U.S. Senate votes to strip away Americans’ online privacy

The resolution would also prevent the FCC from enacting similar consumer protections in the future.

Your service provider needs permission to sell your private information under current rules. But that might be changing if the House follows the Senate’s lead on S.J Res 34.

Senate Joint Resolution 34 is congressional disapproval of the Federal Communications Commission rules relating to “Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunications Services”. The U.S. Senate voted 50 – 48 today to pass this resolution under the Congressional Review Act, which allows lawmakers 60 days to repeal a law before it’s enacted.

A similar repeal vote from the House would roll back the requirement of broadband internet providers to get your permission before sharing personal information like your location, your web history and financial details with any third party. In addition, it would prevent the FCC from writing similar rules in the future.

Five Creepy Things Your ISP Could Do if Congress Repeals the FCC’s Privacy Protections (EFF.org)

As predicted, the vote went along party lines with 50 Republicans voting Aye and 46 Democrats along with two Independents voting Nay on the resolution. Isakson (R-GA) and Paul (R-KY) abstained.

The bill now heads to the House of Representatives for debate and a vote.

The major talking points of the FCC rule adopted in December 2016 are considerations of user privacy. They read as follows:

• Opt-in Approval. We adopt rules requiring carriers to obtain customers’ opt-in approval for use and sharing of sensitive customer PI (and for material retroactive changes to carriers’ privacy policies). A familiar example of opt-in practices appears when a mobile application asks for permission to use geolocation information.
• Opt-out Approval. Balancing important governmental interests in protecting consumer privacy and the potential benefits that may result from the use of non-sensitive customer PI, we adopt rules requiring carriers to obtain customers’ opt-out approval for the use and sharing of non-sensitive customer PI.

Other sections of the rule require broadband providers to notify subscribers in the event of a data breach and serve to establish a baseline of what data is private and how it needs to be handled. The Senate voted to strip the rule in its entirety.

If you disagree with this decision and want to talk to your representative about the situation, you’ll find their contact details right here.

Google Photos tips and tricks: Store and edit your photos like a pro

Google Photos has been around for a couple years now and is go-to service for many people looking to store their photos and videos.

Google Photos not only lets you save personal media to a virtual locker but also makes that media available across all your devices. Plus, the service has all sorts of features for managing, viewing, editing, and discovering your digital memories. To help you navigate Google Photos, we’ve rounded up a selection of tips and tricks that’ll maximise your experience and essentially make you a Google Photos pro.

Google Photos tips and tricks

Note: This guide is primarily about Google Photos for iOS and Android devices – unless otherwise noted.

Getting started

In the app, you’ll see a menu bar with three main tabs: Assistant, Photos, and Albums. Assistant is where you go to rediscover old photos and see effects that were automatically created for you from your photos and videos. The Photos tab is essentially a list/grid of all your images and videos in Google Photos, while Albums is a list of all your albums and collections, some of which were auto-created (like People).

Use Google Photos on the web

Google Photos has a desktop website, where you can access Assistant, Photos, and Albums tab (on the right-hand side). There’s also a search bar at the top, with create and upload and menu options. You can even rearrange the order of images in your collection from the site. Just select an image (click the check that’ll appear on the thumbnail), then click the menu button in the upper corner, and select “Edit date & time.” Also, from the desktop website, you can press Shift-? on your keyboard to get a list of available shortcut commands.

Access the menu

Find the menu button (hamburger icon) in the search field, and then tap it to pull out the Google Photos menu. You can also swipe from left on any screen. The menu has options for managing Google Photos. You can also switch accounts and find your Trash bin from menu.

Manage your settings

In the menu, tap Settings. From there, you will see options to back up and sync to whichever Google account you’re using, choose the types of Assistant cards you want to see, free up device storage, show Google Drive photos and videos in your Photos library, and way more.

Search your images

Google Photos is known for its intelligence and ability to smartly organise your media. You can use the universal search bar at the top of the app to find photos based on month, season, location, objects, or even general keyword like “flowers” or “baby”. You can use multiple search terms too. Oh, and you can search by emoji. Try the sunglasses emoji to find photos of people with glasses or sunglasses.

