Start Up

It's the final episode of Start Up! Johnny Lieu is moving on after coming in every week to talk tech, and Lucy Smith is wrapping up as host of Up For It after two stellar years behind the mic. In their final chat, Johnny and Lucy discussed the launch of a brand new app called Taxify that is set to compete with Uber, as well as the acquisition of everyone's favourite music-identification app Shazam by tech giant Apple.

Johnny Lieu joined Lucy Smith to chat about how Instagram is chock full of animal pictures, but now the social network is cracking down on selfies that might be considered exploitation. 25 years ago the first text message was sent, so Johnny and Lucy also discussed how, since then, the ways we’ve chatted using our phones have changed quite a bit.

Lucy and Johnny talked about the furore over 'pay to win' games, which have people so mad that the government is considering labelling them as gambling. They also looked at net neutrality debates in the USA, and what they could mean for Australia.

For exhausted parents, YouTube’s Kids app has been a easy way to entertain young children with endless video — but there’s been increasing concern on the type of so-called kids content that’s making its way onto the platform. Following #MeToo, a new startup is building an app to combat sexual harassment at workplaces. It’s a web platform called AllVoices and it will let people anonymously report their experiences of sexual harassment at work, and will in turn aggregate that data to give companies insights on the true scale of the problem.

In the last 10 years, artificial intelligence and robot technology has made leaps and bounds. But experts in these fields have urging governments to stop these technologies from well, killing us. Twitter needs to fix its harassment problem... again. Three weeks ago, Women took a stand on Twitter by staying off the social platform in a uniform protest called #WomenBoycottTwitter. Now this was instigated by the temporary suspension of Rose McGowan, who has been very much vocal about Harvey Weinstein and other abusers. Last week they had issues with someone deactivating Trump's account on their last day at work. The other thing is that searching #bisexual' gives error message, but not #gay or #lesbian...

Johnny brought a guest in from the PAX convention in Melbourne over the weekend- Ally McLean, the gamerunner behind Rumu- a murder-mystery noire style game about a robot vacuum that becomes self aware.

Johnny takes us through wha he's looking forward to seeing when he visits the PAX gaming conference in Melbourne: - Rumu, where you play a vacuum cleaner - Paperbark, where you play a wombat in the bush -- this one is really inspired by Australian children's literature - Virtually Impossible - a VR party game - Maybe as a laugh, Pure Farming 2018

Forget about Tinder, Grindr, Her, Bumble, or whatever other apps you're hitting up for all your dating needs. There's another app that's rapidly becoming a hotspot for digital flirting, whether you want it to be or not: Instagram. Facebook may be testing a new Resume / CV feature. The update could indicate a larger interest in the job searching and recruiting space, putting Facebook in direct competition with LinkedIn.

Elon Musk wants to send you to Mars by 2022, and could Bumble be the new platform to launch your career?

Australia wants a slice of the booming private space industry, and it's launching an agency to capitalise on it.

Apple's Sept. 12 unveiling of the iPhone X brought with it the official reveal of Face ID: face-scanning tech that will be used in lieu of Touch ID to both unlock smartphones and authenticate Apple Pay. But privacy experts, security consultants, and at least one sitting U.S. senator are concerned that the technology is ripe for abuse. So just how worried should you be? Browsing the web is an integral part of most people's lives, but that process is frequently a jarring one complete with loud autoplay ads and video making it difficult to focus on what's in front of you. Google, however, has decided to do something about that. Starting in early 2018 will block autoplay video with sound on its popular Chrome browser. But what does this mean for the internet ecosystem as a whole? Google is an advertising company, so why would it take a stand against any type of ad? Could Edge, Safari, and Firefox soon follow suit, and how will this move affect surfing the information superhighway (yup) on our smartphones? Could we soon be heralding the end of noisy autoplay video?

