19 Mar 2021

Seven Thousand Magazines And Newspapers On Your Computer, Maybe For Free

Some conditions apply, the most important of which is that free access to PressReader is provided by subscribing libraries and some businesses. PressReader may be the most ambitious effort so far to provide online access to print media via computers and mobile devices, and it's definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of print journalism.

Some of my earlier posts have described Next Issue, which became Texture, and was then acquired by Apple, renamed Apple News Plus, and largely ruined. I've also described Flipster, which is available from some libraries. So before seeing what PressReader can do, let's consider what came before.

• Texture was an impressive offering. For $10 per month, it provided access to a good selection of magazines that could be read on Windows, MacOS, IOS, and Android devices. Apple purchased Texture and eliminated access from Windows and Android devices. The monthly fee remained at $10, but limiting access to Apple devices made it harder to use; and, for those who have only Windows and Android devices, impossible to use.
• Many libraries provide free access to Flipster, but the selection is somewhat limited — approximately 50 publications. Because it's offered by libraries, there's no direct cost to readers. Flipster uses a web browser interface, so it's usable on any device. It's provided by OCLC. OCLC was first called the Ohio College Library Center and then the Online Computer Library Center, and now just "OCLC". In addition to Flipster, OCLC produces and maintains WorldCat, the world's largest online public access catalog and dozens of other specialized services for libraries. OCLC also maintains the Dewey Decimal Classification system.

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But now there's PressReader, and it hits the sweet spot for variety and accessibility. With headquarters in Vancouver, Canada, and offices in Ireland and Philippines, PressReader distributes more than 7000 newspapers and magazines published in about 60 languages. There are apps for most devices, but publications are also accessible on the PressReader website via a web browser.

The subscription cost is $30 per month, or users can pay to read or download individual issues of publications. There's also a free option: Some organizations offer free access via hotspots in their buildings and some libraries offer access to patrons via their home or mobile devices.

PressReader has apps for Windows, MacOS, IOS, and Android devices, but you can also use a web browser on any computer. The term "hotspot" is a bit misleading because it refers to locations where the user must be on site to use the service (such as a hotel or hospital) as well as to locations such as libraries that can make access available to patrons who use their own computers from home.

One advantage the app provides is that it remembers both your library affiliation and your PressReader account information. You need both, and that can be confusing as I discovered when I spoke with the support staff at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, one of the library systems in Ohio that offers PressReader.

Several libraries in Ohio provide online access to various digital resources for any resident of the state. This includes libraries in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, and possibly other cities in Ohio. The same may be true in your state. If your library doesn't offer PressReader access, perhaps another library where you can obtain an electronic library card does.

Signing Up

To find out if your local library is a PressReader subscriber, use the PressReader hotspot locator or your library's website. When you open the PressReader map, you'll see a (1 & 2) blue dot that indicates your location and markers for hotspots in the area. Zoom in to see locations (3, 4, & 5) of nearby hotspots. Businesses offer on-site access and most libraries offer home or mobile access for patrons.

Logging in the first time requires two steps if you want to set up a "My Publications" section with your favorite newspapers and magazines. Start on the PressReader website and click (1) the Sign In button. Choose (2) Library or Group and fill in part of the (3) library's name. Choose your library from the (4) resulting list.

You'll then be asked for (1) your library card number and the PIN associated with it. When you've provided that, you'll have access to every publication offered by PressReader. You can select one and click (2) Read Now.

Most people will probably want to be able to select favorite publications, and that requires a second account — this one with PressReader. Click the Sign In button again and then choose the (1) New User button. Setting up the account is much like any other system. When you're finished with that, return to the Sign In page, enter the email address and password you created for your PressReader account, and click (2) Sign in. You'll then be able to mark individual publications as favorites and they will appear in the (3) My Publications section.

There's A Lot Of Flexibility

Although using a web browser makes PressReader accessible on any computer with an internet connection, the PressReader app is a better choice if it's available for your device. That's what I'll be using to illustrate the functionality.

After opening a newspaper or magazine, you'll be presented with various ways to move through it. This depends on the publication's design. The Guardian newspaper, for example, shows (1) full-page views you can scroll through as well as (2) section names. The reader app activates scrolling and zooming, too. If you want to share part of an article with someone, you may think that (like Apple's News Plus) text is not selectable. That's incorrect.

