If you’re sending a text message or chatting on a work chat app such as Slack, you have a limited number of ways to express yourself. You can use plain text, of course, or emoji, or drop in a meme, or a Bitmoji, or a GIF from a TV show. And if you’re artistically inclined and have the time and software, you can devise your own memes or GIFs, but that’s a lot of work for most everyday communications. A new app called HiNote, currently available for iOS, helps bridge that gap.
The list of big U.S. tech companies halting sales of products in Russia expanded Friday, with Microsoft joining Apple and others in a growing show of solidarity with Ukraine. Microsoft president Brad Smith said in a blog post Friday that his company would suspend all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia. “Like the rest of the world, we are horrified, angered, and saddened by the images and news coming from the war in Ukraine and condemn this unjustified, unprovoked, and
Few video game companies find themselves in as awkward a position as Wargaming.net when it comes to Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. With offices in St. Petersburg, Russia, as well as Kyiv, Ukraine, it’s a company that has something at stake on either side of the conflict. And that’s causing all sorts of discomfort for the developer of free-to-play military-themed action games that include World of Tanks, World of Warships, and World of Warplanes. The company, which is base
During the pandemic, there was one constant Americans could rely on: pizza. Stuck at home, Americans not only ordered record amounts of pizza delivery, but they started making their own pizza pies in earnest (how else to use all that sourdough starter?) And as COVID-19 surged worldwide, Ooni, a Scotland-based maker of sleek pizza ovens that sell for as little as $349, suddenly saw its sales explode. In 2020, revenue increased by more than 300%, say married cofounders Darina Garland and Kristian
At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some of my contacts in Taiwan suggested that China will be watching the conflict closely. Its eye will be on its own long-held desire to invade Taiwan and bring it back into the Chinese fold—an ambition with enormous implications for the tech industry and every aspect of life that relies upon it. Early on, when it looked like Putin’s Ukraine adventure would be a David-versus-Goliath battle that the Ukraine had little chance of wi
As a longtime user of Bandcamp, Epic Games’ acquisition of the online music storefront makes me nervous. The two companies are saying all the right things about the acquisition: that Bandcamp’s existing products and services aren’t going anywhere, that it’ll continue to compensate artists fairly, and that Epic’s backing will accelerate development on things that users already want, such as better search and site design. Yet the main reason I like Bandcamp so mu
TV writer and showrunner Liz Meriwether (New Girl, Single Parents) hit two speed bumps when creating Hulu’s limited series The Dropout: One, she’d never worked with source material ripped from the headlines of a true story, and two, that true story belonged to Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of biotech company Theranos, whose meteoric rise to being the youngest, female “self-made” billionaire matched her Icarian plummet to criminal fraud charges. For Meriwether, the
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The NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament is going to hit a little different this year—not because of any changes in the game itself but because of what’s happening off the court. After decades of legal battles—the most recent landing in the Supreme Court last year—the NCAA changed its rules around athletes
For many of us who lived in and worked on the Syrian conflict, the events unfolding throughout Ukraine are a bit of tortured deja vu. From the fabricated claims to justify an invasion, to refugees fleeing the violence, to the accelerating pace of indiscriminate attacks against civilians. Despite the similarities shown in extensive hours of digital content, there are notable differences. Russia has so far been unable to change or even muddy the global narrative on Ukraine. The world i
Following England’s Euro 2020 final defeat in July 2021, social media platforms were flooded with racist abuse targeted at Black soccer players. The online trolling was carried out by thousands of anonymous social media accounts, highlighting how a lack of accountability enables anti-social and criminal behavior. The scary reality is that this latest incident is only the tip of the iceberg. Teenage suicides related to cyberbullying, election interference, and even terrorism recruitment ar