MacRumors

Instagram today announced that it will introduce a new algorithm-based feed in the coming months, shifting from its current chronological-based feed. The move follows Twitter's announcement that it was moving to an algorithm-based feed. Instagram parent company Facebook has used an algorithm-based news feed for years.

You may be surprised to learn that people miss on average 70 percent of their feeds. As Instagram has grown, it’s become harder to keep up with all the photos and videos people share. This means you often don’t see the posts you might care about the most.

The photo sharing company says that the new feed will be re-ordered to show moments Instagram believes users will care about the most. The algorithm will largely be based on a user's relationship to the person posting and the timeliness of their post. For instance, Instagram says if a user's favorite musician posts a video from the previous night's concert or a best friend posts a picture of a puppy, the new algorithm will ensure that the user does not miss it.

Instagram stresses that, as they begin on this process, the company only wants to optimize the order of posts. All the posts in a person's news feed will still be there, but in a different order. While it's unclear exactly when in the coming months users' feeds will begin to change, the company says that it wants to take its time to "get this right" and that they'll listen to user feedback along the way. Instagram did not mention whether the new feed will be an optional feature that allows users to opt out.

Instagram can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Popular music producer and performer Joel Thomas Zimmerman, most popularly known as deadmau5, is set to join Apple Music's Beats 1 radio station this Friday. The 35-year-old artist will have his own show, called "mau5trap presents," debuting at 3PM PST on Friday, March 18.

Besides the announcement tweet via the Beats 1 account, no other specifics regarding the content of mau5trap presents were given. Still, considering the genre and work Zimmerman is known for, there will probably be a heavy focus on electronic dance music in the show. It's also unclear whether or not Zimmerman will be given a recurring presence on Beats 1 or if mau5trap presents is a one-off performance.

Deadmau5 will join artists like Dr. Dre, Pharrell, Major Lazer, and Haim, who've all had shows on the Beats 1 station on Apple Music. In an interview recently, Beats 1 radio host Zane Lowe spoke on the artistic freedom that Apple allows of its Beats 1 creators, claiming that Apple Music doesn't place any restrictions or rules on them or their specific shows, letting the hosts play whatever they want in their designated slot.

Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe discussed a range of topics, including Apple executive Jimmy Iovine's advice to him and his own personal history, in a new interview with Vice's music channel Noisey.

Lowe also gives Noisey a tour of his office at Apple Music, pointing out the mementos he's collected throughout his career. Ruminating on his career, Lowe talked about how he enjoyed his 12 years at BBC Radio 1 but that he was excited about the possibility of Apple's music project as he believes that the technology and entertainment industries need to embrace each other more. For instance, he points out he ability to broadcast to devices rather than radios in a car or on a desk as something that excited him.

While Lowe is one of the more well-known DJs in radio, he does admit that he's mostly known as the "old guy who interviewed Kanye West once," referring to his popular interview with the artist on BBC Radio 1 in 2013.

The DJ also comments on life in Los Angeles, saying that he and his wife like the area because of its similarities to their native Auckland, New Zealand. Though he does say that he's searched for a centralized area where people tend to hang out and do things, similar to the hubbub of a big city like London.

Lowe concludes the interview by talking about an experience he had with producer Mark Ronson and other anecdotes with artists throughout his career. Of the artist-led radio shows on Beats 1, Lowe says that Apple Music doesn't give them any restrictions or rules; they can choose to play whatever they want.

Apple recently added a new ad format designed to allow publishers to share sponsored posts alongside regular news content in Apple News, according to developer specification document [PDF] that was shared by Business Insider.

The document features all of the different ad types available within Apple News, including a new "Native Banners" feature. With Native Banners, which are meant to blend in with standard content, ads can be displayed right in the news feed with regular Apple News articles.

Native ads display directly in the content feeds, inline with News articles, and are intended to blend in with their surrounding. They will be set in the default font used in News.

According to Apple, these native ads include a title, text excerpt, and a small image, and in an example image provided, the format looks quite similar to the standard article list format in the Apple News app. Sponsored posts will, however, be denoted by text that lets readers know the content is sponsored.

Each ad includes a title, text excerpt and a small image, and is distinguished by a 'Sponsored' callout. The sponsored advertiser name is optional. If an advertiser name is not provided, the reader will see 'Sponsored' in the banner.

As Business Insider points out, publishers can share sponsored news posts on Apple News at the current time as long as content is marked as sponsored in metadata, but this new ad format will give publishers a clear way to monetize sponsored content and it adds tools for explicitly branding sponsored content.

Apple is also rumored to be adding support for subscription content from publishers with paywalls to the Apple News app in the future.

Zagg's Mobile Charging Station for the Apple Watch and iPhone is both a portable charging platform and a backup battery for your Apple products. With its 5,000 mAh battery, the Mobile Charging Station is meant to be used while away from a power source. It has enough capacity to provide a full charge for both an iPhone and an Apple Watch, with a little juice left over.

There are a few features that set the Mobile Charging Station apart from other portable charging solutions, including a cord management system and a unique pop-up design that charges the Apple Watch in landscape mode and folds flat for travel, but on the downside, it is expensive and unattractive.

Design

Zagg's Mobile Charging Station is not an attractive accessory, but it is functional. Made from black plastic with red plastic accents, the Charging Station has a pop-up charging platform for the Apple Watch, allowing it to be charged in landscape mode, and it includes a built-in cable management system.

It's clear aesthetics weren't on the top of the priority list when it came to creating the Charging Station. It feels well made, but at the same time, the materials used feel cheap, and the thick black plastic certainly doesn't match or complement the iPhone or Apple Watch.

