MUMBAI: Some top lawyers and consultants, who charge clients by the hour and are now working from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, have seen their fees slashed across assignments as cash-strapped clients renegotiate and question the time actually spend on the job.Many corporate law firms that charge anywhere between Rs 20,000 and Rs 75,000 per hour have slashed hourly rates or reduced the number of hours billed under pressure from clients, industry trackers said.The big four — Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG — that charge anywhere from Rs 1,000 per hour for auditing to Rs 12,000 for advisory work have seen these getting slashed by about 20-25% per hour, they said."In some of the technology implementation, tax compliance and consulting work-…there is a huge pressure from clients since the executive is now doing the same work from home," a senior partner in one of the big four firms said on condition of anonymity.While the rates have been slashed or renegotiated almost across service lines, those tasks where executives are required to be present at the client's office or factories have been impacted the most, insiders said.Many companies are raising queries on how they would know whether the executive whose hours are being charged was actually working or "watching Netflix," said a partner at a law firm.With clients scrutinising hourly worksheets maintained and billed by lawyers and consultants, many professional services and law firms are now looking to introduce technology that would track hours actually put into working on a project by an executive. This would then be forwarded to clients as proof of working hours, insiders said.According to industry trackers, while there is no negotiation of slashing rates in auditing where clients are charged Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 per hour, there have been several negotiations in management consulting . "So, in some cases clients are increasingly opting for success-fee option and only paying about 20-30% fees upfront," said a senior deal partner in one of the big four firms. 75482915Tax advisory work—where the per-hour fees charged by partners in firms ranges from Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 depending on the seniority of partner involved and complexity of assignment—has also seen a major correction.Industry trackers said consulting and advisory work—whether in M&A space, turnaround or taxation—has been most impacted. Many clients are halting work, shifting to success fee model, or slashing rates by at least 20-25%."In these difficult times, there is a need to work with clients and make sure they come out strong; that will surely rub off on consulting and advisory businesses over a period of time," said Sanjeev Krishan, partner and leader, deals, at PwC India.
New Delhi | Mumbai: An unprecedented surge of enquiries from lakhs of daily wage earners, migrants and farm workers anxious to know if government payouts have reached their bank accounts in the midst of the Covid-19 induced economic upheaval is choking digital channels, according to bankers and payment operators.The high rate of transaction failures — between 40-45% — using the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), is also leading to a pileup of credit reversals with banks, people monitoring the channels told ET."The government is transferring money directly to accounts of so many people, so there is a natural tendency to enquire about the balance, the high rate of failure — close to 40% — is also adding to the urge to check balance again and again," Dinesh Tyagi, chief executive of CSC e-Governance Services, told ET.India has over 370,000 digital kiosks — called Common Service Centres — across the country especially in the rural areas.NPCI Sets up Working GroupOf this, around 25,000 CSCs currently allow withdrawals of government subsidies sent directly into Aadhaar-linked bank accounts under schemes such as the PM-KISAN and PM Ujjwala schemes. 75482946"We had to completely stop taking any balance enquiry requests since the last two weeks as it was bringing our systems down and disrupting all services," said Tyagi estimating that CSCs were receiving over 5 lakh enquiries for balance and 1 lakh requests for withdrawals every day.The AePS platform, run by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), is central to the government's direct benefits transfer (DBT) platform that provides cash doles to poor women, senior citizens and farmers to help them tide over the lockdown imposed due to the pandemic. Confirming the stress on transactions due to the massive increase in queries, a senior banker told ET that "AePS failure rates exceed 45% and more in some geographies".Public sector bank officials said credit reversal related reconciliations — required when an account has been debited of funds, but the withdrawal hasn't happened — are being held up due to high traffic on the channel. In addition, transactions are also failing due to insufficient funds in dormant accounts leading to automatic freezing of accounts, biometric mismatches, low network connectivity and unavailability of switches, bankers said.The matter was raised in the recent steering committee meeting of the NPCI and a working group has now been constituted to resolve the issue of credit reversal dues on the channel, an official told ET.Tyagi of CSC said while payment operators get paid a small sum on each withdrawal, balance enquiry is free even though it requires the full fingerprint-based authentication. The CSC has now written a letter to NPCI to impose a ₹5 charge for each balance enquiry request, he said. An emailed query sent to NPCI did not elicit a response till press time.In March, 26 million transactions were initiated for balance enquiries and mini statements on AePS while the number for financial transactions which involved withdrawals stood at 35.4 million and was worth ₹10,100 crore, according to data from NPCI.Apart from the Common Service Centres, a network of 10 lakh registered business correspondents, or bank mitras, use AePS to provide remittance and cash withdrawal services in underbanked regions. More than 300 million people have received ₹28,256 crore as financial assistance under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana from the ₹1.70 lakh crore relief package, the finance ministry said on April 11.
NEW DELHI : The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki reported zero sales last month with factories shut in compliance with government orders to prevent the check of the coronavirus pandemic. "Maruti Suzuki India Limited had zero sales in the domestic market, (including sales to OEM), in April 2020", the company said in a filing to the bourses, adding, "This was because in compliance with the Government orders all production facilities were closed."Meanwhile, following resumption of port operations, the first export shipment of 632 units was undertaken from the Mundra port, ensuring that all guidelines for safety were followed.
New Delhi: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) on Friday said it is working with its dealer partners to re-stimulate demand with its wholesales coming to a naught in April due to coronavirus-led nationwide lockdown. The company said the restart of the entire value chain and its restoration will be gradual, as the industry is facing varied challenges like low consumer sentiment, rebuilding of disrupted supply chains and return of workforce. "As with many other sectors, with the closure of dealerships and manufacturing, the operation of the automotive value chain has come to a grinding halt," TKM Senior Vice President (Sales and Marketing) Naveen Soni said in a statement. These are critical times and the company was aware that there would be no wholesales in the month of April 2020, he added. "As we prep for a restart, we are working closely with our dealer partners to offer them the best support to re-stimulate demand in a safe and heathy atmosphere," Soni said. He added that there has been some movement in the market of late and dealers have started to receive some enquiries. "We will ensure that these customers are catered to as soon as we begin operations. To assist our customers who are homebound, we have made provisions to entirely digitalise the sales process wherein we have a 360-degree product views for the customer to take a virtual tour of the vehicle, select financing options and even receive a quotation online," Soni noted. The company has also made provisions for delivering the vehicle to the customer's doorstep upon the completion of purchase, he added.
Mumbai: India's largest decorative paints maker Asian Paints on Friday announced that it will start making hand and surface sanitisers under the Viroprotek brand and it will be available in the market from next week.The sanitiser is being manufactured at Asian Paints' plant in Ankleshwar, Gujarat and the company has obtained all necessary permissions from authorities."Asian Paints has entered into this category to support the Government in its various measures towards Covid-19 relief and address the huge need of hand and surface sanitization in these testing times," a statement from the company read.Other brands which started making hand sanitisers after the Covid-19 pandemic spread to India include Dabur, Emami, Patanjali, Nivea India, and Raymond Consumer Care, among several others.Asian Paints said that it had been working in the health and hygiene space for some time making decorative paints that helped provide bacterial protection."We felt it apt to consolidate our portfolio in the hygiene space and address the growing requirement of hand and surface sanitizers for increased protection and assist the government in fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic." said Amit Syngle, managing director, Asian Paints Limited.
By Christopher AnsteyThe best month for global equities in almost a decade may be enough to convince investors the light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel isn't a train, but the debate on what comes next is only just beginning as they adjust their focus to a financial landscape utterly changed by the pandemic.An indisputable takeaway from the crisis is a massive expansion in global debt -- given the more than $8 trillion in fiscal measures worldwide, according to a Bloomberg compilation. Corporate balance sheets will have changed, as CFOs seek to bolster their capital through equity and debt raisings. Millions will have lost their jobs at least for a time, and labor mobility between nations may be impaired. And supply lines will be reshaped, at least in some fashion.Depending on how it all shakes out, there will be implications for corporate earnings and interest rates that will affect investment decisions for years if not decades to come, some analysts are now saying. Should the epidemic continue to ebb, that's set to become the key debate in markets as the year progresses."The high debt levels across all sectors and large-scale nationalization of the economy will, in absence of an exit plan, restrain investment and reduce productivity in the long run, giving rise to secular stagnation or at some point stagflation," said Commerzbank AG strategist Christoph Rieger. "Corporates will have to shoulder a large part of the bill."75486209Corporate ActionEven as they cheer news about economies reopening and progress on medical solutions for the coronavirus, investors are being diluted by corporate capital raising. And the biggest source of demand for shares in recent years -- companies themselves -- are unlikely to return to their previous pace of buybacks for years, if ever, according to Inigo Fraser-Jenkins and fellow analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein.A deeper change could be sustained support for payments to portions of the labor force that have been severely affected by the crisis or at the fringes of economic prosperity in recent decades. As Stephen King, senior economic adviser at HSBC Holdings Plc, put it, there could be "pressure to deliver new domestic 'social contracts,'" not unlike occurred after World War II -- when Europe built welfare systems and the U.S. enacted the GI Bill.A new broad set of commitments "would be affordable only with a sizeable increase in the tax burden on corporations, high earners and the wealthy," King wrote in an April 23 note. "To raise such taxes may require worldwide income-tax regimes for a country's citizens (in line with existing U.S. tax policy) and significant restrictions on the mobility of wealth and capital."State RoleA stronger long-term role for the state is emerging in other aspects, as well. The long-term trend of privatizing public-sector enterprises "could now be slowed or even reversed," Deutsche Bank AG wealth-management investment chiefs say."State ownership of industry will force a new debate on the role of competition and profit margins," Christian Nolting and Markus Muller wrote in an April 29 note. "All this will create major challenges for economies and investors, but also opportunities."As for investors in government bonds, given how debt levels will have expanded versus GDP -- Commerzbank sees the U.S. government's ratio hitting 100% next year, from about 80% pre-crisis -- it's unlikely policy makers will let interest rates exceed inflation. So-called financial repression also helped major nations run down debt after WWII.The surge in borrowing has also revived the debate about central banks directly monetizing government financing. At the end of the day, however, that simply swaps one type of obligation -- government bonds -- for another: reserves deposited with the central bank, as Commerzbank's Rieger puts it."In the end, the asset side of central bank balance sheets will consist of giant quantities of low-yielding debt -- inhibiting rate increases for decades," he wrote.Creative DestructionNet-net, lower borrowing costs ought to be good for companies, and equity valuations in particular. Stephen Jen, who runs hedge fund and advisory firm Eurizon SLJ Capital, argues it "ought to be a major tailwind" for strong firms with good balance sheets. But his take suggests not all will benefit -- something Deutsche Bank AG wealth-management investment chiefs agree with."Those sectors better able to innovate and adapt to the new post-coronavirus world will fare better; 'creative destruction' could force corporate failure and defaults elsewhere," Nolting and Muller wrote. "Corporate earnings are likely to fall further than current consensus estimates."The bottom line: the debate on long-term effects for investors is just beginning.
In Reliance oil and gas segment, the EBIT loss stands at Rs 485 crore, the retail segment revenues stand at Rs 2,062 crore and digital revenue stands at Rs 4,104 crore. The exploration & production (E&P) segment has been reeling under pressure due to lower gas and oil prices. There is pain and loss leading to negative EBIT. So, it was important to look at GRM and petchem EBIT margins. Rs 53,000 crore is coming from the rights issue; Rs 43,000-44,000 crore is coming in from the Facebook deal and another Rs 7,000 crore is coming in from the BP deal. Do you think the big overhang of Rs 1.5 lakh crore of net debt is getting addressed now?Initially they were targeting almost this much amount from the Aramco deal. So, this would address the concern of high debt and will help in balance sheet deleveraging which has been seen as the key catalyst for the stock if the company is to achieve its target of zero net debt by March 2021.
New Delhi: Jio Thursday said that it is "just a few days away" from launching its video conferencing-cum-collaborative app called Jio Meet to capitalize on the surging demand for such use-cases."Jio Meet is a platform which has many uniqueness- it actually has an ability to work on any device, any operating system, and it has an ability to do a complete collaboration," Pankaj Pawar, senior VP, Reliance Jio Infocomm, told reporters after the company's parent, Reliance Industries declared its fiscal fourth quarter results on Thursday."And effectively, this collaboration does not limit to a typical video conferencing app," he added. Jio's eHealth platform integrated with the Meets app will allow users to consult doctors virtually, get prescriptions, order medicines and lab tests online, and enable digital waiting rooms for doctors.The eEducation platform will create virtual classroom for students and teachers, record sessions and notes, assign and submit homework, organize time-bound tests and offer multimedia content for students to self-learn.There has been a sudden upsurge in demand for collaborative tools to support work-from-home and other needs during the COVID-19 lockdown. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, during an investor call yesterday, said that its video-conferencing app Teams' usage has increased to more than 75 million daily active users. Microsoft saw 200 million meeting participants in a single day this month whereas easy-to-use Zoom meetings app claims it noted 300 million meeting participants earlier this month. Facebook, which had said last week that it will invest $5.7 billion for 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms, also launched Messenger Rooms this month allowing 50 people to video call without any time limit. "Between WhatsApp and Messenger, more than 700 million accounts participate in calls every day," Facebook said.Meanwhile, Jio said that it is looking at the opportunity from a different perspective to offer consumers with a range of use-cases, while security and simplicity being the priority. "We are just a few days away from offering this to all the Indians so that they will be able to leverage this in the most secure environment and at the same time in a 'grandma easy' kind of platform, so that anybody and everybody is able to use this," Pawar said.The Mukesh Ambani-led telco posted a profit of Rs 2,331 crore (up 177% on-year) for the January-March period. Jio's total subscriber base stood at 387.5 million. Monthly average data usage per user has gone up to 11.3 GB from 11.1 GB in the previous quarter while voice consumption per user increased to 771 minutes per month from 760 minutes per month in the preceding quarter.
Kolkata: Coal India, the monopoly miner of the solid fuel, has firmed up plans to recruit around 6,600 people in executive and non-executive cadres this year even as its sales reflect the declining demand trend in the broader economy."The pace of recruitment, which has currently slowed down due to the lockdown, will be considerably accelerated by Coal India and our subsidiaries once the situation normalizes as a large number of posts are vacant and many more are to fall vacant during the year," a senior Coal India executive said.Last year, Coal India recruited about 8,000 people in both executive and non-executive cadres.It has already conducted written tests for recruiting 1,326 executives, but interviews were postponed due to the lockdown. The process will be completed in a few weeks after the lockdown is withdrawn.Coal India also recruits a large number of doctors since mining is prone to accidents. About 400 doctors will be appointed in the executive cadre by subsidiaries in a recently decentralized recruitment process.The operating units will also need to recruit workmen."This year, about 1,000 workmen are estimated to be appointed at all subsidiaries," said the Coal India executive.The company also offers jobs to families displaced by its projects. Land acquisition for new projects and expansion of existing projects have slowed down in a few states due to the current situation, but the process will be speeded up after the lockdown and 500-600 jobs offered.The largest public sector employer after the railways, Coal India employs around 2.8 lakh employees, of which 19,000 are executives. The rest are in non-executive and workmen cadres. Every year, about 10,000 employees have been reaching the superannuation age.
It’s Friday night, but the weather’s bad and you refuse to leave your home. A couple of friends have come over to hang out and watch a movie, but your DVD collection is looking pretty sparse for new releases. You could watch You’ve Got Mail again for the dozenth time, but you really want to see something new that will hit hard, make you laugh, or stay in your mind for days. The last video store in your town closed down years ago, and rentals on iTunes are just too expensive to justify the purchase. Flipping your television over to Netflix is not just the best idea, it’s an obvious one. But as you scroll through your queue and your suggested recommendations, one thing becomes apparent: you have no idea which film to pick.
Netflix is overrun with television shows, but that doesn’t mean the service has lost out on some great films. It can actually be pretty tough to find classic films on the service among all the Netflix original shows now streaming on the platform, so we’ve done the hard work for you. We’ve rounded up fifty of the best films streaming on Netflix right now, so that you can skip the endless browsing and scrolling through films on your television and just get to watching the movie. We’ll update this list every month with new recommendations, and we’ll always make sure that the films listed here haven’t been taken off of Netflix’s offerings, so whether it’s a film you’ve never seen or a classic you want to revisit, you’ll always be ready to stream a great film.
So throw the popcorn in the microwave, kick your feet up, and relax with one of these incredible films. These are the top one hundred movies streaming on Netflix right now, in no particular order.
In November of 2016, Netflix rolled out one of the features its fan base had been demanding since the company exploded in popularity all those years ago. The ability to take shows and movies offline is one of those features users assumed were impossible, thanks to how Netflix works, but in reality Netflix was working behind the scenes to bring downloadable content to smart devices for years. While it doesn’t totally offer complete freedom when it comes to downloading your favorite content, the ability to watch shows and movies while offline makes it a great choice for your commute to work on the subway, or when traveling for work on a plane. Offline play has made it one of the best ways to consume Netflix online, though as always, there are some limitations.
Still, it’s worth looking at how downloading works on Netflix, how the app can be a bit confusing at times, how to discover the best downloadable shows on the platform, and of course, some of our favorite downloadable shows and movies on Netflix. Let’s dive in.
How to Download Content on Netflix
First things first: Netflix makes it really easy to download shows on Netflix, and to figure out how much you have downloaded on your device. Diving into the application, it becomes obvious pretty quickly how you can download content to your devices. Unfortunately, Netflix only allows you to download their movies and TV shows to iOS, Android, and Windows devices using the dedicated apps for each platform. You can’t download movies to an Amazon Fire Stick or PS4, and since there’s no app for MacOS, you can’t download anything there either.
Once you have the app installed on your device, you have a few ways to find and download shows. You can start by clicking on your favorite show or movie from the main screen or from your list, which will allow you to see what can be downloaded on your device. Television shows will display a download icon to the right of every single episode that can be downloaded, while movies will feature four icons along the display, the last of which allows you to download the film to your device. At its core, these are the main controls for downloading content on Netflix, and if you can’t save something to your device, the download icon simply won’t appear when you go to download something.
Of course, there are some settings you’ll want to make sure you find before you continue watching shows on Netflix. The first is accessible by tapping on the Downloads tab at the bottom of the display. At the top of the screen, you should see an option for Smart Downloads. Depending on the space on your device, you might want to turn this off. If you can however, leaving this on can help make sure you’re always ready to go when you’re traveling with new episodes downloaded to your device. Smart Downloads track when you’ve finished watching an episode of a show you’ve downloaded onto your device and automatically deletes the watched episode and downloads the next available episode the next time you’re connected to WiFi. This feature is limited only to WiFi, so you never have to worry about your cellular data limits. And since it’s replacing a downloaded episode with another one, you should never have to worry about using extra phone storage.
It’s also worth making sure your download settings are on the right quality level for your internet download speeds and your phone’s storage. Netflix offers your downloads various quality levels, either when you select your download or from your app settings in the app. To get there, select the triple-line menu icon labeled ‘More,’ then choose App Settings from the list. Under Downloads, you can control several options, including the ability to change your video quality. Netflix offers Standard and High versions of these downloads, which allows you to select your quality or your download speed, depending on your current conditions. In our tests, standard seemed to come in at about 480p, while high-definition was somewhere between 720p and 1080p, looking great on our device.
Downloads can be found in the download tab on your device, and you can erase or watch them from there.
What are the Limits on Downloading Content on Netflix?
As with any content made available through Netflix or other streaming services, limitations apply on nearly every single content option you could imagine. Yes, it’s true that you can mostly use Netflix’s download feature without running into issues or blocks on what you’re using, but as with anything, you should be prepared for some limitations to pop up as you use the service.
You can only download up to 100 titles on a single device. Netflix seems to include each episode of a series, so don’t go believing you can load your phone with every episode of The Office without having to deal with an error message from Netflix.
Depending on your plan, you can download content to either one, two, or four devices at a time. This will likely match whatever your pre-existing plan is, whether that be one, two, or four devices streaming content at once. If you’re unclear what your current plan is, you should dive into the account settings on your device to learn what you’re paying for.
Content you download to your devices doesn’t last forever. After you download an episode or film to your device, you typically have about 30 days to watch it before you have to redownload the show or film. Titles that have less than seven days before expiring on your device will display the amount of time you have left. This all has to do with the way Netflix signs content deals with major companies. Some content expires just 48 hours after you begin watching it back, so make sure you pay close attention to what’s going on your device by using the tab on the bottom of the app.
Are All Netflix Originals Available to Download?
Most Netflix Originals are available to download on your devices, but not all of them are. Most of this depends on the production companies these shows are made with. While Netflix produces a wide variety of content, some of their shows are picked up from outside sources or selected as a revival from other networks. Arrested Development, for example, has five seasons streaming on Netflix; two of them were produced as Netflix originals. That doesn’t matter, however, as none of the five seasons are available for download. Likewise, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life is also unavailable for download, and that too is a continuation and revival of a pre-existing property.
That said, not ever rebooted show from Netflix is unavailable to download. Fuller House and both Wet Hot American Summer series are continuations of pre-existing content, and they both are available for download on your device. All of Trailer Park Boys’ output from both the pre-Netflix days and the current Netflix lineup are available to be saved and watched offline. And shows like Queer Eye or Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return also remain as downloadable content, regardless of when they were released.
Generally speaking, Netflix Originals are available to download, with only some content being featured as an exception to the rule. This makes it reliable to be able to take your favorite Netflix shows offline and on the go. Netflix Original Movies, too, are typically available for download, though as Netflix begins to go after more upper-class Oscar gold with content like last year’s Roma and this year’s The Irishman, we’ll have to see if that applies for everything.
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Okay, enough chatter about downloading content on Netflix. Let’s take a look at some of the best shows and films to download today.
For a genre that should be simple enough to narrow down into one idea, films about war are complicated, often offering different viewpoints on war based around when the film was developed. War films developed during World War II often took the form of propaganda for the Allies, with documentary films like Why We Fight or Edge of Darkness being developed to support war efforts in the 1940s. Even throughout the 1950s and onward, films surrounding war saw the heroes as the paragons of American culture, very rarely critiquing war.
Since the 1970s, films about war have become a far more varied genre. Anti-war films, comedy or satire films, and biopics have all been crafted out of the general wartime film, offering those who seek a deeper understanding of war content their chance at watching a film. If you’re looking to explore the vast genre of war films on Netflix, here are our fifteen favorite films currently streaming for May 2020.
As social media becomes more and more important in our daily lives, the creators of the platforms have come to realize the essential nature of security in preserving the users’ trust.
The users want to know that the system won’t sell them out – or at least, not sell them out too much. Instagram, one of the most popular of the current social media platforms, created a full set of policy protections in their software to keep information away from unwanted visitors.
A private Instagram page means only those who you accept can follow and view your content. Many users prefer to keep that content secure and Instagram obliges.
But what if you want to view a private Instagram account? Or you want to ensure no one is viewing your private account without your knowledge? Let’s view how to make your Instagram profile private, and how people can view private accounts.
How to Make Your Instagram Account Private
If you’d like to make your Instagram account private, follow these instructions:
Start by opening the app, either from your home screen (iOS) or your app drawer (Android). The app will open up on the homepage for Instagram, showing a collection of posts and shares from your followed friends.
Along the bottom of the app, you’ll find five icons for adding photos, viewing posts, and more. Tap on the profile icon on the bottom of the tab. You will see a very small version of your profile picture.
From this display, you’ll see a few icons along the top of your screen. In the top right corner click on the three vertical lines. From here you can tap on ‘Settings’.
