The Future

The video wouldn’t transfer but you may be able to watch it via website:

Microsoft HoloLens demo onstage at BUILD 2015

Or on the links shown in blue. 

The future of technology

 

Ryan Boutland

Microsoft has unveiled its newest technology, the HoloLens, at the Build 2015 conference. Using a holographic headset, this technology will bring Windows 10 off your computer screen and into your world.

What is Microsoft HoloLens?

The HoloLens is a headset with a computer built in. You can see through the headset’s lens into the real world, but in addition to seeing reality, you will also see 3D objects generated by the Hololens. These objects, with which you can interact, can range from a computer screen to a dog sitting on the carpet. This is known as ‘augmented reality’, a combination of reality and virtual reality.

Augmented reality dates back to 1901, when it was first imagined in a novel by L Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz. Since then, augmented reality has weaved its way into science fiction, Hollywood and, slowly, the real world. 

How does it work? 

Inside the headset are small projectors that shine light into your eyes. These lights make the 3D objects visible. The headset also has technology that allows it to scan the world around you, to make sure that the virtual objects aren’t moving through solid objects, and that the objects move and rotate as the person wearing the headset moves and rotates. Not making much sense? Watch the video below to see the HoloLens in action; it’ll clear up things and blow you away. 

The applications for this technology are amazing. So, if you’d like to see more of the HoloLens in action, check out Microsoft’s videos on medicine and education, architecture and construction, and pretty much anything else that comes to mind.

What areas of life are you excited to see revolutionised with Microsoft Hololens? 

Photography

Instagram filters explained

 

Instagram is a fun way to share your favourite photos with your friends and family. There are many preset filters available with which to play, so let’s have a look at the best of them and see how they change the look of your photos – as knowing when to use the right filter can help you turn your photo into a work of art.

 

Normal

Do we need to explain this one? The Normal filter is not actually a filter at all, but is handy to refer to if you want to check your ‘filtered’ images against the original.

 

Lark 

Lark is an ideal filter for landscapes, as it increases blues and greens whilst de-saturating the red tones in your image. It’s also a good one to experiment with portraits, as it can give your subject a ‘model’ look.

 

Reyes 

This one is good for making your photos look ‘dusty’, giving them a vintage feel. Consider using this one if you want washed out colour in your photos.

 

Juno 

 

Juno is the ideal ‘people’ filter. It makes your greens a little greener, cools your blues, warms up skin tones and makes your whites glow nicely. Using Reyes is great for selfies and portraits, particularly if you have a green, grassy background.

 

Slumber

 

The Slumber filter adds a yellow tint and lowers the contrast to make images more moody and dreamlike, which is great for landscape and cityscape photos.

 

Crema

 

Crema decreases the contrast in your photos, which lends a rustic look to your image. It’s great for making your food images look more appealing.

 

Ludwig 

 

Ludwig is a versatile filter that bumps up the blacks and subtly enhances the colours and highlights in your photo. This filter works well with portraits, selfies and sunsets.

 

Aden 

 

Aden’s pastel tint is a good filter for making your subject’s skin look great, as the low contrast hides any blemishes in skin tones. It also improves any warm tones found in wood, foliage and red bricks, making Aden the ideal ‘autumn’ filter.

 

Perpetua

 

Perpetua enhances earthy colours such as the greens and blues found in nature, and it also makes oranges and reds stand out. This filter is good for creating an edgy look for your city scenes and landscapes.

 

Amaro 

 

The Amaro filter adds more light to the centre of your photo – and the darker your image, the more you will notice the effect. Try this filter when you want to give your photo a slightly aged look.

 

Mayfair

 

Mayfair utilises warm pink tones and subtle vignetting to make any photos taken in the daytime really ‘pop’.

 

Rise 

 

The Rise filter lends a subtle glow to your images and softens the lighting on the subject. It’s a great one to use on your close-up portraits.

 

Hudson 

 

Hudson gives your images a cool look – and by cool, I mean cold. This filter tints your images with a slight blueish hue, making it look like you took your photo on a cold day. Use this one on your photos of buildings or city scenes.

 

Valencia

 

Valencia fades your image and gives it a classic 70s film look. I prefer using Valencia when there are lots of blue and orange colours in my photo, because it saturates those colours and makes them look more dramatic.

 

X-Pro II

 

X-Pro II makes the colours in your image pop, and it also makes them warmer and more vibrant. This is a great one to use when you have a lot of colour in your photo.

 

Sierra 

 

Sierra softens your image and gives it a faded look. It’s best to use this one on nature shots or landscapes, especially if you want to create a calm and soothing vibe to your photos.

 

Willow 

 

Willow is a monochrome filter that injects subtle purple tones into your image. It also creates a light vignette around the edge of your photo. It is beautiful filter to use for portraits, still lifes, landscapes and pics of old buildings.

