USEFUL STUFF

Oh, this sounds fun: an app to turn Instagram into a receipe book. “Called Handpick, this is a discovery app that has been in the market for a couple of years, since 2013 to be exact. However in a recent update to the app, what they’ve done is that they’re taking food from Instagram and coming up with recipes for them. Given how many photos are posted onto Instagram, Handpick has essentially transformed itself into a sizable recipe book.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Amazon Echo now supports Google Calendar.

Crap. Google Calendar is going to stop sending SMS notifications at the end of June. I use that feature a LOT. Yes, I know I can get prettier notifications. This Just Works.

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

In case you didn’t hear: the IRS got hacked. “On Tuesday the IRS admitted that it had been the target of a breach that compromised 100,000 taxpayers’ files between February and the middle of this month.”

You remember that iOS-crashing text message bug I mentioned a couple of days ago? It also impacts Twitter and Snapchat. “The booby-trapped message can be sent over Twitter, as highlighted to the Guardian by the security researcher Mikko Hypponen, either using direct messages or public mentions. If the recipient uses an iPhone and has notifications turned on, a message will instantly crash their smartphone. The message did not cause lasting damage in our testing.”

Larry Ferlazzo takes a look Google’s new Expeditions for Google Cardboard. “While Expeditions can be used on devices already in the classroom, they come alive with Google Cardboard. Our pilot kit is a collection of all the hardware needed to go on Expeditions in full virtual reality — a tablet for the guide, VR viewers for each student, a speaker to provide ambient sounds and a durable box to transport, charge, and store it all.”

What media outlet is getting all over Periscope? Why, it’s VH1.

This should be interesting: ad-blocking software has figured out native content. “The US market seems the less affected with 15%-17% of the internet population, again on average, using an ad blocking extension. Among Millennials, the share is said to be twice the average. The UK is said to experience the same pattern.”

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Interesting: how people use Twitter to consume and discuss health information. “The volume of information available on Twitter is staggering, Hashi said. There are half a billion tweets send every day. There will be more words on Twitter in the next two years than in all books ever printed. An analysis Hashi put together found that there were 44 million cancer-related tweets in the 12 months ending in March 2015, and traffic spiked in October, which happens to be Breast Cancer Awareness Month.”

OTHER STUFF I THINK IS COOL

Nifty: a font made of Instagram messages. “You simply go to the site and start typing what you would like to appear in Instagram letters. If you don’t like a particular letter, you can click it and a new one will generate for you.” Good evening, Internet…

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