Zach Miners
Author Archives: Zach Miners
- Home → Author's archive:
Zach Miners
0
PayPal tweaks terms in wake of ‘robocall’ controversy
PayPal is fine-tuning its policies after a recently announced plan to make unsolicited prerecorded calls and texts to users drew questions and concerns from customers, regulators and consumer advocates.Earlier this month, PayPal generated controversy when it proposed amendments to its terms that would allow it make unsolicited calls for marketing and other purposes. The Federal Communications Commission told PayPal that the proposed terms, which would go into effect July 1, might violate federal laws because unsolicited robocalls are only legal if a company has obtained written or oral consent from consumers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Tech throws its weight behind marriage ruling … with rainbows, emojis and software
When the Supreme Court issued its historic ruling on Friday legalizing same-sex marriage across the U.S., many of the biggest technology companies embraced the decision with characteristic flair through social media, on their sites, and with tools that others could use to show their support as well.Companies like Google, Microsoft, Motorola Mobility, Uber and Airbnb, their chief executives, and their venture capitalist funders all took to Twitter to post celebratory tweets about the ruling, often accompanied by the hashtags #LoveWins or #Pride, plus GIFs. Companies also changed the colors of their profile pictures on Twitter to those of a rainbow, conjuring the symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender pride.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Here’s how Facebook wants to make sharing links easier on mobile
Sharing links with friends in Facebook’s mobile app is a pain that requires—gasp—leaving Facebook and copying and pasting URLs. Now there’s a feature that simplifies the process.Facebook has added a new button in its iOS app that appears when you’re composing a status update. It appears as a link icon in the lower bar. Tap it, and you’ll be able to search for videos, articles and other links that have previously been shared on Facebook. The feature, called “add a link,” will let you view the articles and embed one in your status update with a single tap.It’s not clear how many links are in Facebook’s database, but they’re culled from the company’s index of roughly one trillion posts, wrote Facebook engineering manager Tom Whitnah.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Yahoo spruces up mobile search with related content
Yahoo is updating its search service on mobile devices, taking a leaf out of Google’s book and highlighting content such as images, videos and reviews ahead of regular search results.The changes, announced Thursday, apply to Yahoo search on the mobile web in the U.S., in browsers such as Safari and Chrome. Yahoo’s mobile app and desktop site already provide some additional content within results.A search on the mobile web for Barack Obama, for instance, displays information about him from Wikipedia, such as his height and birth date, as well as links to news, images and YouTube videos. In one search Thursday, the videos included some curious choices, including “Barack Obama is Illuminati.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
A Facebook account is no longer needed for Messenger
Facebook wants to squeeze as much growth as it can out of its popular Messenger app, even if that means foregoing Facebook.While previously users had to sign up for Messenger with their Facebook accounts, now, in a few countries, it can be done with just a mobile telephone number. In the U.S., Canada, Peru and Venezuela, users who sign up this way can allow the app to sync with the contacts on their phone so they can easily find people to message.Along with the phone number, the user’s name and photo are still needed to complete the sign-up process.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Instagram gets more Twitter-y with trending photos
Instagram, the popular app for sharing photos with friends, is broadening the reach of those photos.On Tuesday, the Facebook-owned app significantly expanded its service with new features around search and trending topics. The changes are aimed at letting users discover photos and videos related to popular events and places, and letting users more easily find photos taken in particular places.The changes are aimed at making Instagram not just an app to see friends’ photos, but an app for seeing other people’s photos related to local or global events. The changes put Instagram’s app more squarely in competition with Twitter, already known for its real-time feed of tweets around events, including photos and videos.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
US, UK spies said to attack security software
Spies working for the U.S. National Security Agency and its British counterpart found anti-virus and security software a hindrance to their intelligence gathering processes, and worked to thwart it, according to a report Monday in The Intercept.The efforts, revealed through documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, focused on vendors including Moscow-based security software developer Kaspersky Labs, which claims over 400 million customers worldwide.The NSA and the U.K.-based Government Communications Headquarters monitored web and email traffic between Kasperksy’s software and its servers, the report said, and obtained sensitive customer information in the process.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Twitter tests a new way to sell goods
