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Communication and Technology news
Apple Should Have Cut iPad Price Further For Schools, Say Analysts
2018-03-27

Apple announced another affordable iPad and some cool new educational software today, but it might be too pricey to unseat Chromebooks in many classrooms. This morning, Apple took a shot at Google’s dominance of the education market with its announcement of a new low-priced iPad and a series of new and upgraded...

Exclusive: Facebook’s leadership sinks over 20 points in corporate reputation poll
2018-03-27

Facebook’s reputation has fallen dramatically over the past few months, as the company grapples with scandals involving unauthorized data use by Cambridge Analytica, according to new data from The Harris Poll. In an annual survey called the Reputation Quotient administered most recently in December and January,...

Where can I stream that movie? Now Google Play will show you the way
2018-03-27

Google is building a search engine for streaming video services into the Google Play Store and Google Play Movies & TV app. When you search for a movie or TV show, Google will tell you if it’s available through other services, including Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Now, DisneyNow, and ABC. (It looks like Netflix...

Report: Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress
2018-03-27

Mark Zuckerberg, meet the U.S. government. Citing anonymous sources, CNNMoney reports that the Facebook CEO is “currently planning the strategy for his testimony.” The news comes amid an ongoing data-privacy scandal and follows revelations earlier this month about how the social network handled...

TNW’s Big Spam: Today’s fungible stories
2018-03-27

Whistleblower Christopher Wylie is appearing before the digital, culture, media, and sport committee in the House of Commons today. Check out the live updates here. It’s fascinating. Top trending tech news: 😬 Facebook faces FTC privacy inquiry (BBC) 🚗 Arizona blocked Uber’s self-driving car tests (TNW)...

Apple announces $329 iPad with Pencil support to take on Chromebooks
2018-03-27

Apple today announced a new, $329 iPad at an education-focused event in Chicago. The tablet is clearly aimed at Chromebooks, looking to stave off Google’s increasing dominance for cheap laptops in classrooms. For schools, the tablet will only cost $299. The new iPad looks pretty much identical to the standard...

Apple announces Classkit, an app framework for classroom surveillance
2018-03-27

Apple today announced its new Classkit API, a framework specifically designed for educational apps, as part of its push to bring the iPad into more classrooms. The company debuted Classkit at alongside its new $329 iPad, along with Apple Pencil support for several of its apps. Apple bringing Classroom to Mac, reveals...

How Amazon Helped Cambridge Analytica Harvest Americans’ Facebook Data
2018-03-27

A personality quiz on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk received multiple complaints in 2014, but the quiz-makers continued to use the platform for at least another year. Facebook has been rocked by reports of a massive data scrape carried out by Cambridge Analytica and one of its then-contractors, a Cambridge...

Apple’s new iPad is about the Pencil and more school apps, not price
2018-03-27

I’m at Apple’s education-themed event at Lane Tech College Prep high school in Chicago. Some of the pre-event scuttlebutt involved the company releasing a cheaper new iPad to compete with Google’s Chromebooks for adoption in schools. But the new 9.7″ iPad, which Apple’s Greg Jozwiak...

Here’s Apple’s hella cute video from its education event in Chicago today
2018-03-27

Apple is holding an event in Chicago this morning to announce a new lower-priced iPad and to try to get its mojo back in the classroom amid fierce competition from Google and its ubiquitous Chromebook. The company kicked off the event with this incredibly cute video: Apple is holding an event in Chicago this morning...

Bad to worse: Now Facebook is being sued over housing discrimination
2018-03-27

The National Fair Housing Alliance, along with three other nonprofit housing advocacy organizations around the country, has filed a lawsuit against Facebook over its alleged discriminatory advertisements. The nonprofits, over the last few months, created a fake real estate company and used the Facebook ad platform to...

Facebook is hiring more Washington lobbyists as privacy scandal continues
2018-03-27

The company is looking to hire 11 policy managers for its Washington, D.C., office amid increasing scrutiny from governments in the U.S. and U.K., reports Bloomberg. Because of the privacy scandle involving data given to Cambridge Analytica, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has already been asked to appear before Congress...

