Outlook on the web can import GDrive files and Facebook photos
Microsoft is showing its Outlook.com users some love by adding both Facebook and Google Drive integration. If you use Outlook on iOS or Android, you probably already know that you can link it with your GDrive account. Now that the feature’s finally available for the service’s web version, you can open file attachments and even edit the document right within its interface. All you need to do is click on the attachment icon and type in your Google log-in. The process is pretty much the same if you want to email your Facebook photos.
Say, you want to email snapshots from a party to a friend who doesn’t really use the social network. Just click on the attachment icon and log in. Once you’re done setting things up, you can browse both photos you uploaded and pictures of you other people uploaded within Outlook.com. From there, you can choose the ones you want to share with someone else. Finally, Microsoft made it easy to look for attachments within lengthy email threads. If you need to find something buried deep within piles of emails from your workmates, simply click on the new drop-down menu next to the subject line to see all the attachments in that conversation.
Source: Microsoft
Facebook brings Live broadcasts to the desktop
If you like Facebook’s Live feature but feel more at home in front of a computer than a smartphone when you broadcast, it might not be too long before you can do so. The social giant has confirmed that it’s bringing the feature to the browser, allowing Facebook.com users to select a “Live Video” button in the status update box and immediately begin streaming.
Search Engine Journal shared a video of Facebook user Delilah Taylor, who appears to be one of the first to gain access the new Live tool. AdWeek sources say the company brought the feature to the browser in response to “demand from journalists, vloggers and do-it-yourselfers.”
Transitioning from mobile-only is a big step for the Facebook Live. While it was previously competing with Twitter’s Periscope for the live video audience, it’s now also aiming at YouTube and Twitch streamers as well. Social networks are spending big money to lure in online personalities: Facebook, in particular, is reported to be working on a new way to monetize videos uploaded by popular users in order to break the hold YouTube’s ad dollars have on them.
“We’re starting to roll out the ability for people to broadcast live on Facebook from their desktop or laptop,” said Facebook in a statement. AdWeek reports that the feature will take a while to expand its reach, with more people set to gain access “in the coming months.”
Via: AdWeek
Source: Search Engine Journal
Oculus makes achievements a part of Gear VR and Rift games
Oculus is joining the ranks of Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Steam and even GameCenter. That’s right: Rift and Gear VR games are adding achievements. They’re live in a handful of games now including Minecraft and Hitman Go and it’ll only be a matter of time before they become the rule rather than the exception. As The Verge writes, the update will be rolling out over the next few weeks, and you’ll be able to opt out of sharing the meta-challenge activities if you want. You know, if you’re ever embarrassed of playing the inevitable Candy Crush VR in the future.
Source: The Verge
Facebook Messenger has an unreleased public chat feature
Facebook’s lovable but unfortunately short-lived standalone Rooms app might see the light of day again — in some form at least. According to TechCrunch, Facebook Messenger has an unreleased feature, also called “Rooms,” that allow users to create public, sharable group chats
After a little digging, TechCrunch found several mentions of the feature inside Messenger’s code, including a logo and a basic description: “Rooms are for public conversations about topics and interests. Each room has a link that can be shared so anyone on Messenger can join the conversation”. Some TechCrunch readers were also able to launch a chat room with both friends and strangers, and an admin screen showed some sharing features that aren’t available with regular group messages. For its part, Facebook offered a statement saying “We often run small tests – nothing more to share beyond that.”
The original Rooms app harkened back to the good old days of open chat rooms and was something of a departure for Facebook in that it allowed users to be anonymous or use a pseudonym rather than their real name. While this rooms feature for Messenger isn’t quite as full-fledged, it does offer a happy medium between the back-and-forth posting on a Group’s public newsfeed and private Messenger groups — something that might be useful as the social network looks to capitalize on messaging and chatbots.
Anti-pipeline activists claim Facebook censored their live video
Facebook has long had a tough time walking a fine line when it comes to political material, and the pressure isn’t about to let up any time soon. Unicorn Riot maintains that Facebook censored their live stream of a protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline, deleting the Livestream.com link shortly before two of its reporters were caught up in a mass arrest. Comments and posts popped up security alerts when they contained the link, and Facebook’s debugger insisted that the web address ran afoul of “community standards.”
As you might guess, Facebook disagrees with the notion that there were any sinister motivations. It tells Motherboard that its automated spam filter pulled the link “in error.” The social network restored the link once it had a chance to investigate, and has since apologized. “We sometimes get things wrong,” it says, noting that there are “million of [spam] reports” every week. We’ve reached out to Facebook ourselves for comment and will let you know if it has more to add.
While the evidence appears to support Facebook’s claims, the incident still underscores problems the site has whenever it pulls politically sensitive material. Whether it’s a ban (such as the Terror of War photo) or an error (like with the shooting of Philando Castile), any removal is virtually guaranteed to fan accusations of censorship. Facebook has over 1.7 billion users — it’s by far the most popular place to share content online, and even a relatively rare glitch is bound to be noticed by many people. So long as Facebook’s automated systems (and increasingly rarely, human overseers) are less than bulletproof, these sorts of incidents are more a matter of “when” than “if.”
Via: Motherboard
Source: Unicorn Riot, Anti-Media
Watch what it takes to build a 350HP combat robot right here
Our dreams of watching giant robots battle it out in front of us have almost come true. The folks behind the MegaBots Kickstarter have released the first trailer for their upcoming web series that follows the trials and tribulations of building a 10-ton, 350HP combat robot. The team hired an Emmy-nominated video team to capture all the gory details, and it sounds like the main event — a hand-to-hand battle against Japan’s Kuratas robot — will be the season finale.
