Apple Watch with LTE will cost $10/month on US cellular carriers

Yesterday, Apple unveiled its Series 3 Watch, which will have cellular LTE capability. The question many had, though, was about the cost. Not of the watch itself (the cellular version starts at $399), but how much on top of that will you have to pay your carrier to use it? Now, we can give you a number. An Apple Watch Series 3 will cost you $10 per month on your cell plan, and it appears that all US carriers will offer three months of free service (a $30 credit). However, we’re still waiting for confirmation from Sprint.

AT&T and Verizon are also offering free activation (a $25 and $30 fee, respectively). T-Mobile will waive its $25 new SIM card kit fee. We’ve reached out to Sprint for their activation fee policies and will update when we have more. It’s interesting that the Apple Watch Series 3 is $10/month on Verizon, when other smartwatches cost $5 on their plan. It’s not a surprise that they stuck with the standardized pricing, though a discount would have given them an edge over other carriers.

A lawsuit almost stalled NASA’s Cassini mission

Captain Scott Kelly wasn’t kidding when he famously quipped that “space is hard”. Even getting to the launch pad can prove to be a daunting challenge. Take the Cassini mission to study Saturn, for example. Despite an investment of $3.4 billion and nearly a decade of development, Cassini wound up being very nearly scuttled at the last minute by protesters who thought they knew better than a federal agency that has put multiple men on the moon. Geez guys, it was just 73 pounds of plutonium riding aboard that Saturn orbiter — it wouldn’t have caused that much damage had something gone horribly wrong at launch.

The Cassini mission, named after the 17th century Italian-French astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini, marks the end of an era for NASA. It is likely the final “flagship-class” mission (those costing more than $1 billion) fielded by the space agency, if NASA Administrator Charles Bolden’s claims from 2013 are still accurate. Other flagships included the vaunted Viking and Voyager missions as well as the Mars Curiosity rover and the Hubble Space telescope.

JPL engineers working on the Cassini orbiter propulsion module

The Cassini mission started in 1982 when the European Science Foundation and NASA were still kicking around the idea of conducting their own respective solo missions to Saturn. Despite an impassioned report from astronaut Sally Ride in 1986, titled NASA Leadership and America’s Future in Space, NASA and the ESA decided to go in halfsies on a joint mission.

However, by 1994, the mission’s Congressional critics had begun to question the value of such a mission. The program had already eclipsed $3.3 billion in development costs — that’s $5 billion in 2017 money, adjusted for inflation, or about half of what we spent on the new James Webb Space Telescope. It was only because the ESA was also contributing funds to the mission and NASA was able to demonstrate that technology developed for Cassini would carry over to the Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Pathfinder and the Spitzer Space Telescope projects that this one was allowed to move forward.

That forward momentum came to a sudden halt three years later and just a day after then-President Clinton approved the mission. On October 4th, 1997, 800 protesters showed up (27 of which were arrested) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in opposition to the Cassini launch, which was then scheduled for October 7th.

Protesters outside of Cape Canaveral

The protesters were worried that, should the Titan IV rocket ferrying the orbiter into space suffer a catastrophic mishap during launch, it would vaporize the 73 pounds of Plutonium-238 that the Cassini carried and spread radioactive fallout across central Florida. The protesters were even more worried about that Cassini’s upcoming gravitational slingshot, which would use the Earth’s pull to accelerate the spacecraft into the outer solar system, could spread fallout across the globe, should Cassini accidentally re-enter orbit during the maneuver. The Green Party even went so far as to file a federal lawsuit against the government in a Hawaiian court to halt the launch.

“Winds can blow (plutonium) into Disney World, Universal City, into the citrus industry and destroy the economy of central Florida,” Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City College of New York, told Mother Jones. He calculated that as many as a million people could be exposed to radiation if the launch went wrong.

