Believe it or not, we don’t cover every piece of tech news here at SnapMunk. In an effort to keep you apprised of all things relevant in the world of technology and startups, here are some noteworthy tech news items that didn’t get a full column this week but certainly deserve a glance.
Supreme Court Rejects Google Books Copyright Case
A bunch of members from the Authors Guild were up in arms about Google scanning their books. They claimed it was copyright infringement. An earlier court ruling had already declared it legal to scan books, even if you didn’t own them, but the Authors Guild wasn’t satisfied – they asked the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Unlike most Google projects, Google doesn’t display advertising to those searching books, nor does it make money when someone purchases a book through a Google link. So maybe Google isn’t totally evil after all.
Image via ArsTechnica.com
Netherlands Proposes To Ban Sale On Gas Powered Cars Starting In 2025
The lower house of the Netherlands parliament has passed a motion to ban selling new gas powered cars starting in 2025. If the bill makes it through the Dutch senate, gasoline cars will be on the way out. It will be fascinating to see the battle between big oil companies and electric car companies rage as this kind of legislation becomes more common throughout the world.
Image via Wikipedia
Anonymous Creates Dark Web Chat Room To Teach Hacktivism
Want to learn hacktivism? Want to cause wanton digital destruction? Want to attack everyone from Donald Trump to ISIS? Good news! Hacktivist group Anonymous has created a dark web chat room to teach n00bs the skills of hacking, coding, and encryption!
Image via Techworm.net
Facebook May Soon Let You Earn Money From Posts
With the advent of Facebook Instant Articles, it appears that Facebook may soon let users accept donations in posts. Facebook may also allow branded content as well as share ad revenue for posts on Facebook. At some point, the only websites left in the world will be Amazon, Facebook, and Google.
Bernie Sanders Is The Favorite Candidate In Silicon Valley
Having raised more than $250,000 from Google employees, almost $100,000 from Microsoft employees, and more than $85,000 from Apple employees, it appears that Bernie Sanders is the favorite candidate of folks in Silicon Valley. Do they realize that if Bernie wins, he’ll take all their shares and force them to be distributed evenly to everyone in the United States?
Image via Fortune.com
Hacker Gets Amazon Alexa, Google Now, and Apple Siri To Talk To Each Other
See! We can get along. An enterprising hacker figured out a way to make Amazon Alexa, Google Now, and Apple Siri have a conversation with each other. I’m not sure of the practical use of this yet, but who cares – it might just lead to something valuable. We’ll probably see more of this tinkering and integration in the bear future as more and more people get attached to digital assistants.
Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments!
Stephen Altrogge
Stephen Altrogge is a freelance writer based in Tallahassee, Florida. He writes about tech, marketing, faith, and lots of other things. He’s married to Jen and has three young girls. Every day he consumes more coffee than the entire population of Colombia. He knows more about Star Wars than any respectable man should, and he runs more than any sane man would. He once attempted to eat a 2 pound hamburger in under an hour. He failed.
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Google has been in the courtroom a lot over the last few years. I am guessing that because the company is not making any money from scanning books, that is the reason there is no harm here?
If the Netherlands can get all cars over to electric by 2025, that will be amazing. I wonder what tax breaks they will offer companies willing to put the money into something like this?
Anonymous is opening some more large cans eh? That’s cool, there is a huge demand in those that can hack efficiently I am sure.
The path that Facebook is going down could really put a damper on YouTube and the earnings that people make right there from videos they post. There is a larger social push through Facebook and making money with your posts or videos is likely to gain momentum quickly.