Category Archives: Blog

TL;DR: Grab the 2021 All-in-One Computer Science Certification Bundle for 98% off — just $34.99 — as of Aug. 8.

To say that computer science is a lucrative career is a massive understatement. To say it’s a challenging career is even more of one. The toolbox that coders must master to stay up to date with the current development landscape is growing by the day. It can be tough for a newcomer to even know how to get their foot in the door.

Luckily, for a limited time, it’s a little bit easier than you think to get started in the computer science field, thanks to this 2021 All-in-One Computer Science Certification Bundle. This collection of 11 online courses is taught by a stacked team of working software developers and teachers, including Tony Staunton, a Python development consultant; Umar Lone, a civil engineer who found his calling in software development; and Loonycorn, an ex-Google, Stanford, and Flipkart team. It features over 100 hours of training, hands-on exercises, and exciting portfolio-building projects, so you’ll walk away with a working knowledge of how to code in multiple languages.

From Java and JavaScript to C++ and C# to Python and Ruby on Rails, you can expect pretty much any coding language you can think of to be covered in this training bundle. Along the way, you’ll create your own apps from scratch, build web pages, and even design fully playable games. The courses cover more than just syntax, they teach you through actual hands-on coding. The best way to learn is by doing, after all.

In order to truly stay up-to-date in the world of computer science, you’ll also tackle courses on the computer programs used to build chatbots like Google Dialogflow, and voice-activated assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Cortana. You’ll even build your own apps to use with Alexa to get an idea of what’s going on in the tech world in 2021.

This bundle of coding courses is valued at over $2,000, but for a limited time, you can kickstart your career in computer science for only $34.99. 

TL;DR: Help keep your home secure with this $750 ADT-monitored home security voucher. As of Aug. 8, grab it for only $29.99 — a 96% discount.

According to research, a home burglary happens every 15 seconds in the U.S. And according to the same research, homes without a security system are 300% more likely to be broken into and burglarized. Three hundred. In other words, if you haven’t invested in your home security yet, you’re overdue.

Lucky for you, you don’t have to break the bank to stay safe. For a limited time, you can get an ADT-monitored home security voucher that grants you $750 worth of equipment for only $29.88.

The $750 equipment voucher allows you to choose from a wide range of popular devices to fit your individual home security needs. That includes outdoor cameras, glass break sensors, video doorbells, and more, all professionally installed and monitored by ADT. You’ll also get a seven-inch touchscreen panel valued at $600, as well as standard ADT monitoring equipment, including sensors for all exterior doors and a motion detector. You’ll even get a Certificate of Monitoring, which could actually save you even more money on your homeowner’s insurance.

ADT monitoring gives you some peace of mind by allowing you to keep an eye on your home, kids, pets, and more in real-time, or play back recorded clips using your smartphone or tablet from anywhere.

When it comes to protecting your home and your family, you shouldn’t cut corners. ADT is one of the most trusted names in the home security industry, with a 4-star rating on SafeWise and a 9.1 out of 10 on This Old House. We even included it as one of our top security systems a couple of years back.

Invest in a top-notch security system customized for your home for just $29.88. Upon purchase, you’ll receive a digital voucher code for $750 worth of home security equipment and within the next 30 days, you can schedule your installation.

TL;DR: Keep track of your passwords with the JEMPass Password Manager Plan, on sale for 12% off. As of Aug. 8, get one for just $109 and get a free year of the encrypted JEMPass service .

The world is not going to stop demanding that you enter your email address, create accounts, and log new passwords each time you shop, read something, or simply skim the internet. So you might as well make it easier on yourself and round up your passwords and key info together in one place, so you can easily access it when needed.

With the JEMPass Password Manager Plan, you can not only gather all of your important passwords in one place, but you’ll be able to add an authenticator to all of your accounts. So, there’s absolutely no way anyone can ever break into your accounts and take hold of your most precious information. This plan includes both access to the JEM Biometric Authenticator Device and the JEMPass Password Manager for a full year of service.

The JEM authenticator lets you use your saved passwords effortlessly on all of your devices, even if they’re associated with different iCloud or Google accounts. It even works on laptops, iPads, and smartphones, so everything is seamless and you never have to switch between devices just to pull out a password. It features frictionless syncing across devices and ensures automatic password entry for your accounts.