There are several privacy options available such as: two-factor authentication and blocking users. Locate ‘Privacy’ and tap on it. Scroll down to the ‘Connections’ heading and tap on ‘Account Privacy’.
Toggle the switch so that it turns blue. A pop-up will appear asking you to review your followers. If there are any you’d like to remove, you can do so from this page.
If at any time you want to make your account public once more, follow the steps above and flip the switch for private accounts off. You can do this as many times as you’d like without any repercussions—remember that any posts you shared while your account was private will become public as soon as you flip that switch off.
Can I See a Private Instagram Account?
Technically yes, there are multiple ways to view a private Instagram account.
The Legitimate Way – Asking the person with the private account to accept your friend request.
Searching Username/Real name – This is if you want to know some information about them without asking to have access to their Instagram account.
Use Third-Party Apps – We don’t recommend this method. None of them work currently, and they all seem to be associated with money laundering schemes or scams.
Pretend to be Someone You Aren’t – Read on for advice on this method.
Below is a more in-depth look at how to use each method to your advantage.
How to View a Private Instagram Account
The Legitimate Way
If you wish to view a private Instagram account, the easiest—and most legitimate—way is to request to follow that person. Typically, even a person with a protected profile will approve people they know, so if this is someone you’re acquainted with, you shouldn’t have any problems getting your request approved.
If the other person accepts it you’ll be able to see that person’s profile and view any photos they’ve uploaded to Instagram.
This method is the most straightforward way to access and view a person’s private Instagram account, no matter who they are. Unfortunately, this does depend heavily on you, as an Instagram user, having a preexisting relationship with the person.
If you’re trying to add someone you don’t know, like a celebrity or a friend of a friend, the easiest way to reach out to them is via Instagram’s direct messaging. Sending the user a direct message, a DM, will let them know a bit about who’s requesting to follow them. The best way to do this is to tell the requested user who you are, a bit about yourself, and why you want to follow them on Instagram.
Saying as much as “I’m a high school friend of your boyfriend” or “We met at your cousin’s birthday party” can be enough to create a connection between you and your target.
Many Instagram users will welcome new friends, especially since they can block or remove you if things get rough. Just remember to keep an eye on what you post and what that person posts.
Try Searching Their Username and Real Name
This is a quick tip and, ultimately, it might not get you far in your quest to find out some information on your Insta-crush or your old high school friends, but it’s worth a shot regardless.
Log into Instagram and look for the profile you wish to research online. When you locate the account, you’ll be able to see the username of your target. Highlight that name and copy it to your device’s clipboard, because we’re going to be using that name in a moment.
Paste that username into Google or whichever search engine you prefer to use. You can also take a photo that you know is theirs and put it into a reverse image search to see if they have used it on a different, maybe not as protected, social media site.
You can follow a similar strategy using the real names of non-celebrities. All in all, this may not end up gaining you access to a full Instagram account. If you’re looking for some additional photos of a specific person on Instagram, use their login ID to find photos of them posted on other sites. That’s an easy way to bypass Instagram’s own privacy protection—even if it’s only temporary.
Using Instagram Viewer Sites
Searching Google for methods to view private Instagram profiles will bring up endless results of solutions and guides but It will also refer you to several websites with suspicious names that advertise the ability to view private profiles in just a few easy steps.
These sites have names like “WatchInsta,” “Instaspy,” and “Private Instaviewer,” and they all seem to promise the same general idea: use their website to gain access to Instagram accounts marked as private without any extra steps, payments, or requirements. Some of them even promise complete anonymity or have chatrooms where you can discuss the app with other users.
Unfortunately, after testing a few of the results from the first page or two of search results through Google, we absolutely do not recommend using these sites. They come from shady backgrounds at best, typically obscuring the name of the company behind the site. Despite the promise of “free” results, they often ask you to fill out a survey or sweepstakes that requires a credit card or other form of payment to complete.
Some of the sites also seem connected, displaying one name but then showing another site’s name when the survey request loads. We can’t suggest you use any of these sites when their backgrounds are unclear, or if they hide their origin on their website. Stay clear of these sites; they’re nothing but trouble for your account and overall internet safety.
If you’ve tried adding the person on Instagram with a friendly message and still can’t gain access to their account, there’s always one option left, though it’s challenging to recommend that to users as well: fake accounts. Let’s take a look.
The Rules
Instagram takes claims of identity theft (using someone else’s real name and impersonating them on the service) to be a significant violation, and they will go after duplicators. In a bit, we’ll get to why that’s important, and how to get around it.
If you do choose to create a fake ID, here are some ways to get more accepted by a private Instagram account holder.
Select a female profile picture for your fake account. This comes across as more friendly and safe. Choosing to use a female identity on Instagram makes the account feel less predatory than a male account, though it’s evident that this can create problems on its own.
Add real photos to your fake Instagram account. You could also make your phony Instagram ID a private account, as well.
If the private Instagram account you want to follow doesn’t approve your request to follow them, send a DM to that person. Explain that you’d like to follow them on Instagram and your reasons. You could theoretically do this in or out of character
The Less-than-Legitimate Way
There are several different methods of gaining access to a private Instagram profile, using techniques of social engineering and deception.
We do not recommend these methods. They are unethical under most circumstances, and quite possibly illegal under others, but it depends more on intent. There are some subtleties, but if you’re pretending to be someone else online, that is similar to committing fraud.
The Lazy Way
The laziest method of gaining access to a private profile that you have personally been declined for is to create a new Instagram profile with a new e-mail address, a fake name, and have that account submit a membership application a mutual privately held group.
Instagram spammers use this technique regularly, churning out the output from realistic name generators for hours and assigning names to everyone in their fictitious empires. Every device (smartphone or tablet) can have up to five separate terminals hooked up to it, so unless you’ve been creating fake accounts already, you should have plenty of slots left.
Once you have the new account (it will need its own unique e-mail address, but Google Mail makes that trivially easy), just submit a request to the private account you want to follow.
You can send a DM first to break the ice and warn the owner of the private account that a new person is coming in. If they deny access to the account for a trivial reason or specific to you, then the signup should be approved if they don’t suspect that this is a patsy account of yours.
The lazy way is easy. It’s also not going to work very often. If an account has private registration, it’s probably for a good reason. What do we do then?
The Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse takes the same basic idea, but it goes to the trouble of creating a fake profile that looks “right” to the owner of the private Instagram account we want to follow. For example, say that a popular game streamer had a private Instagram account where she shared only the very elite secrets of the particular game.
If you or I try to gain access to this group with our Instagram account, we likely won’t be successful. Instead, you want to create a fake account that nonetheless looks very real. For our gaming account, we would upload lots of skilled playthrough videos and Instagram posts, bemoaning or praising certain events in the world of game design. And so on.
By investing a bit more time and energy into the fake, creating a line of posts and pictures, complete with comments section, we give a much stronger impression of being a real person who wasn’t a fraud.
The Doppelganger
People unfollow and refollow all the time; seeing their friend’s account in a follow request is often successful.
So how do we manage to get their friend’s account? The answer is that we don’t – but we fake it. There are two big problems with creating a “duplicate” account. One, it’s one of the big crimes that Instagram actually bestirs itself to do something about. Two, we don’t know who the duplicate accounts are! Private accounts don’t show their followers list when you browse them – so there’s no way to know who follows them. Or is there?
Directly, no. Instagram keeps things too secure for that. But Instagram is not the only place that your private account person has a presence. That Instagram private account almost certainly has a parallel life over on Facebook.
It may be on Tik Tok too, and Pinterest and Etsy and…the list go on. Find the social media site with the sloppier security and most online content; almost nobody has perfect security everywhere.
Using other social media sites, find out who they interact with the most on social media. Get the names and usernames of people who are involved in the same groups or interest, because those are the people who are also following your interest on Instagram.
Now create a profile or two for these doppelgangers. You won’t be able to use the same username – but you can use one that’s very close. Use accent characters, substituting 0 for O, and so on. You can even borrow some photographs from the other social media site to use as your avatar.
Odds are good that these changes are going to slide by your target. Note that this is a serious rules violation and you could lose your Instagram account access altogether. One way to prevent that is to take advantage of a loophole in the Instagram rules.
It is forbidden to copy a person’s account and impersonate them – and the only person who can complain about this is the person themselves. In order to prove that they are the original user, they have to show proper state-issued ID.
The key to this is that most people don’t use their full real name, so they can’t prove who they are. Once you’ve been approved to the group, change the username and photos.
The doppelganger, done correctly, is almost certain to get you into the private account you want to access. Use it wisely.
Netflix is filled with every genre of film you imagine. From laugh-a-minute comedies and heartfelt drama to action-adventure and, of course, the latest superhero films, Netflix has something for everyone no matter what mood you’re in. Of course, you don’t need to stick to fiction when you’re looking for something to watch on Netflix. Documentaries can provide the same emotional experience as any other film, all while challenging your worldview or teaching you about something you never knew.
Whether you like your documentaries about history, nature, entertainment, biography, or social issues, Netflix has you covered. Netflix has a broad selection of great documentaries for everyone. Here are some of the ones we like best, streaming on Netflix right now. We’ve limited this list to feature-length documentaries, but if you’re more interested in docuseries focused on crime, you may want to check out our separate list on that very topic here.
Creating a story on Instagram is a fun new approach to interacting with your followers. It’s especially important for business accounts.
Instagram stories feel authentic, personal, and immediate. Since they disappear after 24 hours, there’s no need to stress about making everything perfect. The charm of Instagram stories is that they’re spontaneous and you shouldn’t overthink them.
On the other hand, if you want to make yourself seen on Instagram, stories are a good way to do it.
Your stories appear on your profile, but they also appear on your followers’ feeds and next to the stories that you share. Additionally, people can see your story from ‘Search & Explore’. If you add a sticker, a location, or a hashtag, your story will also pop up in the appropriate hashtag and location pages.
It’s not surprising that some users add a great deal information to their stories. A clever caption or sticker can leave a great impression. But what about links?
Linking from Your Instagram Story
Instagram is famous for limiting your options well known for limiting users’ options involving adding links.
You can add a link to your profile. If you want to inspire people to visit your site, you can add a caption to your story with instructions to check your profile for more information.
It’s also possible to paste the URL into the labels you place on your story. That way, your followers can copy it and reach the site in question. If you’re going for this option, it’s a good idea to use a URL shortener like Bitly.
But what about direct links? Is it possible for your followers to tap on the story and reach a different webpage?
Instagram introduced the swipe-up option for users who want to add outgoing links to stories. When you see a story with the caption “See More”, you should swipe up to reach a new website.
What You Need to Know About Swipe Up
The most important fact about the swipe-up option is that it’s not available to every Instagram user.
When this option was first released, it was restricted to verified accounts. You probably know that only certain celebrities and brands have verified accounts on Instagram.
These users generally used swipe-up to link to promotions, or to concert schedules and other topical information. Some celebrities also used Instagram stories to link to their preferred causes and spread awareness.
But what about the rest of us?
Instagram took a very careful approach to expand the swipe-up function. This function is easy to abuse and it could put Instagram users at risk of reaching malware sites.
So at this point, the swipe-up option is available to business accounts with 10.000+ followers. But how do you add swipe up to your stories if you have a business account?
A Step-by-Step Guide to Adding Swipe-Up
Here is how business accounts can add outgoing links to stories when you don’t have 10,000 followers.
1. Create Your Story First
To create a story, you can take a picture or video. You can also upload media from your gallery or use Boomerang to record a live event.
When your story is complete, you can edit it in various ways. If your account qualifies for swipe-up, there will be a “share link” icon at the top of the screen. Look for a chain link icon in the middle of the screen, next to the usual editing options.
2. Tap on “Share Link”
When you select this option, you can simply paste the URL. You can’t link to multiple websites from one story.
3. Add a Caption
When your story is done, Instagram will add a discreet arrow and the caption “See More”. This is at the bottom of your page and it’s easy to miss.
It’s very important to add an appropriate label to inspire your followers to swipe up. Something like “Swipe up for more information!” will work.
Give accurate but brief information about where the link leads. You can use a call to action, some other examples are:
Summer Sale! Swipe up for more information
Swipe up to order!
My business hours this week – swipe up
Drawing an upward arrow can get the point across too. Remember that Instagram stories feel personal and unofficial, so you can also add a joke or pun that fits your brand and the image in question.
You can also simply draw attention to the “See More” option on the bottom of the page by adding stickers or doodles.
The Workaround for Smaller Accounts
Users who don’t have more than 10,000 followers can take advantage of Instagram’s IGTV to get the swipe up feature. You’ll still need a business account to do this, however.
If you’re not already familiar with IGTV it’s Instagram’s version of television. Designed for uploading videos, this will give you the ‘Share Link’ option we mentioned above. Visit your profile and click on the IGTV link, click ‘Upload’ and add the video content.
Click on the share link, add a URL, and a caption. Once your video posts, the Swipe Up option should appear for your viewers and followers.
Why Is This a Useful Option for Businesses?
Stories are becoming popular among all types of businesses that advertise on Instagram. According to Instagram’s internal data from August 2017, over half of all business accounts shared at least one story with their followers in the month.
Additionally, we know that Instagram viewers enjoy these stories. Around a third of the most-viewed Instagram Stories come from businesses.
People enjoy interacting with brands and businesses on their own terms. Offering a swipe-up option is a good way to gain hits on your own website. It also gives people information immediately, without any awkwardness. Impulse purchases are easier with swipe-up too.
So if you have the follower count for it, it might be a good idea to invest in a business account. In the long run, the investment will be worth it.
Changing to a Business Account
If you’re trying to grow your Instagram followers and become an influencer, or you’ve opened your own business you can change your current account to a business account.
Visit your ‘Settings’ and tap on ‘Account’. Tap the option labeled ‘Switch’. Choose ‘Professional Account’. Once this is done tap ‘Business’. Instagram will guide you through the verification process. Once approved, you will have the options listed above for swipe up links.
Instagram stories are wildly popular. From celebrities to small businesses, everybody seems to utilize stories to get a message out. At least, for a brief window until the imagery goes into digital oblivion.
Since Instagram is a mobile-centric social network, a lot of functions, including computer uploads, are not available outside the mobile ecosystem. As Instagram doesn’t give you the option within the website’s interface to post a story, there are a few simple workarounds available.
You need to employ some browser tricks, use third-party apps or scheduling tools to successfully post an Instagram story from your Mac or PC. Either way, the process becomes straightforward once you get the hang of it.
Switch User-Agent in Your Browser
Once you read the subtitle, this hack might sound like more than you’ve bargained for. But it’s probably the easiest way to post an Instagram story or any other media from your computer.
This workaround doesn’t require additional software or extra payment to work, but you are limited to Google Chrome. With a few simple steps, you can post stories to Instagram from your Mac or PC.
If your computer doesn’t already have Google Chrome, you can get it here. This browser has several benefits with the Web Store. For installing Chrome extensions, there are endless possibilities for your Instagram account.
Chrome
Step 1
Launch Chrome and access the Developer tools from the View menu at the top. You can also use keyboard commands to quickly open the developer tools:
For Mac – Command + Options + J
For PC – Control + Shift + J
Note: The screenshots are taken on a Mac. So the layout might be a bit different on Windows, but the same steps still apply.
Step 1 – Once the Developer’s console appears, look at the icons on the top right of the screen. You will see one that looks like a tablet and a smartphone. It should say “Toggle device bar” once you hover the cursor over the icon. Click on that and you’ll notice that your web browser looks smaller.
Step 2 – Login to your Instagram account if needed.
Step 2
Click on Your Story at the top left of the screen and you’ll be immediately taken to your computer files.
This method assumes you have images and videos ready on your computer. If not, you should upload them first.
Write custom captions, add doodles, and embellish your story using the same tools as you would on a mobile device. Hit “Add to your story” once you are happy with the looks. That’s it.
Can You Do It Using Safari?
In theory, it is possible to post an Instagram story from Safari but your computer needs to allow Portrait orientation. You should be able to change your display settings and post a story.
If not, you can always use Safari to post pictures or videos. Here is how to do it:
Step 1
To switch the User-Agent, you need to enable the Develop menu first. Head over to Safari Preferences, select Advanced, and tick “Show Develop menu in the menu bar.”
Step 2
Click on Develop, select User-Agent, and tick “Safari iOS – 11.3 – iPhone” (Safari iOS – 11.3 – iPod touch works as well).
You can now log into your Instagram account and click on the “plus” icon to add photos and videos. As already mentioned, if you want to add a story, switch to portrait mode first.
Compared to Chrome, it might be easier to use Instagram on Safari because you get a full-window view. Then again, things become a bit tricky with posting stories via the portrait mode.
Third-party Apps
Third-party apps offer different posting/search features, and some of them are available with paid versions only. However, these apps can be useful if you are using Instagram for business or want to upload in bulk.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a popular service for influencers and many entrepreneurs. Fortunately, it can do a lot more than schedule posts. Hootsuite gives you the option to set up Instagram posts from your computer.
Although it is a paid service, it is well worth the money if you’re managing multiple social media accounts, posts, and schedules.
Bluestacks
An Android emulator, Bluestacks is also available on both Mac and PC. You need a Google account to use it and the entire process resembles the browser hacks described above.
The best thing about this app is that it’s free of charge and you can easily post stories, pictures, and videos. However, it doesn’t support bulk uploads and management of multiple accounts.
Hopper HQ
Hopper HQ is a scheduling tool designed for power users. It offers bulk uploads, full automation, analytics, and more. Plus, it features a Grid Planner which allows you to get a preview of your Instagram profile.
This tool is best for social media managers and influencers as the subscription price is a bit steep.
Dropbox
Dropbox doesn’t exactly let you post stories to Instagram using your computer but it is worth mentioning. Assuming you have some great photo editing software on your computer, or, it’s easier to work with your Instagram content on a larger screen, the Dropbox service makes it easier to move that content to a mobile device and upload it.
If you’re having issues with any of the above-listed options, Dropbox paves the road your edited content will travel from computer to smartphone. Combining simple upload options and immediate data uploads within the application, this is yet another way to post content on Instagram using your computer.
Hit the Like Button
Posting an Instagram story from your computer is easy. And if you are an average user, there is no need to resort to third-party apps. Just make sure to upload photos or videos to your computer before you share them.
Google Chromecast is advantageous in many ways. Not only does it allow you to watch hundreds of your favorite TV shows and movies from your mobile devices straight to your TV, it does it seamlessly and ever so easily. Casting content directly from your mobile device to your television, is undoubtedly a much easier process than having to use the TV remote control and deal scuffle around the interface. Another great plus about this device is its affordability. At $35, you can enjoy great video streaming from a multitude of Android applications including Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Google Play Movies.
Despite all the wonderful features that Chromecast has, there can be slight issues that some users have to deal with. One of these is the problem with sound. Some users have experienced difficulties of hearing sound from the television while streaming. This can be very frustrating for sure. However, this is not a cause for distress; fixing sound problems through your Chromecast isn’t as difficult as you might think it is. All you have to do is pinpoint the problem causing an error in sound playback, and you’ll be back to enjoying the most of your movie in no time.
Checking Your Television’s Settings
Let’s start with some basic sound solutions to kick things off. Technology can be buggy and imperfect, but some fundamental knowledge in troubleshooting can save the day.
Ensure the sound issue isn’t coming from your television by checking your volume level and testing a different device for sound output (such as a game console or a cable box). Also, make sure that you have enabled the speakers in your television, and you have set your audio output to ‘fixed’.
Most modern televisions have a built-in option to disable the television speakers in order to use a home theater or surround sound system. You can also try turning off and unplugging your television for a few minutes, as well as resetting its factory settings from the settings menu. Finally, if you’re using a stereo system to power the audio side of your home theater, ensure that your audio system isn’t malfunctioning.
Once you’ve checked your television, try switching your Chromecast to a different HDMI port.
There are a few points that you have to consider checking about your Chromecast:
Make sure your Chromecast is plugged into a fully-functioning USB port, and is receiving enough power.
Your Chromecast is powered by a microUSB cable, plugging it into the TV’s built-in USB port won’t make it work.
The 4K-supported Chromecast Ultra, meanwhile, uses a dedicated AC adapter, which means you might want to try a different outlet in order for it to function properly.
Troubleshooting Your Chromecast
After you’ve made sure your device is being supplied with enough power to function properly, you can also try to restart your device to shake up any bugs that might be occurring. To do this, follow these steps:
Open the Google Home app on your mobile device.
Tap the Devices button at the top right corner of your screen. From here you will see the currently available Chromecast devices on your network.
Select your device.
Tap the three-dotted icon at the top right of your screen, then select Settings.
Tap More to view additional settings.
Tap Reboot.
These steps will reboot your Chromecast, and should fix any issues with both visuals and sounds. Alternatively, you can simply unplug the device from its power source, forcing a reset.
If sound is still an issue from your device, make sure that the volume on your phone is turned up for Chromecast. Though you can control the volume of your Chromecast streams with your standard volume control on your TV remote, you can also control the volume through your mobile device. Just make sure that you have some kind of content playing from your phone or tablet on your Chromecast, and use the volume rocker on your device to increase the volume as you normally would.
Alternatively, try to stop the stream from your mobile device and restart the stream. If the sound problem is spawning from the application, restarting the stream will force Chromecast to reload the URL from which it’s accessing the video or audio feed.
You can also try force closing the application on your device to see if the problem is coming from the app itself as opposed to the Chromecast device or the connection between the app and Chromecast. If you’re streaming from
Chrome on your Chromebook or other computer, you can use the built-in Chromecast extension to ensure audio is optimized for sound. Tap on the extension in Chrome, select your Chromecast device, and select “Cast this tab (optimize for audio).”
Finally, you may want to attempt to factory reset your device. The main method for resetting the device is through using the Google Home app, as we already discussed. To reset your device using the app on your phone, tap on the Device icon inside the app and select the Chromecast device in your app. After opening your device’s settings menu, click on the triple-dotted icon inside the settings to select the factory reset option. Google Home will prompt you to ensure that you want to reset your device. Once you confirm your selection, you’ll be able to completely reset your device with preferences to test the audio again.
If you’re still experiencing problems with your Chromecast after trying these solutions, and you’ve ensured it isn’t another piece of A/V equipment in your setup, the next-best step is to contact Google for a warranty replacement.
Fixing Chromecast Audio Devices
It is also best to mention some Chromecast Audio-specific tips for fixing your audio streams. The Chromecast Audio is less popular than its older, video-friendly brother, but it’s a no less interesting device. This can be great for those who have excellent sound systems and are looking for something that functions better than a Bluetooth device.
If in any case you are having any trouble with your Chromecast Audio device, here are some tips that might help.
First, we need to dive back into the settings menu of your device in Google Home. Open your Chromecast Audio settings as described in our previous section and find the Sounds section. Unlike a traditional Chromecast device, the Chromecast Audio provides you with a new, never-before-seen setting here: full dynamic range. If you’re unsure about whether or not you want to enable this setting, then you should leave it off. Full dynamic range is designed for premium audio hardware, like Hi-Fi audio systems and AV receivers. If you’re trying to pump sound through a $30 pair of computer speakers from Amazon, this setting can actually cause distortion and improper volume increases on your device. If you’re having difficulty listening to your music, ensure this setting is disabled.
If you’re still experiencing issues with sound on your Chromecast Audio, check that the 3.5mm cable used by the device is working properly. Unlike typical Chromecasts, the Chromecast Audio uses a modular, analog 3.5mm jack and cable that can be damaged. However, this is typically easy to replace. Ensure that the cable is pushed into both your receiver or speaker and the Chromecast Audio unit. It would also be best to try testing the unit with a different aux cable. If you can’t get any sound out of the device, you may need to consider replacing the unit, as the 3.5mm jack may be dead or damaged.
