A lot of us are spending more time than ever on video conference calls these days… and one developer has found a way to alleviate the boredom. The B-REEL Meeting Intruders Chrome extension turns a Google Meet session into a game of Space Invaders, where you can zap each chat window… and if you do it discretely, nobody will know that you’re not just tapping the keyboard to take notes.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has released an update for Microsoft Teams that, among other things, lets up to 20,000 people participate in a single meeting. I hope someone makes a Chrome extension for that soon.
And hardware & software hackers have found some interesting new uses for the PinePhone Linux smartphone and Raspberry Pi’s inexpensive computers.
Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.
- B-REEL Meeting Intruders [Chrome Web Store]
This Chrome extension turns Google Meet video conferencing calls into a game of space invaders (nobody has to know that you’re shooting tat their video windows). - New features in Microsoft Teams [Microsoft]
Microsoft Teams now supports meetings with up to 20,000 participants. For really, really big teams, I guess (or keynotes, customer events, etc). Only 1,000 people can participate in “interactive” meetings, but you once you go past that limit, Teams will switch to view-only mode so you can broadcast to large audiences. - Analogue Pocket Preorders Sell Out Immediately [Kotaku]
The Analogue Pocket handheld game console went up for pre-order for $200 today and it’s not expected to ship until May, 2021. But pre-orders still sold out in minutes, leaving many would-be customers disappointed. - Search Open Tabs – Coming to Google Chrome [Chrome Story]
Search open tabs feature coming to Google Chrome for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS. Hitting Ctrl+Shift+E to search within all open tabs (or Cmd+Shift+E on a Mac). - Stadia now works w/ controllers on Android TV as it inches towards official support [9to5Google]
Google Stadia game streaming service gains improved support for Android TV — now you can use game controllers for navigating menus (and not just for game play). - Making a backcover extension for the PinePhone [BrixIT Blog]
The PinePhone Linux smartphone has pogo pins for optional add-ons… and one hardware hacker decided to use them to add a custom back cover with a thermal camera. - Raspberry Pi won’t let your watched pot boil [Raspberry Pi Blog]
Turns out that a watched pot does boil if you look at it long enough… but not if you use a Raspberry Pi and gaze tracking software to shut off the heat any time you look at it.
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My employer likes to use Cisco Webex for video meetings. Webex is supported on Windows Mac, ChromeOS, Android, iOS and even Kindle Fire tablets. BUT, Cisco does NOT support Webex for any version of Linux.