How to Use IFTTT to Automate Your Life, Hour By Hour

All About Microsoft Edge in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update

In our final piece about the April 2018 Update for Windows 10, we are going to talk about the improvements in Microsoft Edge.  As a reminder, we’ve looked at the following elements already: Accessibility, Cortana,  Continue on PC, Storage Sense, Focus Assist, the Microsoft Store and the security tools.

Microsoft’s new browser was released as part of the initial Windows 10 release in July 2015. Since then it has received new capabilities when new feature updates are released for Windows 10.

That schedule is also its Achilles heel. Unlike competitors such as Chrome and Firefox, which gets updates and new features at least once per month, Microsoft Edge lags behind due to this semi-annual update schedule. Edge does get security updates each month as part of the normal cumulative update process for Windows 10, but these patches do not introduce new enhancements.

Note: There are some indications that work is underway to separate Edge’s update schedule from the release of Windows 10 feature updates twice a year. If this happens then Edge will be able to iterate new features much quicker and that could also help it gain market share.

When a feature update is released for Windows 10, Edge has had a long list of improvements and new capabilities as part of that update. The most recent feature update for Windows 10 is no exception, and the six months’ worth of development shows in the summary we are looking at today.

Let’s take a look at what has been added.

Browsing Improvements

There are a number of small tweaks that make the experience of loading and engaging with web pages more pleasant.

If you have multiple tabs open and one of them begins blaring an auto-play video and its associated sound just look at the tabs in Edge and find the one making all the racket – it will have a speaker icon visible. Just click the speaker icon to mute that tab immediately – no need to open the tab and find the pause/mute button on the video playback.

You can now save the data that you use when filling out various forms on the web such as name, address, phone and credit card. This is opt-in so the first time you see one of these forms you will be asked for permission to save the data for future auto-filling in forms.

The Reading View in Edge has seen a rework that introduces a more consistent experience whether reading documents, EPUB, PDF files or web pages in Reading View. New Grammar Tools are available in Reading View to help with comprehension by marking parts of speech for the reader. Full-screen mode is now available for all of these documents to provide fewer distractions when you are reading.

Other areas of improvement include clutter free printing, better support for touchpad gestures, offline websites and push notifications (service workers) and new features for extensions.

Performance and Power

Over the last couple of years, we have seen the browser power consumption tests that pit Edge against Chrome and Firefox. No matter which browser you choose, battery use by our browsers can seriously impact our ability to work remotely away from power sources, so improvements in this area are very important.

According to Microsoft telemetry, Windows users are in their web browser more than any other program on their devices. In Windows 10, Edge is also part of the underlying mesh of software that makes apps and the Windows UI itself work.

In the April 2018 Update, several enhancements were made to make Edge not only work faster but also save energy.

When typing in Microsoft Edge in the April 2018 Update, users will notice it is very responsive to input even if other programs are running in the background. New thread management processes prioritize Edge when it has user focus. This same approach has been applied to loading web pages so that a delay in rendering part of the content does not impact a user’s ability to begin interacting with the page.

Most of us either use or at least view GIFs in our web browser. Well, it turns out that those objects can eat up a lot of resources so Edge in the April 2018 Update renders them more efficiently to conserve battery power. Overall loading of images in Edge has improved so that pages render quicker by automatically allocating space on the page for where those images will appear. This allows text and other content to appear almost immediately and the images can load as you begin scrolling.

Edge now uses priority processing to suspend background processes in the browser by caching the content and ceasing any CPU resources for that page while it is not in focus. Once the user opens that tab back up, resources are turned back on, so the user can continue their activity. Background tabs also have their framerate reduced to save additional power but regain their full 60 FPS when the tab is re-opened.

Developer Features

As mentioned, the Edge rendering engine, known as EdgeHTML 17 in this update, is used in apps and various parts of the Windows 10 shell/user interface. There was work done on typography, variable fonts, an extensions notification API, customizable multi-touch scrolling/gestures and accessibility to mention a few.

One of the biggest areas of investment with EdgeHTML 17 was the addition of support for Progressive Web Applications (PWAs). New functionality such as Service Workers, Fetch networking plus Push and cache APIs allow developers to build applications that can be easily updated with server-side code changes. The new APIs enable the developer to hook into the operating system and perform such activities as notifications in the Action Center, offline browsing when no connectivity is available and integration with system tools such as the Share Dialog.

Many mistakenly called these PWA apps in the Microsoft Store simple web wrappers but they go well beyond what is possible with that framework.

