Author: Staff Writer

The End of Wikipedia Free Access Zero Program.

Staff Writer

The Wikimedia Foundation has announced that free access to Wikipedia will end in 2018, which was part of the Wikipedia Zero partnership programme. The organization has discontinued Zero and has stopped forming new carrier partnerships. It will let its existing alliances end over time. Wikipedia Zero was created in 2012 to address high mobile data costs when accessing the service.Through the program, the foundation partnered with mobile operators to waive mobile data fees for their customers to freely access Wikipedia on mobile devices. “Over the course of this year, no…

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Google Chrome launches new default ad-blocker

Staff Writer

Google has launched an ad-blocker for its Chrome web browser that is designed to prevent “annoying” and “intrusive” ads being shown to users. Google announced the move to curtail full-page and auto-playing video ads, among others, last year. The choice of which ads to block will be determined by the Coalition for Better Ads (CBA) – made up of companies including Google and Facebook. Sites will have 30 days to remove disruptive ads before blocking begins. A survey of 40,000 US and European web users found that the most intrusive…

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Snapchat CEO says the new redesign is here to stay

Staff Writer

Despite a lot of backlash over a big redesign for the Snapchat app, the CEO Evan Spiegel vigorously defended the redesign and basically said people need to get used to it. Spiegel said at the Goldman Sachs Internet & Technology Conference that even people complaining about the app was a sort of validation that the changes the company wants to happen are, indeed, happening. Snap aimed to try to separate the idea of communication and broadcasting with Snap into similar buckets, rather than the features being kind of mixed up…

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Germany’s Flawed New Social Media Laws

Staff Writer

The new German law that compels social media companies to remove hate speech and other illegal content can lead to unaccountable, overboard censorship and should be promptly reversed, Human Rights Watch said. The law sets a dangerous precedent for other governments looking to restrict speech online by forcing companies to censor on the government’s behalf. Governments and the public have valid concerns about the proliferation of illegal or abusive content online, but the new Ger“man law is fundamentally flawed,” said Wenzel Michalski, Germany director at Human Rights Watch. “It is…

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Amazon New Echo Dot ad cleared over cat food order

Staff Writer

A television ad for Amazon’s Echo Dot smart speaker that caused a viewer’s device to try to order cat food has been cleared by a UK regulator. The advert, which aired in October, featured a man asking Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa to order Purina cat food. A viewer said the ad caused their Echo Dot device to respond after hearing the ad on the television. The viewer complained that the ad was “socially irresponsible”. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) announced that it would not uphold the consumer’s complaint because it…

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Winter Olympics New hit by cyber-attack

Staff Writer

The official Winter Olympics website was taken offline after being hit by a cyber-attack, officials have confirmed. The site was affected just before the beginning of the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang, South Korea. TV and internet systems at the Games were also disrupted, though operations were restored about 12 hours later. However, a spokesman said that the International Olympic Committee would not be commenting on who might have been behind the incident. “Maintaining secure operations is our purpose,” said Mark Adams. He added that the issue was being dealt with…

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New Snapchat redesign faces backlash

Staff Writer

The redesign of the app was to make it easier to use but as the update rolls out to more users, Snapchat is getting criticism that the new interface is difficult to navigate. “I might start using Instagram Stories now,”  said Ashley Vasquez, a 21-year-old Snapchat user who is a senior at the University of Maryland in College Park. A Change.org petition asking the company to remove the new update has amassed more than 590,000 signatures by Monday afternoon. Other users began sharing a workaround for reversing the update by…

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Facebook Gaining New Popularity among Old People as the Young Leave

Staff Writer

A report shows that Facebook is for old people as teens and young adults are ditching the social network while the over 55s are joining. In 2018, 2.2 million 12- to 17-year-olds and 4.5 million 18- to 24-year-olds will regularly use Facebook in the UK, 700,000 fewer than in 2017, as younger users defect to services such as Snapchat, according to eMarketer. A surge in older users means over-55s will become the second-biggest demographic of Facebook users this year. The report says that while Facebook has so far been successful…

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New BitPesa Acquires European Money Transfer Platform

Staff Writer

BitPesa, Kenyan bitcoin payments startup, has acquired TransferZero, Spain-based online money transfer platform, in a bid to further accelerate its growth across the world. BitPesa, which raised two funding rounds last year to take its total secured investment to around the US$10 million mark, launched in Kenya in 2013 and also operates in Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, the DRC, the UK and Senegal. TransferZero was founded in 2016 and was the first fintech company licensed by the Bank of Spain as an authorized payment institution. The company is a partner of…

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Instagram testing new feature that regram posts to stories

Staff Writer

Instagram has confirmed it is testing an option that lets you “regram” public feed posts from other users to your Story. For those who have access to the new feature, it will appear as “Add post to your story” when you tap the share icon underneath a post. If you don’t want your public posts to be shared in this way, there is the option to change your privacy settings. Even if your account doesn’t have the ability to currently reshare, you should still see the option now for “Allow…

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