Welcome to ABD Weekly Digest, where you will find the latest news on tech, data and design! We guess we should say that we cannot believe there are only 110 days left in 2021. Feeling behind? No worries. Our weekly digest will keep you up to speed on what is happening around the world, and more important, boost your motivation on trying something new this week.
Snap: A Pictaboo into the Past, Present, and Future of Social Media
Consistent with ABD’s vision, we’re here to explore stories and people behind the developments of technology, analytics, digital, and design. For our first edition, we explore Snap Inc.’s tumultuous run over the past decade and what does it say about social media’s growth and future.
Snap is one of the few – if not the only – social media company that brushed with death, only to comeback. Building on its eponymous Snapchat app, it has become a multi-app platform leveraging camera, AR/VR, its own Map app, and much more, to become a thriving community for both users and advertisers.
Analytics, Digital, Design In Action
In this series, we aim to share with you some of the most fascinating developments and applications in the world of analytics, digital, and design.
I May Need a New Pair of Sunglasses
It has been nearly a decade, many tech companies like Amazon, Bose, and Snap have tried to popularize the idea of smart eyewear. Facebook made its latest attempt to offer stylist glasses with a partnership with Ray-Ban to allow users to take pictures and short videos, listen to music, and make phone calls. And, the new camera-glasses are dangerously easy to use.
GDPR, Relaxed!
UK Government has decided to diverge from key parts of the infamous General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and also estimate around £11 billion worth of trade that goes unrealised around the world due to barriers associated with data transfers. Whether this is going to be the trend of relaxed data protection laws is yet to be seen?
Facial Recognition Race
A report from the US government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reveals the accuracy of various facial recognition algorithms. Amsterdam-based VisionLabs is the leader in simulations, which is followed by Idemia (France) and Cloud Walk, a controversial facial recognition software developer based in Guangzhou, China, and has been licensed by the US government for being involved in major human rights abuses.
Oh, No Flash!
Major U.S News outlets blame Adobe for losing some of its most iconic 911 footage. In 2017, Adobe announced it would pull the plug on Flash at the end of 2020 - and ever since, a host of Flash-based content across the web has become inaccessible. This presents a classic case of legacy software’s impacts at scale - the limitations of organizational file archives do not start or end with Flash.
Can We Fix Racist Emojis?
In an era of smartphones and social media, emoji have been embedded in every aspect of online communications. According to a study conducted by the professional Footballers’ Association and data science company Signify, 29% of racially abusive tweets directed at players included some form of emoji. Now, technology companies are blamed for taking too long to fix racist emoji on social media. Pictographs can surely be a technical challenge, but spending years on developing algorithms to analyze hateful languages without significant results certainly makes us wonder why.
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