Mark Zuckerberg has been preaching video as our future for the last couple years. On Thursday, he's launching the next big step in the company's quest to dominate every last second of your waking life. Facebook is set to debut original shows made by media partners exclusively for the social network, marking the company's official entry into the high-end online video world that already includes rivals Amazon, Netflix, Google, and Apple. It is also a product update, meaning the video tab in Facebook's mobile app will feature a new section called "Watch" to highlight the initiative. "Watch" will also appear on desktop and Facebook's TV apps. Google used to be about transporting you around the open web and connecting you with all the weird, wonderful stuff the internet has to offer. Not anymore. If it was up to Google, you'd never need to leave its growing internet real estate. It's a scary proposition for just about everybody but Google. Between fast-loading AMP articles from major news brands hosted in its domain, full pages of information scraped from outside sites that don't require you to visit them, basic shopping functions built into ads, YouTube, and a host of other features, the Google-verse is more of a digital walled garden than ever. The most recent addition comes in the form of a report that the company is considering killing visible URLs altogether.

A software engineer at Google by the name of James Damore, penned a 10 page manifesto against diversity at the company and sent it around to colleagues. He argued, without much citation, that women show higher interest in people and men in things — and it’s why men are more biologically suited to software engineering, and women to creative or artistic things. He also said Google was biased against white men and was too left wing, too politically correct and not accepting of conservative viewpoints. In a new study published in EPJ Data Science, two researchers accessed the Instagram accounts of 166 volunteers and then applied machine learning to their collective 43,950 images in order to identify and predict depression. By comparing those predictions to each individual's clinical diagnosis, the researchers discovered that their model outperformed the average rate of physicians accurately diagnosing depression in patients. In other words, an Instagram account may have the potential to reveal whether you're experiencing depression. The right algorithm might just be better at making that prediction than a trained physician.

Google recently launched a personalized news feed on the company's flagship app, and it will soon rollout to browser versions of google.com. The update is a huge deal for a couple of reasons: First, it will be the most radical change to Google's famously simple home page since 1996, or at least since the its big push behind Google+, which began in 2011 an has since been deemed a failure. It also positions Google to compete directly with the Facebook News Feed, which generally provides the same type of information like sports scores, viral videos, and news. Time is running out for Microsoft Paint. The venerable application that started its life 32 years ago as a monochrome, bitmap Windows 1.0 drawing program is on Microsoft's "Deprecated" list. In an official Microsoft list of "Features that are removed or deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, first spotted by The Guardian, Microsoft Paint is on the deprecated list. Microsoft defines "deprecated" as "might be removed from future releases." News that Microsoft is moving on from Paint is not surprising. Microsoft demoted the long-time Windows App earlier this year when it released 3D Paint in the Windows 10 Creators Update, which rolled out to users earlier this year.

The jig is up for encrypted messaging, in the eyes of the Australian government. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced Friday morning the government will bring in new laws to force tech companies to hand over data protected by encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal. A tense scene unfolded earlier this week as user-generated, music-streaming service SoundCloud held an all-hands meeting to explain to employees why it suddenly had to lay off 40 percent of its staff last week... but Chance The Rapper claims he has something in the works to save it all.

In a matter of clicks on the darknet, you can purchase the details Australians use for identification and to access health services in the country. As reported by The Guardian, a vendor on a large darknet marketplace is illegally selling patient details in a listing dubbed the "Medicare machine." The seller claims to get the data by "exploiting a vulnerability" in a government system. Australia is one of the first countries to have Tinder Gold (others being Argentina, Canada, and Mexico.) There’s a couple of features like being able to rewind, look for matches in other places, that super liking thing, and a whole heap of other random features. But the most important change is the ability to see who has already liked you — which kinda kills the fun of it all, to be honest.

From July 1 you’ll have to pay an extra 10 per cent on digital goods and services that are imported into Australia. The Netflix tax is a catchier name for an amendment to the GST which means anything you download or stream to your computer or phone is subject to this tax. It also applies to things like eBay fees, but other companies like Netflix haven’t indicated if they’ll absorb some of that GST or make it 9.89 a month compared to 8.99. It was introduced in the 2015-16 budget but passed in May last year... but it doesn't stop there... We've already heard a lot about the iPhone 8 through leaks. Rumors say it'll have a 5.8-inch edge-to-edge screen, Touch ID fingerprint sensor built into the screen, inductive wireless charging, a new "glass sandwich" design, faster performance, and a better dual camera system. Aside from the new screen, what will be the iPhone 8's killer feature? It could be augmented reality (AR).

There’s a new generation of bots helping us be better at being humans. It’s an experimental bot called Woebot, developed by psychologists at Stanford University in the U.S. and it operates on Facebook’s Messenger chat platform. It’s one of the first bots of its kind, in that it is kind of therapist. It won’t tackle your deepest problems, but it will improve your mood, and even alleviate symptoms of depression. While there’s no evidence just yet these kinds of bots can help mental health in the same way a professional does, it certainly makes the topic a little more approachable. Parents in Colorado want to ban smartphones for children under 13. They’re worried about the psychological effects on children having smartphones that young - but in reality it's just about control.

One of Australia’s most famous landmarks is now on Google Maps Street View. Johnny Lieu headed up to Uluru to witness the capturing of the sacred sight on Street View. Now people that can't make it to the site itself can explore it online! Bitcoin has been hitting highs of more than $3,000 per Bitcoin — it’s now at $3,800. If you compare this to January, one Bitcoin was around $1200 — nearly doubling its value in six months. But if you take it back it to 2010, one bitcoin was less than 10 cents each. So if you held on to bitcoin worth the price of a pick-up pizza — you would have $300,000 today... great news for bitcoin investors in 2010... bit of a bummer for everyone else...

Six8 – A live music community. Uber for live entertainment, Airtasker for artists, AirBNB for venues: Six8 is live music entering the sharing economy. Users can sign up as an artist or a host. Artists will be able to create a profile, fit with socials media links, music assets though most importantly; an hourly rate. Hosts can search for artists based on genre, availability, price range or location.

It’s National Reconciliation Week, and if you’ve been getting involved on social media you might have noticed an absence in the Aboriginal flag emoji department. Good news is we could be one step closer to getting it on the keyboard real soon, but how? On Thursday, New Zealand became the 11th country on earth to send a rocket to space... New Zealand - 1; Australia - 0

A computer virus called Wannacrypt, or WannaCry, infected thousands of computers around the globe on Friday. It’s a piece of self-replicating ransomware, which makes users pay money to decrypt their files. If they don’t pay up, the files will be deleted within a week. The developers of the MP3, Fraunhofer IIS, ended its licensing program for the audio format after two decades (it was invented in 1993). So basically software makers who have programs that make MP3s don’t have to pay a license fee to use the format

Facebook has been under fire recently for failing to remove extreme content quick enough — specifically relating to Facebook Live where deaths have been broadcast and recorded. In response to these issues, Facebook will add 3,000 moderators to its community operations team to improve its review process, on top of the 4,500 employees it has already. The thing is... it sounds like an awful job. QR codes were deemed as lame after brands were overusing them every opportunity they got. Now they seem to be making a comeback with Snapchat and Spotify using them as a way of sharing files and expanding connections. Facebook is also working on a rewards system for stores using QR codes. We might see more of them soon... hopefully they will be used smartly and practically.

Australia had it's first metadata breach when the Australian Federal Police admitted last Friday it had illegally accessed the call records of a journalist. What does this mean for us? How much information can they access and is our private information safe? You would’ve seen the images and videos already, but Fyre festival was a “luxury event” set up by Ja Rule and and an entrepreneur by the name of Billy McFarland. But everything that could go wrong went wrong, and people were left stranded at airports, there was barely any food or water, tents weren’t the luxury pads they had paid thousands for. Now the organisers face a $150 million dollar class action lawsuit. Is this the proof we need to show that celebrity instagram influencers are a bad idea?

Tech giants including Elon Musk's Neuralink are trying to connect your brain to computers. LinkedIn is a quiet achiever in the social media world.

Instagram stories are killing snapchat. Oh and remember how excited we were for smartwatches? Well it seems like they're pretty much doomed.

Facebook has started testing an entirely new feed with a subset of its users. Users may have woken up over the weekend checked their facebook feed, and noticed a new rocketship in their features? What’s the deal? Youtube is racing to stop its ads being placed next to hateful content. It’s been facing an advertiser revolt for the past 3 weeks because ads were surfacing on YouTube videos from terrorists and hate-mongers, like the Westboro Baptist Church and neo-nazis.

The UK government wants there to be no place for terrorists to hide, including on WhatsApp :: AirBnB are hitting the tour industry with 'Trips' feature, getting a step closer towards becoming your travel agent.

Youtube has always been a place to 'Broadcast Yourself' especially in the LGBTQ+ community, but over the weekend some of their content was suddenly deemed inappropriate. Several LGBTQ vloggers - Rowan Ellise and Tyler Oakley - said youtube was incorrectly censoring their videos using its 'Restricted Mode', site has addressed the error and offered an apology. Snap Inc. is chasing deals with Australian sporting codes in an effort to monetise it's claimed 4 million daily active users locally- On Monday it announced a partnership with the Australian Football League.

Yesterday, Tesla's Vice President for energy products Lyndon Rive (who is Musk's cousin) said the company could build enough battery storage capacity with its Powerwall 2, to solve lingering energy supply concerns in the state of South Australia, within 100 days. Standard Innovation, the maker of digitally-enabled vibrator the We-Vibe 4 Plus, has learnt the hard way that you shouldn't make data collecting vibrators. On Thursday, it settled a U.S. privacy violation suit to the tune of $3.75 million (A$4.95 million).

At the Mobile World Congress, Nokia showed three new Android phones, but the one that got the most attention was the rebooted Nokia 3310, which is essentially a lowly, cheap feature phone... but... it has snake!! Facebook's reactions just turned one and the company is finally revealing how its revamped like button impacts your News Feed. It turns out the company weighs reactions — love, haha, wow, sad and angry — over "likes" in determining what content to surface in your News Feed.

Less than a month since ride-share company Uber faced a heavy wave of backlash that led to the #deleteuber hashtag - since publishing. According to an essay by a former Uber engineer the company has a big problem with sexism in the workplace. Susan J Fowler has accused Uber of institutional sexism, HR incompetence and organisational disorder. On Friday, the Google-owned video giant announced that it will no longer offer its 30-second pre-roll ad format without a skip button in 2018. Hovever- they will continue to show 15-20 second ads without the option to bypass them.

Ariel Bogel says her last goodbyes to Start Up and introduces Mashable Tech Reporter Johnny Lieu, who will be taking the reigns every Wednesday from now on. Twitter adds anti-abuse feature, then removes it after two hours. The company gets slammed for taking the wrong approach to abuse. Snap Inc, a.k.a. Snapchat is set to go public in one of the biggest tech initial public offerings (IPO) to date. But will it hurt them, like it did with Twitter?

Two Aus men may be facing legal action after they streamed a highly anticipated boxing match on FB Live. (Danny Green v Anthony Mundine on Foxtel). Both streams attracted tens of thousands of viewers. More than 90 technology companies, many of which were founded by and employ thousands of immigrants, have filed an amicus brief opposing Pres Donald Trump's 'Muslim travel ban.'

The hashtag #DeleteUber has been spreading on social media amid protests against Trump's Muslim travel ban. The ride hailing service was accused of "strike breaking" in New York Saturday, while others condemned remarks made by Uber CEO Travis Kalanick indicating he would work with the president. As a country, Australia makes a great petri dish. It has a relatively small population, it's English-speaking and it has an estimated smartphone penetration of 84 percent — all qualities that make it the ideal place for Tinder to test its new features, according to the dating app's founder.

Following Trump's expression of interest in data collection, an encrypted texting app has been designed so you can safely message on your smartphone without the messages content being intercepted and SHEBAH - an Uber alternative run by women and for women exclusively is set to launch in Australia in February, but is it really a good idea?

