As developers for tablets and smartphones we like to keep abreast of the latest mobile technology developments . This is a daily digest of mobile development and related technology news gathered from the BBC, the New York Times, New Scientist and the Globe and Mail to name a few. We scour the web for articles concerning, iPhone, iPad and android development, iOS and android operating systems as well as general articles on advances in mobile technology. We hope you find this useful and that it helps to keep you up to date with the latest technology developments.
- The 20 Funniest Tweets From Women This Week
The ladies of Twitter never fail to brighten our days with their brilliant — but succinct — wisdom. Each week, HuffPost Women rounds up hilarious 140-character musings. For this week’s great tweets from women, scroll through the list below. Then visit our Funniest Tweets From Women page for our past collections.
Mercury retrograde ends its tyranny tomorrow which is kind of sad because then I have to stop blaming everything bad on Mercury retrograde
— Fariha Róisín (@fariharoisin) June 10, 2015
You don’t really know a man till you’ve seen him Build a Bear.
— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) June 7, 2015
*loses an acrylic nail while attempting to open a carton of chocolate milk*
I’M NOT A GIRL, NOT YET A WOMANNNNN
— Gabby Noone (@twelveoclocke) June 9, 2015
Fries > abs.
— Alie Martell (@aliemartell) June 9, 2015
every white guy in bk looks like one of the dads from rugrats
— Ayesha A. Siddiqi (@pushinghoops) June 11, 2015
I got sad and ate a bunch of ice cream: an autobiography
— Angela Wheezy (@CarpeAngela) June 9, 2015
i think people like seltzer so much because that first sip tastes like an instantaneous and fairly inexpensive life upgrade
— Durga Chew-Bose (@durgapolashi) June 10, 2015
on jury duty this week. my vapid, drifting thoughts: does justin bieber do jury duty? what about dennis hastert?
— Hanna Rosin (@HannaRosin) June 9, 2015
I can’t wait to be a stepmom. My boyfriend doesn’t have any kids, but I’m willing to wait.
— Sara Benincasa (@SaraJBenincasa) June 9, 2015
Saying, “Have a good weekend!” on Wednesday is a great way to let people know you don’t want to talk until Monday.
— Abby Heugel (@AbbyHasIssues) June 10, 2015
I hate when I’m in a room with 3 other people, & I have to shove the entire kit kat in my mouth.
— barbara the ninja (@ninjadinosaur1) June 10, 2015
i wanna be famous on instagram but not actually BE on instagram you know?
— Alexis Wilkinson (@OhGodItsAlexis) June 9, 2015
Startup idea: Uber but they come to your house and kill giant bugs for u.
— Julia Segal (@juliasegal) June 10, 2015
“Greased Lightning” but the T-Birds are all thoughtful millennials. “Why, this girl…is PROB-LEMATIC….”
— Julie Klausner (@julieklausner) June 10, 2015
Millennials always think it’s Friday.
— Emma Barker (@emmajune) June 12, 2015
Breaking: Cameron Crowe to cast Asian actress as lead in Rachel Dolezal biopic
— OhNoSheTwitnt (@OhNoSheTwitnt) June 12, 2015
hiccups are a great way to stay humble
— Lara Parker (@laraeparker) June 11, 2015
Like nanny cams, but they’re body cams and we make all the cops wear them.
— Nicole Cliffe (@Nicole_Cliffe) June 11, 2015
That too hot for pizza weather is the worst
— Michelle Markowitz (@michmarkowitz) June 11, 2015
Shout out to the guy who just asked me for the time, tried to start a conversation with me and then TOOK OUT HIS OWN PHONE. I SEE THRU YOU.
— Alexis Kleinman (@alexiskleinman) June 11, 2015
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- Baby Boomer Alert: Protect Yourself From Smartphone Scams
Do you remember the first time you encountered an Internet scam? Maybe it was an email scam where if you opened a suspicious email or attachment, you were susceptible to picking up a virus that could harm your computer.
Maybe you’ve had your email hacked like my friend, who is a pastor. The scammers hijacked her email account and sent out a ‘male enhancement pill’ advertisement to all of her contacts. A harmless, but horrifying experience for a pastor.
Or maybe like me, you were desperate to purchase a coveted Bronco’s jersey from an official ‘NFL’ site. As soon as I put in my credit card information, I was transferred to an unofficial looking web page, in another language, with no way to contact the company. And yes, my credit card was flagged for fraudulent activity in that same country weeks later.
Many of us don’t think about security on our smartphones in the same way as we think about security on our computers, but we should.
By increasing awareness and taking these precautions, your chances of becoming a victim can be greatly reduced. Here are some common smartphone scams.
1 — Fake Wi-Fi Hotspots
THE SCAM:
— When in public places, especially airports, scammers set up fake Wi-Fi hotspots to get you to connect to their network. The name of the network is designed to fool you into thinking it is an official network.
— If you connect to this fake network, which often provides free access, the scammers may have access to your device.
— Worse yet, some people pay a small amount, like $2 for 24-hour access, not realizing they just gave the scammer their credit card information.WHAT TO DO:
— When away from home, make sure you are aware of the Wi-Fi network you are connected to.
— Don’t pay for temporary Wi-Fi access, especially in airports. Instead, use your personal hotspot or some other trusted Wi-Fi source like a password-protected site from a trusted business or hotel.
