Google sets up a $4 million fund to help immigration organizations

Google creates its largest humanitarian fund yet to deal with Trump’s immigration order.

Google has set up a $4 million “crisis fund” following President Trump’s executive order on immigration. As reported by USA Today, the money will go toward four organizations: the American Civil Liberties Union, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, International Rescue Committee and UNHCR.

According to the report, Google will contribute $2 million to the fund, with employees coming up with the other $2 million. The publication also noted that Google executives are donating money in an individual capacity. Google is one of several Silicon Valley companies that condemned Trump’s immigration order, which sees residents from seven predominantly-Muslim countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen — banned from entering the U.S. The order also affects those that have valid green cards and visas, and bans all refugees from entering the country for 120 days.

Ride-sharing service Lyft has announced that it will pledge $1 million over the course of four years to the ACLU, calling Trump’s executive order “antithetical:”

This weekend, Trump closed the country’s borders to refugees, immigrants, and even documented residents from around the world based on their country of origin. Banning people of a particular faith or creed, race or identity, sexuality or ethnicity, from entering the U.S. is antithetical to both Lyft’s and our nation’s core values.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky tweeted that the service will provide free housing to refugees:

Airbnb is providing free housing to refugees and anyone not allowed in the US. Stayed tuned for more, contact me if urgent need for housing

— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) January 29, 2017

Sky Q will add Dolby Atmos and voice control in 2017

Following the announcement that Sky will introduce satellite dish-free Sky Q from 2018, the company has also released an infographic detailing its plans for 2017 and it mentions Dolby Atmos and voice control.

• Sky Q review: 4K, multi-room support, apps and more

There’s no specific date set for either feature, but it’s good to see their on Sky’s radar. BT has recently said it will broadcast live Ultra HD sporting content with Dolby Atmos sound, so it’s no real surprise to see Sky wanting to follow suit. It would have been nice to see HDR (High Dynamic Range) in the plans too, but considering the Sky Q box can’t support it, it’s no wonder. However, it remains to be seen if it will be able to support Hybrid Log Gamma when it eventually rolls out. On the contrary, Virgin’s upcoming V6 Box will be able to support HDR content.

The roadmap for the year ahead mentions both Voice Search and Voice Control. Voice Search should arrive soon, and is a feature we’ve known about for some time, but Voice Control is new. Sky hasn’t said what the proposed function will do, but we can assume you’ll be able to perform functions such as turning the box on and off, as well as perhaps your TV, using your voice. There’s already a microphone in the Touch Remote, but at the moment it’s unused.

• What is Sky Q, how much does it cost and when can I get it?
• Virgin TV V6 box vs Sky Q: What’s the difference?

Another feature Sky has mentioned is Autoplay on Credit, which we assume relates to Sky Box Sets. It’s likely the next episode in a series you’re watching will start playing a lot sooner than they currently do. Other features we already know about that will launch in the coming months include the entire Formula 1 season in 4K Ultra HD and the ability to record six shows at once while watching a seventh on the Silver 2TB box.

Honeywell Lyric T6R review: Smart heating made simple

Smart heating systems are on the up. And having moved into a new home recently it made a lot of sense to test Honeywell’s latest smart home thermostat system, the Lyric T6.

We had the Lyric T6R fitted, which is the same as the standard T6 but comes with a freestanding, wireless thermostat which you can take around the home rather than the hard-wired, mounted solution.

The T6 system is designed to be simple-to-use and, via a professional installer, easy to fit into the home. The real question – especially with the variety of smart heating solutions such as Nest, Tado and Hive, all of which can learn and predict your heating patterns – is whether the Honeywell solution will leave us looking to upgrade to something more comprehensive later down the line?

Honeywell Lyric T6R review: Installation

• Professional installation recommended (not included in price)
• 108 x 108 x 35mm receiver box
• 110 x 102 x 75mm thermostat (including stand)

The T6R needs a power cable plugged in so isn’t as wireless as other, battery-operated solutions on the market. However, at least that means there’s no danger of you getting home and finding it inoperable – it even has some internal battery power as back-up in the case of a power cut.

Both versions of the Lyric system come with a receiver, which is the bit you’ll need an installer to fix. It is not recommended you install this part yourself unless you are a qualified electrician or heating engineer, and it’s lucky we didn’t take on that role ourselves, even though we have a basic understanding of what to do.

