Brave’s browser makes it easy to donate money to YouTubers

Brave browser, which was created by Mozilla’s former CEO, offers a browsing experience quite different from what you’re used to. It blocks ads but will pay you for allowing replacement advertisements that are supposedly free from bloatware and malware. It also allows you to anonymously donate money to websites you like on a monthly basis. Now, its latest version also gives you a way to donate directly to YouTubers — not Google or the YouTube website — you like.

Previous versions of the browser wouldn’t let you add specific channels to your donation list, but now you can make sure your money goes where you want it to go — even if that YouTuber has less than 10,000 video views. If you’ll recall, the platform updated its Partner Program requirements to add that condition in order to keep spammers and reposters from taking advantage of the money-making system. Unfortunately, the move also affects smaller creators who’ve yet to reach the threshold.

To donate, you’ll need to have cryptocurrency (or add funds if you’ve ran out) in your Brave wallet. The browser will automatically detect channels of the videos you watch, even if they’re embedded on another website, and you can choose to add them to your monthly donation list. However, interested creators will first have to verify their channels to be able to collect. Once they’re done doing that, they can start collecting contributions, convert crypto to a currency they can use and then move their earnings to their bank accounts.

Via: CNET

Source: Brave

Comcast, Verizon, and Sony are also after Fox’s film and TV units

Talk of Disney eyeing Fox’s assets has ignited the interest of more media juggernauts. The new batch of contenders includes Comcast, Verizon, and Sony’s entertainment arm, according to The Wall Street Journal.

News emerged last week that Disney had held talks with 21st Century Fox to snap up most of its empire, which spans movie studios, its TV production business, entertainment channels (like FX and National Geographic) and international properties like Sky — whittling Fox down to a smaller-scale enterprise focused on news and sports. Its new suitors are reportedly chasing the same assets, although talks are in the early stages, according to WSJ’s sources.

It seems content is king in this case. Fox’s entertainment properties (including its Marvel roster, composed of X-Men and Deadpool) would bring Disney a step closer to completing its Marvel Studios collection. And, likely appeal to Sony as well (which saw Spider-Man: Homecoming single-handedly boost its movie division). Meanwhile, Comcast would stand to consume another movie studio (alongside Universal Pictures) and more programming for its Xfinity video streaming services — something Verizon and Disney are now in the market for too. For better or worse, media consolidation could end up the real victor.

Via: The Wall Street Journal

Virgin Hyperloop One might build networks in India

Virgin Hyperloop One is eyeing the possibility of building networks of high-speed tube transportation in India. The company, which recently rebranded to include “Virgin” in its name after Richard Branson’s investment, has started conducting studies with three Indian states to determine potential routes. Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are looking to offer hyperloops as part of their public transit system in the future to give people a way to travel from their homes to India’s economic centers in a few minutes instead of a few hours.

Nick Earle, Hyperloop One’s SVP of Global Field Operations, said:

“Imagine the potential impact to people’s lives and commerce if travel between Mumbai, Bangaluru, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, and Amaravati could take place in under two hours. Hyperloop could change the face of India just as trains did during the Industrial Revolution.”

The company says hyperloop could reduce travel time from Pune to Mumbai to 14 minutes instead of the two-to-three hours people are used to. It could enable travel from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam or Bengaluru in 27 and 45 minutes, respectively. In the long run, hyperloop networks could boost India’s economy and people’s quality of life.

People from remote locations won’t have to move to big cities anymore, since they’ll be able to commute to work every day without train, bus or car rides taking up huge chunks of their time. They could hop on a pod and go from one city to the next for work, business or leisure. Hyperloop networks could also make airports more accessible and make India a more attractive place to visit, since tourists will have a quick way to get from one location to the next.

Of course, there’s always a possibility that nothing will come of the project. We’ll likely have to wait many, many years to see if these studies come to fruition, especially since the technology itself is still in its very early stages. If Virgin Hyperloop does build a transport system in India, it could compete with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies’ system. Hyperloop One’s rival company is also eyeing the country as one of its first locations and had struck a deal with the Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board back in September to investigate potential routes.

