Tag: convince
Ex-Call of Duty Dev Reveals How Activision Tried to Convince Infinity Ward Staff to Stick Around After Firing the Studio’s Founders
Convince Someone To Play Warzone 2 And You’ll Both Get Rewards
Season 3 of Call of Duty: Warzone 2 arrives on April 12, and the big update will add a new battle royale feature, which offers rewards for convincing someone else to try the game.
The upcoming Recruit-a-Friend program will reward existing Warzone 2 players for recruiting new players to the battle royale. This program gives a total of eight cosmetic rewards that can be earned. However, there are some requirements a player must meet to be eligible to earn the rewards.
Players must have at least three hours played on the game and have an account older than 60 days to be eligible. This eligibility will allow them to invite up to three eligible friends per season. To be considered an eligible friend, these newcomers must have an Activision account that is either less than seven days old or they must not have played Warzone 2 in the last 60 days. Basically, anyone who hasn’t hopped into the battle royale since launch is now considered eligible.
Twitter’s bookmark counter is a new way to convince yourself tweeting is worth your time
If you take pride in people bookmarking your social media posts, Twitter is ready to feed your ego. The social network has added a bookmark counter to its iOS app. Similar to the counts for likes, quotes and retweets, you’ll know just how many people saved a given tweet for later reference. The company hasn’t mentioned when the feature might come to Android or the web.
Twitter stresses that bookmarks are still private. Users may know if their tweets are popular, but they won’t know just who bookmarked a given post.
We love Bookmarks for saving Tweets to revisit later. Starting today on iOS, you’ll now see the total number of times a Tweet has been bookmarked on Tweet details.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 16, 2023
This counter isn’t just useful for bragging rights, of course. If you’re a creator or run a company’s Twitter account, the tally could show whether or not followers find your posts useful. That, in turn, may help you refine content to reach a wider audience.
The addition comes after a handful of upgrades to Twitter, such as alerts about community misinformation notes. However, the service has lately been dominated by concerns about a string of outages and a paywall for text-based two-factor authentication. However useful the bookmark counter may be, it’s not going to garner as much attention as it might have in the past.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitters-bookmark-counter-is-a-new-way-to-convince-yourself-tweeting-is-worth-your-time-210005962.html?src=rss
Help Convince Me to Buy This $1,500 3D Printer For Chocolate
It’s unfortunately arriving a little too late to woo whoever was your Valentine this year, but next month, you’ll be able to pre-order a 3D printer that swaps melted plastic for melted chocolate, allowing you to create personalized treats for whoever that special someone happens to be next year.
Can TikTok convince the US it’s not a national security threat?
TikTok is, once again, facing an uncertain future. The company has spent the last two years quietly negotiating with US government officials in order to avoid an outright ban. But that process has now stalled, and calls for a ban have only intensified.
Next month, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, his first Congressional appearance. Many lawmakers have called for a more sweeping ban, and will likely quiz Chew about TikTok’s alleged risks to national security, and its parent company’s Chinese ownership.
TikTok has long denied that it’s a threat, and downplays its ties to China. But now the company is also trying a new tactic to prove it has nothing to hide: its Transparency and Accountability Center. The company first introduced the idea in 2020, but the actual facility didn’t open until recently due to COVID-related delays. Last week, the company took a handful of reporters on a tour of the center as part of a new charm offensive as it tries to fend off regulators and the looming prospect of more bans in the United States.
The first thing you notice when you walk in is that, despite being dedicated to “transparency,” there are no windows in the space, which is housed in an office park near TikTok’s Culver City US HQ. Instead, visitors are greeted with neon-lit signs and big, interactive displays dedicated to explaining various aspects of the app.
The company hopes visitors will walk away with a better understanding of how the app operates and, perhaps, less suspicion. “We really do understand the critique that big media, big tech, plays as it relates to how algorithms work, how moderation policies work and the data flows of the systems,” says TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas. “A lot of these are unprecedented levels of transparency that we’re providing.”
What you’ll actually learn by touring the center, though, largely depends on how much you already know about TikTok when you walk in the door. It’s primarily dedicated to explaining the app’s content moderation policies, and how it handles recommendations, both of which have been heavily scrutinized.
There are two interactive exhibits: a “moderation station,” where visitors can play the role of a TikTok content moderator, and another room that’s meant to “demystify” the app’s vaunted recommendation algorithm.
