Facebook completes its $19 billion acquisition of Whatsapp
Well, that was quick: it’s only been three days since Facebook cleared the last, decidedly European hurdle to closing its $19 billion Whatsapp acquisition, and it’s already made things official with the SEC. Regulators in the United States and Europe were concerned about the effects the deal would have on competition in the rough-and-tumble messaging realm (though Google is apparently gearing up to give the combine social giant a run for its money), but the other major concern was making sure user data stays private. Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, put it bluntly back in April (PDF warning): to hear her tell it, “WhatsApp has made a number of promises about the limited nature of the data it collects, maintains, and shares with third parties – promises that exceed the protections currently promised to Facebook users.” Facebook apparently managed to ease those fears, but with the deal now closed it’s time to see what the folks at 1 Hacker Way actually do with Whatsapp. Our guess? Nothing too great.
Source: SEC
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Code hints that Facebook Messenger will let you pay your friends
If you’ve ever had a Facebook friend in need of some money, you may soon have a way to pay them without much fuss. Stanford student Andrew Aude has shown off hidden code in Facebook Messenger’s iOS app that will let you send funds much in the same way that you share a photo; you just have to add a payment card and a PIN code. The transaction is private and appears to be free at the moment, although it won’t be surprising if Facebook eventually takes a small cut of each transfer.
It’s not certain when payments will be available, and there’s a good chance that you’ll be waiting a while. Security guru Jonathan Zdziarski found the first traces of e-commerce code last month, and Facebook’s own Mark Zuckerberg warned that there was “so much groundwork” necessary before the social network could flip the switch. However, the company recently hired former PayPal CEO David Marcus to head up its instant messaging efforts — there’s no question that money will eventually play an important role.
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Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Facebook
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Andrew Aude (Twitter), Josh Constantine (Instagram)
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Engadget Daily: Moto G review, Facebook enters the healthcare business, and more!
The Moto G has done it again. We we reviewed this year’s model, and surprise: It’s still the best budget smartphone around. But wait, there’s more — read on for Engadget’s news highlights from the last 24 hours.
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Facebook now lets you put a Like button in your app
A huge number of people who visit Facebook are on a smartphone or tablet, using the official Facebook app. Because of the quantity of people using the mobile versions, it would be crazy of Facebook not to enable the “Like” button on mobile applications. That’s why they’re changing things up and enabling Android and iOS developers to put a Like button in their apps.
You can embed the Like button to do a few different actions. You can either have it Like an Open Graph object within the app, simply Like the Facebook page, or share a certain type of achievement or reward in a game. Here’s what the Like button will look like in a mobile application:
Facebook isn’t going to stop growing anytime soon, and this is just another way they’re expanding even more.
Source: Facebook
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EU officially approves Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp
US regulators may have given Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp the thumbs-up some time ago, but the social network was still waiting for the EU to do the same. Now, thankfully, approval has been handed down from European Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, who says that, thanks to the presence of healthy rivals like Line, Viber and iMessage, the deal won’t hamper competition in the messaging market. Zuckberg and Co. had to agree to protect user privacy in the States before getting the official go-ahead, and in Europe antitrust watchdogs sent questionnaires to the competition in order to gauge the impact on the messaging game before deciding. In May, Facebook looked into getting the European Commission involved to bypass the holdup of waiting on each country to okay the deal. Of course, there’s a lot of sexting to take into account across the pond, so officials had to be careful with the due diligence.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Mobile, Facebook
Via: Reuters
Source: Europa
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Reuters: Facebook’s getting into the healthcare business
With Google and Apple both launching health-related products earlier this year, it’s not surprising that Facebook’s conjuring up its own — according to Reuters, anyway. The news agency says Facebook has been talking to medical industry experts and is in the early stages of building a research and development team for mobile apps and tools. In addition to possible health apps, the company’s also reportedly creating online support communities to connect users afflicted with the same illnesses. That’s apparently a product of employees’ observation that people tend to look for advice about their ailments on the social network. While Facebook has long been looking into offering healthcare apps and services, what drove it to take things seriously was its wildly successful organ donor status launch in 2012. Sure, people might have just signed up to donate their organs for the bragging rights, but at least that launch day caused registrations to skyrocket to 13,054 from the daily average of 616.
