MacRumors

Google and Facebook have announced new measures to fight "fake news," a term recently popularized by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Google today said it will be making its "Fact Check" label in Google News available everywhere, rather than in the United States only, and expanding the feature to its traditional search results globally in all languages.

The "Fact Check" label identifies articles that include information fact checked by news publishers and fact-checking organizations.

For the first time, when you conduct a search on Google that returns an authoritative result containing fact checks for one or more public claims, you will see that information clearly on the search results page. The snippet will display information on the claim, who made the claim, and the fact check of that particular claim.

Google said the "Fact Check" label is presented so people "can make more informed judgements" about a particular news story or claim, although the information won't be available for every search result, and there may be instances where different publishers checked the same claim and reached different conclusions.

Even though differing conclusions may be presented, we think it’s still helpful for people to understand the degree of consensus around a particular claim and have clear information on which sources agree. As we make fact checks more visible in Search results, we believe people will have an easier time reviewing and assessing these fact checks, and making their own informed opinions.

Google said "only publishers that are algorithmically determined to be an authoritative source of information will qualify for inclusion," but it did not elaborate on how it makes this determination. Beyond that, publishers must be using the ClaimReview markup or the Share the Facts widget to be included.

Facebook for its part said it's working to better identify false news through its community and third-party fact-checking organizations.

Earlier this week, Facebook said it's rolling out an educational tool to help people spot false news, developed in consultation with non-profit organization First Draft. Facebook said it's featuring this tool at the top of the News Feed "for a few days" to users in 14 countries, including the United States.

When people click on this educational tool at the top of their News Feed, they will see more information and resources in the Facebook Help Center, including tips on how to spot false news, such as checking the URL of the site, investigating the source and looking for other reports on the topic.

Facebook said it "cannot become arbiters of truth" itself given the size of its platform, but it's committed to fighting the spread of misinformation.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Facebook announced its first virtual assistant on Thursday in the form of "M", which privately interjects in chat threads on Messenger to offer users suggestions related to the conversation.

The feature goes beyond the platform's chat bot technology, offering recommendations for relevant stickers, GIFs, payments, rides and meeting times now appear to each user above the message composer in chat threads. The service launched as a beta test in December but was rolled out to all iOS and Android users in the U.S. as part of an app update.

According to Facebook, M relies on AI machine learning techniques and is capable of learning the more it is used. Users can ignore or dismiss suggestions if they're not helpful, and the assistant can easily be muted it in settings. The full list of possible suggestions are as follows.

• Sending stickers: M shares fun sticker suggestions for your daily life interactions like “Thank you” or “Bye-bye.”
• Paying or requesting money: M recognizes when people are discussing payments and gives them the option of easily sending or requesting money.
• Sharing your location: M can suggest an option to share your location during a conversation.
• Making plans: If people are talking about getting together, M helps coordinating a plan.
• Starting a poll (in group conversations only): Have a hard time making decisions in a group? M lets you set a poll topic and vote in group conversations.

  Getting a Ride: Talking about going somewhere? M suggests “Get A Ride” and shares an option of Lyft or Uber.

Apple is known to have looked at a similar implementation of Siri in its iMessage platform. A patent published last November for a "virtual assistant in a communication session" depicts a scenario in which users can invoke Siri from within chat threads to get answers to relevant queries, complete scheduling tasks, and more.

A rumor last month claimed that Apple plans to introduce Siri iMessage integration in iOS 11, which is expected to be announced at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference held in June. The feature is said to be part of a major upgrade to Siri's capabilities that would fit out the virtual assistant with powerful contextual learning abilities and iCloud integration.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has withdrawn its offer for Toshiba's highly sought-after NAND flash memory business, leaving major Apple supplier Hon Hai in the driving seat to acquire the unit.

Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, has offered up the highest bid so far, with almost 3 trillion Japanese yen ($30 billion) said to be on the table, according to Japanese paper Asahi Shimbun on Friday. Shares in Toshiba jumped 7 percent on the news.

Toshiba is said to have narrowed down the number of bidders for its semiconductor business, which it is seeking to sell in order to raise at least $9 billion to cover U.S. nuclear unit charges that threaten the conglomerate's future.

Out of the initial 10 interested parties one of which was reportedly Apple, the smaller group of bidders includes Western Digital, Korea's SK Hynix, U.S. investment fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, and a combined partnership bid from Silver Lake Management and U.S. chipmaker Broadcomm. Media reports made no mention of whether Apple made the cut, making the prospect seem unlikely.

Japan's government could oppose a sale to Taiwan-based Foxconn because of the strategic value of Toshiba's technology to the national interest, according to sources who spoke to Bloomberg. Toshiba reportedly wants to encourage Japanese companies to participate in the bidding process, since none are in the current group.

The second round of the bidding war is expected to be held before the end of May, with the winner is expected to be announced in June before Toshiba's next shareholder meeting.

Live video broadcasting service Periscope on Friday announced full support for 360-degree broadcasting from its iOS app, following testing with a small number of users.

The change means that iPhone users with compatible 360-degree camera equipment, such as the new Samsung Gear 360, can broadcast immersive video feeds of their entire surrounding environment.

As a broadcaster, 360 video allows you to spend less time and energy on framing your shot so you can focus on adding new dimension to your viewers' experience. In 360 broadcasts, viewers will be able to look anywhere while also having the broadcaster present to anchor the broadcast.

If a Periscope broadcast is marked with a "Live 360" badge, viewers can change the point of view by moving their phone or tapping and scrolling around the screen.

