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Google removes ‘Don’t Be Evil’ motto from its Code of Conduct

Tim Dempsey

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To be evil or not to be evil — that is the question, Google.

It seems after years of the tech company’s commitment to its low-key creepy-sounding mantra, “Don’t Be Evil,” Google has removed the phrase from its Code of Conduct.

So I guess that means evil is totally chill now?? Cool. Very cool and not at all concerning, right?

On Friday, Gizmodo noted that “Don’t Be Evil,” which has been part of Google’s Code of Conduct since 2000, was recently removed in either April or May, as shown by the Wayback Machine. 

Digging into the Wayback Machine’s April 21, 2018 archive shows the three-word phrase still present in an earlier Code of Conduct: Read more…

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Lol now Facebook is just making fake news smaller

Tim Dempsey

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Facebook really wishes its problems would just disappear. But, since that’s clearly not going to happen, maybe they could, I don’t know, get smaller?

That appears to be the thinking of Mark Zuckerberg and Co., who on Friday announced that the company’s new plan to combat fake news essentially boils down to font size. 

So reports TechCrunch, which notes that Facebook’s latest grand idea is to reduce the amount of space articles take up in the News Feed if their accuracy has been disputed by the company’s third-party fact checkers.  Read more…

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Lol now Facebook is just making fake news smaller

Tim Dempsey

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Facebook really wishes its problems would just disappear. But, since that’s clearly not going to happen, maybe they could, I don’t know, get smaller?

That appears to be the thinking of Mark Zuckerberg and Co., who on Friday announced that the company’s new plan to combat fake news essentially boils down to font size. 

So reports TechCrunch, which notes that Facebook’s latest grand idea is to reduce the amount of space articles take up in the News Feed if their accuracy has been disputed by the company’s third-party fact checkers.  Read more…

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You’ll look ridiculous playing Snapchat’s new AR games, and maybe that’s OK

Tim Dempsey

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When the iPad first came out, people looked kinda ridiculous using it out and about. 

That doesn’t quite compare to Snapchat’s new AR games feature, “Snappables,” which consists of games that let you control what’s happening using your face.

As witnessed in the Snappables trailer, you can fight aliens in an Space Invaders-style game by moving your head around, or pump iron at the gym with your eyebrows. You can also invite friends on Snapchat to play along in multiplayer games.

There are very few of us with the confidence to play Snappables in public, but at least Snap is encouraging you to try. Read more…

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Google attempts to get Android messaging right (again) with Chat

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As predicted, Android is stepping up its messaging game to be on the same page as Apple’s iMessage and Facebook Messenger.

Google’s launching a new messaging service simply called Chat, and it’s the latest, and hopefully best effort by the tech giant to simplify the messaging offering on Android.

As revealed by The Verge, Chat is a rich communication service (RCS) that Google has been pushing carriers and smartphone makers to adopt.

It’s not a new app, but rather an upgrade of the existing messaging experience on Android. It’ll add features like read receipts, being able to see other people typing, full-resolution images and video, and group texting. Read more…

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Facebook gets even shadier, limits EU privacy law reach

Tim Dempsey

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Facebook is quietly looking to limit the number of users that will be protected by Europe’s tough new data law, according to Reuters.

Outside of the U.S. and Canada, Facebook’s users agree to terms and conditions that are tied with the social media company’s operation in Ireland. 

So, as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is set to come into force on May 25, even non-EU users would have had their data protected by the law on Facebook.

But now, Facebook is reportedly looking to ensure that GDPR only applies to European users next month, affecting 1.5 billion users in Australia, Africa, the Middle East and in Asia. Read more…

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Apple Watch users could have access to a whole suite of new faces soon

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Gone through all the Apple Watch faces? Apple could be finally opening up the floor to third-party developers for Watch faces, hints a tiny line of code.

