The Verge: Yelp is making it easier for users to search for Asian-owned businesses. “Yelp is rolling out a new tool that will allow businesses the option to identify themselves as Asian-owned, chief diversity officer Miriam Warren announced today. The new optional attribute will make it easier for Yelp users to find and support Asian-owned businesses easily.”
The Verge: Yahoo Answers will be shut down forever on May 4th. “Yahoo Answers, one of the longest-running and most storied web Q&A platforms in the history of the internet, is shutting down on May 4th. That’s the day the Yahoo Answers website will start redirecting to the Yahoo homepage, and all of the platform’s archives will apparently cease to exist. The platform has been operating since 2005.”
US Air Force: New ‘Air Force Review Boards Agency’ website launched . “The Department of the Air Force debuted a new website for past and present Airmen and Guardians to correct their military records, April 5. Members, and those submitting on their behalf, can submit applications and supporting documents to four boards: The Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records, Air Force Discharge Review Board, Department of Defense Discharge Appeal Review Board and Department of Defense Physical Disability Board of Review.”
CNBC: Supreme Court rules in Google’s favor in copyright dispute with Oracle over Android software. “The Supreme Court on Monday sided with Google against Oracle in a long-running copyright dispute over the software used in Android, the mobile operating system. The court’s decision was 6-2. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was not yet confirmed by the Senate when the case was argued in October, did not participate in the case.”
Bloomberg: Singapore Blogger Crowdfunds $100,000 to Pay PM Defamation Award. “Singapore’s High Court on March 24 ordered [Leong Sze Hian] to pay S$133,000 ($98,800) to [Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong] for posting a link to a Malaysian news site that alleged the city-state’s leader had helped launder 1Malaysia Development Berhad funds. Since then more than 2,000 people donated to a crowdfunding campaign on social media to raise the full amount, Lim Tean, Leong’s attorney, posted to Facebook on Monday.”
The Verge: Google’s AI reservation service Duplex is now available in 49 states. “More than two years after it initially began trials, Google’s AI-powered reservation service Duplex is now available in 49 US states. This looks like it’ll be the limit of Duplex’s coverage in the US for the time being, as Google tells The Verge it has no timeline to launch the service in the last hold-out state — Louisiana — due to unspecified local laws.”
University of Rhode Island: University of Rhode Island joins HathiTrust. “The University of Rhode Island has become the newest member of HathiTrust, a forward-thinking global collaborative of research and academic libraries working to ensure the preservation and accessibility of the cultural record. HathiTrust holds the largest set of digitized books managed by the academic, research, and library community offering unprecedented opportunity for members of the URI community to access a wide array of research and scholarly materials.”
FAD Magazine: The Top 5 Online Exhibitions To See In April. “Tabish Khan the @LondonArtCritic picks five exhibitions to see online this month. Each one comes with a concise review to help you decide whether it’s for you. Readers should also check out his outdoor top 5.”
The Verge: Periscope shuts down today. “Periscope, the app that popularized live streaming from smartphones, is shutting down today, just over six years after it launched. The service has already been removed from app stores, and most features will no longer be accessible after today.”
9to5 Google: Google Forms will soon save progress as drafts, beta for Classroom/Workspace. “Amid distance learning, many educators have turned to using Google Forms for tests, quizzes, and other assignments. Google is soon adding the ability for Forms to automatically save draft progress in case users can’t complete in one sitting.”
GHacks: SimpleCodeGenerator is a new tool from NirSoft that lets you create QR Codes for URLs. “Nir Sofer has released a new program called SimpleCode Generator. It allows you to convert links to QR Codes that you can use with any smartphone.” Windows-only, and as it’s a standalone EXE file I guess it’s portable?
USDA: New, Easy-to-Use Conservation Data in RCA Data Viewer. “Looking for [Natural Resources Conservation Service] conservation program data? Whether you need program financial information or number of conservation contracts, civil rights data or which practices are applied on how many acres – this and much more is available in the Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act (RCA) Data Viewer. The Viewer was recently updated with data for fiscal year 2020, and for those who want to use the numbers to create their own analysis, graphs or charts, conservation program data are now available in easier-to-use Microsoft Excel file format.”
9to5 Google: Google canceling April Fools’ Day jokes for the second year in a row (Good.) “An internal memo sent by Google’s VP of global marketing, Marvin Chow, explains that the company will continue its ‘pause’ of April Fools’ Day pranks in 2021 as ‘much of the world’ is still dealing with ‘serious challenges’ during the pandemic.”
PR Newswire: Getty Images to Acquire Unsplash, the Preeminent Image Platform for Global Creators (PRESS RELEASE). “Getty Images, a world leader in visual communications, and Unsplash, the preeminent image platform for global creators, today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Getty Images will acquire Unsplash. Getty Images will fund the transaction from existing cash balances and the transaction is expected to close at the close of the month.”
The Verge: Google’s Area 120 incubator releases a powerful AI document scanner for Android. “Google’s Area 120, an internal incubator program for experimental projects, is releasing a new app today called Stack that borrows the technology underlying the search giant’s powerful DocAI enterprise tool for document analysis. The end result is a consumer document scanner app for Android that Google says vastly improves over your average mobile scanner by auto-categorizing documents into the titular stacks and enabling full text search through the contents of the documents and not just the title.”
