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Tag: stories

  • Meet Lori Huang: The Woman Behind Billionaire Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s Success.

    Meet Lori Huang: The Woman Behind Billionaire Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s Success.

    Lori Huang, known for her steadfast support of her husband Jensen since their college days, plays a vital role alongside him in the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation, which focuses on various public health initiatives. This partnership dates back to Oregon State University, where in a male-dominated engineering class, she shone brightly as one of only three women among 250 students.

    At the age of 17, Jensen vividly remembers their first meeting: “I was the youngest kid in school. I walked up to her and I said, ‘Do you want to see my homework?’” Their bond grew from there into a weekly study session, during which Jensen boldly proclaimed that he would become a CEO by age 30—a promise he fulfilled with the founding of Nvidia in 1993.

    Both Lori and her time at Oregon State significantly influenced Jensen’s career trajectory. Reflecting on his education, he remarked, “I enjoyed computers growing up, but Oregon State University opened my eyes to the magic behind them.” It was at this institution that he first fell in love with technology, mentored by exceptional professors who ignited his passion. “Everything I have learned over the past decades is built on the strong foundation I gained here,” he added.

    While Lori prefers to lead a private life, her philanthropic spirit is well recognized. The couple’s philanthropic efforts include a staggering US$60 million donation in 2023 and US$66 million in 2022, primarily through their charitable vehicle, The Huang Foundation. Notably, they contributed US$10 million to Oregon State University and US$900,000 to the American Friends of Magen David Adom.

    A spokesperson for the Huangs explained, “The Huang Foundation supports higher education, public health, and STEM initiatives across the U.S., alongside local community organizations in the San Francisco Bay area. By taking a long-term approach, the foundation ensures that its resources will continue to support critical causes well into the future, maximizing its charitable impact over time.”

    The couple shares two children: Madison, who serves as a director of marketing at Nvidia, and Spencer, a senior product manager. Jensen humorously attributes his iconic black leather jacket look to his family’s influence: “I’m happy that my wife and my daughter dress me.”

    After four decades of partnership, Lori remains Jensen’s steadfast supporter. Reports illustrate their foresight in wealth management, as they’ve been strategizing to shield their assets from estate taxes since at least 2012. Today, Forbes estimates Jensen’s fortune at an astounding US$113 billion.

    Questions & Answers

    What is the significance of the Huang Foundation?
    The Huang Foundation plays a pivotal role in supporting higher education, public health, and STEM initiatives throughout the U.S., emphasizing long-term impact and community engagement.

    How did Lori and Jensen Huang first meet?
    The couple met at Oregon State University when Lori, an engineering student, caught Jensen’s attention—in a charmingly nerdy way—by asking if she wanted to see his homework.

    What are the educational and professional paths of their children?
    Their daughter Madison is a director of marketing at Nvidia, while their son Spencer contributes as a senior product manager at the same company, showcasing a legacy of innovation in the family.

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  • Instagram tests Stories with multiple audience lists

    Instagram tests Stories with multiple audience lists

    Instagram’s Stories is one of the standout features on the social media platform. Data shows that more than 500 million people engage with Stories daily, and a whopping 85% of all Instagram users post a Story every single day. Considering the platform boasts over 2.3 billion active users, that’s quite a substantial number, don’t you think? It’s understandable if you’re not keen on having your Story visible to everyone, especially after seeing these staggering figures. The good news is there might be a solution on the horizon.

    Instagram is currently testing the capability to share Stories with multiple audience lists. The goal is to allow you to share Stories with smaller, more specific groups, providing better control over who gets to see your Stories. Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s head, shared details about testing this new feature on his Instagram broadcast channel.

    Previously, Instagram introduced the Close Friends feature, allowing you to share Stories exclusively with a select group of your closest friends, keeping them hidden from the wider audience. To use the Close Friends feature, you first need to specify who you want in your Close Friends list. You have complete control over this list since no one can request to be added.

