Movies, Music, Video Games, Social Networks and Lifestyle News And Reviews
Product reviews and news of digital entertainment products and services in movies, music, video games, game streaming, social networks and lifestyle products.
Governments around the world are increasingly interested in what their citizens are doing on Facebook. According to the social network's third Government Requests Report, which provides information about the number of government data and content removal requests received during the first half of 2014, combined government requests rose 24 percent since the last half of 2013. That works out to 34,946 requests for data. In addition, Facebook noted a 19 percent increase in the amount of content restricted because of local laws. Image Source: Flickr (Maria Elena) "As we’ve said before, we scrutinize every government request we receive for legal sufficiency under our terms and the strict letter...
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Facebook seems to have been focusing giving its users the ability to be anonymous in recent weeks. In October it was rumored that the company was working on a new mobile app, which has been designated Rooms, that would allow users to interact with each other under an alias. But now, Facebook is making its social media website more Tor-friendly. The company announced that Tor users could get a secure connection to its servers by visiting https://facebookcorewwwi.onion/ that will provide end-to-end encryption. Prior to this, it was a chore for Tor users to connect through a Tor-enabled internet browser since Facebook’s security would tend to treat Tor as a botnet. “We decided to...
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One of the advantages that Twitter has over other social networks is its ability to offer real-time updates and information during disaster situations. For example, Twitter played an important role in relaying information during Hurricane Sandy a couple of years ago. Facebook isn't really designed in a way to compete with that, though the social network did figure out a way to make it easy to find out if your loved ones are safe during emergency situations. Through Facebook's new Safety Check feature, you can let your family and friends know you're safe, as well as check in on others in the area. "We want to provide a helpful tool that people can use when major disasters strike, so we've created...
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A couple of months ago, Facebook caused quite a stir when it wanted drag queens to use their real names on the service. Of course, this isn't a rule that affects only drag queens, but that was this community that became the loudest opposition. Last week, we established that the entire thing was a big misunderstanding, and that Facebook is actually fine with people using the name they're best known for. Well, if you had any lingering doubt about Facebook's sudden change-of-heart, a new report might help settle your opinion. The company is apparently working on a brand-new mobile app that will allow its users to interact with others while using an alias. Oh boy. (Flickr Credit: Âtin) The...
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Still find yourself pissed off at Facebook for potentially messing with your head when it experimented on 700,000 users without their consent? Hey, it's all good, brother -- Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer posted a set of new guidelines that will help the world's largest social network do a better job at monkeying around with your brain. Honest. Are you lost? Let's back up a moment. Facebook published a paper this past summer revealing that it ran an "emotional contagion" experiment on hundreds of thousands of Facebook users without their knowledge or consent. In plain English, Facebook altered the feeds of certain users to contain fewer positive posts and more negative content, and vice versa....
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Facebook has been making a push into ad marketing. Earlier this year, it acquired video ad company LiveRail to improve the social media company’s video ads. Now, Facebook has unveiled a rebuilt Atlas for the purpose of allowing advertisers the ability to track and measure the effects of their ad campaigns not only on Facebook, but browsers and devices as well. “People spend more time on more devices than ever before, “said head of Atlas Erik Johnson. “This shift in consumer behavior has had a profound impact on a consumer’s path to purchase, both online and in stores. And today’s technology for ad serving and measurement – cookies – are flawed when...
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As Facebook and Google rush to connect the remaining regions of the world that lack Internet connectivity, they are increasingly looking to the skies. While Google has balloons in mind, Facebook is planning drones that will be able to fly for days or months at high altitudes, beaming Internet connections to remote areas below. A high-flying, solar-powered unmanned plane. Images Credit: Internet.org Facebook has been working on this project for some time, having bought a company that designs solar-powered drones in March. The solar-powered Internet drone plan is part of Internet.org, which is supported by Facebook. Facebook Connectivity’s scientist Yael Maguire spoke at the Social Good Summit...
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The tech industry is constantly evolving and technology is becoming a larger portion of our lives than ever before. To that end, Facebook ceo Mark Zuckerberg is encouraging students to get into tech and coding as the company is looking to attract young techies and hire them to work for the company. On Thursday at Redwood City’s Sequoia High School, Zuckerberg told students that developing an understanding of technology and computers “is going to be really critical to having a lot of options and doing what you want.” He continued, “If you start with the assumption that everything in the future is going to be different than it is now, then it's not true that anyone else...
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Although Facebook hasn’t made any official comments about a new app, reports are surfacing that an app, codenamed Moments, make break cover soon. If these reports are accurate, the app will be meant to give users a better tool for sharing messages with specific groups of people privately. That’s a feature that both Facebook and Google+ have been working to achieve with mixed results. The Moments app, if it comes to pass, is expected to provide a visual representation of different groups in your life (it’s probably a safe bet that you’ll be able to customize the groups) so you can, say, share a photo of your sister’s birthday part with family and then send your friends...
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While mobile users are worrying about their monthly data allowance, with Facebook’s auto-play feature eating it up, Facebook is focusing its efforts on videos. The social media site announced that it would be rolling out some YouTube-like features as well as showing related video suggestions when a user is done watching a video. Facebook product management director, video Fidji Simo provided some interesting statistics when it comes to videos. Simo revealed that the amount of videos viewed exceeded 50 percent from May through July this year. In addition, there have been more than 1 billion video views on the social media platform every day with 65 percent of those video views being...
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Mobile data plans can be an annoying thing to have. Unless you have an unlimited data plan, chances are that you have to be mindful of how much data is being used up each month. So it would behoove you to know that Facebook’s auto-play feature tends to chew away at your mobile data. Just browsing through Facebook’s Newsfeed will chip away at your allotted amount of data thanks to its auto-play feature that starts a video when users immediately come upon one in their newsfeed. Because of this feature, U.K. consumer website MoneySavingExpert.com noticed that there was a surge in hefty data charges and asked for feedback from its community regarding the spike. According to the website,...
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Facebook seems to be prepared to spend billions in order to reach its goal of providing everyone with access to the Internet, according to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. Speaking at an event in Mexico City, which was hosted by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, Zuckerberg said, “What we really care about is connecting everyone in the world. Even if it means that Facebook has to spend billions of dollars over the next decade making this happen, I believe that over the long term its gonna be a good thing for us and for the world.” Back in August 2013, Facebook and six mobile phone companies launched Internet.org, a project with the goal to bring affordable internet access to...
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There has been a lot of backlash since users were forced to download the Facebook Messenger app while removing the same feature from the primary app. In addition, a lot of criticism has been thrown at the social media company due to the Messenger app requiring access to a smartphone’s camera and microphone. The requirement has led many to believe that the app will allow Facebook to see and hear what everyone is doing at any time. Facebook Messenger product manager Peter Martinazzi addressed the issue regarding the camera and microphone requirement explaining, “Like most other apps, we request permission to run certain features, such as making calls and sending photos, videos...
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Late this week, Facebook announced that it's begun rolling out a new mobile feature to a small number of users that greatly enhances the service's search capabilities. Anyone who's ever used Facebook's search on mobile or the desktop are probably well-aware that it's not exactly the greatest tool out there - sometimes I even have difficulty getting a result for someone already on my friend's list. But finding people and groups is fairly easy; finding content from your friends' old posts is not. With this updated search, Facebook is looking to change that - but again, just for mobile. If you've ever been "shared" a post, which basically means you're on someone's friends' list and have had access...
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