YouTube moves navigation bar to bottom in redesign for Android app

Why it matters to you

If you’re an Android user, the new YouTube update should create a more comfortable browsing experience.

After months of testing, YouTube has officially rolled out a redesigned layout for its Android’s app. The navigation tabs, which used to live at the top of the screen, have moved to the bottom.

The navigation bar includes the standard home, trending, and subscriptions tabs, but the new design replaced the Accounts tab with Library. The Library tab still tracks your activity such as history, playlists, uploads, and likes. Your account settings can now be accessed by clicking on the user icon in the right-hand corner, next to the cast and search icons.

The main three tabs still serve the same purposes: The home screen brings you to a feed of recent uploads from channels you’re subscribed to, as well as recommended videos based on your viewing history; the trending tab gives you access to videos that are new and currently popular; and the subscriptions tab shows videos and posts from your subscribed channels. Clicking on the user icon, you’re brought to your channel, notifications, settings, and the option to switch between different accounts.

YouTube iOS app.

Even though it no longer allows you to swipe through different sections, the tabs now save where you left off scrolling so you won’t lose your spot as you switch back and forth on the app. The redesign also includes a minor switch in color scheme with the navigation bar in white, and the action bar (top bar) and highlighted tabs in red.

The new interface is almost the same as the YouTube app for iOS devices, where the only difference is an “Activity” tab which tracks all your notifications in one section.

As smartphone screens become commonly bigger in size, the new interface is meant to help improve the navigation process — giving you quicker and more comfortable access when holding your phone.

The bottom navigation redesign has been available on iOS for some time, but the update is now gradually rolling out to Android.

AVADirect Avant Midsize Gaming Desktop review

Research Center:
AVADirect Avant Mid-Size Dekstop

Buying a gaming desktop is tricky. The market is an odd one, ranging from small set-top machines that can fit in an entertainment center beside a PS4 or Xbox One, to towering desktops humming with power.

Somewhere between those two extremes is the AVADirect Avant Gaming Desktop. It’s just one of many put out by manufacturer AVADirect, from whom customers can order any manner of personally customized machines. Our review unit arrived with an Intel Core i7-7700K processor, 64GB of RAM, and two Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards running in SLI, all packed neatly into an airy case filled with customizable lighting.

How is this desktop different from any other high-end gaming behemoth? Well, AVADirect isn’t so much a computer manufacturer as it is a computer assembler. All of the Avant’s components, including the case, can be purchased separately. Add them all up, and AVADirect’s total price comes out to about $3,850. That’s a lot, but it’s less than you might pay elsewhere.

Wide load

Most gaming PC cases are large, tall, slender obelisks thrumming with barely contained power. Just look at the Falcon Northwest Mach V or Digital Storm Velox, both of these PCs are towering monuments to PC gaming. The AVADirect Avant has similar dimensions, but it’s wider. It’s almost a cube, which is a bit odd at first, but there’s a good reason for the extra size. Inside, the case is luxuriantly large.

Moving on to aesthetics, the Avant is a handsome computer, even if it does take up a lot of real estate. The internals are lit up by a pair of LED strips along the top and bottom of the case, and the fans are also LED-lit, along with the twin Nvidia GeForce GTX logos on the dual 1080 Ti graphics cards.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The lighting is a bit tricky to customize, since the internal lights on the motherboard are controlled separately from the light on the cooling block, which is controlled separately from the lights on the graphics cards, which are controlled separately from the lights in the case itself.

Plus, the two graphics cards and their green-glowing GeForce GTX logos can’t be changed, and neither can the red lighting on the EVGA SLI bridge, or the blue lighting in the front, top and back-side fans. It’s not a big deal, but these static lights can clash with some lighting schemes, so your best bet is just to set everything to blue or blue-green. Even then, achieving any kind of uniformity is impossible without disabling some or all of the lighting.

