Hasta La Gadget!

Netflix has been lobbying hard for changes to a law that it believed barred it from sharing the videos users watch on social media services, and now the law has changed. After H.R. 6671 passed through Congress last year without objection, President Barack Obama signed it into law today. As it previously existed, the Video Privacy Protection Act would have required users to approve sharing of each title watched in writing. The amendment removes that restriction, and should see the Facebook features already on Netflix internationally available in the US, soon. Hit the source link to read the bill itself, whether you’re increasingly wary of the reach of social media, or an Open Graph addict.

Filed under: HD, Facebook

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Source: Library of Congress, TheHill.com

In September, Facebook‘s shared dropped to their all-time low, leaving some worrying what would come of it all. Now in the few months since then, the company has seen a huge increase of 70-percent, with shares priced at over $30. This is the first time they’ve broke the $30 mark since July 2012, and follows a quarterly revenue increase of 32-percent.

While the increase is good news for the social network, the shares are still lower than they were during the company’s IPO in May – about 20-percent lower, to be precise. Facebook is working hard to get its numbers up across the board, however, with the company making some big changes recently, including the abolition of its voting methods on privacy changes, as well as plans it has in advertisement.

Yesterday, the company made a teasing announcement to “come and see” what it has planned on January 15. No details have been provided about what the event will concern, only that Facebook has been “building” something that it will reveal during the event. Some speculate that it could be a software announcement, while others are still hoping for a Facebook smartphone to be revealed.

In late December, we reported that the social network has been testing a Messages feature that would require users to pay $1 to send a message to a non-friend’s inbox rather than their “Other” folder. Likewise, the company plans to roll out video advertisements to users’ news feeds by this summer, according to some insider sources. The social network seems to have its hands in a little bit of everything at the moment, and thus far, it’s shares are reflecting optimism. Facebook is set to announce it’s Q4 report on January 30.

[via Forbes]

Facebook shares exceed $30 for the first time since July is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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CES is currently in full swing, which means the biggest names in tech are currently in Las Vegas showing off their goods, attending after-show parties and most likely getting very little sleep this week. The show is far from over and Facebook has just made next week instantly a busy one as well as they’re currently sending out invites to media for an event they’re holding at their HQ in Menlo Park, CA.

The invite teases us with “Come and see what we’re building” which leads us to believe they’re probably getting ready to show a building off or something to the media, which would be mighty impressive if we already didn’t have buildings around us almost 100 percent of the time.

Look – we’ll be honest here: we have absolutely no idea what the company Zuck built will be showing off next week. We could speculate a ton of things like some other sites would by saying “Facebook phone?!”, “Facebook tablet?!”, “Facebook world?!”, but we’re going to take the high road and just assume it’ll be something shown inside of a building, which leads us to believe it won’t be a Facebook world.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Eric Schmidt Checks Out North Korea’s Internet, Target Launches Year-Round Price Match Of Online Retailers,

And the CES disruptions begin. Facebook has just broken into an absolute blitz of news out of Las Vegas in order to invite select members of the press to its California headquarters next week. The reason? Predictably, minimal clues are given out in the invite itself — we’re simply told to show up on January 15th and “see what [Facebook] is building.” You know what… we think we just might, thanks!

P.S. – Any educated guesses on the “what” can be tossed in comments below.

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

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Source: Facebook

Dish was quick to take advantage of its Sling Media integration with remote live TV, but it hasn’t put as much of an emphasis on what happens when we’re still sitting comfortably in our living rooms. It’s filling that hole with the launch of its Explorer app for the iPad. Viewers with a Hopper DVR can control their set-top box directly from the tablet, as you’d expect, but they’ll also get a companion to whatever they’re watching, whether it’s live or recorded. Explorer catches the buzz around a show on Facebook and Twitter, including rankings if you’d like to see what shows are the hottest; it also builds in Thuuz sports stats and ratings to identify what’s likely to be the big game for the day, even as it’s happening. The app doesn’t officially reach the App Store until Monday, and there’s no word of an Android port, but we’ll be sure to share our first-hand experiences as soon as possible.

Continue reading Dish Explorer for iPad steers Hopper DVRs, tells TV watchers what’s trending

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD

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Source: Dish