Google is developing tools to help online news companies get people to give them money, as the Verge reports. It remains unclear how much of that money Google intends to keep for itself. The plan is to make it harder for people who can pay to read without paying. The changes should come in September. Arguably, companies like Google and Facebook are themselves responsible for robbing online news organizations of digital advertising dollars in the first place by chewing up 60 percent the market. That’s part of why news organizations need subscriber money so badly. Since the internet virtually wiped out physical news subscriptions, news…
Author: Ashley Leader
In 2013, beauty store chain Ulta welcomed a new CEO in Mary Dillon and ever since its star has been on the rise, Digiday notes. It wasn’t long ago that Ulta was considered something along the lines of an expanded drugstore beauty aisle, while Sephora was considered to be the market leader in beauty. French giant Sephora has long held the preeminent position among beauty retail chains thanks to its wide roster of prestige beauty brands. But Ulta evolved its own market strategy which allowed it to overtake Sephora in the beauty market in 2015, as reported by Bloomberg. So what’s…
The company behind the photo filter app Prisma is shifting its focus away from the app and towards selling its technology to other companies, as reported by the Verge. You know, that app that can trick you into thinking bad phone photos are paintings? You know, that app that can trick you into thinking bad phone photos are paintings? That’s Prisma. It turns out the AI machine vision tech behind those cute painter filters is actually pretty versatile. That’s why Prisma Labs is trying to sell it to other companies for a number of diverse applications. They’re moving beyond simply courting smartphone app users. Prisma calls…
As reported by TechCrunch, changes are coming to Google’s mobile search. Now: video previews Now, whenever your Google search query returns video results, Google will automatically play a six-second video clip on the results page to give you an idea of its contents. Don’t worry: the preview will be silent. Your search results will not be broadcasted to the world. The video previews will not simply be the first six seconds of every video since the first six seconds of any video aren’t necessarily the most accurate reflection of the contents of the full video. That’s why Google has devised a program which can…
As reported by Bloomberg, the FDA is forcing food companies to stop including trans fats, or partially-hydrogenated oils, in food products this month. Three years ago, a deadline was set for companies to stop using trans fats in their products. Now we’re reaching that deadline. What are trans fats? Small amounts of trans fat may naturally occur in animal products such as meat and dairy. But most of the trans fats Americans eat are not naturally occurring. You may also know artificial trans fats as partially-hydrogenated oils. According to the American Heart Association, artificial trans fats should be avoided, full stop. Ideally, trans fats make up…
The euro has been weakened against the dollar since the release of the minutes of the European Central Bank’s last meeting. But the dollar is having its own problems. The dollar has fallen since the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its last meeting in July, during which policymakers expressed concern about weak U.S. dollar inflation. The recent attack in Barcelona compounded matters for the dollar, as did certain remarks made by President Trump regarding the recent violent white-supremacist rallies in Virginia. In the fallout from this drama, Trump disbanded two advisory councils of prominent businessmen, a move which some people think violates his promise to work alongside industry leaders.…
Could I interest you in a package of fully-cooked beef stew that sat unrefrigerated on a shelf for a year before being dropped on your doorstep? Or perhaps a vegetable frittata? That’s what Amazon might have in store for us — lots of non-refrigerated pre-cooked food. Amazon is reportedly looking into a process called microwave-assisted thermal sterilization, or MATS. This technology, developed at Washington State University, originated to meet the needs of the U.S. military. The process kills bacteria and seals meals using microwaves, allowing pre-cooked meals to remain safe for up to a year without refrigeration. The meals are easy to transport, and they only need to be heated…
China has proven itself able to use quantum cryptography to produce what are essentially unhackable transmissions. A Chinese group of researchers called the Quantum Experiments at Space Scale project, or QUESS, launched a quantum cryptography satellite into orbit in August last year. This satellite has enabled the QUESS project to send quantum-encrypted messages from earth to the satellite — a record-setting distance of 1200 kilometers. What is quantum cryptography? But what makes this particular kind of encryption preferable to regular encryption? Right now, regular encryption is generally considered safe since our computer technology hasn’t reached that level of sophistication. But some scientists predict that when…
We now live in a time in which you can use DNA to hack computer systems. The discovery was made by a group of researchers at the University of Washington made up of both computer science and molecular biology specialists. They focus on how information is encoded not only in computer systems, but also in biological systems, and particularly in the overlap between the two. The team of researchers originally launched the project because they noticed possible security vulnerabilities in the computer systems used at their university for DNA sequencing and analysis. The lab treated DNA samples were treated as non-threatening input, but the researchers…