Other manufacturers like Alienware, Origin, or Falcon Northwest, all provide a certain level of build-quality that’s just absent here. The AVADirect looks nice, but it lacks the polish and craftsmanship you’d get from a custom chassis. In fact, almost everything offered by AVADirect could be replicated by simply hitting up Newegg and ordering all the components yourself.

Everything but the kitchen sink

Despite its unusual size, the AVADirect Avant has a very standard array of ports. The front-side of the case, a Corsair Carbide Series Air 540, features two USB ports and frontal headphone and microphone jacks.

On the back, the Asus ROG Strix motherboard features five USB ports, one USB Type-C port, an HDMI port, a DisplayPort, an Ethernet jack, a DVI port, and of course a PS/2 port for anyone who prefers a classic touch.

AVADirect Avant Mid-Size Dekstop Compared To

MSI Trident 9S6-B90611-02S

Digital Storm Velox (Kaby Lake)

Cybertron CLX Ra

Lenovo Ideacentre Y900

Acer Predator G1

Alienware Alpha R2

Falcon Northwest Mach V (2016)

Digital Storm Aventum 3

AVADirect Avant gaming desktop

Acer Predator G6

iBuyPower Revolt 2 Pro

AVADirect Z170

Maingear X-Cube Z170

Origin PC Omega

Falcon Northwest Tiki (2015)

These days, optical drives are becoming less and less common on mobile computers, but on desktops like the Avant they are still alive and well. Our review unit featured a Blu-Ray disc burner, and room for at least three more if you handle a lot of physical backup files.

The Asus ROG Strix motherboard also features two coax connections for Wi-Fi antennae, but during our tests connectivity was never an issue using the on-board Wi-Fi without them. Still, it’s a nice option to have in case your Wi-Fi is unreliable, or if your router is in a weird location.

Bigger on the inside

So, how about those internals? Well, as we mentioned before, the Corsair case is very spacious inside. Like a big luxury SUV, the Avant looks a bit overlarge on the outside, but once you get in there and have a look around, it all makes sense. There’s so much room to breathe, to just stretch your legs out and lean back. You could set up a whole living room in this thing.

It’s so well laid out that removing hardware can be done without moving even a single cable out of the way, aside from unplugging the component you’re removing.

These are just more examples of what you sacrifice by foregoing a custom-made chassis for something off-the-shelf.

This feat is accomplished, in part, by a secret compartment inside the case, which is partitioned almost right down the middle. On one side the Avant puts all its glowy bits on full display behind a plastic window. On the other side, behind solid metal, the power supply and Blu-Ray drives hide among the cables.

Both sides are accessible via removable side-panels, which makes moving components around, or fiddling with cord management, easy. That’s an important point, because gaming desktops like the Avant are designed to last a long time. Parts will be swapped out for replacements, upgrades, or the occasional deep-cleaning with a can of compressed air. An accessible case takes the headache out of these routine maintenance tasks.

Plus, there are two hot-swap bays on the floor of the case where the hard drive rests comfortably. It’s tucked out of the way, with a vacant bay right beside it, so expanding beyond the included storage capacity is a breeze.

There are two big fans on the back of the case, two on top just above the liquid-cooling radiator, and two hiding under the front-side grille. The fans kicked up a bit while running our game benchmarks, but they were never loud enough to drown out even quiet conversation, and the entire machine kept cool.

When inspecting the interior lighting with the case panels off we noticed the top, side, and bottom LED strips were not well secured. The strip was peeling up at the end, and appeared to be hot-glued or stuck down with flimsy adhesive. It’s also worth pointing out that the lighting here is just a standard LED strip you could pick up on Amazon.

Is it a deal-breaker? No, not at all. In fact, during use you might not even notice that these fine details are a little lacking. But, these are just more examples of what you sacrifice by foregoing a custom-made chassis for something off-the-shelf.

