Today’s Tech Sightings:
Twitter’s Iconic140-character Limit Is About to Change
Come September 19, Twitter will change the way tweets work. While the actual 140-character count will remain the same, Twitter will take out of the count quotes and various media attachments to give users more flexibility and room for their tweets.
Facebook Prosecuted Over ‘Naked Pictures’ of Belfast Teen
Facebook last week blocked an iconic picture of a naked Vietnamese child fleeing napalm during the Vietnam War and subsequently apologized after an uproar. And if that wasn’t enough, the social media giant just got sued for allowing naked pictures of a 14-year-old Irish teen to be posted on a “shame page.” Now the parents of the teen are suing the company for alleged misuse of private information, negligence, and violating the EU’s Data Protection Act.
Samsung Won’t Be the Last to Have Exploding Batteries
Samsung isn’t the only company that has to worry about exploding lithium-ion batteries in its latest smartphones. The batteries, which have become the industry standard since they were introduced in the early 1990s, run the risk of catching fire or exploding. They rely on flammable electrodes to store energy, meaning that in some cases, the energy can cause the electrodes to catch fire. But some industry analysts say there are no alternatives to these batteries at the moment.
More:
- US Tech Firms Urge Congress to Allow Internet Domain Changeover
- Facebook Forces Choice Between Convenience and Privacy Every Day
- Instagram Is Fighting Harassment With New Keyword Filtering Feature
- Passwords Get the Boot as Students Use Their Own QR Codes
- Thousands of Infected FTP Servers Net Attackers $88k in Cryptocurrency
- If Your Smartphone Got Infected, Would You Know?
- Playing Video Games Increases Children’s Cognitive Ability?
- Microsoft Launches Actiongram on HoloLens With Tiny George Takei