Nov 21
Billion, with a B. An email to every single one of its users—so actually a little over a billion at this point. In other words, one seventh of the entire Earth’s population is getting hit with one message. More »
Nov 21
If you’ve been a long-time Facebook user, then you know how controversial some of the privacy updates have been on the social networking site. The company launched its current site governance model in 2009, which gave users the right to vote on privacy policy issues. However, Facebook is now proposing to get rid of that system, saying that Facebook has outgrown the old model.
Facebook wants to replace the system with one that solicits high-quality feedback instead of just votes. This would also prevent votes from being triggered by copy-and-pasted comments from privacy activists. Currently, if a proposed change gets 7,000 “substantive comments,” Facebook users can vote on the change and the vote will be binding if more than 30% of all Facebook users vote.
Facebook says that it’s doing away with the voting system because it “resulted in a system that incentivized the quantity of comments over their quality.” Therefore, the social network is “proposing to end the voting component of the process in favor of a system that leads to more meaningful feedback and engagement.”
Facebook is also proposing changes to its Data Use Policy, which explains how the site collects and uses user data. In the coming weeks, Facebook will roll out new ways of responding to questions and comments from its users, and they’ll be launching a section on Facebook where you’ll be able to submit questions about privacy to the company’s chief privacy officer of Policy, Erin Egan.
[via TechCrunch]
Facebook to end user voting on privacy issues is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Nov 21
It’s time once again, and again, and again, to think about a Facebook-centric phone with a deal that’s been inked this week at Orange called “Party Call.” This “social calling” service will work with Facebook specifically and will be working with both mobile and desktop versions of the social network. The big break in this plan as far as a Facebook phone goes is the fact that it’s not Facebook that’s leading this initiative, it’s Orange using Facebook’s open API as any other developer would, working with Orange’s IP-based calling and messaging app Libon (Life is Better On).
Libon is currently offered as an iOS app and will be coming to Android in 2013. Currently the deal announced this week has been pushed by Hello, an event organized by France Telecom, owner of Orange. Orange is still calling this a “Facebook social calling service” and is making it clear that it’ll be coming to France in the summer of 2013 first, and will be pushed to the greater part of Europe throughout the year.
Essentially this service connects to Facebook and allows you to call your friends without needing to know their telephone number. The possibility that this sort of connection will lead to a full-on Facebook phone is very real, especially since our mobile universe is very quickly becoming all about the ecosystem – not the specs. Facebook has commented on the Orange ovvering as well:
“By connecting its Party Call service to Facebook, Orange will be able to offer customers a truly personal experience. It is a great example of how companies can use Facebook’s open developer platform to make their products social. We are really happy that Facebook is transforming telecoms just as it has gaming, music, video and numerous other online services.” – Facebook Spokesperson
Also speaking with TechCrunch, this same spokesperson noted that Facebook and Orange are “friends” and that they “have an ongoing relationship with them.” The Libon app will be working with the service soon with two tiers, one of them free, and the other premium, with the premium version costing customers £6.99 a month and offering the ability to call contacts who haven’t yet connected with Libon.
Facebook Phone universe expands with Orange “Party Call” service is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Nov 21
Sacha Dratwa enjoys some very normal things: macchiatos, swimming, vodka, hanging out with friends. You can see it right on his Facebook profile. But unlike most Facebook folks, this guy runs Israel’s Internet propaganda war machine. More »
Nov 21
There have been plenty of rumors suggesting that Facebook could be interested in making another mobile phone despite the less than stellar reception they had with the HTC ChaCha. Whether those rumors pan out remain to be seen, but in the meantime it certainly looks like the social networking giant has a lot of interest as far as the mobile scene is concerned. French carrier Orange has recently announced that they would be offering a “social calling” service via Facebook. Basically what this does is that it enables users to call each other or even create group calls without needing to know the other person’s number. Orange, of course, will be one powering this new “social calling” service and it will be running in conjunction with the carrier’s new IP-based calling/messaging app, Libon.