    The new feature being tested goes beyond the Close Friends concept, enabling users to create multiple lists, not just one for close friends. For instance, you can have a list exclusively for your classmates, another for your co-workers, or one for family members. This way, you have the power to decide who sees what, emphasizing the importance of privacy (after all, not everyone wants to share their moments with over 2.3 billion people, right?).

    A recent report revealed that Meta used public Facebook and Instagram posts to train parts of its new Meta AI virtual assistant. If this raises concerns, using features like Close Friends or the upcoming one being tested might be a wise choice. The new AI assistant is already rolling out to WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.

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  • Telegram comes to its senses and makes Stories available to everyone

    Telegram comes to its senses and makes Stories available to everyone

    If Telegram is one of the messaging apps you use then you probably already know that a little less than a month ago it finally got a long-awaited feature: Stories. Besides being one of the last messaging apps to adopt Stories, Telegram even made the arguably bad decision of putting them behind a paywall.

    Okay, to be precise, Stories weren’t exactly paywalled. While those with a Premium Telegram subscription could create and upload them, others could only watch. Now if that is not blatantly greedy we don’t know what is. Thankfully, the company has come to its senses and announced that everyone will be able to post Stories on their profile from now on.

    But wait, isn’t this change unfair to those who have already paid for the $4.99 Premium subscription plan? Well, no. The rest of the story-related perks that came with a Premium subscription are still exclusive to it. Among these is the ability to go into stealth mode, which allows you to watch other people’s Stories without them knowing (creepy if you ask us…).

    Other Premium features with Telegram Stories include longer captions, permanent view history (meaning you can see who’s viewed your stories even after they expire), showing up higher on other people’s feeds, and an increased cap of up to 100 stories. Outside of Stories, a Premium membership also gets rid of all ads on the platform, and enables larger file uploads and faster downloads, and transcriptions.

    Uploading a Story on Telegram is quite straightforward and similar to competitors like Instagram. You can tag other people, use photos and videos from your library or directly shoot from the app. Telegram’s twist on the format comes in the form of customizable expiration times. You can choose between 6, 12, 24, and 48 hours.

    If you paid that 5 bucks just to be able to upload Stories on Telegram, now is the time to unsubscribe. Just make sure you have your app updated so you get the feature.

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  • Instagram adds more tools to its Reels arsenal

    Instagram adds more tools to its Reels arsenal

    According to Instagram, using Reels can significantly increase the number of your followers on the platform. The social media says that, during a 60-day period, public accounts with over 10,000 followers that uploaded at least five Reels got more followers than those in the same category who did not post Reels at all. And, to help you make even more amazing short videos, Instagram announced that it is adding some new features to its Reels.

    You can now add sound effects to your Instagram short videos. As the social media shared, you can use its refreshed collection of sound effects to “inject humor” into a Reel or “help your audience get into their emotions while watching one.” Furthermore, if the video is at least five seconds long, you can now record your voice-over and add the recording to your Reel. However, Instagram warns that others could use the sound bite as well, so take that in mind if you decide to record your voice.

    The social media also announced that you can now use some of the Stories stickers in your Reels. You can now add:

    • Polls to let your followers vote on a subject
    • Quiz which lets you, as Instagram said, “put your audience’s skills to the test”
    • Emoji Slider that lets your followers show how they feel about something

    With this update, Instagram has also extended the length of its short videos. You can now “tell deeper stories with 90-second Reels.” And to make it even easier for you to fill these 90 seconds, Instagram now lets you use templates to create a Reel by using another one. The app “pre-loads the audio and clip placeholders,” and all you have to do is “add and trim your unique clips.”

  • An Instagram Stories update limits the visibility of excessive posts

    An Instagram Stories update limits the visibility of excessive posts

    Instagram has rather silently started implementing changes to their signature Stories feature. A limited number of users have already encountered the new Stories layout, which reduces the visibility of excessive posts.

