Social media home stay network Airbnb is in trouble. There are allegations of racial discrimination and racist abuse among Airbnb hosts. But wait…there’s more. Two of the biggest markets in America want to severely limit Airbnb. Airbnb verses New York and San Francisco is real. But Airbnb probably won’t win this one.
Today, Airbnb announced it will only allow limited listings in New York and San Francisco. Especially relevant is Airbnb’s headquarters are in San Francisco. Hence, this means as of November 1, 2016, an Airbnb hosts can only posts one listing at a time. This goes for all five New York City boroughs. But San Francisco already has these strict regulations in place.
Furthermore, the new policies are very timely. You see, Albany (New York’s state capital), owns this bill. The bill heavily fines rent platforms ?for violating state laws on short term rentals. All that’s missing is Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature. ?As a result, Airbnb will cooperate. They will enforce a ‘3 strikes you’re out’ law. Therefore, if any Airbnb hosts violates these new laws in NY city 3 times; they will no longer hosts from Airbnb. In San Francisco, they’re trying to limit short term rentals to 60 days a year or less. That’s what the bill in Albany is about.
Airbnb will have problems hosting college students and foreign exchange students. That will cut a chunk into their profits and those of the hosts. But there is also the list posting rule. Suppose a person has two properties in New York City, or 2 properties in San Francisco? These are 2 of the richest cities in America. Consequently, people tend to do that. The cynic is me asks why are local governments clamping down like this? Are they really making a level playing field for all short term rentals? Or are they punishing Airbnb? But what about the racial issues Airbnb is having? Is Airbnb in trouble?
We’ve heard it before. “You have a civic duty to vote.” “Do you know how many people fought and died for your right to vote?” “Get to polls this November.” Google does it’s part. Google wants you to vote. They will help you.
Due to Google’s great wealth of knowledge, they will launch tools to give you more information. This information will equip you for Election Day. Because Google wants you to have no excuses. First of all, you ask Google about a ballot. Google tells you who is on the national, state and local ballot. However, Google acknowledges each state has different rules for voting. Since there are so many different rules, Google breaks it down for every state.
For example, you live in Massachusetts. Google shows you how to vote in Massachusetts. Also, Google encourages you to double check. Since there is a lot controversy about ID, Google tells you which ID to bring to the polls. Furthermore, you get deadlines, from registration deadlines to polling hours. In addition, if you’re voting by mail, Google walks you through that process. One can even check absentee ballots. Finally, Google tells you where your polling station is. And it shows you how to get there.
Another thing: Google has these instructions in English and Spanish. There you have it. There really is no excuse. I applaud Google for educating voters like this. All the quotes in the first paragraphs are true. It is your civic duty. People fought and ?died for your rights. We need to get to the polls in November. Look, I will not tell you who to vote for. I’m not too crazy about either presidential candidate. That’s all I will say about that. But even if yours don’t win, at least you can say, “I did my part. I voted.” Can Google help you to the polls?
Yesterday, I addressed the issue of fake news. Facebook faces scrutiny. That’s because six weeks after firing editors, fake news stories still make trending pages. Now, meet Google News’ fact check feature.
Effective today, fact checks will appear on news stories. As a result, fact check labels will include ‘opinion’, ‘local source’ and ‘highly cited’. Hence, Google leaders look forward to fact check. Due to this, Google hopes to separate fact, from opinion, from spin, from outright tabloids and lies. These labels are are available on the Google News site. Also, fact check labels are available on Android and Apple smart devices. Furthermore, these labels are only in the United States and United Kingdom . But you can bet they’re coming in other nations. They just need a while to get popular.
So I’ve said it before: Facebook really tries to clamp down on fake news. It doesn’t seem to be working all the way. But five fake stories out of millions: I’ll take that as a good start. And they don’t have a fact checking system like this. In fact, some accused the social media conglomerate of literally promoting fake news. I’m glad Facebook tries to get it’s act together. Thankfully, others Internet companies, like Google, are too.
This couldn’t come at a better time. Look at the mudslinging in this election. Listen at the bickering between the US and Russia. Take a listen to these talking heads in our media. Read the Hollywood gossip so many Americans obsess over. In one poll I read, about 6% of Americans trust their mainstream media. I wonder why. We need the truth. We need it now. Our country and our world are at a critical stage. Nothing but the truth will help us. I hope fact check systems will help us get the truth. Will Claim Review help us get the truth?