Twitter has long positioned its site as a way to see what’s happening in the world. Now, it wants to tap into our desires as consumers.The company is testing a new way to highlight products and places on its site, bringing relevant tweets to the fore while also providing a way to purchase items. It’s a considerable expansion beyond the company’s previous forays into e-commerce.In an example, it showed a page it built for the book “The Martian,” complete with related images, tweets, and a button that says Buy on Twitter. The new pages will be promoted through people’s Twitter feeds.As well as Twitter building these pages, celebrities and brands will be able to build them too. It offered examples of pages built by Demi Lovato, Reese Witherspoon, Nike and Target, the last of which is filled with tweets promoting summer clothing, for example.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Samsung to plug security hole on Galaxy smartphones
Samsung will update the security software on its Galaxy smartphones to address a flaw that researchers warned could let attackers access people’s devices.Earlier in the week, researchers at NowSecure, a mobile security company, identified the flaw in SwiftKey, a keyboard application that comes preloaded on Galaxy smartphones. The flaw could be exploited even when SwiftKey was not used as the default keyboard, NowSecure said.On Thursday, Samsung said it would issue a fix that would roll out over the coming days to owners of the Galaxy S4, released in 2013, and later models. Those devices have Samsung’s Knox security platform installed by default and can receive over-the-air security policy updates. Users must have automatic updates activated in their phone’s settings, Samsung said on its website.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Samsung to plug security hole on Galaxy smartphones
Samsung will update the security software on its Galaxy smartphones to address a flaw that researchers warned could let attackers access people’s devices.Earlier in the week, researchers at NowSecure, a mobile security company, identified the flaw in SwiftKey, a keyboard application that comes preloaded on Galaxy smartphones. The flaw could be exploited even when SwiftKey was not used as the default keyboard, NowSecure said.On Thursday, Samsung said it would issue a fix that would roll out over the coming days to owners of the Galaxy S4, released in 2013, and later models. Those devices have Samsung’s Knox security platform installed by default and can receive over-the-air security policy updates. Users must have automatic updates activated in their phone’s settings, Samsung said on its website.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Twitter’s Project Lightning will be a whole new way to track events
Twitter is planning some big changes to the way people follow events using its service, with a major new feature that will group together tweets, photos and videos related to whatever’s happening in the moment.The move could make Twitter more useful for tracking current events at a time when its user growth is sagging. It’s dabbled in the area of events before, but the new initiative, dubbed Project Lightning, should make it much easier to find content related to scheduled events like the Grammys or major news events such as an earthquake.There’ll be a new button on Twitter’s mobile app that takes users to a page listing various events happening at that moment. Selecting one will take the user to a page of tweets, videos and photos related to that event. The content will be curated by Twitter staff, and users will be able to swipe through full-screen photos and videos.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Google-owned Nest unveils a smart camera for the home
Nest Labs, Google’s home sensing unit, made its long-awaited move into the home security market on Wednesday when it unveiled Nest Cam.Nest Cam is based on technology acquired last year when Nest purchased Dropcam. In fact, think of Nest Cam as a very much improved and souped up version of the first generation Dropcam.It will shoot video at full 1080p high definition—higher than Dropcam’s 720p—and is said to be able to better distinguish between different forms of movement in videos and send more relevant alerts to users when something happens inside their home. It’s slimmer than the Dropcam, has better night vision, and a tripod mount.It costs US$199 and is available in seven countries including the U.S., Canada, and parts of Europe like Germany and the U.K.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Etsy dips toes into crowdfunding
Etsy is trying out a Kickstarter-like crowdfunding service that, if successful, could help the company grow its business by expanding the number and type of items available for sale on its site.Fund on Etsy, announced Tuesday, comes as Etsy faces pressure to deliver returns to shareholders as a publicly traded company. Etsy’s stock began trading on the NASDAQ exchange in April, but the company has yet to report a profit.The company grew its revenue by 56 percent last year to US$196 million, but it lost more than $15 million. In this year’s first quarter, it grew its revenue 44 percent year-on-year to more than $58 million, but it had a net loss of nearly $37 million.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Twitter adds autoplaying videos
