How to Add a Recent or Favorite Items Stack to Your Mac’s Dock

Continuing our recent how-to focus on customizing the macOS Dock, in this article we’re going to share with you a method for adding a recent or favorite items stack to the right of the Dock divider.

Most users are aware that you can drag any folder into the right-hand side of the Dock to turn it into a stack, but the following lesser-known trick creates a unique stack type containing your most recently opened applications, documents, or servers.

Alternatively, you can also set this unique type of stack to show the Favorite folder locations and Device links that appear in your Finder’s sidebar.

Unfortunately, you can’t use stacks if you have the Dock set up to show only actively running apps. With that caveat in mind, simply follow the steps below to create the stack type that best suits your workflow. Just bear in mind that Terminal is a powerful app, so make sure you enter the commands properly, especially if you’re not familiar with it.

How to Create a Recent or Favorite Items Stack

Launch the Terminal app found in Applications/Utilities. (To quickly open the Utilities folder in Finder, select Go -> Utilities from the menu bar, or use the key shortcut Shift-Command-U.)
Copy the following command text and paste it into Terminal at the prompt, then press Enter: defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add ‘“tile-data” = “list-type” = 1;; “tile-type” = “recents-tile”;’; killall Dock

Repeat the command (hit the up arrow and press Enter) to create additional recent or favorite stacks in the Dock as required.
To choose whether a new stack contains certain types of favorite items or recent items, right-click (or Ctrl-click) the stack and select one of the options in the pop-up menu.

To change the default Grid view, right-click (or Ctrl-click) the stack and select one of the other options under View content as in the pop-up menu.Note that you can change the number of items shown in a recent items stack in the following way: Click the Apple () logo in the menu bar, select System Preferences…, open the General preference pane, and choose another number from the Recent items dropdown menu.

To remove a Recent or Favorite Items stack from your Dock, simply right-click (or Ctrl-click) it and select Remove from Dock. Alternatively, click and drag the stack out of the Dock then let go of the mouse button to delete it.

Related Roundup: macOS High SierraTag: macOS Dock tricks
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Oreo update starts rolling out to T-Mobile’s Galaxy Note 8

All carrier variants of the Galaxy Note 8 in the U.S. have made the switch to Oreo.

T-Mobile’s variant of the Galaxy Note 8 is starting to receive the stable Android 8.0 Oreo update. AT&T was the first to roll out the update last month, and Verizon and Sprint followed suit last week. With T-Mobile commencing its update, all carrier variants of the Note 8 in the U.S. have made the switch to Oreo.

T-Mobile’s senior social technology evangelist Desmond Smith made the announcement on Twitter this past Friday, and the OTA update is now rolling out.

THIS JUST IN! @TMobile #GalaxyNote8 #Android #Oreo update approved! Will start hitting customers phones as early as Sunday night!!! (No April Fool’s here) 🤘 – Des pic.twitter.com/r1yEl2myMW

— Des 📷 📱 (@askdes) March 30, 2018

As the OTA update is rolled out in phases, it’ll likely be a few days before you receive it on your phone. As for what’s new, here’s a rundown of all the new additions:

Received the Oreo update on your Note 8? Let us know how you’re liking the new features in the comments below.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8

• Galaxy Note 8 review
• Galaxy Note 8 vs. Galaxy S8+
• Which Note 8 color is best?
• Complete Galaxy Note 8 specs
• Join our Galaxy Note 8 forums

Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint
Best Buy

Despite recent setbacks, Huawei isn’t exiting the U.S. market

Huawei CEO says the company will continue to do business in the U.S.

Huawei hasn’t had the easiest time of late in the U.S. The Chinese manufacturer lost carrier support back in February as both AT&T and Verizon pulled out of deals to carry the Mate 10 Pro following political pressure from the U.S. government. Last week, Best Buy announced that it would stop selling Huawei phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches, and Honor products as well.

In an interview with CNET, the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group Richard Yu announced that the company would not be exiting the U.S. market:

We are committed to the US market and to earning the trust of US consumers by staying focused on delivering world-class products and innovation. We would never compromise that trust.

The U.S. government cited national security as the main reason for prohibiting carriers from purchasing networking equipment from Huawei, and now that has extended to the company’s handsets as well. Essentially, there’s a fear that Huawei is controlled by the Chinese government, and there’s a concern that its infrastructure is used to spy on Americans.

