To Facebook, we are all lab rats. Facebook routinely adjusts its users’ news feeds — testing out the number of ads they see or the size of photos that appear — often without their knowledge. It is all for the purpose, the company says, of creating a more alluring and useful product. But last week, Continue Reading →
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Amidst Google’s numerous announcements at its I/O developer conference, it was Google’s low-budget but practical take on virtual reality that was perhaps the most notable device, for me at least. Facebook may have dropped $2 billion to buy VR device maker Oculus, but, for Google, using cardboard and an Android device is enough. That comparison Continue Reading →
Mobile messaging apps may be a dime a dozen, but they’re still big business – and, in fact, worth many, many dimes. In the last week, two messaging apps have made big waves in the mobile world: Slingshot and Yo. Both apps are pretty simple and minimal – or maybe I’m dumb and I just don’t Continue Reading →
With teachers, parents, and even grandparents hopping on the Facebook bandwagon, it’s no longer the hip online destination it once was–but that doesn’t mean teens have abandoned the world’s most popular social network. After polling 4,517 Internet users in the U.S. between the ages of 12 and 17, Forrester analyst Nate Elliott released a chart Continue Reading →
Facebook is turning its attention to users in emerging markets, and Africa in particular. The company has retooled its Android app to bring a multitude of speed and performance improvements to those with low-end devices and modest internet connections. Earlier this year, the company ran a series of fact-finding missions to Africa in order to Continue Reading →
It’s a smartphone app that sends photos and videos that self-destruct after they’re viewed. It lets you personalize these ephemeral messages with your own little doodles. And it goes by a one-word name that begins with an “S” and ends with a “T.” Any guesses? No, it’s not Snapchat. It’s Slingshot, the new app from Continue Reading →
Facebook is trying once again to catch Snapchat’s wave. The social-networking behemoth is launching on Tuesday a new app called Slingshot that allows people to share short-lived photos and videos with one another. This concept, which caught fire through competitors like Snapchat, encourages people to share less carefully edited photos and videos by promising they’ll Continue Reading →
Among people in the U.S. who say they use social media to get news at least once a week, 37% said they get it from Facebook. In the same group, 65% said they used Facebook for other purposes — people who use Facebook often tended to get news from the site often enough, too. Not Continue Reading →
Over 70 percent of people who use Facebook for iPad played a Facebook-connected game in the past 90 days, so the company is helping them discover or re-engage with games through a new home page sidebar it starts testing today on its iPad app. It includes social notifications for native mobile and Facebook web games Continue Reading →
Facebook continues to add new multimedia features to Messenger, its standalone chat app: the latest addition is the ability to instantly send (and play) videos of up to 15 seconds from inside the iOS app [and now the Android version too.] The update is similar to the ‘instant photo’ feature that was added in April. Continue Reading →