Internet & Websites - Page 10

Google has announced that it will no longer be working for free for the government. Yep, that's right; Google will be charging law enforcement for any assistance they provide in recovering data.

In a new report from The New York Times, Google has released a "Notice of Reimbursement" which states that beginning on January 13th, 2020 or soon thereafter, "Google will require pursuant to statutory authority that government agencies serving legal process on Google reimburse Google for costs reasonably necessary and directly incurred in complying with the legal process according to the following reimbursement schedule:"

To make that sound less confusing, basically what Google is saying is that it will no longer be helping law enforcement pull up data on people as it costs them money to do so. If law enforcement wishes to use Google's data, they will have to pay, and the cost depends on what the type of legal process is. Google has provided a "reimbursement schedule" that lays out what law enforcement will be required to reimburse Google if they decide to use its services.

I'm sure most people would understand the pleasure of laying down with a tub of Ben & Jerry's and watching Netflix. So, how about an ice cream specifically for that?

Netflix has teamed up with Ben & Jerry's to bring out the first Netflix original ice cream - Netflix & Chill'd. The new brand of ice cream is a combination of Peanut Butter, sweet and salty pretzel swirls and fudge brownies. The mixture sounds like basically everything you need for a big Netflix binge.

On the official website, the company says, "We've teamed up with Netflix to churn up something extra special. And just like Netflix, there's something in this pint for everyone." At the moment it neither Netflix or Ben & Jerry's have announced how much the new ice cream will cost, but we do know it will be available in select grocery stores and also in a dairy-free variant.

CES 2020 - IOGEAR has announced a big new line of live streaming video production tools aimed at content creators.

IOGEAR is introducing content creators to a new line of content creation tools called 'UpStream'. The new line of products is aimed at both content creators that require high-end video production, and ones that can do with simple on-the-go video capture. IOGEAR's new line of products comes under the guise of 'UpStream'.

Right off the bat, we have the UpStream Video Capture Adapter, this device can capture high-quality audio/video up to 1080p at 60FPS. It connects to an HDMI-enabled camera and uses its USB-C cable to save the file to a device such as a laptop or PC. For the gamers out there that want a bit more bang for their buck, IOGEAR has the UpStream Game Capture Adapter which outputs video at 1080p at 60FPS but can pass-through a 4K 60FPS signal to a monitor.

CES 2020 - Corsairs streaming arm Elgato has been hot off the track this CES with a bunch of new announcements. This time we are taking a look at the new Elgato Keylight Air.

The Key Light Air is pretty much exactly the same as Elgato's original Key Light, but instead, the Air version is more compact and portable. It also comes with a bunch of attention to detail features that the already released Key Light lacks. For example, there is a groove on the back of the pole that is for the light's power cord; this gets rid of any messy cords and just makes the setup look better overall.

The Key Light Air also features little measurements on the side, so the user knows exactly what height their light is sitting at. This is especially helpful for a streamer that has purchased two of the lights as they can make sure both are sitting at the same height. I'd love to get my hands-on one of these Key Light Air's for testing, as it looks like a streamers best-friend when it comes to lighting.

If you have never been to Coachella, then you have probably wondered what happens at that music festival with so many big artists playing.

Luckily, YouTube are going to premiering a YouTube Originals documentary about the music festival called "Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert". Above we have the official teaser trailer which has been released onto the official Coachella YouTube channel, the teaser trailer lets us know that the documentary will feature exclusive footage and interviews.

According to the videos description, the documentary will give some never-before-seen footage of key performances from big artists such as "Billie Eilish, Kanye West, Daft Punk, Travis Scott, BLACKPINK, LCD Soundsystem, Rage Against The Machine, Pixies, Swedish House Mafia, Jane's Addiction, Bjork, The White Stripes, Madonna, Moby, Beck, Radiohead and more." YouTube says that Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert will be streamed to their platform on March 31st, 2020.

Tumblr has taken to their official Twitter account to announce that they will be waging war against fake news and cyberbullying.

The war against both fake news and cyberbullying comes under the year-long campaign titled World Wide What that will be an effort to spear awareness about having healthy conversations online. Tumblr has said they will be focusing on six topics, each of these topics will come with a video about how people should be interacting with the internet and ultimately developing a healthy relationship with it.

According to the companies press release, "We recognize that toxicity and negativity happen everywhere online, even on Tumblr. We are constantly striving to learn and utilize new ways to create a safe place for our communities." While the videos are very self-explanatory and most likely something everyone has heard before, Tumblr's effort is still just, and should be recognized. As should any effort against online bullying and fake news.

While most of Messengers users have Facebook accounts, there is still a portion of people who don't want to have a Facebook account, but still want to use the messaging service.

