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Facebook Announces New Political Advertiser Requirements

Charlotte Henry ·

Facebook announced additional requirements for political advertisers Wednesday, The Verge reported. Those who want to run political ads will have to provide more information such as government-issued identification numbers.

Today’s changes mark an evolution in the political ad disclosure requirements that Facebook introduced last year. Beginning last spring, the company began to require anyone buying political advertising to verify their identity and location. Now they will have to go a step further, offering proof they’re part of the organization they say they represent. For commercial businesses, nonprofits, and nongovernmental organizations, that will mean providing a tax-registered organization identification number. Government and military advertisers will have to provide a web domain and email address that ends in .gov or .mil. Political action committees and parties will need to provide their Federal Election Commission identification numbers.

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'Dickinson' to Headline Tribeca TV Festival

Charlotte Henry ·

Forthcoming Apple TV+ show Dickinson will headline the Tribeca TV Festival in September, Deadline reported. A trailer for the show landed Tuesday.

The premiere of Apple TV+’s fall comedy series Dickinson starring Hailee Steinfeld will headline the New York fest, which takes place September 12-15. The half-hour series will screen ahead of its September 14 TV premiere and will be followed by a discussion with Oscar-nominated actress Steinfeld, who plays the titular writer; Jane Krakowski; and series creator, showrunner and executive producer Alena Smith (The Affair, The Newsroom). Toby Huss, Anna Baryshnikov, Ella Hunt and Adrian Blake Enscoe also star. Dickinson isn’t a normal historical series with bonnets, corsets and proper ladies. The comedy subverts all of that as it audaciously explores the constraints of society, gender and family from the perspective of the rebellious young poet, Emily Dickinson. Set in the 19th century, Dickinson is a coming-of-age story that finds the author to be an unexpected hero for our millennial era.

TMO Deals

This Bluetooth-Enabled Speaker Features 3D Sound Tech and Passive Bass Radiators: $67.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on the Owlee Scroll Wireless Bluetooth Speaker. This portable speaker comes with a leather «scroll» wrap cover, supports Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC sound, has a built-in microphone for audio calls, and 9 hours of battery life. It’s $79.99 through our deal, but coupon code SAVE15SOUND takes another 15% off for a checkout price of $67.99. There are also separate deals for the company’s Aviary speaker and Artus headphones, and the coupon code works on those, too.

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Artpaper Gives You Art Wallpapers on Your iOS Devices

Andrew Orr ·

Back in May I wrote about an app called Artpaper for macOS. It gives you over a thousand 5K art wallpapers on your Mac, from different museums and galleries around the world. Today, Artpaper is now available for iOS devices, too.

All wallpapers available in the app are the works from some top-tier galleries and museums all over the world. Featuring Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Fuji Tokyo, Uffizi, Art Institute Chicago, East Side Gallery Berlin, Fide, Amon Carter Museum, Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin, and many more.

You can follow the link below to find the Mac app, and click the link here for the iOS app.

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Strava Wants to be Facebook for Runners

Charlotte Henry ·

Strava is a hugely popular activity monitoring app. Under the leadership of CEO James Quarles, it has grown significantly. He told Wired, he now wants to expand the app’s social network-like functionality.

The third, and possibly most important change, is deeply rooted in Quarles’ background with Facebook and Instagram. He has invested heavily in the social media elements of Strava. “We really made Strava about the photos and the social feed and the routes that people discover,” he says. “I think that’s had a huge role in increasing not just people coming to the app when they upload, but also when they want to download, meaning to look at what their friends are doing, to find great places and be inspired.” Quarles emphasises his drive to cultivate Strava’s athletic community. “I think that people have a more intense connection with their Strava usage on the community than they do with the brand that’s on their T-shirt or trainers,” he says. Strava users are always encouraging each other, providing, he adds, “that extra boost to come back and keep doing it.”

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Nextdoor App Sends Letters on Users' Behalf Without Consent

Andrew Orr ·

Nextdoor is a social network that lets you see things that are going on in your local neighborhood. Dutch police have issued warnings about the app recently, saying that the company sent letters on users’ behalf.

We talked to a woman whom we’ll refer to as W.H., as she wishes to remain anonymous. Letters in her neighborhood were delivered with her as the sender. The letters were asking the receivers to install the app and join the community. W.H. did not send those letters, but she was a user of the Nextdoor app. And she remembered receiving an email from Nextdoor asking whether she would like to invite the people in her neighborhood.

Ugh. Possible lawsuit?

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Google's 'Ask a Techspert' Explains Machine Learning

Andrew Orr ·

In Google’s Ask a Techspert series, senior software engineer Rosie Buchanan explains machine learning for non-experts.

Today, when we hear about “machine learning,” we’re actually talking about how Google teaches computers to use existing information to answer questions like: Where is the ice cream? Or, can you tell me if my package has arrived on my doorstep? For this edition of Ask a Techspert, I spoke with Rosie Buchanan, who is a senior software engineer working on Machine Perception within Google Nest.

This is a cool blog post explaining it, and I hope to see more explanations like this.

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Apple Rolls Out Smarter Web Answers for Spotlight Search

Andrew Orr ·

Some Apple users are seeing smarter web answers when they use iOS Spotlight Search and Siri.

The new web answers appear to be a further expansion of this technology. If the statistics are not readily available from the knowledge database, it seems Apple is now using algorithms to crawl websites and find possible responses to questions.

I think this is great, and it might be the first front-facing results we’re seeing from Apple’s hiring of John Giannandrea.

TMO Deals

Azio MK Mac USB Keyboard: $79

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on the Azio MK Mac USB Keyboard, a backlit mechanical keyboard designed exclusively for Mac. It has a bead-blasted aluminum finish and a snap-on palm rest, and you can get this keyboard for $79 through our deal.