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March 2019

Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez Take Their Kids to a Yankees Game: Photos

By: News Trend Day on March 31, 2019 / comment : 0

Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez Take Their Kids to a Yankees Game: Photos

Jennifer Lopez and fiancé Alex Rodriguez took their four kids to a Yankees game in NYC on Saturday, March 30.

 The former MLB star, 43, shared a photo with Lopez, 49, and his two kids, Natasha, 14, and Ella, 10, whose mom is his ex-wife Cynthia Scurtis, as well as the singer and actress’ 11-year-old twins, Max and Emme, whose dad is her ex-husband Marc Anthony.

 “A perfect Saturday afternoon. Family. Friends. And a game at @yankees Stadium!” he captioned a photo of the group, adding the hashtags #PinstripePride #NYC #BronxBombers #HomeSweetHome.

 He also shared a video on his Instagram Stories that showed JLo and his daughter singing along to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

 Another photo he shared later showed one of the kids jokingly mooning the camera, which the athlete pointed out with a big black arrow.

 Jennifer Lopez and fiancé Alex Rodriguez took their four kids to a Yankees game in NYC on Saturday, March 30.

 The former MLB star, 43, shared a photo with Lopez, 49, and his two kids, Natasha, 14, and Ella, 10, whose mom is his ex-wife Cynthia Scurtis, as well as the singer and actress’ 11-year-old twins, Max and Emme, whose dad is her ex-husband Marc Anthony.

 “A perfect Saturday afternoon. Family. Friends. And a game at @yankees Stadium!” he captioned a photo of the group, adding the hashtags #PinstripePride #NYC #BronxBombers #HomeSweetHome.

 He also shared a video on his Instagram Stories that showed JLo and his daughter singing along to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

 Another photo he shared later showed one of the kids jokingly mooning the camera, which the athlete pointed out with a big black arrow.

 As Us Weekly previously reported, Rodriguez proposed to his girlfriendin the Bahamas earlier this month.

 The couple confirmed the happy news with matching Instagram posts that showed the “On the Floor” singer’s hand sporting a massive diamond ring. “She said yes,” Rodriguez captioned the pic on March 9.

 A source told Us that Lopez didn’t know her boyfriend was going to propose during their vacation at the luxurious Baker’s Bay resort.

 “They’ve talked about marriage and have always planned to spend the rest of their lives together, but they were so happy with exactly how things were, they weren’t sure if they wanted to go down that road. It’s almost like they didn’t want to jinx it,” said the insider.

 But after two years of dating, the idea of marriage “became important to both of them and their kids,” the source added. “They know they want to make this commitment to forever together.”

 Lopez has been floating on cloud nine since the proposal, according to her fellow World of Dance judge Ne-Yo.

 “She is always normally pretty happy, but now it’s different,” he told Uson March 16. “Before, she would float into the room … now, she floats into the room and there are, like, butterflies and birds and stuff. They’re like teenagers. It’s ridiculous. We get it.”

 Scroll down to see the pics from their day at the game.

Fond Memories

Lopez met her future husband at a 2005 baseball game, when he was still a Yankee and she was married to third husband Marc Anthony. The pic became a meme after Lopez and Rodriguez got engaged.

Fooling Around

Lopez and Rodriguez have spent a lot of time together with each other’s kids, celebrating holidays and birthdays together.

Family Time

Lopez cradled her daughter, Emme, on her lap as they watched the Yankees take on the Baltimore Orioles.

So in Love

Rodriguez posted a loving note to his love before she started work on her new movie, Hustlers, on Sunday, March 24. “Love you baby and continue to shine, fly high and inspire all of us,” he wrote.

References: usmagazine

Apple abandons AirPower wireless charging product

By: News Trend Day on March 31, 2019 / comment : 0

Apple abandons AirPower wireless charging product

In a highly unusual step for the firm, Apple has given up on a product because it could not make it work adequately.
AirPower, announced in 2017, was a mat meant to charge multiple devices without needing to plug them in.
But it is understood the firm’s engineers were perhaps unable to stop the mat from getting too hot.
"After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project," the firm said.
The company did not elaborate further.
However, rumours of issues with the product had been circulating since its announcement in September 2017. At the time, Apple said it would be released to the public some time in 2018, promising a "world-class wireless charging solution".
But late last year, with the product absent from the most recent iPhone launch, noted Apple insider Jon Gruber wrote: "There are engineers who looked at AirPower’s design and said it could never work, thermally, and now those same engineers have that 'told you so' smug look on their faces."
In a statement emailed to the BBC, Dan Riccio, Apple’s head of hardware engineering, said: "We apologise to those customers who were looking forward to this launch. We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward."
The cancelled product could affect sales of the company’s wireless headphones - AirPods - which were promoted and sold with the promise they would be charged using AirPower in future. Packaging for the AirPods contained a diagram of how AirPower would work.
Apple’s rivals, such as Huawei and Samsung, have already released products that charge their devices wirelessly.
References:  BBC

Are internet unicorns really worth billions?

