, and although it’s not something I worry about much, I appreciate the quick check of my system that CleanMyMac runs as part of its default Smart Scan.
The CleanMyMac menu bar app has also received a facelift. The app provides a subset of the information that can be found in macOS’s Activity Monitor or third-party apps like iStat Menus by Bjango plus the ability to run a quick network speed test, free up RAM, empty the Trash, and launch CleanMyMac. The app is a quick way to get a sense of how your Mac is performing but can be turned off in the app’s preferences if you don’t want to use it.
CleanMyMac's updated menu bar app.
Along with the new design and features, MacPaw is introducing a new pricing model for CleanMyMac X. Previously, CleanMyMac 3 was $39.95 for a single-user license and available as part of MacPaw’s Setapp subscription service. With CleanMyMac X, users now have three options:
A $39.95/year subscription
A one-time paid-up-front price of $89.95
A Setapp subscription
CleanMyMac 3 users can subscribe or purchase CleanMyMac X directly from MacPaw for a 50% discount, and for the next week, new users will receive a 30% discount.
CleanMyMac has worked reliably for me for years, and I’m glad to see MacPaw continue to refine it. The new features and the redesign should help broaden the app’s appeal, especially to new users, but I’m also pleased to see that CleanMyMac X is focused on the fundamentals like running its scans faster because as a utility app, that counts as much anything else as far as I’m concerned.
Storage constraints are an issue for many people, especially those who use Mac laptops with small SSDs. If you’ve found yourself struggling with a nearly full Mac, check out CleanMyMac X. The app has been an excellent way to recover space with minimal effort for many years, and I expect it will continue to be so for many more.
My favorite macOS housekeeping app just got better. What's new? Scanning your Mac is much faster now, MacPaw claims three times faster, to me it feels 10x faster. It also cleans known malware from your Mac. In my case it hasn't found any. It also speeds up your Mac by running maintenance scripts and offers to control your login items, launch agents, heavy consumers and terminates hung applications.
What I find most useful besides clearing up space on my smallish 250 GB drive is the ability to manage applications. Update them all from one space, uninstall them, including the junk they leave all over the place.
Yes, you can do many of those things manually. And no, it's not a free upgrade, but at least you get a 50% discount. How much is your time worth?
Simon Long is a Senior Principal Software Engineer here at Raspberry Pi. He’s responsible for the Raspberry Pi Desktop on both Raspbian and Debian, and his article from The MagPi issue 73 explores the experience of revamping our desktop. Get your copy of The MagPi in stores now, or download it as a free PDF here.
It was almost exactly four years ago when I was offered the chance to work at Raspberry Pi. I knew all the team very well, but I’d had hardly any involvement with the Pi itself, and wasn’t all that sure what they would want me to do; at that time, I was working as the manager of a software team, with no experience of hardware design. Fortunately, this was when software had started to move up the list of priorities at Raspberry Pi.
The 2014 updated desktop
Eben and I sat down on my first day and played with the vanilla LXDE desktop environment in Raspbian for 15 minutes or so, and he then asked me the fateful question: “So — do you think you can make it better?” With rather more confidence than I felt, I replied: “Of course!” I then spent the next week wondering just how long it was going to take before I was found out to be an impostor and shown the door.
Simon Long, Senior Principal Software Impostor
UI experience
To be fair, user interface design was something of which I had a lot of experience — I spent the first ten years of my career designing and implementing the user interfaces for a wide range of products, from mobile phones to medical equipment, so I knew what a good user interface was like. I could even see what changes needed to be made to transform the LXDE environment into one. But I didn’t have a clue how to do it — I’d barely used Linux, never mind programmed for it…
Raspberry Pi desktop circa 2015
As I said above, that was four years ago, and I’ve been hacking the Pi desktop from that day on. Not all the changes I’ve made have been popular with everyone, but I think most people who use the desktop feel it has improved over that time. My one overriding aim has been to try to make the Pi desktop into a product that I actually want to use myself; one that takes the good user interface design principles that we are used to in environments like macOS and Windows — ideas like consistency, attractive fonts and icons, intuitive operation, everything behaving the way you expect without having to read the instructions — and sculpting the interface around them.