Yu dismissed the security concerns as “groundless suspicions,” stating that they were “quite frankly unfair:”

We welcome an open and transparent discussion if it is based on facts.

We work with 46 of the 50 global operators, and have maintained a very strong security record because security is one of our top priorities.

Despite its setbacks in the U.S., Huawei is doing incredibly well on a global level — the company sold over 153 million phones last year, with profits increasing by 28.1%. And it doesn’t look like Huawei is exiting the U.S. market anytime soon:

We recognize we are not a known brand in the US and we need to build our brand here. Our first step is to win the trust of consumers.

And when it comes to sales, there’s always Amazon.

Why does the U.S. government mistrust Huawei and not ZTE or Lenovo?

Tablo launches more affordable over-the-air DVR with cloud storage

Nuvvyo’s over-the-air Tablo DVRs are potentially big bargains if you want the convenience of recording shows without a pricey cable package, but the up front cost (dictated in part by the built-in storage) can make them daunting. The company has a simple solution to that: release a DVR that lets you pick your own drive. Its newly launched Tablo Dual Lite includes the same dual-tuner recording as before, but ditches the 64GB of built-in storage in favor of a lower $140 price (down from $220) that lets you get only the USB drive you want. And importantly, that local storage will soon be optional.

The company has simultaneously introduced a beta Cloud DVR service that uploads video in an account that only your DVR can access. You’ll eventually have to pay for it, but testers will get 40GB of online storage (about 16 hours of HD) for free. While this could get expensive if you’re determined to archive every episode of a favorite series, it’ll ensure that your recordings won’t be lost to a hardware glitch.

Via: Zatz Not Funny

Source: Tablo Blog

NASA’s latest tech investments include shapeshifters and biobots

NASA is no stranger to backing unusual technology if it’ll help with exploring the cosmos, and its latest move is proof of that adventurous mindset. The administration has invested in 25 “early-stage” tech proposals that could improve both human and robotic exploration, and some of them are particularly inventive. The Shapeshifter concept you see above, for instance, envisions a horde of robots that combine into different forms to explore virtually every surface on Saturn’s moon Titan. It could form an aircraft for high-altitude missions, a ball on the ground or a torpedo for under-liquid expeditions.

Another proposal, Biobot, would offload some of an astronauts’ life support and consumables to a companion robot tethered by an umbilical system. While it might seem disconcerting to trust your survival on a hostile world to a robot, the machine could let explorers last for days before returning to base. They could even use the mechanized helper to haul gear and communicate with people back on Earth.

Other projects include Marsbee (a swarm of flying robots that would assist Mars rovers), SPARROW (a steam-propelled robot for exploring oceans) and PROCSIMA (beamed propulsion for interstellar missions).

The initial investments dole out $125,000 each over the space of nine months to help determine the feasibility of the concepts. If the projects are viable, the teams can apply for a second phase to further develop their work. We’d expect only some of these concepts to make the initial cut, let alone reach real-world use, but they illustrate NASA’s thinking — it’s willing to try oddball ideas if they solve problems more effectively than conventional technology.

Source: NASA

Niantic settles ‘Pokémon Go’ festival lawsuit for $1.5 million

Niantic has already refunded the ticket costs for attendees of 2017’s disastrous Pokémon Go Fest, but it’s now poised to pay more. The company is settling a class action lawsuit over the festival to the tune of $1.57 million, with an official settlement website due to appear by May 25th. The payout will cover hotel and transportation costs for the many attendees whose event was ruined by connectivity and logistical problems. Be sure to read the fine print if you were one of those affected, though — you’ll need evidence you were there.

You’ll need to have checked into the festival through Pokémon Go, so you can’t profit from having sold your ticket to someone else. You’ll also need to show receipts if you paid more than $107 in expenses. And if this is like many class action lawsuits, we wouldn’t count on a large payout given the scale of the case and the usual lawyers’ fees.

That’s still more compensation than guests received in 2017, however. And for Niantic, it’s a lesson learned. The company is now keenly aware of the problems Pokémon Go’s massive scale can bring, and it’s now focused more on Community Days and other gatherings that are less likely to cause havoc.

Source: TechCrunch

Samsung adds GIF support to its Always On Display for Android Oreo users

Samsung’s Always On Display first made its debut with the launch of the S7 and S7 Edge. Since then, the company has added new features which have been relatively easy to use thanks to dedicated APKs. The newest feature to come to Always On Displays is GIF support. However, before you get too excited, it should be mentioned that this will only work on devices running Android Oreo or higher. Not only will it not work on older versions of Android, but some users in the Android Police and XDA Developers comment sections reported that the feature bricked their phones. We repeat — don’t try this out unless you are running Oreo.

