WhatsApp to Share User Data With Facebook to Show Targeted Ads
WhatsApp has updated its terms of service and privacy policy to reflect that it will begin sharing select data with Facebook, including the phone number a user verifies during the registration process and the last time a user accessed the service. Facebook, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, will use the information to provide better friend suggestions and targeted ads and offers to users of its own service.
By coordinating more with Facebook, we’ll be able to do things like track basic metrics about how often people use our services and better fight spam on WhatsApp. And by connecting your phone number with Facebook’s systems, Facebook can offer better friend suggestions and show you more relevant ads if you have an account with them. For example, you might see an ad from a company you already work with, rather than one from someone you’ve never heard of.
WhatsApp ensures that nothing users share on the service, including messages, photos, and account information, will be publicly shared onto Facebook for others to see. The updated terms and privacy policy also state that the new data sharing measures will help WhatsApp more accurately count unique users, fight spam and abuse, and improve the overall experience of its messaging service.
Existing WhatsApp users can choose not to share their account information with Facebook. On the iPhone app, before you tap “Agree” to accept the updated terms, tap on “Read,” scroll to the bottom, and toggle the control. Users that agree to the updated terms also have an additional 30 days to opt out by going to Settings > Account > Share My Account Info and toggling the appropriate control in the app.
WhatsApp remains committed to providing private communications. All messages sent through the service are not stored on its servers, and end-to-end encryption has been in place since April on the latest version of the app. The updated terms and privacy policy do not affect these security measures.
In a new FAQ about its updated terms and privacy policy, WhatsApp says it will still not allow third-party banner ads on the service.
WhatsApp is free on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone.
Tags: Facebook, WhatsApp
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Telstra Joins T-Mobile in Offering Data-Free Apple Music
Australia’s largest carrier Telstra has announced that all of its Go Mobile plans now include data-free Apple Music streaming as of this week, enabling customers to listen to songs and albums without tapping into their monthly data allowance. Telstra’s FairPlay policy regarding unreasonable usage applies. In tandem, it continues to offer free six-month Apple Music subscriptions to new customers.
Telstra also now includes a three-month subscription to popular streaming services Netflix, Stan, and Presto on select mobile plans. Additionally, all plans include a free 200GB OneDrive cloud storage subscription, free and unlimited Telstra Air hotspot data, and a NRL and AFL 2016 Footy Season Pass.
Many carriers offer free subscriptions to services like Apple Music or Spotify to attract new customers. Telstra became the first carrier to gift Apple Music with a mobile plan when it offered a 12-month subscription for free last August. German carrier Deutsche Telekom is similarly planning to offer new customers six months of Apple Music service for free starting in September, according to a recent report.
When the six-month Apple Music subscription ends, Telstra will automatically charge customers $11.99 per month until the plan is canceled, but data-free streaming will continue. The carrier has posted an Apple Music FAQ with more information about the offer, including how to sign up.
Tags: Australia, Apple Music, Telstra
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Apple is reportedly developing a social video app
Deep in the bowels of Apple HQ, the company is reportedly developing a new video-editing and sharing application. According to Bloomberg, it’s similar to Snapchat, allowing iPhone users to quickly record video, apply filters and scribble messages on top with their finger. The app is being optimized for one-handed use, a source tells the site, with a workflow that you can plow through — from shooting to sharing — in under a minute.
Snapchat and Instagram are hugely popular, and Apple wants to accommodate this sort of casual sharing in its own software. Bloomberg says it’s being developed as a standalone app, but could end up as a feature in the existing camera application. The report has stressed, however, that the app may never see the light of day. Apple has killed projects before while they were still in development, and could do the same here if the app doesn’t meet its expectations. The team is said to be striving for a 2017 release, and any delays could also result in its cancellation.
Bloomberg’s report also mentions an improved “proactive assistance” feature which, separate to the new video app, would help people to stay in touch with their closest friends and family. The company is trying “to make sharing and connectivity with contacts a system-wide feature,” the publication writes, and would include “single panels” where you could review all of your texts and emails from a specific person. Its release is dependent on approval from Apple’s internal privacy team, however.
