Insights

Communication and Technology news
Facebook now lets you post 3D photos that jump out of your Newsfeed
2018-10-11

Facebook is rolling out a feature today which will allow users to post photos with a 3D effect to their feed — essentially photos that show your subject in richer detail. Despite the name , the photos won’t be truly 3D, per se. You won’t be able to spin a photo of your dog around to view her from every adorable...

Congress is fed up with Google after it hid major data breach for months
2018-10-11

Google’s childish approach to business ethics has landed it in hot water with Congress yet again. After discovering a software glitch earlier this year – persisting since 2015 — the company chose to hide it from consumers and regulators. That is, until The Washington Post exposed it earlier this week. The...

Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson steals the show with an inspirational keynote
2018-10-11

Earlier this year, commerce platform, Magento was acquired by tech behemoth Adobe for an incredible $1.68 billion. But at the Magento Live Europe event in Barcelona this week, it was clear that the beating rock ‘n’ roll heart of the vibrant open-source community is still very much alive. Predictably, Adobe...

Amazon likely to win $10B Pentagon contract – Google, IBM, and Oracle aren’t happy
2018-10-11

The Pentagon announced the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) project earlier this year, prompting a feeding frenzy among big tech companies eager to get the lucrative contract. Appetites have curbed a bit amid accusations the JEDI contract wasn’t ever up for grabs. Project JEDI is a $10 billion defense...

A Google intern built the AI behind these shockingly good fake images
2018-10-02

A new algorithm called BigGAN creates detailed photos from scratch, representing a leap forward for AI. But it may come at a steep price. For years, artists and researchers have been experimenting with training neural networks to generate images that look real. But most of them look like strangely distorted,...

Psst, Pinterest is quietly growing into a digital ad giant
2018-10-01

A new forecast sees the social network’s ad revenue exceeding $1 billion by 2020. For years, Pinterest has been the almost-forgotten social network. Sure, people know what it is, but it hasn’t scaled at the same pace of services like Facebook and Instagram. But the company is seeing some real signs of...

24% of US households now have a smart speaker
2018-10-01

Close to a quarter of US households now own a smart speaker, according to research from Nielsen. On average, those who own these devices spend an average of 65 minutes using them on each weekday, rising to 72 minutes on Saturday and Sunday. In Q1 2018, only 22 percent of US households owned a smart speaker – such...

Five women entrepreneurs on why they’re considering political runs
2018-10-01

In a survey of female founders conducted by Fast Company and Inc., a number of women said they were considering running for office. Here’s what they had to say. Can running a business be a launchpad for a career in politics? The 2016 election would indicate yes. But looking past Trump, a number of...

Low-cost European airline EasyJet is suing Netflix
2018-10-01

The Netflix show Easy is titled after a word trademarked by EasyJet’s owners. That’s because EasyJet’s parent company, EasyGroup, says Netflix is infringing on its European trademarks, reports CNBC. EasyGroup owns the trademark for the word “easy” in Europe and says Netflix is...

Germany is likely to take antitrust action against Facebook
2018-10-01

The social media giant has faced extreme scrutiny from European and German lawmakers in the past year due to a host of issues, including the Cambridge Analytic scandal, and allegations of unfair competition with rivals. The head of the country’s antitrust watchdog, Andreas Mundt, has said that he is...

Google Maps wants to make your commute less taxing (and more musical)
2018-10-01

These new features are tailored for trips to and from the office, by car or public transportation. At first blush, using Google Maps to navigate your way to work and back might sound unneccessary: It’s probably the single route you know most intimately. But Google is giving its Android and iOS mappings app a...

Twitter’s new policy aims to eradicate ‘dehumanizing speech’
2018-09-25

Twitter today announced it’d be altering its hateful conduct policies to prohibit “dehumanizing speech.” By doing so, it intends to patch a hole in its rules against hate speech to account for tweets that don’t specifically target anyone, but which are nonetheless demeaning. It’s also asking for users to...

Instagram’s loss is not necessarily Snapchat’s gain
2018-09-25

Instagram’s founders are leaving, but that doesn’t mean Snapchat will suddenly become appealing for Instagram users. News broke last night that Instagram founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, are leaving the company. This was certainly a shock, as Instagram could easily be considered one of...

Gaming Twitter showed its strength and rage after Telltale’s catastrophic closure
2018-09-25

Telltale Games announced on Twitter last week, with little warning, that it’d be shuttering its doors. The news drew a not-unexpected amount of backlash and scrutiny based on first-hand accounts from the people involved. Now the same Twitter-based community is keeping the company on notice for its messy handling of...

These popular #Vanlife vehicles are basically rolling offices
2018-09-25

Though the lifestyle movement is about getting out into nature, today’s RVs are equipped for life online, with LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and more. You’ve probably seen evidence of #Vanlife, the burgeoning lifestyle movement, in the stream of idyllic photos on your Instagram: People in expertly outfitted...

Google’s Eric Schmidt accidentally discovers labor unions
2018-09-25

The Google executive tweeted that he wanted to find a “unicorn for the middle class.” People reminded him one already exists. Yesterday, extremely rich technology executive Eric Schmidt tweeted that he wanted to figure out ways to increase the wages of lower-income and middle-class people. In his own...

Google is revamping search on its 20th anniversary – here are the most exciting new features
2018-09-25

To mark the 20th anniversary of search, Google has introduced tons of new features for a refreshed user experience across platforms. These range from organizing your search results better, to introducing an Instagram Stories-style presentation for select content. Here are my favorite new updates: Activity cards: When...

Instagram’s co-founders are leaving Facebook
2018-09-25

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who co-founded Instagram eight years ago, are leaving the service’s parent company, Facebook. The news of their departure comes from The New York Times, and is corroborated by a statement from Systrom. The duo have resigned from the company and will leave in the coming weeks....

These people will go to the edge of the Earth to prove it’s flat
2018-09-24

At least one supposed member of a group calling itself “Project Edge” claims they will be undertaking a mission to travel to the edge of the Earth later this week. Here’s hoping they can finally figure out if our planet resides on a series of turtles’ backs, or the shoulders of Atlas. In the following video,...

People are taking to the streets to show they “Believe Survivors”
2018-09-24

People around the country are stopping work in solidarity with Christine Blasey Ford. Over the last week, two women–Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez–have gone public with stories about alleged sexual misconduct from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Instead of withdrawing the nomination,...

Ex-Google CEO: Competition between US and China will split the internet
2018-09-24

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt believes that in next 10-15 years, the internet will split into two with one part will be led by China and other by the US. Schmidt said in reply to economist Terry Cowen’s question on the possibility of having three to four separate internets a decade from now: I think the most...

With its voice assistant delayed, Roku is sticking to the basics
2018-09-24

The big player in TV streaming announces two new devices, but pushes its own entertainment-centric assistant feature to 2019. Back in January, Roku revealed a grand vision for expanding from smart TVs and streaming boxes into the broader realm of home entertainment. The company’s plans called for smart...

Celebrated studio Telltale Games shuts down in the messiest way possible
2018-09-24

Over the past 14 years, California-based game development studio Telltale Incorporated made a name for itself with its range of well crafted adventure- and story-driven titles. That includes hits like The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, and adaptations of popular franchises including Batman, The Walking...

How to escape Google’s forced logins on Chrome 69
2018-09-24

According to security researcher S. Bálint, any time someone using Chrome 69 logs into a Google service or site, they are also logged into Chrome-as-a-browser with that user account. Essentially, Google is forcefully logging users into Chrome. Chrome browser’s privacy policy notes that if you are is not signed in,...

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