One of the best current examples of the power of PWAs on Windows 10 is the official Twitter app. The native Twitter app that was available in the Microsoft Store over the last few years was out of date and missing multiple key features prior to the April 2018 Update’s release. However, just prior to the release of this feature update, Windows Insiders began testing a preview version of the official Windows 10 Twitter app that was based on the services own PWA at mobile.twitter.com.

Since the release of the official Windows 10 Twitter app at the end of April, there have been more features added to the app then it has ever had in its prior existence as a native app. All of those features have been delivered through server-side updates rather than app updates in the Microsoft Store. This is the power of PWAs because now all of Twitter apps, including those on iOS and Android, get the same feature set on the same schedule. No more wondering when or if the Windows app will get the updated capabilities nor not.

Microsoft is scanning the web for PWAs from companies that are manifested as apps and will automatically add them to the Microsoft Store. Companies and developers will have the opportunity to take ownership of that app in the Store to continue its development and enhance its capabilities within Windows 10.

Now that there’s a smoother path to making apps and updates available to all sorts of operating system partisans, this will make a big difference for Windows 10 users.

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As we bring our series of articles about the April 2018 Update for Windows 10 to a close, the next feature update is right around the corner. Welcome to reality of Windows as a Service — once you get to know the new OS, along comes another update to take its place!

How to Use IFTTT to Automate Your Life, Hour By Hour

Automation is the new name of the game in personal organization, but one of the most powerful automation tools, If This Then That (IFTTT) has actually been around for years — and can automate everything from saving your Instagram photos to Dropbox to making sure your lights are already on when you walk through your front door.

IFTTT works by identifying an action with one cloud-based service or smart device, then assigning a follow-up action to it. For example, “If you post to Twitter, then save each individual tweet to OneNote.” The interface is easy to use — it’s a website with bright icons for each device or service that you can connect via your personal IFTTT account.

From the lighthearted to the lifesaving, IFTTT recipes can (nearly) do it all.

IFTTT could always do a ton of useful things, like push emails you star in Gmail to Evernote or send you a daily weather report. But as smart assistants get more powerful, so does IFTTT. The spread of the Internet of Things and the quickly increasing ubiquity of digital and voice-activated assistants means a whole new level of personal automation is available. These deceptively simple “recipes” — many of which can be turned on with just a click — make potentially time-consuming or easily forgotten tasks invisible and automatic.

Here are some of the ways you can use this web service to automate your life, from the time you wake up — set an alarm, automatically start brewing that coffee — to when you go to bed — dim the lights in the evening, turn down the thermostat overnight.

Get Ready for Work

6:00 a.m. — Start your coffee pot: One of the most useful things about Fitbits is that they can track your sleep, which can give you valuable information about what kind of rest you’re really getting. But even more importantly, that sleep tracking also means that you can use IFTTT to make your smart coffee pot begin brewing when your Fitbit registers that you’re awake.

6:30 a.m. — Get the forecast: Not sure how to dress for the day? Set up IFTTT to send you the daily weather forecast, via Weather Underground, at 7 a.m. and you’ll never be caught without an umbrella again.

Using Weather Underground, IFTTT can be set up to send you the forecast every morning. There are also recipes that will let you know if it’s going to rain.

6:45 a.m. — Find your phone: Not sure where your phone ended up? Set up this IFTTT recipe to phone it with a simple command to your Google Assistant, and you’ll be able to find it more quickly. (Just make sure the ringer’s on.)

7:00 a.m. — Turn on your home alarm: Using IFTTT to configure your Blink home alarm system to your location means your alarm will turn on automatically when you leave the house — one less thing to remember as you’re running out the door.

8:00 a.m. — Save that run data: Using the Strava app while you run already opens up the ability to track important data, like distance and speed, over time. But if you use IFTTT to automatically send your stats to a spreadsheet after you finish each run, you can really get nerdy with it.

8:30 a.m. — Read on your commute: Like to catch up on your reading during your transit commute? Set up this recipe, which sends Longreads articles to Pocket, where you can read them offline at your leisure.

At the Office

9:00 a.m. — Check in with the news: This IFTTT recipe gives you a quick way to get a scan of the day’s big headlines, via an email digest of NPR stories sent to you each morning.

9:30 a.m. — Stay on top of the to-do list: Activate this recipe, and every time you add a new item to Alexa’s to-do list, an event for the same time will be added to your Google Calendar.