Unlocked vs Overclocked

The Intel Core i7-7700K purring away inside the Avant’s generous interior is a very quick and capable processor. It features an unlocked multiplier, meaning it’s ready for overclocking — though this particular review unit was not overclocked. It’s a reliable performer all-around, and it’s built on Intel’s latest 7th-generation “Kaby Lake” architecture, meaning it’s one of the newest chips on the market as of this writing.

It’s one of the chips we test most frequently, along with the pared-down versions used in laptops, and it’s good to see that the i7-7700K inside the AVADirect Avant is just as quick as it should be. For instance, it’s only barely outperformed by the Digital Storm Velox, and its overclocked Intel Core i7-7700K, in our benchmarks.

Looking at single-core Geekbench scores, the Velox took the lead with its 5.0GHz overclocked CPU, while the stock Intel Core i7-6950X — a ten core monster — came in just behind both the Velox and Avant. On multi-core scores, there’s only one key difference — the i7-6950X takes the lead by a big margin, thanks to its 10 physical cores and 20 threads. It’s only natural that it would handily defeat both the i7-7700K chips, with or without a solid overclock.

Moving on to a real-world test, the results are very similar to what we saw earlier. When encoding a 4K video file using Handbrake, the Avant and Velox both took around five minutes to complete the encode, which isn’t bad at all. Only the Cybertron CLX Ra, a gaming PC using an overclocked i7-6950X, finished encoding the same file in under three minutes.

For a look at how a more modest processor performs on this test, we included the Acer Predator G1, a less expensive gaming rig running an Intel Core i7-6700. It’s a quick, and common mid-range processor, and it took around seven and a half minutes to finish the 4K encoding.

Swift storage

The AVADirect Avant featured two hard drives, a 256GB solid-state drive, and a 1TB traditional hard disk drive. As is usually the case here, the SSD performed beautifully, with read and write speeds that kept the Avant rolling along, even while moving big files around. On the other hand, the 1TB hard disk was a lot slower, but that’s not uncommon. Mechanical drives of that size are typically best suited to long-term storage, and that’s definitely the case here.

Comparing its quickest storage option, the 256GB SSD, the Avant comes in very near the top of the heap in our benchmarks. Its read speed was 2,013 megabytes per second, and its write speed was an equally impressive 1,414MB/s.

Compared to the Digital Storm Velox, Cybertron CLX Ra, and Acer Predator G1, the Avant came in second on both tests — but barely. Only the Cybertron pushed past the Avant, in raw hard drive speed, and that’s a system that comes in at about $5,500, to the Avant’s $3,800.

Two cards are better than one, sort of

The AVADirect Avant’s headline feature is undoubtedly its GPU setup. This is a high-end desktop, with two high-end graphics cards running in unison, and it shows. The twin Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti setup provides an unbelievable amount of horsepower, VRAM, and performance, without any real drawbacks aside from price.

After digging into a few games it became clear that the SLI setup in the Avant was just chewing them up and spitting them out, and barely breaking a sweat even at ultra-high settings on 1440p.

Starting with 3DMark results, both the Digital Storm Velox and AVADirect Avant absolutely killed it with their SLI setups, performing within inches of each other in all three tests, despite the slight gulf between their respective horsepower — the Velox features twin GTX1080 graphics cards, while the Avant boasts twin 1080 Ti graphics cards.

Either way, both machines easily eclipsed the single-GPU setup in our test rig — a desktop running an MSI Armor GTX 1080 Ti, and an Intel Core i7-6950X.

All in all, the real question here centers on the Avant’s dual GPU setup. Is an SLI rig worth the money? Looking at our results, the answer isn’t quite as clear as we’d hoped.

In CPU-heavy games like Civilization VI, the benefits of having two GPUs chained together inside the Avant aren’t very apparent. Sure, both the Velox and the Avant outperform our single-GPU test rig, but by a very narrow margin.  In fact, the Velox’s overclocked Intel Core i7-7700K had nearly as great an effect on the results as the second GPU did looking at 1080p performance.

Is an SLI rig worth the money? Looking at our results, the answer isn’t quite as clear as we’d hoped.

