Starbucks on Monday rolled out a handful of announcements related to its accessibility efforts, including news that it’ll now offer free access to Aira, a service that connects blind and low-vision people to remotely located agents who share visual information through an app. The service is available in all company-operated and licensed Starbucks stores in …

Facebook on Friday said it’s launching a project that’ll automatically learn audio, textual and visual representations from public videos uploaded to the site. The social network says the project, called Learning from Videos, will help improve its core AI systems for uses like content recommendation and policy enforcement, and will enable new applications.  “By learning from global streams of publicly …

Apple’s beta release of iOS 14.5 includes a preview of new emoji coming in the spring, including a heart on fire, an exhaling face and more skin tone variations for emoji including couples kissing. Changes have also been made to the syringe emoji, removing blood to make it more useful for depicting COVID-19 vaccines (perfect for your vaccine selfie posts …

If you’re not quite sure whether a foldable phone is right for you, Samsung is offering a Buy and Try program for its Galaxy Z Flip 5G and Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G phones, as a way to help customers see if one of the devices is a good fit. You now have 100 days to try out one of …

After facing a slew of backlash following the announcement of an updated privacy policy, WhatsApp on Thursday shared more information on what users will see leading up to the rollout. The Facebook-owned messaging platform wrote in a blog post that it’ll “display a banner in WhatsApp providing more information that people can read at their own pace” in the coming weeks. …

In a Tuesday post on its Creators account, Instagram advised users not to repost content “that is visibly recycled from other apps” on Reels, its TikTok competitor. The Facebook-owned company added that seeing indicators like logos or watermarks “makes the Reels experience less satisfying,” so it’s making that kind of content harder to discover in the Reels tab.  Instagram launched …

Ohio State University on Wednesday said it’s extending to the public its Swift Coding and App Development certificate program, which teaches students to code and build apps that are ready for the App Store, all while staying home. The university is also partnering with local businesses to offer a chance for employees to develop new tech skills through its TechCred program. Ohio State …

If you’ve lost track of everyone you’re friends with on Snapchat, the company is launching a feature designed to make it easier to pin down that information and review your connections. Friend Check Up, announced on Safer Internet Day, prompts users to check their friend lists and ensure they want to keep everyone on there. If there’s anyone they don’t …

Facebook on Tuesday rolled out an update to its Automatic Alt Text (AAT) feature that improves the detail of photo descriptions for blind and visually impaired users. The tool, which launched in 2016, uses computer vision technology to automatically create descriptions. Updates are available when using a screen reader, an assistive technology that converts text to speech. An example of …

Samsung is looking to tap into nostalgia with retro charging case covers for its Galaxy Buds Pro earbuds. The cases resemble an Anycall T100 or Anycall E700 clamshell phone, and come following Samsung’s Unpacked event last week, in which the phone maker debuted its new flagship Galaxy S21 line, as well as the Galaxy Buds Pro earbuds and SmartTag object tracker. According to some …