Internet & Websites - Page 15

AT&T launched its DirecTV Now streaming service this week, allowing customers to view cable channels online at will. That's all well and good except AT&T is offering data exemption for the service, giving it what some might call an unfair leg up over rival services like those from Dish and Sony.

Without net neutrality laws preventing it from doing so, the advantage -- known as "zero rating" -- could mean AT&T and potentially other ISP giants take over the cable streaming market, reducing competition and likely value as well.

At present, the FCC judges matters such as this as they come up, so it's possible it will change; already it's sent a letter to the company expressing its "serious concerns" over harming competition. Time will tell if anything more comes of it, but it seems less likely with President-elect Trump's appointment of two opponents to the FCC's current workings: economist and former telecom consultant Jeffrey Eisenach and professor and former Sprint lobbyist Mark Jamison.

New data released today by the ITU, the UN specialized agency for information and communication technology (ICT), show that almost half of the world's population will use the Internet by the end of this year. However, 3.9 billion people remain cut-off from the vast resources available on the Internet, despite falling prices for ICT services.

Around 81% of the population in developed countries use Internet, compared with 15% in the least developed countries. The report also notes a huge gender gap in favor of men when it comes to Internet usage. The regional gender gap is largest in Africa, at 23%, and smallest in the Americas, at 2%.

Globally, 47% of the world's population uses Internet. UN's goal is to have 60% of the world's population online by 2020. The ITU expects that 3.5 billion people will have Internet access by the end of this year.

First Facebook accidentally flagged their boss as deceased, and now Twitter has suspended their CEO Jack Dorsey.

Dorsey didn't have access to his Twitter account for a short period, and once he returned he wrote that the "account suspension was an internal mistake."

During Friday, Facebook experienced some issues that resulted in showing memorialized accounts for many users that were still alive. This bug caused quite a stir among users, and people worldwide were affected by it.

In an official statement given to the Mashable, Facebook apologized for their error.

Facebook is experiencing some issues today and it appears people worldwide have been affected by it. You might notice bugs like getting a notification that someone commented your post and then that comment won't be visible to you.

But another Facebook bug caused quite a stir among users. Facebook is pronouncing people dead. When you visit someone's profile, you will see that Facebook made somewhat of a memorial for that person. Facebook pronounced me dead also, and wrote on my profile:

PlayStation Vue users will no doubt be unhappy to learn the service has somewhat abruptly dropped Viacom networks starting today. More than 11 channels in total get the axe as a result: BET channels, Centric, CMT channels, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV channels, Nickelodeon channels, Spike, Tr3s, TV Land, and VH1.

Sony's PlayStation division explanation implies the channels simply weren't that popular, at least overall.

"As part of our ongoing evaluation of the PlayStation Vue offering, we have determined that removing the bundle of channels from Viacom is the best way for us to continue to offer the most compelling value to our fans, while enabling us to focus on the content our users request most," it says.

Marvel's forthcoming The Defenders TV series will be shorter than you might've expected. Whereas previous Marvel shows on Netflix have offered 13 episodes each, this one will offer eight.

The likely theory is because each superhero -- Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist -- have their own shows, only so much time can be dedicated to featuring them in additional episodes. Another is that the material simply amounted to eight episodes and that's that. In either case, it's fair to assume fewer episodes and more superheroes will mean a more action-packed show.

The Defenders will debut on Netflix sometime next year. S.J. Clarkson (Jessica Jones, Vinyl, Orange is the New Black) will direct the first two episodes and serve as executive producer for the premiere episode.

Facebook introduced Halloween reactions to help their users get into the Halloween spirit. Now, they have announced another Haloween-themed feature - masks in Facebook Live.

Masks will be rolling out over the next few days for people using Facebook Live on iOS in the US, UK, and New Zealand. In the coming months, the masks will be available to people sharing live video via Android devices and in more countries.

The limited edition will feature masks like a skull, an evil queen, a pumpkin and a witch. A selection of masks will continue to be available after Halloween.

It's the scariest month of the year, and Facebook knows it. The internet giant has announced they are launching a set of limited edition Halloween reactions that turn the regular reactions into Halloween-themed symbols.

The limited edition reactions won't be available in every country, just a few select ones. Facebook said in their official announcement they hope these features will help their users celebrate Halloween with friends.

The Halloween edition of Facebook reactions will turn the Like reaction into a skeletal thumbs up, Love reaction will become a candy, Laugh will turn into a laughing witch, Wow reaction will be a ghost, Frankenstein will replace the Sad reaction, and Angry reaction will become a scowling pumpkin.

We knew Netflix was leaning toward original content going forward, but not quite this hard: a letter sent to investors yesterday states it's planning over 1,000 hours of original content for next year, a major increase over 2016.

"We are now in the fourth year of our original content strategy and are pleased with our progress," it reads. "In 2017, we intend to release over 1,000 hours of premium original programming, up from over 600 hours this year."

It has good reason to be pleased, too: quarterly global streaming revenue exceeded $2 billion for the first time (up 36% over last year), attributed partly to success of original shows like Narcos and Stranger Things. Perhaps surprisingly, Netflix is still about breaking even for the 2016 fiscal year, but expects to finally be profitable starting next year.