Browse your albums and collections

You can casually browse your albums under the Albums tab. There is also a carousel at the top with images and videos grouped into collections based on search terms, media type, and general theme (like People, Places, Things, Videos, Animations, Movies).

Find specific images of people

Google Photos smartly helped you find images based on who appears in them. Go to the Albums tab and then select “People” to see a list of faces from your collection. If you want to search for someone by name, tap his or her face, then select “Who is this?”, and add their name. That name will then appear when you start typing it in the search bar. You can also use this process to ensure people are properly labeled in an image. Similarly to hide a person, tap person and then select the option labeled “Hide people.”

Find recently added images

You can find the images and videos you uploaded most recently by going to the Google Photos site and clicking the search bar, then clicking the link labeled “Show More”, followed by “Recently Added”.

Pinch to view your Photos

Under the Photos tab, you can pinch in or out on the gallery to make the thumbnails smaller or larger. If you pinch in enough, you’ll see a calendar view, but if you pinch out, you will get larger and larger thumbnails until you’re ultimately zooming in on an image in full.

Jump back to image gallery

While viewing any image in full, you can swipe down from the top of the screen to jump back to the full image gallery (this works in both the Photos tab and the Albums tap). There’s no need for the back button.

Quickly scroll to a specific date

When you’re scrolling through the Photos tab or in an Album, and want to jump to a specific date, touch the quick-scroll button on the right side of the screen. All you have to do is push your finger up or down to fly through time and find your image.

Select multiple images

In the app, when you want to select a bunch of consecutive images, simply touch your finger to the first image until it becomes highlighted with a blue check mark, and then drag your finger up or down to quickly select more images at once. Once you select every image you want, you will see option to share them, create something new from them, delete them, or backup now.

Recover deleted images

Google Photos has a “Trash” folder that’s accessible via the menu. Every deleted image or video stays in the Trash for 60 days and can be quickly recovered. Just select an image and then tap the rewind icon (or delete button, if you want to fully purge it).

Editing your images

Google Photos is a powerful image editor. When viewing any image, tap the pencil icon to access several one-touch tools. You can add filters, crop, rotate, and adjust things like light, colour, and “pop”. Make sure to tap the down arrows next to light and colour to access even more options. It’s worth playing around to see all the available editing tools.

Save a copy

When you save an image after editing, your modified version will replace the original. However, if you want to save it as a copy instead, don’t tap Save. Instead, tap the menu icon at the top of the screen to find the Save copy option.

Create a creation

Google Photos lets you create movies, animations, and collages (aka “creations”) from any set of images or videos. Just select the items you want, then select the “+” option at the top of the screen, and choose what kind of creation you want to fiddle around with.

Don’t forget Assistant

If you love the creation tools in Google Photos, make sure you consistently check the Assistant tab. It automatically generates animations, collages, and highlight videos from your collection. It’ll also create instant albums from images and offer fixes for photos.

Backup while charging only

You’ll want to use Google Photos to back up all your photos to the cloud, but transferring that much data can kill your battery. Make sure to backup when your phone is charging. Go to settings, then tap “Back up & sync”, and look for the option labeled “While charging only”.

Backup device folders

Speaking of backing up, to back up all your images – not just the ones you took with your device camera, such as images you’ve downloaded or maybe screenshots you’ve captured – go to settings, then select “Back up & sync”, and tap “Back up device folders.” You’ll need to flip the switch on each folder to have its contents automatically synced with your Google Photos library.

Free up device storage

If all your device photos are backed up to the cloud, you can safely delete any local copies to free up some space. Find the option called “Free up device storage” in settings to get started. The app may also prompt you to enable this setting if your phone’s storage gets low. 

Google Photos uploader

If you want to upload hundreds or thousands of images from your computer to the cloud, use Google’s desktop uploader tool. It’s completely free and available for both MacOS and Windows. The software basically makes it easier to batch-transfer images. It’ll also let you automatically sync new images to Google Photos whenever you plug a camera or memory card into your system.

Batch download your collection

For a batch download of your entire collection, or if you just want to export all your Google Account data, use Google’s Takeout tool. It’s free.