 

Lo-Fi

 

This is my favourite filter, because you really notice the change in your photos when it’s used correctly. Lo-Fi increases colour saturation and makes the shadows in your image appear stronger. It’s a great all-round filter, good for food shots as well as portraits and street scenes.

 

Earlybird 

 

Earlybird is another great filter that fades and blurs the image slightly, giving your image a slightly surreal feeling. This is another handy all-round filter that, when used, makes your photos look more ‘arty’.

 

Brannan 

 

This filter gives your images metallic appearance, which is great to use if your photo has strong shadows or high contrast.

 

Inkwell 

 

Inkwell converts your image from colour to straight black and white, which is best to use with a bright image that also has lots of shadows.

 

Hefe 

 

This filter works similarly to the Lo-Fi filter, but the colours aren’t as dramatic. The best photos on which to use Hefe are ones that have lots of colour.

 

Nashville

 

By using a slightly pink tint, this filter makes your images look warm and welcoming and is best used if you want to create a nostalgic, warm and fuzzy feeling in your photos.

Have you used Instagram filters before? If so, why not share which is your favourite and why?

Apps

App of the month May

 

Type efficiently on your smartphone or tablet with Google Handwriting Input, and challenge your friends in a classic game with the app of the month. 

Google Handwriting Input

Typing on a virtual keyboard takes some getting used to, and no matter how quick you are, some still prefer handwriting to typing. 

Handwriting on touch screens has previously been quite tricky. In my personal experience, I have had to modify my handwriting to make it more legible and easy for the software to understand. 

This is not the case with Google’s new software as it is able to understand print, cursive and pretty much everything in between. 

If you haven’t quite got the hang of smartphone keyboards, or you miss handwriting, why not give it a shot? It’s particularly useful on larger devices and accepts handwriting with a finger or stylus. 

Google Handwriting Input is currently available for free on Android. It is not yet available on iPhone or iPad. However, MyScript Stack is an impressive alternative for Apple devices, andit’s free. 

Words With Friends 

Unquestionably one of the most popular mobile games in the world, Words With Friends has been around since 2009 and six years later, it continues to gain popularity. 

Very similar to Scrabble and just as simple, the app allows you to challenge friends (or strangers) to a quick word game over the internet. 

Each player is given a selection of random letter tiles and turns are then taken to form words on the virtual board, joining them with previous words and hopefully landing on some bonus score spots. 

You have a few days to complete each turn so there’s no rush to think of a good word. It’s great for killing a few minutes’ time here and there. Be warned: it is surprisingly addictive so this ‘every now and again’ play style might not last long and you may find yourself pestering your friends to take their turns so you can get on with the game. Luckily, you can challenge millions of different people over the internet, so you shouldn’t have much trouble finding new opponents.

As the game is also connected to Facebook, you might be surprised to find that some of your Facebook buddies are already Words With Friends veterans. 

Available for free on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone and through Facebook. 

Face Book

Facebook cheat sheet

Facebook is a great site on which to waste some time, so why not fritter your time more efficiently with our Facebook cheat sheet?

Note: for the shortcuts that require an Alt key, if you’re using Firefox you’ll need to use Shift+Alt instead of just Alt, and for Internet Explorer you’ll need to hit the Enter key after the shortcut. If you’re using a Mac, you’ll need to use Ctrl+Opt instead of Alt.
 

J or K: scroll forward (J) and backwards (K) between news stories

P: update your status

L: like or unlike the post you are viewing

C: comment on a post you are viewing

S: share the post you are viewing

O: open the attached news story (read more)

Enter: see more of the selected post

/: opens the search function

Q: search your messenger contacts

Alt+M: New message – compose a new message.

Alt+1: Home page – takes you to your home page.

Alt+2: Your profile page – takes you to your profile page.

Alt+3: Friends – opens up your friends page.

Alt+4: Your messages – opens up the Messages dialog.

Alt+5: Notifications – opens up the Notifications dialog.

Alt+6: Account page – takes you to your account settings.

Alt+7: Privacy – takes you to your activity log and privacy settings.

Alt+8: Facebook's Facebook page – takes you to the Facebook homepage.

Alt+9: Facebook Terms/Agreement – refresh your knowledge of Facebook terms and conditions.

Alt+0: Facebook help centre – takes you to FAQs section. This is where you can ask Facebook a question about anything ‘Facebook’.

If you ever need to be reminded of these shortcuts, simply hit Shift+/ and the Facebook shortcut menu will appear.

Now you know these handy shortcuts, you can move around Facebook more easily without having to search for menu options within the app itself. And the best part is that you may have more time to get out in the sunshine or read a book using the time you save fumbling through Facebook.

