Microsoft’s new literacy tool teaches language skills in a browser

Microsoft has partnered with the nonprofit organization CHOICE Humanitarian to release a browser-based digital literacy tool, called Accent, for underprivileged populations. It’s designed specifically for Microsoft Edge so users can interact with its touchscreen mechanics, tracing out letters for kinaesthetic learning. Ideally, the tool will economically empower folks in undeveloped areas to seize opportunities in business and local government.

Microsoft and CHOICE deployed Accent in underprivileged regions of Guatemala to teach local women Spanish, with fluent teachers to guide the inaugural 18-person class. This is the first step in launching programs using the tool in other communities around the world. According to Microsoft’s post announcing Accent, new courses can be customized to teach different languages and skills without needing programming expertise.

Using technology to improve literacy isn’t a goal limited to the developing world. Last June, XPRIZE launched a competition with a $7 million reward to find the best literacy tool that could run on mobile devices. It’s not just handing low-literacy users smart devices loaded up with programs and calling it a day: XPRIZE’s Adult Literacy challenge needed the winning solution to encourage persistence so users stick out the tougher parts of courses. Accent’s kinaesthetic mechanics might be the approach that enables radically different groups to reach literacy…so long as they’re able to get a hold of enough Microsoft Edge-equipped devices.

Source: Windows Blog

Apple’s iWork, GarageBand and iMovie are now free

If you’ve bought an iOS or Mac device in the past few years, Apple’s suite of creativity and productivity apps was effectively free for you. Sure, you had to pay for that expensive tablet or laptop, but the apps themselves were included in the purchase, even if you didn’t download them until later. Starting today, however, Apple is simplifying things and making Keynote, Numbers, Pages, iMovie and GarageBand all free in the App Store for anyone in their ecosystem.

As MacRumors notes, the change in pricing is meant to make it easier for businesses and educational institutions to get the iWork suite through Apple’s Volume Purchase Program. That said, this is still a great opportunity for anyone still running older hardware to give Apple’s in-house apps a try. You’ll certainly never find a better price on GarageBand.

iWork apps require macOS Sierra to run, but GarageBand is available for machines running Yosemite or later and iMovie will run as long as you’re up to El Capitan or higher. On mobile devices, iWork requires at least iOS 10.0, while iMovie and GarageBand require at least iOS 9.3 and iOS 10.2 respectively.

Via: MacRumors

Watch Facebook’s F8 keynote in under 10 minutes

If there was still any question why Facebook paid all of that money for Oculus, today’s F8 keynote provided some extra explanation. From AR to social VR and more, the company laid out its plan for the immediate future that involves blending the virtual world with real life. If you missed the hour-long talk earlier today, don’t fret: We’ve compiled all the big news in a 10-minute clip.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from F8 2017!

Windows 10 will throttle apps to improve battery life

If there’s anything that will kill your laptop’s battery quickly, it’s running background apps. They’ll often chew up a lot of processor power regardless of what they’re doing. Microsoft wants to do something about that on Windows PCs. It just released an Insider preview build of Windows 10 whose Power Throttling feature should keep the amount of CPU work to a minimum. If you have a portable PC with at least a 6th-generation Intel Core processor inside (wider support is coming), Windows can switch the chip to a more energy-efficient state when background apps are active. Those background apps will still get their work done — they just won’t be as demanding as they would be if they were front and center.

The technology throttles depending on whether or not it believes an app is running “important” tasks. It won’t hamper your music app, for instance. However, there’s a good reason why this is still a preview. Although Microsoft believes it can detect which apps will be fine with Power Throttling, it’s asking for feedback in case it inadvertently hobbles a must-have tool. Thankfully, you can either opt out for certain apps (say, a video editing suite) or scale the feature back to invoke it less frequently.

The concept of limiting background apps to improve battery life isn’t entirely new. Just look at Apple’s App Nap in Mavericks for an example. However, App Nap and similar features typically work by telling the app itself to pause or slow down. Here, Microsoft is capping the hardware resources available to those apps — it’s governing the CPU itself. While there’s no guarantee this will add hours of running time, it could make a noticeable difference if you regularly juggle multiple programs when you’re on the road.

Source: Windows Experience Blog

Microsoft replaces the password with a phone-based log-in

Microsoft’s Authenticator app can now save you a step when logging into anything that requires a Microsoft Account. According to a blog post from the company’s identity division, Microsoft has just flipped the switch on a new phone sign-in feature that skips the password entry part entirely.

Microsoft’s phone sign-in works similarly to Google’s sign-in prompts in that it uses a mobile app (available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone) to confirm your identity, but you’ll never actually need to type a password when signing on to Microsoft services. Once you’ve set up your Microsoft Account in the app, you can enable phone sign-in through the settings menu. The next time you log in to your Microsoft Account on the desktop, you only need to enter your username and you’ll receive a notification on your phone to approve the login. Tap approve, and you’re in. The notifications act as a safeguard against unauthorized login attempts and the app can also create a unique code that works as a second authentication factor for OAuth logins.

