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studying, reading, writing, dreaming

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Niksen - doing nothing the Dutch way (apparently)

A couple of months ago I found out that we - Dutch people - do something special. Special enough for multiple books to be dedicated to doing nothing special at all: "niksen", purposefully doing nothing (niks = nothing, niksen = nothinging, doing nothing).

I highly doubt we actually do something fundamentally different than other people around the world. I guess watching Netflix can also be considered niksen. Or staying home, not going out. Not doing anything meaningful. Perhaps having a verb for it makes it easier to explain to others what you're doing or planning to do. Perhaps it makes you feel less guilty about it. https://time.com/5622094/what-is-niksen/ Btw, if you want to clear your mind, we also have a remedy: uitwaaien. https://community.thriveglobal.com/dutch-word-uitwaaien-stress-mindfulness-nature-wind-benefits/

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Android TV gets a new look with Android O, but it's probably still too confusing

How many smart TV interfaces have we seen already? I still think it's the wrong approach and Chromecast is the right one. Sure, this functionality could be built-in, but it just still makes more sense to me to use your phone to select what content you want to play on your TV.

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Samsung and Google built their ideal Chromebook

Chromebooks are the ideal type of computers for a lot of people. There are many people who buy expensive Macbooks, while all they do is read email and watch Netflix. This does seem to be the ideal Chromebook in multiple ways: it runs Android apps, it has a touchscreen, pen support and can be used in tablet and laptop mode. 

Actually, this might be the best Android tablet out there and I’m wondering where Google takes this in 2017. There have been rumors about merging Chrome OS and Android, which were denied by Google. But this device might be the perfect combination of both. 

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Next for HTC Vive: Wireless VR and tracking for everything

The company also plans to focus on devs and build out its VivePort store.

One of the best things HTC has done in recent years is negotiating in such a way that their name is all over Valve’s platform. 

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About Call of Duty... - Infinite Warfare hate and what's next

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Update on Multi-Process Firefox

2017 could be Firefox’s year. Multi-process already made the browser way more responsive, but I think it still loads pages a bit slower than Chrome, so hopefully they can implement a lot of Servo components next year.

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How Apple Alienated Mac Loyalists

I’m happy I went with a new Windows machine after the announcement of the disappointing Macbook Pro. This doesn’t seem to have a future.

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Snapchat finally is a good app and it’s called Instagram

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Google Play Newsstand now also has a web version — beware of filter bubbles

Google Play Newsstand already was one of my favorite ways to find articles about topics I’m interested in on my phone and tablet, but the service now also has a web version. 

Recently, Google Play Newsstand was redesigned on mobile and that is officially announced today: “[The redesign] focuses on three big improvements: personalization, rich media, and the extension of our platform to the web.”

Just like with more and more Google apps nowadays, the new Newsstand uses machine learning to find the best articles for you. The app now shows a personalized briefing when you open it, but of course you can also browse your favorite topics. Each article has a feedback option, so if you’d like to see less about Donald Trump, you can tell Google so by simply clicking a “show me less” button.

If available, articles will load in the AMP format and there is support for videos and nice images.

The dangers of personalized news

Apart from fake news, personalized news also could give an unrealistic view of the world. If a user could literally say “don’t show me this, but more of that”, he will end up with a list of articles that includes only topics he likes and opinions he agrees with. This is not different on Facebook or Twitter of course where you can first of all follow only the people you want to follow and tell the platform you liked a post. This way, during the election a lot of people will have seen more positive stories about Trump and more negative stories about Clinton and vice versa. 

News has always been personalized in some way obviously. People have always decided what newspaper they bought and which news broadcast they watched and maybe news is never really objective, because it’s written by humans, but with all the options available today, you are the editor in chief of your own newspaper — your reality. This is called a filter bubble and I think  it’s important people are aware of this and companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter should make sure the bubble doesn’t become a fortress. 

The new Newsstand is available for Android, iOS and the web.

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Super Mario Run is launching on December 15th for $9.99

Quite expensive for a mobile game, but a positive trend I think. If one company can do it, it’s probably Nintendo.

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The future of owning things is not owning things

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This is what happens when a tweet gets retweeted to 1.98M followers... Pretty weird that 50 people retweeted, because I have no authority. I'm literally a nobody saying something about a game. It also shows the darker sides of Twitter I always read about: some people say not so nice things, but it wasn't too bad. 

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Adobe releases Photoshop Sketch and Comp CC on Android, bringing on-the-go creativity to everyone

Wanted to try Comp when it was released on iOS, but actually forgot about it. Seems to be a quick way to create simple wireframes on the go, but it would be super useful if you could pick iOS and Android UI elements.

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Excited about these improvements. They look really promising and it’s important to have a bit more competition for Chrome.

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Super cool Stranger Things stickers in Google Allo!

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I'm wondering if Mr Anvarzadeh even watched the announcement trailer. If he did, he fails to understand the difference between games currently available in app stores and "real" games. Besides, most devices don't have capabilities to be used in combination with an advanced controller. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-21/nintendo-declines-after-showing-hybrid-gaming-machine-switch

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NVIDIA Gaming Technology Powers Nintendo Switch | NVIDIA Blog

The development encompassed 500 man-years of effort across every facet of creating a new gaming platform: algorithms, computer architecture, system design, system software, APIs, game engines and peripherals. They all had to be rethought and redesigned for Nintendo to deliver the best experience for gamers, whether they’re in the living room or on the move.