By: News Trend Day on March 31, 2019 / comment : 0

Lyft, Uber, Pinterest: Are internet unicorns really worth billions?

This week has been a momentous one for the US stock market.
Lyft, the ride-hailing company, sold its shares to the public for the first time, heralding a march of the "unicorns".
A stream of these businesses - which are defined as private, venture capital-backed firms worth over $1bn - are set to follow, including Lyft's rival Uber, online scrapbook company Pinterest and home-sharing site AirBnB.
And they are attracting some staggering valuations. Uber, for example, could be worth as much as $120bn when it floats.
For Lyft, its shares listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange at $72 each, giving it a market value of just over $24bn - more than five times the size of, say, British High Street stalwart Marks & Spencer.
  • For Uber and Lyft, reality is arriving soon
  • Lyft valued at $24bn ahead of share market debut
  • Lyft arrives at the US stock exchange
But unlike M&S, which has been around for well over a century, Lyft is only seven years old - and it is yet to make a profit.
"I did a lot of research on private venture capital backed companies," said Ilya Strebulaev, professor of finance at Stanford University.
"We find that on average the unicorns are overvalued by about 50%."

Should investors stay away?

Lyft makes some big claims in its initial public offering (IPO) prospectus.
Its business model is based on the idea that having a car is expensive and as urbanisation grows, people are shifting away from owning vehicles to using services to get around.
It says that in the US alone, households spend over $1.2 trillion a year on personal transportation. That's the prize Lyft is going after.

Rett Wallace, founder and chief executive of Triton Research, said there is merit in Lyft's business model. "The idea that you don't have to have a car that you don't use 95% of the time, and maintain, and insure and garage… transportation could be performed better than what Detroit has given us."
However, transportation as a service is a nascent industry.
Tom White, senior research analyst at DA Davidson, says: "There isn't a ton of evidence yet that it's happening on any broad scale."
There is some data showing a shift, he said. For example, the proportion of 18 year-old Americans licensed to drive, fell from 76% in 1986 to 62% in 2016, according to Department of Transportation.
But broad vehicle ownership data "indicates that it's not really having much of a massive impact yet".
Then there are Lyft's losses.
Between 2016 and 2018, its revenues grew strongly from $343m to $2.1bn. However, its losses jumped from $682m to $911m.
Uber is also loss-making, though the figure has dropped from $2.2bn in 2017 to $1.8bn last year.
Prof Strebulaev said that typically venture capital-backed businesses make losses "because they basically sacrifice profits to achieve very high growth or scale".
But "the question really for everybody and for investors," he said, "is whether Lyft and Uber's business model will allow them to convert these very substantial losses into profits at some point... and whether the market will sustain those losses."
It feels like familiar territory. It is nearly 20 years since the height of the dotcom boom, and its messy aftermath.

Mr Wallace said: "We had a small taste of what a dotcom crash looks like in the Snap story."
Since floating in New York two years ago at $17 a share, Snap Inc has had a tumultuous time, including a controversial redesign of its flagship message app Snapchat. Its stock is now trading at $10.
"A lot of investors lost money with Snap," he said. "We have a flavour of what it looks like for investors to rush into these things and get killed."

Are people being too cautious?

Mr White said there is a big difference between the internet companies of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and now.
"These companies are a lot larger and more established in a lot of ways," he said. "They've been able to amass massive amounts of private capital and stay private for longer and achieve a size and scale that was pretty rare for a company that was about to go public the last time around."
Prof Strebulaev said: "In the previous cycle, the business models were more about promise of the future and the promise of the future revenues.
"Many companies today do have those revenues. It is now about a promise of future profitability which is very different."
Among Lyft's plans for the $2.3bn it is raising from its IPO, are to invest in acquisitions and technology.
It is already devoting money and resources to autonomous driving.
It is working with Irish firm Aptiv to trial self-driving cars in Las Vegas, where it has completed thousands of journeys. It is also developing its own autonomous vehicle system at its "Level 5" engineering centre.
However, driverless cars are a long way from operating on public roads.
And Mr White thinks in order for ride-hailing firms to make transport services a cheaper alternative to car ownership, prices will have to fall by maybe 30-40% - a move that would impact Lyft's financials.

