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Watch an iPad, Luna Display, and a teleprompter enable direct eye contact on Zoom.
Luna Display just created a new way to humanize your Zoom calls.
In a blog post on Astropad's website, the company behind Luna Display, the new teleprompter mode was demonstrated by Adam Lisagor, the founder of Sandwich, a video production company.
Our friend Adam Lisagor is the founder of Sandwich, a video production company based in Los Angeles. Sandwich makes some of your favorite commercials for companies like Slack, Airbnb, Lyft, and other cool tech brands. In other words, Adam is the real deal — so when he reached out to Astropad about the weird way he's been using Luna Display, we did a double-take.
Adam has been using a DSLR, iPad, and teleprompter to try and create a more human connection on video calls that he attends. He says that one of the big downsides of video calling as it currently exists is that it is impossible to actually make direct eye contact with someone else.
"Unless your camera is right where your screen is, you're almost never looking directly at the people you're talking to… this is bad because it takes you and the other person out of the conversation."
Adam had been using his DSLR to shoot himself while using his iPad with a teleprompter to view his screen. This combination allowed him to look directly at the camera, creating a more human connection with those he was on a call with.
"With a teleprompter, I can use my Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6K camera and nice lens as a 'webcam.' With the iPad display reflected back up into the angled glass, I can look directly at the other people on the call while looking directly into my fancy lens, so they see me talking directly to them."
The issue. however, was that the teleprompter flipped the image from the iPad, so he was looking at everyone else upside down. Once the team at Luna Display understood this, they created Teleprompter Mode to work with a beam splitter so that Adam saw everyone right-side up.
You can check out Adam's setup and how he uses Teleprompter Mode to create a much more personal connection with those that he is on a call with.
Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Fold 2 on August 5th, but didn’t give a release date or price at the time, only promising to share more about the foldable on September 1st. But if you check Samsung’s UK retail website right now, it seems you can already pre-order the Z Fold 2 for £1,799, and it’s set to ship by September 17th (via Max Weinbach).
While that price might be eye-popping, it’s actually less expensive than the original Fold’s £1,900 starting price in the UK — a difference of £101. Assuming, of course, that the price listed there isn’t a mistake. Samsung didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
We don’t know yet if a lower price would carry over to the US. The first Fold launched at $1,980, so perhaps the Z Fold 2...
Amazon is entering the health and fitness tracker market. Here's all you need to know about the Amazon Halo Band.
In a surprise move, Amazon has launched its own health and fitness accessory band called the Halo Band. It's a direct competitor to Fitbit's fitness trackers, but can be a good complement to smart watches like Apple Watch. Here's everything you need to know about Amazon's Halo Band.
The Amazon Halo Band focuses on five core areas to improve your overall health and well-being.
The Halo Band is purposely built to help users focus on health and wellness, unlike smart watches and other fitness trackers. To do so, there is no screen, so you do not get distracted with notifications from your smartphone. A small sensor capsule is tucked away under the band, and this sensor delivers highly accurate data about the wearer's heart rate, temperature, and more. The sensor features an accelerometer, temperature sensor, heart rate monitor, two microphones, an LED indicator light, and a button that turns the microphones on or off, as well as other functions of the Halo.
Since the Halo Band is water-resistant, it's great for all day wear, especially during sweaty workouts. It has a rechargeable battery that lasts up to 7-days on a single charge, and can go from zero to 100% in about 90 minutes.
On launch, the Amazon Halo Band has three fabric colors to choose from: Black fabric band + Onyx sensor capsule, Blush fabric band + Rose Gold capsule, and Winter fabric band + Silver sensor capsule. Only fabric is available on launch. There are six more fabric colors being sold as separate accessory bands, and these will be sold at a special early access price of $19.99 each. The colors include: Denim, Hummingbird, Mint Edge, Olive, Unicorn, and Volcano.
Amazon will also have silicone sport accessory bands, at the special early access price of $15.99 each, in nine more colors: Ash, Black, Dark Mint, Domino, Lavender, Pink Slate, Seafoam, Sunset, and White.
