Happy Friday. And it IS a happy Friday because no one called me out for my use of the term Bullsh*t in my last blog post article yesterday. 

In this week's tech review, we touch on Facebook Instant Articles, why your penmanship class in 3rd grade still matters, and how you feel when you're being watched. Get the quick points from our plain-English summaries, or jump into the  full-length  articles. 

Introducing Facebook Instant Articles

Facebook realized these days you get most of your news from your newsfeed.  The problem is, it’s tough to get your news efficiently when your local breaking news is right below your friend from high-schools post, “This girl opened her pool for the first time AND YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT.” 

On average, a news article on your mobile device takes 8 seconds to load. Facebook’s new Instant Articles solution makes reading your news articles 10X faster than standard web articles. 

Instant Articles are also as interactive as they are instant. They include features from phone-tilting zoom to line-item commenting functionality. 

Publishers will now have more control over how users experience news stories. 

Fundamentally, this is a tool that enables publishers to provide a better experience for their readers on Facebook

- Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox

Skim the non-instant article instantly, here.

Microsoft Adds Searchable Handwriting to OneNote for iPad

Apple fans, rejoice. Your iPad will now allow you to search through handwritten text in OneNote. Alas, penmanship is still valuable. 

Initial glimpses of the technology back in February framed it as a functionality that is capable of using OCR for images of text – like if you shot a photo of a receipt.

However, it has since extended to you scribbled (but hopefully legible) to-do notes and grocery lists. 

Gather up your post-its and get the full article, here.

US House Passes Bill to End Domestic NSA Bulk Data Collection 

Do you ever feel like someone is watching you? If that feeling makes your nervous, you’re in luck. The House passed a bill in a 338-88 vote that will end the NSA’s dragnet collection of phone, email, and additional online data from Americans. 

The controversial program, which was revealed 2 years ago, enabled the government to listen in on our convos and peep through your blinds (figuratively of course).  

Interestingly enough, both parties are largely opposed to domestic spying. Code: they agree on something for once. If this bill passes the Senate, it will replace the current program with a program that more specifically targets individuals after the approval of the secret national security FISA court. 

Spoiler alert: you’re still going to get uncomfortably accurate Facebook ads on your timeline. 

Read up in an incognito window, here.