Apple has long maintained control over available faces for its Apple Watch, only allowing official partners like Disney and Pixar to release special editions. Customisation for users is currently limited to modifying “complications” on official watch faces, where there’s an ability to pull information from third-party sources.

But a tiny line of code could suggest the company is gearing up to loosen this exclusivity, a clue picked up by 9to5Mac. Read more…

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Samsung’s latest smartphone can’t connect to the internet. Like, at all.

Tim Dempsey

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Well, here’s something you don’t see announced often (or ever, for that matter): A smartphone that can’t connect to the Internet.

That’s right, Samsung’s new Galaxy J2 Pro (it ain’t a “pro” anything if it can’t go online) is intentionally designed to have no way to go online. And nope, we haven’t slipped into a Tardis and time traveled into April Fool’s Day 2019.

Apparently made for students and senior citizens, the J2 Pro lacks any kind of cellular data connectivity. 

Samsung’s press release (Google translated) says the phone “blocks mobile data such as 3G, LTE, and Wi-Fi” with the intent of helping students focus on learning (instead of, you know, getting distracted by Instagram and stuff). The phone’s also good for seniors who apparently have no interest in going online? 🤦‍ Read more…

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India just cracked down on cryptocurrency. Hard.

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Indian officials are not here for your cryptocurrency games. 

Government officials with the Reserve Bank of India announced on Thursday that, effective immediately, banks would be prohibited from “dealing with or providing services to any individuals or business entities dealing with or settling virtual currencies.”

Essentially, that means people in India are now unable to move money from bank accounts to exchanges in order to buy cryptocurrency. What’s more, if you’ve sold your fat gains for cash, you are no longer able to move that money back to your bank account. Read more…

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Snapchat lenses just got a lot better, if you have an iPhone X

Tim Dempsey

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Attention iPhone X owners: Snapchat is finally making good on its promise to make its augmented reality selfie lenses better.

Today, the company is officially launching a new lineup of lenses that’ve been optimized for the iPhone X’s front-facing TrueDepth camera.

First previewed last fall during Apple’s iPhone X launch event, Snap specially designed the lenses to take advantage of the face-tracking abilities of the iPhone X’s TrueDepth camera. What this means for you, a selfie-obsessed Snapchat user, is that the new lenses will be better able to “stick” to your face, making them look slightly more realistic (or, as “realistic” as a brightly-colored mask can look, anyway). Read more…

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Australia also investigates Facebook following data scandal

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Facebook might be getting a “booting” Down Under.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) announced on Thursday it would open a formal investigation into the social media giant to see if it has breached Australia’s privacy laws. 

It follows news the personal information of 300,000 Australian Facebook users “may have been acquired and used without authorisation” as part of the Cambridge Analytica scandal that affected 87 million.

OAIC said it would work with foreign authorities on the investigation, “given the global nature of the matter.”  Read more…

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Shooting suspect slammed YouTube for ‘discriminating’ against her

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The suspected shooter at YouTube’s California headquarters on Tuesday has been identified as Nasim Najafi Aghdam, San Bruno Police confirmed.

A San Diego resident, Aghdam died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound after shooting three people, one of whom is in critical condition. A fourth victim injured their ankle while fleeing the scene at the San Bruno office. 

The suspected shooter in today’s YouTube incident has been identified. Please see press release for details – https://t.co/Xvr2l9bB9s pic.twitter.com/NEBoX3WWK5

— San Bruno Police (@SanBrunoPolice) April 4, 2018

On her website, Aghdam accused YouTube of “filtering” her videos to prevent them from getting views and embedded a video from prominent YouTube star Casey Neistat complaining about YouTube’s demonetization policy, known as the adpocalypse. Read more…

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Reddit rolls out its first redesign in more than a decade

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Reddit’s design has stayed mostly the same since it launched more than a decade ago, and that’s the way many of its users like it.

But starting from Monday, the news aggregator will slowly roll out a redesign to a small percentage of users, Reddit’s administrators announced in a post.

