Eric David
Latest from Eric David
Avast acquires rival antivirus suite AVG for $1.3 billion
Avast Software s.r.o., the company behind a popular free antivirus sweet, has just purchased its rival AVG Technologies N.V. for $1.3 billion, proving that the consumer cyber security market is still alive and kicking. According to a press release, Avast will be paying $25.00 per share to purchase AVG. Both Avast and AVG were originally founded ...
Microsoft’s Thinga.Me app lets you organize and share all the crap you buy
Taking conspicuous consumption into the smartphone age, Microsoft has released a new app called Thinga.Me that will let you virtualize all of the junk you own so you can share it with anyone. In an intro video to the new app, Microsoft describes Thinga.Me as “a tool for sharing things, not photos.” “Thinga.Me takes all of the cool ...
Google Chrome will now let you cast tabs without an extension
Streaming your Chrome browser tabs to Chromecast is about to get a lot easier with the new Chrome 51 update, as you will now be able to cast tabs natively without having to download the Google Cast extension. The new update is in the process of rolling out now, so some users may already notice the new “Cast…” ...
China forbids news sites from using social media sources
The internet regulation arm of the Chinese government has issued a warning to online news organizations that they cannot use social media as a source of information in their stories. “All websites should bear the key responsibility to further streamline the course of reporting and publishing of news, and set up a sound internal monitoring ...
Google DeepMind and NHS to fight eye disease with machine learning
Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence project famously used machine learning to develop AlphaGo, a boardgame-playing AI that managed to successfully defeat one of the top Go players in the world. Now, Google is turning its AI powerhouse toward a somewhat more meaningful cause by teaming up with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to tackle eye disease ...
United Nations says government disruption of internet is a human rights violation
The United Nations recently passed a non-binding resolution that condemns countries that intentionally disrupts their citizens’ internet access, arguing that “the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression, which is applicable regardless of frontiers and through any media of one’s choice.” A number of authoritarian countries ...
Facebook called “a monster” by Israeli security minister
There have been plenty of positive things to come out of the social media revolution over the last 10 years or so, and tools like Facebook and Twitter have been used for everything from tracking family members during a natural disaster to exposing human rights violations to international attention. Unfortunately, just as social media can ...
Twitch’s “Social Eating” category proves the internet will livestream anything
Earlier this week, Amazon’s popular livestreaming platform Twitch launched a new video category called Social Eating, which shows that Twitch can even get weirder than it already is. Here’s how Twitch define’s Social Eating on an FAQ page for the new category: “Social Eating is a new beta category that lets you share a meal ...
Facebook beats Belgian privacy case over tracking offline users
Facebook has no shortage of privacy troubles in Europe, but this week the social media giant has one less problem to worry about after a Belgian court overturned a decision that would have prevented to platform from tracking offline users. Last year, a case brought forward by a Belgian privacy watchdog concluded that Facebook could ...
Google’s massive undersea cable boosts connection between US and Japan
Today, a consortium of six companies, including Google, is set to activate FASTER, an enormous undersea fiber optic cable that stretches thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean between the US and Japan. The cable itself is a bundle of six different fiber pairs capable of supporting up to 10 Tbps each for a combined total ...