Facebook’s ‘Star Trek’ reactions show it doesn’t know jack about Spock
Today is Star Trek’s 50th anniversary, marking half a century since the show first aired on September 8th 1966. Here at Engadget, we’re celebrating with an ancient Trekkie tradition: Nitpicking. Today, Facebook announced that it’s temporarily replacing its “Like” buttons with a set of Trek-inspired reactions — a laughing Captain Kirk, a sad, crying Geordi Laforge and an adorably angry Klingon. They’re all perfect …except for Spock. Facebook chose Star Trek’s most emotionless character to represent its most emotive reaction: “Wow.”
To be fair, it’s hard to imagine a Facebook reaction that appropriately fits our favorite Vulcan. Mr. Spock’s trademark placidity would have been equally ill-suited to anger, joy or sadness — and it’s pretty hard to celebrate Star Trek without Spock. With that requisite nerdery out of the way, however, there’s lots to love about Facebook’s Star Trek tribute. In addition to the new reaction buttons, Facebook users will be able to set a temporary profile image with a number of Trek-themed frames.
Even that’s not the best part of the company’s tribute, however — that distinction goes to gorgeous papercraft Enterprise the social network constructed to use in the profile frame invitation. Facebook’s Lindsey Shepard documented the process on Medium, explaining that an internal design team built the iconic starship by hand. It looks great. Now if only there was an characteristically appropriate Spock emoji we could use to express how impressive it is. Maybe something with a cautiously raised eyebrow? No? Oh well.
Via: Verge
Source: Medium
Facebook Celebrates 50th Anniversary of ‘Star Trek’ With Custom Reactions
Facebook marketing lead Lindsey Shepard recently posted a blog sharing new details of the company’s celebration of Star Trek’s 50th anniversary, taking place today. After updating the “Like” button to a set of emotional reactions earlier in the year, the social network is temporarily giving each reaction a Star Trek themed makeover to celebrate the franchise’s premiere on September 8, 1966.
In order to make this understood by all Star Trek fans, we chose the most iconic and recognizable characters and symbols from the original Star Trek series, as well as the Next Generation. We also wanted to honor the original design and spirit of Reactions, so we needed visual cues that were easy to identify at a glance, like Geordi’s visor. This led us to our final cast: Kirk, Spock, Geordi and a Klingon.
This project has truly been a labor of love. We hope that people find as much joy in using these different celebratory elements as we have in creating them. We may test experiences like this in the future, and will focus on community and moment-driven events like this one.
Live long and prosper.
Shepard said Facebook chose “the most iconic and recognizable characters and symbols from the original Star Trek series” as inspiration for the new reaction buttons, and paired them with what users expect from reactions. The new Star Trek reactions include a sparkly thumbs-up (Like), Vulcan salute (Love), Captain Kirk (Haha), Spock (Wow), Geordi (Sad), and a Klingon (Angry).
The update to reactions also comes with a customized greeting and profile frame that Facebook says only those “who’ve expressed interest in Star Trek or science fiction” might begin to see propagating on their Facebook page. For those lucky fans, the new Star Trek theme will be up in the United States and Canada — on both desktop and the mobile apps — “for a limited time.”
Tag: Facebook
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Instagram will take advantage of your iPhone 7’s camera
You won’t have to wait long to find apps that take advantage of the iPhone 7’s upgraded camera system. Instagram has revealed that an updated version of its iOS app will take and share photos using the wider color range captured by the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus’ image sensors. You should see more vivid colors than you’d get from a phone taking photos in the usual sRGB color gamut. Instagram’s update will arrive sometime later this year.
Click here to catch all the latest news from Apple’s “See You” event.
Instagram is dropping photo maps
Instagram isn’t just piling on new features — it’s taking them away, too. The social image service says that it’s removing the Photo Map feature, which lets you see where a person’s snapshots come from. The removals started last week, Instagram adds. It’s currently focused on removing maps on profiles of other people, but you’ll eventually lose access to your own photo map as well. Location info will stick around (such as pages showing all the photos taken at a given place), however, so you won’t lose track of where you took that stunning flower shot.
The company doesn’t beat around the bush when explaining the move: it tells us that Photo Map “was not widely used.” It’s shifting its attention to other areas, according to the statement (which you can read below). Frankly, the decision isn’t shocking. When’s the last time you browsed your friends’ photo locations? And when Instagram is currently obsessed with video and beating Snapchat, cartography isn’t exactly high on the priority list.