— Avoid using banking or credit card apps when not connected to a trusted Wi-Fi network. If necessary, open the website in a browser on your smartphone and look for “https” as the first part of the website address. Logout of accounts and close apps when you’re finished.2 — Missed calls or text messages from unknown numbers
THE SCAM:
— Have you ever missed a call from an unknown source? The phone likely only rang once and you were surprised you missed a call. The number you call back may be redirected to a number that starts with 190 (premium rate service) without your knowledge, which means a charge will show up on your phone bill.
— The number may tell you that you have won a prize and give you another number to call to claim your prize. The second number may be a premium rate number.
— The same type of scam happens with text messages. You may be enticed to respond to an unknown text, to find out you incurred a charge for the text message on your phone bill.WHAT TO DO:
— If you receive a call or text from an unknown number, don’t reply. Delete the message right away. If someone really wants to contact you, they will leave a message or call back.
— Call your cellular phone provider to see if you incurred one of these premium charges and ask to have it reversed.
— Report the fraud to your cellular phone provider or report it to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center.3 — Fake or Fraudulent App Scam
THE SCAM:
— Have you ever paid for an app that does something completely different from what you thought? Probably the most well known example of this is Virus Shield, a $4 Android antivirus app that did absolutely nothing. People were fooled, and the scammers made $40,000 before the app was shut down.
— The Today Show recently reported about a risk with Android phones that is really creepy. Scammers can hack into your phone and track everywhere you go and everything you do. They can also take control of your camera and speakers to see and hear what you are doing.
— Android phones are more prone to hacking that Apple phones because anyone can create an Android app. The scammers design the fake app to look like a game or software update, so you’re more likely to download.WHAT TO DO:
— Make sure you only download apps that are well known and trusted. Read reviews and ask your friends if they have used the app.
— On Android devices, download apps from Google Play which has a “verify apps” feature. It will warn you if you are attempting to download an app that may be the work of scammers.
— Secure your device by setting up a screen lock with pin. If the scammer takes control of your phone, they may not get passed the lock screen. On your Android device, go to Settings > Security > Screen lock. On Apple devices, go to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode.If you follow these suggestions, you’ll be less likely to fall victim to a smartphone scam.
You can also review the list of FBI common Internet fraud schemes.If you like this type of information, sign up for our weekly update, which is the best way to stay current with technology.
Earlier on Huff/Post50:
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- Solar-Powered Airplane Is About To Make History
Aviation history is in the making — no fossil fuels necessary.
Solar Impulse 2, the revolutionary airplane powered exclusively by sunlight, is about to depart on the longest leg of its around-the-world journey.
The 4,000-mile flight from Japan to Hawaii will kick off as soon as weather permits. Because the aircraft’s maximum speed is only 90 mph and it typically flies even slower to conserve energy, the non-stop journey is predicted to take four to five days. A Boeing 777, with a top speed of around 600 mph, can make the trip in about 8.5 hours.
The Solar Impulse 2’s maiden flight.Solar Impulse 2 is mostly made of carbon fiber. It has 17,248 solar cells on the wings that recharge four lithium polymer batteries. It is extremely light at 5,070 pounds, about the weight of a Ford Explorer, but has a 236-foot wingspan, which generates enough lift to maintain flight over long periods of time.
André Borschberg, co-founder of Solar Impulse, will pilot the single-seat aircraft for this leg of the flight. He’ll be permitted 20-minute naps throughout the multi-day flight, during which an extensive team on the ground will monitor progress.
For the #Pacific, I need to be ready for the unknown: I’m not sure how #Si2 will behave over so many days and nights pic.twitter.com/I31FHaQTmh
— André Borschberg (@andreborschberg) May 30, 2015
The trip to Hawaii was attempted in late May, but was aborted mid-flight due to precarious weather. Solar Impulse 2 made an emergency landing in Nagoya, Japan, where a wing was slightly damaged by strong winds.
Solar Impulse 2 can fly at night because of its battery storage technology. It needs relatively sunny skies during the day and low winds.
Solar flight may seem slow, expensive, and downright impractical at this point, but Borschberg and co-founder Bertrand Piccard said they see the project as a lofty jumping-off point for more eco-friendly travel.
After founding the project in 2003, they set out to change the face of modern aviation.
“It’s really to show what we can do with renewable energies,” Piccard told The Verge. “This is really the vision I had in the beginning, to do something extremely difficult, something that people would consider impossible.”
The around-the-world journey began in the United Arab Emirates on March 9, 2015, and is expected to be completed in July or August with a return to the UAE.
Whatever the result, the plane itself is indisputably cool. See for yourself:
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- How to Use Social Media As a Customer Listening Platform
Most companies already use social media, but few actually use it to its fullest potential. For example, your brand might have claimed its own Facebook page, but how often do you post on that page to communicate with your customers? Only a small percentage of brands on social media make an active effort to improve their reputation or increase the size of their audience, while the rest simply treat it as something they “have to” have in the modern world.
Still, using social media for posting news, content, and promotions is only half the battle. “Social” media implies that some type of interaction is happening, which requires both outbound and inbound communication. Instead of using social media as an exclusively customer speaking platform, start thinking about social media in terms of its capacity as a customer listening platform.
What Is Customer Listening?
