Facebook Stories will add AR doodles and Boomerang GIFs

Facebook is giving Stories a much-needed boost by rolling out AR doodles and Instagram’s Boomerang to its Camera feature suite. Over the coming weeks, you’ll be able to draw on the world your camera sees, thanks to what the currently embattled company calls “3D drawing.” It’ll enable you to doodle and scribble on your screen before or while you’re recording and see what your augmented reality graffiti looks like on various surfaces as you move your phone around.

According to TechCrunch, Facebook’s tech allows your drawings to wrap around objects like mailboxes and tables in the real world. However, its implementation is still far from perfect, and it can only adapt to the contours of an object when it’s in optimal lighting conditions and the tech is absolutely sure what it’s looking at. As for Boomerang, TC says the beloved Instagram feature could replace Camera’s looping GIF-maker that Facebook launched some time ago, since that one’s not quite as polished.

Whether these additions can entice more people to post Stories directly on Facebook instead of simply cross-posting from Instagram remains to be seen. Unlike Instagram’s Snapchat clone, which has more users than Snapchat itself, Facebook’s hasn’t been as successful. That has prompted the social network to make Stories available to brands, to merge it with Messenger Day (yet another Snapchat-like feature) and to mull over the possibility of allowing users to create Stories on PC.

Source: TechCrunch

How to set up and use Cortana

You might know Cortana as the digital voice assistant on the defunct Windows Phone mobile platform, named after the AI character in Microsoft’s Halo game series.

Starting with Windows 10, Cortana has graduated to the desktop operating system’s primary search tool, plus many other customizable and personal functions. Here’s how to set up and use Cortana in Windows 10.

Sign in to get started

Cortana has a few basic functions you can use without being signed in, but you can get the most functionality of it if you’re signed in to your Microsoft account. To do so, within Cortana’s search window, hit the button that says “Cortana can do so much more.” When prompted, click the sign-in button and follow the on-screen instructions.

Set up Cortana

Type “Cortana settings” in the search bar. The first result will be “Cortana & search settings” — click it. (You can also access these through the Notebook view — see below.) There are a variety of options here, but the first controls the search function’s voice activation phrase, “hey Cortana.” But you don’t really need that whole “Hey” business anyhow.

If you’re the only user of your computer, or you simply want this function to be more accurate, click the blue text “Learn how I say ‘Hey Cortana.’” The search program will guide you through a series of tests to make sure your microphone is working correctly, then it will “learn” your voice so that you can instantly activate the Cortana window with the phrase from any screen.

If you want to make sure Cortana is obedient to you alone, tick the box that says “Try to respond only to me.”

Alternately, you can turn off this detection by switching the “Hey Cortana” switch to “Off.” This is useful if you want to save battery life on a laptop, or if you’re using a desktop with no microphone. You can manually activate a voice search by clicking the microphone button in the search bar at any time.

The “Permissions and History” tab is also important to familiarize yourself with. Cortana can access a lot of information about you and your device, so deciding what you’re comfortable sharing with Cortana — and by extension, Microsoft — is worthwhile. You may also want to enable or disable Safe Search, depending on your own personal proclivities.

If you want to customize what Cortana calls you — by a nickname perhaps — then open up the Cortana window again by clicking on the Windows search bar, select the notepad icon and then open the “About Me,” category. Click the “Change my name” button and input what you would like to be called.

You can also use that same menu to change your location and favorite places, so that Cortana can better suggest local attractions of news to you.

Show or hide the Search button

Michael Crider/Digital Trends

Cortana “lives” in the taskbar, either as a full-sized search bar that you can type directly into (which is only available when the taskbar is at the bottom) or as a simple button. You can choose between these modes, or hide the search function completely. Right-click on an empty portion of the taskbar and move your mouse to the “Cortana” field, then select either “Show search icon” or “Show search box.”

You can also select “Hidden,” which will hide Cortana completely. You can still access searches from the keyboard by pressing the Windows button + S, or simply typing quickly when the Start menu is first opened.

Cortana Home

When you click the Search button you’ll see the Cortana home screen, a heads-up display of all the news and personalized items that Cortana thinks you’ll be interested in at the moment.

