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Showing posts from March 20, 2018

The co-founder of WhatsApp just told everyone to delete Facebook

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In 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp for $16 billion , making its co-founders — Jan Koum and Brian Acton — very wealthy men. Koum continues to lead the company, but Acton quit earlier this year to start his own foundation . And he isn’t done merely with WhatsApp — in a post on Twitter today, Acton told his followers to delete Facebook. “It is time,” Acton wrote, adding the hashtag #deletefacebook. Acton, who is worth $6.5 billion, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did Facebook and WhatsApp. It was unclear whether Acton’s feelings about Facebook extend to his own app. But last month, Acton invested $50 million into Signal , an independent alternative to WhatsApp. The tweet came after a bruising five-day period for... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2pscsMq"

BlackBerry’s Fan League will give you swag for hyping its poorly-selling phones

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BlackBerry wants you to advertise on its behalf in exchange for the weekly chance to win... wait for it... BlackBerry-branded gear like a bag, mugs, a hat, and more. Okay, and also a monthly drawing for a BlackBerry smartphone. The program, called BlackBerry Smartphone Fan League , has you connect your social media platforms in order to promote BlackBerry and earn points. The more points, the more entries. To win a BlackBerry hat. Or cup. Yay. To get your first 100 points, you have to connect either your Twitter or Facebook account. Then, the Fan League (run by a company called Social Toaster) prompts you to connect even more accounts you can use to shill for BlackBerry, from Instagram to Pinterest to YouTube. Once you’ve decided where... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2GNmsrj"

The last male northern white rhino just died, but science could still make him a daddy

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Animals Sudan's death is not the end of the northern white rhino's saga. The death of a 45-year-old rhino is rarely a tragedy; they seldom live much longer. But although Sudan’s passing was long expected, it still struck a blow to… via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2FRVa5W"

Skype now has integrations with TripAdvisor and StubHub

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Skype has teamed up with TripAdvisor so you can now send travel plans and tips right inside the Skype app. It’s also got a new integration with StubHub, a platform for sporting and concert tickets, that lets you browse and share events. Both add-ins are great for those who still use Skype to make video calls and chat with friends and family. Now you can just send and receive travel plans and tickets without downloading any extra apps beyond Skype. To activate the add-ins , you have to press the plus sign button and select them from a list of options. Once using the TripAdvisor add-in, you can pick out hotels, restaurants, and other destinations to share in a chat. If you’re using the StubHub add-in, you can search for sports and music... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2DHWOAM"

The math behind the perfect free throw

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Science From a mathematical viewpoint, basketball is a game of trajectories. Math offers a unique perspective. It speeds up the amount of time it takes to see the patterns behind the best shots. For the most part, we discovered things that the… via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2pqFdJk"

Mark Zuckerberg is ‘working around the clock’ on the Cambridge Analytica controversy, Facebook says

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After nearly four days of silence from top executives on the unfolding controversy around Cambridge Analytica’s misuse of user data , Facebook on Tuesday made a statement about what Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are doing. “Mark, Sheryl and their teams are working around the clock to get all the facts and take the appropriate action moving forward, because they understand the seriousness of this issue,” Facebook told The Daily Beast . “The entire company is outraged we were deceived. We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people’s information and will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens.” The company’s statement is notable for three reasons. One, it escalates the emotional tone of... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2IAn3gh"

Audible is finally back on Sonos speakers

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Audible is finally back on Sonos, after a false alarm two weeks ago when the company mistakingly published a blog post saying the integration was available. Audible is now rolling out on Sonos through the Sonos and Audible apps, giving users an easy way of playing their audiobooks on Sonos hardware. Sonos One speakers are already compatible with Amazon’s Alexa and Amazon Music, so it was surprising that the Amazon-owned Audible audiobook service has remained absent from the company’s product family for so long. The support was initially removed two years ago when Sonos staff discovered an incompatibility between Audible and Sonos integration after an update. To celebrate its return, Audible is offering Sonos users two credits if they... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2HS2A5D"

Orbitz says a possible data breach has affected 880,000 credit cards

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Travel booking website Orbitz has announced that it discovered a potential data breach that exposed information for thousands of customers, as reported by Engadget . The incident, discovered by the company on March 1st, may have exposed information tied to about 880,000 credit cards. The consumer data in question is from an older booking platform, where information may have been accessed between October and December 2017. Orbitz partner platform data, such as travel booked via Amex Travel, submitted between January 1st, 2016 and December 22nd, 2017 may have also been compromised. The Expedia-owned company says that names, payment card information, dates of birth, email addresses, physical billing addresses, gender, and phone numbers may... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2FNMQnq"

Facebook is being investigated by New York and Massachusetts attorneys general over Cambridge Analytica scandal