Since the JEMPass plan has an encrypted data vault that uses locally generated cryptographic keys and up-to-date peer-reviewed encryption libraries, you will have complete control of all of your data. Nothing can ever be decrypted on the internet without your JEM and unique fingerprint ID. After the first year of enjoying the JEMPass service, you will only have to pay $39 per year after the free period.

Normally the JEM Biometric Authenticator with JEMPass Password Manager bundle with year-long service retails for $129. But, for a limited time, you can save 15% and get both for just $109.

For many cord-cutters, attempting to watch the Tokyo Olympics meant downloading a new app.

Without access to broadcast and cable channels showing the COVID-postponed tournament on TV for the past two weeks, the only streaming options were through services like Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV, both $65 per month; an app and website from NBC Sports, which requires a cable subscription to sign in; and the donations-supported network TV streamer, Locast.

The event also brought a new way to watch Olympians in action: on Peacock, the new streaming service from NBC that offers free, ad-supported viewing along with paid subscriptions. For this Olympics, the Peacock app was the most widely accessible place to stream gymnastics and track and field events, live and for free. Basketball was also available live, but only on the paid $5 per month tier.

With limited, affordable options, the Peacock app, which launched in April 2020, had a late July download boost. Data from app analytics firm Apptopia showed how App Store and Google Play downloads from the first part of July were as low as 94,921 a day. But by July 27 (when gymnastics was well underway), the app was downloaded 210,689 times in a day.

A paid option like the YouTube TV app wasn’t grabbed nearly as much, even during the popular gymnastics events. Apptopia reported 25,617 YouTube downloads on July 27, up only slightly from where it was before the games (on July 16, YouTube TV had 20,987 downloads).

If you didn’t want to pay and lacked a cable login, Peacock was the only option to see Team USA race and take to the balance beam. It also offered replays and highlights of the long list of events (table tennis, canoeing, or archery, anyone?) beyond the traditionally popular ones.

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But just because NBC increased engagement with its new Peacock platform, that doesn’t mean its Olympics showcase was a successful viewing experience. The fragmented options scattered across different apps, websites, and channels, not to mention the massive time difference between Japan and the U.S. complicating live broadcasts, meant the Olympics lost its unifying feel as confusion reigned among viewers.

As Washington Post editor Dan Steinberg wrote in his daily Tokyo Olympics newsletter Saturday, “The Olympics used to be one of the fleetingly rare events that we all watched together. But between the tape delays and the streaming options, the Peacock-only events and the impossible-to-follow listings, this time it felt like a mostly personal experience.”

In response to a newsletter question about why these games have been underwhelming, readers offered, “The coverage is difficult to follow with streaming, and we know everything before we get to see it. Also a problem with Rio but it seems worse and more fragmented this year.” Another lamented that it was hard to find full event coverage, while another missed the days when only one channel showed the games.

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Many took to Twitter to gripe about yet another app filled with ads that was aggressively trying to sign up paid subscribers. It didn’t help that the app doesn’t make it easy to navigate or find content. A Verge reporter described searching for Olympics broadcasts on Peacock as “a chore, comparable to flicking through a cable TV guide.”

Instead of forcing the Olympics into an existing streaming platform, cord-cutters deserve something better — whether that’s an improved Olympics portal within Peacock or a dedicated Olympics-only app for the next games.

A look at the fine print on the Tesla website confirms that its futuristic Cybertruck will need more time before delivery.

The electric light-duty truck prototype was unveiled in Nov. 2019 and was supposed to go into production by the end of 2021. As recently as the end of July, the Cybertruck order page on the Tesla website noted: “You will be able to complete your configuration as production nears in late 2021. Single Motor RWD production is expected to begin in late 2022.”

But as of Saturday morning that language changed. It now states on the website: “You will be able to complete your configuration as production nears in 2022.”

The new 2022 date is likely for the dual- and tri-motor configurations. The tri-motor is the most expensive, starting at $69,900, but it offers the most range at an estimated 500 miles. The more affordable ($39,900) single-motor truck production was already slated for 2022, but could be pushed back further given the new delay.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has posted and talked about redesigns, supply chain issues, and manufacturing hurdles for the truck. The Cybertruck will be built at the new Tesla factory in Austin, Texas. It is still under construction, so it’s not clear when in 2022 the pickup will finally start production.

