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Communication and Technology news
Instagram now lets you easily share your posts across multiple accounts
2019-01-10

TechCrunch reports that Instagram has introduced a handy new feature in its iOS app that lets you share the same post from multiple accounts that you run. That should make it easy for content creators looking to promote their work on their personal and brand accounts, as well as businesses with multiple profiles for...

U.S. cell carriers are probably still selling your real-time phone location data
2019-01-09

An investigative report shows that the personal data economy is alive and kicking. Facebook and Google grab headlines for their roles in the massively profitable “personal data economy.” You know, the business of buying and selling your personal browsing habits to advertisers, pollsters, and other...

Square launches SDK to help mobile developers take in-app payments
2019-01-09

Square, the payments app founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, is making it easier for app developers to charge customers within their mobile experiences. Today, the company launched its new Square In-App Payments Software Development Kit (SDK), which is available for iOS, Android, and Google’s Flutter...

5 rules to help build a successful business with purpose
2019-01-09

Jean Case’s new book looks at how successful entrepreneurs have made their breakthroughs. Astro Teller, the head of X, Google’s moonshot factory, learned to openly encourage failure because it provides concrete direction when building things like self-driving cars. Neil Blumenthal, the cofounder and...

Apple hires prominent Facebook privacy critic whose privacy warnings were ignored
2019-01-09

Sandy Parakilas warned Facebook execs that the company’s data-sharing policies could have potentially damaging consequences–but his warnings were downplayed. The iPhone maker has hired Sandy Parakilas, a former Facebook employee who testified before the United Kingdom’s Parliament as to how...

Mark Zuckerberg resolves to hold public talks on the future of tech this year
2019-01-09

Every year since 2009, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has publicly announced his New Year resolutions; for 2019, he intends to “host a series of public discussions about the future of technology in society — the opportunities, the challenges, the hopes, and the anxieties.” Zuckerberg noted in his Facebook post...

No, Samsung isn’t pre-installing Facebook on your phone
2019-01-09

Early this morning, Bloomberg reported that Samsung doesn’t let users uninstall the Facebook app from some of its phones. The story states that Facebook app comes pre-installed in select Samsung devices and users can only disable it, but can’t delete it from their phones. However, that’s not the whole picture....

Google Assistant’s new features make it more useful for travelers
2019-01-09

In its CES announcements, Google revealed a bunch of useful updates to Google Assistant including navigation, travel, and translation features. Here are the most notable changes that’ll help you in your daily interaction with Google Assistant. Use Assistant with maps Now, Google Maps users on iOS and Android will be...

In Instagram’s darkest corner, all it takes is a hashtag to uncover images of child sexual abuse
2019-01-09

For pedophiles, a single hashtag opened the door to one of Instagram’s seediest corners, one where images of sexually exploited children were openly traded as if they were collectibles. For anyone willing to engage, finding images of child sexual abuse was about as simple searching for a laptop on Craigslist. The...

Twitter will begin testing ‘ice breakers’ to spark healthy conversation
2019-01-09

Last year, Twitter touted a handful of features meant to spur conversation on the platform. Or, “increase the health of public conversation,” as CEO Jack Dorsey told Congress last year. At CES today, company representatives confirmed to Engadget that the features would roll out to certain users in the coming weeks...

Lenovo crammed Google Assistant smarts into this adorable alarm clock
2019-01-09

Last year, we saw a bunch of brands launch smart speakers with touchscreens, including a revamped Echo Show from Amazon and several devices powered by Google Assistant. Lenovo was one of the first out of the gate in 2018, and it brought a fun new smart display to show off at CES – the Smart Clock. It’s a compact...

Google twists Samourai Wallet’s arm to disable privacy features
2019-01-08

Samourai Wallet, a Bitcoin wallet provider, is temporarily disabling some of its privacy-related features following a request from Google. The company, founded in 2015 by privacy activists, said in a blog post that it would be disabling three key features (Stealth Mode, Remote SMS and SIM Switch Defense) “due to...

