Facebook launched its gift service back in September 2012, allowing Facebook users to buy their friends a gift over the social network. While this feature won’t be going entirely way, one big change is being implemented: material gifts (that is, gifts of a physical nature) will no longer be available, with only gift cards remaining. […]
More information was revealed today about how the National Security Agency (NSA) obtained information about U.S. private citizens. According to The Washington Post, leaked court documents show that the NSA paid tech companies like Google and Facebook millions of dollars to participate in their PRISM surveillance program. Many of the NSA’s surveillance tactics were found […]
The usefulness of Facebook’s News Feed ranking algorithm may not be universally agreed upon, but the social network’s dedication to improving it is unquestionable. Today, FB has updated that ranking system with a newly developed algorithm meant to better surface “high quality content” from pages users are connected to at the top of News Feed. To do so, the algorithm makes determinations about what content is timely, relevant, from trusted sources and is likely to be shared — and also identifying content that users complain about seeing or attempts to “game News Feed” distribution with solicited likes. These signals were informed by the results from surveying a few thousand users, and after implementation in a small scale test, Facebook found folks sharing, liking and commenting on more stories, and hiding fewer of them. As such, we can all expect to see the update in the next few weeks, so brace for a Facebook flood of insightful stories, funny cat videos, or whatever else it is you’re into.
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Source: Facebook for Business
It looks like the NSA was a little cozier with Silicon Valley companies than we previously realized. Newly declassified documents show that the spy agency (read: taxpayers) paid Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and others millions of dollars to cover the costs associated with PRISM.
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Canon has always been right up there with the best of them when it comes to imaging technology, especially digital cameras – be it DSLRs or compact digital cameras that cater for the masses. This time around, in order to keep up with a generation that is addicted to social networks, Canon has introduced the Canon Powershot N Facebook-ready digital camera, allowing you to share your images and video instantly on Facebook at the press of a button. THis is pretty neat, but sometimes, there is the danger of posting up incriminating photos on the go without realizing it, only to kick yourself in the nuts when the chickens come home to roost.
Just how does the Canon Powershot N digital camera upload photos to your Facebook account without having to first transfer the capture images and videos onto a computer beforehand? That is pretty simple, it comes with an integrated Wi-Fi chipset, as well as a dedicated Facebook connect button to get the job done – as long as your Canon PowerShot N remains within vicinity of a working Wi-Fi network, of course.
Other hardware features of the Canon Powershot N include a 2.8-inch capacitive, tilt-touch panel LCD display that gives you the allowance and flexibility to shoot creative images at unique angles. Apart from that, there is a shutter and zoom ring that is located around the lens, letting you shoot easily from the top or bottom of the ring for that picture perfect image. Apart from that, you have a 8x optical zoom and a 28mm wide-angle lens at your disposal that is accompanied by a 12.1-megapixel High-Sensitivity CMOS sensor and DIGIC 5 image processor.
The Canon PowerShot N will also boast of Full HD video recording capability alongside a dedicated movie button, while Hybrid Auto mode lets users create a composite video of brief clips automatically while snapping photos for a new creative overview, now how about that? Do expect to keep a keen eye out for the Canon PowerShot N Facebook ready digital camera later this coming September, where it will arrive in just one color – white, for $299.99 a pop.
Press Release
[ Canon Powershot N Facebook Ready digital camera lets you share your crazy photos in a jiffy copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
In addition to four other models Canon rolled out last evening, the company has expanded its line with the PowerShot N, a Facebook-ready point-and-shoot. The camera is a Canon Direct exclusive offering, and achieves its social network-ready status via the inclusion of a Facebook Connect Button, something that instantly shuttles images off to one’s Facebook […]
Facebook’s all about sharing — pictures, life changes, embarrassing details that may get you canned by some future employer. But what about information from third-party apps that you don’t want clogging up your feed? Facebook’s been rolling out an update that’ll make it necessary for apps using the service to ask your permission before going ahead and posting, say, your workout routine to everyone you know — a feature that, granted, a number of apps already have in place. Also new is a faster Login — 31 percent faster by Facebook’s measure. The social network has also taken the opportunity to mention that it’s been working with the makers of popular apps to improve the login experience all around, including some unspecified future updates to the service.
Filed under: Facebook
Source: Facebook Developer Blog
Even if you’re not Edward Snowden, there are times when excising your social media presence is necessary. Companies usually don’t make it easy, though, often hiding the delete button inside myriad confusing menus and settings. Save some time and bookmark …
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Facebook just announced a new and improved login experience that aims to make it faster and easier to sign in to your favorite apps. It doesn’t look much different, but under the hood, there are a couple key changes.
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Do you spend too much time on Facebook? Why not administer non-lethal shocks to your body when you click over to your News Feed! Two Ph.D. candidates at MIT, Robert R. Morris and Dan McDuff, did just that when they realized that they were spending over 50 hours on the service per week combined, and the results – and questions their project raises – are quite interesting.
“The shock’s unpleasant but it’s not dangerous,” said co-creator McDuff. However, they do hurt. The system watches your actions and sends a signal to an Arduino board that, in turn, administers the shock. Over time the user will tend to avoid Facebook and/or rock silently in the corner, quietly weeping. The system uses a specially wired keyboard rest to send the pain.
Did it work?
“We’re not sure,” said Morris. “To be truly effective, many shock exposures are probably needed. Proper conditioning procedures should be followed. Sadly, we found the shocks so aversive, we removed the device pretty quickly after installing it. Anecdotally, however, I did notice a significant, though temporary, reduction in my Facebook usage.”
The pair also created a less invasive version of the system by using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to ask strangers to call the Facebook user’s phone and tell them to get off Facebook. The results, at once frightening and hilarious, are far less painful than the shock treatment. Callers would read off prepared scripts that berated the Facebook user for using Facebook.
You can look at the entire project here and even download the plans and scripts. Morris said that Facebook is as bad as cigarettes (to a degree.) He writes:
Facebook is junk Internet – it’s not good for us, it’s pleasant but vaguely dissatisfying, and it makes us feel good for a short while and then bad for the rest of the day. This project, as tongue-in-cheek as it is, addresses some important issues that all of use face in our online behavior and, more important, makes us reconsider just why we’re visiting Zuckerberg’s Timesink every few hours in the first place.
“While this whole project is intended to be somewhat of a joke, we believe a serious discussion is needed about how communication technologies are designed,” said Morris.
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