Facebook has announced that users in the United States, including those on Instagram, can now opt out of seeing certain types of advertisements on the social media platforms, including ones related to politics. Users may still see some of these types of ads even if they opt out, but Facebook is giving users the ability to tag advertisements that made it past the filters.
Video conferences are the in thing these days and almost everyone is trying to grab a piece of that juicy pie. Originally designed to take on Slack, Microsoft's Teams platform has now jumped on board a train that Slack has so far been unable to catch up with. As use cases for video meetings grow, so, too, is the demand for new features to make organizers' and attendees' lives easier. Microsoft Teams is now making a big splash with a dozen or so new features both to help reduce meeting fatigue but probably also increasing it as well.
Sony's PlayStation is the latest major company to ditch Facebook and Instagram, at least temporarily. The company has joined an ongoing boycott that will involve suspending advertisements on the platform during the month of July. In this case, PlayStation has confirmed that it will suspend all of its activity on both social media websites, including sharing non-paid content.
Some people might laugh at it but spreadsheets are still the most popular and most widely-used tools for handling data. That's sometimes even when dealing with tons of data, which is definitely no walk in the park. But while the concept of a table of data is admittedly old-school, it doesn't mean spreadsheets have to stay locked in the past. In fact, Google is announcing three new features for Google Sheets that makes it feel like it has a mind of its own, one that's fortunately designed to help you.
The rise in the use of streaming services and video conferencing has most likely put increased stress on home networks. The promise of 5G is great and all that but when it comes to meeting the Internet needs of all devices at home, WiFi 6 is the technology being pushed for that. Given the complexity of use cases as well as house layouts these days, a simple and single WiFi 6 router may not even be enough. Enter NETGEAR's new Orbi WiFi 6 Tri-band AX4200 mesh system, now in a more affordable package but also with less muscle than its other Tri-band mesh system.
President Donald Trump has been banned from streaming platform Twitch over allegations that his account had presented 'hateful conduct,' according to the company. The move is the latest example of a social media company taking steps to address problematic content shared on official presidential accounts, following content notices on Twitter that prompted ire from the POTUS.
The South Korean boy band BTS is no longer the 24-hour viewing record holder over at YouTube. Another band has risen above the group, and it's not surprising that it comes from the same genre. Blackpink managed to rake in more than 82 million views on its new single hit "How You Like That" within the first 24 hours on the video streaming platform, exceeding BTS' 74.6 million views during the same period of time.
In a long post today, and following weeks of controversy and advertiser boycott threats, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has published a long post detailing some content policies coming to the platform, including the promise that there are "no exceptions for politicians." Among other things, Zuckerberg said the social media platform will start labeling problematic 'newsworthy' content from political figures.
The Internet of Things market, from smart homes to smart cars, promises a lot of conveniences but, like everything, also comes with hidden costs. For this segment of products, that cost is a reliance on the Internet or at least some form of connectivity. While some devices can continue working even after remote servers go dark, others are so intricately tied to the cloud that they immediately stop working once that plug is pulled, like the dozens of Guardzilla security cameras that have now become totally worthless without any warning.
Facebook is adding a new prompt that will help users make a decision about whether they want to share a particular article on their News Feed. The alert informs users when they're about to share an article that is old beyond a certain timeframe, reducing the number of aging articles that are shared as if they are recent news stories.
There's a printable "Face Mask Exempt Card" out in the wild that the official United States Department of Justice just called out. The card looks semi-legitimate, especially if the person showing the card has a laminating machine - but it's absolutely unofficial an unenforceable in any legal capacity. As noted by the Department of Justice, the card may include a message suggesting that exemption from face mask rules is allowed because of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - but it's all a sham.
Google has launched a new Chrome experiment called Shared Piano that enables more than one person to play a digital piano at the same time. The notes are recorded and presented as colored columns similar to the kind used in tutorial videos. The idea is that one person can play one part of a song and another person can play the other part -- or, if you have a full 'room' of players, everyone can contribute to the final masterpiece.