AT&T's new ad campaign addresses the casualties of text driving

We see people texting while driving every day and some of us are guilty of sneaking a peek at our devices or even trying to send out responses while behind the wheel. AT&T's latest ad campaign titled 'Drop Your Weapon,' shows just how lethal text driving with statistics that prove the practice kills more people than war.

The ads show that there have 4,491 US casualties in the Iraq War between 2003 and 2014. This number is superceded by deaths due to text-driving exceed 33,000 within the same period. The big difference is that text-driving deaths could have been avoided if someone just waited until they were parked or safe to send a text.

New technologies like hands-free headsets and voice control on newer cars assist it remaining connected but they don't remove the root cause of accidents which is distracted driving. How many more people have to die unnecessarily before we realize that when driving a vehicle, all our attention should be focused on the road ahead as well as the other cars and people around us.

Source: Design Taxi

Facebook Messenger has over 800 million monthly users now

Whether you like Facebook Messenger or not, a lot of you use it. Facebook recently announced that the messaging service now has over 800 million monthly active users, which puts Facebook’s messaging platform closer to WhatsApp’s 900 million user mark that they hit back in September. Facebook has worked on innovating the service last year and introduced new features like video calling and bringing businesses and customers together with Businesses on Messenger.

What’s in store for Messenger in 2016? Facebook’s Vice President of Messaging Products David Marcus didn’t go into specifics but one of the things is they seem to still be working on Facebook’s AI-based virtual assistant, M, and they’re developing how to better interaction on the service. “At Messenger we’re thinking about how we can help you interact with businesses or services to buy items, order rides, purchase airline tickets, and talk to customer service in truly frictionless and delightful ways. It is so much easier to do everything in one place that has the context of your last interactions, as well as your identity (no need to ever login), rather than downloading apps that you’ll never use again and jumping around from one app to another.” Marcus said.

Source: Facebook + Mashable

Twitter’s stock hits an all-time low

Things aren’t looking good for Twitter. The stock price of the company hit below US$20 per share for the first time in its history. The news comes three days after CEO Jack Dorsey announced the company was exploring a 10,000-character limit instead of the existing 140-character limit. This should allow you to send out tweets of over 1,000 words with spaces between words and punctuation. For comparison, US President John F Kennedy’s inaugural speech was 1,366 words and it’ll be 1.5 times longer than America’s Declaration of Independence. Traders seem to not like the idea, even if there is no word yet if this’ll happen.

It’s going to be a tough road ahead for Dorsey and his team. Recent figures from Statista show Twitter’s user numbers have hit a plateau late last year, even if they’re trying out new ways to get new users. On the same front, Facebook and Instagram users still seem to grow strongly.

Source: The Next Web

Uber celebrates its billionth ride

Disruptive transport service and app Uber recently completed its billionth ride in London, England. The company, which is quite remarkable for a company that was launched in 2010 and is now operating across the globe.

Uber has been met with resistance in a number of countries, including right here in Toronto, Canada where it has faced off against traditional taxi services. Despite these challenges, Uber has a valuation of US $56 billion plus a sustained momentum due to the convenience and general reliability. Uber allows subscribers to the app to instantly find various types of taxis, SUVs or limousines and payments are handled via the app which also serves as a rating system for both riders and passengers. Uber has also launched UberEats, which aims to change the way food delivery is done in certain cities.

Source: Engadget via AutoBlog