This is probably the first question you’re asking. Customer listening is exactly what it sounds like. You’ll be listening to (or in this case reading) various things said by your customers to gain insights and help develop your business. Unlike promotions, which have a direct and immediate effect on your reputation and inbound traffic, customer listening is more about gathering information to make meaningful long-term changes to your approach–and not just on social media:
- Monitoring popular topics among your key demographics can help guide you in what type of content to write and circulate.
- Reviewing interests and conversations of your key demographics can help you better understand their personalities, and help you market better to them.
- Scouting for your audience’s other followers can help you identify key influencers in your industry, who you can then use to build your own reputation.
- Gathering feedback about your brand from fans and followers can help you make adjustments to improve your overall customer relations.
The bottom line for these strategies is this: listen to what your customers are saying on social media, and make adjustments to your business to better suit them.
Strategies for Customer Listening
Of course, it isn’t always simple as clicking a button and being presented with a wealth of information. In many cases, you’ll have to do some deep digging to get the information you’re looking for. But you can also employ specific tactics to make your life easier and round up as much information as conveniently as possible.
Social Listening
Social listening is a term that refers to searching the world of social media for overall trends. Because there are billions of social users making millions of posts a day, you’ll need a tool to help you out–for example, Social Mention is a free social listening platform you can use to search and analyze social trends. You can either search for a specific topic to see how popular it is and how it’s being used or browse popular trends directly. Keep in mind that there are a variety of social listening tools out there, ranging from free to expensive, and each of them has a different range of functionality. Experiment with different versions to evaluate your individual needs and choose the one that suits your business best.
List Building
Personally, I’ve found that Twitter is one of the best social media platforms for customer listening. It gives public access to individual users’ profiles and tweet histories, and also offers a fantastic function for organizing users and listening to them–lists. On Twitter, you can create lists that are public or private (in this case, you’ll want them to be private), and select any number of users to be a part of those lists. For example, you could make a list of news organizations, and when you want to read the news, you can access this list and only read tweets that those organizations have pushed. For customer listening, this is highly convenient. You’ll have to do some legwork upfront to build out lists for each of your core demographics, but once you do, you’ll be able to, at a glance, see what your customers are talking about and take action accordingly.
Surveys
Of course, your customers won’t always give you exactly the answers you were looking for. If you have specific questions of your users, such as whether or not they like your latest product, why not ask those questions of your users directly in the form of a survey? Facebook allows some limited survey issuing functionality, which you can use to gauge your customer responses and gather feedback. Failing that, SurveyMonkey is always a great option for creating surveys and gathering information. You can syndicate the link to your survey to your targeted demographics, or your entire social audience, and then gather the data from there.
Through customer listening, you’ll be able to gather information and gain new insights about the most important people to your business — your customers. However, bear in mind that finding and analyzing this information is only the first step to meaningful action — you’ll also have to implement changes to your business and your marketing strategy in order to see worthwhile results.
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- Surgery app studies lack quality
Systematic review analyzes studies on surgery apps and had surprising findings
The post Surgery app studies lack quality appeared first on iMedicalApps.
- Hackers Likely Gained Access To Sensitive Data About Military, Intelligence Personnel
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hackers linked to China appear to have gained access to the sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances, several U.S. officials said Friday, describing a second cyberbreach of federal records that could dramatically compound the potential damage.
The forms authorities believed to have been accessed, known as Standard Form 86, require applicants to fill out deeply personal information about mental illnesses, drug and alcohol use, past arrests and bankruptcies. They also require the listing of contacts and relatives, potentially exposing any foreign relatives of U.S. intelligence employees to coercion. Both the applicant’s Social Security number and that of his or her cohabitant is required.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the security clearance material is classified.
The security-clearance records provide “a very complete overview of a person,” said Evan Lesser, managing director of ClearanceJobs.com, a website that matches security-clearance holders to available slots. “You don’t need these records to blackmail or exploit someone, but it would sure make the job easier.”
The Office of Personnel Management, which was the target of the hack, has not officially notified military or intelligence personnel whose security clearance data was breached, but news of the second hack was starting to circulate in both the Pentagon and the CIA.
The officials said they believe the hack into the security clearance database was separate from the breach of federal personnel data announced last week — a breach that is itself appearing far worse than first believed. It could not be learned whether the security database breach happened when an OPM contractor was hacked in 2013, an attack that was discovered last year. Members of Congress received classified briefings about that breach in September, but there was no mention of security clearance information being exposed.
The OPM had no immediate comment Friday.
Nearly all of the millions of security clearance holders, including CIA, National Security Agency and military special operations personnel, are potentially exposed in the security clearance breach, the officials said. More than 2.9 million people had been investigated for a security clearance as of October 2014, according to government records.
In the hack of standard personnel records announced last week, two people briefed on the investigation disclosed Friday that as many as 14 million current and former civilian U.S. government employees have had their information exposed to hackers, a far higher figure than the 4 million the Obama administration initially disclosed.
American officials have said that cybertheft originated in China and that they suspect espionage by the Chinese government, which has denied any involvement.
The newer estimate puts the number of compromised records between 9 million and 14 million going back to the 1980s, said one congressional official and one former U.S. official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because information disclosed in the confidential briefings includes classified details of the investigation.
There are about 2.6 million executive branch civilians, so the majority of the records exposed relate to former employees. Contractor information also has been stolen, officials said. The data in the hack revealed last week include the records of most federal civilian employees, though not members of Congress and their staffs, members of the military or staff of the intelligence agencies.
