TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: Facebook test brings voice and video calling back to main app. “Facebook is bringing voice and video calling back to its main mobile app, according to a Monday report from Bloomberg. The features have been absent from the main mobile app since 2014, when Facebook moved them into its separate Messenger app. The features reportedly began appearing for some users on Monday as part of a test.”

MacRumors: Apple Expands Native Maps Rating and Review Feature to the U.S.. “Apple appears to be expanding on the native Apple Maps review functionality that it first introduced in iOS 14, allowing ‌Apple Maps‌ users in the United States the option to review places of interest, restaurants, and other locations.”

USEFUL STUFF

Lifehacker: How to Organize All Your iCloud Photos. “One of the great things about iCloud is that you can store lots of pictures. One of the bad things about iCloud is that you can store lots of pictures. Here are some tips to help you back up and organize all your thousands of photos without doing too much sifting through memories of Halloween 2017.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

The Well UNC: Carolina Performing Arts announces ‘Southern Futures’. “Southern Futures at CPA will produce new works, collaborations and research on social justice, racial equity and the American South. The organization has named Grammy and MacArthur Award-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens to a three-year research residency at the core of the initiative, beginning in spring 2022. Giddens will focus on discovering and sharing cultural artifacts and local histories that challenge entrenched narratives and monolithic thinking on topics central to Southern Futures, a collaborative initiative of the College of Arts & Sciences, University Libraries, Carolina Performing Arts and The Center for the Study of the American South.”

British Library: The Backstory to Digitising the Barbados Gazette. “Today is the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. Today also sees the launch of the second crowdsourcing task of the Agents of Enslavement project. To coincide with these two events we are delighted to share this guest post by Dr Lissa Paul, a literary scholar at Brock University who specialises in children’s literature and Caribbean literary studies.”

CNN: Irish tech firm helps kids’ voices be heard. “While personal artificial intelligence (AI) assistants are becoming increasingly integrated in our everyday lives, they are just one use of voice tech — and are primarily designed for adults. Irish tech startup SoapBox Labs wants that to change. The Dublin-based firm has developed speech recognition technology designed specifically for children — and it’s already in use across a range of applications, from toys to education apps.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Ubergizmo: Hacker That Stole $600 Million In Cryptocurrency Has Returned All Of It. “As some of you might have heard, about $600 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from the Poly Network not too long ago. However, in an interesting twist, the hacker who stole it returned half of it. Some speculated that it was due to the difficulty of unloading stolen crypto, while the hacker claimed that it was always their intention to return it. That being said, an update from Poly Network has revealed that the full amount that was stolen has since been returned to them.”

9to5Mac: Apple already scans iCloud Mail for CSAM, but not iCloud Photos. “Apple has confirmed to me that it already scans iCloud Mail for CSAM, and has been doing so since 2019. It has not, however, been scanning iCloud Photos or iCloud backups. The clarification followed me querying a rather odd statement by the company’s anti-fraud chief: that Apple was ‘the greatest platform for distributing child porn.'”

RESEARCH & OPINION

Data Center Knowledge: What Has to Happen for Quantum Computing to Hit Mainstream?. “If you stretch the timeline of quantum computing onto the timeline of IBM computers, we’re somewhere between the vacuum-tube-powered machines of the 1940s and the models built on transistors, integrated circuits, and silicon of the 1960s. And we’re much closer to the former.”

AFP: ‘Always there’: the AI chatbot comforting China’s lonely millions. “After a painful break-up from a cheating ex, Beijing-based human resources manager Melissa was introduced to someone new by a friend late last year. He replies to her messages at all hours of the day, tells jokes to cheer her up but is never needy, fitting seamlessly into her busy big city lifestyle. Perfect boyfriend material, maybe — but he’s not real.” Good evening, Internet…

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