Facebook is pushing back against antitrust lawsuits filed by the US Federal Trade Commission and 48 state attorneys general; alleging they failed to show that the social media giant illegally stifled competition and harmed consumers. On Wednesday, Facebook said it asked a federal court to dismiss the lawsuits, filed in December. The suits accuse Facebook of anticompetitive practices such as purchasing its rivals instead of competing with them. Federal and state regulators want a federal court to potentially order Facebook to spin off photo service Instagram; and messaging app WhatsApp from the company. The social network purchased Instagram for $1…
Author: Abiodun A.
If you use Twitter regularly, you’ve likely noticed how some tall images are cropped in unfavorable ways when scrolling down your timeline. Twitter usually crops images to a fixed aspect ratio, with algorithms determining where the focus should be for the tweet preview. If you want the full image, you need to tap it. That’s changing, though, at least to some extent. Through its support account, Twitter today announced that it’s changing the way image previews work on the Android and iOS versions of the app, making it so that you can see the full image directly on the timeline.…
Vodafone UK has launched new connected plans that give organisations in the public and private sector a way to offer cost-effective connectivity to their vulnerable customers. The firm said that these plans build on its schools.connected program which helped kids get online to continue their education at home during the lockdown. The new scheme is called communities.connected and will run until the end of June, by which time lockdown measures will have been significantly eased and a large proportion of the country will have received their first vaccine and some will have got their second jab. The new plans have…
Amazon Music is getting a new shopping experience built into the app, the online retail giant announced today. Starting today, users will be able to buy official merchandise from their favorite artists directly on Amazon Music; in an attempt to bridge together the music listening experience and other aspects of the fandom. The shopping experience is launching with merchandise from major artists such as Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish, and Amazon has also secured some exclusives for its platform. Pop artist Selena Gomez will be launching a new line of apparel to coincide with her upcoming EP REVELACIÓN, and an…
TIKTOK: Social networking platforms have been cracking down on cyber bullying with tools that automatically detect offensive comments. Instagram, for example, launched an artificial intelligence-powered feature in 2019 designed to check for abusive comments and notify users about it before they can post them. TikTok announced today two new similar capabilities that it says are aimed at promoting “kindness” on the platform. One of these features is meant to warn you before you post an “inappropriate or unkind” comment. This comes in the form of a pop-up prompt that asks you to reconsider and edit your comment before posting it.…
Disney Plus now officially has more than 100 million subscribers. The video streaming service has reached this figure in just less than a year and a half after its launch. Company executives made the announcement during Disney’s annual shareholder’s meeting. As of February 2021 when it last revealed the number of its subscribers during its first-quarter earnings; the company announced that, as of 2nd January 2021, it had just over 94 million subscribers. The recent success of WandaVision and Raya and the Last Dragon are likely huge factors in Favour of Disney Plus’ push north of 100 millionThe service might…
Officers of the Katsina Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service have intercepted goods worth N79,757,100. The items seized form part of the achievements recorded from the month of January 8th, 2021 to date. Customs Area Comptroller in the state, Adewale Musa Aremu at a press briefing lamented that the border communities are not helping the officers in their operations instead they are making the operations highly difficult across all the entry points. He pledged to continue to be on the smugglers’ neck in effort to stop smuggling across the state, assuring readiness to deal decisively with smugglers in the…
The combined troops of Sector 1 Operation LAFIYA DOLE and 402 Special Forces Brigade have continued to clear all villages and enclaves hitherto inhabited by the Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs) and their Islamic State West Africa Province Counterparts (ISWAP) around Chikun Gudu, Kerenoa axis, and environs in the ongoing Phase II of Operation “TURA TAKAIBANGO”. The clearance onslaught was based on the directives given by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru when he visited the Theatre of Operation LAFIYA DOLE. During his operational visit to DIKWA, the COAS issued directives to troops to advance and recapture…
No fewer than 937 people have been killed throughout Kaduna State by bandits with 1,962 others kidnapped in 2020. This is according to the Kaduna State Government, who disclosed this through the Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, on Wednesday. The Commissioner who made a presentation of the 2020 Security report before traditional rulers, members of the civil society organisations and the media at the Government House in Kaduna, said that despite the challenges, the government in collaboration with security agencies is working hard to bring the problem to an end. Out of the number of casualties,…
The Emir of Anka in Zamfara State, Attahiru Ahmad says more than 100 miners operating between Anka and Maru LGAs in the state were abducted by bandits on March 2. Ahmad, chairman of the state council of chiefs, disclosed this in Gusau, the Zamfara capital, on Tuesday when Lucky Irabor, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), led service chiefs on an assessment visit to the state. The Emir explained that the incident took place when the state was focused on the rescue of the 279 students abducted on February 26, from Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe. Ahmad also said the bandits…
