BlackBerry wants to mandate app developers to make apps for its platform

BlackBerry CEO John Chen wants net neutrality to extend to content and applications, so that developers of apps for Android and iOS will be mandated to develop on the BlackBerry platform as well.
Not all content and app providers have embraced openness and neutrality, Chen wrote in a blog post that the company said was adapted from a letter sent to U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday. Policymakers must demand openness not just at the traffic and transport layer, but also at the content and applications layer, he added.

FACEBOOK NEW APP LETS BUSINESSES CREATE AN INTERNAL SOCIAL NETWORK

About six months ago, we reported that Facebook was working on a new product aimed squarely at the enterprise market under the working title, “FB@Work.” Now that product is officially coming to light: today the company is launching new iOS and Android apps simply called “Work,” along with a version of Facebook at Work accessible via its main website, which will let businesses create their own social networks amongst their employees that are built to look and act like Facebook itself.

An Anti-Torture Logo That Cleverly Communicates Across Three Cultures

Templo

Up until 2009, Sri Lanka, the island country just south of India, was engulfed in a civil war that lasted 26 years. In broad strokes, the war erupted in the 1980s over ethnic tensions between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority population and the Hindu Tamil minority, who the Sinhalese saw as the favorites of the British colonists. The last years of the war became particularly violent, and a reported 40,000 civilians died. Even though the war officially ended, the brutality hasn’t abated: a recent report found that Sri Lankan government forces continue to abduct, torture, and rape suspected members of the Tamil Tiger rebels, with no signs of stopping.

The Autopilot Tech That Could Be a Total Game-Changer for Drones

Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel Corp., right, shows the AscTec Firefly drone at CES in Las Vegas. Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Intel invented a new sport on stage at the Consumer Electronics Show this year: drone pong. To play, four men stood around around a drone hovering in place. As each one approached the drone, it would float away from him, much like the digital ball in the classic video game Pong, and drift toward another person. He could then “pass” it to the next person by approaching the drone.

Uber slashes prices in 48 cities to brighten the winter blues

Uber wants to get you out of hibernation and back on the streets. The ride-sharing service says it will cut ride rates in 48 U.S. cities for the winter season. Uber is restricting the price cuts to cities where the service most recently rolled out, though the company didn't say whether the price cuts will also extend to so-called "surge pricing" when the cost of an Uber ride goes up during peak demand.
Uber made a similar move in early 2014, when the company lowered prices in select cities to get users requesting rides during the winter slump.

Google Calendar’s Enforced Birthdays Show The Ugly Side Of Algorithms

You may recall that Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information”. So if you’ve been seeing the Birthdays of people you hardly know appearing UFO-like in your Google Calendar lately, never fear — this is just Mountain View doing its thang organizing your stuff.
Specifically, this bit of Googly info-admin boils down to its algorithms harvesting the birth dates of all of your Google contacts (which means anyone you might email regularly) and any Google+ users you added to the circles of your (in all likelihood Google-enforced) Google+ profile, and then inserting those dates into your calendar so you don’t have to.