In the moderation room, you can watch sample videos — presented in an interface similar to what TikTok’s actual content moderators see — and try your hand at judging which ones violate the app’s rules. Meanwhile, the room next door is dedicated to “the algorithm.” It’s more of an illustrated FAQ that offers fairly broad explanations to high-level questions about how the app recommends content. The content is more detailed than TikTok’s extremely vague in-app explanations, but that’s not saying much. For example, under the heading “What information does TikTok use to create personalized experiences?” it explains that users’ interactions with content are tracked to inform the underlying recommendation model. That might be useful info if you know nothing about how algorithms work, but it doesn’t tell you very much about TikTok.
Each explanation is also accompanied by a visualization and a snippet of “simulated code” — the company tightly controls who can view the app’s actual source code — to illustrate what’s happening at various stages of the recommendations process. But again, this felt like it was more designed for people who know nothing about TikTok rather than those who are trying to understand the nuances of its algorithm. There is a space at the transparency center, a server room behind a neon “LATC” sign, where auditors can enter and — after heavy security — dig into TikTok’s actual source code. But the vast majority of visitors to the center will never make into that room.
Overall, I can see how the tour might be a worthwhile exercise for lawmakers, who too often show they know shockingly little about how the internet works. But it also feels a bit performative, and I can’t help but remember Facebook’s infamous “war room” tour, when it invited reporters to visit a conference room dedicated to safeguarding elections only to shut it down a month later.
To be clear, TikTok does intend for the transparency center to be a permanent fixture. And the company plans to open more of them in other locations around the world. But while these facilities may help Boomer lawmakers and regulators understand what TikTok is, I’m not sure they will be able to dispel the perception that there’s something else, something more secretive, going on within the company. It’s one thing to illustrate how TikTok’s algorithm works at a high level, but it’s another to prove that something isn’t happening.
It’s notable, then, that TikTok’s Transparency Center doesn’t address some of the biggest concerns that have been raised about TikToK: its relationship with parent company Bytedance and whether the Chinese government could somehow take advantage of the relationship to advance its interests. “If you fundamentally distrust the autocratic Chinese government, and how it uses its relationship with large Chinese-based corporations to extend its influence around the world, then all the promises TikTok can pile up are not going to completely allay your anxiety about TikTok,” Paul Barrett, the deputy director of NYU’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, told Engadget.
TikTok does, however, have a plan to address government concerns that it could be a national security threat. The company has been locked in negotiations with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for more than two years over its future in the US. And it struck a deal with Oracle last year to safeguard US user data as part of this effort, known as “Project Texas,” to reassure US officials.
Until now, TikTok has been fairly tight-lipped about Project Texas and its dealings with CFIUS. But now that those talks have stalled — despite TikTok claiming it’s addressed every concern raised by regulators — the company has been cautiously sharing more details about its arrangements with Oracle.
Reporters who attended the tour were given an overview of the plan, but were asked not to directly quote the executives who described it.
Central to the plan is a new US subsidiary called TikTok US Data Security (USDS), which will have an independent board of CFIUS-approved directors with national security and cybersecurity backgrounds. On the TikTok side, there will be two executives running the US subsidiary, who will report to the board.
Meanwhile, all US user data will be housed within Oracle’s Cloud infrastructure with strict controls to prevent unauthorized access and to keep most data from leaving. (Some data about what US users are doing will inevitably have to leave in order to, for example, allow people to interact with content and users from other countries.) Oracle will also review TikTok’s entire source code, as will a separate, outside auditor. Future app updates will also be inspected by Oracle, which will take over responsibility for sending updates to the app stores. Oracle will also monitor TikTok’s recommendation algorithm and content moderation systems. The US government, via CFIUS, will continue to have visibility and oversight into what USDS is doing on an ongoing basis.
TikTok says they are confident these steps address every issue that’s been raised about what TikTok could potentially be doing. Executives also point out that the company has already dedicated an astonishing amount of money — $1.5 billion — and resources to Project Texas. If all that’s good enough for CFIUS, they say, it should be good enough for Congress.
Whether lawmakers will be satisfied with any scenario that allows TikTok to operate in the United States without being fully divested from ByteDance, though, remains to be seen. “They [TikTok] can make all of these arrangements, and put in place all these safeguards, almost to infinity,” Barrett says. “And it’s not clear to me that that would satisfy China hawks in the United States.”