On Thursday, a major union said it believes the hackers stole Social Security numbers, military records and veterans’ status information, addresses, birth dates, job and pay histories; health insurance, life insurance and pension information; and age, gender and race data.
The personnel records would provide a foreign government an extraordinary roadmap to blackmail, impersonate or otherwise exploit federal employees in an effort to gain access to U.S. secrets —or entry into government computer networks.
Outside experts were pointing to the breaches as a blistering indictment of the U.S. government’s ability to secure its own data two years after a National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden, was able to steal tens of thousands of the agency’s most sensitive documents.
After the Snowden revelations about government surveillance, it became more difficult for the federal government to hire talented younger people into sensitive jobs, particularly at intelligence agencies, Lesser said.
“Now, if you get a job with the government, your own personal information may not be secure,” he said. “This is going to multiply the government’s hiring problems many times.”
The Social Security numbers were not encrypted, the American Federation of Government Employees said, calling that “an abysmal failure on the part of the agency to guard data that has been entrusted to it by the federal workforce.”
Samuel Schumach, an OPM spokesman, would not address how the data was protected or specifics of the information that might have been compromised, but said, “Today’s adversaries are sophisticated enough that encryption alone does not guarantee protection.” OPM is nonetheless increasing its use of encryption, he said.
The Obama administration had acknowledged that up to 4.2 million current and former employees whose information resides in the Office of Personnel Management server are affected by the December cyberbreach, but it had been vague about exactly what was taken.
J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a letter Thursday to OPM director Katherine Archuleta that based on incomplete information OPM provided to the union, “the hackers are now in possession of all personnel data for every federal employee, every federal retiree and up to 1 million former federal employees.”
Another federal union, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, said Friday that “at this point, we believe AFGE’s assessment of the breach is overstated.” It called on the OPM to provide more information.
Rep. Mike Rogers, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said last week that he believes China will use the recently stolen information for “the mother of all spear-phishing attacks.”
Spear-phishing is a technique under which hackers send emails designed to appear legitimate so that users open them and load spyware onto their networks.
___
Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this story.
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- Weekend Roundup: Turkish and Greek Democracy Upend the Status Quo
The value of democracy, when it works, is its capacity to change course. In both Greece, and now Turkey, recent elections have upended the status quo. With Greece having lost an astonishing 25 percent of its GDP through austerity policies, the Syriza government that came to power earlier this year has insisted on sticking to its popular mandate to resist the demands of creditors and hold out for debt relief. The prospects of default and an exit from the eurozone have never been closer. In Turkey, which has been seeking to join the European Union, the autocratic path set by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been stopped in its tracks by voters in this week’s poll.
Writing from Istanbul, Behlül Özkan sees the beginning of the end of the Erdoğan era. WorldPost Middle East Correspondent Sophia Jones reports that the surprise demise of support for Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party raises the big question: “now what?” The Middle East Eye’s David Hearst reminds us not to diminish what Turkey has accomplished under AKP rule. World editor Nick Robins-Early profiles the “pro-gay and pro-women” Peoples’ Democratic Party that was an election spoiler. A photo essay shows the spontaneous celebrations that erupted in Turkey when the election results came in. In a break from election coverage, Sophia also reports on the opening of a rare Arabic-language bookstore that’s giving Syrian refugees in Turkey’s capital city a taste of home.
Writing from Athens, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis calls on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to offer hope to his beleaguered people. Nobel laureate Joe Stiglitz fears a “Grexit” could trigger a global financial crisis.
French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy argues that the Kurdish peshmerga are the best bet to fight the Islamic State group. Maha Aziz explains how crowdsourcing can help the West fight ISIS. Farheen Rizvi writes that the acquittal of most of Malala’s alleged attackers betrays the lack of seriousness in fighting terrorism in Pakistan. A report from our World editors details how women and girls abducted by ISIS are sold for “as little as a pack of cigarettes.” Noted scholar Akbar Ahmed lists 10 things that would surprise us about Islam in Europe. Continuing her reporting from South Sudan, World editor Charlotte Alfred takes us inside a UN peacekeeping base. UN envoy and former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown calls this “the year of fear” for children.
Turbulent undercurrents continue to roil the South China Sea. Writing from Canberra, Hugh White sorts out the South China Sea crisis and asks how Americans might feel if Chinese spy planes reciprocated and flew a dozen miles off the California coast. One of China’s leading foreign policy voices, Fu Ying, reports on her visit to the U.S. and says it is acting “like a flamboyant eagle which has flown into a china shop.” Writing from Shanghai, Zhang Jun explains why China’s growth cannot fulfill its potential within “the existing global system.” WorldPost China Correspondent Matt Sheehan reports from Beijing on a Chinese rapper’s viral shout out on behalf of Uber and against exploitative taxis. He also reports on how Alibaba has facilitated LGBT marriages in West Hollywood, as well as on an armpit hair contest by Chinese feminists.
Ashutosh, spokesman for the Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man’s Party), warns from Delhi, where his party governs, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is beginning to show his authoritarian stripes and is “turning the land of Gandhi into a banana republic.” In an interview, Bollywood star Salman Khan asks, “Why would I want to go to Hollywood?”
Global risk analyst Ian Bremmer lays out the three options from which U.S. presidential candidates must choose in shaping American foreign policy. In an interview, fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange talks about “the God of mass surveillance.”
