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Showing posts from April, 2018

Facebook’s Privacy Changes Leave Developers Steaming

By SHEERA FRENKEL from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2jmmprf

Future of AT&T-Time Warner Deal Is in Judge’s Hands

By CECILIA KANG from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2jgSpNs

WhatsApp Co-Founder Leaving Facebook’s Board Amid User Data Disputes

By SHEERA FRENKEL from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2HDouxJ

Covee uses blockchain to allow experts worldwide to collaborate

Solving complex data-driven problems requires a lot of teamwork. But, of course, teamwork is typically restricted to companies where everyone is working under the same roof. While distributed teams have become commonplace in tech startups, taking that to the next level by linking up disparate groups of people all working on the same problem (but not in the same company) has been all but impossible. However, in theory, you could use a blockchain to do such a thing, where the work generated was constantly accounted for on-chain. That’s in theory. In practice, there’s now a startup that claims to have come up with this model. And it’s raised funding. Covee , a startup out of Berlin, has raised a modest €1.35 million in a round led by LocalGlobe in London, with Atlantic Labs in Berlin and a selection of angels. Prior to this, the company was bootstrapped by CEO Dr. Marcel Dietsch, who left his job at a London-based hedge fund, and his long-time friend, Dr. Raphael Schoettler, COO, who

Spam filters and AI help figure out what animals do all day

The pond-dwelling Hydra is not a very complex little animal but it does have a complex repertoire of moves that aren’t clear until after extensive human observation. Examining these moves took a long time and scientists were never sure that they had seen all of them. Now, thanks to an algorithm used to catch spam, researchers have been able to catalog all of the Hydra’s various moves, allowing them to map those moves to the neurons firing in its weird little head. “People have used machine learning algorithms to partly analyze how a fruit fly flies, and how a worm crawls, but this is the first systematic description of an animal’s behavior,” said Rafael Yuste, a neuroscientist at Columbia University . “Now that we can measure the entirety of Hydra’s behavior in real-time, we can see if it can learn, and if so, how its neurons respond.” Luckily, the little Hydra was pretty predictable. From the report : In the current study, the team went a step further by attempting to catalog Hyd

FOX NEWS: Michigan police department's photoshopped patrol car post goes viral, sparks mixed reactions

Michigan police department's photoshopped patrol car post goes viral, sparks mixed reactions The Bath Township Police Department "unveiled" its intentions on Facebook.

There’s something called Bacoin now

To paraphrase a saying popularized by countless dorm room stoners: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you use the hype around decentralized crypto economies sell bacon.” The latest example of this age-old adage comes to us from Oscar Meyer and involves their exciting new cryp-faux-currency, Bacoin. The currency can be redeemed for bacon and you “mine” it by sharing the good news of bacoin with your friends. Instead of taking up massive amounts of electricity, the production of the final store of value – pig parts – requires only a massive agricultural system dedicated to the wholesale destruction of mammals that are as smart as dogs and, in the right context, quite cute. The end product, bacon, is considered by many to be far more interesting than anything Vitalik created. In short, it’s a win-win. How does it work? It’s basically a sweepstakes. From the rules and regulations: The value of the Bacoin is tied to overall sharing meaning that th

Creepy or Not? Your Privacy Concerns Likely Reflect Your Politics

By NATASHA SINGER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2JEytPL

SoFi founder Mike Cagney is back with a new startup and $50 million in funding, too

Mike Cagney, who was ousted last summer from the lending company he founded, is back with a new startup and a whole lot of funding from at least one of his previous investors. According to a new report in Bloomberg, Cagney, who earlier this year formed a new lending startup called Figure , has raised $50 million to grow the company, which plans to use the blockchain to facilitate loan approvals in minutes instead of days. According to the company’s site, its lending products will include home equity lines of credit, home improvement loans and home buy-lease back offerings for retirement. The round was led by DCM Ventures and Ribbit Capital and included participation from Mithril Capital Management, Cagney confirmed to Bloomberg. Ribbit Capital in Palo Alto, Calif., has been leading investments in the world of fintech and digital currencies from its founding nearly six years ago. Others of its many bets include the online consumer lending company Affirm and Point, a startup that bu

FOX NEWS: Giant alligator nearly the size of a car stops traffic on Texas highway

Giant alligator nearly the size of a car stops traffic on Texas highway A giant alligator nearly the length of a small family car was captured in Cleveland, TX. early Monday morning as it attempted to cross highway 59, near the Whataburger restaurant.