Apple’s challenge is to develop software that’s relevant and appealing to iPhone users. The company has long-struggled to build market-leading applications and services — it’s why most people stuff the pre-installed iOS apps into a folder (or, now, remove them from their device entirely.) Hardware is but one piece of the smartphone puzzle — to keep millions of people smitten with the iPhone, it needs to build compelling apps too.
Via: The Verge
Source: Bloomberg
Report: YouTube will fend off Facebook with social features
If you want to post a video on the web several years ago, YouTube was the go-to spot. Now, Google’s video network is feeling the pinch with strong video features from Facebook, Twitter and others, and has decided to push back, according to Venture Beat. The feature, internally code-named “Backstage,” will reportedly allow users to share photos, short posts, links, polls and videos with subscribers. Much like a Facebook timeline, items will be listed from newest to oldest and posted in subscribers’ feeds.
Backstage, which will appear as a channel tab, gives producers a new way to share content with fans. But it will also allow subscribers to comment with (Backstage-only) video, photos and other “rich replies,” according to VB. That’s along the same lines as Twitter, which supports links, videos and GIFs. It could also open it up to more abuse, though it’s hard to top a YouTube comments section for that.
YouTube is still by far the most popular video site on the net. Facebook recently reported that users watch 100 million hours of video per day, but YouTube reportedly serves up over 500 million hours daily. There’s often not much reason to linger on YouTube (other than watching more videos), though, so the site is likely hoping the social aspect will convince viewers to stick around longer. Backstage is expected to arrive by the end of the year, starting with select, influential YouTube accounts.
Source: Venture Beat
WhatsApp will start sharing your data with Facebook
WhatsApp announced a major change that we suspected was coming today by adding terms that allow it to share user data with its parent company Facebook.
Back in January, code showed up suggesting a closer sharing of data between the two companies, and now it’s arrived whether you wanted it or not. Privacy advocates will clearly be concerned about the sharing of data between two of the worlds’ most popular social services, and the two largest messengers.
WhatsApp, on the other hand, says it needs to share data to test out new features in the next couple of months, like “ways for you to communicate with businesses that matter to you” and “hearing from your bank about a potentially fraudulent transaction, or getting notified by an airline about a delayed flight.”
It’s worth noting the details included in the agreement: your phone number, profile name and photo, online status and status message, last seen status, and receipts. That means read receipts and sent receipts, if the option is switched on. It doesn’t include the content of your messages.
If it all makes you a bit uneasy, try not to worry, it’s just the biggest social company in the world working out better ways to target its ads — and there is a way to opt out, but it could be easier.
Via: The New York Times
Source: WhatsApp
The first self-driving taxis are cruising around Singapore
Uber announced that it will start self-driving trials in Pittsburgh later this month, but it was beat to the punch by a much less well-known company. Starting today, nuTonomy will offer rides to Singapore residents in specially equipped Mitsubishi i-MiEV or Renault Zoe electric vehicles. As with Uber, passengers won’t be alone with a robotic driver like Silicon Valley’s hapless Jared. A nuTonomy engineer will be along to monitor the vehicle, and a safety driver will “assume control if needed to ensure passenger comfort and safety,” the company wrote.
The rides will be free to start with, and the company will stick to an area called “One-North” for the tests. Municipal officials designated the 2.5-square-mile residential zone specifically for self-driving trials in an effort to reduce congestion in the city, where 5.5 million residents live in a region about three times the size of Boston. Pick-ups and drop-offs will also be limited to certain areas to avoid traffic concerns.
nuTonomy, which spun off from MIT in 2013, equipped its EVs with six Lidar sets and two cameras to detect obstacles, lanes and traffic light changes. Just a few dozen passengers have signed up so far, but the company says it will open the trials to thousands of users in the coming months. The aim, it says, is to “collect and evaluate valuable data related to software system performance, vehicle routing efficiency, the vehicle booking process, and the overall passenger experience.”
