July, 2021

• 1 July

  Twitter explores ways to limit who can see your tweets

  

  Twitter said Thursday that it’s exploring new ways for users to control who can see their tweets, including a way for people to limit their audience to “trusted friends” and see tweets from that group first.  Andrew Courter, a product designer at Twitter, gave an early look at some of the ideas the company is …

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• 1 July

  Missed Prime Day? Grab the Beats Flex headphones for $39

  

  Apple recently released its new Beats Studio Buds. I liked them, but they’re $150, and not everybody wants to spend $150 on a pair of headphones. If you’re in that camp, the Beats Flex may be your best budget option when it comes to Apple earbuds, though they’re “wired-wireless” headphones. They list for $50 but are now down to $39 …

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• 1 July

  Instagram will start testing video to make it more like TikTok

  

  Instagram will begin testing new video features over the coming months to make the social media platform compete more directly with TikTok and YouTube. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced the dramatic changes on Wednesday. “We’re no longer a photo-sharing app,” Mosseri said in the video announcement. Video-sharing apps are rapidly expanding, and Mosseri says Instagram aims “to lean into …

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• 1 July

  Mint Mobile’s ‘Bobby Bonilla Day’ promotion offers 25 years of service for $2,500

  

  Mint Mobile has a new one-day promotion on Thursday: 25 years of wireless service for $2,500. The new offer celebrates “Bobby Bonilla Day,” the internet holiday when New York Mets and baseball fans mark the date each year when the team pays retired outfielder Bobby Bonilla $1.19 million.  Aptly called “The Bobby Bonilla Plan,” the carrier is offering new customers …

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• 1 July

  Facebook, Google, TikTok and Twitter commit to tackling abuse of women online

  

  Four of the world’s biggest social media platforms — Facebook, Google, Twitter and TikTok — pledged on Thursday at the UN Generation Equality Forum in Paris to bring in improvements to their services that would make women safer online. The promises come after over a year of consultations run by Tim Berners-Lee’s Web Foundation, in which over 120 women experts from …

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• 1 July

  Google to support COVID vaccine cards on Android

  

  In the future, you may be able to store your COVID-19 vaccination record on your Android device. Google updated the API for Passes to add this capability, the company said Wednesday in a blog post. This doesn’t mean you can upload your card yet. The updated API, or application programming interface, gives developers from groups like government agencies and health …

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• 1 July

  New social media app reportedly has ties to Trump administration

  

  Ex-President Donald Trump’s former spokesperson Jason Miller is heading up Gettr, a new Twitter-like social media platform that launched Thursday, says a report by Politico.  The platform calls itself a “non-bias social network for people all over the world” and has apps in the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. It has a look similar to Twitter’s and the same features as …

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• 1 July

  Grab 2 wireless stand chargers for $22 and keep that phone juiced

  

  There’s simply no such thing as too many phone chargers. That’s especially true when you’re bouncing around all summer from place to place leaving a trail of cords and plugs in your wake. For today only, you can score a quick two-pack of iHome wireless stand chargers for $12 (plus $10 shipping) on SideDeal and keep that phone juiced. The …

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• 1 July

  5G latency: Why speeding up networks matters

  

  When you’re looking at your mobile network or home broadband, you know it’s important to check data speeds for app downloads and video uploads. What you might not know is that a more obscure speed measurement, called latency, is also crucial. Latency is a measure of responsiveness, with low latency a foundational part of 5G networks‘ new possibilities, such as online …

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• 1 July

  Windows 11 looks a little different. Here’s what’s changing

  

  Windows 11 is the next version of Microsoft’s operating system, and it comes with a brand new design and some updated features. The company unveiled the new PC-powering software at a virtual event last week (here’s everything Microsoft announced). The Windows 11 beta download will be here in July, but for right now, the new operating system is only available …

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