Jeff Gamet

China is running headstrong in to surveillance with facial recognition and is already using the technology to identify and arrest criminal suspects. Right now the country is experimenting with facial recognition glasses police can wear to look for potential arrest targets. It’s pretty creepy and growing by leaps and bounds with China expected to have some 300 million cameras installed by 2020. Philip Elmer-DeWitt says on his Apple 3.0 blog that the iPhone and iPad maker is getting in on the game, too. He says:

I’m told by an analyst who tracks headgear technology that Apple is three to five years away from a marketable product. It sounds like the Chinese, unhampered by any privacy concerns—in fact, incentivized to surveil—may get there first.

There’s a reason why you can’t stop reading Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. The apps have interfaces designed to be addictive, according to Silicon Valley insiders talking with the BBC. Aza Raskin, a former Jawbone and Mozilla employee and the guy who invented infinite scroll found on social networks, was just one of the many developers who spoke with the BBC for a new documentary program. He said,

It’s as if they’re taking behavioural cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface and that’s the thing that keeps you like coming back and back and back. Behind every screen on your phone, there are generally like literally a thousand engineers that have worked on this thing to try to make it maximally addicting.

Social networks need your eyes and your attention to keep revenue coming in, so the idea they would find ways to make us want to stay seems plausible. Other insiders say leaving social networks behind is a lot like quitting cigarettes. It’s no wonder so many people live for Facebook’s “like” button.

Your Netflix subscription may soon cost more, or have fewer features. The streaming media company is reportedly considering a higher-price tier called Ultra with HDR video and HD audio support. Assuming the new tier does roll out (it’s in testing now), PhoneArena says it’ll cost US$16.99 which is $3 more than the current Premium plan. That isn’t too bad, but the change will likely see the number of simultaneously supported devices on each tier reduced as well.

Some Italian consumers say that based on promotional material they’ve received from the video streamer, the new Netflix lineup reduces the number of screens that can stream Netflix simultaneously with the Premium plan from 4 to 2. However, others in Italy who received information about the new Ultra tier say that the Premium service will continue to allow four screens to stream Netflix at the same time. If Netflix does cut the number of simultaneous screens in half for its Premium plan, that would be akin to a price hike for those who share the service with three other users.

There isn’t any guarantee the Ultra tier will survive its limited testing phase, but if it does there’s a good chance you’ll get less for you money on the current plans.

Sharing photos with friends is cool, but not when your decides to send photos without your knowledge. That’s exactly what’s happening for some Samsung smartphone owners. Mashable says people are freaking out because the photos on their phones are being sent out to other people via SMS and they don’t even know it’s happening until the get a call or text from the recipient. From Mashable:

A few Redditors are claiming that their Samsung smartphones — in one case a Galaxy S9+ — sent photos from their camera roll to another person without their knowledge. And while this nightmare scenario has yet to be confirmed, you’d better believe that Samsung is looking into it.

Samsung is indeed looking into the problem, although it seems to be somewhat isolated. That isn’t, however, much of a consolation for Samsung smartphone users who’re dealing with photos randomly going out to people in their contacts list. Maybe it’s time for your Samsung-toting friends to delete those potentially awkward photos from their phones just to be safe.