Periscope has published a Live 360 broadcasting guide here. Users will need to have downloaded the latest version of the iOS app to broadcast in 360. Periscope is a free app for iPhone available on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Apple CEO Tim Cook visited his alma mater Auburn University this afternoon, where he held a talk with students at the Telfar B. Peet Theatre. Auburn University student paper The Auburn Plainsman shared details on the talk, which covered topics like diversity and inclusion, subjects Cook is passionate about and often covers in speeches.

Cook told students that it's important to be prepared to encounter people with diverse backgrounds in every career field. Students, he says, will work at companies where they will need to work with people from other countries and serve customers and users from all over the world.

"The world is intertwined today, much more than it was when I was coming out of school," Cook said. "Because of that, you really need to have a deep understanding of cultures around the world."

"I have learned to not just appreciate this but celebrate it," Cook said. "The thing that makes the world interesting is our differences, not our similarities."

Cook went on to explain that Apple believes you can only create a great product with a diverse team featuring people with many backgrounds and different kind of specialities. "One of the reasons Apple product work really great... is that the people working on them are not only engineers and computer scientists, but artists and musicians."

Cook has spoken at Auburn University several times in the past, and looks fondly at the time he spent there. "There is no place in the world I'd rather be than here," Cook told students. "Brings back a lot of memories. I often think that Auburn is really not a place, it's a feeling and a spirit. Fortunately, it is with you for all the days of your life. It has been for me at least."

According to The Auburn Plainsman, an exclusive interview conducted with Tim Cook will also be featured on the site later.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Adobe today shared a video from its Adobe Research team, demonstrating what future selfies could look like using artificial intelligence and deep learning technology.

Using its Adobe Sensei technology, Adobe demonstrates tweaking a selfie photo with perspective effect editing, automatic masking, and photo style transfer technology.

The end result is a standard selfie that's been edited to look like it was taken at a longer focal length, with a depth of field effect added for a much more flattering image. It also demonstrates the quick copy and paste of image styles from one photo to another.

The Adobe Research team has been exploring what the future may hold for selfie photography powered by Adobe Sensei. Great portrait photography requires the right perspective, equipment, and editing expertise.

But what happens when we tap into the power of artificial intelligence and deep learning to transform bad portrait shots into good ones - all on a smartphone? By combining perspective effect editing, automatic, software-only photo masking, and photo style transfer technology, we're able to transform a typical selfie into a flattering portrait with a pleasing depth-of-field effect that can also replicate the style of another portrait photo.

The technology shown off in the video isn't available to consumers as of yet, but Adobe says it's a "peek into the future potential of mobile portrait photography."

Adobe's Research Team has shown off additional up-and-coming technologies in the past, giving us a behind the scenes look at some of the things Adobe's working on. Past videos have showcased a voice-based AI for image editing, digital face painting, and an interactive sculpting tool for Photoshop.

Showtime today announced that users will now be able to download offline versions of the network's shows on smartphones and tablets, thanks to a new download button that will enable users to stock up on episodes to watch even when they're not connected to the internet (via Variety). Offline viewing will be available for both customers who subscribe to Showtime through a cable bundle and use Showtime Anytime [Direct Link], as well as cord-cutters who use the standalone Showtime app [Direct Link].

Following today's update, users can find the new "download" button on the details page of any show, and from there they can choose standard definition (540p) or high definition (720p), while tablet users will have the highest definition option of 1080p available. Showtime said that its entire catalogue is available to download at launch, including shows like Homeland, Billions, and The Affair, along with movies, documentaries, and sports and comedy specials.

"With our new download feature, subscribers now have the freedom to watch their favorite Showtime programming anywhere they are, regardless of the available internet or wireless connection," said Showtime Networks COO Tom Christie. "We have truly become a network you can watch on the go."

Offline viewing has become a popular feature with users as companies like Netflix and Amazon have begun integrating the ability into their mobile apps, although it sometimes has limitations. Netflix, for example, only allows users to download from a certain collection of its large TV and movie library. Starz and Epix also provide offline downloads, leaving HBO as the last remaining premium cable company which doesn't support the feature.

Offline viewing will be available on iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire tablets and should begin appearing as an update today.

A proposed settlement revealed in court documents this week could lead to a collection of eight companies -- Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, Kik, Gowalla, Foodspotting, Yelp, and Path -- contributing a grand total of $5.3 million to a collection pot for consumers claiming the companies violated their privacy in the early years of the iOS ecosystem (via Fortune). The settlement is the bookend to a lawsuit that began in 2012 and centered around the contact-finding feature of some iOS apps called "Find Friends."

Find Friends allows new app users to quickly and easily discover if any of the contacts in their iPhone are also using the same app. According to the lawsuit filed by a group of disgruntled consumers in 2012, these apps -- and Apple itself, which was also targeted in the lawsuit -- violated their privacy in that it never informed them that their contact lists would be transferred and saved onto company servers. The $5.3 million payout is aimed at people who used these apps between 2009 and 2012.

For five years the companies have tried to fight the lawsuit by attesting that Find Friends could never work without users' contact lists being stored on servers. In response, the court ruled that even if that was the case, the companies should have been more upfront to customers about where their contact lists were going. Now, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar must approve the settlement before it officially takes effect and customers can reap the rewards.

As Fortune pointed out, it probably won't be a huge sum considering the amount of people and the three-year time frame.

As for consumers, no one is going to get rich from the settlement since there are likely millions of people who downloaded the apps in the specified time periods described in the court documents. But as many eligible people are unlikely to apply for the money at all, it's likely those who do will get a few bucks.

Of the 18 original defendants, today Apple and LinkedIn remain the only companies targeted in the lawsuit who are challenging the settlement offer, with all other defendants ready to settle. As is usual in such cases, eligible users will be informed of the settlement via email.