You can go into greater detail on what to show and what not to show in the Notebook section below, but to quickly remove a sub-section from the Home screen, click the three horizontal dots at the top-right of any individual section (referred to as “cards” in the Cortana interface). Click “Hide [section]” to remove the section completely or “edit in Notebook” to quickly go to the relevant Notebook page.

Cortana Notebook

To change what appears in the Home view and in search results as a whole, click the button beneath the Home button on the left side of the Cortana window to open the Notebook. This is your way to access Cortana’s learned information about you as a user, and to customize which dynamic suggestions it gives you to questions and other search queries. In the menus for the different sub-settings, you can enable or disable a variety of search results and tools.

Each one sources some information from web searches and specific services and “learns” your preferences as you search. If you don’t like the results you’re getting, you can manually tweak them (like selecting an “atmosphere” for your preferred restaurant type or entering your favorite sports team for tracking) or simply set the card to “off” to disable those results in Cortana.

Click each sub-menu to see what you can tweak or adjust. Some are quite robust. News lets you track stories by both broad categories and specific topics.

Connected accounts

The Connected Accounts menu allows you to manage any Microsoft or third-party services that Cortana can access. For maximum utility (and getting the most out of the “personal assistant” aspirations of Cortana), it’s best to leave these enabled. For privacy, you can disable sensitive accounts, or simply un-link them all to use Cortana solely as a web and computer search tool.

Reminders

Reminders are automatically set when you make a relevant search in Cortana. For example, searching for “remind me to rent Avengers” will automatically bring up a screen to link the reminder to a specific time, person (when you connect with someone in your Microsoft Contacts) or place (when your computer or phone determines that it’s in a matching location).

To manage existing reminders or to add one manually, click the Notebook icon and then select “Reminders” from the resulting list. Clicking on an existing reminder will allow you to modify or delete it. Clicking the “+” icon in the lower right-hand corner will let you create a new one.

Editors’ Recommendations

• If you’re not sold on Siri, you can now get Microsoft’s Cortana on your iPad
• How to hide the taskbar in Windows
• How to use Skype
• Microsoft Cortana can now be activated without the whole ‘Hey’ business
• Alexa, you’re great. But please stay away from my PC

Backpage CEO pleads guilty to human trafficking, money laundering

Documents unsealed today by the Justice Department (PDF) reveal Backpage.com CEO Carl Ferrer pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges in Arizona on April 5th, a day before the site was seized and shut down. Additionally, attorneys general in California and Texas announced today that he has entered guilty pleas to charges of human trafficking in Texas as well as conspiracy and three counts of money laundering in California. Several corporate entities tied to the site, including Backpage.com LLC, also entered guilty pleas to charges of money laundering.

As a part of the deal that will see him serve a maximum of five years in prison, the prosecutors say Ferrer has surrendered the URLs of the site and its data to law enforcement, and that he will cooperate in the prosecution against others involved with the company — namely co-founders and controlling shareholders Michael Lacey and James Larkin, who were indicted April 9th.

The plea deal includes Ferrer’s admission that a majority of the site’s ads were for sex services, and that he conspired with others to launder proceeds from the ads after credit card companies and banks wouldn’t do business with the site.

Source: California AG, Texas AG, DOJ

Amazon appears to be expanding its Prime Wardrobe service

Last June, Amazon announced a clothes-by-mail service so Prime customers could try out new apparel without committing to buying it ahead of time. The service has been in beta ever since, but TechCrunch reports that it has now reached more customers. A number of people have tweeted that they have received an invitation to try Prime Wardrobe and an Amazon employee tweeted that the service had officially launched — though that tweet has since been deleted. Additionally, the Twitter account for the University of California, Irvine’s Prime Student Brand Ambassadors encouraged students to try out Prime Wardrobe in a tweet posted yesterday.

Join Prime Student and try on your clothes before buying them with Prime Wardrobe! #PrimeStudentRep #Ad pic.twitter.com/yv1FyiQkcE

— Amazon at UCI (@AmazonAtUCI) April 11, 2018

Amazon initially denied any change to the ongoing Prime Wardrobe trial, but later told TechCrunch that it had extended the service to more customers. When we reached out to Amazon for more information, we were told that Prime Wardrobe is still in an invitation-only phase.