The protesters’ issue focused on, again, the 73 pounds of Plutonium-238 aboard the Cassini orbiter. This wasn’t the first time that NASA had utilized radioactive materials as a power source for its long-endurance spacecraft — New Horizons, Galileo, and Ulysses all carried similar setups — but none had ever carried this much Pu-238 at one time before. The orbiter actually employed three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) during its 11-year mission. They’re not for propulsion, mind you (that’s what the gravitational slingshots were for), but rather a means to power the onboard scientific instruments for the duration of the trip.

RTGs are fairly simple devices and have been used for both civilian and military applications since their development in the 1950s. They consist of a container of radioactive material with a pair of thermocouples attached to the outside. The opposite end of each thermocouple is also attached to a heat sink. As the material decays, it produces heat. The difference in temperature between the container and the heatsink enables the thermocouples to generate an electrical charge. It’s the same principle that allows camp stoves to also charge your phone.

Cassini’s instruments aren’t particularly power-hungry, drawing around 600 – 700 watts of electricity, but 11 years is a long time in the cold depths of interplanetary space. So why not just use solar panels, Cassini protesters argued, as NASA had for a bunch of other missions? The problem with that is the sheer distance between Saturn and the Sun — 888 million miles on average. NASA did actually look into outfitting Cassini with solar panels but the math simply didn’t work.

The Mars Rover does well enough with solar power, for example, but it’s six times closer to the Sun than Saturn. In order to produce the requisite wattage while in Saturn’s orbit, the Cassini would have had to sport panels the size of tennis courts. These would have had proven too bulky and too heavy to get the orbiter out of Earth’s atmosphere.

Plutonium-238 is 280 times more radioactive than Plutonium-239, the stuff we use to make nuclear weapons, and has a half life of 88 years. That makes it a potent and long-lasting power source. What’s more, the alpha particles that Pu-238 emits can’t penetrate further than a few cellular levels, so the biggest threat comes from inhaling the stuff. However, “it cannot be exploded like a bomb,” Beverly Cook of the Energy Department, told CNN. “It is an alpha emitter. Alpha radiation can be stopped by a piece of paper.”

The chances of having Cassini’s payload of nuclear material vaporize during a catastrophic engineering failure were exceedingly remote, according to NASA. “This is not a nuclear reactor. They are nuclear batteries,” Wes Huntress, associate administrator for space science at NASA, explained to PBS Newshour. “They’re not used for propulsion. It’s not a nuclear power plant. We don’t have any nuclear reactions going on. We simply use the isotope to generate heat, and from the heat we generate electricity for the spacecraft.”

Even so, NASA spent a lot of time working out how to most safely utilize a plutonium-based power source. First, NASA isn’t just shoving glowing green rocks into the RTG and closing the hatch. The Plutonium-238 that NASA sends to space is actually plutonium dioxide, a more inert version that is produced exclusively for space missions by the Department of Energy. They’re basically marshmallow-sized insoluble ceramic nuggets. 72 of these were encased in iridium and graphite containers capable of the ludicrously intense heat generated during atmospheric reentry, much less a piddly launchpad explosion. And even if the pellets were exposed to vast amounts of heat, they’re designed to break down into chunks rather than vaporize, further reducing the chances that someone will breath them in.

And, as for the dangers posed by a botched gravitational assist, Huntress was not impressed by the protesters’ reasoning. “This Earth fly-by is something that we have done many, many times before at other planets, as well as at Earth, the last time being with the Galileo nuclear-powered spacecraft,” he told PBS. “And we manage these thing with very high precision. And Cassini is, in fact, not coming nearly as close to the Earth as did Galileo and Galileo’s approach managed with very fine — one kilometer accuracy — with no difficulty whatsoever.”

Despite these assurances, many of the protesters remained unconvinced. “Jimmy the Greek would say: Look at the track record,” Kaku said to Mother Jones. “The track record is one out of 20 booster rockets blow up on launch … Ten percent of our space probes actually come down.” Indeed, out of the 23 missions NASA has attempted with nuclear payloads, three failed. However, the RTGs in each instance survived the mishaps intact. Overall, NASA figured there was only a 1 in 1,400 chance at launch that the plutonium might be released, 1 in 476 during its trip into space and less than 1 in a million when the orbiter swung back past Earth in 1999 during its slingshot maneuver.

