Web design news

• How to watch Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and others with friends online

  24-03-2020 23:24 via thenextweb.com
  
  As we’re all huddling in our houses waiting for the world to start turning again, we should take advantage of any opportunity to entertain ourselves. This can be hard if you’re an extrovert who enjoys watching movies and shows with your friends. The good news is there are a number of streaming services that can help you cover the distance. Sure, the video quality may be a little on the low side depending on where in the world you are — multiple services have committed to lower
  
  Read more

• Keeping in touch: How to start a WhatsApp group

  24-03-2020 19:54 via thenextweb.com
  
  Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. Quarantine, isolation, social distancing — no matter what the occasion for you to be apart from your nearest and dearest, it’s never easy. But luckily in this day and age it’s easy to find solutions to keep up digitally. And while that’s no substitute for the real thing, sometimes a WhatsApp group might be what you need to keep in
  
  Read more

• Thanks, Coronavirus: YouTube will now default to 480p globally

  24-03-2020 19:44 via thenextweb.com
  
  A few days after YouTube said it would reduce default streaming bitrates in Europe to reduce strain on the continent’s internet infrastructure, the streaming giant is now applying similar limitations to users around the globe. Beginning Tuesday, YouTube will default to standard definition – in other words, 480p – regardless of your connection. The measure is rolling out gradually and is expected to last 30 days, though it’s possible YouTube may extend it depending on fut
  
  Read more

• The world is relying on Big Tech to fight COVID-19 — can they handle it?

  24-03-2020 19:09 via thenextweb.com
  
  As we grip with the realities of the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, an unsettling realisation has begun to coalesce: The government needs Silicon Valley. It’s true. Tech giants are filling voids across the world. In China, Alibaba’s Jack Ma shared purported snaps of one million face masks and 500,000 coronavirus testing kits bound for America, where shortages threaten lives. The first shipment of masks and coronavirus test kits to the US is taking off from Shanghai. All the best t
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• AI snitches on naughty Brits who won’t stay home during coronavirus pandemic

  24-03-2020 18:28 via thenextweb.com
  
  The decision to place the UK on a police-enforced lockdown couldn’t have come sooner, new AI analysis of traffic footage has revealed. Until last night, Brits had been merely been advised to avoid “non-essential” travel. Not many of them were listening, according to research by Vivacity Labs, a startup that makes camera-based traffic sensors. Researchers checked if more people were staying at home by comparing road usage last week with the week starting on 3 February. The
  
  Read more

• The science behind your loneliness

  24-03-2020 17:51 via thenextweb.com
  
  Coronavirus in Context is a weekly newsletter where we bring you facts that matter about the COVID-19 pandemic and the technology trying to stop its spread. You can subscribe here. As I mentioned during last week’s Big Spam takeover, I’m Tristan. I write for TNW and I’m the editor of Neural, but lately my job’s been all about COVID-19. I don’t know how you’re feeling, but my mental health isn’t exactly peak right now. I’m stres
  
  Read more

• Online marketplaces are tanking worldwide – except for Amazon

  24-03-2020 15:41 via thenextweb.com
  
  Last week, Amazon announced it’ll open 100,000 new roles to “support people relying on Amazon’s service in this stressful time.” The new hires are set to bring the company’s workforce to over 900,000 worldwide. While Amazon is thriving in the coronavirus crisis, though, the situation looks grim for competitors like AliExpress, eBay, and Etsy. Over the past few weeks, Amazon has raked in a record number of orders from customers looking for essentials like hygie
  
  Read more

• Speech recognition technology is racist, study finds

  24-03-2020 15:38 via thenextweb.com
  
  New evidence of voice recognition’s racial bias problem has emerged. Speech recognition technologies developed by Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and IBM make almost twice as many errors when transcribing African American voices as they do with white American voices, according to a new Stanford study. All five systems produced these error rates even when the speakers were of the same gender and age, and saying the exact same words. We can’t know for sure if these technologies are
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Instagram now lets you share posts with your friends directly in video chats

  24-03-2020 15:27 via thenextweb.com
  
  Instagram wants you to feel comfortable as you video-call your friends during the coronavirus quarantine, so it’s introducing a feature that lets you check out posts together. Co-watching, as the company calls it, essentially makes it possible to pull up any post directly in group video chats. Once in a conference call, all you need to do is click the Posts icon at the bottom of your screen, and select the post you want to share. It’ll then show up for everyone else in the vide
  
  Read more

• We got 5 game devs to explain why Animal Crossing is so damn good

  24-03-2020 15:06 via thenextweb.com
  
  Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch launched last week and it’s been taking this weird quarantined world of ours by storm. It’s the second biggest launch on the Switch ever in terms of physical sales in the UK (after Pokemon Sword & Shield), and every Switch owner I know won’t shut up about it. I’m no better than them. I got the game last Friday and I’ve barely stopped playing since — just like I couldn’t stop playing Animal Crossi
  