    At this point, Instagram has become a cultural phenomenon. The social media platform has revolutionized the way people interact and has pushed forward a new philosophy on how we stay connected.

    Over the years, one of the most definitive aspects of Instagram has been Instagram Stories. The feature is rather straightforward – it allows users to share posts, which can only be seen for 24 hours and afterwards they disappear.

    Usually, content that does not warrant a dedicated post on the Feed is usually shared via a Story. At present, users can share up to 100 Stories at the same time. While this number is likely to remain the same, Instagram is now limiting the number of Stories that will receive direct visibility through the dedicated Stories Bar.

    Normally, users can simply tap away and view all Stories shared by the accounts they follow until moving on to the next user automatically. With this newest change, users will only see a maximum of 3 Stories before carrying on to the next account they follow.

    Users will still have the option to see all Stories of a particular account, but that will require tapping on a dedicated “Show All” button which will then display posts beyond the first three.

    The implications of this are rather obvious. This will allow users to quickly skim the Instagram Stories of the accounts they follow, without having to spend an excessive amount of time on a single spammy account.

    A problem arises when one considers how creators use Instagram. As a group, they rely on (sometimes many) Stories in order to promote their content and gain revenue. For the time being, there is no clear timetable of when the Story layout update will be rolled out. It is still theoretically possible for some tweaks to be implemented.

    If the change does get a mass release, it is bound to have an impact on how everyone perceives Instagram Stories. Users will have to think carefully about how they will get the most of their three posts.

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  • Snapchat will introduce ads to Snap Stars Stories

    Snapchat will introduce ads to Snap Stars Stories

    Snapchat announced that it has begun testing mid-roll ads that would appear in the Stories of Snap Stars, who are select creators with a large following, such as public figures or celebrities. According to Snapchat, this new feature will enable Snapchat creators to make more money because, for the first time, Snapchat will share the profits from the ads with its creators.

    In its announcement, Snapchat said, “Stories lower the barrier to content creation and engagement, and we believe placing ads within a Snap Star’s public Story will allow an easier path to financial success.”

    At the moment, beta testing of Snapchat’s mid-roll ads feature is only available to select Snap Stars located in the US. However, Snap Stars who have been left out of the beta testing participants won’t have to wait. Snapchat said it will introduce mid-roll ads to all Snap Stars Stories later this year.

    Currently, there are available ads on Snapchat, but Snapchat doesn’t share the profits from the advertisements with anyone. If you’re a Snapchat user, you’ve probably noticed adverts appearing in between or after your friends’ Stories and in Snapchat’s Discover section.

    Although Snapchat expects the upcoming mid-roll ads feature for Stories to generate profits, the fact is that people don’t spend that much time anymore watching Stories on Snapchat. Even so, the CEO of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, said in a report to investors that users are spending less time watching Stories and more time watching short videos on Spotlight, Snapchat’s equivalent of TikTok.

    It remains to be seen if Snapchat’s mid-roll advertisements option for famous people’s Stories would actually enable an easier road to financial success for Snapchat and its popular creators, or if it will be unable to compete with the current popularity of short TikTok-like videos.

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  • You can now control your Ray-Ban Stories glasses with your voice

    You can now control your Ray-Ban Stories glasses with your voice

    Meta and Ray-Ban’s Stories glasses just received their latest software update, which broadens up the voice capabilities of their product.

    The newest Stories glasses update enables you to control them with your voice. You can tell the built-in voice assistant to send texts and make calls using Messenger.

    The Ray-Ban Stories assistant can now also read the received messages. Another new feature introduced with the latest update is the ability to use your voice to control the audio playback. You can now pause, play, and control the volume by telling the voice assistant what you want it to do.

    To use the voice control of the Ray-Ban Stories, you will have to say “Hey Facebook” first and then continue with the command.

    Before the latest update, the only way to control the Ray-Ban Stories was to use the built-in control panel. Because the glasses have two built-in cameras, three microphones, and two open-ear micro speakers, you could use them to take videos, photos, make calls, and listen to music.

