ByteDance owns more than a dozen apps, including popular short video platform TikTok. Hong Kong (CNN Business) TikTok owner ByteDance wants more than just your viral short videos — it wants to help make the devices you watch them on. The Chinese tech firm said it is developing a smartphone after striking a deal with electronics company Smartisan. ByteDance isn’t trying to be the next big smartphone maker. A company spokeswoman said in a statement that the new device will be “a continuation of plans that were in place” before it began working with Smartisan. “The focus is on […] […]
Tag: media
The Terrible Anxiety of Location Sharing Apps
Elena Lacey; Getty Images It’s 1:30 in the morning and I’m pretty sure my girlfriend is dead. She went out with friends after work to celebrate somebody’s birthday. I opted to stay in and go to bed at a decent hour because I have work in the morning, and also because I am lame. But now I’m awake, staring at the little circular blip on my phone, waiting for it to move. The blip is in Google Maps, which offers the ability to share your location with others. My girlfriend and I had been living together for about a […] […]
Here’s How Much Bots Drive Conversation During News Events
Casey Chin; Getty Images Last week, as thousands of Central American migrants made their way northward through Mexico, walking a treacherous route toward the US border, talk of ” the caravan ,” as it’s become known, took over Twitter. Conservatives, led by President Donald Trump, dominated the conversation, eager to turn the caravan into a voting issue before the midterms. As it turns out, they had some help—from propaganda bots on Twitter. Late last week, about 60 percent of the conversation was driven by likely bots. Over the weekend, even as the conversation about the caravan was overshadowed by […] […]
The CEO’s Social Media Challenge
Like it or not, most CEOs are fighting a losing battle when it comes to social media. They are overwhelmed and bewildered. Many have decided to essentially withdraw and leave it to others to figure out. First the good news: companies are opening their wallets when it comes to social media spending. Budgets are going up faster than almost any other corporate expenditure. In a 2018 survey, US-based chief marketing officers reported that digital marketing expenditures were growing at double-digit rates and predicted that spending on social media alone would capture nearly 25 percent of total marketing budgets by […] […]
A digital revolution is reshaping Democratic campaigns
Two weeks before the 2016 election, Bloomberg’s Joshua Green and Sasha Issenberg published a story about Trump’s brash, self-aggrandizing digital team. Democrats treated the story as evidence of the Trump campaign’s utter cluelessness, until he won. For months after, coverage of the Trump’s tech and digital strategy dominated headlines. Those stories had consequences: Facebook locked down its user data; Cambridge Analytica folded; and a wave of startups, including my own, emerged to help progressives mobilize online. A change is coming to the Democratic Party, and for some campaigns, it’s already here. I’ve seen it firsthand. As part of my […] […]
ULTIMATE GUIDE TO COPYRIGHT
The ins-and-outs of copyright law may seem daunting for an individual or business to weed through, but the truth is that the basics are actually fairly simple. It’s in the modern era of social media, file sharing and convoluted, mile-long online consent forms where things get a bit complicated and there’s some grey area. In order to get you and your business up to date on the important facts and myths of copyright law—what it does, and doesn’t cover – we’ve created this comprehensive guide. Let’s get right into it. Before we get into specifics about what copyright does […] […]
Before Using Birth Control Apps, Consider Your Privacy
Hotlittlepotato Score one for the quantified self-surveillance movement. Last week, the US Food and Drug Agency approved the first-ever, over-the-counter digital contraceptive—a polished and almost preternaturally upbeat mobile app called Natural Cycles . Basal body temperature readings and monthly menstruation data feed into an algorithm that tells users whether or not they should be having unprotected sex. Like most forms of birth control, it’s not foolproof ; the app has been dogged by reports of unwanted pregnancies that prompted two ongoing investigations by European authorities into its Swedish maker’s marketing claims. But that hasn’t hurt Natural Cycles’ popularity. The […] […]
This Browser Extension Is Like an Anti-Virus for Fake Photos
Casey Chin and HOTLITTLEPOTATO When Michael Bennett played for the Seattle Seahawks, he celebrated wins with a victory dance in the team locker room. He did not celebrate them by burning the American flag, contrary to a viral Photoshopped picture that began making the rounds online in September of 2017. If you’d read the fact-checks on sites like Snopes.com , Time , and yep, even WIRED , you would have known that the photo of Bennett burning a flag, his teammates and coach looking on joyfully, was fake. But if you happened to encounter the fake photo on Facebook, […] […]
EU to fine social media platforms that take more than 1 hour to remove extremist content
The European Union is reportedly planning to impose stricter regulations on social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube , and Twitter over the removal of online terrorist propaganda. The Financial Times reported on Sunday that according to new draft regulations to be published next month, the EU plans to impose fines on companies if terrorist content is not deleted within an hour of posting, abandoning its earlier approach of getting internet platforms to remove such content voluntarily. The upcoming legislation builds on guidelines first prescribed by the EU in March for removal of radicalizing online content within one hour. Following […] […]
