As developers for tablets and smartphones we like to keep abreast of the latest mobile technology developments . This is a daily digest of mobile development and related technology news gathered from the BBC, the New York Times, New Scientist and the Globe and Mail to name a few. We scour the web for articles concerning, iPhone, iPad and android development, iOS and android operating systems as well as general articles on advances in mobile technology. We hope you find this useful and that it helps to keep you up to date with the latest technology developments.
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Apple's Tim Cook To Donate All His Money, Magazine Says
(Adds details on Cook’s growing public presence, background)
March 26 (Reuters) – Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook is joining the roster of the very rich who are giving away their wealth.
Fortune magazine cited the head of the world’s largest technology corporation as saying he planned to donate his estimated $785 million fortune to charity – after paying for his 10-year-old nephew’s college education.
“You want to be the pebble in the pond that creates the ripples for change,” Cook told the magazine.
Fortune estimated Cook’s net worth, based on his holdings of Apple stock, at about $120 million. He also holds restricted stock worth $665 million if it were to be fully vested.
The 54-year-old CEO’s revelation in Fortune’s lengthy profile of him is an example of the increasingly public philanthropy of the world’s richest people.
Billionaire financier Warren Buffett is encouraging the very wealthy to give away at least half their worth in their lifetimes through the “Giving Pledge,” whose website lists such luminaries as Microsoft Corp’s Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook Inc and Oracle Corp’s Larry Ellison.
While Cook’s largesse could not begin to approach the scale of a Gates or Zuckerberg, both worth billions of dollars, the Apple CEO told Fortune he hopes to make a difference.
Cook, who is not listed on the website, is known as an intensely private person who shuns the spotlight on philanthropy.
In recent years, however, he has begun speaking out more openly about issues ranging from the environment to civil rights. Cook, who recently revealed he was gay, spoke out against discrimination of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual communities during his induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor last year.
He told Fortune he has started donating money to unspecified causes quietly and is trying to develop a more “systematic approach” to philanthropy that goes beyond writing checks. (Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru and Edwin Chan in San Francisco; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Andre Grenon)
This Tinder Hack Reportedly Had Dudes Talking Dudes When They Thought They Were Talking To Women
A Tinder hack reportedly had men flirting with other men. Here’s the thing, though: All the dudes thought they were chatting with women.
The Verge reports that an anonymous California-based programmer devised the Tinder hack after seeing the outrageous messages his female friends received on the dating app.
The hacker essentially paired male users who swiped right on two fake female Tinder profiles he set up, the outlet notes. Though he intervened before the users met in real life, he said he was surprised by the hastiness of the guys he pranked.
“They ignore all the signs, they ignore all the weird things,” he said. “When someone is so quick to meet up without any detail or know anything about the person at all — maybe it’s deserved.”
Reading the conversations, it’s quite amazing how many clues these guys miss.
Photo Credit: The Verge
Photo Credit: The Verge
Photo Credit: The Verge
However, online dating consultant Steve Dean, who runs DatingWorks, told The Huffington Post he isn’t surprised the guys didn’t realize they were talking to men.
“If you have no reason to believe that people aren’t who they say they are, guys are more likely to strategically and selectively believe what they think is true,” he said.
HuffPost reached out to Tinder to confirm the hack but did not receive an immediate response. Still, this wouldn’t be the first time Tinder’s API was compromised. As the Verge notes, safety concerns were sparked in 2013 after it was discovered that a quick hack could trick the app into revealing users’ exact locations.
With any luck, the prank — and those glorious screengrabs — will at least prompt the Tinder Brotherhood to consider how it feels to be on the other end of those “flirtatious” lines.
Google CFO Porat To Get $70 Million In 2 Years
(Adds details, updates shares)
March 26 (Reuters) – Google Inc said it would pay its new Chief Financial Officer, Ruth Porat, more than $70 million in the next two years through a combination of restricted stock units and a biennial grant.
The company hired Morgan Stanley CFO Porat as its finance chief earlier this week, a sign it is aiming to rein in costs as it invests in new businesses such as self-driving cars and Internet-connected eyeglasses.