The service takes on companies like Stitch Fix, Trunk Club and DailyLook Elite that have similar offerings. For Amazon’s version, Prime members can shop through a dedicated Prime Wardrobe selection of apparel and accessories, choosing three to eight items per box. Customers can then try on the items at home, having seven days to make a decision before any unwanted items must be sent back. Currently, Amazon is also offering a deal wherein customers can get $20 off if they spend at least $200 through Prime Wardrobe.

Unlike Stitch Fix, there isn’t any style personalization with Prime Wardrobe. But Amazon does let you shop by occasion or style and provides suggestions through sections like “Our editors’ top picks” and “Brands we love.” The move makes sense for Amazon, which has been expanding its fashion-focused offerings over the last couple of years. And it could appeal to those who like the try-it-before-you-buy-it aspect of companies like Stitch Fix but don’t want to commit to a monthly subscription.

Via: TechCrunch

Google AI can pick out voices in a crowd

Humans are usually good at isolating a single voice in a crowd, but computers? Not so much — just ask anyone trying to talk to a smart speaker at a house party. Google may have a surprisingly straightforward solution, however. Its researchers have developed a deep learning system that can pick out specific voices by looking at people’s faces when they’re speaking. The team trained its neural network model to recognize individual people speaking by themselves, and then created virtual “parties” (complete with background noise) to teach the AI how to isolate multiple voices into distinct audio tracks.

The results, as you can see below, are uncanny. Even when people are clearly trying to compete with each other (such as comedians Jon Dore and Rory Scovel in the Team Coco clip above), the AI can generate a clean audio track for one person just by focusing on their face. That’s true even if the person partially obscures their face with hand gestures or a microphone.

Google is currently “exploring opportunities” to use this feature in its products, but there are more than a few prime candidates. It’s potentially ideal for video chat services like Hangouts or Duo, where it could help you understand someone talking in a crowded room. It could also be helpful for speech enhancement in video recording. And there are big implications for accessibility: it could lead to camera-linked hearing aids that boost the sound of whoever’s in front of you, and more effective closed captioning. There are potential privacy issues (this could be used for public eavesdropping), but it wouldn’t be too difficult to limit the voice separation to people who’ve clearly given their consent.

Via: Android Police

Source: Google Research Blog

Wirecutter’s best deals: Save $30 on an Apple Watch Series 3

This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here.

Amazon Fire HD 8

Street price: $80; Deal price: $55 w/ Prime

At $55, this is a nice drop for Prime members on the Amazon Fire HD 8, beating the deal pricing we saw in late March by $5. While we’ve seen this tablet fall as low as $50, $55 is still a tremendous price for it as it usually goes for $80. If you or someone in your life needs a basic tablet, it’s a great option at this price.

The Amazon Fire HD 8 is our budget pick in our guide to the best Android tablet. Ryan Whitwam wrote, “Most people use tablets for streaming video, browsing the Web, and reading. The Amazon Fire HD 8 excels at all three and is the best budget Android tablet we’ve tested. The Fire HD 8 starts at just $80 (with lockscreen ads), but it lacks the powerful hardware or high-resolution screens of the ZenPad or Galaxy Tab S3. The base model of the Fire HD 8 has only 16 GB of storage, but it accepts microSD cards. It also uses Amazon’s services, not Google’s, which means no easy way to use Google Play Store or Google apps—adding them yourself requires some technical knowledge.”

Anker PowerPort Wireless 5 Pad

Street price: $20; Deal price: $15 w/ code VERGEAA2

Use code VERGEAA2 in cart to drop the price of the Anker PowerPort Wireless 5 Pad from $20 to $15. This matches the lowest price we’ve seen for this recommended Qi charging pad. The Anker PowerPort Wireless 5 is notable for how inexpensive it is, but an AC wall adapter isn’t included, so you’ll need to provide your own.

The Anker PowerPort Wireless 5 Pad is our inexpensive pick in our guide to the best Qi wireless charger for iPhone and Android. Nick Guy wrote, “Anker’s PowerPort Wireless 5 Pad and PowerPort Wireless 5 Stand are the most affordable WPC-certified chargers we’ve tried from a reputable company, and in our tests they performed as well as the more expensive Samsung models we recommend as our main picks. They’re extremely basic black-plastic-and-rubber units that simply get the job done. Notably, though, neither model comes with an AC adapter, so they’re not complete options out of the box. You can use any USB charger you have lying around, or buy one separately.”