The refresh will apply to the desktop version of the site, and in coming weeks users will be able to opt-in to the new version of Reddit. 

Reddit's new card view.

Reddit’s new card view.

Image: reddit

As WIRED notes, the redesign has been in the works for the past year-and-a-half. Reddit’s co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman noted in an “Ask Me Anything” last year that the site’s information-dense setup was often confronting to new users, hence the need for a redesign. Read more…

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E-scooter company CEO wants to ‘Save Our Sidewalks’ from bike litter

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Bird is flying into more cities, and as the electric scooter-share company spreads its wings, it wants to make sure it doesn’t destroy communities with its short-range vehicles.

Bird expanded from Southern California this week to San Francisco and San Jose, California, along with Washington, D.C. With the expansion, CEO Travis VanderZanden introduced the “Save Our Sidewalks” pledge.

VanderZanden has proposed other scooter and bike-share companies, like LimeBike, Ofo, MoBike, and Jump, commit to a daily pick-up program, responsible growth of vehicle fleets, and revenue sharing with city governments. Read more…

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Facebook suspends Trump-linked data firm Cambridge Analytica

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A data analytics firm linked to both Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Brexit referendum has been banned by Facebook.

Cambridge Analytica, the British firm that claimed it helped Trump get elected, has been suspended from Facebook, the company revealed. 

At issue is Cambridge Analytica’s use of user data obtained by a third-party developer, a University of Cambridge professor named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan. Kogan, according to Facebook, obtained information on 270,000 Facebook users via his app, which he touted as a research experiment.  Read more…

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UN officials blast Facebook over spread of Rohingya hate speech

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Facebook has long been criticised for its role in the Rohingya crisis, an assessment now underscored by comments by United Nations investigators.

Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission in Myanmar told reporters that social media had a “determining role” in spreading hate speech in the country, according to Reuters.

“It has … substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissension and conflict, if you will, within the public. Hate speech is certainly of course a part of that. As far as the Myanmar situation is concerned, social media is Facebook, and Facebook is social media,” Darusman said. Read more…

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Facebook to publishers: The News Feed algorithm isn’t why you’re failing

Tim Dempsey

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It’s been a rocky year in Facebook and publisher relations, but the social network has a new — very blunt — message for struggling publishers: it’s probably your fault. 

Speaking at a panel at South by Southwest, Facebook’s head of news products, Alex Hardiman, had some strong words for critics who say the company’s recent News Feed algorithm change is hurting publishers. 

In response to a question about digital publisher Little Things, whose CEO blamed Facebook’s News Feed algorithm after the company shut down, Hardiman said “there’s a reason certain publishers don’t do well on Facebook.” Read more…

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Get some media player nostalgia with this web version of Winamp

Tim Dempsey

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Nestled along Age of Empires II and some sort of cracked antivirus, many computers in the early-2000s were also home to Winamp.

The freeware media player which “really whips the llama’s ass” clocked up more than 60 million users by 2001, well before the likes of iTunes or VLC player made any sort of dent in our music-listening habits.

While Winamp hasn’t been updated since 2013, you can now use a web version of the media player that’s been developed by San Francisco programmer Jordan Eldredge.

Winamp2-js is a HTML5 and Javascript redux of Winamp 2.9, a version which was released all the way back in 2003. Memories! Read more…

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Drone gets way too close to an airplane in terrifying video

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Hey, if you own a drone, maybe don’t fly it over an airplane filled with passengers?

The FAA is investigating a video that seems to show a drone’s close call with a commercial airliner landing at McCarran International Airport near Las Vegas, according to the local CBS affiliate. 

Flying a drone near an airport is definitely not allowed by the FAA. Neither is going above 400 feet. Here’s video of the incident shared online, from ABC News:

Yes, that’s pretty terrifying. The FAA released a study last year comparing drones and birds of the same weight, and how they might affect an airplane during a mid-air collision. Surprise: The metal drones were capable of causing way more damage than birds, especially to a plane’s windshield and wings.  Read more…

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Uber’s biggest rival in India expands internationally

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Uber is set to meet a familiar foe Down Under.