Porat’s compensation package includes a grant of $25 million through restricted stock units, a $40 million biennial grant in 2016 and a special one-time $5 million sign-on bonus, Google said in a regulatory filing on Thursday. (http://1.usa.gov/1byDpVm)
Porat, who will join Google on May 26, will also get an annual base salary of $650,000. She earned a base salary of $1 million at Morgan Stanley for 2013, according to the bank’s proxy filing. Her pay last year will be disclosed once the bank files its latest proxy.
Porat is the latest among a string of Wall Street executives to leave an industry that is increasingly regulated to move into the more free-wheeling technology sector, where fortunes can be built fast but businesses can also become irrelevant overnight.
Google paid its outgoing CFO Patrick Pichette, who announced his retirement earlier this month, $62.2 million for the three years through 2013, more than twice the $29.6 million Porat earned at Morgan Stanley, according to regulatory filings.
Mountain View, California-based Google said it would stop annual cash bonuses for senior vice presidents from next year and shift to a system that includes annual base salary and biennial equity grants.
Shares of Google closed at $563.64 on Thursday on the Nasdaq. (Reporting by Avik Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das)
Why You Should Care About Periscope, Twitter's New Live-Streaming App
Live-streaming video apps are having a moment.
On Thursday, Twitter unveiled Periscope, a new app that lets people live-stream from their phones to anyone who wants to watch.
The app, which Twitter reportedly acquired for around $100 million earlier this year, was immediately put to use Thursday afternoon, following the collapse of a building in New York City’s East Village, as bystanders streamed live videos of first responders on the scene. At one point, one stream showed more than 600 people tuning in to watch.
You can watch Periscope videos through the app on your iPhone or on your desktop browser. (There isn’t an Android app yet, but it’s in development.) People viewing the broadcast can instantly send comments, and you can tap the screen — the way you would when you “like” a photo on Instagram — to send a heart to the person broadcasting. These hearts float up on the right side of the broadcast.
Screengrab from a popular Periscope stream of the building collapse in New York.
Periscope’s launch comes shortly after Meerkat, an app that also streams live video, exploded in popularity this month.
After Meerkat gained 120,000 users in just two weeks, Twitter revoked the app’s access to its social graph. The move blocked people from bringing their followers and people they were following on Twitter into Meerkat, thereby limiting the app’s ability to grow. Nevertheless, Meerkat announced Thursday that it had raised $14 million in venture capital funding.
When you compare both apps, it’s clear that Periscope is much more refined and intuitive than Meerkat. This is likely due to the amount of development time that went into each: Twitter says developers worked on Periscope for a year, whereas Meerkat founder Ben Rubin has said he built Meerkat in only eight weeks.
Unlike Meerkat, Periscope records the live streams, allowing you to watch older videos. This is an especially important feature, given that more people will be able to watch a replay than drop whatever they’re doing to view a live video.
But video archiving may be coming to Meerkat, too. Rubin recently said his company is working to add that feature.
Services that stream live video are nothing new. As The New York Times notes, other companies have tried to succeed in this space before. So the big question is whether this moment will be different, and if Twitter’s global brand can drive mass adoption and give Periscope staying power, beyond the tech and media press.
Apart from the backing of Twitter, Periscope does have some things going for it that older services didn’t: More people have smartphones than ever before — 1.3 billion smartphones were shipped last year, according to IDC, a technology research firm — and wireless networks continue to become faster and more reliable.
Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to President Obama, recently wrote that live-streaming video services like Meerkat and Persicope will have the ability to change the next presidential election. The services, he wrote on Medium, “could do to television what blogs did to newspapers by removing many of the financial and structural advantages of legacy media institutions.”
So, will the revolution will be Periscoped or Meerkatted? We’ll have to wait and see.
Jason Biggs Explains Why He Won't Appear On This Season Of 'OITNB'
Jason Biggs will be watching wistfully from afar when Season 3 of “Orange Is The New Black” premieres on June 12. But Biggs, who’s starring in the Broadway play “The Heidi Chronicles,” told HuffPost Live on Thursday that his character Larry could return in future seasons.
“It’s not a Larry season,” he told host Josh Zepps. “They have a lot of characters to service on that show and, at the end of the day, it’s a women’s prison show. Larry is not a woman or in prison. But the good news is with a show like that, there’s always the possibility that he could come back. And I would go back in a heartbeat.”
The show has been devoured by fans since premiering on Netflix in 2013. It made news recently when the Emmys deemed the show a drama for awards purposes, going against Netflix’s wishes to put it in the comedy category. Netflix’s other smash hit, “House of Cards,” is also a drama, and the two will compete against each if nominated for Best Drama.
