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via David Strreitfeld and Nicole Perlroth, The New York Times Facebook may have quelled a full-scale rebellion by quickly dumping the contentious new terms of use for Instagram, its photo-sharing service. But even as the social network furiously backpedaled, some users said Friday they were carrying through on plans to leave. Ryan Cox, a 29-year-old … Continue reading
via Declan McCullagh, CNET News Instagram said today that it has the perpetual right to sell users’ photographs without payment or notification, a dramatic policy shift that quickly sparked a public outcry. The new intellectual property policy, which takes effect on January 16, comes three months after Facebook completed its acquisition of the popular photo-sharing … Continue reading
via David Talbot, MIT Technology Review, Mashable Google’s effort to install a blazingly fast, gigabit-per-second fiber Internet service in the two-state metropolis of Kansas City — a speed 100 times faster than the national average — is a radical new business direction for the company, and perhaps provides an unorthodox model for how to rewire … Continue reading
via John Constine, TechCrunch When you’re dealing with 1 billion people’s personal info, security is critical. But Facebook didn’t want to sacrifice speed. That’s why it spent the last two years making infrastructure improvements so that its transition of all its users to HTTPS which starts this week will “slow down connections only slightly.” People … Continue reading
via Joanna Stern, ABC News RIM is finally ready to show the world its future — the software and hardware it hopes will save it. The company announced that it will be holding a launch event for its BlackBerry 10 operating system on Jan. 30, 2013. RIM has been previewing the software since the spring, … Continue reading
via Keith Bradsher, The New York Times The Chinese government swiftly blocked access Friday morning to the English-language and Chinese-language Web sites of The New York Times from computers in mainland China in response to an article in both languages describing wealth accumulated by the family of the country’s prime minister. The authorities were also blocking … Continue reading
via Steve Friess, Politico Microsoft has enjoyed months of great press for its promise to make Do Not Track the default setting on its forthcoming iteration of Internet Explorer, but it has left out one important detail: Users will still be tracked. That also goes for users of Chrome, whose parent Google announced last week … Continue reading
via Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch New research out from Google, working with market analysts Ipsos and Sterling Brands, puts some hard numbers behind the often-noticed trend of how people in the U.S. are using a combination of phones, tablets, computer and TVs to consume digital content. While each of these has a significant place in our … Continue reading
via Ryan Grenoble, The Huffington Post Most people view Facebook as an ideal time-waster, a way to step back from the hustle and bustle of daily life and click around idly. Need a mental breather at work? Scroll through the News Feed. Insufferable urge to gossip? There’s a relationship rumor out there, somewhere. In one … Continue reading
via Deborah Netburn, L.A. Times Google doesn’t often get political, but on the issue of rights for gay people, the company is unequivocal: “LGBT Rights Are Human Rights” it proclaims on a Web page describing its new project Legalise Love–an international campaign to promote safer conditions for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people inside and outside the … Continue reading
via Dan Zak, The Washington Post The rainbow-colored Oreo graphic unveiled for LGBT Pride month proves at least one thing: Gays are just as susceptible to clever marketing as straights. At long last! Equality under commercialization. The graphic was posted Monday evening on Oreo’s Facebook page and drew more than 52,000 shares and 177,000 likes … Continue reading
via Jessica Hopper, NBC Rock Center When Helen and Jay Stassen’s 21-year-old son, Benjamin, committed suicide 19 months ago, he did not leave a note. If it had been 20 years ago, the Stassens might have looked through diaries, letters or other personal items in an attempt to find clues as to why he decided … Continue reading
via Mark Hachman, PC Mag Facebook’s strength—that it has evolved beyond a social network, into a platform—appears to be its greatest weakness, at least in the mobile market. Much has been made in the last week about Facebook’s inability to derive revenue from or otherwise monetize its mobile business. That may be one of the … Continue reading
via John Naughton, The Guardian: The Observer Earlier this year, American legal scholar Tim Wu published a sobering book: The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. In it, he surveyed the history of the great communications technologies of the 20th century – the telephone, movies, broadcast radio and TV. And in the … Continue reading
via Peter Ha, TechCrunch Earlier today Google released the full report of the FCC’s investigation into the collection of “payload data” from open Wi-Fi networks — aka passwords, email and search history from open networks — that its fleet of Street View cars obtained between 2008 and April 2010. An earlier and heavily redacted version … Continue reading
Social media—from Facebook to Twitter—have made us more densely networked than ever. Yet for all this connectivity, new research suggests that we have never been lonelier (or more narcissistic)—and that this loneliness is making us mentally and physically ill. A report on what the epidemic of loneliness is doing to our souls and our society. … Continue reading
via Morgan Little, Chicago Tribune In spite of their hopes, Internet activists are finding that their efforts to keep the digital world free of further regulation did not end with SOPA’s defeat. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 is working its way through Congress, and is the latest proposed legislation to raise … Continue reading
via Josh Constine, TechCrunch Facebook has just finished a deal to acquire mobile photo sharing app Instagram for approximately $1 billion in cash and stock. Instagram will remain an independently branded standalone app that’s separate from Facebook, but the services will increase their ties to each other. The transaction should go through this quarter pending some standard … Continue reading
via Alexia Tsotsis, TechCrunch It’s hard to tell if the Wikipedia article on April Fools’ Day is itself an April Fools’ prank. Tidbits of the ubiquitous holiday’s history seem like jokes in and of themselves; “In France and Italy, children and adults traditionally tack paper fish on each other’s back as a trick and shout … Continue reading
via Bianca Bosker, The Huffington Post Google’s plan to collapse 60 privacy policies into a single one and combine informationit collects about its users has sparked outcry among privacy advocates and scrutiny from lawmakers around the world. Privacy experts have slammed the approach as “frustrating,” “a little frightening,” and even “illegal.” But users will not notice much of a … Continue reading
via John Thomas Didumus, Digital Journal With just days to go before Google changes to its new privacy policy that allows it to gather, store and use personal information, users have a last chance to delete their Google Browsing History, along with any damning information therein. Tech News Daily reports that once Google’s new unified … Continue reading
via Jamie Confliffe, Gizmodo Google’s new privacy policy has already caused a stir among users. Now, Congress and EU regulators are sniffing around the changes and aren’t happy about them — but Google doesn’t seem to care in the slightest. According to The Hill, house lawmakers questioned Google representatives for two hours yesterday about the … Continue reading
via Somini Sengupta, The New York Times The unlikely coalition of companies and consumer groups that last week helped quash antipiracy legislation on Capitol Hill is now weighing the future of what might be called lobbying 2.0. Can the Internet industry, along with legions of newly politicized Web users, be a new force in Washington? … Continue reading
via Luke Johnson, The Huffington Post The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), have ignited widespread online protests–yet there is considerable confusion surrounding the legislation. Here’s a rundown of how the bills would work: The legislation would allow copyright holders and the Justice Department to seek court … Continue reading
via Jasmin Melvin, Reuters Lawmakers stopped anti-piracy legislation in its tracks on Friday, delivering a stunning win for Internet companies that staged an unprecedented online protest this week to kill the previously fast-moving bills. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he would postpone a critical vote that had been scheduled for January 24 “in light … Continue reading
The Brandt Standard 