Lifestyle

Yahoo hit by technical glitch

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — US internet search engine Yahoo suffered a technical glitch Thursday, the company said, affecting thousands of users, especially email account holders in Britain. “Most services are back online,” Yahoo tweeted around 1530 GMT while attempting to fix the problem that was first flagged more than seven hours earlier. “This is a technical issue that affected our services. We are sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as […]

Report crowns Vienna ‘most liveable city’ for second year

  VIENNE, Austria (AFP) — The Austrian capital Vienna has retained its ranking as the world’s most liveable city, according to an annual report from the Economist. Vienna once again came ahead of Melbourne — which had held the top ranking for seven years until losing it to Vienna in 2018 — according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released Wednesday. The top two were followed by Sydney, Osaka and Calgary. Each […]

Twitter revamps website in bid to mimic mobile app

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — Twitter on Monday began rolling out an overhauled version of its website, making it more similar to the mobile version of the one-to-many messaging platform. The revamp to the Twitter page accessible on computer web browsers comes as the San Francisco-based company seeks to ramp up engagement while managing abusive content. “We are starting to roll out a new  Twitter.com — a refreshed and updated website that is faster, easier to navigate […]

Instagram moves on online bullying with pop-up warning

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Instagram on Monday announced new features aimed at curbing online bullying on its platform, including a warning to people as they are preparing to post abusive remarks. “It’s our responsibility to create a safe environment on Instagram,” said a statement from Adam Mosseri, head of the visually focused social platform owned by Facebook. “This has been an important priority for us for some time, and we are continuing to invest […]

Marvel re-releases ‘Avengers’ as box office record looms

  LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Marvel announced plans Tuesday to re-release “Avengers: Endgame” with bonus material in theaters, as the summer’s biggest blockbuster drew agonizingly close to breaking the global box office record. “Endgame” has pulled in $2.749 billion around the world, according to industry watcher Exhibitor Relations — the second-highest haul of all time, trailing James Cameron’s “Avatar” by around $40 million. But from Friday, Marvel hopes to entice die-hard fans back […]

‘Deepfakes’ pose conundrum for Facebook: Zuckerberg

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday the leading social network is struggling to find ways to deal with “deepfake” videos which have the potential to deceive and manipulate users on a massive scale. Zuckerberg said Facebook is trying to determine whether deepfakes are “a completely different category” of misinformation and added, “there’s a very good case that they are.” Speaking at an on-stage interview at the Aspen Ideas […]

French consumer group launches class action against Google for violating EU’s data privacy laws

  PARIS, France (AFP) — A French consumer rights group said Wednesday that it has launched a class action lawsuit against US tech giant Google for violating the EU’s strict data privacy laws. The UFC-Que Choisir group said in a statement that the goal of its class action is to “end the insidious exploitation of users’ personal data, particularly those using Android devices with a Google account, and compensate them for up to 1,000 euros […]

Microsoft missed mobile dominance by ‘tiny’ margin: Gates

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Microsoft missed its chance to be the dominant firm in mobile technology because it was “distracted” during a lengthy antitrust battle with US authorities, company co-founder Bill Gates said Monday. Gates, speaking at a forum in Washington, said Microsoft would be even more valuable if it had won the battle over operating software for mobile devices against Google and its Android platform. “We were in the field of doing operating […]

Governments must regulate social networks, says Facebook’s head of global affairs

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Governments must regulate social networks and not the companies themselves, Facebook’s head of global affairs and a former deputy prime minister of the UK said in an interview Monday. “It’s not for private companies, however big or small, to come up with those rules. It is for democratic politicians in the democratic world to do so,” Clegg told the BBC. Clegg, the former leader of UK political party the Liberal […]

Barcelona residents organize “ROAR” to battle thieves, pickpockets in public transport

  By Lyn Tumbaga Diez EBC Spain correspondent Eagle News Service BARCELONA, Spain (Eagle News) — Barcelona is one of the most popular tourist destination. It has so much to offer in terms of arts, sports, beaches and authentic paellas. But how safe is Barcelona for tourists and the residents? The many cases of robbery and pick pocketing especially in public transportation led members of the community to form ROAR or Residents Organization Against Robbery. […]

Adidas loses EU court battle over ‘three stripe’ design

  LUXEMBOURG (AFP) — German sportswear giant Adidas on Wednesday lost a legal battle to trademark its “three stripe” motif in the EU, as a court ruled the design was not distinctive enough to deserve protection. The three parallel stripes seen adorning everything from running shoes to sports bags and the sleeves of t-shirts are “an ordinary figurative mark”, the General Court of the European Union ruled. The court, the EU’s second highest tribunal, upheld […]

With ‘Libra,’ Facebook takes on the world of cryptocurrency

by Glenn Chapman Agence France Presse SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook is leaping into the world of cryptocurrency with its own digital money, designed to let people save, send or spend money as easily as firing off text messages. “Libra” — described as “a new global currency” — was unveiled Tuesday in a new initiative in payments for the world’s biggest social network with the potential to bring crypto-money out of the shadows […]