Of course, you can always switch back to your password if you’ve somehow been separated from your phone, but Microsoft says the whole process is “easier than standard two-step verification and significantly more secure than only a password.”

Source: Microsoft Blog

Google Maps for iOS Gains New Timeline Feature

Google today announced that its popular Timeline feature for Google Maps on Android has expanded to Google Maps for iOS, making it available to iPhone and iPad users for the first time.

With Timeline, Google Maps keeps track of all of the places that have been visited, so users can have a past account of where they’ve been and what they were doing.

What was the name of that antique store I popped into the other day? Where was that coffee shop we discovered on our last vacation? Did I drop off the dry cleaning on Tuesday or Wednesday? Answering questions like these used to take some guesswork (and a great memory). But with Your Timeline on Google Maps, Android and desktop users could quickly revisit the things they’ve done and places they’ve been. Starting today, Google Maps users on iOS can join in on the fun and see a daily snapshot of their life as well.

The Timeline is fully editable, with users able to delete a day, date range, or complete location history at any time. It’s also customizable with different activity types, so users can mark what they were doing and what mode of transportation was being used.

Place cards of locations or businesses that are searched for in Google Maps will include the dates of past visits and can be used to quickly access Timeline information, plus Google also includes an option to receive monthly emails summarizing all of the places that have been visited.

The new Timeline features are available to iOS users starting today.

Google Maps can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tags: Google, Google Maps
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Belkin BOOST↑UP Wireless Charging Pad review

One of the most common features being added to smartphones today is the ability to charge it without need of wires. Many of the flagship models released in the last few months come with wireless charging capabilities. Key models for 2017 already include the LG G6, the Samsung Galaxy S8, and Samsung Galaxy S8+.

Thanks to consolidation in the wireless charging space, we’re finally seeing some industry standards fully emerge. One option, Qi charging, has been around for more than a couple of years now and has been found in phones from Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, and the Nexus line. And, in the cases where the phones don’t feature the charging option, there are plenty of cases you can purchase to add it on. It’s pretty damn pervasive to say the least. Looking ahead, we could even see it in future iPhones.

Just because you have a device that’s capable of charging wirelessly doesn’t mean you have a wireless charger. Indeed, you’ll have to purchase accessories like that separately. One such product is the BOOST↑UP Wireless Charging Pad, a unit we’ve spent some time with over the last few weeks.

There’s not much at all to setting up a wireless charging pad. It’s essentially plug it into the wall and place your phone on it. At most, you may have to find the proper placement to get the charge to activate. For a lot of phones you will hear an audible tone or see something on-screen to indicate charging has started.

The Belkin pad has a nice finish to it that keeps your phone from sliding around, potentially disengaging from the charge. You should be just fine for placing the handset on it; it takes a somewhat concerted effort to slide it or move it off. It’s not completely sticky or rubbery, but it does the trick.

There’s a green LED light indicator to let you know your phone is properly aligned to the pad and charging. Should you have an issue, the light switches to red so you can easily identify errors or foreign objects hindering charging. The BOOST↑UP Wireless Charging Pad can charge through cases up to 3mm thick so there shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Thicker cases, though, may be tricky.

The Wireless Charging Pad features the most recent Qi standards and supports charging up to 15W. For smartphones and tablets that Qi enabled and also support 15W, this is as fast as it gets. Yes, even quicker than what Samsung has in its 9W Fast Charge wireless pad.

At $70, the Belkin solution doesn’t come cheaply. But, given the flexibility and what we assume to be long-term viability, it’s a practical investment. Having one of these in a home office or central location could be quite handy in a home full of phones with wireless charging capability. The neutral colors and design ensure it looks great in any environment.

HTC realizes most people don’t have a VR-ready PC

HTC is making it easier for you to buy a Vive. The company just rolled out three new bundles for the virtual reality headset that include PCs and graphics cards for the first time. If you already have a decent rig but need a new graphics card, you can now get the Vive and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition for $999.99. That’s $200 cheaper than the suggested retail price, HTC says. You can also finance the bundle for as low as $49 per month for 24 months (estimated shipping plus tax), but these are temporary offers that run through April 24th.

The second bundle is a Vive and a MSI VR Ready laptop for $125 per month. The laptop includes an Intel i7 Quad-Core processor, a GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 graphics card, 16GB DDR4 RAM and a 256GB solid state hard drive.

And, lastly, HTC is offering a desktop bundle, pairing the Vive with the Cyberpower GXi970 for “less than” $99 per month, but the exact cost isn’t listed just yet. Its specs include an Intel i5 Quad-Core processor, an Intel B250 Chipset, 8GB DDR4 RAM, a 2TB hard drive and a GTX 1070 8GB video card.