The delay hasn’t stopped a reported 1.25 million reservations (at $100 a pop and fully refundable) from flooding in for the futuristic pickup. Mashable reached out to Tesla for clarification on the timing change and we’ll update this story if we hear back.

Thursday, Aug. 5 marked 10 years since NASA sent Juno off on a one-way trip to explore the largest planet in our solar system.

The probe didn’t reach its destination, Jupiter, until July 2016. But NASA nonetheless shared a little treat with all of us space-gazers here on Earth to celebrate the Jupiter orbiter’s 10 years of service. That treat, a photo of the Jupiter moon Ganymede snapped on July 20, comes compliments of Juno’s JIRAM, or Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper.

Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede, captured by the Juno probe just a few weeks ahead of the 10th anniversary of its launch.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM

Ganymede isn’t just a cosmic celeb for being Jupiter’s largest moon. It’s also the largest moon in our entire solar system, measuring roughly one-and-a-half time’s larger than Earth’s moon. A bit less than half of its water-ice crusted surface is dark and pitted by impact craters, NASA says. The rest is lighter in color and marked by grooved terrain.

You can’t make out much in the way of fine details in this new image, but that’s because of the source. Juno’s JIRAM is an infrared camera, and the image above is a composite culled from three separate flybys of the moon, the last of which happened on July 20. The composite isn’t meant to pick up fine surface details; rather, it offers a view of Ganymede’s “icy shell and the composition of the ocean of liquid water beneath.”

The moon’s unique surface features are much easier to spot in more traditional photos. This one, captured on June 7, gives us Juno’s view of Ganymede during the closest flyby of the moon by any spacecraft in the past 20 years. You can clearly see the intricate grooved terrain here, which may or may not be the result of tectonic fault lines.

Ganymede’s surface in more detail, also compliments of Juno.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Obviously, the 10-year-old Juno wasn’t around during the previous closest flyby. The Jupiter orbiter is the second spacecraft to visit the moon and the gas giant it orbits, after the Galileo probe.

The next big moment for Juno is coming in Sept. 2022 when the probe settles in for a close-up look at Jupiter’s moon, Europa, with a flyby of the moon Io to follow a year later. All of this, including these new 10th anniversary images, amount to bonus time for the solar-powered probe. NASA formally extended Juno’s mission through 2025 “or its end of life” back in Jan. 2021.

Probes like this aren’t meant to be retrieved. Juno’s work will end with its destruction, when Jupiter’s enormous gravitational pull brings the spacecraft in close enough to tear it apart.

Opening the Uber and Lyft ride-hailing apps can be shocking these days.

If you haven’t requested a ride since before the pandemic, you’ll notice much higher prices for the same rides. Based on data collected by analytics firm Rakuten, U.S. ride-hailing fares were 50 percent higher in July 2021 than they were in Jan. 2020, before COVID restrictions went into effect.

A Wall Street Journal analysis shows that ride prices from the beginning of 2021 have been inching up each month, even as more people are vaccinated. A similar report on higher-than-usual fares from earlier in the year (passenger costs were up 40 percent in April) mostly blamed the issue on a driver shortage.

But now, a few months later, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during his company’s July earnings call that there was a 30 percent increase of drivers on Uber in July compared to June. In a separate earnings call, Lyft execs said the San Francisco-based company saw the same trend, with more drivers in July compared to June. It’s not enough.

Demand for rides keeps outpacing the supply of drivers available to give rides. Fares are still going up because drivers are still hesitant to return to ride-sharing. Things may be improving month over month, but it’s not back to pre-pandemic levels, so passengers will keep paying more as Uber and Lyft offer the highest rates users have ever seen.

Drivers aren’t just sitting at home waiting for the pandemic to end. Many have jumped ship to food delivery, especially on the Uber platform with Uber Eats. Food delivery continues to do well even as more people start to leave the house to restaurants and bars. After months of restrictions, people got accustomed to food being brought right to their door.