No matter the classification, Biggs has faith the show will still be great.
“I’m actually really excited to see Season 3, and talking to a bunch of people over there, I think it’s going to be pretty awesome,” he said.
Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation here.
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The Best Instagram Filters, According To Your Favorite Pop Stars
Based on their millions of followers, the most popular celebs have perfected their Instagram filter game — and sometimes it doesn’t include a filter at all.
A new report from Noisey reveals how the biggest pop stars are using Instagram. Based on the last 250 posts from the 15 most followed musicians, the information breaks down the most popular filters these celebs use.
According to the graphic, Beyoncé has the biggest following on Instagram when it comes to musicians and uses a filter less than 25 percent of the time. Ariana Grande is also a fan of that #nofilter life, and it seems to be working since she comes in right behind Queen Bey with 26.4 million followers.
Besties Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez are a little more active with filters. T. Swift uses them on more than half her posts and prefers Mayfair, while SelGo is more into the Slumber filter. Rounding out the top five musicians on Instagram is Justin Bieber, who slaps a filter on about half his posts.
When these pop stars do use Instagram filters, Mayfair is the most popular. Amaro and X-Pro II are also used a lot followed by Beyoncé’s most used filter, Valencia. Filters that hardly get any love from celebs include 1977, Brooklyn and (of course) Kelvin.
Other photo filter apps might be used before posting, but as far as Instagram filters go, less is sometimes more. So next time you’re looking for that double tap on a photo, you might take a tip from these celebs and reconsider letting Instagram touch it up for you.
H/T Noisey
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NASA One-Year Mission Astronauts Get Set For 350 Days In Space
How does the human body respond to long-duration spaceflight? Does radiation present a problem? How about long periods of weightlessness? And what about the isolation?
We’re about to find out.
NASA’s “One-Year Mission” launches at 3:42 p.m. EDT tomorrow, when American astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan for the International Space Station.
A new perspective. The pair will spend the next 350 days in orbit, helping the space agency gain a better understanding of the biomedical aspects of long-duration spaceflight as it gears up for a manned mission to Mars.
This won’t be the longest anyone has spent in space. That record belongs to Valery Polyakov, a Russian cosmonaut who orbited the Earth from January 1994 to March 1995–almost 438 consecutive days.
But with typical ISS missions lasting four to six months, the One-Year Mission is giving these astronauts a new perspective on their time in orbit.
“On a six-month flight, your mindset is you’re going to go up there, and you’re going to be up there for a period of time, and you’re going to come home,” Kelly said at a press conference last January, according to Space.com. “When it’s a whole year, I don’t have that same perspective. It’s almost like I feel like I’m just moving there and I’m not coming back. Or, it’s going to be so long that when I come back, it’s almost like I never lived here.”
(Story continues below.)
I’m thinking this is about to get real. #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/UzRtdxig6B
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) March 6, 2015
So far, scientists know that long exposure to a zero-gravity environment can affect eyesight and the immune system, and can even lead to muscle atrophy or bone loss.
It takes two. As part of the research program, researchers on the ground will compare Kelly’s health to that of his identical twin, retired astronaut Mark Kelly.
“We realized this is a unique opportunity to perform a class of novel studies because we had one twin flying aboard the International Space Station and one twin on the ground,” Dr. Craig Kundrot, deputy chief scientist of NASA’s Human Research Program, said in a written statement. “We can study two individuals who have the same genetics, but are in different environments for one year.”
Astronauts and twin brothers Mark Kelly (right) and Scott Kelly (left) are pictured in the check-out facility at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The researchers will compare the brothers’ blood samples as well as how they perform on psychological and physical tests — comparisons that will take place before, during, and after the mission. But according to the Associated Press, the brothers won’t follow the same diet or exercise regimen. Mark Kelly said he had no desire to eat ISS food or run two hours a day on a treadmill, as his brother will be doing.
“If a mission to Mars is going to take a three-year round trip, we need to know better how our body and our physiology performs over durations longer than what we’ve previously on the space station investigated, which is six months. Perhaps there’s a cliff out there with regards to some of these issues that we experience and perhaps there aren’t,” Scott Kelly told CBS News. “But we won’t know unless we investigate it.”
