Uncrowned Guard

The DMCA problems faced by Twitch streamers have certainly been a widespread and confusing mess within the community.  From content creators being unsure of what will be deemed copyrighted material, to Twitch releasing limited information about the procedures.  Thankfully, Twitch has released new guidelines about DMCA policies and overall, they do clear up many of the unknowns.

The best news to come forth from these new guidelines is that Twitch will be focusing on repeat offenders and trying to keep new/accidental offenders running on the platform.  A three-strike rule (like YouTube currently uses) will help the platform identify repeat copyright infringers.  The guidelines also reference that those strikes will be removed from accounts over time but do not give any detail to this.

Twitch will also be using a very “YouTube-like” counter strike system where content creators can fight a DMCA strike placed on their content.  Granted YouTube has been mentioned many times in this article and that is a good thing as YouTube has years of experience dealing with DCMA claims, but it is also not a great model to follow if you ask many of the YouTube creators who are still dealing with numerous DCMA issues.

View the full guidelines here: https://www.twitch.tv/p/en/legal/dmca-guidelines/

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The DMCA problems faced by Twitch streamers have certainly been a widespread and confusing mess within the community.  From content creators being unsure of what will be deemed copyrighted material, to Twitch releasing limited information about the procedures.  Thankfully, Twitch has released new guidelines about DMCA policies and overall, they do clear up many of the unknowns.

The best news to come forth from these new guidelines is that Twitch will be focusing on repeat offenders and trying to keep new/accidental offenders running on the platform.  A three-strike rule (like YouTube currently uses) will help the platform identify repeat copyright infringers.  The guidelines also reference that those strikes will be removed from accounts over time but do not give any detail to this.

Twitch will also be using a very “YouTube-like” counter strike system where content creators can fight a DMCA strike placed on their content.  Granted YouTube has been mentioned many times in this article and that is a good thing as YouTube has years of experience dealing with DCMA claims, but it is also not a great model to follow if you ask many of the YouTube creators who are still dealing with numerous DCMA issues.

View the full guidelines here: https://www.twitch.tv/p/en/legal/dmca-guidelines/

On June 24th Microsoft is going to be hosting an event to "Join us to see what's next for Windows" and it is highly suspected that a new version on Windows (Windows 11) will be revealed during this event.  This is backed up even more by the fact that many Windows 10 products now have an End of Life listed on Microsoft's website. However, I do have to note that all of these products listed seem to be enterprise level products or specialized Windows 10 products, and the standard Windows 10 Home, Pro, Server, Workstation, etc. are not listed at this time.

Lately a few YouTube channels like Linus Tech Tips, Austin Evans, and even Windows Central (not an official Windows Channel) has posted videos of Windows 11 running in a leaked version.  This is following numerous teases by Microsoft that Windows 11 is coming soon.  So, it appears safe to assume that Windows 11 is a real product and that in upcoming Windows event will be its reveal.

What are you thoughts on this?

Personally, I don't like the "mobile/tablet" UI changes over the older desktop focused UI, but I can truly understand why these are needed as Windows needs o get into the mobile product space if we want to keep enjoying the OS for years to come.  I am actually quite hopeful that Windows 11 will fix the minor touch interface and small screen issues of Window 10 and that we will see a bigger tablet-like device push from Microsoft while still having that highly capable and power user friendly desktop.

The leaked versions seems otherwise very close to Windows 10 and can even run Windows 10 apps and software just fine, even games.  So it seems compatibility will not be an issue.

Granted, we have no idea where the leaked product is in the development stage or any sort of planned road map for Windows 11, but it does seem to be going well in my view. 

Google added a screen capture ability to Chrome OS already, but it has been an awful experience so far.  The current software lacks many features standard in the screen capture apps (like long recordings) and even requires the user to convert the file after recording to get all access to standard video features.  But now that will hopefully be changing once Chrome OS 93 arrives to users as Google has revamped to app in a serious fashion and seems to have a quality screen recorder now.

This will be a major move for the platform as currently users need to use third party apps (often full of subscriptions) to record their screens on par with other built-in solutions.  While the solution for capture screens on Chrome OS is still an odd process due to how dependent the OS is on its browser, the new solution seems to offer a much more user-friendly solution.

Sadly, Google seems to have completed the fix for this app, but it will not be released in Chrome OS 92 for some reason.  If you are in dire need of a better screen capture option, then you may want to jump into the beta release channel on your Chromebook instead of the stable channel.  Of course, you can always go down the third-party app route, but we would advise doing a bit of research first as many are lined with pay-walled features.