Times are now changing, and those portion of people will now be required to sign up to Facebook to access Messenger. According to the website's Help Center, "you'll need to create a Facebook account to use Messenger." Originally, users could sign up to Messenger by just entering their phone number and not having to worry about having a Facebook account. That option has now been revoked.

VentureBeat has also got the news confirmed to them via Facebook, here's what they said "If you're new to Messenger, you'll notice that you need a Facebook account to chat with friends and close connections. We found that the vast majority of people who use Messenger already log in through Facebook and we want to simplify the process."

The internet seems to be breaking up, in terms of countries separating themselves from global internet infrastructure.

Russia seems to be the next country that will join China and Iran in censoring any content that is present on their network. This censoring task will become much easier as Russia is moving towards having their own countrywide internet, or at least that is what Russia's Ministry of Communications announced.

According to an article from the BBC, Russia says it successfully tested its own internet connection, and users on the network barely experienced any changes. Russia will also be moving towards monitoring any content on its new internet, much like China's Great Firewall or Iran's state-owned Telecommunication Company.

A flaw in Twitter's system has allowed a researcher to connect 17 million phone numbers to their respective accounts.

A security researcher named Ibrahim Balic has spoken to TechCrunch about a flaw in Twitter's Android app. This security flaw gave Balic a window of opportunity to successfully match 17 million phone numbers with their respective accounts.

The users that had their numbers exposed and linked to their accounts were located in counters such as France, Greece, and Turkey. It should also be noted that some of the exposed numbers and accounts were prominent politicians and officials.

This comes as no surprise. China has released a new set of internet laws that will dictate what content companies are allowed to publish online.

According to these new laws, internet companies will have to manage whatever content is published online within a strict set of guidelines. These guidelines include a big push for algorithms to be manipulated to show "positive" ideas and not "bad" material. The new rules also prohibit any form of content that "endangers national security, leaks state secrets, subverts state power [and] undermines national unity."

The Chinese government will be implementing these rules as of March 1st, while at the same time begin cracking down on the management of accounts and online "rumors". Essentially, these new algorithm changes are targeted as removing as much freedom of information from the public's grasp. With algorithms in place that stop the public from finding any information contrary to government opinion, the people will be living within an echo chamber of moderated government information.

Who doesn't love being randomly given thousands of dollars? A better question would be, who wouldn't love to give thousands of dollars if they had it?

Well, YouTuber David Dobrick decided to do the giving away and became Santa Claus for one day to give random strangers thousands of dollars. At about 2:20 into the video, Dobrick is with fellow YouTuber Erin Gilfoy, and he asks her how she found "the one", she replies that she found "the one" via a dating app Bumble. Dobrick then calls Bumble, and the guy who controls the apps monetary funds picks up the phone.

Dobrick says that he will keep Gilfoy's statement in his video if they give him an undisclosed amount of money. The amount that was offered seemed sufficient to Dobrick as the next shot we see of him is him running out of a bank and falling onto his car with literal bundles of cash. Dobrick then proceeds to give random amounts of money to strangers, donating large tips to a donut lady, buying out all the flowers to a flower shop, and giving away huge amounts of iPads to children.

One of YouTube's most subscribed channels, the legendary PewDiePie, recently posted a new video that featured a special announcement.

PewDiePie or Felix Kjellberg's recently uploaded a video to his channel talking about YouTube's recent changes its making to its harassment policy. In the video, PewDiePie talks about how some of the harassment policy changes aren't well defined, and that the changes are going to hurt some select YouTubers who's channels are purely based on calling out other YouTubers. While these changes that YouTube is making are certainly questionable, PewDiePie also had a special announcement at the end of the video.

PewDiePie says that he is going to be taking a break from YouTube starting early next year, and while he doesn't detail why this break is happening or when specifically, he did say its happening regardless. PewDiePie briefly mentions that "I'm feeling very tired", alluding to what seems to be the changes YouTube has made over the course of his career. While this might be a guess, PewDiePie said that he would be clearing up any confusion with a future video.

YouTube has made some large changes to their policies regarding gaming content and violence being on their platform.

YouTube has taken to their official Twitter account to announce that from today "scripted or simulated violence in video games will be treated the same as violence in other scripted content like movies & TV". This means that less gaming content that has scripted violence will be age-restricted by YouTube, opening up gaming content to way more potential viewers.

YouTube says, "We know there's a difference between real-world violence and scripted or simulated violence - such as what you see in movies, TV shows, or video games - so we want to make sure we're enforcing our violent or graphic content policies consistently". While this might sound really good for video game content creators, YouTube's policy still states that if the video contains an overwhelming amount of violence, or if violence is the focus of the video, then it will still become age-restricted. If you are interested in reading more about the policy changes, check out this link here.

