Proximity

Facebook is testing a feature for mentorships between users 

Sep 13, 2017 |

Earlier this year, Facebook signalled a plan to move into LinkedIn’s territory with the launch of job advertising. Now it appears to be taking another step to help develop the professional you. TechCrunch has learned that Facebook is testing a way to use its social network to link up users who are looking for mentorships, either as mentors or mentees.

Source: Facebook is testing a feature for mentorships between users | TechCrunch

At the Apple Keynote, Selling Us a Better Vision of Ourselves 

Sep 13, 2017 | ,

I looked up through the skylight over my desk. Yep. That iPhone sky looked way better than the garbage regular sky that I could see through my garbage human eyes.

This enhancement of reality is what each video-streamed Apple event sells, more than any particular iPhone or set-top box. If advertising once told us that “Things go better with Coke,” this event — a jewel box for Apple’s products and the people who use them — says that “Things look better with Apple.”

Source: At the Apple Keynote, Selling Us a Better Vision of Ourselves – The New York Times

Snapchat taps college newspapers to make campus stories and sell ads 

Sep 8, 2017 | ,

  • Snapchat is asking student newspapers to create campus editions for its Discover section, which already includes large outlets like BuzzFeed and The New York Times.

  • The stories will be visible to Snapchat users located near each respective campus.

  • Like larger publishers, participating student newspapers will be able to monetize their efforts by sharing revenue from video ads with Snapchat.

Source: Snapchat taps college newspapers to make campus stories and sell ads – Business Insider

Is QQ Music Worth $10 Billion?

Sep 7, 2017 |

Western appetite for the Chinese market has long been based upon accessing the 1.4 billion consumers. This has in turn impacted valuations of Chinese companies, particularly when eager western investors are involved. However, there is a growing realisation that market potential does not always translate to [performance]. Now we have Chinese tech major Tencent seeking pre-IPO investment in its music streaming service QQ Music, against a valuation of $10 billion. That is only $3 billion less than Spotify’s valuation. So, is QQ Music worth $10 billion?

Source: Is QQ Music Worth $10 Billion? | Music Industry Blog

AI Learns to Write Convincing Fake Reviews on Yelp

Sep 4, 2017 | ,

Savvy netizens have learned to be a bit distrustful of online reviews. For one thing, fake reviews glowingly recommending a service or a product can be easily bought. On the other hand, there are those reviews that seem genuine enough but ultimately reflect the particular biases of the reviewer.

However, there is another type of review that modern consumers need to be wary of. Besides biased and sometimes untruthful people, technology has now spawned AI bots that churn out reviews like it was nothing. And the worst part is, according to researchers, you can’t tell the difference between fake reviews done by a robot against one written by a human.

Source: AI Learns to Write Convincing Fake Reviews on Yelp

The product design challenges of AR on smartphones 

Sep 2, 2017 | ,

The initial products in a new medium are successful products from the prior medium copied and forced into the new medium. It’s easier for people to imagine and fit a mental model of the new medium that is still developing. I often hear that AR will be great “to see my Uber approaching” (even though a 2D map does a great job of this). The winning AR apps will take advantage of the new capabilities of the new medium and do things that weren’t even possible in the old medium.

Source: The product design challenges of AR on smartphones | TechCrunch

Spotify Needs To Follow Apple’s Example To Survive 

Aug 30, 2017 |

Spotify just bounded over it’s last major roadblock to going public with its new licensing agreement with Warner Music, and now it’s final hurdle is convincing the SEC that its direct listing is on the up and up. This means that the company looks to meet its goal of being listed on the New York Stock Exchange by the end of the year, but many questions about the process still remain.

Source: Spotify Needs To Follow Apple’s Example To Survive – Music 3.0 Music Industry Blog

How to Survive the Great Tech Panic of 2017 

Aug 24, 2017 | , , ,

THAT TWINGE OF worry. That occasional, sudden-onset widening-gyre sensation. It’s hard not to experience a bit of anxiety at the world’s recent technological upheavals—the endless stream of hacks, leaks, and cyberattacks; the whiplash advances in artificial intelligence and automation; the constant fear and loathing stoked by @socialmedia; and the Hierony­mus Bosch spectacle that is democracy in the age of flying monkeys and fake news.

Source: How to Survive the Great Tech Panic of 2017 | WIRED

I was hacked

Aug 23, 2017 | ,

At about 9pm on Tuesday, August 22 a hacker swapped his or her own SIM card with mine, presumably by calling T-Mobile. This, in turn, shut off network services to my phone and, moments later, allowed the hacker to change most of my Gmail passwords, my Facebook password, and text on my behalf. All of the two-factor notifications went, by default, to my phone number so I received none of them and in about two minutes I was locked out of my digital life.

Source: I was hacked | TechCrunch