Weekly Top 10 Tech News

weekly top 10 tech news March 25, 2016

Stay up-to-date on the top tech news and trends each week with our Weekly Top 10 Tech. See something we missed? Tag @swebdevelopment on Facebook and Twitter! Here’s our top 10 for this week:

1. Microsoft Silences Its New A.I. Bot Tay

Microsoft’s A.I. Bot, Tay, aimed to connect with 18-24 year olds through witty banter on Twitter, Kik, and GroupMe, was shut down in less than 24 hours after it began making racist and offensive comments in reaction to Twitter users. Microsoft has stated that it is “making adjustments” in response to the issue.

2. Google Is Reportedly Making an iOS Keyboard With Search Functionality

In an effort to increase its mobile search numbers, Google is developing a third-party keyboard for iOS. In addition, Google’s keyboard will allow for gesture-based typing, as well as searching the web directly within the keyboard. Whether or not the keyboard will actually be released remains unclear.

3. Facebook Is Testing a Feature That Alerts You if Someone Is Impersonating Your Account 

Although it’s not a widespread issue, harassment and impersonation of others does occur on the popular social network. With its new feature in place, Facebook will alert you if it detects someone using your personal information including photos, and you’ll be prompted to identify whether they are or not.

4. Instagram Adds Website Notifications Tab

Up to this point Instagram’s web profile pages haven’t been very interactive, but now users can view notifications and see who’s engaged with their photos right on their computer. It’s still a little puzzling as to why Instagram decided to add this future, since users still can’t add or edit photos from their online profiles.

5. Google Photos Now Automatically Turns Your Photos into Smart Albums

Just shy of a year old, Google Photos has quickly become the go-to app for easy mobile photo organizing and storing. Its latest feature now creates smart albums, grouping batches of photos together and automatically adding maps and pins of the photo locations, creating a story of your best trips and events.

6. Twitter Is Testing Stickers You Can Add to Photos

Twitter has been struggling to attract new users as of late, and in its latest attempt it is playing with Facebook-like stickers which allow users to spruce up their photos. The idea is to encourage users to post more photos, increase engagement, and ultimately entice new users. Twitter stickers are still in testing, and whether they’ll be available to all users has yet to be determined.

7. Google & YouTube Working on Specialized Live Streaming App

Users have been able to live stream through YouTube’s Creator Studio for a while now, but it hasn’t been widely used. The new app, YouTube Connect, would provide an easy to access mobile live streaming platform much like Facebook Live or Periscope.

8. Apple Pay Coming to Mobile Websites

Apple Pay is already available within select mobile apps, and now there are plans to extend the fingerprint payment feature to mobile websites on the Safari browser, and possibly even on laptops and desktops as well. The expansion to mobile websites is expected to launch in time for this year’s holiday shopping season.

9. Google Is Helping Developers Make More Accessible Apps

Google has developed a new Android app called Accessibility Scanner which analyzes any screen and makes suggestions on how it can be more user friendly for those with poor eyesight or hand-eye coordination, allowing developers to design for greater accessibility.

10. How to Use Apple’s New Night Shift Feature in iOS 9.3

Apple created a new feature in its latest iOS update that allows users to adjust the blue hue of the screen in the evening hours (or anytime selected), presumably making it less likely to interfere with sleep or create eye strain.

Ready to take your web and mobile presence to the next level? Send us an email at info@swebdevelopment.com or give us a call at 210-617-7260


Read our Weekly Top 10 Tech News post on March 3, 2017

Read our Weekly Top 10 Tech News post on February 12, 2018

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