Source: Virgin Hyperloop One

YEVO Companion App Review

Yevo’s app – companion to the newly released Yevo 1 truly wireless earbuds – is a bit of a conundrum. It’s a simple app, with singular purpose, that’s plagued by over-design and needly complexity.

Design

I’m going to keep this short; the seven (!) horizontal pages of functionality in the app – Yevo 1, Battery, Touch Settings, Balance, EQ, Bass Booster, and Audio Transparency – could easily be reduced to three tabs (Status, Settings, and Sound)or a vertical list of collapsible line items using the same categories. Beyond this easily-remedied-but-still-obnoxious design flaw, the Yevo Companion App looks fine; clean lines, high resolution images, and smooth performance throughout the app make it a well-crafted app – if poorly conceived. In sum; aesthetically pleasing, organizationally a mess.

1 of 7

Functionality

As mentioned above, there are a whoppin’ seven pages of settings to sift through in the Yevo app. They are as follows;

• Yevo 1: Literally just a screen that says Yevo 1. Also tells you if the device is connected. Utterly, utterly superfluous.
• Battery: Displays the current battery life, both as a percentage and as a numerical value. You can also turn the device off from this screen.
• Touch Settings: This section of the app is actually pretty interesting; from here you can remap the gesture controls of the touch sensor on the earpieces. This is a particularly unique feature because not many headsets – and certainly not many wireless earbuds – allow you to manipulate the functionality of the inputs, let alone via software. This screen uses a drag-and-drop interface to allow you customize the functions. With 8 different functions and 8 different gestures, you should have no trouble finding a configuration that fits your taste.
• Balance: Shift the intensity of the audio to the right or left earpiece. No other functions.
• EQ: This is the equalizer screen, where you can choose from six presets – Default, Electronic, Hip Hop, Acoustic, Pop/Rock, and R&B. It’s handy, but a Custom setting with sliders to customize the sound of your audio would be even better.
• Bass Booster: Enable or disable the Software Driven Bass Enhance. That’s it.
• Audio Transparency: This is a nifty feature – toggle and adjust Audio Transparency, or the amount of sound from the outside world you want to hear. This allows you to listen to music while at the same time still maintaining awareness of the world around you – which, as someone that prefers to put on a headset to escape said world, confounds me. But I’m sure someone less…isolationist would find it to be very useful!

While all of this is neat, and it’s nice to be able to tweak the settings of the earphones, the companion app simply doesn’t offer any truly must-have functionality. That said, though, it’s a pretty cool feeling to be able to make a headset truly yours – especially one as tiny as a pair of earbuds.

Get It

Available for free on the Google Play Store, the Yevo companion app is currently sitting at a rather disappointing 1.8 rating, albeit with only 8 reviews. A few of those users have complained about missing or useless functionality, and one even complained that the app made his left earpiece stop working.

For what it’s worth, both my headset and the app have worked perfectly for me – despite the design issues above.

Tesla unveils its vision of the future of trucking

At an event adjacent to SpaceX, the Tesla Semi (yes, that’s its name) electric truck was introduced with the same pomp and circumstance the company uses for all its automobile launches. The tall, slick big rig follows the Tesla minimalist design language. The only protrusions are the side mirrors and a sensor array that resembles tiny wings situated at the top rear on either side of the truck. It looks like the future. CEO Elon Musk says it’s “designed like a bullet.”

The Tesla Semi is exactly what you would expect from the company. An electric truck with a 500-mile range and a wealth of technology including Enhanced Autopilot. It also has a plethora of big rig-specific features like jackknifing prevention, sensors for blind-spot detection and data-logging for fleet management. But Tesla is no longer alone when it comes to electric vehicle announcements.

Daimler, Cummins, and Toyota (the latter via hydrogen fuel-cells) all have prototype trucks that rely on electrons instead of gasoline for power. Meanwhile, Volvo showed off a hybrid semi-truck earlier this year. Other than Toyota — which is already moving cargo in Los Angeles — these trucks probably won’t be on the road for a few years. Tesla announced that it’ll go into production in 2019.

