Future Technology

Social media is making a bad political situation worse 1 min read

Social media is making a bad political situation worse

Adiantku 3 months ago

A supporter of President Trump at a Republican watch party in New Hudson, Michigan, on November 3. | Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images

America’s polarization problem is bigger than we thought it would be.

When Eli Pariser coined the term “filter bubble” a decade ago, he narrowly defined it to be a situation in which algorithms skew the variety of information we get online in favor of stuff we like. At the time, he worried that might lead to political polarization through less exposure to divergent viewpoints.

Ten years later, America is in the aftermath of a hyperpartisan presidential election in which people not only disagree with those on the other side, they actively hate them. Different parties are operating in what seem like different realities, with different sets of facts or at least completely different reactions to those facts. Social media seems to be making a bad situation … Read the rest

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Apple Music launches 'Viral Hits' and nine other playlists for Gen Z 1 min read

Apple Music launches 'Viral Hits' and nine other playlists for Gen Z

Adiantku 3 months ago

Apple Music is trying to appeal more to generation Z.

What you need to know

Apple has launched new Apple Music playlists for Gen Z.
“Viral Hits” focuses on music that has become popular on social media.
They’ve also released playlists to help users find calm.

Reported by TechCrunch, Apple has launched ten new Apple Music playlists that are focused on the musical tastes of Gen Z. One, in particular, called Viral Hits, focuses on music that has become popular across social media apps like TikTok.

TikTok’s music-laden memes and trends today heavily influence what younger users are listening to. The app has also long-since proven its ability to break new artists and send tracks, both new and old, to the top of the streaming charts across Spotify and Apple Music, as well as the Billboard charts, at times. With the “Viral Hits” playlist, Apple will round-up the

… Read the rest ...

The first Black Friday 2020 ad scans are here: Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and many others 1 min read

The first Black Friday 2020 ad scans are here: Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and many others

Adiantku 3 months ago

The early Black Friday 2020 sale is in full swing, with several retailers already hosting deals online.
Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target are already running pre-Black Friday sales promos that are available online and in stores, with more early Black Friday events to follow in the coming weeks.
Smaller retailers have either published their Black Friday discounts online, or the ad scans leaked ahead of time.

Black Friday shoppers have been ordering their favorite deals online for years, as most retailers adapted their holiday shopping experience to support and encourage online shopping. Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and other retailers have increased the number of Black Friday online events in the past few years, looking to match Amazon’s reach. 2020 is no different in that regard, and some early Black Friday sales have already started. What’s different about this year is the novel coronavirus pandemic. That’s the biggest incentive to … Read the rest

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Republicans spent millions on last-minute voting ads on Facebook 1 min read

Republicans spent millions on last-minute voting ads on Facebook

Adiantku 3 months ago

On midnight of October 26, Facebook stopped accepting all new advertisements about “social issues, elections, or politics in the US.” The intention was to prevent Facebook from being overwhelmed by a blitz of last-minute ads that would require fact-checking, and to limit the ability of political groups to sow confusion or violence. Advertisers were not blocked from running old ads, however: Facebook’s rules meant they could continue to run already-approved political ads through to the end of Election Day, after which they were all removed.

We already know that turnout was historically high across both Democrats and Republican voters. Though it looks as if Joe Biden will receive the highest number of votes for any presidential candidate in history, Donald Trump is on track to receive the second-highest number. Republican competitiveness in the face of such high turnout was a surprise to many, and not always reflected in polls taken … Read the rest

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Is social media ready for a Covid-19 vaccine? 1 min read

Is social media ready for a Covid-19 vaccine?

Adiantku 3 months ago

With the news that a Covid-19 vaccine could be arriving soon, misinformation about vaccines is likely to surge. | Matteo Rossetti/Archivio Matteo Rossetti/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images

Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are bracing for more misinformation.

On Monday, Pfizer and BioNTech announced in a press release that their vaccine candidate was more than 90 percent effective at preventing Covid-19 infection, based on initial results from their ongoing phase 3 clinical trial. The company expects to have applied for emergency use authorization with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the end of November and could have as many as 50 million doses produced by the end of 2020.

This is tremendous news — and misinformation about it is already circulating on social media. According to research from VineSight, a slew of Twitter accounts, including those of Donald Trump Jr. and Sen. Ted Cruz, are already questioning the timing … Read the rest

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Best Black Friday vacuum cleaner deals: Cordless, stick, robot & more 1 min read

Best Black Friday vacuum cleaner deals: Cordless, stick, robot & more

Adiantku 3 months ago

Black Friday is easily one of the best times of the year to buy your home a new vacuum cleaner. You’re probably aware Black Friday deals include everything from iPhone and Apple discounts to toys, clothing, home decor and appliances — and that includes vacuum cleaners. You can even find Black Friday Roomba deals for those who like to let their vacuum do all the work instead.

