The ‘King of Kong’ could be stripped of his high score

Just days after video game high score champ Todd Rogers was stripped of his Dragster title for mathematically impossible times, the man who was the Donkey Kong king for almost 20 years has also come under scrutiny. Billy Mitchell’s 2010 high score for Donkey Kong has been called into question on a Twin Galaxies dispute forum by Jeremy Young, the moderator of Donkey Kong Forum (DKF). Young has presented a wealth of evidence to show that Mitchell’s performance was likely faked, and has thus removed the high score from DKF’s leaderboard.

Billy Mitchell is known to video game fans as the King of Kong, a title made world-famous by the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters about the race for the Donkey Kong world record. Mitchell’s 1982 score of 874,300 points reigned for 18 years until Tim Sczerby passed it by with 879,200 points in August of 2000. Mitchell retaliated in 2004 with a total 933,900 points, while Steve Wiebe (also in The King of Kong) surpassed that in June of 2005 with 985,600.

Mitchell then became the first player to break 1,000,000, before he and Wiebe traded top scores a number of times (with Mitchell on top in 2007 with 1,050,200). Their monopoly on high scores ended in 2010, when Hank Chien dropped in with a Mitchell-busting score of 1,061,700. Aside from a couple of higher scoring attempts by Mitchell and Wiebe, Chien held the top score title until September of 2014, when Robbie Lakeman became the reigning champ, with Wes Copeland dropping higher scores in 2015 and 2016. Lakeman overtook Copeland this past December with a score of 1,230,100, surpassing Copeland’s “perfect” 1,218,000 from 2016.

Still, Mitchell is undoubtedly the most famous of the Kong kings. His domineering persona, long hair, strong beard game and choice of black suits have cemented him as the go-to Donkey Kong champion, long after his impressive achievements. However, now DKF rates Mitchell not as the greatest, nor even the 20th best. Mitchell now sits at 47 on the community’s leaderboards. But DKF, despite its place at the heart of the Donkey Kong world, isn’t where people look for high scores.

Twin Galaxies has been the arbiter of video game leaderboards since 1981. It manages forums dedicated to fairly judging the veracity of scores as they’re submitted by various parties. Other organizations, like the Guinness Book of World Records, rely on the leaderboards to award their own titles. When Twin Galaxies stripped the top ‘Dragster’ title (and all the rest of his high scores) from Todd Rogers just last week, Guinness soon followed suit.

At press time, Twin Galaxies has not removed Billy Mitchell’s 2010 achievement from its main Donkey Kong leaderboards.

The issue is convoluted, though laid out with precision by Young in his explanatory post, which is accompanied by dozens of GIFs. “In summary,” Young wrote, “these GIFs show that each of the Donkey Kong world record direct feed recordings presented by Billy Mitchell and verified by [Twin Galaxies] were generated in MAME and not by original Donkey Kong hardware.”

According to Young, Mitchell claimed that the footage of his record-setting score was taken directly from the feed off a Donkey Kong arcade board. The investigation and analysis of comparable arcade feeds and MAME videos, specifically by a technically-inclined forum community member named Sock_Master, seem to show that Mitchell’s footage comes from MAME, the open-source software that emulates arcade boards.

Playing Donkey Kong through MAME isn’t problematic in itself (Young himself has recorded a 905,700 score through the emulator), but there are strict verifications for MAME high score attempts that check that the run was, for example, human-controlled and performed in one continuous playthrough. If the allegations Young has brought to Twin Galaxies are true, then Mitchell not only didn’t go through these checks, he also hid the fact that he wasn’t playing on official hardware. The evidence for the allegations is complex, and largely centers on framerate analysis and an apparent mis-rotation of the playscreen, but taken as a whole it appears quite damning.

“It’s important that we as a community take a stand against cheating and dishonesty.”

“The specific information provided in the thread has been gathered over the past week or so,” Young told Engadget. “But closer looks at his videos have been happening for years. I started the formal [Twin Galaxies] dispute last August.”

The number two Donkey Kong player in the world is Wes Copeland. “Billy is a great person and has been really encouraging to me as a fellow competitor,” he told us. “However, it’s important that we as a community take a stand against cheating and dishonesty. This newfound evidence is damning, and this has forced us to take immediate action against Billy’s scores on the community leaderboard.’

