TWEAKS AND UPDATES

Google Blog: New ways to customize Chrome on your desktop. “Looking for more ways to make Chrome your own? With the latest updates to Chrome on desktop, it’s easier than ever to personalize the look and feel of your browser — exactly how you want it. Here’s a closer look at the ways you can customize Chrome to make it yours.”

Engadget: Apple’s free My Photo Stream service will shut down on July 26th. “Apple plans to shut down its My Photo Stream service on July 26th, 2023, the company announced on Friday. The free service has been available since the release of iCloud in 2011. You can use My Photo Stream to upload the last 30 days of images and videos – up to a limit of 1,000 – from your Apple devices to iCloud.”

USEFUL STUFF

How-To Geek: 10 Inexpensive Ways to Breathe New Life Into an Old PC. “Why buy a new computer when the one you have just needs a little spring cleaning and some inexpensive upgrades to give you many more years of service? Here are some easy tips and tricks to rejuvenate your old PC.”

AROUND THE INTERNET WORLD

Tom’s Hardware: Google’s AI Search Feels Like a Content Farm on Steroids. “Currently available for testing in limited beta, Google’s new Search Generative Experience (SGE) shifts the site from being a search engine that links the best content to a publication offering its own mini-articles. But instead of hiring expert writers to do the work, Google employs an AI that ingests data from human-authored content and spits out weaksauce advice with no expertise or authority to back it up.”

NPR: Can a chatbot help people with eating disorders as well as another human?. “The National Eating Disorders Association is shutting its telephone helpline down, firing its small staff and hundreds of volunteers. Instead it’s using a chatbot — and not because the bot is better.”

The Verge: A fake climate change theory is going viral on TikTok after Joe Rogan talked about it. “A made-up global warming theory discussed in the Joe Rogan Experience podcast is spreading on TikTok despite the platform’s new policy against climate disinformation, a new report shared exclusively with The Verge finds.”

SECURITY & LEGAL

Reuters: Twitter likely to quit EU code against disinformation, EU official says . “Twitter is likely to pull out from a voluntary EU code of practice to tackle disinformation, but the move does not mean it will quit Europe, an EU official said on Thursday.”

Bloomberg: US and Guam hit by Chinese hacking campaign: report . “An alleged campaign by Chinese state-sponsored hackers on targets in the US and Guam has raised fears that Beijing is preparing to disrupt communications in the Pacific in the event of a conflict. The hacking campaign was first identified by Microsoft Corp on Wednesday and quickly confirmed by authorities in the US, UK and other allied nations.”

South China Morning Post: As India goes digital, unsuspecting victims lose life savings to social media scams. “While cybercrimes are not new to India, a new wave of these crimes is spreading rapidly across the country … These crimes are pushing many deep into debt, and often, despair. Late last month, a software engineer in the southern city of Hyderabad took his own life after losing more than 1.2 million rupees in a similar scheme, just months after he got married.”

RESEARCH & OPINION

University of Arizona: A new method for creating 3D images. “[Professor David] Brady developed the set of algorithms and strategies for measuring a two-dimensional hologram and used those measurements to estimate three-dimensional objects. The resulting image is not a photograph; rather, it is a three-dimensional representation of the scene. A person can view the 3D representation using interactive software or by 3D-printing a model, Brady said.”

Queen Mary University of London: Social media platforms letting down autistic users, new research shows. “While understanding and awareness of autism has majorly progressed in recent years, with around 7000 Brits diagnosed, most autistic adults in the UK still don’t get the support they need to be fully included in society. Autism can have a profound impact, with just 29% of autistic adults in any kind of work and new Government plans announced this month to boost employment prospects.”

New York Times: How Twitter Shrank Elon Musk and Ron DeSantis. “…for all its influence, social media is still downstream of other institutions — universities, newspapers, television channels, movie studios, other internet platforms. Twitter is real life, but only through its relationship to other realities; it doesn’t have the capacity to be a hub of discourse, news gathering or entertainment on its own. And many of Musk’s difficulties as the Twitter C.E.O. have reflected a simple overestimation of social media’s inherent authority and influence.” Good morning, Internet…

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