Social Networking, Internet Lifestyle And Security News
Passionate about net neutrality? Facebook privacy issues freaking you out? Want to know more about the latest security breach? Here we'll cover the headlines that matter in our ever evolving digitally-connected lives and lifestyles around the world.
After Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion back in February of this year, the popular messaging service has gone on to surpass 600 million monthly active users, company founder and Chief Executive Officer Jan Koum announced in a Twitter post today. At the time of acquisition, WhatsApp was nearing half a billion...
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While Facebook has garnered the ire of its app users by forcing them to download its Messenger app, the social website seems to be looking out for the more gullible of its consumers. At least those who tend to believe stories written by satirical sites such as The Onion. Currently, Facebook is automatically placing...
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Watching T-Mobile chief John Legere handle business in the public eye is a lot like watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail for the first time -- you're caught off guard by silly shenanigans time and again and bouts of hysterical lunacy. Mind you, we're not saying Legere is a lunatic, and a look at T-Mobile's...
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Facebook Users Revolt After Forced Messenger Transition, Give App 1-star Rating at Apple's App Store
Just over a week ago, we warned of the pending deadline for the forced transition to Facebook's Messenger app for those who wanted to continue having messaging capabilities. In that post, I wrote, "I personally believe that Facebook shouldn't force this transition, because not everyone (including me) wants to have two...
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Ever since Facebook acquired Oculus VR for $2 billion earlier this year, it seems like a fire has been lit under the team developing the Oculus Rift. The number of team members has increased, there are rumors that Oculus VR is making its own controllers, and a first-party content team was created. Now Facebook is...
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Long before Facebook was $190 billion company (in terms of market capitalization), Mark Zuckerberg used to lord over his employees with an unusual style. How unusual? Well, have you ever been fake-threatened with a samurai sword if you didn't hit a deadline? Former Facebook engineer Noah Kagan claims that was one just...
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For most of us, getting access to the Internet regardless of where we are isn't that challenging. If we're on-the-go, we can use our mobile phone, while at home, we can enjoy high-speed connections that let us do a variety of important and fun activities. In many countries, though, access to the World Wide Web isn't...
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It seems like a century has passed since Facebook's IPO and subsequent stock performance came under scrutiny. Turns out all Facebook needed was to post a stellar earnings report, as it did earlier this week, and investors would be frothing at the mouth to own a chunk of the world's most popular social playground. In...
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Take a wild guess which technology company now has a higher market capitalization than the mighty Oracle? Facebook, as it turns out. In the latest turn in what has been a wild ride (in both directions) since going public, Facebook's stock has surged on solid earnings to a record high. Now, the world's dominant social...
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For as ubiquitous as Facebook is and for as many features as the social network has, there are a few much-needed items that the company just hasn’t gotten to over the years. (For example, why can’t you comment on a comment?) Facebook is taking care of one of those long-needed features today, though, by introducing Save. Save lets...
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Don’t freak out, but Facebook is testing a new feature that would put “Buy” buttons on ads within the social network. Simply, users would see an ad, and the ad would have a button that you could click to purchase the item you see, all without leaving Facebook. This is an obvious evolution of having ads on Facebook, and it...
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The world's largest social network -- that would be Facebook, folks -- has agreed to acquire LiveRail, an advertising technology company, for an undisclosed sum of money (online reports have the figure pegged at between $400 million and $500 million). While announcing the planned acquisition, Facebook pointed out that LiveRail has helped several...
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Perhaps Facebook is conducting a meta-experiment. The first part of it was the emotional contagion experiment we covered yesterday, wherein Facebook manipulated close to 700,000 users’ emotions via their Newsfeeds without any apparent knowledge, consent, or reasonable ethical oversight. The real experiment...
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Here’s an interesting psychological factoid: Emotional states can be transferred to other people via text-based messages on social media, such as Facebook. That means that if, for instance, you view a bunch of sad posts, you’re more likely to pen a sad post yourself shortly thereafter even though you...
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There's a giant microscope hovering over Silicon Valley examining workplace diversity, or the lack thereof, as more and more companies release reports on the topic. The latest to do is Facebook, and as with many other tech firms, the majority of the company's employees are white and male, especially those holding down...
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Can you imagine what it's going to be like playing Candy Crush through an Oculus Rift headset? We only jest and certainly hope Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of the gang at Facebook and Oculus VR have some way cooler things in store than that (and we're not talking about the ticket blaster at Chuck E. Cheese). Giving us...
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Facebook has a billion users, but its sights are set squarely on the next billion--or several billion--in developing nations. Sure, some of that drive represents a desire for profits, but Mark Zuckerberg also appears to genuinely believe that Internet access is a human right. In any case, he wants everyone to have Internet access, and he wants...
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Facebook doesn’t go down all that often, but when it does it’s big news. The social network reportedly experienced an outage at approximately 1 a.m. PST that affected users all over the world. Users in countries including Australia, New Zealand, England, South Korea, India, were unable to access Facebook...
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Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of the gang at Facebook finally launched a photo and video sharing app to compete with Snapchat. Called "Slingshot," Facebook's version is more than just a clone, though it may appear as such at first glance. After all, it allows you to take a photo or video, scribble some artistic flair...
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With only so much top level talent available in the technology industry, it's not uncommon for high ranking employees to change firms. Such is the case for David Marcus, president of eBay's PayPal division, who is joining Facebook to spearhead the company's efforts in mobile messaging. His primary responsibility will...
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Your life can be an open book on Facebook if you want it to, but the problem for some less savvy users is that it's an open book even they don't want it to be. After all, it's not just experienced PC users posting to Facebook anymore -- anyone and just about everyone users the social network these days, and to make...
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Apparently fed up with being rejected by Snapchat, Facebook for the past several months has reportedly been working on a video sharing and chatting application of its own. It's called Slingshot, and like Snapchat, it allows users to send short video messages to recipients with just a few taps. However, it's not yet...
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