Richard Spehalski, program manager for Cassini at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was not impressed by the reasoning of Kaku and the protesters. “They’re taking our statements and our documentation out of context and citing consequences that aren’t even possible,” he responded in MoJo.

Even if the worst did happen: the orbiter failed its flyby and spread nuclear material over an estimated 5 billion people as it re-entered the atmosphere, NASA argued that the dosage of such an event would be about a millirem per year. For comparison, the average American sucks up about 620 millirem annually, roughly half of which comes from cosmic background radiation.

So despite Kaku’s continued complaints to MoJo — “This is a science experiment, and we are the guinea pigs,” he said — both the District Court in Hawaii and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Green Party’s lawsuit. Thus the launch was allowed to move forward. On October 15th, the Titan IV rocket successfully lifted off and launched its cargo on a seven-year journey towards perhaps the most recognizable planet in our solar system.

And it’s a damn good thing the courts agreed with NASA, given how many astronomical wonders Cassini has helped discover over the past decade. In 2005, it found geysers blasting liquid water from subsurface oceans (and theoretically, whatever was living there) into space. The orbiter mapped the liquid methane rivers of Titan; discovered massive hurricane-like storms at both of Saturn’s poles, imaged the vertical structure of the planet’s rings for the first time and delivered the Huygens probe, the only human-made machine to land on a moon in the outer solar system to date. That’s to say nothing of the trickle-down nature of space engineering and design that will see tech from this mission be adapted, improved and reused in future missions. What was Bolden even thinking?

Images: NASA (JPL and Cassini probe); Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images (Protesters)

Facebook’s new guidelines could block news outlets from ad revenue

Facebook announced new guidelines today about what sorts of content can collect ad revenue on its platform. While it clarified the types of publications that will no longer get ad money, it also removed the line between content that promotes unsavory or offensive subjects and content that’s reporting on them — a move that could have a big impact on the sorts of topics that will appear on Facebook.

Among the content that will likely get publishers cut off from ad revenue are misappropriations of children’s characters, debated social issues, violence, adult content, drug and alcohol use, offensive language and graphic content. You can see the full descriptions here. If what’s published is deemed to be in violation of these guidelines, publishers will be notified that ads have been removed from the material — a decision that can be appealed.

Throughout the list of content that could render publishers ineligible for monetization, Facebook notes that the rules can apply “even if the intention is to promote awareness or education” and even if the post is “in the context of news.” That means that publishers may choose to not post content about important but messy topics because they might not be able to make money off of it.

Along with these guidelines, Facebook also announced new tools for advertisers. The site is working on adding additional third-party measurements of ad performance from DoubleVerify and Meetrics, which will join existing partners Nielsen, Oracle Data Cloud and others. Facebook is also seeking Media Rating Council accreditation, which will provide reviews and information on audience measurement practices. Additionally, the company is adding 3,000 content reviewers and will begin providing advertisers with reports on where their ads ran.

These are the latest changes to how Facebook uses ads on its site. While other tweaks have been in the name of fighting fake news, these appear to be largely to please advertisers. As of now, the new content guidelines apply to videos but they will be extended to Instant Articles in the future.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Facebook (1), (2), (3)

Adobe Announces Updates for Premiere Pro, After Effects, Character Animator and Audition

Ahead of the 2017 International Broadcasting Convention set to take place on September 14, Adobe has shared details on a series of updates to its video and sound editing software that will be announced at the event. Adobe’s fall Creative Cloud updates will focus on Premiere Pro, After Effects, Character Animator, and Audition, introducing new tools for VR, animations, and audio.

Premiere Pro CC, Adobe’s video editing software aimed at professionals, features collaboration tools that let users work on multiple open projects simultaneously. Using a tab-based structure, Premiere Pro CC eliminates the need to open and close multiple timelines and allows for copying parts of one project into another with just a few clicks.