Forum moderator Young isn’t gloating, of course, but does feel vindicated. “Well, confirmation of a suspicion is always nice,” he told us. While many people got into Donkey Kong because of the documentary, Young says his involvement is more tangential, and began when he learned about the scene from a friend on PlayStation Network. “I didn’t watch King of Kong until I was already on [the Donkey Kong Forum]. I didn’t have a strong opinion of [Mitchell] or Wiebe before I showed up. And by the time I showed up [in late 2012/early 2013] the whispers were already there.”

Young’s main motivation is to make sure the posted scores are legitimate. “My view of Mitchell hasn’t really changed,” he said. “I do understand his role in the bigger picture, but my focus has always been on the community as it exists now, the friends I’ve made, and making sure competition is on the up-and-up.”

Whether Mitchell’s demotion will propagate to the Twin Galaxies leaderboards is still up in the air. “Billy’s 1,062,800 has been removed [from DKF],” said Young, “but he’s still on the board with a 933,900 that was done in public with more credible circumstances. How Twin Galaxies responds is completely up to them. Both [Twin Galaxies custodian] Jace Hall and the TG ‘commissioner’ Dave Hawksett visit DKF on occasion, so I think they have interest in our voice.” Engadget has reached out to Twin Galaxies for comment and will update the post if we hear back.

Apple Employees to Receive 50% Off HomePod

Apple employees will be able to purchase one of Apple’s new HomePod speakers at a significant discount, with Apple dropping the price by 50 percent for its staff members. Several Apple employees have taken to Twitter to share news of Apple’s generosity, and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has confirmed the discount.

In the United States, the HomePod is priced at $349, so employees will be able to purchase it at a discounted rate of around $175.

By offering the HomePod to employees at a reduced rate, Apple will ensure that some of its retail staff get hands-on real-world experience with the new speaker, allowing them to better assist customers with the device.

Apple also provides these kinds of discounts as a thank you to employees for all of their hard work, as a new product launch often entails a redecorating, training, and other behind-the-scenes efforts.

Apple offered a similar discount program for the Apple Watch when it launched in 2015, allowing employees to purchase any stainless steel or Sport Apple Watch model for personal use at a 50 percent discount.

The HomePod is available for purchase now from the online Apple Store, and it will officially launch on Friday, February 9.
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Litecoin vs. Ethereum

When it comes to investing in cryptocurrencies, nothing is a sure thing. If last year’s major booms and busts told us anything, it’s that you can expect volatility, wherever you go. That said, diversifying your crypto-portfolio is a wise move, as although bitcoin often drags everything up and down with it, there are some tokens that do things better than others.

But which alternative currencies should you invest in? We have our favorites, but if you want to put your eggs into one specific basket, you need to look at the differences between some of the best options. What about if we pit Litecoin vs. Ethereum? Which one comes out on top?

Litecoin has been around a lot longer than Ethereum, but Ether has grown in value far quicker. Then there are smart-contracts to consider. In this guide we’ll break down the key differences between these two altcoins, to give you the best basis for your own cryptocurrency investments.

If you’d rather skip all that and just look at how to buy Ethereum or trade your coins for something else, we have guides for that too.

As a store of value

With all the furor surrounding bitcoin and its contemporaries’ massive value spike throughout — and particularly at the end — of 2017, one of the biggest concerns for those looking to buy cryptocurrency is whether they’ll retain their value. The short answer to that is nobody knows. Cryptocurrencies are incredibly volatile and can rise and crash tens of percent points in a single day at times, but there are some that are proven more than others and may be more stable investments for the future.

Litecoin is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies — debuting in 2011 — so it has one of the best records for retaining or increasing in value. It also has strong name recognition, which with many hundreds of alternative cryptocurrencies out there, is an important facet in and of itself. Many exchanges now support Litecoin, which makes buying and selling it easier. That too should help it store value long-term.

Ethereum is not as old as Litecoin — it only came into existence in 2015 — but it’s quickly garnered interest for its potential uses beyond cryptocurrencies, which we’ll address in more detail later in this guide.