***
Like most technology, Google’s Chromecast has its issues, including occasional hiccups and glitches when streaming media. Typically, most of these issues can be fixed by simply turning your off and on, or by switching the USB port powering your Chromecast, but of course, these problems can often have all sorts of causes and fixes, so keep trying our solutions above until you’ve solved the problem. You can do a lot with your Chromecast once you get it working properly, so let us know which fixes worked for you in the comments below.
When you first get a new Vizio TV, you’re going to set all the preferences to your liking. This includes the aspect ratio. But you can always go back and change the setting. For example, you might need to use the Zoom feature occasionally to see the image better.
But what does the Zoom option do exactly and how to know when to apply it? In this article, we’ll explain everything about the Vizio TV aspect ratio options. And we’ll touch on the Vizio TV Accessibility Settings that have a different kind of Zoom Mode.
Managing Vizio TV Aspect Ratio
It wasn’t too long ago that TVs looked a lot different than they do now. Among all of the improvements in image quality and hardware, they also come in a slightly different shape.
Modern TVs like Vizio are designed and produced in a 16:9 aspect ratio. Which essentially means that they’re rectangular. Old TVs were made in the 4:3 ratio, which is closer to a square shape.
This also means that older movies and shows were made to fit the 4:3 ratio. For that reason, you might find yourself trying to stream an old video, and see black bars on both sides of your Vizio TV.
If it doesn’t bother you, then just leave it alone. But if those bars are annoying you, you can change the Aspect Ratio on your Vizio. Here’s how it works:
On your Vizio remote, press the “Menu” button.
Using arrow keys, scroll down to the “System” and hit the OK key on your remote.
Select “Aspect Ratio” and hit OK again.
This will bring you to three different options:
Normal – this is probably your default setting. And this option means that your Vizio won’t change the image shape at all. It will stay in its original format.
Wide – this is what you use if you want to go from square shape to rectangular shape. This option will remove the black bars on the side of the image.
Zoom – this option is going to zoom in on a particular image.
If you don’t see any option except “Normal” that probably means that the source device already made the adjustments to the picture size. Note that some cable and satellite providers, as well as DVD players, might have the same aspect ratio settings.
Vizio TV and Accessibility Settings
Vizio TVs are becoming more and more popular, and it’s not just because they’re affordable and well made. Every Vizio TV manufactured after 2017 has Accessibility Settings.
This means that people who have impaired vision and hearing can also enjoy the content on their Vizio. So, how do you access these features? All you have to do is press the “Menu” key on the remote. Then choose “System,” followed by “Accessibility”.
Zoom Mode
This Zoom feature doesn’t have anything to do with the aspect ratio of the image on the TV. The purpose of Zoom mode here is to enlarge the text portion of the display. This applies to all of the functions on the home screen.
Basically, any text that your Vizio TV can display on its own. However, it won’t work with any streaming boxes or applications.
Talk Back
This is a Text-to-Speech feature built-in to your Vizio TV. You can use it with any text-related option that your TV has on its own. And like Zoom Mode, you won’t be able to use it with any devices or streaming applications.
Speech Rate
You can choose the speed of the Talk Back option. Depending on your preference, you can go Slow, Normal, and Fast.
Closed Captioning
Closed captioning can be very useful in many situations. But only Vizio TVs with a built-in Tuner will have it as an option. Therefore, it will only work if your TV is connected via Antenna or with cable. Otherwise, you might need other sources for Closed Captions. Like the streaming device or application you’re using on your Vizio TV.
Zooming In on Your Vizio TV
What’s important to remember is that there are two Zoom features on Vizio TV. One is there to help you zoom in on an image while you’re watching something on TV.
And the other is there to help you navigate through Vizio TV menu settings. This is a vital addition to accessibility features on Vizio TVs. If someone asks you about how to Zoom on Vizio TV, make sure to ask exactly what they’re looking for first.
Have you ever used the Zoom features in Vizio TV? Let us know in the comments section below.
How long have you been using Twitter? If the answer is “way too long”, then you’ve probably heard of Twitter Fancams. That said, unless you’re a teenager, you might not understand what they’re all about.
When you log into Twitter, a fancam will pop up in most unexpected places. In this article, we’ll cover the origins of fancams and how they’ve evolved. In addition, we’ll explain how best to use a fancam on Twitter.
What Is a Fancam Exactly?
If you’re not a Twitter user, you could decipher the concept of fancams by separating the word. The term implies that it’s video footage created by a fan. A fan of who, you might wonder? That’s where it gets even more interesting.
The idea of a fancam is closely related to the K-Pop phenomenon. Wait. What’s K-Pop? It’s an extremely popular music genre that comes from South Korea. But it’s not only confined to its country of origin. K-Pop fans are international, and many of them are US teenagers.
A person who loves K-Pop so much will create short videos of their favorite performers singing and dancing – that’s called a fancam. These videos rarely go above seconds, and K-Pop fans use all kinds of sources to create them. It can be their personal videos from a concert, an official music video, or a YouTube clip.
And since most of K-Pop are groups of boy or girl bands, it’s essential that they zoom in on one member in particular. Most of the fancam videos you’ll see on Twitter have a poor image and sound quality. But they’re easy to make and even easier to share.
How to Correctly Use Fancam on Twitter
Right about now, you might be wondering what’s the point of fancams on Twitter. Well, for one, K-Pop groups tend to have an incredibly active and devoted following. Their fans identify with them and follow members of the bands closely on social media.
When fancams first started appearing some five years ago, it was to promote and popularize K-pop groups on Twitter. There are a lot of fansites and websites dedicated to a specific K-pop band or person. Fans can find a lot of information and even sources for their fancam videos.
However, things have evolved in a somewhat strange direction with fancams and Twitter. If you enter the fancam Twitter hashtag, you’ll see an endless list of fancam clips. Most of them are posted in replies and posts entirely unrelated to K-Pop or even music.
Fundamentally, fancams have transformed into Twitter spam. But even so, is there a right or wrong way to use a fancam? Not really. For the most part, Twitter users post fancams to distract people in replies to the original post. If someone tweeted something they don’t like, spamming the replies with fancams can turn people away from reading the replies themselves.
So, in that sense, it actually has a purpose. But most of the time, it’s just random and pretty much nonsensical. You can write it off as teenage humor that only teenagers understand. Or, if you’re a K-pop fan, you’ll enjoy seeing fancams whenever they appear on Twitter.
Fancams-Inspired Fancams
In a very predictable turn of events, K-Pop fancams have inspired others. Twitter and Instagram users around the world have taken this concept and made into something new. Now a Twitter search for fancams can lead to fan-made clips of a beloved celebrity doing something completely mundane, or standing on a red carpet at a glitzy event.
And it’s not just about the video either. The accompanying music is usually something very specific, or something that merely aims to amplify the dazzle effect of the celebrity in question.
In the world of Twitter fancams, Timothée Chalamet is one of the most popular actors. There’s him standing on the red carpet or merely smiling and waving. But there are many other celebrities whose fans have made them into fancams.
Are Twitter Fancams Here to Stay?
Remarkably, the Twitter Fancam trend is still going strong. Most things have an expiration date on Twitter, regardless of how huge they become. Just ask Baby Yoda. But K-Pop is different, their fans are passionate and invariably have a lot of time on their hands.
But still, fancams have stood the test of time, and have even found a way to shapeshift. They can be fun, but can also clutter your Twitter feed. No matter how much you avoid fancams on Twitter, they’ll show up from time to time.
What’s your take on Twitter fancams? Let us know in the comments section below.
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American Airlines reported Q1 2020 earnings on April 30. It missed expectations across the board as COVID-19 hurt the company severely, along with the entire airline industry.
Have you ever wondered how the American tax system evolved? Keep reading to find out how U.S. taxes have changed since they were first introduced in the country.
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The government has granted taxpayers and businesses an extension of time to file and pay 2019 taxes as well as Q1 and Q2 2020 estimated taxes. The extension is automatic.
If an individual is considered an employee, then the employer is responsible for taxes. If they are considered an independent contractor, they must report themself.
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The more you understand about credit card delinquency, the better prepared you will be to avoid getting delinquent and know how to handle it if it happens to you.
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Rate on line is the ratio of premium paid to loss recoverable in a reinsurance contract. Rate on line represents how much an insurer has to pay to obtain reinsurance coverage, with a higher ROL indicating that the insurer has to pay more for coverage.
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Learn the tax implications for a company and its investors in divestiture events, such as spinoffs, equity carve-outs, and subsidiary asset and stock sales.
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Use these three early warning signs to take fast exits on open positions. Many investors, market timers and traders fail miserably when facing an exit.
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NLC Admit Card 2020 | Download Graduate Engineer Hall Ticket – The Neyveli Lignite Corporation is responsible for all NLC Exam Hall Tickets 2020. There are many applicants have been applied for the various NLC Recruitment and waiting to write the NLC Exams. To write the exam applicants must carry to NLC Admit Card to the examination. From this page, the applicants will get the detailed information of all Neyveli Lignite Corporation Admit Card, Exam Date, Name of the post, Number of vacancies Exam Date & direct link to download NLC Admit Card 2020.
NLC Graduate Engineer Admit Card 2020 – Overview
The Neyveli Lignite Corporation recently release the recruitment notification for 259Graduate Engineer Posts. There are many candidates who interested in TN Govt Jobs in are applied for the respective recruitment and waiting for the NLC Admit Card on its official website. Therefore the board has planned to conduct the NLC Graduate Engineer Exam in 26th May 2020 & 27th May 2020. Hence the NLC Graduate Engineer Exam Admit Card will be released by the respective board before the exam schedule. Candidates need to visit this page on a daily basis to get the furthermore updates of NLC Graduate Engineer Hall Ticket 2020.
After downloading the admit card, candidates need to check the credentials. Students will be allowed inside the exam hall along with the Neyveli Lignite Corporation Graduate Engineer Admit Card. Check the below-mentioned details presented on your Graduate Engineer Exam Admit Card and download NLC Admit Card from the official website by providing the valid credentials.
Candidates Name
Name of the Candidate's Father
Exam Hall Number
Date & Time of the Test
Reporting Time to the Exam Hall
Gender (Male/ Female)
Roll Number
Duration of the Online Test
Space for Invigilator's Signature
Registration Number
Name of the Test Centre
Category of the candidates
Space for Applicant's Signature
Name of the University
Photograph of the Candidate
Applicant's Date of Birth
Name of the Written Test
Important Guidelines for the Exam Takers
Full Name of the Applicant
Examination Centre Code
Signature of the Principal
ID Proof along with the NCL Exam Admit Card 2020
As per the Govt update to write any government exam candidates must carry the any of of the original id proof along with their Neyveli Lignite Corporation Call letter. It avoids the doorstep duplication and acts as a ladder between the applicant and the students to complete the verification process. Below listed documents are allowed by the government to carry for the examination.
Original Photograph
Voter Card
Pan Card
Employee ID
College ID
PAN Card
Passport
Driving License
Any other ID proof issued by a Gazetted Officer
Steps to Download NLC Exam Call Letter 2020
There are many applicants struggling to download the NLC Exam Hall Ticket, Call Letter from the official website. To help the aspirants below we have given step by step guide to download NLC Admit Card 2020. By following below-given procedure applicants easily download the NLC Graduate Engineer Exam Hall Ticket 2020.
Click the NLC Graduate Engineer Hall Ticket link from the important links provided below.
Find the Admit Card with a released date.
Open the link and fill the required details.
Give the required details appearing on the screen
Verify the entered details appeared on the screen.
After the clear glance Submit the NLC Hall Ticket.
Finally, download your Neyveli Lignite Corporation Hall Ticket
Take a print out of the admit card and carry it for the NLC Examination.
Direct Links to Download NLC Hall Ticket 2020
The given link gets activated soon. Only the applied candidates who have applied for NLC Recruitment are eligible to download the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) Admit Card from the given link.
BSF Constable GD Admit Card 2020 @ bsf.nic.in | BSF CISF GD Exam Postponed – The Border Security Force Recruitment Board is conducting the various recruitment exams every year across India. Therefore the board has planned to conduct the BSF Constable GD Exam has been postponed. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown now the board has postponed the BSF Constable Exam to May 2020 (Tentatively) and the BSF Constable GD hall ticket will be released one week before the exam.
The Border Security Force will release the BSF Admit Card in its official website. So the applied aspirants can download the BSF Hall Ticket through the below given direct link. Only the candidates who all are applied for the exam are allowed to get the Admit Card from the given link. It is a mandatory document to appear for the BSF Constable GD Exam. Those who failed to carry the BSF CISF GD Exam Admit Card are not allowed to write the exam.
BSF Constable GD Admit Card & Hall Ticket Overview
Important details of BSF GD Constable Admit Card 2020
The BSF CISF GD Exam Admit Card contains the all vital details of the candidate & exam. Below few are the general details given and it should be available on your BSF Admit Card. If found any correction presented on the Border Security Force Admit Card, they need to contact the official support and it should be fixed before the exam.
Student Name
The venue of the Exam Centre
Date & Time of the Test
Reporting Time to the Exam Hall
Gender (Male/ Female)
Roll Number
Duration of the Test
Space for Invigilator's Signature
Registration Number
Name of the Test Centre
Space for Applicant's Signature
Name of the Exam Conducting Board
Photograph of the Student
Applicant's Date of Birth
Name of the exam
Important Guidelines for the Exam Takers
Full Name of the Applicant
Examination Centre Code
Signature of the Board Counselor
Documents along with BSF GD Constable Admit Card 2020
Download and carry the admit card along with the needed documents to the exam hall. Candidates can now get the admit card from the below link. Here, we have attached the direct link to download the BSF Call Letter once it is released by the board. To take down the exam, Aspirants must carry all the required documents along with them.
Original Photograph
Voter Card
Pan Card
Employee ID
College ID
PAN Card
Passport
Driving License
Any other ID proof issued by a Gazetted Officer
Bank Pass Book with the photograph
How to Download BSF GD Constable Admit Card 2020?
Visit the “BSF Admit Card 2020 page through the below-given link.
Enter the Login details.
Click on to the Submit Button.
A Call Letter page will arise on the screen.
Enter all the valid details in that.
Check once for the clear view of the details you entered.
Now go to the download option to get the Admit Card.
CBSE Junior Assistant Result 2020| Get Junior Assistant Exam Result link – The Central Board of Secondary Education will release the CBSE Junior Assistant Result on its official website. Go through the complete article to get the complete information of CBSE Junior Assistant Result release date, Num of vacancies, exam date, upcoming updates of CBSE Junior Assistant Exam. Also, applicants will get the details of CBSE Junior Assistant Cut-Off & Merit list details from here.
CBSE Junior Assistant Result 2020 – Overview
The Central Board of Secondary Education has conducted the exam for Junior Assistant, Accountant, Junior Accountant Assistant Secretary, Junior Hindi Translator, Senior Assistant & Other posts for the 357 vacancies. Therefore the board has held the examination for the above-mentioned posts in 28th January 2020. So the candidates who have completed the exam on mentioned dates are looking for the CBSE Junior Assistant Result on its official website. Hence the board has planned to release the Junior Central Board of Secondary Education Junior Assistant Result in May 2020.
The Central Board of Secondary Education Cut-Off Marks indicates the minimum marks scored by the candidates to qualify the on the exam. The candidates must obtain the minimum Cut-Off marks set by the CBSE Board. Those candidates who have scored good marks in CBSE Junior Assistant exams are qualifying for the further level of interviews. By this way, the CBSE Board filter the candidates on each level. Normally the board will decide the Cut-off marks based on the below-factors. Those are
The number of aspirants appeared for the examination.
The number of vacancies available.
Previous year cut off marks.
Candidates category
CBSE Junior Assistant Exam Result Merit List 2020
From here, the applicants can easily find their Junior Assistant Merit List 2020. The CBSE Merit List 2020 contains the names and register number of the candidates who score top marks in the exam. All the candidates must check the merit list to know whether they have got selected in the exam or not. Applicants whose names are placed in the merit list, they have a chance to go for the next level selection process. All the exam participates can check the CBSE Junior AssistantMerit List on the official website @ cbse.nic.in. Also, we will provide a direct link to check CBSE Merit List 2020 after the exam result.
Step by Step guide to download CBSE Junior Assistant Result
The applicants are eagerly waiting to check their Result from the official website. But many of the applicants are struggling to get their CBSE Result from the official website. To help the applicants below we have given the step by step guide to download CBSE Junior Assistant Result 2020. Follow the steps and download your result from the official website.
Visit the official website by clicking the below-given link.
Find the Notification tab.
Find the result link with post name
Click the link and enter required login details appeared on the screen
The CBSE Result will appear on the screen.
Find your name with application number, dob and other details.
Take the print out for further use.
Important Links for CBSE Junior Assistant Result
The below-given are important to get the Central Board of Secondary Education Junior Assistant Result from the official website. Normally the board will release the results in PDF or Online mode. If the result is the online mode by following the above procedure applicant can download the result from the official website. It is a PDF mode the direct downloadable link will be updated in below table. The Cut-off & Merit List details will be updated on the same below table soon.
WCL Result 2020 Released at Official website @ westerncoal.in. The Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) has announced the recruitment of Staff Nurse to fill 90 Vacancies. The Board of WCL has conducted Staff Nurse Exam on 01st December 2019. Many aspirants have appeared for the WCL Staff Nurse Written Examination. And all the Candidates are now waiting for the Exam Result date. Such Candidates can have the latest information regarding the WCL Staff Nurse Exam Result 2020 on our site. The Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) has Released the Western Coalfields Limited Staff Nurse Result 2020. So, all the Candidates can check the results and download it for further Reference. And also we will the details of Staff Nurse Trainee Grade C Cut Off, Merit List on our page.
Western CL Paramedical Staff Result 2020 @ westerncoal.in: Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) has commenced the Jr. Technical Inspector/ Jr. Chemist in T&S Gr. D, Translator (OL) in Clerical Gr. III, Overseer (Civil) in T&S Gr. C and different posts of Paramedical Staff Examination on 14th March 2020. The Department of WCL has announced this recruitment to fill Various vacancies. The Board of Western Coalfields Limited will soon declare the WCL Paramedical Staff Result 2020. We will provide a direct link to download the WCL Exam Result 2020. And the link will activate at the time of the official announcement. In addition, applicants can also check and download the WCL Cut Off Marks 2020 and WCL Merit List 2020. Moreover, Western Coalfields Limited is planning to declare the WCL Paramedical Staff Result & Other Posts results tentatively in the month of May 2020.
WCL Paramedical Staff Result 2020
Description
Details
Organization Name
Western Coalfields Limited (WCL)
Post Name
Jr. Technical Inspector/ Jr. Chemist in T&S Gr. D, Translator (OL) in Clerical Gr. III, Overseer (Civil) in T&S Gr. C and different posts of Paramedical Staff Posts
WCL Staff Nurse Trainee Grade C Result 2020 Released: The Board of Western Coalfields Limited will declare the results for Staff Nurse Trainee Grade C posts as soon as possible on their official website @westerncoal.in. Many Aspirants have appeared for the written exam. However, the Board members declared the WCL Exam Result. Since the WCL Staff Nurse Exam Was commenced on 01st December 2019. The Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) has Released the Western Coalfields Limited Staff Nurse Result 2020. While Checking Results Candidates must have the login details like roll number and password. The Higher Officials will announce the WCL Staff Nurse Trainee Grade C Result 2020 according to the performance of the Contenders. Here, the Selection process consists of two rounds. They are the Written Test and Interview.
WCL WCL Staff Nurse Trainee Grade C Result 2020 – Click Here Staff Nurse Call Letter 2019 For Certificate Verification – Click Here
WCL Staff Nurse Trainee Grade C Cut Off Marks 2020
Western Coalfields Limited Cut off Marks 2020 will be released only after the declaration of the Results. The Cut Off Marks will be decided based on the Catagories of Candidates SC, ST, BC, OC. The Aspirants should score qualifying Cut Off Marks. Then only Candidates will for the next level. Aspirants can check and download WCL Staff Nurse Cut Off Marks 2020.
Western Coalfields Limited Staff Nurse Merit List 2020
In this section, we can have the details of WCL Staff Nurse Merit List 2020. Candidates who have scored the highest marks in the Written Exam will get qualify for the final round. The Applicants in the Merit List will get more priority during the interview process. Whereas, the Staff Nurse Merit List 2020 will release after the announcement of Staff Nurse Trainee Grade C Result 2020. Hence, the Participants must concentrate on Cut Off Marks and Merit List. Further, we can have a stepwise procedure to download the Western Coalfields Limited Staff Nurse Result 2020.
How to check the WCL Exam Result 2020?
Firstly, visit the official website of the Western Coalfields Limited @ westerncoal.in
Secondly, the Homepage of Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) appears on the Screen.
Then go to the Recruitment Section at the bottom of the homepage.
Click on the Recruitment Section and a new page will open on the Screen.
And Search for the link related to the WCL Staff Nurse Result 2020.
EPFO Results 2020 Declared: Dear Aspirants !!! The officials of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation has conducted the written examinations for recruiting various posts. Many candidates have appeared for the EPFO Examination and waiting for the results. So, in order to help the candidates, we have provided a quick link to check the EPFO Result 2020 on this page. Now, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation has released the EPFO Exam Result 2020 for various examinations. Go through the entire page to know more detailed information about the EPFO Results 2020.
EPFO Section Supervisor LDCE Result 2020 will be out soon: Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has commenced the Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LDCE) on 27th July 2019. A huge number of aspirants appeared for the Examination and searching for the Employees PFO Section Supervisor Result 2020. The Board of EPFO has revealed this notification to fill 1349 vacancies of Section Supervisor posts. However, higher officials have decided to announce the EPFO LDCE Result tentatively in the month of May 2020. On this page, we will provide a direct link to download the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) Result 2020. In addition, aspirants can also check and download the EPFO LDCE Cut Off Marks 2020 and EPFO Section Supervisor LDCE Merit List 2020. Therefore, the link will activate at the time of the official announcement.
EPFO SSA Result 2020 Released: Employees' Provident Fund Organisation has announced the EPFO SSA Mains Result on 10th February 2020. Therefore, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation Board has conducted the SSA Mains Examination on 14th November 2019 to fill 280 Social Security Assistant posts. Many candidates have appeared for this mains examination and searching for the Results. Also, the EPFO has announced the Results. Candidates can check and download the EPFO SSA Mains Result 2020. Aspirants can download the EPFO Social Security Assistant Cut Off Marks, Merit List 2020 from here. Therefore, we have provided a direct link to download the Result and it is activated now !!!
EPFO Social Security Assistant Mains Result 2020 – UP | Bihar | Delhi | Others
EPFO Social Security Assistant Phase I Marks 2019Announced: Employee Provident Fund Organization India (EPFO) has Recently Uploaded Phase I Marks for the Post of Social Security Assistant SSA Recruitment 2019 on 05th November 2019. Candidates who have appeared for the prelims examination can check the result on the official website once the result has been declared. EPFO Assistant Prelims Result 2019 Link is provided below. So all candidates can check EPFO Assistant 2019 Prelims (Phase-I) result & Marks by clicking on the link mentioned below.
EPFO Social Security Assistant Phase I Marks 2019 – Click Here EPFO Social Security Assistant Result 2019 – Click Here
EPFO Assistant Mains Exam Final Marks 2019: EPFO Assistant Recruitment Mains Exam Final Marks 2019 has been released by EPFO. Candidates who have appeared for the prelims examination can check the Final Marks on the official website of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). EPFO Assistant Mains Final Marks 2019 Link is provided below. So all candidates can check the EPFO Assistant 2019 Mains Exam Final Marks by clicking on the link mentioned below.
