Facebook announces changes to its News Feed

By Josh Kurelac

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that Homeland Security’s Border agents must have a reasonable justification to search an individual’s laptop, cell phone or a camera memory card at any location near the United States’ border.  Homeland Security said the electronic border searches could detect terrorists, drug smugglers and people violating copyright laws.  The case was brought to the attention of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals because customs agents at the United States and Mexico border searched a man’s laptop, who is a sex offender, and claimed they found child pornography.

Facebook announced new changes to the Facebook News Feed on Thursday.  The new design will feature bigger photos and links, and it allows users to customize the content on their news feed.  Facebook made the design changes to retain users and make more money via advertisements.  Mark Zuckerburg, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, said he wants the design to be more engaging to users, especially on the smaller screens of mobile devices.

Google conducted an experiment by taking a pair of Adidas running shoes and inserting a small computer, accelerometer, a pressure sensor, a gyroscope, speaker and Bluetooth.  The shoes know what an individual is doing when that individual is wearing the pair of shoes.  After collecting data, the shoes can relay that information to the Bluetooth in an individual’s mobile device.  Aman Govil, lead of the advertising arts team at Google, said the experiment was designed to demonstrate how to use connected objects to tell stories on the Internet.