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Twitter hopes to stream paid TV
Have you spent a lot of time watching Twitter's live video? No? We can't entirely blame you -- with some exceptions, many of its streaming agreements are for niche events. However, the social network might have a way to make its watch-and-tweet feature more broadly appealing. Twitter's Anthony Noto tells the Telegraph that his company is hoping to land deals for streaming pay TV channels on its site and apps. You'd have to subscribe to existing TV service for this to work, but it would be much more powerful -- you could theoretically watch and comment on all the live programming you're used to, such as Premier League matches (Noto's example) or the latest episode of your favorite drama.
The Morning After: Tuesday, April 4th 2017
Apple's dreaming up its own graphics chips for future iPhones, SEALs are using brain-zapping tech to learn and train faster and our parent's parent company has decided to give Aol a new name, after buying Yahoo. Call it Oath.
Reddit law enforcement requests have tripled in two years
Reddit has just released its 2016 Transparency Report showing how many times US and foreign governments or law enforcement demanded private user information. Given its size (274 million users) the site is a pretty decent "canary in the coalmine" for privacy and government overreach. If so, governments are getting more nosy: Reddit said it fielded 170 requests for account information, over triple the 55 it received in 2014, the year of its first transparency report.
The White House is saving all of Trump's deleted tweets
Five days after Trump's inauguration, news leaked that his staff was continuing to use email linked to a private server. While that's not illegal (though hypocritical, given Hillary's election pillorying), it requires those using non-government emails to disclose them. If that doesn't happen -- if those messages aren't forwarded to an official account and stored for posterity -- the offender violates the Presidential Records Act. It seems the same could apply to Trump's tweets: The White House has agreed to the US National Archives' request that they save every one, including those he deletes.
Trump signs bill rolling back FCC privacy rules for ISPs
As promised, Donald Trump has signed a bill that nullifies rules introduced last year by the FCC to protect data and privacy for customers of internet service providers. Those rules would've blocked an ISP from selling data like a customer's browsing history that could be used to build a profile for advertisers. After the resolution passed both the House and Senate, AT&T, Comcast and Verizon came forward to state that they don't currently sell customer's browser history and say they have no plans to do so.
Seven corporate rebrand attempts even worse than 'Oath'
Now that the Verizon-AOL-Yahoo! merger is finally nearing its completion, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong took to social media on Monday to unveil the combined organization's new name: Oath. No, seriously. They're calling it Oath. Yeah, like the promise. No, I don't know why either, but that distant rumbling you hear? That's the sound of the revamped moniker being ruthlessly dragged through Twitter by innumerable hot takes.
YouTube pushes harder to tag videos 'too offensive' for ads
Weeks ago, an investigation by the Times revealed that plenty of mundane advertisements were unknowingly presented alongside extremist videos on YouTube, sparking outrage and a few companies to withdraw from the ad program. Google quickly vowed to take "a tougher stance" and "remove ads more effectively" from offensive content. But that didn't stem the exodus quickly enough. Now, the search titan is reportedly allowing external firms to vet whether advertisement quality standards have been met.
Customer service on Twitter now includes location sharing
Twitter is one way to easily get some customer service. A simple tweet can often get a faster response than finding a customer support number or using email. The social network has a new feature to make support even more personal: Brands can now request and share location data with users via direct messages.
Computer programmers can still qualify for H-1B visas
Yes, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is cracking down on the controversial H-1B category of work visas with new anti-fraud and anti-abuse measures. But it is not disqualifying computer programmers from getting the visa, contrary to reports you may have read. A recently issued "Policy Memorandum" instructs employees to stop relying on what it calls an outdated handbook to determine if an applicant's job qualifies as a specialty occupation, but it does not deny them altogether. Not only that, the memo is really only meant to bring specifically the USCIS' Nebraska Service Center, which stopped processing H-1B paperwork for close to ten years, up to speed. Other service centers had already been using the updated policies for assessing a candidate's qualifications.
Yahoo and AOL are part of Verizon's new 'Oath' brand (updated)
Somewhere along the way, Verizon's planned purchase of Yahoo got real complicated. Thanks to security breachs of gargantuan proportions, Yahoo has lost a ton of value -- and the company was struggling even when Verizon announced its intentions to buy the former internet juggernaut. Part of the value lost is in the Yahoo brand, which Verizon apparently considers toxic at this point. To that end, Verizon is changing the name of the combined Yahoo and AOL company. Business Insider first reported that "Oath" will be the new name of the company (which would be the parent company of Engadget). Minutes after we published this story, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong confirmed the change in a tweet.