For the first time, ride-hailing giant Ola is setting up outside of India. The company said it plans to launch in Australia in early 2018, and is currently signing up drivers in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. 

The latest Uber challenger follows in the footsteps of Estonian ride-hailing company Taxify, which launched in Sydney last December, and recently began operations in Melbourne. 

On its website, Ola said it will initially charge a 7.5 percent commission from drivers. For the time being, it’s considerably lower than Taxify’s 15 percent, and Uber, which is around 25 percent. Ola is yet to reveal its entire fare structure in Australia. Read more…

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Crunch Report | MoviePass pulls out of 10 AMC theaters

Tim Dempsey

Google experiments in local news, MoviePass pulls out of AMC theaters and the Kalanick-Benchmark lawsuit has officially been dismissed. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

Airbnb wants to assure you its vision is ‘good for society’

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In an open letter, the head of Airbnb talked about being a relevant, useful, and purposeful company — and most importantly, one that doesn’t destroy society.

CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky laid out the company’s vision in the letter, and stressed the importance of appeasing not just employees and shareholders, but also the wider community outside of the Airbnb bubble — presumably including people who’ve accused the company of pushing rents higher in tight housing markets. 

Without naming certain social media platforms (ahem, Facebook), he voiced concerns over the widening political divide.  Read more…

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Crunch Report | CNN shuts down Casey Neistat’s Beme

Tim Dempsey

Robinhood is going to let you buy and sell crypto soon, CNN shuts down Casey Neistat’s Beme and Sotheby’s acquires Thread Genius. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

CES’ sexism problem is about more than booth babes and pink robots

Tim Dempsey

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CES is a place of extremes. Each year, tech companies big and small spare no expense in coming up with bizarre ways to showcase their (often relatively mundane) gadgetry: massive tunnels made of huge OLED displays, home appliances with built-in assistants, and weird concept cars unlikely to make it far beyond the Las Vegas Convention Center floor.

But, peer behind the over-the-top displays of headline-grabbing “innovation,” and there’s a troubling truth that should come as little surprise to anyone in the industry: CES still fuels the sexist narratives so many have worked to change over the last year.  Read more…

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Crunch Report | GoPro Cuts 200-300 Jobs

Tim Dempsey

App revenue reached $60 billion in 2017, Travis Kalanick is selling 29 percent of his Uber shares and GoPro cuts 200-300 jobs. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

Faraday Future is the ultimate CES cautionary tale

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It was the “first of a new species.” It was going to change the game. It both was, and maybe was not, a car. It was the talk of CES. But that was then. 

Now, almost a year after Faraday Future unveiled the FF 91 at CES in January 2017, the would-be electric car manufacturer that sought to challenge Tesla has come close to crashing and burning. And while much has been written about the unfulfilled promises and stumbles of the company, its frothy CES showcase speaks to a much larger truth about the biggest consumer tech show in the world: Don’t believe the hype. 

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Crunch Report | Telegram and Instagram Are Being Restricted in Iran

Tim Dempsey

Amazon Prime shipped 5 billion Items in 2017, SuperMeat gets $3 million in funding and Telegram and Instagram are being restricted in Iran. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

My favorite Twitter account is a bot

Tim Dempsey

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Human Twitter accounts serve their purpose, but I prefer tweets from bots.

Research suggests there are now some 30 million tweeting bots — though this might be a low estimate. Some of these bots provide weather updates, make stock recommendations, or attempt to subvert democracy. 

I, however, like bots that aren’t necessarily so useful nor ambitious. I look forward to their musings because their primary directive is to produce creative or absurd content — and I’m not alone. 

