TikTok puts Facebook on notice with 1 billion downloads

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Love it or hate it, TikTok is turning into a force to be reckoned with.

The video app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has now been downloaded more than one billion times around the world, according to new data from app analytics company Sensor Tower. 

The firm, which looked at installs across the various versions of the iOS and Android app, says the app gained more than 71 million new users during the month of January alone. 

SEE ALSO: TikTok isn’t Vine, but it’s a beautiful mess all its own

TikTok declined to comment on Sensor Tower’s estimate, which does not include the Chinese version of the company’s Android app. (The app has a sizable user base in China, where it’s known as Douyin.) Read more…

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‘Crazy Rich Asians’ director Jon M. Chu once faked his way into the Oscars

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We’ve all thought about making flimsy fake VIP passes to get into some fancy party, right?

Well, Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu actually did it once, sneaking into his first ever Oscars with a fake pass he made himself.

SEE ALSO: ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ and the immense pressure to feel seen

The director of the celebrated rom-com posted a delightful collection of photos and selfies from Sunday’s Academy Awards, to which he was legitimately invited this time, along with the film’s stars Constance Wu, Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina, Henry Golding, and Gemma Chan.

Chu included a little nostalgic tale from his first Oscars in 2011, which he cleverly snuck into.  Read more…

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U.S. knocked Russian troll operation offline on the day of the 2018 midterm election

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Russian trolls were awfully quiet during the 2018 Midterms. Now we know that’s thanks in part to a preemptive cyber attack by the United States Military.

According to a report by The Washington Post, U.S. Cyber Command launched its “first offensive cyber campaign against Russia” on the day of the 2018 midterm elections. The cyber attack, backed by intelligence from the National Security Agency, reportedly took the Kremlin-linked Russian troll farm, Internet Research Agency, offline for the day.

Officials say the purpose of the election day operation was to block any possible disinformation campaigns from Russia regarding the Midterm results. Read more…

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OnePlus CEO: In the 5G era, storage recedes

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BARCELONA—The 5G era may be the end of the storage race in phones. As Samsung deploys its 1TB Galaxy S10+ and SanDisk shows off a 1TB microSD card, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau said on a panel here at MWC19 that super-fast cloud access may make these giant levels of local storage obsolete.

“People are now concerned with the size of storage on their device for the sake of storing more photos, but [5G] will allow for more immediate cloud storage,” Lau said. “That will allow people to no longer focus on whether the phone has 128GB of 512GB of storage, and it will enable a total change in our photography experience on the device.” Read more…

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T-Mobile pledges unlimited 5G, aims at first half of 2019

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BARCELONA—Neville Ray always gives it to me straight. T-Mobile’s CTO has been struggling with when the company’s 5G network is going to launch, giving some mixed signals that led to some confusion.

“We’d like to do something in the first half [of 2019],” Ray said. “We’re still trialing and experimenting.”

The reason for the date confusion has to do with spectrum licenses and chipset availability. During the first half of the year, the only cell phone chips available won’t support T-Mobile’s long-range 600MHz network. But they will support its limited 28GHz, short-range millimeter-wave spectrum holdings. Read more…

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Someone used a timestamp from ‘The Office’ to deliver a sweet love note

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Fact: Yearbooks aren’t the only places to stealthily reference quotes from your favorite television shows. Cards provide great opportunities, too.

Twitter user @jjedi_j recently shared a photo of some roses she says she was sent, which were very nice. But the card that accompanied the flowers was the true gift.

Rather than a typical “I love you” or “Thinking of you” message, the card pictured in the tweet simply read: “The Office Season 3 Episode 11,” along with the timestamp “19:45.” 

I got roses sent to me today pic.twitter.com/iJu5JM4Cx1

— jen (@jjedi_j) February 22, 2019

SEE ALSO: Funko is releasing ‘The Office’ figures since everyone still loves the show Read more…

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College students are the next generation of disruptors out to change the game

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Ad Content from Sodexo

Forget everything you thought you knew about college life

This generation of college students is more diverse and global than ever before. This global mindset has brought about new expectations and demands that are transforming college campuses. From food to technology to academics, colleges are embracing personalization and adopting innovative services to keep up with these new disruptors

“We’ve always known that college students need support to achieve,” said Satya Menard, who oversees about 700 university partnerships at Sodexo. “But today, they are more informed, empowered, and have their own opinions. It’s a very interesting time to work on college campuses.” Read more…

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Microsoft says it has democratic responsibility to accept lucrative military contract

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Microsoft agreed to take hundreds of millions of dollars to help soldiers kill — but don’t worry, the company’s CEO says it’s for the sake of democracy.

On Monday at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Nadella told CNN Business that Microsoft would continue developing HoloLens augmented reality (AR) technology for the U.S. military, despite employee protests. He couched the decision in terms of his corporation’s duty to support the government.

“We made a principled decision that we’re not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy,” Nadella told CNN Business. Read more…

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Elon Musk tweets dumb meme as SEC asks judge to hold him in contempt

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Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk couldn’t contain himself — he had to tweet about his electric car company.

The problem? After he reached a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last year over his now infamous “funding secured” tweet, he isn’t supposed to tweet about things that could impact markets and his publicly traded company without approval from Tesla. 

Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2019

Now Bloomberg reports that the SEC is asking a judge to hold Musk in contempt for tweeting Tesla would make “around 500K” cars in 2019.  Read more…

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Derry Girls’ portrayal of Northern Irish women is a breath of fresh air

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An inaccurate — and extremely irritating — TV and film stereotype is doing a disservice to the women of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. 

Often, in TV and films, female characters from the island of Ireland are portrayed as victims. But, Derry Girls — which returns to screens on March 5 — is turning that tired-out trope on its head. 

SEE ALSO: ‘Derry Girls’ helped me understand my parents’ experience growing up during The Troubles

The TV show — the most-watched series in Northern Ireland since records began — tells the stories of Erin, Orla, Clare, and Michelle — four teenage girls at a convent school in Derry, Northern Ireland. It’s set in the ’90s during the Troubles — the three-decade sectarian conflict between nationalists and unionists.  Read more…

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