TED, the organisation behind those viral TED Talks, has partnered with Clubhouse to bring TED speakers to the live social audio app. The first show, ‘Thank Your Ass Off’, will launch today with A. J. Jacobs, an author and TED speaker who has spoken about trying to thank everyone involved in making his morning coffee and living a year of his life following the Bible as literally as possible, reported The Hollywood Reporter. He will be joined by Clubhouse creator and former music industry executive Mir Harris, where the duo will invite guests and other Clubhouse members to express their gratitude for the unsung heroes in their lives, as well as engage with listeners to answer questions. Other shows and TED speakers participating in the Clubhouse partnership will be announced at a later date, the companies said.
A Clubhouse and TED partnership has been imminent, especially since Clubhouse hired TED’s former head of conferences, Kelly Stoetzel, to oversee thought leadership programming in May. “For nearly forty years TED has brought the world’s preeminent ideas, imaginations and voices to audiences,” Stoetzel said in a statement. Stoetzel added, “This partnership will bring those minds into a dialogue with the millions of creators who make up the Clubhouse community.”
“TED’s mission has always been to share ideas and foster discussion around them,” Carla Zanoni, TED’s director of audience development, said. “When ideas and people come together to engage and debate, that’s when the real impact happens,” Zanoni added.
WhatsApp rolls out disappearing messages feature to iOS beta users
Months after testing the new feature, the instant messaging app WhatsApp has rolled out the disappearing messages feature titled ‘view once’ to iOS beta users. The new feature is similar to snaps on Snapchat, and according to Mashable, the attached images or videos will disappear after being viewed, which may prove good for confidential business-related chats. Users, who want to find out if the feature is available to them, should look for an explanatory pop-up next time they send an image or clip. Reportedly, users will also see a blue-and-white ‘1’ icon in the caption text box. The feature has already rolled to WhatsApp beta testers on Android. WABetaInfo reported that new messages will automatically disappear from a device, and also from a recipient’s device once opened. After the deletion, a text reading ‘Opened’ will occur. Additional details like when it was delivered and seen could be found through the Message Info option. Also, the setting will not affect messages sent or received prior to activation. WABetaInfo reported that the new feature currently has some drawbacks. For instance, a recipient can screenshot his or her phone to stay the image beyond the auto-delete. Additionally, if you have read receipts disabled, the sender can still see whether you’ve viewed a photograph or video. And, blocked contacts can still see single-use attachments if they’re a part of a standard group.
As with any fleeting function, WhatsApp encourages people to proceed with caution. It’s still possible to screenshot, copy, or take a photo of content before it disappears, so think twice before sending embarrassing photos, awkward sexts, and deciding to have sensitive discussions.