According to Orange, the Facebook social calling service will be going live in France first come summer of 2013, although we expect that if the social calling service is well received, it will soon start rolling out to other parts of Europe and possibly the rest of the world. If a new Facebook phone were ever to materialize, we’d expect that this social calling service might play a big part in it.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Facebook Introduces HTTPS Connection In US, Facebook And Yahoo To Link Up?,
Nov 21
TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook is teaming up with carriers to provide a “social calling” service. Initially striking up a deal with French carrier Orange, it seems the service will allow friends to make voice calls without knowing each other’s numbers. More »
Nov 20
When it comes to the Internet, security is a very big issue – after all, no one would like to have their personal details accessed all too easily, right? Facebook, the world’s most popular social network at this point in time, intends to offer a more secure Facebook experience for its US users, and this is done by introducing an additional layer of security by providing a more secure Internet connection. From this week onward, Facebook users who access its website will have to go through a HTTPS connection, which is an Internet protocol that banks as well as other security sensitive websites commonly use.
Due to the added layer of security that has been integrated, the experience will be slowed down as it is not as fast as HTTP. This is due to the HTTPS protocol encrypting your data, while verifying a site’s certificates without having to cache information on your computer. Before this compulsory “upgrade”, individual users were able to select for themselves whether to enable HTTPS connections for their Facebook account or not, but it seems to have ended up as a default setting now. Other Facebook users worldwide will also experience a HTTPS switch sometime down the road.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Facebook And Yahoo To Link Up?, Facebook Gifts Lets You Play Santa,
Nov 20
Uploading photos from your phone to social networks can sometimes be a pain, but today Facebook is looking to make the process a bit easier for some iOS users. The company has rolled out a trial of its new Photo Sync feature, which allows users sync the photos saved on their phone to their Facebook profile. This means no more messing around with uploading – once you take your photo, it’ll be immediately uploaded to Facebook.
That, obviously, could cause a hairy situation for those who don’t always take the most flattering (or legal) shots with the camera on their phone, but luckily Facebook has implemented a safeguard that prevents private photos from being seen by the public. The synced images are saved to a private part of your Facebook photos section, so even if a private photo manages to wind up on Facebook, it won’t be seen by anyone else until you give the okay.
This means that you’ll have to access your Facebook profile to decide which photos to share and which to keep hidden from unintended eyes, and the company says you can do this from desktop, mobile, or other devices. It’s mostly similar to the Android version of Photo Sync, but only a select few will get to give Photo Sync a spin on iOS starting out. In order to preview the feature, you’ll need to have the most recent version of the Facebook iOS app, and your device needs to be running iOS 6.
Facebook says that it will attempt to sync photos as you take them, but you can choose to only sync when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network if you’re worried that all of those photo uploads will inflate your data bill. You can also turn Photo Sync off entirely if you’d rather have total control over which images get uploaded to your Facebook profile. The first few folks should be getting this feature soon, but at the moment, we don’t have a date for when it will launch for the rest of the Facebook iOS users. Stay tuned.
[via Redmond Pie; via Facebook]
Facebook rolls out iOS Photo Sync trial to first users is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Nov 20
If you were already loving the lazy cloud storage skills of Dropbox and Google Plus‘ automated photo upload on iOS, you might have also thought Facebook would be the ideal place for it. The social network seems to think so too, as its latest app tweak (for a handful of people included in its early trial) offers a Photo Sync option that works in an identical manner to its Android opposite. Fear not, all photos taken will be whisked to an unpublished album to avoid any embarrassing early photo reveals. We’ve not been granted access to the test just yet, but you can reacquaint yourself with how it all works at Facebook’s official explanation at the source.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile, Facebook
Source: Redmond Pie, Facebook
Nov 20
Having rolled out an auto-upload function for some Android users in September, Facebook is now testing the same photo syncing system for iOS users too. More »
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.