Grace Helbig's Mom Dealt With Her Temper Tantrums In The Best Way Possible
In her viral videos, Grace Helbig comes across as that cool friend with the best one-liners and silly attitude. As a kid, she wasn’t always so chill.
The YouTube star recently sat down with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show,” and revealed what she was like as a child.
“I threw temper tantrums a lot, which I think is just being creative with your emotions,” she joked.
One such creative moment for little Grace included a temper tantrum as a result of her mom telling her she couldn’t have the cookies she wanted. According to the YouTuber, things got pretty aggressive.
“I think I was like 6 years old, and I grabbed her hair and ripped a chunk of her hair out,” she said.
To teach her a lesson, Grace’s mom drove her and her brothers to show them the place they would end up if they misbehaved — the police station. A little girl happened to be walking into the station at the same time, which definitely worked in her mother’s favor. The experience, or what Grace called “an abbreviated ‘Scared Straight’ program,” was successful, and she vowed to never be a bad kid again.
Take it from Grace, kids. Don’t mess with your mother.
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This Tortoise Will Have A Happier Life, Thanks To Her New 3D-Printed Shell
Things are looking up for Cleopatra: The leopard tortoise now has a 3D-printed prosthesis to protect her deformed shell from further injury by other tortoises.
(Photo: Gary Stefanski)
Cleopatra suffers from what is known as “pyramiding” or “peaking.” That means that rather than growing smoothly, her shell has developed raised sections.
Tortoises climb on each other when they play and mate, and their weight is normally distributed evenly. But interacting with other tortoises left Cleopatra’s deformed shell worn through in spots, leaving her susceptible to bacteria and infections.
“I knew something had to be done,” Nico Novelli, the owner of Canyon Critters Reptile Rescue in Golden, Colorado, told The Huffington Post.
Her prosthetic shell was designed by Roger Henry, a Colorado Technical University student and U.S. Air Force veteran. The 3D Printing Store in Denver assisted with scanning and building the shell.
“This is a very good feeling,” Henry told The Denver Post. He spent hundreds of hours perfecting the design so it would fit exactly on Cleopatra’s shell.
(Photo: RJ Sangosti via Getty Images)
Novelli said they can’t be certain, but they believe the herbivorous tortoise was likely fed a diet too high in protein before she arrived at Canyon Critters. “I wish people would educate themselves more” before acquiring tortoises as pets, he said.
Sadly, improper diets and care are common among pet turtles and tortoises. Cleopatra was “not an exception to the rule,” Novelli said. “It’s almost standard.”
Canyon Critters Reptile Rescue owner Nico Novelli holds Cleopatra the tortoise. (Photo: RJ Sangosti via Getty Images)
Right now, Cleopatra only needs her special shell when she’s among other tortoises. Novelli said he plans to use velcro to keep it secured.
Fortunately, the 3D-printed creation won’t be permanent. The worn-through parts of Cleopatra’s shell are expected to heal in the next few years, and with proper diet and temperature conditions, her shell will grow normally and reduce the pyramiding.
(Photo: RJ Sangosti via Getty Images)
After Cleopatra’s story appeared on local news in Denver earlier this week, Novelli said he’s received at least six calls from people asking for his rescue to take in their turtles or tortoises.
Several species are native to Colorado, and Novelli says people often spot them in the wild and take them home. They’re often hand-fed the wrong diet and have trouble re-adjusting to life in the wild after owners grow tired of them. He said pet stores often fail to disclose the true costs of ownership, which can range up to several hundred dollars per month.
“When people find out real facts about the care for them, they quickly change their minds,” he told HuffPost.
Nico Novelli and Roger Henry with Cleopatra. (Photo: RJ Sangosti via Getty Images)
(Photo: Gary Stefanski)
How The Internet Made Me
An hour ago I was in the lab of a Brazilian pathologist discussing the results of his most recent experiment. Before that I was speaking with a Saudi Arabian student as he lounged on an upholstered cushion placed on the living room floor. Later tonight, I’ll be in an office overlooking the most popular street in Gangnam, as I chat with a South Korean software engineer as he begins his day — 14 hours ahead of me. In just one day I’ll have traveled to three countries, all without leaving my chair.
Two years ago I launched teacherdiane.com, my own website teaching English on Skype, and since that time, my life has undergone a dramatic change. My classroom has been replaced by a computer and my home, a backpack.
