Unlock YouTube’s hidden Dark Mode to save your eyes

If you’ve ever tried to watch YouTube when it’s dark out, you know that the typical bright white of the video service’s page can be a bit blinding. Enter “Dark Mode,” a hidden feature that turns the light surfaces black or dark gray so you can get on with those cat videos without all that glare.

1. Open console
2. Paste: document.cookie=”VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=fPQ4jCL6EiE”
3. Reload
4. Click your avatar
5. Dark mode!

(Thx @keesplattel) pic.twitter.com/CbCMyGog65

— Owen ⚡️ (@ow) April 14, 2017

Enabling the mode is fairly simple, provided you’re using an up-to-date Chrome browser. You’ll need to access the browser’s developer tools and paste in some text from the Tweet above, refresh your browser, and then toggle the mode on in the menu you get when you click on your avatar. You can easily turn the mode off, too, though you only have to use the console command once.

It’s an easy, semi-official way to save you some eye strain. Even though Dark Mode hasn’t been announced by YouTube yet, it could be a great regular feature that may not require all the extra steps in the near future. Why not give it a try now?

Via: Owen Williams

Source: Reddit

Trump administration is killing its open data portal

Reversing yet another Obama-era practice, the Trump administration announced on Friday that it will not only be keeping its visitor logs secret for five years after Trump leaves office, but will be shuttering the Open.gov portal. This is where the previous administration posted visitor logs, financial disclosures and data on White House staff.

Officials argue that the portal had become redundant and closing it would save $70,000 over the next three years. The administration had “broken new ground in ensuring our government is both ethical and accessible to the American people,” according to officials, because the White House had issued more press passes and prohibited lobbyists from getting federal positions. The data from open.gov will be rolled over into the open.whitehouse.gov portal in the coming months.

The move was immediately condemned by transparency advocates. “By announcing a return to secrecy for White House visitor logs, the Trump administration has continued to evade public accountability and transparency for the highest office,” John Wonderlich, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation said in a statement. “While this action is no surprise for a President whose tax returns remain secret, who has proclaimed the free press the enemy of the American people, and who has refused to fully divest from his businesses, the White House’s failure to disclose visitor logs demonstrates again that American leadership on open government will not come from this Presidency.”

This isn’t the first time that the administration has sought to obfuscate information. In mid-February the White House cleared a large amount of data from open.whitehouse.gov. The positions of White House CIO and chief digital officer, which spearheaded digital transparency initiatives under Obama, have yet to be filled as well.

As for the visitor logs, White House communications director Michael Dubke claimed that they are being kept secret due to “the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.” The president is also relying on a federal court ruling that found that the logs count as “presidential records” and therefore not eligible for FOIA requests. This is a sharp departure from Obama’s policy, which voluntarily granted access to more than 6 million documents during his administration.

Strangely, as seemingly with all of Trump’s executive decisions, there is a prognosticating tweet from the president himself from 2012:

Why is @BarackObama spending millions to try and hide his records? He is the least transparent President–ever–and he ran on transparency.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2012

The White House has not responded for request for comment at the time of this post’s publication. It will be updated when the administration replies.

Source: Time

Of course there’s a ‘Candy Crush’ fashion collection

The Candy Crush craze continues to reach new heights. Just when you thought a TV show based on the popular game was more than you could handle, well, that’s not the only thing happening in time for summer. King, the app’s developer, has teamed up with fashion brand Moschino on a collection of accessories and swimwear, in celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Candy Crush Saga. Available today (only until it sells out), the gear includes an iPhone case, bathing suits for men and women as well as a backpack, respectively priced at $70, $205, $300 and $650.

Moschino’s creative director, Jeremy Scott, has made a name for himself in the fashion industry with his bizarre designs and collaborations. Back in 2015, for example, he worked with Nintendo on a collection dubbed “Super Moschino,” featuring swag inspired by characters from the Super Mario franchise. Scott has also sent models down the runway wearing pieces created out of his love for McDonald’s and SpongeBob SquarePants. Because who doesn’t love fast food or cartoons, really?

If you want to look ridiculous and break the bank all at the same time, Moschino’s Candy Crush collab is the perfect way to do it. Who knows, maybe you have an unhealthy obsession with the game. But hey, for better or worse, you do you.