Khosrowshahi said the majority of former Uber drivers haven’t come back to drive people because of “safety concerns” as the contagious virus spreads. But with a burger and fries in the backseat instead of a breathing, living customer it feels less risky.

The Uber CEO also noted that background checks are faster and simpler for Eats drivers, so it’s easier to get new couriers on the platform compared to traditional drivers.

After long lull during the first part of the pandemic: riders are coming back. During Wednesday’s call, Khosrowshahi said many American cities are back to “normal” ride request levels with pre-pandemic passenger numbers, like in Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix. But without enough drivers, prices and wait times will continue to climb.

Khosrowshahi did note that as vaccination rates go up, ex-Uber drivers are coming back to work more and more. Uber will not be requiring its drivers to be vaccinated, but drivers and passengers have to continue to mask up.

Marvel’s What If…? introduces a gargantuan new figure to the MCU: The Watcher. In the show’s trailer, this unseen character (voiced by Jeffrey Wright) introduces us to the multiverse, to the idea that our universe is not unique and exists parallel to infinite other realities.

“I observe all that transpires here, but I do not, cannot, will not interfere,” The Watcher declares. Over the course of the series, our mysterious narrator will introduce us to a world where Peggy Carter took the super soldier serum, T’Challa becomes Star Lord, and numerous other Avengers cross and join paths in ways we never imagined.

So who is The Watcher?

One of many

Marvel Comics readers might be familiar with the Watchers, plural, a race of old and powerful beings that observe but do not interrupt the universe — not to be confused with the Celestials from Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (who, if you recall, interfered quite a bit).

The Watchers appear in multiple existing Marvel universes, but What If…? is at least positioned in relation to Earth-199999, the world of the established MCU. In early episodes The Watcher references how things happened and how they could have, using what we’ve already seen as a reference.

The Earth-199999 Watchers were only seen once in the MCU, when Yondu, Kraglin, and Rocket speed past them in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Three mysterious figures are seen listening to Stan Lee’s cameo character as he talks about his days as a Federal Express man (which we actually saw him as in Captain America: Civil War). At the time this was more of an Easter egg than anything, because Marvel fans don’t miss a trick.

There are also the Earth-1117 Watchers who worked directly with Celestials, and the Earth-1610 Watchers, who are supercomputers (a clever wink from Loki). There are dozens of Watchers, but the most prominent is Uatu-Tu, who broke the cardinal rule of interfering with events in the universe by helping out the Fantastic Four. Our Watcher might be him as a very convoluted way of bringing the Fantastic Four into the MCU… but given What If…?‘s standalone nature, probably not.

A universe unraveling

The Watcher doing what they do best.
Credit: Courtesy of Marvel Studios

The Watchers didn’t really have a place in the MCU until recently, when a certain God of Mischief cracked open the multiverse. Loki also brought the Watchers to the forefront of fan speculation when the omniscient Time Keepers turned out to be a ruse. In fact, timing the What If…? trailer to the week before Loki‘s finale only stoke the flames of the Watcher-theory fire, and they might not be behind the TVA but they’re still top of mind.

Now that the universe is not, in fact, uni, mortal superheroes from every timeline are going to need all the help they can get in keeping some semblance of order. The superhuman Eternals are stepping in while the Avengers lack leadership. If the Avengers were Earth’s managers, the Eternals are the next level of leadership, followed by the Celestials in cahoots with the Watchers.

We don’t know where or when the events of Eternals line up with Loki‘s cataclysmic finale, or if they will at all. Everything seems to be leading up to Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, premiering in spring of 2022, which means we might be in for many more multiverse cliffhangers until the good Doctor can clean up this mess. In addition to Loki‘s finale, let’s not forget the WandaVision stinger where Scarlet Witch heard the distant voices of her children, who are supposed to not exist. Spider-Man: No Way Home may or may not be uniting an all-star cast from multiple Spider-Man franchises.

All of this to say that the multiversal problem looks to be a bit much for any one Sorcerer Supreme, superpowered Sakovian, Asgardian frost giant, or Eternal to handle. The Time Variants Authority was pruning and manipulating the timeline long before Loki, which means that the Watchers let that happen. If the Watchers exist in Marvel Phase 4, it means they sat by and…well, watched… while everything we’ve seen so far came to pass.