EPFO Assistant Mains Exam Final Marks 2019 – Click Here
EPFO Cut Off Marks 2020 @ epfindia.gov.in
Applicants should concentrate on the EPFO Result 2020 Cut off Marks to attain the Merit List. So for these reasons, everyone can analyze the Syllabus for the Mains Examination. Here all the applicants can check EPFO Syllabus 2020 Pdf to get more knowledge about the Question Pattern. By referring to the Syllabus, applicants can understand the Question Pattern and giving more importance to some related topics. The EPFO Cut off marks and Merit list depends on some factors.
EPFO Expected Cut Off Marks 2020
Categories
Expected Cut off
General
78-85
EWS
73-77
OBC
70-75
SC
68-70
ST
65-69
How to Download the EPFO Exam Result 2020?
Visit the official website of Employees' Provident Fund Organisation @ epfindia.gov.in
On the home page, click on "Miscellaneous Tab".
In Recruitments Tab, find all the latest updates of the EPFO.
Search for the link related to EPFO Results 2020.
Enter the details of the registration number, password, and date of birth of the participant.
And then click on the submit button.
Now, EPFO Results 2020 of the candidate appears on the screen.
Karnataka PWD Result 2020 to be released soon for the Assistant Engineer (AE), Junior Engineer (JE) Post @ www.kpwd.gov.in or kpwd.co.in. Check and download Cut off Marks, Merit List Here. Many Candidates have attended the written test and eagerly waiting for the Karnataka PWD AE and JE Result 2020. The Public Works Department Karnataka (Karnataka PWD) Board has conducted the Written Exam on 22nd, 23rd, 24th June 2019. The Karnataka PWD Results 2020 is expected to be released in the month of May 2020 (Tentatively). So, all the aspirants can check and download PWD AE and JE Result 2020. And also can download Karnataka PWD Cut Off and Merit List from this page.
Karnataka PWD Result 2020 – Download here
The Public Works Department Karnataka (Karnataka PWD) will declare the results for Assistant Engineer and Junior Engineer posts as soon as possible on their official webpage www.kpwd.gov.in. A huge number of Aspirants appeared for the written exam on 22nd, 23rd, 24th June 2019. After completing the Written Examination candidates are waiting for the Result. The higher Official of Karnataka PWD is planning to release the Result in the month of May 2020 (Tentatively). So, you can check and download Karnataka PWD AE Result 2020 and Karnataka PWD JE Result 2020 here.
To check results candidates should have their roll number and password along with them. Public Works Department Karnataka (Karnataka PWD) will release the Karnataka PWD AE & JE Results 2020 based on the performance of the candidates. The total number of posts the Karnataka government launched for AE and JE is 870 posts. For Assistant Engineers 570 posts are available and for Junior Engineers 300 posts are available. Many Candidates completed the Examination successfully and waiting for the Results.
Karnataka PWD AE & JE Cut Off Marks 2020
From this article, you can have detailed information about the Karnataka PWD AE & JE Cut Off Marks 2020. The Public Works Department Karnataka (Karnataka PWD) has not yet released the exact cutoff marks. Selecting the Candidates for the Next level is completely depends upon the Cut Off Marks. The board will soon announce the cutoff marks in their official web page. The Karnataka PWD AE & JE Cut Off Marks 2020 will be prepared by the higher officials based on the category and few factors. We have given the direct links to download Karnataka PWD Exam Results and Cut Off Marks which will be activated at the time of Official Announcement.
KPWD AE & JE Merit List 2020 @ www.kpwd.gov.in
In this section, the Candidates can have an idea about the Public Works Department Karnataka (Karnataka PWD) Merit List 2020. Generally, the authority will announce the Merit after releasing the Result. All the candidates whose names are listed on the Karnataka PWD AE & JE Merit List 2020 have the highest preference to move for the next level of the selection process. After the official announcement, we will provide the Karnataka PWD AE & JE Merit List 2020 on this page. In the upcoming section, we have given the stepwise procedure to check the Karnataka PWD Exam Result 2020.
How to check the Karnataka PWD Exam Result 2020?
Initially, applicants can visit the official website of the Public Works Department Karnataka (Karnataka PWD) @ www.kpwd.gov.in or kpwd.co.in
Then the Homepage of Karnataka PWD Appears on the Screen.
And Search for the link related to the Karnataka PWD AE & JE Result 2020.
Then Click on that link.
And then log in with Candidates Details
Click on the submit button.
Finally, the Result displays on the Screen download it for the further selection process.
Direct Links to Download Karnataka PWD Result 2020
MAHADISCOM Result 2020 @ mahadiscom.in: Dear Candidates !!! Most of the aspirants are eagerly waiting to know their MAHADISCOM Exam Result 2020. Those aspirants who have written the examination conducted by the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited can check their exam results on this page. Therefore, the officials of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited has conducted the examination for recruiting various posts. A vast number of aspirants have appeared and now they are waiting to know their result status. To help out the candidates, we will update a quick link to check and download the MAHADISCOM Result 2020 on this webpage.
MAHADISCOM 101th Higher Accounts Exam Result 2020 Released:Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has conducted the 101th Higher Accounts Examination from 28th To 30th December 2019. The Board of MAHADISCOM will pick the candidates based on the written Examination. Moreover, the Department has declared the MAHADISCOM Results 2020 @ mahadiscom.in. In the below table, the direct link is available to download the MSEDCL 101th Higher Accounts Exam Result 2020. Additionally, aspirants can also check and download the MAHADISCOM 101th Higher Accounts Exam Merit List 2020.
MAHADISCOM 101th Higher Accounts Exam Result 2020
Description
Details
Organization Name
Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL)
MAHADISCOM 101th Higher Accounts Exam Result 2020: Click Here
MAHADISCOM Engineer Trainee Result 2020 Released:The officials of MAHADISCOM has announced the notification for 450 Diploma Engineer Trainee, Graduate Engineer Trainee Vacancies. Most of the candidates have applied and attended the examination by various Examination centres. Now, candidates are eagerly waiting to know their results. We are here to help you out with the MAHADISCOM Result 2020. The officials have released the MAHADISCOM Engineer Trainee Result on 14th February 2020. Here we have provided the MAHADISCOM Engineer Trainee Result 2020 link, it has activated now. Candidates can get the MAHADISCOM Selected Candidate List from this page.
MAHADISCOM Engineer Trainee Result 2020
Description
Details
Organization Name
Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MAHADISCOM)
MAHADISCOM Engineer Trainee Result 2020: Click Here
MAHADISCOM Upkendra Sahayak Result 2020 Declared: The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited has announced the notification for 2000 vacancies for the post of Upkendra Sahayak. The Board has conducted the Upkendra Sahayak Examination on 25thAugust 2019. Most of the candidates have applied and attended the examination by various Examination centers. Now all those candidates may eagerly be waiting to know their result status. We are here to help you out with the MAHADISCOM Result 2020. Moreover, the officials are planning to release the Result in the month of May 2020 (Tentatively). Here on this page, we will be updating the MAHADISCOM Result 2020 link and it will be activated at the time of the result announcement by officially.
MAHADISCOM Upkendra Sahayak Result 2020
Description
Details
Organization Name
Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MAHADISCOM)
MAHADISCOM Upkendra Sahayak Exam Result 2020: Click Here
Mahadiscom Selection List 2020 @ mahadiscom.in
Below we have enclosed the MAHADISCOM Diploma, Graduate Engineer Trainee Result 2020 for all sets. So, candidates who appeared for the Mahadiscom Asst Engineer Exam can download the Mahadiscom DET, GET Result directly from here. Otherwise, you can also check the results from the official website @ www.mahadiscom.in. All the exam participants can get the direct link to check and download the MAHADISCOM Selected Candidate List 2020 from this page.
MAHADISCOM Merit List 2020
Applicants who score high marks in the written examination will be placed in the MAHADISCOM Merit List 2020. The merit list will contain the roll number and name of the Candidates who qualified in the written exam. All the aspirants can download the MAHADISCOM DET, GET Merit List. Along with the Results, candidates can get some simple steps to download your result from the official website.
MAHADISCOM Cut Off Marks 2020
Applicants can check the MAHADISCOM Cut Off Marks from the official website www.mahadiscom.in. After the result declaration, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited Officials will publish the Cut off Marks on the official website. Candidates should get minimum or maximum marks to qualify for Diploma Engineer Trainee, Graduate Engineer Trainee Posts.
How to Download the MAHADISCOM Engineer Trainee Result 2020?
Visit the official website of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited @ mahadiscom.in.
On the home page, click on the News & Latest Announcements section.
A new page will open with various results.
Click on the related link with MAHADISCOM DET, GET Results.
Applicants can check and download for further reference.
MPPGCL Result 2020 | Download All MPPGCL Exam Results @ mppgcl.mp.gov.in – Welcome to Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company Limited Results page. The MPPGCL Result page will help the applicants to find out all MPPGCL Exam & Recruitment Results. From the given links applicant can directly check & download the results from the official site. Also, check the MPPGCL Exam Cut-Off marks, Merit List from here.
MPPGCL Plant Assistant Result 2020
The Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company Limited released the recruitment for 100Plant Assistant Posts. There are many candidates have completed the respective exam in November 2019 and waiting for the results. Therefore the MPPGCL Recruitment Board has planned to release the Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company Limited Result in May 2020(Tentatively). By visiting this page on frequent basis applicant can download the MPPGCL Plant Assistant Result from the below link. Only the given link will work when the result is available on the official site.
All the exam participants need to score the minimum cut off marks in the written examination. The Cut Off Marks plays an essential role in every aspirant's life. The Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company Limitedofficialswill release the MPPGCL Cut Off Marks 2020 on their official website @ mppgcl.mp.gov.in. The officials will decide the cut off marks by some of the factors such as depending upon
Based on the candidates' category.
The number of vacancies.
A number of candidates appear in the examination.
Previous year cut off marks.
A difficulty level of the written examination.
MPPGCL Merit List 2020 @ mppgcl.mp.gov.in
Aspirants will be shortlisted based on the marks scored on the examination for the interview and also for the final merit list. After the announcement of the results, the board will release the Merit List. Moreover, the MPPGCL Merit List 2020 contains the list of names who had scored the highest marks in the examination. Moreover, candidates can check the MPPGCL Merit List 2020 from the official website @ mppgcl.mp.gov.in. Besides, we will update the link to check the MPPGCL Merit List when the officials make it available. Keep in touch with us to know more information about the MPPGCL Merit List 2020.
How to check the MPPGCL Plant Assistant Result?
First, visit the official website of the Madhya Pradesh Power Generating Company Limited i.e, www.mppgcl.mp.gov.in
On the home page, view the News Section
In the News section, Plant Assistant link will be available
Click on the result link, and enter the required details
Check the MPPGCL PA result carefully
Download the result for further reference.
Direct link to download MPPGCL Plant Assistant Result 2020
#01. When will be the MPPGCL Result 2020 declared?
Normally the MPPGCL Board will release the result between one to two month of the exam.
#02. How to check the MPPGCL Result 2020?
To check your final Result 2020, go to the direct link given in this page, you will get the list of selected candidates in PDF form or in the link. So you can choose the given option based on availability.
#03. Where I can check my MPPGCL Result 2020?
Aspirants can check their results from our recruitment. guru page as well as on the official website.
Maharashtra GDS Result 2020 Released@ appost.in: The Maharashtra Postal Circle is declared the Maharashtra Postal GDS Result 2020 for the post of Gramin Dak Sevak 3650 Posts in May 2020 on their official website. Therefore, many candidates have applied for this post from 01st November 2019 to 30th November 2019. The applicants are now searching for the Maharashtra Post Office Gramin Dak Sevak Result 2020. Hence, Candidates, who have applied for the post can check and download the Maharashtra GDS Result 2020 from the below link. Here on this page, we will be updating all the latest GDS results in Maharashtra with direct links and it will activate at the time of the official announcement.
Maharashtra GDS Result 2020 – Download Here
The application process for this recruitment of the post of Gramin Dak Sevak was invited in the month of December 2019. The officials of the India Post had announced this recruitment to fill 3650 vacancies of Gramin Dak Sevak (GDS) in Maharashtra Circle. However, the Selection process completely based on the 10th marks of the Candidates. On this page, anyone can check the All-State Postman & Mail Guard Result 2020 by using the direct link Indian Post Office Result 2020. So, the Registered candidates can get their Maharashtra Post Office GDS Result 2020-21 from this page directly by visiting this page. Moreover, the Maharashtra Postal GDS Result 2020 link will activate at the time of the official announcement.
Maharashtra Postal Circle GDS Result 2020 – Overview
The aspirants who applied for the Maharashtra Post Office GDS recruitment can get information about the Maharashtra Gramin Dak Sevak Merit List PDF 2020. MH Post GDS Selected Candidates List 2020 will decide, after the completion of the Document Verification Process. Candidates will get details about Gramin Dak Sevak Result Online announcements. And also, how to download the Maharashtra Post Office Result 2020, document verification and other related information.
Maharashtra GDS Merit List & Cutoff Marks 2020
The authority will decide the Merit List depends on some Conditions. Candidates with a high score in the 10th/SSLC Examination is the main criteria for this post. Most Importantly, Selection is purely based on Merit. Here we have provided some instructions to download Maharashtra GDS Result 2020 & Merit Lists here. Here we have provided a direct link to download the Maharastra GDS Merit List 2020.
How to Download GDS Maharashtra Result 2020?
Visit the official website of the Gramin Dak Sevak Engagement portal www.appost.in.
Then, on the home page, search for the "Results" tab.
Click on the "Maharashtra (3650 posts)" link.
The desired merit list for Maharashtra GDS will be download by clicking the respective link
Check the name in the Maharashtra Postal Circle Gramin Dak Sevak Results 2020
Direct link to Download Maharashtra GDS Result 2020
IBPS Clerk Result 2020 will soon declare on its official Website @ ibps.in. Institute of Banking Personnel Selection conducted the Mains Examination on 19th January 2020. A huge number of aspirants appeared for the IBPS Mains Exam. All the candidates are eagerly searching for the IBPS Clerk Mains Result 2020. Moreover, the IBPS Committee is planning to release the IBPS Clerk Mains Result in the month of May 2020. So candidates can check and get the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection Clerk Result 2020 using this page. Hence, applicants can also get the latest updates regarding the IBPS Mains Exam date, IBPS Mains Result, Cut Off Marks and others from this web portal.
IBPS Clerk Result 2020 – Download Here
Institute of Banking Personnel Selection has conducted the IBPS Clerk Mains exam successfully across all the shifts. However, the IBPS Board is planning to release the Clerk Mains Results only through the online mode. So, aspirants can check the IBPS Clerk Mains Result 2020 from the official site using candidates roll number and password. Candidates who got shortlisted in the Mains examination will be called for the further levels of the selection process. Here, we have given the direct link to download the IBPS Clerk Mains Result 2020 and the link will be activated at the time of announcement. Also, Applicants can also check the IBPS Cut Off Marks and also the IBPS Merit List 2020 from our recruitment. guru website.
Prelims Exam, Mains Exam, Provisional Allotment, Document Verification, and Interview
Official Website
www.ibps.in
The above-given table will give information like the organization name, Post name, category, Exam Date, Result Date, the selection process and the official site to check the IBPS Clerk Mains Results 2020. IBPS conducts two stages of Examination. They are the prelims examination and the mains examination. The IBPS Clerk Mains Examination has conducted on 19th January 2020. The Board of Institute of Banking Personnel Selection is going to release the IBPS Clerk Mains Result in May2020. Here, attached with IBPS Clerk Syllabus for the upcoming examination.
IBPS Clerk Mains Cut Off Marks 2020
The IBPS Clerk Mains Cut Off Marks 2020 will inform the candidates about the minimum qualifying marks that they should be scored. Moreover, the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection higher members releases the IBPS Clerk Mains Cut Off Marks 2020 according to the categories of SC, ST, BC, OC. Thereafter we will provide the officially given cut off marks to have knowledge about the scores to be achieved. Moreover, all the Candidates can get their IBPS Clerk Mains Cut Off Marks on this page.
IBPS Clerk Mains Merit List 2020 @ www.ibps.in
All the candidates can also get the details of IBPS Clerk Mains Merit List 2020 from here. So far the higher authority of the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection will release the IBPS Clerk Mains Merit List 2020 based on the maximum marks. So, all the candidates can check the merit list depending on the application details and know the marks obtained in the Mains Examination.
How to Download the IBPS Clerk Mains Results 2020?
Candidates can visit the official site of the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection @ibps.in.
The page will be redirected to the home page screen.
Once the home page is opened, at the end of the home page check for the Careers section.
After that, click on the Careers section.
Check for the IBPS Clerk Mains Result 2020.
Click on the link available.
A new page with Online Mains Examination Result Display will be shown.
Enter the login credentials of Registration Number and Password.
Next, provide the given image details.
After that click on the Login button.
Once the Result is viewed check and download for future use.
Direct links to Download IBPS Clerk Mains Result 2020
May’s free games and loot for Twitch Prime members have been announced.
Twitch Prime members can download six free games starting tomorrow, and there’s plenty of free loot available for Prime users.
The free games available with Prime, May 1-30, are Avicii Invector, Fractured Minds, Pankapu, Urban Trial Playground, The Little Acre, and Snake Pass.
Below is the list of the Loot Drops available. You can check here for end dates. If you hit up the link, you can look over some of the other loot offers not listed below.
Destiny 2: Claim the S’Mores Exotic Emote, Death to Kells Exotic Ship, Star Map Exotic Ghost Shell, and The Whipcrack Legendary Sparrow.
Fallout 76: Grab the Settlers Workchief and Raider Nomad Outfits.
League of Legends: In May, claim the final loot drop for League of Legends. As part of this offer, Prime members can claim a permanent mystery skin.
Ring of Elysium: As part of the last drop the game, claim 500 E-Points, a Twitch Prime themed vehicle appearance, and a bonus accessory.
Legends of Runeterra: The latest drop for Riot’s collectible card game unlocked the Champion Wild Card, Expedition Run, Rare Wild Card, and an Epic Wild Card.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang: As part of the World Health Organization’s #PlayApartTogether campaign, from now until May 5, unlock the Amazon Prime Chest for Mobile featuring skin and loot cards. This offer is available to all Amazon account holders, so there is no need for Prime in this instance.
RuneScape: Unlock an exclusive full set of Ancient Legionary armor and melee weapons.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross: The first drop is an SR-SSR Race Draw ticket.
Words with Friends 2: Zynga and Twitch Prime are teaming up to bring you seven loot drops for Words with Friends 2. You can now access Hindsight 2020 Mystery box to see the best words available to them in-game. Additional offers will be available in the coming months.
Death Coming is a puzzle game where you play as the Grim Reaper. In it, you will experiment with ordinary objects which will lead to various demises. Basically, you will be causing death, and harvesting souls while adhering to the Free Will Clause.
Each level is a large non-linear puzzle within a variety of pixel art environments such as a suburban neighborhood, and a secret military lab. The AI folks, whose fate you control, will react differently when something happens close to them.
Developed by NExT Studios, Death Coming will be free on the store until May 14.
Nintendo may not air a Nintendo Direct in June, according to a report.
With the cancellation of E3 2020, it was expected Nintendo would host a Nintendo Direct in June to showcase its upcoming slate.
Nintendo said when the ESA canceled E3 2020 it would continue to be “flexible” and would redirect its efforts to “other ways” to keep folks up to date on announcements and its upcoming slate for 2020.
Nintendo is said to have told its partners it won’t be hosting a Nintendo Direct in June due to complications surrounding Japan’s work from home order in the wake of COVID-19. It appears the next Direct from the company will instead air sometime this summer, per today’s report.
It goes on to state Nintendo the Nintendo Direct for June would have highlighted the 35th anniversary of the Mario series. It is said the presentation would have also revealed the rumored Super Mario remasters.
These remasters are said to include 1997’s Super Mario 64, 2002’s Super Mario Sunshine, and 2007’s Super Mario Galaxy. A new installment of Paper Mario and a deluxe version of 2013’s Super Mario 3D World are also reportedly in the works.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was revealed today in a new trailer and a small information drop by Ubisoft. But more details on the game have been revealed in an interview with lead producer Julien Laferrière.
Speaking with Eurogamer, according to Laferrière, the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla teams worked hard to ensure the game’s portrayal of Vikings didn’t just focus on the warrior aspect, as the game also features an emphasis on the rich culture and mythology. Ubisoft found a way to incorporate Viking lore into the Assassin’s Creed lore, and while Laferrière didn’t wish to spoil that aspect of the game, you can expect Norse gods to play a part.
“They were believed to be roaming the earth, involved in fights – that was part of the Viking spirituality, said Laferrière. “And that’s how we treat it in the game, which is true to beliefs and practices at the time.”
The raven, which is associated with Odin in Norse mythology, will be your animal companion in the game, similar to how eagles are in other Assassin’s Creed titles, and it will feature new abilities.
Tying into Norse lore is the present-day Assassin’s Creed lore, which will continue the story of Layla. The present-day story will be blended into a “new experience for players,” and it will be playable.
As part of today’s announcement, it was also revealed you will be able to create your own settlement in the game, which will act as a hub for your character. This settlement will be founded in England, and the game’s narrative will be built around this settlement.
“It’s your own Viking village you’ll see prosper and grow, and which your clanmates will live in,” said Laferrière. “It’s at the center of our quests and the center of the decisions you make. We want players to see the consequences of their actions.”
As it grows, new buildings such as a blacksmith and barracks will become available and will feature the ability to customize and upgrade.
You can expect the decisions you make in the game, whether through battle, political alliances, or dialogue choices, to have an effect on your community. Here, you will also see “romances play out,” if you want to have a romantic dalliance, that is.
Laferrière said that instead of exploring territories and having no reason to return once explored, the settlement will “change that structure.”
“You’ll go on an adventure and then be encouraged to come back to your settlement,” said Laferrière. “It changes the way we’re playing the game we’re making – at least, that’s the bet we’re making.”
In the game, you will also encounter King Alfred, also known as Alfred the Great who was the King of Wessex and of the Anglo-Saxons. He spent several years fighting Viking invasions. While in the trailer he seems to be depicted as the villain, in the game you will find him more of a “complex character” upon meeting him.
“He is shown in that [villainous] way in the trailer but over the course of the game, you’ll see there’s a lot more nuance to him,” Laferrière said. “Alfred the Great is a very important historical figure we want to treat right, and to do so it’s all in the subtleties and nuances you’ll find.”
As with past Assassins’ Creed titles, you will once again be able to travel across the map on water. This will be accomplished using longships, and will also act as the “fastest method of escape after launching an assault on a waterside fort.”
When you encounter a military location on one of the English rivers, you will be able to raid it. Just jump off your longship and live out “the ultimate Viking fantasy,” while also gathering resources to take back and upgrade your settlement. You may also acquire “additional firepower to help take down higher level bandits in the region.”
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will release worldwide holiday 2020 on Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and for Windows PC exclusively on both the Epic Games Store and the Ubisoft Store. It will also be available through Ubisoft’s subscription service Uplay+.
We will be happy to reveal our first Assassin’s Creed Valhalla gameplay trailer during the First Look Xbox Series X Gameplay on Inside Xbox. Stay tuned! https://t.co/1KjtTI1FdF
As you can see in the tweet from Microsoft, you can expect to see some gameplay from the company’s global partners. While it doesn’t say much more than that, it’s possible we could also get a look at what Microsoft Studios teams are up to.
