Windows 10 Anniversary Update: What new things can Cortana do?

After experiencing the updated Cortana in the new Windows 10 Anniversary Update, it would be difficult to imagine using Windows without her. Cortana now has many features to make daily tasks much easier and almost effortless.

Many things can now be done without touching your keyboard or mouse at any point. Making a reminder, searching for something on the internet, or finding your phone and making it ring. There are also things Cortana can do to go along with other improvements to the software. Probably the most useful feature Cortana now has is the ability to set a rich reminder by just speaking.

Cortana also gives you the option to let her know what you like. If you like sports, you can add your favourite teams and she will update you with games and scores for those teams. If you are a fan of trying new food at restaurants, Cortana can give you recommendations of places that are receiving good reviews. Here’s everything Cortana can do.

Rich reminders

Cortana is accessible from the ‘ask me anything field’ on the left of the taskbar. It can now set reminder without additional info from you. Just click the microphone and ask her to remind you to get groceries, and that’s that.

However, setting a reminder or looking for information has never been more simpler on a PC. If you say, “Hey Cortana, remind me to call mom at noon,” it will automatically set a reminder for noon. If you need to get some flowers for a loved one, you can say, “Hey Cortana, flower shops,” and you’ll get a list of all the flower shops in your area, their address, and the ability to call them.

These reminders also give you the option of making them rich by adding a time or photos, which in the future, gives you the option to ask her about the place you may have gone and what it looked like. You may need to enable the features like “Hey Cortana” by opening Cortana bar and clicking on the gear button. This will show you all of the settings Cortana has, such as ensuring she only answers to your voice, or letting her work even when your device is locked. This gives you the ability to play music or set reminders without unlocking your device.

Cortana reminders also always appear at top of Action Center (but that can be changed to another app in Settings).

Cortana across devices

Something that makes setting reminders through Cortana even better is the ability to receive those reminders across multiple devices. Whether you have a Windows phone or Android, you can download Cortana and receive updates and reminders on your computer and phone.

The Cortana app can also be used to send information like message alerts, missed calls, and battery saver information to your computer. If you receive a text message, you can answer it from your computer when the notification appears in the Action Center.

Lock screen

If you have a subscription to Groove, the music app in Windows 10, you don’t even need to unlock your device to play music. While at your lock screen, ask Cortana to play rock music or a certain artist, and she will play that music.

With the ability to use Cortana on the lock screen, so many things can be accomplished in seconds without having to wait for a computer or laptop to unlock and load just to play music or set a rich reminder.

Cortana coupons

If you enjoy shopping online, Microsoft Edge may be the internet browser for you with Cortana’s ability to find you coupons. If you are on a website like Target, Cortana will alert you that she has found coupons and asks if you would like to use them. The only downfall is that these coupons may have nothing to do with what you’re shopping for.

Find my phone

Cortana find my phone

Losing your phone is easy to do, and it is frustrating when have it on vibrate and can’t hear it ringing. If you ask Cortana to find your phone however, she will locate it and then give you the option to dismiss it or make it ring.

Identifying music

Sometimes little things are overlooked in updates, but it is the small features that make using your device more enjoyable. Cortana has the ability to identify a song that is playing, and when you ask her what song is playing, she brings up a menu with information about the song as well as a list of songs you have searched in the past. By selecting the song, it opens the Windows Store, so you can instantly buy the album or even listen to the song for free. 

Windows 10 Anniversary Update: How has the Start menu changed?

With the first major update to Windows 10, Microsoft has made a number of changes that will affect the way you use your devices. What has been done to the Start menu will make finding anything on your computer easier and convenient.

Before the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, for example, a list of your apps was buried in the Start menu and a pain to get to and find. With the new update however, an alphabetical list is immediately visible once the Start menu is opened. Here’s everything that’s new with the Start menu.

Apps list view

As we said, an apps list view is now accessible on the left in the Start menu (between the new hamburger menu on the far left and tiles on the far right, instead of buried as it was before). It’s a simple change – but one that makes it much quicker to access your apps. There are even handy sections in the list view that display recently-added and most-used apps.