What does it mean for other flotations?

As well as Uber, Pinterest and AirBnB, serviced office provider WeWork and messaging firm Slack are also rumoured to be contemplating a stock market listing.
Prof Strebulaev suggests one reason why so many firms are considering the move this year is because of economics.
"If there's going to be a recession then the IPO window might close," he said. "That happened, of course, in 2000 when the IPO window closed, when not a single company could go public."
"Can this happen tomorrow? I don't expect so. Can this happen over the next six months? I think it is not unlikely."
There is a danger, though, if there is a rush to market, investors could end up getting burned.
Mr Wallace said: "I think if I was losing $1bn a year in my company and I could sell it to a bunch of American retail investors, I would be psyched to do that whatever the IPO window is.
"Look at the losses - someone has got to pay for these losses."
Prof Strebulaev said: "What I believe, and this is not really about Uber and Lyft, but an average unicorn, is that there are 100-plus of them and it is difficult to imagine based on historical evidence and my research that all of them are going to be successful."
References:  BBC

Former Sony And PlayStation Exec Kaz Hirai Is Retiring

By: News Trend Day on March 31, 2019 / comment : 0

Former Sony And PlayStation Exec Kaz Hirai Is Retiring

In February it was announced that Kaz Hirai, who led the PlayStation business before being promoted to CEO of Sony, would step down and transition to the role of director, chairman. Now, Sony has announced that Hirai will be retiring from those roles effective June 18. Hirai will serve as senior advisor for the company and "will continue to provide counsel as requested by Sony's management team."
In a statement, Hirai lent his support to Kenichiro Yoshida, who replaced him as CEO of Sony on April 1. "Since passing the baton of CEO to Yoshida-san last April, as Chairman of Sony, I have had the opportunity to both ensure a smooth transition and provide support to Sony's management. I am confident that everyone at Sony is fully aligned under Yoshida-san's strong leadership, and are ready to build an even brighter future for Sony.
"As such, I have decided to depart from Sony, which has been a part of my life for the past 35 years. I would like to extend my warmest gratitude to all our employees and stakeholders who have supported me throughout this journey."
Yoshida added: "Hirai-san and I have been working on management reforms together since December 2013. While he will be retiring from both Chairman and our Board of Directors, we look forward to his continuing high-level support to Sony's management that encompasses a breadth of diverse businesses."
Hirai was instrumental in launching the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, and went on to become CEO and president of Sony. In February, the PlayStation business had a management reshuffle, with Jim Ryan being appointed president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment.
2019 is set to be quite a different year for the PlayStation division, particularly in the way it communicates and promotes its products to its audience and the wider gaming community. The company has pulled out of E3, where it traditionally debuted and showed off its biggest upcoming games.
Fans are looking to PlayStation Experience to be the tentpole PlayStation event for 2019. Sony opted to skip PlayStation Experience in 2018, so many are hoping to see it return this year. However, as of yet Sony hasn't indicated it has plans to host the show.
Sony has kicked off State of Play, however. This is a series of smaller, streamed showcases in the same vein as Nintendo's Directs. The first one yielded a new Iron Man VR title, as well as information on No Man's Sky VR and Mortal Kombat 11. You can read all the news from Sony's first State of Play to catch up on what happened.
Sony has said State of Play will return throughout the year to deliver updates on key titles. While the first episode wasn't exactly a barnstormer, the company has a number of big games on the way, including Death Stranding, The Last of Us: Part II, and Ghost of Tsushima, so upcoming episodes stand to be much more exciting.
References: gamespot