No fewer than six persons travelling from Wukari to Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State have been abducted by suspected bandits in the early hours of Tuesday. The acting Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Leha Reform, confirmed the incident via a telephone interview. According to him, the incident took place at Chanchanji, a suburb of Takum local government area where the bandits mounted a roadblock. Leha said that five of the abducted travellers included two females, three males and a toddler. “Earlier, we had no confirmation about the said abduction, but at the moment, I can confirm…
The Imo State Police Command has confirmed the killing of a yet-to-be-identified youth by a Police officer in the Ihitte Uboma Local government Area of the state. According to reports, the killing of the victim was due to an altercation between some youths in the community and the policemen angered youths in the area and led to the razing down of a police station at Isinweke in Ihitte Uboma local government. However, in a statement issued on Tuesday, the Public Relations Officer of the command, Orlando Ikeokwu, said the Commissioner of Police in the state has ordered an investigation…
The Lagos Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested 25 suspects for their alleged involvement in computer-related fraud. EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday. He listed the suspects to include Ibrahim Olatunji, Kelechi David, Olutayo Oluwapelumi, Abiola Gideon, Adesuyi Adeyika, Wano Ahmed, Imoukhuede Peter, and Ige Oluwatobi. Others are Durodola Tolulope, Makanjuola Elijah, Emmanuel Enyiema, Oguniran Boluwatife, Onikosi Idris, and Abdulateef Oriyomi. Also arrested by the anti-graft agency are Ogbere Ojulari, Abdulwaliu Adeyemi, Emmanuel Ezeh, John Bagbale, Moses Tarh, Emmanuel Okpe, Murtala Oyinlola, Ayomide Semiu, Adebayo…
Today is women’s day and as the world celebrates women, the question of how many women we have in tech comes up again. A traditionally male-dominated profession, here are three imperatives for educators to get more women in tech. In addition to turning up nearly two billion Google search results, those three words – women in tech- are music to the ears of every informed CEO; or human resources manager across the U.S and the world. And while most executives are under pressure to portray and speak in the vernacular of diversity; there’s one slight problem. Bridging the gender gap…
At the end of last year, as we made our predictions about what 2019 would bring for social networks I raised the prospect that it could be a hard year for Instagram. “I won’t guess the specifics,” I wrote, “but I do think 2019 will see some sort of reckoning over Instagram. Its charismatic founders are gone, the press is waking up to some long-simmering issues there; and there’s an increasing sense among a certain elite that looking at the app all the time is bad for you.” As of today, that reckoning appears to be here. Instagram has faced…
Google today announced that it is adding support for kids’ profiles on Google TV. The feature comes as a welcome addition to the offering, as Google TV currently does not offer support for multiple profiles to allow catering content on the TV based on individual preferences. With kids’ profiles, parents can now control the content served to children, their screen time, and more. The feature allows users to create separate profiles for children by either adding their Google accounts that are managed by Family link; or by creating a profile just with the child’s name and age. Parents can then…
Apple is discontinuing the iMac Pro, bringing an end to a computer that was once the most powerful it has ever made. The company has stopped selling most configurations of the computer and will discontinue it entirely when the current stock is sold out; Apple confirmed, as first reported by Macrumors. The removal of the iMac Pro comes as Apple is expected to make sweeping; and significant changes to the Mac line-up with the introduction of new in-house chips. The company first revealed the existence of those chips in summer last year; when it said that its whole…
Microsoft and Intel have signed an agreement to help the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) develop a fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) solution that will eliminate several weak points such as data having to be decrypted for processing. With FHE, computations can be performed on encrypted information which would remove the risks of decrypting the data; but today it requires a prohibitive amount of computing power. To address this, DARPA has launched the Data Protection in Virtual Environments (DPRIVE) program; which Intel and Microsoft will participate in, to work on a hardware accelerator for FHE computing. According to Intel, the…
Vodafone has announced the launch of its new Pro Broadband packages; which it says will ensure you can always get online no matter where in your home you are. If you don’t receive coverage throughout your domicile, the firm said you can end your contract without facing a penalty. Under the new Superfast, Ultrafast and Gigafast plans, users will be provided with Super WiFi wireless range boosters that use software that works with the router’s Intelligent WiFi feature to provide the best performance. If they detect any wireless congestion from neighbours they will work around this to ensure you get…
Businessman John McAfee, creator of the McAfee anti-virus software, has been charged in the US with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering. Mr McAfee and his bodyguard Jimmy Gale Watson Jr are accused of promoting cryptocurrencies to Mr McAfee’s large Twitter following to inflate prices. The currencies were then allegedly sold, making the pair $2m (£1.45m), prosecutors said. The men have not commented on the charges. Mr McAfee, 75, is currently being detained in Spain in relation to separate criminal charges relating to tax; which he denies. He faces possible extradition to the US. Mr Watson was arrested in…