With the city’s cooperation, other companies, including Delphi, plan their own self-driving tests in Singapore. However, nuTonomy appears to be the farthest along, and plans to launch its robotic service there as early as 2018. There are still some bugs to work out, though. An Associated Press reporter noted that the safety driver had to hit the brakes when a parked vehicle moved suddenly into the oncoming lane.
Via: Associated Press
Viveport Development Awards offers cash prizes for VR apps
How do you attract developers to a fledgling virtual reality content delivery service for a VR headset that already has a shopping platform? With half a million dollars in cash and prizes, of course! Today, HTC announced the Viveport Development Awards: a contest with a $500,000 prize pool designed to attract developers the HTC’s global VR app store.
Viveport’s Development Awards is open to any developer that submits an app to the platform from today, and five finalists each will be selected for each category: the Viveport “pillars” of Discover, Create, Connect, Watch and Shop. From there, a panel of judges will pick the grand prize winners — though HTC says all of the final nominees will be awarded prizes.
The contest also kicks off Viveport’s Developer Beta and community pages — which contestants will need to use to submit their projects. With any luck, the awards program will help Viveport build a strong library for the consumer launch later this year. If not? Well, at least we’ll always have Steam.
Source: HTC Viveport
Harvard’s Octobot is a soft, fully autonomous robot
See that pretty translucent octopus up there? That’s not a toy or a real (but strange) creature from the deep: it’s a soft robot developed by a team of Harvard University researchers, and it’s completely autonomous. “Octobot’s” components, including its fuel storage system, are all 3D printed. But since it’s nowhere near the first squishy robot out there — other Harvard researchers created their own in the past — what’s truly impressive is the system that gives it the ability to move on its own.
Octobot uses a microfluidic logic circuit designed by team member George Whitesides to control the reaction that turns small amounts of hydrogen peroxide into large amounts of gas. It’s in charge of starting up and stopping the reaction and of pumping the gas into the machine’s tentacles. The current version of Octobot is only around the size of an SD card and can only wiggle its tentacles. But the team plans to build one that can actually crawl and swim like a real octopus. One of the researchers, Engineering and Applied Sciences Professor Robert Wood, said “[t]his research demonstrates that [scientists] can easily manufacture the key components of a simple, entirely soft robot, which lays the foundation for more complex designs.”
Source: Harvard
Apple Working on Video-Sharing Social Network App for Launch in 2017
Apple is working on its own social networking app, in the style of Facebook and Snapchat, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The company, “seeking to capitalize on the popularity of social networks,” will focus on video in the new app, letting users record a video, edit it, apply a filter, add doodles, and then send it out to friends. Apple’s goal is said to make the app quick and easy to use, with one-handed controls and an interactive process that includes shooting, editing, and uploading videos “in less than one minute.”
Apple and CEO Tim Cook are said to be looking to its services business to continue to increase profit as its hardware sales slow down amid a modest update year for its flagship iPhone line. In order to “remain relevant” on the software side of things, the company wants to aim the new app at younger users who are spending 50 minutes a day on Facebook’s family of apps (including Instagram and Messenger), and 30 minutes a day on Snapchat.
The growth of Apple’s hardware business is slowing and Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is looking to the company’s services business, such as the App Store and iCloud storage, as a way to generate increased revenue. Apple has failed to successfully launch social-media services in the past, including an iTunes-focused social network called Ping in 2010. Now as Snapchat and Facebook’s Instagram and Messenger apps grow atop Apple’s iOS mobile operating system, Apple is seeking to create its own features to remain relevant, particularly for younger users.
One of the prototype designs for the unnamed app was said to record video in a square-shape, like Instagram, according to a group of people close to the project. The current plans for the app are to offer it as a download via the App Store, but the company could pivot and bundle its proposed social network directly into the existing camera app in iOS. To help bolster its features, Apple is using the same team that created Final Cut Pro and iMovie to develop the social network.