Lyft valued at $24bn ahead of share market debut

By: News Trend Day on March 28, 2019 / comment : 0

Lyft valued at $24bn ahead of share market debut

Ride-hailing firm Lyft has priced its shares at $72 amid strong investor demand, valuing the firm at $24.3bn (£18.6bn).
Lyft's shares are set to start trading on the tech-dominated Nasdaq index on Friday.
The strong valuation makes it the largest company to go public since China's Alibaba Group in 2014.
Lyft's main rival, Uber, is also expected to float this year.
Technology-based firms Pinterest, Slack, and Postmates, are also scheduled to make their market debuts this year.
Earlier in the week, Lyft increased the indicative price range for its share offer to $70-$72 a share, up from $62-$68 previously.
Analysis: By Michelle Fleury, New York business correspondent
Lyft's stock sale is a big moment for the tech industry.
Shares in the ride-hailing company were priced at $72 a piece. This was at the high end of expectations. It suggests a strong appetite from investors ahead of the company's first day of trading as a public company.
For a firm that is not yet profitable, it provides validation of its business model, one that has established it as the number two player in the US.
Wall Street is clearly eager to take part in the massive growth in the ride-sharing industry. That bodes well for Lyft's rival, Uber which looks set to make its debut soon on the New York Stock Exchange.
But there are risks: from regulatory uncertainty to the fierce competition likely to emerge as the autonomous vehicle market develops.
And given its dual class share structure (Lyft is keeping voting control), investors are buying a little piece of a company in which they will have almost no say.
Lyft was launched in 2012 by technology entrepreneurs John Zimmer and Logan Green, three years after Uber was founded.
It remains the smaller company, with a limited international presence. Uber is expected to be valued at about $120bn when it goes public.
However, Lyft's profile has risen over the last few years, as its larger rival was hit by controversy surrounding its aggressive corporate culture and data collection practices.
Lyft now accounts for about 39% of the ride-share market in the US, up from about 22% in 2016, the company says.
Lyft's revenues doubled in 2018 to reach $2.2bn, compared with $1.1bn in 2017, according to its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
However, its losses also increased. The company lost $911m in 2018, up from $688m in 2017.
References:  BBC

PS4 6.51 Firmware Update Is Now Live, Still No Option To Change PSN Online IDs

By: News Trend Day on March 28, 2019 / comment : 0

PS4 6.51 Firmware Update Is Now Live, Still No Option To Change PSN Online IDs

Sony has released the latest firmware patch for PS4, update 6.51. The update doesn't do all that much, despite being 463 MB.
In the full patch notes for update 6.51, Sony states that it, "improves system performance." That's it. Overall, update 6.50 did a lot more, implementing several new features in the PS4. Update 6.50 added the choice of 720p video when broadcasting with Niconico Live, and also added button assignment support for "enter" operations--allowing you to change the selection button from circle to X.
Notably lacking from update 6.51 is the option to change your PSN online ID, a patch that, last year, Sony promised is coming early 2019. You can already change your PSN online ID if you're a part of PlayStation's Preview Program, but the update hasn't left beta and gone public. Sony has announced that when the patch does go live, the first name change will be for free. However, subsequent changes will cost $5 USD / €5 / £4 for PlayStation Plus members, and twice as much for everyone else.
Sony has admitted that implementing PSN online ID changes isn't a smooth process, so there could still be plenty of bugs the company is trying to iron out. Apparently, the feature won't be compatible with every game released prior to April 1, 2018. Not all PS4, PS3, and PS Vita games are guaranteed to support the feature either, so users may see several issues or errors in relation to their PSN online ID for certain games. Additionally, one of the Preview Program testers reported a bug that changing your PSN online ID might cause a loss in DLC purchases and game save data.
However, if you run into issues after changing your ID, PlayStation has said it will provide an option for players to revert back to their old one for free.
References: gamespot

Google announces AI ethics panel

By: News Trend Day on March 27, 2019 / comment : 0

Google announces AI ethics panel

Google has launched a global advisory council to offer guidance on ethical issues relating to artificial intelligence, automation and related technologies.
The panel consists of eight people and includes former US deputy secretary of state, and a University of Bath associate professor.
The group will "consider some of Google's most complex challenges”, the firm said.
The panel was announced at MIT Technology Review's EmTech Digital, a conference organised the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Google has come under intense criticism - internally and externally - over how it plans to use emerging technologies.
In June 2018 the company said it would not renew a contract it had with the Pentagon to develop AI technology to control drones. Project Maven, as it was known, was unpopular among Google’s staff, and prompted some resignations.
In response, Google published a set of AI “principles” it said it would abide by. They included pledges to be "socially beneficial' and "accountable to people".
The Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC) will meet for the first time in April. In a blog post, Google’s head of global affairs, Kent Walker, said there would be three further meetings in 2019.
Google has published a full list of the panel’s members. It includes leading mathematician Bubacarr Bah, former US deputy secretary of state William Joseph Burns, and Joanna Bryson, who teaches computer sciences at the University of Bath, UK.
It will discuss recommendations about how to use technologies such as facial recognition. Last year, Google’s then-head of cloud computing, Diane Greene, described facial recognition tech as having "inherent bias” due to a lack of diverse data.
In a highly-cited thesis entitled Robots Should Be Slaves, Ms Bryson argued against the trend of treating robots like people.
"In humanising them," she wrote, "we not only further dehumanise real people, but also encourage poor human decision making in the allocation of resources and responsibility."
In 2018 she argued that complexity should not be used as an excuse to not properly inform the public of how AI systems operate.
"When a system using AI causes damage, we need to know we can hold the human beings behind that system to account."