Want to talk about the future? Join me on Technotopia

Technotopia is a podcast about the future. It assumes the world won’t fall into a dystopia and therefore is optimistic about our chances for human success. I’m looking for cool people to talk to and I’d like for you to join me. I love guests who are are excited about the future and technology but I do not require a technology background. I want artists, writers, programmers, makers, and thinkers. I want to ask smart people why we shouldn’t despair. Want to join in? Fill this out to schedule a time. PR people fill it out as if you were your client so I can contact them directly. I usually record a few episodes a week so I have a nice buffer during the month. Before you come on: 1. Listen to at least one episode . You can check it out here . 2. Understand you are not pitching your company or project. This is a discussion about the future. No CMOs or PR people unless you also play a mean theremin. 3. The only question I really ask is “What will the world look like in 20 years?” Ev

FOX NEWS: Sprint, T-Mobile have to sell $26.5B deal to antitrust cops

Sprint, T-Mobile have to sell $26.5B deal to antitrust cops NEW YORK (AP) — To gain approval for their $26.5 billion merger agreement, T-Mobile and Sprint aim to convince antitrust regulators that there is plenty of competition for wireless service beyond Verizon and AT&T.

Twitter also sold data access to Cambridge Analytica researcher

Since it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed the personal data of millions of Facebook users , one question has lingered in the minds of the public: What other data did Dr. Aleksandr Kogan gain access to? Twitter confirmed to The Telegraph on Saturday that GSR, Kogan’s own commercial enterprise, had purchased one-time API access to a random sample of public tweets from a five-month period between December 2014 and April 2015. Twitter told Bloomberg that, following an internal review, the company did not find any access to private data about people who use Twitter. Twitter sells API access to large organizations or enterprises for the purposes of surveying sentiment or opinion during various events, or around certain topics or ideas. Here’s what a Twitter spokesperson said to The Telegraph: Twitter has also made the policy decision to off-board advertising from all accounts owned and operated by Cambridge Analytica. This decision is based on our determina

FOX NEWS: Blue Origin launches and lands New Shepard

Blue Origin launches and lands New Shepard Jeff Bezos has big plans for space, and the latest successful launch of Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital booster and crew capsule suggest he's going to achieve them.

FOX NEWS: Apple's Siri in the spotlight for potty mouth

Apple's Siri in the spotlight for potty mouth Apple's virtual assistant Siri is under fire after it came to light that it has a surprising definition for the word "mother."

FOX NEWS: Giant walking robot transforms into a sports car

Giant walking robot transforms into a sports car Your commute may never be the same again. A trio of Japanese companies, aided by legendary mech designer Kunio Owara, has created a real-life transformer robot that becomes a sleek sports car at the touch of a button.

Why All the New Terms of Service?

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2KomO93

FOX NEWS: DNA link to Golden State Killer raises questions of privacy versus safety

DNA link to Golden State Killer raises questions of privacy versus safety Do you lose privacy rights when personal data is stored on an open platform? Authorities arrested a suspect in the Golden State Killer case based on DNA data a relative uploaded to GEDMatch, an open-source ancestry site.

Behind T-Mobile-Sprint Merger, a Race to Keep Up With China in 5G

By RAYMOND ZHONG from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2vTHhiO

Porn block

Soon you'll have to prove you're 18 years old if you want to watch pornography online. Here is all you need to know. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2HU3TV3

One Goal of Amazon’s HQ2: Learn the Lessons of Seattle

By NICK WINGFIELD from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2r9mFxD

Blockchain Will Be Theirs, Russian Spy Boasted at Conference

By NATHANIEL POPPER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2vX5DZc

FOX NEWS: 5 quick fixes for computer problems

5 quick fixes for computer problems Computers live by Murphy’s Law: “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.” Which is why, at some point, your computer will freeze, or flicker, or even shut down. Most of us are comfortable using computers as long as everything is going smoothly.

From dorm room to Starbucks, Rip Van Wafels is bringing Euro-inspired snack to the masses

Rip Pruisken waffled in college (we got that pun safely out of the way for now). He was a student in the Ivy League at Brown University, and had focused on academics for much of his life. His parents were physicists, and “I thought I would study some sort of cookie-cutter path of studying something that I would use post-college,” he explained. “I didn’t really consider entrepreneurship to be a viable option because I was still in that frame of mind.“ It was during a study trip to Italy that he had an epiphany. He was inside an Italian bookstore looking through business books when he suddenly realized that he had discovered a new passion. “If you can build stuff at a profit, you can build more stuff, and how cool is that? That was my aha moment,” he said. Being an entrepreneur was one thing, but it wasn’t clear what Pruisken should sell. He had grown up in Amsterdam, where he used to eat stroopwafel, a snack composed of two thin waffle pastries melded together with a syrup center. Du