Tesla is also setting its truck apart from rivals by promising a recharge rate of 400 miles in 30 minutes via its new Megachargers. The Tesla Semi will travel up to 500 miles between recharging stops. In contrast Daimler’s E-Fuso Vision One can cover up to 220 miles before it needs to stop. Musk said, “you can travel anywhere in the world via the Megachargers.” They will be powered by solar panels and like the Supercharger network, will be built by Tesla.

While passenger EVs are the main focus of most automakers, electrifying semi-trucks would go a long way to reducing pollution. According to the American Truck Association in 2014, trucks traveled 279.1 billion miles. In 2015, the EPA, noted that medium and heavy-duty trucks accounted for 23 percent of vehicle emissions.

The Semi will have Enhanced Autopilot (automatic emergency braking, automatic lane keeping and lane departure warning) like the rest of the current Tesla lineup. It also has jackknife protection, sensors and cameras meant to reduce blind spots. The trucks interior is large enough to stand in (I’m six-foot three inches tall and my head didn’t hit the ceiling. Like most big rigs, it has a set of steps on either side for easy entry and exit although these feel more like stairs than what’s found on traditional large trucks. It also has a centered driving position which makes it slightly odd in the trucking world.

Once behind the wheel, drivers will have two Model 3 displays on either side of the wheel with all the usual vehicle information that’s in a regular Tesla on the right side (speed, mileage, battery status, maps, climate control, music, etc) and truck-specific info on the left. Thanks to the displays, other than the usual levers for lights and wipers found on the steering wheel stalk, the cabin is sparse.

View from the cockpit pic.twitter.com/2kBupEXNM5

— Tesla (@Tesla) November 17, 2017

Oh also, the Semi has a zero to 60 of five seconds when empty and zero to 60 in 20 seconds when filled with 80,000 pounds of cargo. That’s incredibly fast for a big rig.

Also, Musk said Tesla will guarantee that the truck will not break down for a million miles. It’s even cheaper per mile in a convoy scenario. If two of the motors die, the other two will keep the truck on the road.

Tesla says that the truck is actually 25 cents less expensive than a diesel truck when you take into account insurance maintenance and other items. But no word on actual off-the-lot cost.

All of the interior room is thanks to Tesla moving the drivetrain to the rear of the Semi behind the cabin. Four Model 3 motors with a slightly modified gearing ratios than what’s found in the passenger car. Each of these is attached to their own wheel. Like other electric vehicles, there’s no need to shift gears. The driver just steps on the accelerator and goes. Although there’s very little chance the Semi will have Ludicrous mode.

What it does have is a way for truck drivers to deliver their goods in a slick, easier to drive vehicle. As long as we keep ordering stuff from Amazon and other online retailers, we’ll need big rigs. They’re an important part of our economy that’s typically overlooked. If Tesla can convince trucking companies that its offering is more cost effective because of the electric motors and connected fleet management capabilities than the traditional diesel vehicles on the road, that’s a win for Tesla. But more importantly, it’s a win for the environment.

Developing.

Source: Tesla Semi

Tesla reveals a new Roadster, due in 2020

At Tesla’s Semi event, the automaker dropped its new Roadster. It’ll have a 620-mile range via a 200kWh battery pack.”You’ll be able to travel from LA to San Francisco and back without recharging,” CEO Elon Musk said. The new Tesla Roadster will do zero to 60 in 1.9 seconds, and it’ll blast through a quarter mile in 8.9 seconds, before reaching a top speed of over 250 MPH.

Oh, and it’s a four-seater.

Musk called it, “a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars.” The car is due in 2020 so start saving up all your nickels and dimes now — the cost is $250,000, with a $50,000 reservation to get in line for a base model. The first 1,000 “Founders Edition” Roadsters are also available, provided you’re willing to toss in the full $250k right away.

A limited number of folks that attended tonight’s event and put down a $50,000 deposit on the Roadster will get a ride in the car.