Judge tosses lawsuit alleging YouTube censored conservative voices
2018-03-27

A California federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit brought by conservative radio host and YouTuber Dennis Prager, alleging the Google-owned site placed age restrictions on some of his videos and refused to run ads on them without a “compelling, significant, or legitimate reason,” reports the Hollywood...

A Slovakian court has ordered the suspension of Uber in the country
2018-03-27

The court made its decision on March 6, though it wasn’t made public until today, reports Reuters. In January, a Bratislava-based association of certified taxi drivers took Uber to court, saying the ride-hailing service was unfairly competing with licensed taxi drivers. The defendants alleged that Uber drivers...

Mark Zuckerberg is refusing to face U.K. lawmakers
2018-03-27

Facebook has announced that Zuckerberg has declined a request from the U.K.’s parliament to appear before it to answer questions about the data scandal that is engulfing the company on both sides of the Atlantic, reports Bloomberg. Instead, Zuckerberg “has personally asked one of his deputies to make...

Elon Musk’s Boring Company will now sell “Lego-like” rocks
2018-03-27

The rocks are the excavated leftovers of the Boring Company’s tunneling machines. They’ll be formed into large bricks that can be interlocked with one another. Musk announced the upcoming “I know I can sell anything to my fans” sale on Twitter, saying the rock bricks will be bored on the...

An Uber driver just suffered an embarrassing loss to a flight of stairs
2018-03-27

An Uber driver in San Francisco took a wrong turn, and got their car stuck after attempting to drive down a flight of stairs. The poor car hung out there for several minutes before a tow truck arrived to rescue it. #Uber tries to drive down stairs, gets stuck in #SanFrancisco's #Castro. No injuries reported...

Snapchat’s new Explore feature makes Maps a social experience
2018-03-27

Snapchat recently announced it would be updating Snap Map to bring you notifications of what your friends (and Snapchat itself) are up to. This is one of Snapchat’s steps towards becoming more of a social network, as opposed to a person-to-person photo-sharing app. As reported by The Verge, you will now see a feed...

Chrome OS looks to replace Android on tablets. Good riddance
2018-03-26

For all of Android’s dominance on smartphones, Google’s never been able to nail the tablet experience. Now it seems companies are getting ready to give up on it altogether for a more sensible alternative: Chrome OS. Asus today announced the  Chromebook Tab 10.  It has a 9.7-inch, 2048 x 1536 display, 32 GB of...

Digital evolution’s most beautiful (and terrifying) contribution is mutant AI
2018-03-26

Machines have become deft at exploiting rules and seeking the greatest possible rewards in surprising and creative ways. Facebook’s AI once created its own language to make arguing with itself easier and another AI found a way to cheat at Q-bert which had eluded humans for decades. Yet, most of these tales of the...

Cook County sues Facebook: “It is the largest data-mining operation in existence”
2018-03-26

The hits just keep on coming for Facebook and its media-narrative frenemy Cambridge Analytica. Earlier today, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it was investigating Facebook for its privacy practices, and now Cook County, Illinois, is suing the two companies, accusing them of misusing the data of millions of...

HBO’s “Silicon Valley” Takes A Jab At Facebook’s Russian Headache
2018-03-26

The hit cable series returned for season five, along with a subtle dig at Facebook’s ongoing drama involving Russia’s influence of the 2016 election. HBO’s Silicon Valley returned Sunday night, and with the premiere came a very subtle, and oh-so-topical, jab at Facebook.Read Full Story

What To Expect From Apple’s Big Education Event In Chicago On Tuesday
2018-03-26

The event will likely be an expression of Apple’s desire to recapture some of the hold on the market it’s lost to Google and Chromebook. It’s been a fun ride. Back in 2012, Apple became the most valuable company in the world, its revenues grew to unprecedented levels with the massive popularity of...

Facebook is taking its local news initiative global
2018-03-26

After a week of international headlines, Facebook is ready to focus on events a little closer to home. The social media network has just announced that it is taking its local news initiative international. Back in January, Facebook tweaked the site’s algorithm to give users a bigger dose of local news, perhaps...

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