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- ‘Hey Siri, I’m getting pulled over’ shortcut makes it easy to record police - The Verge
- Zynga launches voice game Words With Friends Word Pop for Amazon Alexa - VentureBeat
- Google Meet Lands In Gmail On Smartphones To Beat Zoom - Forbes
| ‘Hey Siri, I’m getting pulled over’ shortcut makes it easy to record police - The Verge Posted: 17 Jun 2020 04:43 AM PDT  As protests against racial police violence have spread across the US, we've seen how video captured on mobile devices can help identify misconduct by law enforcement. But such evidence isn't just useful at a protest, but during all sorts of routine interactions with the police, including traffic stops. That's why the Siri shortcut "I'm getting pulled over" exists. Once you load this (free) shortcut onto your iPhone, all you need to do is say "Hey Siri, I'm getting pulled over" and it will kickstart a chain of events. It will dim your phone, pause any music being played, and start recording video from your front-facing camera. It can also send your current location and a copy of that video to an emergency contact, though you'll need to confirm a few pop-up messages to complete these steps. The shortcut itself is the work of Robert Petersen, who first published it in 2018. Petersen has been updating the program since then, though, and the shortcut has gained new attention following protests after the police killing of George Floyd.
Obviously, recording police interactions does not, by itself, stop misconduct and racial discrimination. But it can help name and shame individuals involved. It's true that not every police interaction needs recording, but that's no reason not to hit record all the same. If you're keen to use the program yourself, there are a few things you'll have to do first. Importantly, the program isn't an app you can download from the App Store, but an iOS shortcut that relies on functionality Apple introduced in iOS 12. So, to get things up and working, you'll have to first make sure iOS is updated to at least iOS 12. Then, download the Shortcuts app which you can find here on the App store. After that's done, visit this link on your mobile device from the built-in Safari browser to set-up the shortcut. (Be careful: other browsers won't work!) You'll also need to make sure your phone can load unverified shortcuts (go to Settings > Shortcuts and toggle Allow Untrusted Shortcuts to allow this) and give the program access to your location, which you can see how to do here. Once that's done you should be good to go, though we recommend giving the shortcut a dry run first as you'll need to okay certain permissions for it to work properly. When using it, you'll also need to manually approve certain steps (like sending your video). There's also no direct Android equivalent of the program right now, but there are similar apps on the Play Store meant to help discreetly record video footage of law enforcement. As Petersen told Business Insider in 2018, the app is essentially the same as the body cameras worn by many police officers. "It seemed to me that if you're getting pulled over it couldn't hurt to have a recording of the incident," said Petersen. "The police these days in many places have body cams, so this could be the civilian equivalent." |
| Zynga launches voice game Words With Friends Word Pop for Amazon Alexa - VentureBeat Posted: 17 Jun 2020 06:09 AM PDT  Zynga has launched Words With Friends Word Pop as a new voice game for Amazon Alexa. The launch on Alexa-enabled devices is part of Zynga's experimentation with new ways to make games more accessible. You can play with voice commands on Alexa-enabled devices such as the Echo, Echo Show, or Echo Dot. Voice is a new frontier for games that is being explored by companies such as Doppio Games, a Portugal-based startup that teamed up with Netflix to create a voice-controlled game called The 3% Challenge. Drivetime is also making interactive audio games for the car. Word Pop is a new take on classic Words With Friends. In the game, Alexa challenges players to create as many words as possible from a six-letter bank, through a series of 1-minute sessions. Players must say or spell as many words as they can during each session, earning points for both the number and length of words found. To access the game, players simply say, "Alexa, open Word Pop" on any Alexa device to enable the skill and begin solving word puzzles. As you can see in the video, you can play the game with an Alexa-enabled device with a screen, where you can see the letter bank and completed words. But you don't have to play it with a screen. When I played with my voice, I noticed some slight delay in the reply, and that can be a little confusing as to how fast you should talk. VB Transform 2020 Online - July 15-17. Join leading AI executives: Register for the free livestream. President of publishing Benard Kim said in a message that Zynga is continuously investing in new platforms, markets and technology to attract and engage more players. He said that bringing a Words With Friends type experience to Alexa felt like a natural fit for Zynga's first foray on Alexa and he is thrilled with how it has turned out. The game is free and it has no monetization. |
| Google Meet Lands In Gmail On Smartphones To Beat Zoom - Forbes Posted: 16 Jun 2020 11:08 AM PDT  The new Google Meet tab in Gmail is arriving now. Google Meet is a highly capable video-conferencing system, with astounding noise-canceling. And today, Google announced in a blog post that it was making it easier than ever to join a Google Meet video call by continuing its integration with Gmail. Last month, in an attempt to make it a more tempting alternative to platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, Google announced that Google Meet would be free and available to everyone, and started its integration into Gmail. But initially, this was just for mail on the web, not for iPhone or Android handset. From today, a new Meet tab will start appearing in the Gmail app on iOS and Android, with a one-tap way to launch a meeting direct from your inbox. The new tab is the smartphone equivalent of the Meet shortcut in the sidebar on the web. The next screens will take you into the meeting, showing who's in the call, letting you check your video feed and so on. There are more options to choose from, such as scheduling a meeting, start an instant meeting and join with a code. The tab is quite noticeable onscreen and if you don't fancy the look of it, you can disable the function easily enough. This has been a busy time for Google Meet, with new features arriving seemingly all the time. A couple of days ago, Google added another update, refreshing the user interface further for presentations. Like Zoom, Google Meet can show a tiled layout of call participants. Up to 16 can be seen at a time.  Google Meet's Tile Presentation layout The new update, however, makes it much better for presentations by creating a large central tile to show the presentation itself and places the active video feeds at the base of the screen. All 16 are still visible in two rows of eight participants, including the presenter. Some video-conferencing screen layouts default to the presentation taking over the whole screen – a choice which is available here, too, in the Spotlight view option. Google's intention, the company says, is to make remote meetings feel more like meetings in person. So, you'll see everyone else in the meeting, complete with nods, smiles and all their other reactions as you would if you were all in the same room together. In my experience this is usually restricted to a sea of faces frowning in concentration at the presentation, but there's something great about a group of people grinning together at the presenter's witty comment. Plus, it'll help the presenter if they glance up to see supportive nods, or let them know the message isn't getting through if they instead see a swathe of puzzled faces. The beneficiary of all these updates is, we hope, the consumer, as the rival organizations seek to outdo each other. Follow me on Instagram by clicking here: davidphelantech and Twitter: @davidphelan2009 More on Forbes: |
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