  Read more

• Polestar begins production of its new EV despite coronavirus concerns

  24-03-2020 13:35 via thenextweb.com
  
  Given global circumstances right now, it’s not exactly the best time to be launching a new car. However, Volvo subsidiary Polestar isn’t letting the situation get in the way. In an email to customers and followers yesterday Polestar said it’s begun production of its first fully-electric sedan, the Polestar 2. The P2 is being produced at the Geely-owned Zhejiang Luqiao plant in China, Reuters reports. [Read: EVs are better for the environment than cars — even when charged
  
  Read more

• Coronavirus has slashed CO2 emissions — here’s how to keep them down

  24-03-2020 13:24 via thenextweb.com
  
  How do you respond to a crisis? It’s obvious that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been dramatically different from anything provoked by repeated scientific warnings about climate change. The many organizations that declared climate emergencies throughout 2019 and 2020 have so far enacted nothing like the scale and speed of action to limit the spread of coronavirus. While action on COVID-19 has lowered CO₂ emissions drastically, with flights suspended and factories closed i
  
  Read more

• What the 2009 swine flu pandemic can tell us about the future of COVID-19

  24-03-2020 12:44 via thenextweb.com
  
  The first documented case of COVID-19 is thought to have appeared on December 1 2019 in Wuhan, China. Four months later, the world is in the middle of a pandemic with little idea of what comes next. Yet this is not the first pandemic to occur in recent years. On March 17 2009, the first case of a novel H1N1 influenza virus infection, also known as swine flu, was documented in Mexico. It rapidly spread throughout Mexico and the US and was declared a full pandemic by the WHO on June 11 2009. Swin
  
  Read more

• PSA: Netflix isn’t giving away free subs due to coronavirus — it’s a scam

  24-03-2020 12:11 via thenextweb.com
  
  Nope, Netflix isn’t handing out free subscriptions to its streaming service due to the coronavirus outbreak — you’re probably being targeted in a phishing scam. Users have taken to social media to report receiving suspicious texts, offering them “free passes” to the streaming service if they click a specific link. But while a freebie subscription might seem enticing in times of isolation, you might want to avoid the temptation to click: Netflix has nothing to do wi
  
  Read more

• China’s startups hit by 50% drop in Series A deals due to coronavirus

  24-03-2020 11:54 via thenextweb.com
  
  This is the first of a series of articles by world’s leading research and innovation policy adviser Startup Genome about the impact of the current crisis on the Global Startup Ecosystems. As our world is shaken in the most dramatic way imaginable, it is time for our global startup community to get closer, support, and learn from each other. Some of us remember the crash of 1987 and the dot-com bubble burst of 2000, in addition to the 2007 financial crisis. Not only is its human impact hor
  
  Read more

• Satoshi Nakaboto: ‘Bitcoin rises while markets take another hit’

  24-03-2020 11:30 via thenextweb.com
  
  Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin every fucking day. Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you what’s been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Nietzsche used to say: Let’s add the milk of data to the cereal of understanding! Bitcoin price We closed the day, March 23 2020, at a price of $6,416. That’s a strong 10.03 percent increase in 24 hours, or $584. It was the highest closing price in eleven days. We
  
  Read more

• Why UX designers and users should be well aware of cognitive biases

  24-03-2020 11:28 via thenextweb.com
  
  The human brain is designed to make quick and effective decisions rather than stick to facts at all times. Instead of acting rationally, we prefer to act fast. This may lead to better outcomes indeed, but it might also lead you astray. Cognitive biases can be both a blessing and a curse. With this article, you’re going to learn what exactly is a cognitive bias why UX designers should be well aware of different cognitive biases how both designers and users are prone to cognitive
  
  Read more

• May Apple’s AirPower charging mat live forever in limbo

  24-03-2020 11:27 via thenextweb.com
  
  I’m obsessed with Apple’s AirPower charging mat. Not with what it is — I mean, it’s just an unreleased wireless charger with an Apple logo, who gives a shit? — but with what it represents. For whatever reason, Apple’s AirPower charging mat has become the white whale of the tech world; a seemingly innocuous gadget that has inspired a thousand think pieces and, if the enthusiasm is to be believed, something many people would literally charter a ship a
  
  Read more

• Android malware found farming ads for cash in kids’ apps on Google’s Play Store

