IMDb launched a free streaming service for movies and TV shows called Freedive. You can watch content via browser or with Amazon devices like the Fire TV.
Amount Ad-Buyers Spend on Instagram Digital Video to Double
The share of ad-buyers’ digital video budgets that is spent on Instagram will double from 2018 to 2020. Bloomberg News reported on a new survey by financial services firm Cowen. It found that 61% of the respondents, who collectively represented approximately $14 billion in ad spend, consider the photo-sharing app the go-to platform for launching a campaign targetting 13 to 34 year-olds.
“Stories” — a relatively new Instagram feature — are helping to grow the app into a campaign favorite. Instagram Stories appear “poised for greater adoption” as more ad buyers allocated some portion of their spend to the feature in 2018 than the year prior, said Cowen’s John Blackledge in a note. Instagram even beat out TV in this younger target group, a medium only 3 percent of respondents said was a primary platform.
Twitter will Livestream NBA Games, but Just Focus on One Player
Twitter might just have found a great way to get into streaming major live sports. The social network struck a deal to livestream the second half of a number of NBA games, with its camera focussing on just one player, Re/Code reported. During the first half, users can vote for who they want that camera to focus on via the @NBAonTNT account. The deal covers 20 games, including at least one playoff game, beginning with the All-Star Game on February 18th.
The deal, which is clearly an experiment, reflects the quandary facing TV executives today: As more and more people stop paying for traditional TV, professional sports leagues and their broadcast partners are trying to figure out how to translate great TV content, like live sports, to places that aren’t television, like Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, and Google.
I watch a lot of sports. Often I have Twitter running at the same time and chat online about what’s happening in the game. I think Twitter might just have come up with a really good way to capitalize on the second screen phenomenon.
We do Not Know how to Talk About Online Privacy Violations
The debate over user privacy online is getting ever more intense. Barely a week goes by without some new horror being revealed. On Buzzfeed News, Charlie Warzel laid out just how dire the privacy situation has got and how bad the general public is at understanding the problem. Whether its celeb-twinning apps or Facebook, users simply do not know enough about how their data is being used nor how to discuss the issue.
Opaque algorithms and operations allow executives to dismiss the concerns of journalists and activists as unfounded or ignorant. They argue that critics are casting normal, industry-standard practices and terms of service agreements as malicious. What does it say about us or the culture built atop the modern internet that Byzantine terms of service agreements that few understand or even bother reading govern so much of our lives online?
How Apple's T2 Security Chip Affects Your Disk Storage
All new Macs now feature Apple’s custom T2 security chip. This has operational security implications for your new Mac.
Microsoft Bing Shows and Suggests Child Porn
A disturbing report from TechCrunch finds that not only is it possible to find child porn via Microsoft Bing, but the search engine also can suggest it.
T2 Chip Security, New Apple Scams – TMO Daily Observations 2019-01-10
John Martellaro and Andrew Orr join host Kelly Guimont to discuss the security behind the T2 chip and the latest wave of Apple scams.
Chinese Hackers Threaten the Internet and Democracy
Over the past decade Chinese hackers have been increasingly attacking the United States and other countries that threaten the hegemony of The Party.
Many thought the internet would bring democracy to China. Instead it empowered rampant government oppression, and now the censors are turning their attention to the rest of the world.
Chinese hacking groups fall under the category of Advanced Persistent Threat (APT). The United States and China have this weird, sadomasochistic relationship, and while I don’t believe in trade wars, I think it’s important we send a message that the U.S. won’t tolerate such egregious behavior from our partners.
5 Ways to Improve Apple Services
Michael Grothaus writes about five ways to improve Apple services, a drum that Tim Cook has been beating for the past couple years.
The problem for Apple is that the iPhone is such a large part of its business. If the company is going to continue to grow, what product could step up to take the place of lagging smartphone sales?
I’ll paraphrase Kelly Guimont’s comment on a recent episode of Daily Observations. If Apple truly wanted to be a services company, it should have been improving services all along. Don’t wait until the last minute when the iPhone puts you into panic mode.
Wikipedia to Add More Language Support with Google Translate
This adds support for an additional 15 languages, making the total count 121.