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That’s because our installer discovered that the previous thermostat, which was installed before we moved in, wasn’t actually connected to our heating programmer at all. It didn’t work. The previous owners might have thought it did. It didn’t. It couldn’t. And it wasn’t. Worse still, the previous installer had left the wiring in a state, with nonsensical connections and incorrect colour configurations. Our Honeywell installer didn’t seem surprised, so it seems a common issue.

Thankfully, he made short work of completely rewiring the entire system and ensuring that the new receiver operated the heating valve on the hot water tank – as it should. The programmer still controls our hot water, as the Lyric receiver can’t control this – only be in charge of heating. It basically opens the valve when necessary. The rest of the magic is done by the thermostat.

Honeywell Lyric T6R review: Critical placement

• Thermostat reads ambient temperature
• Touchscreen control to adjust heating
• Android/iOS app control via smart device

The wireless ‘stat can be placed anywhere in the home, but works best in a room that adequately represents the average temperature. Otherwise it won’t accurately reflect real temperatures. Alternatively, place it in the room you use the most, as that’s the one you’ll want to heat more often.

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Like other thermostats, the Lyric T6R takes the ambient temperature of its surroundings and judges whether you need to switch the heating on or off to maintain your chosen level. It is touchscreen and simple to use, with plus and minus buttons allowing you to increase or decrease the optimal temperature just by tapping them.

There are also settings to adjust the Wi-Fi connection, set any schedule options, change time settings and so on. You can also turn off the system or your home settings from the front screen. Where the Lyric system comes into its own, however, is with the use of an accompanying iOS or Android device, via a downloadable app.

Honeywell Lyric T6R review: Scheduling and app control

• Schedule heating via iOS/Android app
• Home/Away settings
• Does not learn and auto schedule

The Honeywell Lyric app is simpler thn the company’s Evohome system, but it is still very effective. You get a bottom wheel to set the temperature and readings for the current temperature and how chilly or hot it is on the outside of your home – presumably taken from a web weather service.

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You also get a button to set a home schedule, which can determine how warm you want the house or flat to be when you are at home or away, or when you are asleep. By setting sleep timings, say 23:00 to 06:00, you can tell the system to switch off entirely or drop to a more comfortable level – such as 16-degrees.

When you are home, that can be set at 20-degrees or such like. That way, the system always knows that while you are indoors, it should maintain that constant heat, apart from when you traditionally go to sleep. And it works well (depending on the quality of your individual radiators, etc).

You can manually override these settings whenever you like, using the on-screen wheel or buttons on the thermostat, but it’s a way of very simply setting schedules. You can also introduce schedules that change depending on the day – such as different schedules for weekdays or the weekend.

Honeywell Lyric T6R review: Heating based on mobile phone location

• App’s GPS-based geo-fencing for automatic Home/Away activation
• Family accounts for fuller control

Like many smart heating systems the Lyric T6 system also allows you to set geofence control. This radius on a map around your property will, should you be outside the circle (as tracked by your mobile phone), set a separate “away” temperature.

Not only will this save you money by automatically reducing heating when you’re not at home, but it can ensure your home is toasty again just in time for you to set foot back in the door.

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That’s because it detects when you’ve re-entered the geofence, through your phone’s location, and goes back to your at-home settings. And as you can expand or reduce the circular zone, you can time it to your preference.

You can also invite the family to have control through the app, to ensure the heating won’t switch off if your partner has a work-at-home day and you don’t. Once installed on a device the Manage Users option gives every member the same level of control as long as they have been invited originally – and there’s the option to remove users, which is useful, say, if you have guests.

The Honeywell Lyric T6R system is also compatible with Apple HomeKit, so you can control your heating through supported devices, such as Apple TV, or use Siri to interact with it using voice commands. Amazon Alexa support is apparently in the pipeline too.

Verdict

This particular Honeywell system is fairly feature-free in comparison with others in the company’s line-up – there’s no zone control as with Evohome, for example.

But therein lies Lyric’s very attraction – it is simple to understand and to use. It is the brand’s rival to Tado, Nest and Hive, and is a quality rival to them all. Just because the Honeywell doesn’t try to learn your heating pattern doesn’t bother us – we’ve had other members of the team constantly try to correct Nest, for example, for whacking up the heating when it wasn’t necessary.