As I write this, I am in a small cottage in Maine, just 10 minutes from a ski resort. This afternoon I’ll go skiing before I return to work. Over the past two years I’ve learned Spanish in South America, eaten my way through Asia and spent some time housesitting in Europe, all while working full-time. Working online has enabled me to be completely location independent and to continually satisfy my lifelong love of travel.
The Internet has become so ingrained into my life that it’s hard to remember a time when it didn’t exist. What did I do first thing in the morning if it wasn’t checking my email? How did I communicate with people located in different countries before communication tools like Skype?
Initially I was hesitant to try teaching online. One of the reasons I chose education as a profession is the meaningful connection forged between teachers and students, a connection that I assumed could only come from a classroom setting.
Persuaded by a former student to give it a try, I soon realized the possibilities of teaching online. I could use a graphics tablet and screen-sharing technology to mimic a classroom white board. I could quickly share images, files and links to informative websites. Together, my students and I could watch videos, read and discuss articles, and even play games. I could record lessons and send them to students to review afterwards. I could correct students immediately using the Skype chat feature and review our chat history at the end of each lesson or the beginning of our next one. Not to mention I could do all of this from the comfort of my own home.
In a short time, I found teaching English on Skype became even better than teaching in person. Students who had struggled in the past to find locals to practice their English with also quickly fell in love with the concept: Within a year, I had so much demand for lessons that I had to bring on other teachers to assist me.
Now I am able to reach students not just in my 20-mile radius, but almost everywhere in the world with an Internet connection. Over the past two years, I have taught students from over 20 different countries and reached students in many more. With the help of video sharing platforms and social networks, I can reach students in a matter of minutes and create resources that will be forever available online.
Years ago, the idea of communicating directly with people all over the world while sitting behind a computer screen was confined to our imagination. The thought of having a job that was not limited by location was unfathomable. But now, when people ask me where I see myself in the future, I tell them, quite literally, anywhere and everywhere. My options are endless.
Collaboration and technology are at the core of creativity. With Skype, you can call, see, message and share with those who inspire you. Skype can be used for so much more than the occasional long-distance call. Click here to download the Skype app now and explore all the amazing things you can do with Skype, every single day.
Will 2015 Be the Year of the Healthcare Hack?
It’s only spring and already this year hackers have pulled off two massive healthcare breaches, in what appear to be sophisticated attacks. But are the Premera Blue Cross and Anthem breaches just a coincidence, or are they part of a larger trend that could affect other healthcare companies this year?
There’s no denying that the healthcare sector has long been a target of hackers. Identity theft is a lucrative black market business and these companies are repositories for some of the most sought-after data by cyber-criminals. But until recently, most of these incidents were due to physical security mistakes like lost or stolen laptops – not sophisticated cyber attacks on the network. They were also more likely to happen to local or regional healthcare groups, instead of national organizations. According to Verizon’s 2014 Data Breach Investigations Report, less than 1% of healthcare security incidents in 2013 were due to cyber-espionage.
But the exposure of 11 million personal records at Premera, and another roughly 80 million at Anthem, signifies a dramatic shift in the cyber threats faced by this industry. Far from an anomaly, it appears to be the start of a more sophisticated hacking campaign on healthcare companies across the U.S.
There are three key reasons why the threat environment is changing for healthcare companies: the rise of electronic health records, reduced potential for payment card fraud and the expansion of state-sponsored hacking.
Beginning this year, medical practices will be penalized 1% of Medicare reimbursements if they fail to meet federal requirements for digitizing patient medical records. The move to electronic health records (EHR) has been underway for several years now, and received its first major boost in 2009 with the federal stimulus bill, but 2015 is the first year that financial penalties kick in. As a result, we can expect to see more healthcare organizations increasing their use of EHRs, which are rife with software and storage bugs, and weak security.
At the same time, cyber-criminals are about to see their cash cow, the magnetic-stripe payment card, fade into the sunset. This October is the official deadline set by credit card companies for U.S. retailers to adopt chip-and-PIN compatible payment terminals or else assume liability for fraudulent charges. Once this happens, we should see the start of a significant long-term decline in US credit card fraud, which currently makes up 51% of the $14 billion criminals cost the global economy each year. That is going to have a significant impact on their operations, and organized crime groups will have to adapt. And it appears they’re already doing so.