The first episode of real-life Titanfall will drop September 28th on the MegaBots YouTube channel and Facebook page. After that, release cadence will be every two weeks. But because the team is still filming, it warns that exact timing could be a little hit or miss for each subsequent episode. Check out the video below for your first taste of the chaos.
Source: Kickstarter
VR documentary puts you inside the 2016 NBA Finals
The National Basketball Association began experimenting with virtual reality last year, when it used the medium to stream the first game of its 2015 season. Now, the league has teamed up with Oculus on a VR documentary about last year’s championship matchup, between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. Titled Follow my Lead: The Story of the 2016 NBA Finals, this 360-degree video experience aims to take you where traditional TV can’t, giving you a first-person look at the action on and off the court.
The 25-minute story, created by Brooklyn-based production company m ss ng p ecess (“missing pieces,” get it?), is narrated by actor Michael B Jordan (Friday Night Lights, Creed). And it doesn’t just focus on Game 7, which Cleveland won at Oracle Arena in Oakland, but rather the entire series. I had the chance to check it out and walked away fairly impressed. The best part about it is that, unlike watching a film on my TV or phone, the VR headset gave me the option to explore and focus on whatever I wanted to.
I spent most of the time paying attention to highlights of the basketball games, but it was nice to also be able to spin my head and watch how fans in the arena celebrated a LeBron James dunk. In general, though, that’s the beauty about virtual reality experiences — they’re different for everyone. Here’s a perfect example of the value of this kind of storytelling: remember that cameraman who, during Game 6, fell down as he followed LeBron to the locker room? Well, here you can see it actually happening, whereas on TV you only knew because of the botched camera shot.
So whether you want to see crowd reactions or something else entirely, chances are your experience won’t be the same as mine. At first, I was worried about the length of the documentary, thinking by the end of it I would have a massive headache. You know, after “coming back.” But, thankfully, that wasn’t the case. If you have a Samsung Gear VR headset, you too can watch Follow my Lead: The Story of the 2016 NBA Finals starting today. Better yet, it’s a free download from the Oculus Store.
Facebook and Twitter will help Google filter out fake news
Facebook and Twitter have joined a Google-backed effort that aims to tackle fake news that tend to spread on social media. If you use either website, you’ve definitely seen those types of posts — you know, hoaxes, headlines that have nothing to do with the actual story, fake celebrity deaths, and so on and so forth — before. The two companies are now part of the First Draft Coalition, which was announced back in June 2015 along with YouTube Newswire, a curated collection of verified eyewitness videos covering various events. FDC will help not just journalists from partner publications, but also individual users verify stories circulating online.
Facebook, in particular, is a huge addition to the list of partners, seeing as fake and spammy posts spread like wildfire among the website’s billions of users. It will provide coalition members with tools and services that can help them figure out if they’re looking at a hoax. According to Reuters, the coalition is scheduled to launch the platform where members can verify stories by the end of October. For now you can check out what FDC is all about on its website.
Via: The Guardian, Reuters
Source: First Draft Coalition
SpaceX hopes to fly again by November, delays Falcon Heavy
On September 1st, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (and a Facebook satellite) unexpectedly exploded on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. The company doesn’t yet know what caused it, but it’s not letting the setback get them down. Today, SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell said the company hopes to return to flight in November. “We’re anticipating getting back to flight, being down for about three months,” Shotwell said, speaking at a conference in Paris. “November time-frame.”
Shotwell says the November goal is a “best hope,” scenerio, according to Space News reporter Peter de Selding. It also won’t be from the same location — the launch pad used during the September 1st incident is still being repaired, and may be part of SpaceX’s investigation into the cause of the explosion. The next launch will likely fly from one of the pads designed for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. Unfortunately, Shotwell says that rocket’s launch will be delayed as a result, moving from a late 2016 flight to sometime early next year.
Via: Verge
Source: YouTube, Twitter (1), (2), (3)
Facebook, Google urge Congress to hand over internet control
On October 1st, the US is supposed to hand the “keys” of the internet to ICANN, and Congress is not happy about it. The mostly Republican lawmakers, led by Ted Cruz, feel that ceding control will stifle online freedom and give power to authoritarian governments. However, technology companies including Facebook, Google and Twitter penned an open letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to hand internet domain control to the international community as promised.
The final proposal, drafted by “proud and active members of the internet community,” goes well beyond the US Commerce Department’s original criteria, set in 2014, according to the document. “Furthermore, crucial safeguards are in place to protect human rights, including the freedom of speech,” it adds.
A global, interoperable and stable Internet is essential for our economic and national security, and we remain committed to completing the nearly twenty year transition to … [a] model that will best serve U.S. interests.
The internet is currently controlled by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and has been since its birth. However, many nations are understandably skittish about full US control over what is, after all, the “World Wide Web.” As such, the US agreed to cede control to ICANN, an international body with representatives from academia, government agencies like NASA, corporations and protocol bodies like the Internet Systems Consortium.
Congress will hold a hearing on the handover tomorrow, September 14th. Cruz is expected to grill the NTIA and ICANN on whether they’re fully prepared to deal with censorship attempts by China, Russia and other authoritarian nations. In support of Cruz, Senator Orrin Hatch said earlier this week, “charging ahead with the transition now could undermine internet freedom.”
However, the tech companies wrote that the transition is “ready to be executed,” and that it’s “imperative” that Congress not hold it up. “A global, interoperable and stable Internet is essential for our economic and national security, and we remain committed to completing the nearly twenty year transition to … [a] model that will best serve U.S. interests.”
Via: Reuters
Source: Circle ID
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