Ideaforge

Emperor Akihito of Japan is abdicating and passing the office to his son, Crown Prince Naruhito, and as part of the transition comes a new gengo, or era name: “Reiwa.” It’s loaded with meaning and subtext, but because of the way text is sent and displayed over the internet, the name can’t really be displayed properly. Unicode has issued an update making it possible, but for now there’s just no character representing it.

Now, to be clear, you can definitely type out the kanji for it, 令和, and that’s totally fine (though there are some technical hiccups there too). But gengo get combined single characters for certain situations and contexts. For comparison, the current (soon to be former) era, Heisei, can be written 平成 but has a combined-character name as well: ㍻. Sure, it’s just the two pieces squished together, but they’re squished together in an important, official way.

Without getting too deep into the history or politics of Japanese imperium, the country has a sort of internal calendar with eras corresponding to the (largely symbolic) rule of a given emperor. It’s a big deal, used in official documents and such, but also shorthand for referring to an era — “oh, that was in Heisei year 10” or the like, the way we might say, “the last year of the Clinton presidency.” I’m probably doing it wrong, but you get the idea.

The interesting part about this practice — well, there are many interesting parts, but the most interesting for our purposes today — is that these gengo are all essentially invented from scratch. And because of the nature of how the Japanese language is written, that means that there’s essentially no way to display the name properly online!

Unicode is basically a big (around 120,000 entries long) set of codes that correspond to the actual letters and images we want to type or send. So when I write “Hey! ” you see the same thing on your end that I see on my end. But how can there be a symbol for something that’s kept secret until its official debut, and which is assembled from parts of other Japanese words into a single brand-new character? It’s a bit like announcing they were adding a new letter to the alphabet.

This is the first time an era change has occurred in the modern computing era, so there isn’t really any precedent, as the organization noted last year in anticipation of the event. The only thing Unicode is really able to do is reserve the space for the incoming character and give it a placeholder graphic showing its code: ㋿. (What you see in the box, assuming you view this before the character is added, is “32FF,” part of the code.)

In a way that’s all Unicode needs to do; it’s now up to designers to put together the actual character as it will be displayed in their font. And those updates will have to go out to servers and devices individually. But that can’t be done instantly, of course — and in the meantime any headline online with the new name in it by definition can’t show it! It’s a fascinating little quandary.

As for the name itself, it has produced some tumult as people argue over the linguistic and literary subtext; the intricacies of the Japanese script and the history of the syllables and how they are represented make a variety of interpretations possible, with different political and philosophical connotations. Nick Kapur’s breakdown is the best I’ve seen, getting to the heart of what makes Reiwa uniquely difficult to translate yet setting out the meanings clearly.

It’s a unique challenge in many ways and one for which the internet is uniquely unsuited. Soon we’ll have the character and any slight inconvenience created by the delay between announcement and the ability to properly display it will be forgotten, but it’s always interesting when the world throws a curveball at systems we take for granted.

Hopefully we’ll have everything tidied up by the time the Reiwa era officially begins on May 1.

Source: Tech Crunch

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce and Jetpack, is launching a new suite of products focused on the future of work — Happy Tools. Automattic is a remote company with more than 850 employees working from 68 countries. And the company has built a bunch of products over the years to communicate, collaborate and work.

With Happy Tools, Automattic plans to turn those internal tools into actual products. The first product is Happy Schedule, a scheduling service that Automattic is using to deliver 24/7 customer support.

“Ideas about releasing our internal tools have been kicking around Automattic for years, but it’s been about finding the right moment and the right product to lead with,” Automattic product lead for Happy Tools Matt Wondra told me. “When we started building Happy Schedule a year ago we realized that designing a tool for our own scheduling needs also filled a clear gap in the [workforce management] landscape.”

“No other product out there gave us the flexibility and visibility we needed to comfortably schedule a globally distributed team. Since it was a greenfield internal project, we could engineer it from the ground up with public release in mind. And it just made sense to launch Happy Tools first into an industry we know so well — customer support.”

