Microsoft's Fall Creators Update Already on More Than Half of All Windows 10 PCs

Wayne Williams, writing for BetaNews: Microsoft releases two big feature updates a year for Windows 10. 2017 saw the arrival of the Creators Update in April, followed by the Fall Creators Update in October. The Creators Update was a slow and at times problematic release. A quarter of Windows 10 users still didn’t have it by the time its successor rolled out. Thankfully, Microsoft seems to have learned some important lessons, and the Fall Creators Update is being installed at a much faster rate. According to the latest figures from AdDuplex, a mere two months after it launched, the Fall Creators Update (1709) is already on more than half of the Windows 10 PCs in use — 53.6 percent to be precise. That’s up from 20.5 percent a mere month ago.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Microsoft’s Fall Creators Update Already on More Than Half of All Windows 10 PCs

Google Maps No Longer Lets You Post Negative Reviews About Your Crappy Job

Google has updated its Maps policies to ban certain business reviews left by former employees. In a new section of the Google Maps “User Contributed Content Policy,” Google now labels reviews “about a current or former employment experience” as a “conflict of interest.” Originally, only current employees were barred…

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Source: Gizmodo – Google Maps No Longer Lets You Post Negative Reviews About Your Crappy Job

3-Ingredient Happy Hour: The Beautiful and Elegant Elizabeth Taylor

Happy final weekend of 2017, and welcome back to 3-Ingredient Happy Hour, the weekly drink column featuring super simple yet delicious libations. Everything about New Year’s Eve should be beautiful and sparkly, so this week we’re sipping on the dangerously beautiful Elizabeth Taylor, named after the violet-eyed…

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Source: LifeHacker – 3-Ingredient Happy Hour: The Beautiful and Elegant Elizabeth Taylor

Netflix Freaks Out Users with Creepy Black Mirror Marketing Stunt

Users of Turkey’s equivalent to Reddit received an unsettling message late last night. Across the site, users began complaining that they’d received a mysterious DM from an account named “iamwaldo” that left many people feeling paranoid and anxious. It appears that was the intention of the message, which is actually a…

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Source: Gizmodo – Netflix Freaks Out Users with Creepy Black Mirror Marketing Stunt

Drone collides with US Army helicopter, puts 1.5“ dent in rotor

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Source: Ars Technica – Drone collides with US Army helicopter, puts 1.5“ dent in rotor

Cat Kneads Pillow While Watching Gordon Ramsay Knead Donut Dough

This is a video of Pooky the munchkin cat kneading a pillow while taking instructions from Gordon Ramsey about how to properly knead donut dough. It’s very similar to this kneading cat watching a cooking show that I posted earlier this year, and I even referenced Gordon Ramsay in the article. How about that! I guess it’s just another case of life imitating art. “What you do is not art.” Oh really? Then how do you explain THIS? “It’s a crayon drawing of a penis.” Those are pastels, and I think I rest my case.

Keep going for the whole Instagram video.

Source: Geekologie – Cat Kneads Pillow While Watching Gordon Ramsay Knead Donut Dough

That Game on Your Phone May Be Tracking What You're Watching on TV

Rick Zeman writes: The New York Times (may be paywalled) has an article describing how some apps track TV and movie viewing even when the loaded app isn’t currently active. These seemingly innocuous games, geared towards both adults and children work by “using a smartphone’s microphone. For instance, Alphonso’s software can detail what people watch by identifying audio signals in TV ads and shows, sometimes even matching that information with the places people visit and the movies they see. The information can then be used to target ads more precisely….” While these apps, mostly available on Google play, with some available on the Apple Store, do offer an opt opt, it’s not clear when consumers see “permission for microphone access for ads,” it may not be clear to a user that, “Oh, this means it’s going to be listening to what I do all the time to see if I’m watching ‘Monday Night Football.”‘One advertising executive summarizes thusly: “It’s not what’s legal. It is what’s not creepy.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – That Game on Your Phone May Be Tracking What You’re Watching on TV

Daredevil Inventor Upgrades an Electric Mobility Scooter to Accelerate Like a Tesla

One of the many benefits of battery-powered cars is the incredible torque and acceleration an electric motor can generate. It’s not just a feature exclusive to Teslas; you can actually upgrade almost any electric vehicle with equally ridiculous acceleration—even a mobility scooter.

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Source: Gizmodo – Daredevil Inventor Upgrades an Electric Mobility Scooter to Accelerate Like a Tesla

Consumer Spending on Apps Up 12% Compared to 2016

According to Sensor Tower, consumers worldwide spent nearly $200M on apps, in-app purchases, and other app related transactions. This was up from $174M last year. I would have thought a lot of this might have been as a result of micro-transactions in gaming, but a huge percentage of the spending was for non-game apps. Frankly, this kind of spending isn’t a huge surprise to me since mobile is growing by leaps and bounds. Just goes to show why technology investment for mobile cpu’s and other components is the focus for the major foundries.



Our data reveals that Entertainment category apps in particular witnessed tremendous year-over-year growth on the holiday, with consumers spending nearly 98 percent more in them versus a year ago. We estimate that approximately $9.5 million was spent in these apps, which include top earners such as Netflix and HBO NOW, on Christmas, up from about $4.8 million in 2016.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Consumer Spending on Apps Up 12% Compared to 2016

Robocalls are Booming

Last year the FTC received 3.4M complaints about robocalls. This year the number has grown to 4.5M complaints. The FTC is sponsoring events that pay cash to those that produce tech that will help identify robocalls. However, nothing to date has managed to stop this process. I don’t know about anyone else, but I receive at least 3 to 4 robocalls everyday. I hope someone figures out how to stop this in the near future. You can review the FTC data here.



Americans clearly don’t want such calls. In addition to all the complaints, use of the “Do Not Call” registry has exploded since it was started in 2003. 10 million numbers were registered in the first four days after launch, and the registry now hosts 226 million active registrations.

Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Robocalls are Booming

Chrome OS, Not Android, Is Probably the Future of Google Tablets

It was inevitable as soon as Android apps were made available on Chrome OS devices. Like an immortal highlander, there could really be only one dominant Google OS in the tablet and laptop space. And with the news that Google has killed the Pixel C Android tablet and Samsung’s next Chromebook is a detachable 2-in-1,…

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Source: Gizmodo – Chrome OS, Not Android, Is Probably the Future of Google Tablets

The 100 Most Popular io9 Posts of 2017

Another year is over, and we’re all one step closer to the heat death of the universe. Whether that bums you out or you find it strangely comforting, you’re not going to find a more pleasant look back at 2017 than this collection of io9’s most-read posts from the last year. Some of them even aren’t about Star Wars,…

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Source: Gizmodo – The 100 Most Popular io9 Posts of 2017

Climate Change Is Causing the Seafloor to Sink

If there’s one thing we’re learning about this global planetary experiment called climate change, it’s that there are unexpected consequences. Case in point: All of the water pouring off Earth’s melting ice sheets is making the oceans heavier, so much so that seafloors are literally sinking. And that could be messing…

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Source: Gizmodo – Climate Change Is Causing the Seafloor to Sink

What You Need to Set Up Virtual Reality on a PC or PS4

Getting a virtual reality headset might make for a pretty impressive christmas present, but unless you’ve got enough computing power to use the thing, consider it a very expensive paperweight. Depending on the system powering your headset, either a PC or a PS4, here’s how to get it prepped and ready for virtual…

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Source: LifeHacker – What You Need to Set Up Virtual Reality on a PC or PS4