TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Oh good. Slashgear: Google Photos now shows which images and videos aren’t backed up. “Google has released an update for Google Photos on Android that makes the image app compatible with foldable devices, such as the new Galaxy Fold. That change isn’t terribly exciting for consumers, but the second one is: Google Photos now shows indicators on images and videos that haven’t been backed up yet, making it easy for users to see what needs uploaded.”

Los Angeles Times: Snap has three years to make a profit before it runs out of money. “The Santa Monica social media company has gone from scrappy start-up to multibillion-dollar public stock to plotting its own recovery in the space of just eight years. The compressed timeline illustrates the late stage of Silicon Valley’s current investment cycle.”

Yahoo News UK: 12,000 pieces of official govt advice added to Alexa and Google Home. “Information on public services – from renewing a passport to the state pension – can now be accessed through voice-activated smart speakers and virtual assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home. The government says the public can now access more than 12,000 pieces of official information from the Gov.uk website without having to search online.”

USEFUL STUFF

Amit Agarwal: Google Apps Script for Developers. “In this video tutorial, you’ll learn how to develop Google Apps Script projects locally on your computer inside Visual Studio Code. You can write your code in modern JavaScript, neatly organized in modules, and the build environment will use Babel and Webpack to transform your code into a version of JavaScript that is compatible with Apps Script.”

Make Tech Easier: How to Easily Convert an Image to Video for Social Media . “Video is king of the online world right now, and it is expected to have an even greater share of social media in the future. Search algorithms are giving priority to content that has video, making it imperative to have some on your website as well. If you want to gain attention for what you have to offer on the Internet, then creating videos of your content is essential to your success.”

How-To Geek: How to Detect Hidden Surveillance Cameras With Your Phone. “A family recently discovered a rude surprise at their Airbnb: a hidden camera disguised as a smoke detector in the living room. Here are two ways to check for cameras—in an Airbnb or elsewhere—using only an iPhone or Android phone.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Washington Post: Calling Marie Kondo! The archives at the Kennedy Center and the National Theatre are a mess.. “Washington’s National Theatre has been in business since 1835, yet its archives are largely stuffed into a single small dressing room on the fourth floor. The collection, with playbills and photographs that in some cases are more than a century old, looks like family junk piled in an extra bedroom.”

CNET: Google Doodle goes to new heights (and depths) to celebrate Earth Day. “Google’s Monday Doodle features an animated slideshow exploring six different endangered organisms from different Earth elevations, some of which have only recently been discovered by humans. The Doodle also includes fun facts about the organisms and offers the curious the chance to learn more about them in search.”

New York Times: Free Speech Puts U.S. on ‘a Collision Course’ With Global Limits on Big Tech. “When Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook called for regulating harmful internet content in an opinion column last month, Republicans in Washington expressed outrage that he was calling on the government to regulate speech. Within hours, the company’s top lobbyists started spreading another message to conservatives: Don’t take his suggestion too seriously.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Boing Boing: Copyright filters are automatically removing copies of the Mueller Report. “The Mueller Report, being a work produced by the US government, is in the public domain, which means that anyone can publish it. There are several publishers making copies for sale already. One or more of these publishers uploaded their copy of the Report to Scribd’s copyright filter, a fully automated system that does not include human review. We don’t know why the publisher uploaded something they didn’t have the rights to. Maybe they were being malicious and wanted to drive sales of their report; or maybe they just automatically upload everything they publish to every copyright filter they can find, and don’t bother to pay anyone to make sure they’re not claiming copyright over something they don’t own.” Good evening, Internet…

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