Real Facts About Fake News
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| Real Facts About Fake News | |
| Number | 3235 |
| Broadcast Date | MARCH 8, 2018 |
| Episode Length | 30:18 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane |
| Guests | Justin Robert Young |
MIT researchers discover false news travels faster and farther on Twitter than factual news, Amazon explains why Alexa has been uttering creepy laughs, and Flippy the burger flipping robot gets turned off.
Guest
Quick Hits
- Those anonymous sources talking to Cheddar were right. Snap VP of Engineering Jerry Hunter confirmed that 120 engineers will be laid off in the next few days, about 4 percent of its workforce.
- Oculus Rift headsets stopped working Wednesday, apparently because Oculus forgot to renew its security certificate. Oculus has issued a software update with a valid certificate and promises to provide store credit to affected users.
- Yesterday, we incorrectly reported that Microsoft planned to charge $49 to move some copies of Windows 10 from S mode to full Windows. Microsoft never made such a statement, it was reported by The Verge from sources. In a blog post, Microsoft's Joe Belfiore has clarified, “If a customer does want to switch out of S mode, they will be able to do so at no charge, regardless of edition.” We regret the error.
- Google announced it's starting a project to get the technology behind Accelerated Mobile Pages, aka AMP adopted as a Web standard. This would allow companies to create fast-loading content without having to rely on Google for any part of it. Google promises any page that matches AMP in performance will be treated the same as an AMP page in Google's Search. Several standards bodies including the W3C will need to weigh in on it and browser makers would then need to adopt it.
Top Stories
- MoviePass has updated its iOS app to remove "unused app location capability." The company has yet to clarify it has been collecting location information beyond what it discloses in its terms of service. MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe recently told an audience, "We watch how you drive from home to the movies. We watch where you go afterwards." The terms of service state MoviePass collects location information only when buying a ticket for the purpose of locating which theater you are near.
- A Windows 10 update due next month has not been officially named, but test versions of next fall's update refer to this one as Windows 10 Spring Creator Update. The Verge reported Microsoft may have been considering changing the name of the update. It's expected, whatever it's called, in early April.
- Researchers at MIT published a study looking into how False News and information spreads online via Twitter and its reach. The study relied on data from specific stories that had 95 to 98% agreement from six fact-checking organizations. Notable findings from the study include: users who spread false news had fewer followers and followed fewer people and were less active on Twitter, falsehoods were 70% more likely to be retweeted. No difference in results between false news retweets data sets with and without bots - although bots propagated false news faster. False political news had the largest and deepest number of retweets between all the other categories. Authors found correlative data between the novelty of false news and retweets.
- Amazon believes the creepy laughing that was happening to some Echo users was caused by the device mistakenly hearing "Alexa, laugh." Amazon has changed the laugh command to be "Can you laugh" to help cut down on the mistakes. A more useful update for Alexa today now includes calling up music tracks or playlists based on time passed, like “Play that playlist I played last Sunday,” or “Play that workout music I listened to three weeks ago," which also works for genres and artists.
- USA Today reports that Flippy the robot was turned off on its first day flipping burgers at Caliburger because too many people wanted robot-made burgers. Miso shut the robot down for the weekend and said it will not resume operations until Monday. In the meantime, Miso is analyzing data from the first orders to make sure it can fulfill them when it starts back up again during lunchtime from 11-2.
- Axios is reporting that FanDuel, the site for daily fantasy sports wagering, is looking to go public via a merger with Platinum Eagle Aquisition Corp. This comes as the Surpreme Court is waiting to decide on a case that could overturn a ban on sports betting in all but four states. Fanduel has previously raised money from Comcast, NBC Sports and the NBA which has proactively said it would seek to earn a percentage of every bet made on it's games should betting become legal.
Mailbag
- Hi Tom and Sarah, with regards to your discussion about word lens and traveling. In my many travels to China and other countries Google Translate is critical and useful. Regardless of the operating system it has a camera feature for reading signs. Most useful to me is putting info in to communicate with drivers of hired cars and taxis. Very few of which speak a second language. Great shows as always.
- Sent by Dave
YouTube
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| Preceded by: "Random Laughing Isn’t Funny" |
Real Facts About Fake News |
Followed by: "You have the right/To repair/Electronnnnnnnnnics" |