 References:  BBC

Tom Cruise’s Daughter Isabella Thanks Him ‘for Everything’ in Scientology Testimonial

By: News Trend Day on March 27, 2019 / comment : 0


Tom Cruise’s daughter Isabella seems to be just as invested in Scientology as the Mission: Impossible actor. In an email to other Scientology members, the 26-year-old thanked her famous father for “everything.”
In the message, obtained by journalist Tony Ortega and published on his blog, Isabella described her challenging training period and her “even worse” internship as she became an auditor for the organization. “I had so many reasons and excuses as to why I didn’t need to do it and how it just wasn’t right for me,” she wrote. “It turned out it was exactly what I needed. I dragged out the testing and correction, just made it through the drilling and then finally began my auditing adventure, and wow, I wasn’t prepared. This IS what I had been searching for. The missing piece. Suddenly everything began to make sense.”
She continued: “I became that annoying girl in the org who would just talk endlessly about how incredible training is and how phenomenal the internship is. I’m sure a few people couldn’t deal just like I couldn’t. But I won’t stop with that because now I KNOW. We all need to do this. It’s hard work. … This is a gift to yourself and so many others. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t going to be an auditor or aren’t going to join staff. If you are going to make it as a being for the long run you NEED this. … The internship, for me, is what made me a Scientologist. I don’t just believe the tech works now. I know without any doubt that it does.”
She closed the email by thanking Tom, 56, writing, “Thank you to my Dad for everything.”
Isabella’s mother, Nicole Kidman, previously opened up about her children’s decision to join the controversial church. She and Tom, who were married from 1990 to 2001, also share 24-year-old son Connor. (Tom also has another daughter, Suri, 12, with ex-wife Katie Holmes.)
“They are adults,” the Big Little Lies actress, 51, told Australia’s Whomagazine in November 2018. “They are able to make their own decisions. They have made choices to be Scientologists and, as a mother, it’s my job to love them. And I am an example of that tolerance and that’s what I believe — that no matter what your child does, the child has love and the child has to know there is available love and I’m open here. I think that’s so important because if that is taken away from a child, to sever that in any child, in any relationship, in any family — I believe it’s wrong. So that’s our job as a parent, to always offer unconditional love.”
References: usmagazine