Happy Schedule is a modern web app and it should feel more like Google Calendar instead of some SAP product. For instance, you can click and drag your mouse to create an event — no need to input a start time and an end time.

But this is just a start. Automattic plans to launch more products over time so you can work more efficiently as a remote team. The company is using a software-as-a-service approach and it costs $5 per user per month to access Happy Tools.

It’s interesting to see that Automattic is promising a suite of products from day one. It won’t just be a bunch of different products. When you subscribe to Happy Tools, you should be able to access multiple products that work together, just like a G Suite subscription lets you access Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, etc. This strategy will improve engagement and stickiness over time.

Source: Tech Crunch

The tech world sure does love a good prank.

While some sat out on April Fools’, a number of big tech companies embraced the opportunity to waste time this way.

So without any further ado, here are the April Fools’ pranks from around the web:

The good

1) Google Tulip

Google Tulip, in my humble opinion, is the best April Fools’ joke this year. It’s a product that lets you communicate with tulips (they’re making progress with cacti, which just want to be left alone, it would appear).

The premise itself is par for the course on April Fools’ Day — the perfect mix of mildly plausible and “but why?” — but a few of the comedic touches on the video really make this prank shine.

If the bit at the :54 mark doesn’t tickle you, then I fully respect your opinion, but we are very different people and I doubt we could ever be real friends.

 

2) Shutterstock stock IRL

This happens to be one of my favorite April Fools’ jokes from a tech company this year. Shutterstock is unveiling “plans” to build the world’s largest physical library, called stock IRL, which would host “shelves upon shelves upon shelves” of stock photos, watermarked videos and music tracks.

Best line: “Because sometimes innovation means moving backwards.”

Sometimes, the idea itself can be an obvious prank as long as it’s executed well. It doesn’t hurt that Shutterstock does a pretty solid job marketing its actual product here, either.

 

3) Spotify Discocover Weekly

This one is elegant and delightful. Spotify has transformed your Discover Weekly playlist to feature disco hits, or disco takes on non-disco hits. I’ve been listening to mine this morning and it’s solid. Oh, and the playlist is called Discocover Weekly.

Lovely.

 

4) Duolingo Push

The best way to learn a language is to practice every day. So Duolingo is introducing a more effective way to remind you with Duolingo Push.

“We’re taking push notifications out of your phone and into the real world! Duo the Owl will literally show up to remind you to practice. It’s the green-glove treatment you’ve always wanted.”

 

5) Google Maps Snake

If this is a prank, it’s an incredibly generous and sweet prank that never hurt anyone. Google has put the classic Snakes game into the Google Maps app, for both iOS and Android, as well as on a standalone site for folks who don’t have the app.

It’s fun and simple and makes me wonder why this nostalgic little Easter Egg can’t live in the Google Maps app forever and for always.

(I died for that ^^ screenshot. You’re welcome.)

 

6) ProductHunt IPO

ProductHunt joked that it’s going public simply as a result of peer pressure. It also highlighted some of the April Fools’ pranks coming through on its own platform, including a SideDoor into college admission and a monstrous USB hub.

7) Waymo Pet

It’s exactly what you think it is. Waymo Pet is an autonomous car service exclusively for pets. The real beauty in this April Fools’ joke is in the details — the idea of Waymo employees overthinking the interior of a car based on the type of pet that may be riding in it is relatively humorous.

Best line: “Research shows us that cats love laser pointers.”

 

The not so good

1) Adobe Capture

Adobe wonders what would happen if designers could spark a memory through the smell of a particular ad or logo. Heralding the arrival of this hellscape is Adobe Capture, which uses Adobe Scent-sei technology to give users the ability to capture scents in the real world (through the camera?) and preview scents via the phone’s charging port.

Don’t shoot the messenger. It gets both better and worse from here.

 

2) General Cat-A-List

General Catalyst has spruced up their landing page with loads of cat gifs, powered by Giphy. Yes, General Catalyst is an investor in Giphy.

