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Apple wants to improve diversity in the tech industry and is donating $50 million to help

Mar10
by on March 10, 2015 at 6:06 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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Apple has announced today that it will be donating more than $50 million to a selection of nonprofit groups with the aim to improve diversity in the tech industry. In an interview given exclusively to Fortune, Apple states that it will work with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which gives support specifically to students from historically black colleges and universities. It will also be working with the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), which is working to boost the number of women in technical positions in the industry. Apple isn’t the only industry leader donating to these organizations though,…

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Calendar app Tempo gets a design makeover and smart autocomplete

Mar10
by on March 10, 2015 at 5:53 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider, Product Updates

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Once Apple released the iPhone 6 and 6 plus, app developers scrambled to make sure their wares looked good on the larger screens. Tempo is no different, but instead of just making everything bigger, it redesigned the app to make it easier to use. The updated Tempo app for iOS has reduced the visual clutter for a cleaner more refined look. This includes updating the fonts and a “simplified color palette.” In addition to being nicer on the eyes, the app now has an updated Notifications Widget where you can knock off to-do items in addition to adding new events. The…

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Disqus co-founder confirms iOS app is coming in our interview on…Disqus

Mar10
by on March 10, 2015 at 5:36 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, Profiles and Interviews

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When Daniel Ha and Jason Yan launched Disqus in 2007, they weren’t originally planning to create a commenting system. Ha explains in a new Medium post about the future of the service: “We were, in fact, attempting to build out a new vision for forums. As part of that, we had the idea for blogs to embed bits and pieces of this new platform we were building. That minor feature became the comment system — and it was the thing that people seemed to like immediately.” Visit the company’s home page today and you’ll see that it’s made a return to that original…

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Google brings its new Calendar app to the iPhone

Mar10
by on March 10, 2015 at 5:15 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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Google is finally launching a Calendar app on the iPhone. We first reported on leaked images of the new app back in January. Like on Android, the app is handily able to turn emails into Calendar events automatically, and it will load information from other calendars you’ve set up on your iPhone. It also includes an ‘Assists’ feature which provides suggestions for creating new events based on email content. A Schedule View provides a quick look at all your upcoming events in chronological order. It’s a pretty nifty calendar app, and it’s long been overdue on the iPhone. Android users have obviously had theirs for…

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SocialRank’s updated Tech Media Index reveals the secrets behind Twitter success

Mar10
by on March 10, 2015 at 3:59 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Product Launches, Social Media, socialrank, Tech Media Index

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Analytics firm SocialRank has been on a roll recently: We wrote about the launch of its Tech Start Up Index back in January and its tool for checking out your Instagram followers last month. Now, it’s updated its industry indexes – including the Tech Media Index, which tracks 95 of the biggest tech news-related Twitter accounts, TNW included – to show which tweets cause the biggest spikes in engagement. Social Rank’s indexes let you compare the number of followers each account has, the level of engagement they receive and the number of verified followers they’ve notched up. There is a significant new addition – the company’s now…

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