In an effort to break into the video entertainment market, Facebook is introducing a new video platform called Watch. The platform will be made available to a select group of Facebook users today. Everyone else will have to wait to try it. In making this move, Facebook is most likely looking to open up new sources of revenue. If Facebook Watch catches on, users will spend more time on Facebook watching TV-length videos. That means that users will be exposed to more ads, thus generating more revenue for Facebook. And users won’t be required to pay for a subscription. According to Facebook, Watch will…
Over the past few years, Netflix has invested heavily in original movies and TV shows which are available exclusively on Netflix. This content works to attract new customers who want to find out what the House of Cards hype is all about. And it makes existing Netflix subscribers less likely to cancel the service since they would then be unable to access Netflix-exclusive content. But even as Netflix is building up a repertoire of hit movies and TV shows, it still relies heavily on licensed content from other companies. And one of those companies is going rogue: the Walt Disney Co., which also covers ESPN and ABC networks under its umbrella. Earlier…
A manifesto titled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber,” written by a software engineer at Google has garnered attention not only within the company but also throughout the broader media. The attention has been largely negative, as many commentators have found the manifesto to advance sexist arguments. The manifesto was originally disseminated via the company’s internal email, but it has now been leaked. You can read the entire thing over at Gizmodo. So, what does the manifesto say? The author of the manifesto claims there is widespread discrimination against ideologically conservative employees at Google. It bewails the existence of mentoring and hiring programs at Google which target specific groups of people…
Tesla, Inc. has a tough year ahead as it attempts to exponentially increase production even as its battery chief has just announced his departure. Tesla first unveiled the Model 3 in 2016, but it’s only this July that the company has actually delivered any of them. Pricing for the Model 3 starts at $35,000. That’s a pretty moderate price for Tesla, if not for the majority of consumers. However, to get all the much-touted features such as autopilot, you’ll have to shell out around $60,000. Tesla’s battery chief Kelty departs In the midst of all the publicity and high expectations for the Model…
The field of digital marketing is dominated by two Silicon Valley superpowers: Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc, the latter of which controls Google and a family of other companies including YouTube. Google and Facebook, which also controls Instagram, both have enormous masses of users and data. That gives them an advantage in the online advertising market since they can gather data about their users and deploy targeted ads to maximize users’ clicks and their own revenue. Independent online advertising-focused companies have found it difficult to wrest market control from Facebook and Google. Although networks and service providers such as Verizon…
Google is now putting its massive power to work tracking disease outbreaks. Of course, it’s not really Google doing the work so much as it is the billions of people who type search queries into Google every day. Researchers at Harvard University have successfully created a mathematical model to track the spread of infectious diseases using Google searches, as detailed in an article published in the journal “PLOS Computational Biology.” The Harvard study tracked dengue fever in Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease which afflicts around 400 million people per year. The symptoms of dengue fever include a high fever, nausea,…
On July 20 Elon Musk tweeted that he had “just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins.” Musk added that the hyper loop would run from “city center to city center in each case, with up to a dozen or more entry/exit elevators in each city.” Earlier this year, Musk launched the tunnel-digging company The Boring Company, which has also taken on a project to build tunnels under Los Angeles. Though apparently Musk plans to be involved in digging the tunnel for the hyperloop, he does not seem to have any plans to build the…
During the TechCrunch Robotics Session on MIT’s campus, Sami Atiya argued that increased robotics use in industry will create rather than replace manufacturing jobs. Atiya is president of the Robotics and Motion division of ABB, a multinational corporation based in Switzerland. ABB specializes in technology in the areas of robotics, power, and automation. As a result of these business operations, ABB has a decided interest in promoting robotics technology. Atiya is not a disinterested party in this analysis. Atiya presented various data points gathered by ABB to argue his case. He cited such sources as the International Federation of Robots, the World…
Obamacare has proven unexpectedly difficult for Republicans to dismantle. As a result, the GOP is anticipated to focus the bulk of its future efforts on tax reform instead. The new GOP tax plan put forth by House Speaker Paul Ryan includes a border-adjustment tax. Under this type of tax system, all domestic consumption would be taxed, while exports would be untaxed. Over the course of a decade, this provision is anticipated to bring in about a $1 trillion, which could be used to offset the tax cuts promised by the GOP. Under the proposed plan, the corporate tax rate of 35% would be replaced by the…
The International Monetary Fund has resolved to bail Greece out yet again, Bloomberg reports. To be precise, the IMF has approved “in principle” a loan of up to $1.8 billion to Greece. Just over two years have passed since Greece was unable to make a payment on a previous IMF loan. Greece has endured severe economic conditions since the 2008 financial crisis, but in recent years conditions have been improving. The phrasing of the IMF’s approval may at first appear noncommittal. But the IMF’s website explains that “approval in principle” is in fact a regular IMF procedure which fell into disuse after…
