Hasta La Gadget!

Google Meet has started rolling out live translated captions widely after testing the feature last year. It works on web or mobile but is still fairly limited, translating only English meetings to four languages: French, German, Portuguese and Spanish.

“Translated captions help make Google Meet video calls more inclusive and collaborative by removing language proficiency barriers,” Google wrote in a Workspace blog. “When meeting participants consume content in their preferred language, this helps equalize information sharing, learning, and collaboration and ensures your meetings are as effective as possible for everyone.” 

Google

The feature is designed to be helpful for all-hands or training meetings with teams located around the world. It can also be helpful in education settings, according to Google, “allowing educators to connect and interact with students, parents and community stakeholders with diverse backgrounds.” 

To use the feature, users need to switch on captions in settings and set it to English before toggling on translated captions underneath. They can then choose one of the translated language options. For more detailed information, check Google Meet’s translated captions help page. 

Google first announced the feature at its I/O developer’s conference last year, and Otter offers a similar service for Google Meet and Zoom. Live translated captions are available for Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade and Google Workspace for Education Plus customers. It’s rolling out gradually as of yesterday, so it could take up to 15 days before you see it. 

At the moment, Instagram’s Stories are viewed by swiping to the left. You can move from one Story to another by swiping to the left or tapping on the left or right of the screen to move in between multiple posts. However, according to Matt Navarra, it looks like the company is testing out something different, but not exactly new.

The tweet shows that Instagram is testing out a slight redesign to its Stories where it will now allow users to move between Stories vertically. If this sounds and looks familiar, it is because this is the method that TikTok and YouTube Shorts are using. It is admittedly a bit more intuitive because scrolling down would be akin to scrolling through a website, versus swiping to the left or right.

🚨 Instagram is testing a vertical swipe stories feed in Turkey

h/t @yousufortaccom pic.twitter.com/KdJa9CTnTl

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) January 12, 2022

It is possible that by adopting gestures that are already familiar, Instagram could be hoping to court more users onto its platform where the move from TikTok or YouTube Shorts won’t be as jarring, and thus could encourage more creators to use its platform.

As Navarra points out, Instagram did previously state that they had a prototype of this version of Stories way back in February 2021, but it was not available to the public then. It looks like this version is, but as it is still a test, not all users will be able to see it or take part in it until it is released for everyone.

Instagram Testing Out A Slight Redesign To Its Stories

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

There are quite a number of home security cameras in the market today, and many of them offer users a subscription program where for additional fees paid every month, users get access to more features, like stored recordings and more. This would be on top of the price you paid to buy the camera in the first place.

However, Wyze has an interesting proposal that they announced in their forums, in which users can actually choose how much to pay, even if it is $0. The company says that this started out as an experiment last year and discovered that most  users were pretty honest and paid for the feature in full, even though they had the option of paying less or nothing at all.

So much so that the company decided to open up this feature to all of its users. “We’re introducing Cam Plus Lite, giving Wyze Person Detection and 12-second cloud recordings to all users at whatever price you want to pay for it, including $0. We’re also adding several requested features for local recording on microSD cards, including removing the 32GB card size limit and adding skip forward and rewind buttons.”

This means that if you own a Wyze camera and would like access to its more advanced features that were previously locked behind a paywall, you’re welcome to subscribe for any price you think is fair. It’s an interesting experiment but we wonder whether in the long-term, whether it will end up being profitable for the company.

However, in the meantime if you’d like to take advantage of this offering, now’s a good time to do so.

Wyze’s Camera Subscription Lets You Pay Whatever You Want, Even Nothing

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Nigerians can now access Twitter again without having to use VPNs or having to fear repercussions for doing so. The Nigerian government has lifted the ban on Twitter on January 13th, 2022, over seven months after it ordered telecom providers in the country to block the social network. According to CNN, Reuters and The Financial Times, Nigeria has decided to lift the ban after Twitter agreed to open a local office.

Twitter also had to agree to meet other conditions set by the government, including “managing prohibited publication in line with Nigerian law.” The social network has to pay domestic taxes, as well, and to appoint a representative in the country who’ll be in charge of engaging with local authorities.

If you’ll recall, Nigeria originally suspended Twitter in June 2021 after the website removed a tweet made by President Muhammadu Buhari who used the platform to threaten citizens following attacks on government buildings. Back then, Twitter explained that the post violated its abuse policy. Nigerian authorities shot back by accusing Twitter of allowing its platform to be used “for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.” They also warned citizens that they would prosecute those who tried to circumvent the suspension by using VPNs and similar tools. Bloomberg reported back in October that Nigeria was already set to lift the ban, so long as Twitter is used in the country for “business and positive engagements,” but it clearly took a few more months for the agreement to be finalized. 

Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director general of Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency, said Twitter “has agreed to act with a respectful acknowledgement of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history on which such legislation has been built.” The social network has also apparently agreed to work with the country’s government “to develop a Code of Conduct in line with global best practices, applicable in almost all developed countries.”

Keychron pleasantly surprised mechanical keyboard fans when it announced the Q1. It was the company’s first foray into fully customizable keyboards, and we liked it a lot. Today it’s the turn of the Q2, which is a smaller (65% or no “function key”) version of the Q1. Despite the reduced footprint, it retails for the same price, starting at $149 for the barebone or $169 if you want it fully assembled – cheaper than much of the competition.

When we tested the Q1 we liked it a lot. It offered the same level of configuration as the much-loved GMMK Pro for about $100 less. That said, the selling point of the GMMK Pro (in this author’s opinion) is all about those luxurious “Lubed Panda” switches and the firm, responsive typing experience. The “Panda” is GMMK’s own “switch” which for those that don’t hang out at Drop and/or use a “mech” are the mechanical part of the key – the important bit, really, as that’s mostly what will define how the keyboard “feels.”

As with the Q1, the Q2 is compatible with VIA configuration software (and thus QMK) which easily allows you to remap keys to almost anything, create macros and more. Also like the Q1 (and the GMMK Pro and increasingly others) there’s the option to replace the top-right-most key (Insert) with a clickable rotary for volume and media control.

I’ll admit, after using the GMMK Pro for a while now, I find the Gateron Reds that came with the Q2 a little flacid by comparison, but that’s the joy of a customizable keyboard, you can use whatever switches you like (or change out more or less any other part). You could even load it with the Pandas if you wish, though that would require a (lot of) extra spend.

The Q2 remains USB only (no wireless) but is still compatible with either Windows or Mac and the corresponding OS-specific keycaps are included in the box. It’s also just as rugged and well built as the Q1 with the all-metal casing. You can choose between three colors thereof: Black, gray and navy blue.

Ultimately, the selling point of the Q2 boils down to whether you prefer a compact keyboard or to have access to physical function keys (they’re still accessible here with shortcuts obviously).

The Q2 is also joined by some other relatively new additions. Keychron is prolific if nothing else. In particular, there’s the lightweight/70% K14 which is both wireless and has hot-swappable switches for a more affordable on-the-go option that retails for a modest $59. The company also recently unveiled its first mouse wired the M1. It’s visually quite similar to the Razer Viper ($39) but also bears more than a passing resemblance to the Glorious O (also from the same people behind the GMMK Pro).

Orders for the Keychron Q2 are open as of today.