Hamburger Menu

You’ll now see a hamburger menu on the left within the Start menu. This gives users the ability to have shortcuts to folders, such as Downloads and Documents, in your Start menu. Adding these shortcuts, which appear above the power button, can be done by going to Settings > Personalisation > and Start. There are 10 options you can enable here, all of which make finding files on your computer much easier. The options start with file explorer and then go down to folders, like documents, downloads, music, pictures, and videos folders.

The other folders available that can be added to the hamburger menu are homegroup, network, and personal folder. Homegroup is a folder which is shared throughout the local network, giving users the ability to share resources across multiple devices. The network folder takes you to the folder and shows information about the devices on your network and the router you are connected to. The personal folder shows you all of the folders on your computer like contacts, favourites, and desktop.

If you have a hard time telling these apart from the designs for each, since they are all fairly small, you can click on the three-line button above all of these to reveal the name of each, beginning with your profile and going down to power.

Metro-style tiles

Nothing has really changed with the metro-style tiles on the right. There is still a scroll bar to move down and see more of the style that Windows 8 ushered, but it is a much smaller feature than before. By dragging the right side of the start menu to the right, it expands the size of the menu, showing the Play and Explore section on the far right instead of part of the scroll down. This can feature apps related to Xbox, television and movie apps, etc.

The Windows 10 Anniversary Update also adds badges across the system, including in the live tiles in the Start menu. These can be, for example, an email number notification on the Mail app. Badges will disappear across the system when you click on them and open apps.

If you were a fan of the Windows 8 tile theme, you can still use it on your computer by entering tablet mode. The quickest way to turn tablet mode on is by going to the Action menu in the bottom right corner and clicking on the tile. If you try this and don’t like it, doing the exact same thing will turn tablet mode off, and then you’re back to where you were.

San Francisco is testing an algorithm that sets bail

The San Francisco justice system has apparently been testing out an algorithm that can make release recommendations and compute for a bail amount based on several factors. In particular, it looks at defendants’ pending charges, age and how frequently they show up to court. What it doesn’t take into account is a person’s educational background and financial status. See, the city began testing the algorithm in May, months after critics accused the local government of having a bail system that favors the rich and unjustly penalizes the poor and people of color.

In response to the accusations and to the lawsuit filed by a civil rights group, District Attorney George Gascón lobbied for a change in the bail system by using high-tech tools. This algorithm, developed and provided to SF for free by the Texas-based Laura and John Arnold Foundation, is one of them. In order to make a fair assessment, it uses data from the case histories of 1.5 million people who were once incarcerated. It looks at how they performed after they were released and makes a prediction on which defendants could re-offend and which ones pose no risk to society. That said, risk assessment tools like this are nowhere near perfect. A Propublica report from May warns that algorithms predicting violent crimes tend to be biased against African Americans.

According to San Francisco Chronicle, some judges have been ignoring the algorithm’s release recommendations to the point that the people backing the project are disappointed over the lack of data coming in. Still, Matt Alsdorf (vice president of criminal justice at the Arnold Foundation) remains hopeful. “The idea is to provide judges with objective, data-driven, consistent information that can inform the decisions they make,” he told SF Chronicle, “…[W]hat I hope to see in San Francisco is that over time… people will start to see the validity of the tool and start to buy in more and more.”

Via: SFist

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The first 8K satellite TV broadcasts are live in Japan

Just as we were getting used to Ultra HD 4K, Japan’s NHK has kicked off its Super Hi-Vision broadcast tests, sending out 4K and 8K video via satellite. Unfortunately, there’s no way to watch the super high res feeds and 22.2 channel sound at home — even with a $130,000 8K TV — but interested Japanese residents can check out tests of the feeds at several public locations in Tokyo and Osaka. NHK is using the Rio Olympics as a testbed for technology that it hopes to roll out first in 2018, and have ready for the public time for the 2020 Olympics in Japan.

According to the schedule, viewers can see pretaped clips including 8K test footage from the 2012 Olympics, and even a live broadcast (unlike the tape-delayed feed everyone in the US will get) of Rio’s Opening Ceremony. Some events will require reservations, but there will be viewing on large projection screens and LCDs we’ve grown used to watching 8K on at CES. Last week several companies showed off 8K tech they’re working on to support broadcasting and viewing at the Cable Tech Show 2016 in Japan, including Panasonic’s 8K-ready cable and an 8K set-top box prototype from Pioneer.

