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Communication and Technology news
Tech companies are eavesdropping on you through your smart speaker
2018-06-23

Would you be willing to equip your bedroom or living room with an internet-connected microphone that could record and send all your conversations to the data-hungry server of a giant tech company or to a random person in your contact list? That is basically the privacy and security risk you’re taking when you bring...

How to get voice-enabled apps right in the age of ‘smart’ everything
2018-06-23

Voice automation is on everyone’s mind this year, and for good reason. Siri, Alexa, and their peers have sparked visions of a science-fiction-like future and generated excitement around their potential to help simplify our lives with a widely accessible, responsive user interface. Yet this technology is still in its...

Facebook confirms it’s working on a feature to curb your social media addiction
2018-06-22

Facebook wants to help you spend less time on Facebook. Yes, you read that right. The discovery comes courtesy of developer Jane Manchun Wong. She found code in Facebook’s Android app for a feature called “Your Time on Facebook,” as first reported by TechCrunch. Facebook has since confirmed the feature is in...

LinkedIn is a hellhole and this Twitter account proves it
2018-06-22

LinkedIn is a unique kind of toxic nightmare.  The type that, if it were a real city or town, would be the desolate setting of a video game where you blast its mutated inhabitants with railguns. Highlighting the weapons-grade twattery of the residents of LinkedIn-upon-Thames is my current favorite Twitter account,...

Retailers can’t out-Amazon Amazon, but they can change the rules
2018-06-22

One marketer and privacy expert says consumer brands should double down on customer service, not Amazon-esque data tracking, to differentiate themselves. I work in marketing, which means I’m always trying to sell you something. It’s a tough business, made even more so by the fact that people react...

Did Big Tech just help kill New York’s revenge porn bill?
2018-06-22

New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, had pledged to sign the bill if it made it to his desk. New York’s state legislature was working on passing a law that would have made so-called revenge porn a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. But the bill was just effectively killed, and now its...

Rebecca Minkoff on creating a brand and workplace for modern women
2018-06-22

“The model most businesses are set up on is an old one. It’s the 9-to-6, these are the rules, don’t bring your personal baggage to work.” Earlier this week at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Rebecca Minkoff appeared on a Girls Lounge panel with Sophia Amoruso, Dee Poku-Spalding,...

Science fiction icon Octavia Butler is honored with a Google Doodle
2018-06-22

The African American writer was the first science fiction author to win the MacArthur Fellowship. Octavia Butler is one of the best science fiction writers of all time, and the first science fiction author to win the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. She also happens to be one of the very few women and very few...

Twitter buys “trust and safety” startup, shuts it down, leaves customers stranded
2018-06-22

Online harassment monitor Smyte was purchased by Twitter. Yesterday, news broke that Twitter had snapped up the online trust and safety startup Smyte, to help address its own online harassment issues, which sounded like great news. Smyte uses a combination of machine learning and human moderators to identify and...

Twitter buys a “trust and safety” company and shuts it down immediately
2018-06-22

Online harassment monitor Smyte was purchased by Twitter. Yesterday, news broke that Twitter had snapped up the online trust and safety startup Smyte, to help address its own online harassment issues, which sounded like great news. Smyte uses a combination of machine learning and human moderators to identify and...

Inside the mysterious Bitcoin hash that shook up the cryptocurrency community
2018-06-22

#00000000000000000021e800c1e8df51b22c1588e5a624bea17e9faa34b2dc4a You know how geeky the cryptocurrency community is, when this is the trending hashtag on Twitter. This long sequence is a ‘block hash’ — a cryptographic number that is produced when new transactions are validated and written on the Bitcoin...

The world’s animals are getting their very own Facebook
2018-06-22

The researchers behind Wildbook are using AI and new backing from Microsoft to turn even your whale-watching photos into weapons against extinction. The animal kingdom is getting its very own social network, but instead of vacation pics and baby announcements, it will be filled with data that could help...

Google Assistant’s Continued Conversations feature makes voice commands less awkward
2018-06-22

As it promised at its I/O Conference last month, Google has now enabled Continued Conversations in its voice-activated Assistant, so you don’t have to invoke it with a ‘Hey Google’ for every new command. That should make Google’s app and smart speakers a little less awkward to use, especially when you’ve got...

YouTube adds new monetization options for creators
2018-06-22

YouTube announced today it would be adding new options for creators to make money from their content. Most of the options are reminiscent of what other platforms have tried, but they could still alleviate a problem YouTubers have been facing for over a year. Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer, introduced...

Google’s AR measurement app is coming to an Android Phone near you
2018-06-21

Back at WWDC, Apple announced it was giving every iPhone a ruler in the form of an AR app called Measure. Now Google is firing back with an app also called Measure. Actually Google technically beat Apple to the punch. Measure has been available for a while on Tango devices (remember Tango?). But this is the first...

Hillary Clinton warned us about Trump’s family separation policy
2018-06-21

Clinton’s words from one of the presidential debates were chillingly accurate. If you spend enough time on Twitter, you’ll eventually see the truism that “there’s a Trump tweet for everything.” Like in 2014 when then-citizen Trump lashed out at then-President Barack Obama for golfing...

This AI hiring platform is a ‘Technology Pioneer’ according to World Economic Forum
2018-06-21

Pymetrics is a New York-based AI hiring-platform, that allows companies to hire more diverse candidates. The company boasts clients of very large sizes, such as Unilever, Google, Airbnb, and Twitter. And now, they were just named ‘Technology Pioneers’ by the World Economic Forum (WOF). Pymetrics’ hiring...

Is Facebook finally ready to fact-check memes?
2018-06-21

If so, it’s about time. Facebook has long told the world that it wants to improve its content moderation game, and the world has waited for results. Today, the company announced a slew of new tools to combat fake news. They include more robust fact-checking in more countries, new technological techniques for...

This heat map shows the only parts of job ads that get read
2018-06-21

LinkedIn surfaced the things most important to candidates that employers may be missing. Employers who labor over their carefully crafted job posting explaining their mission and company culture, should be aware of a simple fact: Job seekers are skimming the listing and honing in on one thing immediately: salary...

John Legend opens up about how making wine is like making music
2018-06-21

We spoke with the Grammy- and Oscar-winning entertainer about his new passion project, Legend Vintage Exclusives. How do you come down from the high of performing in concert for thousands of adoring fans? One option available to John Legend is: with a glass of wine straight from his own collection.Read Full Story

BuzzFeed’s secret to a great summer? Consulting for other brands
2018-06-21

The “summer fundles” include both best-selling products and trending summer items popular on social media for sale on Amazon. Maybelline wants to give you everything you need for an instagrammable summer. Today, the cosmetics giant has launched “summer fundles”–beauty bundles...

Can the beauty industry make over the gender norms it created?
2018-06-21

Having defined femininity for decades, cosmetics retailers are starting to court trans and gender-nonconforming customers. For many, it’s a tricky about-face. In 2013, U.K.-based makeup artist and influencer Joseph Harwood entered “The You Generation,” an online talent contest jointly hosted by...

Facebook will let group admins charge for membership
2018-06-21

The program aims to compensate group admins for their time. The social media giant has announced that it is piloting a subscription-based program that will allow group admins to charge users $4.99 to $29.99 per month for access to special sub-groups. The company says it’s doing this after feedback from some...

Microsoft relaunches its news app to take on Google and Apple’s offerings
2018-06-21

Remember MSN.com? It’s still around – and Microsoft is trying to bring it back by relaunching its mobile apps with a new moniker. Available for Android and iOS, Microsoft News brings you stories from the company’s MSN News effort, that’s been online for several years – with a modern interface that should be...

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