Scan your old prints

If you have old printed photos you would like to store in Google Photos, Google offers a PhotoScan app for Android and iOS. You can access the download link from the menu in Google Photos. The app can smartly scan just about any photo, from anywhere, and in high resolution.

Share your image

Google Photos makes it easy to share your images and videos with anyone. Once you select an image, tap the Share button at the top. You’ll see several options, including the ability to share to social media sites like Facebook or Snapchat or Instagram.

Share your album

After you select an image and tap the share button, you can select Shared album and then New shared album to create a shareable album. You can share this album with people, meaning anyone you send the album to will be able to view it. To manage a shared album, open the menu, then tap Shared, and select whichever album you want. Then tap the menu icon in the corner for sharing and delete options.

Create a link

After you select an image and tap the share button, you can select Create Link (or Get Link from the website) to create a shareable link for that image or video. Anyone you send the link to will be able to view that specific image or video.

Remove geo location

If you don’t want your location data included any image or video, go to settings and then look for the “Remove geo location” option.

Cast your image to a TV

If you own Google’s Chromecast dongle or a Chromecast-enabled TV, you can show off your images and videos on the big screen by tapping the cast button in the upper corner of the mobile app (it should appear anytime a cast-ready TV is available). Once you’re connected, tap any image or video to send it to your television. If you want to cast a slideshow, open an image, then tap the menu, and select “Slideshow”. 

Hubble telescope finds black hole shot out of a distant galaxy

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have observed a supermassive black hole with a mass one million times that of our Sun hurtling away from its parent galaxy. It’s the first confirmed case out of several suspected “runaway black holes,” which required an immense amount of energy to get launched from the center of its galaxy. How much?

“We estimate that it took the equivalent energy of 100 million supernovae exploding simultaneously to jettison the black hole,” said Stefano Bianchi of Roma Tre University, co-author of the study announcing the phenomenon. According to their theoretical model, gravitational waves generated by two other black holes merging 1-2 billion years ago might have sent the supermassive one hurtling spaceward.

The researchers had noticed that the black hole’s energetic signature, known as a quasar, was located far from its expected place at the center of its home galaxy, named 3C186. It had already moved 35,000 light-years away, the team calculated, which is farther than our Sun’s distance from the center of the Milky Way. The supermassive black hole continues to move at 7.5 million kilometers per hour, a speed that would get you from the Earth to the Moon in three minutes.

Source: SpaceTelescope.org

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ trailer takes us to a bleak post-America future

Hulu has been teasing its adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale for months now, giving us a peak into a dystopian future Margaret Atwood first imagined in 1985. While those previews definitely gave us a look at the show’s visual style, they didn’t offer many clues about the plot for anyone who might have missed the novel the first time around. Today, Hulu dropped its first full-length trailer for the series, which debuts next month.

In a voiceover, our protagonist Offred (played by Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss) sets the scene, which suddenly feels more timely than ever: “When they slaughtered Congress, we didn’t wake up. When they blamed terrorists and suspended the constitution, we didn’t wake up then either.” Through a series of flashbacks, we get a glimpse into Offred’s reality, where her life is torn apart as the United States is dismantled and replaced by the cruel theocratic Republic of Gilead and the few remaining fertile women are treated as government property. Offred’s role as surrogate mother for the women of the ruling class obviously plays a very visceral part here, but its her past that hints at her motivations for survival.

We also get a better look at Samira Wiley (of Orange is the New Black) as Offred’s friend Moira and a powerfully creepy Joseph Fiennes as Commander Fred Waterford. The show will span 10 episodes, but since Hulu doesn’t like to release their series in one binge-friendly dump, they’ll be trickling out week by week, starting Wednesday, April 26th.

Source: Hulu (YouTube)

Ubiquiti’s new AmpliFi mesh point aims to expand your wireless footprint (Review)

I think it is safe to say that everyone has experienced issues with their home wifi at some point. I think a good number of you feel me when I say there is that one spot in your house that just pisses you off because you can’t get a good connection. Often this is because of ventilation pipes in the wall, brick fireplace chimneys, or simply distance from your wireless router.