In 2012 I saw an 8K test broadcast in Washingon DC delivered from London via Internet2, but I haven’t heard about any public viewings set up for the 2016 games. Here in the US, the closest you’ll probably come is a downscaled to 4K feed on tape-delay, provided by Comcast, DirecTV or Dish Network. Still, it’s never too soon to start measuring an 85-inch space on your wall to fit an 8K display for proper Tokyo 2020 viewing.

Via: Japan Times

Source: NHK

Uber to Invest $500 Million in Global Mapping Project Led By Google Earth Creator

Ride hailing company Uber is planning to spend $500 million on a global mapping project in an effort to reduce its reliance on Google Maps, according to The Financial Times.

The San Fransisco-based company already has mapping vehicles recording geographical data around the U.S. and Mexico. With Uber’s presence in over 60 countries, the significant expansion reflects its continuing growth and adds to its existing investment in original research like driverless cars.

Last year, it hired world-leading digital mapping expert Brian McClendon, who previously ran Google Maps and was one of the creators of Google Earth.

McClendon will be responsible for the mapping project, and recently commented on the plans in a blog post without mentioning the $500 million figure:

The ongoing need for maps tailored to the Uber experience is why we’re doubling down on our investment in mapping. Our efforts are similar to what other companies including Apple and TomTom are already doing around the world.

The street imagery captured by our mapping cars will help us improve core elements of the Uber experience, like ideal pick-up and drop-off points and the best routes for riders and drivers.

Address data in Google Maps is typically less accurate in developing countries, resulting in some Uber drivers having to call passengers to ask for their location before a pick-up. Uber hopes to nix these problems and feed the traffic pattern and location data already gathered by its cars into its own mapping system, thereby also avoiding charges for using Google Maps.

News of Uber’s multi-million-dollar mapping investment was partially eclipsed by reports over the weekend that Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing is to acquire its Chinese operations in a $35 billion deal.

Apple’s own $1 billion investment in Didi Chuxing back in May gave the Cupertino company access to data and expertise on electric and autonomous car technology, which is likely to help with its own car-related project, dubbed Project Titan, now led by veteran Apple executive Bob Mansfield.

Tags: Google Maps, Uber
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Windows 10 Anniversary Update: What does the Settings app offer?

There are a bunch of small changes in the new Settings app, thanks to the new Anniversary Update to Windows 10 that’s rolling out now, but one of the more visually-pleasing changes is the new Dark mode.

The Settings app is now more user-friendly and makes finding what you’re looking for easier than ever before. With the Anniversary Update, many things are now customisable, giving you the ability to change which buttons, shortcuts, colours, and notifications you want to see. For example, you can now edit the importance of notifications from each app and how many of those notifications you want to see at a time in the Action Center.

There are more opportunities to customise your Windows 10 device, and it is much easier to do so with the new layout of the settings menu. The layout, which gives you the name of each settings section and customisation options for each, makes finding what you’re looking for simple. Once you open a section, such as Personalisation, which is for “background, lock screen, colours”, there is a left side panel that shows all the options available.

Here is a round-up of more major changes in the new Settings app.

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Dark Mode

In the Anniversary Update, there are now multiple ways to change the colours for your windows. The biggest of such change is the introduction of Dark Mode. In the “Choose your app mode” section, you can choose from the default “light mode” or the new “Dark mode” that gives certain apps and windows a black background instead of white. Some of the apps this affects are Settings, Alarms and Clocks, Calculator, and Groove Music. To find this and other colour settings, go to Settings > Personalization > and Colours. Other apps like Edge and Skype can also be viewed in Dark Mode by just going to that app’s personal settings. Edge’s Dark Mode can be turned on by choosing More (three dots in top-right corner) > Settings > Choose theme > and Dark.

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You also have 49 different options as an accent colour –  the colour that shows up in many of your windows, like in Settings, and most of the lettering and logos can get a new accent colour, too. You can also choose for the new accent colour to appear in the taskbar, Start menu, Action Center, and title bar. If you want this colour to mirror your background, and there isn’t an option you like in the field to choose from, you can select a colour from your background.