Source: Tesla Roadster

Two airlines are bringing faster WiFi to their international flights

Two airlines have made moves to upgrade their WiFi offerings today. Cathay Pacific Group will provide GoGo’s 2Ku satellite-based broadband technology starting in 2018 and Emirates has partnered with Thales to bring 50Mpbs connectivity to its Boeing 777X fleet in 2020.

A number of airlines have caught on to the fact that upping their WiFi game can attract customers. Last year, American Airlines exchanged some of its aircraft’s GoGo internet service for ViaSat’s satellite technology and earlier this year, JetBlue began offering free WiFi to all of its passengers. In September, Delta added WhatsApp to its selection of messaging services, which also includes Facebook Messenger and iMessage, that can be used for free on all WiFi-enabled flights.

Cathay Pacific will install GoGo’s 2Ku service on its Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 aircraft and while Emirates’ upgraded service will take a bit longer to get up and running, it’s certainly better than the AR gimmick it announced in June.

Via: ZDNet, The Verge

Source: GoGo, Inmarsat, Emirates

Utopia’s Skýli cabin lets the Icelandic sky in while keeping the cold out

While sleeping under the stars can be a breathtaking experience, it’s less fun when temperatures begin to approach freezing. If you’ve ever considered hiking in Iceland, a country known for its majestic mountains and glaciers, just the thought of spending the night outside might convince you to skip the Nordic nation altogether, where temperatures can plummet to -22 degrees Fahrenheit.

Enter the Skýli: A shelter created specifically for hikers traveling along the frigid trails of Iceland. Utopia Arkitekter designed the trekking cabin so it could be easily transported and assembled along some of island’s more remote locations. Once erected, the impromptu shelter provides warmth, supplies, and lodging in the region’s harsh weather conditions.

With vibrant, metallic steeples — each of which are painted electric blue to increase visibility — the Skýli is changing the way hikers interact with their surroundings while paying homage to the architecture of Reykjavik, the country’s capital. The modern structure can accommodate up to 15 people and provides two distinct areas for sleeping, one for cooking, and another for storing emergency supplies. Triangular windows sit beneath each crest and offer sprawling views of the region’s rugged scenery.

Best of all, the materials for the Skýli are pre-fabricated and can be delivered via helicopter to your location. The fact that the entire structure can be assembled in two or three days is an added plus, as is the low-impact footprint.

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SpaceX’s mysterious Zuma mission won’t launch tonight

We still don’t know what Northrop Grumman commissioned SpaceX to launch for the US government, but whatever it is won’t get there tonight. In a move that leaves Elon Musk’s calendar open for the Tesla electric semi-truck reveal (still scheduled for 11 PM ET), SpaceX said it’s standing down on the Zuma mission “to take a closer look at data from recent fairing testing for another customer.” The launch, which is scheduled to include a landing attempt by the Falcon 9’s first stage, could go off tomorrow night, but no new launch date has been confirmed.

Standing down on Zuma mission to take a closer look at data from recent fairing testing for another customer.

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 16, 2017

Though we’ve preserved the range opportunity for tomorrow, we’ll take the time needed to complete the data review and then confirm a new launch date.

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 16, 2017

Source: SpaceX (Twitter), Space.com

Google cracks down on linkbaiting through AMP

Google officially launched its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) in February 2016 to be lightweight versions of source websites that used a lot less bandwidth. But some webmasters have deliberately included less content in their AMP editions with a link to the original page, and Google isn’t happy. By next February, AMP pages and their source counterparts must have identical material, the search giant declared.

Sometimes, the lightweight AMP version cuts out ads and links around to other parts of the source page’s website — hence the motivation to provide ‘teaser’ content that users must click through to see the full page. But Google sees this bait-and-switching as infringing on AMP’s mission to ‘dramatically improve the performance of the web and deliver a fast, consistent content consumption experience,’ as the search giant’s blog post put it.

Google assured that, after the February 2018 deadline, should the lightweight AMP version be incomplete compared to the source material, a link will redirect visitors to the original page. This won’t affect those pages’ Search ranking, and Google will invite those webmasters to fix the shortened edition.

Source: Google Blog