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Google added a screen capture ability to Chrome OS already, but it has been an awful experience so far.  The current software lacks many features standard in the screen capture apps (like long recordings) and even requires the user to convert the file after recording to get all access to standard video features.  But now that will hopefully be changing once Chrome OS 93 arrives to users as Google has revamped to app in a serious fashion and seems to have a quality screen recorder now.

This will be a major move for the platform as currently users need to use third party apps (often full of subscriptions) to record their screens on par with other built-in solutions.  While the solution for capture screens on Chrome OS is still an odd process due to how dependent the OS is on its browser, the new solution seems to offer a much more user-friendly solution.

Sadly, Google seems to have completed the fix for this app, but it will not be released in Chrome OS 92 for some reason.  If you are in dire need of a better screen capture option, then you may want to jump into the beta release channel on your Chromebook instead of the stable channel.  Of course, you can always go down the third-party app route, but we would advise doing a bit of research first as many are lined with pay-walled features.

A study, published in Nature Communications, was carried out in collaboration with teams at the University of Exeter, India, Switzerland, Singapore, and the US, has found that HDDs made using graphene can improve storage capabilities ten-fold when compared to current modern standards.

For those that do not know, HDDs are made up of two major components: a platter (or set of platters) and a head (or multiple heads).  You can visualize these as the platter being a CD and the head simply being the tool that writes the data onto the CD.  The materials used in these devices have evolved over the years with HDDs getting both smaller in physical size and denser in data storage.  In fact, since 1990, HDDs have quadrupled in storage capacity and are able to be nearly ¼ of the size.

However, with the research being completed on graphene-based HDDs, those massive improvements over time might look minor should the technology come to these devices.  Graphene has also shown benefits beyond storage density, as it also reduces friction and corrosion on the platter in significant amounts, which would extend the life of the drive.

Some may be wondering why HDDs are even still around and that is simple, the amount of new data being added each year is simply unbelievable and newer SSDs would never keep up with demand or offer a cost-effective solution.  Studies have estimated that YouTube alone gets around 720,000 hours of video uploaded to their servers every day, so storage solutions are always needed (this is also why YouTube moderating via bots is not going way). 

Obviously, this is currently at the research phase of the product and when or even if a product will be made is still completely unknown.  Although it is a safe assume that any solution for higher density storage will be followed up by someone in the tech industry as data storage needs are certainly not going away or reducing over time.  Costs of theses drives are also unknown as graphene (a once incredibly expense product) has certainly reduced in price over the years, but the demand for the product is far from low and when compared to other materials, it is safe to bet that these drives will not be cheaper than existing ones.

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A study, published in Nature Communications, was carried out in collaboration with teams at the University of Exeter, India, Switzerland, Singapore, and the US, has found that HDDs made using graphene can improve storage capabilities ten-fold when compared to current modern standards.

For those that do not know, HDDs are made up of two major components: a platter (or set of platters) and a head (or multiple heads).  You can visualize these as the platter being a CD and the head simply being the tool that writes the data onto the CD.  The materials used in these devices have evolved over the years with HDDs getting both smaller in physical size and denser in data storage.  In fact, since 1990, HDDs have quadrupled in storage capacity and are able to be nearly ¼ of the size.

However, with the research being completed on graphene-based HDDs, those massive improvements over time might look minor should the technology come to these devices.  Graphene has also shown benefits beyond storage density, as it also reduces friction and corrosion on the platter in significant amounts, which would extend the life of the drive.

Some may be wondering why HDDs are even still around and that is simple, the amount of new data being added each year is simply unbelievable and newer SSDs would never keep up with demand or offer a cost-effective solution.  Studies have estimated that YouTube alone gets around 720,000 hours of video uploaded to their servers every day, so storage solutions are always needed (this is also why YouTube moderating via bots is not going way). 

Obviously, this is currently at the research phase of the product and when or even if a product will be made is still completely unknown.  Although it is a safe assume that any solution for higher density storage will be followed up by someone in the tech industry as data storage needs are certainly not going away or reducing over time.  Costs of theses drives are also unknown as graphene (a once incredibly expense product) has certainly reduced in price over the years, but the demand for the product is far from low and when compared to other materials, it is safe to bet that these drives will not be cheaper than existing ones.

Xiaomi recently announced that they will be trying to develop a practical solution to over-the-air charging on their smartphones and now Motorola has teamed up with GuRu to add true wireless power to its own smartphones. So far no company has announced when a phone will be released with these technologies, but the current marketing of the technology is that users will be able to charge their phone meters away from the charger. 