The app is being developed in the same Apple department that developed Final Cut Pro and iMovie software, according to the people. Apple hired Joe Weil, the former president of a New York-based video production company, to lead the vision for the project, the people said. Weil, who co-developed a video blogging app called KnowMe, joined Apple in December 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Ultimately, Apple hopes it can launch the new app sometime next year, but if it doesn’t meet the company’s expectations — or if executives see potential problems, along the lines of Ping and Connect — it could be scrapped.
Besides the proposed video app, Apple has also been working on “multiple social-related features” for iOS over the past year, none of which have launched. One proposed update includes consolidating every communication between a user and a specific contact on one screen, so “two friends could be able to see all text messages, e-mails, and social network interactions between each other in a single window.”
No word was given on the launch of the social features not related to the video app, but a team within Apple that rules on the privacy implications of its software will ultimately decide when, and if, any of these experiences make it to a public release. As such, Apple’s 2017 launch window for the video app could also be pushed back indefinitely. Still, it’s interesting to see the company move to create its own social networking experience, instead of solely designing the hardware on which many people visit apps that may soon be its rivals, like Facebook and Snapchat.
Closer to a wide launch is the company’s brand-new and revamped Messages application coming in iOS 10, which elevates the platform above a simple texting service thanks to the addition of features like handwritten messages, full-screen effects, photo doodling, and much more.
Related Roundup: iOS 10
Tag: bloomberg.com
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YouTube Wants to Create Video-Focused Social Network Called ‘Backstage’
Popular video platform YouTube is reportedly seeking to greatly expand its social features with a new section called “Backstage,” where users can share photos, polls, links, text posts, and videos to anyone subscribed to their channel (via VentureBeat). According to internal sources at YouTube, Backstage will launch in the fall both on the company’s mobile apps and desktop. The initial soft launch will only be for “select popular YouTube accounts” and include “limited features,” however.
YouTube’s social expansion is believed to be in response to the popularity of services like Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter, which are increasingly improving their own video functionality — particularly Facebook — and pulling away users from sharing YouTube videos within each network. Posts shared on Backstage will curate in a reverse chronological order, and each user’s content will be found next to the “Home” and “Video” tabs within a YouTuber’s channel. Backstage posts will also be pushed to every subscription box, similar to any time a new video is posted, “making them highly visible to fans.”
Backstage marks a pivotal shift for YouTube, whose sole focus on video and unsuccessful Google+ integration have left the door open for popular users to flock to competing services like Twitter and Facebook in order to better communicate with fans. By introducing new ways for users to converse, Backstage could reverse the historically one-way communication between stars and their fans. Video sharing and watching will remain the primary function of YouTube, but Backstage may help make YouTube a better place to talk about those videos, too.
It’s not clear what will be initially available for the select users during Backstage’s soft launch, but eventually YouTube wants to enable users to share both traditional videos and “Backstage-only” videos on the service. Although still unconfirmed, this could mean “more intimate” video-sharing abilities between users, potentially even ephemeral posts that disappear, similar to Snapchat and, now, Instagram Stories.
Down the line, the company wants to “spur new types of conversation” on the platform, allowing users to respond to Backstage posts with their own photos, videos, “and other types of comments.” These response features are being referred to as “rich replies” by those close to the project. The company’s goal is to keep YouTube watchers within its ecosystem to talk about videos, and not defecting to Twitter or Facebook to chat with friends, or even contact their favorite popular YouTuber. It wasn’t mentioned whether Backstage would be exclusive to the company’s premium paid YouTube Red subscription service or not.
The Backstage news comes at the same time of Apple’s reported interest in creating its own video sharing app, with the hope of competing with existing social networks as well. YouTube’s concerns undoubtedly stem from Facebook’s focus on video, which began with a comment by CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier in the year, and has expanded into MSQRD integration, an entirely new app, and the testing of autoplay videos with sound in its iOS and Android apps.
Tags: YouTube, venturebeat.com
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