There’s also a feature for locking a project to prevent edits from being overwritten while also leaving read-only access available, and there are new tools for viewing personal auto-save history, bringing an asset from a previous auto-save to the current version, and creating a new Team Project from an auto-save.

The Essential Graphics panel in Premiere Pro has been updated with time and position-based controls for building Responsive Design into motion graphics, there’s a new feature for selecting and manipulating multiple graphic layers at the same time, and there are Motion Graphics templates included in Adobe Stock.

Other new features in Premiere Pro include an updated startup experience that walks users through the editing process, new color labels, and automatic gap removal to make editing the timeline faster and more streamlined.

After Effects CC, Adobe’s pro-level app for creating motion graphics and visual effects, includes new Data Driven Animations that use JSON data to create charts and graphs, and expressions for path points on masks, shape layers, and paint brush strokes. Improvements have been made to performance when rendering layer transforms, motion blur, and other effects on the GPU, there’s a font menu with live previews, and Adobe has added a new visual map for mapping keyboard shortcuts.

Both After Effects and Premiere Pro feature an immersive display, letting editors experience the content they’re editing while wearing VR headsets like the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive. There are also new orientation-based audio editing tools, new immersive video transitions, and new effects like VR Blur, VR Glow, VR Sharpen, VR De-Noise, and VR Chromatic Aberration.

Adobe Character Animator CC features a new Controls panel for posing and animating characters, a Triggers & Behavior panel, auto stapling for limbs, eye and eyebrow improvements for more expressive looks, and several new behaviors including Layer Picker, Collisions, and Fader. Visual representations of audio waveforms and integration with Adobe Audition have been added, and there are improvements to lip syncing and walk behaviors.

As for Audition CC, Adobe’s professional audio editing app, there are editing and performance enhancements, auto-ducking in the Essential Sound panel, smart input monitoring, a new Timecode overlay display, and more.

Adobe plans to make all of these features available to its Creative Cloud users later this year. Creative Cloud plans are available from Adobe.com and start at $50 per month for an individual plan.

Tag: Adobe
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If You Want Apple Watch Series 3 in Stainless Steel or Ceramic, LTE Models Are Your Only Option

With the launch of a new Apple Watch comes a few refreshed collections that the device is available in, requiring users to choose from specific case/band combinations to enter the Apple Watch ecosystem. The Apple Watch Series 3 is available in both non-LTE and LTE-capable models, but there is one downside: if you want a Series 3 in Stainless Steel or Ceramic, you have no choice but to buy a cellular-enabled Apple Watch.

Apple’s non-LTE Series 3 Apple Watch brings about all of the usual performance improvements over the previous generation, including a faster processor, W2 chip, barometric altimeter, and more. The LTE models include all of this, on top of cellular capabilities that further de-tether your iPhone from your Apple Watch, so you can make calls, send messages, stream Apple Music, and more right on your wrist.

Apple added in non-LTE versions of the Series 3 for those users who don’t think they need a cellular Apple Watch, but it’s limited collections for these models to just Aluminum cases. All Series 3 collections in Stainless Steel — of which there are only four non-Hermés models — come with LTE, as do both White Ceramic and Gray Ceramic collections. There are also eight Hermés collections with Stainless Steel cases, each one backing the new cellular features.

If you want the improved features of a new Apple Watch Series 3 without LTE, you’ll have to choose from four Apple Watch Sport models: one Silver Aluminum Case with Fog Sport Band, one Gold Aluminum Case with Pink Sand Sport Band, and two Space Gray Aluminum Cases (one with a Gray Sport Band and one with a Black Sport Band).

There are also two Series 3 Nike+ collections without LTE, both in Aluminum: a Silver Aluminum Case with Pure Platinum/Black Nike Sport Band and a Space Gray Aluminum Case with Anthracite/Black Nike Sport Band.