That interest has increased Ethereum’s name recognition. It’s separate enough from the “coin” nomenclature that it can strike out on its own a little easier, and it’s seeing growing support from exchanges. It’s still not common to see Ether used as a payment method, but that is steadily growing too.

Other factors worth considering in this debate are that Litecoin has a definitive 84 million token maximum, meaning that at some point in the future there will be no new Litecoin created. Ether, on the other hand, will continue to be awarded for mining into the foreseeable future. The developers may one day, cap it, but that has yet to happen. The scarcity brought about by a limitation on the number of tokens could mean that Litecoin ends up being a more valuable cryptocurrency in the future.

For now, Ethereum seems likely to be the best store of value. It has a much higher and growing interest from the wider cryptocurrency community, and despite its younger age, its growing name recognition and availability should drive it forward, making it easier to purchase, access, and spend. Ethereum would likely disappear only if cryptocurrencies, as a whole, went kaput.

As a transaction medium

The main reason that cryptocurrencies exist, at least initially, was to be used as a form of entirely decentralized digital money online. That means using it to buy goods and services. However, as we’ve seen with bitcoin, scaling difficulties can make that far harder to achieve, especially if you aren’t willing to pay huge fees. So how do Litecoin and Ethereum compare in that respect?

Considering Litecoin was originally created to be a better online transactional medium than bitcoin, it’s no surprise that it’s pretty good at it. At the time of writing its median transaction fee is just $0.04 with a block time average of 2:19 (minutes/seconds). Confirmations come pretty quick — around four times faster than bitcoin.

That makes Litecoin great for conducting transactions online, especially considering the growing number of online outlets that accept it. Ethereum, though, is equally viable. Although its average fees are much higher — its median rate is around $0.85 — the Ethereum block time is under 15 seconds. You can expect your transfers to receive multiple confirmations in a minute or less.

That’s why over the past year we’re seen Ethereum become the most traded cryptocurrency in the world, with more than a million transactions taking place some days. In comparison, Litecoin handles just over 50,000 transactions a day, while even bitcoin handles 230,000 or so. Ethereum is trading hands with incredible frequency.

Both Litecoin and Ethereum have their strengths in transactions. While Litecoin is the cheaper of the two to spend online, owners appear to be more interested in using Ether for the time being. Its short block time is hard to beat.

Beyond cryptocurrencies

While Litecoin is a cryptocurrency through and through, Ethereum is a little smarter than that. Ethereum itself is more than the Ether token. It’s also a platform that can facilitate Ether transactions in its own right. These are called “smart contracts.”

We go into more detail on smart contracts in our discussion of Ethereum, but in short, a smart contract is a contract that is underpinned by blockchain technology to engender trust. Instead of lawyers confirming a contract has been adhered to, the blockchain does it automatically. The contracts can tell when goods or services have been transferred, and Ether payments are then automatically sent.

It’s a pie in the sky idea, but theoretically smart contracts could eliminate all sorts of middlemen, from crowd-funding websites — have a smart contract send funds when milestones are reached — to real estate — send purchase funds when the owners have completed their end of the bargain.

Litecoin has no such goals and that’s fine, but it does mean it’s decidedly less functional than its younger sibling. Ethereum is the natural evolution of the decentralizing idea of cryptocurrencies that began with bitcoin. Litecoin is more of an iteration on that early idea.

So which is best?

As with all cryptocurrency head to heads, naming one a champion over the other is hard to do. There are no guarantees in any of them and one could crash and burn tomorrow while another soars in value. That said, we do have our favorites and as it stands, Ethereum is the more functional, the more versatile, and the more technically impressive of these two cryptocurrencies.

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Bitcoin market cap has already dropped more than $80 billion in 2018

Bitcoin may have hit historic highs in December 2017, but just one month into the new year, investors are feeling the pinch of a major correction. Following a slight dip towards the end of last year, bitcoin has crashed hard in the weeks that followed, leading to a fall in market cap of more than $80 billion.

Although bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices are regularly discussed in terms of individual token prices, the sheer number of tokens out there means that the entire market of any individual cryptocurrency can be worth billions. In the case of bitcoin, it was worth more than $200 billion at the start of 2018, but already that’s fallen to $143 billion at the time of writing. Other cryptocurrencies have been similarly impacted, though Ethereum has managed to remain in the black, despite similarly volatile peaks and troughs.