As the negotiations over Iran stumble toward a conclusion, European parliamentarian Richard Howitt proposes from London “how to avoid putting the dead in deadline.” Muhammad Sahimi scores the contradiction of the U.S. trying to negotiate a nuclear agreement with Iran while also arming its enemies. Our World editors review what’s at stake in the final stages of negotiations.
To mark the anniversary of the fall of Mosul, World editor Nick Robins-Early looks at what life is like in Iraq’s second-largest city, a year after ISIS took over. He also writes about a pair of sacred statues that the Taliban destroyed in Afghanistan that have been recreated by 3-D light projections.
In this week’s “Forgotten Fact,” we look at how ISIS is on a rampage far from the battle zones in Iraq and Syria.
British Prime Minister David Cameron calls for a crackdown on corruption that, as the FIFA scandal has shown, is at the heart of so many of the world’s problems. Writing from Rome, Marco Valerio Lo Prete outlines Italy’s novel scheme for shared unemployment insurance across Europe. European Parliament President Martin Schulz calls for a “Digital Bill of Rights” for Europe.
In an interview, legendary literary critic Harold Bloom, now 85, talks about how the ideological “isms” that have invaded universities are destroying literature. In another interview at the American Academy in Rome, Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters lauds the slow food movement and says “we digest our values” when we eat. Marking World Oceans Day this week, Virgin chairman Richard Branson calls on us all to take care of the oceans as an investment in the future.
Fusion this week reports that Ireland is poised to have one of the most enlightened transgender identity laws in the world. In our Singularity University series, we look at how computers could replace financial advisers within a decade.
Finally, our photo essays this week include an intimate look inside the capital of the Hermit Kingdom, gripping photos of fleeing Syrian refugees, the women guerrillas of Kurdistan and the dramatic diversity of Vietnam’s landscapes.
WHO WE ARE
EDITORS: Nathan Gardels, Senior Advisor to the Berggruen Institute on Governance and the long-time editor of NPQ and the Global Viewpoint Network of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate/Tribune Media, is the Editor-in-Chief of The WorldPost. Farah Mohamed is the Managing Editor of The WorldPost. Kathleen Miles is the Senior Editor of the WorldPost. Alex Gardels and Peter Mellgard are the Associate Editors of The WorldPost. Katie Nelson is the National Editor at the Huffington Post, overseeing The WorldPost and HuffPost’s editorial coverage. Eline Gordts is HuffPost’s Senior World Editor. Charlotte Alfred and Nick Robins-Early are Associate World Editors.
CORRESPONDENTS: Sophia Jones in Istanbul; Matt Sheehan in Beijing.
EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Arianna Huffington, Eric Schmidt (Google Inc.), Pierre Omidyar (First Look Media) Juan Luis Cebrian (El Pais/PRISA), Walter Isaacson (Aspen Institute/TIME-CNN), John Elkann (Corriere della Sera, La Stampa), Wadah Khanfar (Al Jazeera), Dileep Padgaonkar (Times of India) and Yoichi Funabashi (Asahi Shimbun).
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Moises Naim (former editor of Foreign Policy), Nayan Chanda (Yale/Global; Far Eastern Economic Review) and Katherine Keating (One-On-One). Sergio Munoz Bata and Parag Khanna are Contributing Editors-At-Large.
The Asia Society and its ChinaFile, edited by Orville Schell, is our primary partner on Asia coverage. Eric X. Li and the Chunqiu Institute/Fudan University in Shanghai and Guancha.cn also provide first person voices from China. We also draw on the content of China Digital Times. Seung-yoon Lee is The WorldPost link in South Korea.
Jared Cohen of Google Ideas provides regular commentary from young thinkers, leaders and activists around the globe. Bruce Mau provides regular columns from MassiveChangeNetwork.com on the “whole mind” way of thinking. Patrick Soon-Shiong is Contributing Editor for Health and Medicine.
ADVISORY COUNCIL: Members of the Berggruen Institute’s 21st Century Council and Council for the Future of Europe serve as the Advisory Council — as well as regular contributors — to the site. These include, Jacques Attali, Shaukat Aziz, Gordon Brown, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Juan Luis Cebrian, Jack Dorsey, Mohamed El-Erian, Francis Fukuyama, Felipe Gonzalez, John Gray, Reid Hoffman, Fred Hu, Mo Ibrahim, Alexei Kudrin, Pascal Lamy, Kishore Mahbubani, Alain Minc, Dambisa Moyo, Laura Tyson, Elon Musk, Pierre Omidyar, Raghuram Rajan, Nouriel Roubini, Nicolas Sarkozy, Eric Schmidt, Gerhard Schroeder, Peter Schwartz, Amartya Sen, Jeff Skoll, Michael Spence, Joe Stiglitz, Larry Summers, Wu Jianmin, George Yeo, Fareed Zakaria, Ernesto Zedillo, Ahmed Zewail, and Zheng Bijian.
From the Europe group, these include: Marek Belka, Tony Blair, Jacques Delors, Niall Ferguson, Anthony Giddens, Otmar Issing, Mario Monti, Robert Mundell, Peter Sutherland and Guy Verhofstadt.
MISSION STATEMENT
The WorldPost is a global media bridge that seeks to connect the world and connect the dots. Gathering together top editors and first person contributors from all corners of the planet, we aspire to be the one publication where the whole world meets.
