Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook is rebranding and changing its company name as soon as next week, according to The Verge. Apparently, the social media giant will have a new name that will reflect its focus on creating a metaverse. It’s also possibly connected to its unreleased social virtual reality world called Horizon Worlds. The social network itself will likely retain the Facebook branding and will be under a new parent company, along with Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus. That would be similar to what Google did in 2015 when it put its various projects and divisions, along with itself, under its parent company Alphabet.

The Verge says the name change is a closely guarded secret at the moment and not even all senior leaders have knowledge about it. Mark Zuckerberg has long talked about wanting to make Facebook a metaverse company and has been taking steps towards that goal. Earlier this year, Facebook formed a team dedicated to building a metaverse, and just a few days ago, it talked about adding 10,000 “high-skilled” jobs across the European Union over the next five years to build its virtual and augmented reality experiences. It also released the Ray-Ban Stories augmented reality smart glasses in September.

We reached out to Facebook for a statement, and company spokesperson Joe Osborne said: “We don’t comment on rumor or speculation.”

It’s unclear how long Facebook been has planning on changing its name, but it’s certainly a good distraction for the investigations it’s facing and the bad press it’s currently getting. Former executive-turned-whisleblower Frances Haugen provided the Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission with a treasure trove of internal documents, dropped several revelations about the company and accused it of choosing “profit over safety” — something Zuckerberg adamantly denied. 

In early October, she testified at a Senate hearing about research she says proves that the social network repeatedly lied about its platform, including the “efficacy of its artificial intelligence systems, and its role in spreading divisive and extreme messages.” Haugen has several ideas on what Facebook should change, but none of them has anything to do with changing its name. They include going back to chronological feeds from algorithmic ranking, adding some features that would prevent the spread of misinformation and opening Facebook research to people outside the company. 

One of the biggest changes Apple made to their new MacBook Pros is that they pushed the display to the edge of the laptop. However, to accommodate the webcam, Apple brought over the notch design from the iPhone to the iPad which is an interesting choice, but it also leaves some questions on how users interact with it.

For example, will the mouse bump into the sides of the notch meaning users need to navigate around the notch, or will it simply pass through it? The good news is that it is the latter, according to a tweet by Linda Dong, an Apple design evangelist. This means that users won’t need to try and circumvent the notch but simply pass their mouse cursor through it.

Yup! The cursor moves underneath

— Linda Dong 🦑 (@lindadong) October 19, 2021

However, we imagine that for some this can be potentially annoying, especially if you rest your mouse cursor behind it and it is hidden behind the notch, but we imagine that over time users will get used to its placement.

Apple has also taken steps to make the notch less annoying. When apps are opened full screen, Apple will add an artificial black bar across the top to hide the notch, although this also means that apps won’t be able to take full advantage of the display. Developers will have the option to maximize the full display, but that means that the notch will be “eating” into the app.

It is a rather controversial design choice, but we suppose we’ll have to wait for reviews over the next few months and possibly years to see if this is an issue, or if users will eventually get used to it like they did with the iPhone and iPad.

Here’s How macOS Will Handle The Mouse Cursor On Apple’s New MacBook Pros

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Many consumers, especially in the US, prefer to buy their phones from their mobile carriers, not really out of loyalty to the network. More often than not, it’s the subsidies and financing options that soften the blow when buying a new and more expensive smartphone. Manufacturers have, of course, started offering such options to convince people to buy phones directly … Continue reading

“You all know that there is no evidence of widespread election fraud sufficient to overturn the election.”

A few years ago, Google teased the almost magical ability that would allow people to remove “distracting objects” from photos, whether they be a fence or innocent bystanders. While that functionality has been available on some photo editing software like Photoshop, it was far from automatic nor convenient for mere mortals. It took more than four years for that moment … Continue reading