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Communication and Technology news
Google’s testing a new app that takes the pain out of the NYC subway
2018-05-31

The subway system is both the best and worst thing about living in NYC. As convenient and practical as it is, it’s also prone to interminable delays, rerouting, annoying passengers/performers and general unpleasantness. Though I think we New Yorkers tend to take it for granted, there’s no question it could be...

Walmart is launching a same-day, text-order delivery service
2018-05-31

Personal shopping by text and same-day delivery: meet Jetblack, Walmart’s newest venture. Walmart is launching a new personal shopping service called Jetblack. The $50-per-month service, which just launched in New York City, will deliver items ordered over text either same or next day. For now, memberships...

67% of shoppers are ready to shop exclusively online
2018-05-31

A new survey suggests shoppers are ready to move to 100% online for retail purchases. The majority of shoppers are ready to shop exclusively online, according to the results of digital marketing agency Adtaxi’s 2018 Online Shopping and Technology Trends Survey. The survey took a look at the shopping habits,...

Facebook’s algorithm change had an impact on politicians, but not the ones you think
2018-05-31

Conservatives claim that Facebook’s algorithm changes have censored their content. The data says something different. There’ve been plenty of dramatic headlines and hand-wringing in recent months about the impact of Facebook’s latest changes to its News Feed algorithm—both on the media and...

How to help migrant children swept up by ICE
2018-05-31

How to contact your representative about ICE. Last month, an official from DHS admitted that the agency could not account for nearly 1,500 unaccompanied minors (note: not children who came with their parents per se) who arrived at the border, nearly 19% of the minors in their custody. While the children may not be...

Major League Soccer teams with R/GA on new start-up tech search
2018-05-31

New venture studio is recruiting companies and entrepreneurs for emerging tech to help fan engagement, on-field data, stadium infrastructure, and more. It boasts the highest percentage of millennial fans in the U.S., so an obvious part of Major League Soccer’s growth strategy revolves around embracing...

Kathy Griffin sounds off on the anniversary of her infamous photo
2018-05-31

One year later, Kathy Griffin wrote an epic Twitter thread about the presidential tweet that uprooted her life, as a warning to others that it could happen to them. Kathy Griffin has taken a lot of photos over the years, but for the rest of her life only one of them can be immediately identified as that photo....

Plot twist: GDPR is actually helping Google’s ad business
2018-05-31

As smaller ad exchanges adapt to the new GDPR rules, Google is quietly cashing in. Last Friday, the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect, causing every major technology company operating in Europe to completely overhaul how they gain consent to users’ data. From now on,...

Modern Fertility announces new at-home hormone test
2018-05-31

Modern Fertility is one of several innovative companies redefining modern fertility care in Silicon Valley. The fertility tech sector is getting more and more sophisticated. The latest round of innovation comes from Modern Fertility, a startup attempting to democratize reproductive health. On Thursday, the San...

Twitter is blocking users who signed up when they were underage
2018-05-31

The move is reportedly being done to comply with GDPR rules that have gone into force in Europe. The social media company is blocking any user whose self-declared date of birth suggests they were under the age of 13 when they first signed up for an account, reports the Guardian. It’s doesn’t matter if...

Trump may ban German luxury carmakers next
2018-05-31

The news follows reports that the Trump administration is thinking of imposing a 25% tariff on cars imported to the U.S. The president has shown he’s not afraid to get into trade wars with even America’s closest allies. And now the president has Germany in his sights, reports CNBC. The weekly German...

Viviana Vila was fired off TV in 2016. Now she’s calling the World Cup
2018-05-31

Telemundo’s U.S. broadcast of soccer’s elite tourney will for the first time feature analysis from an expert fan—who happens to be the first woman ever to offer World Cup commentary. In April, two women were announced as TV analysts to provide color commentary for the forthcoming World...