GIF support isn’t a major feature, but it does allow users to add a bit more creativity and personalization to their smartphones. Previously, Always On allowed users to choose between pre-loaded images or their own custom images. GIF support simply takes this a step further by allowing users to add a bit of motion and life to an otherwise static screen.

Those who are running Oreo or higher will have the option of choosing between Samsung’s pre-installed GIFs or ones in their own gallery. However, there are a few issues to bear in mind. First of all, the GIFs do have a maximum length, though you can always shorten yours if they’re too long. Secondly, the GIF will not continuously loop. Instead, it will play once you turn the display off. However, double-tapping the screen will cause the GIF to play again.

The lack of a loop is likely an effort to save users’ batteries, as a constantly looping GIF would likely run down your phone’s charge pretty quickly. Of course, shorter battery life is one of the main drawbacks of using Samsung’s Always On settings, and this was reflected in some comments on Reddit. The standard Always On display might be mostly black pixels, but it is still displaying an image which will quickly drain your battery.

Those interested in using GIFs will not only need to be running Oreo, but also be using the Galaxy S8, S8 Plus, or Note 8. We expect that the feature will also come to the S9 in the future, but for now, it is limited to the S8 line.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Google acquires GIF search engine Tenor (and its 300 million users)
• How to make GIFs with Photoshop (or these free alternatives)
• 7 hidden Snapchat features for chatting with friends
• Instagram Stories gain GIF stickers — and soon, horizontal video
• Facial recognition has a race problem — here’s how Gyfcat is fixing that

Smartphone face-off: Galaxy S9 Intelligent Scan vs iPhone Face ID

With the launch of the iPhone X, facial unlocking — that is, the ability to unlock your smartphone with nothing more than your smile — has become more and more mainstream. Because of this, other manufacturers are beginning to place the feature at the forefront of their ad campaigns, taking a cue from Apple’s marketing push.

Samsung, for instance, recently launched Intelligent Scan on the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, combining the company’s iris-scanning technology with a facial unlock feature. Basically, the built-in cameras on the S9 and S9 Plus scan your iris, then utilize the aforementioned facial unlock feature if they can’t properly identify you with the former piece of tech. This happens within milliseconds, though, meaning you don’t really have to worry about your phone swapping between the two security measures.

But how does Samsung’s latest security tech compare with Apple’s?

In order to determine which is faster, we recently devised a little experiment. Digital Trends contributor David Cogen set up his face in both Intelligence Scan and Face ID at roughly the same time, preventing any discrepancies that might arise from photos taken at different time periods. Then, he tested the features in several scenarios, allowing him to see which feature is quicker in a side-by-side comparison.

First, he tested each feature in a well-lit room. The iPhone X came out on top by about a third of a second, regardless of whether he wore glasses or removed them from his face. The X was also quicker when working with sunglasses — it beat the S9 by more than a second — and nearly twice as fast when used in the dark. This is to be expected because the X has specific hardware built in for facial recognition, whereas the S9 doesn’t (at least, not really).

So, while Apple’s headset is faster when it comes to unlocking your phone via facial recognition, the S9 still performs admirably given it lacks the aforementioned, specialized hardware. The fact that setting it up is a breeze just makes Samsung’s counterpart even more welcome.

Cogen — a regular contributor here at Digital Trends — runs TheUnlockr.com, a popular tech blog that focuses on tech news, tips and tricks, and the latest tech. You can also find him over on Twitter discussing the latest tech trends.

Launch your own rocket, follow space missions with USA Today’s AR app

App Attack is a weekly series where we search the App Store and Google Play Store for the best apps of the week. Check out App Attack every Sunday for the latest.

No matter how old you are, anything space related is always going to be interesting — whether it’s rockets, astronauts, or the solar system. This week we have an app that will bring you closer to space missions via augmented reality.

Using 321 Launch, you’ll get to experience AR rocket launches as they take off in real time from the comfort of your smartphone. The new app is a collaboration between USA Today Network and Florida Today (one if its local news brands), and incorporates features ranging from live video of upcoming launches to a tabletop AR hologram of the rocket to view.

With the Kennedy Space Center located in Florida, developers and reporters were able to gain an even deeper understanding from an up-close and personal perspective. This allowed them to incorporate detailed visuals and even sound effects to create an app that accurately simulated what it’s like to see a rocket launch on site.

