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Private Social Network MeWe Reaches 6 Million Members

Andrew Orr ·

Private social network MeWe has reached six million members in 2019 and was named the Best Entrepreneurial Company for this year.

MeWe expects over 100 million members by the end of 2020, having achieved 405% growth in 2018 and growing twice as fast on a daily basis in 2019. 60% of MeWe’s traffic is international and 35% of members are active—exceeding industry standards.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t used MeWe since I reviewed it. But I’ll gladly promote alternatives to Facebook, especially if privacy is the number one focus.

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Microsoft says Iranian 'Phosphorus' Group Tried to Hack U.S. Presidential Campaign

Andrew Orr ·

In a blog post today Microsoft says that Iranian hackers attacked a U.S. presidential campaign, current and former U.S. government officials, journalists covering global politics and prominent Iranians living outside Iran.

Four accounts were compromised as a result of these attempts; these four accounts were not associated with the U.S. presidential campaign or current and former U.S. government officials. Microsoft has notified the customers related to these investigations and threats and has worked as requested with those whose accounts were compromised to secure them.

No word yet on what time President Trump asked Iran to interfere with our elections.

TMO Deals

The Complete Cartoon Animator 4 PRO for Mac Bundle: $199

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on the The Complete Cartoon Animator 4 PRO for Mac Bundle. It includes Cartoon Animator 4 PRO for Mac, 2D Facial Mocap Suite, and the Cartoon Animator 4 Training 3-in-1 Bundle. The first app is an animation app, while the second is motion-capture software that lets you use your own face to animate a cartoon face. The training bundle includes 55 lectures and 6 hours of training content. You get this package through our deal for $199.

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TikTok Bans Political Ads in U.S. and EU

Charlotte Henry ·

Short video sharing app TikTok said Friday it will not allow political ads in the U.S. and EU, The Next Web reported. It already had a similar policy in India.

This is quite a different approach as compared to US-based tech platforms such as Gooogle, Facebook, and Twitter. All of them allow paid political ads but with transparency programs that allow people to see who paid for the ad. While we won’t see some hilarious attempts from politicians to connect with youth trough ironically funny videos, we might still see a lot of political content around. In this year’s assembly elections in India, the platform made a significant impact in making the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi more popular.

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Things Apple Can Learn From the Microsoft Surface

Charlotte Henry ·

Microsoft unveiled new products this, including an updated, dual-screen, Microsoft Surface. Over at iMore, Rene Ritchie made some suggestions about what Apple could learn from the product.

Apple’s reportedly been kicking around foldable projects since back in the days of iPhone 4 but hasn’t found anything they’d be happy turning into a shipping product yet. For them, the technology just isn’t mature enough yet. And that’s ok. That’s Apple. There were years of Windows Mobile and a decade of Tablet PC before we got the iPhone and iPad, and Microsoft Spot before we got the Apple Watch. Apple wants to learn from this before they do that. But for us nerds, this is still super interesting. Now, what Microsoft showed off weren’t technically foldables. They were more like… hingeables?