Final polish
In my experience, the main difference between the Linux desktop environment and those of its commercial competitors is the last 10%: the polishing you do once everything works. It’s not easy making something that works, and a lot of people, once they have created something and got it working, leave it and move onto creating something else. I’m really not great at creating things from scratch — and have nothing but admiration for those who are — but what I do enjoy doing is adding that last 10%: going from something that works to something that works well and is a pleasure to use. Being at Raspberry Pi means I get to do that every day when I come to work.
A whole new #computersciences suite of @Raspberry_Pi computers at @MyddeltonCol ! So excited to start teaching some physical computing!
Every time I see a photo of a Pi running at a Jam, or in a classroom, anywhere in the world, and it’s using my desktop — the thrill from that never goes away.
If you’d like to read more about the evolution of the Raspberry Pi desktop, and Simon’s adventures at Raspberry Pi, you can access the entire back catalogue of his blog posts here.
I have often described the PEI Cancer Treatment Centre as simultaneously one of the saddest and happiest places on earth: when the sound of the “my treatment’s done and I’m cancer-free” bell rings out, there is no greater wave of joy to be felt flowing through the halls; but it is also a place of heart-wrenching conversations and great suffering, and you can see this chiseled into the faces of people in the waiting room, both those living with cancer and those supporting them.
In the last four years that I’ve been accompanying Catherine to treatments and doctors visits there, Tom Rath seemed ever-present; Tom, undergoing treatment for his own cancer, never had anything but a smile on his face, though, and we always took a minute to chat when we ran into each other. I’d known Tom from his days as a bed & breakfast operator in Murray Harbour, when he was active on the Tourism Industry Association of PEI, and had lost touch with him for many years once he stepped away from that; it was nice to make his acquaintance again, despite the circumstances.
Tom died on Sunday; the Eastern Graphic has a lovely description of his life, and his contributions to his communities, many of which I didn’t know about (I also had no idea he was another one of the seeming multitudes of Islanders born in Hamilton, Ontario).
I will miss my chats with Tom, and my heart goes out to his wife Frances.
I came surprisingly close to offering up my phone for Elmine’s wrecking hammer; in the end, though, I realized that I’d have no way to find our hotel in Amsterdam without it, and no way for people at home to contact me. It’s good to be aware of our technological dependencies in such stark ways from time to time.
It’s a nasty, noisy world out there. It’s easy for your own ideas to get lost in the cacophony. I’m here to tell you what you don’t want to hear: make friends with your competitors, quote them, and give them credit for their great ideas. I came to this realization after collaborating with people who … Continued
At the same time, on the Extended Support Release channel, we released Firefox ESR 60.2 and stopped supporting Firefox ESR 52: the final version of Firefox with Windows XP support.
Now, we don’t publish all-channel user proportions grouped by operating system, but as part of the Firefox Public Data Reportwe do have data from the release channel back before we switched our XP users to the ESR channel. At the end of February 2016, XP users made up 12% of release Firefox. By the end of February 2017, XP users made up 8% of release Firefox.
If this trend continued without much change after we switched XP users to ESR, XP Firefox users would presently amount to about 2% of release users.
That’s millions of users we kept safe on the Internet despite running a nearly-17-year-old operating system whose last patch was over 4 years ago. That’s a year and a half of extra support for users who probably don’t feel they have much ability to protect themselves online.
It required effort, and it required devoting resources to supporting XP well after Microsoft stopped doing so. It meant we couldn’t do other things, since we were busy with XP.
I think we did a good thing for these users. I think we did the right thing for these users. And now we’re wishing these users the very best of luck.
…and that they please oh please upgrade so we can go on protecting them into the future.
This is movement in the right direction. Eleven research funders in Europe have announced ‘Plan S’ "to make all scientific works free to read as soon as they are published." Not surprisingly, the publishers have begun to immediately protest. But "'No science should be locked behind paywalls!' says a preamble document that accompanies the pledge, called Plan S, released on 4 September." Hear hear! Coverage from Wonkhe, Science Business, Science Alert, PLoS Blogs, ZME Science, The Scientist.
I think Natasha Iskander has a point here. When I think of 'design thinking' I think of designing as a way to think out loud, exploring possibilities and seeing whether some wild idea will work at all. But that's not what it has become over the years. "Although it is often advertised as a method that is as innovative as the solutions it promises to produce, it bears an uncanny resemblance to an earlier model of problem-solving, celebrated in the 1970s and 1980s for the superior solutions it was supposed to produce. Called the 'rational-experimental' approach to problem solving, it was a simplified and popularized version of the scientific method, in much the same way that design thinking is a stylized — some say "dumbed down"— version of the methods designers use."