Source: Moschino

Live your Kamehameha-blasting dream with ‘Dragon Ball Z’ VR

Somewhere high on the list of childhood fantasies is the dream to hurl balls of energy from your hands. Capcom knows this urge, which is why they stuck a Hadoken-throwing simulator in their Ultra Street Fighter II Nintendo Switch port. But the king of palm-fired ki blasts has stepped up to the technological plate. A Dragon Ball Z-themed VR headset is coming out along with a downloadable mobile app so you can toss virtual Kamehamehas until your inner child is sated.

The Japanese toy maker Mega House is behind the gimmicky release, which also includes hand sensors and a VR mat. Like the Gear VR, the DBZ headset runs completely off your smartphone, but at least it has a sweet Capsule Corps design. Judging by the trailer, the VR experience looks to be split between a cel-shaded adventure within locations from the show and an AR overlay for you to simulate Saiyan destruction in the real world.

According to Kotaku, the whole kit and game, called BotsNew CHaracters VR Dragonball Z, will come out in Japan for 12,000 yen (or about $110). Now if someone could finally release a magical girl VR experience…

Via: Kotaku

Source: MegahouseJP (YouTube)

This experimental e-book gets edited every time it changes hands

A Universe Explodes is an unusual e-book in a variety of ways. Best viewed on a mobile device, it’s about 20 pages long and has 128 words per page. Only 100 people “own” the original version, though the book itself is free and can be read by anyone at any time. Each copy can be shared with up to 100 others, but first each owner must personalize it by removing two words and adding one to every page. Since each copy is subtly different, they are all considered “limited editions.” Owners are required to share the book with a friend once they’re done editing it — and each time the e-book is passed on, more and more words disappear until there’s only one left per page.

“Frankly, after 20 owners it will be unreadable,” Tea Uglow, the book’s author and creative director of Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney, told Wired.

All of the changes people make are saved in a public database that uses a technology called blockchain. Traditionally used to document financial transactions, it stores records in timestamped “blocks.” With it, you can track who’s read each book and see how they changed it, starting with the original text Uglow wrote.

“The story erodes with each owner, and through this process a notional value of the work increases,” Uglow wrote in a Medium post. “In the same way as any book will eventually fall apart, accumulate marks and fade. Books grow in value (both emotional or financial) as they age and we are interested to see if the same can be true of a digital book (or a digital ‘anything’).”

A Universe Explodes is an experiment in ownership. What does it mean to “own” something in the digital age? When you buy an e-book from, say, Amazon, it’s technically not yours. You have a license agreement to view it, but Amazon can revoke it at any time. But if you interact with something in a creative way, does that then make it yours? It’s an interesting concept, for sure. If you’d like to read A Universe Explodes yourself, it’s published by Editions at Play. Many copies don’t have owners yet, but there’s apparently a wait list. We’ve contacted the publishers to find out how to get on that list, and we’ll update this story if we hear back.

Via: Wired

Source: Editions at Play

Microsoft might be building tab support for all apps into Windows 10 Redstone 3

Why it matters to you

Working with multiple app windows could get a lot easier in the next version of Windows 10.

Microsoft recently released Windows 10 Creators Update, the latest major update to the operating system that’s intended to lead the Windows PC market into the future. The company isn’t stopping there, either, with plans and Windows Insider builds already rolling out for Redstone 3, the next major update due later in 2017.

As information leaks about the new build or is revealed in the latest preview builds, it’s obvious that Microsoft is now working to make Windows 10 look and work better in its basic user interface. One bit of functionality that the company appears to be adding to the OS, at long last, is the ability to run apps in multiple tabs, as Windows Central reports.

The web browser has demonstrated the value of tabs, which make it easy to open multiple web pages at once and switch between them with ease. Now, Microsoft wants to finally bring the same functionality to any app that can run on Windows 10 — not just the new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps, but also old-style desktop apps using Win32.

Microsoft is implementing tabbing via a new Tabbed Shell function that’s baked into the OS. It’s going to work with any app out of the box, without requiring developers to specifically support, but Microsoft is also offering an application programming interface (API) that will let developers optimize their apps for the tabbing experience.

Windows Central created some mock-ups with their best guess on how a Windows desktop app like Word 2016 would work, with and without developer optimization using the Tabbed Shell API. In their first example, they show Word 2016 running without optimization and simply revealing a second set of window controls for a tabbed document:

Windows Central

Then, if Microsoft were to use Tabbed Shell to optimize Word 2016 for the experience, then the experience is much cleaner and more efficient:

Windows Central

At this point, the Tabbed Shell is experimental and will likely undergo numerous changes before it’s officially rolled out. That could happen in Redstone 3, which is already anticipated to include some serious user interface improvements including the new “Project Neon” look and feel. Or the Tabbed Shell interface could possibly get pushed to the next major update after that, which is rumored to be Redstone 4, coming in 2018.

