Trump’s newly-emboldened troll army poses problems for Twitter
Yesterday, the US woke up to discover it had elected Donald Trump as leader of the free world. As we’ve pointed out, the decision threatens net neutrality and probably the planet, though we perversely got a Wu-Tang album from it. In addition to 48% of the country’s voting electorate, those celebrating also included a loose army of trolls who rampaged across the internet harassing journalists and Clinton supporters for over a year. But far from being content with their US victory, many pro-Trump marauders have been emboldened and seem to be re-mobilizing to support far-right candidates in European elections. In short: The online abuse will almost certainly continue.
This spells ill for Twitter in particular. The social network has historically been spotty in evaluating harassment claims and blocking offenders. But in the yearlong run-up to the election, the alt-right trolls came out, directing their abuse toward Trump critics and journalists alike. After conservative writer David French criticized Ann Coulter for pandering to white supremacists, alt-right trolls hounded him, sending photoshopped images of his daughter in a gas chamber and in cotton fields. The New York Times editor Jonathan Weisman temporarily quit the social network back in June, blaming Twitter for its extreme failure to abide by its policies and impede or prevent the daily abuse slung at him.
On top of general harassment, anti-Semitic tweets spiked from January to July of this year as the election heated up, the Anti-Defamation League stated in a report released three weeks ago. Of the 2.6 million anti-Semitic tweets they tracked over the last year, the ADL identified 19,253 directed toward journalists. Two-thirds of those were sent by 1,600 power users, which the self-identified as either Trump supporters, conservatives or alt-right. According to the report, Twitter has only deactivated 21 percent of those accounts. Incredibly, 83 percent of those near-20,000 abusive tweets were directed at only 10 journalists — including Weisman.
Some alt-right trolling on Twitter has been individual effort, but others are coordinated campaigns. After the anti-media Nazi slogan “Lügenpresse” surfaced at a Trump rally two weeks ago, alt-right trolls coordinated on 8chan’s /pol/ imageboard to assemble journalist names for an intimidation campaign called #TheList, tweeting offenders their own headshots that had been ominously X’d out. It didn’t exactly terrify the populace, but any organized harassment crusade with Nazi undertones suggests just what kind of internet justice they’re trying to achieve — like, say, an anti-Semitic death threat against a Politico reporter.
And then, of course, there’s the deliberate spreading of misinformation to trick Hillary supporters into throwing away their votes. The perpetrator, a prominent Trump-supporting user, played it off as a prank, though Twitter soon banned the account after the deception got more coverage.
Internet media aren’t the only ones aware of alt-right trolls’ willingness to harass their enemies. Trump campaign lawyers demanded from a judge the names of poll workers who’d kept a location legally open later than stated hours. But when the judge noticed someone was livestreaming the request, she refused, according to Wired: “Do you watch Twitter?” Judge Sturman pointedly asked the lawyer. “There are trolls who could get this information and harass people.”
Since the world woke to a Trump-won America yesterday there’s been another spike in abuse — in the real world, across America. If certain Trump supporters have been emboldened enough to return to post-9/11 bigoted attacks on ethnic, religious and sexual minorities, what more will they do under the shroud of internet anonymity? Hopefully, Twitter figures out how to fix its policies and responses before the alt-right trolls batter, misdirect and make death threats to folks involved in another upcoming election.
Source: Gizmodo
Apple Starts Approving First Touch Bar App Updates on Mac App Store
Apple over the past two days has started approving Mac App Store apps that have been updated with Touch Bar support on the new MacBook Pro.
One of the first Touch Bar apps is OmniGraffle 7, a popular vector drawing tool for designing graphics and diagrams. After updating to version 7.2, users will have access to text controls when editing labels, for example, or manipulation controls when working with shapes. Without anything selected on the canvas on the main screen, the Touch Bar can be used to add shape, a stencil, or an image.
OmniGraffle 7.2 for Mac’s new Touch Bar controls
Speed-Up, a utility for speeding up or slowing down audio playback directly in iTunes, also saw its Touch Bar update approved earlier today. Other apps that now support the Touch Bar include Gestimer, Opus One, Disk Aid, and Memory Clean 2, and several more popular apps will be updated over the coming days and weeks. Those interested can track Mac app updates on our sister site AppShopper.
The Touch Bar is a narrow strip of glass above the keyboard that provides both system and app-specific controls based on what you are doing. The touchscreen sits in place of the standard row of function keys on the new MacBook Pro and includes Touch ID for faster logins and Apple Pay. Learn more by reading our Touch Bar hands-on roundup and Apple executive Craig Federighi’s interview about the Touch Bar.
Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Tags: Mac App Store, Touch Bar
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PlayStation VR toubleshooting guide
Everything you need to know, just in case something goes wrong.
