Thursday, December 15, 2016

Why Apple's MacBook Touch Bar was the right thing to do and other top stories.

  • Why Apple's MacBook Touch Bar was the right thing to do

    People love a Greek tragedy. Icarus has flown too close to the sun and tumbled to Earth. Apple has forgotten its core users and been eclipsed by Microsoft. The Touch Bar is a compromise between adding a touch screen on a MacBook and ignoring touch entirely. These narratives are easy to sketch because they sell better to readers than moderated, honest inspection of sentiment and behavior. If you have heroes and villains then everything is a zero-sum game and nothing that competitors do can exis..
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  • The FCC just passed sweeping new rules to protect your online privacy

    The FCC just passed sweeping new rules to protect your online privacy
    The FCC approved new rules to ensure broadband providers do not abuse their customers' app usage and browsing history. Here's everything you need to know about it. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post) Federal officials delivered a landmark ruling in favor of online privacy Thursday, limiting how Internet providers use and sell customer data, while asserting that customers have a right to control their personal information. Under the Federal Communications Commission’s new rules, consumers ma..
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  • Hacker tweets 'No Man's Sky was a mistake' from Hello Games account

    Hacker tweets 'No Man's Sky was a mistake' from Hello Games account
    Hello Games, the indie studio behind sci-fi sim No Man’s Sky, appears to have been hacked by disgruntled fans. Earlier today, a since-deleted tweet appeared stating that “No Man’s Sky was a mistake.” The tweet came after months of quiet following the controversial launch of the game, and was followed by director Sean Murray stating that “Server hacked. We're binging Mr. Robot episodes as quickly as we can looking for answers. Ep05 is a cracker.” In addition to the Hello Games Twitter acco..
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  • Can Dell's best all-in-one challenge Microsoft's new Surface Studio?

    Can Dell's best all-in-one challenge Microsoft's new Surface Studio?
    After much anticipation, Microsoft has finally unveiled the Surface Studio at a press event in New York City. This all-in-one unit adds a unique, top-of-the-line desktop model to the existing Surface lineup. It’s a great option for group collaborations and creative professionals, particularly because it comes outfitted with a 28-inch display that touts 4,500 x 3,000-pixel resolution and the ability to lie nearly flat. It might showcase a hefty price tag and pack last-gen innards — Nvidia GTX 96..
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  • Facebook tests Snapchat-style camera special effects with ephemeral sharing

    Facebook tests Snapchat-style camera special effects with ephemeral sharing
    Facebook is overhauling its in-app camera to embrace the next era of augmented reality visual communication pioneered by Snapchat. The new features include Snapchat-style animated selfie masks, overlaid graphics, and geofilters; Prisma-esque fine art-themed style transfer filters; and some innovative new “reactive” filters that respond to your body’s movements. What Facebook is calling “the new camera” will be instantly accessible from the News Feed with a quick right swipe. And instead of jus..
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  • This European Country's Antitrust Watchdog Is Looking Closer at WhatsApp

    This European Country's Antitrust Watchdog Is Looking Closer at WhatsApp
    Italy’s antitrust watchdog said on Friday it had opened a probe into whether messaging service WhatsApp obliged users to agree to sharing personal data with its parent company Facebook and imposed “unfair” conditions on users. WhatsApp fb said in August it would start sharing phone numbers with the social network, prompting European regulators to declare they would put the matter under close scrutiny. The Italian agency said it was investigating whether the WhatsApp application had led u..
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  • Spending vs. profits: Amazon, short-term investors at odds again

    Spending vs. profits: Amazon, short-term investors at odds again
    Amazon.com Inc may be a "buy" for the vast majority of analysts, but it was a "sell" for a lot of investors on Friday.Few of those investors would have been disappointed, though. While Amazon's stock fell 4.5 percent to $781.67 in morning trading, it had risen 36 percent in the past six months alone.The trigger for the profit-taking was the company's statement on Thursday that its operating income for the holiday shopping quarter would range from nothing to $1.25 billion, due to heavy invest..
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  • Facebook accused of discrimination by allowing advertisers to target users by 'ethnic affinity'

    Facebook accused of discrimination by allowing advertisers to target users by 'ethnic affinity'
    Facebook may be violating federal anti-discrimination laws by letting advertisers target users based on “ethnic affinities,” according to a report published Friday.The social network has long provided advertisers with the option of picking what particular types of users they want their content delivered to, according to factors ranging from musical interests to alma mater. In November 2014, the network began allowing advertisers to target specific “ethnic affinities” — Facebook-defined categorie..
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  • Why Vine died

    Why Vine died
    The thing about Vine becoming the internet’s premiere tool for making short-form videos is that it happened almost completely by accident. Its founders had envisioned their tool for making 6-second clips as a way to help people capture casual moments in their lives and share them with friends. It was part of their pitch to Twitter, which bought the company for a reported $30 million in October 2012, seeing it as a near-perfect video analog to its flagship app’s short-form text posts. And yet ev..
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  • Comma.ai pulls out of US after receiving NHTSA Special Order

    Comma.ai pulls out of US after receiving NHTSA Special Order
    Being a Silicon Valley 'disruptor' doesn't excuse you from federal safety standards. Bloomberg screengrab via Andrew Krok/Roadshow Nobody likes dealing with US federal regulations, but a great many companies suck it up and do it anyway so their products can end up with US buyers. It appears Comma.ai and its semi-autonomous driving system would rather take its toys to China instead of dealing with the feds, though...
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New York Today: Secret Rooms and Speakeasies .[ October 19, 2016 ] ESA celebrates ExoMars orbiter success, keeps vigil for lost lander News .
New York Today: Cross This Way .Swiss doctors report success of using cells from the nose to repair damaged knee joints .

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