That makes six total Apple Watch Series 3 collections without LTE among Apple’s 31 new collections of the revamped wearable device. Also of note is that in launch countries where Apple isn’t yet offering cellular support, buyers will then be left with Aluminum as their only option.

Launch Countries

Non-cellular available: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UK, the US and US Virgin Islands.

Cellular available: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, the UK and the US

The first impressions of the Apple Watch Series 3 have been largely positive, particularly thanks to its improved performance, Siri’s ability to speak aloud, and new heart rate detection metrics. Some initial hands-on reports have noted uncertainty about LTE, but like most premium features the usefulness of a cellular-capable Apple Watch will vary greatly person-to-person.

For a look at all of the new bands that Apple launched yesterday, check out our blog post right here.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 3, watchOS 4
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Don’t Buy)
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Apple Watch Series 3’s Nike+ Models Have Slightly Later October 5 Launch Date

While the Apple Watch Series 3 officially launches September 22 in the first wave of countries, those interested in Nike+ models will have to wait a bit longer.

In fine print, Apple announced that new Series 3 models of Apple Watch Nike+ will be available in limited quantities starting Thursday, October 5. Apple Watch Nike+ pre-orders still start September 15 like regular Series 3 models.

Apple Watch Nike+ comes with all the features of Apple Watch Series 3, including cellular, which lets you take calls, send messages, and soon stream Apple Music without needing to pair the watch to your iPhone.

Apple Watch Nike+ models have exclusive Nike watch faces designed specifically for Apple Watch, with digital and analog styles. You can launch the Nike+ Run Club app directly from the face by tapping the complication.

With just a tap, you can start an in-ear Audio Guided Run featuring the voice of a Nike+ Run Club coach, world-class athlete, or special guest. Each guided run features coach-curated soundtracks to keep you in the zone.

Apple Watch Nike+ comes in four styles in both 38mm and 42mm sizes, with both cellular and Wi-Fi + GPS only models to choose from:

• Silver Aluminum Case with Pure Platinum/Black Nike Sport Band
• Silver Aluminum Case with Bright Crimson/Black Nike Sport Loop
• Space Gray Aluminum Case with Anthracite/Black Nike Sport Band
• Space Gray Aluminum Case with Black/Pure Platinum Nike Sport Loop
  Apple Watch Nike+ models are priced between $329 and $429 in the United States. Additional Nike+ bands are $49 each.

  Launch countries include the United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guam, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Macau, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

  Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 3, watchOS 4
  Tags: Nike+, Apple Watch Nike+ Edition
  Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Don’t Buy)
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iPhone 8 and 8 Plus Pre-Orders to Begin at 12:01 a.m. PT on September 15

Apple will begin accepting pre-orders for the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus on Friday, September 15 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time or 3:01 a.m. Eastern Time in the United States, according to the company’s website. The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will launch simultaneously in all first wave launch countries, so pre-orders will kick off at 8:01 a.m. in the United Kingdom and 3:01 p.m. in Hong Kong, for example.

While there are many who may be waiting for the iPhone X, customers planning to buy an iPhone 8 or an iPhone 8 Plus should attempt to pre-order early as it’s not clear what available supply looks like.

There were rumors suggesting that supplies of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus would be constrained alongside the iPhone X, and Plus models in particular are often in short supply.

Apple will accept pre-orders both on its Apple.com website and in the Apple Store app. The Apple Store app often comes back online earlier than Apple.com and is easier to use when ordering.

Other stores and carriers, like Best Buy, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, are also likely to begin accepting iPhone 8 pre-orders on September 15 at 12:01 a.m.

iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus first wave launch countries include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UAE, the UK, the US and US Virgin Islands. In all of these locations, the two new devices will be available for pre-order on September 15 with general availability coming on September 22.

Pricing on the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus begins at $699 and $799, respectively. Pricing for iPhone Upgrade Program customers starts at $34.50 for iPhone 8 and $39.50, and Apple today began offering pre-approvals for iPhone Upgrade Program users who want a streamlined ordering experience.