PlayStation VR is a great system that’s introduced many people to VR, but even the best systems experience problems from time to time. From tracking issues to display issues to audio issues, here’s how to fix pretty much any problem you experience with your PlayStation VR.
See more at VR Heads!
Vampire giraffe pie? Even more emoji possibilities to come in Unicode 10
We’re almost at a loss for words at this point.
Emoji use is on the rise, and the Unicode Consortium is spending an increasing amount of time designing new emoji to reflect an even more diverse set of pictographs for all kinds of situations. 51 new emoji are up for consideration for inclusion in Unicode 10, with some of the headliners being “bearded man,” “milkshake,” “breastfeeding,” “zebra,” “vampire” and “pie.”
Beyond entirely new emoji, the Unicode Consortium also plans to add non-gendered versions of various age-related emoji, such as “child,” “adult” and “older adult.” Some work is still being done to narrow down proposals for more more additions, with a couple different dinosaurs and various clothing items being worked on. Various ideas were left behind for this release, including “almond,” “leafy greens” and “face with lightbulb.”
You can see a full list of emoji slated for the Unicode 10 release at Emojipedia.
So how long will you have to wait for these new emoji? Well, there’s a bit of a process. The new emoji are only provisionally accepted right now, so they aren’t yet part of the Unicode spec. Once final edits are made and they’re locked in, we’ll have to wait for the release of Unicode 10 in mid-2017 — then, smartphone manufacturers can include the latest Unicode in their software and you’ll have access to them.
Logitech’s ZeroTouch is now the best, most expensive Android Auto car mount you can buy
A super sleek (and expensive) accessory for Android Auto.
Logitech’s in-car phone mount formerly known as the ZeroTouch has been rebranded as the “SmartCar” mount and is being stocked by the Google Store. The rebranding aligns with its change to being designed for Android Auto’s standalone phone mode, as the mount will auto-launch the Android Auto app instead of Logitech’s own ZeroTouch app.
The SmartCar mount comes in two different designs, one for mounting on your dashboard/windshield and another for clipping onto an air vent, but in both cases is extremely simple with no additional levers or contraptions to hold your phone in place. Instead, you have to (semi-permanently) install a metal tab on the back of your phone (or case) that helps it attach to the mount and also communicate to the phone that the connection has been made. Placing your phone on the mount auto-launches Android Auto, and when you remove it the app closes — that’s slick.
More: Hands-on with Android Auto’s phone interface
At $80 the Logitech SmartCar dashboard mount is well beyond what most people are willing to spend on this sort of thing, and the $60 price tag for an extremely simple vent clip is almost laughable. Some of the best-selling and capable car mounts, like the ones from iOttie are less than $30. But if you want that super-slick look and added one-touch functionality of launching Android Auto, maybe you’ll be willing to splash the cash on one of these from Logitech.
See at Google
All About Android Auto
- Getting started with Android Auto in your car
- Using Android Auto natively on your phone
- Android Auto news
- Apps that work with Android Auto
- Join the Android Auto discussion!
Oculus is bringing VR to lower-end PCs today
The term “asynchronous spacewarp” might sound like a meaningless jumble of techno-jargon, but it’s a big deal if you’re into virtual reality. It’s the new technology from Oculus, which is officially launching today, that’ll let you run the Rift VR headset on much lower-specced hardware than before. Typically, you’d need a beefy rig to run games at 90 frames per second, which is necessary for ensuring a smooth VR experience. Using frame interpolation techniques, aysnchronous spacewarp is able to deliver similarly smooth gameplay when you’re running at just 45 frames per second.
So what does this mean for you? If you’ve got an aging gaming rig, there’s a chance that you can actually run the Oculus Rift today. While the company previously required an NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD Radeon 290 GPU at the minimum, now you can run any NVIDIA 900 or 1000 series GPU (including the GTX 960), or any AMD RX 400 series card.
Still, Oculus is making it clear the feature isn’t a complete replacement for a decent rig; it’s positioning it as more of a stopgap for gamers who have yet to upgrade. Once you’ve got a more powerful system, you’ll probably never end up seeing asynchronous spacewarp in action. Developers will also have to ensure their games continue to run at a smooth 90FPS on Oculus’s recommended computer specs.
In other news, the company also revealed that you’ll be able to create Oculus Avatars starting on December 6th to coincide with the launch of its new Touch controllers. You won’t need that new gear to design an avatar, but lucky Touch owners will be able to use their new virtual selves in Sports Bar VR and Kingspray. Developers will be able to integrate the avatars into their games on December 6th, as well. Oculus is also launching a new retro experience, First Contact, that will give you a few ways to learn about the Touch controllers.
