Internet

It has been a while since the class of technologies known as DRM or Digital Rights Management has been the focus on contention but the news surrounding Netflix's sudden withdrawal from some devices could put it back in the spotlight. It's only semi-official, considering Netflix has not yet issued a formal explanation, but it seems that affected devices are unable to keep up with such DRM systems, practically locking them out of the streaming service for good.

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It's not unusual to wake up to an email informing you about upcoming changes to a service's terms of use. But when that service involves or is owned by Google, it's also not unusual for some feathers to be ruffled more than just slightly. Most have probably focused on the potential privacy ramifications of YouTube's new Terms of Service, which Google is trying to quickly respond to. One user, however, is raising questions about one particular clause that could provide fatal for Google account holders.

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There are a few things that can ruin an otherwise ideal web browsing experience. Malicious and misbehaving ads are the ones blamed most of the time but pages that load too slowly also waste your time and patience. Often, people will immediately presume it's either the connection or their device that's causing the slow experience but websites might also be unoptimized for today's browsers and use cases. That's why Google is planning on labeling sites that regularly load slowly so that you know that it's them and not you that's the problem.

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Today a report detailed an acquisition of the design firm Gossamer Engineering as initiated by the exercise-centric tech company Peloton Interactive Inc. earlier this year. The acquisition was apparently made to assist the company's efforts to create new hardware, like treadmills and bicycles - so said people familiar with the matter speaking with Bloomberg. Gossamer Engineering was an independent firm before this acquisition, having found success in contracts with both Facebook and Google.

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Dropbox has opened its file-transfer service to all users, offering a competitor to popular alternatives like WeTransfer. With Dropbox Transfer, anyone can send large files to someone else directly from one's hard drive or Dropbox account, including videos, photo assets, documents, and more. Dropbox is offering a generous transfer size limitation, making its new service very appealing.

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In a long tweet thread on Wednesday, company CEO Jack Dorsey announced that Twitter will no longer allow political advertising on its platform across the globe. The decision is based on 'a few reasons,' according to Dorsey, the main point being that 'we believe political message reach should be earned, not bought.' The decision comes amid growing concerns over the role social media platforms have in how political messages -- and related misinformation and propaganda -- spread.

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The Web is teeming with powerful apps and services that aim to make modern lives easier. That power, however, sometimes comes at cost of complexity, when simple goals like create a new calendar even can require at least two to three steps, presuming you already have your web browser open. Last year, Google introduced a .new domain for its G Suite users as handy shortcuts for creating new documents. Now it's opening the doors to other brands and services to let users quickly get things done, maybe with even just one click.

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Facebook has introduced a new tool called Preventative Health that it presents as a way for users to better manage their healthcare. Preventative Health enables users to set reminders, schedule tests, access health-related resources, and more. According to Facebook, it has kicked things off with a focus on the two biggest causes of death in the US: cancer and heart disease.

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Spacebit is a company that we've previously spoken about with regard to their space spiders. They're bringing some jumping, crawling machines to the moon in the near future, and they've got some ideas for how to make the whole project all the more public and fun for the masses. One of these ideas is to gather a whole bunch of photos from interested people on the internet to engrave upon a piece of metal that'll be sent with the spiders.

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Most games these days, be it on PC, console, and especially mobile, have an element of online gameplay, sometimes even when it doesn't make sense. There are, however, still some titles that require cooperating or competing players to be in the same local network, which practically means being in the same room or at least in the same building. These local multiplayer games may foster social interactions but they also hamper the gaming experience. Fortunately, then, Valve is now beta testing Steam Remote Play Together to fix that.

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Another Internet relic will soon go dark, Yahoo has announced. Starting later this month, users will no longer be able to upload content to Yahoo Groups, the online discussion boards that launched back in 2001 as an extension of the previous Yahoo Clubs. Though the initial change will only prevent users from uploading, Yahoo has warned that all posts published on the platform will be deleted before the end of the year.

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Instagram remains one of the most popular image-centric social network today and perhaps the only Facebook property (aside from Oculus) that has remained largely untouched by privacy scandals. Its association to Facebook and its popularity, however, also makes it a prime target for less conscientious people who'd love to pilfer users' private information at every opportunity. Despite that imminent danger, it is only today that Instagram is rolling out a very basic switch to let users disconnect their app from any app they may have authorized in the past.

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