Emissary wants to make sales networking obsolete

There is nothing meritocratic about sales. A startup may have the best product, the best vision, and the most compelling presentation, only to discover that their sales team is talking to the wrong decision-maker or not making the right kind of small talk. Unfortunately, that critical information — that network intelligence — isn’t written down in a book somewhere or on an online forum, but generally is uncovered by extensive networking and gossip. For David Hammer and his team at Emissary , that is a problem to solve. “I am not sure I want a world where the best networkers win,” he explained to me. Emissary is a hybrid SaaS marketplace which connects sales teams on one side with people (called emissaries, naturally) who can guide them through the sales process at companies they are familiar with. The best emissaries are generally ex-executives and employees who have recently left the target company, and therefore understand the decision-making processes and the politics of the organ

FOX NEWS: 5G revolution, saving on flights, and more: Tech Q&A

5G revolution, saving on flights, and more: Tech Q&A I want to get Fox News, LifeTime, ShowTime, and a few other channels streaming. What service do I need? I am so confused!

FOX NEWS: YouTube, dealing with advertiser uproar, defends controversial cleric's videos

YouTube, dealing with advertiser uproar, defends controversial cleric's videos YouTube appears to be doing damage control less than a week after a report revealed advertisements from hundreds of big-name brands were appearing next to videos with content ranging from Nazi and North Korean propaganda to pedophilia.

FOX NEWS: Google taps tech to battle opioid crisis

Google taps tech to battle opioid crisis Google is throwing its weight behind the effort to tackle America’s opioid crisis.

FOX NEWS: Award-winning wildlife photo disqualified because it features a 'stuffed anteater'

Award-winning wildlife photo disqualified because it features a 'stuffed anteater' Marcio Cabral submitted a once-in-a-lifetime shot of an anteater, located in the Brazilian plains, eating termites deep in the concrete mud-mound. For his work, Cabral won the 2017 British Natural History Museum photography award for “Animals in their Environment." The image, however, has proved highly controversial.

FOX NEWS: YouTube, dealing with advertiser uproar, defends controversial cleric's videos

YouTube, dealing with advertiser uproar, defends controversial cleric's videos YouTube appears to be doing damage control less than a week after a report revealed advertisements from hundreds of big-name brands were appearing next to videos with content ranging from Nazi and North Korean propaganda to pedophilia.

FOX NEWS: Nintendo Labo review: When toys come to life

Nintendo Labo review: When toys come to life The Nintendo Labo is unlike anything you've ever done with a video game accessory and yet, once it's put together it's hard to imagine life without it.

CultureCrush breaks out of the swipe right box

Most dating apps are aimed at a general population, but people of color and immigrants are rarely well-represented. CultureCrush wants to fix that. This app, created by a team led by former attorney Amanda Spann, lets you search the dating pool by nationality, ethnicity and tribe in an effort to help fish out of water find a match. “We have 24,000 users, 5% of which are premium paid users, and the app has generated revenue every month since its existence. Upon our relaunch, we anticipate this number to rapidly accelerate,” said Spann. “CultureCrush is the only app of its kind that enables you to search by nationality, ethnicity, and tribe. We have nearly 1,000 tribes from across the continent of Africa. Akin to JDate, CultureCrush allows users to connect with others from specific ethnic or national backgrounds. Anyone who grew up in a specific culture understands the magic of connecting with others from the same or similar background. CultureCrush improves upon the JDate model by est

Aloe Bud is the adorable self-care app you’ve been waiting for

The buzz or chime of a push notification on your phone is, at best, a distraction, and at worst, a source of stress and anxiety. A new app called Aloe Bud wants to make those push notifications into something more welcome: gentle reminders to take care of yourself and your own needs. With its configurable reminders, Aloe Bud will encourage you to take a break, drink water, move your body, rest, breathe, and more. The app is the latest to enter the booming “self-care” market , which caters to a largely younger demographic who are better handling the pressures of modern-day life by carving out time for themselves to mediate, relax, and practice other mindfulness techniques. Some older folks have scoffed at the movement, claiming millennials are too self-involved – or they just scratch their head in confusion. (“Mindfulness?”) But there’s real demand for these self-care applications and services – in the first quarter of the year, the top ten self-care apps pulled in $15 million in rev

Meet the first four startups in the MetaProp Bridge international accelerator

Real estate-focused MetaProp NYC has been adding new programs on top of its core accelerator . The latest: The MetaProp Bridge at Columbia University . It’s an international accelerator designed specifically for real estate and property tech-related startups from Europe, the Middle East and Africa that are looking to expand into North America. Participants get access to MetaProp mentors, advisory services and up to $250,000 in financing. The 14-week program begins with eight weeks in London before moving to New York City and concluding with a two-week, five-city roadshow across North America. “From our first days on the ground in London, it was clear that this is a critical time for PropTech in EMEA,” said MetaProp’s Leila Collins in a statement. “There is an abundance of compelling technology for the real estate industry emerging from the region. We are happy to now have the infrastructure to partner with and support some of the most promising EMEA PropTech startups as they launch

FOX NEWS: Amazon Prime will start costing you $119 per year

Amazon Prime will start costing you $119 per year Amazon Prime is soon going to cost you an extra $20.