Lucy and Ariel spoke with Diana Kalkoul and Neda Robat-Meily, the girls behind Winkd- a new LGBTQI dating app scheduled to launch at Mardi Gras.

President Elect Donald Trump invites Silicon Valley tech leaders to Trump Tower, what do they talk about? Plus the role of technology in 2016: the influence on the US Election and the birth of trends like 'Fake News' and #Pizzagate, what were the most talked about topics according to Facebook and Twitter?

Medibank ventures into the Virtual Reality world with an experience designed to relax hospital patients and allow them to escape their hospital environment. Amazon launches a physical store in Seattle with no checkouts which uses sensors, cameras, AI and your Amazon account to track you throughout the store. Plus the Amazon truck designed to transfer massive volumes of data across America.

What happened when Gable Tostee started posting in a 'true crime' Facebook group dedicated to the investigation of the death of Warriena Wright? Plus: Australian banks reach out the ACCC to let them collectively bargain with Apple to access the iPhone's NFC chip, with the intent of removing Apple's share of the vendor fees.

In a Facebook press release, Mark Zuckerberg claimed that it had not influenced the results of the US Election, while also claiming they had positively influenced voter turnout. Did they do either? Meanwhile, the (real) news of the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition crashed the EB games website. Is this the start of the old being new again, even in the technology world?

How do developers introduce novice players to Virtual Reality? Fresh from PAX, Ariel brings news of indie developers working on new VR experiences and the future of VR over the next 30 years. Plus: rumours of Amazon launching in Australia have surfaced again, apparently launching September 2017. Will this finally rid us of the 'Australia Tax?'

"Since 2013, millions of people have turned to Vine to laugh at loops and see creativity unfold. Today, we are sharing the news that in the coming months we’ll be discontinuing the mobile app," Vine wrote in a blog post. But why have they decided to pull the plug? A report by Yfoundations, a policy group that looks at issues affecting young people, suggests that attempts to scare teenagers about the risks of expressing sexuality online are likely to be ineffective.

Much of the internet was brought to a halt Friday as a cyberattack on a company many had previously never heard of brought down many of the most popular online services - including tumblr, twitter and spotify. A juror almost caused a retrial of the 'Tinder Murder' case hours before the verdict because she was instagramming about the trial. What does this mean for the future of social media and public service?

There are so many ways to share disappearing visual stories with our friends. Snapchat stories, Instagram stories, and now Facebook's Messenger Day, which is being trialled in Australia. Cyber security experts have raised concerns about PM Malcolm Turnbull and senior government ministers sending private and confidential info via the WhatsApp.

Workplace is Facebook's big entry into software as a service that offers businesses a network for communication, including a news feed of announcements, events, group and private messaging, and live video. And A survey of more than 5,000 Australians over the age of 18 found that a majority liked the idea of using a driverless vehicle when they were tired, when driving was "boring or monotonous," or if they had consumed alcohol or drugs.

US is objectively behind countries like Australia in digital banking "by whatever metric you choose" (Stripe co founder John Collison), and Everything Google announced at last nights Pixel hardware event.

Ariel brought game designer Mike Brown to talk about the new Forza Horizon 3 game that launched this Tuesday. Whats new with this game? It's set in Australia!

New style of superannuation fund that will invest predominantly in technology is called "the superfund for millenials" and Lucy talks to Ariel about the Wireless Emergency Alert system that sent out a digital WANTED poster to all smartphone users after the New York bombing and wether it does more harm than good.

Instagram is rolling out a comment filter to all Instagram users to stamp out abuse and Samsung set to recall its Galaxy Note7 phones following reports that the devices can overheat and explode.

New Australian laws meaning revenge porn posters could face jail time, accompanied by another look at how the law treats young people who share intimate images with their peers and partners. Lucy is frustrated with rumors that Apple is removing the 3.5mm headphone jack on their new iPhone.