Often times, the wireless router finds itself in the office, which inevitably on an exterior wall. The optimal place to put your router would be directly in the middle of your house based on how the wireless signal is distributed. Unfortunately for most of us, it’s just not possible to make that happen. Enter Ubiquiti Labs new mesh networking hardware. This neat little gadget extends your network past what any single router can reach by adding another access point for your wireless devices to connect to.

Setup

Ubiquiti does make a router that is designed to work with these mesh points, but for the purposes of this review, we used this with a third party router (Netgear R6400) for this review.

Splash Screen

Initial Setup

Device Configuration

Setup is very straightforward. The AmpliFi system is all set up with a mobile app called, you can probably guess, AmpliFi. Once you plug the mesh point into a wall socket and give it about 60 seconds to boot up properly, launch the app. If it is not already enabled, you will be prompted to turn on your Bluetooth and location services. Once all necessary services are enabled you will be shown a nice list of devices (if you have multiple points) for you to configure. Follow the prompts to find a network to connect to and type in your password.

Design

The mesh point consists of two parts: the power supply and the antenna. The power supply has a grounded plug and a dish-like connector on the top. The dish is what actually transmits the power to the antenna. The antenna is a long slender piece of molded plastic-like material that houses all the electronics. on the front of the antenna are 5 LED’s that are used to reflect the connection status of your mesh point. The device, overall, is well designed and would blend in with most home designs, however, I do wish that it was just a hair smaller.

How it Works

After the initial setup is complete, you want to find the right place in your house to plug in the mesh point. I live out in the country and I figured this would be a good way to try this out. I plugged it into one of the buildings that is roughly 150 feet from my house, which, according to the readout on the app, provides the mesh point with a 36% connection to my router (keep in mind I am using the 2.4 GHz band which does allow for longer range than 5GHz). With the placement I decided to use, I was able to get about 350 feet away from my router and still have a connection to my network.

Performance is great, for the most part. I did not notice any drop in network performance when connecting to the mesh point or any connectivity issues while using it either. It is a nice feeling to connect to a separate device but not need to manage a separate wireless network.  My only complaint is in the handoff from one access point to the other. I did do a few tests of network connectivity during this handoff and I have to say that performance was less than optimal. I never had a successful handoff where any download I was doing was able to complete after connecting. My hope is that this would be corrected if we were using the AmpliFi router, but that will need to be a test for another day.

Remote Access

Yes, you read that correctly. The mobile app was recently upgraded to allow access to your AmpliFi devices from outside the network. As you can tell from the screenshot, I am not connected to any Wifi network and I am able to see live throughput of the access point. While you are connected to the network you gain the ability to run connection tests back to the ISP.

The app also affords you the ability to connect with the live support team at your fingertips. Simply tap the menu button in the upper left corner, and select the Live Support button. A chat session will launch and you are instantly connected with a support person in a live chat window. Can’t beat that service!

Conclusion

The AmpliFi line, by Ubiquiti, is something that I was very excited to review. That being said, my overall experience was meh. The app is great, the design is sleek, and the components are quality, but, if you are using it in the same manner as we did here, I think there are more affordable options to extend your wireless network.

I hope to get the opportunity to review the router/mesh point combo to see if it is what I expect a name like Ubiquiti to put out.

Facebook adds more familiar features to Messenger chats

Facebook has a habit of copping features from other apps and dropping them into Messenger, so the addition of message reactions and @-mentions in the social network’s marquee messaging app was probably inevitable as the company slowly merges features across it’s products. Like iMessage, Slack and regular old Facebook comment threads, you can now react to individual messages or tag a friend to get their attention in group chats.

Message reactions work exactly as they do in iMessage — you just press and hold a message to bring up Facebook’s set of seven basic love/laugh/cry emoji. For anyone keeping score, a small counter will tally up the reactions and show you who in the chat is showering you with all these emoji. Of course, everything gets a playful animation and its own notification on the lock screen.

Mentions should seem pretty familiar as well: start typing @ and you’ll bring up a list of people in the chat. Tag a name and that user will get a special notification letting them know they’ve been called out.