We’ll find out more on May 7 when the next Inside Xbox episode airs at 8am PT, 11am ET, 4pm BST, 5pm CET.
If there’s one thing that the battle royale genre does right outside of multiplayer mayhem, it’s crafty easter eggs, teased out over weeks, more often than not leading to massive in-game events. One such situation looks to be rumbling on over in Call of Duty Warzone with the arrival of the Red Access Card.
Call of Duty Warzone’s Red Access Card drops from legendary chests, is currently listed as a healing item, and like all good easter egg puzzles, seems to be completely useless.
We’ve rounded up some of the more interesting community theories of what the Red Access Card will actually do below, and update this page further as more information develops.
Call of Duty Warzone – Red Access Card
As we mentioned, the Red Access Card is a rare drop from legendary chests in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s battle royale mode: Warzone.
It’s a tough item to find, with a low drop rate from already rare legendary chests.
As to what it does, a few obvious theories sprung up, but were quickly debunked.
First off, hidden around the Warzone map there are underground bunkers, each containing a locked door and a keypad. You can interact with the keypad which says: “Enter Code”.
It seems like a natural conclusion, right? New Access Card, code-locked doors? But no. It’s been confirmed that none of the currently available bunkers can be opened using the Red Access Card.
The same goes for all of the other objects around Warzone you can interact with. The Red Access Card also doesn’t do anything with the computers that ask you to input a password, or the phones you can “use”.
However, it isn’t out of the question that the Red Access Cards will eventually open the bunkers. Over at r/modernwarzone, user DougDagnabbit posted a datamined bunker opening animation which had been extracted from Warzone’s game files.
This would suggest that cards could eventually open bunkers, but that the functionality hasn’t been added to Call of Duty yet.
It’s also worth noting how the color of the card has been specified. That we’ve seen a “Red” Access Card could hint at the existence of other ones in the future, which do different things based on their color.
Red Access Card Theories – Zombies and Nukes?
Much of the speculation regarding the Red Access Card has centred around its supposed ties to prospective in-game events.
The below video from YouTuber MrDalekJD speculates that the card could be linked to a possible zombie infestation coming to the Warzone map.
This could be the start of an event to reintroduce them to the series.
MrDalekJD also floats that the Red Access Key could have something to do with the Dam, suggesting that a Fortnite-style map geography changing event could be on the cards. There are a lot of points-of-interest which would play very differently if flooded, or if they were to collapse under a sudden rush of water.
Another popular theory that’s been touted by players on the r/modernwarzone subreddit, is that this could be linked to the rumors of tactical nukes coming to the game mode.
If a player scores even points to call in a nuke, then perhaps an Access Card could open a bunker for you and your team to hide inside of and avoid harm?
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is coming this holiday, and it allows you to choose between a male or female Viking raider named Eivor.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla stars a Viking raider by the name of Eivor and features an open world set during England’s Dark Ages.
You will also be able to play as either a male or female, and can customize your hair, tattoos, war paint, gear, and even you Viking longboat.
In this entry, you can expect new features including raids, the ability to grow your settlement, “build your power” and expand your influence.
Choices made in political alliances, combat, and the various dialogue options can influence the outcome.
Here’s the story blurb:
Driven from Norway by endless wars and dwindling resources in the ninth century AD, players will lead Eivor’s clan of Norsemen across the icy North Sea to the rich lands of England’s broken kingdoms. Players must carve out a new future for their clan, reliving the ruthless fighting style of Viking warriors with a revamped combat system that includes the ability to dual-wield weapons against a greater variety of enemies than ever before. To secure resources players can lead raids to select locations using their longship to earn much-needed riches and resources. As the Vikings begin to settle in their new home, they encounter resistance from the Saxons including King Aelfred of Wessex, who denounces them as heathens and looks to be the sole ruler of a civilized England. Against all odds, Eivor must do what is necessary to keep Valhalla within reach.
There will be three editions of the game available alongside the standard version: Gold, Ultimate, and the Collector’s Edition.
The Gold Edition will include the base game and the Season Pass.
The Ultimate Edition will include the base game, the Season Pass, and the Ultimate Pack giving access to players to exclusive customization content: the Berserker Gear Pack, the Berserker Settlement Pack, the Berserker Longship Pack, along with a Set of Runes to improve weapons or gears.
The Collector’s Edition will include the base game, the Season Pass, the Ultimate Pack, the high-end Ubicollectibles replica of Eivor and her Drakkar (height: 30cm), a Collector’s Case, a Steelbook with a unique artwork, a numbered certificate of authenticity, a Viking Statuette of Eivor with his raven and Dane axe (height: 5cm), exclusive lithographs as well as a selected soundtrack of the game. The Collector’s Edition is available exclusively on the Ubisoft Store.
There will also be a standalone Ubicollectibles product featuring the Eivor Wolf-Kissed Figurine and his Hidden Blade Replica.
Pre-ordering any edition will net you an additional mission called The Way of the Berserker, which sees you joining a Norse Berserker “on his quest for revenge.”
Assassin’s CreedValhalla, will release worldwide holiday 2020 on Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and for Windows PC exclusively on both the Epic Games Store and the Ubisoft Store.
The game will also be available on Uubisoft’s subscription service, Uplay+.
A recent announcement from EA confirms that Burnout Paradise Remastered will be coming to Nintendo Switch in June.
The official statement confirms that Burnout Paradise Remastered will be released for Nintendo Switch on June 19, 2020. If you’re planning on purchasing it, you can now access the official pre-order page.
Burnout Paradise Remastered was initially announced for Switch during a Nintendo Direct back in March, but the release date was only confirmed today. The original announcement featured a range of details about what the Switch port had in store for 2018’s remaster of the iconic racing game.
According to the original Direct announcement, Burnout Paradise Remastered will be fully optimized for Switch and will run at 60 FPS. It also comes with the eight primary expansions for the original game, including Legendary Cars, Burnout Bikes, and more.
You can check out the original announcement trailer below.
Also included in today’s announcement are details outlining the functionality of online play and local co-op. “Smash through traffic and rule the roads in adrenaline-fuelled online races and social challenges with up to eight other players, or pass the controller (or console!) in local party play,” it reads.
Interestingly, Burnout Paradise Remastered will be the first Burnout entry to be ported to a Nintendo console in 18 years. The last Burnout title that was playable on a Nintendo console was Burnout 2: Point of Impact, which was released for the GameCube.
The port is being handled by Stellar Entertainment and the team includes ex-Criterion developers.
Nintendo has released the latest Switch system update, and it fixes an issue with the Pro Controller.
According to the system update notes for Switch, the issue with the Pro Controller came about when users updated to version 10.0.0 or 10.0.1.
The update apparently caused an issue when it came to setting up a new Nintendo Switch Pro Controller as it sometimes caused “incorrect joystick control.”
The latter also added a bookmark feature to News, the option to transfer software data between the system memory and an SD card, the ability to remap controller buttons, and more.
The first lot of Fortnite’s Location Domination Overtime Challenges have been leaked and there’s plenty to keep you busy over the next few weeks.
Fortnite: Season 3 has been delayed until June 4, but there’s a lot of new content still to come in Season 2. Alongside a new Spy mode and Party Royale, some new Overtime Challenges begin later today and will continue over the next few weeks.
There will be a second set of Overtime Challenges releasing on May 14 and we’ll be updating this page with guides to help you breeze through them.
Fortnite: Season 2 – Location Domination Overtime Challenges
There’s a new twist with these challenges in that it looks like they will continuously update with more tiers. With the Destroy Gnomes challenge, for example, you begin by destroying three Gnomes before upgrading to destroying seven then fifteen Gnomes.
The totals will likely be cumulative rather than having to start from scratch all over again, but it gives you something to do each time you log in, even if it’s a bit repetitive.
Not all of these challenges will be available at once, so check back soon for more guides. You can also check out the latest Season 3 rumours here.
Eliminate player or Henchmen at Pleasant Park
Open Chests locked by an ID Scanner at The Grotto
Throw Henchmen overboard at The Yacht
Destroy Gnomes at Camp Cod or Fort Crumpet
Damage players at The Agency
Collect metal at Hydro 16 or Compact Cars
Search ammo boxes at Lazy Lake
Search chests at Retail Row
Catch fish at Slurpy Swamp
Place top 10 after landing at Dirty Docks
Eliminate players or Henchmen at The Rig
Search ammo boxes at Sweaty Sands
Eliminate players or Henchmen at The Shark
Search chests at Craggy Cliffs
Place top 10 after landing at Frenzy Farm
Collect wood at Weeping Woods
Destroy Teddy Bears at Holly Hedges
Apply Shields or Healing at Shanty Town or The Orchard
For this Fortnite Overtime Challenge, you’re on a mission to seek and destroy some garden Gnomes hidden around the map.
Last season, you were tasked with finding hidden Gnomes around the map. For this Overtime Challenge, you’ll need to find and destroy several Gnomes over the next few weeks.
You’re looking for Gnomes in Camp Cod or Fort Crumpet and depending on how many opponents there are in the area, you might need to complete this challenge over several matches.
The Gnomes are fairly large and easy to spot, so here’s where you can find them.
Fortnite: Season 2 – Destroy Gnomes at Camp Cod or Fort Crumpet
There are several Gnomes hidden at each location, but these areas are likely to get pretty busy quite quickly. Some locations feature two Gnomes close by, so keep your eye out for their wee hats.
You can find Fort Crumpet in the top left of the map near Sweaty Sands and Camp Cod in the bottom right corner near Misty Meadows. Happy hunting!
Where to find Gnomes at Fort Crumpet
Behind the cash desk
Beside a vending machine
Next to a dining table
Under the stairs
Beside a cannon
Near an information sign
In the stairwell, hiding in a corner
At the top of the tower, overlooking the map
Where to find Gnomes at Camp Cod
At the Camp Cod gates
Two can be found beside a campfire in the middle of the Camp Cod island
To the left of the solar panels
Behind a blue couch overlooking the water
Under a tree, besides some tents
At the campfire with the red armchair and bookshelf
The director of Earthbound and Mother 3, Shigesato Itoi, has put out an official call for manga artists, suggesting that a Mother 3 book adaptation could be in the works
The news originally appeared in an article published digitally by Japanese games magazine Famitsu. When roughly translated to English, the gist seems to be that Itoi’s publishing company, Hobonichi, has announced plans to launch a Mother-related book – or books – later this year. It also mentions that the finished product will be available in a variety of languages. There’s still no news of a Western Mother 3 port, but there could at least be a Western Mother 3 book.
Fans have been quick to respond to the call for manga artists, although it seems to be relatively ambiguous. Check out the tweet below.
Apparently Shigesato Itoi’s blog/magazine Hobonichi is putting out a search for manga artists who like Mother/EarthBound? They aren’t saying why though. 🤔 in fact they’re specifically saying “don’t ask why”. pic.twitter.com/GZZstOzyPQ
— Sakaki @ War against Nook.Inc for my Gf's freedom. (@kiirobon) January 30, 2020
Specifically telling people “don’t ask why” may seem like a strange move, likely because it is one. Regardless, fans of Earthbound and Mother appear to be excited by the news, and expect that Hobonichi will publish a new Mother book before the end of 2020. A website has also been set up in conjunction with the news, and seems to imply that this initiative is simply called the “Mother Project.”
Other fans have taken it upon themselves to translate the tweets, and have arrived at the idea that Itoi is planning to adapt all of the Mother games into globally accessible books. Check out the tweet below.
"Today, we remember the writing from MOTHER. All the writing from MOTHER is being made into a book. 3 books of MOTHER's writing, each game in full. It will be on sale by the end of the year. Just wait a little while longer… Until then, we hope MOTHER fans will enjoy the news." https://t.co/xZjmL9ZZ0N
“Today, we remember the writing from Mother,” the tweet reads. “All the writing from Mother is being made into a book. 3 books of Mother’s writing, each game in full. It will be on sale by the end of the year. Just wait a little while longer… Until then, we hope Mother fans will enjoy the news.”
A video corresponding with Itoi’s announcement was also published on YouTube. The text is written in Japanese, but it’s still worth checking out even if you can’t read it purely because of how good the music is.
Collecting all of the available information together implies that a Mother book based on the Mother games could be available by the end of 2020.
When the Call of Duty: Warzone update was released earlier this week, it removed Bounty Contracts from the battle royale title.
While the removal wasn’t noted in the patch notes, Call of Duty: Warzone players noticed the lack of bounties after updating the game.
Apparently, the bounties were replaced by the new contract Most Wanted. With this contract, you become a target for all teams on the map. If you survive you will receive a redeployment for all of your fallen teammates.
The issue players, and some prominent streamers, are having with the removal, according to Charlie Intel, is the regular contracts, while being higher risk, had higher cash rewards.
They completely removed bounties? I thought they were super well balanced. The team being hunted has ample time to post up in a building or roof and defend themselves until time runs out, also knowing how close the threat is. High risk High reward for players hunting. https://t.co/RHRpZiQp2B
This skin found in the patch files of Call of Duty: Warzone takes customization to a whole new pastel level.
Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare players finding something hidden in patch files is nothing new, and the recent update is no different.
Apparently, the latest Warzone patch contains a file that shows a new customization option for the cargo truck: and it’s a fun pink anime skin (thanks, Eurogamer).
The latest update was released earlier this week and clocks in at around 15GB. For Warzone, it adds the new ContractMost Wanted, where you make yourself a Bounty Target for all teams. You can pick up the Contract in a game of Battle Royale in Solos, Trios, Quads, or Plunder Trios.
Shoot the Ship also returns to the specialty playlist and features Shoot House and Shipment.
Players have arranged their very own community-based Fallout 76 marathon, and it’s competitive.
The Appalachia Marathon is a completely player-organized event that has you make like Pheidippides and run 42 miles cross-country. Well, maybe not exactly 42 miles, but it’s a pretty long stretch.
The rules for the Appalachia Marathon, as outlined on Reddit, are as follows:
Run from the weapons workbench at Hornwright Testing Site #02 to the keypad in the Mysterious Cave entrance of Vault 79.
Fast travel is not allowed!
All perks, chems, and other aid items (including performance enhancing drugs) are allowed and encouraged.
If you die during your run, you can respawn at the closest location, whether it is behind, to the side, or in front of you. Strategic suicide for this purpose is perfectly fine.
Proof in the form of an uncut video is required.
Suggestions for an alternate course are encouraged.
Disputes will be settled in karma court.
The event organizer, Marine_Mustang, has also listed their own result of 17 minutes and 10 seconds, beating current world record holder Eliud Kipchoge’s real-world time by a whopping 1 hour, 42 minutes, and 30 seconds. You want proof? Check out the video below.
Marine_Mustang also listed their marathon build. Remember, the rules state that performance enhancing drugs are not only allowed but are actively encouraged in the Appalachia Marathon.
In terms of perks, Marine_Mustang chose to rock Marathoner rank 3 and Action Boy rank 2. They used Marsupial and Speed Demon mutations, and drained nine Nuka-Cola Quantums throughout their run.
“I’ll try again tomorrow to see how much faster I can get,” they wrote. “I’m interested in seeing what combination of perks, food, and route results in the fastest time.”
“It seems the most important effects would be those that increase AP regen speed. A combo of Marsupial and Goat Legs would probably be optimal.” Take note, marathoners.
You can try out the Appalachia Marathon for yourself – if you’re willing to hightail it across the Wasteland of Fallout 76, that is. Just remember that it doesn’t count unless you capture video evidence, and if you’re caught cheating you’ll be sent straight to karma court.
Reedpop has announced that EGX Rezzed 2020 has been cancelled due to the coronavirus.
Originally scheduled for March, the event was rescheduled for July. It has been canned entirely, with the organiser promising full refunds to anyone who has bought a ticket.
“The effects, actual and projected, of Coronavirus are becoming evident across all aspects of our lives here in the UK and across the world, with many of our exhibitors and creators facing travel restrictions and quarantine measures,” said the organiser.
“After extensive discussions with all the relevant public health, local and national authorities, and with our Rezzed partners, we have taken the decision not to go ahead with this year’s event.
“We thank everyone who has prepared to deliver what promised to be a fantastic event over the past year, showcasing the best of indie gaming to the incredible Rezzed community. Our flagship event EGX is currently scheduled to run 17-20 September 2020 and all Rezzed tickets have automatically been upgraded to this September event.
“Rezzed ticket holders are entitled to a full refund should they prefer, and simply need email egx.helpline@reedexpo.co.uk with their order number and our Customer Services team will process their refund.”
Rezzed is expected to return in 2021.
As well as events such as Rezzed and EGX, Reedpop also publishes sites including VG247, RockPaperShotgun and Eurogamer.
“Darkborn is first and foremost a game about being a monster,” Goldfarb said at the time. “Playing it is about experiencing that monstrous quality – in first-person combat, in novel abilities and movement, and even in enemy reactions to you.
“But it’s not traditional in that humans are murderous, cruel enemies bent on your extinction. You yourself are an innocent caught up in a much larger conflict between Powers, the specifics of which become clearer in the course of the game. It’s a classic revenge story, but also a mystery: what happened to the world and your people? Can they be saved?”
It looked pretty cool. Here’s some gameplay:
Goldfarb and his studio announced the game’s cancellation in a tweet:
The Outsiders are now working on “something new. Something awesome.” The announcements says more news will be coming “very soon”. Are those emoji horns?
Bethesda fans have taken to Reddit in order to argue about Elder Scrolls dicks.
The debate is still being staged as we speak, with players summoning all of the logic they can muster in order to scientifically prove the shape, size, and structure of Argonian genitalia.
Redditor GoldOld3C, the person who instigated this debate of all debates, opened with the fact they had been “fiercely debating this” with their friend. A mass debate, if you will.
“All of this is open for discussion, but I would prefer that you use evidence rather than personal bias,” they wrote, before offering a list of Elder Scrolls dick sizes measured in both the Imperial AND metric system.
The largest phallus belonged to the Orcs, who, according to GoldOld3C’s logic, boast a 7” dong on average. Tiniest willy went to the Bosmer, or Wood Elves, at 3.5”.
“Here’s the real question,” wrote cursed commenter number one. “Are Khajiit dicks barbed like real cats?”
“Barenziah scowled at him. She was still smarting. His penis had tiny little barbs on it.”
However, there can only be one winner when it comes to becoming the global authority on Elder Scrolls dicks. Alas, a victor has emerged: RedPooD2thehemodroid.
“Aight you idiots let’s get down to brass tacks,” writes RedPooD2. “Length isn’t everything, girth matters too.”
RedPoo went on to propose a scientific formula specifically designed to calculate exactly that. “Now, the cock volume is proportional to length*girth2 (remember, it doesn’t matter whether girth is measured by circumference, diameter, or radius, as those are all proportional to one another c=πd=2πr).”
RedPoo also accounts for the innate magical abilities of each Cyrodilic race and makes necessary adjustments to enhance the chart’s accuracy accordingly. “All of this is irrefutable knowledge from the College of Winterhold,” they conclude.
“Goddamn, you basically did it,” replied the original poster. “You solved the whole fucking thing. I’d give you gold if I could.”
Before you go, let me briefly mention the best part about this whole ordeal. Shortly after the original post appeared, the average Khajit dick size was increased from 4.5” to 5” due to the logical intervention of a rogue commenter. When asked for the rationale supporting their claims, this was their response.
“I’d assume that because cat dicks look like wizard hats.”
“2D top down view free roam action game,” reads the description for the inaugural Grand Theft Auto, which is apparently set for an April 30th PS3 release date. “Gameplay is based around being a criminal and includes stealing cars, shooting other gangsters, shooting pedestrians, driving over people and fighting off the…”
You can view both of the new, old Grand Theft Auto ratings in the screenshot below.
As you can see, the original GTA is only rated as 16, whereas the second installment has earned the series’ notorious 18 stamp. These are the first GTA titles to be rated by PEGI since Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was rated for mobile in December 2015.
At the moment, it’s still unclear as to why PEGI has opted to re-rate the first two GTA games, published in 1997 and 1999, respectively, for the PS3 in 2020 – especially so when you consider that the PS3, originally released in 2006 and almost a decade after the original GTA game, was globally discontinued between 2015 and 2017.
Speculation suggests that this could indicate a range of PS1 Classics being made available via PS Now, which is supported by the fact PS3 games can be made compatible with PS4 hardware via the service.
Still, it’s definitely a move from left field, and most attempts to rationalize it are, at least currently, incredibly stretched and completely speculative. Maybe they’ll do a PS3 mini. Or maybe somebody is going to get in loads of trouble for posting a massive typo on the official PEGI page.
World of Warcraft ray tracing was recently added to the Shadowlands alpha, which should allow players with high-spec builds to benefit from improved visuals.
The news comes from popular World of Warcraft information site Wowhead. Apparently World of Warcraft ray tracing settings can now be viewed in the Shadowlands alpha, but aren’t yet available for players to enable.
“While WoW has always been able to run on a variety of PCs, including low-end older machines, the Ray Tracing options should be welcome news to players that want better performance and graphics on modern computers,” the post notes.
“When this option is enabled, players using Nvidia video cards that support the RTX technology should have access to more realistic looking shadows when using this technology,” it continues. “It is important to highlight that this option will likely not be available to players without RTX-enabled Nvidia Graphics Cards.”
The post also includes screenshots highlighting the ray tracing option in-game, courtesy of a user who goes by the handle “Jaydaa.”
In other Shadowlands developments, it appears the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion will be the first entry in the series’ history to actively facilitate controller support. As Sherif Saed noted in a previous VG247 article, it doesn’t seem like Blizzard intends to make the expansion completely controller-compatible, but is instead seeking to improve accessibility options for players with disabilities.
“This isn’t exactly the freshest or most relevant news and it certainly isn’t important or worth writing about, but there is a hill that is also an ass in World of Warcraft,” the post reads.
“I repeat: there is a hill that is also an ass in WoW.”
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is scheduled to launch later this year.
Microsoft recently revealed Xbox Live user numbers for 2020, noting that the service attracts almost 90 million monthly players.
The news comes as part of an array of Xbox stats officially released by Microsoft, including details about the current Project xCloud test user count. Check out the tweet below.
Microsoft revealed some important new Xbox stats:
• Xbox Live has nearly 90 million monthly active users • Xbox Game Pass has more than 10 million subscribers • Project xCloud has 100s of thousands of active users in preview
As well as there being almost 90 million active users on Xbox Live, there are currently over 10 million people subscribed to Xbox Game Pass, whereas Project xCloud already has hundreds of thousands of active users testing the service in preview.
Preview opportunities for Project xCloud recently rolled out to France, Germany, and the Netherlands, with invites having been sent via email to people who pre-registered for preview access. As it stands, there are a range of games available to play via the service’s preview build, including but not exclusive to Gears 5, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and Destiny 2. Altogether there are currently 50+ games available to play on xCloud.
Preview access for xCloud is currently limited, but the potential for more players to request access will grow as time progresses.
“We know gaming is an important way for people to remain connected, particularly during these times of social distancing, but we also recognize how internet bandwidth has been impacted with strain on regional networks as large volumes of people responsibly stay home and go online,” Xbox said in an official announcement.
“We will take a measured approach to help conserve internet access, beginning the preview in each market with a limited number of people and adding more participants over time.”
The Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay demo has been upgraded to 8K using a machine learning AI upscale.
The refurbished demo was shared on YouTube, and is a fan-made project not affiliated with official CD Projekt Red channels. You can check out the full 8K Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay demo in the video embedded below.
