Hasta La Gadget!

Watch out Farmville, Kno’s bringing Textbooks to Facebook originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink All Things D  |  Good To Kno (Facebook)  | Email this | Comments

AIM’s downfall owes largely to the ubiquity of Facebook chat. And now, the company’s going after the mobile crown—texting. Facebook Messenger will do text conversations, privately share your location, and beam around photos. To all of your friends. More »

Happy Birthday, Interwebz! How far you’ve come. See, if the Internet drew its first breath in the fall of 1969, it took its first steps toward its potential on August 6, 1991. Took awhile there. But it was this first step that was just the beginning. More »

Facebook’s facial recognition feature probably won’t find too many smiles in Germany, where federal regulators are challenging the social network to change its ways, or face the consequences. On Tuesday, Hamburg’s Data Protection Authority (DPA) sent a letter to the company, advising it to obtain user permission before harvesting biometric data, as outlined by EU privacy laws that require consumer consent. As it stands right now, users can opt-out of the photo-tagging function by tinkering with their privacy settings, but the DPA claims that’s still too invasive, and has “repeatedly” asked Facebook to shut down the feature altogether. Zuckerberg & Co. now have two weeks to respond to the letter, and could face a fine of up to €300,000 (about $427,000) if a compromise isn’t reached. In a statement, company spokeswoman Tina Kulow said, “We will consider the points the Hamburg Data Protection Authority have made… but firmly reject any claim that we are not meeting our obligations under European Union data protection law.”

Germany challenges Facebook on facial recognition, citing EU privacy laws originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 08:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  The Register  | Email this | Comments

Facebook gone and done some serious damage to the company credit card, but thankfully, it’s being used for more than replacing chimneys and repairing pool liners. Zuck’s prized possession has just snapped up Push Pop Press and Beluga, with the former being best known for creating interactive digital books, most notably gadget junkie Al Gore’s “Our Choice” book for iPad. Beluga on the other hand, gained lots of attention for its group messaging app built for iOS and Android. Push Pop Press co-founders (and former Apple engineers) Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris were quick to say that Facebook has no plans to publish digital books; they did confirm, however, that “the ideas and technology behind Push Pop Press will be integrated with Facebook, giving people even richer ways to share their stories.” Mysterious. Could the Push Press Pop acquisition be the key to the fantasmical iPad app we’ve yearned for since the dawn of the new millennium? Beluga confirmed the future of Facebook mobile messaging when it said, “we’re excited to build our vision for mobile group messaging as part of the Facebook team.” Equally mysterious. Unfortunately, no concrete details are being made available, with each site’s homepage simply confirming that It’s Complicated.

Facebook burns a little cash, buys group messaging and digital book outfit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink All Things D  |  Beluga.com, Push Pop Press  | Email this | Comments