Techlife News #356

FLYING SOLO It’s hard to imagine the internet without Twitter. Whether we’re following a breaking news story, tweeting along to our favorite television shows or watching celebrities argue over music, the social network is a major part of our everyday lives. Whilst Facebook and Instagram are for our friends and family, Twitter is our window to the world - to engage in debates, understand new perspectives and have real-time conversations with people from all walks of life. Twitter was one of the first social networks to make its way to the iPhone with the release of iOS 2, but it was a third-party developer that created the app rather than the company itself. Indeed, Twitter has a history of being open source, and relying on developers to create software for its users,…

After long resisting change, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wants to revamp the “core” of the service to fight rampant abuse and misinformation. But it’s not clear if changing that essence — how it rewards interactions and values popularity — would even work. Though Dorsey was scant on details, what is certain is that the move will require huge investments for a company that doesn’t have the same resources that Google and Facebook have to throw at the problem. Any change is likely to affect how users engage with Twitter and hurt revenue, testing the patience of both users and investors. “Social networks have a history of ... well-intentioned but badly designed efforts to fix this,” said Nate Elliott, principal at marketing research firm Nineteen Insights. Twitter isn’t alone in having to deal with…

2010 was a great year. Steve Jobs was still with us, the Saints won the SuperBowl, Spain won the first World Cup to be held in Africa, The Hurt Locker won best picture at the Oscars and Apple launched the 13-inch Macbook Air. A lot has happened in the world and at Apple since then, but it would be a surprise to most people if you had told them that this model of the Macbook would still be one of Apple’s most popular selling computers eight years later. AIR BREATHING - JUST There are a lot of reasons why it is still a popular purchase. Most simply, a lot of regular, non-tech people look at the machine with its reasonable screen size, polished metal chassis, great keyboard and touchpad and think “this is…

Microsoft has uncovered new Russian hacking efforts targeting U.S. political groups ahead of the midterm elections. The company said this week that a group tied to the Russian government created fake websites that appeared to spoof two American conservative organizations: the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute. Three other fake sites were designed to look as if they belonged to the U.S. Senate. Microsoft didn’t offer any further description of the fake sites, although it has previously outlined in court filings how this hacking group operated a network of fake sites designed to trick victims into installing malicious software. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Microsoft’s report reflects a “witch hunt” in the U.S. The ministry said that Microsoft’s statement lacked any proof of Russian involvement because “there can’t be any.” The revelation…

Tech companies want to protect U.S. political candidates from Russian hackers ahead of the midterm elections, but could that free help count as an illegal campaign contribution? That’s the question Microsoft asked the Federal Election Commission this week. The company is requesting the FEC’s advisory opinion to make sure Microsoft’s new free package of online security protections for “election-sensitive” customers doesn’t count as an in-kind campaign contribution. Companies are typically prohibited from contributing to federal candidates and political committees under federal law. Microsoft said this week it’s offering its AccountGuard service on a nonpartisan basis to federal, state and local candidates, party committees and certain nonprofit groups. The company told FEC it might also work with other tech firms such as Facebook and Twitter on coordinated election security efforts, though no agreements have…

Facebook has identified and banned more accounts engaged in misleading political behavior ahead of the U.S. midterm elections in November. The social network said this week that it had removed 652 pages, groups, and accounts linked to Russia and, unexpectedly, Iran, for “coordinated inauthentic behavior”that included the sharing of political material. Facebook has significantly stepped up policing of its platform since last year, when it acknowledged that Russian agents successfully ran political influence operations on Facebook aimed at swaying the 2016 presidential election. The social network said it had not concluded its review of the material and declined to say how or why the state-backed actors were behaving the way they did. But it said it has informed the U.S. and U.K. governments as well as informed the U.S. Treasury and State departments…