When the publication is open, PressReader places a (1) hamburger menu in the upper left corner. Opening that menu reveals (2) options for printing the page, having the system read an article to you, or marking the publication as a favorite. It also presents two viewing modes — (3) page view and text view. Text is not selectable on (4) page view, but it is in (5) text view if you right-click anywhere on the page and select (6) copy. You can then copy the entire article to the clipboard or use the mouse to select a smaller amount of text.

Printing the page adds a watermark that says personal copy.

 A bargain at $30 per month; an unbeatable value at $0

PressReader makes it possible to follow a wide variety of newspapers and magazines regularly as well as to check in occasionally on publications you wouldn't normally read or couldn't find locally. That latter category could include newspapers such as China Daily (in English), the Australian edition of Mac Life, or Classic Cars in German. PressReader also includes access to 341 newspapers ranging from the Los Angeles Times and the Columbus Dispatch to the New York Daily News and the Philadelphia Enquirer. Smaller newspapers are included, too, such as the Springfield, Ohio, News-Sun and the Santa Fe New Mexican. The New York Times and the Washington Post are, however, not present.
Additional details are available on the PressReader website or visit your local library's website.
The cat rating scale ranges from 0 cats (worst) to 5 cats (best).

Short Circuits

Photoshop Camera Continues To Spread Fun

Not every photograph must be a work of art. Sometimes they can just be fun, and that seems to be the primary reason for Adobe's Photoshop Camera.

It runs on many smart phones, but not all of them. Apple devices require IOS 13.4 or later, and Android phone compatibility depends on the phone's ability to run at least Android 9 but also depends on having a compatible phone model. For example, my wife's phone is a Google Fi Pixel device running Android 10, but it's not compatible. Only Pixel 3 and 4 phones can run Photoshop Camera. To see the full list of compatible devices, visit Adobe's website.

If you have a compatible phone, you can create some amazing effects right on the phone, including some animations. This one uses the Fantastic Voyage filter to create a video that shows flowers growing up out of the bed and includes butterflies surrounding a cat who's sitting on the bed. If you watch the video, note that the butterflies always stay behind the cat. This is done entirely with artificial intelligence. No green screen is involved.

 Click any small image for a full-size view. To dismiss the larger image, press ESC or tap outside the image.

Using Photoshop Camera is easy. Scroll through various "lenses" and camera effects before taking a picture, or wait until after you've taken a picture to see what effect you might want to apply. The original image is retained, so you don't need to worry about damaging a photo. Switch from lens to lens and then modify the settings. The filters are shown across the bottom of the screen.

Photoshop Camera is powered by Adobe's artificial intelligence and is intended to make it easy for people to create selfies, food photos, and scenery shots. Although most of the filters are simply intended to be fun, some attempt to simulate portrait lighting and can also blur backgrounds to make the subject more prominent. Some of the filters attempt to remove what many people would call "distortion" even though it's more a physical property of focal length and distance, so the resulting image looks more like you spent time working on it. But there are also lenses that add distortion, texture, overlays, and other effects that are best described by the three-letter word fun.

Here are some examples using Chloe Cat.

1. The original photo after I cropped it.
2. The Dreamy lens creates a high-key, light, warm image with relatively soft focus.
3. Using the Vibrant lens overlays a color shift (green at the top, orange at the bottom) on the background, desaturates the cat, and places two triangles between the background at the cat.
4. Neon Pulse is a filter that obscures most of the background and sandwiches the cat between what's in the background and a banner that's added in front of the cat at the bottom of the image.
5. The Ocean lens puts the cat underwater with turtles and fish behind her and other objects in front.

It's worth noting that there is a lamp behind the cat and that it isn't detected as part of the background. The lamp fools the artificial intelligence because it is dark and intersects with the cat. If this bothers you, any of the photos could be exported to Photoshop so that the user could clone away the lamp in the background.

1. There are three Artful lenses and I like all of them. This is Artful 3, and it adds color shifts and a texture overlay.
2. The Grit lens does the best job of detecting and removing the lamp in the background and does a surprisingly accurate job of masking the cat's fur. Fur and hair are the two most challenging items for masking.
3. The Artful 2 lens creates a bright, colorful impressionistic look.
4. The Pop Art lens creates a fun effect with the yellow and orange spiral in the background and a cyan cat in the foreground.
5. The original Artful lens has an option that creates a woodcut-like effect. Note that the "cuts" follow the contours of the cat and the objects in the room.

