Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Lisa.
1. Are you going to use Twitter Polls?
When Twitter users have a burning question for their followers such as “Coke or Pepsi?” or “What shall I name my cat?”, it has long been the tradition to ask for their votes with a “fav or retweet”. But this is set to change.
Twitter has just announced a new official polling feature, which will be made available to all of its users, in a bid to improve social engagement across the platform.
The ability to create a two-option Twitter poll will soon appear in the “compose Tweet” interface. Each poll will remain live for 24 hours and voting is completely anonymous.
2. Monumental new app
The annoying thing about trying to capture photos of popular tourist hotspots is that the whole world and his wife are also there, trying to do exactly the same thing. Fortunately, a new technology promises to make these obstructions a thing of the past – with the tap of a button.
Adobe “Monument Mode” is an algorithm app that will allow users to get a crisp shot of a landmark on their mobile phone. The software is able to distinguish between moving objects and fixed ones making it possible to simply erase any obstructions such as people, vehicles and other moving objects.
3. 1 Heart 1 Tree
Whilst on the subject of landmarks-and-technology, something that caught my eye this week is upcoming art project 1heart1tree, inspired by the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), in Paris on December 7th and 8th.
The concept involves downloading an app with a built-in sensor to track your heartbeat, a virtual tree of light will then begin to grow to the rhythm of your heart, projected live onto the Eiffel Tower. Users can watch and share via a live stream, and better still – for each virtual tree created, a real tree will be planted in their name somewhere in the world.
4. Google, you’re not yelping
This week a spoof news site published a joke article claiming that customer review website, Yelp is suing the creators of South Park for $10 million, following recent episode “You’re Not Yelping”.
The article fooled many, including Google News. – Typing “South Park” or “Yelp South Park” into the search box, temporarily resulted in a top-spot ranking for the piece.
5. Marty Mcfly & Doc Brown finally arrive
4:29pm on October 21, 2015 marked the arrival date of Marty, Doc and Jennifer in their time-travel from 1985 in Back to the Future II.
This day has been particularly significant for fans of the film after a series of photoshopped hoaxes have been fooling the internet of “Back to the Future day” since way back in 2010.
More than 25 years after the release date, many of the film’s predictions for life in 2015 were not actually that far off.
We’ve got:
- Wearable tech
- Fingerprint recognition
- Video calls
- Hoverboards
- Hands-free gaming
- Tablet computers
- Self-tying shoes and
- Self-fuelling cars
But we’re still waiting for those flying cars!