Recently, Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have been found to be tied to the 2016 Presidential election. The data firm is accused of taking information and data from 50 million users and putting that towards the election.

They used a personality quiz on Facebook called “This is Your DigitalLife”. This quiz asked to look at people’s friends and their likes which is how they got so mu

ch information about them. 270,000 people took this quiz on Facebook, however, Cambridge Analytica obtained information from over 50 million users without permission.

Once Cambridge Analytica has the information they desired, they would promote Trump by putting advertisements and pro-Trump material on the user’s feed.

As of now, Cambridge Analytica is suspended from Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg has been called in by a parliamentary committee to give evidence about the personal data used by the data firm. Also, President Trump has welcomed any investigation being that “Americans’ privacy should be protected”

As this investigation continues, Facebook’s stock market continues to drop and more information keeps coming out. It should be very interesting to see how this investigation goes and whether or not this is a real true issue or just a misunderstanding.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43474760

Recently Fitbit announced their new product called the Fitbit Versa. For years now, Fitbit has attempted making a smartwatch but it never could compare to the Apple Watch ,however they might have just changed that.

The design looks very similar to the well-known Apple Watch that was introduced in 2015. Additionally, the Fitbit is cheaper than the Apple watch seen at its lowest price.

Some advantages of the Fitbit Versa is that it is thinner than other models, it has a longer battery life (4 days), and is said to be much easier to use. In my opinion, the longer battery life will be beneficial. I have an Apple Watch of my own and I have to charge it every night which can get very annoying.

If people are torn between the two products, many might choose the Fitbit being that it is cheaper in price and you get the same things in it compared to the Apple Watch. The only thing you will not get with the Fitbit but will get with the Apple Watch is a GPS and maps feature. However if you are more interested in the workout aspect of it than this is not a big deal for potential users.

Source: cnet.com/…/fitbit-versa-200-dollar-smartwatch-fitbit-ace-kids-fitness-tracker

Samsung and Apple have been in a constant competition between their cell phones. Apple recently came out with the iPhone 8 and iPhone X however, recently Samsung announced their release of the Samsung S9 and S9+.

This phone will look a lot like the S8 with a few different appearance changes but the big deal they are making with this phone is that the camera is amazing. The back of the phone will have two lenses for different areas of viewing.

The camera is promised to detect different lightings, detect motion, turning videos into gifs to make your lock screen while all being in high definition. Samsung also announced the S9 will have facial recognition like the iPhone X along with Animoji’s (the emojis that match your facial expressions).

Samsung believes that with this camera improvement, there will be a rise in sales. I agree with Samsung in this case because pictures are such a big part of life right now. Everyone is constantly taking pictures in public or of themselves, so having a good camera is crucial to some people.

The S9 is priced to be over one thousand dollars along with the S9+. This will add to the competition with Apple but this will definitely be an upgrade for Samsung users. Samsung’s profits will increase and their technology consultant, Rory Cellan-Jones believes that this will make cell phone users go “wow!”.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43163378

As of February 15th, 2018, Google decided to remove those pesky advertisements that are very bothersome to users. Google Chrome now bans any ads from coming in when on your computer or mobile device.

Google is already a huge search engine that has taken over the internet and this step forward has made them even stronger.

Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, Google Vice President, stated that, “By focusing on filtering out disruptive ad experiences, we can help keep the entire ecosystem of the web healthy, and give people a significantly better user experience than they have today.” This statement proves that Google is interested in the users overall experience and they want the best for them.

As the world’s most popular web browser, they have to live up to expectations like this. Taking steps in this direction is what users look for in a website. They want a quality experience with no distractions and that is exactly what Google is offering. 

This new update will be gradually given out to the thousands of Google Chrome users. Yes, this will affect the companies that have the ads but Google is more interested in their customers interests rather than the companies.

Google also owns websites like Youtube, however, ads will only be taken away from Google Chrome and the overall search engine. You will still see those ads at the beginning of Youtube videos.

Google keeps expanding and this is a way to continue to make it grow. They constantly make sure they have the best of the best and assure that users are getting everything that is promised.

Sources: nytimes.com/…media/google-chrome-ad-block

On February 6th, 2018, Tesla with the help of SpaceX and Elon Musk sent a car into space. The car had a mannequin in it which was dressed up in a spacesuit and they named him Starman.

Elon Musk founded SpaceX and Tesla. SpaceX was founded because it was meant to do things that NASA would not. So being that Elon Musk has access to space technology, he decided to push the limits and send one of his very own Tesla’s into space.

This car was not sent on a specific mission to go somewhere or get footage of something, it was only a test run. They had footage of the first four and a half hours into space but then the camera batteries died out. However, the night of the launch, a second engine went off putting them in a right direction to orbit the sun. Astronomers believe it will complete its first orbit around the sun by September 19th 2019.

Once the car has orbited the sun, the car will drift through

space and it is set to travel through the vacuum of space for generations to come. 

Musk even stated that he loved the idea that this car will constantly drift through space and have the opportunity to be discovered by an alien race millions of years from now. Additionally, if the car has not been discovered by the late century, scientists believe humans will have already moved and colonized onto planets, so in that case we can pull it in and possibly put it in a museum.

This whole concept is very interesting to me and I am excited to see the effects of this car over time and if it will ever be discovered again. Even though this was only a test run, over time this could give us answers we have all been looking for.

Sources: money.cnn.com/…/tesla-orbit-elon-musk-spacex