Mentions and Reactions began rolling out to users today, and they should be available to everyone in the next few days. And for companies using Facebook Workplace, the same features will be available in Work Chat.

Source: Facebook

Likes arrive for Facebook Messenger — along with a few new reactions

Why it matters to you

Really like that photo your friend sent you through a private message on Facebook? Now you can tell them with a like or emoji, or even answer yes-or-no questions in emoji form.

Facebook group messages are beginning to look a bit more like the news feed. On Thursday, Facebook introduced Messenger Reactions and Mentions, bringing likes and tags to the dedicated messaging app. The two new features are designed to make group messages more fun, Facebook says, but they work in one-on-one conversations as well.

Message Reactions allow users to react to a photo or text much in the same way they can react in the news feed. Tapping and holding on the message or photo brings up the emoji reactions, including love, smile, wow, sad, and angry, as well as the like and dislike options.

More: Facebook is testing out a dislike button in Messenger, user reports

While those reactions are the same ones found in the news feed, Messenger includes two more — yes or no. The new options allow users to tap and hold for the yes-or-no reaction, instead of typing out a response to the question.

The reactions will pop up in a bottom corner of the message, with a tap on the emoji icon bringing up who responded in what way. If Messenger isn’t open, reactions will pop up as notifications.

The second new feature makes it simpler to talk to a specific person within a larger group text. Using the “@” symbol and the user’s name (or nickname), tags will create a different notification instead of the typical message notification. Others in the same group will still receive the same notifications as before, but the tagged user will see a notification saying they have been called out specifically.

Facebook says the new mention capabilities makes it easier to ask or respond to a specific person inside group chats.

Both the mentions and reactions features will also be migrating over to Facebook’s professionally oriented messaging, Work Chat and Workplace.

The new features are already rolling out to users with app updates on Thursday but international users may not see the update for a few days.

Dell promises to give high resolution new meaning with $5,000 8K UHD display

Why it matters to you

The 8K UHD display that you’ve been dreaming about is now for sale — but you better have saved up your pennies. Dell’s UP3218K carries a steep $5,000 price tag.

While the PC ecosystem usually gets the most attention, the PC display market continues to impress with a continued march toward higher-quality displays. Between ultrahigh resolutions, high dynamic range (HDR), and curved screens, the workhorse PC monitor has become something of a star.

Dell ramped up the hype machine at CES 2017 with its own exceedingly high-end display. The UP3218K that was unveiled there is poised to give “high resolution” new meaning, with an 8K panel offering up a massive 7,680 x 4,320 resolution. Now, Dell is actually offering it for sale, as MSPU reports.

More: The world’s first 32-inch, 8K monitor headlines Dell’s newest displays

Before anyone gets too excited, we’ll note that Dell is asking a hefty $5,000 for the UP3218K. Unless you just have money to burn, then you’ll likely need some pretty compelling reasons to spend that kind of money. If you’re such a person — say, a creative professional who needs the utmost in resolution and color support — then Dell is obviously working hard to justify your investment.

The highlight of the UP3218K, of course, is the 31.5-inch panel running at 8K UHD. That translates into a pixel density of 280PPI, which is competitive with tablets that are meant to be held much closer to the eye than the typical 32-inch class display. Clearly, the monitor offers unparalleled sharpness for someone who needs to pixel peep.

It’s not just high resolution that Dell’s bringing to the table, however. The UP3218K also offers up superior color support. It meets pretty much every important industry standard, offering 100 percent of AdobeRGB coverage, 100 percent of sRGB, 100 percent of Rec. 709, and 98 percent of DCI-P3. If you value color fidelity, then this is the monitor for you.

Dell also calibrates the display for Delta-E color accuracy of less than 2, with parameters that can be set via custom color modes, a software development kit (SDK), or option X-rite iDisplay Pro colorimeter. Support for 1.07 billion colors rounds out the display’s color specs.

Other functionality includes the ability to swivel from landscape to portrait mode, as well as Dell’s InfinityEdge bezels, which keep the user focused on the image. Connectivity options include two DisplayPort connections, one USB upstream and two downstream ports, and audio line-out.