Though a specific pre-order time is not listed for the Apple Watch Series 3 nor the Apple TV 4K, both are also likely to be available for order at 12:01 a.m. alongside the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus.

The iPhone X, Apple’s new $999 flagship iPhone, will not be available for pre-order until October 27 ahead of a November 3 launch.

Related Roundups: iPhone 8, iPhone X
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World’s ‘greenest green’ could make ultra high-definition displays even sharper

Why it matters to you

The practically pure green diode will help make future screen displays even sharper.

Not all greens are created equal. There’s lime green, mint green, British racing green. And now there’s practically pure green, thanks to chemical engineers at ETH Zurich, who have created the world’s greenest green. They say it will improve color quality in the ultra high-definition displays of the future.

“To date, no one has succeeded in producing green light as pure as we have,” Chih-Jen Shih, a chemical engineering professor who co-created the light-emitting diode in his lab, said in a statement.

The screens of today’s ultra high-def (UHD) TVs, computers, and smartphones are a sight to behold, and yet there’s still room for improvement. But, in order to make that progress, researchers first have to develop pure red, blue, and green light, which will be able to display images in unparalleled detail and with more nuanced color ranges. Pure red and blue have been achieved, according to the researchers, but green remained elusive until now.

This is because the human eye is able to pick up more green hues than we can with red and blue.

“This makes the technical production of ultra-pure green very complex, which creates challenges for us when it comes to developing technology and materials,” said Sudhir Kumar, who helped Shih create the light in his lab.

The purity of Shih and Kumar’s green can be grasped by comparing it to the technical standards, known as Rec. 2020. The purest TV displays currently available don’t exceed 80 percent, and average between 73.11 and 77.72. The ETH Zurich green falls within the 97 and 99 range.

But Shih and his team’s efforts didn’t stop there. They also created an ultra-thin, bendable light-emitting diode that can emit this pure green light at room temperature, whereas previous LED technology required high temperatures to generate the pure light.

“Because we were able to realize the entire process at room temperature, we’ve opened up opportunities for the simple, low-cost industrial production of ultra-green light-emitting diodes in the future,” said co-creator Jakub Jagielski.

As with most breakthroughs, there’s a bit of a catch — the LED converts electricity to light at just three percent efficiency, compared to commercial TV screen, which work at five to ten percent. That means he and his team will have to focus on making their technology more efficient before it’s ready for commercial application.

A paper detailing the research was published in the journal Nano Letters.

Despite launch hiccups, Windows Insider Build 16288 brings big list of bug fixes

Why it matters to you

Insiders on the Fast Ring can stay up to date on all of the latest bug fixes with this release.

Following an issue which prevented it from being downloaded, Microsoft has fixed up its latest Windows 10 Insider preview build, 16288, and has now made it available to all Fast Ring Insiders. As with some of its other recent releases, this one is all about the bug fixes, shoring up all flaws and holes in the run-up to the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update release.

Although originally scheduled for release early on September 12, the Insider Build 16288 didn’t become available to all Fast Ring Insiders (not those who have skipped ahead) until around 10:30 p.m PT (thanks OnMSFT). Purportedly there was an issue that prevented some from downloading the build, which Microsoft quickly corrected.

Now that it’s out in the wild though, this build should fix up a lot of outstanding bugs and issues with Windows systems. In its blog post on the matter, Microsoft details the 35-plus unique bug fixes, which were broken down into different categories.

Improvements to the Windows Shell have led to bug fixes in Facebook Messenger, local app search with Cortana, and have fixed an outstanding problem with notifications issued during a system lock. Input improvements include situations where incorrect characters were being inputted when using a full touch keyboard layout or a couple of handwriting panel options, and the improvements also addressed problems with certain non-Western typesets.

Although the Windows Insider program isn’t aimed at gamers, there were a couple of gaming-related fixes in this latest release. Ghost Recon: Wildlands now has a fixed Easy Anti-Cheat component and Skyrim’s Mod Organizer should now load mods correctly.