We not only deliver breaking news from the best sources with original reportage on the ground and user-generated content; we bring the best minds and most authoritative as well as fresh and new voices together to make sense of events from a global perspective looking around, not a national perspective looking out.
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- YouTube to launch video gaming site
YouTube is to launch a dedicated site and app for gaming in an attempt to take on Amazon-owned streaming service Twitch.
- Father's Day Gifts 2015: Best Tech Gifts for the Dad in Your Life
It’s 2015, people, time to really put some thought into that Father’s Day gift. Sure, another tie is great, but some dads no longer wear ties to work. Instead, they carry mobile phones and chargers and listen to music on the go and yes, they even help out around the house. Whether you’re shopping for your own dad, your husband, your in-law, whoever, here are some great tech gift ideas to show you care.
Laptop-Toting Dad
Dad may already have a laptop he lugs around to work, but he may not need that big, heavy laptop all the time. The Microsoft Surface 3 will take the weight off his shoulders while giving him options for how to work. Paired with the (extra) Surface 3 Type Cover, the Surface 3 is a powerful laptop capable of running all Windows programs and doing some serious work, complete with USB, headphone jack and micro USB. Detach the keyboard and Dad has a 10.8-inch high res tablet for kicking back and watching videos or reading the news. Price starts at $499
Mouse-Loving Dad
For dads who prefer a mouse to a laptop trackpad, there’s the Logitech MX Master wireless mouse. It’s the perfect companion for desktop-loving dads or power users who like programmable functions that save time and clicks. Connect to devices via a receiver or Bluetooth – great for multi-taskers because it pairs with and lets you switch between up to three computers at once. It’s larger than a portable mouse, but that’s because it does so many more tricks, feels extremely comfortable in your hand and can track on virtually any surface. $99
Music-Loving Dad
Dad never has to be without tunes in the house just because someone forgot to install great-sounding speakers in every room. The Sengled Pulse Bluetooth bulb is a simple solution; it’s an LED light bulb with integrated JBL Bluetooth speakers. They’re super easy to install, just replace the bulb in any standard E26 socket and connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth. Use the Pulse app to control the music and dim the light. Pick up a master and satellite set of two bulbs for $169.
Power-Loving Dad
Dad shouldn’t have to choose between charging up a laptop or tablet. He can do both at once without searching for AC adapters with the Power2U Dual USB wall outlet. It has two built-in USB ports plus two traditional AC outlets with enough power to simultaneously charge them all. $29.99
Connected Dad
Here’s a real power tool for dad; the myCharge HubPlus portable charger has built-in Lightning and Micro USB cables for charging devices on the go. Dad can charge up his tablet and phone at the same time – there’s plenty of power. And when it comes time to charge up the charger, a built-in wall prong makes it quick and easy to power up the 6,000 mAh battery for the next trip. It’s small, fits easily into a bag or backpack and is a life-saver for staying connected on the go. $99
Traveling Dad
Travel is enough a hassle, with bad traffic and weather delays. Dad can rest easy knowing his bag is always with him even if he changes flights at the last minute with the Thule Crossover Rolling 22″ Upright. It’s small enough to fit into most US airlines’ overhead bins, yet large enough to pack all he needs for a quick business trip. It’s got a removable tri-fold suiter and compartments to organize and protect essential gear. $349.95
WorkLife Dad
Moms aren’t the only ones who like to carry their gear in style. Dads will appreciate the look and comfort of Knomo Bag’s Bude Backpack. Though the company makes incredibly fabulous leather bags for both men and women, this backpack is made of a lightweight canvas that’s both dirt and water resistant. There’s a padded compartment inside that protects up to a 15-inch laptop and a tablet, and lots of compartments for keeping cables and gear organized. $169
Mobile Dad
There’s a new smartphone on the market that’s making even devout iPhone lovers take a second look. LG’s G4 phone, is a sleek 5.5-inch phone with a quad HD display running on Android 5.1. The camera features are impressive, and the phone has a removable battery. Its defining feature is a smart-looking hand-stitched leather back cover, available in a variety of colors. Whatever carrier Dad uses, there’s a deal through Father’s Day for an extra battery and storage. T-Mobile is offering five times more memory and if Dad is a world traveler, make sure to check out T-Mo’s Simple Global plan which includes unlimited data and texting to the US.
TV-Loving Dad
If Dad spends lots of time on the road wishing he were home watching movies on the couch, the Amazon Fire TV Stick is the perfect gift. Not only does it deliver streaming content from Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video and more at home, he can use it in a hotel room to watch TV shows and videos there. The Fire TV Stick works with most HDTV’s in hotels where a password or log-in is required. Just don’t forget to bring it back home! $39
Road Warrior Dad
Two hands on the wheel please Dad! When you use your phone as a GPS or audiobook companion while you drive, it’s often hard to find the right spot for it. Mounting gadgets can get clumsy and they sometimes block the driver’s view. Zuna Drive is a smartphone case that has a unique hinge on the back, enabling you to hang it in the air-conditioning vent. This eliminates those pesky wires while keeping the phone in line of sight where it’s easily viewed with a quick glance. $39.99
Fun-Loving Dad
Seriously, what’s more fun than flying a drone over the house or parking lot and taking pictures to share with mom and friends? Not much! The Parrot Bebop drone is made of foam; small and lightweight so you can take it on vacation or down to the beach for a day of flying, and has an HD camera inside the nose. Dad can control the drone using an Android or iOS device and snap pictures of his “out of this world” flight. No worries, the built-in GPS system will return the drone to its starting point. $499
ManCave Dad
Dad’s Man Cave is usually off limits, but he might not mind a little help tidying up all the cables and wires. HIDEit mounts let DIY Dads install the electronic devices behind the TV so nothing else comes between Dad and the game. Prices vary.— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
- Apple Music and the Race to Coexist
Fifteen years ago, the first digital music subscription services made a strange proposition to consumers: come rent your music, digitally, for a monthly fee.
