Imagine this: You’re messaging a friend on Facebook, one you haven’t seen in a while, trying to make plans to catch up. Maybe you’re walking while you type, or are just a little distracted, and you go to press send on another message. Suddenly, though, and seemingly out of nowhere, a video ad starts playing on your screen; maybe you accidentally click it, immediately and inadvertently sending you straight to a download page or even into another app. In a matter of seconds, you’re no longer letting Karen know, yeah, you’re free for lunch at one, but unexpectedly downloading the twelfth iteration of an overwrought Words With Friends. Sadly this fever dream, this nightmare, is not just that. It’s your brand new user experience on Facebook’s messaging platform, Messenger. From his “beachside cabana” at the Cannes Lions advertising festival on Tuesday, head of ad business for Messenger Stefanos Loukakos announced that Facebook had … [Read more...] about ConsumerBusinessSpotlightConsumerBusinessSpotlightConsumerBusinessSpotlightConsumerBusinessSpotlightConsumerBusinessSpotlight Putting video ads in Facebook Messenger may be the final straw for users
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Prince’s death: New photos, video show singer on the day before he died
Share This Story! Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about Facebook Email Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest Prince's death: New photos, video show singer on the day before he died Now that their probe of the singer's 2016 death from a fentanyl overdose is complete, investigators are publishing reams of documents, photos and video. Sent! A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 1 Join the Conversation To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Maria Puente and Jayme Deerwester, USA TODAY Published 2:08 a.m. ChT April 21, 2018 | Updated 4:05 a.m. ChT April 21, 2018 CLOSE Newly released investigative material in the probe into Prince's death include a police video showing Prince walking into a clinic the day before he died. (April 19) AP CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN 1 COMMENT EMAIL … [Read more...] about Prince’s death: New photos, video show singer on the day before he died
YouTube shooting: How does the platform restrict video views and cut monetisation to content creators?
A woman who opened fire at YouTube’s California headquarters before taking her own life “hated” the company and believed it was suppressing her content. Nasim Aghdam, a video blogger and animal rights activist, wounded three people during the shooting at the organisation’s Silicon Valley campus on Tuesday afternoon. The 39-year-old was “angry” at YouTube because it had stopped paying her for videos she posted on the platform, according to her father. Ismail Aghdam said he had earlier warned local police she might target the Google-owned organisation. Read more YouTube shooting brings to fore widespread conspiracy theory Video blogger Nasim Aghdam identified as YouTube attack suspect YouTube eyewitness details active shooter incident A 36-year-old man was in critical condition, a 32-year-old woman was in serious condition and a 27-year-old woman was in fair condition, a spokesman for San Francisco General Hospital said. Why was Nasim … [Read more...] about YouTube shooting: How does the platform restrict video views and cut monetisation to content creators?
Can you have a healthy relationship with your phone? Mindfulness could be the key to stopping technological misery
You take your phone out of your pocket, probably not thinking about even doing so, look at it and immediately feel miserable – but there you'll stay, scrolling and scrolling, more and more miserable. Just a few minutes later you'll probably put it away and then do it all over again. And you'll repeat that cycle, every few minutes, over and over until you go to sleep – a sleep probably disturbed by the fact that you feel compelled to look at your phone when you wake up from it. None of this was inevitable. Technology wasn't supposed to make you miserable; it didn't have to be built around hijacking your attention, taking it hostage and selling it to the highest bidder. Indeed, it wasn't always this way. And it could easily stop being, according to Rohan Gunatillake, who – as well as creating mindfulness apps like Buddhify – speaks and writes on the application of techniques from meditation and mental wellbeing in technology. Gadgets and tech news in pictures … [Read more...] about Can you have a healthy relationship with your phone? Mindfulness could be the key to stopping technological misery
MP Matt Hancock’s app is a privacy ‘comedy of errors’
Culture secretary Matt Hancock has become the first MP to launch his own app in a bid to push "digital democracy". However, experts have already identified significant flaws in the app's privacy policy, labelling the project "a fascinating comedy of errors". The Matt Hancock app - available for both iOS and Android - updates users on the minister's activities and features pictures and video galleries of him. Within hours of the launch, there were reports that Hancok's app was collecting user data even when not given permission to do so. Silkie Carlo, the director of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, told Wired, "It is quite fitting, given this government's incompetence on digital privacy issues, that our digital minister's app steals a bank of users' personal photographs, even when permission to access them is denied." Pat Walshe, a data protection and privacy consultant who runs the Twitter account Privacy Matters, said that the privacy policy isn't linked to on Apple's App … [Read more...] about MP Matt Hancock’s app is a privacy ‘comedy of errors’