10 years of Grindr: A rocky relationship

By: News Trend Day on March 25, 2019 / comment : 0

It was 10 years ago, on the bus on my way to work, that I first I saw a man using Grindr.
I had heard friends describe a free iPhone app that could show you where the nearest gay guy was. And sat in front of me was an early adopter, tapping his way through a grid of topless torsos and replying to a flurry of messages.
The concept was extraordinary.
When Grindr launched in March 2009, the iPhone was still in its infancy.
Back then, the BlackBerry was king. Apple's app store was less than a year old and there was no Instagram or Snapchat. There was also no Tinder or Scruff or Bumble, or any of the countless other location-based dating apps that Grindr paved the way for.
The app was created by Israeli entrepreneur Joel Simkhai as a way for gay men to make friends.
Gay hook-up websites such as Gaydar were already used by millions. But Grindr changed the game by using the iPhone's satellite location data to let people discover other men nearby.
Grindr quickly toppled Gaydar, which was slow to adapt its own app. Online dating and the future of the gay scene changed forever.
Today, Grindr says it has more than three million daily users in about 200 countries.
"It's an Argos catalogue of gay men, in stock, ready for collection," says comedian Jack Rooke, who tells stories of his Grindr experiences as part of his stand-up.
As a young man, coming to terms with his sexuality, it also helped him connect with his peers.
"It was just good to speak to another gay human being," he says, describing the time he went to a man's house for a hook-up but ended up discussing life over homemade pitta bread and dips instead.
"Grindr was for me the place where I learned so much about gay culture and queer culture and what it means to be a gay person."
The app has its fair share of success stories. Great hook-ups, happy marriages.
But something about Grindr also drew out the worst in people. Stories about receiving unsolicited abusive messages, or arranging dates with men who did not show up, or sharing intimate photos with a fake profile soon spread online.
For most of its history, racist bios were common on Grindr dating profiles.
"You would see profiles saying no Asians, no blacks, no fat people," says Jack. "There's been a huge space for prejudice on that app, I think since day one."
Dating no-shows and racist messages spurred blogger Andrew Londyn to write a book describing how to "survive" Grindr.
He recalls chatting several times with a "very handsome Greek guy". Eventually the man asked why the pair had not met for a drink.
"You haven't asked me out yet," Andrew replied in jest. But the response was bleak: a tirade of racist abuse.
"That was infuriating. You just asked me out, and now that?" says Andrew.
On his blog, Andrew describes the loss of "community" he feels apps such as Grindr have contributed to. Previously men of all ages, backgrounds and body types would meet in bars and spend time together. But today, people can select their friends from the online catalogue instead.
"We're dehumanising each other," says Andrew.
"We don't think of it as an individual who is reaching out to me. They have a mother and a father, they probably have siblings, they work, they want to be happy. But we just view them as a picture. If you view them only as a picture, they're easily disposed of."
The arrival of Grindr and the rival apps it inspired brought a fresh challenge for LGBT venues, many of which have seen visitor numbers decline.
"Grindr was the next evolution along from the internet, as to how gay men started to meet each other and hook-up," says Mark Oakley, owner of the Eagle bar in London.
Ten years ago, his venue was renowned for its late night sex parties. A black curtain separated the bar from the "dark room", where anything could happen. On a Saturday you could "hear the spanking down at Vauxhall station".

 But demand for that type of night out declined as Grindr's popularity grew.
"Grindr came along offering a much more direct route to sex with no real barriers. Why would people want to go to a club, pay a door entry fee, pay for drinks, when there might not even be anyone there they like?"
Mark accepts it was a natural progression for sex to move online, comparing it to the entertainment industry shift from CDs and DVDs to downloads and streaming.
"Businesses have had to shape up, or ship out.
"For us to survive in today's market we had to evolve and change in to what we've become now. We had a considerable refit, brought in a new look and feel. Now it's all about the music and entertainment."
The black curtain, he says, was ceremoniously discharged and recycled.
Grindr has at times been used for the worst imaginable crimes. In 2016, serial killer Stephen Port was jailed for killing four young men and raping four others. He used Grindr to set up his killings. And in 2018, Daryll Rowe was jailed for deliberately passing HIV on to several other men he met on Grindr.
Any new technology can be used for terrible purposes. But Mark fears Grindr has left a "wreckage" in its wake, by making it easier for lonely or isolated men to meet people offering drugs and chem-sex parties.
Officially, Grindr's community guidelines prohibit "mentions or photos of drugs and drug paraphernalia, including emoji" but that does not deter everyone.
Some profiles openly advertise HNH (high and horny) meet-ups. The diamond emoji is often used by people offering crystal meth. Grindr is not to blame for gay and bi men taking drugs, but it may have made it more accessible.
"Grindr has a social responsibility and it should take that seriously," says Mark.
"They put up messages, but they could do a lot more. The licensed trade has to control what happens on our premises. Why don't they?"
In January 2018, Grindr was fully acquired by China's Kunlun Group. It paid a total of $245m (£185m) for the platform, and creator Joel Simkhai left the company.
One of the first changes after the acquisition was the launch of the Kindr Grindr campaign, designed to stamp out racism and toxic behaviour.
"At Grindr, we're into diversity, inclusion, and users who treat each other with respect. We're not into racism, bullying, or other forms of toxic behavior," the website says.
The app also changed its community guidelines. Now, anybody using racist or dehumanising language on their profiles can be banned if reported.
The BBC invited Grindr to contribute to this article, but it has yet to respond.
Looking ahead, Jack hopes Grindr will continue to evolve and tackle toxic behaviour.
"I hope Grindr becomes a tool for more good," he says, especially as some groups in the UK are "discussing whether or not we should teach LGBT education to young people".
In the fast-paced world of apps and websites, market leaders can be quickly toppled. If Kunlun wants Grindr to stay ahead, it will need to do all it can to make its app a welcoming and desirable place for men to meet.
References:  BBC
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