Martin Weller wraps up his review of the recent history of ed tech with some review and conclusions. Some of the themes are no surprise at all - education is a slow-moving, conservative and ponderous industry that will resist pretty much any change that comes along. Meanwhile, proponents of ed tech come from other industries, don't know the history, and make the same mistakes over and over. And yet, despite this, innovation happens. "The survey of the last 25 years in ed tech also reveals a rich history of innovation. Web 2.0, bulletin board systems, PLEs, connectivism – these all saw exciting innovation and also questioning what education is for and how best to realise it."
Fido is currently offering discounted cellular plans to some Toronto students to coincide with the start of the new school year.
As spotted by RedFlagDeals user ‘SureshA720227,’ a posting in front of Ryerson University’s Student Union building is advertising student deals.
According to SureshA720227, the Fido representatives offered him a $45/6GB plan that also includes 1000 long distance minutes.
The sign says the deal is for “campus only,” although SureshA720227 states that non-students can also take advantage of it.
As such, it’s currently unclear what requirements a customer must meet in order to be eligible, such as if they need to be Ryerson University students. It’s also unclear if the $45/6GB plan was a specific promotion for SureshA720227 and that other customers may be offered a different plan.
MobileSyrup has reached out to Fido for additional information and will update this story once a response has been received.
Are you a post-secondary student? Have you seen similar carrier deals promoted at your school? Let us know in the comments.
As of September 4th, 2018, Google Chrome users can see some of these visual updates once they update to Chrome 69.
In addition to a redesigned user interface, Google has brought a few new features to the web browser, including an updated password manager.
Chrome 69 now uses a new, rounder search bar and tab format that fits in with the new versions of Google Maps, Android Messages and Gmail.
It might be hard to tell, but there’s also more space in Chrome 69’s tabs compared to older versions of the browser, making them a bit easier to read.
A few icons and menus have changed as well. For instance, all of the right-click menus that are Chrome specific (not webpage specific) all use a new template that helps tie the overall look together across multiple platforms.
Another smaller change is the ability to see some search results right in the search bar. Beginning a search for ‘Weather,’ for example, will show the user the current temperature without having to complete the search by hitting the enter key.
Chrome 69 also autofills sensitive information, like passwords and saved locations more accurately.
In addition to these autocomplete tweaks, Google is adding a password manager that recommends stronger passwords while also automatically offering to store new or updated passwords.
The Chrome 69 update is currently rolling out to users on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android.
The iOS version specifically has a cool tweak that adds a search button at the bottom of the screen, making it easier to quickly search while browsing.
To manually update the Chrome desktop app, simply click on the three-dot menu on the left-hand side of the search bar, select ‘Help,’ then ‘About Google Chrome’ and the browser should take the user to a page to force the update.
Following the lead of Google, Essential has pushed the latest Android security patch to the Essential Phone.
The 81MB update includes Android’s September security patches (build PPR1.180905.036), as well as Bluetooth audio and accessibility fixes.
One missing feature is per app notch customization. In its most recent Reddit AMA, Essential said it plans to add the feature back in (it didn’t make the jump from 8.1 to 9.0 due to a change Google made in Android’s notch logic) soon. The company didn’t provide an exact timeline, only noting it likely won’t happen in time for the next security update.
We just released a software update that includes September Google Security Patches along with various audio and accessibility fixes. Check your Essential Phone now for the update. pic.twitter.com/ImzLEk9iSo
The global wearables market saw continued growth during the second quarter of 2018 with Apple leading the top five wearables companies.
Q2 2018 saw a 5.5 percent increase in units shipped over the same time last year, according to a report from the International Data Corporation (IDC). Of the 27.9 million units shipped, the Apple Watch accounted for 4.7 million units — about 17 percent of the global market.
The wearables market grew in value as well with an 8.3 percent year-over-year increase to $4.8 billion USD.
Xiaomi kept the second spot with a diversified product portfolio, IDC reports. The portfolio included multiple variants of its Mi Band, kid’s watches and even shoes.
Fitbit took the third spot despite a continued decline. Fitbits basic wristbands didn’t sell as well. According to IDC, customers are transitioning to smart wearables, and basic wearables like fitness trackers have declined for some time.