Best Black Friday Vacuum Cleaner Deals

This year’s Black Friday will be a bit different than most. Rather than retailers offering deals during the week of Thanksgiving, we’re instead able to enjoy Black Friday pretty much the entire month of November. There are already tons of discounts available in just about every category you can think of. Plus, this happens to be the best year to shop

… Read the rest ...

Razer fires shot at Apple with new, sleek productivity machines 1 min read

Razer fires shot at Apple with new, sleek productivity machines

Adiantku 3 months ago

Razer is launching new laptops designed around productivity rather than specifically for gaming.
The Razer Book 13 comes in three variants, starting at $1,199.
The laptops will go on sale starting this month.

Razer has always been the “for gamers, by gamers” brand — I mean, that’s their company tagline after all — and while the company’s high-powered laptops have always been solid gaming machines, they’re also just great for overall productivity. The same kinds of high-end hardware that is good for gaming are also good for video editing and other creative work, and the speedy CPUs can do whatever you want them to do.

Combined with a reputation for sturdy construction and impressive build quality and you can easily see why Razer’s Blade lineup has often been seen as the “MacBooks for Windows users.” Now, Razer is building on that notion in a big way by introducing a new … Read the rest

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Why social media can’t keep moderating content in the shadows 1 min read

Why social media can’t keep moderating content in the shadows

Adiantku 3 months ago

Back in 2016, I could count on one hand the kinds of interventions that technology companies were willing to use to rid their platforms of misinformation, hate speech, and harassment. Over the years, crude mechanisms like blocking content and banning accounts have morphed into a more complex set of tools, including quarantining topics, removing posts from search, barring recommendations, and down-ranking posts in priority.

And yet, even with more options at their disposal, misinformation remains a serious problem. There was a great deal of coverage about misinformation on Election Day—my colleague Emily Drefyuss found, for example, that when Twitter tried to deal with content using the hashtag #BidenCrimeFamily, with tactics including “de-indexing” by blocking search results, users including Donald Trump adapted by using variants of the same tag. But we still don’t know much about how Twitter decided to do those things in the first place, or how it … Read the rest

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Facebook took down a massive “Stop the Steal” group after its members called for violence 1 min read

Facebook took down a massive “Stop the Steal” group after its members called for violence

Adiantku 3 months ago

Pro-Trump protesters in Pennsylvania are calling for the state to stop counting votes based on unproven assertions of fraud. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Stop the Steal gained more than 350,000 members on Facebook in less than a day.

Facebook took down a massive group tied to Republican operatives where people were spreading misinformation about the 2020 presidential election process and calling for violence. While votes are still being counted in key battleground states, President Trump and his campaign are insisting — without proof — that Democrats are stealing the election through mass voter fraud.

The group, called “Stop the Steal,” gained more than 350,000 members in less than 24 hours starting on Wednesday before it was taken down on Thursday afternoon. Members were convening around unproven allegations of mass ballot-counting fraud, such as the “Sharpiegate” ballot hoax, and posting incitements to violence. While some misinformation researchers applauded … Read the rest

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Finding people and faces is easier than ever in the Photos app 1 min read

Finding people and faces is easier than ever in the Photos app

Adiantku 3 months ago

Organize your friends and family by the photos you’ve taken of them!

If you want to find people and faces in the Photos app, now it’s easier than ever. You can use your iPhone and iPad to find and organize pictures with your friends and family. That way, if you want to look back at old pictures, or even print your photos from your iPhone, you can use the Photos app to find them quickly. And here’s how you can do it!

Why do I want to use the People album?

Apple automatically identifies people in your images and collects them into the People album. This

… Read the rest ...

Future Technology

Social media is making a bad political situation worse

Apple Music launches 'Viral Hits' and nine other playlists for Gen Z

What you need to know

The first Black Friday 2020 ad scans are here: Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and many others

Republicans spent millions on last-minute voting ads on Facebook

Is social media ready for a Covid-19 vaccine?

Best Black Friday vacuum cleaner deals: Cordless, stick, robot & more

Best Black Friday Vacuum Cleaner Deals

Razer fires shot at Apple with new, sleek productivity machines

Why social media can’t keep moderating content in the shadows

Facebook took down a massive “Stop the Steal” group after its members called for violence

Finding people and faces is easier than ever in the Photos app

Why do I want to use the People album?

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