Researchers are now seeing a new focus by cyber-criminals on long-term identity theft fraud through stolen Social Security numbers, rather than payment card fraud. A recent report by Gemalto found that identity theft now makes up 54% of all data breaches. Social Security numbers have also become more valuable on the black market, selling for as much as 10 times the value of stolen credit cards. The permanence of Social Security numbers is what makes them such an attractive alternative to stolen credit cards – criminals can use them indefinitely for financial fraud. And one of the biggest repositories of Social Security numbers, as well as other valuable identifiers like insurance accounts, is the healthcare sector.
Additionally, governments around the world are trying to boost their cyber capabilities – and in most cases, that means increased budgets for cyber espionage. The rise of state-sponsored cyber attacks is particularly worrying for U.S. companies, since many of these attacks are done in order to steal intellectual property and research/development secrets. The most heavily targeted U.S. sectors are defense, energy, transportation, technology, finance and government. So why is this a problem for the healthcare sector? The primary method for hacking into a company is by sending phishing emails to its employees. To make the phishing emails more compelling, sophisticated hackers will use personal information in the message to get the target to open it and click on the link or download the attachment. The personal information stored by healthcare companies is a goldmine for this sort of activity, which is why we’re beginning to see highly sophisticated attacks against major healthcare groups – like the Premera breach disclosed earlier this month, as well as Anthem and Community Health Systems last year.
On their own, each of these developments would pose enormous challenges to healthcare institutions, but when taken as a whole, the threat level increases exponentially. The healthcare industry already struggles with basic security challenges; it’s not prepared to deal with a rise in sophisticated attacks from state-sponsored hackers and organized crime. For example, it’s the worst U.S. economic sector when it comes to data breaches caused by lost or stolen devices. As much as 46% of the industry’s breaches in 2013 were caused by this easily avoidable problem, according to Verizon’s report. The second worst industry was government, at 19%. A 2012 study by the Ponemon Institute also found that 94% of polled healthcare institutions admitted patient records had been exposed by data breaches.
While last year was most notable for the string of high-profile retail breaches, 2015 is poised to become the year of the healthcare hack. Unless healthcare executives begin making significant changes now to their security setups, we could see many more breaches hit this industry.
Websites Can Now Embed Reddit Comments Directly Into Their Entries
Websites that frequently mine Reddit for viral content can now embed comment threads into their posts, the site announced on its blog Monday.
The new feature will in many ways make life easier for news organizations and bloggers, allowing them to forgo messy-looking screenshots and the cumbersome task of pasting large blocks of text in favor of a simple one or two click embed system.
Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have long allowed public posts from users to be embedded on websites, but with Reddit’s feature, embedded comments will reflect any edits made by the author and include a link back to the initial thread and subreddit.
The site hopes its new feature will help drive conversation online.
“[R]eddit isn’t just a source for news or adorable cat pictures; it’s also home to some of the most vibrant discussions happening on the Internet,” the blog post read.
To prove its point, Reddit embedded a number of comments to the bottom of the announcement, including a few words of wisdom from an AMA with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web:
Comment from discussion I am Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web. Join me to talk about making the future of technology more human, reddit. AMA!.
“We couldn’t agree more,” the post continued, “and hope that embedded comments spread that spirit of global collaboration a little further.”
Young Men Read Mean Tweets Sent To Women
It ain’t easy being a lady on the Internet.
Blogger Chelsea Woolley created a video, posted on her Tumblr page, that features six men between the ages of 18 and 25 reading increasingly disturbing tweets directed at women. At first the men laugh at the ridiculous tweets, but as they continue to read the vulgar and sometimes violent messages about women their reactions become increasingly somber.
The tweets include messages of fat-shaming, slut-shaming and violence. “This chubby girl sent me a Snapchat of her ass and said ‘Squats are a girl’s best friend.’ Bitch, you know pizza and Netflix are your best friends,” one young man in the video reads. Another tweet reads: “I just found out that a girl I know gets passed around at parties like a hacky sack #whore.”
This type of online harassment has made headlines a lot this past year with feminist video gamer Anita Sarkeesian receiving rape threats, death threats and even bomb threats for speaking out about sexism in the gaming industry.