This misanthropic artist taught Google Home to fire a gun
2018-05-31

With a misspent childhood/adolescence/adulthood absorbing as much sci-fi as possible, I knew it was only a matter of time until smart speakers turned bad. Well, okay, maybe that’s not entirely accurate. But, AI artist and roboticist Alexander Reben did teach Google Assistant on a Google Home to fire a gun, so...

Google launches an app for discovering your neighborhood through local experts
2018-05-31

Google has launched Neighbourly, a mobile app designed to help you learn about your neighborhood by asking other residents. It’s a way to find out about local services and facilities in your area from people who live around you. The beta is presently only available on Android and open to people in the Indian city of...

Uber wants Waymo’s self-driving cars on its ride-hailing platform
2018-05-31

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at the Code Conference today that his company is talking to Google spin-off firm Waymo to have the self-driving vehicle tech company’s cars added to its platform. That’s interesting for a number of reasons. For starters, it was just a few short months ago when Uber and Waymo settled...

Survival gameplay could be the evolution Fallout needs
2018-05-31

After a teasing Twitch stream which lasted almost an entire day, Bethesda finally revealed the trailer for its latest game: Fallout 76. The trailer itself didn’t reveal much beyond the fact the game concerns Vault 76 and the soundtrack might evolve past “Butcher Pete” and “Civilization” finally (though...

Opinion: There’s more to the Google military AI project than we’ve been told
2018-05-30

Google, a company whose motto used to be “don’t be evil,” has had its ethics questioned lately over its insistence on developing AI for the Pentagon. If you’re among the many people who don’t understand why, against the grain, the Mountain View company would risk such damage to its reputation, you’re not...

Google’s ‘Just a Line’ lets you doodle in AR with a friend
2018-05-30

Earlier this year, Google released an Android app for drawing in AR called Just a Line. Doodling in AR is fun; you can make things objects float in thin air, like an art class at Hogwarts. Problem is, when only you can see what you’re drawing, you look kind of nutso waving around your phone in the air. And I mean,...

LG’s V35 brings the best of the G7 to last year’s V30
2018-05-30

LG sure is getting a lot of mileage out of the V30. After releasing the V30S ThinQ earlier in the year with slightly upgraded specs and software, the company is at it again with the V35. Here’s the short of it: It’s the same as the V30, except with the new Snapdragon 845, 6 GB of RAM, and updated software feature....

Reddit surpasses Facebook to become the 3rd most visited site in the US
2018-05-30

According to Alexa – the Amazon-owned web traffic analyzing platform – more people now visit Reddit than Facebook in the US. Spotted, of course, on Reddit by user IamATechieNerd, the stats will be a big boost for the social sharing platform, especially with many users still irked about the recent re-design....

Google’s Project Fi is starting to look like a real phone network with 3 new devices
2018-05-30

Google’s Project Fi is an innovative a phone network, but it’s been hampered by a scarcity of device choices. So far, you’ve been limited to Google’s own Pixel and Nexus phones, with the Moto X4 being the sole exception introduced late last year. But today Google added three more options: The Moto G6, the LG...

Why the leap to general AI still can’t happen yet
2018-05-30

There’s a massive gap in the world of artificial intelligence (AI), and we haven’t been able to cross it successfully. Some developers refer to it as a move from “narrow” to “general” AI, while others describe it as a move from “weak” to “strong” AI. However you describe it, the premise is...

Leak: Google Pixel 3 may get smaller bezels... and a notch
2018-05-30

If you were hoping Google wouldn’t go the trendy route of using a notch at the top of its phone displays, I have some bad news for you. A leak from earlier in the week suggests the Pixel 3 XL will feature an iPhone X-like screen cutout. The leak – deleted from its Weibo source, but still up on SlashLeaks –...

Ambien just delivered an epic clapback to Roseanne
2018-05-30

Pharmaceutical Co. = 1, Roseanne = 0. Does Sanofi sell burn cream? ‘Cause Roseanne Barr is going to need it. In a now-deleted tweet, the actress tried to blame Ambien for the racist tweet that led to her sitcom’s cancellation.Read Full Story

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