Microsoft’s most important annual developer’s event, Build 2017, is coming in May, and so we could possibly see more about the new tabbing functionality. As Windows Central notes, the experiment could also be canceled somewhere along the way, and so as with all such concepts, you shouldn’t get too attached to this one. If the Tabbed Shell does make its way into Windows 10, however, all of our apps will be as easy to use with multiple windows as our favorite web browser.

G.Skill’s new memory kit wrings every last ounce of power from the DDR4

Why it matters to you

G.Skill is pushing the envelope when it comes to memory components. These announcements give us a sneak peek of what is coming next and what is on the horizon.

Computer hardware is in a constant state of evolution, with new processes and new materials redefining our technological boundaries on a regular basis. Next year, the DDR5 memory specification is expected to be finalized, but manufacturers are still working hard to wring every last drop of performance out of DDR4.

Taiwanese computer memory specialist G.Skill unveiled a brand new addition to its Trident Z series of extreme performance memory kits. The component is being billed as the first DDR4-4,333MHz memory kit on the market that is available in an 8GBx2 configuration, for a total of 16GB.

The new memory kit is said to run at CL19-19-19-39 timing at 1.40V. G.Skill also shared a screenshot of the component being validated on a system utilizing an Asus ROG Maximus IX Apex motherboard and an Intel Core i5-7600K processor.

G.Skill

However, this DDR4-4,333MHz memory kit is not the only project G.Skill is showing off. The company has also shared some details about an experimental project that has managed to achieve DDR4-4,500MHz speed on the Intel Z270 platform.

The company reports that its tests yielded a read speed of 55GB/s, a write speed of 65GB/s, and a copy speed of 52GB/s using dual channel mode. G.Skill also shared a sneak peek of its stress tests of a DDR4-4,400MHz memory speed but noted that specifications are still being worked on, and are a way off being released to the market.

G.Skill

It’s crucial for a manufacturer like G.Skill to balance the immediate future of its manufacturing efforts with plans for components that will emerge further down the line. DDR4 won’t become immediately obsolete once the DDR5 specification is in place and it seems the company is poised to continue offering cutting-edge memory products for the foreseeable future.

Leaked slides give up more AMD 500 series graphics card details

Why it matters to you

The RX series could launch with pricing that’s about the same as the RX 400 series, which could make it a very affordable upgrade path for those a few generations behind.

AMD’s 500 series could be one of the worst kept secrets in hardware history, as we’ve had leak upon leak without much of an official announcement. Further adding to that mountain of evidence is a leak of several slides which appeared during a presentation AMD recently gave, detailing the benefits of the new generation and giving us an idea of its performance.

It was only a week or so ago that we saw a number of AMD’s 500 series graphics cards show up on various retailer websites, but it turns out the pre-release information leaks didn’t actually occur there. Originally posted by Japanese tech news site, Lazion, several slides have since been reproduced by Fudzilla, giving us a wealth of details about RX 580, 570, 560 and 550 graphics processors (GPU).

The first slide gives us some basic information about the 500 series, including the fact that it should deliver a more efficient experience, especially when idling. Aggressive tuning means higher clocks, we’re told, and there will be new options in partner designs — which could mean just about anything.

Moving on to card-specific slides, we learn that the Radeon RX 580 will come with 36 compute units (four less than Project Scorpio), will have 8GB of GDDR5 memory, and will have a base and boost clock of 1,257Mhz and 1,340Mhz, respectively.

Although the lack of GDDR5X memory might give Nvidia fans pause, the 580 doesn’t look like it’s designed to topple Nvidia’s Pascal generation cards. It’s in essence a rebranded version of the RX 400 series with more aggressive clocks. Its place in the graphics market seems likely to replace that of its predecessor, as in several benchmarks it’s shown outstripping both an R9 380X and Nvidia GTX 970 at 1440P resolution by substantial margins.

In the same way as the RX 480 was marketed as an affordable virtual reality capable graphics card, it seems like the 500 series, and specifically the RX 580, may be designed with 1440P gaming and prettier VR in mind.

Elsewhere in the 500 series range we have the 570, which comes with 32 compute units, 4GB of GDDR5 and a clock speed of 1,168Mhz which boosts up to 1,244Mhz. The 560 offers half as many compute units, but a slightly higher 1,175 Mhz/1,275Mhz clock speed and the same amount of memory.