Guy continues, “The Pad is 4 inches in diameter and a little under 0.4 inch thick; it’s so light that it feels kind of empty. It’s grippy enough on top to hold a bare phone in place, but not tacky, and the same rubber material on the bottom holds the charger itself in place. A tiny blue LED glows to indicate when the charger is engaged.”

Apple Watch Series 3

Street price: $330; Deal price: $300

The Apple Watch Series 3 (aluminium) is seeing a rare sale presently on both sizes. The 38mm is down to $300 from $330 and the 42mm is down to $330 from $360. All 3 colors of each size are on sale and shipping is free through Best Buy. This is one of the first drops we’ve seen – we’re hoping for more significant discounts in the future.

The Apple Watch Series 3 is our upgrade pick in our Apple Watch guide. Nick Guy and Dan Frakes wrote, “The Apple Watch Series 3 is essentially identical to the Series 1 on the outside—and very similar on the inside—but it has a few upgrades for those who need serious exercise tracking. The Series 3’s $80 price premium gets you built-in (no phone needed) GPS, swim-friendly waterproofing, and a brighter screen that’s easier to see outside. (The Series 3 also includes an AC wall charger; with the Series 1, you provide your own charger or use your computer’s USB port.)”

Guy and Frakes continue, “The Series 3 also has a few other upgrades compared with the Series 1, some more noticeable than others. The aforementioned brighter OLED screen (1,000 nits versus the 450 nits of the Series 1) doesn’t seem “twice as bright” to our eyes, as Apple claims, but it’s definitely brighter, especially in direct sunlight. The Series 3 also has a faster processor, a barometric altimeter for counting floors and tracking elevation, and audible Siri responses (the voice assistant can speak to you through the Watch’s speakers, rather than just displaying text on the screen.)”

Bonavita BV382510V 1.0L Digital Variable Temperature Gooseneck Kettle

Street price: $67; Deal price: $56

Down to $56, this is the lowest price we’ve seen on the Bonavita BV382510V 1 liter gooseneck electric kettle. A favorite of pour-over coffee enthusiasts because of the precise temperature controls and elongated spout, Bonavita is a respected name in coffee circles. This is a great chance to up your coffee game.

The Bonavita BV382510V is our runner-up pick in our guide to the best electric kettle. Michael Sullivan, Winnie Yang, and Tim Barribeau wrote, “We think the stainless steel Bonavita BV382510V 1.0L Digital Variable Temperature Gooseneck Kettle (a design also available in a larger, 1.7-liter version) represents an excellent compromise between a traditional tea kettle and one better suited for making pour-over coffee (see our guide to the best pour-over coffee gear for more). Although this model wasn’t the fastest kettle to bring water to a boil, the Bonavita had the most accurate temperature controls among all the models we tested. The long, gooseneck spout provides superior pouring technique, and the interface is easy to use. We also like the looks of this kettle; it’s handsome enough for you to keep it on your kitchen counter.”

Because great deals don’t just happen on Thursday, sign up for our daily deals email and we’ll send you the best deals we find every weekday. Also, deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go here.

Sweden modified a road to recharge EVs while driving

You can now charge your electric vehicle as you drive in Sweden, but only for about 2km (1.2 miles). That’s the length of a road outside Stockholm that’s been embedded with electrified rail, which is the first length in a government-planned nationwide rollout of EV-recharging streets. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to juice up a stock electric car on these roads: Vehicles need to drop a movable arm on the rail itself to recharge.

Think of it like the old Scalextric electric toy cars that drew power from the track — except, in this case, it’s more like a record needle. It may not be so fragile as the latter; The arm automatically disconnects should the vehicle stray from the rail. Its ‘dynamic charging’ only funnels electricity to a vehicle while it’s in motion. The system can even calculate the amount of energy consumed and debit it to the proper vehicle and user.

The rail-and-arm certainly seems easier to install on both roads and cars than the overhead wire system Sweden experimented with two years ago. But the plan isn’t to electrify all 500,000km of road in the country. Instead, the government aims to install rails in the 20,000km that constitute highways, the chief executive of the eRoadArlanda consortium behind the project told The Guardian.