Source: Oculus
The OnePlus 3 gets its first taste of Android Nougat this month
Watching Android Nougat make its way to phones Google didn’t have a hand in making has been, well, a little excruciating. Some major players are getting the update out first, but now it looks like the upstarts at OnePlus are next in line. Brian Yoon, the startup’s head of software, confirmed to Engadget that a Nougat beta “community” build would be ready for the OnePlus 3 this month. Even better: once all the kinks have been ironed out, Nougat will be pushed out over-the-air to all OnePlus 3s by the end of the year. Not a bad way to ring in the holidays, right?
Yoon also confirmed that older devices like the OnePlus 2 will be updated to Nougat as well, though there isn’t a firm timeframe set for that yet.
The company’s push to bring Nougat to its phones comes after a pretty dramatic internal restructuring. Earlier this year, OnePlus leadership merged the teams working on HydrogenOS (their software for OnePlus devices in China) and OxygenOS (their software for everywhere else). It was a smart, and ultimately necessary move — OnePlus hasn’t had the best reputation where speedy software updates are concerned, and their users were vocal in their frustration. By combining software teams, the company hoped to marshall its resources more effectively and ultimately just get stuff done faster.
So far, it seems to be working — word of OnePlus’ Nougat update plans come just days after much bigger companies announced their own. LG was first off the line with a Nougat-powered phone, and followed up just a few days ago to push the update to its flagship G5. Then came Samsung, which made the update available to S7/Edge owners through its Galaxy Beta program very shortly after LG made its move. While it’s heartening to see Nougat finally making the rounds, here’s hoping the pace picks up: it’s almost time for the Android 7.1 update to take its turn in the spotlight.
Uber driver accused of raping an unconscious 17-year-old girl
An Uber driver in Southern California was charged Thursday with four felony counts of sexual assault for allegedly raping an unconscious 17-year-old girl as he drove her home to Laguna Beach early Saturday morning. The suspect, 23-year-old Samer Alaaeldin Mahran, is currently being held on $100,000 bail and could face a maximum sentence of up to 28 years in prison if convicted.
According to police in Orange County, one of the girl’s family members called her an Uber from Huntington Beach around 2 a.m. Saturday morning. When the girl did not arrive on time, her relative began to worry. Using Uber’s tracking feature, another family member located Mahran’s vehicle parked near the victim’s home and found Mahran assaulting the unconscious girl in the backseat. Mahran is also accused of fleeing the scene as the family member tried to help the victim out of his vehicle, but Laguna Beach Police were able to identify him based on the info stored in Uber and he was arrested at home later that day.
For their part, Uber told CNET via email, “We’re devastated by what this family has gone through and our hearts are with them. We’ll continue working with police to support the investigation and proceedings. The individual has been permanently barred from the app.”
Earlier this month, Uber settled with two victims who were also assaulted by drivers using their platform. While those cases renewed criticisms of Uber’s background check process, a document leaked earlier this year showed that Uber is also dealing with a number of sexual assault cases outside of the US.
Via: CNET
Source: Orange County District Attorney’s Office
Garmin fitness trackers now have Strava’s safety system
A slew of Garmin fitness trackers today have access to Beacon, Strava’s safety feature that allows users to send their location to friends in real-time while they’re out on a run, hike or bike. Strava is a social networking app built for athletes, and it launched the Beacon service for premium members in August. With today’s news, Strava premium members can share data between Beacon and Garmin LiveTrack on the following devices: Fenix 3, Edge Explore 820, Edge 520, 820 and 1000, and Forerunner 230, 235, 630 and 735XT.
Beacon allows users to send their real-time, on-map location to a handful of friends via text message, even if those friends don’t have Strava or a premium membership. Strava already tracks users and sells the anonymized data to planning groups and governments interested in improving biking, walking and running in cities and towns. Users can opt-out of the tracking, of course.
One of the Garmin devices that now has direct access to Beacon is the Forerunner 235, which just so happens to be on Engadget’s holiday gift guide this year.
Source: TechCrunch
Apple Debuts New ‘iBooks Storytime’ tvOS App With Read-Aloud Books for Kids
Apple has quietly introduced a new tvOS app for kids called “iBooks Storytime,” designed to allow children to read along with interactive books on their television sets.
iBooks Storytime features a selection of children’s books from the iBooks Store that feature Read-Along capabilities. Read-Along books are audio-enhanced with different character voices, vivid sound effects, and word-for-word narration that children can follow along with.
Parents can purchase Read-Aloud books chosen by App Store editors directly from the Apple TV and control the voice narration with the Siri Remote or turn on an automatic reading feature.
Some of the Read-Along titles include Lava, based on the Pixar short film, Green Eggs and Ham, Meet Tracker, The ABCs of Cookies, The Little Red Hen,
and Goodnight Moon. Apple is offering Dora’s Big Buddy Race Read-Along Storybook as a free title for testing the feature.
Read-Along titles are also available on the iPhone and iPad, and previously-purchased selections will show up on the Apple TV. iBooks Storytime is a free download on the Apple TV. [Direct Link]
Tags: iBooks, iBooks Storytime
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