Facebook’s WhatsApp Leans on Telegram; Apple May Drop Headphone Jack on iPhone 7.
Posted: December 1, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, Facebook, Headphone jack, iPhone 7, Lightening port, Telegram, WhatsApp Leave a commentFacebook is using its muscle to make it tougher to use a competitor for one of their apps. WhatsApp has started blocking outbound links to Telegram, the secure messaging service. Businessinsider.com reports that any such links are dead, and can’t be copied an pasted out of WhatsApp. The blocking came with a silent update yesterday. In an unintended but ironic side consequence, the app also now blocks links to telegram.com, a domain for a newspaper in Worcester, Mass that has nothing to do with the Telegram messaging app!
A rumor that has popped up everywhere the last 24 hours, including gizmodo.com, is that Apple may drop the headphone jack on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, opting for earbuds that plug into the Lightening port. Besides meaning you couldn’t charge the phone and listen at the same time, or use your old…and perhaps expensive headphones…this means if you listen on a computer, iPad, or any other device that uses the standard 3.5mm headphone plug, you either will have to carry a dongle adapter around with you, or two sets of headphones or earbuds. You also won’t be able to plug directly into another system and feed your music from your phone to it…like at a party where they’re playing terrible music, and need a musical rescue! While Apple has done this sort of thing before…think the floppy disk and DVD/CD slot…it’s likely that dropping the headphone jack will REALLY make people mad, and could hurt sales. Let’s hope common sense prevails at Apple in this case!
Facebook Enters Crowdfunding; Ford Sees Self-Driving Cars in 4 Years
Posted: November 19, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Android Auto, Apple, Autonomous cars, Car Play, Crowdrise, Facebook, Ford, Fundraiser, Google, Indiegogo, Kickstarter, Mcity, Self Driving Cars Leave a commentA lot of projects have been launched on Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Now, it appears that Facebook is dipping its toe into the crowdfunding pool. According to techcrunch.com, they’ve just released something called Fundraiser, which lets non-profits set up a campaign page where they can roll a video, collect cash, and let people share on their newsfeed. As it stands, Fundraiser competes with Crowdrise, but it wouldn’t take much for Facebook to drop the ‘non’ from nonprofit. With people able to donate and never leave Facebook, it will be easier than ever to fund nonprofit projects…and perhaps in the near future, FOR profit ones.
The race is really on…figuratively, at least…to autonomous cars. Recode.net reports that Ford’s CEO Mark Fields said this week that he sees completely self-driving cars on the streets within 4 years. That’s even quicker than Google’s prediction of 5 years. Ford has started testing autonomous cars at Mcity, the 30 plus acre test layout operated by the University of Michigan. Mcity has a full scale urban streets test layout. The Ford CEO also said they have plans to include Apple Car Play and Google’s Android Auto in some of the Ford line, but he didn’t specify what models or the timetable.
Too Many iPhones at Facebook; Hillary’s Emoji Problems
Posted: November 2, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2G, Android, Blackberry, emoji, Facebook, Hillary Clinton, iPhone Leave a commentWe’ve already heard about Facebook instituting ‘2G Tuesdays’, where employees have to suffer along with a slow 2G network for an hour, to help them better tailor the app to run in developing countries where this is reality. Now, 9to5mac.com says the social network is making some staffers switch to Android smartphones for the same reason…making the app work better for Android users. Let the whining commence…
There have been some stories about Hillary Clinton and emoji…intimating that she was confused by them, and needed help. Now, with an email dump, thenextweb.com reports there’s more to the story. Actually, the presidential candidate used emojis all the time. She switched to an older model Blackberry, and found that the emoticon chart with the little faces she loved and used was gone. She had to type them out manually. Nothing like visiting 3rd world countries as Secretary of State, and having such a 1st world problem! No word on why ANYONE would switch to an older smart device, but we hope it was for security reasons!
ESPN Pulls Out of YouTube Due To YouTube Red Issues; World Series Updates on Facebook Messenger
Posted: October 28, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Disney, ESPN, Facebook, Messenger, MLB, Red, Twitter, World Series, YouTube Leave a commentOn the heels of YouTube’s announcement of their ad-free subscription service called Red last week, ESPN has pulled all content from YouTube. The content is still available on ESPN’s own digital properties, according to 9to5google.com. The only reason given is ‘rights and legal issues.’ It appears that ESPN can’t sign on with YouTube Red due to deals it has with other distribution partners. Since ESPN is a Disney property, it’s a good bet that YouTube can get their content back by throwing money at them.