Moving on to a more graphically demanding game, Battlefield 1, the results are still a bit unclear. The Digital Storm Velox hit 98 frames per second on average, at 1440p and ultra-high settings, while the Avant hit 143 FPS on the same settings at 1440p. That’s a sizable gulf, but our test rig and its single GTX 1080 Ti hit 141 FPS on 1440p, well within striking distance of the dual-GPU setup in the Avant.

So, are there any games where having an SLI setup provides a big performance increase? Well, yes. In Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the Avant has a clear advantage over our test rig and the Digital Storm Velox, hitting 84 FPS on 1440p at ultra-high settings, while the Velox and test rig hit 77 FPS and 70 FPS respectively.

The performance gains provided by an SLI setup are clearer in For Honor, where the Avant absolutely obliterated our test rig, despite its quicker processor. Running at 1440p on the “Extreme” graphics preset, the Avant managed 150 FPS, to our test rig’s 117 FPS.

While the performance gained by chaining two GPUs together can’t be denied, not every game makes the most of a two-GPU setup, and the added cost is substantial. For instance, each Nvidia GTX GeForce 1080 Ti graphics card runs about $700.

Software

Bundled software, or the lack of it, is yet another advantage of going with a PC builder like AVADirect versus a more typical PC manufacturer like Dell. There weren’t any unwanted utilities lying in wait when we fired up the Avant, and no antivirus trials to uninstall.

Warranty

This AVADirect Avant gaming desktop comes standard with a three-year warranty covering some parts and labor, along with lifetime technical support. That’s good, as not every competitor is generous enough to offer a standard three-year warranty. Origin PC, for instance, usually sticks to a one-year warranty.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

At checkout, users can customize just how much warranty coverage they need, but both the “Silver” and “Gold” warranty tiers cover the same periods. The Gold version offers priority service, for an extra $130.

AVADirect also provides a lifetime labor limited warranty. This means that AVADirect will not charge labor when replacing a component, no matter when the PC was purchased. Customers are still responsible for paying the price of the component and shipping, however.

Our Take

Taken as a whole, the AVADirect Avant is a killer gaming PC. It has the hardware and the horsepower necessary to stand toe-to-toe with much more expensive competitors like the Digital Storm Velox — but should you go with a more familiar brand-name? Let’s break it down.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes, but you might have to do some shopping around. This AVADirect Avant, as configured, would run you $3,850, and that’s a steal for this much computing power. The Digital Storm Velox, with nearly identical specs to the AVADirect retails for $4,305, and the Cybertron Ra comes in at $4,271 — though that price goes down to about $3,900 if you pick its less expensive case options.

While the Avant isn’t a budget PC by any measure, it does provide superb performance at a surprisingly low price. But keep in mind that competitors do come pretty close, and in some cases even match the Avant’s price when tricked out similarly.

How long will it last?

The Avant is an excellent place to start if you’re looking to buy a high-performing gaming PC that you intend to upgrade over time. This thing could easily be your personal Ship of Theseus — over time each part will likely be replaced, upgraded, or removed to suit your needs, to the point where none of the original components remain. That’s how robust this desktop is — it’s a platform you can continue to build on for years to come.

Should you buy it?

The AVADirect Avant is the next-best thing to just building a PC yourself, and it’s almost as inexpensive. By using off-the-shelf parts, AVADirect is able to make the Avant a relatively inexpensive gaming rig without compromising performance or even aesthetics. The system lacks the unique feel you’ll find at competitors, however, and build quality could be better. AVADirect’s system is more about function than form, which is understandable – but, at this price, we think many gamers will expect both.

They’re not just self-lacing, these Smartshoes warm your toes, too

Why it matters to you

This Smartshoe won’t just keep your feet warm with special heating pads, it will track your health and offer insights, too.

There have been numerous attempts to bring a version of Marty McFly’s iconic self-lacing sneakers from 1989’s Back to the Future Part II to life over the years — including a pretty dope do-it-yourself effort.