At the time, CDs and physical record stores were ascendant, and “unlicensed” file sharers like Napster went uncontested by strong digital alternatives. Few even understood the concept of renting digital music. It was definitely an idea before its time. Early attempts like MediaNet, Press Play, and Full Audio shriveled, while hardy survivors like Rhapsody survived on the fringes.
It took a sea change from Apple to change matters: when Apple’s iTunes launched in 2003, it was easier to use, simply priced, and more tightly integrated with a device than anything in the market. The success of the iTunes music download store seemed natural, at least to those on the sidelines of a struggle to bring digital music to consumers.
Today, with music as ubiquitous as water, downloads declining, and consumer access to streaming media content a mainstream thing, Apple won’t be alone in educating consumers on the idea of renting streamed digital music, nor will it be in the catbird seat. There are already great streaming music alternatives in the market; they cover a lot of territory and tastes, too. In fact, the distinctions between them all aren’t so sharp. It will be a much more difficult challenge for Apple to succeed than that download store ever was.
Sweden’s Spotify, a leader in digital music streaming, not only has a base of 15 million paying subscribers globally; its super-fast, seamless streaming music product may be the worlds best. It’s playlist capability and rich catalog can hook one easily. (Competitors like Deezer and Rdio aren’t so different.)
Recent research suggests consumers agree, as Spotify seems to be becoming an essential part of a consumer’s lifestyle, where playlists for jogging, moods or the weekend barbecue generate more interest as the “fully interactive” mixes Spotify, Apple, and others are authorized to provide. Some see playlists as key to future music consumption, calling it the radio of the future.
Both Spotify and Apple invested in music “skunk work” technology, designed to refine preferences and deliver extensively tailored music suggestions. Research shows this is working–youngsters are discovering their parents music, and the old concept of music genres seems to be loosening up–and why shouldn’t it, since the next track is just a click away.
U.S. Internet radio leader Pandora knows this story well–talk to a Pandora executive, and try to find any real difference amongst consumers between interactivity and Pandora’s mixes–there really isn’t much, as mainstream consumers prefer to “lean back” and have music mixes delivered to them.
Into this mix comes Apple’s new premium streaming service, which no doubt will eventually cannibalize that aging download store. (Imagine the math: “how many subscribers do we need to sign up to offset the lost download buyers?”) Unlike competitors, the service is priced at a premium–underlining the music industry’s central business concerns of driving premium subscription services.
For record labels, Apple Music’s launch is a great thing. Subscription services were always a great way to encourage music purchasing, and the logic is actually not so different today, except that labels want to see more consumers pay for subscriptions, not CDs or downloads. But labels don’t dictate consumer preferences–and they tend to play the field broadly when it comes to digital partnerships.
So can Apple Music cut through the clutter and succeed with streaming?
The answer really isn’t so clear. Apple unquestionably has obvious, massive strengths: a huge installed base of paying customers and billing data, a very powerful and cool brand, a deep team of experienced executives, and a market-leading music retailing platform which will now give artists even more of an opportunity to participate–hosting channels, curating content, even releasing albums exclusively for the new platform.
Apple also has a broad set of music rights and products to draw on, from video to Internet radio to that handset, where a pre-loaded Apple Music app and a three-month trial period (just like the original subscription services offered) could be very strong incentives for more of the mainstream market to subscribe to the still-young idea of a music subscription.
In a crowded, increasingly complex music market like the U.S., Apple is perhaps the most potent music partner to popularize subscriptions, even as digital music is a relatively tiny part of Apple’s overall business.
But in such a crowded music market, here’s a better way to think about the new launch:
It’s not whether Apple will win the subscription race and unseat Spotify.
Rather, it is how Apple’s new streaming service will coexist, differentiate itself and eventually compete with the many digital music options available to consumers, all of which are trying to grow the music industry by selling more premium subscriptions.
Spotify, a pure-play, unprofitable music service is now under the gun to convert more of its 60 million free streaming consumers to paying subscribers.
Apple, like other tech titans, comes from a much more broadly positioned organization and perspective. Apple Music could have a future that more closely resembles music services from large tech titans like Amazon, Google, or Microsoft’s Xbox Music. All of these have respectable if not game-changing digital music services.
Of course, it’s likely to do a lot better than any of the above, and it will certainly impact Spotify, Pandora, and even smaller players like Rdio. But at this point, coexistence and growth are likelier outcomes for Apple than winning the race.
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- Google Flights Guys On When To Purchase Flights 'The Best Time To Buy Is Now'
Google Flights is better than a travel agent.
The flight search engine can essentially plan your dream trip by seeking out the cheapest flight in a given month, all while monitoring fare changes for you.
