It’s Nice That: Grafis Nusantara shines a light on a forgotten part of Indonesian graphic culture. “With the new release of the Grafis Nusantara Zine and an online digital archive, this collection of stickers and labels from the 1970s through to the 1990s is set to bring Indonesian graphic history to the wider world.”
The Verge: Vaccine centers embrace stickers and selfie stations. “As the vaccine rollout continues, clinics and distribution centers across the country are embracing things like stickers and even selfie stations decked out with colorful backgrounds to help people celebrate getting the shot.”
Screen Rant: Snapchat: How To Add Stickers To A Snap & Make Your Own Stickers. “When it comes to enhancing pictures, Snapchat has a variety of stickers available to help users show off their creativity and design skills. Snapchat is not the only social media app that’s geared towards younger individuals with quirky or fun features, although it is one that provides multiple ways to customize the experience and the content shared. While stickers is only one of those options, it is a highly useful one.”
Neowin: WhatsApp works with WHO to launch a new sticker pack. “WhatsApp has announced that it has collaborated with the World Health Organization to develop a new sticker pack called ‘Together at Home’. The new stickers are designed to be funny and educational. The stickers were also called universal by WhatsApp because they’re available in ten languages and break through other barriers such as the age barrier. The two entities hope the stickers will encourage people to stay home to stop the spread of COVID-19.”
Core77: Social Adhesion: New Museum Dedicated to the History of Stickers. “To several generations’ worth of youth, stickers were the fastest way to prettify something, vandalize something or establish some attempt at identity by slapping favorite brands or subversive messages onto notebooks and laptops….To celebrate their stock-and-trade, StickerYou is launching the History of Stickers Museum at their home base in Toronto (which is the largest sticker store in the world), kicking it off with a permanent art exhibition called Stickers: RePEELed.”
The Verge: Facebook will let nonprofits include a donate button on their Instagram profiles. “Facebook is launching three new product features to increase fundraising across its platforms: a new Instagram donation button, a fundraising sticker in Facebook, and the broader rollout of fundraising on Facebook gaming live streams.”
Neowin: YouTube is rolling out Super Stickers for eligible content creators. “YouTube has announced that it is rolling out Super Stickers to eligible content creators in 60 countries. Customers will be able to purchase different stickers to use during live streams and Premieres. The firm hopes that Super Stickers will build on Super Chat, which lets fans purchase messages that stand out within live chat and Premieres, ultimately boosting revenues for creators.”
The Verge: Instagram appears to be testing stickers with song lyrics. “It looks as though Instagram is testing a new feature for stickers in its Stories feature: music lyrics that play out along with a video.”
Popsugar: This New Instagram Sticker Lets You Quiz Your Friends, and BRB, Updating My Story. “Instagram is always bringing something new to the table to help us interact with our followers, and I can feel my inner Riddler rubbing his hands together in a mischievous fashion thanks to the app’s latest update: the Quiz sticker!”
New-to-me, and it’s the weekend, so what the heck: a database of Garbage Pail Kids names. Do you remember the Garbage Pail Kids? Trading stickers with garish illustrations and often punny names? “Because there are thousands of different Garbage Pail Kids stickers in existence, it would take quite a long time to flip through the stickers looking for the ones that contain your name…. The ‘Find Your Name’ section contains 3099 total names, and 1141 different first names.”
TechCrunch: These psychedelic stickers blow AI minds. “Machine learning systems are very capable, but they aren’t exactly smart. They lack common sense. Taking advantage of that fact, researchers have created a wonderful attack on image recognition systems that uses specially-printed stickers that are so interesting to the AI that it completely fails to see anything else. Why do I get the feeling these may soon be popular accessories?”
TechCrunch: Skype launches Photo Effects – sticker suggestions powered by machine learning. “Not content with merely launching its own take on Instagram and Snapchat’s Stories, Skype today is adding another copycat-like feature to its app: photo stickers. The company says it’s introducing new ‘Photo Effects’ (as it’s calling these stickers), which include things like face masks, decorative borders, witty captions, and more. However, unlike the photo stickers you’ll find in other social apps today, Skype will actually suggest the stickers to use based on the photo’s content, day of the week, and other options.”
If you’re like me and find most popular culture completely bewildering: What is that purple bird on Facebook, and where did it come from? “Have you come across a head-banging purple bird in Facebook comment threads? Whether you’re infuriated by the enthusiastic little thing or happily using it to infuriate others, you’ve probably wondered where it came from.”
Facebook is getting some heat over what it calls a “bug” in its sticker search. “Facebook is apologizing for what it says is a ‘bug’ that caused people to see the vomit sticker when looking for something to represent ‘liberals’ or ‘feminism’ on its platform. The company attributed the blame to something in its search algorithm and acknowledged that it was fixing the problem.” That same search algorithm Facebook will resolutely not share any information on, but probably not the same algorithm that determines what posts from friends and pages you get to see. Feel better now? No? Me neither.
Twitter is getting stickers. “Twitter stickers are basically emoji you can place on top of a photo. There’s sunglasses, and a guy surfing, and flowers, and hats, and you get the idea. Whenever you take a photo, you can drop in a few stickers before you tweet it.”
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