The Amazon Halo Band is available in three sizes: Small, Medium, and Large. Small fits wrist circumference 5.25-to-6-inches, medium 5.75-to-7-inches, and large 6.75-to-7.75-inches.
The Amazon Halo Band uses the new Amazon Halo service. Amazon Halo is a combination suite of several AI-powered health tools that are inside the Halo Band's sensor. These health tools provide actionable insights into the overall health and wellness of the user thanks to the sensor. The data revolves around five core areas, and all data is accessible from the Amazon Halo app. The five cores are: Activity, Sleep, Body, Tone, and Labs.
There is a monthly membership fee for the Amazon Halo service, which is $3.99 a month plus tax. You will need to contact Amazon Customer Service to cancel.
Activity is the first one, and Amazon Halo uses the latest American Heart Association's physical activity guidelines and latest medical research to award points for users. This means that while you'll earn points for walking, you'll earn more points for running. Medical guidelines also suggest that a sedentary lifestyle has a negative impact, so Amazon Halo actually deducts one point for every hour over eight hours of sedentary time (outside of sleep).
Sleep is the next one. The Amazon Halo Band will use motion, heart rate, and temperature data to measure the time you're asleep and the time you're awake. Amazon Halo also gets insights into various phases of sleep, like deep, light, and REM.
Body is an interesting one. Amazon seems to have developed new innovations and machine learning with the Halo service that allow customers to measure their body fat percentage at home, with accuracy comparable to doctor's offices. Amazon also claims that it is twice as accurate over leading at-home smart scales.
Tone relates to your voice, and this measures your social and emotional well-being. With Tone, it utilizes machine learning to analyze energy and positivity in your voice, which helps you better understand how you may sound to others. This can help improve overall communication and relationships.
Labs is the last one, and these are science-backed challenges, experiments, and workouts that are geared towards the user and their specific needs. This is to help you build healthier habits over time. You can choose from labs made by Amazon Halo experts, or from other professional brands and personalities like Adaptiv, 8fit, American Heart Association, Harvard Health Publishing, Headspace, Lifesum, Mayo Clinic, and more.
Amazon claims that privacy is the foundation of the Amazon Halo service. There are multiple layers of privacy and security built-in to the service itself, so all data should be safe and secure, and completely in the customer's control. Health data gets encrypted in transit and while in the cloud, allowing users to download or delete their information at any time directly from the Amazon Halo app.
It's also important to note that the body scan images are automatically deleted from the cloud after processing — only the user can see the scan.
Yes, third-party integrations will be available with the Amazon Halo Band. Amazon is collaborating with leading health and wellness companies, allowing users to connect their Amazon Halo account with other apps and services. The account linking for integration is completely opt-in, and you can back out at any time.
Right now, the Amazon Halo Band is only available via Early Access. You can request to get in with Early Access by answering a short questionnaire, and if you are selected, Amazon will email you with further instructions on how to purchase your Amazon Halo Band. Early Access is being granted on a rolling basis, so be patient.
Normally, the Amazon Halo Band will cost $100, but during the Early Access period, it is available for just $65. Purchasing the Amazon Halo Band also gets you six months of the Amazon Halo service for free.
After the first six months of free membership that come with the Halo Band purchase, Amazon Halo will renew at a rate of $3.99 plus tax per month. You can cancel at any time, but this must be done through Amazon customer service.
Members of Amazon Halo get access to all features of the Halo Band. Non-members will only be able to access the basics, like steps, sleep time, and heart rate.
The Amazon Halo Band is certainly an exciting new product launch from Amazon. We're eager to get our hands on one, so stay tuned! We'll update this page with more info as we learn how it works.
The Amazon Halo Band focuses on five core areas to improve your overall health and well-being.
That 'Other' space on Mac might be innocuous, but it is still annoying.
You may be wondering what the "Other" storage category is on your Mac and why it's taking up precious storage space. Though it may be frustrating to see this unexplained category in your Mac's storage category, most of the time, it's useful in some way or another.
It's worth noting that these files aren't normally harmful or wasteful to your computer's system; most are intended to help your Mac run efficiently, and ideally, you shouldn't ever have to clear out your Other files. Unfortunately, they can quickly clog up a computer low on storage — especially if you're storing a large number of iPhone or iPad backups.