The RX 550 has just eight compute units and a cited boost clock of 1,183Mhz paired with 2GB of memory. It is however said to be capable of 4K media decoding, so could be aimed at the HTPC crowd.

All cards have been optimized for DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs, which AMD already had a bit of a lead over Nvidia with. It will be interesting to see how that plays out, considering these cards have some weaknesses in comparison to current-generation Nvidia GPUs.

Although we don’t know for sure, AMD’s 500 series cards are expected to launch as soon as April 18, so we don’t have long to wait to see how well these cards perform in the real world.

You can bob and weave with PiQ and Everlast’s innovative boxing wearable

Why it matters to you

After unveiling a partnership with Everlast at CES 2017, fitness tracking innovator PiQ announced its intelligent wearable geared toward boxers.

Artificial intelligence has been making its way into sports wearables thanks to PiQ Sport Intelligence. Now it has teamed with Everlast, the world leader in boxing gear, to bring its technology to boxing. Three months after making its debut at CES 2017, PiQ has announced the availability of the PiQ Robot, heralded as “the first wearable specifically designed for Core boxing and Fitness boxing.” If you’re in the U.S. or in Europe, you can now grab the new product for $99 on everlast.com, piq.com, and in various retail locations.

Just like other PiQ devices, the wearable (and associated app) will allow athletes to analyze and implement the optimal form in real time.

Using the PiQ Robot device, boxers can tap into the hive mind of thousands of boxers and millions of motions. The motion-capture algorithm measures and tracks each and every movement of every user, constantly updating the optimal form. Microscopic variations in boxing movements are picked up by the device, making it ideal for workouts and training.

“Athletes in other sports have been using data to train smarter for years,” says Chris Zoller, director of marketing and design for Everlast. “We’re excited to work with PiQ to bring wearable technology to the sport of boxing. The PiQ platform has the ability to provide true measurable training insight, something we feel will help boxers perform their best.”

The benefits are made even more clear when boxers connect the PiQ Robot to their smartphone. They can see the strength and speed of their punches, and determine their strength levels. These factors can then be leveraged in order to improve performance.

To secure the PiQ Robot to a boxer’s hand, Everlast has created a strap that wraps around the wrist to ensure a secure fit. Better yet, the device and the strap are designed to fit perfectly underneath a pair of boxing gloves. This way, they don’t impact performance negatively.

Article originally published in January. Updated on 4-13-2017 by Lulu Chang: Added news of PiQ and Everlast availability in the U.S. and Europe. 

Üo is a sphere-wheeled device that can drive in any direction

Why it matters to you

Like unusual transportation? The Üo, a sphere-wheeled scooter that can travel in any direction, could be the next Segway.

If you’re the kind of person who likes, um, unique forms of transportation, but who finds the Segway a bit too mainstream, you may want to get your hands on a new Kickstarter project called the Üo.

“The Üo is a scooter that rides on a ball, and balances you while standing on it,” creator Olaf Winkler told Digital Trends. “It gives you 360-degree freedom for moving around. It can go sideways, backwards, and every other direction — and can [even] turn around on the spot. The feeling of riding the Üo is very special, perhaps comparable to skiing or skating. It feels amazing, like floating somewhere.”

Winkler said the idea came to him in 2010 while riding the aforementioned Segway, which for years has stood in as the epitome of alternative, slightly geeky transportation methods.

“The first tries were funny hemisphere constructs with pipes attached,” he continued. “When I switched to omni-wheels a little later, I definitely wanted to make [this a real product]. In 2015, I quit my job in automotive electronics development and dedicated myself full-time to the Üo as a solo entrepreneur.”

Steering the Üo looks like a bit of a challenge, but Winkler assures us it’s not all that tough. To control the direction, you use the joystick on top of the stick. Each Üo is powered by three motors, each capable of delivering 450W of mechanical power — while there are also battery-powered versions available. It’s apparently intuitive, although we’ll have to try it out for ourselves to know for sure.

Shipping for the scooter is set for this October, with prices starting at 1,249 euros ($1,327). No, that’s not cheap — but being an ahead-of-your-time hipster on a futuristic Segway alternative never is!

“Everybody who likes having fun outside and who appreciates exciting technology will enjoy riding the Üo,” Winkler said. “It can also be an icebreaker to draw the attention of passers-by.” With a bit of luck, they may even think you’re a time traveler from the future, come back for a vacation.