Amazon is using your data to send you free samples
2019-01-08

In an attempt to build up its ad business, Amazon is reportedly letting brands send customers samples of their products. It’s a known and perhaps depressing fact that Amazon knows a lot about us. The company’s many tentacles have become a ubiquitous part of our lives. And the Jeff Bezos-founded company...

T-Mobile and Verizon roast AT&T over its misleading “5G” network
2019-01-08

Nope, your old Android phone isn’t suddenly a 5G phone on AT&T’s network. Yesterday AT&T rolled out a software update to its Android phones that changed the 4G logo to a 5G logo, claiming its current service is now “5G.” However, those phones on AT&T’s network...

Buy the purse Dieter Rams secretly designed for his wife
2019-01-08

Once one-of-a-kind, the fabled 931 bag can now be yours… for a price. In 1963, the industrial design legend Dieter Rams was just beginning his three-decade run as Braun’s chief designer. He wanted to surprise his wife Ingeborg with a gift. So in what certainly sounds like a slight abuse of power, he...

We need an ‘AI sidekick’ to fight malicious AI
2019-01-08

“Now that we realize our brains can be hacked, we need an antivirus for the brain.” Those were the words of Yuval Noah Harari, famous historian and outspoken critic of Silicon Valley. The sentence, which was part of a recent interview by Wired’s Nick Thompson with Harari and former Google design ethicist...

The biggest show in tech is ignoring the biggest problem in tech
2019-01-07

At CES, hardware companies are inviting us to bury our heads in the sand–deep. This year, Amazon accidentally shared our private conversations with random people. Facebook purposely gave away our data–including our messenger logs–to other corporations. Google had its social network...

How pizza could save the world
2019-01-07

If you want to see how platforms can save humanity, don’t look at Facebook. Look at pizza. On a recent Hawaiian vacation, Don stayed at a truly luxurious resort. It wasn’t his style. He couldn’t help but notice the contrast with the poorer sections of the island where locals lived and tourists...

The world retweet record has been broken
2019-01-07

A Japanese billionaire is giving away 100 million yen to 100 lucky Twitter users who retweet him. The Japanese billionaire and entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, who tweets under the handle @YouSuck2020, has broken the record for the most retweeted tweet. On January 5th, Maezawa tweeted to his followers that he’ll...

Wizard poop is tearing the internet apart
2019-01-04

You will never believe how J.K. Rowling believes wizards dispose of their droppings. Or maybe you will? Both sides are represented–and confused–on Friday Afternoon Twitter. The sheer breadth of world literature is mind-boggling. Centuries of sprawling stories, both acclaimed and overlooked. You could...

Inside the upcoming fight over a new federal privacy law
2019-01-04

Many in the tech community have resigned themselves to new federal privacy regulation, but there’s no guarantee Congress can get it done during the Trump era. After all the privacy scandals (starring Facebook, Google, and others) in 2016 and 2017—and after more than a decade in which a sprawling and...

Top 5 Ads Of The Week: AT&T knows when OK just isn’t enough
2019-01-04

McDonald’s embraces the hangover, Wealthsimple targets today, Apple gets colorful, and Equinox gets arty. There’s a reason not a lot of people Google “cheapest child car seat.” Obviously price is always a consideration, but there are just some things that you don’t really want to...

How to take better portrait mode photos on any phone
2019-01-04

Ah, portrait mode. Ever since Huawei pioneered the depth-sensing tech and Apple ran with it, it seems every other Instagram photo has that faux-DSLR look. Unfortunately, our smartphones aren’t exactly perfect at imitating the shallow depth of field of a real large-sensor camera, so it’s important to help the tiny...

Huawei demoted employees for tweeting happy new year wishes from an iPhone
2019-01-04

So much for a happy 2019. China’s biggest smartphone maker, which is already embroiled in several geopolitical rows, so far isn’t doing itself any favors when it comes to optics in the new year. Just before midnight on December 31, 2018, two Huawei employees sent a tweet from the company’s...

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