Clubhouse

Wednesday December 15, 2021 7:54 am PST by Sami FathiA year ago today, Apple made AirPods Max available to purchase a week after announcing its first over-ear headphones via a press release on its website. ‌AirPods Max‌ are Apple's first AirPods branded over-ear headphones and are undoubtedly a premium option for customers looking for over-ear headphones in the market. Rumors had initially indicated the headphones would be called "AirPods Studio," and their launch was deemed "imminent" for the majority of 2020. ‌AirPods Max‌ feature a knit mesh canopy that's flexible to fit various head sizes. The headphones themselves are entirely metal, resulting in a heavy overall footprint. ‌AirPods Max‌ come in five colors: silver, space gray, pink, green, and sky blue. Borrowing innovations from the Apple Watch, ‌AirPods Max‌ feature a Digital Crown for volume adjustment and a press to invoke Siri, as well as a Side Button for toggling on or off Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency Mode.  » Read More

Image provided by Newborn Town The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. With Match Group’s 2021 revenue expected to exceed $3 billion, you can’t say Tinder hasn’t figured out how to monetize dating.  However, apps like Tinder and Bumble are increasingly becoming entertainment products—used to pass the time rather than make real connections or even meet people—than dating apps.  One poll by Esquire Magazine and an independent third-party research company asked people about their relationships and dating life satisfaction. It found that 63% of people polled use Tinder out of boredom rather than with an explicit intention to meet anyone.  On the other hand, people are realizing that apps made for online entertainment, like Instagram, can cultivate real in-person connections. Many publications have picked up stories based on anecdotal evidence that people are turning to Instagram, Twitter, and even LinkedIn, to connect with romantic partners.   "While dating apps have positively impacted the romance landscape for many of us,  » Read More

My Twitter friend Benjamin Boyce highlighted this amazing example of cancel culture which I don’t think I’d ever heard about before. The really short version of this is that a person named David Markovich hosted a meeting on Clubhouse to invite new users of the app (which had just launched in Asia) to try it out. Some woke goons decided it was wrong for a white guy to be hosting a forum of Asian people and targeted Markovich for destruction with an assist from NY Times tech journalist Taylor Lorenz. The author of this very detailed piece on Substack calls it a “social murder on social media” but what he’s describing is clearly cancel culture. It started on February 2, 2021: DAVID MARKOVICH, a 32-year-old marketing entrepreneur in LA, is moderating yet another discussion on Clubhouse – the first audio-only social network. At the time, it’s the next big thing in consumer tech, with myriad celebrity users and funding from top-tier Silicon Valley VCs. Clubhouse “rooms” are akin to audio-only Zoom calls with speakers (between one and dozens) and listeners (between none and thousands).  » Read More

Starting today, Twitter is rolling out auto-generated captions on videos. This feature will make videos more accessible for deaf and hard-of-hearing users. Auto captions will be available on web, iOS and Android in over 30 languages, including English, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Thai, Chinese, Hindi and many more. The captions could become useful in Twitter’s new vertical feed the company began testing last week. The feed, if rolled out publicly, would make the app’s Explore tab resemble TikTok, serving one piece of algorithmically recommended content at a time, including videos. On feeds like this, captioned videos have become expected because they make it easier to scroll through feeds when you’re in a public place and headphones aren’t in reach. But unlike the video caption features on TikTok and Instagram Reels — which allow users to edit the captions’ text before posting — Twitter won’t let users tweak its captions. That means users won’t be able to correct any errors to make the automated captions more accurate. Accessibility features like auto captions and image alt text have been getting more attention from Twitter after it finally created dedicated accessibility teams in September 2020.  » Read More

Bravo Insider Exclusive! Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more! Sign Up for Free to View Jeff Lewis and Vicki Gunvalson are two Bravolebs with huge personalities and a lot of opinions, so it's no surprise that they have had some drama in the past. However, the Flipping Out designer and The Real Housewives of Orange County alum seem to be in a better place. Jeff opened up about their friendship status during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on Sunday (December 12). One viewer appeared virtually in the Bravo Clubhouse and asked, "So, Jeff, have you and Vicki Gunvalson continued to improve your friendship after hashing out your problems on your radio show?" "Vicki and I have been texting," Jeff shared on Sunday's show. "I texted her Thanksgiving weekend. We texted the entire weekend.  » Read More

For political campaigns and non-profits, there are now few good options when it comes to fundraising online. For a while, digital advertising was the most cost-effective option organizations and campaigns relied on to pull in the amount of attention necessary for a successful fundraising campaign. Yet with Twitter’s prohibition on the promotion of political content, Facebook’s recent announcement on de-emphasizing political ads, and with majorities of Americans holding antagonistic attitudes toward political advertising on social media, it’s clear that advertising isn’t where the future of digital fundraising lies.  Here’s my pitch for a more efficient alternative: an organic social media strategy that focuses on quality content and audience engagement to build a community around your candidate or group. Essentially, it means applying traditional campaign tactics in a digital space.  At an online summit in November hosted by the Center for Digital Fundraising, political advocacy non-profit DemCast USA announced they had raised $1.4 million for candidates and grassroots organizations in critical swing states exclusively from organic social sharing.    » Read More

The events of the past two years have had a dramatic impact on the way brands will use social media to promote their products and services in 2022. With over 3.7bn social media users worldwide, neglecting the online presence of your business means not only losing out on these potential customers, but also falling behind competitors successfully managing theirs. As 2021 draws to a close, brands are looking at how they can effectively engage their audiences in 2022 as social media trends continue to develop at seemingly breakneck speed. While the ever-changing online landscape may seem daunting, there are certain key trends to keep an eye on in the coming year, to ensure your marketing plans stay on the right track. #1 – Selling through social channels The increased social media consumption that came as a result on the pandemic fuelled the move towards social commerce, and this is one trend that shows no signs of slowing. With 81 per cent of consumers already researching potential purchases via social media,  » Read More

By Devon Bell December 11, 2021 Tech You’ll want to quickly update Microsoft Teams if you’re an Android phone user. According to former XDA editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman, Microsoft has fixed a Teams bug that led to failed 911 calls on devices using Android 10 or later. Reddit user KitchenPicture5849 discovered that having Teams installed, but not signed in, would prevent emergency calls from going through. The phone would say a call was active and ring once, but never properly initiate the connection — call logs would show nothing. Rahman and friend Kuba Wojciechowski pinpointed the cause. While all Android calling apps will try to create a PhoneAccount class instance in the operating system, Teams was creating instances every time a user started the app “cold” — that increased the chances of a sorting problem that stopped calls from going through. Google talked to the Reddit user and revealed that both the company and Microsoft were planning fixes.  » Read More

Twitter's live audio chat, Spaces, is struggling to contain harmful content, including hate speech and extremism instigated by Taliban supporters, white-nationalists, and anti-vaccine activists. The Washington Post reported evidence of the content present on the platform which involved derogatory comments on Shia Muslims, black Americans, and transgenders. Hundreds of people were listening in on these live chats spreading hate. Twitter users can report live audio chats, flagging content that is inappropriate. The company reviews the flagged content after saving the video for 30 days after its reporting. The social media platform has AI software that detects offensive words in the Space's titles. It does not have human moderators appointed that will review content on the platform in real-time. Company employees report that they have to be careful around testing products for safety before they are released. Twitter's software also once accidentally promoted harmful live audio chats. A spokeswoman for Twitter told Cnet that the company discovered bugs in its software which prolonged the time it took for Twitter to remove reported content.  » Read More

The app was launched over a virtual event by Nitin Gadkari, Hon'ble Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Government of India.  » Read More