Facebook will soon be rolling out a new feature that will allow users to transfer bulk media to another platform. This saves users having to save and re-upload content individually.

This new tool is apart of the Data Transfer Project which is a lodged agreement between Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter. This agreement between companies is to make it much easier for users on each platform to share content to other platforms.

The new feature will be first released in Ireland and then rolled out to the rest of the world within the first half of 2020. At the moment, Facebook users will only be able to export the media attached to their account to Google Photos. Eventually, Facebook and other social media platforms should allow users to export/import media to all different services, or at least that is what the goal is.

Twitter has rolled out a new way to have conversations via its testing app Twttr. This new format seems to take inspiration from Reddit.

The news has come from Jane Manchun Wong, an app researcher who prides herself on finding out new features that are coming to a range of different apps. Wong has managed to find conversation trees that were being tested in Twitter's beta testing app on the main website.

From the video, we can see that Twitter is testing nesting replies in each conversation and that users can select each Tweet to enlarge and hone in on it. This change Twitter is about to implement is set to roll out sometime in 2020, and will certainly give the platform a nice fresh feel. The layout is somewhat similar to that of Reddit's, but Twitter's seems much more sleek and straightforward. What do you think about the design change?

Twitter is planning a great big ol' purge of their platform, as the company is planning on removing a bunch of inactive accounts.

Twitter will be removing accounts that haven't signed into the platform for the last six months. Warnings are already being issued out to accounts that are inactive, but don't stress yet as Twitter has said that the big ol' purge won't happen overnight. It will instead roll out over time, starting on December 11th. According to a Twitter spokesperson, the deleting of inactive accounts will happen over "many months".

This deleting spree is Twitter's effort of cleaning out useless information from their platform and giving users who are active "more accurate, credible information". While this all sounds good, Twitter is aware that this will pose some problems for account holders who have passed away. Loved ones who like to go through old Tweets of deceased friends or family will not be able to do so if the account falls under the "inactive" category and is deleted.

In a very surprising move, the Internet Society (ISOC) has announced it has sold the rights to the .org registry to Ethos Capital, for an unknown amount of money. The deal for the .org domain will be complete in Q1 2020, a few months from now.

There are over 10 million websites using the .org suffix, something that has become synonymous with non-profit organizations. The changes to this with ISOC selling it was an instant WTF moment around the world, with no warning signs or rumors before it happened -- it just happened. The Public Interest Registry (PIR) confirmed it will drop the non-profit status from the .org domain (something it has had since 2003).

It gets worse -- with ICANN (they oversee ALL of the domains on the internet, including the .org domains) have agreed to remove price caps for .org domain names. Until now, these were cheap and very important for non-profit organizations -- from non-profit, to lots-of-profit in 2020 and beyond, it seems.

The internet has been abuzz recently with a swath of videos showing celebrities saying things ranging from funny to downright odd or alarming. This is the world of deepfakes, and MIT thought it proper to represent the power of the new deepfake video capabilities by making one of their own.

As you can see above, that is a small clip from the https://moondisaster.org project which is designed to simulate an alternate reality where the Apollo 11 astronauts did not land on the moon, but instead were stricken by tragedy and the ultimate result of the entire cred perishing on earth's largest satellite.

The video clip, while brief, is created by the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality. While it may be cool to see how computer technology can be used for lifelike recreations or even film production, it can be disturbing to think that world events by trusted individuals, reporters, or world leaders could be potentially skewed by those wishing to cause disorder or chaos.

Amazon has decided to expand its music sector by releasing the free service on to more devices. Amazon Music is now on Android, iOS, and Fire TV.

Originally the free music streaming service was just available on Alexa devices, but now that has changed for users in the US, UK, and Germany. At the moment, the service limits free users with listening to playlists and stations that are from specific artists, genres, and songs.

The whole idea of the limitation is to give users a tease of what the service has to offer, and then hopefully either annoy the user into purchasing the whole service, or convince the user to upgrade their Prime package in some fashion. If you are in need of a music streaming service, you can check out Amazon Prime here.

A new social media platform has just launched called WT:Social and its premise to combat Facebook on the front of showing new content first instead of sponsored.

The new platform comes from Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales who has promised that any user signing up to the platform won't have their user data sold. WT:Social also won't be running advertisements or have algorithms like Facebook's, which prioritize content that is sponsored or receiving a lot of engagement. WT:Social will instead show users on the platform whatever content is newest.

According to Wale's Twitter account, the new platform has already gained 160,000 members, and "isn't slowing down yet". Wales also commented on how WT:Social will be different from other big platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, he said "I've come to the conclusion that the biggest problem driving low-quality media is that it has been purely advertising-supported, and that the social networks which provide so much distribution are also purely advertising supported."