This should all come as no real surprise to long-term cryptocurrency evangelists, as the digital currencies have always been volatile in nature. It was only in 2017 that their value seemed only able to increase. Crashes have happened before, with this latest one spurred by a combination of mistaken reporting related to statements made by India’s finance minister, as well as Facebook’s announcement that it would no longer support ICO and cryptocurrency advertisements. As BusinessInsider points out, the subpoenas levied against major exchanges Bitfenix and Tether didn’t help either.

This latest crash is a big one, though. At the time of writing bitcoin has fallen to $8,500, its lowest figure since the end of November last year. However, despite all of the negativity surrounding the flagship cryptocurrency, many in bitcoin social circles claim that holding on to your coins is far better than panic selling.

They may have at least some good reasons to do so. Acceptance of bitcoin in various online outlets is only increasing and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey also announced just a few days ago that full bitcoin support with the Cash App. That should make it easier than ever for those without much understanding of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to buy their own.

As scary as the prospect of regulation can be, we don’t think it will have the teeth some fear it may develop in the future. With enough evangelists still touting bitcoin as “gold 2.0,” it seems unlikely to fall from relevance anytime soon, even if its latest bubble has well and truly burst.

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Microsoft lowers Surface Book 2 and laptop price of entry

Microsoft’s Surface line of notebook and desktop PCs is known for its stunning design, innovative form factors, and excellent input options and Windows 10 integration that make them great options for creative and productivity tasks. At the same time, Surface is also notorious for another of its attributes — price. Surface prices range from the very low end of the premium segment well into the stratosphere.

That has likely cut into Surface sales, which were basically flat in Microsoft’s second quarter 2018 earnings report in spite of the release of the new Surface Laptop and Surface Book 2. It’s possible that pricing impacted those results, and perhaps in response, Microsoft has introduced two new versions of those machines aimed at making them affordable to more users.

First up is the Surface Laptop, which has added a new low-end seventh-generation Intel Core m3 CPU to the mix. When configured with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, which are the only options, the notebook now comes in at $800. That’s a full $200 down from the previous entry-level offering of a Core i5, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB SSD, offering some significant savings for a reduction in overall performance. You’ll be somewhat limited in pizzazz, however, as Microsoft is only offering this configuration in one color, Platinum.

Next is the Surface Book 2 13.5-inch model, which previously started out at $1,500 for its entry level configuration with a seventh-generation Core i5, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and integrated Intel HD Graphics only. Now, you can configure the entry-level model with a 128GB SSD and spend only $1,200, an even more significant savings of $300. You’ll be limited in storage, but you could also add in a MicroSD card to expand storage if things get too tight. In the meantime, you’ll enjoy the same pop-off and extremely high-quality display, class-leading pen, and excellent keyboard and touchpad.

We’ll note that there are other notebooks and 2-in-1s that you can buy for these kinds of prices. However, if you want the unique good looks of the Surface Laptop or the unparalleled flexibility of the Surface Book 2, then at least now you can buy into either line for a price that won’t make your bank account cry.

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Somebody invented a ferrofluid lava lamp, and it’s as awesome as it sounds

Regular lava lamps haven’t been unironically cool in decades, but technologists keep finding new and exciting ways to update them for the 21st century. Recently, we covered the way that Silicon Valley-based web performance and security company Cloudflare is using a wall of lava lamps as a crucial step in its encryption processes. Now, another enterprising engineer has reinvented the lava lamp by adding a dose of everyone’s favorite magnetized liquid rocket fuel, ferrofluid.

Freshly arrived on Kickstarter, “The Rocket” is an appropriately rocket-shaped lava lamp, which replaces the regular wax in lava lamps with ferrofluid. Invented by NASA in the early 1960s, ferrofluid exhibits both regular liquid properties, as well as the bizarre ability to be manipulated by a magnetic field. When it comes into contact with a magnet, the tiny solid particles of magnetic material in ferrofluid cause the mass of black liquid to move towards it, creating weird geometric spiking patterns in the process.

