Tip on how to stop websites on Chrome from displaying its incessant notification prompt

Chrome notifications seem like a good idea until a lot sites started to support them and now you’ll get the pop-up notification every single time you open a new site that supports it. You can block these individually but that would be a time-consuming task. To completely shut this feature off, you just need to head to this link and flip the toggle from “Ask before sending” to “Blocked.” For those on Android, you just need to head to Settings in Chrome and head to Advanced and then locate Site Settings. From there tap on Notifications and you’ll see the toggle “Ask before sending” and flip that again to “Blocked.”

Source: Android Police

Microsoft's Cortana is now available on iPad

iPad users now have another personal assistant or A.I. to consider in Microsoft's Cortana. Cortana has been available on the iPhone for some time, Microsoft has tailored Cortana's user interface to suit the iPad's larger screen, a laudable change (cough, cough, Instagram). 

Upon installation, Cortana asks for location permission, access to calendars as well as a list of interests. If you use Cortana on Windows 10, having it on your iPad will be seamless. iOS now has Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and now Cortana available to users.

The February security update for Android starts rolling out to the Essential Phone

Essential has had their fair share of issues since the company was launched last year. But we have to give credit where credit is due, they’re one of the companies that have kept up with the security updates almost instantaneously. Just a day after AOSP posted the February 2018 Android Security Bulletin, Essential rolled out a software update for the Essential Phone with the security patch included. So if you have an Essential Phone, you can expect to see this update head your way pretty soon.

Source: Android Authority

Netflix reportedly paid over US$50 million for ‘Cloverfield Paradox’

As we get more details about Cloverfield Paradox’s debut on Netflix, we realize how smart a move it was for the studio to partner with the streaming service. The film has forgone a theatrical release and instead debuted on Netflix right after the Super Bowl on February 4. The move was supposedly a “rescue plan” by the film’s producer J.J. Abrams, Paramount chairman-CEO Jim Gianopulos, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos, and head of original films Scott Stuber, among others. They worried the film would “perish” at the box office so instead of letting it languish there when it was set to hit theaters on April 20, they went for this approach. Sources claim Netflix paid over US$50 million for the film. But Paramount retains rights for China and home entertainment.

This move made it profitable for the studio as well as avoiding a perceived misfire and costly marketing campaign for the film. And Netflix, who doesn’t seem to care if reviews or ratings are good, got what they wanted: buzz. “It gets them attention and captures some viewing right off the bat,” says eMarketer’s Paul Verna. They might not get the viewership they hope for the film but as Verna says, “they still got a brand jolt.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter