Fishing for Superfish, Snapchat advice for parents, Tiiny shuts down, advertising the iPad, a Clickhole text adventure, and what bartenders think about Tinder dates.

Lenovo & Microsoft Remove Superfish

The only thing you should have to think of when someone says Superfish. http://t.co/MjFddqsPmZ pic.twitter.com/9Fr646t7gj

— HP (@HP) February 21, 2015

In case you missed the news last week, Lenovo laptops were found to be infected by a particularly nasty piece of adware that makes computers vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks. Shockingly, Superfish was pre-installed on Lenovo machines. We shared news of the discovery on Thursday (Feb. 19), and detailed the Superfish issue in full on Friday (Feb. 20).

Since then, Lenovo has released a patch which automatically removes Superfish and its certificates from affected machines. The company has also detailed how to remove Superfish manually, for those who don't trust running an executable from the manufacturer who created this problem in the first place. Microsoft has also updated Windows Defender so that it detects and removes all traces of Superfish.

In other words, there is now no excuse for not ridding your computer of this piece of adware that should never have been allowed on it in the first place. However, it may take a lot longer for Lenovo to win back the trust of the computer-buying public.

Snapchat Offers Advice for Parents

http://youtu.be/kS_JVYQAo38

Snapchat can be used in a host of different ways, but its versatility means it may be hard for parents to police exactly what their kids are doing on the ephemeral photo-sharing app. Which is why the company has launched the Snapchat Safety Center which includes A Parents' Guide To Snapchat [PDF link].

The Snapchat Safety Center offers a reminder of the community guidelines, some well-intentioned safety tips, and the aforementioned advice for parents and teachers. The latter, as compiled by ConnectSafely, reminds guardians of the dangers of sexting and the suggestion to advise youngsters "never to snap photos that are illegal, could get them in trouble now or in the future, or would be embarrassing."

This is a positive step in helping parents understand what their kids may be getting up to, and helping kids realize the possible dangers of their actions. If you're the parent of a teenager who owns his or her own smartphone, then it's certainly advisable to educate yourself about the kinds of apps available to your precious offspring.

Photo-Sharing App Tiiny Shuts Down

http://youtu.be/vLHRSB8HnGU

Tiiny, the photo-sharing app created by Kevin Rose's North Technologies, is shutting down. The co-founder of North, Marc Hemeon, said as much in a comment on Product Hunt before Rose officially announced the shuttering in a post on Medium.

Hemeon stated that "any product or service has to solve a real problem," and admitted the limitations of Tiiny. He then said, "users have told us it’s not a strong enough product to replace their existing ways of sharing photos and videos – which is why we are pushing an update today to allow you to download all your Tiiny videos and images so we can gracefully shut Tiiny down."

Rose stated that the final build of Tiiny has been submitted to the App Store, and once accepted it will "allow our users to download their photos and videos before we shut the doors on our first experiment."

Apple Filmed Its Oscars Ad on an iPad

http://youtu.be/-LVf4wA9qX4

One of the more eye-catching ads aired during the 2015 Oscars was for the Apple iPad Air 2. The ad shows students from the L.A. County High School for the Arts making films using Apple's ubiquitous tablets, all while Martin Scorsese offers inspirational advice via the voiceover.

What's intriguing about the ad is that it was itself all filmed using an iPad, making the ad its own film shot on an iPad. Which is very meta, and also really quite impressive. People may look silly using an iPad as a camera, but the results speak for themselves.

Clickhole Launches Its Own Text Adventure

Is this a text adventure? Can I go north and hit the troll with a cheese and pickle sandwich?

— David G griffiths (@Bensonix) January 26, 2015

It's unsettling to remember that text adventures were once the best thing gamers had to play. Things have moved on a lot since those days of yore, but text adventures are enjoying something of a comeback thanks to their use on websites and social networks.

The latest, and possibly greatest, text adventure to debut online is The Mysterious Shadows Of Skullshadow Island [No Longer Available], as created by the satirical geniuses at Clickhole. You may survive or you may die, but you'll definitely laugh, and quite possibly cry.

What Bartenders Think about Tinder Dates

http://youtu.be/1-xRt-7Wzrw

And finally, if you're going on a date with someone you met online, a bar is always a good option. It's a public place, it's busy, and there is alcohol available to help prevent any lulls in conversation. The only problem is the bartenders are judging you. As this video proves. Still, they also offer some advice for those heading on a date with a random stranger. [H/T The Daily Dot]

Your Views on Today’s Tech News

Have you removed Superfish from your system yet? As a parent, are you worried about your kids using Snapchat? Have you ever used Tinder to find a date?

Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.

Image Credit: Colin Gordon via Flickr