What Apps to Use in an Apocalypse
If you’ve ever found yourself in the radius of a natural disaster, a huge rally of protesters, or the center of a Coachella concert, then you know your iPhone signal is worse than stale coffee. FireChat Alerts is a debuting app that allows rescue agencies to send notifications and alerts to your mobile phone even when cellular networks and Internet connections are unavailable. Genius. The app uses mesh networking to send push notifications to users in specific time frames and geographic locations, and works by linking phones via Bluetooth and peer-to-peer Wi-Fi. Meaning the more nodes (phones) that are in the network, the stronger it becomes. Alerts are automatically saved and forwarded to other users in affected areas, so people can easily find help and escape killer zombies. (Source: The Verge)
Snapchat to Use New Algorithm
Get ready Snapchatters because you might be losing a lot of views or gaining some depending on if your snaps are worthy. Snapchat has been talking with their advertising and publishing partners and plans to implement a Facebook-like algorithm. The platform, instead of displaying videos by chronological order like what we see now, would use an algorithm to filter and display trending videos. This is an aim by the video platform to charge advertisers and publishers a higher price for their content to appear first. Worry arises when the algorithm isn’t so neutral, cough, cough Facebook. (Source: MSN)
Zuckerberg Sits Down with Conservatives
Last week, Facebook got targeted for supposedly biasing their newsfeed by not displaying specific conservative news. Yesterday, Zuckerberg met with a group of sixteen including Tucker Carlson, Jim DeMint and Dana Perino to discuss concerns and future ways the platform can build the conservatives’ trust. Zuckerberg showed true concern for their inquiries, stated a CNN commentator, discussing Facebook’s strict policy for delivering unbiased news and referencing the ongoing investigation regarding the allegations throughout the meeting. So far, the investigation has turned up no evidence against the social media platform. All we’ve got to say is way to keep it 100. (Source: CNN)