“I like anything that’s going to inject a little strangeness, beyond the normal strangeness that we have every day now,” Charles Bergquist, the creator of my favorite twitter bot, NewFound Planets, told Mashable. Bergquist is also the director of the public radio program Science Friday.  Read more…

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Crunch Report | Apple Apologizes for Slowing Down iPhones

Tim Dempsey

Apple apologizes for slowing down iPhones, humans spent $200 million on apps this Christmas and Google retires the Pixel C tablet. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

Crunch Report | South Korea Announces New Cryptocurrency Regulations

Tim Dempsey

South Korea announces new cryptocurrency regulations coinciding with the drop in bitcoin prices, YouTube gets pulled from Fire TV and SoftBank will now own about 15 percent of Uber. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

HQ Trivia Is Coming to Android | Crunch Report

Tim Dempsey

HQ Trivia is coming to Android, Amazon Echo is the No. 1 best seller on the site and the founder of LeEco is ordered to return to China. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

Behind the ambitious plan to build and race flying cars

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Since Back to the Future, you’re far from alone if you’ve wondered where the heck your flying car is already.

Sure, we’ve seen pitches by the likes of Kitty Hawk, which is backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, and Slovakian startup AeroMobil — but the reality of a flying car still seems a way off.

An Australian startup called Alauda has an ambition to fast-track that reality with its electric, low-altitude aircraft, the Airspeeder Mark I. 

Alauda is founded by Matt Pearson, who also cofounded space startup Fleet. Over the past two years, Pearson has been working on the project as part of a team of five in a Sydney warehouse. Read more…

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Crunch Report | Twitter tests a new tweetstorm feature and Tesla unveils a semi truck

Tim Dempsey

 Today’s Stories Apple pushes back on the release of the Homepod Twitter tests a new tweetstorm feature Tesla unveils a new semi truck Walmart will pilot the new Tesla Semis Credits Written by: Sarah Buhr Hosted by: Sarah Buhr Filmed by: Chris Gates Edited by: John Murillo Notes: Tito continues his journey in the Outback this week so you’re with me til Friday. Let’s… Read More

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China now has more supercomputers on the world’s top 500 list than the U.S.

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China has reached a supercomputing milestone.

The country now has more machines on a list of the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers than the U.S. 

China has 202 systems on the Top500’s supercomputer list, with the U.S. comparatively having only 143.

The U.S. ranking is its lowest since the Top500 rankings began 25 years ago, though the country still manages to come in at second place.

Japan comes in third with 35 supercomputers, and Germany fourth with 20.

According to Top500, China’s managed to turn things around pretty fast. Just six months ago, the US led with 169 systems, with China slightly trailing with 160. Read more…

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Crunch Report | Hey Dillon Francis, iPhone X Is Now Available For Pre-Order

Tim Dempsey

Today we’re hanging out with EDM artist Dillon Francis, Apple opens for iPhone X pre-orders and releases a sleeve for MacBooks, Walmart starts using robots in stores and Russia condemns Twitter for banning two of its media companies from advertising on the platform. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

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Facebook’s Workplace is turning into a serious Slack competitor

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Facebook may be the last company you’d ever expect to make software for serious businesses, but the social network is quickly proving the haters wrong.

A year after officially launching Workplace, the business-focused version of Facebook, the service now counts more than 30,000 businesses and organizations using the software, Facebook announced Thursday. 

That group, more than double what Workplace claimed six months ago, includes names like Starbucks, Spotify, Lyft, and Walmart.

Though not as huge as some of its biggest competitors — less than a year in Microsoft Teams counts more than 125,000 organizations — the growth is impressive, considering that it wasn’t that long ago that the idea of Facebook launching professional software seemed like more of a joke than anything else. Read more…

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Crunch Report | SoftBank Vision Fund Sequels

Tim Dempsey

SoftBank is planning to create $100 billion Vision Fund sequels, Chariot is temporarily paused in San Francisco and Stitch Fix shows us what a good IPO looks like. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

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Crunch Report | Steve Wozniak Launches Education Platform

Tim Dempsey

Steve Wozniak launches a new education platform, “Woz U,” Fandango acquires MovieTickets.com and Baidu plans to make lots of autonomous cars in 2021. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

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Australian court rules an unsent text message on phone counts as a will

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An unsent message of a deceased man in Australia has been ruled as a valid will. 

