Tech Break (Video)

Facebook says it will no longer allow advertisers to limit the reach of their housing, employment or credit-related ads to what Facebook calls a user's "ethnic affinity." The decision comes after users, law enforcement, and the Congressional Black caucus said Facebook's actions violated the Fair Housing Act. Facebook is notoriously secret about the inner workings of its advertising and profiling algorithms work, but a few weeks ago this policy came to light after Julia Angwin, a reporter at Pro Publica, took out a real estate ad and was able to exclude those that Facebook has labeled as having African American and Asian ethnic affinities. Facebook approved the ad in less than 15 minutes. Initially defensive of its actions, the company published a blog post today explaining that going forward it will build tools to detect and automatically disable the use of ethnic affinity marketing for certain types of ads and offer more clarification and education around the issue.

For the full episode, visit twit.tv/tnt/1640.

Hosts: Jason Howell and Megan Morrone

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The founder of Emojipedia.com and member of the Unicode Consortium, Jeremy Burge, talks with Leo Laporte and Iain Thomson about the new 51 emojis added to Unicode 10, the process of making emojis, and their evolution.

Watch the full episode at twit.tv/tnss/79

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Iain Thomson

Guest: Jeremy Burge

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Kyle Wiens from iFixit joins Jason Howell and Megan Morrone to show off what a disassembled 2016 MacBook Pro looks like, and discuss how difficult it is to repair.

For the full episode, visit twit.tv/tnt/1639.

Hosts: Jason Howell and Megan Morrone

Guest: Kyle Wiens

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Jason Howell and Megan Morrone talk to Sam Machkovech from Ars Technica about the NES Classic Edition. One of the upcoming holiday season's hottest gaming gifts isn't some cutting edge console, it's a blast from the past. It looks like everyone is trying to get their hands on the NES Classic. We talk about what's going on under the hood. Is this just another emulator? Is Nintendo telling us to relive our childhood of sitting on the floor to play games by providing such a short controller cable? Nintendo also released the manuals to the games online.

Full episode can be seen at twit.tv/tnt/1640

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Brian Chee and Curt Franklin discuss the future of the AT&T/ Time Warner merger, and if Donald Trump would attempt to "build a wall" between the two companies. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's position could also come into question.

Full episode can be seen at twit.tv/twiet/215

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Allyn Malventano and Patrick Norton discuss Shure's KSE1500 electrostatic earphone system with sound-isolating technology and a high, premium price tag.

Full episode can be seen at twit.tv/twich/389

Hosts: Patrick Norton and Allyn Malventano

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Nathan Olivarez-Giles from the Wall Street Journal joins Megan Morrone and Jason Howell to discuss his experience with the newly released Daydream View VR headset for Google Pixel phones.

Full episode available at twit.tv/tnt/1639

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Scott Wilkinson and Don Stewart talk about the use of Stewart Filmscreens in professional TV studio situations.

For the full episode, visit twit.tv/htg/329

Host: Scott Wilkinson

Guest: Don Stewart

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No longer must you deal with Apple's CarPlay; Android Auto now runs on your phone so you can drive a bit more safely.

For the full episode visit twit.tv/arena/123.

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Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott talk about Steve Ballmer's comments on the iPhone and how it was too expensive. Much of what he claimed turned out to be fairly correct, and Apple changed the product addressing his complaints.

Full episode can be seen at twit.tv/ww/491

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