Month: April 2019

NASA Social Media Efforts win two Webby Awards

Dan Uff April 24, 2019 0

NASA’s social media presence, which has grown from a few accounts more than a decade ago to dozens of channels with millions of followers, was honored Tuesday with a pair of Webbys and People’s Voice awards as part of the 2019 Webby Awards.

“Social media has become NASA’s primary way of connecting with the public,” said Bettina Inclán, NASA’s associate administrator for Communications. “It lets us reach out directly to people and share the excitement of exploration across all of NASA’s programs. More importantly, it fosters conversation and builds shared goals, which will be essential as the agency drives forward to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024.”

There may be no better example of that connection than NASA’s Mars InSight mission, which won a social media People’s Voice Award for Education & Discovery. After landing on Mars in November 2018, the mission generated more than one million social media posts from members of the public. The hashtag #InSight even trended higher than #cybermonday on the Monday after Thanksgiving, known as Cyber Monday.

Two other agency digital properties received the People’s Voice award in their categories: NASA.gov, the agency’s primary website, won its 11th People’s Voice award in Government & Civil Innovation; and the Solar System Exploration sitewon its third People’s Voice award in the Science category.

NASA’s Climate Change website was also nominated in the Green category, and the video “The Call of Science” was nominated in the 360-degree Video category.

The agency’s reach on social media extends beyond its own programs. When the Event Horizon Telescope released the first image of a black hole on April 10, NASA’s follow up post on Instagram received 3.4 million likes and 33,500 comments. Social media also lets NASA join conversations about pop culture, leading to online interactions, such as those with singer Ariana Grande and Marvel Studios.

The agency’s use of social media really took off in 2008, when Veronica McGregor, news manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, began tweeting in the voice of the Mars Phoenix Lander. Since then, the agency has added channels across a variety of platforms. On Twitter, NASA has 66 million followers, with 60 million on Facebook and 51 million on Instagram.

This year’s Webbys are the second and third for NASA’s overall social media presence, having won both the Webby and People’s Voice award in 2017.

NASA’s social media presence and the NASA.gov website are managed by NASA’s Office of Communications. The Mars InSight Lander social media account, Climate Change, and Solar System Exploration websites are managed by JPL, which also produced “The Call of Science” video.

Established in 1996, The Webby Awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. This year there were more than 13,000 entries, and more than 3 million votes were cast for the People’s Voice awards.

To view all of NASA’s social media accounts, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/socialmedia

For more information about the Webby Awards, visit:

http://www.webbyawards.com

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Pluto TV adds CNN

Dan Uff April 24, 2019 0

Pluto TV keeps adding more channels, all for free. Now they have announced that they added CNN to their channel lineup. It’s available now on channel 111

Apple hit with Class Action Lawsuit over Defective iPhone Sleep/Wake Buttons

CompuScoop Staff April 24, 2019 5

Apple is being hit with a new class-action lawsuit concerning multiple iPhones that are now several years old.

The lawsuit, which was filed in a San Diego County Superior Court, alleges that Apple knowingly sold various iPhone models with defective sleep/wake buttons and failed to disclose the problem with those buttons.

The class action, which began notifying people this week, says the problem impacted iPhone 4, 4s and 5 models.

Who Is Eligible?

The suit, Shamrell, et al. v. Apple Inc., only applies to California citizens who purchased older iPhone devices between 2010 and 2016. More specifically:

Anyone who bought an iPhone 4 between June 24, 2010 and Oct. 10, 2011.
Anyone who bought an iPhone 4s between Oct. 11, 2011 and Sept. 20, 2012.
Anyone who bought an iPhone 5 between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2016.

On the other hand, the complaint notes that users who had an iPhone 4, 4s or 5 repaired or replaced by Apple due to sleep/wake button problems cannot participate in the class action.

iPhone owners who are a member of either or both classes in the lawsuit have a couple of options at this point. They can do nothing and remain a part of the class, or they can specifically opt out of the lawsuit by downloading and sending off a form from powerbuttonclassaction.com

A Widespread Problem?

To be clear, this is the first time that we’ve heard about sleep/wake problems concerning the aforementioned iPhones. Although the devices cited in the lawsuit are a few years old, there does not appear to be any media coverage suggesting widespread issues with those devices.

Apple, for its part, has reportedly denied the allegations of the lawsuit or that it did anything improper or unlawful.

The lawsuit is seeking damages to cover the cost of any sleep/wake button repairs and to recoup the “diminished values” of the iPhones themselves due to those problems.

Anthony Shamrell and Daryl Rysdyk have been named as the court-appointed representatives for the iPhone 4 and 4s and iPhone 5 classes, respectively. Law firms Doyle Lowther, LLP and Gomez Trial Attorneys have been appointed as counsel for the classes.

A trial date is currently set for Oct. 25. Anyone included in the class action will be notified once a decision, either way, is made.

Via: iDropNews.com

Apple launches “Apple TV Channel” on YouTube

CompuScoop Staff April 23, 2019 0

“Over the last few weeks Apple has quietly debuted a new YouTube channel dedicated to one of its services: Apple TV,” Ryan Christoffel reports for MacStories. “The Apple TV channel is home to a variety of videos, like trailers for upcoming films and TV shows, exclusive behind the scenes clips and interviews tied to popular shows and movies, and, of course, videos highlighting Apple’s own original content efforts, like an Apple TV+ trailer and Carpool Karaoke previews.”

“Every video on the channel appears to be ad-free,” Christoffel reports,”which could offer a compelling reason to watch trailers for upcoming films, such as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, through the Apple TV channel rather than a competing channel where ads are commonplace.”

“The behind the scenes clips and interviews found on this new channel are not currently available in the Apple TV app, only on YouTube – though it’s certainly possible that will change in the future,” Christoffel reports.

Read more in the full article here.