In the case of a lava lamp, this means that it behaves like a regular wax lava lamp — but with the added benefit that it’s interactive, since you can use an ordinary magnet to push, pull or spike the lava that’s inside.

“I love ferrofluid because it appeals to anybody with a curious mind,” creator Kyle Haines told Digital Trends. “People always try to break down who would like this into demographics, but I’ve introduced a lot of different types of people to ferrofluid and the one common denominator to me is curiosity. Of course geeky types like it, but so do art teachers and people with zero background in science.”

While all Kickstarter campaigns carry a degree of risk on the part of investors, Haines points out that he has been selling ferrofluid gadgets — including a generation one lava lamp, minus the rocket shape — for several years. As part of this campaign, he has also created a ferrofluid glowing alien head, which is all kinds of cool.

If you would like to make a pledge to the campaign, head over to the project’s Kickstarter page now. A small bottle containing ferrofluid will set you back a mere $19, a glowing alien head is $49, and the rocket-shaped lava lamp starts at $74. A $99 version comes with added ferrofluid. Supplies of each are limited to 100, though, so make your move quickly.

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What is AmazonFresh? Here’s everything you need to know

Grocery shopping can be a time-consuming process, especially if you live in a major city. Between sitting in traffic on your way to the store and then waiting in a long line to check out, it’s almost easier to just order take-out or pick up fast food. Unfortunately, eating out all the time likely won’t do any favors for your health. Luckily, there are grocery delivery options out there that help to maximize your time and make healthy eating a lot more feasible. One of the more popular choices in the arena is AmazonFresh, a service that the online marketplace first started in 2007. If you’re curious about AmazonFresh and want to give it a try, we’ve broken down everything you need to know about the grocery delivery service.

How much does AmazonFresh cost?

To get started with AmazonFresh, you’ll first need to obtain an Amazon Prime membership, which costs $13 for a month or $99 for a year. AmazonFresh will cost an additional $15 a month, or $180 a year. Delivery of the groceries is free if you order more than $50 worth, but if you order less, Amazon will add a $10 delivery fee to your bill.

What can I buy on AmazonFresh?

Whole Foods

You can buy pretty much anything you would find at your local grocery store on AmazonFresh. You name it — fruits, vegetables, canned goods, condiments, packaged snacks, raw meat — and AmazonFresh has it.

Plus, you’ll have access to approximately 1,000 Whole Foods products as well, since Amazon acquired the organic grocery chain in 2017. However, most of the products are part of Whole Foods’ 365 brand and fall under the categories of beverages, frozen goods, cereals, baking, and snacks. As of now, you won’t find any Whole Foods fresh meat or produce on AmazonFresh.

How long does AmazonFresh take to deliver?

Once you’ve stocked your online cart with the groceries you wish to purchase, the site will prompt you to reserve a delivery time. You can choose same-day or next-day delivery based on what works with your schedule. You can also select from “Doorstep Delivery,” which is a three-hour delivery window where you don’t have to be at home, or “Attended Delivery,” which is a one-hour window that requires you to be available to take the delivery.

Where is AmazonFresh available?

Amazon

AmazonFresh currently delivers to residences in Boston, Baltimore, Dallas, Chicago, New York City, London, parts of California and New Jersey, and more. Recently, users in states like Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and California have reported that AmazonFresh no longer delivering to their zip code. Luckily, you can easily check and see if delivery is available to your address.

What other options do I have?

If AmazonFresh doesn’t seem like the right fit for you, there are a few other grocery-delivery options on the market.

• Google Express delivers produce to San Francisco and Los Angeles homes, and customers can try a three-month trial at any time. The service is $95 a year to use, and the minimum price on all orders that include fresh groceries is $35. If you don’t want to pay the annual fee, you can also pay a flat fee of $5 per store.
• Instacart is a same-day delivery service available in many major cities across the country. Delivery costs $6 for a two-hour delivery window and $8 for a one-hour delivery window, or you can pay an annual membership fee of $149.
• Shipt, a popular choice on the East Coast and in Texas, offers grocery-delivery services for $99 a year or $14 a month, which is comparable to AmazonFresh’s prices. Shipping is free if your order is more than $35, but Shipt does say that the average price of each product will be about 15 percent more than what they cost in-store.