However, French shoe startup Digitsole’s new Smartshoe stands as one of the most intriguing efforts yet.

Currently raising funds on Kickstarter, it’s a pair of kicks that do nit just look like they come from the future but boast a plethora of smart features, ranging from auto-lacing functionality and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity for activity tracking to movement sensor-based health analytics and built-in heating pads.

“We don’t want to gadgetize footwear, we want to make the most of it,” Malik Issolah, the marketing manager for Digitsole, told Digital Trends. “We started by developing connected insoles, heating and tracking. Then our passion for footwear pushed us to create the craziest shoes. And what’s crazier than a shoe that works by itself? It started as a fun experiment, but then we realized this innovation could make a real change for people who struggle to put shoes on for various reasons. We thought it was high time we came up with a shoe that could meet most any people’s needs in terms of health monitoring. That’s why we included an auto-regulated heating system for comfort and blood circulation issues, a tracker to keep an eye on your activity, and finally a 3D analyzer to give you a full report of your health.”

As Issolah says, the idea of a shoe that can analyze the way and warn of possible injury risks, or even chronic disease, sounds crazy. However, if the team has pulled it off as well as they claim, this could be a real game-changer.

Right now, you can pre-order the Smartshoe on Kickstarter, with prices starting at $199 for a pair of shoes, premium shoebox, micro-USB cable, and user manual. Shipping is set to take place in December.

You may finally get the chance to talk to Samsung’s Bixby by the end of June

Why it matters to you

If you purchased a Galaxy S8 on the promise of Bixby, you’re likely disappointed. Hopefully, that disappointment shouldn’t last much longer.

It was billed by Samsung as the Galaxy S8’s defining feature — one that would put it on equal footing with the iPhone and Google’s Pixel in terms of artificial intelligence. But well over a month since the launch of Samsung’s flagship smartphone, owners outside South Korea are still waiting for Bixby to make its full debut. According to the latest from The Wall Street Journal, that day is getting closer — and not a moment too soon.

Sources told the publication that Samsung is eyeing a late June release for Bixby’s voice features. That could exceed the phone maker’s initial target of the spring, but it is the excuse for the delay that makes the situation considerably less encouraging. Samsung is reportedly still having trouble getting Bixby to comprehend English grammar and syntax.

Although Samsung did not provide a concrete answer for its tardiness at the time, the very same reason was rumored back in April, weeks before the Galaxy S8’s launch. The company has had better success in its own market and released Bixby Voice for South Korean users in early May.

“Bixby Voice benefits from time to further enhance natural language understanding, and we are currently growing our user testing in the U.S. to prepare for launch,” a Samsung representative told Digital Trends. “Key features of Bixby, including Vision, Home and Reminder, are available now.”

The Galaxy S8 launched with a dedicated hardware key for the new virtual assistant, which is planned to arrive in many other devices from tablets to kitchen appliances down the line. Bixby could prove its worth as a utility for your smart home — but until then, it is merely a stand-in for Apple’s Siri and the Google Assistant, with a noticeable lack of differentiating features.

As Bixby’s launch appears to still be weeks away, users will have to continue inquiring Google Assistant before that button on the left side of the Galaxy S8 is given any real purpose. Pressing it now merely leads to Hello Bixby, a feed of Google Now-like cards that consists of weather updates, reminders, calendar notifications and links to news stories that might interest you.

Waze Carpool to go live across California, so take a break from driving

Why it matters to you

Waze’s Carpool could serve as a more cost-effective option that gets cars off the road instead of onto them.

In some good news for the environment, it would appear that carpooling is gaining in popularity. Or at the very least, Waze’s Carpool option is gaining in popularity. The Google-owned map app first introduced its ridesharing program last fall, and following successful trials in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Monterey, is expanding the service to all of California. Starting June 6, any and all California residents will be able to hitch a ride to work, back home, or to the beach with other Waze drivers, saving the environment (and some gas money to boot).