It’s impressive, but apparently required quite a bit of heavy lifting from the AI coordinator. “This took approximately 71 hours to render on an RTX 2080 TI/ NVME SSD/ i7 9700K PC Build,” reads the video description.
“I will be uploading the 2019 Deep Dive 8K Upscaled & more as we inch towards June and more of the updated game is shown to the public,” the poster continues, so you can expect more Cyberpunk 2077 8K footage in the coming months.
The poster also shared the video on Reddit, where they linked the full, uncompressed video for anyone interested in downloading it. There’s a catch, though: it’s 60GB.
Other fans are less enthused by the video, pointing out that an AI can only accomplish so much even with an 8K upscale. “The original video was recorded at 1080p, so an 8K upscale from a 4K source won’t do much, even with AI shenanigans,” writes one poster. While it may be true that the capacity for AI to improve video quality is limited, the results are still evidently visible in the 8K render.
The Last of Us Part 2 is going to be an absolute monster of a game. Before it has any patches or updates, it’s already going to take at least 100GB of your hard drive space.
Here’s what it says on the PlayStation website: “1 player. 2 discs. 100 GB minimum.”
Naughty Dog’s latest was delayed indefinitely because of logistical issues surrounding COVID-19, but it’s since been given a new date and is launching on June 19.
Once you’re becoming a more experienced trainer, Pokemon Go will want you to start tackling raids. Be prepared – here’s a list of all the current raid bosses and their types, weaknesses and counters.
Once you boost your Pokemon Go trainer level to level 5, you’ll unlock a new feature for the game: raid battles. These battles take place at Pokemon Gyms out in the world at random times of day, replacing the usual back and forth for control between the Pokemon Go Gym Teams with an all-hands-on-deck battle against a super-powerful boss Pokemon, where players of all kinds can work together to bring that Pokemon down.
This is, as in most massively multiplayer games, known as a raid boss. On this page we’re going to run down some basic information about raids – plus list the current raid bosses.
How to Raid from Home with Remote Raids in Pokemon Go
Given the ongoing challenges in the world with many places in lockdown, Pokemon Go developer and operator Niantic has made some clever changes to how the raid system works in-game. Typically, you’d have to actually visit the site of a Pokemon Raid in order to take part – but in the current locked-down, stay indoors circumstances, that isn’t possible for most. As a result, the company has added the Remote Raid Pass to the game, an item that allows you to raid from home!
Remote Raid Passes have now been added to the game. These new items, the familiar raid passes but now blue in color, will allow you to raid on any Pokestop that is close enough to you to appear on your ‘nearby’ screen, accessible from the nearby box at the bottom-right of the Pokemon Go map that’s the main screen from which the game is played. This means you won’t be able to raid from miles away, but you can raid on any number of nearby Pokestops.
Remote Raid Passes are initially be available in a new bundle in the shop that will cost just 1 Pokecoin, while additional ones thereafter will be initially priced at 100 Pokecoins. Sadly, there’s no easy way to get them beyond this – which means you’ll likely have to fork out real cash if you want to continue doing remote raids, especially during the current ongoing international crisis.
Pokemon Go Raids: raid rewards and other information
Taking on raid battles has a few benefits in Pokemon Go. For one, you’ll be given various rewards for tackling raids – player experience, but also rare items like Rare Candy, Golden Razz Berries, plus Charged and Fast TMs. But the best reward is that you’ll also have the chance to catch the Pokemon featured in the raid battle – and the Pokemon that show up in raid battles are often rare, desirable or even exclusive to raids. Some of the best Pokemon in the game are nabbed this way.
Your chance to capture the Pokemon is limited, however – in raid encounters you’ll be forced to throw Premier Balls once you’ve defeated the boss, and the number of Premier Balls the player is awarded depends on your performance in the raid battle, plus things like how the gym team allegiance breaks down between the raid party members. For the best results you want to try to inflict the most damage possible, have your team be in control of the gym, and be fighting alongside a majority of members of the same gym team.
If you run out of Premier Balls, the raid boss will run away. Raid battles range in size and difficulty – some will even be possible to solo, while others will require a full 20 players to reliably tackle.
Like most things in Pokemon Go, raid battles run on a rotation depending on what else is going on around the game. Below, we list the current raid battles, listing each raid boss tier, boss CP and some Pokemon type weakness suggestions for that battle. Thanks to Leekduck for the image – with more information in the table below that.
Pokemon Go Raids: Current Raid Boss list, tiers, counters and weaknesses
On our raid list, you’ll find each Pokemon currently appearing in raids, their tiers (so how difficult they’ll be and how frequently they’ll appear), plus some other useful information like their Pokemon type and their type weaknesses – which in turn will help you to decide which the best counters are for that raid Pokemon. Find a Pokemon team that can blast down the enemy, abusing their type weaknesses.
Apparently there are a whopping 15 different studios working together on Ubisoft Montreal’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
The news comes from Twitter, where the official Ubisoft Montreal account posted a tweet following on from yesterday’s eight-hour Assassin’s Creed Valhalla reveal stream. You can check out the tweet below.
Exciting! An immense congratulations to our studio warriors for all the good work and passion building to that reveal. We’d also like to thank the 14 co-dev studios all around the world. You know who you are, and we’re thankful for your dedication! Skàl! pic.twitter.com/hBPpFZKkrP
“Exciting!” reads the tweet. “An immense congratulations to our studio warriors for all the good work and passion building to that reveal.”
“We’d also like to thank the 14 co-dev studios all around the world. You know who you are, and we’re thankful for your dedication! Skàl!”
As of right now, it’s unclear which other studios are collaborating with Ubisoft Montreal on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but the fact there are 14 of them is unprecedented (15 including Ubi Montreal). For the sake of comparison, seven studios worked on Odyssey, a game already recognized for pushing the envelope in open-world scale. And for added context, all nine of Rockstar’s studios worked on Red Dead Redemption 2. Ubisoft will be assigning exactly half of its 30 worldwide studios to Valhalla, which implies a massive amount of faith in the upcoming Viking sim.
The next Assassin’s Creed game will be called Valhalla, which is miles better than the overused and plot-revealing Ragnarok, and far more suited to a Norse setting than the previous title of Kingdom, because Vikings didn’t build castles. In fact, they didn’t abide by any sort of feudalistic system whatsoever and were far more concerned with building wooden mead halls than stone structures. As a result, that castle in the concept art above likely implies that you will be raiding other civilizations from other countries, unless it’s reappropriated as one of only seven known Viking stone ring fortresses in the world. There’s some handy Viking lore for you. Skàl!
Vaping is a controversial habit: it certainly has its downsides, but anecdotally it’s a fantastic smoking cessation aid. The thing is, until behavioral scientists know a bit more about who does it, when, how much and other details, its use will continue to be something of a mystery. That’s where the PuffPacket comes in.
Designed by Cornell engineers, the PuffPacket is a small device that attaches to e-cigarettes (or vape pens, or whatever you call yours) and precisely measures their use, sharing that information with a smartphone app for the user, and potentially researchers, to review later.
Some vaping devices are already set up with something like this, to tell a user when the cartridge is running low or a certain limit has been reached. But generally when vaping habits are studied, they rely on self-report data, not proprietary apps.
“The lack of continuous and objective understanding of vaping behaviors led us to develop PuffPacket to enable proper measurement, monitoring, tracking and recording of e-cigarette use, as opposed to inferring it from location and activity data, or self-reports,” said PhD student Alexander Adams, who led the creation of the device, in a Cornell news release.
The device fits a number of e-cigarette types, fitting between the mouthpiece and the heating element. It sits idle until the user breathes in, which activates the e-cigarette’s circuits, and the PuffPacket’s as well. By paying attention to the voltage, it can tell how much liquid is being vaporized, as well as simpler measurements like the duration and timing of the inhalation.
An example using real data of how location and activity could be correlated with vaping
This data is sent to the smartphone app via Bluetooth, where it is cross-referenced with other information, like location, motion and other metadata. This may lead to identifiable patterns, like that someone vapes frequently when they walk in the morning but not the afternoon, or after coffee but not meals, or far more at the bar than at home — that sort of thing. Perhaps even (with the proper permissions) it could track use of certain apps — Instagram and vape? Post-game puff?
Some of these might be obvious, others not so much — but either way, it helps to have them backed up by real data rather than asking a person to estimate their own usage. They may not know, understand or wish to admit their own habits.
“Getting these correlations between time of day, place and activity is important for understanding addiction. Research has shown that if you can keep people away from the paths of their normal habits, it can disrupt them," said Adams.
No one is expecting people to voluntarily stick these things on their vape pens and share their info, but the design — which is being released as open source — could be used by researchers performing more formal studies. You can read the paper describing PuffPacket here.
We knew it was going to be bad — but not necessarily "lowest level since 2013" bad. As Apple was busy reporting its earnings, Canalys just dropped some of its own figures — and they're not pretty. After two quarters of much-needed growing, the global smartphone market just took a big hit. And you no doubt already know who the culprit is.
The mobile industry joins countless others that have taken a massive hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with shipments dropping 13% from this time last year. Here's a graph for those of you who are visual learners:
Analyst Ben Stanton used the word "crushed" to describe the novel coronavirus's impact on the mobile market. "In February, when the coronavirus was centered on China, vendors were mainly concerned about how to build enough smartphones to meet global demand," he writes. "But in March, the situation flipped on its head. Smartphone manufacturing has now recovered, but as half the world entered lockdown, sales plummeted."
First it was impact on the global supply chain, which is centered in Asia, along with a drop in demand among consumers in China. As Europe, the U.S. and other locations continue to live under shelter in place orders, demand in those markets has taken a significant hit. People are stuck inside and many have lost jobs — it's not really the ideal time to consider shelling out $1,000+ for what still seems a luxury for many.
Samsung regained the top spot, while still losing significant numbers. Both it and the number two company, Huawei, were down 17% for the quarter. Apple, at number three, dropped 8%. Chinese manufacturers Xiaomi and Vivo saw some gains, at 9% and 3%, respectively.
There are bound to be rough times ahead as well. Per Stanton, "Most smartphone companies expect Q2 to represent the peak of the coronavirus' impact." Apple noted the uncertainty of its own earnings by opting not to issue guidance for next quarter.
Record usage of grocery delivery services amid the COVID-19 pandemic has led to delayed orders, fewer open delivery windows and, on occasion, an inability to even book a delivery time slot. Walmart now hopes to capitalize on the increased demand for speedier delivery with the introduction of a new service that allows consumers to pay to get to the front of the line. The retailer confirmed today it’s launching a new Walmart Grocery service called “Express,” which promises orders in two hours or less for an upcharge of $10 on top of the usual delivery fee.
The service has been in pilot testing across 100 Walmart stores in the U.S. since mid-April. Walmart says it plans to expand the service to nearly 1,000 stores in early May and it will be offered in a total of nearly 2,000 stores in the weeks after.
Some Walmart customers may have recently received a push notification alerting them to the launch.
To use Express delivery, you first fill your online Walmart Grocery cart with the $30 minimum required for delivery orders or more. The Express service offers more than 160,000 items from across Walmart’s grocery, consumables and general merchandise categories. At checkout, you’ll see an option beneath the calendar where you pick a delivery date to select the Express service. In many cases, there may not be other standard delivery time slots available for the current day or even several days out, which makes the Express service even more appealing to shoppers who need their orders sooner.
Though Walmart is officially promoting Express as a “two-hour” delivery service, in the weeks it’s been piloting the program Walmart has been able to deliver these orders within 56 minutes, on average.
“In our tests, we were shown an Express fee of $18.90 to receive a delivery in 55 mins or less,” the app informed us today, April 30. There were no other fees. Without choosing the Express option, the next available time slot was not until next week, on Monday, May 4.
A price of $18.90 is close to — but is not exactly — a $10 increase over Walmart’s typical delivery fees of $7.95 or $9.95, depending on time of day. But we understand the plan is to make Express a flat $10 upcharge moving forward. (Walmart hadn’t been planning to officially announce the launch until next week, so pricing is being updated.)
Like Walmart’s other grocery deliveries, Express deliveries are handled by Walmart’s external network of delivery partners, which vary by market. The retailer won’t comment on if those additional fees are split with their partners, or how, if so.
There could be backlash against a system like this, given how it favors a wealthier customer at a time when food and other critical supplies have run short. During the pandemic, store shelves have often been bare as consumers hoarded things like toilet paper, hand sanitizer and Lysol cleaners. Now, consumers are being warned that meat shortages are expected soon.
In addition, the pandemic has already exposed the income divide between those who can afford to shop online and low-income customers, who can only use their SNAP benefits (food stamps) in physical stores — except in a handful of states where a USDA pilot has been running. And now those with the means will be able to gain another advantage: paying to get to the limited supplies first.
Walmart says it’s doing things to mitigate these types of concerns, however.
For items where the inventory is so limited it can’t guarantee delivery, it’s removing their availability from the online grocery service. Plus, the retailer says it’s not pushing back standard delivery orders to accommodate the high-paying Express customers. Instead, the Express service is being made available on top of Walmart’s existing grocery pickup and delivery capacity.
The Express service wasn’t dreamed up because of the pandemic, Walmart says, but it did play a role in terms of the timing of the launch.
“The demand that we’ve seen during the coronavirus pandemic is making us push forward and expedite the development of some services that we may have been thinking about,” a Walmart spokesperson explained. “But demand has pushed us to innovate more quickly,” they added.
Walmart is not alone in experiencing a crush of online grocery orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company and others have seen a record number of downloadsfor their grocery apps in recent weeks. In fact, demand for online grocery as well as other e-commerce orders has been so great that Walmart hired 150,000 new workers out of a pool of over a million applicants a full six weeks ahead of schedule, and is now hiring 50,000 more.
Meanwhile, Walmart’s online grocery rivals — Shipt, Instacart and Amazon — have also been hiring hundreds of thousands of new shoppers between them. Amazon had to implement a waitlist system for new Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market pickup and delivery customers due to the rise in online grocery shopping. And Instacart made several adjustments to its app to help better prioritize orders and open up more delivery windows.
In Walmart’s case, its ability to launch Express isn’t solely due to its new hires, we’re told.
The company already employs a workforce of 74,000 “personal shoppers” who dedicate themselves to pulling for online grocery orders. Walmart says Express is powered by these personal shoppers, only some of whom may be the newly hired store associates.
“We have an opportunity to serve our customers no matter what life calls for," said Tom Ward, Walmart senior vice president, Customer Product. "Whether it be a last-minute ingredient, medicine when a fever hits or the item you didn't know you needed when checking off your chore list, time matters. Express is a solve for that,” he said.
Updated 4/30/20, 6:35 PM ET with additional expansion details and exec quote.
Microsoft has now opened registration for the virtual edition of its online-only Build 2020 developer conference, which will take place from May 19 to 20.
Typically, the event draws more than 6,000 developers, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, that’s obviously not an option. In contrast to Google, which completely scrapped its I/O developer conference this year, Microsoft decided to go ahead with the virtual event. But this will be a very different kind of Build — and not only because it’s online-only.
Not only will the keynotes be shorter (though there will still be Day 1 and Day 2 keynotes), but in response to feedback from developers who have attended previous events, the Microsoft team also decided to focus solely on that audience. In previous years, Microsoft often used Build to announce consumer products, just like Google does at I/O. But that won’t happen this year. And instead of using the keynotes to put an early spotlight on features that won’t be available for half a year or more, the event will be more about providing content that’s immediately useful for developers and new products that are either immediately available or only a couple of months out from getting into the hands of developers.
That also likely means that even though Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will still keynote, there will be less talk about big-picture company philosophy and more about developer tools and APIs.
Some of the keynotes and demos will be live, some will be pre-recorded, but overall, the look and feel of the event shouldn’t be all that different from what developers who previously watched Build from afar experienced. But it will be shorter and more focused than in previous years, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Attendees sit in pods during the Microsoft Developers Build Conference in Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Monday, May 7, 2018. The Build conference, marking its second consecutive year in Seattle, is expected to put emphasis on the company’s cloud technologies and the artificial intelligence features within those services. Photographer: Grant Hindsley/Bloomberg via Getty Images
During the pandemic crisis, active users of Apple’s news platform hit an all-time high.
On an earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook shared that Apple News had reached 125 million monthly active users. Cook announced the number after revealing the company’s Q2 performance, which saw its Products revenue decline year-over-year while Services surged.
The company earned Services revenue of $13.35 billion in Q2, juicing the segment by about $1.9 billion since last year.
Apple launched a paid version of Apple News called Apple News+ last year, which offered users access to paywalled news sites and magazines for $9.99 per month. Apple has not delivered any users numbers on how that element of the platform is faring.
Stop me if you've heard this one before: Apple device sales have taken a hit, but the company's services are doing swell. The iPhone, the longtime cornerstone of the company's hardware portfolio, hit $28.96 billion in revenue for Q2, down from $31.1 billion from this time last year. The iPad and Mac lines saw drops for the quarter, as well.
The company had already sounded the alarm bells for a weakened demand, due to the growing threat of COVID-19. Way back in February, Apple noted that the coming pandemic was set to both impact the global supply chain and weaken demand in China. “All of our stores in China and many of our partner stores have been closed. Additionally, stores that are open have been operating at reduced hours and with very low customer traffic," it said at the time.
While aspects of life have returned to normal in China, the virus has subsequently delivered a huge hit to much of the rest of the world, including Apple's home in the U.S., which continues to lead the world in COVID-19 cases.
Unsurprisingly, CEO Tim Cook struck a consolatory note in a press release, in spite of the company's decision not to offer third-quarter guidance. "Despite COVID-19's unprecedented global impact, we're proud to report that Apple grew for the quarter, driven by an all-time record in services and a quarterly record for wearables," he writes.
Wearables were, indeed, up. The category, which also includes home and accessory products like the HomePod, was up to $6.3 billion from $5.1 billion. The category continues to be a success on the strength of the Apple Watch and AirPods lines. Services, too, continue to grow steadily, up to $13.3 billion from $11.5 billion. That category seems to be a reasonably safe bet, as users turn to offerings like Apple Music and Apple TV+ during the ongoing stay at home period.
The future for smartphones continues to be a rocky one, going forward. The company recently introduced the SE in a bid to appeal to consumers put off by $1,000+ price tags. And Apple's certainly not alone there. The entire industry has taken a hit in recent years, well before the arrival of the novel coronavirus.
Apple and other companies were expected to get a boost from the arrival of 5G, though everything is currently up in the air due to the pandemic. That reportedly also includes the arrival of a 5G iPhone, which is said to have potentially been pushed back a month over supply chain issues.
The coronavirus pandemic has laid low a lot of Americans, more than 62,000 of whom have already died since the beginning of March and 30 million more who are now out of work owing to the resultant shutdown of most businesses and public gathering places.
The ensuant crisis it has created is so massive that any type of coordinated effort is a challenge to pull together. Fortunately, that hasn’t stopped the American Bar Association and a justice tech company called Paladin that we introduced to readers last year. On the contrary, the SaaS startup — which helps legal teams sign up for pro bono opportunities, then makes their work and its impact easier to track — has teamed up with the ABA to help lawyers find pro bono opportunities specifically to help people affected by the coronavirus pandemic and other natural disasters.
It’s a way to accelerate work that the ABA has been doing for the last 13 years through its Young Lawyers Division's Disaster Legal Services Program — because time, right now, is of the essence.
We were in touch yesterday with Paladin co-founder Kristen Sonday to learn more about the new portal, which helps lawyers filter opportunities by practice area, communities to serve, type of engagement and the ability to work remotely. We asked how it might better hep attorneys and those in need of their services to connect faster.
TC: How did this project come together? Who brought in whom to do what?
KS: The Paladin team saw a similar response to COVID-19 as previous legal emergencies in how volunteer attorneys were being recruited, which is mostly through online forms and spreadsheets [and] manual and ad hoc.
We had already built a version of a centralized opportunity guide for the Chicago Bar Foundation, and this seemed like a great opportunity to leverage that technology to help legal services organizations across the country recruit and manage disaster response volunteers seamlessly.
TC: Two other companies are involved here: LegalZoom and Clio. What role are they playing?
We approached LegalZoom and Clio to get involved given their reach on both the client and solo/small firm sides. They’re covering the costs of researching and developing this online resource, and we're excited about the partnership because both organizations are well-known for their commitment to using technology to increase access to justice and improve legal services, [and] filter opportunities by practice area, communities to serve, type of engagement and the ability to work remotely.
TC: Who are some of the people, or businesses, you see this helping right now? What are some common cases?
KS: Vulnerable individuals are experiencing a range of legal issues at unprecedented levels. Common cases include individuals filing for unemployment benefits; navigating housing issues and unlawful evictions; victims of domestic violence who have sheltered-in-place with an abuser; nonprofits and small businesses navigating canceled contracts; and delays in court proceedings affecting thousands of Americans.
TC: And how did you put together this database?
KS: Paladin partnered its technology with the ABA DLS's network to provide a centralized portal for state hotlines and disaster-related opportunities from legal services organizations across the country. All Legal Services Corporation grantees are able to post on the platform, and we look forward to seeing more organizations participating every day.
TC: Were there privacy concerns that needed to be addressed first?
KS: Opportunities have confidential information removed prior to posting, and attorneys are typically only provided confidential case information after they’ve been vetted by the referring organization.
TC: How do attorneys make themselves available on this portal?
KS: They sign up for specific pro bono opportunities that align with their interests and experience. Once they submit a form outlining their background to the referring organization, that organization will screen them and pair them with the most appropriate pro bono client.
TC: Are you generating any revenue from this project?
KS: Our mission is to increase access to justice by supporting pro bono legal services, so this project seemed like the perfect way to leverage Paladin's expertise and increase impact. There is no cost for attorneys to use, nor cost to the legal services organizations posting opportunities. It is a great way to raise awareness of Paladin's work more broadly.
Lawyers who are willing to provide pro bono legal services can sign up and view cases at here.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized for emergency use as outlined in the agency’s COVID-19 guidelines a new ventilator designed by engineers working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory . The ventilator, which has an acronym because this is NASA we’re talking about, is called “VITAL” (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally), and its design is being offered for free, licensed use for the duration of the coronavirus crisis.
The JPL-developed emergency use ventilator is an intubation ventilator, meaning that a patient has to be sedated, with a breathing tube inserted all the way down their airway to assist their breathing. It’s reserved for COVID-19 patients exhibiting the most serious symptoms, and even then is really designed for use only to free up availability of existing, fully approved ventilator hardware in the case of extreme shortages.
What makes VITAL most interesting is that it is made of “far fewer” parts than existing traditional ventilators, according to NASA, and it also can be assembled much more quickly, and maintained with less expertise and effort over time. The design provides for use for between three or four months, however, rather than years for traditional hardware, and is meant specifically for COVID-19 patient use, hence its simpler design versus models that are made to serve in a number of different medical situations.
NASA’s JPL is seeking commercial manufacturing partners for the hardware now that it has its authorization, however, in order to get it built in large numbers for distribution to hospitals in need.
This is one of a number of different emergency ventilator hardware design and development projects that have been spun up to address hardware needs in light of increased usage due to COVID-19. With NASA JPL’s pedigree, and its ability to serve in cases of most dire need, NASA’s definitely seems like one of the better engineered options out there.
Apple delivered a rough Q2 earnings report Thursday, besting investor expectations but showing a significant growth slowdown as the coronavirus pandemic deeply impacted the company’s business with year-over-year declines in iPhone, iPad and Mac sales.
Apple’s stock was largely unchanged in after-hours trading.