US cracks down on the tech industry's go-to work visa
The H-1B category of work visas is controversial for a few reasons, including how reliant the US tech industry is on it. But one of the biggest concerns is the idea that it facilitates the outsourcing of American jobs en masse to workers from other countries. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced it would make a more targeted effort to combat "fraud and abuse" of the system, and the new measures revolve around focusing on-site spot checks on employers that look suspicious on paper.
With Amazon Cash, you can shop online without a bank card
Internet shopping is great, but most of it is off-limits if you don't have a credit or debit card. Unless you thrive on gift cards, you'll have to settle for whatever is in physical shops. Today, though, Amazon is removing that barrier. It's launching an Amazon Cash service that lets you apply cash toward your online account. It's a bit convoluted -- you have to visit a participating store, show a barcode (either on your phone or on paper) and fork over your money. There are no fees, however, and you can contribute between $15 to $500 at a time.
The Morning After: Monday, April 3rd 2017
Hey, good morning! Welcome to the work week. April 1st is finally done, and in these days of fake news, we're all increasingly numb to the corporate non-ideas that barraged our inboxes and social networks over the weekend. Meanwhile, Apple is apparently sketching out TV service plans aimed at convenience, and Archer, the mobile game, requires you to fire up your old printer.
Police make first arrest in Facebook Live sexual assault case
Law enforcement is taking sweeping action following a horrific sexual assault streamed on Facebook Live. Chicago police report that they've made the first arrest in the case, bringing a 14-year-old boy into custody. There will be more arrests soon, according to the CPD, including a 15-year-old who's next in line. Details of the case are mostly under wraps beyond a connection between the victim and one of her attackers (their age prevents disclosing some of the facts). However, it's already clear that the livestream wasn't the end to the internet-based trauma -- in fact, it's still ongoing.
Roland founder and music legend Ikutaro Kakehashi dies
It's a tragic time for both music and technology. Ikutaro Kakehashi, best known as the founder of Roland Corporation, has died at 87. The engineer turned corporate leader got his start making electronic drums and rhythm pattern generators, but it was after he founded Roland in 1972 that he hit the big time. His company quickly became synonymous with electronic music effects, and the machines built under his watch didn't just become popular -- they changed the cultural landscape.
New York Post's mobile news alerts fall victim to a hack
If you're a hacker looking to grab attention by attacking a news outlet, what do you do? Deface their website? Take control of their social media accounts? Those are old hat -- apparently, you compromise the company's mobile app. An unknown party hijacked the New York Post app's push notification system on the night of April 1st, sending a flurry of alerts that were clearly meant as a protest against President Trump. The perpetrator left precious few clues as to their identity, but they're cultured -- they signed off with the ancient word "selah" (used in the Bible to encourage pause and reflection), and even borrowed lyrics from Nirvana's song "Come As You Are."
After Math: Did I do that?
It was a big week for huge accomplishments. SpaceX proved that you can, in fact, reuse rockets. Scientists trawled 3 million studies to solve an oceanic mystery and Twitter opened up all 140 characters for you to use. Numbers, because what else would we use to count?
17 corporate pranks that aren't April Fooling anybody
It's (ugh) that time of year again. That magically obnoxious season wherein every tech startup, thought influencer and blog worth its weight in snark attempts to pull a fast one on the rest of us with a clever April Fool's Day prank. Only problem is, they're rarely clever, usually terrible and almost assuredly obvious to anyone with a functioning brainstem. Don't believe me? Here are 17 of the weirdest prank pitches to come through the Engadget tip box this year.
Recommended Reading: Beats 1 is a powerful music marketing tool
Blink-182 and Apple Music Team up to Show Off Increasing Reach And Power of Beats 1 Steve Baltin, Forbes Beats 1 has been a key selling point since Apple Music's launch. The internet radio station boasts a number of big names and includes a slate of shows hosted by the artists themselves. Even if you don't have your own show like Dr. Dre, Drake or Run the Jewels, debuting new music with Zane Lowe can do wonders for your hype train. Forbes details the power of Beats 1 through the lens of rockers Blink-182. The Verge also has a look at how the platform helped catapult Drake's latest album to the top of the streaming charts.
AT&T, Comcast and Verizon explain that they don't sell your browser history
Now that Congress has passed a rule rolling back FCC regulations that would explicitly prevent internet service providers from selling data like your browsing history, three of the biggest ones are trying to reassure customers. AT&T, Verizon (which owns AOL, the parent company of Engadget) and Comcast all published posts today about the event, with varying levels of explanation about what their privacy policies are.