“We took this process seriously. To best convey that we sit at the cutting edge of all things new, bright and shiny, we spitballed our way through design-thinking sessions and administered Rorschach tests across the firm. We concluded that our brand should land at the intersection of tech + fun. What could illustrate tech-enabled fun better than the cat gif?”

 

3) Google Files Screen Cleaner:

Google is adding a new Screen Cleaner feature to the Files app. To clean it from the inside out. According to the video, the features uses “a smudge detector API” to identify imperfections, along with “geometric dirt models” and a “haptic micromovement generator” to sh-sh-shake it off.

And because they already committed, the team at Google decided to double down and say that the Screen Cleaner also uses micro vibrations to create a non-stick shield around your phone. Cause why not?

 

4) NVIDIA GeForce RTX R.O.N.

The NVIDIA GeForce R.O.N. AI personal assistant, as the name might suggest, is a classic case of too many pranky ideas coming to fruition at once.

The Echo-like device (but also with a holographic display, for some reason) offers in-game coaching (insults), a rage converter (which translates your screamed profanities into words of encouragement for your inept teammates) and the Troll Destroyer (using internet-sourced facts to take down trolls on forums). Those are just a few of the features of the R.O.N. AI personal assistant, which feels a bit too bonkers to be funny.

“A” for effort, though.

5) 1Password

1Password just went for it today with the introduction of the 1Password Password Book, which is just a journal where you write down your passwords.

The landing page touts the book’s features, vacillating between pros and cons like “It’s Super Private” and “You can share your passwords.” Of course, analog password storage isn’t the worst way to store your passwords, especially if those passwords are strong in the first place and you’re keeping your Password Book in a safe place.

Alas, the Password Book is just a prank.

6) OnePlus Warp Car

For years, rumors swirled that Apple might be working on a car. For April Fools’, the smartphone newcomer OnePlus teased an upcoming electric vehicle called the OnePlus Warp.

Shrug.

 

7) Razr Ping

Gaming hardware company Razr took some inspiration from Apex Legends, the hottest new game on the market. Razr Ping hypothetically lets people ping real-world objects with their smartphone, similar to the non-verbal comms system in Apex Legends.

Low-key, though, that comms system may very well be the exemplar for other games and even non-gaming platforms. Just not in the way Razr imagines here, obviously.

8) Roblox Console

I’m not entirely sure what Roblox is doing here with the introduction of the first Roblox gaming console, offering “a new way to make your dreams a reality in stunning, 8K ultra-high definition graphics and at greater than 120 frames per second.”

“Deep underground in a secret laboratory, our engineers developed a groundbreaking processor that could distill imagination into a concentrated source of infinite energy,” reads the blog post. “That energy is what fuels the unbelievable technology in Robox.”

If it’s supposed to be funny, I don’t get it.

9) Roku PressPaws Remote

According to Roku, 72 percent of their users said they thought their dogs would enjoy TV more if they could control what’s on. Thus, the PressPaws Remote.

“This paws-specific remote could be a huge untapped market for us,” says Lloyd Klarke, director of product management for the Roku Pet Division. The remote has shortcut buttons shaped like paws, because the buttons are the only real barrier between a dog’s ability to master the TV remote.

 

10) SodaStreamME

And then there’s such a thing as trying too hard. SodaStream presents the SodaSteamME, which was built in partnership with astronaut Scott Kelly and allows folks to power their SodaStream with their own burps.

We may never know why.

 

11) Stack Overflow

StackOverflow also went for a simple prank, taking the entire website back to the early days of the internet, complete with Comic Sans typeface. It’s jarring. You can check it out here.

12) Tinder Height Verification Badge

It’s funny because it’s true? On March 29, Tinder teased a new Height Verification Badge (HVB), which would force users to verify their age by taking a photo of themselves standing next to any commercial building. Remember, this is three full days before April 1.

The blog post has at least one typo, and some questionable language. (Exhibit A: “Did it ever occur to you that honesty is what separates humans from sinister monsters? Of course not.”) There is also, however, some hint of truth. (Exhibit B: “Only 14.5% of the U.S. male population is actually 6’ and beyond. So, we’re expecting to see a huge decline in the 80% of males on Tinder who are claiming that they are well over 6 feet.”)