    More updates to the Ray-Ban Stories are coming in 2022, said Mark Zuckerberg in a post on Facebook when announcing the new update.

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  • Instagram to bring mods to Lives, ‘likes’ for Stories

    Instagram to bring mods to Lives, ‘likes’ for Stories

    Instagram is going to be adding some welcome new features to the platform in the coming future, according to recent findings from Italian self-proclaimed reverse-engineer and mobile developer Alessandro Paluzzi.

    Paluzzi has always enjoyed tearing down beta APK releases of Instagram, Snapchat, as well as other apps to get an early glimpse of future updates, and this time is no exception. His most recent foray into Instagram’s code has revealed that Instagram is about to implement a “like” option for Instagram Stories, among other things.

    Until now, Instagram has only given users the ability to react in a number of ways to people’s Insta Stories, which is different from a regular thumbs up or alike. By swiping up from the bottom of a Story screen, for example, you could “quick react,” or choose from a predetermined group of emojis to react with.

    You could also react to the Story by sending a GIF or a written message. However, what is probably the most basic function of all—being able to “smash that like button”—has surprisingly taken this long to appear. For the record, once the Stories have been up for 24 hours, any likes or reactions sent disappear along with them.

    Aside from the ability to “like” Stories, Paluzzi has also unearthed an upcoming ability for Instagram “Live” broadcast hosts to add moderators to their streams, to monitor the feed and keep the chat in check.

    Reportedly, hosts will only be able to have one moderator per Live video. This person will have to be chosen from the “Who’s Watching” list, and will receive full permission to moderate comments (naturally), as well as turn questions on/off and manage requests to go live.

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  • Instagram introduces new security feature against hackers

    Instagram introduces new security feature against hackers

    Instagram is taking a powerful new step to combat account hacking and malicious activity on their social media platform. If you yourself haven’t experienced your Instagram account getting compromised, you probably know at least a couple of friends who have. It’s a fairly widespread phenomenon, as unpleasant as it may sound, and it’s about time something is done about it.

    As of Tuesday, Instagram is introducing a new feature on the platform called Security Checkup, which is aimed to maximize account security and facilitate recovery for anyone whose personal account may be at risk.

    No matter whether they have already been compromised or are simply vulnerable in some way, Security Checkup will prompt users to go through all the necessary steps to secure their account, which includes updating necessary profile information and account settings.

    In a recent news post, Instagram announced that “Security Checkup will guide people, whose accounts may have been hacked, through the steps needed to secure them. This includes checking login activity, reviewing profile information, confirming the accounts that share login information and updating account recovery contact information such as phone number or email.”

    Even if you haven’t necessarily been hacked, Security Checkup will prompt you to take all the important measures to ensure there is an infinitesimal chance of that ever happening in the future.

    Instagram already strongly encourages you to have two-factor authentication, which drastically decreases the chances of that and can be easily set up by going to Profile > Settings > Security > Two-factor authentication.

    With 2FA enabled, anytime there is a login attempt from an unrecognized location, you’ll be immediately alerted with the option to approve or deny the request from your personal device. Instagram also keeps track of all devices which have recently logged into your Instagram, and which can be viewed by going to Settings > Security > Login Activity. From there, you can remotely log out of any devices you don’t recognize on the list.

    You should also make sure your e-mail and phone number are the ones you are using currently, as keeping that info up to date will ensure smooth verification should any suspicious activity be detected.

    Instagram also emphasizes that one of the most common ways in which malicious parties gain entry into personal accounts is through impersonating Instagram itself, and sending out DM’s pretending they are working for the platform.

    “They may tell you that your account is at risk of being banned, that you are violating our policies around intellectual property, or that your photos are being shared elsewhere,” the post warns. These are apparently fairly common tactics scammers use in an effort to bully people into sharing their login credentials.