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Notifications

By going to Settings > System > and Notifications and Actions, you can change how you receive and see notifications – their priority, in other words – in the Action Center. Some notifications from certain apps may be more important than others, so you can change which apps’ notifications appear before the rest, raising the level of priority between normal, high, and top. You also have the option of changing how many notifications are visible for one app, with the default being three, though you can go as high as 20.

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Each app can be edited, and so can the way you see the Action Center with the Quick Action Menu. You can move each of the tiles around to where you prefer them, too, and toggle them on or off (including having all of them off).

Active hours

It can be frustrating when you go to turn your device on and then you’re hit with 20 minutes of updates, or while you’re working, your computer needs to stop and update. Well, with the ability to set active hours, you can change the times you are usually using the device, so when a restart is needed to finish an update, it won’t do so during those hours. You can also set a time when you want a restart to take place. To make these changes, go to Settings > Update and security > and Windows update.

Projecting

You now have the ability to project your devices from other Windows devices such as Windows phones and computers. This allows for a Windows phone, for example, to access your mouse and keyboard using the Connect app. To enable this or choose when it is allowed, go to Settings > System > and Projecting to this PC.

Search

In the Settings app, under each section, there is a search bar that is more convenient to use than in the past. Now, when searching, a drop-down bar appears as you type, giving you instant results to choose from instead of automatically bringing you to some result/place. In the Settings app, the search bar is in the middle of the screen, just above the nine settings sections. In each of the sections, the search bar is moved to the top-left above the tabs.

Here are some of the wallpapers from this year’s Nexus phones

We’re still awaiting concrete information regarding this year’s Nexus phones, but the folks at Android Police have managed to obtain some of the wallpapers that will be debuting on the handsets.

The HTC-made Nexuses are codenamed Marlin and Sailfish, and as such we’re treated to a lot of aquatic-themed imagery. Android Police also made full-size versions of the wallpapers available for download. If you want to get started with using the wallpapers on your current phone, hit up this link.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update: How has the taskbar changed?

There are a few tweaks in the taskbar, and many of these improvements will make working on your device much easier, as you’ll no longer have to dig for anything, with much of what you need being a mouse-click away.

Here’s what’s new in the taskbar, thanks to the Anniversary Update.

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Notifications

With the new update, all Windows Store apps now have a badge. This makes it so those apps can display the number of notifications you have, like from Facebook and Twitter, and it’s meant to give you the ability to see your notifications and alerts at a glance.

This is one of the few new features that comes enabled with the update, but you can always disable it if you don’t like the numbers cluttering your taskbar. To do this, along with any other changes you want to make to your taskbar, go to Settings > Personalisation > and taskbar. Another way of getting there is by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting settings.

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Customisation

Even though the taskbar doesn’t have a different look, there are a few features that you have the ability to change. You can always pin and unpin apps from your taskbar, but a new feature now lets you hide the taskbar when entering tablet mode. You can also hide the taskbar in desktop mode. To enable either of these features, just go to the taskbar Settings page.

You can also change the colour of your taskbar, which will also change the colour of your Start menu and Action Center. The colour you choose as your accent colour will be the one that shows up on all three of these, along with many other windows throughout your device.

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Action Center

As part of the taskbar, the Action Center also received a number of updates. It was moved to the end of the taskbar – in the right corner of the screen next to the time and date.

With how you receive notifications from apps now, the Action Center takes them all and puts them in one place to view. Also, the Anniversary Update introduces app badges for notifications, and you can view these in the Action Center as well as across the system. The notifications and alerts from apps, such as Facebook, Twitter, Outlook, and other Windows Store apps, all go to the Action Center, along with the notifications from other things you have enabled on your device, like alerts from your phone or other devices connected through Cortana.

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Audio source

In the past, if you wanted to change the source of your audio output, it was a pain finding the buried setting. Now, all it takes is clicking the volume button and choosing from the devices you have connected.

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Clock and calendar

The Windows 10 Anniversary Update makes setting appointments and reminders much quicker and richer, and it’s also much easier to see what you have going on during a particular day. To look at today’s schedule, select the time and date, and that’ll open up the calendar with the day’s scheduled events. If you don’t want to see your agenda, you can choose the “Hide agenda” button.