Month: April 2022
TikTok’s Parent, ByteDance, Made Fake Accounts With Content Scraped From Instagram And Snapchat, Former Employees Say
In 2017, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, scraped short-form videos, usernames, profile pictures, and profile descriptions from Instagram, Snapchat, and other sources and then uploaded them — without users’ knowledge or consent — to Flipagram, a TikTok predecessor, according to four former employees of the company. BuzzFeed News spoke with the…
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Epic’s new RealityScan app can make 3D models from smartphone photos
Epic Games has announced a new smartphone app that can construct 3D models of objects from a series of smartphone photos. The idea is that you’ll be able to use the app, called RealityScan, to scan an object in the real world — say, a chair — and then bring…
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Amazon union workers won in New York — can they win across the country?
The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) scored a historic victory on April 1st when it became the first-ever union to successfully organize Amazon employees. Christian Smalls, a fired worker motivated by what he viewed as poor treatment, rallied his co-workers through the process and, in January 2022, got just enough votes…
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Spotify’s Featured Curator pilot highlights user-made playlists
Spotify is testing a new feature that brings popular user-created playlists to the app’s homepage. If you’re a part of the test, the recommended playlists will appear in their own Featured Curator carousel. Spotify says it’s piloting the feature in “select markets” but doesn’t specify where exactly it’s rolling it…
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EU antitrust regulators set their sights on Microsoft’s cloud business
Audio player loading… Antitrust regulators in the EU have begun questioning both customers and rivals of Microsoft regarding its cloud business and licensing deals. According to a questionnaire seen by Reuters, the software giant is facing scrutiny in the EU over how its licensing deals with cloud service providers make…
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Google’s April Pixel update includes wireless charging fixes for Pixel 6 phones
It’s only been a couple of weeks since Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro devices started receiving Google’s March Pixel drop of new features, improvements, and fixes, and now the company has started the rollout of an April update (via 9to5Google). According to Google, wireless charging updates and camera fixes…
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