We are all familiar with the legendary Speedtest.net website, and the super-useful apps on iOS and Android for checking your internet connectivity - and now you can enjoy speed testing your PC on Windows 10 with the new Speedtest.net app.

Ookla's new internet speed testing app is a good-looking, and very functional app that will test your internet connection with a great UI. All you have to do is click 'Go' and you're away, but if you want a more specific test, you can opt for the manual network selector - so you can choose your ISP, or at least the closest one to you.

Download the new Ookla Speedtest.net app for Windows 10 from the Windows Store.

McAfee founder John McAfee has found something quite odd when browsing a Home Depot store: porn, available on a refrigerator.

McAfee found Pornhub running on a refrigerator at Home Depot... but at least you might need some cold water from the fridge after you've finished. McAfee said in the tweet that "in our current cybersecurity paradigm", that IOT "accounts for this"... yeah.

The most popular photo-sharing app celebrates its 6th birthday. In its six years of existence, Instagram has grown into an independent social network.

Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and launched in October 2010 as a free mobile app. The service rapidly gained popularity, with over 100 million active users as of April 2012 and over 300 million as of December 2014. The latest numbers show that Instagram has more than 400 million active users, more than Twitter.

Instagram's potential was recognized by Facebook so they bought it 2012 for $1 billion. At the time of the sale, Instagram counted only 13 employees. Mark Zuckerberg noted that Facebook was "committed to building and growing Instagram independently," in contrast to its past practices.

Facebook has introduced Marketplace, an online destination where you can buy and sell items with people in your community, on Monday. However, it didn't take long for the users to start exploiting this tool.

Drugs, animals, sexual favors, weapons and a whole range of forbidden items were listed on Facebook's Marketplace. Those items clearly violate the terms of service.

Facebook is shifting in a new direction with its introduction of Marketplace, a new place where Facebook users can buy and sell goods in their local communities. The social network says that 450 million people usually utilize buying or selling groups in order to buy stuff.

Marketplace is an easy-to-use extension of Facebook through a simple shop icon in the bottom of the tab of Facebook, this tab will display the items that people are selling, near to where you live. You can also run a search for a specific item that you're after, with the items sorted in various categories like Household, Electronics, and more.

Tapping a listing of a product will display more details on it, with photos and a description from the seller. If you want to keep an eye on a product, you can save it for later, but you'll need to personally contact the seller for payment details. You'll also need to work out the delivery of the item yourself, too.

Pasadena, California is the latest town to impose a streaming tax on its residents. Starting January 1, the 9.4 percent tax will be applied to services like Netflix, HBO Go, and Hulu.

Five other California cities have already implemented such a tax, and 45 others are on the radar.

There is opposition to the tax, of course, not just on a personal level, but legal as well: the state's leading taxpayer association Howard Jarvis questions the legality of the levy.

North Korea made the technological leap to land a man on the sun a few years ago, but it seems they're lacking when it comes to diversity with their websites.

GitHub released a full list of North Korean websites that can be accessed by outsiders, with just 28 websites on the list. How did they get their hands-on the list of domains? They explain: "On Sept 19, 2016 at approximately 10:00PM (PST), one of North Korea's top level nameservers was accidentally configured to allow global DNS zone transfers. This allows anyone who performs an AXFR (zone transfer) request to the country'sns2.kptc.kp nameserver can get a copy of the nation's top level DNS data".

They created the TL;DR project, with 28 websites using the .KP top level domain, and some of them aren't even working. Here's the full list:

Announced in May, Twitter has finally implemented changes to its 140 character limit.

The limit still remains, of course, but in modified form: now photos, quoted tweets, polls, GIFs, and basically anything that isn't original, raw text will no longer count toward it. The result: a much more convenient experience when tweeting anything but text or in addition to text.

Posting images or videos not uploaded to Twitter directly will still count, however, which has the inadvertent benefit of encouraging users to employ Twitter's side services.

AdBlock Plus has launched its new Acceptable Ads Platform, which acts as an optional filter of sorts to let advertisements show up on specific websites.

The Acceptable Ads Platform is now available in beta form, and is described as "an interactive platform that lets publishers and bloggers choose from a marketplace of pre-whitelisted ads that they can drag and drop onto their sites." According to info from AdBlock Plus, you'll be able to turn off the program at any time: "Users can still turn off the Acceptable Ads feature completely if they choose."

"The Acceptable Ads Platform contains ad placements that abide by the Acceptable Ads criteria for size and labeling; and it allows ads to be positioned only in spots deemed appropriate by the Acceptable Ads rules for ad placement. An intuitive drag-and-drop editor gives publishers the ability to place readymade ads directly onto their site in real-time, and be instantly viewable to millions of Adblock Plus users who have agreed to allow non-intrudisve ads to support their favorite websites," reads a recent ABP press release.

New research reveals the average child in recent years is spared 150 hours of commercials by virtue of using streaming services like Netflix. As Exstreamist's investigation illustrates, children now watch approximately 1.8 hours of streaming content per day; extrapolated over a year, that represents 650 hours, and in turn, 150 hours of commercials.

The potential results of this shift are intriguing to ponder: perhaps we'll see less kids stamping their feet in the grocery store, demanding that toy or treat. And perhaps as adults, said children will less materialistic. Either way, it's hard to imagine parents aren't happier (and richer) for it.