While Waze is still first and foremost a navigation app, one of its most defining characteristics is its dependence upon its community. Waze users report everything from bad weather to traffic jams to police presences, sharing this veritable treasure trove of information with other users. And now, they can also share their cars.

The concept is simple. As Waze explains on its website, you simply need to tell Carpool where you live and work, and you’ll be matched with a fellow Wazer headed in your direction. “When it’s time, one Wazer picks up the other and off they go,” Waze explains. And as for payment, it’s set in advance based on distance. You’ll share the cost of the ride (gas, mileage, etc.) with your driver, and you’ll be charged when you’re dropped off. It’s certainly a cost-effective alternative to Uber or Lyft, as Waze drivers won’t make any more than 54 cents a mile. So suffice it to say that you shouldn’t quit your day job if you’re looking to drive Carpool to actually make money. But the point of Carpool is more about getting cars off the road and ensuring a more efficient manner of travel than it is about turning a profit.

In any case, if you’re a Californian looking for a day off of driving, you might look into Waze Carpool.

Switzerland’s new ‘air-scrubbing’ plant sucks CO2 out of the atmosphere

Why it matters to you

This new facility may change the way nations combat climate change.

A company in Switzerland recently unveiled the world’s first commercial so-called “air-scrubbing” plant designed to capture atmospheric carbon dioxide. At the 2015 Paris climate conference, 195 countries adopted the legally binding global climate deal aimed at limiting the rise in temperature to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit and air-scrubbing technologies are pivotal to this overall objective.

The first of its kind direct air capture (DAC) unit utilizes 18 Climeworks carbon dioxide collectors on top of a waste utilization plant, KEZO, to filter CO2 from the atmosphere. This concentrated CO2 is then supplied to a greenhouse — located just a quarter mile down the road — where it is used as fertilizer to grow tomatoes and cucumbers. The DAC itself is powered by low-grade waste heat generated by the KEZO complex.

Over the course of a year, the facility can filter an estimated 900 tonnes of CO2 or the equivalent of the annual greenhouse gases created by nearly 200 passenger vehicles, according to Bloomberg. As part of the “scrubbing” process, CO2 is deposited on the surface of a series of filters. Once each is fully saturated, the CO2 is then isolated where it can then be sold to markets ranging from the energy sector to the automotive industry. While this DAC facility may have a rather limited capacity at its current scale, Climeworks has much loftier objectives moving forward.

“It’s our ambition to capture one percent of global CO2 emissions in 2025,” Climeworks co-Chief Executive Officer and founder Jan Wurzbacher told Bloomberg.

Right now, the company can manufacture about 150 air capture units per year and Climeworks hopes partnerships like the one underway at the KEZO facility will foster further growth and commercialization in the years to come. Climeworks plans to use this pioneering project to start pilot programs in other markets and potentially implement an underground storage component to the process.

JetBlue wants the selfie to be the new standard for airline access

Why it matters to you

Airlines are looking for ways to make boarding quicker and biometrics might be the answer.

JetBlue will test a new paperless and deviceless boarding system in conjunction with U.S. Customs and Border Protection starting in June at Boston’s Logan International Airport. The system uses biometrics — specifically facial recognition — to match passengers with their passport photos.

The airline is the first to integrate with CBP and passengers have to do nothing other than opt-in to the program. The test is only for flights to Aruba’s Queen Beatrix International Airport and JetBlue did not specify whether it has any immediate plans to expand the test, if successful.

The process is fairly simple: Passengers step up to a camera to have their picture taken. The picture is then compared with passport photos in the CBP database and to verify flight details. If successful, the passenger is notified that they are cleared to board by an on-screen message at the camera terminal. JetBlue says it will have employees nearby to monitor the process and assist in the event of any issues.

“We hope to learn how we can further reduce friction points in the airport experience, with the boarding process being one of the hardest to solve,” JetBlue Customer Experience Vice President Joanna Geraghty said of the test.