However, Fitbit was able to expand its user base thanks to the Versa. The company shipped 1.1 million smartwatches.
Huawei held the fourth spot with a heavy focus on China. Additionally, the company used a dual-brand strategy, with its Honor sub-brand accounting for about half of the company’s total wearables shipped.
Garmin rounds out the top five. The company extended its lead over Samsung and saw its smartwatches perform better than basic fitness trackers.
However, Apple is likely to extend its lead further. Rumours suggest that the company is poised to launch the Apple Watch Series 4 next week. Considering watchOS 5 will not work on models older than the Series 1, we may see a number of people looking to upgrade to Apple’s newest watch.
The new program allows renewing Premium and Premium Plus (and Platinum subscribers in Quebec) subscribers to purchase higher-tier devices for lower upfront costs — so long as subscribers return the device in proper working order after 24 months or they pay a predetermined fee to own the device.
According to a Telus, the Bring-it-Back program fee varies from device to device, but the overall goal is to reduce the upfront costs subscribers must pay for new devices.
For example, a smartphone that costs $450 might be subsidized by $200, meaning that subscribers would only need to pay $250 upfront. That remaining $200 serves as the Bring-it-Back program fee. After 24 months, users have the option of paying off that $200 and keeping the phone, or returning the phone in proper working order and avoiding the $200 charge altogether.
Subscribers can also pay off their Bring-it-Back program fees at any time, and devices can be returned as early as six months after activation.
It’s worth noting that Telus’s definition of “Good working order” is stringent, but not impossible to follow:
The device must be able to power on and navigate to the home screen
Any activation locks (like Find My iPhone) should be deactivated
The device’s display must function properly and the screen must be free of any dead spots or bruising
The screen can’t be cracked or damaged
The device mustn’t have any missing parts or liquid damage
The phone can’t have been reported lost or stolen
The device must be factory reset with all personal information deleted
Additionally, not all smartphones will eligible for purchase through the Bring-it-Back program.
The Bring-it-Back program can be viewed as the spiritual successor to Telus’ now-defunct T-Up! early upgrade program that was discontinued in April 2016.
The T-Up! program allowed subscribers to pay a $10 monthly fee, which allowed the trade-in of any device for a new product after 12 months.
Telus has yet to update its website to reflect the existence of the Bring-it-Back program. This story will be updated when the changes go live.
This could be bad news for companies like Shopify. The Canadian company provides online tools for businesses to build online storefronts. However, Shopify only has 600,000 active stores, a small number next to Instagram’s 25 million businesses.
That number may shrink with the release of IG Shopping. For many of those businesses, it would make more sense to run their online store through Instagram — they likely already have an account.
Furthermore, Instagram could also integrate a shopping platform into its recent IGTV app. IGTV could serve ads for companies that sell through the platform. Alternatively, we could see a rebirth of the Shopping Channel for IGTV.
Nintendo has announced that it will hold a Direct livestream on September 5th that the company says will focus on upcoming games for the Switch and 3DS.
While the Japanese gaming giant hasn’t confirmed the news, it’s also likely that we’ll get our first detailed look at the Switch’s upcoming online service platform, which is still set to launch in September.
The livestream will kick off at 6PM ET/3PM PT and will be broadcast on Nintendo’s official website, as well as through Twitch.
It’s unclear what specific games we’ll catch a glimpse of, but given that the release of Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee, as well as Super Smash Bros., are just around the corner, it’s likely the stream will be focused on the two upcoming titles. It’s also possible that we might get a look at the Switch’s untitled Yoshi game, which is still scheduled to come out at some point this year.
While the Switch’s paid online services are set to launch in September, there are still a number of unanswered questions about the platform. It’s unclear exactly how many classic NES games will be available when the subscription service launches. It’s also unknown if retro titles from other Nintendo consoles will be added to the platform in the future.
Nintendo has revealed in the past that Switch users will need an active subscription to play most online multiplayer games, with Splatoon 2,Mario Tennis Aces, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and a few other titles being cited as examples. That said, a complete list of games that require a subscription has not been released.
The Switch’s online services are set to be priced at $4.99 CAD, with three months coming in at $9.99 and 12 months being priced at $24.99. The company is also offering a family membership that allows for up to eight online Switch accounts that is set to be priced at $44.99.
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