Schools Are Mining Students’ Social Media Posts for Signs of Trouble
Aron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post/Getty Images Aaah, the traditions of a new school year. New teachers, new backpacks, new crushes—and algorithms trawling students’ social media posts. Blake Prewitt, superintendent of Lakeview school district in Battle Creek, Michigan, says he typically wakes up each morning to twenty new emails from a social media monitoring system the district activated earlier this year. It uses keywords and machine learning algorithms to flag public posts on Twitter and other networks that contain language or images that may suggest conflict or violence, and tag or mention district schools or communities. In recent months the alert […] […]
How to Protect Yourself Against a SIM Swap Attack
Casey Chin A spate of hacked Instagram accounts. A $220 million lawsuit against AT&T. A bustling underground crime ring . They all have roots in an old problem that has lately found new urgency: SIM card swaps , a scam in which hackers steal your mobile identity—and use it to upend your life . At its most basic level, a SIM swap is when someone convinces your carrier to switch your phone number over to a SIM card they own. They’re not doing it for prank call cover, or to rack up long-distance charges. By diverting your incoming messages, […] […]
Eng: Facebook volgt je op nóg veel meer manieren dan je denkt
Dat we op de voet gevolgd worden door Facebook is inmiddels alom bekend, maar nu dat de social media-gigant antwoord heeft gegeven op vragen die in het Amerikaanse congres zijn gesteld blijkt dat het allemaal nog veel verder gaat dan we allemaal dachten. Dit zijn een aantal van de manieren waarop Mark Zuckerberg & Co. ons volgen op het internet, allemaal gehaald uit het document van 222 pagina’s dat is doorgestuurd naar het Congres. Een gedeelte van deze tracking-methodes kenden we al, maar als je het allemaal achter elkaar zet zul je zien dat er heel weinig geheim blijft […] […]
A machine has figured out Rubik’s Cube all by itself
Unlike chess moves, changes to a Rubik’s Cube are hard to evaluate, which is why deep-learning machines haven’t been able to solve the puzzle on their own. Until now. Yet another bastion of human skill and intelligence has fallen to the onslaught of the machines. A new kind of deep-learning machine has taught itself to solve a Rubik’s Cube without any human assistance. The milestone is significant because the new approach tackles an important problem in computer science—how to solve complex problems with when help is minimal. First some background. The Rubik’s Cube is a three-dimensional puzzle developed in […] […]
3D printing in construction, architecture and the built-environment
The use of 3D printing for construction and architecture is a rapidly developing area. Additive manufacturing is used not only in the design stages of construction projects, but is also bringing remarkable full-scale structures to life. This article highlights some of the possibilities that 3D printing brings to the built-environment. These include 3D printed houses, buildings, bridges and infrastructure. The 3D printed Housing 05 Project by CLS Architetti The 3D Housing 05 project from CLS Architetti , an Italian architecture firm, is a sustainable, 3D printed house. The project was showcased at Milan Design Week 2018 . Massimiliano Locatelli, […] […]
WhatsApp Group Video Call and Instagram Video Chat Are Coming Soon
Facebook announced a whole lot of new features at its 2018 Facebook F8 developers conference, including Dating on Facebook, letting users clear their web browsing history, real-time language translation within Messenger, and many more. Besides announcing exciting features for its social media platform, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also gave us a quick look at the features Facebook introduced for companies that it owns, like WhatsApp and Instagram. During Facebook’s F8 conference on Tuesday, Zuckerberg announced a long-awaited feature for WhatsApp— Group Video Calling . AdChoices Dating Whatsapp Videochat Instagram Spy Whatsapp Yes, you heard that right. WhatsApp would soon […] […]
Oprichter WhatsApp vertrekt bij Facebook vanwege huidige koers
Jan Koum is een naam die je misschien niet kent, maar de miljardair is de CEO en mede-oprichter van WhatsApp . Hij is bij de overname van het bedrijf in 2014 opgenomen in de raad van comissarissen van Facebook, maar volgens de Washington Post is hij alleszins van plan […] .
First Robot Delivery Drivers Start Work In Silicon Valley
Six-wheeled robots will deliver food and coffee across a Silicon Valley office park in the first commercial use of the technology—and whole cities could be next This article titled “First robot delivery drivers start work at Silicon Valley campus” was written by Alex Hern, for theguardian.com on Monday 30th […] .
Interview: Why We Need Less Tech, Smarter People
Before taking the stage at PSFK’s CXI 2018 conference, cyborg anthropologist Amber Case makes an argument for better, quieter design In the innovation space, we see a lot of tech for tech’s sake. Amber Case is a proponent of the opposite. The author of a book on calm technology […] .
A robotic camera system films sports like a human does
New AI software can move and focus a camera to frame shots that look incredibly natural for viewers. How it works: A robotic camera system, called Polycam Player and made by Nikon company MRMC , uses image recognition to track players on the field . Instead of panning and […] .
The Blockchain Solution to Our Deepfake Problems
Blockchain has always seemed to me like a solution looking for a problem, which isn’t a criticism. The laser, the transistor, and the integrated circuit all lingered, underutilized, until either the technology evolved, a complementary technology matured, and/or some clever entrepreneur enabled their wide and disruptive adoption. Or take […] .