This isn’t JetBlue’s first foray into self-service. The company launched a new lobby design at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport last year, which allowed customers to check in and drop their own bags in an effort to reduce waiting times for available counter attendants. That design was expanded to its Boston; Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Newark, New Jersey, and Atlanta terminals earlier in 2017.

Other airlines are looking to self-service and biometrics to make air travel less frustrating. In May, Delta announced plans to use facial-recognition technologies for bag drops, while Sita, a airline IT company jointly owned by several airlines and air transport companies, is working on new self-service kiosks that can intelligently move through an airport to assist in alleviating congestion.

Google bolsters Gmail security with anti-spam and early phishing detection

Why it matters to you

Gmail is ubiquitous and unavoidable, so when Google releases updates to make it safer, the whole internet benefits.

Gmail is already really, really good at identifying spam, but it’s about to get even better. Google announced a series of new security features today that aim to make businesses that rely on Gmail even more secure, though the enhancements will no doubt benefit ordinary users, too.

First, to get a sense of how intelligent the company’s machine learning models have become at flagging malicious communications, Google claims Gmail now identifies spam and phishing attempts with 99.9 percent accuracy. That’s a stunning statistic, but the search giant still isn’t satisfied — which is why it has bolstered its efforts with a new technology called early phishing detection.

Early phishing detection withholds some messages from delivery for a brief time — less than 0.05 percent, Google says — to perform deeper analysis. The service checks these messages against other similarly suspicious examples to generate a more accurate model, strengthening Gmail’s detection abilities. If you happen to click on an email and stumble upon a warning of suspected phishing, this is the process that’s keeping you at arm’s length from the sketchy stuff.

But, of course, Gmail users are human (mostly), and occasionally make human mistakes — like accidentally divulging company secrets. Google is aware of this, which explains another critical update it is rolling out to business users. If you attempt to send an email to someone outside your employer’s domain that you don’t have a history of contacting, Gmail will now warn you before you click the send button.

In addition to early phishing detection and unintended reply warnings, Gmail has also gotten better at sniffing out malicious attachments by tapping into sender heuristics and common spam signals. Google also blocks certain file types, like .exe, that pose greater security risks. For more information on all of Gmail’s security updates, Google’s Andy Wen dove into the finer details in a recent blog entry.

Robot priest dispenses digital blessings, automating yet another job

Why it matters to you

This robot priest is an interesting experiment in what kind of tasks people are happy for machines to take on.

According to the website “Will Robots Take My Job?,” there is roughly a 0.81-percent chance of a member of the clergy being automated at some point in the near future. This makes it one of the least likely job types to suffer the effects of a robot takeover.

Try telling that to the creators of a new robotic priest that’s currently offering robo-blessings to a human congregation in Germany!

The robot in question is part of an exhibition at the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau in the town of Wittenberg. That’s the same German city where Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago. The robot’s name is BlessU-2, and boasts two arms, a head with electronic eyes and mouth, and a touchscreen for users to interact with it.

Users first select the language they wish to receive their blessing in, choose a male or female voice for it to be spoken in, and then choose the type of blessing they wish to receive. When they have chosen their options, the robot makes a noise and raises its arms skyward, with an accompanying light show. It then says, “God bless and protect you” and recites a verse from the Bible — which the blessing recipient has the option of printing.

A spokesperson for the church told the Daily Mail newspaper that it is, “an experiment that is supposed to inspire discussion.” So far, reactions have reportedly been mixed — with half the responses being very positive, and the other half from people who, “cannot imagine a blessing from a machine.” However, it has had the effect of increasing the number of people visiting the church throughout the day.

Whether this turns out to be a sign of things to come remains to be seen. You’ve got to give the church props for its willingness to experiment and move with the times, though.

Religion? It turns out there’s an app for that!