Each downloadable lens has multiple variants, sometimes as few as two or three and sometimes six or seven. If you have an Android or IOS phone that's compatible with Photoshop Camera, give it a try. The app does not work yet on tablets. Download the app from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.

Goofing Off For Better Security?

Security firm Kaspersky Labs claims that more than eight in ten workers spend up to five hours per week watching YouTube, listening to podcasts, or exercising during work hours.

If that seems shocking and yet another indication that the workforce has become slovenly, here are three points to ponder:

1. Kaspersky's weasel words ("up to") would allow the report to count anyone who spent two minutes per week goofing off.
2. Even assuming the worst, five hours is 12.5% of the 40-hour work week.
3. Workers are typically permitted some amount of "break time" each day. Many companies specify 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon. That would be two and a half hours per week.

Beyond that, is goofing off a bit really so bad? Mentally shifting gears for a bit is generally considered to be a good thing according to those who research brain function. But Kaspersky's research dealt with corporate IT security personnel. Shouldn't they be 100% committed to the job from the time they clock in until they clock out? Maybe not.

The diversions give security personnel a break from the serious challenges they deal with. The report says that security experts are responsible for evaluating and testing security software, configuring that software, installing it and upgrading it, enforcing user policies, and incident monitoring, investigations, and response. Kaspersky head of information security Andrey Evdokimov says "There should be control over task performance, not how many working hours are spent on a hobby,"  because watching videos, for example, "may give insights into how to solve a problem." 

Read the full report on the Kaspersky blog.

Spare Parts

Fry's Is Fried

At the end of February, legendary electronics retailer Fry's shut down abruptly. The chain was largely unknown in the midwest and east because Fry's 31 stores were mainly in California, the west, and the south.

Each store had a theme. The Los Angeles Manhattan Beach was Tahiti. In Phoenix, it was an Aztec temple. The Woodland Hills store featured Alice in Wonderland. In Austin, the theme was live music. The San Diego store featured an aircraft carrier theme. In travels to California, I visited several of the store and they were amazing.

Fry's website tells the tale. >>

Fry's had been in a downward spiral for several years, trying to fend off Best Buy and Amazon.com. It was the covid pandemic that fried the operation after 36 years.

The store probably won't be missed by too many people now, but three decades ago it was instrumental in attracting people who went on to impressive careers in electronics and engineering. So even though I had only a passing acquaintance, I can say I'll miss Fry's.

Willing To Let Microsoft Listen In?

As with just about every electronic device these days, Windows-based computers can listen to you and Cortana can perform tasks that you request.

It's not magic, of course, just technology and voice recognition. Microsoft will soon be asking users to give the company permission to obtain and analyze what you say to your computer. This will concern security-minded folks even though Microsoft says the objective is simply to make voice recognition work better.

The company won't collect your words unless you opt in, though. If you do, Microsoft says that employees may review the voice clips "to improve the performance of Microsoft's artificial intelligence systems across a diversity of people, speaking styles, accents, dialects, and acoustic environments."

Microsoft’s executive architect of digital transformation services, John Roach, says the goal is to make speech recognition technologies easier and more natural to interact with. However, those who opt out "will still be able to use all of Microsoft's voice-enabled products and services." Even if you opt out, Microsoft will still be able to access transcriptions that are generated by the system's AI program.

Twenty Years Ago: A Handheld Device Can Tell You Where To Get Off

The GPS project was launched by the Defense Department in 1973. The first satellite was launched in 1978, and it was 1993 before all 24 satellites were operational. Civilians were allowed to use the system starting in 1980, but 21 years later the devices were still quite expensive.

Handheld devices started providing maps that, if you had the right device and enough money, could be coupled with a GPS receiver. Today, everyone who has a smart phone has GPS, maps, and verbal directions. Twenty years ago, just the maps were impressive.

"I go to New York City often enough to be comfortable riding the subway without a map," I said, noting that I was familiar with a lot of Manhattan, but "when I have to wander down into SoHo, to any address south of 14th Street, or to the East Side -- I need a little help."

An app on my Palm Pilot, NY Crosstown, helped me locate addresses by cross street, and another app called MetrO provided a choice of the fastest or most direct subway routes from any station to any other station. That all seems pretty wimpy now, doesn't it?