Launching alongside the desktop release of Windows Insider Build 16288 is its mobile counterpart, Build 15250. While its PC counterpart might be aimed at fixing up problems, the portable one is much more security focused. It adds two-factor authentication for unlocking a Windows 10 mobile device. Aimed more at enterprise users, the feature requires not only a standard pin code to unlock but a secondary, user-chosen credential. One given example is an NFC tag, making it a location-specific login system.

This build also improves a number of aspects of the VPNs on Windows Mobile, as well as more specific fixes with a fingerprint reader on the HP Elite X3 and a strange corruption issue that sometimes affected call history when a user upgraded.

How to use Picture-in-Picture Mode in Android 8.0 Oreo

Android 8.0 Oreo, the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, has a picture-in-picture (PiP) mode that shrinks videos down to a resizeable window. It’s like the PiP setting on your flat-screen TV, but for apps.

It can be a little tricky setting it up on your phone, but what’s worse is how it won’t work for any app. Developers have to implement picture-in-picture mode on a case-by-case basis. We’ve compiled a list of popular supported apps so far, and we explain how to use picture-in-picture mode in Android 8.0 Oreo.

Apps that support Android 8.0 Oreo’s picture-in-picture mode

It isn’t always clear whether an app supports Android 8.0 Oreo’s picture-in-picture mode, as it’s incumbent on developers to specify on the app’s Play Store description, but not all of them have.

To make matters a bit simpler, we’ve compiled a list of popular apps that support Android 8.0 Oreo’s picture-in-picture mode. It’s not exhaustive, but it should help get you started.

• YouTube
• VLC
• Google Play Movies & TV
• Google Duo
• Google Maps
• Chrome

How to launch Android 8.0’s Picture-in-Picture Mode

There isn’t a predictable way to launch Android 8.0 Oreo’s picture-in-picture mode. Most apps switch to a floating window view with a tap of Android’s home button, but that’s not always the case.

Take Google Chrome, for example. To get picture-in-picture mode working properly, you have to watch a video in fullscreen mode before tapping the home button. In VLC, you have to tap the app’s menu button and the picture-in-picture option while the video’s playing.

YouTube is another matter entirely. As of publication time, YouTube’s picture-in-picture mode requires $10-a-year subscription to YouTube Red, YouTube’s premium ad-free service.

To figure out how to launch an app’s picture-in-picture mode, you’ll have to play around in the app or the app’s settings.

How to use Android 8.0 Picture-in-Picture Mode’s controls

Android 8.0 Oreo’s picture-in-picture mode puts playback controls front and center. Tap on the PiP window and you’ll see play, fast forward, and rewind buttons, and a center button that maximizes the app. If you’re watching a video from YouTube or VLC, you’ll get a headphone shortcut that plays the video in the background. And if you’re watching a playlist, tapping the fast forward button skips to the next video in the list.

When you’re done with the playback controls, tapping on the window again hides them.

The picture-in-picture window is moveable. Tap, hold, and drag to move it to any part of your phone or tablet’s screen, and lift your finger to release it. If you let go somewhere in the middle, the window snaps to the closest valid location.

When you’re ready to dismiss it, a simple tap, hold, and drag to the bottom of the screen does the trick.

How to disable Android 8.0 Oreo’s picture-in-picture mode for specific apps

Android 8.0 Oreo’s picture-in-picture mode might be useful for multitasking, but it can be annoyingly easy to trigger by mistake. Luckily, you can disable picture-in-picture mode on a per-app basis.

Here’s how to do it:

• Open the Settings menu on your phone or tablet.
• Tap Apps & Notifications, and then tap on the Advanced menu.
• Tap Special App Access.
• Look for the picture-in-picture option and tap on it.
• You’ll see a list of all installed apps that support picture-in-picture. They’re enabled by default; to disable one, tap it and slide the Allow picture-in-picture toggle to off.