More than a voice

If all of this sounds vague and speculative, it’s because that’s really all we’ve got. The existing Marvel shows on Disney+ show that while it offers an exciting starting point, the comics are by no means a character template for Phase 4. The Watcher in What If…? might not have anything in common with Watchers from the comics, or any overlap with the Celestials or Eternals. If What If…? stands alone entirely, so too might The Watcher — never seen or heard from again, as he was meant to.

What If…? premieres August 11 on Disney+.

Just because Apple has a plan — and a forthcoming security feature — designed to combat the spread of child sex abuse images, that doesn’t mean everyone’s getting on board.

WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart joined the chorus of Apple critics on Friday, stating in no uncertain terms that the Facebook-owned messaging app won’t be adopting this new feature once it launches. Cathcart then went on to lay out his concerns about the machine learning-driven system in a sprawling thread.

“This is an Apple built and operated surveillance system that could very easily be used to scan private content for anything they or a government decides it wants to control,” Cathcart wrote midway through the thread. “Countries where iPhones are sold will have different definitions on what is acceptable.”

While WhatsApp’s position the feature itself is clear enough, Cathcart’s thread focuses mostly on raising hypothetical scenarios that suggest where things could go wrong with it. He wants to know if and how the system will be used in China, and “what will happen when” spyware companies exploit it, and how error-proof it really is.

The thread amounts to an emotional appeal. It isn’t terribly helpful for those who might be seeking information on why Apple’s announcement raised eyebrows. Cathcart parrots some of the top-level talking points raised by critics, but the approach is more provocative than informative.

As Mashable reported on Thursday, one piece the forthcoming security update uses a proprietary technology called NeuralHash that scans each image file hash — a signature, basically — and checks it against the hashes of known Child Sex Abuse Materials (CSAM). All of this happens before a photo gets stored in iCloud Photos, and Apple isn’t allowed to do or look at a thing unless the hash check sets off alarms.

The hash check approach is fallible, of course. It’s not going to catch CSAM that aren’t catalogued in a database, for one. Matthew Green, a cybersecurity expert and professor at Johns Hopkins University, also pointed to the possible risk of someone weaponizing a CSAM file hash inside a non-CSAM image file.

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There’s another piece to the security update as well. In addition to NeuralHash-powered hash checks, Apple will also introduce a parental control feature that scans images sent via iMessage to child accounts (meaning accounts that belong to minors, as designated by the account owners) for sexually explicit materials. Parents and guardians that activate the feature will be notified when Apple’s content alarm trips.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released a statement critical of the forthcoming update shortly after Apple’s announcement. It’s an evidence-supported takedown of the plan that offers a much clearer sense of the issues Cathcart gestures at vaguely in his thread.

There’s a reasonable discussion to be had about the merits and risks of Apple’s plan. Further, WhatsApp is perfectly within its rights to raise objections and commit to not making use of the feature. But you, a user who might just want to better understand this thing before you form an opinion, have better options for digging up the info you want than a Facebook executive’s Twitter thread.

Start with Apple’s own explanation of what’s coming. The EFF response is a great place to turn next, along with some of the supporting links shared in that write-up. It’s not that voices like Cathcart and even Green have nothing to add to the conversation; more than you’re going to get a fuller picture if you look beyond the 280-character limits of Twitter.

Trust the Foo Fighters to turn a confrontation with the haters into a dance party.

The alt-rock outfit played a show in Kansas on Thursday where they once again met with the Westboro Baptist Church, a famously homophobic, transphobic, and generally bigoted hate group that has protested multiple Foo Fighters shows. When Dave Grohl and the rest of the band squared up once again with protesters, Grohl preached the importance of love and dancing.

“I love everybody. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?” he said into his microphone while performing on a moving truck. “Can’t you just love everybody? Cause I think it’s about love — that’s what I think… and you shouldn’t be hating. You know what you all should be doing? You should be dancing.”

That last line directly references the Bee Gees’ “You Should Be Dancing,” which you can hear the band covering. The Foo Fighters have dealt with Westboro Baptist Church protesters in 2011 and 2015, always opting for cheeky musical counter protest instead of engaging with the group’s platform and objections.

Honestly? They’ve got the right idea. We should all be dancing.