Kevin’s Week in Tech: Let’s Check In on the Other Social Networks, Shall We?

By KEVIN ROOSE from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2JxOAyu

FOX NEWS: New, cheaper iPhone coming, reports say

New, cheaper iPhone coming, reports say A new affordable iPhone may be on the way, though not everyone agrees what form it would take.

Maverick, a social network for young women, launches with $2.7M in funding

While Bumble BFF and Hey! Vina help adult women find new friends, there isn’t a social network dedicated to young women. But Brooke Chaffin and Catherine Connors are looking to change that with the introduction of Maverick , a social network that connects young girls with female mentors to express their creativity in a safe space. Here’s how it works: When a new user signs up, they can browse through various challenges set forth by Catalysts, inspiring role models selected specifically by the founders to inspire the younger demographic on the network. These challenges include things like making their own super hero, creating their own dance number or choosing a mantra. Users, usually between the ages of 10 and 20, can post their response to a challenge via photo or a 30-second video and browse the responses of others. Interestingly, Maverick has done away with ‘likes’ and instead offers points for various types of engagement, like posting a response to a challenge, posting a comme

Apple iTunes finally arrives in the Windows Store

With Microsoft’s BUILD 2018 conference right around the corner, the company just made good on a promise from last year’s conference ; Apple iTunes is finally coming to the Windows Store. The music software was originally forecast to arrive by the end of 2017, but it took a bit longer to finally find its Windows home. The iTunes of the Windows Store is just the same old regular iTunes, but now installation updates are handled through the Windows Store updater rather than through Apple . It’s arrival also ensures the software’s compatibility with Windows 10 S mode which only runs apps downloaded from the Windows Store. If you somehow don’t have iTunes yet you still desire iTunes on your Windows 10 PC, check it out here . from Apple – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2Jy1E7b

Amazon’s Profit Swells to $1.6 Billion, Lifted by Its Cloud Business

By NICK WINGFIELD from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2r15sqM

FOX NEWS: Fox News Poll: Considered deleting Facebook? Many users say yes

Fox News Poll: Considered deleting Facebook? Many users say yes The latest Fox News poll finds a large minority of current Facebook users have considered deleting their profiles, including almost half of the tech-savvy millennials.

Apple ends production of AirPort base stations

It’s an end of an era in Cupertino today. Apple just announced the end of production on its AirPort line of base stations, a list that includes the AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule. In a statement provided to TechCrunch, the company noted that it will continue to sell its remaining stock, but once it’s done, it’s done. “We’re discontinuing the Apple AirPort base station products,” says the spokesperson. “They will be available through  Apple.com , Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers while supplies last.” The end of the line probably doesn’t come as too much of a surprise for outsiders. A lot has changed in the home networking category since Apple arrived on the scene nearly 20 years back. A number of other consumer electronics bigwigs have entered the fray, along with with a number of notable startups. Google, Linksys and Netgear have offered some pretty compelling offerings, along with newcomers like Plume and Eero. AirPort has clearly beco

Microsoft’s Cloud Has Business Booming Again

By STEVE LOHR from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2HXdoDj

Square is acquiring website builder Weebly for $365M

Square just announced that it’s reached an agreement to acquire Weebly for $365 million in cash and stock. While Square is best known for its payment software and hardware , it’s also been expanding into other areas, for example with the acquisition of food delivery service Caviar and corporate catering startup Zesty . Weebly, meanwhile, offers easy-to-use website building tools. While those tools can be used by individuals (my personal website is built on Weebly), the company has increasingly focused on serving small businesses and e-commerce companies . Meanwhile, competitor Squarespace raised $200 million at a $1.7 billion valuation at the end of last year. Square says that by acquiring Weebly, it can create “one cohesive solution” for entrepreneurs looking to build an online and offline business. And since 40 percent of Weebly’s 625,000 paid subscribers are outside the U.S., the deal will help Square expand globally. “Square and Weebly share a passion for empowering and