Walid Halabi

Walid is a writer and editor at unlike kinds.

He has a background in the technology industry, and covers technology, business, and culture.

Walid is from Melbourne, Australia, graduated from Monash University. He now resides in Melbourne.

First name: Walid
Last name: Halabi
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Articles by Walid Halabi

Google's AMP technology broke the URL bar, now they want to make it right. *Photo by Carles Deluvio*
The hoops you'll have to jump through to use your domain with AMP
For three years, AMP pages have appeared with Google’s domain in the address bar. Now, there’s a way around it. We explore how hard is it to get your domain back.
Twitter and Reddit are similar in lots of ways, but only Reddit has effective tools to dissuade the vitriol
Trolls and Consequences: What Twitter needs to learn from Reddit
Twitter and Reddit are both huge, anonymous networks. But only Twitter has earned a reputation for abuse like rape and death threats. How does Reddit keep the trolls behaving?
An F/A-18F Super Hornet flies over USS Gerald R. Ford via [navy.mil](https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=101711)
The futuristic war tech in America's newest aircraft carriers
Entering its final testing phase, the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier is bristling with bleeding edge technology that will set standards for decades to come.
Google's power over the web allows them unprecedented control over the media
Google AMP lowered our page speed, and there's no choice but to use it
Google’s AMP project is supposed to speed up your web site. But what do you do when it makes your site slower? Do publishers have a real choice about using it?
Undeserving website can pay to climb Google's rankings and reach the lucrative top positions
Google Search is being routinely gamed by fake blogs and has been for years
For years, fraudsters have been getting away with tricking Google into pushing them higher up on the search result pages than they deserve to be. We’ll look at a PBN example, and explore if search engines can do anything about them.
It's possible to save your sanity, battery, and data by blocking ads in apps, on the web, and even video ads on Android. *Image by Thom Holmes*
Block ads in apps on Android (including video ads)
Regain your sanity by learning how to block ads in apps on Android, including video ads.
The relative freedom of Android means users can do more with their phones than their iPhone-using friends. *Photo by Tom Sodoge*
Shady Netflix, blocking ads, and other mischief in the Android App Underground
There’s a whole hidden world of apps that Google doesn’t want you using on your Android phone. Luckily it’s easy to get them, and you can do some pretty incredible things with them.
The device is triggered when the car's involved in a serious crash, but can also be triggered manually
In Europe, cars automatically call for help if they crash
New cars sold in the EU are required to include a device that can record audio and track the car’s location. It’ll save lives, but will it impact privacy?
Android updates are being rolled out slower every year
Android updates are getting slower and slower, despite Google's best efforts
For a decade, Google has tried to speed up updates to Android phones. For a decade, they’ve failed. Even worse, updates are getting slower every year.
Google can rank a site based on terms that don't appear on the page
Google may rank sites for queries that don't appear on the page at all
An undocumented ranking method can result in sites appearing in Google search results for queries that don’t appear on the page.
Bill Gates verifying his identity for Reddit. We're not sure what's happening either. Via [Twitter](https://twitter.com/billgates/status/836260338366459904).
Bill Gates casually chats with people on Reddit when he isn't saving the world
It’s not every day you chat to a billionaire, but on Reddit you might just throw some words at Bill Gates without even realizing.
Twitter appears to be more often than not selecting the faces of white people for thumbnails on the site
Twitter algorithm appears to prefer white people for thumbnails
Dozens of Twitter users experimenting with Twitter’s automatic thumbnail generation have been stunned to discover the site appears to favor the faces of white people
Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel and his husband Gauthier Destenay.
"The Prime Minister and his husband": Gay leaders around the world
Meet the trail blazing LGBT politicians elected to lead their countries.
Uber code texts don't stop trips you never took being charged to you. *Photo by Dan Gold*
Your money can be stolen from your Uber account with shady Uber code texts
We’re used to companies securing our accounts by sending us SMS codes - but they aren’t as secure as we think.
YouTube can be a frustrating experience for many, with bugs and experience issues collecting dust for years. *Image by Szabo Viktor*
The ludicrousness of being forced to watch YouTube in 480p on a 4K TV, and other YouTube bug wrangling
A wealth of long-standing bugs, AI clumsiness, and experience issues make using YouTube’s app a frustrating experience
The best white laptops
We researched the best white laptops available in 2021, for those who prefer a clean, minimalist design to the typical, boring silver or black laptops.
Writers and journalists need a laptop with a different balance of performance, portability, and features than those aimed at the general market. We explore these needs and guide you through the best laptop for writers in 2020.
The best laptop for writers
Writers and journalists need a laptop with a different balance of performance, portability, and features than those aimed at the general market. We explore these needs and guide you through the best laptop for writers in 2020.
The irresistible urge to resist doing what we know we should is universal, but is it a matter of laziness or something deeper?
You might be procrastinating for good reason
Putting off work seems like an irrational, emotional thing to do. But there might be logical reasons why you’d rather be doing something else.
Google helps us find information easily but at what cost?
How Google is getting between readers and publishers
Google’s harvesting of information from the web is fundamentally changing what publishers produce, but are publishers bearing an unfair burden, and is the web better this way?