That’s partly because TikTok is a convenient punching bag for lawmakers who want to appear tough on China. But there are also legitimate reasons to be concerned about TikTok. ByteDance recently fired four employees who accessed the personal data of an American journalist who had reported on the company. TikTok also has a history of taking, at best, a heavy handed approach to content moderation that some have equated with censorship favorable to the Chinese government.
According to TikTok, Project Texas will ensure neither scenario can happen again. But the fact that it already has will undoubtedly lead to further questions about just how deep the company’s commitment to transparency and accountability really is.
Ben Wallace to convince Berlin to green-light German-made tanks for Ukraine battles
Tonal will convince you to ditch your gym membership for good
The pandemic pushed home gyms so far down our collective throats that leaving the house for a workout seems downright silly. Why would you, when you can have all the fitness equipment you need in the privacy of your own home?
Smart fitness mirrors and connected home gyms play a huge part in this. From the Mirror to Tempo, these systems promise to replace your gym membership and every other piece of fitness equipment that’s been collecting dust in the back of your closet. Some of these pricey fitness tech products don’t live up to the hype, but Tonal was a breath of fresh air in a fitness market thats becoming oversaturated with smart tech that over promises and and under delivers.
How Tonal works
Tonal has a touchscreen and two adjustable arms that feature digital weight up to 100 pounds each. The arms can be adjusted by both height and angle to complete more than 200 different movements, from lat pulldowns and shoulder presses to squats.
Credit: Jae Thomas / Mashable
Credit: Jae Thomas / Mashable
After you do the initial strength assessment (more on that later) Tonal will automatically adjust the weight for you at the beginning of each workout. You’ll see a short tutorial on how to set up Tonal’s arms and which accessories to attach. Then the workout, led by a trainer, is played on the touchscreen for you to follow. You’ll see pop-up form corrections on the screen if your technique is wonky, and you can always adjust the weight on the smart accessories if needed. Tonal also tracks your reps, weight lifted, and a ton of other metrics so you can monitor your progress over time.
On top of the $3,495 cost, Tonal will run you $49 per month for a digital account, which gives you access to live and on-demand workout classes. You can have unlimited accounts once you have a membership, so the whole family can work out on one membership.
The basic Tonal package comes with the smart handles, but the smart bar, smart rope, bench, roller, and workout mat are sold separately in a $495 bundle. Tonal can also be financed monthly through Affirm, starting at $73 per month with 0% APR if the upfront cost is a bit too much for you.
Credit: Jae Thomas / Mashable
The Tonal emits a very low humming noise when in use, but you don’t really notice it until the machine is turned off. It’s also extremely user friendly, and the UI is set up very similarly to an iPhone, so the navigation is pretty intuitive for iPhone users. Tonal supports both Apple Music and Amazon Music, so you can hand-pick the playlist you want to sweat to.
You’ll be able to connect your Apple Watch to the Tonal to get the most accurate metrics tracking, but it is a bit annoying to have to reconnect it every time you start a new workout. To use the Apple Watch integration, you’ll need to download the Tonal watch app and start a workout from there.
How are the Tonal workouts?
Tonal setup begins with a questionnaire about gender, height, weight, fitness goals, and experience level. Tonal later gives you recommendations for classes and programs that will help you meet goals like getting toned, building muscle, and improving overall fitness.
The first Tonal workout for every user is the strength assessment. This workout is designed to use AI technology that helps you figure out the ideal weight you should be lifting. You’ll engage in a few different motions like lat pulldowns and bench press and get suggestions for your starting weight. Tonal will then set these weights during your workouts automatically, so you won’t have to adjust them manually.
Tonal also uses AI to monitor when you can lift more weight and when you might need a spotter boost. There are a ton of dynamic weight lifting modes too, like chains mode and burnout mode, which change the way the weight feels and can make your workout even more challenging.
Credit: Jae Thomas / Mashable
As someone who only occasionally lifts weight, I found the initial AI weight recommendations to be too high. I wasn’t able to finish full sets of 15 reps during the workouts with some of my AI recs, so I ended up retaking the strength assessment. There might be a bit of adjustment needed to really get the perfect weight recommendations — the AI isn’t perfect.
