Internet

While it pales in popularity compared to the big social networks, photo-sharing site Flickr is still around. Founded in 2004 and purchased by Yahoo in 2005 for over $20 million, Flickr grew to roughly 75 million accounts, but has long been overtaken by social media giants like Facebook and Instagram. But now Flickr has a new owner, the professional photo hosting service SmugMug, and it promises to do what's best for the site and its users.

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Today is the deadline to file your 2017 taxes, and that makes the IRS's Direct Pay and e-filing system outages a problem. The agency's systems went down today, with the IRS confirming that it is having problems accepting electronically filed taxes, such as the kind submitted through services like TurboTax, as well as accepting payments online through Direct Pay.

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Earlier this year, Google temporarily banned advertisements for drug addiction treatment centers due to "deceptive practices." Now, months later, the company is back with a solution to the problem: it'll review the ads before they're allowed to go live. The ban on addiction center ads will be lifted in July, and company LegitScript will be responsible for vetting the ads before they go live.

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The Samsung Galaxy J2 Pro was revealed this past week as a smartphone with no internet access. Today we're having a peek at 5 reasons why you might want a smartphone that's not quite smart enough to get online. Why would someone want a device that looks like a smartphone, feels like a smartphone, but cannot access the internet or run mobile apps*?

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Emulated games from the otherwise-lost history of video games are coming to the Internet Archive. The original Internet Arcade project was started all the way back on August 6th of 2014, but only this year really blew up to its current size. In fact, the most massive portion of games in the archive now were just added this week - and will continue over the next few days!

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A new leak on how Facebook uses AI to predict users most susceptible to advertising has thrown trust in the social network back into the spotlight. The company has not been shy in discussing its work on artificial intelligence, which it uses in numerous ways to filter what it believes its users will be most interested in - and will keep them coming back for more.

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Our smartphones are pretty powerful devices but, truth be told, most of their impressive functionality comes from their ability to connect to the Internet. Whether that's through a web browser or through apps, Internet connectivity is pretty much a must have for smartphones these days. Some people, however, see the Internet as a burden, a distraction, and a liability. That is why Samsung is offering these people the Galaxy J2 Pro, which is a smartphone that is really close to being a feature/dumb phone because of its lack of connectivity.

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There is a great deal of focus being put on privacy lately thanks to the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, but the social network is hardly the only culprit. Countless websites track users' online activity, mostly for ads, and web browsers often help them in exchange for a cut. Mozilla has always prided itself on not being beholden to such a business method, though it did try and fail a couple of times. Now Mozilla is taking a bold step that could antagonize advertisers and retailers by turning on Firefox's Tracking Prevention by default on iOS.

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Gmail is, alongside search, one of Google's most popular core services, so it's hardly surprising that there's plenty of interest when it comes in for a redesign. Problem is, while new features can be exciting, there's always the risk that change for its own sake just makes dealing with your crowded inbox even harder. Happily, from the leaks we've seen that's not the case - read on for the three things we're most excited about the new Gmail.

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Reddit has a long history of allowing controversial subreddits to stay live, though it has implemented certain actions against them in the past, such as quarantining. Still, the site has historically dragged its feet about banning subreddits that many felt were in violation of site rules, in some cases allowing them to remain, and it has now stated that racist content is permissible.

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Facebook may be under scrutiny from privacy regulators, and its CEO in the hot seat in front of Congress, but the social network doesn't expect any of this outrage to affect its bottom line. The site has been repeatedly struck with negative headlines over the past month, beginning with revelations about how it provided third-party apps with user data and allegations that such data was used to manipulate the 2016 US presidential election.

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Google announced they'd be updating Gmail this week and today we're having a peek at what that'll mean for the average user. That means you, the SlashGear reader, the person who might well be adversely affected by a major change to your one and only email provider. Don't worry too much - the changes are going to be big, but not so big they'll change the way you do your business. Especially if you choose not to include the bulk of the changes at hand.

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