Researchers said the profiles, linked to the Epoch Media Group, used photos generated by artificial intelligence in a preview of an “eerie, tech-enabled future of disinformation.”

Amazon.com Inc , Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google are partnering to lay the groundwork for better compatibility among their smart home products.

The tech giant’s services were among those temporarily unavailable in eastern Europe on Thursday. #technology #Google

For most of Alexa’s five years in existence, Amazon has focused on making its voice assistant as ubiquitous as possible, putting it in everything from microwaves to wearable rings to its growing family of Echo devices. Now Amazon has a new focus for Alexa: making money from it.

HT @benedictevans Interpreter mode, the feature that allows Google Assistant to translate your conversations in real time, is coming to phones. It’ll start rolling out inside the iOS and Android Google Assistant smartphone apps 12/12.

BBC study on deploying VR to mass audiences in local libraries. #VR #libraries

The system is designed to both move the lenses that are close to each other so that they don’t collide and break and also could fill the new gap with air or liquid to further cushion the blow.

I’m not sure I understand the need for this….

Journalist Layoff Count Surpasses 3,000 in 2019 via @cjr

Hearst now faces an unfair-labor-practice charge for what the Writers Guild of America, East describes as an illegal effort to suppress the federal labor rights of Hearst staffers

While I generally support open access, the authors need to be funded and this may take away the incentive for funding. Also, I don’t believe that the Trump Administration would be doing anything to further science in the U.S., so this doesn’t seem right to me.

This is crazy – a law trying to help freelancers is pushing publishers away from hiring CA-based authors, editors, illustrators, and other publishing workers previously engaged as independent contractors when the state’s new ‘gig worker’ law goes into effect on January 1.

Awesome interview by @JulieBlattberg w new BISG Board Chair Andrew Savikas. My fav quote: “One company’s innovation is another company’s disruption.” via @PublishersWkly

RT @Sj_Fennell There’s a new Diverse Book Fest coming to Chicago! @DivBookFest is a new kidlit book festival that will showcase diverse voices & celebrate their stories! They’re fundraising now to create a program that is open & accessible to all! #DivBookFest

NOYB/European Center for Digital Rights claims in the complaint that it filed with the French Data Protection Authority that publisher Condé Nast is altering online users’ explicit opt-outs of being tracked and served with ads in connection with the French arm of its Vanity Fair title, and sharing such “fake consent” preferences with major ad partners in violation of a sweeping EU data protection and privacy law.

The mag, which once boasted circulation of a million, last year saw its subscribers absorbed into Eating Well. It lived as a newsstand-only quarterly, but did so well it’s coming back to subscription. It’s the second time that Meredith has reversed itself and begun offering subscriptions to a former Time Inc. title that it nearly killed off. Coastal Living, which was converted to a newsstand-only quarterly this year, will return to offering home-delivered subscriptions as well.

Seems a little steep!

Attention Capital, a holding company founded by former Snap, Fox, Palantir, and Vice execs, wants to grow a media empire. Girlboss is a great place to start.

The most popular books in every borough, courtesy of the NYPL, BPL and QPL via @gothamist #libraries

“Feminist safe haven” English language bookshop to launch in Paris – @covenparis1 plans to offer offer predominantly English language books, an ethical café and a range of engaged literary events in Paris. They have a launched a kickstarter,

Interesting because Cox is an internet service provider in this case, which ignored pirates on its platform-> Cox is Ordered to Pay $1 Billion Over Piracy of 10,000 Songs via @CNET

Fascinating look at what makes business moats – competitive advantages to scale via @cbinsights #business

RT @nypl Applications are being accepted through January 15 for the NY Public Library’s Short-Term Research Fellowships for scholars outside of the NYC area.