    Instagram stresses that it will never, ever try to contact users of the platform via Direct Messages. This means that if you see such a message claiming it’s from Instagram or asking for any personal info, you should automatically know it is malicious and immediately report the message to Instagram and block the account.

    • To report an Instagram post, tap on the three dots appearing at the top right
    • To report a message, tap and hold on it until a menu appears
    • To report an account, go to the profile and tap on the three dots at the top right

    If Instagram ever needs to contact you for any reason, rather than DM-ing you, they can reach you through an “Emails from Instagram” tab in the app’s settings. That is “the only place you will find direct and authentic communication from Instagram on the app,” the company says.

    Thanks to some new updates to the Support Inbox on Instagram, you can now easily view the status of any and all messages, posts, or accounts you have reported, and find out whether or not Instagram has taken any action. You can also keep track of your own posts’ status, to see if they are breaking any rules—and if they are, you can directly repeal them from there.

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  • Instagram is getting an Exclusive Stories feature

    Instagram is getting an Exclusive Stories feature

    Instagram has been busy with a string of initiatives lately to boost its social media platform and capitalize on monetization techniques. The latest of these is a new “Exclusive Stories” feature, which was discovered by reverse engineer and full-stack Android developer Alessandro Paluzzi. The code Paluzzi found shows the layout of the future option to post paywalled content, much like Twitter’s upcoming Super Follows feature. This will allow certain Instagram users to deliver paid content to fans who are paying a regular fee for access to it.

    Although Instagram hasn’t made any official announcements regarding Exclusive Stories, they’ve acknowledged that it is something they’re working on after news of Paluzzi’s discovery spread. Public testing hasn’t started yet, nor have any details been released, as Instagram still seems to be preparing for an effective launch.

    Тhe leaked screenshots of the “Exclusive Stories” feature show an advanced stage of development, which means that it’s sure to arrive to the platform sometime in the near future.

    As per the screenshots, these paywalled posts will be set apart from regular stories by a marked purple color. And if you haven’t paid your dues to the creator yet, you will see a message across the story stating that “Only members of x can see this story.” Naturally, these exclusive stories will not be able to be screenshotted even by paid members.

    Creators of Exclusive Stories will be prompted to share their story as a Highlight as well, so that “fans always have something to see when they join.”

    There is currently no other information on Exclusive Stories circulating beyond this.

    Alessandro Paluzzi has also caught on to a “collectibles” NFT feature, the details around which are even less clear as of yet. Essentially, it’s another way to allow Instagram users to sell certain virtual goods (NFTs, or non-fungible tokens) in exchange for money, increasing Instagram’s revenue as well.

  • Instagram gains new captions sticker for Stories in latest update

    Instagram gains new captions sticker for Stories in latest update

    Instagram users will be happy to know that the captions feature has been expanded to Stories. Previously only available in IGTV and the Threads app, captions have now been added to Stories and Reels to provide users with a better experience.

    You may not always be somewhere where you want your sound on, yet you still want to see what your friends and creators are posting. With captions, people can now express themselves in a more effortless yet still meaningful way, and their audience can watch and still engage.

    A new captions sticker is now rolling out to Instagram users on both Android and iOS users. The captions sticker automatically transcribes speech in videos, but it’s only available in “English and English-speaking countries” for the time being. However, the plan is to make captions available to other languages and countries, Instagram confirmed, although the social network didn’t offer an ETA.

    The text displayed in Stories can be customized by adjusting various aspects, such as the style and color. Users can even edit words if they find any spelling or punctuation mistakes. Unfortunately, the size of the captions can’t be adjusted at this time, but you switch to a different background sticker to make the text easier to see.

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  • You’ll soon be able to save Instagram Stories as drafts

    You’ll soon be able to save Instagram Stories as drafts

    Post drafts have been part of Instagram for years, but the useful feature has never made its way to the app’s popular Stories section. Soon that will change, as Instagram itself announced on rival platform Twitter.

    Instead of being forced to choose between posting Stories immediately or saving them to your device for later, an upcoming Instagram update will add the option for all users to save Stories drafts inside the app.

