Will Augmented Reality Drive the Next Big Social Media Platform?
It wouldn’t be hyperbole to say that social media is going through a bit of a rough spot. More people than ever are abandoning Facebook over issues of data distrust. It also wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the development of augmented reality (AR) is still in its experimental stage. But one startup is […]
SXSW 2018 Tackled the Tough Topics Surrounding Tech
South by Southwest (SXSW) is many things to different people. But although it’s touted as the “the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries,” there is always one underlying central theme running through all of the various subject matters encapsulated in the event — progression. SXSW 2018 was no different in this regard. The past year […]
Geofilter Patent Could Help Protect Snap Inc. from Copycats
After the initial hype of its IPO settled down, many mobile app developers were left wondering where Snapchat could go next. User growth was slowing even before the company went public, and its main competitor Facebook has been steadily cloning its defining features ever since Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel turned down Mark Zuckerberg’s offer […]
Facebook Unveils Augmented Reality Platform at F8 Conference
Ten years after Facebook launched its game-changing Platform, the company is looking ahead to its next big conquest: augmented reality. “If you take one thing away from today, this is it,” said Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday in his keynote address at the annual F8 conference. “We’re making the camera the first augmented reality platform.” The […]
It’s Twitter vs the Government in a Battle Over Free Speech
As if President Trump’s relationship to tech wasn’t already fraught enough, Twitter announced yesterday that it is filing a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for attempting to unmask the anonymous user (or users) behind the @ALT_USCIS account. One of the several rogue government agency accounts that have popped up since the election to […]
Facebook Looks for New Approaches to the Fake News Problem
Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2016 was “surreal.” The Oxford English Dictionary went with “post-truth.” The Australian Macquarie Dictionary settled on “fake news.” No matter what term social media app developers prefer to use to define it, 2016 was the year that the conspiracies, propaganda, and outright hooey that used to be the purview […]
EU Cracks Down on Consumer Rights Violations on Social Media
In this era of “fake news,” hateful trolling, and increasing privacy concerns, the negative aspects of social networking have never been more clear. While social media app developers scramble to address these issues, governments around the world are becoming more involved with proposed laws and regulations designed to turn up the heat on the major […]
App Developers Shaping Media to Favor Simple, Direct Content
Facebook just launched a feature to automatically subtitle videos posted to their platform. Why does this matter for iPhone app developers? It matters because it illustrates that Facebook has successfully brought back the “silent movie,” forcing content creators to cater their wares to the limitations of the platform rather than the other way around. Following […]