Odds are you will not see a Motorola device with over-the-air charging in 2021 as this team up is far too late into the development of their products for a practical 2021 release date. While details of the systems are limited they do seem to be quite restricted in their capabilities at this time. Xiaomi has announced that their charging solution will top out at 5 Watts (far from modern day fast charging) and some Motorola teasers have referenced only 3.3 ft for their charger (which does not quite convert into “meters”).

There is also going to be development costs and costs to the system as a whole that will very likely outweigh Qi wireless chargers in adding to the retail price of the phone.  However this is certainly a step in the correct direction for those hoping for a truly portless phone with no sacrifices being made. 

Image: monticellllo - stock.adobe.com

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Xiaomi recently announced that they will be trying to develop a practical solution to over-the-air charging on their smartphones and now Motorola has teamed up with GuRu to add true wireless power to its own smartphones. So far no company has announced when a phone will be released with these technologies, but the current marketing of the technology is that users will be able to charge their phone meters away from the charger. 

Odds are you will not see a Motorola device with over-the-air charging in 2021 as this team up is far too late into the development of their products for a practical 2021 release date. While details of the systems are limited they do seem to be quite restricted in their capabilities at this time. Xiaomi has announced that they're charging solution will Top out at 5 Watts (far from modern day fast charging) and some Motorola teasers have referenced only 3.3 ft for their charger (which does not quite convert into “meters”).

There is also going to be development costs and costs to the system as a whole that will very likely outweigh Qi wireless chargers in adding to the retail price of the phone.  However this is certainly a step in the correct direction for those hoping for a truly portless phone with no sacrifices being made. 

Image: monticellllo - stock.adobe.com

Launched in 1977, the Voyager 1 was the first Voyager device sent into interstellar space to find out what is beyond our own solar system.  It has spent 43 years traveling a distance into space that is now 150 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.  Currently it takes transmissions over 21 hours to reach Earth from Voyager 1.

In 2012 Voyager 1 passed the heliopause (the boundary at which pressure solar wind is no longer strong enough to push into wind from space) and even at this distance, Voyager 1 is continuing to prove that space is not just an empty void.  Since 2017, astronomers have discovered a constant hum being generated from the gases that exist between stars.

Astronomers have known that space is not empty, but trying to study the material that lives between solar systems has always been a challenge due to the size of gas particles at that distance and the challenges of facing the brightness of other stars.  These recent finds are starting to make astronomers believe that there is actually more activity in these voids than originally thought.

Voyager 1’s radioisotope thermoelectric generator is expected to last until 2025 and that means mankind’s first interstellar space trip is not over yet.  A full publication of these findings can be found in Nature Astronomy.

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Launched in 1977, the Voyager 1 was the first Voyager device sent into interstellar space to find out what is beyond our own solar system.  It has spent 43 years traveling a distance into space that is now 150 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.  Currently it takes transmissions over 21 hours to reach Earth from Voyager 1.

In 2012 Voyager 1 passed the heliopause (the boundary at which pressure solar wind is no longer strong enough to push into wind from space) and even at this distance, Voyager 1 is continuing to prove that space is not just an empty void.  Since 2017, astronomers have discovered a constant hum being generated from the gases that exist between stars.

Astronomers have known that space is not empty, but trying to study the material that lives between solar systems has always been a challenge due to the size of gas particles at that distance and the challenges of facing the brightness of other stars.  These recent finds are starting to make astronomers believe that there is actually more activity in these voids than originally thought.

Voyager 1’s radioisotope thermoelectric generator is expected to last until 2025 and that means mankind’s first interstellar space trip is not over yet.  A full publication of these findings can be found in Nature Astronomy.

So recent news (linked below) has Facebook developing an Instagram just for kids under 13 (being that once they are 14, they can just join the "adult" social media platforms).  However this is raising a lot of concern across the board with many seeming to believe that young children are not properly prepared to be on social media and even studies being done to show that almost half of younger users on social media are already being cyberbullied. 

One counter point to this concern is the fact that many young children are already using social media before they are of age and it would be safer for those kids to use a dedicated platform.