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Microsoft Surface Pro 4 users unite over display issues, create ‘Flickergate’ site

Microsoft’s Surface line of hardware has created entirely new categories of PCs, such as the detachable tablet 2-in-1 that’s spawned a market of copycats, as well as the Surface Book with its tear-off display. Users love the machines for their performance, innovation, and overall designs, but many have suffered from a host of issues surrounding battery life, sleep, and other nagging issues.

The company has worked hard to fix Surface issues, and even went so far as to apologize for some of the problems and promise to do better. Consumer Reports thought that Microsoft wasn’t doing enough, and the publication refused to endorse the Surface line as a result. Now, a group of Surface Pro 4 users have banded together to get Microsoft’s attention over a specific issue, namely display flicker, by creating a site dubbed Flickergate.com to highlight the problem.

If you head over to that site, you’ll find numerous accounts of users whose Surface Pro 4 displays have exhibited the same problem. Head over to the Reddit Surface subgroup, and you’ll find numerous threads on the subject. Apparently, when the displays reach a certain high temperature, they start to flicker and become unusable. There are a number of videos demonstrating the problem, and we’ve included just one of them at the top of this story.

Adding insult to injury, the issue apparently often occurs after the original manufacturer’s warranty has ended, and Microsoft’s charge for replacing these machines is a hefty $800. Even worse, whether a machine is replaced within the warranty period or after the fee is paid, the replacement units eventually start suffering the same problem.

We reached out to Microsoft for a statement, and received the following statement from a spokesperson:

“We are aware that some customers have experienced a screen flicker on Surface Pro 4 and are monitoring the situation closely. Customers impacted by this should contact Microsoft support.”

So far, thousands of users have apparently complained of the issue. According to Flickergate.com, that number has now exceeded 1,800. If you’d like to lend your voice to the cause, you can click on the “Help us in raising our voice” button on the site to send a message of support and provide details of your similar issue. Note that if you use Firefox or Chrome, hitting the button does appear to redirect to what looks like a spam page.

While Microsoft hasn’t yet addressed the issue directly, its support team is definitely now aware of the issue. The question then becomes one of whether the company will find a good solution for users who are suffering from what appears to be a fairly widespread issue. We’ll be sure to update this story with any good (or bad) news in that regard.

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Say what you mean the first time, every time, with the best translation apps

Learning a new language can be hard. Most people are familiar with the 10,000-hour rule — made popular by writer Malcolm Gladwell — that suggests it takes 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to become an expert in any given field. While the rule has been disputed, it still takes hundreds (if not thousands) of hours to become fluent in a second language, never mind a third or fourth.

The vast majority of us don’t have that kind of time to dedicate to the study of a new language, especially if we’re gearing up for our next international adventure. We might arm ourselves with a few useful phrases like how to ask where the restroom is, and then turn to a translation app to help us out with the rest.

Translations apps aren’t perfect, but they’re certainly better than nothing. They’re improving all the time, and can be a valuable tool if you do decide to learn another language down the road. That being said, nothing beats actually learning a new language, but translation apps will get the job done (with only a handful of errors). Maybe one of these days Google will perfect its real-time translations earbuds and we won’t have the need to learn any more languages. But in the meantime, we’ve found the best translation apps.

Google Translate

Google Translate is one of the best apps out there for translation. Available on iPhone and Android, Google’s contest-winning translator can translate sentences between 103 different languages. It offers voice, image, and handwriting translations for many of those languages as well and can translate bilingual conversations on the fly. The app is completely free (no in-app purchases) and sets the bar high for accurate machine translations. It does have a few downsides, namely its inability to edit sentence translations as a whole (especially in languages like Chinese), but it’s easily one of the best translator apps out there. Currently, Google is working on implementing live translations into its latest pair of earbuds.

Get it now on:

Apple Store  Google Play

iTranslate

There are a couple of different iTranslate apps on the market right now, including iTranslate Converse, iTranslate Voice, and iTranslate Translator. Like Google, the developers at iTranslate are trying to perfect a live translation service, called the Ear Translator. But we’re just going to talk about the flagship translator app, iTranslate Translator, for the moment. This app offers on- and offline translations for over 100 languages (16 offline). It’s compatible with the Apple Watch and there’s also an iMessage and iPhone keyboard extension, which makes it incredibly versatile. While the initial app is indeed free, it is ad-supported, and you’ll need to pay to subscribe to a Pro account to get the most out of the app. Depending on which package you choose (a month or a year), it will cost you about $3 to $5 a month to have the power of language at your fingertips.

