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Communication and Technology news
Facebook trims Messenger’s clutter with new update
2018-10-24

Facebook today announced it was overhauling Messenger, updating the interface and cutting down on the embarrassing amount of clutter that has plagued the app for ages. And, from what we’ve seen, the changes are all positive. Stan Chudnovsky, VP of Messenger, describes Messenger 4 as a “new, simplified” version...

Trump begs big tech for free labor to avoid federal hirings
2018-10-23

The White House wants the nation’s big tech companies to make it easier for employees to do a civic “tour of duty” with the government. Another way of putting it: the President needs to bring in temps now that his plan to cheat Federal workers out of their promised 2019 pay raise fell apart. This latest assault...

These posters celebrate things that really do make America great
2018-10-23

The new book “What Really Makes America Great” features a series of inspirational posters on things–women! space exploration! public lands!–that inspire artists about the country. In the wake of the 2016 election, a community of artists started to answer a question: What really makes...

Apple will fix the iPhone XS’ problematic ‘beauty filter’ in iOS 12.1
2018-10-23

Apple caught a lot of flak for the way selfies from the new iPhone XS range of handsets looked, because it seemed like the devices were applying a ‘beauty filter’ with no way to turn it off. The Verge reports that Apple will fix it soon enough with a software update in iOS 12.1. You can see an example in the image...

This startup wants to kill passwords–and replace them with jewelry
2018-10-23

“[T]his ring will become your connection from your physical self to your digital presence,” says Motiv CEO Tejash Unadkat. I’m logging into Facebook when that pesky window pops up, alerting me that the website has sent a pin number to my cell phone and requiring that I enter it to ensure...

Dara Khosrowshahi and 37 other Iranians who power Silicon Valley
2018-10-23

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is just one of dozens of execs and investors who’ve shaped the tech industry, from Airbnb to Google to Y Combinator. The Hostage Crisis, Death to America, The Axis of Evil, The Great Satan, The Travel Ban–these are hardly the buzzwords that form the foundation for a fruitful...

Regulators order self-driving school bus test to be stopped
2018-10-23

The NHTSA said the operator did not have permission to transport children during the test. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ordered the French-based transport company Transdev to cease testing a self-driving school bus in Florida, reports the BBC. The NHTSA had given Transdev the green light to...

Twitter takes down more accounts affiliated with Alex Jones’s Infowars
2018-10-23

The accounts tried to get around Twitter’s ban on Infowars. The social networking site has confirmed to CNBC that it has removed more accounts associated with Alex Jones’s conspiracy website Infowars. Last month Twitter permanently banned both Jones and the Infowars website from its platform, citing...

What AI could learn from nature
2018-10-17

Biological concepts offer a useful framework for thinking about some of the most complex computational problems of our time, writes Michigan State University professor Arend Hintze. Artificial intelligence research has a lot to learn from nature. My work links biology with computation every day, but recently the rest...

Facebook’s rumored TV camera thing would sound cool if it weren’t from Facebook
2018-10-16

“Ripley” would add a camera to your TV for video chat and–presumably–synchronized viewing parties. Facebook reportedly wants to stick a camera on your television as part of its foray into consumer hardware. According to Cheddar’s Alex Heath, who accurately reported on the Portal...

Do you live in a local news desert? This map will tell you
2018-10-16

Nearly half of the country has access to only one local news source. Some have even less. The United States is in the midst of a local media crisis. Media companies are struggling and journalists are losing their jobs, which creates an entire nation of uninformed citizens. It seems every few months...

Amazon gets patriotic while Google embraces censorship
2018-10-16

Wired’s big 25th anniversary event (congrats!) culminated Monday in a summit featuring a veritable who’s-who of big tech bosses. And, like everything else in the US this year, it turned out to be heavily-focused on politics. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was there to peddle patriotism. He graciously volunteered his...

GitHub launches Suggested Changes to make it easier to collaborate within pull requests
2018-10-16

GitHub today announced Suggested Changes: a new feature that promises to make it easier to implement and action changes in pull requests. Here’s how it works. Suppose you’re collaborating on a repository with an active pull request. A reviewer can look at that pull request, and if they see room for improvement,...

Write people up for their design crimes with this ticket book
2018-10-16

Type designers at Hoefler & Co. created the novelty gift item as a send-up of type abusers and snobby designers alike. When someone mixes up the terms “font” and “typeface,” do you feel like you’re doing God’s work by correcting them?Read Full Story

The No. 1 thing you’re getting wrong about inclusive design
2018-10-16

In the new book Mismatch, designer Kat Holmes demystifies the buzzy design process embraced by companies, from Microsoft to Google. The term inclusive design has been around for decades, but it was largely an academic practice until recently. When I first learned about inclusive design, very few companies were...

Google’s CEO confirms it’s returning to China with a censored search engine
2018-10-16

The censored search engine is known internally as “Dragonfly” and has been in testing since last year. CEO Sundar Pichai made the admission onstage on Monday at the Wired 25 Summit. The censored search engine is known internally as “Dragonfly” and has been in testing since last year. Once...

Google explains the magic behind the Pixel 3’s Super Res Zoom
2018-10-16

Google Pixel 3’s camera has a lot of impressive tricks up its sleeve. One of them is Super Res Zoom, which improves digital zoom for clear pictures, and allows for decent results when working with a single-lens setup like the one on the Pixel 3. The company’s AI team explained in a blog post today that the camera...

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen passes away at 65
2018-10-16

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen died yesterday at the age of 65. He was suffering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a type of cancer. Allen’s company Vulcan Inc. made the announcement through a statement. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world, ranked no. 44 on the Forbes list of billionaires in 2018...

12 Things Young Designers Need to Know
2018-10-16

Balancing creativity, career planning & business is a crucial art for graphic designers. These 12 pro tips are for young designers determined to succeed.

101+ Gifts for Designers & Creatives – 2018
2018-10-16

Forget socks and undies – get your designer friend something they really want. These are my top best gift ideas for creatives, vetted by me – a designer.

Facebook will delete posts that spread voting misinformation this election
2018-10-16

Facebook today announced it’s tackling the most basic form of fake news to circulate around the time of an election: Voter misinformation and anything that might keep users away from the voting booths this fall. Specifically, the company revealed it would be removing posts that encourage “voter suppression” —...

[Free eBook] Branding 101 Crash Course
2018-10-16

Download the ultimate 'bloat-free' guide on branding & logo design, suitable for designers & non-designers! Yours, free.

Early Review: The Pixel 3 is a great phone that should’ve been better
2018-10-16

The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL were arguably the best phones you could buy last year. Impressive performance, a clean software experience, and the best camera in the business added up to to a phone that was easy to recommend. The Pixel 3 improves on its predecessors in every aspect except one: price. Starting at $799 –...

How a transgender Google engineer fights prejudice with empathy
2018-10-15

Liz Fong-Jones, a Google Cloud Platform engineer, has been a passionate advocate of inclusion–for employees and users–since 2010: “Employee organizing [in tech] is not new. It’s just [this] public manifestation of it that is.” “Employees at Google have been fairly vocal about...

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