If you place your order today, then Dell promises a ship date of April 14, 2017. So, you’ll still have to wait a few weeks for delivery. Certainly, from the specs alone, it would seem like the UP3218K will be worth the wait.

‘Nier: Automata’ fan patch gives a big boost to detail, framerates

Why it matters to you

If you’re having framerate issues with Nier: Automata, this fan patch might fix them for you.

A patch developed by the fan community surrounding recently released Nier: Automata has made a difference to many people’s framerates. Anecdotal reports suggest even those who struggled to run the game at the lowest of settings, can now run it maxed out with smooth framerates, Kotaku reports.

Nier: Automata is a fun, philosophical RPG that caught us off guard with just how good it is. However, one area of the game that a lot of people have been complaining about is performance. While the JRPG is hardly the most visually stunning game out there, some users found that even with hefty hardware under the hood, they couldn’t hit steady, playable framerates. The newly released patch, however, looks to have fixed that.

Developed by Steam user Kaldaien, the FAR (Fix Automata Resolution) and lighting performance patch tweaks the game’s settings and makes a few interesting changes to drastically improve performance. It disables the GeForce Experience and Nvidia Shield features, limits the maximum framerate to 60, uses triple rather than quad-buffering to reduce input latency, and changes the pre-render frame limit to three, among other tweaks.

More: No need to reset: NES Classic Edition hack adds home screen shortcut

While we can’t comment directly on the viability of this patch, a number of users have reported an improvement in the game’s overall performance. One Redditor claims it took them from 45FPS on the lowest settings, to 60FPS with everything maxed out. Many others in that same thread confirmed benefits on their own systems, while another user on Steam claims that they were able to double their anti-aliasing and have better framerates too.

If you want to try out the patch yourself, you can download it from Kaldaien’s GitHub page, where frequent updates are forthcoming. The developer has promised to continue tweaking the patch, adding a new frame-pacing limiter in the coming days, which we’re told could help reduce cutscene stuttering.

It is worth stating, however, that this is a fan-made patch and is not officially supported in any manner. It could make changes to your game that you aren’t expecting, so be careful downloading it. Make sure to run anti-virus software and back up any important game files before installing it.

Student’s VR therapy tool combats social anxiety and speech disorders

Why it matters to you

For those who are suffering from social anxiety or a speech disorder such as a stutter, this virtual reality system may be able to help.

Virtual reality is pretty much the definition of an emerging technology, which means that different applications are being discovered seemingly every other day. While concepts like VR games are all well and great, however, a student at Nottingham Trent University in the U.K. has a potentially far more transformative use case: using virtual reality as a therapy tool.

24-year-old Gareth Walkom first developed a stutter when he was six years old. Now as an medical product design student, he’s in a position to help others with similar afflictions. To that end, he’s developing VR software to help individuals work through social anxieties and speech disorders by confronting a variety of virtual scenarios.

More: Could VR unlock the cure for Vietnam veterans’ decades-old PTSD?

“During a session of VRET, the individual is to wear the virtual reality headset, where they see an avatar,” Walkom told Digital Trends. “The individual is to talk to this avatar, and while doing so, their eye gaze behaviors are tracked through the special VR headset. If needed, a calming environment is available, which they can easily change into if their anxiety levels become too high. Virtual reality exposure therapy [as] opposed to exposure therapy in person, presents a realistic yet safe environment for someone to better prepare themselves for a real-life, anxiety-provoking situation.”

At present, the system is still very much under development, although the signs are promising. In tests using a previous virtual reality exposure therapy system Walkom developed, participants who took part showed signs of reduced anxiety and improved speech after repeated sessions. Now Walkom is building on that promise with his latest version, which also includes eye-tracking technology.

The software offers feedback about behavioral anxiety levels, and then shows how users are progressing — or even suggests additional ways for them to improve.

“I am hoping to take my research to a PhD this year, where I have plans which I believe can be groundbreaking to improve many disorders,” he said. “I am still searching for a source to fund this research.”

Given how potentially important work like this could prove, we hope that he finds it. This is exactly the kind of technology we love to hear about.