Facebook lets you know when celebrities are streaming live video
No, Facebook isn’t opening up its live streaming feature to the hoi polloi just yet, but it does have the next best thing. It’s rolling out a subscription feature to Facebook Live that lets you know the next time your favorite celebrity starts a stream. You’ll have to tap the button on a live video (seriously, shouldn’t this always be available?), but it’ll keep you in the loop the next time a star has a big announcement or Q&A. Clearly, Facebook isn’t worried about competing directly with Twitter’s Periscope right now — it’s more interested in boosting the profiles of its best-known users than giving everyone a chance to share their lives on camera.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Facebook Media
Talking it out: Do I buy a console or the Oculus Rift?
So my old Xbox 360 finally gave up its ghost last weekend and presented me with the most dreaded of error codes, the ‘Red Ring of Death’. It wasn’t an entirely shocking turn of events, mind you. I’d had that console since 2006 — it survived four intra-state moves, countless roommates and a bitter ex armed with a croquet mallet (seriously Ashley, if you’re reading this, you still owe me a croquet set) — but the increasingly common and severe loading screen freezes made it clear my 360 was reaching the end of its operational service life.
Now I’m faced with a difficult choice: What gaming platform do I buy next? Do I suck it up and embrace Microsoft’s current console, Xbox One? Should I jump ship to the PlayStation 4 which all my own friends own and use? Or, do I say goodbye to console gaming altogether and get one of those fancy new Oculus Rifts?
Google just released new AI software that can learn faster
Google is ignoring everything the Terminator franchise taught us and is releasing “TensorFlow”, open-source software that helps computers learn quicker than ever before. The software is a branch of artificial intelligence called “machine learning,” tech that has already found a home in Google Search, Google Photos and Gmail. Tech-giants, like Google, Facebook and Amazon are all working with machine learning to better the services that they offer like smart search, ad targeting and product recommendations. Machine learning is now shifting into a complex realm where researchers are creating computer models that can see and even understand what it’s looking at.
Via: The New York Times
Source: Google
Facebook must stop tracking non-users in Belgium, or else
If you thought Facebook was already in hot water for its web tracking, you haven’t seen anything yet. A Belgian court has given Facebook 48 hours to stop violating the country’s privacy law by following non-users with a web cookie. If it doesn’t, it risks fines of up to €250,000 ($269,000) per day — it can’t exactly afford to take its time. Facebook is appealing the decision and tells the BBC the cookie is needed to “keep Facebook secure,” but we wouldn’t count on Belgium’s sympathy when it’s worried about safeguarding its residents.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Ezequiel Scagnetti]
Source: BBC
Facebook Photo Magic asks you to send pics to photographed friends
Facebook is testing out Photo Magic, a new facial-recognition feature that prompts users to send photos via Messenger directly to the people in the shots. The test hits Australia today on Android, with an iOS rollout planned for later this week. Photo Magic uses the same tech as Facebook’s Moments and tag-suggestion features, and for your friends to receive photos of themselves, they need to have Moments installed, Verge reports. When you open the updated Messenger app, it’ll scan your smartphone’s camera roll (after you give it permission to do so) and select a snap that features you and some Facebook friends. You can then send it to those folks with one tap; Messenger will open up a new group thread if there are multiple people in the shot. After that, if you take a photo with some Facebook buddies, Messenger will offer the option to send it right to them. Of course, users can opt out of facial recognition in Facebook’s settings page. Photo Magic should make its way to countries outside of Australia within a few months.
[Image credit: Shutterstock]
Via: TechCrunch
Source: The Verge
The President finally has a Facebook page
For all of the White House’s efforts to join the internet era, it’s been awfully slow at giving the President a Facebook presence. It’s not dragging its heels any longer, though: President Obama (and presumably, any future President) now has an official Facebook page. Besides giving the political leader a chance to explain agendas, it’ll help you share your thoughts and chat with other concerned residents. The move was virtually necessary when over a billion people use Facebook every day, but it’s hard to knock something that puts you in closer contact with your government. Let’s just hope that the President has someone keeping a close eye on the comments — if you think the politically-charged discussions in your own Facebook feed can get bad, you can imagine what it’d be like for a head of state.
Source: POTUS (Facebook)
New Android adware reportedly “nearly impossible” to remove
Lookout has discovered a new form of adware that roots a device after the user installs it, then entrenches itself as a system application. This makes it impervious to any normal means of deleting it, even factory resetting the device.
This is a new, more sophisticated version of typical adware, which tends to make itself annoying by constantly pushing ads at the user. Since this form of malware has root access, it doesn’t need to annoy the reader, and most users probably won’t even know they’ve been infected. It’s effectively a family of trojan viruses.
Lookout discovered that this family of trojans hides inside legit apps like Candy Crush, Google Now, Facebook, NYTimes, Okta, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and over 20,000 others. Infected versions of these applications are not available on the Google Play store and must be downloaded from third party stores. Since most instances of this malware leave the host app virtually unaltered, users may not notice the sneaky little culprit that snuck in on it.
Lookout reports that successfully embedded instances of this malware are “nearly impossible” to remove, and that the only solution for most users will be to purchase a new phone. Adware with this kind of power is obviously a security risk. Apps typically aren’t given access to files created by other applications, but root access bypasses this safeguard and could expose infected devices to fraud and identity theft.
Lookout has identified three different families of this form of trojan malware: Shuanet, Kemoge (or “ShiftyBug”), and GhostPush. These families have separate designers but share 77% of their code, meaning that even if those responsible for creating them are not working together, they are at the very least aware of each other. The highest rates of infection are in the United States, Germany, Iran, Russia, India, Jamaica, Sudan, Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia.
So is this really that big of a deal though? While the situation might sound dire, in reality, the odds of being infected by such a trojan probably is pretty low. As already mentioned, these infected apps are found in 3rd party stores, so if you stick to official channels — you should have very little to worry about.
Facebook Debuts ‘Music Stories’ on iOS for Better Album & Song Discovery
Facebook today announced a new feature for its iOS app called “Music Stories” that will allow users to sample 30-second clips of songs that their friends and family post to the social network from services like Apple Music, iTunes, and Spotify. Users will be able to stream the clip directly from their feed and even follow a link to purchase or add the music directly into their Apple Music or Spotify playlists.
There are few things people love more than music. People find out about it from artists and friends alike, and they love to share their discoveries. Today we are enabling better music discovery and sharing on Facebook.
We hope by making this experience better, artists will share more, friends will share and engage more, and music will become a better part of the Facebook experience overall.
The company promises that support for other streaming music services will be coming soon, and that it sees Music Stories as a way to further mold Facebook into a one-stop experience where users can get updates on friends, family, entertainment and political news, and now new song and album recommendations. Facebook didn’t give any word on when the new music-centric feature would be making its way to other platforms like Android or the web.
Recently, the social network company faced a widespread issue of users reporting dramatic battery drain while the Facebook iOS ran in the background, even with background app refresh switched off. It has since repaired the issue, but left some Facebook users unsure of the company’s intentions, like MacStories‘ Federico Vittici, who said the company had “a deep lack of respect for iOS users” when his hypothesis of silent background audio running to produce a snappier experience was proved to be correct.
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