HTC’s Vive Financing Program currently has three options: zero percent financing for six months and 12 months, or 7.99 percent financing for 24 months. It’s likely offering the same options for the new bundles, but the details aren’t all available on HTC’s site yet. Obviously, the less time you take to pay something off the better. The 24-month option won’t really save you any money in the long run. These bundles probably aren’t the most cost-effective options out there — an ambitious person could likely build their own rig for less. But, they could be a convenient option for less hardware savvy people looking for an easy way into the world of VR.

Source: HTC

Asus reveals pricing of VivoPC X, announces Oculus Rift bundle

Why it matters to you

With just a little patience, you can grab a nice bundle that pairs the Asus VivoPC X gaming PC with the Oculus Rift VR system.

CES 2017 was full of PC gaming and virtual reality system announcements. In some cases, companies showed off both, in gaming systems that are not only well suited for pushing serious frame rates in the most demanding modern titles, but also for powering superior VR gaming experiences.

Asus had a number of announcements covering both topics, and not all of them involved ultra-expensive machines at the very high end. One of its most interesting new products, in fact, is the much more compact VivoPC X system offering solid performance in a small and portable chassis. Now, Asus has finally announced pricing and availability for the new machine, as Tom’s Hardware reports.

As a refresher, the VivoPC X is most notable for packing some real power into a tiny frame. It utilizes the latest seventh-generation Intel Core i5 CPU with Nvidia’s popular GeForce GTX 1060 GPU. While neither component is the most powerful option available, they combine to provide enough horsepower both for running modern titles at high-quality settings in 1080p resolution and powering VR systems like the Oculus Rift.

Now, Asus has let everyone know how much the PC is going to cost, and it’s sounding like Asus intends to offer some serious gaming and VR value. Details are a bit sketchy, but it appears that the VivoPC X with Core i5-7300U, GeForce GTX 1060, 8GB of DDR4-2400MHz RAM, and a 512GB SATA SSD will run $800. That’s solid pricing for a highly portable and apparently well-designed gaming PC that’s capable of driving games and high frame rates, and powering VR.

In addition, Asus is bundling the VivoPC X with the Oculus Rift VR system for a cool $1,300. The bundle apparently includes the Oculus Rift headset, a Touch controller, and four VR-enabled gaming titles. Tom’s Hardware suggests as well that the bundle might include two Touch controllers, which would be more logical and in line with the usual Oculus Rift system offering.

The VivoPC X should be available from the Asus online store and retailers like Best Buy and Amazon sometime soon. The Oculus Rift bundle is going on sale for a limited time, specifically April 25 through June 13, 2017.

Facebook’s about to make augmented reality on phones really fun

Why it matters to you

Facebook is moving augmented reality beyond Pokémon Go, for everything from fun video effects to huge 3D street art installations.

If you’ve been wondering why Facebook has been adding camera modes to its apps, from Messenger to WhatsApp, over the last months, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has revealed why during the F8 developer conference keynote. He called the camera features, “act one,” and act two will be to create the first camera augmented reality platform that will integrate with each app. Get ready for AR fun like we’ve never seen before.

Launching in closed beta today, Facebook’s AR platform will be open to developers, giving them the chance to create some exciting tools, games, and even art projects. This means in the future, rather than a few dozen options, there will be thousands. While face masks and frames, like we’re already seeing in Facebook’s app, will be part of the platform; it’s technology called Simultaneous Location and Matching (SLAM) that’ll make it really cool.

By understanding precise location and its environment, the AR platform will understand depth, movement, and 3D space. Looking at a table, you can place an AR object in-camera, and it’ll stay where you put it, regardless of whether you move the camera around to view it from another angle. Beyond this, virtual lighting can be changed, and objects replicated or augmented with cool effects. For example, add AR flowers to a plant, an information card floating in virtual space to a bottle of wine, leave AR notes on the refrigerator, or scrawl AR graffiti on a table at the local bar.

Zuckerberg spoke about the usefulness of AR. He said people want to share their everyday life, but don’t want to do so if what they’re doing is mundane. Augmented reality effects can make those ordinary things more fun, and therefore more shareable.

Effects like these mentioned above are only the start. Facebook wants to add AR gaming to its apps, like turning a regular table into an AR battleground, and even AR art, like changing a blank wall into a huge 3D, animated piece of street art. If you thought Pokémon Go was bad, wait until hordes of people are staring at blank walls holding their phones out in front of them.

Facebook’s AR platform will take a while to develop, and it’s really early days; but it’ll start rolling out soon. Don’t expect the games to arrive until later this year. Zuckerberg said that although we’ll have to be patient, eventually the AR innovations will, “change the way we use our phones,” and eventually, it’s the technology that will go into those ordinary-looking AR spectacles we all want.