How to fix a squealing dryer

A squeaky dryer can be a real nuisance. Thankfully there are a few easy ways to fix this headache. The dryer is a rather simple device with minimal moving parts inside, which makes isolating the squeaky part a rather deductive process. The main culprits are normally the belt, the idler pulley, the drum bearing, or the motor itself.

If your appliance is still under warranty, the manufacturer will be liable to fix these issues. If your warranty has expired, however, you’ll have to fix the faulty part(s) yourself — or invest in a new appliance altogether (we’ve got some recommendations for you!). Here’s our comprehensive guide to fixing a squeaky dryer.

Note: First and foremost, unplug the dryer, disconnect the utilities, and move the unit away from the wall. You might also consider wearing a pair of gloves as a precaution as well.

The dryer belt

If the dryer belt develops wear or has simply become slack with age, loose or poor fit with the drum itself may cause slippage and squeaking. If this is the case, you’ll need to replace this part. Fortunately, this is a pretty easy fix.

First, remove the lint trap insert and unscrew the the two screws connecting the lid to the dryer frame. Using a putty knife along the bottom lip of the dryer top, you should now be able to flip open the top of the dryer. Next, prop up the lid and use a screwdriver to remove the locking tab on the wire harness plug. You’ll need to remove the mounting screws along the front panel next; you will probably need a nut driver for this task. You should now be able to remove the front panel of the unit.

Note: all of these basic repairs will start with this exact same process.

Simply slide off the old belt at this point and wrap the new belt around the drum. Next, thread the remaining belt slack through the idler pulley and around the motor pulley. It’s as simple as that. Now replace the front panel and connect the wire harness plug. Lower the lid, apply the screws to the lint catch housing, and reinsert the lint catch.

The idler pulley

If the idler pulley is faulty, the component will squeak while the appliance is running. This process starts the exact same way as the previous replacement method: Remove the lid and front panel and disconnect the wire harness plug. Now, unthread the drive belt from the idler pulley. The pulley itself sits in a small bracket in the base of the dryer; you’ll need to detach the part from this bracket housing. Next, simply place the new idler pulley in the same bracket and thread the belt through the wheel and around the motor pulley.

Drum glide bearings

Once inside of the unit, remove the the belt from the drum and lift the drum itself out of the dryer housing. The drum glide bearings are located along the edge of the drum. Release the two-pronged locking tabs along the edge of the bearings and discard these worn components. It is important to note that you may need a pair of pliers to pinch these locking tabs together before removing them.

Now align the locking tabs on the glide bearings with the openings along the drum itself and insert the prongs. You will now need to replace the felt seal along the front panel. Remove the retaining clips around the seal with a pair of pliers. Simply remove the old seal and push the new one into place inside the channel housing and reinsert the retaining clips. Now place the drum back inside of the dryer and connect the belt. Voila.

The motor

If the problem is in fact the dryer motor, you may need to have a long conversation with yourself about your relationship with your current dryer. Dryer motors can be expensive and it might be worth it, at this point, to just invest in a new appliance — might we suggest one of these? You’ll always have the memories.

This process starts the same as the others. You will also need to remove the belt and the drum from the unit. Now, using a screwdriver, release the motor mounting clips and remove the motor. Behind the dryer motor is the blower wheel, use a wrench to slightly loosen this component. Turn the drive shaft with the wrench while holding the blower wheel in place.

With this task you will also need to remove the back panel of the dryer. To do so, you’ll need to unscrew the outward-facing screws along the edge of the panel. Now the air duct will be accessible; a series of mounting screws holds this duct in place. Simply unscrew these and remove the air duct. Once removed, the blower wheel will be visible. Set the blower wheel to the side for the time being.

Once all of the locking tabs along the motor bracket have been released, disconnect the wire harness connected to the motor and remove the faulty component. You can now install the new motor. Reconnect the wire harness to the new motor, reinsert the blower wheel, and clamp the motor in place. Then insert the air duct and back panel, position the drum and apply the drum belt, threading the belt through the idler pulley and around the motor pulley.