Get it now on:

Apple Store  Google Play Microsoft Store

Naver Papago Translate

Most translation apps have no problem translating Romance and other European languages, but often struggle to provide accurate translations of Asian languages. This is because most translation apps are created in the United States, where companies lack extensive data on languages like Chinese and Japanese. Papago, from Naver, the creator of Korea’s top search engine, only supports 10 languages, but provides better Asian language translations than its competitors. It offers many of the same features as the other apps, including text, voice, photo, and conversation translations. Based on its reviews, it suffers from inaccurate voice and photo recognition, but is the most accurate translation app for the languages it offers, and will likely only continue to get better.

Get it now on:

Apple Store  Google Play

Microsoft Translate

Microsoft Translator is — you guessed it — Microsoft’s take on a machine translator. It offers text, image, and voice translations for over 60 languages, all of which can be downloaded for offline use. You can also connect the app and translate multiperson conversations (although this doesn’t work with Windows Phone). Microsoft Translator has a phrasebook for verified translations and pronunciation guides that will help you learn important phrases while you’re traveling. It’s compatible with most smartwatches and devices, and if you connect the app between any of your own devices, it will automatically sync translations you have already made, ensuring that you don’t make the same translation over and over. Microsoft Translator is powered by the same technology used by Microsoft Office, Bing, and Twitter.

Get it now on:

Apple Store Google Play Microsoft Store

TripLingo

TripLingo takes a slightly different approach to translating than other apps like it. It offers the typical voice, image, and text translations, but also has four different slang levels for translations (formal versus informal), professionally recorded audio files, as well as a “culture crash course” to get you familiar with local customs and etiquette. It currently offers support for up to 42 languages. Another interesting feature of this app is that if a translation is not working or you still can’t understand its meaning, TripLingo will get you in touch with a live translator to help you out (for a fee). While this app is very cool, it’s unfortunately one of the most expensive. The base app is free and offers basic features for all of its languages, but in order to get the lessons, offline dictionary, and live translation services, you have to pay $20 per month for a subscription. Twenty bucks isn’t much considering how useful something like this could be on vacation, so it may be worth it.

Get it now on:

Apple Store Google Play

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Advertisers can soon slide three images inside Instagram Stories

Get ready for more Instagram ads — Stories is gaining expanded advertising that allows businesses to use up to three ad pieces together rather than one. On Thursday, February 1, Instagram announced that carousel ads are moving to Stories, starting with a limited number of businesses.

Instagram Stories ads previously only allowed businesses to slip in one image as the photos and videos from friends play on that short loop. With carousel ads, businesses can now add up to three images or videos inside Stories. The change, Instagram says, allows businesses to add more depth, like Gap’s new add that shows two video clips before a third image that invites viewers to shop with a simple swipe up.

Like original content inside of Stories, users can still tap through ads along with swiping back and forth, so for Instagram users that find the Stories ads annoying, there is just more to tap through before seeing the rest of the Stories. Businesses can also add some of the same effects to their campaign that users have access to, including stickers and drawing tools.

The expanded advertising option is starting with a limited group of advertisers before a more widespread rollout. The first businesses to use the new format, along with Gap, include Coca-Cola, Renault, and Paramount.

During the 2017 year-end earnings report earlier this week, Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Instagram’s parent company Facebook, said that Stories ads are working well with Instagram Stories. She said that most viewers see the ads with sound on, while the swipe-up feature allows users to quickly find out more information.

The growth of Stories means that the company is focused on bringing new features to the sharing medium, including those expanded monetization options. “We expect Stories are on track to overtake posts in feeds as the most common way that people share across all social apps,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this week. “That’s because Stories is a better format for sharing multiple quick video clips throughout your day. The growth of Stories will have an impact on how we build products and think about our business, including WhatsApp and Instagram, which are the number one and number two most-used Stories products in the world.”

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