Jane Scearce

Contributor

ABOUT Jane Scearce

Jane is a media studies major and aspiring polymath at Scripps College. Constantly seeking interesting articles with well-presented arguments, or rewriting them more effectively in her head. She enjoys long walks in Skyrim and those little bottles of gin they give you on airplanes.

  • Amazon Wants to Change the TV Ratings Game

    Amazon is breaking the mold of deciding which TV series will be hits and which will flop. Their innovative and revolutionary strategy? Asking the target audiences which shows they want to keep seeing. The professional mistake You might think finding out what your actual audience thinks are the best shows would be the default strategy,…

  • Your Guide to California’s Cell Phone “Kill Switch” Law

    Starting mid-2015, all cellphones sold in the state of California will need to include a built-in device that will enable a phone’s owner to wipe and disable the phone remotely — also known as a “kill switch”. The new law will be the first of it’s kind in the U.S., having finally passed the state’s Senate…

  • How Facebook Controls Your News

    News articles have become a prominent part of the Facebook platform as the social media site pushes to keep its users on their site for needs beyond status updates. The “newsfeed” is now a hub for, well, actual news. An algorithm places news stories on your feed based on what Facebook thinks you like; the…

  • If You Die in This State, Your Heirs Inherit Your Online Accounts

    The future is finally upon us, my friends. No longer bound by the physical world in their efforts to pass on their legacies down the family tree, residents of the state of Delaware can rest easy knowing that should they pass from this world, their children or grandchildren will inherit their Neopets. But all silliness aside, this…

  • Microsoft Takes Aim at Apple in Cheeky ‘Surface Pro 3’ Ads

    Microsoft has been pushing big for its Surface devices since their inception, none more so than their latest edition, the ‘Surface Pro 3′. Starting with the Surface Pro 2 and ramping up with Surface Pro 3, the Windows devices have been increasingly marketed in competition with not just other tablets, but actual laptops. With no…

  • San Diego Comic-Con Sues Local Utah Con over Copyright

    A convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, is being sued by San Diego Comic-Con over alleged copyright infringement of the latter’s name. SDCC claims the Utah convention’s name, Salt Lake Comic Con, violates their copyright by using “comic con” in its name, citing irreparable damages for the convention’s use of the phrase. Lawsuits Over The…

  • ‘Blue Downloader’ App Brings Torrents to iPhone & iPad

    Torrents have an understandably bad rap for being the vessels of pirated or otherwise illegally obtained material, leaving them out of any kind of “legitimate” platforms and devices. But now, thanks to new iOS app called ‘Blue Downloader’, iPhone and iPad users can download torrents right to their devices, all for a cool $2.99 (£1.99)…

  • Hacking Group to Automakers: Let’s “Connect and Collaborate”

    As cars become more and more reliant on their computer chips, consumer groups and security experts have begun to worry about their vulnerability to cyberattacks. It could be a simple hack like using the car’s computer system to unlock a car, or more serious like actually hijacking a car even from a distance. Non-profit Hacking…

  • Bitdefender Internet Security 2015 – Review

    Nigerian princes emailing the elderly for wire transfers and credit card info are no longer the main online security threat. Malware has gotten better at hiding and tricking you or a company’s servers into revealing bits of personal info that can be bought and sold. This is no longer a paranoid scare tactic — this is how…

  • Luxury Model of iPhone 6 Already Available for Pre-Order

    With the iPhone 6 release dated pushed back from the usual summertime announcement to (rumor has it) mid-September, Apple enthusiasts are understandably miffed. No word yet on what tweaks exactly lead to the push-back or when we will know the date of the new model’s lunch. However, you can already pre-order a version of the…

  • Researchers Want to Fight Malaria With iPhones

    Mobile technology isn’t just for the “First World” any more. It’s made banking easier for people in Kenya and Uganda, enhanced political discussion in the Middle East and North African countries, and in general provides a cheaper, more convenient way to be connected for hundreds of thousands of people in countries where even landlines can…

  • Flickr Adds Program to Help Users Seek Licensing Gigs

    Flickr’s popular service allows users to upload their photographic work and have it recognized by a large community, with the ability to specify copyright of your material. There has been no way for users on Flickr to share their content and make a profit, however; you can either share your content under a Creative Commons…

  • William Shatner Takes to Tumbr to Review New Celebrity Facebook App

    Facebook’s new app for celebrities and other public figures has a high profile critic: William Shatner. The former Starfleet captain took to his personal Tumblr yesterday to share his thoughts on the app after downloading it himself; since, after all, it is aimed at people like him. What Shatner came away with was a bad…

  • Facebook Adds “Save” Feature for News Articles

    I’ll be honest, Facebook’s news streaming capability is one of the few things keeping me on the platform any more. It’s another continuously updated source of current events and opinion pieces for news-junkies like myself, and not terribly difficult to cut back if seeing a few of the latest articles on your newsfeed isn’t your…

  • FCC Extends Deadline for Public Comments on Net Neutrality

    The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced yesterday that it will extend the deadline for public comments on a net neutrality proposal. The extension resulted from an overwhelming volume of comments sent in before the initial deadline, said the FCC in an official statement. This Friday (July 18th) is the new deadline to submit comments on the proposed…