I find myself at a crossroads on this one as I would be against a social media platform just for minors as I can see too many problems arising and if children and parents put their trust into the platform, then malicious users can be lead to horrible outcomes.  Perhaps I would be more for the idea if it wasn't Facebook creating the platform as they do not have the best track record at protecting children on their current platforms, but I do see their point in the fact that young children are already (and have been for decades) using the internet before turning 14.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

A letter from the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is urging Facebook to abandon its plans to create an Instagram platform aimed for kids under the age of 13.  The group is citing numerous concerns about the safety and wellbeing of children using the platform and the harm that can be done to unprepared children being on social media.

The Attorney General from 44 states have signed the waiver after two months of a report mentioning that Facebook was in the early stages of creating the new social media.  The plans are not yet official and numerous politicians are pushing for the plans to be abandoned far before that point.

The letter references Facebook’s already poor reputation at protecting children from damaging content and users on their current platforms.  It also brings up a survey completed in 2017 that found 42 percent of young Instagram users experienced cyberbullying and that Instagram was the most common platform for young users to be cyberbullied on out of the platforms researched.

While it seems very few disagree with the findings and focus of this letter and its intentions to protect children, a quite common counter point is that children under the age of 13 are already finding ways to use “adult Instagram” and a child safe version may protect those children much better than the adult version.  Although it is also worth noting that Facebook has been seen as lacking in addressing these already known issues and that does lead to doubts about a new platform.

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A letter from the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is urging Facebook to abandon its plans to create an Instagram platform aimed for kids under the age of 13.  The group is citing numerous concerns about the safety and wellbeing of children using the platform and the harm that can be done to unprepared children being on social media.

The Attorney General from 44 states have signed the waiver after two months of a report mentioning that Facebook was in the early stages of creating the new social media.  The plans are not yet official and numerous politicians are pushing for the plans to be abandoned far before that point.

The letter references Facebook’s already poor reputation at protecting children from damaging content and users on their current platforms.  It also brings up a survey completed in 2017 that found 42 percent of young Instagram users experienced cyberbullying and that Instagram was the most common platform for young users to be cyberbullied on out of the platforms researched.

While it seems very few disagree with the findings and focus of this letter and its intentions to protect children, a quite common counter point is that children under the age of 13 are already finding ways to use “adult Instagram” and a child safe version may protect those children much better than the adult version.  Although it is also worth noting that Facebook has been seen as lacking in addressing these already knew issues and that does lead to doubts about a new platform.

On 5/5/2021 at 3:34 PM, Paige said:

I did not even know this was a thing!

Yes, they were kinda a pain to setup but did wonders for complex home theater setups.

2

Logitech has announced that they will be discontinuing all their Harmony products effective immediately.  Harmony products are loved by many home theater users as the nearly undebatable best solution to creating a universal remote and integrating smart features into those remotes. While the future of the Harmony line has been questioned for many years due to the rise of smart TVs and smart speakers having their own solutions to Harmony’s answer, the surprise discontinuation of the lineup is still a shock. 

Thankfully, Logitech has stated that they will continue to offer support for these products and will allow retailers to sell though their inventory.  Logitech has even gone as far as stating that they will continue to update and add new home theater products into the Harmony database, but only time will tell how dedicated they are in this task.  So, all current Harmony users should be unaffected by this move and new users can still get into the system by simply visiting a store until they sell out.  Although we would cation anyone from starting a smart home system based on a discontinued product line.

Logitech has stated that no refunds will be issued as the products will continue to work and if users want to return a Harmony product, they will need to check with the place of purchase.  Nearly all of the release and following information is based around the remotes offered by Harmony and little information was given about other items, such as the Harmony smart hub, but they did state ALL products will continue to receive support.

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Logitech has announced that they will be discontinuing all their Harmony products effective immediately.  Harmony products are loved by many home theater users as the nearly undebatable best solution to creating a universal remote and integrating smart features into those remotes. While the future of the Harmony line has been questioned for many years due to the rise of smart TVs and smart speakers having their own solutions to Harmony’s answer, the surprise discontinuation of the lineup is still a shock. 

Thankfully, Logitech has stated that they will continue to offer support for these products and will allow retailers to sell though their inventory.  Logitech has even gone as far as stating that they will continue to update and add new home theater products into the Harmony database, but only time will tell how dedicated they are in this task.  So, all current Harmony users should be unaffected by this move and new users can still get into the system by simply visiting a store until they sell out.  Although we would cation anyone from starting a smart home system based on a discontinued product line.

Logitech has stated that no refunds will be issued as the products will continue to work and if users want to return a Harmony product, they will need to check with the place of purchase.  Nearly all of the release and following information is based around the remotes offered by Harmony and little information was given about other items, such as the Harmony smart hub, but they did state ALL products will continue to receive support.