  24-03-2020 11:04 via thenextweb.com
  
  A new malware family, dubbed Tekya, has infected multiple children’s Android apps, farming ad clicks to earn money. Cybersecurity firm Check Point found that the previously undetected malware was present in 56 apps — 24 of them were targeted towards kids — on Google Play Store. The apps were collectively downloaded over a million times. The firm noted that these applications mimicked users’ actions on Android to serve ads from networks such as Google&rsquo
  
  Read more

• EVs are better for the environment than cars — even when charged by coal-generated electricity

  24-03-2020 10:12 via thenextweb.com
  
  Even though electric vehicles (EVs) produce no emissions as they’re driven, many detractors argue that they’re not as environmentally sound as they seem if they’re charged using electricity generated by burning fossil fuels. But new research shows that isn’t always the case. According to an article published in the journal Nature Sustainability, a group of researchers from the Netherlands and England, found that EVs charged by coal fueled power stations still produce few
  
  Read more

• 4 things all managers should avoid doing during the coronavirus pandemic

  24-03-2020 10:00 via thenextweb.com
  
  There’s nothing like a crisis — such as the coronavirus pandemic — to highlight managers’ trust issues. The coronavirus pandemic is disrupting day-to-day operations, and as working from home becomes more ubiquitous, some entrepreneurs are struggling to deal with their employees being out of sight. If you are a founder, CEO, or business leader, here are a few things you should avoid if you want to ensure your workforce remains motivated both in the short and long term. Do
  
  Read more

• An open Windows vulnerability lets attackers install malware through documents

  24-03-2020 09:49 via thenextweb.com
  
  Last night, Microsoft noted there’s an unpatched bug in Windows that might allow attackers to install malware or ransomware on your system through specially crafted documents. The company said in an advisory, that the system has two vulnerabilities that can be exploited to install malicious software through Remote Code Execution (RCE): Microsoft is aware of limited targeted attacks that could leverage un-patched vulnerabilities in the Adobe Type Manager Library, and is providing the follo
  
  Read more

• How my company successfully changed my role from on-site to remote

  24-03-2020 08:00 via thenextweb.com
  
  The modern workplace is evolving lightning fast. It’s becoming increasingly distributed. After realizing that remote work leads to a healthier, happier and more productive workforce, more and more companies are now transitioning roles from onsite to remote. And that was before the coronavirus pandemic struck. Having recently (before the coronavirus) switched my role as a Product Marketing Lead for Finturi, permanently from on-site to a remote one, I thought I could share some advice for s
  
  Read more

• Xiaomi, Samsung, and other phone brands pause manufacturing in India amid coronavirus lockdown

  24-03-2020 07:09 via thenextweb.com
  
  Over the past couple of days, several states in India have issued lockdown orders to curb the spread of coronavirus. The watershed effect of this decision is that smartphone manufacturers present in the world’s second-largest smartphone market have shut down their production activities. Yesterday, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo, and LG said they’re closing their factories for various periods. Samsung said it’s putting production on hold in its Noida factory, which is the world&
  
  Read more

• How to claim 2 months of free YouTube Premium from T-Mobile

  24-03-2020 01:07 via thenextweb.com
  
  Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. Amidst the many morsels businesses are throwing consumers in an attempt to mitigate the hellishness is the coronavirus quarantine, T-Mobile is stepping in with 2 months of free YouTube Premium as part of its “T-Mobile Tuesdays” rewards program. T-Mobile‘s rewards already included free Netflix, but now users can redeem two months of free
  
  Read more

• YouTube, Apple TV+, and Amazon Prime Video reduce image quality in Europe following Netflix

  24-03-2020 00:58 via thenextweb.com
  
  In the latest round of coronavirus-induced tech news, YouTube, AppleTV+, and Amazon Prime video have all begun to reduce default streaming bitrates in Europe, following a similar move by Netflix. The actions came about after EU Commissioner Thierry Breton called on streaming services to restrict image quality to lessen the burden on Europe‘s internet infrastructure. In a statement provided to Reuters, YouTube said “we are making a commitment to temporarily switch all traffic in the
  
  Read more

• People are skipping Zoom meetings by looping videos of themselves paying attention

  24-03-2020 00:38 via thenextweb.com
  
  As the world’s workforce continues to move online — working from home during the coronavirus pandemic — employees are finding creative ways to appear more online than they really are. Take Zoom. According to its website, there’s a feature that, when turned on, can tell hosts if chat participants have navigated away from the active Zoom window for more than 30 seconds. Simply put, your computer narcs you out to your boss when you’re paying more attention to Reddit t
  
  Read more

• 7 Website Font Trends for 2020

  24-03-2020 00:17 via icons8.com
  
  https://icons8.com/articles/website-fonts/
  
  Read more

Follow @NewsWebDesign on Twitter!