Both the strength assessment and the normal workouts have a ton of guidance to ensure you set up and execute your workout correctly. During testing, I replayed the first few video tutorials to get a feel for how to swap out the smart accessories, and was impressed when Tonal felt me fidgeting with the weight control and gave me pop-up instructions on the screen on how to manually adjust the weight.
When compared to other digital fitness classes, Tonal classes really work your muscles. While you could get away with bullshitting a Peloton or Mirror workout, Tonal makes you work hard — and it’ll leave you sore the next day. I inadvertently lost a few pounds during Tonal testing, and I felt like I began to get stronger as well.
Over time, you’ll be able to track your progress using Tonal’s strength score feature. As you do more workouts and lift more weight, your strength scores for upper body, lower body, and core will increase.
Credit: Screenshot: Tonal
The only qualm I had with Tonal’s workouts is that they assume a baseline level of fitness, which might be disheartening to folks who are on a new fitness journey. Nearly every class I took, even when set to beginner, had a section of pushups and other full-range bodyweight workouts with few modifications offered that might be a bit too difficult for newbies. I can see this becoming barrier for entry for folks just starting to work out, and it would be easy to get discouraged when you can’t do all the moves of even the easiest workouts on the platform.
What types of workouts does Tonal offer?
Tonal offers classes across the following types: barre, bootcamp, boxing, cardio, custom, dance cardio, family fitness, golf, high intensity, kickboxing, meditation, mobility, pilates, pre and postnatal, quick workouts, recovery, strength, Theragun, warm-up, and yoga.
Credit: Screenshot: Tonal
Credit: Screenshot: Tonal
You’ll also be able to filter classes to pick ones with certain coaches, goals, durations, body regions, level, muscle groups, and look at your completed and saved classes. Of course, Tonal will also recommend classes for you which will show up on the home screen (as well as the app) and you can parse through programs, live class schedules, articles, Tonal 101 tutorials, and different individual movements to get a head start on your workouts.
Tonal vs. Mirror
We reviewed both the Tonal and the Mirror, and the Tonal is hands down going to be a better option for strength training. The Mirror is the slightly more budget-friendly option at $1,495, but Tonal has more features than the average fitness mirror that make the higher price seem more reasonable. With a touch screen, AI weight adjustments, real-time form corrections, and all the smart accessories, I enjoyed Tonal workouts much more than Mirror workouts.
Tonal classes also tended to challenge me more than Mirror workout classes, which needed more self-motivation since they mostly relied on bodyweight and free weights. There’s something about a cool (and expensive) piece of technology to motivate you to workout, and Tonal does that. As someone who almost never seeks out strength-focused classes, Tonal made me excited to lift weights.
Credit: Jae Thomas
One thing to note about Mirror versus Tonal though, is that the instructors at Mirror tend to be a bit more friendly and personable than the Tonal instructors. Tonal instructors seem a little more corporate, like they’re on a script. They speak about Tonal as though it were a person, saying things like “Tonal is your best friend” or “Tonal just knows you” which is a bit dystopian and slightly creepy. You won’t find high-vibe wacky instructors at Tonal like you do at other digital fitness services (looking at you, Peloton), but if you’re into more straightforward workout classes, you probably won’t mind the scripted feeling, if you can get past the instructors speaking about Tonal as though it’s a sentient being.
What’s going on with the Tonal price increase?
The price of the Tonal trainer got a $500 price increase from the original price of $2,995 as of July 18. The new base price of the trainer is $3,495, and that does not include tax, shipping, installation, accessories, or the monthly membership fee. Tonal attributed this price increase to “macroeconomic conditions” and supply chain issues. This isn’t a big surprise considering the current state of inflation — we’ve seen other fitness companies moving their pricing around as well. Recently, Peloton also announced it would be raising its monthly digital membership cost.
We’ve rated the Tonal a 3 out of 5 in the bang for the buck category because of this hefty price increase.
Is Tonal worth it?
If you managed to buy your Tonal trainer before the price increase went into effect, it was definitely more worth it. Now that the cost has gone up by $500, buying it outright is a huge investment. If you’re still interested in bringing a Tonal home, the best route would be to finance it through Affirm, which starts at $73 for a 48-month term.
Even with the financing option, Tonal is a big investment. What makes it worth it is that it acts as a complete strength-based training program, so you can feel free to toss all your dumbbells and traditional weights. I’m personally not a fan of strength training (I’m a die-hard Peloton bike fan), but Tonal actually made me want to get stronger, and it made weight lifting much more accessible skill-wise than going to a gym and fudging around on random machines.
