Facebook

Greenpeace praises Apple and others for helping build a greener Internet

Cody Lee ∙ Updated December 2, 2016

Apple has quite the history with environmental organization Greenpeace. The outfit has panned the iPad maker several times over the years for using toxic chemicals in its products and other non-green practices—it even staged a protest outside of its Cupertino headquarters back in 2012.

A lot has changed over the years, however, and this week, instead of protesting Apple, Greenpeace took to the skies to praise it and other companies for helping build 'a greener Internet.' That image you see above is of a blimp that the environmental advocacy group flew over Silicon Valley...

Read More

Facebook rolling out free VoiP calling in Messenger to everyone

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 3, 2014

Ever since launching its totally redesigned Messenger app last November, the social networking giant Facebook's been dragging its feet in terms of enabling VoIP calling for everyone.

For users in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, this useful feature has been part of the old Messenger app for quite some time now.

Today, Facebook issued a minor update to Messenger for iOS that seemingly enables free voice calling over Wi-Fi and low-cost calls over cellular for everyone.

The update is available in the App Store so grab it now and check out free calling in Facebook Messenger...

Read More

How to enable Facebook Chat Heads anywhere in iOS 7

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

Facebook's Chat Head feature is now available to use anywhere in iOS 7 thanks to a timely update to the well-received MessageBox tweak. If you can remember, MessageBox was the jailbreak release that allowed users to enjoy Chat Heads anywhere in iOS, not just in the default Facebook app.

Developer Adam Bell has updated MessageBox to play nice with iOS 7, freeing the Chat Heads feature from the confines of Facebook's Paper app. Want to see how Chat Heads look in iOS 7? Step inside for our full video walkthrough.

Read More

Facebook Messenger picks up contact groups, message forwarding and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2018

The social networking giant, Facebook, has just updated its slick Messenger client for the iPhone and iPod touch with a pair of long overdue feature additions.

The first lets you forward a message to another person (even Apple's own Messages app supports this) and the other finally makes it possible to create groups for the people you message most, with custom group photo and name.

The new Facebook Messenger 4.0 is now live in the App Store so update your copy to check out contact groups and message forwarding for yourself...

Read More

Facebook is buying Rift headset maker Oculus VR for $2 billion

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Facebook on Tuesday issued a press release announcing it is buying Kickstarter-funded startup Oculus VR for approximately $2 billion in cash and stock.

For those who have been sleeping under the rock lately, Oculus VR is the maker of the Rift virtual-reality headset. This major move reveals Facebook's intent to make use of virtual-reality technologies, not long ago the stuff of science fiction.

The announcement comes just days after the Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony announced Project Morpheus, its own head-mounted five-inch full HD display with a 90-degree field of view that could mainstream virtual reality gaming by connecting to the PlayStation console...

Read More

Instagram reportedly testing location integration with Facebook Places

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 30, 2016

Facebook-owned Instagram has traditionally relied on Foursquare for its vast database of points of interest.

For example, upon uploading a photograph Instagram gives you an option of choosing a location where the image was taken using its Foursquare integration, simply by tapping a 'Name This Location' button.

Post acquisition, however, things have become a little weird.

Facebook has long been maintaining its own location database, Facebook Places. Two years into the acquisition, Instagram has now started using Facebook Places as its mapping service, at least for a subset of its users.

Despite this (expected) change, more than the 150 million Instagram fans can continue to share their check-ins to Foursquare from Instagram...

Read More

Facebook update simplifies sharing and posting

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2018

Following today's update to WhatsApp which brought out nice new wallpapers and privacy controls for your Last Seen, Profile Photo and Status, the social networking giant Facebook has just refreshed its main iOS client.

The new Facebook 8.0 for the iPhone and iPad, now available in the App Store, brings supposed improvements for reliability and speed, a simpler way to see and choose a photo album's audience and a slightly refreshed iPad UI to make it easier to post and share on the tablet...

Read More

Instagram to pester us with more ads as it signs major $100M deal

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 10, 2014

Facebook-owned Instagram is about to monetize its more than 150 million active users in a big way, by continuing to pester them with a growing number of really expensive photo and video ads. Not that fans of the photo and video-sharing service will necessarily approve of the move, but Instagram has now signed its first major deal, reports AdAge.

Come on, you knew this was coming: first ads began showing up on Instagram back in November 2013.

That being said, today's announcement is on an entirely different level as the people of Instagram have managed to sign a lucrative deal with an ad agency worth a cool $100 million. According to people familiar with the matter, the team is now rolling out a paid advertising program with a year-long commitment from Omnicom to spend north of $100 million to advertise for its clients on Instagram...

Read More

A year later, Facebook finally starts rolling out revamped News Feed to everyone

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 6, 2014

Precisely 364 days ago, Facebook held an event announcing a major redesign which promised to turn your News Feed into a "personalized newspaper." As we noted in our hands-on with the new News Feed, the  two-column layout featured prominent shortcuts to your About, Friends and Photos sections, with all-new Movies, Books and Photos items in your About view indicating what you read, watched and shared. There was also an Instagram Timeline app and a few other tweaks.

The problem is, users hated it so Facebook has never gotten around to rolling it out to its 1.2 billion users (it was enabled for a single-digit percentage of Facebook users). After spending months refining its look and implementing changed based on user feedback, Facebook on Thursday has finally begun switching its user base to the new News Feed where your "stories have a streamlined look with bigger photos"...

Read More

Facebook wants to buy drone maker Titan Aerospace to bring Internet to far-flung places

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 4, 2014

With nearly 1.3 billion people using its service, Facebook is the undisputed leader in social networking. But if the service is to expand to the next billion users, and the next billion ones after that, Facebook is going to face a significant hurdle: for two out of every three people, a fast and affordable Internet connection is still a pipe dream.

There's no denying that the majority of the world simply isn't online, and when I say 'majority' I'm referring to the circa five billion people who are lacking fast connectivity.

But does it have to be this way?

With more than seven billion people living on planet Earth, technology titans are investing resources in crazy technologies that would bring Internet to the masses. TechCrunch is now reporting that Facebook is considering buying Titan Aerospace, a company that makes solar-powered unmanned aircraft.

The goal: use the drones to bring the Internet - and consequentially the Facebook service - to far-flung places on Earth...

Read More

Facebook updates Paper with new sharing options, sound settings and more

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

Facebook has posted an update for its just-released Paper app this morning, bringing the app to version 1.0.2. The update adds a handful of new features, as well as several improvements including those in the form of reliability and performance.

On the new feature front, Facebook has added the ability to share articles via Facebook Messages, text message, or email. And you can also now turn off the app's sound effects so you can browse through the posts of your friends and family in peace...

Read More

Mark Zuckerberg says WhatsApp worth more than $19 billion

Cody Lee ∙ February 25, 2014

Since Facebook announced last week that it would be acquiring WhatsApp for $16+ billion, pundits have been trying to make sense of the deal. How can a messaging app startup be worth so much more than say, Motorola Mobility, which has thousands of employees?

According to Mark Zuckerberg, it's not. It's worth more. Speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona yesterday, the CEO said that WhatsApp was a 'great fit' for his company and that it was worth more than the $19B ($16B + $3B in vested shares) they paid for it...

Read More