Do you really know what your kid’s doing on that smartphone?

Ayrial Miller is clearly annoyed. Her mother is sitting with her on the couch in their Chicago apartment, scrolling through the teen’s contacts on social media.

from Technology https://ift.tt/2ICwhHD

Facebook offers fresh detail about its ties to dozens of outside companies in more than 700 pages of new data turned over to Congress

Facebook shared user information with 52 hardware and software makers, including some based in China, under partnership agreements to make its social media platform work more effectively on mobile devices, the company said in information furnished to Congress late Friday night.

from Technology https://ift.tt/2KopXcs

Do you really know what your kid’s doing on that smartphone?

Ayrial Miller is clearly annoyed. Her mother is sitting with her on the couch in their Chicago apartment, scrolling through the teen’s contacts on social media.

from Technology https://ift.tt/2Kxxi9c

Something big is happening in ‘Fortnite’ on Saturday, and you’ll have to be logged on at the exact right time to be a part of it

• After leaving hints and Easter eggs alluding to a missile launch in the game, the "Fortnite: Battle Royale" creators at Epic Games have confirmed that something will be taking place Saturday at exactly 1:30 p.m. EST.
• The in-game event will only happen once, according to Epic, meaning fans will need to be in the middle of a match when the event happens in order to see it.
• The mysterious announcement is likely referring to the launch of a missile, which many fans theorize will change the game forever. 

---

"Fortnite: Battle Royale" creators have confirmed that something big is going to take place on the island on Saturday, June 30 at 1:30 p.m. EST, probably having to do with the huge missile embedded into the side of the mountain just northeast of Snobby Shores, which many fans theorize will change the game forever.

On Friday, an in-game message confirmed fan theories about a one-time-only event taking place in the game, and that players will have to be logged in at the scheduled time to see it happen. 

This means that players who log on even moments after the event probably wouldn't be able to see it happen.

This will be the first time Epic Games will incorporate a real-time game event that couldn't be seen by players after its initial introduction. For comparison, as Patricia Hernandez of The Verge points out, the meteor shower that marked the end of Season 3 began days before the actual season ended and could be seen for weeks afterward, allowing many more fans to experience the cosmic event first-hand.

Ahead of the announcement, developers added several in-game hints and Easter eggs that have been hinting toward the launch. Naturally, players and fan-blogs were eager to piece together the clues.

The first hint was found inside the villain's lair. A hologram had appeared suddenly, above what looked like a control panel. 

A few days later, a countdown started displaying on many of the TVs across the island, revealing that something was going to happen Saturday at exactly 1:30 p.m. EST. Here's one fan's recording of his countdown sighting:

Fortnite countdown ACTIVE on PS4!!#Fortnite pic.twitter.com/Twl2iZW0YW

— Jeremy (@Jeremyodieyo) June 27, 2018

Since then, an alarm has started blaring near the lair, seemingly confirming that a launch is imminent. Here's a video posted by a fan blog that captured the sound:

A new mysterious siren sound can be heard in-game. Has the countdown started? 🚀

(Source: https://t.co/zfCRDiiS33) #Fortnite pic.twitter.com/RgBCNdeV3S

— LootLake.net | Everything Fortnite Battle Royale (@LootLakeBR) June 27, 2018

The same way that an incoming meteor marked the end of Season 3 and big changes coming to the map, the missile has lots of people worried that the launch — and impact — could alter a substantial area of the map for the conclusion of Season 4.

Others have theorized — based on datamining and other leaks — that the missile might soon be controlled by actual players. The theory (first introduced by known dataminers @TwoEpicBuddies on Twitter) goes: One player per round would be able to launch the missile, and blow a section of the map to smitherines, effectively taking out all the players in that section. In a game like "Fortnite," where it's literally every player for themselves, this would be a massive advantage for the player or team of players who were able to launch the missile. 

Whatever the fate of the missile, hundreds of players will no doubt record the one-time launch for those of us who aren't online at the right time.

SEE ALSO: "Fortnite" is free, but hardcore fans are paying hundreds of dollars for rare physical copies of the game

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why Siri sucks

from Tech Insider https://ift.tt/2tPn6hH

Apple has been secretly working for 4 years to make Apple Maps something you might actually want to use (AAPL)

• Apple currently licenses much of the data underpinning the Apple Maps app from companies like TomTom.
• But soon, Apple's own homegrown database will provide all the information needed for Apple Maps.
• Apple will start to roll out its new maps to iPhones and iPads starting later this year. 

---

Apple announced on Friday that it had been rebuilding Apple Maps since 2015, and that the next-generation maps will be released for beta testers in San Francisco later this summer.

The underlying map data itself, like the location of roads, businesses, and signs, will be all Apple's for the first time ever, the company revealed to TechCrunch. This means that Apple will reduce its reliance on data providers like TomTom and OpenStreetMap, which have historically provided most of the data for Apple Maps. 

Apple has been collecting a lot of the data with its Apple Maps vans, which have been spotted on streets as far back as 2015. This is the first time that data will be used in the Maps app, according to Apple. 

The iPhone company also plans to use anonymized data from people's phones to improve its maps. 

Apple's own data also has more detail than what it was using before, according to the TechCrunch report. It will include landmarks like grass, pools, parking lots, fields and pedestrian parkways. The overall design will be the same, but the maps themselves will be more detailed and useful. 

Apple Maps was released in 2012, and the software was quickly panned for being worse than Google Maps. Apple CEO Tim Cook was forced to publicly apologize for removing the Google-based Maps app that had been a default iPhone app. 

So Apple has been secretly working to improve its maps since 2014, according to TechCrunch. 9to5Mac previously reported in 2015 that the company had aimed to built its own mapping database by 2018. 

"We haven’t announced this. We haven’t told anybody about this. It’s one of those things that we’ve been able to keep pretty much a secret. Nobody really knows about it. We’re excited to get it out there. Over the next year, we’ll be rolling it out, section by section in the US,” Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president for services, told TechCrunch. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What having a dog does to your brain and body

from Tech Insider https://ift.tt/2tRlSTh