The T6R version, with wireless connectivity, is handy so you can move the thermostat from room to room as needed. But we’d just as happily wallmount the static T6 version. Having the choice between products is great to suit different needs.

As smart heating systems go the Lyric might read as a little more basic than some competitors, but it does exactly what we want from a smart heating system without over-complicating things – so no need for us to upgrade any time soon.

Honeywell has always been a leader in effective home heating and that shines through in the Lyric system.

Honeywell Lyric T6: Alternatives to consider

Honeywell Evohome

• Starter pack £250 (plus £50 per additional sensor; install not included)

Sticking with the same brand, Honeywell’s top-end system – which is an entirely different prospect – allows for zoned control with individual rdiator caps. If you want the living room to be 20C and the baby’s bedroom to be 22C, for example, then that’s possible with this more comprehensive system.

Nest Learning Thermostat (3.0)

Pocket-lint

• £249 (including install; £199 without; thermostat stand £29 extra)

Perhaps the best recognised of all smart heating solutions, Nest is a solid option. Like the Lyric it knows your and your family’s whereabouts and will switch the heating on accordingly. It will also learn heating patterns and auto-schedule these for you. Of all the heating systems Nest is by far the best looking one we’ve seen.

Hive Active Heating (by British Gas)

Pocket-lint

• £259 (with installation; £179 without)

Now you don’t need to be a British Gas customer to use Hive. The smart home setup is now wider than just a smart thermostat too: there’s also lights, sensors and plugs which you can control all from the one app.

Tado Smart Thermostat

Pocket-lint

• £249

Even though it lacks individual room or zone controls, Tado otherwise does exactly what it sets out to do: intelligently controlling your heating based on your location to home. If you have a hot water programmer then it can handle this too – which is a one-up compared to most of the competition.

Netflix strikes biggest Sundance deal with race drama ‘Mudbound’

Streaming giants Netflix and Amazon spent big again Sundance, perhaps pushing traditional rival studios to up their games, too. Netflix snapped up the post-WW II segregation film Mudbound for $12.5 million, the most paid for a film at this year’s festival. Directed by Dee Rees, the story centers around a black and a white man who find commonality in the racially divided South thanks to their shared war experiences.

Netflix will release Mudbound in theaters and on its streaming service simultaneously, the same unusual strategy it took with Beasts of No Nation. The streaming company also paid $8 million for a film about anorexia called To the Bone, and $5 million for Fun Mom Dinner with Toni Collette and Molly Shannon.

Amazon, meanwhile, paid $12 million for The Big Sick, and $6 million for the Grateful Dead documentary Long Strange Trip. To the surprise of many industry insiders, Jeff Bezos’ company paid $10 million last year for Manchester By The Sea, outbidding traditional studios like Sony. However, that has worked out pretty well, as the film has grossed $40 million so far and is in the running for six Oscars including Best Picture.

Amazon and Netflix both have their own distribution and production arms, and smaller art-house films boost their streaming lineups with prestigious products at reasonable prices. While Netflix was the biggest spender this year, Fox Searchlight, Sony, Universal and Paramount were also more active than in past years, perhaps pushed by the increased competition. The winner, of course, is independent filmmaking and viewers, who are now getting more and more interesting content, both online and in theaters, every year.

Source: Netflix

5 Things Your Business Must Start Doing to Develop Successfully

Nobody likes to wait, especially if it comes to business growth and revenues. We like to speed up the game without turmoil and extra efforts because it is a common knowledge that time is money. While taking every opportunity to speed up in growing business efficiently, we face a lot of mistakes. It does not mean that you can not avoid all the difficulties but you can implement several principles into your business processes that increase your productivity and help you to avoid a large number of mistakes.

Now take your time and have a look at five approaches, which will help newbies and veterans to reduce mistakes on their way to successful business growth.

Be more customer oriented
Brilliant customer service creates remarkable reputation. You need to listen and to hear your clients to provide the services they expect. Not taking into consideration all their their question, requests and feedback is the wrong way on the road to successful business. “Customers are a tough crowd. It’s a hard work to cater for their needs, let alone to make an impression. In this competitive corporate world, you need to be very proactive to wow your customers. Otherwise, they’ll be quick to switch to other service”, says Maya Momotok, founder and project lead of Wow24-7.io, a fast-growing customer support service company.

