Don’t change your Twitter birthday!! Just in time for April Fool’s Day, there’s a prank going viral that says changing your Twitter birthday to the year 2007 will do everything from unlocking new color schemes, get you admin privileges, or even a verified blue checkmark. But actually, it will lock you out of your account for being under 13 years-old.
The founder of MoviePass has a fully-funded Kickstarter project called PreShow that will give you a free movie ticket for watching advertisements. It uses facial-recognition tech to constantly monitor you during 20 minutes of advertising—and if you look away, it pauses automatically.
A story in The Atlantic finds that people are forgoing business cards and phone numbers in favor of swapping Instagram handles – the epitome of someone’s personal brand. Key quote: “I asked to exchange phone numbers for texting with another mom, and I felt a weird vibe, like I was being intrusive…I think I should have asked for her Instagram handle instead.”
Google Podcasts is using A.I. to automatically generate transcripts of podcast episodes, which makes them extremely easy to search – even if you don’t know the title of the podcast, when it was published or what the podcast is about.
General Motors has a newly-approved patent for a system that could be retrofitted to existing cars – even older models with little or no on-board software – to transform them into self-driving vehicles.
You may have noticed a rise in the use of stylish wallpaper across your social feeds. Mashable has this post about the “Temporary Wallpaper Instagram” trend and some ideas for getting started – even if you rent. OR want to stay married. OR hate lining up those seams.
GREG SWAN 