The hits just keep coming for Yahoo. I don’t mean chart toppers either. First, they compromised hundreds of millions of emails. But a far more disturbing accusations arises. Did Yahoo sell customers out to the government?
According to credible news sources like Reuters, Yahoo created software to search customers’ emails. The searches were for US intelligence agencies. Under US government orders, Yahoo scanned hundred of millions of emails. The scan was for the NSA, FBI, and other agencies. This testimony comes from three former Yahoo employees. We don’t know what these agencies looked for. But the former employees said this agreement caused the resignation of major Yahoo players.
One such player was former Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos. Stamos resigned in June 2015. He’s now a security leader for Facebook. In a statement, a Yahoo spokesperson said,?”Yahoo is a law abiding company, and complies with the laws of the United States”. They didn’t confess to the allegations. They don’t deny them, either. Alex Stamos has no comment. Neither does any NSA official. But attorneys for the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), expressed disappointment. They wish Yahoo did more to challenge the government’s orders.
And quite frankly, so do I. Let’s not jump to conclusions. These allegations could be false. Two disgruntal former employees could be blowing off steam. So why talk about it? Because these allegations could be true. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were. What if they are? Then this is a devastating blow to Yahoo, again. The company recovers from a major hack. The company is being bought out. The American public has little trust in government agencies, especially agencies like the NSA. Now we learn about Yahoo’s possible cooperation with them? This is not good for Yahoo. Not good at all. What do you think? Are these false allegations? Or did Yahoo sell customers out to the government?
Apple’s iPhone 7’s are flying off the shelves and shipping trucks like hotcakes. One selling point: the iPhone 7 is the first smartphone without a headphone jack. Some call this technological progress. But according to one tech blogger and reporter, life without a headphone jack isn’t so happy.
The blogger’s name is?JP Mangalindan. He is not happy with this transition. He acknowledges the fact you can get an adapter that plugs into the lightning port. This adapter lets you use your old headphones. Mangalindan’s article did state the low cost for this adapter. He complains about not being able to listening to his music and charging his phone at the same time. He can’t use the Lightning EarPods, which comes with the iPhone 7, with other devices that still requires the headphone jack. Not only that, Mangalindan claims he had to pay $150 for wireless PowerBeats2 just to work with the Apple iPhone 7. Those he’s happy with the wireless headphones, he criticized the short battery life. And what if these expensive headphones go missing? While Mangalindian likes the iPhone 7, he doesn’t like the absence of the headphone jack.
JP Mangalindan brings up valiant points, but I have a criticism of his assessment. By his own admission, he could have brought an adapter for under $10. Then why did he buy the $150 PowerBeats2? I understand the frustration of not charging and listening to music at the same time. But he could have bought another charger for under $20 and used that for a charger. So couldn’t he just make the small $10 sacrifice and a little inconvenience? ?But the headphone jack has been around for a long time. The first headphones were invented in the 1880s. ?So people have been used to headphone jack technology for over 50 years. You just can’t ask people to give up that technology immediately. So this transition will take time. Do you agree with JP Mangalindan’s ‘life without a headphone jack’ assessment?
Recently, Twitter made changes to it’s message system. The biggest change is the 140-word character limit per tweet. What does that mean for Twitter? How do you navigate Twitter’s changes?
First of all, some things won’t count in the 140-word character limit. Replies, pictures, videos, and quotes won’t count toward that character limit. A lot of people thought this would shorten their expressions on Twitter. But with these new freedoms, this will probably strengthen it. Before this, even the quotes and usernames would cost you as many as 20 characters. Add a poll to that. By the time you got to the meat of your quote, you had very little space left. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey believes this will give Twitter users more room for greater and in-depth conversation. Other changes are in effect, too. They’ll be no more “.@” at the start of tweets. All followers will see tweets starting with a username. That could be a good thing or not so much. Because you have more space, you can use more media outlets in your tweets. You can even add to and re-tweet to your original ones. You can add new thoughts to the original ones.
They’ve done a good job freeing up more space to express oneself. Personally, I’m glad all followers will see your username. That means all your potentially bullying and ugliness will be exposed. Maybe it will make people think twice before posting. Twitter’s new membership members are dropping. They’re doing everything they can to bring them up. They’re broadcasting NFL games for free. The NFL is America’s game. Literally, millions follow Thursday night games of Twitter. That seems to be helping. This should help. But let’s face it: Some people don’t like change, even when it comes to their social media. But Twitter has it right, too. What do you think about Twitter’s changes?
