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#DeleteFacebook gains steam as advertisers get cold feet, company struggles to talk way out of privacy scandal
Video: As Dropbox IPO goes live, should you consider switching to iCloud Drive?
First iPhone with foldable display by could launch in 2020, says analyst

#DeleteFacebook gains steam as advertisers get cold feet, company struggles to talk way out of privacy scandal

Posted: 23 Mar 2018 02:51 AM PDT

Facebook's attempts to save face seem to be falling flat.

Internet users continued to push #DeleteFacebook Thursday as advertisers hit the pause button. Company shares took another hit and a House committee said billionaire founder Mark Zuckerberg "owes answers to the American people."

Mozilla, the web giant behind the popular browser Firefox, said early Thursday it was suspending advertising on the social media platform.

"We stand up for transparency & user control because they make the web healthier for us all. That's why we're taking a break from Facebook," the company said in a Twitter post.

The announcement mirrored similar sentiments from the British advertising group ISBA, which reps thousands of well-known brands and planned to meet with Facebook officials Friday as it threatened to withdraw ads too.

"What we are hearing at ISBA is that advertisers are concerned. When we meet with Facebook tomorrow, we want to understand the scope of the inquiry Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday," ISBA Director General Phil Smith told the BBC.

"We want reassurances for our members that it will get to the bottom of the issues and any implications for the public and for advertisers," Smith said.

On Capitol Hill, leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said they want Zuckerberg to show up and testify in person.

Not Released (NR) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said sorry for failing to stop Trump-linked Cambridge Analytica from breaching the data of 50 million users, but an apology is starting to seem like too little, too late.
(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Committee Reps. Greg Walden of Oregon and Frank Pallone of New Jersey said in a brief statement that the "latest revelations regarding Facebook's use and security of user data raise many serious consumer protection concerns."

They said Zuckerberg is the "right witness to provide answers to the American people" and promised they would work with him to set a date for a hearing in the near future.

Thursday's continued fallout came a day after Zuckerberg admitted failures in a Wednesday Facebook post that vowed reforms.

Zuckerberg confirmed his company knew way back in 2015 that Steve Bannon's research firm Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained the private data of an estimated 50 million Facebook users, meaning without the users' consent.

He said Facebook quickly demanded Cambridge Analytica delete the data. But Facebook failed to reach out and warn the affected users in 2015.

Zuckerberg publicly announced the breach only after The Guardian, The New York Times and the UK's Channel 4 obtained bombshell information that Cambridge Analytica not only kept the data — but used it to build psychographic profiles of American voters and influence the 2016 election.

On Thursday, more social media users followed in the footsteps of superstar singer Cher, actor Jeffrey Wright and WhatsApp founder Brian Acton by circulating the #DeleteFacebook hashtag.

Concerns long expressed by privacy advocates have hit the mainstream in the wake of Facebook's latest scandal.
(KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)

Influential programmer and best-selling author David Hansson used the hashtag as he tweeted a quote from Zuckerberg claiming the scandal hasn't caused a "meaningful" number of defections.

"Sounds like a challenge to me. Zuckerberg basically just double-dog dared you," Hansson wrote to his 285,000 Twitter followers.

"I'm pretty sure if you ask people on the street today whether they trust their data and privacy with Facebook, the majority of responses will be, 'No,'" Ali Abbas, director of the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making at the USC Marshall School of Business, told the Daily News Thursday.

"This was a huge deal," he said of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. "I would call this the eye opener of a much bigger problem of what is happening on social media. It will take a very long time to rebuild user trust."

Facebook's stock tanked another $4.50 per share Thursday after bouncing around in negative territory for hours.

A gloomy report from Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post seemed to take its toll.

"There was nothing that could be said to appease the most vocal critics, mainstream backlash will persist as Cambridge Analytica remains in the headlines, and we would expect some impact to near-term platform usage," Post said in the report confirmed by the Daily News.