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New York and Massachusetts attorneys general are demanding that Facebook hand over information about how Cambridge Analytica used its data. They announced a joint investigation today following reports over the weekend that Cambridge Analytica improperly acquired data on 50 million Facebook users, which it used as part of President Trump’s 2016 campaign. According to The New York Times and The Observer , the co-founder of Cambridge Analytica, Christopher Wylie, led an initiative starting in 2014 to help political campaigns profile voters. As part of the project, the company harvested data from Facebook through a third-party quiz app. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Attorney General Maura Healey of Massachusetts announced a... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2DHwSWg"

A claim-by-claim analysis of a climate denial 'news' story

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Science Anatomy of a fact check. Global warming alarmists claimed Arctic ice cap would be gone by now, but sea ice is 5 percent above 35 year average. via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2FVTe8e"

Can AI solve the internet's fake news problem? A fact-checker investigates.

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Technology We're in our misinformation predicament partly because of algorithms. Can they also get us out of it? We're in our fake news predicament partly because of algorithms. Can they also get us out of it? via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2DHSH86"

The triple-camera Huawei P20 Pro will feature a 40-megapixel main sensor

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Details continue to trickle out about Huawei’s upcoming P20 flagships, and the latest is about the rumored three-camera system for the top-of-the-line P20 Pro. It’s more or less been confirmed that the P20 Pro will have three rear-facing cameras, but now we know — via WinFuture — what kind of lenses to expect: an 8-megapixel telephoto, a 20-megapixel black-and-white lens, and a main RGB lens that clocks in a massive 40 megapixels. For those keeping score at home, that’s one of the highest megapixel counts ever on a mobile phone, topped only be the legendary 41-megapixel Nokia PureView camera from the Nokia 808 and Lumia 1020 . WinFuture’s leak contains basically anything else you’d want to know about the P20 Pro, too, although most of... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2DGTK8f"

Cambridge Analytica suspends its CEO after comments about bribery and entrapment

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The CEO of controversial data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica was suspended today after he was filmed by undercover journalists appearing to encourage the use of beautiful women to entrap politicians as part of election influence campaigns. Alexander Nix will face a “full, independent investigation” of his comments, the company’s board said in a press release. “In the view of the Board, Mr. Nix’s recent comments secretly recorded by Channel 4 and other allegations do not represent the values or operations of the firm and his suspension reflects the seriousness with which we view this violation,” the company said in a statement posted to its website. “We have asked Dr. Alexander Tayler to serve as acting CEO while an independent... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2G7W7pL"

Google launched a new AR app that lets you draw white lines in the air

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Google has launched a new AR app that’s both simple to use and fun. It’s an app called Just a Line that lets you draw white lines in the air. Google has termed it an AR experiment, as you can literally only draw white lines. In the advertisement for the app , Google demonstrates plenty of ways to use it, such as drawing stars in the air or fish. The results look like Snapchat filters and Instagram stories, but just floating in the air. And if you’re clever with it and draw hoops in the air that you can skateboard through, the lines sometimes look real. The app is based on the company’s previous app, Tilt Brush, which lets you paint in 3D space with virtual reality. Tilt Brush only works with VR-compatible devices though, so Just a Line is... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2u8lTWe"

With Operation Popeye, the U.S. government made weather an instrument of war

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Military As geo-engineering projects soar, the declassified project is newly relevant. Operation Popeye was a secret Vietnam War-era effort to conduct covert cloud seeding over Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, extend the monsoon season, and give the United… via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2DF8AvP"

Lenovo releases three new phones in China after more than a year of silence

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After over a year of not releasing any new phones, Lenovo has launched three phones in China today. There’s the main flagship S5 model , and two lower-end budget phones: the K5 and the K5 Play , presumably meant for children. From a glance, the new phones resemble so many other Android phones, and have more than a slight likeness to the iPhone 6. The Lenovo S5 has a 5.7-inch screen with an 18:9 aspect ratio and a 2160 x 1080 resolution. The back is made of metal. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 625 chip and a 3,000mAh battery. You can choose between 3GB or 4GB of RAM, and 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB of storage. The S5 has dual 13-megapixel rear cameras and a 16-megapixel front-facing selfie cam. The device runs Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box with... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2pu1uWT"

Apple now has more self-driving test vehicles in California than Waymo

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Apple has nearly doubled the number of self-driving cars in its California test fleet, according to new figures obtained by the Financial Times . The company currently has 45 autonomous test vehicles registered with the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, which is up from 27 in late January. That’s more than companies like Waymo and Uber, and second only to General Motors (which performs tests with Cruise, its self-driving division). The news comes two days after one of Uber’s self-driving test vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona while in autonomous mode. Little is known about the particulars of Apple’s self-driving program, which is codenamed Project Titan. The company’s fleet is made up of Lexus RX450h SUVs,... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2GKXMiU"