“Photo Map was not widely used, so we’ve decided to remove the feature and focus on other priorities. You will still be able to see location tags on individual posts.”
Source: Mashable
Facebook test highlights what your friends are talking about
Facebook’s new experimental feature shows you status updates you might have missed otherwise. Mashable has spotted a box marked “What friends are talking about,” which lists a few of your friends’ posts in a single box on top of your feed, in the company’s Android app. We weren’t able to replicate the experience on either Android or iOS (or even on a computer), but that’s not exactly surprising. Only very few people get access to the social network’s features in their experimental stage, so you’ll have to check your own apps to see if you’ve been chosen.
The company has been making changes to the News Feed for months in order to bring status updates you’d actually want to read closer to the top. This test feature, which could change the way you interact with your friends’ posts, is most likely part of that effort. As always, Facebook could eventually give this feature a wider release, but the company could also pull it down, depending on whether it does well during the test period.
[Image credit: Mashable]
Source: Mashable
SpaceX asked to pay $50 million after losing a satellite
SpaceX may have to deal with more than equipment losses and Mark Zuckerberg’s disappointment in the wake of its launchpad explosion. Spacecom, which owned the AMOS-6 satellite destroyed in the incident (and part of Facebook’s free internet plans), is asking SpaceX for either $50 million or a free flight as compensation. The loss will have a large impact on Spacecom’s bottom line, as you might imagine. The Israeli firm is estimating that it’ll lose between $30 million to $123 million in equity.
The team at SpaceX has yet to comment on Spacecom’s request. We’ve reached out to see if it has a response. However, it won’t take a grievous blow if it agrees to Spacecom’s terms. As SpaceX explained when beginning its investigation of the explosion, there are about 70 missions on its manifest with a total value of $10 billion. The rocket and launchpad costs would be greater. Instead, the greater loss could be symbolic. Customers may well be worried that their payloads might face a similar fate, and they’ll want reassurances that this was just a freak occurrence.
Source: Reuters
The Engadget Podcast Ep 4: All Eyez On Me
Editors Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar join host Terrence O’Brien to talk about Intel’s latest CPUs, Dead or Alive’s controversial VR feature and Lenovo’s “innovative” take on the keyboard. Then the panel takes a look at Chris Brown’s standoff and how Instagram videos and Facebook Live fit into our modern media landscape.
Here are your Flame Wars leaderboards:
Wins
Loses
Winning %
Chris Velazco
3
1
.750
Devindra Hardawar
6
4
.600
Nathan Ingraham
3
4
.429
Cherlynn Low
3
4
.429
Relevant links:
- Lenovo’s Yoga Book is part tablet, part sketch pad
- Intel’s 7th generation Core CPUs will devour 4K video
- ‘Dead or Alive’ VR is basically sexual assault, the game
- Chris Brown turns to Instagram amid police standoff
- Kim Dotcom hopes to livestream his extradition appeal
- Kim Dotcom will be allowed to stream his extradition appeal
You can check out every episode on The Engadget Podcast page in audio, video and text form for the hearing impaired.
Watch on YouTube
Subscribe on Google Play Music
Subscribe on iTunes
Subscribe on Stitcher
Subscribe on Pocket Casts
Tech’s biggest names are working to regulate AI research
Artificial intelligence is hitting its stride, already giving us machines that can drive themselves, talk to us, fight in our wars, perform our surgeries and beat humanity’s best in a game of Go or Jeopardy. Five companies at the forefront of the technology industry have been meeting to discuss these advancements in AI and figure out how to regulate even more powerful systems in the future, The New York Times reports.
Researchers from Facebook, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM are looking at the practical consequences of AI, such as how it will impact transportation, jobs and welfare. The group doesn’t have a name or an official credo, but its general goal is to ensure AI research focuses on benefiting people, not harming them, the NYT says.
This isn’t a new battle cry for many AI scientists. In 2015, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, the founders of Google DeepMind and dozens of other researchers signed an open letter calling for robust investigations into the impact of AI and ways to ensure it remains a benign tool at humanity’s disposal. The industry partnership is notable because it represents a renewed, active effort among disparate tech companies to address these same issues.
The companies are expected to announce the group in mid-September, though it could grow in the meantime: Google DeepMind has asked to participate separately from Alphabet, its parent company, the NYT reports.