For a minute, we couldn’t decide if it was real or not. But Tinder has confirmed that this is an April Fools’ prank.

13) T-Mobile Phone BoothE

If you’re still here, we’re done. T-Mobile’s sacrificial lamb in this blood bath of a “holiday” is the T-Mobile Phone BoothE, which is a soundproof phone booth.

Of note: T-Mobile CEO John Legere was an active participant in this prank, which raises concerns, but then again, that’s sort of his style.

Source: Tech Crunch

When you’ve been doing this job long enough, you start to develop strange interests (though some might compellingly argue that strange interests are a prerequisite). Lately for me it’s been power banks. Quite possibly the least sexy product in all of consumer electronics outside of the ever-ubiquitous dongle.

I don’t know what to tell you. Blame the fact that I’m traveling every other week for this job. There are also all of the liveblogs from years’ past that got cut off in the last few minutes as my poor ancient MacBook put itself to sleep during those last precious battery percentages. Low batteries give me anxiety. I’m the guy who’s the first to notice when your phone’s screenshot is below 10 percent.

So the power bank has become constant accessory in my life, both home and on the road. Until last year, I used to carry a massive one that was just north of 20,000mAh. The peace of mind to back pain ration seemed sensible enough, but I learned the hard way that, not only do Chinese airports have a limit on battery size, they chuck yours in the trash without a second thought if you go over. It’s a quick way to lose $150.

The good news, however, is that between USB-C, wireless charging and the magic of crowdfunding, it seems we might be living through the golden age of the power bank. I know, right? What a time to be alive.

Point is, there are a lot of choices out there. Anker and Amazon’s house brand RAVPower both offer some good options on a budget. There’s also mainstay Mophie for those who don’t mind paying a bit of a premium for design.

Fuse Chicken was actually a brand that was new to me when they hit me up to try out their latest product. It’s a name I definitely would have remembered — because, honestly, it’s pretty terrible. Memorable, but terrible. Maybe that’s why the company went with such a mundane name for what’s a really interesting charger.

My dad ones told me that he gave my sister and I boring first names because we had such an unusual surname. I have no idea if this is true, but it’s an interesting story and could well apply here.

The Universal is a good example of making the most of out a form factor. It manages to jam a lot of features in without creating a Frankenstein’s Monster worthy of the name Fuse Chicken. On its face, the product looks like a black and white version of Amazon’s default power bricks. It serves that purpose, of course, coupled with a trio of swappable international wall adapters (bonus points for travelers).

But the brick also sports a 6,700mAh battery inside, so you can continue charging gadgets while unplugged. That’s ideal for a phone — you can keep a laptop alive for a bit as well, but you’re going to burn through that pretty quickly. There’s also a wireless charging pad up top, so you can power up another phone or, say, a new set of AirPods at the same time. The side of the device features a small display showing off how much juice is left.

It’s great having a bank that’s also a plug, though like Apple’s brick, it’s much too massive to plug into many vertical outlets. I learned this lesson the hard way on a recent coast to coast flight. Thankfully, though, it’s compatible with Apple’s extension cable.

OmniCharge, meanwhile, is a company I’ve been following since their earliest Kickstarter days. Matter of fact, the aforementioned power bank that’s currently sitting in a Chinese garbage dump is one of their products. R.I.P. noble battery pack.

The Omni Mobile 12,800 mAh is a much more basic product that the company’s earliest offerings. There’s no display for power information here — instead you have to rely on four lights to let you know how much juice is left.

As with most of the company’s products, I do quite like the design language. It’s subtle and unobtrusive and fits nicely inside a backpack. It’s definitely too big for carrying around in a pocket, however. Thanks the wonders of USB it will charge a laptop, as well, though once again, you’re going to run through that 12,800 mAh pretty quickly, if you do.

The Fuse Chicken and OmniCharge run $85 and $99, respectively. They’ve both served me well as travel companions these last few weeks. Here’s to long flights and avoiding life’s landfill.

Source: Tech Crunch