    That means you’ll be able to take your photo or video, add the stickers and filters of your choice, and save the Story for later. When you come back to it, you’ll be able to post it straight away or make some more edits. Of course, scrapping the draft is always an option.

    Instagram hasn’t shown off the draft UI, but it didn’t have to. Mobile developer and leaker Alessandro Paluzzi uncovered the unreleased Stories draft feature and posted a screenshot on Twitter.

    The feature’s interface is, unsurprisingly, quite simple. Before exiting Stories, users will be given the option of discarding the post they’re working on or saving it inside the app as a draft.

    If you have some drafts saved, you’ll need to swipe up to open up the new drafts area. As with regular posts, it sits above the camera roll timeline.

  • Instagram working on TikTok-like vertical Stories feed

    Instagram working on TikTok-like vertical Stories feed

    Instagram borrowed the short-form video format from TikTok and rebranded it as Reels. Now, the Facebook-owned platform is looking to clone another one of TikTok’s ideas.

    The social media giant has announced that it’s in the process of testing a TikTok-like vertical feed for Instagram Stories, a feature that was rather ironically borrowed from rival Snapchat.

    Alessandro Paluzzi was the first to spot the new feature and his screenshots reveal a fairly simple UI that informs users about the new ability to scroll vertically to view Stories.

    Instagram, which confirmed the feature’s development to TechCrunch, is probably planning to prioritize videos over photos moving forward, hence the updated Stories feed.

    Adam Mosseri, the Head of Instagram, recently implied that Reels and IGTV videos could be merged into a single content format alongside regular videos. After all, most users likely don’t know the difference. This would leave Instagram with a much cleaner and, more importantly, clearer UI for users to navigate.

  • Instagram announces ads will be served to users Explore feed

    Instagram announces ads will be served to users Explore feed

    Instagram has just confirmed it will bring ads to your Explore feed. As one of the go-to features for Instagram users who search for places, shops and connect with people businesses and creators, Explore looks like a great monetization tool.

    According to Instagram, more than 50% accounts on its social network use Explore every month to see photos and videos related to their interests from accounts they aren’t following. Apparently, the company considers brands an important part of the Instagram experience for its users, which is why over the next few months, it will introduce ads in Explore feed.

    Instagram says it will release ads in Explore “slowly and thoughtfully,” so not everyone will see them at the same time. Here is how it works for users: after tapping on a photo or video in Explore, you may see ads as part of your browsing experience just like in the main feed.

    For advertisers, it’s quite obvious that this is an opportunity to reach larger audiences in Explore. And they will be able to do that by extending their campaigns with a simple opt-in. So, there you have it, folks, expect to start seeing ads in your Explore feed pretty soon.

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  • Spotify introduces Instagram-like Stories

    Spotify introduces Instagram-like Stories

    Back in 2016, Spotify teamed up with song lyrics database Genius to bring “Behind the lyrics” annotations to the Spotify app. They appeared as cards and displayed interesting tidbits about various songs, sourced from the Genius platform. Now, Spotify has decided to outright launch a dedicated “Storylines” feature that allows the artists themselves to share behind-the-scenes insights on their songs.

    Similar to Instagram Stories, Spotify’s implementation gives artists complete freedom to share interesting facts about the process of making songs. Storyline cards will appear peeking from the bottom of the Now Playing screen, allowing you to pull up on the card and read it while listening to the song. The card will disappear after some time, though you can stop it from going away by pressing and holding on the screen. Spotify Storylines may be made up of numerous cards containing text, lyrics highlights, and images. Tapping the right side of a card will move to the next part of the story while tapping the left will go back.

    Storylines are going live in the latest update for the Spotify app (version v8.5.5.853, to be exact). Seeing as how the feature is still in its infancy, not many artists seem to be using it. Give it a couple of weeks, though, and you’re sure to see those cards start popping up in songs all over the place.

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