Midweek Madness - IGF & GDC Award Nominees

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Save on a variety of nominated games from the IGF and GDC Awards as a part of this week's Midweek Madness!* Check out a wide variety of games, ranging from Uurnog Uurnlimited and A Mortician's Tale to Cuphead and Resident Evil 7! *Discount offers end Thursday, March 22nd. via Steam RSS News Feed "http://ift.tt/2HPH5lN"

Always-connected Windows laptops show promise but still need work

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Laptops with built-in cellular connections are poised to be an actual thing for consumers this year, after years of being only available to business customers. One of the biggest pushes for these connected PCs is from Qualcomm, which has been touting its Snapdragon platform as the future of mobile laptop computing. Windows on Snapdragon computers, which run on Qualcomm’s smartphone processors and modems, are finally making their way to store shelves this spring. The Windows on Snapdragon platform does more than just provide an integrated cellular modem that frees you from having to rely on Wi-Fi. It’s a complete change to the core structure of Windows that allows it to run on processors originally designed for smartphones. Alongside that... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2GMNNK8"

Midweek Madness - Europa Universalis IV, 75% Off

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Save 75% on Europa Universalis IV during this week's Midweek Madness*! *Offer ends Friday at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "http://ift.tt/2pqAd7z"

Dota 2 Update - March 20th, 2018

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* Relics toasts now appear over a random visible instance of a hero/illusion, rather than always appearing over the real hero. via Steam RSS News Feed "http://ift.tt/2DI1GWC"

LinkedIn’s video filters are even more boring than you’d expect

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LinkedIn is not exactly known for being fun or engaging or anything but a network you kind of have to be on in certain industries in order to network with people and find a job. But LinkedIn refuses to believe that’s true and is trying to add more fun features: today, that includes video filters , just like Snapchat and Instagram, except they’re extremely not fun and more “I’m a person who enjoys writing business advice posts on Medium in my free time.” Unlike Instagram and Snapchat, which let you add GIFs, face effects, goofy stickers, and filters that change the whole screen, LinkedIn’s idea of “filters” is just some stickers that probably came off a stock art site. There are only three at launch: a red “ON THE AIR” sign, which I guess... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2GM1GYN"

Midweek Madness - Mortal Kombat XL, 66% Off

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Save 66% on Mortal Kombat XL during this week's Midweek Madness*! *Offer ends Friday at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "http://ift.tt/2DHPMvT"

Daily Deal - Battle Brothers, 50% Off

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Today's Deal: Save 50% on Battle Brothers !* Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! *Offer ends Thursday at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "http://ift.tt/2u6aPsE"

Now Available on Steam - OCTAHEDRON, 25% off!

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OCTAHEDRON is Now Available on Steam and is 25% off!* Surf through a pulsating, underground world on platforms pulled from thin air in this challenging psychedelic action platformer that has you defying gravity to a pumping beat. *Offer ends March 27 at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "http://ift.tt/2IGx5Na"

HTC’s new Desire 12 phones have humdrum specs but splashy colors

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HTC has announced a new line of midrange smartphones called the Desire 12 and Desire 12 Plus. The phones are 5.5 inches and 6 inches, respectively, and their most notable feature is probably not any of the specs, but available colors, which, judging from photos, will include purple and gold. As reported by Engadget , both phones have 18:9 displays with 1440 × 720 IPS LCD panels. The phone bodies are built to mimic the “liquid surface” design language of the HTC U11 , using acrylic in place of glass. It’s a choice that results in a product that still looks slick, but feels much less premium when handled. The Desire 12 offers a MediaTek MT6739 chipset along with 2GB or 3GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of expandable storage, and an up to 2TB microSD... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2u27vPj"

Amazon’s in-home delivery service app now has fingerprint authentication

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Amazon Key, the service that lets the company’s couriers access your home to drop off parcels, works via a home security camera and a smart door lock. The service was introduced last October and runs in tandem with the Amazon Key app, which has been updated today on Android to include fingerprint authentication, as spotted by Android Police . Amazon Key allows you to remotely lock / unlock your door and check delivery footage, so the extra layer of security is useful for people who might leave a secondary phone or tablet lying around the house. Reviewers have previously expressed concern that the app launches with automatic access to the camera, guest profiles, and the door lock — problems that should be mitigated with fingerprint... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2HPgYvv"

Facebook is losing control of the narrative — and maybe the platform

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The longer you consider Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal , the stranger it seems. The basic details of the story, in which a researcher improperly gave away data to the company that became Donald Trump’s data operations team in 2016, have been known for two years . The effectiveness of Cambridge Analytica’s psychographic targeting, which attempted to influence voters by mapping out their Facebook likes, is highly suspect and likely overstated. The eye-popping number of Facebook profiles said to be involved — 50 million — may turn out to be marketing hype for a company that excels at it. And yet revelations from this weekend’s stories in the New York Times and the Guardian continue to batter the company. A bipartisan group of US... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2HOsC9D"