Hasta La Gadget!

Earlier this year, Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, a body whose decisions impact Facebook’s policies in Europe at large, made several recommendations to bring the website in line with regional privacy laws, calling for greater transparency on how users’ data is handled and more user control over settings, among other things. The DPC just officially announced that Zuckerberg et al. have for the most part adjusted its policies accordingly. The biggest change involves the facial recognition feature, which attempts to identify Facebook friends in photos and suggest their names for tagging. The social network turned off this functionality for new users in the EU — and it will be shutting it down entirely by October 15th. It’s not like Ireland, home to Facebook’s European HQ, is the first to give the site flack about such features: Germany was having none of it when the site introduced facial recognition last summer.

Continue reading Facebook shutting down facial recognition in the EU, gets stamp of approval from Ireland DPC

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Facebook shutting down facial recognition in the EU, gets stamp of approval from Ireland DPC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 10:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I think smiles greatly improve a person’s appearance, regardless of how big, small, perfect, or ‘imperfect’ they are. In fact, now that I think of it, I doubt that there’s actually a ‘perfect’ kind of smile because they’re all unique to the people actually doing the smiling.

But if you somehow feel like your current smile is, well, not as happy-looking or as perfect as you’d like it to be, then you could get the Happy Smile Trainer. This is another one of the quirky self-improvement devices from the Japan Trend Shop, some of the others being the Hana Tsun Nose Straightener, the Eye Slack Haruka, the Rhythm Slim Chin Exerciser, and the Face Slimmer Mouthpiece.

All you have to do to work your smile is bite onto the silicone mouthpiece for five minutes a day (that doesn’t sound so hard!) Doing so will supposedly “improve the angles and balance of your face and cheeks, strengthening your gums and teeth.”

Does it work? We don’t know. Is it worth the rather exorbitant price of $52 (USD), plus shipping? Probably not. But you’re welcome to try it and tell us if it does.

[via Gadgets Matrix]

A ripple went through Face.com’s developer community three weeks ago when the company was acquired by Facebook. After all, what earthly reason would the social network have for continuing third-party developer support of the product? None, as it turns out — API support for the firm’s mug recognition software will be dropped in early August, and its iPhone app, Klik, is now gone from the App Store. Despite recent assurances to the contrary (pictured above) Face.com pulled the plug in order to devote its resources to Zuckerberg and Co., according to an email it sent to developers. Naturally, the sudden reversal has inflamed that group, with prominent members tweeting language like “boycotting” and “months of work wasted.” There’s a sliver of hope, however, for forlorn developers — at least one member of the community says he’s been granted an API extension through October. In the meantime, developers will likely be venting — and won’t even be able to track that rollercoaster of emotions anymore.

Face.com kills developer APIs and Klik app three weeks after Facebook acquisition originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jul 2012 03:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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