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Communication and Technology news
Inside the secretive, long-term collaboration between Sonos and Ikea
2019-04-08

Ikea’s new Symfonisk line, developed with Sonos, is three years in the making. Here’s why it took so long to come to market. In 2016, a team of Swedish designers from Ikea flew to Santa Barbara. They weren’t there for the sunshine or the seaside boardwalk. They were there to learn how to build...

You can now try Microsoft’s Chromium-powered version of Edge
2019-04-08

Back in December, Microsoft surprised everyone – those who hadn’t been following the rumors, anyway – by announcing it was shifting Edge to Google’s ubiquitous Chromium platform. Chromium promises better and faster support for constantly evolving web standards. You can now give this shinier version of Edge a...

Snapchat’s reinventing itself to fight Instagram
2019-04-08

Last week, Snapchat held its first partner summit, where it described the company’s new approach to standing out from competitors like Instagram. Key announcements included new AR features for lenses, new Snap original content, a multiplayer gaming platform, and a new developer kit to integrate Snapchat stories in...

Average life of a dead Google product is just four years
2019-04-08

Google shut down Google+ and Inbox last week, and and we’re still in mourning (for the latter). Recently, we’ve seen sites like Killed By Google and Google Cemetary crop up to show us the Mountain View company’s notorious habit of killing off products. Now, a new feature in the Google Cemetery site shows us...

TNW2019 Daily: Over 300 speakers confirmed!
2019-04-08

Fun fact: 31 days is the gestation period of a baby chipmunk, and it’s also the amount of days left until TNW Conference! Coincidence? Probably. 300 speakers and counting 300 is the name of a movie, and it’s also the amount of speakers we have confirmed so far for TNW Conference! That’s definitely a coincidence,...

Europe’s first underwater restaurant has gorgeous, otherworldly tableware
2019-04-08

When you eat at Under, Norway’s new sub-sea fine-dining restaurant, your food will be served on plates and in bowls that were created with sand and minerals from the nearby ocean. At first sight, the new Norwegian restaurant Under seems to have sourced its tableware from a nearby shipwreck: It...

Pinterest surprises by setting its IPO price range at $15 to $17 per share
2019-04-08

By pricing its IPO moderately, shares in Pinterest could pop the first day they’re traded, which would provide good optics for the company. The image discovery social media site has announced that shares will cost between $15 to $17 in its initial public offering. That’s according to a filing the company...

This online community has gamified the funding process for innovative startups
2019-04-08

Founded by a Y Combinator alum, Pioneer has already announced 39 winners from its first three challenges. Daniel Gross was accepted into Y Combinator’s accelerator program at just 18 and sold an AI-powered search engine to Apple for a reported $35 million at 22. Now 27, the tech entrepreneur is helping other...

More than 60% of Americans don’t trust Facebook with their personal information
2019-04-08

And a majority of Americans think social media divides instead of unites people. A national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll sought to examine American’s thoughts about many aspects of technology, from government regulation of tech firms to the use of ride sharers to people’s feelings on social media....

South Korean police use AI to bust $19M Bitcoin-fuelled pyramid scam
2019-04-08

South Korean police have caught the masterminds of a Bitcoin-fuelled Ponzi scheme responsible for generating almost $19 million in revenue. The scam, called “M-Coin,” is said to have targeted those with poor understanding of the technology – mostly elderly people, retirees, and housewives – with promises of...

Google accidentally revealed its mid-range Pixel 3a phone is on the way
2019-04-08

Google just can’t stop info about its Pixel phones from leaking, can it? It happened several times last year ahead of the Pixel 3’s launch, and now, the latest news about the handset’s successor comes from, um, Google itself. 9to5Google noticed that the company accidentally listed its upcoming mid-range phone,...

We can’t fix the data scientist talent shortage with $40 online courses
2019-04-07

The demand for data scientists is at an all time high. In fact, a recent LinkedIn study found that US-based business need more than 150,000 data scientist jobs filled. And they need them right now. The reason for this demand lies in the massive amounts of data that businesses in every industry are now able to collect...

26 incredibly useful things you didn’t know Google Calendar could do
2019-04-07

Upgrade your agenda with this cornucopia of advanced options, shortcuts, and features for Google Calendar. If there’s one digital tool I rely on as much as Gmail, it’s Google Calendar.Read Full Story

Why Facebook will have a hard time becoming the next WeChat
2019-04-06

Mark Zuckerberg recently posted an article that got a great deal of attention entitled “A Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking.” He said the platform would focus on simple, private interactions and blending functions for Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. He also wanted to “build more ways for...

Scientists are beefing over which one of our senses is most important
2019-04-06

If there is one thing Twitter has taught us, it’s that the world loves a question that sounds stupid, but actually has a profound and interesting answer. For instance, what would happen if the world suddenly turned into blueberries, as answered by physics recently. Or what color is that dress? In a similar way,...

The rapid rise and slow fall of the Microsoft web browser
2019-04-06

Almost 25 years after it fended off Netscape, Microsoft is embracing technology from Chrome rather than fighting it—a move that’s both smart and shocking. The Internet recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web, but the browser that really jump-started the consumer rise of the global...

These tiny homes for ladybugs and spiders are designed to help them thrive
2019-04-05

Instead of killing household bugs, architect Angelo Renna wants to help them survive. When the architect Angelo Renna read that there are, on average, 100 different species of spiders, centipedes, and insects living in any home, he didn’t start to itch. Instead, he decided to design houses for...

3 takeaways from Mark Zuckerberg’s “Good Morning America” interview today
2019-04-04

It’s the first time the Facebook CEO has given a network TV interview since the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Less than a day after news broke that Facebook had yet another data scandal on its hands, Mark Zuckerberg sat down with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s Good Morning America to talk about everything...

Google requiring all temp and contract workers to get health and parental leave benefits
2019-04-03

Google will require all its vendors to offer the talent they provide to the search giant a guaranteed minimum wage, health care, and tuition reimbursement. Google will require that the outside companies employing its temporary and contract workers give them comprehensive health care, a minimum wage of $15 per hour, 12...

Algae tiles turn walls into living water filtration systems
2019-04-03

A team of designers and engineers from University College London are trying to bring bioremediation to wall tiles. Up to 80% of India’s surface water is polluted, according to a 2015 report. But while much of the pollution comes from untreated sewage, industrial waste water is a major contributor, with textile...

WhatsApp will soon let you block others from adding you to groups
2019-04-03

You’ll no longer need to look like a jerk by leaving mundane WhatsApp groups you never wanted to be a part of in the first place. In a very much welcomed move, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has announced that it will roll out a feature in the coming weeks that gives users much more control over group chats in the...

Google kills off Google+ and Inbox in ritual slaughter
2019-04-03

If Google were a TV show, it’d undoubtedly be Game of Thrones. Like Game of Thrones, it’ll introduce a prominent new character (app) that has the potential to change everything, only to see it killed off in the next season. The most recent victims: Inbox and Google+, two apps that were once seen as game-changers...

The dark side of green development–and what cities should do instead
2019-04-02

Toward a new vision of sustainable development: “just green enough.” We’ve written about what we call the “parks, cafes, and a riverwalk” model of sustainability, which focuses on providing new green spaces, mainly for high-income people. This vision of shiny residential towers and...

Subway’s new tuna sandwich is made out of a secret ingredient: Facebook
2019-04-02

How a new partnership with Tastemade produced a hit sandwich on its first try. The Green Goddess Tuna Melt. It’s the newest sandwich on sale at Subway now. And while it might not sound delicious to you–it certainly doesn’t to me–it’s tested with consumers as one of the most...

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