Plus the puzzle that was hidden in Windows years ago, and a new project that aims to be a Wikipedia for Terms of Service agreements.

Special Guest: Noah J. Chelliah.

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• Google confirms some of its own services are now getting blocked in Russia over the Telegram Ban — Google has now confirmed to us that its own services are now also being impacted. From what we understand, Google Search, Gmail and push notifications for Android apps are among the products being affected.
• Valve acquires Firewatch developer, Campo Santo - Polygon — Dev team will continue to make its own games
• Amazon Has a Top-Secret Plan to Build Home Robots — The retail and cloud computing giant has embarked on an ambitious, top-secret plan to build a domestic robot, according to people familiar with the plans. Codenamed “Vesta,” after the Roman goddess of the hearth, home and family, the project is overseen by Gregg Zehr, who runs Amazon’s Lab126 hardware research and development division based in Sunnyvale, California.
• Microsoft Developers Hid a Secret Puzzle in Windows Backgrounds as They Knew Images Would Leak — Over the course of numerous builds, the puzzle was developed -- but only one person ever solved it! Over the weekend, Jensen Harris -- a former group program manager of Microsoft Office and Microsoft director leading the team working on the redesign of Windows 8 -- took to Twitter to come clean about the secret puzzle.
• List of Easter eggs in Microsoft products - Wikipedia
• WhatsApp drug dealer convicted using fingerprints taken from photo — Police in South Wales have arrested a drug dealer based on a WhatsApp message with a photograph of the dealer’s hand holding an assortment of pills, according to a report from the BBC.
• Welcome to the Wikipedia for Terms of Service Agreements | WIRED — A website that turns lengthy terms of service agreements into bulleted summaries, and then rates those terms from Class A (very good) to Class F (very bad). It functions as a sort of Wikipedia for terms of service agreements.
• Terms of Service; Didn't Read — “I have read and agree to the Terms” is the biggest lie on the web. We aim to fix that.

And why autonomous boats might be here much sooner than self-driving cars.

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• And now there's ~20 million or so AWS/Google Cloud addresses blocked in Russia. — More on Russia v Telegram v The Cloud in today's briefing: - Russia demands Telegram encryption keys, they refuse - Russia blocks Telegram - Telegram uses AWS + Google Cloud - Russia blocks the cloud
• Twitch is reportedly blocked in Russia right now — Twitch is reportedly blocked in Russia after the country’s state communications regulator announced it was blocking specific IP addresses owned by Amazon and Google.
• Telegram plays down Russian block — claiming no ‘significant’ impact yet | TechCrunch — A court in Russia ordered a block of messaging app Telegram this week but founder Pavel Durov has shrugged off the impact of the ban 24 hours in — claiming the app hasn’t seen “a significant drop in user engagement so far.”
• Regulatory filings indicate a flurry of new iPhone (SE?) models launching soon — Devices typically appear in this database about a month before the products ship. These iPhone references were posted yesterday, suggesting a new iPhone launch will be debuting in early May/June.
• Amazon’s new ‘Alexa Blueprints’ let anyone create custom Alexa skills and responses | TechCrunch — Amazon this morning is introducing “Alexa Blueprints,” a new way for any Alexa owner to create their own customized Alexa skills or responses, without needing to know how to code.
• Autonomous Boats Will Be On the Market Sooner Than Self-Driving Cars — Startups and major firms like Rolls Royce are now looking to automate the seas and help maritime companies ease navigation, save fuel, improve safety, increase tonnage, and make more money.
• Self-driving boats | Amherst | Buffalo Automation
• Reddit now has more active users than Twitter — That’s an increase of more than 30 percent in less than 6 months, and puts the platform in equal 11th place in our new global social media platform ranking (see chart above).
• I Fundamentally Believe That My Time at Reddit Made the World a Worse Place — A conversation with former Reddit product head Dan McComas on the problems of growth as a metric and what Twitter is doing wrong.
• Supreme Court Tosses Out Microsoft Case on Digital Data Abroad - The New York Times — The dispute arose from a federal drug investigation in which prosecutors sought the emails of a suspect stored in a Microsoft data center in Dublin.
• Neova | A Unique Connected Ring For Musicians by Enhancia — Kickstarter — Add musical effects to your play using simple and natural hand gestures. A brand new way to enhance musical performance.