Meanwhile, if you’re where you can’t catch world series games on the tube or radio. Facebook has started letting some Messenger users subscribe to MLB World Series news, stories, and hi lights, embedded in a one on one chat. Thenextweb.com reports that it’s a slick way for Facebook to get into Twitter’s turf. So far, it seems to be just a test feature, but if you can’t catch the game, start a chat about it with a friend, and you may see the game updates invite from Facebook Messenger.
Reactions Emoji May Be the Facebook ‘Dislike’ Button
Posted: October 8, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Amazon, Dislike Button, Etsy, Facebook, Handmade, Like Button, Reactions Emoji Leave a comment
Today, in Spain and Ireland, Facebook rolled out Reactions emoji alongside the thumbs up with the like button. Techcrunch.com says this may be their answer to a ‘dislike’ button that Mark Zuckerberg talked about last month. The little emoji are for like, love, haha, yay, wow, sad, and angry. Facebook says the reason for Spain and Ireland is that both have largely in-country friend networks, so work better as test groups…and of course enable testing in both English and Spanish. Right now, Facebook isn’t planning to add them to Messenger or other stand alone products. The emoji will eventually make it to their analytics dashboard, so social media managers will have a more granular idea about how people are responding to a particular post.
Amazon is moving in on Etsy’s territory. The giant online marketplace has launched ‘Handmade,’ with over 80,000 items from jewelry & stationary to party supplies and furniture. Users can filter by location to buy locally, or search the world. Sellers have their own profile pages where they can tell the story of themselves and their handmade products. According to geekwire.com, 600 of the items are eligible for Amazon Prime free 2 day shipping initially. Amazon is launching with a special promotion where they will just take a 12% cut until August 1st of next year…then their piece of the pie will be per existing category averages.
Not Quite a Facebook ‘Dislike’ Button
Posted: September 16, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AT&T, Dislike, Facebook, FCC, Like, Throttling, Unlimited, Zuckerberg Leave a commentMarketingland.com says that while Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has said the social network is working on something like a ‘Dislike’ button, it’s not exactly that. They are very close to shipping a test of the new feature, but Zuckerberg has reiterated his opinion that Facebook doesn’t want to create a situation where people are downvoting other people’s posts. He gave no specifics about what the button or buttons would be called but said the idea is to give people a way to express empathy. He says the real trick is to make something that fits this criteria, but still keep it simple enough for a button.
AT&T has kicked up it’s so-called ‘unlimited’ plan to a ceiling of 22 gigs of downloads a month before getting throttled. The old policy was 5 gigabytes. The move wasn’t due to their great altruism…it was the threat of a 100 million dollar FCC fine that did the trick. Throttling is actually prohibited under the new net neutrality rules, according to theverge.com, but the federal agency does allow for ‘reasonable network management.’
Google and Twitter Partnering For Instant News Articles
Posted: September 11, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 3D printing, Apple, Facebook, Google, Instant news, Snapchat, Titanium, Twitter Leave a commentGoogle and Twitter are partnering on making their own version of instant news articles. Recode.net says they are teaming up with a small group of publishers, and should launch this fall…joining the likes of Facebook, Apple, and Snapchat. The plan is for either Twitter users or people using Google search who click on a link via their smartphones to see the full article pop up on screen nearly instantly, instead of having to wait several seconds. A big difference between the Google-Twitter partnership and the others is that this one is based on open source publishing tools. The articles are also cached from the publishers’ sites, not hosted by Google. An interesting twist is that it will operate without either Google or Twitter branding.
It’s both amazing and a little creepy…we are on the verge of becoming like Wolverine! After a Spanish man lost his sternum and part of his rib cage to cancer, surgeons at Salamanca University installed a 3D printed replacement out of titanium. Gizmodo.com reports the implant was made by Anatomics in Australia. This isn’t the 3D printer the geek next door has in the garage…titanium is tricky…it’s a $1.3 million electron beam Arcam 3D printer. The patient was out of the hospital after 12 days, and is recovering well…and part of him is pretty bulletproof, now!
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