10:00 a.m. — Avoid interruptions: Make sure you don’t have to deal with a buzzing phone during an important meeting by setting up a recipe that automatically mutes it when you’ve got an event scheduled on your Office 365 calendar.

11:00 a.m. — Never miss a VIP email: Waiting for an important email, or always want to know when the boss pings you? This IFTTT recipe ensures you’ll get a notification for emails from specific people as soon as they hit the inbox.

11:30 a.m. — Catch up on project tasks: If your workplace tracks projects with Asana, these reminders will be invaluable. Set up this IFTTT recipe to ensure you don’t forget tasks that are assigned to you in Asana.

Does your workplace use Asana? Then you’ll love the IFTTT recipe that reminds you of your assigned tasks.

12:00 p.m. — Vacuum: What’s that? You’re at work? Yeah, you are! But set up this recipe and with one touch on your smartphone or watch, you can turn on your Roomba and come home to clean floors in a few hours.

1:00 p.m. — Add a Trello board: Trello can be a great timesaver, for your work and personal lives — even more so if you enable this recipe to let you easily add cards to a Trello board when you’re on the go.

2:00 p.m. — Send that daily reminder to your team: Need to remind your team of something at regular intervals, like a team meeting or a necessary check-in? This IFTTT recipe will post it to a Slack channel.

3:00 p.m. — Focus with a playlist: Like to listen to music while you work? Never miss the Discover Weekly tracks on Spotify with this IFTTT recipe. Every Monday it will add that week’s 30 Discover Weekly tracks to a playlist, so you can always go back and catch up.

4:00 p.m. — Organize your expense info: You can use IFTTT for things you might not expect — for example, to keep track of expenses for work. “Simply take pictures of all your receipts on an IFTTT camera widget and the rest is taken care of,” said Nate Masterson and I am the HR manager for Maple Holistics. “Your IFTTT can be set up to instantly transfer these photos to a Google Drive folder where a separate applet identifies receipt information.”

4:30 p.m. — Log your work hours: Do you track your hours at work, out of necessity or for personal information? This recipe makes that easy by creating a widget for your phone’s home screen that allows you to easily log your hours in a spreadsheet.

Get Things Done at Home

5:00 p.m. — Turn on the lights: If you use Philips Hue smart bulbs, you can program IFTTT to turn them on just before you get home. When you’re within a certain distance of your house, the lights will go on. No more fumbling with the app, no more walking into a dark house.

5:15 p.m. — Eat a warm meal: Slow cookers are an underappreciated life hack, but you don’t want to risk overcooking — or leaving that hot meal to get germy if the machine turns off altogether. Use this IFTTT to ensure your WeMo Slow Cooker keeps things warm — but not too hot — once the cooking timer ends, even if you’re running a little late.

5:30 p.m. — Take care of the laundry: Are you trying to power through some of the laundry pile before you get to bed? Activating an IFTTT recipe that’s connected to your Samsung smart washer will send you a notification when the wash load is done. No more going to bed and forgetting damp clothing in the washer overnight.

7:00 p.m. — Relax after dinner: IFTTT recipes can make it simple to unwind in front of the television. “My favorite use of IFTTT allows me to talk to my Google Home to activate scenes on my Logitech Harmony hub. Those scenes control all of my entertainment center devices,” said Nathan Kinkead, tech blogger at KinkeadTech.com [https://kinkeadtech.com/hey-google-turn-on-the-xbox-google-home-ifttt-harmony-integration/]. “So, I can say things like ‘Hey Google, turn On the Xbox’ and the Google Assistant responds by saying ‘Okay, turning on the Xbox’ as my TV, AV receiver, and Xbox One all turn on at the same time.”

9:30 p.m. — Turn down the thermostat: IFTTT can sync up your Alexa and your Nest thermostat, meaning you can use your voice to turn down the temperature before you head upstairs to bed. (Make sure the hot sleepers in your house don’t figure this one out.)

10:00 p.m. — Lock the door: Remember those Hue lights? If you’ve got those and a Garagelo garage door platform, . Just check to make sure you’ve flipped any manual locks — and double check this one a few times after you set it up to make sure it’s working properly — and you’re snug as a bug in a rug.

3:00 a.m. — Get a better night of sleep tomorrow: Remember that Fitbit sleep tracking? Sometimes it’s frustrating — like when it records that you actually slept terribly. Enable this IFTTT recipe and if your Fitbit is tracking an awful night of sleep, you’ll get a Google Calendar reminder to hit the hay earlier the next day.