Whether you're looking to free up space on your hard drive or just want to do some spring cleaning, here are some simple steps to get your Mac free and clear.
When Apple added its storage management feature to macOS Sierra and newer, called Optimize Storage, it reorganized what "other" storage is and where it's located on the Mac. Much of it has been divided out through other categories so it's easier to find and remove.
The 100GB of Other storage I used to carry on my iMac is whittled down to just 5GB. You can still clean out old and unnecessary content from your Mac by using Optimized Storage, even if your "Other" category storage use isn't all that big.
How to use Optimized Storage on Mac
A lot of the features of Optimized Storage remove content from your Mac and store them in iCloud. If you're concerned with how much storage you're using up in iCloud, you can customize or disable some Optimized Storage features to keep a balance between what's on your Mac and what's in iCloud.
How to customize or disable Optimized Storage on Mac
If you check your system storage graph in macOS, you'll probably discover a category called Purgeable. This is part of Apple's Optimized Storage service. When you move your Documents into iCloud (part of the Store in iCloud component) and your hard drive gets low on storage, only recently opened files are kept on your Mac. Older documents are stored in iCloud, while a shortcut icon is kept on your Mac (files are automatically re-downloaded to your Mac as soon as you open them). The Purgeable files are what Optimized Storage will move to iCloud and delete from your hard drive only if your hard drive starts to get full. Purgeable files also include caches and temporary files that used to fit into the Other category, which will also be deleted as your hard drive starts to fill up.
Though your Other storage might have been spread out across categories in macOS Sierra and higher, you can still follow the below steps to manually clean up your Mac and get rid of unnecessary files.
If you are concerned with how much storage space you have remaining on your Mac computer, you can check its usage folder to see how much space each category is taking up, including Other.
Click on About This Mac.
Select Storage.
Your Mac breaks down its storage categories as follows: Apps, Movies, Photos, Audio, Backups, and — that annoying, undescriptive category — Other.
Now that you know how much space your Other files are taking up, it's time to reduce their footprint on your Mac. You can start by removing items you don't need, including caches for your web browser, saved Apple Music streams, and photo previews.
A note on deleting cache folders: You only want to delete old and unnecessary files, as current cache files store your preferences. We strongly recommend only deleting cache files from old apps.
Click on Go to Folder.
Type ~/Library/caches into the text box. A list of caches from active apps will appear on your desktop.
Select Move to Trash.
Chances are, your Downloads folder is stuffed with Other-type files, including installer packages, documents, and folders you have already made copies of somewhere else. If you want to make some room on your Mac, it may be time to clean out your Downloads folder.
Click on Downloads.
Select Move to Trash.
If you want to save a file from the Downloads folder but don't want it clogging your drive, consider moving it to an external hard drive or flash drive, or uploading it to an online storage option like Dropbox.
If you tend to get new iOS devices fairly regularly, you may have unnecessary device backups stored on your computer via iTunes. Backups take up 4-5GB each, on average; there's no need to hold on to older device backups if you no longer have the device or have it stored in iCloud.
How to delete an iPhone or iPad backup from iTunes
While you don't need any third-party app to "clean" your Mac, there are some very handy system access tools out there that make it easier to regularly remove unwanted files.
With CleanMyMac, you have easy access to a list of features that help you keep your Mac free of unnecessary junk. It scans your entire system and recommends files you should delete based on how old they are and whether they are considered unnecessary to your workflow. It's a lot like Apple's Optimized Storage, but with a few additional features. My favorite is the recommendation to delete all content related to an application. Sometimes, you'll end up with a couple of files left behind by an app when you delete it. CleanMyMac provides a one-button purge of everything associated with that app.
DaisyDisk scans your Mac and gives you a pie chart that makes it easy to see what files are using up the most space. You can identify files that are in the Other storage category and drag them to the delete box.
Onyx is a robust Mac system access tool that, in-part, can delete caches, logs, temporary items, and other files that find their way into the Other storage category.
Cocktail is another useful system access tool that you can use to clear caches, purge memory, and manage hidden Apple app settings, which might be automatically sending files into the Other category abyss.