Develop omnichannel customer engagement strategy

While trying to be better, you need to be different from the competitors. Nowadays customers can easily choose between products and services and they will definitely going to choose the best one. Remember that the more you give, the more you will gain. That is why it is time to avoid monochrome existence of your business by offering omnichannel customer support. Experts from The AppSolutions consider that the easiest way to start develop your omnichannel strategy is by reviewing whether the company is covering all of the support channels that customers actually want. Carefully considering the customers and their preferred method of finding information in their daily lives will help to make the contact avenues more efficient.

Build up a strong team
As business owner or a manager you can control everything alone. Like-minded team will significantly increase the chances to prospect. It is very important, especially for the customer service team, which can significantly influence upsales and profit growth of your business. But reality shows that hiring process is not one of the easiest processes in your business development. Neil Blumenthal, a co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a company that teach of how to hire best customer representatives, identified a set of skills that are almost always present in someone who has a high HQ—a hospitality quotient that make the best customer service team. Such people are optimistic, curious, kind and possess a high degree of empathy. The best motivation for such a team is a desire to make someone else feel better. Of course, to build up a team, taking to account of motivation, who are proactive, curious, and passionate about what your company do.

Reinforce your brand

If you want to bear fruits, you need to make your company stand out in the crowd and be noticeable. The key to make it is correct branding. Strong brands creates consistent and desired experience that builds trust in your customers and gives you loyalty and promotion. A brand name himself, Richard Branson has built a multi-billion dollar conglomerate just by remaining consistent in delivering a customer-centric and brand-oriented experience.

Find ways to stay ahead of competition

All companies want to become strong and capable, and competition makes them abandon their excuses to push through adversity. Franklin D. Roosevelt believed competition is useful because it promotes cooperation. Give your business a chance to be a competitive one by finding your unique selling proposition. That should be something about your advantage that will make your customers stay with your business. If customers stopped using your products or services ask yourself what made them prefer other product or service. What would your customers miss if they stop using your service? Develop such a competitive advantage that will make a singular reason why for your customers to choose your company over competitors.

There is always room for improvements in your work. These five principles can give you a very brief glimpse on how to be more successful in building your business processes. Learn more tips on how to make your growing business profitable without spending extra resources.

Author:

Olesya Novik, business analyst and member of R&D Team at Digital Future. Proficient specialist, focused on the latest digital and tech trends in customer support services.

Delta experiencing computer issues, flights canceled and delayed Sunday night

Why it matters to you

Many major airlines have been experiencing computer issues recently, with Delta the latest carrier affected.

Last week it was United scrambling to fix a computer issue that caused flight delays across the U.S. This week it’s the turn of Delta.

The incident, which is believed to have started at around 6 p.m. ET, is still ongoing with many passenger-filled Delta planes reportedly stuck on the tarmac.

The carrier said in a statement that it’s “expeditiously working to fix a systems outage that has resulted in departure delays and cancellations. Not all of these delays and cancellations are being reflected on Delta systems, including delta.com, the Fly Delta App, airport information screens or through reservations agents.”

It added: “Flights in the air remain unaffected. Some customers are experiencing delays upon landing, particularly at Delta’s hub airports. Delta apologizes to customers for the inconvenience.”

Delta apologizes to customers for the inconvenience and will provide updates as they become available on https://t.co/QS4ugj8hOa.

— Delta (@Delta) January 30, 2017

As is usual in such circumstances, the issue soon started trending on Twitter …

Looks like all of the #Delta arrivals into RSW tonight are delayed between two to three hours as a result of computer glitch @RenesPoints pic.twitter.com/AAbjzhJT8E

— STEVEN DODSON (@BSBALLUMP) 30 January 2017

Major #Delta outage – I hope everyone makes it home safely. Investment in reliability always seems expensive until times like these.

— Simon Ross (@simonwross) January 30, 2017

Hey @Delta can you send a large pizza to your Atlanta runway. I’m…..I mean WE are hungry. #Delta #GetMeOffThisRunway

— Moe (@moe67) 30 January 2017

It’s not the first time for Delta to experience such an issue. In August 2016, a global computer system outage at its hub in Atlanta, Georgia, saw flights canceled and grounded around the world.

And just last weekend, United Airlines faced similar problems when an “IT issue” that forced it to ground all domestic flights for around three hours.

We’ve reached out to Delta for more details on Sunday night’s problem and will update when we hear back.

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