Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook’s newest feature, Nearby Friends, begins rolling out today. The opt-in app addition lets your friends know when you’re close by, with the option to show your precise location on a map, if that’s the kind of thing you want to share with your friends.

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When Facebook announced their acquisition of Oculus VR, we’re sure the company was not expecting such a huge amount of backlash for both developers and consumers alike. Oculus VR has reassured gamers that Facebook will be allowing them autonomy and given Facebook’s previous acquisitions such as Instagram, we have no reason to believe Facebook has any intentions of meddling.

In a recent video interview (transcribed by the folks at GameSpot), Oculus VR’s founder, Palmer Luckey, stated that the acquisition by Facebook will make sense to its critics a year from now. “Knowing behind the scenes what’s going on and what we need money to do and what we’re going to be able to do with this deal, I know for myself that it’s the best that we could possibly do.” (more…)

Facebook Acquisition Will Make Sense In A Year, According To Oculus VR’s Founder original content from Ubergizmo.

We often hear rumors about offers and counteroffers whenever a major company makes a big acquisition. For example, when Snapchat was reportedly being courted, it received multiple bids from Facebook and Google. The same was rumored for WhatsApp, which Facebook ultimately bought for $19 billion, and Google claimed it hadn’t even placed a bid. Recently several reports claimed Facebook was interested in drone maker Titan Aerospace, offering as much as $60 million. Google today announced that it has acquired Titan Aerospace.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google hasn’t disclosed the financial terms behind this acquisition. However, the company did confirm that following the acquisition, about 20 or so employees of Titan will continue to work in their New Mexico office. Titan’s CEO Vern Raburn will continue running the day to day operations.

Titan Aerospace develops high-altitude solar powered drones. It claims that these drones can provide speeds of up to 1GB per second and hopes to begin commercial operations by next year. Speeds of 1GB per second are faster than most broadband connections in the U.S. as well as other developed countries.

In a statement, a Google spokesman said that atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people around the world, particularly those in remote locations. “It’s still early days,” the spokesman said. Even DARPA has been thinking around the same lines. It is working on a project that utilizes unused drones from Iraq and kits them with a pod that can provide internet where needed.

Google Picks Up Titan Aerospace Before Facebook Can , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in General, drones, Facebook, Google,

Gone are the days when you could think of Facebook as just an online service that lets you keep in touch with friends and family. It still lets you do that to this day, but the company itself has tested a variety of new services ever since it went public. It acquired cross-platform messaging behemoth WhatsApp, plans to spread the internet using drones and even released an Android launcher. It seems the next avenue in Facebook’s sights is financial services. The company is reportedly developing an e-money services and is close to getting approval in Ireland.

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Facebook Reportedly Working On An E-Money Service original content from Ubergizmo.

The second wave of Facebook’s sharing of Government Request data comes this week in short form. Facebook is one of a collection of groups to have begun showing off what … Continue reading