Bottom line, Tonal is worth it for folks who want to take strength training more seriously and for families where multiple members will use it, which will help justify the high price.
Woman who married step-brother reveals what her mum said to convince her to ‘follow my heart’
A WOMAN has said her mum told her to do what felt right when she revealed she wanted to marry her step-brother.
Matilda Eriksson’s said her mum’s advice led her to “follow her heart” and marry Samuli despite initially fighting the attraction and fearing a relationship might be illegal.
Matilda and Samuli Eriksson started a passionate romance after growing close as step-siblings[/caption]
They married in July 2022, three years after her mother married his father[/caption]
They say their parents secretly hoped they would get together[/caption]
Matilda and Samuli say they initially tried to fight the attraction[/caption]
The couple pictured with their parents – Matilda’s mum told her to follow her instinct[/caption]
Matilda, 23, and 27-year-old Samuli got engaged last October after a whirlwind romance and were married in July near Helsinki, Finland.
In the beginning they overcame the judgment of friends on top of their own “confused” feelings.
At first, her friends’ judgment bothered her and she started having doubts.
But then her mother helped her “get my thoughts in order”.
read more on families
Matilda went on: “She told me to do whatever I felt was the most right in that moment, putting everything else aside and to follow my heart, and that led me to marry Samuli.
“We both have been in a few long relationships before but never felt like this with anyone.”
Members of the unusual blended family were pictured beaming at the outdoor ceremony, three years after they had also gathered for the marriage of the bride’s mum and the groom’s dad in 2019.
The couple first met in 2018 at Matilda’s mother’s 50th birthday party.
Most read in Fabulous
Their parents were “very happy for us from the start,” said
“I think Samuli’s dad even kind of hoped that something like this would happen.”
They became pals with “good chemistry” but nothing more – until a spark ignited last spring.
She told Norwegian paper Dagbladet: “Each time we had good conversations and felt the connection.
“In 2021, we started hanging out regularly, but initially as friends or step-siblings.”
She said they had a “kind of magnetic attraction” and ended each seeing other at weekends when they were out with friends.
One day Samuli moved in for a kiss, and “I responded right away with passion,” she told Yahoo Australia.
‘FELT VERY STRANGE’
She added: “The first time something romantic happened between us we decided it could never happen again, ever. We were too afraid to lose our friendship.”
But a week later it happened again and “we simply could not deny the feelings and affection we had for each other”.
Matilda said: “We started dating in May 2021 and moved in together right away.
“To be completely honest, it felt very strange, and wrong at first.
“I was confused and in love at the same time and honestly I really didn’t know what to do.
“Thinking about the fact that he still is my step-brother and also I thought about other people’s opinions.
“Some of our friends were first a bit doubtful and kind of judging.
“I think it was because of the confusion that someone I had been calling step-brother has to now be called my boyfriend.”
They got engaged in October – “we even proposed to each other at the same time and cried.”
But they wondered if it would actually be legal in Finland for them to marry and have children.
‘MADE IN HEAVEN
She said: “First we found some false, old information that it would be illegal, but gladly one of my sister’s closest friends is a law student and she told us that there would be no problem if we wanted to get married.”
They have also not lost any friends despite their initial doubts, as they soon saw the couple are a “100 per cent match made in heaven.”
Matilda and Samuli have documented their unusual love story in a series of TikTok videos – and that’s where they have received the most hate, she told Yahoo.
In one video, she reveals people have left nasty comments such as “straight to jail” and “I’d rather die”.
But many others hailed it as a “true love story”.
One said: “Guys chill out they aren’t even related.”
Another said: “Like honestly that is so cute your mom marrying his dad and you marrying him.”
Another said: “This genuinely makes me so happy!! I love this so much.”
They are not the first step-siblings to grow close.
In 2019 we told how Lynley and Daniel Perrett married and had four kids after growing up together in New Zealand.
They met when she was 12 when her mum married his dad.
After moving apart they got back in touch as adults and fell in love.
Read More on The Sun
In 2020, Teen Mom star Catelynn Lowell defended herself against claims she married her step-brother Tyler Baltierra.
In fact their parents started dating after they were already teenage sweethearts.
They received hate after documenting their unusual love story on TikTok[/caption]
They were married three years before in 2019[/caption]
The blended family all together[/caption]