Twitter has moved well beyond its foundation of 140-character messages. The site will now host videos that play automatically in users’ feeds.Advertisers’ videos and those uploaded to Twitter natively, for example through its new video recording tool, will play automatically on the company’s desktop site and in its iOS app, with Android functionality coming soon, the company said Tuesday.The changes also apply to videos recorded with Twitter’s Vine app, and GIFs.Autoplaying videos, though possibly annoying, will help Twitter compete against Facebook, which started placing autoplaying videos, including those from advertisers, in users’ feeds in 2013. Twitter makes the bulk of its money through advertising, and more Internet companies are looking to siphon video advertising dollars away from traditional TV.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Facebook releases a separate app for private photo sharing
Facebook has taken a step away from its main site to develop what it thinks is a better way to share photos privately.Moments, released Monday for iOS and Android, is a standalone app that will organize the photos on people’s smartphones, and let users share them privately with a select set of friends. The app groups photos together based on when they were taken, and, who’s in them. It uses the same facial recognition technology that powers the suggested tagging feature on Facebook’s site.Moments lets users sync photos with the people who are at a specific event, like a party or wedding.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Four challenges for Twitter’s next CEO
Dick Costolo has stepped down as CEO of Twitter after five years on the job, relinquishing his post amid longstanding problems including sluggish growth and frequent abusive comments posted to the social network. Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, who is also CEO of Square, will be interim CEO when Costolo steps down on July 1.When Twitter finds a permanent replacement, he or she will face several big challenges. Here are four of them:1. Defining what Twitter isPerhaps the biggest problem Twitter has is that many people who aren’t tech enthusiasts still don’t understand what it’s for or why they should use it. For every occasion Twitter is referred to as a social network, it’s also identified as a news source, a publishing system, a feed of real-time events and a micro blog. Perhaps it’s all those things, but that doesn’t help sell it to people who aren’t yet on the service. If it’s a social network, why use it when Facebook’s around? If it’s a micro blog, why not use a proper blog like Tumblr instead?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Jawbone again sues Fitbit, this time claiming patent infringement
Jawbone has filed its second lawsuit against Fitbit in less than two weeks, claiming its activity tracking products infringe several of Jawbone’s patents.The new suit, filed Wednesday in San Francisco by Jawbone parent company AliphCom, seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to block the sale of Fitbit devices such as the Flex, Charge and Surge bands.Late last month, Jawbone filed another lawsuit, accusing Fitbit of poaching its employees and stealing trade secrets. Fitbit has said it has no knowledge of any such information in its possession.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Get ready for more buy buttons on Facebook
When you’re not liking your friends’ photos on Facebook, you’re likely to soon have more opportunities to buy stuff.Facebook is expanding its partnership with Shopify, which helps businesses create online storefronts. Facebook has been testing buy buttons in the News Feed and on businesses’ Pages since last year, with select merchants participating. The new arrangement, announced Wednesday, means that a wider variety of businesses will be able to place buy buttons for their items in Facebook users’ feeds and on Pages.Shopify is describing the expanded service as a beta test with a group of U.S.-based Shopify merchants. The company did not name merchants, but it did publish an image of a Facebook post by jewelry designer Joseph Nogucci, with buy buttons in its posts for bracelets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Twitter, to curb abuse, lets users share block lists
Twitter, to reduce abusive content on its site, is letting users share lists of the people they block, so they can more easily silence those account holders on their own profiles.With the changes, users can save an exported file of the accounts they block to share with others. Users can import a list of the blocked accounts so they can block them all at once, rather than blocking the accounts individually.Twitter, in a blog post, said it hopes the tool will help people on the site who face similar problems or who experience high volumes of unwanted interactions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Instagram cleans up its desktop site, enlarging photos
Instagram is changing the look of its photo-sharing site on the desktop, streamlining the display of people’s photos while also enlarging them.The redesign essentially mirrors the look of profile pages in Instagram’s mobile app. Previously, on the desktop, users’ photos were laid out in rows of five under their bio, with an additional collage of photos above the bio. With the changes, the collage is removed and photos on profile pages are laid out in rows of three, just like in the app, and the photos are bigger.In addition, some of the borders and shading on the desktop site have also been removed. And users’ profile pics, as well as their posts, followers and following counts, appear in the same style as on mobile.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here