It means he will leave his estate to his brother and nephew as opposed to his son and wife, who he apparently had a difficult relationship with. 

The decision was handed down by a judge at the Supreme Court of Queensland, following no evidence of any other will created by the deceased man.

The man, who tragically took his own life, was found with the phone by his widow in October 2016. The following day, a friend of the widow was asked to look through the deceased man’s contact list to see who should be notified of his death.  Read more…

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Crunch Report | AOL Instant Messenger Is Shutting Down

Tim Dempsey

AOL Instant Messenger is shutting down, some iPhone 8s are having battery problems and a smart bandage that releases meds on demand. All this on Crunch Report! Read More

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Crunch Report | Patreon is raising a Series C at $450M

Tim Dempsey

Patreon is raising at a $450 millon valuation, Chrome mutes autoplaying videos and Hulu is spending $2.5 billion for original content. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

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All the new Apple iPhone features we know about from that big iOS 11 leak

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Apple kinda sorta just spoiled its own big event by letting slip some of the biggest updates coming to the new iPhone and Apple Watch. 

We’ve already detailed some of the possible new emoji goodies, Apple Watch updates, and iPhone naming updates, but there’s also a few other features revealed in the iOS 11 firmware leak.   

The massive outpouring of information includes a new set of wallpapers that feature Apple’s traditional abstract color patterns, images of flowers, and the planet Earth, as well as a new set of retro-style rainbow color patterns.  Read more…

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Facebook comments might soon get colored backgrounds, because we all deserve to suffer

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Oh, no. First it was the colored statuses — those awful, ugly, often-gradient-based abominations that pop up in your Facebook feed now and then — but we thought at least our Facebook comments are safe. 

Well, not any more. It appears that Facebook is testing comments with colored backgrounds. 

First spotted by The Next Web on Wednesday, the feature allows users to choose from a solid or gradient color for the comment’s background, just like the statuses.

The feature currently appears to only be available on mobile, and only to a small subset of users. We’ve checked a dozen or so phones here at Mashable, and no one had the feature available.  Read more…

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Crunch Report | China’s Central Bank Puts a Ban on ICOs

Tim Dempsey

China’s central bank puts a ban on ICOs, the next generation of the Lily drone is here, WhatsApp for Business is launching and Alphabet creates a new holding company to complete 2015 corporate reorganization. All this on Crunch Report! Read More

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Here's how the White House may be keeping Trump off the web

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It’s the digital version of a playpen for an adult who’s incapable of setting his own boundaries.

A new report in The New York Times on Friday talks about President Trump having no access to a normal web browser on his iPhone. It’s a setup designed, according to the report, to limit his exposure to the news media (thus, presumably, avoiding one of his now familiar, venomous, media-hating tweetstorms).  

“[New chief of staff, John F. Kelly] cannot stop Mr. Trump from binge-watching Fox News, which aides describe as the president’s primary source of information gathering,” the Times report states.  Read more…

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Floyd 'Crypto' Mayweather is totally into cryptocurrencies

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Floyd Mayweather — the same one that’s fighting Conor McGregor on Aug. 26 — is serious about cryptocurrencies. 

The boxing champ is promoting an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) of a startup called Hubii. In an Instagram post, which shows him posing in a (probably very expensive) suit, he described Hubii as “smart contract for sports.” He also wrote we can now start calling him Floyd “Crypto” Mayweather (his standard nickname is “Money”). 

This is the second ICO Mayweather is promoting. In July, he hyped up the ICO of a prediction market platform Stox, which went on to raise $33 million in Ethereum in less than two days.  Read more…

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