NEW RESOURCES

The Verge: Xbox’s 20th Anniversary museum is a metaverse full of achievements and mistakes. “Microsoft has created an Xbox metaverse museum where you can roam around and discover the history of Xbox consoles. It’s designed to celebrate 20 years of Xbox and includes some infamous mistakes like the Xbox 360 red ring of death or Microsoft’s attempt to acquire Nintendo in spring 2000.”

The Irish News: Mobile Phone Museum launches online. “A collection of mobile phones detailing the history of the device has launched as an online museum with more than 2,000 handsets dating back to 1984. The Mobile Phone Museum, founded by industry veterans Ben Wood and Matt Chatterley, includes high-resolution photos and backstories for many of the phones in its catalogue.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

CNET: Spotify launches hub for Squid Game, Bridgerton and your other favorite Netflix shows. “Spotify teamed up with Netflix to help you easily find music from all of your favorite shows. The music streaming service added its Netflix Hub on Tuesday.”

9to5 Google: Google’s ‘Look to Speak’ accessibility app now works in 17 more languages. “Google has really expanded and improved the volume of services offering enhanced control schemes and accessibility for those with disabilities and motor impairments. Look to Speak is an app that allows you to control your smartphone with just your eyes – by looking at predetermined and prewritten phrases, which your smartphone will then read aloud.”

TechCrunch: Reddit is shutting down Dubsmash and integrating video tools into its own app. “Reddit is shutting down Dubsmash, its short-form TikTok-like video platform, on February 22, 2022. The company says after February, Dubsmash will no longer be available for download in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Currently downloaded apps will stop functioning on the same date.”

USEFUL STUFF

Wired: How to Preserve and Share Grandma’s Recipes. “WHEN I INHERITED my late grandmother’s recipes, I wanted to keep them safe and eventually hand them down to my own family. I already had my own jumbled collection, including instructions dictated by Wilma herself, images saved on my phone, Word files on my computer, and more. So I set out to find a way to organize, preserve, and share this part of our family history with everyone.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

CNBC: Apple sues company known for hacking iPhones on behalf of governments. “Apple on Tuesday sued NSO Group, an Israeli firm that sells software to government agencies and law enforcement that enables them to hack iPhones and read the data on them, including messages and other communications.”

Reuters: Apple warns Thai activists “state-sponsored attackers” may have targeted iPhones. “Apple Inc issued on Wednesday alert messages to at least six Thai activists and researchers who have been critical of the government, warning it believed their iPhones had been targeted by ‘state-sponsored attackers’, according to activists and the alerts reviewed by Reuters.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

PsyPost: Study finds conservatives with a need for chaos are more likely to share fake news. “New research provides evidence that a lack of conscientiousness and a desire to cause chaos both play an important role in the spread of misinformation online. The findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, offer ‘a more nuanced account’ of the relationship between political conservatism and the tendency to share fake news on social media.”

NBC News: Social media use linked to depression in adults. Now you tell me. “While social media has been widely linked to anxiety and depression in teenagers, new evidence suggests that platforms such as TikTok and Instagram can leave middle-aged adults feeling sad, too. The research, published Tuesday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open, is based on a series of surveys of 5,395 adults whose average age was 56.” Good afternoon, Internet…

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