About a month ago, we kicked off our Engadget Expand Throwback photo competition. The contest is a celebration of tech past as we gear up for the future at Expand New York this November. Now we’re ready to reveal the winners. Check them out, along with a little history behind the photos posted to our Instagram account after the break.
Facebook is aiming to get inside its users’ minds, figuratively speaking, to find out what they mean when posting statuses. Such is coming by way of an artificial intelligence being created by the social network that MIT reports as functioning with simulated networks of brain cells, all of them crunching away at data to perform […]
Facebook’s current News Feed ranking isn’t all that clever — it’s good at surfacing popular updates, but it can miss lower-profile updates that are personally relevant. The company may soon raise the News Feed’s IQ, however, as it recently launched an artificial intelligence research group. The new team hopes to use deep learning AI, which simulates a neural network, to determine which posts are genuinely important. The technology could also sort a user’s photos, and it might even select the best shots. While the AI work has only just begun, the company tells MIT Technology Review that it should release some findings to the public; those breakthroughs in social networking could help society as a whole.
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Source: MIT Technology Review
With iOS 7 finally making its way onto iOS devices, there have been a couple of apps that have since updated itself to keep in theme with the new iOS 7 look, and Facebook was one of them. Admittedly for some, the new design of the Facebook app could prove a little jarring, especially with the navigation having been changed, and access to the News Feed, Messages, and Notifications making its way to the bottom of the app instead of the top, but for some, such as myself, this was not a complete surprise as it turns out that my version of Facebook had always been like this, and little did I know it was in preparation for iOS 7. (more…)
Facebook Tested Their New iOS 7 Look Right Under Everyone’s Noses original content from Ubergizmo. 
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When it comes to the world of advertisements, there are some lines that you just do not cross, although at times, some of the more “creative” minds out there tend to blur the lines. Facebook, one of the world’s big names when it comes to social networks, recently issued an apology after they realized that a dating company actually made use of images of a girl who ended her life after allegedly being raped. Not only that, to make a stand so that nothing of this sort will happen in the future, the offending company has also been banned by Facebook.
The advertisements did see photos of Rehtaeh Parsons appear, where she happened to be a teen from Canada who committed suicide in April after an image of her rape made its way online. Rehtaeh’s death made international headlines after police did not take any immediate legal action against her alleged rapists as well as cyber bullies, even after the photo did allegedly depict a quartet of boys raping her. The company that placed the ad in Facebook ran under the headline “Find Love in Canada,” and no longer is the website that the ad is linked to online.
Facebook said via a spokesman, “This is an extremely unfortunate example of an advertiser scraping an image from the internet and using it in their ad campaign. This is a gross violation of our ad policies and we have removed the ad and permanently deleted the advertiser’s account.”
Facebook Bans Company For Using Dead Rape Victim In Dating Ad original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Although Facebook has seen phenomenal growth over its years, it also saw a substantial decrease in users this year, prompting discussion once again about how Facebook will fair over time as the “cool” factor wears off. Such a question was posed to Mark Zuckerberg in Washington D.C. at Newseum, and Zuckerberg responded that the aim […]
Apple released iOS 7 today and we’re already seeing a lot of apps being updated. Most of them have been redesigned to complement the new “flat” user interface that iOS 7 touts. Facebook today announced a redesigned version of its iOS app. Facebook’s product manager for iOS, Michael Sharon, says that the app has been completely redesigned to fit nicely within Apple’s new iOS update.
The main navigation bar has now been moved to the bottom, the toolbar that slid out from the left has been removed. Tabs for Friend Requests, Messages, Notifications and News Feed are now located in the new navigation bar at the bottom. There’s also a new “bonus” tab called More, which lets users open other Facebook features such as Photos or Events without losing their place in the other tabs. To move from one tab to another, users can simply swipe across the navigation bar. The updated app will be available to iOS 5 and iOS 6 users as well, though Sharon says that there will be minute style differences between them. The redesigned app is only going to be available for iPhone and iPod touch, Sharon says that Facebook doesn’t have plans to redesign the iPad app since the old design suits tablet users best. Facebook’s updated app will go live in the App Store later today.
Facebook Announces Redesigned iOS App original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Facebook and Twitter have released new apps for iOS 7, borrowing the iPhone and iPad software’s flatter UI style, among other features. The new Facebook for iOS tweaks the navigation, putting new News Feed, Messages, Notifications, and other shortcuts along the bottom of the News Feed display, in addition to adding gestures for those using […]
It’s iOS 7 release day, folks, and while we’ve told you about plenty of apps that have been updated to fit Apple’s new aesthetic, we’ve got another for you. This time, it’s Facebook, and instead of just giving its iOS app a fresh coat of paint, the team in Menlo Park has also delivered a new way to navigate its iPhone app. The upgrade brings an ever-present tabbed bar at the bottom of the screen that lets users seamlessly switch between News Feed, Requests, Messages, Notifications and More — meaning as you slide your finger along that bar, the screens quickly switch from one to the other.
And, each of those tabs saves your state, so if you’ve scrolled down a ways in your feed, then do some messaging and come back, you won’t have to roll through all the content you’ve already viewed. This function also transforms the More screen into a personally customizeable tab, as the app remembers whatever option you last chose. While this new option is a departure from the left-side nav users have grown accustomed to, the changes are very much made with you in mind. Developers went through 100 variants of the app tested by between 5-10 million users — who wanted less friction in the UI — and that feedback informed the redesign. Keep in mind, however, that iPad owners won’t be getting this new nav (Facebook found that the existing UI was better suited to the larger screen).
As for the iOS 7 paint job? Highlights include wireframe icons and a translucent nav bar at the top of the screen that allows underlying content to bleed through, along with a general flattening of the app’s appearance. However, users will only see this new look if they have upgraded to iOS 7. Folks sticking with iOS 5 and 6 will still get the new tabbed nav functionality, but the aesthetics will remain in line with the rest of their device’s appearance. Wanna give the new Facebook a try? You know what to do.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile, Facebook
Good news for you indiscriminate Facebookers. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Facebook likes are protected speech under the First Amendment. Like away.
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