People have become less using online ad blockers.

To find out, the Audience Project surveyed more than 14,000 respondents from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

According to the study, online advertising is still not popular. However, compared to 2018, in all countries except the United States, the share of people who are annoyed by ads on websites and online videos has decreased. For example, in Germany, the number of dissatisfied with video advertising fell from 68% to 63%, and in Norway – from 80% to 63%.

Researchers still can’t explain why people are less likely to block ads. However, they note that this trend has been observed for four years.

Facebook, which owns the social network Instagram, has announced the launch of a new feature that can make Instagram feed with new posts almost endless.

The new feature is to automatically add recommended posts after the user has viewed all the subscription posts. Recommended posts appear after notifying you that the user has reviewed all available new posts.

Recommended publications are selected based on the content liked by the people to whom the user subscribes. In fact, the “supplemented” tape combines automatic recommendations and advertising. Users can hide recommended posts, but only temporarily.

On the morning of August 20, users around the world began reporting about problems with Google systems.
Most crashes were observed in Gmail, YouTube, Drive and Docs. Users could not send emails, upload videos or edit documents. Most failures were recorded in Europe, India, Japan and North America. About two hours after the mass complaints, Google said it was investigating the causes.
Downdetector, a web monitoring company, said it had received more than 2,800 system outages at the peak of the crash. According to them, 60% of users had problems accessing files in Gmail, 20% – could not log in.

Oracle is considering buying part of the assets of the popular service TikTok.

TikTok may be blocked in the United States if it continues to be owned by China’s ByteDance. Oracle is currently in talks with other potential TikTok buyers for a possible joint purchase, including investment firm Sequoia. For now, Oracle may push Microsoft, the only potential buyer, to confirm its intentions publicly.

The owner of Oracle is the only Silicon Valley tycoon who openly supports Donald Trump. Billionaire Larry Allison raised funds for the incumbent president on his own estate.

During a social distance, shipbuilder Adam Karpenski in Seattle came up with the idea of ​​renting a floating hot tub.

During the coronavirus pandemic, such a tourist attraction on Lake Union is very popular in the United States. The hot tub can accommodate up to six people. It is equipped with an electric motor and an on-board heater. The water temperature in the jacuzzi does not exceed 40 degrees Celsius.

Guests control the boat with a joystick. It can reach speeds of up to 8 kilometers per hour. You will need a driver’s license to get permission to operate a whirlpool boat. The cost of the trip is $ 350 for two hours. Boats on Lake Union can be rented all year from 9 am to 11 pm daily.

Facebook has begun implementing its plan to integrate chat into Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.

The company will soon merge private messages into Instagram and Facebook Messenger. The company believes that this will improve the ability to “communicate with friends who use Facebook.” The changes will also affect the design – the logo of the paper airplane will be replaced by the Messenger logo.

The update will also make chats brighter and allow you to reply to messages with a single touch by simply swiping your finger over them. In this way, Facebook wants to “create a more private social space where you can access all your friends.”

The Belgian company “Kamp C” has completed the construction of the first two-storey building using 3D printing technology.

The printing was carried out with the help of Europe’s largest cement printer BOD2 from COBOD in 15 days. Construction began in November 2019, when the printer was placed on a construction site and assembled using a crane. Once launched, BOD2 runs completely autonomously, but one person on the computer must monitor the process.

In the future, Kamp C plans to lease a “printed” house for office space, and possibly as housing. Kamp C also reported that one of the partner companies is developing a way to build pools using 3D printing.

Telegram Messenger has officially introduced the video calling feature, it is already available on gadgets with Android and iOS operating systems.

“2020 has shown that the world needs reliable tools for video communication, and today we are launching an alpha version of video calling in the Android and iOS application. To start a video call, click the button with the camera icon in the user’s profile”, – the company said in a statement.

You can switch between a voice call and a video call during a call. You can also chat in parallel. In addition, Telegram claims that calls are securely protected by encryption, which is used for secret chats and voice calls.

Venetian startup 2045Tech has created a Floome breathalyzer that connects to a smartphone.

The device uses patented breathing sampling technology with the same fuel cell sensors that police use in sobriety tests. Floome connects to any iPhone, Android or Windows smartphone via a standard headphone jack.

The breathalyzer offers advice on how to call a taxi, and alarm-reminders to drivers who have exceeded the statutory limit when checking. Drivers can also use Floome to alert their friends about how drunk they are by sending them photos and test results.

Microsoft has fully introduced the folding smartphone Surface Duo and launches it for sale.
 

Microsoft Surface Duo has a complex design, but it has not one but two screens, which makes the process of its production easier. Microsoft Surface Duo is equipped with two 5.6-inch displays with a resolution of 1800×1350 pixels. When unfolded, they form a single screen, called PixelSense Fusion, measuring 8.1 inches by 2700 x 1800 pixels.

 
The smartphone has an outdated Snapdragon 855 chip, 6 GB of RAM, a battery with a capacity of 3566 mAh, 11-megapixel camera. It has no NFC, 5G, optical stabilization, stereo speakers. Microsoft Surface Duo is equipped with 256 GB of flash memory. The body is 4.8 mm thick when open and 9.6 mm when closed.
 

The cost of the smartphone is 1400 dollars.

The Google Phone Dialing App has become compatible with most Android smartphones.

Google Phone first appeared in the Google store in the spring, but it worked on a limited number of devices. Now the owners of smartphones of different models manufactured by ASUS, OPPO, Samsung, OnePlus, TCL, Nubia, Essential and other vendors have the opportunity to install the application.

You can download the app from the Google Play Store, but you need to sign up for Google Beta to work properly. Also, keep in mind that some features, such as displaying a portrait in full screen, may not be available for some devices, and recording for beta may not work in some regions.

The Pepsi brand has launched playlists with recipes on Spotify.

The names of the tracks in a certain playlist are a list of ingredients for popular Ukrainian dishes. Among them are dumplings and the famous Kyiv cutlet. The company says that because quarantine makes it difficult to enjoy the dishes of the world, so you can at least listen them.

It will be recalled that the service for listening to music from Sweden Spotify is now represented in 92 countries around the world. He also appeared in Ukraine on July 15. At the end of July 2020, the company had almost 300 million active users, of which about 138 million were subscribers.