Actress Ashley Judd also recently faced online misogyny after tweeting about March Madness. In an essay for Mic, Judd summed up how widespread an issue online sexism is: “What happened to me is the devastating social norm experienced by millions of girls and women on the Internet,” she wrote. “Online harassers use the slightest excuse (or no excuse at all) to dismember our personhood. My tweet was simply the convenient delivery system for a rage toward women that lurks perpetually.”
Women can use every ally we can get. So men, please take note.
Watch the full video above.
The Internet is an Angry Beehive, and It's Messed Up
Equality. That’s what we’re about these days. We’re about equal rights for women, for gay people, for transgender, for black people, for everyone under the sun who might (and rightfully) be considered oppressed.
I love that. I love that we’re so quick to help each other out now, that we can finally stand up for humanism, for rights across the vast spectrum that America’s population is comprised of. We are varying. We are unique and we are all deserving of the same things. This is not to be contested.
However, what I don’t love is the swarming vehicle that is the Internet.
What I mean by this is simple. Somebody has an opinion that may not fit perfectly within the confines of today’s norm. The person may post something about it on Facebook, Twitter or the like. The Internet will then turn on said person, like a pack of wolves circling around a raw steak, snapping their teeth and dripping saliva. It’s messed up, frankly.
This sentiment is brought on by something that happened earlier this week regarding J.K. Rowling and a fan on Twitter. This fan tweeted at Rowling that she couldn’t see Dumbledore as gay. Rowling, in turn, tweeted: “Maybe because gay people just look like…people.”
And the Internet went into a frenzy.
I think Rowling is a great person with a big heart. She’s an activist, philanthropist, and charitable to the core. She believes in equal rights across the board, and I think it’s awesome. But this incident made me lose a little respect for her. While I understand and agree with Rowling, did she stop to think that she could very well ruin this girl’s life with an insulting response tweet?
Seriously, the girl had to delete her Twitter. I was on the site when it happened (I’m pretty obsessed with Twitter), and I viewed her profile before she got rid of her account. She was maybe 15.
Why is our culture, especially the Internet, so paradoxically hateful? Someone says one thing that might be considered out of line — to be honest, I don’t think this girl is homophobic, nor do I think she meant anything spiteful by her tweet — and the Internet goes ape shit on the person.
Remember Justine Sacco? Yeah, the lady who made the awful AIDS joke a few years back. Her life, post tweet, is basically in shambles, as an informative New York Times article reveals. The phenomenon of Internet users surrounding and attacking a fellow social networker is not, by any standards, new.
But should it be stopped? Yes. And right away.
Justine Sacco made a really stupid joke. It was racist, and it wasn’t funny. But is she truly deserving of a life ruined? Sacco is forever branded by the AIDS tweet, a burning mark on her forehead that cannot be ignored by future potential jobs, relationships and connections. She will carry this burden for the rest of her life.
Who knows who @anakocovic21 really is? Chances are, she’s a young girl who tweeted before thinking. She most likely didn’t understand or perceive the underlying discrimination of her tweet. But my guess is she’s a perfectly nice kid.
And who knows what’s happening to her at school now. Maybe her classmates found out and ostracized her, teased her or made hurtful jabs. Maybe none of those things happened and life went on as normal. We just don’t know. But it’s safe to assume she’s humiliated, because she deleted her Twitter.
I wish we wouldn’t sic each other on fellow humans like digital dogs. It’s cold, it’s wrong, and it’s inhumane.
Briefly: iPhone trade-ins coming to China, Apple TV adds CNNgo
According to reports, Apple is set to launch an iPhone trade-in program in China on March 31, joining several existing programs in other countries around the world, including the US, Canada, the Netherlands, and a number of European countries, among others. Users will be able to bring in older iPhone and trade it in for store credit towards a newer model. The program has been shown to boost sales.
Why Microsoft May Actually Have It Right With Windows Apps
Throughout the lifecycle of the product we call Windows, the programs or applications we run on them gone through far more naming conventions. When I started with Windows 3 back-in-the-day, we call them programs and really, up until Windows 7 that name pretty much stuck. You would occasionally see “Application” but generally we call them “Programs”. Enter in the iPhone, the App Store, the Google Play Store and yes, even the Windows Phone store and we have shrunk it all down to “Apps”. But with Windows 8, we decided to throw in some confusion for the fun of it. We
The post Why Microsoft May Actually Have It Right With Windows Apps appeared first on Clinton Fitch.
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