The contract worth nearly $22 billion and spanning 10 years will supply the US Army with HoloLens-based headsets to incorporate augmented reality into the military. 120,000 headsets will be delivered to the US Army over the next 10 years that will enable training via augmented reality and other machine learning enabled software.

Back in 2018 Microsoft won a nearly $500 million contract to supply the US army with augmented reality headsets and now images are surfacing of a much more rugged and customized version of their HoloLens appearing for the new contract. Since then, Microsoft has worked with the US Army to develop many prototypes of their devices and tools required for the military to achieve their training goals.

Overall, the augmented reality market has been stagnant in the consumer space lately, but the development side has been massively increasing between major tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and Facebook who are devoting exceptionally large portions of their staff toward research and development of augmented reality. Many experts believe that augmented reality will be a massive technology achievement once it is more practical and now that Microsoft has achieved a military contract utilizing this technology the development space and competition is likely to massively increase.

The Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) appears to be the system that Microsoft has developed based around their HoloLens and it utilizes multiple sensors along with military integrated technology like night vision and target acquisition but overall, the system is mostly unknown and even press releases from Microsoft have contradicted each other over the software and capabilities of the device. Although being a military device it is unlikely that we will get a full breakdown of the technology and software being utilized for quite some time.

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The contract worth nearly $22 billion and spanning 10 years will supply the US Army with HoloLens-based headsets to incorporate augmented reality into the military. 120,000 headsets will be delivered to the US Army over the next 10 years that will enable training via augmented reality and other machine learning enabled software.

Back in 2018 Microsoft won a nearly $500 million contract to supply the US army with augmented reality headsets and now images are surfacing of a much more rugged and customized version of their HoloLens appearing for the new contract. Since then, Microsoft has worked with the US Army to develop many prototypes of their devices and tools required for the military to achieve their training goals.

Overall, the augmented reality market has been stagnant in the consumer space lately, but the development side has been massively increasing between major tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and Facebook who are devoting exceptionally large portions of their staff toward research and development of augmented reality. Many experts believe that augmented reality will be a massive technology achievement once it is more practical and now that Microsoft has achieved a military contract utilizing this technology the development space and competition is likely to massively increase.

The Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) appears to be the system that Microsoft has developed based around their HoloLens and it utilizes multiple sensors along with military integrated technology like night vision and target acquisition but overall, the system is mostly unknown and even press releases from Microsoft have contradicted each other over the software and capabilities of the device. Although being a military device it is unlikely that we will get a full breakdown of the technology and software being utilized for quite some time.

Discord has been in talks to sell itself lately and Microsoft has entered the talks as a possible buyer.  Sources have stated a possible cost of $10 billion for Discord but nothing is official yet and it is still possible that Discord will go public instead of selling itself.

Discord is a San Francisco based communication platform focused around gaming.  The service offers text, voice, and video chat on a platform that also offers numerous gaming services on both PC and Mobile.  The service has been trying to expand from gaming as of late and seems to be doing well in this market during the current pandemic.

Microsoft purchasing Discord makes a lot of sense as Xbox is rapidly growing on PC, but Discord is often the chat service used with these games.  Xbox also has a poor cross platform chat service and really offers nothing for many of Discords features so bringing Discord to Xbox consoles would make many gamers happy. 

Discord has been in sales talks with other tech giants before but details for those talks are also limited.  There is also no reason to suspect these talks have any momentum to them or that this sell has any higher chance than others, but it seems to have really perked up the interest of gamers this time.

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Discord has been in talks to sell itself lately and Microsoft has entered the talks as a possible buyer.  Sources have stated a possible cost of $10 billion for Discord but nothing is official yet and it is still possible that Discord will go public instead of selling itself.

Discord is a San Francisco based communication platform focused around gaming.  The service offers text, voice, and video chat on a platform that also offers numerous gaming services on both PC and Mobile.  The service has been trying to expand from gaming as of late and seems to be doing well in this market during the current pandemic.

Microsoft purchasing Discord makes a lot of sense as Xbox is rapidly growing on PC, but Discord is often the chat service used with these games.  Xbox also has a poor cross platform chat service and really offers nothing for many of Discords features so bringing Discord to Xbox consoles would make many gamers happy. 

Discord has been in sales talks with other tech giants before but details for those talks are also limited.  There is also no reason to suspect these talks have any momentum to them or that this sell has any higher chance than others, but it seems to have really perked up the interest of gamers this time.