“If we electrify 20,000km of highways that will definitely be be enough,” eRoadArlanda CEO Hans Säll said. “The distance between two highways is never more than 45km and electric cars can already travel that distance without needing to be recharged. Some believe it would be enough to electrify 5,000km.”

The electrified rail system is expected to cost €1m per kilometre, which would make it 50 times cheaper than building an urban tram line, according to The Guardian. But installing these roads could encourage automakers to include smaller batteries in their EVs if they end up counting on these strips to recharge electric cars mid-drive.

Source: The Guardian

White Castle serves up plant-based meat with the Impossible Slider

Now that the Impossible Burger is easier to find thanks to an increased production capacity, it’s likely we’ll see it at more fast-food places than ever. That’s a good thing for both its parent company as well as those of us who could stand to eat a little less red meat. Popular fast-food joint White Castle is now serving the “Impossible Slider” at 140 different restaurants in New York, New Jersey and Chicago, and claims that it is the largest single restaurant group to serve the Impossible Burger.

The plant-based sliders will be topped with smoked cheddar cheese, pickles, onions and served on the White Castle signature bun. You can get your own singular slider for $1.99, or grab it as part of a combo meal. “White Castle’s model has been often imitated but never duplicated — an impressive feat in the hyper-competitive fast-food sector,” Impossible Foods’ CEO Dr. Patrick O. Brown said in a statement. “We look forward to working closely with White Castle, and together learning how to popularize plant-based meat with mainstream burger lovers.”

Via: Tech Crunch

Source: White Castle

‘Jessica Jones’ gets a third season at Netflix

Netflix was clearly confident Jessica Jones’ second season would be a hit, and it appears that belief was well-founded. The streaming giant has renewed Marvel’s jaded investigator-slash-superhero show for a third season just a month after the second string of episodes premiered on March 8th. There’s no date or casting details, but it could take a while before the saga continues — remember, the second season arrived more than two years after the series’ November 2015 premiere.

This isn’t the first Marvel series on Netflix to get a third season (Daredevil was renewed back in 2016), but it’s certainly important for a number of reasons. It suggests that Jessica Jones’ frequent focus on weighty social issues, not just fisticuffs, has found a consistent audience. It also shows that Daredevil isn’t the only Marvel show on Netflix to have a strong following — important when Netflix and Marvel are trying to establish a cinematic universe where every series plays a crucial role.

Here’s to season 3! 🥃 https://t.co/Ioq0nDtkwm pic.twitter.com/cPGyvWfPNf

— Jessica Jones (@JessicaJones) April 12, 2018

Via: EW (warning: major spolier)

Source: Netflix

New Vehicle Owners Largely Satisfied With Apple CarPlay and Android Auto

New vehicle owners who have purchased a car that’s equipped with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto are satisfied with the system and are increasingly relying on it for all in-car tasks, according to a new report released today by Strategy Analytics.

In a survey querying new vehicle owners that have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto installed in their vehicles, Strategy Analytics found that 34 percent of CarPlay owners rely on CarPlay for all of their audio infotainment needs, while 27 percent of Android Auto users use the Android platform exclusively for audio infotainment.

32 percent of CarPlay users and 33 percent of Android Auto users rely on those systems for all of their navigation needs, with CarPlay’s slightly lower number here likely attributable to customers who continued to be unsatisfied with Apple Maps compared to other mapping apps like Google Maps or Waze.

Speech recognition usage is said to be “strong” across both sets of users, with CarPlay owners taking advantage of Siri for hands-free tasks while driving.

Overall, more than 85 percent of CarPlay and Android Auto users are “somewhat or very satisfied” with their system, and more than 90 percent are likely to recommend those systems to others.

In a similar report from October, Strategy Analytics learned that CarPlay is becoming an increasingly important feature that consumers look for when purchasing a vehicle.

In the United States, for example, 23 percent of respondents said that CarPlay was a “must have” feature for a new car, while another 56 percent said they were “interested” in vehicles equipped with CarPlay.

While CarPlay has been available since 2015, car manufacturers did not begin widely adopting the feature until mid-2016. CarPlay is now included in many new vehicles from a wide range of manufacturers, with more than 200 vehicles on the market offering CarPlay support.

Related Roundup: CarPlay
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