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Communication and Technology news
Facial recognition company CEO explains why government surveillance is bad for privacy
2018-05-23

It’s politics as usual in the US this week. The president is on Twitter complaining about the Federal government spying on him while Jeff Bezos is riding the Amazon cash-cow all the way to Surveillance-ville, Florida. Caught in the middle is the very idea of privacy, something Brian Brackeen, CEO and founder of...

Vimeo’s CEO Anjali Sud will take your questions now please
2018-05-23

How can an ad-free online video platform like Vimeo stand up against major advertising platforms like YouTube? How can creative platforms like Vimeo strike a balance between nurturing communities, freedom of speech, and creating a safe and inclusive space online? What’s your favorite video on Vimeo? Ask all this...

European politician gets ratioed after tweeting a selfie with Zuck
2018-05-23

Mark Zuckerberg’s hearing in front of EU parliamentary members was somewhat disappointing. Many had hoped for some straight answers from Facebook’s CEO. However, due to the odd format of the hearing, Zuckerberg was able to dodge most questions and got away with reiterating Facebook’s recent talking points....

Could this “UBI for social enterprise” help fund business for good?
2018-05-23

It may be a stretch to call it a universal basic income, but the Boulder-based social enterprise accelerator COMMON wants to give all its member companies a flat monthly stipend from a crowdsourced fund? In 2011, a group of five entrepreneurs and designers led by advertising veteran Alex Bogusky got together in...

This consumer survey shows trouble ahead for Facebook
2018-05-23

The more people know about how social networks monetize them, the less comfortable they are with the whole idea—a fact Facebook can no longer afford to ignore. If the image of Mark Zuckerberg bandaged and bloody on the cover of Wired, like some sort of Rocky cosplay artist, wasn’t clear enough,...

“The Onion” expertly Twitter-trolled Michael Cohen for a full day
2018-05-23

Trump’s lawyer once sent a cease and desist letter to “The Onion,” which the premier satirical news site decided to use in a protracted comedy assault. Whenever the president dismisses negative, accurate media coverage as “fake news,” he comes across as a troll. Naturally, the only...

Facebook is digging deeper into the gig economy
2018-05-23

As the social network has tried to distance itself from content curation, it appears to be getting more into commerce. Facebook wants to get into the home improvement business with its latest launch. The company is expanding Marketplace, its Craigslist-like competitor, to include services like Handy, Home Advisor, and...

Wanna ditch your smartphone addiction? Put a patch on it
2018-05-23

If you’re like the average smartphone owner, you touch your phone approximately 2,617 times a day. And, like most smartphone owners, you’re probably not picking it up for something super important every time — probably not even half the time. This can be annoying. Some would even go as far as to call this...

PassProtect warns Chrome users when their username or passwords get pwned
2018-05-23

Data breaches happen all the time. When they do, it’s invariably bad, with countless people ensnared. The MySpace breach, for example, impacted nearly 360 million. LinkedIn impacted 165 million more. One tool helping to mitigate the aftermath is Okta’s new Chrome plugin, PassProtect. As you type your username and...

Facebook’s AI can translate music from one style into another
2018-05-23

The result is nothing short of jaw-droppingly impressive. Facebook’s AI Research (FAIR) division has created the neural network capable of hearing, for example, a jazz band play a song, and then is able to output that exact song in a completely different style of music, say, as if played by a punk rock band,...

Which brands inspire consumers the most with their missions
2018-05-23

An annual survey asks people about how inspired they are by the missions of big companies (Amazon, Facebook), nonprofits (the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders), and even social movements like the Women’s March. What can we learn from their answers? In the new ranking of American brands, St. Jude’s...

We need an ‘invisibility switch’ to hide from dark interactions
2018-05-23

Woman A:  “Hello. How can I help you?”Woman B: “Hi. I’m calling to book a woman’s haircut for a client. I’m looking for something on May 3.”Woman A: “Sure. Give me one second — sure. What time are you looking for around?”Woman B: “At 12 p.m.” Most of you will recognize this phone conversation....

