Facebook’s new AI research is a real eye-opener

There are plenty of ways to manipulate photos to make you look better, remove red eye or lens flare, and so on. But so far the blink has proven a tenacious opponent of good snapshots. That may change with research from Facebook that replaces closed eyes with open ones in a remarkably convincing manner. It’s far from the only example of intelligent “in-painting,” as the technique is called when a program fills in a space with what it thinks belongs there. Adobe in particular has made good use of it with its…

Read More

Sky.Garden: Revolutionizing Kenya’s E-Commerce Sector

Upon noticing that the economic sector in Kenya only caters for the top tier in the economic pyramid which leaves little room for individuals and businesses that exist within the lower segments of the economy to reap the benefits of online transactions, Sky.Garden decided to come up with a sophisticated eCommerce platform that they can use to expand their geographical reach. ITBusinessDirect spoke to Isaac Hunja the Chief Marketing Officer about their work. How can you define the technology sector in Kenya? I would describe the technology sector in Kenya…

Read More

Children exposed to horror film ads on YouTube

Children were left distressed after seeing ads for a horror film on YouTube, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed. Three parents contacted the ASA after their children saw ads for Insidious: The Last Key – rated 15 in the UK. One ad for the film was shown before videos of songs from Frozen, instructions for building a Lego fire station and a clip from the cartoon PJ Masks. The ASA has upheld the complaints. In a second ad, the ASA said a young woman was seen “lying on a…

Read More

Facebook may now ban bad businesses from advertising

Facebook gaming

Facebook will now let you file a complaint about businesses you’ve had a problem with if you bought something after clicking on one of their ads. If enough people complain about a business, it could lead to Facebook banning the company from running ads. The new policy is rolling out globally starting today, and it’s meant to help Facebook fight back against another type of advertising abuse on its platform. Facebook says it’s trying to combat “bad shopping experiences,” which can cost customers and make them frustrated with Facebook, too.…

Read More

Google brings offline translations for 59 languages to its Translate app

Currently, when the Google Translate apps for iOS and Android has access to the internet, its translations are far superior to those it produces when it’s offline. That’s because the offline translations are phrase-based, meaning they use an older machine translation technique than the machine learning-powered systems in the cloud that the app has access to when it’s online. But that’s changing today. Google is now rolling out offline Neural Machine Translation (NMT) support for 59 languages in the Translate apps. Today, only a small number of users will see…

Read More

You can Now Delete Unopened Sent Messages on Snapchat

Snapchat will now let users delete sent messages before they’re opened, as reported by 9to5Mac. The company rolled the feature out to some people yesterday, and everyone should have it within the next few weeks. To delete a sent message, simply press and hold on the media (text, audio, photo, etc.) you’d like to get rid of and a pop-up will appear asking if you’d like to delete. Just tap, and the content in question will disappear. The person you sent the message to will still get a notification that…

Read More

Net Neutrality is Finally Dead and there is Little to Expect

After months of delays, the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality finally took effect yesterday. But if you’re expecting broadband providers to suddenly feast on their customers and institute every now-legal impediment they can on free expression, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. What comes next isn’t internet hell but legal purgatory. First, the technical aspect of things: Restoring Internet Freedom, the FCC rule that officially does away with 2015’s Open Internet Order, was proposed last April, finalized in November, passed in December, entered into the Federal Register in February, approved by…

Read More

Apple revises App Store rules after rejecting Valve’s game streaming Steam Link app

Apple quietly updated its App Store guidelines on Monday, while the keynote address of WWDC was happening in San Jose, to allow for mobile apps like Valve’s Steam Link game streaming service, according to Reuters. Steam owner Valve said last week Apple had initially rejected Steam Link, which lets consumers access and stream their PC game library onto a mobile device, due to apparent “business” conflicts. The change does not void Apple’s long-standing policy that no iOS app may host an app store of its own and allow users to purchase and download…

Read More

Uber is launching its bike-share company Jump in Europe

COVID 19 Read consumer

In the two months since Uber bought bike-share startup Jump, the company’s bright red bikes have already rolled out across a few US cities — and now they’re coming to Europe. Onstage at today’s NOAH Conference in Berlin, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced that the company would be expanding beyond its traditional taxi rides with plans to roll out electric bike rentals in the German capital by the end of the summer, with more European cities to come. It’s a move that raises eyebrows for a few reasons. European cities are already flooded with…

Read More

Instagram might soon let you post videos up to an hour long

Instagram Fundraiser

Instagram is considering doing away with video length constraints, according to The Wall Street Journal, which published a report about “a new feature” that would let users post long-form clips of up to an hour. That would open new creative flexibility for users and bring Instagram closer in line with YouTube and its own parent company, Facebook. The plan is described as tentative, so Instagram could ultimately decide against radically extending the maximum running time of videos on its platform. The new feature “will focus on vertical video” according to…

Read More