Still having trouble with Other? Let us know in the comments.
You can customize some of the data that is or isn't stored in iCloud. Strike a balance between hard drive and iCloud storage.
Optimized Storage on the Mac can help reduce the amount of space that data takes up on your hard drive, but it also takes up iCloud storage space. You can adjust some of the settings for what is stored in iCloud in order to save some space in your iCloud storage.
If you've tried out Desktop and Documents folder syncing in iCloud but decided you don't like it, you can stop syncing. If you disable syncing, Desktop files will no longer appear on a secondary Mac computer's desktop, but they will still be in a file in iCloud Drive, which you can move them out of. Your Documents folder will also still be visible in iCloud Drive, which you can also move.
Click System Preferences in the drop down menu.
Click on iCloud.
Click to uncheck the checkbox for Desktop & Documents Folders.
Optimized Storage automatically removes iTunes movies and TV shows that you've already watched from your Mac. It also only keeps recent email attachments on your Mac when your hard drive starts to run out of room. If you want to keep your movies and TV shows on your hard drive so you don't have to re-download them every time you want to watch them, you can disable the feature.
Select System Preferences from the drop down menu.
Click to uncheck the checkbox at the bottom of the window for Optimize Mac Storage.
I can't see any reason to not use the Empty Trash Automatically feature, but if you worry that you are going to delete something from your Mac and need it back more than 30 days later, you can disable the feature and go back to manually emptying the trash.
Click Preferences in the drop down menu.
Click to uncheck the checkbox for Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.
If your iCloud storage is starting to get full, you can select which apps and programs store data, clearing out space for more important data that you need to access all of the time.
Click System Preferences in the drop down menu.
Click on iCloud.
Click to uncheck the checkbox for each app whose data you do not wish to store in iCloud.
Note: Since the apps will no longer sync with iCloud, some features will be disabled, so make sure you want to remove their access to iCloud.
You may want to keep some, or all of your apps synced with iCloud, but don't need to keep all of the files and folders that are saved in them. You can reduce some of the storage used up by removing unneeded data.
Select iCloud Drive from the sidebar.
You can also move files out of iCloud Drive and into another folder. Just make sure the folder you move files to isn't also being stored in iCloud.
For some, the Photo library is the biggest space hog in iCloud. It is incredibly convenient to store your pictures in the cloud and be able to access them from any device without having to use up hard drive space (or in the case of the iPhone and iPad, device storage space), but it is also a burden on your iCloud storage limit. You can turn off iCloud Photo Library on all of your devices, which is inconvenient but frees up a lot of space in iCloud.
Select System Preferences from the drop down menu.
Click on iCloud.
Click on Turn off and Delete.
You'll have to manually download content that you previously stored in the iCloud Photo Library. You will have 30 days to download all of your photos and videos from iCloud Drive onto your Mac (you can also download them directly onto your iPhone or iPad, but I don't suggest doing that since they take up so much space).
Click on Photos in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.
Click on Download Originals to this Mac.
When you back up your iPhone or iPad in iCloud, the most recent backups are stored there. Backups take up a few GB of space each, which can add up if you have multiple iOS devices. You can, instead, backup your device to your computer using iTunes. If you choose to save your backups on your computer, you can delete them from iCloud.
Note: When you delete a backup from iCloud, you will also be turning off the ability to use iCloud to back up your device. You will have to switch back to iCloud backups if you change your mind later.
Click System Preferences in the drop down menu.
Click iCloud.
Click Delete when prompted to confirm that you wish to delete the backup and turn off iCloud back ups.
If you use the built-in Mail app on your Mac, you might be clogging up your iCloud storage with useless junk and deleted mail. You can quickly clear out some space by erasing the old stuff.
Click on Mailbox in the upper left side of your Mac's screen.
Click on Erase when prompted to confirm that you want to erase the deleted items in your iCloud mailbox.
Click on Erase when prompted to confirm that you want to erase the junk mailbox.
Do you have any questions about how to disable or customize the Optimized Storage features on your Mac? Let me know in the comments and I'll help you out.