One of the people involved in the industry partnership, Microsoft researcher Eric Horvitz, funded a paper issued by Stanford University on Thursday called the One Hundred Year Study, which discusses the realities of AI and the importance of investigating its impact now. It also calls for increased AI education at all levels of government and outlines how to publish a report on the state of the industry every five years for the next 100 years.
The NYT notes that people in the technology field are worried about regulators jumping in to police their work on AI.
“We’re not saying that there should be no regulation,” University of Texas at Austin computer scientist Peter Stone tells the NYT. “We’re saying that there is a right way and a wrong way.”
This summer, Engadget dove into the ways AI is poised to change jobs, war, criminal justice, history and our everyday lives. AI is the focus of much deserved attention in the technology industry because it is infinitely promising — even if we won’t be uploading our consciousness to the cloud any time soon.
Source: New York Times
Facebook Messenger’s ‘Instant Video’ looks awfully Snapchatty
Bots have been all the rage in Facebook Messenger over the last few months, but today the social network is adding a new way to chat with your pals. The company announced a tool called Instant Video that allows you to have those quick conversations face-to-face in addition to text and photos. Yes, video calling was already available in Messenger, so what’s new here? Well, Instant Video is meant to be easily and instantly (get it?) accessible inside a chat conversation rather than having to go through the process of making a call. It’s all about efficiency.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because Snapchat allows you to do something similar. Inside that messaging app, you can tap to share video with the person you’re already having a text conversation with in a flash. Facebook’s version works pretty much the same way with an Instant Video icon situated at the top of the window. As long as you and the person you’re talking to are both running the latest version of Messenger for Android or iOS, you’ll be able to employ the feature. Instant Video only works as long as you keep the chat open and you can continue conversing via text while the window floats over your chat. Audio is turned off for the recipient of the video by default.
This isn’t the first time Facebook or one of its apps has taken cues from Snapchat. Instagram Stories arrived in early August to compile images and videos in a format that’s very similar to Snapchat’s own Story feature. Facebook also nabbed face-swapping app Masquerade back in March to add photo filters to its arsenal of apps. In fact, the social network has already announced that those features would be available in Facebook Live at some point. Zuckerberg & Co. have clearly taken notice of Snapchat’s popularity, so it’ll be interesting to see it Facebook decides to take any more inspiration from that app in the future.
Via: The Verge
Source: Facebook
Facebook Introduces Live Streaming ‘Instant Video’ Feature in Messenger App
In yet another deeper push into video, Facebook today is rolling out a new update to its Messenger app [Direct Link] that adds a new live video button into every chat window. When used, Facebook users will begin live streaming in a small pop-up window with sound turned off by default, allowing them to keep texting with the person on the other end while sharing visual details of their location that might be easier through video rather than simple text.
Facebook is calling the new feature “Instant Video,” and says it represents “a reflection of the ubiquity of video” that’s expected in most messaging apps nowadays. Rather than a full-on video chatting experience, the social network hopes for Instant Video to be a companion to traditional texting.
Instant Video is a reflection of the ubiquity of video — we simply expect to have that ability in real-time, all the time. With Instant Video, you can bring your conversations to life in the most authentic way — seamlessly and instantly. It’s perfect for sharing quick moments with friends who aren’t right by your side or making your conversations richer by seeing each other face-to-face when you are messaging.
Sometimes you want to ask a friend’s opinion on a pair of shoes you want to buy, weigh in on what ice cream flavor they should bring home, or just want to see your BFF’s reaction to your witty message when you’re in a place where you can’t actually talk live.
To start an Instant Video conversation, there will be a new video icon in the top right corner of each Messenger conversation. This will bring up the live stream of real-time video, and the app supports both the front-facing and rear-facing cameras of a smartphone. On the other side of the conversation, a friend can continue watching the live stream and turn on audio, or respond with a stream of their own camera for you to see.
Facebook sees the new update as another example of its attempt “to solve real problems for real people.” Over the past few weeks, the company has tested autoplay videos with sound in its iOS app, launched a video-focused app for teenagers, and began a slow implementation of MSQRD in select countries. Although Instant Video is only for Messenger, it’ll have a large install base to test it out since the separate instant messaging app celebrated a milestone of one billion monthly active users over the summer.
Tags: Facebook, Facebook Messenger
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