The company shared that in Q2 it earned $58.30 billion in revenue, better than the $54.54 billion investors were expecting. The figure represents 1% year-over-year revenue growth for the company.
In February, the company issued an update to its Q2 guidance, saying that it did not expect to meet its earlier estimates due to fallout driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. The company did not update its previous guidance, which said they expected to earn between $63 billion to $67 billion in Q2. Apple notably did not offer guidance for Q3 in this release.
In terms of earnings per share, the company delivered $2.55 compared to the $2.26 investors had expected. Apple also shared that they were increasing their share buyback program by $50 billion and would be hiking dividends by 6%.
Apple saw year-over-year declines in its iPhone, iPad and Mac categories, only showing gains in Services and its “Wearables, Home and Accessories” category. Hardware as a whole was down year-over-year. The company posted $28.96 billion in net iPhone sales compared to $31.05 billion in Q2 2019.
After a very rough March, most big tech stocks have been roaring back into growth in April. Apple is in a more difficult position than other ad-driven businesses given the global complexity of its hardware supply chain.
"We are proud of our Apple teams around the world and how resilient our business and financial performance has been during these challenging times," Apple CFO Luca Maestri said in a statement accompanying the release.
AWS, the cloud arm of Amazon, would be a pretty successful business on its own. Today, the company announced it has passed $10 billion for the quarter, putting the cloud business on an impressive run rate of more than $40 billion.
It was a bright spot for the company in an earnings report that saw it report net income of $2.5 billion, down $1 billion from a year ago.
Still, most companies would take that for the entire business, but AWS, which started off as kind of a side hustle for Amazon back in 2006, has grown into a powerful business all on its own. With a growth rate of 33%, it’s still growing briskly, even if it’s slowing down a bit as the law of large numbers begins to work against it.
Even though Microsoft has grown more quickly — in yesterday’s report Microsoft reported that Azure was growing at a 59% clip — AWS had such a big head start and controls a big chunk of the market share.
To give you a sense of how quickly this business has grown, Bloomberg’s Jon Erlichman tweeted the Q1 numbers for AWS since 2014, and it’s pretty amazing growth:
In 2014, it was a $4 billion a year business. Today it is 9.1x that and still going strong. The good news for everyone involved is that this is a huge market, and while nobody could ever characterize the pandemic and it’s economic fall-out as good news for anyone, the fact is that it is forcing companies to move to the cloud faster than they might have wanted to go.
That should bode well for all the cloud infrastructures vendors, even as the economy shrinks, the kinds of services these vendors offer should be in more demand than ever, and that means these numbers could just keep growing for some time.
AI-generated music is a fascinating new field, and deep-pocketed research outfit OpenAI has hit new heights in it, creating recreations of songs in the style of Elvis, 2Pac and others. The results are convincing, but fall squarely in the unnerving “uncanny valley” of audio, sounding rather like good, but drunk, karaoke heard through a haze of drugs.
Jukebox, the organization’s new music-generating system, was detailed in a blog post and paper published today. OpenAI produced some interesting work almost exactly a year ago with MuseNet, a machine learning system that, having ingested a great deal of MIDI-based music, was able to mix and match genres and instruments.
But MIDI is a simpler format than final recorded music with live instruments, since the former consists of discrete notes and key presses rather than complex harmonics and voices.
If you wanted an AI to examine the structure of a classical piano piece, the timing and key presses might only amount to a couple thousand pieces of information. Recorded audio is far denser, with (usually) 44,100 samples per second.
Machine learning systems that learn and imitate things like instruments and voice work by looking at the most recent words or sounds and predicting the next few, but they generally operate on the order of tens or a hundred pieces of data — the last 30 words or notes predict what the next 30 will be, for instance. So how can a computer learn how a tiny fraction of a waveform 10 seconds and 440,000 samples into a song compare with a sample 90 seconds and 4 million samples in?
OpenAI’s solution is to break down the song into more digestible parts — not quite key and chord, but something like that, a machine-palatable summary of 1/128th of a second of the song, picked from a “vocabulary” of 2,048 options. To be honest it’s hard to create an analogy because this is so unlike the way humans remember or understand things — as far as we even understand that.
It doesn’t actually use color swatches — that’s just to indicate that it’s breaking the waveform down into pieces.
The end result is that the AI agent has a reliable way to break down a song into digestible bits that are big enough that there aren’t too many to track, but small enough that they can reliably reconstruct the sound of a song. The process is much more complex than it sounds here; reliably breaking down a song to a series of “words” and then reconstructing it from them is the core of the new research, but the technical details I’ll let the OpenAI team to explain in their paper.
The system also had to learn how to parse the lyrics in a song, which like most things in this domain is more complicated than it sounds. Our ability to remember and use vocal patterns is partly innate and partly learned, and we tend to take for granted how powerful it is. Computers have no such ability and must learn how to pick out a voice from a mix, understand what it’s saying and match that to lyrics that are nothing more than a series of words with no information on key, tempo and all the rest. Nevertheless the OpenAI system does it to a satisfactory degree.
Jukebox is able to accomplish a variety of musical tasks, and while the results aren’t what you might call singing material, it must be kept in mind that there’s very little like this out there now, able to rebuild a song from scratch that’s recognizable as being like the target artist. Trained on 1.2 million songs, the system in the end has one multifaceted ability it accomplishes these tasks with: essentially, improvising a song given lyrics and the style it has learned from ingesting others by that artist.
So given its knowledge of how Ella Fitzgerald sings and the way instruments generally accompany her, it can sing a rendition of “At Long Last Love” in a way that sounds like her but definitely isn’t what Cole Porter had in mind. (Samples for these examples and more are included near the top of the OpenAI blog post.)
Jukebox can also sing entirely original lyrics in another’s style, like this truly strange Elvis song, “Mitosis,” written by another AI language model:
In case you didn’t catch that:
From dust we came with humble start; From dirt to lipid to cell to heart. With [mitosis] with [meiosis] with time, At last we woke up with a mind. From dust we came with friendly help; From dirt to tube to chip to rack. With S. G. D. with recurrence with compute, At last we woke up with a soul.
Yes, it’s “Elvis” using cell division as a metaphor for life, as imagined by an AI. What a world we live in.
Lastly, there’s the “completion” task, where Jukebox learns (in addition to the base learning from its library) from the first 12 seconds of a song and uses that to generate the rest in a similar style. The switch from original to AI-generated sounds a bit like the ether just kicked in.
While MuseNet could be played with more or less in real time due to its lesser complexity, Jukebox is hugely computation intensive, taking hours to generate a single second of music. “We shared Jukebox with an initial set of 10 musicians from various genres… these musicians did not find it immediately applicable to their creative process,” the authors note dryly. Still, it’s fun and fascinating research and, given the current cadence, we can expect an even further improved version of the OpenAI music effort next April.
Amazon has been one of the biggest names synonymous with how the consumer masses are experiencing life under lockdown: its site lets you buy anything from soup to nuts, from books to baking pans for all your sourdough; and via its streaming services, it gives you many ways to stay entertained. But it can also be a source of major frustration when you find yourself unable to book slots for deliveries, or are facing an army of sellers trying to price gouge you for hot items like masks or toilet paper.
Today, the company reported first quarter earnings that bore out the first of these in spades, but at a cost to profitability as it works to serve a public under a whole new set of challenging conditions.
The company reported net sales of $75.5 billion, up 26% on a year ago, a huge boost on the $59.7 billion it made in net sales in the first quarter a year ago. Indeed, $41 billion of the sum was attributable to product sales and $33 billion to services (which includes AWS, but also streaming and other non-physical goods).
But earnings per share took a hit, with basic EPS at $5.09 and diluted EPS at $5.01, and net income declining down to $2.535 billion versus $3.561 billion a year ago.
Operating income was also down, to $4 billion versus operating income of $4.4 billion in the same quarter a year ago.
Analysts on average were expecting EPS of $6.25 on revenues of $73.61 billion in sales. It was a repeat of the pattern we saw from eBay’s earnings yesterday, albeit on a much, much bigger scale.
On top of all this, the company provided guidance that indicated that it could swing into an operating loss in Q2. It said it expected net sales of between $75.0 billion and $81.0 billion, or to grow between 18% and 28% compared with second quarter 2019 (but largely flat with this quarter). But operating income is expected to be between negative $1.5 billion and $1.5 billion, versus $3.1 billion a year ago. “This guidance assumes approximately $4.0 billion of costs related to COVID-19,” the company said.
The results sent Amazon’s stock up nearly 5% in after-hours trading.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s colourful founder and CEO, acknowledged the challenges even the mighty Amazon is facing, but also reiterated, similar to Q2 guidance, that the company plans to double down on spending to face up to serving people during the COVID-19 pandemic, whatever it might bring. It’s a long statement (in what is a very, very wordy press release overall):
From online shopping to AWS to Prime Video and Fire TV, the current crisis is demonstrating the adaptability and durability of Amazon's business as never before, but it's also the hardest time we've ever faced. We are inspired by all the essential workers we see doing their jobs — nurses and doctors, grocery store cashiers, police officers, and our own extraordinary frontline employees. The service we provide has never been more critical, and the people doing the frontline work — our employees and all the contractors throughout our supply chain — are counting on us to keep them safe as they do that work. We're not going to let them down. Providing for customers and protecting employees as this crisis continues for more months is going to take skill, humility, invention, and money. If you're a shareowner in Amazon, you may want to take a seat, because we're not thinking small. Under normal circumstances, in this coming Q2, we'd expect to make some $4 billion or more in operating profit. But these aren't normal circumstances. Instead, we expect to spend the entirety of that $4 billion, and perhaps a bit more, on COVID-related expenses getting products to customers and keeping employees safe. This includes investments in personal protective equipment, enhanced cleaning of our facilities, less efficient process paths that better allow for effective social distancing, higher wages for hourly teams, and hundreds of millions to develop our own COVID-19 testing capabilities. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world right now, and the best investment we can make is in the safety and well-being of our hundreds of thousands of employees. I'm confident that our long-term oriented shareowners will understand and embrace our approach, and that in fact they would expect no less.
Of note: Amazon Web Services accounted for $10.2 billion in sales, up 33% on the same quarter a year ago. North America accounted for about $44 billion of the company’s net sales, versus $19 billion for the international segment.
And while services are not quite yet overtaking product sales, the company is seeing its services revenues are growing much faster, at 33% versus 22%. Services include not just video streaming, but grocery delivery and other non-physical paid products that Amazon provides.
At a time when we’ve seen tens of thousands of people laid off across the technology sector, Amazon has been one of the few companies to hire, specifically to staff up with 100,000 extra workers across warehouses and its logistics network to meet surging demand from buyers. That has not always been smooth sailing however, with accusations of poor and potentially health-threatening working conditions.
This has been a thorny issue for the company, so it’s no surprise that in its earnings report, it prominently reminded investors that it has made “over 150 significant process changes in our operations network and Whole Foods Market stores to help teams stay healthy — and we conduct daily audits of the measures we've put into place.”
It also noted that it has procured 100 million face masks (presumably not on Amazon itself, where economical ones have been very hard to find) and are requiring that they be worn by all associates, drivers and support staff in our operations network. “We purchased more than 1,000 thermal cameras and 31,000 thermometers, which we are using to conduct mandatory daily temperature checks for employees and support staff throughout our operations sites and Whole Foods Market stores,” it noted.
Those thermal cameras have also, however, been a point of contention: Reuters this week reported that those cameras were sourced from Dahua, a Chinese company currently blacklisted by the U.S. government.
Homebrew is a seed-stage venture capital fund that has invested in startups like Plaid, Cheddar and Managed by Q, all of which sold for nine and 10-figure sums. Hunter is one of the firm’s investing partners along with Satya Patel.
What’s on the agenda? A few things. Seed-deal pace is top of mind, as is changing seed-stage valuations. We’re also super curious about which verticals inside of seed are doing the best and the worst. We’ll also dial in on what’s changing at the Series A level for various types of seed-stage startups, what metrics are the new gospel and that sort of thing.
If there’s time, we’ll also nibble into what Homebrew is seeing from pre-seed investors and if Seed II (Mango Seed?) is still a thing or not. (Oh, and his firm’s per-fund returns. That will be fun.)
It’s going to be a jam, not only because Hunter is one of the more interesting investors in Silicon Valley, but also because in an industry of brashness and bravado, he’s more thoughtful than most. So bring your questions and we’ll see you next Thursday.
When former Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst moved on to become president at parent company IBM earlier this month, the logical person to take his place was long-time executive Paul Cormier. As he takes over in the most turbulent of times, he still sees a company that is in the right place to help customers modernize their approach to development as they move more workloads to the cloud.
We spoke to Cormier yesterday via video conference, and he appeared to be a man comfortable in his new position. We talked about the changes his new role has brought him personally, how he his helping his company navigate the current situation and how his relationship with IBM works.
One thing he stressed was that even as part of the IBM family, his company is running completely independently, and that includes no special treatment for IBM. It’s just another customer, an approach he says is absolutely essential.
Taking over
He says that he felt fully prepared for the role having run the gamut of jobs over the years, from engineering to business units to CTO. The big difference for him as CEO is that in all of his previous roles he could be the technical guy speaking a certain engineering language with his colleagues. As CEO, things have changed, especially during a time when communication has become paramount.
This has been an even bigger challenge in the midst of the pandemic. Instead of traveling to offices for meetings, chatting over informal coffees and having more serendipitous encounters, he has had to be much more deliberate in his communication to make sure his employees feel in the loop, even when they are out of the office.
“I have a company-wide meeting every two weeks. You can’t over communicate right now because it just doesn’t happen [naturally in the course of work]. I’ve got to consciously do it now, and that’s probably the biggest thing,” he said.
While Cormier sees little change on the engineering side, where many folks have been working remotely for some time, the go-to-market team could face more serious hurdles as they try to engage with customers.
“The go-to-market and sales side is going to be the challenge because we don’t know how our customers will come out of this. Everybody’s going to have different strategies on how they’re coming out of this, and that will drive a lot,” he said.
This week was Cormier’s first Red Hat Summit as CEO, one that like so many conferences had to pivot from a live event to virtual fairly quickly. Customers have been nervous, and this was the first chance to really reconnect with them since things have shut down. He says that he was pleasantly surprised how well it worked, even allowing more people to attend than might pay to travel to a live event.
Conferences are a place for the sales team to really shine and lay the groundwork for future sales. Not being there in person had to be a big change for them, but he says this week went better than he expected, and they learned a ton about running virtual events that they will carry forth into the future.
“We all miss the face-to-face for sure, but I think we’ve learned new things, and I think our team did an amazing job in pulling this off,” he said.
No favorites for IBM
As he navigates his role inside the IBM family, he says that new CEO Arvind Krishna has effectively become his board of directors, now that the company has gone private. When IBM paid $34 billion for Red Hat in 2018, it was looking for a way to modernize the company and to become a real player in the hybrid cloud market.
Hybrid involves finding a way to manage infrastructure that lives on premises as well as in the cloud without having to use two sets of tools. While IBM is all-in on Red Hat, Cormier says it’s absolutely essential to their relationship with customers that they don’t show them any favoritism, and that includes no special pricing deals.
Not only that, he says that he has the freedom to run the company the way he sees fit. “IBM doesn’t set our product strategy. They don’t set our priorities. They know that over time our open-source products could eat into what they are doing with their proprietary products, and they are okay with that. They understand that,” he said.
He says that doing it any other way could begin to erode the reason that IBM spent all that money in the first place, and it’s up to Cormier to make sure that they continue to do what they were doing and keep customers comfortable with that. So far, the company seems to be heading in the same upward trajectory it was on as a public company.
In the most recent earnings report in January, IBM reported Red Hat income of $1.07 billion, up from $863 million the previous year when it was still a private company. That’s a run rate of over $4 billion, putting it well within reach of the $5 billion goal Whitehurst set a few years ago.
Now it’s Cormier’s job to get them there and beyond. The pandemic certainly makes it more challenging, but he’s ready to lead the company to that next level, all while walking the line as the CEO of a company that lives under the IBM family umbrella and all that entails.
By the summer of 2016, Marie Outtier had spent eight years as a consultant advising media agencies and martech companies on marketing growth strategy.
Pierre-Jean "PJ" Camillieri started as a music software engineer before joining one of Apple’s consumer electronics divisions. Inspired by Siri, he left to start Timista, a smart lifestyle assistant.
When the two joined forces to co-found Aiden.ai, the combination was potent — one was a consummate marketer, the other, a specialist in machine learning. Their goal: create an AI-driven marketing analyst that offered actionable advice in real time.
Humans who manage ad campaigns must analyze vast amounts of numbers, but Outtier and Camillieri envisioned a tool that could make optimization recommendations in real time. Analytics are vast and unwieldy, so theirs was a no-brainer proposition with a market crying out for solutions.
The company's first office was at Bloom Space in Gower Street, London. It was just a handful of hot desks and a nearby sofa shared with four other startups. That summer, they began in earnest to build the company. A few months later, they had a huge opportunity when the still 100% bootstrapped company was selected for Techcrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield competition.
Interviewed by TechCrunch, they explained their proposition: Marketers wanted to know where a digital marketing campaign was getting the most traction: Twitter or Facebook. You might need to check several dashboards across multiple accounts, plus Google analytics to compile the data — and even if you conclude that one platform is outperforming the other, that might change next week as users shift attention to Instagram, potentially wasting 60% of ad spend.
Aiden was intended to feel like just another co-worker, relying on natural language processing to make the exchange feel chatty and comfortable. It queried data from multiple dashboards and quickly compiled it into flash charts, making it easy to find and digest.
Eventually, instead of managing 10 clients, marketing analysts would be able to manage 50 using dynamic predictions as well as visualizations. Aiden incorporated Outtier’s expertise into its algorithms so it could suggest how to tweak a Facebook campaign and anticipate what was going to happen.
Was appearing at Disrupt a significant moment? "It was a big deal for us," says Outtier. “The exposure gave us ammunition to raise our first round. And being part of the Disrupt Battlefield alumni gave us many meaningful networking and PR opportunities."
A few weeks later the company had raised a seed round of $750,000. But not without difficulty. By this time Outtier was in the latter stages of pregnancy. Raising money under these circumstances was difficult, but, she says, “it can be done. It's tougher than 'normal circumstances.' It's a bit like running a marathon, but with a fridge on your back."
Following an explosive report about the dark past of its founder and CEO Damien Patton, Utah-based company Banjo is facing a backlash in its own backyard. After revelations of Patton’s former ties to a branch of the KKK came to light, Utah’s attorney general and the University of Utah froze their relationships with the company. Now, the company will suspend all of its contracts in the state.
Following the actions by the state AG’s office, Banjo announced that it would suspend all of its state contracts in Utah, “not ingesting any government data or providing any services to government entities” until an audit could be conducted. Banjo signed a $20.7 million contract with the state of Utah in 2019, a relationship set to span five years.
"The Utah Attorney General's office is shocked and dismayed at reports that Banjo's founder had any affiliation with any hate group or groups in his youth,” Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes’ office said in a statement provided to TechCrunch. “Neither the AG nor anyone in the AG's office were aware of these affiliations or actions. They are indefensible. He has said so himself. ”
In the investigation on Patton, OneZero revealed that not only did Patton have ties to active KKK members at the age of 17, but that in 1990 he drove a car past a synagogue in a Nashville suburb while a KKK member shot at the building. Following the incident, he reportedly went into hiding at a white supremacist training camp. According to the reporting, Patton’s affiliation with white supremacists continued into his adulthood after he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, though Patton frames those ties as solely during his youth, after he “was taken in” by white supremacists while living on the street.
In a statement to TechCrunch and published on the company’s blog, Patton expressed remorse for his actions while not directly addressing how his violent, extremist past never came up when telling his own story as a founder:
I have worked every day to be a responsible member of society. I've built companies, employed hundreds and have worked to treat everyone around me equally. In recent years, I've sought to create technologies that stop human suffering and save lives without violating privacy. I know that I will never be able to erase my past but I work hard every day to make up for mistakes. This is something I will never stop doing.
Once a proximity social networking app, Banjo pivoted in recent years to become a real-time intelligence platform for police departments and public officials. Its core product, Live Time, purports to provide “life-saving information in seconds” in order to mobilize emergency responses, but has faced criticism for its surveillance-driven mission. As Vice recently observed, the company’s desire to conduct real-time AI-powered monitoring on public surveillance camera feeds is “something that has terrified security and civil liberties experts for years.”
Reyes noted that while he “believe[s] Mr. Patton's remorse is sincere,” the Utah AG’s office would suspend its use of Banjo while a third-party investigates the state’s implementation for “issues like data privacy and possible bias,” suggesting that other state agencies using Banjo should follow suit.
“Banjo's mission is to save lives and minimize human suffering to help first responders in emergency situations while not invading people's civil liberties and rights,” the company wrote in a blog post announcing plans to pause state contracts. “We are looking forward to the audit to show that we can build technology to help save lives and protect people's rights.”
Directly taking on Google and Amazon generally seems to be an ill-advised strategy for a young startup. It’s even more complicated when you’re competing on the home assistants front, a technically complex, capital-intensive future platform into which both tech giants have dumped substantial sums.
Over the past few years, the small smart home startup Josh.ai has attempted to do just that, capitalizing on public distrust of the big voice platforms to sell an intelligent assistant to users weary of sticking a Google or Amazon-owned microphone in their homes. The company has built its business catering to customers seeking professionally installed pricey outfits in their home, costing upwards of $10,000 on the high end.
The company just secured its largest funding round to date, an $11 million Series A round, which brings the startup’s total funding to $22 million. A spokesperson for Josh.ai said their investors have asked not to be named, though he confirmed the round was led by corporate investors.
For people with an Echo Dot or Google Mini in their home, Josh.ai’s approach feels familiar. The platform boasts a number of third-party integrations, so you can use the platform to switch off lights, turn on devices, play music and answer some simple commands. Basically, the bulk of home-centric commands popular on Google Assistant and Alexa.
The startup recently introduced Josh Micro, its own take on the Echo Dot. It has a futuristic vibe and, because it’s installed by professionals, users are privy to a sleek look with wires neatly tucked away inside walls. CEO Alex Capecelatro says their competitors in the professionally installed space have been pushing wall-mounted screens with UIs that often aren’t updated and don’t age well. He hopes their more low-key display-free devices can keep less focus on the hardware and more attention on their software.
“Our philosophy is that you shouldn't be talking to a puck, it should feel fully immersive,” he says.
Capecelatro had originally seen the best path to existing alongside Google and Amazon as working with them and leveraging their platforms, but he soon found that not working with them proved to be the startup’s biggest asset.
“In terms of direction, what became really clear in the past three years was the importance of privacy,” Capecelatro told TechCrunch. “A lot of our clients are just people who care about their privacy; it's part of every conversation.”
On the tech side, Capecelatro says the startup’s platform is designed around its own natural language processing stack, so most voice requests can be processed locally, though the startup does leverage tech built by Google and Microsoft to handle speech-to-text processes. While the company uses anonymized data to improve its services, the startup has also introduced specific software features to keep privacy-focused users satisfied including their own take on a smart home incognito mode.
There are few silver bullets in smart home tech, and robust third-party support often leaves room for uncertainty, which in Josh’s case can mean the difference between lights turning on or staying off. Capecelatro says ensuring smooth compatibility with supported devices has been a pretty big focus for their engineering team.
“The more things we work with, the more things we have to QA and the more things that could be impacted,” he says.
While Capecelatro says that around 80-85% of their business goes to single-family homes, he says the startup is starting to find business in commercial sectors, outfitting hotels and condo buildings.
