#HoustonStrong, not Houston Scammed
The disastrous Hurricane Harvey storm has caused millions of people to leave the Houston area, with 30,000 forced to seek shelters. This storm is the most powerful in over a decade, and as you can imagine, people are wanting to help in any way they can. Most donations are acquired online, but a lot of individuals have donated to illegitimate sites. Even Facebook has gained an abundance of these phoney fundraising efforts. Facebook, along with other companies such as Google, pledged to match every donation up to $1 million for each recovery fund, but how are they and others deciding which sites are the legitimate ones? The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team says to be cautious when opening up email attachments, keep antivirus up-to-date and verify the legitimacy. Or you can play it safe and stick to well-known foundations such as the Red Cross and the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund. #HoustonStrong (Source: NPR & CNET)
Pizza Delivery with a Twist
A partnership between Domino’s and Ford has sparked a vision for delivering pizzas using self-driving cars. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, when customers order online, they are given the option to select ‘yes’ if they want to participate in a study. Once the pizza arrives, customers must walk outside and enter a set of numbers into a touchscreen interface tablet, which opens up a pizza compartment inside the car. Kevin Vasconi, Domino’s chief innovation officer, is hoping for busts in the method so all kinks can be worked out before launching the operation. However, company engineers have already incorporated a voice intercom to remind customers to take all belongings and a customer service number in case the pin is entered incorrectly too many times. What’s more important is saying sayonara to delivery fees and tips. (Source: USA Today)
Facebook’s Got Competition
A lot of people receive news from social media platforms, especially Facebook. However, in China, these social sites are banned leaving news-hungry individuals searching for other news outlets. Enter, Chinese-based company Toutaio. The Toutaio app provides curated news, sorting through more than 4,000 sites to pick out the most appropriate customized content. Younger users are especially attracted to the app where Buzzfeed-styled stories, along with GIFs and streaming shows, are the ultimate sources of entertainment. With 80 million daily active users, the average time spent on the app is 76 minutes reading news and watching videos. This beats Facebook’s global average of 50 minutes per day. (Source: Forbes)
