Insights

Communication and Technology news
Why are old media veterans investing in this small news app?
2018-06-08

“Instagram of news” app Zig–backed by legends like Graydon Carter and Quincy Jones–is seeing steady growth, trending toward more than 400,000 users, say its founders. If you’re an investor, you’re always looking to figure out what is next. So it’s interesting to look at...

Facebook is taking on Twitch with its FB.gg video gaming portal
2018-06-08

The new portal also includes streams of esports, and gaming events. The portal can be accessed at the URL FB.gg, which takes users to a Twitch-like page that allows them to drop in on live and prerecorded streams of games. The new portal also includes streams of esports, and gaming events. Announcing the new portal,...

Elon Musk teases what SpaceX’s running track will look like
2018-06-08

It’s the running track from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The eccentric billionaire posted a GIF on Twitter showing the running track scene from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. “Running track in @SpaceX BF Spaceship will look something like this,” Musk said.Read...

The price of a Starbucks coffee is going up
2018-06-08

The company is raising the price of a regular drip coffee by 10¢ to 20¢ this week. Sad news, coffee lovers. Starbucks has announced it is raising the price of its coffee in most U.S. stores, reports CNBC. The company is raising the price of a regular drip coffee by 10¢ to 20¢ this week. That means...

Facebook’s latest blunder made private posts public for 14M users
2018-06-08

Facebook is again at the center of a privacy controversy after revealing today that it had been inadvertently sharing private posts publicly for some 14 million users. When attempting to test a feature on users’ profiles, developers introduced a bug that exposed the posts of some individuals who thought they were...

DeepMind’s AI mastered Go, now it’s playing Atari
2018-06-07

Google’s London-based sister company, DeepMind, recently developed a training method for teaching AI how to play video games. Rather than painstakingly feed it data, they just leave it alone with some YouTube videos. DeepMind’s latest training method is designed to solve a problem AI faces in exploration. AI...

If Facebook were a bar, here’s how it would keep customers drinking
2018-06-07

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah reimagines Facebook as a bar, to show the sketchy ways the social network keeps you coming back. What: A video about what Facebook would be like as an actual bar.Read Full Story

In wake of Project Maven backlash, Google unveils new AI policies
2018-06-07

Today Google unveiled a new set of principles guiding its approach to artificial intelligence, including a pledge not to build AI weapons. Today Google unveiled a new set of principles guiding its approach to artificial intelligence, including a pledge not to build AI weapons, “technologies that gather or use...

Facebook apologizes for mistakenly exposing up to 14M users’ posts
2018-06-07

“We’d like to apologize for this mistake,” said the company’s chief privacy officer amid another firestorm over user data. For a few days last month, a software bug caused 14 million Facebook users’ default setting for sharing content to be “public,” meaning that some...

Google may be hit with billions more in E.U. antitrust fines
2018-06-07

These would be new fines on top of the record-breaking fines already ordered by the European Union. Google may need to change some dollars into Euros.Read Full Story

Adobe wants to help designers build AR experiences for iOS 12
2018-06-07

“Project Aero” will connect the dots between creative tools such as Photoshop and the iPhone’s new AR features. Among the more intriguing moments at Monday’s WWDC keynote was Apple software honcho Craig Federighi’s announcement that Apple, Pixar, and Adobe have been working together...

Hitman 2 trailer shows off Agent 47’s latest murder methods
2018-06-07

WB Games revealed the trailer for the Hitman 2, the latest game in the venerable murder-for-hire franchise. Welcome back, Agents. Pre-order #Hitman2 and get access to Sniper Assassin NOW! https://t.co/lCuoRSpu5q pic.twitter.com/5HWUV8bCn5 — HITMAN (@Hitman) June 7, 2018 The trailer, narrated by… Holy crap, is...

Did Japan’s Prime Minister just shade Donald Trump on Twitter?
2018-06-07

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo may have just had a case of butter fingers, but he also may have been trying to say something else. The Twitter-diss is an artform as exquisitely subtle as calligraphy. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is either a master of the technique, or an accidental savant.Read Full Story

6 ways Sam Bee nailed it with her on-air apology
2018-06-07

In her first show since controversially insulting Ivanka Trump last week, the comedian offers a smart and shrewd, no b.s. apology. Last week, media outlets courageously decided in lockstep to give 24/7 coverage to the week’s most important story: How the actual Hurricane Maria death toll in Puerto...

Google Doodle pays homage to baby-saving doctor Virginia Apgar
2018-06-07

It would be the trailblazing doctor’s 109th birthday. Dr. Virginia Apgar may not be a household name, but the test she created has saved the lives of babies around the world and on what would have been her 109th birthday, she gets the Google Doodle she deserves.Read Full Story

Instagram might launch a long-form video hub on June 20
2018-06-07

The new hub will be similar to Facebook’s Watch or Snapchat’s Discover and offer content creators a place to show their scripted shows and music videos. The news comes a day after it was reported that Instagram will soon let users upload a video that is up to an hour long. Now TechCrunch is...

How to stream all the events from E3 2018
2018-06-07

E3 2018 is upon us once again, and we’ve got a lot of conferences to keep up with — nine major ones, in fact. I’ve already given a lengthy preview of what to expect from the conference. But if you want a simple, just-the-facts-ma’am accounting of where, when, and how to board the hype train… I’ve got you...

Alphabet Inc. shareholders reject employee-backed diversity proposals
2018-06-06

Alphabet Inc. shareholders today voted down several proposals that would tie pay to diversity goals in an effort to promote equal wages among females and people of color. “At Alphabet, diversity and inclusion activities by individual contributors have been met with a disorganized array of responses, including formal...

Why Facebook’s restrictions on data worry me
2018-06-06

Data from social media giants must be better protected, but Facebook’s recent data scandal could unintentionally hurt science. Anthony Sanford is a postdoctoral fellow in economics at the University of Washington.Read Full Story

Facebook is finally trying to cash in on its classifieds
2018-06-06

Facebook is introducing ads to Marketplace, its Craigslist competitor. The adage generally goes that if Facebook adds an all-new service or copies someone else’s, it’s only a matter of time before the company figures out how to milk it for all its advertising worth. Case in point, Marketplace–the...

Read Google employees’ shareholder plea to link diversity to compensation
2018-06-06

Frustrated Google employees want the company to incentivize diversity and inclusion efforts. Three Google employees presented a formal proposal that the tech giant tie executive compensation to diversity and inclusion outcomes at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. The statement:Read Full Story

Mother fears hackers used unsecured baby monitor to watch her breastfeed
2018-06-06

A South Carolina woman says she was the victim of peeping Tom hackers last week when her WiFi-connected baby monitor was surreptitiously used to observe her and her baby in a bedroom. The mother, Jamie Summit, wrote a Facebook post describing the incident in which her device, a FREDI Wireless Camera Baby Monitor, had...

The Sonos Beam is a $399 soundbar with Alexa (and Google, someday)
2018-06-06

At an event today, Sonos announced its newest speaker, the Sonos Beam. It’s a smart speaker and soundbar powered by Alexa and, someday soon, Google Assistant. It’ll retail for $399 and be available on July 17, but pre-orders begin today. Sonos claims most smart speakers are designed for the kitchen, but the Beam...

Google releases Android P Beta 2, including 157 new emoji
2018-06-06

Google released the first public Android P Beta during its I/O conference in May, but we’re already onto Beta 2. It comes with the most important update of all: more emoji. Google tells us there are 157 new emoji, in fact. Some highlights include red hair so gingers don’t feel left out, a hero emoji that looks a...

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