"With '#deletefacebook' hashtags trending and the onslaught of negative Facebook headlines (Uber had a similar situation last year), we have to consider the potential that some portion of users reduce usage of the platform," Post wrote.

The latest shaming of social media's biggest player echoes a prior outcry against the company and its commitment to user safety.

Last April, Zuckerberg admitted his company had "a lot more work to do" after Cleveland killer Robert Godwin Sr. posted a horrifying murder video on the platform, and it remained live for nearly three hours.

"We will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening," Zuckerberg said at the time.

"Nearly three hours on the internet is an eternity," Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at Dartmouth College, told The News at the time.

With the Cambridge Analytica shockwaves reverberating this week, lawmakers in Australia's Gold Coast put the kibosh on a deal that would have offered free high-speed internet to visitors at the 2018 Commonwealth games if they logged in with their Facebook accounts.

The local government planned to use the data to study the nationality, age and gender of visitors.

"When they figure out what is going on, when they figure out how to protect their user data, we can possibly take another look at it," Hermann Vorster, a Gold Coast City Council member, told Australia's ABC.

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Video: As Dropbox IPO goes live, should you consider switching to iCloud Drive?

Posted: 23 Mar 2018 06:16 AM PDT

As Dropbox goes public, AppleInsider examines if it is time to consider whether you should stay put with iCloud Drive, or fully embrace Dropbox for your cloud storage needs.

They both have their perks and differentiating features, but each is clearly suited for a different user. Let's dive in and take a look at what iCloud Drive has to offer, and whether you should finally ditch dropbox for good.

iCloud Drive

iCloud Drive has made sizable improvements in the last year, particularly with iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra. When it debuted in 2014, it let you store files, but it was pretty shallow and lacked many features we see i other cloud storage platforms.

Now, iCloud Drive does much more than syncs your files between your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It can automatically sync your Desktop and Documents folders, as well as everything inside of the iCloud Drive folder itself.

Many applications now natively support iCloud Drive, saving all files within the iCloud Drive folder for easy synchronization. You can scan a document in Scanbot, or edit a photo with Affinity Photo, and have it accessible within each app on any Apple platform.

The iPhone and iPad also received the new Files application which makes it extremely easy to grab files from iCloud Drive. It also integrates with many cloud platforms such as Dropbox, Amazon Drive, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive, and more.

Windows support is still not amazing, but there is an iCloud Drive utility available. If you just need occasional access or are on a shared computer, iCloud Drive is now accessible via the web. The new web interface is also where you can recover any files that have been deleted in the last 30 days. Dropbox still has the edge when it comes to web tools, but Apple's iCloud website has slowly been picking up features over time.

Sharing files within iCloud has historically been problematic, but Apple introduced a new way to share with iOS 11 and High Sierra. You can use the Share Sheet to add people to a file or copy the link to share any way you'd like.

One of the biggest benefits of iCloud Drive is that you are able to share storage with your family. Using Apple's Family Sharing, your other family members are able to use the same storage, without having to pay per user.

Dropbox

On the flip side, Dropbox offers up a more open platform, at the cost of not being quite so tightly integrated into the OS. It more equally supports both Mac and PC and allows you to sync any folders you'd like.

When sharing links to files, you are also able to password protect them, offering greater security. iCloud limits you to only gating access to people you've invited and choosing read or write access.

The Basic version of Dropbox also includes 30 days of file recovery, though if you go Pro, you get 120 days. The Pro tier is something that really sets Dropbox apart. It has much more granular permissions, expiring links, Smart Sync, full text search, viewing history, and more.

Even though iCloud Drive has fantastic integration with iOS and Mac apps, Dropbox has integrations with Office 365 and other business-focused applications. Those integrations can be very helpful for the professional user.

Professional use is clearly one of Dropbox's strong suits. Another relatively new feature is aimed towards them as well, File Request. This allows you to allow others to upload files to your Dropbox storage, whether or not they have an account.

