We’ve all been plugging away on a project, deep in the zone — only to have a phone call or an email or some other distraction pop up and take us completely out of the moment. That loss of focus didn’t just impact the work you were doing, it’s also crushing your productivity even more than you might think. On average, it takes about 24 minutes to regain your focus once it’s been lost....

The app has just got the most requested feature in its new version 1.5: auto-activation of fonts. Simply put, auto-activation allows you to install a small number of fonts on your system, the ones that you use the most; whenever a program needs a different font, the font manager automatically installs the font of the fly, and removes it when it is no longer needed. The new version, a free upgrade for existing customers, was released on March 12....

Well…not really. With all that processing power, you’ve probably only scratched the surface of AWS’s capabilities, like hardcore data analysis. Get a full understanding of all the tools available for handling and using large data sets with the AWS Big Data Specialty Certification Prep Course, now $29.99 (89 percent off) from TNW Deals. This in-depth training course is perfect for those looking for a new method of working big data projects....

If you need something a little closer to reality to keep your high-speed train/tube travel whistle wet, check out this new magnetic levitation — maglev — train from China. The prototype unveiled by researchers at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu, China, and is unlike other maglev trains. Rather than using liquid helium superconductors at -269 degrees Celsius, researchers have implemented high-temperature superconductors, which operate at -196 degrees Celsius and are a heck of a lot cheaper to produce and run....

We’re all aware that the Disney Plus hype train is clanking down the tracks at a fever pitch right now. But as the streaming wars between corporate giants seem poised to consume the media landscape for the next few years, consider this: what do you ACTUALLY want to watch? With decades of old and new movie and TV products to choose from, services like Disney Plus, Netflix and several others certainly have heaps and heaps of content for you to devour....

Whatever the case may be, there’s no denying that the new Land Rover Defender, the latest iteration of company’s most iconic and longest produced vehicle, is nothing at all like the old one. Beyond the name, the similarities become few. That’s not a bad thing per se, the new Defender is probably the most capable off-road vehicle Land Rover has ever produced. It’s more refined than it’s ever been, and now comes with hybrid engine options to help cut down on emissions, which is obviously a big plus in this day and age....

Variety, they say, is the spice of life. It’s ironic then, that when I wrote the first edition of this series my plan was to publish a new piece each week. Unfortunately, the first article was about Stellaris and my fiancée and I haven’t played anything else in the 11 weeks since it was published. To say we really enjoy it would be putting it mildly. But, tonight that all ends because we’ve got a date to play Fallout 76 and I can’t wait to get off work so we can dive back in....

Here’s an idea…how about holding your weekly movie night in your backyard this summer? With the warm nights ahead, now is a great time to put your backyard movie palace plans into motion, complete with a brilliant projector, a giant screen, and a whole heaping truckload of family, friends, and snacks to make the event truly special. You’re on your own for the family, friends, and snacks…but as for the tech side, we can help you out with this cool collection of Kodak projectors and accessories now available at summer sale prices....

If you’re worried about being watched while online, it’s because you already are. Internet service providers (ISPs) can log everything you do. Online destinations from retail giants to social media platforms harvest information about you and can sell that data to virtually anyone. And yeah, getting emails or Facebook ads about the book you just did a Google search for are more than a little creepy. A VPN is your first and best initial line of defense against constant surveillance....

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by the two companies. But GitHub intends to make Semmle’s automated code review products available via GitHub Actions. The San Francisco-based firm — founded in 2006 — counts Uber, NASA, Microsoft, Google, and Nasdaq as some of its clients. Semmle offers tools like QL that codifies logical programming errors as queries to spot mistakes, find variants of the same bug elsewhere in the code, and prevent them from occurring in the future....

You’ll have lifetime access to almost 80 hours of instruction covering 14 different topics. In total, there are 470 different lessons all delivered online at your convenience. Once you get the basics down, you can decide how you want to proceed and which styles of guitar you want to focus on to play the music you want to play. And it couldn’t come at a better time, with pricing so low you absolutely can’t pass up the opportunity....

According to a Reddit thread started last week, a number of users on the in-car app have experienced lagging and a noticeable slow down in how quickly the Google Assistant responds to voice commands. In some cases, the Assistant doesn’t execute the command at all, Autoevolution reports. Users have reported the problem across a range of phones, cars, and aftermarket head units. Many say that it only became an issue after a recent update to the system’s interface....

The hub organizes news from authoritative global and local sources to help readers access the latest guidance regarding the virus; you can even select which regions you want to be updated on in particular. It can also highlight stories by topics such as the economy, health, and travel, and emphasizes results from local news most relevant to you, including tweets from local authorities. Google says it’s also working on a dedicated fact-checking feature to dispel misinformation surrounding the virus, although it’s still experimenting on how to implement the feature....

But in case you’re traveling, Google is unveiling new tools to help you with your bookings and flight planning. These new features include the percentage of flights and hotels operating in the place you’re traveling to and a filter to search for hotels that offer free cancelations. [Read: How to delete your LinkedIn account] Some countries are lifting restrictions for travelers. However, the place you want to visit might not be operating at full capacity....

In Google’s own words “the new app is designed around your relationships with people and businesses,” and “it helps you save money and gives you insights into your spending.” Next year, you’ll also be able to apply for a Google bank account, something we first saw rumored about a year ago. Google Pay’s old app is divided into a few tabs showing your collection of cards and recent transactions. The new app instead almost behaves like a messaging app within its home tab, letting you see the people and businesses you exchange money with most often....

Time crystals, that is. Up front: Last year’s big story in the physics world was Google and its partner’s breakthrough experiment in creating a new phase of matter inside a quantum computer called time crystals. As we reported last year, this is a big eureka moment because time crystals defy the laws of classical physics: Background: Scientists hope to harness the power of time crystals to build advanced quantum computing systems capable of computational feats the likes of which all the combined supercomputers on Earth couldn’t hope to achieve....

The Big G currently serves contextual information such as Wikipedia snippets, lyrics, or recipe videos to you based on your search phrase. Now, for the next step of the search, it aims to get you results by understanding context beyond just the phrase you’ve used. The first feature announced last night is visual search. When you’re looking at a picture of a shirt on your phone, you can search the lens icon and ask Google to search for the pattern, but on a pair of socks or a bag....

In order to get out the house and avoid screens, I now walk about 10km a day, time I use to catch up on audiobooks and podcasts. Thing is, I’d like to do this while leaving my phone at home. I’ve finally found my reason to get a smartwatch — and Google has just made this decision easier. The company is working on a major update to its Wear OS platform to make the offline audio experience for wearables far slicker and more useful later this year....

Earlier, you had to select the source language and the language you wanted to translate the text in manually. With the new update, you can point the camera to a sign, and the Translate app will automatically detect the language. To use that feature, you have to select “Detect language” as the source language. Google has also refreshed the interface and placed instant, scan, and import features at the bottom for easier access....

“CLI binaries available on http://getmonero.org may have been compromised at some point during the last 24h. Investigations ongoing,” a Monero core developer said on Twitter. Although the investigation is ongoing, core developers for the project have issued an update confirming that the binaries of the CLI [ Command Line Interface] wallet had been compromised for a short time. Users who downloaded binaries throughout yesterday, and failed to check the integrity of the files, should do so immediately, the developer added....