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Nike Launches Line of Self-Adjusting Basketball Shoes

Andrew Orr ·

Nike launched a line of self-adjusting basketball shoes that you can control with your iPhone. They’re based on the company’s FitAdapt technology.

When a player steps into the Nike Adapt BB, a custom motor and gear train senses the tension needed by the foot and adjusts accordingly to keep the foot snug. The tensile strength of the underfoot lacing is able to pull 32 pounds of force (roughly equal to that of a standard parachute cord) to secure the foot throughout a range of movement.

These basketball shoes look slick.

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Huawei CEO Said Firm Not a Spy for China

Charlotte Henry ·

Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei insisted his company does not spy on behalf of China. In a rare public appearance, reported by the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Ren said: «I personally would never harm the interest of my customers and me and my company would not answer to such requests.” It comes as his daughter, the company’s CFO Meng Wanzhou, is fighting extradition to the U.S. after being arrested in Canada.

“No law requires any company in China to install mandatory back doors,” Ren Zhengfei said Tuesday. “I personally would never harm the interest of my customers and me and my company would not answer to such requests.” Mr. Ren’s public comments at Huawei’s campus are his first in years and come as the telecom giant faces challenges on multiple fronts.

 

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Facebook to Invest $300 Million in Local News Initiatives

Charlotte Henry ·

Facebook announced that it will invest $300 million in local news organizations and initiatives over the next three years. It will put $20 of million of this towards its Facebook Accelerator program that helps publishers develop membership and subscription models. It will also invest $6 million for the UK based Community News Project, $5 million to the Pulitzer Center for its «Bringing Stories Home»  initiative, and $2 million for the Report in America initiative that aims to place journalists in local newsrooms. Techcrunch looked at what the money means both for Facebook and the media industry.

As for why Facebook is focusing on local news specifically, Vice President of Global News Partnerships Campbell Brown said in a blog post that after examining “what kind of news people want to see on Facebook” and talking to industry partners, “We heard one consistent answer: people want more local news, and local newsrooms are looking for more support.”

 

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Weed Influencers Online are Helping Firms Get Around Advertising Regulations

Charlotte Henry ·

Weed firms are using online influencers to get around rules that prohibit the marketing of cannabis, even in U.S. states where the drug is legal. These influencers tend to be young women, who post on Instagram and YouTube, according to a report in Wired. Content can range from confessional videos to product reviews. Even though YouTube said it prohibits content around regulated substances like marijuana and removes the videos when it discovers them, firms marketing the products are benefiting from the influencers’ work.

For marketing agencies and companies selling cannabis products, influencers have been a boon – a creative way to get around regulations, with the added impression of authenticity. Typically, the more people that are looking at your product, or your posts, the better. But as public and legal attitudes to cannabis have shifted, the subcultures immersed in it are being subject to more scrutiny than before.

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Verizon Unlimited Customers Get Free Apple Music

Andrew Orr ·

Customers of Verizon Unlimited plans will get free, full Apple Music as a perk. This is for the Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited plans.

The bonus Apple Music should be launched in the next couple of days, according to the information that we received. Verizon is yet to make the announcement publicly, but the information comes from a source that has proved reliable in the past.

Goodnotes 5 is Out for $7.99
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Goodnotes 5 is Out for $7.99

Andrew Orr ·

GoodNotes 5 is a major update to its predecessor GoodNotes 4. It includes many highly requested features, improvements to existing things and some special surprises.

What’s new in GoodNotes 5:

  • New folder system: Create unlimited levels of folders and subfolders
  • Text & handwriting search across all documents
  • Flexible scrolling directions: Horizontal or vertical scrolling
  • Favorites view: Shortcuts to important pages, documents, or folders.
  • QuickNotes: The fastest way to start taking notes
  • Optionally display documents as lists instead of thumbnails
  • Improved ink algorithm: More precise and natural writing experience

And a whole lot more.

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10 Influential Science Photos That Changed Us

John Martellaro ·

In a terrific photo collection, Big Think presents «10 science photos that made history and changed minds.» The power of these photos expanded our consciousness, created new conversations, and changed our way of thinking. I particularly like the «Pale Blue Dot» photo, made famous by Dr. Carl Sagan with one of the most poignant commentaries ever made about our planet and its inhabitants. Check out all the photos. (Earthrise photo credit: NASA.)

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TMO Background Mode Interview with TMO Contributor Andrew Orr

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Andrew is a Contributing Editor at The Mac Observer assigned to the morning news desk. He is also a science and nature lover, with a special interest in botany, as well as an amateur nature photographer.

I asked Andrew about growing up in Michigan and his early interest in writing. He also started using computers when he was young and recalled how had to eradicate a virus from an Windows XP PC at age 13. Later he studied computer security at Bay de Noc Community College, and he attributes his technical writing success to the combination of his writing skill, interest in science, and experience with computers. Andrew told me how he was discovered by The Mac Observer and the tools he uses to collect and report the news each morning.