“The reality is we've found that the professional installed space is a really big market that the consumer companies don't really think about,” Capecelatro says. “I think for us the likely future is that we'll focus on areas where you have a professional installer in a non-residential arena.”
The company says the pandemic has actually given their business a bump, with April being their best month of sales to date as homeowners stuck in their houses look to finally act on long-considered home improvement projects.
Two years ago, the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) took the wraps off a dedicated crypto fund from a subset of its limited partners who provided the firm with $300 million in capital commitments. Now, the firm says it has closed a second fund in the same vein, this time with $515 million in capital commitments.
As general partner Chris Dixon — who leads the fund with general partner Katie Haun — tells Fortune: "It's very rare that major, new computing paradigms come along, and we think this is on the scale of cloud and mobile for the Internet.”
Certainly, the firm has less competition for crypto deals at the moment than it might have back in 2018. Many VCs pulled back last year, with overall funding in 2019 down 28% from 2018's peak of $4.3 billion, according to CB Insights.
Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency markets were also hammered along with the broader stock market in a downturn sparked by the COVID-19 crisis, causing some to conclude they are as vulnerable to a lot of other instruments to stock market shifts.
A big upswing since — along with this obvious endorsement by a16z — could turn those trends around, however. Indeed, the entire market capitalization of cryptocurrencies jumped $35.3 billion in 24 hours as of 2:19 p.m. Singapore time, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com and reported by CNBC.
Bitcoin, specifically, which fell below $4,000 last month, shot up to $9,388.30 by earlier today (though, as this is being written, it has slipped to $8,695.41).
Industry participants attribute the rally to central bank monetary policy and the “bitcoin halving” that’s expected next month, when for the third time in the network’s history, the reward for mining a block will be divided by two.
Andreessen Horowitz has invested directly in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, along with a range of other bets that include Coinbase, the crypto lender Compound and Anchorage, a cryptocurrency custody service.
It’s also a member of both the Libra Association and the Celo Alliance for Prosperity, both of which are inviting developers to build decentralized mobile apps that are based on their own cryptocurrencies.
To drum up even more deal flow, a16z last month kicked off a free, seven-week program for cryptocurrency startups that aims to educate and “supplement — not replace — the many other excellent programs and resources that help founders learn about building tech startups,” Dixon wrote of the school late last year.
The firm isn’t taking equity in the startups as part of the program, it says. Instead, it’s apparently looking to build connections to and between founders who it might want to work with it in the future.
In addition to Dixon and Haun, the firm this year added a third deal partner to its cryptocurrency practice: Arianna Simpson, the founder and managing director of the cryptocurrency-focused hedge fund Autonomous Partners.
The coronavirus outbreak has driven more consumers to turn to their smart speakers for news, information, music and entertainment, according to new data released today by NPR and Edison Research. Around three-quarters of U.S. adults 18 and up said their routines have been impacted due to COVID-19 and their media habits have changed as a result. Since the outbreak, 35% of U.S. smart speakers owners say they’re listening to more news and information through their device, and 36% say they’ve increased their consumption of music and entertainment.
These figures skew even higher when looking at the 18-34 age group.
Here, 50% report an increase in news and information consumption and 52% said they’ve increased their listening of music and other sorts of entertainment.
In addition, the report found the total time spent listening to news content via the smart speaker has increased since the same time last year. In Spring 2019, 30% said listened to 3 or more hours per week, 40% said 1 to less than 3 hours, and 30% said less than one hour.
In the quarantine-fueled Spring 2020, these numbers increased to 32% (3+ hrs.), 43% (1 to <3 hrs.), and 25%(<1 hr), respectively.
Smart speaker owners working from home during the COVID-19 outbreak were also more likely than smart speaker owners in general to make requests for news from their device on a weekly basis, but not as likely to ask for the weather, the time, or other updates.
In the work-from-home group, 65% said they use the device — at some point — to listen to the news while 62% of all smart speaker owners said they do.
Quarantined adults may also help to drive increased sales of smart speakers as they realize the value in spreading out the devices in the home.
A large number of smart speaker owners who have children said they’re now thinking of buying another device to entertain their kids.
Last spring, only 47% said they were thinking of buying a new device for the kids. Now, it’s 71%.
The data in the report referencing the changes after COVID-19 comes from a survey that took place from March 31 through April 1, 2020, the organizations said.
“With tens of millions of Americans no longer commuting, smart speakers are becoming even more important as a conduit for news and information,” said Edison Research SVP Tom Webster, in a release, “and this increased usage and facility with voice assistants will likely increase demand for this technology in vehicles once our commutes resume.” he said.
The report also claimed that smart speaker adoption among U.S. adults has now reached 24% of the U.S. population, or 60 million users. This is a more conservative estimate than another recent report on smart speaker adoption from Voicebot.ai, which said one-third of U.S. adults have a smart speaker, or 87.7 million.
The further report examined other smart speaker trends, unrelated to COVID-19, including the use of smart devices with a screen and voice assistants on phones.
The Cloud Foundry Foundation (CFF) just went through a major leadership change, with executive director Abby Kearns stepping down after five years (and becoming a CTO at Puppet) and the CFF’s CTO Chip Childers stepping into the top leadership role in the organization. For the most part, though, these changes are only accelerating some of the strategic moves the organization already made in the last few years.
If you’re unfamiliar with the open-source Cloud Foundry project, it’s a Platform-as-a-Service that’s in use by the majority of Fortune 500 enterprises. After a lot of technical changes, which essentially involved building out support for containers and adding Kubernetes as an option for container orchestration next to the container tools Cloud Foundry built long before the rise of Google’s open-source tool, the technical underpinnings of the project are now stable. And as Childers has noted before, that now allows the project to refocus its efforts on developer experience.
That, after all, was always the selling point of Cloud Foundry. Developers stick to a few rules and, in return, they can easily push their apps to Cloud Foundry with a single command (“cf push”) and know that it will run, while the enterprises that employ them get the benefits of faster development cycles.
On the flip side, though, actually managing that Cloud Foundry install was never easy, and required either a heavy lift from internal infrastructure teams or the help of outside firms like Pivotal, IBM, SAP, Suse and others to run and manage the platform. That pretty much excluded smaller companies, and especially startups, from using the platform. As Childers noted, some still did use it, but that was never the project’s focus.
Now, with the Kubernetes underpinnings in place, he believes that it will become easier for non-enterprise users to also get started with the platform. And projects like KubeCF and CF for K8s now offers a full Cloud Foundry distribution for Kubernetes, which makes it relatively easy to use the platform on top of modern infrastructure.
To highlight some of these changes, the CFF today unveiled its new tutorial hub that will not just explain what Cloud Foundry is, but also feature tutorials to get started. Some of these will be hosted and written by the Foundation itself, while community members will contribute others.
“Our community has created a learning hub, curated by the Cloud Foundry Foundation, of open-source tutorials for folks to learn Cloud Foundry and related cloud native technologies,” said Childers. “The hub includes an interactive hands-on lab for first-time Cloud Foundry users to experience how easy the platform makes deploying applications to Kubernetes, and is open for the community to contribute.”
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Nothing says "spring" like an arrangement of bright, gorgeous tulips fresh from the garden or flower shop. Tulips are sturdy flowers that can last up to 10 days after cutting if you know how to care for them correctly. Choose fresh blooms to begin with is key, and you can prolong their beauty by displaying them in the right place and giving them plenty of water. See Step 1 for tricks you can use to create a long-lasting tulip arrangement.
Choose young tulips. When you're at the flower shop, you might be tempted to buy the tulips with fully-opened, vibrantly colored petals. This would be a fine choice if your tulips were meant to "wow" for a one-night occasion, but if you want them to last a long time, choose tulips that are still tightly closed, with some green buds that aren't fully colored yet.[1] The flowers will open over the course of a few days, giving you more time to enjoy them.
If you're cutting your own tulips and you want them to last as long as possible in a vase, cut them before they're fully opened. Cut as close as possible to the ground.
Wrap the stems in wet cloth or paper towels.[2] When you bring the tulips home from the shop, keep them wrapped in paper towels or a washcloth soaked in fresh water. This will ensure that the tulips don't start prematurely drying out on the way home. Do this even if the distance from the flower shop to your house isn't very far. Any time out of water will cause the tulips to age faster.
Cut from the base of the stems.[3] Use a small pair of clippers and cut the stems at an angle. This will help them readily soak up water from the vase.
Remove extra leaves from the base of the stems. If the stems have any leaves that would be submerged in water when you put them in the vase, remove them. The leaves could start rotting and cause the flowers to go limp before their time.[4]
Choose a suitable vase. Pick a vase that will rise up to cover at least half the height of the tulips you've brought home.[5] They'll be able to lean against the vase without bending over. If you use a shorter vase, the flowers will eventually bend forward. This is an effect some people like, but it may cause the flowers to die more quickly.
Wash the vase. Make sure it doesn't have sediment leftover from your last bouquet. Use soap and warm water to wash it thoroughly, then dry it completely with a towel. This way your fresh tulips won't pick up bacteria that could case them to start rotting more quickly.
Fill the vase with cold water. Cold water will keep the stems fresh and crisp, while warm or hot water would cause them to become weak and soggy.[6]
Position the stems around the vase. Arrange the tulips so that they each have a little space in the vase, rather than leaning them all on top of one another. Giving them each a little room will prevent them from crushing one another, which will lead to premature petal drop-page and shorten the lifespan of your flowers.
Keep the vase filled with fresh water. Tulips drink up a lot of water. Make sure it never completely runs out, or they'll begin to wilt very quickly.
Add some flower food. The addition of flower food, or flower preservative, which is available at flower shops, will greatly lengthen your flowers' lifespan. Read the directions and sprinkle in some food when you add water. It'll keep your tulips standing tall and looking perky for as long as possible.
You can try putting lemon juice, pennies, and other such materials in the vase with the flowers. Some say these tricks work, but research shows that flower food is much more effective.[7]
Don't style tulips with flowers in the Narcissus family. Daffodils and other flowers in this family exude a substance that causes flowers to fade faster. Tulips work best in a vase all by themselves.[8]
Keep the vase out of the sun. Place it in an area that doesn't get too hot and sunny. Otherwise, the tulips will wilt in the heat.
When buying tulips from a store, purchase tulips with the flower head closed.
Pierce the stem with a medium needle just below the flower. It never fails to keep the flowers attractive for a week. Dutch tip.
Leaving tulips in the vase with a wrap around them for a couple of hours will increase the chances of keeping the stems straight.
When you cut tulips, try cutting them on a diagonal angle instead a straight angle.
Because tulips continue to grow even after being cut, they often bend to conform to their container. If desired, straighten the tulips by securing them in damp newspaper and placing them in lukewarm water for a few hours.
Tulips can be safely placed in the same bouquet with most other flowers.
Place the tulips in an irregular shaped vase for twisted, conformed stems.
Cut stems at a diagonal 1/2 inch cut from bottom. Place in vase with Cold water and ive cubes to 50% vase level. No Plant Food!!! Refresh with a few ice cubes each day no direct sunlight. They will last so long!!
Tulips are "photogenic", bending towards the light, so rotate containers daily to keep stems more upright.[9]
Most card games require a large group of people to enjoy, but Solitaire is designed for solo players. The game is a great way to pass the time and can provide hours of entertainment. Once you know the board layout and rules, it takes less than a minute to set up and can be assembled almost anywhere.
Shuffle the deck. To play Solitaire, you will need a traditional 52-card pack of standard playing cards. Open your pack and discard the instruction and Joker cards. Before you start dealing, shuffle the cards a couple of times to make sure that the deck is all mixed up.
Deal seven cards in a row. Deal the first card and place it face up on your left-hand side. Then, deal six more cards face-down in a row to the right of this card so that each card has its own spot.
When you are finished, you should have seven cards total. The first one on the left should be facing up and the other six should be facing down.
The cards that you are dealing are called your "Tableau." These are the main cards that you will use to play solitaire.[1] When you are finished dealing all of the cards, your Tableau will look similar to an upside down staircase.
Skip the first card and then deal six cards. Next, you will need to deal six more cards onto the stacks. Place the first card face up on the second stack of cards from the left. Then, deal one card face down card onto each of the stacks moving to the right.[2]
Count over to the third card and then deal five cards. Starting with the third stack over from the left, deal one card face up. Then, deal four more cards facing down on each of the stacks to the right of this stack.[3]
Deal four cards starting with the fourth stack. Starting with the fourth stack over from the left, deal one card face up onto this stack and then deal three cards facing down. Place one card onto each of the stacks to the right of this stack.[4]
Skip the first four cards and deal three. Count over to the fifth card from the left in your row of seven card stacks. Deal one card facing up on this stack and then deal one card facing down onto each of the two stacks to the right.[5]
Count over to the sixth card and then deal two. Next, count over to the sixth stack from the left and deal one card facing up onto this stack. Then, deal one card facing down onto the stack to the right of this stack. This stack should be the last one in your row of seven.[6]
Deal one last card face up. There should only be one stack left that does not have a face up card on it. This stack should be all the way on the right of your Tableau. Deal one card onto this stack facing up. Now this stack should have six cards facing down and one on top that is facing up.[7]
After you have dealt this last card, your Tableau is complete! Dealing the Tableau is the hardest part of setting up solitaire, so the next part will be easy.
Place the remaining cards face down. After you have finished setting up your stacks, you can place the cards that you have left just above the Tableau on the left-hand side. This will be your "Stock" or "Hand" pile. You will draw cards from this pile as you play the game.[8]
If you want to be extra sure that the cards are shuffled, then you can shuffle them again before placing your Stock pile. This is optional though.
Identify the space for your discard pile. The discard pile, also known as the "Talon" or "Waste" pile, is where you will discard any cards that you draw and cannot use.[9] At the start of your game, the Talon pile will be empty. Reserve a space next to your Stock pile to create your Talon pile during gameplay.
The Talon pile is usually just to the right of the Stock pile.
When you have exhausted your Talon pile, you can flip it over (face down) onto the Stock pile space again and continue playing.
Leave room for your Foundation piles. The Foundation piles are where you will place the cards that you will clear from the Tableau stacks as you play solitaire. At the start of your game, your Foundation piles will be empty, so you just need to reserve some space above your Tableau. Leave enough room to place four stacks of cards as you play.[10]
Learn the object. If you have never played solitaire before, then you will need to take a few minutes to learn how to play solitaire first. The object of a game of Solitaire is to transfer all of the cards in the deck and in the tableau stacks to your foundation piles.[11] You begin the game with nothing in these piles and arrange cards in these stacks going from lowest to highest and separated by suit.[12]
For example, one stack might begin with the ace of spades, so only the two of spades can be placed in this stack next. You cannot place the three of spades until the two of spades is in place.
Draw and place cards. You will need to draw and place cards to play. Draw one card at a time and either play it on one of your stacks or discard it if you cannot use it. You can play a card on one of your tableau stacks if the color and sequence are right.[13] The colors need to alternate between red and black.
For example, if one stack has a five of hearts on it and you draw a four of clubs, then you could play the four of clubs on the five of hearts.
Move and flip face-up cards. You can move cards between stacks to expose face-down cards. When a face down card is exposed, then you can flip it over and use it.
For example, if one stack has a five of hearts on it and another stack has a six of spades on it, then you could move the five of hearts to the six of spades stack. This will expose a face-down card that you can then flip over and either leave it in place or use it.
Reuse the discard pile. When you have exhausted the discard pile, then you can flip over the stack and begin using those cards again. Continue to draw one card at a time and to flip the deck each time you go through it.
Transfer cards to the foundation piles to clear them. As you expose cards and draw cards, you will be able to transfer them to the foundation piles above your tableau stacks. Remember that each pile needs to begin with an ace card and there should only be one stack per suit.[14]
When each stack contains an ace through king set, then you will have won the game!
Hair oils are great for moisturizing and conditioning all types of hair. Although there are plenty of commercial products available, making your own hair oil at home is quick, easy, and inexpensive. Hair oils commonly include a carrier oil such as coconut or olive oil, alongside essential oils or plant material. Whether you want your hair to grow faster or thicker or prevent hair loss or graying hair, you can quickly make an oil to treat your specific needs.
Get coconut oil, castor oil, and apricot kernel oil. You can find these oils at either health product stores or online. Use a measuring cup to measure out of coconut oil, of castor oil, and of apricot kernel oil into a bowl.[1]
The coconut oil will help to moisturize your hair, soothe your scalp, and prevent dandruff. Alternatively, jojoba oil makes a good substitute as it helps to seal in moisture.[2]
Try to get cold-pressed apricot oil if possible.
Castor oil may have hair regrowth properties.
Gather rosemary, lavender, peppermint, and clary sage essential oils. You can find essential oils from health product stores or online. Measure out 12 drops of rosemary and 6 drops each of the lavender, peppermint, and clary sage essential oils into the bowl.[3]
Rosemary and clary sage oils increase scalp circulation, lavender oil deep conditions hair, and peppermint oil improves hair growth.[4]
There are many different essential oils that work well in hair oils. You don't need to include all of the essential oils if you can't find them and you can substitute oils if you prefer.
Other essential oils to try for making a hair oil include cedarwood oil which moisturizes the scalp, almond oil which soothes the scalp, and sandalwood oil which helps to strengthen hair.
Never place essential oils directly onto your scalp as they can irritate your skin. Always dilute the essential oils with a carrier such as coconut oil.
Pour all of the ingredients into a glass jar and shake it well. Use a glass jar that is approximately and which has a lid that seals well. Place each measured ingredient directly into the jar and then screw the lid back on. Shake the jar vigorously to combine all of the ingredients.[5]
The hair oil mixture will have a thick consistency due to the castor oil.
You can either use an eyedropper to remove the oil from the glass jar or pour a smaller amount into an empty essential oil bottle so that you can use it directly.
Massage the oil onto your scalp 30 minutes before you wash your hair. Place a few drops of the hair oil onto your fingertips. Rub your fingertips over your scalp to work in the hair oil. Wait for 30 minutes and then wash the hair oil out as you shampoo your hair.[6]
Alternatively, you can use the hair oil to moisturize your hair after you have showered. Place a few drops of the hair oil onto your palms and run your hands through the ends of your hair.
Hair oils can sometimes take 2-3 washes to rinse out fully. If the residue bothers you, simply wash your hair again.[7]
Combine Jamaican black castor, coconut, lavender, and rosemary oils. Pour of Jamaican black castor oil, of cold-pressed coconut oil, 6 drops of lavender essential oil, and 6 drops of rosemary essential oil into a small bowl. Use a whisk to mix the ingredients until they are combined.[8]
Jamaican black castor oil helps to repair weak or damaged hair.
Lavender oil helps to make hair shiny and rosemary oil helps to stimulate roots.[9]
Massage the oil through your scalp for 15 minutes. Place a few drops of the oil mixture onto your fingertips. Rub your fingers over your scalp and down through your hair so that the oil reaches the ends.[10]
Take your time while massaging your hair to ensure that the oil reaches from the roots to the tips.
Wash the oil out of your hair after 30 minutes. After massaging your hair, wait for 30 minutes before washing your hair as you normally would. Use a towel to gently squeeze out the excess water and then let your hair air-dry.[11]
Use a sulfate-free shampoo if possible to help protect your hair from frizziness.
Grind 5 hibiscus flowers and 5 hibiscus leaves into a pulp. Place the hibiscus flowers and leaves into a mortar and pestle. Crush the flowers and leaves until the consistency resembles a fine pulp.[12]
Hibiscus contains vitamins and nutrients that may decrease the amount of hair you lose, leading to thicker, stronger hair.
Heat the crushed material with coconut oil for approximately 10 minutes. Pour of coconut oil into a saucepan and add the crushed hibiscus flowers and leaves. Adjust the temperature to a medium setting and heat the ingredients until the oil begins to fume slightly, which should take approximately 10 minutes.[13]
Remove the saucepan from the heat once the oil has started fuming.
Alternatively, you can use olive oil as a carrier oil instead of coconut. Coconut oil works to soften hair and olive oil is a suitable alternative as it helps to moisturize hair.[14]
Strain the oil into a glass jar. Use a sieve to remove the crushed hibiscus flowers and leaves from the oil. Discard the crushed hibiscus flowers and leaves, and keep the oil in an airtight glass jar to use.[15]
Rub the oil into your scalp for 15 minutes and wash it out after 45 minutes. Give your scalp a 15-minute massage using the hair oil that you made. Then wash the oil out of your hair using a sulfate-free shampoo and let your hair air-dry naturally.[16]
Use this hair oil 2-3 times per week for the best results.
Gather 1 handful of curry leaves and of coconut oil. Purchase fresh curry leaves either from a market, an Indian grocery store, or online. Choose cold-pressed coconut oil if possible.[17]
Always use fresh curry leaves rather than dried when you are making hair oil, as the leaves are more fragrant when fresh.
Curry leaves may help with preventing gray hairs and enhancing hair growth. This is because the curry leaves are rich in vitamin B and can help to restore melanin.
Heat the curry leaves and coconut oil for approximately 10 minutes. Place the curry leaves and coconut oil directly into a saucepan. Adjust the temperature to a medium setting. Keep the ingredients on the heat until a black residue forms, which should take around 10 minutes.[18]
Made sure that the temperature doesn't rise above .
Let the hair oil cool for approximately 30 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat once the black residue forms. Wait for the oil to cool before you apply it to your hair.[19]
You can store the hair oil in a glass jar with a tightly sealed lid if you aren't going to use it all at once.
Massage the hair oil into your scalp and then wash it out after 1 hour. Place some of the cool hair oil onto your fingertips. Rub it into your scalp thoroughly and then wait for 1 hour. After 1 hour, rinse the hair oil out of your hair and wash your hair as normal.[20]
It's recommended to apply the hair oil twice per week.
Keep the hair oil in a warm place to ensure that the coconut oil stays in a liquid form. It can be helpful to store the hair oil in a jar and to keep the jar in a sunny spot.[21]
COVID-19 lockdown: Urgent need to decongest megacities Before tertiary infections take root, it could perhaps be a good to plan to decongest the slums by arranging travel of migrants to their home in orderly manner without losing time
Power package: Rs 90,000-crore credit line to fund discoms afresh, but with strict riders States need to undertake to clear departmental dues, fast-track subsidy release to receive first tranche of Rs 45-k cr; show evidence of action to get the balance
Covid-19 effect: Reliance Industries to cut pay, defer bonuses for hydrocarbon biz staff It also said that annual cash bonus and performance-linked incentives normally paid in the first quarter stand deferred.
Rishi Kapoor: A 'lovely lover' who was destined to be a star Rishi Kapoor was old Bollywood, but he was also cracklingly fresh, spoke to an India trembling on the cusp of a new era
India to roll out scheme to woo MNCs to relocate from China Many independent agencies have forecast that Indian economy may grow at less than 1% in FY21 from around 5% (advance estimate) in FY20.
RIL's Q4 net profits down 37.2%; misses estimates to carve out O2C business The company has also created an interesting new business vertical from this quarter - financial services - based on internal reorganisation of its business segments.
Why extending lockdown could be catastrophic Extending the lockdown well beyond mid-May would shave 8-9% off the real GDP. but, the damage being done doesn't seem to be filtering up to those in charge
Coronavirus crisis: India simply can't afford another lockdown extension Even supporting the poor—whose numbers will double—can cost Rs 65,000-130,000 crore per month
Focus should be to improve self-reliance in mineral production: PM Modi In a meeting to discuss ways to boost the coal and mining sector, Modi also said that the mineral sector should benchmark its operations to international standards.
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