They also offer use of Dropbox Paper which is a handy platform for collaboration. Speaking of collaboration, Dropbox also offers commenting on shared files, which makes working together in Dropbox significantly easier.

Pricing and storage

For some, pricing may be the biggest deciding factor.

iCloud has the bargain pricing locked in, with storage options of 50GB and 200GB available for $.99 and $2.99 respectively. iCloud is also cheaper when it comes to the 2TB option, costing the same as Dropbox does for 1TB.

However, iCloud doesn't offer anything above 2TB, while Dropbox has an unlimited option.

Should you switch?

So the question is, should you switch to iCloud Drive or should you stay with Dropbox, or vice versa?

The answer really depends on your situation. iCloud Drive has matured to be a much more compelling option that in the past, and as it is developed by Apple it has a much higher chance to be integrated more into the OS, to take advantage of the newest features, and to be less reliant on shareholders.

Dropbox, being as the whole business is built on their cloud storage, has devoted a lot of resources into adding additional features and perks in an attempt to justify its pricing. Some of these may be too tough to live without.

So which is right for you?

If you are using this in a more business environment, or need better integration with a Windows PC, Dropbox may be better suited.

If you are looking for the most amount of storage for your dollar, again, Dropbox is probably the answer.

If you just want the cheapest option or have a family to share it with, iCloud Drive is your go-to.

If you are looking for primarily personal use, and have all Apple devices, iCloud Drive is by far the best fit.

How iCloud Drive will change with this year's suite of upgrades is still unknown. As is how Dropbox will develop once it goes public.</span>

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First iPhone with foldable display by could launch in 2020, says analyst

Posted: 23 Mar 2018 07:36 AM PDT

Apple could launch an iPhone with a foldable display in the next few years, according to a Bank of America analyst, predicting the first iPhone or similar Apple-produced device featuring the long-rumored —and already patented by Apple —display technology could launch as soon as the year 2020.

In a note to investors, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Wamsi Mohan writes Apple is "working on a foldable phone," reportsCNBC. Based on his meetings with several Apple suppliers in Asia, the analyst advises the device in question could possibly be unveiled in two years time.

Mohan also suggests the foldable nature of the smartphone could give it another major selling point, as the possibility of folding a larger screen to a smartphone size means it "potentially double up as a tablet." In theory, such a device would give the benefit of a large-screened device like an iPad or iPad mini, but the portability of a smartphone.

The suggested timing for the device's launch lines up with another report from October last year, with the claim LG has formed a "task force" to make a foldable OLED panel and a "rigid flexible printed circuit board" for a future iPhone model. That report also claimed production of the panel could start in 2020.

Other smartphone producers have toyed around the concept of giving user the option of a larger screen, in a variety of different ways. Previous releases have typically involved the use of two separate displays and a hinge mechanism to fold the divided screen in half, like ZTE's Axon M, but this technique means the screen cannot be used as one cohesive display due to the noticeable gap in the middle.

Major display producer LG has worked on the problem over the last few years, and has previously been rumored to collaborate with Apple on the concept. Samsung, another display supplier and rival smartphone producer, has teased its own concept smartphones using flexible technology in the past, but it is unknown if Apple is working with the firm to use the technology in any way.

Apple has also filed for patents in the folding device field, including the "Flexible display devices" patent granted in 2016 that used a flexible OLED display with a hinged main body. Another application made in October for "Electronic Devices with Displays" depicts another version where a flexible section in the middle of the smartphone allowed the entire body to bend without seams or a visible hinge.

In the same note, analyst Mohan suggests the lineup of iPhones expected this fall "to be largely unchanged for the OLED versions although size changes have proved to be a catalyst in the past."

Recent rumors and reports indicate there to be three iPhones on the way, including two OLED-based versions with 5.9-inch and 6.5-inch screens, and a 6.1-inch model equipped with an LCD display panel. It is thought the larger OLED model could have lower specifications overall, with engineering samples allegedly using "lower-level specifications or lower capacities" than the LCD-based model, including reduced memory. </span>

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