OnePlus 6 Review: Small design downgrade, big camera upgrade
2018-05-23

OnePlus has always tried to deliver flagship features and performance at mid-range prices, but it always seems to fall just a little bit shy of the top. Despite regularly sporting class-leading performance, some aspects lacked that last bit of polish that makes a Google Pixel or Samsung so popular. (You know, besides...

Instagram now lets you mute annoying people without unfollowing them
2018-05-23

Remember how you started following your least favorite cousin on Instagram at your last family reunion, because they asked you to do so right then and there? There’s now a way to scrub your feed clean of their inane posts, without ever letting them find out. Instagram is rolling out a new Mute feature that prevents...

Review: Witti Design’s Notti and Dotti are a couple of fun little lights
2018-05-23

Witti Design’s line of smart home accessories contains several products which can only be described as delightfully odd. As a big fan of interesting design decisions in technology products, I simply had to review a couple of the company’s strangest offerings: the Notti and Dotti. First, the Notti Pictured in the...

Tech-Pentagon tension probably isn’t going away anytime soon
2018-05-22

Workers have called on Google and other big tech companies to refuse Pentagon deals to harness the power of AI. Google is still working with the U.S. Defense Department on an initiative known as Project Maven, training computers to recognize objects in images, such as photographs taken by drones, Gizmodo reports....

Instagram’s mute button is fine. Here’s what would be better
2018-05-22

I’d kill for something less binary. Following the lead of Twitter and Facebook, Instagram is rolling out a mute button. It lets you remove other users from your feed without unfollowing them, and it’s a good way to curate what you see without hurting anyone’s feelings.Read Full Story

Facebook made an AI that convincingly turns one style of music into another
2018-05-22

Facebook AI Research (FAIR) scientists yesterday unveiled a neural network capable of translating music from one style, genre, and set of instruments to another. Soon, you won’t have to blow your own horn; you can just whistle to an AI and it’ll turn your song into the symphony or dance hit of your dreams. The AI...

Boycotting schools for better gun laws? A great idea that won’t work
2018-05-22

Like most parents, I wish there was a quick and dramatic large-scale fix for school violence. But I don’t know that this is it. The former education secretary for the Obama administration, Arne Duncan, says it’s time for parents to boycott schools until we have stricter gun laws. “What...

Post Cambridge Analytica, the EU needs to end policy-makers’ preferential treatment of Facebook
2018-05-22

Following the Cambridge Analytica affair and the massive leak of 87 million people’s data revealed earlier this year, Facebook is facing unprecedented scrutiny of its business model and especially its use of users’ personal data. These scandals provide political momentum for new initiatives to better regulate...

How to watch Mark Zuckerberg testify before the European Parliament
2018-05-22

European lawmakers want answers about Facebook’s handling of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Mark Zuckerberg is testifying before the European Parliament on Tuesday, and you can see it all online. The meeting between the Facebook CEO and the parliamentarians who want answers...

8 things Mark Zuckerberg will tell the European Parliament today
2018-05-22

The Facebook CEO is not only coming to the European Parliament to discuss the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. He’ll also remind the EU just how much good the company is doing inside its borders, reports Bloomberg. So what is on Zuckerberg’s agenda? Here’s what he plans to discuss:...

People fleeing the Bay Area are causing a U-Haul crisis
2018-05-22

The truck rental company is having trouble getting their vans back because so many people are renting them for a one-way trip out of town. So many people are picking up sticks and moving out of the Bay Area due to the crushing costs of living there, it’s causing problems for U-Haul, reports SFGate. The truck...

The most popular mobile payments app is... Starbucks?
2018-05-22

The coffee chain’s app will be used by 23.4 million people ages 14 and over to make a payment this year, putting it in first place. I bet you thought we were going to say Apple Pay or Google Pay. But those services are not processing as many mobile payments per year as the Starbucks app is. That’s...

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