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The Morning After: Monday, November 21, 2016
I guess I should get up.
Today begins with the proliferation of political Twitter bots, testing Sony's pricey full-frame camera, tens of thousands of recipes from your Amazon Echo and LG's new phone for audiophiles.
24 hours with Sony's A99 II full-frame camera
Sony's A99 II is set to arrive later this month priced at $3,200, body-only. For that money, there's a massive 42.2-megapixel sensor, max ISO of 102,400, 12-fps continuous shooting and, unlike the original A99, 5-axis image stabilization. Edgar Alvarez says high-end lenses help make the most of the camera, but it's the autofocusing skills that are particularly impressive.
Don't let its dull looks fool you, Senior Editor Chris Velazco says that beyond the V20's flagship-level power and slightly tweaked version of Android Nougat is a device tailor-made for creatives. The V20 is an excellent media player (even with lossless files) and doubles as an impressive audio recorder. The dual-camera system still needs some work compared to LG's rivals, but at least there's manual shooting -- which is a pleasure.
Twitter bots were rampant during the US election, surprising no-one
Researchers at the international Project on Computational Propaganda report that the use of politically minded Twitter bots reached an "all-time high" during the 2016 presidential campaign. Out of 18.9 million studied tweets using political hashtags, 17.9 percent of them came from "highly automated" accounts that post 50 or more tweets per day. That ratio only grew higher during the debates and conveniently tanked after the election. There are caveats, however: The team noted its data collection method is inherently limited. Not all of those prolific Twitter users are guaranteed to be bots, and the data doesn't include the legions of tweets that didn't include the hashtags or mention candidates by name. Automated political social networking is a thing now.
GoPro gives you a free Hero5 camera if you return your Karma drone
Returning tech products is a pain -- even when they're explosive Note 7s. GoPro is attempting to sweeten the deal (or apologize) by offering a free Hero5 Black camera if you return your Karma drone. Some of the camera maker's debut quadcopters are experiencing sudden power loss, and so the company is offering free refunds to those that return the robot. Now you get a free camera on top of that.
