6 1 - 14 May 2019
Fed up of being addedto
WhatsApp groups without being
asked first?With a new privacy
feature, the messaging service is now
lettingyou take backcontrol, giving
you the optionto receive invites that
can be accepted or turned down,
rather than allowing anybodyto
automatically includeyou.
To activate this fe ature, op en the
three-dot menuin the WhatsA pp app
and tap Settings, Account, Privacy,
then the new Groups option. Here
you can make your choice between
Everyone, My Cont acts an d Nobody.
By default, every WhatsA pp useris
set to the first option, which means
anyone can add you to a grou p.
Select My Cont acts if you only want
people in your address book to do
this, or choose Nobody to insi st on
giving your consen t. In this casewhydocatsanddogs.com
We seem to have an insatiable curiosity for information about
our pets. Google is certainly bombarded with questions
about cats and dogs and, in its quest to give the purr-fect
answers (sorry), the search giant has collaborated with pet
lover Nadieh Bremeron a
visual exploration of th e
most popular quer ies.
Using Google Trends
datato collate the 4,
most-asked questions
about pets that start with
the word “why”, it lets
you indic ate whether
you’re a cat or doglover
(you can select both)
before presenting you with animal likes and dislikes, patterns
of behaviour and the differen t soundsthey make. Hovering
over any bold text or circles highlights the many questions,
whil e clicking sends you to a Google results page.
Each circle is sized according to the popularity of the
question and there are nice tidbits of information alongwith
summaries of th e data. It should gi ve you a fascinating
insight into your pet’s behaviour.
bit.ly/sound
Realising that many of us have
mobile phones, tablets and
laptops knocking around, each
of which is equipped with its
own speakers, the BBC (along
with the Universities of
Salford, Surrey and
Southampton) is encourag ing
you to build your own
surround-sound system.
It has created a 13-minute
sci-fi audio drama called
The Vostok -K Incident and,
whil e you start the
programmeon a single
device, you can subsequently load the website on other
devices to allow them to act as extra speakers.
This unlockshidden audio content as well as immersive
spatial aspects of th e drama and, by indic ating where you’re
placing the extra devices in the ro om, the soundswill adapt
to give you a 360-degree experience. It’s all very easy: you’ll
see a link that lets you click ‘Join as additional device’ and
you pair devices by entering the code you see on screen.(and for non-
contacts),
you’ll be sent
an invitation
via an indi vidual chat and will have
three days torespond. Naturally, this
means you co uld still be pestered by
requests but at leastyou’ll no longer
have to actively leave grou ps you don’t
want to be part of.
Meanwhil e, keep your eyes peeledfor a new dark modein WhatsA pp
for Android, which should help
soothe your eyes by turning the app
dark grey.
http://www.whatsap p.comStop people adding you to WhatsAppgroupsGet insights into pet
behaviour
Create your own surround-sound dramaWhat’s New Online