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Communication and Technology news
How to download YouTube videos to watch offline
2019-08-10

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. YouTube videos are great ways to keep yourself entertained for a short period of time — but what happens when you don’t have access to the internet? How do you save YouTube...

The GOP and Republican groups won’t advertise on Twitter over bias claims
2019-08-09

Republican groups want Mitch McConnell’s account unlocked. The GOP is reportedly taking its advertising money out of Twitter’s pocket.Read Full Story

Updated: Roku is rethinking its answer to Alexa and Siri
2019-08-09

Roku’s entertainment-focused voice assistant may never fully materialize as originally conceived. While Roku’s big bet on smart TV licensing is paying off, its more recent venture into developing a voice assistant isn’t going as well. A report by the Wall Street Journal claims that Roku is...

How to (selectively) hide Instagram Stories like a pro
2019-08-09

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. Instagram Stories are a handy way of sharing fleeting moments from your life without immortalizing them on your feed. But sometimes you might want to shield those ephemeral...

Video: Burn in hell, Twitter — a guide on deleting or deactivating your account
2019-08-09

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff.  Were you on old Twitter? Back before the brand proliferation, before the Nazis, before the President of the USA was doing his best to kick off a global confrontation? When people...

How to use Google to find podcast episodes on a specific topic
2019-08-09

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. Podcast discovery is already a hard task. Companies like Spotify are investing a lot of money in improving recommendation. But it’s almost impossible to find a particular episode...

Google Cloud is an emerging cloud giant—learn how to use it for under $40
2019-08-09

Google, whose Google Cloud platform is on a serious upswing, has dumped millions into improving its cloud offerings. That investment has paid off handsomely, with Google Cloud revenue rising from $4 billion annually to $8 billion over the past two years.

I’m one of the rare few who needs only 4 hours of sleep per night
2019-08-09

Physician Sindi van Zyl is a natural short sleeper, the rare person who doesn’t need caffeine, naps—or delusional thinking—to thrive on limited sleep. Sindi van Zyl, 43, is a physician based in Johannesburg, South Africa, who specializes in treating HIV patients. After hours, she hosts a radio...

This YouTuber redesigned the logos of Starbucks, Coffee Bean, and Folgers—and they’re brilliant
2019-08-09

Graphic designer Kelly Lauren gave each coffee brand a new look, dividing commenters with her design decisions. The Starbucks logo is so iconic that it’s hard to imagine an image that could represent the brand as effectively as the mermaid. But graphic designer and YouTuber Kelly Lauren has boldly attempted...

Blockstream takes on Bitmain with new Bitcoin mining centers (and it’s already getting flak)
2019-08-09

Blockstream, the blockchain infrastructure firm that sent a Bitcoin satellite into space, has entered the cryptocurrency mining space. The company revealed details about its Bitcoin mining data centers in Quebec, Canada and Adel, Georgia earlier this week. Currently, Blockstream is working with customers including...

Tall buildings are leaving cities in darkness. These architects have a radical fix
2019-08-09

As cities get denser, designers are getting more creative about preserving precious access to sun and air. At 4 p.m. on a bright spring day, if you’re positioned along the High Line, you’ll feel the sun’s rays beating down on you. This makes sense—the High Line is an elevated outdoor park...

Facebook is courting publishers with multi-million dollar deals to launch its news tab this fall
2019-08-09

Facebook is keen to become a major news distributor again, after being lambasted for years over its role in aiding the spread of misinformation. A report from the Wall Street Journal last night indicated that the social network is offering major publications multi-million dollar deals to bring them on board its...

These startups aim to smash Apple and Google’s smartphone duopoly
2019-08-09

Two privacy-first, open-source platforms want to give consumers what the tech giants won’t. But starting from scratch isn’t easy. For years, the devices and services we use have ever more aggressively monitored our activities and mined our data. But as consumers have grown increasingly attuned to...

Facebook might be fined billions after losing facial recognition lawsuit
2019-08-09

Facebook — inarguably the world’s largest facial database — has a lost a federal appeal in a class-action lawsuit that claimed it illegally collected and stored biometric data of millions of users without their consent. The lawsuit began in 2015 when Illinois-based Facebook users sued the company for violating...

In a big blow to Facebook, court lets class-action lawsuit over biometric data move forward
2019-08-09

Is it awkward to post this story on Facebook? For years, Facebook has been fighting a potentially devastating lawsuit on the grounds that its collection and storage of biometric data (namely, face data) on Illinois residents violates that state’s privacy laws, and now it looks as if that case can proceed as a...

Apple announces developer iPhones with root access for security research
2019-08-08

For all we’ve made fun of Apple‘s walled garden here, every once in a while, the company opens up just a bit. Case in point: today the company revealed it would be producing a limited amount of iOS ‘Security Research Devices.’ These appear to basically be iPhones with far deeper access than available to...

#GreenShirtGuy is the cure for political absurdity
2019-08-08

Social media discourse is generally unhinged. But for those who follow US politics, simply opening the Twitter or Facebook app is like jumping into a swirling vortex of rage and blame. It’s as though we’ve forgotten how to communicate with one another as mature, professional adults. Thankfully, #GreenShirtGuy came...

Students can snag 3 free months of YouTube Premium right now
2019-08-08

Google’s new back to school deal offers students a three-month trial membership of either YouTube Music Premium or YouTube Premium. (The latter includes YouTube Music Premium.) To grab the deal, students need to sign up for the discounted plan of their choosing. It’s $4.99 a month for YouTube Music Premium, or...

Nike VP: The key to selling sneakers is emotion, and enhancing it with tech
2019-08-08

Whether you’re working for a major ecommerce site or a startup, understanding the future landscape of retail has become essential for success. At Rnext in São Paulo, Brazil, we’re bringing four experts with us to share their predictions and tips. But what makes these speakers true experts in their field? And what...

Google may just have solved podcasting’s discovery problem
2019-08-08

Google is updating its search function to include playable podcast episodes within the search results around a specific topic. Looking for a specific podcast has always been a straightforward process: Plug in the title or the host’s name in an app store or search engine and you’re golden. But when...

Google Maps’ AR walking directions come to iPhones and non-Pixel devices
2019-08-08

Any Android device that supports ARCore or iPhones that support ARKit will be able to use Live View in the Google Maps app. Earlier this year Google launched a beta of an augmented reality walking directions feature called “Live View.” Live View allows users to use Google Maps and their...

Gay dating apps Grindr and Romeo can expose user locations, leaving men vunerable to hate crimes
2019-08-08

Using a technique called trilateration, researchers were able to generate maps of precise user locations for thousands of individuals at a time. Several of the most popular gay dating apps have flaws that allow their users’ exact locations to be determined, the BBC reports. Researchers from the cyber-security...

Google’s Pixel 4 is reportedly getting a 90Hz display and a ‘DSLR-like’ camera attachment
2019-08-08

Pretty much all of the Pixel 3’s hardware specs were leaked well before its launch last year. Google tried to get ahead of the story for its next phone by posting photos of the upcoming Pixel 4 in June, far ahead of its official unveiling. But alas, it couldn’t prevent the handset’s specs from leaking out....

Microsoft may be listening to your translated Skype calls, just like every other tech company
2019-08-07

Machines: 1; Privacy: 0.  You know those old THX ads that would end their dramatic crescendo with the line “The audience is listening”? (It’s on YouTube, young’uns.) Well, when you have what you think is a private conversation with Alexa, or the Google Assistant, or Siri, numerous...

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