When you first open 321 Launch, you have two options to choose from — “Launch Simulation” and “Live Mission.” With Launch Simulation, you get to build and launch your own AR rocket. In this section of the app, you’ll need a flat surface to be able to “assemble” the virtual pieces. I also recommend turning on the sound, because it definitely enhances the experience.

As you begin to drag and drop all of the different parts onto the launch pad, you also get to learn about each one. On the right side of the screen, there are explanations you can read to learn more about the the process, such as the lightning towers that surround the pad, the flame trench, fueling the rocket, and the launch.

Once it’s all set to go, you can tap the “Launch” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen to watch it lift off. After it decouples and re-enters the atmosphere, you’ll then be able to deploy the landing legs back on to the pad. It was interesting to learn as much as I did in such a short amount of time — with such a smooth interface and enjoyable experience, you’ll forget that while launching an AR rocket, you’re also getting an education in rocket science.

In the Live Mission part of the app, you’ll be provided with a live feed when a launch is happening. During my demo with USA Today, there wasn’t a live launch happening, but I was still able to experience what it would be like, had there been one. In this section, you can switch back and forth between the live stream and AR, as well as view live commentary from Florida Today’s space reporters, who guide you through the launch, which you’ll be able to see on the side of the screen.

One of my favorite features in this section was being able to view the predicted flight path. By pointing your phone at the sky, you’ll see a line drawn out for you which informs you of the direction of the rocket. That way, you’ll also be able to track if it’s passing anywhere over your area.

Prior to a launch, you’ll be provided with a countdown on the home screen of the app. It lets you know how many days or hours to expect the next live mission. I also received a banner notification while using 321 Launch, that updated me on the status of the upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral.

You also have the ability to check the launch schedule and space news via the homepage. which brings you to Florida Today’s site. You can share your launch experience on Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter straight through the app. It’s currently available for download on both iOS and Android — right on time for the SpaceX Falcon 9 on April 2, which will give you the full experience of 321 Launch.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Watch live as SpaceX launches a Tesla into space aboard its biggest rocket ever
• SpaceX nailed the Falcon Heavy launch, but didn’t quite stick the landing
• Japan just launched the smallest rocket to carry a satellite into space
• After delays, the SpaceX Falcon Heavy is set to launch on February 6
• YouTuber explains mechanics behind those amazing SpaceX rocket launch videos

Parkmobile adds feature that makes it easier to find on-street parking

Parkmobile has announced a new service that should make searching for parking less of a chore. The app’s newest feature, which is available in 100 cities across the United States, will allow users to tell just how crowded a nearby street is, so they don’t have waste any time needlessly searching crowded areas.

Parkmobile said that studies show that the average person spends 17 hours anually searching for parking spots, which ends up costing roughly $354 a year in terms of wasted gas, time, and fuel emission costs. Parkmobile seeks to change that by giving users an easy-to-read map of parking areas in their city so they can tell which streets to avoid when searching for parking spots.

“… Our app will now help direct you to areas where parking is likely available, saving significant time and frustration as you’re on the road,” said Parkmobile CEO Jon Ziglar.

The main downside to this new feature is that it is not available as part of the free app. In order to access this service, users will need to pay $0.99 a month for the Pro version of the Parkmobile app. In addition to the parking finding feature, Pro members get access to discounts, roadside assistance, and occasional special offers on various automotive services. Depending on how much you use the app, the Pro version might be worth coughing up that extra dollar per month.

Earlier this year, Parkmobile was acquired by BMW, which has held a minority share since 2014. The app’s newest feature is available to everyone who buys the Pro version, but BMW owners do get one extra benefit. The German automaker recently integrated the Parkmobile app into its iDrive infotainment system, so BMW drivers won’t even need to use their phones to sort out the parking problem.

Outside of its premium features, the main benefit of Parkmobile is as a parking payment app. It allows users to bypass kiosks and meters by allowing them to pay right from their phone. This makes it a lot easier to pay for parking while you’re out without having to run back to the meter in order to make your payments.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Finding a parking space is as easy as talking with SpotHero and Android Auto
• With its acquisition of Parkmobile, BMW looks to help you find a parking spot
• Bosch is using cameras, streetlights, and sensors to make cities more livable
• Parking permit now required to park on Northside for ‘firefall’ event at Yosemite
• Origin Millennium gaming desktop review