In a bag, backpack, or purse, the Charging Station is portable enough, but it's not pocketable due to its thickness. In width and height, it's similar in size to the iPhone 6s Plus, but it is more than twice as thick. It's all plastic, black outside and red inside, with a soft padded strip on the bottom to keep it from damaging desks and other surfaces.

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Microsoft recently updated the iOS version of its email client Outlook [Direct Link] with the ability for users to enable Touch ID when accessing the app. Outlook is the first of the major email apps on iOS -- including Gmail and Apple's own stock Mail app -- to support the fingerprint security features of Touch ID.

To set up Touch ID in Outlook, navigate to the "Settings" tab within the app, and then toggle on "Require Touch ID." In addition to basic email features, Outlook provides a calendar feature and the ability to send and view documents via sharing apps like OneDrive and Dropbox, without having to actually leave the app. All of these features can now be guarded by Touch ID as well.

You can now protect your inbox with Touch ID and get the privacy you deserve. Keep your messages away from prying eyes by requiring your fingerprint or device passcode in order to access your Outlook account. To enable Touch ID, take a look at the app Settings under Preferences. (iOS 9 users) Your inbox – and dare we say it, the world – is now at your fingertips.

For anyone looking to switch to Outlook to try out the Touch ID enhancement, the Microsoft app does support other email services including Yahoo! Mail, iCloud, and Gmail. Other basic updates in version 2.2.2 of the app introduce profile photos of event attendees in agenda view and a shortcut in the day and 3-day view that lets users create a new event by simply tapping and holding.

Microsoft Outlook is available for free from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Philips is extending the capabilities of its Hue lighting system even further with the Philips Hue White Ambiance kit, which will give fans of the smart lighting system access to every shade of white light (via SlashGear). The new bulbs are a more robust version of the Philips Hue Lux system, which is limited to dimmable white light rather than the full array of colors available with the standard Hue bulbs.

The White Ambiance bulbs are billed as a natural companion to the day/night light cycle of the sun, encouraging users to wake up in the mornings and then dimming the light temperature to a low-level of light before bed. The low light mode is similar in theory to Apple's upcoming Night Shift feature in iOS 9.3, which cuts down on the amount of blue light users interact with in the evening hours to facilitate a better night's sleep.

In fact, the Ambience bulb supports anything from 6,500 K, the equivalent of cool daylight, all the way to 2,200 K, which is a warmer, almost golden light. Philips' light recipes are supported, which use different light temperatures to promote concentration, relaxation, or other moods.

To help with this, Philips is introducing a feature called "Routines" with the launch of the White Ambiance bulbs. Comparable to the alarms and timers of the current Hue app, Routines will allow users to customize instances that gradually increase white light levels ahead of a pre-set time in the morning, and dim lights as bed time draws near in the evening. It should be noted, as with the lower-cost Lux bulbs, the White Ambiance kit will not support the ability to change to any colors besides variations of white.

Philips will sell the new bulbs individually at a price not yet disclosed by the company, along with a starter kit that will come with a wall switch, two ambiance bulbs, and the new HomeKit-enabled Hue Bridge 2.0. It will launch "in the spring," with more information trickling out closer to launch day. The company also hinted that this fall it will be launching a line of lamps with the same white color spectrum capabilities as the ambiance bulbs.

Technology firms operating in the UK will be forced to install backdoors in their products and services for state surveillance purposes under proposed new laws, reports The Sunday Times.

The new powers come under the controversial Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB), referred to by critics as the "Snooper's Charter", which was published by Home Secretary Theresa May on March 1 and is due to get its second reading in parliament tomorrow. The bill is backed by a draft code of practice that would also ban companies from revealing if they had been asked to install the backdoor technology.

The accompanying draft document states that the British Home Secretary has the power to force firms to provide the "technical capability" to allow the security services to access communication data as well as undertake "interception" and "equipment interference".

The bill itself grants the Home Secretary the power to order the removal of "electronic protection", which technology experts say is another word for encryption. Internet service providers would also have to keep records of the online browsing history of everyone for a period of 12 months and enable intelligence agencies to access the data unhindered, allowing them to see every website a person has visited.

The UK opposition Labour party has warned the British government that it will derail the bill by abstaining to vote it through in its current form, which critics have called an invasion of privacy on a massive scale and a huge security risk if passed.

"The Home Secretary's Bill requires substantial changes before it will be acceptable to us," said Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham. "It must start with a presumption of privacy, as recommended by the Intelligence and Security Committee, include a clearer definition of the information that can be held in an internet connection record and set a higher threshold to justify access to them."

According to a 2016 Consumer Openness Index consumer survey, only 12 percent of British people said that they had a good understanding of what the bill involves.

"There are widespread doubts over the definition, not to mention the definability, of a number of the terms used in the draft bill," Nicola Blackwood MP, chair of the Science & Technology Committee, told TechRadar. "The government must urgently review the legislation so that the obligations on the industry are clear and proportionate."

In the same survey, half of respondents believed that "making personal data easier for government officials to access will also make it easier for criminals to access that data as well", while only 6 percent disagreed.

The bill's progress through the UK parliament comes at a time when Apple is engaged in a high-profile dispute with the FBI, which wants its own backdoor into the company's software to unlock the iPhone at the center of the San Bernardino shooter investigation.

Apple believes complying with the demand would set a dangerous precedent that could lead to the overall weakening of encryption on smartphones and other electronic devices. Apple is scheduled to appear in court to fight the order on March 22.

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