Filed under: Misc, Mobile, Facebook
Source: Reuters
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Facebook promises better vetting for its social experiments
Facebook came under a ton of fire this summer when it revealed that it’d manipulated some peoples’ news feeds in an experiment to track mood changes. Well, The Social Network took note and has recently announced it’s changing how experiments will be performed and from here on out, Zuck and Co. will give researchers clearer guidelines to follow. Meaning, in part, that if a study drills down on a particular demographic or relates to something its users would consider “deeply personal” (i.e. feelings or moods), before the research begins it has to go through what Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer calls an advanced review process. That review process will be handled by senior-level employees from the social behemoth’s engineering, research, legal and privacy-and-policy teams.
Every employee regardless of position will undergo a bit of learning on the research process during the outfit’s six-week training seminar, too. But wait, there’s more! Facebook has also setup a portal that hosts its research projects for all to see. From here, at least, it looks like the company is keeping its promise to not repeat the same mistake twice.
[Image credit: Alamy]
Filed under: Internet, Software, Facebook
Source: Facebook, Research at Facebook
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Netflix will pay you to take Instagram photos of famous movie locations
Ever felt that your Instagram photography is so good that you should start charging for it? Now’s your chance to prove your worth. Netflix is looking for three professional Instagram shooters (aka “Grammasters”) that will travel across the continental US snapping square photos of “iconic” movie and TV show locations to drum up attention for the streaming movie service. All you have to do to apply is share three of your best shots by October 7th. The gig only lasts for two weeks, so you won’t want to quit your day job — and it’s safe to say that you won’t have as much creative control as you’d probably like. However, you’ll be paid $2,000 a week with all travel expenses covered. That’s not too shabby for something you were already doing for free.
[Image credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Facebook
Source: Netflix
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Facebook apologizes for spurning drag queens, might do something about it
Facebook’s real name policy has cause quite a stir recently, especially among the drag queen community. Several performers found themselves on the receiving end of a merciless deletion because they used their stage names, rather than their legal names for their profiles. When those accounts were reported as fake (apparently by a single individual with a vendetta against drag queens) they got swept up into Facebook’s system and removed along with the bullies, impersonators and trolls. Now the company’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, has issued an apology, though one that makes it clear the policy will not be changing.
Cox makes it clear that forcing Sister Roma or Lil Miss Hot Mess to change the names associated with their accounts would be a mistake, however. As he explains:
Our policy has never been to require everyone on Facebook to use their legal name. The spirit of our policy is that everyone on Facebook uses the authentic name they use in real life. For Sister Roma, that’s Sister Roma. For Lil Miss Hot Mess, that’s Lil Miss Hot Mess.
That being said, he goes on to say the policy is “the right one” for Facebook, and gives no inclination that it’s going to change anytime soon. Instead he says that the company’s “reporting and enforcement mechanisms” are largely to blame for the problems. So, while the real name policy will stay in place, it looks as if Facebook is taking the issues it has caused recently at least somewhat seriously and is looking for solutions — even if it’s not sure what those solutions are yet. Suffice to say, Edwina Gadgetina was hoping for something more.
[Image Credits: Shutterstock (Facebook), Mathu Andersen/Logo (RuPaul)]
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Via: The Next Web
Source: Facebook
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‘Twilight’ mini-movies are coming to Facebook
If there’s an upside to more Twilight, it’s that Lionsgate is teaming up with Women in Film to give aspiring female filmmakers a shot at the big time. Fans will also get their chance to shape the tales, since the productions will be hammered out on crowdsourced storytelling platform Tongal. Unfortunately, fans may be disappointed to learn that their Jacob/Bella/Edward slash fiction isn’t likely to be featured, since the films will be featuring lesser-known characters and using the Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide as their source material. We guess that means that 2015 will herald the Facebook premiere of the tale of Moustache Cop and Billy Black getting breakfast at the diner.
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Via: NYT
Source: Lionsgate
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