 

Google Ads

Google Ads explained

 

Wayne is a little bit concerned about the ads he sees online, which seem to track his internet browsing. Should he be worried?

Q. Wayne
I keep noticing the same ads popping up all over the internet, and they seem to be tracking me. Recently I looked into some flights and now everywhere I go online there are always ads for plane tickets to Sydney. How do they know I was looking at flights and should I be worried?

A.
Hi Wayne, to put things simply, no, you should not be worried. The ads that you are seeing all over the internet are most likely Google Ads, one of the most commonly used forms of online advertising. If you find the interest-based ads (the ones which serve ads to you based on your internet browsing history) unsettling or invasive, read on to find out how you can deactivate them.

What are Google Ads?

Google Ads are a form of online advertisement that operates through Google's advertising platform on websites and in search results.

Advertisements that appear within websites and be recognised by this little AdChoices logo that appears in the corner of the ad.

Advertisements are often targeted based on your search history and cookie information with Google, which is why you may see something you were thinking about purchasing popping up all over the internet after you looked at it once or twice.

Google advertisements also appear within Google searches as the first result when you type in a matching term, accompanied by a small icon indicating it is an ad. These allow websites to push themselves to the top of the Google search results, for a fee, to find new customers.

Approximately 40 per cent of online advertising comes from Google, and many Australian websites use it as their sole source of income. So it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with them.

Why am I being served dodgy ads?

Due to the immense scale of Google Ads, some dodgy ads are bound to squeeze through the cracks, despite both Google and individual website’s best efforts to stop them. If you notice any dodgy ads on a website, you can help by taking a screenshot of the website with the appropriate ad and sending it to the website owner or administrator. You can usually find their email on the website’s contact page. If you notice any dodgy ads here on YourLifeChoices, feel free to report them to Drew at webmaster@yourlifechoices.com.au. 

How can I deactivate interest-based ads? 
To deactivate Google’s personalised advertisements, visit this page and scroll down to the bottom where you can find the settings to opt-out.

You can also choose to deactivate specific ads by clicking the X icon in the corner of the ad and selecting ‘Stop seeing this ad’.

Scams

Aussies lose $80 million to scams

 

In conjunction with the launch of National Consumer Fraud Week, the ACCC has released the latest national scam figures for 2014. Almost $82 million was lost to scams last year, down from the $89.1 million loss in 2013 and $93.4 million in 2012. Australians aged 45 and over accounted for 68 per cent of the total losses to scams in 2014, but accounted for just 55 per cent of scam reports.

Almost 92,000 scams reported by consumers and small businesses were recorded by the ACCC with around 11,000 of those reporting a loss of money. The top three scam sectors last year were dating and romance schemes at $28 million, investment schemes at $12 million, and betting and sports investment schemes at $9 million.

In 2014, 53 per cent of reported scams were delivered via telephone call or text message, accounting for over $23 million of losses, while online scams accounted for over 37 per cent of reported scams and over $47 million in scam losses for the year. A wide selection of ‘other’ scams make up the final nine per cent of reported scams and almost $11 million in losses.

The top 10 scams to look out for in order are:

1.      reclaim scams

2.      phishing

3.      remote access

4.      ID theft

5.      hacking

6.      inheritance scams

7.      unexpected prize and lottery

8.      classified scams

9.      false billing

10.  ransomware and malware.

 

SCAMwatch recommends you follow these six tips to protect yourself from scams:

·         keep your personal details secure

·         think twice about what you say and do in an online environment

·         keep your mobile devices and computers secure

·         choose your passwords carefully

·         beware of any request for your details or money

·         get a copy of your credit report.

 

Read more at www.accc.gov.au

Opinion: Smarter but still vulnerable

The overall figures for scams have decreased year-on-year since 2012, but even a decrease to $82 million isn’t a win in the battle against scammers. There is no question in my mind that the general public is starting to catch onto the methods that scammers are now using, but that doesn’t mean Australians aren’t still vulnerable.

Scammers continue to think of new and improved ways to scam their victims. In 2014, the use of stolen user data was the new method of choice for savvy scammers. The most unique approach I saw was where the scammer logs onto the stolen Facebook or email account of a user and contacts all of the user’s friends. In this email, or direct message, they tell the friend that they had been robbed in an overseas country, losing both their wallet and passport. The scammer asks for a small amount of money between $200 and $800 to be sent via untraceable money transfer.

While the numbers may look rosey, internet scams continue to account for the largest losses, and the number of scams will only continue to increase in coming years. I am the target of several scams every day, but just like most Australians, I don’t report them. I suspect the report released by the ACCC would read very differently in this regard if we all reported them. 

Have you been the target of a scam? Did you fall victim? Did you end up reporting the scam and loss of money?