On Wednesday, the brains behind Google Flights hosted an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) on Reddit where they dished out some handy tips and tricks. Scroll through to learn some of their best hacks below:
1. Timing isn’t everything when you’re buying a plane ticket.
When presented with the question, “When is the best moment to book plane tickets?” Srikanth Sastry, Google Flights’ software engineer, said that while prices can increase closer to a departure date, “typically the best time to buy is now.” Sastry said that after researching the subject, Google found “the expected value of waiting is negative.”
2. You can search multiple airports at the same time.
Live in an area where you’re nestled between a few airports? (Lucky you!) To navigate searches between, say, three different airports, Christopher Vincent, Google Tech Lead Manager, has some easy tips:
“For adding airports to your origin, you can either click the plus sign then ‘More airports,’ or enter multiple airport codes (up to five),” said Vincent. “You can do the same for destination airports, plus you can type the names of many regions (e.g. ‘Asia,’ ‘Australia,’ ‘Caribbean’) to see suggested destinations with photos and prices.”
3. You can now see which flights have the best Wi-Fi and in-flight entertainment.
Thanks to a partnership with RouteHappy, Google Flights now has amenity data. According to Domenico Carbotta, Google software engineer, the flight search engine now shows “amenities for a ton of flights,” including Wi-Fi availability, seat pitch and entertainment options.
Sastry added that usually means the best flights, and “not necessarily the cheapest flights.” Google Flights takes into account the “number of stops, total journey time, and departure/arrival time” when determining the best flight possible. You may pay a little more, but your flight could be a WHOLE lot better.
4. Flight prices DON’T increase if you search them more.
Myth debunked! Todd Williamson, Google software engineer, assured a Reddit user that prices will not go up the more someone searches them, citing a Northeastern University study for hotel deals. In fact, Williamson added that “better deals” actually might come up for logged-in users.
Just another reason to get Googling.
H/T Boarding Area
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- Facebook Is Watching You, Even When You're Not Clicking On Stuff
In perhaps the least surprising news of the day, Facebook announced Friday yet another way it pays attention to the minutiae of its users’ behavior.
Whenever you linger on content in your News Feed — that main section of the social network where you see things that your friends have posted — Facebook pays attention, even if you’re not “liking,” commenting on or sharing anything.
“Just because someone didn’t like, comment or share a story in their News Feed doesn’t mean it wasn’t meaningful to them,” software engineers Ansha Yu and Sami Tas wrote in a company blog post.
“Based on this finding, we are updating News Feed’s ranking to factor in a new signal—how much time you spend viewing a story in your News Feed,” they continued.
In other words, when you spend time with content in your News Feed, Facebook will interpret that as a good thing — even if you didn’t click on anything.
“Based on the fact that you didn’t scroll straight past this post and it was on the screen for more time than other posts that were in your News Feed, we infer that it was something you found interesting and we may start to surface more posts like that higher up in your News Feed in the future,” Yu and Tas wrote.
Previously, Facebook learned to show you content it thought was relevant based largely on whether you directly interacted with it through the like, comment and share functions.
A spokeswoman for Facebook told The Huffington Post that the amount of time spent looking at content would not be made available to publishers or advertisers, and that it is purely used to determine how content is surfaced on the News Feed.
At first glance, this announcement may seem a bit weird, but it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Facebook already tracks your activity well beyond the confines of the main social network — a fact that has helped land it in hot water in the European Union. And the company has expressed interest in “deep learning” to help it automatically recognize certain traits in its users — if a person looks hammered in a photo they’re trying to post, for example.
In a certain sense, the news could also be viewed as something to be optimistic about. Publishers like The New York Times are ramping up their efforts to put their stories directly on Facebook through its “Instant Articles” platform. The idea that articles could be measured by something beyond page views or ephemeral shares might be appealing to publishers.
Plus, e-book companies for a long time have paid attention to how long you spend with their texts.
Regardless, it does serves as a reminder: Facebook basically knows everything about everything you do on its platform. Enjoy!
This story has been updated to include information from Facebook about how the new feature will be used.
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Apple has previewed features users will be able to expect in the next iteration of iOS. Confirmed as iOS 9, the mobile operating system will have improvements in four core areas: Intelligence, Apps, iPad, and Foundation, with new additions including improvements to Siri, search, multitasking, more apps, and other areas.
Against all odds, Apple is continuing to increase its share of the US smartphone market in a “saturated” region, reports Comscore in its latest analysis of America’s cellphone landscape. Apple’s iPhone line grew 1.8 percent between January and March, with iOS now claiming 43.1 percent share and dominating as the leading single brand. While Android sales overall claimed 52.2 percent, the figure was down a full percent from the previous quarter, with individual makers mostly seeing declines.
Per AT&T’s recent announcement that it would end the reselling of two-year traditional contracts by third parties, Apple has now altered its AT&T option on its online store’s iPhone buying page to offer only the Next program, an “installment plan” system that avoids contracts and offers the option of early upgrades, but includes a monthly payment towards the cost of the iPhone on top of the selected talk-text-data plan.
This Pointers tip actually works on most other smartphones as well, we should mention, but our experience in this regard is with the iPhone, so we use that as our example. Most people confuse “unlocking” an iPhone with “jailbreaking” it, and these two concepts could not be more different, in fact. This week, we will explain the chief advantages of unlocking your iPhone, or other smartphone, if its not already, and why you should do it as soon as possible — even if you never plan to leave your home country.
